The New Nation - Internet Edition

US commanders sought authority to attack Pakistan

AFP, Washington

US military commanders operating in Afghanistan have sought permission to attack Pakistani militants hiding in tribal areas inside Pakistan, but so far have been denied it because of diplomatic considerations, The New York Times reported on its website.

Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said Saturday that senior officials in the administration of President George W. Bush fear that attacking Pakistani radicals may anger Pakistan's new government. Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas have slowed recently to avoid upsetting the negotiations between the country's government and the militants.

US intelligence officials believe the threat emanating from Pakistan's tribal areas is growing, and that Pakistani Islamist groups there are becoming an ally of Al-Qaeda in plotting attacks against Americans and their allies in Afghanistan, the report said.

In light of this, the US military's proposals included limited cross-border artillery strikes into Pakistan, missile attacks by Predator aircraft or raids by small teams of CIA paramilitary forces or Special Operations forces, the paper said. The list of potential targets, which has been discussed with US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson, included a group commanded by Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the legendary militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, as well as the network led by Baitullah Mehsud that is believed to have been behind Benazir Bhutto's assassination, The Times said. But the question of attacking Pakistani militants was especially delicate because some militant leaders were believed to still be on the payroll of Pakistan's intelligence service, the report pointed out.

Another report adds: British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Sunday visited Peshawar city in northwestern Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan border, for talks with new government leaders, officials said.

Miliband was scheduled to meet with provincial governor Owais Ghani and chief minister Amir Haider Hoti to discuss security issues and ongoing cooperation over development in Pakistan's tribal areas, they said. A new government comprising secular parties has replaced the Islamist-led government of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal which ruled the rugged and lawless North West Frontier Province between 2002-2007.

Earlier this month Britain's interior minster Jacqui Smith visited Pakistan and said that her country was urgently looking at ways to enhance anti-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan's new government.

Britain is providing development aid for Pakistan, especially in its troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

The tribal belt is a known hideout for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Pakistan became a key ally in the US-led "war on terror" under President Pervez Musharraf in 2001, but its policies against Islamic militancy have come under scrutiny since Musharraf's allies were trounced in the February polls.

Pakistan has suffered a wave of suicide bombings this year in which around 250 people have died. Former premier Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide blast and gun attack on December 27 last year.

7 Hamas activists die in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

AP, Gaza City

Israel killed seven Hamas militants in a series of airstrikes after the group detonated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives at an Israeli crossing on the Gaza border.

Two of the militants were killed early Sunday.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited the area of Saturday's twin suicide attacks, which wounded 13 soldiers, and warned Hamas would "bear the consequences."

However, an immediate Israeli offensive appears unlikely - Israelis are currently marking the Jewish Passover holiday, and in May will celebrate their country's 60th birthday. The Islamic militant Hamas said Saturday's attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing was part of a campaign to break the nearly yearlong blockade of the Gaza. Israel and Egypt virtually sealed Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory by force.

In Damascus, former President Jimmy Carter met with senior Hamas leaders on Friday and Saturday, defying U.S. and Israeli warnings that doing so would grant the group legitimacy. Hamas officials said Gaza's closure and a possible Israel-Hamas prisoner swap were discussed. They said the group did not respond to Carter's request that it halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns or that it agree to talk to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishak about a prisoner exchange.

Following the crossing attack, Israel targeted Hamas militants in a series of missile strikes, killing seven. Of those, five were killed Saturday and two early Sunday. Four Hamas gunmen were wounded in Sunday's strikes in northern Gaza and east of Gaza City, medics said.

A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, warned the crossings would be targeted again. Saturday's attacks "are the beginning of the explosions that Hamas has warned of," he said. "If the parties don't intervene quickly to save Gaza and break the siege, what is coming will be greater."

On Saturday morning, Hamas militants drove an armored personnel carrier and two jeeps made to look like Israeli army vehicles toward the Kerem Shalom crossing under the cover of morning fog as Hamas pounded the border area with heavy mortar fire, said Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, the top army commander in the area.

The armored personnel carrier broke through the perimeter fence, enabling the two jeeps to enter the crossing. One jeep was detonated near an army watchtower and the second near a patrol. Thirteen soldiers were wounded in the second blast, including eight who were hospitalized. Four Hamas attackers, were killed, the army said.

Galant said Hamas apparently tried to cause a large number of casualties and to kidnap soldiers.

Pakistan coalition can’t yet oust Musharraf: Zardari

AP, Islamabad

Pakistan's new government is avoiding a showdown with President Pervez Musharraf because it lacks the support needed to impeach him, the head of the ruling coalition's leading party said in remarks released Saturday.

But Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, did not rule out confronting the unpopular former army strongman if the new government manages to muster the necessary two-thirds parliament majority in the future.

"The parliament and the president have a formal relationship. For the time being, we are not breaking up that status quo. We don't have that power," Zardari told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Urdu language service.

"For the sake of the country, we don't want confrontation. But this doesn't mean we accept him (Musharraf). If we get the two-thirds majority, we will think about making him accountable," he said. Zardari took over Bhutto's party after she was assassinated in December and led it to victory in February's parliament elections. It leads a new coalition government that has vowed to trim Musharraf's powers and revise his U.S.-backed counterterrorism policies.

Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 and became a key ally in Washington's war on terror.

But his authority has waned since he retired as army chief last year and the defeat of his political allies in the parliamentary elections.

The new government plans to strip Musharraf of the power to dissolve parliament and has pledged to reinstate Supreme Court judges purged when Musharraf imposed emergency rule in November to stop legal challenges to him continuing for another five years as president.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who leads the second-largest party in the four-party ruling coalition, is pushing hard for Musharraf to quit. Sharif was ejected from office and exiled in the 1999 coup.

But Zardari said the government has other things to do besides "besieging the president."

Pakistan faces mounting economic problems, including electricity shortages and spiraling inflation. The government is struggling to draw up a new strategy to counter Islamic extremism and contain ballooning budget and trade deficits.

Brown faces mounting attack on his premiership

AFP, London

The man once described as the "big clunking fist" of British politics is on the ropes. Just 10 months into the job, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing mounting attacks on his premiership.

There has even been talk of a leadership challenge ahead of his first major electoral test as prime minister-local council elections in England, Wales and Scotland and the London mayoral contest on May 1.

But despite poor poll ratings, open dissent within the ranks of the governing Labour Party and attacks on his reputation for economic competence, Tony Blair's former finance minister has brushed aside talk of quitting.

"I'm starting a job that I mean to continue," he told one interviewer shortly before jetting to the United States for a four-day visit focused mainly on addressing the downturn in the world economy.

There are signs that the Labour Party, in power since 1997, is increasingly concerned by its current position, which according to one recent poll puts the main opposition Conservative Party 16 points ahead-a 16-year high.

Another survey suggested most Britons have no faith in the government to lead the country out of the current financial troubles.

Brown's close ally, finance minister Alistair Darling, accepted this week that the party needs to "sharpen up" its act. The prime minister himself said there are "issues about how we get our message across" to the public.

Meanwhile there is growing anger among Labour members of parliament over the government's plans to remove the 10 percent tax threshold for the lowest earners.

The government also faces a potentially sizeable parliamentary rebellion over its plans to increase custody time limits for suspected extremists to 42 days.

Even Brown's trip to the United States has been criticised, with commentators lamenting his low profile State-side and a scheduling clash with Pope Benedict XVI.

In the words of one Labour member of the unelected upper chamber of parliament House of Lords, Lord Meghnad Desai: "Gordon Brown was put on earth to remind people how good Tony Blair was."

Brown is confident Britain can withstand the economic turmoil caused by the credit crunch that has already seen the collapse of the Northern Rock bank.

But his long-term plans could be hit by poor election results.

One local government analyst has predicted the centre-left party could see its share of the vote drop to about 25 percent-a 30-year low.

The two-way fight between Labour's Ken Livingstone, London mayor since 2000, and Tory challenger Boris Johnson also looks like it will go to the wire.

China urges 'calm’ as anti-Western protests continue

AP, Beijing

China appeared to be trying to rein in a growing nationalistic fervor, urging its citizens to be "calm" and "rational" in the face of anti-Western protests against French retailer Carrefour that spread Sunday to more cities across the country.

More than 1,000 people carrying banners gathered for the second day in Xi'an in front of the Carrefour outlet, chanting "Oppose Tibet Independence," "Go China," and "Condemn CNN," the official Xinhua news agency reported. Demonstrations were also staged in the northeastern city of Harbin and the eastern city of Jinan. A front-page editorial in the People's Daily newspaper, the official mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, called on people to cherish patriotism "while expressing it in a rational way."

"As citizens, we have the responsibility to express our patriotic enthusiasm calmly and rationally and express patriotic aspiration in an orderly and legal manner," the commentary said.

The commentary seemed to point to rising anxiety among China's leaders about a growing anti-Western backlash, fueled by anger over recent demonstrations against in Paris, London and San Francisco during the Olympic torch relay.

The relay has become a magnet for demonstrations against China's rule in Tibet and its human rights record.

Carrefour has been accused of supporting the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader and head of its government-in-exile - a charge the company has denied.

An employee at one of the five Harbin Carrefour stores confirmed that protests "with many people" were ongoing throughout the day Sunday, adding that the store remained open. The woman refused to be identified because she was not authorized to speak with the media.

Xinhua reported that police were monitoring all of the demonstrations, which remained peaceful.

Xinhua said one protest organizer in Xi'an, identified as Wu Sheng, said the demonstrations were not aimed at pushing customers to boycott Carrefour.

"We do not support a boycott of French companies because the economy is globalizing. We choose Carrefour front doors only because we draw more attention there," he was quoted as saying.

The protests had begun on Saturday, erupting in front of Carrefour stores in Beijing and four other major cities - Wuhan, Kunming, Xi'an and Qingdao - according to witnesses, photos and media reports.

Sadr threatens new uprising in Iraq

AP, Baghdad

Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gave a "final warning" to the government Saturday to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare "open war until liberation."

A full-blown uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq appears poised for new attacks after suffering severe blows last year.

Al-Sadr's warning appeared on his Web site as Iraq's Shiite-dominated government claimed success in a new push against Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra. Fighting claimed 14 more lives in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

Crunch time for Clinton, Obama aims knockout

AFP, Philadelphia

Simple victory may not be enough for Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's Pennsylvania Democratic primary, as Barack Obama tries yet again to kill off her never-say-die White House bid.

Many commentators believe Clinton needs a double-digit triumph, in an economically struggling state packed with blue-collar voters who normally flock to her cause, to dispel the idea that Obama is becoming the inevitable nominee. The former first lady, trailing Obama in nominating wins, delegates, and some national polls, needs to win big to freshen her rationale for staying in the protracted struggle for the nomination. "She is facing a situation now where the numbers are virtually impossible, now the question has come for many Democrats, why continue now, if you can't actually win?" said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University expert.

Australian republic 'inevitable,’ says FM

AFP, Sydney

Australia's split from the British monarchy is "inevitable" but is not an urgent priority for the government, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Sunday.

The issue of a republic has been a key item to emerge from a two-day 2020 summit, a gathering of 1,000 of the nation's "best and brightest."

The summit was called by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to generate "big ideas" after his election in November ended almost 12 years of conservative rule.

Responding to enthusiastic support for a split from the British monarchy from the Canberra meeting, Smith said while the centre-left Labor government favoured a republic, it was not a top priority.

"I regard it as inevitable. I don't see it occurring in 2010," he said.

"It's one of those things I think the nation state will attend to in due course," he told Network Ten. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is hugely popular in Australia, and Smith said that as long she she ruled, this held back momentum for change.

US not scaling back demands on North Korea: Bush

AFP, Camp David

US President George W. Bush Saturday disputed suggestions that he was scaling back demands on North Korea over its nuclear program and said he would not accept a deal that goes against the region's interests.

Bush said that despite "rumors" floating concerning the negotiations, the United States and its allies were still waiting to see the outcome of Pyongyang's overdue disclosures on its nuclear activities.

"Obviously I am not going to accept a deal that doesn't advance the interests of the region," Bush said in press conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the second day of their summit.

"We're going to make a judgement as to whether North Korea has met its obligations to account for its nuclear program and activities as well as meet its obligations to disable its reactor," Bush said.

"They have made some promises and we'll make a judgement as to whether or not they've met those promises," he said. "Then we'll make a judgement of our own t about our own obligations."

Arabs should boost support for Iraq: Rice

AP, Shannon

Iraq's Arab neighbors have few remaining excuses for withholding diplomatic and economic support for the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad, now that daily life in Iraq is less deadly and the government has demonstrated resolve against militias and outliers, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.

"At some point the Arab states need to take yes for an answer," Rice said en route to diplomatic meetings on Iraq's future. The role of Iran in Iraq and the wider Mideast is a subtext for the sessions in Bahrain and Kuwait, but Rice has ruled out holding a formal meeting with her Iranian counterpart.

The United States has tried for years to rally Arab support for a post-Saddam Iraq, both for the boost that regional acceptance would give the fledgling democracy and as a bulwark against spreading Iranian influence in Iraq and elsewhere. Arab diplomats say they want to foster long-term stability in Iraq five years after a U.S.-led invasion many of them opposed, but see little sign that the Shiite-led Iraq government will fully include Sunni Muslims in political power and oil wealth.