The New Nation - Internet Edition

Hamas offers 6-month truce with Israel

AP, Cairo

The Palestinian group Hamas is proposing a six-month cease-fire with Israel, saying it will stop firing rockets out of Gaza if the Jewish state simultaneously lifts its blockade of the coastal strip, Egypt's state run MENA news agency said Thursday night.

The report followed a day of closed meetings between Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar and Egypt's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, who has been mediating between Israel and the Islamic militant group in hopes of halting their fighting.

Hamas has taken a much softer stance the past week, but any deal appeared distant. While Egypt clearly is acting as a communications channel between the two sides, Israel insists it won't negotiate with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, as does the United States. Hamas officials, who previously have called for Israel to first lift its blockade before any truce, could not be reached by The Associated Press late Thursday to comment on the MENA report. There was no immediate reaction from Israel.

MENA's report came two days after senior members of Hamas said the group was willing to accept a truce limited to the Gaza Strip, dropping a long-standing demand that the West Bank be included in a halt to fighting with Israel.

Israeli officials responded to those comments by saying Israel would keep up military pressure on Hamas as long as the group threatened Israeli civilians, an allusion to near daily rocket salvos at towns in southern Israel and recent militant attacks on border posts. The Hamas representatives said Tuesday that the group's position would be laid out Thursday during the meeting with Suleiman.

"We have affirmed the group's approval of a truce in Gaza Strip t that could be expanded to the West Bank and would be set at six months," Zahar was quoted by MENA as saying after the meeting.

Palestinian state is 'high priority,’ says Bush

AFP, Washington

US President George W. Bush assured Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas Thursday he was "confident" about reaching an agreement on creating a Palestinian state before he leaves office.

"I assured the president that a Palestinian state's a high priority, for me and my administration-a viable state, a state that doesn't look like Swiss cheese, a state that provides hope," said Bush, whose terms ends in January.

During brief statements in the Oval office, Abbas thanked the US president for reviving stalled Middle East peace talks at a November peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, but warned "we are in a race against time." "We believe that you actually are truly seeking a true, genuine and lasting peace in the Middle East. And I am certain that you would like to see an agreement and settlement before the end of your term," said Abbas, to which Bush nodded in agreement. The negotiations are due to tackle some of the toughest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, and what to do about Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

But Abbas suspended the fortnightly talks at the beginning of March after an Israeli military operation in Gaza killed more than 130 people. They were only renewed earlier this month. The situation has also been complicated by the violence in Gaza, which is run by Hamas militants, who seized control of the region last year.

Bush and Abbas agreed the peace project faces daunting obstacles, but expressed confidence that the two sides can, by year's end, at least agree on what a Palestinian state would look like.

185 soldiers killed in Jaffna battle, admits Lankan army

AFP, Colombo

At least 165 soldiers were killed and 20 more went missing in a major battle with Tamil separatists this week, military sources told AFP on Friday as journalists complained of unofficial censorship.

With reports of higher casualties emerging-making Wednesday's clash the bloodiest in recent years-the authorities extended "unofficial" censorship to hospitals and funeral parlours where photographers and reporters were shut out, a media rights group said.

The death toll from the sources were far higher than official defence ministry casualty figures, which gave 43 soldiers dead and 38 missing from Wednesday's fighting in the northern peninsula of Jaffna. "Some of the senior officers have been told that the army lost 185, including 20 who are still listed as missing," said a military source who declined to be named. "We are trying to establish the fate of the missing."

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Thursday returned via the international Red Cross the bodies of 28 soldiers they had captured.

The government also reported killing more than 100 rebels and wounding 100 more in the pre-dawn offensive along the Muhamalai front lines on the peninsula.

The Tigers said only 25 of its fighters were killed.

Official defence ministry casualties reports and LTTE figures can seldom be verified because the government prevents journalists from visiting war zones and territory held by the rebels.

US envoy says North Korea, Syria not cooperating now

AFP, Tokyo

US chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said North Korea and Syria were no longer cooperating in nuclear work despite the US administration's allegations of help on a secret reactor.

President George W. Bush's administration went public Thursday with video they said showed that a nuclear reactor in Syria built with North Korea for military purposes was nearing completion when Israel destroyed it in September.

The US accusations came a day after North Korea sounded upbeat after a long stalemate in implementing a six-nation deal negotiated by Hill on ending the communist state's nuclear drive. Hill, speaking Thursday in New Haven, Connecticut, suggested that such North Korean activities with Syria were in the past. "It is the judgement of the United States that there is not an ongoing cooperation with Syria in this area," Hill told reporters in footage broadcast Friday on Japanese television. "We will deal with this issue as we do with many other issues in the six parties," Hill said.

US lawmakers after being briefed on the administration's allegations said that developments could wreck the six-nation deal, hailed last year as a breakthrough by the Bush administration.

US media have suggested the timing of the Syria allegations could be an effort by conservatives within the Bush administration unhappy with Hill to bring down the deal which they see as too weak.

The six-party deal reached last year would grant North Korea energy aid and major diplomatic and security benefits in return for full denuclearisation.

But the talks have been stalled over the requirement that the North declare all its nuclear activities by the end of 2007.

World food fears mount as rice prices hit record

Reuters, Bangkok/Washington

Concerns about food security mounted on Thursday, as rice prices hit records in Asia and the United Nations warned that staples for the world's hungry were getting much more expensive.

In the United States, Bush Administration officials downplayed notions of food shortages amid reports of worried buyers stocking up on rice in major chain stores.

"In the U.S., I don't see food shortages," U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Reuters in an interview. "We have plenty of food in the U.S.

The price of food has gone up, but again that won't be as significant for the average American as gasoline."Rice prices hit record highs in Thailand and in electronic trading of Chicago Board of Trade futures during Asian trading hours. This week's 5 percent jump in Thailand rice takes prices to $1,000 a tonne, nearly triple their level at the start of the year, intensifying fears of social unrest in Asia.

Rice prices on the CBOT are up about 80 percent this year, hitting a record of more than $25 per hundredweight in Asian trading hours, then retreating in Chicago on profit taking.

Riots have erupted in Africa and Haiti due to the surging price of fuel and food. The International Monetary Fund is in talks with governments in 10 countries, mostly in Africa, about boosting aid to cover soaring food prices, a spokesman said.

"Of course this needs to be determined country by country, but as a general rule we believe that targeted social assistance is the first best policy, but that other temporary measures may be needed and could be used, such as tax on food," IMF spokesman Masood Ahmed said.

Bomb kills 4 in northwestern Pakistan

AFP, Mardan

Four people were killed and 30 hurt when a car bomb ripped through a police station in northwest Pakistan Friday, ending a lull in attacks since a new government took power last month.

The powerful blast in the city of Mardan reduced the police station to a pile of rubble and wrecked an adjoining hotel and several shops, said senior police officer Mohammad Akhtar Khan.

"There was a huge explosion. It was an apparent car bomb planted next to the wall between the hotel and the police station and both were wrecked," Khan told AFP by telephone.

"Two policemen including an officer and two civilian workers were killed," Khan added.

Palestinian militant kills 2 Israelis

AP, Nitzanei Shalom

A Palestinian militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards early Friday at a factory along the divide between Israel and the West Bank, the military said - an attack likely to further complicate efforts to forge a peace deal between the Jewish state and Palestinian moderates.

Medics pronounced the two middle-aged guards dead at the scene, rescue services said, and troops began combing surrounding areas for traces of the assailant. No Palestinian militant group immediately claimed responsibility.

Riad al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, condemned the attack, saying it was meant "to undermine the efforts by the Palestinian government to undertake full security responsibilities in the West Bank." The attack was also meant to embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas while he is in Washington for meetings with U.S. officials, al-Malki said.

11 killed in clashes in Baghdad Shiite bastion

AFP, Baghdad

Fierce overnight clashes between Shiite militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in east Baghdad's Sadr City killed at least 11 people and wounded 32 others, a medical official told AFP on Friday.

The medic from Sadr City-stronghold of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia-said the dead included four old men, two women and a child. The wounded included women and children, he added. Iraqi and US forces have been engaged in fierce street battles with Shiite fighters, mostly from the Mahdi Army, since March 25 when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militiamen in the southern city of Basra. The Basra assault triggered a wave of clashes in Shiite regions across Iraq, particularly in Sadr City.

Since then at least 383 people have been killed in Sadr City, according to an AFP tally based on casualty figures provided by Iraqi and US officials.

China to meet Dalai Lama aides amid Tibet tension

AFP, Beijing

Chinese officials will meet soon with a representative of the Dalai Lama, state-run Xinhua news agency reported Friday, in what would be the first known encounter since last month's deadly unrest.

"In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai's private representative in the coming days," Xinhua said, quoting an unidentified Chinese official.

China has come under intense foreign pressure to hold talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader since rioting erupted in the regional capital Lhasa last month and spread to other areas populated by Tibetans.

US Congress to confer gold medal on Suu Kyi

AFP, Washington

The US Senate unanimously agreed Thursday to confer the Congressional Gold Medal on Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, following a similar decision by the House of Representatives.

The 62-year-old widow is the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, having spent more than 12 of the past 18 years under house arrest.

The medal-the highest civilian honor the legislature can bestow-has also been given to such diverse individuals as Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, former South African president Nelson Mandela and Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. "The Senate today has approved a measure to award our nation's highest civilian honor to Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's (Myanmar's) democratic opposition," said Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who proposed the legislation with Republican Mitch McConnell.

Syrian president ready to talk to Israel once Bush term ends

AP, Beirut

Syria's president said in an interview published Thursday that his country may hold peace talks with Israel, but not until a new U.S. administration takes office.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Turkish mediation over the past year could lay the groundwork for direct talks and that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had passed a message to Syria saying he is prepared to hand over the Golan Heights in return for peace.

In an interview with the Qatari newspaper Al-Watan, Assad said the United States is the only country that can sponsor direct Syrian-Israel negotiations. But he said the Bush administration, which leaves office in January, "does not have the vision or will for the peace process." Assad said Turkish officials passed on a message a week ago that Olmert had "assured the Turkish prime minister of his readiness to return the Golan."

Sarkozy vows no talks with Taliban, Hamas, Iran

AFP, Paris

French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Thursday that he would not hold talks with Taliban militia in Afghanistan, Hamas in the Palestinian territories nor Iran's president.

Signalling a tough stance on some of the world's troublespots and defending his decision to send extra troops to Afghanistan, Sarkozy said that if France abandons the Afghan government "Pakistan will fall like a house of cards".

"We are in Afghanistan next to the Afghans," Sarkozy said in a primetime television interview.

"Next to Afghanistan there is Pakistan, there is an atomic bomb," he added. "If we let Afghanistan fall, Pakistan will fall like a house of cards.

Sarkozy this month announced that France would send an extra 700 troops to Afghanistan but he said "this is not a war, as the immense majority of Afghans need the coalition that is there."

Poll slump for Britain’s Labour Party

AFP, London

The Conservative Party has opened up its biggest opinion poll lead over the ruling Labour in 21 years, a survey indicated Thursday, just a week before Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces key local elections. The YouGov/Daily Telegraph poll, published on the newspaper's website, suggested the Conservatives now have an 18-point lead over the governing Labour Party-a margin unseen since October 1987 when Margaret Thatcher was in power, according to the pollster.

It makes painful reading for the government, which is expected to do poorly in local council elections on May 1, and which is embroiled in a tight battle in the London Mayoral race.

The Conservatives' 44 percent rating would give the centre-right party a 50-seat majority in parliament if the results were replicated at a general election, not due until May 2010 at the latest.

Labour, which currently holds a 67-seat advantage in the House of Commons, was on 26 percent with the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats on 17 percent.