The New Nation - Internet Edition

Nepalis celebrate the 'dawn of the republic’

Reuters, Kathmandu

Thousands of Nepalis marched, danced and sung in the capital's streets on Wednesday to celebrate "the dawn of the republic" hours before the Himalayan nation was set to abolish its once-revered Hindu monarchy.

A special assembly elected in April will hold its first meeting on Wednesday to declare a republic. Many Nepalis hope it will be the final chapter of a peace process ending a decade-long war with Maoist rebels that killed more than 13,000 people.

"Let's celebrate the dawn of a republic in a grand manner," one loudspeaker blared from the top of a taxi.

More than 10,000 Maoists, now members of the assembly's biggest political party, marched in the capital carrying hammer and sickle flags and pumping their fists in the air as they shouted "Down with the monarchy!".

Thousands of others Nepalis gathered in the historic parts of Kathmandu and near the site of the assembly, ringed by riot police.

Security is tight in the capital after a series of bomb blasts, some blamed on pro-royalist groups, over the past few days. No one was killed in the explosions. Unpopular King Gyanendra is expected to vacate his pink pagoda-roofed palace in the capital Kathmandu soon after the vote.

He has made few comments on his future plans, except to say he wanted to remain in Nepal. The government has given him a fortnight to leave the palace but warned said he could be forced out if he refuses.

It has been a dramatic decline and fall for a king once waited upon by thousands of retainers. Many Nepalis revered the monarch in majority-Hindu Nepal as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the god of protection.

Now, his portrait has been wiped off bank notes and his name has disappeared from the national anthem. He has been asked to pay his own electricity bills.

"The king will be given 15 days to leave the palace and the palace will be turned into a historical museum after he leaves," Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said. The assembly motion on the change to a Republic is expected to be approved.

Although some royalists may oppose the move, they are heavily outnumbered by mainstream political groups and Maoist former rebels, who emerged as the largest party in elections to the 601-member assembly.

"This is the people's victory," said Kamal Dahal, a 22 year-old former Maoist guerrilla. "With today's declaration of a republic we have achieved what we fought for.

Nepalis say much of the mystique of the royal family was destroyed by the 2001 palace massacre in which popular King Birendra and eight other royals were killed by then Crown Prince Dipendra, who then turned a gun on himself. The royal image was further tarnished after Gyanendra fired the government and assumed absolute powers in 2005 only to be humbled by weeks of anti-king protests a year later. Political parties and Maoists say a new president will step into the king's place as a head of state after the end of the monarchy.

The head of the U.N. mission warned on Tuesday that Nepal still faces many challenges, including political violence and a Maoist army of thousands which has yet to be fully demobilised.

"The Constituent Assembly election was a milestone, a major achievement, in that (peace) process, but it does not represent the completion of the process," Martin told reporters.

But ordinary Nepalis in the streets of Kathmandu were happy to focus on the present.

"I think it is good that the king is going," said taxi driver Niranjan Shrestha, 36.

"He hasn't done anything for the people except amassing money for himself and his family."

UN Chief sees Myanmar cooperation on survivors

AP, United Nations

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that some foreign aid workers have gone into Myanmar's cyclone-ravaged delta without problems, reflecting a "new spirit of cooperation" by the ruling junta.

Ban flew to Myanmar last week and received promises from the country's ruling generals to allow international relief workers and international aid into the Irrawaddy Delta by helicopters, trucks and boats. Since the devastating cyclone early this month, all but a few international workers had been barred from the hardest-hit delta, the country's all-important rice bowl.

"The Myanmar government appears to be moving toward the right direction, to implement these accords," Ban told reporters a day after returning to New York.

"Some international aid workers and NGOs have already gone into the regions of the Irrawaddy Delta, without any problem. I hope - and I believe - that this marks a new spirit of cooperation between Myanmar and the international community."

But the secretary-general stressed that more needs to be done, and full implementation of the agreement he reached with Myanmar's military ruler, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, "will be the key."

"I will be fully, continuously and personally engaged," he said. "I look forward to returning, before too long, to see for myself the progress we have made." U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters earlier that a significant number of visas are now being granted to international aid workers to help cyclone survivors.

The United Nations hasn't seen "any blockages yet" in the granting of visas, he said, adding "it's a much freer position than it was a week ago."

When he left New York in mid-May to go to Myanmar, Holmes said about 40 visas had been granted to international relief workers but now "I think we're well over double that, and that number's increasing regularly."

"Clearly, the critical question is how may people have we not reached and what sort of condition are they in. Unfortunately, we cannot give a very clear answer to that," he said.

Holmes said the U.N. believes that just over 1 million of the 2.4 million people severely affected by the cyclone have received some kind of aid from U.N. agencies, national and international NGOs or the Myanmar Red Cross.

What the U.N. doesn't have a clear picture of is how many people have been helped through the national relief effort and bilateral assistance given directly to Myanmar, he said.

"It's reasonable to assume you should add several hundred thousand more - maybe even a million more," but there could be a big overlap with the people in the U.N. estimate, he said.

In Geneva, Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs which Holmes heads, said most assistance has gone to people living in the Yangon area, because the delta has hundreds of rivers and small islands, some which can only be reached by inflatable boats.

Cyclone Nargis killed at least 78,000 people and left 56,000 more missing.

Holmes said now the international community has to deliver on the ground.

Since the crisis began, 160 flights have arrived with aid, at a rate of 10-15 a day, but more relief goods are needed which should be coming by road from Thailand and by boat as well. In addition, the U.N. World Food Program is buying rice on the local market.

The French warship Mistral Wednesday landed on the resort island of Phuket, Thailand, to unload some 1,000 tons of humanitarian supplies for shipment by the United Nations to Myanmar.

The regime has forbidden direct aid by warships of France, the United States and Great Britain which have been standing by off the Myanmar coast to deliver the assistance.

Myanmar's state media has voiced fears of a U.S. invasion to grab the country's oil reserves.

Barak calls surprise news conference in Olmert case

Reuters, Jerusalem

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called a surprise news conference on Wednesday, raising speculation he will demand Prime Minister Ehud Olmert step aside after damaging testimony from a U.S. businessman in a corruption case.

Barak's Labour Party is the main partner in Olmert's fragile governing coalition and a new election, certain to disrupt Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians, would be likely if it bolted. "Either Olmert suspends himself or the Labour Party must leave the government," senior Labour legislator Danny Yatom said amid news reports that Barak would make that demand.

A spokeswoman for Barak, a former prime minister, said he would hold a news conference in Israel's parliament at 1:30 p.m. (1030 GMT). She gave no details on what he planned to say.

U.S. businessman Morris Talansky testified on Tuesday that he gave Olmert $150,000 in cash-stuffed envelopes, including personal loans that were never repaid, over a 15-year period before the veteran politician became Israel's leader. Olmert, whose defense attorneys will cross-examine Talansky only in July, has acknowledged receiving money from the New York-based businessman but said the funds were legal election campaign contributions.

Denying any wrongdoing, he has said he would resign if indicted.

"It looks like this could be it for Olmert. Nothing can rescue him," said an Israeli official of the corruption allegations.

But Tal Silberstein, an Olmert adviser, told Israeli Army Radio the prime minister has no intention of stepping aside now.

"I can tell you, based on a recent conversation with him, that he has no intention of announcing that he is taking a leave of absence or declaring anything at this stage -- not as long as he is trying to prove his innocence," Silberstein said.

Mark Regev, an Olmert spokesman, said: "The prime minister is convinced that as the investigation proceeds, it will become clear that he did nothing wrong.

If Olmert quits, President Shimon Peres, under Israeli law, could name a replacement after consultation with leaders of parliamentary parties.

The frontrunner would likely be Olmert's deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief delegate to peace talks with the Palestinians which the United States hopes can result in a statehood agreement by the end of the year.

Should Olmert, 62, step aside temporarily while prosecutors pursue the corruption case against him, Livni, as his deputy, would likely take over, for an interim period of 100 days.

Israel Radio painted another scenario, reporting that Barak was considering the formation of an emergency government with Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing opposition Likud party that would leave out Olmert's centrist Kadima party.

Olmert, twice questioned by police in the past few weeks, has said he took cash from Talansky for two successful campaigns for mayor of Jerusalem in 1993 and 1998, a failed bid to lead Likud in 1999 and a further internal Likud election in 2002.

A judicial source said the sums involved totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Talansky, 75, told the Jerusalem District Court that he had helped Olmert because he regarded the former Jerusalem mayor as "a man who could accomplish a great deal" for Israel.

A poll in the Haaretz newspaper said that 70 percent of the Israeli public did not believe that Olmert was telling the truth about using the money only for political campaigns.

Torrential rain kills 28 in South China

AP, Beijing

Torrential rains that killed 28 people in southern China were forecast Wednesday to continue for the next three days.

Eighteen people have died in flooding in southern Guizhou province since Sunday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Tuesday. Twelve were missing.

More than 500,000 people in 17 cities and counties in Guizhou were affected, the news agency said. About 6,700 houses were damaged since rains started to fall.

Meanwhile, three people were killed by thunder and lightning after a storm in central Hubei province, the report said. It did not say when they died.

Seven people were also killed in weather-related incidents in Hunan province Monday, Xinhua said, and heavy precipitation in Jiangxi province, bordering Hunan to the east, stranded 4,000 people.

Torrential rains were forecast for the next three days in central and eastern China, the China Meteorological Administration said in a notice on its Web site on Wednesday.

Suu Kyi’s extended detention regretted

AP, United Nations

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed regret over Myanmar government's decision to extend the detention of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and vowed to work to get her and other political detainees released.

"I regret the decision of the government of Myanmar to extend, for a sixth consecutive year, the detention under house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy," he said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Ban has just returned to New York after a visit to Myanmar in the wake of the devastation caused by cyclone Nargis. During his visit he met with Myanmar's senior general Than Shwe. "The sooner restrictions on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political figures are lifted, the sooner Myanmar will be able to move towards inclusive national reconciliation, the restoration of democracy and full respect for human rights," Ban stressed.

He vowed to do his utmost to get Suu Kyi and other detainees released.

Earlier, US President George W Bush also said in a statement that he was "deeply troubled" by Suu Kyi's extended detention.

Strong reaction also came from the European Union and Britain. Singapore, current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Myanmar, expressed disappointment.

The Secretary General said he expected his special adviser Ibrahim Gambari to continue his efforts to foster political dialogue with both the Myanmar authorities and Nobel laureate Suu Kyi.

McCain wants nuclear talks with China, Russia

AFP, Washington

Republican presidential candidate John McCain Tuesday pledged to launch a new dialogue with China and Russia to reduce nuclear weapons and proliferation, and backed a US-India civil nuclear pact.

The Arizona senator also took a fresh swipe at potential Democratic general election foe Barack Obama, over his offer to talk to the leaders of US foes like Iran, Syria and Cuba.

McCain has previously taken a tough line on Russia, even calling for Moscow to be thrown out of the Group of Eight industrialized nations club, over an erosion of democracy. But in a speech in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, he proposed new cuts to reduce nuclear stockpiles. "The Cold War ended almost twenty years ago, and the time has come to take further measures to reduce dramatically the number of nuclear weapons in the world's arsenals," McCain said.

"While we have serious differences, with the end of the Cold War, Russia and China are no longer mortal enemies," McCain said.

"As our two countries possess the overwhelming majority of the world's nuclear weapons, we have a special responsibility to reduce their number."

McCain said he believed Washington and Moscow could agree on binding verification measures for new arms reductions and he hoped to also find ways to reduce or eliminate deployments of tactical weapons in Europe.

The Arizona senator also said he would seriously consider Moscow's proposal to take the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty global.

Moving to China, McCain said it was time to start a dialogue on strategic and nuclear issues, citing "important shared interests" and the need to reach transparency on nuclear force doctrine.

He also backed the Bush administration's civil nuclear pact with India, which the US Senate and the Indian parliament has yet to sign off on, and pledged to talk to both India and Pakistan on nuclear security.

McCain meanwhile took a clear swipe at Obama, in the latest stage of a boiling foreign policy row over the Illinois senator's willingness to conduct direct talks with powers hostile to the United States.

"Many believe all we need to do to end the nuclear programs of hostile governments is to have our president talk with leaders in Pyongyang and Tehran, as if we haven't tried talking to these governments repeatedly over the past two decades," McCain said.

Sudan leader demands action against Chad

AFP, Yokohama

Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir on Wednesday demanded international action against Chad as tensions between the two countries flared over the Darfur crisis. Beshir made his call at a summit of some 40 African leaders in Yokohama, Japan, striking a discordant note at the start of a meeting focused on development and poverty alleviation.

Darfur rebels earlier this month launched a deadly raid that reached the outskirts of the Sudanese capital Khartoum with the declared intent of toppling Beshir's regime. "A Darfurian rebel faction supported and equipped by the government of Chad launched a terrorist aggression against innocent civilians in the Sudanese capital," Beshir said. "The world should no longer tolerate such actions," he told the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which was attended by a senior Chadian minister.

Beshir insisted that Sudan was complying with international efforts to resolve the conflict in the parched western province of Darfur, where violence broke out in 2003.

"However, our efforts are being undermined by unjustifiable and unacceptable external violations of our sovereignty and the right of the Sudanese people to live in peace," he said.

Chad has denied backing the assault on Khartoum, which led Sudan to sever diplomatic relations.

The Darfur conflict has caused hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees to flee across the Chadian border.

Sudan and Chad have traded accusations that they are trying to destabilise their respective regimes.

The United Nations says the death toll from five years of war, famine and disease in Darfur may be up to 300,000 in a conflict that the United States has branded an act of genocide against Darfur's indigenous African population.

Khartoum puts the toll at 9,000.

Taiwan politician meets China president

AP, Beijing

The leader of Taiwan's new ruling party met Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday in a symbolic closing of the ranks between the rivals.

The visit by Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of Taiwan's Nationalist Party, was to boost economic ties, but a live televised meeting with Hu, also boss of China's Communist Party, showed the political side of the trip.

Beijing has threatened in the past to attack Taiwan if the self-ruled island seeks permanent independence, but the rhetoric has become decidedly more amiable since Nationalist Ma Ying-jeou took office as Taiwan's president a week ago. An upbeat Wu told reporters after the hour-long meeting that he had stressed that the first priority was to launch weekend charter flights and open up Taiwan to mainland tourists.

Wu also said he stressed to Hu that Taiwan needed an international presence. China has worked hard in recent years to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and cut it off from anything that legitimizes its sovereignty.

"The Taiwanese people need a sense of security, respect and a place in the international community," he said.

Hu thanked Wu for Taiwan's aid for the Sichuan earthquake that killed tens of thousands earlier this month.

"For half a month, people from all circles in Taiwan have expressed their concern, love and their generous support," Hu said.

"The love for compatriots shown by the whole Chinese people in time of disaster will become the power to drive cooperation between the compatriots across the strait and create the future together," he said.

Hu was shown on television shaking hands with members of Wu's delegation before all posed for a group photo.

Chinese leaders have already expressed their support for proposals by Ma for direct weekend flights between the mainland and Taiwan, and for expanding the number of mainland tourists allowed to travel to the island.

In the last century, the Nationalists fought a bloody civil war with the Chinese Communists on the mainland. The Nationalists' defeated forces fled in 1949 and settled on Taiwan, separated by a 100-mile (160-kilometer) wide strait. China demands unification.