The New Nation - Internet Edition

Israel attack on Iran 'unavoidable’: Olmert deputy

Reuters, Jerusalem

An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's deputies said on Friday.

"If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective," Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

"Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable," said the former army chief who has also been defense minister.

It was the most explicit threat yet against Iran from a member of Olmert's government, which, like the Bush administration, has preferred to hint at force as a last resort should U.N. Security Council sanctions be deemed a dead end. Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, has defied Western pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment projects. The leadership in Tehran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel-believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal-and U.S. targets in the Gulf for any attack on Iranian turf. Mofaz also said in the interview that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, "would disappear before Israel does." Mofaz's remarks came as he and several other senior members of Olmert's Kadima Party prepare for a possible run for top office should a corruption scandal force the Israeli prime minister to step down.

Iranian-born Mofaz has been a main party rival of the Israeli prime minister, particularly following the 2006 elections when Olmert was forced to hand the defense portfolio to Labor, his main coalition partner, at Mofaz's expense.

Mofaz, who is also designated as a deputy prime minister, has remained privy to Israel's defense planning. He is a member of Olmert's security cabinet and leads regular strategic coordination talks with the U.S. State Department.

Israel sent warplanes to destroy Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981.

A similar Israeli sortie over Syria last September razed what the U.S. administration said was a nascent nuclear reactor built with North Korean help. Syria denied having any such facility. Independent analysts have questioned, however, whether Israel's armed forces can take on Iran alone, as its nuclear sites are numerous, distant and well-fortified.

AFP reports adds: An Israeli deputy prime minister on Friday warned that Iran would face attack if it pursues what he said was its nuclear weapons programme.

"If Iran continues its nuclear weapons programme, we will attack it," said Shaul Mofaz, who is also transportation minister.

"Other options are disappearing. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear programme," Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

He stressed such an operation could only be conducted with US support.

A former defence minister and armed forces chief of staff, Mofaz hopes to replace embattled Ehud Olmert as prime minister and at the helm of the Kadima party.

Bomb rips through bus in Sri Lanka, killing 21

AP, Colombo

A bomb ripped through a crowded passenger bus near Sri Lanka's capital during morning rush hour Friday, killing at least 21 people and wounding an additional 47, officials said.

The bombing was the second attack in three days targeting civilians. A blast targeting a passenger train wounded 18 passengers and bystanders in capital Colombo on Wednesday.

The country's military blamed the attack on Tamil Tiger rebels, who did not immediately comment on the blast. If carried out by the rebels, the attack would show their ability to strike deep inside government territory despite a maze of security checkpoints around the capital and its suburbs. Tamil Tigers detonated a roadside bomb about 7:35 a.m., targeting a passenger bus in the Colombo suburb of Moratuwa, said Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not respond to calls seeking comment, but the rebels routinely deny such attacks. The rebels, blamed for scores of suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians, are listed as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and India. Authorities have asked the public to remain vigilant in the wake of several bombings blamed on the rebels.

A blast blamed on rebels on a passenger train last month killed eight people and wounded 70 others near Colombo. Also last month, a bomb explosion deep in the rebel-held territory killed 16 people. Tamil Tigers blamed that blast on government forces - a charge the government denies.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says more than 200 civilians have died in bombings since the beginning of the year in both government-controlled ethnic majority Sinhalese areas and northern rebel-held territory.

The Tigers have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalized by successive governments controlled by the majority Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed.

Fighting has escalated along the northern front lines since the government withdrew from a long-ignored cease-fire in January.

The government has pledged to capture the rebels' de facto state in the north and crush them by the end of the year. But diplomats and other observers say the army is facing more resistance than expected.

China ready to ease pressure on dangerous quake lake

Reuters, Chengdu

China readied on Friday to ease pressure on a swollen "quake lake" threatening hundreds of thousands of people downstream in the southwestern province of Sichuan as the water level quickly rises toward a man-made sluice.

The Tangjiashan lake is the largest of the more than 30 quake lakes formed when the May 12 earthquake triggered landslides that blocked rivers, raising fears of a secondary disaster after the tremor that killed more than 69,000.

Water behind Tangjiashan's natural mud-and-rock dam rose to 739.52 meters (2,440 feet) above sea level at 0400 GMT, only 48 centimeters from the sluice, state television said, which meant partial discharge of floodwaters building up behind could occur within hours.

But the chance of the unstable dam collapsing was also increasing "under the continuous influences of aftershocks, rainfall and other uncertain factors," the official Xinhua news agency said.

"Quake lakes" burst weeks after two powerful earthquakes hit the same area in 1786 and 1933 respectively, both killing several times more people than those who died directly from the tremors, Xinhua said.

Underscoring the urgency, Premier Wen Jiabao visited the lake on Thursday, urging workers there to ensure there were no casualties and calling it a "critical moment" for Tangjiashan. More than 250,000 people have been evacuated in quake-ravaged areas of Beichuan, Mianyang and Jiangyou, adding to the millions already displaced when their homes collapsed or were badly damaged in the earthquake.

Troops went door-to-door in some evacuated towns downstream on Thursday to ensure residents had moved to higher ground. The more than 600 soldiers who opened the 475-metre long sluice have pulled back from Tangjiashan, but some planned to return on Friday to dig it deeper, state television said. The lake also threatens a major fuel pipeline and gas operations owned by PetroChina and Sinopec.

An estimated 1,000 to 2,000 children have been orphaned by the quake, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Friday, adding parents who lost their offsprings to the disaster would be favored for adoptions of these orphans.

Pakistan foils car bomb terror plot near capital

AP, Islamabad

Pakistan authorities seized two vehicles carrying about 2,200 pounds of explosives, foiling a possible terror plot near Pakistan's capital, officials said.

Senior police officer Rao Mohammed Iqbal told The Associated Press that several suspects were arrested in the operation late Thursday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi - just days after a suicide car bombing against the Danish Embassy here killed six people.

Two security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media, said Friday at least three men were arrested and were being questioned by civil and military authorities in Rawalpindi.

The men were suspected of wanting to target "sensitive installations," the officials said. Iqbal said the operation had "foiled possible terrorist attacks" but provided no details.

Rawalpindi houses the headquarters of Pakistan's army and the residence of President Pervez Musharraf, a longtime U.S. ally in its war on terror.

Iqbal, the deputy inspector-general of Rawalpindi police, said the two vehicles were laden with explosives, but did not say whether they had been rigged up to detonate.

Also on Thursday, an Internet posting purportedly from al-Qaida in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing outside the Danish Embassy and threatened to "rain" more attacks on countries where cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad are published.

The attack was the deadliest strike against Denmark since the publication of cartoons in newspapers there and other Western countries sparked violent unrest across the Muslim world.

In February, Danish papers reprinted one drawing of Muhammad in a bomb-shaped turban.

Rawalpindi lies about seven miles from Islamabad.

Report accuses Bush of misrepresenting Iraq intel

AP, Washington

A new Senate report gives a fresh shot of adrenaline to the election-year debate over the Iraq war. President Bush and his top officials deliberately misrepresented secret intelligence to make the case to invade Iraq, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The panel put a new spin on old charges, comparing claims made in five speeches by top Bush administration officials with intelligence reports. The committee says officials wrongly linked Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11 attacks and al-Qaida; claimed Iraq would give terrorist groups chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, and said Iraq was developing drone aircraft to spread chemical or biological agents over the United States.

None was borne out by intelligence. The presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Sen. Barack Obama, has staked his campaign on his consistent opposition to the Iraq war. The presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, has trumpeted his unflagging support for the war, if not how it was waged.

The report released Thursday follows, by years, an earlier committee effort that assessed the quality of pre-war intelligence on Iraq and found it severely lacking. This report is known as "phase II" and spawned a nasty partisan fight in the committee. It plows well-tread political ground by contrasting what Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said between October 2002 and March 2003, when the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began, with intelligence reports that since have been released.

"These reports are about holding the government accountable and making sure these mistakes never happen again," said the committee's chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

According to Rockefeller, the problem was the Bush administration concealed information that would have undermined the case for war.

"We might have avoided this catastrophe," he said.

Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino, said the problem was flawed intelligence heading into the war. "We had the intelligence that we had, fully vetted, but it was wrong. And we certainly regret that," she said.

The Senate report, however, found that intelligence supported most of the administration's statements about Iraq before the war. But officials often did not mention the level of dissension or uncertainty in the intelligence agencies about the information they were presenting.

Two Republicans, Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine, endorsed the report.

The committee's five other Republicans, however, assailed it as a partisan exercise. They accused Democrats of covering for their own members, including Rockefeller and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who made similar statements about Iraq based on the same intelligence the Bush administration used.

"It is ironic that the Democrats would knowingly distort and misrepresent the committee's findings and the intelligence in an effort to prove that the administration distorted and mischaracterized the intelligence," said Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri, the committee's top Republican.

Zimbabwe orders aid groups to halt operations

AP, Harare

Zimbabwe's government ordered aid groups to halt operations in a move that could hamper food deliveries in the impoverished nation where millions depend on outside help.

Aid groups in Zimbabwe were sent a memorandum from social welfare minister Nicholas Goche on Thursday ordering an indefinite suspension of field work. Zimbabwe has been accused of using food aid as a political weapon.

Also Thursday, a mob believed loyal to President Robert Mugabe waylaid a convoy of American and British diplomats near the Zimbabwean capital, beating a local staffer, slashing tires and threatening to burn the envoys, the U.S. Embassy said.

The diplomats were looking into political violence before a presidential election runoff, and Thursday's incident was the latest sign of how tense Zimbabwe is as Mugabe prepares to face an opposition leader who led voting in the first round.

Opposition and human rights groups also accuse Mugabe of orchestrating violence to ensure he wins re-election amid growing unpopularity for his heavy-handed rule and the country's economic collapse. Police held the president's runoff rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, for nine hours Wednesday.

Officials in Washington and London said the diplomats were returning from a trip to investigate violence in northern Zimbabwe when they were stopped at a roadblock on the outskirts of Harare, the capital.

The convoy was halted for some six hours before it was allowed to drive on.

U.S. Ambassador James McGee, who was not with the convoy, said police and military officers detained the diplomats in an "illegal action." He said they were assisted by a crowd of "war veterans," a group whose members purportedly fought in Zimbabwe's independence war and are Mugabe's fiercest and most violent supporters.

Japan recognises indigenous people

AFP, Tokyo

Japan on Friday for the first time recognised the Ainu as an indigenous people, pledging to support the traditionally nature-worshipping community that has endured centuries of discrimination.

It is a landmark step for Japan, which has prided itself on being ethnically homogeneous but where the Ainu have sharply lower incomes and educational levels.

Parliament unanimously approved a resolution recognising the Ainu and calling for "immediate" support to the community. The move is primarily symbolic, although it will likely open the way for economic aid.

"We have turned a significant new page in Ainu history which we have never seen before," senior Ainu activist Tokuhei Akibe told a news conference next to the parliament building.

"This is wonderful, but still just a first step forward," said Akibe, wearing a traditional embroidered Ainu gown. "We bear a serious responsibility to make this meaningful."

The resolution comes ahead of next month's summit of the Group of Eight rich nations on the northern island of Hokkaido, home to most of Japan's estimated 70,000 Ainu.

The resolution recognises for the first time that the Ainu "are an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture."

Hamas activist killed in Israeli attack

AP, Gaza City

Hamas security says one of its fighter has been killed during an Israeli army operation in the central Gaza Strip.

In the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian doctors say that 15 Palestinians have been injured in an Israeli airstrike on a Hamas position.

Israel's army says the airstrike Friday in Beit Lahiya targeted a Hamas base. The army did not immediately comment on the operation that took place about the same time in central Gaza.

On Thursday, an Israeli man was killed in a Hamas mortar attack on southern Israel. In a retaliatory Israeli airstrike, a Palestinian girl was killed. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday that a broad land operation in Gaza is the most likely solution for the rocket fire.

Israel moving toward using force in Gaza: Olmert

AP, Washington

Israel is inching toward using military force against Hamas in the Gaza Strip because Egyptian cease-fire efforts there are not "ripening," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday.

Olmert, who was wrapping up a U.S. visit dominated by discussions on the dangers of a nuclear Iran, said Israel was not eager to carry out a military operation in the Hamas-controlled territory but would not be deterred if the threat continued.

"As it looks now, it's closer to a military operation than to another arrangement," he told reporters. The reason is because Egyptian peace efforts "are not ripening in a way that can bring a cease-fire," he added. On Thursday, Olmert met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and spoke by phone with presumptive presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain. He also spoke with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

According to his office, discussions centered on the situation in Gaza and the Iranian threat.

Olmert's legal and political travails have been pushed into the background during his three days in the U.S., where he received four standing ovations during a speech to pro-Israel supporters and where President Bush warmly saluted him twice publicly as "my friend" in less than a minute before they met in the Oval Office.

Olmert called Iran "the main threat to all of us" ahead of his meeting Wednesday with Bush and later told reporters that it dominated the leaders' discussions.

Bush sought to reassure Israelis who are worried about the U.S. commitment to keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel will one day be "wiped off the map."

"Iran is an existential threat to peace," Bush said. "It's very important for the world to take the Iranian threat quite seriously, which the United States does."

The visit has clearly been a welcome break for the beleaguered Olmert, who appeared relaxed and confident in a talk with reporters Wednesday. His domestic woes hadn't come up in his meeting with Bush, he said.

Military shoots down missile in test off Hawaii

AP, Honolulu

The US military intercepted a ballistic missile Thursday in the first such sea-based test since a Navy cruiser shot down an errant satellite earlier this year.

The military fired the target, a Scud-like missile with a range of a few hundred miles, from a decommissioned amphibious assault ship near Hawaii's island of Kauai.

The USS Lake Erie, based at Pearl Harbor, fired two interceptor missiles that shot down the target in its final seconds of flight about 12 miles above the Pacific Ocean. The target was shot down about 100 miles northwest of Kauai about five minutes after it was fired. The $40 million test showed Navy ships are capable of shooting down short-range targets in their last phase of flight using modified missiles the service already has, the military said.

The Navy and the Missile Defense Agency have already demonstrated that ships equipped with Aegis ballistic missile defense technology can intercept mid-range targets in midcourse of flight.

The Lake Erie in February shot down a U.S. spy satellite that had lost power and become uncontrollable. Military commanders worried the satellite would break up and spread debris over several hundred miles if it fell to Earth on its own.

The shootdown was the Aegis ballistic missile defense program's first real-world mission.

Rear Adm. Brad Hicks, the program's director, told reporters in a conference call after Thursday's test that the Lake Erie fired two interceptors to increase the probability of interception.

The Navy does that when a target is close to hitting the surface, he said.

Over the next 20 months, the military plans to install terminal-phase missile interception capability on all 18 Navy ships equipped with Aegis ballistic missile defenses, Hicks said.

He said the technology would give commanders more options to defend against missiles, particularly if the Patriot missile defense system - a land-based technology designed to shoot down missiles in their final phase of flight - was unavailable.

"If I don't have a Patriot nearby on a shore station to do a short-range threat, near the defended area, I have nothing," Hicks said. "The flexibility of having a ship to complement the Patriot, or to be there when it can't be, is very high on a warfighter priority."

In the last Aegis missile defense test, in November, the Lake Erie fired two interceptors to destroy two ballistic missile targets simultaneously in space.

That marked the first time the U.S. missile defense system shot down two ballistic missiles at once in space.

Turkish court upholds college head scarf ban

AP, Ankara

Turkey's top court ruled Thursday that Islamic head scarves violate secularism and cannot be allowed at universities, deepening a divide between the country's Islamic-oriented government and secular institutions.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government had tried to allow the scarves at universities as a matter of personal and religious freedom.

But the Constitutional Court verdict said constitutional amendments that were passed by Parliament in February went against secularism.

The head scarf issue is an explosive one Turkey, where the government is locked in a power struggle with secular groups that have support from the military and other state institutions.

The verdict is likely to bode ill for the government. Turkey's chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the ruling party on grounds that it is "the focal point of anti-secular activities" in a separate case at the Constitutional Court.

The prosecutor - who has also asked that Erdogan and other party officials be banned from politics for five years - has cited attempts to allow head scarves at universities as a case in point.

Many see the head scarf as an emblem of political Islam, and consider any attempt to allow it in schools as an attack against modern Turkey's secular laws.

There was no immediate comment from the government. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the government would like to see the court's reasoning behind the decision before commenting.

But Bekir Bozdag, a senior lawmaker of the ruling party, said "the Constitutional Court has overstepped its power and interfered in democracy."