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Iran warns of 'painful’ response if Israel attacks: IAEA chief hits out at Israel again over Syria attack

Reuters, Tehran

Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted on Tuesday as warning Israel of a "very painful" response if it launched a military strike over the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program.

On Friday, Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told an Israeli newspaper an attack on Iran looked "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of U.N. sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential.

Asked about Mofaz's comments, Najjar was quoted by the state Iran daily newspaper as saying: "Our armed forces are at the height of their readiness and if anyone should want to undertake such a foolish job the response would be very painful."

Mofaz's comments helped drive up oil prices by nearly 9 percent to a record $139 a barrel on Friday.

Some Israeli political commentators have accused Mofaz of making the comments to advance his personal political ambitions.

Najjar said Israeli officials "every now and then say things which amount to foolish claims."

Iran, which has defied Western pressure to suspend its sensitive atomic work, has demanded action from the U.N. Security Council over Mofaz's comments.

The United States accuses Iran of secretly seeking to build nuclear bombs. Tehran says its nuclear program is solely for power generation to meet the demands of its oil-rich economy.

Washington says it wants a diplomatic solution to the standoff but has not ruled out military action if that were to fail.

Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, bombed an Iraqi reactor in 1981. A Israeli air raid on Syria last September razed what the United States said was a nascent nuclear reactor built with North Korean help. Syria denied having any such facility.

Many independent analysts say Iran's nuclear sites are too numerous, distant and fortified for Israel to take on alone.

Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked international outrage in 2005 by calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map," has threatened to retaliate for any attack with missile salvoes against Israel and U.S. targets in the Gulf.

AFP report from Berlin: The head of the United Nation's atomic watchdog again hit out at Israel's willingness to take unilateral action against countries such as Syria, in comments published in a magazine interview Monday.

As well as the build-up of nuclear arms, the increasing penchant of countries to bomb suspected nuclear facilities also posed a growing threat to world peace, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told news magazine Der Spiegel.

"With unilateral military actions, countries are undermining international agreements, and we are at a historic turning point," said ElBaradei.

He was referring to the Israel bombardment of Syria's Al-Kibar complex last September.

"We only heard of the Israeli action from the television. No-one gave us any information or informed us of their suspicions," he said.

"We were only given access to pictures of the building and its destruction at the same time as the US Congress. That is unacceptable," ElBaradei said.

ElBaradei also slammed Israel and the United States for not passing on earlier intelligence that allegedly showed the Al-Kibar site was a covert nuclear reactor.

The International Atomic Energy Agency had received "too little information too late," ElBaradei complained.

Feisty campaign starty as Obama, McCain war on economy

AFP, Washington

White House contenders Barack Obama and John McCain are rolling up their sleeves for a gruelling, five-month slog to the election as they trade fire over the economy and the wrenching US housing crisis.

Obama was able to turn a full-bore offensive on his Republican adversary for the first time Monday after his rival in the Democratic nomination battle, Hillary Clinton, staged an emotional exit from the race at the weekend.

Polls show the US economy is now the top concern of voters, ahead of the Iraq war, with the May jobless rate posting its sharpest rise in two decades, the property market in crisis and fuel prices topping four dollars a gallon.

That was the backdrop to an Obama speech delivered in the Republican stronghold of North Carolina, showing he intends to give no quarter to McCain as both candidates hunt deep in the other's territory for moderate voters. The Illinois senator said that despite mounting home foreclosures nationwide, President George W. Bush had warned against political interference in the property market.

"Now, Senator McCain wants to turn Bush's policy of 'too little, too late' into a policy of 'even less, even later'," he said, pursuing a course of tainting McCain by association with the deeply unpopular president.

Bush pushes Europe to toughen on Iran

AFP, Ljubljana

US President George W. Bush on Tuesday looked to persuade European leaders to tighten the squeeze on Iran's finances, a central message of what was likely his farewell tour of the continent.

Bush, whose term ends in January, will hold talks with Slovenia's president and prime minister before attending the annual US-European Union summit for the last time, then head to Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The US president also hopes to secure more help with war-battered Afghanistan during his visit, which also takes him to Germany, Italy, the Vatican, France, England, and Northern Ireland.

But the White House warns to expect no "dramatic announcements" on disputes over climate change or trade, or on new ways to prop up the faltering Middle East peace process at the summit in nearby Brdo Pri Kranju.

Washington and its partners will jointly warn Tehran to freeze its suspect nuclear program or face further sanctions, according to a draft of the half-day diplomatic gathering's final joint statement, obtained by AFP.

Myanmar frees 15 opposition activists

AP, Yangon

Myanmar's ruling military junta has freed 15 opposition party members who were detained last month for demanding the release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a party spokesman said Tuesday.

The release of the 15 members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy came the same day the U.N.'s human rights expert expressed concern about the arrest of a popular comedian who went to the Irrawaddy delta to donate relief items to survivors of last month's devastating cyclone.

Pakistan lawyers mount anti-Musharraf protests

AP, Karachi

Lawyers rallied against President Pervez Musharraf across Pakistan on Monday, burning him in effigy, calling for his ouster and demanding the reinstatement of judges in the kick-off of a campaign that could strain the shaky coalition government.

The "Long March" by lawyers to the capital was heralded by gatherings in major cities and is expected to culminate later this week with a rally and sit-in outside parliament in Islamabad. Thousands of political activists and others were expected to join the demonstrations.

Lawyers spearheaded opposition to Musharraf's rule last year. But their new protests to step up pressure on the U.S.-allied leader to resign are also deepening rifts between the two main parties in the administration that won election on anti-Musharraf platforms.

The protests come as the two-month-old government faces a slew of other tests, including an ailing economy and Islamic militancy - the latter a major concern of the United States and other nations in the West.

The two main groups in the ruling coalition - the Pakistan People's Party of Asif Ali Zardari and the Pakistan Muslim League-N of ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif - have failed to resolve differences over how to reinstate judges fired by the president in November. Sharif has pulled his members from the Cabinet and his party is participating in the protests.

Head of Saddam tribe killed in bomb blast

Reuters, Tikrit

The head of Saddam Hussein's tribe was blown up in a car bomb explosion in the town of Awja north of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

A bomb appeared to have been attached to the underside of Sheikh Ali al-Neda's vehicle, said a police officer in the nearby town of Tikrit, Major Hassan Emhimid.

Neda's driver was also killed and one of his guards was seriously wounded. A spokesman for the Salahuddin provincial governor confirmed the sheikh had been killed.

Meanwhile, at least six people were killed and 17 injured on Monday, including four women from the same family, in triple attacks in Baghdad and the restive Diyala province, according to security officials.

A car bomb, targeting an Iraqi police checkpoint near a shopping centre in Baghdad's district of Karada, killed five people, including one policeman, and injured 10, police sources told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

Baghdad has seen a wave of attacks by car bombs in the past two days after a relative period of calm that has seen a decrease in violence in recent months.

Pentagon sees Russia strengthening nukes

Reuters, Virginia

Russia appears focused on strengthening its nuclear capabilities rather than building up its regular armed forces, which makes maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal increasingly important, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday.

The Pentagon chief, speaking to Air Force officers in Virginia, said America's need for nuclear weapons to deter potential enemies from striking would grow in the future.

While that is partly due to the risk that nuclear weapons will end up in the hands of anti-American groups or states, such as Iran, it is also related to Russia's plans to build its nuclear capabilities, Gates said.

"It seems clear that the Russians are focused as they look to the future more on strengthening their nuclear capabilities," he told reporters after his visit to Langley.

Rep. Kucinich calls for Bush impeachment

Reuters, Washington

Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich defied his party leadership on Monday by calling for the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush for launching the Iraq war-but his move was not expected to go anywhere.

The Ohio representative outlined his intention to propose more than two dozen charges against Bush on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kucinich, a former presidential candidate, accused Bush executing a "calculated and wide-ranging strategy" to deceive citizens and Congress into believing that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said she opposes trying to remove the Republican president who leaves office next January because such an attempt would be divisive and most likely unsuccessful.

Kucinich, an outspoken Iraq war critic who has consistently voted against funding the war and led anti-war efforts in Congress, offered a resolution to impeach Vice president Dick Cheney in April 2007. That also failed to move forward.

Abbas says settlements main obstacle to peace

AFP, Cairo

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Monday that continued Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank was the biggest obstacle to peace.

"We consider (the building of) settlements the main obstacle to progress on any of the issues being negotiated, because we feel that settlements are eating Palestinian land bit by bit," Abbas said after Cairo talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The talks came amid efforts by Cairo to broker a truce deal in and around Gaza, Egyptian state media reported. Israel last week announced plans to build 884 more houses in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, in a move that enraged the Palestinians who have demanded it as the capital of their promised state. The Cairo talks also focused on efforts to reconcile Abbas's leadership with the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza, the official MENA news agency said on Sunday.