The New Nation - Internet Edition

Fragile Gaza truce comes into force

AFP, Gaza City

A fragile truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas came into force in the Gaza Strip on Thursday amid scepticism over how long the Egyptian-brokered deal would hold.

The six-month truce is the first formal ceasefire since Hamas's bloody takeover of the impoverished territory just over a year ago which triggered a crippling Israel blockade against what it brands a "hostile entity."

But underscoring the fragility of the deal, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire targeting rocket launchers in Gaza City just minutes before the truce started and on Wednesday, the two sides traded a barrage of fire. "Hamas is determined to respect the truce and guarantee its success," its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said after the ceasefire took hold at 0300 GMT.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said the Jewish state "will respect all the commitments it made," but added: "We will keep our eyes wide open over what's hapening on the ground."

As well a halt to militant rocket fire and Israeli strikes on Gaza, the deal calls for Israel to progressively ease its blockade of the overcrowded strip of land where most of the 1.5 million population depend on aid. Olmert, whose government boycotts Hamas as a terrorist outfit, warned on Wednesday that the ceasefire would be "fragile" and could be "short-lived". "If terror continues, Israel will have to work to remove the threat," he said, describing Hamas as "despicable, bloodthirsty terrorists who have not changed."

The Egyptian-brokered deal was concluded after months of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel, which had been mulling a wider military offensive in Gaza in a bid to halt rocket fire.

It also came seven months after Israel-Palestinian peace talks peace talks were revived at a US conference in November, although they have made little visible progress in part because of the Gaza violence and Jewish settlement activity.

At least 516 people have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting since November, most of them Gaza militants. Since Hamas seized Gaza in June last year, four people in Israel have been killed by rocket fire.

World leaders welcomed the truce news but Israelis and Palestinians were wary.

Iran ready to negotiate on nuclear incentives

Reuters, Kampala

Iran said on Thursday it was ready to negotiate over a new package of economic incentives put forward by major powers seeking to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear work.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference in the Ugandan capital Kampala that the six-the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany-should also take a serious look at Tehran's own proposals.

"We have informed them of our readiness to negotiate. The package given by the P5+1 countries is currently under consideration and at the appropriate time Teheran will give its reactions," Mottaki said.

After handing over the offers to Iran on Saturday, EU policy chief Javier Solana reaffirmed the six powers wanted Iran to suspend enrichment during talks on the offer-a precondition the Islamic Republic has repeatedly rejected.

Iran said it was ready to review the proposals, but Tehran seems in no hurry to respond.

"We also have what we call the Iranian package which we have sent to the P5+1 countries and we hope they consider it as we consider theirs," added Mottaki, in Uganda for a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

A senior Iranian nuclear official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters on Tuesday Iran's answer would not be a straight yes-or-no answer, adding that it would be a "discussable response." An Iranian official said on Thursday time was on Iran's side.

Split over US nuclear deal may trigger early Indian polls

AFP, New Delhi

India looks headed for early elections due to a worsening split between the ruling Congress party and its left-wing allies over a nuclear deal with Washington, reports and officials said Thursday.

A government source told AFP that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared set to go ahead with implementing the pact with the United States, despite fierce objections from the communists who prop up his government in parliament.

Several Indian newspapers also predicted such a move, seen as certain to result in left-wingers pulling out of India's governing coalition and polls being called for November or December. Government officials, who asked not to be named, said the prime minister and Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi wanted to move forward on the deal before the G8 summit on July 7 when Singh will meet US President George W. Bush.

The Congress party is expected to make a decision after June 25, when it holds what is being billed as a final round of talks with its left-wing allies.

The meeting was due to have taken place on Wednesday, but was postponed due to ongoing differences. The government argues that the deal, which would give India access to the worldwide civilian nuclear energy trade even though it has not signed global non-proliferation pacts, is crucial for the country's energy security. The accord is also a centrepiece of Singh's foreign policy in that it brings India closer to the United States after New Delhi was on the opposite side of the fence during the Cold War era.

But opponents-including the communists and the opposition Hindu nationalists-say the pact compromises the principle of non-alignment in India's foreign policy.

They also say the deal, which would involve India having to submit to inspections by the UN's nuclear watchdog, could restrict India's nuclear weapons programme.

US officials have been stepping up pressure on New Delhi to clear the pact so that it can get final approval by the US Congress where it currently enjoys bipartisan support, before the US presidential elections in November.

Call for Hindu suicide squads sparks anger in India

Reuters, Mumbai

A powerful Hindu-nationalist political party in western India has called for Hindu suicide squads to counter Islamic terrorism, causing outrage and embarrassing the national opposition with which it is allied.

The inflammatory comments appeared on Wednesday in an unsigned editorial in Saamana, the official newspaper of the Shiv Sena, a regional party whose politics is based on nativist pride for the people of the state of Maharashtra.

"Islamic terrorism is on the rise in India and in order to counter Islamic terrorism, we should match it with Hindu terrorism," the unsigned editorial said in Marathi.

"Just like Islamic extremism, to safeguard the country and Hindus we must create Hindu suicide squads if Hindu society is to be saved." Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment centre and capital of Maharashtra, has seen deadlier bomb attacks than any other Indian city in the last 15 years, almost all blamed on Islamist extremists.

The bombs have killed hundreds of people and sometimes stoked communal violence.

The editorial also urged that Hindus should "create terror" in Bangladeshi settlements on the outskirts of Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra state. The Congress, which heads India's coalition government, called for the arrest of Bal Thackeray, who founded the party 42 years ago and still leads it today, newspapers reported. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's main opposition party, distanced itself from its Hindu-nationalist ally.

"People should not take the law into their own hands," M. Venkaiah Naidu, a senior BJP leader, was quoted as saying in several newspapers on Thursday. "It is the duty of the government to counter terror."

The editorial, titled "The dud bombs of Hindus! Why embarrass us?", was prompted partly by two low-intensity bombs that were planted in theatres in northern suburbs of Mumbai earlier this month. One exploded and injured a handful of people, the other was defused by police. Police arrested four people who said they were associated with radical Hindu groups and planted the bombs because they were upset by the portrayal of Hindu gods in the plays running at the theatres, according to media reports.

The Saamana editorial called the bombs "ridiculous and stupid" because they succeeded only in hurting a few people who were Hindus, and had no impact against Islamic extremism.

Monsoon floods kill 29 in India

AP, Kolkata

Authorities used boats to ferry food and drinking water to hundreds of thousands of villagers cut off by monsoon floods that have killed at least 29 people in the past week in eastern India, officials said Wednesday.

Local authorities also sought to use air force helicopters to drop supplies to more than 50,000 people stranded in nearly 200 villages in West Bengal state where the flooded Keleghai river cut off road links, said Kalyan Mitra, a district official. The affected villages in West Midnapore district are about 105 miles west of Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state.

About 200 soldiers were also using speedboats to evacuate villagers to higher ground in the district, Mitra told The Associated Press. Flood waters left another 200,000 people marooned in nearly 300 villages in neighboring Orissa state, said Manmohan Samal, the state revenue minister.

In both states, boats were being used to carry essential supplies to villagers, the officials said.

Nineteen deaths were reported from mudslides and house collapses in Arunachal Pradesh state, eight in Assam state and two in West Bengal state in the past week.

However, water has started receding in the worst-hit Lakhimpur district in Assam state following a respite from rain Tuesday, allowing hundreds of villagers to return to their homes, said Bhumidar Barman, the state revenue minister.

More than 400,000 people have been affected by floods in two districts in northern Assam, Barman said.

Teams of doctors and paramedics left for 100 makeshift relief camps in the two districts to prevent the outbreak of malaria, dengue fever, cholera and other waterborne diseases, he said.

Taliban driven from south Afghan district: Governor

Reuters, Kandahar

Afghan and NATO-led forces cleared out Taliban militants from the outskirts of Kandahar city on Thursday, killing or wounding hundreds of the insurgents, the provincial governor said.

But a spokesman for NATO's Afghan force was more cautious, saying he could not confirm that hundreds of Taliban who infiltrated into the Arghandab district of orchards and farms had been driven out.

Kandahar provincial governor Assadullah Khalid told a news conference the district just to the northwest of Kandahar city was clear.

"The Taliban have been cleared totally from Arghandab district," Khalid said.

Russia warns Georgia over peacekeepers

Reuters, Moscow

Russia warned on Thursday it might have to use force against Georgia if Russian peacekeepers were attacked again in its southern neighbor. General Lieutenant Alexander Burutin, first deputy of the military general staff, told reporters in Moscow that peacekeeping troops in Georgia showed "considerable restraint" when they were detained earlier this week.

"In the future we cannot guarantee that our servicemen will act in this patient way. Their patience is not limitless. The consequences will be grave and there could be bloodshed. Responsibility for that will be entirely on the Georgian side," Burutin said. Georgian police on Tuesday detained a group of Russian soldiers who they said were transporting weapons without permission. They later released them.

Russia has had peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia since the end of a separatist war in the 1990s, and the region is a source of friction between the two countries.

Iraq launches new offensive against Shiite fighters

AFP, Amara

Iraqi forces backed by US troops launched a new offensive against Shiite fighters in the south of the country early on Thursday after the expiry of a four-day deadline to surrender weapons.

"The operation started overnight. The situation is normal and there has been no trouble," said Colonel Mehdi al-Asadi, police spokesman in Maysan province where the crackdown against has been launched. Asadi said the details of the operation would be announced at a press conference soon.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had given a four-day ultimatum which expired on Wednesday to Shiite militiamen in Maysan and in its capital Amara to lay down their arms. Dozens of fighters surrendered to Iraqi forces hours before the deadline and police also recovered hundreds of landmines and at least four truckloads of other weapons.

US commanders say Maysan has become a major centre for arms smuggling into Iraq from overwhelmingly Shiite Iran just over the border.

"Before the Iraqi army came the situation was very bad, with armed militas controlling the whole area of Amara and the province," Abu Waleed, a 30-year-old trader, said as he sat at a local eatery with friends. "They did what they wanted and nobody could tell them what to do. We'd lost our rights." Security forces poured into Amara from Saturday, and police manning machineguns could be seen behind blast walls on the city's main roads.

British troops transferred control of Maysan to Iraqi forces in April 2007, but security in the province has remained fragile with intense fighting between rival Shiite groups to gain supremacy.

Srebrenica survivors seek damages from UN, Dutch

AP, The Hague

A Dutch court began hearings Wednesday about whether survivors of a 1995 massacre of Muslims in Bosnia - Europe's worst mass killing since World War II - can sue the United Nations for failing to prevent the slaughter.

Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslims in one week in July 1995, overrunning the Srebrenica enclave declared a U.N. safe zone. Dutch peacekeepers overwhelmed by the Serbs' superior force watched helplessly as the male victims were led away from their custody for execution.

The Mothers of Srebrenica, survivors of the men and boys killed in 1995, are among those seeking compensation from the U.N. and the Dutch state in the civil lawsuit.

Suu Kyi marks 63rd birthday under detention

AFP, Yangon

Supporters of Burma's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi made solemn offerings to Buddhist monks early on Thursday as they marked her 63rd birthday, which she is spending under house arrest.

Dozens of people gathered outside the Rangoon headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, giving food to monks who were making their daily rounds to collect alms. "Later, we will release nine doves to bring peace and freedom to Daw Suu Kyi," said Lai Lai, one of the party members.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 years under house arrest in her rambling lakeside home, where she is allowed no contact with the outside world. The United States marked her birthday by noting that her continued imprisonment was a "deplorable situation" that must end.

No direct talks with Israeli PM: Syrian President

AFP, New Delhi

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Thursday ruled out direct talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the sidelines of an international summit in Paris next month. Assad and Olmert will be in Paris as guests of French President Nicolas Sarkozy who is to announce the launch of a new Mediterranean Union on July 13.

Last month, Syria and Israel had announced they had launched indirect peace talks, with Turkey serving as a mediator, after an eight-year freeze.

"This is not like drinking tea," Assad told reporters in New Delhi when asked about the possibility of direct talks between the two. "The meeting between me and the Israeli prime minister will be meaningless without technocrats, who are the experts, laying the foundation," said Assad who is on a four-day state visit to India. "Only sending signals with no real result is meaningless." His comments follow Israeli President Shimon Peres publicly calling on Syria on Sunday to enter direct talks, citing the example of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who forged a peace deal with the Jewish state.

EU lawmakers pass new rules for expelling illegals

AP, Strasbourg

Europe's hardening attitudes toward immigration found a voice in the EU Parliament Wednesday, as legislators passed controversial new rules for expelling illegals amid a widening crackdown in the United States.

As the global economy slows, governments in rich countries are coming under increased pressure to act tough on immigration. While the European rules do not lay the groundwork for workplace raids like in America, they do contain contentious measures such as providing for long detention periods. The wealthy European Union has seen a spike in tensions with immigrants: Italians blame foreigners for a rise in crime, France is grappling with violence in immigrant-heavy communities, and Belgium has come under criticism for its treatment of foreigners in detention centers.

Obama talks tough on national security

AFP, Washington

White House hopeful Barack Obama has said Republican policies on national security had left Americans less safe and less respected as he fended off an onslaught over terrorism from John McCain.

McCain, the Republican standard-bearer for November's election, meanwhile won backing from President George W. Bush for his demand to open the US coasts to offshore oil drilling at a time of sky-high fuel prices.

Obama convened a new group of advisers on security policy that included prominent backers of his defeated primary rival Hillary Clinton, including former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher. The Illinois senator also met with about 40 retired generals and admirals for an overview of the US armed forces, as he parried a second day's offensive from the McCain camp about his plans to fight Islamic extremism.

Nepal fuel price protesters stone cars

Reuters, Kathmandu

Hundreds of Nepali student activists, demanding a roll back of fuel prices and transport fares, stoned or set fire to several vehicles in the capital Kathmandu on Thursday, police said.

State-run Nepal Oil Corporation increased petrol and diesel prices by about 25 percent last week saying the move was needed to cut losses due to a global oil price rise and to meet a domestic fuel shortage.

Transport operators also raised fares between 25 and 35 percent for taxis and buses, sparking fresh protests. On Thursday, angry student protesters shouting "withdraw the fuel price hike" marched in the streets of the capital throwing stones on passing vehicles and disrupted rush hour traffic. Protesters threw rocks and destroyed window panes of the car of Nepal's Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri, a Reuters photographer on the scene said. Giri was unhurt and escaped with his security guard to a nearby house.