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Rights group accuses Israel of abusing Palestinian prisoners

AFP, Jerusalem

An Israeli rights group claimed on Sunday the military regularly abuses Palestinian prisoners, including children, after their arrest.

In its annual report, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel mentions 90 cases of detainees claiming to have been mistreated by soldiers.

"On certain occasions, the ill treatment of Palestinian detainees is highly violent, resulting in serious injuries," the report said. "At other times, abuse manifests itself in a routine of beating, degradation and additional abuse."

"Minors, who must be granted special protection under both Israeli and international law are also victims of abuse," the group said. The report, which covers the period from June 2006 to October 2007, lists numerous cases of Palestinian prisoners who were abused "after they had been arrested, bound and no longer present a danger to soldiers." It criticised what it called "the absolute indifference" shown by the military hierarchy, the defence ministry, the parliament and the state comptroller.

Meanwhile, Israel was set to increase the number of trucks bringing badly needed supplies into the Gaza Strip on Sunday as a truce with Hamas militants entered its fourth day, a military spokesman said.

A total of 90 trucks would enter Gaza through the Sufa crossing during the day, up from between 60 to 70 before the truce went into effect, said spokesman 2nd Lt. Gil Karie. Further increases will be weighed if the quiet continues, he said. Ihab Ghussen, a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in Gaza, said the increase was in keeping with the terms of the cease-fire brokered by Egypt. The goods include milk, fruits and vegetables and other food products. Other goods, like cement, are supposed to be allowed in 10 days after the beginning of the truce, Ghussen said. But the amount of fuel sent into Gaza remained unchanged Sunday. Israel has slashed fuel shipments in response to attacks from Gaza, leading to a severe shortage and crippling transportation in the territory.

The truce has held since it went into effect on Thursday morning following months of clashes between the Israeli military and Gaza militants firing rockets at Israeli towns and attacking Israeli troops along the border.

Battle shapes up over future of US role in Iraq

AP, Baghdad

The decisive battle of the Iraq war is shaping up - not in the streets of Baghdad but in the halls of government where the future of America's role across the region is on the line.

American and Iraqi officials have expressed new resolve to hammer out far-reaching deals that would allow U.S. forces to remain on bases across Iraq once the U.N. mandate expires at year's end. The stakes in the talks are enormous.

The outcome will shape not just Iraq for years to come - but, more important, America's strategic position all across the oil-rich Persian Gulf at a time when Iran's influence is growing. The U.S. maintains substantial air and naval forces elsewhere in the Gulf but few ground troops except in Iraq.

A pact also would assure Arab allies that Iraq would not fall under domination by Iran, which is pressuring the Iraqis to refuse any deal that keeps U.S. soldiers here.

But critics in the United States fear it will tie the hands of the next president when millions of Americans are anxious to bring troops home. Many Iraqis, in turn, worry the deal will allow American domination of their country for decades.

With so much in the balance, the Iraqi government said Wednesday that both Washington and Baghdad recognize the need to finish the talks by July's end "to avoid any legal vacuum that may arise."

That came only days after it seemed the deal was dead. But Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the prospects for an accord had brightened because of new U.S. flexibility after meetings in Washington.

The White House said President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki discussed the talks Thursday via secured video teleconference and affirmed their commitment to completing the deal.

Nevertheless, the two sides remain far apart on core issues, including the number of bases where the United States will have a presence, and U.S. demands for immunity from Iraqi law for American soldiers and contractors. Other obstacles include U.S. authority to detain suspects, fight battles without Iraqi permission and control of the country's airspace.

Iraq's parliament must sign off on the deal by year's end - and approval is by no means certain.

Opposition to the initial U.S. demands brought together rival Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders who all complain the deal would leave real power in American hands.

The oil minister, who is close to the country's powerful Shiite clerical leadership, told the British newspaper The Guardian this week that Iraq will demand the right to veto any U.S. military operation.

But American commanders believe they need such sweeping powers to protect U.S. soldiers in a combat zone.

Publicly, U.S. officials have expressed confidence they can find language that will satisfy the Iraqis on all major issues. But the negotiations are taking place against the backdrop of war and intense power struggles among rival ethnic groups in Iraq - each with its own agenda.

The U.S. operates scores of bases throughout the country, including the sprawling Camp Victory headquarters in Baghdad, Asad air base in western Iraq and the giant air facility at Balad, a 16-square-mile installation about 60 miles north of the capital that houses tens of thousands of American troops, contractors and U.S. government civilians.

Russia warns Israel against attack on Iran

AP, Moscow

Russia's foreign minister on Friday warned against the use of force on Iran, saying there is no proof it is trying to build nuclear weapons.

Sergey Lavrov said Iran should be engaged in dialogue and encouraged to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency.

Lavrov made the statement when asked to comment on an Israeli Cabinet member's statement earlier this month that Israel could attack Iran if it does not halt its nuclear program.

"I hope the actual actions would be based on international law," Lavrov said. "And international law clearly protects Iran's and anyone else's territorial integrity."

Israel's military refused to confirm or deny a report Friday that its warplanes staged a major rehearsal this month for a possible attack on Iran.

The New York Times report quoted U.S. officials as saying more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged the maneuver over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June.

It said the aircraft flew more than 900 miles (1,450 kilometers), roughly the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, and that the exercise included refueling tankers and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots.

Lavrov said Russia had asked both the United States and Israel to provide factual information to back their claims that Iran was working to build atomic weapons.

"So far we have seen none, and the same conclusion was made by the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said.

Rockets from Pakistan kill 4 Afghan civilians

Reuters, Khost

Rockets fired from Pakistan hit a residential area in eastern Afghanistan killing four civilians, Afghan officials said on Sunday, one of three cross-border attacks around the same time overnight.

Tension has mounted between the neighbors with Pakistan saying 11 of its soldiers were killed in an airstrike by U.S. forces operating from Afghanistan on June 10. Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened five days later to send troops across the frontier to hunt down Taliban militants based in Pakistan.

In the latest attack to come to light, a woman and three children were killed when rockets launched from about 300 meters (yards) inside Pakistani territory landed in the eastern town of Khost, the provincial governor Arsala Jamal said.

Thai PM will resign if Parliament votes him out

AP, Bangkok

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Sunday agreed to resign if he lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament, but he remained defiant in the face of anti-government protesters who have surrounded his office, vowing to oust him.

Thousands of demonstrators who broke through a police cordon on Friday continued to occupy the area around Thailand's seat of government.

The protesters, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy movement, claim Samak's government is a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

"I will not bow to your pressure. I will pull out only if I am defeated by a vote in Parliament," Samak told the protesters in a national address Sunday. He said he would allow the opposition, which introduced the no-confidence measure, to grill him next week. The measure will be debated on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Samak's coalition partners, who control about two-thirds of the seats in the lower house of Parliament, would have to desert him for the motion to pass.

While the law requires the resignation of prime ministers who lose such motions, Samak appeared to stress that unlike other Thai leaders in the past he would not use extraconstitutional means to cling to power.

But earlier, Suriyasai Katsila, a spokesman for the anti-government alliance, said the parliamentary debate would not be enough.

Obama fundraising machine slows down

AFP, Washington

Democrat Barack Obama reported Saturday his most modest fundraising haul of the year following his unprecedented decision to reject public financing for his White House bid.

Obama collected just under 22 million dollars in May, the last month of campaigning in his grueling nominating duel with Senator Hillary Clinton, according to figures released by the Federal Election Commission. Until last month, Obama had raised one million dollars a day, or no less than 31 million dollars a month between January and April.

For his part, Republican rival John McCain broke his own record in May, but his 21 million dollars still left him behind Obama's fundraising juggernaut.

Obama has raised a record-shattering 287 million dollars since the start of the campaign, fueled by more than 1.5 million small donors who give repeatedly over the Internet.

McCain has collected 117.6 million dollars so far.

Obama ended the month of May with 43 million dollars on hand, a little less than the 46 million dollars he had left in April. McCain started June with 31.6 million dollars on hand.

The figures emerged two days after Obama became the first candidate to renounce the public financing system that was instituted in 1976 to control spending by White House hopefuls after the Watergate scandal that felled president Richard Nixon.

His decision to reject the 85 million dollars in public financing and spending limits that come with it allows him to tap into his army of private donors who helped him shatter fundraising records.

Zimbabwe militants occupy site of opposition rally

AP, Harare

Militants from Zimbabwe's ruling party have occupied the site of the opposition party's main pre-election rally.

The Movement for Democratic Change says thousands of armed members of the ZANU-PF youth militia are at Harare's showgrounds. Witnesses say they are pulling down posters of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai is meant to have his main rally at the showgrounds, ahead of next Friday's presidential runoff against President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai won the first round but not by an absolute majority. More than 60 people, mostly opposition supporters, have been killed ahead of the vote.

Police tried to ban Sunday's rally, but a court overturned the ban on Saturday. It is unclear whether Tsvangirai will try to press ahead regardless of the notoriously violent youth militia.

Indian govt ally quits over high inflation

AFP, New Delhi

An ally of India's coalition government on Saturday withdrew its support to protest high inflation, adding to the woes of Premier Manmohan Singh, under fire from leftist partners over a nuclear deal.

Schoolteacher-turned-politician Mayawati, who uses one name, announced she was ending her backing for Singh's Congress party-led government after accusing the coalition of failing to insulate the poor from spiralling prices.

"The Congress party has neglected poor workers as well as the Dalits (low-caste Hindus) and so my Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is withdrawing support from the government," said Mayawati in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

"This government has failed miserably to check inflation and the rise in prices of essential commodities-especially food items-and is pursuing policies which are not in the interests of the people," she said. Mayawati, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, also cited alleged neglect by Congress of her BSP-led provincial administration.

The BSP, which has 17 MPs, had given outside support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government since it swept to power in 2004.

The BSP's move will not topple the minority government.

But it comes at a time when 59 communist MPs have threatened to withdraw their support over a civilian nuclear energy deal with Washington and force early general elections.

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.

Mayawati's move came a day after inflation shot to its highest level in 13 years, accelerating to 11.03 percent from 8.75 percent a week earlier after a hike in state-set fuel prices.

The rise in inflation has hit India's poor the hardest.

Some political analysts, however, suggested Mayawati's departure could help the beleaguered prime minister.

UN nuclear experts leave for Syria to inspect bombed site

AFP, Vienna

Top UN atomic experts left Sunday for Syria on a three-day visit to inspect a mysterious site bombed last year by Israel and suspected by the US of being a nuclear facility.

"We are now travelling to Damascus, we will meet tonight our counterparts and then we start to gather facts," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deputy chief Olli Heinonen, who heads the team, told journalists at Vienna airport before departure.

"What will be waiting there, we will see when we get there," he added. The team is due to visit Al-Kibar site in a remote desert area of northeastern Syria on the Euphrates River during its three-day trip.

The United States claims, based on intelligence and photographic evidence, that the site attacked by Israel in September was a nuclear facility built with North Korean assistance and close to becoming operational. But Syria has denied the allegations and said Al-Kibar was a disused military building, although Damascus has fed suspicion by wiping clean the site in a move certain to make the IAEA inspection more difficult.

"We will start to establish the facts this evening. We have the first meeting this afternoon, then it goes from there on," Heinonen said Sunday.

He added he would return to Vienna on Wednesday evening.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has urged Damascus to cooperate with the inspectors but stressed in an interview with an Arab news channel ahead of the visit that there was no evidence of Syrian nuclear foul play.

"We have no evidence that Syria has the human resources that would allow it to carry out a large nuclear programme. We do not see Syria having nuclear fuel," he told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.