The New Nation - Internet Edition

800 still missing in Philippine shipwreck

Reuters, Cebu

Rescuers scoured the seas around a capsized ferry in the Philippines on Monday for more than 800 people missing after it sank two days ago, as the official death toll from a typhoon rose to about 160.

Coast guard boats searched the area around the ferry and divers were expected to drill into the side of the vessel where they hope survivors might be alive in air pockets. Only 33 people are known so far to have survived the ferry disaster.

A U.S. vessel was en route to help with search efforts and was expected to reach the site in around 15 hours, Jesus Dureza, a spokesman from the presidential palace said.

Nine male corpses believed to be passengers from the MV Princess of Stars washed ashore on the central island of Masbate on Monday. "The bodies were bloated and decomposing. What we did was just to wrap them up and buried them right away," a local mayor told radio. Photographs showed only the tip of the ship's bow visible above the waves. Typhoon Fengshen, with maximum gusts of 195 kph (120 mph), pounded the archipelago at the weekend, washing away houses and roads and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate. In the worst-hit province of Iloilo, damage to agriculture and infrastructure was pegged at 1.7 billion pesos (19.4 million pounds).

The Department of Agriculture said in a statement nearly 250,000 ha of farmland was damaged, mostly paddy fields, at a cost of nearly 555 million pesos. Disaster officials were worried about food supplies for evacuees, crammed into schools, churches and townhalls.

"I don't think they have enough rice to tide them over," Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Philippines' Red Cross, told local television.

The typhoon is currently over the South China Sea and is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it moves northwards. It will likely bring heavy rain and winds to Taiwan and Zhangzhou and Fuzhou in China in the next few days according to storm tracker website www.tropicalstormrisk.com. A passenger picked up by a fishing boat and 28 others who landed at a small coastal village after drifting for more than 24 hours in a rubber boat, were the latest survivors from the Princess of Stars.

Fifteen people were reported dead.

Philippine transport authorities said on Monday they had grounded the vessels of ferry company Sulpicio Lines for inspection.

The company's ships have been involved in three other major disasters over the past 21 years. Distraught relatives of the 845-plus people on board the vessel complained to Sulpicio employees while waiting for news in the central city of Cebu, where the Princess of Stars was meant to dock.

"You can't bring our loved ones back. You should be held responsible," one woman told employees of the company. A floor of the passenger terminal was converted into a mini chapel with a makeshift altar.

4 Americans killed in Iraq

AP, Baghdad

At least 4 Americans including two U.S. soldiers were killed in different incidents in Iraq.

A disgruntled local official opened fire Monday on U.S. soldiers attending a municipal council meeting southeast of Baghdad, killing two of them and wounding four others, including an interpreter, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The assailant died in a hail of gunfire after the attack, which occurred in the town of Madain, also known as Salman Pak, about 15 miles south of Baghdad in an area with a history of Sunni-Shiite tension.

U.S. officials confirmed two American soldiers died and three were wounded.

There were conflicting reports over whether the interpreter who was wounded was Iraqi or American, U.S. officials said. Iraqi police and witnesses said the attack took place in front of the Madain municipal building where the Americans had come to confer with local authorities.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman says two American government employees have been killed in an explosion at a local council building in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City district.

Mirembe Nantongo says those killed Tuesday were civilian employees of the State Department and the Defense Department.

She has not released more details pending notification of their relatives.

Israeli troops kill two Palestinians

AFP, Nablus

Israeli troops killed two Palestinians at dawn on Tuesday in the West Bank town of Nablus, one of them a senior member of the Islamic Jihad group, the Israeli military said.

Hours earlier, a mortar round fired from northern Gaza landed in Israel, the first reported breach of a truce in and around the Hamas-ruled territory, the army said. It caused no damage.

With the exception of the mortar round, the truce has held as it entered its sixth day on Tuesday, with Israel halting military operations in Gaza and Palestinian militants in the territory ceasing their rocket attacks. The truce does not apply to the occupied West Bank, where Israel says it must keep up military operations to protect its citizens, and many fear an escalation in violence there could jeopardise the agreement.

Palestinian medics and security sources identified the men killed as Tareq Abu Ghali, 24, and Iyad Khanfar, a 21-year-old university student. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed troops had killed the two in an "exchange of fire," saying both were armed and that Abu Ghali was an Islamic Jihad militant wanted for carrying out attacks on Israel.

Islamic Jihad confirmed Abu Ghali was one of its senior members and vowed revenge, saying in a statement that the response "to this righteous blood will be in the heart of the Zionist entity (Israel)." The radical movement, which was responsible for many of the near-daily rocket and mortar attacks launched on southern Israel from Gaza in the months leading up to the truce, did not agree to the ceasefire but had vowed not to violate it.

A spokesman for Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since seizing power there over a year ago, on Tuesday called on all Palestinian factions adhering to the truce to "pressure Israel to halt its crimes in the West Bank." "The resistance in the West Bank has a role in confronting these crimes and we call on the (Palestinian) security services there to allow the resistance to carry out their role in protecting our people from the Zionist attacks," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.

In recent months Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose forces were driven from Gaza during the Hamas takeover, has been taking part in US-backed peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Iran warns EU sanctions could hurt nuclear diplomacy

Reuters, Tehran

Iran said on Tuesday that new sanctions imposed on it by the European Union could hurt diplomatic efforts to resolve a long-running row over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini condemned the latest sanctions, agreed by the 27-nation bloc on Monday, as "illegal" and suggested they would only serve to strengthen Iran's determination to pursue nuclear technology. Western powers suspect Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, wants to make nuclear arms but Tehran denies this.

The EU sanctions target businesses and individuals the West alleges are linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic programs. The measures include an asset freeze on Iran's biggest state bank, Bank Melli, after its refusal to curb its atomic work.

The EU move also slaps visa bans on senior nuclear and military officials, including the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, and blocks the assets of companies including Iran Electronic Industries.

23 killed in new Sri Lanka fighting

AP, Colombo

A new round of fighting in northern Sri Lanka killed 21 Tamil Tiger separatist rebels and two soldiers, the military said Tuesday.

The fighting, which took place Monday, was the latest in the island nation's escalating civil war - one marked by fierce ground and sea battles, air strikes, and bomb attacks that killed many civilians.

A statement issued by the military said the latest clashes broke out along fronts in the areas of Mannar, Vavuniya and Welioya around the guerrillas' stronghold in the north. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not immediately be reached for comment and it was not possible to verify the military's claims because reporters are not allowed into the war zone. Each side often exaggerates casualties for the other and plays down its own losses.

Also Monday, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a bomb at a village in the government-controlled east, killing three policemen who were going to bathe in a river, the military said.

Two days earlier a roadside blast killed two police in the same area.

Pakistan court disqualifies Sharif from by-election

AP, Islamabad

Pakistan's most popular politician, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, suffered a major setback Monday when a court ruled him ineligible to run in upcoming parliamentary by-elections.

The decision was expected to deepen a rift between Sharif and his partner in the governing coalition over reinstating fired judges and could further destabilize the government in a nation seen as an important ally in the U.S.-led war on terror. "This ruling will undermine, in a major way, the effort for national reconciliation," said Nasim Zehra, an analyst and fellow at Harvard University's Asia Center. "It is not a politically sustainable judgment."

Sharif had been barred from running in February elections because of convictions related to his ouster in a 1999 coup, which was led by the current president, Pervez Musharraf. Earlier this month, the election commission effectively cleared him to run in Thursday's by-elections after a tribunal set up to decide the matter failed to reach consensus.

Mubarak, Olmert discuss Gaza truce

AFP, Sharm El-Sheikh

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in Egypt on Tuesday and went straight into talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the fragile truce in the Gaza Strip.

"The two leaders will speak about what happens after the truce," which came into force last Thursday between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel in and around Gaza, an Egyptian presidential source told AFP.

The two were also expected to discuss Cairo's bid to broker a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas which rules Gaza.

China quake toll likely to exceed 80,000

AFP, Beijing

The death toll from last month's massive earthquake in southwest China is likely to exceed 80,000, state media reported Tuesday, citing a vice premier.

The estimate on the toll from the magnitude-8.0 quake that hit southwest China's Sichuan province on May 12 was provided by Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, the Xinhua news agency said.

The latest official death toll from the quake was 69,181, with 18,498 missing, according to the government.

84,500 confirmed dead from Myanmar cyclone

AP, Yangon

Myanmar's ruling junta has announced that 84,500 people perished in Cyclone Nargis in May, up from an earlier confirmed toll of 77,700.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu told reporters Tuesday that the official death toll stood at 84,537 and 53,836 still missing.

Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3 cut a swath of destruction through the Irrawaddy river delta and in and around the country's largest city, Yangon.

A major international effort is under way to aid some 2.4 million survivors of the natural disaster, the worst in Myanmar's modern history.

Sarkozy presses Israel for settlement freeze

AFP, Jerusalem

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Monday for a halt to Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank while also proclaiming staunch support for Israel in an address to its parliament. "There can be no peace without stopping settlement," Sarkozy told MPs and invited guests.

Israeli authorities have announced the construction of hundreds of new homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank in recent months, infuriating the Palestinians and drawing criticism from the international community which regards all settlements on occupied land as illegal.

Sarkozy also called for an easing of travel restrictions in the West Bank, where the army operates hundreds of roadblocks which the World Bank says are a major obstacle to economic growth but which Israel insists are vital to its security.

Plot to kill Ahmadinejad thwarted at UN meet: Aide

Reuters, Tehran

An adviser of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said there was a plot to assassinate the Iranian president during a U.N. food crisis summit in Italy earlier this month, an Iranian daily reported on Tuesday.

It came a few days after Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the West, accused the United States and its allies of plotting to kidnap and kill him during a visit to neighboring Iraq in March.

Presidential adviser Ali Zabihi said Ahmadinejad's policies since his election in 2005 were threatening "the illegitimate interests" of many foreign powers and domestic circles, the Etemad-e Melli daily reported. "Therefore they are thinking about his dismissal or assassination," Zabihi said in the northwestern city of Tabriz. A plan to kidnap Ahmadinejad in Baghdad in March and a plot to assassinate him at this month's three-day summit in Rome were part of this, he said, without giving details, adding: "Both of those were aborted with God's help."

Dunwoody to become first US female four-star general

AP, Washington

For the first time in American history a woman has been chosen for promotion to four-star general. The Pentagon announced Monday that President Bush nominated Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to head the Army Materiel Command, responsible for equipping, outfitting and arming soldiers throughout the Army.

If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first woman to attain the rank of a full general. By law, the Army is limited to 11 active-duty four-stars, including the Army chief of staff, Gen. George Casey. Women haven't reached four-star rank because by law they are excluded from serving in combat roles, which historically have been the path to the highest-ranking positions. That exclusion still applies, but with Dunwoody the Army has chosen to cast aside its customary limitations on promotion.

Zimbabwe opposition leader remains heled up in Dutch embassy

AFP, Harare

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai remained holed up in the Dutch embassy in Harare Tuesday after pulling out of a run-off election he said should be declared "null and void" due to violence, a stance backed by the UN Security Council.

Tsvangirai told Dutch radio Tuesday he intends to leave the embassy over the next 48 hours

"It was a temporary refuge," Tsvangirai said, adding that the Dutch ambassador had spoken to the Zimbabwe government and received assurances about the opposition leader's safety.

"So probably (I will leave) today or tomorrow," he said

The Security Council on Monday condemned the violence and intimidation against the opposition in Zimbabwe and urged that the presidential runoff vote not be held Friday as planned.

After hours of haggling, the 15-member council unanimously adopted a watered-down, non-binding statement that "condemns the campaign of violence against the political opposition ahead of the second round" of voting scheduled for Friday.

Pakistan, India officials begin anti-terror talks

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistani and Indian officials began counter-terrorism talks in Islamabad Tuesday, the foreign ministry said, in the latest step of a slow-moving peace process between the nuclear rivals.

It is the third meeting of a joint anti-terror panel since it was formed by the two countries in 2006 after train bombings in India's financial capital Mumbai killed 186 people in July of that year. "The two sides will discuss various counter-terrorism measures and exchange information to assist in investigations related to terrorist acts," Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told AFP.

Sadiq did not give further details about the talks, which are being held ahead of Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's visit to India starting June 27. New Delhi accuses Islamabad-backed Islamic militants of waging an insurgency in the disputed Himalayan territory Kashmir and of triggering attacks in other parts of the country.