The New Nation - Internet Edition

Iraqi government to prevent Israel using airspace

Agencies, Kolkata

The government in Iraq has told the US Military it will not tolerate Israel over-flying the country in an attack on Iran.

The government has asked the United States to prevent Israel from using Iraqi airspace in any possible military event.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari conveyed a message to the US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker.

He said the American forces, being responsible for preserving the sovereignty of Iraq's airspace, should not allow any violation by Israeli warplanes.

Tensions between Israel and Iran have been increasing over the past few weeks with Tel Aviv threatening to carry out attacks to stop Tehran's nuclear program.

Responding to the renewed threats of a U.S./Israeli attack on Iran before President Bush leaves office, United for Peace and Justice calls for coordinated Days of Action across the United States on July 19-21. Now is the time to speak out against any U.S./Israeli military attack on Iran.

U.S. officials say Israel is mounting a "full court press" to get the Bush administration to strike Iran's nuclear complex, CBS News reports. In The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh reports that congressional leaders agreed last year to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran. New York Newsday and the Seattle-Post Intelligencer warn that Congress is considering a resolution promoted by AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) that would effectively endorse a naval blockade of Iran, an act of war.

Voices in the U.S. calling for real diplomacy and negotiations with Iran are being silenced. Few people in this country know Iran has an offer on the table for comprehensive negotiations with the United States that could resolve the nuclear stand-off and other issues. Nor do they know that talks with Iran without preconditions are supported by independent experts like Thomas Pickering, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN during the first Bush administration.

To counter the renewed threats of military action, we are calling for National Days of Coordinated Action against war with Iran on July 19-21, including:

Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice has said the US wants to reach out to Iranian people

The US has refused to deny reports that it will establish a US diplomatic presence in Iran in the next month.

The UK's Guardian newspaper reports the US plans to open an interests section in Tehran, its first diplomatic presence in the country for 30 years.

The state department said its policy towards Iran was unchanged, but that it wanted to reach out to Iranians.

It comes as the US announced that a top diplomat would attend talks in Geneva with the Iranians on Saturday.

The talks will be the first time in 30 years that such a high-ranking US diplomat - the third-most senior in the US - has met Iranian officials.

US officials said recently that the idea of a diplomatic presence in Iran was being discussed, but that it was not being actively worked on.

The unsourced Guardian report said that the interests section - a step towards setting up an embassy - would be similar to the one in Cuba.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, centre, visits the Natanz uranium enrichment facility on 8 April 2008

Pope says world's resources being squandered

AP, Sydney

The world's natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of "insatiable consumption," Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday in a speech urging followers to care more for the environment and reconnect with the principle of peace.

Benedict, speaking to more than 200,000 pilgrims gathered for the Roman Catholic church's youth festival, expanded on a theme that has led him to be dubbed "the green pope." The crowd, massed on a disused wharf in Australia's largest city, regularly erupted in cheers that gave the event the feel of a sporting event.

"Some of you come from island nations whose very existence is threatened by rising water levels; others from nations suffering the effects of devastating drought," the pope said, referring to global warming. He noted that during his more than 20-hour flight from Rome to Sydney he had a bird's eye view of a vast swath of the world that inspired awe and introspection.

"Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption," he said.

Types of "poison" are afflicting the world's social environment, he said, such as substance abuse, along with the exaltation of violence and sexual degradation, for which he blamed television and the Internet. "The concerns for nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity," Benedict told the crowd.

Benedict's speech Thursday was his first major appearance at the festival and one of the set piece events of his 10-day trip. The pontiff emerged from three days at a secluded vacation spot to engage in a busy round of events for World Youth Day, an inaccurately-named six-day festival held every few years that is designed to inspire a new generation of Roman Catholics.

He received a series of welcomes: an official one from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a traditional one from pelt-clad Aboriginal dancers, and finally a rapturous one from pilgrims who journeyed to Sydney from more than 160 countries to attend.

The pope toured Sydney's famous harbor by boat, cruising past the city's twin landmarks - the white-shelled opera house and the bridge nicknamed "the coathanger" because of its shape.

At the ceremony with Rudd, Benedict praised the Australian government for its "courageous" apology to the country's indigenous Aborigines for past injustices, saying it offered hope to all disadvantaged peoples who are seeking reconciliation.

Aborigines are an often-marginalized minority of about 450,000 in Australia's population of 21 million. They are the country's poorest group, with the highest rates of unemployment, illiteracy, incarceration and alcohol abuse, and a life expectancy 17 years shorter than other Australians.

Obama predicts black voter increase, Southern wins

AP, Raleigh

If Barack Obama's historic campaign to become the first black president boosts black turnout as drastically as he predicts, he could crack decades of Republican dominance across the South.

That's a big "if."

Still, an Associated Press analysis of U.S. Census and voting data from the past four presidential elections shows a potentially dramatic impact should Obama fulfill his pledge to elevate black participation by 30 percent.

That would add nearly 1.8 million votes in 11 Southern states, the analysis shows, enough to tip the balance in several that have been Republican strongholds.

Besides the likely increase in black turnout, the Illinois senator also expects a surge of young voters to help him compete in states that have been reliably red since the once solidly Democratic South flipped to the Republicans in 1964.

"I can tell you that North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama will be in play," asserts North Carolina Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield, an Obama adviser. "We're looking strongly at Tennessee and Mississippi."

Obama set the 30 percent goal himself last August at a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

"I guarantee you African-American turnout, if I'm the nominee, goes up 30 percent around the country, minimum," he said. "Young people's percentage of the vote goes up 25-30 percent. So we're in a position to put states in play that haven't been in play since LBJ."

The math backs up his analysis - if he can deliver the turnout he promises. In Georgia, the GOP presidential nominee's average margin of victory in the past four elections was 216,000 votes. If 30 percent more voting-age blacks go to the polls in November than the four-year average - with all else equal, and Obama capturing all of those votes - he would win the state by 84,000 ballots.

Should 90 percent of those voters go for Obama, a figure he achieved among blacks in some primaries this year, he would still have enough to win the state and its 15 electoral votes.

If Obama reached his goal of a 30 percent increase and brought all those new black voters into his fold, he could also win in Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia and Florida. Wins in the six states would give him 81 new electoral votes - enough to beat Arizona Sen. John McCain even if the Republican won almost every other toss-up state in the nation, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Ohio.

Cambodia, Thailand deploy more troops near border

AP, Preah Vihear

Cambodia and Thailand escalated their troop buildup Thursday at disputed territory near a historic border temple despite their agreement to hold talks next week to defuse the tensions, a Cambodian general said.

Cambodian Brig Gen. Chea Keo said the Thais now have more than 400 troops near the Preah Vihear temple, up from about 200 the day before, and Cambodia has about 800 troops there, up from 380 the day before.

Cambodia claims the Thai troops crossed the border into Cambodian territory on Tuesday in renewed tensions over land near Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple. Thailand maintains it is protecting its sovereignty and ensuring that any protests among Thais near the temple remain orderly, although a Thai military source has acknowledged the troops are on "disputed" ground.

The border around Preah Vihear has never been fully demarcated.

Despite the potential for a flare-up among the hundreds of armed troops, both sides gave assurances that conflict would be avoided and the atmosphere around the temple appeared relaxed.

Cambodian soldiers snapped photographs of their opponents just yards (meters) away and some tourists, including one American women, visited the spectacular site.

The long-standing conflict over the territory near was revived by Thai anti-government protesters in recent weeks, coming to a head after Cambodia's application for World Heritage Site status for the temple was granted last week with the endorsement of Thailand's government.

Both countries claim 1.8 square miles (4.6 square kilometers) around thetemple, and the activists have revived nationalist sentiment over the issue, fearing the temple's new status will jeopardize claims to the land nearby.

However, Thais living just across the border sought to calm the situation.

Hundreds of villagers in Sisaket province blocked a group of Thai anti-government protesters from marching to Preah Vihear on Thursday. Some shouted at the protesters to "go home" and stop fomenting trouble as police stood by a barricade blocking the road to the temple.

"We are Thais. We should be able to talk about this" to settle any differences, villager Ubondej Panthep said.

One protest leader, Pramoj Hoimook, said Cambodians have settled on Thai soil "and we want to correct that."

US-led forces confirm killing Afghan civilians

Reuters, Kabul

U.S.-led coalition troops have killed eight Afghan civilians in an air strike in the western province of Farah during a raid against suspected militants, the U.S. military said.

The acknowledgement came as reports of more civilian deaths caused by a fresh air raid by foreign forces emerged on Thursday from the neighboring province of Herat.

The air strike on Tuesday was summoned after a coalition convoy came under sustained attack from machine gun and indirect fire from a number of houses adjacent to a road in the Bakwa district of Farah, the U.S. military said.

"The coalition convoy returned fire and called for close air support on the enemy positions. A house was hit; eight civilians were killed, two others injured," it said in a statement late on Wednesday.

"Coalition forces never intentionally target non-combatants, and deeply regret any occurrence such as this where civilians are killed and injured as a result of insurgent activity and actions," it said.

Afghan officials said nine people, all members of the same family were killed in Tuesday's bombing.

In Thursday's raid, at least four men were killed, a spokesman for the regional police command said. Witnesses said 17 people were also wounded and taken to hospital.

The issue of civilian casualties is highly sensitive one for the Western-backed government and undermines Afghan support for the presence of foreign forces who are fighting the Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan.

There has been a sharp rise in violence in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest since U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the hardline Taliban in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The U.S. military says it is investigating reports by Afghan officials that around 60 civilians were killed in two separate air strikes by U.S.-led coalition forces this month in eastern Afghanistan.

Car bomb in Iraq kills 18, including children

AP, Baghdad

A car bomb killed at least seven children and 11 other people in a northern city, providing a reminder that militants still can cause casualties despite security improvements that led U.S. troops to return a southern province to Iraqi control Wednesday.

Ninety people also were injured in the blast at a popular outdoor market in Tal Afar, said a police official, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The city, a one-time stronghold of Sunni insurgents 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, was targeted in offensives by U.S. and Iraqi troops that prompted American leaders to describe it as a success story in the effort to stabilize Iraq. But sporadic attacks continue.

Also in the north, a car bomb killed two civilians in Mosul, police reported. The two attacks came a day after suicide bombers killed at least 28 people in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad.

South of Baghdad, the formal transfer in the Qadisiyah province reflected a drop in violence and instability across Iraq and marked another success for Iraq's increasingly assertive government, which seeks a timeline from the United States for the withdrawal of American forces. Qadisiyah, a mostly Shiite region, was the 10th of Iraq's 18 provinces to return to Iraqi authority, with U.S. and Polish troops relinquishing control at a military ceremony.

"This is further evidence of our goal to have security control in the whole of Iraq by the end of 2008," said Mouwafak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser. In a statement, U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said Iraqi security forces in Qadisiyah had been operating "independently" the last two months.

"We will assist as requested," the statement said, adding that Iraqi provincial and military leadership would have to create long-term security that can lead to economic development.

In Washington, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said he expected to be able to recommend further American troop reductions in Iraq later this year if security continues to improve.

Maoist attack kills 21 Indian police

AFP, Bhubaneswar

At least 21 Indian commandos were killed Wednesday in a Maoist rebel attack in the mineral-rich but impoverished east of the country, officials said.

The attack came as top officials met in New Delhi to try and devise a strategy to stamp out the worsening left-wing guerilla revolt in a large swathe of the country left out of India's economic boom.

Federal home ministry and state officials said a special counter-insurgency unit was hit by a landmine blast while patrolling Malkangiri district, a known Maoist stronghold in the far south of Orissa state.

"So far we can confirm 21 policemen belonging to special operations group were killed in the landmine blast," Orissa's police chief, Gopaal Nand, told AFP in state capital Bhubaneswar.

"The policemen were travelling to locate landmines, as the rebels had organised roadblocks on a strategic road," he said, adding that fighting was continuing into the night.

A group of special commandos was attacked on a reservoir in the same area on June 29. That incident left around 35 dead and dozens injured.

Rebel activity is mainly concentrated in Chhattisgarh state, which borders Orissa, but has spread to around half of India's 29 states.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the rebels, known here as Naxalites, as the biggest threat to the country's internal security.

The latest heavy death toll to be inflicted on the overstretched and poorly-trained security forces operating in the east coincided with a fresh government effort to come up with ways to tackle the rebellion.

Indian Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta told reporters Wednesday's meeting would lead to the creation of new, specialised commando units to be deployed in the worst-hit Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

"Moreover the home ministry will also set up six jungle warfare and counter-insurgency schools this year," he said, adding the work will be started "without any delay."

New Delhi has refused to hold peace talks with the shadowy rebels unless they renounce violence, and has also struggled to come up with a strategy to battle the guerrillas.

US 'to open Iran base in weeks’

AP, London

The US has refused to deny reports that it will establish a US diplomatic presence in Iran in the next month.

The UK's Guardian newspaper reports the US plans to open an interests section in Tehran, its first diplomatic presence in the country for 30 years.

The state department said its policy towards Iran was unchanged, but that it wanted to reach out to Iranians. It comes as the US announced that a top diplomat would attend talks in Geneva with the Iranians on Saturday.

The talks will be the first time in 30 years that such a high-ranking US diplomat - the third-most senior in the US - has met Iranian officials.

US officials said recently that the idea of a diplomatic presence in Iran was being discussed, but that it was not being actively worked on.

The unsourced Guardian report said that the interests section - a step towards setting up an embassy - would be similar to the one in Cuba.

Roadside bomb wounds 9 in Pakistan

AP, Quetta

Police say a roadside bomb has wounded seven security personnel and two passers-by in southwestern Pakistan.

District police chief Malik Arshad says the bomb went off Wednesday as vehicles carrying paramilitary forces and police were passing through Mastung, a town in Baluchistan province.

Arshad has declined to speculate about who carried out the attack.

Attacks on security forces in the region are routinely blamed on ethnic Baluch nationalists who are waging a violent campaign for more political autonomy and royalties from natural gas extracted in the province.

The area lies south of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where Taliban and al-Qaida militants appear to be gaining strength.

Egypt train crash kills 41

AFP, Cairo

Four people died from their injuries overnight after a train crashed into several vehicles in northern Egypt, bringing the total number of dead to 41, a security official told AFP on Thursday.

Authorities were still trying to clear the track, a day after a truck ploughed into traffic at a closed level crossing, pushing a bus, truck and several cars into the path of a passenger train, the official said. At least 40 people were also injured in the crash 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the Mediterranean city of Marsa Matruh.

The crash was the latest in a series of transport disasters in Egypt, most of which have been blamed on negligence and poor maintenance.

Egyptian roads are among the most dangerous in the world. Around 6,000 people are killed 30,000 injured in traffic accidents each year, according to transport ministry figures.

Saudi King calls for religious reconciliation

AP, Madrid

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia exhorted followers of the world's leading faiths to turn away from extremism and embrace a spirit of reconciliation, saying at the start of an interfaith conference Wednesday that history's great conflicts were not caused by religion itself but by its misinterpretation.

"My brothers, we must tell the world that differences don't need to lead to disputes," Abdullah said, speaking through a Spanish interpreter. "The tragedies we have experienced throughout history were not the fault of religion but because of the extremism that has been adopted by some followers of all the religions, and of all political systems."

Abdullah's comments came at the start of a Saudi-sponsored gathering that aims to bring Muslims, Christians and Jews closer together at a time when the world often puts the three faiths at odds.

Fugitive Saddam aide sees US troops gone by 2008

AP, Cairo

A fugitive former deputy to Saddam Hussein predicts U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of next year, according to an audio recording broadcast Tuesday by Al-Arabiya television.

A voice purported to be Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri speaking in Arabic said 2008 "will be the final and decisive year for the American presence in Iraq." President Bush "should leave Iraq and disclose the real casualties of the American troops in the last years," the voice added.

There was no way to independently confirm the voice was that of the former deputy chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council. The recording surfaced two days before the 40th anniversary of the rise to power by Saddam's Baath Party. Al-Douri, a fugitive with a $10 million bounty on his head, has not been seen publicly since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003.

McCain pledges more education options

AP, Cincinnati

John McCain told the NAACP and some skeptical black voters Wednesday that he will expand education opportunities, partly through vouchers for low-income children to attend private school.

The likely Republican presidential nominee addressed the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation's oldest civil rights organization. In greeting the group, McCain praised Democrat Barack Obama's historic campaign, but said the Illinois senator is wrong to oppose school vouchers for students in failing public schools. It is time, McCain said, to use vouchers and other tools like merit pay for teachers to break from conventional thinking on educational policy. Obama, he said, has dismissed support for private school vouchers for low-income Americans.

"All of that went over well with the teachers union, but where does it leave families and their children who are stuck in failing schools?" the Arizona senator asked.

Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar freed on bail

AP, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said Thursday that police arrested him for alleged sodomy because of a personal vendetta among the top brass, and insisted they have no case against him.

"I don't deserve this. No Malaysian deserves this. Why treat me as a major criminal and a public enemy?" Anwar told reporters after being freed on $47,000 bail. "Mind you they have no case against me."

Anwar was arrested Wednesday for questioning over allegations that he sodomized a 23-year-old male aide - the second time in a decade that such an accusation has threatened his political career. He was released Thursday after more than eight hours of interrogation.

Just before his arrest, Anwar made a complaint claiming that the Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan had fabricated evidence against him in his 1998 sodomy conviction.

US admiral acknowledges arms sales freeze on Taiwan

AFP, Washington

The top US military commander in Asia acknowledged Wednesday that US arms sales to Taiwan had been frozen, amid warming ties between Beijing and Taipei and concerns expressed by China.

"There have been no significant arms sales from the United States to Taiwan in relatively recent times," said Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of the Hawaii-based US Pacific Command. Keating told a forum of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation he was aware of a freeze on US arms sales to Taiwan, saying it was "administration policy." "I would not be well positioned to speak for the State Department or the National Security Council or White House," he added. Officials who made the decision "reconciled Taiwan's military posture, China's current military posture and strategy that indicates there is no pressing, compelling need for, at this moment, arms sales to Taiwan," he said. Taiwan experts said Keating was the first official to confirm the freeze following reports last month that senior US officials were holding up an 11 billion dollar weapons package and delivery of dozens of F-16 jet fighters for Taiwan, possibly until after President George W. Bush leaves office.