The New Nation - Internet Edition

Rice acknowledges US policy shift on Iran

AFP, Washington

The United States has shifted position on diplomacy with Iran by sending a senior envoy to Geneva to participate in nuclear talks with Iran's top negotiator, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed.

But she insisted that Tehran must suspend its enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear materials for substantive talks with Washington.

"The United States doesn't have any permanent enemies," Rice said in response to a reporter's question on the unexpected move to send a diplomat to meet directly with Iran's negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva on Saturday.

"And we hope this signal we're sending, that we fully support the track that Iran could take for a better relationship with the international community, is one the United States stands fully behind."

"We have been very clear that any country can change course," Rice added.

"This decision to send Undersecretary (William) Burns is an affirmation of the policy that we have been pursuing with our European alliest for some time now."

Rice called the move "a strong signal to the entire world that we have been very serious about this diplomacy and we will remain very serious about this diplomacy."

Rice pointed out that she had endorsed the proposal from the so-called P5 plus one-the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany-on incentives to advance talks with Iran on halting its nuclear program.

She called sending Burns to Geneva to meet with Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana the "book end" to that process.

"But it should be very clear to everyone the United States has a condition for the beginning of negotiations with Iran, and that condition remains the verifiable suspension of Iran's enrichment and reprocessing activities," Rice said. Asked in an interview with CNN, excerpts of which were aired Friday, whether sending Burns to Geneva was a major policy change, Rice answered:

"I acknowledge that what we've done is to make a step that we think demonstrates to everyone our seriousness about this process.

Another report from Tehran: Iran hopes that talks to be held on Saturday with the EU foreign policy chief will create a "framework for negotiations" to end the nuclear crisis, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

"I hope that today's talks will lead to a framework for negotiations," he said, according to the websites of Iranian state broadcasting and Arabic-language channel Al-Alam.

"We hope that in today's talks a modality and framework that satisfies both sides is compiled," Mottaki added, on the sidelines of a conference in Tehran.

He did not give further details on what steps this framework would involve.

Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, will meet the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana later on Saturday in Geneva to discuss a package of incentives offered by world powers to Tehran.

In a major policy shift by Washington, US Under-secretary of State William Burns will also attend the talks.

Mottaki predicted that the meeting between Solana and Jalili would be followed by similar sessions.

"Today's meeting is likely to result in other meetings so that the views are gathered in one place and then agreed upon in a form that satisfies both sides," he said.

"We regard as positive and constructive the arrangements in form which have been made for Geneva talks," he added.

Media reports have said world powers have offered to start pre-negotiations over a six-week period during which Tehran would add no more uranium-enriching centrifuges and in return no further sanctions would be imposed.

Iran, Russia for diplomatic solution to nuclear crisis

AFP, Tehran

The presidents of Iran and Russia have expressed hope for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis on the eve of key talks aiming to break the deadlock, media reported on Saturday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev held their first telephone talks late on Friday, a day before the talks Saturday in Geneva, Iranian state media and the Kremlin said.

"In the Geneva negotiationst we can examine ways to make decisions in different fields and help resolve the existing issues," the website of Iranian state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

He also expressed satisfaction over the current state of ties between Tehran and Moscow, which has substantial economic interests in the Islamic republic, state television said.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, quoted Medvedev as urging Iran "to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to clarify questions remaining about the Iranian nuclear programme."

"The Russian president reiterated his firm position on resolving the situation surrounding Iran's nuclear programme only by political and diplomatic means," it added.

Medvedev told Ahmadinejad he hoped for a "substantive and constructive dialogue" in Geneva on Saturday, it said.

Russia is one of the six world powers that last month gave Iran a proposal offering it full negotiations on a range of incentives if it suspends sensitive uranium enrichment operations.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will hold talks on the package with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva on Saturday, in a meeting that for the first time will also be attended by a US envoy. The West fears that Iran could use uranium enrichment to make nuclear weapons but Tehran insists that it wants only to produce atomic energy.

Iran, EU and US begin nuclear talks in Geneva

AFP, Geneva

Iranian, European and US officials began talks Saturday in a bid to resolve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The EU's diplomatic chief Javier Solana posed for the cameras with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva before beginning talks along with US Under-secretary of State William Burns.

It is the first time that Washington has directly taken part in face-to-face talks with the Iranians on the nuclear issue.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday said the decision to send Burns showed that Washington was "very serious" about diplomatic efforts despite the Bush administration's often harsh tone against Iran.

"This decision to send Undersecretary Burns is an affirmation of the policy that we have been pursuing with our European allies t for some time now," Rice said.

"It is, in fact, a strong signal to the entire world that we have been very serious about this diplomacy and we will remain very serious about this diplomacy."

Washington has long said it will not negotiate with Iran until it first suspends uranium enrichment and insisted that Burns was travelling to Geneva to listen to Iran's response and not negotiate.

Nonetheless, it will be the first time that the United States, which severed relations with Iran in 1980 after the Islamic revolution, will be present in the negotiations aimed at persuading Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment.

Western countries suspect that Iran is secretly trying to develop the atomic bomb and the United Nations has slapped several sets of sanctions on Tehran over its refusal to halt enrichment.

Iran vehemently denies seeking nuclear weapons, insisting that its programme is designed to provide energy for its growing population for the time when its reserves of fossil fuels run out.

Jalili on Friday expressed optimism that the weekend talks would be constructive, provided Washington came with the right approach.

"What is important for us is with what approach they come to the talks. If it is with a constructive approach, and that they refrain from past mistakes, then for sure we will have constructive talks," he was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency before leaving Tehran for Geneva.

Bush agrees on time 'horizon’ on Iraq troop cut

AFP, Tucson

US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed to set a "time horizon" for US troop withdrawals as part of a long-term security pact, the White House said Friday.

But any reduction in the US force presence "would be based on continued improving conditions on the ground and not an arbitrary date for withdrawal," spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.

The two leaders, speaking by videoconference on Thursday, also settled on a "common way forward" in stumbling talks to craft a long-term pact governing diplomatic ties and the US military presence, said Perino.

Washington says the agreement is necessary to lay out the ground rules for US forces that will still operate in the war-torn country after the United Nations mandate for their presence expires at year's end.

But the talks have sputtered over the Baghdad government's demands for a timetable for US troops to withdraw as well as Washington's demands that its soldiers and other staff be immune from Iraqi prosecution.

In their latest talks, "the leaders agreed on a common way forward to conclude these negotiations as soon as possible," Perino said in a statement that made no mention of Bush's hopes that the accord would be sealed in July.

They also agreed that the pact would "include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals-such as the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of US combat forces from Iraq," she said.

The announcement came at a pivotal time in the US presidential campaign, with Democratic candidate Barack Obama expected to visit Iraq soon amid Republican rival John McCain's attacks on his plan for pulling US combat forces out of Iraq within 16 months after the White House changes hands in January.

McCain said the agreement on a "time horizon for American troop presence is further evidence that the surge (of additional US troops into Iraq begun last year) has succeeded," noting that most US forces used in the surge have already been withdrawn.

"When a further conditions-based withdrawal of US forces is possible, it will be because we and our Iraqi partners built on the successes of the surge strategy, which Senator Obama opposed, predicted would fail, voted against and campaigned against in the primary," he said in a statement.

Ethnic Madheshi set to be Nepal's first president

Reuters, Kathmandu

Nepal was set to elect its first president on Saturday, from a marginalised ethnic community whose violent demand for a greater say in running the government once threatened a peace deal with Maoist former rebels.

Nepal abolished its 239-year-old monarchy and became a republic under a 2006 deal with the rebels, who ended their decade-long civil war and scored a surprise win in an election in April for a special assembly to write a constitution.

But the peace pact was threatened by an unrest in the country's southern plains bordering India, where ethnic Madheshi groups began protesting against their marginalisation. At least 50 people were killed in those protests.

Though a ceremonial post, the election of a Madhesi president is seen as a formula to appease the marginalised group and enlist its support for a new coalition possibly headed by former rebel chief Prachanda.

All three candidates for the post hailed from the Madhesh region, also called the Terai.

Among the candidates is a 73-year-old republican, Ramraja Prasad Singh, who masterminded a series of bomb blasts in Nepal, including attacks on the parliament and the royal palace in 1985.

"Having a Madheshi president is in itself a pride for our community and we feel honoured," said Rajesh Ahiraj, editor of the weekly Madheshvani. "This is an initial indication that the nation is becoming inclusive."

Fertile Madhesh, or Terai, is home to nearly half of Nepal's 26.4 million people and is the impoverished nation's breadbasket as well as business and industrial hub.

Ethnic Madheshis are culturally and linguistically closer to the Indians living across the border than those coming from Nepal's hills or mountains.

They say they are discriminated against by the government dominated by the people from the hills in terms of jobs including the army, representation in parliament, judiciary and other state institutions.

Beijing begins massive Olympic shutdown

AP, Beijing

Beijing's Olympic shutdown begins Sunday, a drastic plan to lift the Chinese capital's gray shroud of pollution just three weeks ahead of the games.

Half of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles will be pulled off the roads and many polluting factories will be shuttered. Chemical plants, power stations and foundries left open have to cut emissions by 30 percent - and dust-spewing construction in the capital will be halted.

In a highly stage-managed Olympics aimed at showing off the rising power of the 21st century, no challenge is greater than producing crystalline air for 10,500 of the world's greatest athletes.

"Pea-soup air at the opening ceremony would be their worst nightmare," said Victor Cha, director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University.

Striking venues and $40 billion spent to improve infrastructure cannot mask Beijing's dirty air. A World Bank study found China is home to 16 of the 20 worst cities for air quality. Three-quarters of the water flowing through urban areas is unsuitable for drinking or fishing.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has repeatedly warned that outdoor endurance events lasting more than an hour will be postponed if the air quality is poor.

Under the two-month plan, vehicles will be allowed on the roads every other day depending on even-odd registration numbers. In addition, 300,000 heavy polluting vehicles - aging industrial trucks, many of which operate only at night - were banned beginning July 1.

Five days after Sunday's traffic ban goes into effect, special Olympic traffic lanes will begin operating until Sept. 25, a plan that has been used in previous games. Beijing is setting aside 165 miles of roadway on which certified Olympic vehicles will be allowed to move from hotels, Olympic venues and Athletes Village.

Cambodia and Thailand further increase troops in border standoff

AFP, Preah Vihear

Cambodia and Thailand further increased their forces in the fifth day of a tense standoff on disputed land near an ancient Hindu temple on the border, officials said on Saturday.

More than 500 Thai troops and well over 1,000 Cambodian soldiers are stationed around a small Buddhist pagoda on the slope of a mountain leading to the ruins of 11th century Preah Vihear temple.

"Now there are nearly 400 Thai troops stationed in the pagoda. I'm not sure how many are stationed in the jungle," said Brigadier Chea Keo, commander of Cambodian forces in the area.

Cambodian officials declined to give the number of their forces at the border, however hundreds of anti-riot police began reinforcing more than 1,000 troops in the area Friday while more than 100 Thai troops joined 400 soldiers already at the scene.

Officials said the situation was "stable" Saturday but the mood among Cambodians became tense Friday evening when they got word of a letter from Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen, saying the addition of Cambodian troops had caused the situation to "deteriorate".

In the letter calling for a peaceful solution to the standoff, Samak said Cambodia had violated a pre-existing agreement not to build in disputed territory, according to a statement by the Thai foreign ministry.

"The establishment of the Cambodian community, including construction of a temple and houses, and the stationing of the Cambodian military personnel in the area constitute a continued violation of Thailand's sovereignty and territorial integrity," said the Thai foreign ministry.

Asked about the Thai premier's claims, Brigadier Chea Keo answered: "On the map, it is our territory."

The standoff nearly erupted into violence late Thursday, when witnesses said troops twice pointed their guns at each other during 10 tense minutes at the pagoda when 50 Cambodian troops entered the pagoda compound to protect food supplies for dozens of monks.

Officials from both countries plan to meet Monday to resolve the standoff. But Premier Hun Sen and told his Thai counterpart in a letter Thursday that the dispute was worsening and harming their relations.

Mixed reviews for German Georgia peace plan

AFP, Moscow

Germany got mixed feedback Friday on a plan to resolve escalating tensions between Georgia and Russian-backed separatists in the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier floated the proposals during a two-day stint of shuttle diplomacy in Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia aimed at defusing a potentially explosive conflict in a volatile part of the world.

All three parties found elements to criticise, with the Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh rejecting the plan outright and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili dismissing key elements including a non-aggression pact. But after initial criticism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared to warm to aspects of the three-stage roadmap, saying it offered a potential basis to break the deadlock. After a meeting with Steinmeier, Lavrov said Berlin's initiative was "extremely helpful for looking for compromises and a way out of the crisis."

"We believe that the logic of your plan is absolutely the right one," Lavrov told Steinmeier at a joint news conference.

Germany chairs the so-called UN Group of Friends of the Secretary General seeking to reverse a sharp rise in tensions in a long-simmering conflict between Georgia and the Russian-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia.

Separatist leaders have blamed Georgia for a recent series of bombings accompanied by growing friction between Moscow and Tbilisi.

Iraq's Sunni Arab bloc rejoins govt

Reuters, Baghdad

Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc rejoined the Shi'ite-led government on Saturday in a breakthrough for national reconciliation after parliament approved its candidates for several vacant ministerial posts.

"Today, parliament voted to accept our candidates t This means the Accordance Front has officially returned to the government," the bloc's spokesman, Salim al-Jubouri, told Reuters after the vote.

"It is a real step forward for political reform."

Getting the Front to return after it quit the cabinet a year ago in a row over power sharing has been seen as key to healing divisions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

Sunni Arabs have little voice in the current cabinet, which is dominated by Shi'ites and ethnic Kurds.

Parliament questioned candidates for 10 vacant cabinet jobs, including five ministries and a deputy prime ministerial post that had previously been allocated to the Accordance Front.

Bhutan king signs new constitution in golden ink

Reuters, Thimphu

Bhutan's parliament endorsed the country's first constitution on Friday, formally turning the former absolute monarchy into a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy.

The 27-year-old king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, signed the first copy of the constitution, using a wooden pen dipped in golden, ink inside a 17th century fortress after parliament had ratified it.

His father, Bhutan's fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, not only surrendered power without a struggle, but actually imposed democracy against the will of many of his subjects before abdicating in favour of his Oxford-educated son in 2006.

The Himalayan nation held its first general election in March, and the result shocked Bhutan after the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa won 45 seats, leaving the Peoeple's Democratic Party, run by the king's relatives by marriage, with only two seats.

"On this day of destiny, in the blessed land of Pelden Drukpa (glorious Bhutan) we, a fortunate people and king, hereby resolve to bring into effect the root and foundation-the very source-of all law in our nation," the fifth king said. "This is the people's constitution."

The king's father, ministers and lawmakers looked on as he endorsed the new document. Colourfully dressed monks chanted prayers in a ceremony shown live on national television.

South African reported to be new UN rights chief

AP, United Nations

The United Nations chief told rights advocates Friday that his choice to be the next U.N. human rights commissioner is a South African judge who was the first black woman to serve on her country's High Court, the director of Human Rights Watch said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had selected Navanethem Pillay for the job, but he had not yet taken official action, said Kenneth Roth, who was among a dozen representatives from human rights groups who met with Ban.

"Ban described her as the presumptive nominee," Roth said.

Ban's office is expected to announce her appointment early next week, said U.N. and diplomatic officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the appointment had not yet been announced.

Pillay, who is now an appeals chamber judge with the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, must be approved by U.N. General Assembly.

Cease-fire should pave way to Mideast peace: Blair

AP, Oslo

Mideast envoy Tony Blair is urging the Israelis and Palestinians to use the cease-fire that took effect June 19 as an opportunity to try to reach a peace agreement.

The former British prime minister says a two-state solution is the only way to solve the conflict. During a visit to Norway on Friday, Blair also reiterated his calls for a new plan to provide "humanitarian help" to people in Gaza. Earlier this week Blair called off a planned visit to Hamas-ruled Gaza after Israel's Shin Bet security service warned he might come under attack there.

Blair said Friday he wanted to go to Gaza to tell people there that "you are not alone."

Suu Kyi banned from Myanmar Martyrs' day gathering

AFP, Yangon

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was kept under house arrest Saturday as others gathered to pay tribute to her late father on Martyrs' day.

Suu Kyi had not been invited to attend the annual ceremony by the ruling military, according to an official from her National League for Democracy party.

"She wasn't invited to attend the ceremony although the authorities used to send her an invitation," the official told AFP.

Martyrs' day commemorates the assassination of General Aung San and eight other leaders on July 19, 1942 while they were holding a meeting for Myanmar independence from Britain. The military government hosted a short memorial early Saturday morning at the Martyrs' mausoleum close to the famous Shwe Dagon pagoda in the country's main city Yangon.

The mayor, Brigadier General Aung Thein Linn, some government officials and family members of the country's late leaders all attended the 61st anniversary event.

But invitations to foreign embassies were cancelled by the foreign affairs ministry without reason, the diplomats confirmed.

Suu Kyi was only two-years-old when she lost her father. Myanmar got its independence six years later in January 1948.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 18 years under house arrest and has currently been detained since 2003.

About 300 NLD members gathered in front of government headquarters on Saturday morning, saluting the spot where the leaders were gunned down.

Pope apologises for clergy sex abuse in Australia

AP, Sydney

Pope Benedict XVI used some of the strongest language yet in his apology Saturday for the sexual abuse of children by Australia's Roman Catholic clergy, but his words were just more of the same for the victims. The pope said he was "deeply sorry" for the sexual abuse, delivering a strongly-worded apology that described their acts as evil and a grave betrayal of trust. "I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them as their pastor that I too share in their suffering," Benedict said during an address at a Mass in Sydney. "Those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice," he said. The pope said the scandal had badly damaged the church. "These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation," he said. "They have caused great pain, they have damaged the church's witness."

Anthony Foster, the father of two Australian girls who were allegedly raped by a Catholic priest, said he was disappointed that the apology repeated the church's expressions of regret but offered no practical assistance for victims.

"What we haven't had is an unequivocal, unlimited practical response that provides for all the victims for their lifetime," he said. "The practical response needs to include both financial help t and psychological help."

Support groups for victims of church abuse in Australia, whose numbers are not known but who activists say are in the thousands, say the church covered up of the scale of the problem and fought compensation claims lodged in civil courts.

"Sorry is not enough. Victims want action, not just words," the Broken Rites group said in a post on its Web site.

Sri Lanka army chief says conflict at tail-end

AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's army chief said Saturday his forces had wiped out two-thirds of the Tamil Tigers' military capability, and that the decades-old conflict with the rebels was at its tail-end. Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would gradually start collapsing, the state-run Daily News paper said.

"We are almost at the beginning of the endt we are nearing the turning point now, through the way LTTE is reacting. In another three to four months time you would see very clearly how the things change," he said. He said security forces had already advanced 40 kilometres (25 miles) into rebel-controlled territory in the north. The military drive is now moving fast, he said, indicating that rebels either offered little assistance or melted away. "Every week we move about three kilometres (1.9 miles) unlike in the past," he said.

He said the Tigers had lost at least 9,000 fighters in the latest round of fighting, and put the rebels' current strength at 5,000 combatants-with around 200,000 civilians forced to provide logistic support.

"Now we hear that they are training anybody over 15 years and below 50 years. But they cannot be motivated to fight a battle," Fonseka said.

The rebels have not released their estimate of casualties. Figures from either side cannot be independently verified as journalists are barred from reporting from front line areas.

Fonseka said the enemy was no longer able to resist security forces using conventional tactics and were resorting to hit-and-run attacks.