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Serbia captures Srebrenica genocide suspect Karadzic: Extradition to UN tribunal looms for the war criminal

AFP, Belgrade

Serbia said Monday its security forces had captured Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader accused of genocide, after nearly 13 years on the run from a UN war crimes court.

"Radovan Karadzic was located and arrested tonight," said a statement from the office of Serbian President Boris Tadic.

"Karadzic was brought to the investigative judge of the War Crimes Court in Belgrade, in accordance with the law on cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)," it added.

The Serbian presidency and war crimes prosecution refused to elaborate on the brief statement, which did not disclose any further information about the time and place of Karadzic's arrest.

However, a war crimes official who requested anonymity said the 63-year-old had offered "no resistance" when he was arrested on Serbian territory, and appeared to have been in a "depressive mood."

His capture comes two weeks after Serbia got a new pro-European Union membership government dominated by Tadic's pro-Western Democratic Party, with the support of the reformed Socialists of late president Slobodan Milosevic.

Along with his former army chief Ratko Mladic, Karadzic had evaded the ICTY since 1995 when they were charged with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Mladic, 65, is now one of only two other remaining fugitives of The Hague-based court. The other is Goran Hadzic, 49, a former Serb politician wanted for "ethnic cleansing," but in Croatia.

Karadzic's arrest was promptly welcomed by UN war crimes chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz, the French presidency of the European Union, and the United States, as well as an association of mothers of those killed in 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

Brammertz praised Serbia for the arrest, which came a day before he visits Belgrade, whose cooperation with the UN court is the main obstacle to the Balkan country's EU integration. "I was informed by our colleagues in Belgrade about the successful operation which resulted in the arrest of Radovan Karadzic," the prosecutor said in a statement in The Hague, the seat of the UN tribunal.

"I would like to congratulate the Serbian authoritiest on achieving this milestone on cooperation," said Brammertz. A judge finished interrogating former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic early Tuesday, the first step in a procedure to hand over the accused mastermind of Europe's worst massacre since World War II to a U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Karadzic, a psychiatrist turned die-hard Serbian nationalist politician, was arrested by Serbian forces and taken before the country's war crimes court on Monday, indicating imminent extradition to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

"The questioning is over," investigating judge Milan Dilparic said Tuesday, referring to the first step in a legal process that includes presenting Karadzic with the indictment and allowing three days for him to appeal any decision to extradite him.

Karadzic's lawyer, Sveta Vujacic, said Tuesday that he would launch an appeal against the extradition.

New crisis for Nepal as Maoists refuse to form govt

AFP, Kathmandu

Nepal's Maoists said Tuesday they would not form the Himalayan nation's first post-royal government after the defeat of their candidate for president, setting off a new political crisis here.

The former rebels' decision, seen as a blow to Nepal's peace process, came one day after rival parties in a constitutional assembly ganged up against the Maoists to elect a president allied to the main centrist party.

"The party's central committeet decided not to form the government under our leadership," Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP.

Elections to the assembly in April gave the Maoists the largest single bloc of seats, but not an outright majority. The Maoists had insisted their choice of president should be elected and that they form a new government.

But a vote on Monday saw Ram Baran Yadav from the Nepali Congress party-the Maoists' main rival-anointed the country's first president.

"After the presidential election, it is certain that we do not have a majority. So we do not have any basis to form the next government," said Mahara. The presidency is a largely ceremonial position, but the Maoists have argued that Yadav's victory would give them little room to manoeuvre should they form a government, and little chance of implementing key platform pledges like radical land reform. The Maoist spokesman however added that the "door to talks with other parties is still open."

The Maoists' continued involvement in mainstream politics is seen as crucial to the survival of Nepal's peace process, which ended a decade-long rebel uprising that killed at least 13,000 people dead. It was not immediately clear if the other parties could cobble together their own alliance and pull Nepal out of the political vacuum that followed the abolition of the 240-year-old monarchy on May 28.

Obama says Iraqi PM seeks US troop pullout by 2010

AFP, Baghdad

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki expressed support for a pullout of US troops by 2010, after talks in Baghdad with the premier.

Obama who is on a two-day trip to Iraq also conceded he had not anticipated how well the US troop surge would work, in combination with local factors, the key political flashpoint on the war with his Republican rival John McCain.

"The prime minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganisation of our troops in Iraq-including their numbers and missions," Obama said in a statement released by his Senate office.

"He stated his hope that US combat forces could be out of Iraq in 2010," he added, in a joint statment released with fellow senators Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel during their stopover in Iraq.

Obama, on an international tour to tout his commander-in-chief credentials, has vowed to pull most combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months if elected-a timeline only slightly shorter than Maliki's preferred date.

McCain has slammed the idea of what he calls artificial timetables for a US withdrawal, and says a longer term presence is vital to preserving recent security gains.

Obama met Maliki and President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad after arriving on Monday.

Maliki briefed Obama on recent progress in achieving security and stability, an Iraqi government statement said.

US-led soldier among scores killed, Afghan district falls

AFP, Kabul

An international soldier, eight security workers and dozens of rebels were killed in new attacks in Afghanistan while Taliban militants captured a remote district, authorities said Monday.

The soldier, who was with the US-led coalition helping Afghanistan to fight the insurgency, died Monday after being wounded in a bomb explosion in the southern province of Helmand at the weekend, the force said in a statement.

The death took to 138 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, mostly in hostile action. Nearly 220 foreign soldiers died in violence last year. Four police officers and four security guards escorting a convoy of civilian trucks carrying supplies for foreign troops were killed in separate attacks in southern Helmand and Zabul provinces, officials said.

Security forces launched a counterattack and killed 15 rebels, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said, citing information from local residents who saw the bodies on the site near the Helmand capital Lashkar Gah. "Villagers reported to us that they saw 15 Taliban bodies," he said. The claim could not be independently verified.

About 20 other Taliban rebels were killed overnight when international helicopters attacked them in the eastern province of Khost, local government spokesman Khaibar Pashtun told AFP.

The choppers were called in after the rebels ambushed a police convoy, killing a policeman, Pashtun said. Elsewhere in Khost, an Afghan driver was killed when militants attacked a convoy supplying a foreign military base there, a police official said.

The NATO-led military force in Afghanistan announced late Sunday that one of its troopers had been killed in the same province.

Six dead, 30 trapped in China mine mishap

AFP, Beijing

Six people were confirmed dead in a flooded mine in southern China, state media said Tuesday, as hundreds of rescue workers scrambled to save 30 others still trapped deep underground.

The fatalities were reported a day after the Nadu mine in Guangxi Zhuang region flooded suddenly, the Xinhua news agency said.

A total of 56 were at work in the mine at the time of the disaster, the agency said earlier, citing the head of a rescue team.

Seven managed to escape immediately, while rescuers extricated another 13 during the night, according to Xinhua.

Rescuers told Xinhua earlier Tuesday they had managed to establish contact with 12 of the trapped miners.

They were about 2,000 metres (6,600 feet) from the mouth of the mine, and a lack of oxygen made it unlikely they would have the strength to get out by themselves.

Rescuers were trying to get mineral water and porridge to the trapped miners, Xinhua said. It did not say how, but the most likely method would be via a tube.

It was not clear whether the six people confirmed dead were among the batch of 12 that rescuers had intially made contact with.

Further cut in US forces in Iraq likely this fall

AP, Baghdad

Iraq's security has improved so much, even as U.S. troop levels have dropped, that President Bush seems likely to order thousands more soldiers home by year's end.

That was not the widespread view only three months ago when Bush announced there would be a temporary halt to troop reductions once the last of five "surge" brigades left Iraq this month. Many believed the country would remain too fragile to justify thinning American combat lines before 2009.

However, two weeks of observing U.S. and Iraqi troops in and around Baghdad, coupled with Associated Press interviews with commanders and planners, suggest a likelihood that Bush will move to reduce the U.S. force by perhaps another combat brigade, or roughly 3,000-4,000 soldiers, toward the end of the year. More cuts seem possible next year, but the scale and timing will depend on who replaces Bush in the White House.

It now looks as though Bush has more reasons to resume the drawdown than to leave the entire decision to his successor.

UN may want to suspend ICC action on Bashir: Russia

Reuters, United Nations

The U.N. Security Council may want to consider suspending any war crimes indictment of Sudan's president by the International Criminal Court, Russia's U.N. ambassador told reporters on Monday.

The African Union has urged the Security Council to put on hold any ICC decision to accept the court's chief prosecutor's call for an indictment of and arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over war crimes in Darfur. The AU appeal, issued on Monday after a meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council in Ethiopia, followed a similar appeal by the Arab League and boosted Khartoum's diplomatic efforts to block any indictment.

"We should be very attentive to their appeals," Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin told reporters ahead of a meeting of the Security Council on other issues.

Under Article 16 of the ICC statute, the 15-nation Security Council can pass a resolution suspending ICC investigations or prosecutions for a renewable period of one year. "If something of this sort (on an Article 16 suspension) is initiated, it's at least worth considering," Churkin said.

Cambodia seeks UN help in temple row with Thailand

Reuters, Singapore

Cambodia has asked the United Nations Security Council for an emergency meeting to resolve a military stand-off with Thailand over an ancient temple on their border.

Phnom Penh's appeal to the world body late on Monday came after bilateral talks failed to end the week-long border confrontation, which neighbors fear could turn violent.

"In order to avoid armed confrontation, the Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to request an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to find a solution to the problem in accordance with international laws," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

At the heart of the dispute is a 4.6 sq km (1.8 sq mile) area around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, which sits on a jungle-clad escarpment that forms a natural boundary and is claimed by both nations. The 900-year-old temple was awarded to Cambodia by an international court in 1962.

Tractor bomb kills 7 in Iraq

AFP, Baquba

An explosives-filled tractor exploded in a restive region of Iraq's Diyala province on Monday, killing at least seven members of a local anti-Qaeda group, a police officer and a medic told AFP.

The tractor was parked by the side of road in the village of Wais, 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Baquba, the capital of Diyala, the officer said. It exploded when a patrol of a group that fights Al-Qaeda militants was passing, he said. Doctor Yusuf Abdullah at a hospital in the nearby town of Khanaqin confirmed the casualties had been brought in.

The police officer said eight others were wounded, including five members of the anti-Qaeda group.

6 Pakistani troops killed in attack

AP, Quetta

The Pakistani military says six troops and an unknown number of militants have died in fighting in the southwest.

A spokesman said the clashes began Saturday when militants attacked a convoy near Dera Bugti in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. The spokesman said troops sent to the area destroyed two militant camps before withdrawing early Monday. He said a number of militants were killed, but didn't know how many. The spokesman cannot be identified by name under the military's rules.

Ethnic Baluch groups are fighting for greater autonomy and control of the province's natural gas and other resources.

Japan calls for calm in S. Korea island dispute

Reuters, Tokyo

Japan called for calm in a territorial row with South Korea on Tuesday, and demonstrators offered flowers at the South Korean embassy in Tokyo while insisting that the disputed islands were Japanese. Japan's top government spokesman urged calm when asked about domestic media reports that South Korea would consider stationing troops on the desolate islands, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. A long-standing row over their ownership flared up earlier this month when Japan said it would write about the issue in school teaching guides.

US offers nuclear proposal to N Korea

AP, Singapore

The United States has proposed a mechanism for verifying North Korea's claims about its nuclear past, Washington's top envoy to the nuclear talks said Monday.

The proposal was made in Beijing last week, and the U.S. is waiting for a response from Pyongyang, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters.

After giving North Korea the proposal "we t asked them to come back with specific comments," said Hill, who will assist U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in talks between the foreign ministers of the six nations involved in the nuclear negotiations - China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.

Suu Kyi release likely in 6 months, hints Myanmar

AP, Singapore

Myanmar's military junta has indicated to its Southeast Asian neighbors that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be freed from house arrest in about six months, Singapore's foreign minister said Sunday. The hint came as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations expressed "deep disappointment" at the decision by the junta in May to extend Suu Kyi's detention by another year. It was an unusually frank criticism of Myanmar by the region's main bloc, whose members usually stick to a policy of not interfering in each other's affairs. The comment by Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win to ASEAN is the most optimistic assessment of Suu Kyi's future by the junta, and the closest to a definite timetable for her release, which has been demanded by the international community.

Physician chosen as Nepal’s first president

AP, Katmandu

Nepal's governing assembly elected the country's first president Monday, rejecting a candidate backed by former Maoist rebels and creating political uncertainty for the new republic.

The Constituent Assembly elected Ram Baran Yadav, a physician from the Madheshi ethnic community in southern Nepal, which has been campaigning for greater rights and more say in the administration, assembly Chairman Kul Bahadur Gurung announced.

Yadav's victory was a blow for the Maoists, who won the most seats in the assembly in April elections and hope to form the country's new government with one of their members as prime minister. But they first need to form a coalition government since they failed to win a simple majority in the assembly.

British premier vows to thwart Iranian atomic arms

AP, Jerusalem

Visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday said his country would remain at the forefront of efforts to block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, directly addressing one of Israel's greatest fears.

Speaking to Israel's parliament in the first-ever address there by a British premier, Brown said Iran must either halt its program or face international isolation.

"It is totally abhorrent for the President of Iran to call for Israel to be wiped from the map of the world," Brown said. "The U.K. will continue to lead - with the U.S. and our EU partners - in our determination to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapons program." Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous enemy. It does not believe Iran's claims that its nuclear program is peaceful, and takes seriously Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

US ready for rare talks with Syria

AFP, Washington

The United States said Monday it was ready to hold rare talks with two visiting key Syrian officials this week, in another signal of Washington's recent policy shift to engage directly with its enemies.

Syria is on a US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.

Riad Daoudi, Syrian lead negotiator with Israeli officials in Turkey and legal adviser to the Syrian foreign ministry, and Ahmad Samir al-Taki, a consultant to the Syrian prime minister, are in Washington on a private trip.

Part of a four-member group from Damascus, they will participate at a forum "Engaging Syria: new negotiations, old challenges" at Washington-based Brookings Institution on Wednesday.

Their visit is sponsored by Search for Common Ground, an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in Washington and Brussels, which had sought a meeting for them with the State Department.

"It is customary for us to receive such visitors and Near Eastern Assistant Secretary of State David Welch is prepared to meet with them," Stat Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters.

Chavez arrives in Russia for arms talks

AFP, Moscow

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, kicking off a European tour with a two-day visit to Russia expected to focus on arms purchases and tightening ties with the Kremlin.

An outspoken critic of the United States, Chavez was to meet with both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whose foreign policy has been increasingly frosty toward Washington in recent years.

"Russia and Venezuela must become strategic allies in the oil sphere and in military-technical cooperation," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Chavez as saying upon arrival. "This will guarantee the sovereignty of Venezuela, because we are now threatened by the United States," he added. Chavez was greeted by officials after his plane landed three hours late, an AFP journalist at Moscow's Vnukovo airport said. His visit to Russia is the first leg of a European tour that will take in Belarus, Portugal and Spain. Chavez was originally due to arrive on Monday but the visit was postponed by one day.