The New Nation - Internet Edition

1,500 killed in South Ossetia: Russian FM

AP, Moscow

Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says some 1,500 people have been killed in fighting in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Lavrov said in a conference call that foreign journalist that the deathtoll is continuing to rise.

Georgia launched a massive offensive to regain control over the breakaway province which has close ties with Russia, and Moscow responded by sending in armored convoys. Georgia also accused Russia of bombing its towns, ports and air bases and asked the international community to help end what it called Russian aggression.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Russian troops in South Ossetia must force Georgia into a cease fire and also protect civilians in the province, most of whose residents hold Russian passports.

Fighting raged a second day Saturday in Georgia's separatist South Ossetia region as the country's interior ministry accused Russia of launching new air attacks on three military bases and key facilities for shipping oil to the West.

Russia dispatched an armored column into South Ossetia on Friday after Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, launched a massive attack with aicraft, armor and heavy artillery to crush separatists.

Witnesses said hundreds of civilians were probably killed, and most of the capital of Tskhinvali was in ruins. Carcasses of burned Georgian tanks and dead bodies littered the streets, and sporadic shooting continued through the night and into the morning.

The fighting, which devastated the capital of Tskhinvali, threatened to ignite a wider war between Georgia and Russia, and escalate tensions between Moscow and Washington. Georgia said it was forced to launch the assault because of rebel attacks; the separatists alleged Georgia violated its own cease-fire. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili accused Russia of waging an aggression against his country. Russia said it needs to act to protect its peacekeepers and civilians in South Ossetia, where most residents hold Russian passports.

Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of the Georgian capital was bombed by Russian warplanes during the night and that bombs fell in the area of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

He also said two other Georgian military bases were hit and that warplanes bombed the Black Sea port city of Poti, which has a sizable oil shipment facility. Utiashvili said there apparently were significant casualties and damage in the attacks, but that further details would not be known until the morning.

"I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. "It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged."

The Interfax news agency cited South Ossetian government spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva as saying Tskhinvali came under prolonged fire during the night "but it was suppressed by the armed forces."

The fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush, were in Beijing.

The timing suggested Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia - a key to his hold on power. The rebels seek to unite with North Ossetia, which is part of Russia.

Saakashvili agreed the timing was not coincidental, but accused Russia of being the aggressor. "Most decision makers have gone for the holidays," he told CNN. "Brilliant moment to attack a small country."

Diplomats issued a flurry of statements calling on both sides to halt the fighting and called for another emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, its second since early Friday morning seeking to prevent an all-out war.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russia to halt aircraft and missile attacks and withdraw combat forces from Georgian territory. Rice said in a statement the United States wants Russia to respect Georgian sovereignty and agree to international mediation.

The leader of South Ossetia's rebel government, Eduard Kokoity, said about 1,400 people were killed in the onslaught, the Interfax news agency reported. The toll could not be independently confirmed.

There were conflicting claims as to who held the battlefield advantage.

Saakashvili said "Georgian military forces completely control all the territory of South Ossetia" except for a northern section adjacent to Russia.

But Russian military spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov said the Russian armor and infantry deployed on the outskirts of Tskhinvali and prepared for what he described as a mission to "enforce peace."

Konashenkov said the Russian troops were ordered to "harshly suppress any shooting."

Pakistan parliament to start Musharraf impeachment

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan's national assembly or lower house of parliament will meet next week to formally set into motion the process to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, officials said on Saturday.

Ruling coalition leaders Asif Ali Zardari-the widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto-and Nawaz Sharif announced on Thursday that they would seek Musharraf's impeachment for allegedly mismanaging the country. "The national assembly session has been summoned at 5:00 pm (1100 GMT) for Monday," an assembly official told AFP.

Pakistan People's Party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the session would set into motion the process to impeach Musharraf. "The session has been summoned in connection with impeachment of the president," Babar said. He added "a notice for impeachment will be served on President Musharraf during the session, starting Monday".

Under the constitution, at least half of either the national assembly, the lower house of parliament, or the Senate, the upper house, must sign a written notice of the intention to impeach the president. The speaker of either chamber then has three days to give it to the president.

Then the speaker must summon a joint sitting of the houses "not earlier than seven days and not later than 14 days" after the president receives the notice.

The sitting would then "investigate or cause to be investigated" the charge sheet.

Impeachment requires a two-thirds majority in the upper and lower houses of parliament under Pakistan's constitution. It would be the first time in Pakistan's 61-year history that a president has been impeached. The coalition is currently several seats short of the 295 votes it requires out of the 439 in the Senate and National Assembly to remove Musharraf.

Zardari's Pakistan People's Party and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, together with smaller coalition partners, have 266 seats and need a further 29 MPs, mainly from the troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

But the key factor in Musharraf's decision is likely to be the support he gets from the army.

Musharraf, a key US ally in the "war on terror" quit as army chief last November.

The United States, which counts Musharraf as a linchpin in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, said that the impeachment was an "internal" matter.

US call for release of Papuan activists protested in Indonesia

AFP, Jakarta

A hardline Muslim group staged a rally outside the US embassy in Jakarta on Saturday to protest over a call by Washington for the release of two Papuan activists.

Some 100 members of Hizbut Tahrir massed outside the embassy with banners reading: "We are against US intervention in Papua."

The demonstration came after some 40 members of the US Congress sent a letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urging an "immediate and unconditional" release of the activists on human rights grounds. Philep Karma and Yusac Pakage were sentenced to 15 and 10 years respectively in 2005 after a court found them guilty of treason after they raised an outlawed separatist flag.

"The US Congress letter is obvious evidence that the US have given their support to Papua separatist group who want to be independent from Indonesia," Ismail Yusanto, spokesman for Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia said in a press release.

The group also urged Yudhoyono to reject US intervention and to stick to the government's stance of eradicating separatist movements in the country.

Indonesia took control of Papua, a former Dutch colony on the western half of New Guinea island, in 1969 after a vote among a select group of Papuans widely seen as a sham.

Papuans have long accused Indonesia's military of violating human rights in the province and complain that the bulk of earnings from its rich natural resources flow to Jakarta.

Germans freed in Somalia

AP, Mogadishu

Pirates have freed two German hostages who were kidnapped in June from a yacht off the Gulf of Aden, a local governor said Saturday.

The hostages were released Friday night from a hideout in a mountainous area near Puntland, a semiautonomous region of northern Somalia, said Muse Geele Yusuf, the governor of Bari region.

"Two German hostages have been released," Yusuf told The Associated Press by telephone. He said a $1 million ransom was paid, but it was not clear by whom.

Kidnappings and piracy are on the rise in Somalia, where hijackers demand - and often receive - huge ransoms. The 1,880-mile coast is the longest in Africa.

Details of the release were sketchy. At the time of the kidnapping, officials said a German couple was seized along with their son and a French yacht captain.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other. Since Somalia does not have a navy, France and the U.S. are drafting a U.N. resolution that would allow international naval vessels into Somali waters.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in Somalia since 2007, caught in vicious disputes over ancient clan loyalties, religion and government.

Somalia's shaky transitional administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but has failed to assert real control.

Bush soaks up Olympic spirit

AP, Beijing

Most days, being the U.S. president means trying to extinguish one blooming crisis after another. Then there are days like Saturday.

Mountain biking on the Olympic course. Getting in a couple of hits with the women's beach volleyball team. Chuckling after being the target of a softball player's practical joke. Picking events and knowing he could get in, with a police escort ensuring traffic wasn't a problem. President Bush, a longtime sports fan, was immersing himself into the Olympic spirit with abandon, acting like a kid - even when his body was reminding him that he's 62.

There were also reminders that the world's troubles follow wherever Bush goes. He was given regular updates after Russia sent columns of tanks and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases Friday after Georgia launched a major military offensive earlier in the day to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia. The fast-changing hostilities threaten to ignite a broader conflict in the region.

Bush's most official business comes Sunday in meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders of the country. He will also attend church and speak about religious freedom, a sensitive matter in China, where the government allows worship only in officially approved churches.

But mostly this was a day for athletics, with Bush brushing off reporters' attempts to ask him about the Georgia crisis. He even invented his own event, speed-grazing, as he hopped from one sport to another, joking and offering encouragement to U.S. athletes.

45 dead in Vietnam floods

AP, Hanoi

Officials say at least 45 people have died in landslides and floods in northern Vietnam.

At least 47 others are still missing and officials fear more will die as heavy rains continued Saturday.

Lao Cai was the hardest hit of the four mountainous provinces, with 20 deaths and 45 missing, says provincial disaster official Thao A Tua.

Deaths have also been reported in the provinces of Yen Bai, Pho Tho and Quang Ninh.

Heavy monsoon rains kill 18 in India

AP, Hyderabad

Monsoon rains crumpled homes and triggered flash floods in southern India, killing 18 people, an official said Saturday.

Parts of Hyderabad and two other districts of Andhra Pradesh state were inundated when 4.7 inches of rain fell in less than five hours Friday, said Navin Mittal, a government official. He said it was the heaviest downpour there in eight years. A mother and her child were among the 13 people killed in house collapses in Hyderabad, the state capital, Mittal said. Three others died in Medak district and two in Vijaywada, raising the state's death toll to 28 in the past week. The deluge left thousands of vehicles stranded in up to three feet of water in Hyderabad.

Monsoon rains, vital for India's farmers, bring massive destruction across the country. Thousands die every year as a result of flooding, broken houses and other rain-related incidents.

Floods, mudslides, house collapses and lightning strikes have killed at least 184 people across the country so far this year. The monsoon season began in June and ends in September.

Outspoken Mexican general loses his Tijuana post

AP, Tijuana

An outspoken general who urged residents to call the Army when they witnessed a murder or drug deal in this crime-stricken border city was ousted Friday after repeatedly chastising police for being corrupt.

As the army's top officer in northwest Mexico, Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito publicized a phone number to field the public's pleas for help, and on Sunday he gave the news media his latest 5,700-word bombshell letter complaining about bad cops. Such public provocations are extremely out of character for military leaders in Mexico - and may have cost the popular Aponte his job. "As much praise as there is for Aponte standing up, there's a right way and wrong way to do things," said David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute. "His approach was to shoot from the hip more than was appropriate." Aponte was reassigned to the Mexico City-based Supreme Military Tribunal and replaced by Gen. Sergio Magana Mier, who was most recently the Army's top commander in Guerrero state.

The Defense Secretary said such rotations are common in a press release that also announced transfers of five other generals and dozens of lower-ranking officers.

But the general's fate reflects larger questions in Mexico about how to control drug-fueled violence, which has soared in the years since President Felipe Calderon moved to openly confront the cartels that move cocaine into the United States. Some Mexicans see the police as corrupt and the army as the only hope. But others fear soldiers are overstepping their authority and abusing their power by raiding the homes of suspected criminals.

Aponte led many of the 20,000 troops Calderon dispatched to retake wide swaths of Mexico that were taken over by drug trafficking. And he pushed limits by asserting a dominant crime-fighting role for soldiers in a city where police are considered too ineffective or corrupt to call. He named his phone-in campaign "Nosotros, si vamos," or "Yes, we respond."

US first lady Bush tours Beijing's Forbidden City

AP, Beijing

The doors of the Forbidden City hadn't yet opened to tourists Saturday morning when Laura Bush arrived for a tour - one of the highlights of what is expected to be her final official visit to Asia as first lady.

Her visit to the former imperial palace next to Tiananmen Square came just eight hours after she attended the Olympics' opening ceremony. She visited a new exhibit of imperial robes and walked through a couple of ceremonial halls before invited journalists were escorted away.

"It was spectacular. Really unbelievable," she said of the opening ceremony.

Meanwhile, dozens of curious Chinese and foreign tourists who entered the Forbidden City minutes after her arrival were motioned out of her way by Chinese security officers.

Saturday was meant to be a quiet day for the Bush family, with President Bush scheduled to watch the games. The Forbidden City visit, the first lady's second trip to the sprawling former palace, was the only publicly announced event on Mrs. Bush's daily schedule.

"We've had a very fun family visit," Mrs. Bush said, as she posed for photos with her daughter Barbara.

But what is believed to be the Bushes' final official Asian visit has been far from quiet.

The president criticized China's human rights record in a speech in Thailand earlier this week. The Chinese government responded angrily, but there seemed to be no ripples as the Bushes attended a state luncheon for world leaders with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday. The two men sat side by side.

On Saturday, Bush found himself dealing with the building crisis between Russia and Georgia, two nations at the brink of an all-out war.

The Olympics' opening ceremony also went off without incident, though Chinese people watching the ceremony at one public screening event in Beijing booed briefly when the camera panned to the U.S. president.

Mrs. Bush has become more outspoken herself over the years, especially on the issue of Myanmar, also known as Burma. The isolated Southeast Asian nation is closely allied with China.

Small pro-Tibet protest pulled off in Tiananmen

AP, Beijing

Pro-Tibet activists wrapped themselves in Tibetan flags and lay down in Tiananmen Square on Saturday, their group said, in a protest that breached heavy security surrounding the heart of Beijing for the Olympic Games.

The five demonstrators were calling for an "end to the Chinese government's occupation in Tibet," said Lhadon Tethong, executive director of the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet.

John Hocevar, a member of the group who videotaped the protest, said the activists were led away by men who appeared to be plainclothes security agents. He said he did not know where they were taken. Officials at the Beijing Public Security Bureau and Tiananmen Square police station would not comment. The action came a day after three Americans from the group were detained while displaying Tibetan flags near the entrance to the National Stadium, where the opening ceremony for the games were held Friday night.

On Wednesday, four other group members hung pro-Tibet banners from two light poles outside the stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. They were led away by police and later deported back home to Europe and the United States.

Pro-Tibet activists around the world have staged demonstrations in the run-up to the Olympics, claiming China is using the games to legitimize its rule in Tibet.

Tibet has been an extremely sensitive topic since protests against almost 50 years of Chinese rule turned violent in the region's capital of Lhasa in March. Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before communist troops invaded in 1950, while Beijing says the Himalayan region has been part of its territory for centuries.

Nagasaki mayor urges nuclear weapons ban

AP, Tokyo

Nagasaki's mayor commemorated the 63rd anniversary of the world's second atomic bomb attack on Saturday with a call for stricter measures against North Korea, Pakistan and Israel for their possession of nuclear weapons. A moment of silence was observed throughout Nagasaki in southern Japan at 11:02 a.m., the time in 1945 when a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing about 74,000 people. The attack came three days after an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II. Mayor Tomihisa Taue called for the abolishment of nuclear weapons, saying the United States and Russia should take the lead. "We also demand that the United Nations and international society do not ignore the nuclear weapons of North Korea, Pakistan, and Israel, as well as the suspicions of nuclear development by Iran, but take stern measures against these countries," he said.

Taue spoke to thousands of people attending the ceremony in Nagasaki's Peace Park. As he finished his remarks, doves were released and circled above the park, where colorful strings of origami cranes had been hung by local children.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda also spoke, emphasizing Japan's long-standing policy of not possessing, developing or allowing nuclear weapons on its soil, as he had three days earlier at a ceremony in Hiroshima.

The anniversary comes as Japan warily eyes shifting nuclear alliances in other parts of the globe. Tokyo has expressed concern over an American nuclear accord with India that would reverse more than three decades of U.S. policy barring the sale of nuclear fuel and technology to countries that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

India has tested nuclear weapons but has not signed the nonproliferation treaty or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Taue on Saturday repeated calls by Japanese officials for India to participate in both treaties.

Gene raises risk of lifetime smoking habit

Reuters, Chicago

For most people, the first experimental drags on a cigarette bring on nausea, coughing and other signals from the brain that say, "Turn back. This is a bad idea." But for some, they bring a wave of pleasure.

Those in the second group likely bear a gene type that not only increases their addiction risk, but has been implicated in the development of lung cancer, researchers said on Friday.

"If you have this variant, you are going to like your earliest experiences with smoking," said Ovide Pomerleau of the University of Michigan Medical School, whose research appears in the journal Addiction. Pomerleau said the finding suggests that for some, smoking even one cigarette is a bad idea. "It's a trap," he said in a telephone interview. "What they don't realize is if they have this kind of genetic make-up, they are on their way to dependency," he said, and that raises their risk for lung cancer.

The research is part of a growing understanding of genetic factors involved in nicotine addiction and lung cancer.

Teams of scientists reported earlier this year that smokers who had certain changes in three nicotine receptor genes-which control entry of nicotine into brain cells-were more likely to develop lung cancer than other smokers.

This week, Canadian researchers said that, by manipulating receptors for the chemical dopamine, they were able to control which rats in a study enjoyed their first exposure to nicotine and which were repelled by it.

Pomerleau said the field may soon lead to new treatments for nicotine addiction and tests to assess addiction risks.