The New Nation - Internet Edition

Kashmiris demand independence from India

AP, Srinagar

Thousands of Muslims poured into the streets of Kashmir on Thursday, demanding independence from India hours after archival Pakistan called on the United Nations to stop what it characterized as gross human rights violations in the divided Himalayan region.

Pakistan's statement drew a sharp rebuke from India, which called the comments "deeply objectionable."

More than six weeks of unrest in India's part of Kashmir have pitted the region's Muslim majority against its Hindu minority and left at least 34 people dead, many of them protesters shot during violent clashes with police and soldiers. Villages have been attacked, police stations torched and, in at least one town, security forces have been ordered to shoot on sight any protesters violating a curfew.

The latest death came Thursday when police opened fire on protesters in Srinagar, Kashmir's main city, killing at least one and wounding three others, police and hospital officials said.

The protests were sparked by a plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in Kashmir, which was quickly abandoned.

Another man, a Hindu, committed suicide Thursday in Jammu, the Kashmir's only Hindu-majority city, to protest the scrapping of the plan. He was the second Hindu to kill himself in protest.

In the weeks since the protests began, the unrest has unleashed pent up tensions between Kashmir's Muslims and Hindus, threatening to snap the bonds between India and its only Muslim-majority state.

There are also growing fears that the violence could drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims in other parts of India, where Hindu nationalist political parties have been organizing rival protests and calling for the government to give the land back to the shrine. The latest protests, which began overnight in Srinagar and continued Thursday, were sparked by a rumor that security forces were breaking into houses and beating up women and children.

"This is a question of our honor, come out of your homes," said announcements played over the public address systems at various mosques in Srinagar. The people of Srinagar - a mountain town once famed for its cool summer weather and the houseboats that ply the lake in its center - responded by the thousands, pouring into the streets and chanting "Long Live Pakistan!" and "We Want Independence!" Perhaps more than anything seen in the last six weeks, it's those sentiments that are most worrying to India.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1948, and is at the center of their six-decade rivalry.

There is also a long history of separatist movements in New Delhi's part of the region. Most were peaceful until 1989 when a bloody Islamic insurgency began. The insurgents want to see India's part of the region merged with Pakistan or given independence.The rebellion that has so far killed an estimated 68,000 people still festers, and India accuses Pakistan of aiding the insurgents - a charge Pakistan denies.

On Wednesday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry called for the United Nations to step in and curb "the gross violation of human rights" in Kashmir.

Syria and Lebanon agree to start diplomatic ties

AFP, Damascus

Syria and Lebanon agreed on Wednesday to start diplomatic ties for the first time since independence about 60 years ago, during a landmark visit to Damascus by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

Sleiman and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad decided that relations should be at ambassadorial level, presidential counsellor for politics Bussaina Shaaban said in a statement at the end of a meeting between the two leaders.

"The two presidents decided to establish diplomatic relations at the level of ambassadors, in line with the treaty of the United Nations and international law," the statement said.

Presidents Assad and Sleiman "instructed their foreign ministries to take the necessary measures in this regard to conform with the laws of the two countries," it added.

Syria and Lebanon have not had diplomatic ties since independence from French colonial power-Lebanon in 1943 and Syria in 1946 -- but Assad and Sleiman agreed to establish relations during talks last month in Paris.

Supporters say Musharraf could quit

AP, Islamabad

Political allies of Pervez Musharraf acknowledged Wednesday that the Pakistani president could quit rather than face impeachment, as another provincial assembly voted against him and speculation mounted that his resignation was imminent.

While Musharraf has given no public sign that he plans to resign, political pressure is mounting on the U.S. ally, who dominated Pakistan for eight years until February elections brought embittered rivals to power. Asked late Wednesday whether he would stay in office to help the country, Musharraf told a group of well-wishers, "God willing, I will try." The president spoke at an official function to mark Pakistan's Independence Day, which falls on Thursday.

In an address later broadcast on national television, the president said Pakistan needed political stability to fix its economy and fight terrorism.

"I appeal to all elements to adopt an approach of reconciliation so that there is political stability and we can firmly confront the real problems facing the country," he said. "Differences should be buried."

Earlier, the assembly in southern Sindh province passed a resolution urging him to resign - the third of Pakistan's four provinces to do so this week. An impeachment motion could be introduced in the federal parliament next week accusing the president of violating the constitution and gross misconduct.

The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party says the allegations are designed to deflect public attention from the government's failure to tackle economic and security problems. Inflation is running at over 20 percent and Islamic militancy is rife.

While the party says it wants Musharraf to fight the impeachment, it acknowledges he could relinquish the presidency.

Russian troops moving towards Gori

AP, Gori

The Georgian Foreign Ministry says more Russian troops have moved into the city of Gori after a withdrawal had appeared to be under way earlier in the day.

Ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani said Thursday that Russian troops also moved into the Black Sea oil port city of Poti, from which they had appeared to leave earlier.

Russian and Georgian soldiers briefly confronted each other at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Gori around midday on Tuesday. Russian tanks hurried to the scene to force the Georgians to back off.

The cause of the apparent breakdown of the Russians' withdrawal from Gori was not immediately known, although some Georgian police said the Russian's South Ossetian allies had refused to leave the city.

Meanwhile, Russian troops began pulling out Thursday from this hub on Georgia's main east-west highway, Georgia's Interior Ministry said, where the soldiers' presence raised fears that Russia would challenge a shaky cease-fire agreement.

The strategically located city is 15 miles south of South Ossetia, the separatist region where Russian and Georgian forces fought a brutal five-day battle. Russian troops entered Gori on Wednesday, after the two sides signed the cease-fire that called for their forces to pull back to the positions they held before the fighting started.

Suicide blast in Lahore kills seven

AFP, Lahore

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police station in Lahore on Wednesday during preparations for Pakistan's Independence Day, killing at least seven people, police said.

The blast ripped through a crowd of policemen standing guard at the station on the outskirts of the eastern city, leaving bloodied victims lying on the ground amid piles of broken glass and debris, witnesses said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but security officials said they believed the blast was likely in revenge for a Pakistani offensive against Taliban militants in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

"The police party was deployed in front of the police station and a suicide bomber approached them on foot and exploded himself, resulting in seven deaths so far," senior police investigator Mushtaq Sukhera told AFP.

Five of the dead were policemen, including the officer in charge of the group hit by the blast, and two were civilians, Sukhera said. Another 20 people were wounded, eight of them police, he added.

Aid group suspends Afghan work after slayings

AFP, Kabul

An international aid group which has worked in Afghanistan for 25 years said it was suspending relief work after three of its female aid workers and their Afghan driver were shot dead.

The killings, claimed by the insurgent Taliban, were the deadliest here in years involving international aid staff, and came amid warnings about deteriorating security.

The women-a British-Canadian, a Canadian and a Trinidadian-American-were members of the International Rescue Committee, which works with refugees in Afghanistan.

One Afghan driver was killed and another critically wounded in Wednesday's ambush by gunmen who shot repeatedly at their vehicle near the capital Kabul, police and their organisation said.

The IRC, headquartered in New York, said in a statement it was "stunned and profoundly saddened by this tragic loss."

"These extraordinary individuals were deeply committed to aiding the people of Afghanistan, especially the children who have seen so much strife."

Sri Lanka fighting kills 16

AP, Colombo

A wave of battles across the front lines in Sri Lanka's 25-year-old civil war killed 14 ethnic Tamil rebels and two government soldiers, the military said Thursday.

Government jets hit a series of Tamil Tiger targets in the Mullaittivu region early Thursday in support of troops fighting on the ground, the military said in a statement.

Fighting has escalated in recent weeks, with the military capturing a series of rebel bases and large chunks of territory, and government officials reiterating their pledge to crush the rebel group by the end of the year. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that tens of thousands of people were displaced by recent fighting, most of them heading deeper into rebel-held territory.

Attack on Lebanese army kills 14

AFP, Tripoli

A bomb blast targeting the Lebanese army killed nine soldiers and five civilians in the northern city of Tripoli on Wednesday in the deadliest attack in the troubled country in three years.

The bombing, which left a child among the dead, came just hours before President Michel Sleiman began a landmark visit to Syria and the day after Lebanon's new national unity cabinet won parliamentary approval. At least 40 people were also wounded in the blast that ripped through a shopping street in the heart of the Mediterranean port city during morning rush hour, a security official said.

Cambodia, Thai troops to pull back from temple

AFP, Phnom Penh

Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to sharply reduce their troop numbers around a disputed temple before a new round of border talks opens Monday, a top general said.

The agreement was reached Wednesday during a meeting of military officials from the two countries, Cambodian General Neang Phat, a top official at the defence ministry, told reporters.

Thai military officials confirmed the deal, but neither country would reveal exactly how many troops would be withdrawn from the area around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.

Pakistani PM says defeating terror key to survival

AP, Islamabad

Hours after a suicide attack killed eight people, Pakistan's prime minister said in an Independence Day speech Thursday that the country must defeat extremism to survive.

As investigators sifted through the bloodied attack site in the eastern city of Lahore, Yousuf Raza Gilani admitted Pakistan "is passing through a difficult phase."

"We have to fight back the challenges of terrorism and extremism," the premier told an audience in the nation's capital, Islamabad. "The war against terrorism and extremism is the war of our own survival. With the people's cooperation we will fight this war and ensure the government's writ at all costs." At least 18 people also were wounded in the Lahore attack, which occurred just before midnight Wednesday as Pakistanis poured into the streets to celebrate the nation's 61st anniversary of its independence from Britain.

Brown faces new by-election threat

AFP, London

Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces another potentially embarrassing by-election in his own back yard following the death Wednesday of a Scottish lawmaker from his ruling Labour Party.

John MacDougall-who represented Glenrothes, just north of Edinburgh, in the House of Commons-died aged 60 of cancer, the Labour Party said.

At the last general election in 2005, MacDougall had a majority of over 10,000 but if a recent run of by-election losses are anything to go by, Brown's Labour Party will struggle to defend the seat in the by-election.

The resurgent Scottish National Party (SNP), which wants full independence for Scotland from London and leads the devolved government north of the border, is likely to pose the strongest threat after coming second in the constituency in 2005. The Glenrothes constituency is next door to Brown's own, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, where the prime minister has a majority of over 18,000.

US proposes to exempt India from nuclear ban

Reuters, Vienna

The United States has proposed to waive restrictions on critical nuclear trade with India in a draft circulated among member nations of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and published by an arms control advocacy group.

The draft, published on the web site of the U.S.-based Arms Control Association (www.armscontrol.org), would effectively lift a 34-year embargo on nuclear trade with India without tying the waiver to explicit conditions for the Asian nuclear power.

Several NSG nations had said they expected the exemption to identify events that would trigger a review, such as an Indian nuclear bomb test or failure to allow wide-ranging inspections of its nuclear facilities. The draft states the NSG members "have taken note of steps that India has taken voluntarily," including its unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests and its commitment to allow inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

But it does not mention any consequences or sanctions for the case that India does not adhere to those measures.

Arkansas Democratic leader shot dead

AP, Little Rock

Police and neighbors are struggling to explain why a man described as a loner drove more than 30 miles to Arkansas' Democratic Party headquarters and fatally shot its chairman hours after getting fired from his job.

Police said Timothy Dale Johnson, 50, of Searcy, barged into Bill Gwatney's office on Wednesday and shot him multiple times. There were no signs that Gwatney and Johnson, who was later shot dead by officers, knew each other. A Target retail store in Conway had fired Johnson early Wednesday because he had written graffiti on a wall, police said. Before noon, Johnson was in Gwatney's office in Little Rock with a handgun. "He said he was interested in volunteering, but that was obviously a lie," said Sam Higginbotham, a 17-year-old volunteer at the party's headquarters. After the shooting, Johnson sped away in a truck, stopped seven blocks away at the Arkansas State Baptist Convention and pointed a gun at the building's manager, police said. When asked what was wrong, the gunman said "I lost my job," according to Dan Jordan, the church group's business manager.

Olmert rejects return of any Palestinian refugees

Reuters, Jerusalem

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel will not allow the return of any Palestinian refugees as part of a future statehood deal, Olmert's office said on Thursday.

The rare official statement was issued in response to reports Olmert proposed absorbing 2,000 refugees per year for 10 years as part of an agreement to establish a Palestinian state in most of the occupied West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.

"The prime minister never offered to absorb 20,000 refugees in Israel. The prime minister again reiterates that under any future agreement, there will not be any return of Palestinian refugees to Israel in any number," Olmert's office said.