The New Nation - Internet Edition

Thousands demand UN intervention in Kashmir

AFP, Srinagar

Tens of thousands of Muslims took to the streets of Indian Kashmir's main city Monday to demand that the United Nations recognise the Himalayan region's right to self-determination.

Security was tight as a mass of people marched towards a local UN office, in defiance of official warnings against holding the rally in revolt-hit Srinagar-still tense after deadly clashes last week.

The UN office in Srinagar houses personnel who monitor ceasefire violations along the heavily-militarised Line of Control, or the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

"I have never seen such a big rally in Srinagar," said Abdul Aziz, a 75-year- old shopkeeper who was taking part in the procession.

"I couldn't resist coming out to demand freedom from India," he said, as he marched towards the UN office carrying a placard, "If freedom for Kosovo, why not for Kashmir?"

The marchers included men, women and children, who chanted slogans including "We want freedom" and "We will give blood for Kashmir's freedom." Many also carried green or black flags-symbolising Islam and mourning.

Top Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah said the demonstrators planned to deliver a plea for UN intervention in the wake of last week's shootings of "peaceful protesters". Another separatist, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said the plea urges the UN "to intervene and help us in achieving the right to self- determination." There are decades-old UN Security Council resolutions calling for a referendum to allow the Kashmiri people to choose between India and Pakistan, but they have never been implemented. Last week 22 Muslim demonstrators were shot dead by security forces in the Kashmir valley as they vented their anger over a blockade of the area by Hindu hardliners.

The tensions between Muslims and Hindus-who are the majority in India - - centres around a small piece of Kashmiri land that was awarded to a Hindu pilgrimage trust, sparking Muslim protests.

The land transfer order was then rescinded, sparking a blockade by Hindus who dominate the south of Jammu and Kashmir state-from where the main road access to the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley comes.

97 die in Afghan violence

AP, Kabul

Afghan police commanders on Sunday ordered 7,000 officers onto the capital's streets, including the country's youngest cadets, to secure Kabul ahead of Independence Day celebrations.

The unprecedented blanket of security came amid a spike in violence around the country - more than 97 people were reported killed in clashes and attacks - and served as an indication of how militants pose a growing threat to the capital.

Clashes in Afghanistan's south and east killed 73 Taliban fighters and nine private security guards, while a roadside blast killed 10 policemen, officials said.

The security increase in Kabul came a day before the country celebrates the 89th anniversary of its independence from Britain. The Interior Ministry said the capital's police would search buildings and cars to "create an environment of trust and prevent any disruptive actions by the enemy."

Any breach of security during the celebration would be an embarrassment for President Hamid Karzai's government. In April, gunmen fired on Karzai at a military parade in Kabul from a rented hotel room several hundred yards from the review stands where dignitaries sat. The attack killed three people, including a lawmaker. The location of Monday's ceremony was not announced in advance in an effort to minimize the risk of insurgents again disrupting a national celebration.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said more than 5,000 extra police had been drafted for what he described as the biggest operation of its kind in Kabul since 2001, when U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban government. He declined to discuss whether officials were worried that militants are now at the city's gates.

A lawmaker from Kandahar who is critical of Karzai's government said the police deployment has more to do with protecting the government's reputation than winning people's confidence.

"Unless they bring some comprehensive changes in the security, this deployment will not affect people's confidence," Khalid Pashtun said.

Pashtun said there has been a steady increase in kidnappings of Afghans, robberies and other criminal acts this year. "People are afraid to leave their house after 7 p.m.," he said.

Teams of police stopped vehicles at checkpoints around the city on Sunday. Kabul so far has been spared the drumbeat of violence that has afflicted other parts of the country, though it suffered spectacular bomb attacks this year against an international hotel and the Indian Embassy.

Suicide bomber kills 15 in Baghdad Sunni bastion

AFP, Baghdad

A suicide bomber blew himself up near a mosque in a Sunni Arab bastion of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 30, security officials told AFP.

The bomber detonated his explosives vest at a checkpoint near the revered Sunni Abu Hanifa mosque in northern Baghdad's Adhamiyah district, the officials and an AFP correspondent at the site said. A security official with the interior ministry said the bomber was riding a bicycle when he detonated his vest, while witnesses told the AFP correspondent that he was dressed as a woman. The checkpoint was manned by local Sunni Arabs who were members of a group fighting Al-Qaeda militants, the correspondent said. Those killed included Faruq al-Obeidi, a local leader of the anti-Qaeda group, six of his bodyguards and eight civilians, security officials said. The wounded included five women, they added.

Al-Qaeda has regularly carried out attacks against these so-called "Awakening" groups which are supported by the US military to fight extremists.

Abu Hanifa mosque is one of the most revered Sunni mosques in Baghdad and was the site where now executed dictator Saddam Hussein made his last public appearance before being toppled by US invasion troops in April 2003.

UN watchdog holds more nuclear talks in Iran

AFP, Tehran

A top UN atomic watchdog official was holding fresh talks on Iran's nuclear drive on Monday, just a day after Tehran announced it sent a rocket into space in a move Washington branded "troubling."

Olli Heinonen, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran for his second round of talks this month, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Heinonon has made a number of visits as part of the agency's longstanding efforts to ensure there is no military dimension to the nuclear drive, which some Western states fear could be a cover for a secret weapons project. His trip, which comes ahead of a new IAEA report on Iran expected in September, follows up on August 7 talks in Tehran that Iranian officials described as "positive" but did not give any more details. On Sunday, Iran announced it had fired into space a rocket carrying a dummy satellite, a launch likely to further exacerbate tensions with the West over its nuclear work amid a threat of new UN sanctions. Western governments have warned that the technology used in the Islamic republic's space programme could be diverted to military use, claims denied by Tehran.

"The Iranian development and testing of rockets is troubling and raises further questions about their intentions," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said as US President George W. Bush spent time on his Texas ranch.

"This action and dual use possibilities for their ballistic missile program have been a subject of IAEA discussions and are inconsistent with their UN Security Council obligations," Johndroe said.

Georgia waits for promised Russian troop pullout

AP, Gori

Hungry and uncertain, beleaguered residents in Gori and other occupied Georgian cities waited anxiously Monday for Russian forces to begin their promised pullout after a short but intense war.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised the withdrawal under terms of an EU-backed cease-fire agreement. How quickly the troops will leave is unclear, as is exactly where they will redeploy.

The agreement calls for troops to withdraw to position they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7 but also provides for unspecified extra security measures such as patrol rights for the Russians.

As of noon Monday, there were no apparent movement from Russian troops or tanks indicating a withdrawal had begun. The Russians control a wide swath of Georgia, including the country's main east-west highway, on which Gori sits.

"I think the Russians will pull out, but will damage Georgia strongly," Tbilisi resident Givi Sikharulidze told an AP television crew. "Georgia will survive, but Russia has lost its credibility in the eyes of the world."

Top American officials said Washington would rethink its relationship with Moscow after its military drive deep into its much smaller neighbor and called for a swift Russian withdrawal.

"I think there needs to be a strong, unified response to Russia to send the message that this kind of behavior, characteristic of the Soviet period, has no place in the 21st century," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.

Blast in China coal mine traps 24 miners

Reuters, Beijing

Rescuers are trying to reach 24 miners trapped after what authorities described as a "gas blast" in a coal mine in northeastern China on Monday, Xinhua news agency said.

Rescuers had lifted another 56 miners to safety, it said.

The latest in a long series of disasters in Chinese mines happened early on Monday in the mine at Shenyang in Faku county.

Local officials, including the vice-governor of Liaoning province, rushed to the scene as rescuers tried to reach the trapped miners.

China has the world's deadliest mining industry. Coal shortages drive mine owners to push production beyond safety limits in the face of huge demand and soaring profits.

Figures released by the State Administration of Work Safety on August 8 showed that the number of deaths in coal mine accidents was down 24 percent in the first seven months of 2008.

16 dead as Muslim rebels attack in Philippines

AFP, Iligan

Muslim separatist rebels left a trail of bloodied corpses and burning homes after a series of pre-dawn attacks Monday on towns in the restive southern Philippines.

President Gloria Arroyo branded the attacks by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas as "sneaky and treacherous" and in clear violation of peace negotiations, and ordered the army to "defend every inch" of soil.

AFP reporters saw nine lying bloodied by a roadside in one village as black smoke billowed from houses burning in the background.

Five other civilians were killed in another village by the marauding MILF fighters, fleeing residents said.

Some of the dead had been hacked by machetes.

In near simultaneous assaults, hundreds of MILF rebels raided the towns of Kauswagan, Maigo and Kolambugan in Lanao del Norte province and Maasim in the province of Sarangani, all on the island of Mindanao, officials said.

More than 200 guerrillas fought intense gun battles with troops and police in the centre of the mainly Christian town of Kolambugan, said mayor Beltran Lumaque.

"They have taken over the business centre, the rural banks, pawnshops," he told a Manila radio station, saying houses were on fire and many residents had fled heavy fighting in the town centre.

Rice set for another Mideast visit

Reuters, Jerusalem

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the Middle East next week in another attempt to achieve progress towards an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, officials said on Monday.

The United States has said it hopes to conclude a framework peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.

But the talks have stumbled over disputes over Israeli settlement building and the future of Jerusalem.

"She is coming on the 25th and 26th of August for a series of trilateral and bilateral meetings," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official confirmed the dates for the talks in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

In a declared bid to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli cabinet committee approved on Monday a list of 200 Palestinian prisoners to be released on August 25.

The committee said two of the longest-serving prisoners, Said al-Atabeh and Mohammad Abu Ali, would be among those freed.

Atabeh, 57, of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), was arrested in 1977, accused of organising attacks on Israeli troops.

Abu Ali, 52, was jailed in 1980 for killing a leader of Jewish settlers near Hebron, in the West Bank. Though in prison, he was elected to the Palestinian parliament in 2006.

Erekat said Rice had originally planned to visit the region on August 20. She is also expected to go to Brussels next week to meet NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials on the Georgia crisis.

Musharraf a 'good ally’ despite disagreements: US

Reuters, Washington

Embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been a "good ally," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday, but she refused to say whether he would receive U.S. asylum if he stepped down.

"This is an issue that is not on the table," Rice said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday." A spokesman for Musharraf, who has ruled since a 1999 coup, has insisted he would not resign.

Pakistan's ruling coalition, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has prepared impeachment charges against Musharraf for violating the constitution and misconduct, a coalition official said over the weekend.

Musharraf's Nov. 3 imposition of emergency rule was a main charge on the impeachment list, the official said.

"President Musharraf has been a good ally," said Rice.

"Everyone knows that we disagreed with his decision in terms of the state of emergency that he declared, but he was-he kept to his word. He took off the uniform. There's now a democratic government in Pakistan."

Musharraf imposed emergency rule in November, leading to the detention of thousands of opposition politicians shortly before he was sworn in as a civilian leader. The emergency rule was lifted in December, days before Bhutto's assassination.

The long-running crisis surrounding Musharraf's future has heightened concern in the United States and other allies about the stability of the nuclear-armed Muslim state.

Iran launches first dummy satellite in orbit

Reuters, Tehran

Iran said it had put a dummy satellite into orbit on a home-grown rocket for the first time on Sunday-a move likely to increase Western concerns about its nuclear ambitions.

The long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into space can also be used for launching weapons, although Iran says it has no plans to do so.

"The Safir (Ambassador) satellite carrier was launched today and for the first time we successfully launched a dummy satellite into orbit," Reza Taghizadeh, head of the Iranian Aerospace Organisation, told state television.

Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions, caused international concern in February by testing another domestically made rocket as part of its satellite program, the Explorer 1. Iran said at the time it needed two more similar launches before putting a domestically made satellite into orbit.

France and Russia both said that test raised the suspicion that Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Washington, has accused Iran of aiming to equip missiles with nuclear warheads, called it 'unfortunate'. It cites Iran's missile potential, among others, as the reason why it needs to install an anti-missile defense system in eastern Europe.

Iran already claims to have missiles with a range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), meaning it could hit Israel or U.S. military bases in the Gulf.

The West accuses Iran of trying to obtain nuclear arms under cover of a civilian program. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, insists it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Suu Kyi meets lawyer on eve of UN envoy visit

AFP, Yangon

Detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed a rare meeting with her lawyer on the eve of a UN envoy's visit to push Myanmar's regime to re-open a dialogue with her party, a spokesman said Monday.

The Nobel peace prize winner spoke with her lawyer Kyi Win for more than four hours Sunday, in their second encounter this month, said Nyan Win, spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Aung San Suu Kyi was also granted a visit by her doctor Tin Myo Win on Sunday, who gave her a medical checkup-her first since February. The spokesman Nyan Win called the meetings "significant," noting that before this month she had not been allowed to see her lawyer since 2004.

The NLD has appealed against the latest extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, but has received no response from the government. Nyan Win said he did not know whether Kyi Win discussed the appeal with her.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 19 years confined to her home. Her latest detention began more than five years ago, and she has been allowed little contact with the outside world.

The meetings came the day before UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari's arrival Monday in Yangon on a five-day mission aimed at jump starting talks between the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi's party.

After the military's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in September, the military sought to ease international outrage at the bloodshed by appointing a liaison officer, labour minister Aung Kyi, to meet with her.

Zimbabwe crisis deadlocked despite regional push for settlement

AFP, Johannesburg

Zimbabwe's political rivals left a summit Sunday deadlocked over how to share power, as their divisions defied attempts by regional heads of state to find a resolution to the country's crisis.

A summit of southern African leaders and a meeting of a regional security body failed to bring the two sides to a settlement, leaving it unclear when or if the crisis that intensified with President Robert Mugabe's widely condemned re-election could be brought to a conclusion.

Both Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai attended the weekend summit of regional leaders in Johannesburg, where South African President Thabo Mbeki raised the possibility of a deal before the gathering ended.

But following the summit and the security meeting, Mbeki, the mediator for the Zimbabwe talks, said negotiations would continue, adding it "may be necessary to convene parliament" during that time.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and a smaller faction of the opposition led by Arthur Mutambara would have a parliamentary majority if they combined forces.

Mbeki, however, said that a solution to Zimbabwe's crisis "won't last" unless all of the country's parties agree to it.

He also warned against outside interference in the crisis and said no timeframe could be put on how long the negotiations would last.

"Let's really allow the people of Zimbabwe to determine their future," he said.

Disagreement centred on the division of power between Mugabe and Tsvangirai in a national unity government, and what authority they would have as president and prime minister.

Storm Fay lashes Cuba after leaving 11 dead across Caribbean

AFP, Havana

Tropical storm Fay pummeled western Cuba early Monday and barreled toward the Florida Keys after claiming at least 11 lives in the Dominican Republic and Haiti amid forecasts it would hit hurricane force. Four people were killed in the Dominican Republic due to the heavy rains, while thousands were evacuated, local media reported. In Haiti, where a bus plunged into a river reportedly killing dozens, the heavy rains killed seven people and left another three missing, civil protection officials told AFP. Maximum sustained winds from the sixth storm of the Atlantic hurricane season were clocked at 85 kilometers (50 miles) per hour, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said. But, the center said that "Fay could be approaching hurricane strength when it nears the Florida Keys Monday night." At 0600 GMT, the storm was located about 180 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of Havana. Fay was moving westwards at 20 kilometers (13 miles) per hour, and expected to turn north later Monday. "There exists a possibility of moderate flooding on the southern and northern shores of the island and in its western parts," warned Jose Rubiera, director of the Center of Forecasts at the Cuban Institute of Meteorology.

After crossing Cuba, Fay is then expected to head up the west coast of Florida, hitting land near Tampa on Tuesday afternoon and moving straight north into Georgia.

In the Dominican Republic, more than 2,000 people were evacuated to shelters as the storm felled trees, damaged hundreds of houses and uprooted power lines disrupting supplies to more than 15,000 homes, according to local news reports.