The New Nation - Internet Edition

No sign of Russian armor leaving Georgia

Reuters, Verkhny Zaramag

No Russian tanks or armored personnel carriers left Georgia through the only military crossing point back into Russia overnight, a Reuters reporter at the border said on Tuesday morning.

Russia said on Monday that it had begun a gradual withdrawal of a large force from Georgia but Tbilisi questioned this, saying it had seen no sign of a pullout.

The reporter, stationed at the Roki Tunnel border crossing, said he saw only trucks loaded with construction materials and a number of ambulances driving along a winding mountainous road into Georgia overnight. "I did not see a single item of military hardware passing through the border from Georgia into Russia," said the reporter. A second Reuters correspondent who traveled along the main road from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali towards the Roki Tunnel on Monday evening also said he had not seen any Russian armor or troops moving back towards Russia.

Under a peace deal reached after 10 days of hostilities, Russia and Georgia agreed to pull their forces back to positions held before this month's outbreak of violence over Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia. The road from Tskhinvali to the Roki Tunnel and then on to the southern Russian garrison town of Vladikavkaz is the route used by Moscow to bring in its huge military force when it pushed into Georgia. It is the only land route connecting Russia and the pro-Moscow rebel province of South Ossetia. The West has urged Russia to withdraw its soldiers from Georgia immediately. Foreign ministers from NATO members were due to meet in Brussels to discuss the crisis later on Tuesday.

Another report adds: Russia and Georgia on Tuesday exchanged prisoners captured during their brief war, a move that may reduce tensions and, Georgia hopes, hasten the promised withdrawal of Russian troops.

Georgian Security Council head Alexander Lomaia said the swap, which initially had been planned for Monday, removes any pretext for Russians to hold positions in Igoeti. The village is the closest that Russian forces have advanced to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, about 30 miles away. Yet as NATO foreign ministers prepared to hold an emergency meeting in Brussels over a unified response to Russia's invasion of its tiny neighbor, there still was no sign of the Russian troop pullout from Georgia that was supposed to have begun Monday.

Pakistan hospital blast kills 23

AFP, Peshawar

A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday at a hospital in a northwestern Pakistani town that has been plagued by sectarian violence, killing at least 23 people, police said.

The explosion happened as Shiite Muslims gathered to protest over the death of a man in a suspected sectarian attack in the troubled town of Dera Ismail Khan, said provincial police chief Malik Naveed Khan.

"There are 23 confirmed dead and up to 20 wounded. We have found the legs of the suspected suicide bomber," Khan told private Geo television, adding that tensions were high in the area after the blast.

Provincial police spokesman Riaz Ahmed said the dead included civilians from the crowd of Shiites and policemen who went to the hospital to provide security.

"A Shiite salesman was fatally wounded in an attack at a grocery store and was brought to the city's district hospital, when there was a blast in the emergency ward," Ahmed told AFP.

Another police official speaking on condition of anonymity said the incident could be linked to sectarian violence.

Indian Kashmir protests called off for 3 days

AP, Srinagar

After weeks of massive separatist protests in Indian Kashmir that virtually shut down the region, Muslim leaders called Tuesday for three days of calm, allowing schools and businesses to reopen.

Huge crowds thronged to markets to buy food and cooking gas after two months of sustained protests in Srinagar, the biggest city in India's only Muslim-majority state.

Masarat Aalam, a prominent separatist leader, said the public needed a break to sustain the intensity of the protests, and the leaders needed time to map out future action. The unrest had crippled life in the city, with most schools and businesses complying with protest leaders' call for them to close.

Aalam said another strike and a large protest were planned for Friday. The recent unrest, which has left at least 34 people dead, has reinvigorated the region's decades-long separatist struggle. The protests represent the biggest challenge to Indian rule over its only Muslim-majority state since the start of a violent insurgency in 1989 that has killed an estimated 68,000 people.

The crisis began in June with a dispute over land near a Hindu shrine. Muslims held protests complaining that a state government plan to transfer 99 acres to a Hindu trust to build facilities for pilgrims near the shrine was actually a settlement plan meant to alter the religious balance in the region.

Suicide car bomb kills 5 in western Iraq

Reuters, Ramadi

A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a police checkpoint in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Monday, killing five policemen and wounding seven, police said.

The city is the capital of Anbar province, an area that was once the most dangerous part of Iraq but has become among the safest since the local population turned against al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants in late 2006 and 2007.

Iraq has become far less violent over the past year overall, but U.S. forces and Iraqi authorities say militants still retain the ability to carry out large scale bombings, frequently targeting police and U.S.-backed neighborhood patrols.

A suicide bomber struck a neighborhood patrol checkpoint in a Sunni Arab area of north Baghdad on Sunday, killing 15 people.

Meanwhile, Police say Iraqi troops backed by U.S. helicopters have raided the office of the Diyala provincial governor.

An Iraqi police official says Tuesday's raid triggered a firefight between the troops and the guards of Gov.

Raad Rashid al-Tamimi, killing his secretary and wounding four guards.

Suicide bombers try to storm US base in Afghanistan

AFP, Kabul

Dozens of Taliban fighters and suicide bombers attacked a US military base in eastern Afghanistan early Tuesday and at least 13 were killed, some in their own suicide blasts, Afghan officials said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed that Camp Salerno in the eastern town of Khost, 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Pakistan, had been attacked but could give few details.

"We have heard about suicide bombers on foot. They are receiving indirect fire," an officer in the ISAF media office in Kabul told AFP, referring to rocket and artillery fire.

He said he could not give more information because fighting was ongoing.

A suicide car bomb at the base on Monday killed 10 Afghan labourers waiting outside.

Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said 15 "terrorists" had attacked the base early Tuesday.

"Our commando units were deployed into the area and engaged the attackers and pushed them back," he told AFP.

"So far 13 attackers have been killed. Six blew themselves up, six others died in the explosions and one died in gunfire from commandos. Their bodies have been recovered," Azimi said.

Obama close to naming VP pick

AFP, Albuquerque

Speculation about Barack Obama's vice presidential pick hit new heights as a report said he had all but settled on a number two and could reveal his choice as early as Wednesday.

The New York Times reported the presumptive Democratic nominee had not yet notified his selection, but was focusing mainly on Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh and foreign policy expert Senator Joseph Biden.

Fresh buzz about Obama's intentions came as he sharpened his attacks against Republican rival John McCain, exactly a week before the Democratic nominating convention opens in Denver, Colorado.

The Times, in a report on its website, cited unnamed Obama advisers as saying he reached his decision last week while on vacation on Hawaii, and the campaign was readying an elaborate rollout for his selection.

The campaign has said Obama will first inform his grass roots network of supporters about the pick in an unprecedented email and text message blitz. He is then expected to launch a cross-country tour with his new sidekick.

The paper cited aides as saying the announcement would come at the earliest early on Wednesday, and no later than Friday.

Nepal Maoist leader sworn in as PM

AFP, Kathmandu

The leader of Nepal's Maoists, Prachanda, was sworn in as prime minister of the new republic Monday, finalising his transformation from warlord to the country's most powerful politician.

The former rebel chief was overwhelmingly voted in as Nepal's new premier on Friday by lawmakers in the constitutional assembly, which in May abolished the unpopular 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

"I will remain faithful to the nation and my countrymen, and promise in the name of the people that I will remain faithful to the sovereign nation of Nepal," he said in his oath of office. Prachanda's real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, but he chooses to go by a nom-de-guerre meaning "fierce one."

Dressed in a grey suit and tie and wearing a traditional Nepali cap, the ex-rebel leader-once Nepal's most-wanted man-looked ill at ease as he was feted by a guard of honour and watched by an large audience of dignitaries, among them scores of foreign diplomats.

A Nepal Army band played the new republic's national anthem at the function, which was held in the lush gardens of the president's office and residence in central Kathmandu.

Thai poll body defers ruling party fraud decision

Reuters, Bangkok

Thailand's Election Commission (EC) deferred a decision on Tuesday on whether to recommend that the ruling People Power Party (PPP) be disbanded for electoral fraud, saying it needed to investigate further. "The commission will vote on the issue on September 2," EC secretary-general Suthipon Thaveechaiyagarn told reporters. Earlier, the Thai-language Matichon newspaper quoted an EC source as saying the five commissioners were split on the issue, suggesting their ruling would be delayed. Analysts say the Constitutional Court, which has the final say on the matter, is likely to endorse the EC's findings, although it may take several months to implement any ruling. If it rules against the PPP, at least 33 senior party leaders from Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee would automatically lose their jobs and be barred from politics for five years.

The case before the Election Commission stems from the guilty verdict handed down in July against a deputy PPP leader for vote fraud in December's election. He was also banned from politics for five years.

Under the constitution drawn up by the army after a 2006 coup, an entire party can be disbanded and all of its executives barred from politics if just one member of the party's leadership is found guilty of vote fraud.

Vietnam, Cambodia brace for Mekong floods

Reuters, Hanoi

Rising Mekong floods upstream may cause landslides and deep inundation in Cambodia and southern Vietnam but the seasonal floodwater would also bring farmers good crops of rice and fish, officials said on Tuesday.

The Vietnamese government said rescue forces must be ready to move people from dangerous areas in southern Vietnam, where the Mekong river reaches the South China Sea after traveling more than 4,000 km (2,500 miles) from Tibet through Laos and Cambodia.

Four people have been killed in flooding and landslides in Laos, where the Mekong river has hit its highest level in at least 100 years after several months of unusually heavy rain.

Cambodia has alerted villagers of rising waters and the authorities have prepared 4,000 boats and life-jackets for the vulnerable areas in the eastern provinces of Kampong Cham and Kratie, the national disaster management committee said.

The Mekong River Commission said the river from northern Thailand to central Cambodia was higher than it was in 2000, when the worst floods in four decades struck southern Vietnam. "Floods in the Cuu Long River Delta happen every year, so people are used to taking preventive measures for crops and life," Le Van Banh, director of the Mekong Delta-based Rice Institute, told Reuters by telephone from Can Tho city.

"In the past floods caused problem to transportation and it was hard for children to come to school, but in recent years Vietnam has built protective dykes and residential areas above the flood-peaking level," he said.