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Russia recognises independence of Georgian regions

AP, Moscow

Russia stunned the West on Tuesday by recognizing the independence claims of two Georgian breakaway regions, and U.S. warships plied the waters off of Georgia in a gambit the Kremlin saw as gunboat diplomacy.

The announcement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ignored the strong opposition of Europe and the United States, and signaled the Kremlin's determination to shape its neighbors' destinies even at the risk of closing its doors to the West.

"We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a Cold War," President Dmitry Medvedev said hours after announcing the Kremlin's decision and one day after Parliament had supported the recognition.

While the risk of a military clash with the West seemed remote, the lack of high-level public diplomacy between the White House and the Kremlin added to an uneasy sense here at least of an escalating crisis.

Medvedev also promised a Russian military response to a U.S. missile defense system in Europe. Washington says the system would counter threats from Iran and North Korea, but Russia says it is aimed at blunting Russian nuclear capability.

The Kremlin's recognition of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia suggested it was willing to risk nearly two decades of economic, political and diplomatic bonds with its Cold War antagonists.

Medvedev's grim announcement, carried on national television, inspired jubilation on the streets of the rebel capitals. In the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, a parade of cars bearing the South Ossetian and Russian flags blared their horns, women cried for joy and gunmen fired their weapons in the air. The United States, surprised by the speed of the Russian response, threatened a veto in the U.N. Security Council should Russia ask for international recognition for the territories.

"Abkhazia and South Ossetia are a part of the internationally recognized borders of Georgia and it's going to remain so," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

President Bush called the Russian move "irresponsible." Germany and France also criticized the decision, while the British Foreign Office said it did "nothing to improve the prospects of peace in the Caucasus." The Kremlin insists, despite some doubts in the West, that its invasion of Georgia was a spur-of-the-moment response to the Georgian military's surprise crackdown on South Ossetia.

By contrast, Moscow has had weeks to weigh the consequences of recognizing the breakaway regions.

As the West focused on Russia's effort to shift Georgia's internationally recognized borders, the Kremlin denounced the U.S. use of a Navy destroyer and Coast Guard cutter named the Dallas to deliver aid to Georgia's Black Sea coast.

"Normally battleships do not deliver aid," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dryly told reporters in English, apparently confusing the word "warship" with "battleship."

Earlier Tuesday, the United States said it intends to deliver humanitarian aid by ship on Wednesday to the beleaguered Georgian port city of Poti, which Russian troops still control through checkpoints on the city's outskirts.

The Kremlin said it accepted the independence claims because the Georgian military assault amounted to "genocide."

But beyond a handful of resolute U.S. foes, such as Cuba and Venezuela, few other nations seem likely to follow the Kremlin's lead.

And the declaration seems to have little practical impact on the lives of people living in the separatist regions, who have lived for years under Russia's economic, political and military umbrella.

Still, the Kremlin recognition marked an initial step toward what could become a push for territorial expansion. Many South Ossetians have expressed a desire for integration into Russia.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin later downplayed any resurgence of a Cold War, though he acknowledged a period of difficult relations with the West were in store.

"I want to remind you that Cold War was a completely different beast when we were really at each other's throats in a big way internationally, and this is not going to happen under any circumstances," he said at the U.N. in New York.

The Kremlin's rush to recognize the two regions took Western nations by surprise. Moscow made the move with barely a breather, or dialogue with the West, after the brief war and Russia's pullback from military positions in Georgia late last week.

Medvedev told his nation Georgia had forced Russia's hand.

"Saakashvili chose genocide to fulfill his political plans," Medvedev said. "Georgia chose the least human way to achieve its goal - to absorb South Ossetia by eliminating a whole nation."

Russia's action is likely to send political tremors through Georgia, a Western ally in the Caucasus region, a major transit corridor for energy supplies to Europe and a strategic crossroads close to the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and energy-rich Central Asia.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, a fervent ally of the West, has staked his political career on restoring Georgian sovereignty over its breakaway regions. Georgia's humiliating defeat in its short war with Russia this month could shape the country's politics for years to come.

Georgia's state minister on reintegration, Timur Yakobashvili, told The Associated Press Medvedev's announcement had "no legal status."

Lavrov said recognition was "absolutely unavoidable" for Russia. "Short of losing our dignity as a nation, we couldn't act otherwise," he said.

Alexander Konovalov, president of Moscow's Institute of Strategic Assessment, said that while Medvedev's action was perhaps unavoidable, it was also the result of a chain of missteps by all sides.

He said Saakashvili bore the blame for the devastating attack on Tskhinvali, which triggered the Russian invasion of the small former Soviet republic. "But Russian leaders are guilty too because they kept this conflict warm for many years and tried to use it as a political instrument," he said.

All of the consequences of recognition were not immediately clear, but in the short term Medvedev's announcement seemed to deepen Moscow's isolation.

"This is burning at least one very important bridge," said Masha Lipman, a Russia expert with the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank.

Russian existing membership in the G-8 group of industrial nations may be threatened, as well as its bid for membership in the World Trade Organization.

There are also fears the crisis could spill over into the collaboration between Washington and Moscow on nuclear non-proliferation and cooperation in battling terrorism.

Several experts said the declaration limits Russia's room for diplomatic maneuvering.

It undermines the Kremlin's long-standing criticism of the U.S. for acting unilaterally, and it appears to weaken Moscow's rationale for opposing the independence of Kosovo, which formally broke with Serbia in February.

More dangerously, perhaps, recognition for rebel governments in Abkhazia and South Ossetia appears to undercut Russia's rejection, on the grounds of territorial integrity, of the independence claims by separatists in its own turbulent North Caucasus.

Russia will likely argue that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are special cases and that it still regards territorial integrity as crucial principle - an argument unlikely to convince separatists in the North Caucasus.

Anwar bid for power boosted by Malaysian election win

AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday celebrated an election victory that will return him to parliament, boosting his plan to seize power after a decade-long political exile.

Anwar, who had already led a revitalised opposition to unprecedented gains in March general elections, insists he is on track to topple the government by mid-September with the help of defecting lawmakers.

The charismatic 61-year-old won Tuesday's by-election in his home state of Penang despite an intense campaign mounted by the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled Malaysia for half a century since independence from Britain.

"I share in the joy felt by all Malaysians on this historic day. This is a victory for the people. And it's great to be back," said Anwar, a former deputy premier who was sacked in 1998 and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges. "We will restore the integrity of the judiciary, fight corruption and build a truly unified nation," he said in a statement.

Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asian expert from Johns Hopkins University, said the result showed Anwar could successfully garner support from across racial lines in multicultural Malaysia, which is dominated by Muslim Malays.

"It's a decisive victory across races, across economic classes for Anwar Ibrahim. It's a decisive message calling for change," she said.

"I think it helps to build momentum," she said of his ambitions to persuade at least 30 ruling coalition lawmakers to switch sides.

The failure to check Anwar's ambitions triggered new calls from within the ruling party for the resignation of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose popularity has waned due to rising inflation and rampant corruption.

"He does not have the minimal credibility needed to run the country day by day, let alone to take it in the new directions we need to go in a complex world," said senior ruling party member Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Iraq says US sought troop presence to 2015

Reuters, Baghdad

The United States asked Iraq for permission to keep its troops there to 2015, but U.S. and Iraqi negotiators agreed to limit their authorization to 2011, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said.

"It was a U.S. proposal for the date which is 2015, and an Iraqi one which is 2010, then we agreed to make it 2011. Iraq has the right, if necessary, to extend the presence of these troops," Talabani said in a transcript of an interview with al-Hurra television.

Details have been slowly emerging about negotiations for the bilateral security pact, which U.S. and Iraqi officials say are close to conclusion.

The agreement will provide a legal basis for the U.S. troop presence after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of this year.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that, while overall negotiations continued, the two sides had accepted the end of 2011 as a deadline for the withdrawal of the approximately 145,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq.

The emerging points of agreement reflect the increasing assertiveness of the Maliki government as it seeks to define the future of the U.S. presence in Iraq.

They also reflect the political pressures that Maliki faces at home more than five years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

U.S. officials stress that no final agreement has been made. A final deal will need to be approved by the Iraqi parliament.

US cancels plan to send military ship to Poti

AP, Tbilisi

The United States has canceled plans to try to dock a military ship carrying humanitarian aid in the Georgian port of Poti, where Russian forces are posted on the outskirts, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Wednesday.

The ship, the Coast Guard cutter Dallas, was to have come to the Black Sea port Wednesday morning. But embassy spokesman Stephen Guice said the vessel instead will dock in Batumi, a port well south of the zone of fighting in this month's war between Russia and Georgia. Guice said he did not have information on why the plan was changed.

Poti's port reportedly suffered heavy damage from the Russian military. In addition, Russian troops have established checkpoints on the northern approach to the city and a U.S. ship docking there could have been seen as a direct challenge.

Although Western nations have called the Russian military presence in Poti a clear violation of an European Union-brokered cease-fire, a top Russian general countered Tuesday that using warships to deliver aid was "devilish."

"The heightened activity of NATO ships in the Black Sea perplexes us," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said in Moscow.

Many of the Russian forces that drove deep into Georgia after fighting broke out Aug. 7 in the separatist region of South Ossetia have pulled back, but hundreds at least are estimated to still be manning checkpoints that Russia calls "security zones" inside Georgia proper.

Two of those checkpoints are near the edge of Poti, one of Georgia's most important Black Sea ports. The Russian military is also claiming the right to patrol in the city.

Georgian officials have said much of the port's infrastructure - radar, Coast Guard ships and other equipment - was destroyed by the Russians.

30 rebels, four police killed in Afghan unrest

AFP, Kandahar

Four Afghan police and 30 Taliban rebels have been killed in a wave of violence in insurgency-hit Afghanistan in recent days, officials said Wednesday.

The policemen died Tuesday when their vehicle was blown up while on patrol in central Ghazni province, an official said.

"We believe it was the work of the Taliban. Four policemen were martyred," Ismail Jahangir, a spokesman for the local government, told AFP.

The same day, a dozen rebels including two militant commanders were captured in an operation by Afghan security forces and international troops elsewhere in Ghazni, Jahangir said.

In southern Helmand province, coalition and Afghan troops killed 18 rebels and wounded several others in an operation Tuesday, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.

"We killed 18 Taliban. They left the dead bodies behind," he said.

On Monday a dozen other suspected Taliban militants were killed in operations by Afghan and US-led forces in Sangin district of Helmand, a hotbed of Taliban militancy, the coalition reported Wednesday.

There was no independent verification of the toll.

Separately, a suicide bomber blew himself up late Tuesday near a convoy of international forces also in Helmand, killing no one but himself, Andiwal said, adding that three local passers-by were slightly injured.

The Taliban, ousted from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001, are trying to topple the US-backed Afghan government in an insurgency which has intensified in the past two years.

There are about 70,000 international forces deployed under NATO and a separate US-led coalition in Afghanistan in an effort to help local forces repel the Islamic rebels.

Hillary tells Democrats to unite behind Obama

AP, Denver

Hillary Rodham Clinton closed the book on her 2008 presidential bid with an emphatic plea for the party to unite behind Barack Obama.

Now the Democratic convention spotlight turns to her husband, as former President Bill Clinton takes to the prime-time television stage Wednesday evening. He is expected to launch attacks on the Republican's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, and on the Bush administration.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Obama's choice as a running mate, will get prime-time exposure as well.

Hillary Clinton, who won 18 million votes but still failed to earn her party's nomination, planned to meet with delegates who still want to cast ballots for her during the nominating roll call Wednesday evening - a symbolic move before Obama is nominated, presumably by acclamation. Clinton has not indicated whether she would have her name placed in nomination or seek a formal roll call vote.

Clinton's aides said it remained unclear how exactly the meeting with the delegates would play out, or how her supporters will react.

"It's not Hillary's job to bring this party together," said Jennie Lou Leeder, a Clinton delegate from Llado, Texas. "It's Barack Obama's job to bring this party together."

It's the kind of talk that Clinton tried to discourage. "I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?" she said Tuesday night in her convention speech, addressing her supporters.

Clinton used her prime-time convention appearance to try to silence infighting over how to honor Clinton's campaign without distracting from Obama's upcoming contest against McCain.

Zimbabwe to form new government

AFP, Harare

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says he will form a new government, despite a deadlock in the country's power-sharing negotiations with the opposition, a state daily said Wednesday.

"We shall soon be setting up a government," Mugabe was quoted as saying in the Herald newspaper following the opening of parliament Tuesday at which he was booed and heckled by opposition lawmakers.

"The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) does not want to come in apparently. This time they have been promised by the British that sanctions would be more devastating, that in six months' time the government will collapse."

"I do not know when that day will come. I wish (MDC leader Morgan) Tsvangirai well on that day," the 84-year-old leader added.

Mugabe castigated his past cabinet and said he would appoint ministers who are dedicated to working for the country.

"This cabinet that I had was the worst in history," he said.

Mugabe officially opened the country's parliament on Tuesday after talks to form a power-sharing government with the two factions of the opposition MDC stalled over the sharing of executive powers.

The main MDC led by Tsvangirai had earlier said it would boycott the opening session arguing that it was in breach of talks mediated by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki.

The opposition handed a petition to the clerk of parliament, denouncing the opening of parliament as meaningless, saying it violated a deal signed in July ahead of the power-sharing talks, which have been stalled for two weeks.