The New Nation - Internet Edition

Road becomes camp of despair for Indian flood evacuees

AFP, Chandpur Bhangaha

As men, women and children stream off boats at this launching spot to rescue flood victims in northern India, the road to town has turned into a vast camp where thousands wretchedly squat.

Apart from basic food supplies, there is little evidence of government organisation on this partially submerged road in Bihar state, and so many of the latest arrivals are all but living outdoors. Chania Malla, who was nursing a 12-day-old baby she gave birth to on a school rooftop, hasn't seen a doctor since she got here on a boat from her village Wednesday night. "There isn't anything here," said her husband Jogindu, as the pair sat under the carved statues of Hindu deities of the crumbling temple where they had taken shelter with hundreds of others.

"We are only getting puffed rice."

The Mallas are among 800,000 people evacuated to higher ground since the rain-swollen Kosi river breached its defence walls in Nepal, just north of the border with India's Bihar state, and swung east flooding villages and farms.

Some 300,000 people are now in relief camps and many of the other evacuees are staying with family in other towns or even other states.

At least 200,000 more people still need to be rescued, according to estimates from state officials. By the temple, there were dozens of children on the road and many parents say their babies have fevers, coughs and diarrhoea.

"My grandchild has not eaten anything for 10 days," said Maya Mandal, as she held the still boy in her arms. "His stomach's been upset since drinking the flood water."

But there is no sign of any official, doctor or medicine. The nearest town with a hospital is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) away and the only vehicles passing are trucks packed with rescue equipment and relief supplies.

"The trucks are not taking us," said Mithilesh Yadav, 30, who was also rescued from his village Wednesday with his wife and five children. "Anyway, the schools, the camps, everything is full." Rescued villagers are handed biscuits and bags of food as they get off the rescue boats runs by the army, navy and a new disaster response force set up after the 2004 tsunami. Then they have to fend for themselves.

"We will live right here on the road," said Sanjay Yadav, who came off a boat with his wife Beena Thursday after 18 days stuck in his village. Many here have no shelter-just a small stack of belongings that they can huddle around on the road. At Banmankhi, a makeshift camp further down the road, scores of shelters made with clothes draped over sticks have mushroomed next to the hundreds already here a few days ago. The locals who are organising food aid here estimated there were 5,000 people at this makeshift camp. Now they say the number is easily double that.

In some of the other flooded areas, neat rows of canvas tents are being set up for the flood victims, but none of that is visible on this road.

"Private people are helping us, but the government is not helping us," said Yadav, the father of five. "We have put up these huts ourselves. We have to live somehow."

2 more US soldiers killed in Iraq

AP, Baghdad

A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers patrolling eastern Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said, announcing the first combat deaths in the capital in a week.

With security vastly improved in Baghdad since the U.S. troop buildup last year, the number of American soldiers killed on the streets of the Iraqi capital has declined sharply. The casualties were the first suffered by the American military in the capital since Aug. 28 when a soldier was killed in a roadside bombing. Another soldier died Tuesday in Baghdad of non-hostile causes, the military said.

The latest deaths brought to at least 4,153 the number of U.S. military members who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. Also Thursday, the U.S. military arrested an Iraqi cameraman and three of his family members Thursday during a raid on their home in Baghdad, an official with Baghdad TV said. The arrest comes two days after American and Iraqi forces detained a freelance photographer for the Reuters news agency south of Baghdad. The cameraman, Omar Husham, 28, was arrested at his house in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, said the television official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security reasons. His father and two brothers were also detained, the official said.

The U.S. military said it detained a journalist because he was "assessed to be threat to security" but would not release the name. "He was seized along with others suspected of a terrorist bombing network," said military spokesman Maj. John Hall. The military declined to release further details.

The TV official said Husham had been working for Baghdad TV for two years and covered political events. The station is owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, the major Sunni political group and a member of the Shiite-led Iraqi government.

"Husham is a respected cameraman who has traveled abroad with government officials," the official told The Associated Press. "We demand that concerned officials intervene and for the Americans to release him immediately."

Azamiyah had been a center for Sunni insurgent operations until the U.S. military walled off the center of the district and organized a group of local Sunni fighters who had turned against the insurgents.

Even with the neighborhood's concrete walls, a suicide bomber last month killed Farooq al-Obeidi, the deputy head of the U.S.-allied Sunni fighters in Azamiyah. Nine other people were killed.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, the U.S. military has detained a number of Iraqi journalists working for international news organizations, including the AP. None has been convicted in an Iraqi court.

Pakistan lawmakers to choose Musharraf replacement

AP, Islamabad

The real question in Pakistan's presidential election is not who the winner will be but whether the new leader will be any more successful than his predecessor in tackling extremism and economic malaise.

Asif Ali Zardari, head of the ruling Pakistan People's Party and widower of two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, will face off against two lightly regarded opponents when legislators meet Saturday to choose a president.

The winner will replace former military strongman Pervez Musharraf, who resigned under pressure last month.

"It will be an easy victory for Asif Ali Zardari as we have the support of more than 400 lawmakers out of about 700," People's Party spokesman Farhatullah Babar told The Associated Press.

The party was part of a coalition that swept to power in February parliamentary elections on a mostly anti-Musharraf platform, so no major changes in policy are expected, even though a key partner has defected to spearhead the opposition.

Zardari, generally considered pro-Western, also isn't expected to change Pakistan's commitment to be an ally in the U.S. war on terrorism, despite a bold cross-border U.S.-led raid that left at least 15 people dead in the country's largely lawless tribal belt along the Afghan frontier.

The raid Wednesday sparked widespread condemnation of what was seen as an attack on the country's sovereignty.

In news likely to stoke more anger, intelligence officials said a missile strike was suspected in a blast Thursday that killed at least four people in North Waziristan, part of the tribal belt where Osama bin Laden and his deputy are thought to be hiding. Similar strikes in the past have been blamed on the U.S.

Zardari criticized Wednesday's raid, the first known foreign ground assault inside Pakistan against a suspected Taliban haven. But he also expressed sympathy for the U.S. and other countries that have been hit by terrorist attacks, saying Pakistan also is suffering from extremist violence.

His reaction underscores the fine line that Pakistan's leaders must walk amid dependence on U.S. financial aid: Crack down on beds of Islamic extremism even as many Pakistanis blame the strategic alliance for fueling violence by Islamic militants in their country. The People's Party has tried to convince Pakistanis they cannot duck the fight.

India vows to avoid new arms race as talks resume

AP, Vienna

India has pledged to not engage in a new arms race as talks continue in Vienna on whether to let the U.S. sell it nuclear material and technology for civilian use.

Friday's talks in Vienna are being held by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. It remained unclear whether the U.S. would win its push to get a waiver on a nuclear trade ban.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in India says his country remains committed to a voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing.

He says India would not touch off a new arms race or share any sensitive nuclear technology with others.

More than a dozen nations have balked at the deal, pointing out that India has conducted atomic test blasts and has refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Referendum plan wins little support as Thai crisis drags

AFP, Bangkok

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej found little support Friday for his proposal to hold a referendum to resolve the stalemate with protesters who have occupied his offices for 11 days. The protesters stormed into his Government House compound on August 26 demanding that Samak resign and that Thailand's democracy be curtailed, saying only 30 percent of seats in parliament should be elected.

Samak has refused to step down or call snap elections, insisting that he would stay in office to defend democracy. As a compromise, he has proposed holding a referendum asking the public to decide whether he should stay or go.

But critics slammed that idea, arguing that the balloting would only drag out the turmoil and risked sparking new violence like the clashes among rival protesters that left one of Samak's supporters dead early Tuesday. Speaker of the Senate, Prasobsook Boondech, told reporters that organising a referendum would take at least one month.

"The problem of the country is immediate and needs to be resolved as quickly as possible," he said. The opposition Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said on the website for the Thairath newspaper that the referendum would not resolve the stalemate.

He proposed that Samak dissolve parliament and call snap elections.

"The referendum is going to be a non-starter," said political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak, of Chulalongkorn University. "We're back to the same confrontation."

After the deadly violence in the early hours of Tuesday, Samak declared a state of emergency in Bangkok, essentially handing control of the capital to powerful army chief General Anupong Paojinda.

But Anupong has so far refused to evict the squatters who have turned their camp on the Government House lawn into a small village where protesters receive free food and even complementary haircuts.

The White House on Thursday voiced support for Samak's elected government, but urged all sides to refrain from violence.

"We urge both supporters and opponents of the Thai government to refrain from violence, respect the rule of law, and address their differences within Thailand's democratic institutions," said spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Sarkozy warns Iran it risks 'catastrophe’ of Israeli strike

AFP, Damascus

French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Iran on Thursday that its determination to press on with its controversial nuclear drive risked an Israeli strike that would be a "catastrophe."

"Iran is taking a major risk by continuing the process of seeking nuclear technology for military ends," Sarkozy said at a four-way summit in Damascus with the leaders of Syria, Qatar and Turkey. "Because one day, no matter which Israeli government is in power, one morning we will awake to find Israel has attacked," Sarkozy said on the second day of a landmark visit to Syria. "It's not a question of whether it is legitimate or intelligent or nott It would be a catastrophe, and we must avoid such a catastrophe." Iran has consistently denied that its nuclear programme is aimed at building an atomic bomb and says it wants only to generate energy for its growing population.

But Tehran risks a fourth round of UN sanctions over its failure to abide by international calls to freeze uranium enrichment, a process which makes nuclear fuel but can also be used to build the core of a nuclear weapon.

McCain, Obama pitted in 8-week contest of 'change’

AP, St. Paul

Republican presidential nominee John McCain, buoyed by a unifying GOP convention and the spark of running mate Sarah Palin, plunged into a competitive, eight-week struggle with Democrat Barack Obama over which party can best bring change to Washington.

Before a roaring crowd of delegates McCain vowed Thursday night to vanquish the "constant partisan rancor" he said was plaguing the nation as he embarked on an eight-week effort to win the White House. "I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again," McCain said. Joining him after the speech was Palin, the Alaska governor whose national political debut has helped solidify GOP conservatives behind the party ticket.

McCain and Palin left Minnesota immediately after the Arizona senator's acceptance speech, bound for Democratic-tilting Wisconsin as Obama planned campaign and fundraising events in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

In a convention speech lasting nearly an hour, McCain promised before a nationwide television audience to govern as a political maverick with a bipartisan bent. And he reminded voters of the 5 ½ years he spent in a North Vietnamese prison.

"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," he said. "I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's."

His speech capped the party convention, but vice presidential nominee Palin was arguably the star, electrifying Republicans Wednesday in a slashing speech against Obama and his running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. She is the first female running mate in GOP history.

The 72-year-old McCain, campaigning to become the oldest first-term president in history, presented himself as a reformer willing to take on his fellow Republicans, including an unpopular President Bush. He chastised Republicans for falling prey to the temptations of power before voters deprived them of their majorities in the House and Senate two years ago.

"We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us," McCain said. "We lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption."

McCain's speech was largely devoid of the partisan edge that characterized Palin's, which was aimed at solidifying conservative and evangelical voters behind the GOP ticket. Democrats countered that Palin was long on personal attacks and short on remedies for the nation's troubles.

Palin, 44, has been under a media microscope since McCain tapped her last week, but she seems to have energized Republicans heading into the fall campaign. Virtually unknown nationally a week ago, Palin has faced heavy scrutiny, some of it relating to her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and her time as governor, but most involving her 17-year-old, unmarried pregnant daughter.

For the most part, McCain's aides have kept Palin out of public sight while vociferously defending her readiness to become vice president.

Rice set for historic Libya visit, meeting Gaddafi

Reuters, Lisbon

Condoleezza Rice travels to Libya on Friday, the first trip there by a U.S. secretary of state in 55 years, signaling improved ties between the two countries.

Relations began to warm after Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction program in 2003, but Rice held back on visiting the former pariah state until a compensation package was signed last month to cover legal claims involving victims of U.S. and Libyan bombings.

In her brief trip, Rice is set to meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and share Iftar with him-the meal for breaking the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Once called "the mad dog of the Middle East" by President Ronald Reagan, U.S. officials said Rice was looking forward to the encounter with Gaddafi and planned, among other issues, to raise human rights concerns as well as regional conflicts in Chad, Sudan and the recent coup in Mauritania.

Her spokesman Sean McCormack called the trip to Libya a "historic stop." The last secretary of state to go there was John Foster Dulles in May 1953, before Rice was even born.

Rice, who is going to Libya after an overnight stop in Lisbon, Portugal, is also expected to push Gaddafi on the compensation deal signed on August 14.

No funds have been paid into it yet but lead U.S. negotiator with Libya, David Welch, said he was optimistic it would happen soon.

Libya finalized legalities to set up the fund on Wednesday and one senior U.S. official said it would take "more than days" before enough money was in the account and payments could be made to both sides.

Australia swears in first woman governor-general

Reuters, Canberra

Australia's 25th governor-general was sworn into office as the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth on Friday, with republicans holding out little hope that Australia will abolish the job any time soon.

Former lawyer Quentin Bryce is the first woman to hold the post in Australia and takes over from former military commander Major-General Michael Jeffery, who retired after five years on Wednesday.

Her appointment reignited a debate over the country's identity, with many Australians wanting the country to become a republic, although republican Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not yet outlined any plans to rekindle the debate.

"The most we hope for is that he might start a more spirited discussion of the republic issue during this term of government," Australian Republican Movement deputy chairman John Warhurst told Reuters on Friday.

"We hope that maybe by the time of the next election, he may have a specific program for his next (three year) term."

Most analysts say Australia will not decide on the issue until Queen Elizabeth dies and her eldest son, Prince Charles, becomes king.

Republicans believe Queen Elizabeth, who is also Queen of Australia, is Australia's actual head of state. Monarchists say the Queen is just the monarch, and that the governor-general, who is appointed by the government of the day, is head of state.

Rudd steered away from mentioning the desire for a republic or who is Australia's head of state, at the ceremonies for Bryce at Parliament House on Friday.

"The office of governor-general plays an important role in our system of government," Rudd said.

Bryce, a former sex discrimination commissioner, said she was honored to be given the job.

"I want you to know that I take on this role with solemnity, impartiality, energy and a profound love for the country we share," she said. The constitution gives the Queen the power to veto Australian laws, a power never used, but makes no mention of who is head of state.

Aso, six others line up so far in Japan PM race

Reuters, Tokyo

Former foreign minister Taro Aso, frontrunner to become Japan's next leader, faced a growing field of six would-be rivals on Friday, as the ruling party hoped a vibrant leadership race would revive its dismal voter ratings.

Aso, 67, who favors bigger state spending to stimulate an economy now on the brink of recession, formally announced his candidacy to replace outgoing prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, who abruptly quit on Monday.

"My mission will be huge t I will call for recovery in the economy and allaying people's anxiety," Aso, the No.2 in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), told a news conference. Analysts said the party wanted a broad range of candidates to persuade voters that a real policy debate was under way and encourage them to forget Fukuda's untimely departure.

"They're not serious. They are just playing it as a show, the purpose of which is to fool the electorate into thinking that this is a quasi-general election," said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

"If Aso emerges as the victor from a lively contest, people may think they should give him a chance if he calls an election."

An LDP leadership election will be held on September 22 and the winner is all but assured of becoming prime minister because of the party's majority in parliament's lower house.

Speculation is mounting that Japan's new leader will call a snap election to take advantage of a likely ratings boost. A poll for the powerful lower house must be held by September 2009.

Fukuda resigned after less than a year in office during which his popularity ratings fell to under 30 percent on doubts about his ability to cope with a divided parliament, where the opposition controls the upper house and can delay legislation.

He was the second prime minister to quit in less than a year.