The New Nation - Internet Edition

Russia commits to Georgia pull-back

AP, Moscow

Russia's president pledged to withdraw his troops to areas where they had been before fighting erupted in Georgia last month but only after 200 European Union monitors deploy later this month as part of a revised cease-fire agreement.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili cautiously endorsed the deal on Monday, but insisted any final settlement with Russia must respect his country's territorial integrity. He made clear he still considers the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia part of his country.

"There is no way Georgia will ever give up a piece of its sovereignty, a piece of its territory," Saakashvili said after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered the latest deal.

The short war between Georgia and Russia - which began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia followed by Russia invading and routing Georgia's military - has turned into a critical event in the post-Cold War world as Russia asserts its new economic and military clout and the West struggles to respond.

Georgia and Western nations have complained Russia failed to withdraw troops and follow through on other earlier pledges in an Aug. 12 cease-fire agreement.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said 200 European Union monitors would deploy to regions surrounding South Ossetia and Abkhazia by next month. After that, Russian troops would pull out of those regions by Oct. 11 to a line that preceded last month's fighting.

He said Russian troops would pull out of the Black Sea port of Poti and nearby areas in the next seven days, but only if Georgia signed a pledge to not use force against Abkhazia. Georgia had complained that the presence of Russian troops in Poti - located dozens of miles away from the fighting in South Ossetia - was a blatant violation of the cease-fire.

Sarkozy acknowledged that one of the sticking points of the talks was Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent from Georgia. Both areas have had de facto independence since breaking away from Georgian government control in the early 1990s.

"It is not up to Russia to recognize unilaterally the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. There are international rules. These should be respected," Sarkozy said.

McCain VP pick Palin faces brewing 'Troopergate’ inquiry

AFP, Juneau

A senior Alaska state senator kept an abuse- of-power investigation of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on track Monday, rejecting Republican calls to remove the Democratic overseer of the probe.

The move made it possible that staff of Palin, the Alaska governor, could soon be subpoenaed to testify in the brewing "Troopergate" case, in which Palin is accused of sacking a senior state official for refusing to fire her sister's ex-husband from the state trooper force.

The case could cast a shadow over Palin, whose choice 10 days ago to be Senator John McCain's White House running mate shocked the country but also has fired up his poll numbers, drawing him even with Democrat Barack Obama in the race.

On Monday Alaska Democratic state senator Kim Elton, chairman of the state legislative council, rejected a call by state Republican representative John Coghill to replace the Democrat director of the Troopergate probe.

"The decisions made by the project director, Senator (Hollis) French, have been appropriate, bipartisan, in line with the charge by the council and unchallenged by any of the principals," Elton said.

Abuse of meth, ecstasy growing in developing countries, UN warns

AFP, Vienna

The use of synthetic drugs such as amphetamine, methamphetamine (meth) and ecstasy is growing in developing countries, notably in Asia and the Middle East, and in the Gulf states in particular, a top UN body warned Tuesday.

While demand for such drugs has stabilised or even declined in North America, Europe and Oceania, "the problem has shifted to new markets over the past few years," the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime said in a new report.

"Asia, with its huge population and increasing affluence, is driving demand," the report said.

In its 2008 Global Assessment of amphetamine, methamphetamine (meth) and ecstasy, the UNODC found that, on an annual basis, the use of these drugs exceeded that of cocaine and heroin combined.

The global market, both wholesale and retail, for amphetamine-type stimulants or ATS was estimated at 65 billion dollars, the report said.

In 2006, almost half of Asian countries reported an increase in methamphetamine use and Saudi Arabia seized more than 12 tonnes of amphetamine, mostly in the form known as Captagon, accounting for a staggering 25 percent of all ATS seized in the world.

Sri Lanka's Tiger rebels stage another air attack

AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today staged another air strike, the second in two weeks, and carried out an artillery attack in the island's north, local residents and officials said.

Residents in Vavuniya, 256 kilometres (160 miles) north of the capital Colombo, said they saw anti-aircraft fire illuminating the night sky while huge blasts were also heard in the de facto frontier town.

"We heard the noise of a light aircraft," a resident said by telephone. "Anti-aircraft guns of the military fired for about 20 to 30 minutes."

Police said one constable was killed and eight more wounded in the rebel attacks, while three civilians were also injured.

The defence ministry said the authorities tracked two aircraft of the Tamil Tigers and military jets managed to "intercept the terror aircraft and destroyed one of them."

Sri Lanka's air force said they destroyed the rebel plane as it returned to a clandestine base in the northern district of Mullaittivu.

There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) about the military claims, but the pro-rebel Puthinam.com website said the military carried out retaliatory air strikes inside rebel-held areas.

Nepal to free slaves trapped by ancestors’ debts

AFP, Kathmandu

In the 1940s Sita Bishwokarma's grandfather took out a loan worth 120 dollars, and since then his family has lived in virtual slavery, victims of a practice that Nepal has now vowed to end.

Under the "Haliya" (land tiller) system that remains active in Nepal's far west, children inherit debt accrued by their parents and grandparents and have to work for moneylenders and landlords to pay it off.

"My grandfather worked as a Haliya because of the loan he took from a landlord," Sita Bishwokarma, 37, a Haliya visiting Kathmandu to lobby the government, told AFP.

"He could not pay it back, neither could my parents, so I have had to follow the same tradition," she said.

Bishwokarma has had to plough fields, collect animal feed, prepare food and look after the landlord's children-all for no salary. "It is endless work with no pay at all. All we get is a tiny place to live and minimal food," said Bishwokarma, from Doti district, 440 kilometres (275 miles) west of Kathmandu.

Nepal's Maoist-led government has vowed to end the practice that has seen around 150,000 bonded labourers living in virtual slavery as they struggle hopelessly to pay off the debt.

Bush to pull out 8,000 troops from Iraq by February

AP, Washington

President Bush plans to pull 8,000 more combat and support troops out of Iraq by February, a measured drawdown that will leave nearly the same level of U.S. forces in the war zone for the rest of the year.

Bush's decision, to be delivered in a speech Tuesday, is perhaps his final stamp on the war that has defined his presidency. The scope and pace of the U.S. troop withdrawals are smaller than long anticipated, reflecting a desire by the military and the president not to jeopardize security gains in Iraq.

By the time the troops return home on the timeline Bush is proposing, someone else will be making the wartime decisions from the Oval Office.

There are about 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Bush hinted that more troops could return to the U.S. in the first half of 2009 if conditions improve.

"Here is the bottom line: While the enemy in Iraq is still dangerous, we have seized the offensive, and Iraqi forces are becomingly increasingly capable of leading and winning the fight," Bush said in remarks prepared for delivery to the National Defense University in Washington.

Thai PM's TV curries could set political future

AFP, Bangkok

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej awaited a court verdict today on accusations that his TV cooking show violated the constitution, which could see him forced from office, at least temporarily.

Thailand's Constitutional Court is set to decide later Tuesday whether Samak violated the constitution by taking money from a private company to host the "Tasting and Grumbling" cooking show.

If found guilty, he and his cabinet would be forced to resign-something that protesters occupying the grounds of his offices have not been able to achieve since storming his Government House two weeks ago.

However, Samak would not be barred from holding office, and his deputy has already held out the possibility that the ruling coalition could simply vote him back as prime minister.

"Ready or not ready, we must wait and see," Samak told reporters as he toured a market in north-eastern Udon Thani province, where he was preparing to hold a cabinet meeting.

With 5,000 protesters squatting on the grounds of his now-empty offices for two weeks, Samak has been forced to find new venues for his cabinet meetings and other official business.

It's OK to kidnap Iran president: Israeli minister

AP, Jerusalem

An Israeli Cabinet minister and onetime spy who helped kidnap Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann and bring him to trial thinks the same tactic could be used on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad is feared and reviled in Israel because of his repeated calls to wipe the Jewish state off the map. His aggressive pursuit of nuclear technology has only fueled Israel's fears.

"A man like Ahmadinejad who threatens genocide has to be brought for trial in The Hague," seat of the international war crimes tribunal, Rafi Eitan said Tuesday. "And all options are open in terms of how he should be brought." Asked if kidnapping was acceptable, Eitan replied "Yes. Any way to bring him for trial in The Hague is a possibility."

Eitan, a member of Israel's inner Cabinet of ministers with security responsibilities, said he was expressing his own opinion and nothing more. Eitan, 81, was one of the Mossad agents who kidnapped Eichmann from Argentina in 1960 and brought him to Israel. Eichmann was tried and executed for carrying out Adolf Hitler's "final solution" to kill European Jewry.

Eitan later headed a shadowy Defense Ministry unit that recruited Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish-American naval analyst who was caught spying for Israel in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison. The affair was one of the most damaging episodes in Israel-U.S. relations.

Lee apologises to SKorean Buddhists over alleged bias

AFP, Seoul

South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak, a devout Christian, on Tuesday apologised to the nation's Buddhists following nationwide protests against alleged religious bias by his administration.

Lee was speaking at a cabinet meeting which approved regulations banning religious discrimination by public servants.

"It is deeply regrettable that some government officials offended the Buddhist community-even if they did not not mean to-with such words and behaviour as could cause misunderstanding about a religious bias," he said.

Leaders of the country's 10 million Buddhists-outnumbered by 13.7 million Christians-had threatened more mass protests unless Lee apologised.

The largest Buddhist order, the Jogye, said his remarks represented "a more sincere attitude" by the government. But it repeated demands for the sacking of the national police chief over an alleged insult to its head monk, Jigwan.

The Buddhist protests, rare in a country that guarantees freedom of religion, followed months of street rallies against US beef imports which rocked Lee's administration.

Buddhists have been uneasy over what they see as a Christian bias since Lee, a Presbyterian church elder, came to power on February 25.