The New Nation - Internet Edition

Democrats headed toward big gains in House, Senate

AP, Washington

Democrats are on track for sizable gains in both houses of Congress on Nov. 4, according to strategists in both parties, although only improbable Southern victories can produce the 60-vote Senate majority they covet to help them pass priority legislation.

A poor economy, President Bush's unpopularity, a lopsided advantage in fundraising and Barack Obama's robust organizational effort in key states are all aiding Democrats in the final days of the congressional campaign.

"I don't think anybody realized it was going to be this tough" for Republicans, Sen. John Ensign, chairman of the party's senatorial campaign committee said recently. "We're dealing with an unpopular president (and) we have a financial crisis," he added.

"You've got Republican incumbent members of the Congress" trying to run away from Bush's economic policies, said Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who chairs the House Democratic campaign committee. "And they can't run fast enough. I think it will catch up with many of them."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California predicted recently that Democrats would win at least 14 House seats in Republican hands.

But numerous strategists in both parties agreed a gain of at least 20 seems likely and a dozen or more GOP-held seats are in doubt. Only a handful of Democratic House seats appear in any sort of jeopardy. They spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying they were relying on confidential polling data.

Meanwhile, Democrat Barack Obama's lead over Republican rival John McCain has grown to 12 points in the US presidential race, with crucial independent and female voters increasingly moving to his side, according to the latest poll.

With less than two weeks before the November 4 election, Senator Obama leads Senator McCain 52 per cent to 40 per cent among likely voters in the latest three-day tracking poll, which had a margin of error of 2.9 points.

Senator Obama has made steady gains over the past four days and has tripled his lead on Senator McCain in the past week of polling.

"Obama's expansion is really across the board," pollster John Zogby said. "It seems to be among almost every demographic group."

The Illinois Senator saw his lead among women - who are expected to play a decisive role in this election - increase to 18 points from 16 points.

And independent voters, who have been the target of intense campaign efforts by both sides, have now swung behind Senator Obama by a 30-point margin, 59 per cent to 29 per cent.

Mr Zogby said Senator McCain, 72, appeared to have lost the traction he won after the third and final presidential debate last week.

"McCain can still try to turn it around, but he has to find focus," Mr Zogby said, adding that economic issues, which dominated the campaign amid turmoil in the credit, housing and financial markets, still appeared to be working in Senator Obama's favor.

Other recent national polls have given Senator Obama a narrower lead, but Mr Zogby said he was confident in his sampling methods.

1,500 militants, 73 Pak troops killed in offensive: US training Pakistani forces to fight Taliban

AFP, Khar

Pakistani forces have killed 1,500 Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants during a two-month operation in a remote tribal zone, while 73 troops have also been killed, the military said Saturday.

In the offensive launched in early August in the troubled region of Bajaur, bordering Afghanistan, troops also captured a major strategic town at the centre of militant supply routes, it said.

Islamabad has previously hailed its operation in Bajaur as proof that it is responding to US and Afghan demands to take action against extremists in Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal areas.

"More than 1,500 militants have been killed during the operation and security forces have gained major successes," Major General Tariq Khan, head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), told reporters visiting the region.

"Some 42 army men and 31 FC men embraced martyrdom," Khan told a press conference in Khar, the main town in Bajaur, adding that "172 regular troops were injured while 95 FC men were wounded in the fighting".

He said the key town of Loisam, whose capture by hundreds of militants in early August sparked the operation, "has been captured after stiff resistance".

Another reports adds: U.S. special forces have begun teaching a Pakistani paramilitary unit how to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida, hoping to strengthen a key front-line force as violence surges on both sides of the border with Afghanistan.

The sensitive mission puts rare American boots on the ground in a key theater in the war against extremist groups, but it risks fanning anti-U.S. sentiment among Pakistani Muslims already angry over suspected CIA missile attacks on militants in the same frontier region.

"The American special forces failed in Afghanistan and Iraq," said Ameerul Azim, an official in the hard-line Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami. "Those who failed everywhere cannot train our people."

Despite such complaints, the training program comes as some tribes in the frontier zone are setting up militias to help the Pakistani government combat extremist movements. The new forces have been compared to the Sunni Arab militias in Iraq that helped beat back the insurgency there.

Still, the U.S. training program is reportedly smaller than originally proposed and was delayed, apparently reflecting misgivings in Pakistan's government about allowing U.S. troops on its territory.

Russia's foreign ministry slams US sanctions

AFP, Moscow

Russia warned Friday that US sanctions on a Russian firm accused of defying a ban on sales of sensitive military technology to Iran will affect talks between world powers on Tehran's nuclear programme.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained in a press conference that Washington's unilateral approach was "inadmissible," not based on international law and threatened to wreck Iranian cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Russia's foreign ministry described the sanctions against Rosoboronexport are an "unfriendly act which cannot but have negative consequences as regards our dialogue with Washington, in particular in discussions between the Six," a statement said.

Thirteen foreign firms, including Russia's biggest arms exporter, were listed Friday in the US State Department's Federal Register as being "engaged in activities that warrant imposition of measures" under its Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-Proliferation Act.

The United States says the sanctions-also targeting firms from China, Syria and and Venezuela among other countries-are meant to punish the firms for sales that have "potential to make a material contribution to the development of weapons of mass destruction or cruise or ballistic missile systems."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meanwhile accused the US of seeking to apply domestic legislation in the international arena.

"These sanctions have been introduced without any international legal basis," Lavrov told a press conference, adding they were an example of "overseas application of American laws.

"If someone in Washington thinks the United States will achieve reconciliation with Russia and will obtain acceptance of the US approach to solving the Iran problem, they are mistaken.

"This approach (the sanctions) is inadmissible. We are going to try and put an end to such a tactic, incompatible with the new realities of the modern world and which flows from a unipolar world view.

"All our economic and military cooperation with Iran is done in strict conformity to international legal norms.

"We are going to continue speak on behalf of the ongoing work of the IAEA in Iran and against severe measures enviseaged by some of our partners which threaten to halt Iranian cooperation with the IAEA and provoke a crisis," he said.

On Wednesday, Lavrov warned Howard Berman, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the US House of Representatives, that unilateral sanctions against Iran would be "counterproductive" in efforts to force Tehran to suspend its sensitive nuclear fuel work.

The United States and its European allies had pushed for new, tougher sanctions against Tehran but ran into resistance from Russia-among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council-and China.

47 killed in Yemen storms

AFP, Sanaa

Airborne rescue operations swung into action on Saturday in Yemen after floods killed 41 people and six more died after being struck by lightning in fierce storms that swept the country, officials said.

The latest toll from emergency services and local authorities received by AFP said 41 people died in flooding fed by torrential downpours that hit the provinces of Hadramaut and Mahara on Thursday and Friday.

At least six aircraft took off from the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday carrying tents, food and medicine for the Hadramaut capital Al-Mukalla and Mahara, airport officials said.

"Other airlifts are scheduled for later in the day," one official said, adding that public and private organisations had joined ranks to help the victims of the disaster.

Authorities said four people were killed by lightning in the southern provinces of Tayez and Lahj, and a mother and son also died when struck by lightning in the Al-Mahwit region north of the capital Sanaa.

Rescue coordinators said that among the victims were seven people who perished in Al-Mukalla, the capital of Hadramaut which is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea.

Both Hadramaut and Mahra were officially declared disaster zones on Friday. Bad weather continued to batter southeastern coastal regions on Saturday as the airlift into the stricken areas began.

On Friday, military helicopters and others operated by oil firms battled strong winds as they fought to rescue thousands of people stranded by the floods, according to one emergency official.

Local authorities said that more than 500 houses were destroyed across Hadramaut province, where 3,500 families were made homeless, and that flooding also caused heavy damage to roads and power and water distribution networks.

An official told AFP that among the affected areas was the UNESCO world heritage site of Shibam which was totally cut off by the flood waters and its historic buildings were threatened with collapse.

Shibam, with more than 20,000 residents, is famed for its high-rise mudbrick buildings that have given the town the nickname of "the Manhattan of the desert."

The oil-rich United Arab Emirates said on Friday that it would provide Yemen with emergency aid.

China burns milk products in giant furnaces

Reuters, Beijing

China has burned 32,200 tones of melamine-tainted dairy products in a bid to put a health scandal in which tens of thousands of infants fell ill stones behind it.

State television showed boxes and packets of milk powder and baby formula being shoveled into giant furnaces in Shijiazhuang in the northern province of Hebei, where the scandal broke in September.

The goods were being burned in four cement factories and two iron and steel factories.

China began reviewing a tougher draft food safety law on Thursday following criticism from the United Nations over its sluggish response to the health scandal.

China approved in principle a new food safety law last October following a raft of scandals involving unsafe toothpaste, seafood and pet food, among other products.

The country has since seen four children die and thousands of others made ill from drinking milk formula adulterated with melamine, which was subsequently found in other drinks and foods, prompting Chinese-made products to be stripped from shelves worldwide.

More than 3,000 children remain in hospital in China.

Two Koreas agree to hold military talks

AFP, Seoul

North and South Korea on Saturday agreed to hold talks next week to discuss improving military hotlines between the two nations, the defence ministry here said.

"The South and the North agreed to hold working-level military talks at 10 a.m. on Monday," the ministry said in a press statement.

"The two sides will discuss the issue of improving military telecommunication lines and other issues to be raised by each side," it said.

The meeting will occur in an area jointly managed by the sides in the western part of their border border, through which a cross-border railway runs.

The two Koreas currently have nine military hotlines, one of which is out of service due to technical problems, Yonhap news agency said.

Inter-Korean military talks on October 2, held after months of frosty relations, ended without progress.

The North threatened at the talks to evict all South Koreans from a joint industrial estate at the North's Kaesong City unless Seoul stopped defector groups spreading cross-border propaganda leaflets.

North Korea has cut off almost all forms of official dialogue with the South since the conservative government of President Lee Myung-Bak took office in February and adopted a hardline stance against the North.

North Korea often turns such military talks into a propaganda session.

Global crisis threatens to undo all UN's work: Ban Ki-moon

Reuters, United Nations

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned his top lieutenants on Friday that the global financial crisis jeopardized everything the United Nations has done to help the world's poor and hungry.

"It threatens to undermine all our achievements and all our progress," Ban told a meeting of U.N. agency chiefs devoted to the crisis. "Our progress in eradicating poverty and disease. Our efforts to fight climate change and promote development. To ensure that people have enough to eat."

At a meeting also attended by the heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Ban said the credit crunch that has stunned markets worldwide compounded the food crisis, the energy crisis and Africa's development crisis.

"It could be the final blow that many of the poorest of the world's poor simply cannot survive," he added, in one of his bleakest assessments of the impact of the financial turmoil.

In a statement after the meeting, Ban picked up a theme he has stressed since the crisis erupted last month, that it should not be allowed to hit hardest "those least responsible"-the poor in developing countries.

The U.N. chief told reporters he would put that case to a financial summit in Washington on November 15 by U.S. called by President George W. Bush.

Ban has been invited to that gathering along with leaders of the G20 -- the Group of Seven top industrial democracies and key emerging economies.

Livni fails to get shah's party backing

AP, Jerusalem

An ultra-Orthodox party announced Friday it will not join a new coalition government being formed by prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni, making it more likely Israel will soon hold national elections.

Eli Yishai, leader of the Shas Party, said Livni did not agree to his party's demands for the allocation of more funds to poor Israelis and for a commitment that parts of Jerusalem will not be ceded to the Palestinians. "Our decision is not to join because our demands were not met," he said.

A Shas statement said the rabbis who control the party, known as the Council of Torah Sages, decided that Shas "will not be able to join the government under these conditions." Elections would throw Israel's political system into disarray and likely freeze the peace talks Israel is holding with the Palestinians and with Syria.

Current polls show that the likely winner would be the hardline Likud Party, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Livni replaced the outgoing prime minister, Ehud Olmert, as head of Israel's ruling party last month and is trying to cobble together a new government. Shas, with 12 seats in Israel's 120-seat legislature, would be a key acquisition and give her a majority in parliament alongside her other coalition partners.

If Shas sticks to its refusal, Livni will be left with two options: trying to form a slim coalition with the help of smaller ultra-Orthodox and dovish parties or calling early elections this spring.

Livni said Thursday that if she did not have a new coalition government by Sunday she would call elections. In response to the Shas announcement, Livni spokesman Gil Messing said Friday only that her ultimatum "remained true today."