The New Nation - Internet Edition

Palin blames Bush policies for defeat in poll

AP, Wasilla

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, amid speculation she'll run for president in four years, blamed Bush administration policies for the defeat last week of the GOP ticket and prayed she wouldn't miss "an open door" for her next political opportunity.

"I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door," Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. "And if there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door." In a wide-ranging interview with Fox's Greta Van Susteren, Palin says she neither wanted nor asked for the $150,000-plus wardrobe the Republican Party bankrolled, and thought the issue was an odd one at the end of the campaign, considering "what is going on in the world today."

"I did not order the clothes. Did not ask for the clothes," Palin said. "I would have been happy to have worn my own clothes from Day One. But that is kind of an odd issue, an odd campaign issue as things were wrapping up there as to who ordered what and who demanded what."

"It's amazing that we did as well as we did," Palin, who was Sen. John McCain's running mate, said of the election in a separate interview with the Anchorage Daily News.

"I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we're talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing," Palin said in a story published Sunday.

Palin has scheduled a series of national interviews this week with Fox, NBC's "Today" show and CNN. She also plans to attend the Republican Governors Association conference in Florida this week.

Palin has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. She also could seek re-election in 2010 or challenge Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Still uncertain is the fate of Sen. Ted Stevens, who is leading in his bid for another term but could be ousted by the Senate for his conviction on seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, mostly renovations on his home.

Pak President seeks new US policy

AP, Islamabad

Pakistan's leader said Monday he expects President-elect Barack Obama to re-evaluate the need for U.S. military strikes on al-Qaida and Taliban targets on Pakistan's side of the Afghan border.

In an interview with The Associated Press, President Asif Ali Zardari warned that the surge in missile attacks since August was hurting Pakistan's own fight against the militants - a campaign he said was succeeding nonetheless.

The 52-year-old president is under intense U.S. pressure to take firmer action against militants in the rugged and lawless northwest border zone, a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and what many consider to be the global front line in the fight against al-Qaida.

In what is seen as a sign of American frustration with Islamabad's perceived inability to deal with the militants, the U.S. military is believed to have carried out at least 18 missile attacks on suspected militant targets close to the border in Pakistan since August.

The missiles are believed to be fired from unmanned planes launched in Afghanistan, where some 32,000 U.S. troops are fighting a resurgent Taliban insurgency.

Zardari said he believed Obama would re-examine that strategy, but acknowledged that the Democrat - who struck a sometimes-hawkish tone on dealing with Pakistan during the election - may continue with the attacks.

Obama has openly supported U.S. strikes in the lawless and rugged border region, and has questioned whether Pakistan has done enough to fight militants despite receiving billions of dollars in U.S. aid since 2001.

During the campaign, Obama said if he is elected, he could launch unilateral attacks on high-value terrorist targets in Pakistan as they become exposed and "if Pakistan cannot or will not act" against them.

Sri Lankan troops take rebel town

AFP, Colombo

Government forces in Sri Lanka have wrestled control of a small town from Tamil Tiger rebels in an ongoing military offensive, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.

Troops fighting to secure a strategic road along the coast to the northern peninsula of Jaffna have faced stiff resistance from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The ministry said that the soldiers had taken Palavi, a small town on the road. It described the town as an LTTE "strongpoint."

Security forces have said they are advancing on Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Tamil rebels, though their plans have been delayed due to Tamil defence action and monsoon rains.

Military sources said fighting has raged in the northern regions with both sides suffering casualties, though no details were available.

Jaffna, an area of 2,300 square kilometres (900 square miles) was taken from the Tigers in 1995, but the lack of land access meant that it has had to be supplied via expensive sea and air routes.

Tens of thousands of people have died on both sides of the conflict since 1972, when the LTTE launched its campaign to carve out an independent state in the Sinhalese-majority island of 20 million people.

Israel poisoned Arafat, nephew claims

AFP, Ramallah

A relative of Yasser Arafat insisted on Monday that the Palestinian leader who died four years ago this week was poisoned by Israel.

"Every day there are statements and clues about the elimination of Arafat and every day we draw closer to the poisoning theory," Nasser al-Qidwa, a nephew of the late Palestinian leader, told AFP.

"In a year or two, the nature of the poison administered to Yasser Arafat and the procedure used will be known," said Qidwa, who heads the Yasser Arafat foundation.

"In any case, Israel is responsible for his death. There were preparations to get rid of the political leadership of the Palestinian people."

The precise cause of Arafat's death on November 11, 2004 remain unknown, but several Palestinian leaders are convinced he was poisoned by Israel, which emphatically denies the claim.

Thousands of people are expected to take part in ceremonies to mark the fourth anniversary of Arafat's death in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday.

Australian PM faces censure over Bush 'G20’ call

Reuters, Canberra

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd faced censure on Tuesday over accusations he was behind news reports about a phone call with U.S. President George W. Bush in which Bush appeared unaware of the G20 group of rich nations.

Just days before traveling to Washington for a financial crisis summit called by Bush, Rudd used his parliamentary dominance to defeat rival accusations he or a senior adviser had painted the outgoing U.S. leader as a "fool."

"The prime minister's fingerprints are all over this. Every letter, every paragraph, is dripping with his DNA," conservative opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull told lawmakers.

Israel must give up land for peace: Olmert

AFP, Jerusalem

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday that Israel must give up most of the Arab territories it has occupied since 1967, including east Jerusalem, if it wants peace.

"This government, any government, owes it to tell the truth and that truth will force us to separate from many parts of the homeland in Judaea and Samaria (the West Bank), in Jerusalem and on the Golan Heights," Olmert said in a speech to parliament. "There were times when we wanted to seal our presence on every inch of land-and I was one of those people-but we were wrong." Olmert was addressing a special session of parliament convened to mark the 13th anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist opposed to any territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Earlier at a ceremony attended by leading Israeli politicians at Rabin's graveside in Jerusalem's Mount Herzl cemetery, Olmert made similar remarks about the need to give up land for peace.

New Maldives President sworn in

AFP, Male

A former political prisoner who unseated Asia's longest-serving leader as president of the Maldives was sworn into office Tuesday, taking charge of a nation he fears could soon disappear.

Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed, 41, took his oath of office at a ceremony televised live from a convention centre in the capital island Male where he began his pro-democracy campaign in 1990 as a journalist for an underground magazine. He was in and out of jail for a period of six years under former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had led the nation for 30 years before he allowed democratic reforms and was beaten in an October 28 run-off election. Nasheed has already hit the headlines with his idea to take out insurance in case the Indian Ocean atoll nation, a top luxury tourism getaway, is swamped by rising sea levels. A one-metre (3.3-foot) rise would almost totally submerge the country's 1,192 coral islands scattered off the southern tip of India.

British PM calls on US to reject protectionism

AP, London

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the United States on Monday to avoid moves toward protectionism in response to the world financial crisis, but said London will be Washington's closest ally in dealing with the slowdown.

Brown, who joins fellow leaders of the Group of 20 world economies at a summit in Washington on Saturday, said in a speech that President-elect Barack Obama can lead radical reforms of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other global institutions.

"As America stands at its own dawn of hope, so let that hope be fulfilled through a pact with the wider world to lead and shape the 21st century as the century of a truly global society," Brown said.

"The alliance between Britain and America - and more broadly between Europe and America - can and must provide leadership," Brown added.