The New Nation - Internet Edition

Obama plans to nominate Hillary as secretary of state

AP, Washington

President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, a new milestone for a former first lady and a convergence of two political forces who contested mightily for the presidency.

Obama transition aides described a process Thursday that appears on track to make Clinton the top diplomat in an Obama administration, just one week after the two first met in secrecy to discuss the idea. The nomination would be a remarkable union between the former first lady who was an early favorite to win the presidency and the first-term senator who upset her in the primary and cruised to a general election victory. Such a high-profile seat in the Cabinet for Clinton also would be another achievement for the most accomplished former first lady in U.S. history, who has been the first presidential spouse to serve in the Senate and run for the White House herself.

Some Democrats and government insiders have questioned whether Clinton is too independent and politically ambitious to be an effective secretary of state. But a senior Obama adviser said the president-elect has been enthusiastic about naming Clinton as secretary of state from the start, believing she would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations and that the advantages to her serving far outweighed potential downsides.

The advisers who explained Obama's plans and thinking did so on a condition of anonymity because he was not ready to formally announce his plans.

But transition aides told The Associated Press that the two camps have worked out financial disclosure issues involving Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, and the complicated international funding of his foundation that operates in more than 40 countries. The aides said Obama and Hillary Clinton have had substantive conversations about the secretary of state job. Clinton has been mulling the post for several days, but the comments from the transition aides suggested that Obama's team does not feel she is inclined to turn it down. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines would not comment, except to say that anything about Cabinet appointments is for Obama's transition team to address.

Clinton would have to surrender her New York Senate seat, which she has held for eight years, to take the job.

The president-elect also is likely to choose Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be secretary of homeland security, top Obama advisers and several Democrats said Thursday as the shape of Obama's Cabinet begins to emerge.

The Obama advisers cautioned that no final decision has been made on putting Napolitano in charge of the Homeland Security Department, the massive agency created by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But the advisers said she was easily the top contender.

Thus far, Obama has informally selected Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as health secretary. The plans could be sidetracked by unexpected glitches in the final vetting process, officials note.

Among other Cabinet posts: Senior Democrats say there is a strong possibility that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would stay temporarily and later give way to former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig. Even so, Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island also are said to be under consideration.

Democrats also say that several people remain in the running for treasury secretary, including Timothy Geithner, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Lawrence Summers, former treasury secretary and one-time Harvard University president; and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Several news organizations reported Thursday that Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, who was Obama's national campaign finance chairman, was his leading choice to become commerce secretary. However, Pritzker issued a statement Thursday saying she is not a contender for the post.

Officials say Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the former chair of White House Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton administration, is in the running for the Commerce job.

Israel maintains Gaza closure despite humanitarian concerns

AFP, Jerusalem

Israel said on Friday it will maintain its closure of the Gaza Strip despite international concern over a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent Palestinian territory.

"This decision was taken because of the continuation of Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel," said Peter Lerner, a defence ministry spokesman.

A flare-up of violence on November 4 prompted Israel to tighten a blockade it has imposed since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in Gaza in June 2007. Since the recent surge in violence, only 33 truckloads of basic supplies as well as limited quantities of fuel have been allowed into the impoverished coastal strip. The United Nations has urged Israel to reopen the crossings, saying the closure of Gaza contravenes international law. Israel insists Hamas is to blame because it has failed to halt rocket and mortar attacks in spite of a five-month-old truce.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni demanded in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday that "the international community stop applying a policy of ignoring acts of terror aimed at hurting innocent people."

Meanwhile, bakeries in the Gaza Strip will soon have to shut down for want of flour if Israel does not ease its crippling blockade of the Hamas-run territory, the bakers' association warned on Thursday. "All the bakeries will close in two days at the most if the Israeli blockade continues," the head of the association, Abdelnasser al-Ajrami, told AFP.

"Out of a total of 47 bakeries, 27 are already closed, while another 20 are only working part-time because of power cuts and a shortage of fuel."

Since a flare-up of violence on the Gaza-Israel border on November 5, Israel has tightened the blockade it first imposed on the territory when the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June last year.

Almost daily over the past fortnight, deliveries of both food and fuel for Gaza's sole power plant have been blocked.

The result has been that the territory has received neither Israeli-produced flour nor grain for its only flour mill, which was forced to shut down on Wednesday, Ajrami said.

Chicken farmers in Gaza have also been hit, with a lack of feed or fuel to heat their chickenhouses forcing them to cull hundreds of thousands of fowl, the Hamas-run agriculture ministry said.

"Yesterday in a just a single day I culled 120,000 birds because I couldn't get hold of any feed or fuel," one chicken farmer, Raed Abu Ajweh, told AFP.

"If the blockade continues, I'll have to slaughter 475,000 birds by Saturday," he added.

The UN Relief and Works Agency was still distributing food rations on Thursday to the half of Gaza's 1.5 million population who are dependent on aid rations, after Israel allowed limited amounts of food in on Monday.

But UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness warned that there was enough food left for "just another two days" of deliveries.

Cash distributions to 98,000 Gaza residents were suspended on Wednesday after Israel refused to allow the money to be brought into the territory, .

"These are some of the poorest people in the Gaza Strip," he told AFP.

Israel had been expected to ease its blockade after an Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas went into effect on June 19.

It says continuing rocket and mortar attacks have made this impossible but Hamas accuses it of failing to deliver on its side of the bargain.

An employee walks above silos at the Palestinian flour mills company in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. Bakeries in the Gaza Strip will soon have to shut down for want of flour if Israel does not ease its crippling blockade of the Hamas-run territory, the bakers' association warned on Thursday.

Blast kills 10 at Shi'ite funeral in Pakistan

Reuters, Dera Ismail Khan

A bomb attack killed at least 10 people and wounded 40 at the funeral for a Shi'ite Muslim on Friday in the northwest Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan.

The attack sparked an outbreak of shooting around the hospital where the dead and wounded were brought, and police fired tear gas in an attempt to restore order, according to journalists at the scene.

NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told Reuters 10 people were killed and up to 30 wounded, though a doctor at the main government hospital put the number of wounded at 40.

The funeral was for a man killed on Thursday, but a Shi'ite cleric was also killed on Friday morning before the funeral.

"One of our men was martyred yesterday and one today.

We were taking the coffin to the graveyard, reciting mourning hymns, when suddenly this blast happened," Tauqir Zaidi, one of the mourners, told Reuters by telephone from the hospital.

Witnesses gave conflicting accounts on whether the blast was caused by a suicide bomber or a device planted on the funeral procession's route.

Sectarian violence between militant Sunni Muslim and Shi'ite groups has plagued Dera Ismail Khan, a district bordering the South Waziristan tribal region, where support runs deep for the Taliban and al Qaeda.

A suicide bomber targeted a Shi'ite protest against the killing of one of their community leaders in Dera Ismail Khan on August 19, killing 23 people.

Both the Taliban and al Qaeda are Sunni, and some of their cohorts, like Laskhar-e-Janghvi, are rabidly anti-Shi'ite.

The majority of Pakistan's Muslims are Sunni, but around 15 percent of the 170 million nation are Shi'ite.

Thousands of people have been killed in tit-for-tat sectarian violence going back to the 1980s, and earlier this year around 200 people were killed in fighting between Sunni and Shi'ites in the Kurram tribal region.

(Additional reporting by Alamgir Bitani and Zeeshan Haider, writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Jerry Norton)

US troop pact protest paralyses Baghdad

Reuters, Baghdad

Iraqi forces shut streets in Baghdad and placed snipers on rooftops on Friday before a protest by followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr against a pact allowing U.S. troops to remain for three more years.

Scores of soldiers with armored vehicles and sniffer dogs blocked off Saadoun Street through the center of the capital ahead of the march after Friday prayers later in the day.

A few hundred early arrivals chanted "No, No USA!" They waved Iraqi flags and carried portraits of Sadr, a Shi'ite cleric who led popular uprisings against U.S. forces, in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The Iraqi government signed the pact earlier this week and parliament is expected to vote on it next week. The Sadrists oppose it outright and other groups have expressed reservations.

Senior Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji prepared for the rally under the gaze of rooftop snipers in Baghdad's central Firdos square, where U.S. troops toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein shortly after the invasion.

"Today is the day of Iraqi unity among Arabs, Kurds, all communities of Iraq, to reject the security pact. These people are coming out to prove the security pact is worthless," he told Reuters.

"Of course it will be very big," he said of the rally. "One hundred percent, it will be peaceful."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ridiculed the Sadrist stance, saying Sadrists had demanded a firm date for U.S. troops to withdraw and when he delivered it they opposed it.

The pact requires U.S. troops to leave the streets of Iraqi towns by the middle of next year and to leave the country by December 31, 2011. U.S. forces will need Iraqi warrants to arrest people and U.S. contractors will be subjected to Iraqi law.

The firm withdrawal date was a major concession from the outgoing U.S. administration of President George W. Bush, who long opposed setting any deadline, and is a sign of the increasing confidence of the Iraqi government in negotiations.

Maliki launched a crackdown on Sadr's followers earlier this year, driving his black-masked Mehdi Army fighters off the streets of Baghdad and cities of the Shi'ite south.

U.S. officials say Sadr has been in neighboring Iran since last year.

Violence in Iraq has fallen to levels unseen since the early days after the invasion. But militants are able to carry out bomb attacks. A roadside bomb at a checkpoint in Baghdad's southern Doura neighborhood killed three people and wounded 15 early on Friday.

Indian troops impose security clampdown in Kashmir

AFP, Srinagar

Thousands of Indian troops sealed off neighbourhoods in Muslim-majority Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar on Friday to prevent anti-India protests.

Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had called upon Muslims to observe a strike and hold anti-India demonstrations on Friday to "protest the arrest and harassment of pro-freedom leaders".

But authorities overnight deployed troops across Srinagar and told local residents to stay indoors.

"We are restricting civilian movement to prevent any law and order problem," police officer Pervez Ahmed told AFP.

The authorities have detained more than two dozen prominent separatists and scores of activists to prevent demonstrations against state elections being held in Indian Kashmir.

Groups opposed to Indian rule have called for a voter boycott of the polls which are being held in seven stages.

Police insisted there was no official curfew in place in Srinagar.

Sri Lanka troops capture more Tiger defences

AFP, Colombo

Security forces fought pitched battles with the Tamil Tigers and took control of more rebel defences near their political capital in northern Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said on Friday.

Troops mounted three frontal assaults against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the main battle for Kilinochchi, the de facto capital of the rebels, on Thursday, the ministry said.

The defence ministry has stopped releasing casualty details of its own troops, but said security forces recovered the bodies of two Tiger rebels killed in Thursday's clashes.

There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, but they tacitly admitted that security forces had breached the main line of defence in the far north of the island.

The military said government forces smashed a key Tamil Tiger defence line at Muhamalai in the far north and also seized an airfield, putting new pressure on the shrinking jungle mini-state.

Government troops took a near five-kilometre (three-mile) fortified bunker line from the LTTE on the Jaffna peninsula after five days of fierce fighting, the defence ministry said.

"The Sri Lanka army soldiers who were sent on offensive mission into the no-go zone in Kilali and Muhamalai were trained for a 'do-or-die mission,'" the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website reported.

It said that 130 government soldiers were killed and another 450 wounded in this week's fighting.

Sri Lankan authorities, who pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce with the rebels at the start of the year, have been on the offensive against the Tigers for several months.

Bush to promote action plan to deal with financial crisis

AP, Washington

President George W. Bush, struggling to get ahead of a global financial crisis, hopes to win more converts for an action plan designed to demonstrate that governments have the will and the means to halt the turmoil.

Embarking Friday on what could be his final overseas trip as president, Bush was headed to a summit of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru.

Bush and eight of the other leaders at the Lima meetings were also in Washington last weekend when the Group of 20, consisting of the world's richest countries and emerging powers such as China, Russia and Brazil, adopted a package of measures aimed at keeping the current crisis from pushing the global economy into a deep and prolonged recession.

But so far, investors have not been assured. Wall Street fell on Thursday to its lowest point since the current crisis hit more than a year ago. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 400 points for a second straight day, to close at to 7,552, the lowest level in more than five years, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell below lows established six years ago, to 752.

But the White House insists that it is pursuing the right course and believes that enlisting more countries' endorsement of the G-20 action plan will eventually work at restoring market stability.

Before APEC leaders' discussions get under way on Saturday, Bush will hold a series of one-on-one talks with other countries starting with a meeting Friday with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

In addition to the financial crisis, Bush was scheduled to talk to Hu about international efforts to persuade North Korea to recommit to an agreement that offers it diplomatic and economic concessions in exchange for nuclear disarmament, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters at a pretrip briefing.

Bush was also taking up that issue on Saturday when he meets with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, Johndroe said.

Bush also was to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev before he departs Sunday, but perhaps emphasizing the frosty relations between the two countries at the moment, the exact time for those discussions remained up in the air.

Both Hu and Medvedev attended the G-20 talks last weekend in Washington and Bush was seeking their support in gaining endorsement of the action plan at the APEC meetings.

With both leaders, Bush will discuss the progress being made on the financial crisis action plan and various foreign policy issues.

With Hu, Bush will discuss international efforts to persuade North Korea to recommit to an agreement that offers it diplomatic and economic concessions in exchange for nuclear disarmament, Johndroe said. That issue also will come up in Bush's talks with the leaders of Japan and South Korea.

With Medvedev, tensions over Georgia and U.S. plans to establish missile interceptors in Eastern Europe will be on the agenda, Johndroe said.

While White House aides said that the other leaders were likely to take note in some way that their discussions were marking Bush's last international summit, they stressed that the president was not viewing the trip as some sort of farewell tour but an opportunity to advance his goals in the closing days of his presidency.

"The president has long advocated a core number of principles and policies that have attracted broad support in the global community," said Daniel Price, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. "They include the power of free trade and free markets to better the lives of people and create economic opportunity."

Indian PM appeals against caste, religious divisions

AFP, New Delhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged Indians on Friday to reject centuries of ethnic and religious divisions, warning they would be manipulated by politicians to fracture the country.

His comments follow a rise in communal and ethnic tensions among India's masses in the form of politically motivated violence, sectarian riots and bomb attacks. "Competitive politics must not be allowed to divide our people on the basis of religion, caste or region," Singh told a gathering of prominent Indians in New Delhi.

"Stop identifying yourself in terms of how the past has shaped you," he said.

"Who looks at our nuclear scientists or space engineers in terms of their narrow social identities or their religious beliefs?" Singh asked the audience.

"Who asks them what their caste is or religion is? Who asks what their language is or region is? We only ask what their achievement is. It is their work that defines them."

Singh's remarks come as Indian police were investigating whether Hindu militants along with a senior army officer have been involved in a series of terror strikes in the country that began last year.

The probe has been rejected by India's main Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party as "politically motivated".

In September, India was slammed for anti-Christian attacks in the country's east, where more than 30 Christians have been killed by militant Hindus.

The country has also seen several attacks on migrant workers from poorer states in the western state of Maharashtra while a spate of unsolved bombings across India has claimed around 200 lives this year alone.

In his speech, Singh listed education, health care and basic amenities coupled with poverty eradication as the challenges before India today as he urged people to shun "extremist ideologies, political or economic".

In a message directed at the political leadership, Singh said people were seeking "well-being and sustainable livelihoods but they also seek fundamental freedomst

"People seek freedom from tyranny in all its manifestations. They wish to be governed by the rule of law," he said.

He warned the world was watching India's efforts to rid itself of "chronic poverty, ignorance and disease within the framework of a democratic polity".