The New Nation - Internet Edition

Rockets and gunfire on Gaza border as truce ends

AFP, Gaza City

Tension surged in and around Gaza on Friday as the Islamist rulers of the besieged Palestinian enclave declared an end to the troubled truce with Israel and warned they would respond to any attack.

Shortly after the armed wing of Hamas formally announced the shaky six-month truce was over, the smaller Islamic Jihad group said it fired three rockets at Israel, which reported no damage or casualties.

Security sources also reported that an Israeli driving a tractor in a field just outside Gaza was targeted by Palestinian gunmen but was not hit. At dawn, Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said: "The ceasefire is over and there won't be a renewal because the Zionist enemy has not respected its conditions."

Both Hamas and Israel have said they would respond if attacked, but neither has said it would go on the offensive at this stage.

"We issue a warning to the Zionist enemy: all attacks against the Gaza Strip or any new crime will trigger a large-scale confrontation and we will retaliate very fiercely," said a statement on the website of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. Israeli media highlighted the increased state of alert among security forces and communities around the Gaza Strip, but also uncertainty about the risk of an escalation of violence. "Hamas continues to maintain ambiguity," the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said. "If causing the situation to deteriorate will serve its immediate interests it will open fire even without declarations."

Several newspapers said the Israeli defence establishment was not eager for battle at this stage.

"There are myriad arguments against a war in Gaza, but the strongest is the one defence officials can't utter aloudt It would be hard to go into Gaza at the height of an election campaign," the liberal Haaretz daily said.

Israel scheduled legislative elections on February 10 after scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert presented his resignation in September.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has stressed that he sees no urgency in launching a large-scale military intervention in Gaza. The truce had been uneasy ever since it went into effect on June 19, and violence has increased since early November, with 18 Palestinians killed and Israel reporting more than 250 rocket and mortar attacks.

On Wednesday two people were wounded when a rocket exploded near a large supermarket in Sderot, an Israeli city just a few kilometres (miles) from Gaza.

Israeli forces launched several air strikes and killed one Palestinian while Gaza militants fired a barrage of rockets on Wednesday and again on Thursday.

Shoe-tossing reporter appears beaten: Iraqi judge

AP, Baghdad

The investigating judge in the case of the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at President George W. Bush says the man shows signs of being beaten.

Judge Dhia al-Kinani said Friday that the journalist had bruises on his face and around his eyes.

The journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, was wrestled to the ground after throwing the shoes during a Sunday news conference with Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Zeidi is in custody and is expected to eventually face charges of insulting a foreign leader.

The judge says the journalist has not raised a formal charge relating to his injuries. He also confirmed that al-Zeidi has written a letter to al-Maliki requesting a pardon.

Another report adds: The head of a large West Bank family wants to reward the Iraqi journalist who lobbed his shoes at President George W. Bush by sending him a bride.

Ahmad Salim Judeh says if journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi is interested the family is willing to send one of their daughters to Iraq along with her dowry.

The 75-year-old Judeh says doing so "would be our honor." He also said Friday that the 500-member clan had raised $30,000 for al-Zeidi's legal defense.

Al-Zeidi has become something of a folk hero in the Middle East since throwing his shoes at Bush at a Baghdad press conference Sunday. News stations across the Arab world have repeatedly shown footage of the incident.

Al-Zeidi is unmarried.

Amnesty slams Indian anti-terror law

AP, New Delhi

Amnesty International on Friday slammed India's new anti-terror legislation to beef up police powers in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, saying it violates international human rights treaties.

The London-based human rights group called on India's president not to approve the legislation, which would double the number of days police can detain terror suspects before filing charges, from 90 days to 180, as well as boost their powers to conduct searches.

Both houses of India's Parliament passed the bill this week, following last month's attacks on Mumbai by suspected Islamic terrorists that killed 164 people. It now needs President Pratibha Patil's approval before becoming law.

"While we utterly condemn the attacks and recognize that the Indian authorities have a right and duty to take effective measures to ensure the security of the population, security concerns should never be used to jeopardize people's human rights," Madhu Malhotra, Asia Pacific Program Deputy Director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

Officials at India's Home Ministry, which drafted the bill, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

The government's top law enforcement official, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, defended the bill in Parliament on Wednesday as providing an "adequate balance" between "the demands of human rights and the people of India for strong anti-terror laws."

The Mumbai attacks revealed glaring gaps in the nation's security systems and a shaky intelligence apparatus that missed several warning signs of the siege, which lasted for three days and paralyzed much of India's financial capital.

The anti-terror bill, which was sent to Parliament along with a bill to create an FBI-style national investigation agency, was meant to beef up the powers of India's police and judicial system to combat terrorists.

But Amnesty said the process was hasty and would likely undermine the rule of law and violate international human rights treaties. It did not specify the treaties.

In particular, Amnesty raised concerns about the sweeping definition of terrorism, extending the detention of suspects by up to 180 days, denying bail to foreigners who enter the country illegally, and the requirements, in certain circumstances, for the accused to prove their innocence.

It also condemned giving courts the right to close proceedings to the public.

Communist opposition parties had called for changes to the bill, fearing human rights abuses, but ultimately voted in favor.

"To detain a person for up to 180 days will be an infringement of his human rights. We are against it," Basudeb Acharia, a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) told The Associated Press.

Russia to cut arms if US drops missile defence

AP, Moscow

A news report is quoting a senior Russian general as saying that the military will cut some weapons programs if the United States drops its missile defense plans.

The Interfax news agency is quoting Col.-Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov as saying that the Russian armed forces wouldn't need some expensive weapons programs if the U.S. doesn't go ahead with its plans to deploy missile defense sites in Europe.

Solovtsov's statement on Friday was the latest expression of the Kremlin's hope that Barack Obama's administration may reverse the plan to build missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. Russia has fiercely opposed the plan and promised to deploy missiles next to Poland if the U.S. goes ahead with the plan.

Meanwhile, NATO and Russia were to resume high-level talks Friday, four months after they were frozen over the war in Georgia, with Moscow demanding that all points of discord be raised.

"Everything has to be put on the table," Russian ambassador Dmitry Rogozin told AFP.

on the eve of his "confidential" informal lunch talks with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at alliance headquarters in Brussels.

NATO foreign ministers agreed on December 2 "on a measured and phased approach" for resuming talks in the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), which meets at ambassadorial, ministerial and head of government levels.

The talks were put on ice in August due to Russia's war in Georgia, but technical and working-level discussions have continued.

The ministers gave Scheffer a mandate "to re-engage with Russia at the political level" and agreed to a resumption of informal discussions in the NRC, with a full return to formal talks only possible after he reports back.

Rogozin said Moscow was "ready" for an informal NATO-Russia Council to be held later-officials say this is unlikely before January at the earliest-and that its possible agenda could be discussed Friday.

Being a rebel is easier than governing, says Nepal PM

Reuters, Kathmandu

Leading a rebellion was a lot easier than running a country, Nepal's guerrilla chief-turned-prime minister was quoted as saying on Friday.

"Sometimes I feel it was more comfortable during the people's war," the 54-year-old Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, was quoted as saying by the Nepali newspaper Kantipur on Friday.

Prachanda, the nom de guerre meaning "fierce", led a decade-long civil war against Nepal's former monarchy before joining the political mainstream in 2006.

He became premier after an April vote won by the Maoists on a promise of a "new Nepal", but it hasn't been easy running one of the world's poorest countries.

More than a third of Nepal's 27 million people live on less that a dollar a day.

Prachanda has been criticised by political parties on all sides for failing to provide relief to Nepalis.

Hardline Maoists are pressing Prachanda for a more "revolutionary" policy, while the centrist opposition and some of his own coalition partners criticise him for failing to return property seized by Maoists during the 1996-2006 civil war.

"There was comfort during the people's war, no tension," Rajdhani, another Nepali daily, quoted him as saying after a meeting with newspaper editors on Thursday.

Rights groups estimate 13,000 people were killed during the 1996-2006 war, during which the Maoists regularly bombed major infrastructure such as power plants and bridges.

Sri Lanka steps up air attacks against Tiger rebels

AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's air force Friday stepped up strikes on Tamil Tiger positions in the island's north as ground battles subsided due to heavy rains, military officials said.

Aircraft carried out half a dozen raids around Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an air force official said.

"We have carried out six missions around Kilinochchi this morning in support of ground troops," the official said. He had no immediate details of casualties.

Elsewhere, helicopter gunships Friday attacked a cluster of rebel boats in the northern area of Kilalli, "inflicting maximum damage," air force spokesman Janaka Nanayakkara said.

Military officials said infantry battles had slowed in the past two days because of rains as well as intense battles earlier in the week when both sides suffered heavy losses.

The LTTE has said that it had repelled a multi-pronged offensive by government forces, killing 170 soldiers and wounding 420 Tuesday and Wednesday.

The military rejected the rebel claims and said it lost only 25 soldiers and placed rebel losses at 120 killed and 250 wounded.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has been predicting the imminent fall of Kilinochchi for months, and the military recently said it was within "kissing distance" of the town.

In January the Sri Lankan government pulled out of a 2002 Norwegian-brokered truce.

The rebels have been fighting since 1972 for a state for ethnic minority Tamils separate from the majority Sinhalese community.

Bush, Abbas to assess negotiations with Israel

AP, Washington

President George W. Bush and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas are assessing the stalled U.S.-backed negotiations with Israel that will almost certainly fail to meet a year-end deadline for a peace deal.

In what is likely their last face-to-face talks before Bush leaves office next month, Bush and Abbas are to meet Friday, days after the U.N. Security Council endorsed the administration's Annapolis peace process. The president launched the signature initiative on Mideast relations with Abbas and outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in November 2007.

Bush had his final meeting with Olmert last month. The White House says Bush wants to discuss developments in the process as well as efforts to assist the Palestinians with preparations for eventual statehood, including building institutions of governance, boosting economic development and training and deploying Palestinian security forces.

Ahead of the meeting, Abbas had scheduled a working dinner Thursday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The secretary has said she believes the Annapolis process is the best way to seal a long-elusive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, and she has encouraged President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration to carry it forward.

"The secretary has committed to continue to work on this process" until Obama and his team take over on Jan. 20, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.

"It is still t worth continuing to work on this effort to continue to try to make progress," he said, adding, however that "the next administration is going to have to decide how it deals with this issue, to what extent it uses or doesn't use the Annapolis process that's in place."

There has been speculation that Obama's team, which includes members of former President Bill Clinton's administration who worked closely on Mideast issues, may want to adopt a new strategy in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

However, Obama's choice for national security adviser, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, has been involved in the Annapolis process, overseeing elements of Palestinian security arrangements in the West Bank.

Bush launched the process at a Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., in November 2007. During the meetings, Abbas and Olmert agreed to try to clinch a deal by the end of this year.

But ongoing violence, the situation in Gaza, which is controlled by the militant Hamas group, and internal political developments in Israel have made the deadline unreachable.

Instead, the Bush administration has tried to lock in the Annapolis process by enshrining it in the international system and public consciousness. This week, Rice attended a U.N. Security Council meeting at which the panel endorsed the process as irreversible and urged the two parties to continue talking under its guidelines.

"There can be no turning back the clock," Rice told the council. "We have to continue on the chosen path."

Japan launches first solar cargo ship

AFP, Tokyo

The world's first cargo ship partly propelled by solar power took to the seas on Friday in Japan, aiming to cut fuel costs and carbon emissions when automakers export their products.

Auriga Leader, a freighter developed by shipping line Nippon Yusen K.K. and oil distributor Nippon Oil Corp., took off from a shipyard in the western city of Kobe, officials of the two firms said.

The huge freighter capable of carrying 6,400 automobiles is equipped with 328 solar panels at a cost of 150 million yen (1.68 million dollars), the officials said. The ship will initially transport vehicles being sent for sale overseas by Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp. The project was conceived before the global economic crisis, which has forced automakers to drastically cut production as sales dwindle.

Company officials said the 60,213-tonne, 200-metre (660-foot) long ship is the first large vessel in the world with a solar-based propulsion system. So far solar energy has been limited to supporting lighting and crew's living quarters.

The solar power system can generate 40 kilowatts, which would initially cover only 0.2 percent of the ship's energy consumption for propulsion.

but company officials said they hoped to raise the ratio.

India successfully tests supersonic cruise missile

Reuters, New Delhi

India successfully tested a supersonic cruise missile from a moving ship for the first time on Thursday, in what officials said was a major boost for the South Asian nation's defence capabilities.

The launch comes at a time of heightened tension between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947, over last month's Mumbai attacks.

Indian defence officials said the launch had been planned well before the Mumbai attacks, which India blames on Islamist militants operating in Pakistan. The Brahmos missile, named after India's Brahmaputra river and Russia's Moscow river, can travel at up to 2.8 times the speed of sound and has a range of 290 kmhan, according to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

"The launch from a moving frontline naval platform in the Bay of Bengal was very successful and we are thrilled as this is very significant," DRDO official Suranjan Pal told Reuters, adding that the launch took months of planning.

India, which has the world's fourth-largest military, plans to fit the missile in several ships, the DRDO said in a statement.

Gates orders plan for closing Guantanamo

AFP, Washington

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered aides to draw up plans for closing the "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo, a declared priority for President-elect Barack Obama, a spokesman said Thursday.

Gates wanted to be ready in case Obama decides to take action on Guantanamo soon after assuming office next month, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.

"He has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down, what will be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility, and at the same time protect the American people from dangerous terrorists," he said.

"The request has been made, his team is working on it so he can be prepared to assist the president-elect should he wish to address this very early in his tenure," Morrell said.

The prison, which currently has about 250 inmates, was opened in early 2002 at a remote US naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba as a way of holding detainees beyond the reach of US courts.

Among those held there are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged operational mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, and other alleged senior leaders of Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups.

Prisoners captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan during and after the US-led overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan were flown to Guantanamo in orange jumpsuits and hoods, and held initially in primitive conditions.

Since then, nearly 800 detainees from around the Muslim world and Europe have done time in Guantanamo, which grew over time into a state-of-the-art maximum security complex.

Allegations of abuses, the use of harsh interrogation practices and indefinite detentions of "enemy combatants" without charges made it a symbol to many around the world of US excesses in the "war on terror."

"I think we can provide alternatives to it," Gates said in an interview that aired late Wednesday on PBS television.

"I would like to see it closed. And I think it will be a high priority for the new administration," he said.

But he said closing the prison will require passage of laws to prevent dangerous detainees from being released in the United States.

"As an example, you probably want something in legislation that says if somebody is freed from Guantanamo, they don't have an automatic right to asylum in the United States," he said.

"Some of these people are very dangerous. And we don't want them coming here into the United States," he said.

Another impediment to quickly closing the detention center has been getting countries to take prisoners that are no longer considered a threat, Gates said.

"It partly depends on statute. It partly depends on how quickly we can return some of these people-can persuade other countries to take some of these prisoners back," he said.

Some 60 prisoners are still awaiting transfer or release to their home countries, despite US efforts to repatriate them to reduce the prison population.

The fate of a special legal regime created for trying terrorist suspects before military tribunals is another major unanswered question awaiting the new administration.

Obama suggested during the campaign he would close down the military trials, but the Pentagon has pushed ahead with them, including that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others who have vowed to plead guilty to capital charges. If convicted, they could face the death penalty.

Legal fight planned over Ill. governor wiretaps

AP, Springfield

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's attorney is offering a glimpse of his client's unfolding legal strategy, saying he'll challenge the lawfulness of court-ordered wiretaps at the heart of federal corruption allegations against the Democrat. But the two-term governor may go public to defend himself first.

With Blagojevich saying he's itching to talk, perhaps as early as Friday, Chicago attorney Ed Genson continued bashing what's gotten his client in a legal bind: FBI wiretaps that prosecutors say catch Blagojevich scheming to deal President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for campaign cash or a plum job.

Genson told an Illinois House panel considering whether to impeach Blagojevich that its consideration of the recorded excerpts he cast as meaningless "jabbering" was inappropriate, if not illegal. "I think you're using evidence that was illegally obtained," he said Thursday.

After the committee recessed its hearing until next week, Genson told reporters he planned to go after the taped conversations in court at some point.

Members of the House panel pledged Thursday to do nothing that would interfere with the investigation by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. If Fitzgerald asks lawmakers not to interview certain witnesses, the panelists will abide by that, they said.

"The fact that no one has denied that the governor has said those things (on tape) is relevant. That evidence already is on our record," said state Rep. Lou Lang, a suburban Chicago Democrat.

While hopeful that Fitzgerald lets the panel "go in some directions" with some potential witnesses in the criminal case, "if he shuts us down completely, this committee will deal with it," Lang said.

Blagojevich's first substantial public comments - other than snippets shouted to reporters camped outside his Chicago home since his arrest last week - could come as early as Friday, Genson said. The attorney didn't sound keen on the prospect.

"I'm a lawyer by trade - I don't like my clients to talk to anybody," he said.

Genson said he expected federal grand jurors to eventually indict his client, which would likely unseal many of the documents in support of the charges, perhaps marking the point where his legal attack may truly begin.

"I'm talking that within the next few months the air will clear a little bit and we'll be able to get access to all the things that we need to get access to," he said. "And I'll be able to look at those things."