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Iraqi journalist to go on trial Dec 31: Hundreds in Jordan call for shoe-thrower's release

AFP, Baghdad

The Iraqi journalist thrust to instant fame when he threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush will go on trial this month on charges that risk up to 15 years in jail, a judge said on Monday.

"The investigation phase is over and the case has been transferred to the Central Criminal Court," investigating judge Dhiya al-Kenani said. "The trial will start on Wednesday, December 31."

Muntazer al-Zaidi stands accused of "aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit," an offence that carries a prison term of between five and 15 years under Iraqi law.

But the court could convict him of the lesser charge of an "attempted aggression" which carries a prison term of one to five years.

Zaidi, 29, became a hero to many when he threw his shoes at Bush during the US president's surprise visit to Iraq on December 14, an action considered a grave insult in the Arab world.

His lawyer had asked that the case against Zaidi was transferred from the central criminal court, which handles terrorism cases, to an ordinary tribunal but the judge refused.

"The fact he did not strike his target could serve in his favour," Kenani said last week, alluding to the fact that Bush succeeded in ducking the shoes.

Zaidi's actions were hailed by many in the Arab world who considered it an ideal parting gift to a deeply unpopular Bush, who ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq that triggered years of deadly insurgency and sectarian conflict.

The journalist for private Iraqi television station Al-Baghdadia was wrestled to the ground by security guards after his actions and is now planning to sue over injuries caused, his lawyer Dhiya al-Saadi said on Sunday.

Xinhua report from Amman: Hundreds of people on Saturday gathered in Jordan's capital of Amman, calling for the release of the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at U.S. president George W. Bush.

They chanted "Down, down with Bush," and praised Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist, as a "hero," calling for his release.

Protesters held up banners including a picture of U.S. President George W. Bush with a real shoe fixed on it, picture showing Bush dodging a flying shoe and even pictures of late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

At a news conference Bush held last Sunday in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, reporter of Baghdadiya television, jumped and threw his two shoes one by one at Bush and called him a "dog" in Arabic.

Bush ducked and narrowly missed being struck, but the journalist was wrestled by several security members to the floor and then dragged out of the hall as he was screaming.

8 killed in Pakistan missile strike

AFP, Peshawar

Twin suspected US missile strikes Monday on a tribal area in northwest Pakistan known as a hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda activity killed at least eight militants, officials said.

The strikes were the latest on extremists in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan-all said to have been launched by unmanned CIA aircraft-that have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

Two missiles "fired by US drones" struck the villages of Karikot and Shin Warsak in troubled South Waziristan, a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Two vehicles fitted with guns were destroyed," the official said, adding that the eight people killed were all inside the cars, which were camouflaged with mud and grass. It was not immediately clear if any senior Taliban or Al-Qaeda operatives were killed in the strikes, which took place just minutes apart, he said.

Local intelligence sources said they believed the militants killed were members of local Pakistani Taliban groups. The strikes caused huge fires in both villages, sending panicked residents running into the streets, the security official said, adding that one house was damaged.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters later gathered in the two villages-both outside Wana, the main town in South Waziristan-to say funeral prayers for those killed, local residents told AFP.

The suspected US strikes have continued despite a warning by Taliban militants based in tribal territory last month that any more would lead to reprisal attacks across Pakistan.

A missile attack late last month by a US jet killed Rashid Rauf, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot, as well as an Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative, security officials have said.

Pakistan has repeatedly protested to the United States that the strikes violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the 160 million people of the nuclear-armed Islamic nation.

Saleh Shah, a Pakistani senator from the tribal areas, strongly condemed Monday's attacks, saying they were "counterproductive" and would not help restore peace and order in the region.

Kabul welcomes extra US troops, Taliban warns of cruel defeat

AFP, Kabul

Afghanistan on Sunday welcomed a US pledge to send up to 30,000 extra troops by mid-2009, but the Taliban warned Washington its forces would be "cruelly defeated" as the Soviets were in the 1980s.

The statements came one day after the top US military officer said that tens of thousands of new troops could be sent to Afghanistan by next summer to help Kabul combat a Taliban-led insurgency that has gained pace in recent years.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, put the total deployment at between 20,000 and 30,000 troops. If the Pentagon opts for the high end of the range, the number of US troops here would nearly double.

Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said Kabul hoped the additional US forces would be sent to the volatile south and areas along the eastern border with Pakistan, where Taliban fighters are the most active.

"We welcome the increase in US troops in Afghanistan. We have, however, two main demands," Baheen told AFP.

"The first is that these forces should be deployed in places where they are needed-particularly in (southern) Helmand (province) and along our eastern borders, from where terrorists infiltrate into our country," he said.

"Secondly, this increase should help intensify the training and equipping of Afghan national security forces so they are able to better contribute to the fight against terror and defend the country."

Remnants of the Taliban, who were ousted from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001, have stepped up attacks in recent years, with 2008 the bloodiest year yet of the seven-year-long insurgency.

Afghan officials say the fighters have set up safe havens in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the border, and accuse Islamabad of not doing enough to put a stop to cross-border operations against Afghan and foreign forces here.

A spokesman for the Taliban dismissed the US troop pledge, saying it would be as useless as a similar "surge" by the Soviets in the 1980s, and would only provide the insurgents with more targets.

"They now want to send more troops to Afghanistant. The Russians also sent that many troops but were badly defeated," said the spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, referring to Moscow's doomed decade-long occupation of Afghanistan.

"When the US increases its troop levels to that of the Russians, they will also be cruelly defeated," warned Ahmadi, who claims to speak on behalf of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

US-Afghan operation kills 20 fighters

AP, Kabul

A joint U.S.-Afghan operation along the border with Pakistan has killed about 20 insurgent fighters over the last month, an Afghan governor said Monday.

The Afghan and U.S. forces taking part in Operation Lion Heart are trying pressure militants along the border between Afghanistan's Kunar province and the Bajur region in Pakistan.

Pakistani forces are conducting their own operation in Bajur in coordination with the U.S. and Afghan forces.

The Ministry of Defense said Monday that dozens of militants have been killed and wounded over the last month. A spokesman said he couldn't give more precise numbers.

However, Kunar Gov. Sayed Fazeullah Wahidi said around 20 fighters have been killed over the last month, including two Arabs and two Pakistanis.

Foreign militants from Uzbekistan, Chechnya and Arab countries have joined the fight with Taliban militants who operate in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. Al-Qaida fighters also operate along the border.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a car bomb with two attackers exploded Monday near an Afghan governor's compound, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding seven. The two attackers also died, said Sayed Ismail Jahangir, the spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province in central Afghanistan.

Shops around the governor's compound were damaged, and shattered glass littered the ground around the bombing.

Violence has spiked around Afghanistan the last two years. More than 6,100 people have died in insurgency related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Moneyed Mumbai gets serious about security

AFP, Mumbai

The billboard above The Pizzeria restaurant on Mumbai's sweeping Marine Drive promenade changes regularly. This week it tells anyone who passes: "Recommended. Helmets and bulletproof vests for Mumbaiites."

As people in India's financial and entertainment capital pick up the pieces from last month's attacks, one firm is happy to oblige.

APK Trading and Investment, in south Mumbai's Colaba district, is a stone's throw from the Jewish cultural centre and a 10-minute walk from Leopold's cafe, which were both targeted by militants on November 26.

The firm, which sells equipment such as metal detectors, searchlights and minefield shoes, this week placed a small front-page newspaper advert promoting bulletproof vests for anyone from the military and police to civilians.

"It's a good time to advertise," said one of its directors, Kavita Kapahi.

"We've had a lot of enquiries from all sorts of people and a lot of quotations have gone out," she told AFP.

Since the shooting stopped on November 29, leaving 172 dead, including nine gunmen, and nearly 300 others injured, Mumbai has seen an upswell of outrage and calls for action.

Even the normally politically apathetic moneyed classes have demonstrated on the streets, criticising the government for failing to prevent the attacks.

Elsewhere, well-heeled residents' groups have been holding first-aid courses and drawing up emergency drills, while private security firms have reported a rise in interest.

One Mumbai resident, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, even revealed that he had taken to sleeping with a loaded .32 revolver placed under his pillow.

Calls asking about armour-plated cars and obtaining gun licences have reportedly surged.

For Wilson John, a security specialist at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, the desire of Mumbaikars to protect themselves is a natural reaction to the three days of bloodshed.

But it is also a damning comment on India's creaking state apparatus, he added.

"People are a little apprehensive of similar attacks in the future and I think it's also a reflection of the failure of the government to assure the people that it can act to prevent such attacks," he told AFP.

Iraq shoe thrower to sue for damages: Lawyer

AFP, Baghdad

Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi man who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush, is to sue security guards who he alleges beat him up after the incident, his lawyer said on Sunday.

"Muntazer has filed a complaint today (Sunday) against those who assaulted him," lawyer Dhiya al-Saadi told AFP, saying those responsible worked for the security forces of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's media office.

"There are bruises on his body. He has lost a tooth in his upper jaw, and his left eye is bloodshot," the lawyer said, adding that the list of injuries is backed up by medical checks.

Zaidi, a 29-year-old journalist, grabbed the world spotlight when he threw his shoes at Bush during a farewell visit to Iraq last Sunday by the US president who ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein.

He was wrestled to the ground by security forces and later arrested.

The journalist stands accused of "aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit," an offence that carries a prison term of between five and 15 years under Iraqi law.

But the court could convict him of the lesser charge of an "attempted aggression" which carries a prison term of one to five years.

"The damages are the result of beatings and harsh treatment in the hours following his arrest," Saadi said. "Once he was transferred to prison he was no longer beaten or ill treated."

Snow, rain and ice blankets US northwest, northeast

AFP, Washington

A massive winter storm blanketed the US West Coast with snow, sleet and ice early Monday while blizzards and snow squalls struck the Northeast and Midwest, killing at least three people and making travel dangerous. The storm snarled holiday air traffic across the country, with delays of more than an hour at major airports in San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; New Jersey and New York, officials said. It is blamed for the death of two people in a single-vehicle crash on Interstate Highway 80 east of Des Moines, Iowa.

Another weather-related fatality was reported in northwest Iowa, near the town of Remsen, when a farm tractor being used for snow removal slipped off the driveway and overturned, killing the driver, the Des Moines Register newspaper reported.

Travel was treacherous in the northwestern states of Oregon and Washington, with heavy rain, sleet and snow expected until 10:00 am (1800 GMT) Monday, the National Weather Service said in its winter storm warning for the region.

"This is probably one of the worst storms since 1990," weather service meteorologist Dana Felton told AFP by phone from Seattle, adding that the last big storm of this scale was on December 25, 1996.

"This is definitely a once-in-a-decade type of storm."

Unity deal can't work with Mugabe: US

AP, Pretoria

The U.S. can no longer support a proposed Zimbabwean power-sharing deal that would leave Robert Mugabe, "a man who's lost it," as president, the top U.S. envoy for Africa told reporters Sunday.

Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, made the announcement in South Africa after spending the last several days explaining the U.S. shift to regional leaders. The new U.S. stance will put pressure on Zimbabwe's neighbors - South Africa in particular - to abandon Mugabe.

But South Africa said its position was unchanged.

The U.S., Frazer said, has become convinced Mugabe is incapable of sharing power.

She cited political moves he has made since September without consulting the opposition, reports his regime has continued to harass and arrest opposition and human rights activists, and the continued deterioration of Zimbabwe's humanitarian and economic situation. Particularly worrying, she said, was the rapid spread of cholera, an easily treatable and preventable disease that has killed at least 1,000 Zimbabweans since August.

Frazer cited accusations from the Mugabe regime that the West waged biological warfare to deliberately start the cholera epidemic as an indication Mugabe is "a man who's lost it, who's losing his mind, who's out of touch with reality."