The New Nation - Internet Edition

Pakistan to use force only if attacked

AP, Islamabad

Pakistan told India on Saturday it did not want war and would use force only if attacked - a move apparently aimed at reducing tensions between the neighbors a day after reports indicated thousands of Pakistani troops were headed for their shared border.

Intelligence officials said Friday that the army was redeploying thousands of troops from the country's fight against militants along the Afghan border to the Indian frontier. Islamabad announced the same day it was canceling all military leave - the latest turn of the screw in the rising tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals following last month's terror attack on the Indian financial capital of Mumbai.

India has blamed Pakistani militants for the terrifying three-day siege. Pakistan's recently elected civilian government has demanded that India back up the claim with better evidence. "We don't want to fight, we don't want to have war, we don't want to have aggression with our neighbors," Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in a televised speech.

Still, Gilani said the country's military was "fully prepared" to respond to any Indian aggression.

Pakistan's latest moves were seen as an indication that it will retaliate if India launches air or missile strikes against militant targets on Pakistani soil - rather than as a signal that a fourth war between the two countries was imminent.

The United States has been trying to ease the burgeoning crisis while also pressing Pakistan to crack down on militants Washington says were likely responsible for the Mumbai attack. The siege left 164 people dead after gunmen targeted 10 sites including two five-star hotels and a Jewish center. The redeployment of troops away from the Afghan border also raised concerns about the future of the U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials - requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation - said Friday that elements of the army's 14th Infantry Division were being redeployed from the militant hotspot of Waziristan to the towns of Kasur and Sialkot, close to the Indian border.

The military began the troop movement Thursday and plans to shift a total of 20,000 soldiers - about one-fifth of those in the tribal areas, they said without providing a timeframe.

There was no immediate sign of any troop movement Saturday.

An Associated Press reporter in the Dera Ismail Khan district and a witness in Bhakkar, a district bordering Waziristan, saw long lines of military vehicles carrying hundreds of soldiers and equipment away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday.

However, a senior Pakistani security official denied that the troops were being deployed to the Indian border.

He said a "limited number" of soldiers were being shifted from areas "where they were not engaged in any operations on the western border or from areas which were snowbound."

He declined further comment and asked that his name not be used, also citing the sensitivity of the situation.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947, two over Kashmir, a majority Muslim region in the Himalayas claimed by both countries.

India and Pakistan have said they want to avoid military conflict over the Mumbai attacks, and most analysts say war is unlikely, not least because both sides have too much to lose if conflict breaks out.

But India - which is under domestic pressure to respond aggressively to the attacks - has not ruled out the use of force.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee accused Pakistan on Friday of trying to divert attention away from what many analysts say is a halfhearted attempt to rein in homegrown terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India accuses of masterminding the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan has promised to cooperate with India in any probe but says it needs to see evidence before it can investigate any further. Mukherjee said India had provided more than enough evidence.

US urges India, Pakistan to ease tensions

AFP, Islamabad

The United States has urged India and Pakistan to avoid an escalation of tensions after Islamabad redeployed troops to their common border and New Delhi reviewed its security options.

The call for calm from the White House came amid a flurry of diplomatic activity on both sides aimed at easing already badly strained ties, one month after the Mumbai attacks, which India has blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Pakistani officials said Friday the military had moved troops from the tribal areas near Afghanistan, where they are fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, to the eastern border with India as a "minimum security" measure.

The senior security and defence officials described the troop movements as "limited" but the news set off alarm bells in New Delhi, where Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh summoned his military chiefs for a strategy session.

India also advised its nationals to avoid travel to Pakistan, saying it was unsafe for them to be in the country.

In Washington, the White House sought to restore calm between the nuclear-armed neighbours, which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

"US officials are in touch with both the Indians and Pakistanis. We continue to urge both sides to cooperate on the Mumbai investigation as well as counterterrorism in general," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told AFP.

"We also do not want either side to take any unnecessary steps that raise tensions in an already tense situation."

Both Islamabad and New Delhi have said they do not want war, but warn they would act if provoked.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani reiterated Friday that Pakistan was a "peace-loving" nation that had no "aggressive designs", but warned it would respond if attacked, the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee meanwhile again called on Pakistan to do more to crack down on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned militant group that New Delhi says masterminded the Mumbai attacks, which left 172 people dead.

"We have ample evidencet to prove that elements based in Pakistan carried out the Mumbai attacks," Mukherjee said.

"Pakistan should not divert attention from the real issue of taking action against terrorists by raising war hysteria," he told reporters in New Delhi.

Mukherjee met Friday with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal, saying he "expected Pakistan to take immediate steps to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism," his office said in a statement.

Islamabad has said it is willing to cooperate with India in investigating the carnage, but says New Delhi has offered no solid proof that Pakistani nationals were involved.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi spoke Friday with his Chinese and Iranian counterparts, who pledged their support in efforts to maintain peace in South Asia, Qureshi's office said in a statement.

Mukherjee also spoke to Yang and Iran's Manouchehr Mottaki as well as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, his office said.

Ties between India and Pakistan sank to their lowest point in late 2001, when militants staged a brazen attack on the Indian parliament-a strike New Delhi also blamed on Lashkar-e-Taiba.

That attack prompted both sides to deploy hundreds of thousands of troops to the common border, but they eventually pulled back following intense international mediation.

On Friday, Pakistani officials said a "limited number of troops"-in the thousands-had been moved to the eastern border near India, and leave had been suspended for armed forces on active duty.

"We do not want to create any war hysteria but we have to take minimum security measures to ward off any threat," a defence ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Any major shift of Pakistani troops out of the tribal areas would likely spark concern in Washington and other Western capitals, as it could open the door to more cross-border militant attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan.

150,000 Pakistanis mark 1 year since Benazir Bhutto killed

AP, Garhi Khuda Bakhsh

More than 150,000 Pakistanis flocked to the mausoleum of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Saturday after some walked hundreds of miles (kilometers) to offer flowers and kiss her grave on the first anniversary of her assassination.

Some mourners beat their heads and chests and wailing. Several burst into tears.

"I am taking these flowers to take home and will show my daughters this gift," said 41-year-old Saifullah Khan.

Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27, 2007, as she was leaving a rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, just outside the capital of Islamabad. She was campaigning to return her Pakistan People's Party to power in parliamentary elections, a scenario supported by the United States, which admired her secular credentials.

Her assassination shocked the world, fanning revulsion at rising militant violence in Pakistan as well as conspiracy theories that the country's powerful spy agencies were involved.

Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, took over Bhutto's party after her death and was elected president in September, facing a crushing economic crisis and soaring violence by militants also blamed for attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The country of 160 million is now facing a fresh crisis triggered by last month's terror attacks on Mumbai, which India has blamed on Pakistani militants.

"She gave a voice to the people, gave a voice to the downtrodden, the poor and the laborers," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in a televised speech. "She was a hope for the people of this country, she was a hope for this region."

Zardari was to speak to mourners later Saturday.

Sher Mohammad, 23, was among many supporters who trekked hundreds of miles (kilometers) to pay respects. "She gave her life for the people of this country, so we can walk a few miles to pay homage to her dignity," said Mohammad, whose feet were swollen from the trip.

Police officer Tanveer Odho estimated between 150,000 to 200,000 turned out at the mausoleum Saturday.

At United Nations headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday he hoped a U.N. commission would be established in the near future to investigate Bhutto's killing.

Bhutto's party and Zardari have demanded a U.N. probe, but have not followed up vague allegations they made after her death that forces linked to then-President Pervez Musharraf were involved.

Musharraf's government blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani militant commander with reported links to al-Qaida, citing a communications intercept in which Mehsud allegedly congratulated some of his henchmen. A Mehsud spokesman has denied any involvement.

The United States also said Islamic extremists carried out the attack.

The Security Council, the U.N.'s most powerful body, must authorize any investigating commission.

"The secretary-general is hopeful that, with the progression of the discussions, the commission could be established in the near future," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

Gaza rocket kills 2 girls, Israel lifts blockade

Reuters, Gaza

Israel eased a blockade of the Gaza Strip on Friday but militants there aimed rockets and mortars across the border, one of which misfired and killed two Palestinian girls.

Israel said it was responding to numerous requests from the international community by reopening border crossings with Gaza to allow in vital truckloads of fuel and humanitarian aid.

But renewed fire from Gaza-based militants-a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Islamist group Hamas to stop firing rockets or pay a heavy price-ensured that the easing of tension was short-lived.

About a dozen rockets and mortar bombs were fired from Gaza on Friday. One accidentally struck a northern Gaza house killing two Palestinian sisters, aged five and 13, and wounding a third, Palestinian medics said.

No militant group claimed responsibility. Hamas police said they would investigate.

An Israeli military spokesman said the Erez border crossing, the main passage for people between Israel and Gaza, was closed after two mortar bombs fell in that area.

The earlier reopening was seen as potentially easing tensions that might have led to military action to end rocket attacks, though in the past Israel has allowed Gaza to resupply with vital goods before launching assaults.

Palestinian workers at the crossings said fuel had arrived for Gaza's main power plant, where shortages mean periodic blackouts for many of the territory's 1.5 million residents.

Raed Fattouh, coordinator of supplies, said about 100 trucks loaded with grain, humanitarian aid and goods for the private sector were due to come in to Gaza during the day, including a convoy from Egypt.

TRUCE EXPIRY

Israel also let a Palestinian man go to an Israeli hospital for treatment for an injury after a militant rocket struck his home in Gaza earlier this week, medics and officials said.

Gaza, a largely impoverished coastal enclave, has been under a heightened Israeli blockade since Hamas seized control of the territory from Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement in 2007.

In renewed fighting since a six-month truce expired last week, at least six militants have been killed by Israeli air strikes and dozens of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza have slammed into Israel, damaging homes and causing panic.

Israel's cabinet plans on Sunday to debate a decision by a security panel to hit back at Gaza militants, beginning with air strikes on Hamas targets, political sources said.

Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from Gaza in 2005 and Olmert has said he does not wish to re-occupy the coastal strip. A military offensive could involve ground combat likely to result in high casualties.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni discussed the crisis on Thursday with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, which borders Gaza to the west and which brokered the truce in June. Mubarak urged restraint on both sides.

At the same time, Olmert appeared on an Arabic television channel, urging Gazans to reject their Islamist rulers and stop the rocket attacks.

He said it was a last-minute appeal and said he would not hesitate to use Israel's military might if they did not.

Sri Lanka troops expand defence lines

AFP Colombo

Government forces have consolidated their positions in northern Sri Lanka, a day after heavy fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels, according to the military.

"Following confrontations that lasted from dawn to dusk with terrorists, troops expanded their defence line south of Adampan," the military said referring to a town west of Kilinochchi, the political capital of Tiger rebels.

The army had wrested control of the town of Mulliyawalai in the neighbouring district of Mullaittivu on Friday.

There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, but the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website reported that the military had shelled the main hospital in Kilinochchi.

The shells landed in the hospital compound on Thursday, damaging three hospital buildings "and narrowly missing several hospital staff," the Tamilnet said.

The Tiger rebels are defending their besieged political capital and resisting the Sri Lankan military's biggest offensive ever.

Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu are the two remaining big towns still under rebel control in the north of the island.

Neither side gave details of casualties from Friday's fighting.

In January the Sri Lankan government pulled out of a 2002 Norwegian-brokered truce with the rebels, who have been fighting since 1972 for a state for ethnic minority Tamils separate from the majority Sinhalese community.

China explosion, lift collapse kill 32

Reuters, Beijing

An explosion rocked a Chinese village and a construction lift plummeted to the ground in a provincial capital on Saturday, killing at least 32 people, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The blast in Donggancheng village, in central Henan province, happened just after 1 a.m. when detonators being illegally stored by a villager were set off, Xinhua said, citing officials with the local work safety office.

The explosion flattened more than 10 homes, killing at least 15 people and injuring nine others, Xinhua said. Police were pursuing suspects behind the blast, it added.

Separately, a lift carrying workers at a residential development being built in Changsha, Hunan province, crashed to the ground at around 7:30 a.m., killing at least 17 and seriously injuring another, Xinhua said.

China's construction industry has been hit by a string of deadly accidents in the past months, including the collapse of a half-built subway tunnel in November that killed at least 17.

Officials have vowed to improve work safety, but industrial and mining accidents continue to kill thousands each year.

Donggancheng village, the site of Saturday's explosion, was hit by a similar deadly blast in 2006, at an illegal workshop for making detonators, used in coal mines.

Southeast Asia remembers tsunami on anniversary

AP, Bangkok

Southeast Asia's tsunami-ravaged coral reefs have bounced back with surprising speed, according to a study released Friday, four years after the deadly waves hit.

The findings came as communities across the Indian Ocean remembered the disaster that struck Dec. 26, 2004 with prayers, songs and tears. About 230,000 people were killed in a dozen countries when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered the tsunami.

Surveys of coral reefs after the tsunami showed that up to one-third were damaged and experts predicted it would take a decade for them to fully recover.

Scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, working with the Indonesian government and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said their examination of 60 sites on 497 miles (800 kilometers) of coastline along Indonesia's Aceh province showed the reefs were bouncing back.

"On the 4th anniversary of the tsunami, this is a great story of ecosystem resilience and recovery," said Stuart Campbell, coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia Marine Program.

"Our scientific monitoring is showing rapid growth of young corals in areas where the tsunami caused damage, and also the return of new generations of corals in areas previously damaged by destructive fishing," Campbell said in a statement. "These findings provide new insights into coral recovery processes that can help us manage coral reefs in the face of climate change."

Healthy coral reefs are economic engines for Acehnese communities, Campbell added, supplying fish to eat and sell as well as tourism dollars from recreational diving.

The tsunami decimated coastlines across the Indian Ocean, wiping out villages, killing entire families and crippling the economies in parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The United Nations estimated that Aceh alone lost $332.4 million from the loss of its reefs to the destructive waves.

But four years on, the multibillion dollar rebuilding process is almost complete with more than 120,000 homes built in Aceh alone and the reconstruction of tourist hotels and restaurants along Thailand's Andaman coast.

Thousands gathered Friday to celebrate the progress but to also remember the dead and reflect on a tragedy that turned their lives upside down.

"I don't think people will ever forget the tsunami. It changed a lot of people's lives," said Alisara Na-Takuatung, a local Phuket radio disc jockey who took part in a ceremony on Thailand's Patong beach attended by 200 people.

About 50 Buddhist monks prayed while school children played traditional Thai instruments.

"I know people who lost their husbands, their kids. Those people won't forget about the tsunami," she said. "They will see it as a lesson. You think about what you can do for others."

Ibrahim Musa, a 42-year-old civil servant who joined thousands in a prayer service in the hard-hit Aceh province of Indonesia, said it feels like yesterday that his family was taken by the sea.

"Even after four years, I cannot forget how I lost hold of my wife and baby," he said. "I have tried in vain to look for them for three years. Now I have no choice but to accept their departure as destiny."

Siti Hasnaini, 40, who still lives with her two sons and husband in a temporary shelter in Aceh, prayed "for my daughter who was washed away with my house."

In India, where thousands also perished, interfaith prayers and a moment of silence were held. The Sri Lankan government declared two minutes of silence for the 35,000 people killed there as well as other victims of natural disasters.

The healing trend embraced by those devastated by the tsunami has extended to the reefs with communities responding to calls to protect them from illegal fishing, pollution and coastal development.

Campbell said citizens have been particularly responsive in Aceh where fishermen have stopped using illegal techniques like dynamite and villagers have transplanted corals into areas that were hardest hit.

"The recovery, which is in part due to improved management and the direct assistance of local people, gives enormous hope that coral reefs in this remote region can return to their previous condition and provide local communities with the resources they need to prosper," Campbell said.

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a reef expert from the University of Queensland in Australia who did not take part in the study, said the findings were not surprising since corals typically will recover if not affected by fishing and coastal development.

"The mechanical damage from the tsunami left a whole bunch of shattered corals on the bottom of the sea," Hoegh-Guldberg said.

"Left alone, these things can quickly grow back into what looks like a coral reef in a short time," he said. "We are seeing similar things around the southern Great Barrier Reef where reefs that experience major catastrophe can bounce back quite quickly."

John Bruno, a reef expert from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, agreed saying it shows coral reefs are able to recover after severe disturbances.

"There has been so much bad news about coral decline lately, and the threats to corals seem to increase every year. It is important to recognize that these invaluable ecosystems are not lost," he said in an e-mail interview. "We just have to implement some common sense policies locally and substantially reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at a global scale."

Govt and police cars, bank attacked in Greece

AFP, Athens

A Greek government official's car was firebombed in front of his house on Friday while assailants threw a Molotov cocktail at a bank and another group attacked a police car, authorities said.

Attacks on government and banking facilities are frequent in Greece, but they have been widespread since a 15-year-old boy was killed by police earlier this month, triggering a wave of violent youth protests against authorities.

The government car used by a junior environment minister, Stavros Kaloyannis, was hit by a petrol bomb early Friday while it was parked in front of his house in the northwestern city of Ioannina.

Assailants also threw a molotov cocktail at a branch of the Greek Farm Bank in Psychiko, a suburb of Athens, causing minor damage.

In the evening, a group of youths banged up a police car that was passing in front of an Athens hospital, where they had gathered in support of a union member who was hospitalised there after being attacked by unknown assailants.

The police officers fled and no one was injured.

Late Thursday, a commuter train was hit by bullets in the Athens suburb of Tavros. Police opened an investigation into the attack, in which no one was hit.

Earlier that day, seven cars were damaged in arson attacks on three dealerships in Athens while an agriculture ministry building and a bank were also targetted.

The attacks come after three weeks of daily protests over the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos by a police officer on December 6.

The teenager's death sparked youth protests which degenerated into the worst rampage Greece has seen in decades with hundreds of shops smashed or looted in Athens and other cities.

The shopowners' union in Athens announced that it would exceptionally open stores in the capital on Sunday to encourage consumer spending in the wake of the damage caused by the protests.

The workers' union opposed the move, however, saying the government was trying to eliminate Sunday as a day off.

The Athens Chamber of Commerce said the protests caused 50 million euros (70 million dollars) in damages.

India bans its citizens’ travel to Pakistan

AP, New Delhi

India warned its citizens on Friday it was unsafe to travel to Pakistan after the prime minister met military chiefs, and Pakistan cancelled army leave and moved some troops from its western border.

The warning marked a dramatic rise in tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours after last month's attack on Mumbai, in which 179 people were killed and which India has blamed on Islamist militants based in Pakistan.

It followed media reports in Pakistan and India that "several" Indian nationals had been arrested in the last two days after bombings in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Multan.

"Indian citizens are therefore advised that it would be unsafe for them to travel (to) or be in Pakistan," India's Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

Another Foreign Ministry official contacted by Reuters said the warning referred to all travel to Pakistan.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office earlier said Singh had discussed tension with Pakistan during a scheduled meeting about military pay with the chiefs of the army, navy and air force.

"The prime minister met the tri-services chiefs to discuss the pay commission issues but obviously the situation in the region was also discussed," said an official from Singh's office, who asked not to be identified. There were no other details.

Indian media said national security adviser M.K. Narayanan also attended the meeting.

Many analysts say it is very unlikely that the tension will descend into war. The uneasy neighbours have fought three wars since independence in 1947 and came to the brink of a fourth in 2002 after an attack on the Indian parliament.

While there had been no significant troop movements in either country, military officials in Islamabad said army personnel had been ordered to report to barracks and some troops had been moved off the Afghan border.

"A limited number of troops from snow-bound areas and areas where operations are not being conducted have been pulled out," said a senior security official who declined to be identified.

The official declined to say where the troops had been moved to, citing the sensitivity of the issue, but Pakistani media have reported some troops had been redeployed to the Indian border.

A senior police official in Pakistan's Punjab province denied that any Indians had been arrested over the Lahore and Multan blasts but an intelligence agency official, who declined to be identified, said an Indian had been detained on Wednesday.

Several more Indians had been detained based on information obtained from that suspect, the intelligence official said.

DISMAY

The movement of Pakistani troops off the Afghan border is likely to concern the United States which does not want Pakistan distracted from the battle against al Qaeda and Taliban militants on Pakistan's western border.

India, the United States and Britain have blamed the Mumbai attack on Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, set up to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.

Pakistan has condemned the Mumbai attacks and has denied any state role, blaming "non-state actors". It has offered to cooperate with India but denies Indian claims that it has been handed firm evidence of links to militants in Pakistan.

Islamabad has also said that it will defend itself if attacked.

Increasingly frenzied media reporting on both sides of the border has fuelled war speculation, although leaders from both countries have said war would serve no one's interests.

Such speculation even caused an uptick in Indian federal bond yields in late trade on Friday, traders said.

Washington has joined Britain in urging restraint from India, but at the same time has demanded Pakistan act decisively to wipe out banned groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba.

China emerged as a potential peace broker after Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi unexpectedly called his counterparts in New Delhi and Islamabad in the past two days.

China has long been a close ally of Pakistan, while India and Washington have been building close ties.

A senior government official in New Delhi said Yang had suggested a meeting between Indian and Pakistani officials to discuss the tension over the Mumbai attacks.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Yang Pakistan must take major steps against militants before such a meeting would be possible, the official said. A crackdown on Pakistan-based militants after the 2001 parliament attack was widely regarded as a sham.

Yang telephoned Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday, calling for peace and stability in South Asia.

Iraqi police hunt down prison escapees

AFP, Ramadi,

Iraqi police on a desperate manhunt for Al-Qaeda leaders who broke out of jail after a deadly firefight surrounded two former insurgent strongholds in the western city of Ramadi on Saturday.

Police said they suspected that the three escaped local leaders of Al-Qaeda in Iraq had headed for Al-Dubat and Humeira in the south of the city, districts that were controlled by the militant group until early 2007.

"These two districts were Al-Qaeda strongholds, and we suspect that the prisoners went to these districts," Major Ahmed Jawad told AFP. "The search is still going on," he said, adding that a rapid response unit was hunting down the three men including Imad Ahmed Farhan, nicknamed "Imad the Killer" because police say he has admitted to murdering at least 100 people.

However police lifted a curfew in Ramadi, capital of Iraq's western Anbar province, imposed on Friday after the brazen breakout from Forsan police station in the city centre that left 13 militants and policemen dead.

The incident began at around 2 am when a prisoner called out that he was sick, and a policeman went to a communal cell to check.

When the officer entered the cell holding 40 men, 13 of them Qaeda members, they grabbed him and cut his throat with a makeshift knife. They then seized his gun and went to the police chief's office and slit his throat.

The 11 Qaeda prisoners then dashed into the courtyard where they shot a lieutenant and made it to the armoury before the gun battle erupted.

The prisoners and police fought for two hours before the officers managed to regain control of the complex. One prisoner was recaptured after suffering gunshot wounds.

Jawad said that security remained tight throughout the predominantly Sunni Arab city of 540,000, which was a key Al-Qaeda stronghold in the aftermath of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime by US-led forces in 2003.

But since 2006 local Sunni tribes there have sided with the US military to combat the jihadists. The daily level of violence has fallen dramatically in Anbar as Al-Qaeda fighters have been pushed out.

Coalition, Afghan forces kill 6 militants

AP, Kabul

Afghan and coalition forces say they have killed six militants during a patrol in southern Afghanistan's most violent region.

The U.S. coalition says Saturday that the combined forces were on a patrol in Helmand province Thursday when they spotted militants pulling out weapons from a hiding spot. The combined forces killed the militants and destroyed the weapons.

Violence has spiked across Afghanistan the last two years. More than 6,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence in 2008, according to an Associated Press count of figures based on Afghan and Western officials.

Honolulu suffers major power outage as Obama visits

AP, Honolulu

The island of Oahu lost power Friday evening in the midst of heavy rain and lightning, leaving some 800,000 residents and thousands of tourists in the dark, as well as the neighborhood where President-elect Barack Obama was vacationing.

Residents were being advised by the power company and civil authorities to get to their homes and store water. Several radio stations were broadcasting emergency information. Gov. Linda Lingle said that Hawaiian Electric Light was taking an emergency generator to the compound on the east side of the island where Obama has been staying. Lingle said she had asked the utility to notify her when it had been delivered.

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann told KSSK radio that Obama is in one of the "most secure places, so he'll be OK."

The outage closed stores at major retail outlets just after sunset, halting post-Christmas shopping a couple of hours early.

Residents were trapped in parking lots and highways were clogged as everyone tried to get home at once. The rain had mostly stopped by Friday night.

Hawaiian Electric Light spokesman Peter Rosegg said the initial power outage hit at 6:45 p.m., knocking out electricity to most of the island. The rest of Oahu lost power two hours later when a second generator failed.

Lingle said she expected power to be restored by morning. The cause of the outage was being investigated.

Lingle said the utility had asked the state to fly a helicopter at daylight so it can inspect power lines on a mountain ridge that it fears may be damaged.

Outgoing flights were grounded at Honolulu International Airport for several hours, until emergency generators restored power. United Airlines had postponed flights until morning but other airlines' flights were departing, Lingle said.

The other Hawaiian islands have separate power grids.

Shoe-thrower becomes an issue in Iraq election

Agencies, Baghdad

Iraqis go to the polls next month in provincial elections that promise to be the most fiercely contested thus far, as the post-Saddam era moves to open a post-U.S. chapter. And one major issue will undoubtedly be case of shoe-tossing journalist Muntader al-Zaidi, who became a hero on the streets of Iraq and much of the Arab world after his failed attempt to bean President Bush at a press conference. Zaidi is to stand trial on New Year's Eve, Abdul Satar Birqadr, the spokesman for Iraq's High Judicial Council said Monday, on charges of "assaulting a foreign head of state visiting Iraq." Even if putting Zaidi on trial appears to risk igniting public hostility, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki may yet seek to make the case work to his a political advantage ahead of next month's poll, for which some 17.5 million are registered to vote.

The election is expected to be marked by fierce political competition, which U.S. officials fear could degenerate into violence. "I hope there is not, but there probably will be some who try to use intimidation to move forward, gain an advantage in the election," U.S. commander General Raymond Odierno told reporters on Tuesday. "The Iraqi Security Force and us are looking at that to make sure that doesn't happen." The election represents a crucial test for Prime Minister Maliki, because it will be the first time intra-Shi'ite political competition is put before the electorate. Maliki was brought to power by the United Iraqi Alliance, which combined all the major Shi'ite parties into a single coalition; this time, each of the Alliance's constituent parties is competing independently, and Maliki will be in fierce competition with Shi'ite rivals, particularly the Islamic Supreme Council - the largest party in the Shi'ite coalition.

The Zaidi case could help him boost Maliki's popularity. Altough he has thus far kept a distance from the process of deciding Zaidi's fate, many Iraqis believe Mliki will move either for an official pardon or a muted sentence, which could prove to be a popular move ahead of the January 31 poll. (See pictures of the aftermath of Zaidi's shoe attack) "The prime minister deals with everything from his [partisan] position," said Mithal al-Allousi, a secular member of Parliament. "I believe he will use [Zaidi's trial] for the election for his own benefit, as he uses the budget for his own benefit."

Maliki's supporters fiercely reject that notion. "I don't think this trial will change anything for al-Maliki, because Maliki said from the first day that whatever the judge decides, we will respect it," said Abdel Hadi al-Hassani, a Member of Parliament from the Prime Minister's Dawa party. "I think Maliki will abandon his personal rights [to demand a harsher punishment for Zaidi] because he is passionate and has a big heart, and he thinks of all Iraqis as brothers and sons. But that does not mean that the judge will not rule against Zaidi."

Whether or not a politically motivated pardon of Zaidi is forthcoming, Maliki's campaign maneuvering thus far has not won him many friends. The prime minister has come under fire from opponents over his attempt to undercut support for regional rivals by establishing and funding tribal councils loyal to the central government. He has also been criticized for his increasingly heavy-handed approach in dealing with government agencies.

Last week's mass arrest of officials of the Ministry of the Interior prompted some politicians to raise suspicions of a partisan, election-related agenda. Initial accusations linked the 24 people detained to a coup plot through covert membership in al-Awda, a descendant of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. By Tuesday, however, the allegations of wrongdoing against those arrested had been reduced to claims of fraudulent production of Interior Ministry Identification cards, and a Ministry spokesman said that all of the officials had been released for lack of evidence. The conflicting accounts of the events surrounding the arrests, in a ministry seen as dominated by officials loyal to the Islamic Supreme Council, have raised eyebrows.

"The arrests [in the Interior Ministry] are a political and election-related issue much more than a security issue," Omar Abdel Sattar, a Sunni member of parliament from the Tawafiq bloc, told TIME. "For sure, it has been used for election propaganda. We all know there are a lot of disagreements between [Interior Minister Jawad] Bolani's party, the Constitutional Party, and Maliki's party."

Syrian flag flies over first embassy in Lebanon

AFP, Beirut

The Syrian flag flew over Damascus' first-ever embassy in Beirut on Friday, as final preparations were made for its official opening after warming ties ended years of tensions between the two neighbours.

The work took a comic turn on Friday when an impostor showed up at the building in the Hamra business district of west Beirut, briefly causing a stir by claiming to be the new ambassador. Witnesses told AFP the flag was raised overnight as work continued to prepare the building for the opening before the end of the year. Two brass plaques bearing the inscription "Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic" in Arabic and English were also put up outside the building, where the mission will operate on the first three floors.

An official date for the inauguration has not yet been announced, but the leftist As-Safir Lebanese daily on Monday quoted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem as saying this would happen "immediately after Christmas."

On Monday, three diplomats from Damascus began working at the embassy in advance of the opening. Syria has yet to name an ambassador, and the highest-ranking diplomat is currently a first secretary.

But on Friday a dignified-looking man turned up outside the building claiming to be the envoy from Damascus, witnesses said.

The suitcase-bearing man presented himself to security guards, saying: "I am the new Syrian ambassador."

Not daring to ask too many questions the guard let the impersonator in before he the "ambassador" was rumbled and escorted out of the building by two people who told him to clear off. Still looking dignified, he boarded a taxi and left.

Lebanon and Syria announced the establishment of diplomatic relations on October 15 for the first time since their independence from France more than 60 years ago, in a major step towards normalisation of ties.

Relations between the two countries have often been fractious since Syria was forced to withdraw its troops in April 2005 after maintaining a near 30-year military presence in its tiny neighbour.

The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Beirut accuses Syria of meddling in Lebanese affairs and of being behind a string of deadly assassinations of public figures since 2005, charges denied by Damascus.

Storm blankets US west with snow, ice glazes midwest

AP, Reno

Yet another snowstorm closed highways in parts of the West on Friday, the latest in a tiring week of bad weather, and a dangerous sheet of ice in parts of the Midwest contributed to a looming flood problem. Winter storm warnings were in effect Friday for parts of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and the western Dakotas, and a blizzard warning covered the mountains of southwest Colorado. "It's going to be a heck of a storm," said Chris Cuoco, senior forecaster for the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, Colo. "We're expecting significant snowfall in all the mountains of Colorado. Even the valleys are going to see 4-plus inches of snow." Up to 20 inches of snow was forecast in parts of the Rockies, along with wind gusts of up to 80 mph.

The Utah Avalanche Center on Friday renewed its warning against travel in mountain backcountry, saying up to 3 feet of new snow in places, plus strong wind, had overloaded layers of very weak snow and raised the threat of avalanches.

A Utah avalanche killed two people earlier in the week, and a snow slide in California's Sierra Nevada killed one man Thursday.

In the Midwest, freezing rain glazed streets and highways in the Chicago area. The Eisenhower Expressway - Interstate 290 - was closed for a time because of the ice, and the village of Lemont blocked off all its major intersections.

The full length of the Indiana Toll Road, more than 150 miles, was shut down for about two hours Friday morning because it was "an entire sheet of ice" with numerous accidents, said state Trooper William Jones. Indiana also closed a 10-mile section of Interstate 69 just north of Fort Wayne.

Seven Indiana traffic deaths were blamed on the ice Friday, adding to four weather-related deaths in that state earlier in the week. In Indianapolis, a fire engine slid head-on into a tree, sending four firefighters to a hospital with minor injuries.

Temperatures could reach the 50s and even 60s in the region Saturday, after subzero readings earlier in the week, and a possibility of 2 inches of rain was forecast in Indiana.

The National Weather Service issued flood watches for much of Illinois, saying "the potential exists for very serious and potentially life threatening flooding."

Utah officials shut down Interstate 84 at the Utah-Idaho state line Friday because of the weather, and some state roads were open only to vehicles with tire chains or four-wheel-drive. Colorado closed at least two mountain pass highways.

Heavy snow and whiteout conditions in the Sierra Nevada on Thursday led authorities to intermittently shut down Interstate 80, the busy main link between northern Nevada and Northern California. The mountains around Lake Tahoe received about 2 feet of snow, bringing totals at some resorts in the past two weeks to 10 feet.

"This is one of the snowiest Christmas holiday periods I can remember," said Kent Hoopingarner, general manager at Homewood Mountain Resort.

In eastern Washington, Spokane reached a snowfall total for the month of 46.2 inches, a record for December, said Laurie Nisbet of the weather service.

Farther west, the weight of snow, ice and water over the past week collapsed the roof of a high school in Olympia, Wash. There was severe water damage but no injuries, fire Lt. Ralph Dunbar said.

Snow and ice weren't the only problems. The weather service confirmed that it was two small tornadoes on Christmas Eve that caused scattered damage in Alabama.

Slippery roads and cold have been blamed for 11 deaths this week in Indiana; eight in Wisconsin; five in Ohio; four each in Kentucky, Michigan and Missouri; two in Kansas; and one apiece in Illinois, Oklahoma, Iowa, Massachusetts and West Virginia.

US offers Viagra to win over Afghan warlords

AFP, Washington

CIA agents are offering the potency drug Viagra and other gifts to win over Afghan warlords in the US-led war against Taliban insurgents, the Washington Post reported.

Paying for information is nothing new for the Central Intelligence Agency, but officers have started employing unusual incentives to persuade Afghan local leaders to share intelligence about the Taliban's movements, the Post wrote, citing unnamed sources in the spy service.

"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people-whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra," one CIA operative who has worked in Afghanistan was quoted as saying.

CIA agents have offered pocket knives and tools, toys and school equipment, travel visas, medical services including surgeries and sometimes the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra for Afghan chieftains, the paper said.

The aging chieftains often have up to four wives and are open to the Viagra pill as a way to "put them back in an authoritative position," said another official.

More customary bribes such as cash and weapons can create problems, because guns fan fall into the wrong hands and a sudden influx of cash can draw too much attention, agents told the paper.

Four Viagra pills transformed the attitude of one influential 60-year-old warlord who had been wary of the United States.

"He came up to us beaming," one official told the Post.

"And after that we could do whatever we wanted in his area."