The New Nation - Internet Edition

World powers call for end to Gaza fighting

AP, United Nations

Key world powers trying to promote Mideast peace urged Israel and Hamas on Tuesday to immediately stop fighting in Gaza and southern Israel, the United Nations announced as international efforts to calm the conflict picked up pace.

The Quartet of Mideast peacemakers - the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia - appealed "for an immediate cease-fire that would be fully respected," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

The statement came four days after Israeli warplanes started bombing in Gaza, targeting Hamas-related installations and homes in an attempt to force a halt to militant rocket attacks on towns in southern Israel.

The Quartet also "called on all parties to address the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza and to take necessary measures to ensure the continuous provision of humanitarian supplies," Okabe said.

"They agreed on the urgent need for Israelis and Palestinians to continue on the road to peace," she said.

U.N. officials said Quartet members were following up individually with Israel and the other parties.

Robert Serry, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, canceled a video news conference from Jerusalem with reporters at U.N. headquarters to pursue the issue. French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday.

Israeli officials said earlier Tuesday that Israel was considering a 48-hour suspension of its punishing air campaign to see if Palestinian militants would stop rocket attacks.

Okabe said the Quartet's appeal was agreed on during a teleconference involving U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the EU presidency, and the group's Mideast envoy, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Earlier Tuesday in Paris, Kouchner, who spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said an immediate cease-fire was needed to allow aid and medical help into Gaza and to evacuate wounded.

"What do we want? We want, and there are no differences, a cease-fire, that it be permanent, that it be respected," Kouchner said on TF1 television.

Hours later, EU foreign ministers holding an emergency meeting in Paris to discuss the Gaza crisis endorsed a call for an "immediate and permanent cease-fire." Food, medical aid and fuel also should be allowed into Gaza, their statement said.

The 27-member bloc said the peace process must be stepped up. "There is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Gaza or elsewhere," it said, in the statement's sole allusion to the Israeli offensive.

The carefully worded statement also did not level any blame for the conflict, referring instead to "tragic events in Israel and Gaza."

Ban had complained to reporters Monday that regional and international partners were not doing enough to help end the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

"They should do more," he said. "They should use all possible means to end the violence and encourage political dialogue, emphasizing peaceful ways of resolving differences."

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to the U.N., called Ban's criticism "unfair." He said the United States had been very active diplomatically. Rice, for one, had been on the phone with the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Europeans, the Russians and others, he said.

"Everyone is of the view that two things are important - an end to violence, a cease-fire, an enduring cease-fire, and two t the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians in Gaza," Khalilzad told The Associated Press.

Khalilzad stressed that a cease-fire must deal "not only with what we're seeing now, of course, but also what has caused it, which from our point of view is the sequencing - it is the rockets, it's the smuggling of arms by Hamas and the other (Palestinian militant) groups."

Rice has called for a "durable and sustainable" cease-fire, with stronger provisions than the rocky six-month truce between Hamas and Israel that expired earlier this month after Hamas refused to extend it.

Critics of Israel's bombing campaign called it a disproportionate reaction to Hamas' rocket attacks and feared Israel would transform the aerial assault into a ground offensive like its 2006 war with the Iranian-backed militants of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The concerns were highlighted by Ban's complaint about the slowness of major nations to push for a halt to the fighting.

Rosemary Hollis, a Middle East expert at the City University of London, said the slow response from the West might be based on the hope that the Israelis would be able to deal a critical blow to Hamas before a cease-fire was put in place.

"There is a perception that what they have called the bad guys - Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas - are getting stronger, so leave it to the Israelis to blunt their hubris and show that victory is not theirs," Hollis said.

Francois Heisbourg of the French government-backed Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said such views put Western governments in a difficult position.

"It's a very tricky one t," he said. "Condemning an operation against a terrorist organization has some complications."

Germany, for one, firmly pinned the blame for the conflict on Hamas, which seized power in Gaza and rules in defiance of the moderate Palestinian Authority, headquartered in the West Bank.

Iraq and UK agree to let troops stay until July

Reuters, Baghdad

Iraq signed agreements with Britain and Australia on Tuesday for their troops to stay in Iraq for seven months after a U.N. mandate authorizing their presence expires on January 1, Iraq's Defense Ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the agreements would take effect on New Year's Day and would require the two countries' combat troops to leave Iraq by the end of July.

Britain has 4,100 troops stationed in Iraq, near the southern oil center of Basra. Australia has 300 troops.

A spokesman for the British embassy in Baghdad said: "I can confirm that we've signed an agreement which gives us all the necessary legal cover that we needed to complete our tasks here."

An Australian embassy official was not able to comment.

Iraq's Presidency Council on Sunday ratified a measure agreed by parliament allowing troops from Britain, Australia, El Salvador, Romania and Estonia and the NATO alliance to stay in Iraq until July 2009.

Bilateral agreements between Iraq and each country still needed to be finalized.

Britain, which sent 46,000 troops to the Gulf as the main U.S. ally in the 2003 invasion, intends to keep about 400 advisers and trainers in the country after the July deadline.

Askari said deals would be signed in the next few days with diplomats from other countries with small numbers of troops in the U.S.-led force in Iraq.

Under the terms the agreement signed with Washington, the United States will hand over on January 1 Saddam Hussein's former official residence to the Iraqi government after occupying the majestic sandstone palace since 2003.

The vast palace, at the very heart of the heavily fortified Green Zone where the Iraqi government and some major western countries' embassies are located, is seen by Iraqis as a symbol of the US occupation.

Iraq's government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also said on Tuesday that the Iraqi defence ministry will be put in charge of identifying the exact responsibilities of each foreign military mission staying behind.

Ugandan rebels kill 400 in DR Congo

AFP, Kinshasa

Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels killed more than 400 people in Christmas massacres in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Caritas aid charity said Tuesday.

The rebels denied any responsibility and accused troops from DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan of "bombing" the victims, but a statement from the United Nations Secretary General condemned the alleged LRA atrocities Tuesday.

The LRA targeted a town where a Christmas Day concert was being held and a Roman Catholic church, and attacks were going on along the Sudanese border, the Catholic charity said in a statement.

Caritas workers say that "over 400 people have been killed in the attacks in an area of northern Congo including Faradje, Duru, Gurba, Doruma, and Province Orientale," it added.

The archbishop of Dungu-Doruma, Monsignor Richard Domba, told AFP that at least 150 people had been killed at a Christmas Day service at Faradje and later, 80 at Duru and at least 200 others at Doruma and in the surrounding villages.

"It is a dramatic situation that we are living through here," he said. The rebels "are indescribably barbarous and savage.

"They kill with machetes, axes and clubs. They burn people alive with their property in their homes."

The LRA also "captured young boys and girls whom they will conscript and force to work in their fields," he said.

In Bangadi, near the border with Sudan, 48 people died, and in Gurba 213 people were killed. Approximately 6,500 people have found refuge in the area with the Catholic church, Caritas said.

Sri Lankan rebels open to peace talks

AP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatists are open to restarting peace talks with the government, despite the continuing military offensive aimed at crushing the group, a senior rebel official said.

The two sides have been fighting for more than 25 years over the rebels' demands for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east of this Indian Ocean island nation.

A new military push deep into the rebel heartland in recent months has forced the Tamil Tigers to retreat from vast swaths of land they once controlled, and the government has said it expects to finish off the group in the coming months.

Rebel political chief Balasingham Nadesan told The Associated Press the rebels did not believe they were facing imminent defeat.

"We have made several strategic withdrawals in order to save the lives of our people and maintain the strength of our forces. When the time and place is conducive, we will regain the land we have lost," he said in an e-mail sent to the AP late Tuesday.

The two sides agreed to a truce in 2002 and held internationally brokered peace talks aimed at resolving the bloody conflict. The talks stalled, however, and violence erupted again three years ago. The government officially pulled out of the cease-fire in January.

Nadesan said the rebels had not abandoned hopes for new peace talks.

"We have always been ready for peace talks, but the Sri Lankan government has been always insisting on a military solution," he said.

The government said it would only consider new peace moves if the rebels agreed to disarm.

NATO, US forces kill 17 in Afghanistan

AFP, Kabul

International military forces helping Afghanistan to fight Islamic extremists said Wednesday they had killed 17 militants in separate operations.

The US military said troops under its command had killed 11 armed militants Tuesday in an operation against the radical Hizb-e-Islami faction led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the capital, Kabul.

The battle was fought in the Sarobi district, where militants killed 10 French soldiers in August in the deadliest ground battle for international soldiers since the invasion of Afghanistan by US-led forces in 2001.

The US attack in Sarobi targeted a Hizb-e-Islami leader wanted for trafficking weapons and fighters and for carrying out attacks, the US military said in a statement. The militants had opened fire on approaching troops, it said. "Coalition forces returned fire and killed two of the militants.

"Still receiving fire, coalition forces engaged the militants with close-air precision munitions and killed the remaining nine militants," it said, referring to air strikes.

Weapons, ammunition and other military equipment found at the scene were destroyed, the statement said.

Both Hizb-e-Islami and the extremist Taliban, who are leading an insurgency against the current government after they were deposed in the 2001 invasion, claimed responsibility for the attack on the French.

Hu urges closer ties with rival Taiwan

AP, Beijing

Chinese President Hu Jintao said Wednesday that often-hostile relations with Taiwan have improved greatly over the past three decades and that Beijing remains committed to its long-term goal of peaceful reunification with the island. "Great changes have been made in the cross-strait relationship with efforts by compatriots from both sides of the strait," Hu said in an address marking the 30th anniversary of a message from China to "compatriots in Taiwan" calling for reunification by peaceful means.

Hu also laid out the possibility of discussions with Taiwan on the highly sensitive military level.

"The two sides can engage in t contacts and communications on military issues when appropriate, and discussions on building a trust mechanism for military safety," he said.

At the same time, Hu reinforced Beijing's "one China" policy, saying to heavy applause that "any attempt to separate Taiwan is doomed to failure."

"We call on both sides to negotiate on ending hostilities and reaching a peace agreement on the principle of one China," Hu said.

He specifically addressed Taiwan's pro-independence political party, urging it to give up its policies.

"As long as the Democratic Progressive Party changes its Taiwan independence policy, we are willing to make a positive response," he said.

World bids a relieved adieu to a rocky year

AP, Sydney

Amid the jubilation and celebration of New Year's Eve, another feeling is present for many as a decidedly rocky 2008 comes to a close: relief.

Randolph King, 63, of York, England, tried to forget his retirement fund losses as he sat on a hill overlooking Sydney Harbor, awaiting the city's annual New Year's fireworks display. "I'm looking forward to 2009 - because it can't get much worse," he said.

Facing the end of a year that saw global markets come crashing down - taking the world's morale with them - partygoers everywhere struggled to forget their troubles on what is typically a joyous night. In the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo spoke of hope for better days to come, while in Hong Kong, some admitted they were too depressed over their monetary woes to join in the revelry.

And in Malaysia, the government - mindful of the shaky economy - opted against sponsoring any celebration at all.

"The best way to welcome the new year is to offer prayers according to one's faith and belief," said Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Shafie Apdal.

In Sydney - the first major city to ring in the new year - organizers were hoping the $4 million (6 million Australian dollar) New Year's festival would offer revelers a brief respite from the global gloom.

"There's so much misery around," fireworks director Fortunato Foti said. "If we can get people to forget all that and think just about the fireworks for 15 to 20 minutes, we will have done our job."

Scandal-plagued governor taps Obama's Senate successor

AFP, Chicago

The corruption-tainted governor of Illinois defied Democratic party leaders by appointing a prominent African-American statesman to the US Senate seat vacated by president-elect Barack Obama.

Senate Democrats vowed not to seat former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, saying he would "serve under a shadow and be plagued by questions of impropriety" in the wake of federal corruption charges stating that Governor Rod Blagojevich tried to sell the seat to the highest bidder. Obama said that while Burris is "a good man and a fine public servant," the president-elect supports the decision not to seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich. Obama called the governor's move "extremely disappointing," and said the "best resolution would be for the governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place."

"While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy," Obama said in a statement.

But Illinois congressman and civil rights leader Bobby Rush used racially tinged language in urging Senate Democrats to reconsider, saying they should "not hang and lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer."

Rush said Burris is a "worthy" candidate without an "iota of taint" on his 40-year record of public service and noted that with Obama's departure, there are no African-Americans in the US Senate.

Thailand anti-government protests suspended

AP, Bangkok

Anti-government protesters Wednesday vowed to renew demonstrations that have plagued Thailand over the past year after taking a break for the New Year holidays.

But after a year of almost relentless protests, some hope emerged for calmer political waters in 2009 as seemingly weakened demonstrators suspended their siege of Parliament.

Thousands of loyalists of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra walked away from protest sites in Bangkok late Tuesday after the new government outwitted them and succeeded in delivering a vital policy speech that the demonstrators had tried to prevent by surrounding the Parliament building..

Instead, the lawmakers gathered quickly at the Foreign Ministry for the policy declaration before the protesters had a chance to react effectively.

"We'll have a small party tonight and disperse after midnight so that we can take time to celebrate the New Year festival," a protest leader, Veera Musigapong, said Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, another leader, Nuttawut Saikua, said demonstrators would probably target the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which Thailand is hosting, probably in late February.

Thailand has been rocked by protests by rival groups of demonstrators who either support or oppose Thaksin, once one of the country's richest men, who now lives in self-imposed exile after being forced from office in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption.

Pro-India Muslim to head new Kashmir government

AFP, Srinagar

A young, pro-India Muslim politician, Omar Abdullah, was set Tuesday to become the new chief minister of Indian Kashmir-the third generation of his family to hold the post.

Abdullah, the leader of the pro-India National Conference, was backed by India's ruling Congress Party, after state elections in the troubled Muslim-majority region failed to return an outright winner. "It was decided that I will head the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir," Abdullah told reporters in New Delhi after meeting Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi. The National Conference won 28 of the state assembly's 87 seats, while Congress secured 17. The regional People's Democratic Party will provide the main opposition with 21 seats. Despite a boycott call by separatists and armed rebels, more than 60 percent of voters participated in the multi-stage elections in Indian Kashmir which came after a period of direct rule from New Delhi.

Abdullah, 38, inherited the National Conference leadership in 2002 from his father, Farooq Abdullah, who had succeeded his own father Sheikh Abdullah as chief minister.

The Indian authorities and national media were quick to hail the turnout as a "victory for democracy" in Kashmir where an armed insurgency has claimed at least 47,000 lives since 1989.

The Kashmir region is divided into Indian and Pakistan-controlled sections and claimed in whole by the two South Asian rivals.

Some separatists in Indian Kashmir favour independence, others would like to be part of Pakistan.

India says Pakistan gives the armed militants logistical and material support-a claim rejected by Islamabad.