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US foils UN Council call for cease-fire: Ban Ki-moon calls for immediate end to Israel's ground offensive

AFP, United Nations

UN chief Ban Ki-moon Saturday urged an immediate end to Israel's ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, his press office said just ahead of an emergency Security Council session on the conflict.

Ban "called for an immediate end to the ground operation, and asked that Israel do all possible to ensure the protection of civilians and that humanitarian assistance is able to reach those in need," his office said in a statement.

The secretary general spoke earlier in the day with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and "conveyed his extreme concern and disappointment," said the statement, issued just before the Security Council was to start talks on Gaza.

"He is convinced and alarmed that this escalation will inevitably increase the already heavy suffering of the affected civilian populations."

Israel moved tanks and troops into the Hamas-run territory Saturday, on the eighth day of an air assault aimed at stopping militant rocket and mortar fire into Israel.

Gaza medics say at least 460 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded in the Israeli military operation, its largest since the Jewish state's 2006 war with Lebanon.

Ban said the developments "complicate the efforts" of Middle East peace negotiators and others to end the bloodshed.

Another report adds: The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, diplomats said.

French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the council president, said the 15 council members could not agree on a statement in closed discussions held after Israel launched a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip on Saturday. But he said there were "strong convergences" among the members to express concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the need for "an immediate, permanent and fully respected cease-fire."

Libyan Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi said the United States during the discussions objected to "any outcome" on the proposed statement. He said efforts were made to compromise on a weaker press statement but there was no consensus.

Several other council members, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were closed, also said the U.S. was responsible for the council's failure to issue a statement.

The U.S., Israel's closest ally, has designated Hamas a terrorist organization. U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week's council call for an immediate end to the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement "would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, (and) would not do credit to the council."

Libya, the only Arab nation on the council, called the emergency meeting after Israel sent tanks and infantry across the border into Gaza on the eighth day of its offensive against Hamas militants. The ground attack followed a week of air strikes, which Hamas responded to with salvos of rocket fired into southern Israel.

Arab nations demanded that the council adopt a statement calling for an immediate cease-fire and expressing "serious concern at the escalation of violence and the deterioration of the situation in Gaza and southern Israel," a view echoed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

If it had been approved, the statement would have become part of the council's official record but would not have the weight of a Security Council resolution, which is legally binding.

Israeli Arabs on Gaza firing line lack shelter

AP, Rahat

A rocket exploded a few hundred yards from Mateb Abu Nasr's house, driving home the message that tens of thousands of Israeli Arabs living within range of militant attacks from Gaza are just as vulnerable as their Jewish neighbors. But there's a difference: When the wailing sirens warned of an incoming missile, Abu Nasr's family had nowhere to hide.

Homes in Jewish towns and settlements are required to have one room with reinforced walls and a steel door. Public bomb shelters are accessible, and protective barriers even have been erected in rural areas.

The Arab town of Rahat, population 45,000, is about 24 miles from Gaza and is situated on the outer perimeter reachable by the long-range rockets that Hamas has unleashed for the first time.

Few homes here have a safety room, and there are no public shelters

"This is clear discrimination," said Hassan el-Rafia, an Arab regional official, who says the lack of defenses is typical of the way Israel treats its Arab citizens. Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Israel's population of 7 million people.

The Israeli army said it has launched a public information campaign in Arabic-speaking towns like Rahat with the help of Bedouin army veterans and through Arabic language broadcast and print media. They are encouraging people to keep their radios to a special silent frequency that turns on only to broadcast air-raid alerts.

Militants from the Hamas movement that rules Gaza have fired dozens of rockets daily at Israeli towns and settlements since a six-month cease-fire expired last month. Israel launched a massive air campaign Dec. 27 and a ground invasion Saturday night meant to silence the rockets.

More than 480 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials.

Suicide bomb kills 38 pilgrims near Baghdad

Reuters, Baghdad

A suicide bomber killed 38 people and wounded 55 in an attack on Shi'ite pilgrims as they entered a revered shrine in northwestern Baghdad on Sunday, a source in the Iraqi army said.

The blast occurred at a checkpoint outside the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in Kadhimiya, a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad, as Shi'ites prepared for the Ashura holiday this week to mark the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

Twenty-five people, including women and children, were killed in a blast at a taxi and bus station in the same neighborhood on December 27.

The attack took place a few days after U.S. forces in Iraq came under Iraqi mandate in accordance with a new bilateral pact that will require the withdrawal of the 140,000 U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

As the United States reduces its activities, Iraqi forces are assuming greater responsibility for security. Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq, but militants continue to carry out suicide bombings such as the one that shattered the calm in Baghdad on Sunday and other attacks regularly.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites will visit the holy city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad throughout the Ashura week to mark the death of Hussein, in one of the most important events in the Shi'ite calendar.

India to give US-Mumbai 'evidence’ against Pakistan

Reuters, New Delhi

The sophistication of the Mumbai attack points to the involvement of "state actors" in Pakistan, India's home minister said on Sunday, ahead of his next week's visit to the United States with a dossier of evidence.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram's comments are at odds with Pakistan's insistence that non-state actors were behind the coordinated strike by 10 gunmen that killed 179 people in Mumbai and has inflamed tensions between the South Asian neighbors.

"Somebody who is familiar with intelligence and who is familiar with commando operations has directed this operation," Chidambaram told NDTV news channel.

"And that cannot entirely be a non-state actor. In fact, I presume they are state actors or state-assisted actors unless the contrary is proved," he added.

"It was too enormous a crime and required very elaborate planning, communication networks, financial backing. It was a very, very sophisticated operation."

Chidambaram said the evidence was "overwhelming" and "unanswerable" and would be shared with the United States.

Indian officials said Chidambaram could meet top U.S. Homeland Security officials and possibly also Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.

"It is a detailed dossier, supported by electronic evidence like transcripts and intercepts and interrogation reports," Chidambaram said.

India has blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attack in Mumbai which has revived hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbors that have fought three wars since 1947 and regularly accuse the other of fomenting trouble in their territory.

Pakistan, which has in the past used militants to further foreign policy objectives, condemned the Mumbai violence and launched raids on militants on its soil in the face of global outrage. But the action has not satisfied India.

New Delhi wants Islamabad to dismantle what it says are terrorist training camps on its territory, and extradite at least 40 suspects. Pakistan says it will act if India provides proof.

Sri Lanka says army moving on rebel HQ

AFP, Kilinochchi

The Sri Lankan army said Sunday it was moving in on the jungle stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels, in a final assault aimed at ending the longest-running ethnic war in Asia.

Flush with confidence after retaking their main city two days ago, the army vowed to capture rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as troops pushed deeper into northern territory long under the complete control of the guerrillas.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a New Year's address that 2009 would be the year of "heroic victory" over the Tigers, who have been waging war since 1972 to establish an independent homeland for ethnic Tamils.

Troops captured Kilinochchi, the de facto capital of the rebel state within a state on Friday, and the general leading the assault said his forces were now advancing on Mullaittivu, their last major centre of control.

"We are taking the offensive to the Mullaittivu jungles where Prabhakaran is hiding," Major General Jagath Dias told reporters flown into Kilinochchi for a short and carefully supervised visit to show the city was in army hands.

"We will hunt him down."

For nearly two years, Sri Lanka has banned independent reporters from rebel-held areas, including Kilinochchi, and the general's statement could not be independently verified.

Gunfire and artillery barrages could be heard from around the town during the brief press visit. A military official said ground forces backed by helicopter gunships were moving toward Mullaittivu.

The vastly outnumbered rebels, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), had controlled Kilinochchi for a decade and have frustrated government hopes of victory many times before.

Hours after losing the city Friday, a Tiger suicide bomber in the capital Colombo killed two people and wounded 36. Six months after a major strategic loss in 1995, the rebels overran an army base and killed 1,200 soldiers.

Series of powerful quakes kills 4 in Indonesia

AP, Jakarta

A series of powerful earthquakes at dawn Sunday killed at least four people and injured dozens more in remote eastern Indonesia, cutting power lines and destroying buildings.

One of the quakes - a 7.3-magnitude tremor - was felt as far away as Australia and sent small tsunamis into Japan's southeastern coast, but there were no reports of damage there and no tsunami in Indonesia's impoverished Papua area.

The first 7.6-magnitude quake struck at 4:43 a.m. local time (1943 GMT) on land about 85 miles (135 kilometers) from Manokwari, Papua, at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was followed by dozens of aftershocks.

At least four people died in Papua, and the airport runway nearest the epicenter was cracked, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters. Commercial flights to the area were canceled.

"I've instructed emergency steps be taken to help our brothers and to restore power and other vital utilities," he said without commenting on how widespread the damage might be.

Among the dead was a 10-year-old girl whose head was crushed, said local hospital director Hengky Tewu.

"We have our ambulances picking up two more," he said. Another 19 patients at the hospital were treated for broken bones, cuts, crushed fingers and other injuries.

Papua police chief Maj. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto said he received reports that a hotel and rice warehouse had been "destroyed," but he did not know if anyone had died. A search for possible victims was under way.

Several stories of the Mutiara Hotel in the main city Manokwari collapsed, said Ina, a nurse at a navy hospital treating 20 quake patients. Like many Indonesians she goes by a single name.

Japan’s PM says no plan for snap election

AFP, Tokyo

Japan's unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso signalled Sunday he would not call elections at least for a few months, pledging instead to tackle the worsening economic crisis.

The opposition has been pressing Aso to dissolve parliament immediately for snap polls, seeing a chance finally to unseat his long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

But holding a news conference on the eve of a potentially tense new parliament session, Aso said: "It is clear that economic measures are what we must be in a hurry to do."

"It is important to pass budgets and related bills. I have no plan to dissolve (parliament) until then."

Aso, however, stopped short of elaborating on when exactly he planned to call elections, saying only: "Taro Aso will make the decision."

The government must call a general election by September.

Parliament convenes on Monday for a session in which the ruling coalition will submit budget bills that it hopes to pass by the end of this fiscal year ending March 31.

The government has proposed a record 88.55 trillion yen (965 billion dollar) budget for next year including tax cuts, cash rebates and other incentives aimed at stimulating the world's second largest economy .

However, legislation in Japan has often hit gridlock since the opposition took control of the less powerful upper house of parliament in July 2007.

Analysts say chances are high that the ruling coalition would suffer a major defeat in the closely watched general elections even if Aso delays the timing further.

"Skepticism is growing in the ruling coalition about a victory in the elections under the leadership of Aso," said Yoshikazu Sakamoto, emeritus professor of politics at the University of Tokyo.

West Bengal reports fresh bird flu outbreak

Reuters, Kolkata

Health and veterinary workers culled poultry in densely populated West Bengal on Saturday after a fresh outbreak of H5N1 bird flu, officials said. The latest outbreak of the virus in poultry is the fourth in the state since 2007. Bird flu first broke out in India in 2006. Millions of chicken and ducks have been culled since to contain the virus, but it has resurfaced from time to time. India has reported no human infections. West Bengal officials said they had begun culling about 60,000 poultry after the fourth outbreak was confirmed on Saturday near Siliguri., bordering Bangladesh.

Culling operations in West Bengal to contain the third outbreak had ended barely a fortnight ago.

"We have sent 30 teams to kill chickens and ducks in the village where dead birds tested positive," Surendra Gupta, a senior government official, told Reuters.

Hundreds of thousands of birds had also been culled in Assam and Meghalaya after bird flu was detected in November. Experts have warned that the H5N1 virus might mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people across the world.

According to the World Health Organisation, H5N1 bird flu has infected more than 390 people in 15 countries and killed at least 247 of them since the virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003.