/images/logo.gif (6137 bytes)

Home Page
The Top Story
Metropolitan
Crime
Editorial
Politics
Business News
Country News
Asia Pacific Region
Sports
Letter
Features
Post Editorial
Features
Magazine
Young Independent
Entertainment

International


Peres warns Iran for threatening Israel

AP, JERUSALEM

May 9: Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres warned Iran that it could be threatened with destruction if it continues to vow to destroy Israel.

"Be careful with your threats," Peres told Channel 1 TV on Monday. "Those who threaten to destroy are in danger of being destroyed."

Israel has grown increasingly concerned in recent months by calls from Iran's leader to wipe Israel off the map and Iran's determination to continue its nuclear programme. The West believes Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon and has moved to impose sanctions against the country in the UN Security Council. Iran says its enrichment of uranium is meant for peaceful purposes.

Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, drew unusually stiff criticism from an analyst on Israel's state television, Yoav Limor, for talking of destroying another country.

"There is a broad consensus that it would have been better if Peres had not said this, especially now," Limor said. "I'm quite sure Israel does not want to find itself in the same insane asylum as (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad."

Last week, a top Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target if attacked by the United States. Peres also reacted to that comment with a warning of his own: "Remember that Israel is exceptionally strong and knows how to defend itself."Peres did not say Monday who should act against Iran if it continues with its nuclear programme, but implied military action should be led by the United States, pointing to the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Israeli officials have indicated that Israel would join any international operation against Iran.

In 1981, Israel launched an air strike to destroy an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor. Experts have said such a pinpointed strike against Iran would not be possible, because Tehran's nuclear facilities are intentionally dispersed throughout the country, some of them hidden underground.

Peres urged China and Russia to join Western efforts to impose sanctions on Iran so military action could be avoided. The two countries thus far have been reluctant to back such proposals. "We can prevent all of this threat, without weapons, if there will be unity," Peres said.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Rice rejects Iran's letter as it criticises US govt

AP, NEW YORK

May 9: Iran's President declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the US government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it made no progress toward resolving questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear programme.

"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."

Rice's comments were the most detailed response from the United States to the letter, the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president since the 1979 hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran.

The letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made only an oblique reference to Iran's nuclear intentions. It asked why "any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime." Otherwise, it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.

"Would not your administration's political and economic standing have been stronger?" the letter said. "And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever- increasing global hatred of the American government?

Iran's top nuclear negotiator called the surprise letter a new "diplomatic opening" between the two countries, but Rice said it failed to resolve the dispute over the Iranian nuclear programme - the focus of intense UN Security Council debate this week. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush had been briefed on the letter, which the White House received Monday through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.

"There's nothing in here that would suggest that we're on any different course than we were before we got the letter," Rice said.

Even though the letter hardly touched on nuclear issues, officials said it appeared timed with a push by the United States, Britain, France and Germany for a Security Council vote to restrain the Islamic regime's nuclear ambitions. Both China and Russia are opposed to leveling sanctions against Iran and the letter could provide them support.

Rice, who said she expected no quick action on sanctions, met privately for more than two hours Monday night on Iran with foreign ministers from the other permanent members of the council.

Her spokesman gave no details of the substance of the discussions, but described the talks as strategic and not focused on specific steps.

The United States is concerned that Iran's programme is a cover for making nuclear weapons, while Iran contends it has the right to process uranium as fuel in nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Major powers fail to agree on Iran's nuclear strategy

REUTERS, UNITED NATIONS

May 9: Foreign ministers of major powers failed to come up with a joint strategy for dealing with Iran after Tehran sought to influence the negotiations with a stunning last-minute diplomatic manoeuvre, officials said.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said a US-hosted, three-hour meeting on Monday of ministers from Russia, Britain, China and Germany did not reach agreement.

"We are still considering our work," he told reporters after the late night session had ended.

A senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting agreed that Iran must pay a price for not complying with UN resolutions but did not come to terms on what form that would take.

"I think the prospects for an agreement this week are not substantially good," he said. "Clearly we had a ways to go."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Tass news agency: "All of us agreed that Iran must not have nuclear weapons." He stressed Moscow's desire to draw Iran into "fruitful" negotiations on the issue.

Major power political directors will meet on Iran on Tuesday in New York and will likely meet again next week but sponsors -- aiming for unity -- have backed off a timeline for security council action, the US official said.

Russia and China have been resisting a UN Security Council resolution sponsored by Britain and France and backed by the United States that would legally require Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Britain and France had wanted to get the resolution passed before the Monday night ministers' meeting.

The meeting of the Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members plus Germany and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to President George W. Bush proposing "new ways" to resolve their differences.

But a copy obtained by Reuters showed a long rambling treatise that focused on American wrong doings and did not contain ideas for ending the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions. It was the first letter from an Iranian head of state to a US president since Washington broke off relations after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Sceptical US officials dismissed the 18-page letter as a diversionary tactic. But a European diplomat who works on the Iran issue but was not authorized to speak publicly called the letter "another tactical masterstroke that was deliberately timed to come out today (ahead of the ministers' meeting) and has made administration officials very nervous."

Iran's letter did not prompt calls from the other powers for Washington to change its tough policy or to hold direct talks with Tehran, a senior US official said.

While the immediate issue was Iran's nuclear ambitions, participants said the Monday night discussions were much broader, including terrorism and regional security.

Margaret Beckett, Britain's new foreign secretary, said "No one has the intention of taking military action (against Iran). That was not discussed. It was not an issue."

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

India's space agency urges Bush to lift all sanctions

AFP, BANGALORE, INDIA

May 9: India's main space agency urged the United States to lift sanctions that remain in force on three of its operations and thus enable more high-tech imports.

Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said sanctions were still applied to its Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in Kerala state and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh.

"As an effort between our prime minister and President George Bush three (other) institutions were removed from the list to enable import of more high-tech imports and services from the US," Nair said.

"I hope this will encourage an improvement in space commerce activity in the coming years," he said after India and the US signed a cooperative pact for carrying two US payloads on board India's Chandrayaan-1 unmanned mission to the moon.

"I can see that there is a willingness on both sides to improve this cooperation."

Space cooperation between the two dates back to 1963 when an atmospheric experiment was carried on a US-made rocket.

Relations have warmed markedly in recent years and Washington has lifted sanctions slapped on India's nuclear and space programmemes following New Delhi's nuclear test blasts in 1998.

The sanctions had frozen exchanges in nuclear and other high-tech sectors such as technology with both civilian and military use.

During the March visit of US President George W. Bush, a landmark civilian nuclear deal was sealed.

India agreed to place most of its civilian atomic reactors under global scrutiny for the first time in more than three decades in return for foreign nuclear technology.

The agreement effectively ends India's status as a nuclear pariah, even though it refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Australian miners rescued after being trapped for two weeks

AP, BEACONSFIELD, AUSTRALIA

May 9: Bells pealed and sirens wailed as this tiny mining town erupted in jubilation Tuesday after two miners were rescued from the kennel-sized cage where they had been trapped more than a half mile underground for two weeks.

But the joy quickly turned to grief as mourners gathered to bury a miner who died in the same rock collapse that trapped his co-workers.

"There's not many things in life that take us through so many emotions at the same time," said Graham Mulligan, spokesman for a Christian motorcycle club which escorted Larry Knight's coffin from the church to a nearby cemetery.

"This whole ordeal has taken us from horror to shock, grief, sadness, joy and happiness and then back to sadness again."

Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, punched the air as they walked out of the Beaconsfield Gold Mine before dawn Tuesday, freed by rescue crews drilling round-the-clock. Hundreds of well-wishers gathered at the mine gates erupted in cheers.

The miners hugged family and friends before climbing into two ambulances, laughing and joking. Before going, they removed their identity tags from the wall outside the elevator - a standard safety measure when miners finish a shift.

The men also handed out small cards that read: "The Great Escape. To all who have helped and supported us and our families, we cannot wait to shake your hand and (buy) you a Sustagen," referring to a nutrition drink the pair sipped during their ordeal.

As news of the rescue spread, a fire engine drove with its siren blaring through Beaconsfield, located in the southern state of Tasmania. A church bell not used since the end of World War II rang out in celebration.

Webb and Russell were then driven through Beaconsfield in two ambulances, their back doors open so they could wave to townsfolk, and underwent tests at a hospital. The families said neither they nor the miners planned to speak to the media Tuesday.

One of the rescuers, who identified himself only as Peter, said many miners celebrated with free beer at a local bar before turning to the more somber business of the day - burying their colleague Knight.

Russell limped into the service, which was attended by hundreds of Beaconsfield residents, but otherwise looked fit and healthy, the beard he had grown during his underground ordeal trimmed to a goatee. It was not immediately clear if Webb also attended.

Knight's family had delayed the service hoping the trapped miners would be able to attend.

Webb and Russell were buried after a small earthquake April 25 trapped the safety cage they were working in under tons of rock.

Teams of miners bored through more than 45 feet of rock over the past week with a giant drilling machine to reach the men.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Constitutional court nullifies April elections

Thailand prepares for new polls

AFP, BANGKOK

May 9: Thailand is preparing for new, court-supervised elections, as Thaksin Shinawatra mulled whether to run for prime minister just one month after he tearfully stepped aside following months of protests.

The nation's three most powerful courts said they would supervise the polls, one day after the Constitutional Court nullified last month's snap elections that left Thailand without a functioning parliament.

"The chief justices have agreed to carry on with their mission because the verdict by the Constitutional Court does not mean the conflict will end," said Justice Charan Pakdithanakul, speaking for the Supreme Court.

A host of questions remain about how and when the new polls will take place, including whether Thaksin will run again for prime minister.

Thaksin, who remains a lawmaker and the leader of his powerful party, has dodged the question.

"Why are you following a jobless man?" he asked reporters who quizzed him recently as he went shopping with his wife. Senior aide Prommin Lertsuridej said the billionaire businessman would run for a seat in parliament, but would not say whether he had his sights set on being premier.

"I cannot answer on his behalf whether he will seek another role. He will be the sole person to make that decision. As of today, there is no decision," he told reporters.

Before the snap elections, Thaksin had faced months of street protests accusing him of using his political office to enrich his telecom empire.

One of the protest leaders, media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul, warned Thaksin not to stage a comeback.

"Thaksin does not realize that he was the Centre of the problem, so he should pull out of politics completely," Sondhi told reporters.

Sondhi also threatened to call new protests unless the Election Commission resigns.

"We believe that if the existing EC organizes the new polls, the new election will not be fair for everyone, even if Thaksin doesn't run," he said.

The courts have also raised questions about the Election Commission, which has received much of the blame for the failure of the April 2 polls.

The opposition, which boycotted those polls, has accused the commission of being too closely aligned with Thaksin.

The opposition on Monday also called on the commissioners to resign, but the government has warned that naming new members to the panel could drag out the organization of the next polls.

But Charan said the Supreme Court was prepared to name new members to the panel, saying that appointing new commissioners would help ensure public confidence in the polls.

"This would help to resolve the crisis," he said.

Thailand's courts have never taken such a powerful stand in national politics. Until 1992, the country had long used military intervention to resolve political problems.

But the judiciary was pushed into action two weeks ago after the influential King Bhumibol Adulyadej publicly castigated the nation's top judges for failing to resolve the crisis.

In a nationally televised speech, he branded the elections "undemocratic", refused to meet opposition demands for a royally appointed prime minister and ordered the courts to find a solution to the impasse.

Thaksin had called the April 2 snap polls, just a year after winning a landslide re-election victory, in hopes of ending street protests against him.

Instead, the elections sent the country spinning towards a constitutional crisis after the opposition boycotted them, saying they could not be fair.

Thaksin's party won 56 percent of the vote but the elections failed to fill all the seats in parliament, undermining Thaksin's victory and forcing him to step aside on April 4.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Indonesia backs Iran on nuclear ambitions

AP, JAKARTA, INDONESIA

May 9: Indonesia said Monday it supported Iran's right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful means ahead of a visit to the country by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

During his six-day stay in the world's most populous Muslim nation, Ahmadinejad is expected to seek support for Iran's nuclear programme, and sign multimillion-dollar energy deals with the government.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said late Monday that Ahmadinejad would discuss the nuclear issue with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when the two meet Wednesday.

"We want to hear for ourselves from Iran about their position on the resolution being discussed at the United Nations," he said. "Our position is that we support nuclear development for peaceful purposes, especially energy, but we consistently object to nuclear weapons proliferation."

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Violence in Iraq leaves 34 dead

AP, BAGHDAD, IRAQ

May 9: Violence killed at least 34 people including a US soldier as efforts to finish choosing the new Cabinet bogged down Monday in a web of conflicting interests.

The deadliest attack Monday occurred when a car bomb exploded near an Iraqi court in central Baghdad, killing five Iraqi civilians and wounding 10, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

Two Iraqi policemen died and 12 people were wounded when another car bomb went off near a police patrol traveling down busy Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, police Lt. Ahmed Qassim said.

The American soldier was killed when a roadside bomb struck a military convoy Monday southeast of Baghdad, according to a US statement. The command did not specify the location, but Iraqi police reported a bombing damaged a US convoy between the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.

In a separate statement, the US command said one American soldier was killed and another wounded during a clash Sunday near Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

A new wrinkle in gifts for mom and dad

REUTERS, SEOUL

South Koreans traditionally used to say it with flowers or money, but now more are showing love and respect to their parents by giving mom and dad coupons for cosmetic surgery.

Local media has reported a boom in orders this year for botox treatments, face lifts and hair transplants to mark Parents' Day Monday.

Cosmetic surgery clinics in Seoul said they have been booked solid for weeks with appointments made by children for their parents.

Using surgery to ehance looks is common in South Korea, with few stigmas attached to having procedures done to make eyes rounder, noses more shapely and even calves slimmer.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Indian couple wed on phone amid sectarian clashes

REUTERS, AHMEDABAD, INDIA

An Indian couple exchanged wedding vows over the telephone after the bridegroom could not make it to the ceremony due to Hindu-Muslim clashes in the bride's city.

The long-distance marriage was solemnized Friday as a curfew and army patrols in the western Indian city of Vadodara prevented 21-year-old Sufiyan Agarbatiwala from reaching the bride's house there.

Vadodara, earlier known as Baroda, was rocked by sectarian strife this week after city authorities demolished a Muslim shrine to widen a road. Six people were killed and scores injured in the rioting.

Although the violence has since abated, curfews and tight security remain in place.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

UFOs caused by natural forces, not aliens

REUTERS, LONDON

Hopes -- or fears -- that the Earth has been visited by alien life forms have been dismissed in an official report by British defense specialists.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed Sunday a secret study completed in December 2000 had found no evidence that "flying saucers" or unidentified flying objects were anything other than natural phenomena.

The 400-page report, released under freedom of information laws to an academic from the northern city of Sheffield, concluded that meteors and unusual atmospheric conditions could explain UFO sightings such as bright lights in the sky.

"No evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces," the report said, according to extracts quoted by the BBC.

"Evidence suggests that meteors and their well-known effects, and possibly some other less-known effects, are responsible for some unidentified aerial phenomena.

"Considerable evidence exists to support the thesis that the events are almost certainly attributable to physical, electrical and magnetic phenomena in kthe atmosphere, mesosphere and ionosphere," it said.

A Ministry of Defense (MOD) spokesman said the full report, "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defense Region," would be published on its Web site on May 15.

The ministry publishes annual lists of UFO sightings on its Web site, which rank among its most viewed -- and bizarre -- pages.

In 2005 the ministry was asked under freedom of information laws for details of its plans for "dealing with the arrival of extra-terrestrials."

An unnamed defense official replied: "While we remain open-minded, to date the MOD knows of no evidence which substantiates the existence of these alleged phenomena and therefore has no plans for dealing with such a situation."

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Al-Qaida video purports to show attacks

AP, CAIRO, EGYPT

May 9: An alleged al-Qaida videotape broadcast Monday on Arab television purported to show roadside bomb attacks on US and Afghan forces in a violent Afghan region bordering Pakistan.

The video showed a militant preparing a mine for an attack. Sitting next to him on a bench was a boy who appeared to be about 5 years old, holding a pistol, with ammunition belts draped over his shoulders and his face covered by a headscarf. The boy sat and watched as the man, also masked, wrapped a mine in transparent tape.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

Judge acquits Zuma of rape

AP, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

May 9: A man who once seemed in line to be South Africa's next president was acquitted of rape Monday in the country's most politically charged trial since the end of apartheid.

Supporters erupted into boisterous celebrations, but former Deputy President Jacob Zuma still faces trial in July on separate corruption charges - accusations supporters say were part of a conspiracy against him - and his political future was in question. Trial testimony riveted the nation, focused attention on its high rate of rape and raised questions about Zuma's attitude toward women and whether ultimately he had the judgment to govern. His testimony about having unprotected consensual sex with an HIV-positive AIDS activist demonstrated an amazing ignorance about HIV transmission by a man who once headed South Africa's campaign against the virus. It also heightened questions about HIV prevention in a country with 6 million HIV-infected people - the world's highest number. South Africa's president once questioned the link between HIV and AIDS, and its health minister resisted attempts to introduce anti-retroviral treatment, advocating instead the AIDS-fighting ability of garlic and the African potato.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

China for return of Gitmo men

AP, BEIJING

May 9: China on Tuesday demanded the return of five Chinese Muslims released from the Guantanamo Bay detention Centre, denouncing a US decision to allow them to seek asylum in Albania.

The United States allowed the five Chinese to go to the Balkan country after concluding they posed no terrorist threat to the United States but might face persecution if they returned to China. "These suspects should be sent to China as soon as possible," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. "The act by the United States and Albania strongly violates international law," Liu said at a news briefing. Liu claimed that the five Chinese, members of the country's Uighur minority, are suspected of being members of a group accused of waging a violent separatist campaign in the country's northwest.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |

9 students killed in Nepal accident

AP, KATMANDU, NEPAL

May 9: A school van plunged into a canal in eastern Nepal on Tuesday, killing at least nine students and leaving several others missing, a police official said.

The van was carrying about two dozen students when it veered off a bridge and plunged into the canal near Jhumka, a small town about 280 miles east of the capital, Katmandu, a police official on the scene said by telephone, without giving his name. The vehicle's steering system had apparently failed, the official said. Police and army rescuers were searching the water for several missing students, he said. It was not clear how many students survived and swam to safety. Such accidents are relatively common in Nepal, where many roads and vehicles are poorly maintained.

| Top of this page | Back to Index Page |