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Nepal Maoists threaten blockade

AFP, KATHMANDU

Feb 5 : Nepal’s new government has vowed to crack down on corruption and poverty, state media reported Saturday, as Maoist rebels warned they would bring the country to a halt if King Gyanendra did not reverse his power grab. A cabinet meeting chaired by the king adopted a 21-point socio-economic programme focused on creating jobs, ending nepotism and corruption, and spurring economic growth, state-run radio announced.

"Property amassed through abuse of authority, smuggling, tax evasion, illegal contract and commission will be seized and nationalised," it said, announcing the decisions of the cabinet. Gyanendra on Tuesday fired the government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for failing to organise elections or quell the insurgency by Maoists, who want to topple the monarchy and install a communist republic.

He also named a loyalist cabinet under his "chairmanship", declared a state of emergency and pledged to restore multi-party democracy in three years.

State-run English daily "The Rising Nepal" Saturday outlined other populist measures the new government planned to take in what analysts say is an attempt by the king to win support for his actions from Nepalis fed up with greedy and squabbling politicians.

The government would give more powers to village councils, dole out property to the landless, modernise farming, create jobs, develop tourism and provide free education to a percentage of needy students, it said.

A senior minister, meanwhile, said multi-party democracy would only be restored and elections held once Maoist rebels were defeated.

Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey told AFP that until the Maoist insurgency was halted, "multi-party democracy cannot come back on track."

"We have learnt the lessons after paying a heavy price that without restoring peace and security, we cannot hold elections," he said.

Maoist guerrilla leader Prachanda hit back in a statement received by AFP in New Delhi Saturday, warning that unless the king reversed his actions, the rebels would enforce an indefinite countrywide blockade from February 13. Prachanda urged citizens to stock up with vital provisions and come out "in strong resistance" to what he said was "Nazi-style repression" by the king’s forces.

"Our party challenges Gyanendra .. to withdraw his retrogressive steps immediately," his statement said. "If he fails to withdraw ... our party will be compelled to come out for countrywide blockade and traffic strike for uncertain time, from 13 February," it said.

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11 Iraqis, two US troops killed in Iraq violence

AFP, BASRA

Feb 5: Insurgents killed four Iraqi soldiers in a motorcycle bomb in the southern city of Basra Saturday, as violence elsewhere also left another seven Iraqis and two US troops dead. "The booby-trapped motorbike exploded as the patrol passed by. Four soldiers were killed and their vehicle destroyed," captain Farid al-Tamimi told AFP.

The attack took place behind the general hospital in the Hay al-Rissala neighbourhood, in the centre of Basra, which is the country's second largest city.

Attacks are seldom in this Shiite-dominated city, but extremist Sunni Arab organisations have vowed to target the majority Shiite community, which is expected to obtain a crushing victory in last Sunday's elections. Two children were killed when a landmine exploded Saturday in the restive Sunni city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, security and medical sources said. Two Iraqi soldiers were also killed in a roadside bomb attack in the same city, which US-led troops had raided in October in a bid to clean it of insurgents ahead of the landmark elections.

In further unrest in Samarra, another soldier and a civilian were killed during clashes between Iraqi security forces and insurgents in the city centre, police lieutenant Hussein Abbas said.

In the nearby troublespot of Dhuluiya, a soldier was killed and four civilians wounded in clashes, police captain Amjad Saad said. The US military also announced Saturday that two US troops were killed a day earlier in a similar attack near Baiji, further north. The deaths raise to 1,441 the number of US military personnel whose lives have been lost in Iraq since Washington invaded in spring 2003.

Meanwhile, US-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi was trailing a Shiite ticket with ties to Iran in Iraq's historic election, according to partial returns released Saturday. Four US soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the north, and gunmen seized an Italian journalist in Baghdad.

The United Iraqi Alliance, endorsed by Iraq's top Shiite clerics, captured more than two-thirds of the 3.3 million votes counted so far, the election commission said. The ticket headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite, had about 18 percent - or more than 579,700 votes.

Those latest partial figures from Sunday's contest for 275 National Assembly seats came from 10 of Iraq's 18 provinces, said Hamdiyah al-Husseini, an election commission official. All 10 provinces have heavy Shiite populations, and the Alliance had been expected to do well there. So far, 45 percent of the vote has been counted in Baghdad, with varying percentages tallied in the other nine provinces.

Nevertheless, the huge lead that the Shiites were rolling up among their core constituency in the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq pointed to the likelihood of a tremendous victory. An Alliance win would seal the Shiite majority's bid to claim power after centuries of domination by Sunni Arabs, including years of oppression by Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime.

No returns have been released from the Kurdish provinces of the north or mainly Sunni provinces north and west of the capital. Many Sunni Arabs, who comprise an estimated 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, are believed to have stayed away from the polls - either out of fear of retaliation or anger at a vote held while US troops are in the country.

The Shiite ticket was also running strong among Iraqis who voted in 14 foreign countries. The International Organization for Migration, which supervised the expatriate vote, said the Shiite Alliance won about 36 percent of the 263,685 absentee ballots. The Kurdish Alliance List took nearly 30 percent, and Allawi's ticket was third with about 9 percent.

Allawi, who lived in exile in Britain during Saddam's rule, had been expected to draw support from many voters outside Iraq.

Seats in the National Assembly will be apportioned according to each faction's percentage of the nationwide vote. A two-thirds majority in the assembly - possibly in a coalition with Kurds and others - would enable the cleric-backed ticket to wield considerable influence in drafting the new constitution and shaping a democratic Iraq.

The leader of the Shiite ticket, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, has promised an inclusive government and a role for the Sunnis and others in drafting the constitution - the major task of the new assembly.

Al-Hakim and other figures in the Alliance spent years in exile in mainly Shiite Iran, but they insist they have no intention of transforming Iraq into a clerical-run state. The ticket was endorsed by Iraq's most revered top Shiite cleric, the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The signs of a strong Shiite victory have sparked fears that the Sunni Arab minority will not accept any new government that emerges from the election, fueling the mainly Sunni insurgency.

The terror group al-Qaida in Iraq vowed new attacks against military targets in the coming days in an Internet statement posted Saturday. The group promised "victories, qualitative operations and the killing of the heads of the infidels and apostates."

The statement alleged to be from al-Qaida in Iraq but the authenticity of online statements cannot be verified.

In the latest insurgent attacks, two American soldiers were killed Saturday and four wounded by a roadside bomb outside Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the US command said. A second roadside bomb in Beiji killed two other US soldiers and wounded five, the military said Saturday.

At least 1,445 American military personnel have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

Meanwhile, gunmen seized Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist for the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, in a hail of gunfire after blocking her car near the Baghdad University compound. She had gone to interview refugees from Fallujah and to attend Saturday prayers at a nearby mosque, according to Italian radio journalist Barbara Schiavulli.

Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Sgrena may have been taken by a Sunni gang "who shot at our martyrs of Nasiriyah," referring to the November 2003 bombing of Italian paramilitary barracks in a southern Shiite city.

The 56-year-old Sgrena is the second Italian journalist kidnapped in Iraq, and at least the ninth Italian seized here in recent months. Freelance Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni was abducted and killed in August.

Schiavulli said she received a call from Sgrena's cell phone as the kidnapping was under way. "I couldn't hear anyone talking. ... I heard people shooting," Schiavulli said. "I kept saying, 'Giuliana, Giuliana,' and no answer."

Later, a statement posted on two Islamic militant Web sites in the name of the little-known Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and gave Italy 72 hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq. It did not say what would happen after the time passed.

The statement included no picture of the victim or other evidence that the claim was genuine. An official at the Italian Foreign Ministry said authorities were looking into the claim but said they were "far from taking it too seriously" at this stage.

More than 190 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq over the past year. At least 13 remain missing - including a French woman reporter seized last month. More than 30 were killed and the rest were freed or escaped.

US military planners hope that building up Iraqi security forces will help bring stability to the country and allow the Americans to hand over responsibility for fighting the insurgents.

"Our ticket out of here is not going to be written through constant combat operations - we'd be here forever doing that," Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, deputy commander of the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division, told The Associated Press. "Our ticket out of here is the Iraqi security forces."

Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the US commander of the training effort, praised the Iraqi security forces' performance during the election and promised that "in the months ahead we'll see the addition of a good number of adviser teams that will work with Iraqi elements" in training programmes.

There are currently 136,000 members of the Iraqi security forces and military, he told reporters at the Pentagon

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Netaji not killed in plane crash: Judge

AFP, KOLKATA

Feb 5: A retired judge inquiring into the mysterious disappearance of a famed Indian freedom fighter said Saturday there was no evidence to support the theory that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had died in a 1945 plane crash in Taiwan.

Bose, also known as "Netaji" (leader), was president of the Congress party and founded the Indian National Army (INA) to fight British colonial forces. He led a failed attack on colonial India from the tiny northeastern state of Nagaland and later reportedly died in a plane crash at Taihoku airport in Taiwan. But former Supreme Court judge, Manoj Mukherjee, who was appointed by the government to conduct an inquiry into Bose's disappearance, said "there is no record" that Netaji was killed in the plane crash on August 18, 1945. At least two earlier commissions have held that the freedom fighter died in the accident. The new commission was appointed a couple of years ago after Bose supporters demanded the case be reopened.

"The Taiwanese government has shown me documents that there was no record of (a) plane crash in Taiwan between August 14 and September 20, 1945," Mukherjee, who recently visited Taiwan, told AFP. "I have verified the documents. They have promised to send the documents to India within a fortnight," the judge added.

The plane theory has also been disputed recently by an Indian visiting professor to Saint Petersburg University, Purabi Roy. Roy, who is also working on Bose's disappearance, said: "Documents available at Russian archives indicate that Bose was not killed in the crash." The researcher also disputed that Bose's remains were kept in a casket at Renkojit temple in Tokyo.

According to recorded history, Bose was arrested by British forces on July 2, 1940 for his activities and put under house arrest in Calcutta.

However, on January 16, 1941, he escaped and fled to Moscow on an Italian passport from where he went to Berlin and raised the INA with the support of Indian prisoners of war.

In October 1943, he left Germany to reach Tokyo before continuing on to Singapore.

On October 23, 1943, he formed an interim Indian independent government in Singapore and declared war against the British colonial forces in India. Leading the newly-formed INA, Bose entered Kohima, capital of Nagaland, on March 19, 1944 and unfurled the national flag but had to retreat after a British army offensive.

On August 18, 1945, it was reported that Bose had been killed in a plane crash in Taiwan.

Neither Mukherjee nor Roy have offered alternative theories as to the circumstances of his death.

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Peace in S Asia depends on Kashmir solution: Musharraf

AFP, MUZAFFARABAD

Feb 5: President Pervez Musharraf warned on Saturday that peace in South Asia would not be possible if Kashmiris were denied a chance to decide their future.

"Establishment of peace in the region is not possible nor can the confidence-building measures proceed unless the Kashmir issue is resolved in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiris," he said in a message as Pakistan observed a day of "solidarity" with the people of Kashmir.

The message was read out by Sardar Siab Khalid, speaker of the legislature of the Pakistani-administered zone of Kashmir, as bad weather prevented Musharraf from flying to the state capital, Muzaffarabad. Musharraf, who has initiated a peace process with India to resolve all issues through dialogue, said Kashmiris would have to be included in the dialogue process.

Rallies were held here and elsewhere in Pakistan expressing solidarity with the people of Kashmir fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan state.

"It is the basic right of the Kashmiris to decide their future on their own. I want to make it clear that Kashmir cause is our vital national interest and we cannot think of compromising it," Musharraf said. Islamic rebels in Indian-held Kashmir launched an insurgency in 1989 which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Most of the rebels want to join mainly-Muslim Pakistan although some want independence. Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India, has sparked two of their three wars since independence in 1947.

The two countries resumed dialogue under international pressure after coming close to their fourth war in 2002. They have since launched a number of confidence-building measures but no concrete progress has been made on Kashmir and other other issues so far. Musharraf said Pakistan would not accept any solution which was not in line with the wishes of Kashmiris.

"The government of Pakistan has made its position very clear to the Indian leadership and world leaders." He also assured the Kashmiris that "the whole Pakistani nation was with them in their struggle for freedom and they would always enjoy the moral, political and diplomatic support of Pakistan."

The president paid tribute to "more than 80,000 martyrs who had laid down their lives in Indian-held Kashmir during the ongoing freedom struggle."

"The blood of martyrs will not go in vain. These sacrifices will soon bear fruit and Kashmiris will achieve their basic rights. "I am sure at long last the Kashmiris will get peace and freedom," he added.

Meanwhile, authorities in northwestern Pakistan have arrested a Tunisian man suspected of links with the Al-Qaeda terror network, an official said Friday.

The suspect, who identified himself as Abdul Qayum, was seized on Wednesday while shopping at a market in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, a senior intelligence official told AFP requesting anonymity.

"The suspect gave his name as Abdul Qayum and says he is from Tunisia," the official said, but added that investigators had not yet confirmed his claims.

The suspect is being questioned about his links with Al-Qaeda, he said. Pakistan, a key ally in Washington's so-called war on terror since 9/11, has already captured around 600 alleged Al-Qaeda supporters including some major operatives.

Its forces have also fought pitched battles with militants in the tribal region of South Waziristan, near Peshawar. Many are thought to have crossed from Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The United States placed an advertisement in a Peshawar newspaper Friday offering rewards of millions of dollars for information leading to the arrest of Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda kingpins.

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Ahead of key summit

Abbas talks peace with Fatah

AFP, GAZA CITY

Feb 5: Mahmud Abbas held talks with the revolutionary council of his mainstream Fatah faction Saturday, three days before the Palestinian leader meets Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for a potentially breakthrough summit.

The summit, to be held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, has fuelled hopes that the Middle East peace process is moving back on track and coincides with a crucial visit to the region by new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

It will be the first time top Israeli and Palestinian leaders have met since 2000, with Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert saying Israel was "strong enough to take risks" in its negotiations with the Palestinians. Israeli public radio said top Sharon adviser Dov Weisglass was to travel to Cairo Sunday to establish the common ground between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of the summit.

Abbas was holding talks with more than 100 members of his own Fatah party who sit on the revolutionary council, while a top aide said the aim of the summit was to declare a mutual ceasefire between the two sides. "The revolutionary council of Fatah is holding an important meeting in the presence of Abu Mazen (Abbas) to discuss the summit, political and security questions and the results of contacts with Israel," said Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina. "We intend to work so that a mutual ceasefire can be declared between the Palestinians and Israelis at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit," he said. "We are also demanding the liberation of 8,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and hope to be able to sort out the differences.

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King of Nepal's seizure of power a big gamble: Analysts

AFP, KATHMANDU

Feb 5: Nepal's King Gyanendra has taken a huge gamble by seizing power in a bid to end a bloody and brutal Maoist rebellion that has tortured the Himalayan kingdom for eight years, analysts say.

If he succeeds, the status of the monarchy will be reinforced to the detriment of democracy; his failure could lead to the ancient monarchy's collapse, they say. King Gyanendra fired the government on Tuesday, assumed all powers and declared a state of emergency, citing the previous administration's failure to bring peace to a country gripped by civil war since 1996.

The conflict has killed more than 11,000 people and ravaged a population that has suffered at the hands of rebels and government troops alike.

War-weary, ordinary Nepalis interviewed in the capital Kathmandu said that if they had to choose between peace and democracy, for which many have been pressing, they would choose peace. "The population has been victimised, people are less concerned with politics. They want first peace should prevail," said a pro- monarchy analyst.

The government that King Gyanendra sacked has come in for much criticism, like every administration in place since the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1990 when several political parties were allowed to operate. "All the governments have collapsed, all the parties quarrel, corruption has become institutionalised," said an official with a human rights group. "Nepalese cannot believe in democracy," he said. In the king's favour is that the Maoists have for months been demanding direct negotiations with him, saying he has always been the sole source of power.

Their demand is ironic since the Maoists, split by hardline and moderate factions, are fighting for a communist republic to replace the monarchy. But King Gyanendra's place at the head of the new government that he has appointed could lead the way to such talks. "If the king can solve the Maoist problem, the Nepalese will like him and nobody will go for democracy," said an employee of a nongovernment organisation.

And, said a Western diplomat, in a world focussed on the fight against terrorism, "the Nepalis, like the international community, are more lenient even if their rights are suppressed." While the king holds many cards in this gamble, there are some stacked against him.

He has to tackle not just the Maoists and the opposition, but also the international community which has been strongly critical of his seizure of power and could resort to suspending vital aid to press its demand for a return to democracy.

And the king will no longer be able to hide behind successive governments for the failure to find peace with the Maoists, as he has until now.

Previous governments served as a "fuse" for the king, said a Nepali journalist. But now, "If he fails, people will blame the king," he said.

The task facing King Gyanendra is tough: find peace, organise elections and reestablish democracy in three years as he has promised, all the while developing the economy of the country, one of the poorest in the world. And after all the sacrifices they have had to make, the people of Nepal will judge him harshly if he cannot succeed. "If he fails, he will have to find a justification, will be very unpopular, very weak, he has taken a very big risk," said the NGO employee.

Should peace not be established and the situation in the country continue to deteriorate, the king will have no choice but to backtrack, said the diplomat.

"He will have to give way and it could mean the end of the monarchy because he will have to find another solution: it could be putting power in the hands of the military, a total victory for the Maoists, or democracy."

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Bush threatens to turn world into a ‘sea of fire: N Korea

REUTERS, SEOUL

Feb 5: In its first reaction to US President George W. Bush's State of the Union address, North Korea said Bush had threatened to turn the world into a "sea of fire," South Korean media reported on Saturday citing a Pyongyang broadcast.

Attention has been focused on what the North would say about stalled six- party talks to end its nuclear programme, but the North has yet to make any official comment on the issue. In a commentary carried by the North's official Radio Pyongyang, the broadcast cast Bush as saying in his State of the Union address on Wednesday that the fire of freedom would flare up in every corner of the world, Yonhap News reported, citing a Saturday broadcast.

"But that means the United States will have the freedom to throw the world into a sea of battle fires," the North said. Bush, who branded the North part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and pre-war Iraq in a previous State of the Union address three years ago, limited his direct comments on North Korea to a single sentence on Wednesday.

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Indonesia seeks to make public kissing a crime

AFP, JAKARTA

Feb 5: Public kissing and cohabitation may become crimes in Indonesia in future as the world's largest Muslim nation seeks to overhaul its Dutch-inherited criminal laws, an official said today.

The drafting of a new criminal code has finally been completed after 25 years and parliament will soon debate it, justice ministry official Abdul Gani Abdullah told AFP. The proposed draft includes provisions banning public kissing, unmarried couples from living together and adultery. Offenders caught kissing in the open could be jailed up to 10 years and fined as much as 300 million rupiah (33,000 dollars) under new penalties.

Some legal experts have criticized the draft, saying the state should not repress citizens' freedom of expression or interfere in their private lives.

But Abdullah insisted the proposed laws were in line with popular wishes.

"Kissing in public is a crime if the people around are not happy and lodge a complain. But if they think it's all right, then no action will be taken," he said.

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Three die in Kashmir local poll violence

AFP, SRINAGAR

Feb 5: Two people were killed and a Muslim candidate in ongoing municipal elections wounded in a surge of separatist violence in Indian Kashmir, police said Saturday. A police official said a top-ranking rebel commander of the dominant militant group Hizbul Mujahedin was shot dead by Indian troops overnight in the southern Kashmir district of Rajouri.

In the same district, police said suspected militants abducted three Hindus Saturday.

"One of them was shot dead, while two others managed to give slip to their captors," a police spokesman said.

In the state summer capital Srinagar, suspected militants overnight shot and wounded Sheikh Mohammed Amin, police said. Amin had contested the second stage of the municipal elections held on Tuesday in Srinagar. The latest violence comes on the eve of Sunday's third phase of the vote, which will be held in the southern districts of Anantnag and Pulwama. Separatist politicians and rebel groups have called on voters to shun the elections, the first in more than a quarter of a century, saying the polls are no substitute for the right to self-determination.

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World slowly forgetting tsunami tragedy

AFP, COLOMBO

Feb 5: Hundreds of Sri Lankan youths marched through the capital Colombo on Saturday, saying the world had already started to forget the tsunami tragedy six weeks after it struck the region.

Wearing jeans and white T-shirts bearing the words "Let's piece together the future of Sri Lanka" and holding banners reading "Let's build one Sri Lanka", they marched from the city's Hyde Park to the Independence Square public park, collecting funds along the way for tsunami victims.

"We feel that the spirit behind the relief work for the tsunami victims is dying as Sri Lanka and the world is slowly forgetting the tragedy," said Aashiq Aminuddin, organiser of the march and a student from the Sri Lankan wing of the Malaysia-based Asia-Pacific Institute of Information Technology.

"Our march today is an attempt to keep that spirit alive and tell the world not to forget what we have suffered.

The victims need us for a long time." Nearly 31,000 people died in the December 26 tsunami tragedy that devastated three quarters of Sri Lanka's coastline and almost half a million are still homeless.

"Since the tsunami struck, we have collected over 2.5 million rupees (25,000 dollars) which we have used for relief work," Aminuddin told AFP. On Saturday, hundreds of tsunami survivors took to streets in southern Matara district to protest corrupt aid distribution as the government admitted that 70 percent of the victims had yet to receive any state help. Some 960,000 people are officially listed as being entitled to tsunami relief after the disaster.

In her Freedom Day address on Saturday, President Chandrika Kumartunga reiterated that aid was reaching all and urged a unified approach to tackle the tragedy.

After initial cooperation between the government and the rebel Tamil Tigers over tsunami relief, a row over control of international aid has sparked new tensions.

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US soldier gets six months in Abu Ghraib abuse case

AP, FORT HOOD, TEXAS

Feb 5: Sgt. Javal Davis, who admitted abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003, was sentenced Friday to six months in a military prison and given a bad-conduct discharge from the Army.

A nine-man military jury deliberated for about 5 1/2 hours before sentencing Davis, a former Abu Ghraib guard who earlier this week confessed to stepping on the hands and feet of a group of handcuffed detainees and falling with his full weight on top of them.

After the verdict was read, Davis' mother sobbed uncontrollably in the courtroom. Davis gave his father a long hug while a tear rolled down Davis' face.

"All of you who aren't my family can leave now," Davis snapped at spectators after judge Col. James Pohl and the jury left the courtroom.

Davis will also be reduced in rank to private while serving his sentence, which could be as short as 4 1/2 months for good conduct in prison and credit for time served.

The 27-year-old reservist from Roselle, N.J., faced up to 6 1/2 years in prison for battery, dereliction of duty and lying to Army investigators. A deal with prosecutors, however, reportedly capped his sentence at 18 months.

Davis said he saw detainees being physically mistreated and sexually humiliated by other guards, but that he failed to help them or report the abuse, as required under military law. He also admitted lying to an Army investigator by denying his misdeeds at the Baghdad prison.

Maj. Michael Holley, one of the prosecutors, had asked the nine jurors to sentence Davis to 12 to 24 months in prison. Holley said Davis's misdeeds have tarnished the image of American soldiers in the world's eyes and endangered forces serving in Iraq.

Holley issued a brief written statement calling the jury's sentence "appropriate."

Defence lawyer Paul Bergrin implored the jury of four Army officers and five senior enlisted men to go lightly on Davis, saying he has already been punished enough for a brief lapse in judgment.

Bergrin blamed the judge for refusing to let him pursue a Defence that the Army jury pool had been tainted by comments condemning the Abu Ghraib defendants by President Bush, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top military leaders.

The judge ruled that such comments were not prejudicial because they didn't mention any of the accused by name.

Bergrin also said military intelligence officers at Abu Ghraib should also face charges for their role in allegedly directing the abuse by prisons guards as a way to soften up detainees for interrogation.

"They all had their hand in this pie and should have been sitting in the same seat that Javal Davis was sitting in," Bergrin said. "But I don't believe we'll ever see them. They've been too insulated."

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Nigerian army put on top alert in oil-rich south

AFP, LAGOS

Feb 5: Nigeria's army has been put on top alert in the west African country's main oil producing region after an outbreak of unrest, this time affecting ChevronTexaco, the local armed forces chief said Saturday.

"We have stepped up the security arrangement, that means we have increased our means, and alert level," said General Elias Zamani, in charge of the army and police in the volatile Niger Delta.

He said a security guard had been killed in clashes, but a spokesman for the local community said at least two protestors who went Thursday to the oil terminal of US giant ChevronTexaco on the Escravos river had been killed.

"I don't want to disclose the details. We already have troops there and we have reinforced them. We are still monitoring the security situation in the area," where local protesters attack or invade oil installations, Zamani said. The terminal was invaded on Thursday by hundreds of irate protesters from the Ugborodo, a mainly Itsekiri ethnic group, who said they want the company out of the region.

"One person died, I don't know how many were wounded," Zamani said. "The demonstrators mistakenly killed one security guy with a locally made gun, it was not a military ammunition. My commander on the ground confirms that."

However, Victor Omunu, a member of the Ugborodo community interim management committee, said: "We have two confirmed dead and three feared dead. The two were shot dead by soldiers and Mopo (anti-riot policemen). About 13 wounded are in the hospital, five of them in a very critical condition." "We haven't heard anything about a dead security agent.

Our boys were not carrying weapons. Our people were defenseless and armless," he added.

For firms such as ChevronTexaco and Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, the delta is a profitable but high risk zone, since local residents channel anger at pollution, and what they regard as minimal benefits for their communities, into unrest which loses the oil majors hundreds of millions of dollars.

Clashes are frequent between security forces working for the oil companies and victims of grinding poverty in this southeastern region of Africa's most populous country of 130 million inhabitants.

"The place is calm right now and normal activities continue," Zamani said, while the oil company issued a statement saying that Jay Pryor, "the Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited... expressed his confidence that the security authorities will handle the matter promptly."

Military and local officials said that negotiations between community representatives began on Tuesday and were still under way, while the government said law enforcement agencies took "prompt action" and "evacuated (villagers) from the facility".

However, Omunu said: "The meeting is over and nothing concrete came out of it. The pressure we are putting in will come in different ways." "Chevron was not even able to put light in the community in 40 years," Omunu told AFP, meaning a lack of electricity. Oil majors argue that they contribute to development in the delta by furnishing utilities and helping with education and other social issues.

A witness said the protesters were about 500 youths who entered the oil installations "to demand the implementation of a 2002 accord on the development and employment in the community."

Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, also the world's sixth biggest oil exporter with a daily output of 2.5 million barrels, derives more than 95 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from oil. Around 20,000 barrels per day were lost in recent weeks following protests by local communities in the Niger Delta demanding jobs, amenities, and their "share" of the revenue from oil produced in their region.

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Iraq wants money back; Annan promises action on corruption

REUTERS, UNITED NATIONS

Feb 5: Iraq said it wanted its money back from the scandal-tainted UN oil-for-food program on Friday as Secretary-General Kofi Annan vowed to get to the bottom of wrongdoing by UN staff.

"Huge sums of money which should have served the needs of the Iraqi people who were suffering at that time -- a lot of these resources were squandered and misspent," said Iraq's UN ambassador, Samir Sumaidaie.

Iraq, he said, should at minimum not have to pay for the independent probe set up by the United Nations from remaining oil-for-food funds. The inquiry panel has spent $30 million so far, with the approval of the Security Council.

A new report by Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman appointed by Annan to probe the $67 billion program, found that the director of the plan, Benon Sevan, helped steer oil contracts to a relative of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The report does not accuse any UN officials of getting bribes. But it says Sevan received $160,000 from an aunt in Cyrus, who has since died and had few resources.

"We are as determined as everyone to get to the bottom of this. We do not want this shadow to hang over the UN," Annan said as he arrived at headquarters.

Annan said UN officials would be disciplined and diplomatic immunity would be lifted if criminal acts were committed.

Among other questionable deals in the report was one in which another UN official, Joseph Stephanides, colluded with a former British UN ambassador so that Lloyd's Register Inspection Ltd. could get a lucrative contract. Volcker said Stephanides was anxious to get the program underway.

The report said a more thorough audit of the humanitarian program might have uncovered cheating by Saddam Hussein's government. A CIA report estimated Saddam skimmed $1.7 billion from the program and another $8 billion through illegal oil sales outside it, some permitted by the security council.

Investigators questioned Boutros-Ghali for choosing the Banque Nationale de Paris, now BNP-Paribas, to handle the program's account. He did so after council members asked him to select a bank but was criticized for asking Iraq its preference.

The program began in late 1996 and ended in November 2003, after the United States overthrew Saddam. Iraq was allowed to sell oil to buyers of its choosing and contract for food and other necessities to ease hardships caused by UN sanctions.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said, "One should not let the corruption and the distortion of the program completely overshadow the fact that it did, to an important extent, serve the purposes for which it was designed.

"Was it perfect? Was it free of manipulation? No. But did it help? Yes," he said.

Volcker's 240-page report was a preliminary survey, with a final one to be produced in June. He said he may have another interim report on the alleged role of Annan's son, who had worked for a Swiss company that replaced Lloyd's in 1998.

The Iraqi ambassador said the United Nations received $1.14 billion to administer oil-for-food and wanted to see how much reached its destination or was squandered by outside contractors working for the world body.

"The question arises whether the secretariat is subject to its own political culture, which tends to subvert the will of the Security Council," said Sumaidaie. "This is serious."

He did not blame the council, which approved contracts.

Several investigations are underway in the United States, the most extensive one in the US Attorney's office in New York and at least eight in the US Congress.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said "part of the blame for the current imbroglio lies with the UN" but that one had to recognize that council members, including the United States, "must also answer questions as to why they, too, did not pay greater scrutiny to this program."

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Bush asks Congress for $419.3 billion for defence

AP, WASHINGTON

Feb 5: President Bush will ask Congress for $419.3 billion for the Pentagon for next year, 4.8 percent more than this year's spending, as the administration seeks to beef up and reshape the Army and Marine Corps for fighting terrorism.

The request will not include money for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress already has appropriated $25 billion for those wars this year, and the White House is planning to request another $80 billion soon.

The president plans to roll out his military spending proposal Monday as part of a roughly $2.5 trillion federal budget. But documents obtained by The Associated Press on Friday show that he will request $19.2 billion more for the Defence Department than its $400.1 billion budget this year.

However, his request is $3.4 billion below the $422.7 billion the Pentagon estimated in January that it would need for next year.

The proposal will include restructuring and expanding the Army and adding combat and support units for the Marine Corps. It reflects Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's efforts to transform the Cold War-style military into one that's more rapidly deployable to fight terrorist groups.

Under Bush's plan, Defence spending would grow gradually, hitting $502.3 billion by 2011.

The proposal, according to one of the documents, supports the war on terrorism by "strengthening US Defence capabilities and keeping US forces combat ready. It continues to implement lessons learned from ongoing operations in the war."

Those include, according to the proposal, "the need for flexible and adaptable joint military, strong special operations forces, highly responsive logistics and the best possible intelligence and communications capabilities."

The plan calls for special operations forces, which the documents described as "critical to the fight against terrorism," to add 1,200 troops. The forces would get $50 million to keep people from leaving the services.

The president also wants Congress to let him spend $750 million as he chooses to help Iraq, Afghanistan and US allies opposing terrorism bolster their military and security forces. In the past, lawmakers have been reluctant to give Bush unfettered control of such funds but have generally complied.

On Thursday, Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton - ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee - said in a statement that he worried that the president's budget request, which he anticipated would be billions less than the Pentagon had predicted needing, "may weaken our efforts" in Iraq and Afghanistan "while undermining our ability to prepare for future conflicts."

Overall, the president's proposal calls for the Navy, Marines and Air Force to all receive extra funds next year, but the Army's budget would take a $300 million reduction to $100 billion even though it's bearing the brunt of the costs and fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the $80 billion Bush plans to request in the coming days for Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to be tilted heavily toward the Army.

Bush plans to propose $1.6 billion to fight chemical and biological threats next year and $9.9 billion over the next five years. And, he would allocate $9.5 billion for homeland security activities next year and $147.8 billion for training, maintenance and other "readiness" programs.

Despite the overall military increase, the Pentagon's account for purchasing new weapons would actually incur a $100 million cut next year to $78 billion. The proposal underscores how huge federal deficits are affecting even the Defence Department, long one of Bush's top priorities.

The president, according to the documents, will seek $8.8 billion for its missile Defence program, compared with $9.9 billion this year. The documents also showed that he would ask for $695.7 million for the Chinook helicopter for next year, compared with $869.8 million for this year. And, the B-2 stealth bomber would get $344.3 million, down from $365 million this year.

More than half the total Defence increase - $10.8 billion - would be for training, maintenance and other costs associated with keeping the military ready for action. Most of the rest would go for military salaries and construction of bases and housing.

The proposal calls for increasing military base salaries by 3.1 percent and civilian salaries by 2.3 percent. It also calls for giving troops more money for housing and giving reservists better health care coverage and additional education benefits.

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Sudan won't allow Darfur suspects to be tried abroad

AFP, KHARTOUM

Feb 5: Sudan will not allow any citizen to be tried abroad in connection with suspected crimes against humanity in the war-torn western region of Darfur, First Vice President Ali Osman Taha was quoted Saturday by the press as saying.

Taha, speaking at a meeting with officials in South Darfur state on Friday, was referring to an international discussion over whether Sudanese suspected of such crimes be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) or by a special tribunal.

"The government is opposed to trying any Sudanese official or ordinary citizen involved in the Darfur incidents outside the Sudan," Taha was quoted as saying.

"The government is capable of doing justice among its people in Darfur," said Taha, adding that Sudan "is a sovereign state committed to the international agreements and conventions it has signed." The independent Al-Ayam daily reported Saturday that 51 Sudanese accused by a UN fact-finding commission of committing crimes against humanity in Darfur included 10 senior officials in the national government. Taha, tasked by President Omar el-Beshir with finding a solution to the Darfur rebellion, set out Friday on a two-day tour of South and North Darfur states. He said he and John Garang, head of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement, would attend next week's UN Security Council talks on Darfur and on deployment of UN peace support forces in southern Sudan.

The government signed a peace deal with the SPLM last month, ending two decades of civil war, and shifting the spotlight more to the Darfur conflict. A UN panel this week blamed government forces and militia it supports for indiscriminate attacks there, including the killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape, pillaging and forced displacement.

However, it stopped short of accusing Khartoum and the militias of genocide against the Darfur population.

The vast region of Darfur has faced what UN experts call a major humanitarian crisis, spawned by a February 2003 uprising by black African groups in Darfur against the Arab government in Khartoum. Around 70,000 people are estimated to have died in Darfur, many from hunger and disease, while some 1.5 million others have been displaced, many into squalid and dangerous camps.

Meanwhile, a Sudanese soldier shot an aid worker in the West Kordofan region, underlining the danger facing those trying to help 1.8 million people displaced by conflict in neighbouring Darfur, an aid agency said on Saturday. CARE International said in a statement its clearly marked vehicle was fired on without warning on Thursday morning during a visit to a water and sanitation project in West Kordofan, which borders the troubled Darfur area.

"The bullet, fired by a Sudanese soldier, struck and wounded a CARE staff member who received medical treatment and is in good condition," the statement said.

"Sudanese military authorities subsequently apologised to CARE for the incident."

Darfur rebels who took up arms two years ago have been known to operate in Kordofan and a new rebel movement has claimed attacks in the region since December.

At least 5 aid workers have been killed in Darfur since humanitarian aid began to flow in earnest in April 2004, when a shaky ceasefire was signed between the two main rebel groups and the government.

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Tobacco billions beyond US reach: Court

REUTERS. WASHINGTON

Feb 5: A US appeals court on Friday rejected the government's bid to force cigarette makers to pay $280 billion in past profits, striking the toughest sanction from the racketeering case and lifting tobacco stocks.

The three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2-1 that federal law does not allow the monetary "disgorgement" penalty the government sought in the civil case that has been tried since September.

"We hold that the language of (the racketeering law) and the comprehensive remedial scheme of (the racketeering law) preclude disgorgement as a possible remedy in this case," Appeals Court Judge David Sentelle wrote in the majority opinion.

Tobacco stocks rose after the ruling, with the S&P Tobacco Index closing up 4.92 percent.

The decision reverses a lower court ruling from last May and strips the government of its most powerful weapon in the case. Analysts believe it could prompt the government to seek a settlement. R.J. Reynolds General Counsel Charles Blixt said in a statement the ruling "dramatically transforms the DOJ suit."

In addition to the monetary penalty, the government is seeking to impose tougher rules on marketing, advertising and warnings on tobacco products.

Targeted in the government's lawsuit, filed in 1999, are Altria Group Inc. (MO.N: and its Philip Morris USA unit; Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco unit, which has a tracking stock, Carolina Group; Vector Group Ltd.'s Liggett Group; Reynolds American Inc.'s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit and British American Tobacco Plc unit British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.

Shares of Altria Group closed up $3.26, or 5.11 percent, at $67.00, on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock reached as high as $68.50, its highest level in at least 10 years, after the ruling.

Reynolds American shares closed up $3.69, or 4.5 percent, at $85.60, Carolina Group finished up $1.52 at $33.50. Loews shares rose $1.80 to $70.80. Vector shares were up 47 cents at $16.53.

"We believe today's ruling substantially reduces the risk associated with the DOJ lawsuit, and should alleviate investor concerns about that case," Rob Campagnino, an analyst at Prudential Equity Group, said in a research note.

Anti-smoking groups urged the government to fight on.

William Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the judge presiding over the trial can still order changes that would further protect the public and require the industry to pay billions of dollars to fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

"The tobacco industry and its allies may view today's ruling as an opportunity to seek a weak settlement of the case. The White House and the Department of Justice should resist such efforts and aggressively pursue the case ... "

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department said its attorneys were reviewing the ruling and had no further comment.

The government charges cigarette makers deceived the public about the dangers of smoking as part of a 50-year industry conspiracy.

The tobacco companies deny they illegally conspired to promote smoking and say the government has no grounds to pursue them after they drastically overhauled marketing practices as part of the 1998 settlement with state attorneys general.

Judge Sentelle, a Ronald Reagan appointee from the tobacco-producing state of North Carolina, wrote that the civil racketeering statute used to bring the case was aimed at putting an end to the illegal conduct going forward.

"Disgorgement is a very different type of remedy aimed at separating the criminal from his prior ill-gotten gains and thus may not be properly inferred from (the statute)," Sentelle said.

Sentelle was joined by another Reagan appointee Judge Stephen Williams. Dissenting was Judge David Tatel, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, whose administration brought the case.

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Clowns offer to raise ailing Pope's spirits

REUTERS, ROME

Pope John Paul may have the best medical care at Rome's Gemelli hospital, but there are some who think a red nose or two may cheer up the ailing Pontiff.

Hospital clowns Dr Little Cake and Dr White Cabbage told reporters they wanted to take some time out from their usual work on the children's wards and try their jokes on the Pope.

"We want to go and see him, if he'll have us," said one of the clowns, wearing a plastic red nose and a white laboratory coat decorated in colorful cartoon characters.

"After all it's our job to bring a smile wherever there is suffering," she added. The two clowns were on their morning rounds in the Gemelli Friday when they were mobbed by journalists camped out at the hospital awaiting word of the Pontiff's health.

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British ministry won't rule out alien life

AFP, LONDON

Undaunted by the lack of evidence, officials at the British defence ministry are reportedly refusing to rule out the existence of alien life forms visiting Earth.

The Financial Times quoted from a hitherto confidential letter by an official acknowledging the ministry recorded accounts of people claiming to have seen alien life in Britain.

According to the letter, obtained under recent legislation on freedom of information, such reports are collected "solely to establish whether what was seen might have some defence significance."

While admitting that "only a handful of reports in recent years have warranted further investigation and none revealed an evidence of a threat," it went on say the ministry was "totally open-minded" about the hypothesis of alien life.

Two weeks ago an anonymous caller reported seeing "strange lights" above Kent, southeast England, while another claimed to have seen a flying saucer sailing above Stoke, central England.

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Dark forces behind Harry Potter e-book hoax

AFP, WASHINGTON

Evil forces are probably behind a website offering a purported electronic version of the upcoming Harry Potter book, author JK Rowling warned this week.

Rowling said in a message on her website that the since-closed site, www.harrybooks.info, had been offering what it alleged to be an e-book version of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," due for release in July.

The offer, she said, was a scam.

"You should NEVER trust any Harry Potter e-books offered for download from the Internet or on P2P (Peer-to-Peer)/file-trading networks," Rowling said.

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Two girls fined for causing distress to neighbour

REUTERS, DURANGO, COLORADO

A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 (480 pounds) for the distress a neighbour said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts.

The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbour Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day.

Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday.

The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of their rural Colorado neighbours on July 31 and dropped off small batches on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message: "Have a great night".

The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a dance where there might be cursing and drinking.

It reported that six neighbours wrote letters entered as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies.

But Young said she was frightened because the two had knocked on her door at about 10:30 p.m. and run off after leaving the cookies.

She went to a hospital emergency room the next day, fearing that she had suffered a heart attack, court records said.

The judge awarded Young her medical costs, but did not award punitive damages. He said he did not think the girls had acted maliciously but that 10:30 was fairly late at night for them to be out.

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