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Sunday Times International
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Tehran
issues stark military warning to US "You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures. "The
Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region
and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such
a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a
pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran. "I
would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before
getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with
a grin. We have American forces in the region under total surveillance.
For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether
sanctions or an attack." The Islamic regime says it only wants to generate atomic energy, but enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear warhead — something the United States is convinced that "axis of evil" member Iran wants to acquire. At a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati simply branded the US as a "decaying power" lacking the "stamina" to block Iran's ambitions. And hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told AFP that a US push for tough United Nations sanctions was of "no importance." "She is free to say whatever she wants," the president replied when asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action. "We
give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile. "The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat," Ahmadinejad told the gathering of regime officials, visiting Palestinian militant leaders and foreign sympathizers. "Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is on the road to being eliminated," said Ahmadinejad, whose regime does not recognise Israel and who drew international condemnation last year when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map." "If
there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over
the catastrophe and Holocaust being faced by the Palestinians,"
said the president, who had previously dismissed as a "myth"
the killing of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazis and their
allies during World War II. Iran's
turbaned supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also accused the
United States of seeking to place the entire region under Israeli
control. Bush
defends Rumsfeld as ex-generals call for his ouster Bush stepped in after six retired generals called for Rumsfeld's ouster, exposing a deep vein of discontent with his leadership within the military. The generals, several of whom held key combat commands and staff positions, accused Rumsfeld of an arrogant disregard for military advice and for providing too few troops to pacify Iraq. However, retired General Richard Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rushed to Rumsfeld's defense. "My whole perception of this is it's bad for the military, and for military relations, and it's very bad for the country, potentially, because what we are hearing and what we are seeing is not the role the military plays in our society," Myers said in an interview with CNN, broadcast Friday. Bush, who was at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, praised Rumsfeld's leadership after talking with him earlier Friday about US military operations. "I have seen first-hand how Don relies upon our military commanders in the field and at the Pentagon to make decisions about how best to complete these missions," Bush said. Rumsfeld, 73, rejected the calls for his ouster in an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya television that aired Friday, but was conducted Thursday. "I
intend to serve the president at his pleasure," he said. Belfast
launches weeklong festival to celebrate its ill-fated creation,
Titanic "The Titanic story is probably one of the most fascinating, amazing, poignant, thought-provoking and absorbing tales from the last century, if not the last millennium," said Belfast Lord Mayor Wallace Browne. "However,
it must be remembered that what happened to Titanic was a disaster
- she was not," Browne said. "She sailed proudly from
Belfast on a glorious day, carrying the hopes and pride of the growing
city of Belfast." The festival, launched in 2002, was dedicated this year in memory of John Parkinson, president of the Belfast Titanic Society, who died in March aged 99. He was one of the last surviving residents of Belfast to remember the day Titanic sailed out of Belfast Lough. As part of the festival, Belfast City Council will be displaying more than 350 artificacts from the Titanic's construction and loss. Special tours are also running in the Harland & Wolff shipyard, which closed down in 2003. Global
travel organisations get ready for bird flu The launch organizations involved in the Tourism Emergency Response Network (TERN) are - World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IHRA), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), International Federation of Tour Operators (IFTO), United Federation of Travel Agents Associations (UFTAA) Airports Council International (ACI) and the (International Air Transport Association (IATA). The organizations have agreed that planning for the potential evolution of the virus to a pandemic form is a common concern and committed to: · work closely with the UN System Influenza Coordinator, the WHO and other involved UN agencies; · share real time information and ideas; · give clear, concise and geographically specific public messages. They underscored the following points as of April 2006:
Geoffrey Lipman, Special Advisor to the UNWTO Secretary General, who is coordinating the TERN project, said that "The uncertainty of mutation of avian flu to a human pandemic means measured contingency preparation without overreaction, across the international community and with a focus at the national level". "The Tourism sector is an important stakeholder in the total global preparedness effort. The network will help us play that part responsibly and more effectively." Clinton
launches six-month review on NGO challenges
The review, which will draw on the experiences of InterAction members in their tsunami operations and be led by the NGO community itself, will look at five critical challenges: 1) accountability to the beneficiaries of assistance, 2) enhancing local capacity of governmental institutions and the NGO community in affected countries, 3) ensuring high standards of professionalism in the field, 4) communication and coordination among the NGO community, and 5) incorporating human rights principles into recovery operations. The
recommendations, which will address both tsunami recovery and future
assistance efforts, will be presented to the former President in
the fall. With this heightened level of responsibility comes a greater need for monitoring and evaluation, and self-assessment. "The size of the challenge and the unprecedented resources at our disposal have raised the stakes," said President Clinton. "Now more than ever, we need to do things right; we need to spend money wisely. We need to remain engaged for as long as it takes to make the lives of the tsunami victims whole again." President Clinton welcomed the added scrutiny that has come with the tsunami, noting that with it has come "a unique opportunity to engage the support of a much greater number of people for other emergencies." Commenting on the six month assessment, President Clinton said, "I am very grateful for the willingness of NGOs to undertake this review. It demonstrates the commitment of your community to effective relief and development aid, and to the highest standards of professionalism." Berlusconi's
dead letter: A bid for short-term power-sharing Italy is faced with "a stalemate, with a situation in which, at least based on the popular vote, there will be neither winners nor losers," Berlusconi wrote in the Corriere della Sera. The conservative prime minister proposed that the rival coalitions forge a short-term agreement "to meet the country's immediate institutional, economic and international timetable." Berlusconi's battle to stay in power had suffered a crippling blow Friday when it emerged that there were too few disputed votes to reverse the outcome of the election -- won with an agonizingly slim majority by Prodi's center-left coalition. Soon after learning of the letter to Corriere late Friday, Prodi dismissed Berlusconi's appeal, saying: "The game's over". "It's time that we close this strange comedy and move forward," the 66-year-old Prodi told journalists outside his home in Bologna. Italy's
supreme court, the Corte di Cassazione, still has to rubber stamp
the provisional result of last Sunday and Monday's election, but
can only do so once the ongoing recount of disputed votes is complete. "They haven't won yet," he told journalists, claiming his centre-right coalition were "the moral victors" after the recount had shown irregularities in the foreign vote. "I'm
an optimist, a fighter," a buoyant Berlusconi told Italian
Sky television after watching AC Milan, the team he owns, beat its
city rivals Internazionale. But patience for Berlusconi's stance was growing thin, even from within his own coalition. Justice Minister Roberto Castelli said Berlusconi's latest comments were "disconcerting," adding that the prime minister ran the risk of "tearing apart the coalition." Berlusconi, who has steadfastly refused to recognise Prodi's victory, said in the letter to Corriere that "a sense of responsibility" prompted a need "for reflection," and called on Prodi to consider new solutions. He accused the former EU Commission president of taking an "extremist line" and acting "irresponsibly" in declaring victory. Speaking to reporters late Friday, Berlusconi said: "Common sense shows that we need a moment of reflection in the interests of all. If there isn't this moment of reflection, we will be in parliament to be an opposition which will certainly be very rigorous." It was the closest Berlusconi has come to an admission of defeat, and his vague offer of a power-sharing deal to Prodi appeared the last throw of the dice. It came after the prime minister's hopes of a victory at the ballot box appeared dashed after the interior ministry admitted miscounting the number of disputed ballots cast in the election, putting the number at 5,266 votes instead of an earlier provisional figure of 82,850. The admission confirmed press reports Friday that far fewer votes were at issue than previously thought, effectively putting Berlusconi's defeat beyond doubt. Electoral officials are now scrutinizing a mere 2,131 disputed ballots for the lower house Chamber of Deputies, and not the 43,028 announced earlier, the interior ministry said. Encouraged by the tiny margin of Prodi's victory, 25,000 votes, Berlusconi had refused to concede victory on Tuesday and had demanded a recount of the contested votes. Earlier, Italy's minister for Italians resident abroad, Mirko Tremaglio, said the overseas vote "should be repeated," claiming a quarter of a million expatriates had not received their ballot papers. Some three million expatriate Italians were allowed to vote in a general election for the first time. Palestinian
security men protest over salary crunch "Salaries, or go home," the protesters chanted in the central town of Khan Younis, directing their message at Hamas in the biggest such demonstration since the Islamic militant group assumed power last month following its January election victory. The security men, some of them firing in the air, burst into a government building in the town, briefly occupying offices and forcing workers to leave. They also blocked a main road leading south to Rafah, on the border with Egypt. Salaries
for the 140,000 employees on the Palestinian Authority's payroll
are two weeks overdue. The United States and the European Union
have cut aid to the Hamas-led government because it has not met
their demands to renounce violence, recognise Israel and agree to
abide by interim peace deals. "The economy is paralysed. We can't buy groceries because no one will give us credit. Taxi drivers, won't give us a ride, because we don't have money," said Abu Mohammed, a leader of the protesters, most of them from the rival Fatah movement. "We warn this is only a first step," he said. Palestinian Finance Minister Omar Abdel-Razek of Hamas said on al-Jazeera satellite television that he was "appalled and astonished" by the Khan Younis protest. "Everyone knows (the cash crunch) is the result of the oppressive isolation that is forced on the Palestinian people and the government. They all know that the account is empty ... and we don't have enough to pay salaries," he said. Hamas says it inherited a Palestinian Authority with empty coffers and more than $1.3 billion in government debts. The movement won election on a platform of cleaning up government corruption and pursuing armed struggle against Israel. Accusing the United States of waging "economic war" against the Palestinian government, Abdel-Razek said Hamas would not be forced into political concessions and he voiced the hope that Arab governments would send financial aid soon. Hamas, dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state, has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000 but has largely abided by a ceasefire reached a year ago. On Friday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said financial pressure from an "unholy alliance" led by the United States would not bring down the new Hamas government. Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters poured onto Gaza's streets after Friday prayers to attend Hamas-sponsored rallies protesting aid cuts by the United States and the EU. US
and Iraqi forces killed as govt. deadlock hits four-month mark Two US marines were killed in a rebel attack, the military announced, bringing its death toll since the beginning of the month to about 35 and marking one of the worst periods for US forces in Iraq. It said 22 other marines were wounded in the attack, but did not provide details. The US military death toll in Iraq since the invasion has touched 2,368, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. Three Iraqi army soldiers were killed Saturday when the convoy in which they were travelling was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad's dangerous Al-Dura neighbourhood. Eight soldiers were wounded. As the security forces continue to face rebel attacks, widespread sectarian violence between the country's Shiite and Sunni communities has left hundreds dead across the country. About 200 people, mostly Shiites, have died in the last 10 days in massive bombings and shootings, believed to be acts committed by extremists linked to terror group Al-Qaeda. The
spike in violence comes at a time when the country's political leaders
have hit deadlock over putting together a working cabinet four months
after holding the elections for the first permanent post-Saddam
Hussein parliament. "US and Iraqi leaders have failed the Iraqis," Mahmud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, told AFP. "Today we enter the fifth month since the holding of the elections and we still do not have a government. In fact we have not even started the process of forming the government by at least having a prime minister. "This shows that all of us as leaders and the US authorities have failed in Iraq," he said. The political crisis has largely been aggravated in recent weeks by Jaafari's refusal to step down as the next premier. "I was the legitimate and democratic choice," Jaafari told Britain's Channel 4 television Friday. "I wouldn't have accepted the responsibility if I thought it was against the will of the people. I don't see how I could repay my people's faith in me by letting them down." Jaafari's candidacy has been opposed by Iraq's Kurdish and Sunni leaders, as well as some of his colleagues in the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, the largest parliamentary bloc whose candidate will be the premier as per the Iraqi constitution. The anti-Jaafari lobby finds him incapable of handling the sectarian tensions from which the country suffers. In a bid to expedite the political process ahead of the Monday's opening of the parliament, the respective heads of Iraq's parliamentary blocs agreed Friday to form a commission to decide who should fill the various posts. "Some of the blocs had no candidates in mind and weren't prepared for the meeting," Bassem Sharif, spokesman of the Shiite Fadhila party told AFP. |
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