John Howard

SYDNEY, Australia, Sept. 25--Prime Minister John Howard is facing renewed attacks over his support for the US-led war in Iraq as new evidence emerged that a top weapons expert had warned him there was nothing to justify invasion, AFP reported.
The Sydney Morning Herald said Bob Mathews, described as Australia's leading expert on weapons of mass destruction, told Howard three days before his announcement that Australia was committing troops to the invasion, that the case for war was based on falsehoods.
Mathews, a 35-year veteran of the government's Defense Science and Technology Organization, also warned Howard in a letter that support for the war would make Australia a bigger terrorist target.
The paper said it had obtained a copy of Mathews' letter to Howard and had been appraised of what one colleague had reportedly described as "disgraceful" treatment of Mathews before and after he sent the letter.
"There are no reasons at the present time to justify supporting a US-led invasion of Iraq," the letter quoted Mathews as telling Howard.
The letter also urged Howard to make a last-ditch effort to persuade the Americans to abandon their war plans.
The report described Mathews' action as a last, desperate act after his superiors repeatedly blocked him from expressing his views.
Mathews wrote to Howard as a private citizen three days before he committed the nation to sending some 2,000 defense personnel to the conflict.
The report, latest of a series alleging Howard was well warned against joining the war in Iraq, comes at a bad time for the government, now in the throes of a bitterly fought campaign for the October 9 election.
Howard's enthusiastic support for US President George W. Bush 's "coalition of the willing" in Iraq and the Labor opposition's pledge to pull Australian troops out by Christmas have been a major election issue.
In his televised address to the nation advising of his decision to take Australia into the war, Howard said the reason "above all others" for joining the war was the threat posed by terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.
The opposition moved quickly Saturday to capitalize on the report saying it was further clear evidence Howard had ignored expert advice not to take Australia into the conflict.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 25--Cuba accused President George W. Bush on Friday of "handcuffing" the United Nations and accused rich countries of forcing developing nations to pay more than three times the original debt they incurred, Reuters reported.
In his address to the UN General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the United Nations was living through the worst moment in its 59 years, in part because of the U.S. invasion of Iraq without the world body's approval.
"It pales, it pants, it feigns but it does not work," Perez said. "Who handcuffed the United Nations named by President Roosevelt? President Bush," he said.
Perez said 1,000 young Americans were sacrificed in Iraq to serve the "spurious interest of a clique of cronies and buddies, following the death of more than 12,000 Iraqis," one reason the troops should be withdrawn.
He spoke shortly after Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, who called on nations to put differences behind them and help his country rebuild its institutions and enhance security.
Perez called on developing countries to build a common front in and outside of the United Nations because major powers would not relinquish their privileges, such as veto power in the 15-member UN Security Council. At the same time, he said, the 191-member General Assembly was largely ignored.
Perez also contended that developing nations, especially in Africa, lacked the financial resources they deserved in settling debts "resulting from centuries of exploitation and pillage."
Even though collectively, more than 100 developing nations had paid off $4.1 trillion in debt service over the last 13 years, the debt increased from $1.4 trillion to $2.6 trillion, Perez said.
"It means that we have paid three times what we owed and now our debt is twice as much," he said.
Official government aid in 2003, Perez said, was $68.4 billion but "we delivered to them $436 billion as payment for the foreign debt."
"Who is helping who?, he asked.

KUWAIT CITY,
Sept. 25--Kuwait's ruling family is to announce "key decisions" to "herald a new era" in the tiny oil-rich emirate, a top family member said in comments published here Saturday.
Sheikh Salem Al-Ali
Al-Sabah, who heads the National Guard and ranks fourth in the family hierarchy, told Al-Qabas newspaper that the expected changes are aimed at achieving more stability in the country.
"The change will serve Kuwait's interests and stability, and will further strengthen the strong bonds between the ruling family and the people," said Sheikh Salem of the decisions to be issued within the next few days.
But he declined to reveal the nature of the changes, although he compared them to the historical adoption of Kuwait's liberal constitution in 1962 and the separation last year of the posts of crown prince and prime minister.
The changes will effectively contribute to political and economic reforms and signal "a new era for the ruling family, an era that was long-awaited by the Kuwaiti people and will serve the country and its stability," he said.
Consultations on the changes will commence with the return to the country of Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad
Al-Sabah and will be completed before parliament reconvenes in late October.
The 75-year-old emir, who in 2001 suffered a minor brain hemorrhage, was due back home later Saturday from Geneva and New York, where he was having a medical check-up.
The Al-Sabah family has been running Kuwait's affairs since the Persian Gulf state came into existence some 250 years ago, and Kuwaitis have seldom questioned their rule.
The emir and ailing 74-year-old Crown Prince Sheikh Saad Abdullah
Al-Salem, as well as the influential Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed are all Al-Sabah members.
The family also controls the key ministerial portfolios of defense, interior, energy and foreign affairs, as well as communications.
Kuwaitis, who set up the Persian Gulf region's first parliament more than four decades ago, have been pressing for more economic and political reform. Their calls have increased in volume since the April 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in neighboring Iraq.

Joschka Fischer

ROME, Sept. 25--Germany said on Saturday that Italy's opposition to its campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council could mean Europe loses out, Reuters said.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the council urgently needed to be reformed and expanded for its decisions to be accepted as legitimate.
"Following the criteria accepted by everyone, the other regional groups, overcoming divisions and difficulties, will have a new representative on the expanded council. We Europeans won't," he said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera published on Saturday.
"Why? Because Italy doesn't accept the German candidacy, but doesn't offer itself as a candidate," he said. "I say sincerely, candidate yourself, it would be a true competition between two countries that are friends and allies."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has launched an initiative to reform the Council, which currently has five veto-holding permanent members--America, Russia, China, Britain and France--and 10 rotating two-year seats.
Germany, Japan, India and Brazil have formed a lobbying group for permanent seats on the council to head off rival plans for seven or eight "semi-permanent members" serving four- or five-year terms, a proposal Italy would support.
Italy has opposed adding permanent seats to the leading international diplomatic body, whose decisions can be binding on all 191 UN members.
"The Security Council is the main organ responsible for peace in the world, but if we want its decisions to be accepted as legitimate and put into practice, we have to expand it, increasing the number of permanent and non-permanent members to make it reflect the strategic and geopolitical reality of our times," Fischer said.
He said Japan and Germany are the second and third highest contributors to the U.N. budget after the United States.
"I think those aspiring for a place on the council and have their cards in order should say it openly," he said.

Demonstrators chant slogans to protest against a government budget decision to buy weapons from the United States in Taipei, September 25. (AFP Photo)

TAIPEI, Taiwan,
Sept. 25--Thousands of protesters marched through Taiwan's capital on Saturday, urging the government to scrap a big US weapons package they said would trigger an arms race with China and squeeze social welfare, Reuters reported.
Defending the T$610.8 billion (US$18.2 billion) deal, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said maintaining strong defense and a military balance with the island's arch-foe were critical to security.
"If you attack me with 100 missiles, I will at least attack you with 50. If you attack Taipei and Kaohsiung, I will attack Shanghai," Yu said in a speech before the protest.
"If we have such counter-strike capability today, Taiwan is safe," he said in comments broadcast on cable news networks.
The weapons package is made up of $4.3 billion for Patriot Advanced-Capability 3 missile defenses, $12.3 billion for eight diesel-electric submarines and $1.6 billion for 12 P-3C Orion submarine-hunting aircraft.
China has viewed self-governing Taiwan as a breakaway province since a bloody civil war in 1949 and has threatened to attack if the island declares formal independence.
Many security analysts see the Taiwan Strait as the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia.
Protesters disagreed with Yu's comments.
"President Chen Shui-bian only likes to please the United States to protect his presidency. He wants to die, but we will not follow him," said a retired soldier, surnamed Chang.
A 40-year-old housewife surnamed Lin, said: "We don't want any war, especially since both sides are Chinese."
Holding banners reading "Our money, Your war", "Want peace, No war", the protesters ranging from veterans to unemployed workers and children, joined the march to the presidential palace.
million people each drank one less bubble tea a week.
The milky drink containing small balls of glutinous sago is a Taiwan speciality.

GAZA CITY, Occupied Palestine, Sept. 25--A day after a mortar round killed an Israeli-American woman in a nearby settlement, the Israeli army charged into a Palestinian refugee camp Saturday, killing one person and tearing down 35 homes, AP quoted witnesses and a UN aid official as saying.
A 55-year-old Palestinian man died in missile strikes that started the incursion into Khan Younis, hospital official said. Palestinian gunmen fired on the army bulldozers and tanks as they moved in, and one resident said people whose homes were being destroyed fled in their pajamas.
The military said troops destroyed several uninhabited structures that had provided cover for militants shelling the nearby settlement.
Khan Younis is close to the Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim, the target of a Hamas mortar attack on Friday. That attack killed 24-year-old Tiferet Tratner, who had dual Israeli-American citizenship, settlement officials said.
The raid Saturday came on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, when observant Jews pray, fast and ask for forgiveness. Israel shut down for the fast, closing its borders, and streets were deserted. Armed guards were posted at synagogues and soldiers enforced a blanket closure of the West Bank and Gaza.
In Khan Younis, residents emerged from their homes after daybreak Saturday to inspect the destruction.
Municipal officials said 20 homes closest to Neve Dekalim had been destroyed. However, an official with the UN Relief and Works Agency later said on condition of anonymity that 35 houses had been razed.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei, Sept. 25--Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has opened an appointed parliament which he revived after a 20-year gap as part of "cautious" political reforms in the tiny oil-rich kingdom, AFP reported.
Speaking to the 21-member Legislative Council, Sultan Hassanal made no mention of elections and said any decision to expand the parliament's membership would depend on the current body's performance.
The council members include the sultan himself, his brother and Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, several government officials, prominent business executives and community leaders.
Clad in a white and dark military uniform, Brunei's absolute monarch said the newly convened parliament would be an avenue to further consult with his 350,000 subjects, but stressed the reform process would be carried out cautiously.
"We are aware that Bruneians have ways to express their ambitions and resolve grievances. For sure they will accept the revival of the State Legislative Council (as) one more layer of forum for them to channel their views and opinions," he said.
"However, the revival of the State Legislative Council will not jeopardize the peace and prosperity that we enjoy all this time. Its existence is not designed to spark chaos and apprehension among the community," he said according to an official translation of his speech.
"Any mistakes carries risk that takes time to ameliorate. As such, we begin this process with caution. I will see the work and effects of the State Legislative Council and decide whether to continue the process by adding more members."
The swearing in ceremony at the International Convention Centre here was witnessed by the diplomatic community.
Calling the opening a "historic day for Brunei," the sultan urged parliament members to be examples of morality and to avoid "strife and animosity, trivia and bigotry."
"All members should be aware that they are being watched by those at home and abroad. Everything they do is being studied, including their dispositions," he added.