Syrian troops celebrate on their arrival at the Al-Masna'a border point with Syria in East Lebanon, March 13. (Reuters Photo)

BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 16--Syria’s much-feared military intelligence apparatus packed up and pulled out of Beirut on Wednesday, prompting a joyful demonstration by Lebanese youths, AFP reported.
Dozens of security agents dressed in civilian clothes and carrying their automatic weapons boarded two private Lebanese buses and headed toward the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon, completing an operation that began Tuesday, an AFP photographer said.
Syrian intelligence officers left the area in individual cars.
Earlier in the day Syrian security agents loaded trucks with equipment and personal effects from seafront buildings in Beirut used by military intelligence and tore down cinderblock sentry boxes, correspondents said.
Lebanese soldiers immediately deployed near the two buildings housing the headquarters as youths waving Lebanese flags cheered.
Intelligence units also pulled out of two positions in north Lebanon and likewise headed east toward the Bekaa valley near the Syrian border.
Western experts estimated that Syria had between 3,000 and 4,000 military intelligence operatives in Lebanon. Their departure, along with some 14,000 troops, is the main demand of both Lebanon’s emboldened opposition and the UN Security Council.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has given a pledge to the United Nations to call home all his forces from Lebanon, where they have been since 1976. Syrian troops have already abandoned north Lebanon and the mountains above Beirut on their way back to Syria, steps that have won guarded praise from the United States.
In Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karameh, a Syrian sympathizer, was making no headway on Wednesday in his bid to persuade the anti-Syrian opposition to join him in a government of national unity to prepare legislative elections by the end of May.
Karameh, tapped last week by pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, has run into stiff resistance from opposition MPs demanding a full Syrian military withdrawal, an international probe into the February 14 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and the removal of senior Lebanese security officers.

ANKARA, Turkey, March 16--The Turkish Parliament Tuesday passed for a second time a controversial law pardoning tens of thousands of women who were expelled from universities for reasons including the wearing of the Islamic headscarf, banned under Turkey’s secular education system, AFP reported.
The law, which amnesties students expelled since 2000, was already vetoed once by Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in late February.
Sezer indicated that any such amnesty would have to have the support of a three-fifths majority in parliament, a result achieved Tuesday with 349 in favor out of 550 votes.
The bill was drawn up by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has roots in a now banned Islamic movement.
Critics have blasted the law as a “populist“ political tactic aimed at women who were expelled for wearing headscarves, which are banned in the civil service, schools and universities.
A total of 240,000 students could take advantage of the law.
Headscarves are regarded by the establishment, including the Turkish army, as a statement of opposition to the overwhelmingly Muslim nation’s strictly secular order.

ROME, March 16--Leading US ally Italy said on Tuesday it would start withdrawing its soldiers from Iraq in September, in a fresh blow to US President George W. Bush’s shrinking coalition, Reuters reported.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of Bush’s most vocal supporters, said he was in talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair about a total exit strategy from Iraq, adding people in both countries wanted their troops to return home.
“We will begin to reduce our contingent even before the end of the year, starting in September, in agreement with our allies,“ said Berlusconi, who faces an election next year and went against public opinion to deploy troops in Iraq.
Asked on RAI state television when a total withdrawal would take place, Berlusconi said: “It will depend on the capacity of the Iraqi government to provide adequate security.“
Despite strong opposition at home, Berlusconi sent some 3,000 troops to Iraq--the fourth largest foreign contingent after US, British and South Korean forces.
But pressure has mounted on him to withdraw the troops since intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was killed earlier this month by US soldiers shortly after rescuing an Italian hostage.
The White House said Berlusconi’s decision was not linked to Calipari’s death, but the incident has strained Italy’s relations with the United States and Bush has promised an investigation.
“(Bush) knows that he can’t let down a loyal ally,“ said Berlusconi, adding that the killing was a “serious mistake“.
“I’ve spoken at length about (a total exit strategy) personally with Tony Blair, saying that we should make a precise exit strategy because the public opinion of our countries expects this information,“ said Berlusconi.
No immediate comment was available from Britain, which has the second largest number of troops in US-led forces in Iraq.
Berlusconi had stood by Bush as other US allies announced plans to pull out of Iraq. Spain withdrew last year and more recently the Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine have said they propose bringing their forces home this year.

Anwar Ibrahim

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia,
March 16--Malaysia’s most charismatic dissident unleashed an unexpected attack on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, saying in an interview Tuesday that Malaysia has become more corrupt since the scholarly leader assumed power, AP reported.
Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister turned dissident, had initially been full of praise for Abdullah, who took office in October 2003 with a pledge to clean up corruption and allow more democratic space. In Tuesday’s interview, however, Anwar said things had only gotten worse.
“The level of corruption is pervasive, it is much hidden. It is sophisticated,“ Anwar told The Associated Press.
“Unfortunately after 1 1/2 years nothing has been done,“ said Anwar, whose political career was destroyed in 1998 during a bitter feud with then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohmad.
Mahathir sacked Anwar, his protege-turned-foe, from the government and the ruling party after he was arrested for alleged sodomy and corruption. Anwar says he was victimized because he exposed corruption in Mahathir’s administration.
He served four years in jail on the corruption charge and another two for the sodomy conviction before it was overturned. He was released in September 2004.
Anwar said he was aware of massive corruption even when he was deputy to Mahathir, who retired after 22 years in office by handing over the reins to Abdullah.
“But what we are witnessing now is far worse. It (corruption) is tolerated and nobody has responded,“ said Anwar.
The prime minister’s office refused to respond to Anwar’s allegations, which are difficult to corroborate independently in this tightly controlled society. However, according to the Berlin-based organization, Transparency International, which draws on 17 surveys of business people and analysts, corruption in Malaysia did increase in 2004 compared to 2003.
Anwar said sources in the government have told him about corruption in land deals, procurement of military equipment, defense contracts and other deals. He did not elaborate.
Anwar is legally barred from active politics until September 2009 because of the corruption conviction. He spends most of his time traveling internationally, giving lectures on moderation in Islam and also is an adviser to an opposition party formed by his wife when he was in jail.

LONDON, March 16--The car in the crash that killed Princess Diana in Paris was a last-minute replacement either meant as a media diversion or because the vehicle she was supposed to take failed to start, according to British government documents released Tuesday, AP reported.
The papers, released by the Cabinet Office under the Freedom of Information Act, detailed correspondence between the government and British officials in France in the days after the Aug. 31, 1997, high-speed crash that killed Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and the driver Henri Paul. A memo sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair on the day of Diana’s death claimed the couple was “immediately subject to media attention“ as they arrived at the Ritz Hotel on the evening of Aug. 30 and were surrounded by journalists as they left early the next morning.
“They tried to leave quickly but the first car failed to start,“ states the document, whose author is not revealed.
A second document sent to then-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and signed Jay--believed to be Michael Jay, Britain’s ambassador to France at the time--made the same allegation. “Because apparently their getaway car failed to start they got into another nearby car driven by a Ritz driver,“ it said.
Another document, sent by Jay to the Foreign Office on Sept. 23, gives a slightly different version of events, saying the switch to another car had been “a last minute plan aimed at diverting awaiting paparazzi.“
A French court ruled in 2002 that the crash was an accident caused by Paul, who was drunk and speeding. British royal coroner Michael Burgess opened another investigation last year, however, to determine whether the deadly crash could have been the result of a plot.
The document sent by Jay to the Foreign Office also detailed how Mohammed al Fayed arranged for a British pathologist to challenge test results that showed Paul had high levels of alcohol in his system when the car crashed.

WASHINGTON,
March 16--President George W. Bush’s call for spreading democracy in the Middle East sparked momentum in the region for an idea that had been only talked about before, Reuters quoted Jordan’s King Abdullah as saying on Tuesday.
“I think if the president had not started the process of getting reform in people’s minds, we would have been much more complacent. But because there was outside pressure, people had to look in the mirror and think of how to move forward,“ Abdullah said in an interview on ABC News.
He said societies throughout the Middle East had been talking about reform and some Arab countries initially took Bush’s call last year “as something being forced upon them.“
But it was Bush’s prodding that inspired people in the region to step up the move toward democratic reform, he said.
“It created debate inside of Arab society and I think we’re seeing the fruits of that. I think people are expecting leaders to reform, and are demanding from their government to move forward.“
In recent months, Palestinians elected a new president, Iraqis voted in a new government, Saudi Arabia held limited balloting for seats on municipal councils and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has proposed multi-candidate presidential elections for the first time.
On demands that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon, Abdullah said Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad understands what needs to be done and his hope is that the pullout will be completed peacefully.
Syria agreed to move its troops after the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri sparked fierce anti-Syrian protests in Beirut and global calls for the Syrians to leave.
Abdullah was interviewed in Washington where he met Bush, who pushing for democratic reforms across the Middle East.
The president has been gentle on the subject with Abdullah, a close US ally. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy in which citizens have limited political rights.

MONTERREY, Mexico, March 16--The number of murders of women in a Mexican city on the US border are rising, despite a government crackdown to end an 11-year spree that has killed more than 340 females, Reuters reported.
The victims have been beaten and strangled in Ciudad Juarez, just south of El Paso, Texas, in a string of murders that has provoked outrage in Mexico and abroad. About a third of the victims were sexually assaulted.
Despite the appointment of a special prosecutor last year, officials said on Tuesday eight women had been killed in the industrial city since Jan. 1--a four-fold rise on the number of cases reported in the same period last year.
The strangled and partially clothed body of the latest victim, a 17-year-old student, was found on a city street on Monday. Prosecutors said she had been raped and that her case fitted the profile of more than 100 sexual murders at the heart of the investigation.
Just two days earlier, another woman died after being stabbed in the head and neck. Other victims in the first three months of the year have been gunned down, strangled and stabbed. The body of one woman was tossed into a dumpster.
Claudia Banuelos, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor’s office, said the recent jump in murders was “worrying.“ But she declined to comment on possible reasons for the spike, which came despite the jailing of 11 men in two high-profile trials in recent months.
Analysts and women’s groups in the city said some of the convictions were obtained from confessions under torture, leaving the real criminals at large to continue preying on women across the city.