KUWAIT CITY,
Oct. 10--A leading member of Kuwait’s Al-Sabah ruling dynasty has called for a three-member committee of senior family members to assist the oil-rich emirate’s ailing leadership, AFP reported.
Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah, head of the National Guard, told Al-Qabas daily in its Monday edition that the proposed panel should include him, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and leading member Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah.
He said the committee will “assist the leadership“ of Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and Crown Prince Sheikh Saad Abdullah Al-Sabah, both of whom are undergoing medical treatment for various illnesses.
This has so far been the strongest call for change within the ruling family and it comes on the heels of reports of a crisis and infighting within the ruling establishment.
“The present situation is wrong and we should not remain silent.“
From my position in the ruling family, I must draw attention to this serious constitutional flaw in which procedures outlined by the constitution and law are not being observed.
“Legislation must pass through proper constitutional channels,“ said Sheikh Salem who accused the minister of the royal court, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, for exceeding his powers.
Sheikh Nasser is “carrying out functions not within his prerogatives. It is incorrect and illogical that he should take decisions unilaterally,“ he said, in reference to a rule that all laws must be signed by the emir himself.
“This situation makes some believe that most government decisions and legislation are unconstitutional“ and accordingly, it is feared that the position of the government itself is unconstitutional, he said.
Sheikh Salem ranks fourth in the family hierarchy, after the emir, crown prince and prime minister, but he is considered the “dean“ of the family because he is older than the other three.
Last year, he acknowledged differences within the family and made two public appeals for reform and unity within the ruling establishment amid reports of impending changes at the top in the family.
Following the appeals, Sheikh Salem was given the title of “His Highness“ used only to describe the emirate’s top three leaders.
The 77-year-old emir, who has been at the helm for 29 years, suffered a minor brain haemorrhage in 2001.

Mahathir Mohamad

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct. 10--Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday a planned international conference on peace later this year could spur US voters to shun “liars“ like US President George W. Bush, AFP reported.
Mahathir said the forum would hopefully spark US non-governmental organizations to lobby against leaders like Bush who had initiated the Iraq war.
“People like Bush should never be elected and they will not be elected if the people of the United States are agitated by, say, the NGOs, so they will not vote in anybody who is for war,“ Mahathir said at the forum’s launch.
“We would like to see eventually democratic countries electing only people who are for peace and against war,“ he said.
The Perdana Global Peace Forum, to be held from December 15 to 17, includes noted Iraq war critics such as British MPs Clare Short and George Galloway and former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke.
Mahathir said the forum--which will discuss war, terrorism and religious tensions--would go beyond rhetoric and help activists to “agitate against war and for peace“.
“That is the kind of thing that we hope will fall upon this global peace forum. It is not a forum for people just to say things and then go home feeling good that they have voided all they have on their chest, and said all the nasty things about the people they don’t like,“ he said.
“Hopefully it is going to be the start of a world-wide campaign,“ he said.
Mahathir, a vocal critic of Western countries as well as the Iraq war, later took a swipe at Bush over reports the US president had invaded Iraq because God told him to.
If people were agitating against war, then “I am quite sure in such a situation they wouldn’t elect a person like Mr Bush, who feels that God has asked him to invade Iraq. I don’t know what else God has told him,“ he said.
“We may be one of the countries invaded if God should whisper in his ears, ’Please, Bush--invade Malaysia’,“ Mahathir added.
Mahathir also labeled Bush and two US allies, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “proven liars“ for claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and lamented their reelection.
“You see three liars were reelected. There’s Howard in Australia, and there’s Blair in Britain. Proven liars,“ he told reporters later.

Japanese soldier's from the country's Self-Defense Force drive through the southern Iraqi city of Samawa, May 14. (Reuters File Photo)

TOKYO, Oct. 10--More than three-quarters of Japanese oppose keeping their troops in Iraq beyond December, AFP quoted a poll as saying Monday.
The survey for the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said 77 percent of respondents were against extending the period of deployment for Japan’s Self-Defense Force when the current mission expires on December 14.
Japan has 600 troops in Iraq on a humanitarian mission, its first military deployment since 1945 to a country where there is active fighting.
The findings of the poll, which received valid answers from 1,068 people, come as politicians here discuss whether to extend the historic deployment in the wake of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s reelection last month.
Koizumi, a close ally of US President George W. Bush, extended the mission last December for another year.
The troops, barred by the constitution from firing their weapons except in the strictest definition of self-defense, have relied on Australia and other countries for their security in the southern city of Samawa.
In a different poll by the Mainichi published Wednesday, 62 percent of respondents opposed changing Article Nine of the constitution, which says Japan forever renounces war and will not maintain a military.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Oct. 10--The head of Israeli military intelligence believes the Al-Qaeda network has established a base in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, AFP quoted media as saying Monday.
General Aharon Zeevi told cabinet ministers at their weekly meeting on Sunday that members of the network had planted landmines around an enclave in the Sinai to prevent Egyptian security officials from approaching.
Zeevi was quoted as saying that while the Egyptian authorities were aware the base had been established, they were wary of launching a full-frontal assault for fear of exacerbating tensions.
Israelis were advised by the government earlier this month to steer clear of the Sinai, a favorite holiday destination, over intelligence reports that Islamic extremists were planning to kidnap tourists on beaches.
The warning came a year after a luxury hotel in the Sinai resort of Taba and two nearby camp sites were hit by triple bomb attacks that killed 34 people and wounded another 100. Many of the victims were Israelis.
Around 70 people were also killed in multiple suicide car bombings which rocked the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh last July, in Egypt’s worst ever such attack.
Both attacks were believed to be the work of Islamist extremists.

BELGRADE,
Serbia-Montenegro, Oct. 10--EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn on Monday officially opened historic negotiations on closer ties between Serbia-Montenegro and the 25-member European Union, AFP reported.
“Today we are marking the start of the talks“ on a stabilization and association agreement with Serbia-Montenegro, Rehn told a ceremony in Belgrade.
The opening of the talks comes five years after a decade of wars and international isolation came to an end for Serbia-Montenegro with the ouster of then president Slobodan Milosevic.
“This is a big day for Serbia and Montenegro, whose citizens have waited for a long time,“ said the union’s president, Svetozar Marovic.
Marovic said the Balkan union would try to bring about the handover of wanted war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague as soon as possible.
The extradition of the former Bosnian Serb general, who was indicted by The Hague almost 10 years ago over the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim males, is one of the key conditions for Serbia-Montenegro’s EU integration.
“The fate of millions of people in Serbia-Montenegro who want a better future for themselves and their families is more important than the fate of individuals indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague,“ Marovic told the ceremony, referring to Mladic.
“I am mentioning this because no one in Serbia-Montenegro has the right to hope and can move forward without the fulfillment of the last obligation to The Hague.
“I’m happy because I know that there is a full understanding on all levels about this question and that, before everything, the case of Ratko Mladic has to be closed in the shortest possible time and in the best interests of Serbia-Montenegro and its European path,“ Marovic said.
The decision to approve Serbia-Montenegro for the talks on closer ties was made at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg a week ago.

MANAMA, Bahrain, Oct. 10--Bahrain’s newly appointed foreign minister said the kingdom had no plans to establish ties with Israel, despite a decision to lift a ban on Israeli goods as part of a trade deal with the United States, Reuters reported.
“The decision by the government to end the boycott does not mean in any way economic, cultural, political or diplomatic normalization or any normalization of any kind with Israel,“ Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa said late on Sunday.
“Bahrain is abiding with the decisions of the Arab League,“ he said, referring to a proposal adopted by the league to normalize ties with Israel only once it has withdrawn from all occupied Arab land.
Sheikh Khaled’s remarks were carried by the state Bahrain News Agency (BNA) on Monday. BNA said the minister was speaking late on Sunday during a meeting of MPs to discuss the ban.
Bahrain last year signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, the first between Washington and a Persian Gulf Arab country. Last month, former Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak announced Bahrain had officially ended its boycott of Israeli goods as part of the terms of the FTA.
The announcement came as a shock to many Bahrainis who, like many ordinary Arabs, are angry at Israel’s occupation of Arab land and its treatment of Palestinians.
Shortly after announcing the lifting of the ban, Sheikh Mohammed was removed from the post he had held for 20 years without any reason. Some analysts, however, said the move was not related to his remarks.

African immigrants stand in line at a camp in the desert town of Bourfa, southeast of the Moroccan capital of Rabat, October 9. (Reuters Photo)

RABAT, Morocco,
Oct. 10--About 1,500 African migrants dumped in the desert by Moroccan authorities have managed to trek back to camps but a pregnant woman died from exhaustion during the journey, Reuters quoted a human rights group official as saying.
Kabouri Seddik, of the independent Moroccan Human Rights Association, said he had talked to groups of migrants in the camps hastily set up by the authorities.
The migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, had been escorted by Moroccan authorities in buses from the north of the kingdom, where they had been trying to get illegally to Spain.
On Friday they had been left in two locations in the Sahara desert, he said.
“The authorities gave each migrant a bottle of water and one loaf and left them there. How long can they survive in the expanses of the desert with one bottle of water?“ he asked.
“The authorities then cut electricity in the nearest towns like Bouarfa. It was a deliberate move so the migrants would not be able to see town lights and would have no direction to follow so they would get lost in the desert,“ he added.
But almost all the 1,500 migrants streamed back early on Saturday to Bouarfa, some 500 km southeast of Rabat, where the authorities had settled them in makeshift camps at two local government buildings, he said.
“Seven were injured in the trip, with infection in their feet and they were treated at Hassan II hospital in Bouarfa. A pregnant woman died,“ he added.
Seddik said migrants told him they had feared they would die of thirst in the desert.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Friday it had found hundreds of African migrants, including pregnant women and children, in the desert. They said they had been taken by Moroccan forces and then abandoned.
Moroccan officials were not available to comment on the case on Sunday. On Friday Moroccan Communication Minister Nabil Benabdallah responded to criticism of Rabat’s treatment of the migrants by saying it was respecting human rights.