Hugo Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 5--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told a rally of thousands of supporters on Saturday that US President George W. Bush was worse than Hitler and vowed to buy more arms to defend his nation as their diplomatic relations deteriorated, Reuters reported.
“The imperialist, genocidal, fascist attitude of the US president has no limits. I think Hitler would be like a suckling baby next to George W. Bush,“ Chavez said.
Already frayed ties between the United States and the socialist leader worsened further this week after Chavez expelled a US military attache accused of espionage and the White House responded by ordering out a Venezuelan diplomat.
Chavez, a retired army paratrooper who often accuses Washington of trying to overthrow him, warned he could shut Venezuelan oil refineries in the United States and sell oil for the US market elsewhere if Washington cuts off ties.
US officials have made no suggestion they plan to break relations. Washington has repeatedly dismissed Chavez’s threats and charges as inflammatory rhetoric aimed at stirring up nationalist sentiment among his poor supporters.
Washington and Caracas recently locked horns over a US block on sales of Spanish military equipment to Venezuela. The Spanish aircraft contained US-made technology, which requires countries to get Washington’s clearance for the sale.
Chavez, who last year bought helicopters and 100,000 rifles from Russia, said he would seek to buy more arms to defend Venezuela against any attempt to topple his government. US officials say the purchases could destabilize the region as Chavez moves to create a huge military reservist movement.
“I ask for permission ... to buy another cargo of arms because the gringos want us unarmed. We have to defend our fatherland,“ he said. “Venezuela needs 1 million well-equipped men and women, and well-armed.“ The Venezuelan leader has put himself at the center of regional opposition to Bush, who he calls “Mr. Danger,“ while Washington brands Chavez a worrying threat to regional stability and criticizes his alliance with Cuba.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Feb. 5--Israel decided on Sunday to release to the Palestinians a tax revenue payment it froze after last month’s election victory by the Islamic militant group Hamas but said future transfers were unlikely, Reuters said.
The United States had urged Israel to keep up the tax payments, at least until Hamas, which has called for the destruction of the Jewish state, formally enters the government.
Israel had been scheduled to transfer nearly $55 million to the Palestinian Authority last Wednesday but announced at the time it had decided to suspend automatic monthly payments pending a policy review by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
“Abu Mazen is still president and the transfer is happening under the Oslo accords,“ cabinet minister Zeev Boim told reporters, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.
But Boim, speaking after a cabinet meeting that discussed the issue, said that with a Hamas-led government likely, the payment could be the last.
Tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority are the main source of funding for the Palestinian budget and are used to pay 140,000 government workers.
“It looks like it will be the last payment, before a Hamas government is formed as Hamas does not seem to be changing its position with regard to Israel,“ Boim said.
To make up for lost revenue, the Palestinians had hoped to receive cash infusions soon from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.
The Palestinian Authority runs on a budget of about $100 million a month. In addition to the taxes collected by Israel, it receives about $1 billion from international donors.

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb. 5--At least 40,000 opposition supporters converged on Dhaka Sunday to demand the ouster of the government after a three-day protest march marked by heavy security and the arrest of key activists, AFP said.
Chanting slogans such as “failed government must resign“, the marchers gathered at the city’s Paltan Square as leaders of a 14-party opposition coalition demanded the government quit and call snap elections.
At least 40,000 people attended the meeting, deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Mahbub Alam said.
Opposition leaders, however, put the figure much higher and accused the government of resorting to mass arrests and of preventing people from all over the country from joining the so-called “Long March“.
Some 831 people were arrested in the capital overnight, bringing to nearly 2,000 the total number of activists rounded up since the protest march began on Thursday, according to police.
After a three-day trek in which opposition leaders and activists addressed meetings in towns and cities across the country, the marchers gathered on the outskirts of Dhaka overnight and began moving into the city on Sunday.
The private UNB news agency said dozens of opposition activists were injured when a group of opposition supporters clashed with government backers and police as they approached the capital.
National police chief Abdul Kaiyum said authorities had taken the “highest security steps“ to prevent any act of violence.“
Dhaka Metropolitan police said more than 10,000 officers, elite troops and paramilitary forces were deployed in the capital.

Japanese soldiers prepare to leave a Dutch military base for Japan's base construction site in Samawa, southern Iraq. (Reuters File Photo)

TOKYO, Feb. 5--Japan will pull its troops from Iraq “within several months,“ a Japanese official was quoted as saying, marking the first time a government figure has publicly referred to an early withdrawal, Reuters said.
“The exit from Iraq is this year’s biggest theme,“ Kyodo news agency quoted Assistant Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kyoji Yanagisawa as saying in a speech in Tokyo. “At any rate, the GSDF will withdraw within several months,“ he said, referring to the Ground Self Defense Force, Japan’s army.
However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said nothing had been decided on when troops would be withdrawn.
Media reports last month quoted government sources as saying Japan would begin withdrawing its 550 non-combat troops from southern Iraq in March when British and Australian troops are also withdrawn from the area, completing the pullout by May.
The government decided late last year to keep the troops in Japan for up to a year from December 14, but officials left open the possibility they would be withdrawn sooner.
The dispatch of the troops on a reconstruction mission to a relatively quiet Samawa region of southern Iraq won friends for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Washington, but the decision was unpopular with most Japanese.
Government sources quoted by media previously said a basic agreement on the pullout was reached at a secret meeting between officials from Japan, Britain and Australia last month in London.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Feb. 5--A general strike called by Maoist rebels to disrupt controversial elections this week brought towns across Nepal to a standstill Sunday, AFP quoted witnesses as saying.
The rebels--who want to depose King Gyanendra and turn the poverty-stricken Himalayan nation into a communist state--called the week-long strike to disrupt Wednesday’s scheduled local elections.
The guerrillas are believed to have killed two candidates and have pledged to step up attacks in the run-up to polling day.
Tension has risen in Nepal in the run-up to the February 1 first anniversary of Gyanendra’s sacking of the elected government, a step he justified by saying he needed emergency powers to quell the Maoist rebellion that has claimed some 12,500 lives since 1996.
Wednesday’s polls are part of the king’s declared “road map“ to democracy. He has pledged they will be followed by general elections in the next 15 months.
But the municipal elections are opposed by the Maoists and opposition parties, who have formed a loose anti-royal alliance.
They condemn the polls as a sham aimed at legitimizing the king’s power grab.
The royal government, which has been rocked by recent street protests, has told Nepalis to ignore the Maoists’ strike call and threatened to arrest those who try to stop businesses from opening or who vandalize property.
In the capital, most people appeared initially to have heeded the government’s warning, with many businesses opening their doors in the morning, although fewer taxis and buses were seen on the streets.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 5--NATO needs to launch a new modernization drive to keep it from sliding into irrelevance in the face of today’s threats from terrorism and regional unrest, defense chiefs of the Atlantic Alliance warned, AP said.
“NATO is not simply guaranteed to survive and prosper as the cornerstone of the collective security we need,“ British Defense Secretary John Reid said. “It must change. ... NATO today faces greater threats to its long-term future than ever it did at the height of the Cold War.“
The alliance has been working for years to upgrade its armaments in an effort to narrow the gulf between US military might and European armies-- with only patchy success. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bluntly told allies they needed to spend more to push that overhaul forward.
“Unless we invest in our defense and security, our homelands will be at risk,“ he said.
He complained that just seven of the 26 NATO allies spend more than 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense--compared with 3.7 percent in the United States. Rumsfeld’s words were backed by his counterparts from Britain and France, who are among the bigger European defense spenders. Besides spending more, the allies need to spend better, said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
He urged allied governments to agree by an alliance summit in November to set up a joint fund to finance operations, to replace the current system whereby nations that provide troops for expensive missions such as peacekeeping in Afghanistan or the recent humanitarian operation in Pakistan have to cover their own costs.
“We need to share the costs more fairly,“ de Hoop Scheffer said.