Crown Princess Masako

TOKYO, Feb. 17--Australian journalist Ben Hills has lashed out at the Japanese government, likening it to North Korea, after a publisher backed down on releasing his biography on Crown Princess Masako.
AFP quoted Hills as saying that the publisher bowed to government pressure in canceling the translation of his book, which blames overbearing palace minders for plunging the career woman-turned-princess into depression.
But Hills said he was talking to other Japanese publishers to print his book and the controversy was boosting interest in the English-language edition, first released in November by Random House Australia.
Kodansha Ltd., Japan’s largest publisher, said Friday it had dropped plans to release the translation of “Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne“ next month because of Hills’ refusal to publicly admit mistakes in the book and apologize.
“The real reason is that they have submitted to bullying by the Japanese government not to publish the book,“ Hills told AFP by telephone from Sydney.
He said the Japanese government had exercised “censorship by stealth.“
“It is censorship that would be totally unacceptable in any other advanced country, the sort of thing you would expect in a place like Burma (Myanmar) or North Korea,“ he said, using the former name for military-ruled Myanmar.
“The Japanese people should rise up in protest against this,“ he said.
The Japanese government had lodged a protest over the book and demanded an apology, saying it contained errors and defamed the imperial family.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Feb. 17--US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due in Beit-ul-Moqaddas Saturday for a slew of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders she hopes will break new ground in reviving the moribund peace process, AFP said.
The top US diplomat was to meet with her Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni Saturday evening in preparation for a much anticipated three-way sit down with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Sunday, she is due to meet separately with Olmert in Beit-ul-Moqaddas and Abbas in Ramallah in the West Bank, while the rare tripartite meeting is set down for a large Beit-ul-Moqaddas hotel on Monday.
In the runup to her trip, US President George W. Bush spoke separately Friday via telephone with the Israeli premier and Saudi King Abdullah, with the focus being on Monday’s meeting, according to the White House.
US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said a unity government deal signed earlier this month between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas will top the agenda of Rice’s weekend talks.
Abbas moderate and secular Fatah party and the Hamas, met in the Muslim holy city of Mecca under the auspices of King Abdullah and on February 8 agreed to form a national unity government to stop deadly infighting and convince the West to resume aid dollars.
In Moscow, top Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov, said he had high hopes for the three-way talks in Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
“We hope a concrete agreement can define a framework for a definitive settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,“ Russia’s Interfax news agency cited Lavrov as saying.
On Thursday, however, Rice’s spokesman was lowering expectations for the encounter.
“It’s not designed as a set of meetings that is going to result in a formal outcome, it is designed to start a series of conversations,“ Sean McCormack said.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 17--Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed on Friday to continue the opposition campaign led by his militant group to force Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to share power or step down, AP reported.
Speaking at a rally in a southern Beirut Hezbollah stronghold on Friday, Nasrallah said he was confident of eventual triumph, claiming the militants had the resources for it.
“No one should imagine that the opposition’s coffers have emptied,“ he said. “If the (demands) are not met, the opposition will continue its actions by means which it finds appropriate.“
The Hezbollah-led opposition has been campaigning with protests and sit-ins since Dec. 1 in downtown Beirut--just outside the prime minister’s office--to try to force him to resign or share power in a national unity Cabinet that would give the opposition veto power.
Backed by the United States and a parliamentary majority, Saniora has refused and has managed to resist the pressure by the encampment virtually on his doorstep.
However, Nasrallah insisted his Shiite Muslim followers would not incite a conflict that could degenerate into a civil war. Saniora is backed by the country’s Sunnis.
“Civil war is a red line,“ Nasrallah said, an expression he also used last month after scuffles between pro- and anti-government supporters turned into Shiite-Sunni sectarian clashes that killed eight people.
Those clashes--which threatened to slide into an all-out conflict--reflected Lebanon’s volatility and underscored the limitations of the opposition’s actions to force a government change without plunging the country into violence.
The Western support which has sustained the government will not last long, the Shiite cleric also said. “The opposition will achieve its goal and will triumph sooner or later.“

Policemen inspect the bomb blast site in Quetta, Pakistan, Feb. 17.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 17--At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured Saturday when a powerful bomb exploded near a court in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta, the interior ministry said.
Senior judge Wahid Durrani was among the dead, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP.
The blast, near the civil court in the city, struck inside a large compound also housing police offices, officials said.
“At least 15 people have been killed including some lawyers, and around 35 are wounded,“ interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema told AFP.
A doctor at Quetta’s main hospital said at least ten of the injured were in a critical condition.
“The condition of ten injured is very serious, they have severe burn injuries,“ said Ahmed Khan. He added other casualties have suffered multiple broken bones and shrapnel wounds.
Baluchistan provincial home minister Shoaib Nosherwani said it was a very powerful blast and police were investigating whether it was caused by a planted bomb or it was a suicide attack.
He told the Geo television channel around 50 people were wounded in the explosion.
The local television channel showed the scene of destruction, with policemen collecting limbs and pieces of human flesh from the blood-stained ground of the compound. Broken furniture and debris littered the scene.
The explosion hit when hundreds of people were inside the court and the compound for court cases and police inquiries, as well as those collecting driving licenses from an office inside the complex.
Quetta police officer Rehmatullah Niazi said the bomb exploded just outside the civil court, next to the driving license office.

Hamid Karzai

ROME, Feb. 17--Afghan President Hamid Karzai said any upcoming attacks from the Taliban would be dependent on outside support, and vowed they would be countered with “vigor and force.“
Karzai’s remarks came on Friday during a visit to Italy one day after President George W. Bush said NATO allies need to supply more soldiers to Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters are gearing up for a new spring offensive, AFP reported.
A spring offensive by the Taliban “depends on the structure of support they have or do not have outside of Afghanistan,“ Karzai said. “If there is (one), we’ll strike with immense vigor and force.“
Flush with money from heroin-producing poppy crops, Taliban fighters have proven much tougher than NATO expected when it deployed its first contingent of peacekeepers there in 2003.
Karzai traveled to Rome from London, where he met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Speaking during a joint news conference with Karzai, Italian Premier Romano Prodi said Italy would keep its troops in Afghanistan despite opposition from within his own government, but urged a political solution to the Afghan problem.
“We are committed with a sizable effort, and we stick to that commitment,“ Prodi said. “I think it is Italy’s job to insist on a political solution.“
Italy has an 1,800-strong contingent in Afghanistan. Prodi has agreed to keep the troops, resisting both calls from his Communist coalition allies to pull them out and a NATO request to increase them.
Earlier, Karzai attended a conference on the role of women in Afghanistan with Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema.
“I believe this is for me the right forum to express gratitude for being with us at a very difficult time, and for continuing to be with us today that we are moving toward a better, more secure future for our people,“ Karzai said.

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Feb. 17--A Turkish court sentenced seven suspected Al-Qaeda militants to life in prison for the deadly 2003 bombings in Istanbul, AP reported.
The defendants, including Syrian Loa’i Mohammad Haj Bakr Al-Saqa, were among 74 suspects standing trial for their alleged involvement in the attacks on Nov. 15 and Nov. 20, 2003, which killed 58 people and targeted two synagogues, the British consulate and a London-based bank. The court on Friday acquitted 26 of them while sentencing the rest to various prison terms between three years nine months and 18 years.
Al-Saqa who was charged with masterminding the bombings called on holy warriors to keep up their fight, declaring during final arguments in court earlier on Friday that “Victory is very near!“
Along with Al-Saqa, the court also sentenced Harun Ilhan, who has taken responsibility for the bombings, Fevzi Yitiz, who helped built the truck bombs, and Yusuf Polat, who gave the final go-ahead for the synagogue attacks, to life in prison along with other leading defendants Baki Yigit, Osman Eken and Adnan Ersoz.
Ersoz had admitted receiving weapons training in Afghanistan, listening to Osama bin Laden in person and fighting with Islamic militants in Chechnya.
The court sentenced several other defendants to various prison terms while acquitting some others.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett welcomed the convictions.

TOKYO, Feb. 17--The US took its newest and most expensive stealth fighter jet on the road Saturday, deploying the F-22 to an airbase on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa for its first overseas mission.
The first two of a dozen F-22s roared into Okinawa’s skies from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for a three- to four-month deployment to show “the flexibility that US forces have to meet our ongoing commitments and security obligations throughout the Pacific,“ the US military said in a statement, AP reported.
Bringing the planes to Japan is a way of showing off the fighter’s strengths in a region with a complex security balance that is being challenged by the rapid growth of Chinese and North Korean military power.
“It’s a very formidable asset,“ said Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, commander of the US forces in Japan.
Wright added that it is important for the F-22 pilots from Langley to get the experience of flying abroad and training with the Japanese.
Though Wright, speaking to reporters in Tokyo before the arrival, said there are no plans to regularly bring F-22s to Japan after the current mission ends, F-22 fighters are scheduled to be deployed in Alaska and possibly Hawaii, which would give a significant boost to the Air Force’s firepower in the Pacific. The arrival of the planes--the rest were scheduled to arrive Sunday--comes less than two months after China unveiled its J-10 fighter, which is believed to be one of the most advanced used by any air force in the world today, though it is not seen as a serious technological rival to the F-22.
Japan, which is planning to replace its aging F-4 fighters with a more advanced aircraft, is a prospective buyer.
The F-22A Raptor is an improvement over other fighters because it can cruise at supersonic speeds without using its afterburner--which means that it can go faster, longer. It is also highly maneuverable and its radar-evading stealth design makes it harder to detect.
Excluding development costs, each F-22 still costs about $135 million, making it the most expensive fighter in the world.