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No Deal on Pak Judges
Sharif Party Quits
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File photo shows Pakistani former Premier Nawaz Sharif (r) and Asif Ali Zardari listening to a question at a joint press conference.
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Pakistani leaders failed to reach a deal on restoring judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf, increasing the likelihood the ruling coalition could shatter after just six weeks in power and plunge the country back into political turmoil.
Negotiators from the two main ruling parties held talks in London throughout the weekend, ahead of a self-imposed Monday deadline to resolve the issue. But officials said Sunday night they were heading back to Pakistan without a deal, AP reported.
Sharif’s brother Shahbaz said both sides had made sincere efforts to come to an agreement. He played down the possibility of an all-out opposition stand.
“We will support the government issue to issue--we will not let the government destabilize,“ he said.
Sharif meanwhile has announced that his party is withdrawing from Pakistan’s federal Cabinet but will not join the parliamentary opposition.
Sharif said ministers from his party will meet with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday and hand in their resignations, AF reported.
Sharif announced the move Monday after the failure of weekend talks with the party of Asif Ali Zardari over the reinstatement of judges axed by President Pervez Musharraf.
Satisfactory Conclusion
Husain Haqqani, one of the negotiators for the larger party, that of Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, said the two sides are trying to take this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.
Musharraf removed the judges and declared emergency rule in November to halt legal challenges to his presidency.
Anti-Musharraf parties came to power after winning February elections, and promised to restore the judges.
But they have quibbled on the mechanics.
Sharif, who was tossed out by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, has pushed for the president’s ouster and demanded outright restoration of the deposed judges.
A return of the judges could increase pressure on Musharraf to step down if the courts decide to revisit his eligibility for office.
But Zardari, who has been less harsh toward Musharraf, has linked the judges’ reinstatement to broader judicial reforms. Complex legal and political issues, including the status of the judges Musharraf installed after the purge, have proved stumbling blocks to a deal.
The two parties already missed an April 30 deadline to resolve the matter. Sharif later said the parties would introduce a parliamentary resolution to restore the jurists on May 12.
Commitment to People
Information Minister Sherry Rehman, a key Zardari aide, said Sunday her party would try to work with Sharif’s even if the formal relationship breaks down.
“Our commitment is really to the people of Pakistan, not just to each other,“ Rehman said.
Sharif and Zardari also met separately on Sunday with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who was visiting London. Elizabeth Colton, spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed the meetings.
Of particular concern to negotiators is whether Musharraf and his allies could seek to block the return of Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry as chief justice.
Musharraf has accused Chaudhry of corruption and conspiring against his plan to guide Pakistan back to democracy after eight years of his military rule.
Zardari insists judges sworn into the Supreme Court after the purge be retained so they do not oppose the new government in a legal tussle that would cast the country into more turmoil.
It remained unclear if the rift could break the government or force fresh elections. That would be a serious setback to Pakistan’s transition to democracy after eight years of military rule under Musharraf.
The new government came to power just six weeks ago.
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Sudanese Capital Calm
A curfew was partly lifted in Sudan’s capital Sunday but residents hunkered inside and security remained tight, a day after the government repulsed an unprecedented Darfur rebel assault on Khartoum.
Sudan accused Chad of backing the assault and severed ties with its neighbor, raising the possibility of more border clashes and a worsening of Darfur’s humanitarian crisis, AP reported.
In the capital’s twin city of Omdurman, frightened residents emerged slowly to find buildings pockmarked with bullet holes and streets littered with charred cars. Women draped in flowered gowns stepped around huge armored personnel carriers, inspecting the damage. The city’s main market was closed and residents milled around on side streets, staying off main roads lined with checkpoints.
“We were worried at first, that Khartoum may again be unsafe,“ said Hatem, a 45-year-old Omdurman resident who would not give his last name, fearing government reprisal.
“We are extremely cautious.“
“Police are searching for rebels on the run and are pestering us for IDs,“ he said.
A curfew was lifted in Khartoum but not in Omdurman, where police told state media that more than 300 rebels were arrested and many more had tossed away their camouflage uniforms to blend in with urban civilians.
State television paraded images of captured and bloodied fighters, including the dead body of a man it said was an aide to a top rebel leader. Army generals received congratulations in the streets and women praised them with traditional ululating screams.
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Lebanese Dialogue
Underlined
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File photo shows Lebanese deputies discussing the election of parliament committees.
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Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said talks among Lebanese leaders will begin whenever the government officially rescinds its two decisions.
“I am waiting for Fouad Siniora’s agreement to the voiding of the two controversial decisions taken by the government“, Lebanese-daily “Al-Akhbar“ quoted the Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri as saying.
Berri said that the moment Siniora agrees to the repealing of the two decisions and a consensus is reached by all political leaders to engage in negotiations, then the talks will continue without any deadline to reach an agreement. Berri said that talks would play a key role in ending the country’s current crisis.
On Saturday, the Lebanese Army Commander, General Michel Suleiman, rescinded the two anti-opposition decisions by the government, which were the initial cause for the escalation of tensions in Lebanon, and called on the government to officially void both decisions.
Suleiman reinstated the Beirut International Airport’s security chief and lifted a government-ordered ban on Hezbollah’s telecommunications network.
Heavy Fighting
Lebanese security officials said heavy fighting had erupted for a second time in the northern city of Tripoli on Monday on the same day that Lebanon’s Army were deployed across Beirut and the central mountains overlooking the capital.
Officials said heavy machine gun fire and rockets were being used in battles between government supporters and gunmen in the northern city. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, AFP reported.
Earlier fighting in Tripoli stopped on Sunday morning but broke out again on Monday after Lebanese troops pulled out of the area.
Meanwhile, at least 11 people were killed in fierce clashes between pro- and anti-government supporters entrenched in the hilly plateaus of the central Mount Lebanon, security officials and paramedics said.
At least 59 people have been killed in six days of violence across Lebanon between government and opposition supporters, the worst sectarian fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Arabs Want Truce
Arab foreign ministers met in Egypt on Sunday and pledged to send a delegation to Beirut to help find a solution.
The delegation, headed by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani was expected in Beirut later on Monday.
Arab ministers also in a communiquŽ called on Lebanese groups to reach a truce and end shooting.
They also expressed their support for the Lebanese Army for reinstating the chief of Lebanon’s airport security and restoring the telecommunications network of Hezbollah.
The Arab League, moreover, called for the opening of the airport.
Internal Dialogue
But many Lebanese believe the crisis can only be resolved through internal dialogue.
“If they (Lebanese politicians) can’t reach a consensus, then not Arabs nor anybody else can make it happen,“ Jack Badoun, a Beirut resident told AP.
Shops began opening in the capital and more civilians were seen emerging from their homes, though traffic was lighter than usual in Beirut. Many schools and universities were still closed. Major roads in Beirut, including the main airport highway, were still blocked on Monday with huge sand barriers.
Despite the relative calm in Beirut, a minor clash broke out at dawn on Monday between government supporters and gunmen in the busy Hamra district, security officials said on condition of anonymity.
Fighting in the central Aaley region of Mount Lebanon, a stronghold of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, lulled late on Sunday.
Violence erupted last week when Lebanon’s government decided to sack the chief of airport security for alleged ties to Hezbollah, and also declared the group’s private telephone network illegal.
Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said the decisions amounted to a declaration of war.
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Olmert Can’t Make Peace
According to a new poll, six out of 10 Israelis think Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cannot promote peacemaking with the Palestinians because of the latest police investigation into his conduct.
The same number think Olmert should resign, AP reported.
The poll published on Monday is the first since police confirmed last week that they are investigating suspicions Olmert illicitly took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a Jewish American businessman.
According to the Dahaf Research Institute poll, 60 percent of the 500 people questioned do not believe Olmert’s assertion that no money went into his own pocket.
The survey had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.
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Key Al-Qaeda Militant Killed
A prominent member of Al-Qaeda was killed in fighting with US-led forces in Afghanistan, the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist website on Sunday.
According to Reuters, Abu Suleiman Al-Otaibi, formerly one of the group’s leaders in Iraq, was killed in a “fierce battle with the worshipers of the cross“ in Paktia, it said without giving the date of the battle.
Another Al-Qaeda member, identified as Abu Dejana Al-Qahtani, also died in the fighting, it added.
Afghan officials said they had no information on the report. But the government earlier said in a statement that “five opposition“ fighters were killed on Saturday in Paktia during an operation involving Afghan and US-led troops.
The leader of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid said Qahtani left Iraq about six months ago without giving further details.
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Kurdish Bases Hit
Iraqi Kurdish officials said Turkish jets have struck rebel positions in northern Iraq, close to the Turkish border on Sunday night.
Fuel for Gaza
Fuel deliveries have been resumed to the besieged Gaza Strip, where shortages caused the only power plant to shut down over the weekend.
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Zionist Terrorism Lingers
By Davoud Ahmadzadeh
An examination of 60 years of occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Zionist regime can teach us a few lessons.
The most immediate point that occurs to one’s mind is that Israel has been shamelessly resorting to violence--a notion that has been institutionalized throughout the year--to advance its ill intentions. What is worse, despite blatantly violating international norms and standards, Israel is still very safe and secure. In its 60th year of “miserable existence“, Israel admits that it has military supremacy in the region and has called for disarming Hezbollah, fall of Syria and complete isolation of Iran in light of the unconditional western support.
Zionist leaders and theoreticians, from the early decades of the 19th century and long before the establishment of Israel in Palestinian lands, described the strategy of settlement as the ultimate guideline for Zionism and Jews. The important factor in institutionalizing aggression is using the rule of law.
Zionists have ratified legislations such as the Law of Return that gives Jews from all over the world the right to migrate and settle in occupied Palestine.
This is while Palestinians do not have the right to return to their motherland. Furthermore, Zionists have passed other inhumane laws legitimizing occupation of Palestinian lands. Over five million Palestinians have become homeless in the wake of Israeli violence and pressures.
The biased and racist legislations of the Zionist regime consider Jews as first class citizens and essentially deprive Palestinians of their legitimate rights.
The logic behind Zionist claims and slogans before the illegal occupation of Palestine was that nowhere in the world is safe for Jews who are subject to violence and harm worldwide. Based on this assumption, the only way to rescue Jews and overcome anti-Semitism was establishment of a Zionist regime.
In various eras, Zionist leaders deployed tactics to give the impression that Jews are victims of prejudice thus facilitating their ominous objective of establishing a Zionist modus operandi.
A glance at regional developments of the past few decades makes it clear that the Israeli stratagem of confronting anti-Semitism as well as Muslim and Arab threats has been efficacious for Zionists.
Israelis have constantly relied on the pretexts of security and avoiding another Holocaust to appeal to the international community.
One more point. In order to justify their expansionist policy and looting the lands of Palestinians, Zionists even rely on flaky interpretations of the Old Testament. Islamic thinkers and anti-Zionist circles worldwide believe that the target of Israel’s militant policies is not just to uphold the Zionist regime but also to destroy regional Arab and Muslim states. Israelis impudently resort to the Old Testament to legitimize their state terrorism.
It cannot and should not be doubted that the main reason behind continuation of the Zionist state terrorism is the unconditional support of the West, especially the US.
Today everybody in the region knows that CIA and Mossad cooperate for assassinating Palestinian and Lebanese leaders. The latest act of terrorism of Israel is assassination of the Hezbollah commander, Imad Mughniyah, in Syria.
The good case in point for displaying the close collaboration of American and Israeli intelligence services is the former US President Richard Nixon’s comment that the “US commitment toward survival and security of Israel is deeply rooted in ethical and ideological considerations.“
Another important parameter for the endurance of Zionist terrorism is absence of unity among the Muslim world to counter Israeli expansionist policies and crimes and the willingness of some Arab leaders to join the Zionist economic club. Until this dilemma is resolved, Israeli terrorism will linger.
US, Arabs in Air Drill
The United States, other western countries and the Persian Gulf littoral Arab states have conducted a joint aerial drill on Sunday.
According to Bahrain’s official news agency BNA, the exact location and duration of the exercise were kept secret, but it said that Bahrain’s armed forces chief of staff, Sheikh Duaij bin Salman al-Khalifa, also participated in part of the wargame.
The drill which has been conducted almost regularly since 1988, includes the United States, France, Italy, Australia, Egypt, Jordan and the six Persian Gulf Cooperation Council members.
BNA said that the two tiny Persian Gulf states of Bahrain and Kuwait also plan to begin joint drills in Bahrain on Monday.
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Israel Accepts Conditional Gaza Truce
The head of the Israeli Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday linked the possibility of a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip to the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
“There are primary interests which guide Israel, and first among them is that Gilad Shalit must be freed,“ Tsahi Hanegbi said on a radio interview when asked about a proposed Gaza truce, AFP said.
The Israeli lawmaker also named other conditions that should be met in any truce accord and said talks with the Egyptian mediator would be ’difficult’.
“Secondly, any agreement must stipulate that Hamas cannot continue to re-supply its armaments from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula,“ he said.
“Finally, any accord must state that the activities of all (armed) Palestinian groups must cease ... We have difficult talks with Egypt,“ he said.
Shalit, 21, was captured in June 2006 on Israeli territory near the border with Gaza by three armed groups, including a branch of Hamas, which controls the territory since ousting the forces of moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas nearly a year ago.
Until now, Israeli leaders have been skeptical about Hamas’s intentions, suspecting the Islamists of wanting a time-out in the conflict in order to rearm.
Twelve armed Palestinian groups have signed off on the Eygptian truce proposal, which also has the approval of the two main Palestinian political factions, Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah.
Attack Damaged Houses
Israel confirmed on Monday two Palestinian-fired rockets landed in Ashkelon inflicting damage.
An Israeli spokesperson said on a local radio the attack caused damage to several houses in the coastal city. Residents were shocked with the impact of the exploding missiles, Kuna reported. Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was launched after Israel’s continued aggression on the Palestinian people.
Subsequent to the incident, Israeli F-16 fighter jets were seen flying over Gaza, prompting Palestinian radios to call upon residents to take caution.
’Extremely Difficult’
Israeli President Shimon Peres said, in an interview published Monday, that reaching a formal comprehensive peace deal between Israelis and the Palestinians would be “extremely difficult“ right now because of the “emotional“ nature of unresolved disputes.
“In the political negotiations, the gaps are not very great, but they are highly emotional,“ Peres told the Washington Post.
“It will be extremely difficult to put them on paper because each party looks to its own audience and will be very careful not to appear as losers.“
The Israeli leader argued the unresolved issues were of varying complexity and suggested resolving them one by one rather than as part of an overall, all-encompassing deal.
“If we can agree on borders, let’s agree. If we can agree on refugees, let’s agree. It will take time,“ Peres said.
The comments came as Bush heads to the Middle East this week, where his efforts to forge Israeli-Palestinian peace face growing skepticism with less than nine months left in his term.
Suleiman in Israel
Meanwhile, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman arrived in Israel on Monday to discuss an Egyptian truce proposed for the Gaza Strip.
Suleiman was due first to hold talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and then meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Suleiman will try to rally support among Israeli leaders for the proposed truce, which has already been approved by 12 Palestinian groups, including Hamas, which runs Gaza.
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WEDNESDAY, MAY 14
NAPLES, Italy - Trial starts of Antonio Bassolino, a center-left politician who is governor of the Campania region, and 27 other people in connection with the garbage crisis around the southern city of Naples. They are charged with offences, including defrauding the state and abuse of office.
BANGKOK - The Supreme Court will decide whether to hear corruption charges against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and 46 Cabinet ministers and bureaucrats.
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