Egypt Loses Status In Arab World

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The U.S. intelligence community expects Egypt to lose its position as leader of the Arab world.

Instead, the intelligence community expects Saudi Arabia to become the de facto leader of the Arab world after the death or resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

But the National Intelligence Council said the Saudi kingdom has sought to avoid such a role.

"All agreed that Egypt is not the regional leader it once was and that this mantle has fallen to Saudi Arabia," a report on a conference by the intelligence council said.

Somali Islamist group rejects truce plans

MOGADISHU : Hardline Islamists in Somalia rejected on Sunday a ceasefire offer which had been accepted by new President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and vowed to keep up their attacks on government forces.

The president, elected on January 31, reached out to hardliners on Saturday by accepting mediators' requests for a ceasefire and offering to introduce sharia law across the war-torn country.

But Hizb al-Islamiya (Islamic Party), a group of hardline Islamists who claimed bloody attacks in the capital last week, rejected the proposals.

"The information regarding a ceasefire plan between our group and the government is baseless. We will attack the enemy and their stooges anytime we want," spokesman Muse Abdi Arale said.

Ahmed said on Saturday that he had accepted proposals by local and religious leaders mediating between his fledgling government and the hardliners.

"I met with religious leaders and elders and accepted their demand for a ceasefire and reconciliation with the opposition members, and I call on all opposition parties to halt the unnecessary violence," Ahmed told reporters.

"The mediators asked me to introduce Islamic sharia law in the country and I agreed," he added.

However, Arale, the rebel spokesman, said his group had met with the mediators but only discussed plans for a partial withdraw of its fighters.

Foreign and local religious leaders have launched a peace bid to reconcile rival Somali groups and bring an end to their leaders' bickering and rivalry that has blocked numerous attempts to end the conflict.

Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader, became president in January following a United Nations-brokered reconciliation between his opposition group and the transitional government.

He pledged to form an inclusive government and reach out to hardline opponents.

But the Islamist forces opposed to UN-sponsored reconciliation bids have launched several deadly attacks against the government and African Union forces in recent days.

At least 30 people were killed last week in the worst clashes since the president was elected on January 31.

Hizb al-Islamiya and the radical Shebab militia are the two main groups opposed to the government in Mogadishu.

The Shebab and other militia have retaken much of southern and central Somalia where they were uprooted by the Ethiopia-backed government forces in early 2007. The tide turned back in their favor when Ethiopia withdrew the last of its forces last month.

Last month, hardliners wrenched control of the south-central town of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional federal parliament.

They also claimed responsibility for a suspected suicide attack against African Union troops in Mogadishu that killed 11 Burundian peacekeepers last weekend.

Ahmed's cabinet, comprising 36 ministers, has relocated to Mogadishu from neighboring Djibouti, where the government was formed. Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullah Omar said restoring security was its top priority.

The departure of Ethiopian troops has left the under strength AU as the only foreign force in the country, and now the main target for Islamist attacks.

The Horn of Africa state has lacked a central authority since the eruption of a civil war with the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre.

Voting Overseas: For Algeria

Algerian embassies have started a campaign to sensitize nationals living overseas about the presidential elections.

Mainly in France, where a majority of Algerian expatriates live, a large communication and contact plan has been set up for this purpose.

The key message is to vote. Our nationals are invited to cast their ballot and say their word in this historical event to allow Algeria move forward.

Algerian Diplomatic representations all over the world have the same task, make voting easy and attracting.

Overseas polling will start early on April 4 to provide time for voters to move to the polling stations and accommodate their working and living conditions.

NKorea: US must cancel military drill with South

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea demanded Monday that the U.S. call off its annual military drill with South Korea, a report said, as rare talks between the North and U.N. forces ended without clear progress on defusing tensions.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North made the demand during talks with the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the Korean border village of Panmunjom, held for the first time in nearly seven years. It came amid fears the North is gearing up to test-launch a missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory.

Yonhap quoted an unnamed South Korean military official as saying the North warned the upcoming drill would "further stir up" tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The report said the U.N. Command insisted that the exercise — involving 26,000 American troops, an unspecified number of South Korean soldiers and a U.S. aircraft carrier — is purely defensive and not preparation for an invasion as the North claims.

North Korea has routinely condemned the regular U.S.-South Korea military drills as preparation for an invasion, although the allies have said they have no intention to attack.

Both the U.N. Command and the South Korean Defense Ministry said they couldn't confirm the report.

The U.N. Command only said the sides discussed "measures to reduce tension and introduce transparency" and agreed to further meetings during a half-hour of talks.

"The UNC welcomed this discussion with North Korea which holds the prospect for building trust and preventing misunderstandings between both sides," the statement quoted the command's chief delegate Maj. Gen. Johnny Weida as saying.

Command spokesman Kim Yong-kyu declined to comment whether the potential missile launch was discussed during the talks.

North Korea had called for the hastily arranged talks last week, saying it wants to discuss ways to reduce tensions, according to the U.N. Command, which monitors a cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea and the U.N. Command has held 14 rounds of such high-level military talks "when necessary" since 1998, according to command spokesman Kim.

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest point in a decade, with North Korea bristling over South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's hard-line policy toward Pyongyang. The tensions have intensified in recent weeks amid reports that North Korea is preparing to test a long-range missile.

Analysts say communist North Korea also wants to capture President Barack Obama's attention at a time when international disarmament talks with the regime remain stalled.

The North last week called its impending launch a peaceful bid to push its space program forward by sending a communications satellite into orbit and warned it would "punish" anyone who attempts to disrupt its plans.

Neighboring governments believe the satellite claim may be a cover for a missile launch and have warned the regime such a move would invite international sanctions. North Korea, which in 2006 tested a nuclear weapon and unsuccessfully fired a long-range missile, is banned from engaging in any ballistic missile activity under a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Obama is dispatching his envoy for North Korea, Stephen W. Bosworth, to Asia this week to discuss the nuclear dispute. Bosworth plans to meet with officials in China, Japan and South Korea, and will consult separately with Russian officials, the State Department said.

South Korea on Monday named career diplomat Wi Sung-lac, a former head of the Foreign Ministry's North American affairs bureau, as its new top nuclear envoy. Departing envoy Kim Sook has been appointed deputy head of the country's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service.

The two Koreas remain divided by the world's most heavily fortified border. Although other nations contributed forces during the Korean War, U.S. troops are the only foreign combat forces left on the peninsula. The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Algerian crackdown on terrorism

Algiers - Algerian security forces have killed eight suspected Islamist terrorists in the district of Blida, some 50 km east of the capital Algiers, local newspapers reported on Monday.

The battle between the security forces and a group of armed men suspected of belonging to the terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb occurred early Sunday.

The Algerian interior ministry said that some 120 suspected Islamist terrorists have been killed in Algeria since September 1.

ASEAN TO DISCUSS ROHINGYAS AS PART OF INDIAN OCEAN MIGRANTS

n a separate press conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Leaders also decided that member countries should not pass the Rohingya problem to their neighbors and instead tackle the issue together.

"Myanmar did not mention anything (about Rohingya). We recognized the issue, otherwise it's not good for us," he said.

Asked about human rights and democracy in Myanmar, Abdullah said the meeting did ask Thein Sein about the progress in the country, adding that the issue of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was not brought up.

"But it's better (for media) to ask the Myanmar Prime Minister to talk. I can't speak on his behalf," he said, adding that the Myanmar Government had told Asean during the last Summit in Singapore that it preferred to deal with the United Nations rather than Asean on the matter.

Abdullah pointed out the progress made by UN Special Envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari who had made seven visits to the military-ruled nation.

According to the premier, Myanmar had released 6,000 political detainees as requested by Gambari, who is also the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights.

Beached whales, dolphins rescued in Australia

SYDNEY – Rescuers used jet skis, backhoes and human muscle to save dozens of whales and dolphins stranded on a beach in southern Australia on Monday, officials and news reports said.

The 194 pilot whales and half a dozen bottlenose dolphins became stranded on Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania state's King Island on Sunday evening — the fourth beaching incident in recent months in Tasmania.

Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania as whales go by during their migration to and from Antarctic waters, but scientists do not know why it happens. It is unusual, however, for whales and dolphins to get stranded together.

Chris Arthur, of Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service, said 54 whales and seven dolphins were still alive when the rescue effort began. By late Monday, 48 animals had been returned to the sea by officials and more than 100 King Island residents who had volunteered to help.

Backhoes dug trenches in the sand that allowed water to get close to the whales, as volunteers doused them with water and draped wet fabric over them to keep them cool.

Groups of volunteers used stretchers to lug dolphins into the shallows, and other officials used small boats and a jet ski to pull whales out to sea.

Rescuers were hopeful they would stay away from the shore.

"It's too early to say yet but it's been a very, very positive day," Shelley Davison, a Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

It was not clear why the animals had beached on the island, halfway between Tasmania and mainland Australia. The Examiner, a Tasmanian newspaper, reported that the animals were caught by a very low tide.

In January, 45 sperm whales died after becoming stranded on a remote Tasmanian sandbar, even though rescuers worked for days to keep them cool and wet as they tried to move them back to the open water.

Last November, 150 long-finned pilot whales died after beaching on a rocky coastline in Tasmania. A week earlier, rescuers saved 11 pilot whales among a pod of 60 that had beached on the island state.

Elusive snowy owls congregating in Md.

Multiple sightings reported, a rarity for the area

By KELLEY L. ALLEN • The (Easton, Md.) Star Democrat

OXFORD, Md. -- It's been at least 24 years since the last irruption of snowy owls in Maryland and this year there are at least four on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

The region is lucky to see one snowy owl every four years or so. Bob Ringler, the editor of Maryland Bird Life, a Maryland Ornithological Society publication, has data on the owl's presence that goes back until at least 1876.

Ringler listed five sightings in Talbot County before this year -- one owl at Bailey's Neck in November 1974, one at Sherwood in November 1993, two at Poplar Island in 2001 and one at Poplar Island in November 2003.

"This is probably the first time in Oxford," he said.

The owl showed up Jan. 27 at the Cooperative Oxford Laboratory and has attracted birdwatchers from Virginia, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Delaware and one phone call from North Carolina, said Carol McCollough, a research pathologist at the lab.

"This is the first time [since I came to Maryland in 1985] that there's been multiple snowy owls in Maryland," David Brinker of the Wildlife and Heritage Service, Natural Heritage Program said. "This is pretty notable."

"They don't know what we are," Brinker said. "We're just curious things walking around that are too big for them to eat."

Snowy owls are sensitive to food supply and about every four years that supply crashes, which forces the birds south for food. Maryland usually gets one snowy owl in the winters of those irruptive years, and having four in the region is unusual.

The birds Brinker has seen in pictures are most likely teenage males that won't breed this spring. The two seen on Assateague Island, one on Poplar Island and the one in Oxford traveled farther than females, which are bigger and can hold territory better when food is scarce.

"They're essentially teenagers doing what college-aged kids do -- they wander around," Brinker said.

The Oxford owl has wandered about town, with sightings at Bachelor's Point, near Pier Street, by the Community Center and around the lab.

"He's quite loyal to the area, but not to any particular perch," McCollough said.

The owls are used to open habitats, water and coastal areas and like to eat lemmings at home on the arctic tundra, but will eat mammals, fish, birds and eggs.

The winter's first snowy owl came to Assateague about Nov. 10, then one came to Poplar Island, then a second to Assateague right before Christmas, then the one in Oxford. The birds will head back north this month as the weather warms up and the lengthening days cue them to head home.

Hamas demands role in Gaza reconstruction

GAZA -- Hamas said on Monday the West's boycott of the Islamist group would undercut international reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip, a cautionary message coinciding with an international donors' conference in Egypt.

Western powers say they will not deal with Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, unless the group renounced violence and recognized Israel.

"To bypass the legitimate Palestinian authorities in the Gaza Strip is a move in the wrong direction and it deliberately undermines the reconstruction," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

International donors were set to pledge at least $3 billion in aid to the Palestinian Authority of Hamas rival President Mahmoud Abbas.

Much of the funds will be used to rebuild the Gaza Strip after a devastating Israeli offensive in January, and the United States, a major donor, is adamant none of the money will go to Hamas.

The cash pledges could bolster Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction was driven out of the Gaza Strip by Hamas in fighting in 2007.

Before the start of the donors' conference, Abbas's West Bank-based government made a public call this week to thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip whose houses were damaged or destroyed in the 22-day Israeli campaign.

Kamal Hassouni, a minister in the Palestinian Authority, said that a committee would assess the amount of damage to each house and then banks would reimburse the owners directly. The whole process will take about five weeks, he said.

Hassouni said $348 million of the foreign aid would be used for housing, $119 million for transport services, $266 million for farming and $146 million for industry. About $1.45 billion will support the Palestinian Authority 2009 budget and the rest will fund other government expenses.

Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions have been holding Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks. Abbas has said that any unity government would have to accept a two-state solution with Israel, a demand rejected by Hamas.

Speaking at the donors' conference, Abbas called for holding a presidential and parliament election in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in January 2010. Hamas says that according to Palestinian law, Abbas's term as president ended two months ago.

Clinton says no U.S. funds will go to Hamas

By Sue Pleming

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a hard line against the Islamist Hamas group on Monday and said $900 million in U.S. aid for the Palestinians was part of a broader bid for Arab-Israeli peace.

Clinton maintained the former Bush administration's anti-Hamas rhetoric and said no money would go to the militant group Washington says which must recognize Israel, renounce violence and sign up to past Israeli and Palestinian agreements.

"We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands," she said. Washington labels Hamas a terrorist organization.

But, in her first foray into Middle East peacemaking, she also made clear President Barack Obama was committed to pursuing an Arab-Israeli peace and the aid package -- about a third of it for Gaza -- was aimed at accelerating those efforts.

"Our response to today's crisis in Gaza cannot be separated from our broader efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace," Clinton told a donors' conference in Egypt held to help the Palestinian economy and rebuild Gaza after an Israeli offensive.

"Only by acting now can we turn this crisis into an opportunity that moves us closer to our shared goals."

Clinton will go to Israel and the West Bank where the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East for the Obama administration, George Mitchell, has been speaking to both sides to assess options for restarting peace talks.

"We will vigorously pursue a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Clinton, whose husband, President Bill Clinton, failed to secure an elusive peace deal.

However, despite the talk about pushing for peace, when asked if he saw any major shift from the former Bush administration's Middle East polices, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, replied: "No, I do not think (so)."

It was Clinton's first major international forum in her new job and she had back-to-back meetings with top officials from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, and others. She also shook hands with Syria's foreign minister and chatted for a few minutes.

European diplomats have urged Clinton to press the Israelis to ease restrictions on the border crossings into Gaza, saying the aid will make no difference unless it can get through.

"She will go to Israel and she will certainly make the case that we have been making," said European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner after seeing Clinton along with the quartet of Middle East peacemakers.

QUARTET

No statement was released after the meeting of the quartet, comprising the United States, Russia, the United Nations and EU.

But a senior European diplomat said some European countries were looking at how they could be "more flexible" in dealing with a future Palestinian government that could include Hamas, which won a Palestinian election in 2006.

Palestinian factions are holding talks to try to end the schism between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank where President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah holds sway, but Clinton said the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of Abbas offered a more peaceful future.

"Not the violence and false choices of extremists whose tactics including rocket attacks that continue to this day, only will lead to more hardship and suffering," she said, in reference to rockets fired by Hamas into the Jewish state.

"For the Palestinians, it means that it is time to break the cycle of rejection and resistance and to cut the strings pulled by those who exploit the suffering of innocent people."

Of the more than $900 million in U.S. funding, which has to be agreed by Congress, $300 million was earmarked to provide humanitarian aid for Gaza after Israel's offensive in December, launched with the stated aim of stopping the rocket attacks.

A goal of the U.S. aid is to shore up the Abbas government.

About $200 million of the U.S. package will help cover budget shortfalls, with $400 million for economic reform and private sector and other projects on the West Bank.

Israeli politicians are also seeking to form a new government and Clinton -- in apparent reference to hawkish prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu -- said Israelis needed to show the Palestinians that there were benefits to negotiating.

Spain faces shift in power in Basque region

By DANIEL WOOLLS
The Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — Spain's Socialists on Monday savored the prospect of governing the troubled Basque region for the first time, after scoring big electoral gains at the expense of nationalists who have held power there for nearly 30 years.

No party won a majority in Sunday's voting for the 75-seat legislature in the prosperous northern region that borders France and has been wracked by decades of separatist violence. And it will probably take weeks of negotiations before a new Basque government is formed.

But there is no doubt of a major power shift in Spain's most turbulent region.

For the first time since the Basque country won broad autonomy in 1980, lawmakers who support keeping it firmly within Spain now narrowly outnumber those who back outright independence or depict it as a country within a country, with a distinct language and culture, rather than just another part of Spain.

In the last legislature, President Juan Jose Ibarretxe's ruling Basque Nationalist Party led a minority coalition that totaled 32 seats but survived due to periodic support from other parties, including one that refuses to condemn the armed separatist group ETA. Altogether, they surpassed non-nationalist parties.

On Sunday, the ruling party again won the most seats and even gained an additional one — for a total of 30. But no openly pro-ETA party was allowed to run Sunday, so the ruling party lost that cushion.

The Basque branch of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists made big gains, going from 18 to at least 24 seats. If the Socialist party reaches a deal with other non-nationalist parties — mainly the conservative Popular Party — it will command the 38 seats needed to rule.

Basque Socialist leader Patxi Lopez claimed the right to try to form a government and be the next Basque president.

"I have a mandate to bring about change," Lopez told cheering supporters.

Jose Blanco, the number two official in the Socialist party, said Monday the party would prefer to govern in a minority, relying on support from other non-nationalists but without giving them ministerial posts in the regional government.

But it is not a given that Lopez will try to strike a deal with Spain's conservatives, since the parties are archenemies at the national level. The Socialists could also team up with the Basque Nationalist Party — but it is not clear which party would get to name the regional Basque president.

"I think the (two parties) will reach a political agreement, even if it means the Basque Nationalist Party has to sacrifice the current president," said Ana Murillo, a 35-year-old office worker in Bilbao, the region's largest city.

In another election Sunday, Zapatero's Socialists lost their slim hold on power in the northwest Galicia region, a traditional Popular Party stronghold. The Socialist leader there, Emilio Perez Tourino, resigned Monday to take blame for the defeat.

Suicide bomber kills four at Pakistan seminary

Islamabad - A suicide bomber attacked an Islamic seminary in Pakistan's south-western province of Balochistan on Monday, killing four people and injuring five others, said an official. The bomber, who also died in the attack, struck soon after the regional chief of an Islamic party concluded his address at the seminary in Pishin district, some 60 kilometres north of provincial capital Quetta.

Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, the provincial head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and a former member of the national parliament, escaped the explosion.

The bomber blew himself up when he was stopped by security guards from entering the maddrassa, said Maulvi Agha Mohammad, a JUI member of federal parliament.

One of the injured is believed to be in a critical state.

"I spoke to Maulana Sherani. He is safe and sound and has reached Quetta," he said over phone from Pishin. "He had left madrassa 20 minutes before the suicide attack took place."

The motive of the attack was not clear. Almost all the suicide attacks in recent years in Pakistan have been carried out by the militant groups linked with Taliban and JUI is a pro-Taliban Islamic political party.

The locals arrested two suspects who were armed with assault rifles following the strike, Urdu-language the Express News television reported.

Archaeologists rediscover lost Egyptian tomb

CAIRO (Reuters) – Belgian archaeologists have rediscovered an ancient Egyptian tomb that had been lost for decades under sand, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said on Sunday.

In 1880 Swedish Egyptologist Karl Piehl uncovered the tomb of Amenhotep, the deputy seal-bearer of the Pharaoh King Tuthmosis III, in the city of Luxor, about 600 km (375 miles) to the south of the capital Cairo.

"It later disappeared under the sand and archaeologists kept looking for it to no avail until it was found by the Belgian expedition," a statement from the Supreme Council of Antiquities quoted Hosni as saying.

Tuthmosis III of the 18th Dynasty ruled Egypt between 1504-1452 BC. Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass said the tomb consists of an enclosure and a large hall divided into two parts by six columns. Part of the northern side of the hall had been destroyed a long time ago, he added.

Laurent Bavay, the head of the Belgian team, said most of the inscriptions on the walls of the tomb were damaged, a sign that the place had probably been robbed in the early 19th century, the statement quoted him as saying.

Camera trap survey snaps cheetahs in Algeria

A Wildlife Conservation Society-supported survey of the Sahara has captured the first camera-trap photographs of the critically endangered Saharan cheetah in Algeria. The survey was conducted by researchers from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Office du Parc National de l'Ahaggar (OPNA), and the Université de Béjaďa, with support from WCS and Panthera.

The photographs were taken as part of the first systematic camera trap survey across the central Sahara, covering an area of 2,800 square kilometres (1,081 square miles).

Overall, the survey identified four different Saharan cheetahs—a subspecies of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki)—using spot patterns unique to each individual.

"The Saharan cheetah is critically endangered, yet virtually nothing is known about the population, so this new evidence, and the ongoing research work, is hugely significant," said Dr Sarah Durant, Zoological Society of London Senior Research Fellow.

"This first camera-trap confirmation of cheetahs in Algeria is a landmark success toward our efforts to save these big cats," said Dr. James Deutsch, Director of WCS-Africa. "Findings like these help us refine our conservation strategies for the cheetah across its entire range."

Farid Belbachir, who is implementing the field survey, said that "This is an incredibly rare and elusive subspecies of cheetah and current population estimates, which stand at less than 250 mature individuals, are based on guesswork. This study is helping us to turn a corner in our understanding, providing us with information about population numbers, movement and ecology."

The Northwest African cheetah is found over the Sahara desert and savannas of North and West Africa, respectively, including Algeria, Niger, Mali, Benin, Burkina-Faso and Togo. The populations are very fragmented and small, with the biggest thought to be found in Algeria. The ongoing surveys in the region will also work with the local Tuareg pastoralist community to find out more about the ecology of the cheetah and identify threats to it.

Dr Luke Hunter, Panthera's Executive Director, said "This is very exciting news. The photos are the first new data on this endangered sub-species, which also represent months of hard work by a very talented Algerian scientist and his team. Panthera is delighted to support Farid as part of our Kaplan Graduate Awards Program"

The species as a whole has just been put on Appendix I on the Convention of Migratory Species, at the request of Algeria with support from other parties. This affords protection of the species from all signatory countries.

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society

Akhmed Zakaev in the seminar "Checnya: The Forgotten War"

Akhmed Zakaev in the seminar "Checnya: The Forgotten War"

February, 19th 2009.

World Chechnya Day.

Monday marks one of the bloodiest and most brutal pages in the whole history of Russo-Chechen relations. On that day, 65 years ago, the whole Chechen nation of half a million people was exiled from their home land and deported to Central Asia and Kazakhstan - indeed my own family were among them.

As is well documented the pain of the losses that Chechens suffered in that distant past did not become the last pain they were to encounter, and sadly the struggle continues into our tragic present. It is true that the tactics deployed by the Kremlin today are more subtle, but the outcome is the same in that the displacement and persecution of Chechens continues via methods that are less obvious but equally as brutal.

On that day, in a cold February morning of 1944, several hundred thousands of Chechens were being loaded into cattle trains to be transported to the far away steppes of Kazakhstan . That was a scary road to nowhere.

Only one half of the nation would reach the destination, the rest would be left lying along the rails, the road of Death, sprinkled with snow. Tens of thousands were shot or burnt to death because there was no way to transport them.

A horrible reminder of those days is a village called Haibach, the whole population of which, 700 people in all, was burnt alive.

In the thirteen years of deportation hundreds of thousands of elderly, women and children died in a strange land. Such was a result of the claim that the whole Chechen nation was a traitor to the Russian Communist regime.

Thousands of broken lives, never-ending tears of families, hundreds of thousands of nameless graves in the steppes of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

On January 26, 2004 the European Union officially recognized the deportation of the Chechen people as an act of genocide.

Grave crimes were committed against defenseless old people, women and children. Hundreds of thousands dead, mass extra-judicial executions, torture in concentration camps, abductions and disappearances of people, kidnappings and the list goes on.

Today Russia continues to violate international law on human rights and does everything in its power to stifle Chechnya’s legitimate claim for independence. Claims that peace and stability has returned to the region are just a guise to legitimize occupant’s regime of fear and oppression.

When I reflect on what happened 65 years ago, the brutality of war and struggle of the Chechen people that continues, I still believe that the law and historical justice are on the side of the Chechen nation. They just have to be.

The violence and blood that Russia spills at home and abroad demonstrates its disregard for moral and legal responsibilities in full view of the international community. What deeply saddens and frustrates me is the lack of political will to do something about it. I am deeply convinced that economic interests of certain countries and political careers of certain politicians should not be seen as more important than the fate of a million people nation. More than 250 thousand of innocent victims amongst the civilians, 40 thousand of them children, serve as a sufficient ground to initiate a war tribunal against Russian war criminals. The fact that Russia owns nuclear weapons and can therefore blackmail the international community should not prevent us from bringing Russian war criminals to trial.

I also think it is my duty to remind you that the illusions some political circles have about Russia ’s democratic progress are fatally dangerous for the whole mankind. Clearly, the world needs to find a way to make Russia comply with the basic principles of human rights, freedom of speech and the rule of law. It will be at your peril that the West deludes itself into believing that they just do things differently.

The way Russia silences critics living on foreign soil is starkly illustrated in the killing of the former ChRI President Zelimkhan Yandarbiev; the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the murder in Istambul of the ChRI citizen Islam Djanibekov and most recently, the fatal shooting in Vienna of Umar Israilov.

The ChRI Government, my Government, voices its strongest objection to the European Union’s lack of a clearly defined position in relation to the Russian Federation’ aggression against the Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya, crimes against humanity and absence of an effective system to protect the ChRI citizens who have found asylum in European countries.

We are counting on the Austrian authorities who had offered political asylum to Umar Ismailov and his family and who guaranteed his security while resident on the Austrian soil, to do everything they can to bring to justice both the perpetrators of this crime and their paymasters, whoever they might be.

Despite this bleak backdrop I remain an optimist that things can change – there really is no alternative. We need to bring about a new dialogue with Russia and begin a more constructive phase in relations to build stability in the whole of the Caucasus. And as for Chechnya specifically, my own view is that Peace and human rights can only be achieved if the Chechen’s right to self-determination is recognized through free and fair elections.

I would like to leave you with one final thought. This week is a year since Kosovo was granted independence. There has been no regional destabilization as many predicted which shows that a small independent state can viably survive in modern Europe . I invite you to draw your own conclusions on what can be achieved if the political will exists.

Thank you

Prime Minister of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Akhmed Zakaev, in the seminar "Chechnya: The Forgotten War" at Royal Society of Arts, London

Afghanistan, the Next U.S. Quagmire?

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19, 2009 (IPS) - The United States is planning to send an additional 17,000 troops to one of the world's most battle-scarred nations - Afghanistan - long described as "a graveyard of empires".

First, it was the British Empire, and then the Soviet Union. So, will the United States be far behind?

"With his new order on Afghanistan, President (Barack) Obama has given substantial ground to what Martin Luther King Jr., in 1967 called 'the madness of militarism'", Norman Solomon, executive director of the Washington-based Institute for Public Accuracy, told IPS.

"That madness should be opposed in 2009," said Solomon, author of 'War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.'

The proposed surge in U.S. troops will bring the total to 60,000, while the combined forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), including troops from Germany, Canada, Britain and the Netherlands, amount to over 32,000.

When in full strength, U.S.-NATO forces in Afghanistan could reach close to 100,000 by the end of this year.

Still, in a TV interview Tuesday, Obama said he was "absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban (insurgency), the spread extremism in that region solely through military means."

"If there is no military solution, why is the administration's first set of decisions to continue drone attacks and increase ground troops?" Marilyn B. Young, a professor of history at New York University, told IPS.

She said the uncertainty around Afghan policy seems to be spreading even while the Obama administration announces an increase in troops.

"This is one of the ways events seem to echo U.S. escalation in the Vietnam War," said Young, author of several publications, including 'Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam: Or, How Not to Learn From the Past'.

On Tuesday, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a report revealing that in 2008, there were 2,118 civilian casualties in Afghanistan, an increase of almost 40 percent over 2007.

Of these casualties, 55 percent of the overall death toll was attributed to anti-government forces, including the Taliban, and 39 percent to Afghan security and international military forces.

"This is of great concern to the United Nations," the report said, pointing out that "this disquieting pattern demands that the parties to the conflict take all necessary measures to avoid the killing of innocent civilians."

During his presidential campaign last year, Obama said the war in Iraq was a misguided war.

The United States, he said, needs to pull out of Iraq, and at the same time, bolster its troops in Afghanistan, primarily to prevent the militant Islamic fundamentalist Taliban from regaining power and also to eliminate safe havens for terrorists.

But most political analysts point out that Afghanistan may turn out to be a bigger military quagmire for U.S. forces than Iraq.

Solomon of the Institute for Public Accuracy said Obama's moves on Afghanistan have "the quality of a moth toward a flame."

In the short run, Obama is likely to be unharmed in domestic political terms. But the policy trajectory appears to be unsustainable in the medium-run, he added.

"Before the end of his first term, Obama is very likely to find himself in a vise, caught between a war in Afghanistan that cannot be won and a political quandary at home that significantly erodes the enthusiasm of his electoral base while fueling Republican momentum," Solomon argued.

Dr. Christine Fair, a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation and a former political officer with UNAMA in Kabul, told IPS she is doubtful that more troops will secure Afghanistan.

"Perhaps several years ago more troops would have been welcomed. My fear is that more troops means more civilian losses and further erosion of good will and support for the international presence," Fair said.

"I would personally prefer a move from kinetics and towards using this increased capacity to help build Afghan capacity," she noted.

"I also think greater support from the international community for reconciliation is needed. Afghans need to own this process," said Fair, a former senior research associate with the Centre for Conflict Analysis and Prevention at the U.N. Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington.

However, she said, the international community has legitimate interests in remaining in some capacity to ensure that Afghanistan does not again emerge as a safe haven for al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups.

Fair also co-authored (along with Seth Jones) a USIP report released early this week, titled 'Securing Afghanistan', which spelled out the reasons why international stabilisation efforts have not been successful in Afghanistan over the last seven years.

"Security issues in Afghanistan are extraordinarily complex, with multiple actors influencing the threat environment - among them, insurgent groups, criminal groups, local tribes, warlords, government officials and security forces," the report said.

Afghanistan also presents a multi-front conflict that includes distinct security challenges in the northern, central and southern parts of the country, the study declared.

In Afghanistan, Solomon argued, the U.S. president is proceeding down a path that can only be too steep and not steep enough.

The basic contradiction of his current position - asserting that the situation cannot be solved by military means yet taking action to try to solve the problem by military means - signifies that Obama is bargaining for short-term wiggle room at the expense of longer-term rationality, he added.

"In a very real sense, Obama is kicking a bloody can down the road, unable to think of any other way to confront circumstances that will grow worse with time in large measure because of his actions now," he said.

Even while disputing some thematic aspects of the "war on terrorism" at times, Obama is reinvesting his political capital - and re-dedicating the Pentagon's mission - on behalf of a U.S. war effort that is probably doomed to fail on its own terms, Solomon said.

"Reliance on violence is a chronic temptation for a commander-in-chief with the mighty U.S. military under its command. We've seen the results in Iraq - or, more precisely, the people of Iraq and many American soldiers have seen and suffered the results," he added.

Israel Could Stop New Hamas Rockets

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel's new Iron Dome rocket and missile defense system could protect the Jewish state from Hamas's extended-range weapons, a report
said.

The report by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies said Iron Dome, expected to be deployed in 2010, would result in a major dent in Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.

The report, authored by former Israeli Defense Ministry official Uzi Rubin, asserted that Iron Dome could intercept Hamas's new arsenal of upgraded Chinese-origin BM-21 Grad rockets, with a range of 40 kilometers.

"Some dispute Iron Dome's ability to intercept Qassams, whose short range of 6-10 kilometers accounts for minimal flight time," the report said.

"However, none dispute that the system can intercept Grads, whose flight range of 30-40 kilometers has a fairly long flight time."

Spaniards vote in two regional polls - ETA suspect held

Vitoria/Santiago de Compostela, Spain - Spanish police detained a suspected member of the militant Basque separatist group ETA shortly before voting started Sunday in regional elections in the Basque region and nearby Galicia. Officials said the 24-year-old may have been preparing an imminent attack.

Materials for making explosives were seized from the man, who was held overnight in the Basque locality of Billabona.

He was also suspected of preparing booby traps which failed to cause injuries to police officers who came to inspect them in January.

ETA has staged two bigger bombings prior to the Basque elections - in which it has urged its supporters to vote blank - without causing injuries.

Voting meanwhile began at 9 am CET in the two suspense-filled polls which were to take the political pulse of a country sinking into a deepening recession.

Voters were electing 75-member regional parliaments for the Basque region, which has 2.1 million residents, and Galicia, with 2.8 million.

In the Basque region, a party defending Spain's unity against separatist strivings was deemed to have chances to govern for the first time since the region was granted a wide measure of autonomy in 1979.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialists were running neck-to-neck with the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which has currents favorable to a status close to independence.

In Galicia, the opposition conservatives were hoping to reconquer power in an attempt to improve their image after being hit by a corruption and a spying scandal.

The Basque elections were the first ones without the participation of parties close to ETA, which has killed more than 820 people over four decades.

The Supreme Court barred two formations close to ETA's views from contesting the elections, following a string of other bans since ETA's political wing Batasuna was outlawed in 2003.

Basque regional Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe's PNV focused its electoral campaign partly on warning the Basques that a socialist victory would lead to Basque affairs being managed from Madrid.

Basque socialist candidate Patxi Lopez, on the other hand, claimed to be able to unite the Basques, who are divided over independence.

Lopez was booed by separatists displaying placards favorable to independence as he came to vote in Bilbao.

Several socialist-led coalitions were deemed possible in the Basque region, where the party increased its popularity after Zapatero tried to negotiate with ETA. The six-month attempt collapsed in December 2006.

In Galicia, the issue of regional self-determination played a lesser role in a campaign characterized by attempts by the conservative People's Party (PP) to reconquer power which it lost to a coalition of socialists and Galician nationalists in 2005.

Analysts said socialist chances could be undermined by Spain's deepening recession, with unemployment expected to climb to up to 19 per cent by 2010.

A victory in Galicia would help the PP at a time when its reputation is being questioned over several scandals.

Prominent judge Baltasar Garzon is investigating about 40 people over allegations that PP-governed municipalities granted contracts worth tens of millions of euros and illegal building permits in exchange for bribes.

The Madrid regional parliament is also investigating allegations that the PP-led regional government spied on rivals within the party.

The Galician elections aroused considerable interest in Latin America, which has numerous residents of Galician origin.

Eligible voters included 335,000 Galicians living outside Spain. The countries with most Galicians include Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico and Cuba.

Kashmir: conflict in a peaceful valley

Ershad Mahmud

Islamabad - The new US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, identified Kashmir as one of the world’s hot spots and bracketed it with contested regions such as the Balkans and Golan Heights during her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations committee last month.

Likewise, in an interview with Time magazine in November 2008, US President Barack Obama stated that “working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve the Kashmir crisis in a serious way” was one of the most “critical tasks” for his administration.

With worldwide attention once again focused on Kashmir, all major stakeholders in the region – Pakistan, India, Kashmiri separatists, religious extremists and peacebuilders alike – are hoping that the renewed international spotlight can facilitate an end to the decades-long conflict that has resulted in over 80,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

Contrary to widespread perceptions of a conflict-torn Kashmir, rife with military intervention and armed uprisings, the region remained relatively peaceful until a few decades ago when an armed struggle for separation from India started.

For the most part, Kashmir maintained a sense of communal harmony throughout the war in 1948, following Pakistan’s independence from British India in 1947. And although the Kashmiri region of Jammu was witness to the worst kind of massacre and exodus of Muslims to the neighboring areas of Pakistani-ruled Punjab during the war, this did not affect the daily life of most Kashmiris outside Jammu.

Kashmir is comprised of three distinct religions and regions. In Kashmir Valley, 98 percent of the population is Muslim. In Jammu, 60 percent of the population is Hindu and in Ladakh, 49 percent is Buddhist. Kashmiris have always been proud of their diverse cultures, traditions and religions, with Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Muslims living together in communal harmony. Even Gandhi lauded the Kashmiris for their peace-loving nature and called Kashmir “a ray of hope in the darkness”.

While the roots of the present conflict trace back to the time of partition, the more recent violent struggle began when Kashmiri Muslims, emboldened by the Afghan success in the fight against the Soviets, launched a similar movement against India in the late 1980s.

The ensuing 18 years of armed revolt created religious divides where previously there were none and caused 200,000 Kashmiri Hindus to flee the Valley. Eventually, however, the armed struggle waned, due to international pressure and decreased popular support for violent tactics in the wake of 9/11.

In 2008, mass uprisings in Kashmir began again when the Indian government proposed donating a large portion of Kashmiri land for a Hindu shrine. Kashmiri Muslims saw this as a plan to change the demographic of Kashmir, which would inevitably result in new Hindu settlements and began protesting against India. Despite some casualties, these protests remained largely peaceful.

On 18 August 2008, over half a million people took to the streets of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, and marched to the office of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) at the Sonawar settlement in Srinagar, to remind the world that the issue of Kashmir is still pending.

These mass protests attracted support from Indian civil society groups and attention from the international community. Kashmiri stakeholders, including militant groups, enthusiastically welcomed this renewed international interest in the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. Even Syed Salahudin, chief of Hizb ul Mujahideen (the Mujahideen Party), on behalf of the United Jihad Council – a group of several militant organizations – stated that Obama and Rice’s statements were encouraging in bringing about a resolution to the Kashmir conflict.

In addition, the recently-elected chief minister of Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, said in his swearing-in ceremony on 5 January that he wholeheartedly supports normalization between Islamabad and New Delhi and publicly pledged that he would facilitate the settlement of the Kashmir issue.

While these non-violent demonstrations have attracted the world’s attention, given Obama’s recent acknowledgment of the conflict, words alone cannot help; concrete actions must be taken by the United States to facilitate lasting peace in the region.

As a first step, the United States should appoint a special envoy to Kashmir. Indeed, the Obama campaign announced at the end of January that the mandate of US envoy to South Asia Richard Holbrooke would not include Kashmir, leaving the position open for someone else. This envoy should encourage India and Pakistan to include Kashmiri representatives in consultation and dialogue between the two countries throughout the process.

By re-igniting the Pakistani-Indian peace process and engaging Kashmiris in dialogue – along with Pakistanis and Indians – the United States can provide assistance in resolving the Kashmir problem, which has thus far been a major hurdle in establishing peace in the region and fostering healthy relations between the two nuclear states.

Robert Fisk’s World: Examine the Pope's words, and there's only one thing to conclude

Benedict will demean other religions to prove Christianity’s ‘superiority’

Saturday, 28 February 2009

So it's all the fault of the Pope's satraps. "Vatican advisers blamed for Pope's woes," I was informed by one headline. "A self-imposed cone (sic) of silence surrounds Benedict." And now poor old Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, the solitary German who found himself manning an anti-aircraft gun at the end of the Second World War ("briefly" and "unwillingly", I know) has had some "harsh words" for his advisers because – according to the Vatican – he "had no idea of Bishop Williamson's views before lifting an excommunication order against him last month".

Williamson, I should add, is the disgusting British-born prelate of the Society of Saint Pius X who has said that "not a single Jew died in a gas chamber" in the Second World War. This Cambridge-educated priest says he is prepared to "re-examine" the historical evidence of the Holocaust – but, needless to say, declines to visit Auschwitz. Unsurprisingly, the Vatican has rejected Williamson's mealy-mouthed apology to those who suffered "injustice" at Nazi hands.

Now a lot of folk will go along with the line that the Holy Father is so stupid – so utterly out of touch with Planet Earth and all its Catholic children, so "cut off from the real world" (here I quote a Vatican "insider") – that he has no idea how disastrously his actions are received. Hmmm. Well, I wonder.

For was this not the same Pope who actually visited Auschwitz and – to the understandable outrage of Jewish dignitaries who were present – blamed a Nazi "gang" for the Jewish Holocaust? Before this infallible pronouncement, an awful lot of people thought that the Nazi German nation was to blame for Auschwitz, but old Joseph apparently thought it was a mafia clique in Berlin that murdered six million European Jews. And – here we go again – was this not the same ex-Cardinal Ratzinger (anti-divorce, anti-gay and anti-aircraft, as I always remind myself) who delivered a lecture at Regensburg in 2006 in which he quoted from a Byzantine text which characterized the Prophet Mohamed as evil and inhuman?

Chancellor Merkel, it was, who called up the old boy to point out that pardoning Williamson gave the impression that Holocaust denial was "permissible". The last time a German Chancellor took so serious an interest in the words of the Holy Father, of course, was more than 60 years earlier when A Hitler Esq profoundly hoped that Pope Pius XII would abide by Williamson's line on the Holocaust. That particular pope's silence is well expressed in the sinister black statue of His Holiness in St Peter's Basilica, a bespectacled cadaver that so shocked a Muslim friend of mine that she took 36 photos of the thing "because he looked so evil".

Well, there you go. But I bring all this up today because of a remarkable article by Ralph Coury, professor of history at Fairfield University, Connecticut, which appeared in the latest issue of the Institute of Race Relations' journal Race and Class. The redoubtable professor has combed his way through Benedict's Regensburg peroration, in which the Holy Father quotes the 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus as telling a visitor to "show me just what Mohamed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and human". God, the good Paleologus told his interlocutor, "is not pleased by blood – and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body".

Coury's detailed critique of Benedict's mistakes – his apparent belief, for example, that there is a doctrine of jihad in the Koran – is compelling, but he has also unearthed some revealing interviews in which Ratzinger/Benedict reveals a lot more than he should have done about his own bias against Islam. "There is a very marked subordination of woman to man," he says of Islam in 1996. "There is a very tightly knit criminal law, indeed, a law regulating all areas of life, that is opposed to our modern ideas about society ... above all, Islam doesn't make any sort of concessions to enculturation (sic). Islam is Arab (sic), and anyone who becomes Islamic takes on this form of life."

In Regensberg, Benedict went on to say that Christianity took on "its historically decisive character in Europe" despite "its origins and some significant developments (sic) in the East". These few significant "developments" presumably include a Jew called Jesus and his birthplace in Bethlehem - which is at least 1,000km from Rome – along with the misadventures of numerous disciples in the Middle East, until Saint Paul headed off to Macedonia and the whole shebang mercifully became a "Western" or "occidental" religion.

Benedict's remarks on the theological significance of Israel on Roman Catholics have themselves been a little odd. "If it has significance for you, it must have significance for us," he told a Jewish leader before he was pope. "One would think that such a small people couldn't really be important," he said of the Jews in 1993. "But I believe there is something special about this people and that the great decisions of world history are almost always connected to them somehow." This is not very comforting.

But Coury has also traced some very disturbing decisions by Benedict; his post-papal demotion, for example, of Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, his distancing himself from the pro-Palestinian Angelo Cardinal Sidaro, John XXIII's secretary of state and a friend of Michel Sabbah, the Palestinian Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem; not to mention Benedict's private audience (originally kept secret) with the increasingly weird Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci – whose crackpot statements included the assertion that "Islam breeds hatred" and that Muslims "breed like rats". The details of this extraordinary papal audience with the late Ms Fallaci have never (unsurprisingly) been disclosed.

And what do I make of all this? Well, I don't think the Pope is as innocent as he seems, nor so ill-advised. He sees Christianity as a superior, "Western" religion and is prepared to demean other religions to prove it. I think he knows exactly what he is doing. I think he knows what he is saying. I used to think he was a silly old German. Now I am beginning to suspect he might be a very nasty piece of work.

Somalia in truce with rebel group

Hizbul Islam, a coalition of groups fighting Somali government forces and African Union peacekeepers, has agreed a ceasefire with Somalia's new cabinet, Al Jazeera has learned.

Sharif Ahmed, the president of Somalia, said he had agreed proposals for a truce with the leading rebel group and also accepted the implementation of sharia, or Islamic law, in the country.

"I met with religious leaders and elders and accepted their demand for ceasefire and reconciliation with the opposition members, and I call on all opposition parties to halt the unnecessary violence," Ahmed said.

"The mediators asked me to introduce sharia [Islamic law] in the country and I agreed," he said.

'End to violence'

Ahmed's announcement came on the same day that Omar Abdirahsid Sharmarke, the Somali prime minister, led the inaugural session of the new government in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

Sheikh Bashir Ahmed, the chairman of Somalia's Union of Islamic Scholars, said Hizbul Islam had reached a favorable deal with government.

"We asked the president to implement Islamic sharia in the country and accept mediation … He agreed and we hope this will end the violence in the country," he said.

The ceasefire deal follows fierce fighting in Mogadishu this week between opposition fighters and government and African Union forces.

Strong faction

At least 49 civilians were killed in the clashes in the capital, the independent Elman Human Rights Organization has said.

Hizbul Islam is against the presence of AU troops in Somalia and has said it will battle them until they leave the country.

The truce is unlikely to be extended to al-Shabab, a stronger opposition faction, that has already imposed its own version of sharia across parts of Somalia.

Al-Shabab is listed by the US State Department as a "terrorist organization" with links to al-Qaeda, a designation that the group denies.

Somalia president agrees to truce, sharia law

MOGADISHU (AFP) - New Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed bowed Saturday to demands from Islamist insurgents after the fiercest clashes since he took office, agreeing to a truce and the introduction of sharia law.

Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader who was elected president on January 31, said he had accepted proposals by local and religious leaders mediating between his government and the hardliners.

"I met with religious leaders and elders and accepted their demand for ceasefire and reconciliation with the opposition members and I call on all opposition parties to halt the unnecessary violence," Ahmed told reporters.

"The mediators asked me to introduce Islamic sharia in the country and I agreed."

Hardline Shebab militia and other Islamist fighters have waged battles against the government and its allies since and before Ahmed came to power, vowing to fight until all foreign forces withdraw and sharia law is imposed.

At least 30 people were killed this week in the bloodiest clashes since the president, a moderate Islamist, was elected.

African Union peacekeepers, who are constantly under attack from Islamist insurgents, are the only foreign troops left in the country after Ethiopian soldiers pulled out last month.

"We asked the president to implement Islamic sharia in the country and accept mediation," said Sheikh Bashir Ahmed, chairman of Somalia's Union of Islamic Scholars and one of the mediators.

"He agreed and we hope this will end the violence in the country."

The proposal to introduce sharia law must still be ratified by Somalia's parliament.

Ahmed became president following a United Nations-brokered reconciliation in Djibouti that aimed to try and bring some kind of stability to the Horn of Africa state after years of unrest.

After his Islamist movement was ousted in early 2007 by Ethiopia-backed Somali forces, Ahmed formed an opposition umbrella that later entered into peace talks with the Somali transitional government.

The Islamist forces opposed to the UN-sponsored reconciliation bids have launched several deadly attacks against the government and African Union forces in recent days.

The attacks were seen as a warning to Ahmed, who has vowed to stabilize Somalia.

The Shebab also claimed responsibility for a suspected suicide attack against African Union troops in Mogadishu that killed 11 Burundian peacekeepers on Sunday.

Last month, they took control of the south-central Baidoa town which hosted the transitional federal parliament after Ethiopian troops withdrew.

When in power in 2006, the Islamists introduced a strict form of sharia and carried out executions, shut cinemas and photo shops, banned live music, flogged drug offenders and harassed civilians, mainly women, for failing to wear appropriate dress in public.

They also banned foreign music, romances between unmarried teens, all commerce and public transport during prayer times and decreed that Muslims who do not pray daily can be punished by death.

Upon his election, Ahmed vowed to build an inclusive government, reach out to hardline groups and bring Somalia back into the regional fold.

On Saturday, he said the new government of 36 ministers had moved back home to Mogadishu after beginning its work in exile in Djibouti.

Algeria to erase all farm debt: report

ALGIERS (AFP) - The Algerian government will erase all farming debts to prime up the agriculture sector, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said Saturday.

The debt amounts to 41 billion dinars (410 million euros, 520 million dollars), according to the APS news agency.

"The state has decided to erase all the debt of farmers and breeders, and it is the public treasury that will buy up the debt," the agency cited Bouteflika as saying.

The move is aimed at "encouraging the agricultural sector to make a major effort to modernize its activity and to increase the diversity of its products," he said.

Bouteflika, speaking at a conference at Biskra, about 425 kilometers (264 miles) southeast of Algiers, also spoke about other steps the government is taking to advance healthcare, education and sports.

The 72-year-old leader, first elected in 1999, is seeking re-election after parliament voted to eliminate a previous two-term limit for president.

Algeria's two main legal opposition parties are boycotting the April 9 poll, claiming the vote is already a "done deal" set up in Bouteflika's favor.

Meanwhile, 11 candidates have formally submitted their papers to challenge Bouteflika and the constitutional council will rule before March 6 on their eligibility.

U.S. looks to China for support on Afghanistan: Pentagon

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States is looking to stronger Chinese cooperation on Afghanistan, piracy, and other international troubles, a Pentagon official said on Saturday after talks that he said also addressed strains over Taiwan.

The U.S. official, David Sedney, said China's opposition to Washington's arms sales to the disputed island of Taiwan came up in the two days of discussions in Beijing, but did not overwhelm an agenda that also covered Central Asia, China's contribution to fighting piracy off the Somali coast, and nuclear weapons.

"The focus was not at all on obstacles. The focus was on how we can move forward," Sedney, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, told a news briefing after the talks.

"We both understand that it really is a new strategic environment that we're in here, with China playing the role that it does," he said.

The talks marked the first defense policy dialogue between the United States and China under the new Obama administration.

Sedney cast them as a promising start but avoided specifics.

Asked if the two sides discussed North Korea and its possible launch of a missile, he said that the two sides had talked about security in northeast Asia.

President Barack Obama has said he will increase forces in Afghanistan by 17,000 in a bid to quell worsening insurgent violence. Sedney said Washington would welcome Chinese help there and in neighboring Pakistan.

"This is an area where we're looking to see more contributions from the international community -- and of course ... this means China -- to assist in the many, many needs that are in Afghanistan," Sedney said.

He raised health, education and trade as examples of areas where China could help in Afghanistan, but did not specify security forces as among them. But he said Chinese military officials were interested in U.S. plans there.

"As they pointed out, Afghanistan and Pakistan are both neighbors of China," Sedney said.

These latest U.S.-China Defense Policy Coordination Talks came after Beijing curtailed many bilateral military contacts in November to show its anger over the Bush administration's decision to sell $6.5 billion of arms to Taiwan.

Beijing says Taiwan is an illegitimate breakaway province that must accept reunification, by force if necessary, and it has been angered by the military sales. Washington says the sales are justified by U.S. law as designed to help Taiwan defend itself.

Sedney said the two delegations' discussion of Taiwan was frank but did not mark a shift in long-standing positions.

He praised China's sending of warships to help NATO and other forces fight pirates who use Somalia as a base to menace the Gulf of Aden.

Since Obama entered the White House, both sides have been seeking to overcome friction and resume military contacts, which Sedney said had been restricted but never fully broken off.

China has not yet given its official account of the talks.

But at their start on Friday, Defense Ministry official Qian Lihua said "a lot of obstacles still existed ... relations between the two countries' militaries were still in a difficult period," the Liberation Army Daily said.

Washington has its own complaints about China's military development. Pentagon officials have often said Beijing's defense spending lacks transparency, fuelling disquiet in the region.

China's defense budget for 2009 is likely to be announced at the annual session of the Communist Party-run parliament, which starts next week. In 2008, the government said it would spend 418 billion yuan ($61 billion) on defense, up 17.6 percent on 2007.

U.S. military spending accounts for about half the global total. Sedney said defense officials from the two sides will meet next week to work on dates for other military talks.