More on Somalia's Al Shabaab

The following is written by brother Cabdullahi Adam; it is taken from Hiiraan via Revolution Thaabaat

How could I say such a thing??? Those are the same people who go around killing people for no reason…The people who rape girls and then stone them for that…The people who just like to fight and fight and fight…and on and on…Right???

It has become something of a fad these days to bash on the Al-Shabaab. Many of these claims and hatred is coming from different types of people which includes, but may not be limited to:

Former warlords

Followers of warlords

Some who have too much sickness of tribalism in their hearts

Those involved in and benefiting from the drug trade and other evils in the country

Those who want to please the non-believers so much that they are opposing Islam

Those who are ignorant of the true situation. They may have heard stories and believed them without giving the Al-Shabaab the benefit of the doubt or verifying the stories.

Well, the truth is…those allegations that have been thrown at the Al-Shabaab are false accusations that have been brought to discredit the people who are largely responsible for driving out the foreign invading Ethiopians and bringing safety and justice to the areas under their control which includes much of Southern Somalia.

Some people have heard stories and are going around talking about them and spreading them as if they are pure fact. For example, Al-Shabaab is being accused of raping a 13 year old girl and then stoning her to death. This is completely false. The first response to this claim is that the Al-Shabaab’s highest priority is to live by, implement and judge by the laws of Allah. How could anyone comprehend that they, as a group, could brutally rape a young girl and then add to that by stoning her to death.

The true story of this “girl” is that she was actually a young married woman over the age of 20 and was found guilty of committing adultery. This is a clear example of how some people are trying to discredit the Al-Shabaab. The people living on the outside must remember not to believe everything they read and to investigate fully.

In addition, some people accuse our heroes of killing people without just cause and in specific they like to mention a video that made its way to the net. My first comment would be that this video is a video that wasn’t officially released by the Al-Shabaab media so what is the proof that they are Al-Shabaab? My second comment is that there is currently an invasion in Somalia and the enemies are using any means necessary to achieve their goals. One of these means is by sending spies. So it is not surprising that the Mujahideen may have uncovered the plots of some of these spies. And the Mujahideen must have investigated and researched to their utmost ability in that and every situation.

On top of that, how could the Mujahideen go around killing those same people who they are giving their money and blood and lives to protect and defend? This is a blatant lie that the enemies of Islam are spreading around not just about the Al-Shabaab but about all of the Mujahideen in the world. A few years ago if you were a Mujahid it was something good in the west because the Mujahideen were mainly fighting against the communists. Now if you even think about Jihad and establishing Sharia, then you become an extremist and terrorist. Since the western powers are fighting against Islam, they are doing everything in their power to discredit the soldiers of Allah and make the Muslims dislike them. This fact can be found in many of their think tank reports where they discuss how to combat this growing phenomenon of Jihad.

Furthermore, some claim that the Al-Shabaab only know war and fighting and don’t want peace for Somalia. In order to expose this false claim one only needs to be a thinking person. The Al-Shabaab now control many areas in Somalia and are showing us that fighting is not all that they know. There situations in Kismayo and Marka, in specific, and Jubba and Shabelle Hoose, in general, show us that these people are able to run city and state governments. They have the skills and manpower to fill the positions and address the needs of the people. They have shown that they respect the people and the tribes by sitting down with the leaders of the tribes and explaining their goals and needs. On top of that…they have shown that they care for the welfare of the city and the people. They have cleared the roads and cities of checkpoints. They have hired people to clean the markets and roads. They have started repairing the roads. They have organized the markets. Moreover, they have set up judges and courts to return the rights of those who have been abused and to judge in general. They have started ridding the country of the drugs that have become prevalent in some areas. They are calling people to put pleasing Allah as the most important thing in their life and to live by the laws of Allah. All of this and they have only been in control of Kismayo for less than 6 months and Shabelle Hoose for only for a few months.

Reading about their accomplishments in this short time one might think that they must have stopped fighting the invaders to be able to do this. But throughout that time they have been attacking the enemy in every place and every way in order to force them to retreat. The fighting has continued and will continue as long as the foreign forces are invaders in the land…but as soon as they leave and the Sharia is established, the Somali nation will Insha'allah live in peace and prosperity.

At this point it is important to review a few questions. Firstly, who are the Al-Shabaab? Well, the answer is very simple and clear. They are your sons and brothers and fathers and uncles. They are a mixture of all of the tribes of Somalia and of Muslims from outside of Somalia, some even from as far away as America and Australia.

Secondly, what do they want? This is also clear as they have shown us by their actions and have told us what they want. They want to give everything, including their lives, to defend the Muslims against the invading forces and to restore the land to peace and security and justice by implementing the Sharia of Allah.

These champions want to return honor and strength to the Somali nation. They want to unite the Somalis and the only way to do that is through the ties of faith. Any other unity would be superficial. The only way to true victory in this life and the next life is through grabbing hold of Islam fully and tightly. Don’t you remember how the Arab tribes were fighting during the time of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and how his companions were persecuted and tortured? Those companions grabbed hold of Islam and came together based on belief and, after a few years, they became the leaders and governors of much of the civilized world.

Al-Shabaab is the answer to the problems of Somalia. They understand and respect tribal heritage and at the same time, don’t have tribal conflicts. They have the strength to oppose the gangsters and thugs and highway robbers that have been plaguing Somalia for years and years. They have shown that they have the ability to properly manage a state government. Finally and most importantly, they are carrying the banner of Sharia which is the only way to true Justice in this life. And all of this is due to the help and success of Allah.

Finally, some people try to compare the valiant Al-Shabaab with the foreign invader forces and some even have the audacity to say that the Al-Shabaab is worse than the invaders. They like to mention some of the rumors and stories about the Shabaab but seem to forget that over 16,000 people have been killed since the Ethiopians invaded Somalia and occupied Mogadisho and hundreds of thousands have been displaced and have become refugees and are now dealing with issues like sickness and lack of food. People aren’t running away from the areas under the control of Al-Shabaab, better yet, people are returning to their homes and enjoying their new situation.

I can’t say that Al-Shabaab is perfect because they have made mistakes and they will make mistakes because they are from the sons of Adam. But I can say that they hold the answers to the problems of Somalia and it is obligatory on us to support them, defend them, and advise them. Finally I would advise those people who care about the situation in Somalia and who are following the situation closely to not be used by the enemies of Somalia and the enemies of Islam who don’t want to ever see a land ruled by Sharia and want Somalia to stay a land of chaos and lawlessness.

AP IMPACT: Lobbyists skirt Obama's earmark ban

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's ban on earmarks in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill doesn't mean interest groups, lobbyists and lawmakers won't be able to funnel money to pet projects.

They're just working around it — and perhaps inadvertently making the process more secretive.

The projects run the gamut: a Metrolink station that needs building in Placentia, Calif.; a stretch of beach in Sandy Hook, N.J., that could really use some more sand; a water park in Miami.

There are thousands of projects like those that once would have been gotten money upfront but now are left to scramble for dollars at the back end of the process as "ready to go" jobs eligible for the stimulus plan.

The result, as The Associated Press learned in interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers, lobbyists and state and local officials, is a shadowy lobbying effort that may make it difficult to discern how hundreds of billions in federal money will be parceled out.

"'No earmarks' isn't a game-ender," said Peter Buffa, former mayor of Costa Mesa, Calif. "It just means there's a different way of going about making sure the funding is there."

It won't be in legislative language that overtly sets aside money for them. That's the infamous practice known as earmarking, which Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have agreed to nix for the massive stimulus package, expected to come up for a House vote this week.

Instead, the money will be doled out according to arcane formulas spelled out in the bill and in some cases based on the decisions of Obama administration officials, governors and state and local agencies that will choose the projects.

"Somebody's going to earmark it somewhere," said Howard Marlowe, a consultant for a coalition working to preserve beaches.

Lobbyists are hard at work figuring out ways to grab a share of the money for their clients, but the new rules mean they're doing so indirectly — and sometimes in ways that are impossible to track.

Congressional earmarks have had a bad name since the 2004 scandal that sent superlobbyist Jack Abramoff to prison and earned the congressional spending committees a new nickname: "The Favor Factory."

Obama, who campaigned promising a more transparent and accountable government, is advocating a system that will eventually let the public track exactly where stimulus money goes through an Internet-powered search engine. In addition, Democratic lawmakers have devised an elaborate oversight system, including a new board to review how the money is spent.

But none of that will happen until after the bill becomes law. Even critics of the earmarks system acknowledge that specifying projects upfront offers some measure of transparency.

"We hate earmarks, but at least it's a way of tracking where influence is had," said Keith Ashdown of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. "There is a challenge now that projects will be added behind closed doors without a paper trail."

Indeed, some lawmakers hearing from local groups say they're doing their own lobbying of governors and state and local officials who could have say-so over the funds.

"I've talked to my governor and suggested some things I think are important in our area," said Republican Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who represents St. Petersburg, Fla. "He knows what the needs are."

Democratic Rep. Ed Pastor of Arizona suggested it's not entirely accurate to say there will be no earmarks in the measure. "There are and there aren't," Pastor said. "A lot of it depends on what the formula looks like."

For instance, the House measure, which includes $358 billion for road, water and energy programs among others, gives priority to transportation projects in high-unemployment areas that could be begun and completed quickly and that state and metropolitan transportation authorities have included in their long-term plans.

In California, Buffa, now board chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, said he's changed his strategy from asking for specific projects to pleading for more favorable general guidelines, including more money for infrastructure projects overall and a formula that lets cities — not states — decide how to spend it.

His organization has enlisted Potomac Partners, a large firm that specializes in lobbying for project spending, to help.

In most cases, lawmakers know exactly which projects in their districts can benefit from the money, even though the legislation won't spell them out. State and local officials have released lists of projects that could start quickly and be completed within a few years.

In Orange County, they include freeway improvements and the Placentia Metrolink station. The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, which is pushing for more water projects to be funded, wants repair and restoration of beaches from Sandy Hook, N.J., to Newport Beach, Calif.

Members of Congress are privately outlining their priorities, too.

"Everybody's making their list and checking it twice," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader. "You are inevitably going to have a lot of projects that are not going to pass the smell test."

Some groups are careful not to get too specific, fearing that public scrutiny could draw unwelcome attention to projects easily caricatured as special-interest goodies, such as a 2007 earmark for spinach growers that found its way into an Iraq war spending bill or the now-infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska.

The United States Conference of Mayors released a 300-plus-page list of some $150 billion in "ready-to-go" projects that quickly became fodder for criticism. It included money for the Miami water park, which McConnell has ridiculed publicly, and a skate park in Portland, Maine.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials was more guarded about its list of 5,000 projects totaling $64 billion. No specific projects were mentioned — just the number in each state and an overall dollar amount — making it impossible for lawmakers, advocacy groups or members of the public to criticize any one item.

Peter J. "Jack" Basso, an association executive, said it's up to states to decide what goes on their "ready-to-go" wish lists, but that the projects must meet rigorous tests including clearing environmental reviews.

"We really rely on them to pick things that, frankly, are not bridges to nowhere," Basso said.

Israel’s Lies

Henry Siegman

Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organization, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defense but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network.

I am not aware of a single major American newspaper, radio station or TV channel whose coverage of the assault on Gaza questions this version of events. Criticism of Israel’s actions, if any (and there has been none from the Bush administration), has focused instead on whether the IDF’s carnage is proportional to the threat it sought to counter, and whether it is taking adequate measures to prevent civilian casualties.

Middle East peacemaking has been smothered in deceptive euphemisms, so let me state bluntly that each of these claims is a lie. Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce: Hamas undertook to stop firing rockets into Israel; in return, Israel was to ease its throttlehold on Gaza. In fact, during the truce, it tightened it further. This was confirmed not only by every neutral international observer and NGO on the scene but by Brigadier General (Res.) Shmuel Zakai, a former commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division. In an interview in Ha’aretz on 22 December, he accused Israel’s government of having made a ‘central error’ during the tahdiyeh, the six-month period of relative truce, by failing ‘to take advantage of the calm to improve, rather than markedly worsen, the economic plight of the Palestinians of the Strip . . . When you create a tahdiyeh, and the economic pressure on the Strip continues,’ General Zakai said, ‘it is obvious that Hamas will try to reach an improved tahdiyeh, and that their way to achieve this is resumed Qassam fire . . . You cannot just land blows, leave the Palestinians in Gaza in the economic distress they’re in, and expect that Hamas will just sit around and do nothing.’

The truce, which began in June last year and was due for renewal in December, required both parties to refrain from violent action against the other. Hamas had to cease its rocket assaults and prevent the firing of rockets by other groups such as Islamic Jihad (even Israel’s intelligence agencies acknowledged this had been implemented with surprising effectiveness), and Israel had to put a stop to its targeted assassinations and military incursions. This understanding was seriously violated on 4 November, when the IDF entered Gaza and killed six members of Hamas. Hamas responded by launching Qassam rockets and Grad missiles. Even so, it offered to extend the truce, but only on condition that Israel ended its blockade. Israel refused. It could have met its obligation to protect its citizens by agreeing to ease the blockade, but it didn’t even try. It cannot be said that Israel launched its assault to protect its citizens from rockets. It did so to protect its right to continue the strangulation of Gaza’s population.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that Hamas declared an end to suicide bombings and rocket fire when it decided to join the Palestinian political process, and largely stuck to it for more than a year. Bush publicly welcomed that decision, citing it as an example of the success of his campaign for democracy in the Middle East. (He had no other success to point to.) When Hamas unexpectedly won the election, Israel and the US immediately sought to delegitimise the result and embraced Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, who until then had been dismissed by Israel’s leaders as a ‘plucked chicken’. They armed and trained his security forces to overthrow Hamas; and when Hamas – brutally, to be sure – pre-empted this violent attempt to reverse the result of the first honest democratic election in the modern Middle East, Israel and the Bush administration imposed the blockade.

Israel seeks to counter these indisputable facts by maintaining that in withdrawing Israeli settlements from Gaza in 2005, Ariel Sharon gave Hamas the chance to set out on the path to statehood, a chance it refused to take; instead, it transformed Gaza into a launching-pad for firing missiles at Israel’s civilian population. The charge is a lie twice over. First, for all its failings, Hamas brought to Gaza a level of law and order unknown in recent years, and did so without the large sums of money that donors showered on the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. It eliminated the violent gangs and warlords who terrorized Gaza under Fatah’s rule. Non-observant Muslims, Christians and other minorities have more religious freedom under Hamas rule than they would have in Saudi Arabia, for example, or under many other Arab regimes.

The greater lie is that Sharon’s withdrawal from Gaza was intended as a prelude to further withdrawals and a peace agreement. This is how Sharon’s senior adviser Dov Weisglass, who was also his chief negotiator with the Americans, described the withdrawal from Gaza, in an interview with Ha’aretz in August 2004:

What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements [i.e. the major settlement blocks on the West Bank] would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns . . . The significance [of the agreement with the US] is the freezing of the political process. And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent a discussion about the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package that is called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed from our agenda indefinitely. And all this with [President Bush’s] authority and permission . . . and the ratification of both houses of Congress.

Do the Israelis and Americans think that Palestinians don’t read the Israeli papers, or that when they saw what was happening on the West Bank they couldn’t figure out for themselves what Sharon was up to?

Israel’s government would like the world to believe that Hamas launched its Qassam rockets because that is what terrorists do and Hamas is a generic terrorist group. In fact, Hamas is no more a ‘terror organization’ (Israel’s preferred term) than the Zionist movement was during its struggle for a Jewish homeland. In the late 1930s and 1940s, parties within the Zionist movement resorted to terrorist activities for strategic reasons. According to Benny Morris, it was the Irgun that first targeted civilians. He writes in Righteous Victims that an upsurge of Arab terrorism in 1937 ‘triggered a wave of Irgun bombings against Arab crowds and buses, introducing a new dimension to the conflict’. He also documents atrocities committed during the 1948-49 war by the IDF, admitting in a 2004 interview, published in Ha’aretz, that material released by Israel’s Ministry of Defense showed that ‘there were far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought . . . In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Haganah were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them, and destroy the villages themselves.’ In a number of Palestinian villages and towns the IDF carried out organized executions of civilians. Asked by Ha’aretz whether he condemned the ethnic cleansing, Morris replied that he did not:

A Jewish state would not have come into being without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them. There was no choice but to expel that population. It was necessary to cleanse the hinterland and cleanse the border areas and cleanse the main roads. It was necessary to cleanse the villages from which our convoys and our settlements were fired on.

In other words, when Jews target and kill innocent civilians to advance their national struggle, they are patriots. When their adversaries do so, they are terrorists.

It is too easy to describe Hamas simply as a ‘terror organization’. It is a religious nationalist movement that resorts to terrorism, as the Zionist movement did during its struggle for statehood, in the mistaken belief that it is the only way to end an oppressive occupation and bring about a Palestinian state. While Hamas’s ideology formally calls for that state to be established on the ruins of the state of Israel, this doesn’t determine Hamas’s actual policies today any more than the same declaration in the PLO charter determined Fatah’s actions.

These are not the conclusions of an apologist for Hamas but the opinions of the former head of Mossad and Sharon’s national security adviser, Ephraim Halevy. The Hamas leadership has undergone a change ‘right under our very noses’, Halevy wrote recently in Yedioth Ahronoth, by recognizing that ‘its ideological goal is not attainable and will not be in the foreseeable future.’ It is now ready and willing to see the establishment of a Palestinian state within the temporary borders of 1967. Halevy noted that while Hamas has not said how ‘temporary’ those borders would be, ‘they know that the moment a Palestinian state is established with their co-operation, they will be obligated to change the rules of the game: they will have to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original ideological goals.’ In an earlier article, Halevy also pointed out the absurdity of linking Hamas to al-Qaida.

In the eyes of al-Qaida, the members of Hamas are perceived as heretics due to their stated desire to participate, even indirectly, in processes of any understandings or agreements with Israel. [The Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled] Mashal’s declaration diametrically contradicts al-Qaida’s approach, and provides Israel with an opportunity, perhaps a historic one, to leverage it for the better.

Why then are Israel’s leaders so determined to destroy Hamas? Because they believe that its leadership, unlike that of Fatah, cannot be intimidated into accepting a peace accord that establishes a Palestinian ‘state’ made up of territorially disconnected entities over which Israel would be able to retain permanent control. Control of the West Bank has been the unwavering objective of Israel’s military, intelligence and political elites since the end of the Six-Day War.[*] They believe that Hamas would not permit such a cantonisation of Palestinian territory, no matter how long the occupation continues. They may be wrong about Abbas and his superannuated cohorts, but they are entirely right about Hamas.

Middle East observers wonder whether Israel’s assault on Hamas will succeed in destroying the organization or expelling it from Gaza. This is an irrelevant question. If Israel plans to keep control over any future Palestinian entity, it will never find a Palestinian partner, and even if it succeeds in dismantling Hamas, the movement will in time be replaced by a far more radical Palestinian opposition.

If Barack Obama picks a seasoned Middle East envoy who clings to the idea that outsiders should not present their own proposals for a just and sustainable peace agreement, much less press the parties to accept it, but instead leave them to work out their differences, he will assure a future Palestinian resistance far more extreme than Hamas – one likely to be allied with al-Qaida. For the US, Europe and most of the rest of the world, this would be the worst possible outcome. Perhaps some Israelis, including the settler leadership, believe it would serve their purposes, since it would provide the government with a compelling pretext to hold on to all of Palestine. But this is a delusion that would bring about the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Anthony Cordesman, one of the most reliable military analysts of the Middle East, and a friend of Israel, argued in a 9 January report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the tactical advantages of continuing the operation in Gaza were outweighed by the strategic cost – and were probably no greater than any gains Israel may have made early in the war in selective strikes on key Hamas facilities. ‘Has Israel somehow blundered into a steadily escalating war without a clear strategic goal, or at least one it can credibly achieve?’ he asks. ‘Will Israel end in empowering an enemy in political terms that it defeated in tactical terms? Will Israel’s actions seriously damage the US position in the region, any hope of peace, as well as moderate Arab regimes and voices in the process? To be blunt, the answer so far seems to be yes.’ Cordesman concludes that ‘any leader can take a tough stand and claim that tactical gains are a meaningful victory. If this is all that Olmert, Livni and Barak have for an answer, then they have disgraced themselves and damaged their country and their friends.’

Hamas leader in Lebanon stresses rights to bring weapons into Gaza

Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan stressed Sunday that the resistance has the right to bring weapons into Gaza, Lebanon's New TV reported.

"The resistance has the right to posses and acquire weapons in the Gaza strip and the West bank," Hamdan was quoted as saying.

He vowed that the resistance will not surrender to any measure imposed on it, which would deprive it from its arms, stressing that "the enemy will not get by politics what it could not get by war."

The Hamas leader affirmed that the resistance will not accept the presence of Israeli forces on Rafah crossing, the way it was before.

Addressing Arab moderate countries without naming them, he said "those who are addicted to defeat and surrender do not know the meaning of dignity."

"They were not neutral during the war on Gaza, they were a part of the aggression," he added.

Hamas movement is the main Palestinian stream in the Gaza Strip, which was targeted in 22-day devastating offensive by Israel since Dec. 27, 2008.

Jordan to install military field hospital in Gaza

The military in Jordan has planed to install a field hospital in the Gaza Strip to help treat the Palestinians injured during the 22-day massive offensive by Israel, local daily The Jordan Times reported on Monday.

The hospital will be located in Tal Al Hawa area in the coastal enclave of Gaza and is expected to start operating within 24 hours, Royal Medical Services (RMS) Director Major General Abdul Latif Wreikat was quoted as saying.

According to Wreikat, the makeshift hospital, staffed by 180 medics, is fully equipped with the latest equipment and allows major surgeries. Two fully-equipped ambulances will accompany the military hospital.

"Difficult cases" will be transferred to the Royal Medical Services hospitals in Amman, said Brigadier General Mohammad Raqqad, director of the military's Morale Guidance Department.

Currently, there are two Jordanian field hospitals serving Palestinians in the West Bank: one in Ramallah operating since 2000 and another in Jenin installed in 2002.

A third one set up in Nablus has completed its mission and was closed.

Israel had carried out a 22-day large-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip that ended a week ago, leaving some 1,400 Palestinians dead and 5,500 injured.

Police: Bicycle bomb kills 5 in northwest Pakistan

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD, Associated Press Writer

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – A bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded in a northwest Pakistani city on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding 20 in the latest attack to rattle the volatile region.

The explosion occurred on a major road in Dera Ismail Khan, and most of the victims were either walking by the parked bicycle or traveling in nearby vehicles, area police chief Saeed Ullah said.

Taliban and al-Qaida militants are suspected in scores of attacks in Pakistan's northwest regions bordering Afghanistan. Dera Ismail Khan lies near the Waziristan tribal areas, which are insurgent strongholds and favorite targets for U.S. missile strikes.

But the rough and tumble city also has witnessed sectarian violence in the past.

Ullah refused to speculate on the motive behind the latest explosion, saying the investigation was continuing.

Local television channels showed footage of wounded victims being treated at a government hospital, as well as pieces of a bicycle, rickshaw and a damaged car at the scene of the blast.

In Pakistan's southwest, gunmen shot dead the leader of a small Shiite political party in the main city of Quetta, triggering violent protests. Several hundred people torched vehicles and a bank, said Mohammed Khan, an area police official.

Photos from the scene showed security forces clashing with protesters. Khan said efforts were under way to restore order.

Ali Haider, a purported spokesman for the outlawed Sunni Muslim militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, said the group was behind the killing in a phone call to the local press club.

Elsewhere in the northwest, a man whom militants accused of spying for America was found shot dead Monday in Datta Khel village in North Waziristan, two intelligence officials said. The body was missing the right hand, which had been chopped off.

A note pinned to the body claimed the man spied for the U.S. and warned others to "learn a lesson from the fate of this man," said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

Militants in the lawless region have killed at least 20 alleged spies since mid-December.

Obama orders push to cleaner, more efficient cars

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama opened an ambitious, double-barreled assault on global warming and U.S. energy woes Monday, moving quickly toward rules requiring cleaner-running cars that guzzle less gas — a must, he said, for "our security, our economy and our planet."

He also vowed to succeed where a long line of predecessors had failed in slowing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Starting his second week in office, Obama took a major step toward allowing California and other states to target greenhouse gases through more stringent auto emission standards, and he ordered new federal rules directing automakers to start making more fuel-efficient cars as required by law.

The auto industry responded warily. Reducing planet-warming emissions is a great idea, carmakers and dealers said, but they expressed deep concern about costly regulations and conflicting state and federal rules at a time when people already are not buying cars. U.S. auto sales plunged 18 percent in 2008.

And industry analysts said the changes could cost consumers thousands of dollars — for smaller, "greener" cars.

Obama on Monday directed the Environmental Protection Agency to review whether California and more than a dozen states should be allowed to impose tougher auto emission standards on carmakers to fight greenhouse gas emissions. The Bush administration had blocked the efforts by the states, which account for about half of the nation's auto sales.

The new president also said his administration would issue new fuel-efficiency requirements to cover 2011 model year vehicles.

Obama acknowledged the worries of automakers but said urgent action was needed nonetheless. He said, "Our goal is not to further burden an already struggling industry. It is to help America's automakers prepare for the future."

He said that U.S. imports of foreign oil have continued to climb, even as previous presidents pledged to reverse the trend. No more, he said.

"I want to be clear from the beginning of this administration that we have made our choice: America will not be held hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes and a warming planet," Obama said in the ornate East Room of the White House, where an audience of environmentalists cheered him on.

Underscoring environmental worries, a new report said many damaging effects of climate change are already all but irreversible, sure to last until the year 3000 and beyond. "It's not like air pollution where if we turn off a smokestack, in a few days the air is clear," said Susan Solomon, chief author of the international report and a climate researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.

Showing the early limits of bipartisanship, House Republican leader John Boehner said Obama's reopening of a key California ruling was dangerous. "The effect of this policy will be to destroy American jobs at the very time government leaders should be working together to protect and create them," he said.

Obama's order for an EPA review of California's case could shake up the auto industry — 13 other states and the District of Columbia have adopted California's standards, and others are considering them. If California gets a federal waiver to enact tougher emissions standards, the other states could then sign on.

Also, Obama directed federal transportation officials to get going on new fuel efficiency rules, which will affect cars produced and sold for the 2011 model year. That step was needed to enforce a 2007 energy law, which calls for cars and trucks to be more efficient every year, to at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

Obama also meant to set a tone with his promises: Science will trump ideology and special interests, attention will stay high even when gas prices fall.

It was a none-too-subtle admonishing of previous administrations, chiefly George W. Bush's.

"It falls on us to choose whether to risk the peril that comes with our current course or to seize the promise of energy independence," Obama said. "And for the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and the commitment to change."

Obama put that peril he mentioned in stark terms. He said dependence on foreign oil "bankrolls dictators, pays for nuclear proliferation and funds both sides of our struggle against terrorism. It puts the American people at the mercy of shifting gas prices, stifles innovation and sets back our ability to compete."

Recent presidential history is littered with grand but broken promises about weaning a gas-guzzling country from foreign oil. As long ago as 1973, Richard Nixon wanted the nation to be energy independent by 1980. The U.S. now imports even a bigger share of its oil than it did then.

This time could be different, said Phyllis Cuttino, director of a global warming campaign for the Pew Environment Group.

"It is very telling that at a time when he's working feverishly to pass an $825 billion stimulus package, he took these concrete steps on day six," she said. "That speaks volumes to his commitment." Environmental advocates, she added, are "all going to be applauding him — and holding his feet to the fire."

Underscoring Obama's attempt to shore up America's environmental credentials, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday appointed a special envoy for climate change.

Going back to Nixon's time, the U.S. imported 36 percent of its oil and refined products, about half coming from the OPEC cartel. During the first 11 months of 2008, imports accounted for nearly 67 percent of the petroleum used each day in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration.

Robert Ebel, an authority on energy policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said public sentiment about the new promises may be, "Here we go again." But Obama, given his popularity, a cooperative leadership on Congress and the nation's desire for a reshaped economy, could have a window.

"The memory of $4 a gallon gasoline is not that old, and the financial crisis is very much in people's minds," he said. "All these things put together will help."

Obama framed his energy plan as steady and pragmatic. Sounding much like President Bush did, he warned that there is no quick fix.

International court begins case of Congo warlord

By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Writer

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – A Congolese warlord pleaded not guilty to recruiting child soldiers and sending them to fight and die in ethnic battles as the International Criminal Court began its historic first trial Monday.

The trial of Thomas Lubanga has been hailed as a legal landmark by human rights activists because it is the first international criminal prosecution to focus solely on child soldiers.

Wearing a dark suit and red tie, Lubanga showed no emotion as his French lawyer, Catherine Mabille, said he pleaded not guilty to using children under age 15 as soldiers in the armed wing of his Union of Congolese Patriots political party in 2002-03.

Lubanga's militia "recruited, trained and used hundreds of young children to kill, pillage and rape. The children still suffer the consequences of Lubanga's crimes," prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a three-judge panel in his opening statement. "They cannot forget what they suffered, what they saw, what they did."

Moreno-Ocampo showed judges video of Lubanga at a training camp. The footage featured young men and children, some dressed in military fatigues, others in T-shirts and shorts. Another video showed a pickup full of heavily armed bodyguards, including at least two who appeared to be children, following Lubanga's vehicle.

The prosecutor said children were abducted on the way to school or from sports fields. They were beaten and killed during training. Young girls were taken as "wives" by commanders.

"As soon as the girls' breasts started to grow, Thomas Lubanga's commanders could select them as their wives," he said. "Wives is the wrong word. They were sexual slaves."

Lubanga, a 48-year-old psychology graduate, claims he was a patriot fighting to prevent rebels and foreign fighters from plundering the vast mineral wealth of Congo's eastern Ituri region.

The United Nations estimates that up to 250,000 child soldiers are still fighting in more than a dozen countries around the world.

"This first ICC trial makes it clear that the use of children in armed combat is a war crime that can and will be prosecuted," said Param-Preet Singh, counsel in Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.

Lubanga was arrested by Congolese authorities in 2005 and flown to The Hague a year later. He is one of only four suspects in the court's custody — all of them Congolese.

The trial opened as other judges at the court, which started work six years ago, are close to deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide in Darfur province.

Originally slated to begin last June, Lubanga's trial was held up by a dispute between judges and prosecutors over confidential evidence.

The United Nations and non-governmental groups provided more than 200 pieces of evidence — some of which prosecutors said might help Lubanga clear his name — on condition they not be shown to defense lawyers or even to the judges in the case.

That raised fears Lubanga might be unable to get a fair trial. It took months of wrangling before judges and Lubanga's lawyers were granted access to the evidence.

The trial also is the first international prosecution to feature the participation of victims. A total of 93 victims are being represented by eight lawyers and can apply for reparations.

Prosecutors plan to call 34 witnesses and hope to wrap up their case against Lubanga in a few months.

Nine witnesses will be former child soldiers who will recount the horror of their military service, Moreno-Ocampo said.

"They will come to confront past crimes and present prejudices, in particular within their communities," he said. "It takes courage."

Two U.S. aircraft crash in Iraq, four killed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Two U.S. military aircraft crashed in northern Iraq in the early hours of Monday, killing four soldiers, the U.S. military said.

"Four coalition forces members were killed when two aircraft went down in northern Iraq at approximately 2:15 a.m.," U.S. military spokesman Major Jose Lopez said. "The cause of the incident is unknown and is under investigation."

He gave no further details.

Air crashes have remained common in Iraq although while has waned. In November, a civilian cargo plane crashed in western Iraqi, killing all seven people on board.

Seven soldiers were killed when a Chinook transport helicopter crashed in southern Iraq in September.

Sky News, BBC won't broadcast Gaza charity appeal

By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer

LONDON – The British-based Sky News channel joined the BBC on Monday in refusing to broadcast an emergency fundraising appeal for people living in the Gaza Strip.

Executives at the international satellite broadcaster said they made the decision after a weekend of deliberations to protect the impartiality of the station's news report.

"The conflict in Gaza forms part of one of the most challenging and contentious stories for any news organization to cover," said Sky News director John Ryley. "Our commitment as journalists is to cover all sides of that story with uncompromising objectivity."

The ad was submitted for broadcast by the Disaster Emergency Committee, a group of charities that includes the Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children.

Protesters say the humanitarian appeal must be shown to help Palestinians in desperate need of assistance after heavy fighting in Gaza. Broadcasters say they worry they will be seen as taking sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, if they show the ad.

The issue over whether to show the ad has ignited passions throughout Britain.

BBC officials received more than 10,000 complaints and were the focus of numerous protests over the weekend after announcing the charity appeal would not be shown. The BBC's decision has been criticized by lawmakers and religious leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour Party lawmaker, said he and other legislators will demand that the appeal be broadcast when they meet Tuesday with BBC executives.

"It's a disgrace," he said. "They must broadcast as soon as possible. I'm very disappointed in Sky as well, they should remember they have a duty as a public broadcaster."

Adrian Wells, Sky's director of foreign news, said the station understood the good intentions of the charities seeking to publicize the situation in Gaza.

"Let me say to those people who might be angry, people who might be passionate about this, there is no question about Sky's commitment to reporting the region," he said. "We've had our reporters there since the gates of Gaza opened. There is absolutely no question of Sky viewers not being aware of the humanitarian crisis."

Other British broadcasters — including Channel 4, ITV, and Five — have said they will show the advertisement.

Israel launched its three-week offensive on Gaza late last month to try to halt Hamas rocket fire on towns in southern Israel. The assault killed more than 1200 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed during the fighting, Israel said.

Tight security in Kashmir ahead of Indian holiday

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN,Associated Press Writer AP - Monday, January 26

SRINAGAR, India - India's Republic Day celebrations passed peacefully in Indian Kashmir amid intense security Monday as separatists called for a general strike in the Himalayan region to protest Indian rule.

Thousands of police and security forces were on patrol, frisking people and searching vehicles for arms and explosives in Srinagar and Jammu, the two main cities in India's Jammu-Kashmir state.

India celebrates its Republic Day on Jan. 26 every year to commemorate the 1950 adoption of its constitution. The country gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, where most people favor independence from mainly Hindu India, or a merger with Muslim Pakistan. The region is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety.

Separatist groups have been fighting since 1989 to end Indian rule. The uprising and a subsequent Indian crackdown have killed more than 68,000 people, most of them civilians.

"We've made elaborate security arrangements to thwart any militant plans to disrupt the Republic Day functions," said B. Srinivas, a senior police officer. "But we're also making it sure that the arrangements should not cause any inconvenience to the movement of people."

There were no disruptions to the morning celebrations, but streets were largely deserted.

Each year separatist groups fighting Indian rule in the disputed region press for a boycott of the celebrations on Jan. 26, calling it a "black day."

Most people in Jammu-Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, do not participate in the Republic Day celebrations, either out of opposition to Indian control or fear of militant attacks. The celebrations are usually limited to government and military employees in heavily guarded stadiums.

France and Spain deploy troops after storm kills 25

BORDEAUX, France (AFP) – France and Spain deployed troops Monday to join massive recovery efforts after violent storms killed 25 people and left hundreds of thousands without electricity across southern Europe.

Mourners meanwhile gathered in the northeastern Spanish town of Sant Boi de Llobregat to bury four children killed at the weekend when gale-force winds brought the roof and wall of a sports hall down on their heads.

Thousands of workers beavered on both sides of the border to restore power and reopen roads and rail lines blocked by trees uprooted by the worst storms to hit southwestern France and northern Spain in a decade.

The tempest has meanwhile barreled across the Mediterranean to batter Italy, where a young woman was swept to her death by a wave as she walked on a beach near the southern city of Naples.

Torrential rain also triggered a mudslide on the main highway south of Naples, killing two people and injuring five, rescuers said, revising an earlier toll of three dead.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited scenes of destruction on Sunday, and said the emergency response had been far better than back in 1999 when a tempest killed scores and uprooted millions of trees.

In the southwestern French regions of Aquitaine, Midi Pyrenees and Languedoc-Roussillon, the storm plunged 1.7 million homes into the dark and by Monday lunchtime 680,000 of them were still without power.

"Three thousand agents from across France, backed by specialist companies and teams of electricians from England, Germany and Portugal, have been mobilized to reconnect clients," electricity grid operator ERDF said.

An extra 650 soldiers were due in the storm-struck regions Monday to back up the 300 deployed since Sunday.

Phone operator France Telecom said it also had 3,000 technicians working to restore service for 200,000 fixed line and mobile customers.

Many rail routes were still cut on Monday but the main Bordeaux-Paris line was running again. The SNCF state rail company said it had around 1,000 workers removing trees from rail lines and repairing overhead cables.

Much of the Gironde and Landes regions have key forestry industries but huge areas were flattened by the storm, officials said, adding that more than half of the trees in the area appeared to have fallen.

Across the Pyrenees in Spain, where more strong winds were forecast for Monday, troops have also been called in to help with clean-up operations and help restore electricity for some 50,000 homes still cut off.

Spanish firefighters were still battling two forest fires sparked by electricity pylons brought down by the tempest.

Eight people were killed in France, including four who inhaled carbon monoxide from electricity generators they used during power outages in two separate incidents.

Two drivers were killed by falling trees Saturday in the Landes department, while flying debris killed a 78-year-old outside his home. A 73-year-old woman died in the Gironde department when a power cut halted her breathing machine.

But most of the deaths were in Spain, where the four children died near Barcelona when the roof and wall of a sports hall came down on their heads as winds in some places reached more than 180 kilometres (110 miles) an hour.

They were playing baseball on Saturday outside the centre as the storm -- which saw 20-metre (70-foot) high waves battering the Atlantic coast -- gathered force and they ran inside to shelter.

Two more deaths were reported in Spain on Monday. Two people were found dead in the northwestern Galicia region apparently from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator they set up after a power cut, officials said.

Fourteen died in total in Spain, including a woman crushed by a wall, another who died after a door lifted by the wind slammed into her, and a police sergeant killed by a falling tree as he was directing traffic.

Hamas says no unity talks while Fatah holds prisoners: report

CAIRO (AFP) – The detention of Hamas activists by Fatah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank will scupper reconciliation talks between the rival Palestinian groups, a Hamas official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah are expected to resume reconciliation talks in Cairo on February 22, Salah al-Bardawil told Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Yom daily, but the Islamists will not attend while a "single (Hamas) prisoner" remains in jail.

"We will not sit down (with Fatah) until they release (Hamas prisoners), and whoever does not want to release them does not want reconciliation," he said.

Bardawil headed a delegation of Hamas officials from Gaza that met over the weekend with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to bolster a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and restart Palestinian unity talks.

Another member of the delegation, Jamal Abu Hashim, met with Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed on Monday in a preparatory meeting for the reconciliation talks.

"It was a consultative meeting to break the ice and to go forward toward reconciliation," Ahmed said in a press conference on Monday.

Ahmed told AFP that he and Abu Hashim had agreed to follow up on the meeting.

The Egyptian-brokered talks between Fatah and Hamas broke off in November when Hamas boycotted a meeting in Cairo, saying Fatah continued to arrest its members in the West Bank.

"Hamas needs guarantees from others, and also how will it go to reconciliation talks while 650 of our leaders are in Abu Mazen's jails?" he said, referring to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Both Hamas and Fatah have detained each other's members since Hamas, which won an upset victory in 2006 parliamentary elections, seized the Gaza Strip the following year. Fatah remains in control of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel's Netanyahu: Existing settlements will grow

By AMY TEIBEL and ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – The front-runner in Israel's election next month said he would allow existing West Bank settlements to expand for "natural growth" — a policy likely to face opposition from the Palestinians and the new U.S. administration.

The comments by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in an Israeli newspaper on Monday, just two days before Washington's new Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, is expected to make his first visit to the region. Mitchell, a critic of Israel's West Bank settlements, is expected to meet with Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, and focus on ways to revive peace talks in the wake of Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu, an opponent of current U.S.-backed peace talks, was quoted by the Haaretz daily as telling international Mideast envoy Tony Blair at a meeting Sunday that he would continue Israel's policy of allowing existing settlements to expand.

"I have no intention of building new settlements in the West Bank," Netanyahu was quoted as saying. "But like all the governments there have been until now, I will have to meet the needs of natural growth in the population. I will not be able to choke the settlements."

A Netanyahu spokeswoman, Dina Libster, confirmed the quotes were accurate. Blair's office did not return messages seeking comment.

Settlement construction in the West Bank has been a key obstacle to peace talks over the years. The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank as part of a future independent state that would also include the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. They say Israel's settlements, now home to 280,000 people in the West Bank, make it increasingly difficult for them to establish a viable state.

Nearly all Israeli settlement construction over the past decade has taken place in existing West Bank communities. And Netanyahu's positions do not significantly differ from outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has allowed construction in existing settlements to continue even while holding peace talks with the Palestinians.

Still, Mitchell's appointment has some Israeli leaders worried that the new administration of President Barack Obama will be tougher on Israel than the Bush administration was. In 2001, Mitchell called for a freeze on all Israeli settlement construction when he led an international commission to investigate violence in the Middle East.

Polls show Netanyahu's Likud Party handily winning the Feb. 10 elections, a victory that would allow him to reclaim the premiership he held between 1996 and 1999. Netanyahu has said he would try to refocus peace talks on building the Palestinian economy and governing institutions.

That approach does not sit well with Palestinian negotiators, who want the talks to continue focusing on resolving the key disputes with Israel over settlements, final borders, the fate of disputed Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees.

Further complicating the peace talks is the Hamas militant group's takeover of Gaza in June 2007. Israel on Jan. 17 ended a devastating three-week military offensive against Hamas.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have agreed that the foundation for any peace accord would be the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, which explicitly bans all settlement construction, including natural growth, and requires the Palestinians to dismantle militant groups. Israel has argued that natural growth should not be included in the ban.

In Gaza, the EU's top humanitarian official, Louis Michel, announced euro58 million ($74 million) in aid to Palestinians, including euro32 million ($41 million) earmarked to "respond to the dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza" following Israel's offensive. But he said none of the funds would be channeled to Hamas, which he said "is acting in the way of a terrorist movement."

The EU, like Israel and the U.S., considers Hamas a terrorist group. Still, voicing the comments in the heart of Hamas' stronghold carried extra significance.

Michel also called for those responsible for the recent violence to be investigated on both sides. The Israeli offensive, launched to halt years of Hamas rocket attacks, killed nearly 1,300 people, more than half of them civilians, and caused extensive damage to Gaza's infrastructure. Thirteen Israelis also died in the fighting.

Hamas probe 'to unveil military failings over Gaza'

LONDON (AFP) – Hamas has launched a probe which is expected to be extremely critical of the failures of its military wing during the recent Gaza offensive, the respected Jane's Defense Weekly magazine said Monday.

Citing an unnamed top Hamas military commander, Jane's said a full report due soon would be critical of almost every decision taken by battlefield commanders during the 22-day assault, which ended last week.

The source quoted by Jane's added that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and his followers had effectively pushed for a conflict that it was not ready for.

The report will highlight the losses of interior minister Said Siam and around 50 of Hamas's top explosives experts as among the most significant.

Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and intelligence department have admitted shortcomings in how they responded to Israeli attacks, Jane's added, which Palestinian officials say killed over 1,300 people.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said last week that it lost only 48 fighters during Israel's Operation Cast Lead, although Israel has reported killing more than 500 Hamas members.

Heavy criticism has been leveled at Ezzedine al-Qassam commanders who unilaterally declared an end to the truce with Israel on December 19, even though conflict preparations such as building a new safe communications network were incomplete, Jane's said.

The investigation will also reportedly look at why fighters were unable to achieve many of their defensive aims.

London-based Jane's highlighted the failure to defend the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and the weak response to Israeli naval forces.

The news came as European Union (EU) aid commissioner Louis Michel toured war-torn Gaza, labeling conditions "abominable" and saying that its "terrorist" Hamas rulers bear responsibility for the fighting.

AQIM Considers Ceasefire In Algeria

* Middle East Newsline
* January 26, 2009

CAIRO [MENL] -- The Al Qaida network in North Africa has been mulling the prospect of a ceasefire.

Algerian security sources said senior members of AQIM were discussing a ceasefire announcement with Algeria. The sources said the AQIM leadership did not appear united on the issue, although the ceasefire proposal has been embraced by several commanders.

"The terrorist network is having an increasingly difficult time with financing and operations, and there are some who want a break," a security source said.

Shalit should not be part of Gaza truce deal: Hamas

CAIRO (AFP) – Captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit should not be part of a deal to end the siege of Gaza, a Hamas leader said after talks in Cairo, where the Islamists said they were mulling an 18-month renewable truce.

Hamas leaders held talks with Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Sunday aimed at shoring up the ceasefire that ended 22 days of war in Gaza and opening up its borders, days after a similar visit by an Israeli envoy.

Shalit, captured by Gaza-based militants including Hamas in 2006, is "a separate issue and should be dealt with in the framework of a prisoner exchange only," Gaza-based Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told the state MENA news agency.

"Hamas does not agree to link the release of Shalit with a truce and the lifting of the blockade."

Suleiman, Egypt's pointman for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, said that Israel had proposed an 18-month renewable truce and "we will examine the proposal in detail and respond to Egypt," Taha was quoted as saying.

An Egyptian truce plan foresees opening up Gaza crossing points that have been more or less sealed for 18 months, securing Gaza's borders to prevent weapons smuggling and reconvening Palestinian reconciliation talks.

Ending smuggling through tunnels from Egypt and eking out a new deal to reopen Egypt's Rafah crossing with Gaza -- the only one that bypasses Israel -- are crucial to the truce talks' success.

Taha said the matter of Rafah is "complex and thorny."

"We are open to the presence of European observers, Turkish observers and forces from Gaza's national security to open (Rafah) on a temporary basis until the formation of a national unity government."

Under a 2005 deal, Rafah can only be opened to normal traffic if EU observers and forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority which was ejected from Gaza in 2007 are present.

Hamas wants to "complete the truce, lift the siege and reopen the crossings before engaging in (Palestinian national) reconciliation," Taha said.

Several Palestinian factions, including from president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine began arriving in Cairo on Sunday for further truce and reconciliation talks.

A delegation from Islamic Jihad is expected to join the talks on Monday.

Iran condemns EU for taking group off terror list

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran is condemning a decision by the European Union to remove an Iranian opposition group from its terror list and lift restrictions on its funds. The country says the EU decision encourages terrorism.

Iran's Foreign Ministry says the hands of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran "are stained with the blood of thousands of Iranian and non-Iranian people." It also says the group has never renounced violence and has resorted to terrorism. The ministry statement was read on state television Monday night.

Monday's decision by the 27 foreign ministers of the EU means that as of Tuesday the assets of the group will be unfrozen. It is the first time an organization has been "de-listed" by the EU.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — The European Union decided Monday to remove an Iranian opposition group from the EU's terror list and lift the restrictions on its funds, a move likely to further damage relations strained over Tehran's nuclear program.

The decision by the 27-nation bloc's foreign ministers means that as of Tuesday, the assets of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, or PMOI, will be unfrozen. It is the first time an organization has been "de-listed" by the EU.

Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for the group said $9 million (euro7 million) had been frozen in France alone, with "tens of millions of dollars" worth of assets also locked away in other EU countries.

The group had been blacklisted as a terror organization by the EU since 2002, but waged a long legal battle in the EU's court of justice to reverse that decision. Several EU court decisions went in the group's favor, concluding the EU had failed to properly explain why it froze the assets of the Paris-based group.

The group however, remains on the United States terror list. It was blacklisted by Washington in 1997.

"What we are doing today is abiding by the decision of the court, there is nothing we can do about the decision," said Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief.

Czech European Affairs Minister Alexandr Vondra said that if new evidence comes to light linking the group to terror activities, the EU "could decide to re-include the group" on a list that includes 60 groups and individuals, such as Osama bin Laden, Hamas and al-Qaida.

The People's Mujahedeen, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, is the military wing of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is based in Paris. The council said it is dedicated to a democratic, secular government in Iran.

However, it maintains a camp of disarmed fighters in Iraq, north of Baghdad. Iraqi officials on Saturday called for the group to shut down the camp and move to another country.

Iraq's Shiite-led government has long sought to get rid of the People's Mujahedeen, which fought alongside Saddam Hussein's forces during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. At the same time, many Iraqi Shiites fled to Shiite-dominated Iran and fought against Iraq.

The PMOI was founded in Iran in the 1960s and helped followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrow U.S.-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1979.

But the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq fell out with Khomeini, and thousands of its followers were killed, imprisoned or forced into exile. It launched a campaign of assassinations and bombings against Iran's government as a result.

The PMOI has long tried to shed its terrorist tag, despite a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s — and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against Iran's Islamic establishment.

The group said however, it has renounced violence in 2001 and hasn't kept any arms since 2003.

Maryam Rajavi, who heads the Paris-based National Council of Resistance, the political wing of the PMOI, said Monday's decision was "a crushing defeat to Europe's policy of appeasement" with Iran.

"The blacklisting of the Iranian Resistance contributed to the prolongation of the rule of religious fascism in Iran," she said in a statement. "The Iranian regime did not refrain from using all political and diplomatic pressures to maintain the PMOI on the list."

Rajavi said her group would now focus its attention on getting the United States to drop the PMOI from its terror list.

Mohammad Safaei, a spokesman at the Iranian Embassy in Brussels, said he could not comment on the decision because it had not yet been officially relayed to Tehran.

The court-mandated move is likely to complicate difficult ties with Tehran just as the EU is trying to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program. The EU and the United States fear Iran is building atomic weapons.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband appealed to Iran to return to talks with European nations and the United States over its nuclear program.

"During 2009 there will and should be significant focus on this issue," Miliband said.

The group had established a camp for about 3,500 members in Iraq, which its forces used to launch cross-border attacks into Iran. After U.S.-led forces overthrew Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, American troops removed the Iranian group's weapons and confined its fighters to the camp.

Details released on Israel, Elbit UAV deal

HAIFA, Israel, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Elbit Systems (NASDAQ:ESLT) has released final details on a recent contract to supply the Israeli Ministry of Defense with its mini-unmanned aerial vehicle technology.

Israel announced in December it had awarded a contract to Elbit Systems for its Skylark I LE mini-UAVs as part of an initiative to equip Israeli ground battalions with the portable surveillance and reconnaissance technology.

At the time of the initial award, specific details were not available. Israel-based Elbit Systems has announced new details, including the final order for its Skylark mini-UAVs valued at approximately $40 million.

Additionally, officials say deliveries on the order will take place over several years and be "subject to the Israel Defense Forces' requirements and procurement process," the release said.

Denmark will aid South Africa on wind

PRETORIA, South Africa, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- South Africa and Denmark signed an agreement to work together on wind power.

South African Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller signed a declaration of intent to get South Africa using wind energy as a renewable energy source in the country.

"Wind is the fastest-growing energy source, with an average annual growth of 29 percent over the last 10 years. The wind industry provides more jobs per capita than conventional power generation," Sonjica said. "Over 70 countries now have wind power, and many developing countries have joined the trend recently."

Sonjica estimates the country's wind power potential to be about 64,000 gigawatt hours, Africa's BuaNews reports.

Moller said Denmark will give South Africa technical expertise.

Thailand asked to join IREA

BANGKOK, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Thailand's renewable goals earned the country an invitation to join the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Thailand's Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul said the country is committed to supporting renewable energy.

Work is being done on a feasibility study for nuclear power, a 15-year renewable energy development plan, price incentives and a plan to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, the Bangkok Post reports.

Because of its exemplary work, Thailand was asked to join IRENA, said Hanns Schumacher, German ambassador to Thailand.

More than 60 countries are working together toward the organization's founding.

"We hope that Thailand will sign the statute. It has been an active member in the preparation of IRENA," said Schumacher.

EU removes PMOI from terrorist list

BRUSSELS, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- European foreign ministers in Brussels Monday agreed on a terrorism list that does not include the People's Mujahedin of Iran based in Iraq's Diyala province.

Milena Vicenova, the Czech envoy to the European Union, said Friday the latest version of the list of terrorist organizations recognized by the European Union was forwarded to ministers without the name of the PMOI. European ministers approved the list Monday.

Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the Paris-based political wing of the PMOI, said the decision was a victory for her resistance movement, adding the delisting paved the way for democratic opposition to the clerical regime in Iran.

The Monday decision opens the door for the PMOI to lobby for funds and removes the terrorist label from the 3,500 members of the group living under U.S. military protection at its Iraqi enclave, Camp Ashraf, EUObserver.com reports.

Rajavi said it was now time for the government in Iraq to lift restrictions on Ashraf residents and affirm their status as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The PMOI lobbied the U.S. State Department for delisting in 2008 but was denied in December by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The PMOI and the NCRI were listed as terrorist organizations for violent opposition to the Iranian regime. The PMOI sided with Saddam Hussein during the bloody Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

US envoy predicts 'direct diplomacy' with Iran

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama's administration will engage in "direct diplomacy" with Iran, the newly installed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday.

Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution are U.S. officials believed to have conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials. But U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice warned that Iran must meet U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear program.

"The dialogue and diplomacy must go hand in hand with a very firm message from the United States and the international community that Iran needs to meet its obligations as defined by the Security Council. And its continuing refusal to do so will only cause pressure to increase," she told reporters during a brief question-and-answer session.

Her comments, reflecting Obama's signals for improved relations with America's foes after eight years under President George W. Bush, came shortly after meeting with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on her first day in her new job.

Iran still considers the U.S. the "Great Satan," but a day after Obama was sworn in, said it was "ready for new approaches by the United States." Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his country would study the idea of allowing the U.S. to open a diplomatic office in Tehran, the first since 1979.

Rice said the U.S. remains "deeply concerned about the threat that Iran's nuclear program poses to the region, indeed to the United States and the entire international community."

"We look forward to engaging in vigorous diplomacy that includes direct diplomacy with Iran, as well as continued collaboration and partnership" with the other four permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France and Russia — plus Germany, Rice said.

"And we will look at what is necessary and appropriate with respect to maintaining pressure toward that goal of ending Iran's nuclear program," she said.

In recent years, Iranian and American officials have negotiated in the same room on talks about Afghanistan that involved other countries' diplomats. They also talked face to face in Baghdad but the agenda was limited to Iraqi security.

But the differences between Washington and Tehran run deep. They include U.S. suspicions about Iran's nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threats to annihilate Israel, and Tehran's support for Hamas.

Rice met with Ban in the morning to present her credentials. She said they spent 45 minutes discussing climate change, poverty reduction, U.N. peacekeeping, nonproliferation, Sudan and the Middle East.

She told reporters that "putting the United States at the center of international efforts to support poverty reduction, development, fighting disease and achieving the (U.N.) Millennium Development Goals, which President Obama has said repeatedly, will now be America's goals as well."

Rice said the U.S. will address the Gaza conflict on Tuesday in the Security Council, seeking ways "to support efforts to ensure that that cease-fire is lasting, and in that context for border crossings to open and be available for humanitarian as well as day-to-day economic development imperatives."

Rice, who was a key Africa adviser to the Clinton administration during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, also said the Obama administration remains "very deeply concerned about the ongoing genocide in Darfur."

"The priority at this point has to be effective protection for civilians," she said, adding that she had discussed ways to fully deploy the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur "so that there is the capacity on the ground to begin to effect that civilian protection."

In Washington, Obama's top spokesman said that Rice was merely restating the president's policy on Iran.

Asked about Rice's comments to reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, that what Rice did "was simply to restate the message" that the administration is "going to use all elements of our national power" to address concerns about Iran's nuclear program.

NATO's secretary-general, Japp de Hoop Scheffer, also said Monday that NATO must engage with Iran to secure regional support for the escalating war in neighboring Afghanistan.

The surprise call from the head of the Western alliance comes as the new U.S. administration prepares to send 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan, where Taliban militants are regrouping and violence is on the rise. They will reinforce the 62,000-strong NATO and U.S. force already operating there.

"We need a discussion that brings in all the relevant players: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Russia — and yes, Iran. We need a pragmatic approach to solve this very real challenge," de Hoop Scheffer said in a speech to the Security and Defense Agenda, a Brussels-based think tank.

Until now, the United States has sought to isolate the clerical regime in Iran from meddling in Afghanistan, although the Shiite nation has a long history of opposing Taliban rule there. De Hoop Scheffer said what's required is a broader approach that includes all of Afghanistan's neighbors, but he was "not sure at this stage" how to constructively bring Iran into Afghanistan diplomacy.

Troops deployed after Shiite politician killed in Pakistan

by Maaz Khan

QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) – Paramilitary troops were Monday deployed in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta to quell violent protests against the killing of a Shiite Muslim politician, police said.

Gunmen riding on a motorbike shot dead Ghulam Hassan Yousufi, a prominent Shiite figure, in an attack claimed by a banned Sunni extremist group.

"The Frontier Corps (FC) has been called to assist local police control the law and order situation," senior police official Wazir Khan Nasir told AFP.

He said police were questioning at least 18 people arrested for suspected links to the assassins following the second sectarian attack in Quetta in less than two weeks.

The FC fanned out across the city centre after hundreds of protesters took to the streets and turned violent, setting ablaze vehicles and smashing the windows of a bank in the main boulevard where Yousufi was killed.

"Police launched tear gas shells and baton-charged the protesters in a bid to prevent any untoward incident and disperse them," Nasir said.

At least 12 people were wounded, seven when protesters in the crowd opened fire, Nasir said.

"They are ordinary people injured from firing by the protesters," he said.

Residents said the situation was returning to normal as dusk fell. Shops remained closed, however, and traffic was thin in the city.

Monday's drive-by shooting took place on Jinnah road in Quetta, the capital of gas-rich Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Yousufi, who led the Hazara Democratic Party, a predominantly Shiite movement, was shot as he got out of his car outside a travel agency and died on the way to hospital.

Hundreds of people blocked Jinnah road and burnt tires to protest against the killing, an AFP photographer said.

The banned Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) claimed responsibility for the killing in a telephone call to the local press club.

"We claim responsibility for this attack," said the caller, who identified himself as Ali Haider, an LJ spokesman.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been blamed for the killings of hundreds of Shiite Muslims since its emergence in the early 1990s.

Monday's shooting followed a sectarian attack on January 14, when unknown gunmen killed four policemen, three of them Shiites, on the outskirts of the city, sparking street protests.

Aside from the sectarian attacks involving Sunni and Shiite Muslim extremists, the province has been gripped by insurgency for four years.

Hundreds of people have died in insurgent violence in Baluchistan since late 2004, when rebels rose up demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural resources.

The province has also been hit by attacks blamed on Taliban militants.

Obama will make NKorea nukes a priority: SKorea envoy

SEOUL (AFP) – The new US administration will make North Korea's nuclear disarmament a priority despite other pressing world problems, according to South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator.

"The North Korean nuclear issue may not be as urgent as the Gaza Strip." said Kim Sook.

"But it will be high on the list of priorities in both the short and long term in view of nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction."

Kim, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed out the urgency of handling the nuclear issue during her congressional confirmation hearing.

Clinton said last week the Obama administration will pursue a "very aggressive effort" against North Korea's alleged weapons proliferation.

"Our goal is to end the North Korean nuclear programme -- both the plutonium reprocessing programme and the highly enriched uranium programme, which there is reason to believe exists, although never quite verified," she added.

Kim said he plans to meet his Japanese counterpart Akitaka Saiki in Seoul next Thursday to discuss future strategy.

Six-nation disarmament talks are stalled by disagreements over how the North's declared nuclear activities should be verified. The talks group the two Koreas, China, Russia, the US and Japan.

SKorea to deploy remote-controlled mines: official

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea will deploy remote-controlled mines along its heavily fortified border with North Korea by 2013, a defense ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

Bids have been invited for the development of the new mines called "spider bombs," the spokesman told AFP.

The border is often described as the world's last Cold War frontier. Some 660,000 South Korean troops and 28,000 US troops are deployed in the South to counter the potential threat from the North's 1.1 million-strong military.

South Korea plans to reduce the number of troops to 500,000 by 2020.

"The development is part of our plans to slash the number of troops, a move which will lead to fewer soldiers patrolling sensitive areas," the spokesman said.

US troops have the XM-7 Spider which can be remotely triggered wirelessly, but the spokesman declined to say whether it was deployed in South Korea.

The two Koreas remain technically at war, since a 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice.

The border between South and North Korea is one of the world's most heavily mined areas because of extensive mine-laying since the war, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in a 2007 report.

Some 970,000 mines have been planted on the South side of the demilitarized zone, the group said.

Indonesian Muslims banned from practicing yoga

By ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Muslims in Indonesia are banned from practicing yoga that contains Hindu rituals like chanting, the country's top Islamic body said Monday, echoing concerns by some religious groups elsewhere about its effect on their faith.

Though not legally binding, most devout Muslims will likely adhere to the ruling because ignoring a fatwa, or religious decree, is considered a sin.

The decision in the world's most populous Muslim state follows similar edicts in Malaysia and Egypt as the ancient Indian exercise gained popularity worldwide in recent years.

Cleric Ma'ruf Amin said the Ulema Council issued its ruling over the weekend after investigators visited gyms and private yoga classes across the sprawling nation. Amir said those performing yoga purely for health or sport reasons will not be affected.

But yoga practitioners immediately criticized the decision.

"They shouldn't be worrying about this," said Jamilah Konny Fransiska, a yoga teacher on the northern island of Batam, adding that all of her students perform yoga solely to strengthen their bodies and minds.

"There is little or no spiritual element to it," she said. "The clerics should be focusing only on purely religious matters, not this."

Yoga — a blend of physical and mental exercises aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit — has become so popular in the United States that many public schools have started offering it as part of their physical education programs.

But there, too, yoga has come under fire, with some Christian fundamentalists arguing its Hindu roots conflict with their own teachings.

A few secular parents are also opposed, saying its spiritual elements could violate rules demanding separation of church and state.

Though there is no Jewish law against yoga, which is widely practiced in Israel, some movements that insinuate idol worship are frowned upon, but not banned, by rabbis. This is to avoid misunderstandings that followers are praying to entities other than God, the sun for instance.

Indonesia is a secular country of 235 million people, 90 percent of them Muslim. Most practice a moderate form of the faith, though an increasingly vocal extremist fringe has gained ground in recent years. They have in some cases succeeded in influencing government policy, because many leaders depend on the support of Islamic parties.

The Ulema Council decided to investigate the need for a yoga ban after religious authorities in neighboring Malaysia issued their own fatwa late last year.

Many people there protested, insisting they had been performing yoga for years without losing their faith. Eventually, even Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had to step in, assuring Malaysians they could continue with the exercises as long as they didn't chant.

Amir, the cleric, said the same rule applied to Muslims here.

"We only prohibit activities that can corrupt Islamic values," he said.

The Ulema Council's annual meeting on fatwas over the weekend also debated whether to issue an edict banning smoking in Indonesia, one of the world's largest tobacco markets.

But cleric Amin Suma said Sunday those talks ended in a deadlock.

Carter: If no Palestine, Israel sees 'catastrophe'

By PETER JAMES SPIELMANN, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Israel will face a "catastrophe" unless it revives the Mideast peace process and establishes an independent Palestinian state.

In an interview with The Associated Press, he said Arabs will outnumber Jews in the Holy Land in the foreseeable future.

"If we look toward a one-state solution, which seems to be the trend — I hope not inexorable — it would be a catastrophe for Israel, because there would be only three options in that case," Carter said.

One would be to expel large numbers of Palestinians, which he said would amount to "ethnic cleansing."

The second would be to deprive the Palestinians of equal voting rights, which he said would amount to "apartheid."

The third would be to give the Palestinians equal voting rights, and therefore the majority, he said.

"And you would no longer have a Jewish state," Carter said. "The basic decisions would be made by the Palestinians, who would almost very likely vote in a bloc, whereas you would have some sharp divisions among the Israelis, because the Israelis always have different points of view."

Carter spoke to The Associated Press as his new book, "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land," was released.

His wording on Israel's options was not new. His 2006 book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," provoked a hail of criticism, particularly from Jewish-Americans who felt it unfairly compared Israeli treatment of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to the legalized racial oppression that once existed in South Africa.

Carter still believes a two-state solution is the best option, with all of Israel's Arab neighbors recognizing its right to exist in peace, and Israel withdrawing from most of the land it captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War to create an independent Palestine.

Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt 30 years ago, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

During Monday's interview, Carter also discussed North Korea's nuclear program, saying he thought the communist nation would be willing to give up its nuclear weapons for U.S. diplomatic recognition, a peace deal with South Korea and America, and if it got new atomic power reactors and free fuel oil.

"It could be worked out, in my opinion, in half a day," Carter said.

Last week, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said it would give up its nuclear weapons only if Washington establishes diplomatic relations with the regime and the U.S. ceases to pose a nuclear threat to the North.

"I went over there in 1994 and I worked out a complete agreement with Kim Il Sung to eliminate all nuclear programs, and to let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors come in without impediment," Carter said.

"President Clinton adopted that and put it into effect." But he said it was later shelved by President George W. Bush.

Carter believes a deal could be accomplished with good will.

"North Koreans, in my opinion, whom I know fairly well, have always been willing to forego their nuclear capability if they have diplomatic relations with the United States, first of all, which is not easy," Carter told the AP.

"And if they have an assurance with the United States that it would not attack them militarily, of course with the proviso that North Korea not attack South Korea," he said.

Carter said the rest of the solution is as easy as replacing their old dangerous reactors with new, safer designs with guaranteed IAEA inspection access, and giving North Korea fuel oil to run electric generators until its power grid is improved.

Somali insurgents take Baidoa after Ethiopians leave

By Mohamed Ahmed

BAIDOA (Reuters) – Hardline Islamist insurgents captured the central town of Baidoa on Monday, an important stronghold of Somalia's fragile government and seat of the national parliament, witnesses said.

Just hours after Ethiopia withdrew its last troops from Baidoa and pulled back across the border, fighters from the militant al Shabaab group moved in.

Battling government troops and local clan militia, they captured an old granary serving as the legislature, the airport, and the home of the country's acting president, locals said.

"My fighters are now in Baidoa and the town is peaceful," al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansoor said.

While some analysts said Ethiopia's withdrawal from Somalia on Monday could take the sting out of the Islamist insurgency, al Shabaab -- which is on Washington's list of terrorist groups -- has vowed to carry on fighting and impose Islamic law.

It has long wanted to take Baidoa, which, along with Mogadishu, was the only place where the government had any physical control.

With security deteriorating rapidly in Somalia, the country's parliament voted in neighboring Djibouti to double its size and invite 200 members of the moderate Islamist opposition to join the expanded body.

International players including the African Union and United Nations are pushing for a new unity government as the only option for peace in the country of about 10 million that has had perpetual civil conflict since 1991.

"I am extremely encouraged by this vote and I would like to thank Somalia's leaders, the parliamentarians and all those who have helped work toward such a positive step," said Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. envoy to Somalia.

The vote means that Somalia's parliament will accept 200 new members from the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) and leave 75 seats to be filled by other opposition and civil society members later.

Legislators went to Djibouti due to lack of security in Baidoa.

ON THE BORDER

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian officials confirmed the complete pullout of their troops, but said they would maintain a heavy presence along the long border with Somalia.

The Ethiopians entered Somalia to chase a sharia courts movement out of Mogadishu at the end of 2006. The offensive sparked an Islamist-led rebellion, fighting that has killed at least 16,000 civilians and caused a humanitarian disaster.

Shortly after the Ethiopians left Baidoa overnight, clan militia and local police looted the empty bases. Two people died from shooting during the melee, witnesses said.

Insurgents then hurled a grenade at government soldiers near a bus-stop, prompting return fire. At least three people were killed and eight others injured in that incident, locals said.

Somalia's weak, Western-backed government had depended on the Ethiopians for military support, and is now exposed to an array of Islamist opposition groups. The Islamists have, however, been fighting among themselves in recent weeks.

Meeting hundreds of Somali politicians in Djibouti, Abdallah and other international players are pushing for the expanded parliament to elect a new president this week.

The international community hopes a more inclusive Somali administration with new leadership will be able to reach out to armed groups still fighting the government and a small force of African Union peacekeepers.

Under the constitutional charter, a new Somali president should be chosen by parliament within 30 days of the resignation of former President Abdullahi Yusuf, who quit on December 29.

Legislators are mulling whether to stick to that timeframe or vote for an extension -- a move being stiffly resisted by international players in Djibouti.

Al Shabaab and the more militant Islamist wing of the ARS, based in Eritrea, have so far refused to take part in the U.N.-hosted peace process.

Ethiopia pulls last troops from Somalia

By Mohamed Ahmed

BAIDOA (Reuters) – Ethiopia pulled its last soldiers out of Somalia Monday after a more than two-year intervention to combat an Islamist movement in its Horn of Africa neighbor, officials on both sides said.

The departure of Addis Ababa's roughly 3,000 troops starts a new era for Somalia, which has suffered 18 years of conflict since a dictator was ousted from office.

Predictions the power vacuum would herald more bloodshed were confirmed with immediate violence in Baidoa, the seat of Somalia's parliament which Ethiopian troops left overnight.

Clan militia and local police looted the empty bases, with two people dying from shooting during the melee, witnesses said.

Insurgents then hurled a grenade at government soldiers near a bus-stop, prompting return fire. At least three people were killed and eight others injured in that incident, locals said.

Somalia's parliament, meeting in Djibouti due to insecurity at home, voted to double its size and invite 200 members of the moderate Islamist opposition to join the expanded body.

International players including the African Union and United Nations are pushing for a unity government as the only option for peace in the country of about 10 million.

"I am extremely encouraged by this vote and I would like to thank Somalia's leaders, the parliamentarians and all those who have helped work toward such a positive step," said Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N.'s envoy to Somalia.

The vote means that Somalia's parliament will accept 200 new members from the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) now and leave 75 seats to be filled by other opposition and civil society members later.

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian officials confirmed the complete pullout of their troops, but said they would maintain a heavy presence along the long border with Somalia.

The Ethiopians entered Somalia to chase a sharia courts movement out of Mogadishu at the end of 2006. The offensive sparked an Islamist-led rebellion, fighting that has killed at least 16,000 civilians and caused a humanitarian disaster.

PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS

Somalia's weak, Western-backed government had depended on the Ethiopians for military support, and is now exposed to an array of Islamist opposition groups. The Islamists have, however, been fighting among themselves in recent weeks.

In Baidoa, residents already suffering from a drought and food shortages braced for a possible Islamist assault on a town the insurgents have long wanted to control.

"We are afraid thirst or fighting will kill us," said mother-of-eight Fatuma Ali, outside her closed store.

"We do not know where to run."

Somali government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon said the remaining Ethiopian troops pulled out of Baidoa Sunday night before heading further west toward the border.

"The Ethiopians have fulfilled their promise. Their last troops crossed the border this morning," he said.

Meeting hundreds of Somali politicians in Djibouti, Abdallah and other international players are also pushing for parliament to elect a new president this week.

Legislators were discussing later Monday whether they would stick to that timeframe or vote for an extension -- a move being stiffly resisted by international players in Djibouti.

Under the constitutional charter, a new Somali president should be chosen by parliament within 30 days of the resignation of former President Abdullahi Yusuf, who quit on December 29.

The international community hopes a more inclusive Somali administration will be able to reach out to armed groups still fighting the government and African Union peacekeepers.

The more militant Islamist wing of the ARS, based in Eritrea, has so far refused to take part in the peace process. So have fighters in the hardline Islamist group Al Shabaab, who want to impose their strict version of Islamic law in Somalia.