Diplomat: Mumbai attack not planned in Pakistan

NEW DELHI – A senior Pakistani diplomat said the Mumbai attacks were not planned in Pakistan and suggested Friday that India's evidence linking Pakistan-based militants to the deadly siege could be fabricated.

The comments from Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner to Britain, were the first from a senior Pakistani official since India handed over a dossier of evidence earlier this month that New Delhi said proved the November siege that left 164 dead had been plotted from Pakistan.

"Pakistani territory was not used so far as the investigators have made their conclusions," Hasan told India's NDTV news channel in an interview. "It could have been some other place."

Hours later, however, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousef Gilani, who is in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum, said Hasan had spoken too soon and that his government was not ready to comment on the dossier.

India's package of evidence included details from extensive interrogations of the lone surviving gunman and information gleaned from satellite phones used by the attackers, as well as details of weapons recovered and supplies used.

Hasan indicated that Islamabad did not accept the evidence.

"Well, it could be fabricated," he said. Referring to India, he added, "You took 45 days to give that sort of evidence although you started blaming Pakistan from day one."

But Gilani later told NDTV that the evidence was still being investigated by Pakistan's Interior Ministry and even he did not have details of that probe yet.

"He can't comment at the moment when the prime minister can't comment," he said of Hasan's interview. "Very soon we'll come back to the world whatever the findings are, " he added.

Hasan was in a meeting Friday when his office was reached by The Associated Press and not immediately available for comment.

In New Delhi, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee responded angrily to Hasan's comments.

"We have not received any information from Pakistani authorities through proper channels," he told reporters. "This is not the way a government can respond."

Since the attacks across India's financial capital, New Delhi has said that it expects Islamabad to crack down on the terrorist network it says operates across the border and to help prosecute anyone involved in the Mumbai

Hasan said he was confident the international community would accept Pakistan's findings.

"We are not going to do any whitewashing business. We believe in going after facts. Our findings will be acceptable to the world," he said. "We will try to satisfy India with our findings. We are addressing the concerns of the world, not just India."

Pakistan has arrested several senior members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group India blames for the attack, but says it will try any suspects in Pakistani courts. Authorities have also moved against a charity that India and others say is a front for Lashkar.

Pakistani authorities have acknowledged that Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only gunmen among the 10 militant to survive the siege, is from Pakistan.

Hamas wants new leadership for Palestinians

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – The Islamist Hamas group is calling for new leadership for Palestinians to replace the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) dominated by its arch-rival President Mahmoud Abbas and the factions loyal to him.

Claiming victory in a devastating 22-day war with Israel in which 100 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli who died, the militant group is reasserting control over the enclave and resuming its central political challenge to the moderate Abbas.

Several thousand Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza on Friday in support of the call to abolish the PLO, made two days ago by the group's exiled leader, Khaled Meshaal.

Meshaal advocates a new umbrella body to represent Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and in the diaspora. His proposal was echoed in similar statements to cheering crowds on Friday by a senior Hamas political leader, Khalil al-Hayya.

In the first public appearance by a prominent Gaza Hamas leader since Israel's attacked on Dec 27, Hayya said the PLO was "dead," and sent to the "morgue" by those who founded it.

"It is high time the Palestinian people have a new leadership. We are moving forward to shoulder the causes of refugees and Jerusalem. We will not cede our rights," he said.

"It is high time our people see a new, wise leadership that upholds resistance and the rifle."

Hamas, which rules 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, is pledged to continue fighting the state of Israel, which it does not recognize.

Western-backed Abbas, seeking to create a Palestinian state at peace with Israel, runs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which is home to 2.5 million Palestinians and also heads the PLO.

He accused Meshaal of trying to "knock down a structure that was built 44 years ago."

"If he wanted to bring down the temple he would not be able to do it because not one of the Palestinian people or others would stand with him," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah where his dominant Fatah faction is seated.

MODERATES VERSUS MILITANTS

Fatah is the largest of the 11 factions which make up the PLO, which has signed a series of peace accords with Israel since 1993 aimed at establishing a Palestinian state.

Abbas was leaving on Friday for visits to European capitals, seeking diplomatic help in securing a durable ceasefire in Gaza and post-war reconstruction for the enclave, as well as support for Egyptian mediators seeking to reconcile Fatah and Hamas.

"If Israel wants peace, it has to withdraw from the Arab and the Palestinian land which it occupied in 1967," Abbas said.

"Then it will be recognized by 57 Arab and Islamic countries which offer their hands for a historic opportunity for peace. I think Israel should not miss this opportunity."

Hamas, by contrast, does not propose to recognize Israel at any point and is shunned by major powers engaged in the Middle East peace process for its refusal to renounce violence.

Meshaal, the group's top leader, lives in exile in Damascus. He and other leaders of the group had said Hamas could accept a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, in return for a long-term truce with Israel.

Meshaal now says factions allied to his group have already begun discussions over the formation of a "national steering committee" to represent Palestinians everywhere.

"The PLO, in its current form, has become incapable of serving the Palestinian people and has become a tool to deepen divisions," he said in a speech in Qatar this week.

Hamas is the most powerful of the "rejectionist" front of Palestinian factions -- which are based in Syria -- and could aspire to dominate a new umbrella grouping.

Failure to resolve differences over the PLO in 2007 was a major cause of the brief civil war that ended in Hamas's seizure of Gaza from the hands of security forces loyal to Abbas.

Hamas, which is not a PLO faction, had in the past demanded that the highest Palestinian decision-making body be restructured in a way that allows its participation as well as that of Islamic Jihad, another militant group allied to Hamas which also advocates the elimination of the state of Israel.

My terror as a human shield: The story of Majdi Abed Rabbo

As battle raged in Gaza, Israeli soldiers forced Majdi Abed Rabbo to risk his life as a go-between in the hunt for three Hamas fighters. This is his story...

By Donald Macintyre in Jabalya, Gaza
Friday, 30 January 2009

After yet another fierce, 45-minute gun battle, Majdi Abed Rabbo was ordered once again to negotiate his perilous way across the already badly-damaged roof of his house, through the jagged gap in the wall and slowly down the stairs towards the first-floor apartment in the rubble-strewn house next door. Not knowing if the men were dead or alive, he shouted for the second time that day: "I'm Majdi. Don't be afraid."

All three men – with Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, wearing camouflage and headbands bearing the insignia of the Izzedine el Qassam brigades – were still alive, though one was badly injured and persuaded Mr Abed Rabbo to tighten the improvised bandage round his right arm. The youngest – perhaps 21 – was taking cover behind fallen masonry from where he could see the Israeli troops who had sent the visitor. Nervously, Mr Abed Rabbo told them: "They sent me back so I can take your weapons. They told me you are dead." It was the youngest who replied defiantly: "Tell the officer, 'If you're a man come up here'."

When the soldiers had arrived at about 10am, Mr Abed Rabbo, 40, had no inkling that over the next 24 hours he would make four heart-stopping trips, shuttling across increasingly dangerous terrain between the Israeli forces and the three besieged but determined Hamas militants who had become his unwelcome next-door neighbours. He would recall every detail of an episode which, in the telling, resembles the more melodramatic kind of war movie, but which was all too real for a man who by the end had lost his house and thought (wrongly) that his wife and children were dead. He had also witnessed at too close quarters the last stand of the men from the Qassam brigades in the face of relentless Israeli ground attacks and Apache helicopter fire.

Civilians were not killed in this episode, as they were in all too many during Operation Cast Lead. Instead, it offers a rare and detailed glimpse of an actual engagement between the Israeli military and Hamas fighters. And while it helps to reinforce Israel's contention that Hamas operates in built-up civilian areas, it also suggests that its own commanders were prepared to use civilians as human shields to protect Israeli troops.

It is one man's version of what happened, of course. But as the soldiers would find out when they checked later, Mr Abed Rabbo is a former member of the Fatah-dominated intelligence, still being paid by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. He believes the Hamas gunmen had no right to be in the house next door. But he also strongly objects to the use made of him by the Israeli military. "I could have been killed," he explained.

The soldiers arrived on 5 January, the second day of their ground offensive, with a Palestinian he knew only by his family name of Daher. After telling him to remove his trousers and roll up his shirt to establish he had no weapons, the soldiers told him to bring out his wife, Wijdan, 39, and family. Then, with Mr Abed Rabbo escorted at gunpoint by three soldiers and his family still in the yard, the troops searched his house up to the roof. The Arabic-speaking soldier assigned to Mr Abed Rabbo then asked him about the house next door. He told them he thought there was no one in the property. Then, he said, one of the soldiers brought a sledgehammer with which Mr Abed Rabbo was told to smash a hole in the wall between the two roofs, each opening to the apartments below.

An officer arrived and ordered a search of the house next door. The officer went first, stepping cautiously sideways down the stairs with his M16 rifle pointing downwards, then Mr Abed Rabbo with the soldiers and their guns pointed at his back. Suddenly, the officer turned and started screaming at his men. "We went back upstairs. The soldiers were pulling me and I fell twice," Mr Abed Rabbo said. "We went back to the roof of my house." It became apparent what the officer had glimpsed when suddenly the soldiers, by now on high alert and outside the yard of Mr Abed Rabbo's house, came under fire. He was taken into a mosque, which was already full of soldiers, across the road, then handcuffed and told to sit. After a 15-minute silence, the Hamas militants opened fire again. "The soldiers took position at the windows of the mosque and started shooting back. I was screaming at the soldier who spoke Arabic, 'My wife and children are in danger'." Mr Abed Rabbo said he was then told "shut up or I'll shoot you". "I collapsed and started to cry," he added. "I felt my family was dead."

He remained in custody for the next two days, sometimes handcuffed, staying with the Israeli unit as it moved through the area, often amid heavy exchanges of fire. Once, he was told to open the doors of two cars at another house to check them, before summoning the female occupants of the house downstairs. Then, in the afternoon, he was ordered to visit the damaged building where the armed Hamas men were. "I said I will not go. Maybe they will shoot me. I have a wife. I have kids," he recalled. But, he added, the Israeli officer told him he had "fired 10 rockets and killed them". He was then told to go into the house and bring out the weapons, after being hit with a rifle butt and given a kicking to reinforce the order. "I went to my house and saw my family was not there. I looked to see if there was any blood but there was nothing. It was empty. As I went down the stairs I was calling 'I'm Majdi' so they would not think I was Israeli and shoot me." Approaching the apartment door, he saw one gunman, his AK-47 pointed out, standing guard in the hall with two others behind him. Staying at the doorway, he told them the Israelis believed they had been killed. "They asked me where the army was and I said, 'They're everywhere'," he added. "They asked me to leave."

The soldiers, concealed behind the wall of a house 100 metres away, told him to strip naked to show he had not concealed any weapons as he left the house. Later, he was asked to make a third trip – his second journey alone – to the gunmen's redoubt. Mr Abed Rabbo says the Israeli officer cursed and hit him when he heard his report. Shortly afterwards, an Apache helicopter fired three missiles which he says "destroyed" the house containing the gunmen.

Night had fallen when he set out yet again under orders from the troops, but Mr Abed Rabbo persuaded them that the route through the rubble on his roof was impassable in the dark. "I kept asking about my family and they kept saying 'they're OK, they're OK'." The gunmen, incredibly still alive, opened fire yet again.

Mr Abed Rabbo was then taken to another house and told to stay there, handcuffed, cold and "worried about my family, my house". The Israeli soldiers came to fetch him again at about 6.30am, assuring him "we killed them last night" and telling him to go and see. "I said, 'How can I go? My rooftop is destroyed. It is very dangerous'," Mr Abed Rabbo explained. But given no choice, he managed to reach the stairs and descending cautiously, calling out as he had done twice before. "I saw everything was destroyed. They were all injured but the one who had been bleeding was worst. He was holding his finger up and saying, 'There is no God but Allah'. One of them was lying under rubble but still alive. The one in better condition said there was no way they would surrender, they would become martyrs. One gave me his name and told me to give a message to his family."

Mr Abed Rabbo said the Israelis started shooting while he was there and he ran away. "I went back to the Army. I lied to them. I said, 'They said if I went back they would kill me'."

The Israeli troops now used a megaphone to tell the gunmen in Arabic: "You have families. Come out and we will take you to hospital and take care of you. [The] district is full of special forces. All the Hamas leaders are hiding underground."

According to Mr Abed Rabbo: "While they were talking like this the [Hamas men] opened fire again, the officer pushed me against a wall and said, 'You've been lying to me. There are more than three in there'."

The soldiers then ordered two other residents to take cameras into the house to photograph it and the Hamas fighters. Next, the army sent in a dog which returned injured and died soon afterwards. The gunmen were then told: "You have 15 minutes to come out with no clothes on and with your hands up. If you don't, we will bring the house down on you."

After 15 minutes, Mr Abed Rabbo said, a bulldozer moved into the area between the houses and the mosque, destroying large parts of his house before systematically demolishing the one the gunmen were hiding in. It was now Tuesday afternoon.

Before he was taken away, Mr Abed Rabbo had a clear view of his wrecked house, the pulverized property next door, and the bodies of the three Hamas gunmen lying in the rubble.

Voting under way in Iraq amid tight security

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – Iraqis passed through security checkpoints and razor-wire cordons to vote Saturday in provincial elections that are considered a crucial test of the nation's stability as U.S. officials consider the pace of troop withdrawals.

Polls opened shortly after dawn after a step-by-step security clampdown across the country, including traffic bans in central Baghdad and other major cities and closure of border crossings and airports. Turnout appeared brisk in many areas and officials extended polling to accommodate crowds.

There were no reports of widespread violence as voting got under way. But in Baghdad's Sadr City district, Shiite lawmaker Ghufran al-Saidi said a military officer opened fire and injured two people after voters chanted slogans at a polling station.

Iraq's military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, told Al-Arabiya television that the shooting happened after some people tried to carry mobile phones through security cordons. One person was killed and one injured, he said. The reason for the conflicting accounts was not immediately clear.

In Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, three mortar shells exploded near a polling station but caused no casualties, said police, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

A bomb found near a Tikrit voting center was defused, police said.

Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds stormed an election office in the disputed northern city of Khanaqin after claiming many of them were not on voting lists. There were no reports of serious injuries. The incident was part of lingering disputes between Kurds and the Arab-run central government over control of the city near the Iranian border.

Signs of the blanket security measures were everywhere. In the Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah, Iraqi police and army soldiers manned a series of checkpoints — some only 200 yards apart. Stores were closed and the streets cleared of cars.

A group of U.S. soldiers patrolled on foot but well away from polling centers. The U.S. military assisted in security preparations for the elections but said troops would only be called in on election day if needed.

In the western city of Fallujah — once a center of the Sunni insurgency — police used their patrol cars to help some people get to voting stations.

More than 14,000 candidates, including about 3,900 women, are running for 440 seats on the influential councils in all of Iraq's provinces except for the autonomous Kurdish region in the north and the province that includes oil-rich Kirkuk, where ethnic groups were unable to reach a power-sharing formula.

Voting was to cease at 5 p.m. local time (9 a.m. EST) but was extended by one hour. Preliminary results are not expected before Tuesday.

Voters headed home waved their purple-tinted index fingers, which are dipped in ink to identify people who already cast ballots. The ink-stained fingers became an iconic image of Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein elections four years ago.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, shadowed by a bodyguard, dipped his finger into an ink box after voting in the walled Green Zone enclave in Baghdad.

He appealed for a high turnout — which would help boost his government's attempts to use the election as a sign of progress.

"This gives a picture of trust in the government, the elections and the people's right to take part in this democratic process," he said.

Although violence is sharply down — and with pre-election attacks relatively limited — authorities were unwilling to take any risks.

An election without major attacks or charges of irregularities would provide a critical boost for Iraqi authorities as the U.S. military hands over more security responsibilities. But serious bloodshed or voting chaos could steal momentum from supporters of a fast-paced withdrawal of U.S. combat troops next year.

The provincial councils have no direct sway in national affairs but carry significant authority through their ability to negotiate local business deals, allocate funds and control some regional security operations.

This election is also a possible dress rehearsal for bigger showdowns in national elections later this year, when the U.S.-allied government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could face a power challenge from the country's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

The security measures implemented for the election brought back memories of the most deadly years of the war. The closely monitored frontiers with Iran and Syria were among borders that were sealed. A nighttime curfew also was in place, apparently to block extremist groups that plant roadside bombs under cover of darkness.

Voters in many places passed through double-ring search cordons. Women teachers and other civilians were recruited to help search for possible female suicide bombers.

In Baqouba, the capital of the violence-wracked Diyala Province northwest of Baghdad, long lines formed.

"We were not able to vote during the 2005 elections because of the deteriorating security situation," said Ahmed Jassim, 19. "But now we feel safe enough to go out and vote."

Iraqi special forces in full combat gear patrolled streets in Baghdad's Fadhil district, which was once a hub in the Sunni insurgents' car bomb network. The tense atmosphere there contrasted with the more relaxed mood in other parts of the city.

In Baghdad's Azamiyah neighborhood — once a stronghold of support for Saddam Hussein's regime — a voting station at a girls' high school still carried a small image of Saddam, calling him the nation's "hero and martyr."

But one voter, Zaid Abdul-Karim, 44, said the elections will hopefully ease tensions between Shiites who gained power by Saddam's downfall and Sunnis who perceive themselves as sidelined since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

"These are the people we need now — people who represent everyone in Iraq and have no sectarian bias," said Abdul-Karim, a government employee.

Among Sunni groups, powerful newcomers could reshape the political hierarchy.

In Anbar province, the Sunni tribes that rose up against al-Qaida and other insurgents — and led to a turning point of the war — are now seeking to transform their fame into council seats and significantly increase their role in wider Iraqi affairs. Their gains could come at the expense of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic party in the current government.

A couple who fled to Kuwait in 2004 to escape the violence returned to their northern Baghdad neighborhood to vote Saturday. Salih Zawad Ali and his wife Zeinab looked longingly around the Sulaykh district after casting their ballots.

"I hope and pray we can come back," she said.

Juarez highlights role in Gib-Madrid air link

The Mayor of La Linea Juan Carlos Juarez has said that he is confident that air links between Gibraltar and Madrid will be re-established by newly operational airline Andalus.

The Mayor has revealed that he met with the Director General of the airline on 12 November last year to discuss the venture. He has also disclosed that the plan is for one flight a day leaving Gibraltar early in the morning and returning from Madrid at night.

Iran watching US policies in Afghanistan: foreign minister

TOKYO (AFP) – Iran is monitoring US foreign policy in countries such as Afghanistan to see if improved ties under President Barack Obama might be possible, its foreign minister told Japanese media.

Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran welcomed Obama's emphasis on dialogue but added that his government would need more detail on US intentions abroad before reviewing Tehran's relationship with Washington.

"Now we are studying what (are) the practical policies of the United States, towards Afghanistan, for example," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in an interview with Japan's public broadcaster NHK, aired on Saturday.

"What (are) they going to do? Is it a military-based approach?" asked Mottaki, who was in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.

Mottaki said Iran would negotiate on its nuclear programme under the correct circumstances, NHK reported, without showing the relevant footage.

The comments come after White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday Obama preferred to use diplomacy in dealings with Iran and its controversial nuclear programme but kept "all his options" open.

Asked if the military option was still on the table, Gibbs said: "The president hasn't changed his viewpoint that he should preserve all his options."

In an interview on Monday with Al-Arabiya television, Obama said: "It is very important for us to make sure that we are using all the tools of US power, including diplomacy, in our relationship with Iran."

"As I said in my inauguration speech, if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us," the president said.

Senior diplomats from six world powers trying to convince Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions will gather next week in Germany for their first meeting since Obama took office on January 20, a German official said Friday.

Political directors from the UN Security Council permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany will meet Wednesday near the western city of Frankfurt, German foreign ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner told a news conference.

Spain's probe of Israelis presents legal quandary

By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer

MADRID, Spain – A Spanish judge's decision to investigate seven Israeli officials over a deadly 2002 attack against Hamas that had nothing to do with Spain has renewed a debate about the long arm of European justice.

Critics say Madrid should mind its own business, particularly since Spain is still struggling to address its own bloody past. Supporters argue that some crimes are so heinous that all of humanity is a victim and somebody has to prosecute them.

Spain is hardly alone. A number of European countries have enacted some form of "universal jurisdiction," a doctrine that allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture or war crimes.

• In 2001, a war crimes suit against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was filed in Belgium by Palestinian survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Chatilla refugee camp massacre in Lebanon. Belgium's highest court then dismissed the war crimes proceedings against Sharon and others, ruling it had no legal basis to charge them.

• French judges have opened investigations into Congolese security officials and convicted a Tunisian Interior Ministry official of torturing a fellow citizen on Tunisian soil.

• And Spain has indicted the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden among others, including Argentine dirty war suspects.

"I think some of these judges are looking for publicity, taking on causes that have no business being tried in Spain," said Florentino Portero, an analyst with the Strategic Studies Group, a conservative Spanish think tank. "They are practicing politics through judicial work."

The most recent case involves a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed Hamas militant Salah Shehadeh and 14 other people, including nine children. Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu agreed to take the case on the grounds the incident may have been a crime against humanity — prompting a furious response from Israel.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Spanish decision "makes a mockery out of international law," and Moshe Yaalon, a former Israeli general named in the probe, termed the case "propaganda."

Israel's Justice Ministry said Friday it had transferred material on the case to Spanish authorities and hoped the investigation would be closed soon. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said her Spanish counterpart had assured her his government would promote legislation to limit the authority of Spanish courts.

But Deputy Spanish Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega appeared to contradict Livni's statement Friday, saying the courts are independent of politics.

Philippe Sands, a professor of law at University College London and the author of "Torture Team," which looks at U.S. interrogation practices during the administration of President George W. Bush, said most countries allow prosecutions in cases involving torture or war crimes, so long as they have some connection to the case.

He noted that a U.S. court recently convicted the American son of Liberian President Charles Taylor, despite the fact his crimes were committed overseas against non-American citizens. Still, Sands said the question of universal jurisdiction gets murkier when there is no connection to the country doing the prosecuting.

"I am less persuaded that you can exercise universal jurisdiction when there is no connection at all, or where there is no solid treaty basis for exercising such jurisdiction," Sands said.

Belgium rolled back its universal jurisdiction law in 2003 after foreigners started filing a spate of genocide and war crimes complaints against foreign leaders, including Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, prompting Washington to threaten to move NATO headquarters out of Brussels. The case against Sharon did not result in conviction.

In Spain, the issue is particularly sensitive since the country has never brought charges against its own citizens for crimes committed in the name of Gen. Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator who ruled from the 1930s until his death in 1975. It was only two years ago that Spain passed a law even acknowledging victims of the 1936-1939 civil war.

Emilio Silva, who heads an organization that leads efforts to exhume the bodies of civilians killed by Franco's forces, said he has no problem with Spanish courts looking outward.

"I think it is good that Spanish courts investigate who they have to investigate, but it is strange that they make an exception of their own country," he said. "Spain is part of the universe too."

Then there is the diplomatically explosive prospect that a European court could bring charges against American CIA and military operatives accused of torture anywhere in the world, or even indict former Bush administration officials for war crimes.

Former Bush administration official Susan Crawford was quoted in a Washington Post interview published this month as saying the United States tortured one inmate at Guantanamo Bay, Saudi Mohammed al-Qahtani, in 2002.

Eric Holder, President Barack Obama's designee for attorney general, has said he considers interrogation methods like waterboarding to be torture, but has not indicated he plans to bring charges against any CIA or military operatives who might have used the technique.

If European courts sense a reluctance on the part of American officials to act, analysts say, they could use that to justify bringing charges themselves.

"Without a doubt the United States is the next step," Portero said.

'I'm not afraid of al-Shabab'

Somalia's Islamist group, al-Shabab, has taken over the city of Baidoa, one of the last strongholds of the transitional government and the seat of parliament.

They say they will introduce Sharia law in the city.

Marian Zeila, chairperson of the Somali Media Women's Association, based in the city, give her views on the takeover.

I'm concerned that the al-Shabab militants will prevent me from carrying out the work I do here in Baidoa - fighting gender-based violence.

The fact that al-Shabab are bringing in Sharia law doesn't really worry me.

Sharia law is a part of Islam, it's in the Koran. But it's their interpretation of the law that I disagree with.

They are turning Islam into a harsh religion, which I don't believe it actually is.

My organization is trying to empower women who suffer domestic violence - and I don't think al-Shabbab will like us encouraging women to speak out.

I am not angry with them yet, but I do wonder what effect their presence will have on the women of Baidoa.

From talking to other women, it's my impression that civil society groups here are not happy with al-Shabab.

I haven't been to work since al-Shabab took over Baidoa.

Everything seems calm at the moment, but I plan to stay at home for another four days until I can be sure that it's safe to go to work.

I did go out briefly today to the center of town to do some shopping.

I would say that today the atmosphere in Baidoa is relatively good - I saw women and children out in the streets, they were walking around freely.

I am not afraid of al-Shabab and I don't think people in Baidoa fear them.

Wait and see

I saw members of al-Shabab around town carrying guns today. They look incredibly young.

I know that they have encouraged teenagers in Baidoa to join their movement, but they are not forcing anyone.

People working for the transitional government in Baidoa are staying indoors.

Al-Shabab have promised they will not harm them, but it remains to be seen whether this is the case.

While the transitional government was in charge there was insecurity in Baidoa, they were unable to protect civilians.

At least the al-Shabab have restored stability - for the time being.

I am 23 and I got married just one month ago.

If things stay calm in Baidoa, my husband and I will stay here. But we want to wait and see how this goes. Nobody knows what al-Shabab are planning to do.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7854191.stm.

Somali president faces tough task

By Roger Middleton

The election of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed as president of Somalia marks a dramatic return for the former head of the Union of Islamic Courts administration.

Winning over the roughly 500 members of Somalia's newly expanded parliament is likely to be the easiest part of his presidency, however.

Somalia faces a daunting set of challenges: famine, poverty, chronic insecurity and lawlessness, meddlesome neighbors, and the enduring memory of numerous failed peace processes.

Sheikh Sharif defeated at least 14 other candidates including current Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, commonly known as Nur Adde, who has been the driving force behind bringing the Transitional Federal Government and Mr Sharif's Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS) together.

Mr Hussein was probably the favored candidate of the West, but Sheikh Sharif commands considerable respect among many in Mogadishu and southern Somalia.

The most pressing problem for the new president is how to deal with the radical Islamist group al-Shabab.

So far they have shown no willingness to join the grand coalition between Sheikh Sharif's ARS and the remains of the transitional government under Mr Hussein.

They have spent the last two years building their military and financial strength and will be hard to dislodge by force.

Sharia law

Since the Ethiopian intervention at the end of 2006 al-Shabab has grown in size, ambition, organization, and seems increasingly radical.

Their leaders have benefited from the bitter feelings generated by the Ethiopian intervention and are now probably the best organized force in Southern Somalia.

They have expanded their control over southern Somalia since taking control of the strategic port of Kismaayo late last year.

Baidoa, the town that until recently hosted the Transitional Federal Parliament, is for now also under their control.

Reports indicate that they are established in Mogadishu and threatening to capture the city.

The ARS and the transitional government have been negotiating in Djibouti but it is al-Shabab who have been making headlines.

In Shabab-controlled Kismayo a young girl accused of adultery was stoned to death.

Al-Shabab have said they will also impose their version of sharia law in Baidoa and the other areas they control.

They have been destroying shrines of traditional saints across southern Somalia.

Most Somalis insist that al-Shabab does not represent traditional interpretations of Islam.

Clan divisions

It seems highly unlikely that the international community or Somalia's neighbors would be keen to support the new president if he engages in negotiations with a group listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department.

His best bet may be to hope that militiamen fighting for al-Shabab can be convinced to change sides and support his government.

President Sharif cannot even count on unified support from the newly enlarged parliament.

The clearest division is between the original MPs who served under President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and the new ARS MPs.

Even within these two groups there is hardly consensus, and it is likely that the new president will receive little help from politicians who in the past have only really swung into action when new prime ministers or presidents needed to be appointed.

MPs have been selected on the basis of a formula designed to ensure even representation across Somalia's different clans.

It is up to each clan to decide how to negotiate divisions within them along sub-clan lines.

Humanitarian crisis

Some analysts argue this system means MPs who come from the more stable north of the country will be involved in trying to solve the problems of the south.

They complain that the formula, by treating the problem as an all-Somalia one, ignores the reality - that the war is in the south and only southerners will be able to end the fighting.

As Mr Hussein and Sheik Sharif are both from the Hawiye clan, if one is president the other cannot be prime minister.

So the two men with the best chance of resolving the problems of the south cannot together hold the two most important offices of state.

More than three million people are in need of urgent humanitarian aid, millions were displaced from Mogadishu, and Somalia has been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Somalis rely on massive shipments of food aid to stay alive.

If the president wants to build popular legitimacy then he will need to address these problems.

However, providing food and medical supplies will be very difficult until some form of security is established, and without a government that can ensure the most basic services young men have little incentive not to take the $15-a-day pay cheque from the warring factions.

Finally, President Sharif should not expect to be left alone to resolve his country's crises.

The outside world has a history of interfering in Somalia's affairs.

Among a long list of interventions, the two-year Ethiopian mission and US missile strikes against terrorist targets may have been motivated by legitimate security fears, but they have almost never improved the security or humanitarian situation inside Somalia.

The new president will need to navigate a bickering parliament, a hungry population and meddling world - and face down a massive military threat from al-Shabab.

He will need a lot of luck if this is not to be just the most recent failed peace process in Somalia.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7861853.stm.

Iranian president praises Turkish PM for Davos outburst

TEHRAN, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday congratulated Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on taking a stand over Israel on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Erdogan tried to respond to an emotional 25-minute defense of Israeli military operations in Gaza by President Shimon Peres, but when after about a minute he was told he could not speak as it was time for dinner he walked out of the prestigious conference.

"Don't interrupt me. You are not allowing me to speak," he told the moderator, adding: "I will not come to Davos again."

He was given a hero's welcome when he returned to Turkey from Switzerland.

"The act of the Turkish prime minister reflects expectations of all Turkish people, the nations of the region and the entire world. We appreciate it. He behaved exactly how he should have behaved in that situation," Ahmadinejad told journalists.

The president of Iran again accused the Israeli government of committing war crimes in Gaza and declared that no aim could justify the killing of Palestinian civilians.

In Tehran on Saturday a group of protesters rallied outside the Turkish Embassy in support of Erdogan's actions. They chanted anti-Israeli and anti-American slogans, and some schoolchildren in the crowd carried flowers.

The new U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is due to meet Erdogan in Turkey on Sunday. The Turkish prime minister said he was angry at not being allowed to speak, rather than at Israel or Peres, while the Israeli president said he did not expect Turkish-Israeli relations to be affected.

Israel's recent military operation in Gaza killed some 1,300 Palestinians. Up to 50,000 people were also left homeless in the enclave of 1.5 million. Israel's casualties in the conflict were put at 13, including 10 military personnel.

Somalia's new moderate Islamist president sworn in

DJIBOUTI – A moderate Islamist leader was sworn in as the country's new president Saturday after parliament elected him to stabilize a country wracked by violence and anarchy for nearly 20 years.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed was elected in neighboring Djibouti early Saturday after the last president — a former soldier, rebel and warlord named Abdullahi Yusuf — resigned in December after failing to pacify the country during his four-years as president.

More than 1,200 people, including the new Somali parliament, attended Saturday's swearing-in at a hotel in Djibouti.

Ahmed was chairman of the Islamic Courts Union that ran Mogadishu for six months in 2006 before Ethiopian soldiers drove them from power. His election raises hopes that he will bring many of Somalia's Islamic factions into a more inclusive government.

But the Western-backed government wields little control in Somalia — just a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu, where African Union peacekeepers patrol. An Islamic insurgent group called al-Shabab, who say they don't recognize the government, have taken over most of Somalia.

The U.S. considers al-Shabab a terror organization with links to al-Qaida.

Somalia's parliament has been meeting all week in neighboring Djibouti to choose the new president. Sharif won easily with 293 votes after the other front-runner, the prime minister, withdrew. The second-place candidate received 126 votes.

Sharif was due to fly to the Ethiopian capital for an African Union summit after he was sworn in.

The arid and impoverished Horn of Africa nation of some 8 million people has not had a functioning government for a generation, since clan-based militias overthrew a dictator in 1991 then turned on each other.

Pirates prey on international shipping freely from Somalia's lawless shores, and analysts fear an extremist Islamic administration could become a haven for international terrorists.

There have been more than a dozen previous peace efforts and three previous governments were formed, but they never managed to take effective control over most of the country.

US envoy in Jordan in bid to bolster Gaza truce

AMMAN (AFP) – US Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrived in Jordan on Saturday for talks with King Abdullah II on consolidating the ceasefire that ended the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Jordan's king is expected to tell Mitchell that the United States must be "really engaged in the peace process based on a two-state solution, Israeli and Palestinian," a senior palace official told AFP.

US President Barack Obama's new envoy said in Jerusalem on Friday that the United States is committed to "actively and aggressively" seeking lasting peace in the Middle East but warned there would be further setbacks.

He kicked off his maiden regional tour in Egypt and has held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. He is still due to visit Saudi Arabia ahead of traveling to Europe.

The 75-year-old former US senator, who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland in 1998, has been charged by new Obama with "vigorously" resuscitating the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.