Two Gitmo detainees sent to Portugal

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice says the Portuguese government has assumed control of two Guantanamo Bay detainees.


The Department of Justice said in a release that two Syrian nationals were transferred to Portugal from the U.S. detention facility in Cuba via an arrangement between the U.S. and Portuguese governments.

The U.S. government, which ensured all necessary security measures were in place for the detainee transfer, will maintain contact with Portugal regarding the two detainees, the department said. The prisoners' names and suspected crimes were not reported.

The detainee transfer was authorized by the Guantanamo Review Task Force and the U.S. Congress was made aware of the transfer plan, the Department of Justice said.

The two prisoners mark the most recent detainee transfer involving Guantanamo Bay prisoners. More than 540 Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to various countries worldwide since 2002. Less than 250 remain at the detention center, various news outlets say.

Polls: Japan's Opposition Wins Historic Victory

By COCO MASTERS / TOKYO


It took less than two hours to realize a change that has been brewing for half a century. The polls for Japan's general election closed at 8 p.m. nationwide, and by 9:40 p.m. Yukio Hatoyama - head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and soon to be the nation's new prime minister - reacted to his party's landslide victory with characteristic reserve and calm. "It is important that we not be too proud and try hard to make this victory a victory for the public."

Elsewhere, victorious DPJ candidates lifted their arms and hoarsely shouted the celebratory phrase "banzai" after exit polls show Japan's main opposition party blasted the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from its virtually untested 54-year reign. Polls indicate DPJ's historic win will likely hand the party more than 300 of the 480 seats in the Diet's lower house, while the LDP is expected to get about 100 - just one-third of what it had before Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolved parliament in July and called the Aug. 30 election. If the DPJ lands more than 321 seats, it will have the two-thirds majority it needs to unilaterally pass bills rejected by the upper house.

A defeated Aso appeared before television media and assumed responsibility for his party's crushing blow. Expressing his grief over the results, Aso said that he would step down as president of the LDP, requesting that an election be held as soon as possible for new party leadership. Media reports say that relinquish his post. "We could not wipe away the resentment that the LDP accumulated over the years," he said. "I feel we were destined [to have this defeat]." Many bigwig incumbents lost their constituencies, such as Fukuoka prefecture's Taku Yamasaki (a former minister once considered a successor to former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi) and former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu. Those LDP candidates who were elected include Koizumi's son and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Japanese people voted for the DPJ - with its slogans of "regime change" and "livelihood first" - amidst the worst economic crisis in Japan's postwar history. An unprecedented 14 million votes were cast ahead of Sunday's election, about 13% of all eligible voters. And voter turnout is expected to reach 70% - the highest in nearly 20 years. As exit polls came out around the nation, television media tended to focus on which LDP candidates lost - marking LDP incumbents with red "batsu" or Xs - rather than focus on the DPJ winners, reflecting what some observers believe - that Sunday's landslide win is less a vote of confidence in the DPJ’s ability to effect change than a show of frustration over the LDP's failed leadership.

Hatoyama's party, nevertheless, appears ready to meet the big challenges his new administration will face. With an economy in crisis, record unemployment, and faltering welfare systems, the DPJ is already looking for all the help it can get. The party is expected to meet on Monday with the leftist Social Democratic Party and the conservative People's New Party to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition. As Hatoyama said Sunday night, "We have been fighting, thinking we have to change politics and now we are about to realize it." The Japanese people have set the ball rolling. Now it's up to the DPJ to take the lead.

Pakistan: Border blast sets NATO fuel trucks afire

CHAMAN, Pakistan – An explosion ripped through a line of trucks ferrying fuel to NATO troops in Afghanistan, setting several oil tankers ablaze Sunday at a backed-up Pakistani border crossing, police said.

The blast appeared to be the second terrorist attack Sunday in Pakistan and the second in a week to target a border crossing. Also Sunday, a suicide bomber targeted a police station in the northwestern Swat Valley, killing 15 cadets.

Local police chief Hasan Sardar said flames and smoke were billowing into the sky as authorities struggled to control the blaze Sunday night near the Chaman border crossing in Baluchistan province in Pakistan's southwest.

"It was a big explosion under one of the oil tankers that caused other vehicles to catch fire. The fire is spreading," Sardar told The Associated Press by phone.

"We are at the moment trying our best to control the blaze. We are not sure whether there is any human loss," he said. "It is just panic everywhere there."

The explosion Sunday night set at least three oil tankers, two container trucks and two dump trucks on fire, police officer Abdul Rauf said.

Chaman is one of two main crossing points for supplies for American and NATO troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. The foreign troops get about 75 percent of their supplies through Pakistan.

The crossing has been closed for two days amid a dispute between Afghan and Pakistani customs officers that Rauf said had left more than 1,000 trucks backed up along the road to the border.

Another suicide bombing killed at least 19 guards further north at the Torkham checkpoint, the other main crossing and gateway to the famed Khyber Pass.

The Pakistani Taliban have vowed revenge after the loss of key territory and the death of their top leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a CIA missile strike Aug. 5 further west near the Afghan border.

Five killed in Algeria attacks

Algiers, Aug 30 (New Kerala): Five people have been killed and three wounded in two separate attacks in Algeria, a media report said Saturday.

Three people including two military forces were killed in a car bomb in western Algeria, said the report.

In Jijel Province of eastern Algeria, two armed soldiers were killed and three wounded in an ambush against the Algerian army, according to the report.

Though violence has declined in Algeria after a large group of radical Islamists surrendered to the government, attacks occur sporadically in different areas of the country.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said last week that the government would continue to pursue its national reconciliation policy to grant a chance to the repentant military radicals.

In September 2005, the national reconciliation charter was overwhelmingly adopted in a national referendum, under which armed Islamists can abandon their arms and surrender to the government.

Former Israeli prime minister Olmert indicted

JERUSALEM – Israeli legal authorities have indicted former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert on corruption charges.

The indictments filed Sunday charge Olmert with illegally accepting funds from an American backer, and double-billing for trips abroad. He faces charges including fraud and breach of trust.

The charges surfaced when Olmert was still prime minister, eventually forcing him to step aside. Olmert allegedly committed the offenses while serving as mayor of Jerusalem and later as a Cabinet minister, and before being elected prime minister in 2006.

Olmert was replaced as prime minister in March by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. He left politics and is currently a private citizen.

Olmert has denied any wrongdoing.

Ruling party concedes defeat in Japan election

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer


TOKYO – Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso conceded defeat in elections Sunday as media exit polls indicated the opposition had won by a landslide, sending the conservatives out of power after 54 years of nearly unbroken rule amid widespread economic anxiety and desire for change.

"These results are very severe," Aso said in a news conference at party headquarters, conceding his party was headed for a big loss. "There has been a deep dissatisfaction with our party."

Aso said he would have to accept responsibility for the results, suggesting that he would resign as party president. Other LDP leaders also said they would step down, though official results were not to be released until early Monday morning.

The left-of-center Democratic Party of Japan was set to win 300 or more of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, ousting the Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, according to exit polls by all major Japanese TV networks.

The loss by the Liberal Democrats — traditionally a pro-business, conservative party — would open the way for the Democratic Party, headed by Yukio Hatoyama, to replace Aso and establish a new Cabinet, possibly within the next few weeks.

The vote was seen as a barometer of frustrations over Japan's worst economic slump since World War II and a loss of confidence in the ruling Liberal Democrats' ability to tackle tough problems such as the rising national debt and rapidly aging population.

The Democrats have embraced a more populist platform, promising handouts for families with children and farmers and a higher minimum wage.

The Democrats have also said they will seek a more independent relationship with Washington, while forging closer ties with Japan's Asian neighbors, including China. But Hatoyama, who holds a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University, insists he will not seek dramatic change in Japan's foreign policy, saying the U.S.-Japan alliance would "continue to be the cornerstone of Japanese diplomatic policy."

National broadcaster NHK, using projections based on exit polls of roughly 400,000 voters, said the Democratic Party was set to win 300 seats and the Liberal Democrats only about 100. TV Asahi, another major network, said the Democratic Party would win 315 seats.

The LDP's secretary-general, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said he and two other top officials plan to submit their resignations to Aos, who serves as president of the party.

As voting closed Sunday night, officials said turnout was high, despite an approaching typhoon, indicating the intense level of public interest in the hotly contested campaigns.

"We've worked so hard to achieve a leadership change and that has now become almost certain thanks to the support of many voters," said Yosihiko Noda, a senior member of the DPJ. "We feel a strong sense of responsibility to achieve each of our campaign promises."

Ruling party leaders said they were devastated by the results.

"I feel deeply the impact of this vote," former Prime Minister Shintaro Abe, a leading Liberal Democratic Party member, told television network TBS. "Our party must work to return to power."

Even before the vote was over, the Democrats pounded the ruling party ruling party for driving the country into a ditch.

Japan's unemployment has spiked to record 5.7 percent while deflation has intensified and families have cut spending because they are insecure about the future.

Making the situation more dire is Japan's aging demographic — which means more people are on pensions and there is a shrinking pool of taxpayers to support them and other government programs.

"The ruling party has betrayed the people over the past four years, driving the economy to the edge of a cliff, building up more than 6 trillion yen ($64.1 billion) in public debt, wasting money, ruining our social security net and widening the gap between the rich and poor," the Democratic Party said in a statement as voting began Sunday.

"We will change Japan," it said.

Hatoyama's party held 112 seats before parliament was dissolved in July.

The Democratic Party would only need to win a simple majority of 241 seats in the lower house to assure that it can name the next prime minister. The 300-plus level would allow it and its two smaller allies the two-thirds majority they need in the lower house to pass bills.

Many voters said that although the Democrats are largely untested in power and doubts remain about whether they will be able to deliver on their promises, the country needs a change.

"We don't know if the Democrats can really make a difference, but we want to give them a chance," Junko Shinoda, 59, a government employee, said after voting at a crowded polling center in downtown Tokyo.

Having the Democrats in power would smooth policy debates in parliament, which has been deadlocked since the Democrats and their allies took over the less powerful upper house in 2007.

With only two weeks of official campaigning that focused mainly on broadstroke appeals rather than specific policies, many analysts said the elections were not so much about issues as voters' general desire for something new after more than a half century under the Liberal Democrats.

The Democrats are proposing toll-free highways, free high schools, income support for farmers, monthly allowances for job seekers in training, a higher minimum wage and tax cuts. The estimated bill comes to 16.8 trillion yen ($179 billion) if fully implemented starting in fiscal year 2013.

Aso — whose own support ratings have sagged to a dismal 20 percent — repeatedly stressed his party led Japan's rise from the ashes of World War II into one of the world's biggest economic powers and are best equipped to get it out of its current morass.

But the current state of the economy has been a major liability for his party.

"It's revolutionary," said Tomoaki Iwai, a political science professor at Tokyo's Nihon University. "It's the first real change of government" Japan has had in six decades.

Blackwater tapped foreigners on secret CIA program

By ADAM GOLDMAN and PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON – When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA.

With Blackwater's lucrative government security work and contacts arrayed in hot spots around the world, company officials offered the services of foreigners supposedly skilled at tracking terrorists in lawless regions and countries where the CIA had no working relationships with the government.

Blackwater told the CIA that it "could put people on the ground to provide the surveillance and support — all of the things you need to conduct an operation," a former senior CIA official familiar with the secret program told The Associated Press.

But the CIA's use of the private contractor as part of its now-abandoned plan to dispatch death squads skirted concerns now re-emerging with recent disclosures about Blackwater's role.

The former senior CIA official said he had doubts during his tenure about whether Blackwater's foreign recruits had mastered the necessary skills to pull off such a high-stakes operation. Blackwater's later hiring of several senior CIA officials who were involved in or aware of the secret program, including one of the men who ran the operation, showed the blurred lines of using a private contractor for such a highly classified and dangerous project.

While Blackwater won the government's confidence by handling security and training operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2004 decision by CIA officials to entrust the North Carolina-based company with such a sensitive overseas operation struck some former agency officials as highly unusual.

"The question remains: Why do we need Blackwater?" said Charles Faddis, a former department chief at the CIA's Counterterrorism Center who retired in 2008 and was not involved in the secret program. "I remain mystified. This is quintessential CIA work. You wonder what it means that the CIA has to rely on Blackwater? Why are we still funding the CIA?"

The former senior CIA official who had knowledge of the program explained that "you wouldn't want to have American fingerprints on it."

The former official and several other current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information remains classified.

A message left with Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke was not returned. Blackwater altered its corporate name to Xe Services after a series of use-of-force controversies, including a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad by five company security guards that left 17 civilians dead.

The former senior CIA official said that close to a dozen Blackwater "surrogates" were recruited to join the death squad program. The recruits, the former official said, were not told they were working for the CIA. The official did not know how Blackwater found them.

The program reportedly cost millions of dollars over an eight-year span. A precise figure is not available because of the agency's classified budget.

The operation had several lives under four successive CIA directors: George Tenet started the program during the Bush administration, but canceled it, another former CIA official said, because there were too many risks involved.

The operation was revived under Tenet's successor, Porter Goss, who ran the agency from 2004 to 2006. Michael Hayden, who served from 2006 to 2009, downgraded the program to intelligence-gathering only. Leon Panetta, the current director, killed the operation in June.

The former senior CIA official said that after the death squad project was revived under Goss in 2004, there were serious questions about whether Blackwater's operatives had demonstrated the ability to conduct clandestine surveillance and maintain fictitious identities with credible-appearing faked documents.

Their need to provide rock-solid cover stories was essential, the former official said, adding that they had to have a "damn good reason to be there."

A spokesman for Goss declined comment.

The former senior CIA official said that during his tenure it was unlikely that the Blackwater recruits would have been involved directly in the mechanics of the killings. Instead, they were learning how to spy on targets and operate discreetly.

The trainees never got a chance to prove themselves. They were never provided a target and no operation was ever approved. CIA spokesman George Little said the program yielded no successes.

The CIA started planning for its death squad project shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The agency wanted the ability to target terrorists at close range, providing an alternative to air strikes that ran the risk of accidentally killing civilians.

Another former senior intelligence official said the use of Blackwater was not the only plan considered to kill or capture terrorists.

Blackwater long has had a close and intertwined relationship with the CIA. Several senior agency leaders have taken up positions with the company. Among them were J. Cofer Black, once the head of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, who would have had operational involvement with the secret plan in the early 2000s. Others included Robert Richer, a former deputy director for operations, and Alvin B. Krongard, a former CIA executive director.

Another Blackwater hire was Enrique "Ric" Prado, a former operations chief at the Counterterrorism Center. Prado ran the death squad program when it was started up under Tenet, three former intelligence officials said.

According to one former official, Jose A. Rodriquez Jr., who ran the CIA's clandestine service and was instrumental in reviving the program, reached out to Prado, then working at Blackwater. The two men had previously worked together in Latin America and then at the Counterterrorism Center, the former officials said.

After joining Blackwater, according to The New York Times, Prado was involved in the 2004 negotiations between Blackwater officials and the CIA over its involvement in the death squad operation. According to the Times report, Prado, who at one point was Blackwater's vice president of special programs, worked with Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder, to sign agreements with the CIA to participate in the program.

Prado did not return messages left at his home or with his business partner, Joseph E. Fluet. The pair recently formed The Constellation Consulting Group, an international intelligence and security firm based in northern Virginia.

At the time that Blackwater began working with the CIA on the death squad operation in 2004, the CIA had in place a long-standing policy mandating that senior officials leaving the agency could not go to work for private firms for a year after their departure. In 2007, Hayden toughened requirements for the entire agency, mandating an 18-month hold on security clearances for all departing employees who leave prior to retirement.

Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group in Washington, said "the revolving door is a very accepted practice" between government and private industry, but added that "to be able to bring people in from the CIA, there is a possibility that it gives you a competitive advantage in receiving awards from that agency."

When Panetta terminated the CIA's death squad program in June, he informed congressional intelligence committees about its existence in an emergency briefing.

The House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether the CIA broke the law by not quickly informing Congress about the secret program.

Iran's president defends Cabinet amid skepticism

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer


TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's president defended his proposed Cabinet ministers Sunday as lawmakers began what is expected to be a fierce debate over whether the nominees have the relevant credentials or are simply unquestioning loyalists.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is forming his new government while still under attack by the pro-reform opposition that his re-election in June was fraudulent. But he is also under pressure from fellow conservatives, who have long lambasted the president for hoarding power by putting close associates in key posts.

Reformist lawmakers led the attack Sunday, criticizing the background of many of Ahmadinejad's picks for the 21-member Cabinet and also the president's lack of a detailed plan to improve the country's beleaguered economy. Many such policy debates have been sidelined during the post-election turmoil.

"The majority of the nominees do not have the relevant education and experience," said lawmaker Sadollah Nasiri during the session, which was broadcast live on state radio.

One of his reformist colleagues, Ali Asghar Yousefnejad, questioned how Ahmadinejad and his team would revive Iran's economy, which suffers from high rates of inflation and unemployment, saying the president offered only "generalities and slogans."

"What we need are practical solutions for growth and investment, housing problems, inflation and unemployment," said Yousefnejad.

Both conservatives and reformists have criticized Ahmadinejad's management of the economy, which was one of the key issues during the recent presidential election. Yousefnejad's criticism served as a reminder of the challenges facing the president even if he is able to overcome the increasingly bitter conflict over his re-election and the violent crackdown against protesters that followed.

Given the importance of Iran's petroleum sector to the country's economy, lawmakers focused on the president's proposed oil minister, Massed Mirkazemi, as one nominee who they argued lacks the necessary experience for the job.

Prominent conservative lawmaker Ali Motahari said that Mirkazemi, who currently serves as commerce minister, would be inadequate because he would be trying to learn the necessary skills on the job.

"Such inexperience ministers would need at least one year's time to be settled in their posts," said Motahari, who also criticized the president's picks for the energy and interior ministries.

Ahmadinejad defended Mirkazemi, calling him a "brave combatant" who would be able to manage the oil sector, which produces more than 80 percent of Iran's foreign revenue.

But Motahari said Ahmadinejad had appointed inexperienced loyalists in an attempt to "rule the ministries."

Media: Opposition wins landslide in Japan election

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO – Japan's ruling conservative party suffered a crushing defeat in elections Sunday as voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots in favor of a left-of-center opposition camp that has promised to rebuild the economy and breathe new life into the country after 54 years of virtual one-party rule, media projections said.

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan was set to win 300 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, ousting the Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, according to projections by all major Japanese TV networks.

The vote was seen as a barometer of frustrations over Japan's worst economic slump since World War II and a loss of confidence in the ruling Liberal Democrats' ability to tackle tough problems such as the rising national debt and rapidly aging population.

National broadcaster NHK, using projections based on exit polls of roughly 400,000 voters, said the Democratic Party was set to win 300 seats and the Liberal Democrats only about 100. Official results were expected early Monday.

As voting closed Sunday night, officials said turnout was high, despite an approaching typhoon, indicating the intense level of public interest the hotly contested campaigns have generated.

The loss by the Liberal Democrats would open the way for the Democratic Party of Japan, headed by Yukio Hatoyama, to oust Prime Minister Taro Aso and establish a new Cabinet, possibly within the next few weeks.

It would also smooth policy debates in parliament, which has been deadlocked since the Democrats and their allies took over the less powerful upper house in 2007.

"The ruling party has betrayed the people over the past four years, driving the economy to the edge of a cliff, building up more than 6 trillion yen ($64.1 billion) in public debt, wasting money, ruining our social security net and widening the gap between the rich and poor," the Democratic Party said in a statement as voting began Sunday.

"We will change Japan," it said.

The Democrats have also said they will make Tokyo's diplomacy less U.S.-centric. But Hatoyama, who holds a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University, insists he will not seek dramatic change in Japan's foreign policy, saying the U.S.-Japan alliance would "continue to be the cornerstone of Japanese diplomatic policy."

Hatoyama's party held 112 seats before parliament was dissolved in July. The Democratic Party would only need to win a simple majority of 241 seats in the lower house to assure that it can name the next prime minister.

"We don't know if the Democrats can really make a difference, but we want to give them a chance," Junko Shinoda, 59, a government employee, said after voting at a crowded polling center in downtown Tokyo.

With only two weeks of official campaigning that focused mainly on broadstroke appeals rather than specific policies, many analysts said the elections were not so much about issues as voters' general desire for something new after more than a half century under the Liberal Democrats.

The Democrats are proposing toll-free highways, free high schools, income support for farmers, monthly allowances for job seekers in training, a higher minimum wage and tax cuts. The estimated bill comes to 16.8 trillion yen ($179 billion) if fully implemented starting in fiscal year 2013.

Aso — whose own support ratings have sagged to a dismal 20 percent — repeatedly stressed his party led Japan's rise from the ashes of World War II into one of the world's biggest economic powers and are best equipped to get it out of its current morass.

But the current state of the economy has been a major liability for his party.

Last week, the government reported that the unemployment rate for July hit 5.7 percent — the highest in Japan's post-World War II era — while deflation intensified and families have cut spending because they are insecure about the future.

Making the situation more dire is Japan's rapidly aging demographic — which means more people are on pensions and there is a shrinking pool of taxpayers to support them and other government programs.

Gabon: Presidential Election - Time for Change or More of the Same?

Gabon goes to the polls to elect a new president on Sunday, nearly three months after the death of President Omar Bongo Ondimba at the age of 73. Bongo was Africa's longest-ruling president, having come to power in 1967. He had won his latest presidential term of seven years in 2005 with almost 80 percent of the vote, against a weak opposition.

The current poll pits Bongo's son, Ali-Ben, against no fewer than 20 rivals. Given the history of his father's dominance and the fractious nature of opposition politics in the oil-rich country, Ali Bongo is almost guaranteed victory.

What are the prospects that Ali-Ben will be able to hold together both the ruling coalition and the country amidst challenges to what appears to be a presidential dynasty and calls for change in the country's leadership? And does the fragmentation of the opposition represent an elite clamoring for state power or genuine political pluralism?

The younger Bongo emerged as the candidate of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) in July, beating off challenges from nine rivals. Four of them, including former Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong, have since declared that they will stand as independents.

The remaining presidential candidates include 10 independents, six leaders of opposition parties and two members of the Presidential Majority, a coalition of parties that has supported the elder Bongo's presidency – mainly as a result of cooptation into cabinet and other government structures.

The date of the election itself is contested, due mainly to opposition complaints about the state of the voters' roll. Following what appears to have been a national consensus, the poll was not held within the constitutionally-stipulated 45-day period after Bongo's death and the Constitutional Court extended the period to September 4. This allowed the Permanent and Autonomous Electoral Commission (CENAP) to fix the polling date for August 30, in the face of objections from at least 11 candidates.

Campaigning officially kicked off on August 15 and has been dominated by calls for change – meaning the election of a president other than Bongo. The continued presence of Ali-Ben in cabinet despite his candidacy (together with three other candidates, two of whom subsequently resigned) saw riots in the capital Libreville, but the controversy died down following a reshuffle that replaced Bongo and another candidate, Maganga Massavou.

The complicated proliferation and permutations of opposition parties, "autonomous" parties that are part of the ruling Presidential Majority but are running candidates against Ali-Ben, and the number of independents, all point to a vigorous contestation for state power among the elite – spiced with regional and ethic politics.

This mix has been one of the major weaknesses of Gabonese politics, and one that allowed the senior Bongo to use state largesse, mainly from oil revenues, to divide and weaken the opposition through a combination of intimidation, repression and cooptation, thus keeping himself in power for more than 40 years. Ali-Ben's "inherited" position will stand him in good stead in this regard.

On the other hand, the apparent haemorrhaging of the PDG's and Presidential Majority's leadership – evidenced by the defection of Ndong, the presentation of contesting candidates by no fewer than three parties in the Presidential Majority, and formation of a new party by Jean Remy Pendy Bouyiki – will pose a serious challenge to the new president.

Although many of these leaders are using the presidential race to flex their political muscles and position themselves to bargain for a share of state power after the election, the fact that they are beginning openly to challenge the Bongo supremacy may mean a more hotly-contested jostling for position than in the past.

How Ali-Ben handles these power contests as he seeks to consolidate his and the PDG's position in Gabonese politics will determine whether the country genuinely transforms from a virtual fiefdom of the Bongos (with the stability that that implies), whether it disintegrates into internecine tribal and personality politics, or whether genuine political pluralism will finally emerge.

But for the time being what is almost certain is that the next president of Gabon will be a Bongo, carrying on a legacy of four decades of domination by one of Africa's most effective dictators.

SoCal wildfire surges in size, threatens thousands

By JOHN ANTCZAK and CHRISTOPHER WEBER, Associated Press Writers

LOS ANGELES – A wildfire in the mountains above Los Angeles has surged in every direction, going in a single day from a modest threat to a danger to some 10,000 homes.

The blaze nearly tripled in size in triple-digit heat Saturday, leaving three people burned, destroying at least three homes and forcing the evacuation of 1,000 homes and an untold number of people.

A slight drop in temperatures and an influx of fire crews from around the state were expected to bring some relief Sunday.

Mandatory evacuations were in effect for neighborhoods in Altadena, Glendale, Pasadena, La Crescenta and Big Tujunga Canyon.

The flames crept down the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains despite mild winds blowing predominantly in the other direction.

"Today what happened is what I call the perfect storm of fuels, weather, and topography coming together," said Captain Mike Dietrich, the incident commander for the U.S. Forest Service. "Essentially the fire burned at will; it went where it wanted to when it wanted to."

Dietrich said he had never seen a fire grow so quickly without powerful Santa Ana winds to push it.

At least three homes deep in the Angeles National Forest were destroyed, and firefighters were searching for others, Dietrich said.

Evacuation centers were set up at two high schools and an elementary school in the area.

The fire was the largest and most dangerous of several burning around southern and central California and in Yosemite National Park.

The fire especially grew to the north and west, bringing new concerns for the areas near Acton and Santa Calrita.

More than 31 square miles of dry forest was scorched by the fire. It was only 5 percent contained.

At least three people were burned in the evacuation areas and airlifted to local hospitals, Dietrich said. He had no further details on their injuries.

Air crews waged a fierce battle against the southeast corner of the fire, burning dangerously close to canyon homes. Spotter planes and tankers dove well below ridge then pulled up dramatically over neighborhoods.

The fire was burning in steep wooded hills next to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in northern Pasadena.

In La Vina, a gated community of luxury homes in the Altadena area, a small group of residents stood at the end of a cul-de-sac on the lip of a canyon and watched aircraft battle flames trying to cross the ridge on the far side.

At one point, the flying circus of relatively small propeller-driven tankers gave way to the sight of a giant DC-10 jumbo jet unleashing a rain of red retardant.

"We see a drop, we give a big cheer," said Gary Blackwood, who works on telescope technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We've watched it now for two days hop one ridge at a time and now it's like we're the next ridge."

A major goal was to keep the fire from spreading up Mount Wilson, where many of the region's broadcast and communications antennas and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory are located, officials said.

A second fire in the Angeles National Forest was burning several miles to the east in a canyon above the city of Azusa. The 3.4-square-mile blaze, which started Tuesday afternoon, was 95 percent contained Saturday. No homes were threatened, and full containment was expected by Monday.

A wildfire on the Palos Verdes Peninsula on the south Los Angeles County coast was 100 percent contained Saturday afternoon, according to county fire officials.

Southeast of Los Angeles in Riverside County, a 3 1/2-square-mile fire in a rural area of the San Bernardino National Forest was 30 percent contained as it burned in steep, rocky terrain in Beeb Canyon. No structures were threatened.

To the north, in the state's coastal midsection, a 9.4-square-mile fire threatening Pinnacles National Monument kept 100 homes under evacuation orders near the Monterey County town of Soledad. The blaze, 60 percent contained, was started by agricultural fireworks used to scare animals away from crops. The fire destroyed one home.

A state of emergency was declared Saturday for Mariposa County, where a nearly 5.5-square-mile fire burned in Yosemite National Park. The blaze was 30 percent contained, park officials said.

Park officials closed a campground and a portion of Highway 120, anticipating that the fire would spread north toward Tioga Road, the highest elevation route through the Sierra. The number of firefighters was expected to double over the weekend to 1,000.

About 100 residents from the town of El Portal were under evacuation orders, said Brad Aborn, chairman of Mariposa's Board of Supervisors. He said the remainder of the town, an estimated 75 people, were evacuated Saturday morning.

UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon hails peaceful mandate since 2006

United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Saturday the past three years have been "the most peaceful" in UNIFIL's operation, despite a recent suspected Hezbollah's arms stockpiles in the south of the Arab country.

UNIFIL's deputy spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told reporters at the force' headquarters in Naqoura that south Lebanon remains calm in general and that UN peacekeepers are fully coordinating with the Lebanese army, adding that UNIFIL has good relations with locals.

He denied any attempts to increase or lower the number of peacekeepers serving with the mission in a later period.

The UNIFIL troops in Lebanon have been re-enforced by 5,000 peacekeepers after the war between Hezbollah and Israel in July 2006. There are currently 12,000 peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon.

Regarding UNIFIL's relations with Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel, Tenenti said UNIFIL has the full commitment of all these parties to fulfill its mission and "this was reiterated during the UN Security Council's meeting on Thursday."

The UN Security Council on Thursday extended the mandate of the UNIFIL for one year without amending its jurisdictions in Resolution 1884 which was drafted by France and endorsed by all 15member states.

The Resolution 1884 extends UNIFIL's mandate, which expires at the end of this month, till August 31, 2010, but does not introduce amendments to the peacekeeping force's powers.

UNIFIL is tasked with monitoring the 2006 ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel and the implementation of Resolution 1701. The Resolution 1884 praised UNIFIL's "positive role that helped the Lebanese army's deployment and the establishment a new strategic climate in the South."

UNIFIL, which was created and assigned by the United Nations in1978, is currently deployed in south of the Litani River in south Lebanon and primarily along the UN-drawn Blue Line, which was the withdrawal line for Israeli troops in 2000.

Resolution 1701 calls on all concerned sides to respect the ceasefire and the Blue Line, and prohibits any unauthorized arms in the operation area of UNIFIL.

However, an arms dump exploded on July 14 in the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Silim. The UNIFIL and Israel called the incident a "serious violation of Resolution 1701," and Israel accused Hezbollah of stockpiling weapons after the 2006 war. UNIFIL is still investigating the blast.

Israeli President Shimon Peres earlier this week accused Hezbollah of having as many as 80,000 rockets aiming at Israel, which was hit back as "groundless" by Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh.

U.S.: Pakistan Altered Missiles Sold For Defense

The United States has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying American-made missiles to expand its capability to strike land targets, a potential threat to India, according to senior administration and Congressional officials.


The charge, which set off a new outbreak of tensions between the United States and Pakistan, was made in an unpublicized diplomatic protest in late June to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and other top Pakistani officials.

The accusation comes at a particularly delicate time, when the administration is asking Congress to approve $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan over the next five years, and when Washington is pressing a reluctant Pakistani military to focus its attentions on fighting the Taliban, rather than expanding its nuclear and conventional forces aimed at India.

While American officials say that the weapon in the latest dispute is a conventional one - based on the Harpoon anti-ship missiles that were sold to Pakistan by the Reagan administration as a defensive weapon in the cold war - the subtext of the argument is growing concern about the speed with which Pakistan is developing new generations of both conventional and nuclear weapons.


“There’s a concerted effort to get these guys to slow down,” said one senior administration official. “Their energies are misdirected.”

At issue is the detection by American intelligence agencies of a suspicious missile test on April 23 - a test never announced by the Pakistanis - that appeared to give the country a new offensive weapon.


American military and intelligence officials say they suspect that Pakistan has modified the Harpoon anti-ship missiles that the United States sold the country in the 1980s, a move that would be a violation of the Arms Control Export Act. Pakistan has denied the charge, saying it developed the missile itself. The United States has also accused Pakistan of modifying American-made P-3C aircraft for land-attack missions, another violation of United States law that the Obama administration has protested.

Whatever their origin, the missiles would be a significant new entry into Pakistan’s arsenal against India. They would enable Pakistan’s small navy to strike targets on land, complementing the sizable land-based missile arsenal that Pakistan has developed. That, in turn, would be likely to spur another round of an arms race with India that the United States has been trying, unsuccessfully, to halt. “The focus of our concern is that this is a potential unauthorized modification of a maritime anti-ship defensive capability to an offensive land-attack missile,” said another senior administration official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter involves classified information.

“The potential for proliferation and end-use violations are things we watch very closely,” the official added. "When we have concerns, we act aggressively."


A senior Pakistani official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity because the interchanges with Washington have been both delicate and highly classified, said the American accusation was “incorrect.” The official said that the missile tested was developed by Pakistan, just as it had modified North Korean designs to build a range of land-based missiles that could strike India. He said that Pakistan had taken the unusual step of agreeing to allow American officials to inspect the country’s Harpoon inventory to prove that it had not violated the law, a step that administration officials praised.

Some experts are also skeptical of the American claims. Robert Hewson, editor of Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, a yearbook and Web-based data service, said the Harpoon missile did not have the necessary range for a land-attack missile, which would lend credibility to Pakistani claims that they are developing their own new missile. Moreover, he said, Pakistan already has more modern land-attack missiles that it developed itself or acquired from China.

“They’re beyond the need to reverse-engineer old U.S. kit,” Hewson said in a telephone interview. “They’re more sophisticated than that.” Hewson said the ship-to-shore missile that Pakistan was testing was part of a concerted effort to develop an array of conventional missiles that could be fired from the air, land or sea to address India’s much more formidable conventional missile arsenal.

The dispute highlights the level of mistrust that remains between the United States and a Pakistani military that American officials like to portray as an increasingly reliable partner in the effort to root out the forces of the Taliban and al-Qaeda on Pakistani territory. A central element of the American effort has been to get the military refocused on the internal threat facing the country, rather than on threat the country believes it still faces from India.

Pakistani officials have insisted that they are making that shift. Yet the evidence continues to point to heavy investments in both nuclear and conventional weapons that experts say have no utility in the battle against insurgents.

Over the years, the United States has provided a total of 165 Harpoon missiles to Pakistan, including 37 of the older-model weapons that were delivered from 1985 to 1988, said Charles Taylor, a spokesman for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

The country’s nuclear arsenal is expanding faster than any other nation’s. In May, Pakistan conducted a test firing of its Babur medium-range cruise missile, a weapon that military experts say could potentially be tipped with a nuclear warhead. The test was conducted on May 6, during a visit to Washington by President Asif Ali Zardari, but was not made public by Pakistani officials until three days after the meetings had ended to avoid upsetting the talks. While it may be technically possible to arm the Harpoons with small nuclear weapons, outside experts say it would probably not be necessary.

Before lawmakers departed for their summer recess, administration officials briefed Congress on the protest to Pakistan. The dispute has the potential to delay or possibly even derail the legislation to provide Pakistan with $7.5 billion in civilian aid over five years; lawmakers are expected to vote on the aid package when they return from their recess next month.

The legislation is sponsored by Senators John Kerry, of Massachusetts, and Richard G. Lugar, of Indiana, the top Democrat and Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, was well as Representative Howard L. Berman, a California Democrat who leads the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congressional aides are now reconciling House and Senate versions of the legislation.

Frederick Jones, a spokesman for Kerry, declined to comment on the details of the dispute citing its classified nature but suggested that the pending multifaceted aid bill would clear Congress “in a few weeks” and would help cooperation between the two countries.

“There have been irritants in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship in the past and there will be in the future,” Jones said in a statement, noting that the pending legislation would provide President Obama "with new tools to address troubling behavior."

Blast kills 14 police recruits in Pakistan's Swat

MINGORA, Pakistan – A suicide bomber killed at least 14 police recruits Sunday in Pakistan's Swat Valley in the deadliest attack since the army regained control over the northwestern valley from the Taliban, an official said.

The blast in the yard of the main police station in Mingora, Swat's main town, came one day after the army said it had destroyed a major training camp for suicide bombers. It indicated the Taliban is still able to sow destruction and fear even though their hard-line Islamist rule in the valley is over.

Members of a new community police force were training to patrol the region when the attacker sneaked up and detonated his explosives, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told local television Geo by telephone.

Television footage showed officers gathering up mutilated bodies outside the police station, which had already been bombed twice before in recent months.

At least 14 bodies of police volunteers in uniform were brought to the local hospital and eight wounded recruits were being treated, hospital official Ikram Khan told The Associated Press.

Local police chief Idrees Khan said at least 20 were wounded and a dozen killed.

Khan denied rumors that the attacker was in uniform and might have been one of the police volunteers.
"No, we don't have any such report, but yes, a suicide bomber sneaked into the training for recruits," he told reporters at the scene in footage broadcast on local television.


He blamed the attack on a decision to relax a daily curfew in the area for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"We are reinforcing security," he said.

Police blocked roads around the area soon after the midday blast. Local markets quickly shuttered and authorities ordered residents to stay inside.

Pakistan's army says it is restoring security in Swat and surrounding areas after a three-month military offensive wrested the valley back from Taliban control, but suicide attacks and skirmishes continue.

"After the massive operation in Swat such incidents are expected," Hussain said.

On Saturday, the army said helicopter gunships had destroyed a training camp outside Mingora that it said was responsible for most of the recent suicide attacks.

In July, the military had declared Mingora and the surrounding areas cleared of militants except for small pockets of resistance.

Taliban and the bogey of terrorism

By Charles Ferndale

August 28, 2009

On Newsnight (Aug 20) while being interviewed by Gaven Esler, the US general incharge of the Afghan war, David Petraeus, said that the war was "not a war of choice". He was echoing President Obama, Gordon Brown, British military officials and others. We in Britain are told constantly that NATO forces have to be there to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a training ground for terrorist attacks on our own soil. The implication is that we are killing Afghans (in their tens of thousands) to stop Britons at home from being killed (in their tens, or, at worst, in their hundreds). The claim that we are in Afghanistan to keep terrorists off our streets is false; our presence there increases the threat of terrorism here. But its falsity is not news; no thoughtful person believes that the NATO forces are there for that reason. But what no one in the NATO countries asks publically is the question they should ask: even if the claim that we are in Afghanistan to prevent terrorism on our soil were true, would such a policy be justifiable on any coherent moral grounds? Is it right to kill thousands of people in their own homes to stave off a threat to just a fraction of that number in our own homes? Even if it worked, would it be a morally justifiable policy? We the British don't ask this question, but I am quite sure Afghans do.

Afghanistan has not been an important planning area for any attacks on western countries and the Taliban have shown no inclination to conduct war against NATO countries outside Afghanistan (so far, but we seem to be doing our best to change their practices). They are freedom-fighters who want us out of their country. Would we be killing them if there were no oil and gas around the Caspian sea?

General Petraeus said that the attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001 were planned in Afghanistan. This remark is disingenuous. Osama bin Laden may have been in Afghanistan at the time of the attacks, but had he been in Washington, New York, London, Paris or Hamburg, his whereabouts would have made no difference to the outcome. The perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks resided in Germany, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and were trained (in part) in flying schools set up (some allege, for this very purpose) by the CIA in Florida, US.

Gordon Brown said two days ago that 75 per cent of the terrorist attacks planned against Britain so far have been planned in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Another dishonest statement. Mr Brown has no idea what terrorist attacks on Britain have been planned so he cannot know what percentage were planned in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The most he can ever claim to know is what percent of the terrorist attacks planned, and known to our intelligence services, originated from one of those two countries. How many such plans does he know about? Is it 75 per cent of one, two, three, or four plans? How many were there? We are not told and we don't ask. Why are our journalists so lazy as to allow these fraudulent justifications for the war in Afghanistan to go unchallenged?

And what about the convenient disjunction in the claims of our officials -- that the terrorist plots were planned in Afghanistan or in Pakistan? Well, which country was it? Does Brown think we don't care? If none were planned in Afghanistan, then what relevance have those plans to our presence there? For the existence of any such plans to afford us grounds for killing thousands of Afghans in their own country, it would have to be shown (minimally) that such plots could never be hatched elsewhere. Clearly that cannot be shown. So, even if such plans might have exited, or might occur in future, their existence, or possible existence, offer no grounds for our belligerent presence in Afghanistan; any more than their known past occurrence in Britain, France, Germany, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and America would justify the mass killing of the nationals of those countries by anyone's armed forces. Would the Taliban be justified in bombing London just because our politicians are aggressive, dishonest, opportunists?

Over the last few days, two honest British journalists have at last mentioned that during the eight years of our presence in Afghanistan, there has been no improvement whatever in the appalling conditions under which most Afghans live. Perhaps that was news to them, but it is not news to any Afghan, nor to anyone who knows the region well. Despite the billions of dollars that have poured into Afghanistan since 2001 (which has promptly poured straight out again), no help has been given to the poor there. Actually the condition of the poor has got much worse since 2001, which is why, contrary to yet more dishonest statements by our officials, a great many Afghans support the Taliban. The only reliable experience Afghans have had of most NATO powers is that they break their promises (under Mullah Omar, the Taliban did not break their promises). So why should the NATO powers ever be trusted? And the plight of poor Afghan women (outside of the privileged families located mainly in Kabul) has also got worse since the Taliban were overthrown (hard as this may be for us liberals to believe). But did we not invade to liberate them? John Simpson, two days ago, was honest enough to say that had the money spent on the Afghan war been spent on the poor, there would be no war there. At last we see a glimmer of truth in the self-serving, meticulously disseminated, 'fog' of war. The fog exists in Europe and America, not in Afghanistan. The Afghans have a perfectly clear, close-up, view of what we are up to: and what they see is not pretty. They must think foreigners are all fools or liars.

When challenged on the failure of the NATO powers to do anything to help ordinary Afghans, the usual response from officials in the NATO countries is that the Taliban always prevent developmental projects from being implemented. They call it 'the security situation'. But the claim is another lie. There are huge areas of Afghanistan suffering the agonies, deformities, diseases and deaths caused by poverty, but those areas are untroubled by the Taliban. Nevertheless, they have not seen a dime since 2001. These areas are free from the troublesome Taliban, so anyone could visit them safely and confirm the truth of what I have just said, and so prove that what British and American officials are saying is false; but few do.

Western officials talk little of the fact that when the Taliban were in power from 1996 to 2001 opium production in Helmand was eliminated completely. Newspapers allege, repeatedly, that the Taliban are financing themselves with sales of heroin. The western media's favourite estimate of the profit made by the Taliban from heroin sales is $100 million a year. First question: how do they know? Second question: which Taliban make this money? The so-called Taliban no longer have a unified command (we saw to that). There are at least fourteen different groups being called 'Taliban'. Is the dope trade run like a welfare state, with fair shares for all? NATO officials are probably the source of most claims about the drug trade in Afghanistan. Can they be trusted? I don't think so. Simultaneously with claims that the drug trade is run by the 'Taliban', we are told that it is run by Karzai's 'war lords'. But Karzai is America's man. So could it be that the drug trade is financing America's men (as it did during the Vietnam war and during the illegal, American-run, Contra war against the elected Sandanista government of Nicaragua)? In any case, can these commentators have it both ways? Is the drug trade financing both sides? Maybe, maybe not. None of these obvious and reasonable questions is ever asked in public in Britain. Why not? Is the British public content to be told highly improbable stories?

Oh, how tiresome it is to be misinformed routinely by the country's supposed leaders and by lazy journalists. And what hope is there for countries in which the electorate tolerate, as their leaders, people who only ever seem to lie.

Major fraud allegations in Afghan vote top 550

KABUL – The commission investigating fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election says it has now received more than 550 complaints serious enough to affect the poll's outcome if proved true.

Nellika Little, a spokeswoman for the independent Electoral Complaints Commission, says it has received more than 2,000 allegations of fraud or intimidation involving voting day or the counting of ballots.

She says about 83 percent of those complaints have been processed and 567 given priority status because they could affect results. The figure more than doubles the 270 priority allegations reported Friday.

She says the most common complaints involve polling irregularities such as ballot-box stuffing. The next most common allegation is voter intimidation or attempts to influence voters.

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

KABUL (AP) — Militants gunned down a provincial counterterrorism chief in eastern Afghanistan after ambushing his convoy, an official said Sunday.

Fayez Khan, who headed counterterrorism operations for Khost province, was driving home Saturday evening in a convoy with police and bodyguards when he was ambushed, said Tahir Khan Sabari, the province's deputy governor. Khan was killed immediately, though a short gunbattle ensued as the security forces battled the attackers, Sabari said.

Sabari said he believed the attackers were Taliban fighters because Khan's job made him an obvious target and because Khan was not known to have any personal feuds that would account for the attack.

One of the attackers was also killed and another wounded, Sabari said. There were no other injuries.

Government officials are common targets of the Taliban and other militant groups working to undermine the Kabul-based government. Attacks stepped up this month around the country's Aug. 20 presidential election, with the Taliban threatening voters and attacking polling stations.

Final results from the vote are still weeks away, but partial results from 35 percent of polling stations show President Hamid Karzai widening his lead over main challenger Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister. Karzai needs more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Hundreds of major fraud allegations have to be investigated before any official results are released.

Lebanon town makes mincemeat of world record

EHDEN, Lebanon (AFP) – The small town of Ehden in north Lebanon gained an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records on Saturday for producing the largest ever kebbe -- a dish of minced meat and cracked wheat.

A representative of Guinness World Records as on hand to certify that the giant meal prepared in a festive atmosphere by 25 women in the town square measured up before presenting the official paperwork.

To create the giant circular 20-square-metre (215-square-foot) kebbe they had to mix 120 kilos of mince, 80 litres of olive oil, 80 kilos of cracked wheat, five kilos of salt and a mere kilo of pepper.

After the huge dish was cooked the certificate was officially handed over to Rima Franjieh, wife of MP Sleiman Franjieh.

Rebel clashes along China-Myanmar border subside

By NG HAN GUAN, Associated Press Writer

MENG PENG, China – Fighting appeared to have subsided Sunday along China's southern border after days of clashes between Myanmar government troops and ethnic rebels sent thousands of refugees streaming into China.


At least one person was killed Saturday and dozens injured when a bomb was tossed into China, a report said.

The clashes pose a major concern to Communist China and its goal of stability ahead of the sensitive Oct. 1 celebration of its 60th anniversary. Beijing has told Myanmar to end the fighting to "safeguard the regional stability."

The fighting also threatens to strain China's close relationship with Myanmar's military junta, which has been trying to consolidate control over several armed ethnic groups along its borders to ensure next year's national elections, the first in nearly 20 years, go smoothly.

An official with the Public Security Bureau in China's Zhengkang county, which oversees the border area, said Sunday there had been no reports of fighting since late Saturday. Like many Chinese officials, he refused to give his name.

In the Chinese border town of Meng Peng, several men who said they were rebels told The Associated Press they had turned in their weapons to Chinese officials. Dozens of men wearing blue overalls, issued to them when they surrendered their uniforms, were seen in the town shopping for civilian clothes.

"We surrendered our guns. ... Besides, there was no way we would win," Ri Chenchuan, a former rebel militia soldier, said, laughing.

State-controlled media in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have not reported the violence.

A statement Sunday from the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma said fighting had stopped and about 700 rebels had fled from thousands of Myanmar troops into China.

Most of the refugees are Kokang, an ethnic Han Chinese minority group that speaks Chinese and has received support for decades from China because of its traditional ties to the Communist Party, said Aung Zaw, editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine by Myanmar exiles.

"These are not your typical Burmese refugees," he said. Simultaneously, "China continued to provide support to these ethnic groups and support the junta. I think China is playing a double-faced role in this conflict," he said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said up to 30,000 people have poured into the Chinese border town of Nansan from Myanmar's Kokang region in northern Shan state since early this month. Chinese authorities are providing emergency food, shelter and medical care, it said.

The Yunnan provincial government said about 10,000 people had crossed into China and authorities were housing some in seven camps in and near Nansan.

One person was killed and several were injured Saturday when a bomb was thrown across the border into China, the China Daily newspaper reported. It gave no other details.

At least 25 people had been admitted to Zhenkang County People's Hospital for injuries related to the fighting as of Saturday, said a hospital official who refused to give her name. Most of the patients are ethnic Chinese from Myanmar, she said.

Late Saturday, a few hundred refugees remained in tents and several unfinished buildings in Nansan, guarded by Chinese police and paramilitary soldiers. The scene was calm and orderly, with police and officials apparently registering refugees and taking their temperatures before letting them into the settlement area.

Li Hui, a local Foreign Affairs Department official, told AP reporters that media were not allowed in the refugee camps and ordered them to leave.

China has been known to seal off entire regions of the country during times of unrest.

Japan's ruling party enters elections as underdog

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO – Japanese cast ballots Sunday in hotly contested parliamentary elections in which the ruling conservative party, battered by a laggard economy and voter desire for change after more than half a century of virtual one-party rule, was expected to suffer an overwhelming defeat.


The Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, went into the elections with all major polls projecting it would lose control of the lower house of parliament.


That would likely mean the fall of Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet and the creation of a new government headed by centrist Democratic Party of Japan chief Yukio Hatoyama — who would become the first prime minister not backed by the Liberal Democrats since 1994.

The vote is widely seen as a barometer of two related issues — voter frustrations over the ailing economy, which is in one of its worst slumps since World War II, and a loss of confidence in the Liberal Democrats' ability to tackle tough problems such as the rising national debt and rapidly aging population.

But even with severe challenges pressing the nation, many analysts said the elections might not be about the issues so much as voters' general desire for something new after nearly 54 years under the Liberal Democrats.

They also note that although the Democrats promise to change Japan's approach toward its economy and make Tokyo's diplomacy less U.S.-centric, their founders are defectors from the Liberal Democrats and are not likely to present too radical a departure from the country's current path.

"The election is more about emotions than policies," Tokyo University political science professor Takashi Mikuriya said in a televised interview. "Most voters are making the decision not about policies but about whether they are fed up with the ruling party."

Japanese media predicted a high voter turnout.

"We don't know if the Democrats can really make a difference, but we want to give them a chance," Junko Shinoda, 59, a government employee, said after voting at a crowded polling center in downtown Tokyo.

Hatoyama, 62, urged a crowd in his final campaign speech Saturday to "have the courage to do away with the old politics."

"A change may not come overnight, but we will definitely make it happen," he said.

Trying to cut the ruling party's losses, Aso — whose own support ratings have sagged to a dismal 20 percent — called on voters in his final pitch Saturday to stick with his party, saying the Democrats are untested and unable to lead.

He and the ruling party have stressed that they are the stewards of Japan's rise from the ashes of World War II into one of the world's biggest economic powers and are best equipped to get it out of its current morass.

But that argument has taken a beating.

On Friday, the government reported that the unemployment rate for July hit 5.7 percent — the highest level in Japan's post-World War II era — while deflation intensified and families have cut spending, largely because they are afraid of what's ahead and are choosing to save whatever money they can as a safety measure.

Hatoyama has promised to cut wasteful spending, hold off on tax hikes planned by the Liberal Democrats and put more money into consumers' pockets. That is a sharp contrast with the Liberal Democrats' heavy focus on tax-funded stimulus packages that increase government spending and debt.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts the country's public debt, already the highest among developed countries, may reach 200 percent of gross domestic product next year.

Making the situation more dire is Japan's rapidly aging demographic — which means more people are on pensions and there is a shrinking pool of taxpayers to support them and other government programs.

The Democrats are proposing an expensive menu of initiatives: toll-free highways, free high schools, income support for farmers, monthly allowances for job seekers in training, a higher minimum wage and tax cuts. The estimated bill comes to 16.8 trillion yen ($179 billion) if fully implemented starting in fiscal year 2013.

Polls by major newspapers said Hatoyama's party is likely to win more than 320 seats in the 480-seat lower house, sharply higher than the 112 it held before parliament was dissolved in July.

Along with his fiscal departures from the Liberal Democrats, Hatoyama says he will rein in the power of the bureaucracy and wants Japan to be more independent from the United States, Tokyo's key trading partner and military ally.

But Hatoyama, who holds a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University, insists he will not seek dramatic change in Japan's foreign policy, saying the U.S.-Japan alliance would "continue to be the cornerstone of Japanese diplomatic policy."

Senator Kennedy, liberal giant, buried

By Deborah Charles and Svea Herbst-Bayliss

WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) – Senator Edward Kennedy, the liberal champion of the U.S. Senate who carried on the political legacy of his slain brothers, was buried on Saturday after four days of emotional tributes.

The man who President Barack Obama called the "greatest legislator of our time" received final sendoffs in Boston and Washington, cities where the Irish-American patriarch of America's pre-eminent political family wielded his power.

After a funeral Mass in Boston where the U.S. political elite packed a Roman Catholic church, Kennedy's flag-draped coffin was flown to Washington, where thousands lined the streets to see his motorcade make its way to Arlington National Cemetery.

Two hundred invited guests gathered around his gravesite for final readings as darkness fell. He was buried near the graves of President John F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1963, and Senator Robert Kennedy, who was killed while campaigning for president in 1968. A military honor guard gave a three-volley rifle salute in honor of the Democratic senator.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a friend of Kennedy's, presided at the burial and read from a letter to Pope Benedict in which the senator wrote: "I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines ... I know that I have been an imperfect human being but with the help of my faith, I have tried to right my path."

McCarrick also read the response from the Vatican which said the Pope gave Kennedy his "apostolic blessing."

Since Kennedy died Tuesday of brain cancer at age 77, there have been a series of memorials for the last of the Kennedy brothers, showing the fascination many Americans have for a family that is the closest thing to U.S. royalty.

Victoria, his second wife who is credited with turning around Kennedy's life after their 1992 marriage, was at the center of the tributes, which match what the United States would normally reserve for a former president.

Before going to the cemetery, the motorcade stopped for a brief prayer service outside the U.S. Capitol, where lawmakers from both political parties, staffers from his 47 years in the Senate and a crowd of hundreds sang patriotic songs.

Family members waved through open car windows as the motorcade slowly traced the same route that Kennedy's slain brothers took before him to Arlington, a cemetery reserved for military and prominent Americans.

In his eulogy in Boston, Obama recalled the many tragedies Kennedy lived through, calling them "a string of events that would have broken a lesser man."

"Ted Kennedy's life's work was not to champion those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard," Obama said.

HEALTHCARE BATTLE

In Kennedy, who Obama called the "soul of the Democratic Party," the president lost an ally in his uphill battle to overhaul the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system in which nearly 46 million people go uninsured. There were numerous reference during the services to what Kennedy had said was "the cause of my life."

Kennedy, a senator under 10 presidents, could charm Republicans into backroom deals even while conservatives ridiculed him as a hopeless lover of big government.

Police said 50,000 people came to a two-day public viewing of his casket at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

"Where would I be as a black man without the Kennedys?" said Clint Haymon, one of hundreds of mourners gathered outside the church in pouring rain. "They believe in civil rights and that's why I am here to honor this great man."

Loved by liberals, Kennedy was both respected and reviled by conservatives, many of whom never forgave him for the Chappaquiddick car accident in 1969 when he drove off a bridge, escaping while a woman who was with him died. He did not call police for nine hours, and the incident may have ended any chance he had of becoming president.

US faces smaller, smarter enemy in Afghanistan

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer

NOW ZAD, Afghanistan – After three tours in Iraq, U.S. Marine Sgt. Andre Leon was used to brutal shootouts with enemy fighters and expected more of the same in Afghanistan.

Instead, what he's seen so far are anonymous attacks in the form of mines and roadside bombings — the mark of what he calls a cowardly adversary.

"I'm not impressed with them," Leon, 25, of Herndon, Va., said this past week from a Marines camp deep in the southern province of Helmand, where U.S. forces are challenging Taliban insurgents and their devastating use of IEDs, or homemade bombs. "I expected more of a stand-and-fight. All these guys do is IEDs."

Marines on the front lines in southern Afghanistan say there's no question that the militants are just as deadly as the Iraqi insurgents they once fought in Iraq's Anbar Province. The Afghan enemy is proving to be a smaller, but smarter opponent, taking full advantage of the country's craggy and enveloping terrain in eluding and then striking at U.S troops.

In interviews, Marines across Helmand said their new foes are not as religiously fanatic as the Syrian and Chechen militants they fought in Iraq and often tend to be hired for battle. U.S. commanders call them the "$10 Taliban."

Taking advantage of the Afghanistan's mountainous rural landscape, the fighters often spread out their numbers, hiding in fields and planting bombs on roads, rather than taking aim at U.S. forces from snipers' nests in urban settings, as often was the case in Iraq. And they are not as bent on suicide, often retreating to fight another day.

"One thing about Afghanistan, they're not trying to go to paradise," said Sgt. Robert Warren, 26, of Peshtigo, Wis. He served a tour in both Iraq and Afghanistan before his current assignment at Combat Outpost Sharp, a Marines camp hidden in cornfields and dirt piles.

"They want to live to see tomorrow," Warren said. "They engage with us, but when they know we'll call in air support, they'll break contact with us. ... They're just as fierce, but they're smarter."

Marine commanders believe they face between 7,000 and 11,000 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, although it is unclear how many are low-level militants hired for battle as opposed to extremist leaders.

By comparison, officials still are unsure how many members of al-Qaida in Iraq remain. Earlier estimates ranged between 850 to several thousand full-time fighters, although commanders believe that number has been reduced significantly as a result of counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq.

There are some similarities between the fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Officers and enlisted troops said both foes have no qualms about using civilians as human shields.

Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marine brigade leading the current fight in Helmand, said the Taliban's use of IEDs shows the extremists' disregard for Afghan civilians — much as in Iraq.

"Enemy here is equally brutal and cowardly in conducting despicable acts of intimidation and cruelty directed against (the) local population," said Nicholson, who was severely wounded in a rocket attack in Fallujah in 2004 during the first of his two commands in Iraq.

Both foes are also sometimes known to use drugs — troops have reported finding syringes and needles in enemy camps.

Training does not seem to be an issue for Marines who have been making the transition from Iraq to Afghanistan. Their skills appear to have held up in both war zones.

But new U.S. battle guidelines that limit shooting into or otherwise attacking buildings without ensuring there are no civilians inside have at times made the fighting more difficult.

The rules were put into place this summer after dozens of Afghans were killed in a May battle in Farah province that ended when U.S. forces bombed a building where Taliban fighters were believed to be hiding.

"It's frustrating to be attacked from a building," said Lt. Joe Hamilton of Baltimore as he scrutinized two-story village structures on the other side of dirt-and-barbed wire walls at Combat Outpost Fiddler's Green. "You can't shoot back because you don't know if there are civilians there."

He added: "They're more disciplined. They wait longer until we get in their kill zones, then they attack us."


Once in Iraq, now in Afghanistan, the Marines say they relish the battle in either place, preferring the action to staying home, out of the fight.

Asked where he felt the threat was most dire, Sgt. Warren shrugged his shoulders.


"Camp Lejeune," he said wryly. The North Carolina base is where Marines train and live between deployments.