Serbia, Kosovo leaders meet for first time at EU

October 19, 2012

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Friday mediated the first official talks between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo, the bitter Balkan rivals, and the Serbian prime minister said he is ready for a "historic compromise."

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said she first met separately with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, then chaired a joint meeting. We "will meet again soon ... to improve the lives of people and help solve problems and, in so doing, bring Serbia and Kosovo closer to the European Union," Ashton said.

Kosovo, which is predominantly ethnic Albanian, declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia has said it will never recognize the independence of its former province, which it considers the cradle of its statehood and Christian Orthodox religion.

Serbia spent much of the 1990s ostracized and isolated from the EU after Serbian autocrat Slobodan Milosevic started wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. In 1999, NATO bombed Serbia to stop the war in Kosovo, forcing Serbia to relinquish control there.

Today, the EU is setting the normalization of relations with Kosovo as the main condition for continuing Serbia's membership negotiations with the bloc. But Kosovo's Serb-populated north has remained a flashpoint of the troubles in the Balkans because hardline Serbs there do not acknowledge the authority of Kosovo's central government.

"We believe the time has come to reach a historic compromise," Dacic said after Friday's meeting. "We are ready for talks, even about the final status of Kosovo." But he also said the talks should not "result in a one-sided recognition of Kosovo's independence."

"We are ready to talk about the position of the Serbian people (in Kosovo), protection of church heritage, war crimes, organ trafficking, the missing, Serb property and the return of refugees to Kosovo," Dacic said.

A statement from Thaci's office said the meeting will clear the path for the two countries to eventually join the EU, and "serve peace and stability in the region." Kosovo authorities welcomed the meeting.

"It is very good that (the) very first high-level meeting between the prime minister of the republic of Kosovo and the republic of Serbia was held on equal basis," Arber Vllahiu, the spokesman for Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga told The Associated Press.

Ashton said she firmly believes the dialogue is in the interest of both sides. Dacic said the next meeting between the two prime ministers is scheduled in November.

Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia, and Nebi Qena from Pristina, Kosovo.

Spanish unions call general strike in November

October 19, 2012

MADRID (AP) — Spain's main trade unions on Friday called a general strike for Nov. 14, coinciding with similar work stoppages in Portugal and Greece, to protest government-imposed austerity measures and labor reforms.

The general strike called by the Workers' Commissions and General Workers' unions will be the second in Spain this year. A partially successful stoppage was held March 29. Fernando Lezcano, the spokesman for the Workers' Commissions, said it would be the first ever joint general strike in Iberian neighbors Spain and Portugal.

The General Workers' union in a statement said the strike was called to press for a change in government policy because "cuts are strangling the economy and dismantling our social model." Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said the strike would do nothing to lower unemployment, which she said was Spain's biggest problem.

"This strike does not help either workers or the unemployed," she said. "We do not believe the best way to create jobs is to invite people not to work." Spain is in its second recession in three years and has near 25 percent unemployment. The tax hikes, spending cuts and labor reforms are aimed at convincing investors and international authorities the country can manage its finances without a need for a full-blown bailout.

Spain's public finances have been overwhelmed by the cost of rescuing some of its banks and regional governments, many of which have suffered heavy losses in Spain's property sector crash in 2008. On Friday, the Balearic islands and the northern province of Asturias became the seventh and eighth regions to ask for financial help. The islands will request €355 million ($462.7 million) from the central government's €18 billion ($23.5 billion) rescue fund for the regions, while Asturias will seek €261.

Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, has asked for €5 billion, Andalusia €4.9 billion, Valencia €4.5 billion, Castilla-La Mancha €848 million, the Canary Islands €756 million and Murcia €641 million.

Meanwhile, the government of the heavily indebted eastern region of Valencia on Friday approved a measure announced in May to lay off at least 3,000 public service employees — 40 percent of its workforce — to make savings of about €300 million ($391 million).

Australia wins seat on UN Security Council

ABC
October 19, 2012

Australia says it's grateful to Pacific, Caribbean and African nations for supporting its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, the most important governing body in the UN.

The nation garnered 140 votes from members of the UN General Assembly to earn one of the five non-permanent seats up for grabs on the council.

Other successful nations were Argentina, Rwanda, Luxembourg and South Korea.

Australia will serve on the council next year and in 2014.

Australia 'good global citizen'

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr says the vote recognizes Australia's activist foreign policy and status as a good global citizen.

"I think Australians are entitled to say today that the work of our diplomats, the work of our peacekeepers, the work of our troops, the work of our volunteers providing aid - all this is reflected in the day's result," he said.

"It's a wonderful, heart-warming endorsement of Australia as a good global citizen.

"It's countries saying, 'We like Australia. We think Australia's role is good and positive and we want to see Australia provide leadership'."

He says Australia received strong support from African nations and countries of the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Australia's Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Richard Marles, was in the United Nations chamber when the vote was announced and says it was a very sweet moment for Australia and a very sweet moment for the Pacific.

"The bedrock of our support in this campaign has been the Pacific from day one, and indeed that support has spread to other island nations around the world - the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean," he told .

"We're very grateful for that and I think the Pacific very much know that in Australia sitting on the Security Council now, they're sitting there as well."

Mr Marles says Australia can bring strong experience to the Security Council, especially in peace-building in its region, in East Timor, in Solomon Islands and in Bougainville.

"There are lessons that have been learnt there that we really can take to the world," he says.

"If you look at the [Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands], it really is the world's best practice in terms of a regional intervention into a country which was experiencing really a state of chaos when RAMSI began its work in 2003."

Opposition backlash

While the Australian Opposition coalition has welcomed the nation's win, they are wary of the cost of Australia's campaign for the seat.

Foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop says the coalition will be seeking further detail from the government on the total cost of the bid, and the expectations of countries who gave their support.

"I hope that we can ascertain over time exactly what Australia promised in return for votes," she said.

"We know that the aid budget was skewed in order to win votes in certain parts of the world.

"We know that promises were made but we don't know the details about them and I assume that will emerge over time."

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs has rejected suggestions aid money has been used to bolster Canberra's bid for a United Nations Security Council seat.

Protests as Ireland's 1st abortion clinic opens

October 18, 2012

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — The first abortion clinic on the island of Ireland opened Thursday in downtown Belfast, unleashing angry protests on the street and uniting Catholic and Protestant politicians in calls to investigate the new facility.

The clinic, run by the British family planning charity Marie Stopes, will be permitted to provide abortions only in exceptional circumstances to women less than nine weeks pregnant. But the opening caught Northern Ireland's socially conservative politicians off guard, and they vowed to launch an investigation into how the clinic operates. About 400 protesters who lined the sidewalk outside the facility all day said they were certain that public pressure would force authorities to shut it.

"I expect the heads of government to run Marie Stopes out of Northern Ireland," the protest leader, Bernadette Smyth of the pressure group Precious Life, told supporters through a bullhorn. "Those who have come ... storm heaven with your prayers!"

Abortion is one of few issues that unites Northern Ireland, a predominantly Protestant corner of the United Kingdom, and the mostly Catholic Republic of Ireland. Both jurisdictions keep abortion outlawed except in cases where doctors deem the woman's life at risk from continued pregnancy.

Both effectively export the controversy to Britain, where abortion on demand has been legal since 1967. An estimated 4,000 women from the Irish Republic, and 1,000 from Northern Ireland, travel there for abortions annually, often lying to family, friends and colleagues about their absence.

Inside the clinic on Thursday, doctors and counselors dealt with several women in crisis pregnancies. They reported being deluged with calls from women, including Republic of Ireland residents, seeking appointments.

Outside, protesters displayed posters with graphic pictures of aborted fetuses, sang hymns and sparred verbally with passing pedestrians, who made clear they want liberalized access to abortion in Northern Ireland. Protesters didn't directly heckle people entering or leaving the clinic, which is inside a much larger building with several offices.

Directors of Marie Stopes emphasized they would comply fully with Northern Ireland's law permitting abortions only when the woman's life or long-term health is endangered. They said while such exceptional abortions are already carried out in secrecy in Northern Ireland hospitals, between 30 and 50 a year, many more eligible women travel to Britain rather than confront stern anti-abortion attitudes at home.

Tracey McNeill, director of Marie Stopes clinics across the United Kingdom, said some of the approximately 1,000 women who travel each year to Britain for abortions "would have been entitled to have that care within Northern Ireland, but they didn't know where to go, they didn't know who to talk to."

The Belfast clinic, she said, "is not about increasing the number of terminations of pregnancies in Northern Ireland. It's about providing it to that small number of people who will be eligible for it within their own country."

The senior legal adviser to Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant government, Attorney General John Larkin, said he would be happy to aid any legislative investigation into the clinic. Lawmakers quickly accepted the suggestion and said they would summon clinic officials to fact-finding hearings, with Larkin free to ask questions, too.

"Given the contentious nature of their support for abortion, it is necessary that the law is fully complied with and that we are assured by Marie Stopes," said Alban Maginness, a Catholic member of the legislature's justice committee.

"There is huge public interest. It's only appropriate to examine (the clinic). The public expect us to do something," said Jim Wells, a Protestant member of the health committee. Clinic directors say the only form of abortion they will provide are pills that induce miscarriages in women up to nine weeks pregnant. Such pills are already easily ordered from British suppliers on the Internet, though receipt of such pills in Ireland could be treated as a criminal offense.

Suzanne Lee, a 23-year-old student from Northern Ireland who had a pill-induced abortion last year in Dublin after ordering it off the Internet, said she would have liked to be able to go to a Marie Stopes clinic for medical support, because taking the medication was "quite an ordeal to go through."

She said it involved "severe cramping, a lot of bleeding. I bled for four weeks after it, but because I terminated my pregnancy at six weeks, it was nothing worse than a very bad period." She expressed disgust that many people in Northern Ireland "believe I should spend life in prison for what I did."

Protesters warned that the clinic, if not closed, would become a beachhead for expanding abortion rights in Northern Ireland and, eventually, the Republic of Ireland. "For Marie Stopes, this is only a first step," said Liam Gibson from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, a predominantly Catholic pressure group.

The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland this week launched a monthlong campaign to press the Irish government to strengthen its constitutional ban on abortion. It has denounced the Belfast clinic's opening but shied away from calling for protests.

"We are in the middle of a struggle for the soul of Northern Ireland," said Bishop Donal McKeown, the senior Catholic in Belfast, who didn't attend the protest. He said directors of Marie Stopes were seeking "to promote the acceptability of abortion."

Only one of Northern Ireland's 108 legislators, Anna Lo, has expressed support for the clinic. While opinion polls indicate public opinion is split roughly 50-50 on the issue, taking a pro-choice stand is seen as a vote-loser. As a result, Northern Ireland has failed to produce legally binding guidelines for doctors explaining the precise circumstances when abortions can be performed legally here.

Doctors and nurses have asked repeatedly for clearly written government rules to guard them from protests or lawsuits if they're identified as abortion providers. This inaction means that the only legislation dates to 1861, outlawing the "procurement of a miscarriage," and a 1945 amendment creating the exception that permits abortions to preserve the mother's life or health.

The law is even messier in the Republic of Ireland, which won independence from Britain in 1922. Its constitution bans abortion, but in 1992 the Irish Supreme Court ruled it was legal to receive abortions there, if the woman's life was in danger — including from her own threats to commit suicide if denied one. Successive governments have refused to pass legislation in line with that judgment.

British Spitfire planes to be dug up in Myanmar

October 18, 2012

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar signed a deal with a British aviation enthusiast to allow the excavation of a World War II treasure: dozens of Spitfire fighter planes reportedly buried by the British almost 70 years ago.

Aviation enthusiast David J. Cundall said earlier this year he had found the aircraft after years of searching and they were believed to be in excellent condition. While details of their reported burial are obscure, Cundall has said they were shipped to the then-British colony called Burma near the end of the war and abandoned unused and in packing cases when they were not needed.

Aviation enthusiasts say only three dozen or so airworthy Spitfires still exist worldwide. The single-seat fighter planes were about 9.1 meters (30 feet) long with an 11.2-meter (37-foot) wingspan. The wings may not have been attached to the packed planes.

The British Embassy said Wednesday that the agreement was reached after discussions between Myanmar President Thein Sein and British Prime Minister David Cameron during his visit to Myanmar earlier this year.

The excavation is to begin by the end of October. The Myanma Ahlin daily reported that the excavation agreement was signed Tuesday by Director General of Civil Aviation Tin Naing Tun, Cundall on behalf of his British company DJC, and Htoo Htoo, managing director of Cundall's Myanmar partner, the Shwe Taung Paw company.

"It took 16 years for Mr. David Cundall to locate the planes buried in crates. We estimate that there are at least 60 Spitfires buried and they are in good condition," Htoo Htoo Zaw said. "This will be the largest number of Spitfires in the world," he said. "We want to let people see those historic fighters, and the excavation of these fighter planes will further strengthen relations between Myanmar and Britain."

The British Embassy described the agreement as a chance to work with Myanmar's new reformist government to restore and display the planes. "We hope that many of them will be gracing the skies of Britain and as discussed, some will be displayed here in Burma," said an embassy spokesman, who spoke anonymously because he was not directly involved in the excavation agreement.

The country gained independence from Britain after the war and was long ruled by its military, which changed the name to Myanmar in 1989. Thein Sein's reformist government has turned away from the repression of the military government and patched up relations with Western nations that had previously shunned it.

Myanma Ahlin cited Transport Minister Nyan Tun Aung saying the agreement was a milestone strengthening the friendly relationship between Myanmar and Britain and amounts to the British government's recognition of the democratic reforms.

Cundall has said his quest to find the planes involved 12 trips to Myanmar and the expenditure of more than 130,000 pounds ($210,000).

Harsh rebel rhetoric as Colombian peace talks open

October 18, 2012

HURDAL, Norway (AP) — Colombia's first peace talks in a decade were inaugurated Thursday a half world away with a demonstration of just how widely the two sides differ on how to end a vexing, nearly five-decade-old conflict.

The Oslo talks were brief, symbolic and largely perfunctory. Held at a secret venue, they lasted seven hours and were followed by word that substantive talks will begin Nov. 15 in the Cuban capital of Havana. The next round will tackle "comprehensive agrarian development," though little else appears to have been agreed upon.

The government's lead negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, sought to set a businesslike, cordial tone in brief remarks at a joint news conference at a lakeside hotel north of Oslo. He said the government seeks "mutual dignified treatment" in the talks and doesn't expect the sides to see eye-to-eye ideologically.

His opposite number from the Western Hemisphere's last remaining major insurgency, Ivan Marquez, said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had come to Oslo "with an olive branch." Then he began railing against Colombia's "corrupt oligarchy," its alleged masters in Washington, "state-sponsored violence," the government's "deceptive and backward" land policies, and the "vampires" of transnational oil and mining that FARC says are ravaging the nation.

"We want to denounce the crime of capitalism and neo-liberalism," Marquez said during a 35-minute discourse that denounced some companies and individuals by name, including a cousin of President Juan Manuel Santos and a relative of one of the government negotiators.

Members of the government team, separated from the FARC negotiators at a long table by Norwegian and Cuban diplomats who have acted as facilitators, looked bored and slightly annoyed, some crossing their arms, others propping up chins with hands.

"There is a great chasm between the two parties that is going to be very difficult to overcome," said political scientist Vicente Torrijos at Bogota's Universidad del Rosario. Colombia's business community is also hostile to the FARC. Its TV and radio stations cut away to commercials early in the FARC's separate news conference Thursday.

Land ownership issues are at the heart of Colombia's conflict, which is fueled by cocaine trafficking and aggravated by far-right militias that have colluded with a military widely questioned for human right abuses. Colombia's most fertile land has been largely concentrated in the hands of cattle ranchers and drug traffickers.

Colombia's president has said he expects the talks to last months, not years, as did the failed 1999-2002 talks that were held in a Switzerland-sized safe haven. Santos ruled out a safe haven this time and rejected FARC's request for a cease-fire.

"The government has said it is not a hostage to this process," De la Calle noted. Santos has said he will break off negotiations unless there is measurable progress. The Norway talks focused chiefly on logistics, and De la Calle said his delegation would return to Colombia on Friday after just two days in the Scandinavian country. A key member of its five-man negotiating team, former police director Oscar Naranjo, did not even attend.

A road map for the talks was signed in August following six months of secret negotiations in Cuba with the participation of that country's communist government and the Norwegians. They will be joined at the talks in Cuba by delegates from Chile and Venezuela, the latter of which has long been used as a refuge by FARC fighters. The facilitators' exact role has not yet been explained.

This week's negotiations were to have begun in the first half of October but were delayed by the red tape of suspending arrest warrants for rebel leaders and a dispute over the FARC's last-minute naming of a polyglot Dutch female guerrilla, Tanja Nijmeijer, to its delegation over government objections.

A U.S. arrest warrant for Nijmeijer on hostage-taking and terrorism charges was not suspended. She was not in Oslo. De la Calle said she would join the rebel delegation in Cuba. Also absent was one of the five men named to the FARC's team of top negotiators: Ricardo Palmera, who is better known by his nom-de-guerre Simon Trinidad.

He is in solitary confinement at a maximum-security U.S. prison after being convicted in 2008 of conspiracy to kidnap three U.S. military contractors. They were held by the rebels for five years after their surveillance plane crashed in guerrilla-held territory, and were rescued that same year along with the presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

The rebel negotiators put a name tag for Trinidad, 62, at their end of the news conference's long table, after De la Calle said his participation "is not contemplated." Other Colombian officials had said he could possibly join the talks by videoconference. U.S. officials say they have received no request for that.

In his remarks, De la Calle expressed a willingness to compromise that has been characteristic of the Santos government. "The government acknowledges that there are unjust social differences," he said. "We want to embark on a road to social change." Such language upsets Colombia's political right, including its standard-bearer, Alvaro Uribe.

President in 2002-2010, Uribe said Thursday that Marquez's speech was just one more instance of the rebels "mistreating the Colombian people, insulting them and trying to explain away (their) crimes."

Santos, who was Uribe's defense minister in 2006-2009, is a social progressive by contrast and has been applauded by the FARC for launching efforts to return stolen land. Colombia is a nation of deep social inequalities and rampant human rights violations. It leads the world in union leader killings and has hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people.

De la Calle expressed displeasure at what he considered an attempt by Marquez to broaden the peace talks from an agreed upon five-point agenda with a blanket indictment of everything from capitalism to genetically modified seeds.

"We are not discussing the economic model. We are not discussing international investment," De la Calle said. He said that after the FARC signs a peace accord, it can enter politics and try to win elections and enact change peacefully.

That prompted rebel delegate Jesus Santrich to comment: "Relax, we're only just starting." Analyst Adam Isacson at the Washington Office on Latin America called the talks' launch notable for "an atmosphere of seriousness and discipline, and appearance that both sides are committed."

He said it was important for Marquez not to give the impression that the rebels are capitulating. The FARC has been seriously weakened in the past decade, reduced to about 9,000 fighters, as Colombia's military bulked up and gained effectiveness with the help of billions in U.S. aid.

Marquez's discourse was "similar to that of some politicians on Colombia's left who reject the FARC's violent ways," Isacson said. Indeed, the leftist presidents who lead Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela have all publicly urged the FARC to abandon its armed struggle and embrace democracy.

In addition to agrarian reform, the talks are to focus on full political rights for the peasant-based rebels once an agreement is signed and they disarm. The FARC would also get out of illegal narcotics, and restitution would be set for victims of the conflict.

One of the prickliest issues is what to do with combatants on both sides who are guilty of war crimes. A Colombian law passed in July contemplates amnesties and pardons, but groups including Human Rights Watch say anyone guilty of crimes against humanity should be brought to justice and punished.

Associated Press writers Frank Bajak in Lima, Peru, and Libardo Cardona and Cesar Garcia in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

Violence breaks out at Greek anti-austerity demo

October 18, 2012

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of youths pelted riot police with fire bombs, bottles and chunks of marble Thursday as yet another Greek anti-austerity demonstration descended into violence, less than a month after more intense clashes broke out during a similar protest.

Authorities said around 70,000 protesters took to the street in two separate demonstrations in Athens during the country's second general strike in a month as workers across the country walked off the job to protest new austerity measures the government is negotiating with Greece's international creditors.

Thursday's strike was timed to coincide with a European Union summit in Brussels later in the day, at which Greece's economic fate will likely feature large. Riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades in the capital's Syntagma Square outside Parliament as protesters scattered during the clashes, which continued on and off for about an hour. Another general strike in late September had also seen limited, but much more intense, clashes between protesters and police.

A 65-year-old protester suffered a fatal heart attack during the demonstration but efforts to revive him failed. The organizers of the protest march he participated in said the man had fallen ill before any rioting had broken out.

Four demonstrators were injured after being hit by police, volunteer paramedics said. The Health Ministry said two of the protesters were treated in hospital and that their injuries were not serious. Three policemen also required hospital treatment.

Hundreds of police had been deployed in the Greek capital ahead of the demonstration. Police said seven people were arrested Thursday, out of more than 100 detained. The strike grounded flights, shut down public services, closed schools, hospitals and shops and hampered public transport in the capital. Taxi drivers joined in for nine hours, while a three-hour work stoppage by air traffic controllers led to flight cancellations. Islands were left cut off as ferries stayed in ports.

Athens has seen hundreds of anti-austerity protests over the past three years, since Greece revealed it had been misreporting its public finance figures. The country has been surviving since then with the help of two massive international bailouts worth a total €240 billion ($315 billion). To secure them, it has committed to drastic spending cuts, tax hikes and reforms, all with the aim of getting the state coffers back under some sort of control.

But while significantly reducing the country's annual borrowing, the measures have made the recession worse. By the end of next year, the Greek economy is expected to be around three quarters of the size it was in 2008. And with one in four workers out of a job, Greece has, along with Spain, the highest unemployment rate in the 27-nation European Union.

"We are sinking in a swamp of recession and it's getting worse," said Dimitris Asimakopoulos, head of the GSEVEE small business and industry association. "180,000 businesses are on the brink and 70,000 of them are expected to close in the next few months."

The country's four-month-old coalition government is negotiating a new austerity package with debt inspectors from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. The idea is to save €11 billion ($14.4 billion) in spending — largely on pensions and health care — and raise an extra €2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) through taxes.

"In 2011, only 20 percent of businesses were profitable," Asimakopoulos said. "So these new tax measures present small businesses with a choice: Dodge taxes or close your shop." After more than a month and a half of arguing, a deal seems close. On Wednesday, representatives from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, said there was agreement on "most of the core measures needed to restore the momentum of reform" and that the rest of the issues should be resolved in coming days.

Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, and Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed.

Protesters block roads in Lebanon after car bomb

October 20, 2012

BEIRUT (AP) — Protesters burned tires and set up roadblocks around Lebanon on Saturday in a sign of boiling anger over a massive car bomb that killed a top security official and seven other people a day earlier — a devastating attack that threatened to bring Syria's civil war to Lebanon.

The Lebanese Cabinet was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting Saturday as the country's opposition called for Prime Minister Najib Mikati to resign. The state-run National News Agency said security commanders would attend the meeting to discuss how to keep the peace.

The government declared a national day of mourning for the victims, who included Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, head of the intelligence division of Lebanon's domestic security forces. Dozens were wounded in Friday's blast in Beirut's mainly Christian Achrafieh neighborhood.

Many observers said the attack appeared to have links to the Syrian civil war, which has been raging for 19 months. Al-Hassan, 47, headed an investigation over the summer that led to the arrest of former Information Minister Michel Samaha, one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's most loyal allies in Lebanon.

Samaha, who is in custody, is accused of plotting a campaign of bombings and assassinations to spread sectarian violence in Lebanon at Syria's behest. Also indicted in the August sweep was Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, one of Assad's highest aides.

Lebanon's fractious politics are closely entwined with Syria's. The countries share a web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries, often causing events on one side of the border to echo on the other. Lebanon's opposition is an anti-Syrian bloc, while the prime minister and much of the government are pro-Syrian.

The civil war in Syria has laid bare Lebanon's sectarian tensions as well. Many of Lebanon's Sunnis have backed Syria's mainly Sunni rebels, while Shiites have tended to back Assad. Al-Hassan was a Sunni whose stances were widely seen to oppose Syria and the country's most powerful ally in Lebanon, the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

On Friday, protesters in mostly Sunni areas closed roads with burning tires and rocks in Beirut, the southern city of Sidon, the northern city of Tripoli and several towns in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The highway linking central Beirut with the city's international airport was closed, as well as the highway that links the capital with Syria, the officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Rafik Khoury, editor of the independent Al-Anwar daily, said the assassination was an attempt to draw Lebanon into the conflict in Syria, which has been the most serious threat to the Assad family's 40-year dynasty.

"The side that carried the assassination knows the reactions and dangerous repercussions and is betting that it will happen. Strife is wanted in Lebanon," Khoury wrote.

French sneak cash to Syrians in direct aid program

October 17, 2012

PARIS (AP) — France has been sneaking large sums of cash — $2 million in all — to civilians in Syria to help rebel-held towns rebuild bakeries, dispose of garbage and set up a police force.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Wednesday with representatives of about 20 countries to share details about the secret French aid program and encourage others to join it. Five people from local Syrian revolutionary groups that have received the secret funds also attended.

A dozen countries have started or are starting such programs, a French official close to the program told journalists. The United States is among the nations funneling aid to local Syrian councils that provide essential services but it was unclear whether Washington was using the cloak-and-dagger route the French have opted for to hand over cash.

When questioned, the U.S. Embassy said its two representatives at the Paris gathering "focused on ways to better coordinate our assistance." The French program, which started in early September, aims to help people in rebel-held zones survive, maintain institutions and bolster the civilian face of the Syrian revolution to prepare for a post-President Bashar Assad era.

The French official said after three border handovers of funds, France is now looking for a more efficient way to deliver the money, hopefully thorough a non-governmental organization. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

"In concrete terms, we want to provide aid to a segment of the population that is not covered by the traditional humanitarian channels," Fabius told the gathering, adding that there was a risk that the Assad regime interferes with aid shipments going through standard channels.

"And, little by little, as these civilian revolutionary committees are elected, these zones are run freely and show what the Syria of tomorrow will be after Bashar has gone," Fabius told reporters. The Syrian conflict began as peaceful protests in March 2011 against Assad's regime. Since then, more than 33,000 have been killed, activists say. France has been a leader among western nations seeking the ouster of Assad, pressing for EU sanctions among other things.

The French direct aid is also aimed at easing frustrations among civilians because of the lack of action by the international community, which is blocked in the U.N. Security Council by Syrian allies Russia and China.

The foreign minister conceded that the budget so far for the direct aid — a tenth of the €20 million ($26 million) France is contributing to the rebel war effort in Syria — is small. But, he said, it has assured that more than 300,000 people get bread by renovating three industrial bakeries.

But the task has been onerous and risky. One official with knowledge of the project's operation said tangible proof of need in a certain town is first established. Then, a French envoy meets at a Syrian border with a carefully chosen member of a local committee.

"The aid is handed over directly with a very strict follow-up," the official said. Another official, also not authorized to speak publicly about the project, said the meeting point is at the Turkish-Syrian border.

"We wanted to quickly show that it is feasible and possible," the first official said. The Syrian representatives have provided photos of renovated bakeries, road work and other improvements to daily life. "We proved it is important and very useful."

Osman Badawi, a pharmacist in the Syrian city of Maraat el Noaman who attended at the Paris meeting, said what his town wants most is a no-fly zone that nations backing the opposition have been unable to deliver. He said that 30-40 homes per day are destroyed by barrels of TNT dropped on the town by government planes.

Fabius said besides using the so-called barrel bombs — containers packed with TNT — on civilians, the Syrian regime was also using cluster bombs. The Assad regime has "entered a new phase in the violence by using MIG (aircraft) and dropping barrels of TNT," Fabius said.

Badawi, speaking through a translator, said the French direct aid was used to repair a bombed school and a police station, and he's hoping the Paris meeting will produce more funds. The fighting in Syria has driven tens of thousands from their homes. U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Wednesday by telephone that an estimated 2.5 million Syrians, including refugees, are in need of help.

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Scots move closer to vote on independence from UK

October 15, 2012

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — Scotland moved a step closer Monday to a vote on independence after Scottish and British leaders signed a deal laying the groundwork for a popular referendum that could radically alter the shape of the United Kingdom.

Officials from London and Edinburgh have been meeting for weeks to hammer out the details. Sticking points included the date and the wording of the question. On Monday, British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond in Edinburgh to approve the deal. No date was set, but the vote is likely to be held in October 2014, as Salmond's nationalists had wished.

The "Edinburgh Agreement" means that the Scottish Government can now propose legislation on the precise wording of the question, the exact date, extending the vote to 16 year olds, finance rules and conduct.

If Scotland does break away it will end more than 300 years of political union with England. An ebullient Salmond said he is confident the independence movement can triumph. "Do I believe we can win this? Yes I do," he told reporters. "It is a vision of a prosperous and compassionate Scotland and that will carry the day."

He said the advantages of separation from Britain would become clear, and that his government envisioned "a Scotland with a new place in the world — as an independent nation."       Cameron did not immediately comment. But the prime minister is expected later to praise Scotland's two governments for coming together to deliver a "legal, fair and decisive" referendum that now puts the decision on a separate Scotland or a United Kingdom in the people's hands.

"This marks the beginning of an important chapter in Scotland's story and allows the real debate to begin," Cameron will say in a speech later Monday, according to prepared remarks released by his office.

Cameron and other pro-union politicians had pressed for the vote to be held earlier than 2014, because opinion polls show that only between a quarter and a third of Scots currently favor leaving the union.

Lithuanians deal blow to austerity, nuclear plans

October 15, 2012

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Dealing a blow to the conservative government's vision of becoming a regional energy powerhouse, Lithuanians voted instead for big-spending politicians and rejected plans for a new nuclear power plant.

The populist Labor Party, led by a Russian-born millionaire, won Sunday's election in this Baltic nation with 20 percent of the vote, while the center-left Social Democrats came in second with 18.5 percent. The two have agreed to form a new government to replace the center-right coalition, which managed just over 23 percent of the vote.

The exact composition of the next 141-seat Parliament is still not clear pending some run-off votes on Oct. 28, but Labor and the Socialists are expected to gain a majority. Still, analysts said Monday that the two parties, which campaigned on exorbitant promises, were unlikely to make any radical policy departures, although they would likely slow down harsh fiscal measures needed to introduce the euro in 2014, one of the conservative coalition's goals.

"Promises that the new government will stop saving and start spending big-time are unrealistic," said Nerijus Maciulis, analyst at Swedbank. "Otherwise Lithuania will soon find itself in a situation similar to Greece."

Analysts at Danske Bank agreed, writing in a Monday note that "leftist parties campaigned on a relatively populist and pro-interventionist plank ...however we expect the new coalition government to tone down the rhetoric."

In 2009, Lithuania suffered a shocking double-whammy, as its economy entered a severe recession, plunging nearly 15 percent, and a Soviet-era atomic power plant was shut down, forcing the country to switch to Russian gas.

The nation of 3 million people now imports over 60 percent of its electricity needs — more than any other European Union member. Russia currently supplies 100 percent of Lithuania's natural gas at a hefty price.

Previous governments, including those led by the Social Democrats prior to the conservative administration, dreamed of building a new, ultra-modern nuclear plant that would allow Lithuania to maintain its traditional role as an energy exporter.

But voters seemed to dash those hopes, with nearly two-thirds rejecting the idea of a new nuclear facility Sunday due to concerns about cost and safety. Although the referendum was only consultative, politicians from the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia — who are participating in the $6 billion project along with Japan's Hitachi— could find it difficult to proceed after the Lithuanian vote.

"Russia's wish for the Baltics not to have an atomic power plant has won," Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks tweeted. Analysts, however, said Lithuania could still find ways to decrease its energy dependence on Russia without having to build a €5-billion nuclear plant, perhaps by completing a terminal to import liquefied natural gas.

"In fact, a liquefied gas terminal creates much more serious competition for Moscow than a nuclear power plant," said Vidmantas Jankauskas, a professor at Gediminas Technical University in Vilnius, the capital.

He said the offshore gas terminal, which Lithuania hopes to complete by 2014, is expected to handle up to 4 billion cubic meters per year, more than enough to meet the country's annual gas needs. Suspicion of Russia still runs high among many Lithuanians, who remember decades of repression under the Soviets. Labor Party chief Viktor Upsakich, a Russian-born veteran politician who was forced to resign as economy minister in 2006 because of shady dealings with Lithuania's powerful neighbor, tried to calm fears that his win would bring the country closer into Russia's orbit.

"We will work to have good, pragmatic relations not only with this country but other neighbors, too," he said. "I must stress that everything should be done in the interests of our country and not at the cost of Lithuania's sovereignty."

Beirut car bomb kills top official, 7 others

October 19, 2012

BEIRUT (AP) — A car bomb ripped through Beirut on Friday, killing a top security official and seven others, shearing the balconies off apartment buildings and sending bloodied residents staggering into the streets in the most serious blast the Lebanese capital has seen in four years.

Dozens of people were wounded in the attack, which the state-run news agency said targeted the convoy of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, the head of the intelligence division of Lebanon's domestic security forces.

Many Lebanese quickly raised the possibility the violence was connected to the civil war in neighboring Syria, which has sent destabilizing ripples through Lebanon for the past 19 months. Al-Hassan led an investigation over the summer that implicated a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician and one of the highest aides to Syrian President Bashar Assad in plots to carry out bombings in Lebanon.

Friday's blast was also a reminder of Lebanon's grim history, when the 1975-1990 civil war made the country notorious for kidnappings, car bombs and political assassinations. Even since the war's end, Lebanon has been a proxy battleground for regional conflict, and the Mediterranean seaside capital has been prey to sudden, surprising and often unexplained violence shattering periods of calm.

"Whenever there is a problem in Syria they want to bring it to us," said Karin Sabaha Gemayel, a secratary at a law firm a block from the bombing site, where the street was transformed into a swath of rubble, twisted metal and charred vehicles.

"But you always hope it will not happen to us. Not again," she said. The blast ripped through a narrow street at mid-afternoon in Beirut's mainly Christian Achrafieh neighborhood, an area packed with cafes and shops. Doors and windows were shattered for blocks, and several blackened cars appeared to have been catapulted through the air.

Bloodied residents fled their homes while others tried to help the seriously wounded. One little girl, apparently unconscious and bleeding from her head, was carried to an ambulance in the arms of rescue workers, her white sneakers stained with blood.

"I was standing nearby in Sassine Square and I heard a big explosion and I ran straight to it," resident Elie Khalil said. He said he saw at least 15 bloodied people in a nearby parking lot before medics arrived and took them to a hospital.

Al-Hassan's body was so disfigured in the blast that his bodyguards only realized it was him when they recognized his sneakers, a paramedic at the scene told The Associated Press. The paramedic, who saw the body, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

A Lebanese security official said al-Hassan had just returned earlier Friday morning from Paris, where he was visiting family. He was either on his way from or to work in a non-armored car with his driver, who also was among the dead, the official said. He also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give information to the media.

Eight people were killed, including al-Hassan, and 78 wounded, the state-run National News Agency said.. Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zouebi denounced the bombing, calling it a "terrorist and cowardly" attack.

Syria's top ally in Lebanon, the Shiite Hezbollah movement, also condemned the attack, expressing its "state of great shock over this terrible terrorist crime." It called on the authorities to catch the perpetrators and on all political forces in Lebanon to work against "every conspirator against the security, the life, the safety and security of the nation."

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned the blast "in strongest terms." She said the U.S. had no information about the perpetrators. Al-Hassan had headed an investigation into bombing plots that led to the Aug. 9 arrest of former Information Minister Michel Samaha, one of Syria's most loyal allies in Lebanon, who has long acted as an unofficial media adviser to Assad. According to a senior Lebanese police official, Samaha confessed to having personally transported explosives in his car from Syria to Lebanon with the purpose of killing Lebanese personalities at the behest of Syria.

A military court has since indicted Samaha and Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk of plotting to carry out terrorist attacks. Mamlouk, who was appointed recently by Assad to head Syria's National Security Bureau, was indicted in absentia.

Tensions have been soaring in Lebanon over the conflict next door, and clashes have erupted between Assad supporters and backers of the rebellion against his regime. Syria and Lebanon share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries, often causing events on one side of the border to echo on the other. Many of Lebanon's Sunnis have backed Syria's mainly Sunni rebels, while Shiites have tended to back Assad.

Lebanon was hit by a wave of bombings and other attacks that began in 2005 with a massive suicide blast that killed former prime minister Rafik Hariri and more than 20 other people in downtown Beirut. In the following years, a string of anti-Syrian figures were assassinated, several in car bombings. Many Lebanese blamed Damascus for the killings, though Syria denied responsibility.

The last serious bombing was in 2008, when a car bomb killed a senior Lebanese anti-terror police official who was investigating dozens of other bombings. Four others were killed and 38 wounded in the blast in the Christian Hazmieh neighborhood.

Since then, Lebanese saw a relative calm in violence. After the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, there have been sporadic gunbattles between pro- and anti-Assad factions, particularly in northern Lebanon.

"I'm very worried about the country after this explosion," Beirut resident Charbel Khadra said Friday. "I'm worried the explosions will return — and this is just the first one."

AP writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Ben Hubbard and Barbara Surk contributed to this report from Beirut.

Syrian Refugees Flocking to Turkey Push the Limit

by Linda Gradstein
Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Government Closes Some Border Crossings

For weeks now, the Ankara government has been saying that the number of 100,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey was a “psychological limit” – the point at which the border crossings would be closed. This week, the Turkish Disaster Management Agency, Afad, announced that there are now 100,363 Syrians at 14 camps along the border between Turkey and Syria, increasing speculation that no more refugees would be allowed in. Despite the threats, the influx shows no sign of slowing down.

“The 100,000 figure was truly a threshold for us, but we always said it may exceed 100,000,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters. “We are now currently working on this issue.”

The actual figure is even higher. In addition to those living in the government facilities, there are an estimated 70,000 Syrians who have fled the fighting but choose to rent apartments rather than live in refugee camps. In the camps themselves conditions are reasonable.

“The Turks have done an extremely good and professional job of setting up the camps,” Gerry Simpson, the refugee coordinator for Human Rights Watch told The Media Line. “Refugees are allowed to leave the camps for days or even weeks so they’re relatively free to move which is more than can be said in Iraq and Jordan where the authorities are refusing the refugees the right to leave the camps.”

The weather is already turning cold in Turkey. Simpson says officials are preparing for the change in temperature, with extra blankets and heaters for the refugees’ tents. Where Human Rights Watch is concerned, he says, is the situation on the Syrian side of the border, where an estimated 15,000 people fleeing the fighting are waiting to enter Turkey. At least two border crossings have already been closed.

“We are concerned about the thousands and soon to be tens of thousands who are stuck on the Turkish border as a result of the border closure,” he said. “In some of these places people are living under trees, in makeshift tents, or in schools where they are out in the open. They have little access to assistance. As winter approaches, it will become more urgent for Turkey to stop playing games and open the border crossings for Syrians fleeing violence.”

Tensions have increased as the once warm relations between Syria and Turkey have grown colder, and the two countries seem almost on the brink of war. This week, Turkey banned all Syrian flights from its airspace and ordered a plane to land after fears it was carrying weapons to Syria.

But most Turkish citizens differentiate between the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, which they see as the enemy, and the Turkish refugees fleeing the violence.

“I don’t think there’s a real problem with the refugees --- these people will eventually go back to Syria,” Faruk Yalvach, a professor of political science at Middle East Technical University told The Media Line. “If eventually Assad goes, then Turkey will have a good position with all of these refugees thanking Turkey for taking care of [them].”

The total number of refugees is over 300,000 according to the United Nations. Besides the ones in Turkey, some 210,000 are in Jordan, straining that country’s resources. In Turkey, too, officials say the international community must provide more money for the refugees.

For many years there have been close relationships between families living on both sides of the Turkish-Syrian border.

But as the refugee flow continues, attitudes are likely to change. Turkish officials say they are willing to shoulder part of the burden of dealing with the influx frorm Syria, but they cannot be solely responsible. Now that the figure of 100,000 has been reached, it is likely that Turkish officials will move to stem the flow of refugees.

“We understand the problems and we want to help,” Professor Yalvach said. “But it has to end somewhere.”

Copyright © 2012 The Media Line. All Rights Reserved.

Historic mosque burned in ancient Syrian city

October 15, 2012

BEIRUT (AP) — A landmark mosque in Aleppo was burned, scarred by bullets and trashed — the latest casualty of Syria's civil war — and President Bashar Assad on Monday ordered immediate repairs to try to stem Muslim outrage at the desecration of the 12th century site.

The Umayyad Mosque suffered extensive damage, as has the nearby medieval covered market, or souk, which was gutted by a fire that was sparked by fighting two weeks ago. The market and the mosque are centerpieces of Aleppo's walled Old City, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Government troops had been holed up in the mosque for months before rebels launched a push this week to drive them out. Activists and Syrian government officials blamed each other for the weekend fire at the mosque.

Rebel supporters also alleged that regime forces defaced the shrine with offensive graffiti and drank alcohol inside, charges bound to further raise religious tensions in Syria. Many of the rebels are Sunni Muslims, while the regime is dominated by Alawites, or followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

"It's all blackened now," activist Mohammad al-Hassan said of the site, also known as the Great Mosque. One of Syria's oldest and largest shrines, it was built around a vast courtyard and enclosed in a compound adjacent to the ancient citadel.

Al-Hassan said the army had been using the mosque as a base because of its strategic location in the Old City and he blamed Assad for the destruction. "He burns down the country and its heritage, and then he says he will rebuild it. Why do you destroy it to begin with?" al-Hassan said in a telephone interview from Aleppo.

Fighting has destroyed large parts of Aleppo, Syria's largest city with 3 million residents and its former business capital. Activists say more than 33,000 people have died in the conflict, which began in March 2011 and has turned into a civil war.

Five of Syria's six World Heritage sites have been damaged in the fighting, according to UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency. Looters have broken into one of the world's best-preserved Crusader castles, Crac des Chevaliers, and ruins in the ancient city of Palmyra have been damaged.

Both rebels and regime forces have turned some of Syria's significant historic sites into bases, including citadels and Turkish bath houses, while thieves have stolen artifacts from museums. Karim Hendili, a Paris-based UNESCO expert who oversees heritage sites in the Arab world, said Aleppo's Old City has been hardest hit. The fire that swept through the souk burned more than 500 shops in the narrow, vaulted passageways, destroying a testament to its flourishing commercial history.

"After the loss of the souk, there is now major damage of the mosque," Hendili said. The "soul of the city" is really being damaged, he added, "and this is difficult to repair." Video posted online by activists show a large fire and black smoke raging in the mosque Saturday, and there also are shots of its blackened, pockmarked walls. Debris is strewn on the floors where worshippers once prayed on green and gold carpets.

The videos are consistent with AP's reporting of the incident. "Assad's thugs set the mosque on fire as a punishment for being defeated by the Free Syrian Army," the caption on one video read. In another video, a rebel inside the mosque holds up a torn copy of the Muslim holy book, saying: "These are our Qurans. This is our religion, our history."

The rebel in the video also held up an empty bottle, saying it had contained alcohol. The Syrian government said it pushed back rebels out of the mosque after the weekend fighting, although activists gave conflicting reports on who controls it.

Rami Martini, chief of Aleppo's Chamber of Tourism, blamed rebels for targeting the city's monuments and archaeological treasures. He said the losses were impossible to estimate because of the fighting in the area, but added it could be the most serious damage since an earthquake in 1830s struck the mosque.

Despite the fire, the structure of the mosque appeared to be intact, although a gate that leads to the ancient market was burned, said Martini, who is specialized in repairing archaeological sites and monuments.

The platform inside the mosque, or minbar, and the prayer niche also were damaged by the fire, Martini said. The wooden minbar is identical to the one burned in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969, he said.

Valuables were stolen from the mosque's library, Martin said, including a transparent box purported to contain a strand of hair from the Prophet Muhammad, along with centuries-old handwritten copies of the Quran.

Assad issued a presidential decree to form a committee to repair the mosque by the end of 2013, although it's not clear what such a body could do amid a raging civil war. The mosque's last renovations began about 20 years ago and were completed in 2006.

In other developments Monday: — The Syria military denied reports by a human rights group that it has been dropping cluster bombs — indiscriminate scattershot munitions — during fighting. The denial came in a statement carried by the state-run SANA news agency.

Allegations that cluster bombs were used are "baseless and are part of media propaganda that aims to divert international public opinion from crimes committed by armed terrorist groups," the statement said.

The New-York based Human Rights Watch on Sunday cited amateur video and testimony from the front lines in making the allegation that Assad's government has been using the bombs that are banned by most nations in what the group said was a new sign of desperation and disregard for its own people.

— The European Union stepped up pressure on Assad's regime, banning Syrian Arab Airlines from EU airports. At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers added 28 people to those whose assets are frozen and who are denied EU visas. They also froze the assets of two more companies, including the airline.

— The U.N. envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, arrived in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials on the neighboring country's civil war. Brahimi is touring the region to try to resolve the Syrian crisis.

— Turkey forced a Syrian-bound plane from Armenia to land in order to search the cargo for weapons. The plane, which was carrying aid for Aleppo, was granted permission to fly in Syrian airspace on condition that it could be searched for military equipment, said Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal.

After the search, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the cargo contained humanitarian aid and was allowed to continue to Syria. Last week, Turkey forced a Syrian passenger plane traveling from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara on suspicion it carried military gear. Russia, which has backed Assad, said the equipment was spare parts for radar systems.

Over the weekend, Syria and Turkey barred each other's commercial aircraft from flying over their respective territories. The bans came after a week of exchanging fire across their volatile border.

— The Turkish government said the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey surpassed the 100,000 mark and that about 7,000 more were waiting at the border to get in.

Associated Press writers Karin Laub, Zeina Karam and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Albert Aji in Damascus, Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Frank Jordans in Istanbul contributed to this report.

NKorea threatens to attack SKorea over leaflets

October 19, 2012

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea's military threatened Friday to strike a South Korean border area where anti-Pyongyang activists plan to launch leaflets from balloons next week. South Korea immediately vowed to retaliate if attacked.

North Korea has made similar threats without following through. Its latest vow came a day after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak warned against provocation as he made a surprise visit to a front-line island shelled by North Korea in 2010.

"Merciless military strike by the Western Front will be put into practice without warning" if South Korean activists make a move to fly leaflets on Monday, the North's military said in a statement in English. It also warned South Korean residents in the border area to evacuate in advance.

In South Korea, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said at a parliamentary hearing that his troops would "thoroughly annihilate" any base responsible for the strike if the North attacked. The exchange of strong warnings came as Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korea, met in Seoul with Lim Sung-nam, South Korea's envoy to stalled six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear arms programs .

Davies did not comment on the North's threat during a meeting with reporters, but urged Pyongyang to follow through with its commitments made in past nuclear agreements with the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan.

North Korean defectors and South Korean activists regularly send up balloons carrying leaflets criticizing North Korean leaders. North Korea accuses South Korea of supporting the activity, but Seoul denies it.

Animosity has run high between the Koreas since the North's 2010 shelling killed two marines and two civilians on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island in the Yellow Sea. Seoul also blames Pyongyang for the sinking of a warship that killed 46 South Korean sailors earlier that year. North Korea denies attacking the ship.

The two Koreas remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.