Pakistan Taliban head talks to reporters

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD, Associated Press Writer

SARAROGHA, Pakistan – The Pakistani Taliban's new leader met with reporters in the country's tribal areas for the first time since winning control of the militants and vowed to retaliate against the U.S. and Pakistan for drone attacks along the Afghan border.

The appearance by Hakimullah Mehsud ended any speculation that he was killed in a leadership battle within the militant group sparked by the August slaying of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud in a missile strike.

Mehsud, flanked by other Taliban commanders in a show of unity, spoke to a small group of reporters Sunday on condition the interview only be published Monday.

Mehsud said his group would avenge the killing of Baitullah Mehsud and strike back at Pakistan and the U.S. for the increasing number of drone attacks in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

Unmanned drones have carried out more than 70 missile strikes in northwestern Pakistan over the last year in a covert program, killing several top militant commanders along with sympathizers and civilians. The Pakistani government publicly protests the attacks but is widely believed to sanction them and provide intelligence for at least some.

American officials have said they are considering a strategy of intensified drone attacks combined with the deployment of special operations forces against al-Qaida and Taliban targets on the Pakistani side of the border — part of an alternative to sending more troops to Afghanistan in what is an increasingly unpopular war.

As part of the offensive against the Taliban leadership, Mehsud's brother, Kalimullah, was killed last month. Analysts say the group is struggling to regroup from the attacks on its leaders. Pakistani officials had speculated that Hakimullah had been killed in a recent shootout.

Mehsud accused Pakistan of doing the bidding of the West and pledged to bring Islamic rule to the country.

Socialists trounce conservatives in Greek election

By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer

ATHENS, Greece – Greece's Socialists trounced the governing conservatives in a landslide election Sunday, with voters angered by scandals and a faltering economy ousting Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis halfway through his second term.

Humbled by his New Democracy party's worst electoral performance ever, Karamanlis, 53, resigned as its leader and said a new chief is needed for the party founded by his late uncle Constantine Karamanlis 35 years ago.

George Papandreou, 57, now follows in the footsteps of his father, Andreas Papandreou — who founded his Panhellenic Socialist Movement party, or PASOK — and grandfather and namesake George Papandreou, both of whom served several terms as prime ministers.

"We bear a great responsibility to change the course of the country. ... We know that we can make it," Papandreou, a former foreign minister, told jubilant supporters lighting flares and waving PASOK flags depicting the party's symbol of a green rising sun outside his party headquarters in central Athens.

"I know the potential of the country very well, a potential being drowned by corruption, favoritism, lawlessness and waste," Papandreou said.

"We must all believe again we can succeed ... we cannot waste a single day."

Results from 87.65 percent of votes counted showed PASOK winning with 43.93 percent, compared to 34.03 percent for New Democracy. Turnout was at 70.44 percent. Voting is compulsory in Greece, although penalties for failing to vote are no longer enforced.

The result gives PASOK a solid majority of 160 seats in the 300-member parliament, bringing the party back to power after five years of conservative governance.

Papandreou's victory, along with a recent election win by socialists in Portugal, bucks a European trend that has seen a conservative surge in the continent's powerhouse economies, including most recently in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election last week.

"This is a historic victory for PASOK, which means great responsibility for us," senior party official and former minister Evangelos Venizelos said.

Papandreou will now have to deal with a faltering economy that is expected to contract in 2009 after years of strong growth, while the budget deficit will probably exceed 6 percent of economic output.

In contrast to Karamanlis, who advocated an austerity program of freezing state salaries, pensions and hiring, Papandreou has promised to inject up to euro3 billion ($4.4 billion) to jump-start the economy.

However, his government will likely have to borrow heavily just to service the ballooning debt — set to exceed 100 percent of GDP this year — and keep paying public sector wages and pensions. Papandreou has pledged to limit borrowing by reducing government waste and going after tax dodgers.

Thousands of cheering supporters mobbed a smiling Papandreou as he arrived at the central Athens headquarters while the results trickled in. Others drove through the city honking their horns.

Karamanlis, looking tired and downcast, congratulated his rival.

"From the depths of my heart, I wish to thank the voters who backed us in these elections. I wish to congratulate George Papandreou for his victory," he said in a brief speech in central Athens. "We hope he succeeds in the great challenge of facing the economic situation."

Karamanlis announced the early election just halfway through his second four-year term in an ultimately failed gamble to win a strong new mandate to tackle Greece's economic woes. But he had already been trailing in opinion polls when he called the election last month, sparking criticism from within his own party.

Karamanlis stormed to power in 2004 to become the youngest prime minister in modern Greek history after more than a decade of socialist rule. He was re-elected in 2007, but quickly saw his popularity eroded by several financial scandals, including a land-swap deal with a Greek Orthodox monastery that cost the state more than euro100 million ($145 million) and forced two of his close aides to resign.

Authorities' failure to contain widespread riots sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager in Athens in December also undermined the conservatives' position, which the global financial crisis finished off.

Many conservative voters were angered by rising crime and the riots, when anarchists rampaged through Greek cities, smashing shops and banks with little police intervention.

"What I believe is happening today is that Karamanlis is paying for his past mistakes, for the financial situation," voter Alexandros Panagiotakopoulos said outside New Democracy's headquarters watching the results on a giant outdoor screen.

The Greek Communist Party, far right-wing LAOS and the small Left Coalition are expected to retain their representation in Parliament, while the Ecologist-Greens were hovering on the fringe of the 3 percent threshold for entry.

"Mr. Karamanlis brought PASOK into power," said LAOS leader Giorgos Karatzaferis.

Soldier's troops plea to minister

A front-line UK soldier in Afghanistan has told the defense secretary "more troops on the ground" are needed.

Bob Ainsworth had asked Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes, a bomb disposal specialist, what was his "top desire from right here at the chalkface".

Mr Ainsworth, accompanied by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, told him troop reinforcements will be slow and cannot be delivered by the UK alone.

"We have got to try to get others to do their share," he said.

"You can throw money at this and it still takes time," he added.

His comments come after US General Stanley McChrystal called for more troops and the head of the British army told a Sunday newspaper he supported calls for reinforcements.

"If you put in more troops we can achieve the objectives laid upon us more quickly and with less casualties," General Sir David Richards told the Sunday Telegraph.

"We can start winning the psychological battle."

Mr Ainsworth and Mr Johnson toured mentoring schemes set up by British and US officers to support local forces.

After meeting the defence secretary, Staff Sgt Hughes, 30 - who is just days from returning home to his family in Shropshire after a six-month tour - said it had been a "ridiculously busy, ridiculously hard tour".

"We have lost two guys. Clearly more troops are needed on the ground - but then the same could be said for equipment," he added.

His commanding officer, Maj Eldon Millar, said: "Inevitably you feel you could do with a little more help.

"We are so stretched across Helmand because it is such a large area."

On Thursday, the number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 rose to 219 following the death of 24-year-old RAF serviceman Marcin Wojtak in Helmand province in the south of the country.

Hamas: PA trades in blood of Gaza children

The democratically-elected premier of Hamas government in Gaza has lambasted the Palestinian Authority over its decision to delay a vote on a report about the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Ismail Haniya also slammed as "reckless and irresponsible" the decision by the UN Human Rights Council to postpone consideration of the damning report.

"The decision taken by Ramallah to withdraw the Goldstone report was reckless and irresponsible," Haniya said, referring to the Western-backed government of the acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.

The decision "trades in the blood of the children of Gaza." AFP quoted Haniya as saying on Sunday.

Sixteen Palestinian human rights groups have also issued a statement condemning the decision made by the Palestinian Authority.

It "denies the Palestinian people's right to an effective judicial remedy and equal protection of the law," the statement said.

"It represents the triumph of politics over human rights. It is an insult to all victims and a rejection of their rights," the groups said.

The decision made by the Western-backed PA is widely seen as the result of pressure from the US, which had claimed that the report is biased against Israel.

The UN probe by the former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone had called for prosecution of Israeli authorities over their war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the three-week war earlier this year.

Israel's nukes most serious threat to Middle East: ElBaradei

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said Israel's nuclear arsenal is the most serious threat to the region, Mehr news agency reported.

Tel Aviv has not granted IAEA inspectors access to its nuclear facilities for the past 30 years. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons, ElBaradei said at a joint press conference with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization director Ali-Akbar Salehi here Sunday.

"Iran's nuclear issue can be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, and I have never seen such determination to resolve this issue," he told reporters.

He added that IAEA inspectors will visit Iran's new nuclear fuel enrichment facility October 25.

"It is important for us to send our inspectors to do a comprehensive verification of that facility, to assure ourselves that it is a facility that is built for peaceful purposes," he said.

ElBaradei called on Tehran to observe the terms of the additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to address the world's concerns.

Western nations have accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons in the pretext of a civilian nuclear programme. However, Iran says its nuclear programme is to generate electricity.

ElBaradei said there is no evidence of diversion in Iran's nuclear activities and the IAEA cannot act based on allegations made by certain countries.

"As I have said many times and I continue to say today, the agency has no complete proof that there is an ongoing weapons programme in Iran," he added.

PM admits defeat, as Socialists win Greek vote

The New Democracy Party of Greece's Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has conceded defeat in the general elections, handing power to the opposition Socialist party.

With 87 percent of votes counted, the PanHellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party is leading with 44 percent of the ballot, compared with New Democracy's 34 percent, according to figures announced by the Interior Ministry late on Sunday.

The margin, which indicates a victory for PASOK, is the largest seen in a Greek vote in decades.

This could mean 160 seats for the Socialists in Greece's 300-seat Parliament, while the ruling party would receive only 93 seats, officials said, CNN reported.

PASOK's leader George Papandreou is set to become the next Greek Prime Minister promising to chart a new course for an economic comeback, while the country is on the brink of recession, a growing deficit and low budget revenues.

The 57-year-old political leader had promised a EUR 3 billion (USD 4.36 billion) stimulus package on a platform of raising taxes for the rich and easing them for the poor.

"On this course, nothing is going to be easy -- it will take work, hard work," Papandreou said in his victory address. "And I will always be honest with the Greek people so that we may better solve the problems of the state," CNN reported.

Premier Karamanlis, on the other hand, admitted defeat at the election center in central Athens and stepped down from his party's leadership.

"I want to congratulate George Papandreou for his victory," he was quoted by Reuters as saying. "Our government faced the storm of the most serious post-war crisis ... Citizens did not approve my plan."

Jordan slams Israel's closure of al-Aqsa Mosque

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry has taken diplomatic measures to protest Israel's closure of the al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the foreign ministry called "all Israeli measures" in the holy city "illegal" and said they violated "Israel's commitments as an occupation power."

Under a peace treaty which Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994, Israel acknowledged the Hashemite Kingdom's right to look after the Muslim and Christian shrines in east al-Quds, which is still considered by the United Nations an occupied territory.

Jordan's Foreign Ministry also summoned ambassadors of Israel, Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain in protest to Israel's closure of the al-Aqsa mosque.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh handed a strongly-worded protest to Israel's ambassador in Amman to condemn "recurrent violations" in east al-Quds, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, the official Petra news agency reported.

Jordan called for an "immediate halt" to Israeli violations and for the release of detainees, including the staff members of the Islamic Endowments Department in al-Quds.

Israeli police have put extra security measures in place for east al-Quds which will continue on Monday, when thousands of Jews are expected to congregate at the Western Wall before a religious holiday.