Egypt Loses Status In Arab World

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The U.S. intelligence community expects Egypt to lose its position as leader of the Arab world.

Instead, the intelligence community expects Saudi Arabia to become the de facto leader of the Arab world after the death or resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

But the National Intelligence Council said the Saudi kingdom has sought to avoid such a role.

"All agreed that Egypt is not the regional leader it once was and that this mantle has fallen to Saudi Arabia," a report on a conference by the intelligence council said.

Somali Islamist group rejects truce plans

MOGADISHU : Hardline Islamists in Somalia rejected on Sunday a ceasefire offer which had been accepted by new President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and vowed to keep up their attacks on government forces.

The president, elected on January 31, reached out to hardliners on Saturday by accepting mediators' requests for a ceasefire and offering to introduce sharia law across the war-torn country.

But Hizb al-Islamiya (Islamic Party), a group of hardline Islamists who claimed bloody attacks in the capital last week, rejected the proposals.

"The information regarding a ceasefire plan between our group and the government is baseless. We will attack the enemy and their stooges anytime we want," spokesman Muse Abdi Arale said.

Ahmed said on Saturday that he had accepted proposals by local and religious leaders mediating between his fledgling government and the hardliners.

"I met with religious leaders and elders and accepted their demand for a ceasefire and reconciliation with the opposition members, and I call on all opposition parties to halt the unnecessary violence," Ahmed told reporters.

"The mediators asked me to introduce Islamic sharia law in the country and I agreed," he added.

However, Arale, the rebel spokesman, said his group had met with the mediators but only discussed plans for a partial withdraw of its fighters.

Foreign and local religious leaders have launched a peace bid to reconcile rival Somali groups and bring an end to their leaders' bickering and rivalry that has blocked numerous attempts to end the conflict.

Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader, became president in January following a United Nations-brokered reconciliation between his opposition group and the transitional government.

He pledged to form an inclusive government and reach out to hardline opponents.

But the Islamist forces opposed to UN-sponsored reconciliation bids have launched several deadly attacks against the government and African Union forces in recent days.

At least 30 people were killed last week in the worst clashes since the president was elected on January 31.

Hizb al-Islamiya and the radical Shebab militia are the two main groups opposed to the government in Mogadishu.

The Shebab and other militia have retaken much of southern and central Somalia where they were uprooted by the Ethiopia-backed government forces in early 2007. The tide turned back in their favor when Ethiopia withdrew the last of its forces last month.

Last month, hardliners wrenched control of the south-central town of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional federal parliament.

They also claimed responsibility for a suspected suicide attack against African Union troops in Mogadishu that killed 11 Burundian peacekeepers last weekend.

Ahmed's cabinet, comprising 36 ministers, has relocated to Mogadishu from neighboring Djibouti, where the government was formed. Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullah Omar said restoring security was its top priority.

The departure of Ethiopian troops has left the under strength AU as the only foreign force in the country, and now the main target for Islamist attacks.

The Horn of Africa state has lacked a central authority since the eruption of a civil war with the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre.

Voting Overseas: For Algeria

Algerian embassies have started a campaign to sensitize nationals living overseas about the presidential elections.

Mainly in France, where a majority of Algerian expatriates live, a large communication and contact plan has been set up for this purpose.

The key message is to vote. Our nationals are invited to cast their ballot and say their word in this historical event to allow Algeria move forward.

Algerian Diplomatic representations all over the world have the same task, make voting easy and attracting.

Overseas polling will start early on April 4 to provide time for voters to move to the polling stations and accommodate their working and living conditions.

NKorea: US must cancel military drill with South

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea demanded Monday that the U.S. call off its annual military drill with South Korea, a report said, as rare talks between the North and U.N. forces ended without clear progress on defusing tensions.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North made the demand during talks with the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the Korean border village of Panmunjom, held for the first time in nearly seven years. It came amid fears the North is gearing up to test-launch a missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory.

Yonhap quoted an unnamed South Korean military official as saying the North warned the upcoming drill would "further stir up" tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The report said the U.N. Command insisted that the exercise — involving 26,000 American troops, an unspecified number of South Korean soldiers and a U.S. aircraft carrier — is purely defensive and not preparation for an invasion as the North claims.

North Korea has routinely condemned the regular U.S.-South Korea military drills as preparation for an invasion, although the allies have said they have no intention to attack.

Both the U.N. Command and the South Korean Defense Ministry said they couldn't confirm the report.

The U.N. Command only said the sides discussed "measures to reduce tension and introduce transparency" and agreed to further meetings during a half-hour of talks.

"The UNC welcomed this discussion with North Korea which holds the prospect for building trust and preventing misunderstandings between both sides," the statement quoted the command's chief delegate Maj. Gen. Johnny Weida as saying.

Command spokesman Kim Yong-kyu declined to comment whether the potential missile launch was discussed during the talks.

North Korea had called for the hastily arranged talks last week, saying it wants to discuss ways to reduce tensions, according to the U.N. Command, which monitors a cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea and the U.N. Command has held 14 rounds of such high-level military talks "when necessary" since 1998, according to command spokesman Kim.

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest point in a decade, with North Korea bristling over South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's hard-line policy toward Pyongyang. The tensions have intensified in recent weeks amid reports that North Korea is preparing to test a long-range missile.

Analysts say communist North Korea also wants to capture President Barack Obama's attention at a time when international disarmament talks with the regime remain stalled.

The North last week called its impending launch a peaceful bid to push its space program forward by sending a communications satellite into orbit and warned it would "punish" anyone who attempts to disrupt its plans.

Neighboring governments believe the satellite claim may be a cover for a missile launch and have warned the regime such a move would invite international sanctions. North Korea, which in 2006 tested a nuclear weapon and unsuccessfully fired a long-range missile, is banned from engaging in any ballistic missile activity under a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Obama is dispatching his envoy for North Korea, Stephen W. Bosworth, to Asia this week to discuss the nuclear dispute. Bosworth plans to meet with officials in China, Japan and South Korea, and will consult separately with Russian officials, the State Department said.

South Korea on Monday named career diplomat Wi Sung-lac, a former head of the Foreign Ministry's North American affairs bureau, as its new top nuclear envoy. Departing envoy Kim Sook has been appointed deputy head of the country's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service.

The two Koreas remain divided by the world's most heavily fortified border. Although other nations contributed forces during the Korean War, U.S. troops are the only foreign combat forces left on the peninsula. The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Algerian crackdown on terrorism

Algiers - Algerian security forces have killed eight suspected Islamist terrorists in the district of Blida, some 50 km east of the capital Algiers, local newspapers reported on Monday.

The battle between the security forces and a group of armed men suspected of belonging to the terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb occurred early Sunday.

The Algerian interior ministry said that some 120 suspected Islamist terrorists have been killed in Algeria since September 1.

ASEAN TO DISCUSS ROHINGYAS AS PART OF INDIAN OCEAN MIGRANTS

n a separate press conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Leaders also decided that member countries should not pass the Rohingya problem to their neighbors and instead tackle the issue together.

"Myanmar did not mention anything (about Rohingya). We recognized the issue, otherwise it's not good for us," he said.

Asked about human rights and democracy in Myanmar, Abdullah said the meeting did ask Thein Sein about the progress in the country, adding that the issue of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was not brought up.

"But it's better (for media) to ask the Myanmar Prime Minister to talk. I can't speak on his behalf," he said, adding that the Myanmar Government had told Asean during the last Summit in Singapore that it preferred to deal with the United Nations rather than Asean on the matter.

Abdullah pointed out the progress made by UN Special Envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari who had made seven visits to the military-ruled nation.

According to the premier, Myanmar had released 6,000 political detainees as requested by Gambari, who is also the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights.

Beached whales, dolphins rescued in Australia

SYDNEY – Rescuers used jet skis, backhoes and human muscle to save dozens of whales and dolphins stranded on a beach in southern Australia on Monday, officials and news reports said.

The 194 pilot whales and half a dozen bottlenose dolphins became stranded on Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania state's King Island on Sunday evening — the fourth beaching incident in recent months in Tasmania.

Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania as whales go by during their migration to and from Antarctic waters, but scientists do not know why it happens. It is unusual, however, for whales and dolphins to get stranded together.

Chris Arthur, of Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service, said 54 whales and seven dolphins were still alive when the rescue effort began. By late Monday, 48 animals had been returned to the sea by officials and more than 100 King Island residents who had volunteered to help.

Backhoes dug trenches in the sand that allowed water to get close to the whales, as volunteers doused them with water and draped wet fabric over them to keep them cool.

Groups of volunteers used stretchers to lug dolphins into the shallows, and other officials used small boats and a jet ski to pull whales out to sea.

Rescuers were hopeful they would stay away from the shore.

"It's too early to say yet but it's been a very, very positive day," Shelley Davison, a Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

It was not clear why the animals had beached on the island, halfway between Tasmania and mainland Australia. The Examiner, a Tasmanian newspaper, reported that the animals were caught by a very low tide.

In January, 45 sperm whales died after becoming stranded on a remote Tasmanian sandbar, even though rescuers worked for days to keep them cool and wet as they tried to move them back to the open water.

Last November, 150 long-finned pilot whales died after beaching on a rocky coastline in Tasmania. A week earlier, rescuers saved 11 pilot whales among a pod of 60 that had beached on the island state.