The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Bomb blast kills 6, wounds 20 in Iraqi town
- NATO attack could hurt war on terror - Pakistan
- U.S. wants Myanmar to deepen changes, halt ties with North Korea
| Bomb blast kills 6, wounds 20 in Iraqi town Posted: 30 Nov 2011 09:50 PM PST BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in a street market in the Iraqi town of Khalis on Thursday, killing six people and wounding 20, a security official said. Authorities immediately imposed a curfew in Khalis, which is about 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. (Writing by Jim Loney) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| NATO attack could hurt war on terror - Pakistan Posted: 30 Nov 2011 09:35 PM PST ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan, enraged by a NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 soldiers, could withdraw its support for the U.S. war on militancy if its sovereignty is violated again, the foreign minister suggested in comments published on Thursday.
The South Asian nation has already shown its anger over the weekend strike by pulling out of an international conference in Germany next week on Afghanistan's future. Islamabad stood by its decision on Wednesday despite German hopes to the contrary, depriving the talks of a central player in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. "Enough is enough. The government will not tolerate any incident of spilling even a single drop of any civilian or soldier's blood," The News newspaper quoted Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as telling a Senate committee on foreign affairs. "Pakistan's role in the war on terror must not be overlooked," Khar said, suggesting Pakistan could end its support for the U.S. war on militancy. Despite opposition at home, Islamabad backed Washington after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military border posts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday in the worst incident of its kind since 2001. The top U.S. military officer on Wednesday denied allegations by a senior Pakistani army official that the NATO attack was a deliberate act of aggression. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters in an interview: "The one thing I will say publicly and categorically is that this was not a deliberate attack." The army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history and sets security and foreign policy, faced strong criticism from both the Pakistani public and its ally, the United States, after Osama bin Laden was killed. The al Qaeda leader had apparently been living in a Pakistani garrison town for years before U.S. special forces found and killed him in a unilateral raid in May. Pakistanis criticised the military for failing to protect their sovereignty, and angry U.S. officials wondered whether some members of military intelligence had sheltered him. Pakistan's government and military said they had no idea bin Laden was in the country. The army seems to have regained its confidence, and won the support of the public and the government in a country where anti-American sentiment often runs high. Protests have taken place in several cities every day since the NATO strike along the poorly-defined border, where militants often plan and stage attacks. In an apparently unrelated attack, a bomb blew out a wall of a government official's office in Peshawar, the last big city on the route to Afghanistan, early on Thursday, police said. There were no reports of casualties. The United States has long wanted Pakistan, whose military and economy depends heavily on billions of dollars in American aid, to crack down on militant groups that cross its unruly border to attack Western forces in Afghanistan. More recently, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Pakistan during a visit to Islamabad in which she met Khar to bring all militant groups to the negotiating table in order to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan. The NATO attack makes Pakistani cooperation less likely. NATO hopes an investigation it promised will defuse the crisis and that confidence-building measures can repair ties. But the army is firmly focused on the NATO attack, and analysts say it is likely to take advantage of the widespread anger to press its interests in any future peace talks on Afghanistan. Pakistan says it has paid the highest price of any country engaged in the war on militancy. Thousands of soldiers and police have been killed. Critics allege Pakistan has created a deadly regional mess by supporting militants like the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network to act as proxies in Afghanistan and other groups to fight Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region. "The sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the war on terror are more than any other country," Khar was quoted as saying. "But that does not mean we will compromise on our sovereignty." (Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR; Editing by Paul Tait) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| U.S. wants Myanmar to deepen changes, halt ties with North Korea Posted: 30 Nov 2011 09:28 PM PST NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her first substantive talks with Myanmar's new leaders on Thursday in a meeting Washington hopes will embolden reformers in the reclusive country where entrenched military interests still loom large.
Clinton, whose landmark visit to the country also known as Burma marks a tentative rapprochement after more than 50 years of estrangement with the West, began a series of meetings with President Thein Sein, Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and top officials from parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's new capital. "I am here today because President Obama and myself are encouraged by the steps that you and your government have taken to provide for your people," Clinton told Thein Sein as the two sat down for talks in Myanmar's ornate presidential palace. Thein Sein welcomed Clinton on a visit he said would be a "milestone." "Your excellency's visit will be historic and a new chapter in relations," he said before the start of the closed-door meeting. Clinton will head to the main city of Yangon later in the day for a private dinner with Aung San Suu Kyi, her first face-to-face meeting with the veteran pro-democracy leader. Suu Kyi told reporters on Wednesday she fully backed Washington's effort to gauge reforms that Myanmar had enacted since the military nominally gave up power to civilian leaders following elections last year. "I think we have to be prepared to take risk. Nothing is guaranteed," Suu Kyi told reporters in Washington in a rare public video call from her home in Yangon, where she was held in detention for 15 of the last 21 years before being released in November last year. But Suu Kyi - a Nobel peace laureate and towering figure for Myanmar's embattled democracy movement - said the United States must remain watchful that the new army-backed civilian government does not halt or roll back political and economic reforms which have gained pace in recent months. "If there are again arrests of those who are engaging in politics, then I think you would need to speak out loud and clear," she said. Suu Kyi confirmed she would run in upcoming by-elections. Her National League for Democracy swept elections in 1990 but the military ignored the result. The party boycotted last year's polls but will contest the by-elections - another sign of the rapid change unfolding -- and hopes to open offices across the country and start a newspaper, she said. Clinton's visit was reported on page two of the main state-run New Light of Mynamar newspaper on Thursday, with a photograph of her arrival and two paragraphs on who accompanied her and met her at the airport. On its front page, the newspaper published a profile of the prime minister of Belarus, who is also visiting in coming days, and a report on preparations for a regional economic cooperation meeting. U.S. EXPECTATIONS, CHINESE FEARS Clinton - the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Myanmar since 1955 - is expected to lay out clear U.S. expectations for the future of reforms. Analysts say the process could eventually lead Washington to ease sanctions which have strangled the country's economy and driven it closer to China, its main political backer and the regional economic powerhouse which is watching warily as the United States steps up its Asian engagement. Clinton is also considering what reciprocal steps the United States may take to encourage the reform process, which could include upgrading its representation in Myanmar to full ambassador or supporting more international aid. Among the U.S. benchmarks will be further releases of political prisoners and genuine government efforts to resolve conflicts between the military and rebellious border-area ethnic minority groups, which rights groups say have spurred some of the country's worst human rights abuses. Clinton will also urge Myanmar to halt what U.S. officials say are illicit contacts with North Korea. The United States is concerned about Myanmar's efforts to acquire North Korean missile technology, and have also voiced fears of fledgling nuclear ties between Myanmar and North Korea, whose own nuclear program has drawn international sanctions and led to fears across Northeast Asia. Among its demands, the United States wants Myanmar to sign additional protocols with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that will expand the nuclear watchdog's ability to monitor and inspect in the country, U.S. officials said. Following her meeting with Thein Sein, who like many of Myanmar's new civilian leaders is a former army general, Clinton will meet parliamentary leaders, some of whom represent military hardliners sceptical of both the pace and scope of the reforms. "There are elements that are more interested in certain aspects of reform, others that are considered to be corrupt or have ties to other countries that cause some concern," one senior U.S. official said, saying Clinton would make a clear case for the economic and political benefits of greater engagement with the West. Clinton has said it is too early to discuss removing U.S. sanctions, which in many cases would require approval by Congress where many lawmakers remain suspicious of Myanmar and alarmed by persistent reports of human rights and other abuses. Clinton's trip follows a decision by President Barack Obama last month to open the door to expanded ties, saying he saw "flickers of progress." Officials said the United States - which dismissed last year's election as a sham - was increasingly persuaded that the changes on the ground are real. "Even though the election itself we felt was deeply and fundamentally flawed, we have seen at least the beginning of debate and divisions much more openly expressed among key players around a whole host of issues," the U.S. official said. (Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell in Washington; Editing by Robert Birsel) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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