Sunday International News

Samajwadi Party backs Indian govt over nuclear deal Reuters/. New Delhi
The Samajwadi Party said on Saturday that a controversial nuclear energy deal with the United States was in the interest of the nation, easing concerns the pact could trigger early elections. Support from the Samajwadi Party is likely to help the Congress Party-led government secure a parliamentary majority if communist parties carry out their threat to withdraw support in protest at the nuclear deal. ‘We will not vote against the government, even if the communists and other parties do,’ Amar Singh, the SP general secretary, told reporters in New Delhi. ‘The deal is in the interest of the nation, we should have come out in support of the deal a year ago,’ he added. The Samajwadi Party has 39 seats in parliament, compared with 59 for the communist parties. The Congress-led ruling coalition needs the support of 44 lawmakers to reach a majority. It would try to win the other five seats from smaller parties. The left parties object to the nuclear deal, saying the nuclear pact will make India a pawn of Washington. The pact will give India access to US nuclear fuel and technology, and is potentially worth billions of dollars to US and European nuclear supplier companies. It will also give India more energy alternatives to drive its development, shifting trade and diplomatic ties towards the West. The SP has a history of pragmatic alliances with national parties, but it said that they had buried years of bitter relations and described the Congress party as a ‘secular force’. ‘In politics, parties switch sides often, but we never sided with communal forces,’ Singh said. ‘The Congress is definitely a secular force and we have always stood by and will stand for secular forces.’ Singh said SP leaders met former president APJ Abdul Kalam, seen as the father of India’s missile programme, this week and they were satisfied with his views the deal could benefit India. ‘He (Kalam) told us that India has a shortage of uranium and India does not need to test anything now, I think what Kalam said is correct,’ Singh said. With time fast running out, the government needs to seek approval for the deal from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the next international move needed to make the agreement operational. The political uncertainty coupled with high oil prices and a 13-year high inflation hit investors’ sentiments and shares dropped 2.5 percent in the past week.
Pakistan forces ease assault on militants in tribal area Associated Press . Bara, Pakistan
Pakistani security forces have eased an operation against insurgents in a tribal region near the border with Afghanistan as local elders try to negotiate peace with a militant leader, a government official said Saturday. Muhammad Ali, an official in charge of the government’s crisis management centre, said security forces had stopped demolishing militant centres and that the round-the-clock curfew in the troubled town of Bara – a focus of the operation – was being relaxed from 9:00am to 5:00pm. The offensive in the Khyber area was launched June 28 to flush out militants threatening Peshawar, a major northwest city, and to secure a road used to send supplies to US-led forces in Afghanistan. A key target of the offensive is Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant group headed by Mangal Bagh. It and a rival group, Ansarul Islam, are accused of trying to impose their own Taliban-style Islamic rule in Khyber. Amal Khan, leader of a 35-member council of elders, said he had met with Bagh and that the militant leader had showed interest in peacefully ending the operation. ‘Today, I will meet with the government to inform it of what we discussed with Mangal Bagh,’ Khan said. On Saturday, shops in Bara were open, selling cloth, electronics and food. Paramilitary forces had only a minor visible presence in the area. The operation is a shift for Pakistan’s government, which has sought to end militant violence through peace deals since coming to power after February elections. That approach has faced criticism from the United States, where officials say the deals will simply give militants time to regroup and intensify attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan. The operation has also faced criticism from skeptics who say it has met with scant resistance and appears to have led to the death of only one militant. Many militants apparently fled before the operation started. A senior politician in the North West Frontier Province said supporters of Lashkar-e-Islam and Ansarul Islam fled to the remote Tirah valley ahead of the crackdown. The politician requested anonymity because his party is a member of the ruling coalition and does not want to publicly criticise the government. Despite the operation, the two groups have been fighting each other this week in the valley, reportedly killing dozens. Still, the government has publicly insisted it is serious about taking control in Khyber. The ministry of interior said it has arrested 92 ‘criminals’ and seized large caches of arms and ammunition in Khyber, and that 128 other suspects have been arrested and drugs and weapons seized separately in Peshawar.
Protesters rally ahead of G8 summit Agence France-Presse . Sapporo, Japan
Thousands of farmers and activists from around the world demonstrated Saturday in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo ahead of next week’s summit of the Group of Eight rich nations. Japan mobilised thousands of riot police to prevent any violence on the streets of Sapporo, the closest major city to the lakeside resort of Toyako, where world leaders will meet from Monday. Dozens of masked protesters marching to rock music were warned by the police against entering restricted areas as Japanese organisers of the rally called on the demonstrators to avoid violence and clashes with the police. ‘No violence! Please follow rules,’ said one of the organisers with a loudspeaker before the protesters hit the street. ‘Thousands of police have come here from throughout the nation and are watching us!’ Two protesters were arrested, organisers said, one of whom was a driver leading a group of protesters. He refused to move his truck and the riot police broke the vehicle’s side window before dragging him out, arresting him on the spot. Security was tight for the rally, which brought together union activists, anti-war demonstrators, farmers and students in a park in Sapporo. The riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields patrolled downtown streets and the central park, part of a 21,000-strong force deployed to ensure security for the summit. ‘Of course violence is not good,’ said a protester from London. ‘It does not cause any good.’ ‘But look at the number of cops here,’ said the man, 50, who declined to be identified. Despite the two arrests, the Sapporo rally, in which organisers estimated 5,000 people took part, was peaceful compared to protests in recent years. Violent anti-globalisation rallies have marred past G8 summits – last year militant activists threw Molotov cocktails and stones during demonstrations in Germany that drew tens of thousands of protesters. Japanese authorities were taking no chances, refusing entry to 19 South Koreans, with others still detained at airports. A speaker from the Korean Federation of Trade Unions deplored the move. ‘We will not back down due to such suppression,’ he said to applause. Ahead of the demonstration, around 100 farmers and fishermen waved banners and shouted slogans in the park, calling for the G8 to pay more attention to food producers. ‘We should have a more balanced food supply in the world,’ said Japanese rice farmer Eiichi Hayashizaki, 69, holding a straw-woven banner saying, ‘Power to food producers!’
Lebanese leaders close to govt deal Reuters/bdnews24.om . Beirut
Lebanese leaders are close to a deal on the formation of a national unity government as stipulated in an agreement that ended the country’s political crisis, political sources said on Saturday. They said the new government, in which Hezbollah and its allies would have a blocking minority, could be announced as early as Saturday. Lebanon’s US-backed majority coalition and the opposition, led by the Syrian-and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, signed a Qatari-brokered deal in Doha on May 21 that pulled the country back from the brink of a new civil war. The president, Michel Suleiman, was elected four days later in line with the deal, but squabbling over cabinet portfolios has held up the formation of a government. The sources from both sides said the breakthrough in the government came after a series of contacts by the Qatari prime minister, Shiekh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, with rival leaders. The new government, led by the prime minister, Fouad Siniora, would have two Hezbollah ministers in addition to nine ministers from its Shia Muslim, Druze and Christian allies. The ruling coalition would have 16 ministers while the remaining three ministers in the 30-member cabinet would be picked by the president, the sources said. Personalities close to Suleiman would be assigned the key defence and interior portfolios. The main task of the cabinet would be to ease political and sectarian tensions that had led to bouts of deadly violence, adopt an election law already agreed in Doha, and supervise next year’s parliamentary election. After the formation of the government, Suleiman is expected to call rival leaders for round table talks to discuss various divisive issues. On top of the agenda would be the fate of Hezbollah’s weapons. Hezbollah maintains a formidable guerrilla army that had survived a war with Israel in 2006. Its domestic detractors say there are no more justifications for the group to keep its arms after Israel pulled out of Lebanon while Hezbollah and its allies argue that it needs its arsenal to defend Lebanon against ‘Israeli threats.’
Pakistan knew of nuclear flight: Qadeer Khan Reuters/bdnews24.com . Islamabad
Disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has said that Pakistan transported nuclear material to North Korea with the full knowledge of the country’s army. In media interviews, he said that the army supervised a flight of centrifuges to Pyongyang in 2000. At the time, the current president Pervez Musharraf was head of the army. He has repeatedly stated that no-one apart from Dr Khan had any knowledge of the nuclear transportations which caused international concern. Dr Khan said that uranium enrichment equipment was sent in a North Korean plane loaded under the supervision of Pakistani security officials. The BBC’s Barbara Plett, in Islamabad, says that Dr Khan’s latest claims contradict a public confession he made in 2004 that he was solely responsible for exporting nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Our correspondent says that the comments are the most controversial accusations made by Dr Khan since he recently began defending himself in statements to the media. His remarks also contradict the oft-stated line of the Pakistani government that neither it nor the army had any knowledge of the exports. ‘It was a North Korean plane, and the army had complete knowledge about it and the equipment,’ Dr Khan said. Pakistan’s newly-elected government has relaxed restrictions on Khan, who was put under house arrest in 2004 by the then military leader, president Musharraf. He is still detained but has begun speaking to the media by telephone. He said the army must have been aware of the centrifuges exports since it supervised all defence consignments and special flights. Dr Khan also said the president must have known about the shipment, because he had written about it in his memoirs. But when pressed he stopped short of directly implicating Musharraf, saying he did not know who specifically was responsible. The allegations are highly controversial, correspondents say, and could prove extremely embarrassing for the army. President Musharraf’s spokesman, Rashid Qureshi, dismissed Dr Khan’s claims. ‘I can say with full confidence that it is all lies and false statements,’ he said. Other government departments – including the army and foreign ministry – declined to comment on Friday. The retired scientist has spoken increasingly to the media since a new government was elected in Pakistan earlier this year. When asked why he had taken sole responsibility for the nuclear scandal in 2004, Dr Khan said he had been persuaded that it was in the national interest. In return, he said, he had been promised complete freedom, but ‘those promises were not honoured’. Dr Khan also said that he travelled to North Korea in 1999 with a Pakistani general to purchase shoulder-launched missiles. His wife this week went to the Islamabad High Court in a bid to end restrictions on her husband’s movements. Dr Khan was pardoned by president Musharraf after admitting illegally transferring nuclear secrets to other countries including Libya, Iran and North Korea. But in recent weeks he has retracted his confession.
UN chief given rapturous welcome in home village Agence France-Presse . Haengchi, South Korea
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, received a rapturous welcome when he returned to his home village in South Korea Saturday to visit the graves of his father and ancestors. Hundreds of local people and relatives turned out to welcome Ban back to the remote farming village where he was born and spent his early childhood, some travelling large distances in the summer heat to see its most famous son. Ban’s mother broke down in tears when she saw her son, who said he wished his father could have been there to see what he had achieved. ‘I am pleased to be back to my birthplace, my home town. This is very humbling,’ he told reporters on his first visit here since taking office. ‘I paid my tribute to my late father, my grandfather, all the ancestors. I wish my father could have seen what I am now. My father in fact had always wished that I should be a good public servant. I think I made it,’ he said.
Kashmir shrine fire sparks massive protest Agence France-Presse . Srinagar
At least 30 people were injured in clashes with the police after thousands of angry protesters gathered outside a shrine housing Islamic relics that caught fire Saturday in Indian Kashmir’s largest city. The blaze sparked fresh religious tensions in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region, which has already seen days of violent protests over plans to transfer land to a Hindu pilgrims’ body, as rumours spread that police had set the fire. The police said the fire at the shrine in Srinagar was accidental. ‘Initial reports suggest that the fire was caused by a short circuit,’ said a police officer, who did not want to be named. ‘We brought the fire under control,’ he said, calling the rumours ‘base and misleading.’ All the centuries-old relics at the shrine were safe, he added. But news of the fire at the Jenab Sahib shrine, which is said to house a relic of the Prophet Muhammed, drew thousands of Muslims onto the surrounding streets, shouting ‘Allah is great’ and ‘Long live Islam.’ The police fired in the air, set off tear-gas shells and baton-charged the crowd that was pelting stones at security forces outside the shrine after some of the demonstrators tried to snatch rifles from the police.
Amnesty urges Indonesia to halt serial killer’s execution Agence France-Presse . Jakarta
Rights group Amnesty International called on Indonesia Saturday not to execute a man who murdered 42 women in ‘black magic’ rituals. Self-proclaimed shaman Ahmad Suraji was sentenced to death in 1998 after the police found the women’s bodies buried in a sugar cane field. He confessed to strangling most of the women and drinking their saliva to improve his magical powers after they came to him for help. Amnesty said it recognised the need to address serious crime, but was ‘convinced that the death penalty does not provide a solution.’ ‘(We are) calling for the planned execution of Achmad Suradji to be halted immediately and for his sentence to be commuted,’ it said in a statement. Prosecutors said this week Suraji and four other Indonesians would ‘soon’ be executed after the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyon, rejected his clemency application. Amnesty also urged authorities to spare the lives of the four others.
10,000 protest over violence against Asians in NZ Agence France-Presse . Auckland
An estimated 10,000 people took part in a rally in pouring rain in Auckland on Saturday to protest against violence against Asians in the city. The police said the demonstration stretched about 2.5 kilometres through the streets of south Auckland where three people of Asian descent have been killed in the past month. The march was organised by the Asian Anti-Crime group and included people carrying coffins and placards with pictures of those killed. Others carried New Zealand flags and signs calling for tougher sentencing and zero tolerance for crime. Liquor store owner Navtej Singh was shot and killed during a robbery at his shop on June 7, a week later 80-year-old Yan Ping Yang died after being attacked by an intruder in her home.
Pope faces lack of faith in Australia: survey Agence France-Presse . Sydney
Australia is one of the least religious nations in the western world, research showed Friday, as the country prepares to host Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic World Youth Day celebrations this month. Most Australians – 52 per cent – never or very seldom visit a church, mosque, synagogue or temple for religious reasons, according to an international survey carried out by Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation. While one in four of Australia’s 21 million people classify themselves as deeply religious, 28 per cent are not at all religious and another 44 per cent say religion does not play a central role in their lives. The Religion Monitor survey is the most extensive and detailed study on the significance of religion in the main cultures of the world, says the Bertelsmann Foundation, a private, non-profit group.
Iran offers talks but without nuclear freeze Tehran warns of Gulf blitzkrieg, Hormuz closure Agence France-Presse . Tehran
Iran on Saturday offered to negotiate on its nuclear drive but without a freeze on uranium enrichment, in its first comments since responding to an international package aimed at ending the standoff. Its military chiefs, meanwhile, warned that the Islamic republic would close the Strait of Hormuz which is vital for oil exports and use ‘blitzkrieg tactics’ in the Gulf waterway if it came under attack. ‘Iran will not go back on its rights on the nuclear issue,’ government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said. ‘The will of the Iranian people is firm and will continue to follow the principles defined by the supreme guide (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei),’ the spokesman said at a weekly news conference. ‘Iran insists on negotiations (with world powers) while respecting its rights and avoiding any loss of international rights,’ he said, referring to Tehran’s refusal to give up on nuclear enrichment. Iran on Friday delivered its response to a package drawn up by six world powers offering Iran technology and negotiations if it suspends uranium enrichment, which the West fears could be used to make atomic weapons. Elham said his country was prepared to hold talks ‘especially with the 5+1 Group’ of the UN Security Council members plus Germany ‘on the common points in the Iranian package and the offer of the world powers.’ Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili has said his country submitted a ‘constructive and creative’ response with ‘a focus on common ground,’ but he did not elaborate on the contents. Iran has also put forward its own more all-embracing offer aimed at solving world problems, including the nuclear issue, and has said there is common ground between the two packages. There has been considerable speculation in recent days that Tehran was softening its tone on the nuclear standoff, although the international community has made negotiations conditional on enrichment suspension. Diplomatic sources said the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, has not ruled out pre-negotiations during which world powers would refrain from new sanctions provided Iran did not start operating any more centrifuges to enrich uranium. On Saturday, the chiefs of both the armed forces and the elite Revolutionary Guards militia warned of the military fallout from any attack on Iran aimed at halting its nuclear programme. ‘All the countries should know that if Iran’s interests in the region are ignored, it is natural we will not allow others to use it (the Hormuz Strait),’ said army chief General Hassan Firouzabadi, quoted by Fars news agency. However, Iran’s armed forces joint chief of staff stressed his country’s priority was that the Strait of Hormuz remain open. The strait between Iran and Oman is a vital conduit for energy supplies, with as much as 40 per cent of the world’s crude passing through the strategic waterway. Speculation has been rife that Israel could be planning a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites, using force to halt Tehran’s controversial atomic activities. The chief of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards militia, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, also quoted by Fars, warned that his forces would use ‘blitzkrieg tactics’ in the Gulf if his country came under attack.
Hidden camera footage exposes Mugabe ‘vote-rigging’ Agence France-Presse . London
Secret footage filmed by a Zimbabwean prison guard shows how a supporter of the president, Robert Mugabe, rigged votes in his favour, British newspaper The Guardian said. The hidden camera images apparently show one of Mugabe’s so-called war veterans – with the power to denounce prison workers as opposition supporters – supervising their votes, logging each one against the voter’s identification number and watching as they mark the ballots. ‘It is believed to be the first footage of actual ballot-rigging,’ The Guardian said. Harare prison guard Shepherd Yuda, 36, who filmed the clips, has since fled the country with his pregnant wife and their children. The 10-minute film is on the British daily’s web site. It was filmed during the six days before the June 27 presidential election second round run-off. The Guardian gave Yuda the camera to film the daily life of a prison guard but he found himself recording the overseeing of ballots by supporters of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF ruling party. Tendai Biti, the number two in the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, is seen in prison having leg irons taken off him before going to court to face treason charges. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the election, saying violence and intimidation against his supporters made a free and fair vote impossible. Though Tsvangirai remained on the ballot paper, Mugabe was the only candidate. The film said a big meeting was suddenly called at the prison. Top-ranking officials from the prison service arrived to tell the prison officers who to vote for. Attendance was compulsory. One man addressing the crowd says: ‘Forward with ZANU-PF! Forward with ZANU-PF! Down with MDC!’ Another then tells the prison workers: ‘Tsvangirai, even if you vote for him, even if he wins he will never rule this country. Do you understand me? He will never rule.’ Then, a few days before the election, Yuda and his colleagues were sent for. They went to their staff offices, where they were told they must cast their votes by postal ballot from the office. Under a picture of Mugabe, the voting was overseen by war veteran superintendent Shambira, who asked the prison officers to read out their voter identification number. Meanwhile, opposition said Friday post-election violence had claimed the lives of 103 of its supporters and some 5,000 were missing after being abducted by Mugabe’s ruling party.
Betancourt set for medical tests Agence France-Presse . Paris
Freed Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt faced a day of medical tests in Paris Saturday after receiving a hero’s welcome following her six-year hostage ordeal, as video footage was released of her dramatic rescue. Snatched from the grip of Marxist FARC rebels in a Colombian army operation Wednesday, along with three US hostages and 11 Colombians, Betancourt arrived in France Friday on board a French presidential plane from Bogota. After being feted by the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, at the Elysee Palace, the 46-year-old former Colombian presidential candidate, who also has French nationality, was to spend Saturday undergoing an in-depth medical examination at a military hospital in Paris. Though she told reporters she felt ‘in great shape,’ she developed a string of ailments while in captivity, possibly including hepatitis. On arrival at Villacoublay airbase outside Paris, Betancourt walked smiling down the stairs of the plane to embrace Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni, waiting to welcome her to her second home. ‘I am so happy to breathe the air of France. I owe France everything,’ she told the crowd waiting to welcome her. ‘I have shed a great many tears of pain and indignation. Today I am crying with joy,’ she said, her voice breaking with emotion. ‘You saved my life.’ ‘Ingrid Betancourt, welcome. France loves you,’ Sarkozy told her. Betancourt paid a personal tribute to the French president, who made her release a top priority, as ‘this extraordinary man who fought so hard for me.’
Obama, McCain wax patriotic as US marks Independence Day Agence France-Presse . Washington
White House hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain marked the US Independence Day holiday Friday with parades, picnics and odes to patriotism. ‘Patriotism is deeper than its symbolic expressions, than sentiments about place and kinship that move us to hold our hands over our hearts during the national anthem,’ Republican presumptive White House nominee McCain wrote in Parade magazine. ‘It is putting the country first, before party or personal ambition, before anything,’ he said. Democrat Obama, who watched a traditional parade with his wife and daughters in the western state of Montana, wrote in the same magazine that for him, patriotism was a ‘gut instinct.’ ‘It’s not just the recitations of the pledge of allegiance, the Thanksgiving pageants at school, or the fireworks on the Fourth of July, but how the American ideal wove its way throughout the lessons my family taught me,’ he said. That ideal includes a ‘country where we have the unparalleled right to pursue our dreams.’ ‘With a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, I know that stories like mine can only happen in the United States of America,’ he said. Obama, who would be the first African-American US president, recalled childhood memories of Indonesia and the expatriate American life. ‘I lived overseas for a time as a child, and I remember listening to my mother reading me the first lines of the Declaration of Independence and explaining how its ideas applied to every American, black and white and brown alike,’ he said. McCain, who just returned from a Latin American tour designed to woo critical swing Hispanic voters, appealed to newer Americans, saying that ‘to love one’s country is to love one’s countrymen.’ ‘It is the willing acceptance of Americans, both those whose roots here extend back over generations and those who arrived only yesterday, to try to make a nation in which all people share in the promise and responsibilities of freedom,’ he said. On Thursday, visited the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, home to Mexico’s most revered icon, a stop likely aimed at Roman Catholics and Mexican-Americans voters in the United States. The basilica houses a 16th-century icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a picture depicting an apparition of a brown-skinned Virgin Mary. The icon, Mexico’s most beloved religious and cultural image, and the basilica is the second most-visited Catholic shrine in the world.
Surrogate children psychologically well: study Agence France-Presse . Paris
Children born to a surrogate mother or conceived through donated sperm or a donated egg do just as well psychologically as counterparts who are naturally conceived, a study unveiled on Sunday said. The probe is the widest yet into concerns that the rising numbers of children born through assisted reproduction may suffer lower self-esteem or be treated less positively by parents, siblings and schoolmates. Scientists led by Polly Casey from the Centre for Family Research at Britain’s Cambridge University carried out interviews and psychology tests among 39 surrogacy families, 43 donor insemination families and 46 egg donation families. The children are now seven years old. For comparison, they made the same investigation among 70 families where the children had been conceived naturally. They also asked the children’s teachers, in order to get an independent assessment of the child’s wellbeing. The children were all given a blank ‘map’ with concentric circles, and were told that they were at the centre of it. They were asked to complete the map by placing family members and friends in the circle that represented the emotional closeness of each relationship. They were also given a picture test, designed as a measure of self-esteem, to assess where they felt they stood among their peers. ‘We found that the family types did not differ in the overall quality of the relationship between mothers and their children and fathers and their children,’ Casey said. Mothers who had had their child through surrogacy and egg donation tended to be more sensitive to their child’s worries and anxieties compared with donor insemination mothers and natural conception mothers, but the difference was minor, she added. As for the child’s view of family relationships, children of all backgrounds placed their mother or father in the closest circle with the same frequency. There was no significant difference between family types when it came to self-esteem. An overview of the research, based on data from approximately half of the families, was to be presented on Sunday at the annual conference, taking place in Barcelona, Spain, of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.
Phoenix scientists will soonanalyze Martian ice Agence France-Presse . Washington
Scientists with the US Phoenix lander will make their first analysis of Martian ice fragments in coming days but it could be the last done in one of the probe’s small ovens, NASA said on its web site Friday. A team of engineers and scientists were trying to get to the bottom of what caused a short-circuit on the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer which has four small ovens able to heat samples of Martian soil up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. ‘Since there is no way to assess the probability of another short circuit occurring, we are taking the most conservative approach and treating the next sample to TEGA as possibly our last,’ said the University of Arixona’s Peter Smith, Phoenix’s principal investigator and top mission scientific official. TEGA is vital to determining whether Martian ice contains organic or carbon-based compounds which would be essential for life on Mars. Phoenix officials believe the short-circuit in oven number four was caused by vibrations that jolted the lander for days as scientists moved it to get a grainy soil sample into the lander.
Russia warns of new war inAbkhazia conflict Reuters/bdnews24.com . Moscow
A ‘new war’ could break out in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia if Tbilisi uses military force to resolve the conflict, Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday. Separatist leader Sergei Bagapsh accused Georgia on Saturday of planning to take over the region by force earlier this year, though the operation did not come to fruition. ‘Such plans by Tbilisi can only be seen as yet another step towards further escalating the tensions in the region, which will bring the conflict into a new war,’ the defense ministry said in a statement on its web site. A popular Soviet-era resort, Abkhazia threw off Tbilisi’s rule in a 1990s separatist war. It is not recognised by any state, but runs its own affairs.
California wildfires rage south Agence France-Presse . San Francisco
California’s wildfires raged unabated on Friday, with an army of firefighters desperately trying to staunch the advance of flames as they headed towards more populated regions. State officials said some 19,925 personnel were battling 60 active fires, which were among 1,800 blazes which have scorched nearly 521,000 acres since being triggered by lightning a fortnight ago. The focal point of containment efforts is a wind-driven blaze besieging the picturesque village of Big Sur, a normally bustling tourist haven around 120 miles south of San Francisco. The blaze threatening the seaside town has swept through 65,393 acres of the Los Padres National Forest and was only five percent contained according to latest figures on Friday. With a combination high temperatures, low humidity and offshore gusts fanning the fires, officials have said they are battling against a ‘perfect storm’ of weather conditions. Around 1,800 structures remain threatened in the Big Sure fire while a total of 19 homes had already been destroyed, officials said.
Mongolia prepares to liftstate of emergency Agence France-Presse . Ulan Bator
Mongolia was Saturday expected to lift a state of emergency implemented after unprecedented deadly election riots engulfed the capital of Ulan Bator, but residents feared renewed violence. Five people died in Tuesday’s riots over alleged rigged parliamentary elections, and residents of the city expressed concern about the prospect of further unrest. ‘Now in my country it is a very important time, and politics are not stable, and if these protests happen again, a lot of people could get hurt or could lose their lives,’ said Naraa Baatar, 19. The four-day state of emergency, due to end at midnight on Saturday, was implemented for the first time in Mongolia after the protests, imposing a 10:00pm (1400 GMT) curfew and shutting down all media outlets except for state media.