Next 18 months critical for Iraq, says Obama

BAGHDAD, Apr 8: US President Barack Obama said on a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday that the next 18 months would be "critical," and told the war-torn country that it would soon have to look after itself, reports AFP.
Obama, who has called for an end to US combat operations in Iraq by August next year, also pledged he would stick to a timetable for all American troops to leave the country by the end of 2011.
"It is time for us to transfer (control) to the Iraqis," Obama told an audience of US troops soon after flying in to Baghdad aboard Air Force One on his first trip to Iraq since taking office three months ago.
"They need to take responsibility for their country," he said. "This is going to be a critical period, these next 18 months."
The US president''s trip came two days before the sixth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad in the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, but amid a spate of recent attacks that have killed dozens and wounded hundreds more.
Obama was immediately rushed off to meet General Ray Odierno, the top US army commander in Iraq at the start of his short visit. The pair discussed the planned drawdown of troops and general elections due at the end of 2009.
The president was mobbed by ecstatic US soldiers during his previously unannounced trip, many of whom eagerly shook hands with him and captured the moment on their digital cameras.
"You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. That is an extraordinary achievement, and for that you have the thanks of the American people," Obama told the troops.
Obama then met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at a US airbase outside the capital, and promised he would pull American troops out of the country as planned.
"We are strongly committed to an Iraq that is sovereign, stable and self-reliant," he said, standing beside the Iraqi premier.
In February, Obama announced a new strategy that will see most combat troops withdraw from Iraq by August 2010, although a force of up to 50,000 will remain until the end of the following year.
Under a military accord signed between Baghdad and Washington last November, all American troops will leave by the end of 2011.
The US president also appealed for differences between "various factions" in Iraq to be resolved.
"It''s absolutely critical that all Iraqis are integrated into the government and security forces," Obama said, alluding to the Sahwa or "Awakening" fighters who were commissioned to help US forces fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Thailand braces for fresh violence

BANGKOK, Apr 8: Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Bangkok Wednesday in their biggest bid yet to force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva from office, as the government braced for possible violence, reports AFP.
Police said around 30,000 red-clad supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra had gathered outside the main government offices in the capital, where demonstrators have been staging a sit-in for the last two weeks.
The protest comes a day after so-called "Red Shirts" attacked Abhisit''s motorcade following a cabinet meeting in the resort town of Pattaya, smashing one of the windows of his car in a major escalation of tensions.
Protest leaders say they expect thousands more to come from around the country on Wednesday for what they have called "D-Day" in their efforts to push Abhisit to dissolve his four-month-old government and hold elections.
Police said they believed protesters were planning to surround the residence of one of the widely revered king''s top advisors, who has been accused by Thaksin of orchestrating the coup that toppled him in 2006.
"So far they have not yet publicly announced their plans but our intelligence says they will move at 10 am (0300 GMT)," said Major General Suporn Phansua, a spokesman for Bangkok Metropolitan Police.
He said some 10,000 security forces had been deployed at major sites including Government House and the residence of former premier General Prem Tinsulanonda, the royal adviser accused by Thaksin.
Local television footage showed that soldiers were already deployed at Prem''s house.
Billionaire tycoon Thaksin, who is living in an undisclosed foreign country to avoid a jail term for corruption, said late Tuesday that the protests would mark a "historic day for Thailand."

Bomb near Baghdad shrine kills 7

BAGHDAD, Apr 8: A bomb left in a plastic bag exploded Wednesday near the most important Shiite shrine in Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 23, police said, reports AP.
The blast occurred in the same neighborhood where an infant wasb rescued from a burning car the day before following an explosion that killed his mother. The man who rescued the infant said the baby boy was handed over Wednesday to his uncle.
Wednesday''s attack was part of a wave of violence that hit Iraqthis week, primarily in Shiite areas of Baghdad. The Interior Ministry has warned of more attacks.
The bomb exploded in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah, about 100 yards (100 meters) from the tomb of Imam Mousa al-Kazim - one of the 12 Shiite saints.
Last January, a man dressed as a woman blew himself up near the shrine, killing more than three dozen people and wounding more than 70.
The blast Wednesday occurred in a pedestrian-only area filled with jewelry and clothing shops, which circles the shrine.
No group has claimed responsibility for the recent blasts, but the U.S. military suspects al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni extremist group that has targeted Shiite civilians in the past.

Lanka sounds last warning to Tigers

COLOMBO, (Reuters), Apr 8: Sri Lanka''s military on Wednesday broadcast a final surrender offer to Tamil Tiger rebels surrounded in a tiny strip of coast, urging them drop their guns and free tens of thousands of civilians or be destroyed.
After a punishing three-day battle in which the military said it killed more than 500 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, the army sealed the remnants of the separatist group off in a no-fire zone where they are mixed among civilians.
Using a public address system from the edge of the army-declared no-fire zone, soldiers blared the last call to a group that has fought Asia''s longest-running civil war and is on the verge of defeat as a conventional force.
"We have given them the truth. We announced that the LTTE must stop holding the people, and urged them to surrender.
This is the last time they have to come and surrender," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
He did not say when the offer of surrender expired.
The Tigers, whose fighters wear vials of cyanide around their necks to be taken in case of capture, have vowed not to give up their fight to create a separate state for Sri Lanka''s minority Tamils.

Iran poses no threat to US: Russia

WASHINGTON, Apr 8: Iran poses no threat to the United States, Russia said Tuesday, rebuffing a key argument of President Barack Obama on whether to go ahead with a European missile shield bitterly opposed by Moscow, reports AFP.
Former president George W. Bush had infuriated Russia by striking a deal to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and related radar stations in the Czech Republic, saying they were needed to counter "rogue states" such as Iran.
The Obama administra-tion says it is reviewing the shield project, studying whether it is militarily justified and cost effective.
But Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, said that the Iran threat was a myth.
"I don''t see any threat to the United States coming from Iran anytime soon," Kislyak told a conference of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He said the shield in the former Soviet bloc nations also failed to cover all of the NATO alliance.
"It didn''t accomplish a single stated goal that we were told was the reason to deploy. If that was the case, that means there was something else behind this," Kislyak said.
Western nations widely suspect that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, although Obama has also reached out to try to repair relations with the Islamic republic.
Kislyak said that Russia was encouraged by Obama''s approach. Under Bush, Russia engaged in some of the harshest rhetorical attacks on the United States since the Cold War.

Saudi Arabia breaks up ''terror'' network

RIYADH, Apr 8: Saudi Arabia said Tuesday it had broken up an 11-strong "terrorist cell" planning attacks and kidnappings, and that it had seized guns and ammunition from the group, reports AFP.
The members of the "terrorist cell" -- a common government reference to Al-Qaeda and related groups -- were arrested near the border with Yemen, interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki said.
The gang, all Saudis, was planning to attack police installations and undertake kidnappings and robberies to finance their operations, Turki told AFP by telephone.
"They were almost ready to start with acts against the kingdom," he said.
It was too early to say precisely what their possible links to other groups were, he said. But he added: "They do have relationships to others outside the kingdom."
They were equipped with small arms, such as pistols and shotguns, and their planned attacks were focused on the immediate area in southern Saudi Arabia, Turki added.
"They were not arrested at once, but taken one by one, until we were certain we had all of them," he said.
In a statement, the interior ministry said the men had hidden themselves in a mountain cave near the border with weapons, food supplies, cameras and other equipment.
Saudi Arabia has been concerned during the past year over the rise of an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen and its contacts with Saudi radicals. Several known Saudi militants have made their way into Yemen to join Qaeda operations there.
In January the Yemen branch of Al-Qaeda announced in an Internet video message the merging of the Saudi and Yemeni branches into wht it called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, led by a Yemeni, Nasser al-Wahaishi.
Saudis have pressed Sanaa to take action against the group after a spate of attacks on foreign and government targets, including two suicide bomb attacks on South Korean tourists last month, leaving four dead, and two attacks last year on the US embassy.
In the past three months Yemen has handed over a number of militants to the Saudis, including a former Guantanamo prisoner, Mohamed Atiq Awayd al-Awfi, who had gone through Riyadh''s rehabilitation programme for militants.
The Saudis had believed he had given up his support for radical Islamic groups, but he was reportedly lured by others to join up again with Islamic fighters inside Yemen.
At the end of March Yemen turned over to Saudis five more men it had arrested, including Ali Abdullah al-Harbi, who was on a Saudi most-wanted list.

N Korea vows strong steps if UN censures rocket launch

SEOUL, Apr 8: North Korea warned of "strong steps" if the United Nations censures its rocket launch, hours after releasing triumphal footage of what Pyongyang says is part of a peaceful space programme, reports AFP.
The United States and its allies are pushing for a strong Security Council response to what they see as a provocative long-range missile test in defiance of past resolutions, but face opposition from China, Russia and other members.
Pak Tok-Hun, North Korea''s deputy UN ambassador, said that if the 15-member council "takes any kind of steps whatever, we will consider this infringes upon the sovereignty of our country. The next option will be ours."
He told reporters the communist state would take "necessary and strong steps" following any censure motion.
The North has warned previously that it will walk out of long-running six-nation nuclear disarmament talks in response to any UN action.
"Every country has the inalienable right to use outer space peacefully," Pak insisted, pointing out that many countries had already launched satellites into space several hundred times.
He said that if it was all right for them to launch satellites, "but we are not allowed to do that, that''s not fair."
Pak insisted that the three-stage Taepodong-2 rocket launched Sunday carried a satellite and not a missile. "This is a satellite. Everyone can distinguish (between) a satellite and a missile," he added.
China, the North''s sole major ally, earlier in the day said Pyongyang had the right to the peaceful use of space.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman urged other nations to respond calmly "so as to jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the region and promote the six-party talks."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said world powers should "avoid any hasty conclusions" over the launch.
With the world body split, the United States has hinted it may not insist on a binding resolution.
As the diplomatic wrangling continued in New York, the impoverished North released film footage of what it terms an "historic" achievement -- despite a price tag of 500 million dollars put by one Seoul analyst on the satellite programme.

US lawmaker says Castro very energetic

WASHINGTON, Apr 8: A US lawmaker returning from Cuba said ailing former leader Fidel Castro, 82, "seemed very energetic" when she met him at his home in Havana earlier Tuesday, reports AFP.
"He seemed very energetic. We met at his house, a house of very modest means. His wife was there, his son was taking photographs of us," House of Representatives member Barbara Lee told CNN after a five-day visit to Cuba.
Lee and six other Democrats from the US Congressional Black Caucus met President Raul Castro on Monday and other top Cuban officials in a bid to improve relations between the two countries through direct dialogue. On Tuesday Lee and two of her colleagues visited Fidel Castro, who withdrew from public view in July 2006 for health reasons, ceding power to his brother Raul, 77.
"It was a very moving meeting, in some sense, because he was taking notes," Lee told reporters. "He was very inquisitive, he asked us to send him more information about Dr King Jr. because he reveres Martin Luther King Jr."
Lee and her delegation met Monday with Raul Castro and discussed, among other things, establishing a US-Cuban dialogue with no pre-conditions.

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