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The US president, George W Bush, on Monday backed Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, while urging the Israeli premier to stop all expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank under the Mideast peace roadmap.
   As the two stood side-by-side outside the US leader’s private ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush praised Sharon for his ‘strong visionary leadership’ in initiating the Gaza withdrawal, known as the disengagement plan.
   ‘I strongly support his courageous initiative to disengage from Gaza and part of the West Bank,’ he said, referring to the withdrawal of more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza and four isolated West Bank settlements.
   He also urged the Palestinians to coordinate with Israel over the evacuation, which is due to start on July 20.
   ‘The prime minister is willing to coordinate the implementation of the disengagement plan with the Palestinians. I urge the Palestinian leadership to accept his offer,’ Bush said.
   Affirming the internationally drafted roadmap as ‘the only way forward’, Bush urged both parties to comply with the obligations laid down in the peace blueprint.
   The president urged the Palestinians to ‘combat terrorism in all its forms’, and took a strong line with Israel, calling on the US ally to live up to its roadmap commitments and not push ahead with plans to expand West Bank settlements.
   ‘I told the prime minister of my concern that Israel not undertake any activity that contravenes its roadmap obligations or prejudices final status negotiations,’ Bush said.
   ‘Therefore Israel should remove unauthorised outposts and meet its roadmap obligations regarding settlements in the West Bank,’ he said, later driving the point home: ‘The roadmap clearly says no expansion of settlements.’
   Reaffirming his commitment to the roadmap, Sharon pledged to remove unauthorised outposts, and to meet all commitments with regard to West Bank settlements.
   Bush’s comments about settlement expansion—mentioned three times at the joint press conference—came as something of a surprise to the Israeli delegation which had been hoping the issue would be sidelined amid a flareup of violence in the southern Gaza Strip.
   But Israeli prime minister brushed off a warning from the US president not to allow further West Bank settlement growth, indicating Israel would continue to solidify its hold on areas it considers of strategic importance.
   Sharon, speaking to reporters before flying to Washington for talks Tuesday with US lawmakers and Jewish leaders, said the dispute was decades-old and did not mar the meeting between the two leaders, which he called a great success.
   But later, Sharon said
   while US opposition to the settlements dated back to when Israel first captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has nevertheless continued to build communities to keep a hold on the land.

A US-based media rights group called Tuesday for an end to press censorship in Nepal and the release of at least 10 journalists it says have been detained since king Gyanendra seized power on February 1.
   ‘The government’s crackdown ... is the most devastating blow to the country’s vibrant private media since democracy was re-established here in 1990,’ said Ann Cooper, head of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
   Cooper, executive director of the group, was speaking in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu at the end of a week-long fact-finding mission to the impoverished country which is racked by a Maoist revolt.
   ‘At least 10 journalists have been detained since the royal takeover February 1,’ Cooper said. ‘We call upon the government to immediately free all detained journalists and restore press freedom in Nepal.’
   She added: ‘The government’s ban on news reporting by Nepal’s 46 private FM radio stations has deprived the Nepalese people of a crucial news source besides throwing 1,000 journalists out of work.’
   Gyanendra dismissed the government and seized power on February 1, saying the move was necessary to tackle the increasingly bloody Maoist insurgency. Emergency rule provisions proclaimed at the time of his takeover suspended freedom of the press.
   ‘The authorities seem determined to close down the media and force a return to the old days when news came only from tightly restricted state media,’ Cooper said.
   She called the growth of Nepal’s independent media since 1990 one of the country’s success stories and said ‘the private print and broadcast media had developed into the main forum for responsible, constructive public debate’.
   The New York-based group said it had asked for a meeting with the king and senior government officials but the requests were refused.
   The organisation’s appeal came a day after Gyanendra agreed to allow UN monitors to help prevent human rights abuses in the kingdom. His decision came amid mounting world concern about human rights in Nepal following his power grab.
   There has been a storm of international protest over Gyanendra’s dismissal of the civilian government. Britain and neighbouring India have suspended military aid while the United States has threatened to follow suit.

The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said Tuesday Beijing’s nuclear cooperation with India’s archrival Pakistan is fully compliant with international anti-proliferation norms and dedicated to peaceful purposes.
   Wen, winding up a four-day India visit, told reporters in New Delhi that China’s nuclear ties with Islamabad are subject to ‘the supervision and the safeguards’ prescribed by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
   ‘The nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan is completely for the peaceful utilisation of nuclear energy,’ Wen told reporters when asked if nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan would hamper relations between New Delhi and Beijing reaching their full potential.
   ‘And I think China-Pakistan nuclear cooperation, the project of the Chashma nuclear power plant is a very good example,’ he added.
   ‘The China-Pakistan nuclear cooperation is in complete compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.’
   China last year agreed to build a 300 megawatt nuclear power plant at Chashma, some 270 kilometres south of the Pakistan capital Islamabad. Both sides have insisted it is for civilian use only.
   The 600-million-dollar project is situated close to a similar capacity plant built in Chashma with Chinese help that became operational in 1999.

China’s premier wound up a visit to India on Tuesday having made progress on a border row, boosted trade and energy cooperation, and with a vow to make the world’s fastest growing economies partners rather than rivals.
   ‘India, China are brothers,’ China’s Wen Jiabao told reporters on what he described as a historic visit. ‘We have taken this relationship to a new level.’
   Later, he told students at one of India’s top engineering colleges that visiting India was like returning to his ‘native soil’ and recalled centuries-old ties between the two ancient civilisations.
   ‘Some people describe China and India as competitors. I beg to disagree,’ Wen told the students. ‘China and India are friendly neighbours and cooperative partners. They are not rivals, still less adversaries.’
   Wen signed an agreement with the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, on Monday on the ‘guiding principles’ to resolve a decades-old dispute over their 3,500 km Himalayan border, which brought the two sides to war in 1962.
   Under the deal, the two sides agreed to respect settled populations and each other’s security concerns while continuing to negotiate a final settlement.
   Observers said they are inching towards a deal to recognise the status quo, softening public opinion up slowly to a redrawing of maps—something deeply sensitive in India.
   That would mean China relinquishing its claim to 90,000 square km of territory in India’s northeast but retaining control of Aksai Chin, an icy and uninhabited slice of land on the Tibetan plateau that Beijing seized from Jammu and Kashmir in 1962.
   Wen said China was keen to maintain peace and develop trade along the border, which still sees occasional skirmishes.
   ‘As long as we have sincerity and patience, as long as we persevere in this effort, we will be able to build the China-India boundary into a boundary of peace and friendship,’ he said.
   But as the nuclear powers mark 55 years of diplomatic ties this year, analysts said there was still a long way to go in the border dispute, as well as in building trust between the huge communist state and the world’s largest democracy.
   Wen presented Singh with a new Chinese map showing, for the first time, the tiny and remote Himalayan region of Sikkim as part of India.

Thai women are more concerned about sexual harassment than terrorism during the upcoming traditional Songkran water festival, a survey published Tuesday found.
   The survey by Bangkok’s Assumption University found nearly 43 per cent of almost 3,000 women interviewed said they feared harassment during the April 13-15 Thai new year festival renowned for water fights and powder attacks.
   Some 34.6 per cent of women were concerned about terrorism, while 22.6 per cent said they had no concerns.
   The survey estimated that about 560,598 women or 11.53 per cent of Thailand’s total, were ‘violated’ during Songkran in 2004.
   Among those women, only 17.4 per cent filed a complaint with police and only 8.9 per cent of those complaints led to arrests, the survey said.
   Some 55.9 per cent of respondents believed police could not prevent sexual harassment during Songkran and 68.3 per cent said the harassment was increasing.
   Security has been enhanced across Thailand in recent weeks after three bombs on April 3 in Songkhla province suggested that an Islamic insurgency confined to three southern provinces bordering Malaysia had begun to spread.
   Some 2,843 women age 15-24 years were interviewed in 23 of the 76 provinces.

A row between Japan and China intensified Tuesday as the Asian powers each demanded protection for their nationals and Beijing insisted Tokyo did not deserve a cherished permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
   Three days after thousands of Chinese took to the streets to vent fury at Japan and its past aggression, the Japanese trade minister described China as a ‘scary country’ and Tokyo repeated demands for a Chinese apology.
   But there were also calls for calm, with Beijing’s envoy to Tokyo telling Japan it had nothing to fear from his nation’s economic and military rise.
   The Chinese government, which largely tolerated the rare demonstration in Beijing, on Tuesday backed protesters’ view that Japan should not win a Security Council seat until it faced up to its bloody past.
   ‘Only a country that respects the history, takes responsibility for the past history and wins over the trust of the people of Asia and the world at large can take greater responsibilities in the international community,’ premier Wen Jiabao said on a visit to fellow Security Council aspirant India.

Nepal’s Maoist rebels have shot dead a government official in the country’s remote southwest, police said Tuesday.
   The rebels late Monday barged into the home of Balananda Kafle, acting chief district officer of Bardiya district, and gunned him down, a senior police officer said.
   ‘He was shot in his temple and neck and was rushed to the hospital but died of his injuries,’ the police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
   The Maoists have not commented on the killing 520 kilometres southwest of the capital, Kathmandu.
   But the rebels who control large swathes of the countryside frequently target government and security officials in a bid to scare them into leaving, authorities say.
   The announcement of the death came as an 11-day rebel nationwide road blockade aimed at protesting King Gyanendra’s seizure of power in February came to an end.
   The rebels have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 in a conflict that has claimed over 11,000 lives.

The moderate separatist faction in Indian Kashmir will urge the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, to include them in talks with India on the future of the divided Himalayan state, their leader have said.
   Musharraf will meet the separatists in New Delhi on Saturday during a visit to watch the final one-day cricket match of a series between the two countries. He will also meet the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to push forward the peace process.
   ‘We will press for inclusion of Kashmiris in the ongoing talks between India and Pakistan,’ Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the head of the moderate faction of the main separatist alliance the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, said of his meeting with Musharraf.
   ‘The Kashmir dispute cannot be resolved without the inclusion of Kashmiris.’
   India and Pakistan started a peace process 14 months ago that has led to a series of confidence-building measures on Kashmir, including a ceasefire along their disputed boundary and the successful launch of a bus service linking the divided state on April 7.

Communists guerrillas killed three soldiers and wounded three more in an ambush in the northern Philippines on Tuesday, the military said.
   The soldiers, riding a truck, were ambushed by New People’s Army guerrillas before dawn in the town of San Mariano, triggering a gunbattle, a military report said.
   The guerrillas later scattered in various directions, taking an undetermined number of injured fighters with them, the report added.
   Military officials immediately sent a platoon to pursue the attackers.

The Cuban president, Fidel Castro, said the United States was harbouring anti-Cuban terrorists and wondered why the European Union kept mum about it while it supported a US move to criticise Cuba for its alleged human rights violations.
   ‘I’d like to know what the European governments think of the fact that such monstrous murderers are welcomed in the United States,’ Castro said Monday in a nationally broadcast speech complaining that a man convicted of attempting to kill him was living freely in Florida.
   ‘That monster has been living there for 19 days,’ Castro said of Luis Posada Carriles, who was convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail in Panama for trying to murder Castro during a Latin American presidential summit in 2000.
   Carriles, 76, was pardoned and released from jail by the Panamanian president, Mireya Moscoso, last year. Press reports here said he recently moved to Miami, Florida, together with three accomplices.
   Castro wondered what motives ‘that perverse empire’—the United States—may have to hide a terrorist in its territory after proclaiming to the world ‘its alleged commitment to fight terrorism.’
   The Cuban leader then vented his anger at the European Union for planning to support a US resolution at an upcoming meeting in Geneva of the UN Committee on Human Rights calling for a review of the state of human rights in Cuba.
   ‘It’s shameful that they should support a government guilty of monstrous war crimes that advocates extrajudicial actions, that is responsible for torture in Iraqi prisons,’ Castro said.
   ‘We call on them to say something,’ he said referring to the European nations after reading a list of terrorist activities allegedly attributed to Carriles over the past four decades.

The British prime minister, Tony Blair, won a ringing endorsement from the Labourite who most craves his job, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, as they campaigned shoulder-to-shoulder ahead of the May 5 general election.
   In a carefully choreographed show of unity, Blair and Brown spent the day on the hustings in Wales and the north of England, vowing to pursue the Labour government’s strong economic record if it wins a third straight mandate.
   ‘The man we want to elect as prime minister is not Michael Howard. It is our leader Tony Blair,’ Brown told an end-of-the-day rally in Oldham, near Manchester in the north of England.
   ‘This Labour government, with Tony Blair as prime minister, has not only ensured more people in jobs than at any time in this country’s history,’ Brown told the rally.
   ‘But we have also delivered the lowest inflation for 30 years, the lowest mortgage rates for 35 years, the longest period of sustained economic growth for 300 years.’
   Blair reciprocated by describing Brown as ‘a huge asset to this country’, before hitting out at the Conservatives’ manifesto, launched earlier Monday, which he dismissed as ‘threadbare’.
   ‘It’s not just that it contains an economic plan that would mean real damage to the economy,’ he said, referring to its proposed deep cuts to spending on public services.
   ‘It’s a manifesto based on fear rather than hope—and I want this country to hope for the future.
   Blair and Brown’s day together, travelling by helicopter to such venues as an Airbus component factory and a small-business park, coincided with the airing of Labour’s first party political broadcast on national TV.
   Directed by Anthony Minghella, best known for ‘The English Patient’ and ‘Cold Mountain,’ it depicted the two in free-wheeling banter in Blair’s office, ostensibly feeding off each other’s energy.
   It contrasted with months of rumours about growing tension between the two titans of the Labour Party.
   Brown—whose credibility rating with the public, according to opinion polls, is better than Blair’s—makes little secret of his desire to succeed Blair as prime minister.
   He was reportedly bitter and frustrated when Blair decided last year to serve a full third term, if re-elected.
   Brown was chief strategist of Labour’s landslide victories in the 1997 and 2001 general elections, but until recently it appeared he had been sidelined in favour of Blair loyalists like the current Labour election supreme Alan Milburn.
   In a rare joint interview in Britain’s top-selling Sunday newspaper, the News of the World, Blair warmly described his relationship to Brown as ‘a personal bond– (like) a marriage’.
   Labour is striving to keep the economy atop the agenda despite uncertainty surrounding MG Rover, Britain’s last home grown volume automaker, which directly employs 6,100 people in the politically important West Midlands.
   MG went into administration last Friday after a hoped-for deal with a Chinese partner failed to materialise. On Monday, Blair’s government put up a loan to cover the automaker’s payroll for this week.

The failure of Lebanon’s pro-Syrian leaders to form a new cabinet after weeks of political haggling is threatening to delay crucial polls demanded by the opposition and the international community.
   The president, Emile Lahoud, prime minister-designate, Omar Karameh and parliament speaker Nabih Berri held a marathon meeting on Monday but did not announce a new line-up as expected.
   Lebanon has been without a government for six weeks since Karameh resigned as prime minister in late February in the face of massive opposition protests over the killing of his popular predecessor Rafiq Hariri.
   The deadlock comes as Lebanon’s political masters in Syria pursued the final stage of their troop pullout from the country in line with demands from the United Nations.
   Lebanon, thrown into political turmoil over the February 14 assassination of Hariri, is still waiting for a new government which needs to pass an electoral law before the parliamentary polls due to be held by the end of May.
   Many newspapers said Karameh may to drop the idea of forming the next government, while a government source close to the consultations said: ‘All options are open.’
   The leading An-Nahar daily said the failure to reach an agreement on the new cabinet may be an ‘indication that Karameh would announce his final and official decision not to accept to form the new government.’
   ‘What is happening has reached a dangerous point that threatens to delay the elections on the one side and confront the country with an economic crisis that would be worse than any other political factors,’ it warned.
   The Hariri-owned Al-Mustaqbal newspaper said the failure of the meeting ‘fuelled fears that the loyalists want to cause more complications to delay the government in order to also postpone the elections.’

Recalling that Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla made almost no top-contender lists the last time a pope was chosen, prognosticators this time are casting a wide net — along with a dozen front-runners, cardinals from Cuba, Canada, India, even Indonesia have been mentioned.
   Though some of the dark-horse candidates are from Europe, many others are from elsewhere — and would be the first pope from their continent.
   At a time when the Vatican is trying to broaden its dialogue with Islam, Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja, 70, of Indonesia, is distinctive as one of the few cardinals from a predominantly Muslim country. Ivan Dias, 68, the archbishop of Bombay, India, also comes from a populous country with relatively few Catholics, though much of his career has been spent as a Vatican diplomat, serving in Africa, South Korea and Albania.
   Wilfrid Fox Napier, 64, a black South African, was a low-key opponent of apartheid during the era of white-minority rule and more recently has questioned Vatican efforts to limit the decision-making of local bishops. Most experts, however, rate Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze as Africa’s only serious candidate.
   Two cardinals from Canada have been mentioned in some circles, though the prospects for a North American pope seem slim.
   Marc Ouellet, the archbishop of Quebec City, is relatively young for a contender, at 60, but has taught and studied in Europe and South America. Both he and Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal have spoken forcefully against Canada’s moves to legalise same-sex marriage.
   There are a raft of contenders — some front-runners, some long-shots — to be the first Latin American pope. The region’s dark horses include Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, the archbishop of Havana, who helped organise the first papal visit to Communist Cuba in 1998 and negotiated modest openings with a government that was once officially atheist.
   Roughly half of the dozen or so front-runners are from Europe, and so are many of the next group of contenders. Among them is German Cardinal Walter Kasper, 72, who has headed the Vatican’s office for relations with Jews and its campaign of outreach to other Christian denominations.
   Last year, Kasper led a Vatican delegation to Moscow seeking to improve relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. He also was dispatched by Pope John Paul II to a ceremony at Rome’s main synagogue that was viewed as a milestone in Catholic-Jewish relations.

Cardinals meeting daily in Rome to discuss the main issues facing the Roman Catholic Church ahead of a conclave to elect a pope next week have signed a petition asking a future pope to ‘accelerate’ the beatification of John Paul II, a report said.
   About 134 cardinals present at Monday’s meeting, according to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
   Cardinals have clearly caught the popular mood following the funeral mass for the late pope on Friday, when some in the massive crowd began chanting ‘santo, santo’, demanding that the Polish-born pontiff be declared a saint.

US consulate in Karachi closed
The United States said Tuesday it was closing its consulate in the volatile Pakistani city of Karachi for the day after receiving a security threat. Americans had also been told to avoid the area around the consulate, which was hit by a massive suicide bomb attack nearly three years ago, and the nearby Marriott hotel, an official said. ‘The consulate is closed today,’ Greggory Crouch, press attache at the US embassy in Islamabad, said. ‘We have received credible information of a threat and that has heightened our security concern.’ The consulate was closed on the orders of the consul general, Douglas Rohn, said Crouch. ‘It is my understanding that the staff were sent home,’ he added.

Three more killed in south Thailand
Three people were shot dead and one of their bodies was set ablaze in separate attacks in southern Thailand, where Islamic separatists have battled the government for more than one year, police said Tuesday. Saharee Doroyee, a 41-year-old former defence volunteer, was found dead in his pick-up truck with three gunshot wounds early Monday in Ruesau district in Narathiwat province, police said. Constructive worker Tameesee Jeharong, 25, was shot five times and killed. His body found next to his motorcycle in Narathiwat’s Wang district, police said.

Indonesian volcano spews ash
A volcano coughed into life Tuesday on Indonesia’s disaster-blighted island of Sumatra, spreading new panic in the wake of the recent tsunami and earthquakes and prompting thousands to flee their homes. Mount Talang, 40 kilometres east of west Sumatra’s coastal capital Padang began spewing volcanic ash shortly before dawn, but scientists said there was no immediate cause for alarm beyond the immediate fall-out zone. ‘We are still monitoring the activities of the volcano but so far there has not been any significant volcanic temblor registered,’ said Sugeng of the meteorology and geophysics office in the nearby town of Padang Panjang.

Manila peace talks to go ahead: KL
Peacebroker Malaysia on Tuesday disputed US claims that the southern Philippines is becoming a hotbed for Islamic militants and said talks between Manila and the largest Muslim separatist group in the south would go ahead next week. The Malaysian foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar, met the Filipino foreign secretary, Alberto Romulo, and Muslim rebel leaders Tuesday to ‘reiterate’ Kuala Lumpur’s commitment to host peace talks between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
— AFP

Americans forum seeks new leader
The Organisation of American States failed after five votes on Monday to find a new secretary general with the main international forum for the Western Hemisphere divided between Mexican and Chilean candidates. The Chilean interior minister, Jose Miguel Insulza and the Mexican foreign minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, who were left in contention after the US-backed candidate withdrew, tied at 17 votes each in the five rounds of voting. The OAS is looking for a new secretary general after the previous chief, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, the former Costa Rican president, withdrew to face corruption charges in his home country.
— Reuters

Poland to pull troops from Iraq by 2005
Poland’s government decided on Tuesday to withdraw troops from Iraq at the end of 2005, making official an earlier proposal, the defence minister, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, said. At the time of the expiry of the Security Council’s mandate–meaning at the end of 2005–the operations of the Polish stabilisation mission should be finished,’ Szmajdzinski told a news conference after a cabinet meeting. Poland, one of Washington’s closest allies in Europe, runs a multi-national stabilisation force in south-central Iraq, where it has about 1,700 soldiers.
— AFP

Iran parliament eases abortion law
Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament adopted a bill Tuesday to allow abortions in limited cases, in a bid to stamp out a booming but dangerous backstreet business. ‘Abortion will be allowed... within four months of gestation if the fetus is mentally or physically handicapped–inflicting a financial burden on the family –or the mother’s life is in danger,’ according to the legislation. The bill was passed despite opposition from right-to-life MPs but remains subject to approval by the Guardians Council, a hardline body that screens all legislation to ensure it is in line with Islamic law and the constitution.
— AFP

Virus death toll tops 200 in Angola
A total of 203 people have died in Angola from the Marburg virus, the worst outbreak ever recorded of the Ebola-like bug, the Angolan health ministry and the World Health Organisation said Monday. The greatest number of deaths –184–was recorded in the northern Uige province, the epicentre of the epidemic that was first detected in October, according to the figures from health authorities released in a statement in Luanda. A total of 221 cases of the Marburg virus have been discovered, out of which 203 resulted in death, the statement said, putting the mortality rate countrywide from the outbreak at 92 per cent. The Marburg virus, whose exact origin is unknown, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears, but can be contained with relatively simple health precautions, according to experts.
— AFP

Hungarian Huns bid for new status
Hungary’s MPs will hear an application from a group of people who claim descent from Attila the Hun and want recognition as an ethnic minority. The Hun swept across Europe from central Asia in the 4th and 5th Centuries AD, conquering territory as far west as modern-day France. But after Attila’s death in 453, they disappeared from the history books. Attila is still a popular name, but the emergence of a group of 21st Century Hungary Huns is raising eyebrows. Branded the scourge of God by the peoples he conquered in southern and Western Europe, Attila the Hun has had a better press among the Hungarians, the Turks and other related peoples.
— BBC