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The United States will deploy some 690,000 military personnel to help defend South Korea in case of an outbreak of war, South Korea’s defence ministry said in a White Paper released Friday.
   The new White Paper, the first in four years, tried to sidestep a political minefield by avoiding naming the enemy US forces might have to fight against.
   North Korea is no longer South Korea’s ‘main enemy,’ a phrase that angered the Stalinist state when it was included in the last White Paper in 2000 and has been left out of this one.
   Now, North Korea is simply referred to as a ‘military threat,’ in the new policy document that reflects the South Korean government’s goal of reconciliation with Pyongyang.
   The 2004 Defence White Paper said more than 690,000 servicemen in augmentation forces would be brought in to the Korean peninsula in case of an all-out war, including the army, navy, air force, and Marine corps units.
   The augmentation forces would be dispatched to join more than 30,000 US troops already based here and some 650,000 South Korea forces.
   North Korea army was 1.17 million strong in 2004, the world’s fifth largest and the same as four years earlier, but the communist country has added artillery guns and multiple rocket launchers totalling 1,000 pieces since then, the White Paper said.
   US forces deployed to the Korean peninsula would be made up of army divisions, carrier battle groups with advanced fighter planes, tactical fighter wings, and marine expeditionary forces based on the Japanese island of Okinawa and on the US mainland, the policy document said.
   ‘The United States has a plan to send more than 40 per cent of its entire navy, more than half of its airforce and more than 70 per cent of its Marine corps to defend South Korea,’ it said.
   ‘This shows the United States is firmly determined in its will to help defend the Korean peninsula,’ the White Paper said.
   The augmentation forces of more than 690,000 US military personnel would be backed by 160 vessels and 1,600 aircraft, according to the White Paper.
   It also said North Korea had set up a missile bureau under the command of the Ministry of Korean People’s Army.
   North Korea has been in a stand-off with the United States and US allies over its nuclear weapons programme.
   The row erupted in October, 2002 after US officials accused Pyongyang of operating a secret uranium-enriching programme to produce weapons in breach of a 1994 agreement, a charge North Korea denies.
   The 2004 White Paper was the first since the ministry suspended publication of the periodical following the dispute over the paper’s reference to North Korea as its ‘main enemy.’
   North Korea will turn US military bases in the region into a ‘sea of fire’ if war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, state media on Friday quoted an air force officer as saying.
   ‘There are no limitations in the striking power of our armed force. If US imperialists ignite flames of war, we will strike all their bases first and turn them into a sea of fire,’ officer Huh Ryong told North Korea’s Central Radio monitored by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
   The officer also warned that North Korea would ‘thoroughly’ wipe out those who collude with the United States, referring to its allies South Korea and Japan, which host US military bases.
   He made his comment Wednesday during an anti-US rally by senior party, government and military officials in Pyongyang, Yonhap said.
   The rally, called ‘the general march of the Songun (army-first) revolution’, was held before a key policy speech by US President George W. Bush.
   At Wednesday’s rally, premier Pak Pong-Ju urged North Koreans to counter ‘US moves for aggression with a decisive and merciless military strike’, accusing the United States of seeking to disarm North Korea and bring down its system ‘at any cost’.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, urged Arab states and other countries to boost their aid to finance Palestinian reforms after the United States announced a 350-million-dollar assistance package.
   Rice urged the world to follow the lead of the US president, George W Bush, who said in his State of the Union address Wednesday he would ask Congress for the money to fund Palestinian political, economic and security reforms.
   ‘Absolutely we need to encourage others to contribute,’ she told reporters aboard the plane taking her on a week-long tour of eight European nations, Israel and the West Bank.
   She said the European Union and some Middle East countries have been good donors but, without mentioning names, added that ‘some in the region have not been as generous as they might be.’
   ‘It’s time for everybody to look deep inside and say, if we want the Israeli-Palestinian peace to be achieved and to sustain momentum, what more can we do in terms of assistance,’ Rice said.
   In addition to material support, she said, Washington was looking for help in reining in Palestinian militants and sending a strong message to Iran and Syria whom the Americans accuse of working against the peace process.
   Rice is to have talks Sunday and Monday with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and Palestinian leader, Mahmud Abbas, a day before the two sides hold their first summit in more than four years in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
   The chief US diplomat welcomed the summit as ‘a very important step in what is now a series of steps that are lending momentum to the Israeli-Palestinian issue and to efforts to get back on to the (US-backed peace) roadmap.’
   The Bush administration has signalled its intention of taking a higher profile in talks to end the 53-month-old conflict that has cost more than 4,700 lives, after pulling back while efforts to implement the roadmap faltered.
   The Americans have been encouraged by Abbas’ determination to crack down on militants since taking over from the late Yasser Arafat, and by the Israelis’ willingness to coordinate their planned withdrawal from Gaza.

India is putting pressure on Nepal’s king Gyanendra to back down from his ‘royal coup’ but may be forced to back him, fearful of a Maoist rebel victory in the Himalayan nation, analysts and military officers said Friday.
   While New Delhi believes a military solution is not the answer to the insurgency, it has a vital stake in helping quell the revolt as it fears Maoist violence could spill into parts of India where radical leftist groups are powerful and create ‘a red corridor’ from Nepal, analysts say.
   ‘It’s in India’s interest to bolster and help Nepal’s military as it has been doing for so many years because of the Maoist problem in India and the links between the rebels in Nepal and India,’ said Rahul Bedi, a New Delhi-based analyst for Jane’s Defence Weekly.
   New Delhi has expressed ‘grave concern’ at the dismissal of Nepal’s government by Gyanendra who has pledged to restore democracy in three years in the impoverished Himalayan nation wedged between India and China.
   ‘India is leaning on the king by putting subtle military and economic pressure on him. Since Thursday, no high-speed diesel supplies have been sent up from India to Nepal,’ said an army commander.
   ‘The Royal Nepal army is dependent on fuel supplies from India – all choppers and infantry combat vehicles run on high-speed diesel,’ he said.
   There was no official confirmation, but Indian transport officials said queues of trucks were idling in front of key Indo-Nepal border checkpoints in Raxaul, Jogbani, Nepalganj, Nautanwa and Jayanagar.
   The Times of India newspaper reported India’s new army chief General Joginder Jaswant Singh turned down an invitation from his counterpart General Pyaar Jung Thapa to visit Nepal in what it said was ‘yet another indication of India’s critical stand.’
   However, army sources said India had kept back-door negotiation channels open and was urging the king not to risk any major offensive against the Maoists unless he was sure to win.
   New Delhi is also pressing the king to launch talks to end the increasingly savage conflict that has claimed 11,000 lives since 1996, they said.
   India, along with the United States and Britain, has been an important backer of Nepal in its drive to crush the insurgency that has sapped the nation’s already weak economy.

Ahead of next week’s landmark Mideast summit, Israel said Friday it was ready to ‘take risks’ in its negotiations with the Palestinians but discord emerged over some gestures by Israel including the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
   ‘We are strong enough to take risks in negotiating with the Palestinians,’ the Israeli deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, told public radio.
   ‘All our security officials believe that important changes have taken place within the Palestinian Authority because it’s the first time a Palestinian leader opposes terrorism,’ he added, referring to Mahmud Abbas who was elected last month to succeed the late Yasser Arafat.
   Abbas has publicly called for an end to the armed struggle against Israel while seeking to clinch a ceasefire deal with hardline militants.
   He and the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, are to meet next Tuesday at a summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, the first meeting between the top Palestinian and Israeli leaders in more than four years.
   ‘We must take risks to improve the chance’ of reaching an agreement with the Palestinians, Olmert said, suggesting that the summit would probably not be cancelled even if a Palestinian militant attack took place.
   He said the objective at Sharm el-Sheikh was to succeed to ‘convince the world of Ariel Sharon’s courage and boldness in accepting to make gestures towards the Palestinians.’ ‘It’s now up to them to prove that they are capable of implementing what they promised,’ added Olmert, who also serves as industry and trade minister.
   The one-day summit is widely expected to close with a mutual ceasefire declaration.
   The Palestinian negotiations minister, Saeb Erakat, said he hoped ‘the summit will be successful and will tackle negotiations (on key issues).’
   Israel’s six-member so-called kitchen cabinet gave its green light Thursday for an army withdrawal from five West Bank cities and the transfer of security control to the Palestinians.
   It also approved releasing 900 Palestinian prisoners ‘with no blood on their hands’—with the first 500 to be set free soon after the summit.
   The decisions must be approved by the larger security cabinet which also discussed several goodwill gestures Friday, among them freezing arrest operations against wanted Palestinian militants but excluding so-called ‘ticking bombs’.

Hundreds of tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka took to the streets in southern Matara district Friday to protest against corrupt aid distribution, police said.
   The demonstration came as the government admitted 70 per cent of victims had yet to receive any state help.
   About 400 people staged a noisy demonstration in Matara to denounce officials responsible for distributing aid.
   ‘The crowd was peaceful but they were shouting slogans against corrupt officials,’ a local police officer said when contacted by telephone.
   ‘They are angry because they have been overlooked or aid is slow in reaching them.’
   Some 960,000 people are officially listed as being entitled to tsunami relief after the December 26 disaster.
   The government has ordered public servants to work during holidays to speed up relief efforts after admitting that 70 per cent of the survivors had not received any state aid five weeks after the catastrophe. The head of the presidential task force to coordinate relief, Tilak Ranavirajah, said he was appalled that only 30 per cent of the people affected by the tsunami had received state help.
   He said the president amalgamated two presidential task forces which earlier handled relief and rehabilitation work and set up a new unit headed by him from Tuesday to speed up work.
   The president directed him to see that at least 70 to 75 per cent of families get relief by this weekend, Ranavirajah said.
   He told reporters earlier this week that bureaucratic bungling and ignorance on the part of tsunami survivors had slowed aid delivery in rural areas along the coastline.
   The government estimates it will cost 10 billion rupees (103 million dollars) to provide compensation to the families of those who died in the tsunamis as well as to provide food for survivors for the next six months.
   ‘We are dealing with 10 billion rupees and naturally all people will not be honest,’ Ranavirajah said. ‘There will be a certain amount of corruption; I am not trying to whitewash anyone.’
   Almost 31,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed by the tsunamis while about half a million are still homeless.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and her British counterpart Jack Straw said Friday their countries continued to disagree over whether the European Union should lift its ban on selling arms to China.
   ‘We want to ensure (along with EU partners) that the justifiable anxieties of the United States are factored into any decisions that we take,’ Straw said at a joint press conference in London.
   Rice, making her first visit as the top US diplomat, said the two had not broached the issue on Friday but remained opposed.
   As with any disagreement between allies, she said, the governments would work to ‘find a way to talk about them openly’.
   Britain has backed an EU initiative to lift the 15-year-long embargo, which was imposed in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In December, European Union leaders declared their ‘political will’ to lift the arms embargo on China, while also stressing that Beijing must respect human rights and regional stability.

Cambodia’s beleaguered opposition party vowed Friday to boycott parliament after three of its members were stripped of immunity from prosecution, prompting its leader to flee the country.
   MPs voted Thursday to scratch rules protecting leader Sam Rainsy along with the deputy, Cheam Channy and Chea Poch, who between them stand accused of crimes including defamation and building an army as part of a coup plot.
   Rainsy immediately fled the country and travelled to Paris on Friday after being denied entry into Thailand, where officials said his presence would be ‘awkward’, while Cheam Channy was arrested.
   ‘MPs from the Sam Rainsy Party will boycott parliament sessions for a period of time,’ Eng Chhay Eang said.
   ‘They put pressure on the voice of the minority. They have kicked out the opposition voice,’ he said, adding that the party would write to King Norodom Sihamoni to ask for his intervention.
   Sihamoni, who was crowned in October after the abdication of his revered father Norodom Sihanouk, has already said that he would not get involved in the often murky world of Cambodian politics.
   Eng Chhay Eang denied accusations that Cheam Channy had been building an army aimed at overthrowing the government, an allegation that first arose shortly after the prime minister, Hun Sen, formed government in July last year.
   Diplomats at the time scoffed at the charges for being outlandish.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, vowed to crack down on corruption within the world body after the UN official who headed the former oil-for-food programme in Iraq was found to have obtained allocations of Iraqi oil and a series of unusual cash payments.
   An interim report issued Thursday by an independent panel, headed by the former US Federal Reserve banking chief, Paul Volcker, stopped short of saying Sevan took bribes or had engaged in criminal activity.
   It said, however, that Sevan had repeatedly asked for allocations of oil from the regime of Saddam Hussein on behalf of a small trading company registered in Panama that then re-sold the oil.
   The regime was hoping to buy influence through Sevan, the report said.
   Sevan has denied any wrongdoing and his lawyers quickly denounced the enquiry as a politically motivated attempt to find a scapegoat for the scandal-tainted programme that has badly damaged the UN's image.
   But Annan immediately ordered disciplinary action and his chief-of-staff said the report appeared to have proven the allegations against Sevan, a Cypriot national.
   'The secretary general is shocked by what the report has to say about Mr Sevan,' said Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief-of-staff.
   'He very much doubts there can be any extenuating circumstances to explain the behaviour which appears proven in the report,' Malloch Brown told reporters.
   Volcker's interim report said that 'in making such solicitations, Sevan created a grave and continuing conflict of interest. His conduct was ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations,' the panel said.
   It said Sevan had denied asking for the allocations for African Middle East Petroleum, run by a relative of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Annan's predecessor as secretary general of the United Nations.
   But evidence from Iraqi officials contradicted his claims, the report said-a position that Sevan's lawyers ridiculed in a statement to the press.
   'They have not found-because they cannot-that Mr Sevan ever accepted anything from anyone,' the statement said. 'Mr Sevan never took a penny.'
   From 1996 to 2003, the 64-billion-dollar oil-for-food programme was intended to help Iraqis cope with international sanctions imposed over Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, which sparked the 1991 Gulf War.
   Under UN supervision, Baghdad was allowed to sell oil and use the revenue to buy humanitarian supplies like food and medicine. The scheme swelled to become the largest aid programme in UN history.
   Annan has promised to lift the diplomatic immunity of any UN official facing criminal prosecution and on Thursday announced disciplinary actions against Sevan and another
   official.
   Sevan has already retired from active UN duty and it was not immediately clear what measures the UN could take against him. Separate US investigations into the programme could eventually lay criminal charges.
   US Senator Norm Coleman, who is probing the scandal, has urged bringing Sevan to justice.
   'Based on this evidence, I urge Secretary General Annan to lift Benon Sevans diplomatic immunity so this case can be reviewed by federal prosecutors. There is more than enough probable cause to believe Benon Sevans actions constitute criminal activity,' said the Republican lawmaker.
   Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Richard Lugar, went further: 'I expect that any individuals and companies identified as having participated in illegal activities will be brought to justice to the maximum extent possible, with the complete cooperation of their home governments.'
   Volcker stressed his report was just the first of an ongoing investigation, one he was asked to lead last year as the allegations of corruption cast what Annan called a 'cloud' over the world body's reputation.
   Iraqi officials 'certainly thought they were buying influence' in granting the oil allocations, Volcker said. The report said Baghdad wanted help in getting spare parts, restricted under sanctions, to refurbish oil facilities.
   It also detailed 160,000 dollars in cash payments to Sevan which he claimed had come from an elderly aunt in Cyprus.

The US president, Bush, warned on Thursday that retirement benefits for younger workers were at risk and conceded he faced a battle in Congress to win over sceptics of his plan to remake the 70-year-old Social Security system.
   A day after his State of the Union address laying out details of his proposal to introduce private retirement accounts, Bush launched a two-day, five-state tour where he said he was aware that his plan 'makes some people nervous.'
   'I know I've got a lot of explaining to do,' he said.
   Democrats disagree with Bush's assessment that the retirement system's finances are in a dire state and have accused him of using scare tactics to push his plan. Even many members of Bush's own Republican Party are wary.
   Part of Bush's strategy is to try to bring over to his side Democrats from Republican-leaning states such as Montana, North Dakota and Nebraska, the three states he visited on Thursday.
   Bush would allow workers to divert up to 4 percentage points of their current 6.2 per cent payroll taxes toward private accounts. That money is used to pay current benefits, so the government would have to make up the difference, presumably through borrowing.
   Bush said it was crucial to come up with a permanent fix for a retirement system he holds is headed toward bankruptcy.
   The Fargo and Great Falls events were each packed with upward of 6,000 hand-picked Bush supporters. Bush took questions in Great Falls, but no one raised objections to his plan. Many questioners asked him about subjects such as his knowledge of a Biblical proverb and the type of mountain bike he rides.
   Bush has tried to soothe the fears of the elderly that their retirement benefits might be jeopardised. He has pledged that those age 55 and over would be shielded from any changes to the current Social Security system.
   In an unusual step that underscored the sensitivity of Bush's effort, the White House issued a statement denouncing a Washington Post story about it as 'flat wrong.' It sought a correction and mentioned the reporter by name.
   The Post story said workers who opt for private accounts 'would ultimately get to keep only the investment returns that exceed the rate of return that the money would have accrued in the traditional system.'

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, opening a European tour at a press conference with the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, says a military attack on Iran is not on the agenda.
   'The question is simply not on the agenda at this point, we have diplomatic means to do this,' said Rice, in reply to a question at a news conference after having listed the US criticisms of Iranian policy.
   Earlier, Rice met with British prime minister, Tony Blair, as differences over Iran marked the start of a tour intended to
   repair US ties with Europe over Iraq. Rice-whose visit comes ahead of a trip to Europe by the US president, George W Bush, this month-thanked Blair for his leadership and the British people for their supports?
   'We have lots of work to do-especially as we try to bring Israelis and Palestinians the chance of a permanent peace,' she added as the pair headed in for breakfast on Friday.
   On her first foreign trip since taking office, Rice is also visiting the Middle East, where Europe wants to see a stronger US push for peace.
   Blair congratulated her on her new post: 'I look forward to working with you in the months and years to come. We will be discussing Iraq, the Middle East and various other issues,' he said as they met at his Downing Street office.
   En route to London, where she will also meet Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Rice made clear the United States was reluctant to get involved in Europe's nuclear talks with Iran.
   'The Iranians know what they need to do. It's not the absence of anybody's involvement that is keeping the Iranians from knowing what they need to do,' she told reporters.
   'They need to live up to their obligations, they need to agree to verification inspection, they need to stop trying to hide activities under cover of civilian nuclear power.'
   Iran-grouped by Bush in an 'axis of evil' with pre-war Iraq and North Korea-denies US charges it is pursuing a nuclear bomb. It says its programmes are for peaceful power generation needed to keep up with its growing population.
   Some European editorial writers have warned Iran could spark a divisive replay of the American-led Iraq invasion, which caused the worst US-European split for decades.
   While Europe wants more engagement and has negotiated a freeze in some of Tehran's nuclear work, Rice pressed the US tactic of confronting and isolating the Islamic republic.
   'The Iranian regime's human rights behaviour and its behaviour toward its own population is something to be loathed,' she said.
   The US anger at the European Union's plan to lift an arms embargo on China and differences over where to try war criminals from Sudan's conflict in Darfur could cloud Rice's visit to eight European capitals, but ties are improving.
   Rather than continue a diplomatic spat with Washington over a war that major allies such as Germany and France opposed, European governments have vowed to focus on stabilising Iraq-especially since Sunday's elections there.
   And in probably the most important foreign policy area to the Europeans, the United States has won applause for its push for peace between Israelis and Palestinians since the death of Yasser Arafat.
   'This is now a process that is moving and moving effectively,' said Rice. European diplomats hope Rice's trip will finally put an end to the shrill tone in relations over Iraq and allow the sides to seek common ground.
   Rice, who visits Germany on Friday and makes a speech on shared values in France next week, echoed the conciliatory sentiment.
   'What is important is that we have an atmosphere in which we can express our concerns and do that with partners willing to take each others' concerns into consideration as they make policy decisions.'

The US intelligence is still unprepared to deal with Islamist militants and nuclear threats posed by Iran and North Korea as a sweeping reform of the nation’s spy agencies gets underway, experts said.
   US lawmakers have been seeking ways to prevent a repeat of intelligence failures leading to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States as well as the embarrassment of not finding chemical and biological weapons in Iraq as expected.
   ‘There are no quick answers here. We very much want to do a strategic and structured approach,’ said Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan. ‘This is important stuff and we want to get it right.’ The president George W Bush in December signed a law authorising an overhaul of US intelligence agencies. The law, based on the findings of an investigation into the September 11 attacks, mandated improved coordination between agencies and consolidated authority over budgets in the hands of a new national intelligence director.
   Hoekstra, a Republican who heads the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, has scheduled a series of hearings to evaluate how the US spy agencies can better respond to the threats facing the United States.
   Lawmakers are also awaiting an internal Central Intelligence Agency report on its handling of intelligence about terrorist groups leading up to the September 11 attacks.
   The September 11 investigation, and a subsequent congressional probe of intelligence used to justify the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, both faulted the Central Intelligence Agency’s handling of critical information, and some experts say the agency still has not adapted to the demands of dealing with terrorist groups and the regimes that support them.
   ‘I think we have real quality control problems,’ Richard Perle, a former assistant defence secretary and Pentagon adviser, told the committee Wednesday.
   ‘We don’t pay nearly enough attention to open-source material. We put a tremendous emphasis on information that we can steal, somehow believing that if we’ve stolen it must be authentic. And if we’ve only discovered it by reading novels and newspapers, it can’t possibly be valuable.’
   Perle, former Central Intelligence Agency director, James Woolsey and Michael Swetnam, another former intelligence official, all said US spy agencies should place more emphasis on understanding the culture in which Islamist militants operate, just as the CIA did with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
   ‘We need to rethink cultural intelligence, bring it back into vogue and invest in it,’ Swetnam said. ‘It’s time to put money once again in academia and in not-for-profit institutions to study Islamic radicalism, fundamentalism around the world, the global economy, the spreading of technology.’
   Perle said US spy agencies have repeatedly failed to understand the threat posed by militant Islam and Iran’s nuclear ambitions because they emphasise the skills of the spy game over understanding the cultures and ideologies of the Middle East. That overly narrow focus has blinded US planners and limited the nation’s options against those threats, he said.
   ‘The history of the intelligence community’s assessment–and for that matter, operations–in the Arab world, and in the Gulf, in particular, has been appallingly inadequate for many, many years,’ he said.
   Woolsey is chairman of Freedom House, which last week released a report saying Saudi Arabia, a US ally dominated by a fundamentalist brand of Islam known as Wahhabism, has financed the flow of hate literature into the United States for years, but the activity has received scant attention from authorities.

Syria and Iran on Thursday dismissed as baseless president Bush’s attacks on their policies in the Middle East.
   In his State of the Union address on Wednesday, Bush accused Syria of letting ‘terrorists’ use Syrian and Lebanese territory to ‘destroy every chance of peace’ in the Middle East.
   Syrian foreign ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanafani said Damascus was doing all it could to stop fighters crossing into Iraq and had offered Baghdad a security agreement.
   Washington imposed economic sanctions on Syria in May, citing the Iraq border issue and Syrian support for anti-Israeli Palestinian and Lebanese factions.
   Damascus has recently signalled its readiness to resume peace talks with Israel without pre-conditions, but the Israelis say they want it to cease backing its militant enemies first.
   Kanafani urged Washington to pursue Arab-Israeli peace talks. ‘Our position in support of peace is clear,’ she said.
   Iran dismissed Bush’s charge that it is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons and his description of the Islamic republic as the ‘world’s primary state sponsor of terror.’
   ‘These claims have no basis,’ the state news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.
   ‘Americans are ignoring the established democracy in Iran since the (1979 Islamic) revolution.’
   Bush’s remarks enraged Iran’s conservative state-controlled media. State television accused him of trying to capture Middle East oil under the pretext of promoting democracy in the region.

The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said on Thursday he twice offered his resignation to the president, Bush, over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, but both times was asked to stay in the job.
   Photographs of US personnel sexually humiliating and physically abusing prisoners at the jail on the outskirts of Baghdad surfaced last April, triggering global condemnation and calls by the US political opponents for Rumsfeld to quit.
   ‘I submitted my resignation to the president Bush twice during that period and told him that–I felt that he ought to make the decision as to whether or not I stayed on. And he made that decision and said he did want me to stay on,’ Rumsfeld said.
   He was speaking in an interview with CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ programme and a transcript was released in advance of its broadcast on Thursday evening.
   Rumsfeld did not state the specific dates when he offered his resignation.

White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, won US Senate confirmation on Thursday as the nation’s next attorney general with the second highest number of ‘no’ votes ever for a successful nominee for the post.
   The Republican-led Senate rejected Democrats’ complaints that Gonzales helped craft policies that contributed to the torture of foreign detainees, and approved him on a largely party-line vote, 60-36.
   Gonzales, 49, a former Texas Supreme Court justice and the president, Bush’s top lawyer for the past four years, was quickly sworn in at the White House as the first Hispanic to head the Justice Department.
   ‘It’s sort of a sad situation that a man of his integrity, of his accomplishments, of his skills, of his background, has to be defended here,’ senator, Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, said shortly before the Senate ended a third day of debate and voted.
   Bush nominated Gonzales to replace his first attorney general, John Ashcroft, a conservative lightning rod confirmed four years ago by a 58-42 vote.
   The only attorney general nominee with more ‘no’ votes was Charles Warren, whose nomination was rejected by the Senate in March 1925, 39-46, according to the Senate historian’s office.
   The vast majority of attorney general nominees have won confirmation with little, if any, opposition. Lawmakers traditionally defer to the White House on cabinet secretaries.
   But Senate Democrats opposed Gonzales, charging that detention policies he helped craft after the September 11, 2001, attacks contributed to the abuse of foreign detainees and put Americans at increased risk.
   Though Democrats could not stop Gonzales, some said they hope the big ‘no’ vote will help dissuade Bush from possibly nominating him in the future to the US Supreme Court.
   But Graham, who grilled Gonzales at his confirmation hearing, said, ‘I hope he’ll listen to some of the criticism and that it makes him a better attorney general.’
   Thirty-five Senate Democrats and one independent voted against Gonzales; six Democrats joined 54 Republicans in voting for him.
   The battle over Gonzales has focused largely on an August 1, 2002, memo he approved that gave a narrow definition to torture. The memo was later withdrawn and replaced.
   Gonzales also was criticised for writing in January 2002 that parts of the half-century-old Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war were ‘obsolete’ and ‘quaint.’
   At his Jan. 6 confirmation hearing, Gonzales condemned torture and vowed to abide by international treaties on treatment of prisoners.
   Yet complaints have persisted, with Democrats charging he was evasive on such basics as what constitutes torture.
   Assistant Senate Minority Leader Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said: ‘At the very least, Gonzales helped to create a permissive environment that made it more likely that abuses would take place.’
   ‘You can connect the dots from the administration’s legal memos to the Defence Department’s approval of abusive interrogation techniques for Guantanamo Bay, to Iraq and Abu Ghraib, where those tactics migrated,’ Durbin said.
   Senator, John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, accused Democrats of ‘unjustified attacks’ and predicted that as attorney general Gonzales will be ‘an inspiration, not just for the Hispanic community, but for all Americans.’

Egyptians waving banners and chanting slogans against the president, Hosni Mubarak, staged a protest in Cairo on Friday to call for political reforms, watched by several thousand police.
   ‘Enough!’ said one banner, in an apparent reference to Mubarak’s 24-year rule in Egypt and his expected decision to run for a sixth term in a vote later this year.
   ‘No to the Renewal (of Mubarak’s mandate),’ shouted some of the several dozen demonstrators gathered near a mosque during a book fair in the Egyptian capital.
   ‘No to heredity,’ referring to speculation that if Mubarak does not stand his eldest son Gamal will be anointed president instead.
   Under the Egyptian system, parliament will elect in May a candidate to stand for the presidency, who will subsequently be put for approval to the people at a referendum in September.

First Japanese dies of mad cow disease
A man who spent time in Britain was confirmed to be the first Japanese person to die from mad cow disease, but health authorities said there was no risk from meat in Japan. The victim showed symptoms of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in which patients lose control of bodily functions as the brain wastes away, a health and welfare ministry official said. ‘We confirmed that it was the first case of vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) at home,’ the official said after an emergency meeting of health ministry experts which verified the infection.
— AFP

Two militants shot dead in Kashmir
Indian troops overnight shot dead two members of a hardline Islamic militant group, hours ahead of a visit to the revolt-hit region by India’s new army chief, an official said Friday. The two Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrillas were shot dead late Thursday in the northern town of Sopore, an army spokesman said. He said a Muslim woman and a soldier were injured during the fighting that caused tension in the bustling town, once a rebel bastion. Sopore was cleared of militants in two major operations during the mid-90s that saw portions of the town reduced to rubble. The army was preparing Friday to receive India’s new army chief General Joginder Jaswant Singh.
— AFP

Dengue hits record highs in Singapore
Singapore last year experienced its worst outbreak of dengue fever in a decade, with the number of cases in the final three months tripling compared with the same period in 2003, the government said Friday. The number of dengue cases between October and December rose to 3,340 and the problem has crossed over into 2005, with 1,145 cases reported last month, said a spokesperson from the National Environment Agency. For all of 2004, Singapore recorded 9,459 cases of dengue, almost double the number in 2003. Private homes were the main breeding grounds of mosquitoes, accounting for almost 90 percent of all breedings found last month, said the spokesperson.
— AFP

Jakarta bans smoking in public places
Legislators in the Indonesian capital on Friday passed a law banning smoking in public places as part of efforts to combat pollution in one of the world’s most polluted cities. According to the new law, a person caught smoking in public places such as restaurants, parks and public transport will be fined 50 million rupiah (5,500 dollars) or left to languish in jail for six months. Some Jakartans expressed doubts that the ban would be strictly enforced, arguing that other laws aimed at making the capital more orderly had been ignored. ‘People refuse to use pedestrian bridges to cross even though there are officers around.
— AFP

Georgian PM’s
death heightens
uncertainty
Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania’s death, apparently caused by a faulty gas heater, prompted a slew of conspiracy theories in the media Friday, heightening uncertainty in a country still struggling to define its future. ‘Assassination or accident? A death that raises many questions,’ ran the headline in the Georgian daily Resonance. ‘He was killed,’ claimed the daily Versia, which went so far as to provide five motives to get rid of the prime minister. All the official statements sent out since Thursday, whether from the government or forensic experts, agree: Zhvania died from carbon monoxide poisoning, apparently caused by a badly installed heater in the Tbilisi apartment of a friend, who also died.
— AFP

US for decision on Guantanamo
The US justice department on Thursday appealed a federal court ban on military tribunals for international terror suspects held at the US Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba. Judge Joyce Hens Green ruled on Monday that the prisoners have constitutional rights. The administration of the president George W Bush expressed disagreement and said it would appeal, saying the Guantanamo-held prisoners, as ‘enemy combatants,’ do not have such rights. After considering court appeals filed by 11 ‘enemy combatants’ held at Guantanamo, Green ruled that the detentions ‘violate the petitioner’s rights to due process of law.’
— Reuters

EU-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva next week
EU-Iranian talks on getting Iran to guarantee it is not interested in making nuclear weapons are to resume in Geneva next week, diplomats said Friday. Britain, France and Germany struck an agreement with Iran in November to suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities in return for talks on trade, security and technological bonuses for the Islamic Republic. The talks had begun in Brussels in December, moved to Geneva in January and are to resume Monday or Tuesday in Geneva, diplomats said. Political directors from the foreign ministries of the European trio are to attend, with Iran also sending a senior delegation and the European Union sending a technical expert from Brussels, diplomats
said.
— AFP

New ceasefire for Uganda’s army
A ceasefire announced by Uganda’s government to facilitate new peace talks with rebels has come into effect. The 18-day truce with Lord’s Resistance Army rebels covers parts of northern Uganda, the government said. Ugandan ministers met rebels during a similar ceasefire last December, but peace talks broke down. The LRA has been fighting for 18 years. It has abducted thousands of children to be fighters and sex slaves, leading some 1.6m people to flee their homes. The government says the truce will be enough for both sides to agree on a full ceasefire, ahead of peace talks.
— BBC

Ivorian police clash with militia, 2 killed
At least two people have been killed in a violent clash between Cote de Ivoire police and an anti-rebel militia in the main city, Abidjan. The dead bodies of a trader and a militiaman lay on the streets of the Adjame district. The Patriotic Peace Group is usually believed to be on the side of the Ivorian armed forces. They say their mission is to rid the country of the rebels who seized the north of Cote de Ivoire in September 2002. In recent times there have been numerous clashes between the GPP and the mainly northern traders in Adjame market. But Thursday’s incident came after a GPP member allegedly assaulted a police trainee. An Ivorian armed forces spokesman confirmed the altercation had taken place.
— Reuters