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Arab leaders were to hold the final day of talks Wednesday at a summit which saw them adopt a resolution to reactivate a Middle East peace initiative, a proposal that was swiftly rejected by Israel.
   The meeting in the Algerian capital has also raised questions about the absence of several key players and the failure of leaders to tackle some of the most controversial issues facing their troubled region.
   Only 13 heads of states from the 22-member Arab League showed up for the two day summit, which opened Tuesday with plans to reactivate a three-year-old land-for-peace initiative to normalise ties with Israel.
   Key players such as Jordan’s king Abdullah II and Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz, failed to show up.
   A final declaration due to be issued at the end of the summit echoes the one released at last year’s Tunis conference, pledging Arab support for Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians’ efforts to recover land occupied by Israel.
   It also calls on the international community to help back the Arab peace initiative—a Jordanian proposal based on a Saudi plan submitted and endorsed by the 2002 Beirut summit which Israel had spurned at the time.
   Israel was quick to reject the offer anew.
   A senior official from prime minister Ariel Sharon’s office said the Arabs were trying ‘to give this illusion of unity on the surface by adopting resolutions that contradict with all of the advances made, particularly by Egypt and Jordan, which is unacceptable’.
   ‘The summit proved it is out of touch with reality and in a delicate situation regarding developments in the Arab world,’ the official added on, condition of anonymity.
   The Jordanian foreign minister, Hani Mulki, expressed regret over the remarks and said Israel’s ‘quick and negative’ reaction looks as if ‘they are not interested in peace, and we hope this is not the case’.
   The summit’s final declaration to be released later Wednesday makes peace with Israel conditional on the creation of an independent Palestinian state and the return of refugees.
   ‘Based on the Arab peace initiative, Arab countries will therefore consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and will set up normal ties with Israel within the framework of a comprehensive peace,’ said a copy obtained by AFP.
   It reaffirms ‘respect for Iraq’s unity, sovereignty and independence and non-interference in its domestic affairs’ and welcomes its political transition following the historic legislative elections held in January.
   It also voiced support for Sudan and concern over the civil war in the western region of Darfur, calling for emergency humanitarian aid but failing to make any specific commitment.
   It likewise condemned ‘terrorism in all its forms and regardless of its motives and justifications’ and said it should not be linked to Islam.
   The leaders also voiced support with Lebanon and Syria without mentioning a UN Security Council resolution demanding a full Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and the disarming of militant groups such as Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah.
   Concretely they agreed to set up a pan-Arab parliament and ‘a follow-up body for resolutions, changing of voting methods, decision-making’ within the Arab League.
   They also exhorted members of the cash-strapped pan-Arab organisation to pay up their dues and arrears but took no measures to sanction those who fail to do so.
   The leaders—who will meet in Khartoum next year—promised to pursue a plan for reform announced last year but did not emphasize what they will do despite incessant appeals from the West to see more democracy in the region.

Peace moves by India and Pakistan could stall unless the two sides make progress on the key issue of Kashmir, the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, said Wednesday.
   ‘If progress is not made on the resolution of the real problems, the confidence-building measures will lose their impact,’ Musharraf said as he addressed a military parade marking national day.
   ‘We want peace and we want to resolve problems through negotiations but we will never accept any pressure,’ he told the elite gathering at the parade near parliament.
   Musharraf said Pakistan and India must show sincerity, courage and flexibility to settle issues including Kashmir, which caused two of their three wars and brought them close to a fourth war in 2002.
   ‘We have to find options for a Kashmir solution which are acceptable to India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir,’ he said.
   The nuclear-armed neighbours have been holding talks since January last year on resolving disputes, including the thorny problem of divided Kashmir.
   Musharraf is due to visit India on April 17 to meet the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and watch a cricket match.
   The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was chief guest, watching the parade along with Musharraf and the prime minister, Shaukat Aziz. US-built F-16 fighter jets, French Mirages and F-7 jets bought from China roared overhead in formations of four to start the ceremony.
   The military displayed its arsenal of short, medium and long-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear and other warheads, including the Shaheen II which can hit targets up to 2,000 kilometres away.
   Hardware on display included artillery and indigenously built battle tanks. Special Services Group commandos performed free-fall parachute jumps, landing near the dais to cheers from the crowd.
   Musharraf told the gathering Pakistan faces ‘no external threat’ in a changing regional environment but it does confront internal challenges from extremism, terrorism and sectarianism.
   ‘The vast majority of the people are moderate. I appeal to the nation to help the government combat the forces of obscurantism that are opposed to progress and development,’ he said.
   He reiterated his call to follow his concept of ‘enlightened moderation’ and ‘true values of Islam which teach peace, brotherhood and moderation’.
   Musharraf, a key US ally in the war on terror, faces pressure in this overwhelmingly Islamic nation of 150 million people from radical parties which accuse him of pushing a secular agenda.
   He survived two attempts on his life from al-Qaeda-linked Islamic extremists in December 2003 and has lived under unprecedented tight security since then.
   Pakistan’s compliance was crucial to the US-led attacks which toppled the fundamentalist Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001.
   Karzai and Musharraf called for greater coordination to combat terrorism during talks late Tuesday.

Eighty suspected guerrillas were killed in a 17-hour operation involving Iraqi and US forces launched against their training camp north of Baghdad, an Iraqi army commander said Wednesday.
   Based on passports and documents seized, a number of foreigners were at the camp, located in a remote area near Lake Tharthar, according to US and Iraqi military officials.
   ‘We have killed 80 fighters in a battle that lasted 17 hours. We lost 12 of our men including four officers,’ said Colonel Mohammed Ibrahim with the Joint Coordina-tion Centre, a rapid reaction unit that includes Iraqi and US forces.
   A US military spokesman based in Tikrit confirmed the operation, which took place on Tuesday, but would not comment on the guerrilla casualty toll given by the Iraqi side.
   ‘There was a significant number of guerrilla forces located at that site and since yesterday afternoon Iraqi and coalition forces have control of it,’ Major Richard Goldenberg of the 42nd Infantry Division said.
   ‘There is an undetermined number of guerrilla casualties. They have been denied a safe haven.’
   Guerrillas at the camp first opened fire at a force from the Iraqi interior ministry’s 1st Commando Battalion as it approached the site, killing a number of them and prompting US troops to intervene by air and ground.
   An officer with the commandos, Lieutenant Colonel Sarmad Hussein, said the operation involved 240 of his men and that Algerians, Saudis and Syrians were among the fighters at the camp in the village of Ain al-Hilwa on the border between the restive and mostly Sunni Al-Anbar and Salaheddin provinces.
   Leaflets posted on buildings in Tikrit and nearby Ad-Dawr and signed by the so-called Secret Islamic Army, one of the main militant groups believed to be active in the area, said only 11 rebels were killed in the raid.
   ‘Iraqi media, even more than western outlets, are trying to rile up public opinion against us and to offend Islam. This battle has restored our honour,’ said the leaflets.
   Led by Major General Rashid Flaih, the commandos have arrested dozens of suspects over the past few months in operations around Samarra and other tense spots in Salaheddin, the home province of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
   They have been paraded, shamed and interrogated by Flaih and others on state-owned Iraqiyah television in a controversial nightly show called ‘Terrorists in the Grip of Justice.’
   Both Anbar, home to the former rebel-stronghold of Fallujah, and the region around Samarra, north of the capital, continue to see almost daily attacks against Iraqi and US forces despite major assaults against rebels in both areas last autumn.
   On the political front, talks on finalising the line-up of the next cabinet were set to resume Wednesday between the election-winning Shias and Kurds, according to Shia negotiator Maryam Rayes.

China’s passing of an anti-secession law was ill-timed with the European Union considering lifting its arms embargo, but Beijing’s desire to keep Taiwan in check outweighed the risks, analysts said.
   China considers the arms ban imposed after its bloody crushing of democracy protesters in 1989 outdated and desperately wants it removed to bolster its reputation on the world stage.
   It has lobbied hard but may have underestimated the pressure exerted on the EU by the United States, which fears a lifting of the ban will tilt the military balance in the Asia-Pacific.
   Only Monday the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, argued in Beijing that lifting the embargo could send ‘the wrong signal’ to China, which has repeatedly threatened to reunify Taiwan by force if necessary.
   ‘They have probably underestimated the strength of the Bush administration’s pressure on the EU,’ said China expert Joseph Cheng of City University of Hong Kong. ‘I believe China will have to work harder to lobby the EU and Bush.’
   US lawmakers have threatened to levy punitive trade sanctions on European companies if the 25-nation bloc goes ahead with the move.
   The British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said Sunday that the anti-secession law, which authorises the use of force against Taiwan if it moves towards formal independence, has ‘created quite a difficult political environment’ for lifting the embargo.
   The EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said after talks with visiting the Chinese foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, in Brussels last week that it had thrown up ‘complicated atmospherics’ around the debate.
   ‘Effectively China has shot itself in the foot but that’s probably expected,’ said Paul Harris, political scientist at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.
   But analysts said the threat which China saw from Taiwan’s pro-independence camps meant it had little choice but to pass the law sooner rather than later.
   They said China’s concern at a possible constitutional amendment proposed by Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian this year, and its desire to rally domestic support for reunification, outweigh the arms embargo.
   ‘The anti-secession law is much more important than the lifting of the embargo,’ said Jia Qingguo, professor of international studies at Peking University.
   ‘The lifting of the arms embargo may be important to the atmosphere of Sino-European relations but it leads to no significant substantial change,’ he said.
   Even if the ban was lifted, the EU has said it plans to impose a stricter code of conduct, designed to prevent the sale of certain types of weapons or technology.
   Since the Chinese National People’s Congress, the country’s lawmaking body, convenes only once a year, there was a perceived urgency to authorise this year the use of force to stop Taiwan from seceding.
   ‘If you wait till next year it would be too late. Chen Shui-bian would have finished his plan on constitutional amendment. Therefore, China feels it has to block this move in a high-profile manner,’ Cheng said.
   The consolidation of power by the relatively new leadership of president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao, and their desire to show their determination on reunifying Taiwan, also fuelled the sense of urgency, Harris said.
   This means that the authorisation of force against Taiwan had to go ahead, even at the cost of the EU backtracking on its pledge to lift the embargo.
   ‘It’s a real world, it’s messy but we did our best,’ Harris said of the attitude the Chinese leadership would adopt if the EU fails to lift the ban in June as indicated.
   ‘It has to be done: it’s better to do it now than to put it off,’ he said of their reasoning on the anti-secession law.
   Although Taiwan has had effective independence since splitting with China in 1949, Beijing considers the island an inalienable part of its territory, to be re-integrated by military might if necessary.

Journalists in Nepal, one of the world’s poorest and most backward nations, are going hi-tech to sidestep tight censorship imposed after last month’s royal coup.
   Outspoken Web logs, or blogs, are springing up and being widely quoted and linked to in the ‘blogosphere’ – the mushrooming cyberworld rapidly establishing a place for itself as an alternative source of news and information.
   ‘I feel that our very own survival, intellectually and mentally, depends on freedom,’ says Dinesh Wagle, a newspaper journalist who runs United We Blog! (www.blog.com.np).
   ‘I don’t want to live like a dead soul. So these days I am blogging for a peaceful and democratic Nepal,’ he said in an email interview.
   King Gyanendra seized power on February 1, arresting government and political leaders, rights activists and journalists.
   He also banned media criticism of his move, which he said was aimed at ending a nine-year Maoist revolt that has killed 11,000 people and shattered the tourism and aid-dependent economy.
   But United We Blog! and another popular blog, the anonymous Radio Free Nepal (http://freenepal.blogspot.com), publish interviews with arrested political leaders and news about anti-king protests that the mainstream media cannot.
   ‘I am blogging the truth as I see and as I think,’ says the print journalist running Radio Free Nepal.
   ‘I am telling my audience there are pro-monarch rallies and the true story behind them (compulsory participation) ... and also that there is not much participation in anti-monarch rallies, along with my feelings that there should be democracy and the king should step down,’ he said by email.
   Wagle, who coordinates the art and style section for Kantipur, the leading Nepali language daily, is a former information technology reporter.
   He has his own Web site (www.wagle.com.np) and along with several friends and colleagues has been blogging since 2003. But United We Blog! turned political after Gyanendra seized power.
   ‘In the beginning, the UWB team was quite anxious about blogging political matter. But I was determined to blog politics and everyone was convinced.’
   Hits have rocketed: from fewer than 13,000 in January to 65,000 in February and more than 80,000 in the first three weeks of March.
   Nepal is one of the world’s poorest 10 countries and few people have computers. Fewer still know about blogs.
   Instead, United We Blog! and Radio Free Nepal are aimed at highlighting the country’s plights to the outside world.
   The postings have been picked up, linked to and referred to by scores of other blogs around the world, including the Online Journalism Review (www.ojr.org) published by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication.
   ‘Through blogs, I want the world to know Nepal and talk about it,’ says the Radio Free Nepal blogger. ‘That way, there will be more pressure on the king to restore democracy – that’s what I hope to gain – democracy.’
   Worried about being arrested, the Radio Free Nepal blogger emails his posts to a friend overseas, who then puts them on the blog. Wagle and his partners, on the other hand, operate openly.
   ‘I am not blogging against anyone, but for peace, democracy and freedom,’ he says. ‘Even the king has vowed to restore democracy ... within three years. I am just helping him.’
   When Gyanendra took power, he shut down Internet service providers and all phone lines for a week. But the communications blackout played havoc with the economy – airlines and other business couldn’t operate properly, credit cards could not be used and some ATMs would not work – and lines were restored.
   However, some Internet sites remain blocked, including Maoist sites and news sites www.newslookmag.com and www.nepalipost.com.
   Wagle is not too worried about his blog.
   ‘Our government is relatively new to the Internet and they don’t have high-tech surveillance capability like in China. I don’t think, but I’m not sure, they are even reading us.’

North Korea came under renewed pressure on Wednesday to return to six-country talks on its nuclear programme as its premier, Pak Pong-ju, met the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, in Beijing.
   A diplomatic source in Tokyo said the United States had a June deadline for Pyongyang to return to the table, and China—the provider of 70 per cent of the North’s food and fuel aid—wields particular leverage over its old ally.
   With US impatience over the stalled talks rising, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, urged North Korea at the weekend to return to negotiations immediately. She also said the United States had no intention of invading North Korea.
   Pak passed on a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to Hu, who underlined China’s commitment to the six-party process and was likely to have pressed Pak to make good on comments that the North also supports the talks.
   ‘China will continue to urge peace and promote talks and is willing, together with the other relevant parties, to play a constructive role to recover the six-party talks,’ the official Xinhua news agency quoted Hu as saying. On Tuesday, Pak told the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, the North had not abandoned the process.
   ‘The Korean side does not oppose the six-party talks, nor has it given up on the talks. If conditions are mature, the North Korean side is prepared to join the six-party talks at any time,’ Chinese TV quoted him as saying.

The Kyrgyz president, Askar Akayev, fired his interior minister and general prosecutor Wednesday, as the opposition vowed to step up protests over a parliamentary poll that have simmered in the volatile south in the Central Asian nation.
   A spokesman announced that Akayev had named new people to the key power posts in the afternoon, amid rumours that the Kyrgyz leader and the opposition were holding negotiations over the growing unrest.
   The personnel changes follow a week of increasing protests after a March 13 run-off election that saw the opposition presence in the 75-member parliament reduced to a mere handful of seats.
   The previous day Akayev had accused the opposition of trying to stage a coup and refused to bow to demands that he resign and annul the results of the disputed ballot.
   ‘It’s obvious that there is no basis and thus there cannot be any talk of an annulment of the parliamentary elections,’ he said in a televised address after the new parliament held its first session.
   The 60-year-old physicist by training, who has ruled this small impoverished nation since 1990, excluded the use of force to end the crisis.
   ‘All of this is consciously directed at provoking the authorities to the use of force,’ he told the first session of parliament on Tuesday. ‘In connection to this, I would like to state that I, as president, will never take such measures.’
   Meanwhile opposition protests continued to roil southern Kyrgyzstan, the country’s most impoverished region with a history of violent clashes.
   In the city of Osh, which along with nearby Jalal-Abad has borne the brunt of the protests, some 500 people gathered under a Lenin statue in front of the governor’s house to hear fiery speeches by the opposition, which has declared itself in control of the region.
   Anvar Artykov, opposition’s self-appointed governor of the Osh region, told protestors that opposition supporters planned to take control over more regions in the south.
   ‘They’re already protesting in the Badkent region,’ he said. ‘Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow it will be in our hands.’
   Police have not been seen on the streets of Osh and Jalal-Abad since Monday, a day after violence was reported to have broken out during the demonstrations.
   While Akayev has been regarded as the most liberal of rulers in the region, he has faced increasing criticism in recent years and charges that his relatives wield undue influence in Kyrgyzstan’s economy and politics.
   Two of his children won parliamentary seats.

A bomb blast rocked a Christian quarter north of Beirut early Wednesday, killing three people and stoking fears of further violence in Lebanon at a moment of political tension and public foreboding.
   The police reported that the blast in a shopping centre near the port of Jounieh, 20 kilometres north of Beirut, was caused by an 80-kilogram explosive device.
   Two of the three fatalities were Indian, with the nationality of the third yet to be determined, police said, adding that three people had been injured. Early television reports said the wounded were two Sri Lankans and a Lebanese.
   The explosion was the second act of violence in a Christian district since the February 14 assassination of popular former prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, and seemed certain to heighten fears of resurgence in sectarian killing that devastated Lebanon during its 1975-1990 civil war.
   Eleven people were hurt early Saturday when a powerful bomb placed beneath a car exploded in the Christian suburb of Jdeide.
   Hariri’s death, in a bombing widely blamed here on Syrian and Lebanese agents, sharpened an ominous rift between the pro-Syrian authorities and an energized opposition as Syria begins to withdraw troops from Lebanon under international pressure.
   Accusations of their involvement in Hariri’s killing have been denied by authorities in Beirut and Damascus.
   Nonetheless, the assassination and its aftermath have left Beirut residents clearly on edge, notably as there have also been several false bomb alerts recently.
   ‘The Syrians and their agents in Lebanon have warned several times that if the Syrian army leaves there will trouble,’ recalled Hiba, a mother in her 40s.
   Nerves were further frayed by recent warnings from both opposition leader Walid Jumblatt and UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen that under current circumstances Lebanon could see another high-profile political killing.
   The blast Wednesday occurred in the Alta Vista commercial centre in the Kaslik district that houses shops, a night club and an amusement hall.
   The force of the explosion ripped out the centre, causing damage in a radius of several hundred meters, forcing false ceilings to collapse, pillars to warp and blowing out windows.
   Anti-Syrian opposition deputy Fares Boueiz quickly charged that the explosion was an attack aimed at deepening a sense of insecurity.
   ‘They want to destabilize the country,’ he said of the perpetrators. ‘We must not fall into the trap.’
   ‘This attack is aimed at the movement for independence and sovereignty of Lebanon. It is a political message which is being sent to us,’ he told LBCI.
   Another MP, Naamatallah Abi Nasr, accused ‘the enemies of Lebanon,’ adding: ‘I say that’s enough.’

Australia’s conservative government Wednesday took the first steps in dismantling its controversial policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers, but right groups said it was moving too slowly to overhaul its ‘inhumane’ refugee system.
   The immigration minister, Amanda Vanstone, said asylum seekers whose refugee applications had been rejected would be conditionally released if they could not be returned to their homeland.
   But she said the detainees, some of whom have been incarcerated in outback detention centres for more than three years, had to accept they would eventually be deported when it was deemed safe to send them home.
   Keen to avoid any perception of a government backdown, Vanstone stressed that only a small number of detainees would be released and said the policy of mandatory detention remained in place for asylum seekers who do not arrive through official channels.
   ‘The government recognises that for a small number of cases where removal is not possible in the short term, other options should be explored,’ Vanstone said in a statement.
   The government credits its mandatory detention policy with halting a spate of boatpeople arrivals that peaked in late 2001 and has previously argued that any softening of its stance would provide a ‘green light’ for people smugglers to resume operations.
   But the policy has been criticised by human rights groups, the United Nations and liberal elements within the government’s own ranks.
   With no recent boatpeople arrivals, the government decided it was time to deal with the issue of long-term detainees who were facing indefinite detention.
   More than 200 asylum seekers have been locked in outback or offshore detention camps for more than two years, with about 120 detained for three years or more. One man has been locked up for almost seven years.
   Some of them will now have the opportunity to be released on ‘Removal Pending Bridging Visas’.
   Amnesty International said that while the new policy was a positive first step, it represented too little, too late and Australia’s ‘inhumane’ refugee system needed to be overhauled.
   ‘Australia’s mandatory detention regime enables some the world’s most vulnerable people, including children, family groups and stateless people to be detained indefinitely,’ the spokesman, Graham Thom, said.
   The New South Wales state Refugee Action Coalition said the government had acknowledged mandatory detention was immoral.
   ‘It is both bad law and bad policy and the government has begun to recognise this,’ the spokesman, Max Phillips, said.
   The United Nations Human Rights Commission, fierce critics of government policy in the past, welcomed the plan as a mean of providing increased flexibility in dealing with long-term detainees.
   The opposition Labour Party supported mandatory detention but said refugee application processing needed to be speeded up to avoid asylum seekers being detained for years.
   ‘We need to keep that deterrent there–but we also need to do it with humanity and expedition,’ Beazley told reporters.

Nobody is planning military action against Iran over its nuclear programme ‘at the moment,’ the British prime minister, Tony Blair, said in an interview with a Muslim magazine, adding ‘Iran is not Iraq’.
   ‘I don’t know of anybody planning military action against Iran,’ Blair said in the latest issue of the British monthly Muslim News, due to hit news-stands on Friday.
   ‘France, Germany and the UK are working together, backed by America, to get the Iranians to understand their obligations under the Atomic Energy Authority rules,’ said Blair.
   ‘Let’s just pursue the diplomatic path for the moment. No- one is talking about anything else at the moment,’ he added.
   The United States and Europe are exerting growing pressure on Iran to guarantee that it will not use its atomic energy programme to acquire nuclear weapons.
   Blair told the monthly on March 1 that there was a concerted effort by European countries to end the standoff.
   Meanwhile, the EU-Iran nuclear talks resume Wednesday with Tehran sticking to a full-scale nuclear programme despite European demands for it to abandon fuel activities to prove it is not secretly developing atomic weapons.
   Blair had told parliament last month, ‘We obviously do want to make sure we can get a diplomatic resolution to the issue of Iran as the president, George W Bush made clear over the past few days.’
   ‘There are genuine concerns–in respect to Iran and the development of nuclear capability, Iran and the sponsorship of terrorism, Iran in relation to human rights issues,’ he had said.
   In the interview Blair also called on Muslim voters, who traditionally vote for his Labour Party but who may have been alienated by its support for the US-led invasion of Iraq, to recognise Labour’s position on Muslim schools and religious hate crimes.

Camilla Parker Bowles does not want the title of queen after Prince Charles becomes king, his office said Tuesday. Charles and his bride-to-be, sensitive to strong public opinion against her ever being queen, had said she would take the title of Princess Consort if he becomes king. They are being married in a civil ceremony April 8.
   Paddy Harverson, communications secretary for Charles’ office, Clarence House, said she would be queen if he became king did not prevent her from choosing a different title.
   ‘This is absolutely unequivocal that she automatically becomes queen when he becomes king,’ said Andrew Mackinlay, the lawmaker who raised the question.
   The Department for Constitutional Affairs confirmed that interpretation, saying that legislation would be required to deny the title of queen to the king’s wife.
   Several newspapers in Britain, where the public is warming to the royal wedding but still oppose the idea of Queen Camilla, on Tuesday carried headlines reading ‘Camilla will be Queen if Charles is King ’and‘ Camilla will be Queen.’
   But Harverson said the government’s advice had been wrongly interpreted, and if Parker Bowles didn’t want to be called queen, there was no need for legislation.
   ‘The implication of some of today’s media reporting is that Mrs. Parker Bowles would have to be called queen unless there is legislation,’ Harverson said. ‘This is incorrect and not in accordance with the government’s advice. Parker Bowles can, as she wishes, be referred to as Princess Consort, rather than queen, without legislation.’
   Harverson said Parker Bowles had made it clear she didn’t want to be called queen and Charles agreed with her choice.
   Immediately after their April 8 wedding, Parker Bowles will be called Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, and will not be called Princess of Wales — the title used by the late Princess Diana.
   Mackinlay dismissed Harverson’s statement as ‘wrong and arrogant.’
   ‘We are being asked to accept that the law is what they say it is,’ he said. ‘I don’t accept that.
   ‘They have missed the point. This is not a matter for them, it is matter for Parliament. Parliament is the custodian of the constitution,’ Mackinlay said.

Deadlocked Security Council diplomats were to meet on Wednesday to discuss three UN resolutions on Sudan proposed by the United States, with pressure mounting to stop the bloodshed in Darfur.
   After weeks of stalemate on potential war crimes trials and sanctions, the United States decided to split the issues into separate resolutions along with a third measure to approve a UN peacekeeping force in Sudan.
   ‘We were unable to come to agreement on an omnibus resolution, so in our view the only way to proceed–was to split up the three,’ US deputy UN ambassador Anne Patterson told reporters.
   Council members largely agree on request of the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan to send more than 10,000 peacekeepers to monitor a north-south peace accord signed in January that ended 21 years of civil war.
   But there are fears that the separate crisis in Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region, where a rebel uprising which started two years ago has led to an estimated 180,000 dead, could derail the north-south peace.
   Despite those concerns, the council has been at loggerheads over where to hold any trials for suspected war crimes that have been committed in Darfur.
   In addition, the delays—and the prospect of authorising a peacekeeping mission for Sudan that would not have a mandate to act in Darfur—have raised questions about the council’s ability to address the crisis.
   The council has already passed two one-week extensions of the current UN mission in Sudan, which is on the ground to prepare for the peacekeeping force, and diplomats fear a third extension could hurt council credibility.
   ‘It’s better for the council to start taking action, even if it’s a modest action–so that people see that the council is working,’ said Brazil’s UN ambassador and current council president, Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg.
   ‘We should not (allow) continuing delays to take any decision. This is bad,’ he told reporters. The extended mandate expires on Thursday.
   Most council members favour referring war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, the world’s first permanent tribunal for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.
   Yet the administration of the US president, George W Bush, opposes the ICC over fears that US citizens could be the target of lawsuits politically motivated by opposition to US policies.
   Council members Algeria, China and Russia have meanwhile come out against US-proposed sanctions—a travel ban and assets freeze—on individuals suspected of jeopardising the peace and committing human rights abuses.
   The stand-off has highlighted the issue of political horse-trading at the United Nations—especially since Jan Egeland, the UN’s top humanitarian official, estimated that 10,000 people are dying in Darfur each month.
   Rights groups in particular have criticised the United States over its stance on the ICC, claiming that its position is effectively blocking attempts to bring the guilty in Darfur to justice.
   But Algeria and China have also said they have reservations about an ICC referral.
   ‘We’re very much behind accountability. It’s obviously a central part of our strategy in Sudan,’ Patterson said, calling the draft on war crimes trials a ‘placeholder’ measure.
   She said that resolution would put forward the option of ICC referral, a US proposal for a special war crimes court based in Tanzania, and a Nigerian suggestion for an African Union-backed court.
   ‘The resolution makes no judgments as to which would be preferable but simply enables discussions to continue until a decision is reached,’ Patterson said. The non-ICC options have won little support from council members.

UK warns Philippines of terror attack
Terrorists are in the final stages of planning an attack in the Philippines, the British embassy warned Wednesday in an updated travel advisory. ‘We believe that terrorists are in the final stages of planning an attack. However, attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in the Philippines,’ said the bulletin, issued ahead of Easter weekend. The US has also updated its advisory, saying that reprisals by the Abu Sayyaf Muslim militant group are possible. British citizens are being discouraged from travelling to central, southern and western Mindanao, and the Sulu archipelago where military operations against Muslim groups are continuing.
— AFP

US forces kill
five in southeast
Afghanistan
The US-led coalition forces killed five insurgents in retaliatory artillery fire after the rebels attacked two US military bases with rockets in southeast Afghanistan, the US military said Wednesday. ‘Around midnight last night insurgents fired five rockets at Salerno base,’ US military spokesman lieutenant Cindy Moore said. ‘There were no coalition soldiers that were injured. Coalition troops returned fire with 150mm artillery rounds and we understand that five insurgents were killed,’ Moore said. She said a US post near the Salerno base in the south-eastern province of Khost was also targeted with eight rockets but there were no US coalition casualties.
— AFP

Natwar to visit Myanmar for talks
The Indian foreign minister, Natwar Singh, is scheduled to leave on a four-day trip to Myanmar for talks aimed at further consolidating ties between the two neighbours, officials said Tuesday. Foreign ministry officials said Singh during his working visit to the secretive state will hold talks with Myanmar’s military strongman Than Shwe, who last October became the first Myanmar head of state to visit India in 24 years. ‘Singh will also meet the prime minister, Soe Win, and hold wide-ranging discussions with his counterpart U Nyan Win on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual concern,’ a ministry official said. Singh is expected to ‘reaffirm India’s readiness to assist the government and people of Myanmar on their path to further political and economic progress,’ he added on Wednesday.
— AFP

Koizumi to reshuffle cabinet in September
The Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, is set to reshuffle his cabinet in September to push new economic reforms after his cherished project of breaking up the mammoth postal system, a report said. It would be Koizumi’s fourth cabinet reshuffle since he took office in April 2001 and is timed to coincide with the expiration of executive posts in his Liberal Democratic Party, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. The current cabinet was formed in September with an aim to win the parliament’s approval to split Japan Post into four private entities in April 2007 in hopes of revitalizing the economy through competition.
— AFP

Somalian warlords want president impeachment
The crisis over the relocation from exile of Somalia’s transitional government deepened Wednesday as powerful warlords said they would move to impeach the president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Warlords controlling Somalia’s bullet-scarred capital of Mogadishu said they would introduce a no-confidence motion against Yusuf in parliament and seek his removal for allegedly violating the lawless country’s transitional charter. ‘A vote of no confidence on the president is coming–there is enough evidence to impeach him,’ said Somali construction minister and Mogadishu warlord, Osman Ali Ato.
— AFP

Blair to call
vote on May 5
The British prime minister, Tony Blair, is preparing to call a general election in Britain for May 5 within the next fortnight, the BBC reported Tuesday. On April 4 or 5, Blair would ask Queen Elizabeth II to dissolve Parliament to make way for a month of official campaigning, said Andrew Marr, the British broadcaster’s political editor, without giving any sources. A spokesman for Blair refused to confirm the report. Britain’s main political parties have been on the campaign trail for several weeks despite the prime minister’s reluctance to name the actual day.
— AFP

Putin to visit
Israel in April
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is to make an historic trip to Israel next month in a bid to dissipate gathering storm clouds between Moscow and the Jewish state over a Russian weapons’ sale to Syria. In the first trip by a Russian head of state to Israel, Putin will also jet in amid widespread international efforts to revive the Middle East peace process while both Israel and the Palestinians are abiding by a de facto truce. Israeli officials said Putin would be extended every courtesy during his April 27-28 trip, despite their recent campaigning to force Moscow to halt its sale of missiles to Syria. ‘After this tense time, it will warm relations between the two countries,’ said a high-ranking Israeli government official of Putin’s 48-hour stay.
— AFP

Nigerian education minister sacked
The Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, fired his education minister Tuesday, accusing him of bribing lawmakers including the Senate leader who is the third most powerful person in Nigeria’s government. Since his 1999 election, Obasanjo has made the fight against corruption and a series of free-market reforms key planks of his agenda. Six years on, however, Nigeria is still rated the second most corrupt country in the world a survey by Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International. Obasanjo made the allegations against the education minister, Fabian Osuji, in a televised address Tuesday evening following newspaper reports that the minister had been arrested last week for bribing legislators to increase the amount of his budget.
— AP

Italian rightist
wins appeal
against vote ban
Alessandra Mussolini, grand-daughter of Italy’s wartime dictator, on Tuesday won her appeal against a court ruling that banned her right-wing party from contesting regional elections next month. Mussolini, who is a deputy in the European Parliament, was blocked from running in the ballot after a court in Rome last week upheld a ban on her Social Alternative party for submitting fake voter signatures to officials. She appealed that decision and on Tuesday the council of state, the country’s highest administrative court, overturned the ban on her party taking part in the election in the Lazio region, which includes Rome.
— AFP