Taiwan’s opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou surged to a landslide victory Saturday in a presidential election dominated by concern over the economy and hopes for better ties with China.
   ‘This is a victory for people who hope for change and openness and reform,’ he told his jubilant Kuomintang supporters after trouncing ruling party chief Frank Hsieh by around 17 percentage points.
   Soft-spoken and Harvard-educated, Ma has promised to work for closer ties with China, including a peace treaty to put an end to decades of hostilities, and to revive Taiwan’s own stuttering economy. The vote has been closely watched by Beijing and Washington for signs of a new approach in the flashpoint region after eight years of recurring tensions under outgoing president Chen Shui-bian.
   Final official figures released by the election commission showed that Ma won 58.45 per cent of the vote, with Hsieh on 41.55 per cent. ‘This election result is not a personal result, nor a victory for the KMT, it is a victory for all Taiwanese people,’ Ma said.
   ‘Your voices are heard. People have the right to demand a better life. Only change can bring hope, only change can provide opportunities.’ At almost the same time Hsieh was admitting defeat in a speech to his own despondent Democratic Progressive Party supporters in Taipei.
   ‘We accept defeat. It’s my own defeat, it’s not the defeat of the Taiwanese people. Please don’t cry for me,’ he said.
   Ma will formally take over on May 20, when Chen steps down after serving a maximum two terms in office.
   KMT supporters sang, danced and let off firecrackers as they partied in the capital Taipei and elsewhere. Ma’s victory gives the KMT overall control of the nation, as they had also crushed the DPP in parliamentary elections in January on the back of an economic malaise and weariness at the strained relations with China.
   Soochow University professor Liu Bih-rong, who specialises in cross-strait relations, said the landslide was unexpected.
   ‘The election result shows Taiwan has grown into a more mature democracy,’ he said, predicting relations with China would improve at a faster pace.
   ‘It shows that the Taiwanese people have given the KMT the mandate to open direct links and push for the one common market with China.’
   After casting his ballot earlier in a Methodist church building in Taipei, Ma had vowed to normalise trade and investment relations with China. China still claims Taiwan for itself and has threatened an invasion if it declares independence, confining the US-allied island to a murky limbo of de facto but unrecognised sovereignty.

The leaders of the newly-formed coalition government in Pakistan intend to start negotiations with Islamic militants in the hope of ending a spate of bombings that has shaken the country, The New York Times reported on its web site late Friday.
   The newspaper said the leaders of the ruling coalition – Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People’s Party and Nawaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N – said in interviews that they will use military force only as a last resort.
   The president, Pervez Musharraf, has summoned the new parliament on Monday to elect a prime minister, which will clear the way for a coalition government hostile to him to start business.
   The allies of Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999, lost heavily in the February elections.
   Benazir Bhutto’s widower and co-chairman of the party, Zardari, has held a series of meetings with legislators and coalition partners on the choice of prime minister, but no clear front runner has emerged.
   The talk of a softer approach to militants has alarmed US officials, who fear it could create problems for the US-led war on terror just as president Musharraf has given the administration of the president, George W Bush, a freer hand to strike at militants using pilotless Predator drones, the report said.
   Many Pakistanis, however, are convinced that the surge in suicide bombings – 17 in the first 10 weeks of 2008 – is retaliation for three Predator strikes since the beginning of the year, The Times said.
   Speaking in separate interviews, Zardari and Sharif tried to strike a more independent stance from Washington, the paper noted.
   They said they were determined to set a different course from that of Musharraf, who has received more than 10 billion dollars from Washington for his support,’ the report said.

Thailand’s ruling party said Saturday it would move to amend the nation’s military-backed constitution, warning the charter could throw the government into a political deadlock.
   The People Power Party, which swept into power in December elections, said it wanted to strip the election commission of its power to seek the dissolution of political parties.
   The commission used that power to disband the Thai Rak Thai party of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006.
   His allies, led by the current prime minister Samak Sundaravej, now face a similar fate.
   Two of the PPP’s coalition partners are before the Supreme Court over vote fraud charges, which could lead the judges to dissolve the parties.

Thousands of demonstrators torched Dutch and Danish flags in the Afghan capital Kabul Friday in the latest of a wave of protests against cartoons and a film said to insult Islam, the police said.
   The demonstrators gathered following Friday prayers from various mosques chanting ‘Death to George W Bush. Death to the Jews and Christians. This is a plot against Islam,’ an AFP reporter at the scene said.
   There have been protests in most of Afghanistan’s main cities against the reprinting of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as well as an anti-Koran film set to be released this month by a far-right Dutch lawmaker.
   The protesters set fire to flags and an effigy of the Dutch film maker.
   Anti-riot police were stationed outside the Danish embassy and at main intersections in the city.
   ‘Police have taken necessary precautions. They provided security for the protest. It is peaceful so far,’ interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
   A religious cleric making heated statements to the crowd through a loudspeaker called for Danish and Dutch troops in a NATO alliance fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan to leave.
   ‘If they don’t leave, killing them is allowed,’ said the bearded mullah.
   The Netherlands has about 1,500 troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping mission, while Denmark has more than 600.
   In early March, about 5,000 people protested in the western city of Herat.
   The first printing of the Danish cartoons caused
   days of protests worldwide in early 2006, including in Afghanistan, where 11 people were killed.

Tensions between Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton rose again Saturday after the rival campaigns exchanged harsh words as Obama gained the backing of the country’s only Hispanic governor.
   Rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign dismissed the nod from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as coming too late to have any effect, while Obama’s staff hit out at Hillary’s alleged dishonesty after records detailing her years as first lady were made public.
   The fresh mudslinging Friday capped off a week in which the hard-fought race took on an increasingly nasty tone with both sides trading charges of misleading the public and trying to divert attention from political scandals.
   On the campaign trail, Richardson’s move was a setback for Hillary and gave Obama a supporter with influence among pivotal Hispanic voters – who have leaned towards his rival – and well-known ties to the Hillary family.
   The New Mexico governor called Obama a ‘once-in-a-lifetime leader’ who could inspire voters, repair America’s image abroad and overcome racial and political divisions.
   Richardson served as energy secretary and UN ambassador in the administration of president Bill Clinton and carried out delicate diplomatic missions in North Korea and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
   He dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination on January 10 after a poor showing in the early state-by-state primary and caucus contests.
   The Clinton campaign played down the significance of the endorsement, with chief strategist Mark Penn saying ‘the time when he could have been most effective has long since passed.’
   The Obama campaign this week pounced on the release this week of White House records during Hillary’s tenure as first lady, saying the documents exposed a lack of candour about her role in policy decisions and were ‘just the latest in what has become a legacy of misleading voters.’
   The Illinois senator’s campaign issued a statement Friday saying: ‘Honesty is a crucial metric in this race because the Democratic nominee is going to be running against John McCain, who is viewed by voters as one of the most trustworthy politicians in America.’
   For weeks, Obama and Hillary, his Senate colleague from New York, have been locked in a battle for the right to face McCain in the November 4 presidential election.
   Richardson praised Obama’s widely-publicised address on race and politics Tuesday, in which he tried to blunt the furore over comments by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, saying the senator’s words were ‘courageous.’
   Meanwhile, the State Department apologised over revelations that employees opened passport files for all three main contenders for the White House without authorisation.
   State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed the passport records for Obama, Hillary and McCain were all examined without approval and promised a full investigation.
   The secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, had by Friday afternoon telephoned all three candidates to apologise for the incidents, which the State Department attributed to ‘imprudent curiosity.’
   Estimates show Obama leading the former first lady in nominating delegates 1,628 to 1,493. But Hillary, who also trails in the popular vote, hopes to build a case for her candidacy with a triumph in the April 22 primary in delegate-rich Pennsylvania, where she has a big lead in opinion polls.
   Neither candidate has won the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination and the fight could go to the floor of the party convention this August in Denver, Colorado.

Residents in this community along the Meramec River are crossing their fingers that the town’s new earthen levee, built to withstand a 100-year flood, will pass its first big test.
   The surging Meramec was expected to crest at a record 40 feet on Saturday – 24 feet above flood stage.
   Flood-weary residents in Missouri, Arkansas and Ohio fought to save their homes Friday after heavy rainstorms pushed swollen rivers out of their banks, and a fresh snowstorm blew through parts of the Upper Midwest, cancelling flights and some Good Friday services.
   More than a foot of snow fell in parts of southern Wisconsin. Nearly the same amount blanketed southeastern Minnesota.
   ‘Everyone is pretty tired of the snow but I think most people will agree these types of storms aren’t unusual in the spring,’ National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Davis said. ‘These kinds of early-spring, late-winter storms are fairly common.’
   The timing of the storm was especially disappointing for church officials planning Good Friday services. Events were cancelled at dozens of churches.
   ‘It was a hard decision but for the safety of everybody, especially of the elderly, we think it was prudent to make this decision,’ said the Rev. Jonathan Jacobs of Ascension Lutheran Church in Milwaukee.
   Dozens of flights were delayed or cancelled at the Milwaukee and Madison airports, leaving officials there bracing for larger crowds over the weekend.
   The early spring snow storm was sliding through Detroit and much of Michigan’s southern Lower Peninsula, making driving hazardous and forcing the cancellation of several flights.
   The National Weather Service said the system was expected to dump up to 12 inches of snow in parts of the region as it tracked through the Ohio Valley on Friday and early Saturday.
   Snow forced the cancellation of more than 450 flights and delayed numerous others at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of the world’s busiest.
   But spring’s floodwaters continue to be the focus of concern in much of the Midwest.
   Parts of the Midwest got a foot of rain over a 36-hour period this week, causing widespread flash flooding. The worst flooding happened in smaller rivers across the nation’s midsection. Major channels such as the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers saw only minor flooding.

Tamil Tiger rebels struck back against a mounting Sri Lankan military offensive on Saturday by sinking a naval fast attack craft, leaving 10 sailors missing, officials said.
   A navy craft was destroyed in a ‘mystery blast’ caused by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the defence ministry said, adding that the guerrillas appeared to have developed new underwater capabilities.
   ‘The navy suspects the blast was caused by a possible sea mine or due to some underwater weapon’ developed by the rebels, the ministry said, adding that there was no sea battle or any guerrilla craft in sight during the sinking.
   The military retaliated with combined land-air attacks against suspected Tiger positions, capturing some land in Mannar district, while ground troops killed 15 rebels, the defence ministry said, adding that two soldiers also died.
   There was no immediate word from the rebels about the land offensive.
   But the LTTE said they sank the navy craft by using three suicide bombers in the pre-dawn attack in high seas off rebel-held Mullaitivu district.
   Six sailors from the locally made Dvora-class fast attack craft were rescued by another boat patrolling off Mullaitivu where the Tigers have their main military bases, navy spokesman DKP Dassanayake said.
   Ten more were missing after the blast.
   ‘The officer in charge and five others from the fast attack craft were rescued,’ Dassanayake said. ‘One of them said the craft started taking on water after a huge explosion. They got into a liferaft.’
   The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website reported the navy craft was sunk in a suicide attack launched by three ‘Black Sea Tigers,’ or suicide bombers.

Visionary science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke was buried on Saturday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, where the nation paused for an international ‘titan’ it had adopted as its own.
   British-born Clarke, best known for his work on the movie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, died aged 90 of respiratory complications and heart failure, which doctors linked to the post-polio syndrome that for years kept him wheelchair-bound.
   ‘We feel so privileged that you left your mark on us. Your footprint will never fade. If anything, it will only magnify what we do,’ Tamara Ekanayake, who grew up at Clarke’s Colombo home and whose family he adopted, told mourners.
   Close family and friends wept and threw yellow roses onto his body in a final gesture of respect as it lay on a white bed beneath curved elephant tusks to music from the Space Odyssey movie before burial at Colombo’s main cemetery.
   His brother Fred and sister Mary watched on as hundreds of monks, mourners and sci-fi pilgrims clasped hands in prayer for a man who preferred the hard fact of science to organised religion.
   ‘I do not think we will see another like him for another million years,’ said teacher ASM Munawwar, who travelled from Sri Lanka’s east clutching a signed copy of one of Clarke’s books.
   President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who this week called Clarke a ‘prophet’, asked Sri Lankans to observe a minute’s silence for the island’s most distinguished foreigner as newspapers mourned the ‘final voyage of a titan’.
   Clarke left written instructions that his funeral be marked by ‘absolutely no religious rites of any kind’. For his tombstone he asked for the words: ‘Here lies Arthur Clarke. He never grew up, but didn’t stop growing’.

Malaysia’s opposition on Friday pressed for five ethnic Indian activists, including a man who won in recent elections, to be freed from indefinite detention under a tough security law.
   Lawyer Manoharan Malayalam, standing for the Democratic Action Party, was elected from his jail – soundly beating the government incumbent in the state seat on March 8.
   DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said the prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, should free the five, leaders of rights group Hindraf, who were detained last December under the Internal Security Act.
   They had organised an unprecedented mass rally claiming discrimination against ethnic Indians in November. Police used tear gas, water cannon and baton charges to break up the protest, which drew at least 8,000 people.
   Lim called for the ‘immediate and unconditional release (of) the five Hindraf leaders from ISA detention as proof that Abdullah has ‘heard the voice’ of Malaysians to start the process of ‘national healing’ after... the general election.’
   Abdullah’s Barisan Nasional coalition won the election on March 8 but with a reduced majority and lost an unprecedented five states to the three-party opposition alliance of the DAP, the Islamic PAS and Keadilan.
   It was the ruling party’s worst election result since 1969.
   Lim said the election result showed that ethnic Indian support for the government had plunged.
   Manoharan’s lawyer Karpal Singh said he had filed an appeal to the Federal Court, the highest in the land, after the High Court last month rejected a freedom bid by the five.

Quiet returned to Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday after a ceasefire between Islamic militants and fighters of the mainstream Fatah faction ended heavy clashes.
   The hundreds of civilians who had fled the fighting in the densely populated Ain al-Helweh camp outside the southern port city of Sidon began returning to their homes after the truce took hold, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
   Fatah fighters exchanged rocket fire with militants of Jund al-Sham (Soldiers of Damascus) for some four hours in the camp’s main street late on Friday prompting the exodus of civilians.
   Gunshots were subsequently heard in Sidon itself, with a Fatah leader saying at least four people had been wounded in the fighting.
   ‘There is a ceasefire ... the regrettable clashes that took place have ended’ following mediation by another Islamist group, Usbat al-Ansar (Band of Supporters), Fatah official Munir al-Maqdah said.
   He said the Jund al-Sham fighters had agreed to leave the camp and Fatah security agents would take control.
   ‘There won’t be a second Nahr al-Bared at Ain al-Helweh,’ said Makdah, referring to the three months of fierce fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants that destroyed that Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
   Maqdah could not specify whether the wounded were civilians or fighters, and had no information on anyone being killed in the clashes.
   A Lebanese army spokesman had said the fighting had been confined to the camp and that troops, who by longstanding convention do not enter Lebanon’s dozen refugee camps, had not got involved.

Three US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Saturday, pushing the US death toll closer to the 4,000 mark in a bloody start to the sixth year of the war for US troops.
   The three deaths, which brought the number of US soldiers killed since the US-led invasion in 2003 to 3,996, came just days after the US president, George W Bush, said the United States was on track to victory in Iraq.
   In a speech marking the fifth anniversary of the war, Bush acknowledged the ‘high cost in lives and treasure’ but said a US troop build-up in Iraq had reduced violence there and opened the door to a major victory in the war on terror.
   The war is a major issue in the US presidential campaign, with Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton calling for an early troop withdrawal timetable.
   Presumptive Republican candidate John McCain rejects this.
   The US military said the three soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up their vehicle northwest of Baghdad. Two Iraqi civilians also died in the attack. It gave no further details about where the incident occurred.
   Roadside bombs are the biggest killers of US soldiers in Iraq. On Friday, a US soldier died from wounds sustained from ‘indirect fire’, a term commonly used by the military to refer to a mortar or rocket attack.
   The US military has credited the deployment of 30,000 extra US troops and a rebellion by Sunni tribal leaders against Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda for a 60 per cent drop in violence across Iraq.