Thailand’s ruling party Wednesday said it was considering candidates for the premiership, backing off a vow to return the job to Samak Sundaravej, who was forced out by a court over his TV cooking shows.
   The Constitutional Court on Tuesday stripped Samak of his post as prime minister, saying he had illegally accepted payments for hosting two food programmes.
   The verdict added to the political turmoil in Thailand, which has seen protesters barricading the main government complex for more than two weeks and a state of emergency imposed across the capital Bangkok.
   Judges did not ban Samak from politics, and his People Power Party said immediately after the ruling that they would re-elect him as prime minister.
   But after a key coalition partner voiced concern over restoring Samak to power, the party backed down and said that it would consult its allies on possible candidates before a parliamentary vote set for Friday.
   ‘For prime minister, we will consult again among PPP members in the next few days,’ deputy PPP leader Somchai Wongsawat told reporters after meeting with the Chart Thai party, the second-largest member of the coalition.
   Opposition Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva proposed creating a national unity government, with himself at the helm, but the idea appeared to gain little traction.
   Somchai, the most senior deputy in Samak’s cabinet, is acting as a caretaker prime minister until the new premier is named.
   His new role is certain to stoke Thailand’s political flames: Somchai is the brother-in-law of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup two years ago.
   The protesters besieging the Government House compound first took to the streets against Thaksin nearly three years ago, accusing him of using his political office to enrich his multi-billion-dollar telecom empire.
   The military cited the corruption claims to justify their coup in 2006. Thaksin now lives in exile in Britain to dodge the legal charges, which he says are politically motivated.
   A military-backed constitution approved last year included strict limits on outside employment by government officials.
   Judges have now used that charter to force Samak from office over the cooking programmes that reportedly earned him no more than a few hundred dollars per show, which he said he used mainly to buy ingredients.
   In a nation accustomed to military coups, Samak is the first Thai premier stripped of his office by a court order — the most dramatic move yet by an increasingly muscular judiciary.
   Thai courts once tended to side with whatever government was in office.
   But two years ago, at the height of protests against Thaksin, the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej urged the nation’s judges to take a more decisive role in political cases.
   Since then, the courts have become important players in Thai politics — judges dissolved Thaksin’s party, banned him from politics, and have already forced out three of Samak’s ministers.
   But some analysts fear that the courts’ new-found strength could be running to the opposite extreme, with the tough verdict for Samak’s relatively light transgression.

Sri Lanka’s move to evict relief workers from its embattled north had made the humanitarian situation worse for tens of thousands of civilians who rely on aid, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
   The London-based rights group said the Colombo government lacked the capacity to provide basic essentials and safety for those forced to flee escalating fighting between soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels.
   Amnesty called on the government to allow independent international monitors into the northern Wanni region to oversee and ensure that convoys with food, medical and other essential supplies can reach those in need.
   ‘Without independent monitors in the region, there will be a complete void of information about any casualties or the state of shelters,’ said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director.
   Colombo, which has repeatedly turned down requests for international monitoring, accused Amnesty of acting with other international rights groups to promote the rebels’ cause.
   ‘They (rights groups) seem now to be single-mindedly or subtly pursuing an agenda suspiciously close to that of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,’ said Rajiva Wijesinghe, secretary to the human rights ministry.
   ‘More worryingly, given the support they get from some governments, they help to create the impression that there is uncertainty about whether the world really wants terrorism to be eradicated from Sri Lanka,’ Wijesinghe said.
   The United Nations announced it was pulling all its staff from the Tamil Tiger-held north this week after the government gave them two weeks to quit the area ahead of a major military showdown.
   Colombo wants to avoid troops being accused of killing aid workers in a repeat of the August 2006 massacre of 17 local employees of the French aid agency Action Against Hunger in the east of the island.
   Seven international aid agencies, including the World Food Programme, were providing emergency food assistance in Wanni, Amnesty said.
   The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, also expressed alarm Tuesday over escalating fighting and reminded the government and the LTTE of their obligations to ensure the safety of civilians.
   Aid officials have reported that about 134,000 people have been displaced from their homes as a result of the current wave of fighting inside rebel-held areas of northern Sri Lanka.
   The Tamil Tigers are fighting for autonomy in the island’s north. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives
   since 1972.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, on Tuesday launched an all-out effort to persuade the US Congress to approve an agreement to end a three-decade ban on nuclear trade with India this year.
   Rice went to Capitol Hill to call on House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Howard Berman, to discuss how to win congressional approval for the accord before the US president, George W Bush, leaves office on January 20.
   A spokesman for Pelosi said she Rice discussed the process for considering the agreement once it is submitted.
   ‘The speaker looks forward to reviewing the submission in detail and consulting with Chairman Berman and members of the leadership in determining the appropriate course of action,’ spokesman Nadeam Elshami said.
   With the Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, Pelosi and Berman, both from California, are key players in deciding whether US lawmakers will vote on the deal this year and hand Bush a foreign policy victory in his final months.
   ‘We think that there is a possibility of getting this passed this year and we are going to do everything we possibly can,’ said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. ‘Whether it does or not, it’s not going to be for lack of effort.’
   McCormack said Rice hoped to send the paperwork to Congress within the next two days.

The Malaysian prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, should consider handing over power to his deputy earlier than mid-2010 as planned, a key member of his cabinet said here Wednesday.
   The trade minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, said 2010 was too far away, and recent political setbacks by the ruling coalition should prompt the Malaysian leader to rethink his timetable.
   ‘I’m being very frank and open because I have no qualms about saying what I think is correct: 2010 is too long,’ said Muhyiddin, who is also the vice president of the United Malays National Organisation.
   UMNO leads the Barisan Nasional ruling coalition.
   Abdullah has faced repeated calls to quit since disastrous elections in March which saw the opposition dramatically increase its seats in parliament.
   He said he had struck an agreement with his deputy Najib Razak to hand over power but first wanted the opportunity to implement reforms and projects promised when he came to office five years ago.
   But Muhyiddin said that Abdullah and Barisan Nasional leaders should reconsider the timetable as there might not be enough time for the new leader to address the issues which have led to an erosion of support for the party.
   ‘Because of the shift in the support that we have been getting from many sections of the voters... there are some who say maybe the PM might have to rethink whether the dateline is tenable,’ Muhyiddin said.

A pledge by Pakistan and Afghanistan to work together to fight militants could build trust between the uneasy US allies, but differences in security strategies could undermine their efforts, analysts said.
   In a rare show of solidarity, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, attended the inauguration of Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, on Tuesday after his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, a staunch US ally, was forced to resign last month. Speaking at a news conference, both leaders later stressed their intention to work together against the militant threat.
   Relations between the neighbours have been severely strained in recent years by Afghan and US complaints that militants are operating out of sanctuaries in northwest Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun lands along the Afghan border.
   Pakistan says it is doing all it can to stop cross-border movement by militants. But it plays down the importance of the sanctuaries, saying the Afghan war is largely an Afghan problem.
   ‘Both governments are threatened by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. They say they want to cooperate. Now the question is how much they cooperate and how much they can address Karzai’s complaints,’ analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi said on Wednesday.
   The United States, apparently frustrated with growing cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, has stepped up its strikes on militants in Pakistan, infuriating Pakistanis many of whom are deeply opposed to the US campaign against militancy.
   Like Musharraf, Zardari is also seen as close to the United States. But Zardari as an elected civilian leader, will have to pay heed to the sentiments of the Pakistani people or risk his party’s rejection in the next parliamentary elections.

A crowded race kicked off Wednesday to be Japan’s next prime minister, with front-runner Taro Aso casting himself as the best person to fight a resurgent opposition in upcoming general elections.
   Five lawmakers submitted papers with the Liberal Democratic Party by Wednesday’s deadline to run in the September 22 ballot — the most since the long-dominant party started its current election system.
   Aso — a hawkish former foreign minister seen as cool on free-market reforms — was flanked by supporters at his kick-off rally at the LDP headquarters.
   ‘With general elections due to be held within a year, the crucial issue is who will fight the opposition,’ said Aso, the LDP secretary general who is making his fourth attempt for the top job.
   ‘We will have to make an appeal to voters in the entire nation that this country has underlying strengths,’ he said.
   ‘I hereby renew my determination to take the lead.’
   The next prime minister must call elections by September 2009 but some LDP lawmakers want snap polls to take advantage of the initial popularity of the new leader.
   A weekend poll showed the LDP with a narrow edge over the opposition among voters, whose support for the ruling party has grown since Fukuda resigned.
   Aso leads in polls on who would be the best prime minister, outpacing his LDP rivals and opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa.
   Fukuda abruptly quit last week after months of dismal approval ratings as Japan’s economy, the world’s second largest, falters. Fukuda also came under intense criticism for raising medical costs on elderly people.
   The opposition last year seized control of one house of parliament and is hopeful it can win a landmark general election victory against the LDP, which has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955.
   Aso, 67, has promised to focus on stimulating the economy, even by cutting taxes, rather than on trimming Japan’s public debt which is the highest among rich nations.

A young mother living in poverty killed her three young children by forcing them to drink a toilet cleaner solution before taking her own life, the Philippines press reported Wednesday.
   The 32-year-old mother was found by neighbours in the front room of her shack in a slum south of the capital Manila.
   She and her children, aged four, three and two, were rushed to hospital but all were pronounced dead. ‘There is a strong indication that the killings and suicide were triggered by extreme poverty,’ local police chief, Senior Inspector Raul Sandoval, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
   Sandoval said the dead woman’s husband was a labourer working in Manila and ‘would sometimes’ send 800 pesos (less than 20 dollars) home a month.
   It is estimated that 40 per cent of the Philippines’ 90 million population live on less than two dollars a day.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has suffered a stroke but is still able to run the country and will recover, South Korea’s intelligence agency told parliament Wednesday.
   Legislator Won Hye-Young quoted intelligence officials as telling a closed session that Kim had suffered a stroke or cerebral haemorrhage but is in ‘recoverable condition.’
   The 66-year-old is not fit enough for public activities but can speak without difficulty, Won quoted the National Intelligence Service officials as saying.

Russia threatened Wednesday to target planned US missile shield sites in Europe as tensions mounted over Georgia with the shooting of a policeman and discord over the remit of EU observers.
   General Nikolai Solovtsov, head of strategic missile forces, said if the United States set up installations in Central Europe the Kremlin would ensure that Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal remained effective.
   He criticised a lack of transparency in Washington’s plans and warned that its missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic and ‘other such objects’ could become ‘designated targets’ for inter-continental ballistic missiles.
   ‘We should be sure that the current and future strategic missile forces... are guaranteed to fulfil the task of strategic deterrence,’ he explained.
   Washington insists its shield — endorsed by all 26 NATO member states earlier this year — is to fend off potential missile attacks by what it calls ‘rogue states’, presumably such as Iran.
   Russia has long complained that the system is a security threat designed to undermine its nuclear deterrent. It has threatened retaliation against the Poles and Czechs, warning they could become a target for Russian attack.
   The issue has been brought into sharper focus against the backdrop of events in Georgia, where the US has accused Russia of seeking to redraw the map by brutally violating another country’s territorial integrity.
   Russia poured tanks and thousands of troops into its southern neighbour last month as it repelled a Georgian attempt to regain control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia from Moscow-backed separatists.
   The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, committed on Monday to pull all Russian troops back from Georgia — apart from the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia — within a month.
   Medvedev also pledged to allow 200 EU observers to join other international staff in monitoring the withdrawal and ensuring the truce.
   The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, ruled out Wednesday the possibility that European Union observers would be allowed into South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
   But in Brussels the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the observer mission ‘will be deployed with the spirit that it can deploy everywhere’, including the two rebel regions.
   Discord over Monday’s EU-brokered peace agreement coincided with news of the first major shooting incident in Georgia since the original August 12 ceasefire.
   Georgia’s interior ministry said a Georgian police post near the rebel region of South Ossetia had come under fire from a Russian checkpoint and that a policeman had died after being wounded in the head and throat.
   Russia has tightened control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia since the ceasefire, recognising them as independent states, establishing diplomatic relations and vowing to keep 7,600 troops there long-term.

Democrat Barack Obama late Tuesday launched a vitriolic attack on his Republican White House rivals’ reformist credentials, likening their promise of change to putting ‘lipstick on a pig.’
   ‘We’ve been talking about change when we were up in the polls and when we were down in the polls,’ Obama said as surveys suggested John McCain and Sarah Palin have overhauled his lead for the November 4 election.
   ‘The other side, suddenly, they’re saying ‘we’re for change too.’ Now think about it, these are the same folks that have been in charge for the last eight years,’ the Illinois senator told a crowd of 2,400 people in Lebanon, Virginia.
   ‘You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It’s still going to stink after eight years. We’ve had enough,’ he exclaimed to a standing ovation.
   The McCain campaign decried Obama’s language as the latest example of sexism thrown at the little-known politician vying to be America’s first female vice president.
   Former Republican Massachusetts governor Jane Swift said Obama was guilty of ‘disgraceful comments, comparing our vice presidential nominee, Governor Palin, to a pig.’
   ‘It’s clear to me — as I’m sure it will be to fair-minded Republicans, Democrats and independents across the country — that senator Obama owes governor Palin an apology,’ she told reporters.
   In accepting the party’s vice presidential nomination, Alaska governor Palin joked at the Republican convention last week that the only difference between a ‘hockey mom’ like herself and a pitbull was ‘lipstick.’
   The Obama campaign retorted that ‘lipstick on a pig’ was a well-worn phrase and, via senior adviser Anita Dunn, issued a stinging retort after spending days accusing McCain and Palin of playing fast and loose with the truth.
   ‘Enough is enough. The McCain campaign’s attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy — the same analogy that senator McCain himself used about senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan just last year,’ Dunn said in a statement.
   ‘This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonourable campaign John McCain has chosen to run,’ she said.

Iran demanded on Tuesday a ‘resolute and clear response’ from the United Nations to what it called dangerous threats against it by Israel, and said Tehran would not hesitate to respond to any attack.
   A letter from Iran’s UN ambassador Mohammad Khazaee to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, described comments by two Israeli ministers as ‘vicious threats ... in blatant violation of the most fundamental principles of international law.’
   Israel, which is thought to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, believes Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2010, a development it says would threaten the existence of the Jewish state.
   Khazaee said remarks attributed to the pensioners affairs minister, Rafi Eitan, by German magazine Der Spiegel this week ‘yet again put on display the aggressive and terrorist nature of the Israeli regime.’
   Der Spiegel quoted Eitan as saying in an interview that while the era of Israel hunting down former Nazi officials abroad was over, ‘that’s not to say that such operations are a thing of the past.’
   Asked to explain, he was quoted as saying, ‘It could very well be that a leader such as
   the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suddenly finds himself before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.’
   Last week, the defence minister, Ehud Barak, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television that Israel was serious about using ‘any option’ if diplomacy did not curb Iran’s nuclear programme.
   ‘These dangerous threats of resorting to criminal acts ... require a resolute and clear response on the part of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council,’ Khazaee said.

The torrent of damaging stories which have emerged in the days since Sarah Palin was tapped to be the Republican vice presidential nominee have done nothing to dampen the chants of ‘Sa-rah! Sa-rah!’ at rallies across the United States.
   Voters here care don’t seem to care about stories that she didn’t actually say ‘thanks but no thanks’ to that much-derided bridge to nowhere until after Congress had essentially killed it.
   Nor do they seem concerned by a Washington Post story describing how the advocate of slashing wasteful spending billed taxpayers for 312 days of meals and expenses when she spent the night at home. And the revelation that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and intends to keep the baby simply made her seem to many like more of a regular person whose family practices their anti-abortion beliefs.
   ‘She’s become my idol,’ Marty Wright, 65, said after waiting hours in the rain to hear Palin speak in Lebanon, Ohio Tuesday.
   ‘I was soaked to the skin and I’ve been out here long enough to dry,’ Wright said as she shook out a pink t-shirt with Palin and running mate John McCain’s name on it. ‘But it was worth it.’
   Instead of turning on Palin, the crowds have begun to boo the reporters who follow her on the campaign trail and shout ‘be fair’ and ‘tell the truth’ when they spot press badges and laptops.
   Republican strategist John Feehery acknowledged that facts are far less important than themes when it comes to shaping the opinion of voters in the remaining weeks leading up to the November 4 elections.
   ‘The more The New York Times and The Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there’s a bigger truth out there and the bigger truths are she’s new, she’s popular in Alaska and she is an insurgent,’ Feehery told The Washington Post.

Deadly Hurricane Ike churned toward Texas Wednesday after killing more than 100 people across the Caribbean, regaining strength after pulling away from Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico on a collision course with the US coast.
   ‘Ike is not in a hurry,’ the US National Hurricane Centre said, adding that the storm was still pounding western Cuba with high winds and heavy rains more than two days after making landfall.
   But unlike nearby Haiti, where hundreds were killed by a rapid succession of powerful tropical storms and hurricanes over the past month, only four Cubans were killed after some 2.2 million were moved to safer ground as a safety measure.
   At 1200 GMT Wednesday, Ike was about 145 miles north of the western tip of Cuba and moving at just eight miles per hour.
   The storm had strengthen slightly, with maximum sustained winds at 85 miles per hour, with higher gusts.

A powerful earthquake jolted southern Iran on Wednesday, killing four people on an island in strategic Gulf waters and destroying some buildings, officials and news reports said.
   The US Geological Survey said the 6.1 magnitude quake hit at 1100 GMT about 53 kilometres southwest of the port of Bandar Abbas, which is home to an oil refinery and the country’s main naval base.
   ‘So far, four people have been killed and 26 people have been injured,’ the head of the country’s emergency services, Abbas Hassani, was quoted as saying by state television. The deaths occurred on Qeshm island, which lies just of the Gulf coast from Bandar Abbas in the strategic oil route of the Strait of Hormuz.
   ‘So far we have been conducting rescue operations in about seven villages and we have no estimate of the damage,’ the television quoted head of the rescue mission of Iran’s Red Crescent, Ahmad Esfandiari, as saying.
   However, it was not immediately known if any oil facilities in the area were damaged or whether operations had been halted.