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The Scottish government on Thursday freed on compassionate grounds a Libyan jailed for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in the face of fierce US opposition.
   Abdel Basset Mohamed al-Megrahi, the only person to be convicted for the 1998 bombing of a US passenger jet that killed 270 people, has terminal prostate cancer.
   Doctors say he has less than three months to live and the Scottish justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, said Megrahi, 57, could return to Libya to die because Scottish law required that ‘justice be served but mercy be shown.’
   Megrahi ‘now faces justice from a higher power... he is going to die,’ MacAskill told a press conference.
   The gesture was immediately condemned by the US government.
   ‘The United States deeply regrets the decision by the Scottish Executive to release Abdel Basset Mohamed al-Megrahi,’ a White House statement said.
   ‘On this day, we extend our deepest sympathies to the families who live every day with the loss of their loved ones. We recognise the effects of such a loss weigh upon a family forever.’
   The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and US lawmakers and relatives of the American dead had also fiercely opposed the move.
   But in Tripoli, an official in the Libyan prime minister’s office said: ‘He is free and will arrive in Libya in a few hours.’
   The attack on Pan Am flight 103 which blew up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1998 was the worst terrorist attack committed in Britain.
   MacAskill has been considering three options in Megrahi’s case: transferring him to a Libyan jail, freeing him on compassionate grou-nds or keeping him in Gree-nock prison, near Glasgow.

Faced with rising rates of suicide and depression, the US Army plans mandatory training for the entire force designed to make soldiers emotionally ‘resilient.’
   With soldiers suffering under the strain of repeated combat tours, Army commanders have launched the unprecedented initiative to help troops better handle stress before it turns into a debilitating mental health crisis, officers said.
   Starting October 1, all active-duty, reserve and National Guard soldiers will be required to take a ‘resiliency’ test that will assess their emotional, spiritual and physical state.
   ‘How often do you feel that you lack friendship?’ and ‘How often do you feel left out?’ are among the 170 questions.
   The effort ‘seeks to educate soldiers to overcome hardships and adverse events, bounce back, and grow stronger in the process,’ the Army said in a summary of the ‘comprehensive soldier fitness programme.’
   The soldiers’ answers in the test will remain confidential and will have no influence on their careers, said Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum, who is overseeing the programme.
   ‘It is not intended to be a screening tool for anything,’ she said.
   The test results will be passed on to the soldier, who then must select a resiliency training course based on those results.
   ‘It was developed because we recognized that we really did not have a good preventive and strengthening model for psychological health,’ said Cornum.
   ‘It’s just a recognition that we spend an enormous amount of energy and resources on people after they’ve had some negative outcome, but we’re not doing anything deliberately as a preventive measure,’ she said.

A bomb attached to a bicycle ripped through a market in central Baghdad on Thursday, killing two people and adding to the carnage in the Iraqi capital a day after twin truck bombs left 95 people dead.
   Security and medical officials said at least 10 people were wounded in the blast in the market situated in the largely commercial Al-Rasheed street.
   Iraqi forces were on high alert Thursday after twin truck bombs killed 95 people and wounded almost 600 in Baghdad’s bloodiest day in 18 months.
   The prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, late Wednesday vowed to overhaul the country’s security while the foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, whose ministry compound was among the buildings targeted, said there had been ‘serious security breaches’.
   The explosions came just minutes apart outside government ministries while a car bombing and spate of mortar attacks added to the carnage in the capital, which has been under Iraqi security control since the US troops withdrew from towns and cities in the conflict-torn country at the end of June.
   Maliki met with his security and intelligence officials Wednesday during which a number of ‘important decisions and fast measures’ were agreed upon to sustain security and stability in Baghdad, his office said in a statement.

A senior Iranian MP served notice on Thursday that the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will face a tough battle to secure approval for his new cabinet, saying the assembly was likely to reject several proposed ministers.
   The outcome will be another test of how secure Ahmadinejad’s grip is on power in the major oil exporter after his June re-election led to street protests and political turmoil.
   The vice-speaker, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, a pragmatic conservative who has been critical of the hardline president in the past, suggested up to five members of Ahmadinejad’s 21-strong cabinet risked being voted down by parliament.
   The nominated ministers included current commerce minister, Massoud Mirkazemi, as the new oil minister, a key position since crude sales account for most state revenue. He is seen as an Ahmadinejad ally but has little known oil industry experience.
   Parliament must approve the nominees and Ahmadinejad may get a rough ride from conservatives who dominate the assembly, as well as from moderate foes who see his government as illegitimate.

Americans are turning against the war in Afghanistan and oppose to sending more US troops, a poll showed Wednesday ahead of pivotal Afghan elections.
   The survey results showed the US public support sliding for a war that the president, Barack Obama, has defended as a top priority and amid speculation that the top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, will request more troops.
   Asked if the war has been worth fighting, 51 per cent said it was not, while 47 per cent endorsed the mission, according to the Washington Post-ABC News poll.
   In July, a narrow majority backed the war as worthwhile.
   Only 24 per cent said more US forces should be deployed, while 27 per cent said the troop levels should be kept the same and 45 per cent said the troop commitment should be reduced. In a January survey, only 29 per cent said the number of troops should be cut back.
   It was the second poll this month that revealed public support for the war fraying.
   In a CNN-Opinion Research Corporation survey released earlier this month, 54 per cent opposed the US-led fight, with only 41 per cent in favour.
   Public unease has been reflected in Congress, where some of Obama’s fellow Democrats have voiced worries about the open-ended US commitment.
   In a speech before veterans on Monday, Obama defended the war as a necessity that was ‘fundamental’ to the defence of the American people in depriving al-Qaeda of a safe-haven to plot follow on attacks to the strikes of September 11, 2001.
   But he warned it would be a difficult fight and that there would no ‘easy’ victory. Despite signs of public anxiety, a majority of 60 per cent approve of how Obama has handled the war, while 33 per cent disapproved, the Washington Post poll said.
   With millions of Afghan voters due to elect a president for just the second time in the country’s history, most Americans had doubts that Thursday’s elections would result in an effective Afghan government.
   Only 31 per cent said they were confident that the vote would produce a government that could rule effectively while a 64 per cent majority said they were not confident of such an outcome.
   Opinion was divided as to whether the United States was winning the war, with 42 per cent saying Washington was winning while 36 per cent said the US was losing.
   In a potentially worrying sign for the US president, opposition to the war has grown among those who form his core of support — liberals and Democrats, the survey said.
   Nearly two-thirds of staunch Democrats now feel ‘strongly’ that the war was not worth fighting, it said.

Pakistan Taliban commander says he has taken over the militant leadership, but analysts Thursday said the claim simply exposed deep rifts after the reported death of leader Baitullah Mehsud.
   American and Pakistani officials believe Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Mehsud was killed earlier this month in a missile attack by US drone aircraft in the lawless northwest tribal belt near the Afghan border.
   Government officials have said the death of the al-Qaeda-linked warlord plunged the TTP into disarray, with factions opening up as different commanders vied to lead the militia blamed for hundreds of deaths across Pakistan.
   Late Wednesday, an apparent successor emerged — TTP deputy and battle-hardened former teacher Maulvi Faqir Mohammad — but analysts said the claim was another sign of infighting, not unity.
   ‘Baitullah Mehsud is alive but he is seriously ill. In his absence I announce, as vice-president of the TTP, the takeover of his leadership,’ 48-year-old Mohammad told the agency by telephone from an undisclosed location.
   He said two other senior Taliban leaders reportedly competing for the top post — Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur Rehman — had endorsed his leadership.
   Neither militant was available for comment Thursday, however, and analysts said Mohammad’s proclamation should be treated as an assertion of power as the succession battle raged on, rather than a concrete appointment.
   ‘There is obviously a power struggle going on,’ said analyst and newspaper columnist Shafqat Mahmood. ‘I don’t think that in actual fact he would have control over the Taliban movement, whatever is left of it.’
   ‘He (Mohammad) was number two and now that Baitullah Mehsud is dead he believes that he by rights should succeed him, but it is nothing more than a formal claim,’ he added.
   Mahmood said that Mohammad hailed from Bajaur tribal district rather than the Mehsud heartland of South Waziristan, and would therefore be unlikely to count on the support of the fighters loyal to the feared warlord.

Senior Asian officials met in Indonesia on Thursday to discuss issuing an unprecedented call for amnesty for Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, Indonesia’s foreign ministry said.
   The officials from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar, were considering a ‘joint appeal’ for Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest, ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.
   The appeal could be in the form of a letter to the Myanmar junta, which recently extended the Nobel Peace laureate’s confinement for 18 months after a trial widely seen as a sham.
   ‘From what I remember, this would be the first such joint appeal for amnesty,’ Faizasyah said.
   ‘We don’t know what form it will take. It could be in the form of letter to Myanmar, but they will have to discuss this.’
   Any such appeal would signal a toughening of the bloc’s attitude toward the junta and would be a significant departure from ASEAN’s much-criticised principle of non-interference in members’ internal affairs, analysts said.
   ‘To my knowledge, this is a first for ASEAN. The effort is unusual and a step forward,’ Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman Simon Tay said.
   ‘They will not expel Myanmar or sanction it — not yet — but they will not sit impassively if the regime continues to act in this manner... If followed up, and the regime does respond, it can signal a diplomatic opening.’
   
   Myanmar junta urges
   West to lift sanctions
   Army-ruled Myanmar urged Western countries on Thursday to lift economic sanctions and allow the country to modernise and achieve its democratic goals, reports Reuters/Bdnews24.com .
   A commentary in three official newspapers, which serve as mouthpieces for the reclusive junta, praised ‘visionary’ United States officials who were critical of sanctions, which it said would not bring the downfall of the government.
   ‘The more anti-government groups exercise economic sanctions as a means to put pressure on the government, the further the goal of democracy aspired by the people will divert from its route,’ the newspapers said.

The CIA hired the security firm Blackwater in 2004 as part of its secret programme to find and kill al-Qaeda leaders, the US media said Thursday, citing current and former intelligence officials.
   The programme, on which the Central Intelligence Agency spent several million dollars, was cut before launching any missions and the hiring of an outside company was a major reason that CIA director Leon Panetta moved to cancel it, the New York Times said.
   Shortly after learning about the effort in June, Panetta pulled the plug and briefed lawmakers on details of the programme, of which they had not been informed since 2001.
   Citing government officials, the Times said the CIA had separate agreements with top Blackwater executives for the outsourcing, as opposed to a formal contract with the whole firm.
   The State Department cut ties with Blackwater following ongoing allegations of abuse in Iraq. The North Carolina-based company renamed itself Xe after the Iraq government banned it in January over the killings in Baghdad’s Nisur Square on September 16, 2007.
   It had been given ‘operational responsibility’ for the targeting programme, according to the Washington Post, which noted the covert effort was cancelled before any missions were conducted.
   Before the programme was cut, however, the private security firm had already been awarded ‘millions of dollars for training and weaponry,’ according to the Post.

North Korea struck a conciliatory note Thursday after months of hostility, holding talks in the United States and announcing plans to ease border restrictions.
   The North’s military has said it will remove cross-border restrictions as of Friday, the South’s unification ministry said.
   North Korea also promised to restore temporarily a telephone hotline manned by the Red Cross which the neighbours used to communicate before it was axed last November, the ministry said.
   Official media in the nuclear-armed North also said Kim Ki-Nam, a secretary of the ruling Communist Party, would head a team that will visit Seoul to pay tribute to pioneering South Korean ex-president Kim Dae-Jung, who died Tuesday.
   In New Mexico, diplomats from the North’s United Nations mission held talks with state governor Bill Richardson, a veteran of negotiations with Pyongyang in the 1990s.
   Richardson said Wednesday he had ‘productive’ discussions.
   ‘The delegation indicated that North Korea is ready for a new dialogue with the United States regarding the nuclear issue,’ he said in a statement half-way through two days of talks.
   But Richardson said Pyongyang clearly wants bilateral discussions and not the six-party framework which also includes South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
   The US government has said bilateral talks are possible but only within the six-party framework. It says it is not involved in the New Mexico meeting.
   The North quit the multinational forum and vowed to restart a plutonium-producing programme in April after the UN Security Council censured its long-range rocket launch.

The United States on Wednesday renewed its call for Sri Lanka to release more than 250,000 Tamil war refugees from their camps, warning of the potential for disease.
   Heavy rains this week flooded nearly 2,000 makeshift shelters in the camps, where people displaced by war have been detained since the government in mid-May crushed the leadership of the Tamil Tiger rebels.
   ‘Involuntary confinement is especially a source of concern given the recent rains and given the coming of the monsoon season,’ said Eric Schwartz, the US assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.
   ‘It makes it all the more important that release from confinement be an issue that friends of Sri Lanka continue to raise,’ he told reporters.

Soldiers scrape mud from houses under the scorching sun and pile sand bags on the river bank — in case the floods return — in Taiwan’s first steps toward recovery after Typhoon Morakot.
   As the government orders an all-out effort to help typhoon survivors rebuild their homes after the floods and mudslides, here on the bank of the Chiwei River the massive reconstruction challenges are clear.
   Despite the army’s round-the-clock effort, the town of Chishan in southern Kaohsiung county, one of the worst hit areas, remains an expanse of grey mud.
   ‘The soldiers were told to clean up this place in a few days,’ one resident said, surveying the damage. ‘It’s going to be a challenge.’
   The floods or mudslides damaged more than 136,400 households, according emergency officials.

US life expectancy is the highest it has ever been at 77.9 years, according to government statistics released on Wednesday.
   Both men and women gained, but women still live on average more than five years longer than men, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
   Death rates also fell, with the age-adjusted death rate dropping to 760.3 deaths per 100,000 people.
   ‘The 2007 increase in life expectancy, up from 77.7 in 2006, represents a continuation of a trend,’ the CDC said in a statement. ‘Over a decade, life expectancy has increased 1.4 years from 76.5 years in 1997 to 77.9 in 2007.’
   Newborn baby boys can expect to live to be 75 on average and girls can expect to be 80.
   ‘For the first time, life expectancy for black males reached 70 years,’ the CDC said. Overall, 2,423,995 people died in the United States in 2007, 2,269 fewer than in 2006.
   Most Americans die of heart disease or cancer — they accounted for 48.5 per cent of all deaths in 2007. Death rates fell slightly for influenza and pneumonia, murder and accidents.

A model who will be caned six times in Malaysia next week for drinking beer appealed Thursday for her punishment to be carried out in public to deter other Muslims.
   Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, was also fined 5,000 ringgit (1,400 dollars) last month after she pleaded guilty to drinking alcohol at a hotel nightclub in the eastern state of Pahang last year.
   She will be the first woman in the multicultural country to be caned under Islamic law, with the punishment set to be meted out in a female prison.
   But the Malaysian mother of two, who lives in neighbouring Singapore, said Thursday that she wanted to be caned publicly.

Japan’s opposition Democratic Party may be headed for a landslide election victory, trouncing the conservative party that has ruled for most of the past half-century, a leading newspaper said on Thursday.
   The Democrats could win 300 of the 480 seats in parliament’s lower house while the long-ruling Liberal Democrats may see their strength halved to around 150 seats, said the Asahi newspaper, based on a detailed survey of electoral districts ahead of the August 30 poll.
   But the paper also said around 30 to 40 per cent of voters in its survey of electoral districts had not revealed how they would vote while 25 per cent might change their minds, so results could shift significantly in the final days.
   Opinion polls have consistently shown the Democrats well ahead of the business-friendly Liberal Democratic Party, raising the prospect the LDP — whose once-mighty political machine has been weakened by social and economic changes — will lose power for only the second time in its 54-year history.

A fresh offensive by pro-government forces against extremist Shebab fighters killed at least 21 people, mainly combatants, on Thursday in central Somalia, officials and witnesses said.
   Pro-government forces launched an attack on the town of Bulobarde, which is located some 200 kilometres north of Mogadishu and was previously controlled by the Shebab, an al-Qaeda-inspired organisation.
   Several local residents and officials said they had counted at least 21 bodies and said that the fighting was ongoing.
   ‘They attacked us this morning with a large army but they sheepishly retreated and many of their fighters are strewn in the street now,’ Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim, a local Shebab commander, told AFP by phone from the town.
   ‘There is still some sporadic fighting in some parts of the town and we have counted at least 21 dead. The terrorists have suffered great losses in the battle today,’ said Colonel Adan Yusuf Mohamed, a Somali government military leader in the region.