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An investigation has been launched into allegations that British soldiers tortured Iraqi civilians, Britain’s ministry of defence said.
   The announcement of the probe came after the Independent newspaper said 33 cases of alleged abuse had been reported, including claims of rape, the use of torture techniques and physical assault.
   The newspaper said the civilians claimed British soldiers in Iraq copied sexual and physical abuse from photographs taken at the notorious US-run Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad, which emerged in 2004.
   A legal letter was served on the ministry last
   week by a lawyer representing the Iraqis, the report said.
   Britain’s armed forces minister Bill Rammell said ‘formal investigations’ must be carried out ‘without judgments being made prematurely’.
   He added: ‘Over 120,000 British troops have served in Iraq and the vast, vast majority have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behaviour, displaying integrity and selfless commitment.
   ‘While there have been instances when individuals have behaved badly, only a tiny number of individuals have been shown to have fallen short of our high standards.
   ‘Allegations of this nature are taken very seriously, however allegations must not be taken as fact and formal investigations must be allowed to take their course without judgments being made prematurely.’
   In the letter to the ministry, reported in the newspaper, lawyer Phil Shiner said: ‘Given the history of the UK’s involvement in the development of these techniques alongside the US, it is deeply concerning that there appears to be strong similarities between instances of the use of sexual humiliation.’
   One claimant alleges he was raped by two British soldiers, while others say they were striped naked, abused and photographed between 2003 and 2007, the Independent reported.
   Female British soldiers are alleged to have taken part in the alleged incidents.
   Camp Bucca near Basra in southern Iraq, where British and US troops worked alongside each other, was named by the newspaper as one possible scene of the alleged abuse.

Rising sea levels caused by global warming could inundate up to 250,000 homes in Australia, according to a study released Saturday that warned airports, hospitals and power stations were at risk.
   The government’s ‘Climate Change Risks to Australia’s Coasts’ report found between 157,000 and 247,600 existing residential buildings were in danger of being flooded by 2100 if seas rose by 1.1 metres.
   Major ports and other crucial infrastructure were also vulnerable, said Climate Change Minister Penny Wong.
   ‘Sea-level rise, more intense cyclones and ocean acidification will potentially increase the capital and operating costs of ports quite significantly by mid-century,’ said Wong.
   ‘A number of airports are also located in low-lying areas in the coastal zone, and are at risk of inundation in the coming century,’ she added.
   Billed as the most comprehensive and scientifically-based look at the issue to date, the report found 120 ports, five power stations and substations and three water treatment plants were within 200 metres of the coast.
   The 1.1 metre rise was a ‘plausible’ estimate of likely sea-level elevation due to climate change, based on the most recently published scientific data, the report said.
   Sydney Airport, Australia’s largest and gateway to almost 32 million people a year, was particularly vulnerable because of its bayfront location, the report warned.
   ‘The combined effects of sea-level rise, storm surge and tidal action resulting in significant inundation ... could effectively close the airport,’ the report said.
   Wong said some of the changes flagged in the report were already happening and its findings could not be ignored.
   ‘This report highlights the need for planned, coordinated action to help manage the risks,’ Wong said.

Fierce combat and multiple deployments are taking a heavy psychological toll on US soldiers in Afghanistan, where one in five fighters at lower ranks suffer mental health problems, the army said on Friday.
   The findings, released as the president, Barack Obama, inched toward a decision to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, underscore the strain the wars there and in Iraq have had on the Army’s front-line soldiers.
   Rising suicide rates and a shooting spree last week by an Army psychiatrist at a base in Fort Hood, Texas, have raised new questions about the effects of combat stress and the state of the military’s mental health system.
   According to the Army’s latest mental health survey, soldiers said unit morale in Afghanistan had declined as the frequency of fighting had increased, suggesting record combat deaths and injuries were taking a heavy psychological toll.
   The survey found that some 21.4 per cent of lower-ranking enlisted male soldiers, the group that generally experiences the most combat time, had mental health problems defined by Army medical teams as anxiety, depression or acute stress. That compares to 23.4 per cent in 2007 and 10.4 per cent in 2005.
   Soldiers in Afghanistan with three or more deployments experienced higher rates of mental health and marital problems than those with fewer tours.
   In contrast, the mental heath of US forces in Iraq appeared to be improving as violence declined and the military prepared for a gradual withdrawal.
   The Army said it saw the lowest number of psychological problems among soldiers in Iraq since 2004. Some 13.3 per cent of junior fighters there reported anxiety, depression or acute stress in 2009, down from 18.8 per cent in 2007.
   But the percentage of soldiers with marital problems has increased every year since the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Army reported. According to the survey, more than 16 per cent of soldiers there reported plans to separate or divorce.
   ‘Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to face stress from multiple deployments,’ said Lieutenant General Eric Schoomaker, the Army Surgeon General. But he said soldiers were better prepared for the stress of combat than before.
   To try to improve troops’ morale and mental health in Afghanistan, Schoomaker said the Army was sending more mental health professionals to the combat zone.
   The Army plans to send 60 to 65 additional mental health providers, including psychologists and psychiatrists, to Afghanistan later this year, from about 43 now.
   The amount of ‘dwell time’ soldiers are given at home between deployments is an important factor in their mental health, the Army found.
   The Army’s stated goal is to give soldiers two years between deployments, but this has been cut short for many and could be limited further if security in Iraq and Afghanistan deteriorate and deployments are extended, officials said.
   There are currently 68,000 US troops and 42,000 allied forces in Afghanistan. Security permitting, the Pentagon says it plans to reduce the number of US troops in Iraq from the current 120,000 to around 50,000 next August.

A suicide bomber blew up his explosives-filled car Saturday at a police checkpoint in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 10 people, officials said.
   ‘At least 10 people have been killed and 25 others wounded,’ Peshawar district administration chief Sahibzada Anis said, adding that the bomber detonated when policemen asked him to stop for a search.
   The Peshawar police chief Liaqat Ali Khan said that two policemen were among the dead, in the second suicide bombing in the city in as many days.
   Malik Jehangir, in charge of the checkpoint, said policemen were checking vehicles when he saw a suspicious black car across the barrier and asked one of the policemen to go and check it.
   Live television footage showed a huge cloud of smoke above the Pushta Khara neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Peshawar, and the wreckage of several cars.
   Peshawar, on the edge of Pakistan’s tribal belt that is infested with al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, has increasingly become the favoured target for attacks by militants, particularly since the army launched an offensive in October.
   Early Friday a suicide attack in Peshawar devastated the three-storey provincial headquarters of the Inter Services Intelligence, which is heavily involved in Pakistan’s anti-terror fight.
   At least 17 people were killed and 39 others injured in that bombing, officials said. Taliban militants claimed responsibility.
   
   13 militants killed
   Pakistani troops killed 13 militants in two separate gunfights Saturday in the northwest Swat valley, officials said.
   Five militants were killed after a group of insurgents ambushed a military convoy near Totakan village, Malakand district administration chief Siraj Ahmed said. Eight more insurgents were killed during a search operation in thick forest near Mangaltan village, a local military spokesman said.

Billing himself America’s first ‘Pacific president’, Barack Obama on Saturday said the United States did not seek to ‘contain’ China and promised an engaged US role in charting Asia’s future.
   Obama also warned he would not be ‘cowed’ by North Korea’s nuclear sabre rattling, and repeatedly challenged regional leaders to wean themselves off lucrative US export markets to secure a ‘balanced’ global economic rebound.
   The president chose Japan, for half-a-century a bedrock US ally, to deliver his latest major speech framing a new foreign policy, invoking his upbringing in Indonesia and Hawaii to show he shared the region’s world view.
   ‘As America’s first Pacific president, I promise you that this Pacific nation will strengthen and sustain our leadership in this vitally important part of the world,’ Obama said on the second day of his debut Asian tour.
   His Tokyo remarks signalled yet another break with the foreign policy of ex-president George W Bush, who is accused by Obama aides of letting US ties with East Asia founder while waging war in Iraq and against global terrorism.
   Drawing an enthusiastic welcome from 1,500 people in Tokyo’s Suntory concert hall, Obama said he knew many in Asia wondered how Washington viewed China’s rise to prominence.
   ‘The United States does not seek to contain China, nor does a deeper relationship with China mean a weakening of our bilateral alliances,’ Obama said.
   ‘On the contrary, the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations.’ Just ahead of his first visit to China, Obama warned that he would not waver from raising human rights with Beijing but would do so without ‘rancour’.
   But he did not specifically mention Tibet, after criticism that he had avoided Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Washington recently so as not to anger leaders in Beijing.
   Some US critics have accused him of downplaying human rights concerns to win Beijing’s cooperation on geopolitical headaches like the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran.
   In Singapore Saturday, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, met for bilateral talks that China’s foreign ministry said covered climate change along with North Korea and Iran.
   Many Asian observers believe that the US immersion in bloody wars in Afghanistan and Iraq forced it to take its eye off dynamic Asia, leaving an opening for China to seize a more powerful regional role.
   Obama again called on North Korea to return to six-party talks on ending its nuclear program, but warned Washington would not be ‘cowed’ by threats from Pyongyang, following its detonation of a nuclear device earlier this year.
   As he pursues a tentative engagement strategy with Myanmar, Obama called on the junta to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi — though he stumbled over her name in an apparent sign of fatigue — in response to US outreach.

Fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra left Cambodia on Saturday, ending a contentious four-day visit that deepened a diplomatic crisis between the neighbours.
   Thaksin, who was toppled by a military coup in 2006 and is living abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption in Thailand, departed the tourist hub Siem Reap by private jet, Cambodia’s deputy cabinet minister Prak Sokhon confirmed.
   Officials would not disclose his destination. Thaksin has travelled widely since leaving Thailand for exile in August last year, but has based himself in Dubai, while continuing to have a major influence in politics in his homeland.
   His visit, to take up a new role as economic adviser to the Cambodian government, created a diplomatic storm between the already bickering nations.
   Bangkok was outraged by the appointment and ties plummeted further when Cambodia refused to extradite him to Thailand on the grounds that his graft conviction was politically motivated.
   Both countries recalled their respective ambassadors and Thaksin hit out at the Thai government during an economic lecture in the capital Phnom Penh, accusing Thai rulers of ‘false patriotism’.
   Before his morning departure, Thaksin chatted at a hotel with the Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, a close ally, and political supporters who had travelled from Thailand to meet him.
   Some 50 members of parliament from Thailand’s main pro-Thaksin party, Puea Thai, waved him off as his plane left the airport.
   Cambodia enflamed the row Thursday when it arrested a Thai man in Phnom Penh on charges of spying on Thaksin and expelled the first secretary to Thailand’s embassy.
   Thailand reciprocated, expelling Cambodia’s first secretary from Bangkok.

A disgraced former US congressman who stashed 90,000 dollars in his freezer was sentenced to 13 years in prison for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
   William Jefferson, a Democratic lawmaker who represented a district in the southern state of Louisiana that included part of New Orleans, was convicted in August on 11 of 16 counts, including bribery, money laundering and racketeering involving businesses in Africa.
   The 13-year prison sentence, far less than the 27 years recommended by prosecutors, is said to be the longest prison term ever for a US lawmaker convicted on charges of corruption.
   The previous record came in 2006, when former Republican congressman Randall ‘Duke’ Cunningham received a prison sentence of eight years and four months for accepting bribes from defence contractors.
   Jefferson, 62, was also ordered to forfeit more than 470,000 dollars in assets.
   ‘In a stunning betrayal of the public’s trust, former congressman Jefferson repeatedly used his public office for private gain,’ Principal deputy assistant attorney general Mythili Raman said in a statement.
   ‘The lengthy prison sentence imposed on Jefferson today is a stark reminder to all public officials that the consequences of accepting bribes can and will be severe.’
   US District Court Judge TS Ellis III handed down Jefferson’s sentence at an Alexandria, Virginia courtroom just outside Washington.
   ‘We expect to file an appeal at the appropriate time,’ Jefferson’s attorney Amy Jackson said. She declined to comment on the sentence.
   Following a six-week trial, the jury found that from 2000 to 2005, Jefferson used his post as a US lawmaker to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from oil, communications, sugar and other companies in Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sarah Palin has confirmed the bitter behind-the-scenes tensions within John McCain’s failed 2008 presidential campaign in excerpts from her upcoming memoir that emerged Friday.
   The Republican vice-presidential nominee says in her book that relations were strained with McCain aides over her disastrous television interview with CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric soon after her nomination to the ticket.
   The Couric interview became one of the defining moments of the campaign as Palin stumbled her way through an excruciating grilling that opponents and even conservatives said betrayed her lack of foreign policy credentials.
   In her book to be released next week — ‘Going Rogue: An American Life’ — Palin claims that she was strong-armed into the Couric interview by McCain campaign aide Nicolle Wallace.
   Wallace, Palin claimed, ‘seemed compelled to get me on the Katie bandwagon,’ adding Wallace told her the interview would give Couric ‘a career boost.’
   ‘She just has such low self-esteem,’ Nicolle said. She added that Katie was going through a tough time. ‘She just feels she can’t trust anybody.’
   ‘I was thinking, And this has to do with John McCain’s campaign how?’
   ‘Nicolle said, ‘She wants you to like her.’
   Palin also admitted to circumventing the McCain campaign staff in a bid to escape a ‘media blackout’ she claimed had been imposed on her.

A speeding train derailed in western India early Saturday killing at least nine people and injuring more than 80 others.
   Fifteen coaches of the New Delhi-bound train flew off tracks when its driver suddenly applied the brakes because of poor visibility in the region, said Vipin Kumar Pande, superintendent of police.
   The accident occurred near Banshkov, a village nearly 25 miles south of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state.
   A broken rail track pierced an air-conditioned coach and killed some of the passengers, Pande said.
   Rescuers used equipment to cut open some of the coaches to free trapped passengers, he said. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital.

Less than half of Britons believes that human activity is to blame for global warming, according to a poll carried out for The Times newspaper and published on Saturday.
   Only 41 per cent accept as an established scientific fact that global warming is taking place and is largely man-made.
   Almost a third, or 32 per cent, believe that the link is not yet proved; eight per cent say it is environmentalist propaganda to blame man and 15 per cent believe the world is not warming.

A majority 96 per cent of women feel unsafe to venture out alone in the national capital, reveals a survey conducted by an organisation committed to the cause of women.
   With sexual harassment in public places on rise in the national capital, areas like Chandni Chowk, Connaught Place, Karol Bagh and Rohini are deemed as the most unsafe localities for women.
   ‘If we as the citizens of India feel unsafe in Delhi, how can we make thousands of those coming from other nations during the 2010 Commonwealth Games feel safe and secure?’ Co-founder of Centre for Equity and Inclusion Sara Pilot said.
   ‘With the ‘Make Delhi Safe’ campaign, an initiative of our organisation along with the Delhi government, we aim at creating awareness and better preparedness towards making our city safe for us and our visitors,’ she added.

The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and four suspected co-plotters will be tried in a civilian court blocks from where al-Qaeda hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center, the US government announced.
   Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday that prosecutors would seek the death penalty against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects who are held at Guantanamo Bay but will be moved to a New York prison ahead of their trial.
   ‘After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September 11 will finally face justice,’ Holder said, without giving a date.
   ‘They will be brought to New York to answer to their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood.’
   Five more Guantanamo detainees, including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of plotting the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole destroyer off Yemen that killed 17 US sailors, will be tried before military commissions.

South Korea kept its military on high alert Saturday after North Korea vowed to take ‘merciless’ action following a naval clash four days earlier.
   ‘We remain on high alert for possible provocations by the North,’ a defence ministry spokesman said, while adding there had so far been no signs of any unusual movements by the North.
   The defence minister, Kim Tae-Young, said Friday the North might stage further military provocative acts in retaliation for Tuesday’s clash, which left a North Korean patrol boat in flames.
   Sources quoted by local media said one North Korean sailor was killed and three wounded in the brief but intensive exchange of fire.
   ‘We’re fully prepared for any provocative acts. We’ll keep a close watch on the North,’ Kim was quoted as telling Yonhap news agency.
   South Korea has sent a destroyer to reinforce the border area, and two extra patrol boats, but has said it does not want the clash, which was the first such skirmish in seven years, to damage relations.