Bush : Outlines of Palestinian state can be defined by end of year

Washington (ANTARA News) - Even if Israeli and Palestinian leaders do not reach a peace deal by the end of 2008, there could be "an agreement on what a Palestinian state will look like," US President George W Bush told Israeli television.

"I`m optimistic that we can have the outlines of a state defined," he was quoted by DPA as telling Channel 2 News in an interview broadcast Sunday night. "I`m optimistic because I believe (Israeli) Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert and (Palestinian) President (Mahmoud) Abbas want to achieve this objective."

Olmert and Abbas pledged at the Annapolis conference in November to try reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement by the end of this year.

But negotiating teams from both sides who have met to try to start the talkss have so far made no progress.

Bush, who arrives Wednesday for a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian areas, said he thought the fact that he was "a known quantity" to Olmert and Abbas could prove a spur to progress.

"I believe the leaders know me, and I know them. ... They`re comfortable with me. ... Therefore, the question is, will they decide to make the effort necessary to get the deal done while I`m president. Maybe the next person won`t agree with the two-state solution, maybe the next person will take a while to get moving," he told interviewer Yonit Levi.

Bush said that Abbas, who is locked in political battle with the Hamas movement, which rejects a two-state solution to the conflict, had to be able to show gains from the diplomatic process with Israel.

"Abbas, who has agreed that Israel has a right to exist, must be able to say to his people, `Be for me, support me, and this is what can happen. If you follow the way of the terrorists and killers, this will never happen,`" Bush said.

Addressing the subject of Iran`s nuclear ambitions, Bush said that if he were Israeli, he would "take the words of the Iranian president very seriously," and said he did so as well.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, and Jerusalem regards Tehran`s nuclear programme as a prime strategic threat.

"Iran was a threat, and Iran is a threat," he said, and warned that if Tehran attacked Israel, "We will defend our ally - no ands, ifs or buts."

The Iranian issue is expected to figure prominently in Bush`s talks with Israeli leaders during his upcoming visit. (*)

President asks ministers to remain focused on tasks

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a plenary cabinet meeting here on Monday asked all his ministers, those with professional as well as political backgrounds, to remain focused on their respective tasks, a spokesman said.

"And all the ministers, those with professional as well as political backgrounds, declared their readiness to carry out their state duties properly in line with the president`s directives and guidelines," presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said.

Speaking at a press conference after the cabinet meeting at the presidential office here on Monday, Andi said the people should not be worried that with the 2009 general elections now only less than two years ahead, many cabinet ministers would not be able to function as they should because their attention would shift to preparations to face the poll.

Andi said the people should now not be worried because the administration would continue to run in the best possible way as the ministers had expressed their commitment to keep on performing their tasks properly.

A number of political observers had expressed worry that many ministers, especially those from political parties, might not be able to focus on their tasks as they would be preoccupied with preparations for the 2009 general elections.

Among those present at the cabinet meeting were former Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto and new TNI Chief General Djoko Santoso. On the occasion, the head of state gave Djoko Suyanto, the outgoing TNI chief, an opportunity to say farewell. The President also expressed his gratitude to Djoko Suyanto for his dedication and hard work during his tenure.

The transfer of duties from Marshal Djoko Suyanto to General Djoko Santoso is scheduled to take place at the TNI Headquarters in Cilangkap on Tuesday (Jan. 8).(*)

Copyright © 2008 ANTARA

Bhutto killed in suicide attack

Tragic end: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto speaks at a news conference in central London in this October 19, 2006 file photo. Picture: Reuters
RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN

Friday, December 28, 2007

PAKISTAN opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack yesterday, just two months after the former premier returned from exile for a political comeback.

Bhutto, a two-time former prime minister, had just addressed a campaign rally for next month's parliamentary elections when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the venue, killing her and at least 10 other people.

President Pervez Musharraf called on the country to stay peaceful "so that the evil designs of terrorists can be defeated," state television reported.

It said he chaired an emergency meeting with top officials "to consider all aspects of the tragic national incident."

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Bhutto had accused elements in the intelligence services of trying to kill her. She also said she had received death threats from Islamic militant groups including al-Qaeda.

Police officials said Bhutto succumbed to her injuries in hospital, but it was not immediately known if it was the gunshot wound that killed her.

There were unconfirmed reports that the attacker had also opened fire on her with a weapon before the explosion.

"It may have been pellets packed into the suicide bomber's vest that hit her," interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told AFP.

It was the second suicide attack at a Bhutto event since she had returned from exile in October, aiming to contest the elections, and comes amid an unprecedented wave of violence in the country.

The deadliest terror attack in Pakistan's history targetted her homecoming rally just hours after her return, leaving 139 people dead. After that attack, authorities repeatedly warned her they had information that Islamic militants were trying to kill her. Government offi-cials said President Pervez Musharraf had been privately told of her death.

The killing will deepen the political crisis in Pakistan, where Islamic militants have vowed to disrupt the vote and Musharraf's opponents — including Bhutto — accused him of planning to rig the result.

There have been more than 40 suicide attacks in Pakistan this year that have left at least 770 people dead.

Bhutto, educated at Oxford and Harvard, became the first female prime minister of a Muslim country when she took the helm in Pakistan in 1988. Her father, also a Pakistani prime minister, was hanged by the military in 1979 after being ousted from power.

Recalling how she stood at his grave, Bhutto once wrote: "At that moment I pledged to myself that I would not rest until democracy had returned to Pakistan."

A shaken Nawaz Sharif, Bhutto's main rival in the January 8 election, said he shared the grief of the entire nation and promised to take up her fight.

"I assure you that I will fight your war from now on," he told Bhutto's supporters, who were crying and wailing outside the hospital in the city of Rawalpindi.

AFP

Four killed in East Java`s landslides

Ngawi, East Java, Globalnews - Four people of a family were killed in a landslide triggered by rain in Polo hamlet, Hargosari village, Sine subdistrict, Ngawi district, East Java, early on Wednesday.

The four dead victims were identified as Suparman (40, husband), Suwarti (36, wife), Linda (10, daughter) and David (1.5, son).

Chief the Crime Affairs Unit of Ngawi`s Police, Adj. Comnr. Wayan Murtika said here on Wednesday that the incessant rain that fell since Tuesday had triggered the landslides which killed four residents.

"A family of four was trapped inside of their house when the mud slid down and buried them," he said.

In the meantime, floods also inundated hundreds of houses and cut off roads in Ngawi`s neighbouring districts of Madiun and Trenggalek.

In Madiun, incessant heavy rains triggered floods and cut off main roads. Floodwaters reaching a height of up to one meter submerged a number of neighborhoods such as Kelun, Kartoharjo, Rejomulyo, Kepatihan, Madiun Lor, Nambangan Kidul, and Gading.

"Floodwaters have continued to rise since this morning, and a number of houses have been submerged," Rudi Supriyanto, a local resident of Nambangan Kidul, Mangunhardjo subdistrict, said on Wednesday.

A number of school buildings in Madiun were also inundated forcing the students to stay at home.

"I was told by my teacher to go home because my school is flooded," Santi, a student of Nambangan Kidul 5 elementary school, said.

In the meantime, hundreds of houses at three villages in Trenggalek district, were under water on flooded after two days of torrential rain.

Although there was no further report on casualties and damages, the flood waters had covered some roads, cutting off land communications between Trenggalek and the nearby Ponorogo district.

Official said that as of Wednesday morning, flood waters in Sukorejo, Gondang, and Nglongsor villages had risen to about one meter high.

"The flood waters have inundated rice fields and hundreds of houses in those three villages," Difa, one of the flood victims at Gondang village, Tugu subdistrict, said.

Difa added that the floods this time had reminded him of flash floods and landslides which swept through villages in Trenggalek district in April 2006 which claimed 27 lives and destroyed thousands of houses. (Ant)

Turkish warplanes strike Northern Iraq: Iraqi official

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq- Turkish warplanes struck northern Iraq on Wednesday but inflicted no casualties in the latest in a series of small-scale strikes, a spokesman for Iraqi Kurdish security forces said.

Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, said the strike lasted about an hour in a mountainous border region of Dahuk province. (Sherko Raouf/Ross Colvin/Reuters)

Fun is serious for Asian elephants' struggle to survive

SURIN, Thailand- Sucking up sugarcane with their trunks and circling busy traffic roundabouts, the elephants that roam Thai towns at festival time seem as much at home in the city as in the forest.

Shows that feature elephants painting pictures, playing polo and whirling hoola hoops on their trunks have become an economic lifeline for more than a thousand domesticated elephants, who lost their incomes when Thailand banned logging in 1989.

But entertaining locals and tourists has become a life or death business for elephants and their keepers, explained Sam Fang, author of Thai Elephants: Tourism Ambassadors of Thailand.

"They had to cope with the ban on logging, and deforestation," Fang said. "First jobless, second no food. Wham!"

Tourism filled the gaps, he said.

"The better elephants got themselves a job as taxis. The intelligent elephants got themselves jobs as show elephants. The smarter ones became artists," he said jokingly.

Unlike larger African elephants, which have never been domesticated in large numbers, Asian elephants have worked closely with humans for millennia.

But this proximity has not helped protect Asia's pachyderms, who are endangered throughout their 13 range states, and ten times less numerous than their African cousins.

"The worst case scenario is that the global economy goes into a recession, tourist numbers plummet and, a large number have no gainful employment".(Gillian Murdoch/Megan Goldin/Reuters)

Pope says find time for God at Christmas

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict led the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas with a midnight mass on Tuesday, urging people to find time and space for God, the needy and the suffering.

Benedict, marking the third Christmas season of his reign, said a solemn mass for about 10,000 people inside St. Peter's Basilica on a chilly night. The ceremony was broadcast live to 42 countries.

Wearing gold and white vestments, the 80-year-old pontiff wove his sermon around today's significance of the birth of Jesus.

He said the fact that Jesus was born in a manger because there was no room for Mary and Joseph at the inn in Bethlehem had modern parallels.

"In some way, mankind is awaiting God, waiting for him to draw near. But when the moment comes, there is no room for him," he said.

"Man is so preoccupied with himself, he has such urgent need of all the space and all the time for his own things, that nothing remains for others -- for his neighbor, for the poor, for God. And the richer men become, the more they fill up all the space by themselves. And the less room there is for others."

The spirit of Christmas, the Pope said, should make everyone recognize the darkness of a world where many people were closed into themselves because they did not want to receive God or his message.

"Do we have time for our neighbor who is in need of a word from us, from me, or in need of my affection? For the sufferer who is in need of help? For the fugitive or the refugee who is seeking asylum? "Do we have time and space for God? Can he enter into our lives? Does he find room in us, or have we occupied all the available space in our thoughts, our actions, our lives for ourselves?" he said.

In the run-up to Christmas, the Pope several times urged Catholics to rediscover its religious significance, lamenting that the holiday had been dominated by materialism.

On Monday the Pope lit a peace candle and placed it at the window of his apartment overlooking St. Peter's Square as the Vatican's life-size nativity scene was unveiled to the public below.

Later on Tuesday, the Pope will deliver his traditional Christmas "Urbi et Orbi" ("to the city and the world") blessing from the basilica's central balcony. He was also due to deliver Christmas greetings in more than 60 languages.(Editing by Andrew Dobbie/ Reuter)