TheState.com: World - Wire

Iran test-fires missiles in Persian Gulf

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:02 EDT

Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. or Israeli attack, state television reported.

Oil prices jumped on news of the missile tests, rising US$1.44 to US$137.48 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The military exercise was being conducted at the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about 40 percent of the world's oil passes. Iran has threatened to shut down traffic in the strait if attacked. It was not clear, however, whether the missile test also took place near the strait.

Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, said the exercise would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language," the TV report said.

Footage showed at least six missiles firing simultaneously, and said the barrage included a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which officials have said has a range of 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) and is armed with a 1-ton conventional warhead. The television report did not specify where the launch took place.

Attack outside US consulate in Turkey, 6 dead

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:46 EDT

Men armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left three attackers and three officers dead.

Turkish and U.S. officials called the shooting a terrorist attack. The U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Turkey's foreign ministry said security around all American diplomatic missions in Turkey had been increased.

Yavuz Erkut Yuksel, a bystander, told CNN-Turk television the attackers emerged from a vehicle and surprised the guard.

"One of them approached a policeman while hiding his gun and shot him in the head," Yuksel said.

Footage from a security camera at the site showed four armed and bearded men emerging from a car and killing a traffic policeman, then running toward a guard post some 50 yards away as other policemen fired back, the Dogan news agency reported.

Bush: 'Significant progress' on climate change

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:57 EDT

President Bush hailed the move by G-8 leaders to coalesce behind a strategy for a global climate-change accord, saying Wednesday "significant progress" was made. But environmentalists and the U.N.'s top climate official disputed his claims.

"I don't find the outcome very significant," Yvo de Boer, who head the United Nations-led global negotiations to forge a new climate change treaty, told The Associated Press in telephone interview from his home in the Netherlands.

De Boer said the summit's vague pledge to work toward slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 mentioned no baseline, did not appear to be legally binding and was open to vastly different interpretations. He praised China's President Hu Jintao for acknowledging that developing countries must act on climate change even if Beijing rejects specific national targets.

Environmentalists also argued the goal of cutting greenhouse gases by 50 percent did not go far enough and amounted to political window-dressing.

"To be meaningful and credible, a long-term goal must have a base year, it must be underpinned by ambitious midterm targets and actions," said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, who called the G-8 statement an "empty slogan."

US says 400 Afghan insurgents killed since April

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:01 EDT

A U.S. Marines commander said Wednesday his troops have killed 400 insurgents in southern Afghanistan since late April.

Col. Peter Petronzio, the commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said the figure came from the governor of the southern Helmand province, where his troops have been deployed since late April.

Some 2,200 U.S. Marines moved into the town of Garmser in Helmand province to clean the area of insurgents.

Helmand province is the world's largest opium poppy growing region, the main ingredient in heroin. It is also the area with the highest level of insurgent activity in the country.

After months of fighting around Garmser, Petronzio said the area is not yet secure but is more stable.

Russian aid arrives in NKorea

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:56 EDT

A shipment of Russian food aid arrived this week in North Korea, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the aid arrived Monday via train to the northwestern city of Sinuiju. There were no details on the amount of food sent, which KCNA said was to be delivered through the World Food Program.

The food "is a token of the friendly relations between the peoples of the two countries and an encouragement to the Korean people," KCNA aid.

Russia is one of the North's allies and a member of six-nation disarmament talks that aim to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programs.

The North also late last month began receiving food aid from the United States sent via ship, part of 500,000 tons of American assistance pledged to the impoverished country. North Korea's state media have not yet mentioned the arrival of the U.S. aid, but had previously reported on Washington's promised help.

China police kill 5 members of separatist group

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:27 EDT

Police shot and killed five members of an alleged radical Islamic separatist group in the far west of China as Beijing tightened security ahead of next month's Olympic Games, state media reported Wednesday.

Two members of the group were hospitalized following a police raid on a hideout in Urumqi, capital of the northwestern territory of Xinjiang, the Xinhua News Agency said. Eight others were arrested, it said.

Xinhua said the group, which included five women, brandished knives and swore to fight to the death after more than a dozen police officers surrounded their apartment.

"The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a 'holy war,'" Xinhua said.

Xinhua said the group was dedicated to establishing an independent Muslim state in Xinjiang and slaughtering members of China's majority Han ethnic group who have streamed into the region, 1,500 miles west of Beijing, since it was occupied by communist troops in 1949.

Developing economies don't back G-8 climate goal

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:07 EDT

A joint gathering of major developed and developing nations on Wednesday agreed that climate change was "one of the great global challenges of our time" and pledged to back a United Nations effort to conclude new climate pact by 2009. The major economies said they supported longterm and midterm goals for greenhouse-gas reductions, but endorsed no targets.

It came a day after the Group of Eight major industrial democracies set a goal of halving heat-trapping emissions that contribute to global warming by 2050.

The U.S.-led, 17-member group issued a final statement on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in northern Japan.

"We support a shared vision for long-term cooperative action, including a long-term global goal for emission reductions, that assures growth, prosperity, and other aspects of sustainable development," the expanded group said.

But the developing nations invited to the gathering were not ready to go as far as supporting the 50 percent reduction by 2050.

Group: Palestinians shorted by West Bank police

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:21 EDT

About one of every 12 Israeli police investigations into complaints of offenses against Palestinians in the West Bank resulted in indictments, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The group, Yesh Din, said its study raises questions about the ability of Israeli police in the West Bank to properly investigate harm done to Palestinians by Israeli civilians. Police questioned the group's methodology.

The group investigated 163 police files of complaints by Palestinians against Israeli citizens, mostly over the past four years, finding that indictments were handed down in only 13 cases - about 8 percent.

Israel is in charge of security in most of the West Bank, including in areas of tension between Jewish settlers and Palestinian residents. There are frequent reports of settlers harassing Palestinians, including beatings and property damage. In recent weeks activists have caught two such beatings in video recordings.

Danny Poleg, spokesman for the Israel's West Bank police force, questioned the focus on the 163 files.

Pope names new head of saint-making office

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:27 EDT

The Catholic Church's saint-making office has a new chief and is handling fast-track efforts that could lead to the canonization of Pope John Paul II.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed 70-year-old Monsignor Angelo Amato, the No. 2 in the Holy See's office safeguarding doctrinal orthodoxy, as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican said Wednesday.

John Paul died in 2005 after a nearly 27-year pontificate. Shortly afterward, Benedict put the Polish pope on the fast track for possible sainthood by waiving the customary five-year waiting period before work can begin to determine a candidate's suitability.

The current head, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, 76, has retired.

In addition, Benedict named a Spanish Jesuit theologian to replace Amato at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican watchdog body for doctrinal orthodoxy.

NATO sees jump in Pakistan attacks

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:37 EDT

Mortar and rocket attacks by militants in Pakistan across the border into Afghanistan have spiked in the last month and U.S. and NATO forces have been returning fire, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan said.

U.S. Gen. David D. McKiernan said he presumes that militants think they are safer because they are firing from Pakistani territory at U.S. and Afghan outposts.

"I'm not sure that's the case, that they're any safer, because we do return those fires," in coordination with Pakistan's military, said McKiernan, 57, who took command of the 40-nation NATO-led mission in early June.

The four-star general did not provide figures but said in an interview this week "there definitely has been an increase (in cross-border attacks) since I've been here in the last 30 days."

In one high-profile border incident, Pakistan says a June 10 U.S. airstrike killed 11 of its Frontier Corps troops. The U.S. says it was firing on anti-coalition forces that had attacked on the Afghan side of the border, then fled to the Pakistan side.

German ship captured off Somali coast is released

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:32 EDT

A German cargo ship held captive for 41 days off the coast of Somalia was released and all aboard were safe and unharmed, a shipping company said Wednesday. A Somali official said the pirates received a large ransom.

The Lehmann GmbH shipping company said the MV Lehmann Timber was sailing for a safe port on Wednesday, a day after the ship was freed. The captain and 15 crew members will be brought ashore and given medical checkups and allowed to rest, it said in a statement.

"The ship and its 15 crew members were released on Tuesday afternoon after pirates received a ransom of US$750,000," Ali Farah Warfa, the acting district commissioner of the Somali coastal town of Eyl, told The Associated Press by telephone.

He said the ransom came in by another ship and was paid to 18 pirates, most armed with AK-47s and heavy machine guns, in Eyl, a town 300 miles (500 kilometers) north of Mogadishu.

The ship's owners said they were "delighted that the incident has been resolved and that the crew are safe and well."

US says Iranian-sponsored attacks in Iraq falling

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:02 EDT

The number of rocket and mortar attacks in Iraq that can be linked to Iranian-sponsored fighters has fallen in recent weeks, the second-ranking American commander in Iraq said Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin attributed the decline mainly to inroads made by Iraqi security forces in choking off radical elements of Shiite militias in the southern cities of Basra and Amarah. Amarah purportedly is a hub for smuggling weapons to Iraqi Shiite extremists from Iran.

In an interview with three American reporters, Austin said he does not know whether the dropoff in attacks is an intentional gesture by Iran, which has strengthened its influence in Iraq since the war began five years ago.

"We can only judge by what we're seeing here on the ground," Austin said at his headquarters at the main U.S. military compound just west of Baghdad. "We have seen a decrease in the number of attacks."

Asked about reports Wednesday that Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles, Austin said he is not concerned that Iran might use such weapons to attack American or Iraqi forces inside Iraq. He said his focus remains on keeping up pressure on Iraqi insurgent groups and enabling Iraqi government forces to grow and improve.

44 suspected mafiosi arrested in Naples

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:11 EDT

Police in Naples say they have arrested 44 suspected mobsters in a crackdown on drug trafficking.

Police say the sweep on Wednesday followed the capture earlier this year of a convicted boss in the Camorra crime syndicate.

Investigators say the Camorra controls trafficking in drugs and arms in the Naples area as well as extortion and prostitution rackets.

Police said that the latest raids led to the confiscation of apartments, cars, motorcycles, farmland and companies worth nearly $480 million in total.

Text of President Bush's statement

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:26 EDT

A text of the statement that President Bush made at the conclusion of the G-8 summit Wednesday in Japan, as provided by the White House:

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THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. We've just finished our meetings here in Japan. I would call them very productive.

Our goal was to make progress in five key areas: confronting climate change, reinforcing our commitment to a successful Doha agreement, fighting disease in Africa, ensuring that the G8 nations are accountable for their commitments, and addressing the challenges of high food and energy prices. I'm pleased to report that we've had significant success in all of them.

On climate change, I want to thank the Prime Minister for hosting today's meeting of leaders from the world's major economies. In order to address climate change, all major economies must be at the table. And that's what took place today. The G8 expressed our desire to have a - a significant reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. We made it clear and the other nations agreed that they must also participate in an ambitious goal, with interim goals and interim plans to enable the world to successfully address climate change. And we made progress, significant progress, toward a comprehensive approach.

Somalia: UN agency driver killed

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:11 EDT

The U.N. food agency says Somali gunmen have shot and killed one of its drivers in southern Somalia.

The World Food Program says Ahmed Saalim is the fourth agency employee to be killed this year in Somalia.

The agency said Wednesday that Saalim was in a convoy carrying 664 US tons (602 metric tons) of relief food to the Bay and Bakool regions when he was caught in a gunfight at a checkpoint Monday.

Some 2.4 million Somalis rely on food aid, but aid workers increasingly face attacks like those that have killed the four World Food Program workers.

Gunmen also shot and killed the head of the U.N. development program on Sunday. The head of Somalia's U.N. refugee agency was kidnapped last month.

Mexico City police chief ousted

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:56 EDT

Mexico City's police chief and its top prosecutor were forced out of office on Tuesday following a botched nightclub raid that resulted in the deaths of 12 people, including a 13-year-old girl.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the resignation of Police Chief Joel Ortega was the first step in a plan to reconstruct the police force. Ortega had held the post since 2004, when he replaced Ebrard - who was fired in a different police scandal.

The mayor made the announcement shortly after Mexico City's Human Rights Commission presented a report alleging rampant misconduct by officials in the June 20 raid on the News Divine nightclub that it said "created a death trap."

City prosecutor Rodolfo Felix Cardenas offered to step down and later Tuesday he told a news conference that Ebrard had accepted his resignation. His replacement has not been announced.

A criminal investigation did not find evidence that Ortega had committed any crime, but he has been the target of harsh criticism.

Nuclear talks to focus on verification

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:56 EDT

The U.S. nuclear envoy said Wednesday that six-nation talks on disarmament that open Thursday will focus deciding how to verify North Korea's nuclear assets.

Christopher Hill noted that there is already some agreement on how the verification process will work, including exchanges of documents and conducting site visits, but other details still need to be worked out.

"Our hope is to produce a verification regime that will lay out the rules of the road for verification. Verification itself ... will take several weeks or even months, actually, but we need to agree on how verification will work," Hill told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

It will be the first time in nine months that representatives for all six countries involved in the disarmament negotiations will meet. Besides host China, the other nations are the U.S., Japan, Russia, and the two Koreas.

Talks have been on hold since October due to North Korea's failure to provide a complete list of its nuclear facilities. But on June 26, Pyongyang turned over a declaration of its nuclear assets then blew up a nuclear reactor's cooling tower to prove its commitment.

Iraq bomb kills 3 police officers, civilian

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:07 EDT

Iraqi police say a bomb in Fallujah has killed four police officers and one civilian.

A police official says 15 people also are injured after Wednesday morning's blast outside a bank in the one-time Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The injured includes an Iraqi television cameraman.

Police and a crowd gathered in the area after an explosion at 6:30 a.m. A second blast caused the casualties.

The police official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

4 killed in Lebanon clashes

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:16 EDT

Heavy fighting erupted Wednesday between government supporters and Hezbollah's allies in northern Lebanon, killing at least four people and shattering a fragile truce that lasted just two weeks, security officials said.

More than 50 people were wounded, including five Lebanese soldiers, in clashes the officials said began overnight when three hand grenades exploded in a street separating rival districts in Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city.

Automatic weapons fire and rocket-propelled grenades rattled for hours through the two neighborhoods - one Sunni Muslim comprised mainly of government supporters, and the other Alawite, a small offshoot of Shiite Islam, allied with Syria and the Lebanese opposition.

Security officials described the fighting and casualties on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.

The same neighborhoods say fighting last month in which nine people were killed and 44 wounded before government forces deployed.

Medvedev criticizes missile defense deal

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:11 EDT

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lashed out Wednesday at the United States over its plans for a missile shield in Europe, saying a U.S. deal to install part of the system in Czech Republic "deeply distresses" Moscow.

He vowed a response to the planned U.S. system but stopped short of specifying what kind.

A day earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry threatened a military response if the agreement U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed in the Czech Republic is ratified.

Medvedev echoed his predecessor Vladimir Putin's bitter tone on a topic at the center of strained ties with Washington. He suggested the U.S., instead of honestly addressing Russia's concerns, has been stringing it along with "halfhearted negotiations that have come to nothing."

The United States wants to place tracking radar in the Czech Republic and missile interceptors in Poland - two NATO nations formerly in the Soviet-controlled Warsaw Pact.