Obama firm on Dalai Lama
meeting despite China warning |
US President Barack Obama intends
to go ahead with plans to meet the Dalai Lama despite warnings
from China not to, a White House spokesman has said.
Mr Obama told China's leaders last year in Beijing that he would
meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader, White House spokesman
Bill Burton said.
China has warned that ties with the US would be undermined if
the meeting takes place.

No date has been set but it is expected to take place later this
month.
"The president told China's leaders during his trip last year
that he would meet with the Dalai Lama and he intends to do so,"
White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters.
"The Dalai Lama is an internationally respected religious and
cultural leader and the president will meet with him in that
capacity," he said.
The comments came after Communist Party official Zhu Weiqun said
such a meeting would "threaten trust and co-operation" between
Beijing and Washington.
Relations between the world's largest and third-largest
economies have already been strained by trade disputes, US arms
sales to Taiwan and a row over internet censorship.
China, which took over Tibet in 1950, considers the Dalai Lama a
separatist and tries to isolate the spiritual leader by asking
foreign leaders not to see him.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising
against Chinese rule and has been living in India since then.
Mr Obama declined to see the Dalai Lama last year when he
visited the US, saying he would meet him later.
A White House spokesman said last month that the two men
intended to meet when the Tibetan monk visited Washington later
in February.
"If the US leader chooses to meet with the Dalai Lama at this
time, it will certainly threaten trust and co-operation between
China and the United States," said Mr Zhu, executive deputy
minister of the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work
Department. |
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Hamas: Talks on Shalit
and prisoner swap stopped |
Leading Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar has said
talks on swapping Palestinian prisoners for the captive Israeli soldier
Gilad Shalit have collapsed.
Late last year a German-mediated deal emerged in which hundreds of
Palestinian prisoners would be exchanged for Gilad Shalit.
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Zahar blamed Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu for the talks' failure.
Gilad Shalit was captured in a raid by Palestinian militants in 2006.
Speaking on the BBC's Hardtalk program, Mr Zahar maintained Prime Minister
Netanyahu pushed for stricter conditions for the release of several
high-profile Palestinian prisoners.
"As regarding negotiations, as of now the process has failed. The main
cause, well known to everybody, well known to the mediator, that after the
interference of the political element, after the appearance of Netanyahu
personally, there was a big regression and retraction. For this reason
negotiations have now stopped," he said.
Mr Zahar, one of the founders of Hamas, said the prospect for future talks
looked uncertain.
"We are looking to set free our people and also to give a chance for the
family of the Israeli soldier to live as a human being also. We demanded a
considerable number of prisoners, but the Israeli side, after hundreds of
rounds of talks, reached backward too much."
Sgt Shalit, 23, was captured in a raid into southern Israel by Palestinian
militants from Gaza, in 2006.
Hamas want hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, including senior
militant leaders that Israel holds responsible for the deaths of dozens of
Israeli citizens, to be freed in exchange for Sgt Shalit's release.
Israel holds about 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in jail on security grounds
- a major bone of contention with the Palestinians. |
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Israeli minister warns of
new war with Hezbollah |
TEL AVIV - Israel is heading toward a new war
with Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, a cabinet minister warned Saturday
in remarks carried by military radio and the Ynet news website.

"We are heading toward a new confrontation in the north but I don't know
when it will happen, just as we did not know when the second Lebanon war
would erupt," said Yossi Peled, a minister without portfolio and a reserve
army general.
He was referring to the devastating war Israel fought with Hezbollah in
2006, which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and
more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
However, Israeli flights over Lebanon occur on an almost daily basis and are
in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710, which in August 2006 ended
the war.
Hezbollah is part of a new coalition government formed in November by
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
"Although Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government, the latter has no
influence on it," Peled said.
"Unlike many others (officials) I consider that peace is not a goal in
itself but only a means to guarantee our existence," said Peled.
But in a statement issued on Saturday after Peled made his comments,
hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that "Israel does not
wish at all to have a confrontation with Lebanon."
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel on Friday against launching a
new war against Lebanon.
Nasrallah said that Israel was again beating the drums of war to try to
restore its military's reputation as an invincible regional force.
Hezbollah, originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli
occupation of south Lebanon, had forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon
in 2000. Israel, however, continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.
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Blair due at Iraq war
inquiry next week |
LONDON - Former prime minister Tony Blair will
give long-awaited testimony to Britain's Iraq war inquiry at the end of next
week on January 29, officials said Monday.

Blair, who controversially backed the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq alongside
president George W. Bush, will face a full day of questioning at the Chilcot
inquiry, according to an updated schedule on the probe's website.
The former premier has long been expected to be the star witness at the
inquiry, which was launched in November after the withdrawal of virtually
all of Britain's forces, six years after the invasion.
Last month Blair admitted in a television interview that he would have
backed the war even if he knew Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction
(WMD), triggering fresh criticism.
Blair, who quit as premier in 2007 and is now the Middle East Quartet's
envoy, told the BBC it would "still have been right to remove" Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein because of the threat he posed to the region.
Interest in Blair's appearance at the inquiry is intense: a public ballot
was held Monday for public seats at the hearings, and the lucky few will be
allowed into either the morning or afternoon sessions, but not both.
Blair stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Bush over the 2003 invasion, but faced
a major backlash in Britain over the decision.
He resigned as prime minister two and a half years ago despite having led
his Labor Party to three successive election wins, handing the role to his
finance minister Gordon Brown.
An Internet campaign has been launched for Blair to face tough questions
about why he took Britain into the unpopular war, amid criticisms the
inquiry panel has been too easy on some witnesses.
Also due to appear at the inquiry next week is Peter Goldsmith, the former
British attorney general who advised Blair on the legality of the war.
Two key ministers from the time of the Iraq war are due to appear this week:
then defense minister Geoff Hoon on Tuesday, and then foreign secretary Jack
Straw on Thursday.
Blair's chief of staff at the time, Jonathan Powell, was due to give
evidence later Monday.
His former chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell appeared before the inquiry
last week, and fiercely denied "sexing up" a dossier which claimed Iraq
could launch chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes.
In a defiant appearance, Campbell said that while the controversial document
could have been "clearer", he still defended "every single word" of it --
and the invasion itself.
Current Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- who Campbell said was one of the "key
ministers" Blair consulted in the run-up to war -- will appear after this
year's general election, expected in May.
Brown, who was Blair's finance minister at the time, insisted last week that
he has "nothing to hide" over the Iraq war.
Nearly one quarter of Britons want former prime minister Tony Blair to be
tried as a war criminal over the Iraq war, according to a poll published on
Sunday.
A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times newspaper found that 23 percent of those
surveyed think that Blair should face war crimes charges.
The weekly newspaper added that 52 percent believe that Blair deliberately
misled the country in the run-up to the 2003 war.
The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 is viewed by critics as an 'act of
aggression' that violated international law.
Subsequent US occupation policies caused the country to descend into almost
total chaos, bordering on civil war.
An estimated 1.3 million Iraqis have been killed in Iraq as a direct result
of the invasion, while millions more have fled the country. |
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Turkey, Lebanon slam Israeli 'terrorism' |
ANKARA - The prime ministers of Turkey and
Lebanon on Monday lashed out at Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace and
air strikes in Gaza, warning they were undermining prospects for peace in
the region.
"Attacks on Lebanon is terrorism itself... We have to stand shoulder by
shoulder against the enemy's plans... We have to stop Israel," visiting
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri told a press conference.
Lebanese anti-aircraft guns opened fire on four Israeli warplanes which were
violating its airspace at low altitude on Monday, the military said.
Hariri's counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country's once-flourishing
ties with Israel took a sharp downturn last year, said that Turkey "will
never stay silent" on Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace.
He slammed the Israeli over flights as "unacceptable action that threatens
global peace."
Erdogan also questioned a deadly Israeli air raid on the Gaza Strip Sunday.
"Is the Israeli government in favor of peace or not?... Gaza was bombed
again yesterday. Why?... There were no rocket attacks," Erdogan said.
"They (the Israelis) have disproportional capabilities and power and they
use them... They do not abide by UN resolutions... They say they will do
what they like. We can in no way approve of such an attitude," he said.
Israel's ties with Turkey, a key regional ally, were poisoned by its massive
offensive on Gaza last year, which prompted an unprecedented barrage of
criticism from Erdogan's government.
In October, Turkey excluded Israel from joint military drills and said ties
would continue to suffer unless Israel ends "the humanitarian tragedy" in
Gaza and revives peace talks with the Palestinians.
Erdogan also renewed criticism of pro-Israeli powers on Monday for
pressuring Iran on its nuclear activities while tolerating Israel,
considered the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power.
"We are against the development of nuclear weapons by any country in the
region," he said.
"Israel has nuclear weapons... Those who are cautioning Iran must also
caution Israel," he said.
"If we fail to display a fair attitude in this region, the problems will hit
not only the region, but will spread elsewhere as well. The unrest of the
Middle East is the unrest of the world," he said.
Hariri hailed Turkey's improving ties with Arab countries and increased
activism in peace efforts in the Middle East.
The two premiers witnessed the signing of an accord on visa-free travel
between their countries and other deals envisaging cooperation in the
military, agriculture and transport realms. |
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US plans for Mideast
peace deal in two years |
TEL AVIV - Washington is pushing a plan to
restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that foresees reaching a final deal
in two years and agreeing on permanent borders in nine months, a daily said
Monday.

Under the plan, the Israelis and Palestinians will immediately start final
status talks that were suspended during the Israeli war on Gaza a year ago,
Israel's Maariv newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources.
The paper said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was expected to press
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to agree to the plan during a meeting
later Monday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
There were no immediate comments on the report from Israeli, Palestinian,
Egyptian or US officials.
The Palestinians have demanded a full freeze on illegal Israeli settlement
activity on occupied territories before resuming negotiations.
Under the US plan, the two sides will first discuss the issue of permanent
borders, with a deadline of nine months for reaching an agreement, Maariv
said.
The idea is to have an agreement on borders before the expiry of an Israeli
moratorium on new illegal settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied
Palestinian West Bank, so Israel will start to build again only in those
settlements that will be inside its borders under the final status
agreement, it said.
Underlying the discussions will be the principle of a land swap that has
figured prominently in past peace negotiations -- Israel will keep its major
settlement blocks in the occupied West Bank and the Palestinians will get
land inside Israel in return.
"After reaching an agreement on borders, the sides will move on to discuss
the other core issues: (occupied) Jerusalem and (Palestinian) refugees,"
Maariv said.
To entice both sides to agree to the deal, Washington is preparing letters
of guarantee.
The Palestinians will get a letter guaranteeing that the two-year deadline
will be final, with no delay. "If no agreement is reached, the Palestinians
will request US backing for their demand to receive an area equal in size to
the territory under Arab rule prior to 1967," Maariv said.
The Israelis will receive a note ratifying a letter that former US president
George W. Bush wrote to then Israeli premier Ariel Sharon in 2004, in which
he said that a final status agreement will be based on the principle of land
swaps that will allow Israel to keep its major illegal settlement blocs.
Arab diplomats in Cairo said last week that US President Barack Obama's
administration was drafting letters of guarantee, but did not provide
details. |
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UN chief, HRW slam
Israeli blockade of Gaza |
JERUSALEM - Human Rights Watch on Saturday
accused Israel and Hamas of failing to take punitive action against members
of their own forces accused of atrocities during Israel’s war on Gaza a year
ago.

The New York-based rights group also criticized the Israeli blockade which
“created massive humanitarian need and prevented the reconstruction of
schools and homes” in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.
“Both Israel and Hamas have failed to punish those responsible for serious
violations during the fighting,” Fred Abrahams, HRW senior emergencies
researcher, said in a statement on the eve of the first anniversary of the
Gaza war.
“Some rocket attacks continue and the Israeli blockade of Gaza has prevented
basic reconstruction. The only things getting built in Gaza are desperation
and despair,” he was quoted as saying.
Human Rights Watch accused Israel of “drone-launched missile attacks that
killed 29 civilians, the killing of 11 civilians holding white flags, and
the use of white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas.”
It said the Jewish state’s forces also destroyed many unjustified targets
including farms, factories and much of Gaza’s water and sanitation network,
with most of it still unrepaired.
The democratically-elected movement Hamas and other armed Palestinian
resistance groups were accused of firing hundreds of rockets into populated
areas of Israel, and using the 22-day war as an excuse to kill and torture
political rivals.
“Israel has so far punished only one soldier, a sergeant, for wartime abuse,
sentencing him to seven and a half months in prison for stealing a credit
card,” said the statement.
“Human Rights Watch does not know of any investigations by Hamas authorities
in Gaza into laws-of-war or human rights violations during the fighting.”
Some 1,400 Palestinians (mainly civilians) and 13 Israelis were killed
during the conflict, which was brought to an end by a January 18 ceasefire.
Last week 16 rights groups including Amnesty International and Oxfam issued
a joint statement saying the world has “betrayed” civilians in the Gaza
Strip by failing to end the Israeli blockade of the enclave.
Gaza is still considered under illegal Israeli occupation. |
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Beirut blast kills at
least two people |
BEIRUT - At least two people were killed late
Saturday in a mysterious blast that shook southern Beirut, a security
official said.
"At least two people have been killed and a number of others injured in an
explosion in the southern suburbs" of Beirut, the official said.
"The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined," the official
added.
The two people killed were both Hamas members, a spokesman for the
democratically-elected Palestinian movement told Al-Arabiya television on
Sunday.
"The explosion in the southern suburbs resulted in the martyrdom of two
members of Hamas and wounded three other people," the spokesman, Ayman Taha,
said.
He added that "the circumstances of the explosion are unclear and it is too
early to name the party" responsible for it.
Lebanon's official National News Agency said that the blast was caused by
bombs placed under the car of a possible Hamas member, while Hezbollah's
Al-Manar TV station said it occurred in a Hamas office. |
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Hariri ends landmark Syria
visit |
DAMASCUS
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri called on Sunday for a
renewal of ties with Syria to the benefit of both states at the
end of a fence-mending visit to his country's former
powerbroker.

It was Hariri's first trip to Damascus since the 2005
assassination of his father, ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri -- a
killing that he and his US-backed allies in Beirut blamed on
Syria.
Regional commentators, including Lebanon's Hezbollah chief
Hassan Nasrallah, have hailed the visit as an ice-breaker and
step toward healing decades of turbulent ties between the two
neighbors.
"We want privileged, sincere and honest relations ... in the
interest of both countries and both peoples," the 39-year-old
premier told a news conference in Damascus at the end of the
landmark two-day visit.
"We want to build ties with Syria based on positive points," he
added, describing his visit during which he had three rounds of
private talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a
"historic".
Syria dominated its tiny neighbor for nearly three decades until
April 2005 when it pulled out its troops from Lebanon under
international and regional pressure, two months after the
assassination of Rafiq Hariri.
The two neighbors established diplomatic ties for the first time
last year, with Syria opening an embassy in Beirut, while
Lebanon opened its mission in Damascus in March.
The US- and Western-backed Hariri said his unity government,
which includes members of the Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah
coalition, wanted to take measures with Damascus to develop
these ties.
Assad is also "very attached to sincere relations based on
common understanding" between the two countries and spoke
"positively" of problems that still need to be resolved, Hariri
said.
Foremost is a plan to demarcate the porous border between the
two neighbors, he said.
Hariri, whose US- and Saudi-backed coalition clinched victory in
a general election over the Hezbollah-led alliance in June, said
Saudi Arabia "played an important role" in paving the way for
his visit to Syria.
But Hariri stressed that he did not discuss with Assad a UN-led
inquiry into his father's murder nor the Special Tribunal for
Lebanon that has been set up to try the suspected killers.
"The tribunal is doing its work and this is what everybody
wishes," he said.
A UN inquiry said it had evidence that Syrian and Lebanese
intelligence services at the time were linked to the killing,
but no charges have been brought.
Earlier this month, a Syrian court asked 25 prominent Lebanese,
including individuals close to Saad Hariri, to appear for
questioning over the murder.
Hariri and his US- and Western-backed allies have in the past
blamed Syria for the murder and for a string of subsequent
political assassinations in Lebanon. Damascus has denied any
involvement.
Commentators and ordinary Syrians, meanwhile, hailed Hariri's
visit to Syria.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said late Saturday that the
visit helped make the "atmosphere comfortable" between the two
countries, his office said in a statement.
Also on Saturday, Syrian presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban
told reporters: "There is no doubt that the ice has been broken
between the two sides."
For Khaled Amayri, a former Syrian soldier who served in Lebanon
said: "Hariri's visit is a sign of the depth of relations
between Syria and Lebanon that go a long way back."
Syria's official Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of the ruling
Baath Party, said in a front-page headline on Sunday: "Three
positive, honest, friendly hours ... break the ice and end the
negative phase of the past."
Samir Musalma, editor-in-chief of the government newspaper
Tishrin, agreed. "The past phase has been painful ... but that
does not mean we cannot move on," Musalma said. |
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CIA backed PA in torturing
Hamas prisoners |
LONDON - New allegations have
surfaced on US collaboration with the Palestinian Authority in
repressing opposition groups, The Guardian of London recently
reported.
The British daily reported that Palestinian security forces have
allegedly tortured Hamas supporters with the support of the CIA.
Anonymous Western diplomats' said the CIA appears to be
supervising the Palestinian security forces’ activities.
The US-PA cooperation emerged out of the Oslo accords in the
early 1990s.
In 2006, the Bush administration and the Palestinian Authority
tried to overthrow the Hamas-led government after Hamas won
Palestinian national elections. |
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Lebanon cabinet lands
parliament's vote of confidence |
BEIRUT, - Lebanon's parliament on
Thursday granted Prime Minister Saad Hariri's government its
vote of confidence by an overwhelming majority.
Hariri's 30-member government landed 122 out of a possible 128
votes after three days of debate over the cabinet's policy
statement, most notably on a clause that deals with weapons held
by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The vote also came prior to Hariri's upcoming visit to Syria, a
major backer of Hezbollah, for which no firm date has yet been
set.
Christian MPs and ministers of the Hariri-led parliamentary
majority voiced discontent over the clause, which states the
right of "Lebanon, its government, its people, its army and its
resistance" to liberate all Lebanese territory.
But they nonetheless granted the cabinet their votes on
Thursday.
Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006,
is commonly referred to as the resistance in Lebanon.
But Hezbollah, which has two ministers in cabinet, regularly
states its weapons are not open to discussion.
It argues its arms are necessary to protect the country against
any future aggression by Israel, which withdrew from southern
Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation.
Hariri's US- and Western-backed alliance defeated a
Hezbollah-led opposition supported by Syria and Iran in a June
vote.
But his national unity government did not see the light until
nearly five months later due to tense ties between the two
alliances' regional backers and disagreement on the distribution
of portfolios with his political rivals. |
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