Review Nepal's participation in UN peace keeping: Amnesty Intl

KATHMANDU, Feb 12 (UNI) At a time when army has been mobilised to suppress the peaceful demonstration in Nepal, Amnesty International has called the international community to review the participation of Nepalese soldiers in the UN peace keeping force.

"The international community should review Nepal's participation in peacekeeping operations abroad, given the Nepali Army's poor human rights record at home," London based international human rights watchdog said in a report yesterday.

Amnesty International reiterated its request of February 2005 and called on those foreign governments that continue to supply weapons to Nepal to impose an arembargo until the human rights situation has significantly improved.

"Over a decade of conflict, we have seen the human rights situation steadily worsen, with increasing numbers of civilian killings and injuries and, for a time, the highest number of reported 'disappearances' in the world," Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan said.

Amnesty International reiterated its call to the Nepali government to ensure its security forces are not allowed to get away with killings and other abuses.

Perpetrators must be prosecuted and their victiallowed justice.

The organisation also called on the Maoists to take all possible measures to ensure that civilians are never harmed.

"The international community has a critical role to play in preventing further deterioration of the human rights situation," Khan said.

"They need to continue to pressurise the government to respect human rights and to meet their obligations under international law - including by restoring basic freedosuch as the right to peacefully demonstrate," Khan said.

"It would be easy for this conflict to slip off the political agenda given how long it has been going on, but for the sake of the people of Nepal for whom it is a daily tragic reality, the world must remain engaged and keep up the pressure on the government and the Maoists," Khan added.

Iraq's ruling Shi'ites choose Jaafari as PM BAGHDAD, Feb 12 (Reuters): Iraq's ruling Shi'ite bloc voted today to nominate incumbent Ibrahim al-Jaafari as candidate for prime minister in the first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein, an alliance official said.

Jaafari won by a single vote an United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) vote, Sami al-Askari told Reuters, after weeks of wrangling that has delayed the start of talks for the formation of a new Iraqi government nearly two months after elections.

The UIA had been expected to nominate Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi as prime minister yesterday but was unable to reach a consensus.

As the party with the biggest bloc in parliament after winning 128 of the 275 seats, the alliance will be asked by the next president to name a prime minister, to be approved by a simple parliamentary majority, under the Iraqi constitution.

But the alliance, beset by rivalries, had been unable to agree on a nominee, holding up the formation of the government.

The failure of yesterday's talks dashed expectations that Abdul Mahdi, a leader in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), would stand as the alliance's candidate and ease what appears to be an internal crisis.

The alliance chose the prime minister by simple majority vote, with Jaafari, a top leader of the Dawa party, winning 64 votes to Abdul Mahdi's 63.

Jaafari supporters celebrated outside the heavily guarded SCIRI headquarters in Baghdad as the news leaked out.

Iran minister plays down president's nuclear NPT warning TEHRAN, Feb 12 (Reuters): - Iran's Foreign Ministry today played down a threat by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the country feels it is coming under unfair pressure.

"The NPT is an international commitment and we are committed to that," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

Ahmadinejad told a rally in Tehran yesterday Iran might review its commitment to the NPT if the West used the treaty to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran had ordered resumption of uranium enrichment activities in its Natanz facility, in defiance of world pressure to give it up.

But he too, said Iran would continue to respect the treaty.

"We have informed the IAEA about the order.

Iran's peaceful activities will continue based on the NPT," Mottaki told the students news agency ISNA.

Asefi told the news conference a date had yet to be set for the resumption of activities at Natanz.

We will act based on our responsibilities within the framework of the NPT and the safeguards agreement," he said.

Western countries have successfully pushed for Iran to be reported to the UN Security Council for failing to convince the world its atomic programme has exclusively peaceful aims.

Iran insists it has no intention of building nuclear arms, as the West suspects, and merely wants to harness nuclear energy to meet the country's growing electricity demand.

Asefi called on the West to resume talks over the country's disputed nuclear work.

"The current issue should be resolved through negotiations and the existing regulations," said Asefi.

Some hardline commentators in Iran, who are fiercely opposed to Western interference in the country's affairs, have suggested that Iran should pull out of the NPT.

"The best and only solution for Iran is to withdraw from the NPT," said Hussein Shariatmadari, chief editor of the Kayhan newspaper.

Khaleda Zia leaves for Pakistan on three day official visit DHAKA, Feb 12 (UNI)Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left here today on a three-day official visit to Pakistan trade and economic cooperation on top of her agenda and talks with her Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz.

A VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying Begum Zia took off from Zia International Airport at 1400 hrs for Islamabad.

Cabinet Ministers, including Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman and LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, PM's political secretary Harris Chowdhury, Mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka MP, State Minister for Home Affairs Luthfozzaman Babar and Foreign Affairs Advisor Reaz Rahman saw the Prime Minister off at the VVIP tarmac.

Chiefs of three services, Dean of Diplomatic Corps Saudi Ambassador Abdullah Al-Obaid Al-Namlah, Pakistan's acting High Commissioner in Dhaka Shahid MG Kiani and senior civil and military officials were also present.

Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Agriculture Minister MK Anwar are in the 43-member entourage of the Prime Minister.

Talks between the Bangladesh and Pakistani Prime Minister to be held tomorrow will focus on expanding coperation in trade, investment, agriculture, tourism, communications, education and cultural sectors.

Dhaka will seek duty-free access of 73 iteunder nine categories to Pakistani market.

Longstanding issue of repatriation of some 250,000 stranded Pakistanis and apportionment of pre-independence assets will also figure in the official talks.

Dhaka and Islamabad will sign three accords for expanding bilateral cooperation in agriculture, tourism and export promotion.

In the last fiscal year, Bangladesh imported goods worth 138.63 million dollars from Pakistan while its exports fetched a paltry 63 million dollars Khaleda Zia, chairperson of SAARC, will also exchange views with Pakistani leaders on implementation of the decisions taken at the 13th SAARC summit here in November last year.

Prime Minister Zia will call on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday and exchange views on bilateral, regional and international issues of common concern.

Last time Begum Zia visited Islamabad in January 2004 to attend the 12th SAARC summit.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to return home on Tuesday night.

Saddam Hussein to start hunger strike - lawyers BAGHDAD, Feb 12 (Reuters): Saddam Hussein and the sevenco-defendants in his trial are to start a hunger strike tomorrow the former Iraqi president's defence team said today, citing sources inside the detention centre where they are being held.

"Saddam and his followers will start a hunger strike from tomorrow, protesting the illegitimate procedures and bad treatment by the court," Khamis al-Aubeidi, a leading member of Saddam's defence team, told Reuters.

Iraqi gunmen kidnap Iranian pilgrims, kill one TIKRIT, Iraq, Feb 12 (Reuters) Gunmen abducted 11 Iranian pilgrims, killing one and their Iraqi driver before releasing three women in the group, one of the freed women said today.

The Shi'ite pilgriwere abducted on Friday after visiting the Imam Ali al-Hadi shrine in Samarra, 100 km north of Baghdad, Maliha Abdul Wahab, 35, told a news briefing called by the governor of Salahaddin province.

Wahab said seven gunmen stopped their car on the road between Samarra and Baghdad, forced them out of the vehicle and handcuffed the men in the group.

She said one pilgrim was shot dead after an altercation with the kidnappers, and when the Iraqi driver tried to intervene he was killed as well.

"I recognised two of the gunmen.

I saw them during our praying in Ali al-Hadi," Wahab said.

She and the two other women in the group were freed in a deserted area yesterday, where they were found by an Iraqi army patrol.

Her husband and brother were among the pilgrims, she said.

The Iraqi army earlier said the kidnapping had taken place yesterday and that 12 pilgriwere involved.

Britain investigates video of Iraq soldier abuse LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters) Britain said it was investigating new allegations of abuse by its soldiers in Iraq today after a newspaper released what it described as videos showing soldiers savagely beating Iraqi teenagers.

"We are aware of these very serious allegations and can confirm they are now the subject of an urgent Royal Military Police investigation," the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

"We condemn all acts of abuse and brutality and always treat any allegations of wrongdoing extremely seriously." The video, released by the News of the World, was apparently filmed by one soldier and showed his comrades beating prone Iraqis with batons and kicking them while they lie on the ground.

The cameraman is said to be heard laughing and saying: "Oh yes! Oh Yes! You're gonna get it.

Yes, naughty little boys.

You little fuckers, you little fuckers.

Ha Ha." The paper said the video was apparently filmed in early 2004 during a time of street riots in southern Iraq, where British troops are stationed.

British troops have been hit by abuse allegations in the past, though none approaching the scale of the abuse perpetrated by Americans against prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail in a scandal that shocked the world in 2004.

Three British soldiers were jailed last year in a case brought after the publication of pictures taken in 2003 that showed Iraqi prisoners being beaten, stomped on and forced to pose in sexually humiliating positions.

But another set of photos, which appeared in the Mirror newspaper, proved to be a hoax.

Sharon in stable condition after surgery - hospital JERUSALEM, Feb 12 (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remained in critical but stable condition today following emergency surgery to remove a section of a damaged intestine, Hadassah hospital said.

In an update on Sharon, comatose since a stroke early last month, the hospital said he was still in its intensive care unit.

"After the surgery the prime minister underwent yesterday, his condition stabilised," said Yael Bossem-Levy, a hospital spokeswoman.

"His condition is now listed as very critical but stable." Doctors removed 50 centimetres, or a third, of Sharon's large intestine, in a four-hour operation yesterday after spotting damage caused by restricted blood flow to his digestive tract.

Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of Hadassah Hospital, said that while the surgery went well and Sharon was out of immediate danger, the main problem remained his continuing state of unconsciousness.

Medical experts hold little hope for the 77-year-old leader's recovery after a massive brain haemorrhage on January.

After the stroke, Ehud Olmert was named interim prime minister ahead of a March 28 general election.

Olmert stepped swiftly into the shoes of the former general who dominated the West Asia scene for decades, pledging to press ahead with Sharon's tough security policies and threatening to set Israel's final borders unilaterally if peacemaking with the Palestinians remained frozen.

KADIMA AHEAD IN POLLS Opinion polls predict the centrist Kadima party, which Sharon founded after a rebellion in his right-wing Likud over Israel's Gaza pullout last summer, will easily win the general election with Olmert at its helm.

After suffering his massive stroke, Sharon was put into a medically induced coma.

Doctors have failed to rouse him.

Earlier this month they inserted a feeding tube in his stomach in preparation for possible transfer to a long-term care facility, underscoring medical experts' view that he would never recover.

Long reviled in the Arab world but increasingly regarded as a peacemaker by the West, Sharon suffered his stroke at a crucial juncture in Israeli politics, as he was fighting for re-election on a promise to end conflict with the Palestinians.

In recent years, he has voiced support for a Palestinian state but demanded the disarming of Palestinian militant groups before he would resume peace talks.

Olmert has hammered home that demand, part of a US-backed peace "road map" that also calls on Israel to stop Jewish settlement expansion, with added force since the Islamic militant group Hamas won the January.

25 Palestinian election.

Doctors had treated Sharon with blood thinners before the planned heart operation, and some in the medical community have questioned the wisdom of such treatment because Sharon's second stroke was caused by massive bleeding in the brain.

Danes urged to quit Indonesia over extremist threat COPENHAGEN, Feb 12 (Reuters) Denmark has warned its nationals to leave Indonesia because of a threat by extremists in the world's most populous Muslim nation linked to the printing of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish paper.

The warning issued by Denmark's foreign ministry came after the Scandinavian country's ambassadors and embassy staff in Indonesia and Iran left both countries because of threats over the cartoons row.

Danish embassy staff also left Syria's capital on Friday on the grounds that the security provided by authorities in Damascus was inadequate.

The Danish foreign ministry said in a statement issued yesterday that it had received credible information indicating a clear and imminent danger for Danes and Danish interests in Indonesia.

"Concrete information indicates than an extremist group wishes to actively seek out Danes in protest for the publication of the Prophet Mohammad cartons," the ministry said in a statement.

Denmark has been the butt of angry protests in Muslim countries since cartoons of the Prophet first published in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in September - one portraying his turban as a bomb - were reprinted by other European newspapers in January.

Musliconsider the portrayal of images of the Prophet as blasphemous and some see the cartoons as an attack on Islam, saying the newspapers would not have published drawings that insulted Jews or other ethnic or religious groups.

Since the protest over the caricatures intensified at the end of last month, Denmark has issued travel advisories for more than 20 Muslim countries warning its citizens to use caution, stay indoors or leave countries.

"This threat is far as is know concentrated to eastern Java for the time being, but it is feared that it can spread to the rest of the country, including Bali," the ministry said.

Earlier travel advisories for Muslim countries have not mentioned threats from a specific group.

In an earlier warning on February 7, Danes had been urged to leave Indonesia because of significant danger.

Danish media estimated that about 400 Danes remained in Indonesia yesterday.

The Danish foreign ministry said in a statement earlier: "The ambassador and the expatriate staff at the embassy in Tehran have temporarily left Iran.

This is due to information about serious, concrete threats against the ambassador." All expatriate staff at the embassy in Jakarta have left Indonesia "...

due to information about reliable security threats against staff at the embassy," the ministry said.

Danish diplomats stationed in the Syrian capital, whose embassy was attacked and burned by a crowd of protesters last week, were also withdrawn for their safety because Syrian authorities failed to give them enough security, it added.

Crowds have set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and the Danish embassy in Beirut, and protesters in Tehran have pelted Denmark's embassy with stones.

Jyllands-Posten, which first published the cartoons, has apologised and sent its culture editor, who commissioned the drawings, on leave.

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