Abbas resists push for direct talks with Israel

CAIRO: The Palestinian president is refusing to move to direct peace negotiations with Israel, as the Arab League meets Thursday to decide whether to add its weight to U.S. and Israeli pressure for face-to-face talks.

Mahmoud Abbas is under strong U.S. and European pressure to restart direct talks that were frozen in 2008. But the Palestinian leader said he would only do so if Israel agrees to a complete halt in settlement construction and accepts a Palestinian state in territories seized in the 1967 Middle East war — the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

"When I receive written assurances (about) accepting the 1967 border and halting the settlement (building), I will go immediately to the direct talks," Abbas was quoted as saying in remarks reported by Egypt's state-owned news agency Thursday.

Abbas said he would take assurances either directly from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or indirectly from the United States or the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, two Arab nations that have also acted as mediators between the two sides.

Egypt said Wednesday it has received U.S. assurances that may help in restarting direct talks but refused to make the details public.

"I am under a kind of pressure I haven't been through all my life," Abbas said.

This week The Associated Press obtained a Palestinian document that revealed that U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell warned Abbas that if he does not agree to direct talks, President Barack Obama will not be able to help the Palestinians achieve a state of their own.

But the Palestinian president said he first wants to see progress in indirect talks that have been taking place since May under U.S. mediation.

Specifically, he wants to see movement on the issue of borders for a future Palestinian state.

The internal Palestinian document warned Abbas that to give up on those demands would be "political suicide."

Netanyahu, who has appealed for direct talks, has refused to be pinned down on a framework for negotiations. The Israeli prime minister has accepted the idea of Palestinian statehood with conditions but has ruled out giving up control of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their capital. - AP

Thailand to end emergency rule in 6 provinces

Court issues warrant for Thaksin over asset case

BANGKOK: Thailand’s premier said Thursday he would end emergency rule in six provinces but maintain the strict laws in Bangkok, where a weekend bomb blast rekindled tensions in the wake of deadly street protests.

The emergency decree, which bans public gatherings of more than five people and gives security forces the right to detain suspects for 30 days without charge, will remain in place in 10 provinces, out of a total of 76.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he would revoke the laws in Chonburi, Ayutthaya, Nong Bua Lam Phu, Maha Sarakham, Mukdahan and Chaiyaphum in central and northeastern Thailand on the advice of security officials.

Abhisit has pledged to roll back the state of emergency gradually, saying it is still needed in the capital after a weekend bomb attack at a Bangkok bus stop killed one person and wounded 10.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon told AFP on Thursday that security officials were confident they could handle the situation in the areas where the state of emergency has been lifted.

“All of the state security agencies... said there is little political movement in these provinces,” he said.

The government has come under pressure from the United States and rights groups to end emergency rule to help the country recover from deadly civil unrest that has left it deeply divided.

Authorities have used the powers -- introduced in Bangkok on April 7 -- to arrest hundreds of Red Shirt suspects and silence anti-government media.

The protests by the Reds, many of whom back fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, attracted up to 100,000 people demanding immediate elections but were crushed by the army in a bloody crackdown in May.

About 90 people died and some 1,900 were injured in a series of street clashes between armed troops and demonstrators.

Critics say the government may in effect be fanning the crisis as it clamps down and censors the protest movement rather than addressing its grievances.

Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation said Thursday it had forwarded cases against 25 people linked to the Red Shirt protests, including Thaksin, to the attorney general, recommending they be indicted for terrorism.

The Supreme Court meanwhile issued a new arrest warrant for Thaksin in connection with allegations he presented false asset declarations to an anti-corruption agency while in office. - AFP

Russia grants more powers to KGB successor agency

MOSCOW: Russians may now face jail time for crimes they have not yet committed under a new security law signed Thursday by President Dmitry Medvedev.

The law restores Soviet-era powers to the Federal Security Service, the KGB's main successor agency, a move that rights advocates fear could be used to stifle protests and intimidate the Kremlin's political opponents. They also say the law's obscure wording leaves it too open to local interpretation.

The agency, known by its initials FSB, can now issue warnings or detain people suspected of preparing to commit crimes against Russia's security. Perpetrators face fines or up to 15 days of detention.

"It's an ugly law with obscure formulas," independent political analyst Yulia Latynina told The Associated Press. "In case a drunken FSB officer is shooting at you — and there have been many such cases — you might end up getting jailed for 15 days for merely trying to escape."

The new law was described as part of an effort to combat extremism and thwart terrorist attacks. It was submitted to Russian lawmakers in April after twin subway bombings in Moscow killed 40 people and the Kremlin faced critical media coverage of its anti-terrorism efforts.

A senior lawmaker said the new powers will protect people from abuse by law enforcement officers — a significant problem in Russia.

"Officers of law enforcement agencies have long talked about the necessity of switching from investigating crimes to their prevention," Mikhail Margelov, the Kremlin-connected head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of Russian parliament, said in a statement. "The amendments do not turn the FSB into a new edition of the once-almighty KGB but protect Russian citizens from outrages by men in uniform."

Some of the law's most stringent sections — including ones that toughen control over the media for "extremist statements" or allow the FSB to publish warnings in the press — were removed or toned down following severe criticism from the opposition and even Kremlin loyalists.

Still, a lawmaker with the Communist Party, the largest opposition force in Russia's rubber-stamp parliament, said the latest changes did not tone down the law's repressive character. - AP

Couple in court in case of 8 dead newborns

VILLERS-AU-TERTRE, France: A French prosecutor recommended Thursday that charges be leveled against a couple detained after eight dead babies were discovered on their former property in northern France.

A judicial official said the couple, in their mid-40s, are the parents of the dead babies. The corpses were found on two different parts of their property in Villers-au-Tertre, near the city of Lille. The official was not authorised to be publicly identified because the investigation is under way.

The woman would face charges of manslaughter against minors less than 15 years old and her husband for failure to report a crime and concealment of corpses, prosecutor Eric Vaillain said in a statement. He planned a news conference later Thursday.

The two were detained Wednesday, and French police escorted them to a court hearing in the city of Douai in the Nord region near the French border with Belgium.

Police sealed the doors, gate and windows of the house where the remains of some of the babies were discovered. DNA tests are being conducted to establish for sure whether the couple are the parents, and autopsies are being conducted on the corpses to try to determine the cause of death. - AFP

140 drown in DR Congo shipwreck

KINSHASA: A boat capsized on a river in western Democratic Republic of Congo killing at least 140 people, the provincial governor's office said Thursday.

The boat overturned on the Kasai river, a tributary of the Congo river, on Wednesday.

"I can confirm the accident. We're currently in a crisis meeting," said a source in the Bandundu province governor's office who asked not to be named. The sourc said there were 140 dead.

The boat was carrying passengers and goods from Mushie, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Bandundu, the chief town in the province.

River transport is widely used throughout DR Congo, which has numerous waterways, including the 4,700 kilometres (2,915 miles) Congo river. Disasters are frequent, mostly because boats are overloaded. - AFP

Indian teacher barred from work for refusing burqa

KOLKATA: A female lecturer has been prevented from teaching at a Muslim university in eastern India by students demanding that she wear a full veil, a report said Thursday.

Aliah University in Kolkata is the first Muslim university in West Bengal state and has no formal dress code, but its student union has demanded that female teachers cover themselves in class. Sirin Middya told the Indian Express she had refused to comply and had been prevented from teaching for three months.

“Most of the teachers do not like the diktat of the students to wear the burqa, but they have no option but to accept it,” she told the newspaper. “This is the Talibanisation of educational premises and there is no one to come to our rescue.”

Siamat Ali, secretary of West Bengal Madrasah Students’ Union, was unrepentant.

“There are eight women teachers at the university. It was decided through consultation that the women will observe purdah (wearing the veil), and most teachers agreed,” he said. “Only this lady has a problem.”

The university has played down the row, calling it a “stray incident,” while West Bengal’s minister for minority development has been informed and has yet to respond.

India’s most recent census, in 2001, found that 13 percent of the population -- about 150 million people -- were Muslim.

Indian Muslims face widespread discrimination and often live in the most densely packed, poorest parts of inner cities. - AFP

Ship lost for more than 150 years is recovered

TORONTO: Canadian archeologists have found a ship abandoned more than 150 years ago in the quest for the fabled Northwest Passage and which was lost in the search for the doomed expedition of Sir John Franklin, the head of the team said late Wednesday.

Marc-Andre Bernier, Parks Canada's head of underwater archaeology, said the HMS Investigator, abandoned in the ice in 1853, was found in shallow water in Mercy Bay along the northern coast of Banks Island in Canada's western Arctic.

"The ship is standing upright in very good condition. It's standing in about 11 metres (36 feet) of water," he said. "This is definitely of the utmost importance. This is the ship that sailed the last leg of the Northwest Passage."

The Investigator was one of many American and British ships sent out to search for the HMS Erebus and the Terror, vessels commanded by Franklin in his ill-fated search for the Northwest Passage in 1845.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the British government has been notified that one of their naval shipwrecks has been discovered, as well as the bodies of three sailors.

Captained by Robert McClure, the Investigator sailed in 1850. That year, McClure sailed the Investigator into the strait that now bears his name and realised that he was in the final leg of the Northwest Passage, the sea route across North America. – AP