Biden pledges full US commitment to Israel security JERUSALEM (AFP) – US Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday pledged Washington's full commitment to Israel's security while throwing his weight behind a renewal of Middle East peace talks after a 14-month hiatus. "The cornerstone of the relationship is our absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel's security," Biden said after talks with hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. "Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel. There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security." He also stressed the US determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and demanded that Tehran stop its support of "terrorist organisations," which he said threaten both Israel and the United States. Biden, the highest-ranking US official to visit Israel and the West Bank since President Barack Obama took office a year ago, also hailed the decision to hold new Middle East talks, despite deep scepticism about the prospects for success. "I am very pleased that you and the Palestinian leadership have agreed to launch indirect talks. We hope that these talks will lead, and they must lead eventually to negotiations and direct discussions between the parties," he told Netanyahu. "President Obama and I strongly believe the best long-term guarantee for Israel's security is a comprehensive Middle East peace with the Palestinians, with the Syrians, with Lebanon and leading eventually to full and normalised relationships with the entire Arab world," Biden said. Netanyahu underlined the need "to be persistent and purposeful in making sure we get to those direct negotiations that will enable us to resolve this conflict." Biden also held talks with President Shimon Peres who cautioned against premature expectations. "Even in Hollywood, the happy ending is at the end," Peres said at the start of the meeting. Biden heads on Wednesday to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad, and he also plans to meet former British prime minister Tony Blair, the special envoy for the Quartet of key diplomatic players. Washington has pushed for months to get both sides to resume talks but direct negotiations have been on hold since Israel launched a devastating 22-day military offensive against the Gaza Strip in December 2008, US envoy George Mitchell spent the past days in the region to pave the way for the indirect talks, and plans to return next week. But Biden's visit coincided with an Israeli go-ahead for 112 new homes to be built in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, a move that infuriated the Palestinians who demand a complete settlement freeze. Israel said the project in the Beitar Illit settlement near Bethlehem was an exception to the partial halt of settlement activity that its government announced in November. Abbas took up the issue with Mitchell on Monday, according to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. "The president said this cannot stand. We cannot tolerate that each time we have discussions on peace-making the Israeli government tenders more settlements, more incursions, more provocations." Biden, who is accompanied by his wife Jill, will travel on to Jordan on Thursday for talks with King Abdullah II. 'More dark days', 'much fighting' in Afghan war, warns Gates Kabul, March 9 (DPA) US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Monday that NATO allies would see "more dark days" and "much fighting ahead" in Afghanistan, but insisted that there were also reasons for optimism about the ultimate success of the campaign. Gates arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit Monday morning and met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and top NATO commander in the country, US General Stanley McChrystal, as thousands of NATO forces are pressing the biggest-ever offensive in that country's south. "There is still much fighting ahead," Gates said in a joint press conference with President Karzai in his heavily fortified presidential palace, adding that there would "assuredly be more dark days. "But looking forward there are ground for optimism as our countries pursue what President Karzai has called an Afghan-led and an Afghan-owned initiative to ensure peace and stability. That is the goal I share and, working together, it is one we can achieve," he said. Nearly 520 NATO troops, including more than 300 US soldiers, were killed in Afghanistan's conflict last year, the deadliest year since the fall of the Taliban regime. A total of 118 coalition soldiers have been killed so far this year. With public support for the Afghan war waning in the US and other Western countries, NATO officials have been warning of more casualties as an additional 30,000 US and up to 7,000 NATO troops are to arrive in Afghanistan by summer on top of 113,000 already stationed in the war-torn country. With the arrival of extra forces, the US and NATO military hope to turn the tide of the eight-year war in the country and steadily draw down the number of their forces as the newly trained indigenous forces take over the security responsibilities. Some 15,000 Afghan forces, US Marines and British soldiers began the biggest-ever operation Mushtarak - a local word for "together" - since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001, seizing control of large swaths of land in the province of Helmand and the adjacent district of Nad Ali. Gates praised the combined forces' success at Monday's press conference and said that the "initial results are encouraging." "Of course the operation in Marjah is only one of many battles to come in a much longer campaign focus on protecting the people of Afghanistan," he said, referring to the town where the operation started. Gates did not say where the next target of the combined forces was, but other Afghan and NATO officials have said that operation in Marjah was a prelude to a much bigger operation in the neighbouring province of Kandahar. Kandahar was the birthplace for the Taliban movement and the main stronghold for its leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. More than half of the new additional US troops are to be deployed to that province. Karzai, who traveled to Marjah, one of the main bastions for Taliban in the region and the biggest opium market in the country until recently, on Sunday said that he got a list of complaints about government corruption and NATO's operations during his meeting with the elders in the centre of the town. "I shared with him (Gates) all the realities that the people (in Marjah) shared them with me yesterday," Karzai said, adding that he hoped the US government supports him to address those problems of the people in the newly freed town. Interpol issues alert for 16 more suspects in probe of Hamas operative's slaying in Dubai PARIS, France - Interpol on Monday expanded its wanted list over the killing of a Hamas commander to a total of 27 people, and also revealed previously unreleased details about one suspect, including his alias and a snapshot of his smiling face. The Lyon, France-based organization says it issued red notices, its highest-level alert, for a 16- strong team accused of shadowing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before his killing. It had already issued notices for 11 other suspects last month. The alerts came at the request of authorities in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where al- Mabhouh was found dead in a luxury hotel room in January. His methodical stalking and killing has been widely blamed on Israel's Mossad spy agency. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. Dubai police had previously released information about all of Interpol's newly listed suspects, with the exception of one. Interpol listed his alias as Joshua Aaron Krycer. It did not give his age or nationality, but he appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s. His snapshot showed a dark-haired man with thick eyebrows grinning confidently at the camera. The group of 16 is believed to have assisted another team, which Interpol described as a "smaller core group alleged to have carried out the killing" and whose members were already sought through Interpol notices. According to the Dubai police probe, the "second team, the members of which are now also subject of red notices, is believed to have aided and abetted the first team by closely watching, following and reporting al-Mabhouh's movements from the moment he landed at Dubai airport until his murder on Jan. 19," Interpol said. The suspects' nationalities were not listed, as those linked to the plot are believed to have used falsified passports from Europe or Australia. Many of them are linked to apparent identity theft. The statement from Interpol said police in Dubai have agreed to enter evidence in the case - including DNA profiles - into Interpol's international databases. The organization's secretary general, Ronald K. Noble, said sharing information internationally is "all the more important when the case reportedly involves multiple cross-border movements worldwide and the use of fraudulently altered passports by individuals using aliases." Interpol also said it was to join a Dubai-based international task force probing the killing. Noble's statement described it as a "task force with Interpol and interested countries whose passports were fraudulently altered." It was not immediately clear which countries were taking part. Israel to allow UN chief, EU envoy to enter Gaza Jerusalem, March 9 (DPA) Israel will allow UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to enter the Gaza Strip when they each make Mideast visits later this month, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday. The ministry said that the authorisation for Ban and Ashton to enter Gaza was issued in response to "special requests" by the two diplomats. "Israel has decided to facilitate their entry to the Gaza Strip in order to allow them to get a first- hand impression of humanitarian activities taking place in that area," the ministry said. Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, has announced plans to travel to the region starting Sunday. Ban is scheduled to meet the leaders of the League of Arab States March 27 in Libya, with plans to urge the group to support an early resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel has largely blockaded the Gaza Strip since 2008, when the Islamist militant group Hamas seized control of the densely populated coastal territory. Recently, Israel refused to allow Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin to enter Gaza from Israeli territory. Yemen president warns separatists but offers talks SANAA (AFP) – Yemen's president warned separatists who demand independence for the south that they will be defeated, but he also offered to engage in dialogue over their demands, state media reported on Tuesday. "The separatist flags are going to burn in the coming days and weeks," President Ali Abdullah Saleh told military top brass on Monday, according to the defence ministry news website 26Sep.net. Saleh spoke after security forces cracked down on activists of the separatist movement in several southern towns that were part of the former South Yemen. But he also offered to talk to the secessionists about their political demands. Southerners complain of economic and social discrimination at the hands of the northern-controlled government. "If there are any political demands, they are welcome. Come to dialogue," Saleh said. "Now, we are going to form local committees to talk to these forces, if they accept dialogue," he added, stressing that "real demands" will be welcome. "We reject the spreading of the culture of hate, racism and regionalism," he added. The 26Sep.net website also reported the death overnight on Sunday of a policeman who was killed by five gunmen while guarding an office in Khanfar in the southern Abyan province. It said the officer was the victim of "separatists and outlaws" who fled in a Saudi-registered vehicle after the killing, adding that the vehicle was later recovered and the driver arrested. Pro-independence protests have multiplied in the south amid Yemen's worsening economic situation. South Yemen was independent from 1967 until it united with the north in 1990. The south seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived civil war that ended when the south was overrun by northern troops. Man kills virgin wife of over 21 years London/Paris, March 9 (IANS) A French man killed his wife of over 21 years as she didn't want to have children, a media report said Tuesday. The man then told the police: "Excuse me for disturbing you, I've killed my wife." Postal inspector Philippe Cousin, 53, told the police that he had a ?mid life crisis' when he approached his 50th year without a son or daughter. He blamed it on his 47-year-old wife Nicole, who remained a virgin despite being married to him for two decades, Daily Mail reported. Following an argument, Cousin allegedly took a kitchen knife to his wife's neck before slicing her head off. The crime took place in April 2007 but Cousin went on trial in France Tuesday. He appeared before a judge at the Pas-de-Calais assizes at Saint-Omer, near Calais. He faces life in prison for murder. Cousins also told the police: "I'm sorry for the work which I've given you. My wife shouted my name out, I decapitated her. You realise that, and I'm not mad!" He said his wife's inability to have children was responsible for their arguments. She apparently feared that she would pass on her father's multiple sclerosis through his genes, the court was told. This meant that every time he tried to have sex he was rebuffed. An autopsy confirmed that Nicole was indeed a virgin when she died, the media report said. Terrorists reportedly killed in Jakarta A Privately owned television station TVOne is reporting that anti-terror police have shot dead two suspects and arrested two others in a building in the Banten province on the main Indonesian island of Java. TVOne says the shooting and arrests happened Tuesday in the Pamulangsub district, southwest of the capital, Jakarta. A police spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. |