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100,000 protest Myanmar junta

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Some 100,000 anti-government protesters led by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar's biggest city since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the military.

As the march headed toward the Defense Ministry's offices along a straight stretch of road, the back of the crowd could not be seen from the front. Monks and activists estimated the turnout was about 100,000, though an exact count was difficult.

The march, launched from the Shwedagon pagoda, the country's most sacred shrine, gathered participants as it winded its way through Yangon's streets. Some 20,000 monks took the lead, with onlookers joining in on what had been billed as a day of general protest.

The march covered at least 5 miles in its first few hours, passing by the old campus of Rangoon University, a hotbed of protest in past times. Students were seen joining Monday's march.

On Sunday, when a small crowd of about 400 people split off and headed for the house of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, security forces deployed in force to block them.

The march raised both expectations of possible political change and fear that the military might try to crush the demonstrations with violence, as it did in 1988 when thousands of pro-democracy protesters were killed nationwide.

On Saturday, more than 500 monks and sympathizers were allowed past barricades to walk to the house where Suu Kyi is detained. The Nobel Peace laureate greeted them from her gate in her first public appearance in more than four years -- a meeting that symbolically linked the current protests to her struggle for democracy.

But any optimism on the protesters' part was tempered when security forces thwarted the second march to Suu Kyi's house. The crowd peacefully abandoned their attempt after being turned back at two different approaches blocked by barbed wire barricades.

"In our country the monks are the highest moral authority. When the monks take the leading role, the people will follow," said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma, a coalition of opposition groups based in neighboring Thailand.

Yet people have not forgotten the army's ferocity in crushing the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. Terror keeps many from considering rebelling again.

"The protests will continue to grow as more people gain the courage to join, but they have not yet reached the point where I will allow my family to march," said a 50-year-old taxi driver who would not give his name. "There is still too much uncertainty to do that."

The latest protests began on August 19 as a movement against economic hardship, after the government sharply raised fuel prices, increasing the overall cost of living. Arrests and intimidation saw the movement begin to falter until last week, when monks -- who have long served as the country's conscience -- became the protests' vanguard.

The march of 20,000 people downtown was led by 10,000 monks who gathered at the famous golden hilltop Shwedagon Pagoda before marching downtown to Sule Pagoda and past the U.S. Embassy among other places, witnesses said. For the first time, at least 100 white-robed nuns joined the demonstration.

Some monks shouted support for Suu Kyi, while people in the crowd formed a human chain to protect the maroon-robed clerics.

While authorities did not intervene in Sunday's march, plainclothes police trailed the marchers. Some, armed with shotguns, were posted at street corners along the route.

A monk gave a speech Sunday calling for Suu Kyi's release and national reconciliation, the witnesses said, again positioning their cause with her long-running struggle for democracy.

The synergy could increase pressure on the junta to decide whether to crack down or compromise.

Suu Kyi, 62, is the leader of the National League for Democracy party, which won a 1990 general election but was not allowed to take power by the military. She has been under detention continuously since May 2003.

Other monks' demonstrations took place Sunday in the cities of Mandalay, Monywa, Kalay and the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina, said reports in Myanmar exile media.

"The monks are the majority and they are leading the movement right now," Soe Aung told The Associated Press in Bangkok.

But he expressed concern the military will not stand aside forever.

"Hopefully the international community will not keep quiet, and they will do something before terrible things take place in our country," he said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration was watching the situation "very carefully."

Speaking ahead of a meeting in New York with the foreign minister of China -- the junta's top diplomatic ally -- she said the people of Myanmar "deserve a life to be able to live in freedom, just as everyone does."

She said President Bush would discuss the military regime's "brutality" when he meets other leaders at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly.

2 die in Kosovo shopping mall blast

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) -- A powerful blast ripped through Kosovo's capital early Monday, killing two and injuring 10 others, officials said.

The explosion happened around 2:30 a.m. in a shopping mall in the center of Pristina. It was not immediately clear what was the target of the attack.

Police spokesman Veton Elshani said most of the victims were injured from a concrete block falling after the blast.

Police did not give any motive for the attack and did not identify any of the victims.

Kosovo is formally a part of Serbia, but has been under U.N. and NATO control since 1999 after the alliance bombed Serb forces and ended the troops' brutal crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.

Choose your weapon: A new arms race in the Middle East

By Dean Irvine for CNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Saber-rattling in the Middle East has been growing, with Israeli air strikes over Syria at the beginning of the month and France's Foreign Minister talking of war with Iran, but behind the scenes there are fears of a new arms race in the region.

In a deal announced this week, Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Europe's largest defense company, BAE Systems worth almost $9 billion. A boon for the company, especially given that a previous major deal is under investigation for allegations of corruption.

Hailed by the UK ministry of defense as a "new chapter" in cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the contract will be called "Project Salam," meaning "peace." It is also a new chapter that will see much more military hardware entering the region and one that ratchets up current tensions and divisions between Sunni-dominated states, such as Saudi Arabia, and Shiite Iran.

Larger deals between governments have been taking place. In August this year, the U.S. agreed to provide Israel with $30 billion in military aid over the next ten years.

Another agreement that is currently awaiting approval by the U.S. Congress would see a further $20 billion in military aid go to Saudi Arabia and other weapons deals to UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, plus a further $13 billion to Egypt.

CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson believes it's a move that shores up the U.S. allies in the region in uncertain times. However it does little to ease the simmering international tensions between the west and the focus of its ire, Iran.

In a statement issued after the $20 billion deal to the Gulf states was announced in July, U.S. State Department Spokesman Tom Casey defended the deals as a means for its allies to defend themselves against threats from Iran and Syria.

"The Typhoon jet now has air-to-ground capabilities, which if they were to be used against Iranian nuclear facilities, would be effective, so I think that is the backdrop to that deal," Christopher Pang, Head, Middle East & North Africa Program at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, told CNN.

Others see it as part of an attempt to create rival blocs in the region. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini responded to the arms deal to Saudi Arabia a "horror scenario" that was aimed at dividing the region.

CNN's Nic Robertson believes that while arms sales to the region by the UK and U.S. are far from new, their timing and the current situation in the Middle East do increase fears from many quarters and the possibility of military action.

"Despite their own bi-lateral agreements with Iran, there is a mood within Saudi Arabia that it would not mind the U.S. and Israel striking some form of blow against Iran. In the Sunni dominated country, there are fears of a Shia crescent emerging in the region and popular opinion is that Iranian expansion cannot be tolerated," said Robertson.

While the U.S. would like Saudi Arabia to be a buffer to Iran's growing influence, Robertson believes the kingdom's immediate focus is currently on internal threats to its infrastructure and oil refineries from Al-Qaeda.

"The deals also do nothing to deter Iran from its perceived right to nuclear capability, but makes it more determined," said Pang.

"They've come at the first signs of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, which is causing the greatest fears over security. This is a way for the U.S. to say to its regional allies, 'We're not going to leave you high and dry' in the face of growing Iranian aggression," said Pang.

The potential for unease remains, even between those countries that have benefited from the U.S.'s largesse and current round of deals. Fears have been expressed by Israel at the Saudi acquisition of "jdam" satellite guided missiles, bringing the Saudis closer to parity when it comes to the hi-tech weaponry in their arsenal.

At a recent hearing by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs sub-committee on the $20 billion deal to Saudi Arabia, concerns were raised over just how much the sale of missiles to Middle Eastern states guarantees their recipients stability and counters Iran's hard-line policies.

Military aid and weapons deals in tacit exchange for support do not always guarantee stability and influence; weapons sold by the U.S. to Iran before the 1979 revolution and later to Saddam Hussein's regime were used for means other than upholding democracy.

Pang however thinks that the likelihood of any "blowback" -- weapons being used against friendly states - is remote.

"Saudi Arabia, maybe not explicitly, has always indicated that its main threat is not Israel, but Iran's growing power in the region," says Pang.

Beyond the immediate deals is the larger question of just how effective the sale of fighter planes are in countering threats that operate within states. Sectarian violence in Iraq and attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon show that the balance of power in the region is affected by more than national armies.

"There is a feeling among Hamas is that Iran will be attacked by the U.S. and Israel," says Robertson, and the consequences could be Iran retaliating by using its allies, Hamas and Syria.

"One theory goes that if you give states, like Israel, satellite-guided missiles they have the ability to counter Iran's nuclear threat, so can then spend more time focusing on asymmetric threats like Hezbollah and Hamas. You may or may not find that convincing," said Pang.

Iran: 'We are not building A-bomb'

NEW YORK (AP) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran is neither building a nuclear bomb nor headed to war with the United States in a television interview Monday.

The public-relations push appears aimed at presenting his views directly to a U.S. audience amid rising strains and talk of war between the two nations.

Ahmadinejad is to speak and answer questions at a forum at Columbia University, Monday, followed by a scheduled address to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday.

Columbia University's invitation has drawn howls from politicians, religious groups and other organizations. But the university has not backed down. Its president, Lee Bollinger has promised to grill Ahmadinejad on subjects such as human rights, the Holocaust and Iran's disputed nuclear program.

Tensions are high between Washington and Tehran over U.S. accusations that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, as well as helping Shiite militias in Iraq that target U.S. troops -- claims Iran denies.

"Well, you have to appreciate we don't need a nuclear bomb. We don't need that. What need do we have for a bomb?" Ahmadinejad said in the "60 Minutes" interview taped in Iran Thursday. "In political relations right now, the nuclear bomb is of no use. If it was useful it would have prevented the downfall of the Soviet Union."

He also said that: "It's wrong to think that Iran and the U.S. are walking toward war. Who says so? Why should we go to war? There is no war in the offing."

Before leaving Iran, Ahmadinejad said the American people have been denied "correct information," and that his visit will give them a chance to hear a different voice, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ahmadinejad has appealed to the American people before, distinguishing between the population and their government. Recently, he told a television show that Iran wants peace and friendship with America.

Since coming to power in 2005, Ahmadinejad also has sent letters to the American people criticizing President Bush's policies in the Middle East.

Washington has said it is addressing the Iran situation diplomatically, rather than militarily, but U.S. officials also say that all options are open. The commander of the U.S. military forces in the Middle East said he did not believe tensions will lead to war.

"This constant drum beat of conflict is what strikes me, which is not helpful and not useful," Adm. William Fallon, head of U.S. Central Command, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television, which made a partial transcript available Sunday.

Ahmadinejad's scheduled address to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday will be his third time attending the New York meeting in three years.

But his request to lay a wreath at Ground Zero was denied by city officials and condemned by politicians who said a visit to the site of the 2001 terror attacks would violate sacred ground.

Police cited construction and security concerns in denying Ahmadinejad's request. Ahmadinejad told "60 Minutes" he would not press the issue but expressed disbelief that the visit would offend Americans.

After the September 11 attacks, hundreds of young Iranians held a series of candlelight vigils in Tehran.

"Usually you go to these sites to pay your respects. And also to perhaps air your views about the root causes of such incidents," Ahmadinejad told the network.

Columbia canceled a planned visit by the Iranian president last year, also citing security and logistical reasons.

University President Lee Bollinger has resisted requests to cancel Ahmadinejad's speech this year but promised to introduce the talk himself with a series of tough questions on topics including the Iranian leader's views on the Holocaust, his call for the destruction of the state of Israel and his government's alleged support of terrorism.

Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust "a myth" and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

At the protests, New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind said Ahmadinejad "should be arrested when he comes to Columbia University, not invited to speak for God's sake." Video Watch New Yorkers prepare for Ahmadinejad »

Ahmadinejad's visit to New York is also being debated back home. Some in Iran think his trip is a publicity stunt that hurts Iran's image in the world.

Political analyst Iraj Jamshidi said Ahmadinejad looks at the General Assembly as a publicity forum simply to surprise world leaders with his harsh rhetoric.

"The world has not welcomed Ahmadinejad's hardline approach. His previous address to the assembly didn't resolve any of Iran's foreign policy issues. And no one expects anything better this time," he said.

But conservative lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said it was a good chance for Iran to air its position.

"This trip gives the president a good chance to meet world leaders and inform them of Iran's rightful position," IRNA quoted Boroujerdi as saying.

Larry Craig toilet 'tourist site'

The Minneapolis airport toilet where US senator Larry Craig was arrested for allegedly soliciting gay sex is now attracting tourists, say airport staff.

"People are taking pictures," Karen Evans, an information officer at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport, told Associated Press.

Mr Craig, a Republican from Idaho, pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct over the toilet incident.

He now says the plea was a mistake and is trying to have it withdrawn.

Depending on the outcome of the case, Mr Craig may reverse his earlier decision to resign by the end of September.

'Actions misconstrued'

Mr Craig was arrested on 11 June by an undercover airport police officer.

Now it seems that tourists passing through the airport cannot resist the temptation to have a look at the scene.

"We had to just stop and check out the bathroom," said Sally Westby of Minneapolis, on her way to Guatemala with her husband Jon.

"In fact, it's Jon's second time - he was here last week already."

Royal Zino, who works at the shoeshine shop next to the public lavatory, said "it's been crazy".

"People have been going inside, taking pictures of the stall, taking pictures outside the bathroom door."

The politician, who has a record of hostility to gay rights and is a married father-of-three, insists he is not homosexual.

He says police misconstrued his actions at the airport.

Shanghai braced for Typhoon Wipha

Some 200,000 people are being evacuated from Shanghai as a powerful typhoon barrels towards China's east coast.

Residents from the city's exposed areas are being moved to temporary shelters before Typhoon Wipha is expected to make landfall on Tuesday evening.

Tropical Storm Risk forecasters said Wipha would hit the mainland as a category four storm, packing gusts of up to 155 mph (250 km/h).

On Taiwan, which Wipha is due to swipe first, schools and offices were shut.

Shanghai, a city of 14m people, and the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian to its south have issued typhoon warnings, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The deadliest storm to hit the coast of China in recent years was Typhoon Winnie in 1997, which killed 236 people.

Ingrid fades to depression as damage from Humberto assessed

(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Ingrid faded to a tropical depression Saturday, done in by "hostile winds aloft," according to the National Hurricane Center.

At 5 p.m. ET, Ingrid's maximum sustained winds remained at 35 mph (55 kph).

The system's center was about 425 miles (685 kilometers) east of the Lesser Antilles, headed west at about 12 mph (19 kph), according to the hurricane center.

Forecasters said it should continue to weaken during the next 24 hours because of a strong westerly flow above it.

"Ingrid is becoming a just large swirl of low clouds with a few patches of intermittent convection," NHC senior hurricane specialist Lixion Avila said in an online discussion.

Computer models showed the system turning more northward and staying out in the Atlantic.

areas affected by Hurricane Humberto, whose remnants rolled to the East Coast overnight.

Damage from the storm, which came ashore early Thursday morning near the Texas-Louisiana line, was estimated Friday at less than $500 million, The Associated Press reported.

Joe Domino, Entergy Texas president and CEO, said some customers' power might not be restored until Tuesday, AP reported.

Power was restored to two of three major crude oil and liquid hydrocarbon plants in Port Arthur, Texas, company representatives told AP.

At High Island, Texas, where Humberto made landfall, the local water utility was depending on generators to keep operating, according to AP.

"I think we can do better without lights than we can without water," resident George Leger told the news service.

The remnants of the hurricane brought an inch or more of rain to areas of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee on Friday afternoon.

A cold front merged with Humberto's remnants, causing strong thunderstorms in North Carolina, where a tree fell on a nursing home near Raleigh, AP reported.

"It's just terrible," Mildred Wheeler, whose husband lives in the home, told AP. "Water's flooding the building, and you have people here on oxygen machines."

Asheville, North Carolina, received 3.4 inches (8.6 centimeters) of rain, and Charleston, South Carolina received 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters), according to National Weather Service data.

Iran anger over French war warning

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's foreign ministry criticized France on Monday for a blunt warning over the weekend that Europe must prepare for war if Tehran continues to flout international demands to stop producing nuclear fuel.

"We hope that such statements are superficial and do not reflect France's realistic and strategic points of view," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said Monday, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a televised interview Sunday that European nations should consider sanctions outside the U.N. framework if Iran continues to ignore a Security Council call to halt its production of enriched uranium -- and he added, "We must prepare ourselves for the worst."

Asked what "the worst" meant, Kouchner -- co-founder of the the Nobel Prize-winning relief agency Doctors Without Borders -- replied, "That is war, sir."

Kouchner quickly added that he does not believe war to be imminent, but that further sanctions are. He said major French companies including those in the energy sector are being told to stop any further investments in Iran.

Hosseini also said that the use of "convulsive words" ran counter to "the historical, cultural and civilizational dignity and position of France," according to IRNA.

European Union members Britain, France and Germany have led Western powers in negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program, which Iranian officials insist is aimed at producing civilian electric power. The United States accuses Iran of working toward a nuclear weapon.

"At a time when the issue of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities was removed from the agenda of the EU ministerial session recently, Kouchner's claims are not only in contradiction with EU's macro policies on the Islamic Republic of Iran but are also aimed at questioning credibility and competency of the International Atomic Energy Agency," said Hosseini.

The IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, says it has been able to verify that Iran's declared nuclear material has not been diverted from peaceful use. While the IAEA has been unable to verify some "important aspects" regarding the nature and scope of Iran's nuclear work, the agency and Iranian officials agreed on a plan to resolve all outstanding issues, Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday.
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While France opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kouchner's remarks on Iran follow previous hard-line statements by France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy. In August, the conservative Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran was "not acceptable."

"I think there is a new France since Sarkozy came to power," Dominique Moisi, an analyst at the French Institute on Foreign Relations, told CNN. "There is a new style of diplomatic content, and obviously there is a new relationship with the U.S. and Washington."

CNN's Jim Bittermann in Paris contributed to this report.

Bush outlines gradual troop reduction

In speech, president says Iraq still needs ‘enduring relationship’ with U.S.

Sept. 13, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush, defending an unpopular war, ordered gradual reductions in U.S. forces in Iraq on Thursday night and said, “The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home.”

Yet, Bush firmly rejected calls to end the war, insisting that Iraq will still need military, economic and political support from Washington after his presidency ends.

Bush said that 5,700 U.S. forces would be home by Christmas and that four brigades — for a total of at least 21,500 troops — would return by July, along with an undetermined number of support forces. Now at its highest level of the war, the U.S. troop strength stands at 168,000.

“The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is: return on success,” the president said, trying to summon the nation’s resolve once again to help Iraq “defeat those who threaten its future and also threaten ours.”

With no dramatic change in course, Bush’s decision sets the stage for a fiery political debate in Congress and on the 2008 presidential campaign trail. Democrats said Bush’s modest approach was unacceptable.

“An endless and unlimited military presence in Iraq is not an option,” said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a former Army Ranger, who delivered the Democratic response.

“Democrats and Republicans in Congress — and throughout the nation — cannot and must not stand idly by while our interests throughout the world are undermined and our armed forces are stretched toward the breaking point,” Reed said. “We intend to exercise our constitutional duty and profoundly change our military’s involvement in Iraq.”

The reductions announced by Bush represented only a slight hastening of the originally scheduled end of the troop increase that Bush announced in January. When the cutbacks are complete, about 132,000 U.S. forces will be in Iraq.

Bush’s speech was the latest turning point in a 4½-year-old war marred by miscalculations, surprises and setbacks.

Bush: U.S. in Iraq beyond presidency
Almost since the fall of Baghdad, in April 2003, U.S. commanders and administration officials in Washington mistakenly believed they were on track to winding down U.S. involvement and handing off to the Iraqis. Instead, the insurgency intervened and the reality of a country in chaos conspired to deepen the U.S. commitment.

Bush said Iraqi leaders “have asked for an enduring relationship with America.

“And we are ready to begin building that relationship in a way that protects our interests in the region and requires many fewer American troops.”

Bush described the withdrawals, and the U.S. forces still fighting in Iraq, as a compromise on which war supporters and opponents could agree.

“The way forward I have described tonight makes it possible, for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together,” Bush said.

That appeared highly unlikely, however, based on the reaction of Democratic leaders who want deadlines for withdrawals.

“The American people long ago lost faith in the president’s leadership of the war in Iraq because his rhetoric has never matched the reality on the ground,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “The choice is between a Democratic plan for responsible redeployment and the president’s plan for an endless war in Iraq.”

Democrats try to sway GOP
Majority Democrats in Congress are unable to muster enough votes to force an end to the war. So they are hoping to win Republican support with legislation to limit the mission of U.S. forces to training Iraq’s military and police, protecting U.S. assets and fighting terrorists.

Addressing America’s frustration with the protracted war, the president said, “Some say the gains we are making in Iraq come too late. They are mistaken. It is never too late to deal a blow to al-Qaida. It is never too late to advance freedom. And it is never too late to support our troops in a fight they can win.”

“Whatever political party you belong to, whatever your position on Iraq, we should be able to agree that America has a vital interest in preventing chaos and providing hope in the Middle East,” the president said.

He added, “Let us come together on a policy of strength in the Middle East.”

Bush acknowledged that Iraq’s government has failed to meet goals for political reconciliation and security. “In my meetings with Iraqi leaders,” he said, “I have made it clear that they must.”

White House report: Little progress
A White House report, to be released Friday, will document the failures of the Iraqi government.

The latest conclusions largely track a comparable assessment in July, the White House said. The earlier report said the Iraqi government had made satisfactory gains toward eight benchmarks, unsatisfactory marks on eight and mixed results on the rest. A senior administration official said Thursday that only one of the benchmarks — enacting and implementing legislation to allow former lower ranking members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to hold government positions — has moved from unsatisfactory to satisfactory.

“Iraq’s national leaders are getting some things done,” Bush contended. He said the Baghdad government has passed a budget and is sharing oil revenues among the provinces even though legislation has not been approved. Changes that have begun to take hold in the provinces must be followed in Baghdad, he said.

Bush’s claims of security progress in Iraq were jarred by the assassination of a Sunni sheik who revolted against al-Qaida and fought alongside Americans.

White House says Iraq leaders fail to meet goals

Administration plays down the negative side of the latest status report

Sept. 15, 2007

A day after President George W. Bush cited enough progress in Iraq to justify U.S. troop reductions, the White House told Congress on Friday that Iraqi leaders had failed to meet half of their key goals.

The administration's acknowledgment of shortfalls in the Iraqi government's performance underscored the challenges Bush faces in selling his strategy to skeptical Democratic lawmakers and an American public increasingly opposed to the war.

In a report ordered by Congress, the White House concluded the Iraqis had made satisfactory progress on just nine of 18 political and security benchmarks and unsatisfactory progress in seven. It said it was unable to rate two other targets.

Democrats in control of Congress had insisted on a review of Iraqi efforts to achieve national reconciliation as a condition for continued funding for a buildup of U.S. forces intended to help curb sectarian violence.

As Bush and top aides kept up a public relations push to rally support for his Iraq strategy, the White House played down the negative side of the latest status report and pointed instead to what it described as encouraging signs.

Dems criticize
But House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer accused the administration of "attempting to paint a far rosier picture of Iraqi progress on key benchmarks than is justified by the reality on the ground."

The report followed a televised prime-time address by Bush on Thursday night in which he embraced recommendations by his top commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, for a limited withdrawal of about 20,000 troops by July.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday he hoped the United States could withdraw another five combat brigades -- about 20,000 troops -- from Iraq in the second half of next year, but cautioned that it would depend on conditions on the ground.

"My hope is that when he does his assessment in March ... Gen. Petraeus will be able to say that he thinks that the pace of drawdowns can continue at the same rate in the second half of the year as in the first half of the year," Gates told a news conference.

Bush said security improvements had made it possible to start bringing troops home, but he defied calls for a dramatic change of course in the unpopular war.

The partial drawdown will roll back troop strength from the current 169,000 to around the same levels the United States had in Iraq before Bush ordered a troop increase in January.

Democratic leaders said Bush was trying to obscure the fact that most of the troops being withdrawn would have left anyway under current deployment timetables, and they demanded a faster, broader withdrawal.

But Vice President Dick Cheney, on the road in Grand Rapids, Michigan, accused critics of ignoring the chaos he said would follow a precipitous U.S. pullout.

Visiting a Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, Bush hammered home the themes of his Oval Office address and urged congressional support. He hopes to prevent further defections by fellow Republicans that could threaten war funding.

Acknowledging pressure from his opponents to bring troops home, Bush insisted: "Well, now we've got security in the right direction and we are bringing our troops home."

With Democrats denouncing Bush for what they see as an attempt to buy time for a failed policy, the Iraq status report seemed to provide them with more ammunition.

Unsatisfactory
It deemed unsatisfactory the Iraqi government's efforts to enact crucial oil-sharing legislation, to increase the number of Iraqi security force units able to operate independently and to eliminate sectarian bias in the Iraqi police.

The report gave a satisfactory grade, however, for progress in ensuring the rights of minority political parties, for advances toward easing curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party joining the military and civil service and for providing three brigades to support a security crackdown in Baghdad.

Recent independent assessments have painted a much bleaker picture of a dysfunctional Iraqi government.

Some of Bush's fellow Republicans have also voiced doubts over his strategy. Republicans lost control of Congress in last November's election, largely due to public disenchantment over Iraq. Recent polls show Americans 2-to-1 against the war.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Syria linked to 'secret supplies' of nuclear equipment

NICOLE WINFIELD IN ROME

SYRIA may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment, and officials from North Korea have visited the country, a senior US nuclear official said yesterday.

Andrew Semmel, the acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not name the suppliers, but said he could not exclude that the network run by disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A Q Khan had been involved.

He was responding to questions about an Israeli air strike in northern Syria last week. Neither side has explained what exactly happened, but a US government official confirmed Israeli war planes were targeting weapons from Iran and destined for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The Washington Post said on Thursday that Israel had gathered satellite images showing possible North Korean co-operation with Syria on a nuclear facility.

Mr Semmel, who is in Italy for a meeting today on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, said Syria was certainly on the US nuclear "watch list".

"There are indicators that they do have something going on there," he said. "We do know there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria.

"We do know there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen.

"So good foreign policy, good national-security policy, would suggest we pay very close attention to that.

"We're watching very closely. Obviously, the Israelis were watching very closely."

Asked if the suppliers could have been North Koreans, he said: "There are North Korean people there ... just as there are a lot of North Koreans in Iraq and Iran."

Asked if the so-called Khan network, which supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, could have been involved, he said he "wouldn't exclude it".

More Quakes Rock Indonesia; Foreshadow 'The Big One'

By Eric Young
Fri, Sep. 14 2007

Indonesia has been hit by more than 40 aftershocks since a massive 8.4-magnitude earthquake shook Southeast Asia Wednesday, and seismologists warned that the worst may be yet to come.

A local girl pauses at her house destroyed by earthquake in Bengkulu, Sumatra island, Indonesia, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007. Three powerful earthquakes jolted Indonesia in less than 24 hours, triggering tsunami warnings, damaging hundreds of houses and sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground. Rescuers feared some victims were trapped beneath the rubble.

On Friday, Indonesia's meteorology agency issued the latest in a series of tsunami warnings after another strong quake shook Indonesia’s Sumatra island, although it was lifted about an hour later.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured one Friday aftershock jolting the area at magnitude 6.4.

There have been a series of tremors ranging in intensity from 4.9 to 7.8 since Wednesday's 8.4 quake, according to Reuters, repeatedly setting off tsunami warnings in Indian Ocean countries.

There have been no reports, however, of the sort of widespread tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean nations after the 9.0-magnitude temblor in 2004.

But experts have been predicting a repeat of the deadly earthquake.

Kerry Sieh of the California Institute of Technology, who has spent decades studying the fault line in the area, said these temblors could be leading up to the big one.

"No one can say whether it will be in 30 seconds or 30 years," Sieh said, according to The Associated Press. "But what happened the other day, I think is quite possibly a sequence of smaller earthquakes leading up to the bigger one."

Danny Hillman, an earthquake specialist at the Indonesian Institute of Science, also believes there is a “strong indication” that the latest string of quakes “foreshadows the big one.”

"We all agree there is an 8.5 or stronger earthquake waiting to happen," he told AP.

Relief Efforts

The latest quakes have so far killed at least 13 people, damaged hundreds of homes and churned up a 10-foot-high tsunami.

Several towns along the western coast of Bengkulu and West Sumatra province, the closest to the epicenters, reported houses collapsed or scores of buildings partly destroyed or suffering from cracks, noted World Vision International in its latest report. Electricity in many parts of Sumatra was down after the quake, as power stations had broken down, the Christian humanitarian agency added.

“So far, the real impact of the quakes is unclear,” said WVI’s Humanitarian and Emergencies Assessment manager, Jimmy Nadapdap, in the agency’s report Thursday. “We are receiving media reports from the cities of Bengkulu, Padang and Jambi, but we are unsure about what conditions are like in the remote regions there.”

As of Thursday, World Vision Indonesia relief teams were en route to assess the impact of the quakes, and Nadapdap said they would provide the international agency with more information, enabling them to make an appropriate response.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), meanwhile, has long-standing partners in the quake zone that have staff rushing out to communities to gather information for a timely and efficient response. In the meantime, the international humanitarian organization of the U.S. Catholic Church has committed an initial $50,000 to the earthquake recovery effort.

"Between the earthquakes and aftershocks, the damage seems to be more widespread than initially thought – along the coast from Bengkulu, up to Jambi, and reaching as far as Padang,” said CRS Indonesia Country Director Rich Balmadier in the latest CRS report. “There's a lot of information we don't know about how this has affected people in the rural areas. We are concerned about the vulnerability in rural villages, where the houses are modest and less equipped to withstand massive impact."