BAGHDAD: The political battle over Iraq’s election law has shown that the deep sectarian fault lines which led to years of bloodshed could once again provoke conflict. Bitter disagreement over the allocation of seats among majority Shias, minority Kurds and once dominant Sunnis is a sign of how much is at stake in the election due in January. The vote will decide who is in charge of Iraq as US forces leave. A decision by Shia and Kurdish lawmakers to turn on Sunnis by passing a law that reduces Sunni voting clout – seen by some as retaliation for Sunni Arab Vice President Tareqal-Hashemi’s veto of the original election law — may have long-term consequences, analysts said.
SL urged to free detainees
COLOMBO: An international rights group welcomed Sri Lanka’s decision to free all war refugees from camps, but said on Wednesday that thousands of other Tamils remain unlawfully detained. The government said last week it would release the remaining 136,000 ethnic Tamil refugees held in squalid and overrun government camps on Dec 1. Some 300,000 war refugees were forced into the camps in the final months of the government’s decades-long civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in May. New-York based Human Rights Watch group called the government’s decision “a positive step,” but expressed concern for the more than 11,000 people being held without charge on suspicion of rebel involvement.
Ingushetia clash
NAZRAN, Russia: An Interior Ministry official says two suspected militants have been killed in a clash in a volatile North Caucasus province. Madina Khadziyeva of the ministry’s branch in Ingushetia, west of Chechnya, says the suspects were shot dead on Wednesday in the town of Karabulak. Khadziyeva said the two suspects refused to surrender and were killed in the ensuing skirmish. Chechnya and neighbouring North Caucasus provinces have remained mired in violence stemming from wars between separatist Chechen rebels and the Russian government. Rights activists said police and security forces fueled violence by arbitrary killings, abductions, torture and other abuses.
Lebanon cabinet
BEIRUT: Efforts by Lebanon’s new government to agree on a policy statement have again stumbled over Hizbullah’s weapons, with Christian members of the Western-backed majority rejecting a hands-off approach. A cabinet committee set up earlier this month to draft the statement has met eight times and on Wednesday was to sit down again to try to iron out differences on how to phrase a clause that covers the Shia party’s arms. The Phalange Party and Lebanese Forces, both Maronite Christian, argue that Hizbullah’s arsenal undermines state authority and runs counter to UN resolutions.
S Arabian mly
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday denied its military had entered Yemen to strike rebels in their homeland as Saudi forces continued to attack rebel positions on the border. A senior defence ministry official said media reports that Saudi forces had attacked the rebels inside Yemen were “lies” and “fabrications,” state news agency SPA reported. The unnamed official noted that Saudi King Abdullah had expressly ordered the armed forces only to expel the Huthi rebels from Saudi territory and not to cross the border, SPA said.
Cyclone survivors
BANGKOK: Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in makeshift homes 18 months after Cyclone Nargis tore into Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta, killing at least 140,000, the United Nations said on Wednesday. International donors pledged a fresh $88 million for 17,800 new houses, 40 new schools and livelihood programmes for 1million people, but that won’t be enough, the United Nations and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said.
Five die in Yemen
SANAA: Five Yemenis died when security forces clashed with southern separatists on Wednesday, as southerners began more protests against a government already facing a revolt in the north that has drawn in Saudi Arabia. Witnesses said security forces tried to break up a demonstration by around 1,000 southerners in the city of Ataq in Shabwa province after a rally in favour of the former south Yemeni state that united with Sanaa in 1990.
Press freedom
BRUSSELS: The European Parliament will express concern about Turkey’s treatment of media company Dogan Yayin this week, reinforcing criticism over a lack of progress on reforms needed to join the bloc. In a report on European Union enlargement which is due to be approved on Thursday, the assembly will urge EU governments to carry on with efforts to bring in countries from the western Balkans, provided they implement the necessary reforms.