STRASBOURG - The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the lineup of the next European Commission yesterday, clearing the way for the EU executive to take office nearly four months behind schedule. Legislators voted 488 to 137 in favour of the 26-person team put forward by Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, a move that was widely expected after Barroso replaced one of his original nominees last month following assembly opposition. Seventy-two lawmakers abstained.

The Commission, responsible for proposing and enforcing laws across the 27 member states of the European Union, formally began its five-year mandate at midnight yesterday, a spokesman said.

Ahead of the vote, Barroso urged the 736-member assembly to back his Commission choices and laid out some of his aims. “The broad priorities are clear: making a successful exit from the crisis; leading on climate action and energy efficiency; boosting new sources of growth and social cohesion to renew...

TEHRAN - The Pentagon said yesterday that the United States wanted a U.N. Security Council resolution “within weeks” to tackle Iran’s nuclear programme as Iran said it had begun making higher-grade nuclear fuel. The Islamic Republic, which denies its programme has military aims, announced on Sunday it would produce uranium enriched to a level of 20 percent for a Tehran research reactor making medical isotopes for cancer patients.

This followed a failure to agree terms for a proposed nuclear swap with major powers, under which Iran would send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad in return for such fuel. The powers have now stepped up discussions on how to respond and what form a possible fourth set of U.N. sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme could take. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Fox News: “I think it’s going to take some period of time - I would say weeks, not months - to see if we can’t get another U.N. Security...

KIEV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko launched action yesterday to call rival Viktor Yanukovich’s election as president into question. A local newspaper quoted Tymoshenko as saying she “will never recognise” Yanukovich’s victory in Sunday’s election and her supporters in parliament announced organised action to try to prove “cynical” fraud by the rival camp.

But there was some unease among Tymoshenko supporters over the move, which flew in the face of international monitors. They hailed the election as an “impressive display” of democracy and urged her to accept defeat and shake Yanukovich’s hand.

Russia and the United States yesterday added their weight to international recognition of the election. Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev sent congratulations to Yanukovich and the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, in a statement, endorsed the vote as a step “in the consolidation of Ukraine’s...

More than 64 feared dead in Afghan avalanches

At least 24 bodies have been recovered and 40 other people are feared dead after avalanches swept vehicles into a ravine and trapped cars in a mountain pass overnight, Afghanistan’s Interior Minister said on Tuesday. Hanif Atmar told a news conference that 2 km of road had so far been cleared but more people remained trapped after the avalanches, which shut the Salang Pass and blocked a 2.6 km (1.6 mile) tunnel through the Hindu Kush mountains.

Brown to testify at Iraq inquiry in March

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will give evidence to a public inquiry into the Iraq War in early March, officials for the probe said yesterday. A ballot will be held to allocate the seats at the hearing at a conference centre opposite Parliament in central London because of likely high demand for places. Brown, who will be questioned about his time as chancellor and prime minister, will be the most high...

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD - President Barack Obama declared an end to the seven-year U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday and promised recession-weary Americans “my central responsibility” now is to repair the U.S. economy. Obama, who inherited the war from President George W. Bush and is fighting another in Afghanistan, said he had fulfilled a 2008 campaign promise to end U.S. combat operations in Iraq and declared the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for their security. “Now, it is time to turn the page,” Obama said in an Oval Office address, speaking from the same desk Bush had used to declare the 2003 start of the war.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraqis their country “today is sovereign and independent.” But many Iraqis, who have seen at least 100,000 of their countrymen killed since the 2003 invasion, are apprehensive as U.S. military might is scaled down, with violence continuing and efforts to form a new government stalemated six months after an...

WASHINGTON - Israel’s defence minister said on Wednesday the Jewish state would be willing to hand over parts of Jerusalem in peace talks with the Palestinians to be launched by U.S. President Barack Obama. A flare-up of violence in the Palestinian West Bank and a deadlock over Jewish settlements there loom as potential deal-breakers for Obama, who will host Israeli and Palestinian leaders for dinner at the White House in Washington.

Obama brought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together for face-to-face negotiations after months of U.S.-mediated indirect talks. But he faces deep skepticism about his chances of success. Defence minister Ehud Barak’s rare comments about the need to partition Jerusalem, which is at the heart of the conflict, could signal Netanyahu’s willingness to divide the holy city in any final peace deal with Palestinians. Netanyahu has publicly balked at ceding the eastern, Arab part of the city that Israel...

MOSCOW - Russian police detained more than 100 people including prominent opponents of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at anti-Kremlin protests on Tuesday, after Putin said demonstrators without permits could expect harsh treatment. In Moscow, police detained opposition politician Boris Nemtsov and dozens of other protesters who defied authorities by gathering on a central square declared off-limits last week, shouting “Shame!” and “Russia without Putin!”

Police dragged protesters through the crowd on Triumph Square and shoved them into buses, carrying some who tried to resist or twisting their arms behind their backs. About 70 people were detained in Moscow, police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said at the scene. In St. Petersburg, some 50 people were detained on the main street, Nevsky Prospekt, and 15 more at a protest on the imperial-era capital’s Palace Square.

Opposition leaders and rights activists have been converging on Moscow’s Triumph Square on the 31st of each...

Sweden reopens WikiLeaks founder rape investigation

Sweden’s chief prosecutor said on Wednesday she was reopening a preliminary investigation into rape charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that a lower official had withdrawn two weeks ago. Neither Assange, who has denied the charges, nor his lawyer could be immediately reached for comment. WikiLeaks published more than 70,000 secret military files on Afghanistan in July in what U.S. officials have called one of the biggest security breaches in U.S. military history. Assange has said he has been warned by Australian intelligence that he could face a campaign to discredit him after leaking the documents.

Azerbaijan, Karabakh trade blame over deadly clash

Azerbaijan and the rebel mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh traded blame for a deadly clash on their frontline on Tuesday in which Azerbaijan said two of its soldiers had died. The Azeri Defence Ministry said in a statement that two...

WARSAW - Poland is marking the 30th anniversary of the Gdansk accords, which gave rise to the Solidarity trade union - the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. Various events marking the historic occasion were being held around Poland, centered on the Baltic coast towns where Solidarity had its birth, according to Radio Free Europe.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski set the tone for the celebrations in a speech he gave on August 29 in the port of Szczecin. “On this special day, we can face all these people with pride and satisfaction and pay a tribute to their heroic fight for the abolition of the system and commemorate with pride that the fight was not only successful in knocking down communism, but it also established the base for an effective and wise reform,” he said.

The Gdansk accords were signed on August 31, 1980, between the communist government and striking workers along the Baltic coast. The accords allowed a free trade union, the right to...

SEOUL - China pressed regional powers on Tuesday to restart talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and Seoul offered aid to its destitute neighbour despite a new round of U.S. sanctions against Pyongyang. In a move that could ease tensions on the peninsula, South Korea made its first large-scale offer of humanitarian aid to the North since the sinking of one of its warships in March.

Seoul offered 10 billion won (USD 8.4 M) to North Korea after heavy rains in July and August in its northern and eastern provinces forced thousands from their homes and put farmland under water. Seoul cut off most of its ties with Pyongyang after accusing the North of torpedoing the Cheonan corvette and demanded an apology. North Korea says it did not carry out the attack, and has told its only major ally China it is committed to denuclearising the peninsula and wants to resume the aid-for-disarmament talks.

China is lobbying neighbours to sign up for renewed talks, and on...

A recent blunder of Bulgarian Defence Minister Anyu Angelov related to the US missile defence in Europe has led to Syria threatening to break its diplomatic relations with Bulgaria, Novinite reported. This highly problematic statement made by Angelov, together with two other blunders, are very likely to lead Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to replace him, reported Trud Daily citing sources from the government and the ruling party GERB.

Speaking on private cable TV channel Pro.bg on June 3, 2010, Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Anyu Angelov declared that the country must join the US missile shield in Europe because of the threats it faces from certain Middle Eastern countries. “The threat comes not only from Iran, which clearly has medium-range missile technologies. But we also got information that Syria is developing such technologies as well,” Gen. Angelov declared largely suggesting that Syria might offensive plans as an enemy of Bulgaria.

The gaffe caused a diplomatic...

Fire bombs thrown at Russian embassy in Minsk

An unknown assailant threw two fire bombs at the Russian embassy in Minsk late on Monday, in an attack that hurt nobody but destroyed an embassy car, a Belarussian Emergencies Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. Vitaly Novitsky said the motive for the attack and the identity of the perpetrator were unknown. Belarussian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh condemned the attack as a hooligan stunt aimed at hurting Belarusian-Russian relations, the Belapan news agency reported.

Chile begins drilling mine rescue shaft

Engineers in Chile have begun drilling the rescue shaft through which they hope to eventually free the 33 men trapped in a collapsed gold mine, BBC News reported. The miners have been stuck 700m underground for the past three weeks. Officials say it could take up to four months for the tunnel to be completed and the men to be winched out. The miners will have to clear thousands of...

Malaysia celebrates its 53rd anniversary of Independence on August 31 this year. On this auspicious occasion, it gives me great pleasure to wish all Malaysians and our friends in Romania for continued success and prosperity. For this year, the Independence Day theme is “1Malaysia – Generates Transformation”.

Under the spirit of 1Malaysia, the country shall continue to focus on its human capital development and performance in order to optimise its potential and gear towards greater social unity towards achieving the status as a developed nation in 2020. With a comprehensive economic plan and the nation’s dedication and commitment toward this objective, Malaysia is well under way in its target to achieve this status.

At international level, Malaysia will continue to commit itself as an active player in international fora, and uses its experiences and knowledge in the efforts to help promote and contribute to a more peaceful, secured and balanced world.

On...

ROME - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s attempt to convert dozens of young women to Islam during a visit to Italy led to an angry reaction from Italian media on Monday. Several commentators accused Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of sacrificing principles and dignity for the sake of trade and investment ties with Libya. The mercurial Gaddafi invited a large group of young women hired by a hostessing agency to an event at a Libyan cultural centre in Rome on Sunday and tried to convert them to Islam.

“What would happen if a European head of state went to Libya or another Islamic country and invited everyone to convert to Christianity?” asked the daily Il Messagero. “We believe it would provoke very strong reactions across the Islamic world.” Press reports said three women had converted, but there was no way to verify if that was true. The event, due to be repeated on Monday, followed a similar reception involving some 200 women on a previous visit by Gaddafi to Rome last...

MOSCOW - Russia’s paramount leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, hinted on Monday he would return to the presidency in 2012 for six more years and said democracy protesters marching without permission deserved to be beaten. Asked by the Kommersant daily newspaper in an interview whether Russia’s 2012 presidential election did not worry him because he had already decided it, Putin replied: “No, it interests me like...I wanted to say like everyone, but in fact more than everyone else. But I don’t want to make a fetish out of it.”

Putin ruled as president from 2000 to 2008 before handing the presidency to his chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev, in order to observe a law banning a third consecutive term. However Putin will be free to run again in 2012 for a newly extended term of six years. “The most important thing is that these problems of 2012 don’t derail us from the path of stable development,” Putin added in the interview.

Kommersant said it was conducted during a...

BRATISLAVA - A gunman killed six people and wounded 14 in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Monday, the national rescue service said. “There was shooting at around 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) in the morning,” Dominika Sulkova of the rescue service said in a live television broadcast. “There were 20 wounded and unfortunately six did not survive the assault, four women and two men,” she said. “Fourteen people including a three-year-old child were taken to hospital, while light injuries were treated on the spot,” she added, saying the child’s life was not in danger. The SME daily said on its website that the shooter was a 15-year-old drug addict who shot himself dead after the rampage in Devinska Nova Ves, a northwestern district of the Slovak capital. Police did not confirm this piece of information. Eyewitnesses quoted by the TA3 news channel said the shooting took place on a busy street near a kindergarten and a supermarket. The shooter allegedly attacked a family living in a flat above the...

SUKA NALU - An Indonesian volcano, inactive for four centuries, erupted again on Monday, pitching ash two km into the air and sending nearby residents scurrying from their homes. Villages were emptying fast near Mount Sinabung on the north of Sumatra island, leaving behind only officials from the bureau of meteorology and the police. Short-haul flights skirting the volcano were delayed.

Reuters Television footage showed vast black clouds billowing into the sky, against a background of trees and farmhouses. A Reuters TV producer said it began raining at around 4 p.m. and that clouds obscuring the 2,460-metre volcano’s peak made it difficult to tell if ash was still erupting in the afternoon. “The air is very foggy and smoky,” he said. “There is no one around, only police and officials.”

About 21,000 people had been evacuated. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono instructed the disaster mitigation agency to help set up emergency tents, kitchens and toilets, said...

Ecuador bus crash kills 38 in highlands, 12 hurt

A bus winding its way through Ecuador’s highlands toward the capital of Quito went off the road before dawn on Sunday, killing 38 passengers in the worst accident of this kind in the country in years. Authorities said 12 more people were injured in the crash. Local television showed rescue workers struggling to extract bodies and look for survivors on the steep cliffs around Lake Yambo in the central province of Cotopaxi where the accident occurred.

Report: Israel to attack Hezbollah arms depots in Syria

Israel is planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported, quoted by Haaretz. The report is based on Western sources who asserted that Israel has increased its military force level along the northern border in the Golan Heights and Mount Dov areas. The report cited European sources who claimed that recent Israeli unmanned...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Sunday opened a pipeline branch to carry Siberian oil to China and hailed Russia’s energy business in China as an important counterweight to its traditional European clients. Putin was speaking in the town of Skovorodino, the end of the pipeline to the Pacific region, in honour of the completion of a branch that will carry Siberian oil to the Chinese town of Daqing from the end of the year. PetroChina is the importer....

WASHINGTON - Many clocks will be ticking during the next year when Washington hopes an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal can be hammered out. President Barack Obama faces congressional elections on Nov. 2 and a possible re-election bid in 2012, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is on borrowed time because his elective term has already expired and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delicately balanced coalition could unravel at any time. For all three, the clock starts ticking on Thursday when Netanyahu and Abbas meet in Washington for the first direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks since 2008.

Announcing the negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she believed the core issues - which include borders, Jewish settlements on the West Bank and the fate of Palestinian refugees - could be resolved in a year. The fledgling talks’ first test will come far sooner, on Sept. 26, when Israel’s temporary, limited moratorium on new settlement building in the...

BRUSSELS - Popular support for European Union membership has fallen to a nine-year low within the 27 countries in the bloc, a poll showed on Thursday. The yearly Eurobarometer survey was carried out in May when the EU was hit by sovereign-debt problems and when some member states were in recession.

According to the poll, conducted by the TNS Opinion and Social research group for the European Commission, support for EU membership fell to 49 percent, down 4 percentage points, and highlighted fears that the economy will deteriorate further. The poll asked an average 1,000 people in each member state whether membership of the EU was a good thing, a bad thing or neither good nor bad for their country. Those voting for ‘bad’ rose to 18 percent from 15 percent last year.

In Germany, the EU’s biggest economy and traditionally pro-EU, support for the bloc fell 10 points to 50 percent. In Greece, support for the EU fell 17 points to 44 percent. The bailout for Greece, offered...

Thousands flee as Sumatra volcano erupts

Thousands of Indonesians were evacuated from the slopes of a volcano on Sunday after it erupted for the first time in more than 400 years, spewing out lava and sending smoke and dust 1,500 metres into the air. Mount Sinabung, in the north of the island of Sumatra, began erupting around midnight after rumbling for several days, prompting some villagers to panic before the mass evacuation got under way.

S.Korea’s PM-designate quits under pressure

South Korea’s reformist prime minister-designate and two other ministerial nominees stepped down on Sunday amid allegations of corruption, stymying President Lee Myung-bak’s plans to boost ruling party morale. Lee had picked Kim Tae-ho as prime minister earlier this month, but after a heated confirmation hearing last week in which the opposition called into question his qualifications and ethics, Kim gave up his quest for the post....

For Kazakhstan the last month of summer is characterized by a very important event. On August 30 the people of Kazakhstan will celebrate one of the most important state holidays – Constitution Day. The Constitution appeared in 1995 when the state’s fundamental law was adopted through a referendum. The country’s new modern democratic institutions were created in line with it and democracy’s main principle was established: the separation of power into three branches – legislative, executive and judicial, with a clear checks and balances mechanism.

The fact that the date of its adoption was celebrated on a wide scale in Kazakhstan reveals the powerful significance of the public system’s mainstay document. Especially since this year Kazakhstan celebrates 15 years since the adoption of this document.

The Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, adopted through national referendum on August 30, 1995 (with subsequent amendments in 1998 and 2007) as the country’s...

SEOUL - North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-il is visiting powerful ally China possibly with his son and heir apparent, South Korean government sources said, ahead of a meeting next month that may settle his succession. The Workers’ Party (WPK), which rubber stamps major policy decisions in the secretive North, is holding a rare meeting in September at which the assembly could set in motion the succession of the leader’s son, Kim Jong-un, analysts say. “Kim Jong-il is travelling through China by train, but we have no information as to whether his son is accompanying him,” a presidential source told Reuters. A South Korean foreign ministry source said there was evidence that both Kim and his son were in China. The South’s Yonhap news agency reported that Kim was in Jilin, northeastern China, where he visited a school he attended as a child. Kim, his iron rule underpinned by a personality cult, rarely travels abroad. But this would be the second time since May that he has gone to...