Lee, in his first direct response to recent peace overtures from
Pyongyang, also did not rule out a summit with the North's leader Kim
Jong-Il.
"We can hold a summit if necessary... this is a good chance for North
Korea," he said on Tuesday, in a televised interview.
The two sides agreed last month to hold high-level military dialogue.
Seoul has proposed preparatory talks on February 11, in what would be
their first contact since Pyongyang's deadly shelling of a border
island last November.
The working-level talks are aimed at setting the date, place and
agenda for the high-level military dialogue.
But Seoul says the high-level meeting will only go ahead if Pyongyang
takes responsibility for two attacks last year and promises no
repetition.
Apart from the shelling of Yeonpyeong island, which killed four people
including civilians, the South accuses the North of torpedoing a
warship last March with the loss of 46 lives -- a charge the North
denies.
Lee said a "strong response" to provocations could prevent any
repetition. "I have great expectations that this may be time for North
Korea to change," he said.
"If the North shows willingness for sincere dialogue instead of
military provocations, we can hold inter-Korean dialogue, economic
exchanges and talk about the six-party talks."
The six-nation negotiations on the North's nuclear disarmament --
grouping the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan --
have been stalled for more than two years.
The US, South Korea and Japan say the North must improve cross-border
ties before they can resume.
Lee also expressed regret that the two Koreas are spending an
"enormous budget" on an arms race.
He said the North could probably overcome its persistent food
shortages if it cut its defence budget by 20-30 percent.
In Washington, Assistant Secretary of State Janice Jacobs said at
least 2,600 Americans in Egypt have asked US officials for help in
leaving.
More than 1,200 left the country Monday on nine flights headed for
Larnaca in Cyprus, Istanbul and Athens, according to the State
Department.
"We want to make sure that anyone who needs our help is getting that,
and so, yes, I do expect those numbers to go up over the next few
days," Jacobs said.
"We are encouraging Americans who want to take advantage of these
charter flights to go to the airport, but I should say that people
should be prepared for a very long wait."
Chaotic scenes unfolded at Cairo airport as authorities struggled to
cope with an influx of thousands of departing passengers.
At least six more flights for US citizens were planned on Tuesday, and
about 40 extra consular staff have been deployed to Cairo and the
three arrival points in a bid to speed up evacuations, officials said.
China meanwhile sent two Airbus A330 jets to bring its nationals back
from Egypt.
"The Chinese government attaches great importance to the security of
Chinese citizens in Egypt, and has coordinated relevant airlines to
increase flights to bring back stranded Chinese citizens," said a
foreign ministry source quoted by Xinhua news agency.
Turkey said it had brought 1,144 of its citizens home aboard five
specially chartered aircraft of Turkish Airlines from Cairo and
Alexandria on Sunday night, in addition to 330 flown back over the
weekend.
Indonesia ordered its citizens to leave Egypt, where more than 6,000
are believed to reside, and promised to dispatch military aircraft to
bring them home.
Japan said it was sending emergency charter planes to evacuate
hundreds of Japanese, some of whom have already left while many others
were stranded at Cairo airport.
Thai Airways planned a special flight to Cairo to repatriate Thai
tourists, but noted there were problems to overcome such as ground
servicing and refueling as it had no regular services to the Egyptian
capital.
Air India chartered a plane to bring back 320 Indians and decided to
divert another flight from its regular Mumbai-Jeddah route to pick up
more, airport sources told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Tunisair said it would be ferrying 150 Tunisians back to the country
whose own toppling of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali sparked the
Egyptian unrest.
While tour operators in many countries were planning to bring clients
back earlier than scheduled and canceled further excursions, they said
the situation in the main beach resorts on the Red Sea remained calm.
Foreign companies also began bringing home expatriate employees and
their families.
France Telecom and building materials company Saint Gobain said they
were following the example of other French groups, cement firm Lafarge
and bank Credit Agricole, and repatriating some 50 people.
Lafarge, which employs 70 expatriates in Egypt, and Italy's
Italcementi were halting cement production there, while Danish
shipping and oil group A.P. Moeller-Maersk also said it was suspending
its activities.
In Germany, wholesale distributor Metro said it had brought back 20-30
employees, adding that its two hypermarkets in Cairo had been looted
and were closed.
Energy group RWE said it had flown out some 90 people and vehicle
maker Daimler fewer than 50.
Russian companies Lukoil and Novatek were also evacuating staff, but
Moscow has given no order for some 40,000 tourists to come home and
many were happy to stay on the beach, agencies said.
Saudi Arabia said it organized 33 flights between Saturday and Monday
to take its nationals home.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called for a "transition toward
basic values of freedom, democracy, human rights and justice," while
up to 335 Canadians and other foreign nationals were flown out of the
country aboard chartered aircraft to escape bloody anti-government
protests.
Britain was advising its nationals to leave flashpoint Egyptian
cities, but tour operators stressed there was no need to pull tourists
out of popular Red Sea resorts.
France has also warned against unnecessary travel to Egypt, but
foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Paris was not yet
considering evacuating its roughly 10,000 citizens in the country.
The Havana Provincial Court slapped the longest sentence, 15 years, on
the director of the hospital, Wilfredo Castillo, for
"misappropriation" and "dereliction of duty," an official statement
read out on the state news broadcast said. The other sentences ranged
from 5 to 15 years.
The court said prosecutors proved their case but regretted that the
case resulted in "several people dying," the text said in part.
According to the official account, 26 patients died when temperatures
on the tropical island plunged to 3.9 degrees Celsius (39 degrees
Fahrenheit) beginning on January 9, 2010.
Cuba's outlawed human rights commission has estimated that more than
30 patients died because others perished later at other hospitals and
were not included in the official toll.
Hospital employees told the press at the time that the patients were
undernourished and had no blankets because the hospital's supplies had
been stolen by people who worked there.
Clinical evaluations of the victims found signs of malnutrition, a
high incidence of anemia and vitamin deficiencies, according to the
official report, which said the hospital received enough food for
2,458 patients when there were only 1,484 patients, the official
report said.
It added that an absence of controls "favored the misappropriation of
resources destined fundamentally for the nourishment of the patients,
as well as for clothing and bedding for their protection."
Health and education are free and available to all in Cuba, but the
government has acknowledged that the system has deteriorated in recent
years due to internal economic problems and the US trade embargo.
There are already 32,000 Ivory Coast refugees in neighboring Liberia
as growing numbers fear unrest between followers of political rivals
Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, according to UN figures.
"UN agencies have voiced concerns that if the current trends in
refugee influx continue, by mid-February there could be as many as
50,000 refugees in Liberia and 100,000 by the end of April," the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a
statement.
Many roads in Liberia are expected to become blocked by the rainy
season in April and the United Nations fears that much-needed supplies
will not get through to reach population centers.
Another 20,000 people have fled their homes in western Ivory Coast,
mainly in the Duekoue region, OCHA said. Many already rely on the
United Nations for food.
The UN agency said a "cholera epidemic" has been declared in the main
city Abidjan. It gave no details of numbers affected but said the
World Health Organization, UNICEF and local authorities were
distributing hundreds of thousands of bars of soap and chlorine.
Tensions have mounted in the West African nation since Gbagbo refused
to stand down as president and hand over power to internationally
recognized leader Ouattara.
Ouattara was declared winner of an election intended to reestablish
normality after a 2002 civil war that split the country in two for
many years.
Amid public outrage at his government's handling of the devastating
economic crisis, Cowen is to seek the dissolution of parliament from
President Mary McAleese and call a general election widely expected on
February 25.
Fianna Fail is heading for its worst-ever electoral defeat after a
brutal recession which forced Ireland in November to agree to loans
worth 67.5 billion euros ($92 billion) from the EU and IMF as part of
a rescue package.
Cowen had originally called the election for March 11.
But he has been forced to bring it forward after the Green party
withdrew from government 10 days ago in protest at a botched cabinet
reshuffle, leaving the centrist Fianna Fail ruling in a minority
government.
Cowen, who has been the target of much public anger for his
government's handling of the crisis, was also forced to step down as
head of his party, although he has remained prime minister.
Cowen said on Monday that he would not be standing in the election,
telling local radio station Midlands 103 that his "political career
comes an end with the calling of this election."
If the party -- which has dominated Irish politics for decades --
loses power as expected, it will be the first government to have
fallen because of the eurozone debt crisis which has battered the
single currency.
Ireland was the second eurozone country after Greece to seek a bailout.
The likely winner of the election will be a coalition involving Fine
Gael and the centre-left Labour party, headed by Fine Gael leader Enda
Kenny.
Two polls on Sunday showed Fianna Fail heading for a drubbing at the
hands of angry voters.
A MillwardBrown Lansdowne poll in the Sunday Independent newspaper had
Cowen's personal rating at 10 percent and dissatisfaction with the
government at 95 percent, the highest ever.
It showed Fine Gael at 34 percent, with Labour on 24 percent and
Fianna Fail at 16 percent.
And in a Red C poll for The Sunday Business Post, Fine Gael was on 33
percent, Labour 21 and Fianna Fail 16.
The upper house of the Irish parliament voted through a finance bill
key to securing the bailout late Saturday, preparing the ground for
Cowen to seek the dissolution of parliament.
All the main parties agreed that passing of the bill, which brings
into force measures from the government's harsh austerity budget,
before elections was necessary.
After the government lost its majority, opposition parties insisted
that the legislation be pushed through as fast as possible so
elections could be called.
Blizzard, winter storm and freezing rain warnings were issued for more
than 25 states, from North Dakota and Colorado down to New Mexico,
then up through Texas, Kansas and Missouri to the Great Lakes region
and across Pennsylvania to New England.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urged residents to
prepare in earnest for the fury of the storm as it barrels eastward
across the country.
"A storm of this size and scope needs to be taken seriously," said
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, who warned that "it's critical that
the public does its part to get ready."
Fugate urged residents in storm affected regions to "check on your
neighbors, especially the elderly and young children -- those who can
be most vulnerable during emergencies."
Scores of schools and government offices in US Midwest were closed
Monday as freezing rain began to fall, threatening to turn roads into
deadly ice rinks and down power lines and trees.
Airlines warned of significant delays and cancellations and offered
customers a chance to rebook flights at no fee.
The worst of the storm was expected Tuesday as a large amount of
moisture sucked up from the Gulf of Mexico feeds the huge system and
is transformed into snow and thunderstorms.
Powerful winds and heavy snow could create white-out conditions and
drifts as high as six to eight feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters), making travel
impossible.
"Lurking behind this impressive winter storm is a powerful shot of
Arctic air as a frigid surface high drops down from central Canada,"
the National Weather Service warned.
Wind chills were forecast to drop to 30 to 50 below in Colorado,
Wyoming, the Dakotas, Kansas, Idaho and even parts of Texas.
Officials warned the public to stay at home rather than try to brave
the crippling storm.
"It doesn't take a whole lot to make everything slick and if roads
aren't treated they're going to get icy and then it's going to snow on
top of that, which is going to make matters worse because you can't
see the ice," Pat Slattery, a spokesman for the weather service, told
AFP.
"One of the concerns about the freezing precipitation is if it gets
heavy and starts taking down power lines and trees because people have
no way to keep their homes warm, and a bitter cold will follow right
on the heels of the snow and freezing rain."
As much as 18 inches (45 centimeters) of snow was expected in the
Chicago area and officials warned that ploughs would not be able keep
up, making side streets impassable.
Gusts up to 60 miles per hour could also lead to flooding along the
lake shore as waves build up to 25 feet.
Many other areas were predicted to get over a foot (30 centimeters) of snow.
"The east coast will begin to get in on the winter weather action
Monday night as the precipitation begins to nose its way over the
Appalachians," the weather service warned.
"By Tuesday morning the mid-Atlantic and southern New England states
will be in the mix."
The storm arrived just days after a rare thunder-snow storm paralyzed
air and ground travel from Washington to Boston.
After building up early Wednesday with ice and freezing rain, last
week's storm blindsided the US capital at the height of the evening
rush hour Thursday, not even sparing President Barack Obama, who faced
travel delays upon returning from a day trip to the US Midwest.
There was no word yet on whether the latest storm would impact
Groundhog Day on Wednesday, when the nation watches Phil, the weather
predicting groundhog in Punxsutawney (Pennsylvania), to see if six
more weeks of winter are still to come.
The Obama administration immediately pledged to appeal and branded the
ruling by a Florida judge as an "outlier" from the judicial
mainstream, warning that health care costs would soar if it was
allowed to stand.
But Republicans crowed that the ruling was one step closer to the
outright repeal of a law that has been a Democratic dream for decades
but that conservatives say will explode the deficit and kill jobs.
US District Judge Roger Vinson said a key provision of the law known
as the "individual mandate" exceeds Congress's regulatory powers by
requiring Americans to either purchase health insurance by 2014 or pay
a fine.
"Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable,
the entire act must be declared void," Vinson said in his ruling, the
latest step of a twisting legal battle likely to end up in the US
Supreme Court.
"This has been a difficult decision to reach, and I am aware that it
will have indeterminable implications."
Vinson agreed with governors and attorneys general from 26 US states
that consider the provision unconstitutional.
But the Justice Department quickly said it would appeal Vinson's
ruling, and consider all options -- including a stay of the verdict
pending appeal -- to ensure the health care law can go into force.
The health care law, which passed last year, is the most sweeping
piece of social legislation since the 1960s, reins in insurance
company abuses and brings America as close as it has ever been to
universal coverage.
"Today's ruling... is a plain case of judicial overreaching,"
Stephanie Cutter, a senior political assistant to Obama, said in a
White House blog post.
"The judge's decision puts all of the new benefits, cost savings and
patient protections that were included in the law at risk."
In December, Judge Henry Hudson of the Eastern District Court in
Richmond, Virginia, found that the mandate usurps federal authority
and violates the Commerce Clause, a key component of the US
Constitution.
Some 12 federal judges have already struck down challenges to the law,
and two have upheld the legislation.
Republicans pounced on the latest ruling, seeking fuel for their
campaign to overturn the reform -- a vain hope for now, as Obama could
wield a presidential veto in the unlikely event a repeal law cleared
Congress.
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the court's
decision proved the health care law was a "massive overreach" and
exceeded congressional authority.
"We should repeal this health spending bill and replace it with
commonsense reforms that will actually lower costs, prevent
unsustainable entitlement promises and make it easier for employers to
start hiring again," he added.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called the
ruling a "major victory for the American people and job-creators all
across the country."
Obama's Republican foes have claimed the health care law includes
rationing for end of life care, would add to the massive deficit and
will kill jobs as employers struggle to pay for what they say will be
rising premiums.
The new Republican-led House of Representatives has already voted to
repeal the health reform law, which reins in insurance firms and seeks
to offer near-universal care to Americans for the first time.
Obama said in his State of the Union address earlier this month that
he was "eager" to work with Republicans to make small improvements in
the law but was not willing to consider a complete repeal.
Opinion polls have found the US public deeply divided over the health
law, with roughly one in five in favor of outright repeal and the rest
divided between strengthening the law and rolling back parts of it.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, packing winds of more than 250
kilometres (160 miles) per hour, was due to collide with the populous
and resort-strewn coast late Wednesday or early Thursday, bringing
with it a treacherous storm surge and heavy rains.
Patients in a waterfront hospital in the tourist hub of Cairns faced
evacuation to other cities, while officials urged residents in coastal
areas to leave home immediately as the storm gathers strength over the
Coral Sea.
"This is a dangerous, serious threat," warned Queensland Premier Anna
Bligh. "This is potentially a deadly storm and we need to take it
absolutely seriously.
"If you are in a low-lying or waterfront area in the danger zone and
beyond you need to relocate yourself and your family to safety," she
said, adding that mandatory evacuations would likely be ordered later
Tuesday.
Yasi is expected to reach a severe category four on a five-point scale
by the time it makes landfall and will likely eclipse Cyclone Larry --
a 2006 storm that wrought up to Aus$1.5 billion in damage -- in both
intensity and size.
Meteorologists said the storm would likely hit between Cairns and the
town of Innisfail, but warned that its winds and rains may be felt up
to 500 kilometres away.
"I think... we need to prepare for the eventuality of something really
significant heading into areas that may not have seen this before,"
meteorologist Gordon Banks told public broadcaster ABC.
Airlines on Tuesday put on additional flights to far north Queensland
to evacuate thousands of residents and tourists from the region before
wild winds force the closure of airports as early as Wednesday
morning.
Holidaymakers in the tourist paradise of Hamilton Island in the
Whitsundays chain were abandoning the white beaches and evacuating
their plush suites before flying to safety.
"We have asked our guests and residents to postpone the remainder of
their holidays and we are helping them to arrange their flights out,"
Jill Collins of the Hamilton Island resort told AFP.
"The main thing is the safety of our guests, staff and residents. We
hope for the best but have to prepare or the worst at time like this."
Queensland is still reeling from a record deluge and floods that have
destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed more than 30 people
since December.
"I know that many of us will feel that Queensland has borne about as
much as we can bear when it comes to disasters and storms, but more is
being asked of us and I am confident that we are able rise to the
challenge," Bligh said.
As Mubarak announced a new cabinet that saw the demise of a widely
feared interior minister, and the newly appointed vice president
offered talks with the opposition, protesters pushed ahead with a
singular goal of forcing the president from office.
They announced an indefinite general strike and called for a "march of
a million" in the capital on Tuesday, the eighth day of an uprising
that has claimed at least 125 lives in clashes between demonstrators
and police.
Another million-strong march was planned in the Mediterranean port
city of Alexandria, as national train services were cancelled in an
apparent bid to stymie protests.
The new demonstrations will come as the hated police have returned to
the street after a mysterious two-day absence that protesters said was
a ploy to sow a sense of insecurity.
But while it remains unknown what posture police will adopt in the
face of the strike and marches, the army stated clearly that it would
not confront the demonstrators.
"To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the
legitimate rights of the people," stress that "they have not and will
not use force against the Egyptian people," the military said in a
statement.
Tens of thousands of protesters had carpeted Cairo's Tahrir
(Liberation) Square, the epicentre of demands for an end to the
corruption, deprivation and police oppression indelibly associated
with Mubarak's 30-year rule.
"We will stay in the square, until the coward leaves," the crowd chanted.
Eid Mohammed, an organiser of the protests, told AFP: "It was decided
overnight that there will be a million-man march on Tuesday. We have
also decided to begin an open-ended general strike."
Faced with the biggest protests of his presidency, an increasingly
embattled Mubarak has appointed his first-ever vice president and a
new prime minister in a desperate attempt to hold on to power.
A new cabinet unveiled on Monday did little to placate the protesters.
However, the departure of interior minister Habib al-Adly, whose
notorious security forces have been accused of systematic human rights
violations, was welcomed.
"We will accept no change other than Mubarak's departure," said one
protester who asked not to be named.
Another, Rifat Ressat, said: "We want a complete change of government,
with a civilian authority."
Police were ordered back onto the nation's streets on Monday, after an
absence during which the army was deployed in the face of the revolt,
but few policemen were visible on Cairo's streets.
Their vanishing act remains unexplained officially, but it left the
city prey to looters and jail-breakers, and residents formed
self-defence groups to protect their patches.
As the anti-regime campaign continued apace, Vice President Omar
Suleiman said Mubarak had tasked him "with opening immediate talks
with the political forces to begin a dialogue around all the issues
concerning constitutional and legislative reforms."
Meanwhile, Arab League chief Amr Mussa, a highly former Egyptian
foreign minister often tipped as a possible successor to Mubarak,
called for a peaceful transition.
"There has to be a peaceful way forward, a peaceful transition ...
from an era to the other," Mussa told AFP. "It is incumbent upon
politicians or people working in politics to help that process."
Protesters massed in downtown Cairo vowed that Mubarak's resignation
would not be enough, while Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim
Brotherhood, called for them to press on until they bring down his
creaking regime.
Amid chaos and lawlessness, several foreign governments said they
would evacuate their nationals, and the United States authorised the
departure of embassy families.
Washington, a key ally of Egypt, has urged Mubarak to do more to
defuse the crisis, with President Barack Obama calling for "an orderly
transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of
the Egyptian people."
The ministry said it was sticking to its original suggested date of
February 11 for the preliminary talks, after the North over the
weekend proposed bringing them forward to February 1.
It would be the first cross-border dialogue since Pyongyang's
bombardment of a border island on November 23 which killed four people
including civilians.
The working-level talks, probably between colonels, are aimed at
setting the date, place and agenda for high-level military dialogue.
But Seoul says the high-level meeting will only go ahead if Pyongyang
takes responsibility for two attacks last year and promises no
repetition.
Apart from the shelling, the South accuses the North of torpedoing a
warship last March with the loss of 46 lives, a charge the North
denies.
The North also says its artillery attack on Yeonpyeong island, near
the disputed Yellow Sea border, was a justified response to a South
Korean drill which dropped shells into waters claimed by Pyongyang.
After months of fiery rhetoric, the North has changed tack this year
and made frequent appeals for dialogue. The South has described most
of the approaches as insincere.
It was unclear why the North wanted to advance the date for the
working-level talks, to be held at the border village of Panmunjom.
Officials quoted by Yonhap news agency said Pyongyang may be trying to
resume high-level dialogue before the birthday of its leader Kim
Jong-Il on February 16.
Tropical Cyclone Anthony, packing winds of up to 150 kilometres (90
miles) an hour, hit the coast of Queensland state late Sunday,
uprooting trees and hammering houses but sparing the stricken state
from any major damage.
"There's a lot of trees down and that sort of thing, (in) the harbour
itself, there's a few boats with torn canopies and a bit of debris
around, but not too bad at all," fisherman Terry Much said after
Anthony hit the town of Bowen.
Parts of Bowen, which lies about 1,100 kilometres north of the state
capital Brisbane, were left without power after the storm the coast
before being downgraded to a tropical low as it moved inland.
"We've had a couple of loose sheets of iron on roofs and reports of a
few windows on pubs that went out," said Mike Brunker, mayor of
Whitsunday, which is just south of Bowen.
"But as far as that sort of damage, we've dodged a bullet, I think,"
he told public broadcaster ABC.
But as residents of the state that has been hit by rolling floods
since December breathed a sigh of relief, officials warned that
Cyclone Yasi, which is forming over the Coral Sea, posed a major
threat to Queensland.
"It does certainly look like it's going to develop into a more
significant system than (Cyclone) Anthony over the next few days,"
said Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Rick Threlfall.
"It's got a lot of water to come across and therefore can pick up a
lot of energy from that water, so it does look like good conditions
for the development of this system."
Yasi was Monday classified as a category one -- or low intensity --
cyclone, but is expected to build up its power as it moves westwards
towards Queensland where it is tipped to hit late Wednesday or early
Thursday.
"It's pretty difficult to tie down exactly where at this stage, but
it's just something we'll have to sort of develop over the next few
days," said Threlfall.
Scores of Queensland towns have been devastated and more than 30
people killed by flooding in recent weeks that caused Australia's most
expensive natural disaster on record.
The Sahelian country's 6.7 million registered voters must choose
between three former allies of deposed ex-president Mamadou Tandja and
a longtime opponent of the former leader to head the country under the
shadow of the growing threat of Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Voting booths for the elections -- which include legislative as well
as presidential ones -- open at 8:00 am local time (0700 GMT) and
close at 7:00 pm.
Following a likely second round scheduled for March 12, a civilian
will be named head of the African state on April 6.
The wind-swept capital Niamey was calm Sunday, just hours after the
official end of the campaign at midnight. But posters dotting
virtually deserted streets attested to the political battle ahead.
Several candidates have emerged from a scrum of 10 running for the presidency.
Chief among them is opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou, whose Social
Democratic Party represents change. He faces a challenge, however,
from three other candidates intent on blocking his way.
They include Seini Oumarou, the anointed follower of Tandja, who is
still languishing in jail, and whose National Movement for the
Development of Society he leads.
Former prime minister Hama Amadou is also close to the deposed leader
while Niger's first democratically-elected president in 1993, Mahamane
Ousmane, is trying for another term.
Oumarou, Amadou and Ousmane have created a stir in Niger by forging a
pact meant to deny Issoufou victory should no candidate emerge with an
overall majority and the presidential poll goes to a second round.
In the event one of them finds himself in a head-to-head against the
social democrat the other two will give him their full backing.
True to its word, no member of the ruling junta, which agreed to
preside over a transition to civilian rule, is standing for election
in Monday's polls.
The junta took power in February last year to end a crisis triggered
by then president Tandja's attempts to extend his rule beyond the
constitutionally allowed limits.
Tanja will be following the vote from prison, where he was transferred
in mid-January from house arrest on allegations of financial
misappropriation.
The four leading candidates have organized a flurry of meetings in
recent days after a slow start to their campaigns.
Most candidates had hoped for the election to be delayed, citing a
number of lists for the legislative vote that had been rejected due to
organisational problems.
"The parliament will not be representative," a Western diplomat based
here warned. "It risks not lasting."
All main candidates in the former French colony have similar
platforms, with fighting poverty which afflicts 60 percent of the
population the main goal along with a more equitable distribution of
income, notably from the mining of uranium of which Niger is a leading
producer.
Niger's history of 50 years since independence from Paris has been a
series of coups and military regimes. The past leaves many voters
sceptical about prospects for democracy when most of the candidates
have ties to previous regimes and Tandja is said to be closely
watching developments from his prison cell.
The United States and Iraq said they were starting to organize
evacuations of their nationals, while Turkey, India, Greece, Canada
and Saudi Arabia either planned to or had already sent planes to begin
taking out their citizens.
Britain, France, China, Australia, Argentina and Nordic countries
warned their citizens not to travel to the country but had no plans
yet for full-scale evacuations.
"US citizens in Egypt should consider leaving as soon as they can do
so," Assistant Secretary of State Janice Jacobs told reporters in a
conference call.
The United States plans to begin evacuating Americans on Monday aboard
government-arranged chartered planes. Athens, Istanbul and Nicosia
have been identified as possible "safe havens." She did not know the
number of Americans in Egypt.
Iraq said it would lay on special flights to evacuate its citizens
from Egypt and Turkey said it sent five planes to evacuate its
approximately 750 citizens registered in the country.
Saudi Arabia said it organized 33 flights between Saturday and Monday
to take its nationals home.
India sent a passenger plane to Cairo to evacuate Indian citizens, as
did the small ex-Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, which said one of its
embassy staff had been killed from a gunshot wound in the unrest.
The Canadian government "is recommending that Canadians leave,"
Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said Sunday. Ottawa planned to
charter planes to get Canadians to evacuation points in Europe,
possibly beginning Monday.
Britain was advising its nationals to leave flashpoint Egyptian
cities, but tour operators stressed there was no need to pull tourists
out of popular Red Sea resorts.
The British Foreign Office advised against all but essential travel to
Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Luxor.
"We do want people to take the opportunity if they are able to
leave... but as yet the situation has not reached the stage where we
would necessarily be considering chartering planes and getting larger
numbers out," Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt told the BBC.
The Foreign Office said some 30,000 Britons were in the country.
France has also warned against unnecessary travel to Egypt, but
foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Paris was not yet
considering evacuating its roughly 10,000 citizens in the country.
"We have the capacity to react" if need be, Valero told AFP, adding
that France was "permanently monitoring" the situation in Egypt and
"completely mobilized" to assist French citizens.
In Australia, the Foreign Office upgraded its travel warning from
"reconsider your need to travel" to "do not travel", counseling
Australians against journeying to Egypt and advising those currently
there to get out if possible.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said there were 870 Australians
registered in Egypt but the real number was "likely to be in the
thousands" and told anyone who could safely exit to strongly consider
doing so.
China's embassy in Cairo said on its website that the foreign ministry
in Beijing had issued a "red" warning on Sunday, "requiring all
Chinese citizens not to travel to Egypt."
It urged Chinese nationals in Egypt to be careful of their safety and
not to go outside unless necessary, adding that 300 Chinese nationals
had been stranded due to cancelled flights.
Russia said it had no plans to immediately evacuate its about 40,000
citizens in Egypt.
"There is no reason to evacuate Russian tourists from Egypt for the
moment," a spokesman for the country's tourism agency, Oleg Moseyev,
told the Ria Novosti news agency.
"People are continuing to leave for the country's seaside resorts,
while signing a note saying they are aware of the situation," he said,
adding that only three tourists had asked their tour operators to cut
short their trip.
A Belgian tour operator, Jetair, announced it was evacuating all its
clients from Egypt but the country's government said it would not
organize a full-scale evacuation.
"For the moment, we don't envisage urging Belgians living in Egypt to
leave the country or organize evacuations," a foreign ministry
spokesman said, though a warning against traveling to Egypt was still
in place.
Argentina urged its citizens Sunday to avoid travel to Egypt "until
the situation returns to normal," according to a statement.
Clinton was to meet President Rene Preval and the three main
candidates vying to succeed him in disputed November polls, including
his protege, who has been under mounting US-led pressure to step down
over fraud allegations.
The top US diplomat told reporters that Washington backed the
recommendations of international monitors, who have urged the ruling
party presidential candidate, Jude Celestin, to exit the race.
But she also appeared to leave the door open to other solutions,
saying there have been "legitimate concerns raised by various figures
in Haiti, not just President Preval, but others, about what is the
best compromise."
Clinton, who traveled to Haiti days after a catastrophic quake killed
more than 220,000 people in January 2010, also planned to visit a
cholera clinic to highlight the outbreak that has killed 4,000 since
mid-October.
At Port-au-Prince airport, Clinton said she had come with a "very
simple message" of US support for the country.
"We want to see the reconstruction continued. We want to see the
voices and votes of the Haitian people acknowledged," she said, before
meeting with UN representative Edmond Mulet at the start of the
day-long tour.
Little has been rebuilt since the January 2010 earthquake flattened
large swathes of the capital, including the presidential palace, and
the elections that were supposed to bring renewed hope kicked off
deadly riots in December.
Haiti's election commission has said it will announce definitive
results from the first round on Wednesday and has scheduled a
long-delayed second round for March 20, with those results to be
announced April 16.
The announcement of preliminary first round results last month set off
days of unrest when Preval's protege Celestin narrowly edged a popular
singer out of the second round run-off.
According to preliminary results from the November 28 poll, Celestin
garnered 7,000 more votes than Michel Martelly, securing a place in
the run-off against the frontrunner, former first lady Mirlande
Manigat.
Within hours of the announcement, protests swept Haitian towns,
leaving five dead and the country in crisis as opposition candidates
accused Preval and the electoral commission of rigging the poll.
A team of international monitors from the Organization of American
States (OAS) called in by Preval found widespread vote tampering and
fraud in Celestin's favor and recommended that he withdraw.
The ruling party has since bowed to weeks of US-led pressure over the
widespread allegations of fraud, announcing that Celestin would not
advance to the next round. But Celestin himself has not yet confirmed
his exit.
His lawyer, Osner Fevry, said Saturday that the OAS report has "no
legal value and is not binding on the electoral institution."
Martelly's lawyer Gregory Mayard-Paul countered that the electoral
commission must "fully respect" the report.
Clinton meanwhile stressed the international backing for the OAS
report, saying: "It's not only those of us in the hemisphere that are
concerned, but the UN, the European Union, and others.
"We would like to see those recommendations enacted."
Haitians had hoped the presidential and parliamentary elections would
bring in a new leadership that could rebuild the country.
The international community has pledged almost 10 billion dollars for
reconstruction, but donors have held back on delivering most of the
funds because of the tenuous political situation.
Clinton's husband, former US president Bill Clinton, who has
represented international donors in the recovery effort, said he was
"frustrated" with the slow pace of rebuilding during a visit to Haiti
earlier this month.
The tense political standoff was thrown into further confusion two
weeks ago by the surprise return of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, a
former strongman driven out by massive protests 25 years ago.
Earlier partial results had already put the outcome of the vote beyond
doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time
during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern
capital Juba.
The discreet leader, who is to steer southern Sudan to statehood in
July after overseeing a six-year transition period, said the more than
two million victims of the 22-year civil war with the north had not
died in vain.
Chan Reec, chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau in charge
of polling in the south, said a whopping 99.57 percent of those who
voted there chose secession.
Turnout in the south stood at 99 percent, with only 16,129 people
voting for Africa's largest country to remain united, said Reec, whose
announcement was met by cheers from the crowd.
Mohamed Khalil Ibrahim, who chairs the overall referendum commission,
said 58 percent of southerners residing in the north and 99 percent of
overseas voters chose to break away.
"The results just announced are decisive," he said.
Updated figures published on the Southern Sudan Referendum
Commission's website and accounting for 100 percent of ballots cast in
both the north and the south gave secession an overwhelming 98.83
percent of the vote.
Kiir paid homage to the victims of the war.
"I want to assure them and their families that these people did not
die in vain," he said in front of diplomats and officials at former
rebel leader John Garang's mausoleum.
The revered Garang died in a plane crash shortly after signing the
January 2005 peace agreement that ended more than two decades of
conflict between the black Christian-dominated south and the mainly
Arab Muslim north.
The emotional week-long referendum, which saw huge lines of dancing
and praying voters form outside polling stations long before dawn on
the first day of voting, was the centrepiece of the peace deal.
The ceremony in Juba on Sunday ended in wild dancing to songs
celebrating "the promised land."
"We have shown them in the north that we want to be free. We stand a
whisker away from independence, so today we dance for our better
futures," said James Mut, a student and one of the revellers.
In Khartoum, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who spearheaded the
north's efforts to quash the rebellion during much of the 1983-2005
civil war, has already recognised the prospect of partition.
Earlier this month, he described the south's decision to become the
world's 193rd state as "a new beginning" and expressed hope the two
countries would enjoy "brotherly" relations, in comments that drew
rare praise from Washington.
Kiir reciprocated his "brother" Bashir's declaration of goodwill and
said in his speech: "We must stand with him."
Khartoum on Sunday faced demonstrations inspired by the popular revolt
that has rattled the 30-year-old regime in neighbouring Egypt and the
uprising earlier this month in Tunisia.
The opposition Umma party condemned police repression of the protests
and charged it was Bashir's policies that had driven the youth to the
streets and caused the partition of the country.
As southerners in contrast basked in a moment of national unanimity,
Kiir again cautioned against premature celebrations.
"What did you think I would do here? Declare the independence of
southern Sudan? We cannot do that. Let us respect the agreement," Kiir
said.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, whose country is a member of
a Sudan peace troika, welcomed the announcement of the preliminary
results but warned of the bumpy road ahead.
"There remains a huge amount for the Sudanese parties to do before the
conclusion of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and independence of
Southern Sudan, on 9 July 2011," he said in a statement.
Khartoum and Juba have only six months to agree on the demarcation of
their border, oil revenue sharing, citizenship and the future of the
disputed region of Abyei, among other issues unresolved issues.
Britain, Norway and the United States are the three main Western
brokers of the Sudanese peace process.
No foreign media representatives were allowed to witness the event or
even take photographs of the new parliament building where elected and
designated lawmakers convened in the military regime's purpose-built
capital, Naypyidaw.
"Parliament started at 8:55 (am, 0225 GMT). All members attended," a
Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The timing -- almost certainly a product of the regime's penchant for
astrology -- was just one aspect of this new parliament peculiar to a
nation that has withered under the iron grip of military rule since
1962.
After a rare election in November, marred by the absence of democracy
icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation, the
junta was set to easily dominate Myanmar's first parliamentary session
in two decades.
The formation of the national parliament in Naypyidaw and 14 regional
assemblies takes the country towards the final stage of the junta's
so-called "roadmap" to a "disciplined democracy", conceived in 2003.
But a quarter of the seats were kept aside for the military even
before the vote, and the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development
Party claimed an overwhelming victory, winning 882 out of 1,154 seats.
While the regime may have been planning for years, the lawmakers
themselves were in the dark about their roles in the parliament, where
proceedings may remain secret and rules ban recording devices,
computers and mobile phones.
"No one really knows how the parliaments will be organised. We will
know when we get there," said Soe Win, a National Democratic Force
(NDF) legislator.
"My feeling is that we are moving one step forward."
Suu Kyi, released from house arrest a few days after the polls, was
less optimistic in a Financial Times interview published this weekend,
downplaying the impact of political changes.
"I don't think the elections mean there is going to be any kind of
real change in the political process," she was quoted as saying. "I
was released because my term was up. There is nothing strange about
it."
The crucial question of who will be the country's next president has
yet to be discussed openly, although Thura Shwe Mann, the former army
number three, has recently been linked with the top spot.
Senior General Than Shwe, who has dominated the country since taking
power in 1992, is now 77 but analysts say the strongman is reluctant
to relinquish his hold completely.
Once appointed, the president will select a government, and can be
confident of little resistance from a parliament dominated by the
military and its cronies.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) will not have a voice
after it was disbanded for opting to boycott the election, while the
two main opposition parties that decided to participate and won seats
are political minnows.
The NDF, which split from the NLD in order to contest the vote, will
take 16 seats in national and regional legislatures and the Democratic
Party (Myanmar) has just three.
Parties from the country's diverse ethnic minority regions have a
little more clout than the democracy parties and want to speak up for
their areas, which many feel have long been neglected.
He said Ennahda (Awakening) would join the government formed after
president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's downfall if asked to do so,
although he emphasised that it would not field a candidate in planned
presidential elections.
"If we feel that the government satisfies the expectations of those
who have led this revolution, then why not," Ghannouchi said, speaking
in a room decorated with a Tunisian flag as his aides offered tea and
sweets to visitors.
"We were not consulted on the formation of the government. They want
to forge Tunisia's future without allowing other political forces to
take part," said Ghannouchi, who was greeted by thousands earlier on
Sunday in Tunis.
A veteran opposition leader, Moncef Marzouki, who has also returned
from exile since Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14, was one
of the dozens of people who came to pay his respects and he embraced
Ghannouchi.
"The country needs all political forces, it needs a national unity
government in which everyone can take part," Ghannouchi said.
"I myself will not run for the presidency," he said, adding that he
did not have ambitions for a ministerial or other type of official
role.
He also dismissed fears among some Tunisians that his movement could
seek to roll back women's rights, saying these were the fruit of Ben
Ali's "propaganda machine" and he said he was "ready for dialogue" on
issues such as abortion.
"People must accept that there are different versions of political
Islam. We are much closer to the AKP of Turkey than we can ever be to
the Taliban or (Osama) Bin Laden," he said, referring to Turkey's
ruling Justice and Development Party.
There were emotional scenes at the airport on Sunday as supporters
held up olive branches, flowers and copies of the Koran to welcome
Ghannouchi, who had not been in his native land since fleeing
persecution by Ben Ali in 1989.
"God is great!" Ghannouchi cried out, raising his arms in triumph as
he walked into the arrivals hall, the crowd around him intoning a
religious song in honour of the Prophet Mohammed and singing Tunisia's
national anthem.
"I am like a child who has returned to his mother's arms," he said.
But there were also dozens of people protesting his arrival at the
airport, holding up placards that warned against Islamic
fundamentalism.
Experts said it is hard to gauge the strength of Islamism as a
political force in Tunisia as it has been banned for decades. But
Islamists were Tunisia's most-powerful opposition force before
persecution began in the early 1980s.
"There's a lot more sentiment in his favour than most people realise.
But they're only going to be a player, not a dominant force," said
George Joffe, a lecturer in international affairs at Cambridge
University.
The interim government installed in the north African state after the
ouster of Ben Ali amid a wave of protests has granted unprecedented
freedoms and allowed key exiles to return despite the bans from the
old regime.
Ghannouchi still officially has a life sentence hanging over his head
for plotting against the former president, although the government has
drawn up an amnesty law for convicted activists that now has to go
before parliament.
"I have come to pay homage," said Mohammed Mahfoud, 37, a trade
unionist who had come to welcome Ghannouchi at the airport.
Najwa, a teacher who said she was imprisoned for wearing an Islamic
veil, said: "Everything that's said about him are lies... He's a
moderate Islamist."
But the views on the streets of Tunis were far more critical.
"He has not said what he plans to do. He could cause trouble and
destabilise the upcoming elections," said Amenallah Darwish, a
29-year-old lawyer.
Ghannouchi fled Tunisia two years after Ben Ali came to power in a
bloodless coup in 1987. In elections in 1989, which were heavily
falsified, an Islamist-backed coalition still managed to win 17
percent of the vote.
Shortly after that, persecution of leading Islamists began and
Ghannouchi went first to Algeria and then to Britain in 1991. Hundreds
of Islamist activists who stayed behind were thrown into prison, often
on flimsy charges.
His instructions to Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq were read out on state
television but had no discernable effect on protesters who vowed to
continue their demonstrations until Mubarak stepped down.
Mubarak, who sacked his cabinet on Friday after a nationwide revolt,
also said the new prime minister's priority was restricting
unemployment and creating new jobs.
"Above all that, and concurrent with it, I emphasise the importance of
urgently, completely, effectively taking new and continuous steps for
more political reforms, constitutional and legislative, through
dialogue with all parties," Mubarak told Shafiq.
He also instructed the new cabinet, whose members have not yet been
named, to restrict unemployment, end corruption and restore trust in
the country's economy.
Thousands of protesters stayed put in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of
demonstrations in the capital, with some setting up tents to stay
overnight despite a military curfew.
Top dissident Mohamed ElBaradei earlier told a sea of angry protesters
in the square that they were beginning a new era after the six day
revolt.
The Nobel laureate, who was mandated by Egyptian opposition groups
including the banned Muslim Brotherhood to negotiate with Mubarak's
regime, hailed "a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom
and dignity."
"We are on the right path, our strength is in our numbers," ElBaradei
said in his first address on Tahrir square. "I ask you to be patient,
change is coming."
"We will sacrifice our soul and our blood for the nation," the angry
crowd shouted. "The people want to topple the president."
Brotherhood leaders Essam el-Erian and Saad el-Katatni, who walked out
of prison earlier on Sunday after their guards fled, also addressed
the crowd.
"They tried every way to stop the revolution of the people but we will
be steadfast regardless of how many martyrs fall," Erian said.
The protests against Mubarak's three-decade rule have shaken Egypt and
left at least 125 people dead as the veteran leader clings to power.
A curfew slapped on Cairo, Alexandria and Suez on Friday was further
extended on Sunday from 3:00 pm to 8:00 am, state television said,
leaving citizens only seven hours a day to take to the street.
Mubarak has struggled to placate a nation angry at his three decades
of autocratic rule with token gestures such as sacking the government.
Parliament speaker Fathi Surur on Sunday made another concession,
saying the results of last year's fraud-tainted parliamentary
elections would be revised.
Several foreign governments said they would evacuate their nationals,
while the United States authorised the departure of embassy families.
Mubarak on Sunday met with army brass seen as holding the key to his
future as warplanes roared low over the downtown Cairo protest in an
apparent show of force.
State television said he visited central military command where he met
his newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, the intelligence
chief.
Mubarak, a former air force chief, appeared to be bolstering his army
support as he faces down the revolt.
Washington, a key ally of Egypt, called on Mubarak to do more to
defuse the crisis but stopped short of saying he should quit.
But President Barack Obama also voiced support for "an orderly
transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of
the Egyptian people," in calls to regional leaders on Saturday, the
White House said.
With fears of insecurity rising, thousands of convicts broke out of
prisons across Egypt overnight after they overwhelmed guards or after
prison personnel fled their posts.
An AFP correspondent saw 14 bodies in a mosque near Cairo's Abu Zaabal
prison, which a resident said were of two police and 12 convicts.
Troops set up checkpoints on roads to riot-hit prisons, stopping and
searching cars for prisoners on the run.
Among those who escaped were senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood,
as well as members of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, some of whom
made it back to the Gaza Strip through smuggling tunnels.
With rampant pillaging during the deadly protests, many Egyptians
believe the police deliberately released prisoners in order to spread
chaos and emphasise the need for the security forces.
"The government wants the people to think that Mubarak is the only
option faced with the chaos," said young demonstrator Sameh Kamal.
Groups of club-carrying vigilantes have deployed on Cairo's streets to
protect property from looters amid growing insecurity as the Arab
world's most populous nation faced an uncertain future.
Youths handed over suspected looters to the army, as police who had
battled stone-throwing protesters in the first days of the
demonstrations were hardly visible.
Many petrol stations are running out of fuel, motorists said, and many
bank cash machines have either been looted or no longer work. Egyptian
banks and the stock exchange were ordered closed on Sunday.
Protesters dismissed Mubarak's new appointments as too little and too late.
Both men are stalwarts of Egypt's all-powerful military establishment.
Suleiman, 75, has spearheaded years of Egyptian efforts to clinch an
elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, and tried so far in vain to
mediate an inter-Palestinian reconciliation.
Shafiq, 69, is respected by the elite, even among the opposition, and
has often been mooted as a potential successor to Mubarak.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an
"orderly transition" in Egypt but stopped short of demanding that he
step down.
Asked if Mubarak had taken sufficient steps to defuse Egypt's worst
crisis in decades by appointing a vice president and naming a new
premier, Clinton told ABC: "Of course not."
"That is the beginning, the bare beginning of what needs to happen,
which is a process that leads to the kind of concrete steps to achieve
democratic and economic reform that we've been urging."
The Obama administration, she added, has not discussed cutting off aid
to Egypt, a key Arab ally.
US military aid to Egypt amounts to $1.3 billion a year, and the total
American aid bill to the country averages close to $2 billion
annually.
Cavill will star as Superman (and, obviously, Clark Kent) in the next
installment of the movie franchise. Warner Bros. Pictures announced
the casting Sunday.
The film is to be directed by "300" director Zack Snyder, who says in
a statement Cavill is "the perfect choice to don the cape and `S'
shield."
No title has been announced for the film, which is intended to reboot
the franchise after its latest incarnation fizzled. The 2006 movie
"Superman Returns" was directed by Bryan Singer and starred Brandon
Routh as the Man of Steel.
Cavill is relatively unknown. He had been considered for the
blockbuster roles of Batman, James Bond and even the previous version
of Superman. He co-starred on Showtime's "The Tudors."
Warner Bros. is targeting December 2012 for release.
