Clinton tries to break Haiti deadlock

AFP, PORT-AU-PRINCE: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited
Haiti in a bid to smooth its course towards a final vote after
disputed first-round elections plunged the country into uncertainty.

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.

South Sudan chooses to secede

AFP, JUBA, Sudan: Almost 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede
from the north and create a new country in a January 9-15 referendum,
according to the first complete preliminary results announced on
Sunday.

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.

Myanmar opens junta-dominated parliament

AFP, NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar's new junta-dominated parliament opened on
Monday as lawmakers assembled in secrecy for their first legislative
session since the late 1980s following a widely panned election.

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.

Tunisian Islamist leader eyes political role

AFP, TUNIS: Tunisian Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi told AFP his
movement wanted to play a political role in Tunisia, upon returning to
his homeland from more than 20 years in exile after the fall of the
old regime.

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.

Protests continue as Egypt PM tasked with reforms

AFP, CAIRO: Egypt's embattled President Hosni Mubarak tasked his new
prime minister to ram through democratic reforms as thousands of
protesters in central Cairo defied a military curfew to demand the
veteran leader's ouster.

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.

British actor Henry Cavill is going up

AP, NEW YORK: British actor Henry Cavill is going up, up and away.

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.

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