Canada recognizes Libyan rebels

OTTAWA: Canada recognizes Libyan rebels as the "legitimate representative" of the people of Libya, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Tuesday.
The diplomatic shift came as parliamentarians debated an extension of Canada's participation in NATO's efforts to protect Libyan civilians from forces loyal to strongman Moamer Kadhafi.
Ottawa previously referred to Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) only as a "valid interlocutor."
"Canada will ... recognize the NTC as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people going forward," as part of a new "enhanced engagement strategy," Baird said in the House of Commons.
"Our government will engage with the institutions and representatives of the NTC," he said, adding he would meet with the rebel group's vice-chair and UN envoy and "identify members of the NTC responsible for domestic issues and propose meetings with their Canadian counterparts."
Baird's predecessor Lawrence Cannon had met with a senior representative of the rebel group in Paris and Canadian officials have been in regular contact with NTC representatives over the past few months.
The NTC also appointed a representative to Canada.
Baird also announced an additional CAN$2 million in humanitarian aid for Libya.
A popular uprising against Kadhafi that began in mid-February has left the oil-rich north African state split between the largely Kadhafi-controlled west and the rebel east.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the NATO mission, led by a three-star Canadian general, had "gone well so far" and called its continuation "essential."
Ottawa said it would extend its own participation in the operation to September.

Berlusconi trounced in Italy referendums

ROME: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a trouncing in referendums Monday that wiped out his plans to return Italy to nuclear power and dismissed a law designed to keep him out of court.
The results, following hard on disastrous local election results, have already provoked a growing unease from his supporters.
Final results showed crushing votes of more than 90 percent against the government in the four referendum questions: on nuclear power; on a law to give Berlusconi legal immunity; and two on water privatisation.
Official figures released early Tuesday by the interior ministry do not yet include votes cast by Italians living abroad.
But more than 94 percent of voters slammed the government's plans for brand new atomic power stations, which had been one of Berlusconi's flagship policies.
And nearly 95 percent voted to strip Berlusconi of special privileges accorded him as prime minister that exempted him from court appearances.
Berlusconi himself did not vote and the government had encouraged its supporters to stay away. But official data showed that nearly 56 percent of voters had turned out to have their say.
Acknowledging this late Monday, Berlusconi said: "The high turnout in the referendums shows a will on the part of citizens to participate in decisions about our future that cannot be ignored."
The level of turnout was crucial because without the participation of more than 50 percent of voters the referendums would have had no legal force.
The vote against Berlusconi's plans to resume a nuclear programme reflects popular unease about atomic energy in Europe after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
And the rejection of the partial immunity law suggested voter's growing disenchantment with the 74-year-old prime minister's legal woes.
Berlusconi is a defendant in ongoing three trials involving allegations of bribery, fraud, abuse of power and paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl.

US for peace talks with Afghan Taliban

UNITED NATIONS: The United States is seeking to split the UN sanctions list for Taliban and al Qaeda figures into two as part of a bid to induce the Taliban into talks on a peace settlement in Afghanistan, diplomats said on Monday.
The move comes as Washington prepares to start pulling out its 97,000 troops in Afghanistan next month as part of a process to hand over all combat operations against Taliban insurgents to Afghan security forces by 2014.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier this month there could be political talks with the Taliban by the end of this year, if the NATO alliance continued to make military advances on the ground, putting pressure on the insurgents.
Diplomats said the United States had put forward two resolutions about the sanctions list to other members of the 15-nation Security Council -- one on splitting the joint list and the other on removing some Taliban names. The sanctions subject those named on the list to travel restrictions and asset freezes.
The council is scheduled to vote on Friday to renew the mandate of an eight-person team of experts that helps a council sanctions committee to maintain the list. Western officials said they hoped the resolutions could be ready by then.
The aim of making separate lists for the Taliban and for al Qaeda is "to send a clear message to the Taliban that it's time to break with al Qaeda and participate in an Afghan political process," one Western diplomat said.
Afghanistan's U.N. Ambassador Zahir Tanin told Reuters in a telephone interview that the move, if it passes the council, "gives us more flexibility. It will help to create a regime of engagement for people to join the peace process."
Tanin said that although it would not mean the end of sanctions against the Taliban, no longer lumping them with al Qaeda would be a "psychological factor" that could weigh with those Taliban considering giving up armed struggle.

China launches high-speed train

SHANGHAI: China has launched its new high-speed train which covers the distance between Shanghai and Beijing in five hours.
One-way ticket prices will range between $63 and $210, and the train runs between 250 and 300 kilometres per hour on the $33 billion new link, although the line is designed for a maximum speed of 380 kph.
China has invested heavily in its high-speed rail network, which reached 8,358 kilometres at the end of 2010 and is expected to exceed 13,000 kilometres by 2012 and 16,000 kilometres by 2020.

Turkey's ruling party set for landslide poll win

ANKARA: Turkey's ruling party is set for a record landslide win in Sunday's parliamentary polls and a third straight term in power, according to a projection and partial results.
A survey of results from sample ballot boxes across the country projected the AKP would get 50.3 percent of the vote, its highest electoral score so far, and enough parliamentary seats to once again form the government on its own.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) was set to finish second with 27.1 percent, followed by the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) with 12.7 percent, according to the projection, conducted by the A&G polling company.
An estimate of the distribution of seats in the 550-member parliament is hard but the AKP may narrowly clinch the 330-seat majority it is seeking to press ahead with plans to rewrite the constitution, the legacy of a 1980 military coup, A&G chairman Adil Gur said.
With more than 60 percent of the vote counted, the AKP was leading with 51.9 percent of the vote, according to results carried.
Its lead is expected to decrease a bit as counting progresses, since the first results come from the rural east, where the party is stronger compared to the more urban west, analysts said.
The AKP owes its enduring popularity mostly to economic success and improved public services following years of financial instability that haunted Turkey under shaky coalition governments in the past.
Under the AKP, the economy grew by 8.9 percent in 2010, outpacing global recovery, and per capita income has doubled to $10,079.
Voting ended at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) across the country, where more than 50 million people were eligible to vote, out of a population of some 73 million.
Earlier, an ecstatic crowd burst into cheers and applause as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived to vote in a school in Istanbul's Uskudar district, an AKP stronghold. "Turkey is proud of you," the crowd chanted, as the prime minister shook hands with supporters.
His economic credits aside, Erdogan -- once the driving force of EU-sought reforms -- has come under fire for autocratic tendencies and growing intolerance of criticism.
With dozens of journalists in jail, the opposition is alarmed also over creeping restrictions on the Internet and an unprecedented outbreak of compromising wiretaps and videos of opposition figures circulating online.
Erdogan has promised a more liberal constitution but has refused to specify what the overhaul would entail, fanning speculation with his advocacy of a presidential system for Turkey -- presumably with himself at the helm.
The AKP needs at least 330 seats to amend the constitution without support from other parties and put it to a referendum. A two-thirds majority of 367 seats would enable the party to pass the amendments unilaterally.

Turkey's Erdogan says to work with rivals on charter

ANKARA: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan promised to work with rivals toward a consensus over a new constitution for Turkey after winning Sunday's parliamentary election with a reduced majority.
"The people gave us a message to build the new constitution through consensus and negotiation," he said in a victory speech to supporters from the balcony of the AK Party headquarters in Ankara. "We will discuss the new constitution with opposition parties."
An exultant Erdogan addressed thousands of cheering supporters from the balcony of party headquarters in Ankara, saying: "Today, for yet another time, democracy and the national will have prevailed. "Gaza, Palestine and Jerusalem have also won," said the leader, whose self-professed mission of defending "the oppressed", flavoured with a vision of Islamic fraternity, has crossed borders and made him a hero on Arab streets.
Thousands of ecstatic supporters gathered outside AKP offices in Ankara, dancing and singing, as the refrain of the party's election song "Come on, once more!" blared from loudspeakers. "Turkey is proud of you," they chanted, referring to Erdogan.

New quakes rock New Zealand's Christchurch

CHRISTCHURCH: A series of strong quakes, including a 6.0-magnitude tremor, rocked New Zealand's stricken Christchurch Monday, causing one building to collapse and prompting evacuations.
Power company Orion said electricity had been cut to 54,000 homes. The US Geological Survey measured the latest quake at a depth of nine kilometres (5.6 miles) and some 14 kilometres from the country's second largest city.
It followed a string of shocks early Monday, including a 5.2-magnitude jolt which caused building damage in the city, still recovering from a deadly 6.3 magnitude disaster in February.
Police confirmed that a structure had fallen over in central Christchurch, much of which is still blocked off after the February 22 earthquake levelled much of the city, but said nobody was trapped.
The 6.0 magnitude aftershock prompted police to evacuate parts of the damaged central city known as the red zone, while rock falls had closed several bridges and prompted the closure of one police station.
Police urged residents to check on friends and neighbours, and to stay at home and avoid travelling if possible, but residents gridlocked the roads as they attempted to find their way home and reach family.
The series of quakes came just hours after the opening of an inquest examining why an office block collapsed in February's earthquake, killing more than 100 people, including 65 foreign students.
When the first tremors hit around lunchtime, lawyers and relatives of those killed when the Canterbury Television (CTV) building toppled and then burst into flames on February 22 fled the building as windows rattled.
The inquest was briefly suspended before being hit by the later quakes.
Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jepson said people would have been shaken quite strongly after New Zealand's South Island had endured much seismic activity in recent months.

British royals celebrate Queen’s birthday

LONDON: Prince William and his wife Catherine took part in the pomp and pageantry on Saturday as Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her official birthday.
William, her grandson, wore his wedding uniform — this time complete with a bearskin hat for the traditional Trooping the Colour military parade in central London. Dressed in the scarlet tunic of the honorary colonel of the Irish Guards, the Duke of Cambridge rode on horseback as Catherine joined other royals watching from a window.
It was the public’s first chance to see the royal family all together since William and Kate’s wedding on April 29, watched by an estimated two billion people around the world. The event, celebrating the queen’s 85th birthday, took place the day after her husband Prince Philip turned 90. He is the longest-serving consort in British history.
For the annual pageant, massed ranks of soldiers in the famous red tunics and bearskin hats of the British army march on Horse Guards Parade. The Olympic beach volleyball competition will be held on the historic parade ground during the 2012 Games. The pomp and ceremony of Trooping the Colour — a hangover from preparations for battle when colours or flags were “trooped” down the rank so soldiers could recognise them — marks the queen’s official birthday.
Her actual birthday is on April 21 but traditionally the monarch has another in the summer months, because the weather is supposed to be better for open-air celebrations. There were huge cheers from the crowd as the royals left Buckingham Palace. The queen and Prince Philip — also wearing a bearskin — rode in an open phaeton carriage.
As regimental colonels, their eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, rode on horseback alongside William, as did the queen’s cousin Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. Catherine joined other royals including her brother-in-law Prince Harry in watching from a room that was once military hero the Duke of Wellington’s office. After the ceremony, the royals headed back to Buckingham Palace to gather on the balcony for the first time since William’s wedding.
They watched a fly-past of aircraft ranging from World War II Spitfires and Lancasters to modern Typhoon fighters before the Red Arrows aerobatics display team left trails of red, white and blue smoke in the sky.

Violent clashes as Syria troops storm flashpoint townViolent clashes in Syria

DAMASCUS: Syrian troops Sunday fought violent battles with "armed gangs" in flashpoint Jisr Al-Shughur town, state television said, as international outrage mounted at Syria's brutal crackdown on protesters.
"Army divisions entered Jisr al-Shughur and purged the state hospital of armed groups," the report said.
"Violent clashes pitched the army divisions against armed groups positioned inside and around the town," it added.
Jisr al-Shughur, in northwestern Syria near the border with Turkey, has been the focus of military operations for days, following what the authorities said was the massacre of 120 policemen by "armed gangs" in the town on Monday.
Human rights activists and residents deny the allegations of a massacre and say a number of policemen were executed by other security force members when they refused to fire on protesters in Jisr al-Shughur.
Harrowing reports of atrocities committed during Syria's crackdown, including deserting soldiers' accounts of massacred civilians, have sparked fresh international outrage.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed concern at the mounting death toll, while the United States and the EU urged President Bashar al-Assad to let aid workers in to help relieve the humanitarian crisis.
As the death toll mounted, detailed accounts emerged from some of the thousands who fled to Turkey from the bloodshed in Jisr al-Shughur.
Among them were Syrian army deserters who told of atrocities committed by soldiers in suppressing protests, who themselves were under the threat of execution if they disobeyed orders.
Tahal al-Lush described the operation, in Ar-Rastan, a town of 50,000 people in Homs province, that had pushed him to desert.
"We were told that people were armed there. But when we arrived, we saw that they were ordinary civilians. We were ordered to shoot them," said Lush, with a blank stare in his eyes.
"When we entered the houses, we opened fire on everyone, the young, the old... Women were raped in front of their husbands and children," he said.
He showed his military passbook and other papers as proof of identity.
A second conscript, Mohammed Mirwan Khalaf, said he had been in a unit stationed at Idlib, near the border.
"Just in front of me, a professional soldier pulled out his knife and stabbed a civilian in the head, for no reason," he said.
In the Turkish city of Antakya, Nabil, one of the last Syrian aid workers out of Jisr al-Shughur, recalled the roar of helicopters and a "skull split in two" before he collapsed with a bullet in his back.
From his hospital bed, the Red Crescent employee recounted his last sights of the town last weekend, where Damascus said 120 police and troops had been massacred during anti-regime protests.
"The wounded, yes, I've seen hundreds. And dozens of deaths, maybe a hundred," the 29-year-old said. He had also seen victims of torture, he added.
The turmoil has pushed 4,600 Syrians to seek refuge across the border in Turkey, a government official in Ankara told AFP.
"I am deeply concerned and saddened that so many people have been killed," Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to Colombia. He had spoken with Assad several times to express his concern, he said.
On Friday, UN officials said Assad was refusing to take telephone calls from Ban, as the UN Security Council discussed a resolution drawn up to condemn his crackdown.
Washington on Saturday called on Syria to let medics in, after reports that Syrian forces backed by helicopters had the previous day killed at least 25 protesters across the country, including in and around Jisr al-Shughur.
Fridays have become a rallying point in the revolt against Assad's regime, whose backlash on pro-democracy protests that erupted in mid-March has killed more than 1,200 civilians, rights groups say.
"The Syrian government's offensive in northern Syria has created a humanitarian crisis," the White House said in a statement.
"The United States calls upon the Syrian government to stop this violence, and to give the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) immediate, unfettered access to this region," it added.
The European Union also appealed to Assad to let international aid agencies in to help civilians caught up in the violence.
"I deplore the escalating use of brutal force against protestors in Syria in recent days," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement Saturday.
Both the EU and the US are backing a UN Security Council resolution proposed by Britain and France that condemns Syria for its crackdown.
But Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the council, oppose any resolution on Syria.

US calls for 'mounting' pressure on Syrian President

WASHINGTON: The United States and its allies are looking to increase pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down or allow for a peaceful transition of power, officials said Friday.
President Barack Obama's administration is making it "abundantly clear that international pressure is beginning to build on him (Assad) and that he needs to stop what he's doing or, as the president and others have said, get out of the way," State Department Mark Toner said.
He spoke of "mounting pressure" on Assad, as Syria expanded its military crackdown on pro-democracy protests, killing at least 22 people.
Assad "has refused to reform, refused even to make any gesture towards reform other than empty rhetoric," Toner added. "We will continue to look at ways we can up the pressure on him. What's important here is that we make it clear to him that there's growing pressure against his actions."
His remarks came as Syria launched a major military assault on the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughur and neighboring villages, after hundreds of area residents streamed across the border into Turkey.
Protesters meanwhile poured into the streets of major cities and towns across Syria after Friday prayers, calling on Assad to step down and expressing solidarity with the residents of Jisr al-Shughur.
Syria has mounted a fierce response to weeks of protests modeled on the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that ousted long-ruling dictators and inspired the so-called Arab Spring that has swept the region.
"There is mounting pressure, mounting recognition that what's going on Syria cannot continue," Toner said.
The spokesman mentioned US "contacts" with the Syrian opposition. "I don't want to get into too much detail, because these people are clearly under tremendous danger in Syria. But at the embassy, we do have contacts with members of the opposition, as well as civil society members," he said, noting Washington was trying to get a better sense of the nature of the opposition.
The US ambassador in Damascus, Robert Ford, has seen his requests for meetings with Syrian government officials repeatedly denied.

At least 50 killed, 40 missing in China floods

BEIJING: A new round of rain and floods battered central China Thursday night and Friday, killing 50 people and leaving 40 others missing in four drought-plagued provinces.
Torrential rain triggered floods and landslides that toppled homes and destroyed river embankments in central China's Hubei Province, killing 25 people and leaving at least 12 others missing as of Friday evening, said a spokesman with the provincial civil affairs department.
So far, more than 127,500 people were forced to evacuate their homes and the floods have caused direct economic losses of 866 million yuan (133 million U.S. dollars) in the province, said the spokesman.
Most of the deaths were reported in the city of Xianning, which was hit by heavy rainfall from 8 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday.
More than 100 people were injured in the floods in Xianning, said a spokesman with the city's flood and drought control headquarters.
Flood waters measured more than 2 meters deep in Tongcheng's low-lying areas. Traffic in the county seat was paralyzed, as flood waters in the area measured between 60 to 90 cm deep.
Electricity and telephone services in Tongcheng have been cut off by the floods. More than 300 people living downstream from one of the county's reservoirs had to evacuate after the reservoir was overwhelmed by the floods.
In neighboring Hunan Province, 19 people died and another 28 are still missing after rain-triggered landslides occurred during the early hours of Friday in the cities of Linxiang and Yueyang.

Kadhafi offered exit 'guarantees' amid deadly clashes

TRIPOLI: Turkey has offered Moamer Kadhafi guarantees to leave Libya but has yet to receive a reply, as rebels say loyalist forces killed 20 people in a fierce assault on Misrata.
Fresh NATO-led strikes sent up plumes of smoke Friday in Tripoli, where the strongman has his residence and headquarters.
But in Brussels, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned the Western alliance's air war on forces loyal to Kadhafi could be in peril because of military shortcomings.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had offered exit "guarantees" to the embattled Libyan leader, whom rebels have been trying to oust since February following a bloody crackdown on pro-reform protests.
Kadhafi "has no other option than to leave Libya -- with a guarantee to be given to him," Erdogan said on NTV television.
"We have given him this guarantee. We have told him we will help him to be sent wherever he wants to go," he added, without elaborating.
"Depending on the reply we will get from him, we will take up the issue with our (NATO) allies, but unfortunately we have received no reply so far."
His comments came after a day of deadly fighting near the port city of Misrata, the rebels' most significant enclave in western Libya, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Tripoli.
Kadhafi's forces had bombarded the Dafnia area on Misrata's outskirts with Grad rockets, heavy artillery and tank shells, a rebel said.
"Twenty people, both civilians and rebels, were killed and more than 80 wounded," in the sector, 35 kilometres (22 miles) from Misrata city centre, he added.
But they had beaten back an attack by loyalist troops, leaving "dead and wounded among the Kadhafi forces," he said.

28 killed during anti-government protests in Syria

DAMASCUS: The death toll from firing by Syrian security forces on anti-government demonstrators went up to at least 28.
Widespread demonstrations were staged in the capital Damascus, Banias, Darra, Homs and other cities, however security forces backed by tanks, mortar and helicopters opened indiscriminate fire on the demonstrators resulting in the death of at least 28 people, while several others were injured.
According to Arab TV, most of the casualties were reported from the outskirts of Damascus, the North Western province of Edlib and the coastal town of Lilzaquia.
Meanwhile in Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told journalists that President Bashar al Assad had refused to undertake reforms and the US was mulling over how to mount pressure on him.

India successfully test fires Prithvi-II

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed surface to surface nuclear capable Prithvi II ballistic missile at 9 am from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, about 230 km east of Bhubaneswar. The launch was carried out as part of the regular training exercise of the Armed Forces.
Prithvi II, the first indigenous surface to surface strategic missile, capable of attacking targets at ranges of 350 km, reached the predefined target in the Bay of Bengal with a very high accuracy of better than 10 metres.

US denies Clinton seeking to be World Bank chief

WASHINGTON: Top US administration officials vehemently denied suggestions Thursday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in talks to lead the World Bank.
"It's 100 percent untrue," Philippe Reines, a close advisor to Clinton, told.
"To be crystal clear," he added in a second statement, "Secretary Clinton has not had any conversations with the president, the White House or anyone about moving to the World Bank.
"She has expressed absolutely no interest in the job. She would not take it if offered."
White House spokesman Jay Carney also chipped in, saying: "The story is completely untrue."
US officials were referring to a report from the Reuters news agency that said Clinton was in discussions with the White House to leave her job next year and take over as head of the World Bank, replacing Robert Zoellick should he leave at the end of his term in mid-2012.
A source close to the global lender had earlier this week also indicated that the United States was studying her possible candidacy at the World Bank, where an American has traditionally holds the top job.
"It's a strong, serious hypothesis which they are working on," said the source, who was familiar with the matter but asked not to be named.
"There have been lots of signals" for the past months, the source added, saying they were mainly coming from the US Treasury Department.
A Treasury spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
Clinton has publicly said on several occasions that she will step down as secretary of state at the end of the current administration, and speculation has swirled around her future plans.

Prince Philip celebrates 90th birthday

 

LONDON: Prince Philip, the husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, turns 90 on Friday but will keep the celebrations at a minimum in keeping with the no-nonsense style that has defined a life behind the throne.
The gruff patriarch, the longest-serving consort in British history, will spend his birthday at work, hosting a charity reception and chairing a conference for military colonels.
Although still sprightly and remarkably fit, the Duke of Edinburgh is bowing to his age and intends to slow his hectic schedule of engagements.
But he is as quick as ever when making quips -- some of which have famously landed him in trouble -- and after a lifetime of getting on with it, he showed typical impatience when asked to analyse the past 90 years.
He admitted in a BBC interview that he had worked out his role by "trial and error", but when asked if he thought he had been successful, he replied: "I couldn't care less. Who cares what I think about it? I mean it's ridiculous."
However, in a sign of the public affection for him, the palace revealed that almost 2,000 birthday cards had been sent to the duke from across the globe, including New Zealand and Australia, Italy, Poland, France and Germany.

South American ash cloud causes major disruptions

BUENOS AIRES: The vast ash cloud spewing from Chile's Puyehue volcano caused major disruption to South American air travel on Thursday, grounding hundreds of flights and upsetting regional diplomacy.
All flights in and out of the Argentine capital were halted, as well as most arriving or departing the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, forcing President Jose Mujica to postpone a Buenos Aires meeting with his Argentine counterpart.
As the travel misery intensified, organizers were also forced to delay Friday's first annual meeting in Buenos Aires of finance ministers from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) regional bloc. No new date was set.
The volcano, which rumbled to life on Saturday for the first time since 1960, is high in the Andes mountains, 870 kilometers (540 miles) south of the Chilean capital Santiago, near the border with Argentina.

Pakistan needs to do more in fight against terrorism: CIA Chief

WASHINGTON: Cooperating with Pakistan in the fight against terrorism is essential to maintain pressure on Al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden's death, CIA chief Leon Panetta said ahead of a US Senate hearing Thursday.
"Continuing cooperation with Pakistan is critical to keep a tremendous amount of pressure on Al-Qaeda's leadership and the networks that provide it support and safe haven at a time when it is most vulnerable," Panetta said in written responses to US lawmakers.
But he warned that Pakistan, which is a large recipient of US aid, needed to do more to step up in the fight against terrorism. "Future requests for security assistance will be informed by Pakistan's response to the counter-terrorism steps we have proposed," he said.
Panetta is to attend Thursday's hearing of the Senate Armed Services committee as it considers his nomination to be the next secretary of defense to replace Robert Gates.
The current CIA chief acknowledged in his responses that "the relationship with Pakistan is not always easy and we have our differences." But he said: "One of the key lessons from this operation is that we have seen no clear evidence to indicate that senior Pakistani leaders were involved in harboring Osama bin Laden or knew of his whereabouts."
The Al-Qaeda leader and mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks was killed by a US commando raid on his Pakistani hideout on May 2, after a decade-long manhunt to find him.
"If confirmed, I will continue to work with our partners in both Afghanistan and Pakistan to achieve our goal of eliminating terrorist networks that threaten the United States and our allies and partners," Panetta wrote.
Pakistan has lost some 11,000 soldiers in its counter-terrorism operations in the northwestern tribal areas and has suffered "more than 30,000 civilian casualties in recent years, most recently in significant attacks following the bin Laden operation," he said. But he stressed: "It is vital that Pakistan live up to its end of the bargain, cooperating more fully in counterterrorism matters and ceasing to provide sanctuary to Afghan Taliban and other insurgent groups." 

US presses Saleh to hand over power in Yemen

WASHINGTON: The White House called Monday for an "immediate transition" of power in Yemen, where the United States fears Al Qaeda could exploit political turmoil and strengthen its presence.
After four months of deadly unrest, Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year-old regime was teetering even before the president was wounded in an attack on his palace and flown late Saturday to neighboring Saudi Arabia for treatment.
"We believe that an immediate transition is in the best interests of the people and the best interest of maintaining stability in obviously a very unstable situation," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking alongside French counterpart Alain Juppe at a Washington press conference, made it clear Saleh should leave power but stopped short of expressly ordering him to do so.
Washington supports a deal, brokered by the regional Gulf Cooperation Council bloc, that would see Saleh cede power to an interim administration within 30 days, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Saleh, a wily operator who since 1978 has bought off tribal loyalties and stitched them together into a governable framework, has refused to sign the accord and warned that his ouster would only serve to boost Al Qaeda.
"Our position is that we support the agreement that President Saleh had talked about signing several times and didn't," Carney said.
"We want a peaceful and orderly transition that's consistent with the Yemeni constitutional process. Our position hasn't changed."
A top aide said Monday that 69-year-old Saleh, who was recuperating in a Riyadh military hospital, planned to return within days, a move likely to set off another round of unrest in the violence-plagued nation.
In Sanaa, a fragile truce held despite a deadly sniper attack on loyalists of a powerful tribal chief blamed for Friday's bomb attack which wounded Saleh as he prayed inside a mosque in his compound.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yemen's capital on Sunday to cheer what they said was the end of Saleh's regime.
The situation presents US partner Saudi Arabia and Washington with a conundrum as Saleh has been a key ally in the fight against Al Qaeda's Yemen-based franchise, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

EU to hold crisis talks on killer bacteria as toll mounts

LUXEMBOURG: European Union agriculture ministers were to hold emergency talks in Luxembourg Tuesday on the bacteria crisis that has left 23 dead, as the source of the outbreak remained elusive.
The European ministers will discuss aid for farmers who are unable to sell their vegetables due to growing consumer fears over the E. coli outbreak, and the sensitive issue could see acrimonious exchanges.
They will also review the bloc's food safety alert system to ensure that warnings have "scientific basis and proof" before becoming public, EU health commissioner John Dalli said.
Dalli said the alert system review was requested by Spain, where farmers were hit hard by inaccurate warnings that the outbreak might be linked to Spanish organic cucumbers.
Madrid has said it will demand full compensation from Germany for the losses which Spain's fruit and vegetables exporters association, FEPEX, estimated at 225 million euros ($328 million) per week since the crisis began.
Germany meanwhile announced that initial tests on suspected organic sprouts had proved negative. The probes were carried out on a farm in the northern state of Lower Saxony after regional agriculture minister Gerd Lindermann said a link had been found to the main areas hit by the outbreak.
Results available from 23 of the 40 samples of seeds, water, ventilation and work surfaces tested showed they were free of the bacteria responsible for 23 deaths and more than 2,000 people falling ill, the state's agriculture ministry said.
German Federal Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said Berlin would maintain warnings against eating sprouts as well as tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers, particularly in the north of the country, until the origin had been pinpointed.
But Andreas Hensel, head of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, said that "it is possible we shall never be able to identify the source" of the contamination.
Aigner said investigations were continuing with checks on vegetable supply chains and producers up and down the country.
Klaus Verbeck, who runs the farm in Bienenbuettel, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Hamburg, told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung he uses no fertilisers for growing a variety of sprouts and had no idea how they might have been contaminated.
His farm, which produces sprouts for lettuce, azuki beans, mung beans, fenugreek, alfalfa and lentils and receives seed deliveries from several countries, has been ordered closed and all products recalled, authorities said.
"Salad sprouts are grown from seeds and water. They aren't fertilised. And there aren't any fertilisers used elsewhere on the farm," Verbeck said, alluding to the fact the E. coli bacteria may originally have come from animal droppings.
Similar outbreaks in Japan between 1996 and 2003 infected more than 10,000 people and left 22 dead, according to the Japanese health ministry.
The current outbreak has hit at least 14 countries including the United States. Of the 23 victims, 22 died in Germany and one in Sweden -- a woman who had visited Germany.
In Germany, 1,601 patients have been diagnosed as infected and a further 630 with haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening condition involving kidney malfunction, the Robert Koch Institute said.
The rate of infection grew from no more than nine a day during the first 10 days in May, to finally reach a peak of 122 on May 23 and has since slowed, the institute said.