Tsunami drill across Indian Ocean

Eighteen countries around the Indian Ocean have held a mass drill aimed at testing tsunami early warning systems.

The UN-backed drill simulated the 2004 quake off the coast of Sumatra which killed more than 200,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.

The exercise comes two weeks after a tsunami in the Pacific Ocean killed almost 200 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.

UN officials are due to issue an assessment of the drill within days.

Exercise Indian Ocean Wave 09 tested warning systems and preparedness in nations in Asia, Australasia, the Middle East and Africa.

In 2004, the only warning most people had was the sight of a giant wave

Along the coast of Aceh hundreds of people - including schoolchildren - carried out a mock evacuation as ambulance crews stood watch.

But some residents were too traumatised by memories of the 2004 tsunami to take part.

"My chest has gone tight and I am shaking," Hamiyah, 58, who lost her in-laws, four children and five grandchildren, told AP news agency.

"If there's another disaster, I prefer to take shelter in the mosque so that if I die, I'd die in the mosque," Halimah, 43, told Reuters news agency as she watched the drill, but refused to take part.

Not all 18 participating countries involved the public in the exercise. The authorities in India and Thailand said they had concentrated instead on co-ordination between government agencies.

Officials from around the region declared the drill a success.

Since the 2004 tsunami, early warning systems ranging from beach sirens to deep ocean monitor buoys have been set up at a cost of about $150m (£94m), officials say.

Much of the money for the equipment has come from international donors, including Germany, Japan and China.

The test will determine whether the Indonesian authorities have spent that money wisely, and whether the local population is prepared for a future catastrophe, says the BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Banda Aceh.

US documents point to secret Japan nuclear pact

DESPITE decades of denials by Washington and Tokyo, US officials believe they enjoyed a secret pact to transport nuclear weapons through Japan, newly declassified documents showed.

The disclosure came after Japan's left-leaning government ended more than half a century of conservative rule and launched a probe into thousands of files to settle longstanding suspicions of a hush-hush pact.

Any evidence of an agreement would trigger charges of hypocricy as Japan is the only nation to have suffered nuclear attack and has campaigned for the worldwide abolition of the ultra-destructive weapons.

The National Security Archive at George Washington University released documents showing US officials believed they had an understanding with Japan when the allies signed a new security treaty in 1960.

A confidential State Department memo prepared in 1960 for then secretary of state Christian Herter to brief Congress said Washington had to consult Japan on "introduction of nuclear weapons."

But it said that the United States, which has stationed troops in Japan since its defeat in World War II, could use Japanese soil "as needed" in an emergency if communist neighbour North Korea launched an attack.

In a cable sent in 1963, then US ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer said he quietly met for breakfast with the foreign minister, Masayoshi Ohira, and sensed a "full understanding" on the nuclear issue.

"Ohira took presentation in stride and showed not rpt (repeat) not slightest desire to persuade us to alter standing practice," the cable said.

Whatever the sensitivity of nuclear weapons in Japan, the issue largely involves past history.

In 1991 as the Cold War ended, president George H W Bush stopped US vessels from carrying tactical nuclear weapons.

But both the United States and Japan's previous government have steadfastly rejected an inquiry, with Washington saying its military policy is never to confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons.

"In terms of nuclear weapons, there has always been a resistance to releasing information, particularly where they are based," said Robert Wampler, a senior fellow at the National Security Archive who led the study.

"But here we are talking about Cold War agreements -- dealing with Korea, Vietnam, the Soviets and China," he said, pleading for the release of more documents.

"It's secret in name only and I think it would be really great if the Japanese government would clear the air."

But any investigation could also get bogged down in semantics on what the United States and Japan agreed to.

One declassified 1960 document presented to the secretary of state said in typeface that there was a "confidental agreement."

The word "agreement" was crossed off with a pen and replaced with "understanding."

The documents also said US negotiators stressed that they would not "introduce" nuclear weapons to Japan -- drawing a distinction with transiting the arms.

The documents provide no clear smoking-gun on one persistent suspicion - that US president Richard Nixon insisted on the nuclear transit rights when handing the southern island chain to Okinawa back to Japan in 1972.

But a 1969 memo by Henry Kissinger, then the national security adviser, detailed Nixon's negotiating strategy - saying he would press until the last minute to keep US nuclear weapons in Okinawa and was ready to drop the demand in exchange for the transit rights.

Nixon negotiated the handover with Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize largely for his so-called "three principles" - that Japan will not possess, produce or allow nuclear weapons on its soil.

The United States dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, killing more than 210,000 people and ending World War II.

Clinton says Russia yet to back Iran sanctions

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed Tuesday that Washington and Moscow are working together to ensure Iran's nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes, but Russia has stopped short of committing to Iranian sanctions.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday outside Moscow.

Speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting, Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated there has been no agreement between the countries on any sort of sanctions plan, even though Russia is not opposed to sanctions in principle.

The United States is using a two-track approach, pursuing diplomacy with Iran and going on to stronger measures -- such as sanctions -- if that effort fails.

"We are aware that we might not be as successful as we need to be," Clinton said. "So we have always looked at the potential of sanctions in the event that we are not successful, that we cannot assure ourselves and others that Iran has decided not to pursue nuclear weapons."

Clinton quoted Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's recent comment that sanctions might be "inevitable" but not at this stage.

While the Obama administration has been cautiously optimistic about the "inevitable" comment, Russia has long believed that sanctions are not yet necessary, even though they may be a factor to consider down the road.

Lavrov said that sometimes sanctions theoretically need to be imposed when all diplomatic efforts are exhausted -- but not in the case of Iran.

"Threats, sanctions and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive," he said.

World powers have long been concerned that Iran wants to build a nuclear weapon, and those suspicions were heightened by the discovery of a secret uranium enrichment plant near Qom. However, Iran has consistently said it is developing nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

"Iran's nuclear program remains a matter of serious concern. We're working closely with Russia through the P5 and 1 process," Clinton said, referring to the diplomacy with Iran conducted by Germany and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia.

"We are working to ensure that Iran moves forward with us on this engagement track," said Clinton, who added that Iran must show without any doubt it is pursuing unequivocally only a peaceful use of nuclear power.

Clinton also met with Medvedev at his residence outside Moscow. Other items on Clinton's agenda included Afghanistan, arms control and the new U.S.-Russia bilateral presidential commission.

Clinton spoke about surmounting historical difficulties in U.S.-Russian relations, changing a relationship "once defined by the shadow of mutually assured destruction into that based on mutual respect and over time increasingly mutual trust."

"We are different countries; we have different historical experiences, different perspectives," she said. "But we are planting those disagreements in a much broader field of cooperation, and hopefully we are enriching the earth in which this cooperation can take root."

Egyptian woman protest ban on austere veil

There's more to wearing the "niqab" -- the austere, all-covering veil favored by ultra-religious Muslim women -- than meets the eye.

Cairo University students wearing niqab stand outside a university dormitory on Oct. 7 unable to enter due to the new rules preventing admission to niqab wearers.

A recent declaration by a leading Egyptian cleric that women will not be allowed to wear the niqab in university areas frequented only by women has sparked demonstrations by female students in Cairo determined to wear the all-encompassing veil wherever they go.

Egypt's Al-Azhar university, the highest seat of Sunni Islam, recently convened an all-male committee to rule on what women can wear at Egypt's public universities.

The Shaikh of Al-Azhar, Shaikh Tantawi, announced after the meeting that a ban on the niqab, also known as the burqa, would apply to such university areas as female dormitories and all-women classes. Do you think Muslim women should wear the niqab? Tell us below in the SoundOff box

Even though that was a step down from a statement he made earlier that the niqab would be banned in all public universities, his ruling sparked controversy with the growing number of women in the country who choose to stay covered.

The initiative from Al-Azhar is seen by many in Egypt as an attempt to counter the growing appeal of the strictest interpretations of Islam. An increasing number of young women in Egypt are turning to the niqab.

The niqab is worn by many Muslim women throughout the Arab world and beyond and is most common in the countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. It is also commonly worn in Pakistan.

"The niqab should be worn under two circumstances," a cleaning lady who works at Al-Azhar, told CNN recently. "A very beautiful woman should wear it to prevent men from fighting over her, and an ugly woman should wear it to hide her face."

There is no consensus among Muslim scholars regarding the wearing of the niqab, the piece of cloth that covers a Muslim woman's face. Women who wear it usually also cover their hands.

It is widely believed to be a tradition that comes from the Arabian peninsula, introduced to more liberal countries like Egypt by people who have lived and worked in ultra-conservative countries like Saudi Arabia.

There's not much about it in the Koran, Muslim's holy book.

The Koranic verse that applies to female head covering translates loosely as: "O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks all over their bodies."

And so consequently, there are plenty of interpretations. And all sorts of opinions in the Egyptian parliament.

The opposition-led Muslim Brotherhood opposes the niqab ban.

"It's unacceptable that the niqab is treated as something bad that needs to be suppressed," Brotherhood member of parliament Muhamed Baltagi told CNN. "It's unacceptable to violate private matters in this way." In Baltagi's opinion, it's a matter of personal choice and should not be dictated by the shaikh of Al-Azhar.

Appointed by the president of Egypt, the shaikh of Al-Azhar is viewed as little more than an appendage of the authoritarian Egyptian government, and thus scorned as a state puppet by both religious and secular critics of the regime. Since the 1960s the shaikh of Al-Azhar has been appointed by the Egyptian president.

In Europe, wearing the niqab has become a controversial issue too. Recently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy banned it from French classrooms. And British Justice Minister Jack Straw also recently asked women to remove them in his consituency office.

In Cairo's main shopping district, the message on the niqab is decidedly mixed. The few niqabs on display are vastly outnumbered by far more risque outfits, including no shortage of mannequins sporting evening dressings with plunging necklines and naked arms.

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There are a few niqabs on display, but lots of less conservative clothing is on the shelves too.

Outside Cairo University, some women go without any head covering at all. Most wear headscarves -- usually quite colorful ones.

Those who choose to wear the niqab say the religious scholars should have asked a woman what she thought of the ban first.

"He should have taken at least one woman's opinion," said student Muna Abdel Fatah. "Because the decision will impact on her."

India 'confident' of finding Kashmir solution

India is "confident" of finding a solution to the insurgency in Kashmir, its home minister said Tuesday, promising to start a dialogue with the region's politicians soon.

A Kashmiri child looks at an Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldier standing guard in Srinagar.

"I am confident that within a short period of time we will be able to come up with some solution to the larger political problem of (Jammu and Kashmir)," Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

"We will have a dialogue with every section of the people of Jammu and Kashmir," the minister said, referring to both pro and anti-India politicians.

He made the comments as he addressed his ruling Congress party's top functionaries in Srinagar, the Kashmiri capital. Congress and the regional National Conference rule the state in an alliance.

Moderate separatist politicians opposed to Indian rule have held several rounds of talks with New Delhi to find a solution to the ongoing insurgency that has claimed more than 47,000 lives by an official count.

But hardliners who have the backing of armed militants are opposed to the talks and have demanded tripartite discussions involving India, Pakistan and the separatist leadership.

They are also opposed to New Delhi holding talks with Kashmir's pro-India politicians who have never questioned India's rule.

Chidambaram said the dialogue with Kashmiri leaders would start soon.

"We mean that dialogue process will start and we will take it to its logical conclusion," he said at the high-security Congress headquarters, which has been the target of rebel attacks.

Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan each hold a part of Kashmir but both claim it in full. Islamabad denies charges by New Delhi that it funds and arms Kashmiri militants.

Violence has declined sharply in Indian Kashmir since the neighbours began a peace process in 2004. But New Delhi has put the process on hold after last year's deadly attacks in Mumbai, which it blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Earlier, Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah urged New Delhi to initiate dialogue with Kashmiris and resume talks with Pakistan.

"While we are highly thankful to New Delhi for the unprecedented and liberal financial support to reconstruct our social and economic infrastructure, the political issues equally require focusing both internally and externally," Abdullah told a conference of Indian editors in Srinagar.

He said all voices should be heard "to take the right and best decision for finding out a solution" to the Kashmir dispute.

India wants Pakistan to punish the militants believed to have masterminded Mumbia attacks that killed over 160 people.

"Pakistan should recognise the Indian concerns and act in a positive direction so that the composite dialogue takes off without any further delay," said Abdullah.

Pakistan bombs Taliban hideouts after week of carnage

Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban sanctuaries Tuesday, as the militant group claimed responsibility for the latest in a wave of attacks which have killed 125 people in a week.

Pakistani security personnel stand beside the wreckage of a destroyed vehicle after a suicide bomb blast in Shangla district on October 12. Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban sanctuaries Tuesday, as the militant group claimed responsibility for the latest in a wave of attacks which have killed 125 people in a week.

Fighter jets launched another round of bombing raids killing six suspected insurgents in South Waziristan, the semi-autonomous region near Afghanistan and a known stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels, officials said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, meanwhile, vowed to wipe out the Islamist extremist threat in Pakistan, with a fierce military operation into the Taliban's mountain sanctuaries believed to be imminent.

The army claims to have already quashed militants in the one-time tourist paradise of Swat valley, but on Monday a teenage suicide bomber struck in the neighbouring northwest district of Shangla, killing 45 people.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, with spokesman Azam Tariq telling AFP: "This is revenge for our martyrs... This is part of the series of attacks that we are carrying out. Wait and see more."

The group have also claimed responsibility for a weekend hostage drama at Pakistan's army headquarters which hit at the heart of one of the most powerful institutions in the nuclear-armed nation.

Local media have reported that the threat to army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi was known in advance by police, and have questioned why the siege which left 23 people dead was not thwarted.

On October 5, The News published extracts of a correspondence between the interior ministry and Punjab authorities, warning that militants in army uniforms were planning to target the HQ -- exactly what happened days later.

"Don't blame intelligence agencies, they have foiled several planned attacks, we foiled at least a hundred attacks before they were carried out," Malik told reporters.

A spokesperson for Punjab Senator Pervaiz Rashid confirmed to AFP that the provincial home department had dispatched a confidential letter to the army and other departments in July highlighting possible targets.

"It was mentioned categorically in the letter that terrorists have been planning to get into GHQ (General Headquarters) clad in military uniform and using a military vehicle," the official said.

Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas has said the army HQ attack was planned in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan on the Afghan border.

War planes Tuesday targeted the region's Makeen, Ladha and Nawazkot towns, which had already been pummeled from the air on Sunday.

"At least six Taliban including a local commander were killed in the air attack," said a security official in South Waziristan who asked not to be named. Intelligence officials gave the same toll.

The strikes occurred in areas under Taliban control, and the death tolls are impossible to verify independently.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement has threatened more attacks, vowing vengeance for the death of its leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone missile strike in South Waziristan in August.

There was a brief lull in violence as the Taliban leadership regrouped, but the comeback has been fierce.

Last Monday, a suicide bomber walked into the lobby of the Islamabad offices of the UN's World Food Programme, killing five people, while a massive suicide car bomb Friday killed 52 people in northwest Peshawar city.

The latest attack hit Alpuri town in Shangla on Monday, with 39 civilians and six soldiers killed when a boy aged about 13 or 14 flung himself at a military convoy passing through a crowded market.

Malik said the military was weighing up the best timing for an operation targeting the TTP leadership in the semi-autonomous tribal belt.

"We will defeat them and send them on the run," he told reporters.

Thousands of civilians have fled South Waziristan fearing an imminent offensive, while Pakistani fighter jets have been carrying out air raids in the region and blocking key roads in an attempt to choke off the rebels.

Meanwhile Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi returned to Washington on Tuesday to air concerns about a giant aid package that has raised hackles among the nation's military, officials said.

Qureshi was in the US capital last week, where he voiced support for the five-year, 7.5 billion-dollar package.

But US Senator John Kerry on Tuesday forcefully denied that the package would impinge on Pakistan's sovereignty at a joint news conference with Qureshi.

Thai FM denies wanting Asean involvement

Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said yesterday he would seek help from Asean countries to resolve the dispute with Thailand over the Preah Vihear temple during the Asean Summit late this month in Hua Hin/Cha-am.

He said he agreed with his Thai counterpart Kasit Piromya to seek Asean approval for the establishment of a neutral mechanism to solve disputes among member countries.

However the Thai Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesman Thani Thongpakdi has denied Kasit ever proposed an Asean dispute settlement mechanism to solve the conflict over Preah Vihear.

The minister might have been quoted out of context in media reports, he said. The Thai government had reaffirmed its position that the border dispute must be solved bilaterally through the joint boundary commission.

Meanwhile, Thailand's chief of the joint boundary commission has warned political groups in the Kingdom not to politicise the border issue for their benefit, since it could jeopardise the boundary demarcation with Cambodia.

"The border issue is very sensitive. It could be a powerful political tool if used for political purposes," said Vasin Teeravechyan Co-chair of the Thai-Cambodia Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC).

"It is dangerous to politicise the issue for personal interests," he told a seminar at the Foreign Ministry yesterday.

The JBC was set up under a memorandum of understanding signed by Thailand and Cambodia in 2000 to demarcate the temple boundary. The disputed area is located near the Hindu temple where both sides claim the overlapping territory of 4.6 squares kilometres.

The issue has been politicised recently by the People's Alliance for Democracy and its New Politics Party to gain support from nationalists to attack the government.

The group alleged the JBC had cut a deal with Cambodia on provisional arrangements for the disputed area adjacent to the temple, and accepted a Cambodian map.

In fact, Vasin said, the JBC merely proposed Parliament's approval on three minutes from the JBC meetings, and a note on what the JBC had talked about that was neither a commitment nor an agreement.

The three minutes are pending Parliament's approval to enable the commission to move on.

Vasin said a map drawn originally by France was one of many documents included in the boundary negotiation. "Whether we like it or not, we cannot rule out the role of the map," he said.

Rouge lawyers turn up pressure on judge

Defence lawyers increased the pressure on the French investigating judge at Cambodia’s UN-backed Khmer Rouge court yesterday, filing an appeal accusing his office of withholding information. The move follows motions over the past week seeking to disqualify Marcel Lemonde from the court for alleged bias, filed by defence teams for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and former head of state Khieu Samphan. Now, Ieng Sary’s lawyers are arguing in an appeal that the co-investigating judges have refused to answer a May request to reveal how they collect and weigh evidence against leaders of the brutal late 1970s regime. “This denial effectively obstructs the defence’s ability to ensure Mr Ieng Sary receives a fair trial and has negative implications for the transparency of the proceedings,” said the appeal.