SUVA: A powerful hurricane was heading closer to Fiji’s main islands and tourist areas Friday, prompting warnings from authorities to evacuate low lying areas. Cyclone Daman strengthened overnight to category four on a five point scale and changed course closer to the South Pacific nation’s main populated areas, officials said. By late Friday morning Daman was packing hurricane force winds averaging 175 kilometres (96 miles) an hour and gusting up to 250 kilometres an hour, the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) said. "The cyclone is now moving east about 20 kilometres an hour but expected to curve southeast later," the FMS said in a bulletin. The cyclone was expected to reach land later Friday. A hurricane warning was placed on the northern Yasawa group of islands and well as other nearby island groups, including the north east of the biggest island Viti Levu, and the second largest island Vanua Levu. At 11 am local time (2300 GMT Thursday), the cyclone was about 135 kilometres northwest of Yasawa, and 235 kilometres northwest of the main Vanua Levu town of Labasa.
"Expect winds of very destructive hurricane force within 35 miles (64 kilometres) of cyclone centre with phenomenal seas," the FMS said.
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CAPE CANAVERAL: US space agency NASA said Thursday it would aim to launch its Atlantis shuttle on Saturday, after the mission to deliver a European laboratory to an orbiting station was postponed due to a technical glitch. "We no longer have an opportunity to launch tomorrow, our earliest opportunity we are working to right now is Saturday," Leroy Caine, chairman of the mission management team, told reporters here after NASA officials held hours of discussions.
Thursday’s scheduled launch was postponed hours before blast-off because of faulty fuel gauges, and the agency had hoped to reschedule it for Friday. "At the end of our discussions today, it was our determination that we need more time" to address the problem, Cain said. "I asked the team to posture us with an opportunity to fly as early as Saturday … It’s a very complex situation." ****************************************************************************
WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush, in his first ever direct communication to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, urged him to fully disclose his nuclear programs by December 31, US officials said Thursday.The unprecedented personal appeal, in a letter dated December 1, came amid growing worries among Washington and its four diplomatic partners in dealing with the secretive regime that the effort will slip into next year. "Dear Mister Chairman…" Bush wrote Kim on White House stationery, warning that efforts to dismantle Pyongyang’s atomic activities stood at a "critical juncture," said White House spokesoman Dana Perino. His firmly worded message was that "it is up to you, North Korea, to make a complete and accurate declaration. And if you don’t, we will know that you’re not" honoring the agreed aims on the issue, said Perino, who added that Bush hand-signed the letter.
The US president also sent letters to the leaders of China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, fellow participants in the six-country negotiations aimed at ending the nuclear standoff with North Korea, said spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "In these letters, the president reiterated our commitment to the six-party talks and stressed the need for North Korea to come forward with a full and complete declaration of their nuclear programs, as called for in the September 2005 six-party agreement" said Johndroe. he US special envoy for North Korea, Christopher Hill, told reporters in Beijing that "we felt we were at a crucial moment and it was important to reach out to all the parties and that’s what the president did."Hill praised Pyongyang’s "excellent" cooperation on the disabling of its atomic activities, saying the process was "really moving ahead" and insisting that "anyone who has seen it can see that it is on schedule." Hill delivered Bush’s letter to North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun this week, a news agency based in North Korea said Thursday in a three-line dispatch which gave no further details. Asked whether the missive was driven by confidence that North Korea would meet the deadline or concern that it would not, Perino demurred: "I would not characterize it as either, I would characterize it as timely." A South Korean official said later that a key problem is the North’s refusal to address its suspected highly enriched uranium weapons (HEU) program to US satisfaction.
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LOS ANGELES: Around 1,000 homes were served with a mandatory evacuation order as southern California braced for the arrival of a severe rain storm, officials said Thursday.
The evacuation orders covered homes in areas affected by recent wildfires, with the National Weather Service warning that the storm would bring threats of flash-flooding and mudslides on burnt hillsides. The areas named covered Modjeska, Williams and Silverado Canyons in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. All residents must evacuate by 8:00 pm (0400 GMT), the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said. The storm, which developed from a cold front near the Gulf of Alaska, is expected to slam into southern California late Thursday, with forecasts saying up to three inches of rain could fall over the region. he California coastline has been battered by monster 15-feet waves this week that has sent surfers scrambling to beaches. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday ordered the state Office of Emergency Services to prepare for the weather front by pre-positioning rescuers in areas expected to be worst hit.
Schwarzenegger also urged residents to "take every precaution." "Prepare for the rains, review and update your family emergency plans and identify safe routes to higher ground," he said in a statement. The weather alert follows devastating flooding in the Pacific northwest earlier this week that left vast swathes of Washington and Oregon states under water.
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OTTAWA: Canada’s main opposition Liberals on Thursday accused Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration of seeking to scuttle key climate change talks in Bali, Indonesia. "The world has come together at Bali to try to prevent environmental disaster, but the government is standing in the way," opposition Liberal leader Stephane Dion said in the House of Commons."The government is undermining years of work by the international community to take real action against global warming," he said. "The prime minister has turned Canada from leader to laggard to aboteur." The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on the Indonesian resort island of Bali is bringing together representatives of some 190 countries, including more than 100 ministers. Canada has said emissions reductions targets should apply to all major emitters, including China and India. On Thursday he responded to his critics by saying: "This government believes strongly that there needs to be absolute greenhouse gas reductions in Canada and across the world." But, he added, major emitters such as the United States, China and India "should also accept mandatory reductions." "We will not be able to reduce emissions until those countries … accept reductions. We are working to make sure all countries accept mandatory emissions reductions globally."
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BRUSSELS: NATO and the European Union vowed Thursday to keep up pressure on Iran despite a new US intelligence assessment that Tehran froze a nuclear arms programme in 2003, Belgium’s foreign minister said.
"Everybody agreed that we should not change our position," foreign minister Karel De Gucht told reporters in Brussels after hosting talks with his NATO and EU counterparts.
In a "twin track" approach, the United States has led efforts to impose new UN sanctions on Iran, while EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has tried to persuade Tehran to halt uranium enrichment in exchange for political and economic incentives. *******************************************************************************
NEW YORK: Oil prices rebounded Thursday, crossing 90 dollars a barrel, as the US government announced a mortgage aid plan that could ease credit strains in the world’s largest economy.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, jumped 2.74 dollars to close at 90.23 dollars per barrel. In London, Brent North Sea crude for January climbed 1.69 dollars to settle at 90.18 dollars.
Oil prices had fallen Wednesday after OPEC, which pumps about 40 percent of global supply, held output unchanged and a weekly US oil stockpiles was mixed.
On Thursday oil futures surged higher as US President George W. Bush unveiled a wide-ranging mortgage relief package, saying it could help up to 1.2 million distressed homeowners.
Crude futures, which slumped by about 10 dollars last week, fell Wednesday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) left its daily output quota at 27.25 million barrels. There had been some speculation the cartel would raise output by 500,000 barrels a day as gesture to calm fears that higher energy prices might dampen global growth.
"The OPEC meeting was in the end largely ignored," said Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob.
The market’s muted reaction to a larger-than-expected drawdown in US crude stocks also reflected growing concerns that high prices may eventually take their toll on demand, dealers said.
The United States, the world’s biggest energy user, has called on OPEC to pump more crude to cool oil prices that surged to record high levels near 100 dollars a barrel last month.
The cartel insists it has no control over prices and that the market rally seen during much of the year does not reflect supply and demand fundamentals.
"The market is not controlled by supply and demand … it is totally controlled by speculators who consider oil as a financial asset," OPEC secretary general Abdalla al-Badri said Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
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BRUSSELS: NATO foreign ministers will decide Friday to keep the KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo whatever its future status, a senior US diplomat and the Belgian foreign minister said.
"There will be a strong decision of the alliance tomorrow to keep KFOR at its current levels," a senior US State Department official told reporters in Brussels late Thursday.
Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht confirmed the information.
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UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday said Israel’s decision to expand a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem was "not helpful" and he would discuss the matter with his partners in the diplomatic Quartet for Middle East peace.
"The UN position on the illegality of settlements is well known," he told reporters.
"This new tender for 300 new homes in east Jerusalem so soon after this Annapolis Middle East peace conference, I think, is not helpful," he added, referring to a recent US-hosted peace summit.
"I will be discussing this matter with my Quartet partners."
Israel does not consider construction in east Jerusalem — which it captured in the 1967 Six-Day war — as settlement growth because it annexed the Arab part of the Holy City shortly after the conflict. ****************************************************************************
WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s election next month will not be "perfect" but will represent a major stride forward for moderation and for protecting US security interests, senior US officials said Thursday.
Appearing in Congress, the officials defended about 10 billion dollars in US largesse lavished on the Pakistani government of President Pervez Musharraf since the September 11 attacks of 2001.
"We have to start from the premise that Pakistan’s success as a nation … is really essential to our security and future," Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said.
He said Pakistan was in a "historic transition" with Musharraf now serving as a civilian president, his state of emergency scheduled to be lifted on December 16 and the parliamentary elections planned for January 8.
"It’s not going to be a perfect election," said Boucher, whose region of responsibility is South and Central Asia. "But I think particularly if we keep working at it and they keep working at it… they can have an election that really does reflect the choices made by the people of Pakistan."
James Kunder, acting deputy administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, said USAID had given Pakistan 2.1 billion dollars in six years, mainly on education and health but also for good governance.
"We intend to use every tool in our toolkit to ensure those elections are fair, open and transparent," he said alongside Boucher at a Senate foreign relations subcommittee hearing analyzing US assistance to Pakistan.
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said Al-Qaeda had regrouped in the lawless northwest of Pakistan, its leader Osama bin Laden was still at large, and anti-US feeling had surged among ordinary Pakistanis.
"Do we dare call our policies therefore a success?" the subcommittee’s chairman said. "After 10 billion dollars, have we really improved our security?"
Boucher insisted that firm controls were in place to ensure the war-on-terror reimbursements were justified, and said no US money could have been used for domestic repression against Musharraf opponents.
But the State Department official did announce that 200 million dollars previously funneled into the Pakistani treasury would now be spent directly by US agencies to support health and education reforms on the ground.
"We think making this successful transition to civilian leadership is the best and most solid basis for the nation to move forward, including by ridding itself of the threats of extremism and terrorism," he said.