Weekly Round Up: The Cold War Continues, Blair 'Sorrow' Over Slave Trade And West Must Prepare For Chinese, Indian Dominance

It’s been a quite week in the world of Politics. The main news has been dictated by death of two men. The death of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian ex-spy who was a victim of a poisoning. Friends say the former KGB agent was poisoned three weeks ago because of his criticism of the Russian government. In the Lebanon, cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, a key member of the anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese parliament had been shot dead in an assassination that raises tensions between opponents and allies of Syria. U.S. President George W. Bush denounced the killing, saying that Syria and Iran were trying to undermine the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. One thing is for certain the accused Russian and Syrian governments have the least to gain from the death of the two men. I smell a rat and hope the truth gets unveiled pretty soon (and by the way it was nice of President Bush to put Iran in the picture – although what they’ve got to do with the Lebanese situation mystifies me– maybe it’s because they are I-ran! Also Israeli and Palestinian leaders have committed to a ceasefire agreed for the Gaza Strip, despite Palestinian rockets landing in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped the ceasefire would also be applied to the West Bank. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said all Palestinian groups had made clear that they stood behind the ceasefire.

Here’s all the other news from around the world…

North America
US troops in sick taunt of Iraqi boys
A video showing US soldiers in Iraq taunting thirsty children with a bottle of water has caused outrage.

The footage shows a group of children desperately chasing a truck so they can get a drink. The US Department of Defense confirmed the video showed US soldiers and said the images were 'unfortunate'.

The faces of the two men in the vehicle are not revealed but they can be heard saying in American sounding accents: 'You want some water? Keep running.'

The children are waving and shouting as the men, dressed in military uniforms, laugh and tease them with it. Most of the children tire and lag behind until there is just one left.

Then one man throws the bottle out of the truck which results in a scramble as children nearby and the remaining boy try to grab it.

Much of Iraq still suffers from problems with the availability and stability of clean drinking water supplies.

Olympics could hurt Canada's Afghan military tour
Canada might not be able to extend the life of its 2,500-strong mission to Afghanistan beyond February 2009 because many troops will be needed to ensure security at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, according to a document released on Monday.

The mission was supposed to end in February 2007 but the ruling Conservatives, who won the election this year in part by promising to boost the overstretched and underfunded military, pushed through a parliamentary vote approving a two-year extension.

Although the government has said little about whether Canadian soldiers will stay beyond February 2009, a formerly secret military briefing document prepared for Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor casts doubt on this possibility.

U.S. to allow Israeli agents to testify against Rosenstein in disguise
A U.S. federal judge agreed Wednesday to allow Israeli undercover agents to testify in disguises in the upcoming trial of Zeev Rosenstein - the Israeli accused of operating a global Ecstacy trafficking organization - but refused a government request that they not use their real names.

U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas determined the six agents would not be completely hidden if their costumes are limited to wigs, makeup and facial hair for men. Defense lawyers for the accused Rosenstein had
objected to the testimony in disguise, saying it would violate his right to confront one's accuser.

"This is not a situation where the witnesses are not physically present in the courtroom and are testifying remotely," Dimitrouleas ruled. "Defendant's counsel and the jury will all be capable of viewing firsthand the reactions of the witnesses to both direct and cross-examination."

The judge sided with Rosenstein, however, in rejecting prosecutors' proposal that the Israeli agents use only "officer numbers" instead of their names when they testify. The true identities will help defense lawyers delve into their professional backgrounds and personal lives for cross-examination purposes.

RCMP arrest 90 in Mafia crime sweep
Canadian police arrested 90 people on Wednesday in a series of raids targeting what officials said was traditional Italian organized crime.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said those arrested included Nicolo Rizzuto, 82, and other individuals who officials said were affiliated members of the Mafia. They face some 1,350 criminal charges, including illicit drug trafficking, gangsterism and attempted murder.

RCMP Corporal Luc Bessette said 700 police officers were involved in the Montreal-area raids, which stemmed from an investigation dubbed Project Colisee that began in 2004.

"Essentially, Project Colisee will show that six individuals are at the head of a crime organization whose principle activities are committing or facilitating the commission of serious crimes such as the import and export of illicit substances, bookmaking, extortion and the possession of the proceeds of crime," he said.

South America
Chavez 'recalls Argentina envoy'
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has recalled his ambassador to Buenos Aires following a complaint by Argentina's leader, Argentine media report.

President Nestor Kirchner is said to have contacted Mr Chavez over the conduct of ambassador Roger Capella. Mr Capella is accused of supporting former Housing Secretary Luis D'Elia.

Mr D'Elia was fired for criticising an international arrest warrant for eight Iranian former cabinet ministers issued by Argentine prosecutors.

The warrants were issued over the ex-ministers' alleged involvement in a bomb attack on a Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires in 1994, in which 85 people were killed.

Correspondents say this is the latest in string of diplomatic incidents involving the Venezuelan ambassador.

The then Iranian authorities have been accused of directing Lebanese militia group Hezbollah to carry out the attack. Iran has rejected the charges, describing it as a "Zionist plot". Hezbollah has also denied its involvement in the attack.

The blast reduced the seven-storey Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association community centre to rubble. No-one has ever been convicted of the attack, but the current government has said it is determined to secure justice. Over the years, the case has been marked by rumours of cover-ups and accusations of incompetence, but little in the way of hard evidence.

11 die when tree hits Nicaraguan church
A giant tree fell on an evangelical church in remote northeastern Nicaragua while an American pastor was delivering his sermon, killing 11 people including the clergyman, authorities said Monday.

Rev. Larry Wayne Poll, a 64-year-old native of Alabama, was killed Sunday while preaching at the church in the Nicaraguan town of Lupuas, near the Honduran border, said Rigoberto Gonzalez, a spokesman for Honduran police.

Two Hondurans and eight Nicaraguans also died, Gonzalez said. More than 100 people were in the church when heavy winds knocked down the tree.

"We all lament the tragedy," Gonzalez said.

Poll's body was taken to a morgue in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, the closest major city to Lupuas, located near the Coco River that forms part of the border between the two Central American countries.

While both Honduras and Nicaragua are predominantly Roman Catholic, evangelical churches have made large inroads in recent years, especially in rural areas.

Ortega backs unified Central America
Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel Ortega, making his first official trip outside the country, promised on Tuesday to work toward a unified Central America but also said his country needs new trade partnerships beyond its neighbors and the United States.

After a meeting with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger, Ortega told a news conference, "If we don't unite, we'll sink…We have to work toward a union of the Americas, of Central America with the Caribbean and South America," he said. "Meanwhile, let's build the unity of Central America."

The trip is his first abroad since being elected as president on Nov. 5. Political analysts have suggested that by making such a visit before heading to either the U.S. or Venezuela, he could distance himself from a dispute between the two countries.

Central American leaders have been holding talks aimed at integrating the region by opening borders from Nicaragua to Guatemala. Both countries have also signed a new free-trade pact with the United States.

Ortega said Nicaragua should also embrace other possible trade partners, such as the Mercosur trade bloc, which currently includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, and the left-leaning Bolivarian pact between Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia.

Europe
'War on terror' could last 30 years or more
The fight against terrorism could last 30 years or more, according to a report published by a British think tank that specialises in international security.

"There is every prospect of the 'war on terror' extending for 30 years or more," said the report by the Oxford Research Group…What is required is a complete re-assessment of current policies but that is highly unlikely, even with the recent political upheavals".

"Most people believe that the recent elections mark the beginning of the end of the Bush era but that does not apply to the war on terror," said Professor Paul Rogers, who wrote the report, in a statement…In reality there will be little change until the United States faces up to the need for a fundamental re-think of its policies".

The report showed that the United States is now faced with a dilemma: if it withdraws from Iraq, insurgent groups will be able to operate freely in the biggest oil reserve in the world.

"If it stays, though, then US soldiers become an increasing magnet for radical factions, with Iraq becoming a training ground for new generations of paramilitaries, just as Afghanistan was in the 1980s against the Soviet occupying forces," the report said.

It said that the "fundamental mistake" was to remove the regime of president Saddam Hussein by force, which was a "gift" for Al-Qaeda and extremist groups because the deployment of 150,000 US soldiers in the heart of the Arab world is considered by many to be "an occupation force".

The importance of oil in the region "means that it would be entirely unacceptable for the United States to consider withdrawal from Iraq, no matter how insecure the environment".

Blair 'sorrow' over slave trade
Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he feels "deep sorrow" for Britain's role in the slave trade.

In an article for the New Nation newspaper, the prime minister said it had been "profoundly shameful". But Mr Blair stopped short of issuing a full apology, which some commentators have demanded.

The government is reportedly setting out its plans for next year's bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has been drawing up ideas for the 25 March anniversary, including the possibility of a "statement of regret" for Britain's involvement. He has already ruled out a formal apology.

In comments reported by The Observer, Mr Blair said: "It is hard to believe what would now be a crime against humanity was legal at the time. "I believe the bicentenary offers us a chance not just to say how profoundly shameful the slave trade was - how we condemn its existence utterly and praise those who fought for its abolition - but also to express our deep sorrow that it could ever have happened and rejoice at the better times we live in today."

Livingstone decries vilification of Islam
Muslims are being singled out for demonisation on a par with the victimisation of Jews during the last century, the mayor of London claimed. Unveiling new research indicating that 75% of those polled in the capital support the right of Muslims, and those of other faiths, to dress "in accordance with their religious beliefs", Ken Livingstone criticised the "barrage" of attacks as an assault on freedom of religious and cultural expression.

His comments coincide with the launch of a high-powered coalition, involving MPs, Muslim groups, trade unions and the campaign group Liberty, to confront Islamophobia. The new coalition is supported by figures from the three major parties, Sikhs, black-led organisations and human rights groups.

Many leading figures are concerned about issues such as Jack Straw's observations on Muslim women who wear the veil and criticisms from ministers who say Islamic communities should do more to root out extremists.

Mr Livingstone said: "Over recent weeks we have seen a demonisation of Muslims only comparable to the demonisation of Jews from the end of the 19th century. As at that time, the attack on Muslims in reality threatens freedoms for all of us, which took hundreds of years to win - freedom of conscience and freedom of cultural expression. Every person who values their right to follow the religion of their choice or none should stand with the Muslim communities today." He linked the criticism of Muslims with the adverse scrutiny accorded to government policy overseas.

UK case targets arms sales to Israel
A London court has begun hearing a legal challenge brought by a Palestinian man claiming that Britain is violating its military hardware export rules by selling arms to Israel.

Lawyers for Saleh Hassan, a Palestinian resident of Bethlehem, want Britain to halt the export of military equipment to Israel. Hassan's attorney, Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), said: "We intend to argue that the UK government should immediately review the legality and rationality of its arms-related trading activities with Israel."

There was a "systematic and continuing breach of the UK government's own consolidated criteria," Shiner contended in a statement, arguing there was "clear recent evidence that arms-related products from UK based companies are implicated in indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Lebanese civilians."

Hassan's lawyers argued in court on November 15 that the sale of military spare parts and equipment to Israel violates Britain's ban on arms sales when there is a "clear risk" they "might be used for internal repression."

In 2005 Britain exported over 22.5m worth of components for combat helicopters, aircraft radars, air-to-surface missiles, airborne electronic warfare equipment and other military goods to Israel.

The Foreign Office has defended military exports, however Hassan's lawyers have argued the government's case for arms sales to Israel was contradicted by the testimony of its ministers. Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East Kim Howells told Parliament in August that "almost any use of equipment" sold to Israel "could be used aggressively, especially in occupied areas."

Middle East
Prominent Shiite cleric from Iraq dies
Grand Ayatollah Jawad Tabrizi, a prominent Shiite cleric who was deported by Saddam Hussein's government in 1979, died Monday, Iraq's top Shiite clerics said Monday. He was 82.

Tabrizi, a religious leader for many Shiites worldwide, died Monday in the Iranian holy city of Qom, some 82 miles south of the capital Tehran, the clerics said in statements released by their offices in Najaf. Tabrizi once lived in Iraq but was deported by the Saddam's regime in 1979 shortly after the Iranian revolution, according to an aide for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most prominent religious leader.

During Saddam's 23-year rule many Shiite clerics fled Najaf for Qom — both major centers of Shiite learning

Syrian Jews: Talk to Syria now
The head of New York's Jewish-Syrian community, Jack Avital, has blasted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel for failing to "check the sincerity" of Syrian President Bashar Assad's peace overtures, the New York Jewish Week reported.

"Maybe we should remind you that if any Arab leader is sending signs of peace maybe the slightest ones you should respond. You should immediately check his sincerity and seriousness. You do not have the moral permission to avoid him. You must do it for the sake of those you may demand to sacrifice their lives in case war commences," Avital was quoted as saying to Olmert in a letter.

The letter, described by the Jewish News as a "surprising move," came after Syrian Ambassador to the United States Imad Moustapha told the Jewish News: "Once peace talks between Syria and Israel start, all issues will be on the table. We repeat: We are offering full recognition and full relations in this peace process. They (the Israelis) have nothing to lose. We are very clearly saying, we want to talk to you; we want to have peace."

"We had excellent relations in the past with Iran . But it did not prevent us from seriously working on a peace agreement with Israel," the Syrian ambassador added.

Iran invites Iraqi, Syrian presidents
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited his Iraqi and Syrian counterparts to a weekend summit in Tehran to tackle the chaos in Iraq, where violence is hurtling toward civil war, four key lawmakers told The Associated Press on Monday.

The diplomatic gambit coincided with a groundbreaking visit to Baghdad by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, who was challenged over Damascus' role in supporting the Sunni insurgency. The Iraqi government said diplomatic relations between the two countries — severed nearly a quarter-century ago — would be restored by Tuesday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the Syrian envoy that Damascus should not let its disputes with the United States be played out in Iraq, where the chaos and bloodshed has become "a danger that threatens all, not Iraq only."

Although a spokesman for the Iraqi president said Syrian President Bashar Assad would not be attending the summit, the Iranian move appeared designed to upstage possible American efforts to reach out to Tehran and Damascus in a wider effort to subdue runaway violence in Iraq.

Russia sends defense system to Iran
Russia has begun delivery of Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran, a Defense Ministry official said Friday, confirming that Moscow would proceed with arms deals with Tehran in spite of Western criticism.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue, declined to specify when the deliveries had been made and how many systems had been delivered.

Ministry officials have previously said Moscow would supply 29 of the sophisticated missile systems to Iran under a US$700 million (€565 million) contract signed in December, according to Russian media reports.

The United States called on all countries last spring to stop all arms exports to Iran, as well as ending all nuclear cooperation with it to put pressure on Tehran to halt uranium enrichment activities. Israel, too, has severely criticized arms deals with Iran.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the United States and its allies suspect Iran is trying to develop weapons.

The UN Security Council, where Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member, is currently stalemated on the severity of sanctions on Iran for defying its demand to cease uranium enrichment.

The Tor-M1 deal, involving conventional weapons, does not violate any international agreements.Russian officials say that the missiles are purely defensive weapons with a limited range.

Asia
West must prepare for Chinese, Indian dominance
Western nations must prepare for a future dominated by China and India, whose rapid economic rise will soon fundamentally alter the balance of power, former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn has warned.

Wealthy countries were failing to understand the impact of the invevitable growth of the two Asian powerhouses, Wolfensohn said in the 2006 Wallace Wurth Memorial Lecture at the University of New South Wales at the weekend.

"It's a world that is going to be in the hands of these countries which we now call developing," said Australian-born Wolfensohn, who held the top job at the global development bank for a decade until last year.

Rich nations needed to try to capitalise on the inevitable emergence of what would become the engine of the world's economic activity before it was too late, he said.

"Most people in the rich countries don't really look at what's happening in these large developing countries," said Wolfensohn, who is now chairman of Citigroup International Advisory Board and his own investment and advisory firm.

Within 25 years, the combined gross domestic products of China and India would exceed those of the Group of Seven wealthy nations, he said. "This is not a trivial advance, this is a monumental advance." Wolfensohn said that somewhere between 2030 and 2040, China would become the largest economy in the world, leaving the United States behind.

India mulls unmanned mission to Mars by 2013
Indian space scientists plan to send an unmanned mission to Mars by 2013 to look for evidence of life, a news report said.

The six-to-eight-month mission, likely to be launched in the next seven years, would cost three billion rupees (67 million dollars), the Hindustan Times reported.

"Mars is emerging on our horizon. The geo-stationary launch vehicle can take a payload to Mars and our Deep Space Network can track it all the way," G. Madhavan Nair, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told the newspaper.

"There is a lot of interest in Mars. The missions of the United States and the European Space Agency have given us some interesting data. Let us see what value addition our mission can bring," he said.

The mission will study the chemical attributes of the Martian atmosphere and the planet's sub-soil and terrain, ISRO programme director S.C Chakravarthy told the English-language daily.

India plans to send its first unmanned probe to the moon in two or three years' time.

Experts: Nepal king may face charges
A government commission blamed King Gyanendra on Monday for a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left 19 people dead earlier this year, and Nepal's prime minister hinted that criminal charges were possible.

Since April's mass protests, which forced Gyanendra to reinstate parliament 14 months after he suspended it and seized complete power, the monarch has since seen his status plummet from demigod to delinquent. Monday's report was an ominous portent for Nepal's centuries-old monarchy, the last Hindu throne in the world.

In the short term, some legal analysts said it could lead to criminal charges against Gyanendra, who since April has been stripped of his powers, command over the army, and his immunity from prosecution.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala indicated as much when he received the report on Monday, vowing to punish those culpable for the crackdown that killed 19 and injured hundreds.

The commission did not recommend how to proceed, leaving open the thorny question of whether to prosecute the king and how to punish him if he is found guilty.

In the long term, the report's findings are certain to provide ammunition to those looking to do away with the monarchy — especially the Maoist rebels, who took part in the April unrest and are now on the cusp of signing a peace deal with the government to which Gyanendra ceded power.

India told to get grip on HIV in 2007
India must get on top of its HIV epidemic by next year or risk seeing it spiral out of control, the man who controls the richest private anti-AIDS fund in the country and a senior United Nations official warned.

"The signs are still ominous," Ashok Alexander, the director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's $258-million Indian HIV-prevention project, told Reuters in an interview.

He said the rising prevalence of HIV in more than 100 districts in which the foundation operates showed that a decade of government efforts had not slowed the virus, which is now estimated to have infected 5.7 million Indians.

"The huge challenge is scaling up prevention efforts. 2007 is when we need to have done this by," added Alexander, who has repeatedly said India's epidemic is at a tipping point. "It's very urgent."

India already has more HIV-positive people than any other country, UNAIDS says. The AIDS-causing virus is presently thought to be largely confined within a sexual triangle of poor, male migrant workers, the prostitutes they visit, and their wives back home.

For that reason, the Gates Foundation spends much of its efforts telling the first two groups to use condoms.

Pakistan parliament backs rape bill
Pakistan's parliament has approved a controversial bill aimed at helping victims of rape, despite strong protests from muslim politicians who claim the legislation violates Islamic law. The bill is set to go before Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, who is expected to ratify the document.

President Musharraf has been a strong supporter of changing contentious sections of the 1979 Hudood Ordinance, or rape law, as a way of softening the country's hard-line Islamic image and appeasing moderates and human rights groups opposed to the statutes.

Activists have long condemned the laws for punishing, instead of protecting, rape victims while providing legal safeguards for their attackers. But conservatives and opposition supporters have rallied to keep the old laws, which were introduced by general Zia ul-Haq, the sixth president of Pakistan, to make laws more Islamic.

Africa
Gaddafi: Oil behind Darfur crisis
Muammar Gaddafi has accused the West of trying to grab Sudan's oil wealth with its plan to send UN troops to Darfur.

The Libyan president, a mediator in several African wars, was echoing Sudanese criticisms of the proposed deployment as a Western attempt at colonisation.

Gaddafi also urged the Khartoum government to reject the proposal. "Western countries and America are not busying themselves out of sympathy for the Sudanese people or for Africa but for oil and for the return of colonialism to the African continent," he said.

Gaddafi's opinions are listened to in Africa because of his advocacy of African unity and development. Gaddafi was speaking at a ceremony in Tripoli last Sunday attended by
Sudanese government officials and a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army rebels to celebrate their signing on Saturday of an agreement aimed at bringing peace to Darfur.

"To be occupied by the Sudanese army is better than to be occupied by UN forces, and the biggest disaster is if the Atlantic army came and positioned itself in Sudan," he said, referring to Western troops.

The UN and the African Union (AU) have been pressing Sudan to accept a UN-led peacekeeping force in Darfur to halt three years of violence that has killed tens of thousands of people.

U.S. threatens 'Plan B' if Sudan ignores deadline
The US envoy to Sudan warned Khartoum to meet a January 1 deadline for full acceptance of a UN plan to deploy international peacekeepers to Darfur or face tougher action to end atrocities in the war-torn region.

"There's a point, January 1st, either we see a change or go to Plan B," Andrew Natsios, President George W. Bush's special envoy to Sudan, told reporters.

Natsios, who helped negotiate a tentative agreement last week for sending a joint African Union- United Nations force to Darfur, said the Khartoum government had yet to give its approval for the timing, size and command structure of the peacekeeping operation.

He refused to elaborate on what Plan B would entail if no response was forthcoming by January 1 beyond saying it's "a different approach" to the negotiated deployment of peacekeepers. "I think making threats is not a wise thing to do," he said when pressed to provide details. "I'm not going to go into that."

Human rights groups and former US officials have called for unilateral military action, possibly by NATO forces, if Sudan continues to refuse the deployment of a robust peacekeeping force to Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died in three-and-a-half years of ethnic civil war.

Other options for action include sanctions targeting companies owned by ruling party officials, financial action against foreign firms operating in Sudan and efforts to prosecute government leaders for crimes against humanity.

Rwandan president recommended for war crimes trial
A French judge recommended that Rwandan President Paul Kagame should face an international war crimes court over his alleged involvement in the death of a former Rwandan leader that sparked the 1994 genocide, court sources said.

Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the judge leading a probe into the attack on a plane carrying the then president Juvenal Habyarimana, said Kagame should face charges at the international war crimes court for Rwanda in Tanzania.

The attack on the plane carrying Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, in April 1994 ignited ethnic tensions in the country, sparking a genocide in which Hutu extremists slaughtered some 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania is currently hearing the case of several former high-ranking Rwandan army officers accused of genocide during the 100 days of carnage that followed.

AU finance ministers call for debt cancellation
The African Union's 53 finance ministers, meeting in Yaounde, called for debt cancellation from their creditors and increased aid packages.

"We reaffirm our desire to see the cancellation (of debt) extended to all African countries," the finance ministers said in a final declaration published at the end of their second conference.

In his opening speech on Thursday morning, Cameroonian Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni proposed the creation of a "specific mechanism" to alleviate debt in countries not currently covered by existing financial aid.

Cameroon said in April it was at the "point of completing" its membership to the initiative for very poor indebted countries, which would effectively cut much of its debt.

Several other states, such as oil producers, have "intermediary revenues" and are therefore not admissible to the initiative.

Ethiopian lions poisoned to save money
Rare Abyssinian lion cubs are being poisoned at a zoo because staff cannot afford to keep them, a wildlife official said Wednesday.

The dead cubs are sold to taxidermists for $170 each to be stuffed and sold as decorations, said Muhedin Abdulaziz, the administrator at the old imperial Lion Zoo in the capital, Addis Ababa.

"These animals are the pride of our country. We need to do something about this. But our only alternative right now is to send them to the taxidermist," Abdulaziz said.

Ethiopia's lions, famous for their black manes, are the country's national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Wildlife experts estimate that only 1,000 Ethiopian lions, which are smaller than other lions, remain in the wild. Despite a recent crackdown, hunters also kill the animals for their skins, which can fetch $1,000.

Abdulaziz said it costs around $6,000 a month to run the zoo, but it only receives $5,000 in revenues from entrance fees. He added that the poisoning has been going on at least since he arrived two years ago; the number of cubs that have been killed was not immediately clear.

The zoo is a popular local attraction, although poor facilities have led to concerns by international wildlife organizations. It was built in 1948 by Emperor Haile Selassie and currently has 16 adult lions and five cubs.

Australasia
East Timor leader apologises for govt mistakes
East Timor President Xanana Gusmao has apologised for the violence that has rocked the nation over the past six months, saying his government had made "mistakes".

Speaking at the presidential palace in Dili late Friday, Gusmao called for reconciliation. "I humbly apologise to the people ... in the past six months the people have been suffering, living in fear and tears," Gusmao said.

Factions within the military and police force were involved in violence that rocked Dili and surrounding towns in April and May, leaving at least 37 people dead.

The violence followed the dismissal of almost a third of the armed forces by then prime minister Mari Alkatiri.

"We know that we were wrong. Our mistakes spread and affected all of you -- old people, adults and children. Our mistakes also spread to the armed forces," Gusmao said.

Gusmao, a hero of the nation's bloody fight for independence, said it was time to set aside differences and to "be brave and forgive each other."