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| 09 January 2005 | Sunday | 27 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
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Welcome to DAWN, Pakistan's most widely circulated English language newspaper. Updated round-the-clock, with a major update before 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT).
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Suicide car bomber kills 11 near Baghdad: BAGHDAD, Jan 09: A suicide car bomber killed 11 Iraqis and wounded 23 in the town of Youssefiya today afternoon as violence continued in the run-up to the Iraqi elections. The man drove his explosives-laden car into an Iraq army road checkpoint in the town, located 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, police said. The incident happened not far from the town of Mahawil where the day before another suicide bomber struck a filling station, killing three Iraqis. A U.S. soldier was killed when a bomb exploded near his patrol in Baghdad today, the U.S. military said. (DPA) (Posted @ 23:35 PST) 
Palestinians Vote for Successor to Arafat: RAMALLAH, Jan 09: Palestinians voted today for a successor to Yasser Arafat and looked likely to elect Mahmoud Abbas, a pragmatist who has promised to revive a peace process with Israel after years of bloodshed. Some 1.8 million Palestinians were eligible to vote in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will close at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT). Initial returns are expected in the evening and final results on Monday. Polls showed Abbas would win the presidential election by a landslide after a crowd-pleasing campaign in which he pledged to uphold the iconic Arafat's struggle for statehood in Israeli-occupied territories, but by non-violent means. But Islamist groups like Hamas, which want to destroy Israel rather than build a state alongside, have called for a boycott to the poll and could harm Abbas's mandate for peacemaking if turnout is small. (Reuters) (Posted @ 14:15 PST)
Israel Set to Make Prison Deal With Abbas : JERUSALEM, Jan 09: Israel expects Mahmoud Abbas to win today's Palestinian presidential election and is ready to open talks with him, offering to free Palestinian prisoners if Abbas cracks down on Palestinian rocket attacks, senior Israeli officials said. Opinion polls showed Abbas with more than double the support of his nearest rival, democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti, but he was struggling to win a clear mandate to push forward with his agenda of resuming peace talks with Israel and reforming the corruption-riddled Palestinian Authority . The Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the first meeting should take place shortly after the election. To facilitate the elections, Israel also began slowly easing travel restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Saturday, though problems remained and new checkpoints sprouted in some areas, international election observers said. Despite the difficulties, Palestinian election officials said ballot boxes were distributed to more than 1,000 polling stations throughout the West Bank and Gaza for today's vote to replace Yasser Arafat, who died in November, as Palestinian Authority president. (AP/AFP) (Posted @ 20:50 PST)
Egypt's Mubarak Welcomes Rivals for Presidency: CAIRO, Jan 09: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, said he did not mind others seeking nomination for this year's presidential referendum but that the top job was tough and offered no private life. Parliament has yet to choose the sole candidate allowed to run in the September referendum. But Mubarak is expected to be nominated again, despite reformers' calls for the government to amend the constitution and allow more than one candidate to run. Three prominent intellectuals have announced their intention to run for the position in a symbolic challenge to Mubarak. Asked about those seeking to run against him, 76-year-old Mubarak said: "Let them go ahead, this is good. Democracy is like this. I hope that 100 nominate (themselves). Why will I get angry? I won't get angry." The comments, originally made in a television interview, were carried in newspapers today. Although parliament has yet to decide, the semi-official al-Ahram newspaper has recently carried reports pre-judging the decision, either saying Mubarak will win the nomination or the referendum itself. Sunday, al-Ahram reported that the Interior Ministry would start referendum preparations "after parliament finishes in May the nomination of President Mubarak for a new term." Parliament is dominated by Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party. When asked about his job, Mubarak said: "Firstly, whoever sits in the chair of the president of Egypt, his health, time and nerves are ruined and he has no private life at all. Mubarak will be seeking a fifth six-year term if nominated, each time chosen by referendum, a system that has been in place for decades. No president since the 1952 revolution has been chosen by a multi-candidate election. (Reuters) (Posted @ 20:50 PST)
South Korea's president axes minister after less than a week: SEOUL , Jan 09: South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun sacked his education minister less than a week after the appointment drew strong criticism from civic groups. Lee Ki-Jun was named as education minister Tuesday but immediately came under fire for his previous records of lavish spending as a university chief and his US citizen son, Roh's aides said today. Roh apologized for the pick, and chief presidential secretary Kim Woo-Sik and other aides responsible for recommending Lee to lead the education ministry offered to resign. "I feel sorry to the people for the controversy and trouble. Use it as a chance to revamp and improve the personnel management system," Roh was quoted by his aides as saying. Lee had been accused of having overspent official funds as head of Seoul National University, and of helping his eldest son illegally enter a college in Seoul. There were also claims the he stashed wealth under his son's name who later renounced his Korean nationality to get US citizenship. He was among five new ministers in Tuesday's cabinet reshuffle. Lee's replacement has yet to be named, according to Roh's aides. The controversy dealt a blow to Roh who wanted to use the shake-up to re-energize his cabinet heading into the third year of his five-year term. (AFP) (Posted @ 20:50 PST)
China Communist Party Official Song Dies : BEIJING, Jan 09: Song Renqiong, a veteran of the Communist Party of China, has died, the government said. He was 96. Song died of an illness , the official Xinhua News Agency reported, but it did not provide any more details. Born in central Hunan province in 1909, Song became a general in China's People's Liberation Army in 1955. A year later, he was elected to the party's central committee. In 1982, he became a member of the all-powerful politburo. Song often was considered one of the "Eight Immortals," a phrase borrowed from Chinese folklore to describe eight elderly veterans of the communist revolution who set policy from behind the scenes through the 1980s. The most powerful was Deng Xiaoping. "Song was an outstanding member of the CPC, a great Communist solider, a remarkable proletarian revolutionary and a prominent leader of the party's political work," Xinhua said. (AFP) (Posted @ 14:55 PST)
Several Killed as U.S. Bombs Wrong Target in Iraq: AAYTHA, Jan 09: A U.S. warplane mistakenly bombed a house in northern Iraq , killing several people in an attack likely to inflame anti-American anger ahead of controversial elections due at the end of the month. Furious residents of the village of Aaytha, said the air strike flattened a villa and killed 14 civilians. Reuters television pictures showed 14 freshly dug graves after the bombing . The U.S. military said at least five people died after an F-16 warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb on the wrong target. "The house was not the intended target for the air strike. The intended target was another location nearby," the U.S. army said. It added that it "deeply regrets the loss of possibly innocent lives" and that an investigation was under way. (Reuters) (Posted @ 15:00 PST)
At least eight killed as storm pounds north Europe: LONDON , Jan 09: At least eight people were killed, more than 1,000 homes were flooded and 330,000 others left without power as violent storms swept through northern Europe, bringing hurricane force winds and heavy rain. Denmark, southern Sweden and the British Isles bore the brunt of the conditions, with 100 people forced to spend the night on a ferry after it ran aground in southwest Scotland, while a Dutch freighter issued a mayday call off the Danish coast. In northwestern England, meanwhile, the centre of the city of Carlisle was submerged underwater, with locals sheltering on upper floors, watching cars float past in the street below. Thousands of people were forced to abandon their homes in the city, being rescued either by boat or by helicopter from the roof, local police said. Four people were killed in Denmark -- two motorists who died when trees crashed onto their cars, and two others who were killed when a roof blew off a building, police said. In southern Sweden, two motorists were also killed when trees fell on their cars and a third was killed by a passing car when he tried to remove a fallen tree from a road. A fourth man was killed on his farm when bales of hay came crashing down on him during the storm, media reported. The weather also wreaked havoc for rail traffic. (AFP) (Posted @ 14:20 PST)
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