IRAQ

Monday, June 2, 2008

IRAQ

Australian Troops End Combat Operations

Australia ended its combat operations in southern Iraq on Sunday, while the Iraqi government said it has differences with the United States over a proposed long-term security agreement.

Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed by an armor-piercing roadside bomb in northeastern Baghdad, the military said.

In Nasiriyah, about 200 miles south of Baghdad, troops held a ceremony that included lowering the Australian flag and raising the American flag over Camp Terendak.

The Iraqi government had already assumed security responsibility for the Shiite-dominated Dhi Qar province, which includes the volatile city. But the Australians remained to help if necessary while training Iraqi security forces and doing reconstruction and aid work.

The U.S. military said American troops would temporarily take over those responsibilities.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was swept into office in November largely on the promise that he would bring home the country's 550 combat troops by mid-2008.

Regarding the U.S.-Iraq security deal, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that the talks "are still in their early stages" and that "the Iraqi side has a vision and a draft that is different" from what is being presented by U.S. negotiators.

burma

Gates Doubtful Rulers Will Let U.S. Deliver Aid

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates painted a bleak picture Sunday of the prospects for delivering international aid to suffering villagers in Burma's devastated Irrawaddy Delta, saying he probably is just days away from ordering a U.S. naval group waiting off the coast to leave the area.

The U.S. naval presence includes three amphibious ships, which carry 22 heavy-lift helicopters, but the aircraft have been blocked by Burma's military government.

Calling the behavior "criminal neglect," Gates, who was speaking in Bangkok, said that the U.S. has made more than 15 overtures to Burma's leadership to use helicopters to deliver aid but that all have been rejected.

ZIMBABWE

Opposition Figures Held

Zimbabwean police have arrested the leader of a faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and an opposition member of parliament, their representatives said Sunday.

Arthur Mutambara, who leads an MDC splinter group, was arrested Sunday for an article critical of President Robert Mugabe.

Eric Matinenga, an opposition legislator and lawyer to the main MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was picked up Saturday in the eastern district of Buhera and was being charged with inciting public violence, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. Matinenga is the fifth MDC legislator to be arrested ahead of a June 27 presidential runoff, which pits Tsvangirai against Mugabe.

Mutambara, in an April 20 article in the independent weekly the Standard, criticized Mugabe for his handling of March elections. He also accused the government of intimidation and questioned its right to stay in office. The Standard's editor was arrested May 8.

ISRAEL

Swap With Hezbollah

Israel handed over a convicted Hezbollah spy to Lebanon on Sunday and, in a surprise move, the Islamist guerrilla group turned over what it said were the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in a 2006 war.

Hezbollah's gesture, along with recent comments by its leader, signaled that a larger prisoner exchange could be in the works between the two bitter enemies.

Israel said the exchanges were unrelated to a deal that would include Israel releasing the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner and Hezbollah freeing two soldiers captured in a 2006 cross-border raid that sparked the month-long war.

Legislators Protest in Kuwait

Muslim hard-liners in Kuwait's parliament walked out of the body's inaugural meeting to protest two female cabinet ministers who were not wearing head scarves.

From News Services