Hamas, Fatah join ranks to call for Israel to free prisoners

GAZA CITY — Hamas and Fatah closed ranks on Saturday to mark Palestinian Prisoners' Day on Saturday, in the first joint initiative by the bitter rivals since the latter was routed from Gaza in 2007.

Representatives of the two factions, joined by members of smaller militant groups, relatives of prisoners and international activists, staged a sit-down protest and 24-hour fast outside the Gaza City offices of the Red Cross.

Ismail Haniya, head of the Hamas government in Gaza, made a brief visit to call for Palestinian reconciliation and urge all Palestinians to fight Israeli occupation "by any means" and pressure Israel to free thousands of prisoners.

"We must put aside anything that can harm our unity," Fatah representative Raafat Hamdouna said, hailing Saturday's joint protest with the Islamist movement Hamas which expelled Fatah in deadly street fighting in June 2007.

This year's rallies and vigils in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem in support of the prisoners came a day after a detainee died in Israeli custody.

In Ramallah, about 1,000 people marched through the centre of the West Bank city, carrying pictures of imprisoned relatives and of Marwan Barghuti, a jailed leader of the mainstream Fatah party.

Barghuti, architect of the 2000 uprising against Israeli occupation, is serving five life terms but remains popular and is often spoken of as a successor to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

"We shall not rest until the prisoners issue is resolved," prisoners' affairs minister Issa Qaraqae told the crowd in Ramallah.

Abbas said in a statement for the annual Prisoners' Day that there could be no end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict without the release of the prisoners.

"There cannot be a solution or peace in our region without a final resolution of the prisoner issue and the release of all Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons," he said.

A man serving a 10-year sentence for attempted murder died in his prison cell in southern Israel late on Friday, Qaraqae's ministry said, adding he was the 19th Palestinian to die in Israeli custody over the past decade.

Israeli prisons service officials, quoted in the media, said the man, Raed Abu Hamad, 31, had a history of medical problems and that his death was being investigated.

In east Jerusalem, relatives held pictures of their jailed loved ones at the entrance to the walled Old City.

In Gaza City, Haniya met prisoners' aid officials and called on Arab countries to donate funds for prisoners and their families, in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.

More than 7,000 Palestinians, including 270 under the age of 18, are currently being held in Israeli prisons, according to data released by the Palestinian central bureau of statistics.

Three of the prisoners have been in jail for more than 30 years, and 315 for more than 15 years, the office said in a statement released on the eve of Prisoners' Day.

Of those held, 264 are under administrative detention, meaning they are being held without trial.

Since Israel seized the West Bank along with other Arab territories in the 1967 Middle East war, it has detained a total of more than 760,000 Palestinians, the statement said.

New Kyrgyz rulers struggle to impose authority

BISHKEK — Supporters of ousted Kyrgyzstan president Kurmanbek Bakiyev seized regional television and administration headquarters on Saturday as the new authorities struggled to impose their authority.

With the country still on edge over a week after the protests that toppled Bakiyev and sent him into exile, uncertainty was also growing over the whereabouts of the ousted president.

Bakiyev dramatically flew out of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan late Thursday, with world powers and the new authorities hoping his exit would restore stability after 84 were killed in protests that ended his rule.

But demonstrators loyal to Bakiyev in the southern city of Jalalabad -- where many of his supporters are concentrated -- staged a 1,000 strong protest and then seized the regional administration building and television station, reports said.

The group of supporters broke into the office of the station's director Batykan Azhymamatovy and demanded to be given air time to make a statement which they then recorded, reported Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz station of US-funded Radio Free Europe.

Dozens of protesters then entered the regional administration building, briefly taking hostage the regional governor Bekut Asanov. After an hour he was allowed to go but the protesters remained in the building, Azattyk said.

The interior minister of Kyrgyzstan's interim government, Bolotbek Sherniyazov, was also beaten in the unrest.

He finally managed to flee to his jeep and leave the scene as the protesters hurled bottles at his car, the report said.

But the chief of staff for Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva, Edil Baisalov, told Russian radio that the new authorities had the situation under control and were refraining from using force.

"The situation is under control, the interim government is refusing to use force on Bakiyev's supporters and we intend to look at such demonstrations with patience," he told Moscow Echo radio.

Uncertainty is growing over the whereabouts of Bakiyev, with some reports saying he has already moved on from Kazakhstan. Bakiyev has spent the last days in the southern Kazakhstan city of Taraz.

"Bakiyev has left Kazakhstan. He is no longer on the territory of the country," an informed source told the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, saying it was not clear where he was now.

Another source also told the agency that Bakiyev had flown out of Taraz late on Friday for an unknown destination. Kazakh officials could not be reached for comment.

Earlier reports had said that Bakiyev was due to arrive in the ex-Soviet state of Belarus, whose President Alexander Lukashenko had last week offered him asylum. But Belarussian officials denied he would be coming.

There has also been speculation in the Russian media that Bakiyev could be seeking to head to Turkey.

The interim government of Kyrgyzstan have said they will seek to bring him to justice wherever he goes.

"Wherever Kurmanbek Bakiyev goes, the international community must see him as a criminal," the deputy head of the interim government Azimbek Beknazarov told reporters in Bishkek.

Bakiyev came to power in a popular uprising known as the Tulip Revolution in 2005, but in recent years he came under increasing criticism for authoritarianism and corruption.

The government has also launched operations to arrest close family members and allies of Bakiyev, but so far appears only to have netted Baktybek Kaliyev, the former defence minister.

An operation to arrest his brother and former top regime figure Zhanysh Bakiyev ended in apparent failure when he slipped out of his village when it was surrounded by the security forces, officials said.

He is now the target of a major search.

Pope urges Catholic penance over priest scandal

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday urged Catholics to "do penance" and a top cardinal called for a mass rally by clergy to support the pontiff under fire over widespread paedophile priest scandals.

"Now under the attacks of the world which talk to us about our sins, let us see that we can do penance," the pope said at a mass at the Vatican.

"I have to say that we Christians, even lately, have often avoided the word 'penance' that seemed to us too hard," the pope said, speaking for the first time since he was directly named in allegations of helping to protect priests who have abused children.

Meanwhile the Vatican prelate who oversees the world's 400,000 Roman Catholic priests urged them to flock to Saint Peter's Square to rally around the pope and reject "unjust attacks" against him as the Church's Year of Priests winds up in June.

"The large presence of priests in the square with him will be a determined rejection of the unjust attacks of which he is a victim," Cardinal Claudio Hummes said in a letter posted on the Vatican website.

Hummes, the prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy, asked priests show "our solidarity, our support, our confidence, and our unconditional communion in the face of the frequent attacks directed towards" the pope at the Vatican from June 9 to 11.

"The accusations directed towards him are obviously unjust, and it has been shown that no one has done as much as Benedict XVI to condemn and to combat properly such crimes," the Brazilian cardinal said.

"It is absolutely unacceptable to use the crimes of the few in order to sully the entire ecclesial body of priests," said Hummes, urging priests not to "hesitate to respond to the heartfelt and cordial invitation of the Holy Father."

Widespread paedophilia scandals have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, Austria, the United States and the pope's native Germany in recent months.

Criticism of the Vatican reached fever pitch this week after the pope's right-hand man linked paedophilia to homosexuality on Monday.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's comment that "many" psychologists and psychiatrists had demonstrated such a link drew condemnation from gay rights groups, commentators and even the French government.

A Vatican "clarification" on Wednesday added more fuel to the fire with a reference to Church statistics defining paedophilia in the "strict sense" as applying to pre-adolescent children.

Vatican expert Bruno Bartoloni said that the pope's latest comments were not "a solemn declaration, but to some extent a form of mea culpa."

Bartoloni noted that the pope addressed his entire flock because they are expected "to do penance for sinners, even if they have not themselves committed wrongs."

He said the homily before members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission was unscripted, and the pontiff "said what was weighing on his heart."

Benedict himself has faced allegations that he failed to take action against predator priests both as head of the Vatican's top doctrinal and morals enforcer and earlier as the Munich archbishop.

The pontiff, who turns 83 on Friday, allegedly in 1980 approved lodging for a paedophile priest who went on to abuse elsewhere.

This month new allegations emerged in the United States that Benedict dragged his feet over defrocking a paedophile priest while he headed the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog.

Ahmadinejad tells US to 'fight terrorism like Iran'

TEHRAN — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged Barack Obama to follow Tehran's example in fighting terrorism in a letter sent to his US counterpart, the Iranian leader's office said on Wednesday.

"Questions like the attack on Afghanistan, the expansion of instability and insecurity in the region and America's backing for terrorism were raised in the letter," said Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the Iranian presidency's chief of staff.

"The president has also asked Obama to learn from Iran on how to combat terrorism," Mashaie said.

In the letter, which was sent in the Iranian month of Esfand (February 20 to March 21), Ahmadinejad also brought up the topic of Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi, whom Iran arrested in February and accuses of being backed by Washington.

"The aim of writing this letter is for the world to grasp the view of the Islamic republic of Iran and also criticise US policies in the region," Mashaie said.

Ahmadinejad had previously written a letter to Obama's predecessor George W. Bush in May 2006. The same year in November he had also written an open letter to the American people.

In recent days, Ahmadinejad has raised fresh doubts over the occurrence of the 2001 attacks on the United States, and even written to the UN chief Ban Ki-moon to launch a probe into what he has called a "big lie."

UN rifts exposed after Copenhagen setback

BONN — Divisions and finger-pointing on Friday marred the first day of talks here aimed at reviving the UN process for climate change after the bitterly-fought Copenhagen Summit.

Countries in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) split over whether the breach-birth compromise forged in Copenhagen last December amounted to progress or failure and squabbled over how to plot the steps ahead.

The three-day gathering in the former West German capital takes place nearly four months after a summit that, far from rallying mankind behind a post-2012 climate-stabilising pact, came within an inch of disaster.

Attended by some 120 heads of state and government, the summit was saved after a couple of dozen leaders haggled into the night to produce a brief document outlining areas of agreement.

Their "Copenhagen Accord" sets down a general goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), includes rich and poor countries in pledges for tackling greenhouse gases and earmarks nearly 30 billion dollars in aid from 2010-2012, with prospects of up to 100 billion dollars annually by 2020.

The United States on Friday praised the document as the springboard to the future.

Delegation chief Jonathan Pershing hailed the accord as "a significant milestone... a remarkable breakthrough" that should not be sidelined or diminished.

"We need to capitalise on this rare convergence of our leaders... we must now capture that process and its guidance on the core issues," said Pershing.

Others downplayed the status of the accord or made no reference to it, while left-led countries in the Caribbean and Latin America battered the deal with verbal broadsides.

They said its emissions pledges were only voluntary and far from the mark needed to reach the 2C (3.6 F) target and denounced the closed-doors deal as an abuse of transparency and democracy.

"The total failure of the meeting in Copenhagen... was simply because the principles of the United Nations were not respected, nor were international rules," said Venezuelan delegate Claudia Salerno.

The "neo-colonialist exercise" seemed set to be revived, she warned.

In the quest to revitalise the process for the next big UNFCCC meeting, due in the Mexican resort of Cancun in November and December, many countries endorsed ideas for speeding up a laborious affair that requires the approval of 194 parties.

These include setting up a "contact group" of several dozen countries that would haggle over core issues, then submit the outcome to a plenary for its approval.

"We cannot go back to business as usual," said Spanish delegate Alicia Montalvo, speaking for the European Union (EU).

Mexico is chairing informal talks among some 40 key nations, while the United States on April 18-19 will stage talks among 17 economies which together account for more than 80 percent of world carbon emissions.

Some developing countries said they could accept a contact group on the grounds of pragmatism, while others were fiercely against, saying they suspected any move that weakened the UN forum.

"At the end of the day, it is about survival," said Bangladesh's negotiator, acknowledging the usefulness of a contact group, while Pakistan's delegate, jabbing the table, said: "For us there is only one negotiating process, which belongs HERE."

China and the United States locked horns over whether new attempts should be made to craft a draft negotiating text.

"We already have a very good basis for work," Chinese delegate Su Wei said, pointing to a draft drawn up over the two years before Copenhagen but ultimately placed on hold as it failed to resolve a logjam of issues.

The US representative was scathing.

"After two years we gave our leaders more than 100 pages of brackets," said Pershing, referring to the use of parentheses to denote disputed text.

Outside the venue, half a dozen protestors shovelled shards of broken glass in a symbolic appeal to the UNFCCC to "pick up the pieces" after Copenhagen.

UN chief urges restraint in Central Asia water dispute

DUSHANBE — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged restraint in a growing dispute between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over the fate of a massive Tajik hydro-electric dam project.

Ban, in Tajikistan as part of a tour through ex-Soviet Central Asia, said he was "deeply concerned" over the dispute, which has seen Uzbekistan block rail shipments to its impoverished neighbour.

"All parties concerned should refrain from unilateral action until the (international assessment team) has concluded its technical assessment of Tajikistan's proposed hydro-electric project," he told reporters in Dushanbe.

"These resources should be used fairly and harmoniously respecting the interests of neighbouring countries. This is a collective responsibility for all of the leaders of Central Asia and the international community."

Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, had pledged to move ahead unilaterally in the construction of a project it hopes will allow it to eventually become a net-exporter of electricity.

The Rogun dam, which was first conceived as a gigantic Soviet hydro-electric power project, stalled as Tajikistan plunged into civil war in the early 1990s after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

But Tashkent fears the dam will damage its vital cotton industry, which depends on water which flows in from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and negatively impact the environment of millions of Uzbeks living downstream.

Uzbekistan, which has cut natural gas exports to Tajikistan during their frequent diplomatic spats, has been holding up railway deliveries since March. Tashkent denies the holdup is intentional, blaming technical problems.

"I am deeply concerned about what I heard about the potential crisis from the blockage of train shipments on the border, particularly agricultural implements in this planting season," Ban said.

Earlier this year Dushanbe began a new drive to raise funds for the dam, a mass share sale in a drive to raise 1.4 billion dollars to move forward the languishing project.

Dam debate looms large over Mekong summit

BANGKOK — Leaders of Southeast Asian nations straddling the shrinking lower Mekong River are set to lean on China at landmark talks as controversy builds over the cause of the waterway's lowest levels in decades.

Beijing's Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao will join the premiers of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin to discuss management of the vast river, on which more than 60 million people depend.

Myanmar will also participate as a dialogue partner at the top-level talks, which will kick off late Sunday and run through Monday.

A crippling drought in the region and the much-debated role of hydropower dams are due to dominate the summit of the inter-governmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) -- the first in its 15-year history.

The body warned Friday that the health of the Mekong Basin and the river's eco-systems could be threatened by proposed dams and expanding populations.

"There is a strong link between water quality and the impact of human activity on eco-systems," MRC advisor Hanne Bach said in a statement.

"Over the past five years, significant changes have taken place in water related resources and this is likely to continue, which may put livelihoods under threat," she added.

China is expected to staunchly defend its own dams, which activists downstream blame for water shortages, after the Mekong shrivelled to its lowest level in 50 years in Laos and Thailand's north.

Nations in the lower Mekong basin are likely to press China for information on the river as well as financial help, said Anond Snidvongs, director of the Southeast Asia START Regional Centre, which researches environmental change.

And "behind closed doors there will be strong debate," he told AFP.

China -- itself suffering the worst drought in a century in its southwest, with more than 24 million people short of drinking water -- says the reason for water shortages is unusually low rainfall rather than man-made infrastructure.

It says the dams, built to meet soaring demand for water and hydro-generated electricity, have been effective in releasing water during dry seasons and preventing flooding in rainy months.

"China will never do things that harm the interests of (lower Mekong) countries," said Yao Wen, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

The crisis has grounded cargo and tour boats on the so-called "mighty Mekong" and alarmed communities along what is the world's largest inland fishery.

The situation "could be a taste of things to come in the basin if climate change predictions become a reality," said MRC spokesman Damian Kean.

The chief of the MRC's secretariat, Jeremy Bird, last week hailed Beijing's agreement to share water level data from two dams during this dry season, saying it "shows that China is willing to engage with lower basin countries".

Yet questions remain over the impact of the eight planned or existing dams on the mainstream river in China.

Vice Minister of Water Resources Liu Ning said Wednesday more were needed to guarantee water and food security, while 12 dams in lower Mekong countries have also been proposed.

Campaigners also fear that the settling of political scores could block co-operation over the Mekong -- especially the current animosity between Cambodian premier Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The summit marks Hun Sen's first visit to Thailand since the two countries became embroiled in a row late last year over Cambodia's appointment of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an economics adviser.

"That's what worries me quite a lot, that the debate will be more political, and not even related to water," said Anond.

Thailand has invoked a tough security law and will deploy more than 8,000 troops in Hua Hin to ensure protesters do not disrupt the summit, in light of mass anti-government "Red Shirt" rallies in Bangkok since mid-March.

A year ago, regional leaders were forced to abandon a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) due to protests.

Kashmir shrine bars foreigners over Jesus row

SRINAGAR, India — Foreign tourists have been banned from entering a Muslim shrine in Indian-ruled Kashmir due to increasing curiosity about a theory that it contains the body of Jesus Christ.

The shrine in Srinagar city is the focus of speculation that Christ survived the crucifixion and died later in Kashmir, a belief fanned by popular books such as "Jesus Lived In India" by German author Holger Kersten.

This Easter, for the first year, travellers to Srinagar will be kept out the shrine -- which is conventionally said to hold the remains of medieval Muslim saint Yuz Asaf -- after the gates were locked to outsiders several months ago.

Mohammed Amin Ringshawl, the senior manager in charge of the small green-roofed building, said the attention that it receives was unwelcome and that local people resented the presence of inquisitive foreigners.

"It is the work of people associated with the tourist trade. They are misleading visitors and making them believe that Jesus was buried here," he told AFP.

"Locals ask why Westerners visit this shrine and not other shrines in Kashmir. To avoid any trouble we decided to shut the shrine for Westerners who were offending sentiments."

The idea that the Rozabal shrine, as it is known, contains the body of Christ has existed for at least 100 years.

But the controversy has now been included in the latest India edition of the best-selling international guidebook the Lonely Planet, alerting many of the visitors who travel to the scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir.

At the wooden-domed shrine, local Muslims stop and pray as they pass, or enter to pray next to the tomb. On the 13th of every Muslim month, special prayers are held inside.

The shrine, located on a busy street corner in Srinagar's old town, contains a wooden chamber placed over a tombstone covered with green cloth embroidered with verses from the Koran.

Holger Kersten's book, published in 1981, claims there are hidden details at the shrine -- such as carved footprints marked with crucifixion wounds -- along with other "literary and historical" evidence that make a strong case.

"It is not only possible that the body of Jesus lies buried here; it is very likely indeed," he wrote, in a suggestion dismissed by Christian scholars.

Kersten, who specialises in contentious Christian history, champions the belief that Christ, when a young man, travelled to India and studied Buddhism, and then returned to the country again after surviving the crucifixion.

The speculation that Christ visited India has been fuelled by a lack of information about his life between the ages of 12 and 30.

Ringshawl, like all residents in restive Muslim-majority Srinagar, was outraged by suggestions some years ago that the issue could be solved by exhuming the remains for DNA testing, to check for Jewish ancestry and carbon dating.

"We will never allow that to happen. That will amount to desecrating the shrine," he said.

A leading supporter of exhuming the remains, New York-based Suzanne Marie Olsson, was forced to leave Kashmir several years ago after shrine managers filed a police complaint accusing her of "causing hurt to Muslim beliefs."

She has repeatedly written to the state government for help, but such requests seem destined to fail.

"She wanted the locality to be put under curfew so that she could carry out her blasphemous act," said Ringshawl, who vowed to put up "tough resistance" to any exhumation plans.

One angry youth confronted an AFP photographer at the shrine this week, shouting: "This shrine is ours and we will spill blood if anyone even tries to prove it otherwise."