Insurgents kill four in attack on Thai military

NARATHIWAT, Thailand: Dozens of armed militants killed at least four Thai soldiers and injured several more in a raid on a military camp in Thailand’s troubled Muslim-majority south, an army spokesman said Thursday.
In an unusually brazen attack in the insurgency-plagued region, about 50 militants attacked the unit in Narathiwat province on Wednesday evening, sparking a gun battle, Colonel Banphot Poonpien said.
“Four soldiers died in the attack and seven were injured. Of these, four are in a critical condition,” he told AFP.
The militants took more than 50 rifles and about 5,000 bullets during the raid, setting off bombs and burning two houses and a tent within the base before retreating, a statement from the southern Thai army headquarters said.
The troops killed were said to be aged between 22 and 33.
Shadowy insurgents have waged a violent campaign in the southern region bordering Malaysia since early 2004, leaving more than 4,400 people dead, both Muslims and Buddhists.
On Tuesday, Thailand extended emergency rule in most of the Muslim-majority southern region for another three months, despite rights groups’ concerns about the powers given to the military.
Suthep Thaugsuban, the deputy prime minister who oversees national security, said the militants staged the latest raid to terrify local residents.
“They want to show their capability,” he told reporters, a day after he made a visit to the troubled part of the country.
A security force of more than 60,000 is stationed in the region, battling militants whose precise aims are unclear.
Critics accuse the government of failing to address the grievances of Thailand’s Malay Muslim minority, including alleged abuses by the military and a perceived lack of respect for their ethnic identity, language and religion.

UN council considers Israeli settlement issue

UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian diplomats found international support Wednesday for their complaint that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory are illegal, but the US strongly opposed bringing the matter up in the UN Security Council.
During a council session that lasted most of the day, representatives of dozens of countries supported Palestinian complaints about continued construction of settlements while peace efforts falter.
Although a draft council resolution circulated on the matter never came to a vote Wednesday – and would surely have failed because of US objections – the Palestinians drew renewed attention to their grievances in a campaign to isolate and pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In another move for international recognition, Palestinians raised their flag over the PLO diplomatic mission in Washington for the first time on Tuesday.
Early in Wednesday’s UN session, the US, among five permanent members on the 15-country council with veto power, signaled it would not back the resolution sponsored by Lebanon. An additional 122 countries signed on as co-sponsors.
It was presented as the council engaged in open debate on the Middle East, including Palestinian issues.
It is unclear when a vote on the matter may be scheduled, but Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the UN, suggested it may not be considered for some time.
“If it was up to us, we would love to see the Security Council acting on it immediately,” Mansour said during a session break, acknowledging that US opposition would make it difficult.
Key Middle East peace issues “can be resolved only through negotiations between the parties – and not by recourse to the Security Council,” said Rosemary A. DiCarlo, deputy US representative to the UN. “We therefore consistently oppose attempts to take these issues to this council.”
But DiCarlo said the US remains committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if agreed to by both parties.
The proposed resolution reiterates demands that Israel halt all settlement building in Palestinian territory. It says that settlements built in occupied territory since 1967, including disputed East Jerusalem, “are illegal and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”
The resolution also calls on Israel and the Palestinians to continue negotiations to wrap up final issues by September 2011 as called for by the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers – the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia. It said international and regional diplomatic efforts should be intensified to support and invigorate the peace process.
Israel did not participate in the Security Council debate Wednesday because of a labor dispute involving Israeli foreign service employees, the country’s mission to the UN said.
But in Jerusalem, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev suggested the proposed resolution was counterproductive and pointed out that the Palestinians in the past committed to direct talks.
“The Palestinians have made a series of commitments that all the issues of dispute between us and them should be resolved in direct negotiations,” said Regev. “By refusing to negotiate, they are breaking their most fundamental commitments to what the process is about.”
US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, launched in September, quickly broke down over Israel’s refusal to extend a 10-month moratorium on housing starts in West Bank settlements and to include east Jerusalem, both claimed by the Palestinians, along with the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians have said they will not resume talks unless settlement construction is halted.
Briefing the council, B. Lynn Pascoe, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, said that U.N. officials are worried about a lack of progress on a negotiated peace settlement and noted that the Quartet peacemakers will meet in Munich on Feb. 5.
“Peace and Palestinian statehood cannot be delayed,” he said.
Pascoe repeated Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s calls for Israel to freeze all settlement activity.
“Further settlement expansion in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continues to undermine trust and prejudices final status discussions,” Pascoe warned.
He said there had been a sharp increase in settlement construction since a building moratorium ended on Sept. 26, with construction started on as many as 2,000 units in the West Bank since then.
Pascoe also said UN officials remain “extremely concerned” about increased tensions in Gaza, and condemned the “indiscriminate” firing of rockets and mortar shells by Palestinian militants into civilian areas in Israel.

Viewpoint: China's hubris colours US relations

One Chinese scholar dated the year 2000 as the peak of American power

When Barack Obama became US president, one of his top foreign policy priorities was to improve relations with China. Yet on the eve of President Hu Jintao's state visit to Washington, US-China relations are worse, rather than better.

Administration officials feel their efforts to reach out to China have been rebuffed.
Ironically, in 2007, President Hu Jintao had told the 17th Congress of the Communist Party that China needed to invest more in its soft, or attractive, power.
From the point of view of a country that was making enormous strides in economic and military power, this was a smart strategy.
By accompanying the rise of its hard economic and military power with efforts to make itself more attractive, China aimed to reduce the fear and tendencies to balance Chinese power that might otherwise grow among its neighbours.
But China's performance has been just the opposite, and China has had a bad year and a half in foreign policy.
Rising nationalism For years, China had followed the advice of Deng Xiaoping to keep a low profile.
However, with its successful economic recovery from the recession, China passed Japan as the world's second largest economy, and America's slow recovery led many Chinese to mistakenly conclude that the United States was in decline.

US-China relations have been a focus of Mr Obama's presidency

Given such beliefs, and with rising nationalism in China as it prepares for the transition of power to the fifth generation of leaders in 2012, many in China pressed for a more assertive foreign policy.
In 2009, China was justly proud of its success in managing to emerge from the world recession with a high 10% rate of economic growth.
But many Chinese believed that this represented a shift in the world balance of power, and that China should be less deferential to other countries, including the US.
Chinese scholars began writing about the decline of the US. One dated the year 2000 as the peak of American power.
"People are now looking down on the West, from leadership circles, to academia, to everyday folks," said Professor Kang Xiaoguang of Renmin University.

“Start Quote

China's new attitudes alienated the Obama administration”

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This Chinese view is seriously mistaken and China is unlikely to equal American economic, military or soft power for decades to come.

Nonetheless, this over-confidence in power assessment (combined with insecurity in domestic affairs) led to more assertive Chinese foreign policy behaviour in the last two years.
China miscalculated by deviating from the smart strategy of a rising power and violating the wisdom of Deng Xiaoping who advised that China should proceed cautiously and "skilfully keep a low profile".
But perceptions matter, even when they are wrong. China's new attitudes alienated the Obama administration.
China stage-managed President Obama's trip to Beijing in November 2009 in a heavy-handed way; it over-reacted to Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, and the administration's long-expected and relatively modest arms sales to Taiwan.
When asked why they reacted so strongly to things they had accepted in the past, some Chinese responded, "because we were weaker then".
Obama administration officials began to believe that efforts at co-operation or conciliation would be interpreted by the Chinese as proof that the US was in decline.
Alienation and irritation China's new assertiveness affected its relations with other countries as well.

China's leaders may draw back from what many in the region see as an overly assertive posture

Its policies in the South China Sea created fear among the Asean nations; and its over-reaction to Japan's actions after a ship collision near the Senkaku Islands put an end to the Democratic Party of Japan's hopes for a closer relationship with China. Instead, the Kan administration reaffirmed the American alliance.
Beijing alienated South Korea by failing to criticise North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island; irritated India over border and passport issues; and embarrassed itself in Europe and elsewhere by over-reacting to the Nobel Peace Prize granted to the jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.
How will these issues play out in the coming year?
It is likely that China's leaders will draw back somewhat from the overly assertive posture that has proven so costly.
President Hu Jintao's stated desire to co-operate on terrorism, non-proliferation and clean energy will help to lead to a reduction of tensions, but powerful domestic interest groups in the export industries and in the People's Liberation Army will limit economic or naval co-operation.
And most important, given the nationalism that one sees on the blogosphere in China, it will be difficult for Chinese top leaders to change their policies too dramatically.
Mr Hu's state visit will help improve matters, but the relationship will remain difficult as long as the Chinese suffer from hubris based on a mistaken belief in American decline.
Joseph Nye is a professor at Harvard and author of The Future of Power. He was formerly US Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs and chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

Harpoons: India to pay US almost three times more than Pak

The defence ministry is set to procure 21 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II missiles and its five training varieties of ATM 84L Harpoon Block II from the US government for a total of $ 200 million (approximately Rs 909 crore).

But this price is about 200 per cent more than what Pakistan paid four years ago for the same missiles, the Harpoon Block II. While the average unit cost of the missiles for India is a little less than $ 8 million (approximately Rs 36 crore), Islamabad paid only about $ 3 million (approximately Rs 13 crore) per unit. Pakistan's consignment of 130 units had cost $ 370 million (approximately Rs 1,682 crore).

While the defence ministry refused to comment on the deal in response to a written questionnaire, the US government's Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified the US Congress about the impending deal under the foreign military sales (FMS) programme.

The corporate beneficiary of the contract will be Boeing Inc, which was the original manufacturers of the missile.

The quoted price of $ 200 million for the missiles is not negotiable as, under the FMS, after notification and a clearance from the US Congress, Washington will be sending a ' letter of offer and agreement', which can only be accepted.

The navy spokesperson, Commander PVS Satish, who confirmed the details of the deal said: " I had handled a similar FMS contract some time ago. As far as I know, the offer price is the final price." The defence ministry can argue that the Indian contract has associated equipment, parts and logistical support. But the deal with Pakistan also had similar components.

The S-300P Surface To Air Missile

Pirates seized record 1,181 hostages in 2010 - report

Somali pirates are now operating further offshore, the IMB says

Pirates took a record 1,181 hostages in 2010, despite increased patrolling of the seas, a maritime watchdog has said.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said 53 ships were hijacked worldwide - 49 of them off Somalia's coast - and eight sailors were killed.
The IMB described as "alarming" the continued increase in hostage-taking incidents - the highest number since the centre began monitoring in 1991.
Overall, there were 445 pirate attacks last year - a 10% rise from 2009.
Last week, a separate study found maritime piracy costs the global economy between $7bn (£4.4bn) and $12bn (£7.6bn) a year.
Measures 'undermined' "These figures for the number of hostages and vessels taken are the highest we have ever seen," said Pottengal Mukundan, the head of the IMB's Piracy Reporting Centre.
In the seas off Somalia, the IMB said, heavily-armed pirates were often overpowering fishing or merchant vessels and then using them as bases for further attacks.
The Somali attacks accounted for 1,016 hostages seized last year. Somali pirates are currently holding 31 ships with more than 700 crew on board.
Although naval patrols - launched in 2009 in the Gulf of Aden - have foiled a number of attacks, Somali pirates are now operating farther offshore.
"All measures taken at sea to limit the activities of the pirates are undermined because of a lack of responsible authority back in Somalia," the IMB said.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991.
However, the IMB noted that in the Gulf of Aden itself incidents more than halved to 53 due to the presence of foreign navies.
Elsewhere, violent attacks increased in the South China Sea and waters off Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria.
Last week, a report by US think-tank One Earth Future said that piracy cost the international community up to $12bn each year.
The study calculated the amount from the costs of ransom, security equipment and the impact on trade.
It said the majority of costs came from piracy off Somalia.

Tunisia's Mohammed Ghannouchi defends new government

Tunisia's PM Mohammed Ghannouchi has defended the inclusion of members of the old regime in his new government.

The retained ministers have "clean hands", he insisted - while vowing those behind recent street "massacres" would face "justice".
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced into exile on Friday after a month of protests in which the government now admits 78 people died.
There were reports that fresh protests on Tuesday were broken up by police.
Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters in Tunis - though reports suggested that in other parts of the city many Tunisians were getting back to their daily business.
The BBC's Wyre Davies says the new government is now tasked with speedily implementing the constitutional reforms and preparation for free and fair elections which Tunisians have been promised.
He says another urgent challenge is to begin to return economic stability to the country - the crisis is estimated to have cost it some $2bn (£1.3bn).
Mr Ghannouchi's pledges to allow political and media freedoms do appear to have placated some protesters, but others have dismissed the new government.
"It does not really reflect what people have aspired to," the president of the Human Rights League in Tunisia, Masoud Ramadani, told the BBC.
"The demonstrations all around the country were about corruption, freedom and also were against the party of the president, which was considered as corrupt. But then we see now the ongoing presence of this political party, the presence of these people who represent the old regime."
'Era of freedom'

TUNISIAN CABINET

• Mohammed Ghannouchi stays on as prime minister. A Ben Ali ally, he has been in the job since 1999, keeping post throughout unrest
• Interior Minister Ahmed Friaa, appointed by Mr Ben Ali to mollify demonstrators, retains post
• Foreign Minister Kamal Morjane retains post
• Najib Chebbi, founder of opposition Progressive Democratic Party, named as development minister
• Ahmed Ibrahim, leader of opposition Ettajdid party, named minister of higher education
• Mustafa ben Jaafar, leader of opposition Union of Freedom and Labour, named health minister
• Slim Amamou, prominent blogger who was arrested during protests, is secretary of state for youth and sport

In the interview with French radio Europe 1 on Tuesday, Mr Ghannouchi described Tunisia as going through a "historic change".

He repeated pledges made on Monday of a new "era of freedom", which would see political parties free to operate and a free press.
He said free and fair elections would be held within six months, controlled by an independent election commission and monitored by international observers.
Mr Ghannouchi - himself an ally of the former president - described himself as a "transition" leader and said he did not claim to be "legitimate".
Despite vowing that those behind the deaths of protesters should face justice, when asked whether he thought Mr Ben Ali himself should face trial, he replied: "I cannot say that."
Mr Ghannouchi defended ministers who retained their jobs in his new unity government, saying that they were "needed" and had always acted "to preserve the international interest".
The foreign, interior and defence ministers all kept their jobs when Mr Ghannouchi unveiled the new administration on Monday - though three prominent opposition figures were named to key posts.

Fall from power

• 17 Dec: A graduate sets himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid over lack of jobs, sparking protests
• 24 Dec: Protester shot dead in central Tunisia
• 28 Dec: Protests spread to Tunis
• 8-10 Jan: Dozens of deaths reported in crackdown on protests
• 12 Jan: Interior minister sacked
• 13 Jan: President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali promises to step down in 2014
• 14 Jan: Mr Ben Ali dissolves government and parliament, then steps down
• 17 Jan: New unity cabinet announced

• 
  

Ahmed Ibrahim, leader of the opposition Ettajdid party, becomes minister of higher education, while Mustafa Ben Jaafar, of the Union of Freedom and Labour, is to serve as health minister.

Najib Chebbie, founder of the Progressive Democratic Party, was named as Tunisia's new development minister.
But Mr Ghannouchi told Europe 1 that the head of Tunisia's banned Islamist party Ennahdha, Rached Ghannouchi, would only be allowed to return to Tunisia if a life sentence imposed on him in 1991 was cancelled by an amnesty.
Responding to a question about claims that it was really Mr Ben Ali's wife, Leila Trabelsi, who held the reins of power towards the end of his rule, Mr Ghannouchi replied: "We have that impression".
Unrest in Tunisia grew over several weeks, with widespread protests over high unemployment and high food prices pitching demonstrators against Tunisia's police and military.
The British and other western governments earlier indicated they expected more reforms and political freedoms to be announced, our correspondent says.
But there has been little official reaction from other authoritarian governments in North Africa and the wider Arab world, he adds.