UN begins Bhutto killing inquiry
NEWYORK, July 1 (Agencies):Benazir Bhutto was assassinated leaving a party rally in December 2007.A United Nations inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto begins on Wednesday.
It is headed by Chile's ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, and includes a former Indonesian attorney general and a former senior Irish police officer.
The inquiry will last six months and investigate the "facts and circumstances" of Bhutto's death.
She was killed in December 2007 as she left a rally of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) supporters in Rawalpindi.
The three-member inquiry team will arrive in Pakistan later this month and submit its report to the UN Secretary General in six months, reports say.
Apart from Munoz, the other members of the probe team are Marzuki Darusman, the former Indonesian attorney-general, and Peter Fitzgerald, who headed an early inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Pakistan's Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, told the BBC his government thought the UN investigation was necessary to find out who was behind the attack.
We think this was a big international conspiracy
Rehman Malik, Pakistan interior minister
"We want to know who was behind this, who had conspired it, who has financed it. And we think this was a big international conspiracy," he said.
"Obviously, there might be some actors within Pakistan or within the region, but we want really to expose the whole conspiracy, because we think that this was a kind of a beginning of an attempt to Balkanise Pakistan."
These are challenging times in Pakistan to carry out such an investigation, says the BBC's World Affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge in Islamabad.
That is not least because the Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, accused by the last government here of being behind the assassination, is the target of a two-month military offensive and his militant network has hit back with retaliatory suicide attacks.
The Taliban commander has denied having anything to do with Bhutto's killing.
'Rogue elements'
Her assassination left questions unresolved for many people here, but especially her own party, which is now in government.

British detectives conclude a lone attacker fired the shots
After she had narrowly escaped a double suicide bombing on the day of her return to Pakistan from self-imposed exile in October 2007, she accused what she called "enemies" and "rogue elements" in the government led by President Pervez Musharraf and in the intelligence agencies of plotting to kill her.
The UN inquiry cannot itself launch criminal proceedings, but can apparently apportion blame if it chooses to do so.
Officials say the inquiry will work "fairly discreetly".
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had blamed an al-Qaeda-linked militant for the attack and refused to seek a UN investigation.
He invited police from London's Scotland Yard to assist in the inquiry into her death.
In their report, the British detectives said they believed she died due to a severe head injury sustained as a consequence of a bomb blast.
The Pakistani investigation into her death concluded that a lone attacker fired shots at Bhutto before detonating explosives, but said that bullets were not the cause of death.
Wider enquiry
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) rejected both these versions, claiming adequate security had not been provided for Bhutto, and called for a wider inquiry by the UN to establish the identity and motives of the assassins.
A PPP-led coalition defeated Musharraf's allies in general elections last year.
Bhutto, twice prime minister of Pakistan, lived in self-imposed exile after Musharraf assumed power in 1999.

Musharraf had refused to seek an UN probe
In October 2007, she returned to Pakistan to campaign for the PPP in parliamentary and provincial elections - the first to be held since President Musharraf resigned as head of the army and became a civilian leader.
Shortly after her return, she survived bomb attacks on her convoy in Karachi that killed more than 100 people.
But Bhutto continued to campaign and was assassinated on 27 December at a PPP rally in Rawalpindi.
She was standing upright in her armoured vehicle, with her head exposed above the open roof escape hatch, waving to the crowd when an attacker opened fire.
Seconds later, a bomb was set off at the scene which left some 20 other people dead.

US travel advice upsets Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, July 1 (Agencies): Although the war is over, the US says that Sri Lanka remains dangerous
The Sri Lankan government has dismissed a travel advisory issued by the United States warning its citizens of possible dangers when visiting the country.
Sri Lanka's defence spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, described last week's travel advisory as "totally baseless".
The government said that some Tamil Tiger rebels were still at large but that they posed no threat.
In May Sri Lanka's army defeated Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic Tamil minority.
The warning from Washington said that despite the government's announcement of victory in its war, the island remained vulnerable to attacks from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) remnants and even a renewed insurgency.
It said that there were landmines and armed paramilitaries in the east and the north and that the Sri Lankan government was encouraging people to report foreigners if they found their activity suspect.
Rambukwella said that the foreign secretary had written a very strong letter in response to the travel warning.
When asked about continuing reports of LTTE operatives being arrested and sometimes killed, Rambukwella said that there were still quite a few at large but not in any numbers to cause alarm.
He said that hard core of LTTE who had surrendered or been captured would be treated strictly.
But a greater number of former rebels he said would be rehabilitated, as they might have been associated with the group against their will.
He said that some could be viewed as innocent victims.
The government is still detaining about 300,000 people displaced by the war in camps and screening them for possible LTTE links.

Iran confirms Ahmadinejad victory
TEHRAN, July 1 (Agencies): Iran's top electoral body, the Guardian Council, has confirmed the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the presidential election after a partial recount.
News of the decision, which comes after a series of protests by the opposition against what it says was a rigged ballot, was announced by state TV.
The 12-strong council is the most influential body in Iran and is currently controlled by conservatives.
Some 17 people are thought to have died during opposition street protests.
"The secretary of the Guardian Council in a letter to the interior minister announced the final decision of the Council and declares the approval of the accuracy of the results of the presidential election," the state broadcaster said.
A partial recount of the election carried out on Monday showed no irregularities in the vote, Iran's English-language Press TV television station added, according to Reuters news agency.
Ahmadinejad was officially re-elected with 63% of the vote on 12 June.
His main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has said the whole election should be annulled and held again.
Reports say there were clashes on Monday in central Tehran between opposition demonstrators trying to form a human chain and security forces.
Red lines
The Guardian Council had ruled earlier that any irregularities in the polling would not affect the result of the election.
For many Iranians the latest ruling confirming Ahmadinejad's victory was seen as rubber-stamping fraud, says the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Tehran.
Iran's crisis since the presidential election has taken the Islamic Republic into new and unknown territory, our correspondent says.
All sorts of red lines have been crossed, with unprecedented public condemnation of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, he adds.
Iran has been left with a divided ruling elite that has been having a public quarrel, our correspondent says.
During the mass rallies a broad-based opposition coalition emerged.
It did not have effective leadership so the authorities were able to take the initiative back, helped by a security crackdown and hundreds, some say several thousand, arrests.
The people who took to the streets are still angry about what happened, our correspondent adds, and the authorities must fear that anger, because it could explode again.

Italian train crash children die
ROME, July 1 (Agencies): Two children badly burned when a train exploded as it passed through an Italian town have died of their injuries, taking the death toll to 16.
The three-year-old girl and the two-year-old boy had both suffered burns on 90% of their bodies, officials said.
At least a dozen other people remain in a critical state, according to reports.
The accident happened in the northern town of Viareggio on Monday night, when a train carrying gas tanks jumped the tracks and exploded near houses.
Investigators want to know whether a broken axle may have been responsible.
Berlusconi booed
The blast caused two buildings - described as houses or small blocks of flats - to collapse while others were set on fire.
The accident happened shortly before midnight, when most people would have been at home.
Elia Quiroz, who lives near the town's railway station, said he was about to go to bed on Monday night when his kitchen table started shaking.
"Then I heard an explosion and I went outside. I saw flames as high as 30, 40 metres, and I ran," he told the Associated Press.
Fire crews have been working to clear the scene, while residents are still being kept away from their homes amid fears other gas tanks might be at risk of exploding.
By Wednesday morning six of the 13 remaining wagons of the freight train had been made safe, fires services said.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi travelled to the town on Tuesday to witness the emergency operation, but was greeted by a jeering crowd.
The region is left-leaning and it was unclear whether the boos were politically motivated, had any relation to recent scandals involving the prime minister, or were a reaction to the accident, correspondents say.
Local people have demanded to know why gas was being transported so close to people's houses.
The cause of the accident is unclear, though one of the main theories being investigated is that an axle on one of the gas wagons broke, causing it to derail.
Railway unions blamed old and obsolete rolling stock.
But the company that owned the wagon, a subsidiary of US-based GATX Corp, said the unit was new, and that so far there was no evidence of "any connection between the cause of the accident and our wagons".
Earlier police said the incident may have been caused by damage to the tracks or a problem with the train's braking system.

French-Israeli spat over comments
PARIS, July 1 (Agencies): Israel's foreign ministry has accused France of unacceptable meddling in its internal affairs over a reported comment by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
He was quoted by Israeli TV calling for Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who leads a far-right party, to be sacked.
The plea, which has not been confirmed nor denied by officials, was allegedly made during a meeting with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
Israeli Arab leaders have accused the foreign minister of anti-Arab racism.
Ahmed Tibi, a member of the Israeli parliament for the United Arab List, welcomed President Sarkozy's comments, saying: "The international community has started to absorb the danger of the fascism" coming from Lieberman.
You need to get rid of this man You need to remove him from this position
Attributed to President Nicolas Sarkozy
However, the deputy leader of Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party called the comments "grave and unacceptable".
Lieberman's office said: "If this report is correct then this is an unacceptable interference in internal Israeli affairs."
Netanyahu's office issued a statement saying the PM voiced his "full confidence" in Lieberman during a meeting with ambassadors from European Union countries.
'Privately pragmatic'
Israeli Channel Two reported that President Sarkozy advised Netanyahu to "get rid" of Lieberman during their meeting in Paris.
He also suggested that his predecessor Tzipi Livni be restored to the post, according to the report.
Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party came third in Israel's 2009 elections
"You need to get rid of this man You need to remove him from this position," Sarkozy reportedly said, to which Netanyahu replied that "in private [ Lieberman] is pragmatic".
Sarkozy then reportedly said France's far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was also a pleasant person in private.
Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, who belongs to Yisrael Beiteinu, told Israeli army radio: "It is hard to believe that the leader of a friendly country would express himself in such a way."
"If I was the prime minister, and those statements were made in my presence, I would have banged on the table and protested. That is how a prime minister who preserves his country's dignity should behave."
Avigdor Lieberman has been a controversial figure in Israeli politics and his appointment as foreign minister after the February 2009 election was received with caution internationally.
He is known for a hard-line stance on peace negotiations with the Palestinians and remarks about Israeli Arabs that have been widely seen as racist.
He has also been a staunch defender of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, where he has a private residence.

US to Ccnsult India on goals in Pak, Afghan: Blake
WASHINGTON, July 1 (Agencies): Describing the militancy-infested Pakistan and Afghanistan as "a strategic priority" for the US, a top Obama Administration official has said Washington intends to consult India "very closely" on meeting its goals in the region.
"Well, we intend to continue to consult very closely with our friends in India on this," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told PTI when asked what did US expect from India to meet its goals in the region, where Afghanistan and Pakistan were its main focus points.
"As you say, Afghanistan and Pakistan is a strategic priority. But I do not want to imply that that would come at the expense of India. India would continue to be also a strategic priority for the United States. And I think that will come out very clearly during Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton's visit" to New Delhi later this month, he said.
Replying to another question, Blake said that India need not be concerned about the US assistance to Pakistan.
"As you know, the new focus in terms of our relationship with Pakistan is to dramatically increase economic assistance to Pakistan to help that country overcome some of its economic challenges and to extend the writ of the government to other parts of Pakistan And all of those things should be very much in India's interest as well.
"So I think, people of India should support and agree with what we are trying to do," he said.
On concerns about the use of American aid by Pakistan to build up the military against India, Blake said Islamabad "is increasingly focussed on dealing with the extremist problems in its own country."
With regard to Clinton's India visit, Blake said the trip would be an occasion to announce a roadmap for the new phase of Indo-US ties.
"We expect her to visit (India) in second half of July. This would be an opportunity for the United States and for Secretary Clinton to lay out with her counterpart, Foreign Minister (S M) Krishna, the new strategic partnership and how we are going to upgrade it and take it forward in the new administration."
Asked what the US was expecting from the Indian government during the trip, he said " I think there is strong convergence between the Ministry of External Affairs and the State Department and other agencies on the way forward.
"Secretary Clinton described in her speech before the US India Business Council, some of the areas which we hope to take this relationship forward. She talked for example about education, about science and technology, about climate change. So we are very excited about the possibilities and about the opportunities to continue to strengthen our strategic partnership with India," Blake said.
When asked how close India and the US were with regard to end user agreement on sensitive defence sales, the top American diplomat expressed the hope that a pact will be reached soon.
"Well, I think, we have been narrowing our differences and I hope that we will reach agreement very soon on that. Because that would be an important way for us to increase our defence exports to India, but to also share more technology with India. So that's an agreement which would be of benefit to both sides."
On whether such an agreement was possible during Clinton's visit, Blake said "I do not want to make any projections on what is going to be done, not done by the time of the Secretary's visit. But we are working very hard."
About the implementation of the civilian nuclear deal, he said India has taken "a lot of the very important steps."
"As you know, recently it signed its additional protocol. Now it needs to file its declaration facilities with the IAEA and after that we hope that India would be in a position to announce the two nuclear reactor park sites that would be dedicated to American companies.
"And there is also very important nuclear liability legislation is pending in India. I hope there could be movement on both of those. That would make possible more civil nuclear trade and investment between our two countries," he said.

Yemen plane crash: girl rescued
MORONI, July 1 (Agencies): A 14-year-old girl was rescued alive in the sea amid debris and dead bodies after a Yemeni Airbus jet crashed in the Indian Ocean as it tried to land in the Comoros islands with 153 people aboard.
The A310 had aborted a landing and was making a second attempt when it crashed, officials said. Bodies and wreckage from the Yemenia airline flight were spotted in the sea near the archipelago's capital, Moroni, aviation officials said.
The teenager, the sole survivor so far among the 142 passengers and 11 crew on Flight IY 626, was in hospital and her condition was "not worrisome," said Ramulati Ben Ali from the local Red Cross yesterday.
A man identified as one of the girl's rescuers told France's Europe 1 radio that the girl was seen swimming in choppy waters in the middle of bodies and plane debris around 4:00 am (0100 GMT).
"We tried to throw a life buoy. She could not grab it. I had to jump in the water to get her," the rescuer said.
"She was shaking. We put four covers on her. We gave her hot, sugary water. We simply asked her name, village."
A Comoran government spokesman also confirmed that the girl is the only survivor so far and hailed from the southeastern village of Nioumadzaha.
"She is conscious, she is speaking, but we are trying to warm her," said Ada Mansour, the examining doctor at the hospital.

Medvedev, Obama Discuss Ways to Reduce Nuclear Weapons
MOSCOW, July 1 (Agenceis): Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama are keen to clinch a new deal to "reduce strategic nuclear weapons" as they meet for key talks here next week to address issues like a successor to a Cold War-era arms treaty set to expire by the year-end.
Ahead of their next week's first formal summit here Obama and Medvedev are keen to clinch a new deal to cut their nuclear arsenals.
The two former Cold War foes have agreed to instruct their negotiators to intensify efforts to 'reach concrete results', according to the Kremlin. The two leaders had a detailed discussion last night in a telephonic conversation on every point of their agenda and schedule in Moscow.
"In particular, the presidents placed significant emphasis on the topic of reducing strategic nuclear weapons. They discussed various aspects of the nuclear weapons issue, in accordance with the positions that have been reached by the two countries' negotiating teams," a Kremlin release said.
A new legally binding nuclear arms treaty to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) expiring on December 5 this year is on the top of the agenda.
Russia's demand to link it with the US plans to deploy elements of the missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland is seen as the main stumbling block in its way.
"The two leaders agreed to instruct their negotiators to intensify efforts in order to reach concrete results," a Kremlin release said.
Obama and Medvedev, who had their first meeting in London in early April on the sidelines of G-20 financial summit, expressed confidence that their upcoming summit will provide great momentum and create a more productive atmosphere for bilateral relations, and allow them to get to know one another better.
Moscow has refused to buy the Washington's argument that the ABM radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland would be deployed to protect European allies from 'rogue' Iranian and North Korean missiles, and insists that it is designed to suppress Russia's second strike capability in case of a US nuclear attack.
At the time his presidency Vladimir Putin had proposed the joint use of Russia-leased Azerbaijani Ghabala radar to keep an eye on Iran and West Asia, seen by the US as a missile threat to Europe, however, Bush administration cold shouldered the offer.