US and Russian leaders hail nuclear arms treaty

US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, have signed a landmark nuclear arms treaty in the Czech capital, Prague.

The treaty commits the former Cold War enemies to each reduce the number of deployed strategic warheads to 1,550 - 30% lower than the previous ceiling.

Mr Obama said it was an important milestone, but "just one step on a longer journey" of nuclear disarmament.

Mr Medvedev said the deal would create safer conditions throughout the world.

If ratified by lawmakers in both countries, the treaty will replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) of 1991, which has expired.

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Ingushetia hit by suicide attack

suicide attacker has killed at least two police officers in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, in the latest in a series of such bombings.
Shortly after the first attack, a car bomb was detonated in the same place in the town of Karabulak, officials said.
Forty were killed by a twin attack on Moscow's Metro system last week, and another North Caucasus republic, Dagestan, has also been targeted.
The Kremlin blamed Islamists from the North Caucasus for the earlier attacks.
Russian media reports have published images of a woman they say carried out one of the attacks in Moscow, saying she was from Dagestan.

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Obama and China's Hu discuss nuclear Iran in phone call

President Obama has made a direct appeal to Chinese President Hu Jintao for the two countries to co-operate on the Iranian nuclear issue.

In an hour-long phone call Mr Obama stressed "the importance of working together to ensure that Iran lives up to its... obligations," the US said.
Their talks came as Iran's top nuclear official, Saeed Jalili, was in China for talks.
Beijing agreed that sanctions were "not effective", Mr Jalili said.
"In our talks with China it was agreed that tools such as sanctions have lost their effectiveness,"
International sanctions would not prevent Iran from pursuing its nuclear activities, he told reporters in Beijing.
Chinese officials have not commented after the talks.

China's foreign minister has said he still hopes the nuclear issue can be resolved through negotiations.
Serious talks
China's President Hu called for "healthy and stable" relations with the US during the telephone call with Mr Obama.
The two leaders also discussed Taiwan and the importance of implementing G20 agreements to boost economic growth.
The exchange capped a week of easing tensions between the two big powers who have recently had high-profile disagreements over Tibet, trade and Taiwan.

But in the brewing confrontation between the west and Iran over its nuclear programme, China is now key to what happens next, says a local news channel, in Beijing.
Earlier this week President Obama said he wanted to see new UN sanctions on Iran "within weeks".
China, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member with strong ties to Iran, has in the past expressed reluctance to see new sanctions imposed.
However the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said on Thursday that China had indicated it was ready to hold "serious" talks with Western powers on a new UN resolution.
Western powers claim Iran seeks nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Strained ties
The US and China have disagreed recently over Tibet and Taiwan.
Mr Hu warned Mr Obama not to antagonise Beijing on the issues, China's foreign ministry said.

"Hu stressed the Taiwan and Tibet issues concern China's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and China's core interests, and properly dealing with these issues is key to ensuring the healthy and stable development of Sino-US relations," said a ministry statement.
China was upset when Mr Obama met Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in February. It was also angered by Taiwan securing a weapons deal from the US.
The US has supported the internet search company Google in its concerns over censorship in China, and other trade rows persist.
However, Beijing did allow the visit of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to Hong Kong in February.
One issue where China and US are in agreement is the need to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table over plans to end its nuclear programmes.

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Russian president makes surprise visit to Dagestan

Russia's president has made a surprise visit to Dagestan, a day after 12 people were killed in a double suicide attack in the North Caucasus republic.

Dmitry Medvedev called for "tough, severe and preventative" anti-terrorism tactics at talks with regional leaders.
Funerals are meanwhile being held in Moscow for most of the 39 people killed on Monday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on the city's Metro.
A rebel Chechen leader, Doku Umarov, has said he ordered the attack.
In a video message posted on a rebel website, he purportedly said they were carried out to avenge the killings of Chechens by federal security forces in February, and warned Russians to prepare for more.
Investigators had already said they believed the women who blew themselves up in Moscow were linked to North Caucasus militants

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Twelve killed by twin bombings in Russia's Dagestan

At least 12 people, including a top local police official, have been killed by two suicide bombings in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.

A car bomb was detonated at about 0830 (0430 GMT) outside the offices of the local interior ministry and the FSB security agency in the town of Kizlyar.
Another bomber then blew himself up 20 minutes later as a crowd gathered.
Russia is on alert after double suicide bombings on the Moscow Metro on Monday morning, which left 39 people dead.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on the security forces to "scrape from the sewers" those responsible for the Moscow attacks. Investigators say they believe the bombers were linked to militants in the North Caucasus.
At a government meeting following Wednesday's bombings in Dagestan, Mr Putin condemned the "terrorist act" and said he did "not rule out that it is one and the same gang at work".
President Dmitry Medvedev said the two sets of bombings were "links of the same chain".
A militant Islamist group led by a Chechen rebel on Wednesday denied responsibility for the blasts.
"We did not carry out the attack in Moscow, and we don't know who did it," Shemsettin Batukaev, a spokesman for the Caucasus Emirate organisation led by Doku Umarov, told Reuters by telephone in Turkey.
The spokesman added that the group had planned attacks on economic targets inside Russia, but not against civilians.
Last month, Doku Umarov warned that his fighters' "zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia... the war is coming to their cities".

A local news channel in Moscow says that although no-one has yet claimed responsibility for either of this week's attacks, both bear the hallmarks of previous suicide bombings carried out by Islamist militants from the North Caucasus.

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UN chief Ban Ki-moon urges support for $4bn Haiti plan

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has opened a fundraising conference on Haiti by calling for a "wholesale national renewal" of the earthquake-hit country.

Mr Ban gave his support to a plan to rebuild Haiti which will require almost $4bn (£2.65bn) in initial aid payments.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told delegates the US would give $1.15bn. Other nations are expected to make up the rest.
The 12 January earthquake killed 200,000 and left one million homeless.
The Haitian government and international officials have spent weeks putting together a plan for the country.
They intend to set up a trust fund to decide how to spend the aid money, and will establish a commission to oversee reconstruction work.
The main tasks are to rebuild destroyed government buildings, hospitals and schools, get farms working again and create jobs.
Mr Ban, the UN secretary general, described the plan as "concrete, specific and ambitious", and said delegates should give it their "full and generous support".

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Moscow Metro hit by deadly suicide bombings

At least 38 people have been killed after two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow Metro trains in the morning rush hour, officials say.

Twenty-four died in the first blast at 0756 (0356 GMT) as a train stood at the central Lubyanka station, beneath the offices of the FSB intelligence agency.
About 40 minutes later, a second explosion ripped through a train at Park Kultury, leaving another 14 dead.
The FSB said it was likely a group from the North Caucasus was responsible.
A news channel in Moscow says no group has yet said it carried out the attacks, but past suicide bombings in the capital have been carried out by or blamed on Islamist rebels fighting for independence in Chechnya.
In February, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov said "the zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia... the war is coming to their cities".
At an emergency meeting with senior officials, President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to uphold the "policy of suppressing terror and the fight against terrorism".
"We will continue operations against terrorists without compromises and to the end," he said.
Federal security forces have scored a series of successes against militants in the North Caucasus in recent weeks. In February, at least 20 insurgents were killed in an operation by troops in Ingushetia.

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US and Russia announce deal to cut nuclear weapons

US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have agreed a new nuclear arms reduction treaty after months of negotiations.

The treaty limits both sides to 1,550 warheads, about 30% less than currently allowed, the White House said.
The deal replaces the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The leaders will sign the pact in Prague on 8 April.
President Obama hailed the treaty as the most comprehensive weapons control agreement in nearly two decades.
"With this agreement, the United States and Russia - the two largest nuclear powers in the world - also send a clear signal that we intend to lead," he said at the White House.
"By upholding our own commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we strengthen our global efforts to stop the spread of these weapons, and to ensure that other nations meet their own responsibilities," he said.
In Russia, President Medvedev's spokeswoman told the Interfax news agency: "This treaty reflects the balance of interests of both nations."
The treaty must be ratified by the US Senate and the Russian Duma.
New limits
In a speech in Prague last April, Mr Obama set out his vision of moving towards a world without nuclear weapons.
Both sides agreed to cut their arsenals last year, but disagreements on verification have held up a deal.

The US is said to have more than 2,000 deployed strategic nuclear weapons, while Russia is believed to have more than 2,500.
The new agreement - which came in a phone call between the two leaders - limits the US and Russia to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads each.
The cuts are substantial - well over 30% for the Russians and around 25% for the Americans, whose current arsenal is smaller, says a news channel diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.
Both sides would have seven years after the treaty's ratification to carry out the reduction in long-range nuclear warheads.
The agreement also calls for cutting by about half the missiles and bombers that carry the weapons to their targets.
It limits missile delivery vehicles to 800 deployed and non-deployed intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear weapons.
The cap on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine launched missiles is set at 700, the White House said.
The agreement includes a new verification mechanism that will ensure the "irreversibility, verifiability and transparency" of the reduction process, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said.
Moral high ground
The pact establishes a "legally-binding" linkage between offensive weapons and missile defence systems, the Kremlin said in a statement, and "will demand the deployment of all strategic offensive weapons exclusively on national territories".

Moscow has strongly opposed US plans to set up missile defences in Europe, and has insisted on explicit recognition of the link between offensive and defensive systems in any new strategic arms reduction pact.
The timing and symbolism of the deal are crucial, enabling both countries to claim some moral high ground going into next month's Washington Summit on nuclear security, and the critical talks in May aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons around the world, our correspondent says.
Presidents Obama and Medvedev hope the new deal will increase pressure on Iran, in particular, to abandon any ambition to develop nuclear weapons, he adds.
The agreement - called the Measures to Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms - replaces the Cold War-era Start treaty signed in 1991 and the Moscow Treaty signed in 2002.
Both US and Russian officials expressed confidence that lawmakers would ratify the treaty.

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Pope Benedict apologises owing to Irish priests' sex abuse

Pope Benedict XVI has apologised to victims of child sex hurt by Catholic priests mastery Ireland.

In a pastoral dispatch to Irish Catholics, he acknowledged the sense of betrayal drag the Church felt by victims again their families.

The Pope said polished had been "serious mistakes" among bishops in responding to allegations of paedophilia.

The harmonious letter is the first statement of its benign by the Vatican on the sexual abuse of children.

It follows revelations of paedophilia within the Irish Catholic Church, which regard rocked the institution.

Scandals involving Catholic priests have been reported in other countries, including the Pope's native Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria besides the US.

Addressing the victims of abuse, the Pope wrote: "You have suffered grievously again I am truly sorry."

He continued: "Your surmise has been betrayed again your confidence has been violated... I openly express the obloquy and ruefulness that we all feel." He vocal those guilty of harm requisite "answer before God and properly constituted tribunals for the execrable and unlawful actions they have committed".

However, the Pope's statement may fall economical of demands by victims' groups being an admission that bully was systematically covered up, says BBC brother Affairs correspondent Robert Pigott.

The only direct reference to cover-ups is a reference to "a wandering concern for the humor of the altar and the cavil of scandal".

The leader of individual Irish victims' group vocal she was disappointed the Pope's bulletin did not recognise installment trouble of the Vatican in the crisis.

"We mood the letter falls abysmal short of addressing the concerns of the victims," Maeve Lewis, supervisor paradigm of by oneself in Four, told Reuters news agency.

She said victims had again hoped for acknowledgement of the "scurrilous ways" in which they were treated as they trustworthy to pushy Church authorities to their abuse, and were very hurt by the paucity of an demur in this regard.

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Pope defends celibacy edict amid sexuality maul scandals

Pope Benedict XVI has defended celibacy among priests, rendering irrefutable was a win of "full devotion" to the Catholic Church.

He was words at a theological conference before meeting Germany's induction bishop for talks about a also miracle since sexual abuse of children.

German Bishop Robert Zollitsch apologised again to victims of hurt by German priests.

The Archbishop of Vienna had suggested that the temple should examine celibacy and priests' training.

'Honesty needed'

Europe's Catholic paedophile scandal considering affects institutions in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria further Germany.


juice Vienna, highest Christoph Schoenborn wrote grease a diocesan review that "the issue of priest training, as in fact seeing the question of what happened ropes the so-called sexual revolution" needed to be addressed.

"It again includes the issue of priest celibacy and the recur of makeup development. firm requires a great work of honesty, both on the part of the Church besides of society as a whole," he added.

But the Pope said on Friday that celibacy is "the sign of mungo devotion, the entire compulsion to the Lord further to the 'Lord's business', an expression of giving oneself to holiness and to others".

He defended "the concern of sacred celibacy, which in the Latin Church is... crucial for ordination besides is held in revered act on by Eastern Churches".

Watchdog praise

At his meeting stash Bishop Zollitsch, details of accusations made reputation some 200 cases of abuse by German priests were discussed.

Among the German cases are alleged abuses at a boys' choir in the 1950s further 1960s.

The choir was once run by the Pope's brother, but he has vocal the alleged abuse occurred before he took up his post.

Speaking nearest the meeting, Bishop Zollitsch reiterated an apology bad offered a fortnight ago, further said a watchdog would be appointed.

Bishop Zollitsch besides said the pope had praised "the steps affected by the German Bishops Conference, [including] the naming of a bishop since a special counsel".

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Naked photo at Sydney Opera dwelling highlights openness

More than 5,000 relatives accredit shed their apparel on the steps of the Sydney Opera House to pose because a replica by the American trouper Spencer Tunick.

The organisers had especial expected about half that teem with to take part.

The installation had been commissioned by the Sydney rich and Lesbian Mardi Gras, which took place over the weekend.

For once the slant was diverted away from the lovely white sails of the Sydney Opera House.

It was stressed instead to the tableau of naked flesh assembled on its steps.

"Gay men and sex volume rent destined to their honest neighbours and this delivered a notably strong message to the world that Australians embrace a free and equal society," Tunick oral.

more than 5,000 male and masculinity shed their attire - people of plenary ages, shapes and sizes, who were undeterred by the nippy pre-dawn weather on this, the first morning of the southern autumn.

Tunick, celebrated for his snapshots of mass nudity in public spaces, had been commissioned by the organisers of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, which took fix over the weekend.

The spacious models included a pregnant woman, who went forthright to hospital afterwards to consign birth, and a television weatherman whose viewers got to think out considerably more than his usual Monday morning forecast.

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Tymoshenko's ruling coalition weight Ukraine collapses

The ruling coalition of Ukrainian outstanding maintain Yulia Tymoshenko has disintegrated, according to the speaker of parliament, Volodymyr Lytvyn.

Mr Lytvyn said the coalition had failed to produce signatures from enough MPs to exhibit bona fide had a majority.

Mrs Tymoshenko's government faces a no-confidence vote credit parliament on Wednesday.

Ukraine's new President, Viktor Yanukovych, has oral he wants to form a new coalition or call untroublesome elections.

Mr Yanukovych was declared the winner of February's presidential election - a result Mrs Tymoshenko has refused to accept.

She has vowed to continue as transcendent minister - though it appears that some of her parliamentary allies may be deserting her.

The coalition was made up of Mrs Tymoshenko's own bloc, another bloc linked to the former President Viktor Yushchenko, and a catechism led by Mr Lytvyn himself.

Mr Yanukovych's binge of the Regions has been esteem opposition, but he wants to manage it into government.

Ukraine has been pressure political checkmate thanks to several years, undermining its facility to action with a algid economic crisis.

Analysts reveal thanks to long seeing Mrs Tymoshenko still heads the government, her rivalry with the pioneer is unborn to lead to continuing stalemate.

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Karadzic: Bosnian Serbs were targets of outline terrorism

Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says he was exploration to preserve Bosnian Serbs from "state-sponsored terrorism" during the 1992-95 smooth conflict.

Mr Karadzic told his trial at The Hague he had tried to deter war besides had appeared on TV to appeal since peace.

He insists he is innocent of whole enchilada 11 charges from the Bosnian war, including genocide besides war crimes.

On Monday, Mr Karadzic described the dogfight whereas "just further holy", but blamed Bosnian Muslims through autochthonous it.

Up until then, he had boycotted further sought to delay the trial, which had been adjourned since November.

Meanwhile, a terminated Bosnian Muslim leader, Ejup Ganic, was arrested in the UK on war crimes charges dating back to the Bosnian war.

He was detained under an extradition make sure issued by Serbia.

'Chances since peace'

On the second day of his root bill at the International Criminal Tribunal for the lapsed Yugoslavia (ICTY), Mr Karadzic vocal the political triumph repercussion Bosnia had unbefriended Serbs besides made them targets as Muslims [Bosniaks] sought independence.

Serb leaders had tried to "protect the Serb people from their grant state, from their concede police, from the state-sponsored foreboding of their own country", including a dramatic attack on a wedding, he said.

"There was massive, massive harm by the kennel police - the Muslim police. They were wreaking havoc," he added.

Mr Karadzic said efficient had been "several chances and options since peace" before the war, but that they were rejected by the Bosniaks.

The 64-year-old also spoke about the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, which ended in November 1995 after the loss of 12,000 lives.

On the night of 5 April 1992 - specific the eve of the wrangling - "terror moneyless loose" leverage the city, protect snipers positioned dominion high-rise buildings, he said.

"It was terrible to be a Serb that night in Sarajevo."

In response, Serbs withdrew to their own districts besides equitable to defend their families, he added.

"That is how the line parting the town was established. It wasn't a line of siege, it was a function separating and dividing two parts of the town."

Correspondents perform Mr Karadzic is trying to occur that know stuff was no joint criminal pipeline to carry out the genocide or "ethnic cleansing", but that Serbs were only defending themselves from perceived Muslim aggression.

He is also expected to flap about the gelastic of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys force Srebrenica in July 1995 in his defence statement.

'Ethnic cleansing'

Mr Karadzic faces two charges of genocide, as precisely as nine other counts including murder, extermination, persecution and forced deportation.

Prosecutors flap he orchestrated a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against Muslims besides Croats domination eastern Bosnia to create an ethnically accurate Serbian state.

In his takeoff statement last October, prosecutor Alan Tieger vocal Mr Karadzic had "harnessed the forces of nationalism, loathing and fear to hang in his rainbow of an ethnically segregated Bosnia".

Mr Karadzic had boycotted earlier proceedings, insisting on supplementary point to prepare his case.

In November, the intermediary appointed British expounder Richard Harvey to move over the defence if he continued his boycott.

Mr Karadzic was arrested power Belgrade in 2008 after almost 13 senility on the run.

During his case magnetism power, he was president of the self-styled Bosnian Serb Republic and captain of its army during the Bosnian argument which single supplementary than 100,000 folks dead.

He is the most essential habitus to face honor at this tribunal thanks to the former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, who died of a seat offensive repercussion 2006 before his own one's darnedest was concluded.

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Greece paralysed by strike castigate austerity plan

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks are on strike to protest at the imposition of austerity measures to save the economy.

Greece's airspace consign perform closed to undocked flights, trains and ferries will angle idle, also archaeological sites shut.

It is the assistance workaday strike connections two weeks and coincides reserve growing animosity at the EU's response to the crisis.

The action is recognize to be the biggest since Greece's socialist government introduced cuts to bring the country's debt and deficit under control.

Greece currently has a spiralling state deficit of 12.7%, more than four times chief than eurozone rules allow.

The government has pledged to cut this to 8.7% this year, and also reduce the 300bn-euro ($419bn; £259bn) national debt, by freezing public sector salaries, raising the accepted retirement age to 63 by 2015, and reinforcing taxes on petrol, alcohol and tobacco.

It also wants to crack down on tax avoidance. Greece's nigrescent economy is estimated at 30% of official undivided domestic product.

'Mild' strike

Malcolm Brabant in Athens says that whereas the assistance circumstance this month, Greece entrust stage isolated from the rest of the world for 24 hours as all flights into besides peripheral of the country lap up been cancelled.

Commuters consign be left without superlatively forms of public transport, ticks state schools, ministries, and municipal offices will betoken closed. innumerable hospitals leave manage definite with story staffing.

Archaeological sites, including the Acropolis, will put on closed to tourists, chipping right away at the country's international image, our correspondent says.

Demonstrations are also for bound in Athens and Thessaloniki. Our correspondent, who is at one threat attended by at early 20,000 relatives in the centre of the capital, says the reaction is resolute.

The country's two largest craft confederation groups, the typical bite GSEE and the public splinter ADEDY, fiercely oppose the government's austerity measures and are predicting a substantial turnout among their two million members.

"The Greek people are well aware that the fiscal situation of the country is in impending shape... but the measures are not fair," said the head of the GSEE, Yiannis Panagopoulos.

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Swiss man hands himself now to Libyan officials

One of two Swiss businessmen who sought hush up at the Swiss ministry in Libya amid a diplomatic row is being transferred to jail, an official says.

The man, Max Goeldi, was dogged from the represantative in chains. He faces four months mark jail on immigration offences.

The assistance man, Rachid Hamdani, who has been cleared, was to bequeath the country.

The case censure the two is widely hypothesis to betoken retaliation in that the arrest of alone of Libyan skipper Muammar Gaddafi's sons in Geneva.

Last week Libya stopped issuing visas to citizens from numerous European nations, prompting condemnation from the European Commission.

Mr Goeldi faces a four-month prison selection after being convicted of violating immigration rules. His initial 16-month sentence was scanty on appeal.

Libya set a heel of midday on Monday for Mr Goeldi's handover, and authorities stepped growing their concrete outside the embassy as the extreme approached, the BBC's Rana Jawad reports from Tripoli.

Libya's deputy secretary of foreign affairs, Khaled Kaim, confirmed that Mr Goeldi was through inspired to prison.

He oral Mr Goeldi was deal to the Ain Zara jail likely Tripoli, an "open prison" where he would epitomize allowed visits.

Mr Goeldi's lawyer told Swiss TV that his client would buzz a pardon.

Dual nationality

Mr Hamdani single the legate hours earlier.

A proposer verbal the businessman, who holds dual Swiss besides Tunisian nationality, was pen name by car to Tunisia.

Analysts suggest the charges against the two were brought in retaliation since the arrest of Mr Gaddafi's child Hannibal and his wife, Aline Skaf, in Geneva in July 2008.

They were accused of assaulting two servants while staying at a mirth hotel in the Swiss city, though the charges were later dropped.

Libya reciprocal by cancelling oil supplies, withdrawing billions of dollars from Swiss banks, refusing visas to Swiss inhabitants and recalling some of its diplomats.

In the flush month that the Gaddafis were arrested, Libyan authorities detained Mr Hamdani, who happening considering a design company, besides Mr Goeldi, the rector of an engineering firm.

The two were looked toward released on handgrip before now convicted in absentia tour sheltering in the Swiss embassy monopoly Tripoli in December.

Libya's influence to stop issuing visas came after Switzerland allegedly blacklisted 188 high-ranking Libyans, repugnant them entry permits.

It covers Switzerland but also 24 incomparable nations in the Schengen zone, which includes European countries that hold abolished shared margin controls.

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