World news

NEW YORK – Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday announced his opposition to a planned mosque near ground zero, becoming the latest Republican leader to place the project on the national political stage.

In a statement posted on his website, Gingrich, a potential 2012 presidential contender, said flatly, “No mosque.” And he criticized Muslim leaders for suggesting the mosque’s opponents are religiously intolerant.

“The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over,” Gingrich wrote. “The proposed ‘Cordoba House’ overlooking the World Trade Center site — where a group of jihadists killed over 3,000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks — is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites.”

The mosque, which would be located two blocks from the lower Manhattan site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is a project of the nonprofit Cordoba Initiative, which says it promotes cross-cultural understanding between Islam and the West. Cordoba purchased the property for $4 million and plans to build a 13-story, $100 million Islamic center, of which the mosque would be a part.

A community board voted overwhelmingly last spring to back the project even as it drew emotional opposition from some local residents and relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Opponents of the mosque are appealing their case to the city’s landmarks commission, hoping it will give historic designation to the building currently occupying the mosque site, thus complicating the project’s construction.

Disagreement over the mosque had, until recently, drawn political attention only from local officials. Republican-turned-independent New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports the mosque’s construction, as does Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic candidate for governor. Cuomo’s GOP opponent, Rick Lazio, opposes the project, as does Rep. Peter King, of Long Island, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.

The political dispute over the mosque went national last Sunday, when Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, announced her opposition to it via Twitter.

“Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate,” Palin wrote, drawing ridicule for using the apparently invented word refudiate.

She rewrote her post later, calling on “peace-seeking Muslims” to reject the mosque in the interest of national healing. “UNNECESSARY provocation,” she wrote of the mosque.

Palin’s comments drew a stern rebuke from Bloomberg, who has called efforts to derail the mosque un-American.

“Sarah Palin has a right to her opinions, but I could not disagree more,” Bloomberg said. “Everything the United States stands for, New York stands for, is tolerance and openness.”

Palin hit back with a post on her Facebook page, saying her opposition to the mosque had nothing to do with tolerance. “It’s just common decency,” she wrote.

SYDNEY (AFP) – Ousted Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd Thursday confirmed he was in talks over a possible United Nations role but said he did not plan to quit the national parliament.

Rudd, who was replaced by Julia Gillard last month in a party coup, said he had discussed a “development” role with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, after reports linked him with a new climate-change position.

“Among other matters, (Ban) raised the possibility of Mr. Rudd being appointed to a United Nations panel which might look at a number of issues related to development,” Rudd’s spokesman said in a statement.

He added that the role would not require Rudd to move to New York or abandon his parliamentary seat. Rudd proved a distraction to Gillard’s campaign for August 21 elections when he was mobbed by media on Wednesday.

“It would be similar to other United Nations panels like that on climate change finance … (which) meets three times a year,” the spokesman said.

He said that since the panel would involve limited meetings and did not require residency abroad, it should not interfere with parliamentary work.

“Should Mr Rudd be appointed to such a panel it would not cause any impediment to him discharging his responsibilities as a local member of parliament or as a minister in a future Labor government,” he added.

Gillard has promised Rudd a cabinet position if centre-left Labor is re-elected, after his spectacular knifing by party colleagues on June 24.

Rudd was enormously popular after winning 2007 elections against conservative John Howard, who was prime minister for 11 years, but finally slipped in opinion polls after shelving emissions-trading laws and rowing with the mining industry over a new tax.

The Daily Telegraph, quoting a diplomatic source, said UN chief Ban was considering creating a top-level climate-change advisory position for Rudd, who took a lead role in last year’s Copenhagen environmental talks.

“He was the prime minister who saw Australia sign up for the Kyoto Protocol many years after we should have,” said Foreign Minister Stephen Smith of Rudd’s credentials for such a role.

“His standing in these matters, internationally, is very high, as it should be.”

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Kosovo’s unilateral secession from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law, the World Court said Thursday in a decision with implications for separatist movements everywhere.

The non-binding, but clear-cut ruling by the International Court of Justice is a major blow to Serbia and will complicate efforts to draw the former pariah ex-Yugoslav republic into the European Union.

It is likely to lead to more states following the United States, Britain and 67 other countries in recognizing ethnic-Albanian dominated Kosovo, which broke away after NATO intervened to end a brutal crackdown on separatism by Belgrade.

It may also embolden breakaway regions in countries ranging from India and Iraq to Serbia’s war-torn neighbor and fellow former Yugoslav republic Bosnia to seek more autonomy.

“The court considers that general international law contains no applicable prohibition of declaration of independence,” Judge Hisashi Owada, president of the ICJ, said in the clear majority ruling delivered in a cavernous hall at the Hague-based ICJ.

“Accordingly it concludes that the declaration of independence of the 17th of February 2008 did not violate general international law.”

Serbian President Boris Tadic insisted Kosovo remained part of Serbia, a statement which, alongside the unequivocal nature of the ruling, threw confusion over Serbia’s path toward EU membership, seen in the West as a way to stabilize the Balkans.

“Serbia will never recognize the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo,” Tadic said.

News of the court’s decision prompted celebrations in the Kosovo capital Pristina, where people drove through the streets waving Kosovo, U.S. and British flags and shouting “USA, USA!.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said everyone should move beyond the issue of Kosovo’s status and seek cooperation.

Kosovo Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni said the ruling would compel Serbia to deal with it as a sovereign state.

“I expect Serbia to turn and come to us, to talk with us on so many issues of mutual interest, of mutual importance,” Hyseni told Reuters. “But such talks can only take place as talks between sovereign states.”

In the flashpoint northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, Albanians fired bullets in the air and let off firecrackers while Serbs gathered in their part of town and international forces blocked bridges across the river dividing the two sides.

In Serbia the Orthodox Church, which has deep roots in Kosovo, rang church bells and led prayers.

Serbia’s dinar currency hit all-time lows, forcing the central bank to intervene for the second day in a row.

CLEAR RULING, CLEAR OPPOSING SIDES

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999 when a 78-day NATO bombing campaign ended a two-year war between Serbia and ethnic Kosovo Albanians, and put in place a U.N. administration and a NATO-monitored ceasefire.

The reaction of Serbia’s ally Russia to the ruling contrasted sharply with that of the United States, a reminder of Cold War tensions and of the risk of a continued impasse in the region, one of the poorest corners of Europe.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the court’s decision did not provide a legal basis for Kosovo’s independence since it only referred to the declaration of independence and did not address the legality of consequences such as statehood or recognition.

Analysts said the ruling left little room for doubt.

“I don’t think anyone was expecting that. It is a clear, strong and unambiguous statement in favor of Kosovo’s independence,” said Marko Prelec of think tank the International Crisis Group.

“It will strengthen Kosovo’s position vis a vis Serbia in the international scenes and weaken Serbia’s position. There will be many more recognitions now.”

FAULTLINES

The ruling was being watched closely by other nations grappling with calls for secession from within their borders.

“This is bad news to a number of governments dealing with separatist movements,” said Edwin Bakker, researcher at the Clingendael Institute of International Relations. “This ruling brings Kosovo’s entry in the U.N. much closer.”

Georgia filed a lawsuit in 2008 against Russia at the same court, saying that Russia’s incursion into South Ossetia and Abkhazia amounted to ethnic cleansing. Spain, which has its own regions seeking greater autonomy, has said it will not recognize an independent Kosovo.

“The decision of the International Court once more confirms the right of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to self-rule,” said Sergei Bagapsh, president of the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

In the Balkans, the ruling could fortify separatist sentiments in the Serb half of Bosnia, another former Yugoslav republic which remains divided along ethnic lines.

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s state-run news agency says Kurdish rebels have killed six Turkish soldiers in a raid on a military outpost in the country’s southeast.

The Anatolia news agency says Tuesday that the overnight attack also left some soldiers wounded at the remote outpost near the Iraqi border and close to the town of Cukurca in Hakkari province. The report says the troops, reinforced with helicopter gunships, have launched a counter offensive and that clashes are still under way.

Kurdish rebels, fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast, have dramatically stepped up their attacks since June, saying the government has rejected their calls for talks.