BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 10--The Lebanese cabinet called for vigilance on Saturday in the face of reports of new attempts by Islamist militants to infiltrate the country’s dozen Palestinian refugee camps, AFP reported.
“The cabinet took note of the reports of infiltration into some of the camps aimed at stirring up tensions between Lebanese and Palestinians and warned against it,“ Information Minister Ghazi Al-Aridi told reporters.
“We will deal with this phenomenon wherever it occurs as we did in Nahr Al-Bared,“ he said, referring to the northern refugee camp which saw a deadly uprising by Islamist militants this summer.
The cabinet “calls on all the relevant security and political authorities to be vigilant,“ Aridi added.
In an interview, the leader of a hardline but secular Palestinian militant group--Ahmed Jibril of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine--General Command--said that around 100 militants had infiltrated Lebanon in a bid to repeat the Nahr Al-Bared uprising, the Al-Mostaqbal daily reported.
The Nahr Al-Bared militants withstood a siege by the army for more than three months until September 2.
More than 400 people were killed, 168 of them Lebanese soldiers.
By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the Palestinian refugee camps, leaving security to mainstream militant groups.
The Nahr Al-Bared siege largely focused on an area beyond the camp’s conventional boundaries.
Nahr Al-Bared’s 31,000 refugees were forced from their homes by the fighting, many into makeshift accommodation in the nearby Baddawi refugee camp.

Supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir protest in front of the President House in Islamabad, Nov. 7.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 11--Pakistan’s beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf announced Sunday that parliamentary elections would be held before January 9, meeting a key demand of critics of his imposition of emergency rule.
The military ruler said parliament would be dissolved on Thursday to allow elections to be held between 45 and 60 days later, and that he wanted the polls to take place as soon as possible, AFP said.
“We should have elections before the 9th of January,“ Musharraf said at his first news conference since imposing the state of emergency more than a week ago. “I leave it to the election commission to decide on the exact date.“
Musharraf also reiterated that he would hang up his army uniform and take the oath of office for a second term as president as a citizen--just as soon as the Supreme Court validates his October 6 election victory.
The president has come under fierce international pressure for imposing emergency rule, suspending the constitution, sacking the nation’s chief justice and bringing in tight media curbs.
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, insisted he had not violated the constitution and vigorously defended the emergency.
“It was the most difficult decision of my life,“ he said, speaking in English. “I found myself between a rock and a hard surface.“
But he added: “I stand by it because I think it was in the national interest.“
Meanwhile former premier Benazir Bhutto flew to the eastern city of Lahore, where she plans the biggest protest yet against emergency rule.
After cementing her profile as the only opposition figure able to muster a serious threat to the president, she aims to start a “long march“ from Lahore to the capital Islamabad.
She has given Musharraf until Thursday to quit the army, end the emergency and set a date for parliamentary elections by mid-January--demands he seemed to have accepted, at least in part, with his announcement Sunday.

SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 11--Spain’s King Juan Carlos I told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to “just shut up,“ bringing an Ibero-American summit to end in spectacular fashion on Saturday.
Spain’s monarch stormed out just before the scheduled end of the forum, visibly furious at Chavez’s description of his former prime minister as a “fascist“ and for launching a wide-ranging tirade that could not be stopped, AFP said.
The dispute was a dramatic finale for the 17th meeting of the heads of state and government of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, and Spain, Portugal and Andorra, which started Thursday.
Chavez--a notoriously hotheaded leader who is seeking to leverage his country’s oil wealth to win influence over other South American nations--earned the ire of the Spanish delegation upon his arrival on Friday.
His description of Spain’s former conservative prime minister Jose-Maria Aznar as a “fascist“ prompted current Prime Minister Jose-Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a socialist, to call on Chavez to show more “respect.“
But Chavez forged on, and on Saturday he repeated the contentious f-word in relation to Aznar, adding: “A fascist isn’t human, a snake is more human than a fascist.“
An irate King Juan Carlos then stepped in, demanding of Chavez: “Why don’t you just shut up?“
But the Venezuelan leader carried on, attacking the United States (a favorite target of his), the Catholic Church in Venezuela and the pope. He also accused the United States and Europe of having approved of the failed coup against him in 2002.
Spain’s king then stormed out of the conference as Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega stepped up to support Chavez.

Ehud Olmert

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Nov. 11--More than 100 police investigators raided government buildings and private offices Sunday, searching for evidence in a series of criminal investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The probes--all related to actions that took place before Olmert became prime minister--have threatened to weaken the Israeli leader at a time of growing momentum in peace efforts with the Palestinians, AP said.
The early-morning raid targeted more than 20 locations, including the Industry and Trade Ministry, the Postal Authority and Beit-ul-Moqaddas’ City Hall, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.
“Police investigators are searching a number of government and private offices in connection with three ongoing investigations“ into Olmert, Rosenfeld said. The searches were expected to last throughout the morning, possibly longer, he added.
There were no further details on what evidence police were seeking.
Officials in Olmert’s office were not immediately available for comment. But the prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has dismissed the investigations as a political witch hunt.
In one case, Olmert is suspected of buying a luxurious Beit-ul-Moqaddas home at a substantial discount from a developer in exchange for arranging construction permits for the builder. Olmert is a former mayor of Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
In a second case, police are looking into suspicions that Olmert acted improperly when he was trade minister earlier this decade. Authorities suspect Olmert steered a government grant to a friend and arranged improper political appointments.
Olmert also is suspected of trying--albeit unsuccessfully--to rig the sale of Israel’s second-largest bank in favor of two associates while he was finance minister in 2005.
Olmert has been dogged by corruption allegations throughout his three-decade career in politics, but has never been convicted of any wrongdoing.
Still, the probes have threatened to undermine him just as his public approval ratings have begun to rebound from last year’s inconclusive war in Lebanon.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia,
Nov. 10--Malaysia’s opposition and human rights groups on Sunday condemned authorities for attempting to suppress the biggest political rally in a decade with tear gas, water cannons and arrests.
Organizers also said that at least seven people were beaten and kicked by police and that some needed hospital treatment including one man whose leg was broken, reported AFP.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had vowed to shut down Saturday’s rally, held to campaign for electoral reforms as the nation heads for polls expected to be held early next year.
Police locked down the centre of Kuala Lumpur, throwing up roadblocks, searching vehicles and shutting demonstrators out of Independence Square where they had planned to gather. Despite the tactics and the use of tear gas and water cannons at one of the rallying points, 30,000 protesters marched to the royal palace where they were briefly addressed by dissident former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
“Malaysians have spoken loud and clear,“ said parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, part of an alliance of political parties and civil society groups which mounted the rally.
Lim ridiculed the police chief for claiming that only 4,000 people attended the rally and criticized the government for what he said was an order to the media not to cover the event.
“No newspaper dared to publish photographs of the mammoth peaceful gathering, which was a tribute to Malaysians for their love of peace and commitment to democracy,“ he said.
Sunday’s newspapers instead ran photos of the traffic jams that the roadblocks generated.
“Abdullah should honor his pledge when he became prime minister four years ago to listen to the truth from the people, however unpleasant, and to introduce institutional reforms for justice and democracy,“ Lim said.
Leading human rights group Suaram said that up to 40 people were arrested, far from the figure of 245 given by police.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, Nov. 10--Slovenians started voting in a presidential runoff on Sunday with leftist Danilo Turk likely to win and lead the small but wealthy ex-communist state which takes over the European Union presidency next year.
Turk, a law professor and former diplomat supported by the main left-wing parties, leads the opinion polls and is expected to beat conservative Lojze Peterle, who is backed by most of the right-of-center ruling coalition, Reuters reported.
Polling stations for 1.7 million eligible voters opened at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.. First exit polls are expected immediately after the polls close and preliminary results are due around 9 p.m. EST.
A victory for Turk would extend Slovenia’s tradition of having left-wing heads of state since it quit communist Yugoslavia in 1991.
The winner will be sworn in days before Slovenia takes over the rotating six-month EU presidency on January 1.
The latest opinion polls, published last week, gave Turk between 58 and 69 percent support and analysts said a win for him could boost the social democrats ahead of a parliamentary election due in autumn 2008.
“If Turk wins by a big margin, it could cause alarm on the centre right, in which case the campaign for the parliamentary vote next year could start as early as Monday,“ Meta Roglic, an analyst at the daily Dnevnik, told Reuters.