Gordon Brown talks to troops, during a surprise visit to soldiers stationed at Basra Air Station in Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 9.

LONDON, Dec. 10--Britain will hand over Basra province to Iraqi control within two weeks, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said during a surprise trip to southern Iraq Sunday, his Downing Street office said.
Addressing troops in the southern Iraqi city, Brown said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was recommending “a move to provincial Iraqi control within two weeks“, AFP quoted a spokesman in London as saying.
“I have just talked to Prime Minister Maliki, and he has asked me to pass on his thanks to you for what you have done to help rebuild the democracy of Iraq,“ Brown said, according to the spokesman.
“It’s because of all the operations we have done over the past few months that the security situation has not only improved, but he is now recommending a move to provincial Iraqi control within two weeks.“
Britain has about 5,500 troops in southern Iraq, and Brown said in October that troop numbers would be cut by more than half to 2,500 by early next year as Iraqis assume control of Basra province.
Meanwhile, Mortar shells slammed into an Interior Ministry prison on Monday, killing at least seven inmates and wounding 23 while they slept, AP quoted police and a hospital official as sayingsaid.
The shells hit a prison made up of several cell blocks, each containing prisoners accused of terrorism-related crimes or civil offenses, police said.
Police said American troops had sealed off the area and were investigating the bombardment, which took place about 6:30 a.m.
The US military said it had no immediate information, and Iraqi Interior Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.
A hospital official said the inmates were still asleep when the mortars hit, one landing directly on a cell and two others nearby. Casualties were sent to a hospital inside the Interior Ministry compound for treatment, the official said.

WASHINGTON,
Dec. 10--US lawmakers blasted the CIA for destroying interrogation tapes of terror suspects, saying it would damage America’s standing and feed suspicions about possible torture.
A day after the Justice Department said it had opened a preliminary inquiry into the affair along with the CIA’s internal watchdog, presidential hopefuls and lawmakers from both parties condemned the disposal of the videotapes, AFP reported.
“What this does in a larger sense is it harms the credibility and the moral standing of America in the world again,“ said Senator John McCain, a Republican contender for the White House who was abused as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
With Democrats and human rights groups charging President George W. Bush’s administration may have tried to cover up past abuse, the revelation has revived debate about how Bush’s administration has treated terror suspects.
CIA director Michael Hayden, who was not leading the agency when the tapes were destroyed in 2005, will face questions about interrogation methods on Tuesday when he is due to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the panel’s chairman, John Rockefeller, told CBS television.

LISBON, Portugal, Dec. 10--Leaders of Europe and Africa headed home Monday after a summit which failed to mask deep divisions despite pledges of an equal relationship, with a row on Zimbabwe highlighting the gulf between continents.
Fifty years after Ghana, the first African nation to free itself of European rule, won its independence, the two-day summit hosted by one of the continent’s former colonial powers, Portugal, was billed as an opportunity for all sides to speak their mind on a level footing, AFP reported.
“We met at this summit talking plainly and directly as equals,“ said Ghana’s President John Kufuor at Sunday’s conclusion of the two-day summit in Lisbon where a broad-brush joint declaration on a “common vision“ was signed.
But if Kufuor and host Prime Minister Jose Socrates portrayed the summit as a chance for both sides to enjoy a frank but cordial exchange of views, the debate over Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s presence was vitriolic.
After German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused the 83-year-old on Saturday of undermining the image of Africa, Mugabe hit back at her and three other critical European leaders for displaying an “arrogance“ and “superiority complex“ that was intolerable given the lack of democracy during colonialism.
Reed Brody, an analyst for New York-based Human Rights Watch who attended the summit, said while Western leaders may not necessarily always be fans of human rights, the concept was more deeply ingrained than in Africa.
“There’s a difference in political cultures. Concepts of tolerance, dissidence and opposition have developed over many generations,“ he told AFP.

WASHINGTON,
Dec. 10--Pakistan might welcome US assistance in a military strike against Al-Qaeda, President Pervez Musharraf said, but he rejected the idea of a unilateral US decision to send troops
“Whatever intelligence we get on the terrorists, we jointly think of what kind of action is possible and whatever assistance we can get,“ Musharraf, a key US ally in the region, said on CNN’s Late Edition.
Musharraf balked at a recent statement by US President George W. Bush, who said he would send US forces after Osama bin Laden or other senior militants in Pakistan if he had reliable intelligence, reported Reuters.
“Frankly, I don’t agree with that,“ Musharraf said, speaking from the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi.
Musharraf, who called Bush a “great personal friend,“ has been under intense international scrutiny since he declared emergency rule in early November, suspending the constitution and deposing judges who threatened his political future.
Pakistan is expected to hold a general election on January 8.
Washington wants to see a stable Pakistan which might stamp out the Al-Qaeda or pro-Taliban militants who many believe are hiding in remote regions along the border with Afghanistan and fomenting violence there.

Khaleda Zia--Sheikh Hasina

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Dec. 10--Bangladesh’s anti-corruption agency has filed charges against two former prime ministers over business contracts awarded to a Canadian gas company during their terms, a police official said Sunday.
The Anti-Corruption Commission, or ACC, filed separate cases against two former leaders Sheikh Hasina and her archrival Khaleda Zia, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Lutfur Rahman said.
The charges resulted from contracts awarded to Calgary-based Niko Resources Ltd. without proper bidding procedures, AP quoted Rahman as saying.
Hasina, the prime minister from 1996-2001, and Zia--who ended her latest five-year term in October 2006--are both in jail pending trial on other corruption charges.
Bangladesh, a parliamentary democracy since 1990, is currently run by an interim government backed by the country’s influential army.
The government took over in mid-January after weeks of violent street protests over political reforms.
Rahman said some other bureaucrats and political colleagues of Hasina and Zia, and the company’s local representative have also been charged in two cases.
The ACC claimed that Bangladesh lost millions of dollars (euros) because of the “illegal deals“ that allowed Niko Resources to explore for gas at the Tengratila field in Sunamganj district, 175 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of the capital, Dhaka.
Rahman would not provide any further details.
Officials from Niko Resources could not be reached for comment while colleagues of Hasina and Zia would not immediately make any statements.
In 2005, Zia’s government held the Canadian company responsible for two blowouts in the field and demanded compensation.
Also in 2005, Zia’s administration forced a junior minister to resign for taking a Toyota Land Cruiser Cygnus from Niko Resources in return for giving the company some benefits and delaying the claims for the compensation.

ORURO, Bolivia,
Dec. 10--Bolivian lawmakers approved a controversial overhaul of their constitution that, if passed by referendum, will give leftwing President Evo Morales sweeping new powers and bolster the rights of the indigenous majority.
According to AFP, a constituent assembly stacked with Morales supporters and sitting in the Andean town of Oruro--a pro-Morales stronghold--backed the 408 reforms amid a boycott by the main opposition party.
“It is a source of great happiness for me and for all the popular movement, the peasants’ and workers’ movement,“ Morales said.
The run-up to the vote was bloody, with at least three killed in clashes between protesters and police two weeks ago.
Six wealthy provinces held massive strikes as opponents feared the reforms would usher in a leftist regime similar to the one Morales’s friend and ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is struggling to establish.
“The text of the new constitution is approved,“ a representative of the socialist MAS party, Carlos Romero, told AFP.
The approval came after a marathon 15-hour session and with the backing of allied minor parties.
The new constitution would give Morales more power, including over natural resources following his nationalization of Bolivia’s oil and gas industry last year.
The congress would be collapsed to a single chamber, and the flag would be changed to an indigenous motif.
It would also give indigenous peoples greater control of the lands they are living on and install a raft of socialist changes.
The text approved Sunday did not, however, specify whether the president could be re-elected indefinitely, as had been proposed earlier.
Instead, he could seek election in the next six months for what would be considered his first term under the new constitution, if passed.
He could then go on to seek another term, which would theoretically given him another 10 years in power.
A referendum will now have to be called to allow voters to decide on the measures.
Though Morales is confident of having his project adopted, similar hubris by Chavez was proven wrong when he suffered a stinging defeat a week ago trying to pass similar constitutional reforms in Venezuela by plebiscite.
A total of 153 of Bolivia’s current 255 lawmakers voted on the overhaul of the basic law.
The opposition claims that violated a requirement that two-thirds of the assembly vote in favor in order for the changes to be adopted.
“This is a judicial aberration,“ one center-right opposition politician, Ricardo Pol, said.
Morales had threatened to call snap elections if the constituent assembly did not OK the reforms.
He also claimed in a television interview that the street opposition to his project was “headed by the US Embassy.“
The president says the social reforms are needed to redistribute wealth from the rich lowland provinces to their poorer highland neighbors.

LONDON, Dec. 10--The world is divided over the importance of press freedom, with not everyone sharing the Western notion that it is crucial to a free society, a poll said Monday.
The survey, covering 14 countries, also found that confidence in media reporting varies widely, with the Russian press along with British and US media among the least trusted while countries like India and Kenya score strongly, AFP said.
While overall 56 percent believe media freedom is very important for a free society, 40 percent think social harmony is more important, even if reporting suffers, said the survey by the GlobeScan polling institute.
“While people generally support a free media, the Western view of the necessity of a free press to ensure a fair society is not universally shared across all regions of the world,“ said GlobeScan head Doug Miller.
For example a large majority in Brazil (80 percent), Mexico (76 percent), the United States (74 percent), and Britain (71 percent) say the concentration of media ownership is a concern because of the risk of political bias.
In general confidence in accurate reporting is lowest in Western developed countries, such as Germany (28 percent), Britain (29 percent) and the United States (29 percent)--although Russia fares even worse on 27 percent.
At the other end of the scale are countries like Nigeria (58 percent), Kenya (61 percent), India (61 percent) and the United Arab Emirates (52 percent).