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Five die at Arafat rally in Gaza

Violence followed one of the biggest rallies in Gaza this year
At least five people have been killed in gunfire at a rally organised by Fatah in the Gaza Strip to mark three years since the death of Yasser Arafat.

Security forces from the rival Hamas movement opened fire at crowds, causing people to run for cover, reports say.

It was the biggest rally held by the late president's party since it was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in June after a series of bloody clashes.

The iconic Palestinian leader died in Paris on 11 November 2004.

Since his death Palestinian politics has been riven by splits, the most violent between the secular nationalist Fatah party and the radical Islamist group Hamas.

Taunting

Hundreds of thousands of Fatah supporters, carrying pictures of Arafat and waving yellow Fatah flags had gathered in a large square in the centre of Gaza City.

Hamas security officials said they fired toward protesters who threw stones at security compounds.

Witnesses said the first shots were fired after crowds started accusing Hamas security forces of being a proxy for Shia Muslim-ruled Iran.

About 100 people were reported to have been wounded in the violence.

Hamas has banned opposition rallies since its takeover of Gaza, and its security personnel were out in force at the edge of Monday's massive gathering.

Correspondents say any move to prevent a ceremony commemorating Mr Arafat - whose following still crosses factional divisions - would have been widely unpopular in Gaza.
BBC

Bhutto 'to go ahead' with march
Benazir Bhutto arrives in Lahore


Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto says she will go ahead with a march from Lahore to the capital, Islamabad, despite security risks.

The march is part of her campaign against President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule.

Ms Bhutto also says she has ruled out holding more talks with Gen Musharraf.

The United States has been pushing for Gen Musharraf to accept Ms Bhutto into a power-sharing deal to help shore up his war against Islamist extremists.

The BBC's Paul Reynolds says few diplomats doubt that Ms Bhutto will resume negotiations with Gen Musharraf if and when the moment comes.

On Friday she was placed under house arrest for the day to stop her holding a rally in the city of Rawalpindi.

Pressure

When Ms Bhutto returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile last month, more than 130 people were killed in a double-bomb attack on her convoy.

Pervez Musharraf
Gen Musharraf has promised elections by 9 January

But she said she had to ahead with the "Long March" from Lahore to Islamabad to put pressure on Gen Musharraf.

"I know it is dangerous but what alternative is there when the country is in danger?" she asked.

At present all gatherings of more than five people are banned in Lahore and the rest of the province of Punjab.

Gen Musharraf promised on Sunday to hold parliamentary elections by 9 January.

But Ms Bhutto insists that that is not enough and that she cannot accept the continuing state of emergency imposed on 3 November.

When asked if she was saying no to more talks with Gen Musharraf she replied: "Yes, we are saying no."

When asked if this marked a change in policy she said: "Yes it is a change, it is a change from my party's past policy."

Extraordinary session

Her comments come as Commonwealth foreign ministers gathered in London to discuss a possible suspension of Pakistan from the organisation.

The extraordinary session was called after President Musharraf imposed the state of emergency.

The Commonwealth meeting is expected to add to the international pressure on Gen Musharraf.

When Gen Musharraf seized power in 1999, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth for five years. The Commonwealth's demand that he take off his army uniform has still not been heeded.

Ever since he imposed the emergency last week, Gen Musharraf has faced insistent demands from Britain and United States to restore the constitution and reverse the clampdown on pro-democracy activists.

But at a news conference on Sunday he hit back at his critics.

He promised to hold elections on time but he was unapologetic about the state of emergency, saying it was needed to combat Islamist militants and suggesting it could still be in place during the vote.

Validating presidency

Gen Musharraf told journalists that despite criticism, so far his Western allies had shown understanding about "the ground reality in Pakistan".

He also made it clear that he would not step down as army chief until a new Supreme Court validated his presidency.

And he refused to restore those judges dismissed under emergency measures.

He said they might have derailed democracy by ruling that his new presidential term was unconstitutional.

Nuclear defence

Meanwhile, the Pakistani government has warned that it has sufficient retaliatory capacity to defend its nuclear weapons.

It was reacting to a report in the Washington Post which said the US had made contingency plans to intervene to stop Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands.

The Washington Post quoted unnamed US intelligence officials as saying such plans included contingency action to stop any possible raid on Pakistani nuclear stores and to move the weapons to another location.

Dismissing the report as irresponsible conjecture, the Pakistani foreign ministry said there was no risk of the weapons being taken by any group.

If another country tried to intervene, Pakistan was ready and able to defend its nuclear arsenal, the foreign ministry said.

BBC

Displaced in Somalia

Somalis describe their lives around the capital, Mogadishu, surrounded by violence between insurgents and government troops backed by Ethiopian forces.

Mother-of-three Khatija, 25, lives in a camp for displaced people in Mogadishu.

Mogadishu's hospitals are packed with wounded from the fighting
There are approximately 200 families in the camp where I live, and our houses are made of cardboard and plastic which we tie over some wooden sticks.

Earlier this year when the fighting was very bad we had to leave. We went to Afgooye [west of Mogadishu].

Before fleeing the city we had spent a few days hiding in an empty building in the camp because we were scared that the mortars would come through the plastic sheeting we have on our small shelters.

The reason we left was because there was no work.

Because the fighting was in and around Mogadishu's main market, Bakara, the market was not open for business and so we were not able to earn our living by carrying goods for the traders.

We stayed in Afgooye for three months.

When we got there the first thing that happened was that all of our children got malaria and diarrhoea. There were many people, all from different places and we all lived together on the same land - none of us had any shelter.

My children did not die but children all around us were dying.

If our children were very sick we took them back to Mogadishu to the Banadir hospital but to get from Afgooye to Banadir cost 50 cents.

We would have to stand in the street begging and wait until we collected enough money.

But here in Mogadishu, now we are back, if our babies get sick we either stay at home or take the babies to the therapeutic feeding centre.

War-displaced Somalis at a camp
Shelters are made from plastic, cardboard and wooden poles

The majority of the time though, the baby dies.

I lost one baby two years ago.

We take them to the feeding centre because it is free, but sometimes they cannot do anything.

If there are a lot of checkpoints we don't go out, but we have been lucky because near our camp there are not too many checkpoints.

Every morning I go to Bakara market and the children stay at the camp. I only take the smallest one, who I'm still breast-feeding.

If one of children is sick I can't go to work.

If I can afford it then I take my sick child to hospital and while I am away at the hospital, I ask my neighbours to look after my other children.

And if there is fighting there then there is no work, and if there is no work there is no money, and if there is no money there is no food.

BBC

Commonwealth threatens Pakistan with suspension

The Commonwealth of 53 countries threatened Pakistan with suspension on Monday unless President Pervez Musharraf repealed emergency laws and took other steps by November 22.

"If, after a review of progress, Pakistan has failed to implement these necessary measures, it (the Commonwealth) will suspend Pakistan from the councils of the Commonwealth," the group's secretary-general, Don McKinnon, told reporters.

Among measures demanded were the immediate repeal of emergency laws introduced 10 days ago, the restoration of the constitution, for Musharraf to step down as chief of the army, and for immediate progress to be made on holding free and fair elections.

"The message is, 'you've got about 10 days'," McKinnon said, in comments directed at Musharraf. "We believe you can achieve this."

Reuters

Has Bhutto broken with Musharraf?

Pakistan's former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, appears to be on a collision course with the military-led government of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

On Monday, she said her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had broken off contacts with Gen Musharraf and there was no likelihood of talks resuming in future.

She now says she can no longer see herself "serving with President Musharraf".

BBC

Imran Khan detained as Musharraf reveals he considered stepping down Mail

Imran Khan facing death penalty after Pakistan police charge him under anti-terror laws Mail

Two children killed amid fresh violence in Pakistan





Two boys died today as police and gunmen fired at each other in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, during protests by supporters of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

"Two children have been killed in firing by unidentified men in the Lyari area," said a senior city police official, Fayyaz Khan, referring to a poor neighbourhood known as a Bhutto stronghold. "They're also firing at the police."

The shooting broke out when police chased small groups of young men protesting at the imposition of emergency rule on November 3.


The violence in Karachi came ahead of an expected announcement of a caretaker government to run the country before January's parliamentary elections that opposition parties have threatened to boycott.

A cabinet minister close to President Pervez Musharraf said Mohammedmian Soomro, the chairman of the upper house of parliament, was a strong contender for the key position of caretaker prime minister.

"I see him as the caretaker prime minister, but any final decision will be announced by President Musharraf," the railways minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, told the Associated Press.

A caretaker government is needed as parliament's five-year term ends today. Musharraf's concurrent presidential mandate also expires today, although the president has extended his rule by declaring a state of emergency that has thrown the country into disarray.

Other candidates mentioned by Pakistani media for the job of caretaker prime minister include a retired general currently serving as ambassador to Turkey, Iftikhar Hussain Shah, and a former central bank governor, Ishrat Hussain.

Pakistan state television said an announcement was expected later today. As Musharraf prepared to name a caretaker government, his opponents have started discussions on an opposition coalition.

Benazir Bhutto spoke with another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, whose government was ousted by Musharraf in 1999, about a united front, a spokesman for her Pakistan People's party (PPP) said.

"She talked about the need for cooperation by all political parties on a one-point agenda aimed at the restoration of the constitution, lifting of the emergency and holding free and fair elections," Farhatullah Babar told the Associated Press.

Bhutto was placed under house arrest in Lahore on Tuesday to prevent her from leading anti-Musharraf rallies and Sharif said he would make another attempt to return to Pakistan. He tried to go back in September but was promptly deported back to Saudi Arabia where he has been living in exile.

Speaking to GMTV by telephone he said: "I will certainly make another attempt to return to Pakistan because my country needs me. I am in touch with Benazir Bhutto. She is expressing her desire to come back and we will be very happy to work together and launch a joint struggle against the dictator. It's important for me to go back now."

Sharif described the arrest of former cricket star turned politician Imran Khan as a "very serious matter".

Khan was arrested and charged under draconian anti-terror laws. He had been one of the few opposition politicians to have remained at large since Musharraf declared emergency rule on November 3, igniting criticism at home and abroad, and sparking fears about the stability of a nuclear-armed state.

The US, which considers Pakistan a key ally in the "war on terror", has called on Musharraf to end the state of emergency and hold elections, a message that was repeated today by the US consul general in Lahore, Bryan Hunt.

"We need to move as rapidly as possible to have free and fair elections held on time," Hunt said after visiting Bhutto.

The US deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte, who last week warned against cutting aid to an "indispensable" ally, is due to arrive in Pakistan tomorrow week to press Musharraf to restore constitutional rule.

Musharraf has said he would step down as army chief and be sworn in as a civilian president as soon as the supreme court, where new judges have been appointed to replace those he regarded as hostile, rule on challenges to his October re-election. The attorney general said the court was expected to reach a ruling around the end of next week.guardian

Iranian hardliners accuse former nuclear negotiator of leaking secrets to UK embassy




Britain was dragged into Iran's increasingly febrile domestic power struggle when a former senior nuclear negotiator was accused of passing secrets to the UK embassy in Tehran.

Two days after the Iranian president denounced critics of his hardline nuclear policy as "traitors", Hossein Mousavian, a moderate who favours compromise over Iran's dispute with the west, was accused by the country's intelligence chief of supplying classified information to "foreigners".

The allegations came on the eve of a potentially crucial report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, on Tehran's cooperation over its uranium enrichment programme. Today's report could determine whether the UN security council imposes a third set of sanctions over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's refusal to suspend enrichment.


In a move that raised the ante inside Iran, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the intelligence minister, said he believed Mousavian - a former ambassador to Germany and associate of the former president Hashemi Rafsanjani - had betrayed national security. Mousavian, who also served as a nuclear negotiator under the 1997-2005 reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami, is under investigation for "security" violations after being detained last spring in a case that has become a proxy struggle between radicals supporting Ahmadinejad and pragmatists favouring negotiation.

"He [Mousavian] has given information to foreigners, including the British embassy, in contradiction to the country's interests and security," Iranian news agencies quoted Mohseni-Ejei as saying. "This is definite and provable. But the decision rests with the judge. Of course behind Mousavian there are influential people who want him to be acquitted. Those who want to have him acquitted have contacted the judge a few times."

An embassy source called the accusations "ridiculous".

Mohseni-Ejei's remarks echoed those of Ahmadinejad on Monday, when he accused his opponents of passing inside information to western governments in an effort to derail Iran's uranium enrichment activities. "We arrested one person due to espionage in this regard and since then the judge has come under so much pressure to acquit the spy," said Ahmadinejad, without naming Mousavian. "But I hereby announce that the nation will not allow these individuals and groups to save this criminal from the hand of justice."

The attacks on Mousavian appear to be part of a broader offensive against a coalition of pragmatic conservatives and reformists allied to Rafsanjani, who has emerged as a rallying figure for opponents of the hardline president. Rafsanjani, chairman of the experts' assembly, an important clerical body, has warned that Ahmadinejad's confrontational rhetoric risks pushing Iran into a military confrontation with the US.

Mousavian was held in Evin prison, Tehran, for a week after being arrested on April 30. His release on bail, after intensive behind the scenes lobbying, was seen as a political victory for Rafsanjani.

On Monday, Mousavian was present while Rafsanjani criticised the government's policies at a conference on national unity. Rafsanjani warned against policies that could lead to internal conflict at time when American military forces were building up in the region.

Muhammad Atrianfar, a political commentator and confidant of Rafsanjani, told the Guardian: "Ahmadinejad has made stupid allegations and now the intelligence ministry is forced to back them up. The intelligence ministry has never mentioned espionage allegations in its report against Mousavian. They are singling out the British embassy because Britain and the US are close allies and British policy is subordinate to America's. Reacting against Britain is tantamount to reacting against America."

guardian

America and the world's executioners join efforts to block UN moves to end death penalty
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor

In China, a death sentence means a bullet in the back of the head. In Iran, it means death by hanging. In Saudi Arabia, the victim is beheaded by the sword.

World public opinion has been so outraged by the continued use of the death penalty in the 25 countries that carried out executions last year, that a petition carrying five million signatures has been presented to the UN, where yesterday a small group of countries were attempting to block the historic vote on a global moratorium that could lead to an all-out ban.

The UN initiative is the brainchild of Italy, where the association Hands off Cain, campaigning for an end to the death penalty, convinced Prime Minister Romano Prodi to push for an end to the death sentence after the botched and humiliating hanging of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein last year.

If last-minute "killer" amendments to a draft UN resolution do not scupper the initiative, the 192-nation UN human rights committee will begin voting on the measure today. If adopted, it will give a powerful moral boost to those campaigning for an end to the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

As of last night, the draft resolution had been sponsored by 85 states, including all 27 European Union nations. The United States, which executed 53 people last year, will vote against. So will China, which put 2,790 people to death last year. In fact 91 per cent of all death sentences carried out happen in six countries: China, the US, Pakistan, Sudan, Iraq and Iran, where two men were publicly hanged for murder and robbery yesterday.

"The death penalty is abhorrent and a grave abuse of human rights," said Amnesty International's death penalty expert, Piers Bannister, who believes that a global moratorium is "long overdue". "In the overwhelming number of cases around the world a prisoner will be executed after receiving an unfair trial in violation of international laws and standards," he said. "Capital punishment is always cruel and unnecessary, it doesn't deter crime and runs the risk of executing the innocent."

At the UN, Singapore has led the charge against the draft resolution, which calls on all states still maintaining the death sentence to respect a moratorium "with a view to abolishing the death penalty". The text urges them to "progressively restrict the use of the death penalty" and calls upon the 130 states which have abolished the ultimate penalty not to reintroduce it.

Opponents of the measure object that the resolution would be an interference in domestic affairs, in contravention of the UN charter. At least 10 amendments to this effect were introduced last night by such states as Singapore, Egypt and Botswana. The sovereignty argument prevented a draft resolution from being voted on by the UN in the past. But to allow that argument to pass would "ignore the years of progress on human rights at the UN", said a European diplomat.

Some EU states baulked at another attempt to bring the moratorium proposal to the UN human rights committee. But the EU is now solidly behind the draft, and campaigners are hopeful that this time the measure will go through.

Sentenced to death

Kenneth Richey

Ohio, US

New evidence means that Kenneth Richey, 43, has recently been granted a retrial after more than 20 years on death row, following his convictions for arson and murder in 1987. Richey, who grew up in Edinburgh, has always protested his innocence.

Zheng Xiaoyu

China

Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of China's Food and Drug Administration, was executed on 10 July 2007, after being found guilty of corruption for taking bribes worth £425,000 to approve untested medicines. Zheng's appeal against the sentence was rejected.

Atefah Rajabi

Iran

Atefah Rajabi was hanged in northern Iran on 15 August 2004 for "acts incompatible with chastity" under sharia law. It is alleged that Atefah was mentally ill and did not have access to a lawyer. Her unnamed male co-defendant was sentenced to 100 lashes.

Saddam Hussein

Iraq

The former president of Iraq was hanged in Baghdad on 30 December 2006, for crimes against humanity. Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death after a year-long trial found him guilty of the killing of 148 Shias from the town ofDujail in the 1980s.

Du'a Khalil Aswad

Iraq

Aswad, 17, from Kurdish Iraq, was stoned to death on or around 7 April 2007, as punishment for a relationship with a Muslim. She was stoned by relatives, with armed security force personnel in attendance.

Manuel MartinezCoronado

Guatemala

Sentenced to death for the murder of seven family members and one policeman, farmer Manuel Martinez Coronado was the first Guatamalan to die by lethal injection when he was executed on 10 February 1999.

Troy Davis

Georgia, US

Sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of a police officer, Davis came within 24 hours of execution in July but was granted a reprieve. The Georgia Supreme Court is considering a retrial, after nine prosecution witnesses recanted.

Mariette Bosch

Botswana

Mariette Sonjaleen Bosch, a 50-year-old mother of three, was hanged in Botswana on31 March 2001, convicted of murdering her close friend Maria Wolmarans. Bosch's family and lawyers were not told of her death until afterwards.
Independent

Release my Daddy, Jemima Khan's little boy tells Pakistan's generals Mail

Powell: Iran Far From Nuclear Weapon ABC

Bangladesh cyclone death toll passes 3,000




Aid poured into Bangladesh today as the death toll from Cyclone Sidr spiralled above 3,000, with fears that thousands more bodies have yet to be found.

The government rapidly deployed naval and military helicopters as rescue workers made their way to outlying areas where entire villages are believed to have been flattened.

Sorties were being flown to the devastated areas, dropping food, drinking water and medicine for the survivors, but they were limited as to where they could land.

The official death toll reached 3,113 today, with 3,322 injured and 1,063 missing, according to Lieutenant Colonel Main Ullah Chowdhury.

However, a government "early warning programme" had saved a vast number of lives, the UN resident coordinator, Renata Dessallien, said. About 1.5 million people on the coast were able to flee to shelters.

Unicef said the cyclone had affected 3.2 million people.

"We are trying to reach all the affected areas on the vast coastline as soon as possible, when we will know how many people exactly have died in the devastation," one government official said.

The UN said it was making available $7m (£3.4m) from its central emergency fund, and the World Food Programme (WFP) was rushing in aid. Britain announced a £2.5m relief package last night, and Washington said two ships would deliver 35 tonnes of non-food aid. The Dhaka foreign ministry said King Saud of Saudi Arabia had announced a $100m grant for the victims and Riyadh would airlift 300 tonnes of food and relief materials.

International aid organisations promised initial packages of $25m in total during a meeting with Bangladesh agencies today, said Emamul Haque, from the Dhaka office of the WFP, which is coordinating international relief efforts.

During his Sunday blessing from the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called for "every possible effort to help our brothers who have been so sorely tested".

Cyclone Sidr, which produced winds of 150mph, demolished houses, crops, trees and shrimp farms. Disaster officials put the number of homes destroyed at more than 750,000. Although the main port, Chittagong, was back in operation yesterday, many ships were still missing.

Suman Sengupta, the director of Save the Children in Bangladesh, said he feared the final death toll could be as high as 10,000 to 15,000.

His assessment was based on the widespread extent of disruption caused by floods that have cut off many areas of the country, creating isolated islands.

"A lot of fishermen are not yet accounted for," a London-based spokeswoman for the charity added. "At this stage we simply don't know how many people have been killed. We expect that when communications improve and these isolated areas are contacted, the death toll will rise. It's such a vast area where the roads have been destroyed."

The Bangladesh Red Crescent agreed that thousands more may have died. "Based on our experience in the past, and reports from the scene, the death toll may be as high as 10,000," its chairman, Muhammad Abdur Rob, told Reuters.

"We have seen more bodies floating in the sea," a fisherman, Zakir Hossain, from the south-west of the country, told the Associated Press after reaching shore with two decomposing bodies he and other fishermen had picked up.

In many areas mass graves have been created and grieving families have been begging for clothes to wrap around the bodies for burial.

Aid agencies also warned that floods in the summer had ruined one harvest and the havoc wreaked by the cyclone would compound the country's food situation. It is estimated that at least half the coastal crop was destroyed in a matter of hours.

Another fear was that many areas would be cut off for days. Oxfam said its teams took one and a half days to reach towns that were normally just five hours' drive from the capital, Dhaka.

Heather Blackwell, the head of Oxfam in Bangladesh, said: "There are many villages in remote areas, including on sandbank islands, that are yet to be reached. It could take weeks before we know how bad this cyclone was."

Impoverished, low-lying Bangladesh is battered by cyclones and floods every year. In 1991, more than 130,000 people died in a storm of similar size and strength.
guardian

'Shut up' Chavez is ringtone hit

Mr Zapatero (l) and King Juan Carlos in Santiago, 10 November 2007
King Juan Carlos (r) won plaudits in the media back home.

An estimated 500,000 people have downloaded the insult featuring the words "Why don't you shut up?", generating a reported 1.5m euros ($2m).

King Juan Carlos asked Hugo Chavez to "shut up" at a summit in Chile last week after the president said Spain's ex-PM Jose Maria Aznar was a "fascist".

Branded mugs, t-shirts and websites featuring the row are also profitable.

In Venezuela, a group of students who oppose Mr Chavez's government have also been downloading the ringtone, a US newspaper reported.

"It's a form of protest," a 21-year-old student in Caracas told the Miami Herald. "It's something that a lot of people would like to tell the president."

Companies selling the ringtones have avoided legal problems concerning breach of the king's image rights by using an actor to voice the line.

'No crisis'

The spat began at the Ibero-American Summit in Chile's capital, Santiago, last Saturday when Mr Chavez called former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a close ally of US President George W Bush, a fascist, adding "fascists are not human. A snake is more human."

Mr Chavez at the summit, 10 November 2007
Mr Chavez (r) called Mr Aznar a fascist during the summit
Current Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero then said: "[Former Prime Minister] Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people."

When Mr Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, the king leaned forward and said: "Why don't you shut up?".

The row escalated when Mr Chavez said the king was "imprudent" and asked if he knew in advance of the 2002 coup against him.

President Chavez later accused the king of "arrogance" but said he did not want a political crisis with Spain - only that Venezuela's head of state be respected.

Spain has said it hopes for a swift return to normal diplomatic relations.

BBC

Iran nuclear work 'not worth war'

Ms Ebadi warns of the "evil sounds of war drums" in the distance
Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi has called on Iran to suspend its controversial nuclear work to avert what she says is a mounting threat of war with the US.

"Using nuclear energy is every nation's right, but we have obvious other rights including security, peace and welfare," she told a press conference.

Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Ms Ebadi won the Nobel peace prize in 2003.

Criticism of Iran's nuclear policy is rare in the Islamic Republic.

Correspondents say Ms Ebadi's comments represent an unusually explicit condemnation of the government's entrenched policy at a time of mounting tension with western powers.

"We can hear the evil sounds of war drums, however far away. We don't like it but there is probability of war," she said.

"In the past 30 years there has been a revolution and eight years of war. People are tired and want peace and quiet to lead their lives."

Military threat

Iran has rejected repeated international demands to stop enriching uranium, which its foes say is a means towards obtaining a nuclear weapons capability.

Neither the United States nor Israel have ruled out the use of military action to prevent the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful, energy-producing purposes alone.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called Iranian critics of uranium enrichment "traitors".

The UN Security Council has imposed two sets of sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear activities.

"Iran should respect UN Security Council resolutions and it means suspending uranium enrichment and resolving the dispute through talks," Ms Ebadi said.

BBC