Thesun 2009-06-29 Page09 Mousavi Rejects Partial Vote Recount

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| MONDAY JUNE 29 2009

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Mousavi rejects partial vote recount West,” the official Irna news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. “This time the Iranian nation’s reply will be harsh and more decisive to make the West rue its interference.” He was speaking a day after US President Barack Obama praised the bravery of Iranians who protested against this month’s disputed election in the face of what he called “outrageous” violence. Meanwhile, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said more than 2,000 people are still in detention in Iran and hundreds more are missing since the government crackdown on protests. Among those detained are eight local British embassy staff, Iranian media said yesterday, underscoring the hardline leadership’s effort to blame post-election unrest on foreign powers, not popular anger. Britain called the action “harassment and intimidation” and demanded the release of all the embassy employees still held. – Agencies

A man in Hamburg lights a candle in memory of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot dead during a rally in Teheran last week.

EPAPIX

TEHERAN: Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi rejected authorities’ proposals for a partial recount of votes from this month’s election and repeated his demand the entire ballot be annulled. Iran’s top legislative body, the Guardian Council, had offered to recount 10% of ballot boxes from the June 12 vote in the presence of senior officials representing government and opposition. “This kind of recount will not remove ambiguities. There is no other way but annulment of the vote. Some members of this committee are not impartial,” Mousavi said in a statement on his website on Saturday. Another defeated candidate, proreform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, rejected the partial recount offer in a statement on his website. Mass protests by Mousavi supporters have exposed splits in Iran’s political establishment and plunged the country into its deepest crisis since the 1979 Revolution. State media say 20 people have died in post-election violence. While offering the partial recount, the Guardian Council has already said it found no major violations in the vote that returned hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power for a second term. Ahmadinejad warned on Saturday he would take a tougher approach in his second term of office to make the West regret meddling in Teheran’s affairs. “With no doubt, Iran’s new government will have a more decisive and firmer approach towards the

Police question Australian opposition chief over e-mail SYDNEY: Australian opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull said yesterday he had given a statement to police about a fake e-mail at the heart of claims that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd misled parliament. It follows a week of political controversy over the so-called “Utegate” affair, which refers to a small truck, known in Australia as a “ute”, loaned to Rudd by a car dealer friend for electoral purposes. The e-mail in question allegedly came from Rudd’s office and was cited by the opposition as evidence that Rudd had lied over allegations he helped his friend gain access to a government scheme known as

“OzCar”, set up to help dealers in the global economic crisis. But the opposition tactics largely backfired when an intensive search of government computers failed to locate the e-mail. Rudd called in the police and the government spent most of last week calling for Turnbull to resign. Yesterday, Turnbull told Channel Ten television that he had given a statement on the matter to the Australian Federal Police. “I’ve met with the federal police, I’ve given them a statement,” Turnbull said. “Let the police do their work.” However, Turnbull denied that the row, in which the

opposition also accused Treasurer Wayne Swan of misleading parliament, had damaged his leadership of the main opposition Liberal Party. Turnbull has denied ever having a copy of the e-mail. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said yesterday that Turnbull had “made an idiot of himself”, by accusing the government of lying “on the basis of an e-mail that turned out to be fake”. The allegations have had little impact on Rudd’s public standing and he remains far ahead in the polls, although Turnbull has been gradually clawing back ground. – Reuters

Taliban ambush Pakistani army convoy WANA (Pakistan): Taliban militants ambushed a Pakistani military convoy near the Afghan border yesterday killing six soldiers, security officials said, as the army prepared an assault on Pakistan’s Taliban chief. The military, near the end of an offensive in the northwestern Swat Valley after two months of fighting, is preparing to launch a new drive in South Waziristan, where Pakistani Taliban chief

Baitullah Mehsud is based. The Taliban have responded with bombings in towns and cities and attacks on the military across the north. Militants firing rocket-propelled grenades ambushed the military convoy in North Waziristan, another militant stronghold on the Afghan border, intelligence officials said. “They fired rockets damaging several vehicles and we

have reports of the death of six soldiers,” said one official, who declined to be identified. Twelve men were wounded. Earlier yesterday, government aircraft bombed two compounds in a Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan, killing eight militants, officials said. With an increase in military activities in South Waziristan, about 45,000 people have fled from the area. – Reuters