Kofi Annan Blasts Kenyans Authorities

Former UN head Kofi Annan has condemned "gross and systematic abuses of human rights" in Kenya, after a visit to violence-hit parts of the country.
Mr Annan said conflict may have been triggered by disputed elections, but it had evolved into "something else".

The facts had to be established and those responsible held to account, Mr Annan said on his return to Nairobi.

Dozens more deaths were reported on Saturday, with corpses bearing the marks of brutal violence.

Police brought 16 badly burnt bodies to the mortuary in Nakuru, the capital of Rift Valley province. Nine other bodies had been recovered the previous evening, reports said.

Some 15 bodies - covered in arrow wounds - were reported to have been recovered following fighting between rival communities in the district of Molo.

Mr Annan - in Kenya to mediate attempts for a political solution - was flown over Nakuru on Saturday as part of a tour that also included visits to Eldoret and Molo.



Hospital staff in Nakuru said they had received the bodies of nine more people, hacked by machetes or killed by arrows.

Earlier the authorities had imposed an overnight curfew across the city in the wake of renewed inter-ethnic conflict.

Rival gangs of young men battled with machetes, metal bars, bows and arrows, while thick smoke billowed up from burning buildings.

The violence came despite hopes of progress after President Mwai Kibaki met opposition leader Raila Odinga for the first time on Thursday since December's disputed polls.



Burnt forests

Mr Annan set off from Nairobi shortly after first light on Saturday to see for himself some of the destruction and human misery caused by more than three weeks of violence.



He visited some of the thousands of people in Eldoret whose homes have been destroyed or who moved to the town to try to find shelter.

The former UN chief also boarded a helicopter to fly to Molo district where many have been killed.

Speaking in the capital, Nairobi, Mr Annan said: "What we saw was rather tragic. We visited several IDP [internally displaced persons] camps, we saw people pushed from their homes, from their farms, grandmothers, children, families uprooted.

"And I think it is important that all Kenyans respond with sympathy and understanding, and not try to revenge."

He also said there needed to be fundamental changes to Kenya's institutions to prevent a repetition.

"We cannot accept that periodically, every five years or so, this sort of incident takes place and no-one is held to account. Impunity cannot be allowed to stand," Mr Annan added.

Tanzania's former President, Benjamin Mkapa, travelling with Mr Annan, said: "The political crisis in the country [has caused] a state of agony and despair. We console the people."

Barricade

There has been sporadic gunfire in Nakuru on Saturday.

The BBC's Adam Mynott says that some protesters erected a barricade across the main road and many homes have been burnt in the town.

Hundreds of people have sought refuge in churches or friends' homes.

There are also reports of truckloads of many young men being moved overnight to a village on the outskirts of the town.

The unrest triggered by the election on 27 December has driven 250,000 people from their homes. Mr Odinga says he was robbed of the presidency.

Republican Rivals Unite In Attacking Clinton

Republican presidential hopefuls heading to a key Florida primary put on a show of civility Thursday during a debate that contrasted with the bitter squabbling between Democratic front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The four leading Republican candidates all expressed support for the Iraq war, called for deeper tax cuts and even exchanged compliments, keeping their sharpest barbs for Senator Clinton.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain, who lead the Republican field, both lashed out at the former first lady's stance on the Iraq war.

Americans "don't want us to raise the white flag of surrender like Senator Clinton does," McCain said during the 90-minute debate in Boca Raton, Florida. "They know they can win."

Romney also called for increasing the size of the US armed forces by 100,000 troops to about 1.6 million.

The debate was seen as a crucial test ahead of Tuesday's Florida primary, considered pivotal for the Republicans because it delivers 57 delegates to the national assembly that will nominate the party's presidential candidate.

It is also the last major vote in the Republican race before a blitz of state primaries on February 5 known as Super Tuesday.

The race is seen as a make-or-break test for former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who has staked his all on the state's primary but has seen support erode rapidly as his rivals picked up victories in smaller states.

Giuliani dismissed speculation the Florida primary would sound the death knell for his campaign.

"I think we'll do very well in Florida and very well on February 5th," he said.

A voter intention poll out Thursday indicated Romney and McCain were running neck-and-neck in the Florida race.

The Mason Dixon poll, conducted for a group of Florida newspapers, had Romney taking 30 percent and McCain 26 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

Giuliani was in third place with 18 percent of likely voters and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee had 13 percent.

Buoyed by recent victories in South Carolina and Louisiana, McCain has picked up a crop of endorsements, including one from General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led allied forces in the 1991 Gulf War, and another from Rambo actor Sylvester Stallone.

McCain's status as a Vietnam war hero could help him in Florida, a state that is home to many war veterans and military bases.

Romney, for his part, has focused on his economic credentials at a time when many Americans fear the country could be headed toward recession.

"I spent my life in the real economy," Romney said in a television campaign ad, playing up his history as a venture capitalist with a reputation for successfully turning around ailing companies.

On the Democratic side, the candidates stayed away from Florida where their primary will not count because it is being held earlier than allowed under national party rules.

Clinton and Obama, a senator for Illinois, were campaigning hard in South Carolina, which holds a Democratic primary on Saturday.

Their campaigning has been overshadowed in recent days by a blazing dispute between Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, and Obama.

Obama is leading by double digits in South Carolina, with a Zogby poll on Thursday giving him 39 percent, with Clinton getting 24 percent. John Edwards is running third with 19 percent.

After winning in the first vote in Iowa, Obama is counting on a new victory in South Carolina to boost his momentum going into Super Tuesday, after he lost the last votes in New Hampshire and Nevada to Clinton.

But Clinton got a strong boost from the New York Times, which gave her a glowing endorsement.

"Hearing her talk about the presidency, her policies and answers for America's big problems, we are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience," the paper said.

Clinton, McCain win New York Times endorsements

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Times on Thursday endorsed Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. John McCain for their party's nominations to contest the U.S. presidential election in November

In selecting Clinton, a New York senator, the influential newspaper's editorial board said her experience gave her an advantage over her chief rival in the Democratic race, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, though on the major issues they were not that different.

"Hearing her talk about the presidency, her policies and answers for America's big problems, we are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience," the newspaper said.

During her years in the Senate, Clinton has immersed herself in national security issues and has won the respect of world leaders and many in the American military, the newspaper said, adding that she would be a strong commander in chief.

Clinton is embroiled in a tight nomination battle with Obama, who would be the first African American president if elected. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has been running in third place.

The newspaper urged Clinton to take the lead in changing the tone of the campaign, in which the Obama and Clinton camps have been trading harsh accusations in a bitter public fight.

"It is not good for the country, the Democratic Party or for Mrs. Clinton, who is often tagged as divisive," the newspaper said.

In backing McCain, the Times editorial board said it had strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for the presidency, but among them the Arizona senator was an easy choice.

McCain's chief rivals for the Republican nomination are former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.

"Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe. With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field," the newspaper said.

The Times said McCain has shown he has the character to stand on principle, that he was an early advocate for battling global warming and he was one of the first prominent Republicans to point out how badly the war in Iraq was being managed.

" A genuine war hero among Republicans who proclaim their zeal to be commander in chief, Mr. McCain argues passionately that a country's treatment of prisoners in the worst of times says a great deal about its character," the newspaper said.

The New York paper said it could not endorse Giuliani, describing the city's former mayor as a "narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man" whose "arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking."

Giuliani brushed off the paper's portrayal when asked about it during a Republican debate in Boca Raton, Florida.

"I think there are some serious ideological differences," Guiliani said. "That probably was some of the nicest language they've written about me in the last six months."

Bill Clinton: Race, gender key in S.C.

DILLON, S.C. - He's not on the ballot but Bill Clinton seemed to dominate the South Carolina presidential campaign, disparaging Barack Obama and journalists and predicting that many voters will be guided mainly by gender and race loyalties.

The former president suggested that his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, may lose Saturday's Democratic primary because many black voters will side with Obama. The unusually direct comment on the possible role of race in the election was in keeping with the Clintons' bid to portray Obama as the clear favorite, thereby lessening the potential fallout if it proves true.

Voting for president along racial and gender lines "is understandable, because people are proud when someone who they identify with emerges for the first time," the former president told a Charleston audience Wednesday while campaigning for his wife, a role he has played all week.

His comments and a later outburst with a reporter came on a day when Obama continued to challenge Hillary Clinton's candor and trustworthiness. He said his chief rival has indulged in double-talk on bankruptcy laws, trade and other issues.

The atmosphere grew more charged after Clinton's campaign aired a radio ad in South Carolina suggesting Obama approved of Republican ideas. Obama responded with his own radio spot that says, "Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected."

Politicians "don't always say what they mean, or mean what they say," the Illinois senator told about 900 people at Winthrop University, in Rock Hill, Wednesday. "That is what this debate in this party is all about."

At each of three main stops Wednesday, Obama mocked Clinton for saying she voted for a 2001 bankruptcy bill but was happy it did not become law.

"Senator Clinton said, `Well, I voted for it, but I hoped the bill would die,'" he said, drawing hoots from the university crowd.

Bill Clinton, campaigning on the coast while Obama was inland, said Obama and the media had stirred up tensions over race in response to some Democrats' criticisms of the couple's strategies.

"I never heard a word of public complaint when Mr. Obama said Hillary was not truthful," and had "no character, was poll-driven. He had more pollsters than she did," the ex-president said in a heated exchange with a CNN reporter. "When he put out a hit job on me at the same time he called her the senator from Punjab, I never said a word."

It was not clear what he meant by "hit job."

The former president has accused Obama of exaggerating his anti-war record and handing out undeserved praise to Republicans. Clinton said he personally witnessed Obama's union forces intimidating Nevada caucus-goers and said an Obama radio ad suggested how Democrats could keep votes from his wife.

Last year, Obama's campaign circulated a memo describing Hillary Clinton as "D-Punjab," a reference to her Indian-American donors. Obama has said that was a mistake.

Bill Clinton said civil rights leaders Andrew Young and John Lewis have defended his wife. "They both said that Hillary was right and the people who attacked her were wrong and that she did not play the race card, but they did," he said.

Clinton said the news media is much tougher on his wife than on Obama. At the end of the exchange, he told the CNN reporter, "Shame on you."

Clinton also told about 100 people in Charleston that he was proud of the Democratic Party for having a woman and a black candidate and he understands why Obama is drawing support among blacks, who may comprise up to half of Saturday's turnout.

"As far as I can tell, neither Senator Obama nor Hillary have lost votes because of their race or gender," he said. "They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender — that's why people tell me Hillary doesn't have a chance of winning here."

Update ON Heath Ledger

NEW YORK - A makeshift memorial of flowers and candles grew Wednesday outside the apartment building of Heath Ledger, whose Oscar-winning director in "Brokeback Mountain" called his death a "heartbreaking" ending to a superb acting career and life.

An autopsy on the 28-year-old actor was inconclusive, the medical examiner's office said Wednesday. It will take about 10 days to complete the investigation, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office.

The Australian-born actor was found dead Tuesday by his housekeeper and masseuse‚‚ lying naked and face-down at the foot of his bed, police said.

Police on Wednesday said they found bottles of prescription sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication in his bedroom and in the bathroom; there were still pills in the bottles.

Earlier, police said the death was caused by a possible drug overdose and appeared to be accidental.

News of the death stunned family, fans and colleagues.

"Working with Heath was one of the purest joys of my life," said Ang Lee, who directed Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain."

"He brought to the role of Ennis more than any of us could have imagined a thirst for life, for love and for truth, and a vulnerability that made everyone who knew him love him. His death is heartbreaking."

Speaking in Perth, Ledger's father called the death "tragic, untimely and accidental."

Kim Ledger called his son "down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving, unselfish" and "extremely inspirational to many."

"Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life," he said. "Please now respect our family's need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately."

Khaled Ali, 41, a stage manager for a Broadway show, dropped off a candle outside Ledger's building on his way to work Wednesday morning. He said he and his fellow cast members were devastated.

"I felt a connection with him as an actor, as a fellow in the theater community," he said. "With 'Brokeback Mountain' he touched me personally in telling the story of my community. It was very touching."

Ledger was known for grueling, intense roles that became his trademark after he got his start in teen movies like "10 Things I Hate About You."

He avoided the safe path in favor of roles that forced him to bury his Australian accent and downplay his leading-man looks: the tormented gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain," a drug addict in "Candy," an incarnation of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There."

In what may be his final finished performance, he took a rare role in a guaranteed summer blockbuster, playing Batman's nemesis, the Joker, in the upcoming "The Dark Knight." But the role was nothing he could phone in; it forced him to rebrand a character last played on the big screen by Jack Nicholson.

"I had such great hope for him," said Mel Gibson, who played Ledger's father in "The Patriot." "He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss."

Ledger split last year with Michelle Williams, who played his wife in "Brokeback." The two had a daughter, the now 2-year-old Matilda, and had lived together in Brooklyn's Boerum Hill neighborhood.

Early Wednesday, Williams and Matilda left Trollhattan, Sweden, where the 27-year-old actress had been shooting scenes for the upcoming film "Mammoth," said Martin Stromberg, a spokesman for film production company Memfis Film.

"She received the news at her hotel late last night," Stromberg said, adding he had not spoken to the actress after she learned of Ledger's death.

The actor's personal strife was accompanied by professional anxiety.

Ledger said in an interview in November that "Dark Knight" and last year's "I'm Not There," took a heavy toll. He said he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told The New York Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he took two Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour.

News of Ledger's death spread quickly, from the crowd of 300 people that gathered Tuesday outside his Manhattan apartment to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, where those with close ties to the actor included Naomi Watts, who dated him after they met on the set of "Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized story about the birth of modern skateboarding.

Ledger was born in 1979 in the western Australian city of Perth to a mining engineer and a French teacher, and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 at a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."

After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and starred opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You," a reworking of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." Offers for other teen flicks came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.

"It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told The Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, 'You're crazy,' my parents were like, 'Come on, you have to eat.'"

He began to gravitate toward more independent films after roles in "Monster's Ball," "The Patriot" and "A Knight's Tale." His work in 2005's "Brokeback Mountain" earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor.

In the 2006 film "Candy," Ledger played a poet wrestling with a heroin addiction along with his girlfriend. Neil Armfield, who directed Ledger in the film, said the actor had "handled his career incredibly well," steering himself toward more challenging roles.

"He made a decision about four years ago to stop being led by producers and managers and to forge his own way," Armfield told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

He brought the same intensity to "Dark Knight." Glimpsed in early teaser trailers, Ledger is more depraved and dark than comical. The film's director, Christopher Nolan, said this month that Ledger's Joker would be wildly different from Nicholson's.

"It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."

Ledger was a widely recognized figure in his SoHo neighborhood, where Michelle Vella said she frequently saw him carrying his 2-year-old daughter on his shoulders, or having ice cream with her.

"It's a shock; he's so young," said Taren Dolbashian, who also had seen Ledger with his daughter. "He always seems so happy."

Near the entrance to the building housing Ledger's loft, about two dozen bouquets and a dozen candles formed a memorial.

One note said, "I couldn't find anything bad about you."

Gazans flood through Egypt border

Thousands of Palestinians have surged into Egypt from the Gaza Strip after masked militants blew several holes in a border wall.
Gazans rushed to buy food, fuel and other supplies that have become scarce because of an Israeli blockade - aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.

Egypt has backed the closure and the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, has urged it to open its border.

Egyptian border guards took no action against the raid, eyewitnesses said.

Gaza has been short of fuel and other essential goods since last week, when Israel imposed the blockade.

It was eased slightly on Tuesday to allow some fuel and medicines through.

Early on Wednesday gunmen set off a number of explosions along the wall on the border.

Among the thousands of Gazans who crossed into Egypt near the town of Rafah was Ibrahim Abu Taha, a father of seven.

"We want to buy food, we want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Water cannon

Earlier on Wednesday, a Hamas militant was killed during an exchange of fire near Gaza's border with Israel, Palestinian officials said.

Both incidents came a day after 60 women were injured when Egyptian police broke up a protest against the siege at the Rafah crossing.

The BBC's Ian Pannell, who is on the Egyptian side of the border, says thousands of Palestinians have crossed through the breached wall and were stocking up on essentials, petrol and cigarettes.

Among them was Ibrahim Abu Taha, a father of seven, who told the Associated Press news agency:

"We want to buy food, we want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese."

Water cannon

In 2005, Hamas militants blew up holes in the border with Egypt following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.

Wednesday's scenes at the Rafah crossing come a day after Egyptian police broke up a protest there by women.

In New York on Tuesday, Israeli and Palestinian envoys had clashed at the United Nations Security Council during a debate on Israel's blockade.

The Palestinian UN observer accused Israel of fuelling violence, while the Israeli envoy said his country had to protect its people from rocket attacks.

The council was considering a call for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza freely.

Tuesday's council debate had been requested by Arab and Islamic states amid a growing international outcry at what the European Union termed the "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5m residents.

Some council members have been pushing for a compromise resolution, condemning the rocket attacks and recognising "Israel's rights to self-defence", but also urging the Israelis to lift the closure.

However Israeli representative Gilad Cohen denied that Israel was violating international law.

"It is the duty of all states to ensure the right to life and safety of its people, especially from vicious acts of violence and terrorism," he said, adding that Israel would "ensure the humanitarian welfare" of Gaza.

Missing U.S. Marine Spotted iIn Mexico

GUADALAJARA, Mexico - Missing Marine Cesar Laurean, wanted in the slaying of a pregnant colleague, visited relatives in Mexico last week but left without saying where he was headed, a man identified as his cousin said Tuesday.

Juan Antonio Ramos Ramirez told The Associated Press that Laurean walked into his liquor store last Monday or Tuesday and the two cousins chatted for 10 minutes about their families. Laurean then told Ramos Ramirez that he had to get back to two friends outside, but he might return. He never came back.

CNN first reported Tuesday that Laurean had briefly stopped by Ramos Ramirez's liquor store in Zapopan, just outside Guadalajara.

Days later, Ramos Ramirez saw a television report that Laurean was wanted in the United States for killing 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach.

"We were completely shocked," he said.

Authorities have said they suspected that Laurean had fled to Mexico, but the comments from Ramos Ramirez were the first public confirmation that the Marine had been in the country.

Mexican and U.S. officials said they were looking into the report, but didn't have any more information.

The Marines first began searching for Lauterbach on Dec. 17, after Lauterbach failed to show up for work. Local authorities took up the case Dec. 19, after her mother reported her missing. Three weeks later, officials found Lauterbach's burned remains in a fire pit in Laurean's back yard.

Lauterbach had earlier accused Laurean of rape. Laurean left a note for his wife, Christina, that said Lauterbach slit her own throat with a knife, and he then buried her in the woods near their home.

An autopsy found that Lauterbach died of blunt force trauma to the head.

CNN reported Tuesday night that Laurean had mailed two other letters to his family before crossing the border. On Jan. 11, Laurean boarded a bus in Raleigh, N.C., headed for Houston, where he caught a second bus to Mexico for about $170, CNN quoted an unidentified law enforcement official as saying.

The second bus driver told authorities Laurean identified himself as Armando Ramirez, the same official said.

CNN also showed video of a man authorities believe is Laurean withdrawing money from Lauterbach's bank account at an ATM on Dec. 24.

Ramos Ramirez said he didn't contact police about his cousin because he believes Laurean is innocent.

"It didn't seem right to contact police," he said. "He is a normal person, with no tendency for doing bad things."

He said police still hadn't contacted him about his cousin late Tuesday, despite the international manhunt.

Officials in Jalisco state, home to Guadalajara, said they hadn't been formally notified of Laurean's warrant.

Ramos Ramirez said Laurean and most of the Marine's family moved to the U.S. more than 10 years ago, and he had seen Laurean only three other times since. The second time, five years ago, Laurean came for vacation and spent a few days with Ramos Ramirez's mother, Maria Ramirez.

Laurean hasn't contacted any other family members in Mexico, Ramos Ramirez said.

He said Laurean didn't stay long, and didn't say anything about why he was in Mexico or where he was headed next. Ramos Ramirez said he wasn't surprised by the brief visit because Laurean isn't very close to relatives in Mexico. His cousin seemed calm, he added.

"It was like any visit," Ramos Ramirez said