Short TAKES

Russian arms exports to top 8 billion dollars

RUSSIA: Russia's military exports will exceed eight billion U.S. dollars this year, continuing an uprising momentum, a senior official said here on Tuesday.

The defense sector's contracts have kept rising in recent years, local media cited Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov who is in charge of the state's military industry.

"Notably, we are entering markets we have not had an access to before," he was quoted as saying.

Ivanov pledged that the government will take further measures such as loan guarantees to boost arms exports. Official statistics show that Russia exported arms worth 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, ranking second behind the world's top weapon exporter, the United States.

India is a major buyer of Russian arms ranging from advanced fighter jets to aircraft carriers, though some of those deals were postponed by price increases and delivery delays.

Moscow is also striving to sell more to the Middle East, Southeast Asian and Latin American states.

MOSCOW, Wednesday, Xinhua

Bangladesh lifts emergency ahead of Polls

BANGLADESH: Bangl-adesh ended a two-year-old state of emergency yesterday ahead of a parliamentary election this month aimed at restoring democracy in the South Asian country, a Home Ministry statement said.

The lifting of the emergency will allow political parties to campaign freely for the Dec. 29 election. President Iajuddin Ahmed signed the order to end the emergency, the statement said.

Bangladesh's two main political parties, the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party headed by Begum Khaleda Zia, had threatened to boycott the election if the emergency remained in force.

Investors and diplomats hope the vote will mark a move away from Bangladesh's history of street politics, sporadic bouts of military rule, and endemic graft, which have held it back from tackling massive poverty and ending dependence on foreign aid.

The army-backed interim government had eased curbs on political gatherings gradually and pulled troops back to their barracks over the past few months.

HAKA, Wednesday, Reuters

Aborigines win case against Swiss miner

AUSTRALIA: Australian Aborigines won a court fight Wednesday aga-inst Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata's plans to divert a river and expand one of the world's biggest zinc mines.

The Federal Court ruled the government did not follow the proper process when it approved the 110 million Australian dollar (74 million US dollar) project to expand the McArthur River Mine in northern Australia in late 2006.

Several kilometres (miles) of the McArthur River have already been diverted and the local Aboriginal group is now demanding that it be restored to its original course, the Australian Broa-dcasting Corporation reported. Aboriginal leaders, some crying with happiness, were applauded after the ruling, the broadcaster said.

"We just need the river back. We don't know how. They put it there, they can put it back," said Archie Harvey, a representative of the traditional owners of the land. "We've got to live on that river for a long time, our kids got to live on it."

The project to divert the river sought to extend the life of the mine by turning it from an underground operation to open-cut.

But the court ordered the approval be quashed and said the Aboriginal group should be reimbursed for the cost of their appeal.

SYDNEY, Wednesday, AFP

S. American defence council to stem US influence

BRAZIL: South American leaders agreed on Tuesday to create a regional defense council aimed at preventing local conflicts and reducing dependence on U.S. weaponry.

The decision was taken at a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in northeastern Brazil which was attended for the first time by Communist-run Cuba. The presence of Cuban President Raul Castro was touted as a sign of Latin America's growing independence from the United States, a far cry from the Cold War era when Cuba was expelled from the Washington-based Organization of American States.

Brazil proposed the creation of the South American defense council earlier this year, after the Colombian bombardment of a Marxist guerrilla camp in Ecuador led the Andean region to the brink of an armed conflict.

"The proposal was approved unanimously by the presidents," Chilean President Michelle Bachelet told a news conference after a meeting of South American leaders on the sidelines of the Latin American summit near the city of Salvador.

COSTA DO SAUIPE, Reuters

UN resolution on fighting Somalia piracy

UN: The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the international community to actively take part in the fight against pirates operating in waters off Somalia.

The U.S.-drafted resolution was fourth of its kind adopted by the council since June with the aim to step up international fight against Somali pirates.

The resolution, adopted at a ministerial meeting of the Security Council, authorized for one year states and regional organizations cooperating in the fight against piracy to " undertake all necessary measures in Somalia, including in its airspace," for the purpose of fighting piracy.

The text called on "states, regional and international organizations that have the capacity to do so, to take part actively in the fight against piracy and armed robbery ... by deploying naval vessels and military aircraft ..."

It urges all states and organizations taking part in the fight against piracy to establish a mechanism on international cooperation whereby all relevant parties could communicate with each other. The resolution also urges the parties to "consider creating a center in the region to coordinate information relevant to piracy and armed robbery," and to increase regional capacity, "in order to effectively investigate and prosecute piracy and armed robbery at sea offenses."

In the four-page resolution, the council said it was " continuing to be gravely concerned by the dramatic increase" in the piracy incidents in the last six months, as well as their threats to international humanitarian aid to Somalia.

UNITED NATIONS, Wednesday, Xinhua

Chavez calls Iraqi journalist courageous

BRAZIL: President Hu-go Chavez said Tuesday that an Iraqi journalist was acting for his country's people when he tossed his shoes at President George W. Bush.

Chavez said he doesn't favor throwing shoes at anybody, but that the incident could be called "the shoe toss of a people's dignity." "One must remember that Bush has not thrown shoes at the people of Iraq - but bombs, death, destruction," he said.

Earlier, Chavez had a more jovial response to the incident - laughing and calling it "funny."

Referring to the shoe-tosser, he said, "What courage!"

COSTA DO SAUIPE, AP

Rwanda denies UN panel charges

UN: The Rwandan government has rejected a report by a U.N. panel of experts that accuses Kigali of supporting Tutsi rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, describing it as inaccurate and biased.

The government's rebuttal was contained in a seven-page document, obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, that attacked the main points in a report from the U.N. Group of Experts, which recommended expanding a list of individuals and firms facing U.N. sanctions for supporting rebels in Congo.

The report, which the U.N. Security Council is scheduled to discuss later this week, accuses Rwanda of supporting rebels loyal to renegade Congolese Tutsi Gen. Laurent Nkunda and the Congolese army of backing Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom are accused of participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. "This report is a calculated move to shift blame away from the government of DRC (Congo) and the international community - both of whom have failed to resolve the conflict in the eastern DRC despite numerous bilateral, regional and international initiatives in the last 14 years," Rwanda said.

The experts' report "contains dangerous inaccuracies and ill-intended information regarding the alleged support of the government of Rwanda to the CNDP," it said, referring to the rebel group led by Nkunda.

It also accused the experts of "downplaying the despicable genocidal ideology" of the Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo.

The Rwandan rebuttal rejected the notion that the government has supported Nkunda and his rebels.

UNITED NATIONS, Wednesday, Reuters

Iraqis rally to support Bush shoe thrower

IRAQ: Thousands of Iraqis have taken to streets on Tuesday for second day to demand the release of an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush during a news conference two days ago.

Iraqis across the country hailed the journalist Muntadhar al- Zaidi, who worked for Cairo-based Baghdadia television, and praised his act of throwing shoes at Bush as a heroic action.

In Iraq's northern city of Mosul, hundreds of protestors gathered outside the building of the city university carrying banners and chanted slogans, demanding release of the reporter and describing him as a national hero.

In Nassriyah city, the capital of Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq, dozens of people from local civil organizations of the Zaidiya tribe, where the reporter's family belongs, demonstrated in central city and also demanded the release of Zaidi.

Several more demonstrations have taken the streets in other cities of Salahudin, Hilla and Fallujah.

On Monday, thousands of supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in the Sadr City neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, where Zaidi's family live, burned American flags to protest against Bush and demanded the release of Zaidi.

Abdul Kareem Khalaf, head of operation office in the Interior Ministry, said that "an arrest warrant has been issued against Zaidi.

BAGHDAD, Wednesday, Xinhua