Rafsanjani calls for Iranian unity in nuclear standoff

TEHRAN — Powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called on Iran's warring political factions to stand together against foreign pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme, the ISNA new agency reported on Thursday.

The two-time former president also warned that an international "consensus" had formed against Iran over its nuclear ambitions, in contrast with hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim that Tehran cannot be isolated.

"The most important thing needed inside is unity at a time that our country faces increased cruel resolutions, insults and bullying," Rafsanjani said. "The enemies will step up their evil-doing if they feel we do not have the same voice.

"A consensus appears to have formed against us, and the big powers have cooperated to deny our country's natural nuclear rights," he said, referring to a new UN nuclear watchdog resolution condemning Iran over its atomic work.

Rafsanjani, who heads Iran's top arbitration body, the Expediency Council, is close to Iran's opposition, which claims Ahmadinejad's June re-election was due to massive fraud.

The poll has bitterly divided Iran's political elite and dragged the country into one of its worst political crises as the defiant opposition continues to dispute the result and call for more protests.

Cracks in the unity of the regime became apparent during the autumn, after Ahmadinejad proposed shipping low-enriched uranium abroad, where it would be further refined and returned as fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran.

Subsequent meetings with the International Atomic Energy Agency and key world powers led to a proposed deal under which Russia and France would have done the work.

But opposition quickly emerged among various factions of the governing elite, and Tehran ultimately rejected the deal.

In the end, Ahmadinejad announced on Wednesday that Iran would carry out the further enrichment itself.

Rafsanjani has been the target of attacks by Ahmadinejad and his hardline supporters over his ties with the opposition.

He said "the only one who can pave the way to unity is the supreme leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has openly sided with Ahmadinejad and condemned the opposition over the street protests.

A pragmatic conservative, Rafsanjani has always been critical of Ahmadinejad's confrontational foreign policy and inflammatory rhetoric.

World powers have warned Iran could face a fourth set of UN sanctions after it vowed to increase its uranium enrichment capacity in reaction to an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring it over such work.

"They need us more than we need them. It is psychological warfare and isolating Iran is impossible," Ahmadinejad said in a televised interview on Tuesday.

Another influential conservative cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, also called for an end to political squabbling, saying Iranians should "put aside their differences and unite more than ever."

Shirazi, whose remarks were carried in the press, also struck out at Russia and China, long considered more favourable to Iran than Western powers but who also voted in favour of the latest IAEA resolution.

He said that, rather than being friends of Iran, they were "seeking only their own interests."

Canada bill clears way to sue foreign torturers

OTTAWA — An opposition lawmaker unveiled Thursday proposed legislation that would allow victims of torture to sue the perpetrators, including foreign states and officials, in Canadian courts.

"Our present legislation criminalizes torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide -- the most heinous acts known to humankind," said opposition Liberal MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler.

"But Canadian law does not allow a civil remedy for the victims of such horrific acts.

"This legislation will: address the evil of such international crimes; target the impunity of those states and officials that perpetrate these crimes; remove the state immunity that operates to shield the perpetrators of such crimes; and finally allow Canadian victims to secure justice."

Canada's right-wing government and three opposition parties have yet to state positions on the proposed law, but individual members of all four parties have vowed to support it.

Maher Arar, a dual Canadian-Syrian citizen, claimed he was tortured in Syria after US authorities arrested him in New York in 2002.

A 2007 judicial report found US authorities had likely relied on faulty intelligence provided by Canadian federal police to arrest and deport Arar, who was absolved of suspicion and awarded 10 million dollars by Ottawa for his ordeal.

Canadians Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin, born in Kuwait, Syria and Iraq respectively, also claimed they were tortured abroad.

The three men were arrested by Syrian Military Intelligence during trips abroad from 2001 to 2004, suspected of Al-Qaeda links. El Maati said he was later transferred to Egyptian custody.

All three were released without charges between January and March 2004.

Each claimed upon return to Canada that he had been tortured, and that Canadian security officials had supplied their captors with intelligence and questions to pose the detainees.

World powers weigh new sanctions for Iran

SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama said Thursday that the six nations dealing with Iran's nuclear program will develop a package of serious new punitive measures in coming weeks. The European Union said the six would gather immediately to begin consultations.

The EU said diplomats would meet in Brussels Friday to consider Iran's apparent rejection of a U.N. plan to ship its low-enriched uranium abroad so that it could not be further enriched to make weapons. Talk of sanctions showed that Obama is preparing for the next phase should Iran fail to meet his year-end deadline for progress in negotiations.

The Brussels meeting will include the U.N. Security Council's permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. — plus Germany, EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said. She said it would bring together foreign ministry officials from the six nations "to take stock of the situation."

Iran announced on Wednesday it would not export its enriched uranium for further processing, effectively rejecting the latest plan brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency. That plan aimed to delay Tehran's ability to build a nuclear weapon by sending most of the uranium needed for that out of the country.

Under the plan, Iran would export its uranium for enrichment in Russia and France where it would be converted into fuel rods, which would be returned to Iran about a year later. The rods can power reactors but cannot be readily turned into weapons-grade material.

President Barack Obama said Washington has started talking with its allies about new punishments against Iran.

"They have been unable to get to 'yes', and so as a consequence, we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences," Obama said at a news conference in Seoul. "Our expectation is, is that over the next several weeks we will be developing a package of potential steps that we could take that will indicate our seriousness to Iran."

In talking tough about possible sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program, Obama left open the option that diplomacy could still work. "I continue to hold out the prospect that they may decide to walk through this door" and accept the proposal to ship its low-enriched uranium out of the country, Obama said.

A senior administration official later said Obama was purposely vague on more diplomacy so as not to undermine the search for international consensus that remains in an embryonic phase. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the president's thinking.

The United States and other nations fear Iran wants to build nuclear arms, but Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

"Yesterday, Iran clearly refused the deal," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Thursday. "We are going to evaluate with our partners ... the consequences of this political response."

Any new sanctions would probably take months to enact. China, always reluctant to support sanctions, offered no assurances that it would agree to punish Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki played down the threat of sanctions, saying embargoes have proved ineffective in the past.

"I think they are wise enough not to repeat failed experiences," Mottaki told reporters Thursday in Manila.

In a related development, diplomats in Vienna said IAEA inspectors paid a second visit to Iran's recently revealed Fordo uranium enrichment facility on Thursday.

Iran acknowledged Fordo's existence in September in a confidential letter to the U.N. watchdog, then faced sharp criticism from the U.S., Britain and France for hiding the facility for years. Iran says it is building the fortified facility as a backup in case its main plant at Natanz is attacked.

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity in exchange for divulging confidential information.

Lekic reported from Brussels. AP reporters Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Jenny Barchfield in Paris, Oliver Teves in Manila, George Jahn in Vienna and Deb Riechmann in Kabul contributed to this report.

Annual ceremony to cut Xmas tree bound for Boston to occur in Fox Point, N.S.

CHESTER, N.S. — A tree cutting ceremony is planned for Monday to mark Nova Scotia's annual Christmas gift to Boston.

This year's selected tree is a white spruce from Fox Point that belongs to Floyd Shatford, the deputy warden of Chester.

He says the 55-year-old tree currently sits in his front yard and is about 18 metres high.

Shatford says he's fond of the tree because his dog lived under it, and his children played under it.

Every year since 1971 the province has sent a Christmas tree to the people of Boston in appreciation for their help during the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion.

Students from Aspotogan Elementary and Shatford Memorial schools will be taking part in the tree cutting ceremony at the mid morning ceremony.

As Supreme Court hearing unfolds, Americans revive proceedings against Khadr

OTTAWA — The federal government says it's up to elected officials, not the courts, to decide whether Omar Khadr should come home to Canada.

Government counsel Robert Frater told a Supreme Court hearing Friday the Toronto-born Khadr's repatriation from a U.S. military prison in Cuba is a political choice as opposed to a legal obligation.

"In my respectful submission, we're in the realm of diplomacy here," Frater said to a courtroom packed with onlookers.

As the Supreme Court hearing was taking place, American authorities announced Khadr is among a group of terror suspects at Guantanamo who will be moved to the U.S. to face justice.

Frater denied the government had ignored calls to bring Khadr back to Canada: "Mr. Khadr's voice has been heard repeatedly."

Khadr, 23, is being held by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan seven years ago.

The Conservative government strongly opposes his repatriation, but his lawyers and several intervener groups - including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Canadian Bar Association - argued Friday that Canada should seek his return.

The high court will ponder the positions further before delivering judgment.

MP Pierre Poilievre, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, welcomed the American decision to revive proceedings against Khadr and repeated the Harper government line.

"We acknowledge the decision of the Obama administration to prosecute Omar Khadr through the U.S. military commission system and we believe the U.S. military process announced today should run its course," he said.

"Any decision to ask for Mr. Khadr's return to Canada is a decision for the democratically elected government of Canada and not for the courts."

Poilievre refused to clarify if his statement means the government would ignore a Supreme Court order to seek Khadr's return.

NDP justice critic Joe Comartin said Polievre is simply wrong. "He doesn't understand the constitutional framework of this country."

American military court proceedings were initiated against Khadr four years ago and the Tories have rejected a growing chorus of calls to deal with him on Canadian soil.

The keenly anticipated Supreme Court of Canada ruling will help determine Khadr's legal fate.

Frater said Friday the Canadian government took many steps over the years to assist Khadr but stopped short of asking for his return from Guantanamo.

"It drew a line."

Documents show Khadr's captors threatened him with rape, kept him isolated and deprived him of sleep by moving him from cell to cell.

Canadian officials questioned Khadr at Guantanamo and shared the results of their interrogations with the Americans. A highly publicized video in which a teenaged Khadr cries for his mother sparked a global uproar last year.

Nathan Whitling, counsel for Khadr, argued Friday that returning his client to Canada would help "lessen the harm" he has suffered.

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said while there's no doubt Khadr had "suffered greatly," she wondered how repatriating him would fix what's now in the past.

Whitling said Khadr's predicament amounted to "a unique case."

While acknowledging the matter was complex, he asked the nine-member court for a swift decision.

The Federal Court of Canada ruled in April that the Conservative government must ask the United States to return Khadr "as soon as practicable."

It said Canada's refusal to request his repatriation offends fundamental justice and violates Khadr's constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of the person.

The Federal Court of Appeal rejected the government's bid to overturn the decision, saying the conduct of Canadian officials who interviewed Khadr at Guantanamo amounted to "knowing participation" in his mistreatment.

The appeal court said the principles of fundamental justice do not permit the questioning of a prisoner to obtain information after he has been subjected to cruel and abusive treatment to induce him to talk.

Frater denied the Canadian government was complicit in any abuse of Khadr. He urged the court to avoid opening the door to perpetual second-guessing of Canada's efforts on foreign relations.

Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International's Canadian chapter, later told reporters the case was not about foreign policy.

"This is about protecting fundamental rights under the Charter. It's not second-guessing."

Details of the pending U.S. proceedings - including when and where they might take place - weren't clear Friday.

"We'll look at the Khadr matter," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, "and we will, as that case proceeds, see how it should be ultimately treated."

Dennis Edney, who also represents Khadr, rejected the notion the U.S. move bolsters the Canadian government's position that American proceedings must be allowed to run their course.

Edney said it's "a fiction" that Khadr will receive due process before the military commission.

"It just says our government is foolhardy, is blind and it doesn't consider the human rights of a Canadian."

Barry Coburn, one of Khadr's U.S. lawyers, said he was deeply disappointed by the American decision to continue its prosecution. "I'm devastated."

Coburn said the military commission process, though undergoing an overhaul, falls short of the standards of fairness afforded by the U.S. federal courts.

"Why they're not appropriate in Mr. Khadr's case is something that I do not understand."

In May 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that Canada had taken part in a foreign process that breached its international human-rights obligations.

The Khadr family has gained notoriety for apparent longstanding ties to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Omar's father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was a purported extremist and financier for bin Laden's terror network. He was killed by Pakistani forces six years ago.

A brother, Abdul Karim, was paralysed by wounds suffered in the firefight.

US accuses Iran of violating UN arms embargo

UNITED NATIONS — The United States accused Iran Tuesday of violating a U.N. arms embargo by secretly sending weapons to Syria in a cargo ship seized by Israel, a U.S. official said.

Britain took a softer line in the U.N. Security Council, expressing "very serious concern" at suggestions that Iran was caught illegally exporting weapons but saying it was waiting for more information about the ship's origin, destination, cargo and seizure.

U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff and British deputy ambassador Philip Parham raised Israel's seizure of the cargo vessel Francop on Nov. 4 off Cyprus during a closed-door council debate on implementation of the 2006 cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon that ended their 34-day war, council diplomats said.

Israel has not provided documentary evidence to back its claims that 36 containers of weapons hidden among hundreds of containers of civilian cargo on the Francop came from Iran and were headed for Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters via Syria. But its contention about the Iranian origin was bolstered by Iranian markings on the side of containers filled with rockets, missiles, mortars, anti-tank weapons and munitions shown to reporters in Israel.

The United States told the council that the concealed arms shipment, "clearly manifested from Iran to Syria" in violation of a March 2007 arms embargo, provides "unambiguous evidence of the destabilizing proliferation of arms in the region," the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the council meeting was private.

The United States also called on Syria and Iran to end their "material support" for Hezbollah and other militias in Lebanon, which violates the 2006 cease-fire resolution, the U.S. official said.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari countered by accusing Israel of committing "an act of piracy on the high seas," and saying it should be held legally accountable, with the issue followed by the Security Council.

"All these rumors circulated by the Israelis are ... the usual Israeli outrageous concoction of lies," he said.

Britain's Parham told reporters after the council meeting that the Francop appears to be the third case of illegal Iranian arms exports this year.

"We hope that Iran will play a part in achieving a secure, peaceful and prosperous Middle East, but its current behavior appears to point in a different direction," Parham said.

The council meeting on Lebanon took place three days after Lebanon's Syrian-backed factions finally agreed on a unity government proposed by their pro-Western rivals, ending a four-month deadlock in the deeply divided country.

Austria's U.N. Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting, the current council president, said members "welcomed the progress achieved by the formation of a new unity government."

H1N1 overplayed by media, public health: MDs

Public health officials and journalists have overstated the importance of the swine flu, a former Ontario chief medical officer of health says.

Dr. Richard Schabas, chief medical officer of health for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in eastern Ontario, said the H1N1 influenza outbreak needs to be put into proper perspective.

About 200,000 people die in Canada every year from all causes combined, including about 4,000 from seasonal flu.

"By the time all the dust has settled on H1N1, somewhere between 200 and 300 people will have died in this country," Schabas said Thursday during a panel on media coverage of H1N1 on CBC News The National.

Schabas criticized the media for not trying to put the story into perspective, and for being "a little too easy to spin sometimes" by public health officials.

"I'm not letting the media off the hook totally, but I think the real villains of the piece here have been those public health officials who have consistently overplayed and overstated the importance of what is happening," he said.

"By the time all is said and done, this is not a major public health event, but you'd never know that from what some people are saying."

13-year-old's death

The panel also looked at the front-page coverage given to the death of Evan Frustaglio, a 13-year-old hockey player from Toronto. Evan died on the eve of the H1N1 vaccine becoming available, and demand for the vaccine jumped overnight, catching health officials by surprise.

"It was very clear when we were reporting the lines that most of the people in there did say, 'We came because we saw the story about that little boy,' " CBC reporter Ioanna Roumeliotis said.

Evan's death and his grieving father's plea to parents to consider vaccinating their children was a tremendous human interest story, agreed Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.

But "I'm quite sure that the people who were reporting that didn't necessarily think about what the consequences of that would be or the context that was in," McGeer said. "What we saw afterwards was that it caused an enormous amount of fear and anxiety that we would all like not to have seen."

A healthy child in Canada is about 20 times more likely to be killed by a car than by the H1N1 virus, Schabas said, but that isn't going to make the national news.

"Children actually die of flu every year and a few more die of H1N1. This was not unexpected, and the way it was presented — as if this was a sudden bolt out of the blue, some change in our perspective of H1N1 — that's what created the anxiety. It was the way it was presented."

Officials: Alleged US missile kills 2 in Pakistan

MIR ALI, Pakistan — Intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has killed two alleged militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region.

Two intelligence officials say the drone-fired missiles struck Naurak village early Thursday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

They said the missiles hit the house of a local resident. A car also was destroyed.

However, local tribesman Inayat Wazir told The Associated Press on the phone the house was empty and no one died.

The attack site is not far from South Waziristan, an al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold under assault by the Pakistani army.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani soldiers battled Taliban fighters Wednesday in the streets of a key militant stronghold, officials said, as government forces pressed ahead with their offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

The soldiers were fighting street by street through the mountainous town of Ladha, the military said in a statement. Over the past day, the fighting left 10 militants dead in Ladha and 30 dead across the region, it said. Eight soldiers have been injured.

In mid-October, the Pakistani government launched an offensive in South Waziristan, a semiautonomous area on the Afghan border seen as the main stronghold in the country of both the Taliban and al-Qaida. The central government has seldom held more than symbolic control in the tribal areas, where the Taliban have operated increasingly openly in recent years.

The military sees Ladha as one of the three main Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan. Government forces have already taken control of much of another key town, Sararogha, and are expected to launch an attack soon on Makeen, which the authorities have called the "nerve center" of the Pakistani Taliban.

"It's going fast," said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, who declined to give a timeframe for when the fighting would end. "It depends — it's a lot of remote areas."

The Taliban, though, denies such claims. A Taliban spokesman told The Associated Press earlier this week that it had lost fewer than a dozen fighters and that its withdrawals had been made strategically to pull government fighters deeper into militant territory.

Figuring out the reality is nearly impossible. The government has closed off the tribal areas to outsiders and only allows journalists into the battle zone on carefully orchestrated trips.

While the offensive is fairly popular in Pakistan, it also has plenty of vocal critics, many who believe the campaign is being waged to help the United States in its war in Afghanistan.

"The operation should be suspended immediately," Pakistani politician Maulana Fazlur Rehman said at an Islamabad press conference, arguing that many of the victims have been civilians. "This operation is not eliminating militancy. Instead, it is killing innocent people."

Rehman is the chief of Jamiat Ulema Islam, a Muslim party that is deeply anti-American — but is still part of Pakistan's U.S.-allied ruling coalition.

The U.N. says some 155,000 civilians have fled South Waziristan since the offensive began, but it is not known how many have been killed or hurt.

The offensive, though, has drawn retaliatory militant attacks across Pakistan.

Earlier Wednesday, a group of militants ambushed a van as it traveled near Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal region, killing two female teachers and wounding two other passengers.

Approximately 10 militants hid on both sides of a rural road and sprayed the van with automatic weapons fire as it went past, said local official Adalat Khan. The attackers then fled on motorcycles.

Pakistan's Taliban fighters are deeply opposed to modern education, particularly for girls, and have blown up schools and attacked teachers across the country.

"This is an alarming sign," said Fazal Rabi, a senior official with Bajur's tribal police force. Despite a spate of recent attacks, the government insists Bajur has been free of militants since it forced them out in an offensive earlier this year.

Associated Press writers Anwarullah Khan in Khar and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Man charged in violent robbery

A 27-year-old man is in police custody after the violent robbery of a woman in Winnipeg's Centennial neighbourhood early Saturday.

The 43-year-old woman was walking alone near McDermot Avenue and Adelaide Street at 5:25 a.m. CT when a man confronted her and demanded money, police said.

When she tried to call out for help, police said, the robber dragged her to a secluded area and physically assaulted her.

A passerby heard the woman’s cries and called 911.

Police said they went to the area immediately and the culprit fled. Police dogs were called in to track him, and a man was arrested shortly after, Const. Jacqueline Chaput said.

The victim was treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, Chaput said. No other information about her was provided.

Michael Wayne Beauchamp is in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre. Beauchamp has been charged with robbery with violence, uttering threats and failing to comply with the conditions of a prior release from custody, police said.

Search and rescue groups to get insurance protection

Nova Scotia's volunteer search and rescue groups have withdrawn a threat to suspend services after being assured of government help with their insurance worries.

The volunteers are seeking better insurance protection against lawsuits and had said they were prepared to withdraw services if they didn't get the government's assistance.

Representatives of the Nova Scotia Ground Search and Rescue Association met Wednesdsay with Ramona Jennex, the provincial minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office, and the two sides agreed to find a solution.

"We've had a very productive meeting," Jennex said. "They are going to be working with staff at EMO so that we make sure that we have the appropriate coverage in place and it's a process that will probably take a couple of weeks."

Jennex would not say how much the province would pay to buy the proper insurance to cover the volunteers.

The association, which represents about 1,200 volunteers, said in a news release it was "extremely happy" with the minister's response.

"It was frustration with the position we found ourselves in that led us to make our appeal in public," spokesman Tony Rodgers said. "It was a very difficult decision to even suggest that we may withdraw our services."

The group's concerns about insurance partly arose after third-party liability claims were made against volunteers when a Quebec couple became lost in the mountains near Golden, B.C., and a woman died.

That case led to a lawsuit before the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the Golden search and rescue team, RCMP and three named defendants in May 2009.

Rodgers said his volunteers will now feel comfortable about applying their search and rescue skills with the knowledge that they are protected.

"We are sorry if we caused any embarrassment for the minister but are sure she understood our dilemma and is working to make it right."