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Musharraf to ‘lift emergency rule’

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was expected to lift a six-week-old state of emergency and restore Pakistan’s constitution Saturday, just a day after tweaking the charter to shore up his legal defenses.

Musharraf may also move to restore the credibility of January elections by suspending local mayors and scrapping a two-term limit for prime ministers, Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum said Friday.

The U.S.-backed leader cast Pakistan into turmoil and raised serious doubts over the credibility of next month’s parliamentary elections by imposing a state of emergency on November 3.

Although expected to lift the emergency and restore the constitution on Saturday, Musharraf still faces criticism at home and abroad that the January 8 ballot will be flawed.

Musharraf purged the judiciary, jailed thousands of opponents and silenced television news channels after he suspended the constitution and declared emergency rule on November 3.

The U.S.-backed leader said he acted to prevent political chaos and give authorities a freer hand against Islamic militants, though critics accuse him of a last-ditch power grab before the previous Supreme Court could declare his continued rule illegal.

On Thursday, Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum told The Associated Press that the president, who has acknowledged that he breached the constitution, will amend the charter to protect his decisions from legal challenges.

Qayyum said government legal experts were finalizing the changes and that they would be announced before Musharraf lifts the emergency on Saturday, but provided no details.

The president will lift the emergency to restore the constitution and the fundamental rights, he said.

Qayyum’s comments came a day after Information Minister Nisar Memon rejected claims that the government was trying to stifle the media ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists accused the government Wednesday of an attempt to silence the free media by ordering TV stations to stop airing live coverage of political debate.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority issued a letter Tuesday, addressed to all satellite TV channels, saying some were still airing live coverage and taking live telephone calls which contain baseless propaganda against Pakistan and incite people to violence.

The letter warned that the channels could be taken off the air and those responsible jailed for up to three years and fined up to $170,000.

Every one of us in Pakistan should share the responsibility and work for betterment of the country by keeping the environment conducive for the polls, Memon said.

The threat could dissuade networks from covering fiery speeches of opposition leaders such as Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, two former prime ministers who recently returned from years of living in exile.

Both Bhutto and Sharif have hit the campaign trail this week after abandoning threats to boycott the Jan. 8 elections.

Addressing hundreds of backers near the eastern city of Sialkot on Wednesday, Sharif urged people to reject candidates from the pro-Musharraf ruling party. I want to eliminate dictatorship, and I cannot achieve this goal without your support, Sharif said.

Bhutto repeated accusations that Musharraf will use police, judiciary officials and administration functionaries to cheat. She urged them not to comply.

The media crackdown adds to concerns over whether the elections, meant to restore democracy after eight years of military-dominated rule under Musharraf, can be free and fair, although the president has repeatedly said that he would ensure a level playing field for all.

Musharraf, who seized power in the 1999 coup, stepped down as army chief last month, meeting a key demand of the opposition and his foreign backers.

He was sworn in as a civilian to begin a new five-year presidential term after the Supreme Court, shorn of independent-minded judges under the emergency, dismissed challenges to the legality of his victory in an October presidential election. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Players named in baseball steroid report

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Battle for rival visions at climate summit

BALI, Indonesia (CNN) — Negotiations at a U.N. climate change summit extended into Saturday as delegates tried to agree on future goals for cutting greenhouse gases.

The United States and European Union were struggling to resolve an impasse over emission cuts, while the U.S. also wants Asian powerhouses China and India to be treated the same as rich, developed countries.

The Europeans want to include specific goals for emission cuts by 2020, while the U.S. wants to leave specific cuts for future negotiations.

French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said: They don’t have the same vision.

Tony Juniper, of Friends of the Earth, said: The U.S., in particular, is behaving like passengers in first class on a jumbo jet who believe that a catastrophe in economy class will not effect them.

Indonesia put forward a U.S.-Europe compromise, being considered by both sides, which requires significant emissions cuts but over a longer period than the Europeans have suggested.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is on his way to Bali to either announce a successful deal or try to break the deadlock.

The goal of the summit in Bali, Indonesia, is to draft a framework for future negotiations, and to continue the process started 10 years ago with the Kyoto Protocol.

Another area of debate was whether China and India should be required to address their rapidly rising emissions.

The United States insists any agreement emerging from the conference must apply to the Asian economic powerhouses. The lack of any binding targets for China and India was Washington’s main problem with the Kyoto Protocol.

Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said he supported the Indonesian plan as long as delegates promised to agree on specific numbers within a short period of time. Watch Nobel Prize winner Rajendra Pachauri describe what is at stake

We’ll have to specify that these numbers will have to be settled by so-and-so date, Pachauri told CNN at the conference.

I think there has to be something definite by which we’re able to specify what needs to be done to reduce emissions of these gases.

As protesters outside the conference hall demand delegates reach a swift agreement, those inside expressed hope the United States and EU could break their deadlock.

What I sense very strongly is that everyone is really working very hard towards a result and that nobody wants to see this process fail, said Yvo de Boer, the U.N. climate change chief.

Certainly nobody wants to be the country that caused the failure of this process.

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he was sure the parties would reach a deal.

The EU wants an agreement to require developed countries to cut their emissions by 25 to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020. The United States opposes those targets, along with Japan and Canada.

The Indonesian plan mentions halving the emissions by 2050 and does not mention targets for 2020.

Without specifics, however, some believe the final agreement would amount to failure.

Let me underline once again that the Bali road map must have a clear destination, said Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner.

Pachauri said such a stance would ignore the other progress being made at the conference. He said simply having a strong statement paving the way for future action would suffice.

I wouldn’t term that a failure at all, Pachauri said.

I think what would be a failure is not to provide a strong road map by which the world can move on, and I think that road map has to be specified with or without numbers. If we can come up with numbers, that’s certainly substantial progress, and I hope that happens.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change passed the Kyoto Protocol 10 years ago, with the goal of limiting greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

While 175 parties — including the European Union — ratified it, the United States has not.
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Brother’s death in Iraq to color sister’s vote

BEDFORD, New Hampshire (CNN) — Erin Flanagan is a mother of three who beams at the sight of her children sledding and thoughts of their coming Christmas joy.

And yet she is also a Gold Star sister whose grief is exacerbated during the holiday season.

My little brother Michael Cleary was killed in Iraq.

Cleary died two years ago this week in Taji, and the pain and memories not only put a cloud over the holiday season but also will influence the choice Flanagan has less than a month to make.

It has devastated my family and colored the way that I look at the world, Flanagan told CNN during a recent visit to her home in Bedford, a town that’s a short drive from Manchester. And it will also affect my decision in this election.

Her vote could be more important than some in the first-in-the nation primary state. As an undeclared or independent voter, Flanagan can choose to vote in either the GOP or Democratic primary January 8. And at the moment she is torn between two presidential candidates whose standing in the Granite State could be dramatically shaped by how many independents come their way: Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain.

Why is she drawn to Democrat Obama and Republican McCain?

Ability to be able to reach across the aisle and get things done. I think that is something that we vitally need in a leader, Flanagan says. Which is why I am considering both of them, and I know that’s a very unique situation. … I could vote either way, and they are very different candidates.

McCain won her respect at a Republican debate in New Hampshire six months ago, when she posed this question to the GOP hopefuls:

As a member of an American family who has suffered so greatly at the choices made by the current administration, I desperately would like to know what you as commander in chief would do. ….

McCain’s response left an impression.

This war was very badly managed for a long time, the senator from Arizona said. But he went on to talk about the surge, the strategy shift of additional troops in Iraq then in its early phase, saying: This is long and hard and tough — but I think we can succeed.

McCain called after the debate, and Flanagan invited him to dinner. She figured nothing would come of it — but the McCain camp called back and said not only did the senator want to visit, but he also wanted to bring along his son, Jimmy, who was preparing to deploy to Iraq with the Marines.

Flanagan sat the senator next to her mother, who fiercely opposes the war.

He was respectful and so very kind to her, Flanagan says. With these two very different people sitting at our table, he maintained his position. I know that politics do not enter his decision-making; he is doing what he believes is right and best for our country.

Her children were sold by dessert. As Flanagan puts it, they thought McCain was a nice man and he liked mommy’s cookies.

And yet she is not sure she can vote for him — because she is not sure whether McCain is right when he says the troops need to stay and succeed, or whether Obama is right when he says it is past time to bring them home as quickly as possible.

I want my vote to best serve the troops and the families of the military, Flanagan says. I don’t know the best way to get out of the situation that we’re in now. I’m struggling.
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Flu shots now mandatory for New Jersey preschoolers

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) — New Jersey on Friday became the first state to require flu shots for preschoolers, saying their developing immune systems and likelihood of spreading germs make them as vulnerable to complications as the elderly.

State Health Commissioner Dr. Fred M. Jacobs approved the requirement and three other vaccines for school children starting September 1, 2008, over the objections of some parent groups.

The new requirements will have a direct impact on reducing illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths in one of New Jersey’s most vulnerable populations — our children, Jacobs said in a statement.

A health advisory board Monday backed the new requirements on a 5-2 vote with one abstention after parents said they worried about the safety of giving young children dozens of vaccine doses.

Some also say they don’t want government making their medical decisions.

Starting in September, all children attending preschool or licensed day care centers will have to get an annual flu shot, Jacobs said. That makes New Jersey the first state to require flu shots for preschoolers or older students, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

New Jersey also will require preschoolers to get a pneumococcal vaccine and sixth-graders to get vaccines against meningitis, which New Jersey already requires for college dormitory residents, and a booster shot against whooping cough, which in recent years has seen a resurgence blamed on waning potency of shots given to infants and preschoolers.

The four additional vaccines are recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups.

Some parents support proposed legislation that would give families a right to skip required immunizations by lodging a philosophical objection, as some other states allow. The bill has been sitting in a committee without action for several years.

New Jersey does grant an automatic exemption on religious grounds and allows exemptions for medical reasons.

The new vaccines will be available for free for low-income families, and private insurers generally will cover the cost.
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