theSun | MONDAY JUNE 29 2009 9

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Mousavi rejects
partial vote recount
TEHERAN: Defeated Iranian presi-
dential 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 govern-
ment and opposition.
“This kind of recount will not re-
move ambiguities. There is no other
way but annulment of the vote. Some
members of this committee are not
impartial,” Mousavi said in a state-
ment on his website on Saturday.
Another defeated candidate, pro-
reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, rejected
the partial recount offer in a state-
ment on his website. Mass protests
by Mousavi supporters have exposed
splits in Iran’s political establishment
and plunged the country into its deep-
est 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 presi-
dent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
to power for a second term.
Ahmadinejad warned on
Saturday he would take a
tougher approach in his sec-
ond 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
West,” the official Irna news agency
quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
“This time the Iranian nation’s re-
ply 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 elec-
tion 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. A man in
Among those detained are eight Hamburg
local British embassy staff, Iranian lights a
media said yesterday, underscoring candle in
the hardline leadership’s effort to memory
blame post-election unrest on foreign of Neda
powers, not popular anger. Agha-Soltan,
Britain called the action “harass- who was
ment and intimidation” and demand- shot dead
ed the release of all the embassy during a rally
employees still held. – Agencies in Teheran
last week.
EPAPIX

approach towards the

Police question Australian

opposition chief over e-mail
SYDNEY: Australian opposi-
tion 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 mis-
led 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 alleg-
edly 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 in-
tensive 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 Fed-
eral 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 Treas-
urer Wayne Swan of misleading
parliament, had damaged his
leadership of the main opposi-
tion 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 gov-
ernment 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 stand-
ing 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 sol-
diers, 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 mili-
tary across the north.
Militants firing rocket-pro-
pelled grenades ambushed
the military convoy in North
Waziristan, another militant
stronghold on the Afghan bor-
der, intelligence officials said.
“They fired rockets damag-
ing 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, govern-
ment aircraft bombed two
compounds in a Taliban strong-
hold 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