Obama urges world to back Middle East peace plan

UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama warned Thursday the Holy Land was doomed to perpetual bloodshed, unless the world unites behind his plan for a Palestinian state and a secure Israel within a year.

In a sweeping survey of US diplomacy at the United Nations General Assembly, Obama also told Iran the door to nuclear diplomacy was still open, said a global economic depression had been averted and promised to visit Indonesia.

Obama's speech came at a crucial moment of his fledgling Middle East peace effort with the Palestinians threatening a walkout if Israel refuses to extend a settlement building moratorium which expires next week.

He issued the stark warning that if the US-backed initiative failed, Palestinians would never get a state and Israel would never know true security.

"The hard realities of demography will take hold. More blood will be shed. This Holy Land will remain a symbol of our differences, instead of our common humanity," Obama said.

"I refuse to accept that future and we all have a choice to make. Each of us must choose the path of peace," said Obama, wagering a hefty bet with his own political and diplomatic capital.

Obama said he believed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had the courage to make a deal, but needed support, and called especially for a more proactive role by Arab states.

"We can say that this time will be different -- that this time we will not let terror, or turbulence, or posturing, or petty politics stand in the way," Obama said, adding key players must lean tolerance common to Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

"When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations -- an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel."

Obama restated his position that the Israeli settlement moratorium should be extended, but also called on those who want an independent Palestine to "stop trying to tear down Israel."

Abbas told AFP that he welcomed Obama's remarks, "especially his call for a halt of the settlement activities and for the creation of a Palestinian state."

"We also welcome the huge efforts exerted by President Obama and his administration to push forward the peace process" he added.

On a day when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also to appear on the UN assembly podium, Obama said the door to diplomacy with Tehran was still open, but only for genuine dialogue.

"Let me be clear once more: the United States and the international community seek a resolution to our differences with Iran, and the door remains open to diplomacy should Iran choose to walk through it," Obama said.

"But the Iranian government must demonstrate a clear and credible commitment, and confirm to the world the peaceful intent of its nuclear program," Obama said.

The US president also announced that he would go to Indonesia in November, after having to twice postpone the visit this year due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and his push to enact major health care reforms.

The trip to the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, where he spent four years as a boy, will give Obama the chance to speak directly to the Islamic world, following recent controversies over the role of Islam in American life.

Much of Obama's speech was a self assessment of the progress the president believes he has made overseas since taking office 20 months ago.

He said that New York City, which hosts the United Nations told the story of a "difficult decade" as it had suffered the September 11 attacks in 2001, and been the epicenter of the global financial meltdown.

But Obama argued that the policies of his administration and actions of other major powers had pulled the world back from the "brink of depression," though he added more needed to be done to safeguard the recovery.

He said his White House was waging a more effective fight against Al-Qaeda, and chasing extremists in Afghanistan, South Asia and the Horn of Africa, while drawing down in Iraq and building Afghan security capacity.

Obama highlighted his non-proliferation agenda, saying on his watch terrorists were being deprived of nuclear weapons, and noting a comprehensive and historic arms control deal he reached with Russia.

The president also highlighted efforts to fight climate change and to alleviate the humanitarian cost of floods in Pakistan and Haiti's earthquake, and argued democracy and human rights were vital to economic and social development.

Afghan vote count begins after fears of fraud, poor turnout

KABUL — Afghanistan began counting votes on Sunday in parliamentary elections tainted by allegations of fraud and a low voter turnout after widespread and deadly Taliban violence targeted the key poll.

Western supporters praised the 3.6 million Afghans who, according to preliminary figures, took part in Saturday's election, compared with the 4.8 million valid votes cast in last year's presidential poll.

NATO said that 18 Afghans were killed as the war-scarred country voted for only its second parliament since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban, making it nearly as violent as the fraud-stained presidential election.

Election observers said polling day was rife with complaints of delayed poll station opening, intimidation, ineligible voters, misuse of registration cards, proxy voting, poor ink quality and shortages of ballot papers.

Ahmad Zia Rafaat, spokesman for the Electoral Complaints Commission, said the body was still compiling reports of irregularities.

"Since the beginning of voting yesterday up to now we keep receiving complaints.... So far the main types of complaints are the bad quality of indelible ink and use of fake voting cards," he said.

Among those who complained was monitoring group the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA), which said that voting had been affected by insecurity, violence and irregularities including ballot stuffing.

"Taking these problems into account, FEFA has serious concerns about the quality of the elections," the monitoring group said.

Violence was expected after the Taliban announced it would attack polling centres, election workers and anyone who turned out to vote.

Insurgents fired rockets in several cities and set off bombs at a polling station and beside a convoy carrying the governor of Kandahar, the Taliban's southern stronghold, but officials said several more attacks were foiled.

More than 2,500 candidates contested 249 seats in the lower house of parliament, the Wolesi Jirga. Among them, 406 women were vying for 68 seats reserved for them under legislation designed to better their rights.

Stressing that it was not a final figure, Fazil Ahmad Manawi, the country's senior election official, said that 3,642,444 votes had been cast at 4,632 polling centres, according to preliminary data.

"This makes 40 percent of the maximum number of voters," he said.

In last year's presidential election, more than 5.5 million ballots were cast but only 4.8 million were considered valid, according to Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission.

The United States congratulated Afghanistan on conducting its first "fully Afghan-led parliamentary elections... under extremely difficult circumstances".

"As expected, the Taliban made their best efforts to disrupt this important day through violence and intimidation, but the Afghan people who voted defied them," a statement released by the US embassy in Kabul said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also praised voters for their "courage and determination," according to a UN statement.

Ban's statement was echoed by the European Union, which said: "These elections constitute an important and visible sign of Afghan sovereignty and underline the will of the Afghan people to shape the future of their country".

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen lauded Afghanistan's citizens for braving Taliban violence.

"I congratulate the Afghan people today on the parliamentary elections, despite the violence carried out by those attempting to deny the people's most basic democratic right," he said in a statement.

NATO figures provided to AFP showed a total of 485 violent incidents on Saturday, compared to 479 on August 20 last year, the day of the presidential election.

Preliminary results are expected on Wednesday, with final certified results due on October 31.

Karzai -- whose own re-election last year was mired in massive fraud and recorded a turnout of 33 percent -- had called on people to vote to take their country "forward to a better future".

The United States and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have almost 150,000 troops in the country fighting to bring an end to the long war, now dragging towards its tenth year.

US General David Petraeus, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, commended the role played by the Afghan national security forces, who were supported by ISAF troops in providing security.

"The voice of Afghanistan's future does not belong to the violent extremists and terror networks. It belongs to the people," Petraeus said.

Australian 'kingmaking' MP declines ministerial post

SYDNEY — An independent Australian politician whose support was crucial to keeping Prime Minister Julia Gillard in power Friday knocked back an offer to become a minister in her minority government.

Country lawmaker Rob Oakeshott, one of the three independents dubbed "kingmakers" after polls gave neither Gillard or the opposition enough seats to govern, said he had turned down an offer to become regional affairs minister.

On Tuesday the 40-year-old handed power to Gillard, the nation's first woman leader, after 17 days of deliberations during which he and fellow independents Tony Windsor and Bob Katter were frantically wooed by both sides.

Oakeshott said his decision to back Gillard had angered some parliamentary colleagues, and he knew this would make it difficult to deliver the 9.0 billion US dollar package for rural Australia the independents had negotiated with her.

"If I was to take this portfolio, I think there are some organisations still in parliament that may want to bring the package down," he told reporters.

"I'm hoping it can be bought home by someone with potentially less thorns on them, at the moment, than me," he added.

Australia's August 21 polls delivered a deadlocked parliament -- the first in 70 years -- with voters disaffected with Gillard's centre-left Labor but opposition conservative leader Tony Abbott unable to win enough seats to rule.

After more than two weeks of negotiations, Gillard added the support of Oakeshott and Windsor to give her the 76 seats needed to form government in the 150 seat House of Representatives, while Katter sided with Abbott.

Hurricane Earl hangs tough, socks Canada's Nova Scotia

MONTREAL — A resilient Earl barreled ashore in Nova Scotia as a hurricane on Saturday, Canadian experts said, marking the last gasp of a monster storm that menaced the US East Coast but ultimately failed to do much damage there.

The center of the storm made landfall in southern Nova Scotia shortly after 11:00 am (1400 GMT), buffeting the craggy coastline with winds up to 120 kilometers (74 miles) per hour, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC).

The huge weather system had lost some steam as it roared up the eastern seaboard overnight, dropping to tropical storm strength, but Earl appeared to hang tough in the hours before making landfall, and CHC stressed the storm was still packing a punch.

"As of the past hour, Hurricane Earl is still a hurricane," CHC meteorologist John Parker told AFP. To the north it was buffeting Halifax, the region's largest city, home to some 300,000 people, with winds of up to 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour.

The Miami-based US National Hurricane Center (NHC) categorized it as a tropical storm, but said a hurricane watch was in effect for Nova Scotia.

The storm knocked out power in some 30,000 homes between Liverpool and eastern Halifax County. Greater Moncton International Airport canceled all flights Saturday, although Halifax Stanfield International Airport was partially operating.

The winds were still well removed from the brutal conditions just 36 hours earlier when Earl was a major, category four hurricane threatening devastation across several US states.

It steadily lost steam Friday after powering toward the US coast, but it still lashed several hundred kilometers (miles) of seaboard with heavy rains and strong winds, closing beaches and disrupting holiday plans for millions and prompting evacuations in North Carolina.

It had also prompted hurricane warnings in the northeastern US state of Massachusetts, notably its vacation destinations including Cape Cod and the tony islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and while residents battened down the hatches, the storm dealt the region only a glancing blow.

"We had a lot of hype but no action, which was good," the wife of a former attendant at the historic Chatham Lighthouse on Cape Cod told AFP.

"It's over. There's blue sky, sunshine, very little rain," said the woman who identified herself only as Mrs. Davis, adding that winds and rain were strong overnight but did not cause major damage.

Residents of North Carolina were mopping up after a storm surge sent waves crashing ashore, flooding roads on the low-lying barrier islands as the high winds caused sporadic power outages.

Authorities were clear: coastal communities dodged a bullet.

"At this time we have no official reports of fatalities related to the storm track nor do we have any report of damage," Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told reporters Friday.

Despite the downgrading of the storm, transport overnight to and from Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard -- where US President Barack Obama vacationed with his family in late August -- was limited, with flights and ferries cancelled.

Friday's traffic commute over Cape Cod's two bridges was extremely light, given the Labor Day weekend usually boasts a four-to-five-hour gridlock.

Across Cape Cod, storm warnings had sent utility crews out trimming tree limbs from electrical lines and setting up rescue staging areas by the Cape's main mall to confront power outages.

Heeding warnings, local residents hunkered down along the beach paradise's commercial spine, Route 28, parallel to the Atlantic.

Commercial and residential properties in Cape Cod were boarded up with heavy plywood but many businesses had signs spray painted "Still Open" in neon colors.

Weather watchers said Earl was still the most powerful storm to threaten the US Northeast since 1991, when Hurricane Bob killed six people.

Joe Gurl, owner of the Polar Cave ice cream shop in West Yarmouth, said tourists had left Cape Cod "in a hurry" on Thursday.

But they were expected to flock back to the beaches for the Labor Day holiday, which traditionally marks the last busy beach weekend of summer.