REUTERS - Czech President Vaclav Klaus raised a new obstacle to ratifying the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty on Thursday, telling EU president Sweden he wants a footnote added to the document before signing it into force.

Only the Czech and Polish presidents' signatures are needed to complete ratification of the treaty to give the 27-nation EU greater sway in world affairs by appointing a full-time president and foreign minister and streamline decision-making.

"I spoke by phone today with President Klaus ... In order to sign the treaty, Klaus asked for a footnote of two sentences added relating to the charter of fundamental rights," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told Reuters by telephone.

"He said he wants this adopted by the council (of EU leaders). I told him this is the wrong message at the wrong time for the EU. I told him clearly it is his ink on the paper that counts and I don't want this to delay the treaty going through as soon as possible."

Reinfeldt said the Czech president told him he would sign the treaty if he received the additional wording and the Czech Constitutional Court rejects a legal challenge filed by a group of senators on the treaty.

A key reform treaty to streamline decision-making in the European Union

But Reinfeldt added that Klaus did not provide any details of the extra wording he wants added to the treaty.

"We need clarification on exactly what he (Klaus) is asking for. But he said we must await the constitutional court process first then he will clarify. But he is asking for additional measures, so he should clarify that and that's what I told him," Reinfeldt said.

"As I understand, it's linked to the charter of fundamental rights. It's a footnote, but he didn't define it."

British Conservative leader David Cameron is "ready to take power", he said in a speech on Wednesday at the end of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, but warned of tough choices ahead.

 

Recent national polls put Cameron's Tory party on course to win the next general election - which must take place before June 2010.

 

But Cameron warned that the UK faces touch choices as it pulls itself out of one of the worst economic slumps in decades.

 

The Tories have announced a range of public spending cuts to tackle- if elected - the UK's deficit.

 

Party officials have said these are only some of the measures required to deal with the effects of the recession.

 

Cameron warned of a "steep climb ahead."

 

"None of this will be easy," he told the party faithful, gathered at the end of the four-day conference. “We will be tested. I will be tested. I'm ready for that - and so, I believe, are the British people.

 

"Don't get me wrong, I have no illusions. If we win this election, it is going to be tough... (but) I tell you this - the view from the summit will be worth it."

 

Lisbon Treaty referendum?

 

In his speech, the 42-year-old Tory leader also touched on his previously expressed view that there should be a referendum on the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, like in Ireland where voters approved the Treaty last week.

 

Britain has already ratified the treaty – but Cameron has said he will hold a referendum if it has not been ratified by all other member states by next year’s general election.

 

However, it remains unclear what path his party will take if the treaty is ratified.

 

Cameron is under pressure from eurosceptic Conservatives to commit to holding a referendum under any circumstances.

 

Foreign affairs spokesman William Hague won loud applause from delegates when he repeated his opposition to the new post of a European president that would come into force under the treaty.

 

Among other conservative views on the treaty, rank and file Tory activists hate the idea that Tony Blair, the UK's former Labour Prime Minister, is one of the candidates mooted for the EU presidency.

 

"We seek a European Union that acts by agreement among nations, rather than by placing its own president or foreign minister above any nation," Hague, who was himself leader of the Conservatives from 1997 to 2001, said.

 

“Failure" in Afghanistan

 

David Cameron has said he would set up a "war cabinet" for the Afghan conflict if he becomes prime minister, bringing together top ministers, armed forces and intelligence chiefs in a group similar to the US National Security Council.

 

"Our military is at war in Afghanistan, but quite frankly, Whitehall isn't," Cameron said, referring to politicians and civil servants.

 

In his speech Cameron confirmed that the former head of the British army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, would act as their policy advisor and could even be made a minister if they won the next election.

 

Dannatt has repeatedly criticised Brown's government for under-resourcing the war in Afghanistan, a line repeated by Conservative defence spokesman Liam Fox in his speech to the conference.

 

Fox attacked the government's "appalling failure" to define Britain's mission in Afghanistan, which he said was to stop it becoming a safe haven for terrorism, a failure which risked undermining support for the deployment.

 

He added: "If we were to leave Afghanistan prematurely, it would be a shot in the arm for every jihadist globally."

 

The Conservatives have previously said they would be "sympathetic" to a request for more troops in Afghanistan but primarily for training Afghan forces to take over their own security.
 

AFP - Guinea's ruling junta appointed an independent commission Wednesday to investigate a crackdown on opposition protestors last month believed to have left more than 150 dead.
   
A justice ministry statement read on national television announced the creation of the commission as Guinea's military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara comes under mounting international pressure.
   

Stripped naked, humiliated, and then the photos posted online

The commission is to comprise 31 members, including four from political parties, three from unions and civic organisations, three from the junta and three from rights groups, according to the statement.
   
Other members will be lawyers, judges and university professors, it added.
   
United Nations officials and human rights groups say more than 150 people were killed on September 28 when Guinean troops opened fire on an unarmed crowd gathered in a stadium in the capital Conakry to protest against Camara's rule.
   
The junta says 56 people died and has admitted that a dozen suffered gunshot wounds, but claims others were trampled in a stampede.
   
Camara, who seized power last year, insists he was not responsible for his troops' actions, but the massacre, which witnesses say was coupled with the mass rape of women demonstrators, has triggered international outrage.
   
France, Guinea's former colonial ruler, has cut military ties with the regime since the event.
   
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France suspects Guinea's military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara personally took part in the decision to order a crackdown. He previously said Paris "can no longer work with Dadis Camara".

By Armen GEORGIAN TOP STORY Guinea: Can anyone bend the junta?

   
Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore has stepped in as a regional mediator.
   
Guinea's opposition has set tough terms for progress, which include the resignation of the junta, the arrest of those responsible for the violence and moves to appoint a new interim government of national unity.

Italy's constitutional court ruled on Wednesday that a law protecting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other top officials from prosecution violates the constitution, prompting calls from opposition leaders for the premier's resignation.

Berlusconi reacted angrily to the announcement, slamming a "politically motivated" decision by a "left-wing" court and vowing to stay on. In a characteristic rant before a host of Italian and foreign journalists, he accused the country's judges, its president, the press and TV channels — most of which he owns or indirectly controls — of siding with the left.

The court’s decision, which could pave the way for the resumption of corruption trials involving Berlusconi, deals a stinging blow to the 73-year-old media mogul, who is already embroiled in a series of sex scandals.

FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Rome, Alexis Masciarelli, says two pending trials, in which Berlusconi faces charges of corruption and tax evasion, could “in theory start as soon as tomorrow”. Though the premier is unlikely to step down, he had warned on Tuesday that a negative verdict “would no doubt affect his ability to govern the country”, Masciarelli said.

"First above equals"

After a two-day session closely followed by media around the world, the 15-member panel ruled that the so-called Alfano law violated the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law.

The law, approved just weeks after Berlusconi swept to power for the third time last spring, shielded the holders of Italy's four top political jobs — prime minister, president and the presidents of the two houses of parliament — from prosecution while in office.

On Tuesday, Berlusconi’s lawyer, Gaetano Pecorella, struck an oddly Orwellian note as he sought to justify the bill, arguing that the prime minister should not be considered “first among equals” but rather “first above equals”.

Opposition leader Dario Franceschini said the ruling "re-established the principle of equality of all citizens before the law. We are all equal before the law, including the powerful."

A political career plagued by court cases

The appeal to Italy’s constitutional court was launched by prosecutors investigating cases of corruption allegedly involving the Italian premier, one of which includes Berlusconi’s former tax lawyer, Briton David Mills.

Berlusconi is accused of paying Mills 400,000 euros to give false evidence in two trials in the 1990s. Mills was convicted in February of accepting the payment in a ruling that he is appealing.

Earlier this week, an Italian judge also ruled Berlusconi “jointly responsible” for corruption by his family's holding, Fininvest, in a 1990s battle to buy publisher Mondadori.

Since he burst onto the political scene in the mid-1990s, the media tycoon has faced an array of charges including corruption, tax fraud, false accounting and illegally financing political parties.

Although some initial judgments have gone against Berlusconi, he has never been definitively convicted.

AFP- Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin confronted the star witness in his smear trial on Wednesday and angrily rejected charges that he plotted to damage Nicolas Sarkozy's bid for the presidency in 2007.

Special Report on France's trial of the decade Reporter's notebook from the court Who's who in the trial How a finance trial turned into a major political scandal A glossary of terms in the Clearstream saga From Ben Barka to Elf, justice turns a blind eye to political elites

The confrontation came on the ninth day of the mammoth "Clearstream trial", in whichVillepin is accused of conspiring to defame Sarkozy by using falsified documents to implicate him in a corruption case.

Villepin denies any wrongdoing but evidence offered on Monday by General Philippe Rondot, a former senior intelligence official, suggested that he was more involved in the case than he had previously admitted.

The silver-haired Villepin, a bitter rival of Sarkozy when the two served in government together under former President Jacques Chirac, dismissed suggestions that he had been motivated by their mutual enmity.

"The whole history of my relations with Nicolas Sarkozy shows that not only did I never try to get revenge but that I overlooked blows that were struck against me," he said.

"I don't mind people accusing me of a lot of things but rivalries, underhand blows, no. History shows it."

The trial is based around a falsified set of lists that first surfaced in 2004, purportedly detailing accounts held at the Luxembourg-based securities clearing house Clearstream by dozens of prominent individuals, including Sarkozy.

They were brought to Villepin's attention by Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former executive of aerospace group EADS who had close links to intelligence services and who suggested that they might be linked to corruption and organised crime.

The lists were later shown to be faked but Villepin, who was foreign and then interior minister at the time, is accused of having them passed anonymously to a magistrate investigating kickbacks on an arms sale even though he knew them to be bogus.

Villepin, who risks five years in prison if found guilty of conspiring to use falsified documents to defame his rival, has said he was not initially aware that Sarkozy's name was on the lists and did not at first realise they were faked.

He says he asked Rondot to investigate the lists in January 2004 but that there was no suggestion that they might drag Sarkozy into any investigation.

However Rondot's evidence on Monday suggested that, contrary to Villepin's assertions, he was aware Sarkozy's name was in the documents well before they were passed to the magistrate.

Rondot also said that Villepin had asked him to have Imad Lahoud, a former EADS computer specialist who is accused of falsifying the documents, freed from custody where he was being held over a separate fraud case.

Rondot's evidence was especially damaging because, unlike other evidence from prosecution witnesses, it was backed up by copious notes of his meeting with Villepin in January 2004.

On Wednesday, Villepin disputed Rondot's evidence and again denied any involvement in plot against Sarkozy.

"You don't plot, you don't get involved in defamation when you are a politician on the basis of a request for an investigation to General Rondot," he said.

"I did not ask General Rondot to come that day with his notebooks and his little pencil to a meeting of conspirators. That is not my conception of the Republic."

 

AFP - Three massive earthquakes triggered a tsunami alert over much of the South Pacific on Thursday, sending panicked residents fleeing to higher ground just days after giant waves killed 184 in the region.
   
Authorities on remote islands evacuated thousands of people from coastal areas, sounding sirens and emptying schools and offices, after the triple 7.8, 7.7 and 7.3 quakes struck in seas off Vanuatu from 9:03 am (2203 GMT).
   
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for some 25 countries and territories stretching as far as Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.
   
But the quakes generated only a small tsunami, with waves of between three and 10 centimeters (one to four inches) recorded by tsunami gauges, and experts said serious damage was unlikely.
   
"A tsunami was generated but it looks like it was not damaging," Brian Yanagi of the International Tsunami Information Centre in Hawaii told AFP.
   
The fresh warning caused terror in Samoa, just eight days after a wall of water churned up by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake obliterated entire villages and killed 143 people plus 32 in American Samoa and nine in Tonga.
   
Thousands of Samoans fled from the ocean, where debris from last week's disaster still litters the shore, causing traffic jams in populated areas, witnesses and reports said.
   
The alert also comes after last week's catastrophic 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia's Sumatra island which is feared to have killed 3,000 people. Just minutes before the Pacific tremors, a strong 6.7 quake hit the Philippines.
   
Witnesses described scenes of panic in Vanuatu as residents and tourists reported seeing big waves and rushed away from the coast.
   
"People are hysterical, trying to find out what's going on and contacting family members. Phone lines are going down as a result," an official with aid group CARE Australia said.
   
The capital shut down as workers fled and hotels cleared tourists off the beaches, a resort official said.
   
"Shops and offices in the city have been closed and workers have run to higher ground in case of a tsunami," said Arjun Channa, general manager of the luxury Le Meridien resort in Port Vila.
   
"At the hotel, all guests have been cleared off the beaches and we are contacting all cruises to stop those and get the passengers to safer areas, just in case," he told AFP.
   
Shane Coleman, consular officer at the New Zealand High Commission at Port Vila in Vanuatu, said the tremors did not seem to cause any damage and so far there was no sign of a tsunami.
   
"It was a long and lazy quake," he said.
   
In Fiji, police and troops stopped people entering the city centre, while officials ordered hotels to take tourists inland.
   
New Caledonia officials sounded warning sirens and ordered people away from the coast on the main island and eastern Loyalty Islands, while the low-lying atoll nation of Tuvalu also hurried residents away from the shores.
   
"We are trying to get those people staying closer to the coast to move inland," said Tuvalu's acting police commissioner Titelu Kauani.
   
New Zealand was put on "tsunami watch" while Australia said it would be protected from any big waves by the enormous Great Barrier Reef.
   
"The reef pretty much kills this tsunami," said Geoff Doueal, a forecaster from Australia's weather bureau.
   
Experts said the "Pacific Ring of Fire" -- where the meeting of tectonic plates causes frequent seismic activity -- had been especially volatile in recent days.
   
"This is a very active area -- and it's been very active over the last week-and-a-half," Dale Grant of the USGS told Sky News.