Judges return as Pakistan prepares for polls

Three top judges whose ousting by former President Pervez Musharraf sparked months of unrest and political fighting in Pakistan were reinstated on Friday.

Pakistanis protest against PPP leader and presidential hopeful Asif Ali Zardari on Friday.

The move came a day before the nation was due to elect a new president.

At least 60 judges were arrested in November last year after Musharraf issued an emergency order. Some of the judges were jailed, while others were placed under house arrest.

The actions prompted angry street protests from Pakistani lawyers, and the ousting has remained a major political issue which led to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigning from the ruling coalition that took over after Musharraf stood down last month.

The swearing-in ceremony for the three, held at the Supreme Court in Islamabad, was shown on Pakistani television. The ceremony was officiated by incumbent Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar.

The trio were named as Tassadiq Hussain Jillani, Shakirullah Jan and Syed Jamshed Ali by The Associated Press.

The ousted chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, can also take a new oath but Law Minister Farooq Naek said he could not return to his former role due to a potential "constitutional impasse," AP reported.

November's arrests included nearly all of the justices on Pakistan's Supreme Court, which was set to rule against the legitimacy of Musharraf's third term in office. The former army chief had been re-elected president a month earlier by a parliament that critics contend was stacked with his supporters.

Musharraf's ruling party was ousted from power in February, after the Pakistan People's Party -- the party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto -- won the majority of seats in parliament in elections.

The PPP formed a coalition with Sharif's party but the ruling coalition split on August 25. Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, had set that date as a deadline for the government to honor its promise to reinstate the judges who were fired.

The PPP, which leads the coalition, said it believed the coalition should focus on picking a successor for Musharraf before it decided on reinstating the judges.

After intense political pressure, Musharraf resigned on August 18 -- nearly nine years after he seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

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The Bush administration is poised to withdraw an agreement with Russia on nuclear trade as punishment for Russia's military action last month against U.S. ally Georgia, a State Department source said Friday.

President Bush and Condoleezza Rice have been critical of Russia's use of military force against Georgia.

The pact, known as the 123 Agreement, would clear the way for more trade of nuclear goods, along with services and technology, between the United States and Russia. Both countries had accepted the agreement, but it is awaiting congressional approval.

But as early as next week President Bush could deep-freeze the agreement, withdrawing it from congressional deliberations, the source said.

Russia analyst Jon Wolfsthal at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington noted that the 123 Agreement has been having trouble winning approval on Capitol Hill and said, "I think they are making a virtue out of a necessity.

"It was unlikely Congress was going to approve the agreement this year," he said. "It was too tempting a target for the administration not to pull it back."

In general, Wolfsthal said, the administration needs to move carefully, signaling to Russia that its behavior in is unacceptable but that cooperation on mutual issues such as Iran and combating terrorism should continue.

"We have to be careful to calibrate our actions," he said.

The United States is frustrated that Russia is dragging its feet on the Georgia cease-fire agreement brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

There is also new friction between Washington and Moscow over U.S. emergency aid shipments to Georgia. That heat was seen again Friday when the Russians protested against a top-of-the-line U.S. warship coming into the Georgian port of Poti, where Russian forces are still stationed.

The ship, the USS Mount Whitney, is the Navy's only Joint Command Ship and is considered to be the most sophisticated ship ever commissioned in terms of communication, control, command, computers and intelligence capabilities, according to the Navy's Web site.

State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood brushed off the Russian accusation that the U.S. warship was bringing in arms.

"The USS Mount Whitney has arrived in Poti," Wood said at his midday briefing. "It's bringing humanitarian supplies such as, I believe, 4,000 blankets, juice, diapers, hygiene products. There's absolutely no foundation to this Russian charge."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been vague about how the United States could signal its displeasure with Moscow without ratcheting up tensions too far. Again Friday she said the United States and Europe find it extraordinary that Russia is refusing to live up to its cease-fire obligations.

"I am quite certain that Russia will understand that it is deepening its isolation and that it will have no way out unless it honors its commitments and unless it begins to change its behavior," Rice said in Portugal on her way to North Africa. "I'm also confident, by the way, that the Russians are beginning to understand that there are costs to this kind of behavior, in rallying the world against this kind of behavior."

On August 25, asked specifically about the 123 Agreement with Russia, she would only say, "we're going to continue to review what we will do about the various elements of the relationship with Russia."

The "123" refers to the section of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 about what the United States must do before it can engage other countries in commercial nuclear activities.

Meanwhile, the United States continues to work through a similar civilian nuclear agreement with India. A 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group has been meeting in Austria over whether to clear the way for the United States to sell India nuclear material and technology for civilian use.

Before she left for North Africa, Rice held a formal announcement ceremony of a $1 billion aid package for Georgia, the latest signal that the U.S. would stand by its ally and stand up to Russia.

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A ship carrying U.N. relief supplies, including food and water, arrived Friday in the hurricane-ravaged Haitian city of Gonaives, an official with the United Nations' World Food Programme said.

People seek aid from U.N. peacekeepers as they wade through a flooded street Thursday in Gonaives.

The ship sailed from the capital, Port-au-Prince, carrying 19 tons of high-energy biscuits, 50,000 bottles of water, water purification tablets and other supplies, Myrta Kaulard said.

An ambulance, two trucks, a four-wheel drive vehicle and a small speedboat to be used in rescues were also aboard the ship, she said.

"Distributions are ongoing at present," she said, speaking by phone from the capital. "We are also airlifting biscuits now to Gonaives."

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has endured three storms -- Hanna, Gustav and Fay -- over the past month. The last storm,Hanna, killed at least 137 people when it passed Tuesday over Gonaives and lingered nearby for days.

It left water more than 4 meters deep in some places in the city, according to Abel Nazaire, Haiti's assistant coordinator of Risk and Disaster Management.

Much of the water remained Friday in Gonaives, and the city was unreachable by car or truck, as roads were flooded and bridges had collapsed, Kaulard said

"We need to send food and water and primary needs," said Jean-Pierre Gueatou, executive director of the Haitian Red Cross. "The other things, they will come later."

People trudged through city streets that were covered in murky brown water thigh-deep and higher in some places. Some residents camped out on their roofs, their clothing and blankets hung over the sides of buildings.

"Drinking water is the biggest problem," said Joel Trimble, co-founder of Haiti for Christ Ministries. "That water that everybody's been wading in -- now for days -- is contaminated with dead carcasses of animals, and cadavers of people."

"We remember the last time this happened," a man told The Associated Press, according to the agency's translation. "It was the same situation. A lot of aid money was given for nothing. They did nothing with that money. If that money had been invested in this town, we would not be in this situation today."

"People really have lost a lot of things," Kaulard said. "They are asking for clothes, they are asking for water, they are asking for food.

"The situation is very tense, people are exhausted."

Kaulard said World Food Programme officials hope to send another ship laden with similar supplies on Saturday, before Hurricane Ike, a Category 3 storm in the central Atlantic, approaches.

Ike is predicted to sweep more than 100 miles north of Hispaniola -- the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

"We really hope that the current trajectory ... is maintained," Kaulard said.

On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard delivered enough hygiene kits, plastic sheeting and water jugs for 2,000 people in Gonaives, according to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. With those supplies, and others expected to arrive Saturday in Gonaives on a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, the United States expects to help about 10,000 people, the embassy said.

In addition, the USS Kearsarge is expected to arrive Monday in Haiti from Colombia to support relief efforts, the embassy said, though it noted that Hurricane Ike could delay its arrival.

U.S. ambassadors in Jamaica and Haiti have authorized $100,000 in emergency relief for each country, and the United States is providing $50,000 worth for the Dominican Republic, said State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood in Washington.

The United States offered to send humanitarian relief and a disaster assistance team to Cuba, but has received no response from the Cuban government, the State Department said.

"The situation in Gonaives is catastrophic," Daniel Rouzier, Haiti chairman of Food for the Poor, wrote in an e-mail, according to the AP. "We, just like the rest of the victims ... have limited mobility. You can't float a boat, drive a truck or fly anything to the victims."

Hanna closes in on Carolina coast

MIAMI, Florida-- Tropical Storm Hanna sped toward the southeastern coast of the U.S. on Friday, and forecasters predicted that the storm would strengthen slightly before reaching land Saturday.

A surfer goes airborne in waves generated by Tropical Storm Hanna off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

As of 11 p.m. ET, Hanna was about 140 miles south of Wilmington, North Carolina, carrying maximum sustained winds near 70 mph with higher gusts, just below hurricane status of 74 mph, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

As of 11 p.m. ET, Hanna was about 140 miles south of Wilmington, North Carolina, carrying maximum sustained winds near 70 mph with higher gusts, just below hurricane status of 74 mph, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

The storm, which had spent several days meandering around the southern Bahamas, was moving north at a fast clip of about 20 mph, and forecasters expected it to speed up even more Saturday before turning northeast.

The storm was expected to hit near the South Carolina-North Carolina state line between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. ET, according to hurricane center projections.

A tropical storm warning extends from Altamaha Sound, Georgia, to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, including all of Chesapeake Bay, the tidal Potomac River, Washington and Delaware Bay.

The center said the storm is likely to strengthen only slightly but warned that it is still possible for Hanna to become a hurricane before hitting land.

Meanwhile, Ike -- "a small, but impressive hurricane" -- is still far out in the Atlantic, forecasters said, but they warned that it could come ashore in southern Florida as a Category 4 storm by Tuesday night.