Today's Update 

AFP: Sri Lanka's recovery from its decades-long civil war has been marred by graft, violence and a culture of lawlessness, a global watchdog said Tuesday. Transparency International rapped the government -- which crushed the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in May -- for a lack of democracy, accountability and transparency. "The latter half of 2009 marks a period of hope and potential for Sri Lanka. Yet, winning the war seems to have been easier than winning the peace," said the report by the body's local branch. "Nowhere is this more clear than in the case of the government's record on human rights and media freedom." It said the authorities had cracked down on dissent in the final stages of the war, with journalists, diplomats and aid workers reprimanded or deported for making critical comments. Transparency International said 34 journalists had been killed between 2004 and 2009, including Lasantha Wickrematunga, a prominent anti-establishment newspaper editor.

Reuters: The United States believes Pakistan's military has no intention of trying to seize power, U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus said during a visit to an ally that is struggling against Taliban militants. The movements of Pakistan's all-powerful military are closely watched both at home and in Western countries such as the United States and Britain, which are piling pressure on the government to help them fight a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. The military has ruled for more than half of Pakistan's turbulent 62-year history and no civilian government has ever served out a full term, earning the nuclear-armed country the reputation of being an unstable state. In a briefing with Pakistani journalists during a visit to Islamabad, Petraeus said Pakistan's military had told him it was not interested in destabilizing the elected civilian government. "I have seen no indication that (army chief) General Ashfaq Kayani is entertaining such a notion," local newspapers on Tuesday quoted Petraeus as telling reporters at the U.S. ambassador's residence when asked about his meeting with Kayani.

New York Times: The Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, said Tuesday that he will postpone a decision on relocating an American military base on Okinawa until next year, leaving unresolved an issue that has strained Washington’s ties with its closest Asian ally. Mr. Hatoyama said members of his governing coalition will continue to discuss whether to change a 2006 agreement between Washington and Tokyo to relocate the base, known as Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, to a less populated part of Okinawa. The Obama administration has asked Mr. Hatoyama to implement the original agreement, but he is under pressure from two small leftist parties in his coalition to honor campaign promises to move the base off Okinawa or out of Japan. On Tuesday, Mr. Hatoyama did not say when he would make a final decision but suggested he wanted to do so as quickly as possible. “I will inform the United States quickly” about Tuesday’s decision, Mr. Hatoyama told reporters. “I want to begin negotiations immediately.”

The AP: Authorities moved thousands of villagers from harm's way near the Philippines' most active volcano Tuesday after it oozed lava and shot plumes of ash, and said they probably would spend a bleak Christmas in an evacuation center. State volcanologists raised the alert level on the cone-shaped, 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon volcano overnight to two steps below a major eruption after ash explosions and dark orange lava fragments glowing in the dark trickled down the mountain slope. Nearly 50,000 people live in a five-mile (eight-kilometer) radius around the mountain, and authorities began moving thousands of them in case it erupts, Albay provincial Gov. Joey Salceda said. "Whatever the volcano does, our target is zero casualty," Salceda told The Associated Press. Salceda said he had decided to cancel a trip to Copenhagen, where he was to attend the U.N. climate conference to discuss his central Albay province's experience with typhoons and other natural disasters. He said he would appeal for foreign aid to deal with the expected influx of displaced villagers to emergency shelters.

Times Online: The weapons laden plane seized in Bangkok en route from North Korea at the weekend has been linked to two renowned East European arms traffickers by a respected Swedish think tank in the latest twist in the mysterious saga. The Ilyushin-76 aircraft, which was found to be carrying 35 tons of weapons including rockets and grenades, was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. It had previously been registered with three companies identified by the US Department of the Treasury as firms controlled by the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Hugh Griffiths, who monitors air cargo companies involved in arms trafficking for SIPRI, said other past owners of the aircraft had also been documented by the UN as trafficking arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Chad

The Guardian: Eight people have been killed in the Afghan capital, Kabul, after a suicide car bomber struck a hotel frequented by westerners, officials said. The mid-morning blast came as the Afghan president, Hamid Karazi, was due to attend an anti-corruption conference elsewhere in the city. The ministry of interior spokesman Zemeri Bashary said four men and four women died in the explosion. "It was a suicide attack," he said. "We are investigating. We don't know the target of the attack." He said about 40 others were wounded. The car exploded near the Heetal hotel in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, home to government officials, international organisations and diplomatic residences. Speaking at the conference, Karzai said the explosion occurred near the home of his former first vice-president, Ahmed Zia Massoud. The president said two of Massoud's guards were among those killed.

The Guardian: Tension between the US and Iran rose sharply today after Tehran said it would put on trial three Americans who apparently entered the country illegally during a hiking trip. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, described accusations against the three as "totally unfounded" and called for their immediate release. The three had been on a hiking trip in the mountains on the border between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan in July when they were arrested by the Iranians. A high-profile trial in Iran of the Americans would be an emotive issue in the US and would threaten to become a cause célèbre at a time when relations between Washington and Tehran are already strained over the nuclear stand-off. The Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said the three had "entered Iran illegally with suspicious aims". An Iranian prosecutor last month accused them of spying. Mottaki said: "They will be tried by the Iranian judiciary system and verdicts will be issued." He did not say what they had been charged with.

AP: China has accused developed countries of backsliding on what is says are their obligations to fight climate change and has warned that the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen have entered a critical stage. Foreign Ministry spokewoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday there had been "some regression" on the part of developed countries, who had "put forward a plethora" of demands on developing countries. She said it "will hamper the Copenhagen conference." China and the United States are the world's top two carbon polluters and have been at odds in Copenhagen. Beijing's view is that the U.S. and other rich nations have a heavy historical responsibility to cut emissions, and any climate deal should take into account a country's development level.

The BBC: A series of three car bombs in central Baghdad has killed at least four people and wounded about 14, Iraqi police say. The blasts occurred outside the heavily fortified Green Zone near the Iranian embassy, the foreign ministry, and a popular restaurant, reports say. There has been a recent upsurge of violence in the city. A week ago, at least 127 people were killed in multiple car bombings. Analysts say al-Qaeda is trying to destabilise Iraq ahead of March polls. The blasts happened within minutes of each other shortly after 0730 local time (0430 GMT).  Iraqi government figures have shown that violence generally has fallen over the past 18 months. In October, however, co-ordinated bomb attacks killed at least 155 people and wounded hundreds in Baghdad. There have been a number of attacks since then - including last week's co-ordinated car bombings. Correspondents say that besides occasional massive bombings, insurgents also stage frequent smaller-scale attacks against targets such as marketplaces, mosques or schools. Security has been heightened ahead of March's parliamentary elections.

The AP: The souvenir-flinging man who attacked Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi joins a long list of gatecrashers, shoe-throwers and other security breachers who have embarrassed, bruised and even killed leaders worldwide. As Berlusconi remained hospitalized Tuesday with a broken nose and two broken teeth, officials pledged to review security measures while deflecting mounting criticism of the premier's bodyguards. A mentally unstable man bloodied Berlusconi's face Sunday with a souvenir statuette of Milan's Duomo cathedral as the leader ventured into the crush of a political rally in the northern Italian city. Italy's debate follows a familiar pattern: How much security is necessary when politicians seek to mingle with their public? "The security failed because, as usual, Berlusconi did what you should never do: Seek direct contact with the crowd," said Andrea Nativi, a researcher at the Rome-based Military Center for Strategic Studies.