http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/iraqpolitics

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki took a major step toward staying in power on Saturday when a top Shiite
cleric said he would not stop him from keeping his job, but an
arch-rival warned of civil war.

A spokesman for Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical, anti-US cleric who is currently living in Iran, told AFP the movement would drop a veto against Maliki seeking a new
term as long as he met its condition that Sadrist prisoners be freed.

Sadr has previously opposed Maliki's quest to stay on as premier after a general election which he lost more than two months ago and several public statements
delivered by his aides have been highly critical of the incumbent.

But Saturday's conciliatory statement, which followed discussions between the two sides in the past 48 hours, was a big boost to Maliki's
chances, and it effectively eliminated the biggest hurdle impeding his
chances.

"If (Maliki) will give us sufficient guarantees to end our reluctance, especially concerning the arrests of Sadrists, then we will not block
his candidacy for a second term," Sadr spokesman Saleh al-Obeidi told
AFP from the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq.

He cautioned, however, that Maliki had "not yet succeeded" in meeting the group's demand that around 2,000 of its followers, who were
detained on the prime minister's orders, be released.

The Sadrist movement is part of a recently formed Shiite coalition that includes Maliki's State of Law Alliance, but the cleric's political
bloc had long despised the premier, who had authorised an assault on
its armed wing, the Mahdi Army, in 2008.

Sadr, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television after the election, said he had "tried not to have a veto against anyone, but the masses
had a veto against Maliki."

The new Sadrist stance was welcomed by Maliki adviser Ali Mussawi who said it "paved the way to agreement with other blocs to solve the
problem of forming a government," a process that has been deadlocked
since the election.

Mussawi said Maliki could not intervene in the case of Sadrist prisoners who have been formally charged with an offence, but
"committees have been formed... to release innocent prisoners as soon
as possible."

The latest announcement came as former premier Iyad Allawi, who narrowly beat Maliki in the March 7 general election, said if recent violence that has swept through Iraq were to continue then civil war loomed.

His comments came after around five dozen attacks in five cities on Monday killed 110 people and wounded more than 500, in the deadliest
streak of violence to hit the country this year.

"After the elections we have seen a new wave of sectarianism which is very dangerous and we have indications that we are heading towards a
new peak," Allawi told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

"We are just at the beginning, but if the violence continues we are heading towards civil war."

A further 25 people were killed on Friday in a double bomb attack at a football match in northern Iraq.

Allawi's Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats in the election, two more than State of Law, with the Iraqi National Alliance, of which the Sadrists are a
part, coming in third with 70 seats.

Meanwhile, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal accused Maliki of trying to hijack the results of the election.

"Adding to the brutal mayhem taking place there, we are watching a deliberate effort on the part of the incumbent prime minister, Mr al-Maliki, to hijack the results of the election and deny the Iraqi
people their legitimately elected government," Prince Turki said in
Riyadh.

"The consequences of that are more bloodshed and potential civil war," said Prince Turki, who has no official position but is believed to often reflect high-level Saudi thinking.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_thailand_politics

Thailand's leader defended the deadly army crackdown on protesters besieging the capital's heart, saying Saturday the country's very future was at stake. Protesters dragged away the bodies of three people
from sidewalks — shot by army snipers, they claim — as soldiers blocked
major roads and pinned up notices of a "Live Firing Zone."

"I insist that what we are doing is necessary," Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in a defiant broadcast on national television, making it clear he would not compromise. "The government must move forward. We cannot
retreat because we are doing things that will benefit the entire
country."

On Saturday, the protesters launched a steady stream of rudimentary missiles at troops who fired back with live ammunition in several areas around a key commercial district of
Bangkok.

Army snipers were perched with high-powered rifles atop tall buildings, viewing the action below through telescopic sights. Thick black smoke billowed from tires set
ablaze by demonstrators as gunfire rang out.

The spiraling violence has raised concerns of sustained, widespread chaos in Thailand — a key U.S. ally and Southeast Asia's most popular tourist destination that promotes its easygoing culture as the "Land of Smiles."

"The situation right now is getting close to a civil war each minute," Jatuporn Prompan, a protest leader, told reporters. "Please don't ask
us how we are going to end this situation, because we are the ones
being killed."

Since Thursday, the once-bustling commercial and shopping district has become a war zone with Red Shirt protesters firing weapons, throwing homemade explosives, and hurling rocks at troops firing live ammunition and rubber bullets.

The violence ignited after the army started forming a cordon around the protesters' encampment and a sniper shot and gravely wounded a rogue
general reputed to be the Red Shirts' military adviser.

At least 24 people have been killed and more than 194 wounded since Thursday. Previous violence since the protest began in mid-March caused
29 deaths and injured 1,640.

This is the most prolonged and deadliest bout of political violence that Thailand has faced in decades despite having a history of coups — 18 since it became
a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

The protesters have occupied a tire-and-bamboo-spike barricaded, 1-square-mile (3-square-kilometer) zone in one of the capital's
ritziest areas, Rajprasong, for about two months to push their demands
for Abhisit to resign immediately, dissolve Parliament and call new elections.

The crisis had appeared to be near a resolution last week when Abhisit offered to hold elections in November, a year early. But the hopes were
dashed after Red Shirt leaders made more demands.

The political uncertainty has spooked foreign investors and damaged the vital tourism industry, which accounts for 6 percent of the economy,
Southeast Asia's second largest.

Abhisit, in his first comments since Thursday, said the protesters have "held the people of Bangkok hostage" and described them as "armed terrorists" who
attacked security forces.

"Officers on duty have the right to defend themselves," he said.

The Red Shirts, drawn mostly from the rural and urban poor, say Abhisit's coalition government came to power through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military, and that it symbolizes a national elite indifferent
to the poor.

The fighting is taking place in the no man's land between the encampment and the army cordon, a normally bustling area with hotels, businesses, embassies, shopping
malls and apartments. Most of them are now shut and public transport is
off the roads.

The army said its cordon has been effective, and the number of protesters at the encampment has dwindled by half. Water and power also were cut off to the area
Thursday.

About 5,000 hard-core demonstrators held their ground under threat of military operations to oust them, down from about 10,000 days earlier, army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.

"If the protesters will not end the situation, we will have to enter the encampment," Sansern said.

The army says it is not shooting to kill, but protesters crawled along sidewalks to slowly drag away corpses of three people near the city's Victory Monument traffic circle in the Ratchaprarop area.
Demonstrators accused army snipers of shooting all three in the head.

On Saturday, soldiers unrolled razor wire across roads leading to Ratchaprarop — a commercial district north of the main protest site — area and pinned up Thai and English-language notices saying "Live
Firing Zone" and "Restricted Area. No Entry."

Ratchaprarop houses high-rise buildings, posh hotels and designer shops. It was the scene of some of the worst fighting Friday night
between troops and anti-government protesters.

Amid the violence, the rest of the capital has remained largely normal with shops, restaurants and cinemas open and busy, albeit with customers and workers expressing concern about the clashes. Rural
Thailand also has not seen violence, though demonstrations and other
protest-related activity has occurred in the rural home provinces of
many Red Shirts and supporters.

The Red Shirts especially despise the military, which had forced Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist premier favored by the Red Shirts, from office in a 2006
coup. Two subsequent pro-Thaksin governments were disbanded by court
rulings before Abhisit became prime minister.

"The reality is that this conflict also draws heavily on the frustrated political aspirations of a large numbers of rural voters," said Andrew Walker, a political scientist at The Australian National
University.

"If election results are going to be overturned, people's political aspirations and frustrations will find expression in other forms," he said.

Defense Ministry spokesman Tarit Pengdit said 27 protesters have been sentenced to six months' jail for joining an illegal protest. He did not elaborate.

The U.S. Embassy said it will evacuate family members of its staff who want to leave Bangkok.

Embassy spokeswoman Cynthia Brown said the U.S. State Department also issued a "travel warning advising all citizens to defer travel to Bangkok."