Jaacto Post

Situation remains tense in Bahrain

2012-03-02T17:17:00.000+02:00

MANAMA, Bahrain, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The situation was tense in Bahrain when Shiites erupted in anger after the mysterious death of a 14-year-old boy early this week, witnesses claim.

Ali Jawad al-Sheik collapsed and later died early this week. Witnesses speaking to CNN said he collapsed after getting hit with a tear-gas round fired by police. An autopsy, according to the Bahrain News Agency, showed no sign of tear gas exposure but suggested he did suffer a major spinal cord injury.

Shiite protesters later were reported clashing with security forces and pro-democracy activist Zainad Alkhawaja told the news service the situation on the streets was tense.

"People are more upset and angry than I've seen at (a) funeral here before -- I think because he was so young," she was quoted as saying.

Bahrain was criticized for the way it handled a Shiite uprising early this year but was later praised for advancing some reforms.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said his agency was about cases that may involve prisoners of conscience in Bahrain.

Human rights groups have accused the ruling Sunni minority in Bahrain of using state hospitals as torture chambers.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/09/01/Situation-remains-tense-in-Bahrain/UPI-52931314897600/.

Indian protests mount over planned hanging

2012-03-02T17:12:00.000+02:00

A woman burned herself to death near Chennai in protest at the planned hanging of the killers of Rajiv Ghandi, India's prime minister, in 1991.

NEW DELHI, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- A woman burned herself to death near Chennai, India, in protest at the planned hanging of the killers of Rajiv Gandhi, India's prime minister, in 1991.

The woman, 27, poured gasoline on herself in front of the local tax office in Kancheepuram, around 70 miles from the Tamil Nadu state capital Chennai.

Witnesses said she shouted, "free Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan" and then she set herself on fire.

Bystanders and the police doused the flames but she died on the way to hospital, a local newspaper report said.

A note wrapped in plastic found on her body said she was a member of Tamil nationalist group Makkal Manram.

"If my life can save their three lives, I will die happily," the note reportedly said.

It also urged Tamil Nadu state chief minister J. Jayalalithaa to free the three convicts, who have been in jail for 20 years since receiving death sentences.

Last week the government announced the hanging will take place early Sept. 9 at Tamil Nadu's Vellore Central Prison in Vellore, around 85 miles north of Chennai.

The planned hanging comes after India's president rejected mercy pleas from the men found guilty of plotting the assassination of Gandhi by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.

All three of the condemned men were members of Sri Lanka's militant Tamil Tigers group. Murugan and Santhan are from Sri Lanka and Perarivalan is an Indian Tamil.

Immediately after Gandhi's death, the Tamil Tigers claimed he was assassinated as a protest over what they claimed was India's interference in the Sri Lankan civil war.

However, in 2006, the Tigers, which by then had stopped its armed struggle for a separate state called Tamil Eelam, expressed "regret" for the murder.

The announcement of the hangings has polarized many people, groups and political parties in the state and across India where the last execution was in August 2004 in the state of West Bengal. A 41-year-old former security guard was hanged for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl. It was the first execution since 1995.

The assassins of India's independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi, and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi were among those executed in the past 60 years.

At Vellore jail, where the last hanging was nearly 30 years ago, officials are busy getting the "rusty" gallows back into shape, a report in The Telegraph newspaper in Kolkata said.

The gallows are in "an asbestos-roofed shed over an iron beam and two trap doors. As the last hanging took place 28 years ago, the trap doors' hinges and lever have become stiff."

Prison officials are doing the refurbishment themselves because they couldn't find a contractor that would be associated with the hanging, The Telegraph said.

"Our own staff repaired and lubricated the mechanism. We have now placed an order for the ropes," a jail official said.

Although the gallows are designed for two simultaneous hangings, the jail plans to carry out the executions separately at 30-minute intervals beginning 4.30 a.m. Prison officials will draw lots to decide the order in which the trio will be hanged.

The situation at Vellore is typical of many jails across India. A 2010 article in New Delhi's Open magazine said India is a nation that allows capital punishment, is holding in jail many condemned to death but is a country with no hangmen.

The last hangman in the state of Maharashtra retired in 1995 and since then, there have been no takers for the job, the article said.

A hangman is not a full-time government employee but a sanctioned volunteer where his pay -- equivalent to a little more than $3 -- is a special allowance, the article said.

Prison officials will train a new hangman in things such as tying the noose. But the toughest part of the job isn't about ropes and levers, it is about conscience, a former inspector general of police prisons said.

"The moment a hangman starts thinking about karma, he should be retired. Till the lever is pulled, the prison officials are on tenterhooks as you cannot say how the hangman will react at the last moment," he said.

A few months before the death of the hangman Nata Mullick, who conducted India's last hanging in 2004, Open magazine interviewed him about the job.

Mullick, whose father was a hangman in the British colonial days, died in December 2009 after 25 hangings.

"The preparation of the noose is very important," he told Open magazine.

"If the noose is right, the person will feel less pain. I used fewer knots when a prisoner was heavy and more knots for a prisoner who weighed less. If the lever is pulled too hard, the head can be severed."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/31/Indian-protests-mount-over-planned-hanging/UPI-92051314785820/.

الملك يؤكد استعداد الأردن لدعم استقرار ليبيا

2012-03-02T17:07:00.000+02:00

2011-09-01

خبرني- شارك جلالة الملك عبدالله الثاني إلى جانب عدد من قادة دول العالم في مؤتمر دولي لإعادة إعمار ليبيا (دعم ليبيا الجديدة ) عقد في قصر الاليزيه بالعاصمة الفرنسية باريس مساء الخميس.

وأكد جلالته خلال مشاركته في المؤتمر دعم الأردن للشعب الليبي الشقيق في تحقيق تطلعاته وآماله بمستقبل أفضل ومساندته في مواجهة التحديات والبدء في بناء مؤسسات الدولة الحديثة.

ودعا جلالته المجتمع الدولي إلى تقديم الدعم الكامل للشعب الليبي لرسم مستقبله الديمقراطي والسياسي بنفسه استنادا إلى عملية سياسية شاملة يسودها التسامح والمصالحة والعدالة وسيادة القانون بقيادة المجلس الوطني الانتقالي، ترسيخا لوحدة الشعب الليبي وبما يضمن له سيادته وسلامة أراضيه ويمكنه من استعادة الأمن وتحقيق التنمية بشكل عاجل.

وأكد جلالته خلال المؤتمر، الذي حضره وزير الخارجية ناصر جودة، حرص الأردن على دعم جهود المجلس الوطني الانتقالي لإعادة إعمار ليبيا على أساس راسخ من الانفتاح والديمقراطية والعدالة.

كما أكد جلالته استعداد الأردن للمساهمة في جهود تحقيق الاستقرار وإعادة بناء ليبيا بما في ذلك توفير التدريب الشرطي والعسكري وبناء القدرات في المجالات التعليمية والقضائية والطبية والإنشائية.

وعبر جلالته عن تأييد الأردن للإفراج عن الأرصدة الليببية المجمدة وتأمينها إلى المجلس الانتقالي بما يمكنه من إعادة البناء وتحقيق الأهداف التنموية لليبيا.

وشدد جلالته على أهمية تنسيق مختلف الجهود في المرحلة القادمة الحرجة التي تشهدها ليبيا، لافتا إلى ضرورة أن تنهض الأمم المتحدة بدور قيادي في هذا السياق بالتنسيق مع الدول والمنظمات الإقليمية.

وأشار جلالته إلى أن الأردن كان من أوائل الدول التي أعلنت عن دعمها الكامل للشعب الليبي وحمايته والمساهمة بفاعلية في تقديم المعونة الإنسانية والطبية له وتقديم الدعم اللوجستي في الإطار التنسيقي الهادف إلى تنفيذ قرار مجلس الأمن الدولي رقم 1973، مؤكدا جلالته استعداد الأردن لإرسال مستشفى ميداني إلى ليبيا.

وكانت المملكة اعترفت خلال شهر أيار الماضي بالمجلس الوطني الانتقالي ممثلا للشعب الليبي، وعينت مبعوثا دائما في مدينة بنغازي لتعزيز التنسيق مع المجلس. كما كانت في طليعة الدول التي دانت بشدة استهداف أبناء الشعب الليبي الشقيق، وطالبت بوقف إراقة دماء أبنائه. وأرسل الأردن في شهر نيسان الماضي إلى بنغازي مساعدات طبية وإنسانية. كما استقبلت المستشفيات الأردنية نحو 200 مصاب ليبي منذ اندلاع الأزمة.

وشارك في مؤتمر باريس رئيس المجلس الوطني الانتقالي مصطفى عبد الجليل و رئيس المجلس التنفيذي الليبي محمود جبريل ، والأمين العام للأمم المتحدة بان كي مون برئاسة الرئيس الفرنسي نيكولا ساركوزي ورئيس الوزراء البريطاني ديفيد كاميرون.
ومن قادة الدول وكبار المسؤولين المشاركين في المؤتمر جلالة الملك حمد بن عيسى آل خليفة ملك مملكة البحرين، وسمو الشيخ حمد بن خليفة آل ثاني أمير دولة قطر، والمستشارة الألمانية أنجيلا ميركل، ووزيرة الخارجية الأميركية هيلاري كلنتون، ووزير الخارجية الإماراتي سمو الشيخ عبدالله بن زايد آل نهيان، وأمين عام جامعة الدول العربية الدكتور نبيل العربي، ورئيس المجلس الأوروبي هيرمان فون رومبوي، ورئيس المفوضية الأوروبية خوزيه مانويل باروسو، والممثلة العليا للشؤون الخارجية والسياسة الأمنية في الاتحاد الأوروبي البارونة كاثرين اشتون، ووزير الخارجية المغربي الطيب الفاسي الفهري ووزير الخارجية المصري محمد كامل عمرو.

المصدر: خبرني.
الرابط: http://www.khaberni.com/more.php?newsid=61023.

Moscow recongnizes Libya's TNC

2012-03-02T17:01:00.000+02:00

Thu Sep 1, 2011

Moscow has finally recognized the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC) as the North African country's legitimate authority while a key summit on Libya is to begin in the French capital Paris.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that Moscow will continue its “close” diplomatic relations with Tripoli.

“Russia has been in close contact with the Benghazi opposition during the six months of the Libyan conflict,” Russian news agency Ria Novosti quoted Moscow's envoy to Africa Mikhail Margelov as saying on Thursday.

Margelov said that Russia took the decision “to stop bloodshed and call on political dialogue.”

The development comes as Russia remained a major critic of the NATO military intervention in Libya which is believed to have facilitated the fall of Libya's fugitive ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Margelov, heading a Russian delegation, is expected to take part at the international conference of "Friends of Libya" in Paris on Thursday.

More than 60 foreign delegations are to discuss Libya's future in the post-Gaddafi era during the Paris talks hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Premier David Cameron.

The TNC will plead for assistance on security, rebuilding and preparing for democracy in the crisis-hit country.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196853.html.

Cholera claims 21 lives in Somalia

2012-03-02T16:59:00.000+02:00

Thu Sep 1, 2011

At least 21 Somali children have died and nearly 440 others hospitalized due to cholera in the famine-stricken African country, Press TV reported.

The 21 children lost their lives Thursday morning in southern Mogadishu as their families were unable to provide medicines for them.

Doctors say that within the last three hours more than 440 Somali children affected by cholera were rushed to Banadir hospital for emergency treatment in southern Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, thousands of drought victims have started to abandon south Mogadishu refugee camps after humanitarian aids were stolen by Somali government officials.

Drought and famine have affected millions of people across Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

Somalia has been the hardest-hit country in what is being described as the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years.

According to the United Nations, a quarter of Somalia's 9.9 million population are either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees.

The UN has declared famine in five regions of Somalia and says that the international humanitarian response to the crisis has been insufficient.

The United Nations says that more than thirteen children out of every 10,000 aged less than five die in the Somalia famine zone every day.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196854.html.

Iran to unveil 1st domestically built plane

2012-03-02T16:31:00.000+02:00

Sat Aug 27, 2011

The Islamic Republic of Iran will unveil its first domestically manufactured passenger plane in the next 30 to 60 days, according to a senior Iranian aviation official.

Iranian Defense Ministry Aviation Industries Organization Managing Director Manouchehr Manteqi told the Mehr news agency on Friday that the first totally Iranian plane, with a capacity of 100 passengers, will be unveiled in the Iranian calendar month of Mehr (September 23-October 22).

Manteqi also hailed the country's achievements in the aviation industries, noting that the Islamic Republic is one of the regional powers in aircraft overhaul and maintenance.

In June, the chairman of the Kiev headquarters of the Antonov Aerospace Company said Iran and Ukraine plan to cooperate on the construction of 78 Antonov-148 aircraft by the end of 2011.

Dmitry Kiva stated that Antonov and the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company have signed a contract to manufacture the planes, adding that Antonov will produce the twin-engine mid-range turboprop for the mid-range jet airliner.

The Iranian Defense Ministry has been manufacturing a licensed version of the Antonov-148 since 2009.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195954.html.

Teen's death sparks protests in Bahrain

2012-03-02T16:28:00.000+02:00

Thu Sep 1, 2011

Angry protesters in Bahrain have taken to the streets in several towns and villages to condemn the killing of a teenager by Saudi-backed regime forces.

On Wednesday, 14-year-old Ali Jawad was killed after he was directly targeted by a tear gas canister during a protest held following Eid al-Fitr prayers in the city of Sitra.

The city's hospital reportedly refused to admit Jawad, who died shortly afterwards of the severe head injury he had sustained.

Human rights activists have warned about an increase in the number of deaths due to excessive use of force by Saudi-backed regime forces.

Meanwhile, families of detained protesters said Bahraini authorities have cancelled their appointments to meet their jailed relatives without giving any explanation.

Anti-regime protests, in place since mid-February, have seen a new hike in the past few days following a speech by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa about the months of anti-government protests in the Persian Gulf Sheikhdom.

The remarks outraged many Bahrainis believe that the king's speech as a futile attempt to restore normalcy to the country which does not address their demands.

On Sunday, the Bahraini king announced in a televised speech that he would pardon some detained anti-regime protesters and called for the reinstatement of a number of employees fired from their jobs and students expelled from their colleges.

He also admitted that security forces had abused the protesters, saying that compensation would be paid to the victims of abuse and the families of those killed during anti-regime demonstrations.

Bahrainis, however, have rejected his speech, accusing him of ordering the brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, which has left scores of people killed and many more injured.

Bahraini protesters have been calling on the ruling Al Khalifa family to release its decades-long grip on power.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196813.html.

Bahraini troops kill 14-year-old protester

2012-03-02T16:20:00.000+02:00

Wed Aug 31, 2011

Saudi-backed Bahraini troops have attacked anti-government protesters in the island city of Sitra, killing a 14-year-old boy.

Witnesses say the victim, identified as Ali Jawad, was hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired from close range.

Reports say the city's hospital refused to admit the critically injured Ali and that the 14-year-old boy died shortly afterwards, Bahraini rights activist Maryam Al-Khawaja wrote in an e-mail to Press TV on Wednesday.

It is widely believed that hospital authorities refused to treat the wounded teenager for fear of being arrested by security forces. Since the beginning of anti-regime protests in Bahrain, hundreds of medical personnel have been detained and tortured over providing medical treatment to injured protesters.

Thousands of Bahraini protesters took to the streets on Tuesday following the Eid al-Fitr Prayers to protest against a recent speech by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa about the months of anti-government protests in the Persian Gulf Sheikhdom.

Many Bahrainis believe that the king's speech was a futile attempt aimed at restoring normalcy to the country and does not address their demands.

Activists say in some areas protests had started from the previous night.

On Sunday, the Bahraini king announced in a televised speech that he would pardon some detained anti-regime protesters and called for the reinstatement of a number of employees fired from their jobs and students expelled from their colleges.

He also admitted that security forces had abused the protesters, saying that compensation would be paid to the victims of abuse and the families of those killed during anti-regime demonstrations.

Bahrainis, however, have rejected his speech, accusing him of ordering the brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators demanding an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196715.html.

Scientists use coral for sunscreen pill

2012-03-02T15:53:00.000+02:00

Wed Aug 31, 2011

King's College London scientists are trying to use coral's natural defense against the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays to make a sunscreen pill.

The team, who studied samples of the endangered Acropora coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, found that they could synthetically replicate the key compounds which help corals fight UV rays.

Scientists plan to test a lotion containing the coral compounds before making a tablet version, the state-funded BBC reported.

Led by Dr. Paul Long, the team first will copy the coral's anti UV genetic code to make the compounds and then replicate it in lab to produce large quantities of it.

"We couldn't and wouldn't want to use the coral itself as it is an endangered species,” Dr. Long said.

"Once we recreate the compounds we can put them into a lotion and test them on skin discarded after cosmetic surgery tummy tucks,” he added.

"We will not know how much protection against the sun it might give until we begin testing.

"But there is a need for better sunscreens."

Scientists knew that corals and some algae could protect themselves against harmful sunrays, but they did not how.

"What we have found is that the algae living within the coral makes a compound that we think is transported to the coral, which then modifies it into a sunscreen for the benefit of both the coral and the algae,” said Dr. Long.

"Not only does this protect them both from UV damage, but we have seen that fish that feed on the coral also benefit from this sunscreen protection, so it is clearly passed up the food chain."

Researchers are also planning to find out if the processes could be used for developing sustainable agriculture in the Third World.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196735.html.

New monkey species found in Amazon

2012-03-02T15:50:00.000+02:00

Sat Aug 27, 2011

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) researchers have discovered a new species of monkey during their expeditions in an unexplored part of the Amazon in mid-western Brazil.

The newly found monkey, which is a type of Callicebus, or titi, was discovered between the Guariba River and the Roosevelt River in northwestern part of Mato Grosso, a state of Brazil known as a center of Amazon destruction.

"This primate has features on its head and tail that have never been observed before in other titi monkey species found in the same area," said biologist Julio Dalpone who discovered the monkey during the WWF's Nature-backed expedition.

The discovered species was taken to the Emilio Goeldi Museum of Para State to be studied and formally described, MSNBC reported.

"This incredible discovery shows just how much we still have to learn from the Amazon,” said director of WWF's Amazon Program Meg Symington.

“WWF has been working with the government of Brazil to increase protection and improve management for the Amazon so that species like this, and thousands of others, don't disappear before we even know about them," he added.

The 26-member team traveled the region for 20 days, gathering 48 species of mammals, including armadillos, anteaters, deer and monkeys, as well as 313 species of birds that were previously seen in other South American countries.

They also uncovered two possible new fish species; a catfish and a tetra as well as threatened species, including a giant anteater, giant armadillo, giant otter, jaguar and ocelot.

According to WWF, the area is exposed to environmental and social problems, including illegal deforestation and forest degradation, poaching, expansion of agriculture, lack of health or education services and electricity and illegal fishing.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196068.html.

Canadian PM: Libya fighting far from done

2012-03-02T15:46:00.000+02:00

TRAPANI, Italy, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- NATO's military role in Libya is far from finished, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told his country's forces at an air base Thursday in Trapani, Italy.

Canada's commitment to the NATO mission is scheduled to end Sept. 27, but Harper hinted the unrest that that apparently ousted Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi last week wouldn't be wrapped up by then, Postmedia News reported.

"There is, I am afraid, as we have just been briefed, still fighting to be done," Harper said.

Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard is in charge of the NATO mission while some 655 Canadian troops are manning seven CF-18 fighter jets, three refueling aircraft and a naval frigate.

Since the NATO mission began in March, Canadian pilots have flown 10 percent of the airstrikes and dropped 550 laser-guided bombs, the QMI Agency said.

Harper said other dictators should take note of the international response.

"Which gives some proof to the old saying: 'A handful of soldiers is better than a mouthful of arguments,'" he said. "The Gadhafis of this world pay no attention to the force of argument. The only thing they get is the argument of force."

The Conservative leader was scheduled to travel to Paris later Thursday to attend a conference on Libya organized by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/09/01/Canadian-PM-Libya-fighting-far-from-done/UPI-68951314881696/.

New Mexico has new solar options

2012-03-02T15:31:00.000+02:00

PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 1 (UPI) -- A solar power facility in New Mexico has started churning out renewable energy for thousands of homes, an energy company announced.

NRG Solar, a subsidiary of NRG Energy Inc., announced its 20-megawatt Roadrunner facility near the New Mexico border with Texas is now operating at full capacity.

The facility uses a series of solar panels that track the movement of the sun. This lets it produce more electricity when compared with fixed tilt installation panels, the company said.

The solar power facility sits on 210 acres of private land near El Paso, Texas. The electricity generated by the Roadrunner facility will be sold to El Paso Electric under the terms of a 20-year agreement.

The New Mexico project is NRG's third-largest facility and the first outside California.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he'd like to see more renewable energy projects come online in the country. NRG, based in New Jersey, has more than 2,000 megawatts of solar projects under development.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/09/01/New-Mexico-has-new-solar-options/UPI-23841314887103/.

Russia considering unmanned space station: official

2012-03-02T15:28:00.000+02:00

Moscow (AFP)
Aug 31, 2011

Russia's space agency Roskosmos is considering ending a permanent human presence in space, an agency official said Wednesday following last week's crash of a supply ship delivering precious cargo to the ISS.

"Perhaps in the future, we will not need a constant manned presence in the lower Earth orbit," Roskosmos deputy director Vitaly Davydov told journalists in Moscow.

"We don't exclude the possibility of returning to the concept of DOS (long-term orbital) stations that we had before stations with constant human presence," he said.

Soviet-era space station designs, which included the early Salyut station series, were not meant to constantly house cosmonauts but instead served as a base for incoming missions.

Davydov's remarks came days after a failed launch left the International Space Station without a planned delivery of 2.9 tonnes of food, water, and fuel and delayed the next manned launch by at least a month.

Russia's space officials have for the first time warned that the current crew aboard the ISS could be evacuated, leaving the station, whose cost has been estimated at $100 billion, unmanned.

Such prospects have alarmed NASA as "there is a bigger risk of losing the ISS if there are no astronauts on board," according to the agency's ISS program chief Mike Suffredini.

Davydov denied that an unmanned ISS faces any threat. He confirmed however that the next planned landing of three cosmonauts currently at the ISS will happen a week later than planned, on September 16.

He did not provide any details on the delay of the next launch, which was originally scheduled for September 22, referring to an ongoing investigation into the causes of the launch failure.

Roskosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said in a recent interview that he regretted Russia having put so much emphasis on manned space flight, rather than looking into more financially rewarding spheres like telecommunications.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Russia_considering_unmanned_space_station_official_999.html.

Russia may put space program under state defense order

2012-03-02T15:24:00.000+02:00

Moscow (RIA Novosti)
Sep 01, 2011

The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said on Wednesday it is considering returning the federal space program to the framework of the state defense order to ensure steady financing and reduce the number of accidents with space launches.

"It would be beneficial to return the federal space program and the Glonass program to the framework of the state defense order," said Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of Roscosmos.

"It would bolster discipline in issues related to financing, quality control and schedule deadlines in manufacturing," Davydov said.

The Russian aerospace industry has faced a series of misfortunes over the last nine months. In December, 2010, a Proton-M booster rocket failed to put three Glonass-M satellites into orbit.

The launch of the Rokot booster rocket carrying a military geodesic satellite Geo-IK-2 ended in failure in February.

After the first two mishaps, a number of senior space industry officials were fired and Roscosmos's chief, Anatoly Perminov, was forced to resign.

However, the problems persisted as the aerospace industry failed to manufacture the planned number of spacecraft and incidents with the launches continued.

On August 18, a Russian Proton-M rocket lost the prized Express-AM4 satellite that was designed to provide digital television and secure government communications for Siberia and the Far East.

One week after the Express-AM4 went off course, a Soyuz-U booster malfunctioned, preventing the Progress M-12M cargo spacecraft from reaching orbit. Its debris fell in Gorny Altai, Russia.

The loss of Glonass satellites alone cost the state 4.3 billion rubles ($152.2 million).

In 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government to prepare a new federal program for Glonass, covering the years 2012-2020. The original 10-year 2001 program ends in 2011.

Roscosmos said in June that the agency was looking for a funding of 402 billion rubles ($14.35 billion) for the program.

Glonass is Russia's answer to the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian uses. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.

Russia currently has a total of 27 Glonass satellites in orbit, although only 23 of them are operational.

The complete Glonass grouping must have 24 operational and 2-3 reserve satellites for the Glonass network to operate with global coverage.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_may_put_space_program_under_state_defense_order_999.html.

Roscosmos plans to return three ISS crew members on Sept 16

2012-03-02T10:49:00.000+02:00

Moscow (XNA)
Sep 01, 2011

Three crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) will return to Earth on Sept. 16, later than previously scheduled due to a failed launch of the Progress cargo vehicle, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said Wednesday.

"There is no any danger for the ISS crew. The crew possesses everything it needs for work," Roscosmos deputy head Vitali Davydov said during a television link between Moscow and Astana, the Interfax news agency reported.

Davydov said two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronauts would be sent back to Earth.

The official also promised that the launches of the Proton and Soyuz carrier rockets, which have been temporarily suspended due to the recent accidents, would not be postponed for a long time.

A Progress M-12M cargo ship failed to reach orbit Aug. 24 after the engine of a Soyuz-U carrier rocket turned off during the ascent. Russia after that decided to delay the launch of the next manned spaceship to the ISS.

Besides, Russia would not abandon the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, even after completion of the construction works at the new Vostochny launch site in Russia, said Davydov.

"There are no plans to abandon Baikonur. We have an agreement (with Kazakhstan) on using that space center until 2050," he was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

Located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, Baikonur cosmodrome was originally built by the Soviet Union in 1955 and is currently leased by the Kazakh government to Russia until 2050.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Roscosmos_plans_to_return_three_ISS_crew_members_on_Sept_16_999.html.

More Aid Needed in Famine-Hit Somalia

2012-03-02T10:47:00.000+02:00

By Omid Ghoreishi
August 31, 2011

Humanitarian agencies in Somalia are broke and urgently need more money in order to continue to provide aid in the famine-stricken country.

That’s the message from Canadian Craig Kielburger of Free The Children who is currently in Kenya at the massive Dadaab refugee camp, built to shelter those fleeing the long-running conflict—and now famine—in Somalia.

International response to the devastating famine in the Horn of Africa has been slow said Kielburger, who believes it may be due to possible “donor fatigue.” Other aid organizations have made the same observation.

“We are doing what we can with what we can, but the need is far, far greater than the resources,” Kielburger said by telephone from Dadaab.

Even the U.N. World Food Program is experiencing a funding shortfall, he said.

“Many aid agencies are effectively out of money. The humanitarian response has been far lower than expected, and that’s being diplomatic—it’s been dramatically lower than expected given the scale.”

The U.N. declared famine in some regions of Somalia in late July. Tens of thousands of people have abandoned their homes in search of food and to escape violence, fleeing to Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and to refugee camps on the Kenyan and Ethiopian borders.

Kielburger, who has been in the region since late June, said between 1,300 and 1,500 people arrive at the camp daily, with a backlog of 30,000 waiting for their cases to be processed. Initially built to shelter 90,000 refugees, the camp is now home to 400,000.

Perilous Trek

Many suffer unspeakably on the walk to the camp, which for some is a monthlong ordeal.

“I met a father here who had to bury three of his four children and his wife on the walk,” Kielburger said.

“Parents … can no longer cry because they are so physically and emotionally lost burying their children on the walks here.”

He recounted the story of a 3-year-old boy who was “literally skin and bones” after arriving at the camp and in such a dire situation that medical staff couldn’t feed him intravenously and had to force-feed him via the nostril to stabilize his condition.

Adding to the difficulty is the spread of contagious diseases. The World Health Organization has warned of a cholera pandemic in the region, and UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards has reported cases of suspected measles and related deaths in camps in Ethiopia, all adding to the fatalities.

The situation could worsen as more people become affected by the drought and the spread of disease.

“In November, [and] December, when we’re getting ready for the holidays and ready to celebrate Christmas, that’s when it’s going to be particularly bleak in this part of the world,” said Kielburger.

Rape and Violence

The vast majority of those at the camp are women and children, as men fear being force-recruited by the terrorist group al-Shabaab, or want to remain in order to keep their claim on their farmland, Kielburger said.

The result is that women are highly vulnerable, and many become victims of violence and rape.

“Their stories are heart-wrenching,” said Kielburger.

He said women and children are raped and subjected to violence and robbery as they make their way to the borders, even sometimes at the hands of Kenyan police officers.

“I’ve met women here who describe the violence that they’ve faced, the assaults, the sexual abuse they faced on the walk and it is horrific.”

While there is an effort to bus the refugees from the border regions to the camps, the current capacity is insignificant compared to the demand, he said.

There is also a problem of rape in the camps, particularly when the women venture out to cut wood to make a fire for cooking.

More Funding Needed

The head of UNHCR, Antonio Guterres, who visited Somalia last Tuesday, has called for more aid to help displaced Somalis in their own country.

“We should not aim at emptying Somalia, but rather at making every effort to provide aid inside [the country],” he said, according to a report by UNHCR.

The Canadian government has provided $72.35 million in humanitarian aid to the region, and is also matching donations made by individual Canadians.

On Aug. 25, African countries pledged $351.7 million at an African Union summit meeting in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

Kielburger laments “wavering” media and donor interest even as the situation is expected to become direr in the coming months, with the famine yet to peak.

“Much of the press attention right now has already shifted away,” he said, adding that with more money, aid organizations can do more.

“Whether it be a large aid agency or a mid-sized Canadian charity like ours, there’s not a single group here that with more resources wouldn’t be able to do more good.”

Humanitarian Mia Farrow, who visited the Dadaab camp last week, is urging people to help in whatever way they can to alleviate the “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” unfolding in the region.

“I do not have the words to adequately convey the suffering and anguish of the people at Dadaab,” she writes on her blog.

“Without further delay governments MUST make good on their pledges, and each of us should do what we can, before millions of the world’s most vulnerable people starve to death,” she added.

With reporting by Joan Delaney

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/more-aid-needed-in-famine-hit-somalia-61002.html.

السفير السوري لأردنيين : إذا سقطنا ستسقطون معنا

2012-03-02T10:39:00.000+02:00

2011-09-01

خبرني- كتب بسام بدارين في صحيفة القدس العربي اليوم الخميس :

هل يطور الأردن موقفا سياسيا جديدا في المسألة السورية؟.. هذا السؤال يبدو محوريا في عمان هذه الأيام في ظل اللغة الجديدة التي تستخدمها الحكومة الأردنية فيما يختص بمشهد سورية اليوم وهي لغة بقيت حذرة لكل الإحتمالات والسيناريوهات لكنها لم تعد متحفظة ومالت إلى النقد في الأسابيع القليلة الأخيرة.

ومن الواضح أن الإحتفاظ بمسافة آمنة وواحدة من طرفي معادلة الإشتباك في سورية تقرأه دمشق الرسمية بإعتباره خطوة معادية نحوها .. لذلك بدأت سلسلة من المضايقات السورية الحكومية على الحدود بالإتجاه المعاكس فعدد الأردنيين الذين يعبرون الحدود أقل من المعتاد وشاحنات الأردن البرية بدأت تتعطل لساعات على المركز الحدودي وعادت إلى الواجهة التحرشات البيروقراطية الحدودية المألوفة في لحظات التصعيد والتوتر من طراز تغيير تعليمات دخول الشاحنات فجأة او المطالبة بأوراق جديدة او حتى مخالفة بروتوكولات تسعير رسوم الترانزيت الموقعة سابقا بين البلدين.

إعلاميا تبدو المعركة أكثر حدة بين البلدين ففضائية دنيا التابعة لعائلة مخلوف السورية تخصص مساحات واسعة من شريطها الإخباري لرسائل تتهم الأردن بالعمالة لإسرائيل أو تحرض المواطنين الأردنيين على دولتهم والمحطة السورية الحكومية بدأت تعيد أجواء الحرب الإعلامية القديمة وهي تبث إعترافات مفترضة لأشخاص مجهولين يقولون أنهم أدخلوا السلاح للأراضي السورية عبر الحدود الأردنية.

ولا تخلو التعبيرات الإعلامية السورية الرسمية هذه الأيام من تلميحات تتهم السلطات الأردنية بالدعم الخفي للإرهاب المفترض داخل سورية خصوصا بعد معطيات معلوماتية تحدثت عن دخول العشرات من أنصار التيار السلفي المتشددين إلى الأراضي السورية فيما تقول شخصيات مقربة من الحكومة الأردنية بأن هؤلاء يمثلون 'بضاعة سورية التي ردت إليها' فقد إتهمت سورية رسميا عدة مرات بتمويل وتوجيه خلايا تخطط لأعمال عسكرية في الأرض الأردنية.

وهي خلايا لمتطرفين أصوليين ومن أشهرها مجموعة عزمي الجيوسي التي إتهمت بالتخطيط لتفجير مقر المخابرات الأردنية قبل ثلاثة أعوام.

بالمقابل يلاحظ الإعلام السوري بأن السلطات الأردنية تسكت بوضوح عن التجمعات اليومية التي تنظمها الجالية السورية مقابل سفارة سورية للإحتجاج والهتاف ضد بشار الأسد في ضاحية عبدون الراقية وهي إحتجاجات أصبحت في الواقع معلما يوميا من معالم العاصمة الأردنية.

ومؤخرا تطور الأمر فأكبر حشد جماهيري خرج في شوارع عمان منذ إنطلق الربيع العربي كان ذلك الذي نظمه السوريون مع النسخة الأردنية من الأخوان المسلمين في ليلة القدر التي سميت بليلة الإستبشار بسقوط بشار.. هنا تحديدا إمتنعت الحكومة الأردنية عن تنفيذ البروتوكول المعتمد عند الرغبة في قمع تجمع شعبي او منع الناس من الوصول إلى ساحته فعاشت عمان ليلة كاملة على صخب آلاف الحناجر وهي تدعو لسقوط بشار الأسد.

بالمقابل تقول عمان بان السماح للسوريين المعارضين بالتعبير أمام سفارتهم ينسجم مع معاييرها فقد سمحت للمصريين والليبيين بذلك ويقابله السماح بنشاطات للجنة حزبية تشكلت دفاعا عن النظام السوري.

لكن حتى من ثنايا بعض المناسبات يمكن تلمس التغيرات في 'اللهجة المتبادلة' ففي حفل الإفطار السنوي للسفارة السعودية في العاصمة الأردنية دعي سفير سورية وجلس بالصدفة لإنه حضر متأخرا إلى طاولة مليئة بنخبة من السياسيين الأردنيين المخضرمين.. عندها إعتمد الرجل في كل حديثه تقريبا على الصيغة التالية حسب شهود عيان: إذا سقطنا ستسقطون معنا.

طبعا لا يمكن تمرير هذه الصياغة بدون رد فتصدى رئيس الوزراء الأردني الأسبق عبد الرؤوف الروابدة الجالس على نفس الطاولة معلقا بفكرة بسيطة قوامها: .. سعادة السفير أعتقد انكم ستسقطون وحدكم إذا لم تتداركوا الموقف أما نحن فجالسون. المقصود هنا واضح وهو تلميح السفير السوري لإن النظام الأردني سيتهاوى إذا سقط السوري وإشارة الروابدة للرد على الموقف واضحة و مسنودة بمداخلة لعضو البرلمان الأردني المخضرم المتواجد على نفس الطاولة وفي نفس المناسبة أيضا خليل عطية الذي رفض المقاربات والمقارنات والمقايسات وتحدث عن إصلاحات بلاده وعن عدم وجود غربه بين الناس والنظام في الأردن.

ويمكن القول الآن ان هذه المماحكات السياسية تعكس المزاج المتوتر قليلا في هذه المرحلة بين البلدين الجارين وسط قناعة جميع الأردنيين بان ما يجري وسيجري في سورية يؤثر بكل تأكيد على الأردن كما يوضح السياسي الأردني المعروف ممدوح العبادي.

المصدر: خبرني.
الرابط: http://www.khaberni.com/more.php?newsid=61004.

EU, NATO dismiss Abkhazia election

2012-02-29T15:53:00.000+02:00

SUKHUMI, Georgia, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The European Union and NATO say they don't recognize the results of this past weekend's election of Aleksandr Ankvab as the president of Abkhazia.

Ankvab, one of three candidates who were vying to replace the late President Sergei Bagapsh in the breakaway Georgian region, won with nearly 55 percent of the vote, Abkhazia's Central Elections Commission announced Saturday.

Ankvab was Bagapsh's vice president and was serving as acting president of the enclave, which is officially recognized as a nation only by Russia and a handful of other countries.

Ankvab bested Prime Minister Sergei Shamba and opposition leader Raul Khadzhimba, a former vice president, in the polling, which was Friday.

Shamba received 21 percent of the vote and Khadzhimba garnered 19.8 percent as 106,845 residents -- a 72 percent turnout -- participated, officials said.

Abkhazia, a small state with a population estimated at less than 200,000 and an area smaller than Connecticut, was recognized by Moscow as independent of Georgia after a brief 2008 war between Moscow and Tbilisi over it and another breakaway region, South Ossetia.

Georgia has refused to recognize the results of the Abkhazian election. The country's foreign ministry issued a statement blasting the "so-called presidential elections" in Abkhazia, denouncing "the Russian occupation forces and its proxy regime in Sukhumi" and calling the polling a "mockery of the international law."

Tbilisi accused Moscow of bringing in "several dozen of so-called 'international observers' in an attempt to legitimize the outcome of these 'elections,' and thus the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of people."

EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen each issued statements over the weekend in which they dismissed the Abkhazian presidential results and referred to it as a "Georgian region."

"In view of the reports today from Sukhumi in the breakaway region of Abkhazia in Georgia, that Mr. Alexander Ankvab has been elected as new president, this statement is to recall that the European Union does not recognize the constitutional and legal framework within which these elections have taken place," the statement from Ashton read.

"The European Union reiterates its support to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia, as recognized by international law."

Rasmussen, meanwhile, reiterated NATO's "full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders" while adding it "does not recognize the elections held on August 26 in the Georgian region of Abkhazia."

Since the cease-fire agreement that ended the 2008 conflict, Russia and Georgia have traded accusations over ethnic cleansing in the breakaway regions and both have denounced the continuing problems of thousands of internally displaced people.

The international community has been meeting regularly on the Abkhazia and South Ossetia security and human rights situations through the Geneva Discussions, by which they are hoping to establish "non-use of force" and associated security agreements.

That is something Georgia supports but Russia opposes.

The EU and the United States have called on Moscow to withdraw its troops to positions held prior to the start of the 2008 hostilities and to allow humanitarian access to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"The Russian Federation's deployment of troops and weapons in the regions is inconsistent with its cease-fire commitments and clearly threatens stability," the U.S. State Department said earlier this year.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/30/EU-NATO-dismiss-Abkhazia-election/UPI-20901314698760/.

Target Syria, Iran together, lawmakers say

2012-02-29T15:50:00.000+02:00

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Syria and Iran are "partners in crime" and should be targeted equally by direct sanctions from Washington, a U.S. lawmaker said.

Washington and the rest of the international community have ratcheted up the sanctions pressure on Damascus as the regime's bloody crackdown continues. More than 2,000 people were killed at the hands of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, including hundreds killed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Tehran, for its part, has earned the scorn of its Western adversaries for its poor human rights record. There's been little heard, meanwhile, from two of Iran's leading opposition members since their arrest in early spring.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Washington should directly target each regime with equal fervor.

"The Iranian and Syrian regimes are partners in crime, and the U.S. should apply the same sanctions to both dictatorships," she said. "Both regimes brutally oppress their own citizens, and the Iranian regime is helping the Syrian regime with its ongoing bloody crackdown."

In a separate measure, Ros-Lehtinen proposed a measure to make funding for the United Nations voluntary. The world body, she said, is "plagued by scandal, mismanagement, and inaction."

The State Department said it opposes both measures.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/31/Target-Syria-Iran-together-lawmakers-say/UPI-75291314804808/.

Michigan sees future in wind energy

2012-02-29T15:46:00.000+02:00

HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Developing wind energy in Michigan is providing economic stimulus to the state and redefining its workforce, a U.S. congresswoman said.

U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., whose district includes the eastern part of the state, toured a wind-energy project in the so-called thumb area. She said more than 80 percent of the workforce needed to build the Michigan Wind 2 site is coming from state labor pools.

"This wind farm is providing our area with clean energy, and is doing so by engaging the local community," she said in a statement.

Exelon Wind is building three wind farms in Michigan. The Wind 2 site will have 50 turbines spinning by the end of the year, supplying 90 megawatts of clean energy to Michigan consumers.

The thumb region is expected to become one of the more robust wind energy regions in the state. DTE Energy, a state utility company, aims to invest $225 million in three wind farms in the area.

Consumers Energy, another state utility, said it was doubling the amount of solar power it would purchase from its customers under a state plan that requires utility companies to get 10 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2015.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/08/30/Michigan-sees-future-in-wind-energy/UPI-28001314714809/.

Gold mine backers hail Romania president

2012-02-29T15:43:00.000+02:00

ROSIA MONTANA, Romania, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Supporters of an effort to build a one of the world's biggest gold mines in Romania say they're encouraged by the public backing of President Traian Basescu.

A pro-mining industry and trade group said Monday it is thrilled with comments made last week by Basescu, who seemed to indicate the chronic waffling of the Romanian government on the controversial Rosia Montana Project is turning into qualified support more than a decade after the $1 billion project was announced.

"We hail the statements for support of the mining project in Rosia Montana made by the president of Romania," a statement from the Group for the Support of the Rosia Montana Project said.

The Romanian group, composed of local public authorities, universities, non-governmental organizations, mining industry associations and trade unions, the project is needed in country's Apuseni Mountains region, the English-language Romanian news Web site ACTMedia reported.

"The reality of Rosia Montana is that it is an underdeveloped area, with mining its only industry," the group said. "(There is a large) unemployed population and 80 percent of its people live at subsistence levels, with youth lacking any perspective."

The project, spearheaded by the Canadian mining company Gabriel Resources Ltd., has encountered stiff resistance from environmentalists and others, mainly because of its massive scale and the use of cyanide.

Rosia Montana, considered a world-class reserve, is estimated to hold gold resources of 10 million ounces and Gabriel has said it plans to produce an average 500,000 ounces a year at a cash cost of $400 an ounce, The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto reported.

With price of gold at an all-time high of $1,800 per ounce, the Romanian government is seeing its potential in a different light but is also responding to calls that it get a better deal from the investors.

A mine's controlling company, Rosia Montana Gold Corp., is 19.3 percent-owned by Bucharest through its Minvest Deva while Gabriel Resources holds 80.5 percent and other minority with shareholders control 0.23 percent of the company.

Basescu told an audience at the Danube Delta town of Sulina last week he backed the Rosia Montana gold and silver mining project, given that the world gold prices had risen so high, but that the state's profit-sharing arrangements with Gabriel need to be changed, ACTMedia said.

"I think the Rosia Montana project must be made," he said. "Romania needs it, on condition that the terms relating the sharing of the benefits from the operation of the gold and silver reserves of Rosia Montana be renegotiated."

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc also has stated his preference to have the terms of the deal revisited, saying last week he's awaiting the results of an environmental impact assessment as well as legal opinions on its EU aspects.

"I am no fan of this project for various reasons," he told Radio Romania Actualitati Friday. "In my opinion, the benefits to the Romanian government are not yet sufficient within the project framework the government has negotiated with the entrepreneurs, and surely it should be revisited."

Meanwhile, Gabriel Chief Executive Jonathan Henry said he's encouraged Bucharest seems to be moving ahead with the project.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," he told The Globe and Mail. "If the Romanian government did not want this project, we'd know by now."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/08/31/Gold-mine-backers-hail-Romania-president/UPI-26701314787140/.

Brit schools expelled 1,200 kids under 8

2012-02-29T15:40:00.000+02:00

LONDON, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- British Education Department figures revealed more than 1,200 students ages 7 and under have been permanently expelled from school in the past five years.

The figures revealed 1,200 of the young students, 80 of whom were only 4 years old, were booted from school and 53,000 under the age of 8 were temporarily suspended during the five-year period, The Sun reported Tuesday.

Dan Poulter, a Conservative member of Parliament, blamed the Labor Party for the loss of control in classrooms.

"The [government] coalition is introducing a range of measures to help bring order back," Poulter said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/08/31/Brit-schools-expelled-1200-kids-under-8/UPI-33671314777600/.

Britain had cool summer

2012-02-29T14:32:00.000+02:00

LONDON, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The summer of 2011 was the coolest in Britain in almost two decades, preliminary figures reported Tuesday by the Meteorological Office showed.

The summer was also wetter than usual, The Independent reported. Meteorologists said rainfall from Aug. 1 to Aug. 29 was at 126 percent of normal, while sunshine was 76 percent of normal.

The average temperature for the month was 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) below normal, meteorologists said. This makes 2011 the chilliest summer since 1993.

The Met plans to release its full report on the meteorological summer of June, July and August Thursday.

Brian Gaze of TheWeatherOutlook said Britain's last run of high temperatures occurred in 2006.

"During the 1990s and 2000s, summer heat waves were more frequent than usual, and perhaps some people began to think this was the norm," he said. "During the last few years the run of poor summers has coincided with colder weather during the winter months."

The summer now coming to an end was wetter than last year although drier than those from 2007 to 2009.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/08/31/Britain-had-cool-summer/UPI-76211314770732/.

'Imam Moussa Sadr definitely alive'

2012-02-29T14:29:00.000+02:00

Wed Aug 31, 2011

A senior member of the Lebanese Amal Movement has expressed confidence that Shia cleric Imam Moussa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya more than three decades ago, is still alive.

“We have been in contact with Libyan opposition and revolutionaries during recent years, and they emphasized that Imam Moussa Sadr is alive… but believed he has been frequently transferred to different prisons in Libya,” said Khalil Hamdan in the Iranian city of Qom on Wednesday.

He stressed the significance of following up Sadr's case “with patience and precision,” and stated, “Based on the latest information, we believe that he is definitely alive,” Mehr news agency reported.

The top Amal official expressed hope that the cleric would be released in the near future thanks to further efforts by Iranian and Lebanese officials and his family.

Sadr, the founder of the Amal Movement, went missing during an official visit to the Libyan capital Tripoli in August 1978.

It is widely believed that the popular and highly revered Lebanese Shia cleric of Iranian descent was kidnapped on the orders of senior Libyan officials.

Accompanied by two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin, the top Shia cleric was scheduled to meet with Libyan officials.

In 2008, the Beirut government issued an arrest warrant for Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi over Sadr's disappearance.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/196704.html.

Yemenis hold mass anti-regime demos

2012-02-29T14:23:00.000+02:00

Wed Aug 31, 2011

Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni protesters have staged demonstrations across Yemen on Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy month of Ramadan, calling for the implementation of their revolution's goals, Press TV reported.

Chanting anti-government slogans on Tuesday, protesters in the capital Sana'a called on the newly established national council to expedite the implementation of the objectives of the popular uprising in the Middle Eastern state.

“We as protesters confirm our determination to continue our revolution and we call for the swift implementation of our uprising's goals,” a protester said.

The demonstrators condemned the security forces' clashes with the country's tribesmen, calling for an end to Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule.

Similar rallies were held in other cities, including Taizz, where at least one protester was killed and many others injured in clashes with regime forces.

Earlier on Monday, Yemen's Saleh claimed that he was again ready to conditionally sign an agreement proposed by the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC), to “diffuse” the political crisis in his country.

The plan, drafted by the [P]GCC in April, includes three steps to be taken by both the opposition and the government. Embattled Saleh has already backed out of signing the deal three times.

However, on Monday, anti-government protesters took to the streets in the capital and rejected the initiative, calling it a US-Saudi plot to crush their revolution.

Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in Yemen's major cities since late January, calling for an end to corruption and unemployment and demanding Saleh's ouster.

Hundreds of protesters have been killed and many more injured in the regime's brutal crackdown on Yemen's popular uprising.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/196670.html.

Libyans Find Historic Hope

2012-02-29T13:42:00.000+02:00

By Karlos Zurutuza

WAZZIN, Libya, Aug 24, 2011 (IPS) - "I’m 60 years old and I never thought I'd see this moment with my own eyes," Najib Taghuz tells IPS from the Tunisian-Libyan border. The engineer from the recently liberated town Gehryan is headed for Tunisia - his wife needs surgery on the left hand. But he hopes to return to a new Libya.

"When Gaddafi falls Libya will gain the right to say she has finally entered the 21st century," adds Taghuz. He wonders if he’ll be let into Tunisia with a souvenir he’s just grabbed on his way here - the shell of an anti-tank missile. "I really need to get this one across the border for my memories."

With the northern border between Tunisia and Libya closed – it was held by Gaddafi until a few days back - the southern rebel-held border crossing remains the only way in and out in the west of the war- torn country. The Dehiba-Wazzin post was taken over by rebels in April and controlled ever since as a vital hub for supplies into Libya’s Nafusa mountains.

With the Brega and Misrata fronts in a state of stalemate for months, Nafusa mountaineers have played a key role in the fast move towards Tripoli.

Activity at the border is hectic. But the joy of refugees returning home from the west of the country contrasts with the dismay of those still forced to flee Libya. "We did not feel safe back home in Tripoli,s so we drove all the way down here," Tripoli resident Hassan Harem tells IPS at the crossing.

"Conditions have been terrible for the last months: constant bombing by NATO aircraft, no fuel, often no food... after what we’ve all gone through we realized that we couldn’t cope with the shooting in the streets," adds Harem, a 32-year-old clerk who quit his job two months ago. But with a bit of luck, he says, he could return in just a few days.

Libyans are not the only ones fleeing across the southern border. Kadir Harthem, an ophthalmologist from Egypt, is one of the legion of foreign workers waiting to be evacuated by sea.

"Some colleagues said they were going to jump into a boat. As soon as I saw the opportunity I took my car and came down here." After seven years of working in Tripoli, he hopes to find a job back in Cairo.

Unlike the long and tiresome passport checks on the Tunisian side, the operation speeds up significantly on the side controlled by Libyan rebels: no need to fill forms, or open luggage for inspection. The rebel officer in command registers the passport in a database, and we are already in Libya.

Just three miles from there lies the town of Wazzin, which has very likely suffered the most among towns scattered around this bastion of stone 1,000 feet over the Libyan desert. Wazzin paid a price for its proximity to the disputed border. Attacks by Gaddafi’s forces turned this into a ghost town in ruins.

Just three weeks ago, this IPS reporter wasn’t able to find any Wazzin local to speak with. But after the recent NATO bombing of Ghezaia from where Gadaffi’s rockets were launched towards Wazzin, some locals have returned to rebuild their houses.

Just over 50 miles further into Libya is the checkpoint Nalut. Here three guerrilla fighters sitting under the shade beside the road are following the Tripoli events on live television.

"After driving away Gaddafi’s loyalists from their bases in the desert two weeks ago we managed to restore electricity. We needed seven days to repair the whole net but electricity is back to stay," a smiling rebel fighter in a Barcelona FC t-shirt and wearing a hat with the rebel flag tells IPS.

These are the days of Ramadan fasting. After sunset, and after prayers, guerrillas and local civilians gather daily in the town’s main square where the Red Crescent serves free dinner.

Rebel Akram says he will return his rifle back as soon as he can, and get back to reopening his grocery store.

"I am 40 years old, two less than Gaddafi’s rule. I have not known any form of government other than his. I’ve always wondered what democracy was like and how long will we have to wait to enjoy it here in Libya." He may not have to wait long now.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104865.

People-Funded TV Challenges Big Business

2012-02-29T13:38:00.000+02:00

By Emad Mekay

CAIRO, Aug 25, 2011 (IPS) - Egypt’s most organized political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is tapping crowds as a new financing method for its nascent TV station and media outlets to be able to compete with well-oiled challengers in corporate and government- run media.

All television stations in Egypt are either owned by rich businessmen who made their wealth through close links to the former Hosni Mubarak regime, or by the government. The new financing model adopted by the Muslim Brotherhood could start a wave of public channels that resemble National Public Radio in the U.S. where the public, rather than the government or the rich, funds news content.

The group, that was once outlawed, has soft-launched its Misr 25, a round-the-clock general interest TV channel.

Named after the first day of the uprising that toppled Mubarak, it has been broadcasting non-stop footage of Tahrir Square flag-waving protests that unseated Mubarak after 30 years in office, all with patriotic songs eulogizing the achievements of the Egyptian people.

Hazem Ghurab, a veteran journalist who is running the channel, says Misr 25 differs profoundly from its business-funded competitors. "Our funding is crowd-sourced," he said in an interview. "Our model is the BBC and (Japan’s) NHK."

Misr 25 owners hail from the Brotherhood’s vast pool of members across the country who each invest a small amount or make a donation.

"This way we are far more professional and far more independent than those owned by businessmen who can be easily manipulated, intimidated or bought by regimes," said Ghurab, who last worked for Al Jazeera channel in Doha, Qatar.

On top of the public funding plan, Ghurab still sees major advertising market potential. People are waiting "impatiently", he says, to watch the Muslim Brotherhood channel. He believes they also constitute a sizable untapped advertising market made of the pious, who were mostly ignored by the country’s business elite and the former regime.

Television critic Mohammed Said of Shashaty weekly says the new funding model adopted by the Muslim Brotherhood sets it apart from the wave of new channels that have launched or are being prepared for launch after the fall of Mubarak.

"Most of the new entrants in the market so far are business people who were in bed with the previous regime," said Mohammed Said. "Their TV channels and the jobs they offer to reporters and top newspapers’ editors is their way of constructing a buffer zone between themselves and public oversight of their practices under Mubarak."

After the success of the revolution and under public and media pressure, several corruption investigations were opened into the practices of the country’s business elite under Mubarak. Some are now in jail or face further probes. Some of the possessions obtained fraudulently under Mubarak were ordered by courts to be returned to the state.

Fearing further public scrutiny and more damage to their investments, many businessmen who were closely associated with the corrupt Mubarak regime and who had no experience in media ownership have rushed to set up their own channels and media outlets.

One of Egypt’s richest people, Naguib Sawiris, whose family made billions in telecommunications and construction under Mubarak, is sponsoring two new TV channels. The channels will join his media holdings such as the news and public affairs channel OTV. The family have shares in various local newspapers.

Mohammed Al-Amin Ragab, business partner of one of Mubarak’s business symbols, real estate tycoon Mansour Amer, who was a member of the now disbanded National Democratic Party that ruled Egypt for 30 years, has launched a suite of channels under the name Capital Broadcasting Center, CBC.

Businessmen such as Al-Amin and Sawiris join a family of other money barons who discovered the power of media holdings since the time of Mubarak.

Among them is Sayed Al-Badawi, a pharmaceutical tycoon turned media investor. He owns Al-Hayat channels line-up that initially rallied against the anti-Mubarak revolution.

Cement mogul Hassan Rateb, who owns Al-Mehwar television, devoted airtime to discredit democracy activists during the first days of the revolution as foreign agents paid by Jews, Israel and the United States.

The country’s state-owned media-services company, Media Production City, now reports unprecedented boom in business. All of its studios have been rented out. The company, which owns sprawling cinematic sets on the outskirts of Cairo, will now build even more studios to cater or the rising demand.

"It is old money at it again. Businessmen are just buying clout. It is a classic case of conflict-of- interest," Mohammed Said of Shashaty said.

"This is why the crowd-sourced model of the Muslim Brotherhood promises to offer less biased news coverage than those channels owned by people who benefited under Mubarak. We are waiting to see what that will look like."

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104881.

Dreaming of a Future After Gaddafi

2012-02-29T13:34:00.000+02:00

By Karlos Zurutuza

NALUT, Libya, Aug 24, 2011 (IPS) - "We grabbed all these weapons from Gaddafi's compound just before NATO shelled the whole place," says rebel fighter Massud Askar in downtown Nalut. The 50-year-old rebel displays an Italian light semi-automatic rifle in his right hand and a hand grenade in the other.

"We broke into the compound at around 3 pm. We got all this stuff from Bab Aziziyah’s main entrance," adds the exultant fighter before heading out for the three-hour trip back to Tripoli, about 150 miles to the north.

Since the first rebel troops entered Libya’s capital a few days ago, this Berber mountain village has worked as a hub for fresh fighters bound for the country’s capital. In Nalut, heavy machine guns atop sand-camouflaged pick-ups are everywhere.

"We’re all heading down to Zawiya and Tripoli for the final battle, and we need all the Kalashnikovs and Fal rifles we can gather. Security is Nafusa is not an issue today as Gaddafi’s last followers are too busy on Tripoli’s outskirts to care about what we’re doing up here," rebel commander Essam Assad tells IPS.

The breaking news coming from Gaddafi’s strongholds has been the focus of attention. But others already venture to look ahead. Said Hafiz is concerned about his children’s schooling.

"They’re going to start school earlier than normal after the summer vacation but I wonder if that will be enough for the kids to catch up with the lessons," Hafiz tells IPS. Most local children have attended classes in makeshift tents in the middle of the Tunisian desert for the last five months.

"It’s not just about wasted time. Are the young generations going to stick to the propaganda boosted by the regime’s curriculum?" asks Ibrahim Walid, a local teacher until last February. Walid says he’s ready to help remove "Gaddafi's cosmology" from the school books.

But a 55-year-old local teacher has a more ambitious dream. "We’ve spent the last four decades under a regime that hated us, the Amazig people. I hope I can catch up with schooling in our own language before I retire."

The Amazig - also called "Berbers" - form Libya’s largest minority. They are estimated to be five to 10 percent of the Libyan population of six million. Living apart in the mountains - often in self-imposed exclusion - has helped keep alive their ancient language Tamazight.

Everyone wants to seize the moment. Walid Essam, a 30-year-old former lawyer, has been unemployed since the revolution started, like most local shopkeepers, clerks, lorry drivers and others.

"We have only two choices: either we languish in the middle of the Tunisian desert, or we take up a gun and fight the regime," Essam tells IPS next to his pick-up turned into to a war hot-rod, as he heads out to Tripoli.

The upper hand in the war has dramatically swung to the rebels’ side over the last few days. But a key question still remains unanswered: Where is Gaddafi?

"I’m sure he left for the Chadian border a week ago, otherwise we would have already grabbed him in Tripoli," local shopkeeper Abdul Rahman tells IPS.

Speculating about Gaddafi’s potential shelter, possibilities emerge from Algeria to Venezuela and from South Africa to Chad. Others venture further east.

"I might be wrong but he might well be in Syria. Whatever the case, I’m sure America is well aware of his whereabouts," 17-year-old Ahmed tells IPS in English he has "picked up from American TV series."

Following reports of four Italian journalists reportedly kidnapped in Zawiya on Wednesday after their driver was shot, concerns have grown about safety on the road to Tripoli.

"Journalists were jumping into cars bound for Tripoli in their dozens. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more incidents like this," Juma Khan, a Nalut resident, tells IPS.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104879.

Female Trafficking Soars in Iraq

2012-02-29T12:00:00.000+02:00

By Rebecca Murray

BAGHDAD, Aug 27, 2011 (IPS) - Rania was 16 years old when officials raped her during Saddam Hussein’s 1991 crackdown in Iraq’s Shia south. "My brothers were sentenced to death, and the price to stop this was to offer my body," she says.

Cast out for bringing ‘shame’ to her family, Rania ran away to Baghdad and soon fell into living and working in Baghdad’s red light district.

Prostitution and sex trafficking are epidemic in Iraq, where the violence of military occupation and sectarian strife have smashed national institutions, impoverished the population and torn apart families and neighborhoods. Over 100,000 civilians have been killed and an estimated 4.4 million Iraqis displaced since 2003.

"Wars and conflicts, wherever they are fought, invariably usher in sickeningly high level of violence against women and girls," Amnesty International states.

Rania worked her way up as a sex trafficker’s deputy, collecting money from clients. "If I had four girls, and about 200 clients a day - it could be about 50 clients for each one of them," she explains.

Sex costs about 100 dollars a session now, Rania says. Many virgin teenage girls are sold for around 5,000 dollars, and trafficked to popular destinations like northern Iraq, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. Non-virgins are about half that price.

Girls who run away to escape domestic violence or forced marriage are the most vulnerable prey for men working for pimps in bus stations and taxi stands. Some girls are also sold into marriages by family relatives, only to be handed over to trafficking rings.

Most of Iraq’s sex traffickers are predominantly female, running squalid brothels in neighborhoods like the decrepit Al-Battaween district in central Baghdad.

Six years ago, a raid by U.S. troops on Rania’s brothel brought her nefarious career to an abrupt end. The prostitutes were charged along with everyone else for abetting terrorism.

Imprisonment changed Rania’s life. While she served time in Baghdad’s Al-Kadimiyah lock-up – where more than half the female inmates serve time for prostitution – a local women’s support group befriended her. Today she works for them as an undercover researcher, drawing on her years of experience and connections to infiltrate brothels throughout Iraq.

"I deal with all these pimps and sex traffickers," Rania says, covered in black, with black, lacquered fingernails and gold bracelets. "I don’t tell them I’m an activist, I tell them I am a sex trafficker. This is the only way for me to get information. If they discover that I’m an activist I get killed."

In one harrowing experience, Rania and two other girls visited a house in Baghdad’s Al-Jihad district, where girls as young as 16 were held to cater exclusively to the U.S. military. The brothel’s owner told Rania that an Iraqi interpreter employed by the Americans served as the go-between, transporting girls to and from the U.S. airport base.

Rania’s co-workers covertly took photos of the captive teenagers with their mobile phones, but were caught. "One girl went crazy," Rania recalls. "She accused us of spying. I don’t know how we escaped," she exclaims. "We had to run away - barefoot!"

Before the Gulf War in 1991, Iraq enjoyed the highest female literacy rate across the Middle East, and more Iraqi women were employed in skilled professions, like medicine and education, than in any other country in the region.

Twenty years later Iraqi women experience a very different reality. Sharia law increasing dominates everyday life, with issues like marriage, divorce and honor crimes implemented outside of the court system, and adherence to state law.

"Many factors combined to promote the rise of sex trafficking and prostitution in the area," a Norwegian Church Aid report said last year.

"The US-led war and the chaos it has generated; the growing insecurity and lawlessness; corruption of authorities; the upsurge in religious extremism; economic hardship; marriage pressures; gender based violence and recurrent discrimination suffered by women; kidnappings of girls and women; the impunity of perpetrators of crimes, especially those against women; and the development of new technologies associated with the globalization of the sex industry."

The International Organization of Migration (IOM) estimates 800,000 humans are trafficked across borders annually, but statistics within Iraq are very difficult to pin down.

Although the Iraqi constitution deems trafficking illegal, there are no criminal laws that effectively prosecute offenders. Perversely, it is often the victims of trafficking and prostitution that are punished.

IOM is currently working with an inter-ministerial panel to lobby for a new reading of the revised counter-trafficking law, which has been stalled by the government since 2009.

"We have reports about trafficking both inside and out of Iraq," says senior deputy minister, Judge Asghar Al-Musawi, at the Ministry of Migration and Displacement.

"However, I admit that Iraqi government institutions are not mature enough to deal with this topic yet, as the departments are still in their growing phase."

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the government has done little to combat the issue. "This is a phenomenon that wasn’t prevalent in 2003," says HRW researcher, Samer Muscati.

"We don’t have specific statistics. This is the first part to tackle the problem; we need to know how significant and widespread the problem is. This is something the government hasn’t been doing. It hasn’t monitored or cracked down on traffickers, and because of that there is this black hole in terms of information."

Zeina, 18, is an example of an invisible statistic. According to the local Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), she was 13 when her grandfather sold her to a sex trafficker in Dubai for 6,000 dollars. She performed only oral sex with customers until a wealthy man paid 4,000 dollars to take her virginity for one night.

After four years of prostitution, Zeina finally escaped the United Arab Emirates and returned back to her parents in Baghdad. She approached the authorities and took her grandfather to court. However, Zeina has since disappeared. OWFI has learned she was sold again, this time by her mother to a sex trafficker in Erbil.

OWFI director Yanar Mohammed says her office has been threatened for their advocacy against the lucrative trafficking industry, especially reporting on an infamous brothel owner in Al-Battaween district known as Emam.

"In each house there are almost 45 women and it is such a chaotic scene where women get treated like a cheap meat market," describes Mohammed. "You step into the house and see women being exploited sexually, even not behind closed doors. So the woman who runs these houses makes an incredible income, and has a crew around her to protect what she does."

Emam is said to enjoy close ties with the Interior Ministry, and has never had one of her four houses shut down. Despite OWFI’s expose, her operations are unaffected.

Mohammed sighs. "Iraq has a whole generation of women who are in their teens now, whose bodies have been turned into battlefields from criminal ideologies."

Source: Inter-Press Service.
Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104911.

Military Trials on the Rise After Mubarak

2012-02-29T11:52:00.000+02:00

By Cam McGrath

CAIRO, Aug 30, 2011 (IPS) - Amr El-Beheiry’s trial in a military court lasted just five minutes. The 33-year- old Egyptian was arrested on Feb. 26 and sentenced without a lawyer present to five years in prison for breaking curfew and assaulting a public official during a demonstration in Cairo.

He is just one of thousands of civilians tried in military courts since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) assumed power in February during the uprising that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak. The special courts, which often group dozens of defendants together before a military judge, are notorious for their quick and severe sentences. Defendants are regularly denied access to legal counsel and verdicts cannot be appealed.

Mubarak used such intrinsically unfair trials against citizens who challenged his regime: Islamists, disobedient workers, and various political opponents. Egypt’s military rulers appear to have borrowed from the ex-dictator’s playbook.

"Military trials are a tool in the SCAF’s hand," says lawyer Ahmed Ragheb, executive director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center. "They are using military courts because they provide more control than civil courts, which have independent judges and legal accountability."

According to Ragheb, over 12,000 Egyptians have been sentenced in military courts in the last six months. By comparison, less than 2,000 civilians were tried in military courts during Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

"Unfortunately, military trials have become the norm and civil trials the exception," Ragheb told IPS.

Activists who have seen their peers arrested and tried in military courts, often on what they claim are trumped up weapons and assault charges, say the wholesale use of military trials in recent months is aimed at sending a strong message: criticism of the regime will not be tolerated.

Since Mubarak’s ouster, protesters have demanded faster reforms and accused the ruling military council of seeking to protect its own interests, as well as members of the former regime. They say the SCAF has attempted to discredit the revolution by labeling civil protesters thugs and foreign agents.

One group of female protesters arrested in March was allegedly forced to undergo "virginity checks" and threatened with prostitution charges.

"They want to beat us and humiliate us to make people afraid to join demonstrations," says 23-year-old Eman Hussein, whose parents have tried to prevent her from joining protests.

Rights organizations have warned of recurrent abuses of civilians serving sentences in military prisons. Former detainees speaking at press conference said they were subject to frequent beatings and humiliation by their jailers, including being forced to strip naked in front of their cellmates.

"It is very humiliating to stand naked in front of 180 people," said Mohamed Soliman, a civilian detainee who was released after spending nearly two months in a military prison.

Military leaders have denied allegations of torture and abuse.

The SCAF recently acknowledged the right to a fair trial enshrined in the UN International Declaration of Human Rights, but said military trials were necessary due to the spiraling crime rates that accompanied the uprising that led to Mubarak’s ouster. It insisted that only cases of "thuggery" associated with weapons, rape or assault of military personnel were being referred to military courts.

"No civilian should be tried in front of military courts," SCAF member Major-General Mamdouh Shaheen told reporters. "But in this emergency situation... military courts took the place of civilian courts until they were able to work."

Adel Ramadan, a lawyer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, claims security has improved and the country’s civil courts are capable of handling the additional caseload. He says all citizens, even suspected thugs, are entitled to a fair trial and those sentenced in military courts should be released or retried in a civil court.

He also voices concern over what amounts to a parallel justice system. While civilians have been referred to military courts for hasty trials, Mubarak and his former security officials are being tried in civilian courts on charges of killing nearly 850 protesters during the uprising.

"There is a perception that fair trials are only for the privileged," says Ramadan.

The SCAF has done little to dispel this perception. Military courts continue to rule on cases ranging from petty theft to violent crime, handing down sentences of six months to 25 years in prison. At least a dozen defendants, including minors, have received death sentences.

Reversals are rare, but do happen. Earlier this month the SCAF pardoned blogger Loai Nagati, who was arrested while documenting clashes between police and protesters in Cairo on Jun. 28, and activist Asmaa Mahfouz, who was accused of inciting the public against the military council in a posting on her Twitter account. They were released followed a massive outcry over the charges. The release appeared aimed at appeasing the public.

Mona Seif, coordinator of the ‘No to Military Trials’ campaign, says the military council has calculated its response, releasing a handful of prominent activists while showing no clemency for thousands of poor and disenfranchised detainees.

"The only cases in which the army released civilian detainees or promised a retrial were those in which it faced intense media pressure," she says. "Media and social networking campaigns have helped secure the release of a few political activists, but now we are trying to draw attention to the thousands of regular citizens still in military prisons who are not part of these networks."

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104925.

Hariri Bombing Indictment Based on Flawed Premise

2012-02-29T11:46:00.001+02:00

Analysis by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON, Aug 29, 2011 (IPS) - The indictment of four men linked to Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri made public by the Special Tribunal on Lebanon Aug. 17 is questionable not because it is based on "circumstantial evidence", but because that evidence is based on a flawed premise.

The evidence depends on a convoluted theory involving what the indictment calls "co-location" of personal mobile phones associated with five distinct networks said to be somehow connected with the plot to murder Hariri.

The indictment, originally filed Jun. 10, says that, if there are "many instances" in which a phone is "active at the same location, on the same date, and within the same time frame as other phones", but the phones do not contact each other, then it is "reasonable to conclude from these instances that one person is using multiple phones together".

Based on that assumption the indictment asserts that "a person can ultimately be identified by co-location to be the user of a network phone."

On that reasoning, one of the four accused, Salim Jamil Ayyash, is said to have participated in a "red" network of phones that was activated on Jan. 5, 2005, only contacted each other, and ceased operations two minutes before the blast that killed Hariri. The "red" network is presumed to have been used by those who carried out surveillance as well as prepared the logistics for the bombing.

But Ayyash is also linked by "co-location" to a "green" network that had been initiated in October 2004 and ceased to operate one hour before the attack, and a "blue" network that was active between September 2004 and September 2005. The only basis for linking either of those two sets of mobile phones to the assassination appears to be the claim of frequent "co-location" of Ayyash's personal cell phone with one of the phones in those networks and one red phone.

But the idea that "co-location" of phones is evidence of a single owner is a logical fallacy. It ignores the statistical reality that a multitude of mobile phones would have been frequently co-located with any given phone carrying out surveillance on Hariri in Beirut over an hour or more on the same day during the weeks before the assassination.

In the area of Beirut from the parliament to the St. George Hotel, known as Beirut Central District, where the "red" network is said to have been active in carrying out its surveillance of Hariri, there are 11 base stations for mobile phones, each of which had a range varying from 300 meters to 1,250 meters, according to Riad Bahsoun, a prominent expert on Lebanon's telecom system. Bahsoun estimates that, within the range of each of those cell towers, between 20,000 and 50,000 cell phones were operating during a typical working day.

Given that number of mobile phones operating within a relatively small area, a large number of phones would obviously have registered in the cell tower area and in the same general time frame - especially if defined as an hour or more, as appears to be the case - as at least one of the red network phones on many occasions.

The indictment does not state how many times one of Ayyash's personal phones was allegedly "co-located" with a "red" network phone.

To prove that Ayyash was in charge of the team using the red phones, the indictment provides an extraordinarily detailed account of Ayyash's alleged use of red, green and blue phones on seven days during the period between Jan. 11 and Feb. 14, the day of the assassination.

But according to that information, during the final nine days on which the red network was active in surveillance of Hariri, including the day of the bombing itself, Ayyash was in phone contact with the red and blue networks on only three days – a pattern that appears inconsistent with the role of coordinating the entire plot attributed to him.

The most senior Hezbollah figure indicted, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, is accused of involvement only because he is said to have had 59 phone contacts with Ayyash during the Jan. 5-Feb. 14 period. But those phone contacts are attributed to the two Hezbollah figures solely on the basis of co-location of their personal mobile phones with two phones in the "green" network on an unspecified number of occasions – not from direct evidence that they talked on those occasions.

Evidence from the U.N. commission investigating the Hariri assassination suggests that investigators did not stumble upon the alleged connections between the four Hezbollah figures and the different phone networks but used the link analysis software to find indirect links between phones identified as belonging to Hezbollah and the "red phones".

In his third report, dated Sep. 26, 2006, then Commissioner Serge Brammertz said his team was using communications traffic analysis for "proactive and speculative" studies.

Brammertz referred in his next report in December 2006 to the pursuit of an "alternative hypothesis" that the motive for killing Hariri was a "combination of political and sectarian factors". That language indicates that the "proactive and speculative" use of link analysis was to test the hypothesis that Shi'a Hezbollah was behind the bombing.

This is not the first time that communications link analysis has been used to link telephones associated with a specific group or entity to other phones presumed to be part of a major bombing plot.

In the investigation of the Buenos Aires terror bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994, the Argentine intelligence service SIDE used analysis of phone records to link the Iranian cultural attaché, Mohsen Rabbani, to the bombing, according to the former head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Office on Hezbollah, James Bernazzani.

Bernazzani, who was sent by the White House in early 1997 to assist SIDE in the bombing investigation, told this reporter in a November 2006 interview that SIDE had argued that a series of telephone calls made between Jul. 1 and Jul. 18, 1994 to a mobile phone in the Brazilian border city of Foz de Iguazu must have been made by the "operational group" for the bombing.

SIDE had further argued that a call allegedly made on a mobile phone belonging to Rabbani to the same number showed that he was linked the bombing plot.

Bernazzani called that use of link analysis by SIDE "speculative" – the same word that Brammertz used to describe the U.N. investigation's employment of the same tool. Such speculative use of link analysis "can be very dangerous", Bernazzani said. "Using that kind of analysis, you could link my telephone to [Osama] bin Laden's."

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104920.

Syria force surrounds town after defections: residents

2012-02-29T10:52:00.000+02:00

George Haddad
Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Global Arab Network - An armored Syrian force surrounded a town near the city of Homs and fired heavy machineguns after the defection of tens of soldiers in the area, activists and residents said.

One woman, 45 year-old Amal Qoraman, was killed and five other people were injured, they said, adding that tens of people were arrested in house to house raids in the town of 40,0000.

Since the demise of Muammar Gaddafi's rule in Libya, activists and residents have reported increasing defections among Syrian troops, as well as more intense street protests in a five-month-old uprising against President Bashar al Assad.

Syrian authorities have repeatedly denied army defections have been taking place. They have expelled independent media since the uprising began in March.

Activists say there have been desertions in eastern Deir al-Zor province, northwestern Idlib province, the Homs countryside and the outskirts of Damascus, where security forces fought gunbattles with defectors Sunday.

At least 40 light tanks and armored vehicles, and 20 buses of troops and military intelligence members deployed at dawn at the entrance of Rastan, 20 km (12 miles) north of Homs and began firing heavy machineguns at the town, two residents said.

"The tanks deployed at both banks of the highway, which remained open, and fired long bursts from their machineguns at Rastan," one of the residents, who gave his name as Raed, told Reuters by phone.

He said defections began in the town when it was stormed by tanks three months ago to crush large street protests against Assad in an assault that killed dozens of civilians.

Security forces killed Monday a former officer who had played a key role in coordinating army defections, activists said.

Mostapha Selim Hezbollah, a former air force officer in his 40s', was shot dead when his car was ambushed near the town of Kfar Nubul in Idlib province, which borders Turkey, they said.

"It was a targeted assassination. A companion who was with him in the car was badly wounded but we managed to get him to a hospital. The attack happened just before 'iftar' (breaking of fast). We don't know yet if it was security police or troops who fired at them," one of the activists told Reuters by phone.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, said five other people were killed earlier in military assaults on several towns in Idlib.

Source: Global Arab Network.
Link: http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/2011083011514/Syria-Politics/syria-force-surrounds-town-after-defections-residents.html.

Algeria not immune to Arab spring revolt

2012-02-29T10:47:00.000+02:00

- Asmaa Malik
Monday, 29 August 2011

Global Arab Network - Algeria could be swept by an Arab Spring-style revolt if the government does not urgently fix social and political problems, the country's leading Islamist opposition politician said.

Sheikh Abdallah Djaballah, 54, head of a party called the Front for Justice and Development, said the government had tried to appease anger by handing out cash, but had failed to address a lack of democracy at the root of Algeria's problems.

"The sources of tensions may unify and become a tsunami that will destroy everything," Djaballah told Reuters in an interview.

"The regime wanted to fix the problem financially by saying that the crisis is social and that raising wages will be enough... It is true that the social aspect of the crisis is real, but the key problem remains political."

Algeria, an important gas supplier to Europe and a U.S. ally in its fight against al Qaeda, has been shaken by unrest and strikes since the beginning of this year, with people demanding better pay and lower prices.

The government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 74, feared the strikes and protests could lead to the kind of revolt which toppled long-standing rulers in Egypt and neighbouring Tunisia.

Bouteflika responded by using energy revenues to give hefty pay rises for almost all public employees and to raise subsidies on basic foodstuffs.

To relieve pressure for political change, he also lifted a 19-year-old state of emergency, promised to give the opposition a voice in state media and set up a commission to recommend political reforms.

Since then the number of protests has fallen sharply, but the problems are still there, said Jaballah, who wears a beard, like most Islamists, but also dresses in Western clothes.

"If someone has cancer, you cannot just give them a sedative and this is what the government has been doing so far," he said.

Source: Global Arab Network.
Link: http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/2011082911337/Algeria-Politics/algeria-not-immune-to-arab-spring-revolt.html.

Scientists announce amazing findings: chocolate offers huge protection from heart disease and stroke

2012-02-29T10:42:00.000+02:00

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
by: S. L. Baker, features writer

(NaturalNews) All regular readers of NaturalNews know that researchers have discovered chocolate (especially the organic, not junked up with additives and sugar type) contains phytochemicals which appear to promote good health. But no one has had much of a clue about the specifics of some of those benefits on the cardiovascular system -- until now. Scientists at the European Society of Cardiology Congress currently underway in Paris just announced that chocolate provides huge protection from heart disease as well as stroke.

That's great news because, despite the billions of dollars spent on mainstream medicine's drugs and surgical interventions, the battle against cardiovascular disease obviously needs some serious help. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that by 2030 nearly 23.6 million people will die yearly from heart disease.

So just imagine the fluttering of hearts in Big Pharma offices if they found a no side effect, easy to produce drug that actually worked to lower the risk of developing heart disease in the first place by almost 40 percent. The demand and profits to be made would be enormous. While there is no such medication, it turns out that eating chocolate regularly appears to accomplish what pills can't.

For a new study, which was just published in the online version of the British Medical Journal, Dr. Oscar Franco and colleagues from the University of Cambridge carried out a large scale investigation of existing research on chocolate. In all, they looked at research involving over 100,000 participants with and without existing heart disease. Then the scientists evaluated the effects of eating chocolate on cardiovascular events including heart attacks and stroke.

For each of seven studies that were analyzed, the research team compared the group with the highest chocolate consumption against the group with the lowest consumption (to minimize bias, they factored in differences in the way each study had been designed). Bottom line: the highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with an astounding 37 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease and an almost 30 percent reduction in stroke compared with lowest levels of chocolate eating.

The studies did not differentiate between dark or milk chocolate and included consumption of chocolate bars, drinks, biscuits and desserts -- which raises an obvious question not answered by the new research analysis. Would the cardiovascular protection be even more pronounced if the chocolate didn't include extra sugars, unhealthy fats or chemical additives found in many chocolate drinks and candy bars?

The authors of the study did warn their findings need to be interpreted cautiously because commercially available chocolate products are often loaded with calories, so eating too much of these can lead to weight gain and be harmful to health in general. However, in a statement to the media, they concluded that given the health benefits of eating chocolate, "initiatives to reduce the current fat and sugar content in most chocolate products should be explored."

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/033463_chocolate_heart_disease.html.

Iran sues Russia over missing missiles

2012-02-29T10:35:00.000+02:00

Tehran (UPI)
Aug 30, 2011

Iran has filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in a bid to force Russia to sell it the powerful S-300PMU air-defense system under an $800 contract Moscow abrogated in 2010, citing U.N. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.

But Moscow's move in reneging on the 2007 deal was largely political, and if its relations with the West deteriorate it could decide to deliver the five mobile units it agreed to sell the Iranians.

Much will depend on how important Moscow views its relations with Iran.

Russia has been a key arms supplier to the Islamic republic in the past and is building a nuclear reactor on the Persian Gulf coast at Bushehr, despite repeated U.S. objections.

It's likely the S-300s could become a major pawn in Russia's relationship with the United States.

Right now Moscow is looking to the West to help modernize strategic economic sectors, so it's unlikely it will accede to pressure from Tehran in a legal dispute that could drag on for years.

Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi, said Aug. 24 Tehran rejects the Russian claim that air-defense systems fall under the U.N. sanctions and expects the court to authorize the delivery of the missiles.

Iran made a down payment of $170 million after the contract was signed in December 2007.

Tehran wanted to take delivery of the S-300s as soon as possible because it was concerned at the time that Israel would unleash pre-emptive airstrikes against its nuclear program.

The S-300 is considered one of the world's most advanced air-defense systems, ranking alongside the all-altitude MIM-104 Patriot system built by the Raytheon Co. of Massachusetts.

It would be a formidable addition to Iranian air defenses around key nuclear installations.

The system, developed by NPO Almaz of Moscow, can engage multiple targets, missiles as well as aircraft, at ranges of more than 100 miles at low and high altitudes.

U.S. military officers said the S-300 would be a "game-changer" for Iran if it ever received the mobile batteries.

At present, the Iranian air-defense system does not have anything remotely as powerful as the S-300.

Israeli aircraft could penetrate without too much trouble, although there would be losses. But with S-300s in place it would be immensely more difficult to knock out any nuclear sites and losses would be much higher.

Russia has sold the S-300PMU to most of the former Soviet republics as well as to China and North Korea.

The United States and Israel pressed Moscow hard not to deliver the missiles to Iran, and this is understood to have influenced Moscow when Tehran demanded the S-300s be delivered.

The U.N. sanctions, imposed in June 2010, supposedly provided a convenient way out for the Russians.

"The promise of the sale to Iran has served as leverage for Moscow in its negotiations with the United States, and Moscow does not want to lose that leverage," observed U.S. security think tank Stratfor.

"Furthermore, actually delivering the missile systems to Iran would cause a major break in relations between Russia and the West at a time when Russia is looking to the West for assistance, increasing cooperation with the United States and strengthening its relationships with Western European powers."

As it is, Russia has another reason not to provide Iran with the S-300s: It's expected to wrap production of the system this year.

Moscow has been replacing its own deployed S-300s with the more advanced S-400 over the past few years.

It's believed to be ahead of schedule in developing the S-500s system, which could be ready for production by the end of 2012.

But, Stratfor cautioned, if Moscow's dealings with the West go sour, it would still have stocks of S-300s, including those it will be replacing, to send to Iran if it decided the geopolitical climate had changed.

And it could also use third parties to make the deliveries, as it has in the past to mask politically sensitive arms sales.

"Russia is planning to replace S-300s with S-400s in its allied neighboring countries, like Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan," Stratfor said.

"Any Iranian officials' visits to such countries could indicate whether Russia is in fact delivering the S-300s to Iran, as Tehran's ability to acquire the system cannot be ruled out."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_sues_Russia_over_missing_missiles_999.html.

China tightens security in restive Xinjiang

2012-02-29T10:31:00.000+02:00

Beijing (AFP)
Aug 30, 2011

China has banned pigeon flying and tightened airport security in the run-up to an international trade fair in Xinjiang after a series of deadly attacks in the restive region, state media said Tuesday.

A low-altitude no-fly zone over the provincial capital Urumqi also prohibits kites and hot-air balloons during the China-Eurasia Expo which begins Thursday, the official Xinhua news agency and local government said.

Airports in a dozen cities across China, including Beijing and Shanghai, have increased security checks for Urumqi-bound flights, requiring passengers to remove their belts and shoes, Xinhua and airport officials said.

The new measures reportedly caused lengthy queues, flight delays and even fights among frustrated passengers at Beijing Capital International Airport on Sunday.

Armed police are guarding the convention center in Urumqi where leaders from China and neighboring countries will meet, while an elite police counter-terrorism unit had been deployed to Kashgar and Hotan which were hit by the recent violence, Xinhua said.

"Security is paramount," Yu Xiudong, a senior member of the China-Eurasia Expo organizing committee, was quoted saying.

"We should make meticulous preparations against all security emergencies to ensure a safe expo."

Xinjiang has seen several outbreaks of ethnic violence in recent years as the mainly Muslim Uighur minority bridles under what it regards as oppression by the government and the unwanted immigration of ethnic Han Chinese.

Tensions boiled over again in July when two knife attacks as well as clashes between ethnic Uighurs and police killed more than 40 people in the resource-rich and strategically vital region.

Officials and state media have blamed the unrest on "terrorists" but some experts say the government has produced little evidence of an organized terrorist threat, adding the violence stems more from long-standing local resentment.

In July 2009, China was hit by its worst ethnic violence in decades when Uighurs savagely attacked Han Chinese in Urumqi -- an incident that led to deadly reprisals by Han on Uighurs several days later.

The government said around 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured.

The trade convention in Urumqi will be held from September 1-5 and is expected to attract leaders from regional countries including Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who is due to arrive in China later Tuesday.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_tightens_security_in_restive_Xinjiang_999.html.

WikiLeaks says hit with cyberattack

2012-02-29T10:27:00.000+02:00

San Francisco (AFP)
Aug 30, 2011

Controversial anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks said Tuesday it was fending off a cyberattack after being lambasted for releasing more supposedly confidential US diplomatic cables.

"WikiLeaks.org is presently under cyberattack," the organization said in a terse message on microblogging service Twitter.

The message provided a link to a cablegatesearch.net website where digital copies of the political documents could be viewed.

The online assault came hours after US officials voiced renewed concern over the risks to individuals after WikiLeaks made public more US diplomatic cables, many of which contained the names of sensitive sources.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland would not confirm the authenticity of the latest documents, but said "the United States strongly condemns any illegal disclosure of classified information.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/WikiLeaks_says_hit_with_cyberattack_999.html.

Protesters condemn arrest of youth in Indian-controlled Kashmir

2012-02-29T09:23:00.000+02:00

SRINAGAR, KASHMIR (BNO NEWS) — Families and relatives of more than 73 youth who were arrested during clashes on Saturday protested outside the police station in downtown Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday, the Hindustan Times reported.

Female protesters with sticks in their hands blocked the main road in the city center, causing a major traffic jam and affecting shoppers. The women condemned the arrests and accused police of arresting innocent people.

Police claimed that 300 motorcycle-borne youth pelted stones at Nowhatta police station in the city center at about 10.30 p.m. local time on Saturday. “The miscreants were riding motorcycles and tossed two petrol bombs on police. Six policemen were injured and two of them are in serious condition,” a police officer was quoted as saying.

However, eyewitnesses’ accounts contradict the police’s version. A local said police confronted a group of youth who marched on the streets raising pro-freedom slogans after finishing night prayers. “They were confronted by the police, which resulted in a clash. Suddenly, the police started rounding up whoever was on the road,” the local added.

Inspector general of police Shiv Murari Sahai told the Hindustan Times that the cases are being looked in. “Sit-ins will not deter us. We will book those involved in the stone-pelting incident. But if there are minor charges, youth will be released. So far no final decision has been taken,” said Sahai.

The court on Monday granted bail to 40 youth while 33 were sent to judicial remand. However, those who were granted bail have not been handed over to their families as of late Tuesday.

The arrests came shortly after chief minister Omar Abdullah announced amnesty to youths involved in over 1,200 cases of stone pelting in last summer’s unrest.

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19780/protesters-condemn-arrest-of-youth-in-indian-controlled-kashmir/.

Former U.S. employee of Akamai pleads guilty to spying for Israel

2012-02-29T09:20:00.000+02:00

BOSTON (BNO NEWS) — A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to a charge of foreign economic espionage for exchanging sensitive information with a person who he believed was an Israeli spy, officials said on Tuesday. The man worked for Akamai when he committed the crimes.

Elliot Doxer, 43, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper to a charge of providing trade secrets over an 18-month period from the finance department of Akamai Technologies to an undercover federal agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

In 2006, Doxer sent an email to the Israeli consulate in Boston stating that he worked in the finance department of Akamai Technologies and was willing to provide any information that might help Israel. His main desire “was to help our homeland and our war against our enemies,” Doxer said in later communications.

From October 2007 to March 2009, Doxer exchanged information with a federal agent posing as an undercover Israeli intelligence officer. Among this information was an extensive list of Akamai’s customers, its contracts, as well as a list of the company’s employees, including their contact information.

The former Akamai worker also described the company’s security systems and said he could travel to Israel or support special and sensitive operations in his local area if needed. The information was never in real danger of actual exposure because it was disclosed only to an undercover agent.

U.S. District Judge Casper has scheduled the sentencing for November 30 when Doxer could face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a three-year term of supervised release and a $500,000 fine. Doxer’s prosecution is the first in Massachusetts for foreign economic espionage and only the eighth in the United States.

Akamai Technologies is a content delivery network which provides cloud-based services to optimize web and mobile content applications, including HD video and secure e-commerce. It had a revenue of just over a billion U.S. dollars in 2010.

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19782/former-u-s-employee-of-akamai-pleads-guilty-to-spying-for-israel/.

Palestinians in Jordan refugee camp long to return

2012-02-29T09:15:00.000+02:00

John Ridley
The Electronic Intifada
30 August 2011

The market is busy, shop and stall owners are shouting to advertise their wares to the crowds on the street; food and essential goods only. Behind the main street more traders sell secondhand goods, mostly clothes and shoes, piled on rickety tables or heaped onto tarpaulins lying on the ground. Shoppers rummage through the piles in the hope of finding clothing at an affordable price.

The sense of community is apparent, everyone has a purpose, many stop to welcome me, or just shake hands and say “hello.”

But just beyond the bustling market lays the reality of Baqaa. Mahmood, my guide, explains — “Four generations of refugees have grown up with little hope of escaping poverty, let alone reaching their true potential; despite their hardships the community remains strong.”

The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), runs services in Baqaa camp, although UNRWA does not itself run the refugee camps. It works alongside all the charities in the camp. The UN, being politically-funded, is restricted to running the school, health center, some food distribution and other projects.

Unlike the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), who are responsible for all non Palestinian refugees world-wide, UNWRA was established with no mandate to assist Palestinians in resettlement, either in Palestine or another country.

Apart from the run-down appearance, the school looks like any other “city center” school. Children play happily on the tarmac surface during their short breaks between lessons. At the entrance fly the flags of Jordan, Palestine and the United Nations.

The school has sixty students in each class and runs four shifts per day; not surprisingly half of the children do not finish basic education. Yet, some do succeed at school — last year the top ten Jordanian graduates came from the camps; there is an escape through education — if you are exceptional and have financial support.

A life in the space of one bed

Today the camp, just 1.5 square kilometers in size, houses 250,000 residents; each family, usually eight to ten persons spanning three generations, is allocated just 96 square meters.

Putting this into perspective, each person is allocated a space slightly larger than a double bed, their space to live in — sleep, keep belongings, wash, cook, perform personal hygiene, study, play — their whole live in the space taken by one bed.

The homes are rudimentary concrete structures with corrugated panels or plastic sheets for roofs, more substantial roofing is not allowed; this would imply the home was a permanent building.

The unemployment, overcrowding, lack of proper ventilation, inadequate garbage collection, poor water and sewage systems make the camp a breeding ground for disease. Mahmood struggles to express his emotion, “Every family faces devastation, then hope, followed by devastation — eventually everyone becomes anaesthetized to hope. The mortality statistics, whether through illness or suicide, are just numbers, they lose all meaning.”

Mahmood takes me to a narrow gateway, the entrance to a small patch of ground between two houses. “Behind every door you find tragic circumstances, orphans, mental and physical illness, widows, birth defects, nothing prepares you,” he says.

In 1948, Fatima was a young girl in her late teens living in al-Dawayima, a small Palestinian village near Hebron. “We were farmers and had land, we grew figs, olives and wheat,” she says. As a reminder of those better days she keeps one solitary olive tree growing in the small yard of her home.

She and Abdul Rahman, her brother, had expected peace and comfort in the years ahead but in the space of just a few hours their lives and the lives of everyone they knew changed forever. She remembers every detail of 29 October 1948.

Al-Dawayima was the site of one of the larger, little-known massacres of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing that led to Israel’s establishment. “Our parents among the dead, we fled for our lives, leaving our home with nothing more than the clothes on our back.” Sixty-three years on, Fatima still has nothing.

Along with many survivors, they walked to the Hebron Hills where they hid, before walking onto a makeshift camp in Jericho. There would be no peace for Fatima or her brother; during the war of June 1967, along with 300,000 Palestinians, they fled Jericho and the West Bank for exile in Jordan.

Since 1968 she has lived in Baqaa with her brother Abdul Rahman and his disabled son; both disabled by arthritis, neither can walk more than a few tens of yards.

“We walked day and night until reaching Baqaa; this was to be our new home,” she says. Under canvas, many died in the harsh Jordanian winters; steel prefabricated huts eventually replaced the tents. “The huts were dry, an improvement on the canvas tents, but as protection against the cold we dug underground shelters.”

Living underground for twenty years

In September 1972, Israel began aerial bombing of Baqaa in response to Palestinian attempts to recapture their homeland. The underground shelters became protection from the bombing raids; the whole camp was destroyed.

Unable to afford to replace their hut, they lived below their nine-meter by nine-meter plot of ground for twenty years. “Finally, with the help of charity we managed to build a small concrete shelter.” The elderly brother, sister and disabled son now live in this one room, with rags on the floor to sleep on. They can afford no mattresses or furniture.

“We keep hens in the yard, feeding them stale bread; eggs are our main diet. Two to three times a week, more fortunate Baqaa residents provide us with a meal. Many hundreds of people in the camp live in the same poverty as us.”

Despite the hardship, Fatima is a joy and inspiration. She is now in her mid-seventies, but as I left her home, smiling, she told me that when she returns to Palestine she will be ready to get married.

With every family we meet, the stories keep coming. The narrow alleyways between the houses are cold, dark and damp, very little sunlight reaches the streets or into the homes. Toilets, bathrooms and excess rain water empty into the same sewage pipes, too small to meet demand in heavy rain, raw sewage overflows into the roads. No matter how hard the residents try, keeping their homes and the camp clean and healthy is almost impossible.

The houses are in dreadful condition inside and out, the personal stories even worse: illness, death, finance, or other tragedies.

“We’ve kept our keys”

In 1948, Abdullah’s grandparents, married just five years, were raising their young family in the coastal city of Jaffa. “My grandfather came from a trading family, buying and selling citrus fruit from the orchards for export,” Abdullah says. “We were not rich, but we wanted for nothing. As the escalating violence reached Jaffa, my grandparents decided the family should leave the city.”

The family packed for a short trip, they would return home in a week or two when things settled down. They covered their furniture, locked the door and left, heading for Ramallah on foot, carrying just the provisions they could manage — and the key to the door of the house.

Every family I visited showed me their house keys. The key has come to symbolize the right of return for Palestinian refugees worldwide.

“Countless people walked together towards an unknown destination, we walked until dusk, resting in orchards overnight. My mother was six months old and very ill, doctors had said that she would not survive.” The family was in great difficulty, carrying four young children and provisions. “On the first night, my grandparents begged the owner of an orchard to care for their dying child until she passed away.” Another refugee intervened, leaving his few possessions, he carried her for two days until they reached the safety of Ramallah.

Finally, the refugees arrived at the emergency shelters, home from 1948 until 1967. “My grandmother, with help from the Quakers, supported the family by selling crochet and knitting to people in Ramallah.” In 1967 the Israelis again declared war on the Palestinians, forcing a second wave of expulsions. “Again we were refugees, left with nothing.”

Exhausted, after days of walking, they arrived in Baqaa on the Jordanian East Bank; home was to be a canvas tent, allocated to the family by the United Nations.

“By 1972, most tents had been replaced by steel shelters, but we were not left in peace to rebuild our lives, Israelis continued fighting Palestinians. In September of that year Israel again attacked us, this time dropping bombs from aircraft onto Baqaa, killing thousands and destroying the camp.”

Heart-breaking tragedy

Abdullah’s mother survived; she is now 63 and lives with him, his wife, their four daughters and three sons.

Just two weeks before I met Abdullah and his mother Ayishah, Abdullah’s five-year-old daughter had died of cholera. Fighting tears, Abdullah told me, “Cholera is very common in all the refugee camps, caused by sewage in the streets when we have heavy rain.”

As a Palestinian refugee arriving in Jordan after 1967, Abdullah has no nationality and can only find simple work outside the camp, for which police approval is needed. “Palestinians, even those with Jordanian nationality, have differently-colored identity cards; we face discrimination everywhere in our lives. Once a refugee, always a refugee.”

Abdullah now works for an imam in a mosque. “I earn very little money, but it is better than nothing and reduces my dependence upon charity.”

The edge of Baqaa to the roundabout of the main Damascus-Amman highway is fewer than 20 meters. Few people know what lies behind the tatty shops, workshops and second hand tire stands fronting the road. Not many from Amman turn into the camp, unless they want to buy vegetables from the market stalls at a fraction of the price they would pay in supermarkets.

Our car turns onto the highway, in less than five minutes we are in Amman, driving past the highly respected Queen Rania Hospital for Children and the upmarket City Mall. Baqaa is just far enough outside Amman to be forgotten. The world may look away but the forgotten people of Palestine will still be there.

Note: This article was amended to correct language which suggested UNRWA runs Baqaa refugee camp. UNRWA does not run refugee camps, but provides services to refugees living in the camps.

Source: Electronic Intifada.
Link: http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-jordan-refugee-camp-long-return/10330.

Arab Spring an 'intel disaster' for West

2012-02-28T16:13:00.000+02:00

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The Arab Spring has been "an intelligence disaster" for Western security services because of the fall of Middle Eastern leaders working with the United States and Europe, says a former Central Intelligence Agency chief.

"The help we were getting from the Egyptian intelligence service, less so from the Tunisians but certainly from the Libyans and Lebanese, has dried up -- either because of resentment at our governments stabbing their political leaders in the back, or because those who worked for the services have taken off in fear of being incarcerated or worse," said Michal Scheuer, who headed the CIA unit tasked with hunting down Osama bin Laden.

First and foremost, he says, is the loss of the so-called black rendition system the CIA launched after Sept. 11, 2001.

That involved the agency secretly flying captured terrorist suspects to Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and other Arab states for interrogation by their intelligence services, which frequently involved torture, rather than engaging in the legal niceties required for prosecutions in courts of law.

This murky operation allowed Western agencies, under scrutiny to one degree or another by their countries' legislatures, to claim they were not involved in nefarious or illegal activities while securing the "product" they need to counter terrorism.

Scores, probably hundreds, of suspects were thrust into the hands of Arab intelligence services that human rights organizations accuse of using systematic torture on political prisoners.

Western intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA and Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, garnered much invaluable information on al-Qaida and its allies and what they were plotting through the cooperation of friendly regimes across the Middle East.

The wave of pro-democracy uprisings across the Arab world, which are still in progress, was "an intelligence disaster for the U.S. and for Britain and other European services," Scheuer said while attending the Edinburgh international book festival.

The author of several books, including "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror" in 2004, Scheuer spent 22 years in the CIA and headed Alec Station, the unit tasked with tracking bin Laden, in 1996-99.

He teaches peace and security affairs at Georgetown University in Washington.

"The amount of work that has devolved on U.S. and British services is enormous, and the result is blindness in our ability to watch what's going on among militants," he said.

"The rendition program must come back -- the people we have in custody now are pretty long in the tooth in terms of the information they can provide in interrogations."

With the fall of Tunisian President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali Jan. 14 and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt Feb. 11, and even the collapse of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi in recent days, Western agencies found themselves cut off from a flow of vital intelligence on a global foe.

For 20 years, U.S. intelligence has relied on Mubarak's massive intelligence apparatus. The Cairo regime had fought and crushed Islamist militants for two decades but released hundreds of jihadist prisoners when Mubarak fell.

Mubarak's longtime intelligence chief, Gen. Omar Suleimani, was cut out of the loop after the president was forced from office. CIA sources say his successors are not so enthusiastic about helping Washington as he was.

In part that's because U.S. President Barak Obama abandoned Mubarak to the mob, a fear that now pervades other Arab allies.

That's particularly true in Saudi Arabia, which along with Jordan has one of the most effective intelligence services in the Middle East.

Although Gadhafi was branded a sponsor of international terrorism throughout the 1970s and '80s, in recent years his intelligence services had forged close links with their U.S. and European counterparts.

Gadhafi's veteran spymaster, Moussa Koussa, defected to Britain in March. Koussa, who headed the foreign intelligence organization, had played a key role in convincing the West to rehabilitate Gadhafi after he abandoned his secret nuclear program in 2003.

Qatar-based Aljazeera television reported Aug. 23 that another Libyan intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, Gadhafi's brother-in-law who was convicted in absentia in Paris of bombing a French airliner over Niger in 1989, had been killed.

The protracted upheaval in Yemen, the stomping ground of one of al-Qaida's most active groups, and the threat to longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh have seriously disrupted CIA efforts there.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/30/Arab-Spring-an-intel-disaster-for-West/UPI-78611314719813/.

Slavery in Thailand spreading

2012-02-28T16:09:00.000+02:00

BANGKOK, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Human trafficking in Cambodia and Thailand is no longer limited to women and children, a Cambodian rights activist said.

Poor formers in Cambodia are convinced to leave home on the promise of better work in Thailand. Many are finding themselves on long-haul trawlers in the South China Sea and forced to work against their will.

"It's slavery. There's no other way to describe it," Lim Tith, national project coordinator for the U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, told the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN.

Exploitation is spreading beyond Cambodia and Thailand to Malaysia and Indonesian waters, with 25 men reportedly in slave-like conditions documented regionally this year.

"It's not just women and children anymore," San Arun, chairwoman of the Cambodian Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking taskforce, told IRIN.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the U.N. special envoy on human trafficking, said following a tour of Thailand that the country needs to do more to address demands for exploitative labor, a root cause of human trafficking.

Ezeilo testified from Bangkok that the number of people trafficked for forced labor in the agriculture, construction and fishing industries is growing in scale.

"Root causes of trafficking, particularly demands for cheap and exploitative labor provided by migrant workers, are not being effectively addressed," she said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/29/Slavery-in-Thailand-spreading/UPI-40171314630716/.

Corruption Turning Afghan Prisons Into Taliban Bases

2012-02-28T16:06:00.000+02:00

By Joshua Philipp
August 29, 2011

Cell Block 3 was in flames as prison riots continued in the next block over. The Taliban had grown too powerful, and the confinements of Afghanistan’s Pol-e-charki prison became little more than protective walls rendering them untouchable from the war raging outside.

The December 2008 riots at Pol-e-charki prison on the outskirts of Kabul served as a wake-up call to the severity of the corruption that had crept in through padded pockets and turning blind eyes. Captured Taliban commanders and radicalized prisoners had formed an operating center within Cell Block 3—armed with weapons, and with their own Shura Council to hold trials, vote, and eliminate those who refused to cooperate.

“The guards were not even allowed to go down into the cell block because they would be killed or kidnapped—I mean, its the Wild West out there,” said Drew Berquist, a former U.S. intelligence agent and author of “The Maverick Experiment,” in a phone interview.

Attention fell on the prison after the riots, and rebuilding efforts became focused on increasing security. This included eliminating cells for large groups, and replacing them with cells for smaller groups of between two and eight.

“You had a prison that was run by the Afghan government, but really, entire facilities within that prison were being used as training and education grounds for insurgent elements,” said Drew Quinn, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs director at the U.S. Embassy Kabul, on the NATO Channel in Nov. 2009.

Resolving such issues is no simple matter, and the battle behind prison walls continues to this day.

A rare news conference in Kabul, held by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security intelligence service in February, highlighted the breadth of the problem—noting that despite efforts to root out operations at Pul-e-Charkhi, it is still going strong.

Taliban commander Talib Jan, a prisoner at Pul-e-Charkhi, is one of the more extreme cases. He organizes suicide bombings across Kabul from within his cell—including the Jan. 28 suicide bombing of a supermarket that killed 14 people.

“Most of the terrorist and suicide attacks in Kabul were planned from inside this prison by this man,” said National Directorate of Security spokesman, Lutfullah Mashal, at the conference, New York Times reported.

The problem, according to Berquist, runs deep.

“The prison systems are corrupt,” Berquist said. “The safest place for the Taliban is the prisons because they can’t get caught again.”

Prisoners often use cell phones to communicate with, and give commands to, insurgents operating outside. Meanwhile, since captured Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders from across the country are at times detained together, the prisons give them an otherwise nonexistent opportunity to network and coordinate—since they are wary of gathering too many leaders in one place outside the prisons for fear of attack by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or special operations raids.

“The culture becomes so tough to break because these guys become so powerful within the prison,” Berquist said, adding that when they try to dismantle networks by moving prisoners to different cells, “they meet additional people and all it does is end up expanding things.”

A Corrupt System

Pol-e-charki is haunted by significant infamy, even for Afghanistan—its Soviet past of violence, terror, and political turmoil has been reanimated to face a new war. Impassible roads through communities supportive of the insurgents lead to its gates, while the now empty mass graves of political prisoners nearby stand as painful reminders of the prison’s Soviet founders in the late 1970s.

The problem is not limited to Pol-e-charki, however, as other Afghan prisons have met with similar problems.

The April 25 Taliban “Great Escape” at Saraposa prison in Kandahar dealt a blow to the image of Afghan prison security, when 500 inmates escaped through a 1,000-foot-long tunnel, and with the help of corrupt guards.

The incident happened after Saraposa was revamped, similar to Pol-e-charki, after a 2008 attack on the prison that freed 900 inmates in broad daylight. The whole area was known for corruption, with “assassinations of investigators, bribery of prosecutors, intimidation of justices, and attacks upon witnesses” that “obscured both evidence and law,” stated Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins in a Feb. 10 Department of Defense video conference, according to the Pentagon transcript.

Illegal use of cell phones by prisoners is one of the key problems, since they act as enablers for commanding troops outside, and efforts to take their phones have met with little success. “Most of them operate either with their own phones smuggled in, or they pay corrupt guards to use their phones to call not just people inside the prison, but also to other people in Afghanistan, and across the border into Pakistan,” Berquist said.

Meanwhile, non-insurgents going into the prisons can be thrown into a cycle of radicalization through Taliban and al-Qaeda members inside. Prisoners arrested for more extreme crimes also rarely serve their full sentences, which becomes a problem since “they start to get street cred having been in prison, when they get out,” Berquist said, “You get guys who become more extreme in prison then come out as a much bigger problem than when they went in.”

He added that, “because of how corrupt the system is, people frequently do get out because there are a lot of dirty parliamentarians and other government officials who take bribes.”

The flow of corruption into Afghan prisons is difficult to put a cap on.

“If you didn’t go in dirty there’s a reasonable chance you’re going to turn dirty because you’re going to get frustrated by how monotonous and how difficult it is to be in those positions, and just how tough life is there,” Berquist said. “Eventually that money starts to sound good, and it’s a slippery slope once you do that.”

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/corruption-turning-afghan-prisons-into-taliban-bases-60910-all.html.

TNC seeks extradition of Gaddafi family

2012-02-28T15:49:00.001+02:00

Tue Aug 30, 2011

Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC) has demanded the extradition of fugitive Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's wife and three of his sons from Algeria, where they earlier fled to.

Mahmoud Shammam, the TNC's Information Minister, said on Tuesday that Algeria's decision to accept members of the Gaddafi family was an “aggressive act against the Libyan people's wish,” Reuters reported.

"We are warning anybody not to shelter Gaddafi and his sons. We are going after them … to find them and arrest them," Shammam added.

He noted that TNC would formally demand their extradition and make arrangements to ensure their fair trial in Libya.

"We have promised to provide a just trial to all those criminals,” the official noted, adding that the Libyan council considers Algeria's move to give refuge to the Gaddafi family members “an act of aggression."

The developments come after Algerian foreign ministry confirmed the fleeing family arrived in Algeria on Monday.

"Muammar Gaddafi's wife Safia, his daughter Aisha, his sons Hannibal and Muhammed, accompanied by their children, entered Algeria at 8:45 am (0745 GMT) through the Algerian-Libyan border," the Algerian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Libyan opposition officials announced on Monday that Gaddafi's son Khamis was killed in a battle near Libya's capital Tripoli and buried in the western city of Ziltan.

Opposition fighters want to capture the country's fugitive dictator and his associates so they can proclaim final victory in the six-month-old uprising.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196521.html.

Algeria defends sheltering Gaddafis

2012-02-28T15:44:00.000+02:00

Tue Aug 30, 2011

Algeria's UN envoy Mourad Benmehidi has defended his country's decision to give refuge to family members of Libya's fugitive ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

In an interview with the state-run BBC on Tuesday, Benmehidi described the move as "the holy rule of hospitality."

He made the remarks after opposition forces demanded Algeria to return Gaddafi's wife and daughter, along with two of his sons Muhammed and Hanibal.

The opposition called the move an "act of aggression against the Libyan people."

On Monday, Algeria announced that several members of Gaddafi's family had crossed into its territory at 08:45 local time (0745 GMT).

Meanwhile, clashes between opposition forces and troops loyal to Gaddafi are underway near the fugitive ruler's hometown of Sirte, which is one of the last areas still under control of loyalists.

Chairman of the Transitional National Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil on Tuesday gave an ultimatum to pro-Gaddafi troops to surrender until Saturday.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196522.html

'Gaza convoy foils Israeli blockade'

2012-02-28T15:35:00.000+02:00

Mon Aug 29, 2011

Interview with Sheikh Walid El Saadi, leader of the Africa to Gaza Aid Convoy, from Gaza.

The Africa to Gaza Aid Convoy has bypassed the Israeli blockade and reached the Gaza Strip where they are giving aid and supplies to the oppressed Palestinians.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Sheikh Walid El Saadi, leader of the Africa to Gaza Aid Convoy, tells us about his 60-day journey across rough African terrain to reach the impoverished Palestinians in Gaza.

Press TV: You arrived in yet another difficult time for Gaza, but can you tell me the feeling for your African convoy about being there now?

El Saadi: Indeed. Successfully yesterday, thanks God, we arrived in Gaza last night after a long journey. Sixty days driving from the city of Durban in South Africa right through Africa to Al Arish, to Egypt where we had a little bit of difficulty to cross last night because it was late and Gaza wasn't safe - they said it was being bombed. But we insisted that we will come inside Gaza, yesterday, even if the Israelis are bombing.

It was ten o'clock in the evening that we were in Gaza, thanks God, and the Gaza people received us in such a way that you cannot believe it. Our hearts were crying. Happiness by entering Gaza, successfully, completing our mission which started on June 26 and ended on August 26, today. Sixty days on the road.

It's a good feeling for my team, the 20 of us, and the team who joined us from Sudan, also, the 16 of them. So, we were 36 members in the convoy, all of us shouting “God is Great”, “Praise to God”, “Glorious is God,” honor us to enter Gaza after 60 days of driving through Africa, the most challenging roads, and to deliver the aid which we were carrying.

But the most important part of our trip was to conscientize Africa about what's happening in Gaza, what's happening in Palestine, the Holy Land.

Press TV: What is your aim now that you're there for the 36 of you? Are you staying with families there? Do you have some specific activities you hope to do in Gaza?

El Saadi: Sure. Today, because it's a Friday, we have met most of the organization leaders and we have Friday Jummah Salat [prayers]. And this evening is a big night, as you know, which is the 27th day of Ramadan.

From today until the last day of Ramadan, everyday in Ramadan, we'll have three tables of Iftar, each table with 300 people. We're going to split up, the 36 of us, to three groups with every group in a different table of Iftar.

Then we will have aid baskets distributed, about 2,500 of them. Then we will distribute the aid which we've been carrying with us which is medicine, wheelchairs, medical mattresses, milk powder for children, sweets for children, stationary, seven of our ambulances, and three trucks to give to the municipality of Gaza, God willing.

We hope to have the Eid celebration with the people of Gaza, it would be a pleasure to have it, God willing, but it depends on how the program will go.

Press TV: We wish you safety and congratulate you on a successful mission. I know that you'll be looked after well by the people of Gaza. Thank you very much.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196296.html.

Daughter Gadhafi said was dead apparently lives

2012-02-28T15:26:00.000+02:00

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI - Associated Press
Tue, Aug 30, 2011

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Since the rebel takeover of Tripoli, evidence has been mounting that Moammar Gadhafi may have lied about the death of his adopted baby daughter Hana in a 1986 U.S. airstrike.

The strike hit Gadhafi's home in his Tripoli compound, Bab al-Aziziya, in retaliation for the Libyan-sponsored bombing of a Berlin nightclub earlier that year that killed two U.S. servicemen. At the time, Gadhafi showed American journalists a picture of a dead baby and said it was his adopted daughter Hana — the first public mention that she even existed.

Diplomats almost immediately questioned the claim. But Gadhafi kept the story alive through the years.

Then, when investigations into the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, pointed to a Libyan hand in the attack, some theorized that Gadhafi had ordered it to avenge Hana's death in the U.S. airstrike.

But when Libyan rebels took over Tripoli and Bab al-Aziziya last week, they found a room in Gadhafi's home with Hana's birth certificate and pictures of a young woman with the name "Hana" written on the back, possible indications that she lived well beyond infancy. A Tripoli hospital official surfaced, saying Hana worked for him as a surgeon up until the rebels came to town.

And on Tuesday, Swiss officials confirmed that Hana's name had briefly appeared earlier this year on a Swiss government document listing the names of senior Libyan figures targeted for sanctions.

Many Libyans believe Hana was never killed and talked about her existence openly.

Adel Shaltut, a Libyan diplomat at the U.N. in Geneva, said it was common knowledge that Hana Gadhafi wasn't killed in the airstrike.

"All Libyans knew from the very beginning that it's a lie," he told The Associated Press, saying that Hana was married and had children.

However, some in Libya believed that after Hana's death, Gadhafi adopted another daughter and gave her the same name in a memorial tribute.

Adding to the mystery, two AP photographs from the 1990s show an adolescent girl identified in captions as Gadhafi's daughter Hana. In one of them from 1999, she is standing next to South African President Nelson Mandela, with his arm around her, during a family visit to Cape Town. Gadhafi's only biological daughter, Aisha, stands on Mandela's other side and Gadhafi's wife Safiya is next to the girl identified as Hana.

In another AP photo from 1996, Gadhafi is seen wiping the face of a girl identified in the caption as his daughter Hana Gadhafi.

Despite these sightings of Hana, in 2006 Gadhafi organized an event called the "Hana Festival for Freedom and Peace" to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death. Performers reportedly included Lionel Richie and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras.

Last week, after rebels stormed the Bab al-Aziziya compound where Gadhafi and family members lived, journalists saw a room in his home filled with stuffed animals, photos of a young woman with the name "Hana" written on the back in Arabic and a birth certificate of "Hana Gadhafi."

Rebels touring the room told reporters that everyone in Libya knew that the daughter who the world thought was dead was, in fact, alive.

Hana's current whereabouts are unknown. Her mother, sister Aisha and two brothers fled to Algeria on Monday, with their spouses and children. She was not identified among those who had left the country. Her father and brother Seif al-Islam, once the heir apparent to rule Libya, are believed to still be in Libya.

Gassem Baruni, head of the Tripoli Medical Center, said Hana worked for him as a surgeon before she disappeared Friday.

"She was very tense and nervous as soon as the revolution started," Baruni told the AP. "She told me not to treat the rebels, but I told her: 'If we don't treat everyone, it would be a crime.'"

The doctor said he used her influence to stock up the hospital with supplies and medicine, keeping the fact he was coordinating with rebels secret from her.

"I pretended that we needed the stuff to treat the Gadhafi troops," Baruni said.

The British Council confirmed that someone named Hana Gadhafi studied English at the British Council in Tripoli in 2007, and again in 2009.

"We can confirm that a student by the name of Hana Gadhafi did study English with us in Libya. However, we don't have access to any documents as we don't have access to our Tripoli office, which we had to leave earlier this year," a spokesman told the AP. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with council policy.

"Our country director in Libya did query this, given reports of Hana Gadhafi's death," he said.

"The widely held belief in Libya at the time was that this was a different daughter, adopted by Col. Gadhafi after Hana's death, and given the same name as a tribute. This is, in fact, a common practice in Libya as a memorial to a dead child."

A Swiss government document earlier this year listed the names of senior Libyan figures who were to be targeted for sanctions briefly included Hana Gadhafi's name, but it was quickly removed, Swiss officials said Tuesday. They were responding to questions by the AP.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Adrian Sollberger, said the list was revised to conform with sanctions imposed by the United Nations. He declined to say why someone with the name Hana Gadhafi had featured on the original sanctions list, and whether Switzerland had evidence the Libyan leader's daughter was alive.

Libyans said Gadhafi wanted to drum up sympathy for himself and hatred toward the west by claiming Hana was killed in 1986 and Gadhafi's son Seif al-Arab was killed in May during a NATO airstrike.

Mohammed Ammar, a Tripoli resident who said his cousin graduated with Hana from medical school last year, was among those who believe the death of Hana was a myth.

"It is not surprising he would lie about his own child's death," he said. "He is capable of killing a whole population, why not his own child?"

____

Associated Press reporters Jill Lawless in London and Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report.

Israel sends 2 warships to Egyptian border

2012-02-28T15:23:00.000+02:00

August 30, 2011 — JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel sent two more warships to the Red Sea border with Egypt, the military said Tuesday, part of a military reinforcement there following warnings that militants are planning another attack on southern Israel from Egyptian soil.

Earlier this week, Israel's military ordered more troops to the border area following intelligence reports of an impending attack, days after militants crossed into Israel through the Egyptian border and killed eight Israelis in a brazen attack that touched off a wave of violence between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip.

Relative calm has returned, but Israel has remained on alert since the deadly Aug. 18 raid, closing roads near the border and warning citizens against traveling to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, a popular vacation destination for Israelis.

Israel's Home Front Minister Matan Vilnai said Tuesday that militants from the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad were in Sinai, waiting to strike. "The Palestinian Islamic Jihad wants to carry out a terror attack along the Egyptian border," Vilnai told reporters. "The Egyptian border is absolutely porous. We have known this for many years."

The attack this month sparked calls to increase security on both sides of the frontier and created new tensions between Israel and Egypt, which have maintained cool relations since signing a 1979 peace treaty. The violence shattered the usual sense of calm that has held for decades along the border, though there have been sporadic attacks in Sinai.

Beyond announcing that two more warships were patrolling the border area, the military would give no further details. Israel has a permanent naval presence with a base in Eilat, at the northern tip of the Red Sea on the Egyptian border. The Israeli military would not disclose the number of warships usually positioned on its maritime border with Egypt or from where the two extra ships were sent.

Access for ships to the Eilat naval base from the rest of Israel is possible only through Egypt's Suez Canal. Egyptian officials there were not immediately available for comment. No changes in security alignments have been observed on the Egyptian side of the border in the last two weeks. Earlier this month, the Egyptian government dispatched thousands of additional troops to Sinai as part of a major operation against al-Qaida inspired militants who have been increasingly active since longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February.

Violent protests signal power struggle in SAfrica

2012-02-28T15:21:00.000+02:00

August 30, 2011 — JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Violent protests Tuesday by supporters of South Africa's firebrand youth leader are the latest political salvo in a power struggle that could determine the future of South Africa's president and the man who helped catapult him to power, youth league chief Julius Malema.

Demonstrators burned flags of the ruling African National Congress and ran through the streets of downtown Johannesburg holding up flaming T-shirts bearing the image of President Jacob Zuma. "Zuma must go!" they chanted.

When the protesters began lobbing stones and bottles, police detonated stun grenades and turned water cannons on the crowd of thousands. Later, they fired rubber bullets to get protesters off the roof of an armored car.

The focus for Tuesday's demonstration was the start of a disciplinary hearing for Malema and five other youth league officers accused of bringing the ANC into disrepute with their calls for the ouster of the democratic government of neighboring Botswana. They face expulsion or suspension from the party.

Analysts say the hearing is a pretext to confront the growing power of Malema, who has mobilized disillusioned and unemployed youth with demands that the government nationalize the wealthy mining sector and appropriate white-owned farm land for black peasants.

Malema, 30, says that is the only way to address growing inequality and poverty in Africa's richest nation and better distribute wealth that remains firmly entrenched in the minority white community and among a few thousand blacks who have grown wealthy mainly off government contracts.

Malema indicated Monday that he too believed that was the real issue, telling reporters that "This (disciplinary hearing) does not delay our economic struggle. We see this as a setback for the revolution we are pursuing. We will continue to push for economic freedom in our lifetime."

On Tuesday, he emerged from the hearing to appeal to thousands of cheering militants for a peaceful protest and to chastise them for burning the party flag and T-shirts. He urged them to respect the ANC and its leaders.

"You are here because you love the ANC. We must exercise restraint," he said. "We cannot burn ourselves." The cheers turned to a roar when Malema insisted that the ANC youth league speaks "for the poorest of the poor" and will pursue a "radical and militant" revolution that also must be peaceful.

The disciplinary hearing that began Tuesday and could last for days is a response to the youth league's announcement last month that it would send a committee to work with opposition parties in Botswana against democratically elected President Ian Khama. They accused Khama of cooperating with "imperialists" and undermining "the African agenda" in Libya's revolution.

Malema said the youth league would help bring "regime change" in Botswana. This embarrassed Zuma and other party officials who have been leading African condemnation of the United States, Britain and France for allegedly abusing a U.N. resolution to effect regime change in Libya.

The support of Malema and his youth league was instrumental in getting Zuma elected party president in December 2007 and unceremoniously ousting former President Thabo Mbeki. Protesting youth leaguers Tuesday threatened to do the same to Zuma at the 2012 ANC congress.

"In 2012 we are voting Mbalula," they chanted, referring to former youth league president and current Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula. Whoever wins the party presidency gets to run for president. The ANC remains unchallenged politically in the country.

Party leaders have condemned Malema in the past for his divisive tactics, including the singing of a racist song calling for people to "kill the boer," or white farmer. In May, the party disciplinary committee fined Malema and ordered him to apologize for sowing discord in the party and undermining Zuma's authority.

Critics accuse Malema of being an opportunist. They point to the massive mansion he is building in Johannesburg's luxury Sandton suburb and allegations of corruption. His supporters say those charges are trumped up.

The police and public prosecutor announced this month that they are undertaking a formal investigation into Malema's business dealings.

AP Television cameraman Nqobile Ntshangase contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

Nigerian-built satellite acquires first image just days after launch

2012-02-28T15:12:00.000+02:00

Guildford UK (SPX)
Aug 30, 2011

The Nigerian-built satellite, NigeriaSat-X, has acquired its first satellite image just three days after the successful launch on 17th August.

Revealing buildings and the landscape surrounding the city of Auckland, New Zealand, this image demonstrates that the satellite's enhanced 22m wide-area multi-spectral imagery for mapping, agricultural monitoring and disaster relief programs works well.

NigeriaSat-X was built by engineers from Nigeria's National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) under the supervision of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL).

The new generation of Nigerian scientists and engineers trained up under the NigeriaSat-X project will continue to support Nigeria's space program, ensuring its continued success and sustainability. In total, 26 Nigerian engineers were located at SSTL's facilities in Guildford for 18 months throughout the design and test phases.

Currently two joint NASRDA-SSTL teams are working in parallel in Abuja and Guildford to commission NigeriaSat-X and NigeriaSat-2, which was launched at the same time.

After the initial commissioning phase is complete, the NASRDA team in Guildford will return to Nigeria to continue NigeriaSat-X operations from the Abuja ground station.

SSTL Executive Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting, commented, "NigeriaSat-X is the product of Nigeria's training and development program here at Surrey. It is a great credit to NASRDA and their engineers that this satellite is performing well and its operations are progressing so quickly.

These highly skilled engineers will not only help Nigeria to manage its resources, but also bootstrap its fledgling high tech economy alongside a growing nucleus of highly trained people."

The launch of NigeriaSat-X adds a third 22m imager to the seven-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation that is coordinated by DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) to provide governmental and commercial imaging campaigns.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Nigerian_built_satellite_acquires_first_image_just_days_after_launch_999.html.

Lost Russian satellite poses threat to space navigation

2012-02-28T15:09:00.000+02:00

Moscow (XNA)
Aug 30, 2011

The Russian heavy satellite Express-AM4 lost on Aug. 18 might pose a threat to other space vehicles, local media reported Friday.

Citing a source in the space industry, Interfex news agency said the Express-AM4 "will stay on its orbit for years or even for decades."

The Express-AM4 may collide with other telecommunication satellites from Glonass and GPS groups as well as with the Globalstar and Iridium satellites, the source said.

However, the source stressed the lost satellite posed no danger to the International Space Station (ISS) because it had been placed on a higher orbit with the minimum distance from the Earth of 696 km.

Russia's space monitoring system, a subdivision of the Space Forces, is working with the U.S. United Space Operations Center to locate the Express-AM4 positions before further launches of new space vehicles, the source said.

Russian Space Forces have little hope of regaining control of the Express-AM4 because its batteries were discharged soon after it separated from its booster, the source said.

On Aug. 18, a Proton-M carrier rocket failed to deliver communication satellite to its correct orbit.

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Lost_Russian_satellite_poses_threat_to_space_navigation_999.html.

Filling the pantry for the first voyages to the Red Planet

2012-02-28T15:05:00.000+02:00

Denver CO (SPX)
Aug 30, 2011

A green thumb and a little flair as a gourmet chef may be among the key skills for the first men and women who travel to the Red Planet later this century, according to a scientist who reported here on preparations for the first manned missions to Mars.

Speaking at the 242nd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Maya R. Cooper said that provisioning the astronauts with food stands as one of the greatest challenges in scripting the first manned mission to Mars.

ACS, the world largest scientific society, opened the meeting at the Colorado Convention Center and downtown hotels. With more than 7,500 reports on new advances in science and some 9,500 scientists and others expected in attendance, it will be one of 2011's largest scientific gatherings.

Cooper explained that the challenges of provisioning space vehicles and Martian surface bases begin with tangible factors, such weight and nutrition, and encompass psychological nuances, such as providing a varied, tasty menu that wards off boredom.

The solutions envisioned now include requiring astronauts to grow some of their own food and engage in much more food preparation than their counterparts on the International Space Station.

The major challenge is to balance weight, food acceptability and resource utilization, Cooper explained. She is a senior research scientist at the NASA Johnson Space Center in the Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston, Texas. For flights on the space shuttles and the International Space Station, astronauts get 3.8 pounds of food per day. For a 5-year round-trip mission to Mars, that would mean almost 7,000 pounds of food per person.

"That's a clear impediment to a lot of mission scenarios," Cooper said.

"We need new approaches. Right now, we are looking at the possibility of implementing a bioregenerative system that would involve growing crops in space and possibly shipping some bulk commodities to a Mars habitat as well. This scenario involves much more food processing and meal preparation than the current food system developed for the space shuttles and the International Space Station."

Bioregenerative systems involve growing plants that multi-task. They would supply food, of course. But just as plants do in natural environments on Earth, those growing in bioregenerative systems also would release oxygen for the astronauts to breathe, purify the air by removing the carbon dioxide that crews exhale and even purify water.

Ideally, these plants would have few inedible parts, would grow well with minimal tending and would not take up much room. Ten crops that fit those requirements have emerged as prime candidates for the Mars mission's kitchen garden. They are lettuce, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, green onions, radishes, bell peppers, strawberries, fresh herbs and cabbages.

Cooper cited another option for these missions, the first of which could launch in the 2030s, according to some forecasts. Shipping bulk commodities to Mars could involve unmanned spacecraft launched a year or two before the astronauts depart to establish stashes of food with long shelf-lives that the crew could use while exploring the Red Planet.

Engaging astronauts in food production and preparation is the latest concept in a 50-year evolution of technology for filling astronauts' and cosmonauts' larders, Cooper noted. It began when Yuri Gagarin reportedly munched on pate and caviar during that first manned spaceflight in 1961.

Space food has come a long way since the days of freeze-dried food blocks and squeezing gooey foods out of toothpaste tubes that astronauts ate in the earliest days of space flight. By the late 1960s, astronauts for the first time could have hot food and eat their food with a spoon in a special bowl. Other utensils were introduced in the 1970s with Skylab - the U.S.' first space station.

These astronauts could choose from 72 different foods, some of which were stored in an on-board refrigerator or freezer - a first for space cuisine.

In recent years, space shuttle astronauts could drink a coffee with their scrambled eggs for breakfast, snack on chocolates or a brownie and choose from chicken al a King, mushroom soup or rice pilaf among other foods for lunch and dinner - just like on Earth. These prepackaged foods take only a few minutes and little effort to prepare.

"The NASA Advanced Food Technology project is currently working to address the issues of food variety, weight, volume, nutrition and trash disposal through research and external academic and commercial collaborations," Cooper noted.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Filling_the_pantry_for_the_first_voyages_to_the_Red_Planet_999.html.

Oceans of energy to power a planetary civilization

2012-02-28T14:57:00.000+02:00

Urbana IL (SPX)
Aug 30, 2011

University of Illinois scientists have engineered a new strain of yeast that converts seaweed into biofuel in half the time it took just months ago. That's a process that's important outside the Corn Belt, said Yong-Su Jin, a University of Illinois assistant professor of microbial genomics and a faculty member in its Institute for Genomic Biology.

"The key is the strain's ability to ferment cellobiose and galactose simultaneously, which makes the process much more efficient," Jin said.

Red seaweed, hydrolyzed for its fermentable sugars, yields glucose and galactose. But yeast prefers glucose and won't consume galactose until glucose is gone, which adds considerable time to the process, he said.

The new procedure hydrolyzes cellulose into cellobiose, a dimeric form of glucose, then exploits a newly engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae capable of fermenting cellobiose and galactose simultaneously.

The team introduced a new sugar transporter and enzyme that breaks down cellobiose at the intracellular level. The result is a yeast that consumes cellobiose and galactose in equal amounts at the same time, cutting the production time of biofuel from marine biomass in half, he said.

The research, performed with project funding from the Energy Biosciences Institute, included team members Suk-Jin Ha, Qiaosi Wei, and Soo Rin Kim of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Jonathan M. Galazka and Jamie Cate of the University of California, Berkeley.

Jin compared the previous process to a person taking first a bite of a cheeseburger, then a bite of pickle. The process that uses the new strain puts the pickle in the cheeseburger sandwich so both foods are consumed at the same time.

Co-fermenting the two sugars also makes for a healthier yeast cell, he said.

"It's a faster, superior process. Our view is that this discovery greatly enhances the economic viability of marine biofuels and gives us a better product," he added.

Is seaweed a viable biofuel? Jin and his colleagues are using a red variety (Gelidium amansii) that is abundant on the coastlines of Southeast Asia. In island or peninsular nations that don't have room to grow other biofuel crops, using seaweed as a source of biofuels just makes good sense, he noted.

But biofuels made from marine biomass also have some advantages over fuels made from other biomass crops, he said.

"Producers of terrestrial biofuels have had difficulty breaking down recalcitrant fibers and extracting fermentable sugars. The harsh pretreatment processes used to release the sugars also result in toxic byproducts, inhibiting subsequent microbial fermentation," he said.

Jin cited two other reasons for use of seaweed biofuels. Production yields of marine plant biomass per unit area are much higher than those of terrestrial biomass. And rate of carbon dioxide fixation is much higher in marine biomass, making it an appealing option for sequestration and recycling of carbon dioxide.

Source: Bio-fuel Daily.
Link: http://www.biofueldaily.com/reports/Turning_seaweed_into_biofuel_in_half_the_time_999.html.

Rebel leader sentenced to hang in Sudan

2012-02-28T14:53:00.000+02:00

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A rebel leader was sentenced to death by a Sudanese court for his role in fighting against Sudanese forces in South Kordofan, a judge said.

A judge in Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan state, sentenced Al-Tom Hamed after Hamed was convicted on charges of undermining the constitution and "stirring up war," the state-run Sudan News Agency reports.

The rebel leader was captured by Sudanese forces following a raid by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement against military forces in South Kordofan.

The state news agency identified Hamed as JEM's political representative in the Nuba Mountains. He denied playing a role in attacks in the southern state.

Conflict erupted in June following attempts to disarm ethnic Nuban fighters along the border between Sudan and South Sudan. Khartoum denies allegations that it was involved in an ethnic cleansing campaign in the region.

A report from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documents serious rights violations near the Nuba Mountains in the region. The report accuses the north's armed forces and the south's army of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other atrocities.

The Sudanese ambassador said the United Nations should wait to discuss the matter until Khartoum conducts its own investigation into the claims.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/29/Rebel-leader-sentenced-to-hang-in-Sudan/UPI-58101314630950/.

Syrian activists warn against taking up arms

2012-02-28T14:48:00.000+02:00

August 29, 2011 — BEIRUT (AP) — Syrians should not take up arms in their uprising against President Bashar Assad or invite foreign military action like the intervention that helped topple the government of Libya, a prominent activist group warned Monday.

There have been scattered reports of some Syrians using automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and improvised weapons to repel government troops, but there appears to have been no organized armed resistance to Assad during the five-month uprising.

Calls to launch such a resistance have been rare, but they were more widely reported than usual by witnesses at protests in Syria on Friday, at the end of a week that saw Tripoli fall to rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi with the help of NATO.

"While we understand the motivation to take up arms or call for military intervention, we specifically reject this position," said a statement emailed by the Local Coordination Committees, an activist group with a wide network of sources on the ground across Syria. "Militarization would ... erode the moral superiority that has characterized the revolution since its beginning."

The prime minister of Turkey, a former close ally, warned Assad that his regime could face a demise like those in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya if the violent suppression of protests does not stop. The comments were some of the bluntest warnings yet and were particularly biting because they came from a leader whose government had extensive diplomatic ties with Syria.

"The only way out is to immediately silence arms and to listen to the people's demands," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in his monthly address aired on Turkish TV late Sunday. "We have been watching the fate of those who did not chose this path in the past few months in Tunisia, in Egypt — and now in Libya — as a warning and with sadness."

Human rights groups say more than 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the uprising in March. Witnesses and activists said the crackdown continued Monday as Syrian security forces pursuing anti-government protesters stormed several towns and villages, killing at least six people — including a child — and wounding many others during raids and house-to-house searches.

The largest operation appeared to be in Sarameen in the northern Idlib province, where the London-based Observatory for Human Rights said five people were killed and more than 60 wounded. One person also died during raids in Qara, a suburb of the capital, Damascus.

Similar raids were reported in the village of Heet near the border with Lebanon, along with a military buildup just outside the central town of Rastan, which has become a hotbed of dissent against Assad.

The Syrian government has placed severe restrictions on the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify witness accounts. Syria's opposition has no clear leadership or platform beyond the demands for more freedom and for Assad to step down, and several attempts to form a national council have failed because of disagreements between opposition figures, and in particular, divisions between the opposition inside and outside Syria.

In a sign of just how fragmented the opposition is, a relatively unknown dissident Monday announced the formation of a 94-member national council. The announcement, made in Ankara, Turkey, was greeted with excitement on social networking sites — but the celebrations were premature. Several opposition figures whose names appeared on the list told The Associated Press they had not been consulted.

Meanwhile, in New York, Security Council ambassadors met behind closed doors Monday to discuss rival U.N. resolutions on Syria. Russia introduced a resolution Friday that called for Assad's government to halt its violence against protesters and expedite reforms, but it made no mention of the sanctions sought by the U.S. and European nations in draft resolution circulated earlier this month.

Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private, said afterwards that it was a useful and constructive session and all 15 council members agreed on the necessity of adopting a resolution. Council members will continue discussing what should be included in the resolution, the diplomats said.

After months of deadlock, the Security Council finally responded to the escalating violence in Syria on Aug. 3, condemning Assad's forces for attacking civilians and committing human rights violations in a weaker presidential statement. It called on Syrian authorities to immediately end all violence and launch an inclusive political process.

Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Afghans oppose permanent US bases

2012-02-24T18:36:00.000+02:00

Sun Aug 28, 2011

A newly established political front has strongly rejected the notion of establishing permanent US military bases in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's Unity Front, which is made up of people from all walks of life, declared its existence on Sunday.

A spokesman for the group has said that the permanent presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan runs counter to the country's independence and national pride.

The stance comes after several senior congressman called for permanent US military bases in the war-ravaged country.

Moreover, a recently published report said that the US was trying to reach an agreement with the Afghan government that would allow thousands of American forces to remain in the war-torn country at least until 202.

About 150,000 NATO troops are currently fighting in Afghanistan with plans to stay in the country beyond 2014.

This is while US President Barack Obama had pledged a major drawdown from Afghanistan by July 2011. Experts have described the new transition dates as a devastating truth for Americans.

Analysts say the US is looking for an excuse to expand its military operations in the troubled South and central Asian regions to secure bases near Russia and China.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/196264.html.

Japan's finance minister to become PM

2012-02-24T18:33:00.000+02:00

Mon Aug 29, 2011

Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda has been elected as the ruling party's leader and he will become the country's sixth prime minister in five years.

Noda defeated Trade Minister Banri Kaieda on Monday in a run-off election 215-177 after none of the five candidates won a majority in the first round, AP reported.

Kaieda became the top vote-getter in the first round, but he failed to win an outright majority of 200 votes.

The 54-year-old Noda will almost certainly become the next prime minister because the ruling Democrats control the more powerful lower house of parliament.

In the run-off, 398 parliamentary members of Democratic Party of Japan voted to choose among five candidates.

Other candidates include former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano and former Transport Minister Sumio Mabuchi.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday confirmed his resignation after 15 months in office amid criticisms over his handling of March's earthquake-tsunami disaster and ensuing nuclear accident.

The next premier will inherit a host of daunting challenges, from a sluggish economy to the massive reconstruction after the tsunami and nuclear crisis.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/196314.html.

Jordanian protests worry Saudi king

2012-02-24T18:27:00.000+02:00

Sat Aug 27, 2011

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz has expressed concerns about the persistence of protests in Jordan in a letter to the country's King Abdullah II.

“The political development in Jordan will have a negative impact on Saudi Arabia,” wrote the Saudi King in the letter to his Jordanian counterpart, Fars news agency reported.

“The status of Arab countries such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia are linked together and therefore Saudi Arabia will spare no effort to resolve Jordan's problems,” the Saudi ruler pledged.

Saudi king's letter came as protest rallies have been staged across Jordan for the past seven months in efforts to push the government to expand powers of the parliament.

Jordanians have also been demanding lower food prices, a greater participation in politics and the election of a prime minister.

The rise in anti-government protests and mounting political tension in Arab countries such of Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain have worried the US-backed Saudi kingdom and prompted King Abdullah to grant Jordan more than $1.2 billion in financial assistance since the beginning of 2011.

Saudi Arabia has been criticized over its double standards toward anti-government protests in the region. Riyadh has been a strong supporter of opposition groups in Syria, while it has deployed troops in Bahrain to help regime forces crush protesters there.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195977.html.

Yemenis mark Intl. Quds Day in Sa'ada

2012-02-24T18:21:00.000+02:00

Sun Aug 28, 2011

Yemeni people have held demonstrations in the northern city of Sa'ada to voice their support for the Palestinians as they commemorate the International Quds Day.

Large crowds of people poured in their thousands into the streets of the Houthi stronghold on Friday in a show of solidarity with Palestinians.

The demonstrators condemned Israeli violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and called for an end to what their called Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

The Yemeni protesters shouted slogans against the United States and Israel.

Similar rallies were also held across Yemen, including the capital of Sana'a, where protesters renewed their call for the downfall of Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime.

Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in Yemen's major cities since January, calling for an end to corruption and unemployment, and demanding the ouster of Saleh, who has been in power since 1978.

Hundreds of protesters have been killed and many more injured in the regime's brutal crackdown on Yemen's popular uprising.

Meanwhile, Saleh is still convalescing in Saudi Arabia, where he travelled for medical treatment for the injuries he sustained in an attack on his presidential palace on June 3.

In August 1979, late Founder of the Islamic Republic Grand Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini declared the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as the International Quds Day.

The initiative calls on Muslims across the world to mark the annual occasion by holding street rallies in protest at Israel's occupation of the Palestinians' homeland.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196128.html.

Lebanon sends aid shipment to Somalia

2012-02-24T18:18:00.000+02:00

Sun Aug 28, 2011

Lebanon has sent its first consignment of humanitarian assistance to famine-hit Somalia as millions are on the brink of starvation.

The consignment, comprising rice, sugar, flour, baby milk, and medical supplies, arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday, Lebanon's The Daily Star reported on Saturday.

The campaign to help Somali famine refugees was launched jointly by the Lebanese government's Higher Relief Committee, Lebanon's Health Ministry, and the country's Dar al-Fatwa Endowment Fund.

Drought and famine have affected more than 11.8 million people across Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Somalia has been the hardest-hit country in what is being described as the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years.

According to the United Nations, a quarter of Somalia's 9.9 million people are now either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees.

The UN has declared famine in five regions of Somalia and says that the international humanitarian response to the crisis has been insufficient.

The United Nations says that more than thirteen children out of every 10,000 aged less than five die in the Somalia famine zone every day.

"This means that 10 per cent of children under five are dying every 11 weeks. These figures are truly heart-wrenching," UN representative to Somalia Augustine Mahiga told the UN Security Council on August 10.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196126.html.

Bahrainis reject king's speech

2012-02-24T18:07:00.000+02:00

Mon Aug 29, 2011

Bahraini anti-regime protesters have rejected King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa's decision to pardon the demonstrators who were arrested during the country's popular uprising.

The protesters took to the streets immediately after the king's televised speech on Sunday, blaming him for the brutal crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations.

King Hamad said in his speech that he would “dismiss charges against some of the detained protesters and allow compensation to prisoners abused by security forces.”

He also promised to reinstate employees and students who have been dismissed for participating in anti-regime protests.

Thousands of employees lost their jobs in punishment for supporting the protests. Some of the students were denied scholarships to study abroad.

The Bahraini king's remarks come more than six months after his regime launched a Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.

Meanwhile, a special security court on Sunday resumed the trial of 20 doctors and nurses accused of treating injured anti-government protesters. The court adjourned until September 7, when it will begin hearing defense witnesses.

Thousands of anti-government protesters in Bahrain have been holding peaceful demonstrations since mid-February, demanding an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196308.html.

Bahrain troops attack protesters

2012-02-24T18:02:00.000+02:00

Mon Aug 29, 2011

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have attacked anti-government protesters after the demonstrators took to the streets across the Persian Gulf sheikdom to protest a speech by the Bahraini king.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters took to the streets across Bahrain on Sunday shortly after the country's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa delivered a televised speech calling for national unity in a bid to bring normality back to the country.

The protesters rejected the king's decision announced by him during his speech to pardon some of the anti-government protesters detained during the popular uprising in the country.

The anti-government protesters also accused the Bahraini king of ordering the brutal crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations in Bahrain, demanding an end to the rule of Al Khalifa dynasty.

Activists said the protests lasted into Monday morning and that regime forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowds in several regions including Sitra, where several people were also injured by the forces.

During his Sunday speech, the Bahraini king also said that he would “allow compensation to prisoners abused by security forces.”

The Bahraini ruler promised to reinstate employees and students who were dismissed for taking part in anti-regime protests.

He said, however, that the protest-related trials will continue in the tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom.

King Hamad's remarks come more than six months after the Manama regime launched a brutal Saudi-backed crackdown on protests, killing scores of demonstrators and injuring hundreds far.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196381.html.

'Over 10,000 Libyan prisoners freed'

2012-02-24T17:57:00.000+02:00

Mon Aug 29, 2011

Over 10,000 out of an estimated 50,000 plus political prisoners held in fugitive Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's jails have been freed by fighters since the collapse of the capital Tripoli, an official says.

Ahmed Omar Bani, spokesman for the revolutionary forces, expressed deep concerns about the remaining tens of thousands the whereabouts of whom is not known yet, AFP reported.

“Many people in Tripoli are now discovering mass graves around former detention centers and Abu Salim prison,” said Bani.

The spokesperson also urged people to come forward with any information on prisoners, “or they will be considered complicit in these crimes.”

Abu Salim prison is a top security prison in the Libyan capital, which has often been described as “notorious.”

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/196330.html.

Egyptians protest Saudi 'meddling'

2012-02-24T17:38:00.000+02:00

Mon Aug 29, 2011

Egyptian people have gathered in front of the Saudi embassy in the capital city of Cairo to protest Riyadh's interference in their country's internal affairs.

Protesters on Sunday held placards and banners against what they called Saudi Arabia's interference in Egypt, reports said.

The demonstrators proclaimed that Egypt is an independent state, calling on Persian Gulf kingdom to stop its "meddling."

People also condemned what they called mistreatment of Egyptian workers in Saudi Arabia and slammed Riyadh over its role in developments in Yemen and Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia has deployed hundreds of troops in Bahrain to help crackdown of anti-regime protesters in Manama and other cities.

Meanwhile, thousands of Egyptians once again staged a massive protest outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

Protesters demanded the termination of all ties with Tel Aviv and repeated calls for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/196313.html.

'US Congress takes decrees from Israel'

2012-02-24T17:29:00.000+02:00

Mon Aug 29, 2011

The US Congress is controlled by the 'Zionist lobbies' who work in the interest of Israelis, Lawrence Davidson, professor of History at West Chester University, has told Press TV.

“What we've got here is a congress, the US Congress, that is really, literally controlled by various Zionist lobbies in the United States on the issue of relationships with Israel,” Davidson said in a Sunday interview with Press TV's US desk.

“What the Congress does in terms of Israel is what the Zionists tell them they want done and of course take their decrees from Israelis,” he stated.

He further pointed to the US hypocrisy in supporting “Zionists” when they sought the UN recognition of Israel and Washington's warning of Palestinians against taking similar initiative at the United Nations.

The PA is to formally submit a request to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for membership in the world body on September 20, when the UN General Assembly will commence its 66th session.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/196328.html.

Irene death toll rises to 25 in US

2012-02-24T17:25:00.000+02:00

Mon Aug 29, 2011

The death toll from Hurricane Irene's onslaught on the East Coast of the United States has risen to 25, as the tropical storm makes its way to eastern Canada, Press TV reported.

Twenty five people were killed across eight states of the United States by toppled trees and other hurricane-related incidents.

Moreover, the storm left some 4.5 million households and business units in the US without power and inflicted an estimated USD 7 to 13 billion in damage.

The US State of Vermont witnessed seven inches of rain early Monday.

Irene has now reached Canada after leaving a trail of destruction across the northeastern US.

Strong winds battered parts of Canada's Quebec and the Atlantic provinces on Monday morning.

The US National Hurricane Center has downgraded Hurricane Irene to a post-tropical cyclone.

US President Barack Obama on Sunday warned that the dangers of the tropical storm will not be over even after Irene leaves the US.

"Many Americans are still at serious risk of power outages and flooding, which could get worse in the coming days as rivers swell past their banks," Obama said.

“I do want to underscore, that the impact of the storm will be felt for some time. And the recovery effort will last for weeks or longer,” Obama added.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/196380.html.

Anti-Israel protests held in Saudi Arabia

2012-02-24T17:11:00.000+02:00

Fri Aug 26, 2011

As people across the world rally in support of Palestinians, thousands of anti-Israel protesters have taken to the streets in several Saudi Arabian cities and mark the International Quds Day.

Protesters in the town of Awamiyah in the al-Qatif region in the eastern province of the Middle Eastern country have burned the Israeli flag on Friday, witnesses said.

Protesters in the eastern city of Qatif have called on all citizens of the city to join the international rally.

Anti-Israeli protesters also voiced their support for the people of Bahrain and condemned their government for aiding the Al Khalifa regime's brutal crackdown on peaceful Bahraini protesters.

Saudi Arabia's east has been the scene of protests over the past months and authorities have arrested scores of people, including bloggers and writers for taking part in anti-government demonstrations.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 160 dissidents have been arrested since February in the Saudi crackdown on anti-government protesters.

The last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan was declared as the International Quds Day by the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, in August 1979.

Millions of people around the world come out on this day to show support for the people of Palestine and to call for an end to Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195858.html.

Astronauts May Evacuate Space Station in November, NASA Says

2012-02-24T17:07:00.000+02:00

By Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer Space.com
SPACE.com – Mon, Aug 29, 2011

The International Space Station may have to start operating without a crew in November if Russian engineers don't figure out soon what caused a recent rocket failure, NASA officials announced today (Aug. 29).

The unmanned Russian cargo ship Progress 44 crashed just after its Aug. 24 launch to deliver 2.9 tons of supplies to the orbiting lab. The failure was caused by a problem with the Progress' Soyuz rocket, which is similar to the one Russia uses to launch its crew-carrying vehicle — also called Soyuz — to the station.

Currently, six astronauts reside on the space station. They shouldn't be unduly affected by the Progress crash, NASA officials said, because they have enough supplies to last a while on orbit.

But three of these astronauts are due to return to Earth next month, and the rest are scheduled to come back in mid-November. At the moment, the Soyuz is the only way to get astronauts to and from the station. So if the rocket anomaly isn't identified and fixed soon, a fresh crew won't be able to reach the orbiting lab before the last three spaceflyers head for home.

Unmanned for the first time in a decade?

That situation would leave the $100 billion orbiting lab unmanned for the first time since 2001. Still, it wouldn't be a disaster, according to NASA officials.

"We know how to do this," NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini told reporters today. "Assuming the systems keep operating, like I've said, we can command the vehicle from the ground and operate it fine, and remain on orbit indefinitely."

NASA would of course prefer to keep some crew aboard the orbiting lab, Suffredini added. Leaving the station unmanned would cut back significantly on the scientific research being done 240 miles (386 kilometers) above the Earth. In the wake of the space shuttle's retirement last month, NASA has repeatedly stressed the importance of that research, and the scientific potential of the station.

But the timing just might not work out. Two Soyuz spacecraft are currently docked to the station to take its six astronauts home. The vehicles are only rated to spend about 200 days in space, so they'll have to depart soon.

Light at the landing site

Lighting conditions at the Soyuz's Kazakhstan landing site are also an issue. NASA and the Russian space agency mandate that landings must occur at least one hour after dawn and one hour before dusk, to facilitate better search and rescue operations should any be required.

The lighting window closes for about five weeks on Sept. 19 for the first crew and around Nov. 19 for the second. Waiting for a new window to open would stretch the Soyuz spacecraft beyond their 200-day ratings in both cases, Suffredini said.

So all six astronauts on the space station will almost certainly have left the orbiting lab by mid-November. Russian engineers are working hard to give crewed Soyuz launches the best chance to meet that deadline; the next one is slated to blast off Sept. 21, but that's almost certainly not going to happen, Suffredini said.

Russia has formed a commission to determine the cause of the Progress crash, and to figure out how to fix it. But NASA says it won't rush anything, as astronaut safety is its chief priority.

"We'll just see how it plays out," Suffredini said.

NASA won't put any crews on a Soyuz until the rocket has had several successful unmanned launches, he added. Those could happen relatively soon. Russia plans to use Soyuz boosters to launch a commercial payload and another Progress supply ship by late October.

The Progress crash marked the latest in a string of Russian launch failures over the last 10 months. This series of mishaps has caused some concern among U.S. lawmakers and experts, since NASA will rely on Russia to loft its astronauts to orbit until private American crew-carrying spaceships come online. That could start happening by 2015, officials have said.

Mast installed on U.S. Navy carrier

2012-02-24T17:03:00.000+02:00

NORFOLK, Va., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The main mast of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman has been installed at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

The installation marks a milestone in the ship's 13-month drydock planned incremental availability, the Naval Sea Systems Command said.

The 112,000-pound mast -- 10 feet taller and 23,000 pounds heavier than the mast removed June 18 -- supports the modernization of the carrier's combat systems suite and radars for its new weapons systems.

The mast required more than two years and two shipyards to build. As part of Naval Sea Systems Command's "One Shipyard" concept, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility assisted with fabrication of the mast.

In addition to the main mast replacement, the shipyard's CVN 75 availability project team will be modernizing and improving the carrier's propulsion plant control.

NNSY, a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command, is the oldest and largest industrial facility belonging to the U.S. Navy and specializes in repairing, overhauling and modernizing ships and submarines.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/08/29/Mast-installed-on-US-Navy-carrier/UPI-13921314617470/.

High rating for new vehicle barrier

2012-02-24T16:54:00.000+02:00

ATLANTA, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- An all-electric vehicle barrier system by SecureUSA has passed the ASTM-M50 crash rating at the P1 penetration standard.

The ASTM-M50 is a rating for a 15,000-pound vehicle hitting a barrier at 50 mph. P1 means penetration of the barrier was less than 3 feet.

"The all electric FutureWEDGE 3600s was created to meet the needs of new EPA/LEEDS regulations in both the public and private sector with comprehensive security integration capabilities," said SecureUSA Chief Executive Officer Carla Clark.

SecureUSA has specifically developed the FutureWEDGE range of vehicle barriers to be part of an overall security management solution that can include Smart Fencing, traffic control, intelligent video, wrong way detection, speed detection, intrusion detection and defense.

The company said FutureWEDGE 3600s offers technological advancements, expansive integration capabilities and sophisticated controls that have never been seen before in a high security vehicle barrier.

It has been designed to become part of SecureUSA's Intelligent Security Management Solutions offering sophisticated integrated Access Control Points with high level intrusion detection and defense from a single source provider.

The recently crashed-certified FutureWEDGE 3600s was a larger version (14 feet width) than the previous 10-foot version crashed tested in January and is the latest model in a full range of electric vehicle barriers and bollards covering a diverse range of ASTM crash ratings.

It was designed for high security applications that include military installations, nuclear sites, petro-chemical facilities and many other critical infrastructure installations.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/08/29/High-rating-for-new-vehicle-barrier/UPI-90201314625675/.

Turkey grows frustrated with Syria

2012-02-24T16:52:00.000+02:00

ANKARA, Turkey, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Ankara won't talk with Damascus until the Syrian president carries out promised reforms in the country, a Turkish source said.

Ersat Hurmuzlu, an adviser to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, told London's pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that Ankara doesn't have a hidden agenda in Syria, noting the fate of the country in the hands of the people.

His comments echo those from Western officials who've issued sweeping condemnations of the bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters while keeping a non-interventionist stance.

An official in the Turkish Foreign Ministry told the newspaper on condition of anonymity that Ankara was "very concerned" by what's happening in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has issued a series of statements addressing reforms ranging from the right to form political parties to voting measures. Despite pledges of reform, however, the United Nations estimates that at least 2,000 people were killed at the hands of Syrian security forces, including hundreds during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"There will be no dialogue with the Syrian authorities unless they carry out their promises within an acceptable and reasonable period," the Turkish source said.

More gunfire was reported Monday in Syria near the border with Lebanon.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/29/Turkey-grows-frustrated-with-Syria/UPI-57041314626810/.

Greece plans major solar power exports to Germany: report

2012-02-24T16:45:00.000+02:00

Athens (AFP)
Aug 27, 2011

Wracked by debt but blessed with abundant sunshine, Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany, a report said on Saturday.

Top-selling Ta Nea daily said the project, which has a tentative budget of 20 billion euros ($29 billion), could create 60,000 jobs at a time when Greece is battling a deep recession and record unemployment figures.

Germany is looking for alternative energy sources after chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided to shut down all 17 of the country's nuclear reactors over 11 years, following the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan in March.

Environment Minister George Papaconstantinou discussed the initiative, code named Project Helios, with Germany's deputy economy minister Stefan Kapferer, who was in Athens this week for investment talks, the daily said.

German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler is also scheduled to visit Greece in October, following an agreement between Athens and Berlin in March to cooperate on renewable energy development.

"There is significant German interest in investments of this sort," Papaconstantinou said this week, adding that the Greek government has already initiated funding talks on Project Helios with foreign banks.

"These are plans with a 20 and 25-year perspective, hence investors are guaranteed a satisfactory return," said Papaconstantinou, who headed the finance ministry until June.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, a strong proponent of green energy, announced plans in January to build "the world's largest solar park" over depleted lignite mines in the northern city of Kozani.

Estimated to cost 600 million euros and with a capacity of 200 megawatts, the project's electricity output will be "greater than any other photovoltaic park operational in the world until now," Papandreou said at the time.

The state-run Public Power Corporation (PPC) said it would organize an international tender to find a strategic investor for the solar park, which is to be built over 520 hectares (1,285 acres) of disused mines.

The Socialist government has sought to attract investment in renewable energy projects to offset thousands of jobs lost to a recession exacerbated by austerity measures adopted to tackle a national debt crisis.

It has also pledged to gradually shift electricity production away from lignite, a heavily polluting form of coal.

Greece's unemployment rate has steadily shot up this year, hitting 16.6 percent in May 2011 from 12.0 percent in the same month the previous year.

The Greek economy is expected to shrink by at least 4.5 percent of output this year after two previous years of contraction.

Source: Solar Daily.
Link: http://www.solardaily.com/reports/Greece_plans_major_solar_power_exports_to_Germany_report_999.html.

Iraq cabinet approves draft oil law

2012-02-24T16:02:00.000+02:00

Baghdad (AFP)
Aug 28, 2011

Iraq's cabinet approved a draft oil and gas law on Sunday in a bid to finally pass rules regulating the country's most lucrative sector after years of political deadlock.

The law would govern the sector and divide responsibility between Baghdad and Iraq's provinces but despite the lack of such guidelines, foreign investors have still poured in, signing 11 contracts to potentially boost the country's oil output five-fold.

The cabinet "approved the draft oil and gas law and transferred it to parliament," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement, adding the draft law "voids all previous draft laws" on the issue.

The oil and gas, or hydrocarbons, law has been repeatedly delayed since it was first submitted to parliament in 2007. It has been held up due to disagreements between MPs from the country's many different communities.

Despite the lack of such a law, foreign firms have signed multiple deals to develop Iraq's oil fields.

Iraq currently produces around 2.7 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), and domestic authorities are targeting a capacity of 12 million bpd by 2017, although the IMF has voiced doubts over whether that target is obtainable.

Oil accounts for the lion's share of government income, with Iraq exporting around 2.2 million bpd.

Source: Energy-Daily.
Link: http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Iraq_cabinet_approves_draft_oil_law_999.html.

Jordan, Egypt to sign natural gas deal

2012-02-24T15:56:00.000+02:00

Sun, 28/08/2011

Jordan's energy czar says his country will sign an agreement with Egypt next month to resume natural gas supplies.

Energy Minister Khaled Toukan says several attacks this year on Egypt's pipeline delivering the fuel may prompt Jordan to look for alternatives, but Jordan will now try to use Egyptian gas to meet its energy needs.

Toukan said Sunday the agreement stipulates higher costs, but declined to say how much.

Jordan depends on Egyptian gas to generate 80 percent of its electricity. The resource-poor country has resorted to heavy fuel and diesel to keep national power plants running. The shift cost Jordan $4.2 million a day.

Source: Egypt Independent.
Link: http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/490470.

1,000 convert to Islam in Kuwait during Ramadan

2012-02-24T15:53:00.000+02:00

8/28/2011

Up to 1,000 male and female expatriates have converted to Islam since start of the holy month of Ramadan, said the Director General of the Islamic Presentation Committee on Sunday.

Jamal Al-Shatti, in a statement to KUNA, said the conversion of this large number of people to Islam "was a dream that has come true.

"We have exerted tremendous efforts to make this dream turn into reality, and this has been accomplished as a result of the support of the natives of Kuwait." The committee offers a variety of religious educational services for new advocates of Islam; such as religious and Arabic language curricula.

The Kuwaiti authority seeks to promote Islam through dialogue, persuasion and logic.
The committee has succeeded in persuading up to 53,000 non-Muslims to convert to the religion since its launch in 1978.

Al-Shatti urged all nationals to support the committee.

Source: Indians in Kuwait.
Link: http://www.indiansinkuwait.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=12513&SECTION=0.

Jordanians pay price as Syria roils

2012-02-24T15:41:00.000+02:00

By ABDULLAH OMAR / THE MEDIA LINE
08/29/2011

Border town residents cheer on the Syrian protesters, but feel the sting of trade restrictions placed by Assad's regime.

RAMTHA, Jordan - A melting pot for refugees from around the world, Jordan has recently welcomed the latest batch of asylum seekers from neighboring Syria, but officials in Amman fear this bite is more than they can chew.

Ever since the popular uprising against the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad took a violent turn five months ago, Jordan’s northernmost towns over the border with Syria have been welcoming dozens of Syrians families and soldiers fleeing crackdown on protesters.

When revolts first broke out across the Arab World at the start of the year, Jordanians here in the city of Ramtha and its neighboring villages were excited at the prospect of despots being brought down. When the unrest spread to Syria, which started in the country’s south not far from Jordan, they welcomed the first wave of Syrian asylum seekers with open arms.

But as the protests wore on and the government of Assad counterattacked with a violent crackdown, the mood shifted. For many residents, cross-border trade is what puts bread on the table, but the crackdown virtually shut the border with Jordan. Syrian authorities refused to allow Jordanian merchants into its territory to buy food and other essentials that supply Ramtha’s stores and markets.

“The siege on this small town sent a message to Jordanian officials that Damascus was ready to cut Jordan from a vital food source in case it supported the revolt,” says Abdullah Zubi, an activist from Ramtha, whose population numbers 100,000 people, making it the biggest town near the border.

The Arab Spring has dealt roughly with Jordan, an American ally, and there is little sign that the regional unrest in abating. At home, King Abdullah has faced protests calling for deep political reforms while chaos in the Sinai Peninsula has cut off the country’s supply of Egyptian natural gas. The economy has had to contend with higher prices for oil and food.

Assad has killed more than 2,000 people in his bid to quell protests against his rule. On Saturday, Syrian forces attacked demonstrators in suburbs of the capital, Damascus, as well in the cities of Deir Al-Zour, Homs and Nawa, human rights activists said. The foreign minister of Iran, Syria’s most important ally, on Saturday called on Assad to "pay heed to the legitimate demands of his people" and warned that a potential power vacuum in Damascus "would bring about unpredictable consequences" for the region.

Jordan imports most of its foodstuffs from Syria or through Syrian territories. So far, the trade line has not been disrupted, but concern is growing that retaliation could lead Syria to seal its borders with Jordan, a blow that the kingdom would find difficult to handle, considering its limited resources and options in the region, say analysts.

But the distress involved more than trade. Several influential businessmen and lawmakers with close links to Syria, hired thugs to stop local residents from taking to the streets in support of the uprising against Assad’s Baath regime, Zubi said. Meanwhile, with protests spreading in Syria and the death toll rising, the exodus intensified from Houran district, the southern tip of Syria and cradle of anti-Assad protests.

Dissidents who arrive in Jordan talk of random killings and arrests as well as looting and sabotage by the Syrian army and civilian groups believed to be close to the under fire regime.

Abdul Rahman, a former Syrian soldier, says he crossed the border on foot from Deraa two months ago, after he refused to shoot at civilians.

“We were given orders to shoot protesters, destroy houses and arrest anyone believed to be a threat,” says Abdul Rahman after performing taraweeh prayer among several Syrian asylum seekers.

The 34-year-old former soldier is seeking asylum with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“I can’t return to Syria as long as the Assad regime is ruling. They arrested my brother and destroyed my house after I escaped to Jordan,” says Abdul Rahman, who often takes part in anti-Assad protests in several cities across Jordan.

In the border town of Mafraq, a tribal stronghold loyal to Jordan’s King Abdullah, several Syrian soldiers cross the landmine infested region in search for safety. Residents say refugees have been welcomed by local families, but there is little public discussion about it for fear of retaliation from the Syrians.

Abu Samara, a tribal leader from Khalidya, is one of the few who are willing to talk about what is happening. He says the livelihood of many Jordanians depends on cross border trade with Syria, including transport of cattle, food items and other merchandise. Scores of residents in Mafraq also work in the smuggling business. Some bring in cigarettes, electric appliances, food items and often drugs.

But more than trade, tribes and families straddle both sides of the border, creating a network of loyalty and mutual support that transcend political and national divisions.

“Jordan and Syria are one country, the people are the same. These borders came into existence only a few years ago, but we still have relatives on the other side of the border and our duty is to help them,” he told The Media Line in a telephone interview.

At Abu Samara’s house lives a Syrian family of six people from Deraa in southern Syria, who arrived nearly two months ago when the Syrian army pushed into the city to silence anti-Assad demonstrators. The parents arrived along with their three daughters and one son.

Political ties between Jordan and Syria, particularly between the fathers of the current two leaders, the late King Hussein and Hafez Assad, have been marred by periodic episodes of tension. While Syria has grown into an ally of Iran and Lebanon’s Shi'ite militant movement Hezbollah, Jordan’s royal family is a traditional ally of the West. In the late 1970s, Syria and Jordan came close to a military confrontation over how to deal with their common neighbor, Israel. In more recent years, relations improved, but they are still fragile as Syria remains in the grip of the Hafez Assad-era old guard.

As the smaller of the two countries and facing its own domestic tensions, Jordan has been sensitive to Syrian concerns. When Syrian dissidents, including renegade soldiers, activists and ordinary citizens, began coming across the border, Amman imposed a media gag on refugees. By comparison, the approximately 7,000 Syrian refugees who have cross into Turkey, on Syria’s north, have been interviewed by the media while dissident leaders routinely meet in Istanbul, the Turkish capital.

Jordanian Ministry of Interior officials insist that the number of Syrians who have fled to Jordan as refugees is limited, pointing out that many Syrians would visit the kingdom in summer for vacation. An official source, who requested anonymity, will admit to only several refugees being welcomed in. Sources at UNHCR said the agency has recently approved requests for asylum from a number of Syrians.

Nevertheless, Jordan has recently accused Syria of siphoning off its underground water and placing the kingdom under strain as it struggles with chronic water shortage and rising population. On August 14, Jordan’s prime minister, for the first time, scolded the Syrian government for resorting to violence to crush protesters and urged an end to violence.

Such remarks could have a profound impact on the already fragile ties between the two sides, say observers.

Source: The Jerusalem Post.
Link: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=235842.

Chinese Regime Considers Legalizing Illegal Detentions

2012-02-24T15:33:00.000+02:00

By Helena Zhu
August 28, 2011

For years the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been abducting troublesome lawyers, dissidents, and activists, and detaining them in secret locations without notifying a soul. It is an extralegal process, decried by international observers and carried out secretly inside China. A new change to the criminal law might make the process legal.

The proposed amendments to residential surveillance laws would permit police to hold suspects in undisclosed locations for up to six months in cases involving terrorism, major corruption, or “national security.” The latter term is often interpreted in unconventional ways by Chinese security forces, and can include holding and expressing political or religious beliefs that the Party deems dangerous.

Suspects could be held without notifying their families or lawyers to better "facilitate the investigation," the state-owned Legal Daily reported.

As it is, Beijing has become accustomed to secretly holding dissidents in an apparent attempt to silence them. Prominent Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who was jailed for nearly three months, was the highest profile example. He vanished before any official charges had been concocted and filed.

Human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was convicted in December 2006 of subversion, with the sentence reduced to 5 years probation. Since then he has been subjected to repeated abductions by state security, with the most recent occurring in April 2010. He has twice discussed the torture that he was subjected to while detained, once in an article in 2007 and in April 2010 with an AP reporter. On Aug. 14, the date his 5-yearlong period of probation ended, his wife held a press conference calling for the return of Gao to his family. His whereabouts remain unknown.

While the regime claims that the amendments are part of positive legal reforms, rights groups fear that authorities will be endorsing an illegal practice already in use by police, Radio Free Asia reported.

Currently, Chinese laws already allow suspects to be held under house arrest, but the proposed changes would allow them to be moved to locations other than a "regular detention center or police station."

Liu Xiaoyuan, a legal activist and Ai’s lawyer, wrote a microblog post on Saturday saying that even if the changes were to be made, at least family members should be notified.

"Otherwise, a provision like this is basically legalizing forced disappearances," Liu said, adding that any law lacking requirements for families to be notified could result in torture and abuse.

The proposed changes to the criminal procedure law will be reviewed in March by the annual session of the National People’s Congress, the highest state body and only legislative house in communist China. The result of that review, however, may have been decided by Party officials ahead of time.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/chinese-regime-considers-legalizing-illegal-detentions-60890.html.

Gadhafi Forces Suspected of Mass Murder of Prisoners

2012-02-24T15:29:00.000+02:00

By Jack Phillips
August 28, 2011

Mass graves containing dozens of suspected rebel bodies was recently discovered, with evidence that forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi killed them, said Human Rights Watch.

Some of the bodies were dumped in the Tripoli neighborhood of Gargur sometime around August 21, said the rights group, who published its findings on Sunday in a report. A witness who survived the mass killing said that Libyan government forces shot prisoners at a building belonging to the Internal Security Service.

The mass grave in Gargur is the latest discovered in recent days that Gadhafi forces are also suspected to be responsible for, the rights group said. On Friday, 18 bodies were discovered near the Internal Security building in a dry riverbed. Some of those killed may have been doctors and nurses, and had their hands tied behind their backs.

Another two bodies were found in the Internal Security building on August 26.

Another 29 bodies were found in a medical clinic outside of Gadhafi’s compound, Bab al-Aziziya. Some appeared to have been executed while they were lying in hospital beds.

“Torture was rife in Gadhafi’s prisons but to execute detainees days before they would have been freed is a sickening low in the government’s behavior,” stated Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

Whitson said there is strong evidence suggesting “Gadhafi government forces went on a spate of arbitrary killing as Tripoli was falling.”

Osama Hadi Mansur Al-Swayi, one of the survivors of the massacre at the Internal Security building, said that as the rebels came into Tripoli on Aug. 19, the prisoners started celebrating.

“We were so happy, and we knew we would be released soon,” he recounted. But that joy soon turned to terror. Snipers that were upstairs came down and started shooting. Al-Swayi along with other prisoners were told to lie on the ground. Then he heard one of the guards loyal to Gadhafi give the order to “just finish them off.”

“In one instant, they finished off all the people with me,” he said.

Another witness, Juma’ Al-Murayd, told Human Rights Watch that on August 23 he had seen Gadhafi’s men beat up then kill three civilians at a checkpoint near his home. “One of them was just driving his car, unarmed,” the witness said.

“These incidents, which may represent only a fraction of the total, raise grave questions about the conduct of Gadhafi forces in the past few days, and whether it was systematic or planned,” said Whitson.

“If these incidents are proven to be extra judicial killings they are serious war crimes and those responsible should be brought to justice,” he added.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/gadhafi-forces-suspected-of-mass-murder-of-prisoners-60881.html.

Nepal elects Maoist leader as new prime minister

2012-02-24T13:53:00.000+02:00

KATHMANDU (BNO NEWS) — Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai was elected Nepal’s 35th prime minister on Sunday afternoon, after weeks of political instability, the Himalayan Times reported.

Baburam Bhattarai of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) was elected by a simple majority in the Legislature-Parliament on Sunday. He garnered 340 votes of the 575 present lawmakers while his opponent, Nepalese Congress Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Paudel, secured only 235 votes.

57-year-old Bhattarai, who is one of the vice chairmen of his party, in the 90s served as deputy prime minister and finance minister in the government led by then-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. He went underground after his party, the then-CPN Maoist, launched an armed rebellion in 1996. Bhattarai was involved in the peace talks with the government in 2003.

After Sunday’s results were announced, Paudel congratulated Bhattarai on his election victory to become the country’s 35th prime minister. Paudel said he hoped the new prime minister will be able to carry out the peace process in 1.5 month as promised by his party, according to the newspaper.

Sunday’s voting took place after Nepalese politicians failed to form a unity government on Wednesday before the extended deadline granted by President Ram Baran Yadav expired. The president issued the deadline after Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal resigned on August 14 after six months and 11 days at the top post.

Khanal was elected in February after seven months of political stalemate. He quit after the government failed to conclude major tasks of the peace process and forge consensus.

The main challenges which Khanal faced during his tenure was the formation of a consensus government and the drafting of the constitution. A new constitution was a condition of a 2006 peace agreement which the Maoists signed with the government, ending a decade-long civil war.

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19737/nepal-elects-maoist-leader-as-new-prime-minister/.

At least 20 killed in Nigeria flooding

2012-02-24T13:49:00.000+02:00

ABUJA (BNO NEWS) — At least 20 people have been killed and thousands displaced by heavy flooding in and around the southwestern Nigerian city of Ibadan, officials said on Sunday.

A dam overflowed and washed away numerous buildings and bridges in the region, following heavy rains which began on Friday, according to the BBC. “It’s a very serious situation,” said Yushau Shuaib, an official in the city, 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Lagos.

Hundreds of cars were also reported to have been submerged in the floods, while businesses and farmlands were also damaged. Shuaib told the BBC it was impossible to give an accurate figure of those displaced, but said that it was “definitely in the thousands”.

On Tuesday, more than 150 houses were destroyed in the village of Kari, which is located in Darazo of Bauchi state, after six hours of nonstop rain. At least four people were reportedly killed as rain-triggered floods washed away hundreds of livestock, and other goods such as vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles.

And in late June, at least 24 people were killed and many others were injured when torrential rains flooded the northern city of Kano. Numerous buildings collapsed and were destroyed.

According to authorities, more than 500,000 people across the country, mostly in the North, were displaced last year by flooding. The National Emergency Management Agency recently warned state governments in the North to take preventive measures against floods.

More than 300 people were killed across western and central Africa in the 2010 rainy season.

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19739/at-least-20-killed-in-nigeria-flooding/.

Iranian scientist's assassin receives death sentence

2012-02-24T13:45:00.000+02:00

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) — Iran’s Judiciary on Sunday sentenced Majid Jamali-Fashi, who assassinated nuclear physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in early 2010, to death, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei made the announcement in an interview with the news agency. Jamali-Fashi was previously charged with moharebeh (enmity against God) and with being a ‘corrupt person on the earth’.

The trial session of the defendant was held on August 23 when he pleaded guilty to charges of assassinating Ali-Mohammadi. In his defense, Jamali Fashi confessed that he was due to carry out five other operations after Ali Mohammadi’s assassination.

Ali-Mohammadi, an Iranian university professor and nuclear scientist, was killed in January 2010 when a bomb planted in his motorcycle exploded in front of his house in Tehran, the country’s capital.

Iran has blamed the attack on Israel and its intelligence agency Mossad, saying that the agency has organized ‘terrorist groups’ to carry out attacks against Iranian scientists. Tehran’s Public and Revolutionary Courts Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi has said that Jamali Fashi was trained in Mossad’s military bases and that he had received $120,000 from Israel to carry out the assassination.

Last year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed Israel for the scientist’s murder, the first of three assaults on nuclear scientists of the Islamic country. On November 29, two other nuclear scientists were killed in separate bomb attacks in Tehran.

Iran has since claimed that both Israel and the United States have hatched numerous plots to stop its nuclear progress through different measures, including sanctions and assassinations of scientists and university professors.

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19740/iranian-scientists-assassin-receives-death-sentence/.

India anti-graft activist vows to continue crusade

2012-02-24T10:53:00.000+02:00

August 28, 2011 — NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian activist who ended a 12-day hunger strike Sunday after pushing Parliament to consider his anti-graft demands promised his jubilant supporters that his battle against endemic corruption would continue.

"It's the end of my fast but it's not the end of my fight. I will be back," Anna Hazare, 74, told thousands of flag-waving and cheering supporters minutes after accepting a glass of coconut water and honey from two children.

Hazare's protest brought tens of thousands of ordinary Indians, fed up of the country's deeply entrenched corruption, to the New Delhi fairground where he held camp. More people marched in support in dozens of cities across the nation.

Hazare began his fast Aug. 16 demanding Parliament pass his sweeping proposal to create a powerful anti-corruption ombudsman to police everyone from the prime minister to the lowest village bureaucrat.

Officials said Hazare's version of the draft bill was unconstitutional and his hunger strike was an attempt to subvert Parliament's legislative role. Hazare and his aides complained that the government's own bill was too weak to battle the deep rot in India's political system.

In the end, Parliament held a nine-hour debate Saturday that ended with a nonbinding "sense of the house" expressing support for some of his demands: committing to greater transparency and including low-level bureaucrats and state officials under the watchdog's purview.

In the capital, thousands of singing, dancing and cheering supporters gathered Sunday evening to celebrate what they called Hazare's victory. "We the people of India give ourselves a corruption-free India," one supporter in the crowd told NDTV news channel, paraphrasing the opening sentence of the country's constitution.

"The question is where do we go from here," said Raj Kumar Sagar, an advertising executive in the capital. Hazare said the next step would be to make the electoral system more responsive to the people. While he gave few details, he said he would attempt to get citizens the right to recall and reject lawmakers who did not live up to their promises.

"Only that will really reduce corruption," he said. Hazare's protest was fueled by months of scandals — including illicit mining deals and the dubious sale of cellphone spectrum — that tarred the ruling coalition and opposition parties alike. Even as Hazare was fasting, four politicians were charged with buying and selling votes in Parliament.

The government, miscalculating the popularity of his anti-graft message, briefly arrested him to quash his protest, a move that sent tens of thousands of his angry supporters pouring into streets across the country.

Hazare, who claims inspiration from liberation icon Mohandas K. Gandhi, eventually was given access to a fairground in the capital, New Delhi, which drew tens of thousands of protesters from India's growing middle class fed up with paying bribes for everything from getting a driver's license to enrolling a child in nursery school.

"People are suffering from corruption, and there seems to be no end," said Prabhat Tiwari, a 25-year-old businessman who came to the protest ground every day for a week. As the protest dragged on and Hazare's weight plunged more than 16.5 pounds (7.5 kilograms), government ministers and protest leaders haggled over how to end the standoff.

Just before Hazare broke his fast Sunday, one of his aides led the gathered crowd in a pledge: "I take an oath that in my life I will never take a bribe, nor will I give a bribe." The plan for a government watchdog — which had languished in Parliament for more than four decades — will now go to a legislative committee to work out the details and try to resolve competing visions for the proposed ombudsman's office.

It seems almost certain that lawmakers will now have to take the issue of corruption seriously or risk further protests. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said this past week that the protest had awoken the government to the need for reform. Rahul Gandhi, a top official with the ruling Congress party who is seen as a potential future prime minister, proposed sweeping reform in everything from the electoral system to the graft-riddled mining industry.

"Some beginning has been made. It's difficult to say what will happen," Manoj Kumar, a 24-year-old student, said Sunday at Hazare's protest site. "There is an awakening across the country, so it will now be difficult for the government to ignore people's demands."

Hazare — a former army truck driver credited with organizing his drought-prone village to harvest rain water and use solar power — enchanted many Indians with his stubborn stance against the political system and left them with a rare feeling of empowerment.

The protest "has broken that sense of helplessness that large numbers of people were feeling in this country. It brought a glimmer of hope that we can bring about change," said Neerja Chowdhury, a journalist for The Indian Express newspaper.

The Times of India newspaper credited Hazare with channeling the public anger into "a mass movement that has shaken the government to its foundation and placed the entire political class on notice."

Japan ruling party set to pick new leader

2012-02-24T10:51:00.000+02:00

August 29, 2011 — TOKYO (AP) — Japan's ruling party was set to pick a new leader Monday to become the country's sixth prime minister in five years.

Five candidates are running to replace Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is resigning after 15 months amid public criticism over his administration's handling of the tsunami disaster and ensuing nuclear crisis as well as disgust with political infighting.

The vote among 398 parliamentary members of the Democratic Party of Japan looked to be a face-off between former top diplomat Seiji Maehara — favored by the public — and Economy Minister Banri Kaieda, who has the backing of a powerful but scandal-tainted party kingpin, Ichiro Ozawa.

The vote will probably go to a run-off as no one is likely to win the 200 votes needed in the first round. The winner is almost certain to become the nation's next prime minister because the DPJ controls the more powerful lower house of Parliament.

Other candidates include Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano and former Transport Minister Sumio Mabuchi. The new leader faces a host of daunting challenges, from the massive reconstruction after the March 11 tsunami and a surging yen to a ballooning national debt and resolving a nuclear crisis that has dislocated 100,000 people.

Also, he must contend with a divided parliament, which could be a recipe for gridlock. The opposition won control of the upper house last summer. Few striking differences among the five candidates emerged during a weekend debate and joint news conference, which were heavy on rhetoric but scant on concrete proposals. All of them promised to revive Japan's sluggish economy and more government support for the reconstruction effort, while agreeing that it was premature to raise the 5 percent sales tax.

In one contrast, Maehara, a former foreign minister, proposed a halt to the building of new nuclear reactors and a phase-out of atomic power over 40 years. Kaieda, whose minister is in charge of promoting nuclear energy, said he planned to decommission aging nuclear plants found to have problems during stress tests, but did not detail his vision for the future of atomic energy.

Maehara and Noda also suggested they might seek a grand coalition, perhaps on limited basis, with key opposition parties, an approach Kaieda rejected. The leadership vote could turn out to be mainly a reflection of the DPJ's factional power struggles, further turning off the Japanese public to politics.

The telegenic Maehara, a 49-year-old defense expert and China hawk, was the front-runner until Kaieda won Ozawa's support. Ozawa, 69, who is known for savvily engineering elections, is embroiled in a political funding scandal, but his presence has still hung like a shadow over the party leadership campaign.

Kaieda, a 62-year-old former television commentator on economic matters, was key in efforts to bring the nuclear crisis under control and to lead a safety inspection of nuclear plants. He has shown he can be tough, firing three officials in charge of nuclear safety, a move that could help appease the outrage among voters about regulators' cozy ties with the industry.

Maehara has technically violated election laws by unknowingly accepting donations from a foreigner — a problem that could bring him down if the opposition decides to pursue that in parliament. He stepped down as foreign minister earlier this year over that scandal, but has defended his decision to run, saying he did nothing wrong.

Legislators, therefore, may decide to support other candidates, such as the fiscally conservative Noda, some experts say.

'فك القيد' حملة لمعرفة مصير 250 أردنيا في سوريا

2012-02-24T10:48:00.000+02:00

2011-08-28

خبرني – أطلق ناشطون وحقوقيون وعدد من الأهالي حملة شعبية للدفاع عن المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية حملت اسم " فك القيد".
وقالت الحملة في بيان لها صدر الأحد وحصلت " خبرني " على نسخة منه الحملة "تهدف لتسليط الضوء على جرائم النظام السوري و الضغط على الحكومة الأردنية حتى تتبنى موقف جاد يكفل عودة المعتقلين".
وأضاف بيان الحملة إن هذه الخطوة تهدف أيضا "لمتابعة قضية المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية وإعطائها الزخم الشعبي والإعلامي الذي تستحقه"
حيث سيكون باكورة عمل اللجنة مخاطبة الجهات المعنية للعمل على حل قضية المعتقلين وصولا إلى تنفيذ خيمة اعتصام دائم أمام السفارة السورية في عمان حتى تتحقق الحرية للمعتقلين.
وكررت الحملة أسفها "للدور السلبي للحكومة الأردنية ممثلة بوزارة الخارجية في التعامل مع ملف المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية، فما الفائدة من الاتفاقيات البينية والاجتماعات على مستوى رؤساء الوزراء إذ لم نستطع حل قضية المعتقلين".
وتاليا نص البيان كما وصل " خبرني " :
الحملة الوطنية للدفاع عن المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية
" فك القيد"
مازلت اللجنة الوطنية للمعتقلين الأردنيين في الخارج تستغرب نهج النظام السوري في تعاطيه مع قضية المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية، فرغم مرور ما يقرب الأربعة عقود على اعتقال بعض الأردنيين يواصل النظام السوري ضرب الحائط بكافة المواثيق والاتفاقيات العربية والدولية المعنية بحقوق الإنسان، حيث يعاني المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية أبشع صور التعذيب والإهانة.
إن المعتقلين الأردنيين ضحايا ممارسات تعذيب دموية ومهينة حيث يمارس عليهم التعذيب بطريقة الشبح والضرب بكوابل الكهرباء وربط الرجال من بشرهم وجرهم والضرب بالصعقات الكهربائية والتعذيب بالدولاب وخلع الاضافر وإجراء العمليات الجراحية دون وجود أمراض لديهم كما حدث مع المعتقل المفرج عنه حافظ ابو عصبة والذي خلعت أضافره وأسنانه بالكماشة.
إننا في اللجنة الوطنية للمعتقلين الأردنيين في الخارج نرى القصور الكبير من قبل الحكومة الأردنية في متابعة هذا الملف الإنساني الذي يمس ما يقارب الـ 250 مواطن أردني يقبعون في السجون السورية، والسؤال الذي نطرحه على الحكومة اين موقفك من النظام السوري الذي ينتهك اتفاقية الرياض التي تنص في احد بنودها " انه في حال صدر عفو عام أو خاص يجب أن يشمل كافة المعتقلين بغض النظر عن جنسيتهم" كما هو مطبق في الأردن.إن العفو العام الأخير الذي أصدره بشار الأسد عبارة عن عفو كرتوني حبر على ورق لم يستفيد منه الأردنيين وما زال الأردنيين في غياهب السجون السورية يتلقون أبشع صور التعذيب في فرع 251 على يد سجانهم المدعو أبو غضب.
اليوم وبعد مرور كل هذا الزمان على استمرار اعتقال الأردنيين في السجون السورية منهم أربعة سيدات على رأسهم وفاء عبيدات المعتقلة منذ العام 1985 لا يرق للنظام السوري جفن ولم يصحوا ضميره تجاه الأمهات اللاتي جفت عيونهن من البكاء على أبنائهن.إننا في اللجنة الوطنية للمعتقلين الأردنيين نحمل النظام السوري وعلى رأسه بشار الأسد المسؤولية عن سلامة المعتقلين الأردنيين، مؤكدين أن مصيره سيكون المحاسبة أمام القضاء العادل الذي سيقتص منه.
ونكرر أسفنا للدور السلبي للحكومة الأردنية ممثلة بوزارة الخارجية في التعامل مع ملف المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية، فما الفائدة من الاتفاقيات البينية والاجتماعات على مستوى رؤساء الوزراء إذ لم نستطع حل قضية المعتقلين.
ولمتابعة قضية المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية وإعطائها الزخم الشعبي والإعلامي الذي تستحقه فقد أطلق مجموعة من الحقوقيين والناشطين وأهالي المعتقلين الحملة الوطنية للدفاع عن المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية تحت عنوان " فك القيد" والتي تهدف لتسليط الضوء على جرائم النظام السوري و الضغط على الحكومة الأردنية حتى تتبنى موقف جاد يكفل عودة المعتقلين.وسيكون باكورة عمل اللجنة معادة مخاطب الجهات المعنية للعمل على حل قضية المعتقلين وصولا إلى تنفيذ خيمة اعتصام دائم أمام السفارة السورية في عمان حتى تتحقق الحرية للمعتقلين. .
منسق الحملة الوطنية للدفاع عن المعتقلين الأردنيين في السجون السورية " فك القيد"
المحامي عبد الكريم الشريدة
وفيما يلي اسماء عدد من المعتقلين والمفقودين الأردنيين في سوريا
1 - عاهد عبدالله علي الخريسات موجود ومعتقل لدى شعبة فلسطين زنزانة رقم 6 ويلقب ابو الطيب.
2 - ابراهيم عبدالله فايز الشوا، دخل سوريا بتاريخ 6/9/2006 اعتقل منذ دخوله ويعاني من مرض نفسي ويعالج في مستشفيات وزارة الصحة.
3 - حاتم عبدالرحيم محمد البوريني، مفقود في سوريا، غادر الى سوريا في 22/2/2005.
4 - جبر محمد خليل عثمان البستنجي معتقل في السجون السورية منذ 24 عاما.
5 - عماد ابراهيم عبدالهادي محمد الدواية، معتقل منذ 25 سنة.
6 - بشار شريف علي صالح.
7 - خالد محمد عبدالرحيم جابر العموري، معتقل منذ 1982 وهو في سجن تدمر.
8 - محمد خميس الصعبي مفقود في سوريا منذ عام 1983.
9 - احمد فؤاد نمر بشير، معتقل منذ 1982 بسوريا.
10- باسم خميس سمور صقر معتقل منذ 1991 في سوريا.
11 - خالد محمد حسين ظاهر معتقل في سوريا في سجن سدناية وهو محكوم 20 عاما.
12 - حسيب نديم صالح.
13 - وفاء فهمي علي عبيدات، طالبة طب اسنان جامعة دمشق، اعتقلت مساء 17 تشرين اول منذ 1986 من قبل الفرع (251) في المخابرات العامة. وبعد التحقيق معها سلمت للفرع (285) في كفر سوسة.
14 - هاني فهمي علي عبيدات، اعتقل عام 1986 من قبل الفرع (251).
15 - وليد ايوب بركات، في سجن سديانة.
16 - عماد العنابي سكان اربد موجود حاليا في سجن صدنايا .
17 - ابراهيم حسن علي الصقور، موجود في السجن منذ عام 1999 في سجن صدنايا، حكم 15 سنة.
18 - محمد جابر عبد الغني، معتقل منذ عام 1982، ما زال موجودا في سجن صدنايا.
19 - سعيد حتاملة، معتقل منذ عام 1985 سجن صدنايا.
20 - محمد طه عبد المحسن معوسة، موجود داخل السجن باسم مستعار وائل الرمحي.
21 - خالد محمد عبدالرحيم جابر العموري، معتقل منذ عام 1982 في سجن صدنايا.
22 - عمر احمد بدران بدير.
23 - اسامة بشير بطاينة.
24 - يسري احمد يوسف الحايك.
25 - شيخة احمد يوسف الحايك .
26 - ميسر جميل العيساوي، معتقلة منذ عام 1985.
27 - حاتم عبدالله خلف زريقات، وكان الاعتقال في حمص منذ تاريخ 4/3/1981.
28 - احمد محمد اسماعيل زعترة، معتقل منذ عام 1994.
29 - نبيل حسن مصطفى ابو حجاب. 30 - عماد ابراهيم عبدالهادي حمد، معتقل منذ 1988.
31 - خالد عزيز عارف حرزالله، 32 - عدنان محمد محمود حموضة، اعتقل منذ عام 1985 .
33 - خليل نايف مبروك، معتقل منذ عام 1985
34 - بهاء وجيه الشنطي، مفقود منذ عام 1990 اعتقل اثناء عودته من السويد.
35 - عبد الواحد محمود اسعيد (ابو علاء) معتقل منذ 28 عاما.

36 - منذر عبد الكريم نمر تايهة، معتقل منذ عام 1976
37 - كايد صالح حسن ابو جيش .
38 - عماد نايف جبر كناني، معتقل منذ عام 1999 بسجن صدنايا.
39 - خالد ابراهيم يوسف بشابشة، معتقل منذ ستة شهور.
40 - خالد صادق محمود صبيح، طالب صيدلة في تركيا معتقل في سوريا.
41 - عدلي سليم عبدالقادر عبده.
42 - فيصل حماد بن سعيد.
43 - ابراهيم عبدالعال.
44 - جهاد القشة .
45 - ملاك ابراهيم علي الرملاوي .
46 - سمر الخطيب.
47 - امين يوسف جمعة .
48 - محمود صوالحة.
49- عبدالكريم ابو عيشة. معتقل منذ عام 1978 .
50 - عبد الفتاح حسن ابو سنية .
51 - ياسر صالح حسن ادريس.

المصدر: خبرني.
الرابط: http://www.khaberni.com/more.php?newsid=60812.

South Sudanese president Kiir forms new cabinet

2012-02-24T10:41:00.000+02:00

JUBA (BNO NEWS) — South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit has announced the first cabinet for his new nation, replacing the caretaker government which has administered the country since its independence last month, the government said on Saturday.

Kiir issued three presidential decrees: one relieving all the caretaker ministers, the other one appointing the new national ministers and the third one appointing the deputy ministers, according to the Sudan Tribune. While forming the new line-up, Kiir said he tried to represent equally the country’s different regions to avoid accusations of tribalism and nepotism.

Among the new appointments listed on the government’s website are Deng Alor Kuol for cabinet affairs, Nhial Deng Nhial for foreign affairs and international cooperation, Oyay Deng Ajak for national security and Kosti Manibe Ngai for finance and economic planning. Among the ministers who have not come back are former Minister of Peace Pagan Amum Akech and former Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ann Itto.

South Sudan became the world’s newest country when it broke away from Sudan on July 9 as a culmination of a six-year peace process which began in January 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

More than two million people, most of them civilians who died due to starvation and drought, were killed during the 20-year civil war in Sudan. Although there were hopes that South Sudan secession would lead to peace, violence has continued both on a local level in South Sudan as well as with the Sudanese forces.

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19723/south-sudanese-president-kiir-forms-new-cabinet/.

India's anti-graft activist ends hunger strike after parliament accepts his demands

2012-02-24T10:31:00.000+02:00

NEW DELHI (BNO NEWS) — Indian activist Anna Hazare announced on Saturday that he will break his fast on Sunday morning after parliament accepted parts of his anti-graft plan, the Times of India reported.

In an address to supporters, the 74-year-old activist declared that the nation’s people have won a great victory, but cautioned that only half the battle has been won. He also thanked thousands of cheering supporters for their support for the anti-corruption movement.

Earlier, Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh reached the protest site at New Delhi’s Ramlila grounds to hand over a copy of the Lokpal resolution and a letter of the Prime Minister to Hazare. In his communication to Hazare, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed to him that Parliament had passed a resolution on the three issues raised by him and appealed to him to call off his fast.

“Parliament has spoken. It is the will of the people,” a smiling Prime Minister Singh said while coming out of the House after the day-long debate ended. The Lokpal resolution passed by Parliament includes the establishment of an anti-corruption watchdog, while employees of center and state governments will be brought under the ombudsman’s purview, according to the newspaper.

Hazare began his fast on August 16 shortly after he was detained by police for defying a ban on the planned anti-graft fast. Thousands of protesters were also arrested across India following his detention.

The activist was later released but he refused to leave prison and demanded that there should not be any restrictions on his protest. He then bargained for two days with the Indian government to settle the protest venue and other conditions. The government finally allowed him to carry out the hunger strike for 15 days in the spacious Ramlila Maidan Park.

Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Singh on Tuesday wrote a letter to Hazare to express “deep concern” over his health and urged him to “consider my suggestions and end your fast to regain full health and vitality”.

The social activist started fasting against the government’s version of an anti-corruption bill, which did not include the prime minister and judiciary in its purview. Hazare threatened to continue protesting the exclusion of some recommendations made by civil society representatives from the Lokpal bill.

Hazare’s protest happens amid a series of corruption scandals involving government officials, which have sparked widespread public anger and calls for reform. The Indian government had previously failed to pass an effective anti-corruption law.

In 2010, Transparency International ranked India, one of the few countries yet to ratify the United Nations convention against corruption, at 87.

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19725/indias-anti-graft-activist-ends-hunger-strike-after-parliament-accepts-his-demands/.

Iran arrests four Jundallah militants planning attacks

2012-02-24T10:28:00.000+02:00

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) — Iranian security officials have arrested four members of the People’s Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI), better known as Jundallah, the the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported on Saturday.

A local police said the suspects were planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Balouchestan Province on the International Qods Day, which is commemorated on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan to express solidarity with Palestine. The four suspects were arrested in two separate incidents.

Colonel Masoud Heidari, the chief of the security police in Sistan-Balouchestan Province, said security forces first arrested three members of the group on August 21 when they were heading to Kerman Province while carrying explosives, weapons, and ammunition. On August 25, police arrested another member of the group and seized six pistols, some TNT, and other explosive materials.

Jundallah militants are accused of carrying out numerous bombings and other forms of attacks in Iran. In December 2010, Iran executed eleven people accused of belonging to the PRMI.

In May 2009, Jundallah attacked the crowded Shiite Amir al-Mo’menin mosque in Zahedan, destroying the mosque and killing and wounding numerous worshipers. An October 2009 bomb attack which killed more than 40 people was reportedly the deadliest terrorist attack in Iran since the 1980s.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the designation of Jundallah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in November 2010. The State Department said that the group uses a variety of terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings, ambushes, kidnappings and targeted assassinations.

Iran accuses the United States of providing money to Jundallah in order for the group to carry out attacks in the country. This claim is based on alleged confessions from former Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi made before he was executed in 2010.

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19726/iran-arrests-four-jundallah-militants-planning-attacks/.

Syrian death toll rises as government crackdown continues

2012-02-24T10:25:00.000+02:00

DAMASCUS (BNO NEWS) — At least eight people were killed on Friday during anti-regime demonstrations across Syria, a rights group said on Saturday.

The Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC), a network of Syrian opposition activists, said eight protesters were killed during demonstrations which took place across the country on Friday, which was dubbed a day of “patience and determination.” According to CNN, at least one person was wounded when security forces opened fire on a group of demonstrators in the Bab Sbaa neighborhood of Homs during a funeral of a man killed Thursday by sniper fire.

In a separate incident, security forces fired on a car, wounding at least one man outside Damascus, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least one demonstrator was also wounded when Syrian security forces opened fire in Deir Ezzor.

The crackdown continued on early Saturday when security forces surrounding the Rifaie Mosque in the Damascus suburb of Kafr Sousa fired tear gas on thousands of worshipers as they ended their prayers and tried to leave the building, CNN reported. The LCC also reported that security forces were making random arrests outside the mosque.

In the restive city of Daraa, security forces fired randomly in an attempt to disperse two groups of demonstrators. Tanks surrounded more than 2,000 protesters and two armored vehicles outside Daraa’s Omari Mosque, according to CNN which cited LCC.

Meanwhile, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that 11 army and security forces were killed by “terrorist groups” in Homs and Deir Ezzor. Another 16 soldiers were wounded, the agency claimed.

The violence occurred on one of the most holy days of Ramadan and on the same day that a United Nations team concluded that there is “an urgent need to protect civilians from the excessive use of force” after completing a five-day humanitarian mission to Syria.

The August 20-25 mission added that “the constant presence of government officials” limited the visitors’ ability to assess the situation. “However, the people it was able to talk to in areas of previous or ongoing unrest said they felt extremely intimidated and under constant threat,” the UN said.

This week, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said that more than 2,200 people have been killed in Syria since pro-democracy demonstrations began in Syria in mid-March as part of a broader uprising across North Africa and the Middle East that has led to the toppling of entrenched regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and conflict in Libya. More than 350 people have reportedly been killed since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on August 1.

The Syrian government has repeatedly claimed that the violent acts have been instigated by terrorists who use military uniforms and weaponry to pose as soldiers while attacking citizens but these claims have been rejected by residents, human rights groups, and the international community.

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19727/syrian-death-toll-rises-as-government-crackdown-continues/.

Meshaal, Abbas, and The Doha Agreement

2012-02-22T10:52:00.000+02:00

Monday, February 13, 2012
written by: Sheila Quinn
Source: A New Era

Within the last few days Meshaal, as the leader of Hamas, signed an agreement which is both illegal and unethical. I have read a number of articles about him and this agreement. My initial response was one of anger. I wanted to speak out against him ,but decided against it because I thought of it as an internal Hamas issue and a Palestinian issue.

But the more I read about it and the more I learn about it, the more angry I became. I have come to the conclusion that I was wrong. This agreement is not just an internal Hamas issue, nor an internal Palestinian issue-but an issue of The Islamic Nation. It is an issue that ALL Muslims have a right to speak on!

Why do I say this? Because, Palestine is a territory of The Islamic Nation. It's borders are between the ocean and The Jordan River. The Israeli State is an illegal state that has absolutely no legitimacy whatsoever. The U.N. partition of Palestine was conditioned upon the The Palestinians accepting it. They rejected such a partition. Only with their acceptance of the partition will The Israeli State become "legally" legitimate. The second reason is because Al- Aqsa Masjid (Al Aqsa Mosque)is in Palestine. Al-Aqsa has been-and is continuing to be- threatened with destruction.

For the last few weeks I have been reading different articles about Meshaal. Meshaal is from The West Bank. Meshaal is calling for a change in strategy. He is calling for adopting non-violent protests as a replacement for armed resistance. (Non-violent protests have proven to be ineffective with The Zionists. Fatah has used such strategy in The West Bank and the results are the loss of land and lives. Armed resistance is the only way to stop the aggression of The Zionists. Any other way has been proven to be impractical.) Hamas officials in Gaza have both the right-and the responsibility- to reject the agreement. They have every right in the world to refuse cooperation in its implementation. Since the agreement involves Gaza, the cooperation of the officials of Gaza are vital to it's implementation.

Hamas should continue to work for the liberation of all of Palestine through armed resistance. Any other way has been proven to be totally ineffective.

As for Abbas, he has proven himself to be a puppet of those who want to destroy Al-Aqsa Masjid (Al-Aqsa Mosque). He has proven himself to be a puppet of the global oligarchy- which includes the leadership of both The U.S. and The European Union. It is clear that the global oligarchy wants Al-Aqsa Masjid to be destroyed. It is clear that Abbas is their puppet. Others in the "interim government" may be technocrats, but Abbas is not! The Zionists are in the process of: stealing all of the West Bank; evicting all Muslims from Jerusalem, and destroying Al-Aqsa Masjid. Abbas and the leaders of Arab countries want peace with The Zionists??? All of them-including King Abdullah of Jordan- are puppets of the global oligarchy!

Until now Gaza has been a stronghold of Palestinian resistance-unlike The West Bank. Does Meshaal want to open up Gaza to The Zionists -like The West bank?

Here are some quotes from articles that I have read:

"Meshaal might be able to put down the unprecedented rebellion against him, but would need the good will and cooperation of Hamas leaders in Gaza to make the agreement work." ("Public rift as Hamas strongman in Gaza rejects unity deal")

"On Sunday, the head of the bloc of Hamas legislators in Gaza, Ismail al-Ashkar, alleged that Fatah has not carried out promised confidence building measures, such as releasing Hamas loyalists held in the West Bank." ("Public rift as Hamas strongman in Gaza rejects unity deal")

"MPs of the Hamas majority in the Palestinian parliament called on Thursday for the scrapping of a reconciliation accord with Fatah on constitutional grounds.

"After examining the question of Mahmud Abbas taking on the premiership as well as the presidency" and consultation with judicial experts, such a scenario was found to be contrary to the Basic Law, 31 MPs said in a statement." ("Hamas MP's call for scrapping of Fatah Deal")

"Meshaal has been based in Damascus since 2001, fearing for his safety and hoping to avoid the restrictions on his movement in Gaza. He has been the chief leader of Hamas' political wing since 2004." ("Hamas political chief to step down")

Some References:

"Public rift as Hamas strongman in Gaza rejects unity deal" written by: Mohammed Daraghmeh, published by "The Daily Star" on February 13, 2012. Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Feb-13/163004-public-rift-as-hamas-strongman-in-gaza-rejects-unity-deal.ashx.

"Hamas MPs call for scrapping of Fatah deal" written by: Mahmud Hams, Published on:AFP – Wed, Feb 8, 2012 Source: Yahoo News Maktoob

"Hamas political chief to step down" Published on: Jan 21, 2012 By: AlJazeera Source: Yahoo News Maktoob

"The Association of Palestinian Scholars issues plea to Muslims to protect al-Aqsa" Published on: 13 February 2012 By: Middle East Monitor Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/3420-the-association-of-palestinian-scholars-issues-plea-to-muslims-to-protect-al-aqsa.

Source: A New Era.
Link: http://truthseeker-anewera.blogspot.com/2012/02/meshall-abbas-and-doha-agreement.html.

Polls open in Yemen with sole US-backed pres. candidate

2012-02-21T18:10:00.000+02:00

Tue Feb 21, 2012

Voting has begun in Yemen’s presidential election with only one candidate on the ballot amid the opposition’s call for the downfall of the entire regime.

The polls opened Tuesday, with 12 million eligible voters, and the sole candidate Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The election is to put an end to Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule and formally transfer power to his assistant, Hadi.

However, the country’s major opposition groups, including the Southern Movement and the Southern Shia group have boycotted the election, demanding the removal of the regime that abounds with Saleh-era officials.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has thrown Washington’s weight behind Yemen’s election, offering his support to Hadi.

In a letter to the Yemeni vice president, Obama said Yemen could be an example of the peaceful transition of power in the Middle East.

This is while demonstrations are expected to continue in Yemen as protesters say their revolution will not end until Saleh and all corrupt government officials are put behind bars.

On Monday, several polling stations were the target of bomb attacks prior to the beginning of the polls in the southern province of Aden and the southern port city of al-Makla, with no reports of casualties. The protesters also blocked roads leading to five villages in Daleh province, making it impossible for poll organizers to send ballot boxes there.

Saleh is currently in the US for medical treatment. He left Yemen in mid-January, shortly after the country’s parliament passed a law which grants him full immunity from prosecution.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227790.html.

Saudi Arabia threatens anti-regime protesters with iron fist

2012-02-21T18:08:00.000+02:00

Tue Feb 21, 2012

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry has defended the regime forces’ ruthless repression of anti-government protests and threatened to use an “iron fist” against protesters.

“It is the state's right to confront those that confront it first... and the Saudi Arabian security forces will confront such situations ... with determination and force and with an iron first," the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

An interior ministry spokesman said the statement was released in reaction to a last week sermon delivered in the Qatif region in the Eastern Province, which took a swipe at the Saudi government’s handling of the protests.

Saudi authorities claim that the regime does not practice discrimination against the Shia minority, pointing a finger of blame at protesters.

Earlier on Thursday, several anti-regime protesters in the kingdom’s eastern province of Safwa were abducted.

Since February 2011, Saudi protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in the oil-rich Eastern Province, mainly in Qatif and the town of Awamiyah, calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination.

Saudi protesters also want an end to economic and religious discrimination against the oil-rich region. Several demonstrators have been killed and scores of activists have been arrested since the beginning of protests in the region.

Riyadh has intensified its crackdown on protesters since the beginning of 2012.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227806.html.

MPs of Turkey's pro-Kurdish BDP party begin hunger strike

2012-02-21T18:02:00.000+02:00

Mon Feb 20, 2012

MPs of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) have begun a two-day hunger strike to protest recent detentions, Press TV reports.

BDP co-chairman Gulten Kisanak announced the decision at a press conference in Ankara on Monday.

“Over 6,000 people have been arrested because of their thoughts and political activities. Over 60 of our friends, including our lawmaker from Sirnak (province), Selma Irmak, and another Sirnak lawmaker, Faysal Sariyildiz, are regularly on hunger strike to protest the intensification of political and military operations. The demands of our friends are clear. In order to support the resistance of our friends, we, as the BDP bloc, begin a two-day hunger strike today.”

Turkey recently arrested dozens of people across the country in operations against the Union of Kurdish Communities (KCK) -- the alleged urban wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, Iran, the United States, and the European Union.

The Turkish government believes the KCK paves the way for the implementation of PKK plots against the country and views the operations against the KCK as a parallel campaign with the military operations against the PKK in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227756.html.

Palestinians stage demos in support of hunger strike activist

2012-02-21T17:29:00.001+02:00

Tue Feb 21, 2012

Palestinians have held protest rallies across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in support of Palestinian activist Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike for 65 days in an Israeli jail.

“People are trying to express their anger at what is happening to Khader Adnan and all Palestinian prisoners. The Israelis have no right to hold him or any of them, especially over 300 administrative detainees,” said Osama Wahaidi, a former prisoner and spokesman for the Palestinian Detainees’ and Ex-detainees’ Association.

Wahaidi reiterated that “administrative detentions” can be extended for years without evidence or trials and detainees have no idea when they will be freed.

Court officials and Adnan's lawyers said on Monday that Israel’s Supreme Court scheduled a hearing on Tuesday for an appeal for the 33-year-old Palestinian activist.

The hearing had initially been scheduled for Thursday, but his lawyers and human rights groups called for a speedy hearing on Adnan’s case due to his worrying health condition.

The Palestinian activist was arrested on December 17, 2011 and later sentenced to four months of “administrative detention.”

Father of two small girls, Adnan went on hunger strike one day after his arrest, demanding an immediate release. He has not been charged with a crime.

Both the European Union and the United Nations have said they are following the case closely and have urged Israel to give Adnan an open trial.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227792.html.

Russian officials feed pelicans in frozen Caspian

2012-02-21T17:26:00.000+02:00

February 21, 2012 — MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — Authorities are scrambling to save hundreds of starving and endangered Dalmatian pelicans after the Caspian Sea froze for the first time in years.

Hundreds of the gray-white birds with distinctive curly feathers at their napes are jostling one another in a rare patch of unfrozen water at a shipyard near the city of Makhachkala, the capital of the southern Russian province of Dagestan.

About 20 birds have died of hunger despite hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of fish that his ministry and a local lawmaker are purchasing daily to feed them, Dagestan's Nature Protection Ministry spokesman Arslan Dydymov said Tuesday.

Fewer than 1,400 Dalmatian pelicans, the world's largest, live in southern Russia. The birds are getting sprats from the local market because fresh fish from the iced-over Caspian is not available. "Yesterday it seemed they ate more than enough," said Kurban Kuniev of the Dagestan nature reserve.

The birds flew to Makhachkala last week from the frozen deltas of the Volga and Terek rivers up north. Local residents were so excited by the arrival that the guards at the Makhachkala shipyard had to stop hundreds from entering with bread and other unsuitable foods.

"We did not let them in for the sake of the pelicans," chief guard Magomed Eldarov said.

'US-Taliban talks reveal America's failure in Afghanistan'

2012-02-21T17:24:00.000+02:00

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

* * * * *

Mon Feb 20, 2012

A top Pakistani leader of the Taliban says the United States seeks to engage in talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan as its mission in the war-battered country has failed, Press TV reports.

Pakistan's Tehrik-i-Taliban's leader Waliur-Rehman Mehsud told Press TV that Washington has sought to launch peace talks with the Afghan Taliban over the US failure in Afghanistan.

Mehsud added that the US-led invasion of Afghanistan was initially aimed at eliminating the Taliban militants or making them surrender.

However, he said, the foreign forces' failure to do so has forced Washington into a negotiating position.

Mehsud added that the US and its allies are trying to hide their defeat in Afghanistan under the guise of advocating dialogue.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Afghan President Hamed Karzai admitted that the peace talks had taken place among the United States, the Afghan government, and Taliban over the past month.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Mehsud rejected reports that Tehrik-i-Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US assassination drone strike. He said that Hakimullah is alive and well.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227625.html.

Afghan police shoot dead 2 Albanian soldiers

2012-02-21T17:16:00.000+02:00

Tue Feb 21, 2012

An Afghan police attack on US-led troops in southern Afghanistan has left two Albanian soldiers dead and two other foreign troopers injured, Press TV reported.

The incident occurred in the southern district of Spin Boldak in Kandahar province, where the troops were reportedly participating in the inauguration of two schools. The occurrence marks Albania's first fatal casualties in Afghanistan.

According to the Albanian defense ministry, 11 Afghan policemen have been detained in the village of Robat where the incident took place.

Another Albanian soldier as well as an American trooper have been wounded in the shooting.

No further details have thus far emerged about the motive behind the incident.

Albania has dispatched 260 troops to Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led mission in the war-ravaged Asian country.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227781.html.

Afghans rally in Kabul to slam Qur'an burning by US-led forces

2012-02-21T17:13:00.000+02:00

Tue Feb 21, 2012

Large numbers of people have turned up for angry demonstrations in Afghanistan after US-led forces in the war-wracked country burned copies of the Holy Qur’an, Press TV reports.

The angry protesters on Tuesday held protest rallies in Kabul as well as outside the US Bagram Airbase and chanted anti-US slogans, demanding the trial of the perpetrators of the desecrating act.

At least one Afghan protester was injured after US troops opened fire to disperse the angry demonstrators near the airbase, about 60 kilometers north of Kabul.

The protests came after reports emerged saying that foreign troops had burned “a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Qur’ans" at the Bagram Airbase.

Mohammad Nabi, a protester who said he was an employee at the base, told reporters that US troops killed two Afghan employees and fired five more after they protested the burning of the copies of the Holy Qur'an inside the military base.

Meanwhile, similar protests were held in other parts of the capital and several other Afghan cities.

The US commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan in a statement apologized over the insulting move and ordered a full investigation into the incident.

"When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them," said General John R. Allen.

"The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities," he added.

"We are thoroughly investigating the incident and we are taking steps to ensure this does not ever happen again. I assure you… I promise you … this was not intentional in any way," he further said.

The US general also expressed his “sincere apologies for any offense this may have caused, to the president of Afghanistan, the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and most importantly, to the noble people of Afghanistan.”

In April 2011, at least ten people were killed and several others injured in successive days of protests in Afghanistan over the burning of the Holy Qur’an in the US.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227801.html.

China Now Has 500 Protests Daily: Party Scholar

2012-02-21T17:08:00.000+02:00

By Gisela Sommer
February 20, 2012

China now experiences 500 protests on a daily basis; that’s over 180,000 a year, a troubling situation, with the psychology of the masses becoming easily unbalanced and public order is easily upset, according to a Chinese cadre.

While the Wukan protests in Guangdong Province late last year drew worldwide attention, an average of 500 such mass protests occurred daily in China during 2011, according to Niu Wenyuan, a member of the National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee.

“This phenomenon indicates that today public order is easily upset, and the psychology of the masses can quickly become unbalanced. We cadres, must continually assess [our] efficiency and fairness and adjust accordingly,” Niu said in a speech to fellow party cadres during the inaugural ceremony of the tenth Guangzhou Municipal Meeting on Feb. 8, reported on by New Express Daily and cited by Sound of Hope (SOH) Radio.

Pressing Issues in Growing Urban Centers

According to the SOH article, Niu is also a Chinese State Department counselor and a chief scientist and research head at the Sustained Military Strategy Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has been part of a new research and development city-planning group in China. The group publishes the Chinese City New Urban Planning Annual Report, which evaluates the progress of fifty cities.

In an interview with Nanfang Daily, Niu commented on China’s challenges with urbanization. He said China’s cities have to face seven “issues” in their development: sustainable wealth growth; population pressure; employment pressure; land, energy and water resource development strain; [need for] environmental improvement; infrastructure; and a social safety net.”

Niu’s statements reflect the Chinese communist regime’s anxiety over social unrest.

According to statistics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in 2007 the number of mass protests rose to over 80,000, a 33 percent jump compared with 60,000 in 2006. The regime subsequently stopped publishing this statistic, SOH said.

Landless Farmers

A large percentage of mass unrest in China is about forced land confiscation, as was the case in Wukan. Land confiscation is also directly related to urbanization. For many years, farmers all across China have been pushed off their land and forced to live in towns. Often they end up without any means to make a living.

Urbanization has been touted by the regime as the engine behind China’s future economic development. According to a recent announcement by China’s Bureau of Statistics, China’s urban population has now surpassed the number of people living in the countryside.

Professor Patrick Chovanec at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management told VOA on Jan. 17, “Mainland China’s policy makers have used urbanization as an excuse to build many buildings, but didn’t think about how to turn all that into an economic advantage for sustainable development.”

Housing Bubble

In a Feb. 16 report, Bloomberg quoted Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. saying, “China’s housing market is experiencing the “mother” of all bubbles.”

Peter Chiappinelli, a portfolio strategist for asset allocation at Boston-based GMO, said at the Bloomberg Link Portfolio Manager Mash-Up Conference in New York that they are very concerned about China’s economy. GMO, which oversees $97 billion in assets, is betting that shares of Chinese real estate developers, construction companies and cement producers will decline, Chiappinelli said, according to the Bloomberg report.

Bloomberg also quoted Lisa Emsbo-Mattingly, the director of research in the global asset allocation division of Fidelity Asset Management, saying they are “very concerned about China,” and it is “very difficult” to have an optimistic view on China because the housing price drop will afflict China’s banks. Furthermore China’s export market has been cooling because of the European debt crisis.

All of this spells trouble for China’s social stability.

According to China analyst Huang Hebian, the Wukan protests have had the effect of waking the masses across China, and this foreshadows increased tensions between the regime and workers and peasants. Huang told The Epoch Times for an earlier report he believes that more protests will take place in March during the National People’s Congress.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/china-now-has-500-protests-daily-party-scholar-193241.html.