Hezbollah slams US for extending Syria sanctions

BEIRUT (AFP) - Hezbollah on Saturday slammed US President Barack Obama's decision to extend sanctions against Syrian nationals accused of undermining stability in Lebanon as "blatant interference in Lebanese affairs."

"Hezbollah also sees the renewal of sanctions as a highly aggressive act and a continuation of the logic of imperial arrogance," said Lebanon's Shiite militant group.

Hezbollah said Obama was carrying on the foreign policy of his predecessors that provided a "cover for the crimes of the Israeli enemy." The decision amounted to "blatant interference in Lebanese affairs."

Despite the easing of some trade sanctions against Damascus, Obama on Thursday decided to extend for one year sanctions against Syrian or pro-Syrian personalities for allegedly provoking instability in neighboring Lebanon.

The sanctions were first imposed on August 1, 2007 by then US president George W. Bush, who froze the assets of individuals accused of undermining Lebanon's sovereignty on Syria's behalf.

Although Lebanese-Syrian ties have improved over the past year, with the launch of diplomatic relations for the first time, Obama said "the actions of certain persons continue to contribute to political and economic instability in Lebanon."

Such actions also constituted a threat to US national security and foreign policy.

Syria, a supporter of Hezbollah, wound up an almost three-decade troop deployment in Lebanon in 2005 under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in a massive Beirut bombing.

Damascus has denied charges of involvement in the murder.

North Africa feels Europe's pull

By SALIM MANSUR

ORAN, Algeria -- The French-speaking North African countries are technically part of the Arab world. The political rhetoric from the Arab East has its audience here and al-Jazeera television is omnipresent.

Appearance is, however, deceptive. North Africa is separated from Europe merely by the breadth of the Mediterranean, and the pull of Europe felt here is far greater than that of the Gulf.

I am in Oran, whose most famous citizen was Albert Camus, the French-Algerian Jew.

I have been drawn to Oran by Camus' memory and to visit the home of a much-loved Algerian, Sufi Sheikh.

In Oran, Camus found refuge during the Second World War. It was the setting for two of his novels, L'Etranger (The Outsider) and La Peste (The Plague) that made him a literary star in the firmament of French letters.

Camus is a touchy subject here. He is part of the repressed memory of Algerians. But once one goes past grievances and the praise for Jean-Paul Sartre, who supported Algeria's war of independence, the respect, if not pride, for Camus is sincere.

This is my second visit to North Africa. I have learned from my travels, especially in Muslim countries, that one must listen carefully. It also helps if the people are warmly embracing, and as a Canadian Muslim of Indian origin I am readily embraced.

Tensions

References to Camus pry open tensions beneath the surface of Algerian politics. People have bitter memories of sufferings during their liberation war against France and stand proud of their independence.

Yet with a little prodding, recrimination against their own failed politics of duplicity and waste pours forth. Sitting with people of different ages I hear the lament that will not be reported on al-Jazeera, and will not be reflected in opinion polls by which the West seemingly learns about the Muslim world.

North Africa's population is young, the bulk is under 30. The political restlessness here is more a symptom of anger against corruption than any attraction for political Islam exported from the Arab East.

Algeria, for instance, is yet to recover from the violence of Islamists in the 1990s. The surface appearance of political Islam's influence by the sight of bearded men and women with scarves is deceptive when one listens to Algerians speak freely.

I ask about Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, and his outspoken views on political Islam. I am not surprised when I hear some people without any prompting utter "Viva la France."

There are some seven million Algerians in Europe, most in France, and many more wish to head West. It seems North Africans are voting with their feet, and it is not for political Islam.

A window

The quandary of North Africans is a window into the Muslim world. I am limited by space here to unravel it.

But one among many questions posed to me stands out as if it is a rebuke.

Many here are bewildered about why Canada and the West entertain any political demand of Islamists instead of expelling them.

The message to the West from Oran is remain assertively uncompromising on essentials of freedom, secularism and democracy. The West's vacillation over its own values is unhelpful to those elsewhere seeking the same.

Russia's Putin inspects crystals in deepest lake

By Gleb Bryanski

LAKE BAIKAL, Russia (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plunged into the depths of Lake Baikal aboard a mini-submersible on Saturday in a mission that adds a new dimension to his macho image.

Putin, a judo black belt who has flown in a fighter aircraft and shot a Siberian tiger in the wild, descended 1,400 meters (4,600 ft) below the surface of the world's deepest lake to inspect potentially valuable gas crystals.

"I haven't seen anything like that in my whole life. This is a very special feeling," Putin told reporters on emerging from the deep-sea craft looking pale and a bit dizzy after spending more than 4.5 hours underwater.

Asked if he planned to travel in space after his supersonic flight and deep-sea dive, Putin, dressed in blue overalls, said, "No, there is enough work here on earth."

Hidden on Lake Baikal's largely unexplored floor are large deposits of clathrate hydrate, crystals packed with one of Russia's most lucrative exports: natural gas.

Scientists estimate Baikal hydrates contain over 1 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, an amount comparable with the world's largest discovered gas fields. Mineral extraction is banned in Lake Baikal which is a nature reserve.

Before locking down the hatches on the Mir-2 submersible, Putin was shown specimens of crystals bubbling under water.

"You can touch it. There are very few people who have held hydrates in their hand, even fewer Baikal hydrates," Robert Nigmatullin, head of the Oceanology Institute, told the prime minister. "You can set it on fire as well, it will burn."

"Let's not set it on fire today," Putin said with a smile before entering the submersible, which then dived below the surface of the world's oldest lake.

MACHO IMAGE

The 56-year-old former KGB spy has cultivated his macho image, and polls show this has won him many admirers, especially among Russian women.

In 2007, while president, he featured in magazines across the world after donning combat trousers stripped to the waist while on a fishing trip in the Yenisei River.

Since stepping down from the Kremlin last year to become prime minister, Putin has remained in the public view.

Sensitive to Russia's growing environmental movement, Putin while president changed the route of a planned oil pipeline to avoid Lake Baikal, which contains one fifth of the world's unfrozen freshwater.

Scientists are studying the formation of hydrate masses deep beneath the lake and searching for economically viable ways to extract trapped gas from the crystals since existing technologies are too expensive.

"In 50 years, when other energy sources end, people will have to look into gas extraction from hydrates," said Oleg Khlystov, a scientist with the Lake Studies Institute, who said his team had found a cheaper method and applied for a patent.

Khlystov said Russian gas firm Gazprom was not interested in the new technology but that he had hopes for it in the future. "If Putin is interested, we will tell him (about it)," he said.

Khlystov's $8.5 million two-year mission studying the lake's depths has performed 96 dives. Last year, it set a world record for freshwater submersion by descending 1,680 meters to the lake's deepest point.

1 French, 3 American troops killed in Afghanistan

By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – Three U.S. troops were killed Saturday when roadside bombs ripped through their patrol in southern Afghanistan, while a French soldier died in a gunbattle north of the capital, officials said.

The Americans were killed in the southern Kandahar province, said Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo. He gave no further details on the blasts, pending notification of the victims' families.

Roadside bombs have become the militants' weapon of choice in Afghanistan, and the number of such attacks has spiked this year, as thousands of additional American forces have joined the fight. President Barack Obama has ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and expects the total number of U.S. forces here to reach 68,000 by year's end.

That's double the number of U.S. troops that were in Afghanistan in 2008 but still half as many as are now in Iraq.

Deaths among U.S. and other NATO troops have also soared this year. With 74 foreign troops killed — including 43 Americans — July was the deadliest month for international forces since the start of the war in 2001.

Separately a French soldier was killed and two others were wounded during a clash with insurgents north of Kabul, the French military said in a statement.

The military said the slain corporal was part of a 230-strong joint Afghan and French force that came under attack from the Taliban in a valley north of Kabul early Saturday. It did not say how many insurgents launched the attack, but said it led to a clash that lasted more than one hour and two French soldiers were wounded. There were no reports of Taliban casualties.

France has lost 29 soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001, and has 2,900 troops in the country.

In Paris, a statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said he condemned the soldier's killing and "reiterated France's determination to fight, alongside the Afghan people, against obscurantism and terrorism."

There are currently 62,000 U.S. troops and 39,000 allied forced in Afghanistan, on top of about 175,000 Afghan soldiers and police. Some NATO countries plan to withdraw their troops in the next couple of years, even as the U.S. ramps up its presence.

Hillary Clinton threatens to cut spy links with UK over 'torture'

By Dan Newling

July 30, 2009

Hillary Clinton has threatened to end intelligence sharing with Britain if the High Court publishes its findings on what happened to former terror detainee Binyam Mohamed.

Letters from the U.S. Secretary of State and the CIA to the Government warn they will cease co-operation with British counterparts if two judges release details about Mr Mohamed's alleged torture.

Human rights campaigners yesterday claimed the threat - which could put British lives at risk - was merely a ' smokescreen', but Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted it was serious.

Hillary Clinton has threatened to end intelligence sharing with Britain if the High Court publishes its findings on what happened to Binyam Mohamed

As if to reiterate the matter last night Mrs Clinton, speaking in Washington, said intelligence sharing was 'critically important' to Britain and the U.S.

The details of the threat were revealed yesterday during a long-running - and increasingly bitter - court battle between the Foreign Secretary and former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mr Mohamed.

At the centre of the affair are seven paragraphs of a court judgment which Mr Mohamed claims prove that British agents colluded in the torture he endured after being arrested in 2002.

He has repeatedly claimed that British agents were complicit in his torture after he was arrested in Pakistan.

Lawyers for Mr Miliband told Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones that the threat by America had been assessed as having a 'high-risk threshold'.

Yesterday, Lord Justice Thomas pointed out that the paragraphs in themselves did not pose any threat to national security.

He said: 'So the U.S. has taken the position that this is so serious that it is prepared to reassess its relationship with the UK and put lives at risk?'

Mr Miliband's legal team said both Mrs Clinton and the CIA had written to him to insist the information remain secret.

'Wriggle room': Lawyers for David Miliband argued the US's threat to restrict intelligence co-operation was 'high risk'

By publicly acknowledging the threat to U.S./UK intelligence sharing arrangements, Mrs Clinton has 'ridden to the rescue' of Mr Miliband, human rights activists said.

They claimed that by 'hiding behind' the U.S. threat, Mr Miliband was able to continue concealing the 'ugly truth' about British involvement in torture abroad.

Mr Mohamed has claimed British intelligence agents knew about - and were complicit in - his torture in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Morocco.

The contentious seven paragraphs are a summary of 42 CIA documents, which are said to confirm his claims.

While in detention, Mr Mohamed says he was hung up by straps, beaten and had his genitals mutilated with a scalpel to make him confess to a 'dirty bomb' plot.

Karen Steyn, appearing for the Foreign Secretary, said Mrs Clinton and the CIA had written official letters warning that under the new Obama administration, the U.S. would review its intelligence sharing agreement with the UK if the court releases the information.

Mrs Steyn went on to say that disclosure of the seven paragraphs 'could reasonably be expected to cause considerable damage to the national security of the UK'.

The only reason Mr Miliband opposes the disclosure of the seven paragraphs, she told the court, was to protect the national security and international relations of the UK.

However, Guy Vassall-Adams, representing the various media groups who are backing Mr Mohamed's battle to publish the information, argued that the Foreign Office's stance did not pass the 'common sense test'.

He said it was highly unrealistic to suggest that the publication of seven paragraphs would cause the U.S. authorities to be so 'upset and shocked' that they might refuse to share vital intelligence with the UK in the future.

Mr Vassall-Adams said such a situation was 'unthinkable' in the light of the historical alliance between the two nations.

In previous hearings the judges have expressed frustration at not being allowed to release the information.

Both judges yesterday seemed unwilling to rely on Mrs Steyn's representations of Mr Miliband's opinion.

Lord Justice Thomas insisted a transcript of the hearing be sent to Mr Miliband so that there was 'no wriggle room'.

Ethiopian-born Mr Mohamed came to the UK as a 16-year-old asylum seeker and lived here for seven years. Shortly after September 11, 2001, he was picked up by the American secret service in Pakistan.

Accused of being a terrorist, he was held for six and a half years in U.S. custody.

Mr Miliband has repeatedly insisted Britain 'abhors' torture and never orders or condones it. Speaking after talks with Mrs Clinton yesterday, he said not disclosing allies' intelligence was a 'fundamental principle'.

Mrs Clinton added: 'The issue of intelligence sharing is one which is critically important to our two countries and we both have a stake in ensuring that it continues to the fullest extent possible.'

Israeli Settlement Continues To Steal Palestinian Land With Intimidation And Fences

By Michael Galvin

30 July, 2009
Countercurrents.org

Representing just a tiny piece in the enormous puzzle of settlements that litter the West Bank, the settlement of Karmei Tzur is striving to expand. Founded just 25 years ago by students from the Zionist Har Etzion Yeshiva, 120 families, or 700 settlers - out of a total settler population of roughly 500,000 - currently inhabit Karmei Tzur. However, the settlement has several obstacles in the way of its desire to increase in size, notably its distance of only 100 meters from the large agricultural village of Beit Ommar with almost 15,000 Palestinian inhabitants.

Surrounded by rich agricultural land Palestinian farmers have been using for centuries, Karmei Tzur is gradually expropriating this land through the insidious use of "security fences" guarded 24/7 by the Israeli Occupation Forces - the IDF in the occupied territories - and armed settlers. When the fence was expanded in early 2007, incorporating the land of many Palestinians, the Israelis promised that the farmers weren't losing their right to use their land and that they could continue to access it. Majdi Za'aqiq is a Palestinian who owns land on the settlement side of the fence: "They say you can go Saturday or Sunday, 'Just tell us and we will let you go,' they say... but I don't need permission to go to my land. If I want to go in the morning, in the evening, whenever, it's up to me."

The army ordered that for one person to work one day - with limited hours - on the land, the Palestinian owners would need to give two weeks notice. Knowing full well that the majority of Palestinians would refuse to collaborate with the occupying forces, thus giving up their land to be legally taken by Israelis three years later, most of the land lies fallow. "All farmers with land on the other side of the fence refuse to cooperate with the settlement security," Za'aqiq said. Even in cases where Palestinians have tried to access their land in the way proposed by the Israeli military, they were consistently denied access or harassed by the army and armed settlers. Anti-occupation international and Israeli groups like Anarchists Against the Wall used direct action tactics to destroy parts of this fence in several instances throughout 2007.

Most of the remaining Palestinian agricultural land on the southwest side of Beit Ommar, which includes olive trees, plum trees, fig trees, and grapevines, still lines the valley along the "security fence" surrounding the settlement in a zone between Jala, an area where Bedouins live which only recently got running water for the first time, the project paid for by a foreign government, and the settlement. Yet, as Palestinian farmers naturally continue to cultivate the land on their side of the separation fence, intimidation tactics continue as settlers and soldiers occasionally shoot live ammunition at farmers working in the area.

Ahmed Khalil Abu Hashem is a 42 year old farmer with eight children who has six dunnums - or roughly two acres - of farmland, four of which are destroyed by settlement bulldozers, without warning, every year. The last incident of destruction took place in April 2008 in which soldiers and settlers cut 260 trees including 200 old grape vines and 60 young olive trees. Like most Palestinians, he recounts these unbelievable events calmly as he sips his coffee on the veranda of his house with a view of the red-roofed villas in Karmei Tzur. Besides the two dunnums of remaining plum trees, Ahmed has only three or four olive saplings left.

We accompany Ahmed on his daily trek down a dirt road to the land. The route is bumpy, rough, and covered with large rocks that could easily pop a tire. An open air landfill sits on the side of the road just waiting to be set alight. Stopping just 20 meters from the fence, Ahmed leads us down to the damaged crops, only slightly recovering from last year's attack, which end at the razor-wire fence with two rows of barbed wire in front of it. On two occasions since last year's destruction of the trees and vines, soldiers and settlers have shot at him with M-16s, he claims. The most recent event was in April when six settlers arrived with their rifles and started shooting, forcing him to run and flee the field.

"The army protects the settlers all the time, no matter what they do," he says. When I ask Ahmed if he's scared to come down into the fields, referring to the threat of attack and constant Israel army presence on the road just on the other side of the fence, he responds "No!" before I can even finish constructing the question in Arabic.
After just fifteen minutes on the land, an armed settler sees us and calls the army on his phone, notifying them of our presence. Not wanting trouble for Ahmed, we leave.
Fifty meters further east along the security road which follows the fence, tractors are hard at work constructing a new street leading from the road to the settlement's villas perched on a hilltop. Just yesterday bulldozers were seen entering the Palestinian farmland there, though no damage was caused. Rumors circulate in Beit Ommar that the settlement is planning to build a second security fence closer to Beit Ommar, potentially expropriating dozens of acres of some of the village's best farmland. Mousa Abu Maria owns land stolen by the existing settlement fence: "The Israelis lie. They say we can apply to go to our land inside the settlement fence but this is a lie. They say they build a new fence for security but then they build new houses. That is Israel."

Originally from St. Louis, MO, Michael Galvin attended a liberal arts college in Minnesota from 2004-2008 where he worked with groups mobilizing against the Iraq War. He is currently in the West Bank working with Palestinian organizations against the Israeli occupation.

China to put Urumqi rioters on trial In August

The first groups of Uighurs arrested in the aftermath of the Urumqi riots will go on trial next month, according to state media.

Police issued photos and names of 15 people wanted for their part in the most deadly disturbances in China for two decades - all but one of the suspects are Uighurs and two are women.

A further 253 people were detained on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of the far-western province of Xinjiang. Before the most recent round of arrests, the police had already detained over 1400 people for their part in the July 5th riots.

The authorities claim members of the Uighur ethnic Muslim minority randomly attacked Han Chinese across Urumqi. The violence prompted two days of reprisals, as Han residents of the city took to the streets seeking revenge. Almost 200 people died and over 1600 were injured in what was the worst ethnic unrest in China for decades.

Uighurs in Urumqi and in exile claim that the authorities have detained far more people than the official number. On Wednesday, Rebiya Kadeer, the US-based leader of the World Uighur Congress, said that 10,000 people had disappeared since the riots. Residents in Uighur neighbourhoods in Urumqi have described armed police going from house to house and taking away all males under the age of 50.

But a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government denied that mass arrests had taken place. Hou Hanmin said the claim by Mrs Kadeer was so groundless, "it was not even worth a counter-reaction."

The Urumqi Public Security Bureau issued a statement telling those wanted by the police, "not to hope that they would be lucky enough to get away with it." The statement said those who surrendered voluntarily within ten days would be given lenient treatment and offered rewards to anyone with information on the suspects.

Beijing claims that the violence was orchestrated by Mrs Kadeer. Uighurs in Urumqi, though, say the riot was sparked by a mass fight between Han and Uighur workers in a factory in southern Guangdong Province in late June, which left at least two Uighurs dead. Guangdong officials announced yesterday that 15 people would face charges for their part in the fight.

Source: Telegraph.
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5946113/China-To-Put-Urumqi-Rioters-On-Trial-In-August.html.

Hezbollah chief certain about partnership in new cabinet

Chief of Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said Thursday night that he was certain that the new cabinet would include real national partnership, local daily As-Safier reported.

Addressing a cultural event for his party, Nasrallah said "very significant steps have been taken towards the cabinet formation," assuring all opposition parties that the upcoming government "would be of real national partnership."

"The national responsibility obliges us to form a government of real partnership, which has been achieved politically," Nasrallah said, stressing that the second phase of nominating ministers and distributing portfolios has already started.

He pointed out that "the general direction is positive, and we might reach the final shape of the cabinet soon."

Nasrallah called on Lebanese leaders to place the need of Lebanese people as a top priority, stressing that "if we want a successful government, we must listen to what the Lebanese people is asking from us instead of the outside world."

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has been seeking to form a coalition cabinet which includes his Western-backed "March 14" alliance and the "March 8" coalition led by the powerful Iran- and Syria-backed Hezbollah.

On June 27, Hariri was tasked by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman as the prime minister with forming a new cabinet.

After talks with Suleiman on Wednesday, Hariri told reporters that the formula for the government is almost complete, saying that "we will work seriously, calmly and maybe a little faster to come out with a government."

Baloch unrest is suddenly Pakistan's biggest challenge

The Taliban expanding its writ is no longer the primary concern of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Rather it is the unrest in Balochistan that is troubling him the most.

Presiding over a meeting of senior officials that was convened to discuss the Balochistan situation, Gilani said the Baloch conflict is the most daunting task before the government.

"The situation in Balochistan is the most challenging task currently facing the government, where militant organizations are continuing their subversive and terrorist activities," Gilani said.

Interestingly, Gilani's comments come days after the Sharm-el-Sheikh joint statement, issued after his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Islamabad claims that Gilani had expressed his reservations over New Delhi's involvement in fanning unrest in Balochistan.

During the meeting, Gilani urged the political leaders to support the federal government's initiatives to normalize situation in the country's largest province.

"The Balochistan problem needs to be resolved through political dialogue," Gilani told the leaders and urged the participants to use their offices and support the federal government in controlling the situation in the country's largest province.

He emphasized on the need for the senior officials to observe 'austerity' in their official and personal lives.

"Everybody must take full cognizance of the overwhelming poverty that afflicts the country," Gilani said.

The meeting was also attended by Interior Advisor Rehman Malik, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan and several other top officials.

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton: ‘I’m glad I’ve started this war debate’

Saturday 1st August 2009
By Mark Stead

THE York soldier whose one-man rebellion against the conflict in Afghanistan could send him to jail says he is glad he has sparked a fresh debate on the issue.

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton is facing a court martial after going AWOL from the British Army when he refused to return to the war-torn country – and has handed in a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for troops serving there to be brought home.

His stand – which leaves a potential two-year spell in a civilian prison hanging over him – has split opinion in his home city, with some readers of The Press applauding his defiance while others say he should have continued to do his duty.

But the married 27-year-old, who is from New Earswick and spent much of his teenage life in Ryedale, insists he does not mind people opposing his views as long as it keeps the Afghan issue in the spotlight.

“I always expected to divide opinion and I understood it would happen,” said Lance Corporal Glenton, of the Royal Logistics Corps.

“I welcome the debate and appreciate some people don’t agree with me. But at the end of the day, what I’m doing is what I feel I have to do and the positive thing is that the whole Afghanistan issue is being discussed – there are places in the world where people don’t get the chance to do this.

“Although I’m a private and self-contained man, I feel it’s come to me to do this and the response has been fantastic. I’ve had so much support from random people who’ve called me or sent me e-mails or just come up and talked to me to say they understand my reasons, and that’s very heartening.”

He admits he finds the prospect of the court martial “daunting”, especially having only married his wife Clare in May.

But he says: “Although I’m obviously concerned about what might happen, as anybody would be, because of the knock-on effect on my family and friends, I have to stand by my convictions.

“I still believe the Army is a fantastic organisation, but the Government lacks the will to do what is right in Afghanistan.”

The North Yorkshire branch of the Royal British Legion said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on Lance Corporal Glenton’s views due to the impending court martial.


Waiting two-and-a-half years

LANCE Corporal Glenton said he waited two-and-a-half years to display his public opposition to the Afghan conflict because of the “soul-searching” involved.

He went AWOL from the Army in 2007 and says he had to dig deep to find the strength to openly protest about the situation.

“It took a long time and a lot of support from my wife Clare to get to this point,” he said. “When I came away from the Army, I was a bit of a mess. I had put a lot of trust in it and it was a very hard period for me, so it took a lot of time to readjust.

“I had to take a step back and do a lot of soul-searching – I loved the Army, so it was very difficult for me to do this. But I have had a lot of support from a lot of people, especially recently.”

Afghanistan Faces Growing Addiction Problem

With poppy production still high, and opium and heroin cheap and easy to get, more Afghans, including increasing numbers of women, are becoming addicted. Help is very limited.

The heroin fumes rose, gray and twisting, into the nostrils of Mohammed Jawad Rezaie.

He inhaled and relaxed. For a few moments, Rezaie stopped scratching at his lice-infested groin. He lost interest in the blackened, rotting toes of his left foot, which had mesmerized him minutes earlier.

In another room in the shell-pocked ruins of the former Russian Cultural Center in downtown Kabul, 27-year-old Anwar injected a mixture of heroin and water into a bulging vein in the thin wrist of a man called Hussein.

Anwar, who injects addicts in exchange for heroin, withdrew the needle as Hussein's head slumped forward. Hussein began to tremble, and Anwar wrapped him in a hug, holding him until he relaxed and dropped into a peaceful stupor.

A junkie named Jaffer who had just been injected in the neck squatted next to them, his head cocked back, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

Afghanistan is notorious as the world's leading producer of opium and heroin, most of it shipped to Europe. Less well-documented is the country's own addiction epidemic. As many as a million Afghans, mostly men but increasing numbers of women, are addicted to heroin or opium, according to Afghan counter-narcotics police.

"It's bad, and it's getting worse," said Syedagul Stanekzai, the harried project manager of a men's drug rehabilitation center in Kabul, the capital.

The center has 100 beds in a city where thousands of addicts roam the streets. He cited varied reasons for the increase in addiction rates: lack of security, a high unemployment rate, general hopelessness and the wide availability of cheap drugs.

A hit of opium sells for as little as 10 afghanis, or 20 cents. A dose of heroin sells for 60 cents. In certain neighborhoods, drugs can be bought as easily as a cup of tea.

Drug use has been practically decriminalized.

"We prefer persuasion," Lt. Mohammed Edriss of the Kabul counter-narcotics police said in the cultural center's maze of crumbling buildings. He watched an addict named Nazir light a narrow ribbon of heroin and inhale the smoke

"See this?" the lieutenant said, snatching a packet of heroin from Nazir's hand. "You can get it anywhere. So why arrest these people? They'll just go back and get more."

The lieutenant returned the packet to Nazir. "Better they should get treatment, not jail."

He gave Nazir a gentle shove, ordering him to stop smoking and go to a rehab center.

Almost every day, Edriss and his officers try to herd the bedraggled addicts from the gloom and stench of the cultural building to a nearby rehab center, if not for treatment, then at least for showers and food.

The Afghan government has long considered drug addiction a uniquely Western vice. Officials never tire of telling Westerners that if it wasn't for the market for narcotics in their countries, Afghan farmers would have no incentive to grow poppies.

But the flow of drugs into Afghanistan's own cities has changed attitudes, said Gen. Shaista Turabi, director of the counter-narcotics police.

"My suggestion would still be for the U.S. and Europe to decrease demand," Turabi said in his spacious Kabul office, with new radio-equipped police SUVs parked outside, provided by Western aid. "But I can also say that addiction is a big problem in Afghanistan, too, and a big drain on the whole country."

Since 2002, Western nations have tried to eradicate Afghan opium poppy fields - a multibillion-dollar effort that Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has called "a waste of money."

In June, Holbrooke said that the U.S. would phase out poppy-eradication efforts and focus on encouraging alternative crops and arresting major traffickers.

Even though Afghan poppy yields last year declined 19% from a record harvest in 2007, according to the United Nations, it was still the second-highest since 1994.

The easy availability of opium has prompted a steady increase in the number of female addicts, drug treatment professionals say. Many women who weave carpets by hand take opium to ease the pain of the hard physical labor; some give the drug to their children to sedate them while they weave.

Last month, an 8-year-old boy and his 3-year-old sister were being treated for opium addiction while their mother underwent detox, said Huma Mansoori, one of two doctors at the Sanga Amaj drug treatment center for women.

The center, which opened in 2007, was Afghanistan's first rehab facility for women. It still is the only one in Kabul; there are three centers elsewhere.

Tajwara, 35, a mother of nine, said her husband gave her opium when she was ill. She was addicted for several years until she sought treatment last month at the Sanga Amaj center.

"I didn't know smoking opium was bad for me," said Tajwara. "People said it was medicine. If I had known it would ruin my life, I never would have tried it."

Shekiba, a slender girl of 15, covered her face in shame as she described how her father got her addicted to opium when she was 12.

"I knew opium was wrong, but I couldn't control it on my own," said Shekiba. She had just completed a drug detoxification program, along with several other women stricken with vomiting and diarrhea from withdrawal.

Although male addicts smoke and shoot up fairly openly, women almost always use drugs at home. And though men can seek treatment on their own, women must get permission from husbands or fathers to enter rehab programs.

"Afghan culture puts great shame on women who use drugs," said Dr. Torpikay Zazai, director of the women's center. "Men are ashamed of their women if they're addicted. They want to hide it in the home, and not let their women out for treatment."

Women tend to smoke opium or drink it in tea, but they rarely use heroin, Zazai said. Men favor heroin, though many also smoke opium.

At the former cultural center, men smoke and shoot up day and night. The floors are littered with syringes, garbage and human waste. What appear to be corpses line the dank hallways, but the forms are actually addicts sleeping off highs. Many of the men wear filthy shalwar kameez, the traditional Afghan tunics and pants. A few are dressed in clean shirts and slacks - "day trippers" who stop by to smoke, then return to work.

Abdullah Gaafar, 21, sat smoking amid the stench of urine. He said he smokes heroin at least twice a day, more often if he can raise money from odd jobs.

Neither his family nor his fiancee knows he's an addict, said Gaafar.

"I'm ashamed of what I've become. I need to go to the treatment center," he said, his voice trailing off as the heroin took effect.

Rezaie, 27, the addict with the lice and infected foot, said he started doing drugs at 14, working in Iran. He pays for the heroin by begging.

"The people insult me a lot," he said. When he tries to buy bread, he said, bakers tell him: "I'm a drug addict and I shouldn't get bread - I should die."

Four addicts died in the complex last winter, said Rezaie, who appeared close to death himself.

He shrugged and put a flame to the foil beneath his heroin. "I feel tired if I don't smoke," he said. "I feel like destroying myself."

A week later at the Wadan men's drug treatment center a few blocks away, addicts fresh off the street squatted on the floor of a bare detox room. With their shaved heads and pale uniforms, they looked like prison inmates.

The addicts spend 10 days in detox and 20 more receiving medical treatment, drug counseling and religious education. An imam is on staff, and there are regular prayer sessions.

The newest arrival that day was Jaffer, the addict who had been injected in the neck at the abandoned cultural center a week earlier. His head freshly shaven, he vowed to get clean, stay clean and reunite with his family.

"I have made a mistake," he said, "and I must make up for it."

Stanekzai, Wadan's project manager, has heard such promises before. Surrounded by a roomful of addicts, each solemnly swearing off drugs, he was asked whether some of those earnest young men might go right back to the wrecked cultural center after completing the program.

"Of course," he replied.

Crowing over owls' return

Karst advocates say birds a good reason to protect more land

Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
STONEY CREEK (Aug 1, 2009)

The presence of a breeding pair of long-eared owls in the Eramosa Karst Conservation Area -- the first seen in urban Hamilton in 40 years -- is being used to bolster arguments to expand the park to include 32 hectares the Ontario Realty Corp. wants to sell to builders.

Friends of Eramosa Karst say the city's new Official Plan designates the ORC land as part of a "core natural heritage area," but that's not enough to stop the provincial agency. They hope, however, to keep building a case against development, noting that the Hamilton Conservation Authority board agrees.

A news conference yesterday at which biologist Joe Minor announced finding a pair of long-eared owls -- and possibly owl chicks -- was used to argue that expanding the 73-hectare conservation area would protect wildlife habitat threatened by urban sprawl.

As if to emphasize the point, a Home Depot sign on Stone Church Road was easily visible from the conservation area parking lot on Mount Albion Road where Minor spoke. Rezoning and property sold signs sprout on vacant farmland down the road.

"Making the park 40 per cent bigger is absolutely huge from an island biogeography standpoint," Minor said. An island in biogeographical lingo is an area of suitable habitat surrounded by an expanse of unsuitable habitat.

"The number of species that will survive sprawl is increased greatly with size."

The Friends of Eramosa Karst calls the ORC property "karst feeder lands," saying water running through the property feeds underground karst features that include sinkholes, disappearing streams and caves.

It says stormwater ponds needed for residential growth would disrupt the natural flow.

Marcus Buck, who co-authored a report that led to the Eramosa Karst being provincially designated an Earth Sciences ANSI (an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest), said yesterday there are other karsts, but few with the number and variety of geological features found in upper Stoney Creek.

"Of the 26 streams here, 25 vanish into sinkholes. That's pretty remarkable. There's a lot more stuff here than at other karst sites."

Minor said some long-eared owls winter in the area, but they usually migrate north in summer. No nests have been found within 60 kilometres of Hamilton since the early 1990s.

A LOOK AT THE LONG-EARED OWL (ASIO OTUS)

A crow-sized owl with long ear tufts fitting the popular image of owls. An uncommon winter resident of the Hamilton area. Rare in summer.

Nests were found in Mount Albion pine groves from the late 1940s until 1968.

Owl pellets there contained remains of many meadow voles, one rabbit and the skull of a short-tailed shrew. Nests in the Bronte area of Oakville disappeared after being surrounded by sprawl in the 1960s.

Hamas threatens Fatah ahead of party congress

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza, said on Saturday it will take legal action against members of the rival Fatah faction who defy a ban on leaving the Palestinian enclave to attend a major party congress.

Fatah members who travel to the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Tuesday's congress will be prosecuted on their return to the Gaza Strip, the Hamas justice ministry said in a statement.

According to sources close to Fatah, around 12 delegates from Gaza have managed to evade tight Hamas security checks to enter Israel and travel to the West Bank through the Erez crossing.

But several others have had their identity papers confiscated to ensure they cannot leave the territory.

Mahmud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, said earlier this week the ban on participating in the congress would be lifted if Fatah freed all Hamas prisoners in the occupied West Bank.

The ban affects the more than 400 Fatah members who currently live in Gaza and are eligible to attend the congress, officials said.

The congress will be Fatah's first such meeting in 20 years, with some 2,000 delegates expected to attend from around the world.

Fatah delegates living in Syria and Lebanon will be allowed to attend, an Israeli official said on Wednesday after talks in Jerusalem between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US National Security Advisor James Jones.

Hamas-Fatah tensions boiled over in June 2007 when the Islamists seized control of Gaza after a week of deadly street clashes, confining the writ of Palestinian president and Fatah leader Mahmud Abbas to the West Bank.

Since then, each group has accused the other of persecuting its rivals in its respective area of control.

Several months of Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks have failed to produce an agreement, although a seventh round of negotiations is due to begin on August 25 in Cairo.

Amid the ruins in Gaza, Palestinians wait for rebuilding to start

More than six months after the Israeli offensive, little rebuilding has begun. A blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt and slow aid delivery have made materials hard to find.

By Edmund Sanders
August 1, 2009

Reporting from Jabaliya, Gaza Strip -- Each morning, Thaeer Alsheikh sits beside the ruins of his family's two-story house, destroyed by Israeli forces in the final days of the 22-day Gaza Strip offensive in the winter.

He can't explain why he comes. He doesn't do anything while here. He says it just makes him feel better.

His extended family, now sharing a rented apartment nearby, recently gave the children a choice: spend the weekend at the beach or hang out next to the rubble. The kids opted for a picnic at the homestead, now a pile of broken concrete and twisted metal.

"I guess we like to return to the place where we grew up," said Alsheikh, 27, who has built a sitting area next to the ruins with a "sofa" of broken bricks covered by plastic sheeting held by columns salvaged from the second-story balcony.

"This is still my home," he said. "Someday we will rebuild, but so far there is no hope."

More than six months after a cease-fire ended the Israeli assault on this enclave controlled by the militant Islamic group Hamas, little rebuilding is underway for the approximately 6,300 homes destroyed or heavily damaged.

About 30,000 people remain affected, United Nations and nongovernmental aid groups estimate. Most have moved in with family members or into temporary rentals, but some are still living in tents and trailers with no water or electricity.

Only a fraction of the $4 billion in pledged international aid, including $900 million from the U.S., has been distributed, officials here say. That's partly because donors are reluctant to release the money as long as Hamas is in control. It's also because of the blockade by Israel and Egypt, which has restricted the borders and, Palestinians and aid groups say, is preventing the 1.5 million people in Gaza from receiving much beyond basic food and medical aid.

The blockade, which was designed to diminish Hamas' capacity to launch attacks against Israel, includes cement, glass, steel piping and other construction material, and also has prevented a variety of household goods and food items from passing Gaza's checkpoints, including coffee, tea, lightbulbs, crayons, blankets and hair conditioner.

U.N. agencies say that even though 80% of the population is dependent on their food and medical aid, they are helpless to assist in rebuilding. Only about 75 U.N. food trucks are permitted into the strip each day, compared with 400 before the blockade began, U.N. officials say.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which assists the displaced Palestinians here, has earmarked nearly $1 billion to rebuild Gaza homes, including about $370 million for emergency repairs and renovations, said Chris Gunness, a U.N. spokesman.

International "donors have given us the money, but we're not able to do anything with it," he said.

On Tuesday, U.N. and other aid groups called on Israel to make an exception to the blockade for schools. They said nearly half of Gaza's schools had suffered damage -- including 18 that were destroyed -- but students are still having to crowd into the remaining classrooms or study in alternating morning and afternoon shifts.

Restrictions on Gaza have been in place since 2007, when Hamas seized control of the strip from its rival Palestinian party, Fatah. Members of Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, won parliamentary elections in Gaza in 2006, after Israel unilaterally withdrew from the territory a year earlier.

But the blockade has become more painful in the aftermath of Israel's winter offensive, during which 13 Israelis and as many as 1,400 Palestinians were killed and much of Gaza's manufacturing base was destroyed.

Israel, alarmed by the Hamas takeover in Gaza, launched the attack in response to the repeated firing of rockets from the seaside strip targeting civilian neighborhoods of southern Israel.

The Israeli government also blames Hamas for the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held for three years.

Though Israelis this week said they planned to allow a limited amount of cement into Gaza to repair electricity or sewage plants, they say general restrictions on cement and steel pipes will remain because such materials can be used by Hamas to build bunkers, tunnels and bombs.

"The entry of 'dual-use' equipment -- equipment which while intended for use by civilian systems can be exploited by terrorists -- has been prevented, with the exception of special humanitarian cases," said Maj. Guy Inbar, an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman.

He said exceptions are sometimes made for medicine, toys and hygiene products. But "gourmet items" are blocked because the Israeli government contends that they will not be consumed by average Palestinians, but "by the rich and corrupt leaders of Hamas."

Gazans say that without enough cement and steel to rebuild, they'll never be able to resume normal lives.

"I lived through the 1967 [Middle East] war, but I've never seen days like this before," said Souad Abdrabo, 53, who said her home was destroyed in the winter by Israeli bulldozers. Now she and her husband are sleeping under a canopy on foam mattresses next to the rubble because they say they can't find an apartment.

Like many here, the couple received more than $5,000 cash for emergency aid from U.N. and other groups. They also own a plot of vacant land they could use to rebuild. But without materials and supplies, they can only wait.

"We're being wiped out in front of the eyes of the world and nobody cares," she said.

She and others say Hamas shares the blame for failing to protect and support the population. She said she recently shooed away Hamas fighters from her neighborhood because she feared they would attract the attention of Israelis, who accuse Hamas of hiding its military branch in civilian neighborhoods. Hamas assistance for those affected by the war, some say, has been focused on the group's members. "They only help their own," said one homeowner.

A Hamas spokesman did not return phone calls for comment.

Some families are so desperate to rebuild that they've starting making bricks from mud and clay, a practice not seen here in half a century.

"Mud is no solution," Alsheikh said. "Are we supposed to go back 50 years?"

The blockade has fueled a thriving black market of goods smuggled from Egypt through a long-standing network of tunnels. As a result, some signs of normality have returned. In Gaza City, cafes serve espresso and pastries. Ice cream vendors are open along the shores. Fruits and vegetables are available.

But prices are out of reach for many families in the Gaza Strip, where most live below the poverty line. A smuggled bag of cement, for example, costs 10 times the usual price, residents said.

Some activists say the blockade is doing little to improve security or hurt Hamas, which is using the tunnels to resupply itself with arms and building materials. Instead, they say, the restrictions inflict a collective punishment.

"This isn't about security," said Sari Bashi, director of Gisha, an Israeli group that focuses on Palestinian rights. "This is about imposing pressure on the Hamas regime and trying to promote policy goals on the backs of 1.5 million civilians."

She and others warned that pushing Gaza into deeper economic turmoil and depriving people of education and livelihoods could backfire by deepening animosity toward Israel.

"Having 1.5 million increasingly desperate people in Gaza is not in the interest of long-term peace," U.N. spokesman Gunness said.

An Israeli defense official said Palestinians in Gaza bear responsibility for having elected Hamas. "They are the ones who decided to let Hamas take over and continue the violence," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Business leaders in Gaza say the blockade and recent fighting have wiped out Gaza's industrial sector and eliminated their ability to help in the recovery. On the outskirts of Gaza City, most cement factories and other plants lay in ruins from the conflict.

"Industry is completely dead in Gaza, and it will take years to rebuild," said Wadie el Masri, general manager of Gaza Industrial Estate, a now-vacant industrial park that once employed 3,000 people. "I'm really not optimistic. In the past, Israel would squeeze a little and then let go. This time they are squeezing and squeezing and squeezing."

Iran begins trial of postelection 'rioters'

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Opposition political activists and protesters stood trial in Tehran Saturday on charges of rioting and conspiring against the ruling system in the country's first trial following the disputed presidential election, Iran's state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said the charges against the defendants included attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system.

The semiofficial Fars news agency said there are more than 100 defendants at the court.

Among the defendants are several prominent reformist opposition activists including former vice president Mohammat Ali Abtahi, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, former vice speaker of parliament Behzad Nabavi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mohsen Mirdamadi.

Pictures from the courtroom showed a thin-looking Abtahi and a grim Mirdamadi in prison uniform sitting in the front row. More than a hundred defendants could be seen sitting in the packed courtroom, many of them handcuffed but without prison uniforms.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in days of street protests after the June 12 election, denouncing official results that declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.

Iran's opposition maintains that Ahmadinejad stole the vote from opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi by engaging in massive fraud, but its demonstrations have been ruthlessly suppressed leaving hundreds, possibly more, in prison.

State media didn't provide further details about the trial, and there was no information on when it would end or when a verdict would be expected.

Iran's hard-liners have drawn parallels between Mousavi's campaign and the "velvet revolution" — an allusion to the peaceful overthrow of the communist government in the former Czechoslovakia.

Kuwait alarmed by Iraqi failure to pay reparations

By DIANA ELIAS, Associated Press Writer

KUWAIT CITY – Iraq's recent efforts to avoid paying Kuwait some $25 billion in U.N.-mandated reparations for Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion have alarmed Kuwaitis and strained relations that have slowly improved since the fall of the Iraqi dictator.

Many Kuwaitis doubt Iraq will make good on its obligations without outside pressure, and the country has sent envoys to both Washington and the U.N. in recent months to seek help.

"Iraq will not cooperate if things are left to bilateral ties," said Fayez al-Enezi, a member of a search team tasked with finding hundreds of Kuwaitis who went missing during the Iraqi occupation.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has waged his own offensive, pressing key U.N. members during a visit to the U.S. in late July to drop all binding resolutions against his country stemming from Saddam's seven-month occupation of Kuwait.

President Barack Obama has expressed support for lifting U.N. sanctions, among them a requirement that Iraq pay 5 percent of its oil revenues to Kuwait as reparations. However, he said Iraq's U.N. status should only be changed after the country resolves disputes with its neighbors — something Kuwaitis have been seeking for almost two decades.

The U.N. has approved $52.4 billion in compensation for individuals, companies and organizations, most of them Kuwaiti, that incurred losses in the war that followed Saddam's invasion. Around $27 billion has already been paid out from Iraqi oil revenues, leaving an outstanding balance of about $25.4 billion.

Money isn't the only thing at stake. The U.N. resolutions place a number of other obligations on Iraq, ranging from helping search for missing Kuwaitis to returning looted possessions. But Kuwaitis complain Iraq has provided little cooperation.

El-Enezi said the search for missing people has gone extremely slowly and 369 people are still unaccounted for. His team has found the remains of 236 people in mass graves in Iraq who were shot in the back of the head.

"We will never trust them," said civil servant Talal al-Otaibi, while sipping coffee in one of Kuwait City's busiest malls. "Iraq will never leave us alone. ... Iraqis still believe Kuwait is part of Iraq."

Iraq has made territorial claims on Kuwait ever since the country gained independence from Britain in 1961. Baghdad grudgingly approved a U.N. demarcation of their shared border in 1994 that placed 11 oil wells on the Kuwaiti side of the desert frontier. The two governments are still negotiating an agreement to drill joint border fields.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said his government's efforts to shake off the U.N. resolutions were not aimed at compromising its smaller neighbor's sovereignty.

"We in Iraq need to make some ... real initiatives to dissipate those fears," he told the official Kuwait News Agency, promising to intensify the search for missing Kuwaitis.

Sami al-Faraj, who heads the independent Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies, said Iraq could generate some goodwill by returning Kuwait's national archives that were taken during Saddam's invasion.

"We're talking about historic documents, about proof we are not Iraqis, and (returning them) will not cost them billions," he said.

Kuwait looked forward to improved ties after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam. The country reopened its diplomatic mission that it had closed after Saddam's invasion and appointed an ambassador. But it is still waiting for Iraq to reciprocate. The Iraqi Embassy in Kuwait is headed by a charge d'affaires.

"In 2003, after the fall of Saddam's regime, we had high hopes," said political analyst Ayed al-Mannah. "Now we hear the same old language ... all over again."

Hajji al-Jasser, a 58-year-old businessman who was abroad when Iraqi tanks rolled into his country, said Kuwaitis do not hate Iraqis but are afraid of their "reckless" politicians. He said Kuwaitis should not give up a penny to make the point that Iraq's past behavior should be punished and not repeated.

Kuwait has taken a similarly hard line, refusing to cave to pressure from Washington to forgive $15 billion of Saddam-era debts.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Iraq and Kuwait on Monday to discuss alternative ways to settle outstanding war reparations, suggesting the possibility of converting them into investments to help Iraq's reconstruction.

Iraq has already proposed the idea to Kuwait, which has not officially responded. However, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheik Mohammed Al Sabah said Wednesday his country has its own proposals and was prepared to discuss them with Baghdad "under a U.N. umbrella."

Some Kuwaitis believe taking a middle road would be in the country's best interests.

"Opening the door wide for cooperation ... with Iraq is an investment for Kuwait in security and stability," the editor-in-chief of Alrai newspaper, Jassem Budai, wrote in an editorial. "Kuwaitis won't sleep soundly if their neighbors are hungry."

Pakistan court rules Musharraf's emergency illegal

By ASIF SHAHZAD and NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writers

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state of emergency former President Pervez Musharraf imposed in 2007 was unconstitutional and declared invalid the appointments of judges he made during that period.

The decision could lay the groundwork for treason charges against the ex-army chief, and some fear it could cause political turmoil at a time when Pakistan is battling a Taliban insurgency. But the court said the ruling — the most severe against a former military leader — would strengthen democracy in a country plagued by repeated military dictatorships.

The 14-member bench that delivered the ruling was headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, whose attempted ouster by Musharraf spurred much of the political turmoil that ultimately led to the strongman's downfall.

"The constitution is supreme, and this decision will strengthen democracy and democratic institutions," Chaudhry said.

The court added that rulings made by the judges who were improperly appointed could still stand, and told Parliament to decide which of the laws that Musharraf pushed through during the unconstitutional emergency could remain on the books.

Musharraf declared the emergency when it appeared the Supreme Court might challenge his eligibility for office. The measures — which were accompanied by mass detentions and harsh media restrictions — enraged an already emboldened opposition.

Eventually, under domestic and international pressure, Musharraf allowed elections that brought his foes to power in February 2008. Under threat of impeachment, he stepped down in August 2008.

Ever since, many opponents have demanded that he be held accountable.

Musharraf, who is living in London, ignored a summons to appear before the court or send a lawyer this week to explain his actions.

A man who answered the phone at a number for Musharraf in Britain said the retired general had no comment.

"He's not commenting; he was not represented at the court," the man said. He declined to give his name and hung up when asked what Musharraf's plans were.

The court decision was eagerly awaited by many Pakistanis, especially lawyers who led a movement that helped push Musharraf from office. Many gathered across the country, dancing in the streets and cheering when the verdict was announced.

"Today we have to a great extent achieved our goal, that is independence of judiciary," Hamid Khan, one of the petitioners who brought the case to court, told The Associated Press. "The purpose of this whole exercise is to block military dictators' intervention in future which we have been seeing again and again in past."

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani welcomed the decision, describing as a good omen for the future of democracy in Pakistan, which has been run by the army for about half of its nearly 62-year existence.

Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokeswoman for President Asif Ali Zardari, also hailed the decision, describing it as "the last nail in the coffin of dictatorship."

Because of a legal twist, one measure that could come up for review is an ordinance — signed by Musharraf before the emergency — that granted amnesty in corruption cases to Zardari and his wife, slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Zardari succeeded Bhutto as leader of the Pakistan People's Party after she was assassinated in December 2007. As president, he enjoys broad legal immunity for the duration of his term, even if Parliament overturns the amnesty deal.

But prominent lawyer Athar MinAllah said the case paved the way for trying Musharraf on treason charges, which could carry the death penalty.

"It has made basis stronger to proceed against him if somebody wants to," he said, but noted that such charges can only be filed by the federal government.

Musharraf seized power in a 1999 military coup and became a key ally in the U.S.-led war against al-Qaida following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that sparked the American-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.

In early 2007, he dismissed Chaudhry as the court was about to rule on the validity of Musharraf's holding two offices — that of president and chief of army staff. Chaudhry's removal triggered mass lawyer-led protests that damaged Musharraf's popularity.

The court managed to bring Chaudhry back, but faced with growing rancor and fearing he could be ousted, Musharraf declared the emergency, tossing out Chaudhry again along with around 60 other judges.

The move deepened anger against Musharraf, who eventually lifted the emergency. He stepped down as army chief and allowed parliamentary elections the following February that brought his political foes to power. But even after his resignation, the fate of the judges caused fissures among those who came to power.

A coalition government of Zardari's PPP and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N fell apart over the slow pace of reinstating the jurists.

Ultimately, facing escalating lawyer-led protests, Zardari agreed to reinstate Chaudhry in March. Ever since, there have been rumblings about whether Musharraf would have to answer in court for his actions.

Some argue that holding him accountable would deter military strongmen from trying to seize power in the future. Others fear pursuing Musharraf could shake the political establishment and reopen old wounds at a time when Pakistan is already saddled with reviving its economy and battling a Taliban militancy.

Pakistan's army is winding down a three-month-old offensive against the Taliban in the northwestern Swat Valley, but sporadic violence continues.

Six militants died in a recent clash, the military said in a statement Friday afternoon that covered the previous 24 hours. In Baluchistan to the southwest, police officials said a grenade attack against a paramilitary vehicle killed two paramilitary soldiers and one bystander.

Schools reopen in Pakistan's Swat Valley

By NAHAL TOOSI and ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writers

MINGORA, Pakistan – Scores of eager children headed back to school in northern Pakistan's battle-scarred Swat Valley on Saturday, many taking classes in buildings damaged during recent fighting between Taliban militants and security forces.

But attendance on the first day of the new academic year was low, with hundreds of students staying away. Many families have still not returned home to the valley's main town of Mingora, where the Taliban once held sway.

Reopening schools in Swat, a former tourist haven, is just one piece of the puzzle for authorities trying to rehabilitate the valley, but it may be the most symbolic and psychologically important step yet, as destroying schools — particularly those teaching girls — was a key part of the Taliban's reign in the valley.

In one girls' school in the Haji Baba neighborhood of Mingora, only about 30 of the usual 700 students were back on Saturday. But those who were said they were glad to be able to learn again without fear of the Taliban.

"I'm happy. I like school, I like to study," 12-year-old Saima Abdul Wahab said as she stood in a tiny courtyard outside her dusty classroom, piles of new exercise books stacked against the walls waiting to be given out.

Saima said she, like many others, had been too afraid to study when the Taliban controlled the town.

"I was scared and stopped coming to school. The Taliban were slaughtering people. I was scared of being slaughtered," she said. But now, "I'm not afraid of them coming back. They're gone."

At one point, the Taliban had announced they were banning female education completely, in a move echoing their militant brethren in neighboring Afghanistan who forbade girls from going to school when they were in charge.

Nearly 200 schools in Swat and surrounding the area were destroyed, and hundreds more were damaged — most of them girls' institutions.

The havoc threatened to set back literacy and other educational achievements in the valley that — relative to other parts of the conservative northwest — had made strides in education over the past century, including when it was a princely state with its own ruler.

School has been out in Swat since May, leaving large gaps in children's education, teachers say.

"We will have extra classes, put in extra time, forego our vacations, but we will catch up," vowed Noor ul Akbar, who teaches Quran recitation at a nearby boys' school.

About 150 of the school's usual 1,500 boys lined up in the warm early morning sun for assembly that began with a prayer before starting lessons in their bomb-damaged building. The school was struck by an explosion in a shop across the street that had been run by a suspected Taliban militant.

Akbar said at one point, several Taliban had taken over a few rooms in the school. He said teachers had pleaded with them to leave, telling them their guns were scaring the children. The militants had replied that they would only target passing military convoys, he said.

Although Swat's main city is slowly coming back to life, it is nowhere near normal.

Basic amenities such as electricity, gas and running water have been restored, and hospitals are open, but government offices are barely functioning, the courts are shut, and curfews still hamper people's movement.

A small number of traders have returned, but many are still cautiously watching the situation and trying to assess their costs, Abdul Rahim Khan, president of the Swat Traders Association, said earlier this week.

"A lot of damage has been caused to business places and trading offices during the fighting and after that, so the government should quickly compensate their losses," he said.

Tourism, once a key economic engine for the picturesque valley, is still hobbled. A few hotels have reopened — largely to cater to visiting journalists and officials.

Bakhtiar Khan, an official of the tourism department, struck a hopeful note.

"We expect those who have been here before will definitely come back to see how this place changed or destroyed — we are expecting adventure tourists," he said.

The Taliban's top leadership remains at large, and violence persists. On Tuesday, the decapitated body of a police constable was found in Swat's town of Sangota, not far from Mingora. It was a clear sign that the militants have not given up the fight, even though the army says it has killed at least 1,800 suspected insurgents.

Residents say while they have not seen any Taliban in Mingora, relatives in other parts of the valley report militants are still active at night. Many Taliban are believed to have melted into the rural parts of the mountainous valley, and access to the northern half is still restricted.

Philippines mourns Corazon Aquino, dead at 76

By OLIVER TEVES, Associated Press Writer

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos mourned former President Corazon Aquino by displaying yellow ribbons and holding Masses as the nation prepared to bid farewell to the beloved democracy icon who swept away a dictator and fought off seven coup attempts.

Aquino, 76, died early Saturday after a yearlong battle with colon cancer, which had spread to other organs and left her bedridden since late June, her son, Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, said.

Each of Aquino's five children went to their mother's bedside where they "were told to say everything we wanted to say" before she was given morphine, which made her unresponsive, her only son said.

Aquino rose to power after the 1983 assassination of her husband, opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. The uprising she led in 1986 ended the repressive 20-year regime of Ferdinand Marcos and inspired nonviolent protests across the globe, including those that ended communist rule in eastern Europe.

"She was headstrong and single-minded in one goal, and that was to remove all vestiges of an entrenched dictatorship," Raul C. Pangalangan, former dean of the College of Law at the University of the Philippines, said earlier this month. "We all owe her in a big way."

But Aquino struggled in office to meet high public expectations. Her land redistribution program fell short of ending economic domination by the landed elite, including her own family. Her leadership, especially in social and economic reform, was often indecisive, leaving many of her closest allies disillusioned by the end of her term.

Still, the bespectacled, smiling woman in her trademark yellow dress remained beloved in the Philippines, where she was affectionately referred to as "Tita (Auntie) Cory."

Aquino's supporters had been holding daily prayers for her in churches for the past month.

As the news of Aquino's death spread through a rainy and gloomy Manila, radio and TV stations broadcast documentaries and stories of her life, with music dating back to the "people power" revolt and a love song based on a poem written by her husband.

Catholic priests held requiem Masses, and ordinary people tied yellow ribbons on trees around their neighborhoods, on cars, lamp posts and house gates.

Others laid flowers and lit candles outside the Aquino family residence in Quezon city, while some gathered to pray at a shrine on Manila's EDSA highway, where hundreds of thousands of her supporters blocked Marcos' tanks in 1986.

"The nation lost its moral guiding light but she will forever remain as the inspiration of this impoverished nation," said Al Roy, one of Aquino's godsons.

The Aquino family opted for a private instead of a state funeral.

"She has for all intents and purposes been a private citizen after stepping down, and to a degree we also want to spend as much time as possible as a family with her," her son said.

Aquino's body will lie in state at the De La Salle Catholic school in Manila from Saturday evening to Monday morning. It will be moved to Manila Cathedral before she will be buried beside her husband at the Manila Memorial Park on Wednesday, he said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is on an official visit to the United States, remembered Aquino as a "national treasure" who helped lead "a revolution to restore democracy and the rule of law to our nation at a time of great peril.

The Philippines will observe 10 days of national mourning, she said. The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it would accord full military honors during the mourning period, including gun salutes and lowering flags to half-staff.

With teary eyes, former aides and friends recalled their moments with "Tita Cory" in radio and TV interviews. A former speechwriter, Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., broke down saying that her "purity, nobility never failed."

Former top Cabinet aide Franklin Drilon said "President Cory was the most sincere person I have known in my life. ... Part of me died this morning."

Deposed President Joseph Estrada, who was toppled in the country's second "people power" revolt — backed by Aquino — in 2001, said the Philippines had "lost the true mother of democracy."

Aquino's successor, Fidel Ramos, who was the military's vice chief of staff when he broke with Marcos and embraced Aquino, said the former leader "represented the best of the Filipino of the past and the future."

President Barack Obama was deeply saddened by Aquino's death, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

"Ms. Aquino played a crucial role in Philippines history, moving the country to democratic rule through her nonviolent 'people power' movement over 20 years ago," Gibbs said. "Her courage, determination, and moral leadership are an inspiration to us all and exemplify the best in the Filipino nation."

Aquino's unlikely rise began in 1983 after her husband was gunned down at Manila's international airport moments after soldiers escorted him from a plane on his arrival from exile in the United States to challenge Marcos, his longtime adversary.

The killing enraged many Filipinos and unleashed a broad-based opposition movement that thrust Aquino into the role of national leader.

"I don't know anything about the presidency," she declared in 1985, a year before she agreed to run against Marcos, uniting the fractious opposition, the business community, and later the armed forces to drive the dictator out.

Maria Corazon Cojuangco was born on Jan. 25, 1933, into a wealthy, politically powerful family in Paniqui, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Manila.

She attended private school in Manila and earned a degree in French from the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York. In 1954 she married Ninoy Aquino, the fiercely ambitious scion of another political family. He rose from provincial governor to senator and finally opposition leader.

Marcos, elected president in 1965, declared martial law in 1972 to avoid term limits. He abolished the Congress and jailed Aquino's husband and thousands of opponents, journalists and activists without charges. Aquino became her husband's political stand-in, confidant, message carrier and spokeswoman.

A military tribunal sentenced her husband to death for alleged links to communist rebels but, under pressure from U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Marcos allowed him to leave in May 1980 for heart surgery in the U.S., where the family stayed for the next three years.

Her husband decided to return to regroup the opposition but was shot as he descended the stairs from the plane.

The government blamed a suspected communist rebel, but subsequent investigations pointed to a soldier who was escorting him from the plane on Aug. 21, 1983.

Aquino heard of the assassination in a phone call from a Japanese journalist. She recalled gathering the children and, as a deeply religious woman, praying for strength.

"During Ninoy's incarceration and before my presidency, I used to ask why it had always to be us to make the sacrifice," she said in a 2007 interview with The Philippine Star newspaper. "And then, when Ninoy died, I would say, 'Why does it have to be me now?' It seemed like we were always the sacrificial lamb."

She returned to the Philippines and on Aug. 31, 1983, led the largest funeral procession Manila had seen. Crowd estimates ranged as high as 2 million.

With public opposition mounting against Marcos, he stunned the nation in November 1985 by calling a snap election in a bid to shore up his mandate. The opposition, including then Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime L. Sin, urged Aquino to run on Feb. 7, 1986.

With Marcos claiming victory and journalists, foreign observers and church leaders crying fraud, a group of military officers mutinied against Marcos on Feb. 22 and holed up with a small force in a military camp in Manila.

Over the following three days, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos responded to a call by Archbishop Sin to support the mutineers at the camp on EDSA highway.

On the third day, against the advice of her security detail, Aquino appeared at the rally. From a makeshift platform, she declared: "For the first time in the history of the world, a civilian population has been called to defend the military."

The military chiefs pledged their loyalty to Aquino and charged that Marcos had won the election by fraud.

On Feb. 25, Aquino was sworn in as the Philippines' first female leader and Marcos flew to exile in Hawaii, where he died three years later.

Over time, the euphoria fizzled as the public became impatient and Aquino more defensive as she struggled to navigate treacherous political waters and build alliances to push her agenda.

"People used to compare me to the ideal president, but he doesn't exist and never existed. He has never lived," she said in the 2007 Philippine Star interview.

Aquino signed an agrarian reform bill that virtually exempted large plantations like her family's sugar estate from being distributed to landless farmers.

When farmers protested outside the Malacanang Presidential Palace on Jan. 22, 1987, troops opened fire, killing 13 and wounding 100.

The bloodshed scuttled talks with communist rebels, who had galvanized opposition to Marcos but weren't satisfied with Aquino either.

As recently as 2004, at least seven workers were killed in clashes with police and soldiers at the family's plantation, Hacienda Luisita, over its refusal to distribute its land.

Aquino also attempted to negotiate with Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines, but made little progress.

Behind the public image of the frail, vulnerable widow, Aquino was an iron-willed woman who dismissed criticism as the carping of jealous rivals. She knew she had to act tough to earn respect in the Philippines' macho culture.

"When I am just with a few close friends, I tell them, 'OK, you don't like me? Look at the alternatives,' and that shuts them up," she told America's NBC television in a 1987 interview.

Her term was punctuated by repeated coup attempts — most staged by the same clique of officers who had risen up against Marcos and felt they had been denied their fair share of power. The most serious attempt came in December 1989 when only a flyover by U.S. jets prevented mutinous troops from toppling her.

Leery of damaging relations with the United States, Aquino tried in vain to block a historic Senate vote to force the U.S. out of its two major bases in the Philippines.

In the end, the U.S. Air Force pulled out of Clark Air Base in 1991 after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo forced its evacuation and left it heavily damaged. The last American vessel left Subic Bay Naval Base in November 1992.

After stepping down in 1992, Aquino remained active in social and political causes.

Until diagnosed with colon cancer in March 2008, she joined rallies calling for the resignation of Arroyo over allegations of vote-rigging and corruption.

She kept her distance from another famous widow, flamboyant former first lady Imelda Marcos, who was allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991.

Marcos has called Aquino a usurper and dictator, though she later led prayers for Aquino in July 2009 when the latter was hospitalized. The two never made peace.

Report: 3 American hikers arrested in Iran

By YAHYA BARZANJI, Associated Press Writer

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq – The U.S. State Department said Friday it was investigating reports that three American tourists have been detained by Iranians while hiking near Iran's border with the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Two Kurdish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, said the Americans apparently were arrested after entering Iranian territory without permission.

U.S. helicopters were buzzing overhead and many U.S. Humvees had moved into the Kurdish city of Halabja to search for the Americans, said a Kurdish border force official.

According to a security official, a fourth American who stayed behind at a hotel because he was sick said the missing Americans were tourists hiking near Halabja and the border town of Ahmed Awaa.

According to this account, the four had traveled to Turkey, then entered the Kurdish region Tuesday through the Ibrahim Al-Khalil border point in Zakho, the official said. They visited the Kurdish cities of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah on Wednesday. The next day, three of them took a taxi to Ahmed Awaa where they told their companion that they planned to stay at a nearby resort, the official said.

The three contacted their companion on Friday and told him "they had mistakenly entered Iranian territory and that troops surrounded them," the official said, adding "that was the last contact with them."

The mountainous border area is a popular hiking destination and well-known for its thick growth of pistachio trees.

The border force official said Iranian authorities apparently arrested the three Americans because they had entered the neighboring country without permission.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the U.S. Embassy "is aware of the report and is investigating. We are using all available means to determine the facts in this case."

Iranian officials made no immediate comment.

The self-ruled Kurdish region has been relatively free of the violence that plagues the rest of Iraq. Foreigners often feel freer to move around without security guards in the area.

Halabja, 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, was the site of a chemical weapons attack ordered by Saddam Hussein in 1988 as part of a scorched-earth campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion. An estimated 5,600 were killed in the nerve and mustard gas attacks — the vast majority Kurds — and many still suffer the aftereffects.