Iranian parliament to review ties with Germany after Merkel remarks

ehran - The Iranian parliament plans to review diplomatic ties with Germany following remarks by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on renewed sanctions against Iran if nuclear negotiations with world powers failed, parliamentarian Mohammad Karami said Saturday. "The West is quite aware that our nuclear programme has no (military) irregularities. Therefore the parliament will evaluate the irrelevant remarks by Merkel and accordingly review future ties with Germany," the Fars news agency quoted Karami, who is the spokesman for the parliamentary foreign policy commission.

Merkel told the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Friday that if there was no progress in the course of nuclear talks, the West should react with sanctions.

She added that Iran, whose president has constantly questioned Israel's right to exist, should not be allowed to have an atomic bomb.

Karami termed the Merkel remarks as "psychological war," from which - he speculated - she hoped to gain more votes in the forthcoming general elections in Germany.

Merkel has not congratulated President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his controversial re-election, angering both Iran's president and parliament.

Syria offers Iran “regional alliance” with Turkey

August 21, 2009

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday congratulated Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying his re-election was a "lesson for foreigners," state news agency IRNA reported.

"What happened in Iran was a major event and a great lesson for foreigners, that is why they are so upset," the Syrian president said.

Assad is one of the first foreign leaders to visit Tehran since Ahmadinejad won the June presidential election.

"I came here today to personally convey my warm congratulations to you and the Iranian nation," Assad told Ahmadinejad.

"The Syrian president, in his meeting with the Iranian president, condemned the interference of foreign countries in Iran’s internal affairs," IRNA reported, without elaborating.

It quoted Assad as saying: "The main reason for the West’s interference is to block Iran and Syria’s frequent victories."

When Ahmadinejad was officially sworn in on Aug. 5, U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of France, Britain, Italy and Germany have not congratulated him yet.

"Regional alliance"

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Assad later and welcomed a proposal by the Syrian president to form an alliance between the two countries as well as neighbouring Iraq and Turkey, state television said, without giving details.

"Such an alliance would be in line with the region’s benefit," Khamenei was quoted as saying.

Assad said that relations between regional allies Syria and Iran and their positions on Middle East issues should remain unchanged during Ahmadinejad’s second four-year tenure.

"Iran and Syria should pursue their… policies in the region," IRNA quoted Assad as telling Ahmadinejad.

He added that meetings between Iranian and Syrian officials are "necessary to send a message to faraway countries and those in the region as they have a weak memory and forget the lessons they learned."

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised on Wednesday key ally Syria for its resistance in the face of world powers in a meeting with Assad, state media reported.

"Syria’s most important characteristic among Arab countries is its steadfastness and resistance," Khamenei said, noting Syria’s excellent standing in the region.

Khamenei said "the resistance front" in the Middle East "should strengthen its cooperation and ties," the state news agency IRNA reported.

"America’s blade has become blunter in the region," Khamenei added.

"The unity between Iran and Syria is the embodiment of resistance in the region," the supreme leader said.

Khamenei also branded as "very positive" Syria’s improved relations with Iraq and said that unity between Iran and its western neighbors, Iraq and Turkey, and with Syria would benefit the region.

President Nicolas Sarkozy thanked Syria and other countries on Sunday for supporting France in the case of a French teaching assistant detained in Iran on spying charges. IRNA did not say whether Assad and Ahmadinejad discussed the issue.

Clotilde Reiss, who was charged with spying, was freed on bail of about $300,000 but she is not allowed to leave the country and is staying in the French embassy pending a verdict.

Af-Pak Masquerade: The Untold Truths of War

Chris Floyd

August 21, 2009

William Pfaff has the low-down on the empire burlesque going on in Barack Obama's "Af-Pak" war. The whole piece is well worth reading, but below are a few highlights, including the pearl of wisdom in the first sentence:

The problem with U.S.-sponsored elections in Asia and elsewhere in the non-Western world, as in Afghanistan Aug. 20, is that they are sponsored by the United States primarily to legitimize its own presence in the country.


This is a truth so self-evident that it should not even have to be said; yet such is the impenetrable ignorance and arrogance of the American political class (including most emphatically the corporate media) that it needs to be loudly shouted in every available media, for hours on end, day after day, in the wan hope that it might finally get through to our leaders and "opinion-formers."

And what is the fruit of Obama's "continuity" and expansion of the policy of his imperial predecessors? Back to Pfaff:

The new administration’s under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, Judith A. McHale, met a group of Pakistani journalists, including Ansar Abbasi, an important commentator critical of U.S. policy. She spoke warmly of U.S.-Pakistani relations, and Abbasi politely listened, thanking her for coming. He then, according to McHale afterward, said, "You should know that we hate all Americans. From the bottom of our souls, we hate you."

Under Secretary McHale also reported that Abbasi went on to explain that Americans "are no longer human beings because (their) goal was to eliminate other humans." He said that "thousands of innocent people had been killed because (Americans) are trying to find Osama bin Laden."


While Abbasi's reading of Pakistani sentiment might be accurate, he is of course incorrect in his final observation. Of all the many reasons why Americans are killing thousands of innocent people, "trying to find Osama bin Laden" is not one of them. Does anyone believe that if Osama bin Laden was found tomorrow -- dead or alive -- the Terror War would suddenly stop? The Terror Warriors long ago gave up even the pretense that the war in Afghanistan is about "getting" bin Laden. We hear different justifications for the continued churning of the war machine practically every day. As Pfaff notes, the new line, apparently, is that we are killing thousands of innocent people -- and losing handfuls of our own soldiers every month -- in order to build a public health system in Afghanistan and help provide more business opportunities for Pakistanis.

This is the line now being trotted out by Obama's hand-picked high poobah of Af-Pak affairs, Richard Holbrooke. As Pfaff notes:

Holbrooke ... told an audience in Karachi that the U.S. under President Obama wants to see an improvement in the lives of Pakistanis, and more business opportunities for them as well....

Twelve days earlier, in Washington, Holbrooke had held another press conference, accompanied by many from his team in Pakistan. The purpose was to explain to the American television audience that the mission in Afghanistan is to kill or capture drug traffickers, help farmers grow food instead of poppies, build a public health system, build "civil society" there, and in general rebuild the country.


What's more, Holbrooke seems to think that our drone missiles, our military bases and our bombings of weddings and funerals are all integral parts of a Muslim Reformation:

Ambassador Holbrooke expressed the ambition to add a spiritual dimension to his efforts in the region. He said the religiously motivated enemies of the American presence in Asia "present themselves as false messengers of a prophet, which is what they do. And we need to combat it." (Surely he has his theology badly confused?)


But of course the reason why Holbrooke's "theology" is confused here is because he is not trying to make actual sense with his words. He -- like his boss, and all the other servants of Ares in the American elite --is merely making vaguely agreeable noises to obfuscate the blood-and-iron reality of empire in action. They want loot, power, and obedience -- but they can't come out and say it. And so we will continue to hear, from Republican and Democrat, from conservative and progressive, lie after lie after lie about "building" freedom and democracy and rights and law and prosperity and security by "killing thousands of innocent people" in broken and volatile lands.

The Casbah of old Algiers

By SALIM MANSUR

Despite decay wrought by time Algiers, Algeria's capital, carries unmistakably the imprint of the French for whom this city was one of their jewels on the Mediterranean.

It is said the most traumatic aspect for the French losing Algeria after ruling her for 130 years was leaving behind Alger la Blanche -- or Algiers the White so named for the blindingly bright color of the city rising above the sea on the face of surrounding hills.

Algiers has witnessed much since 1830 in the making of modern North Africa. And while nationalist pride of people here will not readily concede that French rule made a positive difference in their history, the shape of the city -- its buildings and boulevards -- is daily reminder of how embedded in their lives is the presence of France nearly half-century after Algeria won her independence.

In recent years Algiers has been the target of Islamist thugs, the city bombed and its people terrorized in a sort of re-run of her grim struggle for liberation during the years 1954-62.

I have been lured here by the wish to visit the Casbah. It was once old quarters of the native population overlooking the port, a labyrinth of narrow alleys and closely built homes, which became a center of resistance in the fight for control of the capital.

My first introduction to the Casbah was cinematic. Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film classic -- The Battle of Algiers -- captured the nastiness of the Algerian war as experienced by residents of the Casbah and the film's central character, Ali la Pointe, a petty thief turned guerrilla fighter and martyr.

I walk the narrow lanes of the Casbah now mostly empty imagining the sound and fury Pontecorvo recreated for his film. In a cafe on the edge of the Casbah with the Mediterranean shimmering just beyond I join a few people with whom I have struck a friendship.

French colonialism

The discussion around the table is as usual politics. I am repeatedly reminded of how much Algerians suffered from the effects of French colonialism.

I listen with empathy. The complaints against Europe, America and Israel conspiring against the Arab world and Muslims pour forth.

When I leave I walk through one part of the Casbah, the doors of many homes padlocked and an eerie silence in what was once a bustling warren of activities.

It then strikes me, gazing over the sea below that the Casbah, so powerfully portrayed in Pontecorvo's movie, is an apt metaphor for today's Algeria.

The people of the Casbah drove the French out, reclaimed their country, spilled forth jubilantly from their close quarters, and then exhausted by the effort have let things around them drift untended and ill-repaired.

This is also the story of the Third World, of the developing countries that were once ruled by Europeans.

My parting remark politely to my hosts is for them to consider the liberation they reminisce over was not entirely theirs alone. France, too, was liberated from the burdens of colonialism.

This is history's irony, and 50 years after independence the decay all around represents the inability of post-colonial rulers and their people to maintain a functioning modern society left behind by colonial authorities.

Source: Toronto Sun.
Link: http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/salim_mansur/2009/08/22/10560231-sun.html.

Hurricane Bill scatters sand, debris in Bermuda

By CHRIS GILLETTE, Associated Press Writer

HAMILTON, Bermuda – Hurricane Bill scattered palm tree debris, coral and pink sand across Bermuda roads Saturday, causing sporadic power outages and some minor flooding on the island but no major damage.

Bill had winds of 105 mph as it skirted Bermuda and squeezed between the island and the East Coast of the U.S. The storm brought heavy bands of rain and big waves to Bermuda, stirring its typically crystal clear waters. Residents along the East Coast were warned about high surf and rip currents.

A tropical storm warning was in place for parts of Massachusetts, and forecasters said the storm could regain intensity over open waters this weekend.

In Bermuda, the storm mostly spared the pink shores. Residents and tourists awoke to some water on the roads, rain and gusting winds.

"It was something to behold. I've never been in a hurricane before," said Kenny Mayne, 50, of Connecticut. Mayne has been on vacation in Bermuda for about a week with his two daughters. He hopes to head back to the U.S. on Sunday.

At 8 a.m. EDT Saturday, the center of Bill was about 235 miles west-northwest of Bermuda and about 410 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The tropical storm warning included Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast, meaning tropical storm-force winds of 40 mph or more could hit in the next 24 hours.

A tropical storm warning also remained in effect for Bermuda.

Many tourists shrugged off the threat of the approaching storm, but it apparently cut short a vacation for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters the Clintons left Bermuda on Thursday night.

On Friday night, the streets of Bermuda's capital were mostly empty and blanketed with rain. Luxury boutiques boarded up their windows. At the bar of the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel, a few guests sampled the "Dark 'n Stormy" cocktail as Bill's outer bands raked the island.

Most islanders hunkered down in their homes. Amanda Walker, a 31-year-old waitress originally from Toronto, said she and her boyfriend had to track down her cat, Mira, before the winds got any stronger.

"We just need to lock ourselves in and hope for the best," she said.

Some roads along Bermuda's northern coast were flooded and traffic was heavy in Hamilton, the capital. The airport, which is accessible only by a low causeway bridge, announced it was closing Friday for the duration of the storm. All ferry service was canceled until Sunday.

Bill was forecast to bring 1 to 2 inches of rain to Bermuda, with up to 5 inches in some areas.

Much of Bermuda, a wealthy offshore financial center, is solidly built and able to withstand rough weather. But storm tides were expected to raise water levels up to 3 feet along the shores and battering waves could cause significant erosion.

Despite warning signs at Bermuda's beaches, tourists gathered to watch waves pummel the sand and wash up to the dunes at Horseshoe Bay.

"We've never experienced a hurricane before, so it's very interesting. The children are loving it," said Kevin James, 54, a pharmaceutical company executive from London, who watched with his wife and two young children.

On the U.S. East Coast, offshore waves of 20 feet or more and rip currents at the beach were expected during one of the summer's last weekends. Forecasters warned boaters and swimmers from northeastern Florida to New England of incoming swells as Bill passes far out to sea on a northward track toward Canada's Maritime Provinces.

North Carolina expected flooding and beach erosion on the Outer Banks. The Three Belles Marina in Niantic, Conn., was securing boats and dragging in docks in anticipation of high waters.

President Barack Obama and his family plan to travel to Martha's Vineyard on Sunday for vacation.

Bill was the first Atlantic hurricane this year after a quiet start to the season that runs from June through November. The National Hurricane Center in Miami lowered its Atlantic hurricane outlook Aug. 6 after no named tropical storms developed in the first two months.

The revised prediction was for three to six hurricanes, with one or two becoming major storms with winds over 110 mph. Researchers at Colorado State University have also lowered their Atlantic season forecast to four hurricanes, two of them major.

Afghan presidential challenger talks with rivals

By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – Afghan President Hamid Karzai's top challenger said Saturday he has reached out to several other candidates — but not the incumbent — in the days since the presidential election, and that a second round of voting was likely.

If no candidate in Thursday's poll has secured 50 percent of the ballot, the two top will go to a runoff vote, for which they may need to muster support from rivals.

"I am in contact either directly or indirectly with most of the presidential candidates," former Foreign Minster Abdullah Abdullah said. He would not say who he has talked to or whether any alliances have been discussed.

Both Karzai and Abdullah have claimed to be in the lead, according to their own tallies. Initial preliminary results from Afghanistan's second-ever direct presidential elections won't be announced until Tuesday, and final results won't be certified until mid-September.

Taliban threats and attacks appeared to hold down turnout, especially in the south where Karzai was expected to run strongly among his fellow Pashtuns. At least 26 Afghan civilians and security forces died in dozens of militant attacks.

Monitors confirmed Saturday that some had made good on a threat to cut off the ink-stained fingers of voters.

Two voters who had dipped their index fingers in purple ink — a fraud prevention measure — were attacked in southern Kandahar province shortly after they left a polling station Thursday, said Nader Nadery, the head of Afghanistan's top election monitoring group, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. Kandahar is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Rumors that militants would sever voters' ink-stained fingers spread before the vote. A Taliban spokesman had said militants would not carry out such attacks, but the Taliban is a loose organization of individual commanders who could make good the threat on their own.

If results show that vastly more people voted in the north than the south, "then we will have an issue," Nadery said.

Fewer votes in the south would harm Karzai's chances of winning a second five-year term and increase the chances that Abdullah could pull off an upset.

Abdullah said his campaign's tallies suggested a second round of voting was likely.

"These are very preliminary results, but still it puts me in the lead," he said. "It's not claiming victory. I'm saying in these early days and early preliminary results, I'm very happy."

Election officials have urged the candidates to refrain from claiming to be ahead in early vote counting, saying it could delay the formation of a new government.

Officials of Afghan and international monitoring teams agreed it was too early to say who won or to know whether fraud was extensive enough to affect the outcome. Fraud complaints are being filed with a commission that will rule on all allegations.

Nadery said his group saw widespread problems of election officials who were not impartial and were pressuring people to vote for certain candidates. Election monitors also saw voters carrying boxes of voter cards — so many votes could be cast — to polling sites and saw many underage voters, he said.

On Saturday, one of the long shot presidential candidates displayed torn and mangled ballot papers that he said had been cast for him and tossed away by election workers who support Karzai.

Mirwais Yasini, a parliamentarian, stood behind a table piled with ballot papers that he said his supporters had found ditched outside Spin Boldak city in southern Kandahar province. The ballots bore the stamp of the Independent Election Commission, which is applied only after they are used for voting.

"Thousands of them were burned," he said.

Though monitors with the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan were present in all 34 provinces, international monitoring groups were restricted by security concerns. The Washington, D.C.-based National Democratic Institute only had observers in 19 provinces, passing over many violent areas of the south and east.

European Union observers had difficulty getting to polling stations in southern Kandahar province because of rocket attacks, said Sandra Khadhouri, a spokeswoman for the delegation. The EU had observers in 17 provinces.

"That elections took place at all is a notable achievement," the EU said in a statement. The delegation said threats and violence meant that voting could not be considered free "in some parts of the territory" but that the process so far appeared "good and fair."

The National Democratic Institute also said it saw orderly voting, but said the vote also "involved serious flaws that must be addressed in order to build greater confidence in the integrity of future elections."

The group pointed to the lack of a voters' list and the fact that members of the Independent Election Commission are appointed by the incumbent, suggesting a likelihood of bias.

It said violence disrupted voting in the south and southeast, which appeared to repress turnout, especially among women.

Major wildfire breaks out northeast of Athens

ATHENS, Greece – Greek authorities declared a state of emergency Saturday as a major wildfire burned unchecked northeast of Athens, threatening homes and villages. Scores of residents fled on foot or by motorbike.

Flames raced toward the villages of Grammatiko, Kalentzi and Varnavas near the town of Marathon, 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the Greek capital, cutting them off from the road. Residents and volunteers desperately tried to prevent the blaze from engulfing houses.

Authorities warned residents in nearby towns to leave immediately. People were evacuating in cars, on motorbikes or on foot. Some were seen running down the road away from the flames.

The wildfire was spread by gale-force winds earlier in the day. By afternoon, winds had slowed to a strong breeze but were shifting so much it was difficult to contain the fire. Authorities were concerned it could spread west and threaten the northern suburbs of Athens.

Nine airplanes, five helicopters and 35 vehicles worked to contain the fire, which is burning in a pine forest in the hills above Marathon. It has already torched nearby olive groves.

The Greek Army confirmed that HAWK anti-aircraft missiles had been evacuated from a base near Marathon.

The fire started Friday on the mountainside above Grammatiko. By early Saturday, it was contained in a ravine but then the strong winds spread the flames down the mountain and onto the surrounding plain.

High winds across Greece helped fan other fires, notably on the Aegean island of Skyros and on the western island of Zakynthos.

South Korean president to meet visiting NKoreans

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will meet a delegation of visiting North Korean officials on Sunday, a government official said, as a report said they were bearing a message from the communist country's leader.

Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been tense since Lee took office in February 2008 and he has not previously held talks with any officials from the North.

They will meet Sunday morning at the presidential Blue House, said Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North.

No other details were immediately available, and officials at Lee's office could not be reached.

The six North Korean officials — including the country's spy chief — arrived in Seoul on Friday to mourn former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. Kim, a champion of inter-Korean cooperation and dialogue who served as president from 1998 to 2003, died Tuesday at age 85.

The visit comes amid recent signs of a thaw in relations between the two sides, which have remained divided since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Kim Yang Gon, the spy chief who also handles relations with South Korea, met for 80 minutes earlier Saturday with South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek. The meeting was the first such top-level encounter in almost two years.

South Korea later said the North Korean officials requested a meeting with Lee. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported they were carrying a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. It did not identify the source of the information.

Tensions between the Koreas have spiked in recent months after North Korea's test of a second nuclear device in May and its firing of a series of ballistic missiles in July. It also withdrew from six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations in April.

But earlier this month the North released two detained U.S. reporters after a visit to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton. The country also let a South Korean worker it had detained for months return home, although it continues to hold four South Korean fishermen whose boat strayed into northern waters in July.

North Korea also said recently it would lift restrictions on cross-border traffic with South Korea, resume cargo train service across the border and restart tourism ventures with Seoul.

Report: Hakimullah new head of Pakistani Taliban

ISLAMABAD – Media reports say leading Pakistani Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud has been appointed the new head of the militant group.

Saturday's reports come two weeks after Washington and Islamabad said the militants' chief, Baitullah Mehsud, was almost certainly killed by a missile strike.

Maulvi Faqir Mohammad told the BBC's Urdu service that a 42-member Taliban council, or shura, appointed a new head because Baitullah Mehsud was ill. Top Taliban commanders have insisted he was not killed by the Aug. 5 CIA missile strike, but they have provided no proof he is still alive.

On Wednesday, Mohammad told The Associated Press that he himself would be the acting head of the Taliban until the shura could appoint a new leader.

Iran clerics object to women ministers: report

Hiedeh Farmani

Several Iranian conservative clerics have raised objections to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to include three women in his new cabinet, the daily Tehran Emrouz reported on Saturday.

Ahmadinejad named Sousan Keshvaraz, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi and Fatemeh Ajorlou as his ministers respectively of education, health and welfare, and social security in his 21-member cabinet line-up.

"Although it is a new idea to choose women as ministers, there are religious doubts over the abilities of women when it comes to management. This should be considered by the government," said Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, the head of the clerics' faction in the 290-member conservative-dominated Iranian parliament.

He said the faction, whose view has yet to be officially declared, will seek the opinion of the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the issue.

Rahbar said that if Khamenei remains "silent" on the issue, parliament "will note the clerics' view during the vote of confidence."

Ahmadinejad's proposed cabinet line-up, which boasts 11 new names including the three women, will face a vote of confidence on August 30.

Rahbar said leading Iranian clerics such as Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi and Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayghani were of the same opinion and wanted Ahmadinejad to reconsider his decision.

The nomination of three women to the cabinet is a first in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic, although in 1997 then reformist president Mohammad Khatami appointed two women among his vice presidents.

Defending his decision in a television address on Thursday, Ahmadinejad said "the three women were chosen after close examination. I am against belittling women. We have to carve out the way."

The conservative Tehran Emrouz said that Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai, the Friday prayer leader of the central city of Isfahan, was also opposed to the decision.

"We hope what the president said about the women ministers is not recognised by parliament," the paper reported him as saying.

But cleric Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, who heads a reformist group of Qom seminary scholars, backed the nomination of women ministers, reformist daily Aftab-e Yazd reported.

"Women have the capability to execute different social activities, including as ministers and in my opinion if women are wise and learned, they can become judges, and even sources of emulation," Tabrizi said.

Ahmadinejad is expected to face an uphill battle to win the assembly's approval for all the names on his cabinet list.

The president has already been shaken by the massive street protests against his June re-election, which the opposition claims was rigged. A dispute with some hardliners over his political choices has exposed rifts among the ruling elite of Iran.

Afghan polling 'marked by fraud'

Election observers in Afghanistan have said there was widespread voting fraud and intimidation during the presidential election on Thursday.

Stuffed ballot boxes, illiterate voters being told who to vote for and biased officials were cited by Afghanistan's Free and Fair Election Foundation.

But EU monitors said, despite widespread intimidation and violence, the vote was generally good and fair.

There have been rival claims of victory but no winner has been announced.

The chief EU observer said it was still early days in assessing the election.

The Free and Fair Election Foundation's provisional report also details accounts of multiple voting, underage voting and election officials being ejected from polling stations by representatives of candidates.

Threats of violence against voters came from local powerbrokers, the Taliban and rival political camps according to the Foundation, which sent about 7,000 observers around the country.

Election officials have estimated turnout at between 40 and 50% which, if confirmed, would be well down on the 70% who voted in the first presidential election, in 2004.

Thursday's voting passed off relatively peacefully amid threats of Taliban attacks. The EU election observer mission said the election was well organized and was a victory for the Afghan people.

As official returns are collated, the leading contenders have said they will not incite street protests if they lose.

The incumbent Hamid Karzai and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah gave the assurance to the US special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke.

Both men have claimed victory.

Pre-election opinion polls suggested Hamid Karzai was leading the field of candidates but might face a run-off with Mr Abdullah.

Partial, preliminary results are expected on Tuesday and final results are due to be released in September.

If neither candidate wins an outright majority of 50%, then the vote goes to a second round in October.

One of the other 31 contenders and the deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, Mirwais Yassini, told the BBC he believes both main camps practiced widespread electoral fraud.

He has lodged 31 complaints with Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC).

Libya's Gadhafi welcomes Lockerbie bomber

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi welcomed with a hug the only man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and praised Scotland's leaders for "their courageously right and humanitarian decision" to release him.

Gadhafi's meeting Friday with Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, which was shown on Libyan state television, is sure to fuel the debate about how Libya should be treating the man they once turned over for trial.

Al-Megrahi returned to Libya Thursday after Scottish officials announced he was being freed on compassionate grounds because he is suffering from terminal prostate cancer. The decision to free al-Megrahi has been met with condemnation by many of the victims' families and the U.S. which has called for him to be put under house arrest.

The U.S. and Britain were also outraged at the warm welcome al-Megrahi received at the airport when he arrived in Tripoli, where he was met by a crowd of hundreds, some who threw flower petals.

Gadhafi hugged al-Megrahi, who at one point kissed the Libyan leader's hand, before sitting down with the former Libyan intelligence agent and his family. Gadhafi lauded Scotland for their decision in the first official reaction by Libya to the release.

"To my friends in Scotland; the Scottish National Party, and Scottish Prime Minister, and the Foreign Secretary, I praise their courage for having proved their independence in decision making, despite the unacceptable and unreasonable pressures they faced. Nevertheless, they took this courageously right and humanitarian decision," he said.

Gadhafi went on to cite "my friend (Gordon) Brown, the prime minister of Britain, his government, the queen of Britain, Elizabeth, and Prince Andrew, who all contributed to encouraging the Scottish government to take this historic and courageous decision, despite the obstacles."

Gadhafi compared al-Megrahi's return to his government's 2007 release of five Bulgarian nurses and a naturalized Palestinian doctor imprisoned on charges of deliberately infecting with HIV more than 400 Libyan children. The nurses denied the charges and said they were tortured into confessing.

The Libyan leader noted there were no such widespread concerns for the families of the infected children when the nurses returned home to a hero's welcome.

"Do we not have feelings and they have feelings?" Gadhafi said.

Libya has accepted formal responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, but many there see al-Megrahi as an innocent victim scapegoated by the West.

Al-Megrahi was the only person convicted in the explosion, which killed all 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground and was Britain's worst terrorist attack.

He has maintained his innocence even as he dropped his appeal as part of the process that eventually allowed him to be released from prison.

During an interview Friday with The Times of London in his Tripoli home, al-Megrahi said he had abandoned his appeal in order to spend the rest of what time he had left at home with his family. Al-Megrahi also promised that before he died he would put forward what he described as evidence that would exonerate him of the crimes he's accused of, but gave no further details.

Al-Megrahi insisted that Libya was not to blame for the Lockerbie bombing, but refused to speculate on who he thought was the real culprit.

When asked about Obama's suggestion that al-Megrahi be subject to house arrest for the duration of his time in Libya, al-Megrahi laughed and told the newspaper that the only place he had to go was the hospital.

A newspaper photograph showed the 57-year-old wearing a white flowing robe, surrounded by his smiling family.

Karzai, Abdullah both claim lead in Afghan vote

By JASON STRAZIUSO and ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writers

KABUL – Both main candidates for Afghan president claimed to be ahead Friday after an election marred by violence, spotty turnout and fraud allegations — threatening U.S. hopes for Afghans to come together to combat the challenges of Taliban insurgency, corruption and poverty.

President Hamid Karzai's campaign insisted he would have enough votes to avoid a runoff with his chief challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister. Abdullah countered that he was leading but suspected there would be a runoff.

Election officials called on the candidates to refrain from such claims, which could delay formation of a new government. Officials of Afghan and international monitoring teams agreed that it was too early to say who won or to know whether fraud was extensive enough to influence the outcome.

Millions of Afghans voted Thursday in the country's second-ever direct presidential election, although Taliban threats held down the turnout, especially in the militant south where Karzai was expected to run strong among his fellow Pashtuns. Insurgent attacks claimed more than two dozen lives.

Partial preliminary results won't be released by the election commission before Tuesday with final official returns due in early September. Officials count ballots at voting centers around the country and then send the figures to Kabul, where they are tabulated, verified and announced.

Nevertheless, the absence of official figures didn't dissuade supporters of the two leading candidates from issuing their own claims, which they said were based on reports from their representatives at the counting centers.

Karzai's campaign spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the president's campaign believes "we are well ahead" in the ballot count and will end up with more than 50 percent of the votes — enough to avoid a runoff that Omar said would be "logistically, financially and also politically" problematic.

"Our prediction is that the election will not go to the second round," Omar said. "Our initial information is that we will hopefully be able to win the elections in the first round."

Abdullah challenged the claim, telling The Associated Press that he was in the lead "despite the rigging which has taken place in some parts of the country."

He alleged that government officials interfered with ballot boxes and in some places blocked monitors from inspecting boxes or their contents. Abdullah said there "is a likelihood" that neither he nor Karzai would win more than 50 percent of the vote, setting the stage for a runoff in early October.

The U.S. Embassy and Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission dismissed both sides' claims, saying it was too early for anyone to declare victory. Commission chairman Noor Mohammed Noor said candidates had no basis for such claims and should refrain from making them.

"Anything else is speculation at this point," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Fleur Cowan said. "We will wait to hear from the IEC and electoral complaints commission."

Clearly, however, there were some irregularities.

The Times of London newspaper reported Friday that election officials at a polling station near Kabul recorded 5,530 ballots in the first hour of voting Thursday, even though no voters were at the site when the Times' reporter arrived at 8 a.m., one hour after the voting began.

Election workers said the area was pro-Karzai and was controlled by a lawmaker who said he had already voted for the president, even though his finger wasn't marked with indelible ink, a fraud prevention measure, the Times reported.

The International Republican Institute, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that had about 30 election observers in Afghanistan, said the vote was at a "lower standard" than the 2004 presidential ballot and 2005 parliamentary vote but that "the process so far has been credible."

Low turnout — estimated between 40 and 50 percent nationwide — showed that Taliban efforts to keep people home were at least partly successful, creating an election "defined by violence," said Richard S. Williamson, the IRI's delegation leader in Afghanistan and a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

"There is no denying the fact that a notable reason for low turnout was the lack of security, and obviously that must be addressed," IRI said. "Second, there were many credible reports that voter registration cards were sold. ... While it is difficult to determine how widespread this practice was, the magnitude of such reports of fraud warrant investigation."

Human Rights Watch cautioned against declaring the election successful, given the violence Thursday and low turnout in areas where Taliban influence is greatest.

"Early impressions of turnout suggest that violence and intimidation succeeded in keeping voters away from polling stations in a huge swathe of the country, which adds up to a successful day for the Taliban," said Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch. "If international standards are dropped, there risks being a serious credibility gap — which will only serve to increase disillusionment with the efforts to create a democracy."

Many of the irregularities and low turnout occurred in the southern and eastern areas where Karzai draws his strength and — ironically — where the Taliban is strongest. Abdullah, who is half Pashtun, is widely seen as the candidate of the northern Tajiks.

In Washington, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald Neumann, told the BBC that the credibility of the election will depend on whether enough Pashtuns voted that their community does not feel disenfranchised and whether Afghans perceive the fraud went beyond levels they find acceptable.

One American election observer said the delay in announcing results was fueling rumors and allegations that threaten to poison the atmosphere at a time when Afghans need to come together to deal with the problems facing their country.

Glenn Cowan, the co-founder of the U.S.-funded observer group Democracy International, said announcing results more quickly would serve as a "pressure valve release."

"Instead what you get is a buildup," Cowan said. "What's very interesting to us is that we don't know very much more about this election today than we did on Wednesday. The paucity of information is really incredible. You've had no election returns whatsoever."

As the counting continued, so did violence. A U.S. service member died Friday from wounds from a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, the NATO-led military alliance said. No other information was released. Two British troops in the south died on Thursday, officials announced.

Two policemen were killed in a suicide attack Friday against a police station in Jalalabad, officials said. Witnesses said three assailants attacked the station after sundown and two of them escaped.

2 Koreas hold high-level talks; 1st in 2 years

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – Top South and North Korean officials in charge of inter-Korean relations held talks Saturday for the first time in nearly two years amid a series of conciliatory moves by North Korea after months of tensions on the divided peninsula.

Unification Minister Hyun In-taek met visiting North Korean spy chief Kim Yang Gon, who also handles inter-Korean matters, ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said. She said the meeting lasted about 80 minutes, but had no further details.

The North Korean officials expressed a desire to meet President Lee Myung-bak — whom North Korean media regularly deride as a "traitor" — and were carrying a letter from leader Kim Jong Il, the South's Yonhap news agency reported.

Yonhap, which cited a source it did not identify, said Hyun was communicating with Lee's office about a meeting.

The president's office said only that senior officials were discussing the contents of the meeting between Hyun and North Korea's Kim.

Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said he had no information.

The North Koreans were scheduled to return home later Saturday, though the timing could be delayed, said Hyun. The delay fueled speculation that a meeting with Lee may occur.

Asked whether the delegation would deliver a letter from the North Korean leader, Hyun said he could not comment.

The last time officials responsible for inter-Korean affairs met was for several days from late November to early December of 2007 during the administration of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

The talks came a day after Kim and five other senior North Koreans flew to Seoul to pay their respects to the late Kim Dae-jung, a former South Korean president beloved on both sides of the border for his pursuit of closer ties between the divided states.

Hyun told reporters after the meeting the two sides discussed various inter-Korean issues, but did not elaborate.

"After meeting with several people (in the South) I felt the imperative need for North-South relations to improve," Kim told Hyun during a brief photo session, Yonhap news agency reported.

"I hope for frank discussions given that the meeting is the first high-level meeting since this government," Kim said, referring to President Lee's administration.

The conservative, pro-American Lee took office in February 2008 vowing to take a tougher line on North Korea and tying aid to progress on its denuclearization.

On Friday, the black-clad North Koreans lit incense, bowed their heads and laid a floral wreath before a large portrait of the late Kim at a memorial site on the grounds of the National Assembly, where the funeral will be held. The delegation was the first Pyongyang ever sent to mourn a South Korean leader.

South Korea's Hyun expressed gratitude for the North Korean delegation.

Kim, who died Tuesday at age 85, was respected on both sides of the border for his efforts to forge detente with the North.

He reached out to South Korea's impoverished neighbor with aid — the main thrust of his "Sunshine Policy" that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 — and held a landmark summit with the North Korean leader Kim in 2000.

South Koreans continued to pay their respects to the late leader at his funeral site and special mourning sites in Seoul and elsewhere.

A special Mass was to be held Saturday night at Seoul's landmark Myeongdong Cathedral for Kim, who was Roman Catholic. A delegation led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will represent the U.S. at the funeral, the White House said. Her term partially coincided with Kim's presidency.

Other members of the delegation include Stephen Bosworth, Washington's special envoy for North Korean policy and who served as U.S. Ambassador to Seoul during part of Kim's presidency.

The meeting Saturday was the latest indication that North Korea wants to improve relations on the peninsula after months of tensions. The communist nation recently pulled out of nuclear negotiations, conducted an atomic test and test-fired a barrage of missiles, earning international condemnation and U.N. sanctions.

Earlier this month, the North released two detained U.S. reporters and a South Korean worker, but it continued to hold four South Korean fishermen whose boat was seized last month after it strayed into northern waters.

The North also agreed to allow the resumption of some joint North-South projects suspended amid tensions with Seoul, and said it would lift restrictions on cross-border traffic in place since December and resume cargo train service across the border.

Gaza: Ramadan under siege

Eva Bartlett, In Gaza

August 21, 2009

According to the Islamic calendar, Ramadan will likely begin tonight at sunset. With the holy month’s approach, the Palestinians of Gaza, already choking in all respects under the 3 year siege [imposed basically immediately after Hamas was elected, but heightened to a new level of inhumanity in June 2007, after the externally-influenced Fatah-Hamas fighting] will face the same despair as Gaza’s Christian Palestinians did last Christmas and Eid.

There is food in the markets. But for the vast majority it is out of their reach. One can wander through a busy market like Gaza’s Sahaa market and see plump mangoes, bananas, plums and many other fruits. One can see beef for sale, chicken, sparse catches of fish. But with prices double, triple and even quadruple what they used to be, and conversely unemployment hovering near 50%, those below the poverty line at 80%, these 'luxury’ foods are unaffordable. And while fruits and vegetables do make it into Gaza –when the Israeli authorities decide to allow them –even then, it could be a rush of melons and mangoes, but no carrots.

Among the produce that gets in, Ghazi Attab (31), a fruit vendor in Saha market, says around 30% is spoiled. "The Israelis don’t allow the fruit to enter Gaza right away. It sits at the crossings for 5 or 6 hours, under the sun," he said. "What is Ramadan for us this year? No money, no hope. It’s nothing to celebrate."

Abu Abed sells plastic toys imported from China. Because he must bring them in via the tunnels in Rafah, the prices are grossly inflated. "These should cost 5 or 6 shekels, but I have to sell them for 20 shekels or I lose money."

Abu Mohammed, a dried fruits and nuts vendor, has the basic goods to sell. "The problem is no one is buying. People can’t afford walnuts at 40 shekels a kilo." Walnuts, raisins, dried coconut…these are all key ingredients to special Ramadan sweets.

Xinhua news recently reported that Israeli authorities have refused to allow some special Ramadan foods and cloths into Gaza. [Imagine a Christmas without a tree. Diwali without sweets and firecrackers. Whatever holiday one celebrates without the key items that make that holiday precious.]

From the United Nations’ OCHA August 2009 report on the siege on Gaza:

"Harsh restrictions on the import of livestock, for example, imposed by Israel since November 2008,led to a steep increase in the price of fresh meat, from 40 to 60 NIS/kg. Although limited numbers of cattle and small ruminants have been transferred through the tunnels, many of these animals have been diseased causing health risks, made worse by the inconsistent veterinary vaccinations available in Gaza as a result of the blockade."

OCHA notes the effect on the fishing industry:

"Similar restrictions have affected the livelihoods of approximately 3,500 households reliant on fishing. Since the beginning of "Cast Lead", the IDF has prohibited Palestinians from fishing beyond three nautical miles (nm) from the shore, undermining the volume of fishing catch, the bulk of which is located in deeper waters than 3 nm.

This prohibition followed a previous reduction of the fishing zone in October 2006 from 12 to 6 nm. Many fishermen have been forced to adopt alternative strategies, such as fishing with smaller nets in the 3nm accessible zone to try to catch smaller fish (e.g. baby sardines); for others the current situation has become unsustainable causing them to cease fishing altogether."

Eric Ruder’s "Gaza Tunnel Economy" covers the many ways the siege on Gaza [what Zionists call merely an 'economic boycott'] decimates every aspect of life in Gaza and leads to further deterioration of the quality of life. He highlights the hundreds of deaths due to unavailable medical treatment and tunnel workers who are buried alive, poisoned, or met other cruel fate while trying to eek a living in a devastated Strip.

Ruder writes: "In all, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in tunnel accidents since the June 2007 tightening of the siege."

(Another 344 have died for want of medical care; Israel’s winter 2008/2009 massacre of Gaza killed nearly 1500 [including Palestinians who later died of their injuries sustained during the Israeli attacks]; Israel’s Feb/March 2008 invasion in Gaza’s north [so-dubbed "Operation Hot Winter"] killed over 130 Palestinians [see profile on one youth who was paralyzed by a sniper's shot]; unarmed fishermen and farmers have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers; and innumerable other Israeli aggressions against Palestinians throughout Gaza have killed and injured civilians locked inside a completely shattered, deprived, poisoned plot of land.)

OCHA’s report notes the effects on medical patients:

"Treatments unavailable in Gaza include heart bypasses and other surgical procedures,treatment of complex burns, paediatric cardiology, neurosurgery, mouth and jaw surgery, radiology therapy, organ transplants, advanced eye operations, paediatric MRI and bone scans, and bone marrow tests."

The UN’s IRIN news notes further difficulties patients face:

"WHO also said suppliers were unable to access medical equipment for repairs and maintenance and ’since 2000, maintenance staff and clinical workers have not been able to leave the Strip for training in the use of medical devices.’

'The largest number of deaths due to the siege is among cancer patients,’ Gaza deputy health minister Hassan Halifa said. "Radiotherapy for cancer patients is not available due to the lack of equipment, and chemotherapy is generally not available due to the lack of drugs."

In July, 77 out of 480 essential drugs and 140 out of 700 essential medical supplies in Gaza’s health ministry were out of stock, according to WHO.

'There are not enough IV [intravenous] bags. The nurses put blood into plastic water bottles to transfer into my IV bag.'"

OCHA also notes that:

"Since the imposition of the blockade [OCHA refers to the heightened siege, in June 2007],OCHA has recorded 33 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children, killed in border incidents and another 61 people, including 13 children who have been injured."

This is just in Gaza’s border zones, where civilians live and farm, trying to be self-sufficient and, formerly, to export goods like flowers and strawberries to European markets. This, of course, has been impossible for the last years, due to the siege.

In looking at what actually is permitted to enter Gaza, Ruder notes:

"In the month of January 2007, more than 14,000 truckloads of goods entered Gaza, but in June 2007, that number fell to about 5,000. Since then, the monthly number of truckloads entering Gaza has hovered just above 2,000, which is less than a quarter of what Gaza needs to function normally."

OCHA adds:

"…a UN survey from 2008 indicated that reducing the quality and variety of the food consumed was one of the main coping mechanisms used by most of the population affected by unemployment and poverty; in this context, there has been a gradual shift in the diet of Gazans from high-cost and protein-rich foods such as vegetables and animal products, to low-cost and high-carbohydrate foods such as cereals, sugar and oil.

In the future these changes in diet are likely to be reflected in increased rates of micro-nutrient deficiencies, with children and women of child-bearing age being the worst affected."

With all of these facts and clear evidence of the systematic destruction of Palestinians lives and means of existence in Gaza, one can hardly expect Ramadan to be filled with joy as in former years.

Free Gaza, entirely volunteer-run, has called for support: A Ramadan Appeal for all People of Conscience

"More than simple charity, the Palestinian people need our solidarity and political action. They need us to challenge the policies that leave them in need of humanitarian aid.

FIVE WAYS YOU CAN HELP BREAK THE SIEGE OF GAZA

We are asking for your zakat and fitra this Ramadan, but not as simple charity ‐ we’re asking for zakat as political action. Palestine does not need charity. Palestine is not a poor country, and Palestinians are not a poor people. They are being forced into poverty."

[note: while I am based in Gaza, I recognize the brutality of the Israeli occupation on occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. In 2007 I saw Ramadan in occupied West Bank.]

Mass abstention and vote rigging in Afghanistan election

By Patrick O’Connor

August 21, 2009 - WSWS

Yesterday’s presidential election in Afghanistan featured massive abstention and blatant ballot rigging, underscoring the corrupt character of the entire exercise. Conducted under the guns of 100,000 foreign troops, the vote had nothing to do with democracy and was instead designed to provide a veneer of legitimacy for the US-led NATO forces’ increasingly bloody counter-insurgency campaign against those resisting the occupation.

Preliminary results are not expected until September 3, with final results two weeks later. If incumbent president Hamid Karzai or another candidate fails to win more than 50 percent of the reported vote, there will be a runoff ballot in October between the top two candidates, expected to be Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Election commission official Zekria Barakzai told Agence France-Presse that national turnout might reach 50 percent—sharply down from the 70 percent turnout reported in 2004. This year’s real participation rate was probably considerably lower than Barakzai’s estimate, although the true figure will likely never be determined due to electoral fraud.

Turnout was zero or near zero in parts of Afghanistan’s Pashtun-majority south, areas that have seen the worst of the US-NATO onslaught in recent months. The Taliban and other militant groups fighting the occupiers now effectively control large swathes of the country, and were able to enforce their call for a boycott of the presidential election in several areas. Few people voted in other regions in which coalition forces have only tenuous control. In Sangin, Helmand province—currently occupied by British-led forces—the Times of London reported that out of 70,000 eligible voters in the district, fewer than 500 people cast ballots.

Incumbent President Hamid Karzai said that the Taliban had conducted 73 attacks yesterday in 15 of the country’s 34 provinces. According to other reports, between 20 and 30 people were killed. The New York Times reported that insurgents erected roadblocks in one area to deter voting and executed two people in Kandahar whose fingers were stained with the purple ink used to identify voters. These developments came despite efforts by US-NATO and government forces to provide tight security—a total of 300,000 foreign and Afghan soldiers and police were deployed to guard polling stations.

Sections of the US and international media have attributed yesterday’s mass abstention entirely to the population’s fears over security and possible reprisals from the Taliban. While this was no doubt a factor in some areas, there were similar security fears during the 2004 poll. The election boycott by far broader sections of the population can only be understood as an expression of the widely felt disgust and hostility towards Karzai and the other presidential candidates. His opponents were for the most part corrupt ex-war lords, war criminals, and mafia-type figures vying to become Washington’s chosen figurehead.

The Associated Press reporting from one voting centre in Kabul, said it had "swarmed with people in 2004". This year, however, it "opened on time at 7 a.m.—but with no voters". Local shop owner Mohammad Tahir said: "I am not voting. It won’t change anything in our country."

Such sentiments were intensified by widespread reports of electoral fraud. About 17 million names were officially registered to vote—greater than one-third more than in 2004. A substantial number of these registrations—reportedly as many as 3 million—were fraudulent. During the election campaign, British reporters found election cards available for sale in Kabul. An inspection of the voter rolls revealed blatantly faked enrollments—the BBC highlighted the enrolled Afghan voter named "Britney Jamilia Spears".

Several reports emerged yesterday of people arriving at polling stations with multiple voting cards. In addition, supposedly indelible ink used to mark voters’ fingers proved to be easily washed off with household detergent.

Presidential candidate and ex-World Bank official Ramazan Bashardost responded by calling for the vote to be called off. "This is not an election, this is a comedy," he declared.

The Guardian reported: "It is difficult to underestimate the embarrassment this will cause election organizers after a failure to buy the correct ink for the 2004 poll led to widespread multiple voting. The so-called ink scandal of 2004 caused fury among many voters and election organizers vowed it would never happen again. In a recent attempt to bolster confidence in the election, the local UN chief Kai Eide invited journalists to watch him attempt to remove ink from his finger with a range of domestic cleaners."

There were also several reports of large-scale ballot stuffing. The Times visited a polling station at Haji Janat Gul High School, in Pul-e-Charki, east of Kabul. Arriving less than an hour after the polls opened, reporters waited for another hour without seeing a single person come to vote. Election supervisors nevertheless insisted that 5,530 ballots were cast before the reporters arrived. "In each box there were an oddly uniform 500 to 510 votes," the Times noted. "Assuming that the last voter disappeared at least two minutes before the Times arrived at 7.55 a.m., the staff working on the 12 ballot boxes at the site must have been processing at least 100 voters per minute since polling began."

Sources from the Independent Election Commission later admitted that they were investigating reports that up to 70,000 illegal votes had been cast in polling centres around the Haji Janat Gul polling centre.

The British Independent reported from a polling station in Nad-e-Ali, the most populous area of Helmand province: "Call it the mystery of the invisible voters ... just over 400 people had voted by 1 p.m. Three hours later, the figure had apparently surged to some 1,200. This despite the fact the streets were empty, all shops and businesses were shut and an Afghan army officer saying his men standing guard had hardly seen any civilians heading to these particular voting booths.... Election officials were later seen counting piles of ballot papers, without even checking the choices, simply declaring the votes had been cast for incumbent president Hamid Karzai."

None of these reports prevented President Barack Obama from endorsing the election. In a White House radio interview yesterday, he declared: "We had what appears to be a successful election in Afghanistan despite the Taliban’s efforts to disrupt it."

The election outcome will likely soon be followed by the deployment of additional US troops to Afghanistan. There are growing calls from within the military and foreign policy establishment for an intensified offensive aimed at suppressing resistance to the occupation and bolstering US hegemony in the country and throughout Central Asia. Obama has pledged to step up operations in both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan’s border region. This strategy—involving the use of indiscriminate force against civilian populations in both countries—is driven by US imperialism’s need to maintain its grip over the strategically vital region.

Opposition to Obama’s war drive is escalating among ordinary people in the US. A Washington Post-ABC News opinion poll released yesterday found that 51 percent said the Afghanistan war had not been worth fighting, while 47 percent said it had. Just 24 percent agreed that additional troops should be deployed, against 45 percent who said the present number should be reduced.

Parade of 325 buses sets a world record

DOHA (The Peninsula Qatar): Merely five months after it successfully set two Guinness world records for the largest bowl of pasta and the longest line of sandwiches, Qatar claimed yet another feat setting the world record for the largest parade of buses yesterday.

With assistance from the Traffic Department and Internal Security Force, Mowasalat, the country's sole public transport provider, successfully staged the historic event winning the praise of numerous in attendance including representatives from Guinness World Records who flew all the way from the UK for the occasion.

"It has been a remarkable and well organized event," said Talal Omar, Adjudication Manager of Guinness World Records based in London. Guinness has nine adjudicators based in New York, London and China, Omar informed.

Carrying out a convoy of 325 Karwa buses, Qatar snatched the record previously set by Germany by more than double the number of buses included in the fleet. In January this year, Germany organized a similar event involving 119 public buses.

The long stretch of identical green buses, many of which have taken a brief hiatus as schools are closed for vacation, looked resplendent as they glistened in the early morning sun while they journeyed neatly in a row with equal distances along the Shahaniyah and Dukhan Roads.

Aside from the number of buses, Mowasalat had to meet other criteria to stamp the new record. These included uniform model of buses, distance traveled of at least 3.2 kilometers and a gap of 5 to 10 meters.

The enormous convoy not only met the criteria but even surpassed them having traveled 5 kilometers, according to Omar. Hundreds of onlookers from the media and government entities and Mowasalat including high officials from the transport company stayed for over two hours unmindful of the hot weather just to witness and take part in the record-breaking event.

"The honor that has been bestowed on us today is not just for Mowasalat but for Qatar in general and I would like to thank every one who helped in ensuring the success of the event," said Mowasalat Chairman Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti at the conclusion of the victorious event.

To guarantee a positive turnout of the event, Mowasalat held a dry-run on the Al Wakra-Mesaieed Road Friday last week.

Qatar presently holds a number of Guinness world records such as the longest pita bread and the most expensive mobile phone number.