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Friday, August 28, 2009

California governor declares wildfire emergency

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Monterey counties as wildfires burn large areas and threaten homes.

The order Friday comes as firefighters battle two blazes in the Angeles National Forest above Los Angeles' northeastern suburbs and mop up the remnants of an overnight fire on the Palos Verdes Peninsula that singed six houses. The fires have forced the evacuation of numerous homes.

In Monterey County, a wildfire near Soledad has reached 5,000 acres, or nearly 8 square miles. About 100 homes are under evacuation orders.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wildfires threatened hundreds of homes in the seaside hills and foothill canyons near Los Angeles early Friday, feeding on bone-dry brush in the midst of a heat wave expected to drive temperatures into triple digits.

As many as 1,500 people had to leave the wealthy seaside community of Rancho Palos Verdes overnight, while residents of about 870 homes were urged to voluntarily leave La Canada Flintridge, a dozen miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles on the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Water-dropping helicopters worked through the night, as the ominous red glow of flames illuminated the darkness. A lack of wind let the helicopters operate in the canyons, Los Angeles County fire Inspector Steve Zermeno said.

The Rancho Palos Verdes fire erupted late Thursday and spread rapidly. Hundreds of firefighters and their engines were deployed to protect homes in the fire's path.

"The fire was stopped right at the backyards of those homes," said county fire Chief Deputy John Tripp.

Six homes had minor exterior damage, and an outbuilding and a gazebo were destroyed, he said.

Daybreak revealed an ash-covered landscape with no flames apparent. The burn area was officially listed at 100 acres with 35 percent containment, but Tripp said both numbers were expected to significantly rise when mapping was complete.

One end of the fire remained open in an inaccessible area and Tripp said that remained a concern.

"As the heat comes up today, it could cause that fire to come out of there and come back into the neighborhoods," he said. "We are not out of the woods yet."

Fire crews waged a fierce overnight fight to protect expensive homes standing on ridges above finger canyons.

"They were doing battle from the word go. It was a struggle," said fire Capt. Mike Brown. "They were dealing with some treacherous terrain ... the fire moving up canyon and dry brush. They had to make a stand."

The wealthy communities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles are in an area known for horse trails, spectacular Pacific Ocean views, pricey real estate and exclusive golf clubs, including the Trump National Golf Club owned by Donald Trump.

The Terranea Resort, a luxury hotel a couple miles from the fire, opened its door to locals who had to evacuate, but only two families had taken advantage of the offer by midnight, said hotel spokeswoman Wendy Haase.

The fire near La Canada Flintridge began to kick up late Thursday afternoon, a day after it began in the Angeles National Forest, and flames moved slowly down the slopes of the San Gabriels. By early Friday it was estimated to cover more than 2 square miles and was about 10 percent contained.

The fire jumped a highway overnight and moved near homes in the Arroyo Seco, said Jennifer Sanchez, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.

The arroyo, a miles-long watercourse that runs from the mountains south through neighboring Pasadena, is the location of luxury neighborhoods, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Rose Bowl.

Zermeno said the fire was being fought mainly from the air because the terrain was too steep for firefighters to reach it easily.

Still air meant the fire was growing slowly rather than being pushed, but "we'll see if nature is still on our side" later in the day, Zermeno said.

The National Weather Service predicted a third day of red flag conditions of extreme fire danger for many of California's central and southern mountain ranges because of because of low humidity and triple-digit heat that sapped moisture from grass and brush. However, there were no predictions of significant winds in the fire areas. The notorious Santa Ana winds often associated with the region's worst wildfires don't usually occur until the fall.

The smell of smoke from the forest fire tinged the air in a wide area of Los Angeles, which hit 101 degrees downtown on Thursday.

To the east, another fire in the San Gabriel Mountains was 60 percent contained late Thursday after burning across more than 3 square miles, Sanchez said.

Nearly 1,000 firefighters aided by bulldozers and a fleet of water- and fire retardant-dropping aircraft worked the fire's northeastern edge.

The fire, believed caused by human action began Tuesday near a dam and reservoir in San Gabriel Canyon, a half-dozen miles above the city of Azusa.

Farther north in Monterey County, 100 homes were evacuated about four miles from the community of Soledad. The fire burned more than 2,000 acres of steep grasslands, or more than 3 square miles, since it started Thursday afternoon, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Capt. James Dellamonica said. The blaze has not been contained.

To the west, in the San Bernardino National Forest in Riverside County, another fire had blackened about 1 1/2 square miles by Thursday evening and prompted authorities to issue a voluntary evacuation of 12 homes in the area near Hemet, said Forest Service fire spokeswoman Anabele Cornejo. She said about five people had left and that the fire was 5 percent contained.

UN: Questions about military aspects on Iran nukes

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA – Iran is stonewalling the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency about "possible military dimensions" to its suspect nuclear program, officials said Friday, urging the regime to clarify the mysterious role of a foreign explosives expert and shed light on other issues.

A senior Iranian envoy angrily denounced the assessment as "fabrication," insisting his country has gone out of its way to be transparent and cooperative.

In its latest report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has pressed the Islamic Republic to clarify its uranium enrichment activities and reassure the world that it's not trying to build an atomic weapon.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and geared solely toward generating electricity. The United States and key allies contend the country is covertly trying to build an atomic weapon.

Ahead of Sept. 2 six-power talks on Iran — and a key meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board a week after that — the IAEA acknowledged that Tehran has been producing nuclear fuel at a slower rate and has allowed U.N. inspectors broader access to its main nuclear complex in the southern city of Natanz.

But the Vienna-based agency delivered a blunt assessment: "Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities."

"There remain a number of outstanding issues which give rise to concerns and which need to be clarified to exclude the existence of possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program," said the text, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

It said the IAEA "does not consider that Iran has adequately addressed the substance of the issues, having focused instead on the style and form ... and providing limited answers and simple denials."

Iran's chief representative to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told the AP he found the report "very frustrating," and angrily suggested that U.S. intelligence was working to undermine Tehran's credibility.

"America alleges that Iran has a Manhattan Project" to build a bomb, Soltanieh said. "This is ridiculous. This game is enough. It should be over ... We have tried to take a very logical and pragmatic approach."

"All these things are fabrications. We have been too transparent and cooperative with the agency," he added.

The report raised the specter of harsher international sanctions against Iran for not answering lingering questions about its nuclear activities.

President Barack Obama has given Tehran something of an ultimatum: Stop enriching uranium, which — if done at a high level — can produce fissile material for the core of a nuclear weapon — or face harsher penalties. In exchange, it could get trade benefits from the six countries engaged in the talks: the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Iran that if it doesn't respond, it could face stronger sanctions in the energy and financial sectors.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, meanwhile, suggested unspecified "severe" new sanctions against Iran if it continues its nuclear activities.

Despite the pressure, senior U.N. officials said Friday that Iran has been feeding uranium ore into its 8,300 centrifuges at a reduced rate, suggesting that sanctions already in place may be hampering its program.

"We need further explanations," said a Western diplomat, declining to be identified because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the confidential report.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed sanctions against Iran three times since 2006 for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment. The sanctions grew from fears that Iran is using the pretext of building a peaceful nuclear energy program as a guise to eventually make weapons-grade enriched uranium.

The country has also been placed on an international watch list to help limit the importation of nuclear materials, which could make it difficult to procure enough uranium oxide to feed its enrichment program.

The IAEA also chided Syria for not fully cooperating on efforts to clear up questions about whether it was trying to build a nuclear complex at a desert site bombed by Israel in 2007.

No Muslims at Black Eyed Peas concert

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Muslims in Malaysia have been barred from attending a concert by U.S. hip hop band the Black Eyed Peas sponsored by Guinness which is owned by the world's biggest spirits group Diageo.

The move comes after a Malaysian Islamic court sentenced a 32-year Muslim woman to be caned after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel and at a time when an opposition Islamic party has moved against beer sales.

The concert, part of celebrations of Guinness 250th birthday, asks on its website (www.arthursday.com.my) "Are you a non-Muslim aged 18 years and above?" and if the response is no, access is not allowed.

Muslims account for 55 percent of the 27 million people in this Southeast Asian country and are barred from consuming alcohol although the rules are regularly flouted, especially in big cities like the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia's Guinness Anchor which sells Guinness and other brands here had sales of 1.2 billion Malaysian ringgit ($340.6 million) in 2008.

Even without alcohol, foreign bands are subject to scrutiny. Earlier this week, the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) said it wanted Danish band Michael Learns to Rock banned from performing as it would cause immorality.

Since 2007, PAS, the country's second largest political group measured by party membership, has campaigned against performances by the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna, Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne.

Pakistani court lifts curbs on nuclear scientist

A Pakistani court has ordered the government to lift any remaining restrictions on a scientist alleged to have spread nuclear technology to Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Libya.

Abdul Qadeer Khan's lawyer Ali Zafar said that the Lahore High Court had ruled that "nobody can restrict the movement of AQ Khan" and that notices had been issued to the police and government asking them to explain why they were continuing to do so.

It was unclear whether authorities would obey the decision.

Mr Khan was detained in December 2003 and admitted on television in early 2004 that he had operated a network that spread nuclear weapons technology to Iran, the DPRK and Libya.

He has since repeatedly retracted that statement.

He was pardoned by then president Pervez Musharraf, but immediately placed under de facto house arrest.

In February, the Islamabad High Court announced he was a "free citizen," subject to a confidential accord struck with the government.

The ruling could stir alarm in Washington, which still regards him as a proliferation risk.

Complaints of Afghan election fraud pour in

By Peter Graff

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission has received more than 2,000 complaints of fraud or abuse in last week's disputed presidential election, with 270 now listed as serious enough to affect the result, it said on Friday.

More than a week after the election, Afghanistan remains in a state of political limbo, with authorities having published results from just 17 percent of polling stations, giving inconclusive figures.

President Hamid Karzai's main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, has complained about fraud and said he would not accept the result if large-scale abuse was found to have played a decisive role.

The complaints commission, which was partly appointed by the United Nations and includes Afghan and foreign members, said more allegations from polling day are still arriving. The numbers of serious complaints reported on Friday were far higher than it had listed in the initial days after the voting took place.

It has received 2,207 complaints, including 1,740 since polling day. It has so far categorized 984 of the complaints, and listed 270 as Category A, "which, if proved valid, could have material effects on the results", it said in a statement.

"Received complaints vary. They include allegations of ballot stuffing, poor quality ink, intimidation and accusations against polling staff."

Partial results released so far show Karzai leading with 44.8 percent, with Abdullah winning 35.1 percent. If no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, a run-off must be held between the two top candidates.

Although the results so far suggest a run-off would be needed, it is still too early to predict the eventual outcome. Many provinces in the south -- where Karzai draws much of his support but fraud allegations are widest and turnout was most affected by Taliban threats -- have yet to be tallied.

Taliban fighters threatened to disrupt the poll and launched rocket attacks across the country on polling day, especially in the south. Those attacks failed to halt the election itself, but do seem to have dampened turnout, especially in the south.

The complete preliminary results are due on September 3, with another two weeks for complaints to be investigated before the final outcome is announced. A second round if needed should be held two weeks later, presumably October 1, though dates can change.

The initial tallies suggest only about 5.5 million Afghans voted, a disappointing figure in a country with about 30 million people and an estimated 15 million eligible voters

Pour turnout in the violent south could increase the chance of a run-off, by restricting votes cast for Karzai by his fellow Pashtuns.

Endemic government corruption and Karzai's close ties with former militia leaders have eroded his support, both with the Afghan people and with Washington policymakers.

Tens of thousands pay tribute to Ted Kennedy

BOSTON – Tens of thousands of people are paying tribute today to Sen. Edward Kennedy, who lay in repose for a second day in a flag-draped casket at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Members of the Kennedy family, including his daughter Kara Kennedy Allen, nephew Tim Shriver and 81-year-old Jean Kennedy Smith, the senator's sister and the last surviving Kennedy sibling, greeted visitors.

Smith, the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, choked back tears. "This is a hard time for me," she said when asked to talk about her brother. She was joined briefly by her son, William Kennedy Smith.

"It's a wonderful tribute to Teddy and the lives that he touched," he said of the line of thousands.

A five-person military honor guard stood at attention around the casket in a high-ceilinged room with a spectacular view of Boston Harbor.

Large photos of Kennedy with his family greeted mourners on their way into the room, including one of Kennedy as a boy with his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, and a 1960s-era shot of Kennedy with his slain brothers, John and Robert.

The library was supposed to close at 11 p.m. Thursday, but the doors were left open until 2 a.m. Friday as 21,000 people paid their respects. Visitors resumed before 8 a.m. Friday and was to continue until 3 p.m., at which point the viewing was to end to make preparations for a collection of big political names converging for a private "Celebration of Life" service Friday night.

Scheduled speakers include Vice President Joe Biden; Sens. John McCain, Orrin Hatch and Christopher Dodd; and niece Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President Kennedy. Performances will include "God Bless America" and Kennedy's favorite song, "The Impossible Dream."

Among visitors Friday morning was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said Kennedy helped change the country through his work for minorities, the disabled and the poor.

"As a rich person, no one reached back further for the poor or exalted them higher," Jackson said.

Visitors represented a cross-section of race and class, and many of them said they had benefited directly from Kennedy's 47 years of work in the Senate.

Fred Foster, 51, of Boston's Brighton neighborhood, said he was helped by Kennedy's work on COBRA, the federal program that allows people to retain their former company's health benefits under some circumstances.

"A few years ago I was laid off and I continued to have my health insurance because of COBRA, and that's a direct result of what Sen. Kennedy did," Foster said.

George Thomas, a member of Connecticut's Pequot tribe, arrived Friday wearing an otter turban and said he brought prayers and condolences for Kennedy's family from 40 tribes across the Northeast and Southwest.

If a tribe had a dispute over land or water rights, "a simple call to his office would resolve it," Thomas said.

As she waited in line, retired nurse Frances Murphy Araujo, 66, recalled piling into an old Chevy with six college friends and driving all night to go to John F. Kennedy's funeral in 1963.

"There's a real admiration and affection for the Kennedys in my family," she said.

"Ted Kennedy rolled up his sleeves and got the work done," she added. "He was very down to earth. You felt like you could approach him."

A funeral Mass is scheduled for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston on Saturday. President Barack Obama is expected to deliver the eulogy.

All the living former presidents are expected to attend except for George H.W. Bush. Spokesman Jim McGrath said Friday that the 85-year-old Bush feels his son's presence will "amply and well represent" the family.

Kennedy's body was delivered to the library Thursday by a motorcade of family members and friends who had celebrated a private Mass at the family compound in Hyannis Port, 70 miles away, where Kennedy spent his final days.

Kennedy will be buried Saturday evening near his brothers at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia.

Everything must go! Calif. holds giant garage sale

By JUDY LIN, Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is hoping that the "Great California Garage Sale" will turn government clutter like surplus prison uniforms and office furniture into cash to bulk up the state's depleted finances.

On offer as the state clears out clutter are nearly 600 state-owned vehicles and thousands of pieces of office furniture, computers, electronics, jewelry, pianos, even a surf board, a food saver and an Xbox 360 gaming system.

State officials estimate the giant two-day yard sale being held at a state warehouse will bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to clearing out office products, the state is also selling unclaimed property from state parks and items confiscated by law enforcement, said California Department of General Services spokesman Eric Lamoureux.

The prison department contributed dental chairs and surplus prison shirts and jeans.

"This is a win-win for the state and for shoppers," Schwarzenegger said in a statement Tuesday announcing that a selection of items also would be sold on eBay and Craigslist. "Together we are eliminating waste and providing great deals in this tough economy."

Schwarzenegger also has autographed 15 car visors in an effort to fetch more money during the sale Friday and Saturday.

California sure could use the cash: the state was force to hand out IOUs earlier this year, government workers are on the brink of revolt over a 14 percent pay cut and the state remains in an interminable state of financial morass.

Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel recently spoofed the upcoming garage sell, saying the governor was so desperate he was selling everything from a set of burned dumbbells for $10 to a pair of first lady Maria Shriver's leg warmers for $8.

"We are out of money here in California," Kimmel said. "I don't know how much this is going to raise for the state but you can see the governor is going all out with this."

Indeed, Schwarzenegger has been going online to promote the sale.

The idea for a garage sale came from state employees and was put into motion by Schwarzenegger through an executive order earlier this year. At the time, the state was struggling with a projected $26 billion deficit.

After signing the order to reduce the state's 40,000 government vehicles by 15 percent, Schwarzenegger posted a video message thanking his Twitter followers for their budget-balancing ideas, including one follower's suggestion to autograph state-owned vehicles being put up for auction.

"You come up with the great ideas. Why not just sign the cars since you're a celebrity governor? Sign the cars and sell it for more money," the governor said in the video where he was seen sitting at his desk in the state Capitol admiring a 2-foot-long folding knife before addressing viewers. "That's exactly what we're going to do."

On Wednesday, he returned to the Web, telling viewers in an online conversation with the founders of Twitter at the company's San Francisco headquarters that he believes autographing items would drive up prices because a signed leather jacket with the governor's seal once fetched $30,000.

According to the Department of General Services, all the cars are in working condition and generally have over 100,000 miles. They include pickup trucks, sedans and former California Highway Patrol motorcycles and patrol cars.

State officials expect the discounts will draw thousands. The public was invited to preview cars for sale Thursday but the garage sale begins Friday at 8 a.m. The sale will shut down at midnight Saturday.

Schwarzenegger was scheduled to visit the sale Friday morning.

Early shoppers walked between rows of cars, opening doors and getting inside to inspect the interior during Thursday's preview. They took notes on the cars they liked and eyed the competition with suspicion.

Akili Daniels, 32, of Sacramento, said he was worried about used car dealers scooping up the best vehicles. Daniels, who was looking for a sedan or SUV to launch his own video production company after being laid off from a local television station, said he's hoping to get a vehicle for under $5,000.

He was also looking for a van for his wife's new day care venture.

"It's good if we can get it for a good price," Daniels said. "It helps for people who can't buy new cars. But there are people from car lots. You can tell they're locking the cars on the really nice ones. There are all kinds of schemes."

Tim Craythorn, 45, of Elk Grove, said he was in the market for a second used highway patrol car because he got a good deal last year. He said he purchased a 2000 Ford Crown Victoria from a state auction last year for $2,700.

"It was an executive car so it wasn't used in vehicle pursuits," he said. "It actually smelled new. And it gets 19 miles per gallon."

While the Department of General Services auctions off surplus property every six weeks and the California Highway Patrol periodically auctions off its older fleet, Lamoureux said the state had never done both at the same time.

Craythorn said he plans to return Friday morning with his son to shop for a 35mm camera. He said he supported the garage sale.

"The way the economy is right now, it's better to have money in the bank rather than sending things to the junk yard," Craythorn said. "It's better to have things sitting on an auction lot rather than paying for rent or storage."

Other items up for grabs will be sold at set prices. For example, used Blackberry cell phones are going for $25 each. Wood desks are going for $30. Eight stackable chairs are priced at $40. And laptop computers cost $200.

Just like any yard sale, the items are being sold on a first come, first serve basis.

And of course, all sales are final.

It just gets better and better

Monuments and archaeological sites on Luxor's east and west banks are undergoing major development, reports Nevine El-Aref

Last Week Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), and Samir Farag, head of Luxor City Supreme Council (LCSC) celebrated the completion of several development projects at archaeological sites on both the east and west banks of the Nile. They also visited other ongoing projects for which the total budget was LE127 million. These projects include the restoration of Howard Carter's rest-house with a view to developing it as a museum, the first phase of the installation of a new lighting system in the Valley of the Kings, a new visitor center at Deir Al-Bahari, and the reopening of the Youssef Abul-Haggag mosque after restoration.

The first leg of the tour to inspect restoration began on the west bank at the mud-brick rest-house that was the residence of the discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb in the early 1900s. Restoration of the house was carried in collaboration with a French team and will be completed in time for the inauguration on 4 November, the day Carter discovered the tomb. Hawass said that to celebrate 86 years since the discovery, a one-day workshop would be held alongside a forum for dialogue surrounding Carter's discovery and subsequent research on the Valley of the Kings.

The rest-house is to be converted into a museum displaying Carter's personal tools, the instruments which he used in excavations and objects from his discoveries in the valley. Black and white photographs show Carter busy at work, removing Tutankhamun's funerary collection from the tomb, welcoming British, Egyptian and Foreign dignitaries during the celebrations at the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb.

Pieces of English furniture illustrating the interior design of the time will be also on show. A visitor center at the forefront of the house will provide visitors with information about Carter himself and the discovery of the tomb of the boy king prior entering the house of the great discoverer. Ali Hilal, head of the projects department at SCA, said the project had cost LE1.121 million over four months.

On his way to the Deir Al-Bahari temple Hawass inspected the wall that will eventually surround the monuments on Luxor's west bank in an attempt to protect it from encroachment by the city's residents. Hawass and Farag officially inaugurated the visitor's center of the Deir Al-Bahari temple, which displays photographs of the temple's paintings and chambers, and a detailed model of the entire site and the buildings constructed by Montuhotep, Tuthmosis II and Hatshepsut. A cafeteria, a bookstore and 52 bazaars have been set up in the centre. The area around Deir Al-Bahari has been developed over the past 15 months at a cost of LE9,850 million. All unlicensed vendors have been removed from around the temple.

On a taf-taf (small train operated with electricity) Hawass and Farag inspected the first trial of the new lighting system that will be installed at every site at Theban so they can be visited at night. Hawass announced that a Spanish grant of 150 million euros would be used to implement a scheme to protect the Tombs of the Nobles on the west bank which, he asserted, could vanish within 100 years if the SCA did not rescue them.

The temple of Deir El-Bahari is one of the greatest and most singular temples in all Egypt in design and decorative elements. It was built of limestone, not sandstone like most of the other funerary temples of the New Kingdom period. It is thought that Senemut, the great architect who built the temple, was inspired in his design by the plan of the neighboring mortuary temple of the 12th-Dynasty King Neb-Hept-Re. The temple was built for the great Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty to commemorate her achievements and to serve as her funerary temple, as well as a sanctuary of the God, Amun-Re.

The mortuary temple itself consists of a forecourt enclosed on three sides by walls, and a terrace on which stands a large, square structure that may represent the primaeval mound that arose from the waters of chaos. As the temple faces east, the structure is likely to be connected with the sun cult of Re and the resurrection of the king.

From the eastern part of the forecourt, an opening called the Bab Al-Hosan (Gate of the Horseman) leads to an underground passage and an unfinished tomb or cenotaph containing a seated statue of the King Ramses II. On the western side, tamarisk and sycamore trees were planted beside the ramp leading up to the terrace. At the back of the forecourt and terrace are colonnades decorated in relief with boat processions, hunts, and scenes showing the king's military achievements.

Statues of the 12th-Dynasty King Senusret III were also found here.

The inner part of the temple was actually cut into the cliff and consists of a peristyle court, a hypostyle hall and an underground passage leading into the tomb itself. The cult of the dead ruler centered on the small shrine cut into the rear of the Hypostyle Hall.

The mastaba -like structure on the terrace is surrounded by a pillared ambulatory along the west wall, where the statue shrines and tombs of several royal wives and daughters were found. These royal princesses were the priestesses of Hathor, one of the main ancient Egyptian funerary deities. Although little remained of the king's own burial, six sarcophagi were retrieved from the tombs of the royal ladies. Each was formed of six slabs held together at the corners by metal braces and carved in sunken relief. The sarcophagus of Queen Kawit, now in the Egyptian Museum, is particularly fine.

The burial shaft and subsequent tunnel descend for 150 meters and end in a burial chamber 45 meters below the court. The chamber contained a shrine that once held the wooden coffin of Nebhepetre Montuhotep. A great, tree-lined court was reached by means of the processional causeway leading up from the valley temple. Beneath the court, a deep shaft was cut which led to unfinished rooms believed to have been intended originally as the king's tomb. A wrapped image of the Pharaoh was discovered in this area by Howard Carter. The temple complex also held six mortuary chapels and shaft tombs built for the Pharaoh's wives and daughters.

The last stop was the inauguration of the Abul-Haggag mosque, built in 1286 to commemorate the Sunni Sheikh Youssef Abul-Haggag.

Although its positioning atop the Pharaonic columns of Luxor temple seems both precarious and invasive, the Mosque of Abul-Haggag must be seen as more than just a coincidental intruder. When the Pharaonic temple was unearthed at a level underneath the mosque in the late 19th century, locals fiercely resisted any attempt to tear it down. For them the geographical position was important, and a new mosque also dedicated to Abul-Haggag has never become very popular.

Abul-Haggag was a sufi sheikh who was born in Damascus but spent the latter half of his 90 years in Luxor. He died here in 1243 AD, but it is believed that the minaret predates him and was built in the 11th century. The mosque itself has been rebuilt many times, and was completely rebuilt in the 19th century. Locals believe the mosque is a particularly important religious place, full of divine blessing.

According to local legend, the mosque bearing Abul-Haggag's name in the temple of Luxor was probably not established by him. However, when a local official decided to rid the ancient temple of this mosque, Abul-Haggag attempted to stop him. The government official nevertheless insisted that it be moved. Just before the mosque was to be torn down, the official woke up one morning to find that he could not move his body, and apparently believing this to be the work of Abul-Haggag, he decided to change his mind about moving the mosque. Ever since then, the people of Luxor have had a special fondness for him and their mosque. His moulid (annual feast) usually takes place in early November.

Sabri Abdel-Aziz, head of ancient Egyptian department at the SCA says the passage of time had taken its toll on the mosque's walls and foundations; cracks had spread all over its walls, and water from the maydaa (water fountain) had leaked into its foundations. Restoration work, which lasted for 14 months at a cost of LE13.4 million, has now been carried out with the aim of recreating the mosque's original features. The cracks have been removed, the foundations consolidated, and the water fountain renovated. The mosque's open court has been developed, and a fire alarm system has been installed. The mosque's dome has also been restored, along with the Pharaonic columns re-used in 1286 to construct the mosque.

Mansour Boraik, head of the SCA's Luxor inspectorate, says that when the restoration project began in 2007 ancient Egyptian columns, lintels and engravings were unearthed. He says studying the hieroglyphic texts on the Pharaonic columns used in the construction of the mosque has revealed an important part of the history of Luxor temple. Among these texts, Boraik says, those featuring Pharaoh Ramses II offering the two obelisks from the Luxor temple façade to the god Amun Re, one of which is now in the Palace de la Concorde in Paris. The second features three statues of Pharaoh Ramses II wearing the white crown, a fact that aborts the theory of some researchers who believe that Ramses II stole all the statues belonging to one of his predecessors, Amenhotep III.

Boreik says the third engraving is in a style of writing used in ancient Egypt called jenography. It shows the sign for Nubia with an elephant underneath it.

Analysis: Vote snarls US job instead of easing it

By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer

WASHINGTON – Inconclusive election results in Afghanistan, disappointing voter turnout and the prospect of rising ethnic tensions and political turmoil are new roadblocks to the Obama administration's plan to turn around a backsliding war.

The U.S. had hoped the national voting, run by Afghans themselves with heavy international backing, would demonstrate that stability was within reach in Afghanistan and worth the steep price in dollars, time and American combat deaths.

Instead, the presidential election last week highlighted old problems and pointed to disturbing new challenges, including the prospect of political paralysis and parochial squabbling while U.S. combat deaths soar.

August is on pace to be the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war began nearly eight years ago. A U.S. service member died Thursday in a militant attack involving a roadside bomb and gunfire, bringing to 44 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan this month.

With the war worsening on President Barack Obama's watch, an increasingly skeptical American public may soon be asked to support a fresh infusion of U.S. combat troops on top of 21,000 combat forces and others Obama sent this year as part of a start-from-scratch strategy to protect Afghans and peel off support for the Taliban insurgency.

Just above 50 percent of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week said the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting.

"We want to try and enable the Afghan government to take responsibility not only for its reconstruction, but also for its own security," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said when asked whether the election would help reduce violence and allow new economic development.

Violence is at peak levels this summer, and the Taliban has the edge in some unexpected places. Top U.S. military leaders said this week that reversing insurgent gains will take significant time and lives.

"Despite important achievements in various areas, given the deterioration in the security situation, an enormous amount of hard work and tough fighting lie ahead in Afghanistan," Gen. David Petraeus, who has overall responsibility for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the American Legion's national convention in Louisville, Ky.

A week since the Afghan election, there is no clear winner and no definite timetable for determining who is on top. That leaves the United States, the single largest backer of the fragile Afghan government and the largest contributor of troops, without a clear Afghan partner for ambitious development and anti-corruption plans that have been on hold pending the election.

Afghan election officials have released two early batches of vote tallies that show incumbent President Hamid Karzai with 44.8 percent of the vote and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's former foreign minister, with 35.1 percent. The next partial results are expected Saturday.

A candidate needs to get above 50 percent to avoid a runoff. Final results won't be known for weeks. A runoff, if there is one, probably would be in October.

As frustrating as a runoff might be, from the U.S. perspective it is preferable to a first-round victory by Karzai that comes by suspicious margins.

Allegations of fraud are mounting along ethnic lines, and the United Nations and other international officials are worried about the possibility of violence if Abdullah's followers believe the election was stolen.

A few international analysts have said the fractures on display in the election could spread to north-south civil war.

The tensions may not subside either if Abdullah ends up the winner. He is half ethnic Tajik, and is considered the "northern" alternative to Karzai's Pashtun-dominated southern base.

Analysts are split on whether ethnic Pashtuns would embrace a Tajik leader, but Pashtuns were a key ethnic supporter of the Taliban when the fundamentalist militants seized power in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Now stateless insurgents fighting U.S. forces, the Taliban is again strongest in Afghanistan's Pashtun regions in the South.

Obama and his aides have distanced themselves from Karzai, a favorite of former President George W. Bush, but have tried not to appear close to Abdullah either.

Meanwhile, turnout was paltry in southern districts where British forces and U.S. Marines all but held the door for Afghan voters. Obama dispatched 17,000 additional combat forces to Afghanistan ahead of the election, but the threat of Taliban violence and reprisal apparently kept voters at home.

The Times of London reported Thursday that only 150 of the several thousand Afghans eligible to vote in the Babaji area of Helmand province cast ballots. Four British soldiers were killed there this summer, a toll the newspaper recalled with the blunt headline: "Four British soldiers die for the sake of 150 votes."

The election was supposed to launch new development, agricultural reform and other advances that U.S. Afghanistan policy chief Richard Holbrooke has said require a foundation of political legitimacy.

A runoff probably would mean a further delay of at least two months for many of the most ambitious plans. Obama's new war commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is expected to lay out a bleak assessment of the deteriorating war next week that will point fingers at an under performing Afghan government and recommend vastly expanding the size of Afghanistan's own security forces.

Later in September, Obama may be asked to approve several thousand more troops for next year. A record 62,000 U.S. troops are now in the country, with 4,000 more due to arrive before the end of the year.

National security adviser James Jones and others have made plain the White House distaste for a troop increase, and the expected request will force Obama to decide whether to further expand the war.

A runoff also would mean changes to the military plan for the fall, when fighting typically subsides. U.S. military planners said American forces presumably would replay their roles helping to secure polling places in formerly Taliban-held reaches of Helmand province and elsewhere, but Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to spell out details before election results are known.

India could have avoided Mumbai attack: Malik

Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad, Aug 28 (PTI) Facing strident calls to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice, Pakistan says the terror strike last November "would not have happened" if India had shared information about some suspects in time.

Islamabad also said it will examine the fresh evidence provided by India on the basis of which Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the prime accused in planning and executing the 26/11 attacks.

At a news conference in London yesterday, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik claimed how India could have avoided the Mumbai attack while making a reference to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent remarks that there is credible information Pakistan-based terror groups might carry out fresh attacks in India.

"Please give us some information. We want that information because we want to go to the depth (of the matter)," he said.

Power situation in J&K to improve next year: Govt

Srinagar, Aug 28 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Government today said the power situation in the state would be better next year as most of the ongoing power projects are expected to be completed by then.

"Next year, not only power scenario will be better but it (power) will be a source of revenue for the state," Tourism Minister Nawaz Rigzin Jora told the state Assembly during question hour.

Replying to a question of M Y Tarigami (CPI-M), Jora said the state hydel electric policy is being revised to ensure harnessing of optimum power potential in the state. The documents in this regard are under examination of the consultants.

Resolution of Kashmir only possible on equal terms: Sharif

Calcutta News.Net
Friday 28th August, 2009 (ANI)

Islamabad, Aug.28 : Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that resolution of Kashmir issue is imperative for peace in the region adding that all outstanding issues with India should be resolved on equal terms.

During a meeting with Pakistan held Kashmir President Raja Muhammad Zulqernain, Sharif said Islamabad wants to resolve all issues with India amicably, including Kashmir.

"The issue should be resolved on equal terms rather than one side dominating the other," The Dawn quoted Sharif, as saying.

"It is need of hour to start process of dialogue with India as it is high time that tensions between the two countries must be solved for the sake of millions of Kashmiris living on both sides of the border," he added.

Zulqernain told Sharif that people on both sides of the Line of the Control wanted a solution for the long pending issue according to their wishes and aspirations.

China's growing role in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir

Among the major development projects in Pakistan in which the Chinese have been involved till now are the construction of an international commercial port cum naval base in Gwadar on the Makran coast in Balochistan, the development of the Saindak copper-cum-gold mines in Balochistan, the upgradation of the Karakoram Highway connecting the Xinjiang province of China with Pakistan via the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan), the construction of a small-scale hydel project in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas and the development of a mobile telephone network in the North-West Frontier Province.

The commercial port in Gwadar has already been completed and commissioned, but it has not been attracting many foreign sea-going vessels due to the poor security situation in Balochistan because of the increasing activities of Baloch nationalists demanding an independent Balochistan. The construction of a naval base in Gwadar, which could also be used by Chinese naval ships visiting the Gulf, has also slowed down due to the poor security situation in the area.

The Pakistanis, since the days of General Pervez Musharraf, have repeatedly sought Chinese assistance for the construction of a petrochemical complex at Gwadar and oil and gas pipelines and a railway line connecting Gwadar with the Xinjiang province. The Chinese have till now not shown much enthusiasm for additional involvement in Balochistan because of the security situation. Since 2002, there have been at least three attacks on Chinese engineers working in Balochistan. In two of these, Uighurs were suspected and in one in 2007, which took place after the Pakistani Army raid of the Lal Masjid of Islamabad in July, 2007, the Pakistani Taliban was suspected. While there were Chinese fatalities in the first two attacks, there were no Chinese fatalities in the third attack of 2007, in which many passers-by were killed. All these incidents involved the use of improvised explosive devices.

The authorities of Pakistan and Iran have been claiming that the Chinese have been showing interest in the extension of the proposed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline to Xinjiang. Presently, the proposal for the pipeline envisages the involvement of Iran, Pakistan and India -- with India participating only as the purchaser of the gas and not as a contributor of funds for the construction of the pipeline. Since 2005, Indian enthusiasm for the project has declined due to the security situation in Balochistan through which the pipeline has to pass and the US opposition to it. Pakistani and Iranian authorities have been repeatedly hinting since last year that if India withdrew, China might be prepared to step in as a purchaser of the gas as well as a contributor of funds for the construction. There has been no indication from the Chinese side on their reported interest in the project.

Chinese interest in participation in projects in the Pashtun belt has also declined following two incidents of kidnapping by the Pakistani Taliban of Chinese engineers working in South Waziristan for the China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Group Corporation in October, 2004, and in the mobile telephone network in the Dir District of the NWFP in August 2008. There was also an attack by the Pakistani Taliban on some Chinese meat importers in Peshawar after the Lal Masjid raid, resulting in fatalities.

As a result, the Chinese interest in participating in development projects in Pakistan is presently confined to Pakistani Punjab, Sindh and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Northern Areas. In Punjab, they have been participating in projects like the development of a special economic zone, construction of shopping malls etc. In Sindh, talks have been going on for their participation in the development of the Thar coal mines and the construction of thermal and fertilizer plants.

The Karakoram Highway was originally constructed with Chinese assistance with the participation of Chinese engineers. For the last 10 years it has been in a bad state of repairs due to poor maintenance by Pakistani engineers. During the second tenure of Benazir Bhutto as the prime minister (1993 to 1996) she sought Chinese assistance for the repair and upgradation of the highway. The Chinese agreed. The proposal was that the Chinese would upgrade it on their side and the Pakistanis on their side with Chinese technical assistance. The upgradation work has been going on. It has been reported that while the work on the Chinese side has been completed ahead of schedule, it has been much behind schedule on the Pakistani side. It is not known whether Chinese engineers are participating on the Pakistani side and, if so, how many of them.

During his visit to Hang Zhou in the Zhejiang province and Guangzhou in the Guangdong province from August 21 to 24, President Asif Ali Zardari, who met the local authorities and investors, sought Chinese participation in the development of hydel, thermal and solar energy projects, irrigation and fisheries and mobile telephone networks and in creating facilities for higher technical education, including the setting-up of a telecommunications university and research complex. Among the concrete results from his visit were:

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to promote cooperation in river fisheries and related technologies by representatives of the Indus River Fresh Water Fisheries Research Institute and the Pearl River Fishery Research Institute of Guangzhou.

The signing of an MOU for the construction of a dam at Bunji in the Astore district of the Northern Areas by officials of Pakistan's Ministry of Water and Power and China's Three Gorges Project Corporation. The dam, one of the eight hydel projects short-listed for construction will have a capacity of generating 7,000 megawatts of electricity.

Zardari attended a presentation on small and medium sized dams, water conservation and irrigation by the Zhejiang Design Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Power. Li Yueming, the president of the institute, said they had carried out feasibility studies of a couple of medium-sized dams in PoK. Shakeel Durrani, chairman of the WAPDA, who was present on the occasion, said that Chinese companies were already working on a number of hydel projects in Pakistan, including Neelum-Jhelum and Gomal Zam and the raising of the height of the Mangla dam in PoK. He said the institute would be invited to bid for the construction of 12 small dams.

Meanwhile, in a report carried by the News of August 18, before Zardari's visit to China, Kamran Khan, its journalist, alleged that without inviting open bidding from interested companies and investors, Pakistan Steel Mills has signed a non-transparent secret MoU with the Metallurgical Corporation of China for a $2.2 billion expansion programme to raise its current production capacity of 1.1 million tons to five million tons. According to him, contrary to relevant government rules and regulations as well as basic norms of transparency, Pakistan Steel didn't place any advertisement in the local and international press to seek the best international offers before entering into secret negotiations with the Chinese company, which was long seeking to clinch this deal. He said: "The most shocking element of this MoU, available with this correspondent, which will bind Pakistan with an additional foreign loan of $2.2 billion, is a clause that requires complete secrecy of this understanding. Clause 6.1 of this MoU states: "This MoU and any discussions related to it shall remain strictly confidential between the parties and no public announcement shall be made without written consent of both parties."

Kamran Khan quoted a Pakistani official as saying: "This was not our requirement but the Chinese company asked for this secrecy clause and we agreed."

There have been allegations that a businessman close to Zardari would be a major beneficiary of this expansion project. Pakistan Steel has become one of the bones of contention between Zardari and Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani. A day after the publication of the News report Gilani announced in the national assembly that Moin Aftab Shaikh, the chairman of the Pakistan Steel Mills, had been sacked on corruption charges. "I had directed the interior ministry to investigate the affairs of the Pakistan Steel Mills and submit a report," he said. Some Pakistani columnists interpreted Gilani's action as an affront to Zardari.

Since taking over as the President a year ago, Zardari has been periodically visiting Chinese provinces to study their economic development. During these visits, he does not go to Beijing. Most of his meetings are confined to Chinese businessmen and local party and government officials. A member of the Chinese cabinet -- generally the foreign minister -- goes to the province being visited by Zardari and makes a courtesy call on him. Before going back, he speaks over phone to President Hu Jintao. He has so far made four such visits to China in the last one year. These frequent visits to meet Chinese investors and businessmen have given rise to allegations that he was going there to promote the business interests of his friends in Pakistan.

New evidence points towards recent ice age on Mars

Washington, August 28 : In a new research, scientists have found evidence on the Martian terrain that points towards a recent ice age on the Red Planet.

The research, by Samuel C. Schon and James W. Head from the Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, was carried out to explain the distribution of ice in the near subsurface at middle to high latitudes on Mars.

Two hypotheses emerged out of the research.

While one theory suggested diffusion of water vapor into porous regolith, the other indicated atmospheric deposition of ice, snow, and dust during recent ice ages.

To determine which of these hypotheses is correct, Schon and his team used data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) to examine the structure of exposed subsurface mid-latitude Martian terrain.

The researchers observed that the terrain is characterized by layered deposits multiple meters thick that stretch over many hundreds of meters.

They suggest that climate variations are most likely the source of this stratification.

The layers probably formed as dust, ice, and snow were deposited on the ground during recent ice ages, which occurred during periods when the tilt of Mars's axis of rotation was higher than usual.

Vapor diffusion would be unlikely to result in the observed layered structure, according to the researchers.

They said that the observations also suggest that significant subsurface ice may remain in the 30 - 50 degrees mid-latitude regions.

Ex-NATO commander who predicted 40-year mission in Afghanistan becomes British army chief

LONDON (AP) — A senior military commander who predicted Britain's mission in Afghanistan could last up to 40 years was formally appointed Friday as the head of the country's army.

Gen. David Richards, a former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, becomes Chief of the General Staff and succeeds Gen. Richard Dannatt, who was appointed in 2006 and frequently clashed with lawmakers over defense spending.

Richards, who was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1971, is regarded as politically savvy after building close relationships with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his ministers while leading NATO troops.

Dannatt frequently criticized delays in providing additional helicopters for British forces, and pressed the government to spend more money on improving other equipment.

He said previously that expected cuts to Britain's 34 billion pounds ($55 billion) annual defense budget would "not be welcome" among military leaders, and could have a negative impact on operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Dannatt, who has been appointed Constable of the Tower of London — a ceremonial role dating back to the 11th century — also said Britain may need to increase its troop levels in Afghanistan — despite the government's reluctance to do so.

Britain has about 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, the largest international force after the U.S., and most are based in the southern province of Helmand. The U.K. has withdrawn its soldiers from Iraq, after their six-year mission there ended May 31.

Richards will be heavily involved in a major review of British defense funding, which is expected to take place after the next national election — which must be held by June 2010.

"I will continue to focus on what is needed to meet the government's aims in Afghanistan and the region, and ensuring the army achieves the tasks laid upon it," Richards said in a statement Friday. "The army's most valuable assets are its people — it is essential that we continue to look after our soldiers and their families, especially those injured or affected adversely through conflict."

Richards said that a longer term objective will be to prepare the army to deal with modern and future conflicts, but did not specify whether he meant by providing troops with more protection against roadside bombs and insurgent ambushes.

A total of 207 British troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001, including dozens killed during a surge in insurgent attacks over recent months.

As NATO commander, Richards was a prominent backer of a controversial peace plan in the southern Afghan town of Musa Qala under which NATO, Afghan and Taliban soldiers were not allowed in the town. The deal collapsed when Taliban fighters overran the area, though foreign and Afghan troops later waged a fierce battle to recapture Musa Qala.

Richards also has commanded British troops during operations in East Timor and Sierra Leone.

In a newspaper interview earlier this month, the new army chief said that he expects British troops to remain in Afghanistan for many years, and that the international community will have a role in the region for several decades.

"I believe that the U.K. will be committed to Afghanistan in some manner — development, governance, security sector reform — for the next 30 to 40 years," Richards was quoted as telling The Times of London.

Comoros: Yemenia flight data recorder is found

MORONI, Comoros – An international team on Friday retrieved a slightly damaged flight data recorder from a Yemenia Airways flight that crashed in the Indian Ocean on June 30, killing 152 people, Comoros-based officials said.

The black box was picked up underwater off the coast of the island nation's capital, Moroni, according to a statement released by the Comoros-based investigation team. No details were provided about the other box containing the voice recorder.

Interior Minister Bourhane Hamidou said the box is slightly damaged.

The Yemenia Flight 626 crashed while flying from Paris to Moroni via Yemen. One teenage girl survived, and is back home outside Paris.

A French naval ship detected signal beacons of the flight data and cockpit recorders — key to determining the cause of the crash — in July at depths of 3,900 feet (1,200 meters) about nine miles (15 kilometers) northwest of Grand Comoros island but lacked deep sea diving equipment to retrieve them.

A French ship carrying a special underwater robot arrived at the site Aug. 20 to continue the search for the black boxes and other debris from the plane.

Investigators from France, Yemen and Comoros are participating in the operation.

Saudi prince vows to fight terrorism after attack

By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI, Associated Press Writer

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Hours after being lightly wounded by a suicide bomber, a senior Saudi prince largely credited with the kingdom's aggressive anti-terrorism efforts said Friday he was more determined than ever to fight militants in the country.

The bombing was the first assassination attempt against a member of the royal family in decades and was also the first significant attack by militants in the kingdom since 2006. Saudi Arabia has waged a fierce crackdown on al-Qaida militants in the country that succeeded in killing or capturing most of its leaders after a string of attacks that started in 2003.

Since the crackdown, al-Qaida's branch in the kingdom has largely moved its operations to neighboring Yemen, where instability and poverty have enabled it to take root. Saudi officials have repeatedly expressed concerns that turmoil in Yemen, where the government lacks control of large areas outside the capital, could allow al-Qaida to carry out cross-border attacks in its territory.

The suicide bomber who targeted the assistant interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, late Thursday night blew himself up just before going into a gathering of well-wishers for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Jiddah, the official news agency reported.

Prince Mohammed, who is the son of Interior Minister Prince Nayef, told King Abdullah on Friday when the ruler visited him in the hospital shortly after the assassination attempt that the attacker was a wanted militant who had indicated he was going to turn himself in.

"I did not want him to be searched, but he surprised me by blowing himself up," said Prince Mohammed, who was shown on state television with a bandage around two of his fingers on his left hand.

"However, this will only increase my determination" to fight terrorism in the kingdom, he said.

It is customary for senior members of the royal family to hold regular open gatherings during Ramadan where citizens can air grievances, seek settlement of financial or other disputes or offer congratulations.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but al-Qaida is believed to have been behind almost all attacks in the kingdom since 2003. The country is the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and was home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.

The Interior Ministry has spearheaded the kingdom's aggressive campaign against terrorism. On Aug. 19, authorities announced the arrest of 44 suspected militants with al-Qaida links in a yearlong sweep that also uncovered dozens of machine guns and electronic circuits for bombs.

Last month, Saudi officials said a criminal court had convicted and sentenced 330 al-Qaida militants to jail terms, fines and travel bans in the country's first known trials for suspected members of the terror group.

The 330 are believed to be among the 991 suspected militants that the interior minister has said have been charged with participating in terrorist attacks over the past five years.

But Saudi officials have recently expressed concern that al-Qaida could capitalize on the increasingly tense situation in Yemen, where the government is battling Shiite rebels in areas close to the Saudi border, to smuggle fighters into the country.

Al-Qaida militants, including fighters returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, have established sanctuaries in Yemen, particularly in three provinces bordering Saudi Arabia known as the "triangle of evil" because of the heavy militant presence.

In January, militants announced the creation of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a merger between the terror network's Yemeni and Saudi branches, led by Naser Abdel-Karim al-Wahishi, a Yemeni who was once a close aide to bin Laden.

North Korea says it will free 4 SKorean fishermen

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said Friday it will free four South Korean fishermen detained last month after their boat accidentally strayed into northern waters — Pyongyang's latest conciliatory gesture toward its arch rival.

The fishermen and their boat will be handed over to South Korean authorities across the eastern sea border at 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) Saturday, said Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung.

"I am very pleased and it's beyond expression," Lee Ah-na, the wife of the boat's captain, told The Associated Press from the eastern port of Geojin, just south of the border.

The announcement came hours after the two Koreas agreed to hold a new round of reunions next month for families separated by the Korean War — the first in nearly two years.

Red Cross officials from the two sides wrapped up three days of talks at the North's scenic Diamond Mountain resort with an accord to hold six days of temporary reunions involving 200 families from Sept. 26, according to a joint statement.

Millions of families were separated by the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. No mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges exist between ordinary citizens across the Korean border.

This week's rare talks and the resulting agreement were the latest signs of improving relations between the rival nations. The agreement said the North and South will continue to discuss separated families and other humanitarian issues.

Pyongyang has reached out in recent weeks to Seoul and Washington following a series of provocations, including nuclear and missile tests, and international sanctions to punish the communist regime for the defiant moves banned under U.N. resolutions.

Earlier this month, the North freed two American journalists and a South Korean worker after more than four months of detention and pledged to restart some joint projects, including the meetings of separated families that have been stalled since the inauguration of a conservative government in Seoul 18 months ago.

The North also sent a delegation to Seoul to mourn the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

South Korean media reported earlier this week that Pyongyang invited Washington's two top envoys on North Korea to visit in what would be their first nuclear talks since President Barack Obama took office.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Thursday that the U.S. has not received a formal invitation from the North. He also said special envoy Stephen Bosworth plans to travel to Asia soon but that he will not go to North Korea.

Four North Korean officials visited the U.S. last week to meet American relief organizations and discuss the resumption of food aid to the impoverished nation, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Friday. But their trip did not include meetings with U.S. government officials, it said, citing unidentified sources in Washington.

Following their first-ever summit in 2000, the two Koreas regularly held family reunions until late 2007. Then, ties frayed badly after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office last year with hard-line policies such as linking aid to Pyongyang's disarmament.

That angered the North, prompting it to suspend reconciliation talks and major joint projects.

More than 16,000 Koreans have been united in temporary face-to-face reunions so far, while some 3,740 others saw their long-lost relatives in video reunions.

Japan Gets Ready for Big Elections -- And Big Change

By COCO MASTERS / TOKYO

The 54-year reign of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is expected to come to an end on Aug. 30 in the country's first general election in four years. The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), has little experience leading on a national level, but there are strong indications that voters will overwhelmingly support the party and its ambitious platform of reforming Japan's broken systems.

After half a century Japan, it seems, is finally clamoring for change. The LDP machine, which lifted Japan from its postwar doldrums, has been unable to deliver the needs of the public for years - some would argue decades. Now faced with uncertain future and an economy in crisis, Japan's electorate will cast their votes not only to signify their desire for a shift in direction, but also to say that they have a choice in what party leads their country. "This is the most important election since 1955," says Gerald Curtis, a Japanese politics expert who teaches at Columbia University. "The DPJ will almost certainly win the majority - without a coalition partner. This is a huge, huge change."

Recent polls show the DPJ poised to win more than 300 of the 480 seats in the House of Representatives election. A win of 320 seats would give the party a two-thirds majority and the power to pass bills without the support of other parties or even the upper house. Meanwhile, the ruling LDP party is slated to drop to about 100 seats - an anemic one-third of what it held before Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolved the lower house and called elections in July, according to the daily Asahi Shimbun. The expected reshuffle points to the DPJ's strength not only in cities, but also in rural areas that were long considered the seat of the LDP's electoral power.

The electorate is already showing a level of political interest higher than in previous general elections. More than one million people have cast early ballots, up more than a million from the 2005 general election. And voter turnout, for 104 million eligible voters, could reach 70% - the highest rate for a general election since 1990.

The DPJ has been gaining momentum since 2007 - the year of its historic majority win of the Diet's upper house. And since official campaigning began on Aug. 18, the LDP, feeling the pinch of competition, has seen its bigwig politicians return to their constituencies to ask for support. Some of the LDP's more well-known members, such as faction leader Nobutaka Machimura and former defense minister and environment minister, Yuriko Koike, will have a difficult time defending their seats, say analysts.

A confluence of factors has led Japan to the eve of its political upheaval - not least of which includes the global economic crisis. Economic indicators released this week could serve another blow to Aso's administration. Figures released Aug. 28 - two days before the election - show Japan's unemployment rate for July at a record 5.7%, up from the six-year high in June of 5.4% and well on its way to the 6% figure analysts expect by year's end. Japan's July exports dipped to 36.5% over last year, falling for a tenth straight month. Exports to China and the U.S., Japan's top two trade partners, fell 26.5% and 39.5%, respectively, over last year. And consumer prices in June also fell an unprecedented 2.2% from a year ago.

Japan's economy, however, has been suffering since the so-called "lost decade" of the 1990s following the burst of Japan's banking and real estate bubbles. The LDP, says Curtis, failed to respond to the changing needs of the people, particularly those living in rural areas. The electorate system, which changed in 1994 to include single-member districts, also chipped away at what helped insulate the LDP from political competition. Before the switch from multi-member to single-member districts, voters who disapproved of the incumbent could vote for another LDP member, one of a different faction. With one seat to a district, however, a vote for "the other" becomes a vote for another party. That other party has become the DPJ.

"[Former Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi delayed the inevitable collapse of the LDP for five years," says Curtis, who says that after Koizumi left office the failure of his reforms "to do the trick" became more apparent. Following the end of Koizumi's term in 2006, Japan has had three prime ministers in as many years. "The public was waiting for chance to show their dissatisfaction, which is why they had no election, because [Shinzo] Abe, [Yasuo] Fukuda and Aso knew that they would lose. So, they put it off until the very last moment," says Curtis. "And low and behold, they're going to lose."

Ahmadinejad urges punishment for unrest architects

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for a severe punishment of the orchestrators of the post-election unrest that followed the presidential election.

In a pre-sermon speech to Friday prayers, President Ahmadinejad touched upon the events ensuing from the 10th presidential election.

Calling the post-election events 'painful', the president said that certain individuals deceived by the enemy's schemes did their best to undermine the high voter turnout in the election and to shake the foundations of the Islamic establishment.

The president said electoral fraud with a huge discrepancy was not possible in Iran. He called the June 12 election 'the healthiest' election against which no single evidence could be found to undermine the results.

President Ahmadinejad then called on officials to bring to justice the architects of the post-election unrest.

"I call upon security and judicial officials to decisively and mercilessly act with those who committed inhumane acts in the guise of the friends [of the establishment] since they inflicted damage on people and tarnished the image of the establishment, security and police forces."

He then called on authorities to administer justice and firmly deal with those who "orchestrated and provoked" the unrest and instead treat those deceived in the course of the election with 'Islamic compassion'.

President Ahmadinejad also lashed out at Western countries for interfering in the internal affairs of the country both before and after the election.

They tried to undermine the 'dignity and pride' of the Iranian nation and sought in vain to mar the image of the Islamic establishment, President Ahmadinejad said, but reiterated that the Islamic Revolution has instead gained 'more strength' following the election developments.

The president then advised Western countries to compensate for their 'blunders'.

After the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 presidential election, the defeated candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi disputed the veracity of the votes and rejected the result as 'fraudulent'.

Tehran and some other Iranian cities became the scene of rallies with some of them turning violent and resulting in the death of at least 30 people. A large number of people including well-known opposition figures, political activists and journalists were also arrested following the election.

Tehran accuses Western countries for instigating the post-election protests in Iran, arguing that the widespread post-vote unrest was a foreign-led attempt aimed at staging a 'velvet coup' to overthrow the Islamic establishment.

The opposition leaders deny having any links to foreign countries, adding that the outcry has been prompted by national doubts over the official result of the vote.

Iranian president: Prosecute opposition leaders

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's president Friday called for the prosecution of opposition leaders over the post election turmoil, saying that senior activists currently on trial should not be the only ones punished.

The call from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stepped up the pressure against reformers in the ongoing unrest that has gripped the country following the June 12 presidential election and proven the strongest challenge to the cleric-led regime since its 1979 inception.

"Serious confrontation has to be against the leaders and key elements, against those who organized and provoked (the riots) and carried out the enemy's plan. They have to be dealt with seriously," Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands in the capital Tehran before Friday prayers.

The president said prominent activists who are currently standing trial have to be treated with "Islamic mercy," portraying them as "deceived" into taking part in the unrest.

"These deceived and second-hand elements have to be dealt with Islamic mercy. Don't give immunity and protection to the main elements and punish the deceived and second-hand elements," he said.

More than 100 pro-reform activists and politicians, including many who have made public confessions, are currently on trial in Tehran. Rights groups and others say the public confessions were coerced by threats and abuses in custody.

Ahmadinejad did not specifically name the opposition leaders. However, many hard-liners and members of the Revolutionary Guard have publicly called for the arrest of defeated presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi as well as former president Mohammad Khatami.

Ahmadinejad also admitted for the first time that detained protesters were abused in custody but also denied any government involvement, claiming instead that it was the work of Iran's enemies and the opposition.

"These actions that were carried out in custody ... were part of the enemy's scenario," he said. "Security, military and intelligence forces are free from these shameful acts."

The government has been struggling to contain outrage among many Iranians over persistent accusations that protesters were abused in prison.

The opposition says the crackdown on the demonstrations killed at least 69 people, while the government says only 30 people have died. Hundreds have been arrested since the election and the opposition says some of them died in prison from beatings and other abuse.

Lebanon sees no cabinet in two months as blocs keep negotiating

by Yousra Hatoum, Ren Ke

It is mainly the domestic reason --Lebanon's rival political blocs' continuous bargaining on the lineup -- that made the country cannot form a new national unity cabinet in two months, said analysts on Thursday.

After defeating the rival Hezbollah-dominant March 8 alliance in the June 7 parliamentary election, Saad Hariri, leader of the Western- and Saudi-backed March 14 alliance, was designated as prime minister on June 27.

Sunni Muslim Hariri agreed to form a national unity government with his rivals to replace the one that came out after deadly clashes in May 2008. He once expected to form the new cabinet before August.

However, the new cabinet has not yet to emerge, as fierce negotiations and bargaining of new cabinet's portfolios continue.

Director of the Social Sciences Institute of Lebanese University Dr. Talal Atrrisi told Xinhua "the new cabinet will not be formed before the end of Ramadan because of some issues regarding the distribution of ministerial portfolios of the cabinet."

One of the obstacles on the way of the birth of the new cabinet is the appointment of Gebran Basil, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun's son-in-law and the caretaker telecommunications minister.

Hezbollah's Christian ally Aoun asked for five portfolios and Basil to be appointed in the new cabinet. Aoun also presented an offer claiming for the sovereign ministries, such as interior ministry.

The majority and opposition have reached an agreement to divide30 portfolios in the formula of 15-10-5 among Hariri's majority, Hezbollah-led opposition and President Michel Suleiman.

Hariri revealed that the only obstacle facing the government formation was Aoun's demands and Hariri's refusal to allow losers in the parliamentary election to enter the cabinet.

Basil failed to win a parliamentary seat in the June election and the majority insists that it will only agree to ministers who have proven they have the confidence of the electors.

Hariri insisted he would not give up to Aoun's demands considering that it was normal to keep the interior ministry in the hands of the president.

"Forming a cabinet in Lebanon is not an easy work. Hariri has to appease all the political parties," said Hilal Khashan, head of the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration at the American University of Beirut.

Hariri's ordeal pales before the nine months that former Prime Minister Rashid Karame took to form a government in 1969, Khashan added.

"Lebanon is a small country with very few available political resources but a lot of factions. Too many people want to take part in politics," Khashan told Xinhua.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is also held responsibility for thecabinet's delay, said Atrrisi. Earlier this month, Jumblatt, a loyal member of the Hariri camp for the past four years, announced a separation from the bloc.

Although Jumblatt said later he would fully support Hariri in forming the new government, he is now believed to be moving closer to normalize his political ties with the opposition forces and Syria as well.

Jumblatt's changes almost shifted the balance of power in both the parliament and the soon-to-come cabinet, as his Progressive Socialist Party holds 11 seats among the majority's 71 seats in parliament against the opposition's 57. Jumblatt also holds three portfolios in the new cabinet.

Besides the political negotiations and changes, the cabinet formation was also paused for twice as Hariri went to vacation to Saudi Arabia earlier this week and in southern France earlier this month. Analysts believed he had consultations with Saudi envoys during the two vacations.

"Hariri enjoys a constitutional support giving him all the time he needs to form the cabinet since there are absolutely no rules defining his mission or limiting it by time," said Atrrisi.

However, Atrrisi believed that the time is running against Hariri -- the longer he spends in forming the cabinet, the more it will weaken his role as the prime minister-designate.

"The opposition and also the Lebanese people will feel that Hariri is not up for his role as an upcoming prime minister," said Atrrisi, adding "If Hariri cannot find a solution to the cabinet formation soon, then he will not be able to find solution to the country's crisis."

Although the government crisis is linked to an internal obstacle created by both the March 14 forces and the opposition, external interventions also have changed the positive atmosphere of the cabinet formation, according to Atrrisi.

"Egypt was the first country to oppose forming the government because it was still unfamiliar with the content of the Syrian-Saudi agreement," said Atrrisi.

"As for America, it doesn't play any positive role in the cabinet formation at the time of a frequent Israeli intervention through Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who put conditions on the form of the cabinet and the participation of Hezbollah in it," he added.

Netanyahu has warned Lebanon over Hezbollah's participation in the upcoming cabinet, saying the Lebanese government would be held responsible for any military attempts by the Shiite militant group against Israel.

However, Hariri struck back at Israel earlier this week, warning that Hezbollah will be part of the new government "whether the enemy likes it or not."

"The French role is the only the positive one and the facilitator seeking to speed up the formation," Atrrisi added.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Thursday for speeding up efforts to form a national unity government in Lebanon and pleaded for a new Mideast peace push.

Speaking to Lebanese daily An-Nahar on Thursday, Hezbollah member of parliament Mohammad Raad said he believed regional powers are keen to "impose the government they want on our people."

"We are not accusing anyone, but we believe that it is the responsibility of the PM-designate to assess the supreme national interest to resolve the cabinet issue," he added.

However, Khashan believed the delay of cabinet formation is mainly a domestic issue. "It will be decided by how Lebanese politicians divide the political pies," he said.

Khashan expected Hariri's mission of forming the new cabinet will be finished before President Michel Suleiman's New York trip for the UN General Assembly in late September.

Somalia: Helicopters Hunt Wildlife, Residents Say

Gara'ad — Residents and elders in the Somali Coastal village of Gara'ad have voiced concern over helicopters hunting various types of wildlife, including ostrich and gazelles, Radio Garowe has reported.

According to the elders who have made contact with the Puntland-based radio, helicopters have been used to dart the wildlife before taking them onboard.

"For the last five days, the hunters have been anesthetizing the animals before taking them onboard to ships based on the high seas" said Tahug Muse Ahmed, one of the elders who made contact with the Radio.

He added that local elders have agreed to conserve the wildlife nine years ago and imposed fines on anybody held on hunting after the wildlife in the area was close to extinction.

However, it is not clear which country owns the helicopters but international naval powers, including NATO have deployed warships to the waters off Somalia over past years to escort aid-carrying ships bound to Somalia and to protect the maritime trade routes from Somali pirates.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200908270968.html.

Body of revered Shiite leader arrives in Baghdad

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – The body of a revered Shiite leader arrived Friday for burial amid tight security that saw portions of the Iraqi capital sealed off, signaling fears the funeral procession may be targeted by insurgents to stoke sectarian tensions.

The body of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim was met by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and hundreds of political and religious officials, marking the second half of a two-day funeral procession through the Shiite heartland that began in Iran and has seen thousands take to the streets in mourning.

Al-Hakim, who died Wednesday of lung cancer in Tehran, was a symbol for many of the re-emergence of Iraq's Shiite political majority after decades of oppression under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime. He worked with Americans following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion even while maintaining his ties to Iran where he lived in exile for 20 years.

"We have lost you while we are undergoing a delicate and sensitive period, and in a time when we are in need of strong men with experience and who have made great sacrifices," al-Maliki said, speaking to al-Hakim's casket shortly after it was lowered onto the tarmac at Baghdad International Airport.

"We are still confronting the remnants of a dictatorship and terrorism by those who want to hurt Iraq. ... You stood firm like a mountain in the face of the tyrants who to this day want to bring back the days of dictatorship and injustice."

Iraqi security forces closed major roads linking Baghdad's airport to government ministries in the fortified Green Zone and streets leading to one of Iraq's largest Shiite mosques where a service was scheduled for al-Hakim later Friday.

The procession, which will end with his burial in the southern holy city of Najaf, comes as insurgents have stepped up attacks that have killed hundreds in recent weeks.

Many Sunnis and some Shiites distrusted al-Hakim, seeing him as a tool of Iran in his calls for self-rule in the Shiite heartland, home to most of Iraq's oil.

Al-Hakim's death, however, has seen an outpouring of condolences from Iraq's biggest Sunni political party, Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party. Tariq al-Hashemi, Iraq's Sunni vice president, was among hundreds on hand for the arrival of al-Hakim's casket.

The death of al-Hakim has left a hole in Iraq's largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council just five months before crucial parliamentary elections.

Somalia: Cut Off By Insecurity, IDPs in Jowhar Run Out of Food

Nairobi — Two months after food deliveries to Somalia's south-central town of Jowhar were halted, several thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) are facing a food crisis, sources said.

"The little food we were given in June is gone; we have had nothing in the last two months," Asiyo Jilibey, a community leader, told IRIN on 27 August. "I don't know what will happen next but if help does not arrive soon we are in trouble."

An estimated 9,000 IDP families (49,000 people), live mostly in seven camps in the town, 90km north of the capital, Mogadishu. The camps are Dayah, Kalagoye, Bada Cas, Baryare, Bulo Matuuni, Biyafo and Sheikh Omar Camp.

Jilibey said most of the IDPs had been in the camps since early 2007, when an upsurge in violence in Mogadishu sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, "but we had a new influx in May, June and early July [2009]".

Food distributions were stopped in Jowhar after June due to insecurity, according to the UN World Food Program (WFP).

"We last distributed 124.46MT of assorted food assistance to 8,190 Jowhar IDPs in June," Mahamud Hassan "Guled", a spokesman for WFP Somalia, said. "But due to the insecurity, our local partner could not distribute the planned July food rations to the IDPs and the situation remains the same this month."

The Islamist al-Shabab has been in control of Jowhar since May 2009. The group raided and looted UN offices there. Jowhar was the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) main hub for the southern and central regions of Somalia.

"Some days nothing"

Mumino Ibrahim, a mother of seven, said she had no food left and was on her way to town find some work.

"Maybe I will get enough so we can have a meal tonight," she said, adding that she had left her children in the care of the oldest, a 10-year-old girl. "Some days I get enough for a meal and some days nothing."

Ibrahim, a resident of Dayah Camp, along with 451 other displaced families [2,706 people], said if she did not leave the children to look for work, "they will starve. There is no one else."

Fartun Salah, a mother of four, said she arrived in Dayah Camp two months ago, fleeing violence in Mogadishu. "I went back [to the city] when the Ethiopians left but had to flee again."

She said the violence was worse now than in 2007. "I thought that after the Ethiopians we would have peace but this is worse than before.

"I do odd jobs when I get them, like everybody else, but sometimes it is not even enough for one meal. My children are hungry and only God can save us now," Salah said.

Jilibey said it was common to see families putting a pot on the stove "with nothing but water so the children will think food is coming and sleep".

The situation is made worse because the odd jobs that many IDPs depend on have disappeared. "There is hardly any business activity in the area, so nobody is hiring," she said.

Jilibey said the situation was "very desperate and people will likely die if we don't get help soon".

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200908270526.html.

More than 2,000 ordered to flee Calif. wildfires

By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES – At least 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes in a wealthy seaside community as California's dry heat and low humidity made conditions ripe for conflagrations.

Residents in Rancho Palos Verdes were ordered to leave their homes late Thursday, Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mike Brown said. TV news footage showed structures on fire and at least one entirely engulfed in flames.

Fire officials could not confirm if any structures or homes had been damaged or destroyed.

Structures burned in the wealthy communities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles, an area known for their horse trails, spectacular Pacific views, pricey real estate and exclusive golf clubs. Suburbs on the foothills to the north of the city were evacuated as a slumbering fire suddenly roared to life Thursday evening.

The Terrenea Resort, a luxury hotel a couple miles from the fire, opened its door to locals who had to evacuate.

By midnight Friday, only two families took advantage of the offer but several others called to ask about the offer, said hotel spokeswoman Wendy Haase. The resort's usual weeknight rate is $264, but the rooms weren't fully booked so the managers decided to help out, she said.

"I talked to one mom and her child and a dog. They were pretty calm, all things considered," she said. "It's pretty late so everyone's just exhausted and wanted to get some sleep."

About 500 homes in La Canada Flintridge, a suburb just 12 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, also were ordered evacuated late Thursday as flames made their way slowly down from the San Gabriel Mountains, said Forest Service fire spokeswoman Diane Cahir.

The fire kicked up late Thursday afternoon as the blaze scorched at least 500 acres of heavy brush in steep and narrow canyons about 12 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Weather plagued fire crews across Southern California as temperatures in some areas rose toward triple digits and humidity levels headed downward. For a second day, the National Weather Service issued on Thursday a red flag warning of extreme fire conditions for many of California's central and southern mountain ranges.

Three days of low humidity and temperatures that hit 99 before noon Thursday in downtown Los Angeles sapped the brush of moisture.

In Monterey County, in the central coastal region of the state, 100 homes were evacuated about four miles from the community of Soledad. The fire had burned more than 2,000 acres of steep grasslands, or more than 3 square miles, since it was reported Thursday afternoon, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Capt. James Dellamonica said. The blaze has not been contained.

Another fire in the San Gabriel Mountains spread a lung-burning haze over much of metropolitan Los Angeles, and was 60 percent contained late Thursday after burning across 2,000 acres, or more than 3 square miles, said Capt. Jim Wilkins of the U.S. Forest Service.

Nearly 1,000 firefighters aided by bulldozers and a fleet of water- and fire retardant-dropping aircraft worked the fire's northeastern edge.

Wilkins said the area is so steep that "it's almost to the point where you need ropes" for firefighters to reach it.

The fire, believed caused by human action began Tuesday near a dam and reservoir in San Gabriel Canyon, a half-dozen miles above the city of Azusa.

Another fire, in the San Bernardino National Forest in Riverside County, had blackened 600 acres by Thursday evening and prompted authorities to issue a voluntary evacuation of 12 homes in the area near Hemet, said Forest Service fire spokeswoman Anabele Cornejo. She said about five people had left and that the fire was 5 percent contained.

Iranians mourn Iraqi Shiite leader

Hundreds of Iranians on Thursday mourned the death of the powerful Iraqi Shiite leader, Abdul Aziz Hakim, the satellite Press TV reported.

Crowds of Iranians gathered in front of the Iraqi embassy in Tehran on Thursday and mourned the death of the head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) Abdul Aziz Hakim, who died of lung cancer in a hospital in Tehran.

Leading Iranian officials including Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also attended the ceremony, Press TV said.

In a statement released on Thursday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei expressed his "great sorrow" and extended condolences to the Iraqi nation, government, the SIIC and his family over his death, the report said.

Hakim's body will be transferred to Iraq on Thursday for official funerals in Baghdad and then in Najaf.

Abdul Aziz Hakim had been under medical treatment for lung cancer for a long time. He was hospitalized in a Tehran hospital on Monday upon his physicians' advice.

Hakim, 59, was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2007 after medical tests in the United States, but he preferred to receive treatment in Iran. He made several trips to Iran for chemotherapy before being hospitalized.

As a prominent Shiite theologian and politician, he headed SIIC, the largest political party in the Iraqi parliament.

After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Hakim became a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and served as its rotating presidency in December 2003.

In August 2003, he replaced his brother Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim as the leader of the SIIC Shiite party, then named the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.  

Iraq announces three-day mourning for Hakim's death

August 27, 2009

The Iraqi government announced Thursday a three-day mourning for the death of the leading Iraqi Shiite cleric and politician Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the Iraqi official television reported.

"The Iraqi government announced three-day national mourning starting from Thursday for the death of Sayyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim," the state-run Iraqia channel said.

Hakim, the head of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite parties, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), has died in a Tehran hospital on Wednesday.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2007 after medical tests in the United States, but he preferred to receive treatment in Iran.

Hakim, 59, is a prominent Shiite theologian and politician, who headed the SIIC, the largest political party in the Iraqi parliament.

After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Hakim became a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and served as its rotating presidency in December 2003.

In August 2003, he replaced his brother Mohammed Baqir al-Hakimas the leader of the SIIC Shiite party, then named the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6741666.html.