Schwarzenegger gets firsthand look at fire ruins

By GREG RISLING and RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press Writers

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured a fire-ravaged community Thursday where a wildfire left dozens of homes in ruins, encountering piles of twisted metal and rubble as firefighters began to bring the blaze under greater control.

The blaze was 38 percent contained Thursday, up from 28 percent the previous day. The fire now measures 147,440 acres, or 226 square miles, and is one of the largest wildfires in Southern California history.

Schwarzenegger talked to residents about their losses and later thanked firefighters for all of their work in putting out the flames. At one point during the tour, the former bodybuilder picked up a 30-pound barbell located amid the wreckage.

"Even though we are still battling those fires, we are now trying to help get people's lives rebuilt," Schwarzenegger said. "When you see this kind of devastation, it's horrible to lose your home, your personal belongings."

Despite the overall progress against the fire, firefighters dealt with a flare-up overnight in a remote canyon as strong downslope winds "just kind of blew the fire up," said U.S. Forest Service official John Huschke. Twenty-five people in 11 homes were evacuated in the canyon area.

The wildfire, now in its eighth day, has destroyed 64 homes, burned three people and left two firefighters dead. During the night, a firefighter injured his leg when he fell 20 foot from a cliff and was taken to a hospital by a medical helicopter, officials said. He was in stable condition.

Full containment was expected Sept. 15, meaning fire officials expect that they will have the blaze completely surrounded by then.

Firefighters have been conducting an aerial assault on the fire to complement efforts on the ground. Helicopters have doused the fire with 1.7 million gallons of water — enough to fill about three Olympic-sized swimming pools — while airplanes have dropped 670,000 gallons of retardant on the fire.

"We're changing the pace and treating this as a marathon," U.S. Forest Service incident commander Mike Dietrich said. "If it were a 26-mile race, we'd only be at mile six."

There were growing signs that Los Angeles was looking to move beyond the fire.

The UCLA football team earlier in the week feared it might have to postpone its home opener on Saturday because the fire is so close to the Rose Bowl, its home stadium. But the school said Thursday that the game will be played as scheduled.

Schwarzenegger got an earful from some residents as he toured the community of Vogel Flats in Big Tujunga Canyon, where most of the 40 homes were leveled by the blaze.

Bert Voorhees, 53, who lost his 800 square-foot home, wondered why firefighters didn't have aircraft or strike crews available before the fire raced into the canyon over the weekend and wiped out the mountain community.

"I just know a terrible mistake was made in this canyon," said Voorhees, a civil rights lawyer. "It's much bigger than this canyon. The fact that it cost two guys (firefighters) their lives, it's like bigger than any of this."

Voorhees suggested that fire officials bowed to political pressure and opted to protect richer neighborhoods to show off its aerial assault instead of snuffing out the fire when it was in its infancy.

Fire officials denied they were influenced by legislators where to put firefighters and equipment. They said they were willing to meet with residents about what happened.

"The distance of this fire in relation to this canyon, necessitated putting resources where the immediate threat was," deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said. "This thing moved in hard and fast. Firefighters told me they have never seen a fire move that fast."

The search for what sparked the blaze intensified as U.S. Forest Service investigators gathered along a road in a blackened forest to hunt for clues near where the fire started. They shook soil in a can and planted red, blue and yellow flags to mark evidence beneath a partially burned oak tree at the bottom of a ravine.

Joseph initially said the fire was "human-caused." Forest Service officials said there was no lightning in the area at the time and no power lines in the vicinity, but later backtracked on Joseph's comments, saying they are looking at all possible causes.

"The only thing I can say is it is possibly human activity," Forest Service Commander Rita Wears said.

Jordanians Seek To Fight In Gaza

AMMAN [MENL] -- Palestinian Islamists have been recruited to leave their native Jordan to fight for the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

Jordanian sources said young Palestinians have been recruited to join the Hamas regime or Al Qaida-aligned Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip. They said some of the recruits were also ordered to smuggle out of Jordan light weapons, ammunition and detonators to help in the Hamas war against Israel.

Turkey to give Iraq, Syria more water from Tigris

By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey – In a change of heart, Turkey said Thursday it would strive to increase the amount of water it releases to Syria and Iraq through the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers but warned that it too was suffering from a severe drought.

Hours earlier, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz had said his country was already too overstretched with water and power demands and could not raise the flow of water any further.

Water disputes threaten to disrupt the newly warm relations between Turkey and its neighbors and complicate wider efforts to bring stability to the region, as the populations of the three countries increase and the demand for water grows.

Drought-stricken Iraq has accused upstream neighbors Turkey and Syria of taking too much from the rivers and their tributaries. Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq parched for a second straight year, wrecking swaths of farmland and threatening drinking water supplies.

"It is very important and Iraq is already getting much less water due to some dams constructed in Turkey and Syria," said Nagesh Kumar, a water expert at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. "There is potential for international conflict in this region on water disputes."

Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu said Turkey would try to release as much water as possible over its legal obligation of 500 cubic meters per second.

"There is a serious water crisis in Iraq, we are taking this into account," he said at the end of a meeting with the Iraqi and Syrian irrigation ministers. "But our own capabilities are limited."

Eroglu would not say how much more water Turkey could allow its neighbors. Yildiz said Turkey was already releasing on average 517 cubic meters per second instead of the required 500 cubic meters per second, sacrificing its own energy needs in the process.

The drought has also dealt a blow to Iraq's hopes that reductions in sectarian violence over the last year would fuel an economic recovery. Instead, lower-than-expected oil prices have crimped government revenues and the scarcity of water will force Iraq to spend money to import crops like wheat and rice to meet domestic demand.

French consulate torched as Bongo wins Gabon vote

by Coumba Sylla

LIBREVILLE (AFP) – Opposition supporters went on the rampage across oil-rich Gabon Thursday, torching a French consulate and attacking a prison, after the son of the country's late leader was declared winner of a bitter presidential election.

Disturbances were reported in several districts of the capital Libreville as officials said Ali Bongo had won the contest to succeed his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, with around 42 percent of the vote.

In some neighborhoods, crowds of young men chanted "Death to the Whites" as Paris told around 10,000 French nationals not to leave their homes amid rumors the former colonial power had conspired to fix the result.

The shells of burnt-out cars littered highways around the capital while demonstrators had set fire to piles of tires and erected makeshift barricades with upturned rubbish bins.

The French consulate was set ablaze in the second city of Port-Gentil, while several hundred supporters of long-time opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou, attacked the city's prison and freed inmates.

"Measures are in place to ensure the security of French citizens ... It is recommended to French people to stay at home," international development minister Alain Joyandet told AFP in Paris.

He said that around 80 French soldiers -- out of 1,000 stationed at France's permanent base in the country -- had been "called out" in Port-Gentil following the attack on the consulate and on French companies Total and Schlumberger.

Violence also erupted in Nkembo, east of the capital. "People are breaking anything that they can, they have smashed stores. It is a mess," said resident Benjamin Ngouan.

After several delays, the electoral commission finally announced on Thursday that Ali Bongo, a former defense minister, had won the contest to become president of the African nation, succeeding his father who ruled for 41 years until his death in June.

Ali Bongo was declared the winner with 141,952 (41.73 percent) of votes cast in last Sunday's election, putting him clearly ahead of his nearest rival Andre Mba Obame, a former interior minister, who won 88,028 (25.88 percent) votes.

Mamboundou came third with 25.22 percent.

All three had proclaimed victory soon after polls closed and the build-up to Thursday's announcement had been marked by growing tensions.

"We are getting phone calls from the three candidates," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters in Paris. "I hope that they will come to an arrangement as they always have in Gabon."

Asked about rumors that the opposition leaders might be in danger, Kouchner said French officials in Gabon had been in touch with them and confirmed that he had reports Mamboundou had been wounded "but not shot".

Security forces used tear gas and baton charged demonstrators, including Mba Obame and Mamboundou, outside the electoral commission building before the results were announced, witnesses said.

After the results were announced Ali Bongo pledged to unite the country.

"As far as I am concerned, I am and I will always be the president of all the people of Gabon... I am and I will always be at the service of all, without exclusion," he said at his campaign headquarters in Libreville.

However Mba Obame's camp promptly rejected the outcome.

"We do not recognize the result of the election," one of his advisers told AFP, adding that the candidate himself was "safe at a secret location."

African Union observers on Tuesday said that while the election met legal provisions, "ballot boxes were not sealed in some places" and some polling station staff apparently did not "master the voting process."

The observer team also said that not all candidates were represented in the polling stations they had visited and regretted "the absence of scrutineers in a number of polling stations during the vote count."

Although it is only a country of 1.5 million people, Gabon is strategically important as the fourth largest oil producer in sub-Saharan African and a major exporter of manganese and wood.

Syringe attacks spark new protest in Chinese city

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – Hundreds of Chinese protested deteriorating public safety Thursday after a series of mysterious syringe attacks further unnerved residents in the western Chinese city of Urumqi where ethnic rioting in July killed nearly 200 people.

People living near the city center reached by telephone said hundreds, possibly thousands, of members of China's Han majority marched peacefully in the city center. They waved Chinese flags, confronted local Communist Party leaders demanding they step down, and shouted "severely punish the hooligans" — a reference to the July 5 rioters.

The demonstration underscored public jitters and lingering grievances despite the city's still-high police presence. It also posed a challenge for the Beijing leadership and a propaganda drive portraying Urumqi and all of China as harmonious ahead of the 60th anniversary of communist rule Oct. 1.

July's riot — in which ethnic Muslims first set upon Hans who then retaliated with vigilante attacks — was the worst communal violence in a decade in Xinjiang, an often tense Central Asian frontier region with valuable oil and gas deposits.

Thursday's protest came after days of rumors that gangs roamed the city stabbing mostly Han people with hypodermic needles, scaring residents. City officials and state media confirmed the attacks, saying 21 had been detained. A report read on Xinjiang TV's newscast Thursday said 476 people sought treatment for stabbing, though only 89 had obvious signs of being pricked.

While no motivations for the attacks were given, the report gave a breakdown of the victims showing almost all, 433, were Han Chinese with the rest drawn from eight other ethnic groups. The tally suggested the attacks were ethnically motivated and indicated the breadth of unease in the city.

Concerns about the stabbings may be high because Xinjiang has the highest rate of AIDS virus infections in China, with about 25,000 cases of HIV reported last year. The problem is fueled by needle-sharing among drug users.

As Thursday's protests gathered steam, demonstrators headed for the site of the Urumqi Trade Fair, where staff was evacuated. Protesters pushed and shoved police and a few in the crowd were beaten, said resident Zhao Jianzhuang. A Han, Zhao said he joined the demonstrators at a downtown intersection where they were blocked by riot police from marching on People's Square 1 mile (1.6 kilometers away).

The mostly Han demonstrators seemingly took care not to rile ethnic grievances, calling out "maintain ethnic unity" and venting their anger on local officials. They called for the ouster of Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan, an ally of President Hu Jintao.

Trying to head off trouble, Wang and the Urumqi party secretary Li Zhi separately talked to the demonstrators, who called for better police protection and demanded they step down, an editor at a local newspaper said, requesting his name not be used because he works for the government.

"Am I that silly? Do I not know that I should protect my brothers and sisters?" Li told them, according to footage the editor said was aired on Urumqi's TV station.

The official Xinhua News Agency confirmed the protest, saying people assembled at several places, including more than 1,000 in the central residential area of Xiaoximen, to demand a "security guarantee" from authorities after the syringe attacks.

Protests have become a spiraling concern for Chinese leaders, with tens of thousands annually and growing larger and more violent in recent years. Fueled by local grievances over corruption, widening income gaps and mismanagement, they challenge the legitimacy of a government that has promised to deliver social fairness. Beijing has so far sought only piecemeal, rather than systematic remedies, calling on officials to be honest public servants, ease social tensions and not use force.

"If you try to deal with demonstrators, that is one thing, that's a security concern. But on the other hand, you really have to find social measures to make sure there is not further anger among residents," said Bo Zhiyue, a China politics expert at National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute.

Troubles in Xinjiang are magnified by ethnic resentments. The Uighurs, an ethnic Muslim group that sees the region as its homeland, complain about being displaced by the Han, who have poured into the area in recent years. The Han resent government affirmative action policies for official jobs and university spots given to Uighurs.

At the first word of trouble Thursday, tensions spiked in the traditional Uighur neighborhood near Urumqi's Grand Bazaar.

"Earlier, a lot of people ran over saying 'something's happened, something's happened,' so I quickly closed my shop and rushed home," said a Uighur woman. She did not want to give her name for fear of government reprisals.

Thursday is the 15th day of the seventh lunar month — an important day when Han Chinese honor the dead by inviting them back for meals. The date may have been cause for agitation as most of the victims in the July violence were Han Chinese.

Zhao, the Chinese demonstrator, said anger was stoked by a perceived delay in trials for those arrested over the July riot as well as by the syringe stabbings.

"This is communal violence and people are frustrated because over 200 people were killed and almost 1,700 were injured. And of course you have friends, relatives and children who were attacked. So the people are not happy," said Bo, the politics expert.

Official: Hamas lawmakers' release "opportunity" to convene parliament

Israeli release of nine Hamas lawmakers of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) would help to convene the Palestinian parliament, an independent official said in a statement on Thursday.

Hassan Khreisha, second deputy to the PLC's speaker, said the Israeli release of nine lawmakers "is a good sign to make all other blocks and parties represented in the parliament to seriously consider convening the parliament."

Hamas movement occupied 73 seats in the 132-member PLC, better known as the parliament of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), after it defeated its Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in the parliamentary elections held in the Palestinian territories in January 2006.

According to PNA constitutions, legislative and presidential elections are scheduled to be held on Jan. 25 next year. However, the Hamas-dominated PLC hasn't been convening regularly after 40 Hamas lawmakers were detained in August 2006, including Aziz al-Dweik, the PLC speaker.

Israel detained the Hamas parliament speaker as well as 39 Hamas lawmakers right after Hamas seized the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Gaza Strip in late June 2006.

Fatah movement decided to boycott any PLC session in protest to taking control of the Gaza Strip by Hamas in 2007.

Khreisha called on rival Hamas and Fatah movements to hurry up and reach a reconciliation agreement. "Preparations for holding the elections should start soon, and I believe no one can start it before reaching an agreement."

Ahmadinejad, Haniyeh discuss Israel's expansionism

President Ahmadinejad reiterates support for embattled Palestinians and condemns Israeli actions in a phone discussion with the Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyeh.

"In this discussion, Haniyeh and Ahmadinejad reviewed political developments and recent conspiracies against the al-Aqsa Mosque and exchanged ideas about the dangers for Jewishification of Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the occupation of Palestinians' lands," according to the press office of Palestine's democratically elected government.

The press office also said that the Iranian president emphasized the continued support of the people and officials for the Palestinian nation in the Gaza Strip, which remains under a crippling blockade by Israel.

Ahmadinejad also condemned Israel's policies in Jerusalem (al-Quds) and stressed that Iran would be marking a designated 'Quds Week' in solidarity with the Palestinian nation and the issue of Jerusalem (al-Quds).

The al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is Islam's third holiest place, but it has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The late leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini designated the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as the 'International Quds Day' for all Muslims to publicly express their solidarity with the beleaguered Palestinians.

This year, Quds Day will fall on September 18, and rallies are expected across the world in support of Palestinians' rights and against the illegal Israeli occupation.

Spain daily to run interview with Holocaust denier

By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer

MADRID – A Spanish newspaper is defending its plans to publish an interview this coming weekend with a British writer who denies the Holocaust, despite a furious complaint from Israel.

The center-right daily El Mundo plans to run the interview with David Irving, who served 13 months in prison in Austria after being convicted there in 2006 over charges he denied the Nazis exterminated 6 million Jews, on Saturday.

It is part of a series of six interviews with World War II experts, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the war's outbreak.

El Mundo said Thursday it wants to publish "innovative" views on World War II for the anniversary. El Mundo rejects Israel's assertion that this is a case where freedom of speech should be limited, the paper's deputy editor Juan Carlos Laviana said.

Israeli Ambassador Raphael Schutz condemned the newspaper's plans as an insult to its readers, to those historians and to the concept of free speech.

Schutz told The Associated Press that Irving lacks any credibility and does not deserve to be in the same interview lineup. It includes Ian Kershaw, a Briton who is a leading biographer of Hitler, and Avner Shalev, director of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel.

"To put Irving on the same platform with these people may create an impression, and as a matter of fact it does, that he has the same stand while everyone who knows something about the issue knows that David Irving is nothing but ... a liar and a con man," the ambassador said.

Militants kill 2 policemen in India-controlled Kashmir

Two policemen including a Special Police Officer (SPO) have been killed in an ambush laid by the militants in India-controlled Kashmir, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place on Wednesday night after police on a tip-off about the presence of militants launched a search operation in Behrot area of Thana Mandi in Rajouri district, 190 km northwest of Jammu, the winter capital of India-controlled Kashmir.

"We launched search operation at around 09:30 p.m. local time following the intelligence inputs that three militants are present in the area. While the police party was advancing toward the village, it came under fire and two of our men died on the spot, "said a senior police officer from Rajouri.

Additional police and troopers have been rushed to the spot to nab the militants, who are believed to have escaped in the darkness of the night.

Search operation is going on in the region, police said.

Gun fighting between militants and Indian army troopers in the India-controlled Kashmir takes place intermittently.

Police and defense officials maintain that most of the times the operations triggering gunfights are carried out on prior information about presence of militants in specific areas.

On Wednesday, five militants were killed by Indian army on Lineof Control in Gurez, north of Srinagar city, who were trying to infiltrate into the India-controlled Kashmir.

Court orders further probe into Russian killing

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW – In a surprise ruling, Russia's Supreme Court ordered further investigation Thursday into the killing of an investigative journalist gunned down after harshly criticizing Vladimir Putin's Kremlin and human rights abuses in Chechnya.

The Supreme Court's military bench returned the case against three suspects accused of involvement in Anna Politkovskaya's brazen 2006 slaying to prosecutors, the court's press service said. It ordered them to merge that case with another investigation into the alleged gunman and the search for the mastermind behind the killing, a lawyer for one of the suspects said.

The decision reversed a ruling by a lower court, which had rejected a request by Politkovskaya's children for a single investigation into her killing. Her family has criticized the prosecution of the suspects in custody, who are accused only of helping set up the slaying. The journalist's family says justice will not be done until the gunman and the mastermind are caught and punished.

Thursday's ruling could increase the chances that Russian authorities will eventually determine who was behind Politkovskaya's murder — a crucial question in a country plagued by the killings of journalists and activists who criticize government authorities.

But it is unlikely to dispel persistent concern among relatives and rights activists about the government's willingness to conduct a complete, aggressive probe that activists suspect could lead back to people in power.

"Whether the Prosecutor General's office will use this new opportunity we cannot say," said Karinna Moskalenko, a prominent human rights lawyer who has represented Politkovskaya's relatives. "We can only hope."

Sergei Sokolov, a deputy editor at Politkovskaya's newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the Supreme Court ruling but pessimistic about the possibility that a mastermind will ever face trial.

"We have always wanted a full, wide investigation. I hope the investigative team will take advantage of this ruling," he told The Associated Press.

During her career, Politkovskaya sharply criticized Putin's Kremlin and the Kremlin-backed government of Chechnya. The southern Russian area was the site of two post-Soviet separatist wars and of widespread rights abuses that Politkovskaya focused much of her investigative reporting on.

Politkovskaya was gunned down in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on Oct. 7, 2006 — a slaying that prompted international outrage and deepened tensions between Russia and the West.

Three men accused of helping set up the shooting were acquitted in February after a trial marred by the absence of the suspected gunman and virtual silence from prosecutors on the key issue of who might have been behind the killing.

The Supreme Court overturned the acquittal, and preliminary hearings in the men's retrial began last month.

In Thursday's ruling, the court's military branch ordered their case to be merged with the case against the suspected gunman, Rustam Makhmudov, and efforts to determine who was behind the contract-style killing, defense lawyer Murad Musayev said.

Prosecutors, who had backed the request for further investigation, suggested Thursday's ruling would mean the trial would be suspended, state-run RIA-Novosti reported. It quoted prosecutor Vera Pashkovskaya as saying a trial would likely not be held until Makhmudov, who authorities say has fled Russia, is in custody.

Pashkovskaya vowed that prosecutors would seek Makhmudov — who is a brother of two of the suspects acquitted in February — and try to determine who had Politkovskaya killed, the report said.

Haneya calls for reconciliation with Fatah

Deposed Prime Minister of Hamas government in Gaza Ismail Haneya on Wednesday called for dialogue and reconciliation with rival Fatah movement.

"I call on Fatah movement, let us turn the page of the past and put the basis for a new Palestinian era of internal ties and political partnership," Haneya told a group of journalists, human rights activists and political figures at his office in Gaza.

"I call from here for forgiveness, political accordance and treat all our disputes on the negotiation table," Haneya said. "Dialogue and reconciliation are the only choice for the Palestinian people."

Haneya reviewed the political and security situation in the region, saying that his movement and his government "would reject any future political solution that doesn't bring the Palestinian people their legitimate rights."

Hamas government of Haneya was deposed by President Mahmoud Abbas right after Hamas militants seized control of the Gaza Strip by force and routed his security forces.

Although Egypt has been mediating between the two rival groups, both sides have so far failed to overcome their differences.

Among the sticky issues that both groups are still arguing are the issues of security, a unity government, reforming Palestine Liberation Organization and holding presidential and legislative elections in January 2010.

Hamas: no Palestinian elections without Gaza

Haniya: holding elections in West Bank without Gaza would be 'political and national crime'.

GAZA CITY - The prime minister of the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday warned against holding Palestinian elections in the West Bank and not Gaza, saying it would be a "national crime."

Hamas and Mahmud Abbas' Fatah party have for months been struggling to reach a national unity agreement to pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections early next year.

But several rounds of Egyptian-brokered talks since the start of the year have shown little sign of progress, putting the vote in doubt.

"If Ramallah holds elections in the West Bank and not in Gaza it would be a political and national crime," Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya told reporters in Gaza, referring to Abbas' West Bank government.

"I hope no one would head to such an election, because it would have difficult consequences for Palestinian unity and the internal divisions."

He added that "elections are part of the national agreement and not outside of it," referring to a future pact that would unite the two main Palestinian movements.

The two sides have said they hope to meet in Egypt again later this month, but several previous rounds of talks have been delayed.

Hamas had won parliamentary elections in 2006 but US and Israeli pressure forced Fatah to stop cooperating with the democratically elected resistance movement.

Bleak Ramadan for besieged Gaza residents

Basic foodstuffs either unavailable or out of purchasing reach due to Israeli blockade on Gaza.

GAZA CITY - Ramadan, a festive time in many parts of the Muslim world, is bleak in Gaza because basic and traditional foodstuffs are unavailable due to the Israeli blockade, or out of reach due to soaring prices and poverty, according to officials.
"Items such as tea, cheese and powdered milk are not generally allowed to be imported into Gaza by the private sector, according to the Israeli authorities," said Hamada Al-Bayari from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza.

In the early hours before 'Iftar', a family meal before the daily fast begins at dawn, Gaza City's central marketplace, Palestine Square, is bustling with shoppers, but many Gazans say they struggle to find and afford traditional Ramadan foods like pickles, dates and jam due to a more than two-year Israeli blockade of the territory.

"People do not have enough money to buy [special food] for Ramadan," said Mohammed Al-Halu, 40, a father of four from Gaza City. "The borders are closed; there are products from the tunnels [along the Egyptian border], but the prices are very high."

"Market prices in Gaza have increased dramatically over the past two years, and the price of fruit, vegetables and processed foods remains high," said Al-Bayari.

"The level of poverty and unemployment is so high, people cannot afford to pay the prices," said UN World Food Programme (WFP) officer Jeannoel Gentile in Gaza. There is a shortage of coffee, tomato paste, canned meats, and Ramadan sweets like `halwa', while the availability of fresh meat is precarious, said Gentile.

According to a July report from the Humanitarian Policy Group on protection and livelihoods in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, prior to the 23-day Israeli offensive which ended on 18 January 2009, 56 percent of the population were food insecure, a figure thought to have risen to over 76 percent as a result of the conflict.

A June 2009 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a household survey in May 2008 showed that, even then, over 70 percent of Gazans were living in poverty, with monthly incomes of less than US$250 for a family of 7-9 members.

Commodities entering Gaza

The logistics cluster, and interagency aid group led by WFP, is in continuous contact with Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) as to what commodities are allowed to enter Gaza; it is unclear exactly which items are prohibited.

"Only humanitarian supplies can enter [Gaza], including medical supplies and food supplies that qualify as basic needs of the population stipulated by international organizations," Israeli Defence Ministry spokesperson Shlomo Dror told IRIN.

"About 100 trucks enter [Gaza] per day with all the supplies via Kerem Shalom crossing, in addition to wheat via Karni [crossing], and fuel and gas supplies via Nahel Oz [fuel depot]," said Dror.

In July 2009, the daily average number of trucks entering Gaza via Israeli-controlled crossings was 83, while in January 2007 the daily average was 631, just before the Hamas electoral victory in the legislative council elections, said Al-Bayari.

"Just 15 percent of the food commodities necessary for the Gaza population are allowed to enter via Israeli-controlled crossings, while another 15-20 percent of the necessary food commodities enter via underground tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, meaning about 30 percent of food supply needs are being met," said Rafiq Al-Madhoun, food security officer with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Gaza.

Food via the tunnels

People try to meet their basic food needs from products entering Gaza via tunnel. However, tunnel food has often been poorly stored and prices are high, said Al-Madhoun.

Many Gaza residents blame Egypt for their suffering, since the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border remains closed to imports.

"The country lacks an economy; there are no jobs," said 70-year-old Um Fahed, scouring the market for affordable food to put on her Ramadan table. "Egypt must open Rafah crossing so I can feed my grandchildren."

US$3 million worth of private sector goods, including commodities like milk and cheese, were confiscated by the Egyptian authorities, according to a Hamas member who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity and claimed to own and operate four tunnels.

"The tunnels are often attacked," said the alleged tunnel owner, explaining that many tunnels are earmarked for different types of imports. "Some are strictly for Hamas and others for electronics," he said.

The Egyptian representative to the Palestinian territories in Ramallah (West Bank) declined to comment. The Egyptian consulate in Gaza has been closed since Hamas took control in June 2007.

UNRWA Ramadan appeal

Meanwhile, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched a Gaza Ramadan Appeal for US$181 million on 17 August, in a bid to restore "a minimum standard of dignity" to Palestinian refugees living in the Strip.

So far the only firm pledge is from the UAE Red Crescent Society - US$100,000 in cash and hot meals during Ramadan to refugees in Gaza, said Sami Mshasha, UNRWA spokesperson in Jerusalem.

Iran assembly approves most of hard-line Cabinet

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – President Mahmoud Ahamedinejad vowed Thursday that Iran would not bend to Western deadlines for nuclear talks after his new government won broad backing from parliament — including a defense minister wanted by Argentina for a deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center.

Lawmakers also gave approval to the nation's first woman government minister since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but rejected three nominees for the 21-seat Cabinet — the choice for the important energy ministry and two women proposed for the education and welfare-social security posts.

The wide mandate from lawmakers was a boost for the embattled president and considered a vote of confidence for his crackdowns on political opponents and tough stance against Western pressure for talks on the nation's nuclear program or risk possible tighter sanctions.

"No one can impose sanctions against Iran anymore. We welcome sanctions. We can manage ourselves (despite sanctions). But we have given our package of proposals," Ahmadinejad told reporters Thursday as the parliament was voting for his proposed Cabinet.

The U.S. and some allies worry that Iran seeks to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran's leaders say they only seek peaceful reactors for electricity.

Ahmadinejad also is struggling against a variety of internal rifts after his disputed re-election in June.

Opposition groups — that claim the outcome was rigged — have gained support from some influential Shiite clerics and even former Ahmadinejad backers who are troubled by the harsh postelection clampdowns and claims of abuses against detainees, including rapes.

But Ahmaedinejad still counts on the support of the powerful Revolutionary Guard and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran.

His battles to win parliament approval for his government displayed his weakened political voice. He faced pointed questions about the experience and expertise of some choices, and made a final appeal to lawmakers to stand up to "enemies" by backing his government.

In the end, Ahmadinejad avoided a drawn-out tussle with parliament to revise his choices during a crucial period for Iran.

President Barack Obama and European allies have given Iran until the end of September to agree to talks on its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad also plans to make his annual trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly later this month.

In the parliament vote, Ahmadinejad won approval for many key posts that included the foreign, interior and intelligence ministries.

The new defense minister, Ahmad Vahidi, received overwhelming support. Also receiving parliament backing was Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi as health minister, making her the Islamic Republic's first female Cabinet member since the toppling of the Western-backed shah.

Vahidi gained support earlier this week when lawmakers said they would not bow to foreign pressures to reject him. Vahidi is wanted over charges of involvement in the bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires that left 85 people dead.

Vahidi is one of five prominent Iranians sought by Argentina in the bombing. He was the commander of a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force at the time of the attack.

Among the 286 lawmakers attending the open session, Vahidi received 227 votes — the biggest show of support for any of the proposed ministers in a clear political snub against Argentina and other nations. Five parliament members abstained.

"Allahu Akbar" or "God is great," the lawmakers chanted as parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani announced the vote for Vahidi.

Later, Vahidi told reporters that "upgrading the country's defense capabilities will be my first priority as defense minister." In May, Iran test-fired an advanced version of its ballistic missile that's capable of reaching Israel and beyond.

In a speech just moments before the vote, Ahmadinejad urged for a strong backing for his government to rattle Western leaders and others who have questioned the legitimacy of the June 12 election.

"Enemies made efforts to damage national might of the dear Iran. I believe it deserves a crushing response from lawmakers in order to disappoint them," he told the chamber before the vote.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hasan Qashqavi, also said Iran would not bend to deadlines set by "threat and pressure." Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will continue in the post in Ahmadinejad's second term.

On Wednesday, envoys the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany urged Iran to agree to talks before the U.N. General Assembly opens on Sept. 15.

The meeting took place a day after Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said Iran would present new proposals and would be ready to open talks "in order to ease common concerns in the international arena."

Under the constitution, Ahmadinejad has three months to name new nominees for the posts rejected Thursday but he is widely expected to submit new candidates to parliament sooner.

Turkey says more water for Iraq, Syria is unlikely

By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey – A water rights battle over the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers simmered Thursday, as Iraq and Syria appealed for increased water flows to cope with severe drought but Turkey said it was already too overstretched.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Turkey's southeast region was also suffering from low rainfall and drought but the country was still releasing more water than it was legally obligated to its neighbors out of humanitarian concerns.

He said Turkey was releasing on average 517 cubic meters per second instead of the required 500 cubic meters per second, sacrificing its own energy needs in the process.

"Water isn't abundant in Turkey," Yildiz said on the sidelines of a meeting between Turkey, Iraq and Syria to discuss water sharing. "We cannot top this amount any further."

Turkey is advocating using water more efficiently and sustainably through joint projects instead of increasing water flows.

Thursday's meeting was called to discuss setting up joint stations to measure water volume at the rivers, as well as exchanging more information about climate and drought and creating joint education programs for more sustainable water management.

Drought-stricken Iraq has accused its upstream neighbors Turkey and Syria of taking too much from the rivers and their tributaries. Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq parched for a second straight year, wrecking swaths of farm land and threatening drinking water supplies.

The rivers' low water flows are caused in part by the construction of dams in Turkey and Syria.

"The water situation in Iraq in the past two years has not been good at all," Iraq's Minister of Water Resources Abdul-Latif Jamal Rashid said. "We are suffering from a serious water shortage. Rainfall has decreased by 40 percent. The drought has intensified."

"This month Iraq will require more water from Turkey and Syria and we believe that this will not be denied," he said.

Turkey's Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu said in opening remarks that Turkey was sacrificing energy production to release water from dams and alleviate water shortages downstream.

"The Euphrates and Tigris basins are extremely arid," Eroglu said. "We are relinquishing our energy needs to make sure that Iraq and Syria are not left without water."

Nader al-Bunni, Syria's irrigation minister, said his country was also letting more water flow into Iraq than required by agreements.

"We understand Iraq's need for more water and we are letting 69 percent of the waters in the Euphrates for the brethren people of Iraq. We have increased the amount from 58 percent to 69 percent," he said.

Iran MPs set to vote on Ahmadinejad cabinet

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian MPs were set to vote on Thursday on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new cabinet after five days of heated debate which saw several nominees strongly opposed by conservative lawmakers.

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has since Sunday been debating the 21-member cabinet line-up proposed by the embattled president.

The list includes several newcomers including three women candidates, the first in the Islamic republic's history.

The vote of confidence was initially scheduled for Wednesday but was now to be held on Thursday, once lawmakers wind up the debate.

Ahmadinejad, whose disputed June 12 re-election set off the worst crisis in the Islamic republic's 30-year history, saw several of his proposed ministers being given short shrift by conservatives in the past four days.

His nominees to be confirmed have each in turn to secure the support of more than 50 percent of sitting MPs during the confidence vote.

The hardliner has been particularly criticized by some powerful MPs from his own conservative support base over two of the three women cabinet designates as well as his proposed transport and interior ministers.

Masoud Mirkazemi, the proposed oil minister, came under severe attack from powerful conservative MP Hamid Reza Katouzian when debate resumed on Thursday.

Katouzian lashed out at Mirkazemi, the current commerce minister, over his lack of experience in the vital oil sector which accounts for 80 percent of foreign earnings of Iran, OPEC's second largest exporter.

"This ministry requires a wide range of decision making in areas of gas, petrochemicals, exploration... and if wrong decisions are taken, it will be hard to rectify them," Katouzian said in the chamber.

"This is a specialized work. Can we ask someone with an engineering degree to run the ministry of health or lead a medical team during a surgery?"

Katouzian said Mirkazemi was not fitted to "defend Iran's rights in an OPEC conference."

Mirkazemi came close to being impeached twice during the first four-year term of Amadinejad's government over a stiff hike in prices of basic commodities.

Mirkazemi ignored the criticism on Thursday and boldly outlined his plans.

"We have to remember that our oil fields are depleting and we must find sophisticated ways to utilize them," he said.

"We also need 140 billion dollars to boost upstream projects and another 50 billion dollars for downstream projects. We must also boost our oil production to 5.1 million barrels a day from 4.3 over the next five years."

In 2005, when Ahmadinejad was presenting his first-ever cabinet, parliament twice rejected his nominees for the oil ministry, one withdrew before a vote was taken, and lawmakers finally confirmed his fourth choice.

On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad's choice for interior minister, Motafa Mohammad Najjar, a military commander, was also severely criticized.

"A military man as interior minister signals to the outside world that the country's political atmosphere is being militarized," said reformist MP Jamshid Ansari.

Najjar is a top commander in the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps. One of the most powerful institutions in Iran, it was set up in the wake of the 1979 revolution to defend the Islamic republic from internal and external threats.

The Basij, a volunteer militia force that is a unit of the Guards, was extensively used to crack down on people protesting what they said was the fraudulent re-election of Ahmadinejad on June 12.

Those protests sparked the worst crisis in the Islamic republic, dividing its powerful clerical groups and shaking the very pillars of the regime.

Two women cabinet nominees -- education and welfare -- are expected to be rejected as they lack ministerial experience and face opposition from hardline clerics who believe women are incapable of heading managerial positions.

But the woman set to head the health ministry, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, is expected to be confirmed after she presented an elaborate four-year plan on Tuesday.

If that occurs, Dastjerdi would be the first woman to hold a cabinet post in the Islamic republic's 30-year history.

Poll: Most Americans oppose more troops for Afghanistan

By Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans think the country isn't winning the war in Afghanistan , and an even larger majority opposes sending more troops in an effort to turn things around, according to a new McClatchy / Ipsos poll.

The survey found that 54 percent of Americans think the U.S. isn't winning the war, while 29 percent think it is winning. Another 17 percent weren't sure or had no opinion.

At the same time, 56 percent oppose sending any more combat troops to Afghanistan , while 35 percent support sending more troops. Another 9 percent had no opinion or weren't sure.

The skepticism about the war and the opposition to sending more troops underscore the political dilemma that President Barack Obama faces as he heads to a Camp David retreat Wednesday with a copy of a new report on Afghanistan that urges a new strategy for the war there. Senior Pentagon officials are expected to request as many as 45,000 additional American troops in a separate report later this month.

Obama has long pledged to do what's necessary in Afghanistan to defeat al Qaida terrorists there, politically portraying it as a just war against those who attacked the U.S. in 2001 while lambasting the war in Iraq as a mistake and a distraction.

He faces growing pressure, however, from some within his party — and from the broader public, according to the poll — to limit or even reduce the American commitment to a war that they think isn't being won. Senior Pentagon officials have told McClatchy that they've detected White House hesitance to commit more troops.

Afghanistan isn't Obama's only political challenge. The McClatchy / Ipsos poll found continuing opposition to Democratic health care proposals — 45 percent opposed and 40 percent supporting — and served as another reminder to Obama that he needs to find a way to reframe the debate if he's to win public and congressional support for a health care overhaul.

It's Afghanistan , however, that's rapidly turning into a major test, as violence there escalates.

Despite Obama's commitment of 17,500 more combat troops and 4,000 more trainers — the U.S. now has 62,000 troops there and with 6,000 more on their way — the security situation has only worsened.

Last month, 51 U.S. troops were killed, making 2009 the deadliest year of the eight-year war for both U.S. and NATO forces — with four months still to go.

Skepticism runs deep, and cuts across demographic lines.

It rises with age, for example, with 45 percent of those who're 18-34 saying the country's not winning, rising to 57 percent of who're 35-54, and hitting 61 percent of those who're 55 and older. One possible reason: Older Americans remember Vietnam .

The belief, or fear, that the U.S. isn't winning also rises with income — 51 percent of those making less than $25,000 , 55 percent of those who make between $25,000 and $50,000 , and 61 percent of those who make more than $50,000 .

People living in the Northeast are most likely to think that the war isn't being won; people in the South are the most likely to think it is being won. Even in the South, however, there are more skeptics than there are believers, by a margin of 48 percent to 34 percent.

Blacks were the most optimistic, with 35 percent saying the war is being won and 45 percent saying it isn't being won.

Politically, Democrats were the most pessimistic and Republicans were the most optimistic. Again, though, there were more skeptics, even among Republicans, by a margin of 53 percent to 35 percent.

Opposition to sending more troops also cuts across almost all lines, with the deepest opposition coming from women, young people, those making less money, people with less than a high school education, Hispanics and independents, followed closely by Democrats.

Only one group, Republicans, had a majority supporting the dispatch of more troops.

Women oppose sending more troops by the lopsided margin of 60-30, men by 52-40.

The biggest opposition to sending more combat troops comes from people who're 18-34 — those most likely to fight — and drops with age. Young adults oppose additional troops by a margin of 61-32; those who're 35-54 oppose it by 54-37; and those who're 55 and older were against it 53-36.

Similarly, those who make the least money were the most opposed, with those making less than $25,000 opposed by a margin of 70-27; those making $25,000-$50,000 opposed by a margin of 58-35; and those making more than $50,000 split, 45-45.

Geographically, the West was the most opposed to sending more troops, followed by the Northeast, South and Midwest.

Opposition to more troops was strongest among the least educated: 67-28 among those with less than a high school education and 49-38 among those with some college. The tide turned among the college educated, with 46 percent favoring more troops and 44 percent opposed.

Hispanics were the most opposed, 86-9, followed by non-Hispanic blacks, 78-15, and non-Hispanic whites, 49-42.

Politically, independents were the most opposed, 67-18, followed by Democrats, 66-27. Republicans favored sending more troops by a margin of 52-40.

New protest in Chinese city torn by July riot

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – Chinese residents protested deteriorating public safety Thursday in the western Chinese city of Urumqi where deadly ethnic rioting in July killed nearly 200 people, eyewitnesses said

People living near the city center reached by telephone said hundreds, possibly thousands of members of China's majority Han ethnic group had gathered downtown to denounce the regional government and deteriorating law and order in the city of 2.5 million.

Despite official claims of calm returning, safety fears have remained high since the July 5 riot among members of the region's main Uighur ethnic group who targeted Han, residents said.

Han resident Zhao Jianzhuang said he had joined a large crowd of protesters at a downtown intersection who were being blocked by riot police from marching on central People's Square, less than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away.

He said people were pushing and shoving police and some in the crowd had been beaten. Participants were shouting slogans including "The government is useless," and calling for the dismissal of the regional Communist Party boss Wang Lequan, a noted hard-liner and ally of President Hu Jintao.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she had no knowledge of the protest, but told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference that China's government "is competent to safeguard social stability and national unity."

Zhao said anger was stoked by a perceived delay in trials for those arrested over the riot, as well as a recent spate of stabbings by people wielding syringes in which he claimed more than 460 people had been injured.

"There are so many security forces deployed here, yet they're incapable of protecting us," Zhao said.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday that police had detained 15 people over the syringe stabbings, but gave few details and it was not clear whether there was a connection between the stabbings and the protest.

Xinhua gave no information about when the stabbings occurred or the number of victims, but quoted a deputy director of the region's health department as saying nobody had been infected or poisoned and medical workers were conducting regular follow-up checks.

It said four people had been formally arrested in preparation for trial, but did not say what had happened to the others.

The July riots — China's worst ethnic violence in decades — killed 197 people, injured 1,700 more and sparked a massive security crackdown in the traditionally Muslim western region of Xinjiang, of which Urumqi is the capital.

Renewed unrest in Urumqi and the vast surrounding region of Xinjiang could pose a vexing problem for the country's communist leadership now engaged in an all-out campaign to ensure stability ahead of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the communist state on Oct. 1.

On a visit to Xinjiang late last month, Hu called for the strengthening of ethnic unity and Xinjiang's local economy.

China claims the July riot was instigated by exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, an accusation she strongly denies, but Uighurs have long complained of discrimination and economic marginalization by Han migrants who have flooded into Xinjiang since communist troops entered the region in 1949. Like Tibetans, another restive minority, many Uighurs claim they were independent for much of their history.

The July unrest broke out after police stopped an initially peaceful protest by Uighur youths, prompting crowds to smash windows, burn cars and attack Han Chinese. Two days later, Han vigilantes carried out revenge attacks.

Eulls saves 22 lives from armed student

September 1, 2009

Tuesday morning began just like any other morning for football star Kaleb Eulls.

Eulls and his three younger sisters were among 22 passengers on a school bus bound for Yazoo County High School in western Mississippi until a 14-year old female student boarded the bus armed with a .380 semi-automatic handgun threatening to shoot and ordering the bus driver to pull over.

Eulls had fallen asleep at the back of the bus listening to his mp3 player and did not realize what was happening until one of his sisters woke him up.

"My sister that was in front of me woke up and told me that the girl had a gun," Eulls said. "She was pointing it back and forth at other people and the little kids that were sitting at the back. I just thought real quick and tried to grab her attention before she pointed the gun at anybody else. I wanted her to point it at me so she wouldn't point it at anybody else."Eulls then opened up the emergency door located in the back and began evacuating as many students as he could from the rear of the bus while trying to reason with the armed female.

"I just tried to talk to her and calm her down," said the 6-foot-4, 255-pound Eulls. "She was just getting louder and louder. I guess for a quick second she looked out the window and when she did that I just sprung at her. I just knocked her down and got the gun away from her. When I got the gun I ran out the back door and disarmed it."

Eulls, who is a four-star defensive end that is verbally committed to play football at Mississippi State next year, was not concerned for his own well being at the moment. He selflessly did what he thought was the right thing to save the life of the others on board.

"I was just scared for the younger kids and my family that was on the bus," Eulls said. "I was just thinking things out step-by-step as quickly as I could. After we got to the school and watched the tape I just sat there thinking 'what in the world did I just do?' I just thought about what if this would have happened or if this would have happened? It was just crazy."

Eulls, already a hometown sports hero in the town of just over 1,300 about 30 miles north of Jackson, Miss., earned the respect of the local law enforcement.

"The (officers) who have been there for a long time told me that they have stared down many barrels before and always felt like it was a big cannon pointing at them," Eulls said. "It is one scary feeling."

Yazoo County Sheriff Tommy Vaughn was quoted in the Jackson, Miss., based The Clarion Ledger saying "If it hadn't been for this star football player, things could have been different. He didn't go overboard, but he did exactly what it took to get her on the ground.

"He made the statement to one of my deputies that if she was going to shoot anyone he would rather she shoot him. Watching him do that and him doing such a heroic act and not even caring about his own safety, that's something you don't see every day."

The female assailant was arrested on 22 counts of attempted aggravated assault, 22 counts of kidnapping and one count of possession of a firearm on school property. She was taken to the county juvenile detention facility.

As for people now calling a hero, Eulls feels he was just doing what anyone else would have done in that situation.

"I just tell them thank you and not to do anything crazy like that," Eulls said.

Eulls is rated the No. 19 defensive end in the nation and the No. 8 overall prospect in Mississippi by Rivals.com. He holds scholarship offers from the likes of Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Southern Miss and Tennessee but has been committed to the Bulldogs since early July.

Venezuela’s Chavez Says Algeria Could Work in Orinoco

By Steven Bodzin

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said he will use a visit to the African nation to invite Sonatrach, Algeria’s state oil company, to help develop the tar-like oil of Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt.

Algerian crude is very light, meaning it could be mixed with Venezuelan crude to make blends, Chavez said today on state television from Algeria, where he landed today.

Venezuela is working with state energy companies including StatoilHydro ASA of Norway, Petropars of Iran and China National Petroleum Corp. to develop the Orinoco, where the South American nation is studying how to extract more than 200 billion barrels of oil out of the more than 1 trillion barrels buried there.

Chavez said he and Algerian President Abdelazis Bouteflika may discuss agreements on liquefied natural gas, petrochemicals, food production, tourism and fisheries. The two countries may also create a joint investment fund, he said.

Source: Bloomberg.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601207&sid=a99W.UMbQXh0.

Turkey to boost troops in Afghanistan

ANKARA, Turkey, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Turkey has pledged to send an additional 805 troops to serve with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

The decision will increase the number of Turkish soldiers in Afghanistan to 1,600. They are due to arrive in Kabul in November, when Turkey takes over the rotating command of NATO operations in the Afghan capital. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced the decision at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen last week in Ankara.

Turkey has sent only non-combat troops to Afghanistan; Rasmussen urged Ankara to do even more to help stabilize the war-torn country, for example by sending trainers to help establish Afghanistan's own security forces.

Ahead of his visit to Turkey, Rasmussen told a Turkish newspaper that he would be happy if Ankara sent combat troops to Afghanistan. "It would be met with great satisfaction," he said in an interview with the Milliyet newspaper. Turkish troops fighting the Taliban could help convince other Muslim nations that the operation is "not a religious war but a struggle against terrorism," Rasmussen said. Turkey is NATO's only predominantly Muslim member state.

Just a few months ago, Rasmussen's nomination as NATO head had been in jeopardy because of his role in the Prophet Mohammed cartoon row from 2006.

Citing press freedom, Rasmussen, then Denmark's prime minister, defended a Danish newspaper's decision to print caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, including one where he was depicted wearing a bomb instead of a turban. The republication of the cartoons in other newspapers sparked worldwide unrest that killed some 50 people. Rasmussen has also spoken out against EU membership for Turkey. Ankara dropped its opposition to Rasmussen only after intense mediation by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Rasmussen has been on an appeasement course with Turkey ever since, and his main goals as NATO's top official include a pledge to intensify "dialogue and cooperation" with the Muslim world.

The secretary-general recently asked all member states to increase their commitments in Afghanistan to improve its unsatisfactory security.

"We have to step up our endeavors militarily as well as in the area of civil reconstruction and in particular, we should further develop the capacity of the Afghan security forces," he said.

The United States has about 62,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan. NATO allies have another 35,000 forces. The Pentagon plans to add 6,000 troops by the end of 2009.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/09/02/Turkey-to-boost-troops-in-Afghanistan/UPI-33131251912418/.

Outside View: The NATO-Afghanistan dilemma

By HARLAN ULLMAN, UPI Outside View Commentator

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has just submitted his first assessment of what needs to be done to turn the tide in that battered and war-torn nation long known as the graveyard of empires dating back to Alexander. While classified, that assessment summarizes the situation as "serious but still winnable." That conclusion is sadly reminiscent of the strategic assessment of the Kaiser's senior advisers in Berlin in the early years of the last century as Europe headed toward war.

"In Paris, the situation in Europe is seen as serious but not yet hopeless." In Berlin, however, "we see conditions as hopeless but not serious." Depending on one's view, Afghanistan vacillates between serious and hopeless.

Afghanistan is not going to bring the world to a cataclysmic war. If the West fails, this will prove at least a major setback for the United States and for NATO and possibly worse. Conceivably, the alliance could become a relic if Afghanistan proves too tough a nut to crack. In the United States, should the Obama administration not produce a workable solution as in the healthcare debate, its political currency will be weaker than the dollar.

At the same time NATO and the White House are reflecting on the McChrystal review, NATO is engaged in producing a new "strategic concept" to chart a future course and hopefully make powerful arguments as to its relevance that can be understood by publics and politicians alike in order to keep the alliance from becoming a relic. Whether the future of Afghanistan and NATO can be integrated and coordinated in fashioning a new strategic concept remains one of the major challenges confronting the 12 "experts" commissioned by the alliance to undertake this effort. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright is the chairman of this group that will report in time for the fall 2010 NATO heads of state summit in Lisbon.

The Obama administration entered office vowing to move Afghanistan from under the shadow of George W. Bush's fixation on Iraq. A strategy called "AFPAK" was written, although the document was more vision and intent than a functioning strategy, and McChrystal was deputized to implement that strategy. Part of his assessment was recommending additional steps to ensure a happier outcome in Afghanistan. The reality is that happy outcomes are not in the cards. The reasons have been sadly obvious for too long no matter how competent our people in Afghanistan are -- and they are.

NATO and Afghanistan must overcome years of neglect. Governance and economic development have been failures. The Karzai government is weak, corrupt and ignored by most Afghans. The low turnout for the past election is a further symptom no matter whether Karzai wins now or in October after the runoff. The insurgency has spread, and NATO casualties rise as operational intensity increases. The standard of living for Afghans remains pitifully low and is probably worsening. Despite all the aid, by most accounts only a nickel or dime of every dollar gets directly to Afghans.

So what can NATO do? The first step is to get an accurate assessment of conditions on the ground. Second is to determine alternate strategies and determine what if any additional resources NATO and its member states are prepared to commit. Third, if that assessment is grim and the resources deemed necessary to turn conditions around cannot be found, is NATO prepared to consider an "exit strategy" however defined?

In full disclosure, since early 2004 this column has been sounding the Afghan alarm with no effect. Now that attention has finally shifted, my conclusion is that it is too late. The NATO experts committee drafting the strategic concept can take the courageous (and some would say politically foolhardy) choice of addressing Afghanistan head on in their considerations. To ignore Afghanistan would have been akin to writing a military strategy in Europe in 1938 with no reference to Hitler. Yet, as former U.S. ambassadors to NATO recognize, to raise Afghanistan could unleash centrifugal forces that will neuter or shatter any semblance of alliance cohesion.

Secretary Albright has been conducting a listening tour in preparation for this important assignment. She has received many fine ideas and recommendations about how to approach this potentially Sisyphean labor. But the toughest and most difficult choice will be Afghanistan and how to address it if at all.

Born in Czechoslovakia before the war and fortunate to escape in time, the secretary fully appreciates how the threat of the Soviet Union coalesced the original signers of the Washington Treaty into creating NATO in 1949. Afghanistan is not in the same universe as Soviet Russia. Yet, its shadow may be as powerful in affecting the future of the alliance in 2010 as Moscow was 60 years ago.

Hizbullah Expands Presence Along Israeli Border

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel's military has determined that Hizbullah was expanding its presence along the Lebanese border with the Zionist state.

Military sources said reconnaissance units have been detecting Hizbullah positions in Lebanese villages near the Israeli border. The sources said the operatives, dressed in civilian clothes, have been renting houses or stores
for the storage of equipment and housing of fighters.

Algerians Join Chechen Insurgency

MOSCOW [MENL] -- The Al Qaida network was believed to have recruited Muslims from Algeria to join the Chechen revolt against Russia.

Officials said Algerians have been fighting Russian security forces in the provinces of Dagestan and North Caucasus. They said recruitment in Algeria by Al Qaida-aligned groups has taken place since the mid-1990s.

Yemeni rebels warn of 'long war' after offer rejected

‘Since authorities rebuked initiative we promise major surprises’

SANAA, Yemen: Yemeni Shiite rebels fighting in the north of the troubled Arabian Peninsula country warned of a “long war” on Wednesday after the government rejected a truce offer. “Since the authorities have rejected the initiative, we remind them that they have lost a valuable opportunity,” said a statement from the office of the opposition group’s leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

“From now on they will see the grave consequences of the war and we promise them major surprises and a long war of attrition, longer than they think and in which we shall be patient. We will stand up to their aggressions and tyranny.”

The rebels of the Shiite Zaydi sect say they want more autonomy, including Zaydi schools in their area. They oppose the spread of Saudi-influenced Sunni fundamentalism and say they are defending their villages against government oppression.

The government says they want to restore a Shiite state overthrown in the 1960s and has summoned the Iranian ambassador over Iranian media’s coverage of the fighting. A government spokesman said the offer contained nothing new and reiterated demands for the rebels to stop fighting, reopen roads, withdraw from areas they had occupied and stop “interference” in local government.

The conflict has worried neighboring Saudi Arabia and Western countries, who fear Al-Qaeda could exploit Yemen’s instability to launch attacks in the region. The Sanaa government is also challenged by secessionists in the south.

A militant who tried to assassinate the Saudi deputy interior minister last week entered the country from Yemen.

Information about the conduct of the war, focused mainly on the Saada region, has been hard to verify since the area has been closed to media.

More than 100,000 people, many of them children, have fled their homes during the recent surge in fighting, a UN agency said last month, and aid groups have complained of poor access to the war zone.

The World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday it had managed to distribute food aid to only 10,000 in Hajjah and Saada governorates in August compared to 95,000 people in July due to limited access.

“WFP is now calling for safe corridors to be opened so that assistance can reach all those displaced by the latest fighting,” it said. United Nations agencies have moved staff out of Saada to the capital.

Ancient wall found in Jerusalem

A 3,700-year-old wall has been discovered in east Jerusalem, Israeli archaeologists say.

The structure was built to protect the city's water supply as part of what dig director Ronny Reich described as the region's earliest fortifications.

The 26-ft (8-m) high wall showed the Canaanite people who built it were a sophisticated civilization, he said.

Critics say Israel uses such projects as a political tool to bolster Jewish claims to occupied Palestinian land.

Excavations at the site, known as the City of David, are in a Palestinian neighborhood just outside the walls of Jerusalem's old city.

It is partly funded by Elad, a Jewish settler organization that also works to settle Jews in that area.

Open to the public

The wall dates from a time in the Middle Bronze Age when Jerusalem was a small, fortified enclave controlled by the Canaanites, before they were conquered by the Israelites.

Its discovery demonstrated Jerusalem's inhabitants were sophisticated enough to undertake major building projects, said Mr Reich.

"The wall is enormous, and that it survived 3,700 years - this is, even for us, a long time," said Mr Reich, an archaeology professor at the University of Haifa.

The excavation team said the wall formed part of a structure that protected a passage from a hilltop fortress to a nearby spring - the area's only water source.

Israel's Antiquities Authority said the site would be open to the public on Thursday.

Somali camps 'unfit for humans'

The aid agency Oxfam has decried the conditions in which hundreds of thousands of refugees from the conflict in Somalia are being forced to live.

It says the overcrowded and badly managed camps in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are "barely fit for humans".

Dadaab camp in north-eastern Kenya was meant to hold 90,000 refugees, but is now home to almost 300,000 people, and a further 8,000 arrive each month.

Oxfam has called on Kenya's government to urgently allocate more land.

"We really need extra land, extra space, to be able to spread people out," Oxfam's Paul Smith Lomas told the BBC.

"And that land needs to be allocated soon. We've had assurances for months and months now. Now we need action."

'Human tragedy'

Kenya's commissioner for refugees, Peter Kusimba, told the BBC that the pace may have been slow, but land was being earmarked to decongest the camp.

As fighting continues in Somalia many are unable to flee the country.

Afgooye, near the capital Mogadishu, is home to almost half a million Somalis and is the world's densest concentration of displaced people, the BBC's Will Ross reports from Nairobi.

Insecurity makes it increasingly difficult for local and international agencies to deliver aid there, he adds.

Oxfam has described the situation as a "human tragedy of unthinkable proportions" and says the international response has been "shamefully inadequate".

"The ultimate solution to the situation and the needs in Somalia has to be peace, has to be a politically negotiated peace settlement," Mr Smith Lomas said.

"Much is being done, and much more must be done. Until people experience safety and peace on the ground, then we will have to continue responding to these humanitarian needs," he added.

Somalia is nominally ruled by a UN-backed government, but Islamist insurgents control large areas.

The failed Horn of Africa state has not had a functioning central government since 1991.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8235089.stm.

Mighty Morphin Power Ranger morphs into an MMA fighter

By Maggie Hendricks

Jason David Frank, who was once a Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger, is now trying to use his super powers to turn into a mixed martial artist.

The former action star from the hit series "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" has officially made the move to mixed martial arts, and while training with UFC lightweight Melvin Guillard, he hopes to make his real fighting experience as successful as he did on television.

Frank is hoping to fight as soon as possible.
"I was supposed to fight in 2007, but it fell through. In truth, I've wanted to put the work in until I'm ready," Frank said in an interview from the Suckerpunch website. "I know I have a target on my back. Everyone is going to want to beat up the Green Ranger."

And this is the moment where I weep for MMA.

Frank may just turn into a great fighter, though it's doubtful considering that he is 35 and worried about signing a management team before trying to schedule a fight. But this just furthers the notion that MMA is a fad, and can be used as a publicity stunt for someone with a flailing career. Considering that Frank's last acting job was a 2007 direct-to-video film called, "The Junior Defenders," he clearly needs a career boost.

At the same time, the beauty of MMA is that there is no hiding in the cage. When pretenders have tried it out in the past, they've been shown the floor of the cage, very quickly. Right, Jose Canseco?

Trash in Space May Force Shuttle, Station to Dodge

Tariq Malik
Managing Editor
SPACE.com
Wed Sep 2, 4:47 pm ET

This story was updated at 4:22 p.m. EDT.

NASA is tracking a piece of rocket trash hurtling through space that may require the linked shuttle Discovery and International Space Station to move out of the way Thursday.

The space junk, an old piece of a spent Ariane 5 rocket body, is expected to zoom past the space station and Discovery on Friday and make its closest approach just after 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) at a distance of just over 6.2 miles (10 km), NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during mission commentary.

"We may not have to do any maneuver," Navias said Wednesday. "We will be analyzing the data and watching this object closely over the next 24 hours before any decision will have to be made."

Currently, moving the space station is a "remote possibility," but NASA will monitor the object just to be sure, Navias added.

NASA is unsure of the exact size of the space debris, but believe it is part of a rocket that launched in August 2006 to send two communications satellites into orbit, a NASA spokesperson told SPACE.com.

Mission Control radioed Discovery commander Rick Sturckow Wednesday afternoon to say that if a maneuver is required, it would be performed after a planned spacewalk Thursday. It's more likely no maneuver will be required, NASA officials said. Engineers discarded a third option to lower the shuttle-station complex, which would have delayed Thursday's spacewalk to Friday, after deciding it wasn't necessary.

Space debris has been a growing concern for the space station, shuttle missions and other satellites in low-Earth orbit since the Feb. 10 crash of an American communications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite. The orbital collision created two clouds of debris that have increased the risk to the space station and docked shuttles by about 6 percent to a 1-in-318 chance of a hit, NASA officials have said.

A leak in one of the small thrusters aboard Discovery has forced NASA to keep the shuttle's small reaction control jets off-line. The larger thrusters are more powerful and engineers worked diligently earlier this week to make sure Discovery can fire those jets safely while attached to the space station.








Discovery's crew is in the middle of a 13-day mission to deliver new science gear, supplies and a treadmill named after Stephen Colbert to the International Space Station. Three spacewalks are planned for the mission, one of which was performed late Tuesday.

The astronauts spent Wednesday moving new science experiment racks, each the size of a refrigerator, into the space station from a cargo pod delivered by Discovery earlier this week. They were also expected to set up a new astronaut bedroom, also delivered on the shuttle, in the station's Japanese Kibo lab.

Mission Control told Discovery's crew to prepare for Thursday's spacewalk as planned. The spacewalk will be performed by NASA astronaut Danny Olivas and Swedish spaceflyer Christer Fuglesang, and will be primarily aimed at installing a new ammonia tank for the space station's cooling system.

US extends Iraq contract for Blackwater firm

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – The State Department said Wednesday it has extended a contract for protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq with a subsidiary of the security firm once known as Blackwater USA even though the company doesn't have a license to operate in the country.

Spokesman Ian Kelly said the contract with Presidential Airways to provide air support for U.S. diplomats had been temporarily extended because the firm chosen to replace it is not yet ready to take over. The contract had been due to expire on Sept. 3 and be taken over a day later by DynCorp International, he said.

"DynCorp came to us and asked for additional time," Kelly told reporters. DynCorp's request for additional time was made last week, he said, adding that the Iraqi government had been informed of the decision and had not registered objections.

Iraqi officials in Baghdad could not immediately be reached for comment.

Presidential is the air wing of Xe Services, which used to be known as Blackwater. The Iraqi government refused to grant the company an operating license earlier this year amid continued outrage over a 2007 lethal firefight involving some of its employees in Baghdad.

One senior State Department official said that providing helicopter air support for American diplomats in Iraq — transporting them and overflying their convoys — is a "complex challenge" and that a slower transition to DynCorp taking over ... is in the best interest of the government.

"We unilaterally extended the current task order ... to ensure the continued security and safety of U.S. personnel in Iraq," the official said.

Kelly said DynCorp needed the extra time to get more equipment on the ground in Iraq but could not say how long the extension, which was first reported by ABC News on its Web site, would last.

Other officials said they did not expect it to go beyond six months. Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the contract publicly.

The State Department informed Blackwater in January that it would not renew its contracts to provide security for U.S. diplomats in Iraq because of the Iraqi government's refusal to grant it an operating license.

The Presidential Airways contract was the last of those contracts to expire. Blackwater guards stopped protecting American diplomats in al Hillah, Najaf and Karbala, all south of Baghdad, in August.

Iraqis had long complained about incidents involving Blackwater's ground operations. Then a shooting by Blackwater guards in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in September 2007 left 17 civilians dead, further strained relations between Baghdad and Washington and led U.S. prosecutors to bring charges against the Blackwater contractors involved.

The incident prompted a wide-ranging review of the State Department's security practices in Iraq and its dependence on contractors like Blackwater, which was most recently in the news last month when it was revealed that the CIA had turned to the firm when it revived a now-defunct plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004.

It has also been the target of criticism from members of Congress, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who has been particularly outspoken on the subject. As recently as last month, Schakowsky wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to complain that their two agencies were continuing to use the company.

"Every day that Blackwater operates in Iraq as a contractor for the United States our military and diplomatic objectives are put at serious risk," she said Wednesday in response to the State Department's contract extension.

"While I understand the need to protect United States personnel serving in Iraq, I do not believe that continuing to award contracts to Blackwater is in the best interest of our men and women overseas," Schakowsky said, accusing the company of having a "history of massive abuses and misconduct."

Once the extended Presidential Airways contract expires, the company will no longer be used in Iraq by the department, which has turned to DynCorp and another private security firm, Triple Canopy, to handle diplomatic protective services in the country.

But Xe continues to provide security for diplomats in other nations, most notably in Afghanistan.