The Pentagon's Newest Weapon in the War on Pirates

By MARK THOMPSON / WASHINGTON

The U.S. military plans to deploy its newest warplane against one of the world's oldest threats, sending unmanned Reaper drones to the Seychelles islands to deal with pirates menacing seagoing commerce in the Indian Ocean. Fighting pirates off the coast of Africa was one of the founding missions of the U.S. Marines two centuries ago; today, in a sign of the changing face of warfare, the mission of protecting maritime trade routes falls to ground-bound desk jockeys remotely operating high-tech flying machines.

"The Seychelles have been increasingly concerned about piracy in their waters," says Vince Crawley, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command, explaining next month's "Ocean Look" deployment. Although the military won't say how many of the drones are being sent, Crawley says there will be enough to have one flying every day from the archipelago of more than 100 islands that lie nearly 1,000 miles off Africa's east coast. About 75 U.S. personnel are bound for the Seychelles' Mahe regional airport to support the mission, which is expected to last several months.

The prime source of piracy in the area is the failed state of Somalia. There have been more than 135 pirate attacks originating from the Somali coast so far this year - more than the total number for 2008 - and 28 vessels have been successfully commandeered. While the annual monsoon season has recently reduced the number of attacks, observers fear that the peril will rise again with the calming of the weather. The Seychelles legislature recently approved a pact with the U.S. allowing closer military cooperation. "Our isolated geographic position and our limited economic and military resources will never allow us to patrol our vast territorial waters," a Seychelles lawmaker said during the July debate on the measure. Piracy has become "one of the most well-organized and profitable crimes in this part of the world," she added, and "foreign military help in patrol and surveillance of our waters is today a necessity."

"The Seychelles have been increasingly concerned about piracy in their waters," says Vince Crawley, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command, explaining next month's "Ocean Look" deployment. Although the military won't say how many of the drones are being sent, Crawley says there will be enough to have one flying every day from the archipelago of more than 100 islands that lie nearly 1,000 miles off Africa's east coast. About 75 U.S. personnel are bound for the Seychelles' Mahe regional airport to support the mission, which is expected to last several months.

The prime source of piracy in the area is the failed state of Somalia. There have been more than 135 pirate attacks originating from the Somali coast so far this year - more than the total number for 2008 - and 28 vessels have been successfully commandeered. While the annual monsoon season has recently reduced the number of attacks, observers fear that the peril will rise again with the calming of the weather. The Seychelles legislature recently approved a pact with the U.S. allowing closer military cooperation. "Our isolated geographic position and our limited economic and military resources will never allow us to patrol our vast territorial waters," a Seychelles lawmaker said during the July debate on the measure. Piracy has become "one of the most well-organized and profitable crimes in this part of the world," she added, and "foreign military help in patrol and surveillance of our waters is today a necessity."

AP NewsBreak: Iran says US nuke documents 'forged'

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA – Iran accused the U.S. on Friday of using "forged documents" and relying on subterfuge to build its case that Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, according to a confidential letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The eight-page letter — written by Iran's chief envoy to the U.N. nuclear agency in Vienna — denounces Washington's allegations against the Islamic Republic as "fabricated, baseless and false."

It also lashes out at Britain and France for "ill will and political motivation" in their dealings on Iran.

Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh sent the letter to Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose 35-nation board will take a hard new look at Iran's nuclear program next week.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are peaceful and geared solely toward generating electricity. The U.S. and key allies contend the Islamic Republic is covertly trying to build an atomic bomb.

Tehran has bristled at the agency's latest report, which accuses Iran of defiantly continuing to enrich uranium and refusing to clear up lingering questions about possible military dimensions to its nuclear program.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, Soltanieh insists that Iran has demonstrated "the full commitment of my country to its obligations" under an IAEA nuclear safeguards agreement.

But it takes sharp aim at Washington for giving the U.N. nuclear watchdog unspecified intelligence and other evidence.

"By interfering in the work of the IAEA and exerting various political pressures, the government of the United States attempted to spoil the cooperative spirit between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IAEA," the letter reads.

"The government of the United States has not handed over original documents to the agency since it does not in fact have any authenticated document and all it has are forged documents," Soltanieh said.

"The agency didn't deliver any original documents to Iran and none of the documents and materials that were shown to Iran have authenticity and all proved to be fabricated, baseless allegations and false attributions to Iran," he added.

"Therefore, this subject must be closed," Soltanieh wrote.

U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment late Friday.

The IAEA itself has pressed the U.S. and other governments to share more details on Iran-related intelligence. In its latest report on Iran, the U.N. agency noted that "constraints placed by some member states on the availability of information to Iran are making it more difficult for the agency to conduct detailed discussions with Iran."

The nuclear agency's latest assessment did acknowledge that Iran 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 and to a reactor in Arak.

But it cautions that there are "a number of outstanding issues which give rise to concerns and which need to be clarified to exclude the existence of possible military dimensions."

The report, to be examined next week, has raised the specter of harsher international sanctions against Iran for not answering lingering questions about its nuclear activities.

Senior U.N. officials have said Iran has been feeding uranium ore into some of its 8,300 centrifuges at a reduced rate, suggesting that sanctions already in place may be hampering its program.

As of Aug. 12, only about 4,600 of those centrifuges were actively enriching uranium, compared with about 4,900 in June — the last time the nuclear agency issued a report on Iran's nuclear activities — officials said. Since then, they said, Iran has installed roughly 1,000 more centrifuges, but it appeared that many were idle.

Soltanieh's letter contends the overall assessment on Iran is positive. But he says concerns raised by the U.S. and others have "totally overshadowed and undermined" the steps that Iran has taken to comply with IAEA demands for transparency.

President Barack Obama has given Iran 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 for stopping, it could get trade benefits from six countries that have been engaging it in separate talks: the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed sanctions on 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 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.

Gates: AP decision 'appalling'

Mike Allen

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”

The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.

The photo shows Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard of New Portland, Maine, who was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, according to The AP.

Gates wrote to Thomas Curley, AP’s president and chief executive officer. “Out of respect for his family’s wishes, I ask you in the strongest of terms to reconsider your decision. I do not make this request lightly. In one of my first public statements as Secretary of Defense, I stated that the media should not be treated as the enemy, and made it a point to thank journalists for revealing problems that need to be fixed – as was the case with Walter Reed. …

“I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family. Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency.”

The four-paragraph letter concluded, “Sincerely,” then had Gates’ signature.

The Associated Press reported in a story about deliberations about that photo that “after a period of reflection,” the news service decided “to make public an image that conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.

“The image shows fellow Marines helping Bernard after he suffered severe leg injuries. He was evacuated to a field hospital where he died on the operating table,” AP said. “The picture was taken by Associated Press photographer Julie Jacobson, who accompanied Marines on the patrol and was in the midst of the ambush during which Bernard was wounded. … ‘AP journalists document world events every day. Afghanistan is no exception. We feel it is our journalistic duty to show the reality of the war there, however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is,’ said Santiago Lyon, the director of photography for AP.

“He said Bernard's death shows ‘his sacrifice for his country. Our story and photos report on him and his last hours respectfully and in accordance with military regulations surrounding journalists embedded with U.S. forces.’”

The AP reported that it “waited until after Bernard's burial in Madison, Maine, on Aug. 24 to distribute its story and the pictures.”

“An AP reporter met with his parents, allowing them to see the images,” the article says. “Bernard's father after seeing the image of his mortally wounded son said he opposed its publication, saying it was disrespectful to his son's memory. John Bernard reiterated his viewpoint in a telephone call to the AP on Wednesday. ‘We understand Mr. Bernard's anguish. We believe this image is part of the history of this war.
The story and photos are in themselves a respectful treatment and recognition of sacrifice,’ said AP senior managing editor John Daniszewski.

“Thursday afternoon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called AP President Tom Curley asking that the news organization respect the wishes of Bernard's father and not publish the photo. Curley and AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said they understood this was a painful issue for Bernard's family and that they were sure that factor was being considered by the editors deciding whether or not to publish the photo, just as it had been for the AP editors who decided to distribute it.”

The image was part of a package of stories and photos released for publication after midnight Friday. The project, called “AP Impact – Afghan – Death of a Marine,” carried a dateline of Dahaneh, Afghanistan, and was written by Alfred de Montesquiou and Julie Jacobson:

“The U.S. patrol had a tip that Taliban fighters were lying in ambush in a pomegranate grove, and a Marine trained his weapon on the trees. Seconds later, a salvo of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades poured out, and a grenade hit Lance Cpl. Joshua ‘Bernie’ Bernard. The Marine was about to become the next fatality in the deadliest month of the deadliest year of the Afghan war.”

The news service also moved extensive journal entries AP photographer Julie Jacobson wrote while in Afghanistan. AP said in an advisory: “From the reporting of Alfred de Montesquiou, the photos and written journal kept by Julie Jacobson, and the TV images of cameraman Ken Teh, the AP has compiled ‘Death of a Marine,’ a 1,700 word narrative of the clash, offering vivid insights into how the battle was fought, and into Bernard's character and background. It also includes an interview with his father, an ex-Marine, who three weeks earlier had written letters complaining that the military's rules of engagement are exposing the troops in Afghanistan to undue risk.”

Judge blocks drilling on Colorado refuge

DENVER — A federal judge has indefinitely blocked oil and gas drilling on a wildlife refuge that sits next to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in south-central Colorado.

U.S. District Court Judge Walker Miller on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction, ruling environmental groups presented adequate evidence that drilling would cause irreparable injury to Colorado's Baca National Wildlife Refuge.

Miller's decision blocks drilling while an environmental lawsuit moves through court.

Toronto-based Lexam Energy Exploration had acquired the mineral rights in 1997 before the former Baca Ranch was bought by the federal government for a wildlife refuge. A message left for Lexam officials was not immediately returned.

Federal law gives mineral-rights holders the right to reasonable use of the surface to extract minerals. Lexam holds the surface rights until 2011, according to court documents.

The San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council and Citizens for San Luis Valley-Water Protection Coalition claims that the government's conclusion that drilling would have no significant effect is wrong and asked officials to conduct another environmental analysis.

In his ruling, Miller noted that the refuge contains wetlands, habitat for a variety of wildlife and fish, and: a “large expanse of undeveloped land with a significant ‘sense of place' and quiet.”'

The federal government acquired the 97,000-acre Baca Ranch to preserve the terrain and geological features responsible for the sand dunes. Some of the land became part of the national park, with the rest becoming the refuge in 2004.

The refuge, about 200 miles southwest of Denver, is home to several colonies of Gunnison's prairie dogs, a candidate species for the endangered list. It's also used by migratory birds, burrowing owls, songbirds and elk.

Security guards a source of insecurity in China

By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer

GUANGZHOU, China – A Chinese journalist was checking out a tip that police had discovered a woman's body this week when he was stopped by private security guards who beat him so badly he was hospitalized.

His assailants have since been fired, but the incident highlighted a widespread problem in China: undisciplined, poorly trained guards who are little more than thugs and often resort to violence. Many are temporary workers from organized crime groups, or "black societies" in the local slang, that operate throughout the country.

Moreover, companies sometimes use their guards as heavies to break up protests by workers or residents and to settle souring business deals or relationships. Some foreigners doing business in China have found themselves victims of such tactics.

Details about Monday's attack on journalist Liu Manyuan were murky. His employer, the Guangzhou Daily, reported he got into a dispute at the crime scene with two guards hired by a local district government in Dongguan, a major factory city in southern China.

They hit him for more than 10 minutes, causing severe neck and abdomen injuries, the paper said. Photos published in Tuesday's edition showed his crushed eyeglasses and massive bruises on his arms and neck. The paper called the assault "wolflike" in a front-page headline.

It was the third case of violence by hired security guards against journalists in the past two months, the newspaper said.

Besides losing their jobs, the guards were fined 500 yuan ($7.30), according to the state-run Dongguan Daily. A spokesman in the city's police department declined to discuss the case.

Providing security is a lucrative business. Local police own or are major investors in many firms — which may give them a degree of immunity from the law.

Renegade guards are less of a problem in Beijing, the nation's capital, where fierce competition among private companies ensures relatively high standards, said Qi Fang, head of Beijing Baoquan Group, a security company.

In many other places, the local police have a monopoly on the business, he said. "There's no competition, so the quality can't be as good."

Two levels of security guards exist in China. The best trained are called "bao an," or those who "preserve the peace." They must undergo 240 hours of training before getting a license, Qi said.

Those involved in the attack on the journalist were "zhi an," or those who "manage the peace," Qi said. Most are minimally trained, if at all.

Some businesses use their guards to try to win disputes.

Staff at many foreign consulates in Guangzhou tell stories about frantic phone calls from their citizens being held in a hotel room or factory by guards hired by their Chinese partner.

Jeremy Sargent, a British attorney who has worked in China for more than a decade, told the story of a European client who had a disagreement with a Chinese partner in Guangzhou last year.

"The joint venture partner hired thugs to literally block the gates of the factory and stop shipments from leaving," he said. "It didn't get violent, the police weren't very helpful, and they did manage to resolve it. But the European general manager was looking out of his office at the barricaded front entrance of the factory. It got a bit scary."

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that this is standard and normal but it's not uncommon," added Sargent, a partner at JS Associates in Guangzhou.

Police are often reluctant to get involved in a commercial dispute unless it turns violent.

Sometimes, guards can turn against their masters.

That's the lesson Simon See learned when his printing plant in Dongguan decided to lay off 40 guards last December. The company, Main Choice International Development Ltd., was unhappy with their performance and planned to outsource the work to a private firm, which said it could do the job with 16 men.

The laid-off guards protested by locking the company's front gates and blocking traffic from going in and out, said See, the plant manager. Police refused to arrest them for fear of sparking a riot. Thus began a protracted standoff that effectively shut down operations for days.

"It really did harm to our image," said See, who comes from Hong Kong.

Labor officials met the workers one by one and, after two days, got them to take a severance payment and leave. See was thrilled to see them go.

Top leader nudged Iran assembly to back Cabinet

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader intervened behind the scenes with lawmakers to assure that parliament largely approved the Cabinet of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a top lawmaker said Friday, a key sign of support for the embattled president from the country's most powerful figure.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneni has had friction with Ahmadinejad over the past month and has at times backed the president's rivals within the conservative camp.

But the intervention suggested that Khamenei's higher priority is to shore up Ahmadinejad in the face of the pro-reform opposition, which calls his government illegitimate.

Conservatives in parliament had threatened to oppose Ahmadinejad over many of his Cabinet nominees, which would have been an embarrassment to the president.

Lawmaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar said he believed up to nine nominees would have been rejected if Khamenei hadn't intervened, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.

Bahonar said Khamenei sent a private message to parliament members asking them to approve the Cabinet and support Ahmadinejad in the crisis following his disputed re-election.

"The supreme leader's sharp-sightedness caused the parliament to change its assessments," Fars quoted Bahonar as saying.

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament on Thursday approved most of Ahmedinejad's choices for key Cabinet posts — 18 out of 21 nominees. The strong show of support surprised even Ahmadinejad's conservative backers.

Bahonar said Khamenei's message to parliament members indicated he was "interested in seeing the Cabinet members be approved and start their job" and urged the lawmakers to "trust the president's confidence in his nominees."

In the five-day debate on the Cabinet before the vote, the parliament had questioned the experience and expertise of some of Ahmadinejad's nominees.

But in the end, the broad mandate from the chamber was a boost for Ahmadinejad, who the opposition claims stole the June 12 election through massive fraud. The conservative-dominated legislature also named the first woman minister since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and approved a defense minister who is a suspected mastermind in the bombing of an Argentine Jewish center that killed 85 people.

The opposition alleges the election was rigged in Ahmadinejad's favor and that pro-reform challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi was the true winner. Mousavi and another defeated reformist challenger Mahdi Karroubi have dismissed Ahmadinejad's government as "illegitimate."

After the June election, Iranian security forces, including the Revolutionary Guard and pro-government Basij militia, crushed mass street protests against Ahmadinejad's re-election in a heavy crackdown in which hundreds of protesters were arrested.

The opposition said on Friday that at least 72 protesters were killed and that many detainees were tortured or abused in prison. The pro-reform norooznews.org Web site identified the victims and detailed their abuse and circumstances of death, but the report could not be independently confirmed.

Iranian officials have said at least 30 people died in the post-election turmoil — Iran's worst unrest since the Islamic Revolution. The country's chief prosecutor said about 200 protesters and opposition figures remain in detention.

Ahmadinejad has been struggling against a variety of internal rifts amid a legitimacy crisis, but he counts on the support of the powerful Revolutionary Guard and Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran.

The parliament's approval has also been considered a vote of confidence for the harsh government crackdown on political opponents and tough stance against Western pressure for talks on the nation's nuclear program.

Iraq sends anti-militant police to Syrian border

Khalid al-Ansary, Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq began stationing thousands of extra police on the border with Syria this week in response to a spate of bombings blamed on militants Baghdad accuses Damascus of sheltering, an official said on Friday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has accused Syria of turning a blind eye to Sunni militants using it as a safe haven.

Maliki says 90 percent of foreign jihadists entering Iraq do so through Syria, including fighters he blames for two bomb attacks outside ministries in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people last month.

"These are the emergency forces for the borders ... to fill in the gaps," Major-General Tariq Yusuf, police chief of Iraq's western Anbar province, which borders Syria, told Reuters. He said Maliki had ordered the deployment personally.

Some were already stationed, while others were on the way, he said, declining to give further details.

"There is a government accusation against Syria relating to the bomb attacks ... They have information that there is a threat from Syria," he added. "We have caught two infiltrators trying to enter in the last two months."

On Thursday, Maliki challenged Syria to explain why it shelters armed groups Iraq blames for staging bombings in its territory. Baghdad has demanded that Damascus hand over two alleged masterminds of the bombings in the Iraqi capital.

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government blames supporters of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party and Sunni Islamist al Qaeda for recent attacks, and says Baath party leaders plotted the bombings from Syrian territory.

Iraqi officials on Monday broadcast a video of what they said was a confession by a suspected al Qaeda militant claiming to have been trained by Syrian intelligence agents there.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called Iraq's accusations "immoral" and demanded Baghdad provide proof.

Maliki has formally asked the U.N. Security Council to launch an inquiry into the bombs.

Addressing the state-run Iraqiya TV station in a program aired on Friday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the request for an inquiry had not mentioned Syria.

"We just asked for investigation," he said. "But we have the proof and evidence and confessions. Al-Qaeda has even declared that it gets the logistic support from groups operating in Syria, and we have proof of that."

Syria and Iraq, for many years ruled by rival wings of the Baath party, were at odds after Saddam came to power in 1979, but ties improved, as did trade, in the late 1990s.

Tensions resurfaced after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ushered in unprecedented Shi'ite Muslim rule to Iraq.

China official: 5 killed during Urumqi protests

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

URUMQI, China – Five people have died during mass protests sparked by a bizarre series of hypodermic needle stabbings in this western Chinese city that has been wracked by ethnic unrest, an official said Friday.

Deputy Mayor Zhang Hong said the deaths came on Thursday, during demonstrations by members of China's majority Han ethnic group who are also demanding punishment of Muslim Uighurs accused in July rioting that claimed nearly 200 lives.

Protesters took to the streets again Friday. Police used tear gas and public appeals to break up Han crowds who tried repeatedly to break through to government offices.

Lingering tensions from the rioting have fed fears over the more than 500 reported syringe stabbings, which like the earlier violence have targeted mostly Han.

Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu said the same Muslim ethnic separatists Beijing has blamed for the rioting that started July 5 orchestrated the needle attacks.

"The needle stabbing incident is a continuation of the '7-5' incident, and it's plotted by unlawful elements and instigated by ethnic separatist forces," Meng said in comments broadcast on national television. "Their purpose is to damage ethnic unity."

His comments were the first time authorities suggested Uighur militants were involved in the stabbings.

Meng gave no evidence, and the government has not backed up its accusations about the earlier violence. By most accounts, the July riot started after police confronted Uighur protesters, who then attacked Han. Days later, Han vigilantes tore through Uighur neighborhoods to retaliate.

Zhang said 21 people had been detained on suspicion of carrying out the needle attacks, and four people have been indicted. He said all were Uighurs.

The Xinjiang region and its capital, Urumqi, have for decades faced a simmering separatist movement by the largely Muslim Uighurs.

Meng's arrival in Urumqi from Beijing was a measure of China's anxieties that order was slipping in the often tense city of 2.5 million and that violence between Hans and Uighurs could flare again.

Zhang said two of those killed on Thursday died in "small-scale clashes" and were "innocent," but he gave no details. He said authorities were investigating the other three deaths. Fourteen others were injured.

The police response to the unrest on Friday was more forceful than on Thursday, possibly as a result of the killings.

Hundreds of young Han men protested outside the headquarters of Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan — an ally of President Hu Jintao_ chanting for him to step down.

Armed police in riot gear pushed back demonstrators, some waving Chinese flags and singing the national anthem. Several rounds of tear gas were fired to disperse crowds.

One Han man argued with paramilitary police.

"It's been two months already. How many more months are we going to wait, how long before us Han can feel safe?" said the man, who would give only his surname, Ma.

A truck with loudspeakers circled behind him, with a recorded voice saying repeatedly: "Disperse. Don't stay here. Think of the nation."

Meng vowed the government would speed up the process of charging and prosecuting the more than 1,200 people detained in the July riot, in which 197 people were killed and about 1,700 injured.

"We should quicken the pace of dealing with the detained suspects and dig up the plotters behind this, and severely punish the murderers," Meng said.

Heavily Uighur neighborhoods were sealed off by security forces.

Local police authorities said hospitals in Urumqi are treating 531 people who believe they were attacked with hypodermic needles, 55 more than previously reported, the official Xinhua News Agency said. About 106 showed obvious signs of needle attacks, it said.

So far, none showed any signs of infection or poisoning, state media has said. None of 160 or so people treated at the Urumqi Medical College Hospital showed symptoms of AIDS or hepatitis, said Lin Fangmu, director of the preventative medicine department.

The most common symptom they displayed was "mainly just fear, terror," Lin said.

One middle-aged Han Chinese man said police should leave the protesters alone.

"They should be catching the terrorists, not harassing the people," said Ji Xiaolong. "I have to wonder if Hu Jintao really knows what is going on here."

Two Hong Kong broadcasters, TVB and now TV, said three of their reporters were detained for over three hours for filming a protest and released. Some of their seized cameras and tapes were returned. An Associated Press photographer and TV crew had their cameras confiscated and returned after five hours.

France condemns Israeli settlement burst plan

France condemns any attempt by Israel to step up construction activities prior to a complete settlement freeze, saying it would be contrary to the Mideast peace process.

"It is evidently totally contrary to the spirit of the peace process and Israeli engagements and to the dynamic of the peace process," Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told reporters on Friday. "Our position is without any ambiguity. We condemn it," he stressed.

The remarks follow on the heels of a report earlier in the day which quoted an Israeli official close to Premier Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that the prime minister planned to approve the construction of hundreds of new housing units in Judea and Samaria, which were illegally annexed by Israel after the six-day war in 1967.

The decision comes under mounting international pressure, spearheaded by US President Barack Obama's administration, for a halt to all illegal Israeli settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem (al-Quds).

The news sparked outrage in the Palestinian camp with chief peace negotiator Saeb Erakat denouncing the plan as 'absolutely unacceptable' and a cause for the suspension of the peace process.

At a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Thursday, acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his position on the issue, stressing he would meet with Netanyahu only after the Israeli side proved its commitment to a construction freeze.

Kouchner also said Israel must agree to a construction freeze within disputed Judea and Samaria, warning it would otherwise be 'almost impossible' to renew the stalled peace negotiations.

As the future of the Middle East peace talks remains shrouded in uncertainty over Israel's refusal to heed international calls to stop settlement expansions, the World's Council of Churches on Wednesday warned Israel of the 'dismay or hostility' its policies of expansion and annexation generate.

The statement by the group's Central Committee came a week after its outgoing General Secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia called Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories a 'sin against God'.

The world's largest ecumenical body -- consisting of 349 churches and representing over 560 million Christians in some 110 countries -- also urged a boycott on Israeli settlement products and services so as not to be 'complicit in illegal activities on occupied territory'.

US Embassy fires 8 guards in lewdness scandal

KABUL – The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan says it has fired eight security guards following allegations of lewd behavior and sexual misconduct at their living quarters.

The embassy said Friday the management team of the private contractor that provides the guards is also "being replaced immediately."

An embassy statement said the guards who were dismissed left the country Friday. Two other guards resigned and also left. All of them appeared in photographs that depicted guards and supervisors in various stages of nudity at parties flowing with alcohol.

The scandal surfaced this week when an independent watchdog said that guards were subjected to abuse and hazing by supervisors.

Islamic summer camp in Saudi targets extremism

By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Young men spray hoses in a car-washing contest and play pool. Children make paper crowns in an art class, while their parents have a picnic. Alongside the fun and games, Muslim clerics answer questions about jihad or give lectures about the proper dress for women.

This is Islamic summer camp, and it's part of Saudi Arabia's campaign to eliminate al-Qaida.

Saudi Arabia says it's waging a "war of minds" against extremist ideology, alongside the fierce security crackdown that has killed or arrested many al-Qaida leaders over the past six years. To do so, the kingdom plans to expand a broad public campaign aimed at preventing young people from being drawn to radicalism.

"We are working on the men of the future," Abdulrahman Alhadlaq, general director of the Interior Ministry's Ideological Security Directorate, told The Associated Press.

Islamic summer camps are a key part of the program, attended by thousands of families who consult with government-backed clerics instilling what Saudi authorities call a moderate message.

The teachings at the camps are still ultraconservative, in line with the kingdom's strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam — but the clerics drill the message that youth should turn to approved religious authorities for guidance, not radical preachers. For example, on the issue of jihad, or holy war, they teach that it can only be waged on the orders of the head of state.

"It is ... essentially about obedience, loyalty and recognition of authority," said Christopher Boucek, an associate at Washington's Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has studied the camp programs. "That is what is stressed over and over again in these programs: Loyalty to the state and recognition that there are certain correct and qualified sources to follow."

Boucek said it will take a long time to evaluate the programs' effectiveness. "In many ways, these are generational projects," he said.

The kingdom's emphasis on ideological campaigns is a stark change from the defensive stance it took immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, prompting a storm of criticism in the U.S. that Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi thought fueled radicalism. Saudi Arabia staunchly denied the existence of any radical trend on its soil, dismissing warnings of al-Qaida's influence.

It was not until 2003, when al-Qaida launched a campaign of attacks in Saudi Arabia targeting foreigners and oil infrastructure in a bid to bring down the ruling family, that the kingdom seriously unleashed its security crackdown.

The government followed with a "rehabilitation" program seeking to reform detained militants, in which clerics teach that al-Qaida's calls for violence are un-Islamic.

Saudi Arabia has come under heavy criticism over its crackdown. Amnesty International condemned the use of torture against suspected militants. In August, New York-based Human Rights Watch said the kingdom is still holding 3,000 suspects without trial and is forcing them to undergo rehabilitation.

Saudi officials say their approach has succeeded in breaking al-Qaida's leadership and wrecking its ability to reorganize. Al-Qaida has regrouped in neighboring Yemen, but Saudi officials say it is having difficulty gaining new Saudi recruits.

The government is soon expected to endorse a National Strategy to Counter Radicalization, which broadens the ideological campaign to the entire public. Besides the summer camps, which began several years ago, the plan calls for increasing employment and addressing grievances that militants exploit to recruit Saudis.

The government has doubled the number of universities to take in more students and has increased the number of students who study abroad so they get exposed to other cultures. It is also arranging with private companies to provide paid training for Saudis who can't find jobs.

The summer camps have proved popular. The 3-year-old Rabwat Arriyadh camp in the capital — one of several organized by the Islamic Affairs Ministry around the country — attracts 700,000 visitors annually, with families attending every evening for three weeks.

Part of the curriculum is simply to have fun, not a minor thing in this kingdom where sources of entertainment are sparse. It also counters radicals' message that religion must eclipse all earthly matters. Girls and boys of all ages separately participate in games and sports, everything from volleyball to car-washing contests. The camp is segregated by sexes as is every aspect of public life in Saudi Arabia.

At the same time, the young people and parents attend lectures by Islamic clerics. They are encouraged to discuss their views on jihad and Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida's Saudi-born leader, and a cleric then "rectifies any radical misunderstandings," said ministry official Mohammed Mushawah.

The clerics also advise on religious matters in general — and their answers reflect Saudi society's deep conservatism. In past lectures, one cleric denounced the "decadent" influence of Western movies and television. Another urged husbands and fathers to ensure women wear the Islamic headscarf.

Evan F. Kohlman, an analyst at the NEFA Foundation in Washington, said the program "couldn't hurt."

The message may still be ultraconservative, he said, "but you have to speak to people in language that they're going to respect and ... the only people that hardcore extremists in Saudi Arabia listen to are the clergy."

Alhadlaq said the strategy is based on extensive studies of why Saudis join al-Qaida. The average Saudi al-Qaida militant is a high-school graduate from a middle-class background, usually from a family larger than the Saudi average of 6.5 members per family, making parental control weak. Almost a third had traveled to hot spots like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Studies found that the main reason for joining militant groups is anger over issues like the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Alhadlaq said. Next are poverty and unemployment, followed by resentment over government attempts at liberalization.

Preventing the adoption of extremist mindsets is a challenge, said Alhadlaq. "You can't open up everybody's mind to determine if he's OK or not. That's what makes it hard."

"Sometimes you sit with a radical guy, and you say, 'He's a good guy,'" he said. "But inside his mind, he's got a different story. Change needs time."

North Korea says uranium program near completion

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea announced Friday that its process of enriching uranium is nearly complete, giving it a new way to make nuclear bombs as the U.S. and regional powers discuss how to bring the communist country back to disarmament talks.

The move raises concerns that North Korea may soon produce uranium-based bombs in addition to those made from plutonium.

The U.S., China, Japan, Russia and South Korea had been trying for years to persuade North Korea to dismantle its plutonium-based nuclear program, which experts say has yielded enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen bombs, in exchange for much-needed aid.

After hashing out a 2007 disarmament-for-aid deal, North Korea walked away from those talks earlier this year in anger over the rising international outcry over a rocket launch widely condemned as a disguised test of its long-range missile technology.

Uranium can be enriched in relatively inconspicuous, underground factories, and could provide North Korea with an easier way to build nuclear bombs, according to experts in the U.S. and at South Korea's Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control.

Uranium-based bombs may also work without requiring test explosions like the two carried out by North Korea this May and in 2006 for plutonium-based weapons.

Washington's special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said any nuclear development in North Korea was a matter of concern.

"We confirm the necessity to maintain a coordinated position and the need for a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," he said in Beijing during an Asian trip to discuss North Korea with counterparts in China, South Korea and Japan.

The U.S. had long suspected that the North also had a covert uranium enrichment program, which would give it a second source of nuclear material. North Korea for years denied the claim but revealed in June that it was prepared to start enriching uranium.

"Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase," North Korea said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council carried Friday by its official Korean Central News Agency.

Verifying North Korea's claim on uranium enrichment won't be easy, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said, adding that it could be a negotiating tactic.

However, the announcement suggests the regime has made progress in research and development in its uranium program in a small pilot factory, said Lee Choon-geun of South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute. Still, he said it could take at least five years to build a uranium-based bomb.

North Korea also said Friday it is continuing to weaponize plutonium. The 2007 deal had called for disabling its reactor.

The tough talk indicated North Korea's impatience with the U.S. as Washington continues to pursue sanctions against the North despite a series of overtures from it in recent weeks.

"We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions," the North said in the letter to the Security Council. If some permanent council members "wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue," it said.

A Security Council resolution sought to punish North Korea for carrying out an underground nuclear test in May by tightening an arms embargo and authorizing ship searches on the high seas to try to rein in the North's nuclear program. It also ordered an asset freeze and travel ban on companies and individuals involved in the its nuclear and weapons programs.

North Korea said it does not oppose the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but warned it would be left with no choice but to take "yet stronger self-defensive countermeasures" if the standoff continues. It did not elaborate on the possible countermeasures.

Bosworth, who is to meet with South Korean officials starting Saturday, reaffirmed Washington's position to engage North Korea — but only within the framework of the six-nation disarmament talks.

The North has long sought one-on-one negotiations with Washington, claiming the nuclear dispute is an issue between Pyongyang and Washington.

It says it needs the nuclear program as a security guarantee against a threat from the U.S., which has 28,500 troops based in South Korea, which technically remains at war with the North because their three-year conflict ended in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Friday's action is a message from North Korea to Washington seeking "direct dialogue while warning that its nuclear stockpile will increase unless Washington sits down with Pyongyang for negotiations," said Lee Sang-hyun, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul.

South Korea expressed regret over the North's announcement.

"The North's move to continue provocative steps ... can never be tolerated. We will deal with North Korea's threats and provocative acts in a stern and consistent manner," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Japan urged North Korea to refrain from actions and remarks that could heighten tensions.

"We will definitely not tolerate North Korea possessing nuclear weapons," Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said.

China police break up angry crowds near party HQ

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

URUMQI, China – Police used tear gas and public appeals Friday to break up crowds marching on government and Communist Party offices in western China to protest a lack of public security after a bizarre series of syringe stabbings that appeared ethnically motivated.

Thousands of people, mostly from the Han Chinese majority, took to the streets of the city of Urumqi for a second day to demand increased security in the Xinjiang regional capital, still jittery after riots two months ago left nearly 200 people dead.

The protesters want punishment for those behind the July riots between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs, and for the culprits in the stabbings with syringes or needles in the past two weeks that state media has said targeted predominantly Han Chinese victims.

Hundreds of young Han Chinese men protested outside the headquarters of Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan — an ally of President Hu Jintao - chanting for him to step down.

Armed police in riot gear marched into the crowd to push people back. After several surges, the police broke up the demonstrators, some of whom were singing the national anthem.

The smell of tear gas drifted over parts of the city. The official Xinhua News Agency also said tear gas had been used.

The security forces did not appear to be using excess force, but armed police seized video and cameras from cameramen and photographers from The Associated Press covering the protest.

The protests have thrown the city of 2.5 million into confusion, with vehicles banned from streets and almost all shops and schools closed. Wang spoke to protesters Thursday to call for restraint.

Hong Kong Cable TV reported that paramilitary police had fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of about 1,000 near the city government offices Friday morning.

One Han man, who brought his 9-year-old daughter because her school was closed, was seen arguing with paramilitary police.

"It's been two months already. How many more months are we going to wait, how long before us Han can feel safe?" said the man, who would give only his surname, Ma.

A truck with loudspeakers circled behind him, with a recorded voice saying repeatedly: "Disperse. Don't stay here. Think of the nation."

Hong Kong Cable and and another broadcaster, RTHK, both reported that two cameramen and a reporter from Hong Kong were detained while covering a protest. Hong Kong Cable said the three were forced to kneel, with their hands being tied, before they were taken away. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the reports.

RTHK also said about 5,000 Han Chinese carrying national flags protested peacefully on Renmin Road, demanding that Wang step down. The report said paramilitary police fired several tear gas rounds to disperse them.

One middle-aged Han Chinese man said police should leave the protesters alone.

"They should be catching the terrorists, not harassing the people," said Ji Xiaolong. "I have to wonder if Hu Jintao really knows what is going on here."

All access to Uighur areas of the city had been cut off, with security forces forming barriers at street entrances.

Calls to the press office of the Xinjiang government were not answered Friday. Chen Li, a staffer at the media center at the Haide Hotel in Urumqi, said there had not been any gatherings or clashes near the Xinjiang government or Xinjiang Communist Party offices.

The demonstrations are likely to further unnerve the Chinese leadership — already grappling with tens of thousands of increasingly large and violent protests every year — as it prepares for a nationwide celebration of 60 years of communist rule on Oct. 1.

The unrest shows how unsettled Urumqi remains despite continued high security since 197 people were killed in July in the worst communal violence to hit Xinjiang province in more than a decade. That rioting began when a protest by Muslim Uighurs spiraled out of control, and Uighurs attacked Han. Days later, Han vigilantes tore through Uighur neighborhoods to retaliate.

State media said most of the victims of the syringe stabbings were Han Chinese.

A total of 476 people have sought treatment for stabbings, with 433 of them Han, a TV report said. The rest are from eight other ethnic groups.

Only 89 had obvious signs of being pricked, and no deaths, infections or poisonings have occurred, the TV report said. Xinhua said 21 people had been detained.

None of the reports gave a motive.

Fears of AIDS could be adding to the concern. Xinjiang has the highest rate of infections in China, with about 25,000 cases of HIV reported last year — fueled by needle-sharing among drug users.

Any trouble in Xinjiang is magnified by ethnic tensions. The Uighurs see Xinjiang as their homeland and resent the millions of Han Chinese who have poured into the region in recent decades, saying they have unfairly benefited from the strategically vital Central Asian region with significant oil and gas deposits.

Meanwhile, the Han often stereotype Uighurs as lazy, more concerned with religion than business, and unfairly favored by quotas for government jobs and university places.

Venezuela’s Chavez Calls on Israel to End Palestinian ‘Siege’

By Massoud A. Derhally

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Israel to end what he said was a siege of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and said Israeli forces should return the Golan Heights to Syria.

Israel is an “enemy of peace,” Chavez said during a visit to Syria yesterday, according a transcript of a joint-press conference with President Bashar al-Assad carried by the state- run SANA news agency.

U.S. President Barack Obama should end military and economic support for Israel, which is a “criminal” state, the Venezuelan president said.

Chavez has been a frequent critic of Israeli policies and expelled Israel’s ambassador to Venezuela on Jan. 6, to protest what he called Israel’s “genocidal” military operation against the Islamic Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip.

A week later Venezuela announced it was formally cutting diplomatic ties with Israel. In response the Zionist state expelled Jan. 28 Venezuela’s charge d’affaires.

Assad said he believed Israel is not ready now or in the foreseeable future for peace.

Syria broke off indirect discussions with Israel in the wake of Israel’s 22-day offensive in Gaza. The talks, which began last year with Turkish mediation, marked the first effort to reach a Syrian-Israeli peace agreement since negotiations broke down in 2000 over the terms for Israel to return the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Peace “means the return of every inch of land and nothing less than the lines of 1967,” Assad said yesterday, according to the transcript.

The Syrian president said “nothing serious” has come out of the peace talks that started in Madrid in 1991 and that there was “no difference between Israeli governments.”

Venezuela, the largest oil exporter in Latin America, signed seven agreements with Syria yesterday for cooperation on economic ties, agriculture, culture, health, environment, sports and diplomacy.

“The only difference is in tactics and appearance but in substance the very essence is one,” Assad said.

Somalia: Al-Shabaab Leader Targets Somaliland

Nairobi — The Amir (leader) of Al-Shabaab, the strongest Islamist movement challenging the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia, has accused the Somaliland authority of oppressing the Muslim people in the region.

Sheikh Mukhtar Abdurahman Abu Zubayr, through a circulated voice message, said: "This authority prevents the Muslim society there from implementing sharia (Islamic) laws,".

"Such action leaves the people without progress," he added.

The Al-Shabaab leader, who himself comes from Somaliland, urged the people there to rise against the government and the power structure.

He indicated that since the independence from Britain in 1960, the region has been ruled through un-Islamic governing systems that lead to disappointments.

Sheikh Abu Zubayr blamed the government in Somaliland of having wasted the people's time by unsuccessfully seeking international recognition for over 18 years.

"This authority's search for recognition and the hazy democracy it follows amounts to treachery," said the sheikh.

"The government in Somaliland has only achieved low income, unemployment, poor infrastructure and economic collapse," remarked Sheikh Abu Zubayr.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909030736.html.

Somalia: Harakat Shabab Mujahideen Amir Sends Warning Message to Somaliland

Mogadishu — Sheik Moktar Sheik Abdirahman (Abu Zubair), the Amir of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen has Thursday sent a recording type warning to the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

The official said that some of the seaports of Somaliland administration like Barbera were handed to Christians saying that Ethiopians import what ever they want and uses it as is needs.

The Amir of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen warned the population of Somaliland to rent houses from the Ethiopians and also to be near the Ethiopians and make them servant saying that Somaliland administration had handed more Somali people to Ethiopia than those that are currently in the Ethiopian prisons.

The Amir of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen also talked about the following election that will be held in Somaliland saying that those elections are aimed at disgracing the reputation of the holy Koran and rob the property of the people.

He called for all the population of Somaliland to count with the government led by President Dahir Riyale, pointing out that he has relations with Ethiopia.

Lastly he called for the young teenagers, clerics and the different parts of Somaliland population to protect the problems of Ethiopia in the region.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909030786.html.

NATO airstrike in Afghanistan kills up to 90

By DOUGLAS BIRCH, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – NATO launched an airstrike on two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants in northern Afghanistan, sparking a huge blast that killed up to 90 people, including 40 civilians, Afghan officials said Friday.

Militants seized the two trucks, which were delivering fuel to NATO forces, around midnight near the village of Omar Khel in Kunduz province, and the alliance launched an airstrike when the Taliban fighters stopped the vehicles at a river crossing, Police Chief Gulam Mohyuddin said.

One police official estimated at least 90 people were killed, and that 40 of them were civilians, including some who were receiving fuel being distributed by militants at the crossing. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity over the issue of civilian deaths in the Afghan conflict.

Kunduz Gov. Mohammad Omar of Kunduz also reported 90 dead, but gave no breakdown.

NATO confirmed that there was an airstrike in Kunduz overnight but gave no details. A spokesman said the coalition was investigating the incident.

Omar said the dead included the Taliban commander for several Kunduz districts, Abdur Rahman, several other senior Taliban and four Chechen fighters.

"Abudur Rahman is a very dangerous man," the governor said. "I hope that the death of Abdur Rahman will have a positive effect on Kunduz city."

Officials said that at least 12 people were hospitalized.

Omar said villagers heard jets before the tankers exploded, but that some of them thought the tankers had been hit by rocket-propelled grenades. He said most of the bodies were badly burned.

The hijackings are a symptom of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

Jimena weakens as it plows into Mexico, killing 1

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer

LOS CABOS, Mexico – Hurricane Jimena unleashed flooding that killed at least one man and cut off hundreds of people in remote fishing villages on Mexico's Baja California peninsula before mellowing into a drifting tropical storm Thursday.

The 75-year-old victim drowned when his house flooded in the village of Mulege on the west coast of the peninsula, said Jose Gajon de la Toba, director of Civil Protection in Baja California Sur state. He said one other person was missing in the fishing village of San Buto.

Emergency workers evacuated thousands of people from shacks and low-lying areas before Jimena made landfall Wednesday, but some refused to leave their homes for fear their possessions would be stolen.

Flooding stranded several villages along the eastern coast of the peninsula, said Joel Villegas, mayor of the Comondu municipality that encompasses the villages.

He said some people were in need of medical help, including a woman who had a miscarriage and another person with a broken arm. Villegas said he would ask the federal government for helicopters to rescue the injured.

About 4,000 people in Comondu lost their homes in the storm, Villegas said. The federal government promised to help residents rebuild but urged patience.

"A house is not built from one day to the next," Social Development Secretary Ernesto Cordero said after flying over Comondu, Mulege and the resort town of Loreto.

Forecasters warned of more flash floods and large waves, but those were expected to gradually subside as the slow-moving storm made its way on a projected path back out over the Pacific Ocean.

Earlier this week, tourists evacuated and residents sought shelter as Jimena roared toward the multimillion-dollar resorts of Los Cabos as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds topping 150 mph (240 kph). But the beaches and condominiums where Hollywood stars vacation year-round were mostly spared, and the hurricane has since moved its way north ripping off some roofs and toppling power poles in smaller farm towns and fishing villages.

Loreto, the nearest significant resort town to the area where Jimena made landfall, suffered some damage to homes and streets, as well as Ciudad Constitucion, an inland town.

The storm brought some much-needed rain to the drought-stricken peninsula.

"Fortunately, this kind of weather phenomenon we're going through brings with it a lot of water," National Water Commissioner Jose Luis Luege Tamargo told the Cabo Mill radio station. "This rain undoubtedly will fill up the aquifers of the whole region."

Jimena was not expected to provide any relief from fierce wildfires in Southern California, however, as it headed back over the Pacific, said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

At 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT) Thursday, Jimena's maximum sustained winds had decreased to about 40 mph (65 kph) and the storm was expected to weaken to a depression overnight. It was centered about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northeast of Santa Rosalia, Mexico, and was nearly stationary, the Hurricane Center said.

Also Thursday, Tropical Storm Erika weakened to a remnant low with winds of 30 mph (45 kph) after brushing past Antigua and Guadeloupe, churning up rough surf and dumping some rain but leaving little noticeable damage.

At 11 p.m. EDT Thursday, the remnants of Erika were centered about 115 miles (185) kilometers) southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The storm was moving west at about 7 mph (11 kph).

Aides: Israel to build new houses in settlements

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will approve hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements before slowing settlement construction, two of his aides said Friday, in an apparent snub of Washington's public demand for a total settlement freeze.

The aides also said Netanyahu would be willing to consider a temporary freeze in settlement construction, but their definition of a freeze would include building the new units and finishing some 2,500 others currently under construction.

The settlement suspension also would not include east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make their future capital.

The U.S. has a set a high public bar for a freeze, saying repeatedly that all settlement activity on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state must stop, without exception. However, Israel appeared to gain some wiggle room in recent weeks as the sides discussed the details of a would-be settlement freeze.

The two Netanuyahu aides spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the government has made no official announcement. The information also appeared in major Israeli media Friday morning and was clearly intended for public consumption.

It was unclear if Washington had prior knowledge of the Israeli announcement, which had the potential to undermine the Obama administration's credibility in the Arab world.

"I think the only thing that will be suspended by this announcement is the peace process," said senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

In the next few days, the aides said, the prime minister will approve the construction of hundreds of new apartments in the West Bank.

They did not give a specific number, but said these units would be in addition to the 2,500 that are already under construction and will continue to be built. The construction will be centered in the main settlement blocs, areas Israel hopes to retain after any peace deal.

In exchange for a suspension, Netanyahu would expect the Arab world to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, the aides added. The U.S. has been pressing Arab countries to make moves toward normalization, an effort that has been inconclusive so far.

There have been signs of a settlement slowdown even without the announcement of an official freeze. Government statistics released Thursday showed that new construction in Israel's West Bank settlements fell by one-third in the first half of 2009.

The number of Israeli settlers has steadily increased for decades and has more than doubled since the early 1990s. Today, about 300,000 Israelis live among about 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank. An additional 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem neighborhoods built since Israel captured the area in the 1967 Mideast war.

The Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future state, along with east Jerusalem and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, and see continued settlement construction as a sign that Israel is not serious about making peace.

Netanyahu faces internal opposition to any move toward compromise on settlements. His governing coalition is dominated by hardliners, and even many members of his own party are certain to oppose the move.

Danny Danon, a Likud lawmaker, said Netanyahu can expect a fight over any decision to halt or slow settlement building.

"Most members of the Likud, most members of the coalition, don't think that what he's about to do is the right step," Danon told Israel Radio.

Peace talks have been suspended since shortly before Netanyahu's election, but in recent weeks there have been signs of a thaw.

Israeli and Palestinian Cabinet ministers met this week to discuss development projects, in the first Cabinet-level contacts between the sides since Netanyahu came to power. The sides have also said that a first meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is likely at the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month.

Tensions high after Urumqi protest

Chinese authorities have stepped up security in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang, following a day of protests by thousands of residents angry over a string of alleged syringe attacks.

Thousands of soldiers and paramilitary police were deployed on the city's streets on Friday, leaving many streets deserted and businesses closed.

On Thursday thousands of protesters, mostly from the city's ethnic Han Chinese majority, took to the streets to demand increased security following reports of a spate of stabbings with hypodermic syringes.

The protesters say the alleged attacks have been carried out by members of the indigenous Muslim Uighur community, although Uighur leaders say members of their community have also been targeted in the attacks.

State media, which first reported the stabbings earlier this week, said most of the victims were ethnic Han.

Local TV reports said that a total of 476 people had sought treatment for stabbings, although only 89 had obvious signs of being pricked and no deaths, infections or poisonings had occurred.

Sealed off

On Friday, in the wake of the latest protests, paramilitary police with shields, sticks and submachine guns slung over their backs sealed off People's Square in the center of Urumqi.

Group of armed security personnel also guarded intersections in the center of the city, blocking access to anyone without identification showing they lived or worked there.

Thursday's protest follows deadly riots in July between Uighurs and Han Chinese in which nearly 200 people died.

The riots were the most serious ethnic clashes seen in China in decades and prompted a massive security crackdown by Beijing.

But the latest unrest has been seen as a sign that despite that crackdown, sectarian tensions remain high in the city.

"People are angry at the government, they are scared. We are living under conditions that are not normal," Zhou Yijun, a government office worker, told the Associated Press.

Another man, who gave his name only as Zheng, told the news agency people were very upset about the stabbings and described relations between Han Chinese and Uighurs as "very bad".

"These people making trouble, we catch one, we kill one," he said.

Resentment

Ethnic relations in Xinjiang have grown increasingly strained in recent years, with many Uighurs resentful at the migration of millions of Han Chinese into what they see as their homeland.

The Uighurs say the Han have unfairly benefited from the mineral wealth of Xinjiang, a strategically vital Central Asian region with significant oil and gas deposits.

Meanwhile, the Han often stereotype Uighurs as lazy, more concerned with religion than business, and unfairly favored by set-aside quotas for government jobs and university places.

Source: Al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/09/2009944194123764.html.

Gaza sewage 'a threat to Israel'

The UN and international aid agencies say Israel must relax its blockade of the Gaza Strip to allow urgent repairs to the water and sewage systems.

In a joint appeal, the bodies say the hazards to health and the environment threaten not only Gaza but Israel too.

More than 13m gallons (50m litres) of raw or partially treated sewage flows into the sea every day from Gaza because of a lack of treatment plants.

The cross-border aquifer is low and raw sewage floats back to Gaza and Israel.

Deadly flash flood

The UN says about 10,000 Gazans have no access to a water network - while about 60% of the 1.4m population receive water only intermittently.

Water consumption in the Strip is less than a third of that of Israelis living just a few kilometres away.

Israel, and Egypt on its south-western side, have kept Gaza largely sealed since a violent takeover of the territory by the Islamic militant Hamas group in 2007.

Israel says it is trying to weaken Hamas, end its rocket attacks against Israeli towns and get back an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was captured and taken to Gaza in 2006.

"The deterioration and breakdown of water and sanitation facilities in Gaza is compounding an already severe and protracted denial of human dignity in the Gaza Strip," said UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, Maxwell Gaylard.

Mr Gaylard and other humanitarian workers and officials launched the appeal with a news conference near one of northern Gaza's sewage lagoons to highlight the problem.

In 2007, one of the lagoons overflowed and five people were killed by a flash flood of sewage.

Aid agencies said Israel's bombardment in December and January worsened an already bad situation.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment to the appeal on Thursday.

Israeli protests close exhibition

Artists who grafted the faces of female Palestinian suicide bombers on images of Mary, the mother of Jesus, have had their exhibition shut down in Israel.

A wave of criticism greeted the planned event but the Israeli artists say their work was completely misinterpreted.

"The exhibition was an attempt to commemorate the memory of the victims," artist Lilia Chak told the BBC.

Israel's largest daily Yediot Aharonot ran a critical story of the planned exhibition headlined "Holy Terrorists".

Defending their work, Lilia Chak and Galina Bleikh said it was meant to question how these women had become suicide bombers.

"We dealt with a new phenomena called women's terrorism; and tried to find out how is it that the symbol of love and motherhood, the Madonna, became a symbol of death," Lilia Chak said.

"This is a problem we need to face, but it is not only an Israeli problem and should concern the whole world."

Galina Bleikh wrote on her website: "In the warped world of extremism, love in the heart of a woman is replaced by such hatred that even motherhood is replaced by desire for annihilation and mayhem."

The works, entitled Ferror (Female Terrorism), show the faces of seven Palestinian women suicide bombers in traditional Muslim headscarves grafted onto famous paintings of the Virgin Mary such as Madonna and Child by Raphael.

Several hours ahead of the planned opening workers were seen removing the paintings from the walls of a gallery in the building of the National Federation of Israeli Journalists in Tel Aviv.

"We have to make it clear to these artists, who think using suicide bombers is artistic, that they are hurting people," said Yossi Tzur, whose son was killed in a 2003 bus bombing and filed a complaint with police alleging that the exhibition was an incitement to violence.

Brown says UK troops stay in Afghanistan for now

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON – Britain's military will stay in Afghanistan until it can look after its own security, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday, dismissing a call from one of his government's defense aides to begin planning a pullout from the country.

In a major speech on Afghanistan intended to shore up flagging support for the war there and answer critics of his defense policy, Brown was due to tell Britons that "we cannot walk away."

"People ask what success in Afghanistan would look like," Brown said in excerpts released to the media ahead of the speech. "The answer is that we will have succeeded when our troops are coming home because the Afghans are doing the job themselves."

Brown is under increasing pressure to justify the Afghanistan mission to Britons — pressure underscored by the resignation of defense aide Eric Joyce over Brown's management of the conflict. The resignation was particularly embarrassing because Joyce, a former army major, is one of the few members of the governing Labour Party with significant military experience.

In his resignation letter, Joyce called on the prime minister to publicly state when Britain would begin removing its forces from Afghanistan and to do a better job of justifying the war to voters.

"I do not think the public will accept for much longer that our losses can be justified by simply referring to the risk of greater terrorism on our streets," the letter said. "We also need to make it clear that our commitment in Afghanistan is high but time limited."

Brown tried to address both concerns in the speech Friday, rejecting the notion of a time limit and noting that the Afghan mission was not just about protecting Britons, but about protecting the international community as well.

"We all face the same threat," he said.

Support for Britain's engagement is slipping, with critics — including lawmakers on Britain's influential Foreign Affairs Committee — calling the mission too open-ended and its goals too vague.

The government has also been criticized for allegedly failing to provide enough support to soldiers in the field. In another uncomfortable moment for the government earlier this summer, outgoing British minister Mark Malloch-Brown said that forces in Afghanistan needed more helicopters — directly contradicting the prime minister, who insisted the military had all that it needed.

Brown defended his government's record Friday, saying that spending per soldier had more than doubled since 2006.

Gates opens door to possible Afghan troop increase

By Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday the military resources needed to stem Taliban gains were arriving in Afghanistan but signaled he would be open to sending additional troops, asserting the war was not "slipping through the administration's fingers".

Gates appeared to tone down his personal reservations about a troop increase, saying his long-standing concerns about the U.S. and NATO presence becoming too large could be "mitigated" if Afghans viewed any additional Western troops as partners rather than occupiers.

A classified assessment of the war by U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has intensified debate within the administration over sending additional troops into the fight with the Taliban.

Officials have described the White House as wary of committing to more troops for the war in Afghanistan, fearing a political backlash, particularly within President Barack Obama's own Democratic Party.

Obama's popularity has been dented by the raucous U.S. debate over healthcare, and public support for the war has eroded as U.S. combat deaths rose to record levels.

A willingness by Gates to accept a larger U.S. and NATO "footprint" in Afghanistan could influence Obama's decision-making. Gates will meet the president next week to discuss McChrystal's assessment and the administration's options, Pentagon officials said.

"I don't believe that the war is slipping through the administration's fingers," Gates told a news conference.

After eight years of war, he said, "the fact that Americans would be tired of having their sons and daughters at risk and in battle is not surprising."

Gates said not all of the forces authorized by Obama have arrived in Afghanistan, and that the administration's new strategy -- aimed at reducing Afghan civilian casualties and fostering public support for NATO forces -- had only recently been put in place and would "take some time" to work.

But he added: "We think that we now have the resources ... and the right approach to begin making some headway and turning around a situation that, as many have indicated, has been deteriorating."

Gates said any request for additional resources would be submitted after consultations between military chiefs and the White House. He did not put a timeframe on that process.

McChrystal has about 103,000 troops under his command, including 63,000 Americans, half of whom arrived this year as part of an escalation strategy that was started by former President George W. Bush and ramped up under Obama.

STRETCHED MILITARY

The Western force is set to rise to 110,000, including 68,000 Americans, by year's end, stretching the U.S. military to its limits, military officials said.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said McChrystal spelled out to the chain of command in "frank and candid" terms the state of the war in Afghanistan, adding that the Pentagon had a "sense of urgency" and understood that "time is not on our side."

Military commanders and administration and congressional leaders have held preliminary discussions about future troop options, including sending a second 5,000-member Marine Regimental Combat Team to southern Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold, participants said. This would boost the number of Marines in the country to 15,000-18,000 from just over 10,000.

An outside adviser to McChrystal, Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said last month that between 15,000 and 45,000 new U.S. combat troops -- the equivalent of three to nine brigades -- may have to be sent to Afghanistan above the 21,000 additional forces that Obama approved earlier this year.

"There has been enormous focus on troop numbers and time lines lately. Lots of conjecture, lots of speculation," Mullen said. "What's more important than the numbers of troops he may or may not ask for is how he intends to use them."

A former CIA chief who helped mujahideen rebels drive the Soviets from Afghanistan, Gates has previously expressed concern that if the U.S. and NATO presence becomes too large, Afghans will see it as an occupying force.

"I take seriously General McChrystal's point that the size of the imprint, of the footprint ... depends in significant measure on the nature of the footprint and the behavior of those troops and their attitudes and their interactions with the Afghans," Gates said.

"And if they interact with the Afghans in a way that gives confidence to the Afghans that we're their partners and their allies, then the risks that I have been concerned about, about the footprint becoming too big and the Afghans seeing us in some role other than partners, I think is mitigated," he added.

North Korea says uranium enrichment in final stage

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said Friday that it is in the final stages of enriching uranium, a process that could give the nation a second way to make nuclear bombs in addition to its known plutonium-based program.

North Korea informed the U.N. Security Council it is forging ahead with its nuclear programs in defiance of international calls to abandon its atomic ambitions, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a report early Friday.

The dispatch said plutonium "is being weaponized," and that uranium enrichment — a program North Korea revealed in recent months — was entering the "completion phase." Experts had long suspected that the North had a hidden uranium enrichment program, which would give the regime a second source of nuclear material.

Uranium enrichment is a simpler method of building nuclear weapons than reprocessing plutonium, and it can be enriched in relatively inconspicuous factories that can better evade spy-satellite detection.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said Thursday night that he had no immediate reaction to the North Korean announcement.

A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The North's announcement came a day after a U.S. special envoy arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese officials on how to get North Korea back on track with its commitments to nuclear disarmament.

Stephen Bosworth, the special envoy to North Korea, was to arrive in Seoul later Friday for similar consultations with South Korean officials before traveling to Tokyo on Sunday as part of an Asia tour amid recent conciliatory moves by Pyongyang.

His visit to the region aims to "continue consultations with our partners and allies on how to best convince North Korea that it must live up to its obligations ... and take irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization," the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said in a statement.

North Korea called the decision to push ahead with its nuclear programs a reaction to the Security Council's moves to tighten sanctions against the regime for testing a nuclear bomb in May. The report called the resolution a "wanton violation of the DPRK's sovereignty and dignity." DPRK stands for the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The North views its nuclear program as a security guarantee against what it claims is U.S. hostility and its alleged plans to attack Pyongyang.

The U.S., China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have been negotiating with North Korea for years on dismantling its nuclear program in exchange for aid and other concessions.

North Korea warned on Friday that it would be "left with no choice but to take yet stronger self-defensive countermeasures" if the Security Council continues the standoff, KCNA said without elaborating on what it meant by the countermeasures.

Meanwhile, the North also said it has never objected to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and left open possibility for dialogue with some permanent members of the Security Council, an apparent reference to the U.S.

"We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions," KCNA said.

The North has long sought one-on-one negotiations with Washington on the nuclear program, hoping to raise its international profile. The U.S. has said it is willing to hold direct talks with Pyongyang but only on the sidelines of the six-nation disarmament talks.

North Korea walked away from the talks earlier this year. North Korea also conducted its second nuclear test in May, drawing international condemnation and new U.N. sanctions.

The North's move also came amid its conciliatory overtures to Seoul and Washington. The North freed two U.S. journalists and five South Koreans, including four fishermen, in recent weeks.

The two Koreas also agreed to restart reunions of Korean family separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and restored regular traffic to a joint industrial park in the North.