Venezuela's Chavez in Venice for Oliver Stone film

VENICE (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Venice on Monday to attend the world premiere of Oliver Stone's documentary about him and his strained relations with the United States.

"South of the Border" is a sympathetic portrait of the leader, casting him as a champion of the poor who has stood up to Washington.

Chavez, surrounded by bodyguards, strolled with Stone on the Lido red carpet and signed autographs like a movie star ahead of the premiere at the Venice film festival.

"What's happening in Latin America is like a Renaissance," the Venezuelan leader told reporters.

Chavez landed in Venice after visiting Iran and Turkmenistan.

Karzai says U.S. 'attacking' him over election

PARIS – Afghan President Hamid Karzai says in an interview published in France that the United States is attacking him because it wants to him to be more "docile."

Karzai's re-election bid has faced controversy over alleged fraud. Le Figaro newspaper quotes him as saying that fraud is "inevitable in a budding democracy."

He says Americans who are "attacking Karzai secretly" are wrong to do so — and it's in no one's interest for the Afghan president to be a U.S. puppet.

He says he believes he has won the August election. The official outcome is not expected for weeks.

Karzai said in the interview from Kabul published Monday that he has sought in writing, but failed to obtain, U.S. proof of allegations that his younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai is a drug trafficker.

Britain to back IRA victims' lawsuit against Libya

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer

DUBLIN – Britain's surprise decision to support a lawsuit against Libya by Irish Republican Army victims raised hopes Monday that thousands who were maimed or lost loved ones in IRA bombings might receive compensation payments one day from the oil-rich nation.

Libya admits it shipped hundreds of tons of weaponry to the IRA in the mid-1980s, most critically the plastic explosive Semtex at the heart of the outlawed group's biggest and deadliest bombs. Lawyers say they expect the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi to pay 10 million pounds ($16 million) to each member on their growing list of IRA victims.

"The fact is, if the Libyans hadn't provided the IRA with the Semtex, my son would be alive today," said peace campaigner Colin Parry, one of more than 150 litigants in the case initially filed in U.S. courts in 2006 and currently in legal limbo. Parry's 12-year-old son and a 3-year-old boy were killed when the IRA bombed a shopping district in Warrington, northwest England, in February 1993.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown — who has suffered withering criticism over Scotland's Aug. 20 release and transfer home of the only Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Britain's deadliest act of terrorism — has been accused by IRA victims of failing to demand compensation for their suffering as part of the deal.

Brown announced Sunday night that his government would provide Foreign Office support for IRA victims who are seeking face-to-face meetings next month with Libyan leaders as they pursue their lawsuit either in Britain or Libya.

The British leader previously had refused such aid, citing Britain's overriding need to keep improving relations with Libya, a source for anti-terror intelligence tips and a base for growing British oil interests.

Gadhafi's son Saif responded that his government would permit the British lawsuit access to Libyan courts — but would mount a stern defense.

"Anyone can knock on our door. You go to the court. They have their lawyers. We have our lawyers," Saif Gadhafi said in a Sky News interview in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

When asked if his father's government would reject compensation demands from IRA victims, Saif Gadhafi responded, "Of course."

Libya has already paid billions to other victims of Libyan-sponsored bloodshed as part of its successful push since 2001 to end its diplomatic isolation and reopen trade with the West.

Libya agreed in 2003 to pay more than $2.1 billion in compensation for the 270 people — among them 180 Americans and 52 Britons — killed in the December 1988 destruction of a civilian jet over Lockerbie, Scotland.

And in mid-2008, the Bush administration negotiated a deal that closed all lawsuits by U.S. citizens against Libya for state-sponsored terrorism. In October, Libya paid $1.5 billion into a joint fund to compensate any qualifying U.S. and Libyan citizens for violence including the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco frequented by U.S. soldiers; the 1989 downing of a French airliner over Niger that killed 170; and the U.S. air assault on the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986.

Crucially, that new fund also covers the cases of a handful of Americans wounded or killed in IRA attacks. Their receipt of out-of-court payments torpedoed the class-action lawsuit being pursued in the United States chiefly by residents of Northern Ireland and England, because it required American plaintiffs to proceed on U.S. soil.

Jason McCue, the London lawyer leading the lawsuit-in-limbo, said Britain's policy U-turn "has given hope to thousands of ordinary people" and increased the possibility of spurring Libya to reach an early out-of-court settlement.

McCue — who last year wrote to Brown asking him to negotiate directly with Libya on the matter — said he accepted now that Britain couldn't do this because of earlier treaty agreements that reopened British-Libyan relations.

As part of those talks, Libya accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie attack, agreed to compensate its victims — and gave Britain documents detailing its arms shipments to the IRA from 1984 to 1986. Britain used that information to measure progress in the disarmament of the IRA, a secretive plank of the Northern Ireland peace process completed in 2005.

But McCue said Foreign Office support for the plaintiffs, whether in the form of funds, logistical aid or advice, could achieve the same result as direct British-Libyan negotiations.

The Foreign Office in London declined to detail any potential aid in advance of an expected visit by McCue, British lawmakers and IRA victims to Tripoli next month.

McCue said his London firm, H20, expects the Libyans to pay each of his more than 150 clients in the region of 10 million pounds ($16 million) each for their own injuries or lost loved ones.

The lawyer said he expected potentially thousands of additional claimants to come forward, given that the IRA killed more than 400 people, wounded thousands more and destroyed billions' worth of property following the arrival of the Libyan arsenal.

The H20 case centers on 10 of the IRA's biggest bombings from 1987 to 1996, the year before the underground group called a cease-fire. British explosives experts determined that all involved use of Libyan-supplied Semtex, which often was used as the fail-safe primer at the core of massive fertilizer-based bombs.

The first bombing was a November 1987 no-warning attack on a British war memorial service in the Northern Ireland town of Enniskillen that killed 11 Protestant civilians and wounded 63. The most recent was the IRA's truck-bomb attack in June 1996 on the center of Manchester, northwest England, that wounded about 200 people.

H20 earlier this year won a landmark British judgment against four IRA dissidents, who were ordered by a Belfast judge to pay 1.6 million pounds ($2.5 million) to 12 plaintiffs over the August 1998 car-bombing of the Northern Ireland town of Omagh. The dissidents are appealing the verdict.

The Real IRA splinter group killed 29 people, mostly women and children. It was the deadliest attack in the Northern Ireland conflict, which has claimed more than 3,600 lives since 1969.

Milky Way Expected to Survive a Beating

Clara Moskowitz
Staff Writer
SPACE.com

Though the Milky Way is taking a good beating from nearby mini-galaxies that sometimes slam into it, our galaxy is not likely to be destroyed by this process as some scientists had predicted, a new study finds.

Circling around the Milky Way are between 20 and 25 known satellite dwarf galaxies, which are smaller clumps of stars bound in orbit around the Milky Way by gravitational attraction.

Some pessimists predicted the Milky Way was doomed to a grizzly death by dismemberment if enough of these galaxies collide with it. In fact, scientists think many satellite galaxies have already rammed into the Milky Way, though so far it has endured.

A new computer simulation indicates that rather than tearing apart a galaxy, collisions with dwarf galaxies serve to puff up the host's pancake-shaped galactic disk. Indeed, evidence of this puffiness has been found in the form of rings and flares of stars around the edges of other galaxies' disks.

"Our simulations showed that the satellite galaxy impacts don't destroy spiral galaxies — they actually drive their evolution, by producing this flared shape and creating stellar rings — spectacular rings of stars that we've seen in many spiral galaxies in the universe," said study leader Stelios Kazantzidis, an astronomer at Ohio State University.

Though our galaxy may not be in danger from dwarf galaxies, astronomers do expect it to eventually collide with the nearest full-size galaxy, Andromeda. In a few billion years, the two spirals should smash into each other head on.

"The collision with Andromeda is a collision between two essentially equal-mass galaxies, whereas satellite bombardment involves encounters with much smaller systems compared to the Milky Way," Kazantzidis told SPACE.com.

Luckily, even that fender bender doesn't necessarily spell the end for the galaxies' inhabitants. Stars are generally spaced wide enough apart within the galaxies that after the merger, most individual stars should intermingle without actually crashing into each other.

In fact, the merging will likely set off a firestorm of new star formation, adding to the richness of the two melded galaxies.

The new simulation helps scientists understand how smaller collisions affect a galaxy's development.

"We can't know for sure what's going to happen to the Milky Way, but we can say that our findings apply to a broad class of galaxies similar to our own," Kazantzidis said.

The model is the most detailed to date of collisions between spiral galaxies and satellites. It revealed the kind of detailed features that should result from these impacts, which align well with observed characteristics of other galaxies seen in the universe.

"Every spiral galaxy has a complex formation and evolutionary history," Kazantzidis said. "We would hope to understand exactly how the Milky Way formed and how it will evolve. We may never succeed in knowing its exact history, but we can try to learn as much as we can about it, and other galaxies like it."

The research is detailed in two papers published in the Astrophysical Journal in August 2009 and November 2008.

Scientists find new type of giant rat

MUSULA, Papua New Guinea, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Scientists say they have discovered a heretofore unknown species of 32 inch-long giant rat within the jungles of Papua New Guinea.

The giant rat, among the largest ever discovered, has no fear of humans and was found by an expedition team filming a BBC documentary titled "Lost Land of the Volcano," the British broadcaster reported Monday.

Expedition members reported the new rat species, which has not yet been named, is believed to live only within the Mount Bosavi crater.

"This is one of the world's largest rats," Kristofer Helgen, a mammalogist for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, told the BBC. "It is a true rat, the same kind you find in the city sewers."

The broadcaster said the giant rat was first filmed at an infrared camera trap set up by BBC wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan, then expedition members managed to trap a live specimen.

"I had a cat and it was about the same size as this rat," Buchanan said.

Darjeeling zoo, known for its rare Red Pandas, has poor security measures

By Tarak Sarkar, Darjeeling (West Bengal), Sep 6: The Padmaja Naidu Himalayan zoological park in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district, which is known for its Red Pandas, lacks security measures, which a zoo of any international caliber is expected to have.

The zoo is the only specialized centre in the country, which is globally recognized for its conservation breeding programmes of Red Panda, Snow Leopards, Tibetan Wolf and other highly endangered animal species.

“You see when it is raining you went inside so if anyone just choose a rainy day then no one is going to see when you are going in, you can just walk through the doors, you don't get checks for anything. So, it may be possible that if you really want to steal one (animal) you could do it quite easily,” said William Menon, a tourist from England.

However, forest officials claim that sufficient security measures are maintained in the park and said that their system was foolproof.

“We divide the security of our zoological garden in six different zones, each strictly monitored by two guards both day and night we don't think stealing of animals is possible,” said Purna Singh, Assistant Animal Supervisor of Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park.

The Central Zoo Authority has designated this zoo for the conservation and breeding of 10 endangered high altitude animal species including Snow Leopard, Red Panda, Tibetan Wolf, Blue Sheep, Himalayan Tahr, Himalayan Blood Pheasant and Satyr Tragopan.

Thousands of tourists from all across the globe come here every year to witness the rare species of this Himalayan region.

Somali govt detains hostages freed by pirates

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A deal to swap three hostages held by Somali pirates with 23 prisoners accused of piracy was halted by Somali authorities who say they were not informed of the plan, officials said Monday.

It appeared to be the first attempt to exchange hostages for prisoners in Somalia's multimillion-dollar pirate industry. Hostages are usually only released after a ransom payment.

The 23 suspected Somali pirates had been held in the Seychelles after being detained by international warships on anti-piracy missions. On Monday, the Seychelles government issued a statement saying the suspects were released because the government lacks evidence needed to prosecute them.

"We do not have sufficient evidence for a trial to take place, and based on that we have respected international laws and repatriated them to their homeland," said Minister Joel Morgan, who was mandated by Seychelles' president to work on the country's piracy portfolio. The Seychelles is an island nation located southeast of Somalia's coastline.

But Somali authorities say the 23 were released and flown to Somalia aboard two private planes as part of a deal to free three sailors from the Seychelles who had been held since their yacht was seized in February. The yacht later sank in bad weather.

The governor of Somalia's Mudug region, Ahmed Ali Salad, said the planes' crews misinformed authorities about the nature of their mission, claiming they were carrying humanitarian supplies.

Ahmed Elmi Karash, the aviation minister in Somalia's semiautonomous northern region of Puntland, said the 23 suspects disembarked from the two planes there late Sunday and that the three former hostages boarded the planes, which were then detained by Somali officials while refueling. The seven crew members flying the two planes also were held.

Pirates captured more than 100 ships last year, and attacks off Somalia's pirate-infested coastline are expected to increase dramatically in coming months as the monsoon season ends.

The plague of pirates has attracted warships from nations as diverse as Japan, America, Germany and Portugal. When the warships capture suspected pirates, the prisoners are often delivered to nearby Kenya or the Seychelles for trial.

Sudanese woman fined for wearing trousers

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – A Sudanese woman was found guilty of indecency on Monday for wearing trousers in a case that has attracted worldwide attention, but she will be spared lashes, an official who attended the trial said.

"She was found guilty, but we know she is not guilty. She was fined 500 pounds ($209)," said Yasser Arman, an official who is a senior member of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement. Arman, who attended the trial, said the verdict was unconstitutional.

The woman, Lubna Hussein, had faced 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent by the authorities. Arman said the verdict against her did not include any form of physical punishment.

Turtle thought to be extinct spotted in Myanmar

By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Environmental Writer

BANGKOK – The rare Arakan forest turtle, once though to be extinct, has been rediscovered in a remote forest in Myanmar, boosting chances of saving the reptile after hunting almost destroyed its population, researchers said Monday.

Texas researcher Steven Platt and staff from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society discovered five of the brown-and-tan-spotted turtles in May during a survey of wildlife in the Rakhine Yoma Elephant Sanctuary.

The sanctuary contains thick stands of impenetrable bamboo forests, with the only trails made by the park's elephants, said Platt, of Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.

Plat said he and his team were able to reach the area only by small boat and endured round-the-clock torrential rains and bands of leeches before finding their first Arakan turtle on May 31.

"At this moment, all of the physical hardships of the trip were forgotten," Platt said in an e-mail interview.

Native to the Arakan hills of western Myanmar, the turtles were believed extinct for close to a century until they started turning up in Asian food markets in the mid-1990s.

The local name for the turtle is "Pyant Cheezar," which translates to "turtle that eats rhinoceros feces." Sumatran rhinos were once found in the area, but vanished half a century ago due to hunting.

Scientists blame the near-disappearance of the turtle on their popularity in Asia as an ingredient in cooking and medicine. Known by its scientific name, Heosemys depressa, it is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and has proven difficult to breed in captivity.

The discovery in May makes scientists hopeful that the species can survive.

"Throughout Asia, turtles are being wiped out by poachers for the illegal wildlife trade," Colin Poole, the Wildlife Conservation Society's director of Asia programs, said in a statement. "We are delighted and astonished that this extremely rare species is alive and well in Myanmar. Now we must do what we can to protect the remaining population."

Douglas B. Hendrie, a freshwater turtle expert from Education for Nature-Vietnam who did not take part in the research, said he was not surprised by the discovery because he had heard anecdotes of hunters and guides finding the turtle.

"That said, I think it is good to bring attention to the species," Hendrie said in an e-mail interview, adding that it is an "an important part of furthering the aims of conservation."

Platt and the conservation society recommend that guard posts be set up on roads leading in and out of the park to thwart poaching and that additional data be collected on the species to develop a conservation plan for it.

Israel backs settlement expansion

Israel has officially approved the construction of more than 450 new homes in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli defense ministry has announced.

It says the decision to build 455 housing units has been authorized by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

This is the first new government-approved construction project in the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu came to power in March.

It comes despite a US pressure to halt building at settlements.

Palestinians have ruled out resumption of peace talks with Israel until a complete freeze to the settlements.

A senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Israel's decision further undermined its credibility as a partner for peace.

"Israel's decision to approve the construction nullifies any effect that a settlement freeze, when and if announced, will have," Mr Erekat said.

Mitchell's visit

"Defense Minister Ehud Barak has authorized the construction of 455 housing units in settlement blocs," the Israeli defense ministry said in a statement.

It updated its earlier statement that said Mr Barak had approved the building of 366 housing units.

The homes will be built in six settlements - all of which are included in the settlement blocs that Israel wants to keep under any peace agreement, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

It says the settlements include Gilo, Modiin Ilit and Ariel.

Last week, Israeli officials announced that Mr Netanyahu would to give the go-ahead for the new housing units.

The issue is expected to be discussed when Mr Netanyahu's aides meet US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, later this week.

Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

Some 2,500 housing units are currently under construction.

The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Israel enters Gaza, kidnaps shepherds

At least four Bedouin Shepherds have been arrested after a special Israeli army unit stormed a village in the northern Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, the four men were herding their flock near the town of Beit Lahiya located a few hundred meters from the Gaza Strip's northern border with Israel, eye witnesses said.

According to residents of al-Nasser village, Israeli tanks rolled about one hundred meters into Gaza followed by a unit of special forces who advanced further to kidnap the shepherds.

Also on Sunday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas announced that an Israeli helicopter opened fire on Gaza in a quick incursion apparently aimed at providing a cover for the troops.

Hamas calls off female lawyers Islamic dress code

Hamas authorities on Sunday called off a decision ordering female lawyers to observe Islamic clothing during their work in Gaza courts.

"The decision regarding ordering female attorneys to wear the headscarf when they appear in courts is rescinded," said Abed al-Raouf al-Halabi, the supreme court chief justice.

Al-Halabi said in a press release that his previous order was "a personal initiative" by himself to ensure that women could be covered up by "wearing the Islamic al-Hijab according to Islamic rules."

Al-Halabi's July decision sparked an outcry from rights group which said that ordering female lawyers to wear a loose robe and cover their heads was a violation of the Palestinian law.

The protests by human rights organizations have also resulted in Hamas education ministry's denial of issuing an order for female students to wear Islamic gown at secondary schools.

The Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the Gaza Strip by force in June 2007 after driving out security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.

Undercover Israeli Forces Kidnap Two Palestinians In Beit Lahia

07/09/2009

Palestinian sources reported that undercover Israeli occupation forces infiltrated on Sunday evening into a Bedouin Village, near Beit Lahia in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and kidnapped two Palestinians.

The sources added that the two kidnapped residents are in their early twenties, and that they were in an open area.

Military helicopters also hovered over the area after the undercover forces abducted the two residents and fired one missile at an area close to the abduction site, and also fired rounds of live ammunition to facilitate the evacuation of its forces.

Hard times in Gaza

Saleh Al-Naami

September 4, 2009

Since the early hours of the morning, Marwan Abd Rabbu has been standing in line waiting for the Al-Salah Society to open its doors. Al-Salah is a charity organization that helps the poor, and Marwan, who lives in Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in Gaza, needs assistance to support his family.

Assistance from Al-Salah would help Marwan, 42 and currently unemployed, see his family of 10 through the month of Ramadan. "They give us packages of food, and without their assistance I don't know what I would have done. I wouldn't be able to feed my family come Iftar [the sunset meal] time," Marwan says.

Charity, especially that provided through organizations with Islamic leanings, as well as by the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, has become a main source of income in Gaza, where 80 per cent of the population are believed to be living under the poverty line.

Some families depend on relatives who have a job with a monthly salary. Those with jobs also try to help their extended families. In Ramadan, a package containing cheese, dates and sweets can go a long way.

Families try to help each other the best they can. At the beginning of the holy month, Majed Ibrahim, a college professor, bought food products, wrapped them as a gift, and gave them to his four married sisters, for example.

However, in general hard times reign in Gaza this Ramadan. The shops are nearly empty of customers, and even those that do show up often leave empty handed if they can't find anything they can afford.

Gamal Alyan owns one of the largest food stores in central Gaza. Sweating profusely on a hot August day, he wipes his forehead with a handkerchief and looks around. His shop is one of the few that are full of customers, but he still says that many leave without buying anything, mostly because prices have gone up.

"Customers have less money to spend than they used to," Alyan says. "Most prefer to buy smuggled Egyptian products, as prices are cheaper than for those that come from Israel. High rates of tax also make much of the merchandise coming from Israel too expensive for the poor inhabitants of Gaza."

Price differences between Egyptian products and products coming from Israel can be considerable, with a kilo of Dutch cheese imported via Israel costing more than double the Egyptian equivalent.

In addition, not everyone can go shopping. Only 20 per cent of the population have regular salaries, and these people, mostly working for the government or civil society organizations, are considered the lucky ones.

The price of vegetables has also gone up this Ramadan, with shoppers in the vegetables markets complaining about the high prices of onions at six shekels a kilo ($1.7) and tomatoes at four shekels ($1.2).

The electricity in Gaza goes off every day since Israel no longer supplies the only power station with its complete fuel needs, and the company running the station is obliged to cut the power to various neighborhoods for a few hours each day.

Abdel-Rahman Oudah, 49, who lives in Birkat Al-Wezz west of the Al-Maghazi Camp in central Gaza, says that his wife now bakes bread early in the morning before the electricity goes off. She would prefer to bake at sunset, but that would be too risky given the irregularity of the power supply.

"The electricity can go off at any time," Abdel-Rahman says. "In the morning there is usually electricity, but after 11 or 12 o'clock you never know."

Such power cuts affect the rhythm of religious life during Ramadan. While the pious naturally still go to the mosque after dusk for tarawih, a long form of prayers performed only in the holy month, because of the outages imams tend to cut the tarawih short, breaking with tradition.

However, Gaza's economic situation not only affects everyday life in Ramadan, but it also poses a problem for families preparing their children for the new school year. Children need clothes, school bags and stationary, but most of these items have become unaffordable.

Abdel-Karim Rawafaah, 41, has been all over the market at the Al-Nuseirat Camp in Central Gaza with his seven children looking for supplies, but he still goes back to the Al-Maghazi Camp where he lives empty handed. Schools open in two weeks, but he is not sure he can buy the supplies his children need.

One pair of trousers now costs 70 shekels ($20), up from 40 shekels ($12) last year, he says. Abdel-Karim, who earns around 1,000 shekels ($300) from his job with the local council, says he would need almost twice his monthly salary just to clothe his children. For now, he's hoping he'll find cheaper clothes on a later shopping expedition. Otherwise, the children will just have to wear last year's clothes, he says.

Many people in Gaza are in Abdel-Karim's situation. Because of the Israeli blockade, basic goods are often exorbitantly priced, with shopkeepers barely expecting people to buy. Walking down Omar Al-Mokhtar Street, Gaza's main thoroughfare, the shopkeepers are often to be seen chatting together or simply reading the newspapers.

Yet, the shopkeepers, too, are despondent. According to Salim Rajab, a shopkeeper, "this time of year used to be the best for us, as parents come out to buy new clothes for their children at the beginning of the school year. But this year's much-awaited boom hasn't happened."

Other shopkeepers say that clothes have become more expensive because of the many intermediaries involved in smuggling them into the Strip to beat the blockade. As every middleman takes a cut, the final product can become very expensive.

Finally, in recognition of the hard times reigning in Gaza this Ramadan, in an extraordinary move the government of Ismail Haniyeh has decided to deduct 30 per cent or more from the pay of salaried employees to give to the poor, with some ministers and top officials giving their entire pay during the holy month.

Some non-governmental organizations have done the same. The Islamic Universities Board of Trustees, for example, has deducted 50 per cent from the salaries of professors and 100 per cent from the salaries of college presidents during the month of Ramadan and distributed the money to the poor.

Gaza students without notebooks as Israel's supply blockade continues

September 5, 2009

Gaza – Ma’an – School started fifteen days ago in Gaza but schoolchildren remain without books or pencils, as high prices prevent most parents from purchasing necessary goods.

The only stationary in Gaza comes from the Rafah-area smuggling tunnels, and the cost of smuggling keeps prices too high for average families. Israeli crossings authorities have refused to allow paper and pencils into the Strip.

A request for supplies for school and special foodstuffs for Ramadan were denied by Israeli authorities. Shop owners say truckloads of the goods are stranded in warehouses in Israel.

The Israeli army earlier agreed to allow 100-180 truckloads of stationary and school supplies into Gaza two weeks before the beginning of the school year, but no action was taken on the promise, and supplies continue to sit in warehouses.

Gaza’s chamber of commerce head Gaza Maher At-Taba apologized to residents for the high prices. He said the law of supply and demand was the sole factor in the exorbitant prices of school books, and said once Israel allows more supplies in the prices should go down.

Merchants are forced to pay for the costs of storing goods in warehouses when Israeli officials refuse their entry into the Strip. This cost will also be reflected in the goods when and if they do enter the area.

Traders remain skeptical over whether the supplies will ever be let in.

The de facto ministry of education appealed urgently to the United Nations and International organizations, asking that they pressure Israel to allow stationary into Gaza.

Taking Desperate Measures to Educate Gaza's Youth

By Najwa Sheikh

Gaza, September 5, 2009

The month of Ramadan has come this year to the people of Gaza along with the new school year reminding them of the hard living conditions they have endured with the crushing blockade that Israel imposed on Gaza for the third year; A blockade that does not allow even for the basic needs such as medications, flour, building materials, papers, books and stationary for the new school year.

With such deteriorating living and financial conditions, the people of Gaza have lost the taste of the joyful Ramadan nights. Before, they used to go to the markets to buy various goods available especially in this holy month, but this year, children even found themselves unable to have the regular Ramadan "fanous" (lantern) due to the high price of even these simple toys. Most children were satisfied with homemade lanterns fashioned from empty juice or cola bottles.

However, the effect of this inhumane blockade did not allow people to live normal lives, and has added more stress to the work of the largest relief organization in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA is providing education, health care, social services, and emergency aid to over one million refugees living on the Strip all of whom are entirely dependent on the services provided by the agency.

Providing education to the refugee children is one of UNRWA’s largest activities and accounts for half of its regular budget. The school enrollment for 2009/2010 is 206,180 children – 8,000 more than in 2008-2009.

Due to the continuous Israeli policy of not allowing any of the basic needs including building materials in to Gaza, UNRWA faced a great challenge with the increasing number of students on its schools. With no other alternative, the agency opened a school of cargo containers in Nuseirat Camp, called Nuseirat elementary boys School, on a piece if land of 3.800 sq.m donated by the local community. This school includes 19 classrooms of the fourth, fifth and sixth grades only.

The classrooms are containers with a capacity of 36 students only; the wall surrounding the school is a blue plastic pavilion, and with the current regular power cut, the situation is unbearable for both the students and the teachers on this hot weather.

Mr. Hamdan Jaber El Hour, the School headmaster says "90% of the basic needs of the school are available like the books, classes, but the school still in bad need for fans or even air conditioners to alleviate the heat of the containers especially on this time of the year which considered the hottest days of the year."

"Unlike other schools in Gaza with two shifts this school is a one shift which encourages the students and their parents to continue, besides it is an open school therefore, there is less noise heard from the other classes."

"The only reason for this situation is the blockade, we can not have building materials to build the school on time, nonetheless such situation will affect the quality of the services provided for the refugees, but it will not stop us as UNRWA employees and teaching team from working hard to continue this project." Mr. Al Hour comments.

When I asked Mr. Al Hour about the number of parents who came to transfer their children to other schools, he said "I admit that the school situation is not so encouraging, but we are at the beginning yet. Some parents came to transfer their children specially the excellent ones, because of the school condition, and this is a problem that will affect the school performance at the end of the year."

Speaking about the equipments available for the school he said "we have a place for the science lab, the computer lab, and a library, but till this moment we did not receive any of the needed equipment."

I walked through the school yard and met with Mr. Ahmed El Sharif, the Arabic language teacher, who commented and said "we are at the beginning of the school year, the weather is very hot inside the containers, and this will affect the student’s capacity to concentrate especially with fasting Ramadan."

Ahmed Mizher, a student at the fifth grade said "I am happy at this school, but the container under the sun becomes so hot, and we are fasting and feel very hot inside it."

While Shihab Abu A’reban, another student said "I wish that the school administration will work to complete the school, the yard is mud, with the rain in winter it will be sticky and it will be difficult to walk without slipping, beside the classes are very hot now."

Despite this difficult situation in the boys school, the students and the teacher’s resilience continues. This is a spark of hope that the blockade will never put out.

Fleeing Iraq for Gaza: life of a perpetual refugee

September 05, 2009

Gaza – Ma’an – Muhammad Ali Barhoum is a Palestinian who fled Iraq to the Gaza Strip in 2008; he has one daughter living in Jordan with her husband while the rest remain in Iraq.

While staring at his family’s photo, Barhoum told Ma’an how worried he was about them.

Barhoum was a major in the Palestinian Liberation Army in Iraq. He was compelled to leave Iraq after being threatened several times by militiamen who gave him two choices; leaving Iraq, or being killed. He said armed gunmen with the militias would open fire at his home from all directions on a nightly basis to help him make his choice.

According to Barhoum, the only grudge the armed groups bore him was his affiliation to the Arab Liberation Front, and that he belonged to the Sunni sect.

While in Iraq, Barhoum and his family lived in the Ad-Doura neighborhood, which was home to a mix of religious, sects and nationalities including Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Kurds, Turks, Palestinians, and Syrians. After the US invasion of Iraq, everything changed, he said. The Shiite neighbors’ children, who Barhoum said he practically raised himself and who used to call him "uncle Abu Ali", began to threaten to kill him if he didn’t leave the country. When at one time the neighborhood showed him respect for the time he spent in Israeli jails, following the war he said there was no more goodwill.

Now Barhoum only wants to bring his wife and children into Gaza with him. "But, there is no way to do that as they don’t have Palestinian IDs," he lamented.

"When I was compelled to flee Iraq, I was also listed as wanted by the Syrians, and banned from entering Egypt. I managed to flee and stay in the Sinai Peninsula for more than a year until I was able to sneak into the Gaza Strip through a smuggling tunnel in Rafah, the city where I was born. I came back to the same room UNRWA gave my family in 1967; there were only a few changes made by brother while I was abroad."

Barhoum told his story this week in Gaza when the Iraqi-Palestinian Brotherhood Society organized a Ramadan dinner for families forced to leave Iraq after the US invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein and his government. The dinner was held at the Gaza City beach, and Barhoum was joined by dozens of others, mostly men, forced to flee yet another country where they sought refuge.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=57651&s2=06.

Regarding the Mass Murders of Civilians in Kunduz

Afghan Resistance Statement
Regarding the Mass Murders of Civilians in Kunduz
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Ramadan 14, 1430 A.H, September 5, 2009

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

It is to be said with great sorrow and grief that the merciless crusaders once again resorted to killing tens of common people in Haji Abdur Rahman village, Ali Abad district, Kunduz province last night as a result of a ruthless bombardment. Those who were killed belonged to this area and the surrounding villages.

They were taking fuel from the tankers which had been left behind by the enemy who had fled after an armed clash in the area (with (Mujahideen).

Due to poverty and penury, the people had gathered to take fuel from the tankers without owner. They were busy taking fuel, when American jets made heavy bombardment and killed 150 villagers most of them children and adolescents.

This crime and atrocity, in the eye of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is intolerable. We strongly condemn this atrocious event and consider the members of the Crusading Alliance and the surrogate officials of the Kabul regime the sole perpetrators of this callous and merciless act. We view them as despicable for this deed of theirs.

We are sharing the pains and grief of the families who have lost their members or received injuries in this horrendous event. We pray to Allah, the Almighty to accept the martyrdom of the martyrs and bestow patience and substitute on the bereaved families.

This horrific event in Kunduz province occurs in a time that the defense minister of the puppet administration in Kabul had accused Mujahideen yesterday of having killed hundreds of common people last month. He also tried to implicate Mujahideen in some pre-planned explosions and events which, in fact, is the handiwork of the intelligence agencies of the invaders.

Our esteemed countrymen may have taken notice of the claims of the governor of Kunduz as he said the event was the result of the tankers explosion brought about by the internal quarreling of the people present there. But his endeavor to veil this event came to fail when the spokeswoman of NATO confirmed the news of bombardment.

In our view, the dreadful event in Kunduz is a clear-cut crime and intentional genocide. This can never be justified by saying this was a mistake.

We urge the human rights watch and human rights advocacy institutes, the United Nations and all independent entities and governments to strongly condemn this event and fulfill their humane and moral duty to prevent such events from being repeated in future.

We remind the perpetrators of this event, the Obama administration, and the leadership of NATO and the surrogates of Kabul that you will never be able to weaken the determination of a free people who have decided to continue their struggle for an Islamic system and independence of the country. Such crimes and bestiality only unveil their anti-human feature which they have kept concealed from the people of the world until now.

The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan expresses its sympathy with the miserable and oppressed people and prays to Allah, the Almighty to fold up the black blanket of the occupation of the Crusaders from our beloved country so that our people will take a breath of solace in the shade of an Islamic system and an independent regime.

This is an easy task for Allah to accomplish.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Ahmadinejad to appoint female vice president

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that he would appoint a female vice president to give greater representation to women in his administration. Ahmadinejad earlier appointed three female cabinet ministers, but parliament rejected two of them and endorsed only Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi as health minister. She became the first female minister in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic.

After the parliament's rejections of his two other nominees, Ahmadinejad appointed another woman to head the education ministry. According to state television, Ahmadinejad introduced parliament deputy Fatemeh Alia as a replacement for the rejected Susan Keshavarz.

Keshavarz has since been appointed by the president as an adviser on education and training.

Ahmadinejad did not disclose the name of his new choice for vice president or in which field she would be engaged.

UN nuclear agency to discuss Iran, Syria

By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA – The International Atomic Energy Agency meets Monday for talks that will likely center on the U.N. watchdog's deadlocked nuclear probes of Iran and Syria.

The basis for the closed session of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, scheduled to last several days, are two recent agency assessments. One accuses Iran of continuing to enrich uranium and refusing to clear up lingering questions about possible military dimensions to its nuclear program.

Another chides Syria for not fully cooperating on efforts to settle inquiries about whether it was trying to build a nuclear complex at a desert site bombed by Israel in 2007.

Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But the U.S. and others contend the country is trying to build an atomic weapon. Syria denies hiding a nuclear program.

Ahead of the board meeting, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran is ready to hold talks with the world powers over global challenges — including its nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad said Iran will initially present its package of proposals to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.

Iran has defied three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions and has bristled at the agency's latest report. On Friday, Iranian envoy Ali Ashgar Soltanieh accused Washington of using "forged documents" to make its case that Tehran is trying to build a bomb. In a letter to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, Soltanieh also criticized Britain and France.

The 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 cautioned 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 IAEA launched a Syria-specific probe after Israeli jets destroyed what the U.S. says was a nearly finished nuclear reactor built with North Korean help that was configured to produce plutonium — one of the substances used in nuclear warheads.

Syria denies hiding nuclear activities, but has blocked the probe, refusing to allow U.N. nuclear inspectors follow-up visits beyond one last year and declining to provide satisfactory explanations for unusual finds of traces of uranium.

Damascus alleges that Israel used bombs or missiles containing depleted uranium — which hardens metal and allows it to penetrate deeper — in attacking the site. Israel has repeatedly told the IAEA it did not use such ordnance.

Over the next five days, board members are also expected to discuss nuclear security, measures to protect against nuclear terrorism and pay tribute to ElBaradei, whose term ends Nov. 30.

The IAEA's board of governors generally meets five times a year.

Drought-stricken streams threaten Calif. salmon

By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press Writer

SAN GERONIMO, Calif. – California's third year of drought has worsened the already dire outlook for endangered coho salmon, as coastal creeks used for spawning dwindle into disconnected pools where fish get trapped and die.

On a hot summer afternoon about 40 miles north of San Francisco, a group armed with fishing nets and buckets was on a rescue mission. They slogged through muddy pools, the last vestiges of once-flowing Arroyo Creek, trying to find stranded coho and threatened steelhead trout.

So far this summer, these fish rescuers in Marin County have found no coho, an ominous sign for a species struggling to survive on the West Coast.

"Every year it's like ahhh! Where are they?," said biologist Chris Pincetich, who organizes the rescues for the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, or SPAWN.

California's drought has increased wildfires, caused an economic crisis in the state's agriculture industry and a shrinking water supply. But experts say three years of arid weather may also be the final blow for coho, already reeling from pollution and population growth.

Federal fisheries regulators say the disappearance of coho salmon in Marin County is not an isolated incident, and that studies find they are vanishing along the state's central and northern coast. Coho live in coastal streams where they mature before moving to the ocean, and then back to freshwater to reproduce.

"There are definitely alarmingly low numbers of adult returns and spawning decreases," National Marine Fisheries Service fishery biologist Jeffrey Jahn said. "And the fish that are produced by the few coho who do make it back have to deal with these drought conditions, which is affecting the status of the species."

In 2004, SPAWN fish rescuers saved 120 coho from the small tributaries that feed Marin County's Lagunitas Creek. The numbers rescued have been declining ever since to zero.

Coho salmon, known for their hooked mouths and bright red sides, usually live for a year or two in these coastal creeks and streams before moving out to sea.

But Pincetich and other biologists who study coho say scale samples taken from the salmon returning to the ocean from Lagunitas Creek in recent years tell a startling tale. The scales aged the coho at two-and-a-half years old.

"It means the coho didn't go out after that first year, and instead resided in freshwater for another year," said Jahn. "When the fish wanted to leave, they couldn't because the creek wasn't connected."

Because coho are endangered, federal regulators are tasked with devising a plan to help the fish rebound. The recovery plan for coho is overdue, but the Fisheries Service said it should be completed by the end of September. The coho "draft recovery plan" will show how overdevelopment, a warming ocean, pollution and other factors all play a part in the decline of coho, steelhead and other fish that for centuries were a mainstay in coastal waters.

Meanwhile, the fish rescuers at SPAWN continue trying to save as many fish as they can.

One recent afternoon men, women and children volunteers used nets to gently snatch steelhead smolts out of disconnected pools created by drying creeks and streams. They moved the fish down to a freely flowing waterway to give them a better chance at survival.

Ayden and Rachel Nathan of San Jose brought their sons, Michael, 11, and Benjamin, 8, to help. The boys waded in the cool, shin-deep water, swaying their nets back and forth.

"I got one!" an excited Benjamin exclaimed.

It was a steelhead. Paola Bouley, SPAWN's conservation director, palmed the small fish and set it into a bucket with a buzzing air pump clipped to the side.

While no coho were found, the group netted about 20 young steelheads, which also spawn in these waters and are a federally threatened species.

They released the small fish into San Geronimo Creek, which flows to the sea.

Afghan Officials Disqualify Votes From 450 Polling Places

Afghan election officials Sunday announced their first mass disqualification of votes because of possible fraud in the bitterly contested presidential race, even as President Hamid Karzai edged closer to the absolute majority he needs for a first-round victory.

Election authorities declined to say how many votes were affected when results from nearly 450 polling places were set aside pending an investigation. Because voting took place in about 26,000 locales, this probably represents only a small share of total ballots cast. But the move could herald more such disqualifications.

The Aug. 20 vote - which began as not only a hopeful exercise in democracy but also a key element of the West's long-term strategy of a stable Afghan government taking on more security responsibilities - is rapidly threatening to become a debacle. Supporters of Karzai's main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, could react violently if they see their candidate as having been unfairly deprived of the chance to face Karzai in a runoff.

Abdullah, a former foreign minister, has accused the president's camp of widespread and systematic fraud. It was unclear whether the vote disqualification announced today signaled election officials' genuine willingness to act on fraud allegations, which have mainly been directed at Karzai, or whether the panel of mostly presidential appointees was trying to bolster an image of impartiality as a prelude to declaring Karzai the winner.

With fraud allegations mounting, the commission's head, Daoud Ali Najafi, defended the checks and balances in place under election law.

"We're telling the candidates again and again ... they can come to the election commission and we can resolve the problem, or they can go to the Electoral Complaints Commission," he said.

The complaints commission, a U.N.-backed body, is considering more than 2,000 claims of fraud and intimidation, nearly 700 of them potentially serious enough to affect the results. The tally, once completed, will not be official until the complaints commission certifies it - something that was supposed to happen in mid-September, but could take far longer. Under election rules, the complaints commission can take as much time as it wants to carry out its investigations, and can even nullify the entire vote if it finds reason to do so.

The tally from last month's balloting, which took place amid a welter of Taliban threats and attacks, has been emerging a few percentage points at a time, with Karzai steadily widening his lead. The election commission said today that with nearly three-quarters of the vote counted Karzai had 48.6%, and Abdullah trailed with 31.7%.

The growing political turmoil coincides with the heaviest troop losses for the West in the course of the 8-year-old war. Military officials today announced the deaths of two more Americans, one in the south and one in the east, the two main flashpoints for fighting. This has already been the most lethal year of the conflict for U.S. forces, with more than 180 troops killed so far.

Endangered Sumatran rhino dies at Cincinnati Zoo

CINCINNATI – An endangered Sumatran rhino has died at the Cincinnati Zoo, a setback to a program that successfully produced the first calves born in captivity in more than a century.

Emi, a 21-year-old Sumatran rhino that had been at the zoo for 14 years, died Saturday after appearing less energetic for several weeks, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden announced Sunday.

Emi produced three calves at the zoo, including Andalas, born in 2001, the first Sumatran rhino bred and born in captivity since 1889. Emi was the only captive Sumatran rhino bred successfully, said zoo director Thane Maynard.

"Naturally it's always devastating when an animal reaches the end of its life, but certainly one as beloved as she is — it's a big loss," Maynard said.

The zoo said Emi had appeared less energetic and had a diminished appetite since March.

Veterinarians performed a complete physical exam with blood work in early April and found some subtle changes in her liver. She appeared to improve in May but her condition then continued to deteriorate, the zoo said.

The zoo conducted a necropsy Saturday on Emi to try to determine exactly why she died.

Zoo researchers also removed eggs from Emi's body in hope of using them someday to produce a calf through in-vitro fertilization or other means.

"With a species so endangered it's important to save anything that you can," Maynard said.

The zoo has two remaining Sumatran rhinos: Emi's mate, Ipuh, and Suci, a calf that Emi birthed in 2004.

The zoo's breeding program grew out of an international recognition in the early 1980s that the Sumatran rhinos were disappearing at a rapid pace, due to poaching and dwindling rain forest habitat in Malaysia and Indonesia.

But little was known about caring for them, let alone how to successfully breed them.

Zoo researchers directed by Dr. Terri Roth used ultrasound, monitoring of hormone levels, observation and trial-and-error to learn how to breed the animals, the zoo said.

"Our fond hope is that by building on that, Emi certainly won't be last Sumatran rhino to breed in captivity and that the program will grow and continue from here and be one that helps a great deal," Maynard said.

Sumatran rhinos are considered the most endangered of the five living rhino species. Only nine Sumatran rhinos live in captivity worldwide and fewer than 200 animals exist in the wild, in isolated pockets of Sabah, Malaysia and the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. They can live for as long as 40 years.

Uighur group reports new deaths in China, appeals for UN observers

Beijing - Three more people were killed and more than 20 injured after Han Chinese residents attacked Uighurs in China's far western city of Urumqi, a Uighur exile group reported Monday as it appealed for UN observers to investigate the ethnic conflict there. The latest attack by about 100 "Chinese migrants" came late Sunday in a Uighur area near Urumqi's Xingfu Road and Jiefang South Road, the Munich-based World Uighur Congress said in a statement.

The group said two Uighur men and a 40-year-old woman died in the attack, but the report could not immediately be confirmed.

State media reported no new attacks on Sunday in Urumqi, where migration has made Han Chinese the dominant ethnic group in the capital of China's vast Xinjiang region.

"We are extremely worried about the current situation in Urumqi," Dilxat Raxit, the spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, said in the statement.

"Now it is very difficult for Uighurs and Han to continue living in the same city," Raxit said.

"For the safety of both sides and to avoid the continued suppression of Uighurs by China's paramilitary personnel, I appeal for the United Nations to send observers immediately," he said.

He also appealed for China's ruling Communist Party to hold talks with exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, who is accused by China of organizing rioting on July 5 that, according to government tallies, left 197 people dead and about 1,600 injured.

Kadeer denied the charges and has claimed that up to 800 people died in Urumqi in early July, many of them Uighurs shot or beaten to death by police.

Uighurs have long said they face discrimination at the hands of China's Han majority.

Security remained tight in Urumqi Sunday, one day after several top government officials were dismissed over the continuing unrest in the city.

Five people died after tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Thursday and Friday, criticizing local city and regional leaders for failing to ensure security in Urumqi.

The city's Communist Party secretary, Li Zhi, was removed from his post Saturday along with Xinjiang's police chief, Liu Yaohua, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Although the Han are China's dominant ethnic group, in Xinjiang, the Uighurs are the largest, but the balance is tipping as Han move to the region. In Urumqi, they now outnumber the Uighurs.

The latest unrest there was touched off by reports of attacks by Uighurs using hypodermic syringes, the first of which surfaced in mid-August.

The regional government said city hospitals had dealt with 531 victims of needle stabbings, most of them Han Chinese, with 106 people showing "obvious signs" of needle attacks.

According an unconfirmed report by a Han resident of Urumqi, a mob of Han passengers beat to death one Uighur who was discovered with a needle and syringe on a public bus.

The government's official Xinhua news agency said police had detained 25 people suspected of involvement in the needle attacks.

"Four suspects, three men and one woman, have been prosecuted for endangering public security," Wutkur Abdurahman, the city's procurator general, was quoted as saying.

Two suspects threatened and robbed a taxi driver using a syringe, another stabbed a woman at a roadside fruit stall and a police officer was stabbed with a drug-filled needle while dealing with a man who was resisting arrest, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 officials and police officers have been sent to Uighur and Han communities in Urumqi to "help solve public disputes," Xinjiang's regional Communist Party leader Wang Lequan was quoted as saying Sunday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/284499,uighur-group-reports-new-deaths-in-china-appeals-for-un-observers.html.

Charity: US troops stormed through Afghan hospital

By KAY JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A Swedish charity accused American troops Monday of storming through a hospital in central Afghanistan, breaking down doors and tying up staff in a search for militants. The U.S. military said it was investigating.

The allegation that soldiers violated the neutrality of a medical facility follows the reported deaths of Afghan civilians in a U.S. airstrike in the country's north last week.

Nearly eight years after the U.S.-led coalition invaded to oust the Taliban, foreign forces are working to persuade the population to support the Afghan government. But civilian deaths and intrusive searches of homes have bred resentment.

The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan said the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division entered the charity's hospital without permission to look for insurgents in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, according to the charity's country director, Anders Fange.

"This is simply not acceptable," he said.

The U.S. troops came to the hospital looking for Taliban insurgents late at night last Wednesday, Fange said. He said they kicked in doors, tied up four hospital employees and two family members of patients, and forced patients out of beds during their search.

When they left two hours later, the unit ordered hospital staff to inform coalition forces if any wounded militants were admitted, and the military would decide if they could be treated, Fange said.

The staff refused, he said. "That would put our staff at risk and make the hospital a target."

The charity said on its Web site that the troops actions were not only a violation of humanitarian principles but also went against an agreement between NATO forces and charities working in the area.

"We demand guarantees ... that such violations will not be repeated and that this is made clear to commanders in the field," a statement said.

Navy public affairs officer Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker confirmed that the hospital was searched last week but had no other details. She said the military was looking into the incident.

"We are investigating and we take allegations like this seriously," she said. "Complaints like this are rare."

Violence has surged across much of Afghanistan since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 more U.S. troops to the country this year. Two foreign troops were killed Sunday when their patrol hit a roadside bomb in the country's south, NATO said without giving their nationalities. Three civilians also died in a militant rocket attack on the capital.

NATO was also investigating reported civilian deaths in a U.S. airstrike last week. Afghan officials said up to 70 people were killed in the early morning airstrike Friday in the northern province of Kunduz after the Taliban hijacked two fuel tanker. After the trucks became stuck in the mud on the banks of a river, villagers came to siphon off gas and some were reported killed when an American jet dropped two bombs on the stolen tankers.

The increasingly violent Taliban have killed more Afghan civilians in bombings and other attacks. On Monday, the government said three insurgent rockets landed in the capital, Kabul, killing three people when one of them hit a house.

A United Nations report in July said the number of civilians killed in conflict in Afghanistan has jumped 24 percent this year, with bombings by insurgent and airstrikes by international forces the biggest single killers. The report said that 1,013 civilians were killed in the first half of 2009, 59 percent in insurgent attacks and 30.5 percent by foreign and Afghan government forces. The rest were undetermined.

Venezuela plans gasoline exports to Iran

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Venezuela said on Sunday it had agreed to export 20,000 barrels per day of gasoline to Iran, which imports a large part of its needs, Iranian state media reported.

"Based on a strategic decision, it has been decided to export 20,000 barrels a day of gasoline from Venezuela to Iran," Iran's news agency IRNA quoted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as saying at the end of a visit to Iran.

Iran is a leading oil exporter but its refineries lack the capacity to meet domestic fuel demand, so it imports up to 40 percent of its gasoline.

Tehran, in a face-off with the West over its nuclear program, may face sanctions on its gasoline imports if a diplomatic solution is not found.

Chavez said the gasoline exports would help pay for Venezuela's imports of machinery and technology from Iran, IRNA said.

Iran's state television quoted Chavez as saying the gasoline exports would start in October.

U.S. President Barack Obama has given Iran until later in September to take up an international offer of talks on trade if it shelves uranium enrichment, or face harsher punitive measures.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier met Chavez and called for the two countries to boost cooperation and be steadfast in their anti-U.S. stand.

"America's repeated defeats and its declining grandeur and power are proof of an undeniable change in the world," state media quoted Khamenei as saying.

The West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear bombs. Iran says its program is for peaceful power generation and has repeatedly rejected demands to halt sensitive atomic activity.

SKorea seeks NKorean explanation about flash flood

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea pressed North Korea to explain Monday what caused a sudden surge of water in a river flowing across the border from the North after the flooding left three South Korean dead and three others missing.

Six South Koreans camping and fishing along a river flowing from North Korea were swept away Sunday when it suddenly doubled in height. Seoul officials believe a sharp rise in Imjin River's water level was because a new North Korean dam just north of the border discharged an estimated 40 million tons of water without notice.

On Monday, the South Korean government sent a message to North Korea, expressing regret over the incident and requesting an explanation from Pyongyang, according to Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung.

"The government feels very sorry for the occurrence of the massive damage," Chun told reporters. He said South Korea also "strongly urged" North Korea not to repeat similar incidents.

South Korean officials have raised concerns that the Hwanggang Dam could cause water shortages or flooding in the South, with some saying the North could use it as a weapon. Unification Ministry officials said South Korea conveyed such concerns to North Korea during talks in 2006 and 2007, but the North hasn't responded.

Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters Monday that South Korean and U.S. officials were analyzing why the North funneled such a large amount of waters to the South. Won, however, said there hasn't been any particular signs that North Korea would use waters held in dams to attack the South.

Construction of the dam, believed aimed at channeling water to a hydroelectric plant and for crop irrigation, was about 95 percent complete early last year, according to South Korean government estimates. The dam is believed to be able to hold up to 400 million tons of water.

North Korea has four other small dams north of Imjin River and they are reportedly capable of holding only about 35 million tons of water each.

Local Gyeonggi Province official Choi Kwon-rak said the river's water level jumped from 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) to 15.1 feet (4.6 meters) Sunday morning. He said there was no other apparent cause since it had not rained in the area for several days

Rescuers found the dead bodies of three of the six missing people early Monday and were searching for other victims, local fire official Hwang Tae-geun. Hwang said about 2,500 rescuers and army soldiers were mobilized for a search mission Monday.

Choi said the area is less than six miles (10 kilometers) from the Korean border — one of the world's most heavily fortified. The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

China threatens punishment for rumor-mongering

Royston Chan, Reuters

URUMQI, China (Reuters) - China's troubled far-western city of Urumqi has spelt out potential punishments for spreading rumors after days of sometimes deadly unrest and panic about reported syringe attacks that fanned ethnic tensions.

Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, has been struggling to return to order after days of panic and protests over claims that Muslim Uighurs used syringes to attack residents, especially members of China's Han ethnic Chinese majority.

Officials have said five people died in the protests, but they have not said how they died.

Security forces used tear gas to break up a crowd of Han Chinese on Sunday, after a fresh needle scare near a wholesale market. Witnesses said three Uighurs were beaten.

The government has cast the alleged syringe attacks as a separatist plot by Uighurs, who call Xinjiang their homeland. Many Uighurs resent government controls on their religion and culture, as well as the growing presence of ethnic Han Chinese.

The Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday that Urumqi authorities said anyone found guilty of injecting others with dangerous substances could face a long prison term or even the death penalty.

The full notice from the law-and-order authorities, reported in a later Xinhua report, also warned residents they face possible jail terms for rumor-mongering.

"Those who deliberately concoct and spread false information about innocent members of the public being stabbed with needles," could be tried and sentenced to up to five years in jail, said the notice, according to Xinhua.

The announcement appeared to be another step in government efforts to restore its authority in Urumqi, where thousands of Han Chinese residents took to the streets to demand the ousting of Wang Lequan, the Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang for 14 years.

In China, Communist Party secretaries are the most powerful officials at each level of government.

Wang appears likely to survive the tumult for now at least, but the Communist Party chief of Urumqi and the Xinjiang police chief were both dismissed over the weekend.

Some Han Chinese residents of Urumqi said they were still not satisfied.

"I felt the government should have been able to control the situation very well. But in reality, the situation is not under control," said one Urumqi resident, who gave only his surname, Feng.

Despite the threat of possible capital punishment over syringe attacks, the four suspects indicted so far face lesser charges of endangering public security.

They included two drug users accused of trying to rob a taxi driver by threatening him with a syringe, a man who resisted arrest while apparently preparing to inject himself with drugs, and a 19-year-old who jabbed a fruit seller with a needle.

China's top police official, Meng Jianzhu, said on Sunday there was more than petty crime behind the trouble.

"This is not an ordinary public security case or criminal case," Meng, the minister for public security, said in comments reported by the official Legal Daily on Monday.

"This is a struggle between separatism and anti-separatism, between wrecking ethnic unity and protecting ethnic unity," he said.

Signs of normal life in Urumqi amid heavy security presence

A fleet of six flower-decorated wedding cars passed a downtown street in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Sunday, where police have eased traffic restrictions imposed in wake of public protests.

Such a scene was impossible in the past several days when protesters took to the street after hundreds of residents reported that they were stabbed by syringes needles. Five people were killed and at least 14 people hospitalized over injuries in the protests.

Ba Bayisilong, a Uygur student in Xinjiang Education Institute, came back to school on Sunday, after a two-month summer vacation.

"I come from my home in southern part of Xinjiang. All students in my class have returned," said the student who majors in computer sciences.

China Mobile, China's largest telecom carrier, opened a sales booth on the school campus. A large crowd of students, including both Han and Uygur students, patronized the stall to buy phone cards.

Vehicles and streams of people were also back in the streets in the city's downtown area. The difference was that people were shopping, instead of protesting. Tianshan Shopping Mall and Carrefour Supermarket at downtown streets were thronged, while public security staff asked customers to open their bags for security checking.

Affected by the public uneasiness, small businesses in Urumqi were still in doldrums. A shoe shop owner said although there were some customers, the shop's revenue fell to 1,000 yuan a day from over 7,000 yuan before the riot.

A jade store at Jiefang Road put on a "sacrifice-sale" notice on its front door.

A one-meter long jade dragon boat laid at the doorway was priced at 400 yuan, down from its full price of 5,800 yuan.

"The business has been slack since July, when the monthly sales was only 600 yuan. I plan to clear the stock and leave Xinjiang," said the shop owner, a native from east China's Jiangsu Province.

However, not all businesses were slack. Zhang Jian, a sales staff in Giant Bicycle Shop on Xinmin Road, said the store's business has never been so good.

"We sold more than a dozen bikes a day recently, compared to three to four before the unrest," he said.

He assumed that the recent traffic control caused inconvenience to car drivers, and many opted for bicycles in commuting.

Security presence in the city remained heavy on Sunday. Hundreds of Armed Police were seen in the People Square at the city center. Police were still blocking Xinmin Road, which links to a viaduct leading to the southern part of the city, an area densely populated by Uygur people.

Military vehicles and patrolling police cars used loud-speaker to blare the currently-imposed security measures taken for the public safety.

Xinjiang regional governor Nur Bekri said Sunday that the regional government would send thousands of officials to communities in Urumqi to help solve grassroot disputes and maintain social order.

Qian Jun, director of Disease Control and Biological Security Office with China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences, said Sunday that among 531 victims of hypodermic syringe stabbings reported by local hospitals, 171 showed obvious signs of needle attacks.

Qian said he, along with other five medical experts from the military, had examined medical records of more than 200 victims since Friday.

Newly-inaugurated secretary of the Urumqi Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Zhu Hailun, said Saturday his top priority was to restore public security.

"I will lead cadres and residents of all ethnic groups in the city to conquer all difficulties, and mobilize all social forces to maintain stability," he said.

He told civil servants to go door to door to help solve grass-root disputes and allay public uneasiness.

Zhu's predecessors Li Zhi was removed from his post, along with the police chief Liu Yaohua of the regional government on Saturday.

The replacements came after the July 5 riot in Urumqi which left 197 people dead and following syringe attacks in the city that caused panic among the public.

Leader: Repeated US failures show new world order

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the repeated US failures in different countries and the loss of its influence both indicate the undeniable fact of world change.

"The US had far greater failures in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine," said Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday.

The Leader touched upon changing the situation in Latin America and said, "A power has been formed in this region which was once regarded by the US as its courtyard."

Iran and Venezuela should make efforts to prepare the grounds for strengthening their independence, said the Leader.

"Along with political coordination, Iran and Venezuela should enhance industrial, economic, banking and transportation cooperation," Ayatollah Khamenei added.

Tehran and Caracas had previously signed an array of agreements, pledging to work together in oil exploration, building low-income housing and assembling tractors and bicycles as well as military projects among other ventures.

Chavez, who is on his seventh official visit to Iran, hailed positive talks between the high-ranking Venezuelan delegation and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior Iranian officials.

The Venezuelan president, a vocal critic of the global capitalistic system, said that enhanced cooperation and unity between the two countries would be the only way to fight against enemy plots.

Venezuela has been a vociferous defender of Iran and its nuclear program as Western countries, spearheaded by the US, accuse Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program and demand a halt to the country's uranium enrichment activities.

Tehran, however, denies all such allegations and has called for the removal of weapons of mass destruction from across the globe.

The Venezuelan president visited Libya, Algeria and Syria before coming to Iran. He is also scheduled to go to Belarus, Russia, Turkmenistan and Spain after his Tehran visit.

Brazil's Lula rejects Iran sanctions, urges talks

PARIS (Reuters) - Western powers should stop punishing Iran over its nuclear program and instead talk to it in order to foster peace, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday.

A rising diplomatic power campaigning to gain a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, Brazil has adopted a much more conciliatory line toward Iran than Western allies including the United States.

"I think there are a lot of sanctions and not enough conversations with Iran," Lula said during an interview with three French media, TV5 Monde, RFI radio and Le Monde newspaper.

The West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear bombs, while Tehran says its programme is for peaceful power generation.

U.S. President Barack Obama has given Iran until later in September to take up an offer from the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France and Germany to discuss trade benefits if Tehran shelves nuclear enrichment. The alternative is to face harsher sanctions.

Lula rejected the idea of new sanctions, urging Western leaders to talk to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I think Obama should talk to him, (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy should talk to him, (British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown should talk to him, I should, everybody should," he said.

"Stop punishing him. Third-level U.N. officials take decisions that punish a country and make it more and more isolated. It will get harder and harder to reach an agreement," he said, speaking through a French interpreter.

Lula gave the interview just ahead of a visit to Brazil by Sarkozy, who has been one of the most vocal Western leaders in criticizing Ahmadinejad and his disputed re-election. Sarkozy has repeatedly said Iranians deserved better than their current leadership.

Lula said electoral disputes were common all over the world, citing the 2000 presidential election in the United States, and said other countries should not meddle in Iran's internal affairs.

Somali rebels 'reclaim town near Mogadishu'

Sun Sep 6, 2009

Somalia's Al Shabaab militia say they have recaptured a key town in battle with pro-government forces, leaving 13 people killed and many others wounded.

Al Shabaab guerrillas claim to have retaken control of the key Somali town of Beledweyne in the central Somali region of Hiiran where a large military base sheltering pro-government troops was located.

At least nine government soldiers and four Al Shabaab insurgents have been killed in the ongoing fierce fighting initiated by the anti-government fighters in the surprise pre-dawn attack, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Al Shabaab group has also reportedly seized a number of soldiers at the base and injured scores of others during the nocturnal raid.

Fighting continues over the strategic border town of Beledweyne which links Mogadishu with Ethiopia and central Somalia and has so far been swapped several times between the fighters vying for control in the country's polity and Somali government forces.

The news of Al Shabaab's recapturing of some Somali towns and districts comes in the aftermath of a recent international troops rise under an African Union mandate in order to boost the government strongholds across the war-ravaged country.

Somalia has lately witnessed a resurgence of militancy across the poverty-stricken Horn of Africa nation that has been grappling with an ongoing civil war after the 1991 overthrow of the country's last military dictatorship under the former leader General Mohamed Siad Barre.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/105437.html.

Arabic Defense Website Established

ABU DHABI [MENL] -- A company in the United Arab Emirates has established the first defense news website in Arabic.

The Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis has set up the first Arabic news website to focus on defense and security. Sdarabia.com was designed to provide news in Arabic to military officers, defense officials, analysts and executives.

Source: Middle East Newsline.
Link: http://menewsline.com/article-1173,4507-Arabic-Defense-Website-Establishe.aspx.

Iraq presses for tribunal for Syria bomb suspects

By JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – Iraq's prime minister pressed a U.N. envoy Sunday on the need for an international tribunal to bring Syrian-based bombing suspects to trial, as Damascus refused to hand over those it called political refugees.

The dispute, triggered by devastating suicide truck bombings on government ministries in Baghdad last month, threatens to unravel steps toward better ties between the one-time adversaries.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has bluntly accused Syria of betrayal and of harboring killers, briefed the special United Nations envoy, Ad Melkert, on the intensifying dispute, Iraqi state TV reported.

Both nations have recalled their ambassadors in a serious setback to relations that had just begun to improve after years of animosity during Saddam Hussein's rule.

Iraq says two wanted members of Saddam's Baath Party who fled to Syria at the start of the war planned and financed the Aug. 19 attacks. Syria has refused to hand them over, demanding evidence.

On Sunday, Syria said through a government-run newspaper that it would not hand over people it considers political refugees.

"Syria never handed over people who took shelter from the threat of injustice, arbitrary acts and death," the Al-Thawra newspaper said.

It said that if Damascus had followed such a policy, Iraq's prime minister and president — who both lived as dissidents in Syria during Saddam's rule — would not have fared well.

"They all know what their fate would have been if Syria had such political morals," said the paper, referring to al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani.

One of the Iraqis linked to the August bombings is Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, who was high up in the Baath Party and has been near the top of Iraq's most-wanted list for several years. The other suspect is Satam Farhan.

Syria and Iraq restored diplomatic relations in November 2006, ending a 24-year break that began when Damascus accused Iraq of inciting riots in Syria in 1982.

At the time of their break, the countries were ruled by rival factions of the Baath Party. Syria also sided with non-Arab Iran during its 1980-88 war with Iraq, further aggravating relations.

The dispute over last month's bombings is again straining relations.

The attacks devastated the foreign and finance ministries in Baghdad and killed about 100 people. They also severely shook confidence in al-Maliki's government, which wants to demonstrate it can guarantee security after the June withdrawal of American troops from urban areas.

Al-Maliki is also hoping to hold onto his job after January's national elections and had touted recent security improvements in his public appearances. He has faced criticism over the security lapses revealed by the attacks — one suspect said in a televised confession that the bombers got past checkpoints by paying bribes.

Because of the international element to the case, Iraq has asked the U.N. Security Council to investigate and set up a special court to try suspects. A U.N. spokesman said Thursday that the request was expected to be distributed to the 15 council members shortly.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Friday that such investigations are usually biased and have "brought catastrophes for us."

Solutions to the region's problems, he said, "should come from within the region."

Syria could also find itself before an international tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, though the court has yet to issue any indictments.

After the Baghdad attacks, al-Maliki ordered reinforcements to the Syrian border to shore up defenses against fighters crossing into Iraq.

The cross-border flow of fighters and weapons is helping fuel violence that continues to plague remaining insurgent strongholds like the northern city of Mosul, where five people were killed Sunday.

A gunman broke into a house in the eastern part of the city, killing a 3-year-old girl and her grandmother before fleeing, said a provincial police official and a doctor at the city's hospital. Neither wanted to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to reporters.

Gunmen also attacked checkpoints in the city, killing three policemen, police said.

In southeast Baghdad, a car parked near a security checkpoint exploded, killing one person and wounding five civilians, police said.

Space Sights and Smells Surprise Rookie Astronauts

Tariq Malik
Managing Editor
SPACE.com

WASHINGTON - For rookie astronauts flying aboard the International Space Station, the food is good, the rocket thrusters are loud and there's an odd tang in the air - apparently from outer space.

"It's a very, very different environment than I expected," Discovery shuttle pilot Kevin Ford, a first-time spaceflyer, said from orbit late Friday.

One of things Ford wasn't ready for is the weird smell.

"From the [spacewalks] there really is a distinct smell of space when they come back in," Ford said from the station in a Friday night news conference. "It's like...something I haven't ever smelled before, but I'll never forget it. You know how those things stick with you."

In the past, astronauts have described the smell of space as something akin to gunpowder or ozone.

The sounds of spaceflight have also been surprising, especially when Discovery fires up its large maneuvering thrusters, Ford said.

"It definitely gives the shuttle a kick and you just feel a little twang throughout the whole orbiter when they're firing to keep you in position," he added.

Of the 13 astronauts aboard the International Space Station and docked shuttle, nearly half are taking their first trip to space. For some, it's a short trip aboard the shuttle, which blasted off last week with three rookies aboard.

Other first-time spaceflyers are on the station for the long haul. Some have already been there for months, so the term "rookie" barely applies.

"The food is wonderful," said rookie astronaut Nicole Stott, who arrived at the station Sunday on Discovery to begin a three-month stay. "Of course we have a mix from all the partners now."

The result, she said, is a sort of orbital smorgasbord that includes food from the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe.

"I think you can find something for everyone," Stott said.

Discovery's seven-astronaut crew is in the middle of a 13-day mission to deliver fresh supplies and new science gear to the space station. The astronauts ferried Stott to the outpost to replace another NASA astronaut who will come home on the shuttle.

They also delivered a $5 million treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

Even some of Discovery's grizzled veterans were surprised by the life aboard the station, which is the $100 billion product of 16 different countries.

"It's really awesome to see all the work that's been achieved up here since our last flight," said Discovery commander Rick Sturckow, who is making his fourth flight to the station. "They've added a new solar array and some new modules. The station is something that all the international partners can be very proud of for their contributions."

U.S.-German rift emerges over Afghan deaths case

By JASON STRAZIUSO and FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writers

KABUL – An airstrike by U.S. fighter jets that appears to have killed Afghan civilians could turn into a major dispute for NATO allies Germany and the United States, as tensions began rising between them Sunday over Germany's role in ordering the attack.

Afghan officials say up to 70 people were killed in the early morning airstrike Friday in the northern province of Kunduz after Taliban militants stole two tanker trucks of fuel and villagers gathered to siphon off gas.

Afghan and NATO investigations are just beginning, but both German and U.S. officials already appeared to be trying to deflect blame.

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said the Taliban's possession of the two tankers "posed an acute threat to our soldiers." German officials have said the tankers might have been used as suicide bombs.

"If there were civilian casualties or injuries, of course we deeply regret that. At the same time, it was clear that our soldiers were in danger," Jung said in comments to German broadcasters. "Consequently, I stand clearly behind our commander's decision" to order the air strike.

Meanwhile, Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, the top U.S. and NATO spokesman in the country, said German troops let too many hours pass before visiting the site of the bombing Friday.

He explained that it's important to hold the ground after a strike and determine what happened before the enemy comes out with its own version of events.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, visited the site Saturday where two charred trucks and yellow gas cans sat on a riverbed. He asked a top commander in Regional Command North about the response time.

"Why didn't RC-North come here quicker?" McChrystal asked Col. Georg Klein, the commander of the German base in Kunduz.

"I can honestly say it was a mistake," Klein answered, in a discussion witnessed by an Associated Press reporter.

On Sunday, Smith said that in McChrystal's judgment the response time "was probably longer than it should have been."

German troops in Afghanistan have long been criticized for avoiding combat operations, even as militants have increasingly infiltrated northern Afghanistan the last year, destabilizing the once-peaceful region.

Taliban militants stole two fuel tankers late Friday that became stuck on a riverbed outside Kunduz. Villagers — either forced by the militants or enticed by offers of free fuel — gathered near the trucks, even as U.S. jets patrolled overhead.

German commanders watching images from the U.S. aircraft could see about 120 people, McChrystal said Saturday. The commanders decided that the people were militants and ordered the airstrikes, Smith said, even though images provided by the U.S. aircraft would have been grainy and difficult to see.

Whether the German commanders or the U.S. pilot are at fault for any civilian casualties may turn into an inner-NATO tussle.

Smith said the ground force commander "is the decision maker for close air support. That's doctrine." But he also conceded that a pilot can refuse an order to drop a bomb.

Klein, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, declined to say whether images provided by the U.S. jets had been clear enough for weapons to be seen among Afghans on the ground, citing the ongoing investigation.

A German Joint Terminal Air Controller, or JTAC, who spoke on condition that his name not be used because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly, said the rules for ordering an attack clearly state that the ultimate decision rests with the ground commander.

But rules also require that both the pilot and the JTAC get a good positive identification of the target before the commander can order a weapon deployed, the JTAC said.

"Only when both are sure that what we see is a target, only then will the pilot drop the bomb," the JTAC said.

The German Defense Ministry, meanwhile, pushed back against a story published in the Washington Post that German officials said painted their commander in a poor light and played up the U.S. version of events. The ministry said the article "will definitely influence at least the preliminary investigation by the various bodies."

"The Defense Ministry is very surprised about the unusual procedure of using a journalist as a source to reveal initial investigation results," the ministry said.

Kris Coratti, director of communications for the Washington Post, said in an e-mail: "The story speaks for itself."

Smith said a trip to Kunduz by military officials from Kabul was not an official investigation but a fact-finding trip.

"And I think it's much, much better for people to understand the facts," he said of the decision to allow a journalist to witness the discussion among military officials.

No NATO officials will yet say how many civilians they think may have died. Smith on Saturday said the preliminary overall death toll was believed to be 56. Afghan officials say it's in the low 70s.

Smith said he hopes a U.S.-German rift does not develop over the strike. "I hope everyone allows the investigation to proceed and we'll determine what we know more precisely and move on from there," Smith said.

The director of an Afghan human rights group criticized NATO's International Security Assistance Force for the deaths. "It was carelessness in terms of ISAF using force without doing enough to investigate whether this is a civilian location," Ajmal Samadi of Afghan Rights Monitor said.

German troops have long been criticized for restrictions that limit the battle their troops see. A U.S. based military analyst, Anthony Cordesman, said German troops don't have "the situational and combat experience" to confront Taliban on the ground.

"They're as oriented toward staying in their armored vehicles as any group I've met," Cordesman said. "They're not active enough to present much of a threat to the Taliban most of the time."

Klein rejected the claim that his troops lacked combat experience.

"Since I arrived here we have unfortunately seen many combat situations and my soldiers performed very well," he said.

"But the thing that's always given us a very good reputation in the civilian society here is that we tried as best as possible to exclude any civilian casualties, and I've got very good feedback on that from the Afghan people," he said.