Released Iraqi shoe thrower still in Syria, says he doesn't know details of travel plans

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Canadian Press, 2009

DAMASCUS, Syria - The Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush says he feels comfortable in Syria and that he doesn't know details of his travel plans later on.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi was released from jail on Tuesday, three months early for good behavior, and later flown to Damascus. He says his health is "good and under control."

He was convicted of assault in March. His three-year prison sentence was reduced to one because he had no criminal record before the shoe-throwing incident.

Al-Zeidi became a folk hero in the Arab world and unrepentant for his act, he said after his release that he was tortured during first days in custody.

His adviser said on Thursday that al-Zeidi's travel plans are kept secret because of security concerns.

NASA's Mars Rover Might Be Stuck For Good

By SPACE.com Staff

Efforts to free the stuck Spirit rover on Mars have been dragging on since May and today a NASA official said the robot may never get free.

"We are proceeding very cautiously and exploring all reasonable options," said John Callas, NASA project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity. "There is a very real possibility that Spirit may not be able to get out, and we want to give Spirit the very best chance."

Callas and colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been testing ideas on a twin of Spirit at the California facility, in a pit designed to simulate the surface of Mars. It's tricky though, because of the difference in gravity of the two planets. The rover team is also refining a detailed computer model of rover mobility, calibrated with results from testing and measurements from Mars.

"The computer modeling will allow us to connect the results from tests performed in Earth gravity with what to expect from the rover in Mars gravity," Callas said in a statement Monday.

Spirit has certainly outlived expectations. It became embedded in soft soil at a site called Troy in early May, more than five years into a mission on Mars that was originally scheduled to last for three months. The rover team suspended further driving attempts with Spirit while evaluating how to free it.

The engineers are trying to figure out how to move Spirit while avoiding putting the rover's center of gravity directly over a rock that is touching or nearly touching the machine's underbelly. Other added tests are using a lighter-weight test rover than the one used for most of the testing this summer. A complete "dress rehearsal" test of the extrication strategy judged to hold the best chance of success is planned in the test setup at JPL before the team commands Spirit to begin driving. That test and subsequent review of its results are expected to take several weeks.

Moves by Spirit will not begin before October, according to current plans.

A dust storm that had reduced the electrical output from Spirit's solar panels by nearly half during late August still has some lingering effects on the skies above Spirit, NASA said.

World's tallest man over 8ft high

The world's tallest man - who also has the largest hands and feet - has been named by Guinness World Records for the launch of its 2010 book.

At 8ft 1in (2.47m), Sultan Kosen, from Turkey, is about 4in (10cm) taller than previous title-holder Bao Xishun.

The 27-year-old's hands measure 10.8in (27.5cm) and his feet 14.3in (36.5cm).

Mr Kosen, whose height is due to the medical condition pituitary gigantism, said he hoped his new-found fame would bring him love for the first time.

"The first thing I want to do is have a car that I can fit in, but more than that I want to get married," he said.

"Up until now it's been really difficult to find a girlfriend. I've never had one, they were usually scared of me. I'm hoping now I will find one."

He went on: "Hopefully now that I'm famous I'll be able to meet lots of girls. I'd like to get married."

One of the difficulties of being so tall is getting clothes which fit and Mr Kosen wore a specially-made suit to meet journalists, which was one of the first outfits he has owned that is the right size.

He also had to have a three-metre-long bed made.

Mr Kosen said: "The most difficult things are, for example, that I can't fit into a normal car. When I get into a car, it's a really tight fit.

"I can't go shopping like normal people, I have to have things made specially and sometimes they aren't always as fashionable.

"The other thing is that ceilings are low and I have to bend down through doorways."

But his height does have its upsides.

He said: "The good thing about being so tall is that I can see people from a long distance. The other thing is at home they use my height to change the light bulbs and hang the curtains, things like that."

Mr Kosen is the first person in more than a decade to be more than 8ft in height, a spokesman for Guinness World Records said.

He grew normally until he was 10, but then a tumour caused him to develop a medical condition called pituitary gigantism.

The tumour was removed last year and his growth stopped.

His visit to the UK is the first time he has travelled outside Turkey, and he will go on to visit the US and Germany.

Earlier this year, Zhao Liang from China thought he might be a contender for the world record after he was treated for an injury in hospital.

Staff there measured the former basketball player at 2.46m (just under 8ft 1in) in height.

US curbs 'behind WFP Somali cuts'

By Martin Plaut
BBC News

The World Food Program says US curbs are in part behind its move to shut its Somali feeding programs for more than 100,000 acutely malnourished children.

The US restrictions affect funding for areas controlled by groups designated as terrorist.

Washington has imposed sanctions on the hardline Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab.

But the WFP says it is doing all it can to get the aid through without it being controlled by the Somali insurgents.

Drought and war has left 109,000 children-under-five acutely dependent on the feeding centers run by the WFP.

But money has run out. The centers are closing, to focus the remaining resources on the most needy - babies under two years old, who would never recover from acute malnutrition.

Aid workers have told the BBC the cuts are the result of a freeze on funding by the United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the WFP, said she was unaware of a ban.

She continued: "We've heard of needing to deal with the particular restrictions they have on where aid goes and needing to look at whether or not we can work in compliance with those restrictions."

The US embargo is stopping American aid funds from reaching the vast areas of southern and central Somalia, where the UN estimates half the population is now in need of food aid.

Ms Sheeran said that "getting help to them inevitably involves dealing with al-Shabab and other hardline groups now in control of the towns and villages across the region".

"We take all precautions to ensure that our food only goes to the most needy and is not handled by any particular political groups in Somalia or elsewhere and in particular al-Shabab in Somalia," she said.

"We hope to work through these difficulties and challenges.

"Right now in Somalia, WFP has by far the biggest program and there are very few aid groups left functioning there."

Ms Sheeran says the WFP is working with the administration of US President Barack Obama on an almost weekly basis to try to resolve these difficulties.

In the meantime the children of Somalia are going without the food they so badly need.

ISRO all set to launch Oceansat-2 from Sriharikota

Bangalore, Sep 16 : Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is giving final touches to Oceansat-2, the earth observation satellite for coastal zone studies, including coastal security, before launching it on September 23.

The launch of the 970-kg satellite on a PSLV vehicle that would carry six micro satellites from Europe is tentatively scheduled to take place around noon on September 23 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, ISRO spokesperson S Satish told UNI.

He said the satellite, an orbit replacement for Oceansat-1, would help identify potential fishing zones and in coastal zone studies.

The satellite is intended for identification of potential fishing zones, sea state forecasting, coastal zone studies and providing inputs for weather forecasting and climate studies.

Mr Satish said all four stages of the launch vehicle was fully integrated and the final tests were on.

MEANINGS: Jihad is a struggle, not war

ABDUL GHAFFUR RAMLI, Petaling Jaya

I REFER to your report "Foundation's effort a jihad" (NST, Sept 16).


I am surprised that some Malaysian writers and editors are just parroting the Western media by putting in brackets the words "holy war" after the word "jihad" .

"Holy war" is a term that does not exist in Islamic terminology. Jihad, it must be emphasized, means "struggle", and specifically, struggle in the way of God. This struggle may take many forms, including the use of force. Though a jihad may be sacred in the sense of being directed towards a sacred ideal, it is not necessarily a "war".

Somalia: U.S. and UN Disagree on Talks with Al-Shabab

16 September 2009

For the first time in the history of Somali conflict, external actors have openly clashed over policies aimed at talks with Somali Islamist militants groups such as Al Shahab. In an interview with the BBC radio 4 flagship today program, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah the UN Special Representative to Somalia said he supports the idea of talks with any Somali.

"I invite any Somali, whatever he is, extremist or not, to make the first step to rebuild his country. I am open to all of them, any Somali who needs to make peace, my door is open, my telephone lines are open, I am ready to call them and I call them. We should not raise the level of the discussion to US. US has nothing to do with it.

"The US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger disagrees: "No, definitely not. The Al Shabab lacks any legitimacy in Somalia. I mean, they are an extremist group with significant outside support. I think that is, by and large, something anathema to the Somali people. I know what our position is. It is not appropriate for us or for the TFG to be talking to the Al Shabab. They don't have the legitimacy that entitles them to be talked to," he told Mike Thompson of the BBC.

The Current TFG president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and expanded Somali transitional parliament are result of negotiations with the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia. The United States supported the talks facilitated by the UN but now opposes any talks with Al Shabab, and seems to be discouraging the TFG from talks with moderate members of Al Shabab.

The Somali crisis has entered new stage in which the impact of the external actors' policies on the Horn Africa country's troubles is becoming clearer.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909160818.html.

Lebanon parliament renominates Hariri for PM job

BEIRUT - Lebanon’s parliament nominated on Wednesday Saad al-Hariri for a second time to form a government, a task complicated by rising tension with his political opponents Hezbollah and its allies.

President Michel Suleiman will officially designate Hariri to the post of prime minister later in the day, political sources said. Hariri had failed the first time around to form a government after a June election, stepping down last week.

A majority of the country’s 128 lawmakers nominated him in two days of consultations to try again, the sources said.

The president is obliged to designate the figure with the most support among MPs. In an unofficial count, 73 MPs nominated Hariri while 55 did not name anyone.

His renomination, though widely expected, gave a boost to the Beirut bourse, with the BLOM stock index .BLSI> closing 1.0 percent up.

Hariri, a 39-year-old U.S.- and Saudi-backed billionaire businessman, leads the parliamentary majority coalition, which defeated a rival alliance including the Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah in the election.

He was nominated prime minister after the poll but stepped down after more than 10 weeks trying to forge a unity government including Hezbollah and its allies.

Hariri, Lebanon’s main Sunni politician, and rival groups have traded accusations of blame since the failure of the talks.

There has been no sign of compromise over the differences that derailed Hariri’s first attempt, chief among them his refusal to yield to the demands of Christian politician Michel Aoun, an ally of Shia group Hezbollah.

Reflecting a less cordial political climate, the pro-Syria parliamentary bloc of Shia parliament speaker Nabih Berri, which nominated Hariri for prime minister in June, did not nominate anyone for the post on Tuesday.

Likewise, MPs belonging to Aoun’s bloc and the political and military group Hezbollah did not nominate anyone.

Politicians say the deadlock reflects a relapse in ties between Saudi Arabia and Syria, states with great influence in Lebanon and whose rivalries have fueled political instability and violence in the country over the past four years.

Rapprochement between Damascus and Riyadh this year has helped Lebanon enjoy its longest spell of political stability since the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, Saad’s father.

But the postponement of a visit Saudi’s King Abdullah was due to make to Damascus has signaled a freeze in the rapprochement. Many Lebanese fear that could be reflected in a protracted political standoff over the new government.

Scientists Discover A Genetic Cure For Red, Green Color Blindness

Genetic scientists have discovered a cure for color blindness, offering hope to millions of sufferers.

Scientists at the University of Washington, in Seattle, and the University of Florida restored normal vision to two color-blind monkeys. The technique could prove to be a safe and effective cure for color blindness and other visual disorders related to the cones in the retina.

“Although color blindness is only moderately life-altering, we have shown we can cure a cone disease in a primate and that it can be done very safely,” Professor William Hauswirth, an ophthalmic molecular geneticist at the University of Florida, said. “That is extremely encouraging for the development of therapies for human cone diseases that really are blinding.”

Those suffering from red-green color blindness are unable to distinguish between colors in the green-red-yellow part of the spectrum. This can make reading maps, using the internet and selecting a matching shirt and tie impossible. The disorder affects about 8 per cent of Caucasian males, but fewer than 1 per cent of females.

Normal color vision requires three types of cone in the retina, sensitive to light in the blue, green, and red parts of the spectrum. The squirrel monkeys in the study - Dalton and Sam - lacked a gene called L opsin that codes for the red-sensitive cone. The same gene defect causes most cases of red-green color blindness in humans.

In the study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, scientists restored normal vision to the monkeys by injecting a virus modified to contain the L opsin gene into the retina. Over 24 weeks the light sensitivity of the cones infected with the virus shifted towards the red part of the spectrum. In a touchscreen test the monkeys were able to discriminate easily between patterns of grey, green and red dots.

The success of the treatment in adult animals demonstrated that the brain is able to rewire itself to take advantage of new receptors. It had been expected that the treatment of congenital vision disorders would only be effective if administered at a young age.

The virus used to deliver the L optin gene, called adeno-associated virus (AAV), is not known to cause disease in humans and has already been approved for use in human gene therapy trials for cystic fibrosis, hemophilia and Parkinson’s disease. Two years on from the color blindness study, the monkeys have shown no adverse effects from the treatment.

Scientists are now looking to obtain permission to begin trials in color-blind humans. “People who are color-blind feel that they are missing out,” Jay Neitz, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Washington, said. “If we could find a way to do this with complete safety in human eyes I think there would be a lot of people who would want it.”

Iranian Cleric Rafsanjani Banned From Saying Quds Day Prayers

A powerful cleric who supports Iran's opposition movement has been barred from delivering Friday prayers during Quds Day in Tehran, an annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian cause that is being turned into a protest against authorities in a move that suggests the declining influence of Iranian moderates within the political elite.

Instead of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Friday's speakers will be President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his hard-line ally Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency reported, citing a spokesman for the prayers commission.

Protesters opposed to Ahmadinejad's re-election are planning to take to the streets Friday in an attempt to transform the annual rallies in favor of Palestinian rights into opposition marches. Presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who lost to Ahmadinejad in a June election marred by allegations of vote fraud, along with former President Mohammad Khatami have announced plans to join protesters.

Supporters of Mousavi's Green Path of Hope movement responded defiantly to the news that Rafsanjani had been pushed aside, calling on demonstrators to take to the streets anyway while boycotting the prayer sermon after the rally.

"They kept Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani from leading this week's Friday Prayers clearly out of fear," said a statement posted at the reformist website: www.Mowjcamp.com . "This badly thought-out gesture will certainly elicit an appropriate response from the understanding and green-thinking nation of Iran."

Rafsanjani has almost always led Friday prayers on Quds Day over the last 25 years. Decades ago he translated Arabic-language tracts in support of the Palestinian cause. Rafsanjani, who heads government bodies that oversee the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and mediate disputes between parliament and the presidency, has delivered Friday prayers only once since the upheaval that followed Iran's presidential elections. His July 17 sermon turned into a massive street protest in the capital.

The move to sideline Rafsanjani suggests his continuing marginalization from Iran's inner circle of power as a group of radical hard-liners and Revolutionary Guard leaders surrounding Ahmadinejad ascend to power. Ahmadinejad's supporters have called for the arrest of Rafsanjani's well-connected son, Mehdi Rafsanjani, after defendants at recent televised court proceedings, widely derided as show trials, accused him of undermining the Islamic Republic.

The declining influence and continued ostracism of relative moderates within the political establishment and the emergence of less palatable hard-liners may make it tougher for the West and Tehran to come to an agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear program.

The blunt move to exclude a stalwart pillar of the Islamic Republic also suggests authorities' anxiety about rising opposition enthusiasm to turn public events into protest rallies. Walls in cities and towns have been plastered with posters calling on opposition supporters to take to the streets, photographs posted to the Internet show.

"I ask the understanding and intelligent nation of Iran to turn out massively in Friday's rally in a bid to negate any kind of oppression anywhere in the world," Ayatollah Yousef Sanei, a high-ranking reformist cleric, was quoted as saying on his website. "Be sure that God watches out for tyrants."

The post-election unrest, the Islamic republic's greatest domestic challenge since the 1979 revolution that established clerical rule, has sharply divided Iran's senior clergy.

Earlier this week Ayatollah Ali Hossein Montazeri delivered a blistering rebuke of the government, labeling it a "military regime" and calling on other clerics to speak out against authorities. Hours later officials arrested three of his grandchildren for allegedly taking part in nighttime political rallies outside the office of another reformist cleric. One of the young men was released Tuesday night.

A Sunni cleric loyal to Ahmadinejad was shot dead early Sunday morning in the city of Sanandaj, in western Iran, where he led Friday prayers. A prosecutor in Sanandaj was shot in the neck this morning in an apparent assassination attempt, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Another prosecutor in the mostly Kurdish city escaped an assassination attempt a week ago.

Europe Overtakes North America As Richest Region In The World

A new report on global wealth says that Europe has overtaken the United States to become the richest region in the world. But the Americans still have more millionaires then the European Union - and should you want to marry one, you might be better off in Singapore or the Middle East.

From dishwasher to millionaire. If that's the sort of career you want, then there's no place like the USA. It is the land of unlimited opportunity. But over the last 12 months many Americans have also come to learn about opportunities that lead in the opposite direction: from millionaire to dishwasher, for instance.

The worst global recession in decades has left its mark on the world's economic powers, but no nation has been affected quite as badly as the U.S., wealth dropped by 22 percent - almost double the worldwide average. The "Global Wealth Report" released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on the anniversary of the Lehman Brother's bank collapse indicates that Europe has overtaken North America to become the world's wealthiest region.

America Poorer, Europe Richer

BCG's Global Wealth report looks at the value of assets held by the asset management industry. According to these figures the world's wealth dropped almost 12 percent, going from $104.7 trillion in 2007 to $92.4 trillion in 2008. This is the first worldwide contraction in these kinds of assets in nearly 10 years, the study said. And while North America - which includes both the U.S. and Canada - had $29.3 trillion, Europe had around $32.7 trillion in assets under management. So it would appear that the Europeans have been rewarded for their traditional caution in this crisis. Despite Europe's strong position, the United States still remains the world's wealthiest country, with $27.1 in assets under management.

The drop in wealth isn't entirely a result of the financial crisis - money has been shifting around for other reasons too. As BCG says in a statement accompanying the report, "stung by losses and scandals, clients shifted their assets to basic, low-margin investments."

"A lot of investors withdrew money, some to settle debts and some to shift money into assets deemed less risky - such as real estate or gold," said Ludger Kubel-Sorger, director of BCG in Frankfurt.

Worldwide Fewer Millionaires

The number of millionaires around the world also decreased. In 2007 there were 11 million, but in 2008, the world could only produce 9 million, a drop of 17.8 percent. Both Europe and North America lost 22 percent of their millionaires, although the US can still claim to have the most of any country with 3.9 million millionaires. But this is only 3.5 percent of the American population. Other countries have more millionaires per capita, with 8.5 percent of Singapore's population making it as millionaires, Switzerland boasting 6.6 percent, Kuwait 5.1 percent and the United Arab Emirates 4.5 percent.

And another point for discussion arises out of this report too - the more money you had before the financial crisis, the more risks you were taking, making any investments at all. Which is why you have come out of this crisis looking poorer. If you had no savings and no investments, you may have lost in other ways that this BCG survey does not take into account. And this is why the financial crisis appears to have hit the financial elite harder - that is, those defined by the study as having liquid assets of $5 million dollars or more. They simply had more to lose.

Latin America was the only region where wealth increased. There assets under management grew by 3 percent in 2008. According to the BCG report, wealth levels are expected to rise again but not until 2013. Although, they say, levels may rise faster in the Asia Pacific region, in centers like Singapore and Hong Kong, where BCG expects better than average growth in the coming years.

Canada, U.S. stuck in muddle in Afghanistan

By GREG WESTON

Listening to Stephen Harper and Barack Obama after their Washington hug-in yesterday, ordinary Canadians might be excused for thinking Afghanistan is no longer about winning, but how the heck do we get out of there.

The two leaders emerged from their 75 minutes behind closed doors with the usual declaration that Canada and the United States remain the closest of friends and allies.

No news there, but considering what the U.S. president has on his plate these days, the big wonder is Harper got Obama's ear at all.

But on the Afghanistan conflict, the only concurrence between the two leaders seems to be their mutual admission that the war is not going well and that neither the U.S. nor its allies -- including Canada -- has any clear exit strategy.

Earlier this year, Obama ordered another 17,000 American troops into Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban.

But after his meeting Wednesday with Harper, the president was emphatic that the U.S. would not be committing any more human or other resources to Afghanistan until there is a clear strategy going forward.

As Obama put it: "You certainly don't make determinations about sending young men and women into battle without having absolute clarity about what the strategy is going to be."

Canada has a different problem -- an increasingly dubious strategy to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan in 2011, turning over responsibility for peace and security to the Afghan national police and armed forces.

Under the Harper government's plan, Canada would continue to provide development and humanitarian assistance after our troops are gone.

But what if the Afghans aren't ready, able or even willing to provide a level of security needed to allow humanitarian projects to proceed without aid workers being blown up or gunned down?

The question is becoming less hypothetical by the day.

Earlier this week, the Harper government released its latest quarterly progress report on Afghanistan showing the worst deterioration of security and biggest increase in attacks since the fall of the Taliban eight years ago.

On the same day, a United Nations-connected agency monitoring the recent elections in Afghanistan issued a damning report, all but declaring the voting a farce.

The sitting government of Hamid Karzai is plagued by corruption, while the country's poppy trade continues to fund the Taliban, and feed the world's appetite for heroin.

For all this, as Harper and Obama were meeting in Washington, another Canadian soldier was being delivered home for burial.

Not surprisingly, public support for a war that seems to be achieving little continues to erode in both the U.S. and Canada.

For the first time in this country, polls are showing a majority of Canadians want not only our troops out of combat, but Canada out of Afghanistan. Period.

During the last federal election a year ago, Harper was clear: "We are planning for our withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan in 2011."

In Washington yesterday, the PM said: "Canada is not leaving Afghanistan; Canada will be transitioning from a predominantly military mission that will be a civil humanitarian mission after 2011."

Canadian voters may well beg to differ.

Lady Dai tomb among richest finds in China history

By SUE MANNING, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES – Lady Dai was a Chinese nobleman's wife in her mid-50s when she died of a heart attack. She was overweight, had diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, liver disease, gallstones and her arteries were almost totally clogged.

She didn't live the healthiest life but she left behind one of the most perfectly preserved bodies in history. She was buried about 2,100 years ago. Her tomb was found in the early 1970s on Mawangdui, a hill in Changsha, near the capital of Hunan Province in China. More than 1,400 equally well-preserved artifacts found around her were designed to help her in the afterlife.

"The Han Dynasty is the foundation of Chinese culture," Susan Tai, Curator of Asian Art for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, said. "We are looking at a tomb in Southern China from a very important cultural region that contributed some of the greatest literature and mythology and art to China."

The museum will host "Noble Tombs at Mawangdui" from Sept. 19 to Dec. 13. The exhibition of Lady Dai artifacts from the Hunan Provincial Museum stopped in New York earlier this year, then headed to Santa Barbara, about 90 miles west of Los Angeles.

There are 68 items in the collection. Ninety percent of those came from Lady Dai's tomb because it was in such good condition.

Mawangdui was actually home to three tombs. Lady Dai's husband, Li Cang, was the prime minister of Changsha. He died in 186 B.C., 20 some years before his wife died.

"His tomb was looted repeatedly in antiquity. There were no remains. All the treasures were gone. However, several coin-sized seals were found in the pit. They identified the tomb to be Li's. They also helped identity his wife's tomb," Tai said.

The third grave, tucked slightly under Lady Dai's, is believed to be that of one of the couple's two sons, although some believe it was Li's brother. The man apparently died in his 30s. There were skeletal remains and many artifacts in his tomb, including a library of 50 books written on silk and bamboo slips.

The volumes focused on the military and medicine, including sexual health. The items show women loved beauty and men attached importance to martial arts.

When Lady Dai's tomb was first opened, there were gasps because there was no decay, Tai said. Oxygen took an immediate toll, but even today, her body is well preserved at the Hunan Provincial Museum.

Modern day scientists are still working on ways to preserve bodies as well as Lady Dai's, but they've found several reasons why it remained in such good shape. Her family wrapped her in 22 dresses of silk and hemp, bound her with nine silk ribbons and covered her face with a mask. All the clothes filled the coffin and it was perfectly sealed, keeping air out. There were inner and outer tombs, like nesting boxes.

Nearly 20 gallons of an unknown liquid were found inside the coffin. A thick layer of white pastelike soil was put on the floor and the tomb was nearly 50 feet below the surface. She was surrounded by massive amounts of food, wine, lacquered dinnerware and drinking vessels, 46 bolts of silk, more clothes, books, makeup and other symbols of wealth.

Lady Dai's tomb provides a glimpse of the opulent and elegant life she led. Lacquered vessels had replaced bronze as the favored material for the elite.

"Han Dynasty texts say that a lacquered cup required the effort of 100 men to make and cost 10 times more than one made of bronze," Tai explained. Raw lacquer was toxic and could kill or deform those who worked with it if they were not careful.

Lady Dai's hair was thinning so she used a hairpiece and two combs to form a bun behind her head. One comb had wide teeth for untangling, while one had smaller teeth for scrubbing her scalp. Some of the vessels and combs will be part of the exhibit.

A T-shaped piece of silk with a painting of Lady Dai draped over her coffin is the earliest portraiture in Chinese painting, Tai said.

The original painting is one of four items too fragile to leave China, so life-size reproductions will be shown in Santa Barbara.

One part of the intricate painting shows Lady Dai dead, wrapped in cloth and surrounded by her descendants, food and drink. The center of the painting shows her standing in profile and walking with a cane as if she is ascending into heaven.

Scholars are still debating what the painting at the top of the T means.

"Many believe it is her in afterlife," Tai said. "Her soul has evolved and integrated into the cosmos."

Pak wants unconditional talks with India: Qureshi

Pakistan on Thursday accused India of mounting propaganda on issues like the Mumbai attacks and said nothing can be achieved by putting "pressure" on it even as it sought unconditional talks to resolve outstanding matters.

"We want a dialogue (with India) but we are not willing to accept any conditions... We want talks in an open and friendly atmosphere. They (India) are mistaken if they think they can achieve anything by putting pressure on Pakistan," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters in Lahore ahead of his departure for the US.

Qureshi, who is scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart S M Krishna on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, said India had been issuing statements and taking up issues like terrorism with the world community to "put Pakistan on the defensive."

Such moves, he claimed, were prompted by India's "internal political compulsions" but Pakistan will not be affected by them.

In Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told a weekly news briefing that efforts by India to lobby the US to pressure Pakistan on issues like the Mumbai terror attacks amounted to "anti-Pakistan propaganda."

"We are confident that this propaganda cannot achieve anything. We are pursuing the Mumbai attacks with all seriousness and sincerity," he said, adding Pakistan is also continuing its campaign against terror.

Resting and restoring Gaza Strip’s underground water supplies emerges as top priority says UNEP

The underground water supplies, upon which 1.5 million Palestinians depend for agricultural and drinking water, are in danger of collapse as a result of years of over-use and contamination that have been exacerbated by the recent conflict.

A report released today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on the environmental condition of the Gaza Strip following the hostilities, calls for the aquifer to be “rested” and alternative water sources found.

“Unless the trend is reversed now, damage could take centuries to reverse. Since the aquifer is a continuum with Egypt and Israel, any such action must be coordinated with these countries,” it says.

The report points to increased salinity from salt water intrusion caused by over-abstraction of the ground water as a key concern, alongside pollution from sewage and agricultural run off.

Pollution levels are such that infants in the Gaza Strip are at risk from nitrate poisoning. UNEP estimates that well over US$1.5 billion may be needed over 20 years to restore the aquifer back to health, including the establishment of desalination plants to take pressure off the underground water supplies.

These are among more than twenty recommendations made in the Environmental Assessment of the Gaza Strip: following the escalation of hostilities in December 2008-January 2009. The report, requested in February 2009 by UNEP’s Governing Council – the annual gathering of environment ministers – examines the direct impact of the recent conflict and its contribution to existing and persistent environmental problems.

The report also assesses the likely economic costs of the hostilities and recommends levels of investment needed to secure rehabilitation, recovery and the longer term sustainability of the Gaza Strip.

Some of the Direct Impacts
Strikes on buildings and other infrastructure have generated 600,000 tonnes of demolition debris. The removal and safe disposal of rubble, some of which is also contaminated with asbestos, is calculated at over US$7 million. An estimated 17 per cent of cultivated land including orchards and greenhouses was severely affected.

The report estimates the costs in terms of damage to farmers’ livelihoods alongside clean-up measures at around US$11 million.

Other impacts include sewage spills as a result of power cuts to treatment facilities-- some of which is likely to have percolated through the Gaza Strip’s porous soils into the ground water.

There has also been an increase in the build-up of hazardous hospital wastes at landfill sites generated in part as a result of the numbers injured.

The report also underlines factors such as the collapse of refuse collection services as a result of the hostilities, and the way this has exacerbated pressure on existing landfill sites.

The estimated cost of decommissioning existing landfills and establishing new solid waste management facilities is put at over US$40 million.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, who initiated the assessment during a tour of the Gaza Strip in April this year, said: “The assessments conducted and the findings presented here identify and document a serious challenge to the environmental sustainability of the Gaza Strip.”

“The hard facts and figures, alongside the indicative investment estimates presented in this report, should assist all concerned parties to understand the gravity of the situation in order to provide transformative solutions. The international community has indicated its willingness to assist with providing technical, financial and diplomatic assistance in order to turn environmental restoration into an opportunity for cooperation and restoration,” he added.

“Many of the impacts of the recent hostilities have exacerbated environmental degradation that has been years in the making—environmental degradation that does not end at the borders of the Gaza Strip but also affect the health and welfare of those living beyond,” he added.

The Key Findings and Recommendations in More Detail Water
The area receives 300 mm of rain annually, of which 46 per cent of some 45 million cubic metres, recharges the underground aquifer.

For many years now abstraction levels of some 160 million cubic metres annually have out-stripped the natural replenishment levels.

The situation is causing salt water from the sea to intrude into these freshwater supplies, and the report says salinity levels for most parts of the Gaza Strip are now above World Health Organization guideline limits of 250 milligrams per litre.

In addition, the nature of the soils in the Gaza Strip means that sewage, irrigation water and ‘leachate’ from overwhelmed and unsealed landfills can easily percolate down into the aquifer.

Tests at nine private wells found many with nitrate concentrations exceeding WHO guidelines of 50 milligrams per litre—one tested as high as 331 milligrams per litre.

High levels of nitrates can cause a form of anaemia in infants known as ‘blue baby syndrome’. One study of close to 340 babies, published in 2007, found that the proportion with worrying levels of the blue baby indicator protein—methemoglobin—was close to half of those studied.

There is concern that levels of nitrates in water may have perhaps become worse as a result of the recent hostilities. Several recommendations are outlined to deal with the long-standing challenges and ones either exacerbated or caused by the recent escalation of hostilities:

The provision of safe water for infants and the carrying out by the UN of a comprehensive study on ‘blue baby syndrome’.
The development of alternative water supplies using desalination of sea water.
An entire restoration of the current water supply network to reduce losses from leakages equal to over 40 per cent of the water being pumped.
Improved measures to control sources of contamination to the underground aquifer from sewage, agricultural run-off and storm water run-off.
The establishment of one or two new and modern sewage treatment plants able to handle nitrates so that effluent can be used for agriculture alongside treating and composting facilities for sewage sludge.
Until new treatment works are in place, all sewage should be disposed of at sea in suitably deep and far offshore locations.

Landfills and Waste
The recent conflict has generated some 600,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste, of which over 200,000 tonnes is in Gaza city and 100,000 tonnes is in Rafah.

The report calls for the establishment of a new facility to handle the debris and maximize the re-use and recycling of the materials and the separation of those that may be contaminated.

Some buildings, such as the El Swaity juice and food produce factory in the northern Gaza Strip caught on fire after being struck by munitions and there is concern that the burning may have generated hazardous pollutants such as furans and dioxins.

The report notes that demolition here and at other similar sites will require workers to wear personal protective equipment which is not readily available in the Gaza Strip.

It also underlines other forms of contamination in need of action such as those linked with fuels spilling into soils as a result of strikes which in turn has the potential to percolate into the groundwater.

Analysis at the Az Zaitoun poultry farm, a gasoline station and at a cement factory at Rafah showed soil contamination from petroleum-based substances often exceeding internationally recognized limits. These will need to be collected and stored in secured facilities, currently not available in the Gaza Strip.

The report also flags up concern over the disposal of hazardous healthcare wastes in the Gaza Strip in part as a result of an increased level of casualties.

The UNEP team visited several landfills and found items such as needles and bandages that were openly accessible and a risk to children and adults scavenging off the tips at nearly every site.

The report recommends that a dedicated, hazardous waste management facility be established to deal with these waste streams.

The capacity and management of the Gaza Strip’s existing landfill sites and their impact on the environment is a key challenge.

The report highlights the old Tal El Sultan landfill close to Rafah city which during and after the conflict was re-opened as a temporary storage and transfer station for solid waste.

The site, covering an area of around six hectares and where the nearest house is less than 50 metres away, has no control systems to stop contaminated water leaching into the ground or base lining.

“The site constitutes a health hazard to people working on or near it, as well as to the neighboring community. The slaughterhouse waste is a particular problem as it attracts rats which may transmit diseases such as leptospirosis and meningitis,” says the report.

It recommends that the El Sultan site, along with all the other landfills in the Gaza Strip with the exception of a UN Development Programme storage facility, be closed and decommissioned and the land returned to alternative uses.

It estimates the costs of decommissioning existing landfills and establishing new solid waste management facilities at over US$40 million.

Agriculture
Before 27 December 2008, the cultivated area in the Gaza Strip was recorded as 170,000,000 square metres.

During the conflict an estimated 17 per cent of cultivated area was completely destroyed, including orchards and open fields.

The concern now is how easy it will be to restore the lost agricultural production in a region surrounded by sand dunes and whose soils are fragile.

Destruction of vegetation cover and compacting of soil by strikes and tank movements has degraded the land and made it vulnerable to desertification, and it might for a variety of reasons be difficult to revegetate.

The report estimates that the costs in terms of damage to farmers’ livelihoods as a result of damage and contamination of agricultural land, including ensuring the land is safe to re-plant, is around US$11 million.

Environmental Governance
The report points out that critical to the future sustainability of the Gaza Strip will be re-building the institutions charged with managing the environment. During the recent conflict the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority building was damaged, resulting in the loss of equipment and data.

Due to the internal political situation many of the staff are not attending the office. Consequently, systematic environmental monitoring systems are not currently in place.

Similar is the case with the Palestinian Water Authority where the licensing regime for new water wells is not functional and private wells are being drilled, further exacerbating the groundwater crisis, without any control. Water being used for drinking around the Gaza Strip is also not systematically monitored, which may be placing the community at risk.

The report calculates that establishing groundwater and marine monitoring systems, retraining staff and restoring buildings and equipment might cost close to US$20 million.

Goldstone rejects bias charges over UN Gaza report

The head of the United Nations commission that this week issued a damning report on the Gaza War on Thursday rejected Israeli criticism that it was biased from the start.

"I deny that completely," Judge Richard Goldstone said in remarks broadcast on Thursday on public radio, a replay of an earlier interview with Israeli television.

"I was completely independent, nobody dictated any outcome, and the outcome was a result of the independent inquiries that our mission made," he said.

The UN report, which Goldstone presented at the UN on Tuesday and which accused both Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes, has faced stinging criticism in Israel for being one-sided and biased.

But Goldstone, former chief prosecutor on the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, rejected the charges and said the only thing he regretted was that Israel refused to cooperate with his team.

"There is really nothing I can think of that I would do differently," he said.

"If there is any difference that I would have preferred, [it] would have been that we could have got cooperation from Israel and in particular, I would have liked the Israeli government to assist us and decide what we should investigate because that's what I asked them to do."

In the wake of the UN report, numerous Israeli commentators have launched personal attacks on Goldstone, with one right-wing paper writing: "The liberal anti-Semitism strides delicately, appoints a hostile commission and finds an obsequious Jew to dance to the tune of the gentile landowner."

Goldstone (70) is a South African judge who also headed the public inquiry into violence and intimidation in the run-up to South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994.

The impartial inquiry, which became known as the Goldstone Commission, was widely credited with preventing South Africa's slide into widespread violence with the demise of the apartheid regime.

Darfur Peacekeepers to Increase Patrols After Spate of Attacks

September 17, 2009
By Maram Mazen

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The joint United Nations and African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region said it will increase patrols, after a spate of attacks on humanitarian workers.

In the latest incident, gunmen carjacked two trucks carrying food from the UN World Food Program and briefly detained their drivers in south Darfur, the mission, known as UNAMID, said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday. The stolen items were not recovered, it said.

“In spite of the relative calm in the mission area, banditry and other attacks against UNAMID staff may increase,” the statement said. “UNAMID will therefore intensify its patrols.”

Bandits regularly target aid workers in Darfur, where a six-year-old conflict between the government and rebel groups has created the world’s largest humanitarian operation. Unidentified gunmen kidnapped two civilians working for UNAMID on Aug. 29 and are asking for a ransom.

Low-level fighting in Darfur escalated in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum, accusing it of neglecting the region. The UN says 300,000 people have died in the conflict, while the government puts the death toll at 10,000.

Source: Bloomberg.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aeUtg4xp8TZA.

300-odd terrorists waiting to sneak into J and K

New Delhi, Sep 17 (PTI) Around 300 terrorists are waiting across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) for an opportunity to infiltrate into India, prompting the Army to strengthen its anti-insurgency security grid.

The terrorists have been spotted moving in batches from place to place along the LoC, apparently in search of vulnerable spots from where they could infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir, Defense Ministry sources said here today.

The attempt was to push in as many terrorists as possible before the onset of winter when snowfall will make the mountainous terrains impregnable, the sources said.

"The next two months are crucial," they said, expecting a jump in the infiltration attempts.

In the recent times, there have been a number of attempts at infiltration, many times accompanied by firing from across the LoC to provide cover to such bids.

J&K separatists reject PM's charge on violence

Separatist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement alleging them of stepping up violence with the help of elements from across the border.

"Kashmiris are struggling peacefully for their birthright but India uses its military power to suppress the peaceful and justified struggle," chairman of hard-line faction of Hurriyat Syed Ali Shah Geelani said in reaction to Dr Singh's statement.

"India is trying to divert the attention from the rights' violation in Kashmir. By doing so, it is deceiving its own and blaming separatists for the violence," he said.

Echoing the sentiments of Geelani, chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said the people of Kashmir are demanding their right in a democratic way, but India has always maintained a policy of 'rigidity' and uses power, which forces the youth to take up arms.

He said, "The time has come for India to adopt a realistic approach and prepare itself for sincere and serious talks to resolve the issue".

Defending the ongoing struggle in Kashmir, Mirwaiz, who was recently elected the chairman of Hurriyat for next two years, said, "It is the peoples' movement".

"It is not because of a party or an individual leader. People are with the movement for a cause and India should realize this fact," he said.

Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Mohammad Yasin Malik also strongly reacted to the statement. He said Kashmiris believe in a peaceful struggle and the ceasefire announced by the JKLF in 1994 was solid proof of the same.

Malik asked India to take the separatist leadership into confidence and take practical steps to find out ways for the resolution of Kashmir issue and return of peace in the subcontinent.

Syed Salahuddin, the chairman of United Jehand Council and supreme commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, in a statement released to the local news agencies, said India was fully responsible for the ongoing turbulence in Kashmir.

Criticizing the PM's statement, he said, "The ongoing movement in Kashmir is a peoples' movement who are up in arms against the forced military occupation by India".

Witness: 11 dead in Somalia suicide car bombings

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A witness says she saw 11 bodies after two car bombs blew up at the main base of African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu.

The witness, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, counted 11 corpses at the scene. It was unclear if they included the remains of the suicide bombers.

The blasts Thursday blew out nearby windows and shrouded the sky in black smoke. The AU said peacekeepers were wounded, but did not elaborate. The African Medical and Research Foundation said the U.N. has asked for help evacuating 15 "critically injured" people.

An Islamist insurgent group claimed responsibility for the attack at Mogadishu's airport and said the targets were senior peacekeeping officials and Somali government officials who were meeting there.

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

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Suicide bombers in explosives-laden cars with U.N. logos drove into the main base of African Union peacekeepers Thursday, detonating two massive blasts that blew out nearby windows and shrouded the sky in black smoke.

The AU said peacekeepers were wounded, but did not elaborate. The African Medical and Research Foundation said the U.N. has asked for help evacuating 15 "critically injured" people.

An Islamist insurgent group claimed responsibility for the attack at Mogadishu's airport and said the targets were senior peacekeeping officials and Somali government officials who were meeting there.

The attack came two days after the group, al-Shabab, vowed revenge for a U.S. commando raid that killed an al-Qaida operative in Somalia.

An airport security officer said the explosions were caused by two white Land Cruisers with United Nations logos.

"The soldiers at the gate assumed they were U.N. cars and opened the gate for them," the security official said, asking that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "When the cars entered one of them sped toward a petrol depot and exploded. The other one exploded in a nearby area."

U.N. spokeswoman Dawn Elizabeth Blalock says the organization has "no confirmation that they were U.N. cars."

A senior al-Shabab official, claiming responsibility, said: "Our holy fighters carried out double suicide attacks on the base of the African Union." He asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak publicly.

"The entire airport shook, and the windows in the offices shattered," said Yasin Ahmed, an immigration officer at the airport.

The attack was one of the most brazen by al-Shabab and underscored the level of lawlessness and violence to which Somalia has fallen. Many experts fear the country's lawlessness could provide a haven for al-Qaida, offering a place for terrorists to train and gather strength — much like Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Suicide attacks — virtually unheard of in Somalia before 2007 — have increased in Somalia in recent years, although most of the violence in this bloodstained country is from gunbattles and mortar fire. There have been about a dozen suicide attacks since Islamic insurgents stepped up their attacks against the Western-backed backed government in 2007.

In a statement, the AU said it would remain "resolute in its commitment to support the Somali people." The peacekeeping force has long lamented that it is undermanned. Out of a planned 8,000 troops, there are fewer than 5,000.

Bob Kioko, a spokesman for African Medical and Research Foundation, said U.N. Somalia has asked them to evacuate 15 people who were "critically injured." AMREF was sending four planes for the evacuation, he said.

Earlier Thursday, al-Shabab issued conditions for the release of a French security agent being held hostage, demanding that France stop supporting Somalia's government and withdraw its warships from anti-piracy patrols.

The French government immediately rejected the conditions.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France-Info radio that Paris' support for the embattled Somali government remains firm, noting he has twice met with Somali President Sheik Sharif and his ministers, who "represent Somalia."

Al-Shabab also demanded that France exert pressure to force African Union peacekeepers out of the country and "release all the prisoners of the holy warriors held in many areas, which we will reveal later."

The Frenchman, whose identity has not been released, was seized along with another agent July 14 in the capital, Mogadishu. The pair were in the country to train Somali government forces, which are fighting Islamist militiamen.

The kidnappers separated the two men. The other agent escaped in August while his captors slept.

Al-Shabab vowed on Tuesday to retaliate against Western interests for Monday's U.S.-led commando raid in rural southern Somalia that left six dead, including Nabhan, one of the most-wanted al-Qaida operatives in the region.

The use of a helicopter attack rather than a missile strike from the sea or an unmanned Predator drone, suggests that the U.S. wanted to both prevent any civilian deaths and minimize local anger. But al-Shabab vowed swift retaliation.

Jordan's king defers new parliamentary session by two months

Amman - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Wednesday issued a decree postponing the start of the new parliamentary session by two months, according to a royal court statement. The new parliamentary session will begin on December 1 instead of October 1, the statement said.

It did not state the reasons of the decision, but local press reports suggested the monarch could be mulling a cabinet reshuffle or a change of the government led by Prime Minister Nader Dahabi.

Local editorialists have blamed the government for failure to come up with solutions for the country's key problems, particularly poverty and rising staple food prices.

The government has also been trying to come to grips with an unprecedented budget deficit that was aggravated by the fallouts of the global recession.

Last week, the government concluded talks with the World Bank for signing an agreement under which the world body will loan Jordan 300 million dollars to be used for narrowing the budget gap, which is expected to reach 1.5 billion dollars in fiscal 2009.

Obama scrapping missile shield for Czech, Poland

By KAREL JANICEK and WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writers

PRAGUE – President Barack Obama has decided to scrap plans for a U.S. missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had deeply angered Russia, the Czech prime minister confirmed Thursday.

NATO's new chief hailed the move as "a positive step" and a Russian analyst said the move will increase the chances that Russia will cooperate more closely with the United States in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

Premier Jan Fischer told reporters that Obama phoned him overnight to say that "his government is pulling out of plans to build a missile defense radar on Czech territory."

"The same happened with Poland. Poland was informed in the same way about this intention," Fischer said.

Under the plan, which had been proposed by the Bush administration to defend the United States and its European allies against a possible missile attack from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East, 10 interceptor rockets were to have been stationed in Poland and a radar system based in the Czech Republic.

But Russia was livid over the prospect of having U.S. interceptor rockets in countries so close to its territory, and the Obama administration has sought to improve strained ties with the Kremlin.

A top Russian lawmaker praised the move.

"The U.S. president's decision is a well-thought and systematic one," said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. "It reflects understanding that any security measure can't be built entirely on the basis of one nation."

Fischer said Obama assured him that the "strategic cooperation" between the Czech Republic and the U.S. would continue, and that Washington considers the Czechs among its closes allies.

Fischer said after a review of the missile defense system, the U.S. now considers the threat of an attack using short- and mid-range missiles greater than one using long-range rockets.

"That's what the Americans assessed as the most serious threat," and Obama's decision was based on that, he said.

In Poland, officials declined to confirm Fischer's remarks, saying they were waiting for a formal announcement from Washington.

Obama took office undecided about whether to continue to press for the European system and said he would study it. His administration never sounded enthusiastic about it, and European allies have been preparing for an announcement that the White House would not complete the shield as designed.

Alexei Arbatov, head of the Russian Academy of Science's Center for International Security, told a Moscow radio station Thursday that the U.S. was giving in on missile defense to get more cooperation from Russia on Iran.

"The United States is reckoning that by rejecting the missile-defense system or putting it off to the far future, Russia will be inclined together with the United States to take a harder line on sanctions against Iran," he said.

The Czech government had stood behind the planned radar system despite fierce opposition from the public, which has staged numerous protests.

Critics fear the Czech Republic would be targeted by terrorists if it agreed to host the radar system, which was planned for the Brdy military installation 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Prague, the capital.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates scheduled a news conference Thursday with a top military leader, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who has been a point man on the technical challenge of arraying missiles and interceptors to defend against long-range missiles.

The decision to scrap the plan will have future consequences for U.S. relations with eastern Europe.

"If the administration approaches us in the future with any request, I would be strongly against it," said Jan Vidim, a lawmaker with Czech Republic's conservative Civic Democratic Party, which supported the missile defense plan.

Police: Terrorism mastermind Noordin Top dead

By IMRON ROSYID, Associated Press Writer

SOLO, Indonesia – Noordin Muhammed Top, a militant mastermind who eluded capture for nine years and terrorized Indonesia with a string of deadly al-Qaida-funded bombings, was killed during a raid in central Indonesia, the country's police chief said Thursday.

Police hunting for suspects in Jakarta hotel bombings raided a hide-out in central Indonesia, sparking gunfire and an explosion Thursday that left four suspected militants dead, including Noordin, national police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said. Three alleged terrorists also were captured.

Noordin's remains were found in the house on the outskirts of the town of Solo in central Java after the hours-long gunfight, he said.

Fingerprints of Noordin's stored on a police database matched those of the body, Danuri said. DNA tests have not yet been conducted.

"It is Noordin M. Top," he told a nationally televised news conference to loud cheers from the audience. Documents and laptop computers confiscated from the house prove that Noordin "is the leader of al-Qaida in Southeast Asia," he said.

Hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of explosives, M-16 assault rifles, grenades and bombs were removed from the house as ambulances shuttled away the dead and injured.

"We asked Noordin M. Top to surrender, but they kept firing," Danuri said. "That is how he died ... he even had bullets in his pockets."

Noordin, a Malaysian citizen, fled to Indonesia in 2002 amid a crackdown on Muslim extremists in Malaysia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. He was linked to bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in 2002 and 2005 that together killed 222 people, mostly foreigners.

"The most dangerous terrorist in Southeast Asia has been put out of commission," said Jim Della-Giacoma, Southeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group think tank.

"It would have been better if police had managed to arrest him alive, but it appears that this was not an option," he said. "Unfortunately, Noordin's death does not mean an end to terrorism in Indonesia, though it has been dealt a significant blow."

Noordin, who is accused of heading a splinter group of the al-Qaida-funded regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, has been implicated in every major attack in Indonesia since 2003, including a pair of suicide bombings at Jakarta's J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in July that killed seven people and wounded more than 50.

He is also blamed for an earlier attack on the J.W. Marriott in 2003 and a bombing at the Australian Embassy in 2004.

A counterterrorism official said the militants killed Thursday included alleged bomb-maker Bagus Budi Pranato. The captured militants included a pregnant woman who is being treated at a hospital, national police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said. She was in stable condition.

Police tracked the seven suspects to the town of Solo and besieged a village house on its outskirts overnight. The raid ended near daybreak when an explosion occurred inside the home, Sukarna said.

The operation left behind a charred house with no roof and blown-out walls. The bodies were flown to Jakarta for autopsies.

Time Line of Somalia Conflict

(M e d e s h i)
Key events in recent history of Somalia
The Associated Press
Key events in recent Somali history:
- Somaliland declares independence from Somalia.
- Jan. 27, 1991: Guerrillas win control of Somalia fighting forces President Mohamed Siad Barre from his official residence. Siad Barre had ruled since 1969.
- Dec. 4, 1992: President George H.W. Bush authorizes U.S. troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia in "Operation Restore Hope," America's largest humanitarian mission.
- May 1993: The U.N. establishes a peacekeeping mission in Somalia involving about 28,000 troops from 33 countries, 4,400 of them Americans.
- Oct. 3, 1993: Eighteen U.S. servicemen are killed and more than 70 wounded when warlord Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid's militiamen shot down two U.S. helicopters in events that inspired the book and film, "Black Hawk Down."
- Oct. 6, 1993: President Bill Clinton says all U.S. forces will be withdrawn in six months.
- March 25, 1994: The U.S. completes its military withdrawal from Somalia. In all, 44 Americans died, 30 in combat.
- March 2, 1995: The last U.N. peacekeepers leave Somalia after failing to establish a functioning government.
- June 5, 2006: Militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts take control of Mogadishu and other parts of the south after defeating U.S.-backed warlords in fighting that left more than 330 people dead.
- Dec. 1, 2006: The United States circulates a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would authorize a regional force to protect Somalia's weak government and lift an arms embargo on the country to allow the troops to be armed. The resolution is authorized Dec. 7.
- Jan. 8, 2007: U.S. forces launch airstrikes in the first offensive in Somalia since 1993. A U.S. intelligence official says it was believed to have killed an al-Qaida member suspected in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
- June 1, 2007: A U.S. warship pounds Somalia's remote coastal northeast, targeting Islamic militants hours after a gunbattle with Somali government forces that left eight insurgents dead, officials say.
- March 3, 2008: The U.S. Navy fires at least one missile in southern Somalia targeting al-Qaida fugitive Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, defense officials say.
- May 1, 2008: U.S. missiles destroy the house of Aden Hashi Ayro, identified by the U.S. military as the top al-Qaida commander in Somalia, killing him and 10 others.
- April 12, 2009: U.S. Navy snipers kill three Somali pirates who had stormed the cargo ship Maersk Alabama and held its captain, Richard Phillips, of Underhill, Vt., hostage.
- April 23, 2009: The U.S. and nearly a dozen other nations pledge more than $250 million to strengthen Somali security forces. It includes military equipment and development aid.
- Sept. 15, 2009: U.S. helicopters fire on a convoy in southern Somalia, killing top al-Qaida fugitive, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, according to U.S. and Somali officials.
---
Source: AP reporting.
Associated Press researchers Julie Reed and Judy Ausuebel compiled this report.

Urgent Message from the Shabab of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan

The systematic torture meted out by the corrupt Karimov regime against the Shabab of the Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan has intensified greatly in recent times. We have received the following update from Central Asia.

"Indeed this oppressive ruler has instructed his cronies to imprison further Shabab and intensify their punishment and prolonging their prison sentences to a minimum of 10 years and over. Recently, 18 Shabab from Karasawa have been imprisoned, a further 10 from Tashkent and 15 from the North, all receiving sentences ranging from 10-13 years. This is on top of the many thousands of Muslims which already languish in the prisons. As a result of the torture, 3 shabab were recently martyred who include: Ghalib Malajanoth from the city of Andijan, Shadman from the city of Nahayat Asaka and Abdulraheem from the city of Karasawa.

Not withstanding the oppressive imprisonment of the Shabab, the corrupt regime has resorted to new tactics by imprisoning their relatives, some even under 15 years old! They have also imprisoned some of the wives and daughters of the Shabab, including some under the age 15! They have also imprisoned women whom their husbands are either already imprisoned or previously martyred! All this pressure is a result of the Shababs' refusal to surrender and leave their Deen!

Oh Brothers and Sisters! Please make dua for us against this corrupt ruler and his oppressive regime by asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى to strike him down and humiliate him in this dunyah before the Hereafter. Pray to Allah سبحانه وتعالى to relieve the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters and to retaliate against the oppressors and humiliate them so that everything between the heavens and earth curse them - Oh Allah the All-Mighty.

Please make dua for us during these last 10 blessed days of Ramadan; and Allah is All-Powerful, All-Mighty."

Somali insurgents holding Frenchman issue demands

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Islamic insurgents demanded Thursday that France stop supporting Somalia's government and withdraw its warships from anti-piracy patrols in exchange for the release of a French security agent — conditions which the French government immediately rejected.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France-Info radio that Paris' support for the embattled Somali government remains firm, noting he has twice met with Somali President Sheikh Sharif and his ministers, who "represent Somalia.".

The al-Shabab insurgent group, which allegedly has links to al-Qaida, also demanded that France exert pressure to force African Union peacekeepers out of the country and "release all the prisoners of the holy warriors held in many areas, which we will reveal later."

The Frenchman, whose identity has not been released, was seized along with another agent July 14 in the capital, Mogadishu. The pair were in the country to train Somali government forces, which are fighting Islamist militiamen.

The kidnappers separated the two men. The other agent escaped in August while his captors slept.

Al-Shabab this week vowed to retaliate against Western interests for Monday's U.S.-led commando raid in rural southern Somalia that left six dead, including Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most-wanted al-Qaida operatives in the region.

The use of a helicopter attack rather than a missile strike from the sea or an unmanned Predator drone, suggests that the U.S. wanted to both prevent any civilian deaths and minimize local anger. But al-Shabab vowed swift retaliation.

Foreigners rarely travel to Somalia, which is among the most dangerous countries in the world. The country has not had a functioning government for 18 years since clan warlords overthrew a brutal dictator, then unleashed their militias on each other.

Kidnappings for ransom have been on the rise in recent years, with journalists and aid workers often targeted. Two foreign journalists — Canadian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brennan — have been held for a year.

Many experts fear the country's lawlessness could provide a haven for al-Qaida, offering a place for terrorists to train and gather strength — much like Afghanistan in the 1990s. The United States accuses al-Shabab of having ties to the terror network, which al-Shabab denies.

Somalia's lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off its coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.

Various Islamist groups have been fighting the U.N.-backed government since being chased from power 2 1/2 years ago. Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, sees near-daily battles between government and insurgent forces. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed.

AP sources: US to reveal Euro missile defense plan

By ANNE GEARAN and DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration appears likely to adopt a compromise European missile defense plan that shelves many of the components that have been a major irritant in relations with Russia, with an announcement expected Thursday.

Obama's top military adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the administration was "very close" to the end of a seven-month review of a missile defense shield proposal, an idea that was promoted by the George W. Bush administration. Mullen would not divulge its results.

President Barack Obama faces the dilemma of either setting back the gradual progress toward repairing relations with Russia or disappointing two key NATO allies that agreed to host components of the planned system.

Administration officials were expected to brief lawmakers and government officials in Poland and the Czech Republic on results of the review on Thursday, according to an administration official and a congressional aide. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates scheduled a news conference Thursday with a top military leader, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who has been a point man on the technical challenge of arraying missiles and interceptors to defend against long-range missiles that an aggressor such as Iran might lob at the U.S. or its allies. Two military officials said the news conference would concern the missile defense plans.

Obama took office undecided about whether to continue to press for the European system and said he would study it. His administration never sounded enthusiastic about the plan, and European allies have been preparing for an announcement that the White House would not complete the shield as designed.

The decision comes as the Obama administration has been seeking closer ties with Moscow and as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is preparing to visit the United States next week for the U.N. General Assembly and the Group of 20 nations economic summit.

The plan for a European shield was a darling of the Bush administration, which reached deals to install 10 interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic — eastern European nations at Russia's doorstep and once under Soviet sway.

Moscow has argued that the system would undermine the nuclear deterrent of its vast arsenal.

Medvedev has praised Obama for reviewing the plans, though the U.S. administration has maintained the Bush administration's argument that the European missile defense plans are aimed at countering a threat from Iran and pose no threat to Russia.

The administration has given few clues on how it intends to handle European missile defense. Officials have said the review would consider alternative plans to those involving Poland and the Czech Republic.

At an Army missile defense conference last month, Cartwright, who is vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested that the U.S. may have underestimated how long it would take Iran to develop long-range missiles. That was seen as a clue that the administration might be backing away from the European plan as devised.

Military officials at the conference discussed possible alternatives for European missile defense, including using shorter-range interceptors from other locations closer to Iran.

Cartwright also has discussed ways the United States might join forces with other nations to watch and protect against Iranian missiles. Using multiple sensors, including some in the Persian Gulf region, theoretically could provide at least a partial shield for Eastern Europe without basing a full radar and interceptor system so close to Russia.

It was unclear Wednesday whether the administration would preserve any of the planned physical emplacements for the European system.