Jordan Accelerates Nuke Program

AMMAN [MENL] -- Jordan has decided to accelerate its nuclear program. The government has ordered intensified efforts to launch a civilian nuclear program in the Hashemite kingdom. Officials said the goal was to ensure the operation of Jordan's first nuclear energy reactor by 2017.

Jordan, U.S. Discuss Arrest Of Insurgent

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Jordan and the United States have been consulting in an investigation of an Al Qaida-influenced bombing plot.

Officials the FBI and other agencies of the U.S. intelligence community have been discussing with the Hashemite kingdom the arrest of a Jordanian national. The Jordanian, identified as Hosam Smadi, has been accused of plotting to bomb an office tower in Dallas, Texas.

Jordan Ready To Develop Gas Field

AMMAN [MENL] -- Jordan plans to develop natural gas resources.

The state-owned National Petroleum Co. has signed a long-term agreement with British Petroleum, or BP, for the development of the Risheh gas field. Under the agreement, BP would invest $237 million in mining and exploration over the next four years.

Iran, world powers agree to meet again

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer

GENTHOD, Switzerland – Iran and six world powers ended a landmark meeting Thursday with an agreement to take a new stab at overcoming years of mistrust generated by Tehran's nuclear program and meet again this month for wide-ranging discussions on the two sides' concerns.

In addition, diplomats said Iran will open its newly disclosed nuclear plant to U.N. inspectors, probably within a few weeks.

Adding to the optimism generated by the decision to hold follow-up talks was a rare bilateral meeting between the senior U.S. and Iranian delegates to the meeting.

U.S. Deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Undersecretary of State William Burns used the meeting with chief Iranian delegate Saeed Jalili "to reiterate the international community's concerns about Iran's nuclear program.

"He addressed the need for Iran to take concrete and practical steps that are consistent with its international obligations and that will build international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its program.

"While the focus of the discussion was on Iran's nuclear program, both sides had a frank exchange on other issues, including human rights," said Wood.

The encounter appeared to be concrete proof of President Barack Obama's commitment to engage Iran directly on nuclear and other issues — a sharp break from the policy under the Bush administration.

More broadly, the meeting suggested that Obama was putting his concept of U.S. foreign policy into action, with its emphasis on negotiating even with the nations that are most hostile to the United States.

Confirming that the seven nations planned to meet again, senior EU envoy Javier Solana said Iran had pledged to open its newly revealed uranium enrichment plant to International Atomic Energy Agency inspection soon.

Iran's disclosure of the new plant had threatened to poison the atmosphere of the talks, with the West saying Tehran only revealed it because it feared it would found out. Uranium enrichment can make both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Solana said Iran had pledged to "cooperate fully and immediately with the IAEA" and said he expected Tehran to invite agency inspectors looking for signs of covert nuclear weapons activity to visit "in the next couple of weeks."

At the United Nations, the Iranian Foreign Minister suggested his country's talks with the U.S. and five other world powers could be expanded to the "summit" level.

Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran was willing to discuss a variety of security, economic and political issues, although he did not specifically refer to nuclear issues, which the six powers consider the most critical topic.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — plus Germany hope to persuade Tehran to freeze the enrichment program.

Going into Thursday's talks, one of the top U.S. goals was to get the Iranians to commit to a second round of talks within a couple of weeks in order to keep the dialogue in a compact timeframe. The U.S. assumption was that if Iran was willing to engage seriously on the nuclear issue, a positive sign would be its agreement to have a second meeting shortly.

Lebanese say UAE pressed them to spy on Hezbollah

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT – A Lebanese businessman alleged Thursday that he and several hundred other Lebanese were expelled from the United Arab Emirates country because they refused to spy on the Shiite militant group Hezbollah and other fellow citizens.

Hassan Alayan said more than 300 Lebanese — mostly Shiites — have been forced to leave the Emirates over the past three months. He said most of those deported said UAE authorities asked them to inform on fellow Lebanese Shiites living in the country and on Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Authorities told the Lebanese they were being deported for security reasons, but they believe their refusal to spy was the real reason, Alayan told a news conference in Beirut. The Emirates refused to comment on the allegations, and Lebanese officials said they were contacting authorities there over the matter.

One of those deported, Zuhair Hamdan, said his residency permit was rejected after he refused to give authorities information about fellow Lebanese or possible Hezbollah sleeper cells in the UAE.

"I told them I have been living in the UAE for 33 years. How can I have information about Hezbollah," said Hamdan, who lived in the Emirates since he was 2 years old and worked as a traffic policeman.

The UAE is among several predominantly Sunni Arab nations wary of Shiite Iran's growing regional clout — which Iran partly maintains by supplying weapons and cash to the powerful Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A statement by a committee set up to represent the deportees suggested the decision by the Emirates could be the result of U.S. pressure to try to choke off routes of funding for the anti-American and anti-Israel Hezbollah. The U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

The Emirates is close to the United States and has cooperated with Washington in trying to shut down networks smuggling weapons to Iran, U.S. officials have said.

Alayan said some of those deported were forced to leave even after Lebanese President Michel Suleiman sent a military delegation five weeks ago to the UAE to try resolve the matter without success. More than 100 people who said they were deportees, as well as two Hezbollah legislators, attended the news conference in Beirut.

"In whose interest is it to ask Lebanese to spy on one another and on the resistance of Lebanon and Palestine?" said the committee's statement.

Alayan alleged UAE authorities have also deported Palestinians who refused to spy on the militant Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip. He said the Palestinians recounted similar pressures by authorities to inform on Hamas.

Some Arab media have reported that those who were deported were sending money to Hezbollah, a claim denied by Alayan and Ali Faour, another member of a committee representing the deportees.

Faour told reporters that most of those deported have been living in the UAE for decades and most were business owners.

Hezbollah, the largest and most powerful Shiite group in Lebanon, came to the defense of the deportees because most of them are Shiite. The deportees had been silent for a few months but last week started meeting with Lebanese officials to complain about their treatment.

Lebanon's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, urged UAE President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to take "a quick initiative to rescue hundreds of Lebanese families."

Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheik Naim Kassem, described the deportations as "clear injustice" and called on the UAE to be fair with people who are not suspected of working against their host country.

Guinea opposition calls for help and new election

By BISHR EL-TOUNI, Associated Press Writer

CONAKRY, Guinea – A top figure in Guinea's opposition appealed Thursday for outside help to hold elections after troops loyal to the military leader fired live ammunition at 50,000 pro-democracy protesters earlier this week.

Opposition leader and former prime minister Sidya Toure told AP Television News that he cannot have any kind of discussion with the government of Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara after Monday's massacre.

A human rights group says 157 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the protest against Camara. Witnesses say soldiers raped women in the streets.

"Today we are not thinking about elections, because from Monday we know we cannot have any kind of discussion with this government," Toure said in his home in Conakry. "What we think we have to do is with the help of international community is to find a way have elections but led by something neutral; not by the army, maybe by civilians."

Toure, a former prime minister, was arrested during the protests and released Tuesday. He said he suffered head wounds and returned home to find his house ransacked. The house was also used as opposition party headquarters.

Toure has also said that he recognized several members of Guinea's junta in the stadium during demonstrations, including Camara's nephew and his top aide.

The protest in the capital's main soccer stadium turned bloody when Camara's presidential guard opened fire into the crowd, scattering panicked demonstrators and leaving behind scores of dead. Opposition politician Mutarr Diallo said he saw soldiers raping women with rifle butts.

Witnesses told New York-based Human Rights Watch that security forces stripped female protesters and raped them in the streets during Monday's protest. The rights group, citing witnesses, said soldiers also stabbed protesters with knives and bayonets.

The bloody protest drew condemnation from the several United Nations bodies, the African Union, the European Union, several human rights groups and the government of neighboring Senegal.

Guinea's government said it will investigate why troops opened fire at the pro-democracy rally. The U.N. Security Council and the Commission for Human Rights have supported the announcement but urged that the investigation be independent.

Camara, an army captain in his 40s, seized power in December just hours after the death of longtime leader Lansana Conte. Camara announced that the constitution had been dissolved and that the country was under the rule of a military junta.

He initially said he would not stand in elections scheduled for January, but recently indicated that he may have changed his mind.

After Monday's protest, he banned all gatherings and demonstrations and declared two days of mourning starting Wednesday.

Although the streets of Conakry appeared to be returning to their normal state of bustling activity on Thursday, the U.S. Embassy ordered the departure of some embassy personnel and family members.

Celebrations in the capital are planned for Friday morning to mark the country's 51st year of independence.

Since winning independence half a century ago from France, Guinea has been pillaged by its ruling elite. Its 10 million people are among the world's poorest, even though its soil has diamonds, gold, iron and half the world's reserves of the raw material used to make aluminum.

Mousavi urges 'national unity' in Iran

A leading Iranian opposition figure, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, has emphasized the 'need for national unity' in Iran.

"We feel a need for national unity among all people in the country more than any time in the past, and the lines which divided people into groups and different factions have no credibility," the 'Parleman news' website quoted Mousavi as saying in a meeting with a group of lawmakers in the minority faction.

The former presidential candidate added "today, those whose tendencies towards the West and other foreigners have been evident in their past performances, accuse us of supporting the interests of the foreigners".

He also said that the current situation in Iran has created an opportunity for the country to reach a 'national consensus'.

Mousavi also called for the implementation of the Constitution, as the facilitator for resolving the problems facing the country.

He also stated that there should be a special focus on the resources and the capacity of the Constitution in moving beyond the current crisis in country and resolving the problems.

Jalili: Iran won't forego its legitimate rights

Iran will never give up it obvious rights, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili has stressed during his talks with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Jalili, who also serves as the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, made it clear during frank discussions with Solana that Iran will, under no circumstances, be dissuaded from safeguarding its legitimate rights.

Speaking this morning during the first round of the talks in Geneva, Switzerland, Jalili highlighted the importance of a total nuclear disarmament across the globe while elaborating on the framework of Iran's package of proposals that was delivered to the P5+1 group on September 9, covering economic, international, political and security issues.

Iran's chief negotiator also called for the need to come up with the necessary projections and facilitations in setting up the groundwork for a global disarmament.

After the conclusion of the first round of the talks in the morning, Iran's delegation participated in a number of "unofficial" multilateral sessions with some of the other participants, where Jalili again emphasized the rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran and explained features of Iran's package of proposal.

The second round of the talks between Iran and the P5+1 group consisting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - Russia, China, USA, France and the UK- plus Germany were scheduled to commence at 15:00 local time (13:00 GMT).

Hamas blames UK for Israeli atrocities

The Islamic Hamas movement has criticized Britain for its support of the Israeli regime, holding London responsible for the sufferings of the Palestinian nation.

The head of the Refugee Affairs Department in the Gaza Strip, Hussam Ahmed, on Wednesday slammed recent remarks by British Foreign Minster David Miliband, who described Tel Aviv as 'peace-seeking'.

The UK minister's comments come as the Israeli occupation forces indulge in all kinds of atrocity and acts of terror against the Palestinians and use prohibited arms in their massacre of civilians, he said.

Ahmed further condemned London's call for a compromise -- in favor of Israel -- on the key issue of Palestinian refugees.

The Hamas official accused the British government of bringing about misery for Palestine and playing an active role in the displacement of thousands of Palestinians by supporting the formation of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories.

London must apologize to the Palestinians for all the pain it has inflicted upon them, he said.

Indonesian quake toll at 1,100; thousands missing

By IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer

PADANG, Indonesia – Across this coastal provincial capital, hardest hit by the latest earthquake to devastate Indonesia, mourners, survivors and rescue workers alike clawed through heaps of concrete in searches for thousands still missing.

Some, like Malina, had already realized the worst. She was just looking for the shoes missing from her dead daughter's body, found in the rubble of a four-story school that was flattened within seconds. Like many Indonesians, she goes by one name.

As the death toll climbed Thursday — to 1,100 by one U.N. estimate — others looked for survivors, with thousands of people missing and feared trapped in the wreckage of shattered buildings.

When search efforts were suspended for the night, an eerie quiet fell over the city of 900,000.

"Let's not underestimate. Let's be prepared for the worst," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in the capital, Jakarta.

Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake started at sea and quickly rippled through Sumatra, the westernmost island in the Indonesian archipelago.

Government figures put the number of dead at 777, with nearly 2,100 people seriously injured. John Holmes, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, set the death toll at 1,100, and the number was expected to grow.

President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, pledged to support earthquake recovery efforts there, as well as provide assistance to the South Pacific countries of Samoa and American Samoa, which were hit by a deadly tsunami Tuesday. The United States pledged $3 million in immediate assistance.

Most of the confirmed deaths in Indonesia were reported in Padang, where more than 500 buildings were severely damaged or flattened.

Where a mall once stood was a heap of concrete slabs layered like pancakes with iron rods jutting out. Police and army rescue teams used bulldozers, backhoes and electric drills to clear the wreckage in intermittent rain, or climbed the hills of rubble to dislodge pieces of concrete with bare hands.

The rescue operation was being hampered by a lack of heavy digging equipment, said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Agency. Japan, Switzerland and Singapore were providing support and backhoes were to arrive at the scene Friday.

Relatives of the missing gathered outside ruined buildings, hoping to hear good news. But mostly, the rescuers found bodies.

Occasionally, they saved lives.

A Singaporean, John Lee, was pulled alive from the Maryani hotel after surviving under the rubble for 25 hours. Rescue workers, responding to his cries for help, dug for 12 hours to free him. Lee suffered only a broken leg.

One of the hospitals in the town had collapsed completely while the state-run Djamil Hospital was partly damaged — its walls cracked and windows broken. Staff at the hospital treated the injured in tents set up in the open. In another area, yellow body bags were laid out in rows.

Mira Utami, a sophomore a week shy of her 16th birthday, was taking an end-of-term English exam along with dozens of classmates at the Indonesia-America Institute when the ground shook so severely that the tremors were felt in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.

Her father, Zul Elfrizal, rushed to the school, but it was already a heap of concrete when he got there. Still, he pulled at the slabs and managed to save two other children and an adult.

His wife, Malina, said rescuers found their daughter's body much later, but her feet were bare.

"We are in shock," sobbed Malina, wearing her daughter's brown veil and seeking other items to keep her connected to the girl. "We had planned to celebrate Mira's 16th birthday on Oct. 7. Now I don't know what we will do."

Elfrizal was more philosophical. "I regret I couldn't save her," he said, "but I have to accept that as her destiny."

The school building's construction was typical of the region, which is located in one of the poorest countries in the world. Most buildings are not made to withstand earthquakes, and even the tough ones were badly damaged in an earthquake in 2007.

There is virtually no enforcement of building regulations in Indonesia, a nation of 235 million people prone to natural and man-made disasters.

Indonesia sits on a major geological fault zone and experiences dozens of quakes every year. A 6.8 magnitude quake shook Sumatra on Thursday but there were no reports of deaths. Both quakes originated on the fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

Wednesday's quake was the deadliest since May 2006, when more than 3,000 people died in the city of Yogyakarta.

SurfAid, a New Zealand-based medical aid group, said its program director, David Lange, narrowly escaped death when he fled the Ambacang Hotel in Padang just minutes before it collapsed. At least 80 people were missing in the five-story hotel, paramedics said.

"People are trapped and screaming for help but they are below huge slabs which will take heavy equipment to move," Lange was quoted as saying in a statement by SurfAid.

"I saw dozens of the biggest buildings collapsed in town. Most of the damage is concentrated in the commercial center market, which was fully packed," he said.

Finance minister Sri Mulyani said the government has allocated $25 million for a two-month emergency response. She said the earthquake will seriously affect Indonesia's economic growth, because West Sumatra is a main producer of crude palm oil.

"This region has been damaged seriously, including its infrastructure," Mulyani said.

Brown to consider Afghanistan troop boost

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is "open-minded" about whether to increase the kingdom's military presence in Afghanistan, his office has claimed.

Any increase, however, will depended on the right strategy being in place and the necessary equipment being available for the personnel, a Downing Street spokesman said on Thursday.

As America's biggest NATO ally in Afghanistan, Britain has stationed over 9,000 troops in some of the most violent parts of the war-ravaged country.

This is while reports indicate that British troops fighting in Afghanistan will not have enough vehicles until the end of next year.

The army also faces a shortage of helicopters which, critics believe, has led to greater risks for the soldiers traveling on roads.

Brigadier Kevin Abraham, a senior Army commander, disclosed on Thursday that there will only be enough new vehicles to combat Taliban bombs in place for the current count of 9,000 soldiers by the end of 2010.

Taliban attacks on British troops, stationed at the Helmand province, has accounted for 80 percent of British casualties in the bloodiest summer to date.

US officials, however, want the Prime Minster to contribute additional 2,000-2,500 British troops to “substantially speed up” the training of the Afghan National Army. The request was rejected by the UK Government earlier this year.

British commanders in Helmand have also asked the Government for a "mini-surge" in UK forces in the province to help train the Afghan Army.

Britain claims that training the Afghan army would speed up the timetable for a British withdrawal from a conflict that has become increasingly unpopular in the country.

The Bush administration waged the war code-named "Operation Enduring Freedom" on Afghanistan in 2001, supposedly to capture Osama bin Laden, and destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban.

The invasion of Afghanistan was also justified as part of the West's purported “war on terror” and "war on drugs" campaign.

Pakistan's army kills top militant commander

Pakistani troops have killed the brother of a new militant leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a battle in the insurgent stronghold of North Waziristan, officials say.

"Kalimullah was buried on Wednesday. He was killed on Monday in a crossfire with security forces," a regional security official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

The death comes after troops responded to a rocket attack on a military base by the militants in the troubled region where there has been a surge in violence over the past months.

At least one soldier was killed and five others were wounded after militants had fired a missile into a paramilitary camp at Razmak town in the volatile district.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Qari Hussain told the Pakistani Dawn newspaper that suicide bombers were being prepared to avenge the death. "We will take revenge of the assassination of Baitullah and Kalimullah," he said.

Hakimullah Mehsud's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in the tribal belt on August 6 in a US missile strike in the area.

Military sources claim more than 2,000 insurgents and over 300 soldiers have been killed in the army offensives against the militants in the scenic valley since late April.

The troops launched operations in the Swat valley and adjoining districts after militants were trying to infiltrate into Islamabad and other major cities.

Pakistan's ruling people party has vowed to flush out the militants from most part of the nuclear-armed country.

NPP criticise OIC on Kashmir statement

Srinagar, Oct 1 : Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (NPP) has criticized the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) for its recent statement on the Kashmir issue.

Describing it as an interference into the internal matter of India, the NPP chairman Prof Bhim Singh said Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India.

Where was the OIC when Palestinians, Iraqis and other Muslims were subjected to genocide, torture, serfdom and treachery by Anglo-Americans and Zionist State of Israel for decades.

Mr Singh, a friend of late President Saddam Hussein and late Palestinian President, Yasir Arafat asked OIC leaders to explain their conduct and attitude towards the people of Iraq and Palestine during the period of their distress and invasions.

He asked OIC as to where were they when USA invaded Karbala and the people of Iraq, allowing millions of Iraqis to die during the so-called UN sanctions in utter violation of Human Rights and UN Charter.

He asked Saudi Arabia and other partners of OIC as to where were they when Jerusalem was occupied by Zionist Israel and when Yasir Arafat was detained in Ram Allah for years.

Prof Singh reminded OIC that they have been playing in the hands of Anglo-American Bloc to defend their crowns and kingdoms at the cost 21 Arab countries.

In a message to the OIC Prof Singh said that Jammu and Kashmir is not an Islamic issue nor it is subject matter for the OIC to interfere.

Jammu and Kashmir, he said, is as good part of India as Jerusalem is part of Palestine or Riyadh is part of Saudi Arabia.

It is an integral part of India since thousands of years.

India has more than 200 millions of its citizens who belong to Islamic fraternity out of 10 millions from this state, he said adding that neither OIC nor Saudi Arabia has any locus to depute any person as its envoy to J&K.

Prof Singh has appealed to all the secular and nationalist groups, NGOs and political parties to condemn OIC and Saudi Arabia for their attempt of sabotaging with the secular ethos of India by using the name of Kashmir at the behest of Anglo-American Bloc.

Palestinian leader to tour Yemen, Syria and Italy

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will visit Yemen, Syria and Italy next week for discussions on the stalled Middle East peace process, his spokesman said on Thursday.

Abbas leaves Sunday for Yemen where he will meet President Ali Abdullah Saleh to discuss international and Arab efforts to advance the peace process, said spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina.

On Monday, Abbas is to travel to Syria and then to Rome, Abu Rudeina said.

The United States has been struggling to get Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch direct peace talks which were suspended in late December during the Gaza war, with the thorny issue of continued Israeli settlement construction a key stumbling block.

France insists on December deadline for Iran

The French Defense Minister has called for new sanctions against Iran if Tehran does not respond to the 'IAEA demands' over its nuclear work by December.

"If Iran does not respond to the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by December, the international community must decide on sanctions," Herve Morin said in an interview with Le Figaro on Thursday.

He said France was 'determined' on the issue, claiming that there was 'no other approach' in dealing with the dispute.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had earlier suggested December as the deadline for Iran over its nuclear work.

Iran had made it clear that it has gone even beyond its commitments to the IAEA and has demonstrated 'a great deal of transparency' in its nuclear work.

Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali-Akbar Salehi told Press TV in an exclusive interview late Monday that all questions that were raised in the framework of the work plan have been exhausted.

"There was a work plan that was worked out between Iran and the [International] Atomic Energy Agency; and in this work plan the questions were exhausted, so Iran answered all the questions that were raised in six categories, and the IAEA itself admitted that the questions that have been raised were perfectly answered."

There is 'only one other issue which the IAEA itself has said that it was not in a position to authenticate, and that was the 'alleged studies' that has been raised by the Americans', Salehi added

The US and its allies insist that Iran should cooperate with the IAEA over their so-called “alleged studies” of weaponization. Such studies purportedly implicate Iran in pursuing a 'green salt project, high explosives testing, and a missile re-entry vehicle project.'

Iran considers such documents as forged, demanding that the IAEA provide Tehran with copies of the documents so that Iran can inform the agency of its assessment. IAEA has so far failed to provide the documents to Iran.

Darfur female refugees raped in Chad

2009-10-01

Thousands of Sudanese girls face 'systematic rape' by local Chad villagers, Chadian army.

LIBREVILLE - Tens of thousands of women who fled unrest in Darfur face the daily threat or rape and violence in refugee camps in neighboring Chad, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

"Darfuri refugee women and girls face high levels of rape and other violence on a daily basis both inside and outside refugee camps in eastern Chad, despite the presence of UN security forces, said the Amnesty International report.

The report said that over the past six years more than 142,000 women and girls have fled insecurity and widespread human rights violations in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, seeking safety and protection in neighboring eastern Chad.

Instead they have found "pervasive and systematic rape," blamed in part on local villagers and soldiers of the Chadian national army which is supposed to protect them.

"The rape that countless women and girls experienced in Darfur continues to haunt them in eastern Chad," said Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Africa program.

The number of victims is uncertain because women rarely choose to report the crime because of negative social consequences, Amnesty said in the report compiled after a research mission was sent to the area between April 25 and May 13.

Most rapes take place outside the string of camps for refugees along the east Chadian border with Darfur but women and girls are also victims of attacks inside the camps.

The violence is taking place under the noses of a special detachment of the Chadian police supported by the UN who have specific responsibility for security in and around the camps, Amnesty said.

The perpetrators are rarely brought to justice, even when victims file official complaints, because of a "deeply-entrenched culture of impunity ... especially when it comes to rape and violence against women," Tawanda Hondora said.

Amnesty said immediate, effective steps need to be taken by both the Chadian government and the international community to address the problem.

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum and its allies.

Over the last six years, the rebels have fractured into multiple movements, fraying rebel groups, banditry, flip-flopping militias and the war has widened into overlapping tribal conflicts.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.7 million fled their homes.

Many of the rebels enjoy direct and indirect foreign support that helped fuel the conflict, with some critics pointing the finger at France, which has a military presence in neighboring Chad – also accused of arming the Sudanese rebels. France had been accused of involvement in the genocide in Rwanda, but Paris denied responsibility, conceding only that ‘political’ errors were made.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=34646.

Big parade: Communist China marks its 60th year

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – Tanks and other heavy weaponry rumbled across Beijing behind goose-stepping troops as China celebrated 60 years of communist rule Thursday with its biggest-ever military review — a symbol of its rapidly expanding global might.

The elaborate ceremony for the founding of the People's Republic unfolded on national television but behind tight security that excluded ordinary people from getting near the parade route through Tiananmen Square.

Precisely choreographed, the two-and-half-hour event hewed closely to tradition. President Hu Jintao, in a Mao jacket instead of a business suit, rode in an open top Red Flag limousine to review the thousands of troops. A parade of kitschy floats, flanked by more than 100,000 people, lauded the communist revolution and the Beijing Olympics. Even the weather cooperated, with aggressive cloud-seeding by the government having brought overnight showers to disperse smog and bring in blue skies.

The biggest difference was the weaponry, more than had been shown before and most of which was domestically produced: dozens of fighter jets and hundreds of tanks, artillery and trucks carrying long-range, nuclear-capable missiles.

"On this joyful and solemn occasion, all the peoples across the nation feel extremely proud for the progress and development of the motherland and have full confidence in the bright prospects for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Hu said in a short speech standing atop Tiananmen gate with the rest of the collective leadership looking on.

Behind the celebrations is the tremendous change of fortunes China has experienced. China has gone from poor and internationally weak when the communists took over on Oct. 1, 1949, to the world's third-largest economy and new power whose input the U.S. superpower seeks to solve the global economic crisis and Iran's nuclear challenge.

Unmentioned during the event and crescendo of state media hype in recent weeks were the ruinous campaigns of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong that left tens of millions dead — as well as the country's current challenges: a widening gap between rich and poor, rampant corruption, severe pollution and ethnic uprisings in the western areas of Tibet and Xinjiang.

The spectacle seemed to follow on the stunning opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics a year ago. A gala and fireworks were planned late Thursday for Tiananmen Square. While the Olympics were meant to mark China's arrival on the world stage, the parade squarely aimed to please a domestic audience.

Even the uninvited seemed excited, gathering on side streets to get a glimpse of the passing parade or watching from home.

"China's power makes us proud. Over the span of 60 years China has developed so rapidly," said retiree Wang Shumin, standing in a back alley watching the parade on TV through a shop window. "China is now powerful and has a position on the world stage."

Standing nearby, Liu Shuping praised the blue skies: "Even the weather has paid attention today."

Police maintained a visible presence, clearly worried that crowds might get out of hand, either from overexuberance or to protest the grievances that constantly simmer in Chinese society. The large-screen television outside the Beijing Railway Station that normally streams programs throughout the day was switched off.

Still, the thousand or so people cheered "long live China" when they heard Hu's voice blaring from loudspeakers two blocks away as he reviewed the troops. Police shouted "calm down" and "don't yell." They led away one well-dressed woman waving a small flag after she crossed the police line.

Despite the slick TV production and flashy new weaponry, the display of firepower and patriotic rhetoric were old-style and likely to prove unsettling to some countries and domestic critics.

"This is not the end of an era," said Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California. Rather, Pei said, the event continues a strategy deployed since the military crushed the Tiananmen democracy movement in 1989: "a one-party state that uses its economic success to bolster its legitimacy in any way conceivable, including a Soviet-style military parade."

Some Chinese grumbled that the security dampened what could have been a more public celebration and showed the government's distrust of people.

"In past years, back in the day, we were able to participate in the parades or at least stand over there and watch from the side of the streets," said one man, who only gave his English name, Winston Liu, as he milled about a side street a block from the parade route. "Now it is really strictly controlled. I guess it is for safety concerns."

In Hong Kong, which has Western-style civil liberties as part of its special semiautonomous status, hundreds of people protested Thursday, denouncing China's human rights record during 60 years of communist rule.

About 200 people marched through the downtown financial district, chanting, "We want human rights. We don't want a sanitized National Day."

Israel threats to halt 'peace steps' over UN probe

Tel Aviv says will not take steps towards peace if Goldstone Gaza report passes to UN Security Council.

TEL AVIV - Israel warned on Thursday that the UN Human Rights Council would strike a fatal blow to the stalled Middle East peace process if it passes its damning Gaza war report on to the Security Council.

"The adoption of what is called the Goldstone report would deal a fatal blow to the peace process," hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, repeating comments he made at the UN General Assembly last week.

"Israel will not be able to take further steps and further risks towards peace if the report is adopted," Netanyahu said.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Council this week has been discussing the results of the probe which accused both Israel and Palestinian resistance groups of war crimes.

The panel also recommends sending the report to the UN Security Council and to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

Richard Goldstone, the respected South African judge who headed the probe, on Tuesday urged the United Nations to refer Israel and the Palestinians to the ICC if they fail to conduct independent investigations as called for by the report.

The report reserved its harshest criticism for Israel.

Israel frees Palestinian prisoner ahead of video swap

Israel has released ahead of schedule one of the 20 women prisoners due to be freed in return for a video of an Israeli soldier held in Gaza, officials said on Thursday.

Bara Malki, 15, was released late on Wednesday after a judge ordered her freed, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Prison Authority said.

"A regular parole board hearing shortened her sentence ... and the judge ordered her released," the spokeswoman said.

Speaking from her home in the Jalazun refugee camp outside the West Bank town of Ramallah, Malki said: "My name was on the list (to be freed) ... I'm happy that I've been released but the court released me because of my age."

On Friday, Israel is due to free 19 other women prisoners in return for a videotape of Gilad Shalit, a soldier seized by Gaza resistance in June 2006.

The exchange, announced on Wednesday, marked a major breakthrough in nearly three years of on-again, off-again Egyptian-brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas for an exchange. German mediators joined the talks in July.

US, Israel meet again to discuss reviving Mideast talks

US special envoy George Mitchell held talks in Washington Wednesday with two Israeli envoys as part of efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, a spokesman said.

Philip Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said the talks follow up on the summit US President Barack Obama had last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

"Starting right about now here at the Department of State... we have a meeting between George Mitchell and an Israeli delegation, following up on the discussion and the trilateral meeting last week in New York," Crowley told reporters.

Representing the Israelis are a senior Netanyahu aide, Yitzhak Molho, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's chief of staff Michael Herzog, he added.

Mitchell was due to meet with a Palestinian delegation on Thursday, Crowley said.

Goldstone Defends Investigation, Hamas

In an interview with CNN, South African jurist Richard Goldstone defended his investigation into Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip and insisted that there was no evidence that Hamas fired weapons from civilian areas. Goldstone said Israeli forces intentionally fired at civilian sites, although it was not done so as “a matter of policy.” He also expressed satisfaction at news that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyhau has established an investigatory body to probe allegations made by the Goldstone Commission. Netanyahu reiterated his warning first delivered in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week when he said that Israel cannot take risks for peace if the international community is not supporting its ability to defend itself.

Israel Begins Release of Palestinian Women Prisoners in Shalit Deal

The first of 20 Palestinian women to be released from Israeli jails in a deal to provide Israel with information about its captive soldier Gilad Shalit, has been freed. In exchange for the woman’s release, a one-minute video of Shalit will be given to Israel. It will be the first time since Shalit was captured in a cross-border raid in June 2006 that there will be any direct evidence of his condition. The deal reportedly began when Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the mentor of an Israeli political party, sent a book of Psalms and a prayer book to Egyptian President Mubarak, asking that it be given to Shalit. Negotiations over Shalit’s release continue, with Israel hesitant to release as many as 1,000 prisoners as Hamas is demanding.

Somalia: Islamist Rebels Declare War on Each Other

30 September 2009

Kismayo — Somalia's most powerful rebel groups, Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, have declared war on each other after weeks of political wrangling, Radio Garowe reports.

Two spokesmen speaking for Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam held separate press conferences Thursday in Kismayo and Mogadishu, respectively.

Sheikh Hassan Yakub, spokesman for the Al Shabaab administration in Kismayo, told reporters that Al Shabaab "will defend Kismayo" against outside forces.

"We urge the people of Kismayo to defend their one-year old administration against an attack by Sheikh Ahmed Madobe, who is part of Hizbul Islam," the spokesman said on Al Shabaab-run Radio Al-Andulus in Kismayo, a strategic port city located 500km south of Mogadishu.

He said "crimes have returned" after the Kismayo public relaxed during Al Shabaab's one-year reign of peace, naming crimes such as "murders and women throwing off their clothes."

'War across Somalia'

Hizbul Islam spokesman Sheikh Ismail Haji Addow told reporters in Mogadishu that Hizbul Islam fighters "will defend Kismayo" and vowed to wage "war across Somalia" if fighting starts in Kismayo.

"If bullets begin in Kismayo, it will impact the entire country. Bullets will start everywhere our fighters are...we oppose Al Shabaab's so-called power," said the Hizbul Islam spokesman.

He noted that Hizbul Islam controls many regions in Somalia and "knows" areas under the control of Al Shabaab, adding: "We will not allow any group to claim power in areas we control."

Sheikh Addow said Al Shabaab commanders proposed that Hizbul Islam "join Al Shabaab, join the Somali Government or become members of the public."

"Hizbul Islam is an organization that exists and that has power. We will never surrender our weapons to any group or just leave," added the Hizbul Islam spokesman.

Kismayo sources say rival fighters from each side have "mounted weapons" atop the port town's storied buildings in preparation for an eventual war.

Some local businesses were closed down on Thursday, as residents feared the eruption of fighting among the Islamist rebels, who are fighting to topple Somalia's interim government in Mogadishu.

If Al Shabaab fights Hizbul Islam, then Al Shabaab will be the only group to have battled every other group in south-central Somalia, including Somali government forces, African Union peacekeepers and Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a militiamen.

'New jihad'

Meanwhile, Hizbul Islam rebel chief Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who declared a new jihad on the government of his former ally, Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, has declined to comment on the Al Shabaab-Hizbul Islam rift over Kismayo.

Sheikh Aweys spoke on Wednesday in Elasha Biyaha area, in the southern outskirts of Mogadishu, where makeshift displaced people's camps have transformed into a city of its own since 2007. He said the area's new name will be Lafole and administered by Hizbul Islam.

"It is our duty to fight AMISOM [African Union peacekeepers], because they are an enemy who invaded our country," Sheikh Aweys told supporters. On the Kismayo conflict, he said: "The dispute will be resolved."

Hizbul Islam is led by Sheikh Aweys and Sheikh Hassan "Turki" Abdullahi, two long-time Islamist leaders in Somalia. The U.S. government accuses Al Shabaab's reclusive commanders of direct links to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200910010017.html.

Turkey: student protester hurls shoe at IMF chief

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer

ISTANBUL – A student journalist threw a shoe at IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Thursday and ran toward the stage shouting "IMF get out!" as the finance official answered questions at a university in Istanbul.

The white sports shoe bounced off another student's head but missed the IMF chief before landing beside him on the speaker's platform. Some students applauded. Strauss-Kahn moved to the side, and a security guard rushed to protect him.

Other guards quickly blocked the man — a student and a journalist with a small left-wing newspaper — from reaching the platform. They pushed him to the floor, covered his mouth with their hands and then dragged him from the hall.

A female protester also tried to unfurl a banner while shouting "IMF get out!" but she was escorted out of the conference hall.

The conference was then cut short and the hall evacuated.

It was the latest copycat shoe protest imitating the shoe attack last year directed at former President George W. Bush by an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad.

Turkey and the International Monetary Fund are engaged in slow-moving talks about a new loan deal that could boost investor confidence, but Turkey has been reluctant to cut spending and implement austerity measures.

The debate has stirred nationalist sentiment among some Turks, who are suspicious of what they view as outside interference.

The shoe protester, Selcuk Ozbek, had attended the conference at Istanbul's Bilgi University as a guest student from another Turkish university, Anadolu, said Halil Guven, the dean of the Bilgi University.

Ibrahim Aydin, the managing editor of the Birgun newspaper, confirmed Ozbek worked for the paper but said he was not on duty Thursday and was not representing the paper at the conference.

"I don't think throwing a shoe involves violence, it has become a symbol in a culture of protest," Aydin said.

Strauss-Kahn had been answering questions by Turkish economy students and journalists at the time of the protest. He left the conference hall smiling and shrugged off the incident.

"It is important for us to have an open debate. I was glad to meet students and hear their views. This is what the IMF needs to do, even if not everyone agrees with us," he said. "One thing I learned, Turkish students are polite. They waited until the end to complain."

The IMF was also holding its annual conference in Istanbul. Police have detained more than 20 protesters in total.

Iraq's al-Maliki joins with Sunnis in election bid

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – The re-election strategy for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took shape Thursday as he unveiled a broad alliance for January's parliamentary voting that includes prominent Sunni clans who joined the fight against insurgents.

Al-Maliki's Shiite-led government is facing a challenge from a powerful bloc led by Shiite religious factions, including the largest Shiite political group and anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Maliki rejected joining the coalition and put together a rival movement that emphasizes secular policies and reconciliation with Sunnis after years of sectarian bloodshed.

Al-Maliki's allies had strong showings in provincial elections earlier this year. He now hopes that voter distaste for the Shiite religious factions remains strong enough to keep his pro-Western government in power.

Al-Maliki's Shiite-led coalition for the Jan. 16 vote brings in Sunni parties and clans from around the country, including some members of the Abu Risha tribe that led the Sunni uprising against al-Qaida in Iraq in the western Anbar province in one of the important turning points of the war. Other notable Sunnis joining al-Maliki include members of the powerful al-Dulaimi clan.

Also on board with al-Maliki are top aides and several key members of his government, including Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani and government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. The bloc of 40 parties and movements — known as the State of Law list — is rounded out by some Kurdish and Christian groups from Iraq's north.

A victory by al-Maliki's coalition could mean a more diverse Cabinet and a greater political voice from Sunnis, who enjoyed unchallenged control under Saddam Hussein but were swept aside by the majority Shiites after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Many Shiites still carry deep resentment against Sunnis for years of repression under Saddam.

In a speech to announce his election bloc, al-Maliki said it was time for Iraqis to put aside ethnic and sectarian differences to "bear the responsibilities of the coming years, which need more efforts and sacrifices."

Al-Maliki's government has come under pressure to maintain security gains as U.S. forces prepare for the end of combat missions next year.

He used the speech to take another perceived jab at Syria, which he has blamed for harboring Saddam loyalists linked to attacks, including twin suicide truck bombs in August outside the foreign and finance ministries that killed nearly 100 people.

"We will not allow any country to interfere in our domestic affairs, which we consider a red line that can't be crossed," he said. "We will reconsider our relations with any country that does not respect Iraq's sovereignty and interferes in its affairs."

The election will offer two distinct poles of Shiite power — al-Maliki's list and a bloc led by the Iranian-backed Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which is Iraq's largest Shiite political force.

The Supreme Council, however, is now led by a new hand: Ammar al-Hakim, who took over after his influential father died in August in Tehran and is struggling to keep the group from splintering.

The Council has forged election bonds with Shiite leaders such as the cleric al-Sadr, who carries sway over members of his once-formidable Mahdi Army militia. But al-Maliki refused offers to join — banking his political future on the gambit that the era is ending for Shiite religious factions in Iraqi political affairs.

"We have agreed to confront all kinds of terrorism, not to allow the return of militias, to confine arms to the state only and to keep military and police forces away from political influences," al-Maliki said.

Iran releases prominent opposition figure on bail

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – One of Iran's most prominent pro-reform figures has been released on bail after more than three months in jail on charges of inciting the country's postelection unrest, state media and his lawyer said Thursday.

Saeed Hajjarian is considered a top architect and ideologue of the movement pushing for more social and political freedoms in Iran. He is among more than 100 opposition politicians and activists who have been on trial since August on charges of fomenting the street unrest that broke out after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June.

The state-owned IRAN newspaper reported that authorities released Hajjarian Wednesday on $200,000 bail after he spent 110 days in jail.

His lawyer, Gholamali Riahi, confirmed Hajjarian's release but would not comment on the reasons behind it, saying only that the court has yet to issue a verdict in the case.

During his testimony, Hajjarian confessed to helping fuel the postelection turmoil and asked for the nation's forgiveness. The opposition dismissed his and other confessions as coerced.

In the days after the June 12 election, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters poured into the streets of major Iranian cities to protest what they said was a fraudulent result.

The opposition said at least 72 people died in the ensuing security crackdown on protesters and that many of those detained were abused in custody. The government puts the number of dead at half that figure.

Hajjarian supported opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he was the rightful winner of the election.

Hajjarian is a central figure in Iran's reform movement. He was a top aide to former President Mohammad Khatami, who held office from 1997 to 2005. Hajjarian helped design that administration's program of social and political liberalization — policies that were ultimately stymied by the hard-line clerics who dominate Iran's Islamic Republic system.

The 55-year-old Hajjarian has been described as the "walking memory" of Iran's recent history because of his access to classified information and secrets within Iran's ruling Islamic establishment. He survived a 2000 assassination attempt in which he was shot in the head but was left paralyzed.

He is in poor health and requires daily medical attention, pro-reform media have reported, but it is not clear if that played a role in his release from custody.

In September, authorities released Ali Reza Beheshti, a top Mousavi aide from one of the country's most prominent families, on bail after several days in detention. Beheshti is the son of the late Ayatollah Mohammad Hossein Beheshti, a prominent figure from the 1979 revolution and one of the architects of the country's Islamic regime.

Iran meets the West in Geneva for nuclear talks

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA – The U.S. and five other world powers began high-stakes talks Thursday with Iran to demand a freeze of its nuclear activities, with a senior U.S. official saying Washington is open to rare one-on-one talks with Iranian diplomats.

The EU's Javier Solana, who is formally heading the one-day negotiations with chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, was upbeat before the start of the talks in an 18th century villa in Geneva. The U.S. official briefed reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the talks.

A bilateral meeting with Iran would reflect Washington's determination to get results from the meeting.

The fact that the meeting is taking place at all offers some hope, reflecting both sides' desire to talk, despite a spike in tensions over last week's revelations by Iran that it had been secretly building a new uranium enrichment plant.

Yet Tehran's acknowledgment that it had kept silent on the plant — which can make both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead cores — has left the Western powers with only modest expectations about the success of the talks.

While the West fears that Iran's nuclear program aims to make a bomb, Iran insists the program is strictly for peaceful use and has refused to negotiate any limits on it.

If the talks fail, the U.S. and its Western allies are expected to renew their push for a fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

In addition to the United States and Iran, the countries meeting Thursday include members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. The U.S. delegation is headed by William Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs.

The State Department stressed its hope that the session would open the door to more in-depth dialogue about ways Iran could alleviate concerns that its emerging nuclear program may be secretly developing nuclear weapons.

If Iran is willing to address the nuclear issues, then there likely will be subsequent meetings, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.

"That process will take some time," Crowley said. "We're not going to make a snap judgment on Thursday. We're going to see how that meeting goes, evaluate the willingness of Iran to engage on these issues."

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, asked what Moscow hoped from the talks, said: "To have a start that has a continuation."

Chinese diplomats have also been urging Iran to negotiate with the six powers, U.N. diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Crowley noted that President Barack Obama has said he intends to take a few months to assess Iran's position and consult with negotiating partners before deciding what next steps to take.

Diplomats at U.N. headquarters in New York said there has been no discussion of a new sanctions resolution. Several said they wanted to wait for a report from the U.N. nuclear agency on its inspection of Iran's newly disclosed nuclear facility and to see Tehran's response to the incentives if it starts negotiations.

In Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the talks will gauge others' respect for Iran's rights.

"This meeting is a test to measure the extent of sincerity and commitment of some countries to law and justice," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday, according to official IRNA news agency.

The U.S., Britain, France, Russia and Germany are being represented by senior officials. Only China, which appears most opposed to new U.N. sanctions on Tehran, is sending a relatively low-level representative.

A U.S. government official confirmed to The Associated Press that commercial satellite images taken of the purported nuclear site near Iran's holy city of Qom are generally accurate.

At least three private sector imagery analysts in the United States have focused on the site because it fits the description given by the U.S. government: it is 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Qom, it is built into a mountainside and it has features consistent with a secret nuclear facility, parts of which the U.S. government says are underground.

Neither the U.S. government nor Iran has officially confirmed the location or the accuracy of the commercial imagery analysis.

At best, Thursday's talks could start lowering passions over the hidden plant, Iran's three-year defiance of the U.N. Security Council's enrichment ban and Western assertions that Tehran is a supporter of terror — and lead to another meeting later this year.

That, in turn, could be the start of a process that could not only end the threat of an Israeli or U.S. strike against Iran's nuclear facilities as a last resort. It could ultimately lead to an agreement on a limited Iranian uranium enrichment program — but under tight international control meant to banish concerns that it could be turned toward making warhead material.

Such hopes are tenuous. Since the five nations first proposed political and economic concessions to Tehran for a full stop to its enrichment activities three years ago, Iran has expanded the program. It now has more than 8,000 centrifuges set up in its cavernous underground facility at Natanz, with most working to churn out fuel-grade enriched uranium.

The initial set of U.N. sanctions in 2006 focused on banning trade with Iran in materials, equipment, goods and technology that could contribute to Iran's uranium enrichment program. Iran says its program is intended to provide fuel for civilian power reactors, but the U.S. suspects it could be used to make nuclear weapons.

U.N. sanctions against Iran were expanded in March 2007 by banning arms exports from Iran and imposing a freeze on the financial assets of 28 individuals and entities. More sanctions in March 2008 restricted the import by Iran of dual-use technologies — those that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

Israeli Army jeep crushes Palestinian teen to death

(MENAFN - Arab News) A 17-year-old Palestinian was fatally rolled over by an Israeli Army vehicle on Wednesday during a brief incursion into the West Bank town of Ya'bad, to the southwest of Jenin.

Palestinian medical and security sources in Jenin told Arab News that the boy, Fouad Nayef Turkman, was run over twice by one of the vehicles.

The sources said that Turkman "was standing at the entrance of Izz el-Din Al-Qassam school when the Israeli military jeeps entered Ya'bad." The medical sources said that the boy sustained critical wounds and later died in a Jenin hospital.

The security sources believe the boy was intentionally run over.

In a separate development, Israeli police said it arrested a 22-year-old man from West Bank city of Nablus who impersonated an Israeli border guard. The young man was arrested after trying to enter the central bus station in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv claiming he was an officer, however he could not display an identity card.

Another major quake shakes Indonesia

Another earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale has jolted western Indonesia as rescue teams are still working to reach the victims of an earlier powerful earthquake that struck the area.

The earthquake hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island early on Thursday south of the site of an earlier powerful quake where more than 1,000 are feared dead.

"The rescue personnel in the location estimated that so far at least 200 people have died," Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said in Jakarta about Wednesday afternoon's 7.6-magnitude quake that caused buildings to crumble and fires to rage in Padang, on the Coast of Sumatra Island.

Head of Crisis Center in the Health Ministry, Rustam Pakaya, said he expected the death toll to soar over 1,000, given the scale of the destruction and the large numbers of people believed to be trapped under the rubble.

The quake comes after a series of tsunamis smashed into the Pacific island nations of American and Western Samoa, killing possibly more than 100 people earlier on Wednesday.

China celebrates 60-year Communist rule

National stability and ethnic unity are central to ensuring China's development, says the Chinese premier ahead of celebrations marking 60 years of Communist rule.

"We must unwaveringly protect social stability, and protect the fundamental interests of the people," Premier Wen Jiabao told the officials and leaders gathered in the echoing Great Hall of the People on Wednesday.

The premier added that the government must promote socialist democracy, improve the legal system, and adhere to the rule of law to achieve lasting stability.

Jiabao's comments came a few hours before China formally kicked off celebrations with a 60-gun salute that rung out across Beijing's historic Tiananmen Square.

China's capital remains under tight security in the run-up to festivities on October 1, staging a military parade through the heart of Beijing to demonstrate the country's rising global influence.

China expects the parade of soldiers, tanks and missiles, dozens of elaborate floats, and 100,000 well-drilled civilians to display a proud Communist Party and its achievements before invited guests.

UN chief fires deputy head of Afghan mission

The UN Secretary General has sacked a deputy special envoy to Afghanistan who has been embroiled in a dispute with his boss over the country's "fraud-tainted" election.

"The Secretary General (Ban Ki-moon) has decided to recall Mr. Peter Galbraith from Afghanistan and to end his appointment as the deputy special representative for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan," a UN statement said on Wednesday.

Galbraith has been embroiled in a dispute with his superior over how to deal with fraud allegations in the Afghan elections.

The differences were centered on listing of the so-called 'ghost' polling stations as well as sharing information with the Afghan electoral commission.

An anonymous UN official in Kabul said the UN special representative to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, favored the status quo while Galbraith, preferred other options such as a total recount to deal with the fraud allegations that have lowered support for Karzai's government.

In an interview, Galbraith said he could not be complicit in a cover-up.

Iran arrests 14 'Wahabi terrorists'

Iran's Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi has announced that 14 members of a "Wahabi terrorist group" have been arrested in the country.

"The members of the terrorist group were affiliated with al-Qaeda," Mehr news agency quoted Moslehi as saying on Wednesday.

Two Iranian security forces and four terrorists were killed in the clash between the Iranian forces and the Wahabi terrorists.

Moslehi pointed to the recent terrorist attacks in the Western province of Kordestan and said that the terrorists who carried out the attacks were backed by "foreign intelligence services".

Earlier in September, terrorists killed two senior Sunni clerics in the Western province.

Israel likely to build super-settlement in WB

Israel is likely to give the go ahead to a project to build what would be the most populous settlement in the territories occupied in 1967.

The joint project undertaken by the Interior Ministry and the Jerusalem (al-Quds) Municipality sees the construction of 14,000 housing units near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Israeli daily Maariv reported on Wednesday.

The settlement will be built in three million square meters of land and will be home to 40,000 Jewish settlers.

The land will also include the property of the Palestinians in the West Bank village of Al-Walaja.

The project has the endorsement of the ruling Likud Party and its far right allies.

Israel is obliged to freeze all settlement construction projects in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The regime, however, has so far refused to fulfill its commitments despite demands by the international community.

Israel receives N-capable German subs

Israel has received two German-made submarines which are capable of launching missiles equipped with nuclear warheads.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that the regime has received the two Dolphin-class submarines.

Israel ordered the submarines in 2005 and they were expected to be delivered in 2010.

Nuclear capable submarines are key weapons in Israel's arsenal.

With the delivery of the two subs the number of Israel's German-made submarines has reached five.

Trouble for Iraqi elections brewing in oil hub

By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – Iraqi lawmakers appear to be snagged again at a familiar impasse: how to settle power-sharing disputes in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk before important national elections.

Parliament officials have scheduled a Thursday session to seek some compromises in the three-way dispute that has held up critical laws on oil investment and increased worries about more ethnic-driven violence. But each side — Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen clans — has shown little sign of giving in as they did in January's races for provincial councils.

At stake is political control of Iraq's northern oil field and its hub city. But the Kirkuk showdown is further tangled by historical claims and rivalries in one of Iraq's most ethnically mixed regions.

Arabs and Turkomen — both minorities in the region — boycotted preliminary parliament discussions on Kirkuk on Wednesday, claiming the Kurds are unwilling to consider any proposals that could threaten their control of the Kirkuk city council and parliament seats in the area. The Arabs and Turkomen seek a new formula that would guarantee an equal split in political clout.

"We cannot make Kirkuk a stumbling block on the path to the elections," said Hadi al-Amiri, head of the defense and security committee in parliament.

But so far appeals have failed to nudge the three sides closer to a pact over sharing political power and resources. The dispute could also complicate the expected political dealmaking at the national level after the Jan. 16 election, which will stand as a test of the political strength of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Iraq's majority Shiites should claim most of the seats in the voting but will need alliances with Sunni Arabs, Kurds and others to effectively govern.

The deputy parliament speaker, Khalid al-Attiyah, told The Associated Press that the parliamentary elections cannot be delayed and "must take place in all provinces."

This would mean a showdown to force a deal over Kirkuk in the coming months or use the existing election rules that had no power-sharing pacts and gave most seats to Kurds — whose near-autonomous northern region does not include Kirkuk, though the city is considered by many Kurds to be part of their historical territory.

Rebwar Talabani, a deputy head of the Kirkuk provincial council and a Kurd, said the election must go ahead in January as planned, but it's possible the voting "could be suspended for Kirkuk" until some kind of compromise is reached.

U.S. diplomats and military commanders have often described Kirkuk as one of the linchpins for long-term stability in Iraq. During a September visit to Iraq, Vice President Joe Biden noted that Iraq's law on foreign oil investment is still not on the horizon — an indirect reference to the stalemate over Kirkuk.

The ethnic friction in Kirkuk is centuries old but was enflamed in past decades by Saddam Hussein's program to move tens of thousands of Arabs into the area in an attempt to shift the demographic balance.

Kurds currently make up an estimated 52 percent of Kirkuk's population, compared with Arabs at 35 percent. Turkomen make up about 12 percent. Also, about 12,000 Christians live in Kirkuk.

In April, a U.N. report recommended giving Kirkuk a "special status" with oversight by both the near-autonomous Kurdish region and the central government in Baghdad.

Obama's war council divided on Afghanistan

By STEVEN R. HURST and PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama summoned his war council to the White House Situation Room on Wednesday for an intense, three-hour discussion that exposed emerging fault lines over Afghanistan — with military commanders pressing for more troops and other advisers expressing skepticism.

There was no discussion of specific troop levels during the meeting in the West Wing basement, according to a senior administration official. But the talks underscored the divisions throughout Obama's inner circle that must be navigated in the coming weeks, the official said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Afghan and Pakistan envoy Richard Holbrooke appeared to be leaning toward supporting a troop increase, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were private. The official, who attended the meeting, based the assessment on the tone and substance of their participation.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Gen. James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, appeared to be skeptical of troop increases, the official said. Vice President Joe Biden, who attended the meeting, has been reluctant to support a troop increase, favoring a strategy that directly targets al-Qaida fighters who are believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

No firm or final recommendations were offered to Obama, the official said, suggesting that views were still evolving.

The differences are not new and they were aired civilly in the meeting, the official said. But for most of Obama's advisers, this was the first time they exchanged views in person — rather than via official channels and media leaks — and in a large group that included the president.

The meeting, the second of at least five Obama has planned as he reviews his Afghanistan strategy, comes after Obama received a critical assessment of the war effort from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man he put in charge of the Afghan war earlier this year. McChrystal declared that the U.S. would fail to meet its objectives of causing irreparable damage to Taliban militants and their al-Qaida allies if the administration did not significantly increase American forces.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both support McChrystal's strategy, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is on the fence, the spokesman said.

Obama has taken a go-slow approach on the McChrystal report. White House officials say it may take weeks before the president decides whether to overhaul the U.S. strategy or send more troops.

Jones told senators in a classified briefing after the White House meeting that the administration's evolving Afghanistan strategy depends in large part on the outcome of the disputed Afghan election. Those decisions are expected in a matter of weeks.

"It's not just the election, but the reaction to the election, that we'll be watching for," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.

One alternative to McChrystal's call for additional troops for a counterinsurgency is to use special forces and unmanned drone aircraft for tactical strikes on the Taliban and al-Qaida leadership, a move that would require much more U.S. action in Pakistan but fewer troops.

While the Pentagon has so far locked away specifics of McChrystal's troop request, he is widely believed to want to add between 30,000 and 40,000 to the current force of 68,000.

The senior administration official said Obama has refused to prejudge what his conclusion would he and hasn't been forthcoming with his opinions.

Much of Wednesday's discussion was focused on how Afghanistan has changed since Obama sent 21,000 additional troops to the country in March and what remains to be done. The president heard from 17 high-level officials and pressed them on their views and how they reached their conclusions.

In the end, though, Obama asked the group to meet with him twice more next week.

Obama is moving with extreme deliberation even though he said during the presidential campaign that defeating the Taliban militants and al-Qaida was essential to U.S. security. He moved swiftly on that pledge in the early days of his 8-month-old term, ordering an additional 21,000 forces into the country.

In combination with NATO forces, the allies have about 100,000 personnel in Afghanistan's rugged terrain.

But key Democrats in Congress have begun voicing concern about the U.S.-led effort, questioning whether a further commitment of blood and treasure is wise or necessary. The most vocal support for continuing or even expanding the conflict comes from Republicans.

Support for the war has fallen off sharply among Americans, with just more than half now saying the conflict is not worth the fight.

Republican Sen. John McCain, Obama's opponent in last year's election, said in a television interview Wednesday that the president cannot give up on Afghanistan. The Arizona senator argued that the entire region would be destabilized if the U.S. and NATO pulled back.

Urging Obama to quickly accept McChrystal's recommendations, McCain said: "Time is not on our side. So we need a decision pretty quickly. I think history is pretty clear that when the Taliban took over, it became a base for attacks on the United States and our allies."

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the No. 2 House Republican, said that Obama was endangering U.S. troops in Afghanistan by spending time weighing his next move in Afghanistan. "As long as they are delaying, that puts in jeopardy, I believe, our men and women," he said.

The U.S. went to war in Afghanistan in late 2001 with a mission to remove the Taliban from power and to capture or kill al-Qaida boss Osama bin Laden, the sponsor of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The Taliban fell quickly, but bin Laden escaped across the border into the towering mountains in Pakistan and has eluded American forces ever since.

In the meantime, the Taliban have staged a resurgence and now have taken control of more than half the country. The insurgents have regained so much strength that August became the deadliest month of the war so far for U.S. troops. Fifty-one died.

Wednesday's White House session was believed to have been the most high-powered gathering so far.

China's 60th anniversary stirs pride, also unease

By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – China celebrated its rise to a world power over 60 years of Communist rule Thursday, staging its biggest-ever parade of military hardware with over 100,000 marching masses in a display that stirred patriotism — and some unease.

Police blocked off a wide area around central Beijing's Tiananmen Square for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic. People were told to stay away and watch the events on television, though that did not dampen a festive air as residents gathered in homes and alleys.

President Hu Jintao, dressed in a gray Mao tunic instead of the business suit he usually wears, reviewed the thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks and other weaponry, shouting "Hello, comrades" while riding in an open-top, domestically made Red Flag limousine.

During the two-hour-plus festivities, more than 100 helicopters, communication airships and Chinese-made fighter jets flew over the city in formation.

After the armaments, 60 floats celebrating last year's Beijing Olympics, China's manned space program and other symbols of progress rolled by as tens of thousands of students flipped colored cards in unison to make pictures of lucky symbols and spell out political slogans.

The events were meant to underscore what Hu called the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

We "have triumphed over all sorts of difficulties and setbacks and risks to gain the great achievements evident to the world," Hu later said standing atop Tiananmen gate in a speech that referred to his Communist Party predecessors and China's success. "Today, a socialist China geared toward modernization, the world and the future towers majestically in the East."

The feel-good, if heavily scripted moment tapped into Chinese pride surrounding the country's turnaround from the war-battered, impoverished state the communists took over on Oct. 1, 1949 to the dynamic, third-largest world economy of today.

"This shows the world that we are now strong, not only in living standards but that our military power has also improved," said Peng Jinzhi, a 79-year-old retired hairdresser who was listening to the parade on the radio in an alley north of Tiananmen.

The buoyant mood glossed over the country's gut-wrenching twists — the ruinous campaigns of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong that left tens of millions dead — as well as its current challenges: a widening gap between rich and poor, rampant corruption, severe pollution and ethnic uprisings in the western areas of Tibet and Xinjiang.

Security in Beijing has been intensifying for weeks over worries that protests, which are common in China, or an overexuberant crowd might mar the ceremonies. Parts of central Beijing were sealed off and businesses were told to shut down beginning Tuesday. Flights in and out of Beijing's international airport were suspended Thursday morning. An intensive cloud-seeding operation helped clear away the smog that had shrouded Beijing for two days.

"How many hundreds of millions are being spent on the National Day troop review? Can you tell the taxpayers?" prolific blogger Li Huizhi, a small businessman in southern Guangzhou city, wrote on his popular blog Sunday. "Aren't the possibly tens of billions in money spent perhaps a bit of a disservice to the people? Because in today's China, there are countless places more in need of this money."

Explanations vary for why such elaborate festivities are being staged. Sixty is an auspicious number that plays well with Chinese who say it traditionally represents the full life of a person. The country's leadership has avoided mention of anything to do with superstition, though.

The government has customarily held military parades on 10th anniversaries. With China riding high in the world and feeling good about itself after the Beijing Olympics, the 60th was the Hu leadership's chance to score popularity points.

Early this year, before China's economy rebounded from the global downturn, authorities promised only a modest celebration in keeping with the gloomy times.

The parade is now billed by state media as China's largest-ever display of weaponry, reminiscent of the Soviet Union, and came with the mass synchronized performances usually associated with North Korea. Alongside the 80,000 card-flippers, another 100,000 civilians accompanied the floats, many of them with kitschy displays of computers and signs of industry. Floats carried huge portraits of the communist pantheon: Mao, reform architect Deng Xiaoping and even Hu — an unexpected appearance for a normally reserved leadership.

Some 5,000 goose-stepping troops who rehearsed for as long as a year accompanied the armaments — new unmanned aerial drones, amphibious fighting vehicles and new DH-10 land-based anti-ship cruise missiles.

"I wonder what Chinese leaders are thinking? For more than 15 years they have been denouncing those who call China's rise a threat. Now they put on this display of military hardware, with goose-stepping soldiers to match. Aren't they confirming the China Threat?" said Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California.

The People's Liberation Army in its newspaper early this year said the event's meaning was clear: "This military parade is a comprehensive display of the Party's ability to rule and of the overall might of the nation."

Geremie Barme, a China scholar at Australian National University who has studied past National Day parades, said the displays are typically aimed at the domestic audience — Communist Party officials and ordinary Chinese. "It is meant to educate, excite, unite and entertain. If a tad of 'shock and awe' is delivered around the world, all well and good," he said.

Somali rebel groups fight in southern port

Fighting between rival Islamist rebel groups erupted in the southern Somali port of Kismayu on Thursday, killing at least three people and threatening to spread to other parts of the failed Horn of Africa state.

Witnesses in Kismayu said al Shabaab gunmen and their one-time allies from Hizbul Islam attacked each other across the port. Hundreds of civilians fled. Others cowered in their homes.

"The battle has started everywhere in the city. There are heavy exchanges of bullets and we can see militia taking part in the fighting," resident Deqo Ali told Reuters by telephone.

Abdullahi Ali, a nurse at the hospital, said at least three people had been killed.

"They are using heavy weapons everywhere," he said.

The confrontation in Kismayu had been brewing for days and Hizbul Islam leaders had threatened to fight al Shabaab "everywhere" in Somala if clashes began at the rebel-held port, a lucrative source of taxes and other income.

One Hizbul Islam commander in Kismayu said Thursday's clashes began when al Shabaab gunmen attacked his group. An al Shabaab spokesman said their forces would defeat Hizbul.

Security analysts say Somalia has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, and Washington says al Shabaab is al Qaeda's proxy in the country.

Relations between al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam degenerated last week after al Shabaab named its own council to run Kismayu, excluding all Hizbul members. Until then, the two groups had run the port in an uneasy coalition.

Western donors have long hoped hardliners in al Shabaab could be isolated by a deal between more moderate Hizbul Islam leaders and the country's fragile U.N.-backed administration.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has so far failed to lure top Hizbul Islam figures to his side but a feud between the two main rebel groups could give his government some breathing space.

Taiwan likely to upset China with Tibet, Uighur films

TAIPEI - Taiwan will screen films about Tibetans and Uighurs, China's most restive ethnic groups, on Thursday, the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, sponsors said, likely to anger its diplomatic rival.

"The 10 Conditions of Love", a documentary on Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, will be screened on Wednesday and Thursday. A film on Tibet by Tibetan director Dhondup Wangchen, who has been jailed in China since March, will be shown on Thursday.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve unification.

It accuses Kadeer of orchestrating July's ethnic violence in Xinjiang, a largely ethnic Uighur region of northwest China, which killed about 200 people. She denies the charge.

China also faces unrest in Tibet. Local Taiwan opposition leaders angered China by inviting Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, labeled a separatist by Beijing, to visit in early September.

China is pulling out all the stops to ensure that nothing spoils the party when the world's third-largest economy celebrates six decades of the People's Republic with a massive parade on Thursday.

"We're showing the Kadeer film because China has protested against it, making it a focus of public attention, so Taiwan viewers are keen on seeing it now," said Tsai Chi-hsun, secretary general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, one of several sponsors.

Beijing protested against the film's screening in Australia in August and its first showing in Taiwan last week, warning against action that could further hurt the island's relations with Beijing.

China has claimed Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island. But today's ruling KMT has eased tension with China since mid-2008 by negotiating trade deals.

Source: Phayul.
Link: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=25608&article=Taiwan+likely+to+upset+China+with+Tibet%2c+Uighur+films&t=1&c=1.

Plan to shift girl who killed rebel

Srinagar, Sept. 30: The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to shift Rukhsana and her family amid fears that militants might target the Rajouri girl who shot a top Lashkar rebel after he had broken into their home.

Rajouri police chief Shafaqat Watali said: “We wanted to either provide them a safe house in Thanamandi, the town closest to their village, or shift them to Rajouri. They were keen to explore the latter option as they think they will be safe there,” he said, adding that the police had already started hunting for a safe house in Rajouri.

Rukhsana, 21, and her teenaged brother Aijaz fought and killed Abu Osama with his own gun as he and another militant roughed up their parents on Sunday suspecting them to be police informers.

Court glare on Love Jihad

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 30: Kerala High Court today asked the Centre and the state police to report within three weeks the activities of a jihadi outfit accused of luring non-Muslim girls and converting them.

The Union home ministry and state director-general of police have been told to investigate Love Jihad, an offshoot of the pro-Muslim Popular Front of India, its spread, sources of funding and possible links with terror groups, smugglers and drug rackets.

Another such outfit, going by the name Jihadi Romeos, is also said to be under the scanner, though the court order didn’t explicitly mention it.

The probe order came as the court rejected anticipatory bail pleas of two suspected Love Jihad activists. Two girls, both MBA students, told the court that the duo had feigned love, offered to marry them but coerced them to convert.

The police have also been asked to report on the alleged conversions in the state’s schools and colleges in the past three years.

Earlier, a special police team was set up to probe charges that jihadis were luring girls on campuses and converting them with the intention of using them for anti-national activities.

Israel Develops Underground Sensors

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel has developed an underground sensor designed to detect tunnel construction and operation.

Israel's Spider Technologies Security has produced and delivered sensors meant to detect and track underground and above-ground activity. Executives said the Israeli military as well as the U.S. government have been testing the systems for underground and above-ground movement, including people and vehicles.

Report: Abbas drops demand for settlement freeze under US pressure

September 29, 2009

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Two key Israeli officials will head to Washington on Wednesday for continued talks leading up to renewed peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, reportedly without the pre-condition of a settlement freeze.

Aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attorney, Yitzhak Molcho, and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's chief of staff Michael Herzog will attend the talks with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and senior White House officials, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The article also noted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had dropped the pre-condition of a settlement construction halt under US pressure. In exchange for the pressure for easing Abbas’ demand on settlements, the Israeli daily reported, US President Bacack Obama promised Abbas that the Palestinian viewpoint will be taken into consideration in forming the "framework" for the negotiations.

The same article noted Abbas had significantly weakened his negotiating stance, citing a hand shake between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting with Obama in New York.

The coming talks will continue until 15 October, when Obama instructed Mitchell and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to report to him on progress in the talks, in hopes that a framework for renewed negotiations will be reached by then. Chief Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiator Saeb Erekat will also be in Washington, though it is not clear whether he will participate in the talks.

Next week Mitchell will return to Israel and meet with Netanyahu and Barak.

The Palestinian negotiating team wants to resume negotiation from the point reached in talks with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Netanyahu argues he is not bound by Olmert’s proposals.

According to Haaretz, the Palestinians also want the negotiations to focus on the principle of a solution based on the 1967 borders, while Netanyahu strongly disagrees.

Finally, PA negotiators are reportedly demanding a two-year deadline for the achievement of a permanent agreement, while Israel objects.

Afghanistan: US soldiers gun down schoolboy in Paktika

The teenager was hit in the head by foreign soldiers.
Obaid Kharotai

PAN, September 28, 2009

SHARAN: US forces shot dead a schoolboy on his way home in the southeastern province of Paktika on Monday, the victim's father said.

Ghulam Shah, father of the 13-year-old Zeeshan, told Pajhwok Afghan News his son was returning home on a bicycle from school. He alleged NATO-led soldiers opened fire on the boy in Madatkhel area on the outskirts of Sharan, the provincial capital.

"No one can ask American troops about the killings of our sons, brothers and sisters," an angry Ghulam Shah said, adding that his son also worked with a mechanic in the main Sharan bazaar during his free time.

A Sharan Civil Hospital employee, Najibullah, confirmed receiving Zeeshan's bullet-riddled body. The teenager was hit in the head by foreign soldiers. The ISAF press office in the eastern zone also confirmed the incident and admitted it was a mistaken firing incident.

It said the boy was stuck by a bullet fired into the air and his family members would be provided compensation. The troops expressed sympathies with relatives of the victim.

US war on Pakistan

September 29, 2009

THE US design to destabilize Pakistan is becoming clearer by the day, even for the most blinkered Pakistani. As the US continues to be stalemated in Afghanistan, it has sought to move the centre of gravity of the "war on terror" to Pakistan. Initially it was assumed that this shift would be restricted to FATA, but now it is evident that the US is seeking to engulf the whole of Pakistan in an asymmetric conflict, which will eventually pit the people against the state, especially the military. Reports of a US plan to target Balochistan, including its capital city Quetta are, in all likelihood, correct - more so because the US has not issued even a half-hearted denial on this count. Pakistani officials are admitting that the US has sought to extend drone attacks to Balochistan, especially Quetta. Given the present government's proclivity to accede to all US demands, it should not come as a surprise to soon see these drone attacks taking place.

However, for Pakistan such a development will be suicidal, given the prevailing instability in Balochistan and the continuing lack of trust between the Baloch people and the federation. Worse still, Quetta is an urban centre with a concentration of population. It is also a major military station with the Command and Staff College as well as other formations present in the heart of the city. How far is our military prepared to accommodate the US desire to undermine the country's sovereignty? After all, the drones will push the separatists closer to their goal, while the US will think it can move towards its concept of Greater Balochistan through the break up of Pakistan and Iran. Unfortunately for the US, the Iranian leadership shows no signs of falling prey to such US designs, unlike their Pakistani counterparts.

Top American UN official in Afghanistan sacked

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired the top American official at the UN mission in Afghanistan yesterday after a widely publicised dispute with his boss over how to deal with widespread fraud charges in the country's presidential election.

UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement Ban decided to recall Peter Galbraith, ending his appointment as the U.N.'s deputy special representative.

Galbraith said he disagreed with the head of the mission, Kai Eide, over how the UN should handle the disputed election.

The secretary-general reaffirmed "his full support for Eide" and made his decision "in the best interest of the mission," Montas said, refusing to elaborate.

Galbraith told the Associated Press he was "surprised" by the decision and worried "insufficient attention was given to how this might impact in Afghanistan, or on the reputation of the United Nations."

"I find it quite astonishing that the UN would remove an official for being concerned about fraud in a UN-supported and UN-funded election," he said.

In a statement, Ban thanked Galbraith "for his hard work and professional dedication" and recognized his "important contributions."

Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, confirmed that the two split over election issues but refused to discuss the disagreement after briefing the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

The delay in final results from the Aug. 20 vote has led to fears of a power vacuum in the Afghan government that could endure until spring, even as Taleban violence against US and NATO soldiers and Afghan civilians continues to rise.

Preliminary results show President Hamid Karzai won a majority, with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah in second place.

But proclamation of a winner has been delayed pending a partial recount by the United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) following allegations of widespread fraud.

Abdullah told the Associated Press in a telephone interview from Kabul that Galbraith's removal called into question the impartiality of the UN mission and the credibility of the election process.

Galbraith "had been in favour of vigorous investigations into fraud," he said, and his departure "raises questions about the seriousness of the international institutions in the process" of discerning fraud in the election.

Abdullah said he still supports the UN-backed fraud investigation panel but worries about "deliberate delays."

Galbraith was pushing for things to move quickly and pushed for ballot papers to be ordered for a run-off, if needed, he said.

"When somebody who is considered to be serious about this issue is being fired, then the impression it leaves with the people will not be good," Abdullah said.

"While still I want to be hopeful about the fraud investigation and the role of ECC in it, it's not a good sign."

Galbraith said his removal "is totally a dispute over policy" and had nothing to do with personality clashes.

"The dispute was about whether the United Nations would take action to reduce the risk of fraud prior to the elections, and then after the elections to exclude fraudulent ballots from the count," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Vermont.

Galbraith oversaw electoral matters for the UN before and after the vote.

"Prior to the elections, I was pushing to eliminate as many 'ghost polling stations' as possible on the grounds that they were never going to open, and would therefore be the source of fraudulent votes, and he overruled me," Galbraith said.

He explained that these "ghost polling stations" never existed because "they were in enemy-controlled territory."

"We had a separate disagreement over whether the extensive evidence of fraud collected by the UN mission should be provided to the Electoral Complaints Commission which, of course, I wanted and he didn't," Galbraith said.

"He sided with Karzai who protested my contacting the Independent Election Commission to urge them to maintain their published safeguards on fraud," Galbraith said.

Eide has been criticized for initially praising the election - before the full extent of the fraud became known - and saying it represented "an important achievement" for the people of Afghanistan.

Some US officials already have indicated they would accept Karzai's re-election.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Monday that Karzai could earn the trust of the Afghan people and credibility for his government if he addresses the claims of electoral misconduct.

That stance runs contrary to Galbraith's views, who drew a parallel between the Afghan vote and the rigged 1967 presidential elections in Vietnam which undermined the legitimacy of the U.S.-backed Saigon regime and significantly contributed to its ultimate demise.

Asked about the impact of his firing, Galbraith said, "I hope it does not raise any new questions about these elections, about which enough questions have already been raised."

"And I sincerely hope that it doesn't do anything to increase violence in Afghanistan whose people have suffered enough already," he said.

Britain's UN Ambassador John Sawers said: "We believe Peter Galbraith brought energy and ideas, but there has to be a single leadership on the main issues of policy."

"I think it's mainly a question of whether it was the U.N.'s role to determine the validity or otherwise of the election and the results of that election," he said, adding that the responsibility for determining the election's validity rested with two other independent bodies.

Galbraith worked for the UN in East Timor in 2000-2001 and as the US ambassador to Croatia from 1993 to 1998. He is close to Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan,

Asked about Galbraith's departure, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, told reporters: "That's a United Nations matter."

Galbraith has been in the United States since mid-September, when he left Afghanistan.

He said he expects to return to Afghanistan to make farewell calls and pack up his belongings.

"I expect to resume my previous career as a writer. I will join the public debate on Afghanistan, and I expect to be involved in public life in Vermont," Galbraith said.