Paleo-Case Solved: Ancient Sharks Fed on Giant Reptile

Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer

Some 85 million years ago in a shallow ocean, a handful of what amount to miniature great white sharks were pigging out on the carcass of a giant marine reptile called a plesiosaur, a new study suggests.

During this apparent feeding frenzy, some shark teeth got stuck in the plesiosaur's bones, which were subsequently buried and remained undiscovered until a high-school student in Japan found them in 1968. Other shark tooth fossils were found near the bones. Only recently did paleontologists examine and describe the fossils scientifically.

The results, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, bring to light the diet of ancient sharks. And though the study scientists think the ocean feast was one of scavenging, it's possible the shark gang attacked a vulnerable, elderly reptile, now called Futabasaurus suzukii, while it was alive.

"I'll leave it open for the attack scenario, because we don't know how the animal died," said study researcher Kenshu Shimada of DePaul University in Chicago and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas. "So it is still possible that maybe the plesiosaur was wounded or sick, and maybe the sharks took the opportunity and seized it."

Big suzukii

F. suzukii was a long-necked plesiosaur, a group of reptiles equipped with four paddle-like fins used for propulsion in the world's oceans during the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. Shimada estimates the animal spanned some 23 feet (7 meters) from nose to tail tip.

Though Shimada and his colleagues can't go back in time, they pieced together a plausible scenario by looking at the fossil evidence and accounting for the behavior of modern-day sharks.

The shark evidence included 87 teeth, five embedded in the plesiosaur's bones and the others buried alongside the reptile. The teeth all belonged to Cretalamna appendiculata, a known shark species with a similar (though scaled-down) streamlined body as that of a great white shark. C. appendiculata individuals likely grew to between 6 and 13 feet (2 to 4 meters) long, compared with a great white, which can reach 23 feet (7 meters). Until now, scientists could only speculate as to the diet of this shark species, with many suggesting it ripped into fish with its sharp, cutting teeth.

"It is still possible they could've eaten fish," Shimada said. "But at least this fossil shows the plesiosaur was one of the food items."

Examination of the teeth suggested they came from at least six or seven different C. appendiculata individuals, some juvenile and some adults.

Loose on the scene

If the plesiosaur carcass had remained for long on the sea bottom exposed to the moving water, bones would have been scattered about. That wasn't the case for this F. suzukii.

"The skeleton is pretty much intact. That suggests to me the time between the death of the animal and when it got buried in the sediment was fairly short, at most a few months; that's my gut feeling," Shimada told LiveScience. With teeth from so many individual sharks, it's likely this was a group event.

Shimada added, "For that reason, I wouldn't be surprised if there were multiple sharks feeding at one particular time."

As for the loose teeth, he suspects as the sharks ripped into the plesiosaur's flesh, several teeth came loose and became embedded in the animal's soft tissues. Such tissues degraded over time, leaving the loose teeth buried alongside the plesiosaur's skeletal remains, he said.

Next, Shimada hopes to piece together other feeding interactions of who ate whom during the Cretaceous Period. "One of my goals is to try to reconstruct the food web of the dinosaur-age ocean. This was one piece of the story," Shimada said.

The research was presented last week at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Bristol.

Iran points at Israel 'threat' to Europe, US

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has warned the US and Europe of what he calls Israel's 'danger' over their continuous support for Tel Aviv.

"The US is facing a big test, because Israel is a threat to the region and even to Europe and the USA, and citizens of the West are no longer willing to put up with any more humiliation for supporting racists," Mottaki said during a meeting with Hamas official Musa Muhammad Abu Marzuq in Tehran on Sunday.

He also condemned latest Israeli provocation after Israeli forces shut access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

"The recent acts of the Zionists in the Al-Aqsa Mosque reveal Israel's racist nature and should be a warning to the Muslim and Arab countries," said Mottaki, according to a press release from Iran's Foreign Ministry.

Calling the ratcheting up the pressure against the Palestinians "a violation of human rights", Iran's chief diplomat said the Israeli policies stiffens the resolve of Palestinian residents, "and makes them more resolute on the path of resistance."

Mottaki supported the notion of reconciliation between different Palestinian groups and expressed the hope for the day when the world witnesses "a democratic and popular state with the participation of all Palestinians."

The deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau, for his part, expressed appreciation for the moral support of Iran for the resistance movement.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam's third holiest place, and has been under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967. Israeli authorities have recently shut off the mosque to Muslims and have instead allowed large number of Jewish worshipers into the area of the Dome of the Rock to coincide with the Jewish Festival of Sukkot.

The recent measures have resulted in disturbances in the area and Palestinian casualties.

The Palestinian resistance is fully prepared to counter Israel's warmongering policies, Abu Marzuq said.

London to showcase Iranian artwork

London's Waterhouse & Dodd is planning to display works by 12 Iranian artists in an exhibition of Middle Eastern and Arab art.

Routes II, to be held from October 7 to 23, will showcase some 48 works by 16 aspiring and veteran artists.

Parviz tanavoli, Iman Afsarian, Samira Alikhanzadeh, Afshin Pirhashemi, Khosrow Hasanzadeh, Farhad Moshiri, Shirin Neshat, Sadeq Tirafkan, Reza Derakhshani, Mohammad Ehsai, shadi Qadirian and Ala Ebtekar will represent Iranian art at the event.

Routes II will also showcase works by Ece Clarke (Turkey), Lalla Essaydi (Morocco), Nja Mahdaoui (Tunisia) and Youssef Nabil (Egypt).

The event will be the second edition of Waterhouse & Dodd's contemporary Middle Eastern & Arab art exhibition series.

The first of the annual Routes series, held last year, presented works by some 15 sculptors, photographers, printmakers and painters originally from the Middle East and the Arab world.

Iranian artists represented in Routes I included Parviz Tanavoli, Charles Hossein Zenderoudi, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmian, Farhad Moshiri, among others.

Police disperse Kashmiri protesters

Police have fired tear gas to disperse crowds, defying a curfew in the town of Baramulla in the Indian-administered Kashmir imposed after the death of a teenage boy during an anti-Delhi protest.

Authorities said Monday that 30 policemen and ten protesters were wounded in clashes in Baramulla since Saturday.

The city has been hit by violent protests after a 12-year Muslim boy was killed and ten others injured Friday in clashes between police and stone-throwing youths protesting against Indian rule in the region. Witnesses say the boy died after a tear gas canister hit his head.

Following the incident, local authorities imposed a curfew and issued a protest ban in the region.

Angry Kashmiris, however, defied the curfew and poured into the streets shouting: "We want freedom" and "blood for blood" as police fired teargas canisters and used batons to break up the protesters, who retaliated by hurling stones at police.

Police have also detained a number of Kashmiris on Saturday just outside Srinagar as they were heading to Baramulla to join the protests.

"Adequate security forces have been deployed to deal with the situation," an official said, Dawn reported.

Death toll from floods rises to 205 in south India

By NIRMALA GEORGE, Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI – Medical teams rushed Sunday to flood-devastated southern India where five days of torrential rain have left at least 205 people dead and 750,000 displaced, authorities said.

The floods have submerged entire villages, snapped transport and communication links and raised fears of disease spreading in relief camps crowded with people forced from their homes. Large parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states have been inundated.

Air force helicopters dropped food and drinking water packages to hundreds of villages that remained cut off after roads were submerged or washed away.

In Karnataka, the worst-hit of the two states, 168 people have died and more than 300,000 have been displaced, authorities said.

In neighboring Andhra Pradesh, 37 people have died and around 450,000 have been displaced and were sheltering in 100 relief camps, said state chief minister K. Rosaiah.

"We are rushing medical teams and equipment to the camps" to ward off outbreaks of disease in the camps, Rosaiah said.

Flooding worsened after authorities released water from rain-swollen reservoirs and dams in both states to prevent them from bursting their banks.

Army soldiers used boats to ferry villagers stranded on rooftops to government schools or relief camps on higher ground. Doctors were distributing water purifying tablets and providing medical services in the camps, but facilities were poor and crowded.

In places where villagers refused to leave their homes, drinking water was being supplied by tankers to prevent the outbreak of waterborne diseases, said D. Prasada Rao, state revenue minister in Andhra Pradesh.

Just weeks ago, most parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were suffering from severe drought due to the failure of monsoon rains. Weather officials say an area of low pressure in the Bay of Bengal has caused the sudden, torrential rains.

UK general warns of losing Afghan war

Fresh from his meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Britain's new chief of the General Staff has said that the risks to the West would be 'enormous' if NATO fails to restore security in Afghanistan.

The Daily Telegraph published an interview on Saturday in which General Sir David Richards warned of the "terrifying prospect" of defeat for international forces in Afghanistan, and pleaded for a troop surge in the country.

"If al-Qaeda and the Taliban believe they have defeated us; what next? Would they stop at Afghanistan?" he asked.

General Richards also backed US Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, who has called for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan.

"If you put in more troops, we can achieve the objectives laid upon us more quickly and with less casualties,'' he noted, urging the British public and the government to heed the risk of losing the war.

With about 9,000 British troops in Afghanistan, Britain is the second-largest contributor to the occupation coalition. A spokesperson for the British military said earlier that the UK role is expected to rise following McChrystal's request.

Western countries have been under popular pressure to withdraw their troops from the war-ravaged country due the rising violence which has been claiming lives of coalition forces and inflicting much heavier casualty on Afghan civilians.

Israel shuts down Al-Aqsa mosque, turns violent

Israeli police have fired tear gas at Palestinians protesting the closure of Al-Aqsa holy compound (Temple Mount) in the occupied Jerusalem.

Israeli security forces beefed up security in the Old City Sunday and denied entry to the compound where the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine are located, said Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian-appointed governor of Jerusalem.

"The situation is very tense in the Old City," Husseini said.

An Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, also confirmed that the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, had been "shut to visitors."

Some 150 Palestinians protested the closure of the site, hurling stones and bottles at riot police.

Palestinian medical officials said nine people were treated for minor injuries including tear gas inhalation. Israel said one policeman was hurt by a rock.

Israeli police claim that the decision to close the site was made following calls, spread on the Palestinian media on Saturday evening and throughout the night, to "come protect the Mount."

Many Jewish visitors are also expected to flock to Jerusalem during the holiday of Sukkot, particularly to the Old City and the Western Wall.

Last week, 30 people were injured in similar clashes near the Al-Aqsa mosque, as Palestinians warned of a possible new uprising.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during a 1967 aggression and later annexed it. The status of the city is among the thorniest issues of the peace process with the Palestinians, underscoring the reality that any Palestinian state should include the city as its capital.

Heavy rains hold up search for bodies in Indonesia

By ERIC TALMADGE and IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writers

JUMANAK, Indonesia – Heavy rains hampered search teams Sunday in the hills of western Indonesia where hundreds of people were buried alive in landslides triggered by a massive earthquake that wiped out four villages.

Officials said at least 644 people were buried and presumed dead in the hillside villages in Padang Pariaman district on the western coast of Sumatra island.

Aid and rescue efforts have been concentrated in the region's capital, Padang, a coastal city of 900,000 people where several tall buildings collapsed and hundreds died.

But the quake was equally devastating in Pariaman, where entire hillsides were shaken loose, sending down a cascade of mud, rocks and trees. Hordes of aid workers, military personnel, police and volunteers carrying heavy earth-moving equipment finally arrived Sunday to relieve residents who had been digging for corpses with their bare hands.

Women wept silently as bodies were placed in bright yellow bags.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said there was little hope of finding anyone alive.

"We can be sure that they are dead. So now we are waiting for burials," he told reporters.

There is no clear word on the total death toll from Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude quake. The United Nations put the toll at 1,100. The government earlier said 715 were dead and 3,000 missing. But it revised the figure Sunday to say 603 people are confirmed dead and 960 missing, presumed dead. The missing include the people buried in the landslides.

Where the four villages once stood in Pariaman, there was only mud and broken palm trees — the mountainsides appeared gouged bare as if by a gigantic backhoe.

The villages "were sucked 30 meters (100 feet) deep into the earth," said Rustam Pakaya, the head of Indonesia's Health Ministry crisis center. "Even the mosque's minaret, taller than 20 meters (65 feet), disappeared."

In Jumanak village, some 200 to 300 wedding guests at a restaurant were buried alive, including the bride, her 15-year-old brother, Iseh, told The Associated Press.

He said his sister Ichi, 19, had come back to the village for her wedding.

"When the landslide came, the party had just finished. I heard a big boom of the avalanche. I ran outside and saw the trees fall down," said Iseh, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

"I tried to get in front of the house with my brothers. We were so afraid. Landslides started coming from all directions. I just ran and then I waited," he said.

Iseh says he knows of only 10 people from the village who survived. He doesn't know the fate of his parents or brothers.

The adjacent villages of Pulau Aiya, Lubuk Lawe and Limo Koto Timur were also swept away.

By mid-afternoon Sunday, a heavy downpour lashed the area, raising fears of a fresh landslide. The police ordered everybody to evacuate.

The villages were accessible only by foot as landslides cut off all roads. An AP team reached Jumanak after walking about four miles (six kilometers) for 1 1/2 hours.

In Agam district, which is much closer to Padang, a villager said she and hundreds of others had no food, clothes and clean water.

"Our house is gone ... everything is gone," sobbed Laila, who also uses one name.

She said a helicopter dropped some instant noodle packets Saturday. "But we need clean water to cook it," she said, adding that the local river had become dirty as people were using it to wash.

In Padang, rescuers have all but given up hope of finding any survivors in the rubble of the 140-room, Dutch-colonial style Ambacang Hotel. Some 200 people were in the hotel when it collapsed. Search teams have found 29 bodies so far, and no one alive.

"After four days ... to find survivors is almost impossible," said Lt. Col. Harris, the chief of the 50-member rescue team, which comprises military, police and Red Cross personnel. "The smell of decomposing bodies is very strong," said Harris, who uses one name.

According to the National Disaster Management Agency, 83,712 houses, 200 public buildings and 285 schools were destroyed. Another 100,000 buildings and 20 miles (31 kilometers) of road were badly damaged, and five bridges collapsed.

Hundreds of doctors, nurses, search and rescue experts and cleanup crews arrived Saturday at the Padang airport from around the world with tons of food, tents, medicine, clean water, generators and a field hospital.

But with no electricity, fuel shortages and telecommunication outages, the massive operation was chaotic.

Deliveries came on C-130 cargo planes from the United States, Russia and Australia. Japanese, Swiss, South Korean and Malaysian search and rescue teams scoured the debris. Tens of millions of dollars in donations came from more than a dozen countries to supplement $400 million the Indonesian government said it would spend over the next two months.

The U.N. said there are sufficient fuel stocks in the area for four days, but with the road to a major depot cut off by landslides, gasoline prices had jumped six-fold.

Areas with "huge levels of damage to infrastructure were in need of basic food and tents for temporary shelter," it said.

Wednesday's quake originated on the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

On Sunday, a 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook the eastern province of West Papua, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no reports of casualties. The quake's epicenter was 128 kilometers (80 kilometers) northwest of the provincial capital of Manokawar, the only major center of inhabitation. The region is about 3,500 kilometers (2,160 miles) from Sumatra.

Indonesia prepares for mass burial of quake victims

PADANG, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesians dug a pit for a mass burial in the earthquake shattered city of Padang on Sunday, while in nearby hills villagers with wooden hoes clawed in the mud in a near-hopeless search for hundreds entombed by landslides.

Rescue teams combing the rubble of Padang said there was little hope of finding more survivors from a disaster that authorities say may have killed 3,000 people.

As relief workers pushed deeper inland from the coastal city, they found entire villages obliterated by landslides and homeless survivors desperate for food, water and shelter.

"I am the only one left," said Zulfahmi, 39, who was in the village of Kapalo Koto, near Pariaman, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Padang, with 36 family members when Wednesday's 7.6 magnitude quake struck.

"My child, my wife, my mother-in-law, they are all gone. They are under the earth now."

Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadillah Supari, told Reuters by telephone that the government estimated the death toll could reach 3,000, adding that disease was becoming a concern, especially in Padang city, where a pervading stench of decomposing bodies hangs over the ruined buildings.

"We are trying to recover people from the debris, dead or alive. We are trying to help survivors to stay alive. We are now focusing on minimizing post-quake deaths," she said.

In Padang, a port city of 900,000 that was once a center of the spice trade, rescuers picked through collapsed buildings to look for perhaps thousands of people still buried.

"We are doing final checks before we can declare the rescue phase is over. We think it's the end of the rescue phase," said British rescue worker Peter Old, of Rapid UK. "There's very little chance of finding people alive."

A pit had been dug in the Tunggul Hitam public cemetery in Padang for a mass burial of 11 unidentified bodies retrieved from the ruined Ambacang Hotel, a landmark in a town famous across Indonesia for its spicy cuisine and dramatic curved roofs.

A huge rescue operation at the hotel involving international teams with sniffer dogs had failed to find anyone alive inside.

MINARET COMPLETLEY BURIED

In remoter areas, the scale of the disaster was still becoming clear, with at least five villages swallowed by torrents of mud and rock. One landslide hit a wedding party.

"In the villages in Pariaman, we estimate about 600 people died," said Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry's crisis center. Pariaman, closer to the epicenter, is one of the worst-affected areas.

"In one of the villages, there's a 20-meter-high minaret, it was completely buried, there's nothing left, so I presume the whole village is buried by a 30-meter deep landslide."

In another rural area, a resident said it was too late for aid.

"Don't bother trying to bring aid up there," said Afiwardi, who pointed past a landslide that cut off a road. "Everyone is dead."

BUILDINGS NOT QUAKE-PROOF

Indonesia's disaster agency said 20,000 buildings had been damaged in the quake, with most government offices destroyed.

"Such widespread infrastructure damage will make it hard for the city to bounce back," said Eko Suhadi, spokesman for the Indonesian Red Cross.

In a sign of a slow return to normalcy, shops had reopened in some parts of Padang and a Pizzahut restaurant was crowded with guests. But close to the badly hit Chinatown district, six women were drawing filthy water from a monsoon drain.

Padang lies on one of the most active faultlines in the world, but a geologist said the city had been ill-prepared and remained at risk of being wiped out in the next decade by a more powerful earthquake.

"I think Padang is totally unprepared. Generally, the existing structures are not designed to be quake-proof and that's why the devastation is so great," said Danny Hilman Natawidjaja from the Indonesian Science Institute.

Diplomat says UN muzzled criticism of Afghan vote

WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - A U.S. diplomat fired in Afghanistan said on Sunday the United Nations not only ignored massive fraud in the August election but also told him to keep quiet, then dissembled about his firing.

Peter Galbraith, former deputy to U.N. special envoy Kai Eide, wrote in Sunday's Washington Post that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's final instruction before firing him last week was "Do not talk to the press."

He agreed, then received assurances from an immediate supervisor that his dismissal statement would cite a dispute over how the U.N. mission was handling Afghan electoral fraud.

Instead, he said, U.N. officials announced his firing was in the "best interests of the mission" and leaked that there was personality clash with Eide, his longtime friend.

"I might have tolerated even this last act of dishonesty in a dispute dating back many months if the stakes were not so high," wrote Galbraith, an ally of Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"But in my view, the fraud was a fact that the United Nations had to acknowledge or risk losing its credibility with the many Afghans who did not support President Hamid Karzai," wrote Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia.

The outcome of the Aug. 20 election has yet to be decided, amid accusations of massive fraud, and in public all Western diplomatic missions in Kabul say they are reserving judgment until a complaints process is complete.

Galbraith, son of the late Canadian-American economist John Kenneth Galbraith, chronicled U.N. efforts to ignore fraud allegations for fear of raising tensions in the country.

He said he was told to stop talking about 1,500 polling stations so insecure they could not open on Election Day.

"Eide ordered me not to discuss the ghost polling centers any further," he wrote. "On Election Day, these sites produced hundreds of thousands of phony Karzai votes.

"At other critical stages in the election process, I was similarly ordered not to pursue the issue of fraud."

Those included evidence collected by his staff on hundreds of individual cases of fraud as well as information on southern provinces were more votes were reported than cast, he said.

Galbraith called the elections, which he said were managed by a pro-Karzai election council "a foreseeable train wreck".

He said the fraud "handed the Taliban its greatest strategic victory in eight years of fighting the United States and its Afghan partners".

U.S. officials have cited the dispute over the election results as a main reason for President Barack Obama's decision last month to review its whole policy toward the region, where more than 60,000 American troops are deployed.

"President Obama needs a legitimate Afghan partner to make any new strategy for the country work," Galbraith wrote.

"However, the extensive fraud that took place on Aug. 20 virtually guarantees that a government emerging from the tainted vote will not be credible with many Afghans."

IAEA to inspect Fordu facility late October

The visiting head of the UN nuclear watchdog says inspectors from the IAEA are to visit Iran's new uranium enrichment plant southwest of Tehran in late October.

"I am pleased to say … we agreed that our inspectors would come here on the 25th of October to do the inspection," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Mohamed ElBaradei told a press conference in Tehran.

The date was confirmed by the country's atomic chief Ali-Akbar Salehi who was also present at the session.

The Fordu uranium enrichment plant, which lies 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Tehran near the holy city of Qom, is currently under construction.

Iran has announced the existence of Fordu nuclear plant 12 months earlier than the agency requirement for member states to inform the UN nuclear watchdog of new developments.

ElBaradei also spoke of an upcoming meeting of US, French, Russian and Iranian officials on October 19 for talks of possible enrichment of Iran's uranium to a higher grade abroad.

"We will have a meeting to discuss the technical details and hopefully we will hammer out an agreement as early as possible," he said.

"We will have a meeting on October 19th with the participation of the United States, Russia, France, and of course the agency will act as a convener of the meeting," the former Egyptian diplomat added.

The Tehran research reactor which produces radiomedicine for cancer patients runs on uranium that is some 20 percent U-235 - an enrichment level higher than that currently produced by Iran's Natanz enrichment facility.

Reports by some media outlets last week indicated that Iran had agreed to ship low-grade uranium to Russia and have it returned to Tehran after it had been enriched to a level of 20 percent.

According to the reports France would replace the uranium in sealed fuel assemblies that Iran would later use to operate a Tehran reactor which produces medical isotopes.

Iranian officials however rejected reports that it reached a deal with world powers to ship its enriched uranium abroad for further processing.

Iranian officials say, however, that the offer to "purchase" 20 percent enriched uranium is what would be discussed at an October 18 meeting with the IAEA, stressing that the session would have nothing to do with the Geneva talks.

Iran says that it will take the best offer from either of the sales candidates, which include Russia, France and the United States.

On Thursday, diplomats from Iran and the six world powers (China, Russia, the US, Britain, Germany, and France) took part in the first session of a new round of wide-ranging talks over global issues in Geneva.

Larijani warns of West desire to dominate

Amid wide-ranging talks between Tehran and the P5+1, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warns of 'the Western desire to dominate and demand'.

Larijani, who was formerly the chief nuclear negotiator before taking up the top seat in the Parliament (Majlis), said world powers have been setting the stage to continue their “unwarranted demands” on Iran's enrichment activity.

Referring to the recent media hype over the recently-revealed Fordu enrichment facility in southern Tehran, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Iran has always come clean about its nuclear developments.

This is while, according to Larijani, there is no room for Western concern, let alone demands, as the country's nuclear work have always been “a clear-cut process”.

“Their hypercritical claims against Iran's enrichment work have proven to be nothing but lame excuses. They obviously want to make further demands on the country's nuclear issue,” said Larijani in a Sunday meeting with the Algerian ambassador to Tehran.

Larijani's remarks come only days after Iranian diplomats resumed high-level negotiations with representatives of the P5+1 (Russia, China, France, Britain and the US plus German) in Geneva.

The talks, which focused on a whole range of global issues including Iran's nuclear program, is slated to continue through October.

Iran's performance and the P5+1 attitude during the meeting was somehow well-received by lawmakers, with some going as far as calling the sit-down as “a significant breakthrough.”

Hossein Sobhani-Nia, the Deputy Chairman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the negotiations show that Western superpowers have come to terms with Iran's right to attain peaceful nuclear technology.

“For starters, Western diplomats finally changed their stance in the meeting and adopted a positive approach towards Iran's nuclear issue,” said Sobhani-Nia.

“Iran's determination to defend its nuclear rights and the country's unity on the issue gave it a strong position in the talks,” he added.

Although the meeting was considered as productive by all parties, including the Americans and the Europeans, the US congress was quick to introduce a series of resolutions supporting increased economic sanctions against Iran, in case the talks fail.

"If we want to get their attention, we have to do something real: sanction Iran's gasoline imports," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, in a Friday address.

Talks of imposing tough sanctions on Iran's gas and energy sector have been going on for some time.

Earlier in April, a group of American lawmakers advocated the imposition of “tight and crippling sanctions” against countries that sell refined petroleum, including gasoline, to Iran.

Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil exporter but, according to US estimates, the country relies on gasoline imports to meet 40 percent of its domestic demand.

Iranian officials have shrugged off US threat of gas sanctions. Ali Asghar Arshi, executive director for international affairs at National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC), recently said that the country would have no trouble finding new gasoline suppliers, even if Washington goes ahead and imposes sanctions on all the oil firms that deal with Tehran.

“We can manage ... we have alternatives and we can do something about consumption and also production,” Arshi had said.

Egyptian ministry under fire for gas deal with Israel

Sun Oct 4, 2009

The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum is facing legal action for exporting natural gas to Israel over the past four years, without having parliament's approval.

The Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt started its new judiciary year by looking into the case filed against the Ministry of Petroleum for exporting gas to Israel, Press TV correspondent in Cairo reported.

The ministry has appealed against the court's ruling, which annulled a 2005 Egyptian-Israeli agreement for export of natural gas to Israel.

The court has postponed the verdict until November 7th.

The ministry says the gas deal is in line with the 1979 gas deal between Israel and Egypt.

Opponents of the deal say the deal violates the Egyptian constitution because it has not been approved by the parliament.

They say Egypt's limited natural resources should have been consumed locally, instead of being exported to Israel at low prices.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/107794.html.

UN rights monitor condemns Marwa's murder

In response to a letter form Iran's parliament, UN's top human rights monitor has condemned the death of an Egyptian woman brutally killed in a courtroom in the German city of Dresden.

Egyptian researcher, Marwa El-Sherbini was killed in early July when she sued her neighbor for insulting her and calling her a terrorist for wearing a headscarf.

The defendant approached the witness stand during the hearing, stabbed Marwa 18 times in front of her 3-year-old son while the whole jury and court officials stood by and watched.

Her husband, Elwi Ali Okaz, who attempted to shield his wife, was shot by security guards who said they had confused him with the assailant.

Iranian lawmaker, Fatemeh Alia had in July written to Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to express Iran's concern over the disturbing increase of Xenophobic sentiments in the West.

Alia who also heads the human rights committee of Iran's parliament, had called on the human rights monitor to take into consideration the circumstances of El-Sherbini's murder.

"I have read your letter of 14 July 2009 concerning the murder of Ms. Marveh Sharbini and I fully share your feelings of sadness and consternation," Pillay wrote in response.

The letter obtained by Press TV, also denounces all forms of "racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in all parts of the world."

"I condemn all manifestations thereof," the UN official added.

Iran planning to send astronaut into space

After a series of breakthroughs in space research and technology, Iran sets the wheels turning on plans to send its first astronaut into orbit.

Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Reza Taqipour, said Wednesday that scientists are exploring ways to implement preliminary plans to launch a manned mission into space.

“We have a clear outline of the plans, but at the same time we are aware that implementing our plans depend on a broad national participation,” Taqipour told Mehrnews on Saturday.

Earlier in February, Iran went down in history for placing its domestically-made satellite into orbit and thus joining a small group of countries that have the ability of both producing satellites and sending them into space using domestic launchers.

The Omid data-processing satellite was designed to circle the Earth 15 times every 24 hours and to transmit data via two frequency bands and eight antennas to an Iranian space station.

With a full mission accomplished, Omid went up in flames in late March after successfully ending its 50-day orbit around space.

Iran's space breakthrough came as a big surprise for European powers and the US, mainly because the country has been under Western sanctions for nearly 30 years.

MIT scientist Geoffrey Forden said Iran's breakthrough in space research and technology is to such an extent that the country "could get a person up into low-Earth orbit certainly within the next few years, at the rate they're going."

Forden, a former inspector with the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), said Iran has designed the Omid data-processing satellite using state-of-the-art technology such as more efficient hydrazine fuel.

"If Iran really has developed more advanced rockets that can burn more efficient fuel, then it is a step closer to launching people into space," Forden said in an article in New Scientist.

UN nuclear watchdog sees turning point over Iran

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog on Sunday described a "shifting of gears" in the controversy over Iran's nuclear program and said inspectors would visit the country's new uranium processing site Oct. 25.

Mohamed ElBaradei spoke in Tehran following talks with Iranian officials over the recently revealed facility that has caused consternation around to world over the extent and purpose of Iran's nuclear program.

"I see that we are at a critical moment, I see that we are shifting gears from confrontation into transparency and cooperation," said Elbaradei as he announced the new inspection date.

"I hope and trust Iran will be helpful with our inspectors so it is possible for us to be able to assess our verification of the facility as early as possible," he added, while sitting next to Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's nuclear program.

The revelation that Iran has been building a new nuclear plant near the holy city of Qom has heightened the concern of the U.S. and many of its allies, which suspect Tehran is using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for developing a weapons-making capability.

Iran denies such an aim, saying it only wants to generate energy.

Obama and the leaders of France and Britain accused Iran of keeping the construction hidden from the world for years. The U.S. president said last month that Iran's actions "raised grave doubts" about its promise to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only.

ElBaradei admitted that the International Atomic Energy Agency has "concerns about Iran's future intentions," but that added that "the agency has no concrete proof of an ongoing weapons program in Iran," he added.

"We need transparency on the part of Iran and we need cooperation on the part of the international community," he said.

Iran agreed to allow U.N. inspectors into the facility at a landmark meeting with six world powers near Geneva on Thursday that put nuclear talks back on track and included the highest-level bilateral contact with the U.S. in three decades.

Iranian officials argue that under IAEA safeguard rules, a member nation is required to inform the U.N. agency about the existence of a nuclear facility six months before introducing nuclear material into the machines. Iran says the new facility won't be operational for 18 months, and so it has not violated any IAEA requirements.

The IAEA has said that Iran is obliged under the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to notify the organization when it begins to design a new nuclear facility.

Suspicion that Iran's newly revealed nuclear site was meant for military purposes was heightened by its location, at least partly inside a mountain and next to a military base.

ElBaradei also discussed a plan to allow Russia to take some of Iran's processed uranium and enrich it to higher levels to fuel a research reactor in Tehran.

He said that there would be a meeting Oct. 19 in Vienna with Iran, the U.S., France and Russia to discuss the details of that agreement.

Cornerstone laid for Jordan-India venture

SHIDIYA - His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday laid the cornerstone for a $625 million Jordanian-Indian project for the manufacturing of phosphoric acid that is expected to earn the Kingdom about $300 million in export revenues annually.

The project, located in Maan Governorate about 330 kilometres to the south of the capital, will start commercial operation in 2012, its managers said.

It will create 2,000 jobs in the construction phase and 800 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs when the plant goes operational, according to the owners.

At the ceremony to lay the cornerstone for the project, King Abdullah received a sample of Jordan's first yellow cake manufactured by the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC). It will be manufactured at a commercial level soon.

The Shidiya project is owned by the Jordan India Fertilizer Company (JIFCO), which is a joint venture between the JPMC and Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO), which is owned by 40,000 farmers' cooperative societies with a membership base of 50 million farmers in India.

The project entails creating a plant for sulfuric acid with a capacity of 4,500 metric tonnes per day (mtpd) and a phosphoric acid plant with a capacity of 1,500 mtpd, in addition to facilities.

"The project is part of a matrix of projects which the JPMC intends to realize by 2013 with investments exceeding $1.3 billion with the aim of modernizing the present fertilizer plants and increasing their output by 350,000 tonnes annually, JPMC Deputy Executive Director Mohammad Bader Khan said at the ceremony.

U.S. Awasthi, deputy chairman of JIFCO and IFFCO's CEO and managing director, said the project was conceived based on the "strong ties" between the JPMC and IFFCO.

"The joint venture is a strategic partnership between the JPMC and IFFCO wherein JPMC will be supplying around two million tonnes of rock phosphate to the project from nearby mines in Jordan, while IFFCO will be receiving a consistent supply of phosphoric acid to meet its needs in India," Awasthi said.

According to Awasthi, IFFCO has a capacity to produce about four million tonnes of urea and four million tonnes DAP/NPK fertilizers per year.

"The project will provide an assured supply of phosphate input to Indian agriculture for sustenance in food grain production," said Awasthi.

Bader Khan, who reviewed the company's plans for expansion and future projects, said these plans include the increase in the output of diammonium phosphate and phosphoric acid at the Fertilizers Industrial Complex in Aqaba. The $90 million project, which is still under construction, will be completed by the end of 2011 and will increase production of phosphoric acid annually by 100,000 tonnes and diammonium phosphate fertilizer by 350,000 tonnes per year.

Bader Khan also referred to another project to create a plant for the production of different phosphoric and potash fertilizers near the Wadi Al Abiad Phosphate Mine, to the north of Maan. The $80 million project, which will be operated in partnership with Bahrain, Arab and local investors, is also expected to start production in 2011.

He also highlighted other schemes by the JPMC designed to increase production and improve infrastructure.

Also yesterday, King Abdullah visited the project of the AREVA/Jordanian-French Uranium Mining Company in Swaqa, where he was briefed on the progress of the project for mining uranium, which is currently in its second phase.

The King was briefed on the steps that have been taken to facilitate the beginning of the second phase of the project to explore uranium.

At a meeting with experts from French nuclear manufacturer, AREVA and the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), the King stressed his commitment for the development of clean and renewable energy projects using the best and most advanced technologies.

The Monarch also visited a work site, looked at extracted samples and was briefed on measures taken to implement the project.

JAEC Chairman Khaled Toukan reiterated that initial indicators during the first explorations were positive and encouraging so that Jordan could become one of the first producers and exporters of uranium.

Launched in September 2008, the project covers an area of 1,469 square kilometres.
The project feasibility studies are expected to be completed by the end of this year. After that, the actual planning to build a uranium extracting mine will begin, Toukan added.

By Mohammad Ghazal

Palestinians: Abbas betraying martyrs' blood

The Palestinian Authority has come under fire from other factions including Hamas over its request from the UN Human Rights Council to defer a vote.

Taher Al-Nouno, a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, said the PA's request constitutes "a serious crime against our people, a betrayal to the blood of our martyrs and collaboration with the Zionist enemy and cooperation with it in the war and aggression on Gaza."

"Not adopting the report means giving the green light to the occupation forces to carry out more war crimes against the Gaza Strip as long as it will not be held accountable for its actions with a Palestinian cover", Arab news quoted him as saying.

Palestinian Economy Minister Bassem Khuri resigned on Saturday to protest the "Palestinian Authority's agreement not to discuss the Goldstone Report," an official close to him said.

The adoption of the report, which looked into Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, was deferred by six months after the Palestinian Authority on Thursday decided to drop its draft resolution condemning Israel's conduct during the offensive.

The PA had originally planned to present the draft to the council for a vote in Geneva on Friday.

Mohammed Al-Hindi, a senior Islamic Jihad official, said: "While we are celebrating the release of our prisoners from the Zionist prison, the PA continues to cooperate with the Israeli plot to erase signs of the massacre against the Palestinian people."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestine People Party also condemned the PA's decision and called for the PLO's executive committee to convene to discuss the issue.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has described Fatah's decision as an instance of "capitulation to Israeli dictates."

For their part, 14 Palestinian human rights organizations said the PA's request "deprived the Palestinian people of an effective judicial investigation and from the protection of the law."

Schools all over the Gaza Strip went on strike in protest at the PA's decision.

Sources say the administration of U-S President Barack Obama has forced the decision on Fatah.

The report issued by UN human rights investigator Richard Goldstone has strongly criticized Israel over its 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip and called for the prosecution of Israeli officials.

Earthquake shakes Indonesia again

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake has struck Indonesia after Wednesday's powerful quake, according to the Indonesian seismologist agency.

The quake hit on Sunday at 12:36 pm local time (0336 GMT) at a depth of 39 km, 128 km northwest of the provincial capital of Manokwari on West Papua province.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or structural damage from Sunday's temblor.

Earlier on Wednesday, a 7.6-magnitude quake rocked Sumatra Island in the west of the country, burying thousands and devastating the city of Padang and surrounding villages.

In West Sumatra, rescue workers intensified their search for survivors who trapped under rubble of collapsed.

Indonesia's disaster management agency put the toll of confirmed dead and missing at 946. The United Nations said more than 1,000 had been killed in and around Padang.

Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari has said the death toll would rise to the low thousands but probably remain below 4,000.

Greek voters to cast ballot in snap elections

Greek voters head to the polls for a snap election being held under the shadow of a looming recession, with the opposition socialists likely to win.

Led by former foreign minister George Papandreou, who is the son of late prime minister Andreas Papandreou, the socialist PASOK party held a lead of 5-7 points over the ruling conservatives in the opinion polls published two weeks ago.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called the snap election halfway through his four-year term with his New Democracy party, stung and distracted by corruption scandals, finding it increasingly difficult to govern as the country faces a dire economic crisis.

Buoyed for years by growth rates around four percent, partly attributed to EU funds, Greece is now on the brink of recession with output growth at near zero.

Greece's public debt, one of the highest in the euro zone, is set to exceed 100 percent of its gross domestic products (GDP) this year, and the European Union placed the country under supervision in April over its excessive budget deficit.

Greece's 9.8 million registered voters will be able to cast their ballots at over 20,800 polling stations on Sunday.

Lebanon sentences 3 over plot to kill Libyan premier

Sun Oct 4, 2009

A military court in Beirut has sentenced two Lebanese nationals along with a fugitive Libyan man to life in prison and hard labor over charges of planning to murder Libya's prime minister.

Military Examining Magistrate Fadi Sawwan made the ruling against Lebanese citizens Mehdi al-Hajj Hasan, his son, Haidar, and Libyan Abdel Salam Mohammed.

According to the senior judge, the convicts sought to carry out their assassination bid last June when they placed explosive charges inside a package bound for Libya.

The parcel was, however, seized by the Lebanese General Security before it could reach the North African state.

The two Lebanese men have explained seeking revenge for Imam Moussa Sadr's disappearance along with his companions in Libya in 1978 as the motive behind their plot to murder the Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmudi.

Iranian-born Lebanese philosopher and prominent Shia leader, Imam Moussa Sadr, and two of his companions went missing during an official visit to Libya in August 1978. They were scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's.

The case has been a long-standing sore issue in Lebanon, where authorities blame Tripoli for the disappearance of the three. Libya, nonetheless, claims that Sadr and his companions left the African nation for Italy.

This is while, there are allegations that the top Shia figure is secretly being incarcerated at a detention facility in the mostly desert Libya.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/107773.html.

Abdullah questions UN impartiality in Afghan vote

Abdullah Abdullah, the main challenger to incumbent President Hamid Karzai, has raised serious doubts about the neutrality of the UN since the August poll in Afghanistan.

During a Saturday news conference in Kabul, the former foreign minister sharply criticized the head of the United Nations' mission in Afghanistan.

Abdullah emphasized that Kai Eide, the UN special envoy to the country, had worked against uncovering the full extent of fraud in the polls, which were also marred by the Taliban intimidation.

He also suggested that a full internal inquiry was needed into Eide's conduct, saying that the alleged fraud had "greatly damaged" the reputation of the UN in Afghanistan.

"... But as far as I am concerned, in my mind I have no doubt that it has seriously damaged the UN's credibility in Afghanistan."

The sharp criticism comes after the dismissal of a key deputy to Eide. Deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan Peter Galbraith was sacked over a dispute with his superior about how to handle allegations of fraud.

Galbraith had requested the annulment of the votes in 1,000 of the 25,000 polling stations and a recount of ballots at 5,000 more. Eide, however, had called for the recount of 1,000 polling stations.

The UN mission alongside the Kabul government was responsible for the election's smooth running in the war-ravaged country.

The final and uncertified count of votes indicated a Karzai victory in the Afghan presidential election. The results showed Karzai gaining more than 54.6 percent of the vote and rival Abdullah Abdullah, who managed to win less than 27.8 percent.

The election has been overshadowed by allegations of widespread fraud. Should fraud investigations cause Karzai's figure to drop below 50 percent, he would have to go and compete against Abdullah in a second round of elections.

Israel musing over another Gaza onslaught: Report

The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement known as the Al-Quds Brigades says that Tel Aviv is mulling over another round of attacks on the Gaza Strip.

"The ongoing status quo has led the military arm of Islamic Jihad to infer Israel was planning an imminent but unspecified incursion in the coming days or weeks," a spokesman for the Al-Quds Brigades, Abu Ahmad, was quoted as saying by Ma'an news agency.

The Gazans are still struggling with the aftermath of the Operation Cast Lead, which resulted in the death of over 1,500 Palestinians and the injury of about 5,450 people in the impoverished coastal sliver.

With USD 1.6 billion damage inflicted upon Gaza's economy during three weeks of relentless Israeli bombardment this January, the Palestinians in the strip are striving hard to survive under a siege preventing any import or export. The carnage has left 44 percent of the population in the war-wreaked enclave unemployed.

Meanwhile, a United Nations inquiry led by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone detailed what investigators called Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during Tel Aviv's winter offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The 575-page report by Goldstone and three other investigators asserts seven incidents, in which Palestinian civilians were shot while leaving their homes, trying to run for safety or waving white flags.

According to the report, Israel has targeted a mosque at prayer time, killing 15 people, and has shelled a Gaza City house where soldiers had forced Palestinian civilians to assemble. These attacks constituted war crimes, the report says.

The probe also found that Israel violated international humanitarian law in many different manners. Dozens of Palestinian policemen were killed at the start of the Gaza onslaught when Israel bombed their stations. The security agents were not involved in hostilities and should have been treated as civilians.

Palestinians, in addition, were forced to walk ahead of the Israeli soldiers, providing human shields for the troops, who were searching civilian neighborhoods.

Israeli troops close Ibrahimi Mosque to non-Jews

Israel has closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil (Hebron) to Muslims for two days under the pretext of a Jewish holiday.

"Israeli troops have been deployed outside the structure since late Friday evening and designated the area for the exclusive use of Jewish settlers until Monday," Head of the Endowment and Religious Affairs Department in al-Khalil (Hebron), Zeid al-Ja'bari, said on Saturday.

The Ibrahimi Mosque compound also known as the Sanctuary of Abraham is Judaism's second-holiest site after the Temple Mount. It is also a place of veneration for Christians. The 1,000-year-old Ibrahimi Mosque is the second holiest Islamic site in the Palestinian territory after al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The mosque was divided into Muslim and Jewish sections by the Israeli government's Shamgar Committee after a 1994 massacre that killed 29 Muslim worshipers and left 150 others wounded.

Since then, Israeli authorities have violated Muslim rights in the Ibrahimi Mosque under the pretext of Jewish holidays and restricted Muslims from praying in the mosque. The Israeli officials have also prevented the call to prayer for the evening and night worship times.

Radical Jewish settlers have at times desecrated this holy Mosque and ridiculed Muslims while praying there.

Extremist settlers are said to be trying to bar Muslims from entering the Ibrahimi Mosque and are attempting to transform it into a synagogue.

Attack on remote Afghan outposts kills 8 US troops

By LORI HINNANT, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – Militant fighters streaming from a village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight American soldiers and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest gunbattles of the troubled eight-year war.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack for coalition forces since a similar raid in July 2008 killed nine American soldiers in the same mountainous region known as a haven for al-Qaida militants. The U.S. has already said it plans to leave the remote area to focus on Afghan population centers.

Fighting began around dawn Saturday and lasted several hours, said Jamaludin Badar, governor of Nuristan province. Badar said the two outposts were on a hill — one near the top and one at the foot of the slope — flanked by the village on one side and the mosque on the other.

Nearly 300 militant fighters flooded the lower, Afghan outpost then swept around it to reach the American station on higher ground from both directions, said Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, the provincial police chief. The U.S. military statement said the Americans and Afghans repelled the attack by tribal fighters and "inflicted heavy enemy casualties."

Jangulbagh said that the gunbattle was punctuated by U.S. airstrikes and that 15 Afghan police were captured by the Taliban, including the local police chief and his deputy. Afghan forces were sent as reinforcements, but Jangulbagh said all communications to the district, Kamdesh, were severed and he had no way of knowing how they were faring Sunday.

"This was a complex attack in a difficult area," Col. Randy George, the area commander, said in the U.S. statement. "Both the U.S. and Afghan soldiers fought bravely together."

Nuristan, bordering Pakistan, was where a militant raid on another outpost in July 2008 claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to allegations of negligence by their senior commanders. Army Gen. David Petraeus last week ordered a new investigation into that firefight, in which some 200 militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars pushed their way into the base, which is no longer operating.

Badar said he had sought more security forces for Kamdesh district, and said Taliban fighters had fled to Nuristan and neighboring Kunar province after Pakistani forces drove many extremists from the Swat Valley earlier this year.

"When there are few security forces, this is what happens," he said.

He also complained about a lack of coordination between international forces and Afghans.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility and said a council would decide the fates of the captured police.

The U.S. statement said the attack would not change previously announced plans to leave the area.

Afghanistan's northeastern Nuristan and Kunar provinces are home to al-Qaida bases as well as those of wanted terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose military chief Kashmir Khan has been unsuccessfully targeted by U.S. missiles over the past eight years. Kamdesh district has no regular cell phone or landline contact and few roads, dirt or paved. Local security forces communicate by handheld radio.

The region was key for Arab militants who battled alongside Afghan warriors during the 1980s U.S.-backed war against invading Russians because it is a rare place in south Asia where the Wahabi sect of Islam is practiced — the same sect followed by Osama bin Laden and most Saudis.

Many Arabs remained in Afghanistan, marrying Afghans and integrating themselves into local society. Many also belonged to Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami group, now sought as terrorists by the U.S.-led coalition.

Bin Laden also considered the region a useful hiding ground, his former bodyguard, Naseer Ahmed Al-Bahri, told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview in Yemen.

It sits directly across the border from Pakistan's Bajaur Agency, where bin Laden's No. 2, Aymen al Zawahri, was last seen.

Chinese premier meets Kim on visit to North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea – China's premier met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Sunday at the start of a state visit amid signs the North may be willing to restart talks over its nuclear programs.

China's Xinhua News Agency reported the meeting but gave no details on what was discussed. Kim greeted Premier Wen Jiabao earlier in the day at Pyongyang's airport, a rare honor for a non-head of state and an indication that Kim remains firmly in charge despite recent reports of failing health.

Wen's three-day visit is being scrutinized for any further indication that North Korea is willing to re-engage with its negotiating partners after boycotting talks for months while threatening nuclear war and conducting nuclear and missile tests.

Kim has reportedly expressed a willingness to engage in "bilateral and multilateral talks," although it's unclear if that indicates a willingness to rejoin the stalled six-nation discussions.

A commitment made to Wen would be a major sign of respect for China, the most important source of economic aid and diplomatic support for the North's reclusive communist regime. Beijing has hosted the stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks that also involve the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Russia, and continues to promote them as the best forum for dealing with the issue.

China's Foreign Ministry last week did not indicate whether Wen would raise the nuclear issue during his visit, saying he would sign agreements in the areas of economy, trade, tourism and education. Xinhua said the two leaders presided Sunday over the signing of a series of agreements.

Footage provided by Associated Press Television News showed the welcoming ceremony for Wen, with Kim wearing his trademark sunglasses and brown leisure suit. Wen was shown leaving in a limousine motorcade, while a crowd of North Korean greeters shouted slogans.

Wen is leading a delegation that includes Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei — China's top envoy on North Korean issues — along with a top general, Liu Zhenqi, and other high-ranking officials.

China's Foreign Ministry has said Wen will meet with top North Korean leaders and attend events commemorating 60 years of diplomatic ties.

Kim's decision to greet Wen at the airport likely indicates he plans to commit to North Korea's return to the six-nation talks, said Paik Hak-soon, a North Korea expert at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea.

In return, China will likely offer new economic aid, Paik said.

"North Korea has found that there is need to stabilize the situation now, as it has done everything it wanted to do, such as a nuclear test," Paik said. "China would also consider getting North Korea to rejoin the six-party talks its diplomatic achievement."

Under the six-nation framework, North Korea pledged in September 2005 to dismantle its nuclear programs in exchange for pledges of energy assistance and diplomatic concessions.

Progress has been bumpy, and North Korea walked away from the talks entirely in April to protest world criticism of a rocket launch. In May it further escalated tensions by conducting a nuclear test, drawing a rebuke from Beijing and sanctions from the United Nations.

Pyongyang has in recent weeks taken a more conciliatory approach, most recently allowing meetings of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korean state media on Sunday said Wen's visit illustrates the importance China places on its ties with the North, a reflection of Pyongyang's attempts to establish some form of face-saving parity in its dealings with its giant neighbor.

"Respectable comrade Wen Jiabao's visit to our country this time has a huge meaning in consideration of its historical timing and political significance," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial.

Washington is applying increasing economic pressure on the North's foreign trade, targeting private banks that might have North Korean ties. U.S. officials hope to block money that could be used for missiles and nuclear bombs and, ultimately, to drive North Korea back to disarmament talks.

The U.S. administration said last month it and its top Asian allies had agreed that direct U.S.-North Korean talks may be the best way to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.

But the officials also suggested that China needs to lay more groundwork before President Barack Obama would decide to send his special North Korea envoy, Stephen Bosworth, to Pyongyang.

Indonesian villagers use bare hands to dig corpses

By ERIC TALMADGE and IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writers

JUMANAK, Indonesia – With no outside help in sight, villagers used their bare hands Sunday to dig out rotting corpses four days after landslides triggered by a huge earthquake obliterated four hamlets in western Indonesia.

Officials said at least 644 people were buried and presumed dead in the hillside villages in Padang Pariaman district on the western coast of Sumatra island. If confirmed it would raise the death toll in Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake to more than 1,300, with about 3,000 missing.

The extent of the disaster in remote villages was only now becoming clear. So far, aid and rescue efforts have been concentrated in the region's capital, Padang, a city of 900,000 people where several tall buildings collapsed.

But the quake was equally devastating in the hills of Pariaman, where entire hillsides were shaken loose, sending a cascade of mud, rocks and trees through least four villages.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said there was little hope of finding anyone alive.

"We can be sure that they are dead. So now we are waiting for burials," he told reporters.

Where the villages once stood, there was only mud and broken palm trees. The mountainsides appeared to have been gouged bare by a gigantic backhoe.

The villages "were sucked 30 meters (100 feet) deep into the earth," said Rustam Pakaya, the head of Indonesia's Health Ministry crisis center. "Even the mosque's minaret, taller than 20 meters (65 feet), disappeared."

In Jumanak village, some 200 to 300 wedding guests at a restaurant were buried alive, including the bride, her 15-year-old brother, Iseh, told The Associated Press.

He said his sister Ichi, 19, had come back to the village for her wedding.

"When the landslide came, the party had just finished. I heard a big boom of the avalanche. I ran outside and saw the trees fall down," said Iseh, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

"I tried to get in front of the house with my brothers. We were so afraid. Landslides started coming from all directions. I just ran and then I waited," he said.

Iseh says he knows of only 10 people from the village who survived. He doesn't know the fate of his parents or brothers.

The adjacent villages of Pulau Aiya, Lubuk Lawe and Limo Koto Timur were also swept away.

Pakaya earlier had said the wedding party was in Pulau Aiya, but Iseh clarified Sunday that it was in Jumanak.

Survivors in the area said no government aid or search teams had arrived, even four days after the quake. Only about 20 local policemen had come with a power shovel and body bags.

"My relatives were all killed, washed away by the landslide," said Dola Jambak, a 48-year-old trader, picking through the rubble of his house. "I lost seven relatives. Now all I can do is wait for the search teams. But they don't come."

The landslides cut off all roads, and the villages were accessible only by foot. An AP team reached Jumanak after walking about four miles (six kilometers) for 1 1/2 hours.

Villagers gathered as men used their bare hands to slowly and cautiously pull corpses from a tangle of roots and grit. The bodies were bloated and mutilated, some unrecognizable. One man's body was found because his hand was sticking out of the mud.

Women wept silently as bodies were placed in bright yellow bags.

Aid also had not reached Agam district, which is much closer to Padang.

Laila, a villager in Agam district, said she and hundreds of others had no food, clothes and clean water.

"Our house is gone ... everything is gone," she sobbed.

She said a helicopter dropped some instant noodle packets Saturday. "But we need clean water to cook it," said Laila, who also uses one name. She said the local river had become dirty as people were using it wash.

According to the National Disaster Management Agency, 83,712 houses, 200 public buildings and 285 schools were destroyed. Another 100,000 buildings and 20 miles (31 kilometers) of road were badly damaged, and five bridges had collapsed.

Meanwhile, hundreds of doctors, nurses, search and rescue experts and cleanup crews arrived Saturday at the Padang airport from around the world with tons of food, tents, medicine, clean water, generators and a field hospital.

But with no electricity, fuel shortages and telecommunication outages, the massive operation was chaotic.

Deliveries came on C-130 cargo planes from the United States, Russia and Australia. Japanese, Swiss, South Korean and Malaysian search and rescue teams scoured the debris. Tens of millions of dollars in donations came from more than a dozen countries to supplement $400 million the Indonesian government said it would spend over the next two months.

The U.N. said there are sufficient fuel stocks in the area for four days, but with the road to a major depot cut off by landslides, gasoline prices had jumped six-fold.

Areas with "huge levels of damage to infrastructure were in need of basic food and tents for temporary shelter," it said.

Wednesday's quake originated on the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

Hezbollah congratulates Palestinians on detainees' release

Hezbollah on Saturday congratulated Hamas and the Palestinian people on the release of the Palestinian women detainees from Israeli prisons, the country's state news agency reported.

The Lebanese Shiite armed group praised in a statement the Palestinians for "this great accomplishment through their strong resistance, determination and steadfastness in the face of the Israeli enemy."

The statement added that "such an achievement denotes a great incentive for further heroic accomplishments by the resistance movement."

Israel released 20 Palestinian women on Friday from prison in exchange for a video recording of an Israeli soldier held by militants in Gaza Strip.

The exchange with Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip was seen as a step towards a broader Palestinian prisoner release and freedom for the soldier, Gilad Shalit, which are priorities for both sides since his capture in a cross-border raid in June 2006.