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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Analyst finds Israeli fingermarks in Telegraph report

A leading media analyst explains 'the real motive' behind a controversial British report regarding the family background of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Daily Telegraph recently claimed that a photograph of President Ahmadinejad, holding up his identity card ahead of the 2009 presidential election, clearly shows his family have had Jewish roots.

The report has received a great deal pf media publicity over the past few days.

A senior political analyst specializing in media affairs responded to the report on Wednesday, saying that it shows that British dailies, such as the Daily Telegraph, are taking their cue from Israeli leaders.

"These reports are undoubtedly published in line with Israeli interests," said the media analyst, who was speaking on conditions of anonymity.

"In light of the Goldstone report, such reports are obviously designed to divert world attention from Israeli crimes against Palestinians and the use of weapons of mass destruction in the three-week attack on the Gaza Strip," he continued.

The report was a result of extensive efforts by the United Nations fact finding mission, headed by Jewish South African judge Richard Goldstone.

The 575-page Goldstone report detailed numerous acts of war crime and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli soldiers during their three-week incursion into the Gaza Strip.

The media analyst added that the Telegraph report was also meant to undermine a high-level meeting between Tehran and the P5+1, in which diplomats from both sides discussed global developments based on Iran's recently-submitted package of proposals.

US new missile shield plan 'no threat to Russia'

Russian foreign minister describes as non-threatening, the US plans to deploy sea-based missiles in the Mediterranean instead of a land-based system near Russia.

Complementing defense apparatuses in Alaska and California, the former US administration had envisioned a 'third deployment site' in the Czech Republic and Poland, where it was supposed to set up a radar and 10 missile interceptors.

The plans, devised to avert alleged missile threats from 'Iran and North Korea,' were met by fierce opposition on the part of Moscow, which denounced them as a 'security threat'.

Buckling under the Kremlin's pressure, the White House scrapped the move last month. Washington, however, has chosen to set up the 'more mobile' sea-based system instead, citing the 'threat of short- and medium-range missiles from Iran.'

This is while The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stressed that its missile capabilities only serve defensive purposes.

"The new plan put forward by the Obama administration to replace the project to deploy the Third Missile Defense Site offers good conditions for dialogue, and according to our assessments, does not pose the risks that were generated by the Third Missile Defense Site project," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.

Moscow, though, has insisted it had to carefully study the new plans and has asked for assurance that the new defense apparatus would not be placed in its backyard.

Russian fighter goes down in Libya, killing 2

Wed Oct 7, 2009

A Russian MiG-23 has crashed into a residence near the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing its two pilots and injuring several locals.

The incident took place on Wednesday as the aircraft was taking part in the Third Libyan Aviation Exhibition (LAVEX 2009), the AFP news agency said.

The injured reportedly included three residents of the house where the crash occurred. The house, located in the suburban Soug-Ejemaa district, was heavily damaged.

Arms exporter, Rosoboronexport has showcased Russian-manufactured aircrafts, armaments, air defense systems, and other hi-tech products in the event, which coincides with the third Pan Arab-African Aviation Conference, the internet-based defense and security business network, defpro.com, reported.

Representing Moscow, the company has said it would attempt to promote the systematic expansion of defense cooperation between Russia, Libya and other regional players.

The Wednesday crash came less than two months after separate air incidents near the Russian capital killed three people, including an air show pilot, and wounded at least six others.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/108068.html.

Bahrain: Iran a stabilizing element in Mideast

Amid US efforts to marshal worldwide pressure against Iran, Bahrain says Tehran does not pose a threat to stability in the Middle East.

"Contrary to Western contentions, we do not see Iran as a destabilizing element in the region," said Bahraini Prime Minister, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman al-Khalifa Hossein Amir, on Wednesday.

He added that the Islamic Republic's stability guarantees peace and security in the region.

"The 'Iranophobia' policy [currently pursued by the US and European countries] will get us no where," he added.

Salman al-Khalifa was referring to the recently-introduced plans in the US congress, which support increased economic sanctions against Iran in case the nuclear talks fail.

For months, US officials have warned to tighten the leash on key Iranian industries and to choke off the country's energy sector.

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

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.

Salman al-Khalifa, who made the remarks in a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Bahrain Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said his country has always had high regard for Iran and its contributions to regional stability.

The Bahraini premier also praised Iran's cooperation in addressing international concern over its enrichment activity.

"Each and every one of the regional countries are entitled to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," he said, adding that Middle Eastern countries should be proud of the series of technological breakthroughs in Iran.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=108067§ionid=351020101.

Spanish soldier dies in Afghanistan blast

An explosion has killed a Spanish soldier serving with the US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan, amid widespread discontent over the foreign forces' handling of the war.

Five other Spanish troopers were wounded in the deadly incident that took place at Syah Washann, near Herat in western Afghanistan. Media reports said the blast was caused by a landmine.

Spain has over 1,200 soldiers in Afghanistan and is expected to increase its presence in the conflict-torn country.

Madrid recently agreed to a Washington request for the deployment of 220 more Spanish troops to Afghanistan.

The United States has called for troop reinforcements in response to the escalating Taliban insurgency, which is at its highest level since the 2001US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Despite the presence of over 100,000 foreign troops in the country, the escalated militancy has made the current year the deadliest for foreign forces, as well as Afghan civilians.

The mounting number of Western soldiers coming home in body bags has sent support for the war plummeting in Europe, Canada, and the United States.

Turkey extends mandate to fight PKK beyond borders

The Turkish Parliament has extended a mandate, which allows the military to launch cross-border operations against Kurdish separatist rebels in northern Iraq.

The one-year extension of the mandate was approved by a majority on Tuesday. Only 23 of the 475 lawmakers present in the 550-seat chamber voted against the motion.

The current mandate, which has already been extended once, expires on October 17. The mandate was first approved in 2007.

The vote coincides with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's pledge to introduce new measures to end the decades-long fighting with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu described the mandate as a necessary measure to deter PKK militants and bolsters the country's efforts towards democratic reforms.

"Keeping the option of military force on the table, along with economic, social and cultural measures, will strengthen our deterrence and gives us more room to maneuver," he told lawmakers.

"Our target is to establish a sustainable environment of security in which we will never again need a mandate such as this," he concluded.

Since 2007, Turkish fighter jets have attacked PKK positions in northern Iraq, and in February 2008 the army sent land forces across the border to fight the separatist group.

The PKK, considered as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, including Turkey, the European Union and the United States, took up arm against Ankara in 1948 with the aim of establishing an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast of Turkey.

According to the Turkish army, more than 45,000 people have lost their lives in the decades-long conflict.

US 'will' disregard borders in terrorist hunt, says Obama

Afghanistan and Pakistan are not the Pentagon's sole targets in its war on terror, says Obama adding that the US will not hesitate to attack anywhere it deems a threat.

US President Barack Obama, speaking at the Counterterrorism Center in McLean Virginia on Tuesday, pledged that the US would target al-Qaeda "wherever they take root" and do everything to wipe out safe havens, where Osama bin Laden's network can plot against the United States.

"The United States and our partners have sent an unmistakable message: We will target al-Qaida wherever they take root," he said, Xinhua reported.

The US president cited East Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Persian Gulf in addition to Afghanistan and Pakistan, as the hotbeds for terrorist activities and what he called threats against Washington.

Obama's speech was reminiscent of his predecessor George W. Bush's notorious 'Bush doctrine', which says the United States has 'the right' to launch preemptive strikes on countries that pose a threat to the US security.

"We will not yield in our pursuit; and we are developing the capacity and the cooperation to deny a safe haven to any who threaten America and its allies," said Obama.

With its primary mission to synchronize the fight on terrorism, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was established in 2001 on the hills of the 9/11 attacks on the US soil.

The center, a government agency under the Director of National Intelligence, coordinate and share data with US government departments and agencies and US foreign partners.

Aid reaches villagers deep in Indonesia quake zone

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer

PADANG PARIAMAN, Indonesia – Aid workers reached farther into Indonesia's disaster zone Wednesday, delivering food and water for the first time to villages cut off for a week by earthquake-triggered landslides.

House after house in the village of Lubuk Laweh lay toppled, their owners scrounging through them for tarps and other belongings. Children ran into the street crying "please, help me" as a truck convoy of food and water supplies rattled in.

Large parts of the provincial capital of Padang and nearby villages were destroyed in the Sept. 30 quake. The official death toll was 704 but could reach into the thousands. About 180,000 buildings — half of them homes — were severely damaged or flattened, Indonesia's Disaster Management Agency said.

Many villages were swept away by landslides in the hilly terrain to Padang's north. Roads were severed or so badly damaged they are only passable on foot or motorbike, prompting some survivors to complain that aid was too slow in coming.

"I lost everything," said Yur, 42, a mother of six as she crouched outside her house in Lubuk Laweh that was crushed by a fallen palm tree.

"We are living on donations. We sleep in the neighbor's house. I'm scared the baby will get sick," said Yur, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

Aid workers handed out bottled water and packets of instant noodles in the village in the first major aid delivery to reach it. The road to the village had been blocked by debris.

Aid workers from at least 20 countries are descending on West Sumatra, including the largest contingent of U.S. military since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed around 130,000 people in nearby Aceh province.

Like most of Indonesia, West Sumatra province had no functioning health system even before the quake and an influx of international aid has prompted all sorts of people to seek help.

"We have treated nearly 400 people in the past four days," said Yoshi Kazu Yamada, the deputy of a Japanese medical team in Padang Pariaman district, where about 100 people were lining up outside tents waiting for treatment.

"At first it was flesh wounds, but now it is more people seeking help for chronic conditions like diabetes," he said. "These problems were not caused by the quake, but they need care."

Efforts have shifted from the search for survivors to providing relief to the homeless — many of them huddling in makeshift shelters and cooking meager meals of rice and noodles over open fires or eating vegetables from their fields.

The quake was the worst natural disaster in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation since one in the central Javanese city of Yogyakarta killed about 6,000 in 2006.

The 2004 tsunami killed 230,000 in a dozen countries, roughly half in Aceh. The U.S. military played a major role in the multinational relief effort for tsunami victims — an intervention that improved America's standing here at a time of negative perceptions following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Two U.S. Navy ships were expected to arrive Wednesday or Thursday, along with a USAID flight with 50 tons of emergency relief, said U.S. Rear Adm. Richard Landolt.

On Tuesday, 69 U.S. troops — including 11 doctors — opened up a 300-bed field hospital in Padang.

Taliban not being pushed into J-K: Govt

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Government today rubbished media reports about Taliban being diverted into Jammu and Kashmir but said efforts are being made from Pakistan to push in other terrorists with the "institutional support" of the army there.

"The reports of Taliban militants being pushed into Jammu and Kashmir are baseless. These are nothing but speculative reports," Home Minister P Chidambaram told mediapersons in Mumbai reacting to reports that Pakistan was planning to push as many as 60 "surrendered" Taliban into Jammu and Kashmir to become part of the "jihad" against India.

Asked to comment on the reports about Taliban, Defense Minister A K Antony evaded a direct reply, merely saying "By and large, they (terrorist groups) are always trying to push maximum number of people into Jammu and Kashmir.

Hamas asks Cairo to postpone signing reconciliation deal: Official

Gaza City - Hamas asked Egypt Wednesday to postpone a ceremony to sign a reconciliation pact with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, saying no deal would be cemented until he apologizes for agreeing to delay a debate on a UN report on Israel's Gaza offensive at the turn of the year. Hamas and other factions accuse Abbas of giving instructions Friday to withdraw Palestinian support to have the report compiled by a fact-finding team headed by Judge Richard Goldstone sent to the UN General Assembly.

The report alleges that Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during the December-January offensive against Gaza-based militant groups.

Salah al-Bardawil, a senior Gaza-based Hamas leader said in a statement that "the crime of postponing the vote on Goldstone's report left a severe psychological crack, and Abbas should immediately apologize to the Palestinian people."

Fatah and the Islamist movement have been at loggerheads since June 2007, when in a week of bloody violence Hamas gunmen routed security officials loyal to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority and seized control of the Gaza Strip.

Cairo is scheduled to invite leaders of the Palestinian factions, including exiled Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal and Abbas, to sign a deal which would end the inter-Palestinian rift this month.

But al-Bardawil said serious contacts were under way with Egypt to study the effects postponing the vote on the Goldstone report would have on the reconciliation attempt.

He added that "there have to be Arab guarantees that Abbas would no longer take or make decisions unilaterally".

Several officials from Abbas inner circle admitted Wednesday that he had erred in agreeing to delay action on the Goldstone report.

According to Israel's Ha'aretz daily, the Palestinian leader's associates have also said that Abbas had support for postponing the decision not only from the United States, but also from Britain and China, while several Arab states, who had come under pressure from Washington, also urged him to withdraw the motion.

Afghan Taliban say they pose no threat to the West

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) – The Afghan Taliban pose no threat to the West but will continue their fight against occupying foreign forces, they said on Wednesday, the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that removed them from power.

U.S.-led forces with the help of Afghan groups overthrew the Taliban government during a five week battle which started on October 7, 2001, after the militants refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for the September 11 attacks on America.

"We had and have no plan of harming countries of the world, including those in Europe ... our goal is the independence of the country and the building of an Islamic state," the Taliban said in a statement on the group's website www.shahamat.org.

"Still, if you (NATO and U.S. troops) want to colonize the country of proud and pious Afghans under the baseless pretext of a war on terror, then you should know that our patience will only increase and that we are ready for a long war."

U.S. President Barack Obama has said defeating the militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a top foreign policy priority and is evaluating whether to send thousands of extra troops to the country as requested by the commander of NATO and U.S. forces.

In a review of the war in Afghanistan submitted to the Pentagon last month, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, in charge of all foreign forces, said defeating the insurgents would likely result in failure unless more troops were sent.

There are currently more than 100,000 foreign troops in the country, roughly two-thirds of who are Americans.

SAFE HAVEN

The Taliban statement comes at a time when Western officials warn that deserting Afghanistan could mean a return to power for the Taliban and the country could once again become a safe haven for al Qaeda militants, who could use it as a base to plan future attacks on Western countries.

The Taliban have made a comeback in recent years, spreading their attacks to previously secure areas. The growing insecurity has further added to the frustration of ordinary Afghans with the West and President Hamid Karzai's government, in power since the Taliban's ouster.

Since 2001, each year, several thousand Afghans, many of them civilians, have been killed in Afghanistan, with Taliban and al Qaeda leaders still at large despite the rising number of foreign troops.

In the statement, the Taliban said the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan for its refusal to hand over al Qaeda leaders, was hasty and unjustified. Washington had not given leaders of the movement any proof to show the involvement of al Qaeda in the September 11 attacks, it said.

Washington was using the so-called war on terror in Afghanistan and in Iraq as part of its expansionist goals in the Middle East, central and southeast Asia, it said.

It recalled the defeat of British forces in the 19th century and the fate of the former Soviet Union in the 1980s in Afghanistan as a lesson to those nations who have troops in the country.

Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a spokesman for the Taliban, said the withdrawal of foreign troops was the only solution to a conflict that has grown in intensity and has pushed some European nations to refuse to send their soldiers into battle zones or to speak about a timetable to withdraw from the country.

Some 1,500 foreign troops have also died in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster causing many nations to question the presence of its soldiers in the country and whether stability can ever be achieved eight years after the overthrow of the militants.

Egypt cuts ties with France's Louvre museum

By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO – Egypt said Wednesday its antiquities department severed ties with France's Louvre museum because it has refused to return what are described as stolen artifacts, one of the country's most aggressive attempts yet to reclaim relics from some of the world's leading Egyptology collections.

The Louvre has said the museum is open to returning the artifacts demanded by Egypt, though the decision has to be taken by a special committee. France's Culture Ministry also said it is ready to return the pieces if the committee approves.

The Egyptian ruling means that no archaeological expeditions connected to the France's premier museum will be allowed to work in Egypt. Already Egypt has suspended an excavation sponsored by the Louvre at the massive necropolis of Saqqara and canceled a lecture in Egypt by a former curator of the museum.

"The Louvre Museum refused to return four archaeological reliefs to Egypt that were stolen during the 1980s from the tomb of the noble Tetaki," near the famed temple city of Luxor, said a statement quoting Supreme Council of Antiquities head Zahi Hawass.

A spokeswoman for the antiquities council said there would be a meeting Friday with the Louvre to resolve the matter.

"We do have great collaboration with them," she said. "What I hear is they are willing to return the items."

The Louvre's press office said that a national committee made up of specialists from France's museum world and other experts will meet to decided the issue with final approval given by the Culture Ministry.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he believes the artifacts should be returned and the pieces were acquired by the Louvre in "good faith" in 2000 and 2003, according to his office.

"It wasn't until November 2008, after archaeologists rediscovered the tomb from which the frescoes appear to have come, that serious doubts emerged about the legality of their removal from Egyptian territory," the statement said.

Mitterrand said he asked the national committee made up of specialists from France's museum world to meet Friday.

If the committee favors returning the pieces to Egypt, Mitterrand's office said he is "ready to immediately return the frescoes to Egyptian authorities."

The French said there were five fragments, while the Egyptians report four. There was no way to immediately reconcile the discrepancy.

Hawass' office described the fragments as paintings of the nobleman's journey to the afterlife chipped from the walls of the tomb by thieves in the 1980s.

Christiane Ziegler, the former director of the Louvre's Egyptology department, acquired the four fragments displayed the fragments, said the SCA. She will now not be allowed to give a scheduled lecture in Egypt.

Upon taking the helm of Egypt's SCA in 2002, Hawass made recovering stolen Egyptian antiquities a priority.

He issued a regulation, that he says was agreed to by all major international museums including the Louvre, banning the acquiring or display of stolen antiquities.

Hawass has made several high profile requests from the world's museum for the return of Egyptian artifacts.

At the top of his list are the bust of Nefertiti — wife of the famed monotheistic Pharaoh Akhenaten — and the Rosetta Stone, a basalt slab with an inscription that was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. The bust is in Berlin's Egyptian Museum; the Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum in London.

Hawass said Egypt also was seeking "unique artifacts" from at least 10 museums around the world, including the Louvre in Paris and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

In one of the more high profile and acrimonious fights, Hawass has repeatedly requested the return of a 3,200-year-old golden mask of a noblewoman from the St. Louis Art Museum.

Hawass also has written to request the bust of Anchhaf — the builder of the Chephren Pyramid — from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Dendara Temple Zodiac in the Louvre in Paris, and the statue of Hemiunu — nephew of the Pharaoh Khufu, builder of the largest pyramid — from Germany's Roemer-Pelizaeu museum.

Hawass recently succeeding in winning the return from France of hair stolen from the mummy of Ramses II.

Since 2002, some 5,000 stolen artifacts have been recovered, according to Hawass.

The process is complicated by inadequate local and international laws and many museums maintain they acquire their artifacts legally and in a transparent manner.

The process of determining whether an artifact has even been stolen requires delicate cooperation between government, law enforcement, museums, and antiquities dealers. And frequently, there are gaps in the historical records.

Somali pirates attack French military vessel

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer

PARIS – Somali pirates in two skiffs fired on a French navy vessel early Wednesday after apparently mistaking it for a commercial boat, the French military said. The French ship gave chase and captured five suspected pirates.

No one was wounded by the volleys from the Kalashnikov rifles directed at La Somme, a 3,800-ton refueling ship, said Rear Admiral Christophe Prazuck, a military spokesman.

La Somme "was probably taken for a commercial ship by the two small skiffs" some 250 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, said Prazuck.

"They understood their mistake too late," Prazuck said.

One skiff fled, and La Somme pursued the second one in an hour-long chase.

"There were five suspected pirates on board. No arms, no water, no food," Prazuck said.

France is a key member of the European Union's naval mission, Operation Atalanta, fighting Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. It has aggressively tracked and caught suspected pirates and handed over at least 22 to Kenya. An additional 15 suspects were brought to France for prosecution after allegedly seizing French nationals' boats.

President Nicolas Sarkozy called for tougher action against piracy last year after dozens of attacks.

Chechnya's president wins defamation lawsuit

By MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW – Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Tuesday won a defamation lawsuit against a rights activist who blamed him for the killing of a colleague whose murder sparked international outrage.

Moscow's Tverskoi district court ordered Memorial rights group chairman Oleg Orlov to retract his statement that Kadyrov was responsible for Natalya Estemirova's death.

Kadyrov's lawsuit attracted new attention to the July slaying of Estemirova, who headed Memorial's branch in Chechnya and drew Kadyrov's ire by reporting on rights abuses there.

Orlov has never said he had evidence of Kadyrov's direct involvement in Estemirova's slaying but has repeatedly blamed him for it, citing an atmosphere of lawlessness and impunity he said the powerful leader has fostered.

Orlov vowed to appeal.

"I don't agree with this decision, but in modern Russia one couldn't expect any other," he said.

Kadyrov said he was "satisfied" with the ruling.

"I tried to explain to Orlov right from the start that he is not right, and I gave him my opinion on this matter very nicely and politely," Kadyrov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

Kadyrov sought 10 million rubles ($330,000) in damages, but judge Tatyana Fedosova ruled that Memorial and Orlov should only pay 70,000 rubles ($2,300 rubles).

"It's a pity the amount is so small, it would have been a good lesson to other liars," Kadyrov's lawyer Andrei Krasnenkov told reporters.

Still, the ruling came as a blow to beleaguered Russian rights activists who have sharply criticized the government's policies in Chechnya and elsewhere but have been stonewalled by the Kremlin.

The Kremlin has strongly backed Kadyrov, whose security forces have been accused of massive abuses against civilians amid the fight against militants still active in Chechnya after two separatist wars over the last 15 years.

The ruling came after defense witness Alexander Cherkasov testified that Estemirova had feared for her safety after a March 2008 conversation with Kadyrov.

"Kadyrov yelled at her and called her names," Cherkasov, another Memorial activist. He recalled that Estemirova said Kadyrov was angry that she had criticized his demand that women in Chechnya wear Islamic headscarves in public in the mostly Muslim region.

"She perceived the conversation as a threat for her safety," prompting her to leave Russia for some time and arrange for her teenage daughter to leave Chechnya, Cherkasov said.

Estemirova led Memorial's branch in Chechnya until she was abducted and killed on July 15 outside her home in the capital, Grozny. Her bullet-riddled body was found by a roadside. Her death followed a string of killings of Kadyrov's critics and political rivals.

Krasnenkov, Kadyrov's lawyer accused Memorial of slandering Kadyrov in order to win popularity. He summoned witnesses from Chechnya who denied that the president had threatened Estemirova.

Witness Aminat Malsagova, who described herself as a friend of Estemirova, said the slain activist had taken "a biased stance against positive actions by Kadyrov."

Estemirova had worked with investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who accused Kadyrov of atrocities and gross human rights violations and was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building in 2006.

Estemirova also helped Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer involved in Chechen rights abuse cases who was shot dead on a Moscow street in January, along with an opposition newspaper reporter.

Chechnya senator resigns from Russian upper house

MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - A senator representing Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya in the upper house of parliament has resigned, the Federation Council announced on Wednesday.

The chamber did not give reasons for Umar Dzhabrailov's resignation.

Dzhabrailov, 51, had been a member of the Federation Council since 2004 and deputy head of its international affairs committee, as well as a member of the Russian delegation to PACE. His term was to expire in 2011.

Dzhabrailov, president of Plaza Group and owner of the Danako chain of gasoline stations in Moscow, ran for Russian president in 2000.

He was accused of involvement in the murder of a U.S. businessman in 1996 and an assassination attempt on a deputy Moscow mayor in 2002. He denied both accusations, and his guilt was not proven.

Another Chechen lawmaker said on Wednesday that Dzhabrailov had quit the post in the Federation Council for a new "federal" job in Moscow.

Billions in US aid sparks debate in Pakistan

By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani leaders jousted Wednesday over a multibillion-dollar U.S. humanitarian aid bill that the ruling party praises as a lynchpin to strengthening democracy here but that opponents say will lead to greater American interference in Pakistani affairs.

The bill, which awaits President Barack Obama's signature, would give Pakistan $1.5 billion annually over the next five years for democratic, economic and social development programs. It also allows "such sums as are necessary" for military aid.

The U.S. says the bill is aimed at alleviating poverty here and lessening the allure of Islamist militant groups in a country seen as crucial to the American fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida in neighboring Afghanistan.

Opposition leaders planned to air their concerns about the aid package in Parliament later Wednesday, but political officials issued statements about it throughout the day.

Critics complain the bill could authorize the U.S. to broaden airstrikes in the country and interfere in Pakistan's nuclear program.

"The tone and tenor of the bill in terms of conditionalities is not just intrusive, it's also overbearing and bordering on the humiliation of Pakistan," said Mushahid Hussain, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q. "We are not being treated kindly."

The dispute highlighted Pakistani angst about America's growing presence in the country. The criticism seems unlikely to derail the aid program, but it has stung the pro-Western Pakistani government, which has directed ruling party members to defend the aid package.

The bill "has been greatly misunderstood in Pakistan by some sectors, and I also believe that certain opposition groups have deliberately misquoted and distorted the facts of the bill to achieve certain political ends," said Farahnaz Ispahani, a top aide to President Asif Ali Zardari.

The debate comes as the army steps up preparations for a new offensive against militants in the South Waziristan tribal region, in what could be one of the most important operations against militants in Pakistan since 2001. South Waziristan is considered al-Qaida and the Taliban's major stronghold in the lawless northwest region bordering Afghanistan.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army's chief spokesman, did not give a start date for the offensive but the way he referred to the operation suggested a decision had been made to launch one.

"God willing, peace will again be restored in the area through a successful operation," he told the ARY news channel.

Abbas did not say what kind of operation may be in the works — a limited one relying mostly on air power or a fully fledged offensive with thousands of ground troops aimed at clearing, then holding the whole region. The army abandoned early offensives and signed peace deals with militants in Waziristan after they put up a fierce fight.

Moving forcefully into South Waziristan is likely to gain praise from the United States. U.S. officials have long pressed Pakistan to eliminate safe havens on its soil used by militants to plan attacks in Afghanistan.

An operation in South Waziristan will face steep challenges, ranging from harsh terrain to well dug-in militants.

Pakistan's military said months ago it was planning an operation aimed at eliminating Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief, in South Waziristan. But the U.S. killed Mehsud in a missile strike in August, and since then, there have been lingering questions over whether Pakistan would try to dismantle the rest of his network there.

Analysts say 10,000 well-armed militants, including foreign fighters, are in the region.

Abbas said the army had already tried to weaken the militants by surrounding them, blocking roads and targeting them through air strikes. The point was to weaken the militants before a full-scale offensive.

"As we all know, this group and this organization has fighters and they will offer a tough resistance in this area," Abbas said.

The United States and other Western nations have been heartened by the army's recent offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley, but questions remain over the country's overall commitment to the fight against militants it once nurtured for proxy wars in India and Afghanistan.

2 Americans, 1 Israeli win Nobel chemistry prize

By KARL RITTER and MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writers

STOCKHOLM – Two Americans and an Israeli scientist won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for atom-by-atom mapping of the protein-making factories within cells.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath's work on ribosomes has been fundamental to the scientific understanding of life and has helped researchers develop antibiotics.

Yonath, 70, is the fourth woman to win the Nobel chemistry prize and the first since 1964, when Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin of Britain received the award.

"I'm really, really happy," Yonath said. "I thought it was wonderful when the discovery came. It was a series of discoveries ... We still don't know every, everything, but we progressed a lot."

This year's three laureates, who will share the 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) award, generated three-dimensional models that show how different antibiotics bind to ribosomes.

"These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering," the academy said in its announcement.

They used a method called X-ray crystallography to pinpoint the positions of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.

"This knowledge can be put to a practical and immediate use; many of today's antibiotics cure various diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes," the citation said. "Without functional ribosomes, bacteria cannot survive. This is why ribosomes are such an important target for new antibiotics."

Their work builds on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and, more directly, on the work done by James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine for mapping DNA's double helix, the citation said.

In 2006, Roger D. Kornberg won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for X-ray structures that showed how information is copied to messenger RNA molecules, which carry information from DNA to the ribosomes.

"Now, one of the last pieces of the puzzles has been added — understanding how proteins are made," said Professor Gunnar von Heijne of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, the chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. "This discovery is important not only for science as such, but also gives us tools to develop new antibiotics."

Indian-born Ramakrishnan, 57, is the senior scientist and group leader at the Structural Studies Division of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.

Ramakrishnan said that he wasn't convinced when he got the morning phone call from the academy.

"Well, you know, I thought it was an elaborate joke. I have friends who play practical jokes," Ramakrishnan told The Associated Press by telephone from his lab in Cambridge. "I complimented him on his Swedish accent."

Steitz, a 69-year-old born in Milwaukee, is a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University and attached to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, both in New Haven, Connecticut.

Yonath is a professor of structural biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and the ninth Israeli to win a Nobel prize. She told Israel Radio she didn't think her gender played a role in the decision.

"It's true that a woman hasn't won since 1964. But I don't know what that means — does it mean that I'm the best woman since then? I don't think that gender played a role here," she said.

She had to end the interview abruptly because Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel Peace prize laureate, was on the other line.

Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite, established the Nobel Prizes in his will in 1895. The first awards were handed out six years later.

Each prize comes with a 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) purse, a diploma, a gold medal and an invitation to the prize ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10. The Peace Prize is handed out in Oslo.

On Monday, three American scientists shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.

The physics prize on Tuesday was split between a Hong Kong-based scientist who helped develop fiber-optic cable and two Canadian and American researchers who invented the "eye" in digital cameras — technology that has revolutionized communications and science.

The literature and peace prize winners will be announced later this week and the economics announcement is set for Monday.

Top Swat Taliban commander killed: Pakistan army

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's army Wednesday said it had killed a top aide of fugitive Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, as they continued their hunt for militant chieftains in the northwest Swat valley.

Nisar Ahmed, also known as Ghazi Baba, one of 15 Swat insurgents commanding a 10 million rupee (120,000 dollar) bounty offered by authorities in May, was killed in a clash outside the valley's main town on Wednesday, the army said.

"After a tip from an informant, the forces surrounded the house of Nisar Ahmed to arrest him but he resisted and started firing on troops," said Major Mushtaq Khan, a spokesman for the army-run Swat Media Centre.

"During the retaliatory fire, Nisar Ahmed was killed and his son was arrested," he told AFP, adding that no soldiers were injured in the exchange.

Another security official based in the area said that the pre-dawn operation was launched in Matta town, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) northwest of Mingora, the main hub in the one-time tourist paradise of Swat valley.

The Swat Taliban were not immediately available to confirm the death -- their spokesman Muslim Khan is in military custody -- but residents in Matta told AFP by telephone that they had seen Baba's corpse.

"We have seen his dead body. It was later taken by the security forces," a resident said, requesting anonymity for fear of militant reprisals.

The region slipped out of government control after radical cleric Fazlullah rose up in July 2007, commanding thousands of followers who beheaded opponents, burnt schools and fought to enforce a harsh brand of Islamic law.

Fazlullah remains at large with a 50-million-rupee (600,000 dollars) bounty on his head. In September, the military arrested four of his top aides in a sweep following a military assault to purge the Taliban threat in the valley.

Pakistan launched the blistering air and ground offensive after militants marched out of Swat and advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the capital Islamabad in April.

The military says the area is clear and most of the two million people who fled their homes have returned, but sporadic outbreaks of violence continue, while some fear the Swat Taliban are regrouping elsewhere in the northwest.

Pakistan's military is now poised for a similar assault on the northwest semi-autonomous tribal belt along the Afghan border -- the bastion of the Pakistani Taliban and also a hideout for Al-Qaeda fighters.

Jet fighters pounded the area killing six militants in tribal South Waziristan on Tuesday and troops are massing in the area, but the military has not revealed when a full-scale onslaught will begin.

The government blame the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group (TTP) based in North and South Waziristan for most of the suicide bombings and attacks that have killed more than 2,140 people across Pakistan in the last two years.

The TTP have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed four Pakistanis and one Iraqi on Monday at the Islamabad headquarters of the UN's World Food Programme, the worst attack in the capital in months.

NASA to bomb the moon for water

NASA is preparing to launch the LCROSS mission to bomb the moon's South Pole, as part of the agency's search for water in space.

The LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) mission will send a Centaur rocket at twice the speed of a bullet to make a hole in the moon's surface.

Scientists say the blast will be powerful enough to eject a huge plume of debris from the moon that will be seen from earth through telescopes 10-to-12 inches and larger.

The missile will hit the moon's South Pole, where scientists believe billions of tons of trapped ice may be held, Huffington Post reported.

The debris will then be examined to find traces of water ice or vapor.

Locating water on the moon would be a great help for future space missions.

"Transporting water and other goods from Earth to the moon's surface is expensive," NASA notes. "Finding natural resources, such as water ice, on the moon could help expedite lunar exploration."

Russia set to boost military-technical ties with Iran

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin says Russia is determined to boost its “military-technical” ties with Iran.

Borodavkin also said that Russia will strictly abide by international regulations in enhancing its military ties with the Islamic Republic, ITAR-TASS reported.

In an interview with the Russian news agency, he also touched on North Korea's readiness to resume the six-party talks on its nuclear dossier.

“We support the intention of North Korea and the United States to hold a bilateral dialogue as a prelude and a preparatory stage for resuming the six-party talks,” he said.

“They will finalize the dates (of the bilateral meeting) themselves. This is more likely a technical than political issue.” he added.

No evidence on Taliban presence in Pakistan

Pakistan's military asks the US to provide solid information about the alleged presence of Taliban leadership in its southwestern province.

“After getting all kinds of intelligence reports on the subject we have informed the US that the Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership do not exist in Quetta [in Baluchistan province],” Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, a military spokesman told a local Pakistani private TV channel, a Press TV correspondent reported.

He said the US officials are making such claims just to cover their failures in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani army spokesman said that the possibility of Osama bin Laden's presence in Afghanistan is much bigger than that of Pakistan as the Allied forces have admitted that they have no control over about 70 percent of Afghanistan.

Abbas said that all entrances and exits to South Waziristan agency were closed one-and-half month ago in preparation of a military operation to be launched against the militants present in the tribal area.

The statement comes just hours after Pakistan's military chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani met with visiting Commander of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and discussed with him military operations in South Waziristan.

New Greek premier unveils cabinet

Fresh from leading the Socialist Party to a landslide victory in Greece, George Papandreou takes the reins of the government and signs decrees of key ministries to fulfill his election promises.

He appointed his Pasok party's finance spokeswoman, Louka Katseli, 57, as the economy minister and George Papakonstantinou, 49, as the finance minister. Both were educated overseas.

The appointments came after Papandreou, whose party won 44 percent of the votes to sweep Karamanlis' conservatives out of power, was sworn in as prime minister by Archbishop Leronymos, the head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, on Tuesday, in a ceremony watched by President Karolos Papoulias.

Greece's new socialist prime minister, who had promised a 100-day plan to steer the economy out of recession by creating jobs and cleaning up public finances, signed decrees that created an economy 'super-ministry' with powers over development and shipping, a vital source of Greece's income.

Papandreou also created four new ministries: Environment; Energy and Climate Change; Police and Civil Protection; and Finance and Infrastructures, a party spokesman said. He added that the premier will personally handle the foreign affairs portfolio.

Greece's other big earner, tourism, was placed under the Culture Ministry, which oversees archaeological sites and museums and put under Pavlos Geroulanos, a member of the prime minister's inner circle and a close adviser.

Papandreou, 57, says there will be new laws to redistribute income to the poor, bolster public investment, and clamp down on corruption.

Turkey arrests 35 illegal immigrants

Turkish security forces have reportedly arrested 35 illegal immigrants in the central Turkish province of Kirsehir as they were making for the country's border in search of a better life in Europe.

The detained immigrants were Afghans and Burmese. They will be deported from the country once the legal proceedings are completed, according to a report released by the state-run Anatolian news agency.

Positioned on the frontier between East and West, Turkey has always been a major crossroad for refugees and illegal immigrants traveling from their impoverished and war-torn homelands to Europe for a better future.

A recent report issued by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce shows there are now more than 1 million illegal immigrants in Turkey. It adds that over 300,000 illegal immigrants enter Turkey per annum.

The report also states that the illegal immigrants in Turkey come from 163 different countries. While half of the illegal immigrants work as servants or babysitters, many choose to work as sex workers, construction workers, waiters, or cooks.

2 Lebanese sentenced to 15 years for bomb plots in Baku

An Azerbaijani court has found two Lebanese men guilty of plotting to bomb the Israeli and US embassies in the capital Baku and sentenced each of them to 15 years in prison.

"Lebanese citizens Ali Karaki and Ali Najmeddin were sentenced to 15 years each," a court spokesman told AFP on Monday.

The two were said to have been planning attacks on the Israeli and US embassies and the strategic Gabala missile-detection radar station in northern Azerbaijan.

The attacks were to have been carried out in 2008, but special services uncovered the plans and neutralized the group, the court was told.

In June, 20 members of the Wahhabi sect were sentenced to between 2 and 18 years in prison on suspicion of assaults on the US and British embassies.

In December 2007, 15 members of another alleged terrorist group were sentenced to long prison terms for a foiled coup plot.

The former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan is mostly Shia, although its pro-US hereditary 'presidential' government is strictly secular.

The government of President Ilham Aliyev, son of the long-serving former president Heydar Aliyev, has been criticized for driving some of the youth of the country toward extremism with its heavy-handed confrontation with dissent.

Palestinian leader barred from al-Quds

Israeli authorities have banned the head of Islamic Movement's northern branch from entering Jerusalem al-Quds, allegedly for causing 'incitement', following statements he made in recent days during Temple Mount riots.

According to the Ynet news website, the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court took the decision Tuesday night to issue an injunction prohibiting Sheikh Raed Salah from entering Jerusalem al-Quds for a period of 30 days.

The sentence was announced after Salah had been released hours after his arrest in the Jerusalem al-Quds neighborhood of Wadi Joz, by detectives from the Minorities' Unit and Border Guards officers.

Clashes erupted last Sunday between Palestinians in the eastern part of Jerusalem al-Quds and the Israeli police as a group of Jewish radicals broke into the yard of Al-Aqsa Mosque. About 16 Palestinians and several Israeli police were injured in the clashes, according to media reports.

The incident led the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, to express disapproval over the incursion by Israeli extremists. He called upon the international community to exert pressure on Israel to force it to halt such flagrant violations.

Hamas leader Mushir al-Masri said the injury of several Palestinians in clashes with Jewish extremists who broke into the yard of Al-Aqsa Mosque was 'the fruit of the tripartite meeting' in Washington between acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.

Last Monday, demonstrators in Amman set the Israeli flag on fire and called on the government officials to sever diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv in reaction to Israeli soldiers' breaking into Al-Aqsa, which is considered Muslims' third holiest shrine.

Dozens of trades unionists and politicians also staged a sit-in in front of the headquarters of Jordan's Professional Association Council. Protesters held banners reading, "Our blood is shed for you, our souls are sacrificed for your sanctity. We swear to you, Aqsa, that we will never forget you".

Many Muslims consider the Jewish zealots' trespass into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as part of a Judaization campaign that targets the holy city of Jerusalem al-Quds and a provocation of Muslim feelings.

Iran's next space mission announced

Iran is planning to send another research satellite into space by late March, the country's Aerospace Research Institute announced.

According to Mohammad Ebrahimi, an official at the institute, the Kavoshgar III (Explorer 3) will be launched into space to carry out research and study spatial subsystems, ISNA reported on Tuesday.

In November 2008, Iran sent into orbit the Kavoshgar II, which featured carrier and space-lab systems. It parachuted back to Earth after successfully completing its mission.

Earlier in the same year, the Kavoshgar I suborbital sounding rocket was launched to gather meteorological data.

Meanwhile, the director of Iran's Aerospace Research Institute, Mohsen Bahrami, said that Iran was also planning to send animals into space within the next two years.

Bahrami said the animals would be sent into space aboard Kavoshgars, which would act as a test for the country's plan to launch a manned space mission.

Israeli navy to deploy robot craft

Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI)

The Israeli navy will shortly begin deploying unmanned craft along the Mediterranean coast, particularly off the Hamas-held Gaza Strip in the south and Lebanon in the north where Hezbollah guerrillas operate.

These highly maneuverable unmanned surface vehicles, operated by remote control from land stations, can carry out a wide range of missions, such as patrolling coastal waters to counter gun-running and infiltration with less prospect of being detected than the much larger manned vessels.

"There are areas that the navy preferred to first enter in an unmanned capacity before a manned capacity," a senior navy officer told The Jerusalem Post Sunday in reference to the Gaza and Lebanon sectors.

The Protector, built by Rafael Advanced Systems Ltd., is one of the new systems acquired by the navy. It can carry a wide range of payloads, including cameras, sensors and weapons.

These new craft are making Israel one of the global leaders in the development and combat deployment of unmanned systems in the air, on the land and now at sea.

Israel's defense industry recently announced the development of an unmanned land vehicle for carrying supplies in combat zones.

Elbit Systems will be displaying a newly developed land robot, the Beagle, at the Association of the United States Army defense exhibition in Washington.

The Beagle is self-navigating and can avoid obstacles and climb stairs. Its extendable arm can lift up to 4.5 pounds and carry a wide variety of payloads.

But it is in the air that Israeli expertise in the unmanned vehicle sector is most widely seen.

Elbit will be also be displaying for the first time at the Washington exhibition its Hermes 90 long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, which can remain aloft for up to 18 hours and has a range of up to 62 miles.

Poland is currently considering buying Israeli UAVs to support its forces deployed in Afghanistan.

"We're going to buy a whole range of drones, from short to medium range," Defense Minister Bogdan Klich told Jane's Defense Weekly in August.

He comments followed Warsaw's Aug. 11 announcement that Poland would create a backup force of 200 troops for its 2,000-man contingent currently serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

Elbit announced Sunday that it opened an office in Baku, capital of the oil-rich former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan where Israeli influence is growing. Israel is a major buyer of Azeri oil from the Caspian Basin.

Elbit is currently working on UAV projects with the Azeri Defense Ministry, whose budget this year was increased to $2.5 billion.

According to Azeri media, Israel defense contractor Aeronautics Defense Systems will construct a factory to help the Azeris build UAVs and satellites.

The company's chief executive officer, Avi Leumi, accompanied Israeli President Shimon Peres when he visited Baku in June.

Go to jail or join jihad against India: ISI tells surrendered Taliban

NEW DELHI: In a new shift in tactics, Pakistan is planning to push as many as 60 "surrendered" Taliban into Jammu and Kashmir to become part of the "jihad" against India. The ISI is said to have offered the extremists the option of either going to jail or crossing the Line of Control.

The "jail or jihad" option offered to the Taliban seems a useful diversion for ISI. The Pakistan military establishment has had to fight the Taliban, once its close allies in Afghanistan, but is looking to turn the situation to its advantage.

Apprehensions in Indian security circles that the crackdown by the Pakistan army on Taliban — seen as a last resort after the jihadis turned their guns on the Pakistani state — could mean trouble in Kashmir are being proved correct. Not only have infiltration attempts by regular jihadi outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba gone up, the presence of Taliban poses a new threat.

Highly placed sources said BSF and the Army had been alerted about the developments after intelligence intercepted talk about infiltration bids in the next 15 to 20 days.

"Although the Taliban is yet to successfully infiltrate into India, the coming days will pose a challenge as their attempts to sneak in are expected before the onset of winter," said a senior official. The infiltration is closely controlled and monitored by the ISI and Pakistan army which is often involved in the crossings.

The issue cropped up as a major security concern during the two-day visit to Srinagar by a high-powered central team led by cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekhar and comprising home secretary G K Pillai, defense secretary Pradeep Kumar and other senior officials.

Top security and intelligence officials deliberated over the move by state actors in Pakistan to utilize the Taliban for their objectives in Kashmir. Taking note of the assessment, officials are learned to have unequivocally noted during the reviews in Srinagar that there was no change in Pakistan's support to terror groups post 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

The Taliban, who recently fought against Pakistan army in Swat Valley and other areas along the Pak-Afghan border, were well trained and battle-hardened. They could put their experience of fighting US troops to use in Kashmir.

Apart from the group of 60, there are nearly 250 to 300 jihadis — armed with sophisticated weapons, Thuraya satellite phones and Indian mobile SIM cards — poised at launch pads along LoC. This feeds into the view that violence could escalate in J&K in the winter months.

The meeting in Srinagar, attended by senior Army and paramilitary personnel, also took note of repeated use of Pakistani Air Force helicopters to evacuate injured infiltrators along the LoC and as many as 42 terror camps in PoK and Pakistan.

"Such incidents (like use of choppers) clearly show the involvement of Pakistani authorities in facilitating infiltration. Though our forces are fully alert to thwart Pakistani designs, the next 15-20 days are quite crucial as this is the period when they will do everything to infiltrate as many terrorists as possible," said a senior official. That is when winter will begin to set in.

Archaeologist: Rice Existed 4,000 Years Ago in Yangtze Basin

New findings indicate that farming in the Yangtze Basin existed as early as 4,000 years ago. Excavation in the Xiezi Area of Hubei Province yielded a total of 402 cultural relics, including carbonized rice.

Stone tools, pottery, bronze, jade and porcelain were unearthed, as well as a number of spinning wheels, drop spindles made of clay and other textile tools. There were also stone mounds and smelting relics such as slag. A variety of grains and seeds were found, and experts believe there may be carbonized wheat among the plant findings at the site.

The discovery effort took about four months, according to a report on Sept. 12 in a Chutian newspaper. The Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology announced the findings. The relics were determined to be from the Neolithic Era or New Stone Age to the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1600–1050 B.C.) and Western Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1046–771 B.C.).

The Xiezi Area is known for its geographic shape: It looks like a crab. Approximately 7.4 acres (30,000 sq. meters) in size, it is surrounded by ponds and swamps with farms distributed around the area.

The combination of the relics that were found and their stratigraphic age provides valuable information about the diet structure, production methods, and living conditions of the inhabitants of the area during the time of the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties.

Archeological team leader, Luo Yunbin explained that there had been speculation in the past about edible rice production in the Yangtze Basin, but the new findings provide solid physical evidence that there was agricultural development in that area during ancient times.

Malaysia will continue aid to Padang

PUTRAJAYA: The mission to provide humanitarian aid to the victims of the earthquake in Padang, Indonesia, will continue although some people in that country still have a negative perception of Malaysia, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.

The deputy prime minister said the humanitarian aspect must be viewed separately and the current conflict should not be allowed to affect any good deeds by Malaysia for those in need.

"As announced by the prime minister, we will not send (aid) if there is no green light, permission from the Indonesian authorities.

"To a certain extent, (the Malaysian team) has helped ease the situation in Padang and this is viewed in the context of the good relations between the two governments and between the peoples in general.

"We will not look at one, two groups, meaning that we take a confrontational stand or retaliate. We're not like that. So, whatever aid from the humanitarian view point, as long as it is needed and has the approval of the Indonesian authorities, we will give and that is what we are doing first," he told reporters after visiting Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) here.

Help for typhoon victims continues to pour

By MADEL R. SABATER, JC BELLO RUIZ, and JONAS REYES

Following the orders of King Abdullah II Bin Hussein to help the victims of tropical storm “Ondoy,” the Honorary Consulate of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the Philippines on Tuesday turned over 10 tons of relief goods to the Philippine government.

The 10 tons of relief goods is comprised of sleeping bags, blankets, shelter boxes, medicine and medical supplies, food parcels, and tea.

The shipment arrived Monday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) via Etihad Airways.

The turnover of the relief goods from Jordan was led by Jordan Consul General Michael Alexander Ang at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-NAIA in Pasay City on Tuesday. A statement from the Royal Hashemite Court said that the relief aid is meant to “alleviate the suffering of people affected by the typhoon.”

Prior to the turnover ceremony yesterday, Philippine Ambassador to Jordan Julius Torres, in a send-off ceremony at the Cargo Terminal of the Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan last October 3, conveyed the Philippines’ gratitude for the humanitarian support extended by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for the storm victims.

Aside from Jordan, other donors from the international community include the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, France, Singapore, Germany, the European Commission, Canada, Vietnam, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, as well as other United Nations agencies, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

An international cargo forwarding company has offered free airfreight of all donated goods for typhoon victims by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

DHL in the Western region of Saudi Arabia approved the request of the OFW organizations in Saudi Arabia for free airfreight service for all the boxes of donated goods they have gathered for “Ondoy” victims.

DHL will have a special flight this Friday, Oct. 9 that will carry the donated goods according to Bobby Fajarito, Migrante-Jeddah chapter chairperson.

Also, the United States has bared that two US naval ships berthed inside this premier Freeport will be providing support to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help in the rescue operations in the country.

Syria, Turkey Launch Another Exercise

ANKARA [MENL] -- Syria and Turkey have launched their second military exercise in less than six months.

The Turkish military said Ankara and Damascus have begun a search and rescue operation in Turkey. In a statement on Oct. 5, the military said the exercise was meant to improve cooperation between Syria and Turkey in SAR and crisis management.

Raven Escapes Custody Of German Police

A malevolent raven described by authorities as "incredibly clever" is back at large after escaping from police custody. The bird had been scaring a woman for several days by tapping at her window, trying to steal her groceries and sitting on her car.

A raven caught by police after it had been stalking a woman for several days has managed to escape by pecking its way out of a cardboard box and is at large again in the town of Weinsberg in southwestern Germany, police said on Monday.

The woman complained to police that the bird had been terrorizing her by constantly tapping at her window, tearing open her shopping bags and sitting on her car menacingly. "The lady even claimed it had physically attacked her," Rainer Koller, a spokesman for the police in the nearby city of Heilbronn, told Spiegel Online.

To prevent a real-life repeat of Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic "The Birds," officers were dispatched to check out the situation on Saturday. A neighbor helped them to lure the stalker into a box with some bird food and they took it to a local bird sanctuary.

But that wasn't the end of the story. "It has managed to escape," said Koller. "It's incredibly clever." Time will tell whether the raven will return to haunt its victim.

The bird has either taken a particular dislike to the woman, or it has a split personality, said Koller, explaining that the raven had got on well with its victim's neighbor. "The neighbor said the bird was always friendly to him and that he stroked and fed it," said Koller.

Despite Judge's Order, Iranian Dissidents In Iraq Sent To Remote Prison

Iraqi security officials beat and forcibly transferred 36 members of an Iranian dissident group to a remote southern prison despite an Iraqi judge's orders to free them, the judge and the group's leaders said Monday.

International human rights groups have called for government intervention to protect the Iraq-based camp of the Mujahedeen e Khalq, a militant group that's committed to overthrowing the neighboring Iranian government.

The Shiite Muslim-led Iraqi government, which has close ties to Tehran, instead allowed its security forces to blockade the camp and carry out a July raid that left 11 MEK members dead and three dozen in custody. MEK members in Iraq and abroad are on their 70th day of a hunger strike to draw attention to the case.

The detainees were moved overnight Sunday from Baghdad to a makeshift prison in the southern province of Muthanna, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of groups that oppose the Iranian regime. MEK leaders fear they'll face persecution and abuse.

"The specialized judge ordered their release, and the executive authorities should have carried the order out," said Abdulsattar al Biraqdar, a spokesman for the Iraqi judiciary. "We have no knowledge what happened to them after that. Our official duty ends here, but, humanely, we are concerned."

A senior aide to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki refused to comment on the case, referring questions to security officials. The officials couldn't be reached Monday.

The late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein allowed the MEK to set up a base about 65 miles north of Baghdad in a compound known as Camp Ashraf. Although the State Department considers the MEK a terrorist organization, the group was disarmed after the American-led invasion of Iraq and the residents there lived under U.S. protection until recently.

Now, however, Iraqi authorities are in charge of the future of the remaining 3,500 or so MEK members. Senior Iraqi officials with close ties to Tehran seek to deport the group to Iran, where its members could face imprisonment

Ghadhanfar Jassim Mohammad, a judge in Khalis, the main town near Camp Ashraf, said he ordered the release of the Iranian detainees in three separate rulings. Each time, security officials refused to free the prisoners.

"Their presence on Iraqi soil, according to the law, is legitimate," Mohammad said Monday. "There was no evidence forwarded to me that they had broken any Iraqi law."

The MEK's tactics, which in the 1970s included attacks on Americans who were working for the regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, earned the group a spot on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Some U.S. politicians have lobbied to remove the MEK from the list and recruit it for intelligence gathering on Iran.

Source: Free Internet Press.
Link: http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=23135.

U.S. Push To Expand In Pakistan Meets Resistance

Steps by the United States to vastly expand its aid to Pakistan, as well as the footprint of its embassy and private security contractors here, are aggravating an already volatile anti-American mood as Washington pushes for greater action by the government against the Taliban.

An aid package of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years passed by Congress last week asks Pakistan to cease supporting terrorist groups on its soil and to ensure that the military does not interfere with civilian politics. President Asif Ali Zardari, whose association with the United States has added to his unpopularity, agreed to the stipulations in the aid package.

But many here, especially in the powerful army, object to the conditions as interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs, and they are interpreting the larger American footprint in more sinister ways.

American officials say the embassy and its security presence must expand in order to monitor how the new money is spent. They also have real security concerns, which were underscored Monday when a suicide bomber, dressed in the uniform of a Pakistani security force, killed five people at a United Nations office in the heart of Islamabad, the capital.

The United States Embassy has publicized plans for a vast new building in Islamabad for about 1,000 people, with security for some diplomats provided through a Washington-based private contracting company, DynCorp.

The embassy setup, with American demands for importing more armored vehicles, is a significant expansion over the last 15 years. It comes at a time of intense discussion in Washington over whether to widen American operations and aid to Pakistan - a base for al-Qaeda - as an alternative to deeper American involvement in Afghanistan with the addition of more forces.

The fierce opposition here is revealing deep strains in the alliance. Even at its current levels, the American presence was fueling a sense of occupation among Pakistani politicians and security officials, said several Pakistani officials, who did not want to be named for fear of antagonizing the United States. The United States was now seen as behaving in Pakistan much as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan, they said.

In particular, the Pakistani military and the intelligence agencies are concerned that DynCorp is being used by Washington to develop a parallel network of security and intelligence personnel within Pakistan, officials and politicians close to the army said.

The concerns are serious enough that last month a local company hired by DynCorp to provide Pakistani men to be trained as security guards for American diplomats was raided by the Islamabad police. The owner of the company, the Inter-Risk Security Company, Capt. Syed Ali Ja Zaidi, was later arrested.

The action against Inter-Risk, apparently intended to cripple the DynCorp program, was taken on orders from the senior levels of the Pakistani government, said an official familiar with the raid, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The entire workings of DynCorp within Pakistan are now under review by the Pakistani government, said a senior government official directly involved with the Americans, who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.

The tensions are erupting as the United States is pressing Pakistan to take on not only those Taliban groups that have threatened the government, but also the Taliban leadership that uses Pakistan as a base to organize and conduct their insurgency against American forces in Afghanistan.

In a public statement, the American ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, suggested last week that Pakistan should eliminate the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, a onetime ally of the Pakistanis who Washington says is now based in Baluchistan, a province on the Afghanistan border. If Pakistan did not get rid of Mullah Omar, the United States would, she suggested.

Reinforcing the ambassador, the national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, said Sunday that the United States regarded tackling al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan as “the next step” in the conflict in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in an unusually stern reaction last week, said that missile attacks by American drones in Baluchistan, as implied by the Americans, “would not be allowed.”

The Pakistanis also complain that they are not being sufficiently consulted over the pending White House decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.

The head of Pakistan’s chief spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, met with senior officials at the Central Intelligence Agency last week in Washington, where he argued against sending more troops to Afghanistan, a Pakistani official familiar with the visit said.

The Pakistani Army, riding high after its campaign to wrench back control of the Swat Valley from the Taliban, remains nervous about Washington’s intentions and the push against the new aid is reflective of that anxiety, Pakistani officials said.

Though the Zardari government is trumpeting the new aid as a triumph, officials say the language in the legislation ignores long-held prerogatives about Pakistani sovereignty, making the $1.5 billion a tough sell.

“Now everyone has a handle they can use to rip into the Zardari government,” said a senior Pakistani official involved in the American-Pakistani dialogue but who declined to be named because he did not want to inflame the discussion.

The expanding American security presence has become another club. DynCorp has attracted particular scrutiny after the Pakistani news media reported that Blackwater, the contractor that has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, was also in Pakistan.

Recently, there have been a series of complaints by Islamabad residents who said they had been “roughed up” by hefty, plainclothes American men bearing weapons, presumably from DynCorp, said one of the senior Pakistani officials involved with the Americans.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office had sent two formal diplomatic complaints in the past few weeks to the American Embassy about such episodes, said the official.

The embassy had received complaints, and confirmed two instances, an embassy official said, but the embassy denied receiving any formal protests from the Foreign Office. It also declined to comment about the presence of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, in Pakistan.

American officials have said that Blackwater employees worked at a remote base in Shamsi, in Baluchistan, where they loaded missiles and bombs onto drones used to strike Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

The operation of the drones at Shamsi had been shifted by the Americans to Afghanistan this year, a senior Pakistani military official said.

Several Blackwater employees also worked in the North-West Frontier Province supervising the construction of a training center for Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, a Pakistani official from the region said.

There was considerable unease about the American diplomatic presence in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, one of the senior government officials said. Politicians were asking why the United States needed a consulate in Peshawar, which borders the tribal areas, when that office did not issue visas, he said.

Another question, he said, was why did the consulate plan to buy the biggest, and most modern building in the city, the Pearl Continental hotel - which was bombed in a terrorist attack this year - as its new headquarters.

As Parliament prepared to discuss the American aid package Wednesday, the tone of the debate was expected to be scathing. On a television talk show, Senator Tariq Azis, a member of the opposition party, called the legislation “the charter for new colonization.”
“People think this government has sold us to the Americans again for their own selfish interests,” said Jahangir Tareen, a former cabinet minister and a member of Parliament, in an interview. “Some people think the United States is out to get Pakistan, to defang Pakistan, to destroy the army as it exists so it can’t fight India and to break down the ISI’s ability to influence events in India and Afghanistan. Everyone is saying about the Americans, ‘Told you so’.”

Russia Going Green? President Medvedev Eyes Eco-Friendly Reforms

Russia has never made energy conservation much of a priority; but President Dmitry Medvedev would like that to change. He wants to see consumption drop by 40 percent in the next decade - but without the technological know-how, it could be difficult.

Sometimes, Dmitry Medvedev has to be brusque. Last Wednesday, the Russian president found it necessary to reprimand his audience in front of national television cameras for talking during his speech. "Whoever's chatting can go somewhere else. And that includes the bosses," he said. Medvedev is not accustomed to being ignored.

The problem may have been his choice of subject. The normally stoic Kremlin boss had been giving a speech on his new favorite subject: energy efficiency. It is not a topic that generally receives much attention in Russia.

Which is hardly a surprise. Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin was quick to shut down the State Committee for the Protection of the Environment soon after entering office in 2000. At the time, the nation prided itself on its natural gas fields and smoking chimneys - symbols of the country's renewed status as a global power. Only sissies worried about climate change and carbon dioxide emissions.

These days however, Moscow's rich and powerful must acquaint themselves with a new set of priorities - those of the man who took office in May 2008. Medvedev is now hell-bent on modernizing the Russian economy, an undertaking which has implications for the oil and gas industry. The Russian president wants to make his country a superpower in energy efficiency.

Superfluous Gas Torched

Medvedev's choice of location to hold forth on his eco-friendly project was replete with symbolism: the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading research and development facility in the field of nuclear energy and birthplace of the Soviet atomic bomb. It was here, in 1949, that researchers developed the nuclear weapons that would launch the USSR to superpower status. Now, Medvedev hopes Kurchatov researchers can develop technologies that will curb Russia's voracious appetite for energy.

Currently, the country consumes vast quantities of energy, the result of outdated and inefficient factories coupled with subsidized energy prices. Even today, many Russians are forced to open windows in the middle of winter to combat hyper-charged district heating systems. The Siberian sky is lit up by the bright flames of gas fields as excess gas is simply burned off.

Last week, Medvedev spoke of a "depressing situation." Russian factories use up four or five times more energy than their Western counterparts. In addition, district heating systems are profoundly wasteful, with much of the heat being lost before it even reaches consumers. In mid-September, Medvedev wrote a much-read article in which he stated that "the energy efficiency of the majority of our companies is shamefully low."

'Nothing Has Happened'

Medvedev's plan is ambitious. By 2020, he wants to cut Russian energy consumption by 40 percent, a goal he outlined in his speech on Wednesday, attended by the likes of Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina and Russia's richest man, Mikhail Prochorow. Even Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who, thanks to his position is also chairman of the board at the national oil company Rosneft, was taking detailed notes.

Medvedev's message was simple: "Those who save energy, save money." He is hoping to pass energy conservation legislation by the end of October.

Russia is now looking towards Germany for assistance in meeting its efficiency goals. In July, Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel established the "Russian-German Energy Agency" in Munich.

"This is the first important step for getting vital technology into the country. It also shows, however, that Russia simply does not yet have the necessary know-how," explains Stefan Meister, an expert on Russia at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).

Meister points out that it is also unclear how Medvedev intends to finance expensive projects such as swapping out incandescent lightbulbs for more energy-efficient bulbs nationwide. "Which business incentives will be used? How does one encourage large companies to save energy? These questions remain completely unanswered," said Meister.

President Medvedev, as his speech made clear, is aware of the problem. However few concrete steps have been taken to date. "So far," says Meister, "nothing has happened."

Sarraj calls for removing Abbas from office

Palestinian Information Center

October 5, 2009

GAZA, (PIC)-- Head of the national reconciliation campaign Eyad Al-Sarraj on Sunday called for conducting an investigation with Mahmoud Abbas and removing him from office because of his decision to delay taking action on the UN report about Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

"What happened in Geneva, regardless of the justifications, was a big unforgivable crime against the Palestinian people," Sarraj stressed.

He also described Abbas as a traitor and unfit to be in his post as the chief of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

In a related context, 35 Palestinian organizations in Europe also called for removing Abbas from office and interrogating him before an independent Arab legal committee.

In a joint statement, they said that Abbas’ position towards the report gave Israel a cover-up for its war crimes and represented a precedent not less dangerous than the atrocities committed in Gaza nine months ago.

The organizations which signed this statement include the Palestinian assembly in Italy, the cultural society in Poland, the association of Palestinian rights in Ireland, the Palestinian forum of rights and solidarity in Netherlands, the Palestinian forum in Denmark and the Palestinian assembly in Berlin.

For his part, first deputy speaker of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC) Dr. Ahmed Bahar stated Sunday that the Palestinian cause is facing a critical juncture because of the settlement project led by Abbas who dragged it into dark horizons, stressing the future is definitely in favor of the resistance project.

Dr. Bahar added that what happened to the report is a conspiracy against the Palestinian people and their national cause and a crime committed by the PA in Ramallah to cover up for Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

Last Straw for the Palestinian “Authority”?

Saree Makdisi

October 5, 2009

If there were any lingering doubts concerning the status and integrity of the Palestinian National Authority—and its so-called President, Mahmoud Abbas ("so-called" because his term of office, such as it was, expired almost a year ago)—they were surely dispelled once and for all by its decision to drop its support for a UN resolution that would have referred the Goldstone Report on Israel’s post-Christmas 2008 attack on Gaza to the UN Security Council.

The 575-page Report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, which was led by South African judge Richard Goldstone, confirmed the already densely documented reports published by human rights organizations, including Amnesty International. Those reports had, in turn, systematically confirmed Palestinian claims that Israel had, for example, recklessly and indiscriminately used white phosphorous on the packed residential districts of Gaza; indiscriminately targeted civilian objects including UN schools (as documented by the widely circulated—other than in the US—photographs of an Israeli phosphorous strike on a UN school in Gaza); used Palestinian civilians as human shields; and collectively punished the population of Gaza by imposing on them a suffocating siege, cutting off vital supplies of food, medicine, and fuel (not just during the recent assault and on to this day, but, to a greater or lesser extent, since 2005, and even, arguably, since 1991, when the Israelis first methodically sealed off the hapless territory from the outside world).

The Amnesty report, published in July, found that "hundreds of civilians were killed in attacks carried out using high-precision weapons—air- delivered bombs and missiles, and tank shells. Others, including women and children, were shot at short range when posing no threat to the lives of the Israeli soldiers. Aerial bombardments launched from Israeli F-16 combat aircraft targeted and destroyed civilian homes without warning, killing and injuring scores of their inhabitants, often while they slept. Children playing on the roofs of their homes or in the street and other civilians going about their daily business, as well as medical staff attending the wounded were killed in broad daylight by Hellfire and other highly accurate missiles launched from helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, and by precision projectiles fired from tanks."

The Goldstone report (though it remarkably reserves its strongest language for Palestinian rocket attacks that killed 3 Israeli civilians, compared to the 1,400 Palestinians killed in Gaza, the vast majority civilians, and a third of them children) reiterates many of the same conclusions, and reports on case after case where Israeli forces launched "intentional attacks against the civilian population and civilian objects," including "the shooting of civilians while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags and, in some of the cases, following an injunction from the Israeli forces to do so. The facts gathered by the Mission indicate that all the [latter] attacks occurred under circumstances in which the Israeli forces were in control of the area and had previously entered into contact with or at least observed the persons they subsequently attacked, so that they must have been aware of their civilian status." These incidents—all of which constitute war crimes—indicate, according to the Goldstone report, "that the instructions given to the Israeli forces moving into Gaza provided for a low threshold for the use of lethal fire against the civilian population."

Indeed, among its other findings, the Goldstone report corroborates the well-documented reports (all of them summarily dismissed by the Israeli army, which considers itself "the most moral army in the world") that Israeli soldiers themselves admitted to the brutality of the bombardment of Gaza, and left behind them—as unmistakable evidence of their officially-encouraged attitude towards Palestinians—both racist slogans (e.g., "We came to annihilate you; Death to the Arabs; Kahane was right; No tolerance, we came to liquidate") and human feces smeared on the walls of the Palestinian homes they looted and vandalized. "You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them," one Israeli soldier confessed of the prevailing Israeli army attitude toward the Palestinians of Gaza, which was fueled in part by the proclamations of the army’s rabbinical corps, which compared Palestinians to the biblical Philistines and urged that Israeli soldiers "show no mercy."

None of the conclusions of all these reports ought to come as a surprise. The Israeli army itself had openly proclaimed, months before the bombing even started, that its strategy in both Lebanon and Palestine has been premised since 2006 on the sweeping and indiscriminate use of massive firepower: the so-called "Dahiyeh Doctrine," referring to the Dahiyeh, or southern suburb of Beirut, which the Israelis razed to the ground in their 2006 war on Lebanon, as they also did to many villages in the south of that country. "We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction," one Israeli general (Gadi Eisenkot) announced—with contemptuous disregard for the law of war. "From our perspective, these are military bases," he added. "This isn’t a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized."

Other than planning for—and attempting (to its own satisfaction at least) to legitimate—the massive and necessarily indiscriminate use of force, the Israeli military legal establishment had specifically authorized premeditated attacks, such as the one that killed dozens of unarmed Gaza policemen parading in their graduation ceremony, with which Israel kicked off its bombardment on 27 December 2008, that inherently involved manifest violations of the principles of proportionality and discrimination that are the pillars of international humanitarian law.

Moreover, not only the Amnesty and Goldstone reports but Israeli commanders themselves openly said that overwhelming and indiscriminate force was used—deliberately, and in a premeditated fashion—again, in total disregard for the principles of proportionality and discrimination. "At the start of the ground offensive, senior command decided to avoid endangering the lives of soldiers, even at the price of seriously harming the civilian population," one Israeli media report revealed. "This is why the IDF [Israeli army] made use of massive force during its advance in the Strip. As a Golani brigade commander explained, if there is any concern that a house is booby-trapped, even if it is filled with civilians, it should be targeted and hit, to ensure that it is not mined—only then should it be approached. Without going into the moral aspects, such fighting tactics explain why there were no instances in which there was a need to assault homes where Hamas fighters were holed up."

Ultimately, all that these inquiries, including Goldstone’s, have done is merely to confirm Israel’s own (repeatedly flaunted) contempt for international humanitarian law.

Needless to say, from the beginning, Israel utterly refused to cooperate with the Goldstone inquiry, dismissing it—as it has dismissed all previous attempts to investigate its conduct or to hold it accountable to the principles of international humanitarian law—as "unfair" and "unbalanced" (as though there were anything "balanced" about the conflict between the sheer force of an occupying power and an essentially defenseless occupied people). Among the many previous investigative commissions which Israel has either summarily dismissed or refused to cooperate with are the investigation led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu into the Israeli killing of 19 members of a Palestinian family in Gaza in 2008; the commission appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2002 to investigate the indiscriminate destruction of civilian areas in the Israeli assault on Jenin refugee camp that spring (the actions of which a separate investigation, by Amnesty International, found amounted "to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes"); and the UN investigation of the Israeli artillery massacre of over a hundred Lebanese civilians huddling in a shelter at a UN compound in Qana, Lebanon in 1995, which found that "it is unlikely that the shelling of the United Nations compound was the result of gross technical and/or procedural errors," as the Israeli army said at the time—as, indeed, it always says is the case when its soldiers kill dozens of civilians: not once has Israel actually held any of its officers or soldiers accountable for such crimes. In all previous cases, Israel’s adamant refusal to be held accountable to the law has been upheld by the US, and the Obama administration proved that it had no intention of breaking that particular tradition this time either.

Nevertheless, as Professor Richard Falk (the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) points out, the Goldstone report could have provided a basis for referring Israel’s conduct durng the war in Gaza to the International Criminal Court or other international courts, or to the establishment of a war crimes tribunal along the lines of those established after the catastrophes of Bosnia and Rwanda. That would have been the best way to finally hold Israel accountable for its grave breaches of international humanitarian law, its war crimes, and its crimes against humanity (not least the sealing off an entire civilian population from the outside world, denying it the ability to flee to safety, and then subjecting that same, defenseless, shelterless population—most of it composed of children—to an indiscriminate round-the-clock bombardment).

The process of referral depended, however, on obtaining a vote within the UN to have the Goldstone report referred to the Security Council for further deliberation, the creation of a war crimes tribunal, and so on. And all of that depended in turn on the support of Palestinian diplomats appointed by and accountable to Mahmoud Abbas.

But it is now clear that the Palestinian team representing Mahmoud Abbas at the UN (for they certainly do not represent the Palestinian people) has, on his instructions, dropped its support for the resolution that might have set the legal machinery of the international judicial system in motion. Other states can hardly be expected to stand up to US pressure and support a resolution on behalf of Palestinian rights that the Palestinian delegation itself is unwilling to support—why should Venezuela or Nigeria or Pakistan be more Palestinian than the Palestinians?

Reports have been circulating in the Arab, Israeli and European media that Abbas and his associates may have been prompted to take this extraordinary action because Israel had been threatening, had they continued with their support of the UN resolution, to withhold its release of a share of the radio spectrum that would have allowed the creation of a new Palestinian mobile phone company, Wataniyya: the product of a joint venture between Qatari investors and the Palestine Investment Fund, to which Abbas himself and one of his wealthy sons have personal connections. Palestinians have suggested that simple corruption and cronyism may have motivated Abbas’s decision. The PA and the circle of officials attached to it have certainly had their share of corruption charges—most shockingly, perhaps, when Ahmed Qureia, then the so-called Prime Minister of the PA (again, "so-called" because Prime Ministers usually have countries to govern, and the PA is anything but a country), was accused of selling cement to the Israelis to build their wall in the West Bank. The corruption of the PA and the narrow circle of Fateh party officials running it, clinging to it, and benefiting from it, is one of the main reasons why Fateh was swept from office in the 2006 Palestinian elections in favor of Hamas: most people then were voting against Fateh and its corruption and general hopelessness, rather than for Hamas (which had, and has, little to offer other than simply not being Fateh: a credit which goes only so far).

It’s possible, of course, that corruption and cronyism were not the motivating factors for Abbas’s decision to withdraw Palestinian support for the Goldstone report. There are two other possibilities.

One of these is simple incompetence: that Abbas and his associates are so lacking in intelligence, imagination and political skill that they just bungled the whole affair. This is certainly not out of the question: Abbas himself is an extraordinarily unprepossessing and profoundly compromised man, and his circle of associates—including men like Mohammad Dahlan and Saeb Ereikat—hardly inspire any more confidence than Abbas himself. Quite apart from their sheer disregard for Palestinian suffering in Gaza (seeking redress for which ought to be their main priority), it ought to be clear that a party to a negotiation that wantonly throws a rarely-held card out of the window while attempting (or at least claiming) to negotiate is, to put it mildly, not qualified to negotiate in the first place, let alone to claim to "lead" a defiant and unvanquished people like the Palestinians. If the Ramallah leadership is really as hopelessly incompetent as this scenario would have it, that’s reason enough for their removal from office, if not the dissolution of the PA itself. (It’s difficult, though, to "dismiss from office" someone like Abbas who is not actually in office in the first place—he is there because the Israelis and the Americans want him to be there, because the election for his successor after his term expired has been deferred at the behest of Washington and Tel Aviv, and not because he holds any legitimate mandate from the Palestinian people themselves, the overwhelming majority of whom have no faith in him whatsoever, as opinion polls have regularly found).

Another—and I think more likely—possibility is that Abbas, the PA and the essentially defunct PLO are not (and never were, at least since the time of Yasser Arafat’s death) interested in serious negotiations with Israel that could have led to the creation of a genuine Palestinian state in the occupied territories. After all, one of the main criticisms of the Oslo Accords of 1993-95 which created the PA, is that, far from ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, they merely served to shift the day-to-day burden and cost of administering the occupation to the newly-established PA, while allowing Israel to go on demolishing Palestinian homes, expropriating Palestinian land, and building Jewish colonies in the occupied territories in contravention of international law. Oslo formally separated the three main chunks of Palestinian territory that Israel has occupied since 1967 (Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem) from each other and the outside world, and, additionally, broke the West Bank itself into Areas A, B and C. It was only in Area A (about 18 percent of the total) that the PA had any kind of practical presence on the ground, and in Area C (60 percent of the West Bank), the PA had no role or presence at all—and that’s where Israel was (and still is) busy demolishing, expropriating and building. Oslo and the PA, in other words, far from ending the occupation and laying the basis for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, actually allowed Israel to consolidate the occupation and further cement its grip on Palestinian land. Which is exactly why the population of Jewish colonists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem doubled during the period of Oslo and has been increasing ever since—and today numbers almost half a million.

As this latest episode so amply demonstrates, the PA serves Israel by facilitating the occupation—which is why Israel invented it in the first place, just as, historically speaking, colonial powers have always attempted to create or coerce local elites into helping them deal with the population at large: an approach perhaps most gracefully summarized in Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education of 1835 ("We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect"). Why would the PA want to bring to an end an arrangement from which it benefits? As the French scholar Regis Debray points out, the status quo provides the PA elites in Ramallah "with a living, status, dignity and a raison d’être," and probably (e.g., if the mobile phone contract rumors prove to be true) much more in the way of emoluments besides that.

Even if one were to grant the PA and Abbas and his associates the benefit of the doubt, and say that they really have their people’s best interests at heart, it still remains the case that the PA, even under the best-case scenario, can claim to represent only a minority of the Palestinian people, since only a minority of Palestinians live in the occupied territories: the majority live either in the exile imposed on them by force during the creation of Israel in 1948, or (in the case of those Palestinians who survived that year’s ethnic cleansing and remained in their homes) as second-class, non-Jewish citizens of the would-be Jewish state, which systematically discriminates against them simply because they are not Jewish.

These, then, are the possibilities before us: not only does the PA not represent the Palestinian people, it is also, on top of that, either corrupt to an almost unimaginable level; or it is profoundly incompetent and guilty of squandering the rights and hopes of a people that it is unentitled to claim to lead; or it is interested not in its people’s rights and hopes but rather in perpetuating its own status as the day-to-day caretaker of a permanent Israeli occupation—in which case it is no less collaborationist than the Vichy "government" of Nazi-occupied France in the 1940s. Corruption; incompetence; collaboration: ah, the agony of choice.

In the unlikely event that Abbas and his associates were to declare the "independence" of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories, as has been suggested by the current so-called Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad (another man whose claim to office has no legitimacy, since his arbitrary appointment, by Abbas, to replace the legitimately elected Hamas leadership—whatever one thinks of it—was never confirmed by the Palestinian Legislative Assembly, many of the members of which are in Israeli jails), it ought to be clearer than ever that such a "state" would offer Palestinians only more of the same choices (corruption, compromise, collaboration), while continuing to serve Israel’s interests, if not actually to take direct orders from Washington and Tel Aviv.

In any case, the Palestinian cause is a struggle for freedom and justice, not for the creation of a statelet in the occupied territories that would, as I said—even in the best circumstances—only address the interests of that minority of the Palestinian people who live there.

What, then, are we to conclude from all this?

Above all, that no Palestinian ought to look to the official leadership as a source of guidance and direction: it has betrayed the people and proved itself totally unworthy of their trust—indeed, many Palestinians, including Abdelbari Atwan, editor of the newspaper al-quds al-arabi, are demanding that those behind this recent decision be apprehended and put on trial. And of course with a leadership this corrupt, inept or collaborationist, Palestinians can hardly expect better treatment from Washington and Tel Aviv than they are getting from Ramallah. And the Hamas opposition and its alternative leadership has little more to offer in the long run other than resistance for the sake of resistance, which is not, in itself, a blueprint for freedom and justice, and in any case has nothing to offer to Christian or secular Palestinians (and hardly much more than that to offer Muslim ones either, for that matter).

The second immediate conclusion to be drawn from this experience is that, as more and more Palestinians are demanding, the PA ought to be dissolved once and for all—the sooner, the better. This latest action really ought to be the last in a long and dismal record proving that the PA has not only not served the interests of the Palestinian people, but that, on the contrary, it fundamentally serves the needs and requirements of Israel.

Bereft of any credible or legitimate leadership, the Palestinian people will have to look to themselves to continue their struggle for freedom, justice and equality. Indeed, their struggle has been at its best, for example, during the first intifada of the 1980s, when the official leadership—at the time in exile in Tunis—was actually least involved in it. No wonder, then, that the Israeli response to the grassroots autonomy of the first intifada was to usher the official leadership back into Palestine; the first intifada then stalled, and things have gone downhill ever since.

In looking for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, then, we should once and for all stop looking to governments and officials (elected or otherwise), in the US, Israel, or among the Palestinians themselves. As the Obama administration has already demonstrated, the US government, in the present political conjuncture, will never put peace and justice in Palestine ahead of internal domestic pressures and politics; the Israeli government will not for one moment back down from its continually expanding colonization plan in the West Bank and East Jerusalem until it is compelled by outside pressure to do otherwise; and the Palestinian government—well, there is no such thing. There is a people living partly under military occupation; partly in enforced exile; and partly as a racialized and discriminated-against minority inside Israel. What they need is to refocus their struggle in ways that they can all identify with, collectively and equally, and, moreover, in ways that people of good will around the world—who have repeatedly demonstrated in their tens of thousands in support of justice for Palestine.

Indeed, the Palestinians are not alone: they have the support of people around the entire world. And it is to that reserve of good will and good faith among ordinary people around the world that the Palestinians must also look, then. As the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa demonstrated, governments not only can, but do, act, when ordinary people of good will make them act. In fact, even as governments have dithered, a vibrant global campaign to boycott, divest from, and impose sanctions on Israel in order to bring it into compliance with international law and in order to realize the rights of the Palestinian people (all of it) has been recording one success after another, reminding us all that boycotts really do work.

This is the direction in which all Palestinians, bereft of leadership, must now throw themselves. And their demand must be something that addresses and unifies the rights of all segments of the Palestinian people, not just those suffering under occupation, as well as addressing and recognizing the rights of Jewish Israelis—something that most decent people in the world can readily identify with: justice, equality, one-person-one-vote: in other words, the creation of one democratic and secular state in which Palestinians and Israelis can live equally in a just and lasting peace. For without justice there will be no peace.