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Saturday, October 17, 2009

Israel vows to fight UN report amid France, UK support

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged a "lengthy fight" against a United Nations report as the UK and France express support for Israel to “defend” itself.

"We are now setting out to delegitimize those who try to delegitimize us. We will not tolerate it and we will respond on a case by case basis," Netanyahu told a special ministerial forum Friday night.

The forum was held following the decision by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to send the Goldstone report on Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip to the Security Council.

The rights assembly also adopted a resolution condemning Israel for the 22-day war in late 2008 against the Palestinians, which left at least 1,300 people dead.

The resolution has put Israel on the spotlight as leaders in Tel Aviv are facing growing international pressure.

In a letter to the Israeli premier, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy supported Israel's right to defend itself against 'terror'.

The two leaders also urged "independent, transparent investigation of Gaza events," Ynet reported.

France and Britain abstained from voting on the Goldstone report.

The 575-page report, written by South African war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone and three other international experts, accuses the Israeli army of the deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians among other accusations of war crimes.

US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that the endorsement per se did not necessarily mean that the Security Council will indeed review the report.

Kelly said the resolution had "an unbalanced focus and we're concerned that it will exacerbate polarization and divisiveness."

Ahmadinejad urges African nations to be vigilant

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned against plots hatched by arrogant powers to loot the wealth of Muslim and African countries.

"If Muslim and African countries lose their vigilance, arrogant powers will resolve their vows by making use of the funds and resources of African, Muslim nations," said Ahmadinejad in a meeting with his Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade in Tehran on Saturday.

The Iranian president called on Muslim and African countries to take steps towards bolstering cooperation with the aim of "meeting their needs and achieving independence in various fields."

"It is a must for Muslim and African states to enhance ties and cooperation and play an effective role in international developments," he added.

The Senegalese President Wade arrived in Tehran at the head of a high-ranking politico-economic delegation on Saturday morning. He was officially welcomed by his Iranian counterpart at the presidential office.

The Senegalese chief executive came to Tehran from the Bahraini capital of Manama and will fly to Paris later tonight.

In his meeting with Ahmadinejad, the Senegalese president said that African countries seek to gain independence in all sectors including agriculture.

Wade called on Iran to transfer its experience in areas such as the transfer of energy and water and the construction of power plants.

UK army 'providing' Taliban with air transport

The British army has been relocating Taliban insurgents from southern Afghanistan to the north by providing transportation means, diplomats say.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said insurgents are being airlifted from the southern province of Helmand to the north amid increasing violence in the northern parts of the country.

The aircraft used for the transfer have been identified as British Chinook helicopters.

The officials said Sultan Munadi, an Afghan interpreter who was kidnapped along with his employer, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, was killed by a “British sniper” as commandos executed a rescue operation to free Farrell.

They said Munadi was targeted for possessing documents and pictures pointing at the British military's involvement in the transfer operation.

The Afghan journalist also had evidence of the involvement of the foreign forces in Afghanistan in the tensions that rocked China's Xinjiang autonomous region in July, the diplomats said.

American forces have also invigorated the insurgency in the war-ravaged country by outfitting the Taliban with Russian-made weaponry used during the 1979-89 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which was fought against by the Afghan Mujahedeen, the diplomats said.

The US forces are assumed to have gathered the armaments during a campaign to "collect weapons from irresponsible people," after the 2001 invasion.

Diplomats said Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, a Pashtun who has received his higher education in the UK, was still operating under the British guidance.

The Interior Ministry is accused of enabling the provision of arms and ammunition for the north-based militants by the Pashtun police force.

Earlier in the week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was quoted by the BBC Persian as having ordered an investigation into reports of 'unknown' army helicopters carrying gunmen to the north.

The Afghan president said based on unconfirmed reports, the helicopters have been taking gunmen to Baghlan, Kunduz and Samangan provinces overnight for about five months now.

In early 2008, Karzai expelled two British diplomats for allegedly planning to “turn” senior Taliban commanders. According to the Times Online, the British officials had sought to persuade militant chief Mullah Mansoor Dadullah to cooperate with the UK.

Afghanistan is currently witnessing the highest level of violence since the invasion, despite the presence of more than 100,000 foreign troops.

US under pressure to rewrite NIE report on Iran

Policymakers in Israel and the West are pressuring the US into rewriting the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, which concedes that the country does not seek nuclear weapons.

Quoting American secret agents, The Wall Street Journal revealed Friday that the US intelligence community is under a considerable amount of pressure to repudiate the 2007 NIE assessment, and instead pen a new report, which is more consistent with the policies of Israel and Western powers.

One intelligence official, who was speaking on conditions of anonymity, claimed that the spy community now has more information on Iran's uranium enrichment since two years ago.

"At some point in the near future, our analytic community is going to want to press the reset button on our judgments on intent and weaponization in light of Qom and other information we're receiving," he said.

Some of it "tracks precisely with what we've seen before," while other information "causes us to reassess what we've seen before," the official added.

Another US intelligence official noted that although officials were not "ready to declare the findings invalid," the fact that the previous report only covered the 2003-2007 timeframe, begs the need for a new assessment.

Citing the findings of more than 16 US spy agencies, the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate overturned earlier conclusions on Tehran's nuclear activities of two years ago, asserting with "high confidence" the non-diversion of Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli leaders reacted in shock and anger to the publication of the report, which disputed their long-standing claims of "an Iranian nuclear threat".

Tel Aviv, which reportedly houses an arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads, views Tehran's nuclear program as a mortal threat.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly threatened to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities out of existence, but the release of the report significantly weakened their drive for war.

This is while the Islamic Republic, since its establishment in 1979, has gone to war only once, to defend itself against an Iraqi offensive in 1980, whereas Israel has invaded Lebanon twice, bombed Syria and Iraq, and regularly bombed and attacked Gaza and other Palestinian areas at will.

The Israeli regime has also masterminded a wave of undercover operations and terror plots in numerous countries, including Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, Iran, Switzerland, and the US.

Official: Hamas will respond to reconciliation pact in Cairo Sunday

Gaza City/Cairo (Earth Times - dpa) - A senior delegation of the Islamic Hamas movement will hand to Cairo officials on Sunday its response to an Egyptian-drafted pact of reconciliation with the rival Palestinian Fatah organization, Hamas said Saturday. Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the delegation would be chaired by Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy politburo chief of Hamas, and would include other Hamas leaders.

"The delegation will arrive in Cairo on Sunday to hand over Hamas response to the Egyptian document for achieving the Palestinian reconciliation," said Barhoum. "The delegation will discuss the dates for signing the pact."

On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party had unilaterally signed on the pact and handed it to Egypt. Fatah leader Azzam el-Ahmad said his movement accepted the pact with no reservations.

The pact was scheduled to be signed in Cairo on October 25 but this was delayed on a Hamas request following disputes over the UN Goldstone report on war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas in the Gaza conflict last December and January.

Egypt, which drafted the pact in coordination with Fatah, Hamas and other factions during six months of marathon dialogue, decided to ask each faction first to unilaterally sign the pact.

Under it, an official ceremony will be held in Cairo at the end of November, attended by all Palestinian leaders. Hamas leaders have already said they do not oppose the dates.

After Geneva vote, Obama policies blasted in Jordan - Feature

Amman - US President Barack Obama, at pains to improve his country's worsening image in the Arab and Islamic worlds, received a major setback at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council when the US opposed Judge Richard Goldstone's report about war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, two prominent Jordanian politicians said Saturday. The politicians also rebuked European countries for failing to support the report, saying their credibility as independent peace brokers and advocates of human right in the world would be substantially undermined.

"Obama's moves to improve the US image has hit a major snag at Geneva. He has now proved that his policies are nothing more than an extension of those of George W Bush," Mahmoud Mhaidat, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at Jordan's lower house of parliament told the German press agency dpa.

"Obama, who is trying to slaughter people in the region with a smooth hand, is now restoring the role as leader of the world's most oppressive and criminal nation," he said.

His comments came after the United States opposed the Goldstone report, saying it could jeopardize current efforts aimed at resuming the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The report, written by Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor, and three additional international experts, concluded that both Israel and the Hamas movement likely committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip in December and January.

The 47-member UN body adopted the report with 25 votes, while the United States and five European countries - Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovakia and Ukraine - opposed it. Britain, France and three other countries did not vote, while 11 nations abstained.

Arab media said that several countries had come under US and French pressure not to support the report, the adoption of which was considered by many Arab circles as a "legal victory" because it set the stage for further action against Israel possibly at the UN Security Council and International Criminal Court.

Mhaidat said it showed once again that the US and European countries were not in charge of their own decision-making, "which instead lies with the Jewish lobbies." He then asked what they had done so far "to stop Israel's building of settlements and judaizing of Jerusalem."

Meanwhile Hamman Saeed, leader of the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement, said that by opposing the Goldstone Report, the US was defending Israel's crimes in Gaza and the rest of Palestinian lands.

"Obama's cosmetic attempts to improve the ugly face of the United States turned out to be a failure at Geneva. His steps now fall in line with those of Bush," Saeed told dpa.

"It is high time for the Arab and Islamic worlds to stop relying on the United States and Europe for regaining their usurped rights and to resort to their own resources for restoring missing justice," he said.

The Obama administration has been leading an effort to achieve a resumption of peace talks between Israel and Palestinians.

However, a series of shuttle diplomacy trips by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has so far failed to achieve a breakthrough in face of a refusal by the Israeli far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze construction of settlements in occupied Palestinian lands.

The way the United States and European countries voted at the Human Rights Council was also condemned by the chief editor of the independent Alarab Alyawm daily newspaper Taher Adwan.

"The vote revealed the ethical collapse in the so-called democratic governments of the United States and Europe," Adwan said.

"While Washington's decision lay in the hands of the Zionist lobby, the governments of the European Union, particularly France and Norway, reflected a degree of opportunism that cannot be tolerated," he added.

Netanyahu: 'Israel must prepare to fight delegitimization'

Jerusalem - Israel must take appropriate measures against its "delegitimization" in the UN Human Rights Council, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a special ministerial forum Friday night, the Israeli Haaretz daily reported on Saturday. "The delegitimization (of Israel) must be delegitimized," Netanyahu said in the meeting convened Friday night following the UN Human Rights Council's decision to endorse Goldstone report.

The report accusing Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during its 22 days conflict last winter in the Gaza Strip was ratified by a majority of countries in the UN Human Rights Council.

With the adoption of the resolution, the Human Rights Council would hand the matter over "urgently" to the UN General Assembly in New York, which could issue a non-binding recommendation for ICC involvement. The report also recommends the Security Council discuss the findings.

The Israeli prime minister said the struggle against Goldstone report would be legal and diplomatic but would take the appropriate measures against it, Haaretz daily reported.

The report, written by Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor, and three other international experts, concluded that both Israel and the Hamas movement likely committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during their three weeks of fighting.

Some 25 states in the 47-member Human Rights Council voted in Geneva to accept the report and 11 delegates abstained. Six nations, including the United States and some European Union nations voted against the resolution, which mentions only Israeli war crimes and not Hamas'.

Israel rejected Friday the United Nations Human Rights Council's ratification and called the UNHRC resolution "unjust, according to a statement of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Hariri says 'breakthrough' in cabinet formation a matter of days

Beirut - Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri said Saturday he expected a breakthrough in a "few days" in the bid to form the long-awaited national unity cabinet. After meeting Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Hariri said: "A breakthrough will take place after the continued discussions in the coming few days."

Hariri said he had briefed the president about the discussions on forming a cabinet and that "things are advancing. Everyone wants to see a new cabinet as soon as possible."

On the other hand, Hariri said relations with Christian hardliner MP Michel Aoun, who is close to the Hezbollah-led opposition, were improving.

Hariri concluded that it is most important that everyone realizes that Lebanon's interest lies in forming a national unity government as soon as possible.

Hariri has been struggling to form a national unity government in the country for four months after emerging as the winner of the country's national elections last June.

While Hariri is assured of a majority in parliament in order to lead a cabinet, the Hezbollah-led opposition has been putting up obstacles chiefly aimed at securing veto powers.

Open Letter of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to Shanghai Summit

Afghan Resistance Statement
Open Letter of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to Shanghai Summit
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

October 14, 2009

Those with free conscience in the world know that America and NATO member countries have been shedding blood of the innocent Afghans for the past eight years under the pretext of terrorism. Tens of thousand of miserable Afghans including women, children and old men have become victims to this fatuous pretext. Still more, this spree of killing, prosecution and torture at the hand of the invaders has been continuing unabated.

Our parent are not able to send their children to schools with a peace of mind, fearing they might be killed because the invaders have frequently shelled seminaries and schools under the excuse of being training centers of terrorists. Our common public passengers fear they may get stuck between military convoys of the invaders and lose life. Many a time, it has happened that the so-called international security forces have run over common people’s vehicles. Afterward, they claimed that the passengers had not paid attention to their signals. In order word, they consider passengers’ not heeding to their signal a justification to kill them. Our businessmen are grappling with various problems in their daily commercial activities, being not able to perform their normal business routine. They fear, their goods may be damaged by foreign troops while transporting them from one province to another. They also fear that some officials in uniform will loot their commodity. A few days ago, foreign forces set fire to 2,000 shops in Gandum Raiz bazaar, Zamindawar area, Kajaki district, Helmand province, burning them to ashes. Other bazaars of the district are under similar threat. Our farmers are not able to work in fields with solace because the enemy helicopters and fighter planes are hovering over them. Some times they take peasants farm equipments to be weapons and the farmers to be armed militants busy erecting outposts, so they open fire at them. Our common men could not go to sleep without tension because the foreign troops usually raid people’s houses and kill elders of the households or take them to Guantanamo, Bagram, Kandahar, or other notorious jails. In fact, our nation is hostage in the hands of the foreign forces in Afghanistan. They have been terrorizing our people, ostensibly under the name of fighting terrorism.

Despite the atrocities that they have unleashed, still a great part of Afghanistan is under the control of the Islamic Emirate. The problem is that the American and NATO forces are in complete jittery and are suffering from psychological diseases. They think every Afghan, child or a mature person, male or female is going to attack them by blowing up him or herself. So they fear from every rock and every bush of Afghanistan, considering them to be their enemy, thinking, Taliban might have planted a landmine under it. They open fire at every direction.

The invaders have turned our country into an inferno where the oppressed Afghans have been burning. Therefore, we urge the participants of the Shanghai Summit to render assistance in the work of liberation of people and countries of the region from the claws of the colonialists and take a decisive stand regarding the West’s invasion of Afghanistan.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , as a liberation movement, wants to play a positive role in peace and stability of the region besides its current mission of liberating the country.

The esteemed Amir of the Islamic Emirate [Mullah Omar] has touched upon this matter in his recent message as follows:

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wants to have good and positive relations with all neighbors based on mutual respect and open a new chapter of good neighborliness of mutual cooperation and economic development.

We consider the whole region as a common home against colonialism and want to play our role in peace and stability of the region. "

We remind the participants of the Shanghai Forum to be aware of being swayed by the black propaganda launched against us by colonialism. We do not have any intention to harm our neighboring countries but we want to gain independence of our country which is our natural right and establish an Islamic system as a panacea for all our economic and social problems, for which, we have been offering tremendous sacrifices unremittingly.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as per its peaceful policy wants to have constructive interactions with Shanghai forum member countries for a permanent stability and economic development in the region on the basis of mutual respect.

Algeria expands funding for higher education

16 October 2009

With an eye to improving the skills of graduates and boosting scientific research, the Algerian government has increased its funding for a range of university-level activities.

Algerian university students will benefit from the largest increase in grant money in three decades when they return to classes on Sunday (October 18th).

Undergraduates will benefit from a term grant of 4,500 dinars, an increase from the current 2,700 dinars. Those working towards a PhD will receive 1,200 dinars every month. The government has already earmarked the money to cover the financial burden of the increase under a decision made last march by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

"The new increase and measures will, as a whole, boost the work of Algerian universities and encourage students," said Ismail Mjahed, secretary general of the Free General Union of Students.

"The approval of the student grant increase, regardless of its percentage, is in itself a positive step that the union can't but appreciate and praise," said the secretary general of the National Union of Algerian Students, Ibrahim Bolkan. "The union looks forward to other increases in the future," he added.

Bolkan called on the minister of higher education to take advantage of the decision to increase funding for scientific research to improve Algerian universities.

The government has set aside 100 billion dinars to fund scientific research over the next five years, an increase from the 50 billion dinars provided by the government from 2005 to 2009. Incentives, including tax breaks for institutions that conduct research and tax-exempt purchases of scientific equipment, have also been introduced.

The new academic year will see other improvements, as well.

New preparatory classes in science, technology, economic and commercial sciences and management, as well as preparatory classes integrating informatics and architecture, will be offered by Algerian universities. Universities will also expand programs to offer more BA, MA, and PhD programs. Construction of new graduate schools for technology, journalism, political sciences and management will also begin this year.

Algeria is currently listed near the bottom of Arab and neighboring countries in terms of its quality of education. Analysts say that several factors, including a low level of resources provided by the state, low monthly salaries for teachers, have led to the deterioration of the country's educational standards.

"The reforms may suffer from the lack of structures and shortage of teachers as compared to the huge number of students who enroll in universities every year, which are among the main causes of the deteriorating [educational] level of Algerian students," said Kemal Herzi, a writer who specializes in university affairs.

The university student population is expected to balloon to 2 million in 2010.

Herzi, concerned that the increase in funding will not be enough, said that the capabilities "provided by the state are no longer sufficient to deal with the huge influx of students, who find themselves lost and distracted between finding the means for transport, acquiring books and references that enable them to conduct research and attend classes, and receiving a meal at university restaurants."

By Walid Ramzi for Magharebia in Algiers

Leader urges OIC to support Palestinians

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has urged the Organization of the Islamic Conference to support the "oppressed" people of Palestine.

"Muslim nations call for providing support for the Palestinian people. The OIC should support the oppressed Palestinians and bring hope to them," said Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting with visiting Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in Tehran on Saturday.

The Leader pointed to the support of world powers and certain Muslim countries for Israel and said that the Islamic Republic has made great efforts to strengthen solidarity among Muslim countries.

"Iran is ready to transfer its experience and achievements to Muslim countries," Ayatollah Khamenei said.

"The OIC has been set up with the aim of pursuing the Palestinian case. So, it shoulders an important responsibility and has great potential to play a role in this matter," the Leader told Wade, whose country holds the OIC presidency.

"The oppressed and lonely Palestine seriously needs a firm and appropriate move in the Muslim world."

Iranian film enters Religion Today festival

Iranian filmmaker Rasoul Sardameli's Every Night Loneliness has entered the 12th edition of the Religion Today Film Festival in Italy.

The 100-minute film recounts the story of a radio show host, who successfully helps her listeners with their family problems despite being unable to resolve her own marital issues.

Every Night Loneliness won Sadrameli the Best Director award of the 22nd edition of the Singapore International Film Festival.

The 2009 Religion Today Film Festival will be held from Oct. 14 to 24 on the theme of 'Born from Above. New Life in Faith'.

The event will screen documentaries, feature-length and short films in the Italian cities of Trento, Rome, Bolzano, Bassano and Nomadelfia.

Latin America plans US dollar replacement

Leftist Latin American leaders have agreed on using a new intra- regional trading currency, dubbed as Sucre, instead of the US dollar.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, who hosted leaders of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA), said that the “document is approved.”

During the seventh ALBA summit, the leaders agreed on the currency reform as well as approving plans to impose economic sanctions against the coup leaders in Honduras, AFP reported.

The currency, Sucre, is named after Jose Antonio de Sucre who fought for Spain's independence alongside Venezuelan hero Simon Bolivar in the early 19th century.

Sucre is scheduled to be rolled out in 2010 in a non-paper form.

The nine members of ALBA, conceived by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, are Cuba, Dominica, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Saint Vincent and Antigua, Bolivia and Barbuda.

The bloc also agreed to replace the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which is in charge of arbitrating international disputes and has probed a large number of contract disputes between Western energy firms and members of ALBA.

ALBA, which has already lost many of its members, including Ecuador, is echoing the moves of the European Union and its introduction of euro.

Iran's swine flu toll reaches 650

Iranian health officials have reported 173 new confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu including three deaths during the past week, bringing the country's total toll to 649.

Head of the Iranian Health Ministry's Center for Disease Control Mohammad-Mehdi Gouya told Fars News Agency that the majority of the new cases to have tested positive for the virus are students; none, however, have died of the disease.

Gouya said the flu has already claimed the lives of some 10 individuals, adding that a pregnant woman, an 11-month old baby and a 3-year-old one were the new cases who died from the fatal virus.

He therefore urged parents to keep a child with flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough and sore throat at home until the symptoms are gone.

Health officials also stressed that adopting simple precautionary measures such as frequently washing hands, using a tissue to cover the mouth when coughing and sneezing and avoiding kissing can contain the virus.

In Congo, army uses rape as 'weapon'

Sat Oct 17, 2009

New appalling figures by human rights activists claim that some 200,000 women and girls have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998.

In an interview with CNN, Anneke van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, said the number of attacks on women have grown threefold over the past few years.

Rape has turned into a weapon of war and the condition of women has become worse as the Congolese army launched a military campaign against armed groups in the countryside.

"We notice and we have documented that when armed groups walk into town, they will rape the women and girls, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, in order to punish the local population," said van Woudenberg.

"It's the easiest way to terrorize a community," she added.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, has accused the army of widespread abuses against civilians that it said amounted to war crimes.

In May, the UN handed over the names of five top military officers accused of rape. Two officers are being detained and the three others must report to authorities under close observation.

With a death toll estimated at more 5 million, Congo has witnessed the bloodiest war since World War II in a ten-year period.

Most casualties have come from indirect violence in forms of disease and starvation. While the war formally ended six years ago, fighting persists in eastern Congo, and women are paying a high price.

"One of the other sad realities is that the majority of those who are raped are adolescent girls aged 12-14. Their lives are often ruined by this," van Woudenberg said.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/108917.html.

Reaction of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to the Biased Resolution of the Security Council, UN

Afghan Resistance Statement
Reaction of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to the Biased Resolution of the Security Council, UN
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Shawwal 25, 1430 A.H, October 15, 2009

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

The Security Council of the United Nations once again extended the period of stay of the so-called international secularity forces for one more year until next October. The Security Council, UN, by doing this, has categorically violated its Charter and the Geneva Conventions rules because the United Nations Charter grants to every nation the right to have independence and a government according to their aspirations, whereas the foreign military and political forces in Afghanistan have deprived the Afghans of these natural and legitimate rights.

The Western countries have been shedding the blood of the miserable people of Afghanistan under superficial and fatuous rationale for the past eight years, trampling down on their humane and natural rights. The United Nations and the Security Council at its head, never transcended to pass a resolution regarding the mass murder of innocent people in Uruzgan, Hirat, Nangarhar, Paktya, Farah, Helmand, Kunduz and … so that they would have summoned the murderers of the innocent Afghans to the Hague Tribunal to face the consequence of their war crimes. Contrarily, they allow them for one more year to shed the blood of the Afghans despite their recurrent involvement in war crimes.

These invaders have imprisoned hundreds of Afghans in Guangtanamo, Bagram and Kandahar jails and have been torturing them for the past eight years in contravention of the Geneva Conventions. Similarly, the detainees are not granted the right of self-defense, which is a recognized right of an individual in the law of any country of the world.

Unfortunately, all these anti-human activities are being carried out by the countries that brag of being protectors of human rights and democracy. This is why the oppressed people of the world do not trust the United Nations any more because of its partial and unlawful resolutions.

They consider this World Body as an extended instrument of America and Europe for the execution of their colonialist policies. Now many impartial personalities of the world say that the World Body has assumed the shape of the secretariat office of the USA from where they get passed resolution palatable to them.

This World Body will never regain its lost trust and status unless and until it does not change its policy and show its neutrality. Similarly, because of UNOSC negative and pro-colonialist policy, peace and stability will not be established in the world.

Feeling it as a religious and national obligation, the Muslim people of Afghanistan have already embarked on the road of obtaining the real independence in order to reach their legitimate rights. Expectedly, they are not going to make any change in their chosen path because of the biased and unjust resolution, nor such a resolution have any impact on the tempo of the current Jihadic movement in Afghanistan.

However, it would have been more becoming for the Security Council to have parted its way with the strategy of American colonialism and acted in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. They should have called on the rulers of the White House and the NATO member countries to immediately withdraw their forces from Afghanistan and like other nations, let the oppressed people of Afghanistan to lead a prosperous life in a free country under the shade of an Islamic government as per their aspirations.

As far as the Western colonialists are concerned, we do not have any complaint because they have already unveiled their wicked face to the world through their anti-human violations and activities that they have committed in Guantanamo and Abu Ghrib jails. However, we are flabbergasted at the attitude of those member countries of the Security Council who think their path is different from that of colonialism but still they do not stop the approval of such resolutions by using their right of veto.

All understand, that the Islamic Movement of Taliban is not a terrorist movement but a freedom-loving, progressive movement, which has been waging struggle against the neo-colonialism of the 21st century for the obtainment of their legitimate rights.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan urges all progressive, nationalist, Islamist and anti-colonialist forces to part their ways with the global colonialism and extend their moral support to the sacrificing Mujahideen in Afghanistan because in this current juncture of time of the unipolar world, the current resistance movement in Afghanistan is the only force that constantly add oil to the candle of freedom by shedding their blood and have kept the torch of hope of the oppressed people blazing.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

NATO troops kill Afghan woman, child in home

October 16, 2009

An Afghan woman and a child were killed in a joint NATO-Afghan attack in Afghanistan on Friday, sparking a protest by a group of angry villagers.

Civilian deaths, especially during attacks by U.S.-led NATO forces, have infuriated Afghans and increased hostility towards invasion of foreign troops.

The NATO-led force said the woman and a school-aged girl were killed during an attack by foreign and Afghan forces in the southeastern Ghazni province.

Reuters television images from the scene showed two bodies including that of a child lying on the floor of a house as a group of Afghans huddled together and cried over the bodies.

A group of 100 angry Afghans could be seen later in the day marching through a nearby village shouting "Death to America" and "Death to (President) Hamid Karzai".

Residents said house searches by troops looking for alleged Taliban fighters have antagonized the local population.

"House searches, killings and beatings of civilians have become daily business," said one villager.

Abdul Rahman Shaidaee, head of Ghazni's intelligence department, said according to his information four civilians were killed by international forces in the operation.

More than 1,500 civilians have been killed so far this year, according to the United Nations.

The killings of civilians have continued although U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, who took command of foreign forces in Afghanistan in June, has made protecting Afghan civilians the focal point of his strategy.

As a new kind of policy, McChrystal's new orders also call for more rapid efforts to apologize and provide compensation if civilians are killed.

Reuters

Iran wins gold in World Taekwondo Championships

Iran's Mohammad Baqeri-Motamed has won his country's first gold medal after four years in the WTF World Taekwondo Championships underway in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Iranian athlete earned the gold after defeating his Mexican rival 3-2 at the Ballerup Super Arena on Friday night.

Taekwondo practitioners from Turkey and Senegal took the joint bronze medal.

Around 1,000 athletes from 140 countries have joined the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships which runs until October 18.

The Iranian taekwondo squad had last won a gold medal in the Spanish capital Madrid in 2005.

Hundreds being tossed across Bangladesh-Myanmar border: Report

Dhaka, Oct 16 : Bangladesh and Myanmar are tossing hundreds of Muslim tribal Rohingya families across their border, where they are reinforcing troops for the past one week, a media report said.

Alleging that Myanmar border force Nasaka is pushing out the Rohingyas, Bangladesh says it has adopted the policy of pushing them back. But it finds that the same people are being sent back again.

Dhaka says Yangon is preparing for "an all-out armed conflict" and has moved three more battalions Thursday.

A convoy carrying cannons, artillery guns and other armaments from Comilla and Chittagong were moved to the border.

The trouble began with Myanmar erecting barbed wire fence despite Bangladesh's objections and reinforcing troops to support that operation.

"Push-ins and push-backs are going on across the border with Myanmar amid tensions following mobilization of a huge number of Myanmarese troops along the border for erecting barbed wire fence," The Daily Star newspaper reported from Bandarban, a border area in Chittagong Hill Tracts.

The two share a 300 km border that remains volatile due to what Dhaka alleges to be attempts by Nasaka to push out the Rohingyas, most of them inhabiting the western flank of the Arakan ranges. The Rohingyas are opposing the military junta ruling Yangon.

This has been a recurring phenomenon in the last three decades. Bangladesh hosts a large population of refugees in its southeastern region.

The newspaper quoted unnamed Bangladeshi intelligence sources as saying that Nasaka gathered about 10,000 Rohingyas at several border points opposite Naikhongchhari last week in a bid to push them into the Bangladesh territory.

Local people said even after receiving the Rohingyas from the Bangladesh authorities, Nasaka forced them again to enter the country using other border areas of the hill district.

5 members elected to U.N. Security Council

Bosnia, Lebanon among two-year servers

By Betsy Pisik

UNITED NATIONS | Bosnia and Lebanon will join the U.N. Security Council in January, even though both countries are cited in council resolutions calling for disarmament and political negotiations.

Gabon, Brazil and Nigeria will also serve two-year terms in the council, beginning Jan. 1.

"It is going to be an even stronger Security Council, I think, next year," said British Ambassador John Sawers.

"We have two large countries in Brazil and Nigeria who carry the weight of being a regional power. We have two countries in Lebanon and Bosnia who have been through conflict and can bring their own national experiences to the Security Council," Mr. Sawers said.

The five nations - all were running unopposed - were easily elected on the first ballot by the 192-member General Assembly.

Five of the council's 10 elected seats turn over every year. The 15-member council includes five veto-wielding permanent members - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia.

Elected members, which lack veto power, are nominated by region.

Gabon and Nigeria will succeed Burkina Faso and Libya for the African seats; Croatia will pass the Eastern European seat to Bosnia; Brazil succeeds Costa Rica for the Latin American and Caribbean countries; and Lebanon is taking the Asia seat from Vietnam.

Lebanon will also succeed Libya as the unofficial "Arab seat," under a deal worked out years ago between predominantly Arab countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

The other five elected members - Austria, Japan, Uganda, Turkey and Mexico - will step down in 2011.

In January, Brazil will take its place at the horseshoe-shaped Security Council table. The country is leading an effort to expand the council to as many as 23 seats.

Brazil, which will host the 2016 Summer Olympics, is influential in the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations, rapidly raising its international profile.

Lebanon hosts one of the most dangerous U.N. peacekeeping missions on its boundary with Israel, an area dominated by the militant Shi'ite Islamist group Hezbollah.

Lifestyle diseases create Saudi healthcare boom

Wednesday, August 26 - 2009

According to a research by India-based research firm RNCOS, the Saudi Arabian healthcare market is experiencing rapid growth. Due to the prevalence of lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, the healthcare sector in the kingdom is growing faster than in other countries in the Middle East. Over the coming years, the report - called Saudi Arabian Healthcare Market Forecast to 2012 - said healthcare would see double digit growth. "The pharmaceutical market and medical device market in Saudi Arabia are forecast to grow at a CAGR of around 12% and 7%, respectively," the report said.

Jordan Pharmacies end insurance deals

Wednesday, August 19 - 2009

Jordan's Pharmacists Association (JPhA) has terminated contracts between pharmacies and health insurance companies, giving insurance companies a deadline of September 12 to rectify their situations and sign new agreements with pharmacies through the JPhA, The Jordan Times has reported. The association has attributed its decision to the Jordan Insurance Federation's stance on regulating the relations between insurance companies and pharmacies, which, according to a JPhA statement, prevents pharmacies from enjoying their full rights.

Jordan cancer centre to set up stem cell bank

Tuesday, August 25 - 2009

Jordan's King Hussein Cancer Centre (KHCC) is setting up a stem cell bank to support its stem cell transplantation programme, which handles up to 100 cases every year, the Jordan Times has reported. "The stem cell bank will be established as part of a 2,000-square-metre expansion of the KHCC and it will be a public bank not a private one," KHCC Director General Mahmoud Sarhan said.

Makkah hotels to provide doctors for flu

Saturday, August 22 - 2009

Hotels in Makkah will be provided with resident doctors by Umrah companies as a precautionary measure to contain a potential swine flu outbreak, Arab News has reported. Saad Al-Qurashi, chairman of Haj and Umrah Committee at Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said that resident doctors would be provided through the Health Affairs Committee at the chamber. The doctors would detect cases of diseases among pilgrims and treat them.

Dubai to push e-cigarette ban

Wednesday, August 19 - 2009

The Dubai Municipality has said that it will recommend a ban on electronic cigarettes, as tests carried out by the municipality have found the electronic device to be a health hazard which contains carcinogens and toxic materials, according to the Khaleej Times. 'There is general agreement in the GCC Tobacco Control Committee that e-cigarettes should not be circulated in the [Gulf] market as therapy,' Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, head of Tobacco Control Team at the MoH has said.

Private hospitals to treat H1N1 cases in Jordan

Jordan health officials has now allowed private hospitals to start receiving H1N1 (swine) flu patients, Jordan Times has reported. Only 20 out of 61 private hospitals will be allowed to treat patients infected with the H1N1 virus. Swine flu cases have reached and one death in Jordan since the virus was first reported in mid-June.

Why Fayyad plan for Palestine has Israelis worried

JERUSALEM, Oct 16 — The future Palestinian state some Israeli strategists have in mind would be bordered entirely by Israel, with large areas in its middle under Israeli control.

Israel would own the Jordan Valley, part of the central West Bank highlands above it, plus uplands to the west overlooking Jerusalem and Israeli cities on the coastal plain.

The possibility of this blueprint becoming Israeli policy is deeply worrying to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Faced with the offer of peace talks on such a basis, his answer would be “forget it”, he said this week. It would be, Fayyad cautioned, a “Mickey Mouse” state nothing like what Palestinians seek.

Western-backed Fayyad clearly has the attention of Israeli conservatives in the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, headed by Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Earlier this month it published an appreciative critique of what it called a positive and bold plan Fayyad unveiled in August, to build the institutional, administrative and physical framework necessary for Palestinian statehood over the next two years.

Fayyad, a US-educated economist and former senior World Bank official, is courageously challenging the Palestinian policy of liberation through armed struggle by proposing peaceful, proactive development, the Israeli paper said.

The plan already had robust US and European support and promises of aid in the billions. Israel also backs Palestinian economic development and reform from bottom up to establish a demilitarised state, the paper said.

Fayyad is challenging Palestinian hardliners of the dominant Fatah movement who are deeply suspicious of his vision of the need to do more than simply opposing Israeli occupation.

So far, so good. But unlike the familiar forms of Palestinian resistance which Israel has coped with, the Fayyad plan leads into dangerous, uncharted territory, the paper said.

“Fayyad’s intention is to create facts on the ground that will garner major international support and lead to pressure to transform recognition of a de facto Palestinian state in 2011 into a de jure state in the event that the Palestinian Authority and Israel fail to reach a negotiated solution,” it said.

Palestinian leaders who, like Fayyad, want peace with Israel expect a state with borders — give or take a few land swaps to accommodate major Israeli settlements — where they lay before the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel occupied the West Bank.

The state they want would border Israel to the north, west and south but its eastern border would be the Kingdom of Jordan, and its territory would be whole and contiguous, with a land link to the Gaza Strip enclave on the Mediterranean shore.

This is the assumption of the Fayyad plan, and it poses a grave threat to Israel’s security, said the analysis by Dan Diker and Pinhas Inbari which Fayyad complimented for its professionalism, adding “although of course I do not agree with it”.

On legal and security grounds, the paper said, Israel cannot countenance such a development and should oppose it now.

“A unilaterally declared state that claims the pre-1967 lines as its border could end up thrusting Israel, the Palestinian Authority and other regional actors into a storm of instability and possibly armed conflict,” the analysts said.

They further claim that Fayyad’s “unilateral” project to create facts on the ground would violate the 1993 Olso Accords undertaking with Israel not to change the status of the West Bank pending peace negotiations.

Oslo was 16 years ago, Fayyad says, and the talks have still not ended the Israeli occupation. And pointing to some 100 Israeli West Bank settlements deemed illegal under international law, he says: “Look who’s talking about unilateralism.”

But the Israeli analysis said Netanyahu will insist on “defensible borders” for Israel in any two-state solution with the Palestinians.

“Israel’s requirement of ‘defensible borders’ involves its continuing control in so-called Area C including the strategically vital Jordan Valley and the high ground surrounding Jerusalem and overlooking Israel’s vulnerable cities along the Mediterranean coast,” the paper stated.

“The Jordan Valley serves as a vital barrier against any potential invasion from the east (and) an important natural barrier to the potential flow of rockets to West Bank hilltops overlooking Israel’s coastline” major airport and main cities.

Under the Oslo accords, the West Bank were divided into three zones, A, B and C, pending a permanent peace agreement.

Area C, where Israel maintains security and civil control, compromises more than 60 percent of West Bank territory. It includes the Jordan Valley where Israel has transformed the desert flats into lucrative agri-business settlements, west of the no-go military zone of border patrols and electronic fences on the frontier with Jordan.

This is the place where Fayyad envisages an international airport serving the new Palestinian state. — Reuters

Scottish university creates direct line to Mars

Strathclyde University has developed a technique which allows manned space missions to communicate continuously from Mars.

Communication from the red planet is blacked out for weeks at a time when the sun obscures its view from Earth.

However University of Strathclyde researchers have found a way to allow continuous communication with just one spacecraft.

The breakthrough centres on Lagrange points, five areas in space where an object such as a satellite or observatory can stay fixed in the same location relative to the Earth and the sun.

Dr Malcolm Macdonald, a member of the research team, said: "One of the key barriers to manned exploration of Mars is communication. When the sun obscures the Earth's view of Mars, it also prevents any possibility of ground controllers making contact with astronauts.

"But by moving a spacecraft with a continuous thrusting propulsion system into Lagrange point one, we've calculated that it's possible to enable continuous communication from the Earth to the spacecraft, and from the spacecraft to the surface of Mars.

"We've also shown that, by using a similar technique, but with two spacecraft, we can further improve communications.

"Hovering directly above Mars limits communications to just one polar region. But by using two spacecraft, we can enable communication to a much wider area of the planet."

The research is based on the T6 Thruster technology being developed for the European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission to Mercury, due to set off in 2014.

The finding will be showcased at this week's 60th International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, South Korea.

The European Space Agency has funded the research to investigate how technology can be used to radically enhance space science, from improving telecommunications to monitoring the Arctic.

Dr Macdonald said: "Our research has shown that we have a whole catalogue of space science opportunities available in the next 10 to 15 years by using technologies that are already in the pipeline.

"This can include everything from new space missions to continually monitoring the effects of climate change on the Arctic.

"Our aim is to challenge conventional ideas and enable radical change in the near term."

The research team, which also includes Dr Robert Mackay, Professor Colin McInnes and Dr James Biggs, is based at the university's Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory.

Francois Bosquillon de Frescheville, at the European Space Agency, and Dr Massimiliano Vasile, at the University of Glasgow, were involved in the research.

Hindus and Muslims join hands to renovate a temple in Kashmir

Calcutta News.Net
Friday 16th October, 2009 (ANI)

Srinagar, Oct.16 : A group of Kashmiri Hindus and local Muslims have set an example of brotherhood and communal harmony by coming together to renovate an abandoned temple in Srinagar city.

Shiv Ji Temple Welfare Committee (STWC) has taken the initiative to ensure renovation of the abandoned Bod Mandir (big temple) in Rainawari area with the help and support of local Muslim residents.

The renovation work commenced a month ago and the local Muslims are engaged in the renovation of the temple's two rooms and bathroom in the first phase.

Various drawing or paintings of Lord Shiva in the temple looked ruined, as the cement of some of the walls had come off due to the temple remaining abandoned for a long time.

According to some people, militant had burnt down the temple in the early 90s after the majority of Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave the Kashmir valley.

The local Muslim residents are enthusiastic to contribute towards the renovation of the temple and hope that the same old traditions of communal harmony will return to the area as soon as the temple is reopened for the devotees.

"We will definitely help them out. What is the harm in helping them? They are like our brothers and like our children. They are not neighbors here.They belong to this region only so we will help them. Earlier also we used to eat together, eat from the same plate I don't know what went wrong with the environment here. It seems some bad time had come upon us," said Mohammad Aslam, a local Muslim.

Local Muslims have offered their complete support in temple's restoration.

"Since morning about 100 people have come here to help. We were happy as they saw and asked us to restore this temple. They said that this should be restored, as it is a temple for everyone. It is not a matter of any religion. This is God's gift they said. People from nearby areas are very happy and keep coming here and want the temple to be restored soon. They also offer their complete support and help. Some of them are working also with us, that too for free," said Gulam Hassan, another local Muslim.

Thousands of Kashmiri Hindus had to flee the Kashmir valley due to rise of militancy in 1989. Many temples were set ablaze by the insurgents during early nineties.

According to the National Human Rights Commission, about 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits, as the Hindus are called in Kashmir, have been forced to leave Kashmir because of violence in the region.

While some Kashmiri Hindus have made their way to Delhi, the national capital, and other parts of the country, about 200,000 bitter and disillusioned Pandits are still languishing in Jammu. By Afzal Butt

India's Chandrayaan reveals how water is produced on Moon

Calcutta News.Net
Friday 16th October, 2009 (ANI)

Paris, October 16 : The ESA-ISRO instrument SARA onboard the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter has confirmed how water is likely being created on the lunar surface.

The findings from the instrument indicate that the Moon is a big sponge that absorbs electrically charged particles given out by the Sun.

These particles interact with the oxygen present in some dust grains on the lunar surface, producing water.

The lunar surface is a loose collection of irregular dust grains, known as regolith. Incoming particles should be trapped in the spaces between the grains and absorbed.

When this happens to protons, they are expected to interact with the oxygen in the lunar regolith to produce hydroxyl and water.

The signature for these molecules was recently found and reported by Chandrayaan-1's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument team.

The SARA results confirm that solar hydrogen nuclei are indeed being absorbed by the lunar regolith but also highlight a mystery: not every proton is absorbed. One out of every five rebounds into space.

In the process, the proton joins with an electron to become an atom of hydrogen.

"We didn't expect to see this at all," said Stas Barabash, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, who is the European Principal Investigator for the Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) instrument, which made the discovery.

Although Barabash and his colleagues do not know what is causing the reflections, the discovery paves the way for a new type of image to be made.

The hydrogen shoots off with speeds of around 200 km/s and escapes without being deflected by the Moon's weak gravity.

Hydrogen is also electrically neutral, and is not diverted by the magnetic fields in space. So the atoms fly in straight lines, just like photons of light.

The incoming protons are part of the solar wind, a constant stream of particles given off by the Sun.

They collide with every celestial object in the Solar System, but are usually stopped by the body's atmosphere.

On bodies without such a natural shield, for example asteroids or the planet Mercury, the solar wind reaches the ground.

The SARA team expects that these objects too will reflect many of the incoming protons back into space as hydrogen atoms.

Turkey-Israel Rift Good for Palestine

Analysis by Mel Frykberg

RAMALLAH, Oct 14 (IPS) - Turkey's cooling relationship with Israel comes in tandem with its improving relations with the Arab and Muslim world, and this development is expected to impact positively on Palestinian politics.

"The Turks appear to be implementing a major policy shift in the region as they look towards the East as a possible alternative to relations with the West, particularly in light of difficulties joining the European Union (EU)," says Dr. Samir Awad from Birzeit University near Ramallah.

"Turkey's increasingly strained relations with Israel and its growing sympathy for the Palestinian cause may well have a strong influence on the Europeans, the Americans and the Arab countries," Awad told IPS.

"Turkey, a secular Muslim country has strong ties with the Muslim and Arab world. At the same time it has strong relations with the U.S., which considers it a regional and strategic ally. It is also somewhat respected by the West for being secular and having a democracy, albeit a flawed one."

Turkish-Israeli relations plummeted when Turkey excluded Israel from a joint military drill that was to be held with other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). This caused consternation in Israeli diplomatic and government circles, which consider Turkey Israel's strongest Muslim ally in the region.

To make things worse for the Israelis, Syria announced Tuesday that it would hold an even larger joint military maneuver with Turkey. A joint military exercise between the two countries was held earlier this year.

Israel's extensive bombardment of Gaza at the beginning of the year marked a turning point. The Turkish government has had to answer to public opinion, which struggled to stomach Israel's military assault on the coastal territory. Even the Turkish military, which has had strong ties with the Israeli military, couldn't look away.

Recent developments under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government including greater Judaisation of East Jerusalem, infringements on Muslim worship at the Al-Aqsa mosque, and continued settlement building have only cemented Turkey's position.

Anat Lapidot-Firilla from Jerusalem's Hebrew University argued in the Israeli daily Haaretz that Turkey sees itself as a possible leader of the Sunni Muslim world.

Turkey "assumes a burden inherited from its Ottoman Empire forbears, a mission that includes fostering regional peace and stability as well as economic prosperity," said Lapidot-Firilla.

Turkey has had strong ties with the Israelis politically and militarily, and the downgrading of relations adds to an international momentum building up against Israel in light of its policies against the Palestinians and the slaughter in Gaza.

"The Turks could bring pressure to bear on the Israelis to moderate their treatment of the Palestinians as Israel values its strategic relations with Turkey. The Palestinians can only benefit from this," Awad told IPS.

"Turkey could also exert influence on the Americans to lean on their Israeli ally," says Awad. The U.S. regards Turkey as a bulwark against what it sees as a crescent of extremism that includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas.

"It is also feasible that the Turks could lean on the leaders of the Arab world to give more than just lip service to the Palestinian cause. The Turks have set a moral example by taking diplomatic action against Israel, which is more than Egypt and Jordan, which both have peace treaties with Israel, have done," adds Awad.

Turkey plans to sponsor a number of pro-Palestinian resolutions in both regional and international forums.

These include the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Turkey also attended a recent meeting of the Organization of Islamic Countries and a session of the Arab League, and Israel inevitably was on the agenda.

"While Turkey has previously supported pro-Palestinian resolutions in these forums, I think they will be more vocal in the future and lobby even harder," says Awad.

Finally, the Turks could help bring pressure on forthcoming Palestinian unity talks in Cairo, as Hamas and Fatah appear unable to bridge the divide on their own.

US Gave Israeli Green Light To Continue Its Violations In Jerusalem; Group Says

Saed Bannoura

IMEMC - October 15, 2009

The Islamic-Christian Committee in Support of Jerusalem and the Holy Sites accused the United States administration of granting the government of Benjamin Netanyahu a green light to continue its violations in against the Arab homes and holy sites in Jerusalem.

Dr. Hasan Khater, secretary-general of the committee, stated that the US stances against Israel’s illegal settlement activities managed to disturb Israel’s leaders, but they soon evaporated into thin air.

"Once the American pressure was off, Israel resumed its violations against Jerusalem and its residents", Khater stated.

"The US is proving day by day that it cannot, or even not willing, to stop the Israeli violations and crimes against the people, their lands and their holy places".

He also said that the United States totally ignored what happened recently in Jerusalem, and disregarded the constant attacks and threats against the Palestinians.

"Dozens of TV stations filmed Israeli soldiers and policemen breaking into the Al Aqsa mosque, and chasing the worshipers while firing at them", Khater stated, "Israel surrounded the mosque for a full week, attacked women and children, while the U.S. failed to intervene, not even by words, while Israel continued its crimes against peace and the city of peace".

"How would the US and the world react if it was the other way around", Khater added, "What if Arab or foreign forces were chasing Jewish worshipers and firing at them near a synagogue".

"Where did the statements of a new era go", he said, "Where did the promises of Barack Obama go, is this the promised new era of improved relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds".

Nobel Prize for Obama

Afghan Resistance Statement
Nobel Prize for Obama
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Thursday, 15 October 2009

According to reports in media, the Nobel peace prize has been given to Barrack Obama, President of the United State of America, ostensibly for his work for peace and stability in the world!

The fact of the matter is that, that flames of war have not been put out with the assumption of power by Obama, nor the intensity of wars has reduced. Contrarily, the wars have intensified and the tempo of mass murder of humankind increased with the wars taking a more sanguinary shape.

Obama had promised, during his election campaign, to put an end to the war in Iraq and work for a real peace in the Middle East and close the Guantanamo jail. He had also promised to hammer out excellent strategy for Afghanistan and take positive and practical steps as regards the economic recovery from financial meltdown, which is the result of the wrong policies of USA. But now we see all these pledges by Obama were only empty words and slogans aimed at pulling a fast one on people.

The flames of the war in Iraq are raising with more intensity. The siege of Gaza and the mass murder of the Palestinians have been continuing unabated. The torture in Guanatano jail has not been ended. The war in Afghanistan and insecurity in the region are spiraling up. The economic meltdown is deepening while the belligerent policy of American Administration and Obama has not changed as yet.

Despite all the shortcomings, violations and other anti-peace activities, if still he is given Nobel peace prize, then it means that the colonialism does not intend to change its path and let the people to live in peace and stability. Understandably, one could not expect the panel of the Nobel Prize Committee to show unbiased judgment as regards those who have, in a way, installed them. While the Nobel Prize Awarding Committee, considers the perpetrators of all these violations and infringements to deserve the Nobel peace prize – the usurpation of freedom of the oppressed people of the world and the murder of innocent men continue unfalteringly . Still more, these perpetrators of crimes are bent on continuing their wicked and unjust activities in the time to come. In light of these realities, the Nobel Prize Allotment Committee ironically granted the Nobel Prize to whom who is ahead in anti-human activities and has in his hands, a sword stained with the blood of the people.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers the peace Nobel prize to Obama to be an addition to the collections of the unjust decisions of the world. The IEA calls on statesmen, writers and lawyers of the world to raise their voice against this unfair decision so that those who are murderers of the people of the world and violators of peace would not be able to throw dust into the eyes of the people by obtaining the Nobel peace prize and thus cover up their unforgivable crimes for some times.

Court claim over camel 'beauty'

A $250,000 compensation claim has been made against Saudi Arabia's oil giant Saudi Aramco for causing the death of a prized camel, local press reports say.

The case, to be heard on Monday, involves a three-year-old black camel which fell into a large hole dug in the desert to store crude oil.

The camel's owner is quoted saying the beast had been entered in one of the region's popular camel beauty pageants.

The compensation claim is based on the value experts put on the camel.

The owner, Abdullah Al-Saiari, said the she-camel was grazing in a desert pasture, about 150 miles (250km) west of Ahsa, when the accident happened.

"She was part of the Camel Beauty Contest," he said, the Saudi Gazette reported.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8311277.stm.

Israel frees two prisoners from the Golan Heights

JERUSALEM - Two prisoners originally from the occupied Golan Heights were released unexpectedly on Thursday after serving 25 years in an Israeli jail, one of the former inmates said.

Bisher Suleiman Ahmad Maqt, 44, said he was freed suddenly despite having 12 years of a 37-year sentence left to serve. Also released was Assem Mahmud Ahmed Wali, who had two years left on his sentence.

“I feel like I have been born again,” Maqt told AFP by telephone as he was taken by family members to his home in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan.

Israel captured the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. Damascus has repeatedly demanded its return as a non-negotiable condition for peace.

Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment.

Maqt — who said he was jailed for “resisting Israeli occupation” — said no reason was given for his early release.

But he believed it might be connected with an expected prisoner exchange between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, which is holding captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit inside the Gaza Strip.

Ground offensive begins in Pakistan al-Qaida haven

By MUNIR AHMAD and NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writers

ISLAMABAD – More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a major ground offensive in the main al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border early Saturday, officials told The Associated Press — the nuclear-armed U.S. ally's toughest test yet against militants aiming to topple the state.

The offensive in South Waziristan follows months of airstrikes intended to soften up militant defenses that have also forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee. The full-scale operation also comes after two weeks of militant attacks that have killed more than 175 people across Pakistan and ramped up the pressure on the army to take on the insurgents.

It is the army's fourth attempt since 2001 to dislodge Taliban fighters from lawless tribal region of South Waziristan, and an intelligence official said the latest effort could take up to two months. The three previous attempts ended in negotiated truces that left the Taliban in control.

The offensive is expected to focus on ridding the region of the Pakistani Taliban, a network opposed to the U.S.-backed Pakistani government. The group's influential leader, Baitullah Mehsud, died in a U.S. missile strike in August. But South Waziristan also is home to foreign and local jihadis suspected of planning attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan and targets throughout the West.

The U.S. is racing to send night-vision goggles and other equipment to aid the operation.

Local resident Ajmal Khan said people in his town, Makeen, heard the sounds of battle and were terrified but could not leave their homes due to a curfew. Makeen is a key hideout for Taliban militants.

"We heard sounds of planes and helicopters early Saturday. Then we heard blasts. We are also hearing gunshots and it seems the army is exchanging fire with Taliban," Khan told AP via telephone.

South Waziristan is remote and mountainous. It has a porous border with Afghanistan and fiercely independent tribes who have long resisted government interference. With winter snows just weeks away, the army has limited time to pursue ground attacks. Even if it does manage to wipe out its intended targets, it's unclear whether troops will try to occupy the area to prevent the militants from returning. Even if the operation is successful, many could escape to Afghanistan or other parts of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt.

The officials Saturday — two with intelligence, three with the government and one senior army official — gave few details but said the troops were pursuing militants holed up in the region, including in major trouble spots such as Makeen and Ladha towns.

The army has sent more than 30,000 troops to the region to participate in the combat, said one of the intelligence officials. He said the ground forces were attacking from different directions while helicopter gunships and other aircraft also were bombing various sites.

The military already has said it already has sealed off many supply and escape routes.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information or because they did not have authority to release it to media on the record. It is nearly impossible to verify information from the region independently. Foreigners require special permission to enter the tribal areas and it is risky for Pakistani journalists from other parts of the country to operate there.

Mindful of its previous, half-hearted interventions in South Waziristan, this time the military has said there will be no deals, partly to avoid jeopardizing gains won earlier this year when Pakistani soldiers overpowered the Taliban in the Swat Valley, another northwest region.

In an attempt to show national unity, top political leaders, including the prime minister, met with army commanders Friday to discuss security strategy and voiced their support for operations against militant strongholds.

In a previous interview with The AP, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the assault would be limited to the holdings of Mehsud, the slain Taliban leader — a swath of territory that stretches roughly 1,275 square miles (3,310 square kilometers). That portion covers about half of South Waziristan, which itself is slightly larger than the U.S. state of Delaware.

The plan is to capture and hold the area where Abbas estimates 10,000 insurgents are headquartered and reinforced with about 1,500 foreign fighters, most of them of Central Asian origin. "There are Arabs, but the Arabs are basically in the leadership, providing resources and expertise and in the role of trainers," he said.

Part of the military's strategy also includes striking deals with tribal elders and some militant leaders who were opposed to the Mehsud factions. The idea is to either gain those groups' assistance, or at least keep them neutral.

Mehsud has been succeeded by a fellow tribesman, Hakimullah Mehsud, who has vowed retaliation against Pakistan if it pursues his fighters. His spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday. Communications in and around the region were spotty.

The army expects the militants to use guerrilla tactics including ambushes, suicide attacks and roadside bombs. A roadside bomb hit a security convoy in Ladha early Saturday, killing one soldier and wounding three others, two other intelligence officials said.

Despite sometimes rocky relations with the Pakistani military, the U.S. is trying to rush in equipment that would help with mobility, night fighting and precision bombing, a U.S. Embassy official told The AP in a recent interview, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue is politically sensitive.

In addition to night-vision devices, the Pakistan military has said it is seeking additional Cobra helicopter gunships, heliborne lift capability, laser-guided munitions and intelligence equipment to monitor cell and satellite telephones.

The army has considered the weather in the timing the offensive. Snows in the region could block major roads. At the same time, a harsh winter could work to the army's advantage by driving fighters out of their unheated mountain hideouts.

Amnesty International said Friday that its research teams in the area report 90,000 to 150,000 residents have fled South Waziristan since July, when the military began a long-range artillery and aerial bombardment in the region.

Although the military has been hitting targets in South Waziristan for the past three months, it waited until two weeks ago to say it would definitely go ahead with a major ground offensive.

What followed was a rash of major bombings that killed 175 people and demonstrated the militants' ability to attack cities across the county. One attack involved a siege of the army's headquarters that lasted 22 hours and left 23 people dead. In the latest bombing, three suicide attackers, including a woman, struck a police station in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, killing 13 people.

Abdullah would bring new style in Afghanistan

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – He could bring a fresh face to the pinnacle of Afghan politics for the first time in eight years, replacing a discredited president grappling with corruption, a flourishing narcotics trade and a Taliban insurgency growing more powerful by the day.

Abdullah Abdullah, a trained ophthalmologist who is challenging the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, is a sophisticated intellectual and a skilled diplomat.

But he's "less of a natural politician" than Karzai, said James Dobbins, who served as President George W. Bush's first envoy to Afghanistan.

Karzai was chosen to lead Afghanistan's first post-Taliban government in 2001 "because he was a conciliator, somebody who could get along with a wide range of factions and not antagonize them," Dobbins said.

Abdullah, on the other hand, is less colorful and lacks the charisma and "personal touch" of his opponent.

Even if the 49-year-old Abdullah wins the presidency in a runoff, a possibility many analysts consider remote, his administration would risk ending up much like his predecessor's — hobbled by warlords, ethnic alliances and corruption.

"Everybody wants responsible government, but unfortunately the next administration is likely to again be weak and dysfunctional, a coalition of warlords and bad guys, no matter who is in charge," said Haroun Mir of the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies, a Kabul-based think-tank. "It's inevitable."

Afghanistan's electoral commission is expected to announce as early as Saturday whether Karzai will face Abdullah in a runoff. Preliminary results of the August vote showed Karzai won with more than 54 percent. But election officials may order a second-round vote if investigators probing fraud allegations void enough of Karzai's votes to drop him below 50 percent.

Karzai's ambassador to the U.S., Said Tayeb Jawad, said Thursday a runoff was very likely.

Karzai's relations with the U.S. have become increasingly strained in recent months, a deterioration attributed in part to American frustration over government corruption and U.S. airstrikes that have inflicted civilian casualties — eating away at Karzai's popularity at home.

As president, Abdullah would likely mend ties with Washington. At the same time, relations with neighboring Pakistan, whose support is essential to combating Taliban militants on both sides of the border, may only get worse, as they did when Abdullah served as Karzai's foreign minister, said Wadeer Safi, a political science professor at Kabul University.

Pakistan supported Taliban fighters in the 1990s when they were battling the ethnic Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance, of which Abdullah was a prominent member. That baggage would make Pakistan "deeply suspicious of any Abdullah presidency," Safi said.

"How Abdullah would handle it, that's the big question," he said.

Moreover, whoever wins the presidency will assume leadership of a nation in tatters. Afghanistan has lacked effective government ever since the Soviet invasion of December 1979 plunged the mountainous country into decades of war and chaos.

Mir described Abdullah as a "results-oriented" leader and said he would face high expectations to show concrete progress within six months — much more so than Karzai, whose interest is directed toward consensus-building rather than achieving results.

"Everybody has clear ideas about what needs to be done," said Ronald Neumann, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007. "The question is what they're going to do when they get in there and have to make the trade-offs."

Karzai, son of a Pashtun tribal chief, moved former warlords into civilian posts to keep a balance among regions and ethnic groups, and Abdullah would likely have to do the same, Dobbins said.

Abdullah's father was also Pashtun — an ethnic group that comprises 42 percent of the population and accounts for the overwhelming majority of Taliban ranks. His mother was Tajik, an ethnic group in the north that makes up 27 percent. Other groups include Hazaras, Uzbeks and Turkmens.

Despite a Pashtun heritage, Abdullah is widely perceived as a northern Tajik because of his intimate association with the Northern Alliance. Abdullah's close ties to the Alliance would make it more difficult for him to reach out to the Taliban than Karzai, who was born in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province.

"One of the most important challenges for an Abdullah presidency would be satisfying Pashto aspirations and calming fears that this represented a Tajik ascendancy," Dobbins said.

Neumann believes Abdullah would have to balance the demands of his former Northern Alliance colleagues for a major share of jobs and power against those of the Pashtuns and other groups "to achieve some kind of tribal balance."

Karzai has built a support base across the nation's myriad ethnic groups not by reaching out to individual voters, but by shrewdly cementing alliances with regional power-brokers and warlords, Safi said. In a country with over 70 percent illiteracy, many voters cast ballots for whomever is favored by their tribal leaders.

Safi doubts Afghanistan is ready for democratic elections.

"You have to have education and development, you have to have people who can think for themselves, and then you can have a real election," Safi said. "We do not have this now. There is no security, there is no free and fair. People can only hope somebody will give them a good life."

Obama administration shifting policy on Sudan

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – In a new effort to engage the government of Sudan, U.S. officials say the White House will shift its policy toward Khartoum, but they warn that the violence and humanitarian abuses in Darfur must stop.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, and the administration's special Sudan envoy, Scott Gration, are to unveil the policy Monday at a news conference at the State Department, the officials said.

The officials spoke late Friday on condition of anonymity because Congress has not yet been briefed on the matter.

The announcement is planned to show unity within the Obama administration. Rice and Gration have notoriously clashed over engaging with the Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir, who has been charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes against humanity and war crimes for allegedly masterminding deadly attacks throughout Darfur.

Gration has argued in public for a less strict line toward Bashir, who he has told officials is the key to resolving the situation in Darfur as well as in southern Sudan, which in 2005 signed a provisional peace deal with the government in Khartoum, ending Africa's longest-runnning civil war.

However, the officials said the new policy will not make major concessions to Bashir, whose government is designated a "state sponsor of terrorism" by the State Department.

Instead, the new policy is designed to bring Khartoum into the fold by offering incentives for improved relations for improvements in the situation in Darfur as well as in southern Sudan, which will hold a referendum on succession scheduled to take place in 2011, they said.

The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum, claiming discrimination and neglect.

U.N. officials say the war has claimed at least 300,000 lives from violence, disease and displacement. They say some 2.7 million people were driven from their homes and at its height, in 2003-2005, it was called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Blast halts Iraq's access to Syria, Jordan

A truck bomb explosion on a key bridge in the western Iraqi province of Al Anbar, has halted traffic to Syria and Jordan, police say.

There were no reports of casualties in the early morning attack, which apparently targeted US troops outside the city of Ramadi, about 62 miles (100 km) west of the capital Baghdad.

"A truck was driven over the bridge on a highway in Ramadi at around 4:00 am (0100 GMT) and subsequently exploded," police Major Imad Abboud told AFP, adding that the highway is used heavily by the departing US military to transport equipment out of the country. It is also being used by local civilians.

A US military spokesman confirmed the blast, which came less than a week after a series of car bombings killed at least 19 people and injured more than 80 others in the region. However, he refused to comment on the possible impact of the destruction of the bridge on the United States' complete pullout from the country by August 2010.

In another development in the province, four Iraqi soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded after a roadside bomb hit an army convoy in the town of Falluja.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=108904§ionid=351020201.

Ahmadinejad congratulates Brazil on hosting Olympics

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has congratulated his Brazilian counterpart on Rio de Janeiro's winning bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

“I congratulate you, the Brazilian nation and government on Rio de Janeiro's winning bid to host the 2016 Olympic,” the Iranian president said in a letter of congratulation to his Brazilian counterpart, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday.

“I'm convinced that the 2016 Olympic Games will be the most memorable and remarkable event with your tremendous efforts,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Iranian chief executive expressed his wish for unity among nations, especially through sports.

After successive votes, which saw Chicago and Tokyo knocked out, the delegates to the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in early October, accepted the Brazilian city's bid to stage the 2016 Summer Games.

The IOC delegates had earlier heard the Brazilian President saying, "it was time to light the Olympic flame in a tropical country."

"Rio will deliver an unforgettable Games. You will see for yourselves the passion, the energy and the creativity of the Brazilian people," he added. "I truly believe this is Brazil's time. For the others, it would be just another Games."

"It will not be just Brazil's Games but South America's. It will serve to inspire the 180m young people on the continent. It is time to redress the balance," Lula da Silva concluded.

In a surprise development, Chicago was the first city to be eliminated from the running, despite its backing by US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Russia still has concerns over US missile system

Russia says it still has some 'unanswered questions' regarding the Obama administration's four-stage plan to deploy an alternative missile defense system.

In remarks published on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin still has some serious doubts over Washington's missile program, regardless of the Obama administration's decision to shelve Bush-era plans to deploy an anti-missile system in Europe.

Lavrov, who was addressing senior representatives of the Russian media, said he is particularly concerned over a newly-announced four-stage plan to install an alternative US missile defense shield in Europe by 2020.

The Russian Foreign minister urged Washington to address Moscow's concerns and clarify its missile plans no later than 2018.

“By giving up on missile defense plans, the US has worked out an alternative system that will not create any difficulties linked with the third positioning area at the initial stage," said Lavrov.

"We, nevertheless, want more clarity on the further stages,” Lavrov noted. "We expect to receive a full version [of the pattern] from our American partners."

The US ballistic missile defense (BMD) plan in Eastern Europe has been a subject of fierce debate in recent months, pushing Washington-Moscow relations to the lowest ebb since the Cold War.

Under the Bush administration, Washington had devised plans to station 10 silo-based missiles in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic, allegedly to defend against missile threats from 'rouge' countries.

Over the past months, the Obama administration has strived to employ its plans to install a controversial missile defense system in Europe as an opening gambit to dissuade Russia from supporting Iran in its uranium enrichment.

Washington spearheads accusations that Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), seeks nuclear weapons development.

Tehran, however, says it enriches uranium for civilian applications and that it has a right to the technology already in the hands of many others.

In an apparent show of goodwill, the White House unexpectedly announced that it has decided to scrap the Bush-era plans altogether.

The decision initially drew a warm response from Moscow, but later sparked an outcry after revelations that the plans, contrary to Russia's belief, had not been abandoned but had been merely revised and postponed to a later time.

Under the new plan, Washington would replace the land-based sites in Poland and the Czech Republic with a network of sensors and sea-based interceptors and will eventually add land-based interceptors by 2015.

Ukraine and other countries have shown willingness to host the sea-based interceptors -- much to the dismay of the Russian government.

The new US plan "raises more questions than answers," Lavrov said on Friday, during a visit to Moldova for a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of ex-Soviet countries.

He went on to say that although Moscow and Washington have set aside their differences on a wide range of issues, there are clearly some matters “that have yet to be translated into the language of accord.”

Iran, Turkey plan to build industrial township

Iran and Turkey plan to join forces to set up an industrial township on their common border, says the Iranian ambassador to Ankara.

In a meeting with Turkish Foreign Trade Minister, Zafer Caglayan, Iranian Ambassador, Bahman Hosseinpour, said that Iran's offers to expand transportation cooperation and establish joint industrial townships will help cement ties.

Iran and Turkey plan to double the annual trade volume between the two countries from $10 billion in 2008 over a five-year period.

Caglayan also said that "a special team from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Trade and Industry" is studying the implementation of a industrial township on the common border between the two countries.

Caglayan also added that he will accompany Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during his upcoming visit to Tehran.

The two sides plan to sign a free-trade agreement, create a joint economic zone and upgrade the Lake Van Northern Passage Project to an electrified railway in a bid to boost business transactions.

Tehran and Ankara also aim to remove all limits and fees for overland transportation.

3 Pakistani soldiers killed in Waziristan

At least three Pakistani soldiers have been killed and several others wounded in two separate roadside bombings in northwestern Pakistan.

The first blast occurred in the town of Jandola in South Waziristan on Saturday shortly after Pakistani ground troops, backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships, rolled into the restive region to launch what they call a ground attack on militant strongholds.

One soldier was killed and two others wounded after the roadside bomb exploded near their military vehicle in Jandola.

The second bomb went off near another military convoy in the North Waziristan tribal region, killing two soldiers and wounding four others. The vehicle was completely destroyed.

Pakistani officials blame pro-Taliban militants for the attacks. Over the past two weeks, more than 170 people have been killed in militant attacks across the country.

Kurdish rebels resume attacks in Western Iran

A group of Kurdish terrorists have killed a 32-year-old Iranian security official in clashes in the northwestern city of Salmas.

Security officials in the West Azarbaijan province reported Friday that members of the terrorist PJAK (the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) confronted Khosrow Parvardeh in front of his home and shot him dead.

"They shot him more than 10 times, and then they fled the scene," said a local police official on conditions of anonymity.

Iran's western borders often witness deadly clashes between Iranian armed forces and the outlawed PJAK, which is considered to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK is recognized as a terrorist group by a number of countries and organizations including Turkey, Iran, Iraq, the US and European Union and the United Nations.

With the main goal of establishing an independent Kurdish state, PJAK has been staging cross-border attacks in Iran since 2004.

An April 10, 2006 report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that US troops were establishing contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups in Iran such as the PJAK rebels.

Later in November 2006 Hersh wrote that, "Israel and the United States have also been working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan. The group has been conducting clandestine cross-border forays into Iran."

According to Hersh, Israel has been providing the Kurdish group with "equipment and training." The group has also been given "a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the US."

US-led war in Afghanistan 'unwinnable'

The following is the highlights of Press TV's exclusive interview with the Chairman of Pakistan's Tehrik-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), Imran Khan.

Press TV: Imran, the last time we spoke there was a different president running Pakistan and there was a different president in the White House. What has happened since then?

Imran Khan: When the 2008 elections came, the Bush administration wanted a similar puppet to replace Musharraf and that puppet turned out to be Asif [Ali] Zardari. So both the puppets allowed the Americans to attack Pakistani territories where they have killed — according to the government — so far 14 al-Qaeda in 60 drone attacks and 700 innocent civilians. So, everyone who knows anything about the area knows that these drone attacks are counter-productive. They might have killed 14 al-Qaeda, but they have produced thousands more al-Qaeda sympathizers. Every civilian that dies, the family then seeks revenge against the Americans and the Pakistani army, which is considered to be a stooge of the American army. So, therefore, Pakistan has seen chaos and unfortunately we do not have the leadership in Pakistan which can stand up and tell the Americans that it is a failed strategy and there needs to be a completely different strategy. Because this is a dollar-addicted leadership, it allows Americans to do anything, uses its own army against its own people for US dollars.

Press TV: Does it mean that the man in the White House, Barack Obama, is he better than his predecessor?

Imran Khan: What we have seen under President Obama is an escalation in Afghanistan. And, unfortunately, he does not give us the confidence that he has a proper grasp of that what is going on there. The tactics that are being used in Afghanistan are only making the problem worse. What was initially the Taliban resistance to the US, has now morphed into a Pashtun resistance, a Pashtun independence struggle against foreign occupation. And it is exactly the same situation as the Soviets faced in Afghanistan in the Pashtun areas. It is only a matter of time before it spreads to the Tajik and Uzbek areas. So, almost eighty percent of Afghanistan is involved in resistance struggle against the Americans. I do not see any strategy at this moment which is going to address this problem. I think if the current strategy is followed, the things will get from bad to worse.

Press TV: But it is not just the Americans is it? It's the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who is also in agreement with President Obama about the policy in Afghanistan. Who is advising them?

Imran Khan: Well, as for the British Prime Minister it seems that as if whatever the Americans are doing they just follow the same line. It is very sad, because Britain has a very long experience of Afghanistan and the Pakistan tribal areas. There is a lot of material left behind by British writers, administrators and governors about this whole area and how it should have been dealt with. But, all the lessons have been ignored. And Tony Blair, basically, followed whatever George W. Bush did. And I am afraid that Gordon Brown is going along the same lines. What can you see (you can see is that) there are more British causalities and public opinion has already turned on the war in Afghanistan. And for the first time the majority of American people do not think that this is the war they want to own or which they are going to win. Well, the reason we do not talk about the British involvement is because it is only because of the Americans that the Britons are there. So, the US really has to understand that this is an unwinnable war and in fact the war is already lost, because the hearts and minds battle has been lost. You can only win a war if you win the people over to your side.

Press TV: But the West is trying to say that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won until Pakistan is sorted out. We keep hearing about the Pakistan Taliban. Who are they? And where are they from?

Imran Khan: Well, first of all this is just absolute nonsense. There was no problem in Pakistan. It was Afghanistan and the occupation of Afghanistan that then had a problem of destabilizing Pakistan. And this is just the fact. So I just do not know where they come up with this lie. Because, it's just a blatant lie. How can they say that Pakistan has to be stabilized and then Afghanistan will become. Surely, stability in Afghanistan will stabilize Pakistan. In fact, a CIA ex-station chief of Kabul, Graham Fuller, actually wrote in the International Herald Tribune that unless and until NATO leaves Afghanistan, Pakistan is going to descend into radicalization and chaos which is absolutely right, because we had no Taliban in Pakistan. Before Pakistan was pressurized to send troops into Waziristan and General Musharraf, a military dictator was pressurized by the Americans to do that because he was getting military and US dollars from the Americans. So the moment he sent the troops in that is when the military operation led to the birth and the formation of Pakistani Taliban. Until 2004 we had no militant Taliban in Pakistan.

Press TV: Do you want to elaborate on that particular point?

Imran Khan: This was in September 2004, there was a drone attack which killed about 70 civilians and then there was a funeral the next day and another drone attack which killed another 40 or 50 people. And that was the spot of the reaction against their own tribal people. So our own tribal people rose up against the Pakistan army. And since there was Taliban versus Americans, anyone who fought the Americans or anyone supporting America which was the Pakistan army they all started calling themselves Taliban and gradually the more military operations we did, the more we created the phenomena of fighting Pakistani Taliban.

Press TV: More than two million possibly three million people have been displaced in Swat. Can you tell me what is happening there?

Imran Khan: Well, it is very important for people to understand that the Swat and tribal areas are completely different. The history, the geography and the people. So Pakistani Army doesn't go into or hasn't been into tribal areas since 1948. It is governed by its own laws. Swat is part of Pakistan, governed by Pakistani laws. The issue in Swat was completely different than the tribal areas. In the tribal areas people rose up directly because the Pakistani army under the US pressure was sent into the tribal areas by General Musharraf — a military dictator. That's what caused the reaction in the tribal area. Resentment against the Pakistani army, resentment against the drone attacks and against Pakistani army using artillery bombardment in the villages caused a reaction when the people rose up. The demand of the people of Swat was that they wanted the old system of justice which was based on Sharia (Islamic law). Before the British came the whole Indian subcontinent was under the Sharia law. So by Sharia they basically meant their own system of justice, which prevailed and gave access to the justice for the common man before 1974. So people of Swat always had this movement going on, demanding their own system of justice back. So once the Taliban movement started in tribal areas and Pakistan army was sent into Swat because this movement was causing problems, they (tribal areas) then joined hands in with Taliban and called themselves also Taliban. But the genesis of the Taliban movement in Swat and the tribal areas was completely different. In my opinion the way the Pakistani army went into Swat were to go after 2,000 or 3,000 Taliban. They displaced two million people and destroyed their livelihoods and crops. They destroyed their fruit trees and crops. They incurred huge infrastructure damage — almost a billion dollar. It makes no sense to me, because what was the urgency? Was there any doubt that the 2,000 or 3,000 Semi-literate Taliban fighters could take on the 700,00-strong Pakistani army? Was there any doubt? So they made it into a big success, this propaganda that there was some great military achievement for just displacing these 2,000 or 3,000 fighters.

Press TV: Has there been a success?

Imran Khan: How can there be success when you go after 2,000 or 3,000 people and you make two million people homeless.