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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Israeli 'war criminal' jeered in Chicago speech

Pro-Palestinian protesters spoil a US speech by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in condemnation of his role in the Israeli massacre of Gazans.

The Saturday address at the University of Chicago saw the hecklers shouting 'war criminal' and 'murderer' at the Israeli politician who authorized last winter's Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, said The Electronic Intifada news website.

The Israeli aerial and artillery bombardments, as well as ground assault on Gaza killed more than 1,400 mostly Palestinian civilians and were staged in supposed response to retaliatory home-made missile attacks by Hamas reacting to Israel's near daily terror and bombing campaigns against Hamas leaders and supporters.

Attendees at the Olmert's speech bellowed "War crimes are not free expression," and "How many more children must die?"

Another protester waved around a document containing the names of the Palestinians killed during the attacks, the website added.

The protest follows the UN Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) endorsement of a report on the Gaza war, incriminating the Israeli army of deliberately killing Palestinian civilians and committing other war crimes.

Some 150 protesters had also gathered outside the venue as the speech was in process.

Taliban vow to defeat army in Pakistan offensive

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD, Associated Press Writers

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Pakistani troops and the Taliban fought fierce battles Sunday in a militant sanctuary near the Afghan border, with both sides claiming early victories in an army campaign that could shape the future of the country's battle against extremism.

A Taliban spokesman vowed the Islamist militants would fight to "our last drop of blood" to defend their stronghold of South Waziristan, predicting the army would fail in its latest attempt to gain control over it.

The army said 60 militants and six soldiers had been killed since the offensive began Saturday in the mountainous, remote region that the army has tried and failed to wrest from near-total insurgent control three times since 2004.

The Taliban claimed to have inflicted "heavy casualties" and pushed advancing soldiers back into their bases. It was not possible to independently verify the claims because the army is blocking access to the battlefield and surrounding towns.

Victory for the government in South Waziristan's tribal badlands would eliminate a safe haven for the Taliban militants blamed for surging terrorist attacks and the al-Qaida operatives they shelter there. It would also send a signal to other insurgent groups in the nuclear-armed country of the military's will and ability to fight them.

Defeat would give the militants a propaganda victory, add to pressures on the country's shaky civilian government and alarm Pakistan's Western allies, which want to see it successfully crack down on militancy that is both fueling and feeding off the insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan.

"We know how to fight this war and defeat the enemy with the minimum loss of our men," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told The Associated Press from an undisclosed location. "This is a war imposed on us, and we will defend our land until our last man and our last drop of blood. This is a war bound to end in the defeat of the Pakistan army."

Despite his comments, the some 10,000 Pakistani militants and about 1,500 foreign fighters are seen as unlikely to stand and fight. Instead, they will likely do as they have done in other parts of the northwest: Avoid conventional battles and launch guerrilla attacks on stationary troops or long supply lines.

Accounts from residents and those fleeing Sunday suggested that the some 30,000 government troops pushing into the region from three directions were facing much tougher resistance than they saw in the Swat Valley, another northwestern region where the army defeated the insurgents earlier this year.

"Militants are offering very tough resistance to any movement of troops," Ehsan Mahsud, a resident of Makeen, a town in the region, told The AP in the town of Mir Ali, close to the battle zone. He and a friend arrived there early Sunday after traveling through the night.

Mahsud said the army appeared to be mostly relying on airstrikes and artillery against militants occupying high ground. He said the insurgents were firing heavy machine guns at helicopter gunships, forcing the air force to use higher-flying jets.

The militants control roughly 1,275 square miles (3,310 square kilometers) of territory, or about half of South Waziristan, in areas loyal to former militant chief Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in August. His clansman Hakimullah Mehsud now leads the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistani Taliban Movement, an umbrella organization of several Islamist militant factions seeking to overthrow the secular government.

Officials have said they envisage the operation will last two months, when winter weather will make fighting difficult.

A brief army statement said 60 militants had been killed, along with six soldiers, since Saturday. It said the military had secured high ground close to Razmak, where the army has had a base for several years, and destroyed six militant anti-aircraft gun positions among other gains.

A resident in Wana — the main town in South Waziristan and in the heart of Taliban-held territory — said the insurgents had left the town and were stationed on the borders of the region, determined to block any army advance.

"All the Taliban who used to be around here have gone to take their position to protect the Mehsud boundary," Azamatullah Wazir said by telephone Sunday. "The army will face difficulty to get in there."

As many as 150,000 civilians — possibly more — have left in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault, but as many as 350,000 could still be in the region. The United Nations has been stockpiling relief supplies in a town near the battle zone.

Senior government official Tariq Hayat Khan said the government was not expecting to establish camps for those fleeing the fighting because most would be living in second homes, with relatives or in rented accommodation in towns outside the tribal region.

Over the last three months, the Pakistani air force has been bombing targets in South Waziristan, while the army has said it has sealed off many Taliban supply and escape routes. The military has been trying to secure the support of local tribal armies in the fight.

Once it became clear two weeks ago that a military offensive was imminent, the Taliban unleashed a torrent of attacks around the country, including a 22-hour siege of army headquarters last weekend.

Taliban spokesman Tariq said the insurgents were also behind the two latest attacks: three commando-style raids on law enforcement agencies in the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday that killed around 30 people, as well as the deadly bombing of a police station in the northwestern city of Peshawar a day later.

Czech defense minister meets Jordan leaders

Amman - Visiting Czech Defense Minister Martin Bartak conferred on Sunday with Jordanian leaders on the prospects of boosting cooperation particularly on defense and economic issues. Bartak, who doubles as deputy prime minister, held separate meetings with King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Nader Dahabi.

His talks with the monarch, which were also attended by the Chief of the Joint Staff of the Jordanian armed forces General Khalid Sarayreh, tackled "bilateral cooperation and means of boosting it in various spheres, particularly the defense field", a royal court statement said.

Popularity of Palestinian President drops against Hamas, poll finds

Ramallah - The popularity of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has declined sharply and he would run neck-and-neck with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh if presidential elections were held now, a poll released Sunday has found. Abbas would receive 16.8 per cent of the vote, to 16 per cent for Haniyeh, the poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre (JMCC) found.

Haniyeh was also the politician respondents trusted the most, scoring 14.2 per cent to Abbas' 12.1 per cent.

In the previous JMCC poll in June, Abbas' rating stood at 17.8 per cent. In addition, a majority of respondents - 55.6 per cent - said they were "somewhat unsatisfied" or "very unsatisfied" with the way Abbas was performing as president, compared to 39.4 per cent who said they were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied."

According to the JMCC, anger at a decision by Abbas' Palestinian Authority (PA) to agree to defer a UN Human Rights Council vote on a report criticizing Israel for its offensive in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year, is the reason for his drop in popularity.

Some 43.8 per cent said the PA was responsible for the deferring the vote, compared to 18.1 per cent who blamed the US and 17.2 per cent who blamed Israel.

Abbas backtracked on support for a deferral, and the Palestinians proposed a special session of the Human Rights Council, which on Friday endorsed the report.

The drop in Abbas' popularity did not translate to his Fatah party, which would receive 40 per cent of the vote in elections, compared to 18.7 per cent for Haniyeh's Hamas.

The poll was conducted between October 7 to 11, and interviewed 1200 person in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The margin of error was given as 3 per cent.

Netanyahu 'shocked' by brutal murder of Israeli family - Summary

Tel Aviv - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed Sunday "deep pain and shock" over the "horrifying" murder of a family of six - two grandparents, two parents, and two young children - in Israel this weekend. The six victims were found early Saturday morning, stabbed to death in a partially-burned out apartment in the city of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv. The youngest victim was aged just three months.

The case has shocked Israel, with police calling it the worst murder in the country for decades.

The family have no criminal past according to Israeli police.

Netanyahu at his weekly cabinet meeting asked public security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch to update him on the progress of the investigation into solving "this terrible act".

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told the German Press Agency.

Jordan, Syria to sign 13 deals

By Hani Hazaimeh

AMMAN - Jordan and Syria are scheduled to sign 13 agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoU) during the two countries' higher committee meeting slated to take place today, the government said on Saturday.

Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, who starts a two-day visit to Syria today, accompanied by a delegation of seven ministers, will co-chair the meetings with his Syrian counterpart Mohammad Otri, Minister of Media Affairs and Communications and Government Spokesperson Nabil Sharif told The Jordan Times yesterday.

"The meetings reflect the two sides' keenness to develop bilateral ties in all respects to serve the interests of the two peoples," Sharif said.

The meetings were supposed to take place during the holy month of Ramadan but were delayed; the two sides stopped short of elaborating on the reasons behind the delay, but the health situation of Otri was cited on one occasion.

The sessions come after the technical committee of the Joint Jordanian-Syrian Higher Committee, on September 26, finalized drafting the agreements and the MoUs to be signed between the two sides, Sharif said.

However, according to Sharif, the border demarcation agreement will not be signed during the meetings due to the fact that the technical committee has yet to finalize the agreement, stressing that the reason was purely "technical and not for any differences between the two parties".

The minister said the deals will cover water, transportation and planning among other important sectors, noting that as far as the Jordanian side is concerned, the government will focus on the important role of the private sector in both countries in boosting joint investments and commercial cooperation, in addition to facilitating the entry of Jordanian medical exports into the Syrian market.

Sharif said relevant ministers from both countries will also sign agreements in the fields of exchanging media expertise and production, cooperation in the higher education sector, and transportation of goods and individuals.

Moscow mayor plans to tame the winter sky

The mayor of Moscow has a scheme for tricking the sky out of its snow this winter, with the help a few million dollars from the city's tremendous budget.

Mayor Yury Luzhkov's plan envisions his office hiring Russian Air Force pilots to ambush the clouds outside the capital by spraying a fine chemical mist over them, according to a report carried by Time magazine.

The sprayed mist would cool the atmosphere enough to force the clouds into dumping their snow prematurely, preventing "very big and serious snow" from falling on the city.

"You know how every year on City Day and Victory Day we create the weather?" Luzhkov asked a group of farmers outside Moscow in September, according to Russian media reports.

"Well, we should do the same with the snow! Then outside Moscow there will be more moisture, a bigger harvest, while for us it won't snow as much. It will make financial sense."

Authorities are optimistic about the idea, saying it would do much for Muscovites' quality of life, making it easier to manage traffic and road safety in snow-ridden months — November to March.

Luzhkov, whom first in 2002 proposed a 30 billion dollar project to divert and reverse the flow of the vast River Ob through Siberia to help quench parched Central Asian republics, insists this plan is foolproof. Scientists were not in favor of the 2002 project, saying it was not practicable.

Moscow is not new to weather-taming ventures of the kind, as the Air Force is annually tasked in May and September to assure that events on Victory Day and City Day — respectively — go undistracted by rain.

The millions of dollars spent on the city's sky do not even come near burning a hole in Moscow's $40 billion a year budget, which is larger than New York City's budget.

The Moscow City Council has endorsed the plan.

Ahmadinejad vows swift response to terror attack

After Jundullah accepts responsibility for the deadly attack in southeast Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promises that the terrorists will receive a befitted response.

"I promise that those who committed such criminal and inhuman acts will receive their response soon," Ahmadinejad said Sunday.

At least 30 people were killed and 28 others wounded in two separate terrorist explosions Sunday that targeted a unity gathering between Sunni and Shia tribal leaders in the borderline City of Pishin, near the Town of Sarbaz, in southeast Iran.

The Jundullah terrorist group, led by Abdolmalek Rigi, claimed responsibility for the attack that killed several top regional security officials such as the provincial commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), including Brigadier Nour-Ali Shoushtari and Brigadier Rajab-Ali Mohammadzadeh.

The explosion also claimed the lives of a group of tribal leaders and well known local figures of both Shia and Sunni communities.

In his message of condolence, President Ahmadinejad expressed grief at the criminal acts by agents who have links with foreign powers.

He called on Iranian authorities to identify the agents behind the terrorist act at the earliest opportunity and bring them to justice.

The Pakistan-based Jundullah has staged a torrent of bombings and terrorist attacks in Iran, one of which left at least 25 Iranians dead in early June. Jundullah militants are believed to be closely affiliated with the notorious al-Qaeda organization.

The Asia Times reported in May that al-Qaeda militants sought to establish an alliance with the exiled Jundullah to fulfill longstanding plans of creating a strategic corridor in the region and lay the foundation for joint regional operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

Another report posted by the US-based ABC News also revealed that the US officials had advised Jundullah to 'stage deadly guerrilla raids inside the Islamic Republic, kidnap Iranian officials and execute them on camera', all as part of a systematic objective to overthrow the Iranian government'.

Iran Majlis approves subsidy cut bill

Iran's Parliament has approved two articles of a subsidy reform plan that would cut energy subsides and bring prices closer to international markets.

Lawmakers approved Article One and Two of the bill which would allow the government to adjust energy prices based on the final prices the government pays for them.

The bill needs the approval of the Guardian Council before it can be implemented.

Lawmakers have yet to agree on other details of the bill, under which subsidies on energy carriers such as gasoline, gas and electricity will be cut and a portion of the recovered revenue will be distributed among lower income citizens.

The subsidy bill aims to reduce dependence on fuel imports by lowering demand.

Israel boycotts Turkish coffee, vacations

JERUSALEM (AFP) - A large Israeli cafe chain has decided to stop selling Turkish coffee and plans are afoot to boycott Turkish resorts in the wake of increased tensions between the two allies, officials said Sunday.

"We have decided for the time being to stop selling 'Istanbul coffee' -- our Turkish coffee blend, and we shall keep doing it until matters improve," Michael Steg, director of marketing for the Ilan coffee shop chain, told the Ynet news website.

"We believe anyone can be active in his own way and this is our small and symbolic way of doing that," he said.

Meanwhile, Yossi Levy, a senior official with Israel's national carrier ElAl, told Army Radio his employee association and those of several other major Israeli businesses plan to stop subsidizing vacations for their workers to Turkey during the Passover holiday next April, the next major holiday season in the Jewish state during which up to 80,000 Israelis are expected to visit Turkish resorts.

The boycott moves come as a response to a Turkish state television series that began airing last week that depicts Israeli soldiers deliberately killing Palestinian children, the latest incident to sour relations between Israel and Ankara.

Tensions between Israel and Turkey have risen over the past week after Ankara excluded the Jewish state from annual joint military exercises, prompting a rebuke from the United States.

Ties between the strategic allies began to sour in January when Turkey strongly condemned Israel's 22-day war in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, launched on December 27 in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory.

Kerry against sending more troops to Afghanistan

US Senator John Kerry has warned against sending additional troops to Afghanistan while the country is embroiled in the aftermath of its presidential vote.

"It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country, when we don't even have an election finished and know who the president is or what kind of government we're working with," said Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

President Barack Obama has to take into account that commanders on the ground say good governance is a critical component of winning the war, Kerry told CNN in an interview to be aired Sunday.

"We're living with a government that we know has to change. How could the president responsibly say, 'Oh, they asked for more, sure -- here they are?" the Democrat added.

The news comes amid reports that western leaders have been pressuring Afghan President Hamid Karzai to accept a second-round vote ahead of the announcement of the final results of Afghanistan's August 20th election, which has been plagued with widespread accusations of fraud.

Afghan election authorities are expected to announce the outcome of the vote on Sunday. Kerry and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have visited Kabul ahead of the announcement.

Lebanon blast destroys discovered Israeli spy gear

The Lebanese army is investigating the cause of a blast that rocked the outskirts of the southern town of Houla overnight.

The blast occurred after Lebanon's Hezbollah discovered cables used for spying in the al-Abbad area near Israeli's border post, DPA reported on Sunday.

Two 50-metre cables were reportedly discovered in the area, one of which was used for wiretapping and the other for broadcasting.

UN peacekeepers were also called out to the blast scene.

No casualties have been reported.

Irish, Ugandan aid workers freed in Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan – A Sudanese government official says two foreign aid workers held hostage for more than three months in the Darfur region have been released by their captors.

Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs, Abdel-Baqi al-Jailani, says the Irish and Ugandan women freed Saturday morning are in good health and are having medical checkups at a hospital in northern Darfur.

Al-Jailani told The Associated Press that no ransom was paid to the kidnappers, who seized the two women at gunpoint on July 3.

The Irish woman, Sharon Commins, and her Ugandan colleague, Hilda Kuwuki, work for Irish humanitarian aid agency GOAL.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir safe house raided

By Munawer Azeem

ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: Police raided a ‘safe house’ of the proscribed student organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir on Saturday and took into custody over two dozen activists.

Six activists of the group managed to escape despite a siege of the house in sector F-8/3.

Police raided the house after a tip-off that a large number of the banned outfit’s members were huddled in a meeting there to plot acts of subversion in Islamabad. The house is located only a few kilometres from the offices of police high-ups.

A heavy contingent of well-equipped policemen and personnel of anti-terrorist squad took part in the raid.

Police found some objectionable literature, computers and some other stuff in the house and seized over 15 vehicles, including Sedan cars and sport utility vehicles.

According to a senior police officer, the arrested people were booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act and produced in a court of law for further legal action. He said the activists were suspected of helping militants.

He said the meeting was being held in a rented house and police were searching for the owner who would also face a legal action.

US aircraft detained by Indian military

The Indian military has forced a US Boeing 767 aircraft to land at a Mumbai airport for allegedly violating the country's airspace.

The chartered plane, which was carrying 205 US marines, was on its way from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates to Bangkok when it was forced to land.

An Indian Air Force spokesperson says the plane did not have the clearance required to fly in Indian airspace.

He added that it is being held in a remote bay with all passengers remaining on board.

Officials at the Indian Air Force, the Central Industrial Security Force and Customs Department were investigating the matter.

Guns to hit Saudi market for first time

Saudis will be able to buy handguns and other personal firearms openly for the first time, the country's interior ministry has announced.

The ministry also stated that it would license privately-owned gun shops.

Anyone over 25 with a clean criminal record and a bank guarantee of SR 500,000 (some US$133,000) can apply to open a gun store, Arab News reported.

The move is aimed at reining in the widespread illegal ownership of handguns and assault weapons, a Saudi official said.

Hunting and sport shooting weapons are currently sold in specialty stores in Saudi Arabia and all weapons have to be licensed.

The ministry has also announced its decision to give Saudis permission to run shooting clubs.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=108975§ionid=351020205.

80 arrested at environmentalists' rally in UK

British police have arrested at least 80 environmental activists who were protesting against a 'polluting' power plant at a central England rally.

British law enforcement agents made the arrests in Nottinghamshire on Saturday after a thousand protesters gathered outside a coal-run power station in an effort to close down the plant that discharged 'contaminants.'

The two-day demonstration turned ugly after protesters attempted to enter the power station through the police cordons.

The clash led to the injuries of a number of people and three police officers.

The Green activists, who organized the "Great Climate Swoop" affair, vowed to halt production at the coal-powered electricity plant.

The apprehension of the environmentalists comes despite the group's pledge "to confront the causes of climate change, not get into conflict with the police."

The Swoop Movement have reportedly been shoring up efforts against the world's Greenhouse gas emission policies ahead of a key summit on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, later this year.

'Iran and Russia propose oil trade without USD'

Venezuela's president has said that countries including Venezuela, Russia and Iran have proposed the US dollar should be replaced as the currency used for oil trade.

"We've been talking about this in OPEC. Venezuela agrees and there are other countries, such as Iran and Russia that are also on-side with this idea," Chavez told reporters in the central Bolivian region of Cochabamba, Reuters reported.

Iran's Trade Promotion Organization has announced a future plan to completely exclude the US dollar from the country's foreign revenues and reserves.

Since October 2007, Iran has received 85 percent of its oil revenues in currencies other than the US dollar and Tehran is determined to find a substitute for the US dollar for the rest of its 15 percent of oil revenues.

The constant declining value of the dollar and persisting economic crisis in the US has forced many countries to drop the currency in favor of a more stable and valuable one.

Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, Venezuela, Sudan and Russia have taken steps to replace the US dollar in their foreign exchange reserves.

Earlier in September, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in the country's foreign exchange accounts.

Recent reports suggested that the Persian Gulf Arab states have recently started secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France "to end dollar dealings for oil."

According to the report written by Independent's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, the proposal was to replace US dollar for crude oil trade by a basket of different currencies over a period of nine years until 2018.

Wildlife group combines owl release, fundraiser in Loomis

By Sam Stanton

The effort started out six months ago, when the pair were nothing more than little fluff balls, tiny orphaned owls maybe a month old each.

They were nurtured and protected, taught to catch mice, shown how owls carry themselves and what sounds they make.

And on a beautiful Saturday night in Loomis, the two great horned owls went home, back to the wild as part of an ongoing effort by Sacramento's Wildlife Care Association.

In a grassy area near a parking lot, they were coaxed one at a time from their cardboard pet carriers and took flight to the appreciative claps of two dozen onlookers.

The release of the owls came after an evening of presentations about wildlife and dinner at the Loomis Flower Farm Inn, where the association held what it hopes will become an annual event that serves as a fundraiser and release of rehabilitated wildlife.

The nonprofit group takes in as many as 7,000 orphaned and injured wild animals each year, with volunteers nursing them back to health and working to release them back into the wild.

The group's volunteers will take in birds, squirrels, possums, raccoons and other wildlife.

"We take in everything except mountain lions, bears and deer," said Debbie Duvall, an 18-year veteran of the group who served as foster mom for the two owls.

Duvall was in charge of taking care of the two baby owls while making certain that human interaction with them was limited.

She had a little help from Nala, an adult great horned owl that came to the group 12 years ago. Nala has a broken wing and can no longer fly. The owl has settled in comfortably with Duvall, living with her and making regular visits to schools.

"We got her as an adult," Duvall said. "She was found hanging in barbed wire."

Nala also provided a critical service to the orphaned owls, "showing them owl body language, vocal sounds," and helping to teach them to hunt mice, Duvall said.

"She's very defensive of them," Duvall said.

Unlike Nala, the two owls released Saturday were not named, part of the effort to keep them from becoming "imprinted" by having too much human contact.

The hope is that the owls have learned enough to make it on their own in the wild, and Saturday night's event was the first time the group has used a release as a fundraiser.

The organization, which has existed since 1974, hopes to conduct annual fundraising dinners like this one, and there clearly will be no shortage of rehabilitated animals.

If the event turns into an annual dinner, chances are Nala will be around. She is believed to be 15 or 20, and great horned owls can live to be about 35, Duvall said.

She said there are about 30 volunteers who have been trained to rehabilitate rescued wild animals.

"Anybody can do it, as long as they go through the training," she said.

Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow

By SIMON SHUSTER / MOSCOW

Pigs still can't fly, but this winter, the mayor of Moscow promises to keep it from snowing. For just a few million dollars, the mayor's office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city. Authorities say this will be a boon for Moscow, which is typically covered with a blanket of snow from November to March. Road crews won't need to constantly clear the streets, and traffic - and quality of life - will undoubtedly improve.

The idea came from Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who is no stranger to playing God. In 2002, he spearheaded a project to reverse the flow of the vast River Ob through Siberia to help irrigate the country's parched Central Asian neighbors. Although that idea hasn't exactly turned out as planned - scientists have said it's not feasible - this time, Luzhkov says, there's no way he can fail.

Controlling the weather in Moscow is nothing new, he says. Ahead of the two main holidays celebrated in the city each year - Victory Day in May and City Day in September - the often cash-strapped air force is paid to make sure that it doesn't, well, rain on the parades. With a city budget of $40 billion a year (larger than New York City's budget), Moscow can easily afford the $2-3 million price tag to keep the skies blue as spectators watch the tanks and rocket launchers roll along Red Square. Now there's a new challenge for the air force: Moscow's notorious blizzards.

"You know how every year on City Day and Victory Day we create the weather?" Luzhkov asked a group of farmers outside Moscow in September, according to Russian media reports. "Well, we should do the same with the snow! Then outside Moscow there will be more moisture, a bigger harvest, while for us it won't snow as much. It will make financial sense."

The plan was unsurprisingly rubber-stamped this week by the Moscow City Council, which is dominated by Luzhkov's supporters. Then the city's Department of Housing and Public Works described how it would work. The air force will use cement powder, dry ice or silver iodide to spray the clouds from Nov. 15 to March 15 - and only to prevent "very big and serious snow" from falling on the city, said Andrei Tsybin, the head of the department. This could mean that a few flakes will manage to slip through the cracks. Tsybin estimated that the total cost of keeping the storms at bay would be $6 million this winter, roughly half the amount Moscow normally spends to clear the streets of snow.

So far the main objection to the plan has come from Moscow's suburbs, which will likely be inundated with snow if the plan goes forward. Alla Kachan, the Moscow region's ecology minister, said the proposal still needs to be assessed by environmental experts and discussed with the people living in the area before Luzhkov can enact it. "The citizens of the region have some concerns. We have received lots of messages," she told the RIA news agency.

With only a few weeks left before winter comes, environmentalists will have to work fast to keep Luzhkov from implementing his zaniest plan to date - and to stop the first snowflakes from wafting down to the city streets.

Mottaki plans trip to Yemen amid internal strife

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says he has plans to visit Yemen in order to help the country resolve the crisis between Sana'a and opposition forces.

“In this visit, I will carry a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh,” Mottaki told the Mehr News Agency.

The trip came after the Sana'a government invited Iran for a visit to mediate between Houthi Shia fighters and the Yemeni leaders and thus quell the humanitarian crisis.

Yemeni government forces and Houthi Shias ---who say they have been marginalized politically, economically and religiously by the government--- have been engaged in a periodic war in the northern parts of the country.

Internal strife turned into a full-fledged war after the army unleashed Operation Scorched Earth on Aug. 11.

Yemen claims that the Houthi fighters are trying to restore the Zaidi imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 coup.

But the Houthis, who make up around 40 percent of Yemen's overall population, say that they are defending their people and fighting for their civil rights.

According to UN figures, the continued unrest has displaced around 50,000 people in the past month alone, bringing the total count to 150,000 since 2004.

Tehran's government says it fully supports a united and stable Yemen, rejecting claims that Iran has been interfering in the Arab country's internal affairs.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has invariably stressed the importance of Yemen's territorial integrity and the independence, sovereignty and national unity of the country," read a recent statement by Iran's embassy in Manama.

"Iran, alongside the Republic of Yemen, is exerting efforts within the context of peace, security and stability. We believe that increasing tension and debates that lead to bloodshed do not serve peace, stability or national unity in Yemen," it continued.

"We hope to see national unity, security and stability in the Republic of Yemen, through measures and the wisdom of the leadership and government of Yemen," the statement added.

Pakistan battles 'militants' in S Waziristan

About a dozen casualties have been reported as the Pakistani army moves deep into the volatile northern agency of South Waziristan.

Thousands of troops, backed by tanks and fighter jets, have begun a three-pronged attack on what they call militant hideouts.

Pakistani officials told Press TV that the armed forces have taken over control of Spankai and Ghazai areas in South Waziristan while military jets pounded militants' positions.

The attacked killed 12 terrorists and demolished several hideouts late on Saturday, they claimed.

While briefing the political leadership on Friday, Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani referred to the operation as the 'mother of all battles'.

The offensive began after two weeks of militant attacks which killed over 150 people.

Around 90,000 civilians have fled South Waziristan; normally home to 600,000 people, since August and officials said the number could more than double.

The head of the US central command, David Petraeus, is also heading to Pakistan to discuss the ongoing operation. Pentagon officials say the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, has spoken to his Pakistani counterpart to emphasize continued US support for the military operation.

Meanwhile, Pakistani police said it arrested 35 members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir, according to our correspondent.

ALBA calls US-Colombia military deal 'threat'

Latin American states have once again decried a military agreement between Colombia and the US as a threat to South American countries.

Leaders of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA) denounced the deal in a statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting on Saturday.

The ALBA leaders rejected the installation of US military bases in Latin America and the Caribbean, saying Colombia "must reconsider" the plan.

The bases "endanger the peace, threaten democracy and facilitate the hegemonic interference" of the US in the region's affairs, the statement added.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the bases a "threat to all of us."

The Colombian government reached a preliminary agreement with Washington that would give the US military access to seven Colombian bases for 10 years.

On the subject of coup-hit Honduras, the leftist leaders urged the international community to reject the presidential election planned by the interim government next month.

"No electoral process held under the coup-installed government, or the authorities that emerge from it, can be recognized by the international community," the statement said.

The leaders also called on the international community to continue pressing for the reinstatement of deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

The nine members of ALBA - formed by Chavez - approved more economic sanctions against Honduras coup-installed government.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, said the bloc urged Zelaya's supporters to peacefully resist the interim government, and Chavez added that the nation has a right to protest.

Netanyahu: Turkey can't be an honest broker

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has declared that he does not want Turkey to act as a mediator in future talks with Syria.

Ties between Israel and Turkey began to sour in January when Ankara strongly condemned Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip which killed at least 1400 people mostly woman and children.

Relations took another sharp downturn last week when Turkey excluded Israel from a joint air force drill over Gaza incidents.

A UN inquiry, led by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, detailed what investigators called Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during Israel's winter offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The tensions became a major issue during a meeting between Netanyahu and his visiting Spanish counterpart, Jose Luis Zapatero, on Saturday.

Netanyahu said he objects to Turkey resuming its role as mediator since it cannot be an "honest broker" between Israel and Syria, Haaretz reported on Sunday.

This is while the hawkish government of Netanyahu has not held any indirect talks with Syria. During former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert's tenure, Turkey mediated five rounds of talks between Israeli and Syrian officials.

If Ankara stops its role as a mediator between Israel and the Arabs, Israel will lose a Muslim mediator with friendly ties to key Muslim players.

Tunisia eyes solar power to trim energy consumption

October 18, 2009

Tunisia, which imports most of its petroleum needs, targets to develop solar power capacity in order to diversify reliance on traditional sources of electricity generation, official TAP news agency reported on Saturday.

Tunisia expects to achieve 40 projects during 2010 to 2016 as it wants to be less dependent on oil and gas with 29 schemes to be financed by private sector, said the report without giving accurate figure on the value.

The projects would help the north African country to cut energy consumption by 22 percent in 2016 saving 660 tonnes of oil per year, it added.

Tunisia energy imports stood at 4.913 billion Tunisian dinars (3.862 billion U.S. dollars) in the previous year, up 64 percent from a year earlier.

The power demand in Tunisia grows 7 percent per year on fast growing economy which was at 5.1 percent last year, according to official data.

Tunisia eyes to develop renewable energy enough to be a world industrial and energetic hub producing and exporting notably solar power.

With the aim, the country has set in 2008 a four-year national plan aiming at improving production of renewable energy which forecasted to satisfy 4 percent of power demand in 2011.(1 USD = 1.272 Tunisian dinar).

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/6786159.html.

Scientists: The World Won't End In 2012

Is 2012 the end of the world?

If you scan the Internet or believe the marketing campaign behind the movie "2012," scheduled for release in November, you might be forgiven for thinking so. Dozens of books and fake science websites are prophesying the arrival of doomsday that year, by means of a rogue planet colliding with the Earth or some other cataclysmic event.

Normally, scientists regard Internet hysteria with nothing more than a raised eyebrow and a shake of the head. But a few scientists have become so concerned at the level of fear they are seeing that they decided not to remain on the sidelines this time.

"Two years ago, I got a question a week about it," said NASA scientist David Morrison, who hosts a website called Ask an Astrobiologist (astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/ )."Now I'm getting a dozen a day. Two teenagers said they didn't want to see the end of the world so they were thinking of ending their lives."

Morrison said he tries to reassure people that their fears are groundless, but has received so many inquiries that he has posted a list of 10 questions and answers on the website of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (www.astrosociety.org).

Titled "Doomsday 2012, the Planet Nibiru and Cosmophobia," the article breaks down the sources of the hysteria and assures people that the ancients didn't actually know more about the cosmos than we do.

"The world will not come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012," E.C. Krupp, director of Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory, declared in a statement released Thursday by the observatory and Sky & Telescope magazine. Krupp debunks the 2012 doomsday idea in the cover story of the magazine's November issue.

Morrison said he attributes the excitement to the conflation of several items into one mega-myth. One is the persistent Internet rumor that a planet called Nibiru or Planet X is going to crash into the Earth. Then there's the fact that the Maya calendar ends in 2012, suggesting that the Maya knew something we don't. Finally, end-of-the-worlders have seized upon the hubbub about the 2012 date to proclaim their belief that end times are drawing near.

Morrison, who heads the Lunar Science Institute at the Ames Research Center in Northern California, has coined a term for the phenomenon: "cosmophobia," a fear of the cosmos. According to Morrison, for the most vulnerable among us, all of the things we've learned about the universe in the last century have only increased the number of potential threats to our existence.

Besides fearing a rampaging planet, the worriers think the sun might lash out at the Earth with some calamitous electromagnetic force. They also fear that some sort of alignment between the Earth and the center of our galaxy could unleash catastrophe.

Krupp said that the scare-mongers would have us believe that the "ancient Maya of Mexico and Guatemala kept a calendar that is about to roll up the red carpet of time, swing the solar system into transcendental alignment with the heart of the Milky Way, and turn Earth into a bowling pin for a rogue planet heading down our alley for a strike."

According to Rosemary Joyce, a professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley, the Maya never predicted anything. The 2012 date is approximately when the ancient calendar would roll over, like the odometer on a car; it did not mean the end - merely the start of a new cycle.

Some authors have tried to merge that idea, Joyce said, with Maya mythology that said the Earth had gone through multiple ages of creation, each ending in a disaster. "But there's no prediction," she said. "They did not predict the end of the world."

Morrison says it's hard to know whether the people who have written to him with their fears represent a fringe or a larger cross-section of Americans who, distrustful of traditional sources of information and the authorities behind them, are falling victim to the Internet's snake-oil salesmen.

In such an environment, the viral marketing campaign for the movie "2012," which encourages people to "Vote for the Leader of the Post-2012 World," can seem like confirmation of the apocalypse, rather than of an upcoming 90-minute entertainment vehicle.

A spokesman for Sony Pictures, Steve Elzer, said: "We believe consumers understand that the advertising is promoting a fictional film."

Morrison said the movie's distributors are feeding the "panic" by creating some of the fake science websites. Most of the sites, Morrison said, are full of misinformation and speculation, often by people who have written books they are trying to sell.

Morrison said he could not address the motives of people who were feeding the alarm, but added: "It's wrong to tell lies to frighten people merely to make a buck."

What most worries him is the level of alarm in some of the most recent messages.

"I'm getting more and more questions from people who are upset and scared," he said. Some people say their children are refusing to eat.

In the publication Morrison has posted online, he says that astronomers would long ago have spotted a rogue planet headed for Earth, that the so-called photos of Nibiru on the Internet are fictitious, and that just because the Maya calendar in question ends in 2012, it doesn't mean the Maya were predicting the end of the world.

"The calendar on my desk ends on December 31, 2009. I do not interpret that to mean the world is going to end that day."

Brazil pledges Olympic security after Rio violence

By FLORA CHARNER, Associated Press Writer

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian officials are insisting security won't be a problem for the 2016 Olympics, despite drug-gang violence that plunged Rio de Janeiro into a day of bloody chaos just two weeks after it was picked to host the games.

An hourslong firefight between rival gangs in one of the city's slums killed a dozen people, injured six and saw a police helicopter shot down and eight buses set on fire Saturday.

Two officers died and four were injured when bullets from the gang battle ripped into their helicopter hovering overhead, forcing it into a fiery crash landing on a soccer field. Gunfire on the ground killed 10 suspected gunmen and wounded two bystanders.

Authorities said the mayhem would only toughen their resolve to improve security ahead of the Olympics and before 2014, when Brazil will host the World Cup soccer tournament with key games in Rio, the country's second-biggest city.

Rio state Gov. Sergio Cabral grimly told reporters Saturday that the city's security challenges can't be cured "by magic in the short term." But he said that money is being poured into programs to reduce crime and that authorities are prepared to mount an overwhelming security presence at the sporting events to ensure safety.

"We told the International Olympic Committee that this won't be an easy thing, and they know that," Cabral said. "We can put 40,000 people on the streets — federal, state and municipal police — and pull off the event."

Saturday's fighting raged about five miles (eight kilometers) southwest of one of the zones where Rio's 2016 Olympics will be held.

It was on Oct. 2 that the city was chosen over Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to host the games. Rio alone among the bid cities was highlighted for questions about security ahead of the vote by the International Olympic Committee.

Rio is one of the world's most dangerous cities. Although violence is mostly contained within its sprawling shantytowns, it sometimes spills into posh beach neighborhoods and periodically shuts down a highway linking the international airport to tourist destinations.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has played down the threat of violence for the Olympics, saying Rio has repeatedly demonstrated it can put on big events without risks to participants. The Pan-American Games in 2007 were held without major incidents after authorities deployed 15,000 specially trained officers.

The latest spasm of bloodshed erupted before dawn in the Morro dos Macacos ("Monkey Hill" in Portuguese) slum in the northern part of Rio when rival gangs shot it out in a dispute over territory.

Police moved into the area, but gunfire continued into late afternoon, keeping frightened people cowering inside their homes as bullets slammed into apartment buildings.

Gunfire from the battle tore into the police helicopter monitoring the fighting and hit the pilot in the leg, causing him to lose control and crash. Two officers aboard died, while the pilot and three other policemen escaped as the craft burst into flames. All four were burned, one gravely, said Mario Sergio Duarte, head of Rio state's military police.

Officials said they did not know if the gangs targeted the helicopter or it was hit by stray bullets.

Rio police frequently use helicopters in confronting gangs that dominate drug trafficking in the city's more than 1,000 slums, but were unable to say whether one of their aircraft had been shot down previously.

Medvedev vows to develop ties with Latin American states

MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed Russia's closer cooperation with an alliance of Latin American and Caribbean countries, the Kremlin press service said on Saturday.

In a message to a summit of the ALBA bloc brought by the Russian security chief, Medvedev said Russia was set to develop mutually-advantageous relations with the alliance's members both multilaterally and bilaterally.

The Russian Security Council head, Nikolai Patrushev, is attending the ALBA's seventh summit underway in central Bolivia's Cochabamba.

"I consider my first meeting with the ALBA leaders held in Caracas last November very useful. I think it necessary to consolidate contacts with the forum," the Russian president said in his message.

The ALBA bloc, designed by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, unites Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Honduras, Dominica, Bolivia, Saint Vincent, and Antigua and Barbuda.

On the first day of the ALBA summit on Friday, the nine leaders agreed to establish a regional currency to ditch the U.S. dollar in local trade. The new currency is expected to be launched early next year.

Britain's Independent newspaper reported earlier this month that Russian officials have held "secret meetings" with Arab states, China and France on ending the use of the U.S. dollar in international oil trading.

The information was dismissed by Russian Finance Alexei Kudrin, who said, however, that the subject was "worth discussing."

Tens of thousands demonstrate in Spain against abortion

Madrid - Tens of thousands of Spaniards demonstrated on the streets of the capital Madrid Saturday, against a planned relaxation of the country's strict laws on abortion. Some 40 organizations with the support of the Catholic Church and the opposition People's Party organized the demonstration under the slogan "Every life matters."

Protesters were bussed to the capital from all over the mostly- Catholic country.

The demonstration came in the face of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's plans to allow abortions on demand.

Under Zapatero's draft law, currently before parliament, abortions carried out before the end of the 14th week of pregnancy would be available upon request.

At present abortions are only available in Spain under strict circumstances, such as in rape cases and where signs of foetal abnormality are present.

The law would also allow girls aged over 16 to have an abortion without their parents' knowledge.

The law is likely to pass with the support of Zapatero's Socialist Party, who have the majority.

The People's Party have said they plan an appeal to the constitutional court.

Iran releases Newsweek reporter on bail - Summary

Tehran - Iran on Saturday released Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari on bail after four months' detention, the news agency ILNA reported. Iranian-Canadian Maziar Bahari was released on bail amounting to almost 300,000 dollars, ILNA quoted a judiciary official as saying.

Bahari was arrested last June while covering protest demonstrations following the disputed June 12 presidential election.

Further details about the release were not immediately known.

According to informed sources, the 42-year-old Bahari is expected to stay with his mother in Tehran until it was clarified whether he would be allowed to leave the country or wait for further justice proceedings.

According to ILNA, Bahari, who has been working for Newsweek since 1998 and is also a renowned documentary filmmaker, was arrested and detained on June 21 on charges of having made propaganda against the Iranian establishment through spreading false news.

He gave a press conference on June 30 in which he confessed that Western journalists were spies and that he had contributed to plans by opposition groups to topple the Islamic establishment. At the time, his remarks raised questions about a forced confession.

Plans to topple the system and espionage activities can lead in Iran to death sentences. For three of the post-vote detainees such a sentence was issued although their lawyers were allowed to appeal the verdict.

During his visit to New York last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was asked by several US press circles to use his influence to enable Bahari's release.

Some 4,000 people, including journalists and former reformist officials, were arrested after they protested against alleged fraud charges in the presidential election which led to Ahmadinejad's re- election.

Over 100 dissidents are still detained and face charges of plans to topple the Islamic establishment. Between 30 to 79 demonstrators were killed in the demonstrations.

Arab League says US donations used to finance settlements

CAIRO (AFP) – The Arab League on Saturday urged US President Barack Obama's administration to prevent American associations from collecting funds to finance Israeli settlement building in annexed east Jerusalem.

Mohammed Sobeih, a deputy secretary general in charge of Palestinian affairs, told reporters such funding was being used for "a hostile and illegal act which stands in the way of reaching a peace deal."

Such associations, exempted from taxation, help to finance the building of Israeli settlements in the Old City and other districts of east Jerusalem, according to a report compiled by the Arab League's office in Washington.

Sobeih said the report showed some of the funds were being used to seize properties from their Palestinian residents and to expel them, singling out the ultra-nationalist "American Friends of Ateret Cohanim."

Financed by Jewish American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, the charitable trust has been linked to Jewish settlement projects in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.

But it has denied reports that American donations finance the purchase of disputed lands.

The Obama administration has been pressing hard for Israel to halt all construction work on occupied Palestinian land ahead of the resumption of Middle East peace talks. Israel has so far balked at the demand.

Taliban fight back against Pakistan offensive

By RASOOL DAWAR and ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writers

MIR ALI, Pakistan – Militants clashed with Pakistani troops advancing into their main sanctuary near the Afghan border Sunday amid signs the army faces a far tougher fight than in other assaults against al-Qaida and the Taliban in the northwest.

The operation in South Waziristan follows repeated requests from the U.S. to take on the jihadists behind soaring terrorist attacks in the nuclear-armed nation and al-Qaida and other extremists believed to be plotting strikes in the West.

The push involves mostly poorly equipped soldiers trained to fight conventional wars, not counterinsurgency operations, who have failed in three other campaigns in the mountainous region since 2004. The region is almost wholly under Taliban control.

Reporters are blocked from visiting the region, but accounts Sunday suggested that the 30,000 troops were in for a bloodier time than in the Swat Valley, another northwestern region that the army successfully wrestled away from insurgents earlier this year.

"Militants are offering very tough resistance to any movement of troops," Ehsan Mahsud, a resident of Makeen, a town in the region, told The Associated Press in the town of Mir Ali, close to the battle zone. He and a friend arrived there early Sunday after traveling through the night.

Fighting early Sunday in the Sarwaki area left one solider and seven militants dead, said intelligence officials on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. Authorities said Saturday five soldiers and 11 insurgents had been killed on the first day of the campaign.

Mahsud said the army appeared to be mostly relying on air strikes and artillery against militants occupying high ground. He said the insurgents were firing heavy machine guns at helicopter gunships, forcing the air force to use higher-flying jets.

The army is up against about 10,000 local militants and about 1,500 foreign fighters, most of them from Central Asia. They control roughly 1,275 square miles (3,310 square kilometers) of territory, or about half of South Waziristan, in areas loyal to former militant chief Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in August.

Officials have said they envisage the operation will last two months.

A resident in the town of Wana in the heart of Taliban-held territory said the insurgents had left the town and were stationed on the borders of the region, determined to block any army advance.

"All the Taliban who used to be around here have gone to take their position to protect the Mehsud boundary," Azamatullah Wazir said by phone Sunday. "The army will face difficulty to get in there."

Intelligence officials said Saturday that the ground troops were advancing on two flanks and a northern front of a central part of South Waziristan controlled by the Mehsuds. The areas being surrounded include the insurgent bases of Ladha and Makeen, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to brief the media.

As many as 150,000 civilians — possibly more — have left in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault, but as many as 350,000 could still be in the region. The United Nations has been stockpiling relief supplies in a town near the region, but authorities are not expecting a major refugee crisis like the one that occurred during the offensive this year in the Swat Valley.

Over the last three months, the Pakistani air force has been bombing targets, while the army has said it has sealed off many Taliban supply and escape routes. The military has been trying to secure the support of local tribal armies in the fight.

Hurricane Rick becomes Category 5 off Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Hurricane Rick's fierce winds churned up dangerous surf off Mexico's coast early Sunday, the strongest storm recorded in the eastern North Pacific Ocean in more than a decade.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said late Saturday that Rick was an 'extremely dangerous' Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 180 mph (285 kph). The center said Rick was likely to lose some of that punch as it nears the Baja California peninsula in coming days.

The hurricane was projected to stay well off the Mexican coast for several days before bending east over cooler waters and approach the Baja California Peninsula as a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane sometime Wednesday, forecasters said.

Authorities in the resort city of Acapulco closed the port to small craft after Rick kicked up heavy waves and gusts of wind.

Acapulco's Civil Protection Department had warned that rains from the outer bands of the storm could cause landslides and flooding in the resort city, but no such effects were reported.

At 11 p.m. EDT Saturday (0300 GMT Sunday), the storm's center was located about 295 miles (475 kilometers) southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico.

Rick is the second-strongest hurricane in the eastern North Pacific since 1966, when experts began keeping reliable records, said Hurricane Center meteorologist Hugh Cobb.

The strongest was Hurricane Linda, which generated maximum winds of 185 mph (296 kph) in September 1997.

"Rick is probably going to go into the record books as one of the most rapidly intensifying hurricanes," Cobb said, adding the storm was fueled by warm ocean temperatures.

The storm was generating some waves up to 50 feet (15 meters) high near its core, Cobb said, adding there were ship reports of 16-foot (5-meter) seas elsewhere off the Mexican coast.

Cobb said that while the storm could possibly strengthen slightly, it has probably peaked, and would likely weaken in coming days as it enters relatively cooler waters.

He said the storm's danger should not be underestimated, however, as Rick will still have the potential as a Category 1 or Category 2 storm to provoke heavy rains and unleash mudslides.

Cobb said it is still uncertain whether the eye of the storm will make landfall.

Rick was forecast to pass near Socorro Island, about 300 miles (500 kilometers) southwest of Cabo San Lucas, on Tuesday. The island is a nature reserve with a small Mexican Navy post and it hosts scuba-diving expeditions in winter months.

Bear Run! Black bear chills in Wis. beer cooler

HAYWARD, Wis. – Shoppers in a Wisconsin grocery store got an unexpected surprise when a 125-pound black bear wandered inside and headed straight for the beer cooler.

The bear stopped Friday night at Marketplace Foods in Hayward, about 140 miles northeast of Minneapolis, sauntering through the automatic doors and heading straight for the liquor department.

It calmly climbed up 12 feet onto a shelf in the beer cooler where it sat for about an hour while employees helped evacuate customers and summoned wildlife officials.

Officials from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources tranquilized the animal and took it out of the store. Store workers say the bear seemed content in the cooler and did not consume any alcohol.

Revolutionary Guard commanders killed in Iran bomb

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – A suicide bomber killed at least 20 people Sunday, including five senior commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, in southeastern Iran, the country's official news agency reported.

The IRNA news agency said the dead included the deputy commander of the Guard's ground force, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as the Guard's chief provincial commander, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh. Dozens of others were wounded, the report said.

The commanders were inside a car on their way to a meeting in the Pishin region near Iran's border with Pakistan when an attacker with explosives blew himself up, IRNA said.

Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, condemned the assassination of the Guard commanders, saying the bombing was aimed at disrupting security in southeastern Iran.

"We express our condolences for their martyrdom. ... The intention of the terrorists was definitely to disrupt security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province," Larijani told an open session of the parliament broadcast live on state radio.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion would likely fall on the Sunni militant group Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, which has carried out attacks against the Revolutionary Guard and against Shiite targets in southeastern Iran.

In May, the group took credit for a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed 25 people in Zahedan, the capital of Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province, which has witnessed some of Jundallah's worst attacks. Thirteen members of the faction were convicted in the attack and hanged in July.

Jundallah, comprising Sunnis from the Baluchi ethnic minority, have waged a low-level insurgency in recent years, accusing the mostly Shiite government of persecution.

Jundallah has carried out bombings, kidnappings and other attacks against Iranian soldiers and other forces in recent years, including a car bombing in February 2007 that killed 11 members of the Revolutionary Guard near Zahedan.

Jundallah also claimed responsibility for the December 2006 kidnapping of seven Iranian soldiers in the Zahedan area. It threatened to kill them unless members of the group in Iranian prisons were released. The seven were released a month later, apparently after negotiations through tribal mediators.

The Revolutionary Guard was created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution as an ideological bulwark to defend Iran's clerical rule. The 120,000-strong elite force controls Iran's missile program and has its own ground, naval and air units.

Chavez urges US, Russia to denuclearize themselves

Venezuela has called for the elimination of all nuclear bombs asking why powers that possess such weapons of mass destruction are not under pressure to disarm.

“What we propose is for nuclear bombs to be eliminated. Venezuela will never build a nuclear bomb,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told reporters in the central Bolivian region of Cochabamba on Saturday.

The Venezuelan president said his government is working with Russia to develop nuclear energy, stressing Venezuela would only use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

The president also confirmed an earlier announcement by his mining minister that Iranian and Venezuelan experts were working on a joint project to locate the Latin state's uranium reserves.

Earlier, Venezuela's Science and Technology Minister, Jesse Chacon announced Iran has assisted his country in discovering “deposits of uranium as well as gold, diamonds and coltan”.

Chacon added that the surveys are separate from efforts with Russia in developing nuclear energy.

“We're working with several countries, with Iran, with Russia. We're responsible for what we're doing, we're in control,” Chavez said as he addressed a gathering of several Latin American presidents.

Chavez, who is a leading critic of United States foreign policy, has established close relations with Tehran and Moscow in recent years.

Guinea junta leader seeks int'l backing

Sun Oct 18, 2009

Head of Guinea's interim military rule, Moussa Dadis Camara seeks out African Union support in an effort to run for president in 2010.

In a Saturday letter, Camara "wrote to the African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) requesting that it be assigned to the mediation of Burkina Faso" leader Blaise Compaore, AFP quoted the junta's Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexandre Cece Loua as saying.

The issue of Camara's presidential bid has become a sticking point over strong opposition to his candidacy proposal in Guinea following a 2008 coup in which the military leader assumed power in the wake of the West African nation's long-standing ruler Lansana Cont?'s death in December of the same year.

The latest de facto government declaration comes in the aftermath of an AU decree which had given the junta chief an ultimatum to guarantee his abstention from power in next year's presidential election or face sanctions from the African bloc of nations.

Camara's presidential bid has sparked controversy in Guinea, with thousands of opposition protesters rallying in the capital Conakry later in September in order to voice dissent over the continuation of the military rule.

Rights activists have reported widespread abuse and torture of citizens and maintained that at least 157 Guineans were killed and 1,200 were injured in September 28th government clampdown on the demonstrators.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/108962.html.

Turkey's Erdogan slams Israel as 'persecutor'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed Israel as a "persecutor" that has launched attacks against Gazan civilians.

"Turkey has never, in its history, been on the side of persecutors, it has always defended the oppressed," Erdogan said without directly naming Israel in a speech in the central city of Kirsehir on Saturday.

"Turkey has not hostility against any country, but ... we are against injustice," AFP quoted Erdogan as saying.

Erdogan had earlier called for the alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip to be reviewed in the UN Security Council.

A UN inquiry, led by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, detailed what investigators called Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during Israel's winter offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza.

"We will definitely take the position to discuss this issue on the Security Council," Erdogan had said.

"We're in favor of opening discussions on the Goldstone report. The guilty party should be identified and face the necessary sanctions," he added.

Turkey is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Last week, Turkey excluded Israel from a joint air force drill in protest to the Israeli war crimes during its offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Elbaradei calls for direct Iran-US nuclear talks

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called on Iran and the United States to hold direct nuclear talks without any preconditions.

Outgoing IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday that US President Barack Obama "has understood that talks with Iran" over its nuclear energy program are "the only possible solution" to the issue.

ElBaradei added that new sanctions against Iran would only complicate the situation. "Of course you can impose further sanctions. But I consider it rather unlikely that new sanctions will make Iran come around," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

His remarks come, while earlier in the week US lawmakers approved and sent to Obama a bill that penalizes American or foreign firms that have 20 million dollars or more invested in Iran's petroleum or natural gas operations.

The US, which has failed to push other world powers into imposing new sanctions against Iran, has stepped up unilateral efforts to impose embargoes against Iran.

The UN nuclear watchdog chief further said that he was optimistic about the upcoming talks with Iran next week.

Iran says it needs nuclear energy as solely aimed at producing electricity, and rejects Western allegations that the country is after atomic weapons.

The IAEA has so far made "25 unannounced inspections" of the country's nuclear facilities and has published over 20 reports -- all of which confirm the non-diversion of Iran's uranium enrichment so far.

Next week in Vienna, Tehran is expected to discuss the prospects of a deal to process its required uranium abroad.

Pakistan army fights bloody battles in Waziristan

At least a dozen Pakistani soldiers have been killed as the army opens its long-awaited offensive against the pro-Taliban militants in the volatile South Waziristan region.

12 soldiers were killed and several others injured in the first ferocious gunfights, The Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.

Militants were reported to be offering stiff resistance as troops advanced from the north, east, and west.

Pakistan's military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas has said that an offensive could last up to two months.

"The objective is to clear this terrorist organization from the area, who has taken over the area, turned these state institutions, organizations out and has taken the entire population hostage," the BBC quoted Abbas as saying.

The operation in South Waziristan follows weeks of air raids on militant hideouts there. The army says over 30-thousand soldiers are in place to flush out the militants.

The offensive comes after two weeks of militant attacks claimed over 150 lives in Pakistan.

The government and political party leaders have given the military full backing. Military operations have so far displaced tens of thousands of people. Those who have remained behind were kept at home by a curfew.

The Pakistani army had been preparing for a major operation in the South Waziristan region after it forced out militants from the scenic Swat valley back in September.

Iran welcomes 'stability' in Korean peninsula

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says Tehran welcomes 'conformity' between Pyongyang and Seoul, and stability in the Korean peninsula.

The Islamic Republic is "ready to continue its goodwill efforts" to realize "peace and stability" in the Korean Peninsula, Mottaki said in a meeting with South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Yong-joon on Saturday.

"We welcome conformity and agreement between the two Koreas," he added.

Mottaki's comments came two days after North Korea accused South Korea of sending warships across their sea border, and warned of a naval military clash in the region.

Relations between the two Koreas have been strained since the Korean War ended in 1953. In 2000, former South Korean president, the late Kim Dae-Jung, made efforts to establish better ties with the North. However, the two sides never made a full-fledged rapprochement.

Mottaki and Yong-joon also discussed areas of mutual interest, including joint medical projects in war-torn Afghanistan.

"We hope to contribute to peace and stability in Afghanistan by creating medical clinics and education facilities using [South] Korean and international funds," Yong-joon said.

Macedonia and Kosovo settle border dispute

Macedonia and Kosovo have settled a long-running border dispute, paving the way for them to establish full diplomatic ties.

Parliamentarians in Kosovo voted on Saturday to approve the deal, struck late on Friday, with 81 of the 120 members backing the motion.

At 1750 GMT, their counterparts in Macedonia were still voting but are expected to ratify the agreement.

No further details were released on the border deal but Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said earlier on Saturday that he respected "the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and the peaceful settlement of disputes."

Media reports in Macedonia said Skopje and Pristina disagreed over the border demarcation that runs close to the Macedonian villages of Debalde and Tanusevci.

The border was agreed upon in 2001 between Belgrade and Skopje when Kosovo was still part of Serbia.

Kosovan premier Thaci also said this new deal would make it easier for Kosovans who own land in Macedonian territory to cross the border.

Skopje recognized Kosovo's independence in October 2008, six months after ethnic Albanian authorities declared it had split from Serbia.

Mubarak: Israeli settlements concern Muslims

Sun Oct 18, 2009

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says the entire Muslim world is concerned about the expansion of the Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

Mubarak, who met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome on Saturday, also condemned Israel's "attempts to assimilate" Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

Israel's continuation of settlement construction "worries not only the Palestinians but the entire Muslim world," AFP quoted Mubarak as saying.

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including east Al-Quds, to be illegal.

Even the US has repeatedly warned that the expansion of the settlements impedes the progress of the Middle East peace talks.

Under the 2002 Roadmap for Peace plan brokered by the US, the EU, the UN and Russia, Israel has to 'dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities'.

It is estimated that there are almost 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers in the twelve or so Israeli settlements in Al-Quds. There are also about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers living in settlements across the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/108963.html.

2 jailed in Russia over 'spying' for US, Georgia

A court in Moscow has judged a Serbian national and Russian army officer guilty on charges of espionage for the United States and Georgia.

A Moscow tribunal has sentenced Aleksandar Georgijevic of Serbia to eight years in prison over links to the Pentagon's secret service, the Russian media reported on Friday.

The court statement convicted Georgijevic of collecting 'confidential' records of Russia's military hardware, including the country's Arena, Blokada, Khrizantema-C and Iskander missile programs, as well as R-500 projectiles.

Georgijevic "confessed partial guilt, but confirmed that he knew the information would be handed over to a foreign citizen," the statement reads.

The court exercised 'leniency' toward the 63-year-old Serbian citizen due to his underlying health condition and his 'acknowledgment' of the 'covert operation.'

Russia's Federal Security Service says Georgijevic passed on the country's state secret in 1998 to an American called 'Farid Rafi', who was "working in the interests of the intelligence agency of the US defense ministry."

Georgijevic was arrested in 2007 upon arrival in the Russian capital, the statement added.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, another Russian court committed Dzhemal Nakaidze, a former army officer, to nine years behind bars over ties with Georgia, a former Russian republic.

The Russian martial court convicted 38-year-old Nakaidze of treason and working in collusion with intelligence services in the South Caucasus State of Georgia.

Russia and Georgia fought a short war last year over the independence-seeking provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russian authorities have abstained from disclosing further information on the latest espionage cases.

Karzai faces West pressure over vote run-off

Western leaders have reportedly been pressuring Afghan President Hamid Karzai to accept a second-round vote ahead of the announcement of the final results.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and US Senator John Kerry were visiting Kabul on Saturday.

Also, the UN Secretary General, the US Secretary of State and the British Prime Minister have held telephone conversations with the Afghan presidential candidates.

The top figures had been working to persuade Karzai that he may have to face a second round of voting.

The discussions took place just before the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission was to announce the findings of its investigation into allegations of fraud in the August 20 presidential vote.

Election officials are going to announce the final outcome of the disputed presidential election on Sunday.

The unconfirmed results had given Karzai over 54 percent of the August polls.

The incumbent's main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, ranked second with around 28 percent.

Karzai's rivals have accused him of rigging the elections. He has denied the charge.

This is while The Washington Post cited election officials on Friday as saying that Karzai's share of the vote was below 50 percent, which would force a runoff with his main rival Abdullah.

This comes as US President Barack Obama is weighing a request for the deployment of an additional 40,000 troops in Afghanistan.

The accusations have left Afghanistan in a state of political uncertainty.