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Friday, October 30, 2009

Israel retracts opposition to Iran uranium deal

After weeks of fierce opposition to an IAEA-drafted plan for Western nuclear cooperation with Iran, the Israeli government seems to have come on board with the proposal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an unexpected show of optimism, said Friday that the proposal, which requires Iran to ship out 80 percent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) in exchange for highly-enriched uranium converted into metal fuel rods, is "a positive first step."

Although the deal was originally brokered by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Mohammed ElBaradei on October 21, Netanyahu extended his gratitude to US President Barack Obama in a meeting with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.

"I support and appreciate the president's ongoing efforts to unite the international community to address the challenge of Iran's attempts to become a nuclear military power," he added.

Tel Aviv, which has an arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads at its disposal, views Tehran's nuclear program as a "threat," and Israeli leaders have repeatedly threatened to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities out of existence.

This is while, unlike Israel, Iran has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has allowed regular inspections of its nuclear installations.

The Israeli premier's remarks also bring to light a deep-running rift among the Israeli government, when it comes to world affairs and Iran-related developments, in particular.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who has vocally criticized the IAEA deal over the past few days, said on Thursday that the IAEA accord "would lead to recognition of Iran's nuclear enrichment program."

"If this agreement is implemented, it will take them back a year, but there is a fly in the ointment. It means that they (the US, Russia and France) recognize that Iran is enriching uranium and that helps them (Iran) with their argument that they are enriching uranium for peaceful purposes," DPA quoted Barak as saying.

Netanyahu's seemingly supportive remarks suggest that the Tehran government's efforts to address concern on the nuclear issue, and at the same time, preserve national rights are paying off.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Thursday, welcomed foreign cooperation on the Tehran research reactor, but urged Western powers to keep their end of the deal.

"We have nuclear contracts. It has been 30 years. We have paid for them…such agreements must be fulfilled … for technical activities, for reactors and power plants. If we intend to cooperate, such contracts must be addressed and the previous commitments must be fulfilled,” said President Ahmadinejad.

Yemeni refugees killed in UN-run camp

A number of displaced Yemenis in a UN-run camp have died after being caught in a crossfire between clashing sides in the north of the country.

"According to sketchy information from Saada, a rocket or a mortar round landed in the camp, killing and wounding the IDPs, women and children among them," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a Friday statement.

The incident took place in the UNHCR-managed al-Sam camp on the outskirts of the northern provincial capital of Saada, which currently provides shelter for around 500 people.

The agency did not have figures on those killed and injured by the attack, but warned of the deteriorating security situation in the beleaguered area.

"UNHCR is shocked and saddened by the latest reports of the loss of life and indiscriminate targeting of Yemeni civilians forced to flee their homes," it added.

The impoverished Arab nation has seen some 150,000 people displaced or affected by the conflict between the army and Houthi fighters since 2004, when the opposition took arms against the central government to end repression and discrimination against the Shia minority.

An estimated 55,000 Yemenis have fled in the latest spate of fighting which broke out after the Sana'a government's August military offensive launched to quell the Houthis in the north.

The Shia movement has accused the Yemeni army of employing al-Qaeda mercenaries along with foreign fighters to confront the Houthi opposition.

They say the Sunni-dominated government in neighboring Saudi Arabia has been collaborating with Sana'a by sending military aid and jetfighters to bombard Houthi positions.

Afghan war ends with US retreat: Taliban

Fri Oct 30, 2009

A Taliban kingpin insists that the militants would fight the foreign military presence in the war-torn country until the withdrawal of the entire US-led forces.

"This war will come to an end when all invaders leave our country," Mullah Brader Akhund, a militant leader, was quoted by CNN as saying on Friday.

Afghanistan is currently grappling with the highest level of violence, largely seen as an insurgent reaction to the presence of more than 100,000 international forces under the US command.

Continued involvement, Akhund said, "Will only deepen your economic crisis and will harm your international reputation."

The US-led forces invaded the country in 2001 on American orders accusing the Taliban of supporting al-Qaeda — which the US officials blame for September 11, 2001 attacks — and to "bring an end to the suffering of the Afghan people."

The current US administration has as well earmarked USD 1.3 billion to reward militants who renounce violence.

The Taliban leader insisted the insurgents would not be incentivized into tolerating the US-led military involvement, saying that they were "not mercenaries and employed gunmen like the armed men of the invaders and their surrogates."

The America and other foreign troops have so far fallen short of arresting or eliminating any key militants leader while killing many thousands of Afghan civilians during their clashes with the Taliban or miscalculated attacks on alleged militant hideouts.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/110028.html.

UN panel faults Russia's support for human rights

By DOUGLAS BIRCH and ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW – From Russia's North Caucasus to the streets of Moscow, those who find themselves at odds with authorities can wind up as targets of deadly violence. So increasingly, some are working quietly or have abandoned their efforts altogether.

On Friday a new U.N. Human Rights Committee report on Russia called for a series of sweeping legal reforms, saying the country is still struggling to guarantee some of the most basic rights, including to a fair trial, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Meanwhile a spate of killings has forced Memorial, one of Russia's leading human rights organizations, and the crusading newspaper Novaya Gazeta, to pull out of the Russian region of Chechnya. Young people are now thinking twice before volunteering to work with rights groups, said Lev Ponomaryov, director of the group For Human Rights.

"It is marginalizing the human rights movement," Ponomaryov said.

The pullback by activists comes at a time when President Dmitry Medvedev has spoken out forcefully in the defense of the rule of law and democratic freedoms. But his critics say he has done little so far to back up his rhetoric.

Friday's U.N. report found that Russia still fails to protect journalists, activists, prison inmates and others from a wide range of abuses, including torture and murder.

The authors, an 18-member panel of independent experts, urged the Kremlin and parliament to make sweeping changes in the laws, including narrowing the current broad legal definitions of terrorism and extremism, decriminalizing defamation cases against journalists and granting people forced into psychiatric hospitals by the courts the right to appeal.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said Friday he hadn't seen the report and could not comment.

Perhaps the report's harshest criticism was aimed at the Russian justice system in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus region.

The panel cited reports of torture, forced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and extrajudicial killing in those area, allegedly committed by the military and security services, saying the perpetrators "appear to enjoy widespread impunity" from punishment for their actions.

While the report did not cite specific cases or statistics, it alluded to the unsolved killings of a number of journalists and human rights activists, including the October 2006 shooting of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a Kremlin foe who exposed widespread human-rights abuses and corruption in Chechnya.

In July of this year, Natalya Estemirova, who sometimes wrote for Politkovskaya's newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, was kidnapped in front of her apartment building in the Chechen capital, Grozny, by four men. Her body was later found riddled with bullets in a field. There have been no arrests in the case.

Since Estemirova's killing, Novaya Gazeta does not feel it has the right to put anyone at risk by sending them to Chechnya, Sergei Sokolov, a deputy editor, told journalists recently.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the PEN American Center on Thursday sent a letter to Medvedev demanding that those responsible for the death of Estemirova be brought to justice.

The letter said Estemirova had "accumulated a damning body of evidence linking human rights crimes to Chechen authorities, particularly the militia of local President Ramzan Kadyrov." It called her the 18th journalist murdered in Russia "in direct retaliation for her work" since 2000, and said that in each case those who ordered the killings have escaped conviction.

In Russia outside of the North Caucasus, the impact of the journalist and activist slayings have been subtler but still significant. Most veteran human rights activists are still at work, Ponomaryov said. But fear of violence is driving away a lot of the young volunteers who once contributed to the movement.

"We cannot increase the number of volunteers who work with us, because their parents can tell these young people that it is dangerous, don't do it," Ponomaryov said.

The author and journalist Yulia Latynina said the recent killings have been "fairly disastrous" for Russia's community of rights activists and journalists. But she said that it was wrong to suspect Russia's federal government of complicity, instead blaming most violence on criminal gangs and powerful regional political figures who are beyond the state's control.

"The spate of killings has nothing to do with the state itself, but it has to do with people who can get away with murder," she said.

Latynina cited the most recent killing, that of Maksharip Aushev, a journalist and activist with close ties to the current president of the violence-plagued Russian region of Ingushetia. Aushev died Sunday in a fusillade from a passing car while driving along the Caucasus' main highway.

Latynina said he was killed hours after appearing on a Russian television channel accusing a previous Ingush administration of corruption, and she suspects those remarks helped trigger his death.

The U.N. report didn't just focus on attacks on journalists. It held Russia responsible for reported attacks on civilians by armed groups in South Ossetia in the aftermath of the August 2008 war with Georgia, saying Russia should have moved to stop them, and called for Moscow to investigate those abuses.

It also urged the government to take action against what the panel called an increasing number of hate crimes and racially motivated attacks.

The expert panel said it was concerned about violence against lesbian, gay and bisexual persons, including reports of police harassment, adding it was concerned at the "systematic discrimination against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation" in Russia.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in the 1990s, but many Russians are vehemently opposed to expansion of gay rights or gay-rights demonstrations. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is an outspoken foe of gay rights and always has blocked attempts to hold gay pride marches in the capital.

The U.N. panel, which assessed how five countries, including Russia, comply with an international treaty on civil and political rights, receives its information from various U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Captive British woman says pirates 'hospitable'

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A British woman who is being held by Somali pirates with her husband after their yacht was hijacked said in a phone call broadcast Friday that the couple were "bearing up" and she described her captors as "very hospitable."

Rachel Chandler told her brother, Stephen Collett, in a telephone call broadcast by ITV News that she is fine.

"They tell us that we're safe and we shouldn't worry and that if we want anything they will provide it in terms of food and water and everything like that," she said, according to a transcript. "They are very hospitable people so don't worry ... Physically we're fine, physically we're healthy."

Earlier Friday, a Somali pirate claiming to speak on behalf of the group holding the couple said they planned to move the couple to another hijacked ship with other hostages anchored off the eastern coast of Somalia.

Abdinor, who identified himself only by his first name, said Paul and Rachel Chandler are healthy and his group took them to rest on land Thursday night at the coastal town of Harardhere.

He said they have yet to make a ransom demand.

British officials held a meeting on the hostage situation Friday in the government's crisis briefing room, known as COBRA. The Foreign Office said a team from across several government departments was involved.

Both Foreign Office and Ministry of Defense declined to comment on whether any potential rescue was under consideration.

"We're not going to comment on those issues," said a Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

Over the past two years, France and the U.S. have used military force to rescue hostages from Somali pirates but all cases have involved small vessels — either sailboats or a lifeboat.

In an April French rescue, a hostage was killed. In the same month, the U.S. navy killed Somali pirates and rescued an American cargo ship captain from the lifeboat where he was being held.

All navies patrolling the expansive waters off the Somali coast have avoided military action against pirates holding hostages on cargo or other large vessels.

Maritime security expert Nick Davis said he thought there was "absolutely zero interest" on the part of the military to use force to rescue the Chandlers.

"That is not a way forward out of this, just not at all," he said.

To launch a military operation on the pirates would be tactically challenging, Davis said. Getting on board a large container ship, populated by well-armed pirates is a daunting proposition — and it could also transform what pirates see as a business transaction into something more hostile, he said.

The Chandlers' family has said the couple aren't rich and that their yacht, the Lynn Rival, is their main asset. Douglas Guilfoyle, a lecturer at University College London, said that could pose a problem.

"The complication I see here is it sounds like these are not people of wealth, nor are they extensively privately insured," he said.

The Chandlers were heading to Tanzania in the Lynn Rival when a distress signal was sent Oct. 23. The British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday.

Separately, Spain on Friday gave permission for its fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean to carry private security guards with military-grade weapons to fend off pirate attacks off Somalia.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega made the announcement a month after a Spanish tuna trawler was hijacked by pirates, who continue to hold it and its crew of 36.

She said another Spanish vessel in the region escaped an attempted hijacking Friday when the attackers' skiff had engine trouble.

Somalia has not had a functioning government for 18 years. The multimillion-dollar ransoms the pirates regularly collect are a strong lure for young gunmen in a country where nearly half the population is dependent on aid.

The high-seas hijackings have persisted despite an international armada of warships deployed by the United States, the European Union, NATO, Japan, South Korea and China to patrol the region.

Hamas calls for renewing bombing attacks on Israel

October 27, 2009

Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip called on Monday to renew attacks on Israel in response to Israeli police attacks on Muslims prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque in the old city of Jerusalem.

Ahmed Abu Halabeya, a Gaza-based Hamas leader and a lawmaker in the Hamas-dominated parliament (PLC) told a news conference that Palestinian militants are urged "to carry out holy attacks into the Zionist enemy's depth."

Hamas had carried out dozens of suicide bombing attacks into Israel, where hundreds of Israelis were killed since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada against Israel in late Sept. 2000.

"Armed resistance should hurry up to do their best and use all holy means of resistance and Jihad operations in Jerusalem and into the Zionist enemy's depth," said Abu Halabeya.

On Sunday, 30 Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli police outside al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in protest against a Jewish religious group's attempt to enter into the mosque's yard.

"The Palestinian people are asked first to end their current split and then unify their efforts towards resisting the Zionist occupation and force it to withdraw from our occupied territories," said Abu Halabeya.

He also called on President Mahmoud Abbas "to stop the absurd task with the Zionist enemy," adding that the Arab League and the Islamic Conference "are urged to convene and make decisions to protect al-Aqsa Mosque."

"I call on Arabs and Muslims all over the world to sever their diplomatic ties with the Zionist occupation in response to their attacks on the first shrine of Moslems," said Abu Halabeya.

Hamas vows to capture more Israeli soldiers

October 27, 2009

The military wing of Islamic Hamas movement on Tuesday said it will not stop attempts to capture Israeli soldiers and exchange them for Palestinian prisoners.

"We will continue our efforts to capture soldiers until freeing the last Palestinian prisoner in the prisons of the (Israeli) occupation," said Abu Obaida, spokesman for Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades of Hamas.

In statements published by al-Qassam's website, Abu Obaida referred to Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier whom Hamas seized in 2006, saying that Shalit "will not be the last soldier we take into custody."

Shalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid near Gaza, has been held in a secret place since then and Hamas wants to release him only in exchange for at least 1,000 Arab and Palestinian prisoners.

Abu Obaida said that Shalit's case was the last in series of attempts to seize Israeli soldiers.

In September, Israel freed 20 Palestinian women after Hamas released the first evidence on Shalit's condition, a video tape showing the soldier speaking and walking few steps.

Egypt and Germany lead indirect talks between Hams and Israel in a bid to reach a prisoner swap.

Iranian journalist Qouchani released on bail

Iranian Reformist journalist Mohammad Qouchani, who had been detained in the aftermath of the June 12 presidential election, has been released from prison on bail.

Qouchani, one of the editors-in-chiefs of the banned Etemad-e-Melli newspaper, was freed on Thursday after spending more than four months in jail.

The journalist, who had been arrested on June 20, was released after a bail of USD 100,000 was paid, Fars News reported.

Prior to his release, Qouchani had appeared in an open trial held for those involved in the country's post-vote unrest, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported on Friday.

In mid-August, Iran banned the Etemad-e-Melli newspaper, associated with the eponymous political party led by Mehdi Karroubi, after it printed controversial reports by defeated candidate Karroubi.

The paper began circulation three years ago, and acted as the main media outlet for Karroubi, who stood as a candidate in the June 12 presidential vote only to finish last.

Iraqi clerics urge end to election bill impasse

Iraqi clerics have unanimously called on lawmakers to end a protracted deadlock over a disputed electoral law that threatens to delay the key January polls.

A representative for prominent Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali al-Sistani, warned of the security threats that any delay would entail after two massive bombings killed 153 people in central Baghdad last Sunday.

"The current period is very sensitive, and terrorist forces are working to weaken people's confidence in the government and political parties," Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai told worshipers at the weekly Friday prayers in the city of Karbala.

"The time left to organize elections has become shorter -- they must take place on time because holding them on their current date is a democratic and constitutional principle," he urged.

Sunni clerics in the shrine city of Najaf delivered a similar message, also echoed by Shia clerics from the popular Moqtada Sadr party in Baghdad and from the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council in Najaf.

A prolonged stalemate over the bill has raised concerns about the prospects of delaying the poll, originally scheduled for January 16, as electoral authorities may not have enough time to organize them.

The law that will govern the national election was firstly delayed by disagreements on whether to establish an open list system under which individual candidates are identified or a closed list that requires ballot papers to display only the names of parties and not candidates.

Controversy over the fate of religiously-diverse Kirkuk and its surrounding oilfields topped the discussion with Kurdish parliamentarians demanding the northern city be incorporated in their semi-autonomous region in the north.

Arab-Iraqi politicians and the city's Turkman minority, however, vehemently reject the notion, insisting that Kirkuk and its nearby oilfields should remain an integral part of Iraq.

The latest attempt to put the draft electoral law to a vote failed on Thursday as the parliament fell short of a quorum in the absence of protesting Kurdish lawmakers.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=110022§ionid=351020201.

Indonesian airport authorities urged to improve service for hajj pilgrims

October 27, 2009

Indonesian Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi urged authorities of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to improve service for hajj pilgrims, detikcom online news reported here on Tuesday.

"Make everything better in the future. Every hajj terminal and relaxing rooms for hajj pilgrims should be proper," he said on inspection of preparation at the Terminal 3 in handling hajj pilgrims.

According to the minister, the Terminal 3 should be better than neighboring countries.

"It should be better than small country like Singapore. We are not a poor country. We have money but it is not managed properly," he said.

The minister observed the transportation preparation for hajj pilgrims who will depart for Mecca.

The hajj pilgrims started to leave Indonesia last Friday. Of total 207,000 of hajj pilgrims, as many as 114,094 were carried by Garuda Indonesia aircraft, while the rest were carried by Saudi Arabian Airlines ones.

Clinton faces Pakistani anger at Predator attacks

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer

ISLAMABAD – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came face-to-face Friday with Pakistanis' simmering anger over U.S. aerial drones firing missiles in their country. She drew back slightly from her blunt remarks suggesting Pakistani officials know where terrorists are hiding.

In a series of public appearances on the final day of a three-day visit, Clinton was pressed repeatedly by Pakistani civilians and journalists about the secret U.S. program that uses drones to launch missiles to kill terrorists.

But she refused to discuss the drone strikes along the porous border area with Afghanistan that have killed key terror leaders but also scores of civilians.

Clinton left for Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on Friday after a Pakistan tour that was rocked from the start by a devastating terrorist bombing in Peshawar that killed 105 people, many of them women and children. Her tour has proceeded tensely, revealing clear signs of strain between the two nations despite months of public insistence that they were on the same wavelength in the war on terror.

What is less apparent is what U.S. officials hope will come from Clinton's tough new comments about Pakistani officials' failure to eliminate al-Qaida as a threat within their borders.

Pakistan's military recently launched a major offensive in the South Waziristan border area to clear out insurgent hideouts. But two earlier army efforts made little progress there — leaving questions about the military's resolve to tackle al-Qaida head-on.

Clinton carefully scaled back her comments from a day earlier suggesting that some Pakistani officials knew where al-Qaida's upper echelon has been hiding and have done little to target them.

When the U.S. gathers evidence that al-Qaida fugitives are hiding in Pakistan, Clinton said Friday during a Pakistani media interview, "We feel like we have to go to the government of Pakistan and say, somewhere these people have to be hidden out."

"We don't know where, and I have no information that they know where, but this is a big government. You know, it's a government on many levels. Somebody, somewhere in Pakistan must know where these people are. And we'd like to know because we view them as really at the core of the terrorist threat that threatens Pakistan, threatens Afghanistan, threatens us, threatens people all over the world," Clinton said.

And during an interview Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Clinton demurred when asked if she thought Pakistan was harboring terrorists, saying: "I don't think they are. ... But I think it would be a missed opportunity and a lack of recognition of the full extent of the threat, if they did not realize that any safe haven anywhere for terrorists threatens them, threatens us, and has to be addressed."

A day earlier she was more explicit in her skepticism, telling a Pakistani journalist in Lahore: "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to. Maybe that's the case. Maybe they're not gettable. I don't know."

A top Pakistan official insisted Friday his country is fighting back against militants and also urging the world to do more against the rise of terrorism.

"There was a time when the world was telling us to do more," Interior Minister Rehman Malik acknowledged, speaking Friday alongside Clinton at a police training center.

"We have decided to fight back," he said. Malik did not explicitly refer to Clinton's comments, but his words appeared intended to counter what she said.

Late Thursday, Pakistani army officers displayed two passports seized from a suspected terror hideout in South Waziristan and believed linked to terror operatives.

Asked repeatedly Friday about the U.S. use of drones, a subject which involves highly classified CIA operations and is rarely acknowledged in public by American officials, Clinton said only that "there is a war going on." She added that the Obama administration is committed to helping Pakistan defeat the insurgents.

Clinton said she could not comment on "any particular tactic or technology" used in the war against extremist groups in the area.

The use of the drone aircraft, armed with guided missiles, is credited by U.S. officials with eliminating a growing number of senior terrorist group leaders this year who had used the tribal lands of Pakistan as a haven beyond the reach of U.S. ground forces in Afghanistan.

During an interview with Clinton broadcast live in Pakistan with several prominent female TV anchors, before a predominantly female audience of several hundred, one member of the audience said the Predator attacks amount to "executions without trial" for those killed.

Another asked Clinton how she would define terrorism.

"Is it the killing of people in drone attacks?" she asked. That woman then asked if Clinton considers drone attacks and bombings like the one that killed more than 100 civilians in the city of Peshawar earlier this week to both be acts of terrorism.

"No, I do not," Clinton replied.

Another man told her bluntly: "Please forgive me, but I would like to say we've been fighting your war."

After arriving in Abu Dhabi, Clinton was expected to meet Saturday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Taliban denies Peshawar blast role

October 29, 2009

The Taliban and al-Qaeda have distanced themselves from Wednesday's deadly market blast in Peshawar that claimed 105 lives, saying "their main targets are the security forces, and not innocent civilians".

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in a statement sent to the media on Thursday, condemned the car bomb attack that tore through a crowded market and denied any involvement in the explosion.

However, Pakistani government officials have said the attack was in revenge for the army's offensive against Taliban fighters in South Waziristan, and that the military campaign would go on.

The attack on the busy Mina Bazaar, which also injured more than 200 people, was the deadliest to hit Pakistan this year.

Many of those killed were women and children and on Thursday, residents of the troubled city began burying the dead.

'Rogue elements'

Lieutenant-General Asad Durrani, the former head of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), told Al Jazeera the current situation in the country was grim and that it could take years for the situation to be brought under control.

"American help in our efforts of counter- insurgency are very unhelpful because this alliance is a very unpopular one. The public are not in favour of America and Pakistan co-ordinating..."

Durrani said that rising civilian casualties were also eroding the support for the anti-government groups.

"The most dangerous category of groups are the so-called rogue elements, their agenda is neither Afghanistan-oriented nor Pakistan. They carry out certain acts and atrocities which makes the situation even more complex," he said.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner to the UK, told Al Jazeera: "The Taliban are losing the war, losing history. And while doing that they will kill as many as they would like to.

"But I can tell you, as our foreign minister said, we'll not buckle down. We fight them and we'll destroy them."

Clinton visit

The attack came as Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, touched down in Islamabad for talks with government officials.

Speaking in the Pakistani capital, she expressed her support for the military's offensive against the Taliban and pledging continued US assistance.

"These extremists are committed to destroying that which is dear to us, as much as they are committed to destroying that which is dear to you, and to all people," Clinton said.

"So this is our struggle as well, and we commend the Pakistani military for their courageous fight, and we commit to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Pakistani people in your fight for peace and security."

Imran Khan, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, said officials had told him that a car drove into a narrow and packed market place before exploding.

"The bomb disposal squad are at the location and are looking for clues as to what type of explosive was used," he said.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, condemned the "appalling bomb attack".

"I want to express my outrage at the loss of so many innocent lives," he told a news conference in New York.

The blast comes as Pakistan's military is fighting members of the TTP in the country's semi-autonomous tribal region of South Waziristan.

The military launched its offensive nearly two weeks ago, pitting about 30,000 Pakistani troops against an estimated 10 to 12,000 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan.

'Reckless acts'

Tariq Azeem Khan, a Pakistani senator and a former minister of state for information, told Al Jazeera that the attack showed the Taliban were becoming "reckless" in their choice of targets.

"When they cannot get to the main targets because they are well guarded, they are doing these explosions all over the place - in the main shopping centres without any pre-determined targets.

"There's very little the government can do to try to protect every single shopping mall. It's a difficult task, but they are doing their best. Pakistan is paying a very high price at the moment.

Since the South Waziristan assault began, the military says it has killed at least 231 fighters, and lost 29 soldiers.

However, independent figures are impossible to come by as journalists and aid agencies are barred from the conflict zone.

More than 125,000 people have been registered as displaced by Pakistan's offensive since October 13, United Nations officials have said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said that humanitarian access to people in need remains the key challenge for agencies, given the volatile security environment in the displacement areas.

The military has given no figures for civilian casualties, but those fleeing say many people caught in the crossfire have been killed.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59511&s2=30.

Arrogant US Misses the Message From Pakistan's People

William Pfaff

October 29, 2009

There has always been in American foreign policy circles a virus called arrogance, caused by the hereditary assumption that Americans know better than others. Surprisingly, this does not always prove the case, but the condition seems highly resistant to treatment, even by experience.

There seems a high probability that the disease has struck Obama administration policy circles dealing with Pakistan. (We will leave aside the case of American relations with Afghanistan.) This administration came to office with a conviction that the Afghanistan problem is a problem because it actually is a Pakistan problem, Pakistan being a large country possessing nuclear weapons and a great many Pashtuns, who are the people from whom Taliban are recruited.

Afghanistan is a country with one-sixth Pakistan’s population, with a great many Pashtuns, too, harboring only a 100 or so members of al-Qaeda (if we are to believe the American national security adviser, Gen. James Jones), whereas popular opinion in Washington is that Pakistan is rife with them, and the country is on its way to becoming a "breeding ground" for terrorists who wish to invade the West, blow it up with nuclear weapons obtained from Pakistani stocks, and establish a new global terrorist caliphate amidst the ruins.

It is unknown whether Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Pakistan this week, shares so alarmed a view, but she will hear a lot about the damage American pressures are doing to Pakistan and how fearful the Pakistani populace is, not of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, but of the United States.

According to a New York Times article this week, from Jane Perlez in Islamabad, the new fighting there against Islamists "has pleased the Americans, but it left large parts of Pakistan under siege, as militants once sequestered in the country’s tribal areas take their war to Pakistan’s cities. Many Pakistanis blame the United States for the country’s rising instability."

A recent and serious poll found that 11 percent of the Pakistani respondents said that al-Qaeda is the greatest threat to Pakistan today, 18 percent said India, and 59 percent said the United States. This was in August, before the most recent offensives of the Pakistani army against the Islamists in Waziristan and the Swat Valley, and the retaliatory city bombings that subsequently have taken place.

A vocal part of the Pakistani population clearly doesn’t want the United States in their country, and it doesn’t even want the aid the United States is sending. A notorious fact in the past has been that civilian and popular opposition to the U.S. was based on the assumption that American aid was meant to keep military governments in place and buy military cooperation with American policy.

This time, it’s the army that doesn’t want the $7.5 billion aid package that the Obama administration has put together; the aid is denounced as meant to interfere in the country’s internal affairs – as indeed it is.

The civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari, generally thought put in place by Washington, "is seen as slavishly pro-American [as well] as unable to cope" with the current situation (I am again quoting Jane Perlez). The country’s interior minister was hit with stones by students when he visited the International Islamic University last week, and in retaliation the government closed all the schools and universities in Punjab, the most populous province (supposed to reopen Monday, Oct. 26), "a move that affected Pakistani families like never before."

To judge from the public statements of Obama counselors, Pakistan is seen as the great danger in the region, with erratic politics and nuclear weapons – and an active Islamist revolt thereby having the potential to create (according to Obama’s adviser Bruce Riedel) "the most serious threat to the United States since the end of the Cold War."

This would seem why the U.S. wants a government under its thumb to compel the army to fight the Islamists on their home territory even if this alienates the army and sows hatred of America. Is it not possible to allow Pakistan, which has a solid civil service and an excellent army, to act in defense of its own security rather than let the U.S. impose its own ideas?

Is it not imaginable that they know better than the Americans? Would Americans appreciate a Pakistani army installed in Washington, instructing the United States in how to conduct its own foreign policy in ways that suit Pakistan’s national interests?

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59505&s2=30.

US, Colombia ink controversial military base deal

The US and Colombia have signed a controversial military pact that would allow Washington have access to seven bases in the Latin American nation, says Bogota.

The agreement, which has caused outrage among regional countries, was signed on Friday in Bogota by US Ambassador William Brownfield and Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez, Reuters reported.

Washington and Bogota claim that the defense deal is aimed at enhancing a joint war against narcoterrorism, and poses no threat whatsoever to the neighboring nations.

"The pact is based on the principles of total respect for sovereign equality, territorial integrity and not intervening in the internal affairs of other states," said a statement issued by Colombia's foreign ministry.

Latin American nations, especially the left-leaning Venezuela, are against the military presence of Washington in the region. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez earlier warned that the pact would unleash the "winds of war."

Cleric warns of plots against Islamic establishment

A leading Iranian cleric has warned against the enemy's plots to damage the Islamic establishment and called for proper counter measures to be taken.

"We must identify where the enemy seeks to penetrate the Islamic establishment and then counter it," said Tehran's Interim Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Imami-Kashani.

He touched upon Iran's great achievements in different fields saying, "We must realize that aside from enemy media outlets, the rest of the world supports the Islamic and scientific movements in Iran."

"When science is founded upon faith and Islam, no one will be able to stop it," added the cleric.

"History has shown that the Islamic civilization, which incorporates science, faith and effort, was taking over the world, when certain parties stepped in and laid claim to the achievements of Muslims. They proclaimed themselves as the owners of the world and enslaved Muslim countries," he said.

"The Islamic establishment and the Islamic Republic is an establishment built upon the foundation of Islam…and it has made achievements," he added.

Ayatollah Kashani, who serves as a member of the Assembly of Experts, went on ot say that "it is a pity to see that the rapidly-developing Islamic civilization, which the world has its eyes on, questioned."

"Criticism that is intended to help make progress is good, but views that are expressed to belittle [the] others are not acceptable in any way."

Iran launches intl. Saamen TV channel

Coinciding with the birth anniversary of the eighth Shia Imam Reza (PBUH), Iran has launched the Saamen television channel.

The channel, which was launched on Friday, October 30, is an independent channel that aims to promote a better understanding of Islam and the Shia tradition as well as ethical and ideological issues.

According to Iranian media officials, Saamen has been launched with the motto of 'love and knowledge' and will discuss religious topics while adhering to the principles of impartiality.

The Saamen international channel broadcasts on Hotbird 8: frequency 12207 MHz, horizontal polarization.

The channel's website is available at Saamentv.org.

Indonesia to launch satellite for disaster mitigation

October 27, 2009

The Indonesia Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) prepared to launch a satellite in 2011, spokesperson of the LAPAN Elly Kuntjahyowati said here Tuesday.

The satellite is aimed to address communication problem in post-disaster phase and to provide a picture of the affected areas quickly, which can be used in the assessment of the natural disaster.

The plan came out as Indonesia, which sits on a vulnerable quake-hit zone called the Pacific Ring of Fire, has suffered from a series of major quakes recently.

Quakes measuring 7.3 and 7.6 on the Richter's scale killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed many buildings in West Java and West Sumatra recently. The country had experienced difficulties in communication after a 7.6 magnitude quake struck West Sumatra and destroyed telecommunication infrastructure.

The satellite will cover the whole of Indonesia's territory, the spokesperson said. "The satellite can support communication in an emergency situation," she told Xinhua over phone.

Head of Space Technology of LAPAN Heru Robertus said that the satellite did not use a permanent devise on earth. It only used mobile equipment. "So there is no possibility of communication being cut down because of the destruction of the infrastructure on land," he said.

The spokesperson added that the satellite could also take real-time picture of the disaster areas, so people can make a fast assessment on the severity of the natural disaster.

She said that the satellite would be launched with rocket belonging to the Indian Space Research Organization. A launching contract had been signed, said Kuntjahyowati.

India to bar prepaid phones in Jammu and Kashmir

NEW DELHI, Oct 30 — To address serious security concerns, India today decided to ban pre-paid mobile phone connections in Jammu and Kashmir from November 1, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI)’s report.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has decided that no fresh pre-paid mobile connections should be issued and existing pre-paid SIM cards should not be renewed in the state after November 1. The move will affect nearly 3.8 million pre-paid mobile phone subscribers in the state, PTI said.

The Ministry has asked the Department of Telecommunications to take appropriate action in the matter for implementation of the decision.

The step comes in the wake of reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such pre-paid mobile connections by the service providers/vendors, a Home Ministry spokesperson said. In some cases, a single person had been issued with a multiple number of connections.

The fake documents/identity numbers are also reportedly being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of pre-paid connections.

“This situation had given rise to serious security concerns. Hence, the decision,” he said.

During his visit to the state last fortnight Home Minister P Chidambaram had said the government has been making efforts to persuade pre-paid subscribers to switch to post-paid connections due to security issues.

In Jammu and Kashmir, Airtel has nearly 1.9 million subscribers followed by BSNL having 12 lakh and Aircel having 700, 000.

Moderate earthquake jolts India-controlled Kashmir

A moderate earthquake shook India-controlled Kashmir and its adjoining areas Thursday night, forcing people to run out of their houses, said local officials Friday.

According to the Disaster Management officials in Srinagar, the summer capital of India-controlled Kashmir, the earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale occurred at 11:14 p.m. local time.

"The tremors continued for 25 seconds, creating panic," said Mubashir Hussain, a Srinagar resident.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region, at 36.5 degrees north latitude and 71.2 degrees east longitude, said an official at Disaster Management office in Srinagar.

So far, no loss of life or property has been reported from any part of the region, he said.

A strong earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale jolted major India-controlled Kashmir on Oct. 23.

Geologists say India-controlled Kashmir is located in a zone of high seismic activity.

Srinagar falls in Seismic Zone-V and other parts of India-controlled Kashmir in Seismic Zone IV.

A high intensity earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale with its epicenter in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir shook the region on Oct. 8, 2005 causing large-scale destruction, killing 80,000 people.

Barak cancels visit to Spain amid controversy over UNIFIL command

Madrid/Tel Aviv/Rome - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has canceled a visit to Spain in the coming week amid alleged disagreements over the command of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The Israeli embassy in Madrid and Spanish diplomatic sources on Friday confirmed the suspension of the visit, which was scheduled for November 4 and 5.

The visit was canceled after the Israeli newspaper Haaretz claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had secretly asked Italy to retain the command of the 12,000-strong UNIFIL force for longer than planned, instead of Spain taking over.

A Spanish diplomatic source, however, told the German Press Agency.

Venezuelan president celebrates 1st anniversary of satellite launch

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez celebrated on Thursday the first anniversary of Venesat-1 satellite's launch.

During the ceremony, Chavez confirmed the Venesat-1's operability, denying the rumors of its falling into the sea or running off the orbit.

The ceremony was held in the auditorium of CANTV, a state-owned telecom service company, which commenced its services through the Venesat-1 in January.

Chavez said since the Venesat-1's launch 1,500 satellite receivers have been placed mainly at schools, and 16,000 more would be installed all over the country in the coming five years.

The Venesat-1 was made in China with an investment of 420 million U.S. dollars, including training, transfer of technology and construction of electrical substations.

On Jan. 10, 2009, the Venezuelan government received the operative control of the Venesat-1, its first satellite, which was launched on Oct. 30, 2008 in China.

Venezuela is the fourth country in Latin America that owns a satellite, together with Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

Indonesia urges Malaysia to bring violent employers to justice

Indonesian government urged Malaysia to undertake legal proceedings against violent employers who abused and tortured Indonesian maids to death, Indonesian foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said here on Friday.

"In terms of political pressure, Indonesia has reminded several times to the Malaysian government on the need to bring violent employers to justice so as to give deterrent impact for Malaysian employers and ending the violence against Indonesian workers in Malaysia," Teuku said in a press briefing in the ministry's premises.

A 39-year-old Indonesian maid, namely Munti, was abused, tortured and beaten to death by her employer in Selangor state, Malaysia on Oct. 26 after being treated in a local hospital. Earlier reports said that many Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia suffered from inappropriate treatment from their employers, ending up in permanent physical defect or even death.

Teuku said that providing protection for Indonesia's migrant workers was one of the targets set during the first 100 days of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's second term government.

He said that the efforts to provide protection for Indonesian migrant workers would initially be conducted in frame of cooperation among ASEAN countries.

Hebrew, Hindi, other scripts get Web address nod

By KELLY OLSEN, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – The nonprofit body that oversees Internet addresses approved Friday the use of Hebrew, Hindi, Korean and other scripts not based on Latin characters in a decision that could make the Web dramatically more inclusive.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — or ICANN — voted to allow such scripts in so-called domain names at the conclusion of a weeklong meeting in Seoul, South Korea's capital.

The decision by the board's 15 voting members was unopposed and welcomed by applause and a standing ovation. It followed years of debate and testing.

The result clears the way for governments or their designees to submit requests for specific names, likely beginning Nov. 16. Internet users could start seeing them in use early next year, particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand has been among the highest, ICANN officials say.

"This represents one small step for ICANN, but one big step for half of mankind who use non-Latin scripts, such as those in Korea, China and the Arabic speaking world as well as across Asia, Africa, and the rest of the world," Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's CEO, said ahead of the vote.

Domain names — the Internet addresses that end in ".com" and other suffixes — are the key monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post.

Since their creation in the 1980s, domain names have been limited to the 26 characters in the Latin alphabet used in English — A-Z — as well as 10 numerals and the hyphen. Technical tricks have been used to allow portions of the Internet address to use other scripts, but until now, the suffix had to use those 37 characters.

That has meant Internet users with little or no knowledge of English might still have to type in Latin characters to access Web pages in Chinese or Arabic. Although search engines can sometimes help users reach those sites, companies still need to include Latin characters on billboards and other advertisements.

Now, ICANN is allowing those same technical tricks to apply to the suffix as well, allowing the Internet to be truly multilingual.

Many of the estimated 1.5 billion people online use languages such as Chinese, Thai, Arabic and Japanese, which have writing systems entirely different from English, French, German, Indonesian, Swahili and others that use Latin characters.

"This is absolutely delightful news," said Edward Yu, CEO of Analysys International, an Internet research and consulting firm in Beijing.

The Internet would become more accessible to users with lower incomes and education, said Yu, who was speaking before the widely expected decision.

Countries can only request one suffix for each of their official languages, and the suffix must somehow reflect the name of the country or its abbreviation.

Non-Latin versions of ".com" and ".org" won't be permitted for at least a few more years as ICANN considers broader policy questions such as whether the incumbent operator of ".com" should automatically get a Chinese version, or whether that more properly goes to China, as its government insists.

ICANN also is initially prohibiting Latin suffixes that go beyond the 37 already-permitted characters. That means suffixes won't be able to include tildes, accent marks and other special characters.

And software developers still have to make sure their applications work with the non-Latin scripts. Major Web browsers already support them, but not all e-mail programs do.

In China, Guo Liang, a researcher who studies Internet use for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the government's top think tank, questioned whether all Chinese will embrace the new domains.

Although the move will reflect linguistic and cultural diversity, Guo said, "for some users it might even be easier to type domains in Latin alphabets than Chinese characters."

China has already set up its own ".com" in Chinese within its borders, using techniques that aren't compatible with Internet systems around the world.

Most Chinese and Japanese computer users write characters in their native scripts by typing phonetic versions on a standard English keyboard.

China is among a handful of countries that has pushed hardest for official non-Latin suffixes and could be one of the first to make one available, said Tina Dam, the ICANN senior director for internationalized domain names. The other countries, she said, are Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

About 50 such names are likely to be approved in the first few years.

The Internet's roots are traced to experiments at U.S. universities in 1969 but it wasn't until the early 1990s that its use began expanding beyond academia and research institutions to the public.

The U.S. government, which funded much of the Internet's early development, selected ICANN in 1998 to oversee policies on domain names. ICANN, which has headquarters in the United States in Marina del Rey, California, was set up as a nonprofit with board members from around the world.

Beckstrom said Friday's approval is not simply aimed at enhancing convenience for Internet users using different scripts.

"It's also an issue of pride of people and their own culture and their own language, and a recognition that the Internet belongs to everyone," he told The Associated Press in an interview. "It's a shared resource. So I think it's a really exciting step for all of us."

In Russia, an intensifying insurgency

Under crackdown, Chechen separatism turns into a regional Islamist revolt

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service

SUNZHENSKY, RUSSIA -- Her face wet with tears and framed by a black shawl, Madina Albakova sat in her ransacked living room and described how she had become another teenage widow here in Ingushetia, the most volatile of Russia's Muslim republics.

The details emerged between sobs: the arrival of the security forces earlier in the day, her husband's panicked attempt to flee, the gunfire that erupted without warning. He was a law student, barely 20 and "so beautiful," she said, but the soldiers planted a rifle next to his body and called him an Islamist rebel. Then they took everything of value -- the family's savings, a set of dishes, even baby clothes, she said.

Such heavy-handed tactics by the Russian security forces have helped transform the long-running separatist rebellion in Chechnya, east of Ingushetia, into something potentially worse: a radical Muslim insurgency that has spread across the region, draws support from various ethnic groups and appears to be gaining strength.

Moscow declared an end to military operations in Chechnya in April, a decade after then-President Vladimir Putin sent troops into the breakaway republic. But violence has surged in the mountains of Russia's southwest frontier since then, with the assassination of several officials, explosions and shootouts occurring almost daily, and suicide bombings making a comeback after a long lull. On Sunday, a popular Ingush opposition leader was fatally shot, months after the slaying of Chechnya's most prominent human rights activist.

The insurgency is a key reason Russia has been reluctant to support sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program; diplomats say the Kremlin is worried Tehran might retaliate by setting aside sectarian differences and backing the rebels in Muslim solidarity. Washington, meanwhile, is concerned that the area is becoming a recruiting ground for militias in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

At least 519 people were killed in rebel attacks and clashes with government forces from May to September, up from 299 during the same period last year, according to a study by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. The fighting is concentrated in the largely Muslim eastern part of the North Caucasus, an area the size of Oregon with 14 million people from as many as 50 ethnic groups.

After a brief calm following two wars, militant attacks have spiked in Chechnya, as well as in nearby Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. But the violence has been worst in Ingushetia, the smallest and poorest of Russia's provinces, where rebels and security forces compete in brutality and even rights activists carry guns.

A few hours after the soldiers killed Albakova's husband, Movsar Merzhoyev, in this rural district on Oct. 9, a car bomb exploded several miles away in what appeared to be a failed suicide attack. Over the next week, gun battles here left 11 suspected militants and three police officers dead.

Ingushetia has been on edge since June, when a suicide bomber hit the convoy of the republic's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, putting him in a coma and killing three bodyguards. Two months later, as Yevkurov was returning to work, another suicide attack leveled the police department of Ingushetia's largest city, Nazran, killing at least 24 people and injuring 200 others.

Russia has long blamed violence in the region on Muslim extremists backed by foreign governments and terrorist networks, but radical Islam is relatively new here. In the 1990s, it was ethnic nationalism, not religious fervor, that motivated Chechen separatists. That changed, though, as fighting spilled beyond Chechnya and Russian forces used harsher tactics targeting devout Muslims.

In 2007, the rebel leader Doku Umarov abandoned the goal of Chechen independence and declared jihad instead, vowing to establish a fundamentalist Caucasus Emirate that would span the entire region. After Moscow proclaimed victory in Chechnya in April, he issued a video labeling civilians legitimate targets and reviving Riyad-us Saliheen, the self-described martyrs' brigade that launched terrorist attacks across Russia from 2002 to 2006.

A major figure in the recent violence is Alexander Tikhomirov, a young preacher known here as Sayid Buryatsky who joined the rebels last year after converting to Islam in his native Siberia and studying in Egypt.

Tikhomirov, thought to be in his late 20s, has become the new face of the insurgency and appeared in videos claiming a role in the Yevkurov assassination attempt and the police station bombing. The latter showed him sitting with a barrel of explosives in the truck purportedly used in the attack.

Tikhomirov's fluent Russian and religious training set him apart from other rebel leaders, and he appears to be playing a key role in uniting loosely linked ethnic and local factions under the banner of the Caucasus Emirate, said Grigory Shvedov, editor of the Caucasian Knot, a Web site that reports on the region.

"He's exactly what they needed," Shvedov said, arguing that Tikhomirov's status as an outsider and his unusual heritage -- half-Russian and half-Buryat, a Buddhist minority -- have made him a powerful symbol for the movement.

In a sign of Tikhomirov's rising profile, Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin's strongman in Chechnya and the most powerful politician in the region, has disparaged his Muslim credentials and accused him of using drugs to brainwash recruits. Kadyrov's forces appear to be gunning for him, too. In August, soldiers at a checkpoint shot and killed a Russian police officer they mistook for him.

Tikhomirov's sermons on the Internet have resonated in Ingushetia, where unemployment is as high as 75 percent, corruption is rampant and the young see few chances to improve their lives. He has also tapped into anger against the security forces, who are widely thought to engage in abductions, torture and killings.

Even leaders of the moderate opposition have expressed admiration for Tikhomirov, who mixes passages of the Koran with jabs at Putin and Kadyrov.

"He has charmed so many young hearts. The youths of Ingushetia just love him. . . . At least somebody is pushing back against Kadyrov and his men," said Maksharip Aushev, a prominent Ingush businessman and opposition figure, who argued this month that Tikhomirov was no worse than security officers engaged in "state terrorism."

Though he opposed the Caucasus Emirate, Aushev said that most Ingush believe they would be better off living under Islamic law than with the government's excesses, and that many of the rebels had been "forced into terrorism" by the abuses of the Federal Security Service, the domestic successor to the KGB.

Such criticism of the authorities, he added, made him a target. On Sunday, two weeks after welcoming journalists to a son's wedding and foiling an attempt to abduct some of them from a local hotel, Aushev was gunned down in his car on a major highway.

When Ingush join the rebels, locals say they have "gone to live in the woods." Timur Akiyev of the human rights group Memorial said the recruits are often young men seeking revenge for relatives who have been killed by the authorities. Police make matters worse, he added, by targeting Muslims who reject local traditions in favor of what they consider purer forms of Islam.

Akiyev cited the case of two brothers, Khusein and Khasan Mutaliyev. Because Khusein had studied in Egypt, police detained him for questioning and beat him. After he filed a complaint with Memorial's help, they returned and fatally shot him when he tried to flee.

His brother filed a complaint, but it was ignored. When Memorial next heard from him, Khasan had joined the insurgents. He died in February with rebels who detonated a bomb during a police raid, killing four officers.

Magomed Khazbiev, an opposition leader who was blocked from running in local elections this month, said the rebels promise something that the government has been unwilling or unable to deliver: justice.

Several months ago, a few rebels showed up at his home wearing long beards and carrying assault rifles, he said. They urged him to stop organizing protests for democratic reform, saying his efforts were futile and drawing recruits away from them. "They said, 'We don't want a constitution written by people who refuse to follow it,' " he recalled.

In two years at most, the rebels vowed, "we would be living under the law of Allah," he said. "They really believed it."

Ingushetia: A second Chechnya?

On October 25, Maksharip Aushev, an Ingush businessman and civil opposition leader, was murdered by unknown gunmen who sprayed his car with more than 60 bullets.

Shortly before his death, filmmakers Dom Rotheroe and Antony Butts spoke with him for their film on the conflict in the Russian republic of Ingushetia.

Recently, the Russian republic of Ingushetia has become the most dangerous place in the Russian federation. Endemic corruption combined with a battle between Islamic extremists and unaccountable Moscow-backed security forces has plunged the area into violence.

The conflict has left many Ingushetians in despair; their human rights suppressed and their faith in the authorities in tatters. It is a cycle of bloody atrocity and counter-atrocity that seems to have no end.

While the Ingush stayed out of the Chechens' recent wars for independence from Russia, this did not prevent the violence from finally spilling over.

In June 2004, rebels attacked Ingushetia's main city of Nazran and killed scores of security officials.

With Russia by then pretty much in control of Chechnya, Chechen rebels wanted to spread the war into neighboring Muslim republics. And in Ingushetia discontent had been growing ever since Vladimir Putin, the then Russian president, installed the unpopular Murat Zyazikov as president there in 2002.

'Disappeared'

Trapped in the middle of the decade-long dirty war are 500,000 Ingush.

Maksharip Aushev, a businessman and civil opposition leader, told us that he carries a gun "because it's dangerous out there".

"At any moment they can turn up in camouflage and kidnap you - and then you'll just be disappeared.

"Although the gun will not protect you at least you'll manage to do something so they don't torture you, don't take you away - so you don't just go missing like most people usually do here," he said.

Things changed for businessman Maksharip three years ago when his nephew, who had refused to become an informant, and son were snatched off a train by security forces. They were taken to Chechnya and tortured.

"As soon as my son and nephew were abducted, I stepped out," he explained, saying that he never wanted to be involved in politics but felt forced into it.

Maksharip blamed the Russian security forces (FSB) and rallied public protests, which led to the release of his son and nephew.

In the process he also kicked off widespread civil opposition to the regime and became one of the most outspoken leaders of the opposition to Zyazikov, a former KGB officer and an ally of Putin.

According to Magomed Mutsolgov, the co-founder of the local human rights group Mashr, it was after Zyazikov became president that anyone even vaguely suspected of opposing the regime began getting visits from the security forces.

Mutsolgov co-founded Mashr when his younger brother disappeared four years ago.

"Altogether we have had over 500 cases of kidnapping. Some of those people were found dead," he says.

'Nothing left to lose'

The violence has been increasing exponentially. Mashr estimates that 212 people were killed in 2008. By August 2009 that number had already been reached.

Yet violence by the security forces is only one side of Ingushetia's mayhem. In the last seven years, Islamic militants have killed over 200 policemen, soldiers and government officials.

The most devastating attack happened in August 2009 when a suicide bomber drove a truck into Nazran's main police station, killing 24 people and injuring more than 160.

In recent years religious extremists among the rebels have turned the war for Chechen independence into a jihad for a Sharia-based emirate covering all of Russia's Caucasian Muslim republics.

They have also started targeting civilians whom they deem un-Islamic.

Recently, two sisters, aged 52 and 60, were shot to death in a roadside kiosk, supposedly for selling alcohol.

"They are psychotic. Putting seven, eight bullets into women. What Sharia law are they talking about?" the victim's sister asks.

"We have nothing more to be afraid of. We have gone through all this and are ready for anything. We have lost our parents, husbands. What else can we be afraid of? We have nothing left to lose."

Yet even this family lay the final blame less on the militants than on the authorities and the lawlessness and corruption they believe Zyazikov fostered.

Poverty

Ingushetia is not only Russia's most violent republic. It is also its poorest.

"Zyazikov declared that over 70 factories had been built in the republic, that the unemployment problem had been solved, etc etc. We risked our lives trying to prove to the Russian government that there were no factories, that the huge amounts of money allocated to us were simply being fiddled away by Zyazikov and his people," Maksharip said.

By October 2008, opposition to Zyazikov had grown to such a pitch and the violence and corruption had become so brazen that Moscow finally replaced him with the popular ex-general, Yunus-bek Yevkurov.

The new leader set out to tackle the corruption and violence and brought advisers from the civil opposition into his administration.

He also sacked some corrupt officials, tried to initiate talks with the rebels and gained the public's trust.

But then, on June 22, 2009, his presidential convoy was rammed by a suicide bomber.

Yevkurov ended up in a critical condition in hospital.

Extra-judicial executions

In his absence, and with the Kremlin demanding even better results against the rebels, allegations of extra-judicial executions by the security forces began flooding in.

Many believe it is Russia's FSB, the former KGB, that is orchestrating the cycle of violence in Ingushetia.

Their agents have even been caught firing on Ingush policemen, raising suspicions that Moscow is deliberately keeping the fractious north Caucasus destabilized in order to justify its controlling military presence.

Others believe the motive is also the money that those in power can make from conflict.

"As the Russian saying goes, 'It is good fishing in troubled waters.' These kind of civil wars are started to make it easier to steal money," Maksharip said.

Suspicion

Suspicion of the FSB here is reminiscent of Soviet times. Several human rights campaigners have been killed in the north Caucasus in the last few years.

Aslambek Paev, a human rights campaigner, told us: "Everything is monitored. You have to be very careful and observant when you work. Probably I'm the next one.

"What difference does it make for us? We know we're dead anyway, that sooner or later they'll kill us."

Yevkurov recovered from the attack on him and returned to office.

He has since sacked his entire cabinet for making problems worse in his absence.

But it is yet to be seen how far his promised reforms will go - or indeed how effective they can be in a land which both the militants and elements of Russia's power structures seem determined to keep on the boil.

Losing control

One month before his death, the security forces had stopped Maksharip's car and attempted to take him into custody after he left a government meeting.

He escaped only because a crowd of motorists, including an aide to the governor, surrounded him.

"If I had been a half-metre closer, they would have tied me up and I would have disappeared without a trace," he told Caucasian Knot, a website that covers the region.

Yevkurov has reached out to human rights activists and the opposition, offering them a degree of protection, but Aushev's killing suggests that he, and by extension the Kremlin, may be losing control over the overlapping law enforcement agencies fighting a growing Islamist insurgency in the region.

Though deep in mourning, Maksharip Aushev's family agreed to our film being broadcast. His assassination highlights the continuing perils faced by anyone who seeks to defend basic freedoms in Ingushetia, raising fears of further violence in the region.

Palestinian student handcuffed, blindfolded and expelled to Gaza Strip

Involuntary return is the sixth in 10 days, says human rights group

By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem

A Palestinian student has been handcuffed, blindfolded and forcibly expelled to the Gaza Strip by Israeli troops just two months before she was due to graduate from university.

Berlanty Azzam, 21, who was studying for a business degree at Bethlehem University, said she was coming home in a shared taxi from a job interview in Ramallah on Wednesday when soldiers at the "Container" checkpoint took her identity card and that of another passenger with a Gaza address.

After six hours of waiting, soldiers told her she would be taken to a detention centre in the southern West Bank, and she was handcuffed and blindfolded, she said.

"The driving took longer than it should have and I started to think something was wrong. I started to wonder, what are they doing to me?" After the car stopped and the blindfold was lifted, Ms Azzam saw she was at the Erez crossing to Gaza.

It was the sixth known forced return to Gaza of Palestinians stopped at the "Container" checkpoint – which is between Bethlehem and Abu Dis – in 10 days, according to the Israeli human rights group Gisha. Israel has also been preventing family reunifications in the West Bank for Palestinians with relatives living in Gaza, in effect forcing people to relocate to the Strip.

The steps are part of an Israeli policy of treating Gaza and the West Bank as two separate entities, thereby undermining the coherence of Palestinian claims for a state encompassing both territories. The 1993 Oslo agreement stipulates that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are to be treated as one territorial unit.

Major Guy Inbar, an Israeli defense ministry official, said the reason for Ms Azzam's deportation was that she was "staying illegally" in the West Bank.

"We are talking about a Gaza citizen who requested permission to study in the area of Judea and Samaria and received a negative answer," he said.

"In 2005, she was given a permit to visit Jerusalem for four days and she remained afterwards [in the West Bank] without any permit. Her entire period as a student was based on deceit and was against the law."

Sari Bashi, head of the Israeli Gisha human rights group, who tried to intervene on Ms Azzam's behalf, said she was assured by military

lawyers on Wednesday that the student would not be deported to Gaza and that the rights group could seek a judicial review in the morning.

"The military misled us," Ms Bashi said. "There is a violation here of the right to access education, the right to freedom of movement and the right to choose one's place of residence within one's own territory."

The army did not respond to a request for comment.

Brother Jack Curran, vice president for development of Bethlehem University, termed the expulsion "a disgrace". "This is not about politics. It's about a young person finishing her degree. Since 2005 she has been studying as a good student. No one is a winner from this."

Dutch court nixes teenager's round-the-world sail

By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Writer

UTRECHT, Netherlands – A Dutch court ruled Friday that 14-year-old Laura Dekker was still too inexperienced to be allowed to set off on her quest to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

Judges at Utrecht District Court placed Laura under the guardianship of child protection authorities until next July to ensure that she cannot set off on her dream voyage. The ruling means Laura can continue living with her father but her parents must consult child protection authorities about all major decisions in her life.

Laura and her parents were not in court Friday, but family spokeswoman Mariska Woertman said the teenager was "disappointed that the court does not have faith in her to leave now."

However, Woertman said Laura was confident she can be ready to sail soon after next July and still set the record as the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe.

The Utrecht court first blocked her departure in August out of concern for her safety. The decision sparked a worldwide debate on how much authorities and parents should limit children's freedom to undertake risky adventures.

Laura's parents, both veteran sailors, are separated. Laura's father supported the attempt but her mother said in a newspaper interview in September she thought Laura was too young.

Presiding judge M. Oostendorp said Laura's mother has given her blessing "so long as she has assurances about the safety measures. At the moment, as far as she is concerned, they are insufficient."

Child protection authorities welcomed the decision.

Judges said they were confident that Laura was emotionally ready for the trip, but questioned the safety precautions and her ability to continue her schooling while at sea. They said, however, her sailing skills were not in question.

A psychological analysis submitted to the court said Laura's planned trip would not impair her social or emotional development.

"The good news today is that we have established Laura is capable of making this voyage," said her lawyer, Peter de Lange.

Laura told the three-judge panel at a closed hearing Monday that she was equipping her 26-foot (8-meter) yacht Guppy with extra security and communications equipment and learning to use it.

"(The plans are still) too unclear, not concrete enough and too uncertain" to guarantee her safety, said Oostendorp.

Laura also told the court that she planned to wait at least until next May, after school ends, to embark on the voyage and will be guided by an experienced sailor in a separate boat. She also promised to take a sailor's first-aid course and practice sleep management techniques.

De Lange criticized the judges for questioning Laura's single-handed sailing experience — which is limited to trips on Dutch rivers, close to the coast and a single solo voyage to England and back.

"They say she has not got much experience of solo round-the-world sailing. That is a bit weak," he told reporters. "How do you get experience? By doing it."

In August, 17-year-old British sailor Mike Perham became the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Earlier this month, 16-year-old Australian Jessica Watson also set off on a single-handed, round-the-world trip.

De Lange said Laura can still break the record if she sets off next year.

"But the record is not her primary goal," he added. "Laura just wants to sail."

Chirac faces prosecution over fake employment

Former French president Jacques Chirac has to face prosecution over 'fake' employment contacts drawn up under his mayoral authority, a judicial official has ordered.

Judge Xaviere Simeoni has ordered that the former French leader be tried along with nine other accomplices for their alleged roles in the issuance of 35 'false' employment contracts. The contracts were for the former president's allies in Rally for the Republic Party, RPR, during Chirac's time as the Paris mayor from 1977 to 1995.

The judge outlined in his edict that Chirac helped create the so-called ghost jobs at Paris City Hall and paid his party associates an estimated sum of 4.5 million Euros (6.68 million dollars) in order to disburse RPR expenses.

The 76-year-old Chirac has rejected the charges outright and said in a statement that he remained "calm and determined" to disprove the arbiter's decree.

Chirac's corruption charges come despite a recommendation by the Paris public prosecutor, who had advised Simeoni to drop the case against the former president.

Ban urges more security for UN in Afghanistan

The UN Chief, Ban Ki Moon, is due to hold a meeting of the organization's top officials to discuss more protection for UN facilities and staff in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I will ask for expedited action for our security measures, so that we can meet the dramatically escalated threat to UN staff, now widely considered to be a 'soft target', as well as provide support for victims and their families," Ban told reporters in New York ahead of the Friday meeting.

The secretary general also appealed to the 15-member Security Council for their support during an emergency meeting on Thursday.

On Wednesday, three armed men raided a guesthouse in the Afghan capital and killed at least 12 people.

Six UN staffers, including an American, were among the dead. Seventeen others were also wounded in the incident.

The raid was the deadliest on a UN facility in Afghanistan since the US invasion of the country eight years ago.

The Taliban militants took credit for the attack in Kabul, claiming that the attack was the first step of a plan aimed at disrupting the run off presidential election slated for November 7.

In addition, a bomb blast inside the fortified offices of the United Nations World Food Program in Islamabad had killed five UN workers in early October.

Ban said that insurgency-hit Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan had become the most dangerous places on the planet for UN staff members.

The UN has said that the incidents will not deter the organization from its mission in the troubled region, where insurgency has skyrocketed over the past few months.

The militants have accused the organization of overseeing US interests in the volatile region.

Syria Concludes Missile Deal With Russia

LONDON [MENL] -- Syria was reported to have agreed to purchase an advanced missile from Russia.

Diplomatic sources said the regime of President Bashar Assad has approved a Russian offer of the Yakhont missile. They said the Yakhont would be deployed on Syria's small navy as part of expanded cooperation with the Kremlin.

New record

It's official. École Campbelltown school held the world's largest game of tag according to the Guinness World Records.

In all, 465 participants in the event set the world record on April 29.

The school received its official certificate from Guinness this week for the four-minute game of freeze tag.

Lauderhill man sells 'world's largest' rubber-band ball to Ripley's

Record-breaking ball loaded onto semitrailer truck for trip to Orlando

LAUDERHILL - The "World's Largest Rubber-Band Ball" rolled away from its Lauderhill birthplace Thursday.

Standing with dozens of spectators, the ball's creator, 28-year-old Joel Waul, looked on as the 9,034-pound behemoth was lifted by a crane and taken by truck to one day be showcased in a museum.

"It feels great to be the only one in the world to do it to this magnitude," Waul said. He spent the past five years wrapping rubber bands into the colorful mass that Guinness World Records last year declared the world's largest. "Not many people get to do this stuff."

Neighbors cheered and snapped pictures as a towing company arrived at Waul's Lauderhill home, lifted the 6-foot-7 ball and placed it on the bed of a semitrailer truck.

"I'm used to seeing it every day," said Darlene Bush, 50, a neighbor who watched with her family as the crane hoisted the ball. "I'm going to be mad tomorrow to walk outside and not see it there."

Waul sold the ball for an undisclosed amount last month to Ripley's Believe It or Not, an Orlando-based company that displays strange oddities in 30 museums in 10 countries.

Waul said he built the ball to break the Guinness record. He said he decided to sell it, partly because the ball was too large to store in his apartment and it was risky to keep outdoors. He often replaced or covered rubber bands that had melted because the ball was sitting in his front yard, under a tarp.

"It'll get out of the sun," Waul said. "It will be in a better place."

Edward Meyer, Ripley's vice president of exhibits and archives, said the "quirky" rubber mass would be a great addition to the company's worldwide collection. The ball will be stored at a Ripley's warehouse in Orlando. As early as next year, it will be sent to a museum, possibly in California or Korea.

But moving it inside a building and setting it up for display can be challenging.

"The current museums cannot hold it," Waul said. "It's too big to go through doors."

Waul said he got the idea for building the ball on April 10, 2004, the day he saw a Ripley's television show that showed another large rubber-band ball being dropped into the desert from a helicopter.

"It was the best thing on TV," he said. "It was something out a cartoon, like Wile E. Coyote."

The five years that Waul spent making the rubber ball included injuries. At 400 pounds, it rolled over his hand and sprained it. Rubber bands that snapped off broke three of his sunglasses and "almost put out my eye," he said.

It's unclear whether the ball would bounce if dropped from great heights. Meyer said pushing the other ball from the helicopter had a lackluster result.

"It didn't bounce. That's what was supposed to happen, but it cratered," Meyer said. "That's part of my inspiration -- that we needed one to replace the one we lost."

Waul is a graduate of Plantation High who works nights at a Gap clothing store. With the ball gone from his home, Waul said he'll focus on achieving another world record: setting himself on fire.

"I'm working on being the Human Torch," he said. "I'm going to stunt school for that."

Yacht couple 'well and being fed'

A British man kidnapped with his wife by armed pirates while they slept aboard their yacht in the Indian Ocean has said they are being treated well.

Paul Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, speaking by phone to the BBC's Somali Service, said: "We are well and being looked after okay."

He added they were being fed, and "food is okay at the moment".

Mr Chandler, 59, and his wife, Rachel, 55, were taken hostage by gunmen in the early hours of Friday.

'No ransom demand'

The armed pirates forced the pair to sail towards Somalia after their boat was captured.

Searches for the Chandlers began on Friday after they sent a distress signal.

Their yacht was found during counter-piracy operations after a multi-national search.

Speaking to ITV news earlier, Mr Chandler said: "I was off watch. I was asleep and men with guns came aboard. It was on Friday last week at 0230."

He said the couple were being held hostage on a Singapore-registered container ship called the Kota Wajah.

He was speaking from the captain's cabin at 1100 GMT (1400 local time).

He said their captors had not officially asked for a ransom and that they were currently being held hostage on board a container ship.

"They kept asking for money and took everything of value on the boat," he added.

He said the vessel was then about a mile off the coast of Somalia, and the nearest town was Ubdu. Correspondents say he may have been referring to Hobyo.

Local fishermen reported seeing the Chandlers being taken to a village in Somalia after the telephone call.

One of the fishermen, Dahir Dabadhahan, said two boats arrived in the village of Ceel Huur, near the pirate stronghold Harardheere, and were met by a convoy of about 30 other pirates in six luxury vehicles.

He said: "The pirates opened fire into the air, waving us to move away."

But when asked by the BBC later if they were in Somalia, Mr Chandler replied: "I can't answer that."

He was also asked if negotiations had begun for their release, but said he was not aware they had.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "Hostage taking is never justified.

"Paul and Rachel are blameless tourists and they should be released immediately and unconditionally.

"The families are deeply concerned for the safety of their loved ones.

"Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff are in close contact with them and are offering support."

Whitehall officials said Cobra, the Cabinet Office crisis management team, had met several times over the kidnapping of the Chandlers.

The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said yacht kidnappings had not always ended well because they were not straightforward commercial transactions.

He said: "There is no big international shipping company that is going to say, 'We are going to get these people out because they are our employees and we will dip into the insurance for this'."

He said the Foreign Office had taken a lead on negotiations and Scotland Yard also had hostage negotiators working on the case, but the pirates also needed to appoint a negotiator.

"The British government does not want to be seen as the people who decide how much is going to be paid because the British government does not pay ransoms," he added.

Earlier, the Ministry of Defense said the couple's empty yacht had been found.

A spokesman said Royal Navy vessels operating with international partners under EU, Nato and combined maritime forces would continue to play a full role in efforts to secure their release.

Relatives of the Chandlers met the Somali premier Omar Sharmarke in London on Wednesday.

He told them he would do anything to "see a peaceful solution".

The Somali Government - which only has nominal authority in large parts of the country - said it was doing everything possible to locate the couple.

Mr and Mrs Chandler had been sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania.

Indonesia willing to boost assistance in Afghanistan

JAKARTA, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia wanted to step up its roles in assisting the government of Afghanistan, which had been hit by a civil war, in addressing its problems, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said here Wednesday.

The minister said that Indonesia needed to find out what kind of assistance to be given in the country post war, and to harmonize the aids with the international assistance.

Marty made the statement after accompanying Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono meeting with Indonesian ambassador to Afghanistan Erman Hidayat at the State Palace, hearing report of the latest situation in Afghanistan.

"During the meeting it is stressed Indonesia attention on the country (Afghanistan) and it is as part of Indonesia's effort in promoting peace," he told a press conference.

"The international attention on the country is not small, we want to see first what is needed by the government of Afghanistan," said Marty.

The Indonesia government has experienced in addressing conflicts such as with the rebel in Aceh province and Timor-Leste through a reconciliation.

Besides, the minister said that Indonesia had also capability in increasing human resources capacity.

"We want to harmonize our assistance with the international aids, and we also want to adjust it with our capability," said Marty.

Shot after photographing the Gaza sea

Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip

October 28, 2009

On 4 October, Ashraf Abu Suleiman, a 16-year-old from Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp, went to the northwest coast town of Sudaniya to visit an ill school friend. The teen then went to the sea, where he rolled up the legs of his pants, waded into the water and enjoyed the late summer morning. He took some photos of the sea and of the area around him, intending to play with the photos later on Photoshop, a hobby he and his father share.

Minutes later, Ashraf was running in blind terror as Israeli soldiers in a gunboat off the coast began shooting at Palestinian fishermen. He was hit by an Israeli soldier's bullet which bore through his neck and grazed his vertebrae, fracturing C-4 and C-5, leaving him bleeding on the ground and unable to stand up.

"They were shooting at Palestinian fishermen in hassakas [small fishing vessels]," he said of the Israeli soldiers in the gunboat. "Some of the bullets were hitting near where I stood. I started to run north. I didn't think about where to run, I just ran."

He estimates he ran for a few minutes, soon approaching the northern border before an Israeli soldier's voice shouted over a megaphone for him to stop. Seeing an Israeli military vehicle in the distance ahead, Ashraf was afraid that the soldiers north of him would start shooting. He kept running, hoping to take cover behind a low hill nearby.

Then he was grounded, one of the bullets hitting him in the neck.

The Ma'an news agency reported, "an Israeli military spokeswoman says soldiers identified a 'suspicious Palestinian man' approaching the border fence, and fired warning shots in the air. After the Palestinian ignored warning shots, the spokeswoman said, the army fired at and lightly injured him."

At least eight Palestinians have been killed and at least 33 injured in the Israeli-imposed "buffer zone" along Gaza's border since the 18 January ceasefire. Three of the killed and 12 of the injured were minors, including many children.

The "buffer zone" was imposed by Israeli authorities about a decade ago, initially at 150 meters and now while Israeli authorities say the no-go zone runs 300 metres from the boundary between Gaza and Israel, it ranges up to two kilometers in some areas. The buffer zone renders off-limits approximately 30 percent of Gaza's most fertile agricultural land, as well as the land adjacent to it. Israeli authorities warn that anyone entering that area is subject to being shot by the Israeli army.

"I don't know how close I was, maybe less than 400 meters from the fence," Ashraf said.

Three Israeli soldiers approached him on foot, Ashraf explained. "An Israeli soldier kicked me in the mouth and told me to stand up. I couldn't, my legs wouldn't move."

According to Ashraf, an Israeli soldier dragged him by his arms over the rough ground. After another kick to the face, he was put on a stretcher and carried across the northern border to a waiting Israeli jeep.

After they checked his identity via computer, Ashraf said that the Israeli soldiers told him: "You're 16 years and one month old. You're a student." Although the soldiers realized that he was harmless, they continued to treat him with contempt.

"They put me in a jeep and we drove for a while, maybe 20 minutes, I don't know exactly. Then they transferred me to an Apache helicopter and flew me to a military base near Erez. I don't know the name but I know it wasn't so far from Erez. There was a small clinic there where they gave me a little first aid," he said, recalling that this treatment was at least 30 minutes after his injury.

"They put some gauze and bandaging on my neck wound," Ashraf said. He then was made to wait as a Palestinian medic negotiated his return to a Gaza hospital.

Hassam Ghrenam, a Palestine Red Crescent Society medic and ambulance driver, had approval to cross into Israel for two medical cases unrelated to Ashraf. While on the Israeli side, Ghrenam saw Ashraf and requested to take him back to Gaza.

Ashraf explained that Ghrenam wanted to bring three other men, to transfer him carefully as medical procedure dictates. The Israeli soldiers refused the request and Ashraf had to wait for more than an hour until the soldiers finally relented.

"There were maybe 30 Israeli soldiers around us. The ambulance driver kept saying, 'he's critical, very critical, take him to Israel,' but the soldiers just pointed their guns at him and did nothing," Ashraf explained.

Ghrenam noted that there was blood and signs that Ashraf was beaten or kicked in the face. According to Ghrenam, "The Israelis only put a bandage on his wound, no neck collar, no proper treatment. I immediately put a neck collar on him. Injuries to the neck and spinal cord can lead to paralysis."

At the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing, Ghrenam passed Ashraf to a waiting Red Crescent ambulance which immediately transferred the youth to Gaza's al-Shifa hospital. He is now in the al-Wafa rehabilitation hospital, and doctors and Ashraf's parents wait to see whether his fractured vertebrae will heal well enough so he can walk again.

Ashraf's father is not optimistic. "Every day we wait I feel like his life is withering. I'm worried about his future."

Iraqi Widows Marry to Feed Kids

By Afif Sarhan

IOL, October 28, 2009

BAGHDAD - Haifa Ahmed Mua’alim, 32, is going to tie the knot in a couple of weeks.

She is marrying a man recommended by her sister-in-law to help feed her two orphan children of a previous marriage.

The young woman lost her husband, the love of her life, two years ago to the violence that has been plaguing her country since the 2003 US invasion.

"When he died I decided never to marry again. We had a stable and lovely relation," she recalled tearfully.

For the past two years Haifa has been struggling to feed her kids, spending every penny they once had.

But without work or help from any one, she is accepting to remarry at the advice of her deceased husband's sister.

"I’m being forced to change my mind in exchange for a better life for my sons."

Haifa only saw the future husband once and never spoke with him, insisting it's a marriage of convenience for both of them.

"My sister-in-law told me that he also lost his wife and he is a good man who carries four children in his baggage," she said.

"Maybe it is too precipitated and latter on, I might regret, however, it is better to take care of six children than see your two sons hungry and unable to go to school," Haifa reasoned.

"I’m glad to find someone willing to take care of them but being happy is another issue that I prefer to keep for my own."

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs estimates there are nearly two million widows and five times kids living without fathers in the country.

"Widows are a serious case in Iraq. Our ministry is trying to help but the lack of proper budget is seriously affecting our work," said a senior officer, requesting anonymity for not being allowed to speak to the press.

"More widows will be added to this group and to help them the parliament should focus on their problem, create enough conditions for them to work and feed their children."

Debate

Haifa represents a new trend in Iraq which is encouraged by religious leaders who have been advising single and widower men to marry widows as a way to help them.

"Those women are victims of the violence in our country," Sheikh Abdul-Kareem Rafel, a religious leader at Sadr City, told IOL.

"The government isn’t offering them enough help to raise their kids alone and advising Iraqis to marry them is a nice way to prevent millions of kids from being raised without a father and prevent women from becoming prostitutes to support them."

Rana Lattif, a local woman activist, opposes such second marriage arrangements.

"Instead of encouraging women to remarry, we have to force the government to help them, offer stable living conditions and open job places as the majority became widows because of the unfair war in the country," she told IOL.

"Of course there are women who prefer to be in such unacceptable situation but they are few and the majority is marrying again because it was the only choice found," she contends.

"If the government takes responsibility towards them, I’m sure this number would decrease impressively."

Sara al-Azza, a member of a charity that has nearly 1,200 widows registered with more than half willing to remarry, disagrees.

"We cannot keep waiting for the government to take an action," she told IOL.

"The women come to us after deciding to remarry and what we do is just look for men who have a good background, true good intentions and are able to support her family," she explains.

"No one is forced to marry but we have made many arrangements with the both sides happy to start a new life together.

"Since we started working on this issue, we never had a complaint from any of the parties. It is a serious matter and we are happy to help."

Rhim Abdel-Rassoul Rabia’a, a 41-yrea-old mother of three who lost her husband three years in a Baghdad bomb attack, is waiting for a second husband.

"After years of looking for a job, I got desperate and that’s why I started looking for a second marriage even though that was the last thing I would like to do," she told IOL.

"I was told that women over 40 take more time to find a husband but this is my only hope. I just want a man to look after me and my kids, even if I marry without love."

Rhim says when she was a young girl she dreamed of a life of happiness, studying and working to become someone important in life.

"I know that none of my dreams can come true but at least I can help my kids become able to support themselves without the need to remarry for that."

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59496&s2=29.