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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Bush, Gorbachev, Kohl mark Berlin Wall's fall

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) – George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl paid their respects to the ordinary people who were behind the peaceful revolution of 1989 that brought down the Berlin Wall at an emotional ceremony in Berlin on Saturday.

The three statesmen from the United States, Soviet Union and West Germany -- whose steady-handed leadership paved the way for the Wall's opening on November 9, 1989 -- recalled the heady events that led to the end of the Cold War at a ceremony attended by 1,800 people.

"We Germans don't have very much in our history to be proud of," said Kohl, 79, who was chancellor of West Germany and then united Germany from 1982-98. "But we've got every reason to be proud about German reunification."

The reunion in Berlin of the three leaders at the center of the whirlwind of events kicked off a week of celebrations in the German capital marking the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9.

Bush, U.S. president from 1989-93, paid tribute in his speech to the countless thousands of courageous East Germans who risked persecution by attending mass protests to demand reform in the months leading up to the Wall's peaceful collapse.

"It's a joy to be here with my former colleagues," said Bush, who repeatedly put his arm around both Gorbachev and Kohl during the two-hour long ceremony in a theater on Friedrichstrasse just east of where the Berlin Wall stood until 1989.

"The point needs to be made that the historic events we are gathered to celebrate were set in motion not in Bonn, or Moscow or Washington but rather in the hearts and minds of the people who had too long been deprived of their God-given rights.

"The Wall could never erase your dream, our dream of one Germany, a free Germany, a proud Germany," said Bush, 85.

The three former leaders clearly enjoyed each other's company at their first reunion in many years -- even though Kohl was in a wheelchair and had difficulty speaking while Bush relied on the help of a cane to move about.

BUSH PRAISES GORBACHEV

The Berlin Wall, a symbol of the Cold War that split the city and Germany, opened in November 1989 and the two Germanys reunited 11 months later. Researchers said at least 136 people were killed trying to cross to the West.

Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union at the time who was later awarded the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, said the opening of the Wall and end of the Cold War was the culmination of a long process of post-World War Two rapprochement.

"The people were the heroes," said Gorbachev, 78, who remains hugely popular in Germany for his pivotal role in the autumn of 1989. "The three of us don't want to take credit for the accomplishments of the previous generations."

Gorbachev, who went out of his way to say he thought "it's a good thing he (Barack Obama) won the Nobel Peace Prize" this year despite misgivings in the United States, also offered his unsolicited thoughts on Bush's predecessor, Ronald Reagan.

Bush had initially been criticized in some U.S. circles in 1989 for not rushing to Berlin to celebrate the opening of the Wall. By contrast, Reagan had delivered a hard-hitting speech just west of the Berlin Wall two years earlier in 1987.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall," Reagan had said.

On Saturday Gorbachev brought that up and said: "We knew the first specialty of a president is that he has to be an actor."

Gorbachev added: "We've got to understand that the European project cannot be completed, that there won't be any triumph if it's built upon an anti-Russian or anti-American sentiment."

Bush was full of praise for Gorbachev on Saturday.

"I have no doubt, zero, that historians will recognize Mikhail for his rare vision and unfailing commitment to reform and openness despite the efforts of those who would resist change and ignore the call of history," he said.

"Today we have a fuller appreciation of the tremendous pressure Mikhail faced in that pivotal time. And through it all he stood firm, which is why he'll also stand tall when the history of our time in office is finally written."

SF Bay Bridge to reopen no sooner than Monday

Repair work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge will continue non-stop through the weekend and the overpass might reopen on Monday.

On Tuesday night, due to high winds, a recently repaired section of the bridge broke loose, sending a 5,000-pound (2,270-kg) piece of metal flying into commuter traffic according to the New York Times.

Surprisingly no one was hurt, but the bridge, connecting San Francisco's peninsula to suburbs in the east bay, remained closed indefinitely.

"We are doing everything possible to ensure the public's safety," Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation said.

Repair work has not stopped since it began on Tuesday night. Some sections of the bridge had been repaired not long ago and already require additional repairs due to heavy traffic use.

The repair work has forced hundreds of people to use public transportation.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) said on Thursday that the system carried 442,000 commuters, breaking a record set the day before.

"Commuters are going to need to check back with us over the weekend," said Ney. "We're going to do everything we can to get the bridge open for the Monday morning commute, but safety is the priority for us right now."

Report: US secretly moving Jews out of Yemen

The US State Department has been involved in the covert relocation of Yemeni Jews to the United States, a report says.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, about 60 Yemeni Jews have so far been moved to the US.

The report added that the first group, consisting of 17 people, arrived in New York on July 8, after leaving the Yemeni capital of Sana'a on a flight for Frankfurt.

The Journal added that about 100 other Yemeni Jews may also be transferred to the United States, while a number of others could be flown to Israel.

US officials and the leaders of the Yemeni Jewish community cited what they called "mounting harassment" against the community members as the reason behind the operation.

The paper also said that the Yemeni government had agreed to issue exit permits for Jewish families at the request of the United States.

"It was the embassy's view, and the [State] Department concurred, that because of their vulnerability, we should consider them for resettlement," a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration told the Journal.

US hails Seoul's decision to send 300 to Afghanistan

Sat Oct 31, 2009

Washington appreciates South Korea's plan to send troops to Afghanistan as the US-led war continues to exhaust the contributors' resources without curbing the violence.

"We welcome the ROK [Republic of Korea] announcement that it will expand its assistance to Afghanistan," said the US State Department on Seoul's plans to assign a reported number of 300 soldiers and police officers to Afghanistan in early 2010, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported on Saturday.

"We are confident that this assistance will be of great value to the people of Afghanistan," the State Department said in a statement.

The South Korean government announced the plan on Friday, the New York Times reported.

“Our troops will not engage in battles except for the security of our workers and for self-defense,” the American daily quoted a South Korean Foreign Ministry, Moon Tae-young as saying.

However, the country's Parliament is also yet to endorse the decision.

Seoul broke off its military cooperation in the field with Washington in 2007, withdrawing its noncombatants from Afghanistan and Iraq and ruling out any redeployment.

South Korea, however, is considered Washington's strongest ally in the region as Japan shows signs of breaking away from its longstanding US-friendly foreign policy. "We consider the ROK to be a vital partner in such efforts," the US State Department's statement added.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/110107.html.

Yemeni president accused of 'genocide'

A Yemeni parliamentarian has accused the government of 'genocide' in regard to deliberate attacks on civilians and refugee camps in the northern parts of the country.

Exiled Houthi lawmaker Yahya al-Houthi – who is the brother of the Shia fighters' leader, Abdul-Malek – holds President Ali Abdullah Saleh responsible for the army attacks on refugee camps, where thousands of civilians took shelter from an all-out offensive against the fighters.

"The Yemeni government accuses us (Houthi fighters) of targeting the refugees," Yahya al-Houthi told Press TV from Berlin.

This is while, the government is the one "targeting the civilians in the refugee camps and the villages," he added.

Al-Houthi said that the refugee camps are being targeted by the military planes. According to him, in a recent attack in Al-Nazir province, the military planes left at least 23 civilians dead and 15 others injured.

The fighters had earlier said that targeting civilians would only strengthen the people's solidarity and would encourage them to resist tyranny.

The fighters, led by Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, have been engaged in fierce fighting with the government, since the army launched 'Operation Scorched Earth' on August 11.

The government accuses fighters of seeking to restore a religious leadership in the northern areas that was overthrown in 1962.

The Houthis, however, say they only seek more autonomy, a halt in the alleged Saudi-backed efforts to cause regional insecurity and to impose Wahabism in the region as well as an end to discrimination against their people.

Abbas: No peace talks until Israel halts construction

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief has reiterated that the renewal of the peace process is not possible without a complete freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the occupied lands.

During a meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Mahmoud Abbas rejected her request to resume peace talks with Israel, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

"We are witnessing pressure from the Americans and a number of Arab elements to stop conditioning the renewal of negotiations on the halting of settlements," Ynet quoted an unnamed Palestinian source.

Erakat, however, said Abbas rejected the US offer due to Israel's refusal to "include a complete freeze of settlement activity" in a recent deal reached with US envoy George Mitchell.

He said that Tel Aviv had refused to halt construction of some 3,000 houses currently being built in the West Bank or any construction in the annexed East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

Israel has been under pressure to halt the expansion of the settlements in the occupied lands, in line with a US-backed roadmap peace plan.

Tel Aviv, however, has so far refused to fulfill its commitments, despite demands by the international community.

Detroit Muslims hold memorial for slain Imam

Muslims in the city of Detroit are preparing for the funeral of a prayers leader killed during an alleged shootout with federal agents.

A service for Luqman Ameen Abdullah, Imam of the Masjid Al-Haqq, has been set for Saturday morning at the Muslim Center in Detroit during which speakers will discuss pursuing "peace and reconciliation."

Abdullah was killed by the FBI on Wednesday in Detroit during raids in which a number of individuals were arrested on charges unrelated to terrorism.

According to a criminal complaint, the Imam had been accused of citing stories from the Quran and the life of the prophet Muhammad to justify "stealing, robbing and other illegal acts, as long as they profit Islam."

The FBI accused him of being "the radical leader of a Sunni Islam group in Detroit who expressed hatred for government and endorsed violence."

The claims have been dismissed as "utterly preposterous" by Abdullah's mosque.

The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a coalition of major national Islamic organizations, has called for an independent investigation into the killing.

The coalition has also called on the FBI to refrain from linking the raids or the allegations against the suspects to the Muslim faith.

"Unless the FBI has evidence linking the criminal allegations to the religious affiliation of the suspects, we ask that federal authorities stop injecting religion into this case," it said in a statement.

"The unjustified linkage of this case to the faith Islam," the coalition added, "will only serve to promote an increase in existing anti-Muslim stereotyping and bias in our society."

Iran to hold Ashiq music festival

Iran's West Azerbaijan Province is planning to hold a festival to introduce the musical tradition of Azeri troubadours known as Ashiqs.

A Glow of Ashiqlar, which will kick off on Nov. 19, 2009, will host musicians from Iran's West Azerbaijan, Zanjan, East Azerbaijan and Ardebil Provinces.

The two-day festival aims to promote the traditional music of Ashiqs and motivate regional musicians to revive this art.

Ashiqs were mystic troubadours or traveling bards, who sang semi-improvised songs and played music in ancient Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Iran.

They were credited with preserving the oral musical tradition, the promotion of communal value systems and the traditional culture of their people.

The Ashiq musical art is now practiced mostly in Iran's northwestern provinces of East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, and Ardebil as well as the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Turkmenistan.

Azerbaijan's Ashik art was registered on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in September 2009.

People's Democratic Republic of Algeria celebrates its National Day

The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria celebrates its National Day today, in commemoration of the Revolution for National Independence of the Algerian people. Algeria has another national day – Independence Day on July 5 – in remembrance of independence from France in 1962.

Algeria is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, and Morocco as well as a few kilometers of the Western Sahara in the west. Algeria is the largest country on the Mediterranean Sea, the second largest on the African continent and the 11th largest country in the world in land area.

In 1954, Ahmed Ben Bella joined other Algerian exiles in Egypt to form the National Liberation Front, which launched its bid for Algerian independence on November 1, 1954. The Front waged coordinated attacks in various parts of the Algerian capital, targeting public buildings, police and military posts, and communication installations. The struggle ended in 1962 and Ben Bella became the first Algerian head of government.

Algeria is one of the wealthiest countries in Africa. The chief mineral products are hydrocarbons – crude petroleum and natural gas – from the Sahara. Hydrocarbons account for 60 percent of Algeria’s budget revenues, 30 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and more than 95 percent of export revenues. Algeria possesses some of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world and is one of the world’s top natural gas exporters. Other minerals include coal, lead, phosphate, iron ore, and zinc.

Algeria is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and the Arab League. It contributed the creation of the Arab Maghreb Union.

We congratulate the government and people of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria led by H.E., President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and H.E., Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, on the occasion of their National Day.

Karroubi aid released on bail

A top adviser to Iran's defeated presidential candidate-turned opposition leader, Morteza Alviri, has been released on bail after four months in detention.

Alviri, who had been detained in the aftermath of the June 12 presidential election, was freed on Saturday, Mehr News Agency quoted an informed judiciary official as saying.

The former Tehran mayor was released after a bail of USD 200,000 was posted, Alviri's son told the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA).

On Thursday, Iranian Reformist journalist Mohammad Qouchani, who had also been arrested during the post-election events, was released from prison on bail.

Qouchani, one of the editor-in-chiefs of the banned Etemad-e-Melli newspaper, was freed on bail of USD 100,000.

Somali pirates: Western boats 'loot' Somali fish

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million in ransom for a British sailing couple say boats from other countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters, a pirate spokesman said Saturday.

Ahmed Gadaf, who says he's a spokesman for the pirates, said the group holding the couple hostage off Somalia's coast was made up of "voluntary guards" — not pirates.

"The Western forces continue to loot our natural resources. They continue to harass local fishermen and destroy their fishing nets, so we want them to taste the consequence," Gadaf said by satellite phone from the coastal town of Haradhere.

The British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed, Gadaf said. They will be released once the ransom is paid, he said.

The Chandlers were headed to Tanzania in their boat, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent Oct. 23. The British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday, and both have been in sporadic contact with the British media since.

Illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia stirs strong passions in the country. The prime minister of Somalia's transitional government, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, said in a speech Wednesday that many pirates are former fishermen "responding to the loss and disappearance of their livelihoods."

"Many of these pirates were once profitable fisherman and would be so again given the chance," he said at the London-based Chatham House think tank.

"I shall not name names, but suffice to say many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters," he said. "We estimate that the value of the fish being taken from our waters is perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.

"It is wholly unacceptable for these countries, many of whom claim they want to help Somalia, to turn a blind eye to this theft. Particularly when that theft robs thousands of Somali people of a way out of poverty and a way out of piracy," Sharmarke said.

Rachel Chandler told her brother in a telephone call broadcast by ITV News on Friday that the pirates were "hospitable people," a message that Sharmarke underscored in his London remarks.

British officials held a meeting on the hostage situation Friday in the government's crisis briefing room. The Foreign Office said a team from across several government departments was involved. Both the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defense declined to comment on whether any potential rescue was under consideration.

Pirate attacks have increased the last several weeks after the recent end of the monsoon season. An international armada is patrolling the region to try to stop the attacks.

Iran Foreign Ministry appoints new spokesman

Iran's former ambassador to Kazakhstan has been appointed as the country's new foreign ministry spokesman, the ministry says.

The country's Foreign Minster Manouchehr Mottaki appointed Ramin Mehman-Parast to replace Hassan Qashqavi as the ministry's spokesman, a statement said on Saturday.

Mehman-Parast has served as Tehran's envoy to Bangkok and Astana and as the ministry's deputy director general for information and public relations.

Qashqavi has been appointed as Deputy Minister for Consular, Parliamentary and Iranian Affairs.

Karzai as Diem

Karzai as Diem
Afghanistan as Vietnam

Justin Raimondo

October 30, 2009

The parallels between our stinging defeat in Vietnam and our coming defeat in Afghanistan get eerier by the moment. Just as Matthew Hoh, a top-ranking US official and Marine officer in Zabul province resigns in protest over the war – writing that it "reminds me horribly of our involvement with South Vietnam; an unpopular and corrupt government we backed at the expense of our Nation’s own internal peace" – it looks like Karzai is getting the Diem treatment from his American patrons. Or, rather, Diem-lite – since they (probably) have no intention of offing him, but just want to get rid of him as quickly and painlessly as possible. And the way to do that is to "out" him as a CIA asset – which they have done, courtesy of the New York Times.

Citing "current and former American officials," the article claims that Ahmed Wali Karzai, President Hamid Karzai’s brother, received "regular payments from the CIA" for the past 8 years in exchange for "a variety of services." Among those services: assisting a "strike force" headquartered in Kandahar, acting as the CIA’s "landlord" in letting them use Mullah Omar’s former compound, and –most importantly – acting as a liaison between the Americans and disaffected (or buy-able) elements of the Taliban insurgency, who might decide to switch sides for the right price.

The Times also accuses Karzai the Younger of being heavily involved in the drug trade. Is there anyone who finds this shocking? As one CIA officer cited in the piece put it: "If you’re looking for Mother Teresa, she doesn’t live in Afghanistan." The drug-dealing allegation might be leveled at practically anyone in Afghanistan outside of the ultra-Islamist Taliban – which, contrary to American propaganda, virtually eliminated the drug trade during its tenure in power.

The article goes on to detail the younger Karzai’s alleged sins, but the really interesting question this article raises is: who leaked the CIA connection to the Times – and why?

Certainly no one in this country is at all surprised by the news that the Afghan president’s brother is on the CIA payroll – I’d be astonished if he wasn’t. In Afghanistan, however, where the Karzai clan is facing a challenge from followers of Abdullah Abdullah, the CIA link may prove fatal to the president’s political future – and that is precisely the point.

Whoever leaked this was trying to hurt Karzai. Why would certain US officials and military officers be eager to do that? Well, because Karzai’s corrupt administration is an obstacle to their war plans: with the Fashion Plate in the Afghan equivalent of the White House, and his brother collecting tolls from drug traffickers, selling the war in Washington is becoming increasingly difficult. The only way to win support for Obama’s planned escalation, and tamp down dissent in Congress and the general public, is to clean up the Afghan government’s act – and that means dumping Karzai & Co.

As the internal debate within the Obama administration heats up — with hawks centered in the military and the neo-neocon thinktanks (CNAS, the Center for American Progress, etc.) agitating for a full-scale "counterinsurgency" strategy, and "doves" (i.e. realists) opting for a focus on "counter-terrorism" aimed at al-Qaeda – the gung-ho escalators clearly want to ditch Karzai, while the realists posit he’s the best we can hope for in that environment.

The hawks are committed to a counterinsurgency theory which demands the US get down and dirty with the insurgents, with US troops mingling with "the people" and taking risks in order to "protect" them from the Taliban. But what if the people don’t want to be protected – or, instead, seek protection from the Americans? Such a question is never asked by these pompous "theorists," who, like their neoconservative predecessors, are in thrall to a theory that cannot work and should never even be attempted.

The "COIN" theory [.pdf], as the CNAS crowd terms it, rightly recognizes the primacy of politics and ideological commitment in fighting an insurgency – and wrongly avers they could possibly get a substantial portion of the Afghan people to side with a foreign army of occupation. Like the neocons, who confidently predicted the Iraqis would greet us with cries of joy rather than volleys of bullets, the COIN ideologues see military occupation as an opportunity to build an entire nation from scratch.

Of course, so did the Germans in Vichy France, and in Norway with the Quisling regime. At this point, however, we run into Godwin’s law, and so just think of the Vietnam war. In Vietnam, our chosen sock puppet, Ngo Dinh Diem, received the full backing of the United States — until he started acting independently, and alienating the powerful Buddhist religious leaders, who took to the streets against his regime. President John F. Kennedy then pulled the rug out from under his fellow Catholic and erstwhile ally, and the CIA paid Vietnamese generals $40,000 to knock off Diem. Successive US-backed regimes were installed, and then given the boot by their American paymasters, while the military situation deteriorated (in spite of the increased US troop presence) and the Viet-Cong closed in on Saigon.

That the US has it in for Karzai, who is seen as a leftover from the Bush years, is unmistakable: elements in the administration clearly leaked the information to the Times, and are now preparing to go into the November 7 run-off elections with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah as their preferred candidate. The Times piece, which singles out Karzai’s brother as the primary architect of the shenanigans surrounding the last election, ruthlessly undercuts Karzai’s attempts to distance himself from Washington, framing him as the candidate of corruption and the hated CIA.

President Karzai had the temerity to protest the "collateral damage" exacted by US air strikes, which took out wedding parties with alarming regularity, and his image in the US Congress is not good: time for him to go. Whether the US can succeed in fixing – or, rather counter-fixing — the election to favor Mr. Abdullah, however, remains to be seen.

What the Americans seek, above all, is a "legitimate" puppet government, one they can sell to Congress and the American people over the next decade or so as they engage in a gigantic "nation-building" counterinsurgency sure to spill over the border into Pakistan. This project will dwarf the invasion of Iraq in terms of its sheer scale and utter impossibility: the cost in lives, and taxpayer dollars, is going to be enormous. With an ineffectual and unreliable puppet and his drug-dealing brother at the helm of the Afghan "government," Washington despairs of ever making its case to the American people – and so, one way or another, Karzai’s career is on the wane. Perhaps, like Diem, he’ll experience an "accident" from which he may not recover, or maybe he’ll flee to the US, where his friends in the fashion industry might deign to help him start a second career as the Afghan Versace.

In any case, let this serve as a lesson to aspiring would-be American sock puppets everywhere, who see a lucrative future in fronting for Washington: when you stumble, they’ll just kick you away and find another ambitious quisling to take your place faster than you can say "Ngo Dinh Diem."

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59537&s2=31.

SYRIA: Thousands of Iraqi refugees seek resettlement in West

DAMASCUS, 28 October 2009 (IRIN) - Iraqi refugee Leila Johanna Isho is determined to make this her last year in Syria. "Most of our family is scattered across Europe and I have a cousin in Canada so we don’t mind where we move, but we have to move because life is becoming too difficult here," said Isho, sitting with her three children in their cramped single-room apartment in Masakin Berzeh, a working-class neighborhood of Damascus.

With savings run dry, incomes unable to match inflation, more stringent visa requirements, and a return to Baghdad ruled too risky by most, the numbers of Iraqi families seeking resettlement from Syria and across the Middle East to Europe and North America is rising fast.

In Geneva earlier this month, Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that since 2007 the agency had recommended the resettlement of 82,500 Iraqi refugees from the Middle East to third countries: 62,000 to the USA, with the remainder to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and several other European states.

The Syrian government says it has registered 1.1 million Iraqis crossing into Syria since 2007, while as of the end of September UNHCR in Damascus had officially registered 215,429, with 27,198 registrations for 2009.

With the 25 October bombings in Baghdad which killed at least 155 people - the worst attacks for two years - UNHCR is braced for a renewed movement of refugees should security in Iraq continue to deteriorate.

A year after its launch, strikingly few Iraqis have taken up the UN’s Voluntary Repatriation Program. Less than 300 families from Syria have returned to Iraq under the program, though the number claiming resettlement has grown rapidly.

Figures from the UNHCR in Damascus show that from 1 January to early October, 28,500 Iraqi refugees living in Syria were put forward for resettlement. Since February 2007 the agency has referred a total of 34,015 resettlement cases, but of those just less than half, 15,084, have departed for a new life.

"Resettlement is only offered to a small percentage of refugees - less than 10 percent of the overall number [of those who apply for resettlement] are submitted, and from this 10 percent, a much smaller number actually get to go," said Farah Dakhlallah, a UNHCR spokesperson in Damascus.

"Criteria are based on vulnerability. Our job is to assess who is most in need of resettlement and then deal with the relevant embassies. However, the final decisions lie with the states themselves," she said.

No return

A Christian family from the Salhieh District of Baghdad, Leila Isho and her husband Bassam fled the Iraqi capital in November 2004 after paying kidnappers to release Bassam, who had worked as a servant in former president Saddam Hussein’s palace.

Unable to find work in Damascus, Bassam moved to Qatar last year where he found a job at a hotel. He sends most of the US$700 he earns a month back to his family.

Rising rent prices in Damascus have forced Isho and her children to move home twice, with a third move expected soon. Cuts to fuel subsidies last May caused the price of petrol to triple overnight, spurring already steep inflation which has raised living costs beyond the means of many of Damascus’s poorer inhabitants.

Yet Isho rules out return to Iraq: "We have no intention of going back to Iraq. Some other family is living in our house and we are told the whole scene has changed." Nor is Iraq considered safe to return to by UNHCR.

"A lot [of refugees] are in touch with their family and friends in Iraq, have seen the situation and decided it wasn’t safe enough. The UNHCR does not consider the situation to be stable enough for a dignified large-scale return of Iraqi refugees," said Dakhlallah.

Though the USA has taken in the bulk of Iraqi refugees following a policy shift three years ago (more than 30,000 Iraqis have moved to America under a resettlement program that began in 2007), other countries have assisted only modestly: Canada has taken in 1,890 Iraqi refugees, Australia 1,757, and Sweden, 1,180, Mahecic said.

In March, the first Iraqi refugees, mainly from persecuted minorities, made their way to Germany under a scheme to resettle 2,000 from Syria and 500 from Jordan, according to UNHCR.

UNHCR plea

Earlier this month UNHCR called on countries to "expedite where possible" their assistance to refugees.

"The UNHCR continues to encourage countries to take vulnerable Iraqis and we think potential host countries could enlarge their quotas. It would be great if more countries came on board; for example, there are no Arab countries on the list of resettlement states. There is a need and resettlement is a major issue for us," said Dakhlallah.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59546&s2=31.

Arabs and Turkmen in Iraq's Kirkuk want to seek international protection

By Marwan al-Ani

Azzaman, October 29, 2009

Arab and Turkmen political factions want to ask for international protection if the government fails to safeguard their rights.

In a statement, issued by their representatives in the provincial council and their political leaders, they said conditions in the oil –rich city were worsening and tension escalating.

The parliament has failed to come up with a legislative formula for holding the national elections in the city in January next year.

The Kurds who practically control the city with large numbers of their armed militias deployed in it have vowed to add it to their semi-independent enclave.

"We want a revision of the population counts in the city and no delay in the January elections," the statement said.

It said since the 2003-U.S. invasion the Kurds have persistently tried to change the demographic character of the city.

The statement said a revision of the count should remove those who flocked to the after the invasion.

"Kirkuk needs more attention and a special status and a sincere attempt to solve outstanding issues," the statement said.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59550&s2=31.

Did Richard Goldstone Hide More Sinister Crimes in Gaza?

Did Richard Goldstone Hide More Sinister Crimes in Gaza?
Part 2 – DIME and Uranium Weapons

Peter Eyre

Gaza, October 30, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) - Again we see a classic example of a UN investigation that only plays with the periphery of War Crimes committed by Israel whilst at the same time ignoring the more important horrific crimes carried out by the IDF.

Goldstone brushed aside the use of White Phosphorus and Flechette weapons and only touched briefly on DIME weapons. He totally ignored weapons containing Uranium components such as the four weapons shown in this photograph.

So let's look at DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) and how it works:

DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated "micro-shrapnel" of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA. It cuts through victims with ease and for those lucky enough to survive such an attack the outlook is fairly grim. The fragments from such a weapon once embedded in the flesh of its victim will lead to cancer and can result in death as early as three months.

Two Norwegian doctors working in the Hospital in Gaza observed the unusual injuries of its victims like none other they had witnessed before. One of the doctors had worked in such war zones for almost 30 years. This same statement was supported by Egyptian doctors who had also noticed the unusual injuries. Some of those doctors went into more detail with the following report: Norwegian doctor Mad Gilbert, the blast results in multiple amputations and "very severe fractures. The muscles are sort of split from the bones, hanging loose, and you also have quite severe burns." Most of those who survive the initial blast quickly succumb to septicaemia and organ collapse. "Initially, everything seems in order...but it turns out on operation that dozens of miniature particles can be found in all their organs," says Dr. Jam Brommundt, a German doctor working in Kham Younis, a city in southern Gaza. "It seems to be some sort of explosive or shell that disperses tiny particles...that penetrate all organs, these miniature injuries; you are not able to attack them surgically." According to Brommundt, the particles cause multiple organ failures. A footnote to these comments is that such fragments lead to an aggressive form of cancer.

In Goldstone's report it stated the following in Paragraph 49: While the Mission is not in a position to state with certainty that so-called dense inert metal explosive (DIME) munitions were used by the Israeli armed forces, it did receive reports from Palestinian and foreign doctors who operated in Gaza during the military operations of a high percentage of patients with injuries compatible with their impact. DIME weapons and weapons armed with heavy metal are not prohibited under international law as it currently stands, but do raise specific health concerns. One can see the extensive perforations of embedded fragments in this lady's face in Gaza.

One could ask the question why the investigation team didn't collect samples from the hospital or from its victims for testing in the laboratory. I am sure that these types of weapon are also banned under the Geneva Convention in regard to its usage in densely populated areas and the fact such weapons are totally indiscriminate and lethal. Again we see such matters swept under the carpet.

Now the big one - the issue of weapons containing uranium components. It was to be expected that Richard Goldstone would give an extremely brief reference to depleted uranium when his report said the following in Paragraph 49: The Mission received allegations that depleted and no depleted uranium were used by Israeli forces in Gaza. These allegations were not further investigated by the Mission!......I ask the question "Why on earth not"?

Could one ever imagine that one of the most experienced war crime investigators had, in a flick of his pen, written off something so serious? How such extremely serious allegations could be pushed to one side is beyond imagination. I myself provided my own submission to the team whilst in Geneva and highlighted the pictorial evidence of such explosions. I also advised them of the samples that had been recovered from Gaza for Prof Chris Busby and that had tested positive to both DU/EU with a clear indication of fourth generation dirty weapons.

We are already seeing the signs of such contamination in the birth defects of newly born babies in the Gaza Strip - Sound familiar? It is clear that Gaza will succumb to the same genetic damage as in the Balkans, Iraq and now Afghanistan. We can now expect significant changes in the health statistics in Gaza and when this occurs will anyone ask the question "What is causing this"?

Again we see the UN with it large broom either avoiding the issues or removing the evidence. They lied in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and now Gaza. We see a massive clearing of buildings bombed by the IDF and the rubble being taken away for crushing to re surface the roads and streets in the Gaza Strip. This is an indespicable act that violates the UN's own policy in regard to possible contaminated sites. Instruction to their own staff clearly states the procedures required prior to any attempt to clear such sites. Now they have failed to address any possible DU investigation and totally disregarded their own safety regulations. The resultant aftermath of this blatant act will now cause secondary contamination to occur not only within the Gaza Strip but also in adjacent Israel, Egypt, Jordan and further afield.

We will now leave the weapons and look at other aspects of this deeply flawed report. I note with interest a strong emphasis on the holding of Gilad Shalit and the comments raised in paragraph 77: "The Mission is of the opinion that, as a soldier who belongs to the Israeli armed forces and who was captured during an enemy incursion into Israel, Gilad Shalit meets the requirements for Prisoner-of-war status under the Third Geneva Convention. As such, he should be protected, treated humanely and be allowed external communication as appropriate according to that Convention. The ICRC should be allowed to visit him without delay. Information about his condition should also be provided promptly to his family".

I am sure that many concerned parents and families in Palestine would appreciate the same concern and respect in regard to the many Palestinian male, female and juniors held indefinitely by the Israeli Government. We must all be aware of the weekly ritual carried out by the families of those held in captivity without charge or trial who with great passion continue to hold their own special vigil and ask the same questions. Their loved ones are certainly not given the same treatment as Shalit and therefore this aspect of the report is totally out of context. In paragraph 86 of the report it stated: It is estimated that since the beginning of the occupation, approximately 700,000 Palestinian men, women and children have been detained by Israel.

According to estimates, as at 1st June A/HRC/12/48 page 28 2009, there were approximately 8,100 Palestinian 'political prisoners' in detention in Israel, including 60 women and 390 children. Most of these detainees are charged or convicted by the Israeli Military Court System that operates for Palestinians in the West Bank and under which due process rights for Palestinians are severely limited. Many are held in administrative detention and some under the Israeli "Unlawful Combatants Law".

What is ironic here is the fact that the long running atrocities carried out by the Israelis on the people of Palestine has for many years been very well documented. It did not, in some respects, warrant such a mission to highlight some of those atrocities when the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations had already done a magnificent job in reporting them over a long period of time. We can appreciate that this investigation was primarily for events just prior to Cast Lead and during the conflict. However, one must point out that this continued intimidation, oppression and humiliation as report by that Mission had so much to do with the retaliatory action taken by Palestinians.

Letters to the Secretary-General from The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the UN are described as follows: "Identical letters sent to the President of the Security Council and the President of the General Assembly. The purpose of these letters is to constitute a basic record of the crimes perpetuated by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem".

These letters are sent almost weekly and are very well documented on their webpage: http://www.un.int/palestine/letters09.shtml. They stem back to September 2000 up to the current time and one can almost feel the frustration of the author at continuously writing these very accurate reports to no avail. As you can see from the extract below they now number 342 and when you add to this the hundreds of UN Resolutions passed against Israel that have been totally ignored it is painfully obvious that the Secretary - General and the United Nations has no power whatsoever.

This letter is in follow-up to our previous 342 letters to you regarding the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, since 28 September 2000. These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 3 August 2009 (A/ES-10/459-S/2009/401), constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations committed against the Palestinian people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter distributed as a document of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 5, and of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Did Richard Goldstone hide more sinister crimes in Gaza?

Did Richard Goldstone hide more sinister crimes in Gaza?
Part 1: White Phosphorus and Flechettes

Peter Eyre

Gaza, October 28, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) - There was much praise for the UN investigations into war crimes committed in Gaza, led by Richard Goldstone. However, I feel that this report did not go far enough to investigate some other more serious allegations that were made.

There is a sense of urgency to bring this investigation forward and to put those responsible on trial but one must understand that something much more sinister did not even get a mention and has since been swept under the carpet.

Let's take a closer look at some aspects of this report which certainly showed a distinct weakness in the team's ability to understand what constitutes a breach of the Geneva Convention.

Quote from item 46: the Mission finds that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killings and wilfully causing great suffering to protected persons and as such give rise to individual criminal responsibility. It also finds that the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians is a violation of the right to life.

Quote from item 47: The last incident concerns the launch of a bomb on a house resulting in the killing of 22 family members. Israel's position in this case is that there was an "operational error" and that the intended target was a neighbouring house storing weapons. On the basis of its investigation, the Mission expresses significant doubts about the Israeli authorities' account of the incident. The Mission concludes that, if indeed a mistake was made, there could not be said to be a case of wilful killing. State responsibility of Israel for an internationally wrongful act, however, would remain.

Response to item 46 and 47: Even if an operational mistake was made it still constitutes wilful killing as such bombs were dropped in areas of dense population and thus had the correct target been hit the civilians in the adjacent target area would have died or been severely injured.

Quote from Item 48: Based on its investigation of incidents involving the use of certain weapons such as white phosphorous and flechette missiles, the Mission, while accepting that white phosphorous is not at this stage proscribed under international law, finds that the Israeli armed forces were systematically reckless in determining its use in built-up areas. Moreover, doctors who treated patients with white phosphorous wounds spoke about the severity and sometimes untreatable nature of the burns caused by the substance. The Mission believes that serious consideration should be given to banning the use of white phosphorous in built-up areas. As to flechettes, the Mission notes that they are an area weapon incapable of discriminating between objectives after detonation. They are; therefore, particularly unsuitable for use in urban settings where there is reason to believe civilians may be present.

Response to Item 48: First of all Mr Goldstone needs to understand that White Phosphorus is an Incendiary Weapon and therefore is covered under international law in its use of White Phosphorus on densely populated areas.

It is in violation of the Geneva Convention: Protocol on Prohibitions
or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons (Protocol III) namely:

Certain use of incendiary weapons, in particular the use of air delivered incendiary weapons against targets situated amongst concentrations of civilians (Protocol III to the Conventional Weapons Convention).

One should also draw attention to the fact that exactly the same treatment was handed out by the IDF in Southern Lebanon (2006). This picture shows the terrible lethal consequences on a child in Lebanon. Let's now look at a case that was filed in Israel on the back of the Geneva Convention and the ICJ. As one would expect when dealing with the Israel court system the case failed. One could live in hope that such a case in the European Courts would carry a different result

The "Flechette" shells (from the French "flêchette," meaning "small arrow") are known to contain thousands of small metal arrows, each some four centimeters long. When the shell explodes in the air, at a height of approximately 30 m above the ground, the lethal arrows scatter over a cone-shaped area some 300 m in length and 94 m wide. It should be noted that the Flechette was developed by the Americans in Vietnam, when they sought an effective weapon for attacking Viet Cong forces hiding among the trees in the jungles and dispersed over a large area.

It is worth noting that this weapon has been considered controversial since it was first introduced. The arguments raised against the Flechette are based, inter alia, on the principles of international law in the field of the laws of war, according to which weapons causing "unnecessary suffering" are not to be used, and the indiscriminate use of weapons in population centers is prohibited. The Appellants will argue that the Flechette causes "unnecessary suffering" due to the enormous number of arrows, which injure the victim's body (similarly to an explosive device containing nails), and that it is also considered an "indiscriminate" weapon, since it disperses over an enormous area, and is very difficult to use precisely. Accordingly, the Appellants argue, its use is prohibited, particularly in civilian population centers.

Factual Background

As mentioned above, the IDF has used this weapon for many years, particularly in the context of its operational activities in southern Lebanon, during which "dead areas" were declared along the border of the "Security Zone" - any person entering these areas was considered a "terrorist" to be eliminated. As soon as movement was identified in these areas, the tanks fired Flechette shells. It is worth mentioning that even during this period, arguments were raised against the IDF that the use of these shells caused the death and injury of dozens of Lebanese citizens, despite the fact that the use of Flechette shells was limited to sparsely-populated areas.

Among other publications, a special chapter was devoted to the IDF's use of this weapon in Lebanon in a report of the organization B'Tselem entitled "The Violation of the Human Rights of Lebanese Citizens by Israel (January 2000)."

Illegality in International Humanitarian Law - The Rules of War

It is a principle of international humanitarian law and the rules of war that means that cause indiscriminate injury or that are unable or incapable of distinguishing between civilians and combatants are prohibited. In addition, means causing unnecessary suffering and superfluous injury are prohibited.

The obligation to protect the health and life of civilians who are not engaged in combat is mentioned in all the conventions constituting international humanitarian law; in some conventions, the obligation is mentioned several times. The prohibition on the arbitrary taking of life outside the parameters of self-defense may be identified on several levels in international law. The most basic level is that of the general rules of war, which establish the basic principle that civilian targets, including civilians, shall not be the targets of attacks.

Inter alia, Article 22 of the Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, The Hague, 18 October 1907 (hereinafter "the Hague Regulations"), which was revolutionary for its time, stated that "the right of belligerents to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited".

Among other provisions, a specific regulation was established prohibiting the use of weapons that cause unnecessary suffering. Article 23 states:


"Art. 23. In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden
(a)...
(b)...
(c)...
(d)...
(e) To employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering;
(f) ..."

The second level establishes the prohibition against inhuman treatment for those not, at that time, actively engaged in fighting; the center of this facet is the prohibition against the taking of life.

This obligation is established in Article 3, which is common to all four Geneva Conventions from 1949. This applies to all armed conflicts, not only to occupied territories. Among other provisions, sub-clause 1 states:

Persons taking no active part in hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

Violence to life and person

A) The above-mentioned Article 3, which, as noted, is common to all four Geneva Conventions, is today considered international customary law binding all nations of the world; as such, it may be enforced by this Court. In addition, the State of Israel signed and ratified the Geneva Conventions in 1951; accordingly, it is also legally bound to observe the conventions as a contracting party.

The third level of the rules of war comprises the rules for the control of occupied territory, which grant the occupied population special protection in addition to the rights and protections accruing from the general rules of law and to the rights and protections enjoyed by all citizens, whether or not living in an occupied territory.

These protections and rights are established both in the Hague Regulations and in many clauses scattered throughout the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the Protection of Civilian Population, as well as in the two protocols to the conventions, signed in 1977.

Regulation 30 of the Hague Regulations relates to the protection of the residents of an occupied territory, stating as follows:
"Family honour and rights, the lives of persons and private property... must be protected"

No-one would deny that the general and special rules of law, as reflected in the Hague Regulations, now constitute international customary law binding all nations of the world, and enforceable in this Court (see, for example, the comments by then Justice Barak in HCJ 393/82, Jamayat Iskan Almu'alamoun v Commander of IDF Forces, Piskei Din 37(5) 785, in para. 11 of the ruling).

However, the principal protection is afforded to the citizens of an occupied territory in the Fourth Geneva Convention. These citizens are "protected persons" as defined in Article 4 of the Convention. The disagreements between the international community and Israel regarding the applicability of the definition in Article 4 to the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories has already been resolved in a long series of petitions to this Court, in which the state has declared its commitment to observe the humanitarian provisions of the Convention as if they applied to the territory.

In order to complete the picture, we should note that additional protections on civilian lives are established in the two protocols to the Geneva Convention signed in 1977; these expanded the protection afforded to the civilian population to include disputes other than those between states. The State of Israel has not signed these protocols, but some of their provisions constitute a part of international customary law, and as such bind Israel.

Prohibition on the Use of Weapons Causing "Unnecessary Suffering" and "Indiscriminate" Weapons - Customary Law

The Appellants shall argue that the use of Flechette shells by the IDF is incompatible with the principles of international customary law as noted above, which require the military echelon to consider, alongside military needs, the need to minimize unreasonable danger of injury to the local population.

Article 35(2) of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) (hereinafter "the First Protocol") establishes as follows:
Article 35.--Basic rules
1. In any armed conflict, the right of the Parties to the conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited.
2. It is prohibited to employ weapons, projectiles and material and
methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering.
3. It is prohibited to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment.

Article 51 establishes:
Article 51.--Protection of the civilian population
1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in circumstances.
2. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.
3. Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this Section, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.
4. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are:
(a) Those which are not directed at a specific military objective;
(b) Those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or
(c) Those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol; and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.
5. Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:
(...)
(b) An attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
(...)

Although the State of Israel is not committed to the provisions of the First Protocol, these articles are considered customary and binding in international law. Proof of this may be found in the "Advisory Opinion" of the International Court of Justice dated July 8, 1996 on the subject of the "Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons."

In the course of the above-mentioned opinion, the court was asked, inter alia, to address the subject of an indiscriminate weapon that causes unnecessary suffering. Among other points, the court ruled as follows:
A large number of customary rules have been developed by the practice of States and are an integral part of the international law relevant to the question posed.

The cardinal principles contained in the texts constituting the fabric of humanitarian law are the following. The first is aimed at the protection of the civilian population and civilian objects and establishes the distinction between combatants and non-combatants; States must never make civilians the object of attack and must consequently never use weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets. According to the second principle, it is prohibited to cause unnecessary suffering to combatants: it is accordingly prohibited to use weapons causing them such harm or uselessly aggravating their suffering.

In application of that second principle, States do not have unlimited freedom of choice of means in the weapons they use.
(...)
In conformity with the aforementioned principles, humanitarian law, at a very early stage, prohibited certain types of weapons either because of their indiscriminate effect on combatants and civilians or because of the unnecessary suffering caused to combatants, that is to say, a harm greater than that unavoidable to achieve legitimate military objectives. If an envisaged use of weapons would not meet the requirements of humanitarian law, a threat to engage in such use would also be contrary to that law.
(...)
Nor is there any need for the Court elaborate on the question of the applicability of Additional Protocol I of 1977 to nuclear weapons. It need only observe that while, at the Diplomatic Conference of 1974-1977, there was no substantive debate on the nuclear issue and no specific solution concerning this question was put forward, Additional Protocol I in no way replaced the general customary rules applicable to all means and methods of combat including nuclear weapons. In particular, the Court recalls that all States are bound by those rules in Additional Protocol I which, when adopted, were merely the expression of the pre-existing customary law, such as the Martens Clause, reaffirmed in the first article of Additional Protocol I. The fact that certain types of weapons were not specifically dealt with by the 1974-1977 Conference does not permit the drawing of any legal conclusions relating to the substantive issues which the use of such weapons would raise."...

The entire text as per above was taken from www.btselem.org with reference to Legal Documents/HC8990 02 Flachette Appeal
Israel Supreme Court - Sitting as the High Court of Justice - HCJ/02 in the case of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel and The Palestinian Centre for Human Right (The Appellants) V General of the Southern Command - Doron Almog and The State of Israel - Ministry of Defense (The Respondents)

Petition for an Interim Decree

A petition is hereby respectfully submitted to the Court requesting that the Respondents be ordered to come and give grounds why the use of "Flechette" type tank shells in the context of IDF operations in the Gaza Strip area should not be halted and prohibited.

Data listed within this article were taken from the Internet site of the International Court of Justice (www.icj-cij.org).

As we would expect the case failed to achieve it goals and was kicked out of court as follows:

The appellants asked us to prohibit the army from using flechette shells. Since we have realized that the use of this ammunition is not prohibited by the laws of war, the petitioners' request cannot be accepted. This court has ruled that "the choice of weapons, which the respondents use for the goal of preventing murderous terror attacks, is not one of the topics in which this court sees fit to intervene." (HCJ 5872/ 01, Bracha v Prime Minister, PD 56 (3)1). Needless to say, the respondents have eased our minds that the scope of use of this ammunition is arranged by the IDF through rules that are binding on the commanders of forces acting in the field. The decision regarding the question as to whether the conditions in the arena of combat, in every given case, justify use of the flechette, is determined by the authorized commander, who in formulating his decision is commanded to act according to professional guidelines, that in principle were intended to prevent harming residents not involved in activities that endanger IDF soldiers or Israeli citizens.

The petition is rejected. Justice The Honorable Justice M. Heshin: I agree.
Justice The Honourable Justice A. Hayout: I agree.
Decided, as stated, in Justice E. Matza's decision.
Rendered today, 25 Nissan 5763 (27 April 2003)

It must be noted that Goldstone's report did not follow the same conclusion as per the case above but rather highlighted Flechette's unsuitability in an urban environment when he quoted the following: "As to flechettes, the Mission notes that they are an area weapon incapable of discriminating between objectives after detonation. They are, therefore, particularly unsuitable for use in urban settings where there is reason to believe civilians may be present"

Part 2 of this series will next cover the use of DIME weapons within Gaza. It will also focus on Goldstones disregard of the use of depleted uranium that had been raised in earlier submissions. This surely must head the top of the list of the Israeli War Crimes in that weapons that contain uranium components do not discriminate between military and civilian targets or respect international borders. Consequently these weapons contaminated the entire Gaza Strip and crossed over the border to contaminate most of Central and Southern Israel and beyond. What is ironic was this same situation developed during the Lebanon War in 2006 when the entire Southern part of Lebanon was contaminated and again the contamination crossed over the border to do the same to Northern Israel. In other words the IDF has "Nuked" its own people.

We will cover how these two weapons were clearly left out of the inquiry despite the fact they were originally very much part of the initial submissions. One would also assume that accordingly the people of Israel would have a case against the Israeli Government and the IDF. To be continued.........................

- Peter Eyre, Middle East Consultant

Yemeni jails 2 journalists for criticizing leader

SAN’A, Yemen - A Yemeni court convicted two journalists of slandering the president and sentenced them to prison after they criticized the country’s leader as despotic.

Yemen’s Press and Printing Material Court sentenced Munir al-Mawri to two years in prison and banned him from writing for life after describing President Ali Abdullah Saleh as “a weapon of mass destruction” in a November article in al-Masdar newspaper.

The paper’s editor Samir Jubran was sentenced to one year in jail for allowing the article to be published.

“The sentence is harsh and it is a reflection of the court’s violation of legal procedures,” said Jubran.

Human rights groups have accused Yemen of attempts to stifle the opposition. Journalists commenting negatively on the country’s wars with southern separatists and northern Shiite rebels have been arrested and imprisoned.

In a statement released Saturday the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information accused Saleh’s government of “repeated attacks on freedom of expression.”

“ANHRI expressed deep concern for the continued detention of several Yemeni journalists and activists and requested the Yemeni government to respect freedoms and rights,” the statement said.

Are we all militants, ask Kashmir's pre-paid mobile subscribers

Saturday 31st October, 2009 (IANS)

Jammu/A wave of anger has swept through Jammu and Kashmir with the central government deciding to ban pre-paid mobile connections in the state from Sunday due to security concerns. Most angry are youths.

Even as the Kashmir government has promised to take up the issue with the centre, the 'walk and talk' generation in the state is furious that it has been clubbed with terrorists who misused pre-paid connections.

'Are we militants?' Shahid Khan, a student, asked in anger and frustration. 'Are millions of pre-paid connection subscribers terrorists?' he asked.

The decision to snap this service has resulted in total chaos among subscribers.

'It is strange that I should be punished because someone somewhere could be misusing the facility. This is unfortunate and condemnable,' said Muzaffar Ahmad, 23, a college student in Srinagar.

There are around 3.8 million pre-paid connections in the state. Most of them are from Airtel (one million), and new companies have come into the state, like Tata Indicom, Idea, Air Cel, Reliance. They have made huge investments, and they too are angry.

'This is a bad move,' an official of a leading mobile service provider told IANS.

Most people, especially youth who have to deal with limited pocket money and prefer pre-paid connections, are very angry. 'Until now we knew our limitations, how much to talk, if we go in for post-paid connections, that limit would be hard to know,' said Sunita Sharma, a young working woman.

What surprises them is that the move comes right after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the state promising more opportunities.

Khurshid Ahmed, 28, a student of Kashmir University, said: 'On the one hand the government says we must become information savvy and use the latest technology to keep pace with competitors from other universities and now the same government is pushing us back by at least a decade.'

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, during his visit to Kashmir, had hinted at banning pre-paid connections.

The security concerns are rooted in the fact that the security forces were finding it difficult to trace the militants, who were passing on instructions to their cadres through mobile phones and also changing their SIM cards at will. Invariably, police found a number of SIM cards of various companies with the militants killed or captured during gunbattles.

'Pre-paid mobile connections had multiplied our challenges, and we were facing tough times in tracking the terror-guiding hands because they were having the power of mobile phones in their hands, besides guns,' a senior police official said. But he refused to comment on the home ministry's blanket ban on the prepaid SIM cards.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti has termed the move as 'unfortunate' and sought the prime minister's intervention. 'Pre-paid services should be restored,' she said in a statement.

The decision has also not gone down well with hundreds of Kashmiris engaged in the business of selling pre-paid cell phone connections here.

'We take sufficient documents to establish the identity of the subscriber before issuing the pre-paid SIM card and now since morning I have closed down my shop for fear that frustrated subscribers might manhandle me,' said a cell phone SIM dealer in Srinagar who did not want to be named.

Asked Ramesh Chander, a businessman: 'If this is happening to mobile service providers, what sort of a message is being conveyed to industrialists and prospective investors across the country? That Kashmir is a state where terrorism is as high as before the services were launched in the state in 2003?'

Kuwait, S. Arabia to start drilling in Arash field

As Iran seeks to jointly invest in the Arash gas field with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the two Arab states are expanding the scope of offshore exploration.

The massive Arash field is shared by Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where it is known as 'Dorra', and is a contested area between Tehran and Kuwait.

The Arash field reserves are believed to contain around 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas.

According to the Energy Intelligence website, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have set up a joint venture called 'Khafji Joint Operations' to start a fresh offshore drilling campaign.

The venture, owned by Aramco Gulf Operations and Kuwait Gulf Oil Co., will carry out exploration work in an area shared by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Last year, Head of the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC), Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh, told Shana news agency that the three neighboring countries could jointly invest in the field, develop it and finally, export natural gas from the field to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Kuwait claims it owns more than 50 percent of the field, while Iran believes that the two countries have equal ownership.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=110088§ionid=351020103.

Kidnappers demand $2 million for Irish hostage

MANILA, Philippines – Captors of a 79-year old Irish missionary kidnapped in the southern Philippines have released a video in which the priest says his abductors are demanding $2 million to release him.

The video was obtained by government negotiators and broadcast on GMA television network in Manila Saturday. It shows Rev. Michael Sinnott holding a copy of the Oct. 22 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. That was 11 days after his abduction.

Sinnott appeals in a weak voice to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Irish government, his fellow missionaries and friends "who may have pity ... to help so that I can get out of here as soon as possible."

Gunmen seized Sinnott in southern Pagadian city in Zamboanga del Sur province on Oct. 11 in the latest hostage crisis to grip this predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

It remains unclear who is holding Sinnott. The volatile south has grappled with decades of Muslim separatist unrest, and militants have conducted kidnappings in the past but have denied involvement in Sinnott's abduction.

Allan Molde, spokesman for the provincial Crisis Management Committee handling the hostage crisis, said the video was handed to a law enforcer on the committee by one of its operatives Saturday.

Molde said he recognized Sinnott on the video.

"He's well, he's OK, but you can see the sadness in his face," Molde said by telephone from Pagadian.

He said it appeared that Sinnott, who has grown some facial hair, was reading from something that was handed to him.

The GMA TV report says Sinnott identified the leader of the group that kidnapped him as Abu Jamdal, but Molde said he wasn't familiar with the person.

The video was taken outdoors, and a piece of tablecloth or bedsheet was placed behind Sinnott as a background. No other person was shown but one hand could be seen helping Sinnott hold up the newspaper.

Molde declined to comment specifically on the ransom demand, but said: "As you know, our government has invoked the non-ransom policy."

The GMA report said that in the video, Sinnott lamented that he could not take all the medicines he needed. The priest has previously undergone heart bypass surgery.

Molde said medicines have been sent through emissaries but he could not confirm that they had actually reached the missionary.

Molde said he had informed Sinnott's superior at the Missionary Society of St. Columban in the southern Philippines.

Roadside bomb claims 7 Pakistani soldiers

Sat Oct 31, 2009

At last seven Pakistani soldiers have been killed after a roadside bomb hit their military vehicle in the restive northwestern tribal region of Khyber.

The soldiers were conducting a routine patrol in Sur Khar, about 50 km (30 miles) east of the region's main town, Landikotal, when the explosion occurred. About a dozen of soldiers were also wounded.

"Seven paramilitary soldiers were killed and 11 were wounded in the remote-control bomb attack," a police official said.

The vehicle, which was carrying supplies for paramilitary troops in the region, was completely destroyed.

In response to the attack, paramilitary Frontier Corps pounded several suspected militant hideouts with artillery.

The Pakistani army launched a military operation against pro-Taliban militants in Khyber agency in September after militants tried to expand their activities, including kidnappings and killings, into neighboring Peshawar.

The restive region has also earned a bad reputation over numerous attacks on NATO supply convoys to Afghanistan. US-led forces in Afghanistan receive up to 75% of their supplies via Pakistan.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/110083.html.

Iranian cruise ship sinks off Persian Gulf coast

A cruise ship with a number of 25 passengers and crew members aboard has gone down off the port city of Genaveh in the Iranian southern province of Bushehr.

“The ship went down Friday afternoon after being hit by massive waves,” Genaveh governor, Teymour Yazdanshenas, said.

It was en route from Khark Island -- in the vicinity of Iran's major port city in the Persian Gulf, Bushehr -- to Genaveh port city -- located on the Persian Gulf cost between Bushehr and Daylem port city.

Yazdanshenas added one life was lost and three others went missing in the incident. The remaining 21 people were recovered by boats fishing at the site.

A search team has also been formed to recover the ill-fated missing passengers. Meanwhile, those who had sustained wounds in the event were transferred to a hospital in Genaveh to receive medical treatment.

'Wahhabi terrorism helps West achieve goals'

A top Iranian army commander says the West is using 'Wahhabi terrorism' to sow seeds of discord among Muslims around the world.

Chief-of-Staff of Iran's Joint Armed Forces, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, says Wahhabi terrorists are helping arrogant powers achieve their goals in the region.

"Today Wahhabi thought is paving the way to legitimize the presence of US and NATO forces [in the region] but the United States and NATO will be burnt in this plot," Mehr news agency quoted Firouzabadi as saying.

The Iranian commander's comment came two weeks after at least 41 people, including seven senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), were killed in a bombing during a unity gathering of Shia and Sunni tribal leaders in the town of Pishin on the Iran-Pakistan border.

The Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

Spearheaded by Abdulmalek Rigi, Jundallah terrorists have staged a tidal wave of bombings and terrorist attacks in Iran, one of which left at least 25 Iranians dead in early June.

Abdulhamid Rigi, the apprehended brother of the Jundallah point man, told Press TV in a recent interview that Abdulmalek had held several "confidential" meetings with FBI and CIA agents in Karachi and Islamabad.

Firouzabadi went on to say that western plans for the region were behind the 'war, bloodshed and terror' in the Middle East.

"The aim of these brutal measures was to create discord among Muslim nations and prevent Muslim unity," he said.

During the past weeks, a series of terrorist attacks hit Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The deadly attacks, were carried out by al-Qaeda and Salafi terrorists, claimed the lives of hundreds of people in the Islamic states.

Only in Iraq, twin car bombings in Baghdad killed more than 160 people and injured over 700 others last week.

And in Pakistan, an explosive laden car ripped through the crowded market in Peshawar and killed more than 105 people.

Japan funds $5 bln aid program in Afghanistan

Sat Oct 31, 2009

Japan is slated to fund a five-billion-dollar program to help rebuild conflict-torn Afghanistan's infrastructure over a five-year period.

According to the Nikkei Business Daily on Saturday, the Japanese Premier Yukio Hatoyama has outlined a proposal that covers assistance with water control and irrigation for the Afghan agricultural sector.

The aid-program, which will start in 2010, will also help build Afghanistan's roads, and train former militants for new jobs.

Hatoyama plans to announce the initiative and present its details during the US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to Japan in mid-November.

Afghanistan has been left without a proper infrastructure following years of conflict and neglect particularly after the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

Japan's new government which has vowed to pursue a foreign policy independent of the US, says it will replace its refueling mission in Afghanistan with humanitarian aid.

Japan's new way of contributing to the effort in Afghanistan will be in the form of humanitarian aid, which will include training former Taliban soldiers, Japanese foreign ministry announced Friday.

Japan's new government which has promised has vowed to pursue a foreign policy independent of the US announced that it would replace its refueling mission for the Afghan war with humanitarian aid.

Japanese foreign ministry said in October that Tokyo's new way of contributing to the effort in Afghanistan will be in the form of humanitarian aid, which will include training former Taliban soldiers.

The initiative is to provide vocational training -- mainly to former Taliban members. The mission will help pave the way to reducing poverty among the former militants as many young men join the Taliban movement for money, it added.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/110081.html.

Somali pirates hijack Yemeni fishing boat

Sat Oct 31, 2009

Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni fishing vessel in the Gulf of Aden overnight after a gun battle, in which at least one hijacker was killed.

"We have attacked a Yemeni fishing boat. It was fishing near Eyl last night," pirate Bashir told Reuters by phone from Eyl.

"They had weapons and fought us. They killed one of us and injured another, but we have hijacked it at last. It's in our hands now."

Since last year, an armada of foreign warships has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden in a bid to root out piracy in the notorious region, which is viewed as one of the busiest maritime trade routes on the globe.

Figures released by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) indicate a sharp rise in attacks by pirates in Somali waters.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/110080.html.

Macedonia to send more troops to Afghanistan

October 28, 2009

Macedonia will beef up its military presence in Afghanistan by sending more troops as early as the start of next year, local media reported on Tuesday.

Skopje will deploy an additional 80 troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. With the reinforcement, the country will have some 240 soldiers stationed there.

"The main task of our army will be providing military training for the Afghan army. We are sending mentors who will work with the Afghan soldiers," Macedonian Deputy Defense Minister Emil Dimitriev told local media.

Macedonia sees its presence in Afghanistan as a good way of maintaining good cooperation with NATO and the United States.

Last year, NATO said the country was ready to join the block but Greece blocked its accession due to a long-standing name row.

Athens argues Skopje's formal name of the Republic of Macedonia implies territorial claims towards Greece's own northern province, which is also called Macedonia.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/6796479.html.

Jordan could do more to protect al-Aqsa Mosque from Israel’s evil designs

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

October 29, 2009

So far, the Jordanian reactions to the scandalous Israeli provocations at al Masjidul Aqsa (Aqsa Mosque) have been minimal, inadequate and strikingly weak. Jordan, which signed the inauspicious Wadi Araba treaty with Israel fifteen years ago, is legally and morally responsible for the Islamic and Christian holy places in al-Quds.

However, the Jordanian state, apart from playing a symbolic role, has been effectively silent in the face of uninterrupted and unrelenting Israeli conspiracies against the Islamic sanctuary in the holy city. Israel has been carrying out far-reaching excavations in the vicinity of the Haram al Sharif esplanade which experts say are destabilizing the foundations of the structures.

A few months ago holes and pits appeared at the courtyard not far from the western entrance to the Aqsa Mosque. Moreover, the usually green olive trees in that area began to wilt, indicating that Israel was digging underneath.

Unfortunately, Jordan didn’t view these grave provocations gravely enough, which apparently encouraged Israel to go on and on and on.

And now, al Aqsa Mosque is facing a real danger stemming from the repeated attempts by Jewish fanatics to arrogate a foothold and establish so-called "prayer rights" at the exclusively Islamic sanctuary.

Needless to say, these are not marginal groups of religious maniacs that can be dismissed as constituting a small minority within the Israeli Jewish society. The opposite is true. These extremists enjoy strong backing from the Israeli government and people and have strong allies in the Israeli Knesset and even in the Israeli police and army. In fact, more than 50% of the high-ranking officers in the Israeli army have ideological affinity with these "national-Zionist" extremists.

Hence, one exaggerates little by saying that these groups represent a wide segment of the Israeli Jewish society and that they are hell-bent on either demolishing, bombing the Islamic holy places or seizing part of the Haram al Sharif for the purpose of performing their rituals.

The evil designs of these satanic terrorists can’t be repulsed by routine, meaningless and dull diplomatic protests from Amman and other Arab and Muslim capitals.

In the final analysis, the Jordanian government shouldn’t just content itself with receiving "assurances" from the Israeli government that Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo until a lasting peace is reached.

Israel is a notoriously lying state and its assurances and pledges are worth nothing.

A few years ago, an Israeli court ruling to allow Jewish fanatics to hold prayers right in the middle of the Haram al Sharif is a clarion proof, if a proof was needed, that Israel cares very little about Jordanian, Arab or Islamic concerns in this regard.

Israel claims that Jewish "visitors" had the right to visit just like other tourists from around the world who visit the Islamic site.

However, it should be amply clear that we are not merely talking about visitors but rather about saboteurs and terrorists whose aim is first and foremost to undermine the Muslim ownership of the holy site, nearly uninterrupted since the second Caliph, Omar Ibnul-Khattab, took control of the city from Byzantine Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius in 638.

These are not unfounded allegations. Anyone interested in knowing the truth could watch the Israeli media and see Jewish leaders openly call for the destruction of the Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques. For example, on Sunday, 25 October, dozens of rabbis and Knesset members held a special conference in West Jerusalem, at a place known as Heichal Shlomo (where an alleged prototype of Solomon’s Temple is erected). During the conference, tacit, and even explicit, calls for the demolition of the Aqsa mosque were heard.

The head of an extremist group, called the Temple Mount Faithful, had the audacity to call the Islamic edifices "pagan structure that ought to be brought down." The Israeli government does nothing to stop or even discourage these extremists and terrorists from doing what they have been doing, namely planning the demolition of the Aqsa Mosque in order to build a Jewish temple in its place.

I understand that relations between Israel and Jordan are subject to some special sensitivities pertaining to the oblique strategic balance in the region and also with Jordanian fears about the possible expulsion by Israel of Palestinians into Jordan.

However, a policy of appeasement toward Israel will seriously harm both Jordanian and Palestinian interests as well as the stature and dignity of the entire Islamic world.

In the final analysis, Jordan ought to realize that maintaining stable relations with Israel is not more important than protecting the first Qibla and third holiest Islamic shrine from satanic Zionist designs.

Jordan must also understand that vacuous statements, repeated ad nauseam, such as saying that what Israel is doing in Jerusalem will derail the peace process, a peace process that doesn’t really exist, only encourages and emboldens Israel to further ignore Muslim reactions and defy Muslim sensibilities.

Therefore, it is imperative that the Jordanian state take an uncompromising stance that would deter Israel.

In fact, one is always prompted to ask if maintaining relations with Israel doesn’t serve the paramount interests of Jordan , and other Arab and Muslim states that have relations with the Zionist regime, such as Egypt, then what is the rationale for maintaining such relations in the first place?

Taliban Chief Blames Blackwater for Peshawar Blast

October 29, 2009

Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has claimed that the controversial American security firm Blackwater was behind the deadly bomb attack on a market in Peshawar that killed over 100 people.

Hakimullah questioned why the Taliban should target the public when it was capable of carrying out attacks in Islamabad and targeting the army's General Headquarters.

In an interview with BBC Urdu, he claimed Blackwater and "Pakistani agencies" were involved in attacks in public places to discredit the militants.

A powerful car bomb exploded at a crowded market in Peshawar yesterday, killing more than 100 and injuring 200 more. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had earlier said it was behind an attack on the army's headquarters earlier this month.

About 15 people were killed during that attack. A group of militants took nearly 50 people hostage before they were gunned down or blew themselves up.

Reports in the Pakistani media have claimed that Blackwater has established a presence in the country by tying up with local security firms but these allegations have been rejected by the US administration.

When Hakimullah was asked about the perception among people that militants are involved in attacks on public places, he said: "Our war is against the government and the security forces and not against the people. We are not involved in blasts."

Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq, who was present along with Hakimullah, warned that the militants could target media organizations that are "defaming" the Taliban.

North West Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain and chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas have blamed militants for the blast in Peshawar.

They said militants are targeting the people because they are facing defeat in South Waziristan tribal region, where the army has launched a major ground offensive.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59528&s2=30.

Yemen sentences 8 more Shias to death

A Yemeni court has given the death sentence to eight more Shia fighters, for resisting a government offensive north of the country's capital last year.

The fighters were arrested during month-long clashes at Bani Husheish, 30 km (19 miles) north of Sanaa last year. Saturday's trial was the sixth of its kind for Yemenis involved in last year's fighting.

The court found the men guilty of "forming an armed gang aimed at implementing a criminal plot" as well as "causing the killing and wounding of many soldiers and policemen", AFP reported.

The court also sentenced 12 others to prison terms ranging from one to 12 years. Two others, brought to trial were found innocent.

The latest trial brought the number of Yemeni fighters on death row to 34, as the government continues its all-out military campaign in the North. About 100 others are awaiting trial.

The military offensive against the Shia fighters, launched on August 11, has so far left hundreds of people, mostly civilians, dead. It has also displaced tens of thousands of civilians, forcing them to live in refugee camps.

While the Shia fighters, also known as 'Houthis', say they are defending themselves against social, economic, political and religious oppression, the government accuses them of seeking to restore a religious leadership which ended in a republican coup in 1962.

Pirate captive wife makes tearful call as $7m is demanded

Kidnapped Rachel Chandler broke down in tears during her first contact since being taken hostage by Somali pirates a week ago.

Mrs Chandler urged her family not to worry, saying she and husband Paul were “safe” and described their captors as “very hospitable people”.

Hours after the call, it was reported that their abductors are demanding a ransom of $7m for their release.

The strain of being held at gunpoint since last Friday showed during Mrs Chandler’s phone call when broke down during a conversation with her brother Stephen Collett.

Mrs Chandler reassured her brother that she was being well cared for and managed to compose herself to continue the conversation.

“We're safe,” she said. “They are very hospitable people.

“Physically we're fine, physically we're healthy.”

Mrs Chandler (55) from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was unable to say where the couple were being held.

Mr Collett asked his brother-in-law if he was being well looked after. Mr Chandler (59) replied: “So far, yes.”

Told the family was trying to secure their release, Mr Chandler said: “We know nothing here.”

Mr and Mrs Chandler were kidnapped from their yacht in the early hours of last Friday and, as their ordeal entered its second week, British Government officials held urgent talks on their plight at the Cobra emergency briefing room.

The couple were taken hostage as they sailed from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

They were then forced to sail towards Somalia before eventually being moved onto a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which was seized by the pirate gang earlier this month.

Yesterday Mrs Chandler said they had been moved from the ship but was not able to say where they were being held.

--

Thursday October 22: The couple set off from the Seychelles in their 38ft yacht Lynn Rival towards Tanzania.

Friday October 23: They enter their last post on their online travel blog in the morning. The alarm is raised when an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon is activated from their yacht at 11pm and the Seychelles authorities begin a search and rescue operation.

Tuesday October 27: News of the couple's disappearance breaks as Combined Task Force 151, an international naval response set up to combat Somali pirate attacks, and Nato and European Union counter piracy teams join the search. A news agency said it had been contacted by a pirate named Hassan who claimed he had the couple captive and ransom demands would follow.

Wednesday October 28: The Chandlers' relatives meet the Somali prime minister Omar Sharmarke in London. He said his government would do everything it could to “see a peaceful solution”.

Thursday October 29: The European Union Naval Force Somalia confirms that a yacht it was monitoring is the Lynn Rival. The Ministry of Defense said it was empty and the Chandlers' whereabouts were unknown. Somalian sources said they are being held captive after arriving at the pirate stronghold Harardhere. Paul Chandler tells ITV they were kidnapped as they slept on the yacht.

Friday October 30: The pirates say they will move the couple back to sea after letting them rest for a night on land. A spokesman said they would be moved to a ship anchored off the eastern coast of Somalia.

Israelis evacuate tourists hurt in Jordan bus crash

JERUSALEM - Israeli military helicopters and ambulances on Saturday evacuated 34 Israelis injured in a bus crash in neighboring Jordan, officials said.

One Israeli was killed in the accident that occurred late on Friday when a tour bus overturned while en route to the ancient southern city of Petra.

Three air force helicopters and 18 ambulances were used to evacuate the injured to Israeli hospitals, Israel’s rescue services said in a statement.

Three were reported to be in a serious condition.

Jordan, which has a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, has been battered by heavy rain storms and strong winds.

Petra is a World Heritage Site famous for its ancient Nabataean ruins, including spectacular temples and tombs hewn from rose-colored rock which were featured in the Hollywood movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

In July 2007, Petra was chosen as one of the “new” seven wonders of the world.

Somali protesters hold anti-Israeli rallies

Sat Oct 31, 2009

Hundreds of Somalis, in response to an al-Shabaab militia request, have held anti-Israeli protests in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

A large crowd of people voiced their opposition to Israel's aggressions against Palestinians by chanting anti-Israeli slogans in the streets of Mogadishu, AFP reported.

According to eye-witnesses, the demonstrations took place in northern Mogadishu which is controlled by al-Shabaab fighters.

They chanted slogans such as "Israel should be destroyed, God is great".

"They are killing your Muslim brothers and sisters and stopping them from performing prayers in the holy sites of Allah," a top al-Shabaab commander, Sheikh Fuad Mohamed Shangole told the crowd.

Shangole said that the time is now ripe for going to war with Israel to liberate the sacred cities.

"You are aware of Israel's terrorist acts against Muslim Palestine. They ruin the holy shrines of Muslims," he added.

Al-Shabaab commander, Abdifatah Aweys Abu-Hamsa, said the group's fighters "are prepared to liberate and defend the holy mosque of Al-Aqsa."

Abu-Hamsa pointed out that a special military unit named Quds Brigade will be set up for the purpose of liberating and defending Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Tensions have been high in the Palestinian territories in recent weeks after Israeli extremists backed by police forces entered the holy Al-Aqsa mosque and clashed with Palestinian youths who tried to defend the site.

The Israeli assault sparked mass demonstrations in numerous Middle Eastern countries including Iran and Turkey.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference has also warned Israel of "dangerous consequences" for acts of sacrilege in the holy mosque.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/110072.html.