Exile group: Iran making major security changes

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS – An Iranian opposition leader said Thursday that the country is making sweeping changes to its security apparatus in an effort to consolidate the power of the elite Revolutionary Guard.

Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran — a Paris-based umbrella opposition group — said the alleged changes and accompanying purges stem from worries about the loyalty of the security forces as the nation experiences its most significant unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran had announced a reorganization of its security forces following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June. But the changes Rajavi contended are taking place have so far been unknown.

The Paris-based National Council of Resistance has frequently made accusations about Iran's covert activities, based on what it says is information from sources inside the country. Some of its claims have been borne out; others have not been substantiated.

The council is regarded as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

Farzad A. Farhangian, a spokesman for the Iranian embassy in Brussels, said it was a waste of time to comment on the "baseless and false claims ... of a small group of international terrorists."

The Revolutionary Guard, directly controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has in recent years expanded its influence into key economic and technological sectors, including the nation's nuclear program. It operates independently of the armed forces and maintains a nationwide network of militia groups, known as Basij.

Rajavi said authorities in Iran have concealed the extent of the changes to the security structure.

"The new organization, the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, will from this point onward act as the regime's main security force," Rajavi told journalists Thursday in Brussels.

She said that Hossein Taeb, previously commander of the Basij militia, has been named to head the new agency.

"Its command structure is linked directly to Khamenei (and) its formation marks an unprecedented transformation for the regime's intelligence and suppressive apparatus," Rajavi said.

She said the guard's intelligence agency will incorporate seven existing security organizations. These include sections of the Internal Security Directorate and Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the Security Directorate of the Basij force, anti-riot forces and the main security headquarters for Tehran, Rajavi said.

"The objective is to centralize the intelligence and security organs in a way that makes the new organization dominant and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security subservient," she said. "The new organization will be directly controlled by Khamenei (and) will not be dependent on the president or the Majlis (parliament)."

In 2002, the National Council of Resistance of Iran disclosed the existence of two previously secret nuclear facilities — a pilot uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a research reactor being built in the city of Arak, which turned out to house Iran's uranium enrichment program and a hard-water reactor project.

Obama rejects Afghan options

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday rejected all four options presented by advisers in Pakistan strategy discussions, a White House source said.

The administration official told CNN the president was not satisfied with the proposals and specifically cited concern over an exit strategy. Obama met with his security team Wednesday in the Situation Room.

In another major development Wednesday, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan is said to have expressed concern to Obama about sending more troops to the region until the government in Kabul deals with corruption and mismanagement.

Previous media reports had indicated five options were on the table. Although the options aren't being developed, one has become fairly fleshed out, CNN said.

That option calls for sending about 34,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, deployed mainly in the south and southeast, where much of the fighting is, a senior administration official and U.S. military official independently confirmed for CNN. The plan reportedly would include three Army brigades, a Marine brigade, a headquarters element and support troops.

The other options, the Pentagon official said, would be "different mixes," or "different components of it."

Obama also is expected to discuss the kind of cooperation the United States could expect from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the type of civilian support the United States would be willing to provide and the kind of support the United States could expect from other countries, the administration official told CNN.

"The president will have an opportunity to discuss four options with his national security team," Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Gibbs said the timeline for Obama's decision remained fluid.

"Anybody that tells you that the president has made a decision or ... 'tentatively agreed to' doesn't have, in all honesty, the slightest idea what they're talking about," Gibbs said during Tuesday's briefing. "The president has yet to make a decision."

The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan has expressed concern about sending more troops to Afghanistan until the government in Kabul can clean up corruption and deal with mismanagement that has helped the Taliban regain strength, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Citing senior U.S. officials, the newspaper said Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry registered his concern in two classified cables to Washington within the past week.

Eikenberry was the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007. He retired from the military in April when he was sworn in as ambassador.

In the cables to Washington, Eikenberry said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had engaged in erratic behavior and senior Afghan government officials were corrupt, the Post reported.

Lebanon, Syria vow to keep up coordination

Lebanese President hails 'privileged relations with Syria' as two countries vow to 'work together'.

DAMASCUS - The Lebanese and Syrian presidents vowed during talks in Damascus on Thursday to keep up coordination between the two Arab neighbors amid signs of improved ties.

Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Michel Sleiman of Lebanon met just three days after the formation of a unity government in Beirut following almost five months of tough negotiations.

The two leaders reviewed "the positive developments which have recently taken place in Lebanon," especially the new cabinet, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.

Assad called for the rival parties in Lebanon "to take advantage of this positive atmosphere and to continue dialogue so as to strengthen Lebanese understanding and unity as a basis for stability."

Sleiman, on a second visit to Damascus since his May 2008 election, hailed "the privileged relations with Syria, which are in the interests of Lebanon," SANA reported.

The presidents agreed to "continue consultations, coordination and cooperation."

In Beirut, the presidency said the two leaders "stressed that they share the same point of view as concerns regional and international issues" and would "work together at all levels and in all domains."

On Monday, Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri formed a national unity government with the powerful resistance group Hezbollah.

The winning alliance headed by Hariri won 71 seats in the 128-member parliament in the election against 57 for the opposition led by Hezbollah.

The Hezbollah opposition had actually secured the majority (52%) of the votes in Lebanon, but could not secure a majority of Parliamentary seats (it won 45%) because of the nature of the sectarian government system in the country.

Hezbollah, originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, had forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000. Israel, however, continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.

On Thursday, Hariri received a congratulations telegram from his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Naji Otri, in what was the first official contact by Damascus with its longtime foe, a Hariri aide in Beirut said.

Assad already congratulated Sleiman on the new cabinet earlier this week.

On Friday, Assad is to visit France, whose ties with Syria have also improved since 2008.

Tunisia rejects any interference in its internal affairs

2009-11-12

President Ben Ali: Tunisia will not allow distortion of its reputation as it moves towards pluralism.

TUNIS - Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali warned that his country will not tolerate any interference in its internal affairs, stressing that pluralism has now become a concrete fact in Tunisia, while promising to support more political participations.

During a speech to the country's parliament and upper house marking the constitutional swearing-in ceremony following his re-election for a new presidential term, Ben Ali stressed that ever since the Change of 7th of November 1987, he has been keen to reinstall respect for the republic system, empower the people, enforce the rule of law, strengthen the legislative power, enrich political life, and open up the democratic process and pluralism, to the extent that opposition MPs now occupy 25 per cent of parliamentary seats.

The Tunisian President expressed his confidence that the country's different political parties will enrich the democratic process while remaining committed to the national consensus.

While hailing productive diversity, Ben Ali warned against jeopardizing national unity for destructive personal interests.

The President rejected attempts to discredit the image of Tunisia abroad by those who wish to harm the country from overseas.

A true patriot, stressed Ben Ali, would not join forces with foreign parties to harm the interests of the country.

Such actions would not be tolerated by the Tunisian law, which gives no immunity to anyone breaking it, as all citizens are equal before justice, Ben Ali added, warning that these acts are seen as disturbing public order would be allowed to take any political or ideological cover.

The President stressed that it is the people of Tunisia "who will bear the final judgment".

"Our hearts and hands are extended to every Tunisian man or woman with no exception," he added.

Ben Ali distinguished between constructive differences in points of view and attempts to undermine Tunisia's independence and sovereignty.

The President noted that Tunisia referred cases of foreign interferences in its internal affairs to the Maghreb Union and African Union to look into.

Meanwhile, Ben Ali vowed to continue Tunisia's plans and programs for further progress with the support of civil society and political parties.

The Tunisian President promised more backing for the development of the media sector which would serve freedom of expression and speech in the country.

Ben Ali also vowed to further increase the standard of living for citizens and tackle the issue of unemployment, until guarantying a source of income for every single Tunisian family by 1014.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35674.

Egypt, Algeria battle on Net before key game

2009-11-12

World Cup qualifier between Egypt, Algeria sets unprecedented tensions ahead of football match.

CAIRO - A crunch World Cup qualifier between Egypt and Algeria in Cairo on Saturday has seen unprecedented tensions between the North African rivals spill onto the Internet in a no holds barred cyber war.

The footballing showdown has been the talk of the town for weeks, with Facebook groups, Twitter statuses, media headlines and television adverts setting up for the big game.

The verbal sparring has reached such a pitch that both governments have issued appeals for calm.

On the Internet, Algerian and Egyptian fans have hurled abuse at each other, reviving a decades-old on-pitch enmity that erupted into violent riots during a similar qualifier in 1989.

"Listen to me Pharaohs, you are already cursed," said an Algerian music video circulating on the web addressing the Egyptian football team and laced with profanities.

Egyptian fans hit back with a song of their own that received 29,462 views on the popular video sharing website, YouTube.

"Your words are not important, your words do not affect us," the Egyptian song retorted.

"We liberated you when France made you slaves," the Egyptian song added referring to the support given by then Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser to the Algerian independence movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Officials, who are eager to avoid a repetition of the crowd trouble of 1989, are desperately calling for calm, roping in newspapers and media professionals to help drive home the appeal to Egyptians to offer "a rose for every Algerian".

"We will welcome them, because as Egyptians we are (hospitable), but on the pitch, it's a different story," team captain Ahmed Hassan told a private television network after promising to turn the stadium into "a stadium of horror" on the night.

"There is a joint Egyptian and Algerian desire for calm ahead of the crucial match between the national teams of both countries for the World Cup qualifier," Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said.

He said there was "official cooperation between both sides to ensure that the competitiveness, no matter how intense, does not affect the relationship which links both peoples and countries."

Egyptian and Algerian media "hold a responsibility in this regard... and must work to maintain the strong ties between both countries and should not fuel disagreements that are unrelated to sports and sportsmanship," Zaki said.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's younger son, a senior member of the ruling party, visited the team to offer moral support, the Egyptian weekly Al Youm Al Sabie reported.

"Gamal Mubarak asked the players to exert all efforts to win in order to bring joy to the Egyptian people," the paper said.

Egypt has to secure a three-goal difference to make it to the World Cup. A two goal difference would take both teams to Sudan for a re-match.

"All this hype is just setting them up for a big fall," said one Egyptian fan, Ahmed al-Meligui.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35673.

Radical Jews uproot 80 Palestinian olive trees

Israeli settlers - acting on authority from 'God' - destroy Palestinian trees in West Bank.

NABLUS, West Bank - Radical Israeli settlers on Thursday uprooted 80 olive trees belonging to Palestinians in the north of the occupied West Bank, witnesses and Palestinian security services said.

Settlers from the Yitzhar settlement near the city of Nablus, destroyed the trees some 150 metres (yards) from their settlement, the sources said.

Yitzhar is among the most extremist settlements in the West Bank. Its residents believe Jews have a God-given, biblical-era right to the Palestinian land and are frequently accused of harassing Palestinians living in the area.

All Jewish settlements are illegal under international law because they are built on Arab land (mainly Palestinian), illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

Around illegal 200,000 Jewish settlers are estimated to have moved into the dozen or so Israeli settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem.

There are about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers currently living in settlements the Palestinian West Bank.

The settlers adhere to radical ideologies and are extremely violent to almost-defenseless Palestinians.

Child abductions new threat in Iraq's Kirkuk

Outlaw gangs exploit chaos in Iraq caused by US-led invasion to increase criminal activities.

KIRKUK, Iraq - Criminal gangs in Iraq's northern oil hub of Kirkuk have been exploiting the atmosphere of chaos in Iraq caused by US-led invasion to launch a wave of abductions targeting the scions of wealthy families.

"Since September, the kidnapping of children has increased," said the city's deputy police chief General Turhan Yussef. "We know of at least 10 cases.

"Two were freed by our forces, one child was released after payment of a ransom, three others were after direct negotiations between the parents and the abductors and four, including two girls, are still being held," he said.

Those still in captivity are a 12-year-old Sunni Arab, a 13- and a 14-year-old Turkmen and a 16-year-old Kurd. Ethnicity is not an issue for the criminals.

Last Thursday, the police announced the liberation of two 14-year-old Turkmen boys, kidnapped by gangsters as they were being chauffeured to school in the center of Kirkuk.

Ahmed Mohammed Nur al-Din is the son of a famous Kirkuk ophthalmologist, and Judat Sonay, from a wealthy family. Ahmed's family refused to pay a ransom, but Judat's parents shelled out 50,000 dollars (33,300 euros) to get him back.

The wealthy now live in fear of sending their children off to class.

"We are frightened," said Umm Ruha, the wife of a rich husband who preferred not to give her family name.

"I drive my 14-year daughter to and from school every day and I keep the teachers' telephone numbers constantly by my side."

At the end of October, the son of the chief of the Kurdish Zangana tribe was kidnapped.

"It happened at 7:40 in the morning ... and 36 hours later I received a video," said Sheikh Othman Abdel Karim Agha.

"When I saw Mohammed bound, his eyes blindfolded, crying because they had hit him, I fainted," the boy's 55-year-old father said.

Eleven days later, after 40,000 dollars had been paid, the boy was freed.

Deputy police chief Yussef said there were undoubtedly many more children being kidnapped than the police knew about.

"Many families are afraid to report the disappearance of their children -- out of fear of the abductors, because they have no confidence in us or out of social strictures because the case involves girls," he said.

"The kidnappers are not acting with political motives but to collect a ransom," added Yussef, who is himself a Turkmen but has a Kurdish boss.

Psychologist Abdel Karim Khalifa said "families are traumatized because the mafias are growing in the face of an absence of governmental authority and the weakness of the security forces."

"The authors of these villainous crimes belong to all confessions, and choose schoolchildren because they are easy prey," he added.

Sheikh Othman said his ethnicity had nothing to do with his son's abduction.

He said that while the city's politicians were so divided over the city's future status that the issue nearly prevented the adoption of a law for January parliamentary elections by the constitutional deadline, the criminal gangs shared just one interest -- to profit from the atmosphere of fear.

"The criminal gangs and killers get on just fine with each other regardless of their ethnic or religious differences because they're dividing up the proceeds of their criminal activity," he said.

"It's our politicians who are incapable of getting along."

For his son Mohammed, his ordeal at the hands of his kidnappers is a memory that will continue to haunt him.

"They chained me and beat me, and I was in the dark because they blindfolded me," he said.

"I am still in shock from the constant fear of death."

The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 is viewed by critics as an 'act of aggression' that violated international law.

Subsequent US occupation policies caused the country to descend into almost total chaos, bordering on civil war.

An estimated 1.3 million Iraqis have been killed in Iraq as a direct result of the invasion, while millions more have fled the country.

Critics argue that the recent stability announced in the country should not excuse the 'crime' of invading Iraq, calling for the prosecution of the war's architects for 'crimes against humanity'.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35667.

Palestinian electoral body postpones January polls

Hamas: conditions not suitable for a successful election in absence of national consensus.

RAMALLAH, West bank - The Palestinian electoral commission on Thursday said the elections called for January should be postponed because the vote cannot take place in the Gaza Strip.

"I regret to say it is unfortunate that the elections will be postponed," commission head Hanna Nasser told reporters. "It has become clear to us that conducting elections in the Gaza Strip is not likely to happen."

The election delay risks throwing the divided Palestinians into a legal and constitutional limbo, since the mandates of both president and parliament will have run out in January.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will consult with Palestinian Authority officials in the next few days and is likely to accept the commission's recommendation, officials said.

"I believe we will delay the date of the elections," said Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the central committee of Abbas's Fatah party.

Abbas had called for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held on January 24, when the four-year mandate of the current Hamas-dominated parliament runs out.

But Hamas, which has control inside Israeli-besieged Gaza since June 2007, blasted the presidential decree as unconstitutional because his own mandate ran out last January.

Abbas was elected on January 9, 2005 for a four-year term. The Palestinian Authority extended his presidency by one year so presidential and parliamentary elections could be held on the same date, as required by Palestinian Basic Law.

"After January 25, there will be a legal vacuum because the president and parliament will no longer be legal," said Ahmad of Fatah's central committee.

A committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization will meet in December to "examine how to fill this legal vacuum," he said.

Hamas hailed the electoral commission's decision, adding that "conditions are not suitable for a successful election ... in the absence of a national consensus," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in Gaza.

The bitter rift between Fatah and Hamas goes back to the the 1990s, when strongmen of the Fatah cracked down on the resistance group.

Tensions jumped during the last parliamentary elections in January 2006 when Hamas, running for the first time in a national ballot, routed the long-dominant Fatah.

BNP to form alliance with EU's far-right parties

Amid concerns across Europe that economic woes may nudge voters towards radical right-wing political groups, the British National Party (BNP) joins forces with EU's far-right groups.

The right-wing BNP, accused of inciting fascism and racism, announced on Thursday that the new grouping, the European Alliance of National Movements, would seek funds from the European Union.

The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, whose party secured two EU seats following this year's elections, estimated that the funding would be 11m euros (£10m).

This is while the alliance lacks sufficient membership for official recognition in the European Parliament as a political bloc. At least 25 members from seven countries are required to gain recognition as a political bloc in the parliament.

The movement was launched in Brussels by Griffin ad fellow nationalists from the French National Front and the Hungarian Jobbik party.

Griffin added that the money would be used for political activities of the groups.

There seems to be an obvious contradiction between BNP's official policies and its ambitions, as the group is seeks UK's withdrawal from the EU, a ban on immigration, and a freeze on foreign aid.

"In place of the EU, we intend to aim towards greater national self-sufficiency, and to work to restore Britain's family and trading ties with Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and to trade with the rest of the world as it suits us," says the policy section of the group's website.

The new alliance must now move to satisfy complex EU rules to gain access to EU funding.

A previous attempt to form a similar group in the previous parliament, under the name of 'Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty' (ITS), collapsed in November 2007, according to the BBC.

Ahmadinejad criticizes Tehran traffic jams

The worsening traffic situation in the Iranian capital of Tehran has drawn criticism from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In a Wednesday night televised interview, Ahmadinejad said that he is prepared to 'personally intervene' in the management of Tehran to reduce terrific jams in the city, which is home to over ten million people.

"We have solutions for Tehran and I believe I will soon have to personally intervene in Tehran's issues because I see that the traffic situation is making our citizens suffer," said the former Tehran mayor.

The latest figures released by the Tehran Municipality show citizens of the Iranian capital waste about 20 million hours in traffic jams every day.

The report found Tehran had the worst traffic situation in the entire country and that a rush-hour driver in the capital spends more than 1.5 hours in slow or stopped traffic every day.

Roads, public transportation and telecommuting are not keeping pace with the increased number of kilometers people are driving, which is causing the congestion.

Ahmadinejad went on to say that his administration plans to take over the control of the Tehran Metro Company from the municipality.

The remarks came as the Tehran Municipality and government are in disagreement about providing the capital's subway system with state subsidies.

The president also called on Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf and the Tehran City Council to agree with shifting the management of the metro to the government.

Turkish court jails colonel over subversive plot

A Turkish court has ordered the arrest of a senior military officer on the suspicion of involvement in an alleged army plan to discredit the ruling AK party.

A criminal court in Istanbul arrested naval Col. Dursun Cicek Wednesday evening on the suspicion of membership in a terrorist group, following interrogations conducted by the prosecutors tasked with the Ergenekon case.

The senior military officer had earlier been arrested following the publication of a document in the liberal Taraf newspaper last month which argued that Colonel Cicek had drafted a plan meant to discredit Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), as well as the Fethullah Gulen movement, through media campaigns and provocation of public anguish. He was released shortly as his lawyer appealed his arrest.

Cicek's arrest comes amid tensions between the AKP government and the secularist military. The detention of the senior military officer is poised to cause a wide controversy and stir heated debates in Turkey, a candidate for the European Union membership.

The Ergenekon case has been filed against more than 200 people on charges that they sought to establish an unlawful organization to provoke a series of events that would pave the way for a military coup against the current administration in Turkey.

The clandestine Ergenekon organization has been indicted of at least two violent attacks -- the bombing of a secularist newspaper in 2006 and an attack on a court in the same year that led to the killing of a judge.

Hamas warns of another Israeli assault on Gaza

Ismail Haniyah cautions about Israeli plans for another military offensive against the Gaza Strip, reiterating that it is not the Islamic Hamas movement that is after a war.

Hamas is "not looking for more violence," the democratically elected Palestinian prime minster told a visiting delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza on Wednesday.

Haniyah said he was sure that Israel has plans to target the Gaza Strip once again, recalling the Israeli army's onslaught against the Hamas-run coastal sliver in January, which left more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, dead and thousands more wounded.

The Palestinian leader, however, expressed hope that his prediction would not materialize, and that "the world will stop Israel from killing more children."

Haniyah also vowed that any Israeli incursion would face strong resistance on the part of the Palestinian nation.

The comments follow a new round of threats from the military officials in Tel Aviv who have said that Israel's next war would be in Gaza.

In one of his notable remarks, the Israeli military Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi declared that the Israeli troops would return to the Gaza Strip "to fight in the villages, cities, mosques, hospitals, kindergartens and schools because the enemies want to impose this method of fighting against Israel."

This is while Israel is struggling to forestall the prosecution in the International Criminal Court of those officials and officers who launched the Gaza war, as a damning UN report highlighting Israel's deliberate killing of civilians is finding its way to the UN Security Council.

Hamas has vowed retaliation against any Israeli attack. "Our people will not surrender; they will fight back," Prime Minister Haniyah's office said, in a statement.

Govt okays Rs 10k cr highway projects in three states

The government today announced approving eight projects, envisaging an expenditure of Rs 10,883.89 crore, in the highways sector.

The projects, approved during the meeting of the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC), are located in Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Haryana.

"The 28th PPPAC meeting, chaired by Finance Secretary (Ashok Chawla) met on October 16, 2009, and granted approval to eight projects of Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. These projects are in three states," an official statement said.

The Committee, which was constituted in January 2006 has so far approved 135 projects with a total cost of Rs 1,37,025.62 crore, including 122 highways projects.

"These include national highways (122 projects), ports (nine projects), airports (two projects), tourism infrastructure (one project) and railways (one project)," the statement said.

The eight highways development projects approved by the PPPAC include six in Jammu and Kashmir and one each in Karnataka and Haryana.

The J&K projects include Rs 971 crore scheme for four- laning of Qazigund to Banihal section, Rs 1,987 crore scheme for strengthening and four-laning of Ramban to Banihal section, Rs 986 crore for rehabilitation and strengthening of four-laning of Udhampur to Ramban section.

Somali judge 'killed by pirates'

Thu Nov 12, 2009

A Somali official has accused the country's pirates and militants of assassinating a top judge who had delivered 'tough' guilty verdicts to criminals.

Somalia's security minister for northern territories, also known as Puntland, Mohamed Said Samatar says pirates and militia groups have executed the country's High Court Judge Mohammed Abdi Aware over his efforts to confront militancy and piracy with harsh prison sentences.

Samatar announced on Thursday the arrest of three unspecified gunmen who allegedly participated in Judge Aware's killing.

Aware was shot dead after leaving a mosque in Puntland on Wednesday, eyewitnesses said.

Somalia's northern Puntland territories have enjoyed relative calm compared to the central and southern regions where militancy takes human toll on an almost daily basis.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/111107.html.

Somali judge who jailed pirates, insurgents killed

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Gunmen have killed a top Somali judge who had sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms, the security minister for northern Somalia said Thursday.

Mohamed Said Samatar said three men were arrested Thursday over the killing of High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware. In addition to jailing suspected pirates, Aware also recently jailed four members of Somalia's Islamic insurgency.

Eyewitness Mohamud Dahir said masked men with pistols shot the judge in the head and chest several times as he left a mosque Wednesday evening in the port city of Bossaso.

"These gangs hate him for his justice. We suspect one of them may have something to do with his assassination," said Aware's cousin, Abdulahi Jama.

Aware was also a member of Puntland's Supreme Judicial Council, which supervises the judiciary and nominates senior judicial officials.

Samatar says Puntland legislator Ibrahim Ilmi Warsame was also shot dead Wednesday as he sat in a restaurant with friends. It was not immediately clear if the killings were linked.

Targeted killings are rarer in Puntland than in south central Somalia, where the embattled government is fighting an Islamic insurgency. Pirate gangs have exploited the lawlessness to launch attacks from many towns along Somalia's coastline, including several in Puntland.

Somalia has not had an effective central government for 18 years, although Puntland has set up a semiautonomous government and the northern region of Somaliland has declared its independence.

Warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, plunging Somalia into chaos and anarchy.

Ghana gold mine incident kills 18

Thu Nov 12, 2009

(PressTV) At least 18 people, including 14 women, have been killed in Ghana's worst mine mishap after the walls of a gold mine in the West African republic collapsed.

Around 30 miners were digging in an illegal gold mine around the western town of Dompoase when the accident occurred, local police authorities said on Thursday.

"This is the biggest mining tragedy that has ever hit Ghana," AFP quoted Western Region police chief Kojo Antwi Tabi as saying.

"The government must take measures to control the activities of miners," he added.

There have been no further details about the incident but police expect more fatalities.

As the second largest producer of gold, Ghana has been pestered by unauthorized mining done in rural areas.

Azerbaijan to supply Iran with gas

Tehran and Baku have signed a memorandum of mutual understanding on Azerbaijani gas supplies to Iran beginning from 2010.

"More than 500 million cubic meters of gas per year are planned to be supplied within the memorandum with an opportunity to increase supplies," said the head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Rovnag Abdullayev.

The MoU was signed between SOCAR and Iran's National Gas Company, he said, adding that the volume of gas transferred would depend on the state of gas infrastructure connecting the two countries at the initial stage.

The contract to supply gas to Iran is expected to be officially signed by late 2009, Abdullayev said.

Azerbaijan currently exports gas to Turkey and Georgia but Baku owns the necessary infrastructure to export its gas to Iran and Russia as well.

Azerbaijan and Iran are connected via the Kazi-Magomed-Astara gas pipeline which has the capacity to transfer 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Israeli settlers attack West Bank farms

Palestinian settlement monitoring authorities say a group of extremist Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian olive farms in the north of the occupied West Bank.

Residents from the notorious Yitzhar settlement, near the city of Nablus, destroyed the trees in the village of Burin some 150 meters (yards) from their settlement on Thursday morning.

Palestinian official Ghassan Douglas, who holds the settlement portfolio for the northern West Bank, said the Israeli assailants destroyed 81 olive trees on the property of Akram Amran, Ma'an news agency reported.

Douglas condemned the destruction as 'provocative and unacceptable'.

Yitzhar is among the most hardline settlements in the West Bank, whose ultra-Orthodox residents claim a God-given, biblical right to the land and frequently harass Palestinians living in the area.

This is while a rabbi who runs an Orthodox Jewish school in the settlement has endorsed the killing of any non-Jew, including children and babies, who pose a threat to Israel.

"Children should not be exempt from this fate. There is a reasonable explanation for killing infants if it is clear that they will grow up to hurt us, and in this situation, the strike should be directed at them," Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro advised in his book The King's Torah.

The book includes endorsements from leading Jewish spiritual authorities in the West Bank.

Israeli activists acknowledge the extremist thinking in the book is quite widespread among settlers as a number of them have a deeply racist philosophy against any non-Jews, and especially against Palestinians and other Arabs.

AQIM Recruits Moroccans For Ops In Algeria

CAIRO [MENL] -- The Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb has been recruiting Moroccans for operations in neighboring Algeria.

Algerian security sources said AQIM was attracting young Moroccans from cities as well as rural regions of the North African kingdom. The sources said the Moroccans have been ordered to cross the border and directed to training camps in Algeria.

Israel's Role in the Destabilization of Pakistan?

Thursday, 12 November 2009
Press Release: Jeff Gates

What is Israel’s Role in the Destabilization of Pakistan?

When waging war “by way of deception,” the motto of the Israeli Mossad, well-timed crises play a critical agenda-setting role by displacing facts with what a target population can be deceived to believe. Thus the force-multiplier effect when staged crises are reinforced with pre-staged intelligence. In combination, the two often prove persuasive.

That duplicity was on display when U.S. lawmakers were induced to invade Iraq in response to the mass murder of 9-11. That crisis alone, however, was insufficient. Military mobilization required a “consensus” belief in Iraqi WMD, Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda, Iraqi mobile biological weapons, Iraqi meetings in Prague, and so forth. Though all were false, those “facts” proved sufficient to induce an invasion of Iraq.

Such agent provocateur operations typically include collateral incidents as pre-staging for the intended main event. Ongoing incidents suggest a follow-on operation is underway. Recent history suggests we’ll see an orgy of evidence that plausibly indicts a pre-staged Evil Doer. Though Iran is an obvious candidate, Pakistan is also a possibility where outside forces have been destabilizing this nuclear Islamic nation with a series of violent incidents.

Will it be coincidence if the next war—like the last—is consistent with the expansive goals of Jewish nationalists?

The Indo-Israel Alliance

December 2007 saw the murder of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Mark Siegel, her Ashkenazim biographer and lobbyist, assured U.S. diplomats that her return was “the only possible way that we could guarantee stability and keep the presidency of Musharraf intact .”

President Pervez Musharraf had announced that resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict was essential to the resolution of conflicts in Iraq and neighboring Afghanistan. That comment made him a target for Tel Aviv.

During Bhutto’s two terms as prime minister, Pakistani support for the Taliban—then celebrated as the freedom-fighting Mujahadin—enabled her to wield influence in Afghanistan while also catalyzing conflicts in Kashmir. By fueling tension with India, she also fueled an Indo-Israel alliance as Tel Aviv provided New Delhi an emergency shipment of artillery shells during a conflict over the Kirpal region of Kashmir.

In January 2009, Israel delivered to India the first of three Phalcon Airborne Warning Control Systems (AWACS) shifting the balance of conventional weapons in the region. That sale confirmed what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier announced: “Our ties with India don’t have any limitation….” That became apparent in April when Israel signed a $1.1 billion agreement to provide India an advanced tactical air defense system developed by Raytheon, a U.S. defense contractor.

In August 2008, Ashkenazim General David Kezerashvili returned to Georgia from Tel Aviv to lead an assault on separatists in South Ossetia with the support of Israeli arms and training. That crisis ignited Cold War tensions between the U.S. and Russia, key members of the Quartet (along with the EU and the UN) pledged to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Little was said about the Israeli interest in a pipeline across Georgia meant to move Caspian oil through Turkey and on to Eurasia, using Israel as an intermediary while undermining Russia’s oil industry.

More Game Theory Warfare?

Bhutto’s murder ensured a crisis that replaced Musharaff with Asif Ali Zardari, her notoriously corrupt husband. By Washington’s alliance with Zardari, the U.S. could be portrayed as extending its corrupting influence in the region.

On August 7, 2008, the Zadari-led ruling coalition called for a no-confidence vote in Parliament against Musharraf just as he was departing for the Summer Olympics in Beijing. On August 8, heavy fighting erupted overnight in South Ossetia. As with many of the recent incidents in Pakistan, this violent event involved armed separatists.

But for pro-Israeli influence inside the U.S. government, would our State Department have installed in office the corrupt Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, leading to record-level poppy production? Is the heroin epidemic presently eroding Russian society traceable to Israel’s infamous game theory war-planners? [See “How Israel Wages Game Theory Warfare” and “Israel and 9-11”.]

In late November 2008, a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India’s financial center, renewed fears of nuclear tension between India and Pakistan. When the attackers struck a hostel managed by Chabad Lubavitch, an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect from New York, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced from Tel Aviv: “Our world is under attack.” By early December, Israeli journalists urged that we “fortify the security of Jewish institutions worldwide.”

Soon after “India’s 9-11” was found to include operatives from Pakistan’s western tribal region, Zardari announced an agreement with the Taliban to allow Sharia law to govern a swath of the North West Frontier Province where Al Qaeda members reportedly reside.

Pakistani cooperation with “Islamic extremists” created the impression of enhanced insecurity and vulnerability for the U.S. and its allies. That perceived threat was marketed by mainstream media as proof of the perils of “militant Islam.”

With the Taliban and Al Qaeda portrayed as operating freely in a nuclear-armed Islamic state, Tel Aviv gained traction for its claim that a nuclear Tehran posed an “existential threat” to the Jewish state. Meanwhile Israel’s election of an ultra-nationalist/ultra-orthodox coalition further delayed resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

More delay is destined to evoke more extremism and gain more traction for those marketing the “global war on terrorism.” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni argued after the assault in Mumbai: “Israel, India and the rest of the free world are positioned in the forefront of the battle against terrorists and extremism.”

In announcing that list, Islamabad was indicted by its exclusion even though Pakistan is dominantly Sunni and, unlike Iran’s Shi’a, abhors theocratic rule. The fact patterns suggest that Pakistan, not India, was the target of the murderous terrorism in Mumbai.

Advised by legions of Ashkenazim, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent mission to Islamabad was a diplomatic disaster. Abrasive and arrogant, America’s top diplomat reinforced Pakistani concerns that it is surrounded by hostile forces and that the nation is being set up to fail by Jewish nationalist advisers to a nation it considered an ally.

In a climate of heightened tensions, Clinton undermined U.S. interests, boosted the Israeli case for a global war on “Islamo-fascism” and lent credence to the Clash of Civilizations .

Destabilization as a Prequel to Domination

As Afghanistan and Pakistan join other nations being destabilized by outside forces, key questions must be answered:

Was India’s 9-11 a form of geopolitical misdirection meant to serve both the tactical goals of Muslim extremists and the strategic goals of Jewish nationalists? Who benefits—within Pakistan—from humiliation at the hands of India and the U.S.?

With Bhutto’s murder and Musharraf’s departure, the crisis in Mumbai drew Pakistani forces to the Indian border and away from the western tribal region. Was that the geostrategic goal of these well-timed crises? What role, if any, did Israel play?

Is delay in ending the occupation of Palestine part of an agent provocateur strategy? Was the latest assault on Gaza part of this strategy?

Each of these crises incrementally advanced the expansionist agenda of Colonial Zionists. Do these collateral incidents trace their origin to a common source? Is that source again using serial events to pre-stage a main event?

The public has an intuitive grasp of the source of this oft-recurring behavior. An October 2003 poll of 7,500 respondents in member nations of the European Union found that Israel was considered the greatest threat to world peace.

Is terrorism limited to “Islamo-fascists”? Are mass murders also deployed—from the shadows—as a strategy of geopolitical manipulation by those who Ashkenazim philosopher Hannah Arendt described as “Jewish fascists”?

Source: Scoop.
Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0911/S00389.htm.

Afghan Taliban rebuffs any association with TTP

November 10, 2009

QUETTA (SANA): Afghan Taliban has strongly denied any association with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), says alleged Afghan Taliban commander.

The Afghan Taliban commander Abdul Manan Aka Mulla Toor Jan expressed those views during his exclusive media interview wherein he mentioned that al Qaeda has no link with the TTP embroiled in war against Pakistani forces in embattled South Waziristan and Swat district.

"The Afghan Taliban leaders have not crossed the border, they are not hiding in Pakistan, but they are targeting coalition and NATO forces from Afghanistan only" he said.

The Afghanistan Taliban commander strongly condemned targeting civilians in the alleged US drone attacks in the various bordering parts of the Pakistan for the last few years.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59939&s2=12.

UK scholars linked to 'stolen' bowls of Babylon

Suppressed report reveals archaeological treasures were dug up after Gulf war
Vanessa Thorpe and James Doeser

November 10, 2009

A secret report on the chequered history of priceless Aramaic bowls loaned to a leading university has exposed an apparent attempt to cover up UK academic connections to a potentially deadly trade in stolen Iraqi antiquities.

The findings of the study, which was suppressed by a controversial legal agreement in 2007, have at last solved a long-standing archaeological mystery.

Commissioned by University College London in 2005, it confirms the expert view that the bowls were stolen from the historical site of Babylon and should be returned to Iraq or handed over to the police. The report was completed in 2006 but suppressed a year later in a legal settlement made between the university and the putative owner of the bowls, the multimillionaire Norwegian collector, Martin Schøyen.

But a copy of its findings recently placed in the House of Lords library reveals that specialists in archaeology are convinced that the incantation bowls, dating from the fifth to eighth centuries, must have come from Iraq illegally. They believe the rare finds were probably dug up from the remains of Babylon some time after the 1991 Gulf war and were not found in Jordan, as believed by Schøyen. The UCL report concludes that "the bowls are subject to the Iraq United Nations sanctions order 2003 as cultural objects illicitly removed from Iraq after 6 August 1990 and that UCL has therefore a duty to deliver them to a constable".

The learned team of academics and researchers who worked on the report concluded that both the university and Schøyen were guilty of not showing enough curiosity about the source of the 654 bowls, although it is not suggested that Schøyen knew they might have been looted when he bought them. The team recommended they be returned immediately and asked for the findings to be made public. But in 2007 the report's three authors were made to keep quiet about their conclusions and UCL paid an undisclosed sum of compensation to Schøyen. The authors are believed to have been unhappy about the legal gag.

This weekend one of them, UCL's director of museums and collections, Sally McDonald, said she was unable to comment further on the report. At a press conference in June 2007 UCL and Schøyen released a joint statement that now appears to be a misrepresentation of the report's findings. It read: "In 2003 questions were raised in the media with regard to the origin of these bowls, as a result of which UCL, with the agreement of the Schøyen Collection, initiated an inquiry into their provenance.

"Following a searching investigation by an eminent panel of experts, and further inquiries of its own, UCL is pleased to announce that no claims adverse to the Schøyen Collection's right and title have been made or intimated."

But one of the suppressed report's two other authors, the Cambridge academic Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, has called for the Iraqi government to demand the return of the bowls or to threaten to sue UCL and Schøyen. "It is reasonably clear the bowls left Iraq in recent years, and I expect that the Iraqi government will be in contact with the British government to demand their return," he said. "It is very important that the continued looting of antiquities ceases, and for that to happen wealthy collectors and museums have to stop buying them."

Professor Peter Stone, a Newcastle University expert in looted Iraqi antiquities, argues that the trade in stolen pieces is potentially even more dangerous, putting lives in peril as well as the archaeological legacy of the region.

"This is the first I have heard about the real contents of this UCL report," he said. "The bowls themselves have already lost about 70% of their archaeological value because they have been removed from their geographical context. They are now chiefly valuable as objects of art history. But stopping the trade in these looted objects remains crucial. As the US Marines have recently pointed out, there is a strong case that the money made by illegally digging up artifacts in historic sites is being used to buy guns for the insurgent forces."

The incantation bowls, which were placed above doorways by Mesopotamian Jews as spiritual protection, are thought to be in a UCL store in London or Kent and cannot be used for research. They were borrowed from Schøyen in 1996 by Professor Mark Geller of UCL's Institute of Jewish Studies in an informal arrangement to allow the bowls to be cataloged by experts. A decade later Schøyen, probably the world's greatest private collector of manuscripts and texts, began proceedings against UCL for failing to return the bowls as agreed.

He stated: "The Schøyen Collection has become frustrated with the waste of time and money caused by a lengthy and inconclusive inquiry into provenance and with the spurious reasons given for not returning the bowls."

The UCL report was suppressed as part of the legal settlement of this case.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59931&s2=12.

North Korea threatens South over naval clash

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened Thursday to punish South Korea after their first naval skirmish in seven years, as Seoul expressed confidence it could deter any attack from its communist neighbor.

The two Koreas clashed in waters off their western coast Tuesday with each side accusing the other of violating the disputed sea border and firing first. The fighting came ahead of a planned visit to South Korea next week by President Barack Obama.

On Thursday, the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary that it will not tolerate what it claimed was South Korea's aggression in its waters.

"Our unchanged principle is no forgiveness and merciless punishment for warmongers who infringe upon our republic's dignity and sovereignty," said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. It didn't specify how the North would punish the South.

Another state newspaper, Minju Joson, also warned that South Korea would face "costly consequences." It said the clash stemmed from a plot by the South to disrupt direct talks that are planned between Pyongyang and Washington by inspiring anti-North Korea sentiment among American officials.

Analysts agree that the skirmish was likely linked to Obama's visit — though they have suggested that the North may have been looking to improve its bargaining position with the U.S. by stoking tensions.

Obama, due to arrive in Seoul on Nov. 18 for a regional meeting, plans to send a senior envoy to Pyongyang by year's end for the first direct talks between the wartime foes during his administration. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Singapore on Wednesday that the fight would not scuttle a planned visit to Pyongyang by special envoy Stephen Bosworth.

Bosworth's trip is aimed at persuading communist North Korea to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations, which Pyongyang walked away from earlier this year.

South Korean officials shrugged off the North's threats, saying they were ready to deter any aggression.

"We will resolutely safeguard" the Northern Limit Line, a de facto western sea border drawn up by the U.N. command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, a Defense Ministry official said. The North has long insisted the line be redrawn farther south.

An officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff also reiterated that the skirmish broke out as the North Korean ship opened fire after violating the border and ignoring warnings shots from the South Korean ship.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity citing department policy.

The mass-circulation Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Thursday that South Korean ships fired a total of about 4,000 rounds at the North Korean vessel, inflicting so much damage that it had to be towed by another North Korean ship to a nearby naval base.

One senior South Korean officer told The Associated Press that a North Korean was killed and three others wounded. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter involved intelligence.

A South Korean ship was lightly damaged, and there were no casualties on their side, officials said.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, downplayed the seriousness of the North's threats, saying Pyongyang was unlikely to take further military action because it appeared to be using the skirmish to get Washington's attention. He said it was in their interest to "show the Korean peninsula is still unstable" ahead of anticipated direct talks.

Following the skirmish, South Korea's 680,000-member military went on high alert to cope with possible retaliation. South Korean media reported the country has deployed up to four destroyers and warships near the sea border — the scene of two bloody fights in 1999 and 2002.

South Korea's military said there has been no sign of suspicious activities from North Korean troops, but news reports said the North has also placed its 1.2 million-strong army on high alert.

Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told the National Assembly on Tuesday that he believed the North may take retaliatory actions, saying President Lee Myung-bak "also has such concerns."

The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S., which has never had diplomatic relations with North Korea, stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to deter potential North Korean aggression.

Injured owl seems to know where to go for aid

By Rex Springston

RICHMOND, VA -- In case you needed further proof that owls are wise, an injured one made its way to a federal wildlife office in eastern Henrico County.

The great horned owl, appearing stunned, was found Sunday about 10:30 a.m. crouching on the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in the 5700 block of South Laburnum Avenue.

"It was like he came to the wildlife people for help," said Sally Davis, owner of Tri-City Florist next to the wildlife office. Her husband, George, first saw the bird, and an animal-control officer took it away.

A doctor at Hanover Green Veterinary Clinic in Mechanicsville checked out the owl, which had a bump on its head and appeared confused but did not require surgery.

The bird now is under the care of a wildlife rehabilitator and will get some rest before it is released.

The bird should be released soon, said Dan Rolince, resident agent in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service law-enforcement region that includes this area. The bird turned up in front of his office.

Rolince said it's possible the owl got hurt in traffic or flew into a window or other object. Rolince said he doubted someone would care enough to take the bird to the office and then abandon it there.

The wildlife service office, incidentally, is in the Byrd Center business park.

Hezbollah dismisses Obama pledges

The leader of Lebanon's mainly Shia movement Hezbollah says US President Barack Obama's promise to engage with Muslims has proved to be false.

Hassan Nasrallah said the US had shown its commitment to Israel by sending more military aid and backtracking on demands to stop West Bank settlements.

He said the Arab world could not depend on the US to solve its problems because the US was causing them.

In June, Mr Obama called for a "new beginning" between the US and Muslims.

Correspondents say that Mr Nasrallah's remarks were his strongest criticism yet of the US president.

'Dignity disregarded'

"A few months ago, when Barack Obama was elected as US president and a new American administration saw light, many had high hopes and believed that major changes will happen in favor of the Arab and Islamic world," said Mr Nasrallah, quoted by Hezbollah's al-Manar TV.

"However, the truth was quickly revealed and all these illusions quickly failed. The result was obviously a full US commitment to Israel's interest and security, disregarding the dignity and feelings of the Arab and Muslim people and governments."

He added: "We tell all those who asked us to give the Americans some time… it turned out that presenting a black president from the third world was a trick that ended faster than we expected."

Mr Nasrallah was speaking on Hezbollah's Martyrs' Day.

Earlier this week, the head of Israel's military said that Hezbollah now has rockets capable of reaching Israel's largest cities.

Maj Gen Gabi Ashkenazi's warning came days after Israel's navy seized a ship it said was carrying hundreds of tonnes of weapons destined for Hezbollah.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006 during which more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, were killed. Some 160 Israelis, most of whom were soldiers, also died.

Egypt welcomes German life term

The Egyptian government has welcomed the life imprisonment imposed by a German court on a man who murdered a pregnant Egyptian woman.

Alexander Wiens, a Russian-born German, stabbed Marwa Sherbini with a kitchen knife in July in the same Dresden courthouse where he was sentenced.

Egypt's foreign ministry said the life sentence served as "a warning to those motivated by hate".

Egyptian ambassador to Germany Ramzi Izz al-Din said justice was served.

"Today the sentence is the right sentence, the just sentence.

"It is the maximum sentence possible under German law and I think that says a lot for the German justice system," the ambassador said.

The Dresden state court also ruled that Wiens, 28, would not be eligible for early release.

Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said: "The verdict, the maximum punishment under German law, serves justice and is considered a warning to those motivated by hate."

The killing happened at a court hearing where Wiens was appealing against his conviction for insulting Ms Sherbini on racial and religious grounds.

Wiens admitted stabbing her to death, but argued his action was not premeditated.

The crime sparked outrage across the Muslim world.

Prosecutors at the trial, which took place amid tight security, insisted he was motivated by a "hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims".

Prosecutors said Wiens had smuggled in an 18cm (7in) kitchen knife to the appeal hearing.

He stabbed Ms Sherbini at least 16 times with it, and also injured her husband who tried to protect her.

The 31-year-old, who was three months pregnant with her second child, bled to death in front of her husband and their three-year-old son.

Her husband was also accidentally shot in the leg by a security guard who initially believed him to be the attacker.

Wiens was found guilty of attempted murder and causing bodily harm for the attack on the husband.

Many Muslim leaders had accused Germany of Islamophobia following the killing.

After the sentencing, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said: "This shows that violence, racial hatred and intolerance have no place in Germany."

US envoy opposed to Afghan surge

Thursday, 12 November 2009

The US ambassador in Kabul has written to the White House to oppose sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan.

In a leaked cable, Karl Eikenberry said President Karzai's government should first prove it would tackle corruption.

The message arrived amid intense debate over strategy, with President Obama yet to make a decision on troop numbers.

The dramatic intervention puts the ambassador - a former military commander in Afghanistan - at odds with generals seeking reinforcements.

On Wednesday, President Obama held his eighth meeting to discuss the question of whether to send tens of thousands more troops to confront the Taliban.

Mr Eikenberry sent the secret cable in the past week, according to US media reports.

Expressing concern about corruption in Afghanistan, he said it was "not a good idea" to send substantially more soldiers, the BBC has been told.

The diplomatic dispatch appears to be a dramatic and last-minute intervention by the ambassador, says BBC Washington correspondent Adam Brookes.

It comes right at the end of weeks of White House deliberation over how to proceed in Afghanistan, and appears to put the ambassador at odds with the US Army, whose generals favor reinforcing and intensifying America's campaign.

The US currently has some 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, among a coalition force of more than 100,000.

Military chief 'fuming'

Officials say the Obama administration considered several options at Wednesday's meeting, including:

• Deploying another 40,000 troops, the option pushed for by the top US military commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal

• Sending an additional 30,000 soldiers - a plan said to be favored by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm Mike Mullen

• Sending about 20,000 extra troops

• A fourth option added in the past week involves sending 10,000 to 15,000 more soldiers, according to US media reports

In weighing up the options, Mr Obama is also preoccupied with how long it would take to see results and be able to withdraw, officials said.

Gen McChrystal was said to be fuming about Mr Eikenberry's intervention.

But a statement issued by the White House after Wednesday afternoon's strategy meeting appeared to reflect some of the envoy's concerns.

"The president believes we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open ended," it said.

"After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in a reasonable period of time."

The Obama administration is also known to have concerns about the reliability of the government of President Karzai, who was last week declared the winner of August's widely criticized presidential election.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says there is a strong feeling that unless President Karzai gets his shop in order and tackles bad governance across the country, it will not matter how many extra troops are sent.

Critics have said the decision on Afghanistan is taking too long, while Mr Obama has said he does not want to rush a move that involves putting troops at risk.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8356094.stm.

Japan's emperor marks 20th anniversary on throne

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO – Tens of thousands of well-wishers lined the streets of Tokyo on Thursday for a parade on the 20th anniversary of the coronation of Emperor Akihito, who urged Japanese not to forget the lessons of World War II.

Officials said they expected more than 50,000 people to gather around the Imperial Palace for the parade, a concert and other events marking Akihito's ascent to the world's oldest hereditary throne. Akihito and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama spoke at a celebration later in the day.

Hatoyama then led the gathering in three cheers of "Banzai!" — a traditional Japanese cheer.

Speaking at a brief pre-anniversary news conference, the 75-year-old monarch said he was in good health, although he has been treated for cancer and other ailments and appeared frail.

When asked if he had any concerns for the country's future, he said he was worried young people are forgetting their history.

Akihito said Japan must not forget its past — and especially the turbulent years his father was on the throne that included the country's invasion and occupation of several of its neighbors.

"What worries me most is that the history of the past will gradually be forgotten," he said. "The reign of my father began at a very difficult time," he said, noting that Japan invaded Manchuria six years after Emperor Hirohito ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne. "There are many lessons that we can learn from the 60-some years of his reign."

"He viscerally knew the importance of peace," Akihito said.

Akihito assumed the throne after the death of his father on Jan. 7, 1989, but was not coronated until later that year because the country was officially in mourning.

Japan has often been criticized by its neighbors — who bore the brunt of Japanese colonialism — for whitewashing the country's role in World War II in its school textbooks. Although Akihito has visited China, he has yet to travel to South Korea, largely because of lingering animosities over the war.

Until Japan's surrender in 1945, Hirohito was officially considered a living god and loyalty to the throne was used to rally the nation behind the war, though historians generally agree that it was more often the generals, admirals and politicians who made the major decisions that set the country's disastrous course.

Over the past 20 years, Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, have grown quietly into their roles as ceremonial symbols of the nation, a definition of the Japanese monarchs imposed by U.S. military leaders during the Japanese occupation.

Akihito's primary role is that of a figurehead, presiding over rituals at the palace shrines, meeting foreign dignitaries and swearing in new Cabinets.

His public comments are famously circumspect, avoiding subjects that might have political implications, and off-the-cuff remarks are almost unheard of. The questions he answered at the pre-anniversary news conference were submitted to the palace well in advance, and he had written answers prepared.

Irish priest freed in Philippines after a month

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer

DUBLIN – A 79-year-old Irish Roman Catholic priest abducted in the Philippines a month ago was freed early Thursday and neither country paid any of the kidnappers' $2 million ransom demand, Irish and Filipino authorities said.

The Rev. Michael Sinnott said he was not harmed but complained of arduous journeys as kidnappers took him by sea and through jungles to evade government troops.

"I was treated well. Once I had been kidnapped and brought to the boat, that was very rough," he told Manila's ABS-CBN television from a military camp in southern Zamboanga city.

He said he was not angry with the kidnappers, whom the Philippine government suspected had ties with a large Muslim rebel group. "They gave me lectures on their ideology but apart from that, they treated me well."

Irish President Mary McAleese called Sinnott's freedom the answer to the shared prayers of millions in both countries.

"He is clearly a man of great resilience, strength and courage and we wish him well as he seeks to recover from such a trying ordeal," McAleese said.

And Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the government would help the priest enjoy "a speedy reunion with his family and friends."

Six armed men abducted Sinnott Oct. 11 from his missionary home on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, escaped by speedboat, and took him into the jungle.

Officials had feared he could suffer a fatal heart attack because he was still recovering from heart-bypass surgery. Rumors persisted that he had died in captivity.

Philippine security officials blamed Sinnott's kidnapping on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group that has fought for decades for Muslim self-rule in the predominantly Catholic country.

But the rebels denied involvement.

Rebel leader Mohagher Iqbal said his group applied "pressure and our moral authority" on the kidnappers to release Sinnott.

Chief Philippine negotiator Rafael Seguis credited Moro rebel leadership with persuading the kidnappers to hand over the priest.

Senior military commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said Sinnott was debriefed in the southern military camp before flying to Manila later Thursday to be greeted by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Dolorfino and Seguis said Philippine authorities paid no ransom.

In Dublin, Martin declined to detail how the priest won his freedom other than to call the achievement "the successful conclusion of a major diplomatic effort by the Irish and Philippine governments." He also credited the U.S. government, other European Union nations with embassies in Manila, and the International Committee of the Red Cross with playing a role.

The Philippine government said it had received demands from Sinnott's captors for $2 million in ransom but, like the Irish, stressed that paying anything would only encourage more kidnappings in rebel-threatened Mindanao.

Martin said paying a ransom "would only have jeopardized the vital work of aid workers and missionaries around the world. It would also place other Irish citizens in danger."

At least two other Irish Catholic priests have been targeted by kidnappers in the southern Philippines. In 1987 a priest was held for 12 days by Islamic militants before being released unharmed, but four years later another priest was shot to death when he resisted his abductors.

In June 2007, kidnappers with links to Moro rebels held an Italian priest for 33 days.

Iran calls for era of 'nuclear cooperation'

Iranian President says Tehran would defend its nuclear assets in line with national interests.

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Wednesday that his country would defend its nuclear facilities, while adding that Iran wanted to cooperate over its controversial nuclear drive, state media reported.

"Iran will defend its nuclear assets in line with its national interests," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the website of the state television channel.

But he added: "We have entered an era of nuclear agreement and cooperation.

"One of the important questions... is about nuclear cooperation at the international level, whether that be construction of nuclear power stations, reactors or even the presence of Iran in a nuclear fuel bank."

The president added: "Stopping the nuclear programme is now irrelevant and we have arrived at the point where we are cooperating at a top level with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and through it with countries who have this technology."

World powers have proposed a new plan to try and resolve a uranium enrichment standoff with Iran.

A deal proposed by IAEA, calls for Iran to ship most of its known low-riched uranium -- about 1,200 kilogrammes -- to Russia for further enrichment.

The material will then be turned into fuel by France and sent back to Iran for use in a research reactor, in a bid to prevent Tehran further enriching the uranium itself in a suspected drive to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has still not responded to the proposals.

Russia, which has been an ally of Iran, urged Tehran again on Wednesday to give a prompt and positive response to the UN-drafted plan.

Iran insists it has the right to develop nuclear technology, which it says is aimed at generating energy for its growing population.

Although Iran has oil, it is still dependent on petrol imports to meet about 40 percent of domestic consumption.

Israel is the only country in the Middle Ease that actually has nuclear weapons.

Observers say due the strong Jewish and pro-Israel lobbies in the US and some European countries, these countries have taken a hypocritical stance in relation to nuclear issues in the region.

Tehran had repeatedly protested against Israeli and US war threats, warning them that it would retaliate in the event of any strike against Iran.

Hezbollah chief urges avoiding Lebanon division

Nasrallah plays down prospects of new conflict with Israel, but remains ready to defend Lebanon.

BEIRUT - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Wednesday to cooperate with Lebanon's new unity government but warned that it should avoid the "big issues," in allusion to his resistance group's weapons.

"Success for this government, its prime minister and ministers will mean success for Lebanon and Hezbollah," Nasrallah said in a televised address to mark Hezbollah's martyrs' day.

"But I call for patience in dealing with the big issues," he added, alluding to demands by the UN Security Council and his local rivals for the disarmament of his resistance group.

"If we start with this now, we are headed straight for problems."

Nasrallah also said he hoped for a "government of national cooperation and accord."

"We do not want a government divided by barricades," he said.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced the formation of his new government on Monday, more than four months after his alliance defeated a Hezbollah-led bloc backed by a general election.

The winning alliance headed by Hariri won 71 seats in the 128-member parliament in the election against 57 for the opposition led by Hezbollah.

The Hezbollah opposition had actually secured the majority (52%) of the votes in Lebanon, but could not secure a majority of Parliamentary seats (it won 45%) because of the nature of the sectarian government system in the country.

The government met for the first time on Tuesday at the president palace, making it clear that it would steer clear of the thorny issue of Hezbollah's weapons.

Hariri's government includes 15 ministers from Hariri's bloc and 10 from the opposition. The remaining five were appointed by President Michel Sleiman.

Nasrallah, whose party has two ministers in the new government, played down the prospects of a new conflict with Israel, dismissing recent Israeli warnings as "psychological warfare."

But he added that Hezbollah remained ready for any eventuality.

"Send all the troops you want," he said. "We will kill all your officers and soldiers."

Hezbollah is the only Lebanese party that refused to surrender its weapons after the country's 1975-1990 civil war. It argues they are necessary to defend Lebanon against Israeli aggression.

Nasrallah called on the rival Lebanese blocs' foreign sponsors Iran and Saudi Arabia to work hand in hand on regional issues.

"We call for Saudi-Iranian rapprochement, initiated by either country or any other party," he said.

"These two large, important countries should cooperate," Nasrallah said. "The region is in need of a loyal firefighter."

Israel waged a bloody 34-day war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 after Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid that aimed to free Lebanese soldiers from Israeli prisons. The bodies of the soldiers were returned in a prisoner swap.

The war claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Hezbollah, originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, had forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000. Israel, however, continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.

Israeli flights over Lebanon occur on an almost daily basis and are in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710, which in August 2006 ended the war.

Lebanese president heads to Damascus for talks

Beirut - Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman headed Thursday to Damascus for talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al Assad, three days after the formation of a Lebanese national unity cabinet. According to a source at the presidential Palace, Suleiman and Assad will hold a summit that will focus on the future Lebanese-Syrian ties.

According to the Lebanese daily As-Safir, the summit will produce Syrian support for the new Lebanon government.

The summit comes ahead of Assad's visit to Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Syrian president is expected to head to the French capital later Thursday.

Lebanese-Syrian ties soured after the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafki Hariri, during which Damascus and its Lebanese allies were accused of plotting. Syria has so far denied any links with the Hariri killing.

On Monday, Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, announced his national unity cabinet after four months of tough negotiations between his western-backed majority coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition, which is backed by Syria and Iran.

Malaysia awards major rail project to China

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia announced Wednesday it would award a 2.3-billion-dollar rail project to China, as leaders of both nations pledged to increase bilateral trade. Government officials earlier this year estimated the tracks, which are to connect the southern city of Johor Baru with Gemas in the neighboring state of Negeri Sembilan, would cover 250 kilometres and cost more than 8 billion ringgit (2.3 billion dollars).

Apart from the rail project, Malaysia also committed to grant Chinese companies contracts to construct one of the country's biggest dams and an aluminum smelting plant, Prime Minister Najib Razak said after a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in the administrative capital of Putrajaya.

"Both nations agree that there is enormous hope for our bilateral relations and we are agreed that we should work together to increase bilateral trade and investment," Najib said.

China became Malaysia's biggest trading partner this year, surpassing Singapore, the United States and Japan. " ... We hope that trade and investment will increase with China," Najib said.

From January to September, bilateral trade reached 89 billion ringgit (25.5 billion dollars), accounting for nearly 13 per cent of Malaysia's total trade during that period.

Hu, who arrived in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday with a 140-member delegation, is the first Chinese leader to visit Malaysia in 15 years.

"China and Malaysia's relationship is embracing a new era of all-around development. We will work with Malaysia to usher in an even brighter future," Hu said.

Both countries also signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation between their banking regulatory authorities.

Hu is scheduled to leave for Singapore later Wednesday, where he is due to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/294169,malaysia-awards-major-rail-project-to-china.html.

Indonesia's Garuda airline to return to Europe next year

Jakarta - Garuda Indonesia is to return to Europe after an absence of five years with a daily flight to Amsterdam starting June 1, the national airline said Wednesday. The planned Jakarta-Amsterdam route via Dubai is to be followed by service to a number of European cities, such as Frankfurt, Paris and London, over the next few years, Garuda said.

"We have set an aggressive five-year growth strategy for the airline that will allow Garuda to take its place alongside other leading international airlines in the Asia-Pacific region," Garuda President Emirsyah Satar said in the statement.

In July, the European Union removed Garuda and three other Indonesian airlines from a list of carriers banned from entering European airspace.

The blanket ban on Indonesian airlines was imposed in 2007 after a spate of deadly accidents that raised concerns about the country's safety standards.

Garuda's Jakarta-Amsterdam route is to be flown by Airbus A330-200 aircraft, which have the capacity to carry 222 passengers, the statement said.

Garuda said it has 10 Boeing 777-300ERs aircraft on order for delivery starting in 2011.

The new aircraft would allow the airline to operate non-stop from Jakarta into Europe, it said.

Spain holds its breath over Somali piracy drama - Feature

Madrid (Earth Times - dpa) - Spain is anxiously following a high-tension piracy drama off the coast of a faraway African country where Somali pirates are gradually stepping up pressure on the government in Madrid. Will a group of young pirates - nervous, drug-using, and armed to the teeth - kill the terrified fishermen who for more than 40 days have been held hostage on board a Spanish fishing vessel?

The only way to save the lives of the hostages could be to compromise on some key legal principles and send back to Somalia two of the suspected pirates who were brought to face trial in Spain.

The Basque trawler Alakrana is only one among around a dozen vessels currently held by Somali pirates, but its fate is the biggest such drama to hit Spain so far.

The owner of the vessel and the Spanish government are having to deal with a tough negotiating partner in a lawless country where forces unknown to them come into play.

The drama started on October 2, when the Alakrana was seized by a group of pirates in the Indian Ocean and taken to near the Somali coast.

A day later, a Spanish frigate participating in international anti-piracy patrols captured two of the pirates after they left the vessel on board a skiff.

On October 12, the suspects were flown to Spain to face interrogation and trial - a move which many now regard as a mistake that is prolonging the suffering of the fishermen.

At least 33 Spanish, African and Asian fishermen are still on board the Alakrana. Three others were taken to Somalia, and it is not clear whether they have been brought back on board.

The pirates are threatening to start killing the fishermen in groups of three unless Spain hands over their two detained companions.

The fate of the two, who are known as Abdou Willy and Raagegeesey, has become a key obstacle to a negotiated solution after the owner of the Alakrana reportedly agreed to pay a ransom of several million dollars.

Some of the 16 Spanish fishermen on board the vessel told family members that the pirates were nervous and aggressive, constantly chewing the local drug khat, kicking their hostages, spitting into their faces and depriving them of sleep by firing into the air.

The pirates play skilfully on the anguish of the fishermen, whom they allow to call their families, knowing that what they say will be front page news in Spain and will step up the pressure on the government whose efforts to resolve the situation have failed so far.

"Every phone call ends with a farewell, because they think they may not talk to us again," said Ane Galbarriatu, sister of the one of the hostages.

After a meeting with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, however, the families said Wednesday they would no longer talk to the press while the government intensified efforts to obtain the release of the fishermen.

Abdou Willy and Raagegeesey had to be brought back to Somalia, or clashes would erupt between their clans and those of the pirate chiefs, pirate representative Hussein Badmax told the daily El Mundo.

Piracy has become a big business in violence-torn Somalia, which has had no firm central government since the overthrow of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, and which is bogged down in an Islamist insurgency.

The pirates accuse foreign fishing companies of depleting the local fish stocks, a claim that has been backed by some environmentalists.

Judges at Madrid's National Court initially said there was no question of ceding to blackmail by the pirates, but experts are now looking for legal loopholes that would allow Spain to release Abdou Willy and Raagegeesey.

The government would reportedly like the two to face trial in Somalia, but Spain does not even have diplomatic relations, let alone an extradition treaty, with the Horn of Africa country.

Abdou Willy's lawyer is proposing that Spain simply expel the two Somalis, after determining that their potential prison sentences would be low enough to allow for such a procedure.

While that idea is under consideration, Spanish fishing vessels navigating in the Indian Ocean have begun hiring private guards whom the government has allowed to carry weapons.

Life for German courtroom killer of Egyptian woman - Summary

Dresden, Germany - A German man found guilty of the courtroom murder of a pregnant Egyptian woman was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday, after a high-profile case which has stirred emotions across both Germany and the Middle East. Marwa el-Shirbini, 31, was stabbed to death in July by Aleksandr Wiens, a German of Russian origin, during a hearing in a Dresden court where he had been fined for racially abusing her as an "Islamist" and a "slut."

The pharmacist's husband, Elwy Ali Okaz, was shot and injured by police as he tried to save his pregnant wife.

The judge ruled that Wiens had acted out of racist motives.

A "hatred of foreigners ran like a thread through the accused's time in Germany," judge Birgit Wiegand said as she sentenced Wiens for murder, attempted murder and causing dangerous bodily harm.

Wiens had confessed to the murder but claimed, in a statement read by his lawyer, that he had acted out of "fear and panic."

But the court disagreed. "He killed ... not out of fear and panic but out of revenge. He consciously exploited her innocence and defencelessness," Wieland said in her verdict.

Wiens showed no reaction as the verdict was read out.

Wieland said the 28-year-old must pay back all "material and immaterial damage" for the crime and its effects on the parents, the widower, the brother and the victim's three-year-old son.

Wiens was sentenced to life imprisonment without automatic parole - the highest sentence in Germany, where there is no death penalty.

The sentence, reserved for attacks of a heinous nature and those on unsuspecting victims, virtually rules out the possibility of release after 15 years - as can happen after less serious murder convictions.

Wiens stabbed Shirbini to death in front of her young son, and severely injured her husband during a hearing in a Dresden courtroom on July 1, where he faced a 330-euro (480-dollar) fine for verbal abuse.

The original incident between the two had occurred in 2008, in a children's playground in the city. Wiens had been sitting on a swing, and insulted Shirbini when she asked him to move to make way for her two-year-old son, Mustafa.

An autopsy report revealed that Shirbini had no chance of survival, after one of 16 knife blows had struck her in the heart.

Her husband, a scientist, was also injured when he came to his pregnant wife's aid. Wiens turned on him, before an armed policeman rushed into the courtroom and mistakenly shot Okaz in the leg.

Wiegand defended her colleague who presided over the July 1 hearing, after he was criticized for a security breach that allowed Wiens to smuggle a knife into the courtroom.

"There was no indication that an act of violence was impending," Wiegand said. Lawyers representing Shirbini's family had called for legal action against court officials for not carrying out security checks.

The murder of Shirbini, who wore the Islamic headscarf, caused outrage in Egypt and the Arab world, as many suspected that she had been killed merely because she was a Muslim.

In Cairo on Wednesday, reactions to the verdict were mixed.

Hanan Mohammed Mostafa, a 54-year old nurse, said: "This was an utterly heinous crime. Life in prison is too little. He should have been executed. He took an innocent woman's life. Marwa's only 'crime' was being a Muslim."

Osama Tharwat, a 23-year old cook, agreed. "This was a disgraceful crime. He should have been executed, especially considering that he took her unborn baby's life as well."

Ahmed Said, 20, took a softer view. "This was the correct verdict. The punishment fits the crime, 100 per cent."

The Egyptian ambassador, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, said that he was very happy with the sentence. Ayyub Axel Koehler, the head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, expressed relief.

"We are proud of our legal system and independent judiciary," Koehler said in Dresden. "Now we have to hope that something like this doesn't repeat itself," he added.

Wiegand said that in the eyes of the murderer, all Muslims were Islamists.

Over eleven days of hearings, the court heard that Wiens had never made close friends or held down a job. Witnesses described him as socially inept, eccentric and unashamedly hostile to Muslims.

Documents revealed that Wiens had had a history of schizophrenia, but an expert psychiatrist said he could not plead diminished responsibility in his defense.

His defense team had argued for a verdict of manslaughter and announced they were considering an appeal of the verdict.

During the trial Wiens said that he had "ruined" his own life, and wished that he had killed himself. A policeman testified that Wiens had asked to be shot when he was arrested after attacking Shirbini.

The defendant kept his face covered during most of the trial, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and a facial mask. He mostly stared at the floor, apart from one outburst when he had to be restrained.

The lawyer of Shirbini's widower, Heiko Lesch, described the verdict as a "day of justice."

"The sentence won't bring back the beloved wife of Mr Okaz, or the mother of little Mustafa," Lesch told the German Press Agency dpa.

"However, I am happy that the perpetrator is receiving his fair punishment," the lawyer said.

Sudan to begin closing Darfur camps in 2010

Nairobi (Earth Times - dpa) ­- The Sudanese government plans to start closing down camps for the displaced population in the war-torn region of Darfur next year, a senior official said Wednesday. Some 20,000 housing units are being constructed to accommodate the homeless in the towns of El-Fasher, El-Geneina and Nyala, Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Hasabu Abdel-Rahman told the UN- sponsored Miraya FM radio.

He said the displaced people will have the choice of returning to their village if they do not want to move to the new housing complexes.

Darfur rebel groups criticized the move, calling it a cover by the government to commit further crimes against the Darfur people.

"The government wants to send our people back to the same places they fled from so that they can get killed again under the eyes of the world," Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur, leader of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), told the Sudan Tribune.

The Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the biggest rebel group in Darfur, appealed to the international community to pressure Khartoum to drop the plan.

"This is clearly and unequivocally a war crime what they are trying to do. They are taking advantage of the world easing pressure on them," said JEM spokesperson Ahmed Hussein said.

He said the government intended to cover up "a new crime ... similar to the one in Kalma camp" - a reference to August 2008 when government forces killed dozens of refugees while searching for rebels.

Some 2.5 million people are living in refugee camps in Darfur.

The UN says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in the region first rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in February 2003.

Jordan reports two new swine flu deaths

Amman - The Jordanian Ministry of Health on Wednesday reported two new swine flu fatalities that raised the number of deaths in Jordan so far to 10. One of the two cases was a three and one-half year-old child who was suffering from lymph cancer, while the other was a 50-year-old man, who did not have a previous record of illness but the direct reason of his death was attributed to acute flu and lung problems.

The ministry put the total number of people who so far contracted the H1N1 virus at 2,604, of which 293 had tested positive for the disease over the past week.

Saudi imposes naval blockade on northern Yemen

Saudi Arabia has imposed a naval blockade on northern Yemen's Red Sea coast amid its offensive on Houthi fighters in the mountainous region.

A Saudi government adviser said on Wednesday that the blockade was imposed to stop weapons from reaching the fighters, Reuters reported.

The adviser said earlier that Saudi warships were ordered to search suspicious ships sailing near northern Yemen.

Last week, Saudi Arabia launched its offensive against Shia fighters who accuse the kingdom of supporting the Yemeni government in its crackdown on them.

The government launched Operation Scorched Earth in August in an effort to crush the Houthis whom it accuses of seeking to restore an imamate that was overthrown in 1962.

The Houthis dismiss the accusations saying they are seeking to end what they call the government's discriminatory policies against them.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=111073§ionid=351020206.

Lula defends Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has resisted Israeli pressure over an upcoming visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to his country.

"You do not build peace if you do not talk to all political and religious forces, those that want peace and those that oppose peace," DPA quoted Lula as saying at a joint press conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Brasilia.

"We need to talk more and to find more partners who want to help in peace-building in the Middle East. And we do not refuse to talk to anyone, as long as in that chat we can get a word, or at least a comma, that might help build peace," he said.

"You know that there will be no peace without political concessions," the Brazilian President said, addressing Peres directly.

Ahmadinejad is expected in Brazil on November 23.