Iran produces Stevia artificial sweetener

Iranian researchers have successfully managed to develop a safe and natural substitute for artificial sweeteners from an herb known as Stevia.

Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, an herb which grows wild in parts of Paraguay and Brazil has been used to sweeten a native beverage called 'mate' since pre-Columbian times.

"Stevia is a safe natural substitute for sugar and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sodium saccharine and cyclamate," Mohammad-Reza Mofid Mohaqheq, a scientist involved in the project held at Isfahan's Agricultural Jihad Organization, told IRIB News Agency.

Extracted from the Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni plant, the new lower calorie product is not only non-absorbable and non-digestible but also does not contribute to side effects commonly reported following the use of artificial sweeteners, said Mohaqheq.

He added that the product can lower blood sugar levels and blood pressure in the consumers.

Compared to refined sugar, crude stevia leaves and herbal powders are 10-15 times sweeter, said Mohaqheq, adding that the refined Stevia extracts, known as 'steviosides', are 250-300 times sweeter than table sugar.

Mohaqheq said Iran would be able to mass produce the sweetener from this plant in the coming year whereafter the product would be available on the market.

Iran's Hossein Fatemi becomes best '09 photojournalist

Award-winning Iranian photographer Hossein Fatemi has been selected as the country's Photojournalist of the Year.

The 29-year-old photographer was chosen by 100 Iranian photojournalists, who voted him as Iran's 2009 Photojournalist of the Year, Fars News Agency reported.

Fatemi was granted the same title in 2005 and 2006. He was also selected as the top AFP and Reuters photojournalist in 2006.

Fatemi, who is currently working with the United Press International (UPI), has documented war scenes in Georgia, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

He has extensively photographed in Iran and Pakistan as well.

Fatemi started his work in 1977 and his photographs have been widely published in the world's best-known magazines and newspapers including Time Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, the Guardian, The Washington Post and Paris Mach.

He has received the 2006 Silver Medal of the Delaware Photographic Society, the Silver Medal of China's 2007 International Photojournalism Contest, the Gold Medal of the 2005 and 2006 Asahi Shimbon International Competition and the Photographic Society of America (PSA) Gold Medal at the 2009 International Virtual FC Quilmes photography festival in Chile.

For more information and photos by Hossein Fatemi visit hosseinfatemi.com.

No bars, no mistresses, Chinese officials warned

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – Chinese officials are being told to dump their mistresses, avoid hostess bars, and shun extravagances as part of the Communist party's efforts to clamp down on the corruption that is threatening its rule and sullying its reputation.

The language of the new morality push, one of countless such campaigns informally under way, is surprisingly bold, often cutting through the bureaucratese to make a clear link between moral lassitude and corruption. One statistic trotted out at a recent speech to bureaucrats: 95 percent of officials investigated for corruption were found to be keeping mistresses.

"It's just not possible to keep a mistress on your salary because maintaining this sort of extravagant lifestyle requires a large amount of cash money," Qi Peiwen, a party discipline enforcer, told officials in southern China.

"So what do you do if you don't have the money? Naturally, you'll use the power at your disposal to go find some," Qi said, according to a transcript carried by state media.

The message was reinforced in a series of speeches at party academies last month by Li Yuanchao. He runs the organization department that controls senior appointments.

Morality drives date back long before the Communist Party seized power in 1949, but the current one seems to stem more from a recognition that rampant corruption threatens to undermine the party's authority and permanently warp the value system of this rapidly developing nation of 1.3 billion people.

Meanwhile, a campaign against pornography, lewd content and advertising for sexual services has bolstered efforts to control potentially subversive content on the Internet.

Authorities recently banned more than 1,400 erotic writings and 20 Web sites, including those that discussed one-night stands, wife-swapping, sexual abuse and violence that "disregarded common decency," according to the government's General Administration of Press and Publication.

Without fixed definitions of what constitutes indecent material, the drive allows censors virtually unfettered authority to block material, including scads of blogs and personal networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and tumblr.

Not everyone is so willing to comply, however. This year the government has had to drop a heavy-handed attempt to increase Internet censorship by ordering pornography filters to be installed on all computers. It provoked a litany of complaints including that it denied access to much material that could not reasonably be considered offensive.

That climbdown is part of a wider trend in Chinese society — the gradual decline in the party's ability to insert itself into citizens' personal affairs.

Although it retains absolute political control, the 73 million-member party no longer wields total authority over access to jobs, housing and travel, and no longer requires government employees to seek their bosses' permission to marry.

June Teufel Dreyer, a China expert at the University of Miami, thinks the morality drive might stem from "the idea that pleasure-loving people don't work as hard as they should."

Chinese have toiled for 30 years to build their country's economic might, and "Doubtless the leadership has noticed that in other societies, the prosperity-creating generation is likely to be succeeded by a frivolous generation," Dreyer said.

In one prominent example, Chen Liangyu, a Politburo member and former Shanghai party boss became the most powerful official to fall in recent years. He was accused of being a greedy lothario who indulged his sexual urges with multiple girlfriends. The focus on Chen's alleged indecency was seen as an attempt to weaken support for him among other officials whose careers he had nurtured.

During the morality campaign, party officials could receive demerits on their character assessments if found patronizing hostess bars, where young women accompany men in drinking, singing, and often much more, said Li, the organization department chief.

The campaign coincides with the sentencing of 16 high-ranking officials this year, four times more than last year.

In the end, however, the campaign's effectiveness may be fleeting, largely because it could expose much more corruption than the party had bargained for.

Dreyer said officials and others are likely to initially offer minimal compliance and that the campaign will then lose steam.

"Then, gradually, the old patterns will reassert themselves," she said.

Leukemia drug fights ovarian cancer

A drug commonly used to treat a certain form of leukemia has shown promising results in fighting ovarian cancer, the deadliest malignancy in the female population.

According to the study published in the British Medical Journal, dasatinib (Sprycel), the drug used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia, limits the growth and invasive powers of ovarian cancer cells.

Combining dasatinib with chemotherapy enforces its ability in fighting Src dependent cancer, which accounts for one-third of the ovarian cancer case.

"It is important to remember that this work is only on cancer cell lines, but it is significant enough that it should be used to justify clinical trials to confirm that women with this type of ovarian cancer could benefit," said lead researcher Gottfried Konecny.

Scientists are optimistic that their findings will lead to the development of new medication to fight ovarian cancer in the near future.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=111254§ionid=3510210.

Combat volunteers up in Israel

Number of conscripts volunteering to serve in Israeli combat units rises to 10-year-high.

TEL AVIV - The number of conscripts volunteering to serve in Israeli combat units has risen to a 10-year-high, Yediot Aharonot said on Friday.

A total of 73 percent of conscripts called up in the second quarter wanted to join combat units, compared with 67.2 percent last year, the newspaper said.

The low was 66.3 percent in 1997.

The daily cited army officials as saying this was partly a result of the turn-of-the-year offensive against the Gaza Strip, seen by Israel as a 'victory', and also proved recruiters' work in schools was bearing fruit.

The paper also published figures showing about 36 percent of young Israelis were exempted from serving in the armed forces, including a high percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Military service is generally obligatory for Jewish Israelis. Arabs who make up 20 percent of the 7.5 million population are exempted. An exception is made for the Druze -- followers of a non-mainstream sect of Islam.

Israel's war on Gaza killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and wounded 5,450 others.

Among the dead were 437 children, 110 women, 123 elderly men, 14 medics and four journalists.

The wounded include 1,890 children.

The war also left tens of thousands of houses destroyed, while their residents remained homeless.

Israel, which wants to crush any Palestinian liberation movement, responded to Hamas' win in the elections with sanctions, and almost completely blockaded the impoverished coastal strip after Hamas seized power in 2007, although a ‘lighter’ siege had already existed before.

Human rights groups, both international and Israeli, slammed Israel’s siege of Gaza, branding it “collective punishment.”

A group of international lawyers and human rights activists had also accused Israel of committing “genocide” through its crippling blockade of the Strip.

Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip.

The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza's sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, rarely opens as Egypt is under immense US and Israeli pressure to keep the crossing shut.

Fatah has little administrative say in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has no power in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, both of which are Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.

Israel also currently occupies the Lebanese Shabaa Farms and the Syrian Golan Heights.

Libya to put Swiss businessmen on trial

2009-11-13

Tripoli says no link between Swiss diplomatic row, court case for law-breaking businessmen.

TRIPOLI - Two Swiss businessmen barred from leaving Libya since July 2008 amid a diplomatic row with Bern are to go on trial later this year for tax evasion and over immigration laws, a senior official said on Thursday.

"The two Swiss citizens will be tried before the end of the year," Khaled Kaim, the deputy Libyan minister of foreign affairs, told a news conference.

He said the two men are charged with fiscal fraud and with violating immigration laws as well as trade regulations, in the latest twist to a 15-month standoff between Bern and Tripoli.

But they must leave the Swiss embassy where they have sought refuge and seek a private address in order to be served with notice that they will be put on trial, Kaim said.

"In line with the law, they must have an address so that justice can be carried out," Kaim said. "They can go back to their homes (in Tripoli) or to a hotel but they must leave the embassy."

Max Goldi, a senior manager at the Swedish-Swiss engineering giant ABB, and fellow Swiss Rashid Hamdani, who works for a small construction firm, were arrested in July 2008 in a what the Swiss say is a tit-for-tat measure after the brief arrest in Geneva of one of Libyan leader Moamer Gathafi's sons, Hannibal Gathafi, and his wife.

Libya initially refused the men exit visas and charged them with alleged immigration offenses but they were later released on bail and allowed to stay at the Swiss embassy.

The two were said to have gone missing in mid-September after they were invited out of the Swiss embassy for a medical check-up and were returned only on Monday.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has accused Libyan authorities of "kidnapping" them.

But Kaim denied they had been abducted and said earlier on Thursday that the pair had been "transferred" out of the embassy amid reports a commando operation was being planned to free them.

"The two Swiss nationals were not kidnapped nor did they go missing," Kaim said. "Their transfer was decided following reports in the Swiss media that a commando operation might be launched to free them."

He said Libya had sent a diplomatic note to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli informing it that the men were to be transferred.

"We also asked the Libyan charge d'affaires in Bern to ask for explanations and a denial of the reports of a commando operation but the Swiss authorities refused to respond," he added.

Their ordeal began after Hannibal Gathafi and his wife were briefly arrested in a Geneva luxury hotel over allegations that the couple had mistreated two servants.

That arrest in July 2008 triggered a bitter diplomatic row between Bern and Tripoli, which launched a series of retaliatory sanctions, including a freeze on some business ties with Switzerland.

Tripoli and Bern have tried to patch their differences and Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz earlier this year made a strong apology over the Gathafi arrests.

Kaim said Bern must "stop politicizing this case in order not to jeopardize the situation" of the Swiss businessmen.

"I don't understand why the Swiss government and press insist on linking a court case to the diplomatic row," he said.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35682.

Iran sets up Internet crime unit

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has formed a special unit to monitor Web sites and fight Internet crimes, in a clear attack on an opposition that relies almost exclusively on online means to broadcast its message, local newspapers reported Saturday.

Police Colonel Mehrdad Omidi, who heads the Internet crime unit, said the committee will fight "insults and the spreading of lies," terms widely used by the judiciary to describe opposition activities.

"Given the spread of Internet use, police must confront crimes taking place in the Web atmosphere," he said. "A special committee has been set up to monitor the Internet and deal with crimes ... such as fraud, ... insults and the spreading of lies."

Omidi specifically said the 12-member unit will intervene in "political matters on the Internet should there be an illegal act." The official said the unit will operate under the direction of the prosecution office.

Iranian authorities have banned most Web sites linked to Iran's opposition or those containing articles supporting the reform movement. The opposition has continued to set up new Web site within days of the old ones being blocked.

The opposition has no access to state media and has been promoting its message largely through the Internet.

Iranian newspapers are warned by authorities from time to time not to publish articles in support of the opposition leaders.

Iran's state radio and TV are directly controlled by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who strongly endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in June. The opposition maintains the contest was marred by fraud.

It was not immediately clear exactly how the new unit would carry out its surveillance.

Reform-minded journalist Akbar Montajabi described this as the latest set of restrictions being imposed on the media in Iran.

"That police monitor Web sites and impose restrictions is nothing new. Authorities know that Internet is the one of few available channels for the opposition to make its voice heard," he said. "They want to silence opposition voices."

Montajabi said popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter were some of the few available channels to inform the world on what was happening in Iran following the disputed June elections and the authorities want to limit them — if not stamp out that avenue altogether.

Aboutorab Fazel, manager of ILNA news agency said Iranian police have long monitored Web sites but now they are refining their techniques to gain even more control.

"Almost everyday, authorities impose new rules on how to operate Web sites. It is not new but they are organizing their efforts to be more effective," he said.

French union joins Israel boycott

November 11, 2009

Bethlehem – Ma’an – A French labor union decided to join the international movement to apply Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel, a statement from the National Work Confederation (Confédération Nationale du Travail - CNT) said Wednesday.

"The commitment of the CNT to support the Palestinian people over many years has led us naturally to join this vital campaign to end the exploitation and occupation by Israel," the document said.

The international secretary of the union said it would also invite each of its constituent members to join the BDS campaign and participate in its activities.

"Our joining this Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign is coherent with our solidarity with Palestine, defined by our statement of support of the Palestinian people’s struggle, adopted by the CNT during its 2006 congress. This statement is the expression of the anti-colonial and internationalist principles of our union," the statement continued.

"It confirms our opposition to all forms of colonization and occupation as well as our solidarity with the oppressed against the oppressor," the organization also said.

"As it was done in the case of South Africa, this initiative aims at weighing through economic means and the media on the state of Israel until the unpunished oppression of the Palestinian people and the denial of their fundamental rights end," the statement said.

CNT describes itself as "an anti-capitalist internationalist union involved in social class struggles."

Originally launched with an appeal from 170 Palestinian civil society groups, the boycott campaign has been gaining momentum, especially since Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip last winter which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead.

In February, South African dock workers refused to offload cargo from Israeli ships in an expression of solidarity with Palestinians.

A Morally Bankrupt Military: When Soldiers and Their Families Become Expendable

by Dahr Jamail

The military operates through indoctrination. Soldiers are programmed to develop a mindset that resists any acknowledgment of injury and sickness, be it physical or psychological. As a consequence, tens of thousands of soldiers continue to serve, even being deployed to combat zones like Iraq and/or Afghanistan, despite persistent injuries. According to military records, over 43,000 troops classified as "nondeployable for medical reasons" have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan nevertheless.

The recent atrocity at Fort Hood is an example of this. Maj. Nidal Hasan had worked as a counselor at Walter Reed, hearing countless stories of bloodshed, horror and death from dismembered veterans from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. While he had not yet served in Iraq or Afghanistan, the major was overloaded with secondary trauma, coupled with ongoing harassment about his being a Muslim. This, along with other factors, contributed towards Hasan falling into a desperation so deep he was willing to slaughter fellow soldiers, and is indicative of fissures running deep into the crumbling edifice upon which the US military stands.

The case of Pvt. Timothy Rich also demonstrates the disastrous implications of the apathetic attitude of the military toward its own. Not dissimilar from Major Hasan, who clearly would have benefited from treatment for the secondary trauma he was experiencing from his work with psychologically wounded veterans, one of the main factors that forced Private Rich to go absent without leave (AWOL) was the failure of the military to treat his mental issues.

Rich told Truthout, "In my unit, to go to sick call for mental health was looked down upon. Our acting 1st Sergeant believed that we shouldn't have mental issues because we were too 'high speed.' So I was afraid to go because I didn't want to be labeled as a weak soldier."

What followed was more harrowing.

"The other problems arose when I brought my girlfriend down to marry her. My unit believed her to be a problem starter so I was ordered not to marry her, taken to a small finance company by an NCO and forced to draw a loan in order to buy her a plane ticket to return home. They escorted her to the airport and through security to ensure that she left. Once the NCO left she turned around and hitchhiked back to Fort Bragg. Before the unit could discover us, we went to the courthouse and got married. We were then summoned by my Commander, Captain Jones, to his office and reprimanded. He called me a dumb ass soldier and a shit bag for marrying her and told my wife that she was a fool to marry someone as stupid as me. Members of my unit started referring to me as Pvt. Bitch instead of Pvt. Rich. The entire episode caused a lot of strain in our relationship. Unable to cope with all this, I bought two plane tickets and went AWOL with my wife."

Rich was later apprehended when a federal warrant was issued against him. After 11 days in a country jail, he was transported back to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. On August 17, 2008, he was wrongly assigned to Echo Platoon that was part of the 82nd Airborne, whereas his unit was part of the 18th Airborne.

Rich recollects, "I was confused when they assigned me to the 82nd. I was dismissed as a liar when I brought this up with my NCO Sgt Joseph Fulgence and my commander, Captain Thaxton. I ended up spending a year at Echo before being informed that I was never supposed to have been in the 82nd."

At Fort Bragg, he was permitted to seek mental health treatment and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, psychosis, insomnia and a mood disorder. This, however, did not stop his commander from harassing him. His permanent profile from the doctor restricted him from being on duty before 0800 (8 AM) hours, but his commander, Sergeant Fulgence, dismissed the profile as merely a guideline and not a mandatory directive. The soldier was accused of using mental health as a pretext to avoid duty. So, Rich was up every morning for first formation at 0545 (5:45 AM). It wasn't until he refused to take his medication because it made him groggy in the morning that his doctor called his commander and settled the matter. By then, Rich had already been forced to violate his profile for six months.

During this period, his mental health deteriorated rapidly. The combined effect of heavy medication and restrictions on his home visits resulted in his experiencing blackouts that led him to take destructive actions in the barracks. When he was discovered talking about killing the chain of command, he was put on a 24-hour suicide watch that seemed to have served little purpose, because on August 17 he was able to elude his guards and make his way to the roof of his barracks.

"I climbed onto the roof of the building and sat up there thinking about my family and my situation and decided to go ahead and end my suffering by taking a nose dive off the building," Rich explained to Truthout.

His body plummeted through the air, bounced off a tree, and he landed on his back with a cracked spine. The military gave him a back brace, psychotropic drugs and a renewed 24-hour suicide watch, measures as effective in alleviating his pain as his failed suicide attempt.

When Truthout contacted him just days after his failed suicide attempt, a fatigued Rich detailed his hellish year-long plight of awaiting a discharge that never came. "I want to leave here very bad. For four months they have been telling me that I'll get out next week. It got to the point that the NCOs would tell me just to calm me down that I'd be going home the next day. They went as far as to call my wife and requesting her to lie that she was coming to get me the next day. I eventually stopped believing them. I didn't see an end to it, so I figured I'd try and end it myself."

The noncommissioned officers in his barracks thought it was hilarious that Rich had jumped, and he was offered money for an encore that could be videotaped.

At the time he was in a "holdover" unit, comprised mostly of AWOL soldiers who had turned themselves in or had been arrested. Others in his unit had untreated mental health problems like him or were suffering from severe PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from deployments in Iraq and or Afghanistan.

According to Rich, every soldier in his platoon was subjected to abusive treatment of some kind or the other. "It even got to the point when our 1st Sergeant Cisneros told us that if it were up to him we all would all be taken out back and shot, and that we needed to pray to our gods because we were going to pay (for our actions)."

Tim's wife Megan had to bear his never-ending ordeal in equal measure. She witnessed the military's callousness up close. She informed Truthout, "Since February of this year, Tim's unit had been telling him he would be out in two weeks. After two weeks when he asked, they would repeat the same thing. At times he would get excited and start packing his belongings and I would try to figure out how to get him home to Ohio. He would call me crying in relief because he thought we were going to be together again real soon. The military forced me to lie to him too. When he realized they did not mean to release him he grew very destructive during his black out spells. Eventually he simply gave up on coming home."

Megan first realized there was a problem with the way the military was treating her husband when she noticed him doing and saying things that were out of character for him, like apologizing for not being a good husband and father and being openly suicidal. He had also begun to self-medicate with alcohol, an increasing trend among soldiers not receiving adequate mental-health treatment from the military.

She revealed to Truthout, "He had quit for the girls and me but it seems like he could not handle the stress and needed an escape. This caused a huge problem between us and we began to argue about it. He became severely depressed, pulled away from me, and started to do things he normally doesn't do, such as giving away his money and belongings, and telling the recipients that he wouldn't need those things in hell."

She sensed that her husband would be in trouble if he were to stand up for himself, so she began to advocate on his behalf. Her attempts to do so met with fresh abuse from his commanders. The chain of command banned her from the company barracks and had her escorted off post. The couple was commandeered into Sergeant Fulgence's office where they were chastised. The sergeant referred to Megan as "a bad mother" and "a bitch." When Megan attempted to leave the office in protest, the sergeant ordered her to stay and listen to what he had to say.

This was followed by an encounter with the commander of the platoon, Commander Thaxton. The commander in this case ordered Tim to shut up, and threatened him with confinement. He demanded that Megan explain what kind of mother would bring her child to a new location without a place to live. She tried telling him that the AER loan was for her to come to Fort Bragg since they had lost their house after Tim's arrest and loss of job. Although the paperwork for the loan clearly stated that it was for her travel, food and lodging at Fort Bragg, the commander insisted it was for an apartment. When Tim intervened to say that the $785 would not be sufficient to pay rent and bills, especially since he wasn't being paid his wages and his wife couldn't work because of the baby, and according to Tim, both Sergeant Fulgence and Captain Thaxton "had a nice laugh over that" and dismissed the duo, referring to them as "juvenile dumb-asses."

After Tim returned from being AWOL and was brought up on charges, he went through 706 (a psychology board) that declared him mentally incompetent at the time of his being AWOL. It took a painfully long amount of time for the charges to be dismissed without prejudice. The soldier believes that his superiors deliberately refused to do the requisite paperwork for his clearance and subsequent resumption of his pay.

He told Truthout, "Every time I came on base I got arrested even though I was on active duty again. Then my wife and I got an AER loan for her to come down to Fort Bragg. When she got there and my pay continued to be withheld, the AER money ran out and my wife and child had to sleep in the van we owned. When my unit found out they called the Military Police and ordered me to give custody of my daughter to my father."

When Tim refused to do that, they punished him by confining him to the barracks and barring his wife from entering the base. To add insult, the chain of command took away his van keys and said that neither he nor Megan was allowed use it.

The nightmare ended when the military finally released Pvt. Timothy Rich, and by default, Megan. He was discharged and "allowed" to enter the ranks of US citizens searching for jobs and health care. Their traumatic journey to that starting point is what distinguishes them from their civilian counterparts.

Rich's advice to anyone thinking of joining the military today: "Don't join. Everything they advertise and tell you about how it's a family friendly army is a lie."

Sgt. Heath Carter suffered a similar fate at the hands of an indifferent military command. Upon return from the invasion of Iraq, he discovered that his daughter Sierra was living in an unsafe environment in Arkansas under the care of his first wife, who had full custody of the child. Heath and his new wife, Teresa, started consulting attorneys in order to secure custody of Sierra, who also suffered from a life-threatening medical condition. Precisely during this time, the military chose to keep changing Carter's duty station from Fort Polk, Louisiana, to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, then to Fort Stewart, Georgia. Not only did these constant transfers make it difficult for Carter to see his daughter, they also reduced his chances of gaining custody of Sierra. Convinced that this was a matter of life and death for his daughter, he requested compassionate reassignment to Fort Leavenworth, Missouri, about two hours from his first wife's home in Arkansas.

His appeals to the military command, the legal department, chaplain and even to his congressman failed, and the military insisted that he remain at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Having run out of all available avenues, in May 2007 he went AWOL from Fort Stewart and headed home to Arkansas where he fought for and won custody of Sierra, and was able to literally save her life by obtaining needed medical care for her.

However, on January 25 of this year, Carter was arrested at his home by the military police, who flew him back to Fort Stewart where he has been awaiting charges for the past eight months. Being a sergeant, he is in a regular unit and not in a holdover, but that does not help his cause. Initially, his commander told him it would take a month and a half for him to be sent home. Several months later, it was decided he would receive a court-martial.

Carter feels frustrated, "Now I have to wait for the court martial. It's taken this long for them to decide. If we had known it would take this long, my family could have moved down here. Every time I ask when I'll have a trial, they say it is only going to be another two weeks. I get the feeling they are lying. They have messed with my pay. They're trying to push me to do something wrong."

His ordeal has forced Carter to reflect on the wars. He admits that, although his original reason for going AWOL was personal and he had otherwise been proud of his missions, he sees things in Iraq differently today. "I don't think there is any reason for us to be there except for oil."

Yet, both Private Rich and Sergeant Carter were offered deployments to Afghanistan amid their struggles. It is soldiers like these that the military will use to fill the ranks of the next "surge" of troops into Afghanistan, which at the time of this writing, appears to be as many as 34,000 troops.

The stage is set for more tragic incidents like the recent massacre at Fort Hood.

Saudi women to practice as lawyers

(MENAFN - Arab News) Justice Minister Muhammad Al-Eisa said on Thursday the Kingdom's efforts to revamp the judicial system were well under way and that women would eventually be allowed to practice as lawyers representing women clients.

Speaking at a meeting of heads of notaries in Riyadh, the minister said the judicial reforms will not only modernize the system but also reduce the backlog of cases by adding more basic infrastructure, like more courthouses.

"The judicial plan developed in cooperation with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals will help decrease the number of cases in the Kingdom's courts," Al-Eisa added.

He said he would support more interaction among the different departments of the judiciary and the government to ensure closer coordination in applying a reformed justice system that adheres to Shariah.

The minister also said that the courts in the Kingdom are flooded with frivolous lawsuits and cases that cause delays in the disposal of genuine cases.

The ministry is also making efforts to register more lawyers and grant them licenses to practice law in the Kingdom. Under recent reforms, a foreigner may practice law in the Kingdom if he has a degree from a Shariah college, a valid visa and a minimum of three years experience in the legal profession.

Speaking about women lawyers, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Guwair, director of the Department of Lawyers at the Saudi Ministry of Justice, said they would soon be allowed to represent women clients.

"The women will be issued a restrictive form of license that will give them access to certain areas of the courts and in cases in which they are representing women clients only," he said.

Saudi Arabia had finalized plans to establish new commercial courts in all 13 provinces. Moreover, the ministry has also announced that the verdicts pronounced by the courts will also now be published on the Justice Ministry's website.

On the training front, a number of judges have been sent to Western countries, including the US and Germany, for training in commercial disputes. Courtrooms have been upgraded with computers and copy machines to facilitate registration of verdicts. About 1,200 Saudi judges are currently serving in the Kingdom on the Supreme Judicial Council (the Saudi high court), the Court of Cassation (appellate court) and general and summary courts.

Ghazanfar Ali Khan

Source: Middle East North Africa Financial Times (MENAFN).
Link: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093282705&src=NLEN.

Jammu and Kashmir Police cop suspended for demanding bribe

Jammu, Nov 14 : A constable of Jammu and Kashmir Police was suspended for demanding bribe from a youth to set him free from the lock-up, sources here today said.

''The constable identified as Ali Hussain Choudhary, was suspended yesterday by the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jammu Basant Rath after he received a complaint of corruption against him,'' sources this morning told UNI.

The suspended constable, who was posted in Trikuta Nagar Police Station, on November 8, arrested a youth from railway station on suspicion and allegedly harassed him.

''The constable demanded Rs 5,000 to release the suspect,'' sources said adding that SSP Jammu, however, investigated the matter and suspended the constable.

Source: New Kerala.
Link: http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-150550.html.

International Film Festival kicks off in Kashmir

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir), Nov 14 : The three-day International Film Festival, showcasing 15 international documentary flicks by distinguished filmmakers across the globe, began here on Friday (November 13).

The event, which is being jointly organized by a Srinagar-based NGO, Experimental Moving Images and Theater Association (XMITA) in association with the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, is expected to be the real treat for filmmakers and citizens of the valley who often live under the shades of terror.

Flicks like 'Khayal Darpan', a film exploring the progress of classical music in Pakistan, 'The Lightning Testimonies', a film reflecting the past clashes in the subcontinent through experiences of gender hostility, 'Bronx Princess', a film on an American-born Muslim girl in look for her identity and many others are being screened during the event.

Afshana Rasheed, a local, said that such film festival would encourage filmmaking among the youngsters here.

"We are feeling good because of the trend that is setting in Kashmir. Visually, we have lot of talent here with reference to theater and all these things. So this (film festival) will promote the local talent and local youth. And after seeing the interest of the people inside the theater, I liked that and I am feeling good that youth are thinking something different apart from going into a particular field," said another resident of the valley, Afshana Rasheed.

Peerzada Gulam Nabi, another local said that such events will educate about the culture and music of other countries.

Ali Emran Kureshi, a member of the organizing committee said the endeavor of the film festival is to encourage intelligent cinema in Kashmir.

"The ideology of our NGO, Experimental Moving Images and Theater Association, is to promote intelligent cinema in Kashmir and as far as Kashmir is concerned, here there is virtually no film industry and we hope it will grow in the future. So we are trying to shape the film industry of Kashmir into an intelligent cinema and not into entertainment or commercial cinema," said Ali Emran Kureshi, a member of Experimental Moving Images and Theatre Association.

Discussions pertaining to films would also be held at the festival.

Source: Calcutta News.
Link: http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/565454.

Iran shrugs off 'another year of US sanctions'

An official says the US decision to extend the sanctions imposed on the country for another year will not force Tehran to submit to Washington's will.

US President Barack Obama, in a Thursday letter to the Congress, renewed sanctions against Iran for another year. "Our relations with Iran have not yet returned to normal," Obama argued in the letter.

Some of the sanctions have been in place since the 1979 US embassy takeover, and have routinely been extended each year by every US president since Jimmy Carter.

The announcement received a cold response from Iranian officials. Tehran's Interim Friday Prayers Leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said the country "will not accept US conditions and drop its rights."

"We cannot show the green light to the US officialdom and forfeit [our rights] as a pathetic last resort," said Ayatollah Jannati, who also chairs the influential Guardian Council.

Ayatollah Jannati cited Washington's destructive role in the past and present as the first reason to "keep up the fight" against the US government.

"What do you think it means when the US Congress allocates more than USD 55 million to destabilize the Iranian government. It shows that they have no good intentions towards Iran, and constantly want to engage in enmity," he said.

The Iranian cleric was referring to Victims of Iranian Censorship Act (VOICE), which Obama signed into law earlier this year.

The bill was introduced by Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, Ted Kaufman, Lindsey Graham, and Robert Casey as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

According to the website of Senator Lieberman, the bill authorizes USD 50 million for the expansion of Persian-language broadcasting in Iran by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty's Radio Farda and the Voice of America's Persian News Network.

It will also allocate another USD 25 million in internet-based activities, the website said.

Key Iranian clerical body slams Sana'a for 'massacre'

A leading Islamic clerical establishment in Iran has condemned the indiscriminate killing of Shia civilians by Yemeni government forces.

"News of the unfortunate crackdown against Yemeni Muslims and Shias by the country's government forces… has left the Muslim world in great sorrow," the Society of the Seminary Teachers of Qom said in a Friday night statement.

The Shia establishment also condemned human rights organizations for staying silent about the massacre and indirectly attacked the Saudi Arabian government for launching its own military offensive against northern Yemen.

"The direct interference of certain Arab regimes in the ethnic cleansing of Shia and the silence adopted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and international human rights establishments about this atrocity leaves room for thought."

The statement warned Islamic countries that "enemy forces are trying to instigate genocide and discord in the Muslim world," urging them to abandon military conflict.

The Society urged the Iranian government and the OIC to employ all diplomatic means to end the bloodshed and asked Shias worldwide to show their objection to the killing of innocent members of their religious community.

Although the conflict goes back several years, the Yemeni military initiated a new wave of violence by launching a major offensive - dubbed Operation Scorched Earth - against local Houthi fighters in the northern province of Sa'adah on August 11.

The government says that the fighters, who are named after their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, seek to restore the Shia Zaidi imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 coup.

The Houthis argue, however, that they are defending their people's rights against the central government's marginalization policies adopted under the influence of Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists.

The Saudi air force has further complicated the conflict during the past fortnight by a deadly offensive against Houthis, accusing the Shia resistance fighters of killing two Saudi soldiers on the border.

While Riyadh claims that its offensive targeted Houthi positions on 'Saudi territory', the fighters say Yemeni villages were being bombarded.
Shias, who form the clear majority in the north, make up approximately half of Yemen's overall population.

Yemen's Sa'adah province borders the southwestern Saudi province of Asir where Saudi Ismaili Shias live.

According to UN figures, the recent unrest has displaced around 75,000 people, bringing the total count to 175,000 since 2004.

Figures released by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) indicate that the unrest has also directly affected up to 75,000 children.

Netanyahu not serious about peace, says Syria

The Syrian president rules out face-to-face negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the rightist premier is not serious about peace.

President Bashar al-Assad said Friday that he had no Israeli partner ready to push forward the Middle East peace process, calling for lower-level dialogue with Tel Aviv under Turkish mediation.

"If Mr. Netanyahu is serious, he can send a team of experts, and we'll send a team of experts to Turkey. Then we can really talk, if they're interested," the Syrian leader said after talks with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.

Assad's comments come after Netanyahu said he was willing to hold direct peace talks with Assad, but on the basis of no pre-conditions.

Damascus, however, has repeatedly ruled out any direct talks with Tel Aviv unless Israel returns the Golan Heights, which it occupied during the 1967 war with Arab states and later annexed in 1981.

Turkish-mediated Syrian-Israeli peace talks broke down last year in the wake of Israel's offensive against Gaza, which left over 1,400 Palestinians killed and thousands more injured.

This is while Ankara says it is still ready to resume its mediating role, overseeing telephone talks between leaders from the two sides.

Paris also has been warming up its ties with Damascus in hopes of resolving Syria's dispute with Israel to pave the way for using the influential Arab nation's help in the long-stalled peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Iran to build tractor factory in Senegal

Sat Nov 14, 2009

(PressTV) The Iranian minister of industry and mines says his country plans to set up a tractor production plant in Senegal in the near future.

Ali-Akbar Mehrabian says Iran is ready to 'develop the agriculture industry' in this western African country.

Mehrabian made the remarks in a meeting with Senegalese Foreign Minister Madicke' Niang in Tehran.

He announced that the second phase of an automobile manufacturing plant would go into operation in Senegal to manufacture Iranian cars.

Iran's giant automobile manufacturer, Iran Khodro, built the first phase of its factory in Senegal last year to export its cars to a number of western African countries.

Niang also noted that if the car manufacturing plant is expanded, its output could meet the demands of the Senegalese market as well as those of other African countries.

Based on agreements reached between the two Muslim states, Iran will provide Senegal with locomotives, boxcars, a subway, agricultural machines, cement factories, a refinery and electronic components.

Iran also has agreed to conduct geological and mineral prospecting surveys as well as offer training in various fields in the African state.

Iranian runner wins gold at Asian 800-meter event

Iranian runner Sajjad Moradi has snatched the gold medal in the men's 800m run at the 18th Asian Track and Field Championship.

The 26-year-old athlete managed to win the gold medal in 1:48:58, in Guangzhou, China, on Friday.

Kuwaiti and Iraqi runners followed Moradi with 1:48:93 and 1:49:00 records respectively in the contests. Amir Moradi, Sajjad's brother also ranked sixth in the 800 meters.

Sajjad Moradi is an Iranian middle distance runner who specializes in the 800 meters. He has a personal best of 1:44:74, which is also the Iranian national record.

Elsewhere, Hadi Sepehrzad reserved the second title after the Japanese athlete Tanaka Hiromasa in the decathlon category.

Iranian woman athlete Leila Rajabi won the bronze medal in the shot put event in the opening day of the tournament as well.

About 800 athletes and 300 officials and referees from nearly 40 Asian countries and regions have taken part in the event.

The 18th Asian Track and Field Championship began on November 10 in Guangzhou, China, and will continue until November 14.

Zuma vows crime crackdown, urges police caution

Sat Nov 14, 2009

(PressTV) South African President Jacob Zuma says the county's police do not have a "license to kill", but vowed to crackdown on rampant crime ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

His words came on Friday, a day after his deputy police minister, Fikile Mbalula, told reporters in Cape Town that he has told his officers to "shoot the bastards" in fighting criminals.

"No police officer has permission to shoot suspects in circumstances other than those provided for by law. The law does not give the police a license to kill," said Zuma.

"We have stated our position very clearly. It is the duty of the police to protect all people against injury or loss of life. But ... police sometimes have no choice but to use lethal force to defend themselves and others," Zuma said.

After taking office in May, Zuma's government has tried to decrease the country's crime rate, but still, an average 50 killings a day sometimes for as little as a mobile phone, displays severe lack of security.

Zuma, who has backed stronger gun-powers for the police, said that crime was at the top of his government's agenda. He said the police force would be boosted by some 24,000 in the next three years with detectives increasing by 19 percent this year.

Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians in WB

Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinian protesters in the West Bank village of Naalin, leaving two of them wounded.

Palestinians demonstrating against the Israeli separation wall, said Israeli forces resorted to force and used rifle fire against them during the rally on Friday, Yent reported.

The Israeli military also confirmed the use of Ruger rifles which has been deemed by military prosecutors as live fire.

Earlier this year, the rights group B'tselem appealed to the military prosecutor with a demand to ban the rifles.

Judge Advocate General Avi Mandelblit said in his response to the appeal that "the guidelines for use of this ammunition (Ruger rifles) are severe and parallel to those for the use of live ammunition."

Israeli forces had shot and killed a Palestinian and wounded four others during weekly demonstrations in June, reportedly using the rifles.

Chavez warns of US war against Venezuela

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has renewed his charges that the US and Colombia have sealed a "devil's pact" to wage war against Venezuela.

For the second time in little over a week, Chavez called for his military and the country's militia to prepare for war to protect the sovereignty of Venezuela against the threat posed by the US using Colombian soil.

"I am not calling for war. The party provoking war is the imperial Yankee. It is my duty to call all Venezuelans to prepare for the struggle to defend this fatherland," Chavez said on Friday, Dpa reported.

Chavez is furious over last month's signing of a military cooperation deal between Bogota and Washington granting the US the use of seven military bases on Colombian soil.

Colombia and the US signed the pact in late October. The agreement allows for a maximum of 800 US military personnel and 600 contractors in Colombia. Prior to the deal, there were anywhere from 71 to 210 US military officers in Colombia.

Chavez also warned that US President Barack Obama was traveling "the same path" as former US president George W. Bush.

He called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a "traitor" who has signed over Colombian Sovereignty to the "imperial" power of the US.

"We are obligated to protect the fatherland of Simon Bolivar," Chavez said, referring to the famous hero of the South American independence movement.

Chavez reassured that Venezuela would never attack anyone else, "but we are prepared to defend ourselves, and it will be costly for the aggressor."

Indian sets new Guinness world record

On the Guinness World Records Day, an Indian has set a world record by pulling a seven-ton vintage double-decker bus 21.2 meters with his hair.

Manjit Singh, 59, who works as a security consultant in Leicester, England, attached a clamp to his thick ponytail and pulled the vintage Routemaster bus for a distance of 21.2 meters through Battersea Park in central London on Thursday.

November 12 coincides with the annual Guinness World Records Day when thousands of people around the world attempt to set some bizarre benchmarks of their own.

After creating the world record, Singh said, "It was painful, but it was worth it. I could only think about my legs and head and keeping on going to set a record, to go as far as I could."

He said he was not discouraged two years ago when he failed to break the record for the furthest distance to pull a double-decker bus with his ears.

Afghan war takes heavy psychological toll on US soldiers

Severe combat and multiple deployments are taking a heavy psychological toll on US soldiers in Afghanistan, the country's army says.

According to the army's latest mental health survey, soldiers said unit morale in Afghanistan had declined as the frequency of fighting had increased; suggesting record combat deaths and injuries were taking a heavy psychological toll.

The survey found that some 21.4 percent of lower-ranking enlisted male soldiers, the group that generally experiences the most combat time, had mental health problems defined by army medical teams as anxiety, depression or acute stress. That compares to 23.4 percent in 2007 and 10.4 percent in 2005.

Soldiers in Afghanistan with three or more deployments experienced higher rates of mental health and marital problems than those with fewer tours, the report added.

In contrast, the mental heath of US forces in Iraq appeared to be improving as violence declined and the military prepared for a gradual withdrawal.

The findings are released as President Barack Obama is moving closer toward a decision to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

The Illusion of Democracy in the Modern World

Most of the ‘terrorist’ bomb attacks of the past sixty years have been false-flag attacks that were actually committed by the Israeli Mossad, the CIA, and British intelligence. For six decades the allied Western intelligence agencies have been carrying out an ongoing campaign to frame Muslims for bombings which were actually perpetrated by the Western intelligence agencies themselves. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11/2001 were a joint CIA/Pentagon/Mossad false-flag operation that was intended to provide an excuse for the subsequent US-led Coalition invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Western nations are not unique in their use of false-flag bombings to inspire public support for a government policy of aggression. The Russian government blamed Chechen ‘terrorists’ for perpetrating the horrific Moscow apartment bombings of the summer of 1999, but agents of the Russian FSB were seen placing military-grade explosives in the basement of an apartment building in Ryazan, near Moscow.

The current US and Israeli belligerence toward Iran is the continuation of a modern Crusade by the USA, Israel, the UK, and their allies to gain control of the Middle East oil fields.

The USA is run by a wealthy ruling elite whose enforcement arm, the CIA, operates secretly and without accountability to any authority other than its elite masters. The US Congress and the US President are mere puppets of the ruling elite, and their purpose is to provide the public with an illusion or false facade of democracy.

The US President is a talking head chosen by the ruling elite, who control both of the two major US political parties. The President functions as a spokesman, salesman, and facilitator for the policies of the ruling elite.

The mainstream media in the USA, the UK, Israel, and their allied nations is thoroughly infiltrated and controlled by the allied Western intelligence agencies, led by the CIA and Mossad. The CIA-controlled mainstream media functions as the propaganda arm of the ruling elite.

The banking system in the USA and its allied nations is controlled by the ruling elite, whose agents -- the bankers, brokers, and fund managers -- manipulate the market to divert funds, both public and private, into the coffers of the ruling elite. The current historically-unprecedented and ever-widening gap between the incomes and fortunes of the rich and the poor throughout the world is the result of the avaricious market manipulations of the ruling elite.

The ruling elite meet privately and in secrecy at gatherings of the Trilateral Commission, the Council of Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, Bohemian Grove, and other venues which are not open to public scrutiny. The ruling elite effectively control the operations of the World Trade Commission, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations.

Most of the Western 'democracies' are actually ruled by a cabal of wealthy elitists who are essentially gangster warlords who control and manipulate national and international politics, the global economy, and the mainstream media to serve their own greedy and insatiable ambitions.

Gregory Fegel

Egypt rail crash workers charged

Eight Egyptian railway workers will go on trial over a train collision in October that killed 18 people, a judicial official has said.

The group, which includes two train conductors and three signalmen, will face charges of negligence and involuntary manslaughter.

The accident in al-Ayyat happened when a train ploughed into a second train that had stopped unexpectedly.

The Egyptian rail network has a long history of accidents.

Heavy lifting equipment had to be brought in to untangle the wreckage of the trains, 50km (31 miles) south of Cairo.

Officials said at least 50 people were also injured.

Reports suggest the first train had stopped after hitting an animal.

The deadliest train accident in Egypt's recent history also took place at al-Ayyat in 2002, when a fire killed more than 370 people dead.

No date has been set for the trial.

Angolan 'mafia targets Chinese'

Saturday, 14 November 2009

The Chinese embassy in Angola has advised its nationals not to go out alone at night after a spate of violent attacks on Chinese expatriates.

The "mafia-style" gang violence could affect the countries' relations, say Chinese business leaders in Angola.

Recently there has been a series of violent robberies and a Chinese man was murdered in the capital, Luanda.

Many more attacks have gone unreported, the head of the Chinese Business Council (CBC) says.

'Afraid'

Last month robbers reportedly poured boiling water on three Chinese workers in Luanda.

In September businessman Xu Tonggou was murdered trying to resist a robbery.

On the same day six armed men robbed the offices of a construction company, beating workers with batons and threatening them with AK-47s.

"These are just the tip of the iceberg," says Xu Ning of the CBC.

"Things have got worse in the last few months. Just last night someone I was due to have dinner with did not turn up because he had been robbed.

"Chinese people here are afraid, they are afraid. They don't know who's a criminal."

'Bad for business'

What used to be something that happened perhaps once a month has become a daily occurrence.

"This is bad for business between Angola and China," he said.

Eddie Zhang, head of Shanghai Urban Construction Group, the company building the new 50,000-capacity football stadium in Luanda, told the BBC that he was hearing of a growing number of attacks and that they weren't just normal robberies but planned "mafia-style".

Superintendent Jorge Bengue of Luanda's Police Command police however disputed there was a campaign of violence specifically targeting Chinese nationals in the city.

He said crime was a reality in any city in the world and he was not aware of any rise in incidents involving Chinese people.

There are tens of thousands of Chinese workers in Angola, involved in reconstruction projects after the country's 27-year-long civil war.

Chinese workers are also building stadiums for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

China has given Angola more than $5bn in oil-backed loans to build infrastructure.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8358919.stm.

EU soldiers to help Somali troops

The European Union is expected to endorse plans to send troops to help train up to 2,000 Somali troops, according to an EU official.

Under the plan, up to 200 EU troops will train Somali military personnel in Uganda in a bid to broaden engagement in the crisis-hit state.

A decision is expected to be taken at a meeting of EU ministers next week.

The move comes on the heels of a request by the Somali government to help build a 6,000-strong police force.

"Once this is approved, which we expect is going to happen during the (EU) council then we will be launching the real planning," said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"We think that this is a very good contribution to the global approach that the European Union has in order to tackle the Somali problems and all of its impact."

The training plan is expected to last for roughly a year and will be carried out in two or three phases.

The move by the EU is expected to complement efforts made by France, Djibouti and Uganda who have all committed to training Somali troops.

Tough mission

Somalia has been gripped by fierce fighting since 2007 and the country has not had a strong central government since 1991.

More than 1.5 million people have been uprooted by the fighting which has claimed nearly 20,000 lives.

Western countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help the country develop its security forces and help restore order.

The EU is also running an anti-piracy mission in the water of the Gulf of Aden in a bid to clamp down on the number of attacks made by pirates over the last year.

Somali pirates are currently holding at least 13 ships and more than 230 crew hostage.

Russia, Slovenia to sign South Stream pipe deal

Official: Slovenia premier lands in Moscow to sign South Stream gas pipeline project

By David Nowak, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) -- Slovenia will agree Saturday to take part in a pipeline project carrying Russian natural gas to Europe, bolstering a Kremlin attempt to defend its position as the continent's primary supplier, a Russian official said.

Europe imports a quarter of its natural gas from Russia, and the Kremlin sees the South Stream network, scheduled to come online in 2015, as a way to defend against an alternative, Western-backed supply route that bypasses Russia.

Russia presented South Stream in 2007 as an alternative route around Ukraine and Belarus, which it is portrayed as unreliable partners.

South Stream -- funded by Russia's Gazprom and Italy Eni state companies -- exits Russia under the Black Sea and enters the European Union via Bulgaria.

A branch heads northwest through Serbia, Hungary and Austria, while an offshoot channels gas west through Greece and into southern Italy under the Adriatic Sea. Of those countries only Austria, a firm supporter of the rival Nabucco pipeline has not signed up to the Russian project -- though it is in negotiations.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Slovenia deal will be signed Saturday by Slovenia Prime Minister Borut Pahor and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. It would take gas through Slovenia and to northern Italy.

Nabucco, also scheduled for 2015, would deliver gas from the Caspian Sea region westward via the Caucasus, bypassing Russia, and into Bulgaria via Turkey. That route would decrease dependence on existing Russian supplies to Europe, which some see as unreliable. Payment disputes between Moscow and transit country Ukraine led to two-week shutoffs and severe gas shortages in many European countries last January. Russian officials have said they fear renewed shutoffs this winter.

Slovenia's Economics Minister Matej Lahovnik has said that the shortages prompted the country to seal the deal.

The company constructing the Slovenian section of South Stream will be a joint venture of the Slovenian gas pipeline operator Geoplin Plinovodi and Russia's Gazprom.

Lahovnik has said that despite joining the South Stream, Slovenia -- an EU member -- remains supporter of Nabucco.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said at a Moscow meeting with Putin on Wednesday that South Stream represented "diversification as well as a chance to make the energy supply more secure."

A Russian sister project, Nord Stream, is planned to supply Germany directly with Russian gas via a pipeline under the Baltic Sea, and should start pumping in the next few years.

Turkish parliament holds session on peace plan

The Turkish parliament has held its first session on a peace plan that seeks to end a decades old conflict with Kurdish militants.

The roadmap which is aimed at granting more rights to Turkey's Kurds has yet to be announced.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he wants to give more rights and opportunities to Kurds.

Erdogan said he would travel to all 81 provinces in Turkey in an effort to explain the Kurdish initiatives under review.

"The problems of this country are our problems," the premier stressed. "That's why we cannot ignore them. We cannot close our eyes to everything that happens."

Political opponents, however, accuse the Turkish prime minister of making too many concessions to Kurdish rebels and threatening the country's unity.

According to the Turkish Interior Minister, Besir Atalay, the government initiative would strengthen the country under the slogan of "more democracy for everyone".

"The democratic opening will not harm the country, but consolidate it," Atalay told lawmakers on Friday.

Iran to mass produce heat-seeking missiles

Iran is going to mass produce a new generation of domestically built air-to-air heat-seeking missiles which can track targets via their infrared emission.

Air Force commander Brigadier General Hassan Shah-Safi told IRNA on Saturday that having been successfully test-fired in different situations, the heat-seeking missiles are now going to be mass produced at the Defense Ministry.

This missile is fired towards the target by a plane and can track the object until it hits it, Shah-Safi said. It has a range of up to 100 kilometers, he added.

According to the top commander, the missile has been tested with a range of more than 40 kilometers, but its range could be modified to increase at higher altitudes.

Shah-Safi said Iran has also produced different kinds of air-to-air missiles, adding that radar-evading planes are being sample produced on a small scale as well.

To advance its defensive capabilities against any possible attack, Iran has so far launched different kinds of missiles.

In June, Iran inaugurated the production line of a domestically-made, supersonic ground-to-air missile system called 'Shahin'.

The system, which has a range of more than 40 kilometers, is capable of targeting fighter jets and helicopters.

Earlier in May, Iran also successfully tested its new solid-fuel Sejjil 2 missile, which is designed to be more accurate and swift than previous Iranian-made models. It has a major deterrence power.

Iranian commandos sent to arrest Somali pirates

A senior commander says Iranian special forces have bee sent to the Gulf of Aden to preserve shipping security and go ahead with a plan to arrest Somali pirates.

The Iranian navy sent a new fleet of warships last week to fight the Somali pirates off the Somalia's coast.

"We are in a struggle to capture pirates in the region," Fars news agency quoted Amir Qaderpanah as saying on Friday.

Qaderpanah says the Iranian commandos, who had been specially trained, were deployed in two places in the Gulf of Aden to carry out the mission.

Iran decided to send more ships to the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian merchant vessels and oil tankers from Somali buccaneers in the volatile waters.

The dispatch would be Iran's fourth, Fariborz Qaderpanah, a senior naval commander said on Wednesday.

He added that the armada would include the Alborz warship and the Bushehr logistics vessel.

The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.

The Gulf of Aden - which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea - is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.

No woman available to carry out caning sentence in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The caning sentence given by a Malaysian Shariah Islamic court to a Muslim woman who was sentenced for drinking beer is yet to be carried out due to absence of a female caner.

Pahang state Religious Affairs Committee chairman Mohamad Sahfri Ab Aziz said the country still did not have a female caner, national news agency Bernama said.

"In our 52 years of independence, we have not had a female caner," he told the state assembly to a query regarding delay in carrying out the sentence on 32-year-old Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno.

Mohamad Sahfri said a similar punishment had been carried out for the same offense on an Indonesian man, where he was caned six times.

He said Pahang was among the states that provided for the fine, prison and caning sentences for the offense of consuming alcohol.

Kartika was fined Rs 60,000 and sentenced to be whipped six times by the Kuantan Shariah High Court on July 20 after she confessed to violating Islamic laws by drinking beer in a hotel lobby in Cherating on July 11 last year.

He said that although the Islamic laws fixed between 40 to 80 canings for alcohol consumption, which is recognized as an 'hudud' offense, the Shariah Court had no jurisdiction to impose such sentences, Bernama added.

Source: Times of India.
Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/No-woman-available-to-carry-out-caning-sentence-in-Malaysia-/articleshow/5227418.cms.

NASA Confirms There Is Water Ice On The Moon

LCROSS Impacts Confirm Water In Lunar Crater

NASA announced Friday that preliminary data from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater. The discovery opens a new chapter in understanding the moon.

The LCROSS spacecraft and a companion rocket stage made twin impacts in the Cabeus crater Oct. 9 that created a plume of material from the bottom of a crater that has not seen sunlight in billions of years. The plume traveled at a high angle beyond the rim of Cabeus and into sunlight, while an additional curtain of debris was ejected more laterally.

"We're unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and, by extension, the solar system," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding."

Scientists long have speculated about the source of significant quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the lunar poles. The LCROSS findings are shedding new light on the question with the discovery of water, which could be more widespread and in greater quantity than previously suspected. If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data. In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration.

Since the impacts, the LCROSS science team has been analyzing the huge amount of data the spacecraft collected. The team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the most definitive information about the presence of water. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb.

"We are ecstatic," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. "Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water."

The team took the known near-infrared spectral signatures of water and other materials and compared them to the impact spectra the LCROSS near infrared spectrometer collected.

"We were able to match the spectra from LCROSS data only when we inserted the spectra for water," Colaprete said. "No other reasonable combination of other compounds that we tried matched the observations. The possibility of contamination from the Centaur also was ruled out."

Additional confirmation came from an emission in the ultraviolet spectrum that was attributed to hydroxyl, one product from the break-up of water by sunlight. When atoms and molecules are excited, they release energy at specific wavelengths that can be detected by the spectrometers. A similar process is used in neon signs. When electrified, a specific gas will produce a distinct color. Just after impact, the LCROSS ultraviolet visible spectrometer detected hydroxyl signatures that are consistent with a water vapor cloud in sunlight.

Data from the other LCROSS instruments are being analyzed for additional clues about the state and distribution of the material at the impact site. The LCROSS science team and colleagues are poring over the data to understand the entire impact event, from flash to crater. The goal is to understand the distribution of all materials within the soil at the impact site.

"The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich," Colaprete said. "Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, collecting and preserving material over billions of years."

LCROSS was launched June 18 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the spent upper stage of its launch vehicle hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. PDT Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.

LRO observed the impact and continues to pass over the site to give the LCROSS team additional insight into the mechanics of the impact and its resulting craters. The LCROSS science team is working closely with scientists from LRO and other observatories that viewed the impact to analyze and understand the full scope of the LCROSS data.

Nostalgia For The Ottomans - Disillusioned With Europe, Turkey Looks East

As European opposition to E.U. membership for Turkey grows, Ankara is looking to forge closer ties to its neighbors. Turkey wants to once again become a leading power in the Middle East - but its relationship with Israel may suffer as a result.

He was the last heir to the throne of the Ottoman Empire, a major power that controlled large parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East for centuries. But Prince Osman Ertugrul Osmanoglu was a prince without a country, and he was stateless for much of his life. When Turkish officers proclaimed the republic in 1924, they expelled Osmanoglu and his entire family. It wasn't until 2004 that the exiled prince was granted Turkish citizenship.

The prince died in Istanbul on Sept. 23, at the age of 97, and the republic that had once banished him became reconciled with Osmanoglu. The guests at the funeral service included four cabinet ministers from the conservative Islamic AKP government, a deputy minister, several members of parliament, Istanbul's governor and the city's chief of police. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also sent his condolences - privately. It was a rare show of republican appreciation for Turkey's Ottoman legacy.

Many Turks today believe that true greatness lies in the imperial past - and that this past is no longer to be found exclusively in the West. Europe, with its fondness for criticizing Turkey, is increasingly becoming yesterday's ideal. "Neo-Ottomanism" is in vogue in Turkey, as evidenced by an exhibition at a new history museum that opened in Istanbul at the beginning of the year, a museum commission by Erdogan when he was still the mayor of Istanbul. An enormous panorama painting at the museum depicts the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453, complete with a soundtrack of cannon thunder and war cries piped through the loudspeakers.

Evoking Past Glories

This nostalgia for the Ottoman past is in keeping with an about-face in politics that is becoming increasingly obvious. Turkish politicians are now evoking - and glorifying - the Ottoman era as a time when their country was still a respected hegemonic power in the Middle East and Caucasus region. It is a role that Ankara wants to play again today - perhaps one it is already playing.

Turkey has in fact turned its attention to the east once again, opening up channels of communication and embarking on an approach to diplomacy that goes beyond the usual friend vs. foe dichotomy. In short, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu hopes to solve the conflicts in the region with a "zero problems" policy. He intends to act as a mediator whenever possible, and he hopes that by the end of a reconciliation process with its neighbors, Turkey will emerge as the strongest nation in the Middle East, both economically and politically.

The initiatives have been coming hard and fast. In early October, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia signed a protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations. However, the two archenemies will have to first overcome substantial obstacles. Turkey's "brother" nation, Azerbaijan, is threatening to block the peace process unless Armenia relinquishes control over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. Armenians living abroad, in particular, insist that Ankara must first recognize the Armenian genocide during World War I before the borders are opened. Despite these obstacles, Turkey and Armenia want to continue negotiating.

Ankara has also recently begun talks with another difficult neighbor. The de facto Kurdish state in northern Iraq - a safe haven for Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels and long the principal adversary of the Turkish military - is worried about being left alone with Shiite and Sunni Arabs in a disintegrating Iraq. Instead, Iraq's Kurds have sought to establish ties with Turkey.

Two weeks ago, Davutoglu flew to Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, where he announced Turkey's plans to open a consulate. A journalist traveling with Davutoglu said she was astonished to see a Turkish foreign minister sitting in a limousine flying a Kurdish pennant, and that it upends everything that was official Turkish policy in the past.

Opening the Border

So far, however, the neighbors with whom the Turks have formed their closest ties are the Syrians.

In mid-October, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem met Davutoglu and his large entourage at Oncupinar on the Turkish-Syrian border. The two men cheerfully pushed aside a barrier marking the border, in a scene meant to emulate the opening of the Hungarian-Austrian border in September 1989.

In the late 1990s, the two countries were still on the verge of war, because of Syria's support for the PKK extremists. Today their armed forces conduct joint maneuvers, while their foreign and defense ministers meet as part of a "strategic cooperation council." As journalist Zeynep Gurcanli wrote in the influential Turkish daily Hurriyet, Turkey has never cooperated this closely with any other country. Could Ankara's current efforts eventually lead to a "Middle Eastern Union" modeled after the European Union?

The end of the decades-long dispute between Turkey and Syria is seen as a true success for Davutoglu - and for the Syrians, who are overjoyed at the upgrading of their country after being ostracized in the West. But Damascus is also pleased for another reason. At almost exactly the same time as the Turkish-Syria rapprochement was happening, Turkey's relations with another country suddenly went into a nosedive.

For "technical reasons," as the Turkish government initially claimed, Turkey decided to exclude Israel from its international military exercise "Anatolian Eagle." Erdogan later explained the real reasons for the decision: Ankara could not allow fighter jets that had also been used in missions against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to fly over Turkish airspace. The Turks' decision to conduct joint military exercises with the Syrians while putting their often-cited "strategic partnership" with Israel on ice shows how deep the shift in Ankara's foreign policy already is.

It also reflects a domestic idiosyncrasy: Because the conservative Islamic AKP government has strengthened its positive relative to the secular military, it can now conduct a more self-confident foreign policy. It no longer needs to show so much respect for the Turkish-Israeli alliance, which in reality was always a project of the elite.

Displays of Displeasure

However, Ankara's spat with Israel had already begun before the Gaza war that so outraged the Turkish public. The army, too, is upset with Israel, says Haldun Solmazturk, a retired Turkish general, because there have been no reliable agreements with the Israelis for a long time, and because the Turks feel that the Israelis have treated them condescendingly.

The Israelis' Gaza offensive was the straw that broke the camel's back, triggering a display of displeasure with Israel from the Turkish side. During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in early 2009, Erdogan vented his anger on Israeli President Shimon Peres. His rant brought him fresh popularity at home and in the Arab world, where he has since been called the "Conqueror of Davos."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now considers the Turkish prime minister a good friend, and the feeling - to the West's chagrin - is mutual. The government in Tehran is being treated unfairly, Erdogan said before his most recent state visit to the Islamic Republic. The West, according to Erdogan, ought to give up its own nuclear weapons because threatening Iran with sanctions.

Western diplomats could hardly believe their ears. Was the only Muslim member of NATO siding with Tehran in the dispute over Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions? Wasn't this - especially after Erdogan's anti-Israeli tirade - even more evidence that Europe had in fact already lost Turkey, and that Ankara is looking to the east instead?

Erdogan's chief foreign policy adviser, Ibrahim Kalin, finds such charges peculiar. Even the West, he says, is not unfamiliar with the concept of pragmatic, interest-based politics. "When the Americans open up to Russia, it's hailed as a new era in diplomacy," he says. "But when Turkey opens up to Iran, people ask themselves whether we are changing our axis." Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad paid a second visit to Istanbul last Sunday, where he attended a summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Another summit guest, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been condemned by the international community over war crimes in Darfur, did not attend, even though he had been expressly invited by the Turks. "A Muslim cannot commit genocide," Erdogan had earlier said, dumbfounding the West once again.

A Benefit for Europe

Turkish Minister for E.U. Affairs Egemen Bagis is nonetheless unwilling to concede that Turkey is turning away from the West. He insists that the successes of Ankara's diplomacy with the East should be seen as a benefit for Europe.

The West, says Bagis, consistently describes Turkey as a bridge between East and West. But how, he asks, can a bridge stand on only one strong pillar?

"The good news is that Turkey is not turning away from the West," says Burak Bekdil, a critic of Erdogan. "The bad news is that it isn't turning toward the West any more, either."

But should this come as a surprise? The French and Austrian governments are firmly opposed to Turkey's bid to join the E.U. Meanwhile in Germany the majority of people are disillusioned with E.U. expansion.

In Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the image of the bridge is even seen as an expression of distance. If it were to become a full-fledged E.U. member, says new Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, Turkey could no longer perform the function of a bridge. After all, he said, a bridge doesn't belong to either side.

Serbia purchases 3 million vaccines from Novartis

Belgrade - Serbia on Friday signed a contract to purchase 3 million flu vaccine units from the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. Novartis won a tender earlier this month and is to begin delivering the vaccine in early December. The cost of each vaccine is 800 dinars (13 dollars).

Serbian Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic declared a nationwide flu epidemic on Wednesday. He said priority inoculation is planned in jeopardized segments of the population: children, chronic patients and pregnant women.

Health authorities have so far reported nine deaths related to complications caused from the swine flu. In a television interview on Wednesday, Milosavljevic estimated the number of infected in Serbia, a country with 7.5 million inhabitants, at 20,000-30,000.

The Novartis representative in Serbia is Jugohemija, a firm controlled by billionaire tycoon Milorad Miskovic's Delta Holding.

Snow death toll hits 40 in northern China

Beijing - The death toll has risen to about 40 after the heaviest snow for decades hit parts of northern China, the government said on Friday. At least 21 people died in collapsed buildings, while 19 others died in road accidents caused by icy weather in five northern regions, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and state media said.

The victims included four children who died after heavy snow caused the roof of a canteen to collapse at a primary school in the worst-hit province of Hebei.

The heavy snow since Monday affected an estimated 75.5 million people in Hebei, four other provinces and the nearby municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, the ministry said.

The paramilitary People's Armed Police mobilized 20,000 officers to help with relief work in the snow-hit areas.

Shijizhuang, the Hebei provincial capital, recorded its heaviest snowfall since 1955.

Meteorological officials in Shijiazhuang recorded 7.44 centimetres of snow in 24 hours by early Wednesday with accumulated snow up to 48 centimetres deep in some areas.

Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded at airports earlier this week and at least 30,000 other road travelers were trapped by deep snow in rural areas, reports said.

Another 13 people died on Wednesday when a tour bus fell into the sea from a bridge after skidding in heavy rain near Weihai city in the eastern province of Shandong.

Eight passengers and the driver survived the accident, which police blamed on the slippery road, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Exploited Afghan girl praises death sentence for tormentors

Cairo - A 14-year-old Afghan girl, held for four years as a sex slave by an Egyptian family in their Saudi home, praised a Saudi court's decision to behead her tormentors, in remarks published Friday. A Medina court on Wednesday upheld a previous verdict sentencing Mohammed al-Gunaidi and his sister Gamalat to death by beheading for imprisoning and sexually exploiting the girl in their home.

Al-Gunaidi's first wife received a sentence of 10 years in prison for her role in the crimes, while his second and third wives were sentenced to a year in prison and 500 lashes each.

"I will never forgive al-Gunaidi and his wives for torturing me physically and mentally. The court has handed them a fitting punishment," the 14-year-old Afghan girl, identified only as Razia, told the Saudi daily Arab News.

The girl, who sold clothes with her mother, was lured by the sister with promises of purchases into the family home, where she was then kept as a prisoner, her mother told the court. Al-Gunaidi was also accused of planning to smuggle the minor to Egypt.

Razia said that now freed, she would like to receive an education.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/294556,exploited-afghan-girl-praises-death-sentence-for-tormentors.html.

German army to boost combat troop strength amid Afghan violence

Berlin (Earth Times - dpa) - German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg announced Friday that an extra 120 combat troops would be sent to the Kunduz region in Northern Afghanistan, in the face of rising militant violence there. The German army's parliamentary mandate provides for a maximum of 4,500 troops to be deployed in Afghanistan, as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The minister announced the move during a visit to forces in Kunduz, where the army conducted its largest post-World War II combat mission earlier this year, in an attempt to forestall increasingly frequent Taliban attacks.

"It isn't all sweetness and light here," Guttenberg said during the visit, adding that the troops would be deployed from mid-January 2010.

Germany has already 450 combat troops stationed in Kunduz, in addition to around 1,000 soldiers attached to the so-called Reconstruction Teams, which provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan population.

The region had been calm in relation to the south of the country, but German forces now come under near-daily attacks by militants.

Germany - wary since World War II of military adventures abroad - must re-approve the Afghan deployment by parliamentary vote by December 13.

The conflict is unpopular at home, with a majority being against extending the mission, according to opinion polls.

On Friday, a government spokesman in Berlin said that the army was following a path of handing over greater responsibility to the Afghan security forces.

US President Barack Obama, whose country has the largest ISAF contingent in the country, is still weighing whether to send more troops to the conflict.

The German government has called for an international conference to be held so that allies can agree on a strategy.

Turkish parliament debates Kurdish reforms

Istanbul - Turkey's parliament Friday began debating a highly-contested "democratization initiative" aimed at solving the country's decades-old Kurdish problem. Speaking in parliament, Interior Minister Besir Atalay said the government's move was designed to bring "more democracy for everyone."

"The democratic opening will not harm the country but consolidate it," he said.

Among the steps the government will take as part of the initiative are the creation of an anti-discrimination commission and allowing political campaigning in languages other than Turkish. Kurdish villages and towns that have had their names changed to Turkish ones will also be allowed to apply to regain their previous names.

And estimated 12 to 15 million Kurds live in Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has been fighting Turkish forces since 1982, in a conflict that has cost the lives of an estimated 40,000. Although the group originally sought the creation of a separate Kurdish state, it now calls for improved rights for Turkey's Kurds.

The Turkish government hopes that its initiative will encourage the PKK to end its struggle. Small groups of PKK fighters have already surrendered recently, in an apparent test of the government's intentions.

The initiative, though, has drawn intense criticism from the political opposition, which has accused the government of the liberal Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) of undermining Turkey's unity.

"The fight against terrorism has stopped, and negotiations with the PKK have begun," said Devlet Bahceli, leader of the hard-line Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Deniz Baykal, leader of the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP), said the government was moving too fast with its initiative.

"The PKK has not promised to lay down their arms," he said. "Does the Spanish government make the (Basque separatist group) ETA its partner?"

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to address parliament later on Friday.