Second day of voting begins in Namibia's elections

Windhoek - A second day of voting began Saturday in Namibia's joint presidential and parliamentary elections, which observers say are likely to see victory for the incumbent South West African People's Organization (SWAPO). Just under one million Namibians are eligible to vote in the polls, with a result expected on December 4.

The elections are the south-west African nation's fifth democratic presidential and parliamentary elections and the fourth since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.

Polling booths were finally due to close at 9 pm (1900).

A total of 14 parties are contesting the election to the 78-seat National Assembly, which has been dominated since independence by SWAPO.

SWAPO, which fought a 22-year guerrilla war against apartheid South Africa ending in 1988, a year before the country's first democratic polls, won 55 Assembly seats in the last election five years ago.

The party is expected to easily win re-election over a fragmented opposition, but with a reduced majority.

Incumbent president and SWAPO leader Hifikepunye Pohamba, who succeeded founding president Sam Nujoma in 2004, is also expected to easily win a second term over his 11 rivals.

Some 961,000 Namibians are registered to vote.

The emergence of opposition to the hegemonic SWAPO from within its own ranks is the defining feature of this election.

Popular former foreign minister Hidipo Hamutenya broke away from SWAPO in 2007 in protest over what he called the party's "autocratic" leadership style and formed his own Rally for Democracy and Progress.

Namibia is a stable, but extremely poor country, that lives off mining, fishing, agriculture and tourism.

Some 28 per cent of Namibians live on less than 2 Namibian dollars (around 30 US cents) a day and six out of 10 young people are estimated to be unemployed.

Australia's giant pandas settle in

Sydney - Giant pandas Wang Wang and Funi, on loan to Australia from China, were munching on bamboo at Adelaide Zoo on Saturday after their arrival of a chartered jet. A crowd of more than 100 was on hand to cheer their safe arrival after a 12-hour flight from Chengdu in southern China.

With the pair were keepers and veterinarians from China, as well as their Australian counterparts, who have been trained in Chengdu.

They will be gradually weaned off the bamboo flown in from China and shifted onto local fare.

Zoo chief executive Chris West said the public would not get to see the pandas until the official opening of their enclosure next month.

"We have got sleeping accommodation in the facility, and I'm quite sure we have got two or three staff who'll be there overnight making sure they are fine," West said. "We have also got lots of cameras, so we'll be watching them to make sure everything is fine."

Japan agrees to join group to monitor Philippine peace talks

Manila - Japan has agreed to join an international group that would monitor peace talks between the Philippine government and the country's largest Muslim separatist rebel group, its ambassador said Saturday. Ambassador Makoto Katsura said his country is keen to help in the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

On Tuesday, Turkey confirmed that it would join the International Contact Group (ICG) to monitor implementation of agreements signed between the two sides.

Britain and Saudi Arabia were also invited by both sides to join the ICG.

The government and rebels agreed on September 15 to form the ICG as part of efforts to resume peace negotiations, which have been stalled since August last year due to the failure to sign a key territorial agreement.

The two sides have agreed to oblige soldiers and rebel fighters to "refrain from intentionally targeting or attacking non-combatants" in the southern region of Mindanao.

In August 2008, combat broke out between the rebels and army in several provinces of Mindanao after the government caved in to opposition and reneged on the negotiated territorial agreement.

More than 300 people were killed and more than half a million people displaced in the hostilities. Some of the refugees have returned home or moved in with relatives, but many are still in evacuation camps.

Iraqi imams warn of foreign interference in January election

Baghdad - Two politically influential Shiite Muslim preachers on Saturday warned of possible foreign interference in Iraq's coming parliamentary elections. In his sermon for Eid al-Adha prayers, Ammar al-Hakim, the Iranian-educated head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a leading Shiite political party, warned against "worrisome efforts to undermine the political process."

"We stand against such attempts. They are doomed to fail. (There is) a danger of foreign intervention in the electoral process. The election is an internal Iraqi affair," al-Hakim said in his Eid sermon to thousands of worshipers in Baghdad's al-Karada district.

Iraqi Shiite Muslims marked the Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, on Saturday. Sunni Muslims marked the holiday on Friday. The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq fared well in the 2005 elections, winning the capital, Baghdad, with 40 per cent of the vote.

"We must strive for consensus among all Iraqis," al-Hakim said. "We will defend all Iraqis across the country."

Shiite cleric Mortada al-Qazawini had a similar message in his televised Eid sermon from the shrine to the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Hussein, in the Iraqi city of Karabala.

"There are attempts from within Iraq and from neighboring countries to inject billions of dollars of funds to influence elections in favor of ... demons, wolves and thieves to steal our faith," he said.

Both religious leaders urged Shiites to participate in the coming polls, the future of which has been thrown into question by a continued standoff between Iraqi Shiites and Kurds in parliament and Sunni politicians led by Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi.

Before the Eid holiday, officials from the country's electoral commission said the polls, which the constitution mandates must take place by the end of January, would likely be delayed, possibly until March.

Al-Hashemi on November 19 vetoed an elections law passed after months of rancorous debate over voting in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, saying he wanted more seats in the parliament to be chosen by expatriate Iraqi voters, many of whom are thought to be Sunni.

After Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers last week passed an elections law that did not address the vice president's concerns, Arab politicians in Kirkuk threatened to boycott the polls unless al-Hashemi's concerns were met.

Many Iraqi Kurds hope to make Kirkuk the capital of a future independent state, calling it their "Jerusalem." Iraqi Arab politicians, allied with politicians from the area's Turkmen minority, view Kirkuk as an integral part of Iraq.

The United States has urgently sought to avoid a delay in the polls, fearing such a delay could interfere with its scheduled withdrawal of combat troops from the country.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/296728,iraqi-imams-warn-of-foreign-interference-in-january-election.html.

Son of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos seeks senate seat

Manila - Congressman Ferdinand Marcos Junior, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, on Saturday filed his certificate of candidacy for senator in next year's elections. It will be the second attempt of a Marcos scion to seek a national post since Imelda Marcos, the widow of the late dictator, lost her presidential bid in 1992.

The Marcoses and their associates were forced into exile in Hawaii in February 1986 after they were chased out of the country by a mass of protesters in a four-day bloodless uprising led by the late democracy icon and former president Corazon Aquino.

Bongbong, as Marcos Junior is called, said he believes that he can greatly contribute as a senator in providing a leadership that will uplift the lives of the country's impoverished millions.

He vowed to push for reforms in education and economy and to fight graft and corruption.

Bongbong claims that being a son of a dictator is not disadvantageous to his bid.

"There seems to be this assumption that my name is becoming a hindrance," he said. "I am proud and I feel very lucky to be a Marcos. The fact that my name is Ferdinand Marcos has been nothing but advantageous to my entire political career. I consider myself to be lucky to be born out of a remarkable parents and public servants."

The young Marcos is running under the ticket of Nacionalista Party whose presidential bet is real-estate magnate Manuel Villar. Villar was expected to file his certificate of candidacy on Monday.

Owl City: Mountain View's tiny burrowing owls are in the way of proposed sports fields

By Diana Samuels

They're about 9 inches tall, with big eyes and toothpick legs, and just a few of them are left in Mountain View.

But despite their small size and population, the city's remaining Western burrowing owls have sometimes loomed large over development along Mountain View's bayfront. Now, the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society is calling on Mountain View to change its plans to build athletic fields at Shoreline Regional Park, in a space where the owls forage for food.

The owls eat insects and small rodents, and live in ground burrows typically made by squirrels. They're found throughout western North America, but their numbers declined almost 60 percent in California between the 1980s and early 1990s, according to the Audubon Society. The California Department of Fish and Game has designated the burrowing owl a "species of special concern." There are fewer than 40 nesting pairs left in Santa Clara County, said Shani Kleinhaus, environmental advocate for the Audubon Society, and they are "in jeopardy and in dire straits everywhere in the Bay Area."

In the county, they're gone from cities including Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, Kleinhaus said, but can sometimes be found at places including the San Jose International Airport, Moffett Field in Mountain View, and Mission College in Santa Clara. At Shoreline, city Assistant Public Works Director Mike Fuller said they had four nesting pairs last year.

The city has worked to protect the owls for decades, hiring a city biologist who carefully monitors the species, Fuller said. They've built manmade burrows to encourage owls to stay, and keep the vegetation short to make finding food easier.

But now, wildlife lovers are objecting to the city's plans for long-awaited athletic fields on 12 acres in the southwest corner of Shoreline Park, at the closed landfill between the golf course and Garcia Avenue. Kleinhaus and Bob Power, executive director for the Audubon Society, wrote a guest opinion column in the Mountain View Voice last week calling for the city to create a burrowing owl preserve at Shoreline. They've also started a petition, which had about 150 signatures as of Tuesday, Kleinhaus said.

"As time goes by, we see more and more projects coming up, and more and more owls lose their home," Kleinhaus said.

The athletic fields are in the early stages of design, but have been long-desired by local residents. The city began developing a plan in 2003 to find sites for more athletic fields, and ultimately, this September hired a contractor to design a facility at Shoreline.

"There just aren't a lot of sites available," Fuller said. "Mountain View's built out."

When the project is further along, the city will have to do a full environmental analysis, Fuller said. In the meantime, officials are looking at a few options to fulfill legal requirements for handling the owls: set aside additional land at Shoreline for the owls and enhance foraging sites there, spend $250,000 to $500,000 to buy "mitigation credits" that help owls at a wildlife conservation land bank in the East Bay, or a combination of the two.

Money used to buy mitigation credits would go to create and maintain a burrowing owl habitat at Haera Wildlife Conservation Bank in Alameda County. Jeff Mathews, director of sales and marketing for Wildlands, Inc., the company that runs the land bank, described it as a "passive relocation" — they use the money to create and maintain the most suitable habitat for owls, and eventually, the owls show up. Mathews said, depending on the year, they have seen as few as six pairs of owls or as many as 15 to 20 at Haera's 300-acre site, which also provides a habitat for kit foxes.

The city used the mitigation approach last time the owls stood in the way of a development, in early 2008 when Google planned to build a hotel on the "Charleston East" site. The city paid $150,000 to buy 9.75 acres at Haera after it found a family of owls living there at Charleston East.

Those owls' homes were blocked so they couldn't return, Kleinhaus said. The Google deal fell through and a hotel has not been built yet, but the city keeps the site plowed so squirrels don't create more burrows.

Chris Nagano, an endangered species division chief with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife's Sacramento office, said the concept of land bank mitigation has become very popular with cities and developers over the past five years. Though he couldn't speak specifically to burrowing owls, he said land banks are effective in helping species, especially when a city is looking at a small site that would be expensive to replace in a developed area.

"If done correctly, (land banks) can protect large amounts of habitats for species," Nagano said.

Kleinhaus said the concept of mitigation doesn't work for owls: the city isn't physically moving those specific owls to a new home. They're simply assuming that they will find somewhere else to live, and more owls will reproduce in Alameda to make up for them. Burrowing owls tend to show "strong fidelity" to their nest sites, remaining in the same area for years, according to California Department of Fish and Game documents.

As they disappear from Santa Clara County, Kleinhaus said, they're difficult to bring back.

"They've been mitigated to death," she said.

There used to be burrowing owls in Palo Alto's Byxbee Park Hills and Baylands. But Palo Alto Naturalist Annette Coleman said she could only recall one recent sighting, about 2½ years ago by the city's refuse center. The city tried to create some artificial burrows at Byxbee to attract more owls, but Coleman said people initially used the mounds as bike jumps and the owls never appeared.

The owls at Shoreline, though, can be saved with some effort, Kleinhaus said.

"There's nowhere you can go and have a little bit of nature anymore," she said. "I think people need that."

The city and Audubon Society representatives have scheduled a meeting next week to discuss the project, Fuller said.

"I understand their concerns and we look forward to sharing information and working with them," Fuller said. "Hopefully we can accomplish council's goals of establishing athletics fields, and (the Audubon Society's) goals of not disturbing the owls."

12 inmates escape from western Afghan prison

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A dozen prisoners escaped jail through a tunnel they dug from their cell to the outside in western Afghanistan, police said Saturday.

Those who escaped from Farah prison overnight included low-level Taliban militants, drug-dealers and other minor criminals, said Farah province police chief Gen. Mohammad Faqir Askar.

A 13th prisoner arrested during his attempted escape said the tunnel took 10 days to dig and the plan was to slowly empty the prison overnight, Askar said. More than 300 inmates were held in the prison, which was built to hold about 80, he said.

Afghanistan's overcrowded prisons have been plagued by problems as the country tries to establish a justice system amid ongoing conflict.

In the main jail in Kabul, prisoners took control of entire cellblocks last year before being pushed back. Taliban militants launched an assault on a prison in the southern city of Kandahar in June 2008 that freed 900 inmates.

Also Saturday, a bomb exploded in a trash bin in the center of Afghanistan's capital. Officials say the explosion did not cause any injuries or significant property damage.

Kabul police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahman says the explosion in a neighborhood close to the U.S. Embassy did not appear to be strong.

"It was designed mostly to make a large sound, just to alarm people," Rahman said. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw a damaged billboard but little other debris.

Russia And China Endorse Atomic Energy Agency's Rebuke Of Iran

The United Nations nuclear watchdog demanded Friday that Iran immediately freeze operations at a once secret uranium enrichment plant, a sharp rebuke that bore added weight because it was endorsed by Russia and China.

The governing body of the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, meeting in Vienna, Austira, also expressed “serious concern” about potential military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program.

Administration officials held up the statement as a victory for President Obama’s diplomatic efforts to coax both Russia and China to increase the pressure on Iran. They said that they had begun working on a sanctions package, which would be brought before the United Nations Security Council if Iran did not meet the year-end deadline imposed by President Obama to make progress on the issue.

“Today’s overwhelming vote at the I.A.E.A.’s Board of Governors demonstrates the resolve and unity of the international community with regard to Iran’s nuclear program,” the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement. “Indeed, the fact that 25 countries from all parts of the world cast their votes in favor shows the urgent need for Iran to address the growing international deficit of confidence in its intentions.”

In recent weeks, the Obama administration has been painstakingly wooing Russia and China, the two permanent members of the Security Council most averse to imposing sanctions.

Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, has rewarded the administration’s outreach on missile defense with stronger statements signaling more willingness to impose sanctions on Iran. After meeting with President Obama in Singapore earlier this month, President Medvedev said he was not happy about how long it was taking Iran to respond to an offer to move its enriched uranium out of the country for further processing, adding that “other measures” might have to be considered.

Persuading China has, so far, proven more difficult. After meeting with President Obama in Beijing, China’s president, Hu Jintao, said nothing about additional pressure on Iran.

U.S. administration officials said that behind the scenes they had been working hard to get China on board, and expressed hope that those efforts would pay off. Before President Obama traveled to Beijing this month, the United States sent two senior National Security Council officials, Jeff Bader and Dennis Ross, to China to make a personal case for why the United States was so concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, said administration officials.

Iranian officials insist that the nation’s nuclear program is for nuclear energy, although many nations believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said China’s support on Iran and its decision to set a climate change goal on Thursday showed that President Obama’s trip to Beijing was producing results despite criticism of the visit. “This is the product of engagement,” said Emanuel, adding that it was “a direct result” of the trip.

Yet even as the United States and its Western allies were exulting over the step by an agency often accused of being too soft on Iran, administration officials and foreign policy experts cautioned that the largely symbolic resolution was a long way from meaningful sanctions from the Security Council.

Indeed, although the resolution approved on Friday in Vienna is the first time that the I.A.E.A.’s board has demanded an immediate halt to construction of the Iran uranium enrichment facility at Qum, it falls short of the diplomatic step of finding Iran in formal “noncompliance” or violation of its nonproliferation commitments, which would provide strong evidence to bolster the drive for a new round of sanctions.

Administration officials and Western diplomats were still holding out hope, however slim, that a negotiated deal with Iran before the end of the year may be possible.

For one thing, even if Russia and China do end up agreeing to additional sanctions, such measures have so far had little effect on Iran’s behavior.

Beyond that there is the Israeli government’s running threat, or bluff, that it may take military action against Iran in 2010 if negotiations fail - an action that could provoke Iranian retaliation against United States troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

The proposal to ship Iran’s uranium out of the country, where it would be processed into nuclear fuel for use in a medical reactor in Tehran, “is still on the table,” a senior administration official said Friday. But, he added, “time is running short.”

The demand by the I.A.E.A. board for the immediate suspension of construction at the Qum enrichment plant was the first time it had made such a demand of Tehran. Iran has told the agency that it plans to complete the half-built facility, which is tunneled into the side of a mountain, by 2011.

The vote was 27 in favor, 3 against and 5 abstentions. China and Russia voted for the rebuke.

Iran’s nuclear efforts involve hundreds of sites, programs and planned facilities. The closest the international agency’s board had previously come to demanding a halt to the establishment of a new plant came in 2006 when it requested that Iran “reconsider the construction” of a nuclear reactor at Arak. Western experts fear that Iran could use the Arak reactor, on which it continues to work, to make plutonium fuel for nuclear warheads.

Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a private group based in Washington, called the resolution “the appropriate censure” given the Qum disclosure. “The revelation has led to an important shift in opinion at the board and probably at the Security Council,” he said. “Patience with Iran is running out and, more importantly, Qum severely undercuts Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.”

The resolution was the first against Iran by the agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors since February 2006. At that time, the board criticized Iran’s “many failures and breaches of its obligations” to inform the agency of its nuclear activities, as well as its defiance in ignoring calls for the suspension of uranium enrichment.

Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus form customs union

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Russia signed a deal Friday to form a customs union with former Soviet neighbors Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev invited other ex-Soviet nations to join the union, hailing it as a "new stage in our cooperation."

The union will come into force on Jan. 1, with the three countries using the same foreign trade tariffs and rules with one another,...

Official: Blast may have caused train wreck

By IVAN SEKRETAREV, Associated Press Writer

UGLOVKA, Russia – An express train carrying hundreds of passengers from Moscow to St. Petersburg derailed, killing dozens of people and injuring scores of others in what may have been an act of sabotage, Russian officials said.

Health Minister Tatyana Golikova later told reporters Saturday morning that 25 people were killed, 19 were missing and 96 were being treated in hospitals after the last three cars of the 14-car Nevsky Express left the tracks in the Tver province northwest of Moscow.

Earlier, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said in televised comments that 39 people were dead, but a Ministry spokesman later said Shoigu had been given the wrong information.

Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin told reporters Saturday that the Friday accident may have been caused by an explosion under the tracks, raising fears that the luxury train, popular with business executives and government officials, was the target of a terrorist attack.

A light rain started to fall at the scene of the derailment at daybreak Saturday as emergency workers huddled around fires, wrapped in blankets, and two huge cranes lifted pieces of the wreckage clear of the site as crews continued the search for victims.

One of the bashed and battered railway carriages lay on its side across the tracks, while baggage and metal debris lay scattered in the muddy ground.

Police and prosecutors swarmed over the site and restricted access to what was reported to be a possible bomb crater.

Friday night's Nevsky Express was carrying 633 passengers and 20 railway personnel during its regular run to St. Petersburg, the emergencies ministry said.

The derailment occurred in a rural area near the border between the Novgorod and Tver provinces, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of Moscow and 150 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of St. Petersburg, authorities said.

Russian trains have been the targets of bombers in the past.

An explosion on the Moscow-St. Petersburg line in 2007 derailed a passenger train and injured 27 people. Two suspects have been arrested and authorities are searching for a former military officer they believe was behind the blast, but the motive was unclear.

A December 2003 suicide bomb attack on a commuter train near the Russian republic of Chechnya killed 44. At least 12 people were injured in June 2005 when a bomb derailed a train headed from Chechnya to Moscow.

Terrorism has been a major concern in Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, as Chechen rebels have clashed with government forces in two wars.

But Russia has also been plagued by deadly accidents resulting from its deteriorating Soviet-era infrastructure, a high incidence of alcohol abuse and from negligence.

Russian news agencies reported that some injured passengers were taken by train and bus to hospitals in the area and to St. Petersburg for medical attention.

State-run Vesti-24 broadcast live from the national crisis response center center in Moscow. President Dmitry Medvedev ordered authorities to help the victims and determine what caused the derailment, state media cited the Kremlin as saying.

Germany Returns Kurds to Uncertain Fate

Deportation to Syria of some failed asylum seekers leads to arrest, rights groups say.

By an IWPR-trained reporter (SB No. 83, 27-Nov-09)

Khaled Kanjo had lived in Europe for years but Germany rejected his appeal for political asylum and sent him back to Syria.

Shortly after his return in September, Kanjo was summoned by the security services and since then his whereabouts are unknown, Syrian and international human rights organizations say.

The case of Kanjo, a 31-year-old Kurd originally from the poor north-east of Syria, is only one of a number in recent months where people deported from Germany have been taken into custody by the Syrian authorities or risk such a fate, local civil rights groups say.

The latest deportations are believed to result from an agreement between Damascus and Berlin signed in July 2008, which allows the German authorities to deport to Syria not only those with Syrian nationality but also those who only have a Syrian residence permit.

Many of the latter are Kurds. In the 1960s, a large number of Kurdish Syrians were stripped of their Syrian nationality and the government at the time regarded them as foreigners.

Until recently, Kurds who had fled to Germany and did not have Syrian identification documents were protected from being sent back even when they were not granted asylum, and their presence in Germany was mostly tolerated, civil right groups say.

Kurds constitute around ten per cent of the Syrian population and are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They have in recent years increasingly been the target of repression by the authorities, according to an extensive report published by New-York-based Human Rights Watch on November 26.

The report called on Damascus to stop “unlawful and unjustified practices of attacking peaceful Kurdish gatherings and detaining Kurdish political and cultural activists”.

Although the agreement between Syria and Germany dates from July 2008, it did not come into effect until the beginning of the year. The accord sparked a wave of protests in Germany with human rights groups asserting that Syrian Kurds faced imprisonment and harassment by the authorities in Syria.

The issue was highlighted when a family of Syrian Yezidi Kurds was deported from Germany to Syria in October.

Yezidis are mostly considered as ethnically Kurdish. They believe in an ancient religion that is not recognized by the Syrian state. They are registered as Muslims in Syria.

The family, a 55-year-old widow, her 22-year-old daughter and her three sons aged between 19 and 21, are believed to have been detained by the Syrian authorities upon their arrival at the airport, according to Kurdish rights groups and German media.

After their asylum claim was rejected, they were granted a temporary permit to stay in Germany until January 2010. Nevertheless, rights groups say they were deported without any stated reasons after living in Germany for nine years.

It is believed that the family was arrested for participating in anti-Syrian protests in Germany.

Mazen Darwish, a Damascus-based civil rights activist, said that any country was entitled to send back refugees who have no right to be there. But he added that, on a human level, returning refugees to countries that do not respect human rights posed a “moral problematic” because of the risks these people face in their home countries.

“It is important to follow up on the cases of the people who were sent back,” he said, adding that western nations should delegate local civil rights groups and international institutions to make sure that deported individuals are not mistreated or imprisoned.

German official sources told IWPR that the German authorities deported people without authorization to reside in Germany and who refused to leave voluntarily.

They said that if a person expelled was arrested, the German embassy in Damascus could provide assistance depending on specific circumstances, but they would not go into details as publication might be detrimental.

In 2008, 106 persons with Syrian nationality were granted asylum or refugee status, out of 775 who applied, the sources said.

Syrian rights groups fear that the authorities in Germany will deport more Syrian activists in the coming months. One of them is Tarek Rasho, a 32-year-old Kurdish Yezidi activist who is currently held in Germany awaiting deportation, members of his family say.

They are worried he will be detained and tortured in Syria because he took part in protests against the Syrian government in Germany, where he has lived since 1996.

“These procedures are against the most basic human rights principles that clearly prevent the deportation of individuals to countries where their lives or freedom would be endangered,” said a Damascus-based civil rights activist who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Deportations from Germany have been uncommon in the last decade, especially after the case of an expelled Syrian Kurd, Hussein Daoud, who was arrested in Syria in 2000, was widely publicized.

Upon his forced return to Damascus after Germany refused him asylum, Daoud was sentenced to two years in jail in Syria and was stripped of his civil rights for belonging to “a secret organization”. Daoud was tortured by Syrian security services, local human rights groups say.

Some Syrians, especially Kurds, flee to European countries to escape political persecution or discrimination in Syria, while other simply seek a better life.

Venezuela to upgrade Palestinan ties, offers aid

By Walker Simon

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela plans to open an embassy in Palestinian territories and upgrade its ties to ambassadorial level, President Hugo Chavez said on Friday, to support Palestinians in their struggle against Israel.

"We have decided to designate an ambassador and open an embassy in Palestine," Chavez said after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"We now have a charge d'affaires; we will name an ambassador in coming days as part of accords to boost our bilateral relations," he said.

Among aid agreements signed Friday were scholarships for 20 Palestinians to study medicine in Venezuela. Chavez said he saw Venezuela offering many more educational grants.

"We must tell the Palestine people how many scholarships we will give to Palestinian youth so they come and study what they need," he said. "They can be short and long, pre-graduate or post-graduate, technical and training studies."

In January, Venezuela cut diplomatic relations with Israel over the Israeli offensive in Gaza of nearly a year ago, which Chavez then called a Palestinian "holocaust."

On Friday, he again cast the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in near-apocalyptic terms. He said:

"We ... are on the side of the Palestinian people's memorable struggle ... against the genocidal state of Israel that knocks down, kills and aims to terminate the Palestinian people."

Chavez ordered his education minister to circulate maps Abbas gave him to illustrate the small dimensions of the Gaza Strip, where he said 1.5 million people lived in "concentration camp" like conditions, their movements to the outside world virtually blocked by Israel.

"We (Venezuelans) should devote the entire force of our hearts and souls towards the creation of a Palestinian state," he said. "Venezuela is Palestine; Palestine is Venezuela, we have a common struggle."

COLOMBIA - 'THE ISRAEL OF SOUTH AMERICA'

Chavez charged the United States, using a recent agreement to expand U.S. troops' access to Colombian military bases, aimed to turn Colombia into "the Israel of South America."

The U.S. presence in Colombia endangered Venezuela due to the doctrine of "pre-emptive security," he said. "They assume the right to attack any country with whatever excuse."

"Colombia, the Israel of South America -- this is an aim of the United States," he said. The United States could spy from Colombia on other South American countries, he added.

Last month, Colombia and the United States signed a pact increasing U.S. access to military bases in Colombia. Washington is relocating its regional anti-narcotics hub to Colombia from Ecuador.

Colombia, the most reliable U.S. ally in South America, has drawn about $6 billion in mostly U.S. military aid since 2000.

Chavez said that he told U.S. President Barack Obama at a regional summit in Trinidad in April that they could work together to help resolve Colombia's internal conflict, apparently referring to the fight between leftist rebels there and the government.

"Lamentably it seems Obama listens only to matters of war," Chavez said.

Venezuela blasts Colombia as region talks defense

QUITO (Reuters) - Venezuela's government on Friday blasted Colombia's defense minister as a "crazy sniper" at a summit in Quito, where South American ministers agreed to sign a partial accord over security in the region.

The remarks came at a time of heightened tensions between Colombia and Venezuela, two Andean neighbors caught up in a simmering diplomatic dispute that is raising the risk of border violence and damaging bilateral trade ties.
Colombia had refused to send senior cabinet ministers to the UNASUR meeting of South American countries in Ecuador's capital, citing "offenses" the country has suffered during its feud with Venezuela.

"Colombia's defense minister stayed in Bogota and started to say things, like some crazy sniper, irresponsible, warmongering, firing shots at Venezuela," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro told reporters. "Why didn't he come here to say face to face what he said today."

Maduro's comments came just hours after Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva reiterated charges Colombian FARC commander Ivan Marquez and several commanders from the smaller ELN rebel group were taking shelter in Venezuela.

Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, a fierce U.S. adversary, says a military pact signed in October between Colombia and the United States could set the stage for a U.S. invasion of his OPEC country. He calls President Alvaro Uribe a traitor to the region for signing the deal.

Washington and Bogota say the base plan will be used only for their long cooperation on anti-drug and counter-insurgency operations against rebels and drug gangs.

Venezuela and Colombia have often sparred about spillover from Colombia's long guerrilla war and over accusations Chavez has backed FARC rebels. Both governments may be seeking to gain domestic leverage over the crisis, but Chavez has ratcheted up tensions by ordering his army commanders to prepare for war.

South American leftist leaders have said they are worried over the reach of the U.S.-Colombia base plan. But in Quito, regional foreign and defense ministers reached a partial agreement on more guarantees over the use of security deals.

"There were some advances on the question that has worried us a lot, that is the one about formal guarantees," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin told reporters in Quito.

But Venezuela was joined by fellow leftist governments, Ecuador and Bolivia, who said the plan to allow the U.S. military more access to Colombian bases remained a problem and a possible threat to regional security.

Israel welcomes IAEA Iran decision

Jerusalem - Israel Friday welcomed IAEA's governing board decision condemning Iran for breaching UN Security Council orders regarding a new enrichment plant, and urging it to halt construction and answer open questions about alleged nuclear weapons research. The decision comes "after more than three years in which no decision was taken within this framework against Iran," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said in a statement to journalists.

The decision, he said, had "great importance."

"The adoption of the decision by a large majority indicates that the international community has reached the conclusion that Iran's nuclear program, which is advancing secretly through concealment and deception, is becoming an urgent and real danger to world peace.

"The international community, through it authorized institutions and its member states, must ensure that this decision will have practical implications," he said.

The international community should do that be "setting binding timetables" for Iran's implementation of the decision and "heavy sanctions" on Tehran in case it ignored it.