Kashmiri boy to spend Eid on road

Sameer Arshad

28 November 2009

NEW DELHI: It's no rogan josh, no gustaba for Kashmiri boy Umar Nissar (16) on Eid, as he squats on a pavement near Jantar Mantar and digs into his modest meal of pakoras and oranges. Away from the hustle and bustle of the festivities, Umar would spend Eid, the second in a row, on the road in Delhi where his father and hundreds of other J&K State Road Transport Corporation (J&KSRTC) would sit-in to protest against the non-payment of their salaries for the past 10 months.

The striking employees marched on foot from Srinagar to Jammu, along with their families, before arriving in Delhi "as a last resort''. The agitating employees were ruthlessly bashed and dispersed when they took to streets in Jammu and Srinagar. "Several people were injured when cops baton-charged us. My uncle, who's also a J&KSRTC employee lost his eye when a teargas shell hit him,'' said Umar, who was a part of the protest when the employees, along with their families, tried to march towards Srinagar's civil secretariat in October.

The striking employees say, their families had no choice but to join them as their pleas for restoration of salaries fell on "deaf ears''. J&KSRTC Employees Union president Shakeel Ahmed said Umar, who had to discontinue his studies, wasn't alone. "Thousands of kids of the employees face bleak future as we can no longer afford their studies,'' he said.

"I was a class IX student at Day Care School in Rajbagh, Srinagar. The school threw me out when I couldn't pay my fee,'' Umar said, still hoping to buy a Barbie and Eid clothes for his six-year-old sister. "When I was leaving for Jammu on foot, she asked me to get this stuff. I would ask dad if he could buy her these things.'' He said he came along to give moral support to his father. "I don't mind that I wouldn't either get to deck up my house for the festivities or the eidee,'' says Umar.

Ahmed said the government was refusing to give them benefits of the fifth and sixth pay commissions, saying the corporation was bankrupt. "This excuse is against the letter and spirit of the SRTC Act passed in Parliament in 1950. The Act says the SRTCs are for cheap, safe and best travel for the public on no-profit-no-loss basis,'' he said. "Why should we suffer with just 329 crore deficit? The DTC's losses run in crores, but its employees aren't penalized.''

J&K transport minister Qamar Ali Akhoon maintained that the employees wouldn't get fifth and sixth pay commission benefits, as the corporation was bankrupt. "We're determined to pay them their salaries and offer the benefits of the voluntary retirement scheme,'' he said.

The employees say nothing doing. "How can you expect us to settle for pay scales of 2000 in 2009?'' asked Ahmed, adding the employees have spent Eid, Diwali, Gurpurab on roads and would continue to do so if their demands weren't met.

The employees have been on an indefinite strike for the past three months and have recently submitted their resignations en masse under voluntary retirement scheme as a protest demanding one-time settlement of their dues.

Source: Times of India.
Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Kashmiri-boy-to-spend-Eid-on-road/articleshow/5276989.cms.

Top Indian Kashmir cleric urges troop pullout in Eid sermon

By Izhar Wani (AFP)

SRINAGAR, India — Kashmir's top cleric on Saturday urged New Delhi to pull out Indian troops, revoke tough anti-militancy laws and free prisoners before resuming talks aimed at ending an insurgency in the region.

The call by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq came during a sermon marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir where Islamist rebels have been waging a two-decade fight against New Delhi's rule.

"The government of India must withdraw troops from the region in a phased manner and revoke draconian laws before resuming talks," said Farooq, the most senior cleric in Indian Kashmir and the leader of moderate separatists.

New Delhi also needs to end alleged human rights violations by security forces and release jailed separatists, Farooq said.

"Before starting the dialogue, people should see some forward movement in the form of these confidence-building measures," Farooq said from the pulpit of the Jamia Masjid, Indian Kashmir's main mosque.

Farooq's statements came as hardline separatist Syed Ali Geelani led 10,000 Muslims in an anti-India demonstration in northern Sopore town, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Srinagar, police said.

Shouting "We want freedom" and "Allah is great," the protesters marched through the town's streets after offering Eid prayers.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram, on a visit to Kashmir last month, said the Indian government was willing to hold a "quiet dialogue with every section of political opinion" -- including those opposed to New Delhi's rule.

Farooq described the offer as a "step forward."

Moderate separatist leaders in the Muslim-majority state have held several rounds of talks with India's central government, though hardliners oppose any contact that does not involve neighboring Pakistan.

However, there have been no talks between the Indian government and the separatists for the last three years.

Farooq said discussions between New Delhi and separatists should culminate in a tri-partite meeting involving India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris.

India and Pakistan, which each hold part of Kashmir but claim it in full, have fought two wars over the scenic region.

Most of the rebel groups fighting New Delhi's rule want the region to become part of Pakistan. A few support its independence.

Chidambaram has said any answer to Kashmir's problems must be "honorable, respectable and acceptable to the vast majority of the people" and added "the solution may turn out to be a unique one."

According to official figures, more than 47,000 people have been killed in the two-decade-long insurgency.

Farooq's sermon came as Muslims in Kashmir marked the festival of Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, by slaughtering sheep and goats in remembrance of Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son to God.

Violence in Kashmir has dropped sharply since India and Pakistan started a peace process in 2004 but New Delhi "paused" the process after last year's Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead.

Farooq urged New Delhi to resume talks with Islamabad.

"Whatever happened in Mumbai has been condemned by one and all," he said, "but talks should not be held hostage to that act of carnage."

India and Washington have blamed the deadly Mumbai rampage on Pakistan's banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has denied any role.

Omar takes Mughal path

- CM in a hurry to add to Kashmir’s links with country

Mughal Road (Jammu and Kashmir), Nov. 28: The Mughal emperors’ dirt track to “paradise”, which resounded with hoof beats centuries ago, saw history repeat itself when Omar Abdullah led a caravan of vehicles down the medieval road.

The chief minister, himself at the wheel of his silver-colored vehicle, drove along the 84km stretch of the famed Mughal Road from Shopian in Kashmir to Bafliaz in Jammu on Thursday, leading the first ever motorcade on the road that is being made motorable.

The work is expected to be complete next year but Omar is in a hurry, ostensibly to recreate an aura of the Mughal era and provide Kashmir with an alternative road link to the rest of the country.

In 1586, Akbar’s army had swept up this road to conquer Kashmir, defeating Yousuf Shah Chek. Soon after, the emperor was on his way to the Valley leading a huge caravan of horses, chariots and elephants.

When his son Jahangir, who called Kashmir “paradise on earth”, fell ill at Achabal in the Valley, he was carried along this road towards Delhi but died at Chingus in Rajouri, says historian Fida Hassnain.

For centuries, the Mughal emperors kept heading to Kashmir on this route, traversing the mighty Pir Panjal mountains, before it lost its importance in the 19th century when better roads came up.

When it becomes motorable, Mughal Road will provide an alternative highway to Srinagar from Jammu, although around 55km longer than the existing 300km Jammu-Srinagar highway. But it will provide Srinagar with a direct link to Rajouri and Poonch, shortening the current 500km drive by two-thirds.

The lakhs of Gujjars who migrate to the plains of Kashmir every summer with their cattle will now have a motorable road for the first time.

The Shopian-Bafliaz stretch criss-crosses ranges 11,500ft to 130,000ft high, running past pine groves, lush meadows and gushing streams. Adding to the natural beauty are the monuments the Mughals built at places like Aliabad.

Omar braved the winter chill and snow to cross to the other side of the Pir Panjal late on Thursday night.

“The dream of Sheikh sahib (Omar’s grandfather Sheikh Abdullah) has been realized at last. I hope the road will be complete next year,” Omar told a gathering at Dubjan, around 11km from Shopian, before completing the journey by driving all the way to Jammu past historical sites such as Aliabad, Pir Ki Gali, Bafliaz.

He allowed a few cameramen to board his vehicle so they could capture the key moments of his trip.

“I got an opportunity not only to drive but to complete this road. However, it would not have been possible without the Center's support. It will be a four-hour journey from Srinagar. It is going to benefit people from both sides, particularly the pilgrims who want to visit the famous shrine of Shahdara Sharief in Rajouri,” he said.

“This was a medieval road and lost its significance when Kashmir got its first cart road -— Jehlum Valley (JV) road —in the 19th century, connecting the Valley with Muzaffarabad on to Punjab. It was later made motorable in 1890,” said Hassnain, the historian.

The Dogra rulers later built a cart road from Jammu to Srinagar and after Independence, a tunnel was dug at Banihal, making it an all-weather road.

Work on the new Mughal Road started in 1969 but very little was accomplished till 2005. The road was seen as a danger to national integration by some, who sniffed a ploy to create a “greater Kashmir” by directly connecting the Valley with Muslim-majority Rajouri and Poonch.

Officials said such people created obstacles but the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government restarted the work, which was pursued with vigor by his successors Ghulam Nabi Azad and Omar.

Some Rs 640 crore has been spent on the project since 2005. The road is seven meters wide. Single-laning is complete while only 3-4km of double-laning is left. Of the 423 RCC slab culverts planned, 128 have been built and 60 others are under construction. The road has 21 minor permanent bridges.

Source: Telegraph India.
Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091129/jsp/nation/story_11798422.jsp.

Land under horticulture increases so does production in Jammu and Kashmir

Srinagar, Nov 28 : Contrary to alarming trend of using agriculture land for non-agriculture purposes during the past one decade, the area under horticulture has witnessed an increase of 3.55 per cent in the Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir is basically an agrarian economy and almost 45 per cent of the economic returns in agriculture sector is accounted for by horticulture, showing its growing importance in economy of the state, which has vast potential for growing all kinds of fruits.

Official reports here said the horticulture department had decided to provide assistance of Rs 2.75 crore to farmer, for purchase of machinery alone in Kashmir division.

Besides, the department had improved the strategy for assisting in arranging plant protection and allied machinery under different Centrally Sponsored schemes.

For the first time the department had launched the availability of plant protection and allied machinery in such a manner that the farmer was at liberty to choose item of his choice from any distributor and dealer of the company and negotiate rates with him personally.

The records show that about 12.12 per cent total land in the state has been put to non agriculture uses, including construction of residential colonies, shopping complexes, workshops, government offices and educational institutions.

Interestingly the area under horticulture has witnessed an increase of 3.55 per cent.

Against total land of 305621 hectares under fruit production in 2008-09, only 295141 hectares was under horticulture during 2007-08.

Similarly there has also been an increase of 3.35 per cent in fruit production in 2008-09 against previous year.

According to data available with the Directorate of horticulture, during the year 2008-09, the department has covered an area of 3.06 lakh hectares out of which Kashmir division accounted for 67.18 per cent and Jammu division 32.82 per cent.

Source: New Kerala.
Link: http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-94.html.

Germany to step up efforts to change Islamist radicals' views

Berlin - Germany is to set a new focus on persuading radical "home-grown" Islamists who are flirting with terrorism to moderate their views, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. The efforts are to be directed mainly at people who have been raised in Germany, both converts to Islam of German parentage and German-schooled Muslims whose parents were immigrants.

Currently, several of the 16 states have programs to "deradicalize" those who approve of violence in the name of religion.

The state efforts range from writing comic books that set out a message opposed to terrorism to personal approaches to the radicals by government officials.

In a report to appear in its issue to appear Monday, Der Spiegel said a "forum" was being set up next month at a national anti-terrorism agency, the Joint Anti-Terrorism Centre, in Berlin to coordinate those efforts.

It said the 16 states would also discuss this week how to prevent persons serving jail time for terrorist offenses from recruiting other prisoners to their cause. Der Spiegel said Germany would ask moderate Islamic communities and clergy to speak to them.

Prisons and sports clubs were common places for spreading radical ideas, another news magazine, Focus,reported Saturday.

It said police knew of 185 German-raised Islamists who received training in terrorism methods in central Asia, Afghanistan or Pakistan over the past decade, and about 90 men with such military training were currently living in Germany.

Focus said police believed 30 of the radicals in Germany had had actual battle experience in clashes with Pakistani or US forces.

Schwarzenberg elected chairman of new Czech party

Prague - Former Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg was elected Saturday chairman of a recently-established pro-European, fiscally-conservative Czech political party. The party, named TOP 09, has a realistic chance to win seats in the Czech Republic's parliament in a general election next year, according to recent surveys.

The surveys showed the party being backed by between 8 to 12 per cent, or above the 5-per-cent threshold required for entering the lower house.

The election, whose date is yet to be set, must take place before June 2010.

Schwarzenberg, 71, is a novice to high-level party politics. He previously earned political posts as a nominee of parties of which he was not a member.

In 2004, he won a Senate seat as a candidate for two now-defunct small centrist parties. The small centrist Greens nominated him to the top job at the foreign ministry in the previous center-right three-party cabinet of ex-premier Mirek Topolanek.

TOP 09 was partially founded by former right-wing members of the country's Christian Democrats who left their former party over disagreements with its left-leaning wing.

Delegates elected former Christian Democratic leader and finance minister Miroslav Kalousek, 48, the party's first deputy chairman.

Saudi Arabia raises death toll from flooding to 106

Jeddah - Saudi Arabia's civil defense authority Saturday raised the death toll from this week's flash floods to 106 people. An official with the authority said crews were still searching for survivors from the flooding that hit the western part of the country, including the area where many enter the kingdom to attend the ongoing hajj religious pilgrimage.

Health authorities have warned people to stay away from the water, to avoid further casualties and the spread of diseases.

Hundreds of people have been rescued by the defense forces in the past few days, but the death toll is expected to rise further.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/296743,saudi-arabia-raises-death-toll-from-flooding-to-106.html.

Britain to host conference on Afghan withdrawal on January 28

London/Port-of-Spain (Earth Times - dpa) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Saturday announced that Britain would host and international conference on January 28 on the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan. Brown said Afghan President Hamid Karzai would be given benchmarks for boosting the capacity of his country's army and police and improving local government to pave the way for a withdrawal of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Brown made the announcement with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Summit being held in Trinidad and Tobago. Ban said another meeting in the Afghan capital Kabul would follow the London conference.

Swiss set to vote in referendum on minaret ban

Berne - Swiss voters were set to vote Sunday in a referendum brought by a right-wing party seeking a ban on any further construction of minarets in the Alpine country. Latest public opinion polls indicated that the referendum, brought by the Swiss Peoples Party SVP, would be voted down, albeit by a narrow margin.

Switzerland has some 400,000 Muslims who pray in otherwise unassuming-appearing mosques. There are only four minarets in the country.

The Swiss Federal Council, the collective executive branch of government, has come out strongly against the referendum, expressing concern about the possible adverse effects on Switzerland's relationship with the Arab world. Berne also points to the country's image of religious tolerance.

Switzerland's system of "direct democracy" allows groups or individuals to put forward laws that are then voted on through popular referendums, bypassing parliament.

The referendum has become controversial after the SVP once ran a poster campaign showing a completely veiled woman standing next to a Swiss flag pierced with menacing minarets.

The poster was banned in several key cantons in Switzerland, with the local governments saying it was racist. Others allowed it in the name of freedom of expression.

Israel will develop West Bank touristic places despite freeze

Jerusalem - Israel will continue developing touristic places in the West Bank despite the government decision to freeze settlement activities for 10 months, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said Saturday. "The freeze of the constructions in the West Bank represents a diplomatic achievement that Israel should use to its advantage in the international arena," Misezhnikov said at a cultural event in the city of Holon, south of Tel Aviv.

"It must be emphasized that the exclusion of East Jerusalem and construction of public buildings from the freeze allows us to support the move," he said.

Misezhnikov specified three main areas where construction would continue despite the freeze agreement: the stalactite cave in the settlement of Ariel, the Herodium National Park in Gush Etzion, and Qasr al Yahud - Jesus' baptismal site in Ma'ale Adumim.

The minister's comments came a day after Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized the construction of 28 new public buildings in West Bank settlements.

Late Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a 10- month moratorium on construction in the occupied West Bank which applies to residential buildings only - excluding East Jerusalem as well as some 3,000 apartments currently under construction.

Egyptians protest in Saudi Arabia over hajj management

Mina, Saudi Arabia (Earth Times / dpa) - Around 500 Egyptians demonstrated Saturday outside Egypt's hajj headquarters in Mina, Saudi Arabia over the alleged mismanagement of pilgrims. Witnesses said the protesters chanted slogans against Egypt, which they said has refused to change the situation.

The main grievance appeared to be related to housing, with the protesters saying they had been left without accommodation in the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina during the hajj. Some said they were forced to sleep on the streets.

This year, an estimated 75,000 Egyptians are undertaking the pilgrimage that is one of the basic tenants of Islam.

Just five kilometers from Mecca, the desert town of Mina becomes a tent city during the hajj, to allow for more pilgrims to attend the event.

'No Iranian pilgrim has contracted swine flu'

No Iranian Hajj pilgrim has been infected with the A/H1N1 virus, the Leader's representative for Hajj Affairs, Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, says.

"Fortunately, no Iranian Hajj pilgrim has been diagnosed with the common symptoms of swine flu," Reyshahri told reporters during a visit to the Iranian Red Crescent Medical Center for the Hajj Organization in Mena, Saudi Arabia, on Friday.

Reyshahri asked Iranian officials not to unduly distress the Iranian public over swine flu.

On Wednesday, Iran's Minister of Health, Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, said that all Iranian Hajj pilgrims will be examined at both the airports in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

She further added that more than a million Iranians across the country have tested positive for the A/H1N1 virus infection.

According to Vahid-Dastjerdi, Iran will face a new wave of swine flu as the weather gets colder and as Iranian Hajj pilgrims return home from Saudi Arabia.

The swine flu outbreak in Saudi Arabia has forced Muslim countries to set restrictions on sending pilgrims on the Hajj.

Iranian authorities decided to bar Iranians from participating in the Umrah (minor hajj pilgrimage) during the holy month of Ramadan (the month of September during 2009) in an attempt to contain the spread of the A/H1N1 virus.

Swine flu was first detected in Mexico in April 2009 and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in June.

Jordan: Partial settlement freeze insufficient

Jordan has rejected Israel's latest plan to temporarily freeze settlement activity in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

"The unilateral Israeli plan for partial cessation of settlement activity in the occupied West Bank is an insufficient step, which fails to meet the world community's requirements for the two-state vision," AFP quoted Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh as saying on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday declared a 10-month suspension of settlement construction in the West Bank but said the building of settlements would continue in East Jerusalem Al-Quds, which Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.

The UN still considers it an occupied territory and has urged Israel to stop its illegal settlement activity in the area.

Judeh noted that the Israeli step was aimed at tempting the Palestinians to resume negotiations with Israel with the eventual aim of creating a "demilitarized Palestinian state".

"The exclusion of East Jerusalem from the freeze of settlement activity is rejected by Jordan because it runs counter to the international consensus that considers East Jerusalem an occupied city which should be drawn on the agenda of the final status talks," he added.

Judeh stated a possible end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should lead to the creation of a "sovereign Palestinian state" with East Jerusalem Al-Quds as its capital.

Brazil opposes new Iran sanctions

Brazil's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency says that a new round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program would be pointless.

Imposing more sanctions on Tehran "will only lead to a hardening of the Iranian position," Ambassador Antonio Guerreiro said on Saturday.

On Friday, Brazil abstained from the IAEA Board of Governors' vote to censure Iran over the construction of the Fordo enrichment plant.

Brazil abstained from voting because "dialogue is better than confrontation," Guerreiro, told the Brazilian daily O Globo.

The resolution by the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors, which was sponsored by Germany, calls on Iran to halt uranium enrichment and immediately freeze the construction of its Fordo nuclear facility, located near Qom.

"The resolution clears the way for sanctions ... and sanctions don't lead to anything," Guerreiro said.

The Fordo site will be Iran's second uranium enrichment plant, after the Natanz facility in central Iran, for the production of nuclear fuel enriched to a level of 5 percent.

Iran says its nuclear program is solely meant for civilian applications of the technology and has called for the total eradication of all weapons of mass destruction.

Commenting on the fact that his country took up a non-permanent seat on the 15-member UN Security Council in January for a two-year term, the Brazilian diplomat said, "We will take advantage of that to help in the negotiations" with Iran.

"No countries make concessions under pressure," he noted.

Guerreiro said that "no evidence" has been found proving that Iran is building a nuclear weapon and added that the standoff over Iran's nuclear program is the result of "a mutual lack of confidence that has already lasted for quite some time."

Norway opens first osmotic power plant

Norway has unveiled the world's first osmotic power plant, which utilizes the energy unleashed when fresh water and seawater are mixed to produce clean electricity.

Osmotic power is a renewable and emissions-free energy source that Norwegian firm Statkraft has been researching into for 10 years. The company hopes to be capable of making a substantial global contribution to eco-friendly power production.

“This new technology generates electricity simply by mixing water. New solutions to meet the climate challenges might be closer than we expect, which makes me confident that the future looks bright,” said Statkraft CEO and President, Bard Mikkelsen.

"While salt might not save the world alone, we believe osmotic power will be an important part of the global energy portfolio," he added.

Statkraft, which claims to be the biggest renewable energy company in Europe, is running the osmotic power plant prototype in a former chlorine factory about 60 kilometers south of the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

The plant will have a limited production capacity. Statkraft aims to construct a commercial osmotic power plant in 2015 with a 25 megawatt capacity, enough to provide about 10,000 households with electricity.

Siberian tigers in serious decline

Researchers now confirm that poachers are to blame for the falling population of Siberian tigers, with loss of forested areas also critical.

The Siberian Tiger Monitoring Program, which is coordinated by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), put the blame on poachers who are killing the tiger for its pelt and bones.

Its report says that tiger numbers have shown a 41 percent decline from 12 years ago. The Russian Far East is now home to only 56 of the large felines; it used to shelter around 95 tigers.

The count was carried out at 16 monitoring sites. The survey has pointed out that deep snows during the last winter may have been another reason for the drop in the number of tigers counted.

Snow may have forced the animals to restrict their movements, making them less active and therefore less detectable.

Pakistan releases 15 missing tribesmen

Sun Nov 29, 2009

Pakistan has released fifteen of the thousands of missing Bugti tribesmen under the Balochistan Package announced by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Official sources told a Press TV correspondent on Saturday that the tribesmen were released in the Dasht-e-Goran area of Dera Bugti district late on Friday and were able to join their families for the Eid al-Adha celebration.

Five people, including Dr. Dost Mohammad Lango, a leader of the National Party, and Ahmed Mir Bugti, a member of the Baloch Republican Party, were released under the same initiative, according to official sources.

The other three were identified as Saleem Lango, Shaukat Lango, and Aurangzeb Lango. All of them had gone missing two months ago.

However, the leaders of the Baloch Republican Party and the Baloch National Front claim that no political workers have been set free.

The Pakistani prime minister announced in this week's Balochistan Package that some of the missing persons would start returning home.

Baloch nationalist parties are claiming that around 4,000 people arrested during the military operation initiated during former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf's time in office across Balochistan province are still missing.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/112404.html.

Iran asks UNESCO to help over dispute with Egypt

Iran has asked the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to protect the remains of a vanished Persian army of the Achaemenid empire in Egypt.

The request was made through a letter by Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) on Sunday.

"Egypt's chief archeologist Zahi Hawass has recently rejected the discovery of the army in his personal weblog due to political pressure," ICHTO Spokesman, Hassan Mohseni, told Fars news agency.

Earlier reports announced that the remains of the army led by the Persian King, Cambyses II, had been discovered by the famous archeologists, the two Castiglioni brothers, in a small oasis not far from Siwa.

"I need to inform the public that recent reports published in newspapers, news agencies and TV news announcing that twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni have unearthed the remains of the Persian army of Cambyses, are unfounded and misleading," Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, had written in his personal blog.

The 50,000 warriors of Cambyses II are said to have been drowned in a great sandstorm 2,500 years ago.

Majlis passes budget to fight US, UK HR abuse

Iranian Parliamentarians earmark millions of dollars to confront what they call "gross violations of human rights" by Britain and the US.

In a newly-passed resolution on Sunday, the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) allocated around 20 million dollars from the Iranian Oil Stabilization Fund to investigate human rights abuses committed by the US and British government around the world.

"The resolution aims to counter the rising tide of US and British plots against Iran and also to raise world awareness about the numerous cases of human rights abuses by Downing Street and the White House," said a statement released on Sunday.

According to the statement, the money will also be used to finance the efforts of human rights organizations and other groups investigating US and British violations of international humanitarian law.

A committee that includes representatives from the Intelligence and Foreign ministries has been set up accordingly to decide how to divide and spend the budget.

The bill comes one day after two Afghan teenagers held in US detention north of Kabul told The Washington Post that they were beaten to the pulp by American guards, photographed naked, deprived of sleep, forced to look at pornography and held in solitary confinement in concrete cells for at least two weeks.

The revelation, which is in stark contrast to the Obama administration's claims of defending human rights and improving detention conditions, is cause for serious concern.

“Holding people in what appears to be incommunicado detention runs against the grain of the administration's commitment to greater transparency, accountability, and respect for the dignity of Afghans,” Jonathan Horowitz, a human rights researcher with the Open Society Institute, told The New York Times.

Likud activist: Obama regime is anti-Semitic

A Likud activist has accused US President Barack Obama of being anti-Semitic for his repeated calls for a settlement freeze in the West Bank.

About 200 Likud activists attended a meeting on Saturday to express their objection to a temporary settlement freeze announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Beit Ariyeh local authority head, Avi Naim, slammed the US administration for exerting pressure on Netanyahu.

"The Obama regime is anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic; it's the worst," Ynet news quoted Naim as saying.

Pro-settlement leader Ron Nachman was also critical of Obama over his support for Netanyahu's decision.

Netanyahu on Wednesday declared a 10-month moratorium on Israel's settlement activity in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

Parliament to discuss future of Iran-IAEA cooperation

As Iran's Parliament (Majlis) prepares to discuss a recently-passed IAEA resolution against Tehran, uncertainty surrounds the future of the country's cooperation with the nuclear watchdog.

On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a new resolution, calling on Iran to halt the construction of its Fordo enrichment plant, located outside Tehran.

"Currently we don't see any reason to limit our cooperation with the agency," a leading member of the Iranian Parliament, Hossein Ebrahimi said on Saturday.

"We may, however, consider reducing our cooperation with the IAEA," the member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee added.

Another member of the commission expressed similar sentiments, saying that the Parliament may go as far as to "consider withdrawing from the NPT, in its first reaction to the illegal and politically-motivated resolution."

Furthermore, the Parliament "can prevent IAEA inspectors from entering the country,'' Mohammad Karamirad who represents the western Iranian city of Kermanshah added.

The resolution, which was drafted by the P5+1 and passed in a 25-3 vote with six abstentions, urges Iran to clarify what it calls the purpose and the chronology of the plant's construction. It also wants Iran to confirm it has no more hidden nuclear plants and no intentions whatsoever to build one.

Iran's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog, Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, has warned that the resolution passed against the country's nuclear work will only introduce tension to the "spirit of cooperation."

"We expect the agency to play its essential role and facilitate technical cooperation … this environment of the agency should be depoliticized for we have to make sure that the agency will only focus on technical matters," he said on Friday.

The resolution comes while, the latest IAEA report confirmed the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran's first nuclear plant in Natanz. It also said that Iran had allowed the agency to carry out a full inspection of its under-construction Fordo uranium enrichment facility.

IAEA inspectors have twice inspected the Fordo enrichment facility, with IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei confirming that the inspectors found "nothing to worry about" regarding the site.

Iran to use own rial in int'l transactions

Iran has started discussions with other countries concerning the use of its national currency in international transactions, an Iranian official says.

According to the head of Iran's Bank Melli (BMI), Iran's Central Bank and BMI have entered into negotiations with some countries and international banks regarding the use of the Iranian rial, the official currency of Iran, in international transactions and operations.

"Some countries have agreed to use the Iranian rial for payment in some transactions," said Mahmoud Reza Khavari, President and CEO of Bank Melli Iran, who also heads a coordination council between the CEOs of Iranian banks, in an interview with Mehr news agency published on Sunday.

The move comes as the country reduces the US dollar in its currency basket, replacing it with other currencies such as the euro.

Since October 2007, Iran has received 85 percent of its oil revenues in currencies other than the US dollar. The country continues to express its determination to find a substitute for the US dollar for the remaining 15 percent of its oil revenues.

The declining value of the dollar and persisting economic crisis in the US has forced many countries to drop the currency in favor of a currency which is more stable.

Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, Venezuela, Sudan and Russia have taken steps to replace the US dollar in their foreign exchange reserves.

Hamas sets conditions for election

Hamas says it will allow elections to be conducted in the Gaza Strip if it is permitted to appoint the leader of the central election commission.

Hamas political bureau official Muhammad Nazzal said, "Hamas is not afraid of elections since we know we have the people's support," but insisted that the party had to have some say in the makeup of the election commission.

Nazzal, interviewed by Palestinian TV from Damascus on Friday, added that Hamas believes Palestinians have the "right to a free vote."

He based his call for Hamas input in the election commission on the widely held belief that Fatah's inner-party election during the party's Sixth Congress in August were corrupt.

“Democracy is not a one-time thing,” Nazzal said in the interview that was broadcast on Saturday.

Fatah leader Saleh Ra'fat, who also participated in the TV interview, accused Nazzal of caring more about undermining the results of the Fatah conference than holding a democratic election in Palestine.

“Hamas could win elections in any [Arab] state except Palestine,” Assaf quipped, because “Palestinians know what Hamas is.”

He also challenged Nazzal to back up his words with actions and sign the Egyptian unity proposal, which he said would help start the electoral process and thus prevent a constitutional void after January 25.

Aerial attack on rebel camp kills seven guerrillas in Colombia

Bogota - Seven leftist guerrillas including two minors were killed when the Colombian air force bombed a rebel camp in Guaviare province, the military reported. Armed Forces commander General Freddy Padilla said two other guerrillas of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) were captured after the aerial attack,

"Seven guerrillas were killed, including one who was in charge of narcotics trafficking matters," he said. "Two others were captured, one who was wounded and the other surrendered."

The commander said the aerial operation was designed to destroy a front-line camp of the FARC, which operates in the eastern part of the country and is allegedly involved in trafficking narcotics.

India, Canada clinch civil nuclear deal

New Delhi - India and Canada Sunday announced the conclusion of a civil nuclear deal which will enable New Delhi to access Canadian nuclear technology and uranium, a news report said. The pact was announced after prime ministers Manmohan Singh and Stephen Harper met on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Port of Spain, capital of Trinidad and Tobago, the IANS news agency reported.

"We have now got an agreement which means this is a tremendous opportunity for both countries," Harper said underlining it was a "tremendous step forward" in bilateral ties.

"Canada is a supplier, obviously an integrated supplier in the nuclear energy field and India is an expanding economy that has great energy needs," Harper was quoted as saying by IANS.

Harper said it would yet take "a little time to complete the legal text and ratification process."

Singh said the development "augurs extremely well" for ties between the countries.

The pact is likely to be signed when the Indian leader goes to Canada to attend the G20 summit in June next year, where he will also hold bilateral talks with Harper on the margins.

India has signed civil nuclear agreements with seven countries up to now, after the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group last year lifted a 34-year ban on the South Asian country.

New Delhi has already signed similar pacts with the United States, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Argentina and Mongolia.

Israel's Netanyahu and ministerial team to Germany for talks

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to leave for Germany Monday, accompanied by six ministers, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of her cabinet. Israeli media reported Sunday that the discussions will include Iran's nuclear ambitions, attempts to resume negotiations with the Palestinians, and Germany's mediation to being about a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli visit follows on from last year, when Merkel and members of her cabinet visited the Jewish state, held a joint cabinet meeting with the Israeli counterparts, and signed a bilateral agreement, in which they resolved to intensify military, as well as political, cultural and economic cooperation.

They also agreed to hold similar ministerial consultations on a regular basis.

Israel and Germany established diplomatic ties in 1965 after years of negotiations that included reparations for Jewish property lost and looted during the Holocaust.

Israel currently regards Germany as its closet ally in Europe.

Former army commander announces candidacy for president

Colombo – The Sri Lankan army commander who led the military victory over separatist Tamil rebels this year officially announced his candidacy for president Sunday. General Sarath Fonseka, who survived a rebel suicide bomb attack in 2006 and commanded the army to victory in May will challenge the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January 26 elections.

"Two years back I promised that I will never leave the war to be completed by another commander of the army and I have done exactly what I have said," Fonseka told a news conference.

He will stand as a candidate for the opposition United National Alliance.

Fonseka said his objective was be elected and then abolish the executive presidential system, which he said was leading to a "dictatorship" benefiting one family.

He pledged to work toward ending corruption, restoring democracy and improving the economy.

Fonseka said he was not satisfied with how tens of thousands of war refugees were being treated and objected to the government's resettlement programs.

"The government has failed to look after the displaced persons," he said referring to the 300,000 minority Tamils war refugees, of which 130,000 remain in camps in the northern part of the country.

Two weeks after Fonseka led the army to victory on May 18, he was relieved of his command and appointed to be chief of defense staff, a ceremonial post. That demotion caused him to break with the government.

Government ministers who hailed Fonseka as a war hero have started criticizing him for joining the opposition.

"The former army commander has fallen in a local and international conspiracy," Agriculture Minister Maithriapala Sirisena said.

President Rajapaksa and Fonseka both claim credit for winning the war, and the issue is likely to be key to the electoral campaign.

Yahoo improves its search engine

Munich - Searches on the Yahoo engine should soon deliver more results, thanks in part to new filter functions, reports the company. Those new filters could allow a searcher, for example, to limit results to those found on major websites like Amazon or Wikipedia. The company also reports that its filter allows searches by related terms.

The engine's search methods have also been upgraded, reports Yahoo. It now analyzes the search habit of users over a certain period of time to come up with logical connections between past and present searches.

"For example, if the word 'Paris' is input followed by 'flights' or 'affordable hotels,' then Yahoo Search understands that a person is looking for travel information and not for gossip about Paris Hilton.

Uruguay polls open with former guerrilla favorite for president

Montevideo - Polling stations opened Sunday in Uruguay's presidential election run-off. Jose Mujica - a former member of the leftist guerrilla group Tupamaros who spent 15 years in jail - was billed as the favorite, ahead of former Uruguayan president Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-95).

Around 2.5 million Uruguayans were registered to vote, with polling stations scheduled to close at 2130 GMT.

Mujica, 74, is the nominee of the ruling leftist coalition Frente Amplio (Broad Front), and he won the first round of voting on October 25 with almost 48 per cent of the vote, compared to the conservative Lacalle's 29 per cent.

The Frente Amplio first took power in 2004.

Outgoing President Tabare Vazquez led a successful reformist government during his five-year term that has retained the approval of about 60 per cent of the population, according to opinion surveys. However, he is banned from running because Uruguay's laws forbid two consecutive terms.

The winner is to be inaugurated as president on March 1.

Three family members killed in Egypt holiday crash

Cairo - Three members of one family were killed in a multi car collision in Luxor, Egypt, that left six others injured, police said Sunday. The incident took place late Saturday, during the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha.

Abdel Rahman Mohammad Ali was killed along with his sister Mona and his son Hussein, officials said.

The crash, which also involved a taxi, was being investigated by police and the prosecutor's office.

Victims being identified after Russian train wreck

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW – Relatives on Sunday begun the grim process of identifying loved ones killed in the wreck of an express train Russian authorities say was blown off the tracks by a terrorist bomb.

Other relations visited the scores of injured victims in hospitals, while investigators tried to determine who was behind what would be Russia's deadliest terrorist attack outside the violence-plagued North Caucasus provinces in five years.

The rear three cars of the Nevsky Express, one of Russia's fastest trains, derailed on a remote stretch of track late Friday as it sped from Moscow to St. Petersburg, killing some passengers and trapping others in the jumbled wreckage. The head of Russia's Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, said Saturday that an explosive device detonated underneath the train, gouging a crater in the railbed and pulling the tail cars off the tracks.

Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said at least 25 people were killed and 26 others were unaccounted for, though he indicated some of them may have survived uninjured or never have boarded the train. Authorities had put the confirmed death toll at 26 on Saturday, but Shoigu said they had revised it down based on more accurate information.

A total of 104 people were listed as hospitalized early Sunday, but Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said later that 85 remained hospitalized, 21 of them in grave condition, according to Russian news agencies. She said six foreigners were among the injured, including two from outside the former Soviet Union — a Belgian and an Italian.

Relatives were identifying victims Sunday at a hospital morgue in Tver, the closest sizable city to the wreck site near the border of the Tver and Novgorod provinces, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of Moscow.

The state-run railway company Russian Railways said train traffic was fully restored Sunday after repairs on the busy line between the capital and St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city.

President Dmitry Medvedev called for calm on Saturday, and the leader of the dominant Russian Orthodox Church on Sunday urged Russians not to give n to fear, saying they should help authorities and "display firm will for a victory over terror."

"Our people have been challenged. A demonstrative crime of which any one of us could have been a victim has been committed," Patriarch Kirill said in a statement. "They want to frighten everybody who lives in Russia."

There were no credible claims of responsibility, but sketches were being composed of several suspects, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said Saturday, including a stocky man of about 40 with red hair. The description was apparently based on what Russian media said were statements from people living in towns near the site who said thy had seen strangers around recently.

There was no word on a possible motive, but speculation over who might have been behind the derailment focused on militants in the volatile North Caucasus and extreme Russian nationalists.

Russia has been hit by a number of major terrorist attacks since the 1991 Soviet collapse, most of them linked to the devastating 1990s wars between government forces and separatist its rebels in Chechnya and the violence the conflicts have spawned across the surrounding North Caucasus.

But there have been few terrorist attacks elsewhere in Russia since bomb blasts downed two passenger planes on flights from Moscow in 2004, killing nearly 100 people just days before the hostage seizure at a school in Beslan, in a province bordering Chechnya, which led to more than 330 deaths.

Deadly violence has persisted in the North Caucasus and increased over the past year. Rights activists say government security services in the region have stepped up the use of kidnappings, killings and home-burnings against suspected militants in the North Caucasus and their relatives.

Extreme nationalism is also a deadly problem in Russia. Skinheads and neo-Nazi groups have carried out frequent attacks, mostly targeting ethnic groups from the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Nationalists were blamed in a similar blast that caused a derailment along the same railway line in 2007, injuring 27 passengers. Authorities arrested two suspects in the 2007 train blast and are searching for a third, a former military officer.

Pakistan opposition urges prez to give up powers

By ASIF SHAHZAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's main opposition party demanded Sunday that the president immediately relinquish much of his power amid calls for the unpopular leader to assume a ceremonial role or resign.

The political turmoil threatens to distract the U.S.-allied country from its fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida near the Afghan border.

President Asif Ali Zardari inherited sweeping presidential powers from his predecessor, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who staged a 1999 military coup and resigned last year. Zardari has promised to give them to the prime minister, in line with Pakistan's original constitution, but has been accused of foot-dragging by an angry opposition.

His position has been further weakened by the expiration of an amnesty protecting him and several key allies from graft prosecution, raising the possibility of legal challenges to his rule in the coming months.

On Friday, Zardari transferred command of the country's nuclear arsenal to the prime minister and promised to surrender other key powers — chiefly the authority to fire an elected government and appoint top military chiefs — by the end of the year.

Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and chief minister of Pakistan's largest province, Punjab, said Zardari has made similar promises to abolish the measure known as the 17th constitutional amendment and needs to act now.

"I would ask the president to immediately abolish the 17th amendment," Sharif said to reporters in Lahore. "The nation would appreciate this act."

The upheaval comes as President Barack Obama's administration is expected to announce this week a new strategy for defeating the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and on Pakistan's northwestern border. The U.S. needs political stability in Pakistan to have any hope of succeeding.

A military coup to oust Zardari appears unlikely, as does impeachment, since he heads the largest party in Parliament.

Some have demanded his resignation, but the opposition has not called for anti-government street rallies, perhaps wary of pushing the country into chaos and paving the way for more military rule.

Zardari, 54, is languishing in opinion polls just 15 months after taking office. He has long been haunted by corruption allegations dating back to governments led by his late wife, Benazir Bhutto. He denies any wrongdoing.

He also has found himself locked in a power struggle with the powerful military, which has objected to his overtures toward nuclear-armed rival India and his acceptance of a multibillion dollar U.S. aid bill that came with conditions some fear impose controls over the army.

Iranian lawmaker: Iran could leave nuclear treaty

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – A conservative Iranian legislator warned Saturday that his country may pull out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty after a U.N. resolution censuring Tehran — a move that could seriously undermine world attempts to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons.

Iran's official news agency quoted a hardline political analyst who made the same point, another indication the idea could be gaining steam.

If Iran withdraws from the treaty, its nuclear program would no longer be subject to oversight by the U.N. nuclear agency. That in turn would be a significant blow to efforts to ensure that no enriched uranium is diverted from use as fuel to warhead development.

The lawmaker's threat came a day after the board of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution demanding Tehran immediately stop building its newly revealed nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom and freeze uranium enrichment.

"The parliament, in its first reaction to this illegal and politically-motivated resolution, can consider the issue of withdrawing from the NPT," Mohammad Karamirad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency, referring to the treaty. "The parliament ... (also) can block the entry of IAEA inspectors to the country."

Karamirad, a senior lawmaker and member of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, does not speak for the government but his statements often reflect the government's thinking. His threat could be a tactic to warn the West of possible consequences if it pursues further action against Iran, such as strengthened sanctions.

Another hardline lawmaker, Hossein Ebrahimi, was quoted by IRNA as saying that Iran's parliament will discuss the IAEA resolution on Sunday and will make a decision on how to react.

Iran's parliament has issued similar warnings in the past, most recently in 2006 when some lawmakers threatened to pull the country out of the nonproliferation treaty during another time of increased U.N. pressure over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran backed down, and the government has said that it has no intention of withdrawing from the treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.

Iran's government insists its nuclear program is meant only for peaceful purposes, though the U.S. and other Western nations suspect Tehran is seeking to acquire atomic weapons.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the U.N. nuclear agency, was also defiant Saturday in the face of the agency's fresh demands, saying on state television that Iran will limit its cooperation with the U.N. watchdog to its treaty obligations and will not cooperate beyond that.

"Our first reaction to this resolution is that they (the U.N. agency) should not expect us to do what we did several times in the past few months when we cooperated beyond our obligations to remove ambiguities," Soltanieh said.

He added that the country's nuclear activities will not be interrupted by resolutions from the U.N. nuclear agency's board, the U.N. Security Council or even the threat of military strikes against the facilities.

Ali Shirzadian, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said his agency his ready to proceed with its nuclear projects.

"Technically speaking, we are fully prepared to produce fuel required for the Tehran reactor. To begin this, we are waiting for the order from top authorities," Shirzadian told the government-run Borna news agency.

Friday's resolution — and the resulting vote of the IAEA's 35-nation decision-making board — were significant on several counts.

The resolution was approved by 25 members of the 35-nation board — including the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — marking a rare measure of unity from the six world powers on Iran.

Moscow and Beijing have traditionally cautioned against efforts to punish Iran for its defiance over its nuclear program, either preventing new Security Council sanctions or watering down their potency.

The IAEA resolution criticized Iran for defying a U.N. Security Council ban on uranium enrichment — the source of both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads.

It also censured Iran for secretly building a uranium enrichment facility, known as Fordo, and demanded that it immediately suspend further construction.

The resolution noted that IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei cannot confirm that Tehran's nuclear program is exclusively geared toward peaceful uses, and expressed "serious concern" that Iranian stonewalling of an IAEA probe means "the possibility of military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program" cannot be excluded.

The Iranian news agency also quoted hardline political analyst Mahdi Mohammadi as saying that the U.N. agency's resolution was forcing Iran to reconsider its membership in the nonproliferation treaty.

"The attitude of the agency is gradually bringing Iran and the rest of the developing nations to the conclusion that membership in NPT has no benefit but damage and restriction. In this case, the question that will be raised seriously is will continuation of this path serve Iran's national interests?" IRNA quoted him as saying.