Groups laud 1st woman governor

COTABATO CITY (PNA) – The Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy (PCID) has lauded the appointment of Nariman “Ina” Abdullah Ambolodto as the new officer-in-charge (OIC) governor of Maguindanao, following the suspension of the province’s elected officials in the wake of the November 23 Ampatuan town massacre that killed 57 individuals, including 30 journalists.

Ambolodto, an incumbent provincial board member, was appointed by Secretary Ronaldo Puno whose Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is the overseeing government institution over Maguindanao.

She was the first woman chief executive of the province since its creation.

“Board Member Ambolodto’s appointment is a welcome development from the continuing spate of bad news from the province,” said Amina Rasul, PCID lead convenor, in a statement.

“Maguindanao needs a fresh face at this point, someone whose professionalism and youth can change for the better the image and performance of ARMM,” she said.
Ambolodto is incumbent board member representing the first district of Maguindanao.

She was the number one board member of the now defunct province of Sharif Kabungsuan and a former vice mayor of the municipality of Kabuntalan.

Former Senator Santanina Rasul said that aside from her electoral credentials, Ambolodto was a right choice to prove that women can also do what men can do in governance.

“Ambolodto’s appointment will aid in filling the current power vacuum in Maguindanao and help the province return to decent governance, rule of law and the strengthening of democratic institutions in the province,” said Rasul.

While praising Ambolodto’s appointment, the former lady senator, also chairperson of the “Magbassa Kita Foundation Inc,” said the newly appointed Maguindanao governor cannot do it alone.

Poisonous gases wreaking havoc on Tehran air

Tehran's Air Quality Control Company (AQCC) warns that poisonous gases bring air pollution to disconcerting levels in the capital.

“Poisonous gases emitted from vehicles and industries continue to wreak havoc on Tehran's air,” Mehr news agency quoted the AQCC Director Yousef Rashidi as saying on Saturday.

Rashidi pointed out that the intensity of air pollution varies depending on the temperature.

“The colder the weather gets, the more air pollution we face in Tehran,” he explained. “Rain and snow, however, can positively affect the air quality in Tehran as they reduce dust, SO2 and NO2.”

Rashidi also criticized Iran's Health Ministry for not announcing the number of deaths linked to Tehran's air pollution.

“The Iranian Health Ministry is responsible in this regard,” he noted.

The latest study conducted by the AQCC found the current level of air pollution unprecedented in the past 30 years in Iran.

Vision in Tehran has decreased to 600 meters in some areas, indicating the problem will not be easily remedied.

The latest research conducted by the Municipality of Tehran and Iran's Department of the Environment (DOE) show that over 80% of Tehran's air pollution is caused by automobile exhaust.

The oppressive air pollution has long been a health hazard for Tehran's 12 million inhabitants.

According to an Iranian botanist, the air pollution has even caused butterflies flee Tehran for gardens and parks in the countryside.

Iran's forces resume former posts on border

An Iranian border official says his country's forces have resumed their former position after taking down a barricade recently built by Iraqi soldiers near a disputed oil well.

"Iranian forces returned to their previous posts last night after removing the new barricade that Iraqi soldiers had build next to the disputed oil well in a Thursday operation," the official who was speaking on condition of anonymity told Press TV's correspondent.

"Iraqi forces had erected the now disassembled barricade next to the No. 4 oil well in Fakkeh," said the official.

Press TV's correspondent says Iraqi officials consider the area a disputed region.

Tehran has dismissed reports that Iranian armed forces entered Iraqi territory, stressing that the well is within Iranian borders.

Comments made by the Iraqi deputy interior minister also confirm that Iranian forces have gone back to their earlier posts.

"This news is not true. This field is disputed and now it is neglected by both sides. There was no storming of the field, it's empty, it's abandoned, it is exactly on the border between Iraq and Iran," Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji was quoted as saying.

Iran and Iraq have agreed to set up an arbitration commission to clear up the misunderstanding over the borderline well.

In a Saturday telephone conversation, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari decided that setting up such a commission would be the best way to approach the problem.

German SPD rejects Afghan troop surge bid

German opposition Social Democrat Party (SPD) has ruled out support for an increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan following German army's deadly blitz in Konduz.

The SPD chair, Sigmar Gabriel, has opposed calls by the United States and NATO for a troop increase in Afghanistan, saying that there is “already an imbalance between combat troops and civil reconstruction workers” as the country 'needs more of the latter.'

Speaking to the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag on Saturday, Gabriel rejected the notion of more German army involvement and said that the SPD would “not give its support to additional combat troops beyond the current ceiling.”

His comments have also been reflected by the SPD parliamentary leader Thomas Oppermann who had warned to terminate all future foreign deployments of German soldiers in the wake of a German-conducted air raid in the northern Afghan city of Konduz in which 142 people including many civilians were killed on September 4.

Oppermann also referred to the “serious crisis of confidence” brought about by the Konduz attack and added that “the Bundestag (Germany's lower legislature) must be able to count on getting precise and comprehensive information from the government. There is significant doubt about that.”

The German government under Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under attack for the Konduz 'embarrassment,' prompting the Bundestag to prepare for a probe into the government's handling of the war in Afghanistan.

Germany has around 4,500 soldiers in Afghanistan.

Israel 'counted' on post-vote protests in Iran

Months after the post-vote unrest in Iran, the Israeli military intelligence chief says Tel Aviv had counted on anti-Islamic Republic protests to achieve its long-sought goals.

Speaking at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, Amos Yadlin said one of the outcomes of the post-vote turmoil in Iran is that the notion of "an exemplary regime [in Iran] has been shattered."

The Israeli intelligence chief, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the turn of events in Iran, saying, "The bad news is that the Iranian regime has managed to stop the protest for now."

"This protest does not have a classic leadership which is capable of collapsing regimes, as leaders of the protest movements are still the regime's own flesh and blood," Yadlin added.

The report of Israel's unwavering support for creating tensions in Iran comes as earlier in December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the United States to use the power of the Internet and online social networking websites to counter the Islamic Republic.

"Using the power of the Internet and of Twitter against the Iranian regime is a tremendous thing that the United States can do," Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee.

Green tea cuts depression in elderly

Drinking four or more cups of green tea on a regular basis lowers the risk of developing depression among elderly men and women, a new study finds.

Previous studies had linked the consumption of green tea to various health benefits including reduced psychological distress.

According to the study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, drinking green tea lowers the risk of depression in men and women aged over 70 by 44 percent.

Black and oolong tea or coffee, however, was not effective in reducing depressive symptoms in these individuals.

Theanine, an amino acid commonly found in green tea, accounts for the tranquilizing effects of the tea on the brain, the study suggests.

Further studies are needed before scientists can urge seniors to drink more green tea to ward off depressive symptoms.

Iran replicates Sheikh Bahaei's furnace

After more than three centuries, Iran has duplicated Sheikh Bahaei's boiler that used a single candle as its energy source.

“Sheikh Bahaei's boiler has been replicated after 300 years and uses 30% less fuel,” Fars news agency quoted the head of the Union of Inventors in Iran's Khorasan Razavi province, Ali Asghar Berahmand, as saying on Sunday.

“The boiler is a duplicate of Sheikh Bahaei's which was heated by a single candle. But there are minor differences between the two furnaces, as we are unaware of some secrets that have yet to be brought to light,” he added.

“The small but unique boiler has won two gold medals in Switzerland and Moscow in 2006 and 2007,” he asserted.

According to Berahmand, many countries are interested in buying the furnace, which costs about 600 dollars.

“The furnace has been displayed in numerous foreign exhibitions this year,” he concluded.

Sheikh Bahaei lived almost 400 years ago, and was a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. He has a recognized legacy of 88 articles, letters and books along with poetry in Persian and Arabic.

As the architect of Isfahan's Imam Mosque, he demonstrated his knowledge of architecture and geometry.

His design and construction of a public bath in Isfahan, still known as Sheikh Bahaei's bath, was amazing. All the water was heated by a single candle. According to his own instructions, the system would fail if the enclosure was ever opened. This happened during the restoration and repair of the building; to date, no one has been able to restart the boiler.

Sheikh Bahaei also designed the Manar Jonban, the Shaking Minarets, which continue to move in Isfahan.

Activists shave heads in disappointment over climate outcome

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Copenhagen - Environmentalists on Friday lambasted a minimalist deal reached by world power-brokers and aimed at slowing global warming, with activists shaving their heads in disappointment. "Negotiations under the UN have all but failed today and have been unable to deliver an agreement that even comes close to what is needed to keep climate change in check," Greenpeace said in a statement issued after an 11th hour agreement among world leaders on the sidelines of a United Nations conference in Copenhagen.

Critics said the deal failed to set a "clear timeline and mandate" for a binding treaty to be signed and expressed disappointment at the role played by the European Union.

"Copenhagen was the biggest political meeting the planet has ever seen and the EU decided to take a back seat," said Greenpeace's Joris den Blanken.

WWF said it was "disappointed."

"After years of negotiations we now have a declaration of will which does not bind anyone and therefore fails to guarantee a safer future for future generations," said Kim Carstensen, who heads WWF's Global Climate Initiative.

Friends of the Earth, another pressure group, called the deal "a disaster for the world's poorest."

"Copenhagen has been an abject failure," the group's Nnimmo Bassey said.

The UN conference saw the presence of some 120 heads of state and government - one of the biggest such gatherings in history.

But the non-binding agreement was effectively sealed by just two men: US President Barack Obama and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.

Outside the conference's Bella Center venue, a group of activists shaved their head in protest, with a Danish tabloid dubbing the deal "Brokenhagen."

Observers and environmentalists who took part in events on the sidelines of the conference were earlier this week restricted from the conference. The Bella Center has a capacity of 15,000 people, but more than three times that number had registered for the event.

Activists therefore moved to downtown Copenhagen, where they carried torches forming the word "Shame" in another expression of disappointment over the outcome of the UN talks.

Top world leaders approve climate deal

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Copenhagen - The leaders of around 20 of the world's most influential states approved a deal on fighting climate change at United Nations talks in Copenhagen on Saturday, officials said. The non-binding deal, drawn up by the United States, China, India and South Africa, was endorsed by European and key African and Asian states. It has yet to be approved by a full UN session in Copenhagen.

Mexico discovers the advantages of solar energy - Feature

Mexico City - Mexico has a lot more sunlight than most countries, but its resulting energy potential is hardly being exploited at all - until now, that is. The region fulfills at least one major condition to make the most of solar energy: the sun shines constantly on Mexico City.

However, heading north out of Mexico City, one of the world's largest metropolises, there are first industrial areas and grey housing estates, none of which uses the sun as a source of energy: everyone needs gas to heat up water.

But, after a one-hour drive, rows and rows of orange and yellow terrace houses come up. It is here, in the Heroes de Tecamac neighborhood in the state of Mexico, that 60,000 housing units have been built in the past 10 years.

And here, solar panels are starting to be installed on a large scale on the rooftops of 25,000 working-class homes, in a move sponsored by the German Environment Ministry.

The housing project is intended for workers who contribute a portion of their salaries, deducted as social charges, to the Infonavit, the national housing fund.

It only takes 20 minutes to get a loan for a home in Tecamac, with each unit going for barely 22,000 dollars.

For two years, workers have been able to choose a so-called green mortgage, which includes energy-saving light bulbs and a mechanism to regulate water consumption. And, if they wish, they can also have solar panels installed on their roofs to heat up water.

Such mechanisms make sense: even in winter, the sun shines on the area brightly enough to provide a large family with warm water if they use a two-square-meter solar panel.

German authorities are set to contribute 3.1 million euros (4.5 million dollars), which come from the sale of greenhouse gas emission quotas. Of these, 2.5 million euros are set to go directly to home buyers. A solar heating mechanism for a simple family home costs around 750 dollars.

"People get that back after three or four years, through gas savings," said Bernhard Boesl, of the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

Germany pays for about a quarter of the cost of the mechanism for workers.

Given that the temperature in Mexico City never falls below 0 degrees Celsius, the devices are technologically much simpler than those used in colder climes, like Germany.

And yet, although conditions are ideal, there are only 15,000 houses with solar panels in the area around Mexico City so far. Boesl is confident that the number has grown a lot in 2009.

"Slowly, the boom is starting," he said.

Jorge Solano, head of the firm Sadasi - which built the Heroes de Tecamac neighborhood - stressed, however, that people's lack of knowledge and experience with solar panels is often a problem.

"We have to make them see that in the medium term they save money. The majority are annoyed when they find out that they will have to pay extra," he said.

Yvonne Pacheco, who has been living in the neighborhood with her family for three months, is happy with the results of her choice.

"We do not have to use the gas boiler that we have installed as a reserve at all. The water is always warm, and it is enough for us four," he said.

As things stand, the family saves money on gas.

The funds from the German Environment Ministry seek to increase awareness of solar heating mechanisms.

"We trust mouth-to-mouth propaganda, which works very well here," Boesl said.

Hackers access US-South Korea military plan

Seoul - Computer hackers accessed a secret US-South Korean military plan to defend the Korean Peninsula if war breaks out, South Korea's military said. The hackers gained access in November to Operation Plan 5027, which calls for sending about 700,000 US troops to Korea if a full-scale war begins, the South Korean military said.

It said hackers stole 11 PowerPoint slide pages that are part of Operation Plan 5027.

The military said the breach occurred after a military officer failed to remove a USB device from a military computer when he changed from using a restricted intranet to the internet.

The officer is facing punishment, the military said.

The internet address the hackers used was traced back to an IP location in China and South Korea believes North Korea might have been involved in the hacking attack.

The military has been trying to trace the hackers but without producing any tangible evidence to prove that North Korea was involved in the attack.

In May, media reports from Seoul said North Korea was maintaining a computer-hacker network working on attacks against the South Korean and US militaries.

Media reports have said there are at least 500 professional hackers in Pyongyang.

YEARENDER: International courts struggle to establish authority

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

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The Hague - It was the moment that symbolized both the power, and the powerlessness, of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Radovan Karadzic, the fugitive former Bosnian Serb leader, finally in the dock this year in The Hague, after more than a decade on the run.

Yet Karadzic, defending himself, then refused to appear, claiming he was ill-prepared and requesting a postponement, in a convoluted legal cat-and-mouse game.

That struggle to establish and maintain authority, which characterized the ICTY in 2009, was echoed across the various international courts which have a home in The Hague.

There are, in fact, a total of six courts in the small Dutch city.

They are: the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) (which is also located in the ICC building), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which is housed in a former Dutch secret service building, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which has its own building.

The Peace Palace, finally, is home to both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

What links this array of courts was that all tried to demonstrate that international law and justice would not back down under pressure - political or otherwise.

At the ICTY, the case against Karadzic naturally took centre- stage, after his dramatic, long-delayed, arrest in Belgrade in 2008.

But despite the high drama of finally seeing Karadzic in the dock, the case evolved a power game between the accused and the court

Karadzic is charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity - including two counts of genocide relating to acts allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

Always addressing his judges with utmost politeness, Karadzic made a conscious effort to first block, then postpone and finally to boycott the proceedings.

First, Karadzic claimed immunity, claiming there was an alleged agreement between the US and himself to that affect.

Next - claiming he was not yet ready for trial - he filed for postponement and subsequently (and unsuccessfully) appealed the decision denying his motion.

Four days before the trial was due to start in October, the former psychiatrist played his joker, announcing he would not attend proceedings since he was not sufficiently prepared.

A week later the court effectively met Karadzic halfway, postponing proceedings until March 2010 - but also appointing a compulsory defence counsel to represent Karadzic if he continues to refuse to attend his own trial.

Meanwhile, at the ICC, Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo was also attempting to demonstrate that international justice is immune to political pressure.

Seven years after its inauguration in 2002, the court's first cases finally began - both concerning the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In January the former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was the first in the dock, to face six charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity - including recruiting child soldiers in the DR Congo's bloody civil war between 1998 and 2003.

Ten months later, on November 24, the ICC opened its first mass- murder trial, with Congolese rebel leaders Germaine Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui in the dock.

Both were accused of having orchestrated the 2003 killing of several hundred civilians from the Bogoro village in the north-east district of Ituri in the DR Congo.

But with doubt the biggest story of the year came with the arrest warrant the ICC issued for acting Sudanese President Omar al- Bashir - despite massive pressure by African and Arab leaders.

Al-Bashir was charged with seven counts - five of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes (but not, however, genocide) - over his alleged role in masterminding atrocities in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Most African and Arab countries condemned the warrant and vowed not to arrest Al-Bashir if he travelled to their countries. Al- Bashir himself reacted by banning many international charities and non-governmental organisations based in the West from Sudan.

It was not until July - after Chief Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo travelled through Africa to boost support for the ICC - that Uganda became the first African country to promise to arrest the Sudanese president if he should set foot on its territory.

Meanwhile, the US changed its long-standing position towards the ICC. Following the election of President Barack Obama, the US for the first time joined the annual meeting of the Assembly of States - essentially the legislative body of the international court - in November, albeit only with observer status.

In the same building the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), lawyers defending former Liberian president and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor began arguing their case in May.

Taylor, the first African head of state to stand trial, for 11 counts ranging from the murder and torture to rape, mutilation and the use of child soldiers in the decade-long war in neighbouring Sierra Leone that began in 1991, had initially boycotted the trial (which first opened in 2007.)

Finally, in March, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) got up and running.

The STL is mandated to investigate and prosecute those behind February 2005 murder of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Three weeks later, the Italian judge Antonio Cassese, the first president of the ICTY, was appointed its president.

But whilst the wheels of justice grind slow, there is plenty more on the horizon for 2010.

The power game between Karadzic and the ICTY is far from over. The chances of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir being arrested and transferred to The Hague, are slim.

Finally, no one has so far requested the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Afghanistan's Taliban, Al-Qaeda or its leader, Osama bin Laden.

YEARENDER: More to United Nations than climate change, Ban insists

New York - Climate change was made a United Nations priority issue at the beginning of 2009 by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon - positive that the major summit scheduled for Copenhagen at the end of the year would end with an agreement. And to illustrate his belief that a climate deal would save future generations from the calamities of climate change, Ban made dramatic, high-profile visits to the Antarctic and North Pole for first-hand looks at the ice caps shrinking under rising temperatures.

But Ban is also ready to move on to other pressing global issues if the climate summit does not immediately produce a solid agreement on deep cuts in greenhouse emissions and on funding for green technology and developing nations.

The South Korean UN chief was unabashed in cheering on governments to "seal a deal" in Copenhagen. But he also makes clear he has a list of other global challenges to present to world leaders if a final deal is not reached in the Danish capital this weekend.

Before leaving New York for Copenhagen as heads of state and government join the two-weeks-long talks, Ban explained his view of climate-change negotiations.

By insisting he and the UN merely hosted and "facilitated" the summit, Ban distanced himself the talks - and the blame - in case of a protracted fight between rich and poor countries.

The climate summit began on December 7 and was scheduled to end on Friday with an agreement that would replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.

"It is the member states who negotiate, who propose certain ideas in all the aspects (of climate talks)," Ban said.

"The UN provides a forum. And I, as secretary general, try to facilitate ongoing negotiations, try to bridge the gap among groups of countries or among the proposals."

"That is why I have been meeting individually and collectively with a wide range of member states to help bridge the gap between the developing and developed countries," he said.

Since he began his five-year term in 2007, Ban has pushed hard to solve issues that defeated his predecessors - ranging from poverty to conflicts like that in the Middle East.

Climate change almost become Ban's fixation, driven by pressure from UN members and groups pushing for a strong agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

But he is careful to say the UN is only a fixer and mediator, without promising that solutions would be found during his tenure.

As climate negotiations intensified throughout 2009 and appeared headed for collapse in Copenhagen, Ban boldly urged governments to work harder.

And while for many months it was not clear if all heads of state and government would even attend, in the end, leaders one after the other threw their weight into the ring. The snow-ball effect even caught up US President Barack Obama, who initially had only intended to put in a mid-way appearance but now plans to arrive for the all- important final day Friday.

"Ever since taking office, almost three years ago, you have heard me speak on climate change as the defining challenge of our era," Ban said this week as developing countries clashed with rich ones at the climate summit in Copenhagen.

"At every stop, at every turn, I have stressed that climate change is the leading political and economic issue of our time," he said. "Now is the moment to act."

But asked what would happen if governments fail to agree in Copenhagen, Ban said cryptically, "the biggest challenges are still ahead."

In fact, Ban has not forgotten that the UN is faced with many other long-standing issues as thorny and as difficult to settle as climate change.

They include: development in poor countries, particularly Africa; the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of targets to be achieved by 2015 like ending poverty, providing education to all children and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Notably, a review of the MDGs is scheduled in the UN General Assembly in 2010.

"In the past three years, the UN has been able to lead in many important issues, like food insecurity, and many challenges in humanitarian issues," he said.

"Let me continue my work as hard as I can with your support," he said when asked to enumerate his achievements in the past three years.

Afghan ministerial nominees presented to parliament for approval

Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's long-awaited cabinet line-up was presented to the country's parliament for approval with no changes in key current ministerial posts. Current Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar and Finance Minister Hazarat Omar Zakhelwal, who are all favored by the West, were among the 23 nominees presented to legislators for approval.

Ten ministers were selected to stay in their posts while four would change ministries and nine would be new to the cabinet.

The nominees were presented to the Wolsi Jirga, or lower house of the parliament, by first vice president, Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

Fahim told the gathering that based on "good performances," some of the current ministers were designated for the new cabinet, adding that the new faces were selected by the president after wide-ranging consultation and based on their "high qualification."

No nominees were introduced to parliament for the Foreign Affairs and Construction ministries.

Eurostar limits weekend service after 4 trains stuck in cold - Summary

London - Eurostar canceled all its services Saturday morning, after more than 2,000 passengers on four of its trains were stuck in a tunnel under the English Channel because of technical problems caused by bad weather. The European high-speed rail operator said a limited service would resume after 1100 GMT and advised passengers with pre-booked tickets not to travel Saturday.

"The rest of the day and into Sunday Eurostar services will be severely disrupted as well," the rail operator announced on its website. The statement said services should be back to normal Monday.

The difference in temperatures between the cold outside air and the warm tunnel had caused the breakdowns on the train service between Britain and continental Europe, a spokesman for the trains' operator told the BBC.

Passengers in two of the trains were evacuated from the tunnel with a shuttle early Saturday while a backup locomotive pushed the two other trains toward Folkestone in south-eastern England, the spokesman said.

All four Eurostar trains were on their way from Paris to London when they became stuck in the tunnel. Two other trains traveling from Brussels and Paris to London were rerouted before they too could become stuck.

The passengers in the halted trains were in no danger, Eurostar spokesman Grant Smith told the BBC earlier. He admitted, however, that they must be "very uncomfortable" while adding that the trains had battery-driven emergency lighting so they were not sitting in the dark.

Northern France and south-eastern England saw heavy snowfall and icy temperatures overnight after experiencing widespread transport disruptions because of the winter weather already on Friday.

Power outages, school closures and flight cancellations were seen in many areas. British airlines announced further service disruptions for Saturday.

Temperatures also plummeted in other parts of Europe, including Italy, Germany and Poland.

Climate Change: Scientific Fact, Not Political Issue

18 December 2009

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS/TerraViva) – “In a year’s time, the Japanese archipelago will be completely under water.” This official announcement was made following a violent eruption of Mt. Fuji, as a series of devastating earthquakes shook the country, forcing the world to face the challenge of taking in 110 million refuges within a very short time.

After a brutal diplomatic battle, the Japanese government managed to secure frail support from its fellow nations and evacuate 65 million people. Twenty million sank with the islands, many of them voluntarily, out of love for their country or to give younger people a better chance of fleeing. The rest are believed to have died before the islands sank, victims of the quakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters.

This account is part of a futuristic book published in Japan in 1973, and translated into English as “Japan Sinks”. The author, Japanese novelist Komatsu Sakyo, imagines this catastrophe based on potential natural phenomena, such as the intensification and alteration of tectonic plate shifts under the Pacific Ocean.

But outside the world of fiction, the planet today is being hit by increasingly frequent floods, and many small island states and coastal cities face the real possibility of sinking in the near future. And all of this is a result of human actions.

The threat in real life is coming from above rather than below, but the consequences are equally tragic, even if they appear less catastrophic because they are more spread out in time and space.

A huge cataclysm like the one depicted by Sakyo may be what the world needs to reach an effective agreement that will steer it away from the suicidal path of global warming.

Certain changes, especially those wrought against the economic tide, are only possible after exceptional tragedies or social turmoil. Last year’s global financial crisis, for example, was not dramatic enough to bring about structural changes.

The magnitude of Sakyo’s fictional disaster does not lie merely in the number of victims, but in the fact that it completely wipes out a rich nation like Japan, a country that many in the 1970s saw as challenging the economic power of the United States. The novel is also critical of the arrogance displayed by Japan in the post-war reconstruction period.

The fact that tropical countries, especially small, impoverished nations, will suffer the worst effects of global warming fails to prompt cooperation that should be natural in our present circumstances, as it is a threat that affects the entire world.

The current climate crisis highlights the multiple dimensions of the inequalities among nations, which hinder negotiations. The leading issues – such as legally-binding targets for emissions and funding for programs to address climate change – divide the world, with wealthy countries on one side and the rest of the world on the other, and a middle group of emerging nations whose intention to continue to be counted within the ranks of the poor nations (in terms of emissions cuts, etc) is rejected by the rich.

This inequality is a spoke in the wheel of any multilateral talks, in both market, financial, patent or health matters.

These are all opportunities for developing countries to close the gap that separates them from the rich and obtain more aid for their own development, now with the irrefutable argument that the industrialized world is responsible for the historic accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

But when it comes to climate change, the blocs formed in other forums fall apart. Brazil, for example, is persistently under pressure from environmentalists to break away from the G77 group of 130 developing nations so that it can contribute to reaching an agreement and regaining the leadership role it had in the negotiations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, and the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.

Because it has specific and feasible means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – by curbing deforestation and increasing its already vastly developed clean energy production -, environmental activists argue that it would be to Brazil’s own advantage to commit to ambitious targets.

China, which is associated with the G77, alienated itself from the coalition by moving closer to the United States in volume of greenhouse gases emitted, building one coal-fired electric power plant a week, and holding more than two trillion dollars in reserves.

It’s frightening to think of 1.3 billion Chinese speeding forward towards what is now recognized as an unsustainable process of industrialization and consumption.

The position of countries that are rich in fossil fuels differs radically from that of those dependent on imported oil. Latitudes and altitudes, the abundance or lack of forests, the threat of desertification, or the dependence on glaciers are some of the many aspects that mark the differences in how climate change impacts each country.

Numerous small island states are already fighting for survival, so they have joined forces with those African nations that are severely affected by desertification and major crop losses to demand that 1.5 degrees C be set as the limit for the rise in temperature in this century. Exceeding that threshold will condemn entire nations to almost certain death or displacement.

But, what power do these countries have to counter the two-degree limit adopted?

This is not about rich countries imposing their will on poor countries, or of a class struggle between states. The goals that must be met are being dictated by scientific studies and assessments. Climate change has crowned a new absolute power: the power of science, whose findings are now determining the very existence of the world’s entire population.

Thousands of scientists who participated in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agreed that a temperature rise of two degrees C by 2100 is a feasible and tolerable limit. Above that, chaos will ensue.

Climate skeptics don’t count. They’re a tiny minority and, in many cases, have lost credibility because they are thought to defend the interests of the fossil fuel industry, or to act out because they feel attacked by attempts to prevent the great climate disaster.

Voices have already been raised against the verdict issued by climate experts, voices that demand that society be included in decision-making, with suggestions of holding referendums. But this is a field where the premises lay outside the dynamics of “democracy.” Climate change is a fact, not an issue.

Politics can only decide on how to handle the phenomenon. Questioning it or determining any variations in the facts is the exclusive domain of science.

This new dimension of what many refer to as the “age of knowledge” will dictate the rules that govern many activities, demanding energy efficiency, and forcing people to change their patterns of consumption and their habits, as has already been achieved, for example, with tobacco in the field of health.

BANGLADESH: Community-Based Climate Strategies Are Key

By Darryl D’Monte

COPENHAGEN, Dec 19 (IPS/TerraViva) – Many countries treat Bangladesh as a country that is so afflicted by calamities that it is incapable of pulling itself out of dire poverty. Yet, it has blazed a trail in drawing up blueprints for community-driven climate adaptation strategies.

Part of this blueprint is to revive traditional farming practices that could withstand extreme weather changes.

“People used traditional farming practices,” notes Prof Ainun Nishat, a former academic, now senior adviser for climate in Asia to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Dhaka, told IPS. “We had 5,000 varieties of rice which could withstand this variability, but have now been lost.”

Non-government organizations and the IUCN have for several years been encouraging people to revive such practices. In undivided Bengal, before the partition of India in 1947, for instance, it was common for people to set aside five percent of their land for a pond to breed fish and irrigate paddy.

He cites a program reintroducing water-tolerant species as well as those that can survive in floods, drought and salinity, a breakthrough. There is a species of rice that can be submerged under water for 15 days without deteriorating. The new government is also implementing a project to resuscitate river networks.

Since Bangladesh receives up to two billion tonnes of sediment from the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers every year, it is encouraging communities to maintain the age-old networks of small rivers and canals, which have fallen into disrepair. Traditionally in Bengal, these were excavated by manual labor under the supervision of the local community and this valuable practice is being revived.

“This initiative is community-based,” he says. “It is both top-down and bottom-up. Collectively, we sensitize the government.”

“Bangladesh is nature’s disaster laboratory,” says Prof Nishat. “Apart from volcanoes, we have every type (of disaster),” he adds, stressing the urgency of adopting mitigation measures, particularly at the community level. He is particularly worried about the erratic monsoon, which can give rise to drought-like conditions.

A decade ago, experts realized that to help people combat climate variability, they had to find alternative means of generating incomes. One way was to harvest the troublesome hyacinth weed in ponds and pile it to grow seedlings. IUCN and non-government organizations introduced these methods in two coastal islands of Bhola and Hatiya.

A. Atiq Rahman, the well-known executive director of the Bangladesh Center of Advanced Studies, who took part in the just concluded climate talks in this Danish capital, organized three international workshops to synthesize the lessons drawn from efforts to explore alternative sources of income. The Bangladesh government expressed an interest in the proceedings. When it had to formulate plans to cope with climate change in 2003-2005, it did away with the normal route of hiring consultants and created seven task forces, half of which were headed by non-government experts, including Prof Nishat.

The government allocated 200 million U.S. dollars for this purpose, for which 12 to 15 projects were shortlisted. Importantly, the task forces were not put under a ministry or directorate but operated with a high degree of autonomy. “This was because of the cross-cutting nature of these problems: every ministry was involved.”

“A key issue is food security,” he says. “The seal-level rise is less worrying than the ingress of salinity.” By 2100, it is estimated that salinity may travel 89 meters inland, and this will affect people’s livelihoods.

Experts are also monitoring “storm surges” and cyclones, which have increased in intensity and frequency. Between 1960 and 2009, there were 15 major events; from 2007, there have already been four. “The sea is also growing rough and preventing fishermen from venturing out on certain days,” Prof Nishat reports.

In 2007, then Environment Minister C.S. Karim asked officials and NGOs to contribute to a report in the build-up to the Copenhagen conference. To operationalise the Bali Action Plan – the so-called “road map” to a new global climate treaty – the government was fully engaged in drawing up an adaptation strategy, which attracted the attention of donors.

Funding for the strategy came from the British government, the World Bank and the British Department for International Development. The resulting ‘Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009’, was published in September or three months ahead of the Copenhagen talks.

There are six themes: food security, social protection and health; disaster management; infrastructure; research and knowledge management; mitigation and low-carbon development; and capacity building and institution strengthening.

“This is an open-ended document in the making, not a finished product,” Prof Nishat clarifies. “Low-carbon growth is an important component. We hope to add people’s responses to the projects listed under each theme.”

The new government, headed by Sheikh Hasina, has instituted a task force to review these activities. “She has strengthened the political commitment to tackle climate change,” he says. “It was in her election manifesto.”

History Was Not Made in Copenhagen

By Stephen Leahy

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) There is no Copenhagen climate treaty. History was not made here and no deal was sealed.

After two years of intense negotiations by 194 countries, what is abundantly clear is the enormous divide between the rich and poor countries. Poor countries want deep cuts in emissions by the industrialized world, and the latter continue to resist significant cuts and legally binding targets.

Despite the enormous pressures, high expectations and last minute efforts by 128 heads of state, all that emerged is a vague agreement of sorts called the “Copenhagen Accord”.

“Sealing the deal” on a new climate treaty has been postponed for at least a year.

Speaking of divides, civil society largely calls Copenhagen an utter disaster. It is a failure that “condemned millions of the world’s poorest people to hunger, suffering and loss of life”, said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International.

On the other hand, U.S. President Barack Obama argued that a “meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough” had been made at press conference in the Bella Centre just before midnight Friday. “All major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change,” he said.

Evidently, world leaders hadn’t been paying much attention to the previous 15 years of climate treaty negotiations.

“Heads of state are now fully engaged,” agreed Robert Orr, U.N. assistant secretary general for policy planning, speaking at a press conference. “Copenhagen was the first time leaders were using the climate vocabulary.”

“This has put climate on the map for leaders and leaders on the map for climate,” he said.

Orr also said the gap between politics and science is finally beginning to close.

The hour is late for waking up to the reality of climate change. Two new scientific studies suggest that climate feedbacks will make the two-degree C target unlikely to be achieved without “going negative” – meaning not only does the world have to go carbon-free in the coming decades, carbon will need to be removed from the atmosphere to lower concentrations to perhaps 350 ppm from today’s 389 ppm.

It was late last night in the final hours of the meeting when the U.S. president announced that India, South Africa, China and Brazil had agreed to a backroom agreement called the Copenhagen Accord.

However, since it only involved five out of the 193 countries whose officials had spent a long two weeks in Copenhagen, some delegates were visibly upset they’d not been involved previously and the meeting continued all night. By Saturday afternoon, confusion remained over the accord’s legal status, and half a dozen nations, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Bolivia, declined to support it.

In the end, the accord has no legal standing under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and participating countries merely “note” its existence and express their support or not.

Friday night, Obama acknowledged that this was just one step on a long road to meet the apolitical targets of climate science. He insisted the Copenhagen Accord is an important first step because countries agreed to deep long-term cuts in emissions with the goal of holding the increase in global temperatures below two degrees C.

Developing countries also agreed to take both voluntary action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to increase those actions if financial support was provided. And there was agreement that rich countries must mobilize 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to help developing countries protect their forests, adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions.

They also agreed to work towards a legally binding treaty to be concluded by the end of next year in Mexico.

“The U.S. is not legally bound by anything that took place here in Copenhagen,” Obama was careful to point out.

Domestically, the United States is a divided country, and a long way from making binding commitments on climate.

Not an hour after Obama’s opening speech to the plenary Friday morning, several Republican members of Congress and the Senate held a press conference in the Bella Centre denying climate change was caused by emissions of fossil fuels and saying the science of the International Panel on Climate Change and dozens of scientific academies around the world was suspect.

None of the U.S. politicians are scientists and all hail from regions with powerful fossil fuel or automotive interests.

“We have lost many things along the way,” said Dessima Williams of Grenada, spokesperson for the 43-member Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), regarding their reluctant acceptance of the accord. “We have lost a vigorous commitment to stabilizing global temperatures at 1.5 C.”

“We believe this is critical to the survival of our member states,” Williams said in a final plenary session Saturday.

Women were also hoping for gender-sensitive text to acknowledge the reality that women are by far the most impacted by climate change, said Ana Rojas of Energia, an International Network of Gender and Sustainability based in the Netherlands.

Only a third of the delegates attending the conference this year are women, which can make it more difficult for equal representation of women and men’s views in relation to climate change.

“We need a shared vision of gender in a final agreement. And not just concerning adaptation but also mitigation and financing,” Rojas told TerraViva.

While acknowledging that the accord represents some progress, it fell far short of the “fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement” that civil society had advocated. Outside the meetings, 1,800 protesters and media spokespersons were arrested on the suspicion they might do something illegal, in what civil society called attempts by the Danish government to suppress legitimate opposition and free speech.

The use of “tear gas, pepper spray, mass cages, baton charges and mass preemptive arrests sets a precedent dangerous not only for Denmark, but for the future of the world,” said Tadzio Müller of Climate Justice Action, an international network of environmental and social justice groups.

“The world is facing tragic crises of leadership [on climate change],” said Greenpeace’s international executive director, Kumi Naidoo.

The accord represents a “major concession to climate polluting industries, especially in the fossil fuel sector”, Naidoo said. “Averting climate chaos has just gotten a whole lot harder.”

Dubai Islamic Bank launches Al Islami Infinite Credit Card

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Dubai Islamic Bank, or DIB, on Saturday announced the launch of the Al Islami Infinite Credit Card, an invitation-only card available exclusively to target ultra-high-net-worth clients of the bank.

Tailored to meet the distinct needs of such clients, the Al Islami Infinite Credit Card is a lifestyle statement, the banks said in a Press release. Holders of Al Islami Infinite Credit Card are eligible for a range of benefits, including full multi-trip travel insurance, roadside assistance, as well as discounts on a range of products and services. Card members also receive complementary access to over 600 airport lounges in 300 cities worldwide.

It gives cardmembers access to an international concierge service, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to fulfill any requirement, with the assistance of more than 100 Arabic- and English-speaking professional 
service advisers.

Cardmembers also have access to the best tickets available for any high-profile sporting or cultural event at competitive prices.

"We have developed this card to cater to the unique lifestyle requirements of our exclusive customers, and are confident that it will 
be appreciated.

The card is likely the most distinguished-looking card in the world, and therefore makes a statement about the privileged few who will carry it," said Dr Adnan Chilwan, Chief of Retail and Business Banking at the bank.

In addition to extremely high credit limits, cardholders receive extended warranties on their purchases, as well as a range of special purchase-protection features. Cardholders are also eligible for a number of significant emergency services, such as cash and card replacement and emergency 
medical coverage.

"Available by invitation only, membership to the Al Islami Infinite Credit Card provides an unmatched combination of privileges, services and security," Chilwan said.

Source: Middle East North Africa Financial Times (MENAFN).
Link: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093289837&src=NLEN.

Ahmadinejad seeks WWII compensation

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec 19, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his country should be compensated for damages sustained during World War II under British and Russian occupiers.

Ahmadinejad told reporters Friday at the U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, he will soon write to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asking for his country to be compensated, Press TV reported.

"We will seek compensation for World War II damages. I have assigned a team to calculate the costs," Ahmadinejad said. "I will write a letter to (Ban) asking for Iran to be compensated for the damages."

Ahmadinejad told Press TV World War II's allied victors inflicted much damage on Iran by invading the country and using its resources.

Iran declared its neutrality at the start of World War II, but was invaded by both Britain and the Soviet Union in August 1941. Press TV said Iran's refusal to comply with Allied demands to expel all German nationals from the country provided the "excuse" they needed to occupy the country, which the Allies used as a route to transport war materiel to the Soviet Union.

Link: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?StoryId={291249C3-8342-46DE-BD3B-E14D4ABE72A0}&src=NLEN.

Israeli doc admits harvesting organs

(MENAFN - Arab News) The chief Israeli pathologist and director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, professor Yehuda Hiss, has admitted harvesting organs from the bodies of dead Palestinians without the consent of their families.

Hiss said that he and doctors who worked under him took parts from bodies - including skin, corneas and heart valves - in the 1990s for transplantation. He also admitted that the same parts were taken from dead Israelis for the same purpose.

Hiss' remarks came in an interview with Nancy Sheppard-Hughes, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley who tracks the organ trade worldwide. The one-hour interview was recorded in 2000 as part of Sheppard-Hughes' study at Abu Kabir and was broadcast on Israeli television on Friday night.

The report said Sheppard-Hughes decided to publish the interview after the leading Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported in August that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to trade in their organs.

The Israeli pathologist said "the skins were taken from the bodies and transmitted to Hadasah hospital in Jerusalem on the request of Israeli Army to be transplanted to wounded soldiers and in case of disaster."

Sheppard-Hughes said the taking of organs "was not only from Palestinians and the bodies of terrorists, but all people. The symbolism is of taking the parts from a population which is considered enemy for military uses. This has to be reconsidered."

In August, Aftonbladet quoted Palestinians as saying that young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israeli forces and that their bodies returned to their families with missing organs.

"'Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,' relatives of Khaled from Nablus said to me, as did the mother of Ra'ed from Jenin as well as the uncles of Mahmoud and Nafez from Gaza, who all had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and autopsied," wrote author Donald Bostrِm in his report.

Bostrِm also cited an incident of alleged organ snatching in 1992 during the first intifada.

He said Israeli soldiers seized a young man known for throwing stones at Israeli troops in the Nablus area. The man had been shot in the chest, both legs and the stomach before being taken to a military helicopter which transported him to "a place unknown to his loved ones."

Five nights later, Bostrِm says, the young man's body was returned, wrapped in green hospital sheets.

By Mohammed Mar'i

Chinese vice president arrives in Myanmar for two-day visit

Sat, 19 Dec 2009

Yangon - Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrived in Myanmar Saturday for a two-day official visit that was expected to include talks with the ruling military junta's chief, Senior General Than Shwe, government officials said. Xi arrived at Yangon International Airport from South Korea on the second leg of a four-country Asian tour that is to take him to Cambodia next.

The vice president was scheduled Saturday evening to fly on to Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, 350 kilometers north of Yangon.

On Sunday, he was scheduled to meet with his Myanmar counterpart, Vice Senior General Maung Aye, and military supremo Than Shwe, who heads the State Peace and Development Council, as the junta styles itself.

China is one of Myanmar's few political allies in the international arena, where the regime is widely condemned for its poor human rights record and refusal to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest along with 2,100 other political prisoners.

For its part, China is known to be keen to gain access to Myanmar's rich offshore natural gas reserves with plans to build an overland pipeline to deliver the gas to its Yunnan province.

"I hope the visit of Mr Xi Jinping will be successful even if it is just a short visit," said Ye Dabo, Chinese ambassador to Myanmar. "The cooperation between China and Myanmar will broaden in the future."

On Saturday, Xi is to visit the Gem Museum and Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. He is to also meet with staff and family members from the Chinese embassy in Yangon.

According to Chinese embassy sources, several memoranda of understanding and treaties would be signed during his visit.

China is Myanmar's fourth-largest foreign investor with a total investment of 1.3 billion dollars. Bilateral trade between the two bordering countries reached 2.6 billion dollars in 2008.

Philippine volcano spews more ash, lava with increasing intensity

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Manila - A volcano in the eastern Philippines Friday spewed more ash and lava with increasing intensity as authorities rushed to evacuate homes at the foot of the mountain. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Mayon volcano in Albay province, 360 kilometers south-east of Manila, was also rocked by nearly 250 earthquakes overnight.

July Sabit, a resident volcanologist in Albay, said at least seven ash explosions occurred at Mayon on Friday morning alone.

"These are indications that the activity of Mayon is intensifying," he said.

"The possibility of hazardous volcanic eruption is high," the institute said in a bulletin.

More than 35,000 residents have been moved to 25 evacuation centers in eight municipalities around Mayon, famous for its almost perfect cone, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

The office said nearly 12,000 people still needed to evacuate their homes.

Amid reports that some residents were refusing to move, soldiers and police officers were deployed to the endangered communities to assist in the forced evacuation.

The security forces also "strictly enforced checkpoints at strategic areas to ensure that nobody enters the danger zone at any time" with some residents returning at night to check on their homes.

The 2,472-meter volcano has erupted about 50 times since 1616. It last erupted in July 2006, forcing more than 30,000 people to flee their homes.

Mayon's most violent eruption was in 1814 when more than 1,200 people were killed and a town was buried in volcanic mud. An eruption in 1993 killed 79 people.

Taiwan president urges China to let NGOs have place on world stage

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on Friday urged China to allow more of the island's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) take part in international events. Speaking at an international seminar on NGOs, Ma said that since his inauguration in 2008, he has been stressing mutual respect and cooperation between Taipei and Beijing and China has permitted Taiwan to join some international organizations, such as allowing it to attend the World Health Assembly.

"However, China still blocks Taiwan NGOs' participation in international activities, so I appeal to China to ... let the harmonious atmosphere extend to unofficial organizations, so that Taiwan's civic groups can make greater contributions to the international community," he said at the meeting in Taipei County.

Ma did not cite specific cases of China blocking NGO participation in international events, but several Taiwan NGOs complained that although they were allowed to attend the ongoing UN-sponsored conference on climate change in Copenhagen, the organizer, apparently under pressure from Beijing, listed them as organizations from China.

Pakistani defense minister barred from foreign visit

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

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Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Islamabad - Pakistani immigration staff prevented the country's defense minister from taking a plane to China because his name was on a list of people facing a travel ban after an amnesty law was scrapped, news reports said Friday. Ahmed Mukhtar was stopped at the Islamabad airport late Thursday, one day after Pakistan's Supreme Court voided an amnesty protecting more than 8,000 people from corruption charges and ordered authorities to resume proceedings against the accused, the Dawn newspaper reported.

President Asif Ali Zardari was among the beneficiaries of the amnesty, known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance, but he enjoys a constitutional immunity from prosecution.

Zardari is under pressure from his political opponents and commentators to resign on moral grounds; however, there were no immediate signs of his stepping-down.

Dawn said Friday that Mukhtar was to leave with Pakistan's naval chief, Admiral Noman Bashir, for China on a three-day scheduled visit to take delivery of a frigate. Bashir proceeded as planned.

The minister told the private Geo news channel that his name was placed on the so-called Exit Control List in connection with a corruption investigation that has been pending against him for the past 12 years. He denied the graft allegations and vowed to defend himself.

The name of Interior Minister Rehman Malik was also included on the list of 247 people who have been banned from leaving the country.

Action against Mukhtar was followed by rumors about a possible coup in Pakistan. They came when Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, in an interview with CNN commented on the possibility of a takeover by saying: "I hope not."

Zardari spokesman Farhatullah Babar rubbished the buzz about a coup.

During its 62 years of existence, Pakistan has seen several military takeovers with the latest staged in 1999 by former army chief Pervez Musharraf, who remained in power until August 2008.

The National Reconciliation Ordinance was issued by Musharraf under a power-sharing deal with Zardari's late wife, Benazir Bhutto. The move was encouraged by the United States and Britain.

Bhutto ended a self-imposed exile in 2007 to run in parliamentary polls but was assassinated weeks after returning in Pakistan. Zardari led her party to victory in February 2008 elections and later became president when Musharraf left office.

Resumption of corruption cases against Zardari, some key ministers and hundreds of top bureaucrats after the landmark court ruling on Wednesday has pushed Pakistan into a fresh political upheaval.

The potential instability comes as Western countries are pressuring the government in Islamabad to focus on the Islamist insurgency centered in Pakistan's tribal badlands near the Afghan border.

Pakistan is already engaged in multiple offensives against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, who have responded with a deadly wave of terrorist strikes that have killed more than 500 people in the past two months.

Mumbai attacker retracts statement, denies charges

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

New Delhi - The lone Pakistani gunman captured during the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks on Friday retracted his statement admitting his involvement in the carnage and said he was forced to confess, news reports said. In a dramatic confession before the special court in Mumbai in July, Ajmal Kasab admitted to his role in the bloodbath and asked to be hanged.

But on Friday, Kasab denied all the charges against him and told the court that he was made to confess and was tortured, the NDTV network reported.

Kasab made the statement in connection with evidence placed before the court by the prosecution, which concluded its case Wednesday, seven months into the trial after examining 610 witnesses.

The NDTV report said the development was unlikely to delay the verdict in the case, which was expected in about two months.

The court is to pass its judgment after recording statements of the accused and hearing arguments in the case.

Kasab, an accused member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group, faces 86 charges ranging from waging war on India to murder, kidnapping and destabilizing the government. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Besides Kasab, two Indians, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, are accused in the case. The charges allege key planners of the assaults included LeT leaders Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah.

The attacks damaged relations between South Asia's two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, and derailed their five-year peace process.

According to the prosecution, Kasab was arrested November 27, 2008, the morning after he and nine other terrorists landed in Mumbai by boat from Karachi and launched the attacks.

The terrorists attacked 13 places - including two hotels, a train station, a cafe and Jewish center - and by the time the siege ended three days later, at least 166 people, including 26 foreign nationals, were dead.

Severe winter weather slams Ukraine

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Kiev- Severe winter in Ukraine has left thousands of drivers stranded and dozens of villages without power, local media reported Friday. Heavy snow that knocked down power lines left 158 villages and towns in the former Soviet republic without power, said officials from the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES).

The worst-hit region was Ukraine's usually snow-free south and east, where high winds and heavy snow fall had piled up drifts in excess of a meter at some locations, MES director Ihor Krol was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Between five and eight thousand cars and lorries were stranded Thursday evening on a highway to the west of the Black Sea port city Odessa, forcing drivers and passengers to abandon their vehicles and seek shelter.

Road-clearing and emergency-assistance teams sent by local officials were assisting the motorists, the Odessa-based news agency Liga reported.

"There have not been any deaths or injuries, but some of the drivers are panicking, which is interfering with the assistance effort," said Denys Kostenko, a Odessa-based MES spokesman.

The traffic jam of stuck and abandoned vehicles blocked a 6- kilometre stretch of highway on Thursday, he said.

Anatoly Vorokhaev, Odessa deputy mayor, told the Korrespondent website that poor driver preparation for winter roads was contributing to the difficulties.

"One of the main reasons for ... the traffic jams is that motorists have not put winter tires on their vehicles, and lots of times they are just driving on bald tires," he said.

Stuck vehicles and delays of six hours and more were also reported on highways in Ukraine's eastern Kherson and Donetsk provinces.

Traffic police on Thursday evening closed a heavily traveled intercity roadway in Kherson province to nighttime use.

Spanish region discusses a ban on bullfighting

Barcelona - The parliament of the wealthy north-eastern region of Catalonia was Friday preparing to vote on what could become a ground-breaking ban on Spain's bullfighting tradition in the region. If the legal initiative launched by an anti-bullfighting platform wins preliminary approval by the regional parliament, Catalonia could become the second Spanish region to ban bullfights after the Canary Islands did so in 1991.

The anti-bullfighting platform Prou collected 180,000 signatures to back its initiative, nearly four times as many as needed to bring it before parliament.

Far-left and environmentalist parties supported the ban, conservatives opposed it while Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists and the large Catalan nationalist formation CiU gave their legislators freedom to vote for or against.

The ban was likely to be approved, analysts said.

The vote launched a debate about bullfighting in Spain where opinion polls show its popularity has declined.

Only 19 per cent of Spaniards younger than 24 years take an interest in the spectacle, according to a 2006 poll.

Criticism of bullfights is strongest in Catalonia, a region of 7 million, where the regional capital Barcelona and dozens of other municipalities have declared their opposition to the sport.

Two of Barcelona's three bullrings have been closed, though the last remaining one still draws crowds for top bullfighters.

Opponents of bullfighting see it as a form of animal torture during which the bullfighter's assistants stick long darts into the animal's neck to build up its fury.

In the final "moment of truth," the matador is expected to kill the bull with a single thrust of his sword into the back of its neck, but many bullfighters are not that skillful and wound the animal several times.

Those defending bullfights see it as an ancient and important part of Spanish culture, which has inspired artists like the painter Pablo Picasso and the US writer Ernest Hemingway.

A ban on corridas would violate the basic freedoms of bullfighting fans, the Catalan bullfighting lobby said, arguing that the tradition should die a natural death if it was no longer popular.

The Canary Islands banned bullfights in 1991. The law in question did not specifically target bullfights, which were no longer taking place on the islands, but cockfights which remained popular there.

Namibia election challenge hearing postponed

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Windhoek - A legal challenge by 10 Namibian opposition parties to the results of last month's elections was postponed Friday in the High Court of the south-west African country to give the state more time to prepare its defense. The parties earlier this week asked the court to order a full audit of the results of the November 27-28 presidential and parliamentary election, which the ruling party of 19 years, SWAPO, won by a landslide.

The opposition believes the elections were rigged.

Judge Collins Parker postponed the case until Tuesday, under mutual agreement between the opposition and the state.

The opposition parties seeking a complete review of the votes from polling stations and the final results to be able to prove their claim of irregularities in the vote count and voters roll.

Four different versions of the voters roll were made public by the Electoral Commission of Namibia in the run-up to the vote. The opposition also says more people voted in some places than were registered to vote.

"We jointly rejected the outcome of the recently held elections due to the discovery of very serious irregularities, which we felt could not be left unchallenged," the parties said.

The court challenge was "in the interest of our democracy and the people of Namibia," they said.

In the parliamentary election, which 14 parties contested, SWAPO fell just short of the three-quarters majority it had going into the vote, garnering 74 per cent.

SWAPO leader, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, also trounced his rivals in the presidential ballot, taking a little over 76 per cent.

Despite rising corruption and stubbornly high poverty in the country of around 2 million people, the former guerrilla movement SWAPO is still popular among voters for having won the country's independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990 and for having assured two decades of peace and stability.

Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians to get visa-free EU travel

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Belgrade - Serbians, Macedonians and Montenegrins will be able to travel to most European Union countries without visas starting midnight Friday. The EU has decided to scrap the strict visa regime on November 30, 17 years after imposing it. At that time, wars raged in Croatia and Bosnia, as the Yugoslav federation was falling apart.

Brussels officials said the decision to place the three former Yugoslav republics on the so-called "white list" of nations on a visa-free regime was a signal affirming their European future.

All three are aspiring EU members, but only Macedonia has formally attained the status of a candidate. From the former Yugoslavia, Slovenia joined the EU in 2004, and Croatia is the next in line to join.

According to the new rules, visitors from the Balkans are allowed to stay in the EU for up to 90 days every six months.

They will also enjoy free travel to Switzerland, Iceland and Norway, which not EU member-states.

The visa-free regime for Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro does not apply to certain EU countries: Great Britain, Ireland, Bulgaria and Romania.

Merkel staves off mutiny to push tax-cut bill through

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives narrowly avoided a rebellion on Friday, as Christian Democrat (CDU) state premiers dropped their opposition to a tax cut bill just before a vote in the upper house of parliament. The premiers of the states of Schleswig Holstein and Sachsen, both CDU, said they would support the so-called Growth Acceleration Bill in a vote of the Bundesrat on Friday.

The Bundesrat represents Germany's 16 federal states, and premiers had been concerned that the bill would leave large deficits in state budgets at a time of falling tax revenue.

The bill is seen as a forerunner to a much larger round of tax cuts planned for 2010.

The premier of Schleswig Holstein, Peter Harry Carstensen, said the federal government had agreed to assist the states with their budgetary problems if they supported to the bill.

The bill was passed on December 4 by the lower house or Bundestag, and provides tax cuts and benefits for families and businesses, amounting to 8.5 billion euros (12.2 billion dollars).

Merkel's coalition with the Free Democrats won a general election in September, partly on promises to slash taxes in a bid to lead the economy to a full recovery after the global economic crisis.

15 killed in road crash in India's north-east

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

New Delhi - At least 15 people were killed Friday when a bus veered off the road and fell into a river in India's north-eastern state of Meghalaya, a news report said. Police and administrative officials told the IANS news agency that 34 passengers were injured when the bus fell into the river Lobo near Sonapur, about 120 kilometres north of Meghalaya's capital, Shillong.

"Till Friday afternoon, eight bodies, including that of a woman, have been recovered from the Lobo River," Manik Dey, a regional minister, told the IANS.

Officials told the news agency that the death toll was 15 although only eight bodies had been recovered so far.

Iran Nuclear chief: New generation centrifuge ready by 2011 - Summary

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Tehran - The new generation of Iran's uranium-enrichment centrifuges is to be ready by March 2011, the head of Iran's Atomic Organization said Friday. Ali Akbar Salehi told the Fars news agency that the new centrifuges - named IR3 and IR4 - were currently being produced and that after a test period, they would be ready for use by the end of the next Persian year in March 2011.

Iran has been planning since last year to upgrade the technology of its centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment.

Salehi said 6,000 centrifuges - believed to be mainly the older models - were now operating in a uranium-enrichment site in Natanz in central Iran.

He also said work on the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran would be finished by its Russian contractor within the next few months, adding that Norway and Japan offered to cooperate on security issues.

The Bushehr plant was supposed to be completed 10 years ago, but work was delayed by Russia for various reasons, including political considerations.

As Iran has no other partners for its nuclear projects, owing to international suspicion over its intentions, the Islamic state so far had to be patient with Moscow, but the Iranian parliament expressed doubt over Russia's sincerity to complete the plant.

According to Salehi, Japan however has stated its willingness to cooperate with Iran on nuclear technology.

Iran insists it has the right to pursue peaceful nuclear development as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and rejects Western charges that it is working on a secret nuclear program to make an atomic bomb.

However, its lack of transparency regarding its nuclear program and refusal to suspend uranium enrichment have led to several United Nations Security Council sanctions resolutions against the Islamic state.

In another interview with ISNA news agency reported, Salehi said that "Iran was still ready to take the path of understanding with the West" over the nuclear dispute.

"Some Western countries are unfortunately influenced by the international Zionist lobby," Salehi said, alleging interference from Iran's regional enemy Israel. "We however still hope that the wise part of the West will prevail over the less-wise part and avail itself of the opportunity (of continuing talks)."

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili will visit Tokyo over the weekend and hold talks in his four-day visit with Japanese officials over both the nuclear dispute and future nuclear cooperation, Salehi said.

He added that Iran was still interested in implementing the IAEA brokered plan to send 3.5 per cent Iranian low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France to be enriched to 20 per cent to be eventually used as fuel for the Tehran medical reactor.

"Although we can do the 20 per cent enrichment by ourselves, we still prefer to buy it and we hope the West would get this message and avail itself of this opportunity (to settle the nuclear dispute)," Salehi said.

Iran says it has not rejected the initial plan but wants the swap to be made inside Iran, but both the IAEA and the world powers want to implement the initial IAEA plan and have given Iran until the end of the year.

"They (world powers) can give whatever deadline they want but they know well that Iran would not give in to any imposed time-limits," the atomic chief said, adding that neither sanctions nor military attacks would have any effect on Iran's decisions.

Iranian dissident cleric Montazeri dies at 87

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has died, his grandson said Sunday. He was 87.

Nasser Montazeri said his grandfather, who was seen as the spiritual father of Iran's reform movement, died in his sleep overnight.

Montazeri had been designated to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, but the two had a falling out a few months before Khomeini died of cancer in 1989.

Iran's current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, succeeded Khomeini instead and has been the target of escalating criticism by Iran's opposition movement since June's disputed presidential vote.

Montazeri had repeatedly accused the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam.

In 1997, Montazeri was place under house arrest in Qom, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Tehran, after saying Khamenei wasn't qualified to rule.

The penalty was lifted in 2003, but Montazeri remained defiant, repeatedly accusing the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam. He said the liberation that was supposed to follow the 1979 revolution never happened.

Montazeri was one of just a few Grand Ayatollahs — the most senior theologians of the Shiite Muslim faith.

After he was placed under house arrest, state-run media stopped referring to Montazeri by his religious title, describing him instead as a "simple-minded" cleric. Any talk about Montazeri was strongly discouraged, references to him in schoolbooks were removed and streets named after him were renamed.

Montazeri was still respected by many Iranians, who observed his religious rulings or supported his calls for democratic change within the ruling establishment.

On Saturday, after months of denials, Iran acknowledged that at least three people detained in the country's postelection turmoil were beaten to death by their jailers.

The surprise announcement by the hard-line judiciary confirmed one of the opposition's most devastating and embarrassing claims against authorities and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces that led the crackdown after the vote in June.

Turkey's Gul to visit Kuwait for high-level talks

President Abdullah Gul will pay a two-day state visit to Kuwait on December 21 and 22.

State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, deputies and businessmen will accompany President Gul during the visit.

President Gul is set to meet with Amir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah of Kuwait on Monday.

He will also receive Crown Prince Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah and Prime Minister Nasir al-Muhammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

After attending Turkey-Kuwait Business Forum to be held with the participation of Turkish and Kuwaiti businessmen, President Gul will join ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of Kuwaiti Oil Company with Amir Sheikh Sabah.

Bilateral political, economic and commercial relations between Turkey and Kuwait will be high on agenda of President Gul's scheduled meetings.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=51522.

PNA denies any security cooperation with CIA

RAMALLAH, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) denied on Friday an alleged report which claimed that there was security cooperation between the PNA and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Adnan Damiry, spokesman of the PNA security apparatuses, denied a report published by the British daily The Guardian that the U.S. intelligence plays a role in aiding the PNA in cracking down on Hamas movement's members and activists in the West Bank.

"This report is totally untrue and rootless," said Damiry, adding "it is fabricated." He called on The Guardian "to check the accuracy of its report before publishing it."

"We have no cooperation with CIA, and all that we have in Palestine is a small security force that tries to restore discipline and calm."

Meanwhile, Gaza Strip ruling Islamic Hamas movement accused the United States of being involved in the war the PNA carried out against its members and leaders in the West Bank.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a new conference held in Gaza that the report of the British newspaper "is totally true," adding "Hamas members in the West Bank are detained and badly tortured by the PNA security apparatuses."

"The report and the massive arrests against Hamas members in the West Bank indicate that there is a strong cooperation between Ramallah authority and the American CIA," said Abu Zuhri.

He added that all the testimonies that Hamas movement got from its members imprisoned by the PNA security forces were "proof that the CIA cooperates with the PNA in arresting and torturing Hamas members."

Storm continues to wallop East Coast, heads north

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer

CHERRY HILL, N.J. – A slow-moving storm that blanketed swaths of the mid-Atlantic with nearly 2 feet of snow headed northward Sunday, continuing its assault on the East Coast after causing at least five deaths, crippling travel and leaving empty stores normally crammed with holiday shoppers.

As it approaches New England on the cusp of the winter solstice, the storm has already been one for the ages. It caused flooding in South Florida and knocked out electricity for more than 85,000 customers in the Carolinas on Friday. On Saturday, it dropped 16 inches of snow on Reagan National Airport outside Washington — the most ever recorded there for a single December day — and gave southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snowfall totals in nearly four years.

Some of the deepest snow Saturday may have been in the Philadelphia suburb of Medford, N.J., where it was measured at 24 inches.

Those who did travel were met with "the worst conditions we've seen in many years in the Garden State," said David Weinstein, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Even the NFL, with its hallowed tradition of playing in all weather conditions, including "frozen tundras," pushed back the scheduled start times of games Sunday in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Around New York City, the brunt of the storm hit Long Island, with nearly 2 feet recorded in Upton. Crews clearing roads early Sunday reported whiteout conditions, said Lt. Robert P. Iberger of the Southampton police.

Ten inches of snow had already fallen on New York City by Sunday morning, and the storm could be the worst the city has seen since about 26 inches fell in Central Park in February 2006, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Maloit said. Transit workers in New York were clearing subway tracks and platforms overnight, and delays were expected on bus, subway and train routes, city transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said early Sunday.

The National Weather Service expected the storm to dump as much as 15 inches in southern New England with the heaviest snowfall expected early Sunday. A blizzard warning was in effect Sunday morning in parts of New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

With strong wind gusts to keep the powdery snow swirling, the storm was so bad on Saturday that attractions such as the Smithsonian museums in Washington and the Philadelphia Zoo were closed. The National Mall, normally swarming with tourists, instead was the scene of snowball fights.

The snow brought a sense of wonderment to George Johnson of Pennsauken, N.J., who ventured out Saturday to buy boots for his 1-year-old granddaughter, Talia, so she could play in the snow for the first time.

Not all shoppers were deterred by the snow.

"It really helped me get in the Christmas spirit," said the Kathryn Mariani, who took a train to downtown Philadelphia from her home in the Germantown neighborhood.

The mayors of Washington and Philadelphia and the governors of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware all declared states of emergency.

In West Virginia, blankets were given to hundreds of drivers, and some motorists were stranded for up to 27 hours on highways, Red Cross spokesman Jeff Morris said.

Falling on the last weekend before Christmas, the snow came a time when roads are traditionally mad with holiday shoppers. But around shopping centers in Philadelphia's New Jersey suburbs on Saturday, traffic was sparse and slow.

Prime parking spots were available all day at the Cherry Hill Mall. And inside, there was no line for a picture with Santa. "It was fantastic," said Chris Bailey, who got pictures of his 4-year-old daughter Olivia.

Shops at the mall and nearby restaurants closed hours early.

Salt trucks and plows were out in force. On stretches of roads including the New Jersey Turnpike, the speed limit was reduced.

But those measures didn't prevent scores of cars from slipping into ditches.

One person in Virginia was killed in a traffic accident caused by slick roads, and authorities said the weather may have contributed to another traffic death there. A third death in Virginia is believed to have been caused by exposure. In Ohio, two people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads hit by the same storm system.

In New Jersey, a bus got stuck on snow-covered railroad tracks in Pennsauken and was hit by a train. The only reported injury was a minor one suffered by the train's engineer, NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said.

Greyhound shut down service in Washington and points north, and ferry service in Delaware and New Jersey was canceled.

Airports in the Northeast were also jammed up. Most flights were canceled at several, including Reagan National and Dulles in the Washington area; Philadelphia International; New York's three major airports and Logan Airport in Boston. The cancellations rippled across the country; more than 150 flights were canceled in and out of Chicago's airports, as were a handful in Denver.

Philadelphia Airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanIstendal said snacks and pillows were being handed out there to travelers stranded overnight.

She said with continuing bad weather and planes out of place, problems would continue Sunday.

At National, Juan Carlos Franco waited in line Saturday with his wife, 2-year-old son and 6-month-old daughter to rebook their flights to Quito, Ecuador, but was expecting to fly out no sooner than Wednesday. They had checked and rechecked the status of their flight for two days, but it wasn't canceled until a few minutes after they entered the security line, Franco said.

"The backpacks were in the X-ray machine," he said.

Spanish Astronomers Claim Dwarf Sun Beyond Pluto

by Gary Vey for viewzone

The idea of a new planet being discovered in our Solar System is pretty exciting. Even more so because of the many theories about "planet-x" or "Nibiru" being associated with space aliens and the doomsday prophecies of 2012.

Scientists at places like NASA and famous observatories have deflected inquiries about the discovery for a few years now, mainly because they feared being associated with these "fringe" theories. But like it or not -- it has happened. Well... according to a team of Spanish artronomers who call themselves the StarViewer Team.

The group made the rounds of all the news web sites in the past two weeks, claiming they discovered something very significant. It's almost twice the size of Jupiter and just beyond our furthest planetoid, Pluto. Although it's not a planet, it appears to have planets or large satellites encircling it. It's what astronomers call a "brown dwarf star" and its official name is "G1.9".

What's a Brown Dwarf Star?

First we'll explain WHAT these astronomers have discovered. Then we'll discuss HOW they discovered it.

At the risk of being scientifically vague, I'll try to explain the current understanding of how stars and planets form in space.

All matter attracts other matter. A larger mass will attract smaller masses towards it. In space this results in growing clouds of matter that tend to clump together and attract more matter. Since most of the matter in space is gaseous, these clouds eventually get so dense that they collapse into dense gaseous spheres. When they do this there is usually some "left over" matter that forms a ring around the sphere.

If there is enough matter in a sphere of hydrogen, for example, it can cause so much compression at the shpere's core that the hydrogen atoms begin to fuse together and a fusion-reaction ignites a new born star. In this reaction two hydrogen atoms join together to form one helium atom and release extra energy as radiation.

Scientists believe that the minimum mass needed to ignite a sun is about 13 times the known mass of the planet Jupiter -- written as "13MJ." If the mass is lower than this, the pressure in the core is not enough to ignite and the sphere will be hot ball of gas called a "brown dwarf."

As a new star spins, the disk surrounding it gradually cools and the matter forms heavier elements like metals and minerals. These "rocks" eventually clump together and form solid spheres called planets.

Sometimes a solid sphere will attract some of the gas that is in the disk and this will result in a gaseous giant, like Jupiter and Saturn, which has a solid core but a thick gaseous atmosphere. These "gas giant" planets can be very massive but, because of their solid cores, they will never ignite and become stars.

This Brown Dwarf

This newly discovered "brown dwarf" is believed to have formed from the same condensed matter that gave birth to our Sun. It is believed that, after the large planets formed around the Sun, they pushed it to the edge of the Solar system where it formed a sphere about 1.9MJ -- well below the mass needed to ignite it as a "sun."

Many suns that we observe in the galaxy are part of binary systems or double stars. There is debate about how two suns form from a single condensed cloud of matter. Some believe that they both form at the same time; others believe they split following the creation of one huge sun.

Sometimes both spheres are capable of fusion and both suns shine brightly, encircling each other around an imaginary point call the barycenter. Sometimes only one sun attains 13MJ and ignites, while its smaller companion, the brown dwarf, glows dimly and radiates heat. Astronomers usually can only see the brightest of the two, but because they both circle around a common barycenter, the wobble reveals the mass of the unseen companion.

We are close to our Sun and within its gravitational influence. So as we are travel through space, it appears to us that the G1.9 is moving in an eclipse between our furthest planetoid, Pluto, and the edge of our Solar system, near the Oort Cloud.

The newly discovered brown dwarf is reported to be located just about 60 to 66 AU (1 AU=the distance from the Sun to Earth) from us (its parigee), currently in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. Because of periodic gravitational disturbances in areas of space further out, specifically in the Oort Cloud, the Spanish group of astronomers believe G1.9 travels in an elliptical orbit extending possibly hundreds of AU beyond the furthest known planets (its apogee). Its position just beyond Pluto suggests it is at its closest approach to the Sun and Earth.

Space appears relatively free of debris inside the planetary orbits. This is because the gravitational pull of each planet (a large mass) effectively collects the interplanetary debris (small mass). But there are exceptions.

How it was discovered... the controversy

You might well ask why astronomers have never detected this object before. In fact they did. G1.9 was first identified as a "supernova remnant" in 1984 by Dave Green of the University of Cambridge and later studied in greater detail with NRAO's Very Large Array radio telescope in 1985. Because it was unusually small for a supernova it was thought to be young -- less than about 1000 years old.

But in 2007, X-ray observations made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed that the object was much larger than the last time it was observed! It had grown in size by 16%. Puzzled by this observation, the Very Large Array repeated its observations of 23 years ago and verified that it had increased in size considerably. Knowing that supernova do not expand this quickly, unless they have just exploded, they explained that G1.9 must be a "very young" supernova -- perhaps not more than 150 years old. But no record of a visible supernova has been found corresponding to that historical period (about the time of the American Civil War).

Spanish astronomers have tracked this object with great interest because they were anticipating its appearance. Gravitational anomalies have been appearing in the Oort Cloud for some time, suggesting the perturbations were caused by a nearby object with considerable mass. The announcement that G1.9 had increased in size was no mystery to them. It is exactly what they would expect as the object moved closer to Earth.

Relocation of Myanmarese, Bangladeshi migrants rejected

Sunday, December 20, 2009 4:43 PM

Apriadi Gunawan , The Jakarta Post , Medan | Sat, 12/19/2009 1:05 PM | The Archipelago

Residents rejected on Friday a relocation of 195 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh from Aceh to a housing complex in Medan, North Sumatra.

Meanwhile, the Rohingya boatpeople hoped they could recieve Indonesian citizenship.

The residents threatened violence if the government decided to settle the immigrants at the Tempua housing complex in Medan's Sunggal district.

Nazaruddin, one of the residents, said they were surprised to find the foreigners were being accommodated in their housing complex without prior notification.

"Residents here disagree with *moving the* immigrants into the housing complex. We will use violence if the foreigners stay here," Nazaruddin said.

To avoid clashes between the immigrants and local residents, officers from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Polonia Immigration Office, Medan, evacuated the immigrants from the housing complex to a foundation office at the Education and Training Center on Jl. Cempaka, Medan Selayang district.

In the center, the refugees were seen resting after being bussed in from Aceh.

Rahmat Larosa of Polonia Immigration Office admitted that relocating the immigrants from the housing complex to the center was their only option to avoid any conflict.

Rahmat said the immigrants would stay at the center temporarily while waiting for a decision by the Directorate General of Immigration.

Meanwhile, the immigrants said they did not know why they were relocated from Aceh to Medan.

Muhammad Yunus, an immigrant from Myanmar, said the IOM, who facilitated the relocation, promised to give the immigrants residency documents after they arrived in Medan.

Yunus hoped the Indonesian President would be willing to give them residency.

"We want to become Indonesian citizens," he said.

The immigrants, 147 Myanmarese and 48 Bangladeshis, arrived in Indonesia on Jan. 7, this year when their boat washed ashore on Sabang Island in Aceh. The immigrants were originally detained and processed at the Sabang Island Naval Base.

The Foreign Ministry said the boatpeople were to be repatriated to Bangladesh once their identity verification was cleared by their countries of origin.

There are 388 Rohingya people in Aceh, all fled Myanmar and Bangladesh because of poverty and alleged government persecution.

The Rohingya number about 750,000 in Myanmar, but are not recognized as a distinct ethnicity. Rights groups say they face forced labor, land seizures, rape and murder.

Thousands have risked their lives in dangerous boats fleeing to neighboring countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh and India.