Hamas' Meshal arrives in Libya for talks

Sun, 20 Dec 2009

Tripoli - Khaled Meshal, the head of the political wing of Hamas, arrived Sunday in Tripoli for talks with Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi. In a short statement carried by the official JANA news agency, Meshal said he was "keen to consult with Gaddafi" on various issues, without elaborating.

The visit was part of a diplomatic trip by Hamas officials to several Arab and Islamic countries, the head of the Islamist movement said.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, who run the West Bank, have failed over repeated rounds of talks in Egypt to settle their differences, in order to negotiate with Israel directly.

Romanian prime minister unveils new cabinet

Sun, 20 Dec 2009

Bucharest - Romania's Prime Minister-designate, Emil Boc, unveiled his prospective cabinet on Sunday. The list will be presented to parliament next week for a confirmation vote on Wednesday.

The proposed cabinet includes five independents, several liberals from the PD-L party, and an ethnic Hungarian, from the Hungarian UDMR party.

Hunor Kelemen, the Hungarian, is proposed for the ministry of culture and religious affairs.

The finance ministry portfolio has been nominated for former minister Sebastian Vladescu, a technocrat and member of a centrist coalition government in 2005-2007.

Bloc, who lost a parliamentary vote of confidence in October, has been ruling as a caretaker prime minister since then.

Romania is hoping for a new International Monetary Fund aid package, whilst the government plans a cost-cutting budget for 2010.

German defense minister joins call for talks with moderate Taliban

Sun, 20 Dec 2009

Berlin - Germany's Defense Minister spoke out Sunday in favor of peace talks with the moderate wing of the Taliban to ease the Afghan crisis. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg's stance may indicate a change of emphasis in German policy, which has previously opposed dealings with the Taliban - despite reports that Britain and other allies have quietly urged Kabul to open communications with non-terrorist Taliban leaders.

"Each rebel is not an equal threat to western society," said Guttenberg in an interview printed by the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Guttenberg said he approved keeping communications open to the different ethnic groups and tribes in Afghanistan, provided the allies did not fall into a trap.

"I no longer believe the sole rule is to cut off all forms of communication, but certain criteria must still be applied," he said.

German politicians discussed in 2007 whether it made sense to seek talks with the Taliban, but conservatives rejected this.

Leading voices in Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and in the Christian Social Union (CSU), the party Guttenberg belongs to, were at the time flatly opposed.

Signs were growing Sunday that the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD), which sent German troops to Afghanistan in the first place, might formally oppose the increase in the contingent which is now being sought by US President Barack Obama.

Party leader Sigmar Gabriel said the party was not going to vote in favor of a larger contingent, while the SPD caucus leader, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is a former foreign minister, said Germany should instead do more to train and equip the Afghan army.

Berlin has officially said it will not decide before a conference in London in late January whether to offer more soldiers in excess of the current troop ceiling, which is fixed at 4,500 personnel.

Meanwhile, Germany's Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, arrived in Italy on Sunday night for talks with his opposite number, Franco Frattini.

Israel inner cabinet meets to discuss prisoner swap deal

Sun, 20 Dec 2009

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene his inner cabinet Sunday evening for a discussion on a prisoner swap with Hamas - which would see Israel release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for Gilad Shalit, the soldier held in the Gaza strip for over three years. Although Sahlit's father, Noam, said the negotiations over his son's release had reached the point of no return, Israeli officials were quoted on Channel 2 News as saying that the deal was still not completed.

According to the news channel, the debate now centered around whether prisoners released by Israel could return to their homes in the West Bank, or whether they would be exiled to the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas, or even sent abroad.

The seven-member inner cabinet is believed to be divided over the terms for Shalit's release, with three ministers said to be in favor, and three opposed, leaving the prime minister with the casting vote.

The ministers were due to meet once Netanyahu finished his talks with visiting Egyptian security chief Omar Suleiman. Egypt has been heavily involved in trying to mediate a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas. However, the talks reportedly went into high gear only after Germany joined the mediation efforts.

Egyptian officials in Cairo had on Saturday denied that Sulieman's visit to Jerusalem was connected to the Shalit prisoner negotiations.

Gilad Shalit's parents meanwhile delivered a letter to Netanyahu Sunday afternoon, in which they urged the prime minister to increase efforts to secure their son's release.

"Our hearts tell us that the negotiations have reached a point of no return," the letter said.

"We are at a crossroads that has only two possible outcomes - the rescue of Gilad Schalit and his safe return home, or leaving of his fate to the hands of Hamas," the letter continued.

Shalit was snatched on June 25, 2006 during a cross-border raid launched from the Gaza Strip.

Since then he has been held largely incommunicado, although Hamas, which is holding him, has released one audio tape of his voice, transferred three letters to his family, and in October 2 this year released video recording in which he pleaded for the Israeli government to do everything to secure his freedom.

United States Transfers 12 Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland Region

Sun, 20 Dec 2009

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Department of Justice today announced that 12 detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region.

As directed by the President's Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including potential threat, mitigation measures and the likelihood of success in habeas litigation, the detainees were approved for transfer. In accordance with Congressionally-mandated reporting requirements, the Administration informed Congress of its intent to transfer the detainees at least 15 days before their transfer.

Over the weekend, four Afghan detainees, Abdul Hafiz, Sharifullah, Mohamed Rahim and Mohammed Hashim, were transferred to the Government of Afghanistan. In addition, two Somali detainees, Mohammed Soliman Barre and Ismael Arale, were transferred to regional authorities in Somaliland. Finally, six Yemeni detainees, Jamal Muhammad Alawi Mari, Farouq Ali Ahmed, Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi, Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher, Fayad Yahya Ahmed al Rami and Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al Haf, were transferred to the Government of Yemen.

These transfers were carried out under individual arrangements between the United States and relevant foreign authorities to ensure the transfers took place under appropriate security measures. Consultations with foreign authorities regarding these individuals will continue.

Since 2002, more than 560 detainees have departed Guantanamo Bay for other destinations, including Albania, Algeria, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Bermuda, Chad, Denmark, Egypt, France, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Palau, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom and Yemen.

Iran nuclear negotiator calls for atomic arms ban

By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO – Iran's chief nuclear negotiator called for a global nuclear weapons ban on Monday but insisted all nations — including his own — have the right to develop nuclear energy.

Visiting Tokyo to meet with senior Japanese officials, Saeed Jalili said his country's nuclear program is for civilian purposes, although the U.S. and other nations fear its goal is to produce weapons.

"The crime that was committed in Hiroshima must never be repeated," Jalili told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, referring to the United States' dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.

"All the efforts of the world should be directed toward the eradication of these weapons," he said.

The administration of President Barack Obama — who has also called for a world free of nuclear weapons — has given a rough deadline of year-end for Iran to respond to an offer of engagement and show that it would allay world concerns about its nuclear program.

At the same time that it is trying to engage with Iran, the Obama administration has also been building momentum toward imposing more sanctions after the revelation in September that Iran was secretly building a second uranium-enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom.

In Paris on Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said there is no other choice than for the U.N. Security Council to impose new sanctions on Iran for Tehran's refusal to cooperate with international authorities on its nuclear program.

Kouchner says that he believes that all of the U.N. Security Council members will support new sanctions, which he says will be precise and target members of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government and its supporters. The Security Council is expected to take up the issue in January.

In the meantime, the U.S. and its allies are pressing Tehran to accept a U.N.-brokered plan under which Iran would ship the majority of its low-enriched uranium out of the country. That would temporarily leave Iran without enough uranium stockpiles to enrich further to produce a nuclear weapon.

Under the plan, the low-enriched uranium would be converted into fuel rods that would be returned to Iran for use in a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Fuel rods cannot be further enriched into weapons-grade material.

Iran has balked at the plan, and Jalili dodged questions Monday about Tehran's response to it. He accused the West of trying to "monopolize" the nuclear fuel supply by rejecting Iranian offers to buy fuel rods for its research reactor and then by making conditions on the uranium swap.

"Their behavior toward Iran is a very good example that shows how these countries want to monopolize this fuel," he said.

The U.N.-brokered plan was seen by the U.S. and its negotiating partners as a step toward building confidence in Iran's claim that its nuclear program is designed only for civilian pursuits — medical purposes and to generate electricity.

"The Tehran reactor is for pharmaceutical use, for humanitarian use," Jalili said. "Using nuclear energy is the right of every nation."

In light of Iran's apparent resistance to the plan, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday he's worried about "the clock now running" on U.S. efforts to engage Iran.

"I grow increasingly concerned that the Iranians have been non-responsive. I've said for a long time we don't need another conflict in that part of the world," said Adm. Mike Mullen, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "I'm not predicting that would happen, but I think they've got to get to a position where they are a constructive force and not a destabilizing force."

On Monday, Jalili met with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, who voiced strong concern over Iran's nuclear program, according to a Foreign Ministry official who declined to be named.

Jalili, who plans to visit Hiroshima this week, also made a thinly veiled jab at Obama by criticizing his decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

"While giving the slogan of 'change,' these people are adopting the same approach of power and militarism," he said.

Iran cleric's mourners protest against government

By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Tens of thousands of Iranian mourners turned the funeral procession of the country's most senior dissident cleric into an anti-government protest Monday, chanting "death to the dictator" and slogans in support of the opposition amid heavy security.

Witnesses said security forces clamped down in Iran's holy city of Qom where massive crowds streamed in for the funeral rites for Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died Sunday at age 87.

One opposition Web site reported clashes outside Montazeri's home between security forces and mourners, who threw stones. Iranian authorities have barred foreign media from covering the rites, and witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest.

Montazeri's death pushed Iranian authorities into a difficult spot. They were obliged to pay respects to one of the patriarchs of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the one-time heir apparent to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

But officials also worried that Montazeri's memorials could become new rallying points for opposition demonstrations. The ayatollah broke with Iran's clerical leadership and became a vehement critic, denouncing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and calling the postelection crackdown the work of a dictatorship.

Many mourners shouted protest cries including "Death to the Dictator" in displays of anger against Iran's ruling establishment during the procession in Qom, a city of shrines and clerical seminaries about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Tehran, witnesses said.

Marchers held aloft black-rimmed portraits of Montazeri and green banners and wrist bands in a powerful show of support for the Green Movement of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who attended the funeral along with another prominent protest leader, Mahdi Karroubi.

Footage posted on the Web showed massive crowds chanting in the streets of Qom and beating their chests in a sign of mourning, as Montazeri's body was carried around the city's main shrine several times then taken to a nearby cemetery for burial alongside his son, who died in the early days of the Islamic Revolution.

Security forces clashed with mourners shouting slogans outside Montazeri's house in Qom, and some protesters threw stones, the opposition Web site Norouz reported. It said an unspecified number of mourners were arrested. The report could not be independently confirmed, and witnesses did not report major clashes.

Thousands of mourners also marched in the cleric's hometown of Najafabad, near the central city of Isfahan. Web footage showed the crowds beating their chests and chanting, "Oppressed Montazeri, you are with God now."

On Monday, access to the Internet in Iran was slow, and cellular telephone service was unreliable. The government has periodically restricted communications in an attempt to prevent protesters from organizing.

Authorities were clearly concerned Montazeri's death could set off a string of opposition protests linked to his funeral. Traditionally, memorial ceremonies are also held seven days after a death. Moreover, Montazeri's seventh day homage will fall on one of the most important Shiite religious days, marking the martyrdom of a revered 7th century leader — giving even more fuel for a rally.

In another sign of efforts to silence opposition media, authorities ordered the closure of a small, liberal-leaning newspaper, Andishe-no, or New Thinking. The paper had only a limited circulation, but was one of the few reformist publications remaining. Iranian officials also have tried to block opposition Web pages and other sites.

Montazeri broke with the regime in the 1980s after claiming that the ruling clerics violated the ideals of the revolution by taking absolute power rather than serving as advisers to political leaders. He spent five years under house arrest and had only a minor role in political affairs after being released in 2003.

But the outrage after June's disputed presidential election gave him a new voice that resonated with a younger generation. His most pivotal moments came in the summer when he denounced the "despotic" tactics and "crimes" of the ruling clerics — a bold step that encouraged protesters to break taboos about criticism of Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Khamenei.

In demonstrations earlier this month, students shouted "Death to the dictator!" and burned pictures of Khamenei — an act that was almost unthinkable just a few months ago.

State television made only a passing reference to Monday's funeral and did not broadcast any images. It mentioned, however, that mourners were chanting anti-government slogans.

On Sunday, Khamenei praised Montazeri as a respected Islamic scholar, but noted his falling out with Khomeini and other leaders of the revolution.

Montazeri's grandson, Nasser Montazeri, said he died in his sleep overnight. The Web site of Iranian state television quoted doctors as saying Montazeri had suffered from asthma and arteriosclerosis, a disease that thickens and hardens arteries.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said one of Montazeri's followers and a government critic, Ahmad Ghabel, was arrested while driving to Qom with his family to attend the funeral. The New York-based group called on the government not to interfere in the commemorations.

Another prominent critic, filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad, was arrested on a charge of insulting officials, the state news agency IRNA reported Sunday. Nourizad, once a conservative government supporter, wrote a letter of protest to Khamenei in September urging him to apologize to the nation for the postelection crackdown.

Montazeri was one of the leaders of the revolution and he helped draft the nation's new constitution, which was based on a concept called velayat-e faqih, or rule by Islamic jurists. That concept enshrined a political role for Islamic clerics in the new system.

But a deep ideological rift soon developed with Khomeini. Montazeri envisioned the Islamic experts as advisers to the government who should not have outright control to rule themselves. He was also among those clerics who believed the power of the supreme leader comes from the people, not from God.

Taking an opposing view, Khomeini and his circle of clerics consolidated absolute power.

Cambodia Sends Uighur Asylum Seekers Back To China

2009-12-20

Amnesty International warned the Uighurs could be tortured on their return to China, while analysts and exile groups said the deportation showed widespread problems with the refugee system at large.

Cambodia deported a group of 20 Muslim asylum-seekers back to China, despite protests from the United States and the United Nations, which rushed people to the airport in an attempt to physically prevent their expulsion.

As the Uighurs were put in a compound under constant guard in recent days, exile and rights groups grew increasingly nervous that Cambodia would give in to considerable pressure from Beijing, the Southeast Asian nation's largest foreign investor. The decision to expel them finally was announced on the eve of a visit from Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping.

Amnesty International warned the Uighurs could be tortured on their return to China, while analysts and exile groups said the deportation showed widespread problems with the refugee system at large.

The Uighurs, including two children, fled after ethnic rioting in July and slipped out of the country with the help of a secret missionary network in China. Their role in the rioting, China's worst communal violence in decades, remains unclear.

But China called them criminals, and Cambodia said it was deporting them because they had entered the country illegally. China's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment Saturday night.

China has handed down at least 17 death sentences - mostly to Uighurs - over the summer violence between the ethnic minority and the majority Han Chinese. Exile groups say Uighurs have been rounded up in mass detentions since the rioting. Uighurs also complain the Chinese government has long restricted their rights, particularly clamping down on their practice of Islam.

Some countries have refused to send Uighurs, such as those released from U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, back to China over concerns about retribution and abuse.

The United States, the U.N. and several rights groups urged Cambodia not to deport the group, which, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Lieutenant-General Khieu Sopheak, left Phnom Penh International Airport on a special plane sent from China.

A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had not finished evaluating the Uighurs for refugee status and that expelling them was a “grave breach of international refugee law.”

“I think we went to extraordinary lengths to prevent deportation. We had people prepared to try to physically prevent the deportation if it had taken place at the civilian side of the airport,” said Kitty McKinsey, spokeswoman for the agency in Bangkok. The plane, however, left from the airport's military area.

The agency's high commissioner, Antonio Guterres, tried to speak to Prime Minister Hun Sen on the phone but was not successful, added McKinsey. She said the refugee agency is preparing a protest to the Cambodian government.

“It comes down to, it's up to states to provide protection,” she said.

UNHCR has been slowly shifting some responsibilities for refugee evaluation to partner countries - a development many rights groups find alarming. The agency has said that it works with Cambodian officials now to determine refugee status for asylum seekers and that eventually Cambodia would take over the job entirely.

“This deportation highlights the absolute ineffectiveness of the UNHCR,” said Michael Horowitz, director of the International Religious Liberty project with the Washington-based Hudson Institute, who said he lobbied Cambodian officials not to deport the Uighurs.

Wang Lixiong, a China-based writer on Uighur and Tibetan issues, said the deportation reflected China's powerful influence in the region.

“When I learned the Uighurs landed in Cambodia, I was pessimistic because Cambodia is a small country that will not be able to stand against China's pressure,” Wang said earlier.

Groups that had worked with the Uighurs had initially been more optimistic.

“Last Monday, the Cambodian government said to the UNHCR that they were committed to provide the conditions for a process of refugee status application for the Uighurs,” said Taya Hunt, legal officer of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Cambodia.

Ilshat Hassan, a U.S.-based director of the World Uyghur Congress, said he last spoke with the Uighurs two days ago, when they told him they had been put in a compound under Cambodian guard but that the U.N. refugee agency and the United States were monitoring the situation.

“We thought if it's the UNHCR it should be OK,” he said. “The guys said the UNHCR officer said they will be under the protection of the U.N.”

Some who worked with the Uighurs said U.S. State Department officials had directly urged Cambodia not to send them back to China.

“We are deeply disturbed by the reports that the Cambodian government might forcibly return this group of Uighurs without the benefit of a credible refugee status determination process,” U.S. Embassy spokesman John Johnson in Phnom Penh said Saturday morning.

There was no immediate U.S. reaction after the expulsion.

After learning of the deportation, Ilshat said: “The UNHCR, the international world, the U.S., everybody who said something that could give us hope, they all failed.”

French film festival highlights Algerian cinema

2009-12-20

The 4th Panorama of Algerian Cinema will open on January 27th in Nimes, France, El Moudjahid reported. Among the 23 feature films and documentaries slated for screening at the one-week event are "Harragas" by Merzak Allouache and "Masquerades" by Lyes Salem.

'Open-ended' health sector strike looms in Algeria

The National Union of Public Health Practitioners plans to halt all work until the government meets its demands.

By Mouna Sadek for Magharebia in Algiers

A plan by Algerian public health care workers to escalate more than a month of rolling three-day strikes into an "open-ended" work stoppage on Monday (December 21st) is raising concerns over the timing of their labor action.

Judging from the hard work on display at the Sidi M'hammed Health Center in central Algiers, some doctors seem to be ignoring directives from the National Union of Public Health Practitioners (SNPSP).

One centre employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Magharebia last week that doctors had to be "careful" because the strike had lasted too long. "It's a huge responsibility; the health sector is very sensitive," he said. "We still have to act in accordance with our professional conscience."

He also said doctors fear receiving smaller paychecks, because the Health Ministry has been "raiding" strikers' salaries. "With nine years of experience, and working in the haemodialysis sector, which is a high-risk area, I get just 38,000 dinars per month," he added.

Among the strikers' demands are an official declaration of special employment status for doctors, a detailed working-out of the allowances system and government engagement of the union as a full-fledged social partner.

The SNPSP argues that the government should immediately set up a committee responsible for the allowances system that would bring together union and Health Ministry representatives.

Some of the union's grievances also spring from the fact that the ministry modified the special status of general practitioners in the public health system without SNPSP agreement.

"Ministry representatives … confirmed that the draft decree on the special status of general practitioners in the public health service had been discussed and approved by the government committee," Merabet told the media on December 5th.

The SNPSP is in talks with other health-sector unions about finding a "common approach" to labor-management disputes, according to a December 14th press statement from SNPSP General Secretary Lyès Merabet.

"We're convinced of the legitimacy … of the SNPSP action," Dr Ouledslimane Mahmoud, vice-president of the National Union of Specialist Practitioners, told Magharebia last week. Mahmoud said his union would have to decide what action to take on December 19th at its national council meeting.

The SNPSP's planned open-ended strike is "illegal" in the eyes of the courts, Health Minister Said Barkat said on national radio on December 19th. Merabet, in response, publicly questioned how the courts could pass judgment on as-yet untaken actions.

The ministry had promised to address organized labor's main demands at a December 10th "conciliation meeting" involving representatives of the Labor Ministry and civil servants.

Merabet subsequently announced that ministry representatives had offered nothing concrete in the course of the six-hour meeting. "The meeting with … the Health Ministry … was rubber-stamped with a set of minutes summarizing the key points of the discussions", he said, adding that the SNPSP is the workers' "legal representative" and has a right to participate in everything connected with the sector.

The union leader also dismissed the tripartite meeting among labor, government, and employer representatives on December 3rd that hammered out an increase in the national minimum wage. Merabet described the meeting as "monopartite" and not inclusive of what he called the relevant unions.

"The increase in the national minimum wage will be of no benefit to virtually the majority of public-sector workers," said the union leader. "On the contrary, it is the top civil servants [whose salaries are calculated on the basis of the minimum wage] who will benefit."

Health Ministry representatives contacted by Magharebia did not wish to comment on criticisms of the modified minimum wage.

Would-be patients, meanwhile, seem frustrated by the latest labor action.

"I get the impression that hospitals are always on strike," Mourad, 47, told Magharebia. "Every year it's the same thing," he said, as he waited for his daughter to get a vaccination at the Mustapha Bacha Hospital in Algiers. "They're driving us all into the private sector."

Even some health-care workers are expressing doubts over the wisdom of the timing of the strike, given the flood of emergency-room visitors worried about symptoms they fear stem from swine flu.

"It really isn't the moment to go on strike," said Malik, a nurse at Mustapha Bacha Hospital. "It's true that the doctors are providing a minimum level of service and that their demands are legitimate, but given that members of the public are bringing their children in at the slightest sniffle, the situation is becoming unmanageable."

Libya's Ghanem urges OPEC to curb petrol output

2009-12-20

Libyan petrol chief Shokri Ghanem on Saturday (December 19th) urged fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to adhere to reduced output targets set by the organization, Reuters reported. "[T]he market is oversupplied and therefore we will call for more compliance," the National Oil Corporation chairman said in a telephone interview from Tripoli. While OPEC agreed last year to cut supply by 4.2 million barrels per day, official figures indicate that compliance with this decision has fallen to 60%.

Algerian Olympic medallist Haddad receives African award

2009-12-20

Algerian judoka and Olympic medallist Soraya Haddad received a continental honour on Saturday (December 19th) in Dakar, APS reported. Every two years, Senegalese sports foundation FADSV presents its "Prix d'Honneur" award to African athletes who have succeeded at the highest levels of competition. Haddad, who won the -52kg bronze medal in 2008 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was handed her new award by International Amateur Athletic Federation President Lamine Diack.

Astronauts blast off for Christmas space mission

By PETER LEONARD, Associated Press Writer

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan – A Russian rocket blasted off from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan lighting up the frigid Central Asian steppe Monday, shuttling an American, a Russian and a Japanese to the International Space Station.

Standing in the early morning cold, the astronauts' family and friends watched as the Soyuz craft soared atop a tower of bright orange flames.

The Soyuz TMA-17's three astronauts will take the orbiting laboratory's permanent crew to five following the early-hours launch, the first-ever blastoff of a Soyuz rocket on a winter night.

Timothy J. Creamer, Soichi Noguchi and Oleg Kotov are to join current inhabitants, American Jeff Williams and Russian Maxim Surayev, who have been alone on the space station for three weeks.

This was a "spectacular launch, a great Christmas present," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said after space officials confirmed the rocket had entered into orbit. "A great way to finish the year."

A NASA television Webcast showed the crew giving a thumbs up sign as the vessel hurtled skyward.

One minute into the launch, the rocket reached a speed of around 500 meters (1,640 feet) per second.

The Soyuz will travel for about two days before docking with the space station 220 miles (350 kilometers) above Earth.

Reporting to Russian space officials prior to the launch, the astronauts seemed calm and relaxed.

Speaking fluent Russian, Creamer thanked technical staff for their role in preparing for the expedition.

One of the crew's tasks will be to assist in the delivery of a module, complete with a seven-window cupola for prime Earth gazing, when the space shuttle brings it to the space station in February, Navias said.

Striking a festive mood, the space station this week beamed a video Christmas greeting to Earth.

On its Web site, the U.S. space agency NASA has created a series of virtual postcards for members of the public to send to the space station with their holiday greetings.

Creamer, who is making his maiden voyage to space, has promised to keep people back on earth up-to-date via Twitter.

In a message posted from his mobile device just hours before the launch he wrote, "Will tweet soonest. Happy & Safe holidays to all!"

Noguchi is heading back to space for his second time and has become the first professional Japanese astronaut to fly aboard the Soyuz.

The first space station crew arrived in 2000, two years after the first part was launched. Until this year, no more than three people lived up there at a time, although there were as many as six people aboard for short periods when a space tourist would go up with one crew, spend a week or so aboard and come back with another crew.

With the U.S. shuttle fleet set to be grounded soon, NASA and other international partners will have to rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry their astronauts to the space station and back.

Polish police retrieve damaged Auschwitz gate sign

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

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By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press Writer

WARSAW, Poland – Polish police found the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign that was stolen from the gate of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz after an intensive three-day hunt and arrested five suspects, police said early Monday. The sign was found cut into three pieces.

Police spokeswoman Katarzyna Padlo told The Associated Press that the sign was found Sunday night in northern Poland, the other end of the country from the southern Polish town where the Auschwitz memorial museum is located and where it disappeared before dawn Friday.

Padlo said police detained five men between the ages of 25 and 39 and took them for questioning to Krakow, which is the regional command of the area that includes the Auschwitz museum.

Another police spokesman, Dariusz Nowak, said the 16-foot (5-meter) sign, made of hollow steel, was found cut into three pieces, each containing one of the words. The cruelly ironic phrase means "Work Sets You Free" and ran completely counter to the purpose of Auschwitz, which began as a concentration camp for political prisoners during the Nazi occupation of Poland and evolved into an extermination camp where Jews were gassed to death in factory-like fashion.

The police refused to divulge any details of the circumstances in which the sign was found or to speculate on the motive of the perpetrators. They were expected to disclose more at a news conference in Krakow planned for 0800 GMT (3 a.m. EST) Monday.

The sign that topped the main gate at the Auschwitz memorial site was stolen early Friday, setting off an international outcry at the disappearance of one of the most chilling and best known symbols of the Holocaust. State authorities made finding it a priority and appealed to all Poles for assistance.

Museum authorities welcomed the news with huge relief despite the damage done to the sign. Spokesman Pawel Sawicki said conservation experts will have to determine how best to repair it and that the museum authorities hope to restore it to its place as soon as possible.

Sawicki said the museum staff did not yet know who carried out the theft or why and were themselves waiting for more information from police.

More than 1 million people, mostly Jews, but also Gypsies, Poles and others, died in the gas chambers or from starvation and disease while performing forced labor at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany built in occupied Poland during World War II. The camp was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Poland to act to find "these twisted criminals that desecrated the place where over a million Jews were murdered."

"The sign is of the deepest historical importance to the Jewish people and the whole world, and is a tombstone for more than a million Jews," Netanyahu said.