2nd Iranian Univ offers Sherbini scholarship

Another Iranian university has announced the decision to offer a scholarship to women who have been denied the right to education for observing the Islamic dress code.

The scholarship named after Marwa el-Sherbini, the three-month pregnant Egyptian woman, who was stabbed 18 times to death in a German court in July.

Shiraz University is the second Iranian academic institution that plans to offer the scholarship, after Kashan University, which first introduced the idea earlier this month.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has welcomed the decision and said that the scholarship can provide an opportunity for Muslim women who are not allowed to study in Europe, because they wear Hijab, to continue their studies.

"The Sherbini scholarship is a valuable reaction to the West's destructive cultural attack," Ahmadinejad said during a Tuesday night speech in the city of Shiraz in Fars Province.

El-Sherbini was killed while testifying against Axel W. in an appeal court. The defendant approached the witness stand during the hearing, stabbed Marwa 18 times in front of her three-year-old son, the jury and other court officials.

WFP officer shot dead in Somalia

Gunmen have shot dead a local security officer working for the United Nations Food Program (WFP) in the central Somali town of Beledweyn.

Beledweyn is located some 300 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu.

Alo Farah Amey also known as Ali Afweyne, a former official of the Union of Islamic Courts was shot dead by unidentified gunmen armed with pistols near the WFP center, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Somalia, marred by years of escalating conflict is rated one of the dangerous zones for aid workers and journalists.

Most of the international aid agencies have pulled out their international workers, leaving behind local workers to assist three million Somalis. At least half of Somalia's population is in dire need of humanitarian food aid.

Iran welcomes Japan's outlook on Afghanistan

One of Iran's top diplomats says Tehran and Tokyo share the same vision on Afghanistan, as they believe a military buildup is not the answer to its problems.

The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said Tehran and Tokyo have the same outlook on Afghanistan, as they both believe the problems the war-torn Central Asian state currently faces do not have a military solution.

Saeed Jalili, who is on a tour of Japan, made the comment in a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, as he touched upon the important role that Tehran and Tokyo can play in the development of the region and Asia in general.

"The troop surge in Afghanistan is a repetition of past failed policies," Jalili said.

Japan is one of the largest donors to Afghanistan with $6.9 billion pledged funds.

The Japanese government's aid organization, the International Cooperation Agency, has also sent 90 employees to Afghanistan, a number which was reduced to 50 after the UN guest house bombing in Kabul 3 months ago.

Iran is also one of the largest contributors to Afghanistan's development, despite having suffered a great deal of damage itself because of the proximity to the world's leading producer of illegal drugs.

In 2009, Iran was the fourth largest investor in Afghanistan, with funds going to agriculture, health care and reconstruction projects, especially those involving infrastructure such as, roads, bridges, and the electricity network.

Since the war began, Japan has aided the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan with a naval mission that provides fuel to US and British vessels operating in the Indian Ocean.

However, Japan's new government has vowed to replace its refueling mission in Afghanistan with humanitarian aid, signaling the possible start of a new era in Japanese foreign policy.

While announcing the news earlier in September, Hatoyama said that "Japan wants to make a positive contribution in the field of our specialty... such as agricultural support or job training, which the Afghan people would be pleased to see."

He explained the Japanese initiative is to provide paid vocational training, mainly to former Taliban members.

The mission aims to pave the way for reducing poverty among the former militants based on the argument that many young men join the Taliban movement for money.

Even though it seems not easy for Japan to step out of the US sphere of influence, the new government in the country has promised to pursue an independent diplomatic course, one that could take Tokyo away from its top security ally, Washington.

US analysts fear the victory of the Democratic Party against the Liberal Democratic Party may be the start of a deeper change in the Asian country's orientation and a move away from its long-time dependence on the United States.

Comments made by Japan's new Prime Minister have added to those worries in the US, as he has vowed to pursue an independent diplomatic course, one that could take Tokyo away from its top security ally, Washington.

"Japan up until now has been receptive to the United States, but I want to build a relationship in which Japan can act more proactively and tell them our opinions frankly," Japan's new Prime Minister said in his first press conference in office in September.

An expert on Japanese foreign policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington Michael Auslin is one of the analysts that share that view.

“There is a fear of dramatic change in the US-Japan alliance… No one knows what will happen next, or even who to talk to for answers," Auslin told The Washington Post earlier this year.

Iran holds Clotilde Reiss trial in Tehran

A French academic who was arrested in Iran on charges of espionage after the presidential election in June has stood trial in Tehran.

"The three-hour trial of Clotilde Reiss was held in Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on Wednesday morning," Fars News Agency quoted her lawyer Mohammad Ali Mahdavi Sabet as saying.

"The final part of pleadings concerning the accusations against the French national will be made in the next session of the trial," he added.

Reiss was arrested on July 1 on charges of taking part in a Western plot against the Islamic Republic.

She is also accused of carrying out "a series of offenses, such as illegal residence, participation in illegal protests and intelligence gathering for the French Embassy," according to Iran's Foreign Ministry.

Reiss, who was released on bail in August, currently resides in the French Embassy in Tehran awaiting her final verdict.

On Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told AFP that the release of the French academic depends on France's approach and behavior.

"Iran is willing to release Clotilde Reiss, who was arrested for taking part in the post-election protests, but this depends on the approach and behavior of French officials," he said.

Israel threatens another large-scale Gaza war

Israel has threatened another massive war against the Gaza Strip as the impoverished enclave continues to suffer in the aftermath of the devastating January offensive.

Israeli planes have been dropping thousands of leaflets across Gaza, warning Palestinians against cooperating with the resistance fighters based in the coastal sliver.

The leaflets also threaten Gazans with a new attack just ahead of the first anniversary of Israel's 22-day onslaught against the Palestinian territory.

On December 2008, Tel Aviv launched an all-out military action against Gaza, killing 1,400 people, including a large number of women and children, killed and leaving thousands more injured.

The threats come despite the Israeli army's failure in its January operation to reach its strategic and military objectives — above all its pledged overthrow of Israel's long-time arch foe, Hamas.

In July, the activist group Breaking the Silence released print and video testimony from some 30 soldiers who said they entered Gaza with firing guns upon a "permissive" guideline by commanders, urging to shoot first and worry later about distinguishing civilians from combatants.

The 112-page testimony also accused Israeli troops of using Palestinian civilians as human shields and charged Israel with dropping forbidden white phosphorus bombs indiscriminately into Gaza streets on the top of aerial bombardment and heavy artillery fire.

In April, former South African UN prosecutor Richard Goldstone led an independent fact-finding mission commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations during the Gaza war.

The committee's 575-page report mostly highlighted Israeli atrocities against the people in the beleaguered Gaza Strip and documented deliberate targeting of centers, such as schools and mosques, known to be holding civilians.

The document also filed complaints that the Israeli soldiers killed unarmed people on the run, saying some of the victims were even waving white flags.

In October, the damning report was put up for a vote in the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council and endorsed by an overwhelming majority of 114 countries while 18 opposed and 44 abstained.

The three-week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the Gaza Strip also devastated a large part of the infrastructure in the impoverished coastal enclave, which remains under Tel Aviv's blockade despite international opposition.

'Viva Palestina' accorded grand welcome at Jaber crossing

By Mohammad Ben Hussein

AMMAN - Activists on Tuesday gave a grand welcome to a humanitarian aid convoy en route to Gaza to mark the first anniversary of Israel’s offensive on the coastal enclave.

Some 200 trucks entered the Kingdom through the Jaber border crossing yesterday afternoon, and were greeted by professional association and opposition activists.

The Professional Associations Council (PAC) organized a special event for the convoy, named “Viva Palestina” at the border crossing, including a press conference in which activists called for lifting the siege on Gaza.

Among the speakers was PAC President Abdullah Obeidat, who is also president of the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA), British MP George Galloway and former Islamist MP Ali Abul Sukkar, who also heads the JEA freedoms committee.

Obeidat said popular pressure by Arab people on their governments must be stronger in order to lift the siege on the Hamas-controlled strip.

He also called on Palestinian factions to reach reconciliation very soon, warning of dire results if the status quo continues.

"The humanitarian condition in Gaza is deteriorating from one day to the next. In the meantime, Gaza continues to suffer under siege while Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are unable to reach an agreement… Reconciliation is the answer to Israel’s agenda," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Galloway lauded efforts to help the Gazans and called for international pressure on Israel to open Gaza borders.

They said the humanitarian aid is a good step "but not enough".

Nicknamed “Return to Gaza”, the convoy is the third of its kind following the 2008-2009 Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

The 210 trucks - 100 from Britain, 50 from Turkey and the rest from other parts of the world - left London on December 3 and are expected to enter Gaza by December 27, the first anniversary of the attack, which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead and injured 5,000.

The humanitarian aid includes basic food items and medical assistance, according to Obeidat.

He said a festival will be held at the Professional Associations Complex on Tuesday and a similar event is planned near Karak and Aqaba.

"This is the least we can do to honour these people who gathered to help our brothers in Gaza," Obeidat noted.

The convoy, organized by the charity Viva Palestina and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), includes ambulances, trucks, vans and jeeps, hopes to land in Egypt on Christmas day, following a ferry crossing from Aqaba, according to a PSC statement sent to The Jordan Times.

It will attempt to break Israel’s three-and-a-half year blockade of Gaza by passing through the Rafah crossing to deliver its cargo of medical, humanitarian and educational aid, the statement said.

More than 400 people from around the world are now traveling on the convoy after volunteers from as far afield as Italy and Malaysia joined up in Damascus, according to the PSC.

Pakistan Taliban say fighters going to Afghanistan

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

* * * * *

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD, Associated Press Writer

SHAKTOI, Pakistan – A top Pakistani Taliban commander says he has sent thousands of fighters to neighboring Afghanistan to rebuff incoming U.S. troops, a claim that comes as a Pakistani army offensive is believed to have pushed many of his men to flee their main redoubt.

Waliur Rehman told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Monday night that the Pakistani Taliban remain committed to battling the army in South Waziristan tribal region, but they are essentially waging a guerrilla war.

Rehman is a deputy to Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, and the man in charge of the group's operations in South Waziristan.

"Since (President Barack) Obama is also sending additional forces to Afghanistan, we sent thousands of our men there to fight NATO and American forces," Rehman said. The Afghan "Taliban needed our help at this stage, and we are helping them."

Col. Wayne Shanks, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, called Rehman's comments "rhetoric" that were not to be believed.

"We have not noticed any significant movement of insurgents in the border area," he said.

Ishtiaq Ahmad, a professor of international relations at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, speculated the comments were just an attempt to worsen the already tense relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan.

"When the United States expects Pakistan to synchronize its own counterterrorism policy with the troop surge ... the militants issue these statements in an attempt to create problems in this relationship," said Ahmad.

Either stance is nearly impossible to independently verify. Access to the tribal belt, especially conflict zones, is severely restricted. Pakistani army spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.

Rehman spoke in a large mud-brick compound in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan.

He looked relaxed as a he sat on a carpet surrounded by seven rifle-toting guards and Azam Tariq, a Taliban spokesman. It was apparently the first time either he or Hakimullah Mehsud had given an in-person interview to a journalist since the Pakistani military launched the ground offensive on Oct. 17.

To meet Rehman, the AP reporter traveled to North Waziristan's town of Mir Ali and from there was taken by Taliban militants on a six-hour ride to South Waziristan in a vehicle with tinted windows.

The army sent some 30,000 troops to battle as many as 10,000 militants in South Waziristan, including hundreds of Uzbek fighters. The military estimates it has killed about 600 Taliban fighters. Rehman claimed he'd lost fewer than 20 fighters.

But many of the Pakistani Taliban militants are believed to have fled to other parts of the tribal belt, a semiautonomous stretch of rugged territory that runs along the Afghan border. Most were believed to have gone to North Waziristan, Orakzai and Kurram tribal areas.

The military has launched airstrikes in the latter two regions in recent weeks, and a full offensive might be in the works there.

Rehman, considered to be the strategic brains behind the Pakistani Taliban, said most of his fighters had reached Afghanistan and he didn't need that many insurgents to take on the military in South Waziristan.

He said Hakimullah Mehsud was "not far away" and safe. Hakimullah Mehsud took over the extremist network in August after a U.S. missile strike killed former commander Baitullah Mehsud.

Earlier this week, fliers signed by Mehsud appeared in North Waziristan warning Taliban fighters taking refuge there not to cause problems. It appeared to be an attempt to keep peace with other militants in that region — some of whom have truces with the government.

"The claims of sending thousands of warriors into Afghanistan and the circulation of such leaflets to appease the warriors in North Waziristan are basically a reflection of increasing desperation of the Pakistani Taliban as it comes under increasing pressure from our security forces," said Ahmad, the international relations professor.

Rehman also said his group would stop attacking Pakistani forces if the country would sever its ties with the United States, a somewhat more moderate stance compared with his proclamation in a video he recorded before the South Waziristan operation that the group would fight until it set up an Islamic state in Pakistan.

Since October, militants have launched numerous attacks throughout Pakistan in a wave of violence that has killed more than 500 people, many of them civilians.

"We would again become Pakistan's brother if Pakistan ends its support for America," he said. He claimed the Taliban only attacked security forces and disavowed any strikes on civilian targets.

Rehman urged Obama to focus on shoring up the beleaguered U.S. economy. "He should know that Americans don't want war," Rehman said. "He should use this money for the welfare of his own people."

He further claimed that Osama bin Laden was safe and alive, but that he had never met the al-Qaida chief in person. Pakistani officials have long cast doubt on suggestions that bin Laden is hiding in the tribal belt.

"I know he is in touch with his people and he is communicating with them to convey his instructions," Rehman said.

Iran names new president of Academy of Arts

Iran's Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution has appointed poet Ali Moallem Damghani to the position of President of the Academy of Arts.

The Council named Moallem on Tuesday to replace defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Secretary and Spokesman of the Council, Mohammad Reza Mokhber Dezfouli, as saying.

Mousavi had headed Iran's Academy of Arts since its establishment in 1998.

The state-funded Academy of Arts was established for the purposes of safeguarding Iran's Islamic and national heritage and art, establishing policies and proposing strategies, accessing the latest findings and innovations and confronting the threats of invasive cultures.

Colombian governor found with slashed throat

The kidnapped governor of a southern Colombian province has been found dead, hours after a massive military operation was launched to rescue him.

Luis Francisco Cuellar was seized from his house by about 10 gunmen in the capital of the Caqueta province on Monday.

One policeman was killed in the attack and two more wounded.

His body was discovered soon after, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of the provincial capital Florencia, with a slashed throat.

"The cowards slit his throat," President Alvaro Uribe said in a nationally broadcast speech.

Cuellar was the most high profile politician abducted and murdered since Uribe came to power in 2002, promising a "safe democracy" and a heavy military crackdown on armed rebel groups.

Hours before the governor's body was found, the president had deployed more than 2,000 military personnel to find the official, stressing that every effort would be made to secure his release.

Cuellar, who turned 69 on Tuesday, had already been kidnapped four times in the past 23 years before he became governor, the Associated Press news agency said.

Authorities believe that the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas have committed the act.

However, the notorious group has not yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

FARC, Latin America's oldest and longest-fighting rebel force, currently holds hundreds of hostages, including soldiers and local officials.

Uribe has rejected a political dialogue with the group, which is seeking a prisoner swap with the government to exchange its hostages for 500 FARC rebels in government jails.

Last year, some of FARC's most high-profile hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans, were rescued from their jungle confinement.

Abbas vows to curb any Palestinian Intifada

Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas says he prevented a third intifada from breaking out during Israel's deadly offensive against the Gaza Strip in January.

In an interview with New York's Wall Street Journal published on Tuesday, Abbas emphasized that he would not allow another uprising to take place as long as he stays in office.

"I will not allow a new intifada. As long as I'm in office, I will not allow anybody to start a new intifada. Never never."

The Fatah leader who earlier said he would not run in the next Palestinian election warned that he could not make any guarantees another intifada would not erupt once he left office.

"If I leave, it's no longer my responsibility and I can't make any guarantees. It could happen," he said.

"It's not my business to follow up. I promise and I can do. And I already promised and I did during the invasion of Gaza. At that time everybody asked me to go to a third intifada, but I prevented anybody from doing it."

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Central Council last week extended the mandate for the Western-backed Abbas, whose term as the Palestinian Authority chief expired in early 2009.12.23

The move drew sharp criticism from the Islamic Hamas movement, which called the decision illegal and a "political bribe to cover up for the fact that Abbas' term in office expired a long time ago."

The PLO's Central Council also endorsed Abbas' earlier decision to call off the January 24 presidential and legislative elections due to a Hamas-called boycott of the vote in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas' popularity has dipped meaningfully following senior Israeli military officials revealing the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority had called Israel to eliminate the rival Hamas and supported Tel Aviv forces with intelligence.

The three-week long Gaza massacre resulted in the deaths of at least 1,400 Palestinians, including many civilians, in the Gaza Strip and left thousands more injured.

In the interview, Abbas denied reports that US intelligence is working closely with PA security forces who torture detainees, but acknowledged that Americans are training Fatah forces.

The UK daily Guardian last Thursday quoted Western officials as saying that Palestinian security agents have been torturing supporters of the Hamas movement in their custody in the West Bank in cooperation with the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Qureshi: Pakistan will not tolerate US incursions

Islamabad has said it will neither accept US-led operations on its soil nor extended CIA-operated drone attacks inside its territories.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi made the remarks during a briefing with lawmakers in Islamabad on Tuesday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

"We strongly believe that drone attacks were counterproductive and unhelpful in our joint efforts towards winning hearts and minds, which is essential to succeed against violent extremism", Qureshi said.

The use of CIA-operated drones has increased since Barack Obama became US president. The Nobel Peace Laureate has repeatedly vowed to expand the controversial strikes that have raised anti-US sentiments across Pakistan.

Pakistani officials have opposed the expansion of drone attacks in the country's tribal areas, as well as strikes on Balochistan, where the US claims Taliban leaders are hiding.

The developments come after US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said on Tuesday that the United States has members of its intelligence services in Pakistan, but it has no troops.

A former NATO officer earlier told the Guardian that American Special Forces conducted multiple illegal raids into Pakistan's tribal areas, which were never declared to the Pakistani government.

On Sunday, thousands of demonstrators in Rawalpindi demanded that the Pakistani government keep a strict eye on Blackwater/Xe and other US security entities operating in the country.

Meshaal: Egypt's wall equals war on Gaza

The head of Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, says the construction of an enormous metal barrier by Egypt equals a new war against Gazans.

In a statement televised by Al-Quds satellite channel, Meshaal echoed remarks made by United Nations Relief and Works Agency Commissioner-General Karen Abu Zaid, describing the wall as more dangerous than the Bar Lev Line.

Israel built the Bar Lev Line along the eastern coast of the Suez Canal after it captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Khaled Meshaal said “the victory of Gaza did not appeal to those who wagered on the defeat of the resistance and there is a desire to tighten the screws on the resistance which shows fortitude in the face of the occupation.”

The Damascus-based Hamas leader underlined that despite all these efforts resistance will continue in the coastal enclave .

In a related incident, hundreds of people gathered on the Palestinian side of Gaza's southern border with Egypt on Monday, protesting the underground barrier Egypt is building.

The demonstrators chanted slogans calling for a lift of an Israeli blockade imposed more than two years ago and urged Egypt to stop building the steel wall.

The wall would curb a network of underground tunnels the Palestinians use to bring in their basic necessities that Israel does not allow into Gaza markets.

Receiving full cooperation of the Egyptian authorities, Israel has long imposed a complete siege on the already impoverished Gaza Strip, causing a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian sliver.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege ever since Hamas resistance movement, which does not recognize Israel, won Parliamentary elections in 2007.

Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, a right to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.

Israel can't play military card against Iran: think tank

Israel's top strategic think tank has held a closed-door war game which showed that Israel will fail to push US President Barack Obama into a war with Iran.

The November 1 war game at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) showed that Israel will find itself diplomatically sidelined and militarily muzzled as the United States pursues a nuclear deal with Iran next year.

According to the scenario, Iran will keep enriching uranium, perhaps even winning the assent of the West.

“The Iranians came out feeling better than the Americans, as they were simply more determined to stick to their objectives,” said Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser who played Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the war game.

Reflecting Israel's relative isolation, Eiland and his team spent much of the simulation sequestered from the multilateral talks in the snug, three-storey INSS building.

“Our leverage over the Americans, when we could prise them away from the Iranians and Europeans and others, was limited,” Eiland told Reuters.

“Pretty much the only card we had to play was the military action card. And that's a faded card,” he added.

UN launches anti-malnutrition project in Afghanistan

Two United Nations agencies have launched an anti-malnutrition project in Afghanistan to feed thousands of mothers and children — some too weak to cry.

The World Food Program and UNICEF said in a recent report that the country is still comparable to the worst humanitarian crisis zones in Africa.

The UN agencies say Afghanistan has the world's second-highest child mortality rate and the highest maternal mortality rate.

Local aid workers employed by the UN agencies hope a high-protein diet distributed through a network of village clinics can help the long-suffering Afghans make it through the winter.

Hunger and insecurity have increased to an alarming level across Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

Iran's Jalili blasts powers for defying NPT

Iran's top nuclear negotiator has lashed out at world powers for violating the nuclear Non-Proliferating Treaty (NPT) by remaining in possession of atomic warheads.

"According to article VI of the NPT, nuclear powers must be disarmed and no country must be allowed to have atomic weapons," Saeed Jalili said in a meeting with Japanese nuclear experts in Tokyo on Tuesday.

"Nuclear weapons are completely illegitimate. So, in international relations countries must not be given supremacy based on their military atomic powers," he added.

Jalili said while world powers continue to violate the NPT, despite having signed the treaty more than four decades ago, Iran has stayed true to all the commitments it has made in connection with the NPT.

The senior diplomat is currently on a visit to Japan, a trip which includes tours of the city of Hiroshima and the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant — the largest peaceful nuclear facility in the world.

The Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has described the tours as an important part of Jalili's visits.

Hatoyama made the comment in a Tuesday meeting with Jalili, where he also touched upon Japan's expertise in providing nuclear power plant safety and building peaceful atomic facilities.

For his part, Jalili also pointed out that Tehran and Tokyo share a common perspective on nuclear disarmament.

"The campaign for disarmament and non-proliferation is one of the main areas where Tehran and Tokyo interact on the international scene," he said during the Tuesday meeting.

Afghan senator killed in police ambush

An Afghan senator has been mistakenly killed by the police when he drove through an ambush set for the Taliban in northern Afghanistan.

Mohammad Younus, was going home early morning on Wednesday when the incident occurred in Puli Khumri, capital of the Baghlan province.

Mohammad Younus, a member of Afghanistan's upper house of parliament representing Baghlan, failed to stop at a police checkpost. As a result the Afghan police opened fire, killing him and his driver.

"They continued to drive after being ordered by police to stop so the police opened fire," an Afghan interior ministry statement said.

"Unfortunately the senator and his driver were killed and a third person accompanying them was wounded," it said, adding that the ministry has opened an investigation.

The security situation in northern Afghanistan including Baghlan has considerably deteriorated over the past year.

Afghan sources had earlier blamed the Taliban for the attack.

Militant spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied on Wednesday any involvement in the assassination.

An explosion in the same region had killed six Afghan MPs two years ago.

Iran unveils new generation satellite in February

The Islamic Republic of Iran is to convey a new generation of the country's national satellite called Toloo early February.

"The new generation of Iran's national satellite called Toloo will be conveyed in the Ten-day Dawn this year," IRIB quoted Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying on Wednesday.

The minister further added that the satellite has been designed and built by Iranian scientists and experts at Iran's Electronics Industries Co. (Sa-Iran).

"Sa-Iran in Shiraz has managed to meet the country's needs in radar and defense capabilities," he went on to say.

"The great achievements made by Iran's defense ministry in the electronics field has both increased Iran's deterrent power and ended the monopoly of some countries in this complicated field," he further explained.

According to the minister, Iran's armed forces are able to identify the enemies' software and hardware movements with the use of their modern equipment.

Pakistani court orders 2 men's noses, ears to be cut off

A judge in Pakistan has ordered that two convicts should have their noses and ears cut off as punishment for doing the same to a young woman who refused to marry one of them.

A judge in Lahore handed down the sentences to two brothers on Monday in line with the law of qisas.

The brothers had abducted their 22-year-old female cousin at gunpoint in September after her father refused to let her marry one of them.

The mother of the young woman died of a heart attack after seeing what they had done to her daughter.

The law of qisas stipulates punishment equal to the crime unless the culprit is pardoned by the victim's family.

Before the sentence is carried out, the high court must confirm it and a certified doctor must also determine whether or not they can survive the punishment.

The court also sentenced the pair to life in prison.

In addition, they were ordered to pay 700,000 rupees ($8,300) as compensation to the young woman.

Charity convoy enters Jordan en route to Gaza

Tue, 22 Dec 2009

Amman - A humanitarian convoy containing 210 trucks laden with basic food items and medical supplies destined for the Gaza Strip arrived in Jordan on Tuesday. The convoy, known as "Viva Palestina," was welcomed by the Secretary General of the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Authority Ahmad Amyan who represented Prime Minister Samir Rifai.

Also welcoming the convoy were scores of Jordanian politicians, activists and unionists, led by Abdullah Obeidat, president of the Professional Associations Council.

The convoy, led by British lawmaker George Galloway, left London on December 3 and is scheduled to enter the Gaza Strip on December 27 to mark the first anniversary of the Israeli attack on the besieged Palestinian territory that left over 1,300 Palestinians dead and about 5,000 injured.

Galloway told reporters at the Jordanian-Syria border that he was accompanied by 450 activists, including 30 Americans, 150 Turks and a number of Europeans.

The convoy would spend two days in Jordan before leaving the Red Sea port of Aqaba for the Gaza Strip, Galloway said, appealing to Egyptian authorities to facilitate the convoy's passage through the Rafah crossing.

Serbian government welcomes, opposition criticizes EU application

Belgrade - Serbian government officials on Tuesday welcomed Belgrade's application for membership in the European Union calling it a positive step towards the EU, while the opposition criticized it as a "marketing move." Vice Prime Minister and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic welcomed the application saying that Serbian citizens "deserved to enter the EU" and that the application for the membership was not a gift from Europe but the result of hard work.

"When Serbia enters the EU it will not be a gift from Europe but something Serbian citizens deserved," Dacic said.

The application "means that Serbia will have to work hard to bring its standards into compliance with the EU's and to accept the European values," Nada Kolundzija from the ruling Democratic Party told reporters in the parliament.

Dragan Todorovic from the opposition Serbian Radical Party however called the application a "marketing move from which the citizens will have no use."

"The fact is that Serbia will enter the EU in 2016 or 2017. What happened today is deceiving the citizens to make the membership in the EU look closer," Todorovic said.

Serbian President Boris Tadic on Tuesday handed the membership application to Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden, current holder of the rotating EU presidency.

UN expert seeks access to Uighur minority in China

New York - A United Nations expert on minority issues on Tuesday called on China to let her carry out a comprehensive and independent assessment of Xinjiang province's tensions between Han Chinese and the Uighur Muslim minority. "A thorough analysis of the events that took place must go to the heart of ethnic tensions in the region that underlie the terrible tragedy and appalling loss of life experienced by both communities," Gay McDougall said.

McDougall first requested to visit Xinjiang province after ethnic clashes erupted in the region in July, but Beijing did not reply. She is an independent expert on minority issues, appointed to implement the UN Declaration on Minorities.

She said from her Geneva office that unless the cause of the violence in July, in which dozens of Uighur people died in clashes with Han ethnics, is studied and understood in a transparent manner, the situation may drive the two communities farther apart.

The Chinese government executed last month nine Uighurs for their role in the July violence. Several other Uighurs were sentenced to death this month by China for the July clashes.

The UN rapporteur on torture in Geneva, Manfred Novak, raised grave concern on Tuesday about Cambodia's decision to deport 22 Uighurs to China, who had requested asylum in Cambodia.

Novak said in a statement that the Cambodian government had deliberately prevented an objective determination of the refugee status of the Uighurs. He said the Uighurs risk torture and death if they are sent back to China.

"I am calling on the Chinese authorities to treat the 22 persons humanely upon return in accordance with international standards, to grant access to them in case they are detained and to afford them due process guarantees, if charged with criminal offenses," Novak said.

2010 is United Nations year of Millennium Development Goals

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon decided Tuesday to call 2010 the year of Millennium Development Goals, which will review progress to achieve a set of eight programs by 2015. The goals were set by the UN General Assembly in 2000, including halving extreme poverty, universal education for children, ending child and maternal mortality and stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The assembly is planning meetings in 2010 to review progress made so far by governments and whether the goals can be reached in 2015.

"Coming amid mixed progress towards the goals and new crises that threaten the global effort to halve extreme poverty, the summit (in 2010) will be a crucially important opportunity to redouble our efforts to meet the goals by the agreed deadline of 2015," Ban said.

Ban called on government leaders to attend the Millennium Development Goals Summit and "engage fully in ensuring a successful, practical, action-oriented outcome that delivers results for the billions of people struggling to meet their basic needs and to live in dignity and peace."

More Malaysians Join "Viva Palestina Convoy" To Gaza

December 22, 2009

From Kuzaimah Idris

DAMASCUS, Dec 22 (Bernama) -- Two more members of the Malaysian Perdana Global Peace Organization, PGPO and four Bernama TV crew joined the 'Viva Palestina Convoy' on Tuesday as it continues its 2,000-mile journey to Gaza to distribute humanitarian aid.

The PGPO members are Mathias Chang and Shamsul Akmar Musa Kamal, while the Bernama TV crew are journalist Kuzaimah Idris, Assistant Producer Azmawati Azmi, presenter Masrenny Waty Che Masri, and cameraman Mohd Shafiee Abdullah.

The six arrived in Damascus from Kuala Lumpur on Dec 18 to join the final leg journey of the convoy from here with 144 trucks, vans and ambulances loaded with more than US$1 million worth of relief supplies.

Two members of the PGPO, Juana Jaafar and Ram Karthigasu had earlier joined the convoy which embarked on its journey in London on Dec 6, traveling through several towns and cities in various countries.

PGPO is among the participants of dozens of institutions and associations acting in solidarity with Palestinians and in rejection of the siege on Gaza.

The convoy of 416 volunteers from Malaysia, the United States, and United Kingdom will make a six-day journey from here to Amman and Aqabah in Jordan and Nuweiba and border Rafa in Egypt.

According to the Head of Convoy in charge of logistics, Amer Nazir, relief materials as part of the humanitarian package for the Palestinians include medical equipment, food, babies' food and winter clothing.

He said the Palestinians in Gaza were suffering from shortages of clean water, fresh food and medical supplies.

"As far as medical aid, we've got a whole range of medical supplies from syringes, dialysis machines, heart transplant machines, wheelchairs, walking sticks, bandages, from the smallest things to the biggest machines, we have with us," he said.

Amer, a volunteer himself, said the convoy consisted of people from all nations including Malaysia, US, UK, France, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, New Zealand and Australia with diverse background.

"It's a whole wide range of people who work for charity. There are people who have left their jobs to come here, there are people of professional background who see this as the only way they can express how they feel about the issues, there are people who are just normal family men, taxi drivers who left their families and headed out to Gaza," he told Bernama.

Amer said material support for the convoy had been overwhelming so far and there was no shortage of volunteers willing to make the journey.

The Viva Palestina, the British-based charity, is on a mission to provide humanitarian aid for civilians trapped in war-torn Gaza.

Meanwhile, 70-year-old British, Sylvia Wall flew all the way from England to Damascus to join in the convoy in its final leg to Gaza, via Rafa.

She was unable to join the convoy from London as she was not fit to travel 3,000 miles to Syria due to her age and physical condition.

Wall shared her spirit to show solidarity to the Palestinians, related her experience and cause to the Palestinians.

She hoped the huge international convoy to Gaza would signal a strong message that the world communities demanded the Israelis regime to open the Gazans' lifeline to the outside world.

Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, leaving the Palestinians in dire need of food, medicines, clothing and other basic needs.

"Because of the injustice to the Palestinians has been as long as I've lived, I'm 70 years old and for 60 years now, the Palestinians have been treated dreadfully, that word can't explain. I am so angry.

"I have many Palestinian friends in England, in Cyprus. They are lovely people, you know. They are not what the west portrays them as terrorists, in England it's very bad, every time they say the word Palestinian, it is almost always followed by the word terrorist and it's not so, not at all", she said.

Wall, a volunteer, has been involved in the Palestinian cause all her adult life.

She was in Greece right after the Gaza war and dedicated herself to providing help and support to a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who lost his leg during the war.

"I will travel to Jordan and Egypt through the Nile desert along the coast, the coastal roads about 40 kilometers to Rafah and hopefully, InsyaAllah we will go to Gaza".

For the record, each person traveling on the convoy is a self-financed volunteer.

On Dec 27 last year, Israel began a wave of air strikes on the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of stopping the rocket attacks from and arms smuggling into the territory.

Israeli forces killed over 1,400 Palestinians in three weeks and created widespread destruction of essential infrastructure including homes, schools, hospitals and power plants.

Israel had since banned all but humanitarian relief from entering into Gaza, including building materials.