Moroccan seizes on Sarkozy holiday for 'justice'

(PressTV) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's holiday in Morocco has impelled the father of a young man who died in French police custody to plea for the reopening the 17-year-old case.

The letter was sent Monday by Mohammed Tais to Sarkozy and Morocco's King Mohammed VI, AFP reported. In the letter, Tais calls for a fresh probe and more transparency in the case.

Tais wishes that the "truth about the circumstances surrounding my son's death be known."

Pascal Tais, a suspected drug addict of Moroccan extraction, was found dead in his holding cell in April, 1993 in a police station in southwest France.

An autopsy at the time ruled that a ruptured spleen and subsequent internal bleeding were the causes of death, noting hat Pascal had suffered from fractured ribs, a perforated lung and a head injury.

Pascal had been arrested following a road accident in Arcachon that led to a brawl. He reportedly refused treatment and became violent. Police officers then struck him with batons on the hands, legs and chest in an attempt to calm him down and locked him up over night.

Several French courts have refused to allow new investigations into whether French police, who admittedly used force to subdue Pascal, were responsible for his death.

The European Court of Human Rights said in 2006 that there should be a new probe.

Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, who have been vacationing in Morocco for the past three days are due to return to Paris on December 31.

Iran police announces names of unrest victims

The Iranian police department on Monday announced the name of those confirmed killed during clashes in Sunday's unrest in the capital.

According to a statement published on the police department website, "eight people had died in suspicious circumstances."

The Iranian police department identified those confirmed dead during the unrest as follows:

1. Amir Arshadi, 30 years old, killed in unknown circumstances.
2. Shahram Faraji, 30 years old, killed in unknown circumstances.
3. Mehdi Farhadirad, 34 years old, shot in the face by 25 shotgun pellets.
4. Seyyed Ali Mousavi Habibi, shot to death.
5. Jahanbakht Pazouki, 50 years old, killed in unknown circumstances.
6. Mohammad-Ali Rasekhinia, 40 years old, shot by a hunting rifle.
7. Unidentified man, 31 years old, stabbed to death.
8. Unidentified woman, 43 years old, either fell to her death or was hit by a car.

Police has also described the death of Seyyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of Mir-Hossein Mousavi as "suspicious," saying that investigations into his "assassination" are underway.

Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said earlier that the force under his command had not used violence against protesters, denying any involvement in the killings.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114841§ionid=351020101.

Ten Afghan civilians killed in NATO airstrikes

Ten civilians including eight school children have been killed in the latest episode of imprecise NATO airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan.

"Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by international forces in Kunar province... 10 civilians, eight of them school students have been killed," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said Monday.

Karzai has strongly condemned the killings in the airstrikes and appointed a delegation to investigate the event.

NATO military in Kabul said they were looking into the incident, but declined to give further details.

Kunar representative in the parliament walked out of an important session debating appointments to Karzai's new cabinet in protest at the civilian casualties.

The border regions of Kunar have long been volatile as Taliban fighters are said to cross the porous border from Pakistan to fight Western troops and Afghan government forces.

The imprecise operations carried out by the 100,000-plus foreign forces in Afghanistan have been criticized for their potential in claiming civilian casualties.

In one of the worst such cases, more than 140 people, including at least 30 civilians, were killed or wounded in Kunduz Province on September 4.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114845§ionid=351020403.

Iraq prepares for parliamentary polls

Sunni Arabs look to increase their say via polls after boycotting last general election in 2005.

BAGHDAD - Iraq prepares for the second general election since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

Around 115,000 US soldiers are still stationed in Iraq, though that figure is set to drop to 50,000 by the end of August as part of a deal between Baghdad and Washington that calls for a full American withdrawal by the end of 2011.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 7 but concerns remain that instability could increase in 2010 as political parties wrangle over the formation of a new government.

Attacks have, however, declined nationwide.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is bidding to retain his post following the March legislative polls, which had to be delayed because of protracted negotiations over a law governing the election, though he will have to do so without his former Shiite allies, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, from whom he broke away.

Sunni Arabs will also look to increase their say via the polls after boycotting the last general election in 2005.

The vote comes as Iraq struggles to rebuild and reopen its economy, which has been crippled by decades of war and sanctions.

Baghdad took its initial steps along that road in 2009, inviting companies to large investment conferences in London and Washington, though neither produced any deals.

The country, which has the third-largest set of oil reserves in the world, also auctioned off 10 oil fields to foreign energy firms.

The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 is viewed by critics as an 'act of aggression' that violated international law.

Subsequent US occupation policies caused the country to descend into almost total chaos, bordering on civil war.

An estimated 1.3 million Iraqis have been killed in Iraq as a direct result of the invasion, while millions more have fled the country.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=36385.

Israel: Jewish immigration up 17 pct in 2009

Government says it is first rise in immigration in decade as nearly half of immigrants come from Soviet states.

JERUSALEM - Jewish immigration to Israel increased in 2009 by 17 percent compared to the previous year, the first rise in a decade, the government said on Sunday.

According to figures presented by the Jewish Agency, the government body in charge of immigration, 16,244 people immigrated to Israel in 2009, whereas 13,869 had moved to the Jewish state the previous year.

"We've recorded this year, for the first time in ten years, an increase in the number of immigrants," the agency's chairman Nathan Sharansky told reporters.

Nearly half of the immigrants arrived from former Soviet states, with the rest came mostly from North and South America and Europe.

Jewish Agency figures also showed that 331 Jews arrived in 2009 from Muslim states, including Turkey, Morocco and Yemen.

More than three million Jews have immigrated to Israel since its creation in 1948 -- including one million from former Soviet states since 1990 -- under the Law of Return, which offers citizenship and benefits to Jews from anywhere in the world.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=36390.

Welcome to Gaza's Killing Fields where Palestinian Children live

by Wahida C. Valiante

December 26, 2009

So much has appeared in the international press and on the Internet that it would seem to be an exercise in redundancy to offer a perspective on the tragedy that befell the people of Gaza last year, especially the Gazan children. A devastating and colossal tragedy it certainly was; the Israeli attacks by sea, air and land were more brutal than anything the inhabitants of Gaza had ever endured previously.

The pictures that flooded television screens around the world showed a gruesome parade of young corpses and wounded children being loaded into and unloaded from the trunks of private cars that transported them to the only hospital in Gaza worthy of being called a hospital. People of conscience all over the world found these images horrifyingly explicit and they brought home to us both the magnitude of the death and destruction unleashed by Israel’s brutal assault against helpless and innocent Gazan children who had nowhere to run or hide. This latest orgy of air strikes and armed incursions by Israeli military forces turned the besieged and starved Strip into an unbearable inferno - literally into the Killing Fields of Gaza.

In November 2000, the Globe and Mail published my article "Who are the victims here?" in which I described the living conditions of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip during my stay in the occupied territories in 1999:

"I recently observed the effects of the 'peace process’ when I visited the children of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Gaza, Rafah and East Jerusalem. These children know first-hand the effects of military and economic oppression. There is hardly a family that has not experienced torture, imprisonment or economic hardship.

"Most of these children live in refugee camps in houses with corrugated roofs and cramped living spaces. Often, they do not have running water. The children lack adequate schools, health-care facilities, hospitals, social services, public parks, swimming pools, or recreation facilities. In the camps, the streets are their playgrounds, often with open sewers and waste flowing freely. They have seen no other reality."

It is sad that what seems so obvious to rest of the world escapes the minds of apologists for Israeli state terror.

Children make up more than half of crowded Gaza’s 1.4 million people and are the most defenseless victims of Israeli siege of Gaza. Israel's harsh security measures come at an enormous humanitarian cost and the stark reality is that under Israeli occupation, an entire generation of Palestinian children and youth have suffered a litany of horrific, traumatizing events for thirty years. In addition to almost-daily home demolitions, they have witnessed intimidation, humiliation, fear, insecurity, poverty, closures, and the menacing presence of armed settlers.

With all their healthy socializing structures destroyed by the Israeli military, these children have never known peace or security, or the freedom to roam the streets and playgrounds. Gaza’s children, like their parents, continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from living in peace and security, going to school, or doing things that make up the daily fabric of most people's existence. Their parents have not known peace and freedom either, and cannot even dream about a safe and productive future for their children, and the children to come after them.

Ever since the moribund Oslo peace accord, they have been living in large prison camps. Now, locked up and besieged in Gaza by an Israeli army that happens to be one of the most powerful in the world, these children are under attack in their own land, in their own homes, and are being subjected to economic, psychological, physical and emotional terror from the air, sea and ground. Indeed all of Gaza has become a danger zone where children’s homes have been demolished, bombed, and shelled, killing children inside. Other children have been killed while riding in cars with their parents, while playing in the streets, while walking to school, visiting friends, and even while taking refuge in a UN Shelter.

Imagine the psychological and emotional terror experienced by children who grow up knowing that their parents cannot protect them from helicopter gunships, ground missiles, or snipers’ bullets. These children have no escape routes, no options, because the Israeli army and invading settlers are the ones who determine which child, which family, will be shot; which houses and trees will be bulldozed and uprooted; which street or alleyway will be hit by the sharpshooters. Their basic human rights are being trampled on by deliberate policies of the Israeli government whose obscene actions have denied these innocent children education, safety, health, economic well-being and all the amenities of normal life.

This nightmare of the children of Gaza is best described in the pages of Franz Kafka:

Lawrence Davidson in Counter Punch writes that, "In Kafka’s world, the prevailing theme is uncertainty and unpredictability. There are no set rules for behavior and the orders given by authorities seem arbitrary and even contradictory. You do not know what the laws are. The 'authorities’ in Kafka’s work sit in their fortresses and periodically intrude upon the lives of the confused and apparently helpless protagonists."

Similarly, nothing is predictable for Palestinians. Israel’s rules can change from one day to the next without notice or explanation. They live in an arbitrary environment, continuously adapting to circumstances they cannot influence and which increasingly reduce the range of their possibilities. No one really knows how many Palestinian children will continue to re- experience the horrors of conflict psychologically and emotionally throughout their lives.

Yet, as the world witnessed the organized, ruthless killing and maiming of these Palestinian children, there was only deafening silence from our "humane" Canadian government. If Prime Minister Harper so greatly respects the dignity of human life as he stated during his recent visit to China he would have asked Israel long ago to cease its murderous onslaught on the children of Gaza.

During my stay in the occupied territories, I was often asked by Palestinians why the world ignored their sufferings and their right to self-determination. I had no answer then. But today I can tell them that they are not alone; the world is outraged at what it witnessed in Gaza and for the "first time since the establishment of the State of Israel, an international campaign calling for sanctions against Israel for its innumerous violations of International Law has been very successful in drawing huge public attention and initiating a great number of mobilizations and initiatives around the world." (Michel Warschawski)

No amount of "anti-Semitic" or "self-hating" labels pasted on people of conscience who criticize the Israeli occupation can stifle that debate; it is a debate now spreading throughout the world, focusing unavoidable scrutiny on Israel and its brutal occupation of Palestinian territories.

When the dust settles, history will record that the atrocities repeatedly committed by Israel against defenseless Palestinian children in Gaza was a turning-point in the long ordeal of Palestine’s occupation. Things can never be the same again in Palestine because the world knows more of the truth about Israel’s’ cruel agenda than ever before.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61480&s2=27.

The Joys of Airstrikes and Anonymity

Glenn Greenwald

December 26, 2009

Each time the U.S. bombs a new location in the Muslim world, the same pattern emerges. First, officials from the U.S. or allied governments run to their favorite media outlet to claim -- anonymously -- that some big, bad, notorious, "top" Al Qaeda leader "may have been" or "likely was" killed in the strike, and this constitutes a "stinging" or "devastating" blow against the Terrorist group. These compliant media outlets then sensationalistically trumpet that claim as the dominant theme of their "reporting" on the attack, drowning out every other issue.

As a result, and by design, there is never any debate or discussion over the propriety or wisdom of these strikes. After all, what sane, rational, Serious person would possibly question a bombing raid or missile strike that "likely" killed a murderous, top Al Qaeda fighter and struck a "devastating blow" to that group's operationg abilities? Having the story shaped this way also ensures that there is virtually no attention paid to the resulting civilian casualties (i.e., the slaughter of innocent people); most Americans, especially journalists, have been trained to ignore such deaths as nothing more than justifiable "collateral damage," especially when a murderous, top Al Qaeda fighter was killed by the bombs (besides, as Alan Dershowitz once explained, "civilians" in close enough proximity to a Top Terrorist themselves may very well bear some degree of culpability). The adolescent We-Got-the-Bad-Guy! headline also ensures there is no attention paid to the radicalizing effect of these civilian deaths and our attacks for that country and in the region.

Yet over and over and over, it turns out that these anonymous government assertions -- trumpeted by our mindless media -- are completely false. The Big Bad Guy allegedly killed in the strike ends up nowhere near the bombs and missiles. Sometimes, the very same Big Bad Guy can be used to justify different strikes over the course of many years (we know we said we killed him four times before, but this time we're pretty sure we got him), or he can turn up alive when it's time to re-trumpet the Al Qaeda threat (we said before we killed him in that devastating airstrike, but actually he's alive and more dangerous than ever!!). Just like the "we killed 30 extremists" claim or the "we got Al Qaeda's Number 3" boast, this is propaganda in its purest form, disseminated jointly by the U.S. Government and American media, and it happens over and over, compelling a rational person to conclude that it's clearly intentional by both parties.

In the last week alone, this pattern just asserted itself -- twice -- with regard to the air strikes in Yemen. The first set of strikes, it was immediately leaked, was allegedly aimed at "the presumed leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Qaaim al-Raymi," yet it turned out he was not among the dozens of people killed, though "U.S. officials believe one of his top deputies [unnamed] may have been killed." Then, after a second set of strikes on Thursday, it was claimed that "a Yemeni air raid may have killed the top two leaders of al Qaeda's regional branch," and an American Muslim preacher linked to Nidal Hasan, "the man who shot dead 13 people at a U.S. army base [Anwar al-Awlaki] may also have died."

But while ABC News had identified "the presumed leader of al Qaeda in Yemen" as "Qaaim al-Raymi" when he was the target of last week's strikes, Reuters decided that the "top two leaders of al Qaeda's regional branch" were completely different people -- "Nasser al-Wahayshi, the Yemeni leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and his Saudi deputy, Saeed al-Shehri" -- and then excitedly announced that they "may have been killed" by this week's air strikes. Whoever we claim we kill is the "key leader of Al Qaeda's operations"-- and it can change from day to day. And now, it turns out,, the "radical cleric" who reportedly spoke at length with the accused Fort Hood shooter and thus packs the most emotional punch for Americans is not dead at all, but "is alive and well following reports he may have been killed in a Yemeni airstrike against suspected al-Qaida hideouts."

Just watch how this obvious propaganda tactic works again and again:

Last week's Yemen strike - ABC News, December 18, 2009:

The presumed leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Qaaim al-Raymi, has frequently appeared on internet videos, . . . Qaaim al-Raymi was considered a prime target of the attack Thursday but was reported to have escaped the attack. However, U.S. officials believe one of his top deputies may have been killed.

This week's air strikes in Yemen, Reuters, December 24, 2009:

A Yemeni air raid may have killed the top two leaders of al Qaeda's regional branch on Thursday, and an American Muslim preacher linked to the man who shot dead 13 people at a U.S. army base may also have died, a Yemeni security official said. Nasser al-Wahayshi, the Yemeni leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and his Saudi deputy, Saeed al-Shehri, were believed to be among more than 30 militants killed in the dawn operation in the eastern province of Shabwa, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki may also have died in the air strike which targeted a meeting of militants planning attacks on Yemeni and foreign oil and economic targets, he said. If all the deaths are confirmed, the air strike would appear to have struck a severe blow against AQAP, seen as the most dangerous regional offshoot of Osama bin Laden's network.

False - Associated Press, December 25, 2009:

A U.S.-born radical cleric is alive and well following reports he may have been killed in a Yemeni airstrike against suspected al-Qaida hideouts . . .

In addition to al-Awlaki, the top leader of al-Qaida's branch in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Naser Abdel-Karim al-Wahishi, and his deputy Saeed al-Shihri were also believed to be at the meeting, Yemen's Supreme Security Committee said. But Yemeni officials still have no access to the area, which is controlled by armed gunmen and supporters of al-Qaida, and could not confirm for certain who was killed in the attack.

______________

CNN - January, 2006 U.S. airstrike in Pakistan:

Ayman al-Zawahiri -- Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in the al Qaeda terrorist network -- was the target of a CIA airstrike Friday in a remote Pakistani village and may have been among those killed, knowledgeable U.S. sources told CNN. . . . the sources said there was intelligence suggesting he was in one of the buildings hit during the strike.

False - Fox News, January 31, 2006 - "Zawahiri, in New Videotape, Says He Survived Airstrike":

Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a videotape aired Monday that President Bush was a "butcher" and a "failure" because of a deadly U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeting the bin Laden deputy, and he threatened a new attack on the United States. A U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity in compliance with office policy, said there was no reason to doubt the authenticity of the tape.

_____________

CBS News, July, 2008 U.S. airstrike in Pakistan:

Ayman al-Zawahiri - the second most powerful leader in al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden's No. 2 - may be critically wounded and possibly dead, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports exclusively. . . . CBS News has obtained a copy of an intercepted letter from sources in Pakistan, which urgently requests a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. . . . The letter is dated July 29 - one day after a U.S. air strike that killed al Qaeda weapons expert Abu Khabab al-Masri, and five other Arabs in South Waziristan. . . . a counter-intelligence expert and other U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News that the U.S. is looking into reports that al-Zawahiri is dead.

False - NY Daily News, April 30, 2009 - "Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri calls the shots, says State Department":

Al Qaeda's No. 2 thug has "emerged" as its operational leader after seven years on the run with the same $25 million bounty on his head as Osama Bin Laden. Despite years of Bush administration claims that Ayman al-Zawahiri - an Egyptian doctor turned Bin Laden deputy - was on the lam with his boss and unable to exert control, the opposite is now true, a State Department report said Thursday. . . ."Although Bin Laden remains the group's ideological figurehead, Zawahiri has emerged as Al Qaeda's strategic and operational planner," the report added.

________________

January, 2006 missile strike in Pakistan, New York Times:

Two senior members of Al Qaeda and the son-in-law of its No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were among those killed in the American airstrikes in remote northeastern Pakistan last week, two Pakistani officials said here on Wednesday. . . .If any or all were indeed killed, it would be a stinging blow to Al Qaeda's operations, said the American officials, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized by their agencies to speak for attribution. . . . The airstrikes, which killed 18 civilians, among them women and children, have caused anger across the country . . . At least one of the men believed by the Pakistani officials to have been killed, an Egyptian known here as Abu Khabab al-Masri, is on the United States' most-wanted list with a $5 million reward for help in his capture. His real name is Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, 52, who according to the United States government Web site rewardsforjustice.net, was an expert in explosives and poisons. . . . The target of the raid, American officials have said, was Al Qaeda's No. 2, Mr. Zawahiri, but they have acknowledged that he was not killed in the attack and Pakistani officials say that Mr. Zawahiri failed to show up for the dinner that night.

January, 2006 missile strike in Pakistan, ABC News:

ABC News has learned that Pakistani officials now believe that al Qaeda's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert was one of the men killed in last week's U.S. missile attack in eastern Pakistan. Midhat Mursi, 52, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, was identified by Pakistani authorities as one of four known major al Qaeda leaders present at an apparent terror summit in the village of Damadola early last Friday morning.

False -- LA Times, February 3, 2008:

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials now believe that the Egyptian, Abu Khabab Masri, is alive and well -- and in charge of resurrecting Al Qaeda's program to develop or obtain weapons of mass destruction.

____________

January, 2006 airstrike in Pakistan, New York Times:

Another Egyptian, known by the alias Abu Ubayda al-Misri, was also believed killed, the Pakistani officials said. He was the chief of insurgent operations in the southern Afghan province of Kunar, which borders Bajaur in Pakistan, the area where the airstrikes occurred, according to one of the Pakistani officials.

False - Fox News, April 9, 2008:

Abu Ubaida al-Masri, one of Al Qaeda's top operatives and the mastermind behind a plot to use liquid explosives to blow British passenger jets out of the sky, is dead, a U.S. official confirmed to FOX News Wednesday. The unidentified official said it is believed that al-Masri died of natural causes, possibly hepatitis, in Pakistan, and are staying away from a report that he was killed in a January CIA predator strike.

______________

Summer, 2008 Predator strikes in Pakistan, Telegraph - "Al-Qa'eda's American-born propaganda chief may have died in predator attack":

Months of attacks by unmanned US predator aircraft have caused carnage among the middle ranks of terrorist leaders in the lawless lands along the border with Afghanistan . . . Their victims have included experienced Arab leaders and, it is now thought, Adam Gadahn, a former heavy-metal fan and so-called "killer computer nerd" originally from California. Nothing has been heard from him for months, leading intelligence experts to conclude that he may be dead.

False -- LA Times, June 14, 2009:

Adam Gadahn, a Southern California-raised man self-described as American Al Qaeda has released a new video in which he talks about his Jewish ancestry.

______________

July, 2009 airstrike in Pakistan, Fox News:

U.S. officials believe Usama bin Laden's son, Saad bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan. Sources confirmed to FOX News late Wednesday that officials believe the younger bin Laden was killed by hellfire missiles from a U.S. Predator drone strike earlier this year.

Highly questionable - Middle East News:

A close friend of Osama bin Laden told Al Arabiya that he thought the al-Qaeda mastermind’s son was probably still alive casting doubt on reports by American media that he was killed in Pakistan. Yemeni national Rashad Saied, who stayed with bin Laden in Afghanistan before the September 11, 2001 attacks, said there is no proof to U.S. media reports last week that Saad bin Laden was killed in an American airstrike on Pakistan earlier this year. "If Saad had been killed, al-Qaeda would have announced that," Saied told Al Arabiya. "They announced the death of many key figures in the organization before. It is considered a source of pride for them."

New York Times, December 23, 2009:

A teenage daughter of Osama bin Laden, who has lived with at least five of her siblings in a guarded compound in Iran since 2001, took refuge last month in the Saudi Embassy in Tehran . . . The status of another son, Saad, remained uncertain. American officials said last summer that they believed that Saad bin Laden had traveled from Iran to Pakistan and had been killed by an American missile fired from a drone. Omar and Zaina bin Laden said Saad was still in the Tehran compound when the missile attack was said to have occurred, but they said that they did not know where he was now or whether he was still alive.

_____________

I could literally spend the rest of the day chronicling events very similar to these. A few caveats are in order. It's not surprising that facts are sometimes difficult to obtain in the immediate aftermath of a strike, particularly in remote areas such as Western Pakistan and Yemen. Sometimes, these air strikes do actually result in the death of the specific targets alleged to lead various Islamic radical groups.

But far more often, these boasting claims regarding a controversial U.S. air attack or missile strike turn out to be completely false. It's painfully obvious that these assertions are made to overwhelm, distort and suppress any discussions of the actual effects of the attack -- who the strike really killed, whether it was justified, legal or wise, whether we should continue to drop bombs in more and more Muslim countries. Yet no matter how many times these claims prove to be false, American media outlets not only dutifully and mindlessly print them without challenge or skepticism, but also allow these claims to dictate their headlines and the overwhelming focus of their "reporting" on the attacks (U.S. Air Strike Said to Kill Top Al Qaeda Leaders). As a result, Americans are innundated with false claims about things that never actually happened -- pure myths and falsehoods -- while the actual consequences of our actions (the corpses of innocent Muslim men, women and children being pulled from the rubble) are widely disseminated in the Muslim world, yet are barely mentioned by our media. And then we walk around, confounded and confused, about how there could be such a grave disparity in perception among our rational, free and well-informed selves versus those irrational, mislead, paranoid, and primitive Muslims.

Because it's all done under the corrupt cover of anonymity, there's never any accountability (reporters will simply say that they printed this because their government sources whispered it in their ears -- so what choice did they have? -- and they'll keep the government officials' identity concealed to ensure they can never be questioned). The whole process is blatantly designed not to convey what happened, but to obscure what happened and to prevent any discussion of its consequences.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61484&s2=27.

Lest We Forget: Gaza Genocide 27.12.2008 – 18.01.2009

Reham Alhelsi

December 26, 2009

On 27.12.2008, Israel launched a premeditated wide-scale terrorist attack on the besieged, unarmed civilian population of Gaza. During this latest Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza 1419 Palestinians were killed by the IOF, including: 326 children, 111 women, 367 students, at least 15 teachers, 16 medical personnel, 21 farmers, 2 fishermen and 92 labourers. Over 5300 Palestinians were injured by the IOF attacks, including 600 who suffered permanent disability and 221 required amputations. Of the 1419 victims, 140 were killed by Israeli artillery shelling, "473 Palestinians were killed by missiles from Israeli fighter jets, 519 from unmanned drones, 92 from Israeli military helicopters, 7 from Israel warships." 92 Palestinians were shot dead by IOF soldiers, including 27 children. Of those shot dead "53 were shot exclusively in the upper body, 10 in the lower body, and the rest in both the upper and lower body." According to doctors present: "the most horrific war injuries in men, women, and children of all ages in numbers too large to comprehend. The wounded, dying, and dead have streamed into the overcrowded hospital in endless convoys of ambulances and private cars, and wrapped in blankets in the caring arms of others. The endless and intense bombardment from Israeli air, ground, and naval forces have missed no targets, not even hospitals."

Medical personnel were shot at while trying to save lives. At least 16 Palestinian medical personnel were killed by the IOF while on duty, and 258 Palestinians died because the IOF obstructed their medical treatment. Whole neighborhoods were declared closed military zones to which ambulances had no access, and paramedics were denied access despite receiving calls for help from residents there. According to the testimony of Kahlid Abu Sa’ada registered by PCHR: "I was driving my ambulance in Beit Lahia…. when the Israelis shelled us….I was with two paramedics. The Israeli shells killed one of them." The other was badly injured. He’s now paralyzed. "A few days ago the Israelis bombed us" while we were trying to rescue a boy. The explosion "ripped (his) head off." The Israelis killed other ambulance drivers and paramedics by bombing and shelling them. Dr. Eysa Saleh was on duty with the Medical Security Services when a shell blew his head off in Jabaliya."

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) published the names of the Palestinian martyrs killed by the Zionist entity during the genocide:

List of Gaza victims (http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/list.pdf)

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61488&s2=27.

Mubarak blows his big chance to behave decently

Stuart Littlewood

December 26, 2009

Gee, thanks President Mubarak... Thanks for ruining Christmas for so many.

But that’s par for the course in the cesspit of treachery that is the Middle East.

The human tragedy of Gaza just gets worse and worse. Nobody seriously believed the Viva Palestina convoy would get through unmolested; and so it came to pass… It is stranded at Aqaba, and its precious cargo is spoiling in the heat, because Mubarak’s henchmen will not allow it to enter Egypt through the port of Nuweiba.

The excuse, we hear, is that the road across the Sinai from Nuweiba to Rafah runs close to the border and the sight of 250 trucks and ambulances laden with food and medical supplies might distress the oh-so-sensitive Israelis. Some vehicles might cause "a big infiltration problem".

Surely Egypt is capable of providing an escort to ensure that no trucks leave the column and defect to Israel. Why would they wish to do so anyway when they have taken great trouble and gone many hundreds of extra miles especially to avoid Israel?

That’s not the only nonsensical thing about the situation. Fully 24 hours before Viva Palestina owned up to it, news reports were saying that Egypt’s foreign ministry had issued a statement announcing that "the Egyptian government welcomes the passage of the convoy into the Gaza Strip on December 27, on condition that it abides by the mechanisms in place for humanitarian aid convoys to the Palestinian people, including most importantly the entry of convoys through the port of El-Arish."

Local pressures being what they are, it might well make things awkward for President Mubarak if the convoy were to travel close to the border with Israel. But one would expect a powerful man like him to overcome any difficulties for human decency's sake and for the sake of his brothers and sisters imprisoned and bombarded by Israel.

Nevertheless the convoy organizers must have obtained prior permission for their route. Were they aware of the El-Arish stipulation? Although asked to be precise about what the Egyptian authorities told them, the organizers remain vague. This makes it difficult to explain to well-wishers, and particularly to waiting Gazans, why the convoy is kicking its heel in Aqaba and going nowhere.

Egypt, sadly, has failed miserably to honor its obligation under the Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA) treaty, in which it undertook to keep the Rafah crossing open.

Now, incredibly, this Arab country is actually collaborating with Israel and the US in the construction of an iron wall to hermetically seal the tiny enclave of Gaza and ensure its inhabitants suffocate to death – a project of unspeakable evil.

The convoy’s request for easy passage was Mubarak's big chance to show that he was not, after all, the cruel and unprincipled Zionist stooge that civilized people across the world had already consigned to the dustbin of history. It is not too late to make amends. But if he doesn’t act quickly he’ll blow it for everyone, including himself.

Stuart Littlewood
26 December 2009

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61490&s2=27.

Gaza: remembering the martyred #1

Eva Barlett, In Gaza

December 26, 2009

In Ezbet Beit Hanoun, family and friends of those martyred on 4 and 5 January during the Israeli massacre of Gaza gathered to honour their martyrs, one year later.

"The pain is still fresh, I still can’t get over my sons’ murders," said Sabbah Abd el Dayem, mother of two sons, both in their twenties, both gruesomely murdered by Israeli soldiers.

"Every time I think of them, every time I sit by their grave, I feel like I’m going to crumble. I was so happy with them," she said.

When I met the family just after the massacre, they shared their sorrow:

Jamal Abd al-Dayem, father of the young men, explained the events. "After my cousin Arafa was martyred on 4 January, we immediately opened mourning houses, with separate areas for men and women. The next day, at 9:30am the Israelis struck the mourning area where the men were. It was clearly a mourning house, on the road, open and visible. Immediately after the first strike, the Israelis hit the women’s mourning area." Two strikes within 1.5 minutes, he reported.

"When Arafa was martyred, my sons cried so much their eyes were red and swollen with grief. The next day they were martyred," the father said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Just like that, I lost two sons. One of them was newly married, his wife eight months pregnant."

Twenty-nine-year-old Said Abd al-Dayem died after one day in the hospital, succumbing to the fatal injuries of darts in his head. His brother, Nafez Abd al-Dayem, 23, was also struck in head by the darts and died immediately.

The surviving son, 25-year-old Nahez Abd al-Dayem, was hit by two darts in his abdomen, one in his chest, and another in his leg.

"I went to the mourning house to pay respects to my cousin, Arafa. When we arrived at the men’s mourning house, there was a sudden explosion and I felt pain in my chest. Very quickly after, there was a second strike. This second attack was more serious as people had rushed to the area to help the wounded. I looked up from the second shelling and saw that my cousins Arafat and Islam had been hit. They were lying on the ground, wounded."

Sixteen-year-old Islam Abd al-Dayem was struck in the neck and died slowly, in great agony, after three days in the hospital. Fifteen-year-old Arafat Abd al-Dayem died instantly.

When Nahez Abd al-Dayem regained consciousness in hospital, he learned of his two dead brothers and two dead cousins. The dart that lodged in his leg was surgically removed, but three darts remain in his chest and abdomen and will stay there, although Abd al-Dayem says they bother him. "When I move at night, I feel a lot of pain," he said. But an operation to search for them is too dangerous and could cause greater injury.

The dart shelling on the Abd al-Dayem and Abu Jerrad houses killed six and injured at least 25, including a 20-year-old nephew paralyzed from the neck down after darts severed his spinal cord. Darts which spread as far as 200 meters from the scene are still embedded in walls of houses...

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61486&s2=27.

No Chance President Obama's War In Afghanistan Will Succeed

Sherwood Ross

December 25, 2009

"There isn't the slightest possibility that the course laid out by Barack Obama in his Dec. 1 speech (at West Point) will halt or even slow the downward spiral toward defeat in Afghanistan," writes Thomas Johnson in the current "Foreign Policy" magazine. And for emphasis, he adds the word "None."

"The U.S. president and his advisers labored for three months and brought forth old wine in bigger bottles," Johnson goes on to write, noting, "The speech contained not one single new idea or approach, nor offered any hint of new thinking about a conflict that everyone now agrees the United States is losing."

Author Johnson is no armchair admiral. He is a professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., a man who has conducted his own on-site investigation in Afghanistan.

Also referring to the President’s West Point address, The Nation magazine editorialized that Obama failed to explain why his goal to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan "requires 100,000 troops at a cost of nearly $100 billion. By the military’s own calculation, there are at most 100 Al Qaeda operatives, mostly low-level, in Afghanistan, the leadership having fled to Pakistan years ago."

Even as the Afghan war bids to become the longest in U.S. history, "The Nation" adds:

"The undeniable fact is that eight years of US occupation and war have led to a growing insurgency, fueled by anger at one of the world’s most corrupt governments, run mostly by former and not-so-former warlords who were installed by the United States after 9/11. Many of these warlords are deeply involved in the opium trade, among them the brother of Hamid Karzai, the president, who was re-elected only through massive fraud."

Writing in the Miami Herald of Dec. 20th, Carl Hiaasen says that Johnson believes "Obama knows this war is unwinnable, and that the surge is meant to provide political cover in advance of a full U.S. withdrawal before the 2012 election."

Hiaasen adds, "Obama wouldn’t be the first U.S. president to let domestic political concerns affect his military moves abroad, but he certainly campaigned as a different kind of leader."

Does this mean Obama is escalating an unwinnable war for political considerations? Hendrik Hertzberg, writing in the December 14th New Yorker, thinks politics has a lot to do with it. An immediate withdrawal, he writes, would inflict "severe" political and diplomatic damage to Obama and trigger, among other things, "a probable Pentagon revolt." And the Pentagon has left no doubt about the right course. As General David Petraeus, who commands U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan forces, told The New York Times, "a sustained, substantial commitment" is required.

As the war drags on, the death toll mounts. Writing in the Dec. 21st issue of Foreign Policy, Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard, says by his conservative count, the war has claimed 30,000 lives. And the CIA’s drone warplane sorties authorized by Obama are boosting that toll.

Obama’s strategy is also spreading the war ever deeper into Pakistan. As Dan Pearson and Kathy Kelly report in the December "Catholic Worker," 3,000,000 people were uprooted by violence in the Swat Valley and neighboring districts and those who returned found "that their homes, crops and other means of survival had been damaged or destroyed."

They quote Dr. Aasim Saijad of Lahore University of Management Sciences as saying the attacks in Pakistan are only swelling the Taliban’s ranks. "The hundreds of thousands languishing in refugee camps talk of the mortar shells that have destroyed their homes and killed their relatives," Saijad said.

"They seethe with anger and warn the government that most Taliban fighters hail from the local population. The longer the war continues---and it has only just begun in this region---the better the chances that the Taliban will be able to recruit from the refugees," he said.

If Afghans are dying by the thousands and Pakistanis have become refugees by the millions to ensure Obama’s political survival, the U.S. has lost any vestige of moral authority. Is it thinkable to ask what if the purpose of the war is not "victory" but to keep the engines of the military-industrial complex humming? If so, it is not only primitive peoples’ who sacrificed the flower of their youth to ensure a good harvest.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61438&s2=26.

U.S.-Led World Community Fails

U.S.-Led World Community Fails
Palestinians on the Brink of Explosion
By NICOLA NASSER

December 25, 2009

"In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope," Palestinian Christian leaders, representing churches and church-related organizations, meeting in Bethlehem on December 11, concluded in their 13-page document titled "Kairos Palestine – 2009: A Moment of Truth," enlisting Christians worldwide in proactive efforts to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Their "cry" symbolizes the popular mood of their people as well as the political status quo.

On both sides of the inter-Palestinian divide between the U.S. – backed presidency and the Israeli – hunted legislative, the Fatah – led West Bank (where the leadership of the Palestine Liberation organization (PLO) is committed to peace, direct negotiations and security coordination with the Israeli occupying power, but the 16 –year old "peace process’ has reached an impasse and the negotiations are deadlocked in a one –year old stalemate over the cancer – like expanding Jewish colonial settlements) and the Hamas – led Gaza Strip (where the Islamic resistance Movement (Hamas) is strictly committed to ceasefire save in self – defense while conducting indirect negotiations mediated by Egypt and Germany over an exchange of POWs), both political and military solutions for the century – old Arab – Israeli conflict have failed and aborted all prospects of peace, which have proved an elusive mirage, a stark failure of the U.S. led world community. An imminent explosion seems the only breakthrough ahead.

"There is no bilateral solution. The fastest road to the next round of violence is through another failed negotiation process ... and it has zero chance. Next year … could be ripe for an explosion," Gershon Baskin of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information told a Russian-sponsored debate on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea last week. The "dangerous standstill" needs a "rescue mission," the speakers said, according to Reuters. Former Russian Prime Minister Evgeny Primakov warned that a "real crisis" could develop if the international community did not intervene, adding that the role of the so-called Middle East Quartet (the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union) was in default. On December 15, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the PLO Central Council in Ramallah: "Now the ball is in the international community's court and in America's court."

But Abbas seems to knock at the wrong door. Barak Obama will go down in history as the first U.S. president who pushed a life - long Palestinian ally like Abbas to publicly pronounce the first ever pronounced Palestinian "disappointment" with the United States and its role as the mediator in the conflict, despite the Palestinian euphoria Obama invoked when he chose Abbas as the first foreign leader to give a phone call as soon as he set foot in the White House. The Obama Administration "made zero progress. Not only, of course, has it failed even to get negotiations going … but there isn't the slightest shred of evidence to believe that anything is going to change in the rest of its term," director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary university, Barry Rubin wrote in Global Politician on December 19.

Obama shot down the mission of his presidential envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, when he sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton early in March ostensibly on a mission to bring together Palestinian and Israeli leaders to resume their negotiations, but her mission was a resounding failure because she did exactly the opposite, which made her visit the milestone of her administration’s shift from what was believed by the Palestinians as an honest broker to a mediator who aborted his mediation by completely adopting the views of the Israelis.

The following U..S. – Israeli deal to kill the Goldstone report in the bud -- allegedly because it created a "fairly substantial gap" between the two sides (Assistant U.S. Secretary of State P.J. Crowley on December 10) -- indicated that Clinton’s failure was not a personal one but an official policy that should have been expected after Obama failed to back up his earlier demand for a "freeze" of Israeli colonial settlement as a pre-condition for the resumption of Palestinian – Israeli talks, a demand that misled Abbas to demand no less, and to become the hostage of an un-honored U.S. promise and of his own decision to put all his eggs in the American basket.

Obama and his administration show no regrets, but are following in the footsteps of the traditional U.S. – Israeli strategic alliance, dispelling whatever remains of Obama’s promises of "change’ to his voters.. Last week Obama signed the foreign aid budget law for 2010, raising security aid to Israel by US$225 million the next year to US$2.775 billion, an aid which under a MoU is to rise from $2.55 billion in 2009 to $3.1 billion in 2013. Arabs, including Palestinians, view this aid as fueling the Israeli intransigence in the peace process. The $500 million allocated to the Palestinian Authority (PA), including $100 million to be used by US General Keith Dayton, practically boils down to a contribution to keep the PA floating as a collateral for Israel’s security.

Even in the best of times, long before the inter-Palestinian division, the 2002 military reoccupation of the PA territory in the West Bank and the current tight siege imposed on Gaza, the PA has become dependent on donors since the PLO-Israeli "Declaration of Principles" (DoP) was signed in Washington DC in 1993, relieving the Israeli occupying power of its obligations under international law.

Grudgingly but gratefully the PLO accepted the donors money as a temporary arrangement, pending the end of the interim period in final status negotiations that were supposed to conclude by the creation of an independent Palestinian state living in peace and security side by side with Israel as promised by the U.S. – led international community first in 1999, then in 2005, again in 2008, and now within two years according to Obama administration.

Politically however the donors money have become a temporary permanent arrangement, relieving the budget of the occupying power of burdens it must be held responsible for, financing the unending military occupation, defusing the economic incentive for revolt against the occupation, and holding the PA and the PLO hostages to the political conditions attached to donors’ contributions.

Disillusionment with the role the donors’ money is playing is growing alongside the Palestinian disillusionment with the 'peace process." The Palestinians, who contributed substantially to regional state building and who still contribute to many regional economies are a resourceful and indignant people who have the capital, the expertise and skillful labor, the scientific and intellectual manpower, and the intelligence and the political will to build their own society once they are empowered with self – determination to gain liberty, freedom and independence. With the growing disillusionment, the donors political role is increasingly becoming suspicious, creating a sense of humiliation, exacerbating the national frustration, and could not any longer keep the lid tightly on the boiling refusal of the interim – turned – permanent status quo.

Palestinian sense of betrayal by the international community is as old as the United Nations General Assembly’s 1947 resolution No. 181 for the partition of their homeland into two states and its resolution No. 194 of 1948 for their return to their homeland. This same sense of betrayal has a strong vocal voice in the West Bank recently in the "disappointment" that Abbas, the signatory to (DoP), made clear by declaring his irrevocable decision not to run anew for presidency: "I found all ways blocked, then I decided not to rerun for another term. I am not optimistic and I do not want to have illusions." he had told the London – based Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat. In the Gaza Strip, the latest chapter of the betrayal of the world community was voiced in Paris on December 22 by sixteen rights groups, including Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Christian Aid: "The international community has betrayed the people of Gaza by failing to back their words with effective action to secure the ending of the Israeli blockade … World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza's ordinary citizens. They have wrung hands and issued statements, but have taken little meaningful action," they said in a report.

This sense of betrayal is explosive given the political siege imposed under the direct Israeli military occupation on the PLO and PA in the West Bank and the Israeli military siege imposed tightly on the Gaza Strip. Conditions are ripe for a third Palestinian "Intifada" (uprising) in the West Bank and all indications refer to a renewal of Israeli military invasion of Gaza.

Abbas, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on December 22 warned of an imminent 'Intifada." True he pledged that, "As long as I'm in office, I will not allow anybody to start a new intifada. Never. Never. But if I leave, it's no longer my responsibility and I can't make any guarantees," he said.

Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, Hamas, on the eve of the first anniversary of the December 27 Israeli three -week invasion, is warning against an imminent Israeli new invasion. Their strongest indicator is a steel wall the U.S. Engineering Corps are building underground to block an estimated 1,500 tunnels that span the 14-kilometer Sinai-Gaza border. In January 2008 thousands of Arab Palestinians from Gaza swarmed the Egyptian – Gazan borders as an outlet into a compatriot Arab government who nonetheless proved no more compassionate to their plight under siege than the Israelis when they immediately after the episode closed their border crossings. The tunnels were the Palestinian alternative.

Now the U.S. – made 18 – meter steel slabs, which were tested in U.S. laboratories to resist bombs, melting or cutting and meant to reach 30 meters underground, threaten -- in addition to disrupting and contaminating the underground water flow -- when the project is completed, reportedly in eighteen months, to deprive them of sixty percent of their basic needs, according to the UNRWA American Commissioner – General, Karen Koning AbuZayd, who told a forum organized by the American University in Cairo that the steel wall is more secure than the Bar Lev Line, built by Israeli military along the eastern coast of the Suez Canal after it occupied the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt in 1967.

No people or country in the world would tolerate such a "defensive" wall on their borders, a first worldwide, or view it as not an act of war. The steel wall serves only Israeli political and military goals, notwithstanding the fact it is "U.S. – made" -- according to AbuZayd -- and the labor as well as the guarding soldiers are Egyptians. As such the wall is viewed as part of the Israeli occupation and as an integral part of the Israeli siege mechanisms, and accordingly, from a Palestinian point of view, its targeting is legitimate. However, Palestinians, at least in Gaza strip, are in a state of war with Israel, but not with Egypt. Consequently, any expected violent flare up which the wall could ignite would be Palestinian – Israeli hostilities. Hamas argues that Egypt cannot risk the expected angry Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and international outcry against the collective punishment of one and a half million Palestinians in Gaza unless Cairo is expecting an Israeli invasion that would make such an outcry short-lived.

Israel is diverting attention away from the Palestinian imminent explosion and away from both its political siege of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank and its military siege of the rival Palestinian leadership in Gaza by highlighting as a priority an Iranian nuclear threat, which has yet to be vindicated. All indications are that the Obama administration has subscribed to the Israeli agenda, dragging with it its European satellites. All other Middle East regional conflicts could wait, it seems, even the explosive Arab and Palestinian – Israeli conflict.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61451&s2=26.

Israeli forces kill three in Nablus; Al-Aqsa threatens retaliation

December 26, 2009

Nablus – Ma’an – "By this killing in Nablus and Gaza, the Israeli occupation has thrown open the doors of its own inferno," an A-Aqsa Brigades spokesman calling himself Abu Mahmoud said in a statement following escalated Israeli overnight Friday.

Israeli forces stormed the Old City of Nablus in the early hours of Saturday morning raiding several homes and killing three men affiliated with Fatah's military wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Three youth were also killed in Gaza.

Sources said two of the men were "killed in cold blood" by soldiers in their homes in the Old City. The two were identified as 38-year-old Raed Sakarji, and Ghassan Abu Sharkh whose brother Nayif was a former leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Nablus and was killed by the Israeli army several years ago.

Deputy governor of Nablus Anan Al-Atira confirmed that Anan Subih, 33, was also killed [pictured above]. She said Subih was a former Al-Aqsa Brigades fighter who had received full amnesty from Israel after he turned in his weapons, signed a form swearing to renounce violence and spending months in Palestinian police protective custody while Israel okayed the deal.

Sakarji and Abu Sarkh were evacuated to the Rafidia Hospital with several bullet wounds each in the chest. Sakarji’s wife was also taken to hospital to be treated for shrapnel injury to her legs.

The Al-Aqsa spokesman said Israel's actions would see their soldiers "only face fire and blood as bombers operate in Israel day and night. The Israelis will regret what they did because our retaliation will come very soon," while a second statement from another branch of the group the "Marty Tamir Al-Khateib Brigades" said "Our attitude towards Jihad and resistance will not change, and the Israeli crime will not go unpunished."

A statement from the Israeli military spokespersons' office said soldiers "entered Nablus in an attempt to locate and arrest the men suspected of involvement in the murder of Meir Avshalom Hai this past Thursday." While a spokeswoman said the three slain "were responsible" for the Thursday incident.

An organization calling itself the Imad Mughniya Group and proclaiming affiliation to Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility in an email for the shooting.

"Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Group of the Martyr Imad Mughniya claim firing on a settler car in the north of the West Bank between the settlement Shave Shomron and Enab," the message said.

In what is being billed as a response to the Thursday incident, Israeli forces imposed a curfew on the Ras Al-Ain neighborhood before dawn, closed off all the exits from the Old City and laid siege to the home of the Sakarji home.

Director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committees in Nablus Ghassan Hamdan told Ma’an that three Palestinian homes were besieged in the raid. He confirmed that Sakarji was shot in the head and chest "before the very eyes of his wife." While the second man, Abu Sharkh, was removed from his home and shot outside.

Sakarji's niece, 20-year-old Hind, said that "Israeli forces ransacked Raed Sakarji's home and shot him in front of his pregnant wife and two children, when his wife Tahani, 30, tried to defend him, she was hit in the feet with shrapnel" She also noted that her uncle had been released from Israeli jail in January 2009, and that he was on the waiting list for enrollment in the Palestinian Authority security services.

The home of Anan Subih in Ras El’ein was the third targeted location, where troops reportedly opened fire randomly on the building before entering.

According to the Israeli military, "When he was killed, Annan Tzubach [Subih] was armed with a handgun and hiding two M16 assault rifles, an additional handgun, and ammunition." The same statement, however, noted "During an attempt to arrest him tonight [Saturday], Annan was killed after an exchange of fire with the IDF while he was found in a hiding place along with weapons and ammunition."

Eyewitnesses described to Ma'an the siege launched on Ksheikiyya street in the Ras El’ein neighborhood where Anan Subih lives. Subih was an officer in the Palestinian Authority preventive security services in Nablus.

"Dozens of Israeli soldiers ransacked Anan’s home at 3:00am firing gunshots and grenades, causing a fire to break out in the next dor warehouse for plastic chairs. The soldiers [entered the building] demanding Anan, and when we told them he was at work with the security forces the soldiers evacuated all nine families who live in the building. We were gathered at the nearby home of the Al-'Amoudi family," Anan’s brother Nidal told Ma’an.

Witnesses added that Israeli forces did not allow Palestinian fire fighters to access the area and put out the blaze.

The governor of Nablus Jibreel Al-Bakri described what happened in Nablus as a "crime in cold blood." He accused the Israeli government of escalating the violence in Palestine in order to avoid its commitment to the peace process. A spokesperson from the office of the Palestinian president echoed the statement, saying Israel has decided to drag the Palestinian people to violence in order to avoid international pressure for peace.

"The Israel Defense Forces will act firmly against those who aspire to harm citizens of the State of Israel and Israeli security forces, and will not rest until those involved in the murderous act are brought to justice," Israel's Major General Avi Mizrachi said in a press statement following the deaths.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61463&s2=27.

Palestine/Israel: A Single State, with Liberty and Justice for All, regardless of Religion

by Susan Abulhawa with Ramzy Baroud

December 26, 2009

Prior to the establishment of Israel, Palestine had been a multi-religious and multi-cultural country. Christians, Muslims and Jews, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, to name a few, all had a place there; and all lived in relative harmony. Other nations fought wars and waged epic struggles to attain the kind of coexistence that was already a reality in Palestine.

Prior to the establishment of Israel, Palestine had been multi-religious and multi-cultural. Christians, Muslims and Jews, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, to name a few, all had a place there; and all lived in relative harmony. Other nations fought wars and waged epic struggles to attain the kind of coexistence that was already a reality in Palestine. But while the world strives toward the noble truths that we are all created equal, Israel legislates the notion of a Chosen People with exclusive rights and privilege for Jews. Where countries have worked to integrate their citizens to create the richness of diversity, Israel is working in reverse, employing racist policies to "Judaize" the land whereby property and resources are confiscated from Christians and Muslims for the exclusive use of Jews. Where there is consensus that certain human rights are inalienable, Palestinians have lived subject to the whims of soldiers at checkpoints; of airplanes and helicopters raining death onto them with impunity; of curfews and restrictions and denials; and of violent armed settlers who fancy themselves disciples of God. Living under Israeli occupation, in refugee camps or in exile, we Palestinians have endured having everything callously taken from us – our homes, our heritage, our history, our families, livelihoods, freedom, farms, olive groves, water, security, and freedom.

In the 1990s, we supported the Oslo Accords two-state solution even though it would have returned to us only 22% of our historic homeland. But Israel repeatedly squandered our generosity, confiscating more Palestinian land to increase illegal Jewish-only colonies and Jewish-only roads. What remains to us now is less than 14% of Historic Palestine, all of it as isolated Bantustans, shrinking ghettos, walls, fences, checkpoints with surly soldiers,and the perpetual encroachment of expanding illegal Israeli colonies.While the Palestine Authority has led us into a shrinking land mass, less water, more restrictions, ominous walls and merciless slaughter, notable individuals and popular movements have mobilized for Palestine as once happened for South Africa. Moral authorities like former President Jimmy Carter, Nobel Laureates Desmond Tutu and Mairead Maguire, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson have condemned Israeli Apartheid.

Organizations supporting the Divestment and Boycott Campaign against Israel include religious institutions such as the Presbyterian Church, The World Council of Churches, United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Anglican Church, the Federation of European Jews for a Just Peace, among many others. It includes civil and professional organizations such as the National Lawyers Guild, the Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union in Ireland, as well as labor unions in Canada, Britain, and other nations. An academic boycott of Israel has spread throughout the UK and other parts of Europe and taken root in US universities across the country. The International Solidarity Movement has seen thousands of individuals come to the Occupied Territories to protect Palestinians from the violence of settlers during the olive harvest; to protect children on their daring daily journeys to school; and to bear witness to the inhumanity of military occupation.

The Free Gaza movement has transported by boat hundreds of people willing to risk their lives to bring greatly needed supplies to the besieged people of Gaza. This Christmas, internationals will march to the Egypt/Gaza border to break this siege. These are but a few examples of growing popular support for the Palestinian struggle.

When compared with the accomplishments of these grassroots movements, the futility of "negotiations" becomes painfully apparent. It is clear that we cannot look to our leaders (elected or imposed) to achieve justice. Just as only the masses could bring South Africa’s Apartheid to its knees, it will be the masses who will also bring Israel’s Apartheid crashing.

The continued expansion of international action demanding the implementation of Palestinian basic human rights is inevitable. The notion of religious-ethnocentric entitlement and exclusivity for one people at the expense of another has been rejected the world over. Palestinians reject it and we assert that we are human beings worthy of the same human rights accorded to the rest of humanity; that we are worthy of our homes and farms, our heritage, our churches and mosques, and our history; and that we should not be expected to negotiate with our oppressors for such basic dignities. The two-state solution was and remains an instrument to circumvent the basic human rights of Palestinians in order to accommodate Israel’s desire to be Jewish. Polls show that Palestinians refuse to be the enemies of our Jewish brothers and sisters anywhere, just as we refuse to be oppressed by them.

It is time for our shared land to be the inclusive and diverse country it had been. It is time for leaders to follow the people’s determined movement toward a single democratic state, with liberty and justice for all, regardless of religion.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61470&s2=27.

Israel Declares War on Peace NGOs

By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler

JERUSALEM, Dec 24 (IPS) - One year after the devastating attack on Hamas in Gaza a new wave of reports castigating Israel for war crimes has emerged.

Now, Israel is fighting back with a report on the reports, picking on international NGOs such as Amnesty, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Trocaire , Finn Church Aid, Diakonia and Cordaid.

The immediate target of Israeli ire is a collective report entitled "Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses,’’ issued by these NGO, based in Europe.

"These organizations continue to exploit moral, legal and humanitarian principles in order to promote political warfare against Israel. Many of the claims in this report are not supported by credible evidence, and reflect double standards,’’ says Gerald Steinberg, president 'NGO Monitor', the right-wing Israeli NGO.

"Through this systematic bias regarding Israel, these NGOs have lost respectability, and the European governments that fund such attacks share responsibility for this abuse,’’ says Steinberg.

Part of what inspires pro-peace NGOs operating in the troubled climate of the Middle East is the conviction that they can step into the breach that divides Israelis and Palestinians in order to prod them to prod their governments to revive peace prospects.

As Israel feels increasingly isolated in the wake of the Goldstone Report, about alleged war crimes during its Gaza war, the hard-line right-wing Israeli government is choosing to wage war by proxy on all Israeli pro-peace NGOs .

The Goldstone Report , presented by Justice Richard Goldstone, head of the U.N. fact finding mission to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Sep. 29, 2009, accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, but has been the subject of trenchant criticism from pro-Israeli groups.

For years Israeli peace organizations and human rights groups have enjoyed financial and moral support from many western governments in Europe and, to a lesser extent, from Washington. Many reports by international groups were compiled with the support of Israeli peace activists.

The attempt to discredit peace groups has intensified as human rights violations have increased and settlement activity expanded, contrary to the peace credo of many western states.

It was into this heated atmosphere that the NGO Monitor entered to spearhead the Israeli counter-offensive with its report titled, '’Trojan Horse: The Impact of European Government Funding for Israeli NGOs’’.

NGO Monitor was established by Steinberg, a political scientist and security affairs analyst, together with a prominent Israeli settler leader and columnist, Yisrael Harel.

In 'Trojan Horse’, NGO Monitor provides what it calls "a detailed analysis of funding provided by foreign governments for highly politicized Israeli NGOs". The report formed the basis of a conference held earlier this month in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

"NGOs wield very significant political and legal power in Israel, particularly through their use of the language and frameworks of human rights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians. These NGOs are also a major and often hidden channel for external influence in Israeli foreign and security policies," charges the NGO Monitor report.

"By using the generous resources made available by the external donors, the Israel-based NGO network is able to promote particular political ideologies, and to oppose the policies of the democratically elected government on many issues," it goes on.

"This hidden foreign intervention infringes on the sovereignty and independence of Israel by unbalancing the political process, and interfering with the policies of the elected government and the mainstream Zionist majority."

The 'Trojan Horse’ report focuses its ire on more than 20 Israeli NGOs; it lambasts "the lack of transparency and accountability" and what it calls the "democracy deficit" of these groups.

Among the groups targeted by NGO Monitor are B’Tselem, which just marked 20 years of activity in highlighting Israeli human rights abuses under the occupation, and Ir Amim which keeps tabs on developments in occupied East Jerusalem

In the Knesset conference, the government was exhorted to clamp down on foreign funding which NGO Monitor says "both manipulates domestic politics and undermines Israel’s international legitimacy."

The monitored NGOs are not taking things lying down.

Didi Remez, formerly a spokesman for the Peace Now group, says campaigners against the peace organizations "would have us believe that they are acting in the interest of national security" …against "fifth columnists".

He points out that top government officials – "a notable example is Ron Dermer, chief of policy planning in the prime minister's office" – play an increasingly active role in "this aggressive campaign to suppress internal dissent."

Remez continues: "NGO Monitor is not an objective watchdog: It is a partisan operation that suppresses its perceived ideological adversaries through the sophisticated use of McCarthyite techniques – blacklisting, guilt by association and selective filtering of facts."

He suggests hoisting the critics of the peace groups on their own petard: "If Israeli neoconservatives really want 'transparency’, why not take them at their word?" He thus goes on to call for the proper scrutiny of funding of organizations that further settlement activity in the occupied territories.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars in Israeli taxpayer money and U.S. tax exemptions, mostly hidden from public view, are the driving force of the settlement enterprise. Auditing their funding would undercut organizations which depend on financial opacity for their covert operations that fuel the settlement enterprise," he says.

Beyond official Israeli government action in promoting settlements, such donations independently enhance a greater Jewish presence in Palestinian East Jerusalem and in development projects in many West Bank settlements.

"How long will the U.S. taxpayer put up with the tax-exempt status of Shuva Israel, a Christian Zionist fund, if they were aware that it supports the expansion of settlement outposts, even those illegal under Israeli law?" questions Remez sarcastically.

The war on pro-peace NGOS could backfire, however.

It comes just when the U.S. State Department, inspired by President Barack Obama’s re-engagement policy, is moving to re-energize NGOs whose activities dovetail with Washington’s overall Middle East peace policies

It seems especially ill-conceived when, in the U.S., there is new-found faith in civil society. Obama was elected in no small measure because of his championing of civil society, which provided him with a grand platform to get his message across.

Moreover, NGO Monitor’s assault on foreign governments for their meddling in what it considers Israel’s domestic affairs through its support of peace groups risks antagonizing governments that are regarded as traditional friends of Israel.

For the peace NGOs what is perhaps more disturbing is the knocking they have taken from the global economic downturn. The volume of donations they are receiving is reportedly down by more than a third.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=61474&s2=27.

In Iran, extent of unrest damage determined

One day after clashes erupted between anti-government protesters and security forces in the Iranian capital, Tehran's Firefighting Organization talks of the extent of the damage.

Speaking to the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Monday, Head of the Public Relations office of Tehran's Safety Services and Firefighting Organization Behrouz Tashakkor said 838 firefighters were dispatched to various locations in Tehran on Ashura.

"Nine residential buildings, 9 vehicles, 7 shops, 2 banks and 3 power stations were set on fire [by anti-government protesters]," Tashakkor said.

The Iranian official added that "18 garbage bins" were also set on fire.

Protesters took to some central and downtown streets in Tehran on Sunday, hijacking the Ashura ceremonies, during which people commemorate the 7th century death of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH).

The protesters reportedly chanted slogans against top Iranian government officials. Iranian police forces used tear gas to disperse protesters.

Eight people were confirmed dead during the unrest.

Among those killed on Sunday was Seyyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Police described his death as "suspicious," saying that investigations into the assassination were underway.

Confirming the deaths, Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said the force did not use violence against protesters, denying any involvement in the killings.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114838§ionid=351020101.

Persian potsherd, on top 10 discovery list

The Archeology Magazine has listed an inscribed piece of Persian pottery as one of the most exciting discoveries of the year 2009.

The potsherd, which bears a black Persian inscription belonging to the 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam, was found during excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

Found by an archeology team from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the artifact is treated with a turquoise glaze and adorned with floral patterns.

The piece dates back to the 12th-13th centuries CE and its black inscription makes it the first of its kind to have been found in Jerusalem(Al-Quds).

The inscription was translated by Dr. Julia Rabanovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Al-Quds) as, "Was once the embrace of a lover that entreat."

According to Rivka Cohen-Amin of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the line belongs to The Rubaiyat, a collection of quatrains (four-line poems) by Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer, Omar Khayyam.

Lord of Ucupe (Peru), first domesticated horses (Kazakhstan), early irrigators (US), Anglo-Saxon hoard (the UK), Popol Vuh relief (Guatemala), world's first zoo (Egypt), Iron Age priestesses (Crete), earliest chemical warfare (Syria) and palace of Mithradates (Russia) are the other exciting discoveries selected by The Archeology Magazine.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114836§ionid=351020105.

Tehran Vocal Ensemble to compete at World Choir Games

The Tehran Vocal Ensemble is to participate in the 2010 edition of the international World Choir Games in Shanghai, China.

The group will perform chamber music as well as folkloric pieces from different regions of Iran.

“We will present folkloric pieces of Iran's northern regions as well as [pieces from] Fars and Kordestan Provinces,” Tehran Vocal Ensemble conductor Milad Omranlou told Mehr News Agency.

The 16-member group has been awarded in many international events such as Italy's Riva del Garda international festival of choirs and orchestras and the 2009 World Choir Championship in Gyeognam, South Korea.

The World Choir Games is the world's biggest choir competition, which is held biannually on different continents.

The 6th edition of the event will run from July 15 to 26, 2010 in Shaoxing, Shanghai, China.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114835§ionid=351020105.

Cairo forces Viva Palestina to take detour

(PressTV) Thanks to Cairo's obstruction, Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy en rout to the Gaza Strip will take a detour and head to Syria Latakia, in a bid to enter Egypt through El-Arish.

The convoy of 250 vehicles has been stranded in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba after Egypt refused to allow it to go through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba — the most direct route. Cairo insisted that the convoy can only enter through the Mediterranean port city of El-Arish.

"The aid convoy will leave Aqaba for (the Mediterranean port of) Latakia in Syria before going to El-Arish, in line with Cairo's decision," said Maysara Malas, of Jordan's powerful trade union federation, which has been helping to organize the aid convoy.
"We hope that Egypt does not put more obstacles. It's unfortunate that Israel has interfered in Egypt's decision, which serves the Zionist entity," he added.

Around 250 trucks, ambulances and other vehicles laden with Arab, Turkish and other European aid — both food and medical supplies — in Aqaba arrived on Thursday hoping to take the ferry across to Nuweiba.

"After talks between the Turkish government's envoy and the Egyptian consulate in Aqaba, we agreed to go to Syria," Zaher Birawi, spokesman for the convoy told AFP on Monday.

The convoy was scheduled to deliver medical, humanitarian and educational aid to Gazans on December 27, which marks the first year anniversary of Israel's three-week war against the sliver.

Egyptian police also stopped some 200 protesters from renting boats on the Nile to hold a procession to commemorate the death of over 1,400 victims of Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114831&sectionid=351020202.

West condemns Iran protest crackdown

Western countries condemned the crackdown on anti-government Iranian protesters during the religious ceremony of Ashura on Sunday. Tehran accuses foreigners of orchestrating and backing the unrest.

The Iranian capital was the scene of protests on the anniversary of the Shia Muslim Ashura religious event, with security forces clashing with anti-government demonstrators and using tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Press TV learned that the official death count from the unrest has reached eight. In a statement, Tehran's police headquarters named six of the dead while two of the victims have yet to be identified. Police insist that the force neither used violence nor shot a single bullet on Sunday.

Western countries were quick to criticize the reports of the Sunday protests, with the White House strongly condemning the "violent and unjust suppression" of civilians and pronouncing its support for the riots.

"Hope and history are on the side of those who peacefully seek their universal rights, and so is the United States."

Canada followed suit and urged the restoration of human rights in the country, which has witnessed sporadic anti-government protests since the June 12 presidential election.

"The government of Canada condemns the use of brutal violence by the Iranian security forces and once again calls upon Iran to meet its human rights obligations," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said in a statement issued late Sunday, AFP reported.

Iran blames Western countries for causing the unrest. Since the election, a number of foreign elements have been rounded up and put on trial for involvement in actions against the security of the Islamic Republic.

A senior Iranian commander reacted to the riots, condemning as "disgraceful" and "reproachable" the acts of "hooligans" on such a holy day — Ashura commemorates the 7th century martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH).

On Monday, security forces rounded up a number of Iranian opposition figures, including Ebrahim Yazdi, the secretary general of the Iran Freedom Movement.

France, Germany and Italy also denounced the crackdown. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said "arbitrary arrests and violence" would "lead nowhere."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the "violent clashes" in Tehran are "unacceptable," while Italy's Foreign Ministry said "safeguarding human lives is a fundamental value" and condemned the killings.

The European Union also condemned the use of "violence against demonstrators who are essentially seeking to exercise their freedom of expression and right to peaceful assembly."

The UK, which is accused by Iran of plotting and supporting a major part of the unrest in the country, also reacted to the Sunday incidents. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Monday that the reports coming out of Iran were "particularly disturbing."

Meanwhile, Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan asserted that the force did not use violence against protesters, saying investigations into the killings are underway.

Among those killed was Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi's nephew. According to the police statement, Seyyed Ali Mousavi was killed by a gunshot. Brigadier General Radan said his death was "suspicious."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114830§ionid=351020101.

Cancer protects against Alzheimer's disease

Different types of cancer can protect individuals against the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vice versa, a new study finds.

According to the study published in Neurology, dementia and cancer have protective effects against one another.

Alzheimer's sufferers are 69 percent less likely to develop different types of cancer. Cancer victims, on the other hand, had a 43 percent lower tendency to develop AD.

Abnormal cellular behavior is reported to be the main reason contributing to both conditions, the study found.

"In Alzheimer's disease, excessive cell death occurs, whereas cancer is characterized by excessive cell growth,” said lead researcher Catherine Roe.

Such a link, however, was not found between cancer and vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia caused by lack of blood supply to the brain.

Scientists are optimistic that their findings will pave the way for the development of new treatments for both conditions.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114827§ionid=3510210.

Russian police free 15 child slaves

Russian police have reportedly exposed a sweatshop in the Moscow region, where 15 Kyrgyzstan children under the age of 18 were kept as slave laborers.

The illegal workshop was forcing labor on underfed children as young as 11, while some of the children were also mistreated, RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday.

"An illegal sewing workshop was discovered at the site of a factory in the town of Noguinsk. Among the workers, were minors from Kyrgyzstan," the police said.

"No salaries had been paid to the minors, they had no days off. These underage slaves were fed twice daily with a ration of break and mayonnaise."

A Kyrgyz national was in charge of luring the children's parents with the promise of 5,000 rubles (168 dollars) per month, provided they allowed the children to be taken abroad. He would also guarantee the children would have good living conditions and two days off per week.

The criminal organization would lock up the children in factories' facilities upon arrival in Russia.

With hundreds of thousands of migrants smuggled into Russia each year from Kyrgyzstan and other ex-Soviet republics, slave trafficking is growing as profitable as the drug trade.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114823§ionid=351020602.

Polls close in Uzbekistan parliamentary election

Polls have closed in Uzbekistan's parliamentary elections and vote counting is underway, after a high turnout in Central Asia's most populous nation.

Despite rumors of voter apathy, some 88 percent of those eligible have cast their ballot, according to the country's central election commission.

Candidates from four parties are contesting for 150 seats in Uzbekistan's lower house of parliament, with the election being described as free and fair by Western observers.

President Islam Karimov, who has overseen a tightly-controlled economy, said a high voter turnout showed his policies were popular.

"We have been resilient to the crisis thanks to the timely implementation of our anti-crisis program," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Karimov as saying after casting his ballot on Sunday.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114822§ionid=351020406.

Scientists find aggressive brain cancer genes

US researchers have discovered two genes reported to be responsible for the development of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

According to a study published in Nature, C/EPB and Stat3 are active in about 60 percent of patients suffering from glioblastoma, the most lethal human malignancy that rapidly invades the normal brain and produces inoperable tumors.

"When simultaneously activated, they work together to turn on hundreds of other genes that transform brain cells into highly aggressive, migratory cells,” said lead researcher Antonio Iavarone.

The two genes act as the master control knobs of the tumor; suppressing the two genes simultaneously and thereby helping treat patients.

Scientists are optimistic that their findings will lead to the development of new treatments for brain cancer.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114821§ionid=3510210.

Germans lose faith in political system

A poll shows that the German public now has less faith in their political system than at any other time since World War II, mainly due to the financial crisis.

The survey conducted by Bertelsmann Foundation found on Sunday that about 70 percent of those questioned did not feel that they could count on their political and business leaders, or the education system and the social welfare network.

Nearly fifty percent of respondents said they have reservations about representative democracy as a political system.

"Even the social market economy is far from being seen as positively as it once was," opinion researcher Peter Kruse said of Germany's system of free markets with a strong social safety net.

The loss of faith is believed to be mainly due to what Germans see as their government's inadequate attempt to revive the slumping economy.

The poll also shows that the EUR 8.5 billion (USD12.2 billion) tax relief package passed by parliament this month has unsettled Germans at a time of record public debt.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114819§ionid=351020604.

Opposition figures arrested after Iran protests

Iranian security forces on Monday arrested a number of opposition figures one day after anti-government protests erupted in Tehran on the religious ceremony of Ashura, Press TV has learned.

The Iranian capital on Sunday was the scene of anti-government protests on the anniversary of the Shia Muslim Ashura religious event, during which people commemorate the 7th century death of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH).

Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters who used the religious ceremony to chant slogans against the government. Eight people were killed during the unrest.

A source told Press TV that security agents on Monday arrested Ebrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister who is the secretary general of the Iran Freedom Movement.

Qorban-Ali Behzadiannejad and Mohammad Baqerian, two aides to former presidential candidate turned opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, were also arrested.

Among those killed on Sunday was Seyyed Ali Mousavi, Mousavi's nephew. Police say his death was "suspicious" and investigations into the incident are underway.

Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said the force did not use violence against protesters and it was not involved in the killing.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114820§ionid=351020101.

Riyadh arrests 40 officials over Jeddah flood

At least 40 Saudi officials and contractors have been arrested following a probe into the November flood, which killed over 120 people in Jeddah.

The authorities, including a number of senior officials of the Red Sea city's mayor office were rounded up by two dozen police officers on Sunday, AFP reported.

An assistant to the Jeddah mayor, four department heads, and the former head of the city's projects division were among the detainees.

More than 30 other officials were also arrested to be questioned by an investigation committee, which was formed at the order of King Abdullah and is led by Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of the Mecca region, which also includes Jeddah.

"We will not show any leniency to any official who is found negligent in this case," King Abdullah told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah in an interview published Saturday.

The investigation has been launched into the uncommonly heavy rainfall, which sparked a flash flood in the kingdom's second largest city on November 25.

The flood which drowned 120 people, left thousands of others homeless and more than 7,000 vehicles destroyed in the city.

It provoked outrage among the citizens, who subsequently called for the ouster of public officials for not keeping their promises to build adequate drainage in the city.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114818§ionid=351020205.

Iranian commander calls protests disgraceful

A senior Iranian commander has condemned sporadic anti-government protests in the Iranian capital of Tehran as "disgraceful" and "reproachable."

Protestors on Tuesday took to some central and downtown streets during ceremonies commemorating the 7th century martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH), known as Ashura.

Brigadier-General Masoud Jazayeri, the deputy commander of Iran's armed forces, on Monday defined the "actions of a group of hooligans on such days of mourning" as another "low act" incomparable to anything seen before.

He described the "small group of vandals" as marginal compared to "millions of real Ashura mourners."

Jazayeri also called on the judiciary to effectively deal with "the unbelievers and apostates" who had staged the riots in the capital.

At least eight people lost their lives during the Sunday riots which saw protesters chanting slogans against top Iranian government officials.

Confirming four of the deaths, Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said one of the deceased fell from a bridge, two others were hit by cars while one other victim was shot dead by an unknown assailant.

Police identified the person who was shot dead by unknown assailants as Seyyed Ali Mousavi.

Police say the force was not involved in the killings, adding that the incidents are under investigation.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114812§ionid=351020101.