Zidane, World Cup champs to play exhibition match in Algiers

Members of the winning 1998 French national team will accompany star Zinedine Zidane to Algiers in March for a futsal match in honor of Algeria's qualification to the 2010 World Cup finals.

By Mouna Sadek for Magharebia in Algiers – 03/01/10

Retired footballer Zinedine Zidane and other members of the 1998 World Cup champion French national team will visit Algiers on March 1st to take part in a commemorative football tournament.

During a December 26th visit with the Algerian team during their preparations for the 2010 African Nations Cup, the international star hailed their performance in the World Cup qualifiers and demonstrated his affection for his ancestral home.

Zizou has given steadfast support to the Greens. During his surprise visit to their training camp in southern France, the 1998 European Footballer of the Year confirmed he will travel to Algeria for a futsal match on March 1st in Algiers "to celebrate Algeria's victory in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers".

The former French captain will play in Algiers to honor a promise he made to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during his first visit in 2006, when he vowed to return to Algeria with the French side that won the 1998 World Cup.

The event will be co-ordinated jointly by Kamal Benkoussa, a financier of Algerian origin who works at the London Stock Exchange, and former Algerian player Ali Fergani, who is now president of the Amicale des Anciens Joueurs (Association of Former Players).

"Zidane's visit to Algeria and the participation of the 1998 World Cup winners in this tournament show that the strength of the Algerian team, which did brilliantly in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, has been recognized," Benkoussa said.

The event will be played between all of the French players who won the 1998 World Cup and two previous Algerian generations of players who took part in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups and outstanding players of the 1990s. The games will last 40 minutes each.

The 7,500 seats in the Stade du 5 Juillet will be offered to spectators free of charge and the tournament will be financed with support from sponsors. The organisers have said that mobile operator Nedjma and the Cevital group, which belongs to Algerian billionaire Issaad Rabrab, have already expressed interest in getting involved.

Since the Stade du 5 Juillet could be unable to hold all of the football fans who would like to attend, the matches will also be broadcast live by public network ENTV, which was granted broadcasting rights free of charge by the organists.

"We want this tournament to be a big party for Algerians," said Thierry Benaim, chief executive of Expert Sport 1998 and organizer of the event.

Algerians appear to be waiting eagerly for their hero to arrive in Algeria. "This will be the first time that Zidane will play in his country," said Mourad, a bank worker. "If renowned players come to Algeria, it can only be a good thing for everyone who is passionate about football. We will then be able to build up a good image of our country."

"As well as lending his support to our team, Zidane is giving our country good publicity through this gesture," he added.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/01/03/feature-01.

Israelis to visit revered rabbi's tomb in Egypt

By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO – Hundreds of Israelis are making an annual pilgrimage to the tomb of a 19th-century Jewish holy man in Egypt's Nile Delta.

Egypt has in years past limited the number of pilgrims. Israeli newspapers reported, however, that President Hosni Mubarak accepted a request from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Egypt last week to allow unlimited numbers.

Cairo airport officials say some 290 Israelis arrived Sunday on their way to the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira near the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. The commemoration of the anniversary of his death will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The elderly rabbi was making his way from his native Morocco to the Holy Land in 1879 when he fell ill and died in the Egyptian city of Damanhour.

Iranian journalist gets prison term, desert exile

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian journalist lost an appeal Sunday against his conviction on charges of spreading propaganda against the ruling Islamic establishment and was sentenced to six years in prison and five years of internal exile in a remote desert town.

The court also confirmed a lifelong ban on political activity for the prominent reporter, Ahmad Zeidabadi, who was also once a student activist.

Zeidabadi was among more than 100 political figures and activists tried together in the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election, which the opposition says was rigged to give Mahmoud Ahmadinejad another term in office.

The mass trial and a crackdown on street demonstrations has failed to silence the opposition movement, which has also confronted Iran's clerical leaders and demanded greater social and political freedoms.

Iran's interior minister said on Sunday that he has ordered police to show no leniency to anyone who turns up at opposition protests.

At least eight people died during anti-government protests in cities across Iran on Dec. 27, including a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. It was the worst bloodshed since the height of the unrest in the weeks immediately after the June election.

While on trial, Zeidabadi went on a nine-day hunger strike in August and had to be hospitalized, a pro-reform Web site reported at the time.

The 44-year-old Zeidabadi led a group of reformists who were once members of Iran's largest student organization, the Office for Fostering Unity.

His wife, Mahdieh Mohammadi, said her husband's lawyer informed her of the appeals court's ruling on Sunday. As part of his sentence, he will have to spend five years in internal exile in the town of Gonabad, about 620 miles — or 1,000 kilometers — east of the capital, on the edge of the second-largest desert in Iran, the Namak desert, his wife told The Associated Press.

Authorities detained Mousavi's political adviser, Mohammad Reza Tajik, on Saturday, though there has been no official comment on what he is accused of.

Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar again accused the United States, Britain and Israel of supporting the unrest in Iran and promised a harsher crackdown against protesters, state television reported Sunday.

"We see that Mr. Obama and British and Israeli officials support and lead violators," the report quoted Najjar as saying. "We ordered police not to show any leniency. If someone appears in protests and accompanies violators, police will treat him strongly."

Najjar claimed that more than 3 million people participated in a pro-government rally on Wednesday in which demonstrators called for the execution of opposition leaders.

Authorities have detained dozens of activists since the Dec. 27 opposition protests. At Tehran's Azad University, 10 student activists were suspended for up to two terms of study for participating in protests, state TV reported.

Besides the internal unrest, Iran also faces confrontation on the international level over its nuclear activity and its missile programs. The United States and its European allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of a civilian nuclear program.

Iran denies that and says it only wants to generate nuclear power.

The standoff has prompted Israeli threats to take military action against Iran's nuclear sites if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the dispute.

State-run Press TV reported Sunday that Iran is planning to stage large-scale war games next month to improve its "defensive capabilities."

The report quoted the army's ground forces chief, Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, as saying the exercises will seek to prepare Iran's military to repel any possible attack from its enemies.

The drills will involve the regular armed forces and the elite Revolutionary Guard, which hold regular exercises two or three times a year.

Algerian Muslims Block Christmas Service

Written by Damaris Kremida
Friday, 01 January 2010

Neighborhood residents protest new church building in Kabylie region.

ISTANBUL, December 31 (Compass Direct News) - Nearly 50 Muslim members of a community in northern Algeria blocked Christians from holding a Christmas service on Saturday (Dec. 26) to protest a new church building in their neighborhood.

As Algerian Christian converts gathered for their weekly meeting and Christmas celebration that morning, they were confronted by protesters barring the doors of their church building. Tafat Church is located in Tizi-Ouzou, a city 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of the Algerian capital, Algiers. Established five years ago, the church belongs to the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA). Until recently it met in a small rented building. In November it opened its doors in a new location to accommodate the growing needs of its nearly 350 congregants.

The local residents protesting were reportedly irritated at finding that a church building with many visitors from outside the area had opened near their houses, according to an El Watan report on Sunday (Dec. 27). The daily newspaper highlighted that the residents feared their youth would be lured to the church with promises of money or cell phones.

"This land is the land of Islam! Go pray somewhere else," some of the protesters said, according to El Watan. Protesters also reportedly threatened to kill the church pastor.

The protesters stayed outside the church until Monday (Dec. 28), and that evening some of them broke into the new building and stole the church microphones and speakers, according to the pastor, Mustafa Krireche. As of yesterday (Dec. 30) the church building's electricity was cut.

One of Algeria's Christian leaders, Youssef Ourahmane, said he could not recall another display of such outrage from Algerians against Christians.

"It was shocking, and it was the first time to my knowledge that this happened," said Ourahmane. "And there weren't just a few people, but 50. That's quite a big number ... the thing that happened on Saturday was a little unusual for Algeria and for the believers as well."

A few weeks before the Saturday incident, local residents signed a petition saying they did not want the church to operate near their homes and wanted it to be closed. Local authorities presented it to the church, but Ourahmane said the fellowship, which is legally authorized to exist under the EPA, does not plan to respond to it.

On Saturday church leaders called police, who arrived at the scene and told the Christians to go away so they could talk to the protesters, whom they did not evacuate from the premises, according to local news website Kabyles.net. The story Kabyles.net published on Sunday was entitled, "Islamic tolerance in action at Tizi-Ouzou."

"In that area where the church is located, I'm sure the people have noticed something happening," said Ourahmane. "Having hundreds of Christians coming to meet and different activities in the week, this is very difficult for Muslims to see happening there next door, and especially having all these Muslim converts. This is the problem."

A local Muslim from the neighborhood explained that residents had protested construction of the church building in a residential area, according to El Watan.

"What's happening over there is a shame and an offense to Muslims," he told El Watan. "We found an old woman kissing a cross ... they could offer money or mobile phones to students to win their sympathies and sign them up. We won't let them exercise their faith even if they have authorization. There's a mosque for those who want to pray to God. This is the land of Islam."

Behind the Scenes

Ourahmane said he believes that Islamists, and maybe even the government, were behind the protests.

"Maybe this is a new tactic they are trying to use to prevent churches from meeting," he said. "Instead of coming by force and closing the church, the local police use the Muslim fundamentalists. That's my analysis, anyhow."

In February 2008 the government applied measures to better control non-Muslim groups through Ordinance 06-03. Authorities ordered the closure of 26 churches in the Kabylie region, both buildings and house churches, maintaining that they were not registered under the ordinance.

Despite efforts to comply with the ordinance, many Christian groups indicated they were blocked by lack of information, bureaucratic processes or resistance to their applications, according to this year's International Religious Freedom Report by the U.S. Department of State. None of the churches have closed since then, but their status continues to remain questionable and only valid through registration with the EPA.

"If we have the right to exercise our faith, let them tell us so," Pastor Krireche told El Watan. "If the authorities want to dissolve our association through legal means, let them do so."

Recent growth of the church in Algeria is difficult for Muslims to accept, according to Ourahmane, despite public discourse among the nation's intellectuals advocating for religious freedoms. Unofficial estimates of Christians and Jews combined range from 12,000 to 40,000, according to the state department report. Local leaders believe the number of Algerian Christians could be as many as 65,000.

Increasing numbers of people who come from Islam are like a stab for the Muslim community, said Ourahmane.

"It's hard for them to accept that hundreds of Christians gather to worship every week," he said. "It's not easy. There are no words to explain it. It's like a knife and you see someone bleeding ... They see the church as a danger to Algerian culture."

The Algerian government has the responsibility to face up to the changing face of its country and to grant Christians the freedom to meet and worship, said Ourahmane.

"The local authorities and especially the Algerian government need to be challenged in this all the time," he said. "They have to be challenged: 'Don't you recognize the situation here?' I mean we're talking of tens of thousands of believers, not just a few."

There are around 64 churches in the Kabylie region, where most Algerian Christians live, as well as house groups, according to Ourahmane. The Kabylie region is populated by Berbers, an indigenous people of North Africa.

"There are lots of healings and deliverance, and people are experiencing new things in their life," Ourahmane said of the Algerian churches. "They are finding hope in Christ which they have never experienced before."

There are half a dozen court cases against churches and Christians. None of these have been resolved, frozen in Algeria's courts.

False Accusations

In ongoing negative media coverage of Christians, last month Algerian newspaper Echorouk published a story claiming that the former president of the EPA, who was deported in 2008, had returned to Algeria to visit churches, give advice and give them financial aid.

The report stated that the former EPA president, Hugh Johnson, was known for his evangelism and warned readers of his evangelizing "strategies."

Yesterday Johnson told Compass by telephone that the report was pure fabrication, and that he has not set foot in Algeria since he was deported.

Johnson's lawyers are still trying to appeal his case in Algerian courts.

This year church groups stated that the government denied the visa applications of some religious workers, citing the government ban on proselytizing, according to the state department report.

Source: Right Side News.
Link: http://www.rightsidenews.com/201001017995/global-terrorism/algerian-muslims-block-christmas-service.html.

"Viva Palestina 3" convoy reaches Egyptian port

El-ARISH, Egypt, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- "Viva Palestina 3" humanitarian aid convoy arrived in Egyptian port of El-Arish Sunday evening coming from Syria, an official from El-Arish port told Xinhua.

A Turkish ship, which carries the convoy from the Syrian port of Lattakia to Egypt, arrived in the Egyptian port of El-Arish on Sunday evening, said Gamal Abdel Maqsoud, head of El-Arish port.

The international humanitarian aid convoy consists of food and medical equipment from Europe, Turkey and Arab countries.

The shipment would be unloaded in the port and be transferred to the Gaza Strip via Rafah crossing, according to Egypt's official MENA news agency.

Members and organizers of the convoy are expected to fly into El-Arish on Monday, according to the report.

The Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy, led by British lawmaker George Galloway, left Syria's Lattakia port Wednesday afternoon heading for the El-Arish to enter the besieged strip.

The convoy, which departed from London on Dec. 6, returned to Syria on Tuesday from the Jordanian harbor of Al-Aqaba after the Egyptian authorities requested that the convoy enter through El-Arish on its Mediterranean coast.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/04/content_12749289.htm.

A permanent solution to Rohingya issue

by Nurul Islam
(Friday, January 1, 2010)

"Since 1948 about 1.5 million Rohingya people have either been expelled or have had to flee the country to escape persecution. Most of them are found in Bangladesh, Pakistan, KSA, UAE and Malaysia. They are vulnerable without any status in those countries. Neither civil society Organizations nor UN bodies and other international Organizations properly addressed this issue since last two decades."

A general view of the makeshift huts where Rohingya refugees are living in at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. There are about 28,000 refugees living in camps near border, and another 400,000 scattered outside.

Under different periods of history, Arakan had been an independent and sovereign monarchy ruled by Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims. According to A. P Phayer and G.E.. Harvey, the Arakanese kings established alternately capitals in eight different towns, transferring from one to another. Rohang, the old name of Arakan, was very familiar region for the Arab seafarers even during the pre-Islamic days. Tides of people like the Arabs, Moors, Turks, Pathans, Moghuls, Central Asians, Bengalees came mostly as traders, warriors, preachers and captives overland or through the sea route. Many settled in Arakan, and mixing with the local people, developed the present stock of people known as ethnic Rohingya.

The Rohingya have been leaving their home country for 30 some years now. They have been described as some of the world's most persecuted refugees, and among the most forgotten, too.. They have gone to many different countries, but the biggest choice for them is Bangladesh. There, the Rohingya experience even more difficulty, as the Rohingya are severely poor and have little rights given to them as refugees.

The Bangladeshi government has never formally given them refugee status, and have forced many of them out of the country. Around 230,000 of the refugees have been repatriated to Burma, but approximately 20,000 remain in the UNHCR administered camps. At least 100,000 Rohingya are believed to be in Bangladesh out side the camps and with no official status as refugees (MSF-Holland). In the most southern part of Bangladesh, near the city of Teknaf, live 6,000 Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar (Burma). They live in terrible conditions in a provisional camp. Classified by the Bangladesh government as illegal immigrants, the people have not received any support until very recently. Since the end of May, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been operating a small healthcare center and improving the water supply and sanitary conditions in the camp. The Rohingyas are a Muslim minority that are deprived of citizenship rights in their native country of Myanmar and are subjected to various forms of repression by the government there. Many camp residents, like this old woman, fled to Bangladesh years ago. Some were sent back to Myanmar.

“I was born in Myanmar, but the Burmese government says I don’t belong there. I grew up in Bangladesh, but the Bangladeshi government says I cannot stay there. As a Rohingya, I feel I am caught between a crocodile and a snake”. Told a 19-year-old refugee in Bangladesh. “If I go to get wood, I’ll get arrested. If I collect water I’ll get beaten. If we move our houses, we’ve got nowhere to go.” said one woman living in Kutupalang camp( MSF report). "Without a fundamental solution for the Rohingya not only in countries where they seek asylum but at their origin, there is no apparent end to this humanitarian crisis,"

The Rohingya people of Burma an ethnic group existing in a state of national Limbo, are one of the most severely affected communities living under the military regime in a country where human rights abuse and suffering is the norm. The systematic human rights abuses towards the Rohingya are committed with intent to destroy this particular minority community. The Rohingya living in the north of Rakhine State of Myanmar are legally obliged to purchase expensive marriage permits, unlike the rest of the population. Children being born out of marriage often results in high informal fines or imprisonment and a two child only policy applies.

Since 1948 about 1.5 million Rohingya people have either been expelled or have had to flee the country to escape persecution. Most of them are found in Bangladesh, Pakistan, KSA, UAE and Malaysia. They are vulnerable without any status in those countries. Neither civil society Organizations nor UN bodies and other international Organizations properly addressed this issue since last two decades.

Prime minister U Nu declared “Rohingya” as an indigenous ethnic group of Burma like the Shan, Kachin, Karen, Chin, Mon and Rakhine in a radio speech broadcasted at 8.00 p.m on 24th September, 1954. But aftermath down fall of U Nu government the state peace and development council (SPDC, Burma`s government) rejects the existence of a separate ethnic group called “Rohingya”. They are not considered to be a national ethnic group as provided by sec.3 of the 1982 Law, and members of the Rohingya population are therefore ineligible for full citizenship. The military regime has declared the Rohingyas as non-nationals in utter disregard of their history, glorious past and establishment in the country.Planned increase in Buddhist settlement has caused serious demographic changes in northern Rakhine (Arakan).

The Rohingyas have to provide slave Labor to build military establishments, bridges, embankments and pagodas. Since the promulgation of of Burma citizenship Law in 1982, Rohingya students have been denied the right to education. Around 230,000 of the refugees have been repatriated to Burma.Some of these people have returned after being repatriated and other new people continue to arrive. Approximately 20,000 remain in the UNHCR administered camps. At least 100,000 Rohingya are believed to be in Bangladesh out side the camps and with no official status as refugees. Although the Rohingya issue belongs to Burma, but it affects Bangladesh the most because of its closed border with Burma. Bangladesh government has failed to raise the issue in international level..The bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and Burma is obsessed with its economic prospects, the government successfully down played the problem as a repatriation matter only that overshadowed the Rohingya issue. A durable and dignified solution for the Rohingya must be found, not only in countries where they seek asylum, but at their origin in Myanmar.

The New Nation, DHAKA, December 31, 2009: Bangladesh’s plans to repatriate 9,000 Myanmar Muslim refugees to their homeland hit trouble yesterday when a leader of the minority said they would refuse to leave. Bangladesh’s top foreign ministry official, Mirajul Quayes, said Tuesday that neighboring Myanmar had agreed to take back 9,000 Rohingya refugees in what was seen as a breakthrough in a decade-long problem. Quayes, the foreign secretary, said during talks with Myanmar deputy foreign minister Maung Myint in Dhaka that the military regime had agreed to accept nearly one-third of the officially recognized refugees now in Bangladesh.

Jalal Uddin, who is the secretary of the UN-recognized Kutupalong camp, said Rohingya refugees "are always ready to go back home" but stressed that rights as Myanmar citizens could not be guaranteed.

"(But) we don’t have any rights in Myanmar," he told the news agency by phone. "If we go back, the armed forces will use us as bonded labor. "Many will be sent to jail. There are still curbs on practicing our religion or movement from one place to another without the army’s permission." Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities, some 250,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in the early 1990s. But some 230,000 were later taken back by Myanmar following a UN-brokered deal. Since then, thousands of Rohingyas from Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s northern Rakhaine state have streamed across the border every year and are now estimated to number nearly 400,000. But only 28,000 of them have been granted official refugee status and are allowed to stay in two UN-assisted camps in the country’s Cox’s Bazar district just miles (kilometers) across the Myanmar border.

"Some 9,000 are ready to be repatriated following verification, as the Myanmar government has assured us today that they are also ready. And it can begin within the shortest possible time," Quayes said Tuesday. Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Dipu Moni last August said the undocumented refugees put a "heavy burden" on Dhaka, causing major social, economic problems.

Quayes expressed his concern about the increased influx of Rohingyas in recent months and urged Myanmar to take them back. "We’ve pressed the Myanmar government to take steps to get them back," he said.

Conclusion:

Refugee influx in to Bangladesh from Burma is not a new. Rather it is a regular complexity for Bangladesh for why a permanent solution to the Rushing issue is essential. The Myanmarese military government is being tried to marginalize and eliminate the ethnic Rohingy Muslims by imposing various restrictions that make them difficult to survive on their native soil, Arakan for why they are compelled to leave their ancestral land in search of better livelihood and political solution. So, repatriation of Rohingya refugees without guarantee for their citizenship must not helpful for stopping fresh refugee influx in to Bangladesh. Rather the refugees expressed their reluctance to return until their indigenous issue is not solved. However, Interfering to this issue by International communities including Bangladesh is most crucial and inevitable. Otherwise, the neighboring countries particularly Bangladesh will not be relaxed from the tension of refugee influx.

Source: Media Monitors Network (MMN).
Link: http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/70036.

Turkey, Greece ties enter better way with Papandreou in 2009

Political relations between Turkey and Greece were generally stable in 2009.

Friday, 01 January 2010

Political relations between Turkey and Greece were generally stable in 2009.

Bilateral relations revived following the Turkish local elections in March and Greek general elections in October and the election of George Papandreou --who was the architect of close relations between Turkey and Greece together with one of Turkey's former foreign ministers Ismail Cem-- as prime minister.

After the elections, Papandreou paid his first foreign visit to Turkey and held a long bilateral talk with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.

Following the visit of Papandreou, Erdogan sent Athens a letter "recommending a comprehensive dialogue on all matters", and then Turkish State Minister & Chief Negotiator for EU talks Egemen Bagis visited Greece, met with Papandreou and several Greek ministers, and said that he had the impression that Athens was positive.

After Bagis paid his visit to Athens on November 5 and 6, several Greek officials stated that Greece was approaching the recommendation of Turkey cautiously.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Athens in December to attend the Organization for Security & Cooperation for Europe (OSCE) meeting, and met with Papandreou. Davutoglu gave positive messages about the future of Turkey-Greece relations. He said that high-level political dialogue would continue increasingly, and economic relations would be strengthened while measures would be taken to further develop the cultural relations.

Western Thrace

Issues about special rights of Turkish minority in Western Thrace --such as education, freedom of religion and management of foundations set by international agreements-- were stagnant in 2009.

Several arrangements were made on "erasing tax debts of minority foundations and making legal arrangements on management" within the scope of the reform package announced by Greece's former foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis during her visit to Komotini in 2007; however, the law has not been put into effect yet.

Leaders of Turkish minority said that the legal arrangements about minority rights did not take sensitivities of Turkish minority into consideration. Athens also continued its policy of not recognizing the elected muftis of minority.

The church --which was started to be built illegally on a land belonging to Yanikkoy (Nimfea) Mosque Foundation in Komotini-- caused a property discussion between the foundation management and the regional secretariat general of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace.

Turkish minority sent two representatives to Greek Parliament in early elections in October. In 2007 elections, PASOK candidates Ahmet Haciosman from Rodopi and Cetin Mandaci from Xanthi had entered the Greek Parliament.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=52077.

Hamas: Recent Israeli escalation aims to weaken Gaza amid blockade

by Saud Abu Ramadan

GAZA, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, said on Saturday that the latest Israeli military escalation in the Gaza Strip aims at suffocating the impoverished enclave and increasing pressure on the movement.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Gaza-based Hamas spokesman, said in a statement sent to the press that the recent Israeli aerial and ground strikes on northern, eastern and southern Gaza Strip "is a clear evidence that the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip has never stopped."

"This aggression reflects the barbarian Israeli policy against the Palestinians amid tightening a suffocating siege imposed on the Gaza Strip for more than three years," said Barhoum, who slammed what he termed "the international community's silence towards this criminal escalation."

On Friday night, Israeli war jets and artillery carried out a series of strikes with missiles and shells on northern, eastern and southern Gaza Strip, wounding at least four people, three of whom were militants.

Witnesses said that Israeli warplanes and helicopters hovered over the Gaza Strip for several hours and attacked five targets in the enclave.

The successive Israeli airstrikes came hours after rockets and mortar shells were fired by Gaza militants to Israel on Thursday night.

On Thursday night and Friday afternoon, two Gaza militant groups claimed responsibility for firing two Russian-made (Grad) rockets and four mortar shells from Gaza Strip at southern Israel.

Israeli Radio reported earlier on Friday that two Grad rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed on Thursday night at an opened area in the Negev in southern Israel, causing no harms or casualties.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened earlier that Israel will respond to every single rocket that Gaza militants fire at Israel.

Israel has been imposing a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip since the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas in across-border raid on southeast Gaza Strip in June 2006.

Israel announced that it is ready to ease the blockade once a prisoner swap deal is reached with Hamas through the German and the Egyptian mediators.

Hamas militants and two other less influential militant groups have been holding Shalit in captivity and demand Israel to free 1,000 prisoners for releasing him.

Hamas presented a list of 450 names in Israeli prison, but Israel has raised reservations on tens of the names.

On Dec. 23, Hamas received the latest Israeli offer from the German mediator, sources close to Hamas told Xinhua then, adding that Hamas officials wanted to discuss the offer with their higher leadership in Damascus.

Hamas leaders said recently that debate over the Israeli offer is still going on away from any media escalation with Israel.

A senior Hamas official on Saturday told the London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat that Hamas will not engage in media battles with Israel over the prisoner exchange deal to free abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The official, who spoke to the daily on condition of anonymity, said Hamas is not interested in opening a "media front" in its conflict with Israel, adding that Hamas is changing tactics regarding prisoner exchanges.

The official, who spoke to the daily from Syria, said that the deal is in the final stages of negotiation and that its completion seems promising.

Once the deal is finalized, Israel will ease the blockade on Gaza, and Egypt will reopen Rafah border crossing on the borders with the Gaza Strip, he added.

Local media reports in Gaza earlier this week indicated there was still disagreement over some prisoners Hamas wanted to be released and over how many of those freed would be exiled from the Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile, deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya said on Saturday that his government has become stronger after the 22-day Israeli war on the Gaza Strip that ended in Jan. 18, 2008, promising that his government will rebuild what had been destroyed by Israel.

Haneya told a news conference at the Islamic University of Gaza as he inaugurated two buildings destroyed by Israel during the war that "the Israeli war and the Israeli pressure on the government and on Hamas movement have not weakened us."

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/02/content_12744798.htm.

Innocent Afghan Losses Will Increase With Troops Surge

Global Research, December 31, 2009
Russia Today

Anger's brewing in Afghanistan over the rise in the number of civilians killed during US military operations in remote, poorly inhabited districts of the country

Hundreds of Afghans took to the capital's streets and in the country's east on Wednesday in protest over Sunday's fighting where 10 died – including schoolchildren.

Afghan war veteran Jake Deliberto from Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan pointed out that currently there are more American contractors in Afghanistan than actual soldiers, even with the surge of troops announced by President Obama.

“When you increase the size of the troops on the ground you are going to have more violence and you’re going to have more civilian deaths, there’s nothing you can do to stop that, that’s the nature of war,” said Deliberto.

“The ‘mayor of Kabul’ [Khamid] Karzai, as I call him, is really a corrupt and failed government that is trying to hang on by every threat that it has and the Afghan people are tired of corruption in the government and do not want to trust local security forces and certainly do not trust the coalition forces – it is sad but it is a reality,” he said.

Source: Global Research.
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16716.

European Parliament to Investigate WHO and "Pandemic" Scandal

by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, December 31, 2009

The Council of Europe member states will launch an inquiry in January 2010 on the influence of the pharmaceutical companies on the global swine flu campaign, focusing especially on extent of the pharma‘s industry’s influence on WHO. The Health Committee of the EU Parliament has unanimously passed a resolution calling for the inquiry. The step is a long-overdue move to public transparency of a “Golden Triangle” of drug corruption between WHO, the pharma industry and academic scientists that has permanently damaged the lives of millions and even caused death.

The parliament motion was introduced by Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, former SPD Member of the German Bundestag and now chairman of the Health Committee of PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe). Wodarg is a medical doctor and epidemiologist, a specialist in lung disease and environmental medicine, who considers the current “pandemic” Swine Flu campaign of the WHO to be “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the Century.”

The text of the resolution just passed by a sufficient number in the Council of Europe Parliament says among other things, “In order to promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical companies influenced scientists and official agencies, responsible for public health standards to alarm governments worldwide and make them squander tight health resources for inefficient vaccine strategies and needlessly expose millions of healthy people to the risk of an unknown amount of side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines. The "bird-flu"-campaign (2005/06) combined with the "swine-flu"-campaign seem to have caused a great deal of damage not only to some vaccinated patients and to public health-budgets, but to the credibility and accountability of important international health-agencies.”

The Parliamentary inquiry will look into the issue of „falsified pandemic“ that was declared by WHO in June 2009 on the advice of its group of academic experts, SAGE, many of whose members have been documented to have intense financial ties to the same pharmaceutical giants such as GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Novartis, who benefit from the production of drugs and untested H1N1 vaccines. They will investigate the influence of the pharma industry in creation of a worldwide campaign against the so-called H5N1 “Avian Flu” and H1N1 Swine Flu. The inquiry will be given “urgent” priority in the general assembly of the parliament.

In his official statement to the Committee, Wodarg criticized the influence of the pharma industry on scientists and officials of WHO, stating that it has led to the situation where “unnecessarily millions of healthy people are exposed to the risk of poorly tested vaccines,” and that, for a flu strain that is “vastly less harmful” than all previous flu epidemics.

Wodarg says the role of the WHO and its the pandemic emergency declaration in June needs to be the special focus of the European Parliamentary inquiry. For the first time, the WHO criteria for a pandemic was changed in April 2009 as the first Mexico cases were reported, to make not the actual risk of a disease but the number of cases of the disease basis to declare “Pandemic.” By classifying the swine flu as pandemic, nations were compelled to implement pandemic plans and also the purchase swine flu vaccines. Because WHO is not subject to any parliamentary control, Wodarg argues it is necessary for governments to insist on accountability. The inquiry will also to look at the role of the two critical agencies in Germany issuing guidelines on the pandemic, the Paul-Ehrlich and the Robert-Koch Institute.

Bravo!

Source: Global Research.
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16667.

Killings of Uighurs tense Turkey, China ties in 2009

Turkish President Gul's visit to China between June 24 and 29 was the one of the most important developments in Turkey-China relations in 2009.

Saturday, 02 January 2010

Turkish President Abdullah Gul's visit to China between June 24 and 29 was the one of the most important developments in Turkey-China relations in 2009. Gul was the first Turkish president visiting China after 14 years.

President Gul and Chinese President Hu Jintao attended ceremonies held on signing of several agreements between the two countries after their meeting on June 25, 2009.

Delivering a speech during his visit to China, Gul said that there was a huge imbalance in trade between the two countries. "China has investments worth billions of dollars across the world. It made investments worth 90 billion U.S. dollars abroad last year. The country's investments in Turkey amount to only 60 million U.S. dollars. Turkey has more investments in China," he said. Gul said Chinese businessmen were interested in the sectors of energy, power plant construction, oil and mining in Turkey.

Gul said 60,000 Chinese tourists visited Turkey this year, and authorities should search the ways to boost the figure.

President Gul delivered a speech at Xinjiang University in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the northwestern China. The university awarded Gul with the title of honorary doctorate.

Incidents that took place in Urumqi on July 5 brought Turkish-Chinese relations to a different ground.

Many protested the Chinese government's handling of a fight between Uighur and Han Chinese workers at a toy factory late June. Two Uighur workers were killed in the strife. The official figures showed that 197 people died and more than 1,600 people were injured in riots which erupted after killing of two Uighur workers.

Turkish government's and public opinion's sensitivity to these incidents caused tension between the two countries.

China's former ambassador to Turkey Song Aiguo visited the Turkish capital of Ankara after these developments. Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan conveyed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's message to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his visit to China between August 28 and September 1.

Caglayan paid another visit to Beijing between September 24 and 27 for a meeting of Turkish-Chinese Joint Economic Committee. The relations were normalized thanks to several mutual visits.

Several Turkish authorities including military officials and ministers paid formal visits to China. Several Chinese officials also visited Turkey in 2009.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=52103.

Archaeologists: 50,000 Years Old Volcanic Cave Discovered in Syria

By H. Sabbagh

Syria (Damascus) - The Syrian Society for Exploration and Documentation discovered recently in Sweida city (Southern Syria) the largest volcanic cave in the country, naming it Soua'ada Cave.

Secretary of the Society Khaled Nuwailati said the exploration and documentation committees organized a walk in December 18 2009 after receiving information on undiscovered caves in that area.

Soua'ada cave was found after removing a large boulder blocking its entrance, revealing volcanic geological formations that are over 50,000 years old. There are numerous spaces that become larger deeper into the cave, with air currents showing that the cave has another opening. It is estimated that the cave is over 3 kilometers deep, which makes it the largest cave in Syria.

According to head of Sweida Department of Archeology Wasim al-Shaarani, the cave was formed by the flow of volcanic lava that cooled down and formed a long rectangular hollow area that expands the further one goes into the depths of the cave, which isn't fully explored yet.

The volcanic caves of Sweida date back to the Paleolithic age which began around 40,000 BC and ended around the end of the third millennium BC. Some of the oldest volcanic rocks found in the governorate date back to the Miocene and Pliocene ages.

The Syrian Society for Exploration and Documentation is a society licensed by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. It aims to shed light on important and unexplored historic and natural locations in Syria, exploring archeological locations and virgin forests, organizing field activities, and training volunteers for archeological expeditions.

Source: Global Arab Network.
Link: http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/201001024226/Culture/archaeologists-50000-years-old-volcanic-cave-discovered-in-syria.html.

Armed clashes erupt in Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Armed clashes erupted Saturday between fighters from two Palestinian militant groups in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"The Fatah Movement and Jund al-Sham Islamist militants used all kinds of machine guns during the clashes in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in southern Lebanon," NNA added.

Local Nahranet news website reported that one person was wounded during the half-an-hour-long clashes. "The camp's joint security committee had intervened to stop the fighting," it said.

Tayyar news website said that the injured militant was a Fatah al-Islam member.

Mounir Maqdah, who commands the main Palestinian police force in Ain al-Hilweh, said the clashes were contained after a meeting of the camp's security committee. He added that the fighting erupted when Jund al-Sham members fired at a Fatah bureau in the camp.

The clashes in Ain al-Hilweh near southwestern Lebanese city of Saida came after local An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday that al-Qaida militants are plotting terrorist attacks against state institutions and foreign missions in Lebanon.

The newspaper quoted a well-informed security source as saying that Lebanese security agencies have received information about the infiltration of al-Qaida militants into the country from Pakistan via Turkey, Greece and the Lebanese-Syrian border.

The al-Qaida members are training other militants in the refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, to carry out attacks against UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stationed in South Lebanon, the source added.

As an al-Qaida-inspired militia, Fatah al-Islam fought fierce battles with the Lebanese army in Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon in 2007.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA)lists nearly 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Most of them live in 12 camps across the country.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/03/content_12747451.htm.

Hamas lawmakers approve budget for deposed Gaza gov't

GAZA, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hamas lawmakers have approved a budget for the deposed Hamas government which rules the Gaza Strip, officials said on Sunday.

The new budget is 540 million U.S. dollars, bigger than the 428million dollars proposed in a financial report that Hamas' budget committee in the parliament drafted in October.

All Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) attended an undisclosed session on Saturday and approved the budget, according to the officials.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, the second largest bloc in the PLC, doesn't recognize the parliamentary sessions Hamas has held in Gaza since it routed pro-Abbas forces and seized the coastal strip by force in June 2007.

Lawmaker Jamal Nassar, chief of the budget committee in the PLC, said the financial plan covers the year 2010 in the Gaza Strip and focuses on economic and social matters.

"The health and education ministries have a great share in the budget which was approved by most of the (Hamas) lawmakers," Nassar added.

Hamas has 34,200 security and civil servants taking about 17.5 million dollars in salaries and monthly wages.

The budget doesn't take into consideration the West Bank which is ruled by a Western-backed government.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/03/content_12749172.htm.

Egypt opens Gaza border crossing

Egyptian authorities have temporarily opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing those with permits to cross.

Authorities said that by early afternoon on Sunday around 133 people had crossed from Gaza into Egypt - mostly students with visas for foreign countries, and patients in urgent need of medical care.

Another 25 people crossed the other direction - largely those who live in Egypt with family in Gaza, or Palestinians who had been unable to return home due to the border closures.

Egypt had announced last week it would be opening Rafah - the only border crossing into Gaza not controlled by Israel - from January 3 to 6.

Although opened sporadically, the Rafah border crossing has largely remained shut - as have the Israeli-controlled crossings into Gaza - since Hamas gained full control of the territory through violent Palestinian infighting in June 2007.

The siege of Gaza has been the source of recent protests, planned to coincide with the anniversary of Israel's 22-day offensive in the Strip.

Hundreds of people rallied in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night, chanting slogans and waving signs calling for "Freedom and Justice in Gaza".

'Freedom' march

On the Egyptian side of the border, hundreds of international activists held repeated protests around Cairo this week demanding the authorities permanently reopen the crossing point.

Around 1,300 members of the Gaza Freedom March (GFM) had gathered in Egypt from more than 40 countries to march to Gaza with aid and supplies as a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians there.

However, Egyptian authorities barred the group from crossing the border, citing security reasons, and instead offering to allow 100 members to cross.

Up to 92 delegates did eventually cross into Gaza, meeting with non-governmental organizations and witnessing first-hand the devastation wrought by last year's war and the continuing siege of the Strip, march organizers told Al Jazeera.

Many of the GFM activists were leaving Cairo on Sunday for their respective countries with a sense of accomplishment, Ann Wright, a co-ordinator for the march, said.

On Friday, the Gaza Freedom March approved the "Cairo Declaration", a document calling for the end of Israeli occupation and Palestinian self-determination, as well as for "boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to compel Israel to comply with international law".

Backed by a delegation from South Africa, the document also made repeated reference to Israel as an apartheid state, and made comparison's to the former South African government.

Wright, a retired US army colonel and diplomat who resigned from the US state department in protest against the Iraq war in 2003, said organizers "want to build on what has occurred by having this march, and expand it so that we can keep the attention on the plight of the people of Gaza".

"These things are really unprecedented in Egypt I think," she said. "I don't think there's ever been this type of international demonstrations here."

However, Wright said that to Egypt's credit, and despite heavy-handed use of force by police at times, the government did allow them to hold demonstrations outside the UN, Israeli, US and French embassies, contrary to what some expected.

UK convoy

Cairo has also come under increasing criticism for reportedly strengthening a wall along the Gaza border, with Palestinians concerned it might affect underground smuggling tunnels used to bring in basic supplies, such as food, but also weapons.

Meanwhile, a long-delayed aid convoy destined for the Gaza Strip is expected to arrive in the coastal territory on Monday.

The Viva Palestina convoy, with 210 lorries full of medicine and other supplies, set out from the UK nearly a month ago.

A ferry carrying the supplies reportedly arrived in the Egyptian port El Arish on the Mediterranean on Sunday after sailing from Latakia in Syria.

Source: Al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/20101310631832820.html.