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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Veiled Threat or Not? Israelis Rile at Mitchell Comment

Israel’s leaders are irate over what they perceive to be a veiled threat from Obama Mideast envoy George Mitchell last week. Appearing on the Charlie Rose television program, Mitchell warned that the administration could, under American law, “withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel," as an example of a way of pressuring the Jewish state to make concessions sought by the U.S. The Israelis and their supporters were enraged. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office immediately responded by saying that it is the Palestinians who are refusing to return to the bargaining table, not the Israelis. An Israeli newspaper contacted Mitchell’s office which explained the envoy was responding to a question, not making threats.

Source: Media Line.
Link: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_mideast_daily.asp?Date=01/10/2010&category_id=8.

Researchers Reluctantly Admit Mediterranean Diet Beats Diabetes Drugs for Controlling Blood Sugar

(NaturalNews) For the first time, a long-term health study has demonstrated that the Mediterranean diet may help diabetes patients control their blood sugar without the use of medication.

"A Mediterranean-style diet is a very important part in the treatment of diabetes," said endocrinologist Loren Greene of New York University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. "We knew that, but there just hasn't been a good study to confirm this before."

In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers assigned 215 overweight, adult residents of Naples, Italy, to adhere to one of two diets. Participants in one group were assigned to follow a Mediterranean diet -- eating large quantities of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and certain healthy fats such as olive oil; favoring lean protein sources such as nuts, poultry and fish; and gaining no more than half their daily calories from carbohydrates. Participants in the other group were assigned to follow a low-fat diet similar to that recommended by the American Heart Association -- with no more than 30 percent of its daily calories from fat and 10 percent from saturated fat; low in sweets and high-fat snacks; and high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

All participants were instructed to limit their caloric intake to 1,800 calories per day for men and 1,500 per day for women. They were given regular nutrition counseling and urged to exercise regularly.

After four years, 56 percent of the participants in the Mediterranean diet group were able to manage their diabetes without drugs, compared with only 30 percent of those in the low-fat group. Participants eating a Mediterranean diet also maintained more weight loss and more improvement in levels of HDL ("bad") cholesterol and triglycerides.

Greene noted that as most patients dislike taking medication, the new study might provide an incentive for more diabetics to watch their diets.

"If you are told, 'If you don't want to go on medicine, stick to this diet,' then that's a pretty valuable tool at least for patient compliance," she said.

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/027903_Mediterranean_diet_diabetes.html.

Airport shut down by incompetent TSA authorities after jars of honey flagged as explosives

(NaturalNews) At the Bakersfield airport in California, TSA authorities recently shut down the entire airport after finding what they thought was a container of liquid explosives.

Luggage screeners discovered five Gatorade bottles full of an "amber" liquid. TSA agents then opened the bottles and complained they smelled "a strong chemical odor." They then complained of nausea and were taken to the local hospital for treatment.

According to Reuters, "Kern County Sheriffs deputies, fire crews, FBI agents and members of a joint terrorism task force responded to the scene and spent the day questioning Ramirez before further tests showed that the liquid was honey."

In other words, Ramirez was interrogated by the FBI for hours while being presumed to be a terrorist. (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS...)

And then it turned out the "explosive amber liquid" was just HONEY.

Apparently, TSA employees are so unbelievably retarded that they don't even know what honey smells like or looks like. When they smell honey, they mistakenly believe they're under a chemical attack! And then they engage in all sorts of theater by acting like they're experiencing nausea so that they can be carted off to the hospital and take the rest of the work day off.

These are the people who are supposed to be protecting America from highly-motivated, highly-intelligent terrorists? Give me a break...

The TSA can't catch actual terrorists, but it's really good at flagging innocent people as terrorists and wasting thousands of hours of time (and millions of dollars for the airlines) declaring bogus terrorists emergencies that only serve to inconvenience everyone.

Chemical detection tests are bogus
What the TSA hasn't yet acknowledged is that their chemical detection tests are complete quackery.

As we've reported before, a bottle of Dr. Bronner's soap will test positive for illegal narcotics. A bar of home-made chocolate got Ron and Nadine from Living Libations arrested (and their child stolen from them by authorities) and accused of trafficking illegal drugs (http://www.naturalnews.com/024304.html).

Honey now apparently tests positive for explosives. Is there any food or liquid substance that truly safe from being declared a bomb by incompetent TSA employees?

It's fairly obvious at this point that the real mission of the TSA has nothing to do with security. It has everything to do with brainwashing Americans to surrender to police state searches while living in a never-ending state of extreme fear. The TSA, in other words, is just a vehicle by which Americans can be programmed to kow-tow to the herd mentality.

And then they ratchet up the invasions of your privacy one step at a time. First it's just asking you to throw away your water, then later they ask you to start taking off your shoes and belts. Before long, you're scanned with a full body scanner that shows you body completely naked -- nipples, penises, crotches and all -- while TSA agents get off on their power trip.

The TSA wants you to believe that high levels of detail are not possible with their full-body scanners. But as you can clearly see here, this technology reveals breasts and genitalia. The images they release to the public are intentionally blurred and offered a low resolution in order to create the false impression that TSA agents can't really see anything. But if they can't see anything, what good is the technology?

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/027905_TSA_airport_security.html.

Saudi Court Revokes Canadian's Death Sentence

A Canadian man from Montreal no longer faces a public beheading in Saudi Arabia but his supporters say he still has a long way to go as he must now brave a trio of new judges and a fresh trial in connection with a fatal after-school brawl in 2007.

A spokeswoman for Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon confirmed Mohamed Kohail, 24, is still in a Saudi jail, but the death penalty is off the table after a court judgment Saturday.

Saudi Arabia's supreme court also decided that Kohail's case should be retried.

“This is good news,” said Cannon spokeswoman Catherine Loubier.

Liberal Parliament member Dan McTeague, who has been following the case, said this new ruling may finally break what until now has been a judicial stalemate.

“It's encouraging news but we're not out of the woods yet,” he said.“He still has a long way to go, he's got to go through a whole trial.”

Mohamed Kohail, who is a Canadian citizen, and a Jordanian friend were sentenced to death after being convicted of the killing of 19-year-old Munzer Al-Hiraki during an after-school brawl in Jidda in 2007. Authorities said the fight was sparked after Kohail's younger brother Sultan got into a dispute with Al-Hiraki's female cousin.

The brothers have repeatedly said they were acting in self-defense and were not involved in inflicting the fatal wounds during the fight, which involved dozens of teenagers.

Mohamed Kohail has said he was tortured into confessing.

His case bounced around Saudi courts for most of this year. He was convicted by a lower court, and automatically sentenced to death. The verdict was upheld by an appeals court, but was not endorsed by the highest court of the land.

After much back and forth, finally on Saturday, the top court imposed its will.

“It was a form of legal ping-pong,” said McTeague.

“What's significant about this decision as opposed to previous decisions is the request that the trial come before different judges. It basically allows for a clearer, fairer trial under Saudi law.”

He said Kohail's family is also hoping the latest ruling will allow him to be released on bail. He's been behind bars for the past three years.

“The family is very pleased but very cautious,” he said. “They're not out of the woods yet.”

Family friend Mahmoud Al-Ken called the ruling “almost a declaration of innocence from the Supreme Council” but agreed the family is desperate to see Kohail released from prison while he awaits the retrial.

“It's a major breakthrough in this case,” he said. “Although it's very good news and the family is very optimistic about this decision, we're demanding Mohamed Kohail and his friend be released until the final decision is rendered.”

Kohail's brother, Sultan, still languishes in the Saudi justice system. Initially he was sentenced to 200 lashes and a year in prison by a juvenile court. But that ruling was overturned, and he was ordered to face a new trial in adult court, where he could be sentenced to death.

Ms. Loubier said nothing has been resolved yet in the case of the younger Kohail.

“This case continues to be a priority for the government,” said Ms. Loubier. “Canada continues to provide consular assistance and to pursue all avenues to assist Mohamed and Sultan Kohail.”

Ottawa did not give any further details on the case, citing the Privacy Act, but Al-Ken said that due to the circumstances of the case, the new ruling will have an impact on Sultan Kohail's trial as well.

“Sultan's case will be linked to Mohamed's case,” he said. “So any decision in Mohamed's case will directly impact Sultan's case.”

The Kohail family and the federal Liberals have frequently criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not doing enough to intervene in the case.

Mohamed Kohail wrote directly to the Prime Minister asking for his help - providing grist for the Liberals' argument that the federal Conservatives were neglecting Canadians abroad who are in trouble.

But the Conservatives say they are in close touch with all the participants in the Kohail issue, and have taken every opportunity to raise the case and support the Kohail family.

“Canada encourages the abolition of the death penalty internationally and also advocates full respect for international safeguards where the death penalty is in use,” said Ms. Loubier.

Al-Ken said the family doesn't yet know when a the retrial will be held but he hopes the Canadian government continues to be directly engaged in the case.

“We believe it's enough years of their lives wasted in prison,” he said. “We hope this will be a good end for both families and we send our sympathies to the victim's family as well.”

Source: Free Internet Press.
Link: http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=24143.

Officials Hid Truth About Immigrant Deaths While In Custody

Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when the New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how they died.

But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.

The documents, obtained over recent months by The Times and the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act, concern most of the 107 deaths in detention counted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October 2003, after the agency was created within the Department of Homeland Security.

The Obama administration has vowed to overhaul immigration detention, a haphazard network of privately run jails, federal centers and county cells where the government holds non-citizens while it tries to deport them.

But as the administration moves to increase oversight within the agency, the documents show how officials - some still in key positions - used their role as overseers to cover up evidence of mistreatment, deflect scrutiny by the news media or prepare exculpatory public statements after gathering facts that pointed to substandard care or abuse.

As one man lay dying of head injuries suffered in a New Jersey immigration jail in 2007, for example, a spokesman for the federal agency told The Times that he could learn nothing about the case from government authorities. In fact, the records show, the spokesman had alerted those officials to the reporter’s inquiry, and they conferred at length about sending the man back to Africa to avoid embarrassing publicity.

In another case that year, investigators from the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that unbearable, untreated pain had been a significant factor in the suicide of a 22-year-old detainee at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey, and that the medical unit was so poorly run that other detainees were at risk.

The investigation found that jail medical personnel had falsified a medication log to show that the detainee, a Salvadoran named Nery Romero, had been given Motrin. The fake entry was easy to detect: When the drug was supposedly administered, Mr. Romero was already dead.

Yet those findings were never disclosed to the public or to Mr. Romero’s relatives on Long Island, who had accused the jail of abruptly depriving him of his prescription painkiller for a broken leg. And an agency supervisor wrote that because other jails were “finicky” about accepting detainees with known medical problems like Mr. Romero’s, such people would continue to be placed at the Bergen jail as “a last resort.”

In a recent interview, Benjamin Feldman, a spokesman for the jail, which housed 1,503 immigration detainees last year, would not say whether any changes had been made since the death.

In February 2007, in the case of the dying African man, the immigration agency’s spokesman for the Northeast, Michael Gilhooly, rebuffed a New York Times reporter’s questions about the detainee, who had suffered a skull fracture at the privately run Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. Gilhooly said that without a full name and alien registration number for the man, he could not check on the case.

But, records show, he had already filed a report warning top managers at the federal agency about the reporter’s interest and sharing information about the injured man, a Guinean tailor named Boubacar Bah. Bah, 52, had been left in an isolation cell without treatment for more than 13 hours before an ambulance was called.

While he lay in the hospital in a coma after emergency brain surgery, 10 agency managers in Washington, D.C., and Newark, New Jersey, conferred by telephone and e-mail about how to avoid the cost of his care and the likelihood of “increased scrutiny and/or media exposure,” according to a memo summarizing the discussion.

One option they explored was sending the dying man to Guinea, despite an e-mail message from the supervising deportation officer, who wrote, “I don’t condone removal in his present state as he has a catheter” and was unconscious. Another idea was renewing Mr. Bah’s canceled work permit in hopes of tapping into Medicaid or disability benefits.

Eventually, faced with paying $10,000 a month for nursing home care, officials settled on a third course: “humanitarian release” to cousins in New York who had protested that they had no way to care for him. But days before the planned release, Mr. Bah died.

Among the participants in the conferences was Nina Dozoretz, a longtime manager in the agency’s Division of Immigration Health Services who had won an award for cutting detainee health care costs. Later she was vice president of the Nakamoto Group, a company hired by the Bush administration to monitor detention. The Obama administration recently rehired her to lead its overhaul of detainee health care.

Asked about the conference call on Mr. Bah, Dozoretz said: “How many years ago was that? I don’t recall all the specifics if indeed there was a call.” She added, “I advise you to contact our public affairs office.” Gilhooly, the spokesman who had said he had no information on the case, would not comment.

On the day after Mr. Bah’s death in May 2007, Scott Weber, director of the Newark field office of the immigration enforcement agency, recommended in a memo that the agency take the unusual step of paying to send the body to Guinea for burial, to prevent his widow from showing up in the United States for a funeral and drawing news coverage.

Weber wrote that he believed the agency had handled Mr. Bah’s case appropriately. “However,” he added, “I also don’t want to stir up any media interest where none is warranted.” Helping to bury Mr. Bah overseas, he wrote, “will go a long way to putting this matter to rest.”

In the agency’s confidential files was a jail video showing Mr. Bah face down in the medical unit, hands cuffed behind his back, just before medical personnel sent him to a disciplinary cell. The tape shows him crying out repeatedly in his native Fulani, “Help, they are killing me!”

Almost a year after his death, the agency quietly closed the case without action. But Mr. Bah’s name had shown up on the first list of detention fatalities, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, and on May 5, 2008, his death was the subject of a front-page article in the New York Times.

Brian P. Hale, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an interview that the newly disclosed records represented the past, and that the agency’s new leaders were committed to transparency and greater oversight, including prompt public disclosure and investigation of every death, and more attention to detainee care in a better-managed system.

But the most recent documents show that the culture of secrecy has endured. And the past cover-ups underscore what some of the agency’s own employees say is a central flaw in the proposed overhaul: a reliance on the agency to oversee itself.

“Because ICE investigates itself there is no transparency and there is no reform or improvement,” Chris Crane, a vice president in the union that represents employees of the agency’s detention and removal operations, told a Congressional subcommittee on Dec. 10.

The agency has kept a database of detention fatalities at least since December 2005, when a National Public Radio investigation spurred a Congressional inquiry. In 2006, the agency issued standard procedures for all such deaths to be reported in detail to headquarters.

But internal documents suggest that officials were intensely concerned with controlling public information. In April 2007, Marc Raimondi, then an agency spokesman, warned top managers that a Washington Post reporter had asked about a list of 19 deaths that the civil liberties union had compiled, and about a dying man whose penile cancer had spread after going undiagnosed in detention, despite numerous medical requests for a biopsy.

“These are quite horrible medical stories,” Raimondi wrote, “and I think we’ll need to have a pretty strong response to keep this from becoming a very damaging national story that takes on long legs.”

That response was an all-out defense of detainee medical care over several months, including statistics that appeared to show that mortality rates in detention were declining, and were low compared with death rates in prisons.

Experts in detention health care called the comparison misleading; it also came to light that the agency was under-counting the number of detention deaths, as well as discharging some detainees shortly before they died. In August, litigation by the civil liberties union prompted the Obama administration to disclose that more than one in 10 immigrant detention deaths had been overlooked and omitted from a list submitted to Congress last year.

Two of those deaths had occurred in Arizona, in 2004 and 2007, at the Eloy Detention Center, run by the Corrections Corporation of America. Eloy had nine known fatalities - more than any other immigration jail under contract to the federal government. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement was still secretive. When a reporter for the Arizona Republic asked about the circumstances of those deaths, an agency spokesman told him the records were unavailable.

According to records the New York Times obtained in December, one Eloy detainee who died, in October 2008, was Emmanuel Owusu. An ailing 62-year-old barber who had arrived from Ghana on a student visa in 1972, he had been a legal permanent resident for 33 years, mostly in Chicago. Immigration authorities detained him in 2006, based on a 1979 conviction for misdemeanor battery and retail theft.

“I am confused as to how subject came into our custody???” the Phoenix field office director, Katrina S. Kane, wrote to subordinates. “Convicted in 1979? That’s a long time ago.”

In response, a report on his death was revised to refer to Mr. Owusu’s “lengthy criminal history ranging from 1977 to 1998.” It did not note that except for the battery conviction, that history consisted mostly of shoplifting offenses.

A diabetic with high blood pressure, he had been detained for two years at Eloy while he battled deportation. He died of a heart ailment weeks after his last appeal was dismissed.

Source: Free Internet Press.
Link: http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=24145.

Iranian team to study Persian army found in Egypt

A group of Iranian archeologists is planning to go to Egypt to study the remains of a great Persian army in the Sahara desert.

Iran's Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (ICHTO) Hamid Baqaei announced on Sunday that Egypt had agreed for the Iranian group to conduct studies there.

Two Italian brothers claimed to have found the remains of a great army sent by the Persian King Cambyses II to attack the Oasis of Siwa 2,500 years ago.

Egypt's chief archeologist Zahi Hawass, however, rejected the discovery as "unfounded and misleading," adding that as the Italian brothers had not been granted legal permission to excavate in Egypt their claims of having made a discovery was not credible.

"We have sent a letter to Egyptian cultural heritage officials and they have implicitly confirmed the existence of the remains of the Persian army," IRNA quoted Baqaei as saying.

"They have also stated that the finds belong to the Egyptian government."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115822&sectionid=351020105.

Ahmadinejad submits Development Plan draft

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has submitted the draft of the Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015) to the Parliament (Majlis) for approval.

The plan, which is the country's fifth in turn, sets the guidelines for the development of Iran's national infrastructure, particularly in the economic, social, political, cultural, defense and security sectors.

Addressing the Parliament on Sunday before submitting the draft, Ahmadinejad said the plan is "transparent, feasible, brief and to the point."

"The plan we designed is extremely flexible, which we hope will be kept that way during parliamentary deliberation," said the Iranian president.

He added that "all physical and spiritual capacities" in the country have been taken into consideration in developing the draft so that they could all play a role in the society.

"The draft is totally objective, enjoys an internal coherence, is compatible with the current situation of the country and is developed in a transparent and operational way," he added.

The plan envisages 45 clauses dealing with cultural affairs, scientific and technological know-how, social affairs, economic, political, defense and security affairs.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115809§ionid=351020101.

US making moves to back Iran's Green Movement

The US administration is progressively moving to find ways to support Iran's opposition Green Movement, senior US officials have made it known.

The White House is crafting new financial sanctions specifically designed to punish the Iranian entities and individuals most directly involved in putting down the riots, rather than just those involved in Iran's nuclear program, IRNA cited a report published by The Wall Street Journal as saying on Saturday.

The report added that US Treasury Department strategists previously focused on the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and have made up a list of IRGC-related companies that are to be targeted.

The companies on the list include Iran's largest telecommunications provider, the Telecommunication Company of Iran, which is majority-owned by the IRGC, and the Iranian Aluminum Co.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has blamed the latest unrest in Iran on the United States and Israel.

"This is a play staged by the US and the Zionists, which just makes us sick. Both those who staged and those who acted in this play are making a mistake, as the Iranian nation has seen many such plays and will not be affected," Ahmadinejad said in late December.

He also accused the US and Britain of supporting the protesters and said the two countries would regret it.

Anti-government protesters staged rallies in Tehran on December 27, taking advantage of the Ashura ceremonies, which commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH). Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, who vandalized public property and set trash cans aflame, provoking clashes with security forces.

Seven people died during the unrest. The deputy police chief, Ahmad-Reza Radan, said after the incidents that the police force had not used violence against protesters and rejected accusations that they were responsible for the deaths.

In response to the Ashura riots, millions of Iranians took to the streets on December 30, 2009, demanding that the rioters be brought to justice.

Iranian officials have said that the nation knows that the anti-government riots were incited by foreigners.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115770§ionid=351020101.

People across Iraq protest Saudi cleric insults

People across Iraq have taken to streets to protest a Saudi cleric's comments regarding the country's most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Leading Wahhabi cleric Mohammad al-Ureifi in a Friday sermon had termed the Shia cleric an "atheist and debauched."

He also launched an attack on Iraq's Shias, accusing 65 percent of the country's population of conspiring with Yemen's Houthis against Saudi Arabia.

During demonstrations condemning the remarks, protesters called on the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take a tough stance on the remarks.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has responded to the verbal attack on the Grand Ayatollah, who has played an increasingly prominent role in Iraq since 2003, when the US in led an invasion of the country.

Talabani has appealed directly to the Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz to intervene and stop insults against Iraq's revered Shia scholar.

"Insult to Sistani causes division and quarrels that spark the flames in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other countries," he wrote in a letter to the monarch.

Holding considerable influence over Iraqi political developments, the Grand Ayatollah is consulted on major political matters within the country.

Prime Minister al-Maliki last week traveled to the holy city of Najaf to discuss preparations for the March parliamentary elections with Grand Ayatollah.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115787§ionid=351020201.

Galloway: Britain, Egypt need leaders like Erdogan

British lawmaker George Galloway has slammed Egypt for its support of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, hailing Turkey's support for the Palestinian people.

Galloway, who headed the Viva Palestina aid convoy for the Gazans, was deported from Egypt.

"I wish that Egypt and Britain had leaders like [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan," Turkey's Yenisafak quoted Galloway as saying on Saturday.

He hailed the Turkish government's support for the humanitarian convoy.

The member of the Respect Party noted that he will never visit Egypt again, stressing that the Egyptian people are different from the "dictatorship" running the country and said that he will miss them.

Galloway said that he is discussing a new plan with Turkish officials to carry humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip directly from Turkey via the Mediterranean Sea.

He said that such a move is expected to take place in March.

Despite restrictions imposed by the Egyptian authorities, the Viva Palestina convoy of around 200 vehicles managed to break the Israeli siege of Gaza on Wednesday.

Fifty-nine vehicles were not allowed into the strip but the supplies were unloaded and taken through by the activists.

The activists entered Gaza through Rafah border crossing.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115791§ionid=351020502.

Saudi embassy in Stockholm comes under attack

Unknown assailants have attacked the Saudi Arabian embassy in Sweden by throwing a Molotov cocktail at a window that overlooks the street.

The incident, which took place Friday night, caused no injuries among the Embassy staff, the Saudi Press Agency reported, citing an official source at the Embassy.

The unnamed source added that the building itself did not suffer any damage, except for the broken window.

According to the source, work has not stopped at the Embassy and its doors are still open to the public.

Immediately after the incident, the Embassy staff contacted Swedish authorities, asking for a full inquiry.

Swedish investigators have reportedly started looking into the matter.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115790§ionid=351020205.

6.5-magnitude earthquake hits northern California

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of northern California, the US Geological Survey has said.

The quake occurred on Saturday, 22 miles (35 kilometers) west of Ferndale and 224 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento, at a depth of nine miles (16 kilometers), AFP reported.

Local media said police in Ferndale reported some damage to the city hall building but gave no initial reports of injuries.

The temblor hit at 4:27 pm local time (0027 GMT) and was followed by a series of three aftershocks measuring 3.5, 3.7, and 3.8 on the open-ended Moment Magnitude Scale.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the initial jolt was felt as far away as San Francisco.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115766§ionid=3510203.

Egyptian MP resigns in protest of steel wall

An Egyptian lawmaker has resigned in protest of parliament's agreement with the government to build a steel wall on the border with the Gaza Strip.

Talaat Sadat, a member of the Parliament Committee on Defense and National Security, told Al-Jazeera that the Egyptian government's decision to construct the wall is illegal, because the parliament committee is responsible for deciding on such issues.

The independent lawmaker, a nephew of the late President Anwar Sadat, said that the parliament speaker has ignored the body's responsibilities by siding with the government.

Sadat stated that lawmakers who oppose the decision of the Egyptian government and parliament believe that Cairo should respect its legal, political and ethical responsibilities towards 1.5 million Palestinian people who are in dire conditions.

The wall will be 10-11 kilometers (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 meters below the surface, blocking the tunnels that Gazans use to bring food and fuel into the coastal sliver. The sliver has long been under an Israeli siege.

US army engineers have designed the wall and the US is supporting Egypt's construction of the wall, the BBC reported.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115806&sectionid=351020502.

'Rejection of Afghan cabinet nominees is a setback'

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

The United Nations mission chief in Afghanistan says that Afghan MPs' decision to reject most of President Hamid Karzai's cabinet nominees is a serious setback for efforts to establish a functioning government in the country.

Kai Eide told journalists in Kabul on Sunday that this was a "setback and it's a distraction."

On Saturday, the parliament of Afghanistan rejected more than half of President Karzai's cabinet nominees during confirmation votes.

"It prolongs the situation without a functioning government, which has lasted since summer," the BBC quoted Eide as saying.

Although Karzai is expected to submit the names of new nominees for ministerial posts in the near future, there will still probably be a delay before the new cabinet team is approved because the Afghan Parliament begins a 45-day winter break on Tuesday.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115283§ionid=351020403.

UN to accept $10m in compensation from Israel for Gaza war damage

Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem

The United Nations is to accept more than $10 million (£6.2 million) from Israel as compensation for damage caused during the war in Gaza — a deal branded a cheap buyout by its own staff in the territory.

UN officials said the agreement would be announced in the coming days. It is the first time Israel is known to have paid the organization compensation for damage to its facilities in Palestinian territories, but Israeli officials emphasized that it would not set a precedent.

“This is a special agreement, reached on this particular issue, it carries no legal ramifications,” said an Israeli defense official, describing the payment as a “goodwill gesture”.

Though officials at the UN headquarters in New York said they were satisfied with the deal, local staff said they were outraged.

“Israel cannot think that it will buy us this cheaply,” said one, speaking anonymously because he did not have permission to comment on the agreement.

“We are not going to be bought off, to walk away and forget all the damage done by Israel during the Gaza war.”

The agreement, reached between UN officials in New York and the Israeli mission there, would provide compensation for an attack on January 15, 2009 by Israeli forces on a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warehouse in Gaza city.

During Operation Cast Lead, tanks shelled the warehouse, containing hundreds of tons of food and medicine; white phosphorus in the munitions meant the structure caught fire.

Days later Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, stood outside the still-smoldering compound and said: “It is an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack on the United Nations. There must be a full investigation, a full explanation to make sure it never happens again. There should be accountability through a proper judiciary system.”

He went on to condemn “excessive use” of force by Israel, as well as the rocket salvos fired by Hamas militants into southern Israel that provided the trigger for the assault, which began on December 27. In addition, he vowed to seek more than $11 million in payment from Israel.

Mr Ban revisited Gaza for the anniversary of the war, and said more should be done to address reconstruction, but did not reiterate his previous demands. In an internal report, the Israeli military said that the shelling of the warehouse was a “mistake” but defended its actions by stating that Palestinian militants had been hiding in and around the UN compound.

UN officials have rejected that account.

“Not a scrap of evidence exists to suggest that there were any militants or militant activity on our compound on January 15. Nor have the Israelis produced any evidence that there were any militants on any of our compounds,” Christopher Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman, told The Times yesterday.

“The Israelis have moved from saying that there was activity in the compound, to saying it was around ... The fact is that this is an Israeli fudge, because there were no militants.”

A UN-commissioned inquiry into damage caused during the 22-day war found that Israel had acted “recklessly” and “breached the inviolability of United Nations premises”.

The UN has estimated that more than 50,000 homes, 200 schools and 39 mosques were damaged or destroyed during the war, in addition to a number of UN facilities, including two schools, offices and dozens of vehicles.

A second UN investigation, the Goldstone report, which accused both sides of war crimes, has still not been brought before the Security Council more than a year after the end of Operation Cast Lead.

In one of the most serious incidents during the conflict, Israeli forces fired several mortar rounds around a UN school in the northern Gaza village of Jabaliya.

Palestinian officials said that more than 40 people who were taking refuge in the school were killed. Israel said that militants had been firing rockets from outside the building.

Gaza human rights groups say that approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s offensive, though Israel placed the figure at 1,166. Thirteen Israelis were killed.

Source: Times.
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6981539.ece.

Lebanon asks US to reverse ban on Hezbollah TV

BEIRUT — Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has urged the United States to reverse a decision to ban the Hezbollah television channel, Al-Manar, during talks with US Senator John McCain.

"President Sleiman asked that Washington backtrack on its decision to ban certain television channels, including Al-Manar," a statement from his office said after the Friday meeting.

Sleiman's concerns come after the US House of Representatives passed a bill in December calling for punitive measures against Middle East television networks seen as fueling anti-American hatred.

Arab information ministers are due to meet on January 24 at the Cairo headquarters of the 22-member Arab League to discuss the US bill.

The bill, adopted in a decisive 395-3 vote, asks President Barack Obama to report, six months after the text has passed, "on anti-American incitement to violence in the Middle East, and for other purposes."

"For years, media outlets in the Middle East have repeatedly published or broadcast incitements to violence against the United States and Americans," the bill read.

The networks listed include Al-Aqsa, the television station of the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas, which broadcasts from the Gaza Strip, and Hezbollah's Al-Manar.

Al-Manar is on a list of terrorist organizations announced in December 2004 by the United States, where the television has lost its feed and is banned from broadcasting.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and its key Middle East ally Israel, although the Shiite movement is a major political party in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has two ministers in the new national unity cabinet that US- and Western-backed Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri unveiled in November.

Lebanon detains wanted Islamist

BEIRUT — Lebanese authorities have arrested a man suspected of being a key operative in an Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group, the army said on Friday.

A Palestinian security official told AFP that the suspect is a member of the Fatah al-Islam group which fought a fierce battle with the army in 2007, and was responsible for funding the group.

"We arrested a big fish in a raid in Beirut late on Thursday, and that's all I can say," the military spokesman told AFP, asking not to be identified.

But the Palestinian official identified the suspect as Munir Mezian, who had been arrested by the Lebanese army four years ago and jailed for 18 months for attacking soldiers.

Mezian was tasked with "providing financial funds and weapons" for Fatah al-Islam and was "among the first group (of militants) who set up" the Islamist organization, said the Palestinian official, who also declined to be named.

He said Mezian is in his 30s and is also known as Abu al-Waleed. He used to live in the Palestinian Beddawi refugee camp in northern Lebanon but fled about a year and a half ago to live in Beirut with his mother.

Mezian "could have information about other Fatah al-Islam militants" wanted by the Lebanese authorities, the Palestinian official said.

Earlier, Lebanese media reported that the man arrested was suspected of being a leading figure in Fatah al-Islam and of plotting future attacks.

"The suspect was on the state's wanted list and is a member of Fatah al-Islam," the Arabic-language daily An-Nahar said.

Newspapers said the army had also seized equipment during Thursday's raid on a house in Beirut.

In 2007, Fatah al-Islam fought fierce battles with the army at Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

The fighting killed 400 people, including 168 soldiers, and displaced some 30,000 refugees from the camp, which was leveled in the weeks-long conflict.

Fatah al-Islam has also been linked to deadly bombings targeting UN peacekeepers in the south and civilian buses.

By long-standing convention, the army does not enter Lebanon's impoverished refugee camps, home to an estimated 250,000 Palestinians.

Palestinians reject U.S. call for resuming peace talks

by Saud Abu Ramadan, Fares Akram

GAZA/RAMALLAH, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Saturday rejected a U.S. call for resuming the stalled peace talks with Israel without preconditions, demanding a full settlement freeze in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Gaza Strip ruling Islamic Hamas movement warned the PNA against any resumption and cautioned that Israel will be the only beneficiary of the peace talks.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Xinhua in a telephone interview that it is unacceptable, "since the U.S. administration's calls don't include a total freeze of settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, and don't include a timetable for resuming the talks."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said that the United States is working with Israeli and Palestinian authorities, as well as Arab states, namely Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, to resume the peace negotiations "as soon as possible and without preconditions."

Clinton made the remarks after meeting Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh, adding that Washington is to renew its commitment and increase efforts in persuading the parties to return to the talks.

The two officials called on the Palestinians and Israel to tackle the thorny issues of borders and the status of Jerusalem first, saying resolving the two issues would automatically resolve the dispute over Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a major obstacle in the peace process.

But Erekat said that Clinton "neglected the Arab position" that Israel must halt the building of Jewish settlements all-over the West Bank as well as in the occupied East Jerusalem." Clinton also failed to "endorse the principle of the two-state solution," Erekat said.

"How should we negotiate on the Palestinian state's boundaries while the Israeli bulldozers and settlements are eating up the land that we want to build our state on?" Erekat said. "The settlement expansions must stop to give a chance for the negotiations to succeed."

Erekat stressed that the negotiations must restart from the point they stopped at during the era of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The peace talks came to a standstill when Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and efforts to restart them have failed due to the continuation of Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On Friday, Israeli Ha'aretz daily reported that the United States studies the possibilities of holding indirect negotiations between Israel and the PNA.

"But (Palestinian) President Mahmoud Abbas still rejects the resumption of any talks before halting the Israeli settlements," the report said.

Erekat denied that the PNA has received such kind offers over resuming indirect peace talks with Israel, saying that, "So far we haven't received any official U.S. offers."

Last week, Abbas visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey to express the Palestinian stance concerning the efforts to resume the peace talks.

"There are actually Arab efforts exerted by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar to convince the U.S. Administration that it is time now that the United States present a comprehensive peace plan based on the establishment of a Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967," said Erekat.

The Palestinians insist the borders of their future statehood encompass all of the land Israel occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem as their capital, while Israel deems Jerusalem as its indivisible capital.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has also called on the international community to urge Israel to stop settlement in the Palestinian territories and end the blockade that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip for three years "before resuming any peace negotiations."

Meanwhile, the Islamic Hamas movement, which has been ruling the Gaza Strip since June 2007, snubbed U.S. and Arab efforts to resume peace talks between the PNA and Israel.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters that the bids to revive the peace process "aim at saving the Arab regimes from their weakness and rescuing the U.S. administration's reputation which is biased towards the Israeli occupation."

"For Hamas, the only beneficiary of the resumption of the negotiations is Israel which will use it as a cover to continue building settlements and making Jerusalem Jewish," Abu Zuhri added.

Hamas basically rejects the Middle East peace process and also refuses to recognize Israel.

Also on Saturday, a coalition of eight Palestinian factions based in Damascus, which include Hamas, Islamic Jihad and radical left-wing groups, said that they reject recent American and Arab political efforts to resume the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The ongoing moves to re-track negotiations with Israel are part of a plan to subjugate the Palestinian people to Israeli conditions," said the eight groups in a statement.

"We call on all the Palestinians political factions and powers to be united to confront these plans that would harm the just Palestinian cause," the statement said.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/09/content_12783181.htm.

Abbas not to see Hamas chief in Syria visit: official

RAMALLAH, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to visit Syria but will not meet his exiled Hamas rival, an official from Abbas' Fatah party said Saturday.

Abbas will not meet Hamas' politburo chief Khaled Mashaal in his planned visit to Damascus, said Jamal Muhissen, a member of Fatah's Central Committee.

"If Hamas had signed the reconciliation deal, there would have been meetings between the two sides," Muhissen added, referring to an Egyptian proposal to reconcile Hamas and Fatah.

The Islamic Hamas movement, which took over Gaza by force in 2007, raised reservations on the Egyptian offer to restore political unity to Gaza and the Fatah-ruled West Bank.

Earlier, Palestinian sources said that Abbas will sit with Mashaal in a meeting sponsored by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/09/content_12782274.htm.

Chechnya's Ruler Boasts of Successes as Grozny Opens Air Link With Turkey

January 8, 2010

By: Valery Dzutsev

On January 4, the operational headquarters in Chechnya announced that the zone of the counter-terrorist operation in the Achkhoi-Martan and Urus-Martan districts, in the republic’s southwestern foothills, had been expanded. Law enforcement officials were quoted saying that they had additional information about possible terrorist suspects being in the area. No settlements in the two districts were officially added to the newly-widened counter-terrorist operation zone, but the districts’ inhabitants were warned to cooperate with the authorities. This region borders the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, which has seen a significant surge of attacks in the past several years (www.kakvaz-uzel.ru, January 4).

A counter-terrorist operation had been declared in this area earlier –on December 11– but it yielded few results, with just five people having been detained for alleged collaboration with the insurgents. An anonymous Chechen police source told Kavkazsky Uzel that “looking for the fighters in the mountains today is the same as trying to find a needle in a haystack.” The source referred to the many natural hideouts in the area, such as caves and grottos.

Even though the counter-terrorist operation regime was officially lifted in Chechnya in April 2009, regional counter-terrorism operations have continually been enacted across the republic. Shatoi district, for instance, has practically not seen a break in the special operation regime since April 2009.

On December 17, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov claimed to have killed four insurgents –including a rebel leader, Aslan Izrailov– in a special operation in Vedeno district. Kadyrov hailed the killing of Izrailov as a great success for his forces, saying that undercover moles had been used to unveil the insurgents’ network in the region. “There is no point in talking to them [insurgents], they should be eliminated,” Kadyrov stated (www.kakvaz-uzel.ru, December 18). On December 22, Chechen officials reported that government forces had killed three more insurgents in Vedeno district. Kadyrov had habitually claimed that the number of insurgents in Chechnya was “50-70 people,” but official data show that more than 170 alleged insurgents were killed in Chechnya in 2009 alone, and rights activists say there is evidence that innocent people were among the killed and identified as rebels. Another claim Kadyrov has frequently made is that foreigners comprise the majority of the insurgents in Chechnya. However, official data suggests that only a few foreigners were among those killed by security forces (www.kakvaz-uzel.ru, December 24).

Nevertheless, Kadyrov nearly caused an international scandal in an interview with Reuters, in which he accused the West of plotting to destroy Russia. He said the West is destabilizing the North Caucasus in order to weaken Russia and suggested that Russia needs to counterattack in Georgia and Ukraine –countries where, according to Kadyrov, Russia needs to confront the West. Kadyrov said it would be better if the US pursued “more friendly policies” toward Russia and warned that if the US did not become friendlier, Russia has “a very strong politician of global stature, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin” (Reuters, December 21). Kadyrov’s words caused a stir in political circles in both Georgia and Ukraine. Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko dismissed the importance of Kadyrov’s statements, saying the Chechen leader is politically insignificant (Rosbalt, December 26).

The well-known Russian political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky said that Kadyrov’s statements show his independence from the Kremlin and do not reflect the latter’s plans. “Chechnya today is an independent country, with its own autonomous laws and its own power system,” Belkovsky said. “Moscow, whatever they might say, cannot influence Chechnya anymore, while Chechnya can influence Moscow” (Ukrainska Pravda, December 28).

Meanwhile, the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Grozny passed under heightened security measures, with all people, including women and teenagers, being searched in the locations where outdoor public celebrations were held. Kadyrov, who reportedly made an appearance dressed as Ded Moroz [Santa Claus] was hailed by the mayor of Grozny at the central Grozny plaza as “the principal Ded Moroz of not only our republic, but also of the Universe” (www.kakvaz-uzel.ru, January 1).

Moreover, the Kadyrov government’s ongoing fight with the rights activists took another turn. On December 16, the renowned Memorial human rights center announced a resumption of its activities in Chechnya, but on December 22, a group of Chechen NGO’s led by the republic’s rights ombudsman, Nurdi Nukhazhiev, harshly criticized Memorial. The head of the organization, Oleg Orlov, said the attack was proof of “the impossibility for the human rights activists to work in Chechnya” (www.kakvaz-uzel.ru, December 30). Rights activists have repeatedly accused the Chechen government authorities of human rights violations, including indiscriminate and extrajudicial killings, torture, attacks on civilians and terrorist suspects as well as on rights’ activists themselves. Following the brazen killing of the prominent Chechen rights activist Natalya Estemirova in July 2009, the Memorial human rights center suspended its operations in the republic.

On December 31, in a lengthy interview with the ITAR-TASS news agency, Ramzan Kadyrov stated that it was the responsibility of the federal law enforcement agencies to solve the murders of rights activists in Chechnya. Kadyrov reiterated his view that there are “several dozens of insurgents, scampering around in the mountains,” and vowed to carry out their elimination to the end. According to Kadyrov, Chechnya’s links with foreign countries have developed well, especially with the Middle East.

On December 24, Grozny airport hosted its first direct international flight – to Turkey – after having been granted international status. Regular flights to international destinations like Kazakhstan, China and Saudi Arabia are expected to follow in the near future (www.yuga.ru, December 24).

While Chechnya has undoubtedly become relatively quieter, especially compared to the other North Caucasian republics, security threats are still evident. Moscow, with a substantial degree of success, has used Ramzan Kadyrov to suppress the Chechen independence movement. But Kadyrov himself is gradually becoming a problem for Moscow. Still, relative stability in Chechnya seems to depend on Kadyrov’s personality to such an extent that Moscow will almost certainly patiently endure his whims.

Source: The Jamestown Foundation.
Link: http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=35894&tx_ttnews[backPid]=7&cHash=3c04c3fceb.

Germany, Saudi Arabia concerned about stability in Yemen - Summary

Riyadh - Germany and Saudi Arabia are concerned about stability in Yemen, foreign ministers of the two countries said in Riyadh on Saturday. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said his country has a "great interest in a stable Yemen, that does not become a retreat area for terrorists."

Westerwelle was in Riyadh, on the second leg of his Middle East tour, for political and trade talks with his Saudi counterpart Saud al-Faisal.

"Yemen must remain a sovereign and independent state," al-Faisal said after meeting Westerwelle.

Al-Houthi Shiite rebels from Yemen have waged an extended campaign against the government in Sanaa. Saudi Arabia says that it was drawn into the fighting in Yemen after militants crossed into its borders and killed several soldiers in early November.

Besides the conflict in Yemen, Westerwelle and al-Faisal discussed the Israeli-Arab peace process. They said they were in favor of a quick resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and that they supported a two-state solution.

Their discussion also touched upon human rights in the kingdom. Westerwelle called for Saudi Arabia to abolish the death penalty, saying that "we are convinced that the death penalty should be abolished everywhere in the world."

Al-Faisal commented saying: "there were different value systems."

Monika Luke, representative of Amnesty International in Germany, had called on Westerwelle on Friday to discuss human rights in the peninsula, accusing the kingdom of ongoing violations of fundamental human rights.

Fighting terrorism and Iran's nuclear program were on the ministers agenda as well as ways to boost economic cooperation between the two countries, officials said.

The German foreign minister was also accompanied by a phalanx of German business people looking to make deals in the Gulf region.

Chief executive of the state-owned railways group Deutsche Bahn, Ruediger Grube is one of those accompanying Westerwelle - suggesting that he might sign deals to upgrade the rail network in the region.

In November, Deutsche Bahn signed a deal with Qatar to create a 17-billion-euro (25-billion-dollar) railway system in the Gulf state and has been courting other governments for railway building deals.

This is Westerwelle's first trip to Saudi Arabia since assuming office. He arrived in the kingdom on Friday, the second stop on his six-day trip to Turkey and several Gulf states, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/302859,germany-saudi-arabia-concerned-about-stability-in-yemen--summary.html.

Uighur man stabbed to death in south China: report

Reuters
Friday, January 8, 2010

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Uighur man was stabbed to death in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, a sign of lingering tensions after a factory brawl last summer sparked bloody ethnic riots in Xinjiang, a newspaper said on Saturday.

Energy-rich Xinjiang, homeland to the Muslim Uighur people and strategically located in central Asia, has been struck in recent years by bombings, attacks and riots blamed by Beijing on Uighur separatists demanding an independent "East Turkistan".

The ethnic Uighur man was attacked by a Han Chinese man in a restaurant in Shenzhen, a city close to Shaoguan in Guangdong province where a massive brawl broke out at a factory between a group of Han Chinese and Uighur workers from Xinjiang last June, the South China Morning Post reported.

The Shaoguan incident triggered serious ethnic rioting in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi when Uighurs attacked Han Chinese, killing at least 197 people.

"I can't say the suspect was targeting Uighurs. But this is a traumatizing experience for me. We will return to Xinjiang once police finish questioning," the Uighur owner of the Xinjiang barbecue restaurant was quoted as saying by the paper.

Seven Han Chinese men were arrested and reportedly fired from their jobs afterward.

"The case is very sensitive, especially after the Xinjiang riots last July," a manager of the Hongtaide Property Management Company, where the men had worked, was quoted as saying.

Police in Guangzhou recently detained three people for spreading rumors that a group of Uighurs had been beaten up.

Source: Washington Post.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010803757.html.

Eiland calls to establish 'US of Jordan'

By HERB KEINON

Forget a two-state solution, the way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to create a United States of Jordan that would include three states governed by a federal government in Amman: the East Bank, West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

That, at least, is one of two solutions that former National Security Adviser Giora Eiland presents in a monograph called "Regional Alternatives to the Two-State Solution," released Thursday by Bar-Ilan University's BESA Center.

In the 41-page booklet, Eiland - a former head of the IDF's Planning Department and today senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies - argues that the conventional wisdom of how to deal with the conflict is stale and mistaken.

What is needed, he argues, is a completely new way of looking at possible solutions, widening the lens to come up with fresh ideas beyond the idea of a two-state solution.

The first option is what could be called the US of Jordan, a variation on the old Palestinian-Jordanian federation theme. The second option indeed envisions a Palestinian state, but one with territory that would be enhanced by 720 km. given by Egypt, which would in turn be compensated by a similar amount of land taken from the Negev.

These new ideas are necessary, Eiland writes, because in 2010 an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, based on a two-state model, seems less likely than in 2000 at Camp David, or when the Oslo process was launched in 1993.

Among the elements making it more difficult now than in the past to solve the conflict, Eiland writes, are the ascendancy of Hamas; the complete lack of trust between the sides; the absence of a Palestinian leader like Yasser Arafat who is recognized by his people as speaking on their behalf; an Israeli leader not convinced that achieving a permanent settlement is possible; and demographics that now have 290,000 Israelis living beyond the Green Line, as opposed to 190,000 on the eve of Camp David.

"It is hard to believe that the diplomatic effort that failed in 2000 can succeed in 2010, when most of the elements in the equation have change for the worse," he states.

Eiland argues that over the years Israeli leaders have erred by creating the impression that Israel alone could take upon itself the task of solving the Palestinian issue.

For instance, at Camp David in 1979 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat wanted to hear Israel's position on the Palestinian problem. "Begin hastened to volunteer: Israel would give the Palestinians autonomy and both sides would be satisfied. This implies that the Palestinians are Israel's problem and Egypt has no reason to get involved."

Similar missteps were made all the way down to Ariel Sharon's disengagement and Ehud Olmert's convergence plan, he claims. The problem with these unilateral steps, he argues, was that they sent a message that "the Palestinian problem is Israel's problem and Israel alone will know how to solve it."

The new US administration, Eiland argues, has also made a number of errors based on misconceptions. "The Obama administration errs in believing that resolvingthe conflict is currently possible."

Among America's misguided assumptions, Eiland notes, are the following:

· The supreme Palestinian aspiration is to attain independence along the 1967 borders.

· The gap between the sides' positions is small and bridgeable.

· Moderate Arab states are interested in ending the conflict and therefore will assist in its solution.

· The end of the conflict will bring about stability.

· Resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is vital to obtaining Arab assistance on the Iranian issue.

· There is currently an opportunity to resolve the conflict and it must not be squandered.

· There is only one solution to the conflict, and that is the solution of two states with the 1967 border between them.

As an alternative to becoming locked into the two-state mindset, Eiland proposes a Jordanian-Palestinian federation whereby Gaza and the West Bank would be states in a Jordanian kingdom, much like Pennsylvania and New York are American states.

"They will have full independence on domestic issues as well as a budget, governmental institutions, laws, a police force, and symbols of independence, but similar to Pennsylvania or New Jersey they will not have responsibility for two issues: foreign policy and military forces. Those two areas, exactly as in the United States, will remain the responsibility of the 'federal' government in Amman."

Eiland says the benefits of this proposal to the Palestinians are enormous. First and foremost it would ensure that an independent Palestinian state would not be ruled by Hamas. In addition, he writes, "the Palestinians also understand that under a two-state alternative, they will become citizens of a tiny state. Such a small state is not viable and will have security limitations (for example, conceding sovereignty over its airspace). It is preferable to be equal citizens in a large, respected country where the Palestinians will form the demographic majority."

Jordan would benefit, he continues, because the way to prevent instability in Jordan, which would be fueled by a future Hamas regime in theWest Bank, is through Jordanian military control over this territory.

And Israel would gain, he says, because it is more likely to get the security it desires if the territories are incorporated into a greater Jordanian state, rather than if a new - and most likely failed - mini-state is created on its doorstep.

Eiland's other model, based on territorial exchange, calls for Egypt transferring some 720 km. of land - including 24 km. along the Mediterranean coast toward El-Arish - to the Palestinians, in order to allow them to build a million-plus city and a sustainable port and airport.

Egypt would be compensated by an equal amount of land taken from the Negev, and a tunnel at Israel's southern tip from Egypt to Jordan, which would connect Egypt with the Arab countries to the east. The 720 km. are equal to 12 percent of the West Bank, which would be the percentage of West Bank territory to remain in Israel's hands.

The enlargement of Gaza is necessary if it is to be a viable entity, Eiland argues, and it could enable the region to become an international trade center, which is impossible with the current dimensions.

Egypt would benefit primarily from the 10 km. tunnel to Jordan, which would give it important physical and economic access to the main eastern part of the Middle East, and Jordan would get - via the tunnel - an important passage to the Mediterranean.

As far as Israel is concerned, this type of arrangement would give the Palestinians a much better chance of viability and, by involving Jordan and Egypt, would create "stronger guarantees for the upholding of the agreement."

Source: Jerusalem Post.
Link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339436935&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

'Riyadh wants Abbas to meet Mashaal'

Saudi Arabia was putting its weight behind intra-Palestinian reconciliation, and is working to bring Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to meet with Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal in Syria, Channel 2 reported Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, Mashaal on Saturday met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and the two agreed about the "tragic" situation of the Palestinians, as well as the urgent need to reconcile Hamas with the Palestinian Authority, dominated by Fatah.

Assad told Mashaal Syria would make any effort to bring about Palestinian reconciliation. He stressed to Mashaal that this would be the only way for the Palestinians to restore their "rights."

According to a Syrian news agency Mashaal expressed his gratitude to Assad over his efforts. He met Assad only days after returning from Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia and Syria have had stressed relations for several years and the courting of Mashaal by Syria just days after his return from the peninsula can be seen as a competition over the coveted honor of bringing Fatah and Hamas to reconciliation - a mission in which Egypt, Qatar and Yemen have so far failed.

Meanwhile back in the Gaza Strip, Channel 10 quoted unnamed Hamas sources as saying they managed to smuggle into Gaza weapons that would tip the balance of power between Israel and Hamas.

The report, which The Jerusalem Post could not confirm, comes after several days of intermittent rocket and mortar shell fire entering Israel, some of it fired by groups not affiliated with Hamas.

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip told the TV station that they felt an increase in IDF activity in the Strip and feared a new Israeli incursion into Gaza was in the offing.

Source: Jerusalem Post.
Link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339436535&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

Are Taliban descendants of Israelites?

By AMIR MIZROCH

Are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan descendants of an Israelite tribe that migrated across Asia after it was exiled over 2,700 years ago?

This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic research.

But now, for the first time, the government has shown official interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and determine whether or not the tribe that provides the hard core of today's Taliban has a blood link to any of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and specifically to the tribe of Efraim.

Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai, has joined the Technion to study the blood samples that she collected from Afridi Pathans in Malihabad, in the Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh state, India, to check their putative Israelite origin.

Shahnaz, an expert in DNA profiling and population genetics, will be supervised by Prof. Karl Skorecki, director of Nephrology and Molecular Medicine at the Technion Faculty of Medicine. Skorecki is famous for his breakthrough work on Jewish genetic research.

Shahnaz's research, which is expected to last anywhere between three months and a year, will be supported by a scholarship from the Foreign Ministry for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Shahnaz, who is staying in Haifa for the duration of her research, earlier worked at the prestigious Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). While the scholarship only provides her with $600 per month (excluding travel to and from India), her work will be followed closely by many here and abroad.

While the vast majority of Afghan Taliban are Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, the theory that they are descendants of the Afridi Pathans is widespread in the area. The theory is based on a variety of ancient historical texts and oral traditions of the Pashtun people themselves, but no scientific studies by any accredited organizations have upheld the claim. It continues to be believed by many Pashtuns, and has found advocates among some contemporary Muslim and (to a lesser extent) Jewish scholars.

Official confirmation of the link by the Technion would lend immense weight to the argument. Afridi Pathans have an age-old tradition of Israelite origin, which finds mention in texts dating from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars.

According to some researchers, members of the tribe still observe many Israelite customs in their native places in eastern Afghanistan and in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, though they have lost all these traditions of theirs in India. In Afghanistan and Pakistan they are all Muslim today and form the core of the Taliban.

In his 1957 The Exiled and the Redeemed, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel's second president, wrote that Hebrew migrations into Afghanistan began "with a sprinkling of exiles from Samaria who had been transplanted there by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria (719 BC)."

Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, when asked about his ancestors, claimed that the royal family descended from the tribe of Benjamin.

On the academic level, British researcher Dr. Theodore Parfitt has been conducting research on genetic effects and chromosome Y among numerous tribes around the world. In India he is assisted by a young researcher from the University of Lucknow - Dr. Navras Afreedi - who claims that his ancestors were Afreedi,descendants of the tribe of Efraim, and that many of the Pathans and other tribes are descendants of the Ten Tribes. Afreedi did his post-doctoral work at Tel Aviv University, titled "Indian Jewry and the Self-professed Lost Tribes of Israel in India."

Shahnaz's genetic research would examine Navras' theory that Afridi Pathans are descendants of the tribe of Ephraim, which was exiled in 721 BCE. The research uses DNA analysis to trace shared ancestries and origins of certain populations of interest in the eastern provinces of India, to map the cause of a certain disorder that is very frequent in the large populations of those provinces, and to see if the DNA mutations originate in a certain "founder event."

Shahnaz traveled to Malihabad and collected blood samples from the tribal population there. It is thought that the Afridi Pathans migrated from the border ofAfghanistan and Pakistan, areas that are now "ground zero" in the war on terror. Shahnaz herself, while aware of the possible connection, is cautious to jump to conclusions.

"The research itself will take some three months, and after that we'll see what happens. It could take a huge amount of time to analyze all the data, as it was taken from tribal people in India, and we will need to examine how much the men from this tribe mixed in with the local population," she said.

Navras welcomed Shahnaz's research grant. "It's a great news that now my research would be analyzed scientifically," he said on his blog.

"I don't know what would be the outcome of the DNA analysis, but it would provide us a direction to resolve the complex issue. I also hope that such effort will have positive ramifications and will bring the Muslims and Jews close and enable them to forget historical animosity," Navras wrote.

Source: Jerusalem Post.
Link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339436797&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

Volunteers to Gaza subject to strict security measures

PETALING JAYA: Volunteers in the Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza have been subjected to strict security measures and placed under guard the moment they left the border town of Rafah for Cairo on Friday evening.

Juana Jaafar, who volunteered with the Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO), claimed that although volunteers were not manhandled, they had to wait at the checkpoint for eight hours to exit Gaza.

“Although staff from the Malaysian embassy are there to receive the Malaysian team, the convoy was driven directly to Cairo International Airport with a police escort.”

She said after arriving at the airport, they were confined to a waiting area, which had previously been used as a disease quarantine area.

“We are not allowed to leave the airport. Many of the other convoy members, who do not have early flights, will be sleeping in the waiting halls,” said Juana.

She also said that medical student Ibrahim Mohd Azmi, who was earlier picked up by the Egyptian police on Friday, had been detained again at the airport’s immigrations depot and released three hours later.

Juana said the Malaysian group would only be released from their holding area two hours before their flight to Dubai at 1.15am today, from which they would then journey to Kuala Lumpur.

Source: Malaysia Star.
Link: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/10/nation/5444696&sec=nation.

Hamas: Egypt has declared war on us

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Relations between Egypt and Hamas reached their lowest point ever as they traded allegations over the weekend about last week's violent protests along the border between Sinai and the Gaza Strip.

An Egyptian soldier was killed and scores of Palestinians were wounded, some seriously, when hundreds of Hamas supporters demonstrated against the construction of a steel wall along the border.

They were also protesting against restrictions imposed by the Egyptians on members of the Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy, led by British MP George Galloway, when they sought to enter the Gaza Strip from Sinai.

The Egyptians said that the soldier, who was stationed inside a watchtower, was killed when he was hit by a bullet fired by a sniper from the Hamas-controlled side of the border.

Cairo has demanded a public apology from Hamas over the incident.

The Egyptians were surprised and enraged to instead hear the official Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, announce over the weekend that the soldier was killed by a stray bullet fired by another Egyptian soldier during the protests.

"All the evidence and information available from last Wednesday's events prove that the soldier was killed by mistake when Egyptian troops opened fire on young Palestinian men who were protesting Egypt's repressive measures against members of the aid convoy in El-Arish," Abu Zuhri said. "Not a single bullet was fired from the Palestinian side."

Abu Zuhri accused the Egyptians of "exaggeration" with the aim of obscuring the fact that 35 Palestinians were wounded in the clashes along the border. Two of the wounded were in critical condition, he said.

The Hamas spokesman also accused the Egyptians of seeking to divert attention from the ongoing work to build an underground steel wall at the border.

A Hamas legislator in the Gaza Strip said that Egypt was now "actively and publicly participating in the war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." The construction of the new wall and the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing was tantamount to a declaration of war on Hamas, he said.

Issam Abu Shawar, a writer closely associated with Hamas, said that many Arabs and Muslims were disgusted to see Egyptian soldiers throw stones at members of the international aid convoy and Palestinian demonstrators last week.

"What Egypt did was indeed disgraceful," he said. "They attacked with stones hundreds of messengers of humanity who came from afar to deliver medicine and milk to our people in the Gaza Strip."

In response, Egyptian government officials, columnists and newspaper editors have launched an unprecedented and scathing attack on Hamas.

Hamas was also strongly condemned by government-employed preachers during Friday prayers in tens of thousands of mosques throughout Egypt.

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has joined the bandwagon, unleashing sharp criticism against Hamas and accusing it of threatening Egypt's national security. The PA has also staunchly defended Cairo's right to build a separation wall along its border with the Gaza Strip.

In an article titled "Egypt and the Gaza Gang," the chief editor of the Egyptian daily Al-Gomhuria, Muhammad Ibrahim, wrote that Hamas, with the help of the Iranians, was seeking to "extend its control to Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, in addition to Palestine."

He said that Hamas leaders were living in comfort in Damascus while the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been left homeless and exposed to Israeli missiles.

"For the one-thousandth time we say to the Gaza gang, which claims to be heroic while its members are sleeping in palaces in Damascus and eating whatever they wish while their people are hungry, and who are wearing fur while their people are shivering from cold, that the day of judgment has arrived," the chief editor, who is very close to President Hosni Mubarak, said.

"Never in history has a gang succeeded in imposing its will on a state," he wrote.

In another article, Ibrahim said that Hamas was more of a threat to Egypt than Israel.

"Israel is killing our soldiers by mistake," he said. "But Hamas is killing them with sharpshooters. We won't forget that Hamas blew up 17 bases along the border since January 2008 and more than 700,000 Palestinians crossed into Sinai. Many of them were gunmen. No Egyptian will from now on allow the agents of Iran to shed the blood of our sons."

The Egyptians are also furious with Hamas for accusing Cairo of "participating in the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip" by building the steel wall.

Cairo is facing growing criticism in the Arab and Islamic world over the structure. Demonstrations against the project are organized almost on a daily basis in Arab and Islamic capitals.

"Egypt's main goal behind the construction [of the wall] is to defend its borders from threats emerging from the Gaza Strip," explained Egyptian political analyst Abdel Munem Saeed. "The new fortresses along our border are defensive, not offensive."

Saeed said that the decision to establish the wall was taken following attempts by Hamas and Hizbullah to undermine Egypt's stability and sovereignty.

Source: Jerusalem Post.
Link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339437315&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

Egypt bans Gaza aid convoys

Egyptian authorities have announced that all aid convoys traveling to Gaza will be banned from traveling across Egypt after a riot broke out at the Rafah border crossing earlier in the week.

Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said in remarks published on Saturday that members of Viva Palestina, the last convoy allowed through, had "committed hostile acts, even criminal ones" on Egyptian soil.

"Egypt will no longer allow convoys, regardless of their origin or who is organizing them, from crossing its territory," he told government-backed newspaper Al-Ahram.

More than 50 people were wounded during a clash between Egyptian authorities and international members of the convoy on Tuesday after Egypt decided to allow 139 vehicles to enter Gaza, but said a remaining 59 vehicles would have to pass via Israel.

The Rafah border is the only crossing point into the Palestinian territory not controlled by Israel. However, both Rafah and the Israeli-controlled crossings have largely remained sealed since 2007, when the Palestinian group Hamas gained control of the Strip.

British MP deported

George Galloway, the British MP leading Viva Palestina, was himself deported by the Egyptian government on Friday.

The politician was picked up by Egyptian officials at Rafah and driven to Cairo, the capital, where he was placed on a flight back to London.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said Galloway had been declared "persona non grata" and would not be allowed to return to the country, accusing him of incitement over his criticism of the government.

Arrest warrants were also issued for seven other members of the convoy after being accused of inciting riots in El-Arish, the Mediterranean port town where Viva Palestina entered the country.

The Respect Party MP has been vocal in his criticism of Egyptian authorities in recent days.

"It's always been a badge of honor to be deported by a tin-pot dictator and that's what happened," he said after arriving at London's Heathrow airport.

Aid handover

Abul Gheit, who spoke to Al-Ahram during a visit to Washington, said future aid convoys will have to turn their supplies over to El-Arish's Red Crescent chapter.

The relief organization would then be responsible for transferring the aid to its Palestinian counterpart.

Israel and Egypt have severely restricted travel to and from the Gaza Strip, and only very basic supplies are allowed in.

Aid organizations say the siege has placed Gazans in a dire situation, made worse by the Israel's offensive last year that reduced much of the territory to ruins.

Source: Al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/201019125026677911.html.

Militants making a comeback in Kashmir

The past few weeks have witnessed some major strikes by militants in north Kashmir, where four CRPF personnel were killed last week. It was followed by some targeted civilian killings in that area.

Jammu and Kashmir may see more violence in the coming months as the militants have successfully regrouped themselves and there is qualitative shift in their handling and strategy.

The renewed effort on their part is becoming possible with the increasing support of locals.

These impressions are from internal deliberations taking place within various security agencies operating in the State. The past few weeks have witnessed some major strikes by militants in north Kashmir, where four CRPF personnel were killed last week. It was followed by some targeted civilian killings in that area. But it did not stop there and they managed to travel to Srinagar and attacked security personnel in Lal Chowk.

Reports being gathered by various intelligence agencies have painted a grim picture ahead especially when the snow melts in the spring. Defense Minister A.K. Antony also confirmed on Saturday that a large number of militants were waiting across the border. “Even now there are a large number of terrorists waiting along the border to infiltrate into Kashmir. This is a matter of serious concern because Pakistan is not doing anything in this regard,” he told reporters.

His views are corroborated here by the officials who say that infiltration never stopped. Police sources say that there were 389 attempts of infiltration from across the border in 2009. In these attempts, 62 militants were killed and 16 arrested. “So roughly not less than 300 militants might have managed to sneak in even if one deducts the killed and the arrested one,” a top official said, adding that concern on these lines is justified.

Going by the attacks in Sopore and other parts of north Kashmir, the security brass is gearing up to neutralize their offensive. “But the real problem is that they are getting local support,” admits the official. He cited the spontaneous support two militants holed up in Punjab Hotel got when a group of youth shouted “ Mujahido aagey bado hum tumharey saath hein” (militants go ahead we are with you). Similarly, a strike was observed in Sopore on Friday in protest against the killing of one of the militants in the Lal Chowk encounter. The support, one top security official said, was linked to the political problem in Kashmir.

Inspector-General of Police Kashmir zone Farooq Ahmad admitted that militants had made a comeback. “Intercepts also reveal that they have managed to regroup here,” he told The Hindu. About the groups which are active, he said, “mainly it is Lashkar-e-Taiba.”

“We are ready to fight them out only people should cooperate,” he says.

The authorities are now grappling with another challenge -- of fighting the street violence. Lal Chowk is closed for the last four days and business could not resume as shopkeepers are demanding removal of CRPF bunkers. The authorities see the hand of hardline separatist groups in what they call “fueling a situation like that of 2008.”

A top official told The Hindu that a mainstream political party was “hand in glove” with these “separatist elements” to keep the pot of agitation boiling.

Source: The Hindu.
Link: http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article78234.ece.

Algeria goalkeeper out of African Nations Cup

Sat Jan 9, 2010

LUANDA (Reuters) - Algeria's first choice goalkeeper Lounes Gaouaoui is out of the African Nations Cup finals after suffering appendicitis, the Algerian Football Federation said on Saturday.

Gaouaoui, one of the heroes of his country's surprise qualification for the 2010 World Cup finals, is being sent home for treatment.

Algeria will be allowed to replace Gaouaoui on medical grounds because they have yet to play their opening match at the tournament in Angola, according to Nations Cup regulations.

Algerian officials said 31-year-old Nassim Ousserir would be flown in as a replacement. Ousserir has played only once for Algeria in the past six years.

Algeria face Malawi in Luanda in their first Group A match of the tournament which starts on Sunday.

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://in.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idINIndia-45271620100109.

Singapore court sentences Bangladeshi to death for murder

Singapore - A Singapore court sentenced a Bangladeshi man to death for the murder of his Indonesian girlfriend, The Straits Times reported Saturday. The court handed down the decision to hang Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus, 35, on Friday.

Kamrul was convicted following a 20-day trial held in February and March last year.

The body of 25-year-old Yulia Afriyanti, who worked in Singapore as a maid, was found in December 2007 in a cardboard box at a construction site where Kamrul worked at the time.

The victim was allegedly strangled and her belongings were found in Kamrul's locker.

Yulia had canceled her October 2007 marriage with Kamrul on discovering that he was married with two children. But she resumed the relationship and renewed marriage plans on being convinced that his mother was coming to Singapore to discuss their wedding plans, the report said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/302802,singapore-court-sentences-bangladeshi-to-death-for-murder.html.

Rockets land in India near border with Pakistan

New Delhi - Suspected terrorists fired seven rockets into Punjab's Amritsar district but there were no casualties, news reports said Saturday. The rockets were found on farmland in Attari sector along India's border with Pakistan early Saturday, IANS news agency reported quoting defense officials.

India's Border Security Force troopers responded by firing across the border into Pakistan with automatic weapons.

Himmat Singh, Punjab frontier inspector general of police, said no casualties were reported in the border area when five rockets landed near a village and two other missiles landed near a border post.

"Our troopers fired back. Senior officers have already reached the spot and investigations are on. We had a meeting with our Pakistani counterparts and have lodged a strong official protest," Singh said.

The Pakistani Rangers denied that any rockets were fired from their territory.

Indian officials suspect the rockets were fired by Pakistan-based terrorists. It was the third incidence of rockets being fired across the Indian border since July 2009.

Terrorists linked to Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan attacked a police training center, located between Lahore city and the Wagah border post, about 12 kilometers west of Attari, in March 2009, killing 20 police personnel and injuring 150 others.

That incident raised concerns in India that Pakistan-based terrorists were operating close to the Indian border.

India has erected an electrified barbed-wire fence on its side of the 553-kilometer international border with Pakistan, from the area where the rocket blasts were heard early Saturday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/302812,rockets-land-in-india-near-border-with-pakistan.html.

Australia's ties with India strained by another attack - Summary

Sydney - A man of Indian descent was doused in petrol and set alight in a Melbourne street Saturday in what is likely to be seen in the subcontinent as another crime motivated by racial hatred. The 29-year-old, whose citizenship at this point is unknown, is in a serious condition after receiving burns to 15 per cent of his body.

Melbourne police are looking for four men who allegedly poured petrol on the man, set him on fire with a cigarette lighter and ran away. They said they were unsure of the motives or the circumstances of the early-morning attack.

It comes a week to the day after Nitin Garg, a 21-year-old accounting graduate, was stabbed to death while walking to work at a Melbourne fast-food restaurant.

Police investigating the killing said last week they had no reason to classify it as a hate crime despite the victim being found with his mobile phone and wallet.

The refusal of police to immediately admit that racism was a likely factor was condemned in Indian newspapers, one of which published a cartoon depicting a police investigator in the hooded white costume of the Ku Klux Klan.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the cartoon was "deeply, deeply offensive" and again promised to combat the street crime that disproportionately affects the 90,000 Indian students who are studying in Australia.

India's External Affairs Ministry said in a statement Saturday that it had received information about the "unfortunate incident" in which 29-year-old Jaspreet Singh received burn injuries.

The statement said the Indian high commissioner in Canberra and the consul-general in Melbourne were following up the matter with Australian authorities.

The ministry also advised the media to exercise restraint in reporting on what it termed "these sensitive issues" as it could aggravate the situation and have a bearing on India's bilateral relations with Australia.

Indian students in Australia pay for their education - which most hope will qualify them for permanent residency visas - by working part time in convenience stores, petrol stations and fast-food restaurants.

They work overnight shifts and use public transport, which puts them in proximity to drunken youths also out on the street at that time.

Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had described Garg's killing as a "heinous crime on humanity," warning that it would harm Australia's reputation as a safe place to study.

"It certainly will have some bearing on the bilateral ties between our two countries," Krishna said.

Figures for the four months to October 2009 show successful applications for student visas down by almost a quarter and those from India down by almost a half on the equivalent period in 2008.

The global financial crisis and a recent government crackdown on colleges that have turned themselves into visa factories were given as reasons for the fall. But, especially in the case of India, the belief that Australia is not a safe place for foreign youngsters is also behind the drop off in demand for places in colleges and universities.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/302816,australias-ties-with-india-strained-by-another-attack--summary.html.