France moves closer to banning full Muslim veil

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer

LA VERRIERE, France – The man she married is French, her four children were born in France and she speaks French with only a trace of her native Arabic tongue. Faiza Silmi contends her clothes — a head-to-toe robe and filmy tissue covering her face — are the reason France has denied her citizenship in her adopted land.

The 32-year-old Moroccan may soon be facing an even fiercer blow. A top French lawmaker submitted a draft law this week that would ban such Islamic dress anywhere in public, a measure that would set a European precedent and trap thousands of women between their religious convictions and the law of the land.

"They say I'm too attached to my religion," Silmi told The Associated Press at an empty restaurant near her home southwest of Paris, her large eyes peering from a slit in her veil. "Lots of Christians live in Morocco and we don't make them wear scarves."

Unlike Muslim headscarves, full-body, face-covering robes are a rare sight in the streets of France, home to an estimated 5 million Muslims, the largest such population in western Europe. France's main Muslim leaders have declared that Islam does not require women to cover their faces with niqabs or burqas.

In a country whose national emblem is Marianne, a bare-chested woman, there is deepening concern over the all-encompassing garb, often black or brown and worn with gloves, attire typical in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Here, it is widely viewed as a gateway to radical Islam, an attack on gender equality and other French values, and a gnawing away at the nation's secular foundation.

President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the door to a possible ban in June, telling a parliament session in Versailles that such dress "is not welcome" in France. A parliamentary panel set to work in July on a six-month mission gathering information on the garments.

On Tuesday, the head of Sarkozy's conservative UMP party in parliament's lower house, Jean-Francois Cope, jumped the gun before the panel's report was finished, and filed draft legislation on a ban. "No one may, in spaces open to the public and on public streets, wear a garment or an accessory that has the effect of hiding the face," the draft text reads.

The document cites public security concerns, thus includes all face-covering clothes, in a bid to head off challenges from those who might claim such a law would violate constitutional rules on individual rights — a major concern along with how such a law would be enforced. It foresees fines for those who break the law.

The initiative, unlikely to go to debate before spring, would be the second time France targets Muslim dress. A 2004 law born in acrimony bans Muslim headscarves and other "ostentatious" religious symbols in the classrooms of French public schools. Sarkozy's party dominates parliament and the president reiterated Wednesday his wish for a law on full veils, though it's too early to say whether it will pass.

Europe's growing Muslim population has bred tension across the continent. Wariness is pervasive since deadly attacks in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005 by Islamic radicals living in Europe. And some non-Muslims sense a threat by a foreign culture to their way of life. It took only four minarets on Switzerland's 200 mosques to push the Swiss to vote "no" to minarets in a November referendum.

However, France, which wants an Islam tailored to the West, would be the only western European country to target the all-enveloping robes and niqabs, the cloth hiding the lower face. "We're going to become the laughing stock of democracies" should France ban the clothing, said Raphael Liogier, a sociology professor who runs the Observatory of the Religious in Aix-en-Provence.

He is among critics who say a ban would be a violation of basic rights and "transgression of the fundamental principles of our republic."

Muslim leaders of all tendencies have warned that a ban risks stigmatizing all Muslims, and anti-terrorism judge Marc Trevidic told Sunday's Journal du Dimanche that a ban "will maybe push impulsive people to want to commit attacks."

However, Andre Gerin, who heads the parliamentary panel, says the full-body veil is an "attempt to instrumentalize Islam for political ends" via a "fundamentalist and barbaric ideology" that oppresses women.

Gerin, a communist who served for years as mayor of Venissieux, a suburb of Lyon known as a haunt for Muslim fundamentalists, insists the phenomenon is growing.

But at Friday prayers recently at a mosque northwest of Paris in Argenteuil, considered a bastion for Salafists who adopt a literal reading of the Quran, only a handful of fully veiled women were seen. Some expressed fear of a ban.

"We won't be able to leave the house," said Oumeima Naceri, a 19-year-old convert draped in black garments, including a filmy "sitar" veil covering even her eyes. "That frightens us enormously ... It's like asking us to go naked."

Official statistics on burqas are impossible to gather. A 2004 report by a French intelligence service put the number of women in full veils at some 4,000. More than a quarter had converted to Islam, some experts estimate.

Silmi, the Moroccan woman seeking French citizenship, began veiling herself completely only after coming to France in 2000. She said she and her husband Karim, who was born in Paris to Moroccan parents and has French citizenship, discovered a deepening of their faith through books and cassette recordings not available in Morocco. She insists her partner did not impose the veil on her — and says she is in the process of divorcing him after 10 years of marriage.

Silmi was refused French citizenship for what authorities said was her failure to assimilate into French culture. Assimilation is most often defined by a candidate's ability to speak French, though not in her case.

In each of three reports following interviews with Silmi, officials described her clothing. Her pro bono lawyer, Ronald Sokol, an American living in France, said that is what kept her from becoming French.

Silmi lost an appeal to the Council of State, in June 2008, which ruled that she "adopted a radical religious practice incompatible with essential values of the French community." She has now turned to the European Court of Human Rights.

"A woman must cover herself. It's written in the Quran," Silmi told AP.

Lawmaker Daniele Hoffman-Rispal, member of the parliamentary panel, said she sees women clad in all-encompassing robes on market days in her district in eastern Paris and is bothered that "they have a right to look at me ... see my eyes, my smile" but she cannot look at them.

But if a ban were passed, "Will we hire dozens of police to put them on street corners?" she asks. She worries, too, about women who could become shut-ins to avoid getting caught.

As for Silmi, she said she will consult a Muslim sage on the Internet about what to do should a legal ban be passed.

"If he tells me not to remove my veil, I prefer to return to Morocco" rather than break French law, she said.

Scientists warned Haiti officials of quake in '08

By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS – Scientists who detected worrisome signs of growing stresses in the fault that unleashed this week's devastating earthquake in Haiti said they warned officials there two years ago that their country was ripe for a major earthquake.

Their sobering findings, presented during a geological conference in March 2008 and at meetings two months later, showed that the fault was capable of causing a 7.2-magnitude earthquake — slightly stronger than Tuesday's 7.0 quake that rocked the impoverished country.

Though Haitian officials listened intently to the research, the nearly two years between the presentation and the devastating quake was not enough time for Haiti to have done much to have prevented the massive destruction.

"It's too short of a timeframe to really do something, particularly for a country like Haiti, but even in a developed country it's very difficult to start very big operations in two years," Eric Calais, a professor of geophysics at Purdue University, said Thursday.

Their conclusions also lacked a specific timeframe that could have prodded quick action to shore up the hospitals, schools and other buildings that collapsed and crumbled, said Paul Mann, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas' Institute for Geophysics.

At the time of earthquake, which the international Red Cross estimated killed 45,000 to 50,000 people, Haiti was still trying to recover from a string catastrophes. In 2008 alone, it was hit four times by tropical storms and hurricanes. The country also suffers from a string of social ills including poverty, unstable governments and poor building standards that make buildings vulnerable in earthquakes.

"Haiti's government has so many other problems that when you give sort of an unspecific prediction about an earthquake threat they just don't have the resources to deal with that sort of thing," Mann said.

In March 2008, Calais and Mann were among a group of scientists who presented findings on the major quake risk along the Enriquillo fault during the conference in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Their conclusions were based both on geologic work Mann conducted along the same fault and recent findings by Calais.

Calais had detected rising stresses along the fault using global positioning system measurements that showed that the Earth's crust in the area where the fault traverses southern Haiti was slowly deforming as pressure grew within the fault.

That pressure, paired with Mann's work and the fact that the last major quake in the area was in 1770, led to the prediction that the fault could produce a 7.2-magnitude temblor.

Calais said he also presented the findings to officials in Haiti during a series of meetings in May 2008 that included the country's prime minister and other high-ranking officials. He said he stressed to the officials that if they did nothing else they should at least begin reinforcing hospitals, schools and key government buildings to weather a strong quake.

"We were taken very seriously but unfortunately it didn't translate into action," he said. "The reality is that it was too short of a timeframe to really do something, particularly for a country like Haiti struggling with so many problems."

Calais said Haiti has no seismic stations for monitoring quake activity, while adjoining Dominican Republic has a small seismic network.

Although the specific risks of the fault zone near Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, may not have been known until recent years, the region has a long history of major earthquakes, said Carol Prentice, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist based in Menlo Park, Calif.

Those include earthquakes that destroyed Jamaica's capital, Kingston, in 1692 and 1907, that also occurred along the Enriquillo fault, which extends hundreds of miles through the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.

She said Calais' GPS studies were the first along the fault to quantify the potential quake risk in the heavily populated Port-au-Prince area.

Prentice said she, Calais and Mann had sought U.S. government funding over the years for detailed excavations in southern Haiti to document evidence of past quakes in soil layers along the fault but that work has not yet been funded.

"It's entirely possible that we'll see additional quakes along this fault in the years to come. But we really don't know the risk if those studies aren't done," she said.

Struggle to get aid to Haitians as looters roam

By JONATHAN M. KATZ and TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press Writers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hundreds of U.S. troops touched down in shattered Port-au-Prince overnight as U.N. and other aid organizations struggled Friday to get food and water to stricken millions. Fears spread of unrest among the Haitian people in their fourth day of desperation.

Looters roamed downtown streets, young men and boys with machetes. "They are scavenging everything. What can you do?" said Michel Legros, 53, as he waited for help to search for seven relatives buried in his collapsed house.

Hard-pressed government workers, meanwhile, were burying thousands of bodies in mass graves. The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's cataclysmic earthquake.

More and more, the focus fell on the daunting challenge of getting aid to survivors. United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the capital said people's anger was rising that aid hasn't been distributed quickly, and warned aid convoys to add security to guard against looting.

On Friday morning, no sign was seen of foreign assistance entering the downtown area, other than a U.S. Navy helicopter flying overhead.

Ordinary Haitians sensed the potential for an explosion of lawlessness. "We're worried that people will get a little uneasy," said attendant Jean Reynol, 37, explaining his gas station was ready to close immediately if violence breaks out.

"People who have not been eating or drinking for almost 50 hours and are already in a very poor situation," U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva. "If they see a truck with something, or if they see a supermarket which has collapsed, they just rush to get something to eat."

The quake's destruction of Port-au-Prince's main prison complicated the security situation. International Red Cross spokesman Marcal Izard said some 4,000 prisoners had escaped and were freely roaming the streets.

"They obviously took advantage of this disaster," Izard said.

But Byrs said peacekeepers were maintaining security despite the challenges. "It's tense but they can cope," she said.

The U.N. World Food Program said post-quake looting of its food supplies long stored in Port-au-Prince appears to have been limited, contrary to an earlier report Friday. It said it would start handing out 6,000 tons of food aid recovered from a damaged warehouse in the city's Cite Soleil slum.

A spokeswoman for the Rome-based agency, Emilia Casella, said the WFP was preparing shipments of enough ready-to-eat meals to feed 2 million Haitians for a month. She noted that regular food stores in the city had been emptied by looters.

More than 100 paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division arrived at the Port au Prince airport overnight, boosting the U.S. military presence to several hundred on the ground here, and others have arrived off Port-au-Prince harbor on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

Helicopters have been ferrying water and other relief supplies off the Vinson into the airport, U.S. military officials said.

"We have much more support on the way. Our priority is getting relief out to the needy people," Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command, told ABC's "Good Morning America."

The command said other paratroopers and Marines would raise the U.S. presence to 8,000 troops in the coming days. Their efforts will include providing security, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Hundreds of bodies were stacked outside the city morgue, and limbs of the dead protruded from the rubble of crushed schools and homes. A few workers were able to free people who had been trapped under the rubble for days, including a New Jersey woman, Sarla Chand, 65, of Teaneck, freed by French firefighters Thursday from the collapsed Montana Hotel. But others attended to the grim task of using bulldozers to transport loads of bodies.

Driving a yellow backhoe through downtown Friday morning, Norde Pierre Rico said his government crew had cleared one house and found four people alive. But "there's no plan, no dispatch plan," he said, another sign of a lack of coordination and leadership in the rescue and aid efforts in these early days of the crisis.

Experts say people trapped by Tuesday's quake would begin to succumb if they go without water for three or four days.

Haitian President Rene Preval told The Miami Herald that over a 20-hour period, government crews had removed 7,000 corpses from the streets and morgues and buried them in mass graves.

For the long-suffering people of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, shock was giving way to despair.

"We need food. The people are suffering. My neighbors and friends are suffering," said Sylvain Angerlotte, 22. "We don't have money. We don't have nothing to eat. We need pure water."

From Europe, Asia and the Americas, more than 20 governments, the U.N. and private aid groups were sending planeloads of high-energy biscuits and other food, tons of water, tents, blankets, water-purification gear, heavy equipment for removing debris, helicopters and other transport. Hundreds of search-and-rescue, medical and other specialists also headed to Haiti.

The WFP began organizing distribution centers for food and water Thursday, said Kim Bolduc, acting chief of the large U.N. mission in Haiti. She said that "the risk of having social unrest very soon" made it important to move quickly.

Governments and government agencies have pledged about $400 million worth of aid, including $100 million from the United States.

But the global helping hand was slowed by a damaged seaport and an airport that turned away civilian aid planes for eight hours Thursday because of a lack of space and fuel.

At Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport, a stream of U.S. military cargo planes was landing Friday, but they had to circle for an hour before getting clearance to land because the quake destroyed the control tower and radar control, and the U.S. military was using emergency procedures.

Aid workers have been blocked by debris on inadequate roads and by survivors gathered in the open out of fear of aftershocks from the 7.0-magnitude quake and re-entering unstable buildings.

"The physical destruction is so great that physically getting from point A to B with the supplies is not an easy task," Casella, the WFP spokeswoman in Geneva, said at a news conference.

Across the sprawling, hilly city, people milled about in open areas, hopeful for help, sometimes setting up camps amid piles of salvaged goods, including food scavenged from the rubble.

Small groups could be seen burying dead by roadsides. Other dust-covered bodies were dragged down streets, toward hospitals where relatives hoped to leave them. Countless dead remained unburied. Outside one pharmacy, the body of a woman was covered by a sheet, a small bundle atop her, a tiny foot poking from its covering.

Aid worker Fevil Dubien said some people were almost fighting over the water he distributed from a truck in a northern Port-au-Prince neighborhood.

Elsewhere, about 50 Haitians yearning for food and water rushed toward two employees wearing "Food For The Poor" T-shirts as they entered the international agency's damaged building.

"We heard a commotion at the door, knocking at it, trying to get in," said project manager Liony Batista. "'What's going on? Are you giving us some food?' We said, 'Uh-oh.' You never know when people are going over the edge."

Batista said he and others tried to calm the crowd, which eventually dispersed after being told food hadn't yet arrived.

"We're not trying to run away from what we do," Batista said, adding that coordinating aid has been a challenge. "People looked desperate, people looked hungry, people looked lost."

Engineers from the U.N. mission have begun clearing some main roads, and law-and-order duties have fallen completely to its 3,000 international troops and police.

David Wimhurst, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission, said Haitian police "are not visible at all," no doubt because many had to deal with lost homes and family members. The first U.S. military units to arrive took on a coordinating role at the airport.

Batista, the Food For The Poor project manager, went back to the Dominican Republic late Thursday and awaited the arrival of 100 shipping containers loaded with rice, canned goods and building supplies.

"I don't think that a word has been invented for what is happening in Haiti," he said. "It is total disaster."

World's tallest and smallest men meet

The recently crowned world's tallest man, Sultan Kosen, meets the man who currently holds the title of the world's smallest man — He Pingping.

The Turkish farm laborer, Kosen, with height of 246.5 cm (8 ft 1 in) took over the title from Bao Xishun back in September, beating his Chinese rival by an incredible 10 cm.

The two — Kosen and Pingping — met at a ceremony in Istanbul on Thursday, January 14, to mark the launch of the Guinness World Records live Roadshow.

The tallest man in the world, welcoming the shortest man in the world to his country, said that "I was having hard times to notice him." The 21-year-old 73.66-centimeter (2 ft 5 in) tall, who hails from China, said that he was happy to meet with Kosen.

He Pingping is facing a potential challenge to his title, as his fellow countryman Wu Kang is applying to Guinness World Records, saying that he is under 68.58 cm (2 ft 3 in).

However, Wu is also considering hormone therapy which could increase his stature.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=116169§ionid=3510212.

Turkish rights group urges arrest of Barak

A Turkish rights group has called on the state prosecution to issue arrest warrant for the Israeli defense minister over his role in the war crimes that took place in the Gaza War.

The human rights organization, Mazlumder, said in a statement that the request was based on the right of universal jurisdiction and Article CMK98 of the Turkish law.

The group added Israel perpetrated genocide and crimes against humanity; Israeli forces bombed UN buildings, hospitals, and schools.

"As was proven by lab tests performed by Turkish universities, they also used phosphorous bombs, which are forbidden. It is known that Israel used an assortment of ammunitions that caused physiological and psychological diseases among the Gazan population," the statement said.

“We know that [Israeli Defense Minister Ehud] Barak will arrive in Turkey on the 17th of the month,” said the organization. “(We) need to put him on trial and prevent every other Israeli who is responsible for war crimes from entering Turkey freely. We remind the Turkish prosecution of its role. We remind them that Britain has already decided to arrest [former foreign minister] Tzipi Livni when she was slated to arrive in the country. "

“We remind them that Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert must also be arrested according to Article CMK-98 of the Turkish law, which grants us the right to try them," Mazlumder added.

Tel Aviv is worried that charges could be lodged against its politicians and army officers for war crimes committed during Israel's 22-day offensive against the Gaza Strip.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during three weeks of Israel's land, sea and air assault, Operation Cast Lead, in the impoverished coastal sliver. The offensive also inflicted $ 1.6 billion in damages to the Gaza economy.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=116166§ionid=351020204.

Nigeria court backs president amid crisis

(PressTV) Amid fears of a vacuum of power in Nigeria, a court ruling said the constitution did not require President Umaru Yar'Adua to transfer executive powers while he is sick.

Four lawsuits were filed in court by Nigeria's National Bar Association and two other opposition groups demanding that President Yar'Adua relinquish his powers to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

The president's seven week absence has caused a power-struggle within the West African nation.

"At the moment I am undergoing treatment, and I'm getting better from the treatment. I hope that very soon there will be tremendous progress, which will allow me to get back home," President Yar'Adua told the BBC in a three minute phone conversation from a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

"Everything is going on well in accordance with the constitution of the country."

On Tuesday, a protest rally was held in front of Nigeria's parliament in the capital city of Abuja. Demonstrators expressed objection to the president's lengthy absence, expressing concern at the possibility of a power vacuum within the government and a constitutional crisis.

The court on Wednesday supported Yar'Adua's government and said the other three cases were adjourned until late January, without stating any reasons for the decision.

Filmmaker Loach urges cultural boycott of Israel

The acclaimed British director and winner of Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Ken Loach, has called for the boycott of Israeli movies at the international film festivals and cultural events.

“The massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make the showcasing of Israeli films in various sections of international film festivals unacceptable,” Loach was quoted as saying at a ceremony commemorating Israeli offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip by IRNA.

“Tel Aviv sponsors various international film festivals with the intention to open the way for Israeli films.”

He added the call for a boycott of Israeli cultural products comes from many writers, artists, journalists, lawyers, academics, trades unionists and teachers. They see it as “a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation, colonization and system of apartheid.”

Last July, Loach withdrew his film ''Looking for Eric'' from the Melbourne International Film Festival in protest against the Israel's sponsorship of another filmmaker. Tel Aviv provided airfare for Tatia Rosenthal, whose film ''9.99'' is an Israeli-Australian co-production.

In May 2009, Loach as director of the Edinburgh International film festival returned a £300 gift from the Israeli embassy as a sign of his cultural boycott of Israel and in protest at Tel Aviv's policies towards the Palestinian people.

The Toronto international film festival (TIFF) came under fire in September for selecting Tel Aviv as the subject of its inaugural City-to-City Spotlight strand. Renowned movie makers including Loach, Jane Fonda and David Byrne were among those who signed a statement supporting Canadian film-maker John Greyson, who withdrew his short film “Covered” from TIFF after learning of the program.

In a letter to the festival, Greyson cited Israeli action in Gaza and the expansion of illegal settlements as reasons for his withdrawal.

A United Nations inquiry led by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone details what investigators call Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during Israel's offensive against Gaza.

Tel Aviv is worried that charges could be lodged against politicians and army officers for war crimes committed during Israel's 22-day offensive against blockaded Gaza Strip. Top officials who would be in the judicial cross-hairs could include former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as well as current Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during three weeks of Israel's land, sea and air assault in the impoverished coastal sliver. The offensive also inflicted $ 1.6 billion damage to Gaza economy.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116198§ionid=3510212.

Bashir calls on Sudan rebels to join peace talks

(PressTV) Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has called on anti-government rebels to join peace talks in order to end the fighting in the country.

In a Thursday speech delivered to a gathering at North Darfur state, al-Bashir said, "We have promised to achieve peace, and we call on our brothers who are carrying arms to put down their weapons and make efforts to achieve peace, development and stability."

The president made the plea for peace to local tribesmen in the town of al-Fashir in the troubled regions of western Sudan, local media reported.

Sudan has been suffering from internal conflicts between western rebels and government forces over the past several years.

Al-Bashir, who was speaking at a national school tournament, pointed to the upcoming presidential election in April and said, "We want to organize free, credible and comprehensive elections, and it is important that all the people of Darfur participate in general elections."

"We want the Darfurians to choose their representatives to the legislative councils and the governor for their region and to elect the president of the Republic upon their free will," al-Bashir added.

"We want the coming elections to be a Sudanese model for the world in peaceful transition of power," he concluded.

Palestinian cleric gets 9 months in jail by Israel

An Israeli court has sentenced senior West Bank cleric Sheikh Raed Salah to nine months in prison for protesting Tel Aviv's construction plans near the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The outspoken critic of Israel and a leader of the Islamic Movement allegedly clashed with Israeli forces who confronted Palestinian protesters during demonstrations held in February 2007 in Jerusalem Al-Quds against excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

In August 2007, Sheikh Salah was indicted for "inciting racism and violence" for calling for a "third Intifada" to defend the holy site. He was arrested in October during similar demonstrations at Al-Aqsa, following reports that Jewish extremists were attempting to attack the mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims.

He was consequently banned from the area where clashes between angry demonstrators and Israeli troops had already given Tel Aviv enough headaches.

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Wednesday sentenced Salah to nine months in jail for the 2007 incident, beginning next month. He received an additional suspended sentence of six months and has until February 28 to appeal the decision.

Salah previously served a two-year jail sentence after sending money to needy Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, funds that Israeli prosecutors claimed to have been used by Palestinian resistance fighters.

The Gaza-based Hamas government condemned the Israeli court ruling and accused Tel Aviv of an attempt to dampen the Palestinian leader's activities against the Al-Aqsa takeover.

Sheikh Salah's lawyer, Khaled Zabarka, accused Israel of making efforts to distract the public opinion "from its real crime" of occupying Al-Aqsa and to "satisfy the mood in Israel by convicting the honorable Sheikh Salah."

Jerusalem Al-Quds, revered by both Muslims and Jews as well as Christians, was occupied by the Israeli army in the six-day war in 1967 and was later annexed despite strong opposition from the international community, which still refuses to recognize the city as part of Israel.

The Palestinians demand Jerusalem Al-Quds as the capital of their promised future state but Ultra-Orthodox Jews claim that the city is their "God-given eternal capital."

Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also insisted not to abandon Jerusalem Al-Quds or share it with the Palestinians, vowing that "in any peace agreement, Jerusalem will remain the united capital of Israel."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116126§ionid=351020202.

'West using Israel as proxy to dominate Mideast'

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slams the US, Britain and Israel for what he calls instigating another war in the region.

Speaking to thousands of people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, Ahmadinejad said that the fabrication of Israel and the sending of arms to the Middle East were aimed at dominating the region and maintaining Western interests.

"The Zionist regime [of Israel] has been fabricated for the sake of dominating the Middle East region," he said. "Realizing the fact that they cannot achieve their goal through deception, they have resorted to military expeditions, launching wars and occupation."

President Ahmadinejad said that even the 9/11 attacks are believed by many experts to have been a US-Israeli plot to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Iranian president slammed Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Yemen war, saying that Riyadh had better used its weapons against the Zionists.

"The arms sold by the West to Saudi Arabia are being used against the people of the region and Muslims instead of protecting them against the Zionists," Ahmadinejad said, urging the Saudi government to contribute to the establishment of peace in Yemen.

The Iranian president also urged Yemeni parties to resolve the crisis through negotiation, be wary of the plots hatched by the enemies and protect the region from insecurity.

"Insecurity will help the arrogant powers of the world to interfere in regional affairs and we should hamper the opportunistic objectives of the enemies."

The president also urged the Pakistani government and nation to maintain their unity and be vigilant in the face of US plots.

"The US is only thinking of its own interests and the Pakistani people and government should not trust the United States," President Ahmadinejad said.

Addressing the global arrogance, the Iranian president said that they have faced a deadlock and the people of Iran and the region have today realized their schemes and will resist their conspiracies.

"You have no choice but to end your inhumane actions and respect the rights of the Iranian people and the region," he said, emphasizing that they would not be able to harm the people of Iran in any manner.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=116071§ionid=351020101.

In Somalia, 47 killed in bloody town capture

Mon, 04 Jan 2010

(PressTV) Deadly clashes have once again broken out between rebels and pro-government forces in central Somalia, leaving at least 47 people dead.

Fighting erupted in the strategic central Somali town of Dhuusa Marreeb late on Sunday, after Al-Shabab fighters attacked the Ahlu Sunnah-controlled town.

The clashes, which were one of the heaviest of its kind, left at least 47 people dead and around 100 others injured, BBC reported.

The death toll is expected to rise as residents continue to collect bodies from alleys.

So far, both warring sides have claimed victory. Locals, however, say Al-Shabab fighters have managed to capture the town.

Last year, pro-government Ahlu-Sunnah group took up arms against Somalia's most prominent anti-government group, the Al-Shabab fighters.

The fresh attacks have forced hundreds of families to flee their homes, adding to the humanitarian crisis in the region.

Somalia has been suffering from two decades of civil strife following the ouster of former dictator Mohammad Siad Barre in 1991.

Years of fighting between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine and disease have led to the deaths of some one hundred thousand people.

Ahmadinejad begins regional tour in Tajikistan

Mon, 04 Jan 2010

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in the Tajik capital on the first leg of a regional tour that will also take him to Turkmenistan.

Ahmadinejad, heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, was officially welcomed by his Tajik counterpart Emamali Rakhmon on Monday.

The two presidents plan to hold talks on ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in fields including trade, judiciary, mines and geology, cultural heritage and tourism.

Presidents of Iran and Tajikistan will issue a joint statement.

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad will fly to Turkmenistan where he will jointly inaugurate a second gas export pipeline to Iran with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

Iranian and Turkmen officials are to discuss Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway, promotion of trade ties, transportation and energy.

On his three-day visit, Ahmadinejad is accompanied by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Oil Minister Massoud Mir-Kazemi, Minister of Road and Transportation Hamid Behbahani and two lawmakers.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115297§ionid=351020101.

Maliki: Time to settle Kurd oil deals row

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called for an end to a bitter row over oil contracts brokered by Iraqi Kurdistan.

In a rare direct reference to the oil feud between Baghdad and Kurdistan regional government, Maliki said on Sunday that he has discussed the issue with the region's Prime Minister Barham Salih.

"We said it is time to look at this file and settle it with flexibility and realism, in order to preserve rights and interests in these contracts," Reuters quoted Maliki as saying on the government's national media center website. "We hope to end this crisis."

Iraq's central government in Baghdad considers Kurdish contracts illegal; Kurds demand reimbursement for exports from Kurdish fields.

Companies such as Norway's DNO, Turkey's Genel Enerji and London-based Heritage have signed production-sharing agreements with the local Kurdish government in northern Iraq.

The controversy over the contracts signed by Kurdistan's government has fueled investor questions about the risks of doing business in the oil-rich country.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115294§ionid=351020201.

'US preparing new psyops campaign against Iran'

Mon, 04 Jan 2010

The former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) says the United States is afraid of Iran's nuclear capabilities and is trying to provoke other countries to wage a psychological war against Iran.

In an exclusive interview with IRNA on Sunday, retired general Asad Durrani said that although Iran has always insisted that its nuclear activities are totally peaceful, the West is trying to give the world the impression that Iran's nuclear program is not peaceful.

He stated that the US is threatening to impose more sanctions on Iran, even though other countries have said that the previous sanctions have been ineffective.

Iran has done everything it could within a diplomatic framework, but it will not bow to the West's pressure, he added.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115292§ionid=351020101.

Former Croatian PM returns to politics

Mon, 04 Jan 2010

Former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader says he is returning to politics because his party had a very poor result in the most recent election.

He said that the fact that the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) only garnered 12 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election last Sunday motivated him to re-enter politics.

"I made this decision because in the first round HDZ got the worst result since the founding of the party in 1989," he added.

Sanader, 56, who resigned unexpectedly last summer, told reporters in Zagreb on Sunday that his decision to retire from politics "was totally wrong."

His return to the political stage could jeopardize current Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's government and lead to new elections.

Sanader served as prime minister from 2003 until he unexpectedly retired from politics in July 2009.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115291§ionid=351020606.

Israel claims UNSC will impose new Iran sanctions

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

A top Israeli official claimed Sunday the UN Security Council plans to adopt fresh sanctions against Iran within a month.

"The world is uniting against Iran's nuclear program, and within a month we will see UN Security Council sanctions," the Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon as saying.

"There is agreement in Washington, Moscow and Beijing that a nuclear Iran would destroy the current world order," he added.

The United States and Israel accuse the Islamic Republic of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear pursuit.

After imposing unilateral sanctions against Iran, the US rallied its European allies — Britain, France and Germany — to coerce the UNSC into pressuring Tehran to desert its program.

The UNSC adopted three rounds of sanctions resolutions against Tehran, urging the government to halt its uranium enrichment activities.

Iran, a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and member of the UN nuclear watchdog, is entitled to pursue the technology for civilian purposes. It has also urged nuclear powers to abandon their atomic arsenals as the government in Iran believes the use of weapons of mass destruction is inhuman.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has monitors Iran's activities, says there are no evidence for the Western allegations. The body, however, has asked Iran to expand its cooperation to answer remaining questions about the case.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115263§ionid=351020104.

Israeli police arrest 'polygamist cult leader' Ratzon

Israeli police say they have arrested the leader of an alleged polygamist cult and accused him of enslavement, rape and incest.

Goel Ratzon is believed to have been living in Tel Aviv with 17 women with whom he had up to 40 children.

Police launched an undercover investigation in June 2009 after complaints from some of the women.

Mr Ratzon, aged 60, denies the allegations, saying the women were with him voluntarily.

He was detained on Tuesday, but a gagging order on reporting the case was only lifted two days later.

On Friday, Tel Aviv's court rejected Mr Ratzon's appeal over the 12-day extension to being remanded in custody.

He has not yet been charged.

Mr Ratzon's lawyer, Shlomzion Gabai, told the Associated Press that "he may be different, but he's not a criminal".

'Messiah'

Police said in a statement: "The evidence shows the suspect controlled his women with a firm hand, including their possessions and their money."

It said Mr Ratzon had written a "rule book" for women who he had kept in "conditions of slavery".

"He would dictate what they could and could not do, limit their movements and impose sanctions and various punishments, including the use of violence if they refused to obey," the statement added.

The grey-bearded self-proclaimed healer is said to have asked them to live by the rules, which also included fines.

The women and children were kept in cramped apartments in several locations in the south of Tel Aviv, police say.

They say that in one case, police raided a three-bedroom apartment where 10 women and 17 children were found in a "terrible state" living in "horrible conditions".

The women are now being questioned by police, and the children have been placed in temporary care.

One of the women was quoted by Israel's Haaretz newspaper as saying that the arrest had been motivated by revenge and hostility toward the sect's way of life.

Several of the women also featured in a documentary on Israeli television last year.

"He is the messiah everyone is talking about," one of them said.

"He is already here and hasn't been revealed yet. The day he decides to reveal himself, the land will shake."

Mr Ratzon, whose first name means "savior" in Hebrew, said in the documentary: "I'm perfect. I have all the qualities a woman wants."

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8459854.stm.

Anti-Mousavi slogans purged in Tehran

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

The Tehran Municipality has been clearing the Iranian capital of graffiti containing negative comments about defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

On January 1, Mousavi issued a statement, wherein he put forward a series of proposals for overcoming the current situation in the country.

In the statement, he made no reference to his earlier demand of holding a new presidential election. He also refrained from denying the legitimacy of the current government.

Mousavi said the executive administration must be held accountable for the problems it has caused before the people, parliament and judiciary.

The former Iranian prime minister also called for the release of prisoners, freedom for the press and political parties, and a new election law.

Earlier on Wednesday, millions of Iranians staged nationwide rallies, calling for strong government and judicial action against those who damaged public and private property in Tehran's central Enqelab Boulevard during the Shia Muslim ceremonies of Ashura.

They also demanded punishment for those who chanted slogans against the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

The statement issued by Mousavi drew different reactions.

Some, such as Mohsen Rezaei, another defeated presidential candidate, described the declaration as a "retreat" from the position of denying the legitimacy of Ahmadienjad's administration.

Others however, condemned the statement, repeating their earlier calls for judicial action against the "leaders of Fitna (Arabic for anarchy)."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115241§ionid=351020101.

Top Israeli diplomat scolds ambassadors

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman chastised the regime's foreign envoys for their tendency to appease their host states.

"I have seen that some ambassadors identify themselves with the other side to such an extent that they are all the time trying to justify and explain [the position of the other side]," Lieberman said at a conference last week with Israeli ambassadors.

In his 20-minute address, Lieberman spoke before the shocked audience, who had gathered at the Foreign Ministry, without giving them any opportunity to ask questions or comment. He then left abruptly.

A senior source at the ministry said some of the ambassadors had expressed frustration with Lieberman in private earlier this week and vowed to confront him and "tell him precisely what they think."

Envoys also complained that they were confused because of the conflicting messages they had received from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lieberman.

At the opening of the conference, Lieberman called the Palestinian Authority "a bunch of terrorists," claiming that there was no chance of reaching peace with the Palestinians in the next two decades.

The following day, however, Netanyahu delivered a different message, saying that conditions for resuming talks with the Palestinians were positive.

Netanyahu also talked of the need to establish a "demilitarized" Palestinian state alongside "a Jewish Israel."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115253§ionid=351020202.

Iran cleric urges vigilance to counter enemy plots

A leading Iranian cleric called on the Iranian nation on Friday to vigilantly confront enemy plots aimed at destabilizing the country.

"The enemy uses every possible means to harm the establishment and the country so we should, in a very real sense, remain vigilant," said Tehran's interim Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani.

He added that street demonstrations in protest at the outcome of the presidential election would only benefit the enemy.

Urging the nation and officials to follow the guidance of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, he called for televised debates to clear ambiguities about the country's current political affairs.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=116206§ionid=351020101.

Cuba opens airspace to US relief flights

Cuba opened its airspace to the United States to conduct aid and evacuation flights from quake-hit Haiti, the White House said Friday.

"We have coordinated with the Cuban government for authorization to fly medical evacuation flights from the US Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Miami, Florida through Cuban airspace, cutting 90 minutes off one-way flight time," the White House said in a statement.

The two Cold War-era enemies had already struck a deal that allows Washington to enter the island's airspace in case of an emergency.

The new agreement will allow US relief air convoys to use the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay and enter the Cuban airspace on their way to Florida, AFP reported.

According to the Red Cross, between 45,000 to 50,000 people have been killed in Tuesday's earthquake, with a further 3 million injured or rendered homeless.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=116204§ionid=351020706.

Iranian soccer official resigns over email to Israel

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

A high-ranking official of the Iranian Football Federation (IFF) has been compelled to resign after a Happy New Year greeting was accidentally sent to the Israel Football Association.

The director of the IFF Foreign Relations Department, Mohammad-Mansour Azimzadeh, stepped down after the message, apparently sent on his behalf, reached Israeli officials — a mistake that should have never taken place.

In a statement quoted by the Fars news agency on Saturday, the Iranian Football Federation has said that messages of congratulations are sent each year to all members of FIFA except the Zionist regime, which is why it was removed from the list of addresses for New Year messages.

The statement added that a FIFA employee named Amir Navan, an Israeli of Iranian origin, forwarded the Iranian greeting message to the Israel Football Association. Following the incident, Azimzadeh submitted his resignation.

Iranian Football Federation President Ali Kafashian expressed deep remorse over the incident.

Iran severed all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Tehran does not recognize Israel as a country and refers to it as the Zionist regime and calls the land the occupied Palestinian territories.

Due to Iran's development of nuclear technology, tensions have risen between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Israel, along with the United States and its European allies — Britain, France, and Germany — accuse Iran of covertly seeking to produce nuclear weapons, an allegation that Tehran vehemently denies.

The Islamic Republic of Iran insists its nuclear activities are only conducted for civilian applications of the technology and generating electricity in order to meet its soaring energy demands.

In addition, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities and have never found evidence that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to weapons production.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115222§ionid=3510211.

Israeli boats attack Palestinian fishermen

Israeli forces Friday opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats at different locations in the Gaza Strip, where people find it increasingly difficult to escape Tel Aviv's crippling embargo.

Israeli patrol boats attacked Gazan fishing boats early in the day near the central Gaza shores. They also targeted the Palestinians further south near Khan Younis and in the Rafah coastal area, Ma'an News Agency reported.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The targeted men condemned the regular attacks plaguing the fishing business in the Palestinian territory, saying the move is only aimed at preventing impoverished Gazans from making a living and supporting their families.

Israel has been tightening the noose of its blockade on the Gaza Strip despite international outcries condemning the "collective punishment" of some 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children.

According to reports by the United Nations, almost half of the population in Gaza depends on aid food handouts for survival.

Palestinian crossings liaison official Raed Fattouh said Gaza crossing were kept sealed, continuing a six-month trend of shrunk opening time for the transport of goods.

Crossings were originally due to be opened six days a week, but since August, Israel has closed all crossings both on Friday and Saturday.

The number of crossings in operation has also been reduced, leaving Kerem Shalom in the southern Gaza Strip the only terminal for food supplies, fuel and other much-needed aid items.

The main fuel transfer point, Nahal Oz, was closed in late December. The Sufa crossing, once used for the transport of commercial goods, was closed by Israeli authorities in September 2008.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=116203§ionid=351020202.

Pro-Kurdish protesters clash with police in Istanbul

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

At least 10 people have been arrested after clashes broke out between pro-Kurdish demonstrators and security forces in Istanbul's Dolapdere neighborhood.

The skirmishes between masked youths and anti-riot police erupted on Saturday evening during a demonstration against a recent spate of detentions of Kurdish officials over alleged connections with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Police units used teargas and water cannon against the crowds gathered near Serdar Omer Pasa Avenue.

Some of the protesters threw fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the police.

At least 10 people were detained in the aftermath of the clashes.

Turkey has witnessed frequent Kurdish protests since October. Kurdish demonstrators complain about the prison conditions of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence at the maximum-security prison island of Imrali.

They are also angry about the closure of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) in December on the grounds that it was linked to the PKK. The Turkish Supreme Court's verdict banning the DTP sparked violent protests across Turkey's southeast that have claimed two lives.

Since August, Ankara has been working on a plan to expand Kurdish freedoms in the hope of ending the PKK's separatist campaign.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115278§ionid=351020204.

Solar eclipse longest in 1,000 years

A solar eclipse plunging millions of people in Africa and Asia into semi-darkness on Friday is believed to be the longest annular eclipse for 1,000 years.

The visible spectacle has been seen as a roughly 300 kilometer band running 12,900 kilometers across the globe, AFP reports.

The moon's shadow first struck the southwestern tip of Chad and the western Central African Republic at 0514 GMT. It then reached Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia before racing across India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China.

An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun but does not completely cover it, leaving a ring of sunlight flaring around the lunar disk.

Despite warnings issued about the dangers of looking directly at the sun during the event, curious onlookers were reported to have filled the streets looking at the celestial phenomenon.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=116202§ionid=3510208.

Dubai offers to host UN headquarters

Dubai, the struggling UAE sheikhdom in the Persian Gulf, offered Thursday to host the headquarters of the United Nations should the global organization want to leave New York.

"Dubai is fully prepared to host the UN headquarters on its soil if UN officials decide to move the headquarters from New York," the emirate said in a statement.

It offered dialogue with UN officials to provide them with full information on the facilities the emirate can provide for the UN. It also claimed geographical location, air, land and sea transport systems make it an optimal place for a new UN headquarters.

Dubai, recently been hit by the global economic crisis, is famous for its extravagant real estate projects, Reuters reported. It is currently struggling with billion dollars debt.

On December 14, 2009, Abu Dhabi, a wealthy emirate of the United Arab Emirates, provided Dubai with 10 billion dollars in assistance to avert an imminent default by the Dubai-owned company Nakheel on 4.1 billion dollars in debt.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=116201§ionid=351020205.

US general urges strip search of Muslim men

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

A retired US general and member of Iran Policy Committee (IPC) says all 18 to 28 years old Muslim men should be strip searched at airports as "one of these bombers" will explode an airliner in the coming days.

Thomas McInerney, a retired Lt. Genera with the US Air Force, told Fox News television on Saturday that within the next 30 to 120 days, "there is a danger of high probability" awaiting US airliners.

"If you are an 18 to 28-year-old Muslim man then you should be strip searched. And if we don't do that there's a very high probability we're going to lose an airline," he said.

The retired general went on to say that US officials should profile all Muslims. "We have to use profiling. And I mean be very serious and harsh about the profiling."

Asked if such a racial approach would not "generate more hatred and violence towards the West," McInerney said he did not want "a racial profile."

"I want to profile on that group that we have enough evidence from 9/11, and other [high-profile] cases that we know what we are looking at," he said.

The suggestions made by the US retied general comes on the heels of a purported bomb attack on a US transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who allegedly received al-Qaeda training in Yemen.

Lawmakers and congressional leaders in the US have echoed similar sentiments by urging President Obama abandon or suspend his plan to shutter the Guantanamo Bay Prison.

Around half of the remaining Gitmo detainees are from Yemen, and of those, about 40 have been cleared for release.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115268§ionid=3510203.

Iranians use stem cells to treat tinnitus

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

Iranians have successfully terminated the animal phase of the trial testing the efficacy of a new technique for treating tinnitus or ear ringing with the help of stem cells.

Iran is one of the countries with the highest number of individuals suffering from tinnitus in the world; the majority of these patients are war veterans and factory workers whose auditory system has been injured due to exposure to loud noise.

Hearing loss, ear trauma, ear infection, excess wax in the ear, drugs such as aspirin, aminoglycoside antibiotics and quinine, and diseases such as Meniere's disease and certain brain tumors are among the main causes of this condition.

Stem cells can help repair auditory cells damaged by loud noise in these individuals, said Hesamoldin Imam Jome, the head of the audiology department of Hazrat-e Rasoul Akram Hospital.

Imam Jome went on to say that the electrical tinnitus suppression device, already used as a temporary treatment for ringing in the ear, has been developed by Iranian scientists.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115267§ionid=3510210.

Aid groups struggle to get food, water to Haitians

By JONATHAN M. KATZ and TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press Writers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Aid workers hoping to distribute food, water and other supplies to a shattered Port-au-Prince are warning their efforts may need more security Friday as Haitians grow increasingly desperate and impatient for help. Hundreds of U.S. paratroopers arrived overnight to back up the relief effort.

Hard-pressed government workers, meanwhile, were burying thousands of bodies in mass graves. The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's cataclysmic earthquake.

More and more Friday, the focus fell on the daunting challenge of getting food and water to millions of survivors. United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the capital said people's anger is rising that aid hasn't been distributed quickly, and the Brazilian military warned aid convoys to add security to guard against looting.

"Unfortunately, they're slowly getting more angry and impatient," said David Wimhurst, spokesman for the Brazilian-commanded U.N. peacekeeping mission. "I fear, we're all aware that the situation is getting more tense as the poorest people who need so much are waiting for deliveries. I think tempers might be frayed."

The U.N. World Food Program reported Friday that its warehouses in the Haitian capital had been looted since the devastating quake. It didn't know how much of its pre-quake stockpile of 15,000 tons of food aid remained.

A spokeswoman for the Rome-based agency, Emilia Casella, noted that regular food stores in the city also had been emptied by looters. Casella said the WFP was preparing shipments of enough ready-to-eat meals to feed 2 million Haitians for a month.

More than 300 troops of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division arrived at the Port au Prince airport overnight and others have arrived in nearby waters on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, Lt. Gen. Ken Keen told ABC's "Good Morning America."

"We have much more support on the way. Our priority is getting relief out to the needy people," he said.

About 5,500 U.S. soldiers and Marines are expected to be in Haiti by Monday. Their efforts will include providing security, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Hundreds of bodies were stacked outside the city morgue, and limbs of the dead protruded from the rubble of crushed schools and homes. A few workers were able to free people who had been trapped under the rubble for days, including a New Jersey woman, Sarla Chand, freed by French firefighters on Thursday from the collapsed Montana Hotel. But others attended to the grim task of using bulldozers to transport loads of bodies.

Haitian President Rene Preval told The Miami Herald that over a 20-hour period government crews had removed 7,000 corpses from the streets and morgues and buried them in mass graves.

For the long-suffering people of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, shock was giving way to despair.

"We need food. The people are suffering. My neighbors and friends are suffering," said Sylvain Angerlotte, 22. "We don't have money. We don't have nothing to eat. We need pure water."

From Europe, Asia and the Americas, more than 20 governments, the U.N. and private aid groups were sending planeloads of high-energy biscuits and other food, tons of water, tents, blankets, water-purification gear, heavy equipment for removing debris, helicopters and other transport. Hundreds of search-and-rescue, medical and other specialists also headed to Haiti.

The WFP began organizing distribution centers for food and water Thursday, said Kim Bolduc, acting chief of the large U.N. mission in this desperately poor country. She said that "the risk of having social unrest very soon" made it important to move quickly.

Governments and government agencies have pledged about $400 million worth of aid, including $100 million from the United States.

But into the third day following the 7.0-magnitude quake, the global helping hand was slowed by a damaged seaport and an airport that turned away civilian aid planes for eight hours Thursday because of a lack of space and fuel.

Aid workers have been blocked by debris on inadequate roads and by survivors gathered in the open out of fear of aftershocks and re-entering unstable buildings.

"The physical destruction is so great that physically getting from point A to B with the supplies is not an easy task," Casella, the WFP spokeswoman in Geneva, said at a news conference.

Across the sprawling, hilly city, people milled about in open areas, hopeful for help, sometimes setting up camps amid piles of salvaged goods, including food scavenged from the rubble.

Small groups could be seen burying dead by roadsides. Other dust-covered bodies were being dragged down streets, toward hospitals where relatives hoped to leave them. Countless dead remained unburied, some in piles. Outside one pharmacy, the body of a woman was covered by a sheet, a small bundle atop her, a tiny foot poking from its covering.

Aid worker Fevil Dubien said some people were almost fighting over the water he distributed from a truck in a northern Port-au-Prince neighborhood.

Elsewhere, about 50 Haitians yearning for food and water rushed toward two employees wearing "Food For The Poor" T-shirts as they entered the international agency's damaged building.

"We heard a commotion at the door, knocking at it, trying to get in," said project manager Liony Batista. "'What's going on? Are you giving us some food?' We said, 'Uh-oh.' You never know when people are going over the edge."

Batista said he and others tried to calm the crowd, which eventually dispersed after being told food hadn't yet arrived.

"We're not trying to run away from what we do," Batista said, adding that coordinating aid has been a challenge. "People looked desperate, people looked hungry, people looked lost."

Engineers from the U.N. mission have begun clearing some main roads, and law-and-order duties have fallen completely to the mission's 3,000 international troops and police.

Wimhurst, the mission spokesman, said Haitian police "are not visible at all," no doubt because many had to deal with lost homes and family members. The first U.S. military units to arrive took on a coordinating role at the airport.

Batista, the Food For The Poor project manager, went back to the Dominican Republic late Thursday and awaited the arrival of 100 shipping containers loaded with rice, canned goods and building supplies.

"I don't think that a word has been invented for what is happening in Haiti," he said. "It is total disaster."

Obama promises swift US response to Haitian earthquake - Summary

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

Washington - US President Barack Obama said Wednesday the United States will respond swiftly to assist the people of Haiti following the devastating earthquake, calling the destruction that hit the Caribbean nation "truly heart wrenching."The US military and Coast Guard has been conducting overflights to determine the extent of the damage and assistance and rescue teams were preparing to deploy to Haiti, Obama said.

"We must be prepared for difficult hours and days ahead as we learn about the scope of the tragedy," Obama said. "The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States."

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday afternoon, centered 15 kilometers southwest of the capital, knocking down buildings and leaving at least hundreds of people dead, according to UN estimates. Haitian President Rene Preval told the Miami Herald that he believes the death toll could be in the thousands but did not provide a more specific figure.

The Homeland Security Department said a US Coast Guard ship had arrived off Port-au-Prince early Wednesday with a capability to conduct helicopter flights, satellite communications and coordinate a possible military response.

Two Coast Guard C-130 airplanes are flying over the coast of Western Haiti to carry out damage assessments, the department said.

The US government was also trying to account for US personnel at the embassy in Port-au-Prince and other American citizens in the country, Obama said. Cheryl Mills, a senior official for Haiti at the State Department, said there are about 45,000 US citizens in the country. She said eight staffers at the embassy were hurt, four of them seriously.

Aerial surveillance showed that the damage appeared to be largely limited to Port-au-Prince and the immediate surrounding areas, Mills said.

One of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti has been marred by civil conflicts and a series of devastating natural disasters in the last decade, including tropical storms and hurricanes that killed thousands in flooding.

Given Haiti's past, Obama said "this tragedy seems especially cruel and incomprehensible."

The director of the US Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah, told reporters that 15 disaster assistance officials were expected to arrive in Haiti Wednesday to asses the situation, and 72 individuals specializing in urban search and rescue were soon to arrive.

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier was heading to the vicinity of Haiti to assist with rescue operations, and an amphibious ship carrying about 2,000 Marines was heading toward Haiti, said General General Douglas Fraser, chief of US Southern Command based in Miami, Florida. A decision about deploying the Marines into Haiti will not be made until the situation on the ground in Haiti has been assessed.

Fraser said there were no indications at this point of violence. "The situation is calm right now," he said.

The Vinson will bring increased helicopter capabilities to the situation and could help move resources around Haiti because the country's airport has a limited capacity for handling massive amounts of traffic, Fraser said.

Other parts of the US military have been put on alert for possible deployment to Haiti, the general said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303610,obama-promises-swift-us-response-to-haitian-earthquake--summary.html.

Even in impoverished Haiti, online tools play central role - Feature

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

San Francisco - The messages from Carel Pedre, one of Haiti's most prominent TV hosts, poured in thick, fast and desperate. Using online media tools like Twitter, Flickr and CNN's iReport, the usually genial host posted information and images of an impoverished country pushed deep into disaster by the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean in 200 years.

"Now We Need To Be Organized! Let's Make it Happen People!! Haiti Needs You!," he tweeted on Wednesday, a day after the 7.0-magnitude quake. Soon after he sent another message: "1st After Shock Of The Day!!! Haiti is sill shaking!! HELP!!"

Photos he took on his mobile phone and distributed via Twitter provided some of the first images of the devastation that wracked Port-au-Prince, as international media was still busy trying to get journalists to the scene of the disaster. With the country's landline and cellphone communication in disarray he often used internet telephony service Skype to communicate.

Despite the country's reputation as a technology backwater, local residents took only minutes to spread news of the quake via Twitter.

"Just experienced a MAJOR earthquake here in Port au Prince - walls were falling down - we are ALL fine - pray for those in the slums," wrote missionary Troy Livesay. "Most people are staying outside in our area - aftershocks are still continuing ... a neighbor was in a school that collapsed."

Hotel manager Richard Morse also gave constant updates from the scene in the hours after the quake struck. "Just about all the lights are out in Port-au-Prince ... people still screaming but the noise is dying as darkness sets. Many large buildings nearby have collapsed ... people are bringing people by on stretchers ... Port-au-Prince is dark except for a few fires."

YouTube highlighted coverage of the disaster at the top of its home page and it didn't take long for people to post harrowing videos on the site. Schoolgirls in plaid skirts wailing as one of their classmates lay injured, bloody dead bodies lay unattended in rubble strewn streets, on top of cars and half-buried in rubble, a man with a grotesquely broken arm prostate on the ground, with no one able to help him.

Facebook also jumped quickly into the Haitian fray. By Wednesday morning, a group called Earthquake Haiti already had more than 23,000 members many of whom posted desperate pleas looking for missing friends and relatives.

"Looking for my Mom in Haiti," wrote one member. "Her name is Jeanne Voltaire. Last I knew she was in Haiti and was talking about going to a hospital. This was a few weeks ago, so her whereabouts is unknown."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303612,even-in-impoverished-haiti-online-tools-play-central-role--feature.html.

Apocalyptic quake crushes Haiti: 'The end of the world' - Feature

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

Sao Paulo/Port-au-Prince - Haiti collapsed into chaos at 4:53 pm (2153 GMT) Tuesday. The worst Haitian earthquake in at least a century devastated Port-au-Prince, the capital of the impoverished Caribbean country. Hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, are believed to have died. More than 20 strong aftershocks were felt in the city of 1.9-million people.

Blood-stained residents wandered in panic and shock through the streets of Port-au-Prince as the earth shook time and again.

"This is the end of the world," said a young woman who saw out the quake on a hill.

Another eyewitness estimated that 40 per cent of the homes and buildings in Port-au-Prince were destroyed or damaged.

"It's an apocalypse ... People are in the streets, sitting around and waiting. Many are aggressive. There are many dead. The few hospitals still functioning have no medicine," she said.

The Haitian telephone network broke down. For hours there was almost no contact with the Caribbean country. Information became available very slowly.

Many Haitians eventually managed to ask for help through the internet, sending photos, on-the-scene videos and comments via Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.

When darkness fell over Port-au-Prince, people stayed outside and slept under the stars, wary of the danger from shaky buildings.

As the earth shook, taller buildings collapsed and buried people under them. The ground swallowed up cars. Streets buckled. Power and telephone lines were pulled loose.

In the dark night, people dug through debris with bare hands to rescue those who were trapped, following the cries for help. Television footage showed one man screaming in pain as others tried to free his left leg from the debris. The only light came from houses caught on fire.

"A nightmare," one Haitian said via Skype.

Some people received emergency treatment on the dusty streets.

The Red Cross estimated that 3 million people - about one-third of Haiti's population - were affected by the quake.

The dazzling white presidential palace collapsed, as did the Roman Catholic cathedral. The quake took down several high-rise buildings used by the United Nations, which has a stabilization mission of 9,000 troops in Haiti since 2004. UN peacekeepers from Jordan, China and Brazil died in the temblor.

Haitian President Rene Preval said that thousands may have died. The rush was on to rescue as many as possible within the first 48 hours, as the international community sent help.

"Walls everywhere have collapsed. I ran for my life. People were screaming, 'Jesus, Jesus!' It was completely unreal, totally upside down. I ran out of my hotel room, and the wall collapsed immediately next to me," photographer Ivanoh Demers told Canadian online magazine cyberpresse.ca.

Around 200 people went missing amid the rubble of the popular luxury tourist spot, Hotel Montana.

The Haitian Ambassador in the United States, Raymond Joseph, spoke of a disaster, but noted that the troubled Caribbean country is used to crises.

"The only thing I can say is that the Haitian people are a really courageous people, and in the past, when we have been hit hard, we come back fighting," Joseph said in a telephone interview with the Boston Globe. "With the help of everyone, we'll live through this."

A hospital-ship was urgently needed.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, buffeted by political strife and fierce weather. In the summer of 2008, four back-to-back hurricanes and tropical storms battered the country. Even in normal circumstances, there is little infrastructure.

New York's police commissioner Raymond Kelly, who visited Haiti recently to evaluate emergency infrastructure, told US television there was "no fire department, no rescue teams" in operation even before the quake.

The United Nations, European Union, United States, Brazil, Taiwan and other countries were organizing rescue teams, equipment and food for the shaken country amid severe transport difficulties. One aid worker told CNN that motorbikes were the only motorized transport that could get through.

Port-au-Prince airport was closed. An American Airlines airplane was the last to take off, shortly after the quake. When it arrived in Miami, Haitians on board were not rejoicing over the safe flight out of chaos, but rather worrying about the uncertain fate of their families and friends back in Haiti.

They feared the worst.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303614,apocalyptic-quake-crushes-haiti-the-end-of-the-world--feature.html.

Strong quake rocks Indonesia's Papua region

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

Jakarta - An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale rocked Indonesia's Papua region early Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, the meteorology office said. The quake struck just after midnight, with the epicenter 78 kilometers northwest of the coastal town of Manokwari, according to the Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency.

The quake had a depth of 26 kilometers and no tsunami warning was issued.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303617,strong-quake-rocks-indonesias-papua-region.html.

Cyprus peace talks fail to achieve breakthrough

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

Athens/Nicosia - Rival leaders on the divided island of Cyprus ended three days of peace talks Wednesday without any indication of a breakthrough to end the decades-old division of the eastern Mediterranean island. "These talks have been held in a positive spirit and very good atmosphere," UN envoy Alexander Downer told journalists at the end of the three-day marathon talks.

"I think that you will find out how this has all gone at the end of the process," he added after facing questions about the progress of the talks which were re-launched in September 2008.

The next three-day session of talks will take place on January 25-27.

The intensive meetings between Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat are designed to jump-start talks with the hope that 2010 will be the year that the Cyprus problem is finally solved.

Asked if any progress was made on the issue of power-sharing, Christofias said "that although there have not been specific results both sides are not talking without any purpose as well."

Cyprus has been been split since 1974, ever since Turkey invaded the northern third of Cyprus in response to a Greek-inspired coup.

Greek Cypriots currently live in the south of Cyprus and Turkish Cypriots in the north, divided by a United Nations-supervised buffer zone, or No Man's Land - which runs through the heart of Nicosia.

Experts have expressed fears that the two leaders have little time left, with elections in the occupied northern part of the island expected to bring to power a hardliner.

EU officials have said that progress at the Cyprus reunification talks will be essential to move Turkey's slow-moving EU accession process forward.

Although the peace talks and Turkey's EU membership negotiations are separate processes, a breakthrough on one is likely to have a positive impact on the other.

Talks are focusing on power-sharing under a future federal structure, the economy, property and EU issues.

Leaders have suggested that much of their differences lie on how to deal with the thousands of property claims from people uprooted in past conflicts.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303618,cyprus-peace-talks-fail-to-achieve-breakthrough.html.

Bagram's Prison's Handover to Kabul Administration will Help Old Crimes Continue Under a New Name

Wednesday, 13 January 2010

American rulers have announced that they would hand over the charge of the Bagram notorious jail to the puppet Kabul Administration by the end of the current Gregorian year. They have also said that they would give training to the Afghan interrogators and officers.

However, the American rulers did not unveil tens of secret prisons in all part of the country, which are now operational. These prisons are christened as Terrorism Prisons and American PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) special cells where more than 15,000 Afghans have been chafing under squalid and miserable conditions. The Americans should morally have closed the Bagram Prison because it is a place where a prisoner has neither access to legal independent advocates, nor he is allowed to meet his relatives. This is a flagrant violation of human rights and the Geneva conventions, being committed in the prison.

The so-called advocates of human rights in the White House want to keep the oppressed and miserable Afghans in Bagram jail for indefinite period under a new name and concurrently, dodge the criticism of human rights entities and forums because they would have the fake justification that the jail is run and administered by the Kabul stooge Administration.

The crimes and misbehavior of the Kabul regime with the prisoners in Pulli-Charkhi notorious prison is now an open secret. In an already known incident, they tied up the prisoners and killed them by firing rounds of tanks and mortars at close range. A number of miserable prisoners were either killed or injured as a result. Every month, the prisoners have to go on strike because of the misconduct of those in charge of the prison and even, sometimes, they stitch their lips. An anti-Islamic and anti-human situation is prevailing in the prison where the miserable prisoners have to bear the brunt of an arrogant and oppressive conduct of the jailers. The same crimes are continuing in all prisons run by the puppet Kabul regime. The Afghans have been festering in these jails for a number of years for a nominal crime, which even the officers of the jail admit, is not an offense. The miserable prisoner has to sell his land or house in order to get himself released by warming the palm of the officers. Even despite that, if he is released after the bribery, he should consider himself lucky.

It seems that the American want to revive the horrible and ruthless memoirs of the Polygon era during the period of the Invasion of the former Soviet Union. They appear to hand over the charge of the Bagram jails to the old butchers of the Polygon who would have an opportunity to give vent to their lingual, ideological, geographical biases by torturing the prisoners. The Afghans know that, up to now, the murderous warlords have hold over government departments. They are the same most hated faces that competed with each other to torture and oppress Afghans at the time of the beginning of the American invasion of Afghanistan.

If the prisons are handed over to these elements who are enemies of the Afghans land and people, no one can expect them any good. Only the squalid conditions of the prisoners will go from bad to worse and the miserable detainees would long for the past.

It is also anticipated that Americans would want to torture the miserable prisoners with impunity at the hand of their flunkeys and simultaneously evade criticism, which are time and against directed against their misconduct with the prisoners.

We call on the White House rulers and the human rights entities that the existence of open and secret prisons by the invaders in the prideful land of the Afghans is an oppressive, illegal and anti-human act. This colonialist phenomenon should end forthwith. The Americans should not throw dust into the eyes of the people under the pretext of handing over the jail to the puppet regime. This action can’t be justified. Contrarily, this anti-human action by the American rulers will remain as a black stigma on the face of Washington and democracy like their other actions. They will only encourage the Afghans to drastically speed up their struggle for the liberation of their lands.

Source: Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Link: http://www.alemarah.info/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1001:bagrams-prisons-handover-to-kabul-administration-will-help-old-crimes-continue-under-a-new-name.

BACKGROUND: Haiti quake one of worst ever in region

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

Washington - The peaceful Caribbean is not exactly a cauldron of seismic activity. That's why geoscientists were surprised by the magnitude-7 earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti's capital city, Port-au- Prince, on Tuesday. It was the largest ever known to hit Haiti and among the largest ever in the region, the US Geological Survey said.

The nearest geographic rival was in 1946 when an 8.0 quake killed 100 people in Samana, Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispanola with Haiti, according to the USGS.

Haitian President Rene Preval estimated that thousands may have been killed in Tuesday's temblor. International rescue teams are racing to the impoverished country to help.

"Unfortunately, Haiti has a rather poor economy and not a wonderful building style for earthquake resistance, so we would expect that we would see quite severe and widespread damage from this earthquake, " Michael Blanpeid, associate coordinator for the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program said in a podcast.

In terms of death toll, only three other earthquakes since 1692 in the region would match such devastation: Jamaica in 1692, a quake of no specified magnitude killed 2,000; Leeward Islands in 1843, an 8.3- magnitude quake killed 5,000; and another in Jamaica in 1907, a 6.5- magnitude quake that killed 1,000.

The Haiti quake happened at a fault between the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates, along the smaller Enriquillo- Plaintain Garden fault system, Carrieann Bedwell, a geophysicist with the USGS, told LiveScience.com.

"The two sides of the fault moved past each other in an east-west direction, and that's what caused the energy release and the Haiti earthquakes," Bedwell said.

USGS scientists measured 40 aftershocks in Tuesday's quake.

Haiti is more likely to be buffeted by hurricanes, as it was in 2008, when four back-to-back hurricanes killed at least 793 people and left 800,000 homeless.

In 2004, hurricane Jeanne and other storms killed at least 4,000 people.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303623,background-haiti-quake-one-of-worst-ever-in-region.html.

Storm clouds gather over new European Commission - Summary

Wed, 13 Jan 2010

Brussels - Storm clouds gathered over the proposed new European Commission on Wednesday as the European Parliament's main political groups attacked key candidates in a tit-for-tat row. The dispute carries echoes of a power struggle in 2004, which led to the unprecedented rejection of two candidates, and creates uncertainty as to whether the European Union will be able to swear in a new executive on February 1, as had been hoped.

At the center of the dispute stands Bulgaria's nominee for the role of EU aid commissioner, Rumiana Jeleva, a 40-year-old former foreign minister seen as one of the country's political stars.

The conservative politician's luster appeared to dim abruptly at her parliamentary confirmation hearing on Tuesday, as liberal and socialist members of the legislature (MEPs) accused her of lying about her ties to Bulgarian firm Global Consult on her official declaration of her financial interests.

The conservatives, formally known as the European People's Party (EPP), are the largest group in parliament. The socialists, officially the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) are the second-largest bloc, with the liberals of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) third.

After the hearing, representatives of the main political groups agreed to ask the commission - the EU's executive - and their own legal service for confirmation that Jeleva's declaration was in line with EU transparency rules, effectively freezing her application.

"I want Mrs Jeleva's legal situation clarified as soon as possible, so that the Bulgarian commissioner-designate can be judged on her merits," EPP head Joseph Daul said in a statement.

The parties formalized that demand on Wednesday.

But the same day, the head of the S&D group, Martin Schulz, urged commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso to press the Bulgarian government to drop Jeleva's candidacy, parliament sources said.

That provoked a bitter response from conservative politicians, who described the dispute as a liberal and left-wing "witch-hunt" and launched their own attacks on liberal and socialist candidates.

"I would like to say on behalf of the (conservative) group that we will defend ... the integrity of (Jeleva's) personality against unfounded allegations," EPP deputy chairman Jozsef Szajer said.

Szajer said that his party was seriously worried by anti-Roma remarks allegedly made by the center-left Slovak candidate for the post of commission vice-president, Maros Sefcovic, in 2005.

"I don't think that the future vice-president of the commission, who is responsible for such a sensitive area as recruitment, equal opportunities and gender, can allow himself to have such discriminatory views," Szajer said.

Szajer denied that his comments came in retaliation for the attacks on Jeleva. Sefcovic's hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Sefcovic's staff replied in a statement that he had "no recollection of having said those words."

"Mr Sefcovic deeply regrets if anything he may have said in the past has caused offense to anyone. He has consistently supported efforts to help the Roma community," the statement said.

Separately, the head of the main German conservative party in the parliament, Werner Langen, said that his group also had concerns over Finland's liberal candidate for the post of economic affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, whose hearing was on Monday.

The Finn's performance was "very subdued", raising the question of whether he was the right man for such a high-profile job, Langen said.

And, strikingly, conservatives and socialists both attacked Lithuania's conservative candidate for the post of anti-fraud commissioner Algirdas Semeta, whose hearing was on Tuesday.

Semeta was "anything but convincing," Langen said, while the S&D group in a statement said that they had "serious concerns" about his ability to do his job.

Under EU rules, each of the 26 would-be commissioners has to attend a confirmation hearing before the parliament takes a vote of confidence in the whole body.

The current hearings are set to run until Tuesday, after which the parliament is set to debate them throughout next week.

MEPs are then scheduled to vote on the new commission on January 26. However, officials in Brussels said that that timetable could be thrown into disarray if the row over candidates drags on.

MEPs cannot veto individual candidates, but they can threaten to veto the entire group unless certain nominees are replaced.

In 2004, the body for the first time did exactly that, forcing the withdrawal of Italian candidate Rocco Buttiglione and Latvian nominee Ingrida Udre. Buttiglione had offended the parliament with his views on gays, while Udre had been accused of financial irregularities.

On Wednesday, Bulgarian premier Boyko Borisov said that he was confident that Jeleva would win the parliament's backing.

But sources in Sofia said that Borisov already had a "Plan B" in case parliament torpedoed Jeleva, with the press naming Defense Minister Nikolaj Mladenov, 37, as the likely backup candidate.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303626,storm-clouds-gather-over-new-european-commission--summary.html.

Demjanjuk war crimes trial told how Nazis recruited Ukrainians

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

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Wed, 13 Jan 2010

Munich - A historian described at the trial of alleged concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk on Wednesday how Nazi Germany recruited and trained Ukrainians to work at the Holocaust death camps. Munich University historian Dieter Pohl was giving evidence for a second day as an expert witness at the trial in Germany.

Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk, 89, is alleged to have worked at Sobibor concentration camp in German-occupied Poland in 1943 after the Nazis offered to free him from a camp for Soviet prisoners of war if he would work as a uniformed guard for the SS.

Demjanjuk lay on a stretcher as Pohl spoke. Throughout the trial so far the former Ohio factory worker has not spoken and has drawn down a trademark blue cap over his face.

Pohl, who is a historian at the university's Institute of Contemporary History, described how hundreds of prisoners of war were trained by the SS in the occupied town of Travniki and were later known as the Travniki staff of the SS.

Pohl estimated the previous day that roughly 170,000 people had died in Sobibor, adding that it was impossible now to know of all the individual fates. Around 25 to 30 Germans are thought to have worked at Sobibor, as well as 100 to 120 captured Soviet Red Army soldiers.

Demjanjuk stands accused of being one of the guards who herded 27,900 Jews into Sobibor's gas chambers during his stint at the camp.

Demjanjuk has been indicted as an accessory to murder and could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The court case is expected to be one of the last major war crimes trials from the Nazi period.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303506,demjanjuk-war-crimes-trial-told-how-nazis-recruited-ukrainians.html.