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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Anahita temple imperiled by construction work

The latest observations by reporters have revealed that the ancient temple of Anahita is threatened by construction materials stored around the historic site.

The Mehr News Agency reported that iron beams and spars were stored around the Anahita Temple in Kangavar in the province of Kermanshah.

The news agency released pictures showing some concrete footings at the site that have not yet dried out.

The construction facilities stored around the invaluable temple and the concrete footings have outraged archeological experts into voicing their concerns over the issue.

The construction work at the site has begun despite the fact that the heritage regulations forbid any constructions around cultural heritage sites.

The Anahita Temple is the second oldest stone structure in Iran after Persepolis. It is believed to hold a vast amount of historically significant artifacts and evidence of life and civilization dating back to 200 BC.

The building is believed to have been a temple dedicated to Anahita, the goddess of water, fertility, war and the patroness of women.

The remains at Kangavar reveal an edifice that is Hellenistic in character and yet displays distinctly Persian architectural traits.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116547§ionid=351020105.

Iran, Iraq meet over border issues

Iranian and Iraqi border officials met on Monday to discuss and resolve "misunderstandings" over their joint border.

Officers from eleven border zones of the two countries met in the Iranian city of Qasr-e Shirin, where Iran expressed its desire to erect signs at the border.

In early January, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran and Baghdad had begun talks after an incident over an oil field near the border.

The Monday meeting also paved the ground for the formation of a joint committee to discuss the matter of the oil well, Fakkah.

Brigadier General Hossein Zolfaqari, who headed the Iranian delegation, said it was important to have close cooperation with the Iraqi side.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116468§ionid=351020101.

China airports may get full-body scanners

China has not ruled out the possibility of installing body scanners at major airports, a top civil aviation official said.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is still considering the pros and cons of the body scanner, since it involves passengers' privacy, Li Jiaxiang, head of CAAC, has revealed.

"It is our concern that while we must ensure flight safety, passengers should not feel deprived of dignity or freedom when going through security checks," he said.

The United States has announced plans to install full body scanners at all its major airports following a foiled Christmas Day bid to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. So far, media reports said 19 American airports already use at least one such scanner.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Britain, the Netherlands and Italy are among countries that have announced plans to use full-body scanners.

The use of these machines, which cost $200,000 each, has sparked a heated debate over privacy, because scanning penetrates packaging and clothing, and produces "naked" images of passengers.

But, no matter how advanced the security-check measures are, it is not possible to close every loophole, Chinese counter-terrorism expert Li Wei said.

"Machines are operated by people, and people could get tired or not be alert enough," said Li, who is director of the center for counter-terrorism studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

"The expensive full-body scanner is not a must in China Airports could enhance the sensitiveness of the metal scanners, giving every passenger a pat-down to prevent incidents like the foiled Christmas Day attack," he said.

The CAAC has not come to the final decision, but Li said security checks at major airports have been strengthened to the level of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Nine security measures have been added, including deploying more air police in plain clothes onboard airplanes and giving more hand checks on luggage.

A second security check is also arranged for passengers boarding high-risk flights, especially flights to the United States, he said.

But airplane passengers said the tightened security checks resulted in a longer time to board flights, and a quickened security check process is preferred, even if it means that privacy might be exposed.

Shi Rui, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, who flew from Shanghai with a US Northwest Airlines flight on Jan 10, said she was surprised by the unexpected long queue in front of the boarding gate and was a little annoyed by the long wait.

"The second checkup was in the passenger loading bridge. We thought the bridge was empty, but then, after a turn, suddenly we saw the long queue," she said.

Two officers were giving passengers a pat-down, while four others, standing behind steel tables, searched every bag.

"You can also expect an additional check near the luggage check-in counter, where airport staff randomly scoured through passengers' luggage before they are checked in," she said.

"It is the same measure adopted in the summer of 2008."

Cheng Yuan, another Chinese student who flew from Beijing to the US on Jan 13 with United Airlines, also went through the same security procedure at the Beijing Capital International Airport.

"I am accustomed to the complicated security checks (at airports)," he said.

"But airports should do their job to streamline the process and use necessary high-tech facilities, which can save time and trouble while making flights safer.

"The full-body scanner is acceptable... Exposing one's body to only a couple of security officers is nothing," he said.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6872176.html.

Iran says arrests 4 suspects in prosecutor's killing

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has arrested four suspects in the killing of a prosecutor in an attack which a judiciary official said may have been carried out by Kurdish guerrillas, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.

Vali Haji Gholizadeh, prosecutor in the northwestern city of Khoy in a region bordering Turkey, was shot dead in front of his home on Monday night.

"So far, no group has claimed responsibility for this terrorist act," provincial judiciary chief Mohammad Ali Mousavi was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.

"But in view of the threats and plans the PJAK group had announced previously, it is probable that this group is involved in the assassination," he said.

Iranian security forces often clash with guerrillas from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which took up arms in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey.

Like Iraq and Turkey, Iran has a large Kurdish minority, mainly living in the Islamic Republic's northwest and west.

Iran sees PJAK, which seeks autonomy for Kurdish areas in Iran and shelters in Iraq's northeastern border provinces, as a terrorist group. The United States, Iran's arch foe, in February last year also branded PJAK as a terrorist organization.

Khoy's governor, Ebrahim Mohammadlou, said four suspects had been arrested in connection with Monday's assassination.

He said the city's prosecutor appeared to have been killed by "hostile anti-revolution groups," the semi-official Mehr News Agency added.

The assassination took place six days after a remote-controlled bomb killed a university scientist in Tehran. Such incidents are relatively rare in Iran, which borders volatile Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

Iranian officials have blamed the United States and Israel for the bombing attack that killed the Tehran University Professor, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi. The United States dismissed the allegation of U.S. involvement as absurd.

An Iranian opposition website said he was a supporter of opposition leaser Mirhossein Mousavi.

Voters flock to polls for Massachusetts election

By STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON – Voters thronged to the polls in Massachusetts Tuesday in a special election Republicans hope will be a national game-changer, slowing down President Barack Obama's agenda and loosening the Democratic grip on the U.S. Senate.

As dawn broke in the frosty Northeast, the GOP publicly relished the possibility that a previously obscure state senator, Scott Brown, could wrest the election from Democrat Martha Coakley, considered the overwhelming favorite until just a few days ago.

In contrast to the light turnout for the party primaries last month, both candidates expected heavy a turnout following the national attention thrust upon their race. There was a clear sign at one polling place: A line of cars stretched for nearly a half-mile from the gymnasium at North Andover High School, the polling place for a community of about 30,000 about a half-hour north of Boston. Some drivers turned around in exasperation.

Speaking to reporters after she voted early Tuesday at an elementary school near her home, Coakley voiced confidence that she would win, saying "we've been working every day."

She said "we're paying attention to the ground game. ... Every game has its own dynamics. ... We'll know tonight what the results are." The polls close at 8 p.m. EST.

The race to fill the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat in liberal Massachusetts neared its conclusion with not only its outcome, but the fate of Obama's program, under a cloud. Republicans want Brown to become their 41st vote in the 100-member Senate, giving them enough strength to successfully filibuster Democratic initiatives, including the massive health care bill that majority Democrats are rushing to finish.

"I think it's been a fascinating process to watch unfold," Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said in an interview as the polls opened. "A year ago, the landscape was very different than we see it today. ... The American people have begun to take charge in these elections."

Steele said that if Brown is successful, the Democrats must quickly seat him. To do otherwise, he said, would be "an unseemly thing."

Former Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe said in an interview that his party must get a strong turnout, acknowledging "an anti-incumbency mood out there."

The swift rise of Brown has spooked Democrats who had considered the seat one of their most reliable. Kennedy, who died in August, held the post for 47 years. The last time Massachusetts elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate was 1972.

Brown has tried to turn Democrats' expectation of an easy win to his advantage, proclaiming, "It's not the Kennedy seat, it's the people's seat."

On Monday, Brown made another bus tour of the state, shaking hands with Boston Bruins fans at lunchtime and ending his day in his hometown of Wrentham, Mass., before an enthusiastic crowd of supporters, again touting the endorsement of former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.

"It's us against the machine," he told the group, urging them to vote. "Make sure that we send a message to Washington that business as usual is not how we like to do business."

Coakley also toured the state, enlisting the aid of top Democrats and making a final pitch to female voters. If she wins, Coakley would be the first woman elected to the Senate from Massachusetts.

With the stakes so high, Obama rolled out a last-minute television ad and the campaign launched automated phone calls from Vice President Joe Biden and Kennedy's widow, Vicki Kennedy, targeting voters who supported Obama in 2008. Members of the state's all-Democratic congressional delegation, including Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Barney Frank, also campaigned for Coakley.

"Every vote matters, every voice matters," Obama said in the ad. "We need you on Tuesday."

Both campaigns enlisted small armies of volunteers to staff phone banks and trudge through a mix of heavy snow and slush to remind their voters to get to the polls.

It's unclear whether the full-court press by unnerved Democrats was enough to blunt the surging Brown.

A Suffolk University survey taken Saturday and Sunday showed Brown with double-digit leads in three communities the poll identified as bellwethers: Gardner, Fitchburg and Peabody. But internal statewide polls for both sides showed a dead heat.

For Brown's staunchest supporters, such as Glen Stump, 47, a software engineer from Andover, Democrats' appeals fell on deaf ears.

"I hope he can stop this Obamacare legislation," Stump said, using critics' nickname for the health care overhaul bill. "I think it's being run in a completely partisan manner."

A third candidate, Joseph L. Kennedy, a Libertarian running as an independent, said he's been bombarded with e-mails from Brown supporters urging him to drop out and endorse the Republican. Kennedy, who was polling in the single digits and is no relation to the late senator, said he's staying in.

US activists blast CIA's overseas drone attacks

American anti-war peace activists have rallied against the increasing use of unmanned drones by CIA around the world — especially in Pakistan.

Peace activists and anti-war advocates staged a protest rally on Sunday in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.

"We're absolutely opposed to that (the use of drones), innocent people are killed as a result of that," a demonstrator told Press TV.

The use of predator drone attacks in the covert CIA war in Pakistan has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

"And we know the fear that's created among the civilian population in Afghanistan, Pakistan, now they have been used in Yemen, Somalia and Syria. And where is this gonna stop? It really needs to stop now," said Debra Sweet, an activist from the World Can't Wait.

Alexis Miller from the Washington Peace Center said that President Barack Obama and his administration have proliferated the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

"People don't realize that drone attacks kill hundreds of civilians every time they are executed, and with this policy of Obama, he has done three hundred in the last six [months], or in the first six months of his presidency more than [what] George Bush did in three years,” Miller said.

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose Facebook page has been shut down for promoting the event, maintained that former President George W. Bush and his vice president Dick Cheney should also be held responsible for the drone attacks.

"Dick Cheney and George Bush started many of these programs under their regime, not only did they start them, they greatly increased them after the excuse of 9/11. And we believe that Dick Cheney, George Bush and the whole administration need to be held accountable," said Sheehan.

The veteran activists say the ongoing use of drone attacks is the CIA and military's new form of interventionism and since it is conveniently covert, it will be easier to keep off the radar, despite the fact that the civilian death toll is drastically increasing.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116467§ionid=3510203.

Guinea opposition names candidate for prime minister

PressTV

Jean-Marie Dore has been named by Guinea's coalition of political and civil society groups as the new candidate for prime minister on Monday.

"Jean-Marie Dore has been chosen on the basis of the criteria we listed at a meeting attended by representatives of political parties and social groups," said opposition figure Etienne Soropogui.

Dore, who is from a small ethnic group in Guinea's Forestiere region, leads the Union for the Progress of Guinea.

Dore's candidacy has to be approved by Guinea's interim junta chief Sekouba Konate.

Once endorsed, Dore will lead a long awaited transitional government to democratic elections and end the violence and instability that has rocked the west African nation since Cap. Moussa Dadis Camara's military take over in December 2008.

Camara's reign has been marred by massacre and crimes against humanity. On September 28, 150 people were killed and hundreds of women and girls were raped and sexually mutilated at an opposition rally in Conakry.

Camara, has been outside Guinea since December 3, when he was flown to Morocco to receive medical treatment following a failed assassination attempt.

During his absence, some members of the international community urged Cap. Camara to refrain from returning to Guinea, fearing that his comeback would sink the country into a civil war.

Somali pirates bag record ransom, free tanker

PressTV

Somali pirates have released a Greek oil tanker with 2 million barrels aboard after receiving a record ransom on Monday, maritime officials reported.

"We have agreed to solve our disagreements and release the ship. It is free and sailing away now," one of the pirates, who identified himself as Hassan, told Reuters by telephone. "The crew are all safe."

The 28-member crew aboard the Maran Centaurus consisted of 16 Filipinos, 9 Greeks, 2 Ukrainians, and a Romanian sailor.

The amount of ransom paid to the pirates, the highest ever to be reported, believed to be between USD 5.5mn and USD 7mn, officials said.

"The stash of the record-breaking ransom ... is reportedly now held in a heavily guarded house in Haradheere," Ecoterra International, a Nairobi-based group that monitors shipping off Somalia reported.

The agency said the pirate-run port was now very tense because the sharing of the funds had not yet taken place.

The Maran Centaurus was hijacked on November 29, 2009, near the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

Iranian lawmakers to increase in number

Iran's Interior Ministry said Monday that it is studying legislation to increase the number of lawmakers in Parliament by twenty.

Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said the bill would have to be approved by the Ahmadinejad cabinet before being sent to Parliament to be put to vote.

Najjar said legislation is being drafted based on studies of geographical and political divisions within the country, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

There are currently 290 lawmakers in the legislative body. According to Article 64 of the Constitution, 20 people are added to the members of Parliament every 10 years.

Brigadier General Najjar said the bill is expected to be completed by the end of the Iranian year in March.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116456§ionid=351020101.

Israeli forces seize 17 Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli soldiers have arrested 17 Palestinians in pre-dawn raids in a number of occupied West Bank towns.

According to the International Middle East Media Center, 15 of those detained in the overnight operations on Monday were from the central West Bank city of Ramallah and nearby villages.

A large number of Israeli troops cordoned off and ransacked the residents' houses in pursuit of 'documents.' The Palestinians were taken to military detention camps to be questioned.

The Israeli army regularly arrests Palestinians during overnight operations in West Bank towns, even though the detentions are in flagrant violation of a security agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

Tel Aviv claims that the people arrested in the raids are 'wanted activists' that have been detained for interrogation.

More than 11,500 Palestinians, among them women and children, are currently imprisoned in Israeli detention facilities, suffering harsh and life-threatening conditions.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116544§ionid=351020202.

Senegal offers land to Haiti quake victims

PressTV

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade urged African nations on Monday to offer an allotment of land for resettlement to victims of last week's earthquake in Haiti.

"Africa should offer Haitians the chance to return home. It is their right. There is nothing to haggle about," President Abdoulaye Wade said on his website.

In his proposal to the 53-nation African Union published in local newspapers on Monday, Wade asked that Haitians be granted "their own state on African territory, the land of their ancestors."

The disturbing images of the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that has destroyed Port-au-Prince and killed many thousands of people on Tuesday has been broadcast in French-speaking West and Central African states.

Haitian officials say as many as 200,000 people may have been killed, while so far the bodies of 70,000 victims have been recovered and buried in mass graves.

The devastation has deeply touched many of the African continent's officials and residents.

Senegalese officials have been quoted by the local press as saying the country is prepared to offer parcels of fertile land to the victims of the quake.

Senegal has promised USD 1mn to Haiti and is producing a televised fund-raising event to provide additional emergency aid.

Haiti chaos hampers aid delivery; death toll rises

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU and MIKE MELIA, Associated Press Writers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Relief workers say pockets of violence in Haiti's devastated capital are hindering a slow increase in much-needed aid delivery, and some residents have banded together to protect the few possessions they have left.

As thousands of others head to the countryside, people in one hillside Port-au-Prince district blocked off access to their street with cars and asked local young men to patrol for looters.

"We never count on the government here," said Tatony Vieux, 29. "Never."

A week after the magnitude-7.0 quake struck, Tuesday dawned with new potential for reinforcements to aid in security and disaster relief. The United Nations Security Council was expected to approve additional peacekeeping forces. Some 2,000 U.S. Marines who arrived in the region a day earlier were parked offshore on ships.

But the scope of catastrophe had widened dramatically. The latest casualty report, from the European Commission citing Haitian government figures, doubled previous estimates of the dead to approximately 200,000, with some 70,000 bodies recovered and trucked off to mass graves.

The port remains blocked. Distribution of food, water and supplies from the city's lone airport to the needy are increasing but still remained a work in progress, frustrating many survivors who sleep in the streets and outdoor camps of tens of thousands. European Commission analysts estimate 250,000 were injured and 1.5 million were made homeless.

"I simply don't understand what is taking the foreigners so long," said Raymond Saintfort, a pharmacist who brought two suitcases of aspirin and antiseptics to the ruins of a nursing home where dozens of residents suffered.

The U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said not all 15 planned U.N. food distribution points were up and running yet. The U.N. World Food Program said it expected to boost operations to feeding 97,000 on Monday. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more government donations.

In one step to reassure frustrated aid groups, the U.S. military agreed to give aid deliveries priority over military flights at the now-U.S.-run airport here, according to the WFP. The Americans' handling of civilian flights had angered some humanitarian officials.

At the airport, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Chris Lounderman said about 100 flights a day were now landing.

Still, the U.S. military resorted to an air drop from C-17 transport planes Monday, parachuting pallets of supplies to a secured area outside the city rather than landing and unloading at the airport.

Meanwhile, rescuers continued finding survivors.

International rescue teams working together pulled two Haitian women from a collapsed university building, using machinery commonly nicknamed "jaws of life" to cut away debris and allow rescuers to pull them out on stretchers. A sister of one of the survivors shouted praises to God when the women emerged.

In the city's Bourdon area, a large team of French, Dominican and Panamanian rescuers using high-tech detection equipment said they heard heartbeats underneath the rubble of a bank building and worked into the night to try and rescue a survivor. The husband of a missing woman watched from a crowd of onlookers,

"I'm going to be here until I find my wife, I'll keep it up until I find her, dead or alive," said Witchar Longfosse.

Elsewhere, overwhelmed surgeons appealed for anesthetics, scalpels, and saws for cutting off crushed limbs. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, visiting one hospital, reported its staff had to use vodka to sterilize equipment. "It's astonishing what the Haitians have been able to accomplish," he said.

Front-line relief workers made some headway. By 7 a.m. Monday, an Israeli military field hospital had treated 196 people. "We understand it's a drop in a big sea," said facility spokesman Avi Berman.

Violence added to complications in places. Medical relief workers said they were treating gunshot wounds in addition to broken bones and other quake-related injuries. Nighttime was especially perilous and locals were forming night brigades and machete-armed mobs to fight bandits across the capital.

"It gets too dangerous," said Remi Rollin, an armed private security guard hired by a shopkeeper to ward off looters. "After sunset, police shoot on sight."

In the sprawling Cite Soleil slum, gangsters are reassuming control after escaping from the city's notorious main penitentiary and police urge citizens to take justice into their own hands.

"If you don't kill the criminals, they will all come back," a Haitian police officer shouted over a loudspeaker.

Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, cited the often unruly crowds at points where food and water is being distributed and said Haitian police had returned to the streets in only "limited numbers."

A Security Council vote was expected to add 1,500 more U.N. police and 2,000 more peacekeepers to join the 9,000 or so U.N. security personnel in Haiti.

Thousands are streaming out of Port-au-Prince, crowding aboard buses headed toward countryside villages. Charlemagne Ulrick planned to stay behind after putting his three children on a truck for an all-day journey to Haiti's northwestern peninsula.

"They have to go and save themselves," said Ulrick, a dentist. "I don't know when they're coming back."

U.S. and Haitian officials also warned any efforts of Haitians to reach the United States by boat would be thwarted. Haiti's ambassador in Washington, Raymond Joseph, recorded a message in Creole to his countrymen, urging them not to leave.

"If you think you will reach the U.S. and all the doors will be wide open to you, that's not at all the case," Joseph said, according to a transcript on America.gov, a State Department Web site. "And they will intercept you right on the water and send you back home where you came from."

UN to Vote on Sending More Troops for Haiti Aid

Andres R. Martinez and William Varner

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council is set to vote today on sending 2,000 more troops and 1,500 extra police to Haiti as forces on the ground struggle to keep order and speed delivery of food, water and medicine.

“Haiti requires a massive response from the international community,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in New York yesterday. “The people need to see that today is better than yesterday, and that the future will be better than the past.”

The UN, whose Haitian offices were destroyed in the 7- magnitude quake Jan. 12, has more than 9,000 troops and officers in Haiti. At least 46 UN staffers died in the disaster, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Aid workers face scattered street violence, fueled in part by shortages of food and medical supplies in the capital Port- au-Prince, a city of about 3 million people. The quake, which may have killed more than 100,000 people, damaged roads, and the port and toppled the control tower at the country’s only international airport, hampering efforts to get relief supplies moving.

The U.S. expected to have 7,000 troops in Haiti and offshore as of yesterday, providing medical care, security and operating the airport.

Brazilian Contingent

Brazil, which had the largest number of soldiers in Haiti in the UN’s peacekeeping forces, is ready to double its 1,266- strong contingent if asked, General Enza Peri, the army’s commander, said yesterday in a news conference in Brasilia.

Alain LeRoy, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, told reporters yesterday at the UN that the neighboring Dominican Republic has pledged to send 800 soldiers to Haiti. The European Union will send some police units, he said.

The main task for the additional soldiers will be escorting relief convoys to 200 distribution points in the capital, LeRoy said. Relief corridors are being set up from the Dominican Republic and ports in northern Haiti to Port-au-Prince, he said.

LeRoy said that while there has been violence “here and there, most due to frustration,” the situation is “generally calm.”

Spain will send a warship to Haiti, El Pais reported. The ship, which will arrive at the beginning of next month, will have a 190-member crew and a hospital on board, the newspaper reported. Spain is also considering sending engineers and guards to help with reconstruction, the newspaper said.

Airport Capacity Doubled

The number of flights the single-runway airport can handle almost doubled yesterday to 100 after the U.S. took control, the White House said in a statement. The U.S. is giving priority to planes carrying relief supplies, said John Holmes, UN emergency relief coordinator.

Doctors Without Borders medical teams are stymied by bottlenecks at the airport that have stretched out by two days the expected time for delivery of supplies, said Benoit Leduc, operations manager for Haiti, in a conference call yesterday with journalists from Port-au-Prince.

People are dying and infections, curable with antibiotics, are leading to amputations instead, he said. The organization has five facilities now, three of which have surgical capabilities, he said.

The organization has treated more than 3,000 patients, and performed 500 operations with 165 international workers and 550 locals. Another 48 doctors from abroad are on the way.

‘Behind Pace’

Doctors Without Borders is trying to reach areas outside the capital that have suffered destruction and often are accessible only by helicopter, Leduc said.

“We’re behind pace,” he said of the group’s overall operations. “It’s really a race.”

Looting in downtown Port-au-Prince was “widespread,” CNN reported yesterday. One U.S. citizen died in an “incident,” Agence France-Presse said, citing a military spokesman.

U.S. Rear Admiral Michael Rogers, director of intelligence for the Joints Chiefs of Staff, told reporters yesterday looting had been “isolated” and wasn’t impeding aid from getting through.

Haitian President Rene Preval said that international aid to his country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, has been “quick, concrete and massive.” The nation, with an economy of about $7 billion, was in a “difficult” situation before and needs institutional changes and economic development, he said in an interview with Venezuela’s government-funded Telesur television network.

In London, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said the EU should set up a rapid reaction force to better deal with humanitarian crises.

“We have to reflect afterwards about a better instrument for reacting,” Van Rompuy said today. “But that’s for later, first things first, we need to do everything we can to help the people of Haiti.”

Haiti quake creates thousands of new orphans

By TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The 5-month-old patient at the Israeli field hospital has a number rather than a name.

No one even knows who dropped the barely conscious child at the makeshift medical center after he was pulled from the debris of a collapsed building four days after last week's catastrophic quake. Now recovering, doctors have a difficult decision ahead.

"What will we do with him when we are finished?" said Dr. Assa Amit of the hospital's pediatric emergency department.

No one knows who the boy's family is, or whether any of his relatives are alive.

Tens of thousands of children have been orphaned by the earthquake, aid groups say — so many that officials won't venture a number. With so many buildings destroyed and growing chaos in the capital, it is conceivable that many children are alone.

"As yet they are still on the streets," said Elizabeth Rodgers, of the Britain-based international orphan group SOS Children. "Without doubt, most of them are in the open."

Even before Tuesday's deadly magnitude-7.0 earthquake, Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, was awash in orphans, with 380,000 children living in orphanages or group homes, the United Nations Children's Fund reported on its Web site.

Some of the children lost their parents in previous disasters, including four tropical storms or hurricanes that killed about 800 people in 2008, deadly storms in 2005 and 2004, and massive floods almost every other year since 2000. Others were abandoned amid the Caribbean nation's long-running political strife, which has led thousands to seek asylum in the U.S. — without their children — or by parents who were simply too poor to care for them.

International advocacy groups are trying to help, either by speeding up adoptions that were already in progress, or by sending in relief personnel who could potentially evacuate thousands of orphans to the U.S. and other countries.

On Monday, the Dutch government sent a planeload of immigration officials to Haiti who will try to locate and evacuate 100 children who were already being adopted by Dutch parents.

Also Monday, Indiana-based Kids Alive International, which runs orphanages around the world, is expected to take 50 Haitian orphans to group homes in the Dominican Republic, the organization said in a news release.

U.S. Homeland Security spokesman Sean Smith said Monday that orphans who have ties to the U.S. — such as a family member already living here — are among those who can get special permission to remain in the United States.

Notwithstanding the U.S. policy, the Catholic Church in Miami is working on a proposal that would allow thousands of orphaned children to come permanently to America. A similar effort launched in 1960, known as Operation Pedro Pan, brought about 14,000 unaccompanied children from Cuba to the U.S.

Under the new plan, dubbed "Pierre Pan," Haitian orphans would first be placed in group homes and then paired with foster parents, said Mary Ross Agosta, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami.

"We have children who are homeless and possibly without parents and it is the moral and humane thing to do," Agosta said.

Archdiocese officials said many details would have to be worked out and President Barack Obama's administration would have to grant orphans humanitarian parole to enter the U.S.

In the meantime, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said the United Nations is establishing a group whose mission on the ground in Haiti will be to protect children — orphans and non-orphans alike — against trafficking, kidnapping and sex abuse.

And orphanages that were operating in Haiti before the earthquake are scrambling to keep their kids safe, sheltered and fed. Those with damaged buildings are pledging to rebuild and take in more children, if needed.

Three of the four orphanages operated in Port-au-Prince by Planting Peace, a Melbourne, Fla., nonprofit, have been damaged, forcing staff to move everyone into one building. They are now trying to secure homes in Haiti for the kids, the group's founder, Aaron Jackson, told The Associated Press in an e-mail. Rainn Wilson, who appears in the TV show "The Office," is raising money for the group, Jackson said.

Jackson said all 37 of his orhpans are physically fine and he would like to help more children.

"There needs to be some communication from the government level about what we need to do. Can we take these children?" he said. "We're ready. We've already raised a fair amount of money where we can go out and get an orphanage running soon."

Sherrie Fausey had to evacuate 30 children from her Christian Light Foundation orphanage in the capital after her facility was badly damaged in the quake.

Fausey, a former Florida elementary school teacher who came to Haiti 10 years ago, acknowledges that her job — daunting before the quake — has become even more challenging now.

"Wherever the Lord sends you, he'll make you content to be there," she said. "Times can be hard, but I'd rather be here in all this rubble. It's where my kids are."

At the Israeli field hospital, doctors are expecting to treat many more orphans in the coming days.

On one of the hospital's stretchers, Patient No. 236, a 6-month-old boy, lay on a hospital stretcher, crying in pain. Relatives brought him to the medical center shortly after the disaster, then left. They didn't tell anyone the boy's name.

Doctors suspect the infant had meningitis long before the earthquake — and they also suspect that no one is coming back for him.

"We will wait to discharge him until there is a facility that can grant continuous care," Amit said.

'Armenia opens fire, violates Karabakh ceasefire'

Armenia has violated the terms of a ceasefire with Azerbaijan, opening fire on in three separate locations and endangering the approval of a deal, which could end a century of hostilities.

Armenian soldiers opened fire on Azerbaijani territories from three border villages on Monday, Azerbaijan's defense ministry said.

The ministry added that Azerbaijani troops responded the fire. No causalities have been reported.

The two neighbors have repeatedly accused one another of ceasefire violations near Nagorno-Karabakh since the late 1980s.

The region belongs to Azerbaijan, but has a largely ethnic Armenian population.

It has been almost 21 years since Baku and Yerevan engaged in an armed conflict over the 4,400-square-kilometer (1,700-square-mile) mountainous Karabakh region.

After six years of intensive fighting, about 16 percent of Azerbaijan's land was occupied and over million people were displaced, while some 40,000 people from both sides were killed.

The conflict, known as the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which broke out in February 1988, ended in a ceasefire on May 16, 1994, but there has been no agreement so far to turn the ceasefire into a permanent peace treaty.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116454§ionid=351020406.

Iranian prosecutor assassinated in West Azarbaijan

An Iranian prosecutor has been assassinated by two unidentified gunmen in the city of Khoy in the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan.

Khoy Governor Ebrahim Mohammadlu told IRIB that Vali Haji-Qolizadeh, the prosecutor of the city, was shot twice in front of his home late on Monday.

The assassination came six days after Professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at Tehran University, was killed by a bomb hidden in a booby-trapped motorbike in Tehran.

Mohammadlu said Haji-Qolizadeh attained martyrdom on Monday night "after he was transferred to a hospital."

Haji-Qolizadeh had a "brilliant record in battling land-grabbing, moral corruption, and counter-revolutionaries," Ebrahim Mazraeli, an official at the Khoy governor's office, told the Fars news agency.

According to initial reports, the prosecutor had received death threats over the past few days.

Iranian officials say an investigation is under way to identify and arrest the culprits.

The city of Khoy is located near the border with Turkey.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116479§ionid=351020101.

OPEC considers using euro in oil transactions

Iran's representative to OPEC says the group weighs replacing the dollar by the euro in crude oil pricing, adding that no decision has been made.

"Members of OPEC are free (to use any currency) in their oil transactions," said Mohammad Ali Khatibi on Sunday.

He added that Iran receives 90 percent of its oil revenues in currencies other than the US dollar.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered in September 2009 the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in the country's foreign exchange accounts.

Earlier, the Islamic Republic of Iran had announced that the euro would replace the greenback in the country's oil transactions.

Also, Iran's Trade Promotion Organization announced in 2009 that it would completely exclude the US dollar from the country's foreign revenues and reserves.

Iran has recently asked Japan to replace the US dollar with the yen in oil deals it has with the Islamic Republic.

The constantly declining value of the dollar and persisting economic crisis in the US has encouraged many countries to drop the currency in favor of a more stable one.

Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, Venezuela, Sudan and Russia have taken steps to replace the US dollar in their foreign exchange reserves.

Earlier in November, the head of Iran's Bank Melli (BMI) said Iran's Central Bank and BMI have entered into negotiations with some countries and international banks regarding the use of the Iranian rial, the official currency of Iran, in international transactions and operations.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116443§ionid=351020103.

Arson attackers on mosque arrested in Israel

Israeli police have arrested five settlers in connection with an arson attack on a Palestinian mosque in the West Bank in December.

The five were arrested during a raid by Israeli police and the Shin Bet domestic security agency in Yitzhar, a bastion of hardline settlers in the northern West Bank of Occupied Palestine, Israel's army radio reported.

Police had previously arrested a 17-year-old from another West Bank settlement in connection with the mosque attack, but he has been already released.

At the time the mosque was attacked, on December 11, the arsonists torched holy books and sprayed hate messages in Hebrew on the structure's walls.

Hardline Israeli settlers have adopted what they call a "price tag" policy under which they attack Palestinians, whenever Tel Aviv forces them to curb their settlement projects.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116444§ionid=351020202.

Iran to take legal action against ISSF for PG games

Iran says it will take legal action against the Riyadh-based Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF), one day after the athletic games planned in Tehran for April were canceled.

On Sunday, ISSF called off the athletic games scheduled for Tehran because of Iran's use of the term "Persian Gulf" on medals and pamphlets.

According to the federation, Iran "did not abide by the rules of ISSF " and "did not follow the decisions taken by the general assembly of the federation at a previous meeting in Riyadh."

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast criticized the move on Monday, saying that the Tehran government keeps the right to take legal proceedings against the federation for annulling the games at a time when Iran had already made the necessary preparations.

"We will pursue the issue given the costs and expenses inflicted upon us and their illegal demand”, he noted, adding that the Foreign Ministry and the National Olympic Committee will take legal proceedings against the move.

Mehman-Parast added that since the games were mainly aimed at strengthening the bonds between Muslim states, the use of lame excuses to postpone the games will prove to be a wrong and baseless approach.

The Iranian official stressed that the historical body of water in southeastern Iran has always been referred to as "the Persian Gulf" and any attempt to corrode this term is against UN regulations.

He added that Iran will do everything in its power to preserve the internationally-recognized term of the "Persian Gulf" for the 990 km long body of water that starts from Arvand Rud and ends at the Strait of Hormuz.

"We will never allow Arab states to discourage the use of the term 'Persian Gulf'," noted the Iranian Foreign Ministry official. "The region has always been, and will always be, the Persian Gulf."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116442§ionid=351020101.

67th Golden Globe winners announced

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the winners of the 67th Golden Globe Awards in various categories.

The association granted its Cecil B. DeMille Award to American filmmaker Martin Scorsese for his for his 'outstanding contribution to the entertainment field.'

The 67th Golden Globe award winners are as follows:

Best Motion Picture - Drama:

Avatar

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama:

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama:

Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy:

The Hangover

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy:

Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy:

Robert Downey Jr. - Sherlock Holmes

Best Performance by an Actress in A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:

Mo'nique - Precious: Based On the Novel Push by Sapphire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:

Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Best Animated Feature Film:

Up

Best Foreign Language Film:

The White Ribbon (Germany)

Best Director - Motion Picture:

James Cameron - Avatar

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture:

Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner - Up In The Air

Best Original Score - Motion Picture:

Michael Giacchino - Up

Best Original Song - Motion Picture:

The Weary Kind - Crazy Heart

Best Television Series-Drama:

Mad Men

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama:

Julianna Margulies - The Good Wife

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama:

Michael C. Hall - Dexter

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy:

Glee

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy:

Toni Collette - United States of Tara

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy:

Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Grey Gardens

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Drew Barrymore - Grey Gardens

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Kevin Bacon - Taking Chance

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Chloe Sevigny - Big Love

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

John Lithgow - Dexter

The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony was held on January 18, 2009 at the Beverly Hilton with a live telecast airing on NBC.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116441§ionid=3510212.

Iran proposes two awards to UNESCO

The Iranian National Commission for UNESCO proposes founding two awards, the Ferdowsi and the Sheikh Bahaei to the international organization.

Mohammad Reza Saeidabadi, Secretary General of Iranian National Commission for UNESCO told ISNA that Iran aims to found the awards in the areas of cultural heritage and job creativity to promote the country's role in UNESCO programs.

“The Ferdowsi award, which is under the review process, is to be dedicated to the cultural heritage field,” Saeidabadi said. “The award may be finalized within a few months.”

Ferdowsi is renowned for his magnum opus, the Shahnameh, or the Book of Kings. He devoted over 35 years of his life to the creation of this treasure, which has a unique position in Persian literature.

The Iranian poet is honored for his efforts to regenerate Persian and Iran's cultural traditions after the Arab conquest of the seventh century.

“The Sheikh Bahaei award recognizes activists who have made important contributions to job creativity and who have been a source of support, motivation and inspiration for people around the world,” he added.

Sheikh Bahaei lived almost 400 years ago, and was a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. He has a recognized legacy of 88 articles, letters and books along with poetry in Persian and Arabic.

As the architect of Isfahan's Imam Mosque, he demonstrated his knowledge of architecture and geometry.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116440§ionid=351020105.

Israel to station German nuclear submarine in PG

Ahead of an Israeli-German cabinet meeting in Berlin, media reports indicate that Israel intends to station one of its German-made Dolphin submarines in the waters of the Persian Gulf.

"Israel's use of the dolphin submarine in exercises in the red sea aroused fears that Israel may seek to maintain a continued presence in the Persian Gulf as soon as it receives its submarines form Germany in 2011-2012," the tagesspiegel said on Sunday.

The meeting, delayed in November due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's illness, is expected to focus on Israel's push to buy a sixth Dolphin-class nuclear submarine from the Germans.

During the day-long trip by the center-right government, Netanyahu seeks to expand Tel Aviv's submarine fleet.

Israel has previously received three submarines as a donation form the government of the then German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung in 2003 revealed that Germany`s leading shipyard company Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft was involved in negotiations with Israel to construct two additional Dolphin submarines.

The company confirmed the reports adding the German government had approved them. Days later the German Focus magazine reported that Tel Aviv would not be receiving the submarines as the German government had decided to halt the delivery of the two submarines to Israel.

The Dolphin submarines are among the most sophisticated and capable submarines in the world, that could be equipped with nuclear missiles. Built in German shipyards for the Israel Navy, the submarine is capable of carrying American-supplied Harpoon cruise missiles equipped with nuclear warheads.

This is while political groups opposed to Israel's "occupation, settler and war politics" have announced plans to demonstrate near the Federal Chancellor's Officer.

"Why is a joint cabinet session taking place with a racist, fascist, Zionist ideology?" one of the groups asked in its announcement.

After the United States, Germany is the principal donor of both economic and military aid to Israel. While restrictive German export regulations bar the sale of weapons to crisis areas, the German government has justified its actions by describing the move as "special responsibility" towards Tel Aviv.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116438§ionid=351020205.

France criticizes US 'occupation' of Haiti

France is demanding the United Nations investigate and clarify the dominant US role in Haiti, after Washington deployed over 10,000 troops to the quake-hit country.

The demand came after US forces turned back a French aid plane carrying a field hospital from the main airport in the Haitian capital.

The Pentagon says it has deployed soldiers in Haiti to help victims of Tuesday's earthquake. This comes as US paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division took control of the main airport in the capital Port-au-Prince on Friday.

The move has raised ire among aid agencies with extensive experience of operating in disaster zones.

"This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti," France's Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet said in an emergency EU meeting concerning Haiti on Monday.

He added that he expects a UN decision on how governments should work together in Haiti, while demanding a clarification of the United States' role in the Caribbean nation.

Joyandet's remarks echo those made by Venezuela and Nicaragua that expressed "deep concern" over the US deployment of troops in Haiti.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton whose country is also blamed for not being quick enough to send aid to the quake-hit nation has denied the occupation charges, stressing on Saturday that the White House had no intention of taking power from Haitian officials.

The US has been accused of interfering in Haitian internal affairs in the past.

The US military played a role in the departure of the former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide before his second term was over in early 2004. Aristide has described his departure as a kidnapping.

Last week's 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti is estimated to have left some 200,000 people dead and more than 1.5 million homeless, with at least 70,000 bodies collected from the rubble so far.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116503§ionid=351020706.

Iran calls for expansion of security ties in Caucasus

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili has stressed the importance of adopting strategies to establish sustainable security in the Caucasus.

"Iran has a strategic approach for resolving regional woes and crises in the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Persian Gulf region," the Iranian Students News Agency quoted Jalili as saying in a meeting with Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze in Tehran.

He said sustainable security would pave the way for promoting amicable relations between nations, emphasizing that "Interests of the regional countries necessitates the bolstering of security cooperation."

The Georgian minister praised Iran's "balanced and principled" stance on regional developments.

Vashadze also expressed his country's readiness to expand consultations with Iran on regional issues.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116529§ionid=351020101.

London rally targets UK supplier of Israeli arms

Demonstrators rally in southern England to protest against a British company that provided Israel with arms during its 2009 onslaught in Gaza.

Protesters in Brighton surrounded the EDO MBM factory, a subsidiary of the American multi-national ITT corporation that supplies essential parts for the Israeli air force, marking the first anniversary of Israel's massacre of more than 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza, IRNA reported.

“In Brighton, EDO/MBM manufactures some of the weapon components that devastated so many lives. All over the world thousands of people watched appalled at the carnage on the streets of Gaza,” the organizer of Monday's demonstration, Smash EDO campaign group, said.

“Thousands marched and raged at the destruction of people's homes and lives. On January 18, 2010, the anniversary of the final day of Operation Cast Lead, we will come together to remember the people of Gaza,” a Smash EDO spokesperson was quoted by IRNA as saying.

Protesters managed to pass police barricades at some point and approach the factory compound, forcing it to announce shorter working hours for the day.

Police have reportedly made some arrests while trying to disperse the crowd.

Smash EDO has been campaigning to close the factory since 2004, saying that it produces components for the guided bombs that were most used in aerial raids against the Palestinians.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116499§ionid=351020601.

Ahmadinejad warns against NATO's eastward expansion

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says NATO's eastward expansion does not serve the interests of the countries in the region.

"They (NATO) are ready to expend the prestige and [undermine] the national interests of all regional countries" to serve their own interests, Ahmadinejad said during a meeting with Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze in Tehran on Monday.

Countries in the region should strengthen their relations in order to prevent outside interference, he added.

The Georgia foreign minister said Tbilisi is keen to expand relations with Tehran.

He pledged that Georgia would "not act against Iran" at international organizations.

Earlier, Vashadze met with his Iranian counterpart Manoucher Mottaki.

Vashadze said Georgia welcomes Iran's participation in all regional projects.

He also expressed support for Iran's nuclear energy program.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116498§ionid=351020101.

Georgia apologizes for extradition of Iranian national

Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze has apologized to Iran for the extradition of an Iranian national to the United States in 2008.

Vashadze made the apology during a meeting with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in Tehran on Monday.

He said the extradition of Amir-Hossein Ardebili took place at a time when Georgia was in a complex political situation.

The US accuses Ardebili of involvement in arms procurement for Tehran.

"We apologize for the act carried out by the then government of Georgia in regard to Mr. Ardebili," IRNA quoted Vashadze as saying.

During the meeting, Larijani expressed disapproval of the presence of foreign powers in the region.

"The problems and crises of the region should be revolved through regional countries, and the presence of foreign powers only complicates the situation," Larijani said.

He went on to say that the insecurity in Afghanistan and Iraq affects all other countries in the region.

Earlier in the day, Vashadze held talks with the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili.

Dring the meeting, Jalili called for a regional solution to help establish stability and security in the region.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116497§ionid=351020101.

Israel jails Palestinian peace activist

Israel jails a Palestinian peace activist on charges of "illegal arms possession" and inciting stone-throwers.

The charges against Abdallah Abu Rahme, 39, the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee, relates largely to a protest exhibition he had made out of spent tear-gas canisters and plastic-coated rubber bullets, shot by Israeli soldiers, assembling them to form a large peace sign.

Israeli soldiers had aimed those canisters and bullets at unarmed Palestinian demonstrators protesting Israel's illegal apartheid wall that separates Bil'in villagers from their agricultural lands.

Bil'in, a small village near Ramallah, has lost about half of its agricultural lands due to the illegal wall, depriving farmers of their livelihoods.

The Israelis also allege that Abu Rahme was in possession of M-16 bullets.

On hearing the charges, Abu Rahme's Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky asked, "What's next? Charging protesters money for the bullets shot at them?"

"We have evidence to challenge the Israel Defense Force's (IDF) version of events. A number of Palestinian youngsters were pressured by the military into making false confessions after they were arrested at nighttime, blindfolded and handcuffed," Lasky said.

Several prominent Palestinian peace activists have recently been arrested and jailed for similar acts.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116496§ionid=351020202.

11 civilians killed in battles in Mogadishu

PressTV

At least eleven civilians have been killed in crossfire between Somali government forces and anti-government fighters in Mogadishu.

Heavy shelling and gunfire rocked the northern part of the Somali capital on Monday as government forces, which hold only parts of the city, engaged the anti-government fighters in their strongholds, a Press TV correspondent reported.

According to eyewitnesses, five civilians lost their lives and ten others were wounded in the intense fighting around the Yaqshid and Wardighly districts.

Another six civilians were killed in mortar attacks on the Bakara market, the capital's main bazaar.

The latest clashes occurred after the government reportedly announced plans to attack the anti-government fighters, with the help of the military clout of African Union peacekeepers based in the country.

Pirates engage in deadly clash over ransom in Somalia

PressTV

At least one pirate has been killed and ten have been injured in infighting between pirates over a ransom in central Somalia.

In the town of Harardheere, pirates armed with heavy weapons engaged in a battle over the ransom for a hijacked ship, the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu reported.

The incident occurred after the Greek oil tanker Maran Centaurus was released on Monday.

It is believed that the heavy weapons were looted from the arms cache of a Ukrainian ship that was hijacked in 2008.

According to another report, many pirates have died in the fighting over the huge ransom.

Iran humanitarian aid arrives in Haiti

Iran's Red Crescent Society says about 30 tonnes of humanitarian aid including food, tents and medicine in the company of a group of rescuers arrived in Haiti.

The head of Iran's Red Crescent Society's Public Relations department said supplies from Iran landed in Haiti on Monday evening.

“Tents, sugar, tuna fish and mosquito nets, and detergents are among Iran's aid supplies to the disaster-hit nation,” explained Hadi Behdad.

“Iran has also dispatched a group of 30 doctors and rescuers to the tremor-stricken country of Haiti,” Behdad said.

Iran's relief supplies had been sent to Haiti via a cargo plane Saturday morning. The plane had a stop in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.

A devastating earthquake, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, killing thousands and affecting many thousands more.

Haitian Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime says the death toll from the devastating earthquake could reach 200,000.The earthquake is the largest to have hit Haiti in over two hundred years.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116527§ionid=351020101.

Germany builds turbo compressors in Iran

An Iranian gas official says the country has inked a one billion euro gas contract with Germany for the manufacture, installation and launch of 100 gas turbo compressors in Iran.

"The German company is to terminate installation of the gas turbo compressors until the end of Iran's fifth development plan," said Alireza Gharibi, the Managing Director of Iran's Gas Engineering and Development Company.

He added that according the contract, the technical knowledge for manufacturing the turbo compressors would be transferred to Iranian experts.

"We expect to domesticate the building of the turbo compressors by the end of the contract," he added.

Gharibi said that the same German company has already built and installed 45 other turbo compressors for the National Iranian Gas Company, under another contract.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116525§ionid=351020102.

Kashmir violence targets Indian police

Seven Indian policemen have been injured in two separate attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir where officials say there is a new hike in violence.

An incident resulting in six fatalities occurred when a police vehicle was hit by a landmine on an iron bridge in the southern district of Pulwama late Monday, police reported.

The powerful blast took place in the Tral township, 40km (25 miles) south of the summer capital, Srinagar, shaking nearby buildings, as well as damaging the bridge, AFP cited a police spokesman as saying.

Earlier a policeman was injured in a militant gun attack while on patrol in the same district, he added.

The ownership of Kashmir has long been a flashpoint in disputes between India and neighboring Pakistan and has been the cause of two wars between the South Asian neighbors.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116523§ionid=351020402.

Iran raps UN inaction over kidnapped diplomats

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, has criticized the international organizations, including the United Nations, for their inaction to determine the fate of four kidnapped Iranian diplomats in Lebanon.

"Unfortunately, due to the reluctance of the international organizations and related sides, particularly the Zionist regime, our all efforts and actions regarding the issue remain unclear," Mottaki was quoted as saying.

During the invasion of Lebanon on July 4, 1982, four Iranian diplomats were kidnapped by militiamen and Israeli forces at an inspection point in northern Lebanon.

Israel claims that Ahmad Motevaselian, Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taghi Rastegar Moghadam and Kazem Akhavan were abducted by the Lebanese Forces group, now headed by Samir Geagea, and were killed shortly after their abduction.

Mottaki said, however, that Israel should be held accountable for the safety and lives of the four kidnapped diplomats and called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take measures based on their legal duties.

The Leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah had earlier said that the kidnapped diplomats were still alive and languishing in Israeli prisons.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116521§ionid=351020101.

Larijani: US powered Israel's war on Gaza

Iran's parliament speaker says the US and its European allies provided Israel with behind-the-scenes support during its 22-day war on Gaza.

"Israel carried out a very barbaric attack against the Gazans. It took none of the international norms and regulations into account," said Ali Larijani, while addressing the international "Gaza, Symbol of Resistance" seminar in Tehran on Tuesday

"The regime used prohibited chemical weapons, and destroyed hospitals, mosques, and civilian infrastructure. It is sad that despite all Israel's human rights violations, the US and other Western powers stood by Tel Aviv throughout the whole ordeal."

Larijani attacked the Western alliance for giving Israel all the military support it needed to launch its deadly operation on the impoverished coastal Palestinian strip.

The Iranian parliament speaker said that the US blocked efforts to pass a binding resolution at the United Nations Security Council against Israel so as to stop the offensive.

"There was no talk of human rights during those 22 days. Even though the political system had changed in the US and a new president had been elected with the motto of change.”

"But it seems that they did not think it necessary to spend any time on this issue. Up to 5,000 Palestinians were killed and injured as the event unfolded, but he (Barack Obama) chose to think about picking a dog for his daughter."

Larijani said all those who kept quiet when Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza should be ashamed.

He also noted that despite suffering heavy damages, Palestinians came out as the true winner of Israel's war on Gaza.

The Iranian official also said that the conduct of the Israeli regime and the West's lack of regard for the basic rights of Palestinians has left them with no choice but to resist.

"During the past year, many conferences have been held for the reconstruction of Gaza, but have [not] actually taken any steps to that effect. Gaza is still under siege. This shows that at these conferences they do not want to help the people of Palestine.”

"It is clear from their actions that the US and Israel are trying to mock the Palestinians. This means that we have no option but to resist."

He then urged all regional states not to hesitate when it comes to taking a stance against Israel, pointing out that the people of the Middle East were convinced that the so-called US efforts to bring peace to the region were nothing but a "sham."

Larijani said the leaders of regional states view the Road Map as a "joke," because they know that it is doomed to failure.

Many independent analysts believe that the key to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in Tel Aviv's out-right refusal to accept the Palestinian's "Right of Return," an internationally recognized right which applies to all refugees worldwide.

Since its creation in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes to live in other areas of their homeland, such as the West bank or the Gaza Strip, in other regional countries or elsewhere in the world.

Palestinian refugees, some of whom are even denied the basic rights of a citizen where they live, currently number close to five million.

Tel Aviv says allowing these people, who are mostly Arab Muslims, to return to their ethnic homeland will ruin 'Israel's Jewish Character.'

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116514§ionid=351020101.

Deadly cold waves continue in China's Xinjiang

Heavy snow and deadly cold waves gripping the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of China have killed four people and almost 40,000 livestock.

The latest figures show that around 16,000 houses have been destroyed. The number of people affected has risen to nearly one million.

Also, more than 92,000 folks have been evacuated from the rural areas because their houses were either flattened or damaged by the snowstorms or their neighborhoods were threatened by potential avalanches or food and water shortages.

Direct economic losses have been estimated at 320 mn yuan ($47 mn), the regional government announced late Monday.

Altay, the area worst hit by continuous blizzards since late December, has been reeling under the heaviest snow in 10 years. The area is expecting a drastic drop in temperature and severe blizzards, as weather forecasters predict temperatures to dip to as low as -42 C in the next few days, the regional meteorological station said.

"The current temperature in the Altay area is between -25 C to -36 C. The snow has stopped except in some remote mountain areas where there are no people or livestock," the director of the Altay region's information office told the China Daily on Monday.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116492§ionid=351020404.

SIDEBAR: Even the flowers suffer in Haiti's ruined capital

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - The sight of bouquets of flowers in the center of Haiti's destroyed capital offered a sudden, welcome oasis of normalcy for eyes accustomed to the gray dust still spilling from Port-au-Prince's countless tons of rubble. But first appearances are deceiving. Up close, the flowers are wilted in spite of the determined efforts of the vendor to keep them fresh at his open stall in St Pierre plaza.

"Since the quake, I haven't sold a single flower," Marius Souffrance sighed, referring to Tuesday's magnitude-7 earthquake, which killed as many as 200,000 people.

Just a week before, his was a booming, and blooming, business.

Souffrance used to travel regularly to Santo Domingo in the neighboring Dominican Republic to buy flowers to resell at high prices for Haiti - 12 dollars for a dozen roses - to the "bourgeoisie," as he referred to his erstwhile clients.

In fact, he had just returned from such a trip Wednesday, the day after the quake devastated most of the city.

Since then, nobody has approached him to buy any flowers.

"All my clients have died," he said, aware that catastrophe - for once - had befallen the rich neighborhoods as well as the poor.

Although he quickly converted some of his bouquets into funeral arrangements, his marketing strategy failed to bear fruit in a city so ruined that there is simply no time for funerals for the great majority of the dead.

As night fell Sunday, Souffrance prepared to end another disappointing business day. With luck, if the flowers stay wet and cool, they would last another day or two.

They are probably the last flowers that will be seen in St Pierre plaza for a long time to come.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304352,sidebareven-the-flowers-suffer-in-haitis-ruined-capital.html.

New Croatian president offers olive branch to Serbia

Belgrade - Croatia's president-elect, Ivo Josipovic, told a Belgrade newspaper Monday that he was willing to quickly begin discussing an out-of-court settlement with Serbia to end genocide charges each country has filed against the other. "I hope that we will be able to make some progress already at my inauguration on February 18," Josipovic said in an interview with the daily Blic. "I would wish that we then begin cooperating and discussing contested issues."

Tadic is, however, unlikely to attend Josipovic's inauguration because the president of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu, is also invited. Kosovo split from Serbia in 2008 and Zagreb has recognized its independence, irritating Belgrade.

"I invited President Tadic most kindly and would like him to come," Josipovic said. "I understand the problems of Serbia with Kosovo's declaration of independence, but I do not wish our relations to be measured upon relations we have with other countries."

The question of Kosovo's independence and other countries' recognition thereof has soured Serbia's relations with many of its neighbors.

Ties between Serbia and Croatia have been particularly volatile since the former Yugoslavia disintegrated in a series of wars, spinning off countries like Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. In Croatia, Belgrade backed insurgent Serbs from 1991 until their crushing defeat in 1995.

Zagreb sued Belgrade in 1999 at the United Nations' International Court of Justice for genocide in that conflict. Belgrade responded with a countersuit last month, claiming that Croatia has drive hundreds of thousands of Serbs from their homes.

Relations took a turn for the worse late last year, when the outgoing Croatian President Stjepan Mesic visited Kosovo and pardoned a man convicted of war crimes against Serbs.

Josipovic, of the opposition Social Democratic Party, had won the Croatian presidential elections run-off on January 10. Mesic is stepping down after serving the maximum two five-year terms.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304358,new-croatian-president-offers-olive-branch-to-serbia.html.

North Korea allows envoys from South to come for talks after threat

Seoul - North Korea approved the entrance of South Korean diplomats for talks Tuesday concerning the neighbors' jointly run industrial park, three days after the North threatened to break off all contact with the South. Travel by diplomats from Seoul to Kaesong, the North Korean border town where the industrial park is located, was approved Monday, the South Korean Unification Ministry said.

The talks are to be the first by government officials from the two countries in 2010. They are to discuss how to further develop the park, where South Korean firms have set up factories that employ North Koreans.

The talks follow a threat Friday from Pyongyang to cut off all dialogue with Seoul and a vow to wage a "pan-national holy war of retaliation," after reports that South Korea had revised a contingency plan to deal with the potential collapse of the Stalinist regime. North Korea demanded an apology from the South.

The threat surprised Seoul after Pyongyang had agreed to Tuesday's talks, called for negotiations on the resumption of joint tourism projects and accepted a South Korean offer for food aid.

The two Koreas remain technically at war after an armistice, and not a peace treaty, ended the 1950-53 Korean War. Relations have been tense since conservative President Lee Myung Bak took office nearly two years ago.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304367,north-korea-allows-envoys-from-south-to-come-for-talks.html.

Indian Ecology Minister Ramesh says 'I was right on glaciers' melting

New Delhi - India's Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh Monday said “I was right on the glaciers” while maintaining that the Himalayan glaciers are "indeed" receding, which is a cause for great concern, but the view that these rivers of ice would melt down completely by 2035 due to global warning is "alarmist" and without any scientific basis.

"It is a clear vindication of our position. (But) It is a serious issue. (Himlayan) glaciers are serious issues for India. Most of the Himalayan glaciers are in a poor state, but the report that suggested that the glaciers will vanish completely by 2035 is alarmist and misplaced," Ramesh told reporters in New Delhi.

He maintained that the causes for the melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas needs to be carefully studied.

Ramesh was referring to the study by the Nobel prize winning group - United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 had - that claimed that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035.

The Rajendra Pachauri-led UN panel had warned that the melting of glaciers would have far-reaching consequences for India. However, new evidence has emerged to suggest that the IPCC may have been mistaken.

The IPCC's claim was based on an article in a London-based science journal which had borrowed the statement from India's glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain. “The study was not made on any scientific evidence,” a very happy sounding minister.

WWF-India Climate Change and Energy Program chief Shirish Sinha admitted that there are "limitations to scientific models used for such studies."

"We need to look at new data and study. The larger issue is the coming of scientific data which is not validated," said Sinha.

The report was based on compilation of papers. We regret the report that was put out. The information used in the report was not validated and the predictions were based on scientific models. What WWF has seen is that smaller glaciers are more vulnerable but larger ones are not that vulnerable," Sinha has been quoted as saying by CNN-IBN television channel.

A little-known scientist Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Syed Husnain who first issued the doomsday warning, has admitted that it was based on a news story in a science journal.

Pachauri, however, washed his hands off the report saying Husnain was not working with him but in the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) when he published it

"Husnain was with JNU when the report was published in 1999. I am not responsible for what he did in his past, can't say anything now. Have to assess facts first," Pachauri replied when asked if the misleading report was an embarrassment for The Energy and Resources Institute.

Just before the Copenhagen Climate Summit, Minister Ramesh had said that there was no conclusive scientific evidence to link global warming to what had been happening to the Himalayan glaciers.

Indian scientist have been maintaining that the glaciers in the Himalayas were retreating while refusing to hazard a guess whether it was due to global warming or just cyclical phenomenon.

A leading space scientist said last month that satellite images of the Gangotri glacier in the Himalayas show that its snowline has receded by 1.5 kilometers in the past 30 years.

The report also said that Alpine vegetation has now started growing at a higher altitude than it used to a few decades ago.

According to R.R. Navalgund, director of Space Application Center at Ahmedabad,: "We have looked at snowy glaciers, some of them in the past 20 years, specially the ones at lower latitudes and altitudes, have retreated. It is difficult to say whether it is due to global climate change. It could be a part of the inter-glacial period and other related phenomena," he said.

Gangotri glacier is located in Uttarakhand state region that borders China. The glacier is the sources of River Ganges, considered a holy waterway by the Hindus in India. The glacier is about 30 kilometers long (19 miles) and 2 to 4 km (1 to 2 mi) wide.

India in December created an international row when it challenged a globally accepted view that the Himalayan glaciers were receding due to global warming by publishing a discussion paper which says that the glaciers, although shrinking in volume and constantly showing a retreating front, have not in any way exhibited any abnormal annual retreat of the order that some glaciers in Alaska and Greenland have reported.

Brought out by V.K. Raina, a former Deputy Director-General of the Geological Survey of India, for the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the discussion paper called “Glacial Studies, Glacial Retreat and Climate Change” on the Himalayan glaciers points out that it was premature to make a statement that the glaciers were retreating abnormally because of global warming.

The study says a glacier is affected by a range of physical features and a complex interplay of climatic factors, and it is, therefore, unlikely that the snout movement of any glacier can be claimed to be the result of periodic climate variation until many centuries of observations become available.

While glacier movements are primarily due to climate and snowfall, snout movements appear to be peculiar to each glacier, the paper adds.

Releasing the documents, Minister Ramesh had said that while most Himalayan glaciers were retreating, some were advancing as well. This included the Siachen glacier, also located in the Himalayas.

“Some glaciers are retreating at a declining rate, like the Gangotri glacier and the overall health of the Himalayan glaciers was poor as the debris cover had reached alarming proportions,” he said, citing the paper.

The minister, who studied engineering at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) maintains that there is no conclusive scientific evidence to show that global warming was resulting in the glacial retreats.

He says that contrary to what most believe, there can be no comparison between the Arctic glaciers and the Himalayan glaciers, as the former are at a sea-level and the latter at a very high altitude.

The Himalayan glaciers feed major rivers flowing through India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.

“If we see the cumulative average of rate of retreat over the past 100 years, no glacier has deviated from that,” said Raina.

Using the Gangotri glacier as an example, Raina said: “This glacier is 30km long. Even if we assume it retreats at the rate of 30m a year, it will still take 1,000 years to disappear.”

The IPCC, which is the leading body for assessing climate change and established by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, attributed the receding and thinning of Himalayan glaciers primarily to global warming.

Pachauri had blasted the Indian research, calling it "unsubstantiated" and said “ We do need more extensive measurement of the Himalayan range but it is clear from satellite pictures what is happening." He likened the explanations to "climate change deniers and school boy science".

Raina admits in his paper that there is a lack of available data. For the moment long-term data exists for only 20 to 30 Himalayan glaciers and that there was only one automated weather station recording climatic data in the Himalayas, he said.

According to Raina, all glaciers under observation in the Himalayan region during the past three decades have shown cumulative negative mass balance (determined by annual snow precipitation). Degradation of the glacier mass has been the highest in Jammu and Kashmir state, relatively lower in Himachal Pradesh region, even less in Uttarakhand, and the lowest in Sikkim — showing a declining trend from the north-west to the north-east.

Irrespective on latitudinal difference, glacier melt contributes to about 25-30 per cent of the total discharge of glacier ice, with maximum discharge in mid-July and August.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304455,indian-ecology-minister-ramesh-says-i-was-right-on-glaciers-melting.html.

Pope's released shooter declared unfit for military duty - Summary

Istanbul - Pope John Paul II's 52-year-old would-be assassin was released from prison Monday and taken to a military facility where he was declared unfit for duty. In a statement handwritten in English and released at the prison gates by his lawyers, Mehmet Ali Agca proclaimed himself "the Christ eternal."

"The gospel is full of mistakes, I will write the perfect gospel," the statement said.

"I proclaim the end of the world. All the world will be destroyed in this century. Every human being will die in this century."

Agca, who shot the Pope in Rome's St Peter's Square in 1981, was taken by a convoy of vehicles to a military facility in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Turkey has universal conscription and Agca had never served in the military.

According to Turkish television reports, Agca was released after being check out and deemed unfit to serve. He then went to an Ankara hotel, where his lawyers said he would spend the next several days.

Images in the Turkish press showed Agca holding up his fist defiantly while sitting in a car with darkened windows on his way out of prison.

Agca was jailed in Italy for the papal attack until 2000, when he was pardoned. The pope forgave Agca in a 1983 visit to his Italian prison cell. After being released in Italy, Agca had to serve time in prison in Turkey for the 1979 attempted murder of a Turkish journalist.

Agca has expressed interest in landing book deals upon his release and also to earn money doing interviews with media outlets about the papal attack.

"We have yet to agree with any television or publishing company," Yilmaz Abosoglu, one of Agca's lawyers, told reporters in Ankara.

"We'll wait and see what will happen."

Agca had also previously announced plans to convert to Christianity and expressed a desire to go to Rome to visit the grave of Pope John Paul II.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304456,popes-released-shooter-declared-unfit-for-military-duty--summary.html.

German, Israeli ministers conclude 'historic' encounter - Summary

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet in Berlin Monday, in what both leaders described as an "historic" visit. "To come here, 65 years after the Holocaust as Prime Minister of ... an independent Jewish state is an historic moment. To have these conversations with the government of a rebuilt Germany is historically important," Netanyahu said.

Members of the Israeli cabinet including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Industry Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer met their German counterparts during the course of the day, which also included a visit to the Holocaust Memorial in the center of Berlin.

Merkel and Netanyahu touched on "a broad spectrum" of issues including preparations for further sanctions on Iran, the Middle East peace process, as well as economic and technical cooperation between the two states.

Germany conducts such close cabinet-to-cabinet meetings with only a handful of states, including France and Poland, and as such has a special relationship with Israel.

The first such cabinet meeting took place in Jerusalem in 2008.

"It is extraordinarily important that, because of the historical responsibility that Germany has for existence and future of Israel, we cooperate on the whole breadth of our bilateral relationship," Chancellor Merkel said at a joint press conference.

Merkel and Netanyahu both pushed the need for new economic sanctions on Iran, following Tehran's refusal to accept a UN deal proposed late last year on its uranium enrichment program.

"We have made it clear that if the reaction of Iran does not change, we will cooperate in the preparation of wide-ranging sanctions ... preferably within the framework of a UN Security Council resolution," she said.

Netanyahu called for immediate "crippling sanctions" and said "a regime that oppresses its people ... cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

"We know from recent history that a regime that tyrannizes its people will tyrannize the world," Netanyahu said.

On the Israeli-Palestinian peace-process, Chancellor Merkel said that Germany still expected more movement from Jerusalem on the question of a stop to settlement building than had been offered.

"Germany would have expected more from Israel where the building of settlements is concerned, but we recognize that Israel has made important steps. Primarily it is important that the peace process gets back on track," Merkel said.

Palestinian leaders have demanded a complete halt to the building of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories before they will enter into peace negotiations.

However Netanyahu said that "we should stop talking about talking peace. I am ready for peace. I hope the Palestinians will show equal readiness."

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman met with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle earlier in the day, with the ministers agreeing a further strengthening of cultural relations between the two states.

German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle announced that an "Israel Innovation Day" would take place in 2010, to foster cooperation and development between the two countries' small- and medium-sized enterprises.

"Israel is one of the leading countries in the high-technology area, and offers many possibilities for closer cooperation," Bruederle said.

The value of combined trade between Germany and Israel in 2008 reached 4.3 billion euros (6.2 billion dollars), figures from the Economy Ministry confirmed.

Ministers would not, however, be drawn on media reports that the Israeli government is seeking to obtain a sixth Dolphin-class submarine for its navy. The sale of the previous five submarines to the Israeli Defense Force came under criticism because they can potentially carry nuclear weapons.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304459,german-israeli-ministers-conclude-historic-encounter--summary.html.

Palestinian group questions motives in Lebanon to disarm them

Beirut - The head of Syrian-backed Fatah al-Intifada (Fatah- Uprising) questioned Monday why the Lebanese government was urging the disarming of Palestinian groups which have bases outside the 12 Palestinian camps in Lebanon. Abu Moussa, who is based in Syria, was quoted by Lebanese media as saying that his movement's weapons have never harmed Lebanon's national security.

"The Palestinian weapons, both inside and out of the camps, are part of the resistance against Israel" and that "those weapons intend to benefit the nation, the resistance and Lebanon's security," he said.

Some 367,000 Palestinian refugees live in the camps spread around Lebanon.

Fatah Uprising has bases located in eastern Lebanon, close to the Syrian-Lebanese border. The group has close links with Hezbollah.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted in 2006 and ended the 33-day Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, has called on Lebanon to disarm all militias, including Hezbollah.

Security inside inside the 12 Palestinian refugee camps are in the hands of Palestinian groups which are divided in their loyalties between the Hamas in Gaza and the mainstream Fatah Movement in the West Bank.

The Lebanese army is not allowed to enter the Palestinian camps, but they mainly control the entrances.

Fatah Uprising broke away from the mainstream Fatah movement in 1983, and is today considered a Syrian-backed movement.

A government source said Abu Moussa's statement "is a new challenge for the Lebanese government."

The source said the statement came at a time when the Lebanese cabinet is discussing the issue and is heading towards taking a unanimous decision to ban Palestinian arms outside refugee camps.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304477,palestinian-group-questions-motives-in-lebanon-to-disarm-them.html.

Sri Lanka's election-related death toll rises to four - Summary

Colombo - A supporter of Sri Lanka's ruling party was killed in a hand grenade attack on a party office in the country's north- west on Monday, bringing the death toll in election-related violence ahead of the presidential poll to four, police said Monday. According to police, the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) supporter was killed in Kurunegala in the evening when the office located close to a deputy minister's residence came under attack by suspected opposition supporters.

The incident came less than 24 hours after an opposition party activist was clubbed to death in the same district.

The activist with the main opposition United National Party was putting up posters in favor of presidential candidate and former army commander Sarath Fonseka was killed Sunday night in Wariyapola, 90 kilometers north-west of Colombo.

The opposition blamed supporters of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is running for a second term in the January 26 elections.

No arrests were made in either incidents.

Last Tuesday a female UNP supporter was killed when a bus traveling to a party meeting Tuesday in southern Sri Lanka was sprayed with gunfire, while a youth supporting Rajapaksa was killed in the north-west.

Police and election monitors have said that more than 700 incidents have been reported since nominations were accepted in mid- December.

The election campaign has been stepped up by both main parties in the final week.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304482,sri-lankas-election-related-death-toll-rises-to-four--summary.html.