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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Mossad: Might or myth?

By As`ad AbuKhalil

The assassination of Mahmoud Mabhouh, a Hamas commander, in Dubai is a watershed moment in the long history of the Mossad.

Israeli officials who ordered the assassination did something that Zionists have always done - underestimate their Arab opponents.

In his first impressions of Arabs, David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli prime minister, compared them to children.

Ahad Ha'Am, an essayist considered to be the father of cultural Zionism, described the merciless beatings that Arabs were subjected to for no reason by Zionist settlers - the pioneers of the movement - in the late 19th century.

Other Zionists have compared the Arabs of Palestine to animals. All this prejudice would in the 1960s and 1970s benefit the rise of sophisticated Lebanese and Palestinian resistance movements which would plan operations keeping in mind that the Israelis would likely underestimate their chances of success.

Hezbollah, established in the early 1980s, used that understanding when it established a resistance movement that would beat Israel at its own game - on the battlefield and in the war of intelligence.

More recently, Israeli officials assumed that the UAE's rulers would not pose a challenge to their activities in the emirates, especially after the welcoming of Israeli tennis player Andy Ram to the Dubai Championships with great fanfare in February 2009. But little did they know that an effective and stubborn man serves as Dubai's chief of police.

Technology gap

Israel has traditionally used its technological superiority and prowess over Arabs to operate freely in the Middle East.

Relatedly, the military gap between Israel and the Arabs remains quite insurmountable by order of the US and its allies.

But the technology of surveillance and intelligence is now available to most governments, and even ordinary citizens can assume the classic roles once reserved for characters in spy novels.

The assassination team in Dubai did not expect that their pictures would be plastered all around the world, and that their names (in their real passports) would be circulated on Interpol's ("Red Notice") wanted list.

The assassins did not think that the Dubai security officers would be capable of operating security cameras, retrieving the data therein and piece together how 26 of their agents were able to carry out the hit on al-Mabhouh.

The Zionist state has operated on the assumption that its enemies do not progress and are incapable of learning from past mistakes. This explains why Golda Meir, the late Israeli prime minister, ignored the late Jordanian King Hussein when he flew to Israel to warn of an impending Egyptian-Syrian attack in 1973. She brushed it off as highly unlikely and out of character for the Arabs.

Israeli strategists did not think that the Arabs could muster the courage, let alone the military acumen, to launch a pre-emptive attack - for the first time since the Zionist invasion of Palestine.

Inferior and dispensable

Israel has traditionally used a two-pronged strategy when dealing with the Arabs: The first is to treat them like inferior, dispensable human beings.

Israel first began using mass violence against Arabs, not for any military designs but for purposes of terrorizing a whole population late in the 19th century.

Menachem Begin, the late prime minister, admitted as much in his book, The Revolt.

The Deir Yassin massacre, which was led by Begin in 1948, was targeting not only the 750 Arab residents of the village living just beyond the UN-demarcated Israeli border, but was also designed to terrorize the Palestinian and Arab at large.

Begin would later say: "The massacre was not only justified, but there would not have been a state of Israel without the victory at Deir Yassin."

Such killings of Arab civilians in large numbers and for no discernible military reason - the casualties do not even fall under what is now savagely dubbed "collateral damage" - has become part and parcel of Zionist politico-military strategy.

Secondly, the Zionist state has also terrorized the Arabs by exaggerating the reach and knowledge of its intelligence arm, the Mossad. It sought to convince the Arabs that Israel knows what they are doing and, in time, the name Mossad became synonymous with swift punishment, daring, and cruelty.

But cruelty toward Arabs was never a concern for Western public opinion, for Arab regimes also dealt harshly with their own citizens. Nevertheless, the undeserved image of the Mossad remained.

Botched operations

Israeli intelligence failures began very early on. In 1954, the Egyptian regime uncovered a network of Egyptian Jewish spies who were engaged in terror attacks on British and US targets in Egypt in what later came to be known as the Lavon Affair.

When the Egyptian government tried the spies in court, Israeli media claimed that Cairo had no case, was perpetrating lies and conspiracies against Tel Aviv, and fostering "anti-Semitism". This knee-jerk reaction has become an almost automatic response whenever Israeli policies are scrutinized.

But of course, the Egyptians turned out to be right; the operation was such a debacle that it led to the eventual resignation of Pinhas Lavon, the then Israeli defence minister.

The second case was that of the Israeli spy, Elie Cohen who was smuggled into Syria, where he posed as a Syrian citizen with considerable financial resources and with Arab nationalist convictions.

The case was turned into a cheap paperback novel and into two movies, at least. But the ability for a Mossad operative to successfully infiltrate the highest echelons of the Syrian regime is wildly exaggerated.

Cohen was never the high-ranking person that Israeli propaganda made him out of to be. To be sure, he did operate his house like a brothel, and invited prostitutes to entertain various Syrians, but he was not really privy to state secrets of any relevance.

The story of his relations with then president Amin Hafiz was invented by Israel and echoed by his enemies within Syria. The affair concocted by the Israelis was even mired in historical inaccuracies. The Israelis had widely disseminated the notion that Cohen had met Hafiz when he served in Syria's embassy in Argentina. But Cohen's presence in Argentina did not match the years that Hafiz spent there.

Stansfield M Turner, the head of the CIA from 1977 to 1981, perhaps said it best when he described the Mossad as a mediocre intelligence agency which excelled in pubic relations.

Munich

And Mossad's real achievements have been in the realm of public relations.

According to Mossad propagandist literature, one of their greatest achievements has been the pursuit and elimination of the "red prince".

The Mossad supposedly scored its biggest hits when it killed the Palestinian Black September perpetrators of the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

But in fact, the Mossad had no clue what Black September was all about. They assumed the group was being led by Abu Hasan Salamah - the red prince, while his role in the faction turned out to be rather minor.

Not only did the Mossad spend years in pursuing Abu Hasan but they also managed to kill an innocent Moroccan waiter in Norway in 1973, mistaking him for the Palestinian.

The Mossad agents behind that bungled assassination were captured by Norwegian police but subsequently released. Israeli agents later assassinated Wael Zuaytir, a Palestinian scholar who had nothing to do with the Black September group.

In 1979, Mossad agents assassinated Abu Hasan in what was described as a surgical kill; a massive car bomb exploded as his motorcade passed through downtown Beirut, leaving scores of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians dead and wounded.

In what would be a further intelligence failure for the Mossad, Black September's real mastermind emerged years later as Abu Dawoud, the nom du guerre of Mohammed Oudeh, a PLO commander who returned to Palestine in 1996 under the Oslo peace agreements.

In 1999, he published his memoirs and revealed that he had been the brains behind the Munich operation. He is believed to be living in Syria.

Kidnapping Nasrallah

Through film and literature, the media has romanticized the undercover world of intrigue, espionage and targeted killings and in doing so has elevated the Mossad to a station it does not deserve.

Mossad blunders are not as widely known as its invented successes, and Western governments have been more than keen to protect the image of the "formidable" Israeli spy agency.

But Israeli intelligence failures during the war on Lebanon in 2006 crippled the Mossad's image in the eyes of the Arabs

During the summer of 2006, as Israeli jets pounded Beirut, the Mossad claimed they had captured Iranian soldiers in South Lebanon. That, and the kidnapping of a poor Lebanese farmer because his name is Hassan Nasrallah, later turned out to be in error.

Arab media were left scratching their heads; could the Mossad have been so inept as to fail to distinguish that there are many Arabs who have the name Hassan Nasrallah and in doing so capture a farmer who had nothing to do with Hezbollah?

As it turned out, the Mossad had a very inaccurate picture of Hezbollah capabilities and abilities; it failed to kill one Hezbollah regional or national leader despite blustering threats.

In summation, the assassination in Dubai will only serve to convince the Arabs that Israel is not as formidable as they were led to believe. Ironically, Arab governments also helped in exaggerating the powers of the Mossad because they wanted their citizens to remain passive and inactive. But the Arabs now know better.

They now know that some of the Arab intelligence services that are characteristically ridiculed are in fact more effective and capable than the highly touted Mossad.

The conflict with Israel is a very long one: it spanned over a century, and it will probably be settled before the end of this century, but not to Israel's satisfaction.

Source: Al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/03/2010323303192667.html.

Massive fire destroys three buildings in Jeddah

Three buildings have collapsed after a fierce fire engulfed seven buildings in the historic center of Jeddah, in western Saudi Arabia.

Ten fire brigades were dispatched to the area to quell the blaze which had broken out at 2:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) on Wednesday. Firefighters had difficulty to reach the Balad area due to a heavy traffic and a large number of onlookers, according to Civil Defense spokesman Capt. Abdullah Al-Omari.

One Saudi resident was injured but no deaths have been reported.

Firefighters evacuated the people residing in the buildings and distributed masks among them to prevent inhalation of smoke.

The area is said to have been inhabited by foreign workers with low income.

“The Civil Defense has launched an investigation to determine the reason for the fire,” Al-Omari said.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120048§ionid=351020205.

Mottaki starts two-nation tour of Africa

Thu Mar 4, 2010

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has left Tehran for Kampala for an official visit to Uganda.

During his two-day visit, Mottaki will discuss "most important international and regional issues as well as ways to boost bilateral ties" with senior Ugandan officials, the Islamic Students News Agency (ISNA) reported.

Iran and Uganda, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, will confer on ways to resolve issues such as the violent civil conflict in Somali.

Somalia has been grappling with a deadly civil war that began after the ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Bare in 1991.

Millions of Somalis are dependent on humanitarian aid for their survival.

Mottaki will also travel to Kenya on Saturday to follow up on agreements reached between Tehran and Nairobi.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/120043.html.

Hamas slams Arab vow to resume talks with Israel

The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, has slammed the Arab League's foreign ministers' decision to submit to an American proposal for Palestinians to hold indirect talks with Israel.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Hamas emphasized that the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks under current conditions grants Israel another chance to resume its settlement activities, especially whilst the Tel Aviv regime is moving ahead with its illegal plans and blatant violations.

It added that the regime's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not interested in peace and does not want any solution to the Jerusalem Al-Quds issue or the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees.

Hamas also criticized the acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas for attempting to gain 'Arab recognition' for his talks with the Israeli regime while Tel Aviv continues its settlement activities and military assaults.

The Palestinian movement described Abbas' stance as "submission to the US administration." He took the decision to revive negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in order to obtain Washington's financial aid.

The Arab ministers, gathered in the hall of the League of Arab States in central Cairo on Wednesday, backed the resumption of the US-mediated talks for another four months.

Syria, a staunch opponent of Israel, declared that the Arab League decision was not reached by a consensus and that it appeared to serve as a "political cover" for a Palestinian decision already taken.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120040§ionid=351020202.

Leader calls for unity against cancerous Israeli regime

The Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, speaking on the merry anniversary of the birth of Islam's Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), underscored the importance of the Palestinian issue for the Muslim world and called on Muslims to unite around the teachings of the holy prophet.

Ayatollah Khamenei described the "forged, Zionist regime of Israel" as a "dangerous cancer tumor" and insisted that "the only way (for Muslims) to defend against this severe cancer and its supporters is to return to Islam" and unite around the teachings of the glorious Prophet of Islam.

Addressing a group of Iranian officials and foreign guests and dignitaries in Tehran on Thursday, the Leader expounded on the reasons for numerous problems and shortcomings in the Muslim world in defending their rights and cited "tireless efforts by the US, the British, and other enemies of Islam in sowing discord" among Muslim masses.

The leader of the Islamic Revolution then emphasized that such bullying and domineering countries are well-aware that "discord and duplicity" can divert the focus of the Muslims from the very important issue of Palestine. "This is the reason that they resort to any possible means to flare the flame of ethnic, religious and geographic conflict among the hearts and minds of the Shia and Sunni, as well as the followers of other Islamic sects."

Ayatollah Khamenei further spoke of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, describing the occupation of Palestine as a wound on the body of the Islamic Nation."

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution also declared that "unity of Muslims and defending the Palestinian issue are among the aspirations and priorities of the Islamic Republic (of Iran)."

Recalling the words and priorities of the late founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini regarding Muslim unity and the Palestinian issue, the Leader added, "The Islamic establishment, all of the country's officials and the great nation of Iran view such principlist issues as religiously obligatory and their words (on these issues) have been and remain the same."

Ayatollah Khamenei also expressed hope that Islamic governments, in tune with their people, would follow the eminent Prophet of Islam in efforts to bring unity among Muslims and to defend their rights, "especially in countering the cancerous, oppressive Israeli tumor and its supporters."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120039§ionid=351020101.

China building world's largest high-speed rail network

China will expand its high-speed rail network to be the world's largest in coming three years with a total length of 13,000 kilometers, according to Thursday's China Securities Journal.

By the end of 2012, China would have more than 110,000 kilometers of operational railways, including 13,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, said Liu Zhijun, Minister of Railways at a national meeting on rail construction.

China would bring 26,000 kilometers of new railways into operation from 2010 to 2012, including 9,200 kilometers of high-speed rail, Liu said.

Based on the calculation that one kilometer of high-speed rail costs 100 million yuan (14.64 million U.S. dollars), the 9,200 kilometers of high-speed rail would cost more than 900 billion yuan, according to China Securities Journal.

China currently has about 3,300 kilometers of operational high-speed rail, according to the Ministry of Railways (MOR).

Last year, China completed two long distance high-speed railways, one between Wuhan and Guangzhou, and the other between Zhengzhou and Xi'an. Before that, China had built high-speed railways between Beijing and Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan, Qingdao and Jinan, Hefei and Wuhan, and Hefei and Nanjing.

A number of new high-speed railways are under construction, of which the Beijing-Shanghai line has a length of 1,318 km and a designed travel speed of 350 km/h.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6909027.html.

'Somaliland Can Not Be Recognized As an Independent State' - TFG

4 March 2010

Somalia — The authorities of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia have said that the breakaway republic of Somaliland can not be recognized as an independent state, just as Israel said recently it gave identification to Somaliland administration, officials told Shabelle radio on Thursday.

Abdiwahid Abdi Gonjeh, the deputy prime minister of the transitional government of Somalia told reporters in Mogadishu that Somaliland is one of the Somali administrations in the horn of African state saying that they can not break from the other Somalis.

Mr. Gonjeh said that there is no government or group that Somaliland or the other administrations in country could identify as a self-governing state disproving statement from a spokesman of foreign ministry of Israel who said that the Jews recognizes Somaliland.

"The news from Israel is baseless propaganda. It is not also clear that news from the foreign minister of Israel. I do not know where the journalists had quoted that news," said Abdiwahid Gonjeh.

Lastly the deputy prime minister of the transitional government Mr. Abdiwahid Abdi Gonjeh said that there was difference between the Somali government and administrations saying that a mediating process was continuing to end the divergences.

Somaliland, a breakaway republic of Somaliland had announced a self-governing state in 1991 as the former Somali president Mohamed Siad Barre's government collapsed and since then Somaliland was seeking a recognition which was not achieved yet.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201003040396.html.

New dinosaur-like species is discovered

SALT LAKE CITY, Mar 3, 2010 (UPI via COMTEX) -- An international team of paleontologists says it has discovered a new species of dinosaur-like animals called Asilisaurus kongwe.

The first bones of the new species -- part of a newly recognized group known as silesaurs -- came from the Triassic Period in Africa and were found in 2007, scientists said.

The team -- including included Randall Irmis, curator of paleontology at the Utah Museum of Nature History -- said Asilisaurus falls just outside of the dinosaur family tree. The species lived approximately 10 million years earlier than the oldest known dinosaurs.

Fossil bones of at least 14 individuals were recovered from a single bone bed in southern Tanzania. The researchers said the species stood about 1.5 to 3 feet tall at the hips, were 3 to 10 feet long and weighed about 22 to 66 pounds. They walked on four legs and most likely ate plants or a combination of plants and meat.

"The crazy thing about this new dinosaur discovery is that it is so very different from what we all were expecting, especially the fact that it is herbivorous and walked on four legs, Irmis said.

The discovery that involved scientists from the University of Texas at Austin, the Burke Museum and the University of Washington in Seattle, the Field Museum in Chicago, the Iziko South African Museum and Germany's Humboldt University appears in the journal Nature.

Source: Middle East North Africa Financial News (MENAFN).
Link: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?StoryId={8DB7F6C3-178D-47D2-BF72-294811F73AC4}&src=NLEN.

Special voting begins in Iraq

Voting has begun in Iraq's parliamentary elections with security forces, hospital patients and prisoners casting their ballots ahead of polling day at the weekend.

Police stepped up security measures in the capital Baghdad as the initial round of voting began on Thursday morning.

The heightened security measures were part of an overall security plan aimed at protecting the city from attacks during the elections.

The decision to take extra security precautions was not unexpected as there has been a surge in violence across the country ahead of the legislative polls.

Election organizers predict that up to 800,000 people, who will not be able to reach polling stations on March 7, will participate in the early voting session.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120031§ionid=351020201.

12-year-old girl saves Chilean island

A 12-year old girl has saved almost the entire population of Robinson Crusoe Island off the coast of Chile from a strong tsunami.

The inhabitants of the small island were asleep as a massive tsunami, initiated by the February 27 earthquake, was about to reach the coast.

According to reports in the Chilean media, Martina Maturana felt the first slight tremors whilst everyone was asleep on Robinson Crusoe Island, in the Archipelago of Juan Fernandez, 700 kilometers off the country's coast.

She warned her policeman father about what she felt. In a contact with relatives in Valparaiso in central Chile, they found out that a massive earthquake had struck the country just minutes before.

Martina then saw fishing boats moored in the tiny harbor sea bob in a strange way. She ran 400 meters from her home to the town square to sound the alarm bell and woke 700 inhabitants up from their sleep.

The young girl did not know the emergency codes — two rings for fire, three for landslides — the first residents who awoke by the sound continued playing the bells to warn people to climb up the hills and save themselves.

According to the US Geological Survey, Chile's Saturday earthquake is the fifth-strongest tremor since 1900. The government has raised the toll from Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake to about 800.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120028§ionid=3510212.

Israel mum on Dubai calls for Netanyahu arrest

Israel has kept mum on Dubai calls for arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and the chief of Israeli spy agency, Mossad, over the assassination of a Hamas official.

Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the head of Dubai police presented the emirate's prosecutor on Wednesday with a request for the arrest of Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Mier Dagan.

Khalfan said he was sure that the January assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the Persian Gulf emirate was conducted by Israeli agents, who were assuming European and Australian identities.

Dubai police have already identified 26 suspects from the hit squad that carried non-Israeli passports.

About half of the suspects used pre-paid Master Cards issued by an American bank to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms.

Khalfan said two of the suspects reportedly went to the US via a European country after killing al-Mabhouh.

He said the rest of the suspects are now hiding out in Israel to avoid arrest.

Israel has not confirmed or denied the accusations, although opposition leader Tzipi Livni has hailed the assassination of the Hamas leader as "good news for those fighting terrorism."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119972§ionid=351020205.

AL backs indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

The Arab League has expressed its support for a US proposal regarding indirect Middle East peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

Members of the Arab League said on Wednesday that they would review the results of the negotiations after four months, and insisted that direct talks could not begin until Israel completely halted all settlement constructions beyond the 1967 borders, including those in East Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, who is attending the Arab League meeting in Cairo, said he would adhere to any decision made by the Arab League ministerial committee.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, however, said his country objected to the declaration.

'There was no consensus on the statement ... This is a Palestinian decision. My country's delegation said the Arab Peace Initiative does not authorize such an approval," al-Muallem said.

Arab League members in 2002, and again in 2007, offered Israel full diplomatic recognition in exchange for its complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territories it occupied and annexed in 1967, and a promising solution to the plight of Palestinian refugees.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced or forced to flee from their homes during the Israeli-Arab wars in 1948 and 1967.

Many of the Palestinians who survived the Israeli aggression crammed into overcrowded enclaves, mainly in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Some of the refugees still retain old deeds and keys to homes now occupied by Israelis. The Palestinians base their claim to the right to return on United Nations General Assembly resolution 194, which was passed in 1948.

However, Israelis have long called for the refugees to be absorbed into their Arab host countries. But most of the Arab nations have refused, wishing neither to capitulate to Israeli demands nor to upset the demographic balances of their own populations.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119949§ionid=351020202.

China overtakes Japan as world no.2 manufacturer

China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second largest industrial manufacturer, a new report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) says.

According to UNIDO estimates, China's share of the global total of manufacturing value, known as MVA, has reached 15.6 percent in 2009, slightly larger than Japan's share of 15.4 percent, while the USA maintains its first rank with 19 percent.

The three countries together produce half of the world's manufacturing output.

The new report, released on Thursday, also found that the impact of the recent financial crisis on industrial growth was severe for industrialized countries, but relatively mild for developing nations.

The UNIDO publication presents recent data from national industrial surveys for more than 70 countries in detail.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120026§ionid=3510213.

Maoists renew offer of ceasefire talks after leader's arrest

New Delhi - Maoist rebels in India reiterated they were ready for ceasefire talks with the government after the arrest of one of their top leaders seemed to put the insurgents under pressure, officials said Thursday. Venkateswar Reddy, alias Telugu Deepak, a senior leader of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), was arrested Tuesday in the eastern city of Kolkata.

Deepak, 40, a military strategist for the Maoists, is a close associate of senior CPI-Maoist politburo member Kishenji, alias Koteswar Rao, who has been leading rebel operations in eastern India.

A fresh statement issued on behalf of Kishenji Wednesday night said the rebels and the government should hold talks on how to implement a ceasefire.

"We feel both sides, the ministry and the Maoists, should sit across the table and decide how and when to stop operations on both sides," Kishenji's aide Raju, who uses only one name, said while also demanding Deepak's immediate release.

The latest statement by the Maoists is being interpreted as a significant change of stance.

In a truce offer made recently, Kishenji had said the Maoists were willing to implement a ceasefire from February 25 to March 7 if the government halted its ongoing anti-Maoist offensive named Operation Green Hunt.

But the latest statement did not mention any conditions for a ceasefire and instead said the rebels were willing to sit down for talks on when and how to implement the ceasefire.

The Home Ministry, however, insisted that if the rebels were serious about negotiations with the government, they should halt attacks for 72 hours.

Ministry officials said talks have failed to start because there have been 18 incidents of Maoist violence since Kishenji made the conditional offer. They included a school building being blown up and several attacks on civilians.

Maoist rebels are active in 20 of India's 28 states, according to government data. More than 1,100 people were killed in violence linked to the insurgency in 2009.

They operate in some of India's poorest areas, especially less-developed forested regions populated by tribal people. The rebels claimed they are fighting for the rights of forest dwellers, the poor and landless.

Meanwhile, Indian intellectuals and civil rights activists such as the writer Arundhati Roy have slammed the Green Hunt campaign.

They said central and eastern India was witnessing an unprecedented police and paramilitary deployment - about 250,000 personnel "armed to the teeth" were positioned in these areas.

"This military buildup is a calculated assault on the poorest of the poor of the peoples in these regions - the tribals," journalist Sumit Chakravartty said.

"The real intent of this war is to facilitate the unbridled loot and plunder of the resource-rich forest wealth, minerals, water etc - through the pacts signed with the domestic corporates and multinationals," he said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312417,maoists-renew-offer-of-ceasefire-talks-after-leaders-arrest.html.

Egypt appeals court to rule on death sentence for tycoon

Cairo (Earth Times) - Egypt's highest appeals court is expected to rule Thursday on a real-estate tycoon and former lawmaker's appeal against his death sentence for killing a Lebanese pop singer. A Cairo criminal court in May 2009 sentenced senior ruling-party member Hisham Talaat Mostafa, 50, and former State Security officer Mohsen al-Sokari, 40, to death for the July 2008 murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai.

The court found that Mostafa had paid al-Sokari the equivalent of 2 million dollars to kill his former mistress.

The legal question before the panel of judges at Egypt's highest appeals court Thursday is whether there were procedural errors in the trial that led to Mostafa and al-Sokari's conviction.

The court has a record of granting retrials, judicial observers say.

The case has enthralled the regional media since Tamim was found with her throat slit in her luxury Dubai apartment on July 28, 2008 - particularly after Mostafa, a former member of Egypt's upper house of parliament, was named in connection with the case.

Indonesian police charge 14 terrorist suspects in Aceh

Jakarta - Police have charged 14 people suspected of planning terrorist attacks in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province, a spokesman said Thursday. The suspects were arrested from February 20 to 24 in the Aceh Besar district in an operation that left two civilians and a suspected militant dead, national police spokesman Edward Aritonang said.

"Based on a preliminary investigation, the suspects conducted semi-military training ... as a preparation to conduct terrorist acts," Aritonang told reporters.

Police seized four rifles, bullets, a grenade and military paraphernalia from the suspects, he said.

Aceh was the scene of a bloody separatist insurgency until a peace pact was signed between the rebels and the Jakarta government in 2005.

The pact followed the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which left about 170,000 people dead in the staunchly Muslim province.

Indonesia has been hit by a spate of bombings blamed on Islamic militants since 2000, but police said they were still investigating if those arrested in Aceh were linked to those attacks.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312425,indonesian-police-charge-14-terrorist-suspects-in-aceh.html.

China announces 7.5-per-cent rise in military budget - Summary

Beijing - China announced a 7.5-per-cent hike in its annual military budget on Thursday, following international concern over larger increases in recent years. The draft defense budget for 2010 was set at 532.115 billion yuan (77.9 billion dollars), a rise of 37.116 billion yuan, or 7.5 per cent, from last year, a spokesman for China's nominal parliament told reporters.

"The Chinese government has always paid attention to controlling the military budget ... at a reasonable level to ensure the balance between national defense and economic development," National People's Congress spokesman Li Zhaoxing said.

The 3,000-member congress is scheduled to discuss and approve the national budget during its 10-day annual session, which begins on Friday.

The budget hike is the smallest percentage increase for some 20 years. China defended last year's 15-per-cent increase as "modest" and necessary for military modernization and to improve conditions for troops.

But a recent book by a People's Liberation Army (PLA) military analyst has urged faster military development to counter US dominance.

In "The China Dream: Post-American Superpower Thinking and Strategic Position," Liu Mingfu, a PLA senior colonel, argued that China should try to replace the United States as the world's strongest military power.

Other Chinese military analysts said Liu was expressing only his personal opinions in his book.

"That's just his ambition," Luo Yuan, a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, said on Wednesday. "We have no intention of challenging the US," the China Daily newspaper quoted Luo as saying.

In another recent book, "C-shaped Enclosure," PLA Colonel Dai Xu urged more cautious military development but said he was "pessimistic about the future."

Dai expounded the long-held Chinese view that China is surrounded by military forces from the United States and its allies in Asia.

He said he feared the presence of these "hostile" forces meant China "cannot escape the calamity of war" in the next two decades.

China jumped to second place in the list of the world's biggest military spenders in 2008, behind only the United States, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported last year.

China's estimated military spending tripled in real terms over 10 years to reach 85 billion dollars in 2008, one-seventh of the estimated US spending, the institute said.

It said China's rapid economic growth meant that the burden of military spending was "still moderate," at 2.1 per cent of gross domestic product.

Western critics bemoan a lack of transparency from China and claim its real military spending is much higher than its budget figure.

Some US analysts estimate China's actual military spending at up to three times the budget figure.

The PLA stepped up its modernization in the 1990s after studying US use of high-technology weapons and systems in the first invasion of Iraq.

During a parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China on October 1, the PLA showcased more than a dozen missile systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads.

In the run-up to the parade, state media quoted Defense Minister Liang Guanglie as saying last month that much of the PLA's weaponry had already "reached or come close to the world-leading standards."

The party's Central Military Commission, headed by party leader and state president Hu Jintao, assumes formal control of the PLA. But it is unclear how closely PLA generals share the party leaders' official line on China's "peaceful rise".

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312439,china-announces-75-per-cent-rise-in-military-budget--summary.html.

Greek protesters occupy entrance to finance ministry

Athens - More than 300 demonstrators from Greece's communist trade union occupied the entrance to the Ministry of Finance in central Athens Thursday, to protest a new wave of austerity measures. The demonstrators vowed to continue their protests over austerity measures intended to sharply reduce Greece's deficit and restore foreign confidence in the economy, with a demonstration planned later Thursday.

In a related incident, hundreds of employees of former state-owned Olympic Airways continued to block a major road in central Athens, demanding compensation.

More than 4,000 employees were laid-off after Olympic Airways was sold to Marfin Investment Group Holdings after several unsuccessful privatization attempts in 2009.

Greece on Wednesday said it was now awaiting support from the European Union after announcing a new wave of cuts, worth some 4.8 billion euros (6.5 billion dollars) in a bid to avert bankruptcy.

The new budgetary measures, the third in recent months, include cutting public sector bonuses by 30 per cent, freezing pensions, a new tax on luxury goods, alcohol and cigarettes and increasing consumer taxes - including a 21 per cent sales tax.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312443,greek-protesters-occupy-entrance-to-finance-ministry.html.

Turkey warns Washington over Armenian resolution

Istanbul - Ankara has warned Washington that the passing of a Congressional resolution recognizing the large-scale massacre of Armenians during World War I as a "genocide" could harm relations between Turkey and the United States. The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on the non-binding resolution Thursday. If it passes, House speak Nancy Pelosi must decide if it will go to a full vote.

Turkey has dispatched several parliamentarians to Washington to lobby against the effort and Turkish President Abdullah Gul spoke to his American counterpart, Barack Obama, yesterday.

Turkish leaders have warned that the bill's passing could lead to a rupture in relations with Washington and could harm an already endangered reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia.

"Turkish-US relations are experiencing their most successful period in history," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. "I hope that they will not be damaged by such initiatives."

Previous efforts to pass similar bills were stopped, mostly due to concerns in Washington over the fallout to relations with Turkey. When a House committee passed a genocide resolution in 2007, Ankara temporarily recalled its ambassador to Washington.

Armenians contend that up to 1.5 million of their own were systematically killed by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey has long denied the genocide claim, saying the number of Armenians killed is much lower and that the deaths were the result of violent turbulence that also affected other groups at the time.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312445,turkey-warns-washington-over-armenian-resolution.html.

Uighur Vs Chinese, E. Turkistan Vs Xinjiang

CAIRO — Chinese Muslims and Xinjiang are not the accurate terms to describe the Uighur people and their autonomous region in northwestern China, a leading advocacy group insists.

"Uighurs are not, in fact, 'Chinese Muslims', and this term is inaccurate and misleading," the Washington-based Uighur American Association (UAA) said in statement mailed to IslamOnline.net on Wednesday, March 3.

It said the nearly 10 million Uighurs who live within China are ethnically and culturally distinct from the dominant Han ethnic group.

"The Uighur people are the descendants of the nomadic herders and oasis-based people who have lived in the region for thousands of years," it explained.

"The Uighur people speak a Turkic language and possess a rich and distinctive culture that is closely related to that of their Central Asian brethren, in particular the Uzbeks."

The group underlined that not all Muslims in China hail from the Uighur ethnicity, and also not all Uighurs are Muslims.

"Uighurs are ethnically and culturally distinct from the approximately 10 million Hui Muslims who live in northwest China and other areas of the PRC.

"Hui Muslims are generally considered to be ethnically Chinese, and they speak the Chinese language," it explained.

"A significant number of Uighurs believe in Christianity. Christian Uighurs also face harsh persecution at the hands of Chinese government authorities."

Uighurs accuse Beijing of settling millions of Hans in their territory with the ultimate goal of obliterating its identity and culture.

The UAA insists that before the 20th century, there was no sizeable Han Chinese population in their region.

In 1949, when Beijing took over the region, Hans made up less than 7 percent of the population but now stand at more than 40 percent.

East Turkistan

The Washington-based UAA also criticized the widely-used name Xinjiang to refer to their homeland.

"Uighurs choose to use 'East Turkistan' to refer to their homeland, and not the official designation of the region by Chinese authorities in 1955 as 'Xinjiang.'"

It insisted that East Turkistan is the historical name of the region which was only changed when China annexed it by force.

"East Turkistan is the historic name of the region, which was invaded and occupied by the Manchus in 1884."

It added that Xinjiang, which means 'new boundary' or 'new realm', was adopted by the Manchus in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and reflects the perspective of those who gave it this name.

"Use of the term 'East Turkistan' does not define a 'pro-independence' position. Instead, it is used by Uighurs wishing to assert their cultural distinctiveness from China proper."

East Turkistan has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of security crackdowns.

Beijing views the region as an invaluable asset because of its crucial strategic location near Central Asia and its large oil and gas reserves.

Source: IslamOnline.
Link: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1235340126220&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout.

Chile military delivers aid, but 1st helps its own

By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writer

CONCEPCION, Chile – Four days after a deadly earthquake, Chile's military finally rolled out a massive humanitarian aid effort Wednesday that promised to improve an image long associated with dictatorship-era repression.

The dump trucks that soldiers spent all night helping fill with bags of food made their first deliveries in a neighborhood of military families who already had enough to eat.

After days of looting, rifle-toting troops occupied nearly every block of hard-hit Concepcion on Wednesday, enforcing a curfew that expired at noon with checkpoints throughout the city. With the streets more secure, they focused on aid.

Soldiers had worked overnight stuffing basics including flour, canned beans, cooking oil and tea into hundreds of plastic bags that volunteers loaded into dump trucks. Municipal workers then distributed the bags to survivors, many of whom had gone without fresh food or drinking water since Saturday's quake.

The convoy rolled minutes after the curfew expired — the first of many to deploy throughout the disaster area, army Lt. Col. Juan Carlos Andrades said.

Its first stop: A neighborhood inhabited by military families, next to army headquarters in Concepcion.

"This entire block belongs to the army," said Yanira Cifuentes, 31, the very first to get aid. She said her husband is an officer.

Cifuentes said the aid was welcome after days of sleeping in tents and sharing food with neighbors over a wood fire. But she also said the neighborhood hadn't gone hungry because residents had access to food at the regiment.

"Until now we have been OK, sharing everything with each other," she said.

Military officers who refused to give their names insisted their families were suffering, too, and said many soldiers have been working around the clock since the quake not knowing how their loved ones fared. Still, it was unclear who ordered the first food delivery to the military housing on General Novoa Avenue.

Army Cmdr. Antonio Besamat said local authorities controlled food distribution, with the armed forces providing only security. Juan Piedra, of the National Emergency Office, said civilian officials must follow military decisions under terms of the state of emergency declared by President Michelle Bachelet.

Some residents were angry not at the troops but at the local government, which had announced Tuesday that none of the first aid shipments would go to neighborhoods inhabited by people who took goods from ruined stores. Many of those neighborhoods are Concepcion's poorest.

"Aid should reach those who have nothing first," said Luis Sarzosa, 47, a heavy equipment operator. "The well-off always get things first and the people with nothing, they leave to the side."

His sister Marcela Sarzosa, a 44-year-old homemaker who lives across the train tracks from a huge supermarket whose looting by hundreds of her neighbors sparked more widespread break-ins in Concepcion, said: "I didn't loot anything. Who's going to help me?"

Survivors had cheered the troops' arrival and the restoration of order in streets still littered with rubble, downed power lines and destroyed cars. Citizens' applause — mixed with cries of "Finally!" — have soldiers proud of their role in keeping the peace, a welcome feeling for many in Chile's armed forces who have generally not been used for police work during 20 years of democracy.

Since the bloody 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, many Chileans have preferred that soldiers stay inside their barracks. But police were overwhelmed when looting began after the quake, and Bachelet took the unprecedented step on Sunday of declaring an emergency that turned 14,000 soldiers into peacekeepers in their own country.

Aid from the national government had begun to reach some small communities around Concepcion by helicopter Tuesday, but the distribution effort became visible to the rest of the public only Wenesday with the convoy of seven dump trucks delivering food bags.

The food was donated by the government and businesses including the Lider Hipermart chain — a subsidiary of Wal-Mart — whose one store in Concepcion that wasn't looted has now been comandeered by the Chilean military.

C-17 transport planes were delivering more food and troops to Concepcion, and some 150 military trucks were being deployed in the disaster area. Military helicopters ferried disaster aid from the city to smaller towns and villages along the Pacific coast that were destroyed by the tsunami. In nearby Talcahuano, a field hospital was erected to relieve pressure on a quake-damaged hospital in Concepcion, and local government officials were distributing 17,000 meal rations.

Saturday's magnitude-8.8 quake and tsunami ravaged a 700-kilometer (435-mile) stretch of Chile's Pacific coast. Downed bridges and damaged or debris-strewn highways made transit difficult if not impossible in many areas. The official death toll reached 802 on Wednesday.

Amid continuing aftershocks, officials installed barriers around more tall buildings in Concepcion, including a 20-story skyscraper whose heavily damaged upper floors are now leaning over Bernardo O'Higgins Avenue.

Most businesses in Concepcion were still closed, with power and water only slowly coming back in scattered areas. Many survivors still had to take river water in buckets to flush toilets. In Lota, a town of 50,000 where tent camps have sprouted, officials took water from the Rio Negro and trucked it to needy neighborhoods, urging residents to boil it before using it.

In Chile's capital of Santiago, air force chief Gen. Ricardo Ortega said he had planes ready to deliver aid just two hours after the quake but had to wait for Bachelet's emergency declaration Sunday. Bachelet said that Ortega was "badly informed" and that an air force helicopter wasn't ready for her to inspect damage until nearly six hours after the quake.

Seeking to end squabbling over the government's performance — the navy conceded it should have issued a tsunami alert — Bachelet declared: "Enough with pointing fingers. The main problem is helping the people."

Houthis can form political party: Sana'a

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called on the country's Houthi fighters to enter into the county's political arena by forming a party.

Hailing an early February ceasefire reached with the Shia fighters based in the beleaguered north, Saleh said the group could play a role in the country's politics as a political party.

The remarks come almost a month after the Houthis accepted the central government's conditions in a bid to put an end to a massive onslaught in the north, backed by the Saudi and US military forces and logistics.

The joint offensive drove some 150,000 people out of their homes in battlefields in northern Yemen, Sa'ada province in particular.

Hundreds of people, including a large number of civilians, were killed since Yemen's stepped up offensive was launched in August.

Last week, Houthi fighters complained that Sana'a had kept its siege over the capital of the northern Shia-dominated province of Sa'ada in contrast to the terms of the ceasefire.

"The army continues to this moment to refuse to lift the siege on the city of Sa'ada," the Houthis said on their website, adding that the Yemeni soldiers were re-establishing military checkpoints on the newly-opened roads, Reuters reported.

The fighters said that the army was preventing citizens from entering their homes and was also preventing food supplies from reaching the war-stricken regions.

Some 187 children were killed as the result of the government and Saudi attacks during the war, said a recent report issued by UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) and the Yemen children's rights organization.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119944§ionid=351020206.

Turkey warns of consequences of new Iran sanctions

Turkey's foreign minister has called for a peaceful solution to Iran's nuclear issue, saying imposing new sanctions on the country will have catastrophic consequences for the Middle East.

"We are against all nuclear weapons wherever they are, and we do not want them in our region, not just in Iran and anywhere else. Yet, we believe that the problem should be solved through diplomacy," Today's Zaman newspaper quoted Ahmet Davutoglu as saying on Wednesday.

"We think that military means or sanctions have negative effects on our region," he told reporters after addressing a meeting of foreign ministers of the Arab League in Cairo.

Turkey is among those countries which oppose fresh sanctions against Tehran, and has repeatedly called for a peaceful solution to Iran's nuclear issue.

Meanwhile, with the West pushing for new sanctions against Iran, the country says that such measures will not force it into giving up the Iranian nation's legitimate right to access nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119995§ionid=351020104.

Spanish police clamp down on cyber criminals

Spanish police say they have clamped down on one of the biggest networks of distributing virus-infected data that stole credit card numbers from over 12 million PCs.

The "Mariposa" networks had siphoned off financial and other information from inside half of the largest 1,000 US companies.

Because of the activities of the network, computers using about 12.7m internet addresses in 190 countries were compromised, though some machines might have been using multiple addresses.

Investigators have arrested three alleged ringleaders of the Mariposa network that has posed a great threat to the cyber space since December 2008.

Mariposa collected login data for banking and social networking sites, e-mail passwords and credit card numbers. Spain's Guardia Civil arrested the suspects who used the online nicknames of Netkairo, Ostiator and Johnyloleante last month.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119994§ionid=351020606.

'Aafia's return, a question of honor for Pakistan'

Protesters in Islamabad have asked the Pakistani government to do more to help Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently in prison in the United States.

During the demonstrations which were held on Wednesday, rights activist, students, and political party leaders urged the government to take all possible measures to secure the release of Aafia, who is in US custody for her alleged contacts with the Al-Qaeda, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Addressing the rally, Siddiqui's sister, Fauzia asked for the immediate release and return of Aafia, calling it "a question of honor for Pakistan."

She strongly criticized Pakistani officials over their failure to return Aafia to the country.

Siddiqui was charged with shooting FBI agents and US military personnel in a police station in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where she was interrogated in 2008. She was convicted in a New York court on February 3, 2010.

Siddiqui vehemently denied all charges during the trial, calling them 'ridiculous' and insisting that she was framed, jailed, and tortured by US agents in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119991§ionid=351020401.

118 UN members reaffirm support for Iran's N-program

As the West pushes for new sanctions against Iran, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) moves to issue a new statement, voicing its support for Iran's peaceful nuclear program.

Egypt's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) read the newly-issued NAM statement in a Wednesday meeting of nuclear watchdog's board of governors.

"NAM confirms the basic and inalienable right of all states to the development, research, production and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, without any discrimination and in conformity with their respective legal obligations," the statement said.

"Therefore, nothing should be interpreted in a way as inhibiting or restricting the right of states to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes," it added.

"States' choices and decisions including those of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear technology and its fuel cycle policies must be respected," the 118-member movement said in its statement.

"NAM reaffirms the inviolability of peaceful nuclear activities and that any attack or threat of attack against peaceful nuclear activities, operational or under construction, poses a serious threat to human beings and the purposes of the Charter of the United Nation and of the regulations of the IAEA," it said.

The statement comes as the West is weighing new sanctions on Iran in an effort to force the country into meeting its demands over its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, China — a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council — has shrugged off Washington's call for harsher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities, arguing that diplomatic efforts have not yet been exhausted.

Tehran has repeatedly declared that sanctions will not force it to give up the Iranian nation's legitimate right to access nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119989§ionid=351020104.

Russell Tribunal on Palestine concludes in Spain

The first international session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine with a focus on the Palestinian right to self determination and the global responsibility of ending Israeli crimes against Palestinians has come to an end in Spain's eastern city of Barcelona.

At the closing of the session Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, enumerated Tel Aviv's international-law violations. "Among serious Israeli infringements are closure of Gaza Strip borders, restrictions on the freedom movement of its inhabitants, stripping Palestinian refugees of return right to their land of origin as well as preventing Palestinians from free use of natural resources such as water within their land," she said.

She added that given the discriminatory and biased nature of these measures, Israel has established an "apartheid state" in the area.Israel is denying Palestinians access to their own land, violating property rights and seriously restricting the freedom movement of the Palestinian population by constructing a wall in the occupied West Bank territories.

The activist also said that Tel Aviv violates the right to live of Palestinian nation through a policy of targeted assassinations of Palestinians it describes as militants.

The participants at the three-day event also argued that the European Union has been complicit in aiding and abetting Israelis to carry out their horrendous crimes. They pointed out that Israel is guilty of major crimes of domination, subjugation.

Like the apartheid era in South Africa when a white minority was ruling over a black majority, Israel seeks to take control of the Palestinians' lives, they said.

The activists also called on the EU member states — especially France, Germany and Romania — to strop selling weapons to Israel. They also demanded a ban on import of Israeli products, which are made in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is made up of four sessions. At the end of 2010, a London session will scrutinize the complicity of corporations in normalizing and continuing Israel's violations of international law.

In mid-2011, a session in South Africa will consider apartheid in Israel. And the final session, which will be held in the United States next year, will go through the role of the Washington within the United Nations. It will also evaluate the decision-making processes used to deal with violations of international law.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119965§ionid=351020606.

Israel relocates radar to watch PG closely

Israel has decided to relocate an advanced US-made anti-missile radar system to a position, from where it can have the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf within its reach.

The Forward-Based X-band Transportable (FBX-T) anti-missile radar system currently stationed at Nevatim air base east of the Negev capital Beersheba, will be moved to a mountain perch in Har Keren, Debka reported.

This is while Washington had set strict conditions before granting Israel the powerful FBX-T radar system — the system will be installed at a US base and will be off-limits to Israelis and managed exclusively by American personnel.

The FBX-T system is designed as an air, ground and rail transportable, X-band, phased array radar that uses high-powered, electronically scanning pulsed beams, to track small objects in space at high resolution.

The system has been described by American officials as capable of tracking an object the size of a "baseball from about 2,900 miles (4,600 km) away."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119978§ionid=351020202.

Algerian finance minister foresees inflation rate decline

2010-03-03

Algerian inflation should slow from last year's rate of 5.7% to 3.0-3.5% in 2010, Finance Minister Karim Djoudi told legislators in Algiers on Tuesday (March 2nd). Speaking at the opening of parliament's spring session, Djoudi also voiced optimism concerning Algeria's growth outlook in 2010.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/03/03/newsbrief-03.

Algerian official criticizes Mali compliance with al-Qaeda demand

2010-03-03

Algeria on Tuesday (March 2nd) continued to reproach Mali's decision to release four prison inmates in exchange for a French hostage held by al-Qaeda, Tout sur L'Algerie reported. "We hope this initiative in Mali is not repeated. Any release of a terrorist could, at that stage, bring an added danger to innocent victims," Benchaa Dani, the foreign ministry's director of multilateral relations, said on national radio. After Mali freed the two Algerians, a Burkinabe and a Mauritanian on February 21st, Algeria recalled its ambassador from Bamako "for consultations".

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/03/03/newsbrief-02.

Libyan bloggers eye media freedoms, reform

With more attention turning to the media and culture in Arab world, Libyan blogs are following suit by critiquing government's role.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 03/03/10

Libyan blogs this week tackled freedom of the press in the Arab world, the lack of tolerant dialogue and the role of the Ministry of Culture.

According to blogger Ahmed Faitouri, Arab citizens hope that "their media will express their dreams and aspirations and be a bridge of freedom and participation. This will be brought about only by agreeing on a unified Arab media strategy, which needs for its basis a unified Arab policy." The blogger added: "It's true that Arabs possess money and creative human resources, but it's the controlling entities that set the agendas in advance. State-run media focus on highlighting the image of the ruler, regardless of the importance of the news."

Blogger Abdul Dayem Ukwass expressed sorrow at the absence of a culture of dialogue and acceptance of other opinions and criticism. "Unfortunately, we haven't been able to rid ourselves of the tribal pattern, even in our thinking and culture. Every one of us clings to a "host" of thoughts and opinions that he or she fosters and feeds, based on a single-minded theory, and considers it to be sacred property that only death can part him from."

"Anyone who attacks such a 'host' by having different opinions or criticizing it will expose himself to the weapons of mass libel, where everything is allowed and possible, without any regard for the rules of dialogue and manners of difference," added Ukwass.

For his part, blogger Ghazi Gheblawi hopes for a hard look at ministries of culture in Libya and other Arab countries. "What took place in Libya after the establishment of the Ministry of Culture, which was later turned into the Public Establishment for Culture, proved that culture and intellectuals in our country and most Arab countries would be in better condition without these government agencies and establishments."

"These entities monopolize cultural activities in the country, and only aim at placing more restrictions on intellectuals and making them like employees in those government agencies". The blogger believes that this will make intellectuals "lose their independence and ability to criticize the squalid conditions in the country".

Freedom and discussion of reform in Libya are under increasing scrutiny both at home and abroad. Local and international public opinion welcomed the country's decision to allow Human Rights Watch to hold a Tripoli release for a landmark report on the state of freedoms in Libya.

Libyan blogger Alaa Mohammed told Magharebia that 'reform' didn't originally exist according to the commonly recognized definition. "Rather, there was a trend to make some breakthroughs in different directions that didn't affect laws and establishments."

"[T]his was one of the points criticized by Human Rights Watch last December in its report that was titled 'Libya: Truth and Justice Can't Wait'. The so-called 'reforms' in Libya are just unregulated, non-institutionalized breakthroughs," he added. "Therefore, any breakthrough that may be offered can always be withdrawn, and this was what has actually happened. However, I think that the two suspended newspapers … will be allowed to re-issue, but probably under certain conditions.

"In addition, the blocking of Libyan websites that appear overseas and YouTube may be lifted, but the blocking and suspension will always be like two threatening swords, together with the other tools of oppression," said the blogger.

For his part, Ziad El Heni, member of the executive bureau of the African Union of Journalists, said in a statement to Magharebia that the Libyan authorities' "step to block a number of electronic newspapers and websites that are deemed to be part of the reformist trend in Libya and to arrest two writers, Jamal Haji and Ahmed Khalifa, is an unacceptable thing. It's a setback to the course of media openness which Libya has recently seen."

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/blog/2010/03/03/feature-02.

Conflicting stories follow killing of Algerian security chief

Just days after the Algerian Interior Ministry stated that Colonel Ali Tounsi had been killed in a meeting, the ministry's head said there were no eyewitnesses.

By Walid Ramzi for Magharebia in Algiers – 03/03/10

Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni on Tuesday (March 2nd) promised "full transparency" in the probe of the murder of Colonel Ali Tounsi, but contradicted previous ministry reports that seemed to place eyewitnesses at the scene.

"The crime was without witnesses," Zerhouni said of the February 25th killing of the country's national security director.

Zerhouni's statement to the press, made on the sidelines of a session of Parliament, contradicts the ministry's earlier claim that the killing happened in a meeting in Tounsi's office.

A previous official statement said the official "died at 10:45 a.m. during a working session, during which a police official, apparently having a fit of madness, used his weapon and killed Colonel Ali Tounsi, then injured himself very seriously".

Media reports also indicate the presence of witnesses. Investigators began "interviewing witnesses and other people present during the incident", according to the local newspaper Echourouk.

Abed Rabou Abed El Illah, in another Echourouk article, claimed to have witnessed the incident. The alleged shooter, who Abed El Illah identified as Colonel Chaib Oueltache, was "mentally disturbed," he said. Tounsi was moved from his office to the first floor of the building in an attempt to save his life, Abed El Illah said.

Minister Zerhouni also named Colonel Oultache as the culprit.

"The assassination of Colonel Ali Tounsi, the director of national security, by Colonel Chaib Oultache was due to a personal disagreement," said Zerhouni.

Local media report that Oultache killed Tounsi for firing him from his position as head of the national security aviation unit.

Tounsi, after investigating Oultache, had "confirmed his involvement in corruption cases pertaining to arms deals," according to Echourouk. "The investigation findings implicated the offender in a number of suspicious transactions for acquiring spare parts for helicopters and maintenance and intelligence equipment."

Oultache and his son were involved in suspicious transactions to supply the police with information technology, according to Al Nahar Al Jadid. The offender's son had operated as a middleman between the Directorate-General of Police and foreign companies in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes, the newspaper reported.

Oultache attempted suicide during the incident and suffered gunshot wounds, according to Zerhouni. The suspect "is alive and his health is improving, and he will stand trial once he recovers," said the minister.

The incident surprised those familiar with both men, who were reportedly close friends.

"This tragedy is unique, unprecedented, and confusing for many reasons," wrote the general manager of Djazair News, H'mida El Ayachi. "[T]hey had a strong friendship, built – according to what a number of the national security members stated – on mutual trust."

Tounsi appointed Oultache to lead the national security aviation unit after the latter had retired. "Tounsi ordered the offender to train police air units as a part of a project that started years ago to include hundreds of helicopters in police work to facilitate the activities of traffic and patrol units, and homicide investigation units," Djazair News reported.

The head of Civil Defense, Mustapha Lahbiri, praised Tounsi at his funeral on Friday.

"The late Ali Tounsi devoted his life to this country during the revolution, and after independence," he said.

Minister for Local Assemblies Daho Ould Kablia also mourned the loss.

"Colonel Ali Tounsi does not deserve the way he died and Algeria does not deserve this tragedy," he said.

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

Beirut preps for national security debate

BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 3 (UPI) -- Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said a national dialogue session, set to kick off next week, should focus on natural security issues in his country.

Lawmakers in Beirut begin a series of talks Tuesday at the presidential palace. Suleiman called on Defense Minister Elias Murr to attend the sessions "given that he has to have a say in the design of a national-defense strategy," Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper reports Wednesday.

Lebanon is monitoring its southern border following a series of exchanges between Hezbollah and Israeli leaders. Hezbollah and Israel fought a bruising 34-day war in 2006 and both sides blame the other for lingering tensions.

Hezbollah, now a part of the Lebanese government, in 2009 secured the right to maintain an armed resistance to Israel.

The debate comes as U.S. military leaders arrived Wednesday in Beirut.

Murr said following his trip to the United States in February that Washington agreed to provide $267 million in military aid to Lebanon.

Moscow, meanwhile, said it would offer 10 Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships free of charge to the Lebanese military, instead of the supersonic MiG-29 interceptors that Moscow had planned

Washington fears any advanced military equipment may wind up in the hands of Hezbollah fighters.

Washington, however, supplied the Lebanese military with combat air-support aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles to support border-protection efforts in 2009.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/03/03/Beirut-preps-for-national-security-debate/UPI-75881267642470/.

Indonesia parliament recommends probe into bank bail-out - Summary

Jakarta - Indonesia's parliament voted late Wednesday to recommend that law enforcement bodies investigate the 2008 bail-out of a small bank. Lawmakers at the House of Representatives voted 325 against 212 in favor of a conclusion that the 6.7-trillion-rupiah (723-million- dollar) rescue of collapsing Bank Century was unjustified and that the law had been broken in the process.

The Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unsuccessfully tried to persuade rival factions to switch sides at the last minute but the effort was unsuccessful.

"We hope that the dynamics surrounding the Bank Century case will soon be over and we can continue our duties to serve the people," Anas Urbaningrum, a legislator from the Democratic Party, said after the vote.

The former ruling Golkar Party and the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party, both represented in the coalition cabinet, and the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, argued that the then-central bank governor Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati were at fault for the bail-out.

Boediono, who is now vice president, and Indrawati are regarded by many in the business community as reformers and among the most capable technocrats in Yudhoyono's coalition government.

Some analysts said they believed Boediono and Indrawati were unlikely to go, but any attempt to criminalize their policies could derail reforms.

Parliamentary factions opposed to the bail-out said that Bank Century would not have posed a systemic threat to the banking sector if it had been allowed to collapse.

They alleged that the central bank failed to conduct proper oversight, allowing corruption and money laundering to occur.

Factions defending the bail-out, led by the Democratic Party, argue that the move prevented a crisis in the banking system that could have been catastrophic for the country's economy, which was badly hit by the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

The Supreme Audit Agency last year listed several irregularities linked to the bail-out process, including the failure of the central bank to provide full information.

The cash injection has prompted accusations that some of the money went to the campaign for Yudhoyono's re-election last year, a charge denied by the president.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312332,indonesia-parliament-recommends-probe-into-bank-bail-out--summary.html.

Netanyahu: Israel will not change status quo at West Bank holy sites

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

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Jerusalem - Israel will not make changes to the status quo at the Cave of the Patriarchs, a shrine in the occupied West Bank sacred to both Muslims and Jews, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. Israel has placed the ancient building in the southern West Bank city of Hebron on a list of "national heritage" sites which it wants to renovate, sparking outrage amongst Muslims.

"We have no intention here to change prayer arrangements or to change the status quo," he told a special Knesset (parliament) session called by the opposition to debate his government's policies.

"The Cave of the Patriarchs is among the first sites of the people of Israel. (It is) the grave-site of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs; Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, Rebeccah and Leah, and not far from there is Rachel's Tomb. These are part of our heritage," he said.

Netanyahu, of the nationalist Likud party, recognized that Muslims "also have a connection to the Cave," but he argued that as the building's Islamic section had already undergone renovations, "there is a need to do the same to the Jewish section."

The international community, including the US and UN, have expressed concern at the Israeli move, noting the shrine is in occupied territory, where Israel has no right to change facts on the ground.

Palestinians regard renovations in the Jewish section also as changes to the status quo.

They have warned the move could threaten indirect negotiations which US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell had hoped to begin this month.

Netanyahu blamed the Palestinians for the failure to resume peace talks since he took office just under one year ago, charging they were raising preconditions they had not demanded of previous governments. He was referring to President Mahmoud Abbas' demand that Israel stop all construction in both the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"It looks like the conditions are ripening for the renewal of talks according to the formula of proximity talks between us and the Palestinian Authority," he said, adding however, "it is still not happening now."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312348,netanyahu-israel-will-not-change-status-quo-at-west-bank.html.

Libya demands US apology for comments on Gaddafi's call for jihad - Summary

Tripoli (Earth Times) - Libya on Wednesday called for the United States to apologize for a State Department official's recent remarks about Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's call for jihad against Switzerland. Libya's Foreign Ministry summoned the second-in-command at the US Embassy in Tripoli to deliver an official protest regarding State Department spokesman PJ Crowley's recent comments to the press when asked about Gaddafi's call to a holy war.

"I saw that report and it just brought me back to a day in September, one of the more memorable sessions of the UN General Assembly that I can recall," Crowley said. "Lots of words and lots of papers flying all over the place, not necessarily a lot of sense."

The Libyan Foreign Ministry told the US Embassy in Tripoli's deputy chief of mission that Crowley's remarks reflected his "ignorance" of what Gaddafi had said at the world body.

US failure to apologize would affect political and economic relations between the two countries, Libya threatened.

Later Wednesday, at a meeting in the city of Sirte, Libyan officials called for an economic boycott of Swiss goods, including on imports of Swiss pharmaceuticals.

Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi last month called for jihad against Switzerland, as an "infidel, obscene state that is destroying mosques" - in reference to a Swiss referendum banning the construction of minarets.

US-Libyan relations have slowly been thawing, after decades of estrangement, since the two reestablished diplomatic ties in 2004.

Brazil rebuffs US, says it will go own way on Iran

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

BRASILIA, Brazil – Brazil rebuffed a U.S. appeal for new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, vowing during a visit from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton not to "bow down" to gathering international pressure.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pre-empted Clinton even before she could make the case for new United Nations Security Council penalties. Silva is an outspoken opponent of sanctions, and his country currently sits on the Security Council, which will be asked to approve its toughest-ever penalties on Iran later this year.

"It is not prudent to push Iran against a wall," Silva told reporters hours before meeting with Clinton. "The prudent thing is to establish negotiations."

Clinton told a news conference she respects Brazil's position but thinks if there is any possibility of negotiating with Iran, it would happen only after a new round of sanctions.

Iran has accelerated its disputed nuclear program in the face of previous U.N. penalties, but the United States and other supporters say a renewed demonstration of world resolve could finally push Iran to the bargaining table.

"The door is open for negotiations. We never slammed it shut," Clinton said. "But we don't see anybody, even in the far-off distance, walking toward it."

The Obama administration took office last year pledging to reach out to Iran and make the case that Tehran had more to lose than gain from pressing ahead with nuclear development that much of the world suspects is aimed at building a bomb.

Yet the administration has done an about-face after a frustrating year that saw nuclear gains by Iran with no sign the country is interested in serious talks with Washington. The two countries have been estranged since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and there is almost no economic or diplomatic contact between them.

Iran does have vast business and other ties with most of the rest of the world, and Clinton said the oil giant is exploiting its relationships to try to avoid new U.N. penalties.

"We see an Iran that runs to Brazil, an Iran that runs to Turkey, an Iran that runs to China, telling different things to different people," Clinton said angrily.

Standing with her at a press conference in the Brazilian capital, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim was not persuaded.

"We will not simply bow down to an evolving consensus if we do not agree," Amorim said. "We have to think by ourselves and with our values and principles."

Silva is scheduled to visit Tehran on May 15, and US officials who participated in Clinton's meetings on Wednesday suggested they would like to see the Security Council vote on sanctions before then. If that happens, the officials said, Silva might be able to serve as an informal envoy who could urge the Iranians to negotiate despite new penalties.

Silva, who hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Brazil last year, said he would have a "frank" conversation with Ahmadinejad about Iran's nuclear program.

"I want for Iran the same thing I want for Brazil: to use the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," he said. "If Iran agrees with that, Iran will have the support of Brazil."

The U.S. officials said that despite clear differences at the moment, the Brazilians assured Clinton their current position was not "etched in stone."

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomatic exchange.

Iran already is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to stop uranium enrichment — a potential pathway to nuclear weapons — and other activities, generating concerns that it seeks to build a bomb. It insists it is enriching only to make nuclear fuel for an envisaged reactor network.

Another round of sanctions could pass without Brazil's vote. But the United States and other backers of new sanctions want as wide a backing as possible to show Iran that its behavior is costing it friendships around the globe.