Antiwar coalition fined by US government

A US antiwar organization says it has been targeted by the government because it wants US troops to immediately return from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The ANSWER Coalition, which stands for "Act Now to Stop War and End Racism," has been a staunch critic of the Bush and Obama administrations for their role in the Iraqi and Afghan war.

"The government is increasingly trying to limit or eviscerate or criminalize grassroots organizing itself", said Brian Becker from the ANSWER Coalition, Reported Press TV's Colin Campbell.

ANSWER members say they have been hit with $7,500 worth of fines for putting up anti-war posters like "US Out of Afghanistan and Iraq Now!" across Washington DC.

"We put up posters and we hand out leaflets and that is why thousands of people hear the call," said Becker.

The Department of Public Works says it levied the fines on ANSWER demanding that members of the organization "remove all posted signs" around the district.

"Starting 18 months ago, these targeting events began. There is now 70,000…80,000 in fines and it is growing," said Becker.

The ANSWER Coalition has planned a march on the nation's capital over the weekend to protest against the US-led wars overseas.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend.

"We will not be leaving Iraq and Afghanistan unless enough people in this country stand up," said Mike Ferner, President of Veterans for Peace.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121213§ionid=3510203.

Israeli aircraft violate Hungary airspace

Two Israeli military aircraft have been sighted flying at a low altitude over the Hungarian capital unbeknown to the country's defense ministry and the civilian and military secret services.

Hungarian Defense Minister Imre Szekeres on Friday urged follow-up action on the Wednesday flight over Budapest's international airport which was reported by the Magyar Nemzet newspaper, the German Press Agency DPA reported.

He said it is imperative by the regulations that the ministry be notified of such practices.

Reacting to the issue, Szekeres is to ask the central government to revive a Military Aviation Authority.

Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai has also demanded an immediate investigation into the matter.

The Israeli ambassador to Budapest Aliza Bin-Noun, though, claimed that the flight had been a "routine" one for which the National Transport Authority had issued the relevant permission.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121221§ionid=351020605.

Algeria to build 500 new schools

2010-03-19

Algeria plans to construct 500 new secondary schools nationwide over the next four years, APS reported on Thursday (March 18th). According to Education Minister Boubekeur Benbouzid, the new facilities will permit an average of 25 pupils per classroom.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/03/19/newsbrief-03.

King Mohammed VI welcomes UN Western Sahara envoy

2010-03-19

King Mohammed VI met with UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara Christopher Ross in Tetouan on Thursday (March 18th). According to state-run news agency MAP, he told Ross that Morocco's autonomy initiative for Western Sahara aligns with UN Security Council Resolution 1871. Ross' 9-day Maghreb tour, aimed at arranging another round of formal Western Sahara talks, will include visits to Algeria, Mauritania and the Sahrawi camps in Tindouf.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/03/19/newsbrief-02.

After Egypt, Algerians see CAN Morocco match as battle between brothers

"Moroccans are our brothers. We love them because they rejoice in our football victories and achievements, unlike the Egyptians," said business-owner Nabil Abdellaoui.

By Abdou Tajj El-Din in Algiers for Magharebia – 18/03/10

When Algeria and Morocco face off in the 2012 African Cup of Nations (CAN) qualifiers, it won't be the first time that the neighbors battle on the pitch. But after all the drama the Greens had with Egypt before winning their World Cup ticket, Algerians see the upcoming CAN Group 4 fight as a friendly contest among brothers.

CAF drew for the CAN qualifiers late last month in DR Congo. Out of the 44 national teams organized into 11 groups, Algeria and Morocco ended up together, along with Tanzania and Central African Republic.

Sports fans on the streets of the capital were eager to discuss the surprising draw results. The mere mention of an Algeria-Morocco game was enough to bring smiles to faces that used to scowl during the Egypt-Algeria World Cup and 2010 CAN chase.

For many Algeria supporters, Morocco playing in the Greens' group is like having two chances at winning the title.

"Moroccans are our brothers. We love them because they rejoice in our football victories and achievements, unlike the Egyptians," said Nabil Abdellaoui, owner of a perfume shop in Mohamadeya.

"Frankly, I wish we didn’t have to be in the same group in any qualifiers. But the 2012 CAN draw decided otherwise. I can only hope that Algeria win the title," the merchant said.

Kamel Laabadi, a civil servant in Chevalley, Algiers, said, "I still recall the 1986 World Cup when Algeria and Morocco qualified for Africa. We were delighted that Morocco made it to second place for the first time in the history of African football."

"Nowadays, Morocco never make it to the CAN finals, despite the talented players they have." He added, "I wish the Atlas Lions all the best."

Even those too young to remember what happened in 1986 see Morocco in a positive light.

"I was a kid in the late eighties," said Lina Malik, a university student from Ain Benian. "But when it comes to football, things are very different with Morocco than they are with Egypt. I wish we didn’t have to be the same group."

Algerian-Moroccan football encounters are always a thrill. The two teams have met on 23 different occasions through friendly and official matches. Their first game, on November 1st, 1965 in Algeria, ended in a goalless draw. Their most recent match was in January 2004, when Morocco beat Algeria at the CAN quarter-finals in Tunisia.

"When we got disqualified in Tunisia, I was sorry. But I was not sad, because a brotherly football team showed superior performance," said Amine Andaloussi, a sports journalist at Le Soir d’Algerie.

"Algeria and Morocco played some unforgettable games," agreed civil servant Samir Ouradi. "Even though we could not defeat the Moroccans for years, Algeria-Morocco games are always a thrill, and never yield any animosity."

"We hope that sports clears the airs between Algeria and Morocco," Ouradi said.

Magharebia also asked Algerian football players and coaches about the unexpected CAN qualifier draw.

Veteran Algerian coach Abdelhamid Kermali had hoped to avoid playing in the same group, so as to boost Maghreb chances at the biggest continental event. "However, the draw thought otherwise," he said. "I am certain our game with Morocco is going to be amicable and brotherly, nothing more, nothing less."

"The better team will win eventually," Kermali told Magharebia.

Former Greens footballer Lakhdar Belloumi also thinks the Algeria-Morocco qualifier will be a game among brothers.

"I played against the Moroccan team. I know that all our games with them are marked by excitement and honest competition. Never did any of our games violate the ethics of sportsmanship. I hope that will continue to be the hallmark of our next encounter with them," Belloumi said.

Algeria national coach Rabah Saadane has personal experience with Moroccan football. The Batna-born trainer, now in his 5th turn at the helm of his country's team, was with legendary Moroccan club Raja Casablanca when they won their first Botola in 1988 and the African Champions League title a year later.

"I never wanted to play against the Moroccan squad. I wanted to avoid such matches," he told Magharebia. "I was saddened by the fact that Morocco did not take part in the previous CAN. I am hoping they can make a strong comeback and represent Maghreb and Arab football in all continental and international tournaments."

"True, we did qualify for the World Cup, but that does not mean our job will be any easier in the CAN qualifiers, especially playing against Morocco who, I assume, will be doing their absolute best to make it to the tournament," the Greens' coach said.

"I am certain the game is going to be a tough one," Saadane added. "May the better team represent the Arab Maghreb in CAN."

Karim Ziani, the lead striker for the Greens, thinks the Algerian-Moroccan encounter will be one big football festival.

"We are sick and tired of playing against the Egyptians. That caused us a lot of trouble, which we need not mention here," Ziani told Magharebia.

"Our game against the Moroccans is going to be very different. They play fair and their fans love football away from any fanaticism," he stressed.

Ziani added, "I have come to know many Moroccan players, playing in France. I am on good terms with them, such as the brilliant forward Marouane Chamakh. I am truly excited about our upcoming game."

For his part, former Morocco coach (2002-2005) and current WAC manager Badou Zaki thinks that despite drawing with Algeria, the current crop of Atlas Lions can still make it to the 2012 African Cup of Nations.

"Morocco remain one of the greats of Africa and I can even assert that the national team will have its word to say in Group 7. The group includes Algeria, who are coming back strong on the African scene, but they remain within the grasp of the Atlas Lions," he told Arryadhia on March 17th.

Algerian sportswriter Amine Andaloussi shares Zaki's optimism.

"Moroccan football boasts prominent stars and is capable of begetting even more brilliant ones. They're only going through a temporary phase. With a player like Marouane Chamakh and others, they can still be a world-class team," Andaloussi said.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2010/03/19/reportage-01.

Women demand expanded rights in Algeria, Morocco

Algerian activists want the current Family Code to be scrapped and begun anew, while critics of Morocco's Moudawana point to its uneven application.

By Mouna Sadek in Algiers and Siham Ali in Rabat for Magharebia– 19/03/10

Women's groups throughout the Maghreb are pushing to change national Family Codes, rejecting current legislation as insufficient and demanding greater freedom and protection for females across the board.

In Algeria, a number of women's organizations are leading the fight to change Algeria's two-decades-old Family Code. Activists have criticized the code's restrictions on divorce and its guardianship rules for women who want to marry.

"Girls whose mothers were dead have had great difficulty marrying because their fathers do not wish to recognize them. There have been numerous cases and this situation is unacceptable," Women's rights activist Cherifa Kheddar said.

Kheddar has launched a nation-wide campaign called Kif kif devant la loi ("All the same in the eyes of the law") to educate rural women on their rights under the Algerian constitution.

Also in the current code, abusive husbands may have to pay if their wives choose to leave under khol'e rules. Ferroudja Moussaoui, a member of the women's group Amusnaw, criticized other aspects of the code.

"Polygamy is still legal where a marriage has been consummated. The marriage of minors is indirectly legalized," she said.

Activists dismissed the 2005 amendments to the Family Code, saying government officials chose to pander to the more conservative elements of society at the expense of an improved legal status for women.

The main advance of the 2005 reforms was the secularization of the Family Code by removing all mention of sharia from the text, Moussaoui said.

"Previously we didn't have the right to talk about the Family Code, on the grounds that we were touching something sacred," said Moussaoui, adding that the Family Code does nothing to protect the dignity of Algerian women.

Louisa Hanoune, the first-ever female president of the Workers' Party (PT), called Saturday (March 13th) for the Family Code to be repealed.

Solutions are needed that can "help women overcome the barriers that are imposed on them in all domains" so they can exercise their rights as full citizens, Hanoune said.

Meanwhile, neighboring Morocco just celebrated the sixth anniversary of its landmark Moudawana law, which marked a sweeping expansion of women's rights.

Several provisions in Morocco's Family Code have yet to be adopted on a wide scale, however.

One reform enacted by the law introduced pre-nuptial agreements for couples preparing to marry. Spouses are entitled to sign a document detailing the property they own and how it should be divided should the couple divorce, according to Article 49 of the Moroccan Moudawana.

Notaries public, or adouls, are also required to advise both parties of the provisions at the time that the marriage is solemnized.

Activists say that local notaries are ignoring the new laws.

"Adouls are not advising new couples of these provisions," said Fatima Maghnaoui, an advocate of women's rights. "When a woman does ask for this document to be signed, a dim view is taken of her."

According to statistics from the Ministry of Justice, only 15.5% of couples who married in 2009 signed the documents, a drop of 22.2% from the number of documents signed in 2008.

As it stands, Maghnaoui said, ignorance of the law means women do not stand up for their rights while men now hesitate to marry for fear of losing their property.

Fatima Moustaghfir, who serves as both a lawyer and MP, believes the law is necessary to further entrench women's rights in Moroccan society.

"Women must have recourse to the courts, even those who do not work, to assert their rights," she told Magharebia.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/03/19/feature-03.

Moroccan women's group to host int'l forum

Women's Tribune, an organization that encourages the discussion of gender equality throughout the Mediterranean basin, will convene an international forum in March.

By Imane Belhaj for Magharebia in Casablanca – 19/03/10

Women's rights activists will meet in Essaouira on March 27th for a forum hosted by Women's Tribune, the organization's leader said in a press conference on Tuesday (March 16th).

Fathia Bennis said the two-day event would welcome key activists from countries around the region, under the banner of "Women and Authority: From Saying to Doing". Participants from Algeria, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, France, Italy and Spain will discuss the role of women in politics, mass media and the marketplace.

Women still face many obstacles to achieving total gender equality, Bennis told reporters. "We're not victims. We have responsibilities that we want to live up to, until the end. Our liberation means liberation for men, too," Bennis said.

Women's Tribune was founded last year to promote discussion about gender equality around the Mediterranean basin, and the organization actively recruits the participation of both men and women.

The forum will focus on the realization of two key projects: establishing a nursery in every Moroccan workplace, and creating a national observatory to monitor and follow up on gains in women's rights, Bennis said. The new observatory will also be charged with studying new project recommendations to submit to the government.

In line with the first project, Bennis plans to use the upcoming conference to spotlight Morocco's first company boasting a nursery on its premises. She praised Webhelp Maroc for taking its employees' concerns into consideration, especially in terms of childcare.

"It boosts the productivity of enterprises, as employees will feel more comfortable working in close proximity to their children," Bennis said.

Salwa Karkri, an MP and active member of Women's Tribune, said the forum's discussions would be inclusive, with the opinions of both men and women solicited and debated.

Karkri added that gender equality was critical to Morocco's economic development.

The "advanced status" granted to Morocco by the EU makes it necessary for the country "to engage women in all development initiatives", Karkri said, adding: "Countries that assume a good position in terms of equality are also those that are advanced in terms of development."

Participants in last year's conference raised 400,000 dirhams to donate to the Zakoura Education Foundation, which works to provide access to schooling for girls in low-income and rural areas.

Youssef Saibi, a Women's Tribune member who attended the March 16th press conference, said he believes women's rights have come a long way in Morocco. Saibi said recent elections had resulted in many women taking positions of power.

"When women are determined to undertake a social, economic or political job, nothing stops them," he told Magharebia.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/03/19/feature-02.

Yemen declares end to northern war

Yemen's president has declared that the six-year conflict with so-called Houthi fighters in the country's north is over.

Ali Abdullah Saleh said in an interview aired on Friday that the success of a ceasefire pact put into force on February 12 was a "sign that the war has ended and that this is not just a passing truce".

Saleh told Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based television channel, that the Houthis, who are primarily from the Zaidi sect of Shia Islam, had undertaken positive actions for peace, for example removing roadblocks, releasing prisoners and removing landmines.

The conflict began in 2004 but more intense fighting was sparked last August when the government reacted to renewed attacks by launching a major offensive in the north.

More than 250,000 people have been displaced by the war between Sana'a and Houthi fighters.

The Houthis had accused the government of being corrupt and ignoring the north, and Saleh of being a dictator.

Prisoner release

Earlier this week, Sanaa has said that the Houthis were not complying with the truce.

But then on Thursday, the government said that it would release members of the group from prison within days under the ceasefire deal, after the Houthis ended the captivity of 170 government soldiers and allied tribesman.

The northern conflict has threatened to spread across the region, with Saudi Arabia, on Yemen's northern border, being drawn into the fighting with the Houthis, and Sanaa accusing Iran of supporting the secessionists.

Previous truces between the Houthis and Sanaa have not held.

Saleh is under international pressure to deal with domestic issues and concentrate on the battle against an increasingly prominent al-Qaeda.

Western powers believe al-Qaeda is exploiting instability in the country to train and recruit members.

Al-Qaeda's Yemeni arm said last December that an attempted bombing of an airliner bound for the US on Christmas Day was carried out by a man they trained.

Southern secessionists

In the interview, Salah also said that his government was ready to hold talks with opposition groups in the formerly independent south, where the majority of the country's oil industry is located.

However, he limited that offer only to pro-unity opposition not separatists.

"Dialogue is only with pro-unity elements who have legitimate demands. But we don't have dialogue with separatist elements," he said, adding that talks would be completed via political channels.

Protests have occurred in the south, which united with the north in 1990, in recent months leading to clashes with security forces, including some protesters being shot dead.

Saleh offered to talk to southerners last month to hear their complaints. Many people in the south believe that the north has seized resources from them and discriminate against them.

Source: Al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/03/2010319141622325199.html.

Palestinian rallies jolt West Bank, Gaza

Fresh clashes are reported between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli security forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as Gaza brims with anti-Israeli rallies.

Palestinian demonstrators took to streets following the weekly Friday prayers in the Shuafat refugee camp north of the Old City, where Israel has recently reopened a synagogue.

The demonstrators, who were protesting unrelenting settlement expansions in East al-Quds, threw stones at Israeli troops who responded with massive volleys of tear-gas grenades, AFP reported.

Witnesses said undercover Israeli security forces also detained a number of the youths and took them to an unknown destination.

There were also skirmishes in the city's Issawiya neighborhood while severe confrontations broke out in Qalandia, the main crossing between al-Quds and Ramallah which locates the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.

Medics at a Ramallah hospital said six Palestinians were injured in the clashes, one of them in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Hundreds of Palestinians also staged similar demonstrations in Dir Nizam, near Ramallah, and nearby villages of Bilin and Nilin, sites of weekly protests by Palestinians and foreign activists against Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

East al-Quds was occupied by Israel during the six-day war in 1967 and was later annexed by the regime in a move never recognized by the international community.

On Friday, massive anti-Israeli rallies were held in the Gaza Strip as thousands of people marched in the besieged strip's central area and also in the southern town of Rafah.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121220§ionid=351020202.

Iran Suggests that Lebanon Drafts U.N. Resolution on Israel-Palestinians

Iran has suggested to Lebanon in its status as non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to work on a draft resolution that calls on Israel to stop using force against Palestinians.

An Nahar newspaper said that the proposal came in a letter written by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to his Lebanese counterpart Ali al-Shami. Iran's charge d'affaires delivered the letter to al-Shami on Friday.

The daily quoted ministerial sources as saying that Tehran's suggestion justifies Lebanon's need at the Security Council. The sources said the Lebanese government should reap all the benefits of Lebanon's status and Ambassador Nawaf Salam should be given the entire opportunity to produce positive results.

They said that al-Shami would inform President Michel Suleiman and PM Saad Hariri as soon as he is delivered the letter. The cabinet would later discuss the issue.

Source: Naharnet.
Link: http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/0/DF4808B70F8B36B7C22576EB002ABF09?OpenDocument.

Israel Releases Top Hamas Terrorist

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

* * * * *

Israel has quietly released from prison a top Hamas terrorist after serving 18 years in jail for founding its armed military wing, Izzad al-Qassam. The release of Salah Aruri was coordinated with the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) and its Jordanian counterpart. Aruri, a Palestinian from the West Bank, is to spend years in exile in Jordan under the terms of the release. Aruri’s release could be seen as progress in the talks for a larger deal between Israel and Hamas to swap hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for captured Israeli soldier Cpt. Gilad Shalit. Aruri’s freedom could be a step by Israel to add pressure on the Hamas leadership to accept Israel’s demands that some of the Palestinian prisoners slated for release accept exile.

Source: The Media Line.
Link: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_mideast_daily.asp?Date=03/18/2010&category_id=8.

Palestinian Authority to Opt Out of US Training Program

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

* * * * *

The Palestinian Authority is reportedly planning to drop the American involvement in the increasingly strong US-sponsored Palestinian security forces in the West Bank. According to Jane’s, a security magazine published in London, the Palestinian Authority will replace US trainers with Palestinian officers, effectively marginalizing the US team led by US Gen. Keith Dayton. The United States has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into training the four battalions so far. The elite forces are considered to be a major factor in the relative security calm and economic prosperity currently witnessed in the territories. The plan calls for the force to come under the direct control of the PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Some Palestinian and European security officials have reportedly criticized the plan since it does not address the possibility of absorbing Hamas fighters into the security apparatus.

Source: The Media Line.
Link: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_mideast_daily.asp?Date=03/18/2010&category_id=8.

Lebanese urge firm UN stance against Israel

Hundreds of people have gathered in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut in a show of protest against the Israeli practices in Jerusalem (al-Quds).

Crowds of demonstrators marched in front of a UN building in downtown Beirut on Friday in solidarity with the Palestinians in al-Quds who have been protesting the Israeli violations against the revered al-Aqsa Mosque, Press TV correspondent in Beirut, Ali Rizk, reported.

On Monday, Israel reopened a synagogue a few hundreds meters from the al-Aqsa Mosque compound — highly revered by Muslims as their third sanctity — in the Old City in occupied East al-Quds.

The move sparked an outrage among Palestinians who voiced concern over Tel Aviv's practices in the holy city and condemned Israeli efforts aimed at "Judaization" of the city Palestinians have been demanding as the capital of their future Palestinian state.

Lebanese protesters on Friday criticized the United Nations for becoming a tool in the hand of the United States and issued a statement calling on the world body to take action against the Israeli violation of Palestinians' rights.

They also called on Palestinian leaders in Ramallah to continue resistance rather than engaging in negotiations with Israel, urging them to follow the Lebanese movement Hezbollah in its fight against Israel's threats against the country.

The demonstrators further asked Arab governments to backtrack on their support for the US-sponsored "proximity talks" between Palestinians and Israelis and make a choice of resistance.

Beirut's demonstration comes while the Middle East Quartet has demanded Tel Aviv to heed international calls and halt its illegal settlement construction activity in the West Bank and East al-Quds.

Analysts have not shown much interest in the development as the US and the European Union — two members of the Quartet which also includes the UN and Russia — maintain deep bonds with Israel despite their purported differences with their close Mideast ally over its new settlement expansions in East al-Quds.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121211§ionid=351020203.

Russia says nuclear Iran not alarming, urges talks

Russia's foreign minister has said Iran's nuclear program poses no imminent threat but urged Tehran to engage the international community.

"The reports that the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] director general publishes on a regular basis contain very precise assessments that do not give reason for any sort of alarm," said Sergei Lavrov, alongside US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Friday.

He, however, said Iran should not waste the opportunity to engage the West and resolve the issues regarding its nuclear program.

"But that does not mean that we are satisfied with Iranian actions," Lavrov said.

"What we see is that they are letting the opportunity to establish normal, systematic, mutually beneficial dialogue with the international community slip away."

Iran says its work is directed at the civilian applications of the nuclear technology. The West, however, accuses it of conducting a covert program to develop an atomic bomb.

The UN nuclear watchdog has called on Iran to show more transparency and increase its cooperation with the agency.

The agency, however, has said the program, which is monitored by its inspectors, are in line with Tehran's commitments to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The White House, meanwhile, is pushing for new UNSC sanctions against Tehran. Its efforts, however, have been undermined by China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the council which insists dialogue should be the only means in resolving the nuclear standoff.

The Russian minister, however, said Moscow may support to a new round of Iran sanctions.

"As President [Dmitry] Medvedev has said, sanctions rarely work, but situations can arise when they are unavoidable, and we do not rule out that such a situation may arise in relation to Iran," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.

Iran says any sanction against the country has no legal basis.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121209§ionid=351020104.

Iran offers cut-price electricity to Pakistan

Iran has offered Pakistan 2200 megawatts (MW) of electricity at one third of Regulated Price Plan (RPP) rates.

“Iran is ready to increase the offer of 1100 MW electricity to 2200 MW,” Iran's Ambassador to Pakistan Masha'allah Shakeri told reporters on Thursday.

“Pakistan will have to build an appropriate infrastructure to utilize [the electricity],” he went on to say.

According to the Iranian envoy, Tehran is exporting power to Turkey, Armenia and Afghanistan and its price is extremely attractive for Pakistan.

“Islamabad can obtain financial assistance for this project from international financial institutions or the Islamic Development Bank,” he further explained.

“Iran may also consider provision of the required financing,” the ambassador concluded.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121201§ionid=351020103.

Navy laser weapon goes through early tests

ALBUQUERQUE, March 19 (UPI) -- A new laser weapon designed for naval deployment has gone through initial design tests as one of the first steps before it is adopted for active service, most likely by the U.S. Navy before any other force.

Laser weaponry now encompasses all branches of the military with a range of laser-based defense equipment already destined for the inventories of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force.

The Boeing Co., which developed Free Electron Laser Weapon System, said the FEL was still in a preliminary design review stage, indicating it would be some time before the weapon could see deployment.

Laser weaponry packs in a huge amount of power and is seen likely to be more focused on the intended target than other kinds of weaponry using explosives.

Boeing said the preliminary design review was a key step toward building a FEL

prototype for realistic tests at sea. More than 30 U.S. government and National Laboratory representatives attended the design review March 9-11 in Arlington, Va.

The laser is being designed to operate by passing a beam of high-energy electrons through a series of powerful magnetic fields, generating an intense emission of laser light that can disable or destroy targets.

"The Free Electron Laser will use a ship's electrical power to create, in effect, unlimited ammunition and provide the ultra-precise, speed-of-light capability required to defend U.S. naval forces against emerging threats, such as hyper-velocity cruise missiles," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems.

In that sense, defense analysts said, the laser weapon would take over tasks that would normally be assigned anti-missile missiles or other counteractive defense equipment.

"The successful completion of this preliminary design review is an important milestone in

developing a weapon system that will transform naval warfare," Fitzmire said.

In April 2009, Boeing was awarded an Office of Naval Research contract valued at up to $163 million -- with an initial task order of $6.9 million -- to begin developing FEL. The Navy is expected to decide this summer whether to award additional task orders to Boeing to complete the FEL design and build and operate a laboratory demonstrator.

Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit in Albuquerque and the Boeing Research & Technology group in Seattle support the FEL program. The design of the laser weapon involved partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy laboratories, academia and industry.

Boeing is developing laser systems for a variety of defense applications. Besides FEL, the systems include the Airborne Laser Test Bed, the High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator and Laser Avenger, among others.

A unit of the Boeing Co., Boeing Defense, Space & Security, which has headquarters in St. Louis, is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most

versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. It is a $34 billion business with 68,000 employees worldwide.

Other laser innovations in defense armament, including airborne laser, have involved Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. During a demonstration in February, a Boeing-Northrop-Lockheed laser destroyed a boosting missile in flight, the first event of its kind.

It was also the first time that any system destroyed a missile in the boost phase.

The Airborne Laser Testbed and its battle management system was fitted aboard a modified Boeing 747-400 Freighter. Northrop Grumman designed and built the laser and Lockheed Martin developed the beam control and fire control system.

Northrop explained, "While ballistic missiles like the one ALTB destroyed move at speeds of about 4,000 miles per hour, they are no match for a super-heated, high-energy laser beam racing toward it at 670 million mph."

It said the basketball-sized beam took just a few seconds to carve a stress fracture into the missile, causing it to split into multiple pieces.

ALTB has the highest-energy laser ever fired from an aircraft and is known to be the most powerful mobile laser device in the world.

The new tests for a naval laser weapon will address the need for similar weaponry to deal with seaborne threats, analysts said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/03/19/Navy-laser-weapon-goes-through-early-tests/UPI-58861269004576/.

Pakistan plans electricity upgrades

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 19 (UPI) -- Pakistani energy producers could deliver as much as 2,500 megawatts of new energy to its beleaguered energy grid by June, utility directors said.

Islamabad was considering aid from international lenders to help rebuild the energy sector, which is dragging on the national economy.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani last weekend called for the release of emergency funds to help the energy sector pay its debts as several sectors faced blackouts.

Muhammad Khalid, the director general of the Pakistan Electric Power Co., said he was confident power producers could bring another 2,500 megawatts of electricity online by June, Pakistani newspaper The Nation reports.

Pakistan currently faces electricity shortfalls of more than 4,000 MW during peak hours. Khalid added that consumers could take the initiative by conserving energy and using efficient equipment.

He added some power plants are closed for regular maintenance during the spring and fall, which could reduce electricity production by more than 1,000 MW.

Pakistan and Iran signed a long-delayed agreement Tuesday in Ankara for a natural gas pipeline from the giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf. That could allay some of Pakistan's power concerns when the pipeline goes into operation in 2014.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/03/19/Pakistan-plans-electricity-upgrades/UPI-60751269009069/.

NASA preps for polar ice cap study

WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency plans Monday in Greenland to start a second year of polar ice cap surveys to examine global climate change.

NASA will send its aircraft Monday to Greenland to start Operation IceBridge, which the space agency hails as the largest airborne survey of the polar ice caps.

Tom Wagner, cryosphere program manager for NASA, said the mission is to monitor fluctuations in the world's polar ice sheets.

"The mission's goal is to collect the most important data for improving predictive models of sea level rise and global climate change," he said.

Arctic sea ice peaks every year in March or early April, NASA said. Antarctic missions are conducted in October and November.

NASA said it would focus on unusual patterns in the glaciers in Greenland. Some have thinned at a rate of 40 feet per year while others have thickened.

The space agency said it plans to log roughly 200 science flight hours for the IceBridge mission during the spring.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/03/19/NASA-preps-for-polar-ice-cap-study/UPI-92741269009348/.

Seventeen Indonesia volcanoes on alert

BANDUNG, Indonesia, March 19 (UPI) -- Seventeen of 18 volcanoes in Indonesia are on alert status and emitting toxic gas, a federal monitoring agency said.

The mountains are safe to visit as long as tourists stay at least a half-mile away from the gas-producing craters, Indonesia's Volcanology and Geology Hazard Mitigation Center said.

The alert status is the second level of a three-level system of warning. The Ibu volcano in West Halmahera is the only one of the 18 volcanoes at the lower No. 3 standby level, Antara news reported.

Mount Talang in Sumatra and Mount Karangetang in Sulawesi are the most recent volcanos to have their status raised to alert.

Other Indonesian volcanoes on alert include Krakatoa, Bromo, Kaba, Anak, Slamet and Lokon.

In 1883, Krakatoa erupted in an explosion equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT -- about 13,000 times the force of the U.S. bomb that devastated Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/03/19/Seventeen-Indonesia-volcanoes-on-alert/UPI-37171269007967/.

Mosquito would 'vaccinate' against malaria

SHIMOTSUKI, Japan, March 19 (UPI) -- Scientists in Japan say they've genetically modified a mosquito that vaccinates against malaria as it bites.

The prototype mosquito produces a natural vaccine protein in its saliva that is injected into the bloodstream when the insect stings a host, said Shigeto Yoshida, a researcher at Jichi Medical University in Shimotsuki, Japan.

"Following bites, protective immune responses are induced, just like a conventional vaccination but with no pain and no cost," Yoshida said.

Repeated stings from a mosquito would ensure a high level of protective immunity, Yoshida and his team wrote in the journal Insect Molecular Biology.

"So the insect shifts from being a pest to being beneficial," he said.

More research into the "flying vaccinators" must be done and there are ethical considerations involved in delivering a vaccine over a widespread area without first obtaining the consent of patients, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

Malaria each year kills between between one and two million people worldwide, most of them African children.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/03/19/Mosquito-would-vaccinate-against-malaria/UPI-69781269009177/.

Scientists create tiny invisibility cloak

LONDON, March 19 (UPI) -- Researchers in Britain and Germany say they've created a tiny cloak of invisibility that could someday rival the one worn by fictional wizard Harry Potter.

"This is very exciting, because mankind has always thought about being invisible or having invisibility cloaks," lead researcher Tolga Ergin said.

Scientists from Imperial College London and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology bent light waves to conceal a bump on a gold surface that measured 0.00004 inches high by 0.00005 wide, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

It was the first time an object was rendered invisible in three dimensions, rather than just two dimensions, the researchers wrote in the journal Science.

"This is the first proof of principle. It shows that the technique works," Ergin said, cautioning it likely will be years before something as large as a person could be made invisible.

"It is really hard to say what the future will bring," he said, "but the field is definitely very broad and the possibilities are very large."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/03/19/Scientists-create-tiny-invisibility-cloak/UPI-84211269011162/.

Myanmar court releases and deports naturalized US citizen

Yangon - A Myanmar court on Thursday released naturalized US citizen Nyi Nyi Aung, who was serving a three-year jail term, and immediately deported him, police and diplomatic sources confirmed. Nyi Nyi Aung, a former activist, was found guilty on February 10 of committing forgery, illegal possession of foreign currency and refusing to revoke his Myanmar passport and sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labor.

Reportedly responding to a US request, Myanmar authorities took Nyi Nyi Aung to Yangon International Airport Thursday and put him on a Thai Airways International flight for Bangkok to arrive at 16:35 pm (0935 GMT), police sources said.

Nyi Nyi Aung has been blacklisted from returning to Myanmar, police said.

Nyi Nyi Aung, a former Myanmar student activist who fled to Thailand after the 1988 crackdown on the fledgling pro-democracy movement, was arrested on September 3 at Yangon International Airport.

He was initially accused of holding undeclared currency, a crime committed by most visitors entering Myanmar, where foreign currency is strictly controlled and the legal exchange rate is 6 kyat to the dollar, compared with 1,000 kyat to the dollar on the ubiquitous black market.

Authorities later added charges of holding forged documents and refusing to cancel his Myanmar passport.

Nyi Nyi Aung, who lived in Thailand from 1988 until 1994, was eventually granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and immigrated to the US where he became a naturalized citizen in 2005.

In the US, he was a campaigner for democracy in Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1962.

Nyi Nyi Aung reportedly entered Myanmar four times on his US passport between 2005 and 2009, meeting with various dissident groups.

Prior to his arrest, the junta had made it known he was wanted in Myanmar for his anti-government activities.

Friends speculated that he had returned to visit his mother, a political prisoner who is suffering from thyroid cancer.

There are an estimated 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar jails or under house arrest.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314657,myanmar-court-releases-and-deports-naturalized-us-citizen.html.

Jailed Iranian reformist party leader released on bail

Tehran - The head of Iran's reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front party (IIPF) was released on bail, opposition websites reported Thursday. Mohsen Mirdamadi was released Wednesday on a bail of 450,000 dollars, the websites said.

The IIPF supports the opposition Green Movement, led by defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Moussavi.

Mirdamadi and the IIPF were among those who accused the government of election fraud in the June presidential polls and refused to acknowledge the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mirdamadi was arrested after the June polls on charges of propaganda against the Islamic establishment and plans to topple the system.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314658,jailed-iranian-reformist-party-leader-released-on-bail.html.

Japan refuses to pay individual Korean victims of colonial era

Seoul - Japan's Foreign Affairs Ministry said Thursday that it would make no reparations to Korean individuals who suffered under its colonial rule, contradicting a 1965 document, a news report said. The 1965 document, recently declassified by the ministry and obtained at the weekend by South Korean media, said Tokyo believed that Korean forced laborers or conscripts were eligible to seek compensation as individuals.

However, the ministry told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency Thursday that it was unclear what the newly declassified internal ministry document referred to.

Under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, thousands of Koreans were forced to work to support Japan's war effort in jobs that ranged from serving on the front lines to being abused as sex slaves for the military.

A bilateral treaty between South Korea and Japan in 1965 established diplomatic ties between the two nations, which included what Tokyo said is remuneration for unpaid wages to forced laborers.

In the declassified document, Japan acknowledged that the 1965 pact only covered government-level compensation, not individuals' claims.

"This document shows the Japanese government's thoughts when the South Korea-Japan pact was established," Choi Bong Tae, a lawyer for the victims, was quoted as saying by Yonhap. "Japan should make public all diplomatic documents on negotiations for the [1965] Treaty of Basic Relations between South Korea and Japan."

Japan's Foreign Affairs Ministry has long claimed that the treaty resolved all compensation issues, Dr Chung Chin Sung, an advisory committee member of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Individuals' claims would be rejected even if lawsuits are filed, the ministry told Yonhap, stating for the first time since 1992 its position on individual colonial victims' compensation to South Korean media.

This latest diplomatic hubbub brings into sharp relief a case from December in which seven South Korean women were paid 99 yen (about 1 dollar) for nearly a decade's worth of forced labor.

"At least this time they admitted that they have legal responsibility," Chung told dpa in December.

This year is an important one in the two countries' relations as 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Japan's annexation of Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had told South Korean President Lee Myung Bak that he, unlike his predecessors, had the courage to address their countries' painful history.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314664,japan-refuses-to-pay-individual-korean-victims-of-colonial-era.html.

EU's Ashton makes rare diplomatic visit to Gaza

Gaza - The European Union's foreign affairs supremo, Catherine Ashton, arrived in the Gaza Strip on Thursday to check how EU aid is spent and to see for herself the conditions under which Palestinians there live. Ashton, making a rare foray into Gaza by a top EU diplomat, was to visit locations hit during last year's conflict.

She was also slated to meet with United Nations officials and Palestinian notables, but would not be holding talks with officials from the Islamist Hamas movement, which administers the strip.

Western countries have introduced a political and diplomatic boycott of Hamas after the organization won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections but refused international requests to renounce violence, honor past Israeli-Palestinian agreements and change its charter to recognize the Jewish state.

Israel, for its part, enforced a stringent blockade of Gaza in June 2006, after Palestinian militants led by Hamas snatched an Israeli soldier during a cross-border raid.

Three Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations praised Ashton's decision to visit Gaza, seeing her trip "as proof of the growing opposition to Israel's policy to isolate Gaza from the rest of the world and collectively punish its million and a half residents, more than half of whom are children."

In a joint statement, the three organizations - Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Adalah and Al Mezan - also called on the Israeli government "to see Ashton's visit as an opportunity to lift the siege and rebuild the civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314678,eus-ashton-makes-rare-diplomatic-visit-to-gaza.html.

Crops hit as drought worsens in south-west China

Beijing - The worst drought in 60 years is expected to cut crop yields by more than half in much of south-western China, bringing more misery to some of the nation's poorest villages, state media said on Thursday. Dry weather since August has left at least 25 million people short of drinking water in the two worst-hit provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, with four other south-western provinces also badly affected.

Grain output is forecast to fall by more than 50 per cent in Yunnan after the drought affected some 2 million hectares, or 86 per cent, of the province's farmland, the China Daily newspaper reported.

"The average precipitation is down by 60 per cent and the drought will persist until mid-May," the newspaper quoted Zhu Yong, head of the provincial meteorological center, as saying.

Total direct economic losses are estimated at more than 13 billion yuan (2 billion dollars) in Yunnan, with harvests of fruit, tea, rubber, coffee, sugarcane and other crops all dropping heavily.

The fall in production of ornamental flowers in Yunnan, which normally produces 80 per cent of China's total, has caused a doubling of fresh flower prices in urban areas, the newspaper said.

Some eight million people in Yunnan lack drinking water, while another 17 million are short of drinking water in the neighboring Guizhou province.

Villagers in parts of Guizhou are making do with government rations of two buckets of drinking water every four days, earlier reports said.

Nearly every city and county in Guizhou has recorded its worst drought for 80 years, the provincial flood prevention and drought relief office said.

Winter temperatures averaging about 2 degrees Celsius higher than normal have worsened the drought, causing 331 forest fires in Guizhou since February 1, the office said.

The water flow in the upper Mekong - known as the Lancang in China - fell to about 250 cubic meters per second in Yunnan at the end of last month, half of an average February flow.

Cloud-seeding operations in some areas since late February have done little to ease the water shortage, which is also affecting parts of Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314679,crops-hit-as-drought-worsens-in-south-west-china.html.

Bulgaria adds ministry for control over EU funds

Sofia - Bulgaria's conservative government grew by one member Thursday with the addition of the minister for the absorption of European Union funds. Parliament voted 130-56 in favor of the new minister, Tomislav Donchev, previously mayor of Gabrovo, a town 220 kilometers east of Sofia.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov told legislators the new ministry was added to control funds from the EU, a "crucial source of investment for all sectors in Bulgaria."

Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007. A year later Brussels suspended or scrapped hundreds of millions of dollars of development aid following widespread embezzlement of the funds.

Borisov swept the previous, Socialist-led government from power in July 2009 on a promise to combat deeply rooted corruption and organized crime.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314685,bulgaria-adds-ministry-for-control-over-eu-funds.html.

NAM meeting cites youth and women's role in peace-building - Summary

Manila - A conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Philippines Thursday cited the vital roles of young people and women in promoting world peace through interfaith dialogue. Delegates to the two-day NAM conference called for the strengthening of mechanisms that will give women and youth enhanced roles in peace building.

They approved a nine-page Manila Declaration that outlined steps that governments can take to boost efforts for greater respect and tolerance among cultures and religions.

The declaration recommended "the development of mechanisms by which the role of women in interfaith activity can be further recognized, including through the establishment of the women's interfaith fora."

It also called for the "strengthening of multi-religious youth networks across regions, encouraging cooperation, including through exchange programs."

It specifically supported the initiative made by Lebanon to establish in Beirut an international center for dialogue among civilizations and cultures.

The Manila declaration encouraged media programs and initiatives that allow for better understanding of other countries' cultures and religions.

It also called for the establishment of centers for interfaith studies in universities as well as the promotion of "touristic destinations and activities that aim to increase awareness of and better appreciation of other cultures and religions."

Princess Hajah Masna, ambassador-at-large of Brunei's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, expressed hope that the declaration would become an effective guide in moving forward efforts to achieve tolerance and understanding among the world's different faiths and cultures.

She said the strengthening of youth networks and cultural exchange programs would enhance mutual respect and understanding among cultures and religions.

"We are a firm believer that education is the key to attaining respect and tolerance for diverse faiths and cultures," she said at the meeting.

"We see the involvement of youth and students as vital to achieving our aspirations," she added. "What we aim to achieve ultimately would be for our new generation to contribute to this noble quest."

Masna also cited the importance of promoting people-to-people contacts through tourism as another effective tool in generating interest and appreciation for different histories, ways of life, cultures and faiths.

"This will promote confidence and trust for further socio-economic advancement," she said.

"I would also like to highlight the importance of the media," the princess said. "It is a medium between people and nations that allows cultures and religions to meet. It has the potential to translate shared values of peace amongst civilizations into practical actions."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314686,nam-meeting-cites-youth-and-womens-role-in-peace-building--summary.html.

UN, US, EU and Russia hold Mideast Quartet meeting in Moscow

Moscow - Leaders of the so-called Middle East Quartet of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia are meeting in Moscow Friday for talks on the way forward in the impasse on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

However the talks come against a backdrop of strained US-Israeli relations after the announcement of new Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem, and overnight Israeli bombing raids against targets in Gaza.

On Thursday the EU's foreign relations chief, Catherine Ashton, visited the Gaza Strip, ahead of the Moscow talks. Her visit coincided with militant rocket attack on Israel launched from the salient, which killed a Thai kibbutz worker.

Friday's one-day talks involve Tony Blair, the Quartet's envoy to the Middle East, as well as Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.

"Thank you for coming, let us now discuss proposals," Lavrov told the opening of the meeting, according to interfax newsagency.

Late Thursday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed Washington he was prepared to make fresh confidence-building measures, although details of these have not been made public.

However George Mitchell, US special envoy to the Middle East, will now return to the region this weekend after postponing a visit last week because of a diplomatic feud over Israel's plans to build new housing units.

The announcement of Mitchell's visit came after Netanyahu telephoned Clinton Thursday to discuss "specific actions that might be taken to improve the atmosphere for progress toward peace," US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said in a statement.

Mitchell postponed the visit in the wake of the Israeli announcement on new housing, which came during a visit to Israel last week by US Vice President Joe Biden.

Overnight Israeli warplanes bombed six targets in Gaza, a statement said, including five tunnels and a metal workshop where Israel said rockets were being manufactured.

The projectile fired from Gaza Thursday killed a Thai worker in the southern Israeli community of Netiv Ha'asara in the first deadly rocket attack from the Gaza Strip in 14 months since last year's Gaza war.

The Quartet was formed in 2002. Ashton became one of the few Western high-ranking politicians to visit the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

She has said she wants the suffering of the people in the blockaded salient discussed at Friday's meeting.

Clinton was also due to use the trip for bilateral talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on nuclear arms control.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314830,un-us-eu-and-russia-hold-mideast-quartet-meeting-in-moscow.html.

Trade and border crossings with Iran to grow, says Turkey

Istanbul - A Turkish minister has said he expects trade with neighboring Iran to grow to 20 billion dollars (15 billion euros) in 2011, Turkish media reported Friday.

Relations between NATO member Turkey and Iran have improved dramatically in recent years, particularly since the arrival of the ruling liberal Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002, which has pledged to pursue a regional foreign policy of "zero problems" with its neighbors.

After a Thursday meeting with Iranian assistant first vice- president and the spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Agha Mohammadi, Turkish State Minister Hayati Yazici said the two countries were planning to expand their trade relations - and to open up two new border crossings.

The trade volume between Turkey and Iran was 10 billion dollars in 2008, however it dropped to 5.5 billion dollars in 2009.

"Nevertheless, we have a large trade activity. So, we want to modernize customs points jointly, and increase trade volume to 20 billion dollars in 2011," Yazici said, according to the state-run Anatolian Agency.

Ankara's growing trade relations with Tehran could prove problematic. Iran is currently facing the possibility of being hit with trade sanctions over the issue of its nuclear program, which several western countries suspect is being used to develop weapons.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently said that he believes Iran's nuclear program is being developed strictly for civilian purposes and has called for pressure to be applied on other countries in the region, particularly Israel, to get rid of their nuclear arsenals.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314833,trade-and-border-crossings-with-iran-to-grow-says-turkey.html.

Catalan restaurant designing dessert to taste like a Messi goal

Madrid - A leading Catalan restaurant is busy designing a dessert to taste like a goal of Barcelona idol Lionel Messi, according to sports daily Marca on Friday.

Jordi Roca - one of the three brothers who own the Celler de Can Roca restaurant in the Catalan town of Girona - is quoted by Marca as saying that "we are working on an idea, on making a dessert like one of Messi's goals."

The Celler de Can Roca is one of Girona's most popular restaurants, and is rated with three stars by Michelin.

"Anything can motivate one of our dishes," said Roca, who declined to give more details about the forthcoming Messi dessert, which he has been working on for six months now.

Roca hinted that he will invite Messi to Girona to try the dessert that will carry his name.

Messi, 22, is in astonishing form right now.

The little Argentine has scored 31 goals in all competitions this season, winning the FIFA World Player and European Footballer of the Year awards in the process.

In 2009 he guided Barca to a record-breaking haul of six trophies, scoring vital goals in the finals of the Champions League, the World Club Cup and the Spanish King's Cup.

On Wednesday he cemented his status as the idol of the Barca fans by scoring two goals in the 4-0 destruction of Vfb Stuttgart, which puts the Catalans into the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314840,catalan-restaurant-designing-dessert-to-taste-like-a-messi-goal.html.

Middle East Quartet condemns Israel's settlement plans - Update

Moscow - Top officials from the world's leading powers Friday criticized Israeli plans to build a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem and urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume stalled peace talks "as soon as possible."

Addressing reporters on behalf of the so-called Middle East Quartet after a meeting in Moscow, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke out against the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and called on Israel to freeze all of its controversial settlement activities.

"The Quartet urges the government of Israel to freeze all settlement activities ... and refrain from demolitions and evictions," a statement read by Ban said.

Officials of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia also expressed concern at the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and called upon Israelis and Palestinians to return to peace talks as soon as possible.

"We are all committed to the launching of proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians," US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

The officials hope that such "proximity talks" could eventually lead to direct face-to-face talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

The talks in Moscow took place against the backdrop of strained US-Israeli relations after the announcement of new Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem, and overnight Israeli bombing raids against targets in Gaza.

Clinton on Friday said relations between the US and Israel remained "deep", "broad" and "strong", and stressed that the re- launch of Middle East peace talks was in Israel's best interest.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Washington on Thursday and said he was prepared to make fresh confidence-building measures, although no details have emerged. Clinton said she expected to meet the Israeli premier in the US capital next week.

The meeting' host, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part warned either side that "unilateral action" seen as jeopardizing the talks would be considered as "unacceptable" by the Quartet.

The EU's foreign relations chief, Catherine Ashton, also attended the talks after making a rare visit to the Gaza Strip. Her visit coincided with a Palestinian militant rocket attack on Israel launched from the salient, which killed a Thai kibbutz worker Thursday.

Friday's one-day talks saw Tony Blair, the Quartet's envoy to the Middle East, as well as Ban, Clinton, Ashton and Lavrov draft a joint statement aimed at reaching a peace agreement within two years.

"Thank you for coming, let us now discuss proposals," Lavrov told the opening of the meeting, according to interfax newsagency.

Meanwhile, George Mitchell, US special envoy to the Middle East, is now expected to return to the region this weekend after postponing a visit last week because of the diplomatic feud over Israel's plans to build new housing units.

The announcement of Mitchell's visit came after Netanyahu telephoned Clinton on Thursday to discuss "specific actions that might be taken to improve the atmosphere for progress toward peace," US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said in a statement.

Mitchell postponed the visit in the wake of the Israeli announcement on new housing, which came during a visit to Israel last week by US Vice President Joe Biden.

Overnight Israeli warplanes bombed six targets in Gaza, a statement said, including five tunnels and a metal workshop where Israel said rockets were being manufactured.

The projectile fired from Gaza killed a Thai worker in the southern Israeli community of Netiv Ha'asara in the first deadly rocket attack from the Gaza Strip in 14 months since last year's Gaza war.

The Quartet was formed in 2002.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314850,middle-east-quartet-condemns-israels-settlement-plans--update.html.

Four sentenced to death in Egypt for kidnap and murder of child

Cairo (Earth Times) - Four people have been sentenced to death by hanging in Egypt after being found guilty of kidnapping and murdering a young boy, the Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm reported Friday.

The court found that the four, from a village in the Nile Delta province of al-Sharqiya, had kidnapped Maher Abdel-Raziq's younger son after learning that he had received compensation for the death of his elder son in a 2006 ferry accident.

Abdel-Raziq, an official in the telephone authority, used the money to build a mosque, an orphanage, and to pave a road in the village, the court heard.

Prosecutors said his generosity caught the attention of four neighbors, who then kidnapped his younger son and demanded a ransom of 200,000 Egyptian pounds (36,483 dollars) for his release.

The court ruled that the kidnappers then killed Abdel-Raziq's second son when he was unable to pay, al-Masry al-Youm reported.

The four may appeal the sentence.

Egypt earlier this month executed two men on murder charges, weeks after the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva recommended the country institute a moratorium on the death penalty.

Egyptian diplomats in Geneva said they would need to discuss that recommendation, given as part of the country's Universal Periodic Review by the council, with authorities in Cairo before they could agree.

Poll: Israelis view Obama favorably despite settlement spat

Tel Aviv - Most Israelis view US President Barack Obama favorably - despite the current dispute over construction in East Jerusalem, according to an opinion poll published Friday.

But many Israelis are adamant their country should continue to build in occupied East Jerusalem, even at the cost of a rift with Washington, said the Dialogue Institute survey, commissioned by Haaretz.

Some 51 per cent thought Obama's approach toward Israel was "to the point," while another 18 per cent thought it was "friendly," said the poll.

About a fifth (21 per cent) considered it "hostile," while the remaining 10 per cent had no opinion.

Most Israelis (56 per cent) disagreed with charges by some right-wing activists that Obama was "anti-Semitic." Just over a quarter (27 per cent) agreed with that charge, while 17 per cent did not know.

Almost half (48 per cent) said Israel must continue to build in all of Jerusalem, even if that meant a clash with the US. A slightly smaller percentage (41 per cent) said construction in East Jerusalem should stop until the end of negotiations with the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday, and proposed measures that would enable indirect negotiations with the Palestinians to take place, despite their fury over an Israeli announcement to build some 1,600 apartment in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.

That announcement came in the midst of a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden and prompted Washington's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, to postpone a visit to Israel and the West Bank.

After Netanyahu's telephone conversation with Clinton, the State Department announced that Mitchell would now be arriving this weekend.

According to Israeli officials, Mitchell will be arriving on Sunday, prior to Netanyahu's visit to Washington, where the Israeli leader would hold talks with Obama and Biden, despite the recent crisis.

The content of Netanyahu's conversation with Clinton was not disclosed, and the premier's spokesman, Mark Regev, would not comment on the details of the Israeli premier's proposal to the secretary of state.

Washington Post blogger Jackson Diehl, quoting Israel's ambassador to the US who had been deeply engaged in the back channel talks between the two governments, said the Israelis would not cancel the Ramat Shlomo project.

But they would give assurances that groundbreaking would begin only in two or three years.

Israel would also avoid publicizing further construction decisions in Jerusalem - the result being not a construction freeze in East Jerusalem, but a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu also again promised more confidence-building measures, including removing more military roadblocks in the West Bank.

The package of measures was unanimously approved by a forum of seven senior Israeli cabinet ministers, whom Netanyahu had convened over the last days for intense discussions on the issue, his office said.

The Haaretz-Dialog poll questioned 499 Israelis - the standard in Israel - and had a margin of error of 4.3 per cent.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314854,poll-israelis-view-obama-favourably-despite-settlement-spat.html.

Israelis want more centrist governing coalition, poll finds

Tel Aviv - One year after Benjamin Netanyahu of the nationalist Likud party took office at the helm of a right-wing coalition, nearly two-thirds of Israelis would like their prime minister to form a more centrist government, a poll showed Friday.

According to the Dahaf Institute survey, 65 per cent of Israelis want to see the largest opposition party, the centrist Kadima, replace the ultra-nationalist Israel Beitenu of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the ultra-Orthodox Shas parties in the governing coalition.

The survey, which polled 500 people and has a margin of error of 4.4 per cent, was commissioned by Israel's biggest-selling daily, Yediot Ahronot, ahead of the first anniversary of the Netanyahu government, on March 31, 2009.

The poll also found that if new elections were to be held today, Netanyahu's governing coalition would obtain 68 of the 120 mandates in the Knesset (parliament), down from the 74 it won a year ago.

However, Defense Minister Ehud Barak would emerge as the biggest loser in a hypothetical new ballot, with plummeting support for his Labor Party delivering it just eight mandates, compared to its current 13, the poll found.

That finding was likely to increase pressure on Barak, who has faced increasing calls from party activists to quit Netanyahu's coalition of otherwise pro-settler and hawkish parties.

According to the Dahaf poll, a narrow majority of Israelis - 51 per cent - think Israel should continue building in occupied East Jerusalem, while 46 per cent of them think the government should freeze construction in East Jerusalem.

Nearly 60 per cent of respondents said they did not believe that the current government would be able to achieve a breakthrough in negotiations with the Palestinians.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314875,israelis-want-more-centrist-governing-coalition-poll-finds.html.

Afghanistan: Land of Jihad

by Ammaar ibn Walid
The Star Trail Lines Writer

The 19th of March 2010, Friday
The 3rd of Rabi' Al-Thani 1431

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful...

Prophet Muhammad foresaw that an Islamic Army would rise in Khorasan, and that the Mahdi would lead such an army to bring Jerusalem under Islamic Authority. I'll mention them here, with them being translated in English.

"There will be many armies after me. You must join that army which will come from Khorasan... At the time, when the Muslim Umma will have abundance of wealth, gold and silver, the Muslims will be extremely belittled, weak and helpless...

"The enemy nations will invite each other to pounce upon them as hungry people invite one another for food... The Christians will demand their wanted people to which the Muslims will answer: 'By Allah! They are our brothers. We will never hand them over!'... This will start the war..."

"One third of the Muslims will run away. Their tawba will never be accepted. One third will be killed, they will be the best shaheed near Allah. The remaining third will gain victory, until under the leadership of Imam Mahdi, they will fight against Kufr...

"At that time, you will be present in a plain of great mountains with plenty of trees. Armies carrying black flags will come from Khorasan. No power will be able to stop them and they will finally reach Jerusalem where they will erect their flags...

"If you see the black banners coming from Khorasan, go to them immediately, even if you must crawl over ice, because indeed amongst them is the Khaleef, Al-Mahdi".

Prophet Muhammad tells us numerous things. One is that although the Umma would be rich in resources, we'd be weak and humiliated. Look at the current situation of the Umma. It is rich in resources, but we're weak and being humiliated.

Nations fighting against Islam would invite each other to crush and weaken the Muslims. Such a thing is happening now in some parts of the world with the U.S. and Europe leading the way. However it is important to mention that Russia, China and India are also nations fighting against Islam.

Russia against the Muslims in the Caucasus Emirate, China against the Muslim Uighurs in East Turkestan and India against the Muslims in Kashmir. To a lesser known degree is Burma, with its Junta going after its minorities, especially the Rohingya Muslims.

Soon after 9.11, under the Bush Administration, the U.S. demanded that the Taliban Administration in Afghanistan hand over Osama bin Laden, thus referring back to "... The Christians will demand their wanted people..."

The Taliban refused. It's important to mention that the Bush Administration demanded more than that from the Taliban Administration. The U.S. soon went to war afterward against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

There are three thirds mentioned, with one running away, a second becoming shaheed and the third will gain victory. The third running away is those who don't support the Taliban and their Jihad and who support the invasion and war against the Taliban.

Some Muslim Nations are already known, but only Allah knows if there is more. The second third becoming shaheed means the Muslims in Afghanistan, whether they're innocent civilians or Mujahideen. The last third is Taliban defeating NATO and the U.S. in Afghanistan. Not only that, but the last third would also be a victory for the Muslims supporting the Taliban and for the Islamic Umma in general.

Prophet Muhammad's description of the place "... At that time, you will be present in a plain of great mountains with plenty of trees..." is a good description of Afghanistan. The Taliban already carry black banners. They aren't the only Mujahid group carrying it though.

Khorasan was the name of the territory that is now Afghanistan. It is not part of Iran, as that territory was known as Bilad Faris. Afghanistan is known throughout its history that no foreign power ever conquered it.

Not only that, but it was partially because previous foreign powers that tried to conquer it and failed, either collapsed or were severely weakened. The first of such is Alexander the Great. It's important to mention that Alexander the Great came before Prophet Muhammad and Islam.

As such Khorasan wasn't under Islam, nor was its people Muslim. Yet the people still defeated Alexander. Another example was the British Empire. The Afghan people not only had the culture of fierce fighting, but Islam had blessed them by that time as well.

The British Empire declined after their long occupation, and eventually collapsed. The Soviet Union is a third example. It soon collapsed after the Mujahideen defeated it after several years of long fighting. At the time the Mujahideen were assisted by foreign intelligence like the CIA and ISI.

However it was such assistance that led the Mujahideen to battle one another after the Soviet occupation ended. With the Afghan people liberating themselves from the British and from the Soviets, they gained experience and became battle-hardened.

The U.S. and NATO entered a dangerous and humiliating end by invading Afghanistan. After the British defeat and Soviet defeat, one could only guess how the U.S. and NATO would end up after the Mujahideen in Afghanistan defeat them.

It's important to mention that not only the U.S. and NATO would be defeated, but the Muslim Nations supporting them would be defeated as well. Battling the Afghan people and culture is not fighting a new and inexperienced people and culture; rather it is like fighting veterans of previous successive wars.

Allah has blessed the Afghan people with not only bringing the British Empire and the Soviet Union to its knees -both were superpowers during their times-, but also eventually destroying NATO insha' Allah and bringing the U.S. to its knees. Domestic events in the U.S. are helping the U.S. be brought to its knees.

Being blessed by Jihad from Allah, only Allah would know how the Jihad would continue in Afghanistan after the U.S. and NATO are defeated. The Islamic Administration to come would be too busy putting Afghanistan back onto its legs for several years perhaps.

As such the Jihad would be unofficially and temporarily suspended in Afghanistan. I could be wrong in that though, and only Allah knows.

Source: The Star Trail Lines News Blog.
Link: http://startrailines.blogspot.com/2010/03/afghanistan-land-of-jihad.html.

US, Russia clash over Iran nuclear plant

The United States says Russia's claim that Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant should go online this summer is 'premature.'

"We think it would be premature to go forward with any project at this time because we want to send an unequivocal message to the Iranians," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a press briefing with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow.

Clinton made the remarks after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier said that Moscow would start up the long-delayed plant in mid-2010.

Clinton, however, added that "Iran is entitled to civil nuclear power." But, she also claimed that Tehran's nuclear drive "remains an issue of grave concern for the international community".

"It is a nuclear weapons program that it is not entitled to and if it reassures the world, or if its behavior has changed because of international sanctions, then it can pursue peaceful nuclear power," she said.

The US and its allies are against Iran's peaceful nuclear program. They accuse Iran of trying to develop a military nuclear program, a claim absolutely rejected by Tehran.

Iran is adamant its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and that it is aimed at producing electricity for its increasing domestic energy demand.

The United States and its mainly Western allies are stepping up efforts to rally support for a forth round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic for its refusal to bow to pressure by nuclear powers to halt its uranium enrichment activities.

Clinton noted that her country was still committed to diplomatic solution in resolving the dispute over the nuclear issue.

"We are as committed as we have been to a diplomatic solution, but there must be a solution. Iran is not living up to its international obligations," she said.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121147§ionid=351020104.

Nigeria slams Gaddafi's 'partitioning' remarks

Fri Mar 19, 2010

Nigeria has reacted angrily to the recent comments by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in which he suggested “partitioning” of the country between Christians and Muslims.

Nigeria summoned its envoy to Tripoli yesterday, after Gaddafi referred to the recent deadly violence between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria and suggested that the Muslim majority in the north follow Pakistan-style separation from southern areas with more Christian population.

"The only thing that could put an end to the bloodshed ... is the appearance of another Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Pakistan's founder) who established a state for the Muslims and another for the Christians," AFP quoted Gaddafi as saying earlier.

The comment drew Nigerian government's fire, with the country's foreign ministry censuring the Libyan president for his "irresponsible utterances."

"Our ambassador in Tripoli has been recalled for urgent consultations," said foreign ministry spokesperson Ozo Nwobu.

He also expressed his government's 'serious concerns' over the remarks that had "diminished" Gaddafi's "status and credibility."

Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said about 8,000 Nigerians had fled their homes following sectarian clashes that killed over 100 people in the key central city of Jos, which is considered a buffer zone between the Muslim and Christian communities.

Despite deployment of government forces, violence over land, livestock and water disputes has claimed hundreds of casualties in the worst sectarian clashes of recent months.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/121187.html.

Israeli soldiers arrest five Palestinian children

Israeli soldiers detain five Palestinian children in the West Bank city of Hebron (al-Khalil) after clashes break out.

The soldiers claim that the children were pelting stones at a building inside the Beit Romano settlement on Thursday during clashes in the West Bank city of al-Khalil.

But the parents of the arrested children complain that "the children were playing football in front of their house when suddenly the soldiers came and arrested them."

"They say they have pictures of them throwing stones. The army are liars [sic]," one al-Khalil resident was quoted by Reuters as saying. The soldiers have detained the children at a military watch tower.

After two consecutive days of protests in Jerusalem (al-Quds) and across the Palestinian territories, Israeli soldiers fired anti-riot ammunition at the demonstrators.

The Palestinians were protesting at Israel plans to build 1,600 settlements in the East Jerusalem (al-Quds).

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121178§ionid=351020202.

Poll: Americans oppose Israeli settlements

In the US, a survey suggests that nearly 50 percent of Americans think Israel should be forced to stop building new settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

A national telephone survey conducted by Rasmussen says 49 percent of Americans believe that “Israel (should) be required to stop building new settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.” This is while only 22 percent believe it should not.

Earlier this month, Tel Aviv announced plans to build 16,000 new settlements units in East Jerusalem (al-Quds).

The opinion poll also suggests that over 70 percent of Americans think it is unlikely that there will be a lasting peace between the Palestinians and Israelis in the next decade.

US-Israel ties have been strained over Israel's approval of the new settlements, announced during an official visit by US Vice President Joe Biden last week.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded by telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the plan was a "deeply negative signal."

Tel Aviv's Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren later commented that "Israel's relations with the US are facing the most severe crisis since 1975."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121175§ionid=3510203.

Turkey offers Somalia anti-piracy help

Fri Mar 19, 2010

Turkey has called on Somalia to carry out a more serious fight against piracy in the Gulf of Aden, offering help in the process.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul received Somali Parliament Speaker Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur in Ankara on Thursday to discuss piracy off the Horn of African nation's coast.

Last April, Gul had promised Somalia President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to assist his country in establishing and training its security forces after years of bloody conflict and political turmoil in the African country.

The Turkish president reaffirmed that his country was willing to help Somalia regarding piracy.

On Wednesday, Nur met Turkey's Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin, who said Turkey feared that piracy could spread to other African coasts if it was not dealt with effectively.

"Turkey will continue to help Somalia to overcome this problem," he said.

Sahin underlined the great importance Turkey attached to Somalia's sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and independence, and said internal conflicts in Somalia should come to an end and stability should be restored as soon as possible.

Turkey has dispatched six frigates to Somalia since February 2009, to serve international anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden.

Turkish underwater assault commandos captured seven pirates on a skiff boat in the Gulf of Aden on March 6.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/121165.html.

Obama slams Palestinian protests, rejects Israeli row

US President Barack Obama condemns Palestinian protests in Jerusalem al-Quds over Israeli provocations near al-Aqsa Mosque as 'destructive to peace' while downplaying reported row with the Israeli regime over Tel Aviv's continued settlement expansions, denying reports that US-Israeli ties are in a state of crisis.

In a quick turn of face, under reportedly intense pressure from the wealthy Israeli lobby in the US, Obama, whose top administration officials described Israeli settlement expansion plans as 'insulting and destructive to peace efforts,' rejected tensions with Tel Aviv as 'friendly disagreements' and, instead, denounced the Palestinians for reacting against intimidating Israeli moves to Judaize al-Quds.

"Friends are going to disagree sometimes," said Obama Wednesday in his first official reference to Tel Aviv's plans to erect 1,600 new settlement units near East al-Quds, in grave violation of the regime's past commitments to freeze settlement expansion.

"Israel's one of our closest allies, and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away," Obama reiterated in a rare interview with ultra-conservative Fox News Channel, a prime critic of the Obama Administration.

Last week, Israeli Interior Minister Yishai announced Tel Aviv's green light for the settlement expansion plan while US Vice President Joe Biden toured Israel to supposedly facilitate indirect "proximity talks" between Palestinians and the Tel Aviv regime.

"The actions that were taken by the interior minister in Israel weren't helpful to that process, said Obama.

"There is a disagreement in terms of how we can move this peace process forward, and obviously, when I sent Vice President Biden there it was at a moment where we were trying to restart talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis."

The Israeli decision led to a series of criticism from US officials who described the move by the Tel Aviv regime as offensive, cautioning that the expansions could derail the peace process.

However, critics took the row with some skepticism arguing that it was intended to avert international attention from Israeli "Judiazation" of East al-Quds which hosts a number of major Islamic sanctities, including the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Some 50 Palestinians were wounded on Tuesday, dubbed by Hamas as Palestine's day of rage, as thousands of protesters poured into streets across al-Quds to condemn Tel Aviv's falsification of history and efforts to take away the city's Palestinian and Islamic identity.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, top US commander Gen. David Petraeus described the Arab-Israeli conflict as one of the "root causes of instability" and "obstacle to security" in the Middle East, warning that it would further the anti-American sentiments in the region and limit America's strategic partnerships with Arab governments.

"Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the [Middle East] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world," he said in a written testimony.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121101§ionid=351020202.

Putin clarifies Iran nuclear plant launch date

Russia has announced that it plans to start up Iran's long-delayed 1,000 megawatt Bushehr nuclear plant “this summer.”

"The start-up of the first reactor of the Bushehr atomic power station is planned for this summer," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

The construction of the Bushehr plant started in 1975 when Germany signed a contract to build a nuclear plant in Bushehr. Berlin, however, pulled out of the project following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran then reached an agreement with Russia in 1995. Under the deal, the plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999 but completion of the $1 billion project has been frequently delayed.

Putin's remarks come two days after Russian Energy Minster Sergei Shmatko said "technical reasons" are the only obstacles in the way of the long awaited launch of the Bushehr power plant.

Putin noted that Moscow will “continue work on developing atomic energy capacity both at home and abroad.”

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran also announced earlier in March that the Bushehr nuclear plant will come on stream by June this year.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121137§ionid=351020104.

Jundallah members killed in Iran

Iranian security forces have killed several members of the terrorist group, Jundallah during a clash southeast of Iran.

The clash took place when the terrorists tried to enter Iran from Pakistan.

Among the dead is a key member of Jundallah, Barekat Zamrani, who was behind the assassination of Brigadier General Nur-Ali Shoushtari, a top commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.

Zamrani accompanied other Jundallah members during terrorist operations.

Two other terrorists were also captured during the clash.

On February 23, the leader of the Jundallah, Abdulmalek Rigi, was on a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Kyrgyzstan when he was tracked down and captured by Iranian security forces.

Rigi and one of his deputies were captured after Iranian security forces pulled down the plane they were traveling in and forced it to land at Bandar Abbas airport.

Following his arrest, Rigi also confessed on television that the US administration had promised to provide him with unlimited military assistance and funding to conduct terror operations inside Iran.

The US along with a number of European countries were quick to deny any links to Rigi and paying for the many acts of terrorism he committed against Iranians over the past few years.

The Pakistan-based terrorist group is responsible for a series of terrorist attacks inside Iran, which have claimed over 140 lives.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121126§ionid=351020101.