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Friday, October 29, 2010

Indian troops detain activists in Kashmir

Fri Oct 29, 2010

Police forces have arrested several activists in Indian-administered Kashmir over their alleged involvement in pro-freedom protests across the disputed Himalayan valley.

Indian police raided the homes and arrested dozens of activists in Kashmir's summer capital of Srinagar and other major towns.

Police claim they were allegedly involved in pro-freedom protests and stone-pelting on Indian paramilitary forces across the predominantly Muslim region.

Media reports say thousands of stone-throwing protesters clashed with Indian security forces in Srinagar and other major towns following the detentions.

Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators and the relatives of activists.

The day time clashes left several injured some of whom are in critical condition.

The Kashmir valley has either been under curfew or shut down over the past four months. Residents have been complaining about the shortage of food, medicine and other supplies across the valley, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The violence has now claimed the lives of at least 110 people, as the deaths have triggered widespread protests.

Several regional and international rights groups, including Amnesty International, have called on India to take immediate steps to protect and respect human rights in Kashmir.

Roughly, half-a-million Indian forces are stationed across Kashmir.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://presstv.ir/detail/148802.html.

Iran to produce 90 to 120-seat planes

Fri Oct 29, 2010

Iran's Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) says it plans to equip the countries airlines with 90 to 120-seat airplanes with the help of a number of foreign companies.

"At the moment, the country is constructing some types of aircraft, including general aviation planes which are built by the Aviation Industries Organization as well as the private sector," head of the IAIO Manouchehr Manteqi told Fars News Agency.

On the production of 90 to 120-seat planes, Manteqi said the number was decided on after research into the number of seats occupied in different airplanes per year.

"Given that many countries are concentrating on producing planes with this capacity and that we are making 59-seat aircraft inside the country, it has been decided to shift focus to 90 to 120-seat airplanes in the next step," he went on say.

"We are negotiating with a number of countries in this regard and the plan will be announced once it is finalized."

Manteqi said Iran has made noticeable progress in the aviation industries sector in the face of sanctions imposed by the United States and its European allies on Iranian airlines.

With a population of 70 million, Iran needs to have 6,300 airplanes while it does not possess more than nine aircraft for every one million individuals, the Iranian official regretted.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://presstv.ir/detail/148801.html.

Russia to build Vietnam's first N-plant

Fri Oct 29, 2010

The Russian government has plans to build Vietnam's first-ever nuclear power plant with the aim of reviving Moscow's relations with Hanoi.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will sign the agreement as part of measures designed to restore ties between the Cold War allies.

"President Medvedev will visit Hanoi this weekend to sign an agreement on the construction of Vietnam's first nuclear power plant, a deal aimed at reviving ties with the Soviet-era ally," Medvedev's aide said on Friday.

Russian and Vietnamese officials will ink an intergovernmental agreement to construct a nuclear power plant, part of an "extensive raft of bilateral agreements," Medvedev's top foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko said.

He also told reporters Moscow was willing to provide a loan to help Hanoi finance the plant's construction.

"Such a large project as the construction of a nuclear power station naturally prompts our friends to make use of our financial resources," Prikhodko added.

A loan from Moscow will be required to finance the two-unit power plant, which is estimated to cost at least EUR 4 billion (USD 5.5 billion).

In March, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tasked his government with boosting Russia's share of the global nuclear market to 25 percent from its current 16 percent.

It has been a busy month for nuclear power companies in Russia, as the deal comes on the heels of a similarly groundbreaking pact between Russia and Venezuela.

In May, Russia signed an accord to build the first nuclear plant in Turkey.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://presstv.ir/detail/148800.html.

Iran MP lauds Ahmadinejad's 9/11 offer

Fri Oct 29, 2010

In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month, the Iranian chief executive called for the formation of an independent probe committee to investigate the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

"Ahmadinejad's policy on the September 11 [attack] has been a success," said Nobaveh Vatan, one of Tehran's 30 representatives in the Iranian Parliament (Majlis), on Friday.

"The US has failed to clarify many questions, such as the absence of 3,000 Jewish [employees] of the Twin Towers on September 11," IRNA quoted the lawmaker.

"The best remarks on this issue were made by the president, saying September 11 must not become a sacred taboo or instill international fear," added he, referring to Ahmadinejad's remarks.

The Iranian parliamentarian went to accuse Washington of orchestrating the burning of copies of the Holy Quran on the ninth anniversary of the deadly attacks that claimed thousands of lives.

"The US government was behind the Quran burning…but the move was one of Washington's worst-failed propaganda efforts."

Nobaveh Vatan said, "Eighty-five percent of Americans are not certain if [al-Qaeda leader Osama] bin Laden was behind 9/11."

"The Americans were the real losers in this case and Ahmadinejad's move could in effect stop future incidents," he concluded.

Ahmadinejad's calls for a probe triggered a row in the White House with US President Barak Obama criticizing the Iranian president's remarks as "hateful."

Ahmadinejad later defended his proposal, saying it did not mean Tehran was insensitive to the pain of the families of the victims but rather showed a commitment to finding the truth behind an incident that triggered a war in a neighboring country.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://presstv.ir/detail/148798.html.

Iran to hold Underwater Photofest

Fri Oct 29, 2010

Iran is slated to hold its first edition of Underwater Photography Festival in the southeastern city of Chabahar on the coast of the Gulf of Oman.

The event, due to be held from November 11 to 15, 2010, has been organized in an effort to promote the potentials of Chabahar as a free trade and industrial zone.

The festival is sponsored by Iran's Cultural heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) with the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone Organization and Iran's Lifesaving and Diving Federation.

Chabahar is Iran's closest and best access point to the Indian Ocean, which makes it a strategic point for the country's eastern provinces to expand and enhance their transit routes among countries located to the north of the Indian Ocean, and Central Asia.

The area's growing commercial sector has a high potential to connect business growth centers in south Asia and the Middle East to the central Asian and Afghanistan market.

Organizers of the festival aim to promote coastal and marine tourism in Iran and introduce the countless attractions of the Gulf of Oman.

Photographers from across the country can compete in the event, which is held the supervision of the European Underwater Images Festival Association (EUIFA).

Behzad Torkizadeh, Siamak Derakhshan and Esmail Golrokh-Arabani will judge the participating works.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://presstv.ir/detail/148803.html.

Israel bans former Hamas minister from home village

JENIN (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities banned a former Hamas minister from entering his home village in the Jenin district, the former official said on Friday.

Wasfi Qabaha said told Ma'an that the order prohibiting him from access was issued by an Israeli commander during a raid on his home in the Al-Iskan neighborhood in Jenin, north of the village where he was born.

During the raid, the former detainees' minister was ordered not to enter Barta'a Ash-Sharqiya, where his relatives live.

Qabaha said the commander told him Israeli security did not want to see him in the occupied Palestinian territories, and that a court decision would be implemented in November apparently expelling him from the West Bank.

The forces, backed by armored vehicles, surrounded Al-Iskan for four hours, Qabaha said, and broke into the homes of several Hamas leaders, including Qabaha, Ghassan Az-Zughaibi and Hamas spokesman Khaled Al-Haj.

The commander delivered threats to the men, and discussed the current political situation with them, Qabaha said.

An Israeli military spokesman was not immediately familiar with the incident but said he would look into it.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=328820.

Gaza pilgrims to travel to Mecca next week

29/10/2010

CAIRO (Ma'an) -- A senior official at the Palestinian embassy in Egypt said Friday that the transfer of Gaza pilgrims to Saudi Arabia would begin on 3 November as the Hajj journey starts for tens of thousands of Muslims.

The official said the move was authorized by Ambassador Barakat Al-Farra, who had arranged with embassy staff and local officials to facilitate the travel of the pilgrims, in particular their exit from Gaza into Egypt.

An unconfirmed number of pilgrims will pass through the Rafah crossing and travel by bus to the Cairo International Airport, and then on to Mecca.

According to officials, permits for Gaza pilgrims were facilitated by Egyptian Interior Ministry staff, and all expectations were that the trip for the Hajj travelers would go smoothly.

In 2008, Gaza residents who hoped to perform the sacred pilgrimage were variously told that they had to apply for the permissions lottery organized by Saudi Arabia via the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the Hamas government in Gaza. Permits were issued via the PA, angering Gaza officials, who then refused to allow travelers to pass through the Rafah crossing unless those selected by the Gaza government's lottery could also pass.

As a consequence, no pilgrims from Gaza were able to make the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, which involves travel to Mecca as an act of solidarity between Muslims, proof of submission to God, and as a remembrance of the miracle of water, which sprung forth when the wife of Abraham was abandoned with her infant son in Mecca.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=328774.

Morocco curbs Al Jazeera operations

"Failures in following rules of responsible journalism" cited by kingdom for withdrawing staff's press accreditations.

29 Oct 2010

Morocco has suspended Al Jazeera's operation on its territory by withdrawing the press accreditations of the network's staff based in the country.

The Moroccan communications ministry said in a statement on Friday that the sanctions followed "numerous failures in following the rules of serious and responsible journalism".

A government official who declined to be named said the authorities took exception "to the way Al Jazeera handles the issues of Islamists and Western Sahara".

More than 2,000 alleged political activists have been arrested and sentenced in Morocco since the Casablanca bombings of May 16, 2003.

The Moroccan statement, which was reported by the official MAP news agency, said Al Jazeera's broadcasts had "seriously distorted Morocco's image and manifestly damaged its interests, most notably its territorial integrity".

Al Jazeera had showed a "determination to only broadcast from our country negative facts and phenomena in a deliberate effort to minimize Morocco's efforts in all aspects of development and to knowing belittle its achievements and progress on democracy", the statement said.

A former Spanish colony, Western Sahara was annexed by Morocco after settlers withdrew in 1975. The move was violently opposed by separatist Polisario fighters until the UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991.

Polisario wants a UN-organized referendum that would give the Sahrawi people three choices: attachment to Morocco, independence or autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.

Morocco backs the option of broad autonomy for the territory, but rejects any notion of independence for Western Sahara.

Strained relations

In July 2008, al Jazeera's Morocco bureau chief at the time, Hassan al Rashidi, was convicted for what the government called "disseminating false information".

Rachidi was charged with reporting that people were killed in clashes with security forces in the southwestern port city of Sidi Ifni on June 7 during a protest over poverty and rising unemployment.

Moroccan authorities rejected the reports of deaths, saying that 48 people were injured, including 28 police officers.

Although Al Jazeera reported the government's denial, the Rabat chief prosecutor’s office ordered an inquiry to determine how the false information was disseminated.

Rachidi was interrogated by the judiciary police for four hours and was charged on June 14 with publishing false information and conspiracy. Minutes later, the Moroccan communication ministry withdrew his media accreditation.

Rachidi avoided jail time but was fined nearly $7,000. The Moroccan government did not give any reason for this latest decision.

The trial and the confiscation of Rachidi's press accreditation further damaged the already strained relations between Morocco and the channel.

In May 2008, Morocco suspended Al Jazeera's daily television news bulletin covering the Maghreb countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania) from its studios in Rabat.

The decision, according to Khalid Naciri, the Moroccan communication minister and spokesman for the government, was due to technical and legal issues.

Source: Al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2010/10/20101029134649742840.html.

Egyptian author decries unauthorized Hebrew translation of his bestselling novel

By The Associated Press (CP)

CAIRO — One of Egypt's bestselling novelists has lashed out at an unauthorized Hebrew translation of his best known novel, describing it as intellectual "theft."

Alaa al-Aswany told The Associated Press on Friday that he will sue an Israeli center for translating his hit book, "The Yacoubian Building," because he is opposed to cultural normalization with Israel.

The Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information acknowledged it translated it against Al-Aswany's will on the grounds of "expanding cultural awareness."

The 2002 novel which was reprinted at least eight times and translated to some 29 languages, is a trenchant critique of Egypt's current socio-economic situation colored with nostalgia for a more tolerant past.

Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Aid group warns Pakistan flood victims need more aid for winter

Fri, 29 Oct 2010

New Delhi - The aid organization CARE warned against letting help for Pakistani flood victims drop off, three months after one-fifth of the country was swamped.

"If international aid ebbs, the approaching start of winter could bring a catastrophe after the catastrophe," CARE spokesman Thomas Schwarz said this week after visiting affected areas in southern Pakistan, adding that large areas remained under water.

Millions of flood survivors remained without a roof over their heads and until they are able to return to their villages and support themselves, which was estimated to be months in the future, they would be dependent on humanitarian aid, Schwarz said.

"In the [Sindh] district of Dadu, large areas of land are still under water," he said, adding that food saved from the floodwaters was running out, the people were not receiving enough to eat and drink, and dirty water was causing skin and eye sicknesses.

"For these people, the situation is very precarious," Schwarz said.

"I have doubts that the international community is aware that further aid must be supplied," he said Thursday. "The aid pledged so far is not enough to keep the people healthy over the winter and bring them into the new year."

Monsoon rains triggered the flooding at the end of July. Nearly 2,000 people died, and more than 20 million Pakistanis were affected.

About 14 million people were still in need of aid, the United Nations said.

It has asked its members to donate 2 billion dollars for the flood victims, but as of the end of September, it had received about a third of that amount.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350944,victims-need-aid-winter.html.

Iberia swings back to profit in first nine months of 2010

Fri, 29 Oct 2010

Madrid - Spain's biggest airline, Iberia, on Friday announced a net profit of 53 million euros (73.6 million dollars) for the first nine months of this year.

The result contrasted with the first nine months of 2009, when Iberia posted losses of 182 million euros, the carrier told the stock market watchdog CNMV.

Iberia, which is about to merge with British Airways, attributed its recovery to factors such as increased travel on long-distance flights, as well as lower fuel and other costs.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350950,iberia-swings-back-to-profit-in-first-nine-months-of-2010.html.

Spanish unemployment drops for first time in three years

Fri, 29 Oct 2010

Madrid - Spain's jobless rate fell below 20 per cent in the third quarter, in its first decline in more than three years, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said Friday.

The number of unemployed people dropped by 70,800 to about 4.6 million. The jobless rate thus stood at 19.8 per cent, down from 20.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government has introduced a controversial labor market reform to cut what is the highest unemployment rate in the European Union.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350968,spanish-unemployment-drops-for-first-time-in-three-years.html.

Gaza marks Islamic Jihad anniversary

Fri Oct 29, 2010

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets of the Gaza Strip to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the establishment of the resistance group, Islamic Jihad.

Chanting anti-Israeli slogans, demonstrators expressed their strong commitment and support for the movement and called resistance the only way to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation.

Top-ranking members of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas resistance movement, which controls Gaza, attended the ceremony and addressed the crowd. During the event Islamic Jihad officials called for unity among Palestinian factions and urged Hamas and Fatah to reconcile.

Islamic Jihad says it will never give up the Palestinian national rights and will resist the Israeli occupation to the end.

The movement has also underlined that it will not recognize US-sponsored direct talks between acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israel, which have failed to bear fruit so far.

The new round of direct talks collapsed shortly after being launch again in September in Washington following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to respect the Palestinian Authority's demand of continuing negotiations and extending the partial settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank.

Friday's event also falls on the martyrdom anniversary of the movement's founder, Fathi Shaqaqi, who was assassinated in 1995 by Israel's spy agency, Mossad, in Malta. He was on his way to Tripoli to visit Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/148793.html.

Cleric: Unity ensures Islamic victory‎

Fri Oct 29, 2010

A senior Iranian cleric has warned against division between the country's religious and political groups, stressing the significance of solidarity among Muslims.

"The difference in human society must be limited to certain factors such as race, language, countries and borders and everyone must be united in action and ideology," IRNA quoted Tehran's interim Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani as saying.

Ayatollah Kashani warned against bickering and conflict among politicians and religious leaders, saying it will only harm the nation.

The cleric hailed a recent trip by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to the shrine city of Qom as having had "valuable effects for the seminary and people all over the country.”

"The visit showed that government, politics, ethics, religion and law… are impossible unless [they are] in the cradle of revelation," he said.

"This conception that jurisprudence and its practice, justice and ideology were initiated in our country (Iran) by the founder of the Islamic revolution [Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Rouhollah Khomeini] and that the Islam is advancing forward has engulfed the world," Ayatollah Kashani stated.

The prominent cleric called on Muslim leaders to put aside their differences and unite against the enemies.

"The future is that of Islam and it will overtake the world," he vowed.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/148787.html.

Iran key to ME peace: Italian ex-FM

Fri Oct 29, 2010

Former Italian foreign minister Gianni De Michelis says Iran can play a "central" role in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East.


"There is no doubt that Iran is a real decision-making [force] in stabilizing the region," De Michelis, president of IPALMO institute for international research, said on Friday.

"Iran, on the geographical map, lies at the heart of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf and can play a vital and central role in securing and stabilizing the region -- a role that the four-millennium existence of the country testifies to," IRNA quoted the former minister as saying.

The remarks were made during an IPALMO conference titled "The Islamic Republic and Italy, Common Responsibilities and Differences in the Changing World," which began on Wednesday.

Noting the 1979 Revolution that eventually saw Iran and the US severing ties, the former foreign minister pointed to "changes in the balance of power."

"The September 11 tragedy at the heart of the US, cast doubt on the world's security measures," he said.

De Michelis added that the 1980s war imposed by the Iraqi dictator on Iran also played its part in making the region vulnerable to instability.

He praised Iran's role in Iraq and Afghanistan as "positive," and criticized the US and its European allies for stoking tensions in the region by imposing a fresh round of sanctions against the country.

Iranian officials have repeatedly criticized the new round of US-sponsored sanctions against Iranian financial, military, and energy sectors, dismissing Western charges that Tehran is following a military nuclear program.

"The current crisis is the result of incorrect management policies following the end of the Cold War," the former Italian official said.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/148791.html.

'US isolationism could affect Jordan'

By Jakob Jessen

AMMAN - A return to isolationist politics in the US could have grave implications for Jordan as well as the entire Middle East, according to a veteran US correspondent.

Christopher Dickey, Middle East chief editor of Newsweek magazine, made the comments in a lecture at Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) on Wednesday.

Dickey, who is a former Cairo bureau chief for the Washington Post, raised concerns about the political discourse in the run-up to the November 2 midterm election in the US, a campaign that has focused almost entirely on domestics issues.

“For the last eight or nine years, foreign policy, foreign affairs, the Middle East, has been a huge issue for Americans,” he said, citing the financial crisis, the right-wing, anti-tax Tea Party-movement and entertainment-obsessed news media, as contributing factors to an increasingly inwardly American discourse.

“Right now, in the United States, you wouldn't know that any other part of the world existed. Including - and especially - the Middle East,” Dickey added.

For Jordan, American negligence will “not necessarily” have immediate implications, he explained, but in the event of a major crisis, Jordan - and indeed, the entire region - risks being side-lined, he added.

“[In that case,] Jordan will find it has a very little constituency in the United States in the broader political circles,” Dickey said, predicting that the Kingdom “may find itself, as it has often had to do in the past”, going to its friends in the region to get support in America.

Dickey, a correspondent with more than 25 years of experience in Central America, Europe and the Middle East, described the isolationist tendencies as a returning fixture in the “cycles” of US foreign policy throughout the last century.

“We go out to save the world every so often - World War I for instance - and then when it comes to engaging the world after WWI, becoming part of the League of Nations, we go 'no, that's their problem',” Dickey said, citing the period after the fall of the Soviet Empire as “one of the most recent examples”.

“The net result was genocide in RwandaØ© genocide in Bosnia... the collapse of Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban and the creation of Al Qaeda,” Dickey argued, charging that the US did “next to nothing to stop” the momentum of the Oslo Accords from falling “apart in the middle of the decade”.

Dickey’s lecture, based loosely on his October 25 Newsweek cover story ”America Turning Inwards”, is the first in a series hosted by CUMERC.

29 October 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31384.

Turkish FM's cultural tour to China kicks off in Kashgar

Thursday, October 28, 2010
FULYA ÖZERKAN
KASHGAR - Hürriyet Daily News

The Turkish foreign minister kicked off his weeklong trip to China on Thursday with a visit to one of the important centers of the historic Silk Road, the city of Kashgar in the Xinjiang autonomous region.

The tomb of Mahmud Kashgari was one of Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄŸlu’s first stops in a region that experienced ethnic unrest in 2009. Uighur Turks make up the majority of Kashgar’s population of approximately 350,000 people.

“We are starting the China trip with Kashgar, which is one of the most important cultural centers of the Turkic world,” DavutoÄŸlu told a group of journalists. “The growing Turkish-Chinese relationship will put our Uighur Turk kinsmen at ease.”

DavutoÄŸlu is being accompanied in China by a large delegation of businessmen, ruling party and opposition deputies and researchers from several think tanks, as well as his wife, Sare.

The foreign minister later visited the mausoleum of Yusuf Has Hajif, a well-known 11th-century poet, scholar and thinker from a Uighur noble family in Parasakun, in Central Asia. Hajif spent 18 months in Kashgar, the capital of the kingdom at that time, and wrote the epic 85-chapter “Sources of Happiness,” considered the first important literary work in Uighur cultural history.

The 500-year-old Id Kah Mosque, one of more than 800 mosques in Kashgar, was DavutoÄŸlu’s last stop in the region. Some 2,000 to 3,000 Uighurs come each day to worship at the Id Kah Mosque, one of the largest mosques in China with an area of 16,800 square meters.

The foreign minister later flew to Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, and attended a dinner given by Gov. Nur Bekri.

Source: Hurriyet Daily.
Link: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=fm8217s-culture-trip-kicks-off-in-kashgar-2010-10-28.

Arab jihadists emerge in Caucasus war

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

* * * * *

by Staff Writers
Amman, Jordan (UPI) Oct 26, 2010

As Islamic militants escalate their war against the Russians in Dagestan, Ingushetia and other Caucasian republics, there is evidence that Arab jihadists, particularly Jordanians, are playing a leading role, as they did in the Chechen wars.

In recent months, Jordanian newspapers and Web sites have reported the death of several Jordanians fighting in Chechnya.

But it is the growing links between the Islamist fighters in the Caucasus and influential clerics in the Hashemite Kingdom and its environs who preach global jihad that are probably more important.

The well-known Jordanian jihadist ideologue Sheik Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi has gathered a following among the Caucasian Islamists, even corresponding with Arabic-speaking commanders who want to shift the conflict from a nationalist struggle into part of the global jihad.

Maqdisi is a powerful influence in Arab jihadist circles and since 2009 "has become an active promoter and propagandist of the jihadist movement in the North Caucasus," says Murad Batal al-Shishani of the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank that tracks global terrorism.

Maqdisi achieved notoriety as the spiritual mentor of the ferocious al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zaraqwi.

Zarqawi, a Jordanian Sunni who fought in Afghanistan, forged al-Qaida in Iraq into the most bloodthirsty jihadist organization fighting the Americans after the 2003 invasion. His forces slaughtered hundreds of people, including rival Shiites, until he was killed in a U.S. airstrike June 7, 2006.

His ruthless ferocity made him a hero among Jordanian Islamists and inspired several major plots in the kingdom. These included a thwarted 2004 chemical attack on Jordan's Intelligence Directorate in Amman.

These activists are "a new generation of Salafi-jihadists in the region who can be described as neo-Zarqawists," al-Shishani noted in a recent analysis.

"These young militants consider themselves the inheritors of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's legacy in the Levant."

Many have gone to Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight, among them Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the suicide bomber who set off his device inside a CIA base in Afghanistan in December 2009, killing seven CIA personnel.

Most of these activists are centered on the cities of Zarqa, Zarqawi's hometown east of Amman, and Irbid in northern Jordan.

Anas Khalil Khadir, a 24-year-old Jordanian reported to have been killed in Chechnya in early June, was from Zarqa. He abandoned his medical engineering studies at university there to go to Chechnya.

A few days after Khadir's death was reported, newspapers announced the death of another Jordanian in Chechnya. They said Yasser Ammara, described as "a prominent Jordanian-born warlord," was one of nine militants killed fighting Russian forces in the forested mountains of the Vedeno region. He had been in Chechnya since 2000.

In recent months, jihadist Web sites and Internet forums have increasingly focused on the escalating conflict across the Caucasus, several years after the Russians crushed insurgents in the Second Chechen war.

The revival of jihadist interest in the region "comes in the context of two strategies that al-Qaida and affiliates Salfist-jihadist groups are implementing: seeking safe havens and creating a grassroots jihad that will sustain them," al-Shishani wrote in a recent analysis.

Arab jihadists, mostly veterans of the 1979-89 war against the Soviet army in Afghanistan, have played a prominent role in the North Caucasus since 1995 when the First Chechen War broke out.

They fought under the leadership of separatist leader Dzhokar Dudayev, killed like Zarqawi in a missile strike in 1996.

The most prominent of these Arabs was a commander known as Emir Khattab, an Afghan veteran whose real name was believed to be Omar Ibn al-Khattab. He was reputed to have been born in Saudi Arabia to a Jordanian father and a Circassian mother. At age 16, he went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, where he met Osama bin Laden. He is also believed to have fought in Tajikistan and Bosnia.

In Chechnya, he came one of the jihadists' most successful combat commanders and was wounded several times leading his own private army of Arabs, Turks and other foreign fighters.

He was killed by Russia's Federal Security Service, the post-Cold War successor of the KGB, on March 19, 2002, with a poisoned letter. Chechen sources said it was coated with "a fast-acting nerve agent, possibly sarin or a derivative."

Source: Space Wars.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Arab_jihadists_emerge_in_Caucasus_war_999.html.

Scientists find new owl subspecies in Yosemite

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

By The Associated Press

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) - Scientists say new research shows owls flying in Yosemite are a distinct subspecies of the great gray owls found in North America.

A new study written by scientists at the U.S. Forest Service and other state and federal agencies shows the Yosemite owl has key genetic differences from the emblematic bird.

Wildlife ecologists believe it likely evolved in isolation for more than 25,000 years after being stranded by ice fields and glaciers during the last Ice Age.

The research group also found the Yosemite owl nests slightly differently from other great gray owls.

Rangers say there only are about 150 great grays living in the park's lush forests and surrounding private lands. But overall, more than half of California's great gray owls are found in the Yosemite region.

Source: Madera Tribune.
Link: http://www.maderatribune.com/news/newsview.asp?c=256101.

Hamas warns Israel against launching new offensive on Gaza

Thu, 28 Oct 2010

Gaza - A Gaza-based high-ranking Islamic Hamas movement leader on Thursday warned Israel against launching any new large- scale offensive on the Gaza Strip similar to the late 2008 "Cast Lead" campaign.

"We seriously consider Israel's threats to launch another war on Gaza, but we frankly say if Israel tries to enter Gaza, it will cost it a lot and it won't be able to achieve its goals," said Mahmoud al- Zahar during a workshop in Gaza.

Israel had accused Hamas movement, which has been ruling the Gaza Strip since June 2007, of trying to get more arms and weapons to the salient to use in carrying out attacks against Israeli territory.

"It is the right of Hamas to have all kinds of weapons to defend ourselves," al-Zahar said. "If Israel carries out another war in the future, it should think thousand of times before carrying out a war."

He said that Israel "exaggerates that armed organizations have various kinds of weapons to find an excuse to strike again on the Gaza Strip."

Meanwhile, al-Zahar affirmed that there are contacts between his movement and Western countries "due to the growth of Islam. We speak with the west using the same honest language that we use with everyone."

He denied that his movement had held direct contacts or talks with officials in the US administration, "but we speak to non-official American and Western figures, and we welcome anyone who wants to speak to us."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350885,launching-new-offensive-gaza.html.

Scientists estimate Earth-sized planets could be common

Thu, 28 Oct 2010

Washington - A group of astronomers has estimated that as many as one in four stars similar to the Sun could be orbited by Earth-size planets.

A five-year observation of 166 stars within 80 light years of Earth, using the powerful Keck telescope in Hawaii, counted planets orbiting the stars, down to the smallest planets now detectable by telescopes.

In findings to be published in the journal Science Friday, the researchers found larger numbers of smaller planets than of larger planets. Although the smallest planets they saw are still several times the size of Earth, the findings caused them to conclude that Earth-sized planets could be even more common.

"Of about 100 typical Sun-like stars, one or two have planets the size of Jupiter, roughly six have a planet the size of Neptune, and about 12 have super-Earths between three and 10 Earth masses," astronomer Andrew Howard said.

"If we extrapolate down to Earth-size planets - between one-half and two times the mass of Earth - we predict that you'd find about 23 for every 100 stars."

The scientists found 33 detectable planets orbiting 22 of the stars and then used estimates to conclude that 1.6 per cent of the stars had Jupiter-sized planets and 12 per cent had super-Earths. They also found 12 possible planets that need to be further examined.

Previous studies have looked only at larger Jupiter and Saturn- sized planets.

Astronomers hope to be able to find planets similar to Earth that also are close enough to their suns to be warm and have liquid water, but far enough away to not be boiling in the so-called "Goldilocks" zone, where conditions are just right for life.

Last month, a group of US-based scientists said they had discovered what might be the first habitable planet outside Earth's solar system. The team of planet hunters found an Earth-sized planet - three times the mass of Earth - in orbit around a nearby star at a distance where liquid water could exist on the surface.

Scientists hope the Kepler space telescope launched last year, which is finely tuned enough to detect Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars, will find more such planets.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350887,earth-sized-planets-be-common.html.

Nasrallah: 'Violations' against Lebanese in UN probe unacceptable

Thu, 28 Oct 2010

Beirut - Hezbollah chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said late Thursday that his movement would not stand idly by while "violations" were carried out against Lebanese citizens by United Nations investigators probing the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.

"We refrained in the past from commenting on the work of the UN investigators, so that no one would say that we are obstructing the probe," he said in a speech aired on the Hezbollah-run al-Manar television station. "But now, no. We have reached a point that we can no longer be silent."

His speech came a day after two investigators affiliated with the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), were assaulted by women in Beirut's southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold.

Tensions have run high in Lebanon since reports surfaced that the UN-backed tribunal is poised to indict members of the radical Shiite movement for Hariri's 2005 murder.

Hezbollah has rejected the charges and dismissed the tribunal as an "Israeli project."

The two court investigators and their translator were entering a private gynaecology clinic Wednesday when some 150 women blocked them from proceeding any further.

One of the women reportedly snatched a briefcase containing documents from the hands of one of the investigators.

Iman Sharara, who runs the clinic and is believed to be close to Hezbollah, said the investigators, who had scheduled an appointment with her, requested contacts for 17 patients.

"I think we have reached a very sensitive point that is linked to our honor and that requires a certain response," Nasrallah said.

"I want to ask Lebanese officials and citizens a question: Who of you would agree to allow someone to look at the medical records of your women?" Nasrallah questioned.

According to local media reports Hezbollah was aware that STL investigators had scheduled an appointment with Charara four days prior to Wednesday's incident.

Nasrallah revealed that "minutes ago" he was informed that the United States was pressuring STL prosecutor general, Daniel Bellemare, to speed up the process of announcing the court's indictment.

He added that the indictment would be the same as a 2009 report published in the German magazine Der Spiegel which stated that Hezbollah members would be indicted in the Rafik Hariri murder.

The Hezbollah chief concluded his short speech by calling on the Lebanese people to deal with the demands of the investigators according to their conscience.

Nasrallah's speech came just hours after UN special envoy for Lebanon, Terje Roed Larsen, said that Lebanon was a "hyper-dangerous" state because of the heavily armed militias operating there.

Larsen called for urgent efforts to disarm groups such as the Iranian-Syrian backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning that there was "a hurricane blowing up" in the Middle East.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350895,lebanese-un-probe-unacceptable.html.

Jordan condemns UN official's remarks that Palestinian refugees won't return

By The Associated Press (CP)

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan has condemned remarks by a U.N. official saying Palestinian refugees must not be deluded about their right to return and that Arab countries must resettle them.

Wajih Azaizeh, who directs Jordan's Palestinian Affairs Department, on Thursday called remarks by Andrew Whitley, the N.Y. director of the U.N.'s agency for Palestinian refugees, "irresponsible."

Jordan maintains a delicate demographic balance between those of Palestinian origin and other Jordanians.

It has been the main recipient of Palestinian refugees from successive wars with Israel and says their fate must be decided in peace negotiations.

Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Failure to attain peace leads to more violence in Middle East: Jordan's king

October 28, 2010

King Abdullah II of Jordan on Thursday urged intensified international efforts to make progress in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the state-run Petra news agency reported.

At a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu El Gheit and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in Amman Thursday, the Jordanian leader warned that the region will remain subject to tensions, conflicts and violence if efforts to attain peace fail.

Abdullah II said creating suitable environment to resume direct Palestinian-Israeli peace talks requires halting all unilateral and provocative measures, especially the settlement activities.

The Jordanian leader stressed that coordination and cooperation between Jordan and Egypt will continue to develop a unified position to enhance joint Arab action in facing the different challenges.

The Egyptian officials conveyed a letter from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to the Jordanian leader on latest developments in the region and obstacles against peacemaking efforts.

At Thursday's meeting, the two sides also looked into efforts exerted to overcome obstacles against the resumption of direct Palestinian-Israeli talks.

Source:Xinhua

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7180894.html.

Jordan sees stopping unilateral Israeli steps key to resuming talks

Thu, 28 Oct 2010

Amman - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday told two senior Egyptian officials that the cessation of all "provocative" Israeli steps in East Jerusalem and the West Bank was a pre-requisite for resuming direct talks between the Palestinians and Israel.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and director of the Egyptian Intelligence Omar Suleiman visited Amman to discuss working out a joint stand between the two Arab countries which so far concluded official peace treaties with Israel, officials said.

"The monarch emphasized that finding a suitable environment for resuming the direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis requires stopping all unilateral and provocative measures, particularly the building of settlements," a royal court statement said.

King Abdullah underlined the importance of intensifying international and regional efforts to achieve "tangible progress towards resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict".

"The failure to do so will expose the region for more tension, violence and conflicts," the monarch was quoted as saying.

The mission of the two Egyptian officials also involves a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who decided at the end of September to stop direct talks with Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to extend a moratorium on settlement building that expired on September 26.

Abul Gheit and Suleiman reportedly planned to discuss with Abdullah and Abbas a plan by the Palestinian Authority to seek a UN Security Council resolution for the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, a step strongly opposed by Israel.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350869,steps-key-resuming-talks.html.

Rover finds signs of buried Martian water

Trapped craft discovers evidence water trickled beneath Red Planet's surface

NASA's stuck Mars rover Spirit has found more evidence that water trickled beneath the Red Planet's surface in the past perhaps within the last few hundred thousand years.

The sandy spot where Spirit got bogged down last year harbors stratified layers of dirt with different compositions close to the surface, a new study reveals. Researchers suspect these layers were caused by seepage of thin films of water on Mars, perhaps from melting frost or snow.

This seepage could have occurred during cyclical climate changes when Mars was tilted more on its axis, researchers said. The water may have moved down into the sand, carrying soluble minerals deeper than less-soluble ones, they added. [ Most Amazing Mars Rover Discoveries ]

The axis tilt of Mars varies over time scales of hundreds of thousands of years. The fact that Spirit found these layers in the dirt rather than locked away in rock further suggests the water was seeping relatively recently, rather than billions of years ago, researchers said.

"Once you freeze that evidence in a rock, it can stay there for a long time," said Bruce Banerdt, a project scientist for the Mars Exploration Rovers project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "But you don't expect to maintain evidence in loose dirt for long periods of time."

Buried water in Martian history
The relatively insoluble minerals near the surface include what is thought to be hematite, silica and gypsum, according to researchers. Iron-rich ferric sulfates, which are more soluble, appear to have been dissolved and carried down deeper by water, they added.

None of these minerals is exposed at the surface, which is covered by wind-blown sand and dust.

"The lack of exposures at the surface indicates the preferential dissolution of ferric sulfates must be a relatively recent and ongoing process since wind has been systematically stripping soil and altering landscapes in the region Spirit has been examining," rover deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, explained in a statement.

The new study, which appears in the Journal of Geophysical Research, is based on observations made by Spirit before it stopped communicating with Earth in March of this year. The findings contribute to an accumulating set of evidence that Mars may harbor small amounts of liquid water at some periods during ongoing climate cycles.

Spirit, its rover twin Opportunity and other NASA Mars missions have found evidence of wet Martian environments billions of years ago that may have been favorable for life. Observations by the Phoenix Mars Lander in 2008 and various orbiters since 2002 have identified buried layers of water ice at high and middle latitudes and frozen water in polar ice caps.

Spirit still sleeping
The twin Mars rovers finished their three-month prime missions in April 2004, then kept exploring in bonus missions. One of Spirit's six wheels quit working in 2006.

In April 2009, Spirit's left wheels broke through a crust at a site called "Troy" and churned into soft sand. A second wheel stopped working seven months later. Spirit could not maneuver into a position slanting its solar panels toward the sun for the winter, as it had done for previous winters.

Engineers anticipated it would enter a low-power, silent hibernation mode, and the rover stopped communicating March 22 of this year. Spring begins next month at Spirit's site, and NASA is listening to see if the rover reawakens, officials said.

"Most of us have high hopes," Banerdt told SPACE.com. "Our models say she could start communicating any day now. But we also recognize that this is an extremely risky situation for Spirit, and there are so many unknowns that we just can't be sure."

Among those unknowns, according to Banerdt: how much dust blankets Spirit's solar panels, how cold the rover's interior got and the current surface conditions where it bogged down.

Researchers took advantage of Spirit's months at Troy last year to examine in great detail soil layers the wheels had exposed, along with neighboring surfaces. Spirit made 13 inches of progress in its last 10 backward drives before energy levels fell too low for further driving in February.

Those drives exposed a new area of soil for possible examination if Spirit does awaken and its robotic arm is still usable, researchers said.

"With insufficient solar energy during the winter, Spirit goes into a deep-sleep hibernation mode where all rover systems are turned off, including the radio and survival heaters," said rover project manager John Callas of JPL. "All available solar array energy goes into charging the batteries and keeping the mission clock running."

The rover is expected to have experienced temperatures colder than it ever has before, and it may not survive. If Spirit does get back to work, the top priority is a multi-month study that can be done without driving the rover, researchers said.

The study would measure the rotation of Mars through the Doppler signature of the stationary rover's radio signal with enough precision to gain new information about the planet's core. The rover Opportunity has been making steady progress toward a large crater, Endeavor, which is now approximately 5 miles away.

Source: MSNBC.
Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39899649/ns/technology_and_science-space/.