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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Dutch anti-Islam party hit by scandal

Tue Nov 16, 2010

A member of the anti-Islamic Dutch Freedom Party with a past conviction for sexual offenses is posing problems for party leader Geert Wilders.

Parliament member Eric Lucassen has been embroiled in a controversy after it was revealed on Thursday that he had been found guilty of sexual misconduct in 2002.

The former army instructor served one week in military detention in the same year for having sex with a female army recruit while he was a sergeant, TV station RTL4 reported last week.

The lawmaker has also been accused of threatening and intimidating his neighbors between 2006 and 2009.

Wilders had earlier stated that he felt 'unfairly treated' by Lucassen, but stopped short of expelling him from the party.

The MP's ouster from the Freedom Party group in the Lower House would have created a crisis for the one-seat majority supporting the current right-wing government.

Theoretically, that could lead to the fall of the cabinet barely a month after the new government came into office.

The recent crisis has raised serious questions over the screening of political candidates before elections.

Wilders, however, argues that his party lacks the means to hire expensive bureaus to screen candidates.

"It's not the first time things like these have happened," Wilders went on to say.

The party leader was hinting at a 2009 incident in which another Freedom Party MP, Hero Brinkman, assaulted a barman in the parliament's press cafe.

Also in 2002, Dion Graus, Freedom Party MP and animal rights campaigner, was accused of physically abusing his pregnant wife.

Wilders made headlines worldwide in March 2008 after making the anti-Islam film, Fitna. The movie prompted angry protests across the world.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described Wilders' movie as “offensively anti-Islamic”. The European Parliament also banned the screening of the film, saying it provoked hatred.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/151228.html.

UK's Prince William engaged to longtime girlfriend

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

LONDON – Prince William and girlfriend Kate Middleton are engaged and will marry next spring or summer in London — a royal wedding that Britons have been eagerly awaiting for years.

The announcement Tuesday by royal officials ends an on-again, off-again romance that began after the two met more than eight years ago as students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Prince Charles' Clarence House office said the heir to the British throne is "delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton." It said they got engaged last month during a vacation in Kenya.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he was delighted by the news, and sent the couple his best.

The prince, who is second in line to the throne, once told an interviewer he wouldn't marry "until I'm at least 28 or maybe 30." He turned 28 in June and recently completed training a Royal Air Force search and rescue pilot.

The royal family is said to approve of Middleton, the daughter of self-made millionaires. Her father worked for an airline and her mother was a flight attendant before they started a mail-order business specializing in children's parties, run from their farm in southern England.

Middleton works for the family business.

Commentators have been anticipating a summer 2011 wedding, a date that avoids both the Olympics and Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, both due to be held in 2012. Bookmakers stopped taking bets on a 2011 wedding months ago, saying all signs were pointing to a marriage next year.

Earlier this month the Middletons joined members of the royal family for a shooting holiday at the Balmoral estate in Scotland — another milestone on Kate's road to acceptance by the family's inner circle.

The venue for the wedding was not announced.

"Prince William has informed the queen and other close members of his family," the Clarence House statement said. "Prince William has also sought the permission of Miss Middleton's father."

It said after the wedding, the couple will "live in north Wales, where Prince William will continue to serve with the Royal Air Force."

Egypt Islamists say over 600 arrested in election campaign

By Samer al-Atrush (AFP)

CAIRO — Egyptian police have rounded up about 600 Muslim Brotherhood members ahead of this month's parliamentary election and some 250 are still detained, a senior Brotherhood official said on Tuesday.

Mohammed Mursi told AFP that the crackdown on members of the opposition Islamist group began when the Brotherhood announced on October 9 plans to field candidates for the November 28 legislative polls.

"Arrests are still being made. Someone goes out to campaign, he gets harassed and arrested and then released in a few days," said Mursi, a member of the Brotherhood's politburo who heads the group's election campaign.

"About 600 have been arrested since we announced that we would run in the election. About 250 remain in jail," he said.

The group said on its website that more than 70 Islamists were arrested across the country over the past few days, including about 50 who were detained overnight in the southern Bani Suef province after clashing with police.

Security officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Police regularly say they arrest Brotherhood members for belonging to an illegal organization.

The group, which registers its candidates as independents to skirt a ban on religious parties, won a fifth of parliament's seats in the last election in 2005.

The Brotherhood is fielding about 135 candidates in this month's election, but the number remains uncertain as some candidates are contesting the election committee's decision to bar them from running, Mursi said.

The ruling National Democratic Party is running about 800 candidates, and the liberal Wafd opposition party about 250 for the 508 seats up for election.

Dozens of independents, many of them NDP would-be nominees who were not endorsed by the party, are also standing for election.

The official press reported on Tuesday that the election committee has approved 5,181 candidates for the election out of roughly 5,700 who applied.

The US State Department on Monday called on Egypt to hold fair elections and allow international observers to monitor the vote, something Cairo rejects as interference in its affairs.

The government said it will allow local groups to send observers to polling stations.

The Forum of Independent Human Rights Organizations, a coalition of Egyptian rights groups, said last week that the election has already been compromised by arrests of opposition members and a media crackdown.

Bahieddine Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, said there was a climate of "terror" in the media after the dismissal of an opposition newspaper editor and the suspension of several satellite stations.

"It is a farce rather than a legislative election," he said.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

Iran says NATO missile shield a plot to protect Israel

Tue, 16 Nov 2010

Tehran - Iran said Tuesday that the creation of a NATO-wide missile shield was a plot by the West to protect Israel.

"Regional and Islamic countries have already voiced their doubts about this suspicious move which is mainly aimed at supporting and protecting the Zionist (Israeli) regime," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

He said the region's nations should not allow such plans to be implemented as they had their own potential to guarantee security.

NATO's decision on missile defense would clear the way for the creation of a computer program capable of linking anti-missile systems in all member states under a single operator.

As part of the package, the US is to move anti-missile systems to Europe, starting with ships in the Mediterranean in 2011 and stationing land-based missiles in Romania in 2015 and Poland in 2018.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday in Brussels that there was no need for the alliance to name the nations against which its proposed ballistic missile screen would operate.

The proposed shield would largely be based on US technology, and diplomats said Washington initially pushed for this week's NATO summit in Lisbon to name Iran as the main source of a missile threat. But Turkey opposed that stance, fearing tensions with its neighbor.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353731,a-plot-protect-israel.html.

Muslims mark Eid with outdoor prayers in central Athens

Tue, 16 Nov 2010

Athens - Thousands of Muslim immigrants gathered for outdoor prayer services across Athens on Tuesday to mark the festival of Eid-al-Adha.

Dozens of riot police were deployed in the city center to protect the immigrants from attacks by extreme right-wing demonstrators who tried to disrupt the prayers.

Reports said a handful of protesters threw eggs at the group of faithful in central Athens before police intervened early on Tuesday.

In recent municipal elections on November 14 the head of extreme right-wing party Golden Dawn, Nikos Mihaloliakos, won more than 5 per cent of the vote in Athens, winning a seat in seat on the local council.

Mihaloliakos based his campaign on anti-immigrant issues and government plans to build a mosque in the Greek capital.

Tens of thousands of immigrants make their way into the European Union via Greece each year, mainly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353732,outdoor-prayers-central-athens.html.

Suspect in Iran stoning case allegedly confesses to being 'sinner'

Tue, 16 Nov 2010

Tehran - An Iranian woman claiming to be Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to death by stoning after an adultery conviction, confessed on Iranian state television to being a "sinner."

The woman, speaking in Azeri, said Monday night that she not only had a sexual liaison with her husband's cousin but also helped him kill her spouse.

A woman purported to be Mohammadi-Ashtiani also made a televised confession in August in which she confirmed the charges put forward by the Iranian judiciary.

Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to death on an adultery charge and is also under investigation for murder, for which she could also face the death penalty.

Iran employs televised confessions for political prisoners, a method that has met not only with harsh international criticism but also local opposition.

In Mohammadi-Ashtiani's case, the confession was believed to be aimed at defusing international condemnation of her sentence.

The TV footage also showed two men identified as her son, Sajad Qaderzadeh, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, who were arrested on October 10 with two German reporters who wanted to interview them on the Mohammadi-Ashtiani case.

The son revised his earlier remarks to Western media that his mother was tortured and said without the ballyhoo in the West, his mother's case would have gone through normal procedures.

The man introduced as Kian said he lied to the foreign media about the case.

The British newspaper The Guardian in August quoted Kian as saying that the woman had been tortured for two days at the Tabriz prison in north-western Iran.

The sentence against Mohammadi-Ashtiani has provoked an international outcry with Western countries and human rights organizations calling on Iran to revise it.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353735,allegedly-confesses-being-sinner.html.

Egypt's longest-serving parliamentarian dies

Tue, 16 Nov 2010

Cairo - Egypt's longest-serving member of parliament and one of the president's closest confidants, Kamal al-Shazly, has died, state media reported on Tuesday.

Al-Shazly, who served as a parliamentarian for 46 years, died after a long battle with disease, according to media reports.

The 76-year-old lawmaker hailed from the governorate of Monofiya, where both President Hosny Mubarak and former president Anwar Sadat were born.

Al-Shazly died just two weeks ahead of parliamentary elections, in which he was seeking another five-year term.

He was one of the founders of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), served as minister of state for parliamentary affairs for more than a decade, and was the leader of the NDP in parliament.

A state funeral for al-Shazly is expected to take place in Cairo.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353758,egypts-longest-serving-parliamentarian-dies.html.

China, Russia to start yuan-ruble trading

Nov 16, 2010

China may start trading the yuan against the ruble within weeks, Dow Jones Newswires quoted a China Foreign Exchange Trade System spokesman as saying on Tuesday.

The spokesman remained tight-lipped on the two currencies’ planned exchange rate, only adding that preparations for relevant trading sessions are coming to a close.

Early this year, Moscow and Beijing agreed to start trading in each other’s currencies in a bid to diminish the dollar’s role in global trade.

Source: The Voice of Russia.
Link: http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/11/16/34654981.html.

Russia's Kazan becomes Algeria's Tlemcen twin city

Russia’s Kazan has become Algeria’s Tlemcen twin city.

This was agreed by Tatar President Rustam Minninkhanov and Algeria’s Ambassador in Russia Chergui SmaŃ—l.

The president noted the recent reinforcement of ties between Tatarstan and the Islamic world and cooperation with international organizations.

The ambassador said that Tlemcen is a tourist attraction of rich history and culture - a blend of Arab, Berber, Andalusian and French culture, as is Kazan.

Source: The Voice of Russia.
Link: http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/11/15/34546802.html.

Arab world among most vulnerable to climate change

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent
BEIRUT | Sun Nov 14, 2010

(Reuters) - Dust storms scour Iraq. Freak floods wreak havoc in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Rising sea levels erode Egypt's coast. Hotter, drier weather worsens water scarcity in the Middle East, already the world's most water-short region.

The Arab world is already suffering impacts consistent with climate change predictions. Although scientists are wary of linking specific events to global warming, they are urging Arab governments to act now to protect against potential disasters.

There are huge variations in per capita greenhouse gas emissions across the region with very high rates for several oil and gas producers. Qatar recorded the world's highest per capita emissions with 56.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2006, while Egyptians emitted just 2.25 tonnes each, U.N. figures show.

While the region as a whole has contributed relatively little to historic greenhouse gas emissions, it is among the most vulnerable to climate change, and emissions are surging.

Inaction is not an option, said Mohamed El-Ashry, former head of the Global Environment Facility, a fund that assists developing countries on climate and other environmental issues.

"It's human nature to wait until there is a crisis to act," he told Reuters. "But you hate to wait until there is really a huge crisis where large numbers of people suffer needlessly."

Measures to tackle the region's environmental woes would also help offset future impacts of global warming.

"Addressing water issues, say, would have the dual benefit of responding to climate change issues, but also addressing the problems that result from population growth, poor management and very weak institutions related to water," Ashry said.

The Arab world's population has tripled to 360 million since 1970 and will rise to nearly 600 million by 2050, according to a U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) research paper this year.

LARGE-SCALE INSTABILITY

"For a region that is already vulnerable to many non-climate stresses, climate change and its potential physical and socio-economic impacts are likely to exacerbate this vulnerability, leading to large-scale instability," it says, adding the poor and vulnerable will suffer most.

Water scarcity, the biggest challenge, is already dire.

By 2015, Arabs will have to survive on less than 500 cubic meters of water a year each, a level defined as severe scarcity, against a world average exceeding 6,000 cubic meters per head.

That warning came in a report last week by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED), which said the region's water supply had shrunk to a quarter of its 1960 level.

Climate change will aggravate the crisis in a region where temperatures may rise 2 degrees Celsius in the next 15 to 20 years and more than 4C by the end of the century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Its figures, cited by the UNDP paper, show the Arab world has undergone an uneven rise in surface air temperature ranging from 0.2C to 2C between 1974 and 2004.

Water scarcity and rising sea levels are a reality, but public consciousness in the Arab world lags behind.

"People are still not aware of those impacts," said AFED's secretary-general Najib Saab. "When you talk of climate change, they think the impact will be on the moon or other countries."

He cited satellite imagery from Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing showing a one-meter sea-level rise would affect 42,000 square km of Arab land -- an area four times the size of Lebanon -- and 3.2 percent of the Arab population, compared with 1.28 percent worldwide.

"Our study showed that during this century the Fertile Crescent (stretching through Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories) will lose all signs of fertility if the situation continues as it is."

LOST IN BUREAUCRACY

Arab leaders do take water shortages seriously -- if only out of concern for their political survival -- but all too often leave climate change matters to their environment ministries.

"The environment ministries are often the weakest in these countries," said Habib Habr, the U.N. Environment Program's regional director. "The policies are there, but often what we see is a lack of implementation or enforcement of the law."

In a conflict-prone region largely ruled by unaccountable governments and self-serving elites, political distractions push climate change and other social issues down the priority list, although Tunisia, Jordan and Oman are more active than most.

While conditions vary across the Arab world, declining water resources are often mismatched with burgeoning populations.

Imports of "virtual" water in the shape of food and other goods already amount to the equivalent of 5,000 cubic meters of water per capita, the AFED report says. Most Arab countries effectively said farewell to food self-sufficiency long ago.

In some countries, weather events and water scarcity have forced large numbers of Arabs to leave their homes.

A drought that began in 2007, aggravated by over-cultivation of subsidized cash crops, has displaced hundreds of thousands of people from eastern Syria. In Yemen, water scarcity is prompting many farmers to abandon their land and head for the cities, fueling the capital Sanaa's 8 percent annual population growth.

Cross-border migration could also intensify due to the uneven distribution of oil and other resources in a region that encompasses fabulously wealthy statelets as well as populous nations such as Egypt, a fifth of whose 79 million people live on less than $1 a day, according to U.N. figures.

"There are bad projections about climate change, water and many things that don't need to happen, or not at the level predicted," said Ashry. "You can minimize that by planning."

Asked his advice for Arab leaders, he said: "It's not a hopeless situation, but you've got to start now or 10 years from now it will be worse because there will be more people, fewer resources and the gap between rich and poor will have widened."

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AD1BK20101114.

Environmental disaster hits eastern Syria

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
JUB SHAEER, Syria | Mon Nov 15, 2010

(Reuters) - The ancient Inezi tribe of Syria reared camels in the sandswept lands north of the Euphrates river from the time of the Prophet Mohammad. Now water shortages have consigned that way of life to distant memory.

Drought in the past five years has also killed 85 percent of livestock in eastern Syria, the Inezis' ancestral land.

Up to half a million people have left the region in one of Syria's largest internal migrations since France and Britain carved the country out of the Ottoman Empire in 1920.

Illegal wells to irrigate subsidized wheat and cotton have contributed to the destruction of the water table. Farms dependent on rain have turned into parched land. Diseases, such as wheat rust, have further devastated crops this season.

In the past decade rainfall has become scarcer, official data shows, shrinking to an average 152 mm from 163 in the 1990s and 189 in the 1980s. An unprecedented heat wave struck this year. Temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for 46 days in a row in July and August.

Syria has become a wheat importer, undermining a state policy of food self-sufficiency.

While climate models project the region will become hotter and drier this century, ministers and residents say other factors are exacerbating the problem.

Environment Minister Kawkab al-Dayeh told a water conference in Damascus last month pollution had played a role in the deterioration of 59 percent of total agricultural land, with raw sewage being widely used for irrigation.

CORRUPTION, MISMANAGEMENT

Residents say corruption and mismanagement are the main reasons for the crisis. They cite badly run state-controlled estates, a legacy of Soviet-style policies, and irrigation canals dug to reach well-connected landowners in the naturally more fertile lands to the west.

"Jub Shaeer is only 3 km from the canal, but look how dry the land is in the village," said Ahmad al-Mehbash, head of the state-backed Peasants Union in Raqqa province.

The state launched irrigation schemes for the east in the 1970s and boosted subsidies to grow wheat and cotton, attracting tribal support for the rule of the Baath Party, which took power almost 50 years ago and still enforces emergency law.

But the Soviet-built irrigation system has failed to keep up with a population boom in the past three decades. Syria's population of 20 million is growing 2.5 per cent a year.

Raqqa, the provincial capital founded by Alexander the Great, has been in perpetual decline.

Its horseshoe-shaped wall and museum housed in a French Mandate palace gives a glimpse of the magnificent city that once acted as a Byzantine front line against Persia and was later designated by Al-Mansour, the founder of Baghdad and the Abbasid caliphate, as the second Arab capital after Baghdad.

Just outside the city is the tribal stronghold of Jub Shaeer. The Euphrates river runs brown with sewage. Plots of land are black from salinization, as if doused in oil. Boll worms have devastated the cotton crop.

Occasional olive and citrus trees pop up in the arid landscape at estates whose owners operate illegal wells.

Officials hint at the need to reform farm subsidies, blamed by independent economists and water experts for wreaking havoc on the environment and diminishing water resources.

Subsidies on fertilizers have been abolished, helping to lessen corruption, the agriculture minister said.

Agriculture's share of gross domestic product has fallen 10 percentage points to 13 percent in the past five years, official figures show. It still consumes 90-95 percent of Syria's water.

SAUDI TIES

Tribal links with Saudi Arabia have helped the Inezis cope with the drought better than their compatriots in the east, who now live in slums around Damascus, Aleppo and Hama.

Women and children predominate in the concrete settlement of Jub Shaeer. The men are either in Saudi Arabia or trying to get there in search of menial jobs. Illiteracy and poverty are rife and government services are poor or non-existent.

Mariam al-Falaj is raising five children alone. Her husband found work as a shepherd in Saudi Arabia after his own flock died. "One of the children is without vaccinations because government health officials have stopped coming," Falaj said.

Social tensions are rising. Tribesmen gather daily at the house of their chief, Ghazi al-Muheimes, to air their plight. They ask for state jobs or for help to work in Saudi Arabia.

One shepherd makes 6,000 ($130) Syrian pounds a month and has a wife and three children to feed.

"He needs 2,000 pounds a month alone to buy bread. Imagine a life where the aspiration of a young man is to toil from dawn to dusk under the burning Saudi sun. If there was water, the men would till their own land and stay here," Muheimes said.

The government has set up a "drought resistance" division but its head in Raqqa province told Reuters his main task so far had been to collect data.

International donors have been more active. The World Food Program is helping to feed 190,000 people, with another 110,000 needing rations. The United Nations estimates 800,000 of the eastern region's 5 million people live in extreme poverty.

Hekmat Jolaq, a government agricultural engineer, acknowledged that scaling back subsidies would help improve water availability, but said national security required Syria to maintain its policy of self-sufficiency in major crops.

Jolaq, who is also deputy head of the Raqqa Agricultural Engineers Union, said the solution lay in more investment, the streamlining of irrigation plans and adoption of technology.

"China has managed to cover whole desert areas with newly developed grazing plants," he noted.

(Editing by Alistair Lyon and Janet Lawrence)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AE2BT20101115.

Saleh exchanges Eid congratulations with Oman Sultan and Jordan King

[15/November/2010]

TAIZ, Nov. 15 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh received phone calls from Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said and Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday.

During the conversations, Saleh exchanged congratulations on Eid al Adha with the two rulers, and discussed the bilateral relationship with Oman and Jordan, the latest developments in the region and issues of mutual interest.

Source: Saba Net.
Link: http://www.sabanews.net/en/news228851.htm.

Suu Kyi's Release Gives Hope To Rohingya Refugees

November 15, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 (Bernama) -- The release of Myanmar pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest has given new hope to the Rohingya people to be recognized as citizens of Myanmar and return home after years away as refugees.

Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) president Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani said the Rohingya minority group hoped that Suu Kyi would be able to help them be recognized as Myanmar citizens and to enjoy the same rights and privileges as the other races.

"For years we have been denied our rights as Myanmar people by the ruling military junta, whereby we don't have the same opportunities and rights as others in the country," he told Bernama when contacted on Monday.

Welcoming the release of Suu Kyi, Zafar Ahmad was confident she would be able to fight for the rights of the Rohingyas based on her strong influence and leadership skills.

"Suu Kyi is a leader who fights for her people, and her struggle is not for any one race. So going by that, we are confident that we have chosen the right person to help us," he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, was released last Saturday after being put under seven years of house arrest by the Myanmar military junta.

The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group from the north of Myanmar, started to receive shelter from foreign countries following political and social unrest in their territory of Arakan.

-- BERNAMA

Source: Bernama.
Link: http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=543392.

Haiti rioters attack U.N. troops, one protester killed

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Protesters in Haiti, blaming United Nations troops for a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people, attacked U.N. peacekeepers in two cities on Monday.

One protester was shot dead in the clashes and six U.N. peacekeepers were injured.

The U.N. mission blamed the violence in Cap-Haitien and Hinche on political agitators it said were bent on stirring up unrest ahead of presidential and legislative elections set for November 28 in the earthquake-hit Caribbean country.

In Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second city on the north coast, U.N. blue helmets were fired on by armed demonstrators and one demonstrator was killed when a peacekeeper opened fire in self-defense, the U.N. mission (MINUSTAH) said in a statement.

U.N. troops also used tear gas against the protesters.

"MINUSTAH reiterates its firm commitment to support the Haitian national police in maintaining order and security in the country to guarantee the continuation of the electoral process and Haiti's reconstruction," the U.N. statement said.

At Hinche in the central region, U.N. peacekeepers were among several people injured by stone-throwing protesters who attacked Nepalese troops stationed there.

The Nepalese have been the subject of widespread rumors that they brought the cholera bacteria behind the month-long epidemic of the deadly disease in Haiti that has killed more than 900 people and sickened close to 15,000.

The U.N. mission, which is helping the impoverished country rebuild after a devastating earthquake in January, has denied rumors that latrines close to a river at the Nepalese U.N. camp were the cause of the cholera outbreak.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said DNA testing shows the cholera strain in Haiti is most closely related to a strain from South Asia. But it has not pinpointed the source or linked it directly to the Nepalese troops, whom the U.N. says tested negative for the disease.

Officials and residents in Cap-Haitien said earlier on Monday that hundreds of protesters yelling anti-U.N. slogans had set up burning barricades and torched a police station.

"The whole city is blocked, businesses and schools have closed, cars have been burned. It's chaos here," a businessman in Cap-Haitien, Georgesmain Prophete, told Reuters.

The cholera epidemic has inflicted another crisis on the Western Hemisphere's poorest state as it struggles to rebuild from the earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people.

Fear, uncertainty and anger have swept a country already traumatized by the earthquake, which also left 1.5 million people homeless.

SECURITY WORRIES

Haiti's government and the more than 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission have signaled their determination to go ahead with the November 28 elections.

"MINUSTAH urges the population to remain vigilant and not to allow itself to be manipulated by the enemies of stability and democracy in the country," the U.N. mission said.

Nevertheless, the violent incidents raise questions about security for the elections, which will choose a successor to President Rene Preval, a 99-member parliament and 11 members of the 30-seat Senate.

Analysts say the elections could be the most important in Haiti's history but many see the path to the polls threatened by risks of political violence, as well as the huge humanitarian challenges.

Joany Caneus, director of police for the northern region where Cap-Haitien is located, said the anti-U.N. demonstrators there set fire to the Pont Neuf police station.

"You can imagine how difficult it is when we cannot have the usual backup of the U.N. troops because they themselves are in difficulty," Caneus told Reuters, adding that the U.N. peacekeepers in the city had asked for a Haitian police patrol to be posted in front of their headquarters.

"So we don't only have to protect the population, we also have to protect U.N. troops ... We are working on ways to control the situation."

Last month, in the central town of Saint-Marc, at the heart of the cholera outbreak, stone-throwing residents apparently fearing contagion disrupted the setting up of a cholera treatment center, burning several tents.

Experts say Haiti's widespread poverty and poor sanitation have been major factors in the rapid spread of the cholera epidemic, which has affected six of the country's 10 provinces. The last cholera epidemic in Haiti was a century ago.

But the experts say it is difficult to trace the source of the outbreak with certainty or determine how it re-entered the country after such a long absence.

(Writing and additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher in Miami; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Iran, Algeria desire boosting ties

Tue Nov 16, 2010

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi has expressed optimism about further expanding ties between Iran and Algeria, especially in the energy sector.

Speaking in a telephone conversation with Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, the Iranian official said that the Islamic Republic and Algeria could further boost bilateral relations, particularly in the field of oil and natural gas, IRNA reported Monday.

Rahimi also described ties between the two nations as brotherly and reiterated Tehran's readiness for further improvement of relations in all fields.

He made a reference to the imminent visit by the Algerian premier to Tehran and extended Iran's congratulations to the Algerian government and nation on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, one of the most important Islamic holidays that mark the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

For his part, Ahmed Ouyahia, conveyed the Algerian government's felicitations on the Muslim holiday and said, "The Algerian government seeks to increase the level of relations with Iran."

The Algerian minister further expressed his country's desire for further improvement of trade and economic exchanges between Iran and Algeria.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://presstv.ir/detail/151182.html.

Muslims gear up for Eid al-Adha

Tue Nov 16, 2010

Millions of Muslims across the world are preparing to celebrate the annual Eid al-Adha event marking the end of the rituals in Hajj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca.

Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, is considered as one of the most important Islamic festivals commemorating Prophet Abraham's willingness to submit to God's command in sacrificing his beloved son, Ismail.

The holy feast takes place on the 10th day of the lunar month of Dhul Hijjah in the Islamic calendar.

On the day of the Eid, a major Islamic holiday, pilgrims throw pebbles at rock pillars that symbolize the devil. Muslim pilgrims will then sacrifice a sheep, goat, or camel to show their gratitude for Allah's generosity and blessings and distribute the meat among the poor.

In Iran, people observe Eid al-Adha, called Eid-e Qurban in Persian, by taking part in the congregational prayers, sacrificing and distributing sheep's meat among the poor, as well as passing out a variety of sweets and confectionaries.

Eid-e Qurban is considered as one of the most important religious festivals in Iran; for Iranians it is the feast of love and brotherhood.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Monday described the annual Hajj pilgrimage as a symbol of monotheism and spirituality.

"During the Hajj season, the Ka'ba, which is the secret to unity and dignity, and the symbol of monotheism and spirituality, hosts enthusiastic and hopeful individuals, who converge on the birthplace of Islam, from across the world in response to God Almighty's invitation," said the Leader in a message on the occasion of the annual Hajj rituals.

"The Muslim Ummah can witness the compact image of its enormity and the diversity and the depth of faith in the hearts of the followers of this monotheist religion through the eyes of its representatives who have gathered here from the four corners of the world, and can become familiar with this tremendous and unique asset," the message read.

Ayatollah Khamenei also emphasized in his message that the growing wave of Islamic reawakening across the world heralds a glorious future for the Muslim community.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://presstv.ir/detail/151190.html.

Hezbollah cast doubt on Hariri tribunal

Tue Nov 16, 2010

Hezbollah says a US-backed tribunal probing the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri is aimed at creating divisions among Lebanese factions.

The resistance movement's international relations officer on Monday noted that the anticipated indictment by the US-sponsored Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was seeking to divide the Lebanese "so that half of them become murderers and the other half victims."

"Amidst the mounting Sunni-Shia and inter-Lebanese tensions, would it take more than a small incident for things to explode? Why does anyone want to subject Lebanon to such an experience again?" Naharnet quoted Ammar Moussawi as saying.

Moussawi also questioned Washington's support for STL, saying, "The US administration has never been enthusiastic for anything more than its enthusiasm to administer justice in Lebanon."

"They want to establish justice in Lebanon and nobody is allowed to object," he said. "Why is the debate on the STL forbidden and why is there no way for the Lebanese to sit with each other and agree on the demand for justice?”

Lebanon's pro-Western factions, including Prime Minister Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal party, accuse Hezbollah and the Syrian government of involvement in Rafiq Hariri's murder.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, however, admitted early in September that the allegations about his father's death were erroneous and politically motivated, raising further questions about those who had testified against Hezbollah and Syrian officials.

"We want the justice that is based on technical aspects rather than on speculations, hypotheses, suspicions, guesses, or false witnesses," Moussawi went on to say.

He also attributed the silence and inactions by Lebanese officials regarding the issue of false witnesses to the involvement of senior officials and leaders among those false witnesses.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://presstv.ir/detail/151199.html.

Young innovators take steps to turn ideas into reality

By Rand Dalgamouni

AMMAN - Dancing pillows, smart toilets and recycled art were on display as young Jordanians shared their innovations on Saturday.

At the “Ideas Festival 2010”, 42 novel ideas were showcased out of 300 applications, ranging from environmental solutions to social development.

During the two-day interactive exhibition, organized by the Amman Baccalaureate School Alumni as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Jordan, dozens of 20-somethings presented their projects in the hope of making their ideas become realities.

The innovations were divided into six themes: business, science and technology, environment, social development, arts and design, and random, with theme leaders from specialized organizations and companies providing participants with expertise.

On the closing day of the festival on Saturday, winners in each theme were awarded $2,000 and the opportunity to be mentored by their theme leader.

Liyan Jabi, whose plan for a “smart toilet” won under the environment theme, said the award will help her continue her research to come up with a final prototype.

“The smart toilet reuses the water that you use to wash your hands for flushing. It doesn’t affect the sewage system and doesn’t waste extra water,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Amer Jamhour won under the business theme for his idea “JamBack”, a phone application that connects musicians using the Global Positioning System services.

“The application will help provide a platform to connect musical talents in Jordan and the region, which will strengthen the music community,” he explained.

He said he managed to secure a patent for his creation through the festival, adding that he will use the cash prize as a down payment for a developer.

The UK resident said he plans to launch the project in the UK as well in a bid to connect Western and eastern talents.

Romaan.com, an Arabic website that provides users with nutritional facts on popular Middle Eastern foods, won under the “random” theme.

Creator Sameh Abu Jarour said he came up with the idea after noticing a lack of health websites in Arabic on East Mediterranean cuisine.

He added that the website will connect users with dietitians to answer their questions and allow them to discuss their dietary habits and health interests.

“The fact that the project won at the festival gives me some credibility when approaching investors and developers,” Abu Jarour explained, calling on more young Jordanians to benefit from future festivals.

Other winning ideas included the “Sawa Project” for social development, while the “Vibrating Drying Machine” and the “Dancing Pillow” tied for the science and technology themes.

The “Dream House” project and “Recycled Art” tied for the arts and design themes.

GEW Jordan, which concluded yesterday, was co-hosted by Endeavor Jordan and the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship as part of a global event organized in 100 countries worldwide, where young people link with entrepreneurs to generate new ideas and embrace innovation.

15 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31859.

Lebanon cleric names Hezbollah MP defense attorney

16/11/2010

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) -- Radical Islamist preacher Omar Bakri has appointed a Hezbollah legislator as his defense lawyer when he goes on trial, a judicial source said on Tuesday, following his arrest in northern Lebanon.

"Omar Bakri has appointed Hezbollah deputy Nawwar Sahili as his lawyer for the retrial," the date of which has not yet been set, the source told AFP.

Lebanese police on Sunday arrested Bakri at his home in the northern port city of Tripoli, just three days after the formerly Britain-based cleric boasted he would "not spend one day" of a life sentence behind bars.

He now faces a retrial before a military court in line with Lebanese law as he was sentenced in absentia.

Police said Bakri tried to flee in a car as the patrol closed in on his house in Tripoli, prompting an officer to open fire to prevent him from escaping.

Bakri, a Sunni Muslim fundamentalist, has appealed to the leader of Shiite militant Hezbollah for help.

"I urge Hassan Nasrallah to look at the injustice facing Omar Bakri who backs all resistance (movements) against Israel," Hezbollah's arch-foe, he said in an interview on private television on Saturday.

Bakri, who has praised the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and hailed the hijackers as the "magnificent 19," was sentenced to life by a Lebanese military court last Thursday.

The 50-year-old was found guilty -- along with more than 40 other Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians and Saudis -- of "incitement to murder, theft and the possession of arms and explosives."

The day after the sentence was handed down he vowed he would not spend a single day behind bars. "I will not hand myself in to any court. I do not believe in the law in Britain as (or) in Lebanon," he told AFP at his home.

Bakri failed to show up for sentencing last week and said he had not been formally informed that the court would issue a verdict, while insisting on his innocence.

The Syrian-born cleric, who also holds Lebanese nationality, said he had no links to Al-Qaeda although he believed in "the same ideology."

Bakri lived in Britain for almost 20 years before being banned from returning there in 2005 under government curbs following the London underground and bus bombings that year.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333897.

New visitors center, courtyard to enhance tourist experience

By Taylor Luck

UM AL JIMAL - Visitors to Um Al Jimal can expect a new experience by the end of the year.

A new visitors center and courtyard are almost ready to greet travelers at the southern entrance of the black basalt city.

Expected to be officially unveiled at the end of the year, the new facility will feature a museum, a gift shop and a rest area for tourists, according to the Department of Antiquities (DoA).

The center, which will be housed in renovated houses from the Byzantine era reconstructed out of cement and basalt, will also host a photo exhibition of the site, detailing how it has changed over the decades.

The renovation is seen as an essential step to better serve visitors as the town of Um Al Jimal currently hosts no lodging, two supermarkets and one falafel stand with varying open hours.

According to the DoA, the center will be integrated with the ongoing efforts of the Um Al Jimal Project, led by Bert de Vries of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In August, the project received a site preservation grant from the Archaeological Institute of America to utilize education and social awareness to preserve the site and develop a heritage center within the town.

To be designed and operated by a committee of citizens in partnership with the Um Al Jimal Municipality, the center will serve as a modern history museum, a lecture and video-presentation hall, a regional handicraft hub, an archaeological and cultural education center, a hostel and a community hall.

The development of Um Al Jimal is an essential part of promoting eastern desert tours, particularly due to its proximity to Qasr Halabat and the famed desert castle loop of Quseir Amra, Qasr Haranna and Qasr Azraq.

The new facility aims not only to encourage independent visitors and tour groups to visit the site, some 20km east of Mafraq, but also to create employment for residents in the area, considered one of the Kingdom’s poverty pockets, DoA officials previously told The Jordan Times.

Originally a Nabataean village built in the 1st century AD, the town became a military outpost along Via Nova Traiana after it was incorporated into the Roman Empire, serving as a series of fortifications defending Roman-occupied territory stretching to the borders of modern-day Saudi Arabia.

More than one dozen Byzantine churches were built on the site during the 5th and 6th centuries, while its stone barracks, water cisterns and administrative buildings were gradually converted back into a rural village under the Umayyad rule around the 7th century.

After an earthquake devastated the area in 749AD, the basalt fortifications were left abandoned for around 1,000 years.

At the turn of the 20th century, the site housed Druze families who resided in the ruins, some of which still stood over two storeys high, before the city fell into disrepair and obscurity.

In 2001, the DoA nominated Um Al Jimal to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

15 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31855.

South Sudan begins voter registration for referendum on secession

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

Nairobi/Juba, Sudan - Voter registration began in South Sudan on Monday for a referendum on independence, five years after the end of a bloody civil war.

The region is due to hold a referendum in January on whether to secede or remain in the power-sharing government of national unity in Khartoum.

Sava Kiir, the president of the semi-autonomous south, called on the population to participate in the historic process.

"The people must register en masse, otherwise many would have fought and died for nothing," the former rebel leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said.

Around 4 million people were killed in over two decades of war between the Muslim-dominated north and the south.

Former rebels lead the southern government from Juba, the region's war-scarred capital. While the government in Khartoum hopes to unite Africa's largest country, most observers expect that the people of South Sudan will seek an independent state.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353631,voter-registration-referendum-secession.html.

Cosmonauts begin six-hour space walk from ISS

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

Moscow - Two Russian cosmonauts from the International Space Station (ISS) began a six-hour space walk on Monday, the Interfax news agency reported.

The pair - Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Skripotschka - will conduct tests and collect surface samples, with the expedition filmed by a video camera.

The cosmonauts left the ISS after a 25-minute delay due to problems with pressure equalization, the flight control center in Moscow said.

They are wearing new computerized "Orlan" spacesuits on the mission, which is currently around 360 kilometres above earth and home to three cosmonauts and a US astronaut.

Yurchikhin has completed four previous space walks, whilst it is the first for Skripotschka.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353640,cosmonauts-begin-six-hour-space-walk-from-iss.html.

Facebook unmasks new messaging system

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

San Francisco - Facebook unveiled a new messaging system on Monday that will allow users to see all their various message feeds in one location and which ups the rivalry between the social networking site and Google.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the service as "modern messaging" and said it would combine email, instant messages, Facebook messages and SMS, as well as giving Facebook's 500 million members their own "@Facebook.com" email addresses.

The Facebook service will store all messages for five years and also provide a social inbox that will automatically differentiate messages from friends, business and mass mailings, he said.

Modelled more on chat programs than email, the Facebook messages won't have a subject line or the ability to cc or bcc recipients. However, users will be able to attach pictures and videos, and in the coming months will also integrate with Microsoft Office so that users will be able to see Word, Excel and Powerpoint attachments directly in Facebook.

"We have tried to make it so people don't have to think about this stuff," said Zuckerberg, who dismissed media speculation that the new service may drive people away from their existing email providers.

"This is not an email killer," Zuckerberg said. "This is a messaging service that has email as part of it."

The initial deployment started Monday for US members and will gradually rollout to all Facebook members over the course of a few months.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353668,unmasks-new-messaging-system.html.

Astronomers find nearby baby black hole

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

Washington - Scientists have identified a young black hole formed from an exploding star witnessed 30 years ago.

The explosion of the star was first observed by an amateur astronomer in 1979, but it took decades of observation to confirm it had become a black hole.

The death of the star in supernova 1979C occurred some 50 million light years from Earth, in what could be "the nearest example where the birth of a black hole has been observed," said Daniel Patnaude of Harvard, who led the study.

Scientists hope it will provide clues about the formation of the celestial objects and the death of stars.

"This may be the first time the common way of a making a black hole has been observed," Harvard University astronomer Abraham Loeb said.

Most black holes are believed to form when a star collapses, but run-of-the-mill black-hole creation is very difficult to observe.

Astronomers have far more experience observing the spectacular but less common creation of black holes that create gamma ray bursts of energy during the collapse of the star.

Most black holes do not create gamma rays, but in order to verify that the death of a star has indeed created a black hole, scientists must make decades of X-ray observations, Loeb noted.

Scientists have been observing SN 1979C with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA's Swift satellite, the European Space Agency's XMM- Newton spacecraft and the German ROSAT observatory. They have seen a bright source of X-rays that remained steady from 1995 to 2007 and is consistent with a black hole being fed by material falling into it from an exploding star or another nearby star.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353671,nearby-baby-black-hole.html.

Erdogan moved to tears

November 15, 2010

In the course of his visit to Bangladesh Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan participated in the events organized by pupils of local Turkish school and could not hide his tears.

According to Milliyet, pupils met Premier Erdogan with flowers, sang Turkish songs and recited poems.

Erdogan also watched a video showing him reciting “My Istanbul” poem by Necip Fazili. Premier Erdogan and his spouse Emine Erdogan could not hide their tears.

Source: Armenia News.
Link: http://news.am/eng/news/38091.html.

Turkish PM says command of missile shield system "to be in our hands"

Turkey's prime minister said early on Monday that missile shield system was a step to be taken within the scope of NATO.

Monday, 15 November 2010

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said NATO was the center of the missile shield issue, and it was a step to be taken within the framework of NATO.

"If missile shield system is thought to be installed in our territories, its command should definitely be in our hands, otherwise it is impossible for us to accept such a thing," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul as he returned from South Korea and Bangladesh.

Erdogan said Turkish Armed Forces was working on the issue, and the system would be debated in the NATO Summit to take place in Lisbon on November 19-20.

On his visit to South Korea and Bangladesh, Erdogan said he discussed free trade agreement, energy cooperation and a number of diplomatic, military, cultural, economic and commercial issues with South Korean executives.

Erdogan said he met the president of South Korean automotive firm Hyundai and debated more cooperation and investment opportunities, and he also had a meeting with the executives of stainless steel company which was thinking of investing in Turkey.

Regarding his visit to Bangladesh, Erdogan said he met president, prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister of that country and he signed agreements on allocating plots for Turkish and Bangladeshi embassies in each other's countries.

Erdogan also said he visited an international Turkish school in Bangladesh, the students of which he believed would be honorary envoys and consulates between the two countries.

G-20 meeting

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said early on Monday that strong steps had been made to boost stability of financial systems with the coordination achieved among member countries during the G-20 Summit held in Seoul, South Korea.

Erdogan said he was accompanied by a crowded delegation including State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, State Minister Mehmet Aydin, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz, several other parliamentarians as well as bureaucrats.

Erdogan said he had very fruitful meetings with the world leaders on the sidelines of G-20 Summit, adding his talks both in South Korea and Bangladesh aimed at boosting economic and commercial cooperation.

Speaking about the G-20 Summit held in Seoul, Erdogan said, "the parties reviewed the progress made in countering global economic and financial crisis. The parties agreed on maintaining the studies to fulfill a strong, sustainable and particularly a balanced global growth in the next period."

Erdogan said reform of international finance institutions, which was important for Turkey, was mainly discussed at the summit, noting, "with the efforts of Turkey, development and issues related to the least developed countries were reviewed. As you know, The Least Developed Countries Summit will take place in Turkey in May. Around 6,000 people are expected to join the summit."

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=66338.

Uruguay to begin bilateral relations with Palestinian state

Albuquerque News.Net
Monday 15th November, 2010

Uruguay has formalized its relationship with the Palestinian government and has indicated it will be represented at a mission in Ramallah.

President Jose Mujica confirmed that Uruguay had recognized the Palestinian State and said bilateral relations were now in place.

The announcement made at the sixteenth congress of Ferab, the Federation of Arab entities in Latin America, took place in Montevideo last week.

Addressing the gathering, the president said Uruguay's culture of tolerance and integration also involved a philosophy "for which we also need to trade."

Mujica said Uruguay was merely recognizing a fact of reality on formalizing relations with the Palestinian state.

The Uruguayan Foreign Affairs ministry later said that president Mujica’s announcement only made official what was signed last April by the Foreign Affairs ministers from Uruguay and the Palestinian Authority to formalize "existing friendly relations between both sides."

Source: Albuquerque News.
Link: http://www.albuquerquenews.net/story/707792.

Poverty kills Muslim feast happiness in Gaza

November 16, 2010

Um Ibrahim Salah, a 42-year-old woman, can not buy all she needs for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of sacrifice, since her husband have been jobless for years.

"Prices double every year and most of the people are unemployed, " Salah said, who lives in the Jabaliya refugee camp of Gaza, one of the most densely populated spots in the world.

The mother spent most of the money buying sweets, nuts and shirts for her four sons. "I have no more money now to afford meat or more clothes for my kids," she added.

Muslims around the world will on Tuesday observe the Eid al- Adha which marks the most important Islamic Holy holidays.

Markets in Gaza this year have witnessed great amount of goods, however sellers said the deteriorating financial conditions of the people in Gaza have resulted in poor shopping ahead of the feast.

"As you can see, the market is full of people but few of them are buying or selling," said Ahmed Jojo, a young vendor of sweets and candies in Gaza City. "Maybe the political parties have contributed candies to the families across the Gaza," he added.

According to international nongovernmental organizations (NGO), poverty in the Gaza Strip has hit more than 70 percent of the 1.5 million residents, as the majority of the population mainly depends on food aid offered by the United Nations and its humanitarian aid agencies.

Though Israel relaxed its blockade in July, which had been severely tightened in 2007 since Hamas seized the strip' control, job opportunities did not increase in the coastal enclave and the residents cannot import everything they want from aboard through Israel.

Traditionally, Muslims buy sacrificial animals for the Feast, but apparently the siege and the declining financial conditions forced the Gaza people to spend less money on livestock for sacrifice. What's more, gifts to female relatives and children also increase the expenses during the four-day Eid.

"The Eid has turned to be a burden as it has been almost impossible to save money," Um Ibrahim said, as she gave a hawker a handful of shekels for a pack of Egyptian-made candies smuggled via tunnels between Egypt and Gaza.

Source: Xinhua

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7200671.html.