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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Wikileaks: "Suleiman Recruited Agents in Syria and Iraq To Counter Iranian Influence"

Wednesday December 01, 2010
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News Report

According to released Wikileaks cables, Egypt’s Security Chief, Omar Suleiman, had his intelligence officers recruit agents in Syria and in Iraq in an attempt to counter the increasing Iranian influence and support for militants in Egypt.

According to Wikileaks, Suleiman told U.S admiral, Michael Mullen, in a 2009 meeting that Iran tried to recruit Bedouins in Egypt in order to smuggle weapons to Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip, and that the Egyptian security forces arrested a cell running under the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party.

In a leaked document dated April 30, 2009, Suleiman told Mullen that Iran must pay the price for its interference in regional affairs.

The leaked document revealed that Suleiman reportedly told Mullen that if the United States wants Egypt to cooperate on Iran, the issue would take a big burden off Egypt.

Suleiman was also quoted as telling Mullen that Egypt started a ‘confrontation’ with Hezbollah and Iran, and that if they interfere in Egyptian affairs, Egypt will interfere in internal Iranian policies. He also reportedly started recruiting agents operating in Iran and in Syria.

According to a separate cable, Mousa held a meeting with U.S General David Petraeus in 2009, and accused Iran of supporting the Muslim brotherhood and the Islamic Group in Cairo.

He reportedly informed Petraeus that Iran had heeded to Egypt’s warnings to stop intervening in internal Egyptian policies.

Other cables also published by WikiLeaks indicated that U.S congressmen held meetings with Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, and with Suleiman, in which the two Egyptian officials revealed they are worried about the Iranian nuclear program, but at the same time advised against a military attack on Iran.

Source: International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC).
Link: http://www.imemc.org/article/60056.

China urges US action over WikiLeaks revelations

by Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) Nov 30, 2010

China on Tuesday urged the United States to "properly handle" fallout from a slew of leaked cables that revealed Beijing, long seen as North Korea's protector, would accept a reunited Korean peninsula.

Cables revealed by the WikiLeaks website quoted US diplomats as saying that China increasingly doubts its own influence over Pyongyang and considers the "spoiled child" regime's nuclear program to be "very troublesome."

"We hope the US side will properly handle relevant issues," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said as WikiLeaks made the latest batch of secret cables public amid heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul.

"We don't want to see any disturbance to China-US relations," Hong added, after leaks showed China turned a blind eye to North Korean missile parts exports and the top Chinese leadership was behind cyberattacks on Google.

The leaked cables have left diplomats worldwide red-faced and drew the ire of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who called their release an "attack" on the US and the world.

The memos became public a week after North Korea shelled a South Korean border island, killing four people and sending tensions soaring.

Allegations from the 250,000 cables include that Iran's supreme leader has cancer and will die "within months" and that Saudi King Abdullah urged the US to attack Iran and "cut off the head of the snake" over its nuclear program.

"Obviously this is a matter of great concern," Clinton said as she headed for an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit in Kazakhstan that looks increasingly like a diplomatic damage limitation exercise.

"We don't want anyone in any of the countries that could be affected by these alleged leaks to have any doubts about our intentions, and about our commitments," Clinton told reporters.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, described in the missives as "thin-skinned and authoritarian ... naked emperor", slammed their release as "the ultimate degree of irresponsibility," his government spokesman said.

The flood of leaked US diplomatic cables -- most of which date from between 2007 and February 2010 -- has revealed secret details and indiscreet asides on some of the world's most tense international issues.

The website gave the cables to journalists from five Western publications several weeks ago, and they are being released on the Internet in stages.

WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange described the mass of documentation as a "diplomatic history of the United States" covering "every major issue." The site will next year release documents targeting "a big US bank", he said.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, a long-time US critic described in the cables as "crazy", praised Assange, while Ecuador even offered the 39-year-old sanctuary.

US Attorney General Eric Holder said there was an "ongoing criminal investigation" of the leaks and vowed to pursue Assange, an Australian believed to be living in Europe, if he is found to have violated US law.

US officials had raced to contain the fallout last week by warning more than a dozen governments but refused to negotiate with WikiLeaks.

The leaks particularly highlighted the difference between Arab states' public policies and private desires, notably concerning Iran, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The documents allege that Egypt advised the US to forget about democracy in post-invasion Iraq and allow a return to dictatorship, while Kuwait's interior minister said "the best thing to do is get rid of" Kuwaitis held at Guantanamo.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that Arab countries should not fall into the whistleblower's "trap" after memos suggested Gulf states wanted a US military strike on the Islamic republic.

"This is a very suspicious plot. They have planted some Western and US crimes in them to present them as credible," Mehmanparast said.

US officials have not confirmed the source of the leaks, but suspicion has fallen on Bradley Manning, a former army intelligence analyst arrested after the release of a video showing air strikes that killed reporters in Iraq.

WikiLeaks argues that its first two document dumps -- nearly 500,000 US military reports from 2004 to 2009 -- shed light on abuses in Afghanistan and Iraq, and denies any individual has been harmed by its disclosures.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_urges_US_action_over_WikiLeaks_revelations_999.html.

Clinton 'should resign,' WikiLeaks founder says

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Nov 30, 2010

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should resign if it is shown US diplomats were ordered to engage in espionage.

Assange, the target of a US criminal investigation following WikiLeaks release of masses of classified US diplomatic cables this week, took aim at Clinton in an interview with Time magazine that was conducted from an undisclosed location over the Skype Internet phone service.

Clinton "should resign, if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering US diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the US has signed up," he said.

"Yes, she should resign over that."

On Sunday, his website and a group of media outlets released the first batch of a quarter million US diplomatic cables -- most of which date from between 2007 and February 2010.

The trove revealed secret details and indiscreet asides on some of the world's most tense international issues.

Among them were cables under Clinton's name asking diplomats to gather information that normally would be the work of spies, like obtaining the credit card and frequent flyer numbers of foreign dignitaries.

One cable that went out in July 2009 sought technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys.

Another cable signed by Clinton sought "biographic and biometric information on ranking North Korean diplomats" from US diplomats at the US mission to the United Nations in New York.

Clinton has sought to limit the damage from the embarrassing disclosures, telling reporters Monday that the release "was not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community."

Asked about the calls for Clinton to resign, her spokesman Philip Crowley said, "Why would that be?"

"Our diplomats are diplomats. Our diplomats are not intelligence assets," Crowley said during the daily media briefing.

"They can collect information. If they collect information that is useful, we share it across the government as we've been talking about with respect to documents generated by the Department of State," he said.

"Please do not infer from one document that ... this fundamentally changes the role," he added.

When a reporter asked him to assess Assange's character and motives, Crowley replied: "I believe he has been described as an anarchist. His actions seem to substantiate that."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Clinton_should_resign_WikiLeaks_founder_says_999.html.

Singapore drones to be deployed

by Staff Writers
Singapore (UPI) Nov 30, 2010

Six army units in Singapore will get mini spy planes locally manufactured by the end of the year, becoming fully incorporated into the country's arsenal by 2012, local media reported this week.

Billed Skyblade III, the unmanned aerial vehicles are mounted with a camera, allowing reconnaissance troops to "beam real-time video images of things beyond a soldier's line of vision," The Straits Times reported.

This information is then analyzed by the operators before it is reported to higher headquarters.

"With the Skyblade III, scout teams can now better assist commanders in decision-making by providing more timely information," said Senior Lt. Col. Ong Chee Boon. "They can report terrain conditions and the presence of opposition forces in real time," he told the Murai Urban Training Facility.

Designed to be lightweight and portable, the battery-operated unmanned aircraft will have a wingspan of 7 feet and a range of about 5 miles. It will be able to stay in air for up to an hour.

"Research on earlier models and commercial unmanned aircraft vehicles from the United States and Israel allowed the army to finally come up with a mini drone that is best suited to the Singapore armed forces and its troops," The Straits Times reported.

The spy-crafts are designed to resemble birds, emitting little noise and requiring about 20 minutes to launch.

"In the past, we had to get very close to opposing forces in order to gather information," reported Defense Talk citing Quek Jian Lian, a scout team commander in the 3rd Singapore Infantry Regiment. "With the Skyblade III, my team can be further away from hostile territory, yet still give accurate reports to my commanders," he said.

The Skyblade III can be launched either by hand or through bungee-assistance.

The latter suggested the drone will be sitting on launching rails while connected to a sling-shot like rig. Once triggered, Defense Talk reported, "the rig powers the mini-UAV into the air and mechanically disconnects when the Skyblade III is safely airborne."

"To land, the mini-UAV performs a deep stall and an airbag is deployed from its belly which cushions the impact from landing," the report said.

Skyblade III was developed in collaborative arrangement between ST Aerospace and DSO National Laboratories, the government's defense research and development entity.

Work to bring the Skyblade III advanced capabilities to the battalion scouts and Brigade Reconnaissance Surveillance Targeting Acquisition Teams within these units started in 2009. By the end of 2010, they are expected to be operationalized on the system.

To date, 44 Skyblade III operators have been trained.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Singapore_drones_to_be_deployed_999.html.

Cassini Finds Warm Cracks On Enceladus

by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (SPX) Dec 01, 2010

New images and data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft give scientists a unique Saturn-lit view of active fissures through the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. They reveal a more complicated web of warm fractures than previously thought.

Scientists working jointly with Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer and its high-resolution imaging camera have constructed the highest-resolution heat intensity maps yet of the hottest part of a region of long fissures spraying water vapor and icy particles from Enceladus. These fissures have been nicknamed "tiger stripes."

Additional high-resolution spectrometer maps of one end of the tiger stripes Alexandria Sulcus and Cairo Sulcus reveal never-before-seen warm fractures that branch off like split ends from the main tiger stripe trenches. They also show an intriguing warm spot isolated from other active surface fissures.

"The ends of the tiger stripes may be the places where the activity is just getting started, or is winding down, so the complex patterns of heat we see there may give us clues to the life cycle of tiger stripes," said John Spencer, a Cassini team scientist based at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

The images and maps come from the Aug. 13, 2010, Enceladus flyby, Cassini's last remote sensing flyby of the moon until 2015. The geometry of the many flybys between now and 2015 will not allow Cassini to do thermal scans like these, because the spacecraft will be too close to scan the surface and will not view the south pole.

This Enceladus flyby, the 11th of Cassini's tour, also gave Cassini its last look at any part of the active south polar region in sunlight.

The highest-resolution spectrometer scan examined the hottest part of the entire tiger stripe system, part of the fracture called Damascus Sulcus. Scientists used the scan to measure fracture temperatures up to190 Kelvin (minus 120 degrees Fahrenheit). This temperature appears slightly higher than previously measured temperatures at Damascus, which were around 170 Kelvin (minus 150 degrees Fahrenheit).

Spencer said he isn't sure if this tiger stripe is just more active than it was the last time Cassini's spectrometer scanned it, in 2008, or if the hottest part of the tiger stripe is so narrow that previous scans averaged its temperature out over a larger area. In any case, the new scan had such good resolution, showing details as small as 800 meters (2,600 feet), that scientists could see for the first time warm material flanking the central trench of Damascus, cooling off quickly away from the trench. The Damascus thermal scan also shows large variations in heat output within a few kilometers along the length of the fracture. This unprecedented resolution will help scientists understand how the tiger stripes deliver heat to the surface of Enceladus.

Cassini acquired the thermal map of Damascus simultaneously with a visible-light image where the tiger stripe is lit by sunlight reflecting off Saturn. The visible-light and thermal data were merged to help scientists understand the relationships between physical heat processes and surface geology.

"Our high-resolution images show that this section of Damascus Sulcus is among the most structurally complex and tectonically dynamic of the tiger stripes," said imaging science team associate Paul Helfenstein of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Some details in the appearance of the landforms, such as a peculiar pattern of curving striations along the flanks of Damascus, had not previously been noticed in ordinary sunlit images.

The day after the Enceladus flyby, Cassini swooped by the icy moon Tethys, collecting images that helped fill in gaps in the Tethys global map. Cassini's new views of the heavily cratered moon will help scientists understand how tectonic forces, impact cratering, and perhaps even ancient resurfacing events have shaped the moon's appearance.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., where the instrument was built.

Source: Saturn Daily.
Link: http://www.saturndaily.com/reports/Cassini_Finds_Warm_Cracks_On_Enceladus_999.html.

Spain Supplies Weather Station For Next Mars Rover

by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 01, 2010

The first instrument from Spain for a mission to Mars will provide daily weather reports from the Red Planet. Expect extremes.

Major goals for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory include assessing the modern environment in its landing area, as well as clues to environments billions of years ago. The environment station from Spain will fill a central role in studying modern conditions by measuring daily and seasonal changes.

The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station, or REMS, is one of 10 instruments in the mission's science payload. REMS uses sensors on the mast, on the deck and inside the body of the mission's car-size rover, Curiosity. Spain's Ministry of Science and Innovation and Spain's Center for Industrial Technology Development supplied the instrument. Components were installed on Curiosity in September and are being tested at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

While most of Curiosity's electronics are sheltered for some protection from the Martian environment, the team that developed and built the environmental station needed to fashion external sensors that could tolerate the temperature extremes that some of them would be monitoring.

"That was our biggest engineering challenge," said REMS Principal Investigator Javier Gomez-Elvira, an aeronautical engineer with the Centro de Astrobiologia, Madrid, Spain. "The sensors will get very cold and go through great changes in temperature every day." The Center for Astrobiology is affiliated with the Spanish National Research Council and the National Institute for Aerospace Technology.

The air temperature around the rover mast will likely drop to about minus 130 degrees Celsius (about minus 202 degrees Fahrenheit) some winter nights and climb to about minus 50 C (about minus 60 F) by 12 hours later. On warmer days, afternoon air temperatures could reach a balmy 10 to 30 C (50 to 86 F), depending on which landing site is selected.

Other challenges have included accounting for how the rover itself perturbs air movement, and keeping the entire weather station's mass to just 1.3 kilograms (2.9 pounds).

The instrument will record wind speed, wind direction, air pressure, relative humidity, air temperature and ground temperature, plus one variable that has not been measured by any previous weather station on the surface of Mars: ultraviolet radiation. Operational plans call for taking measurements for five minutes every hour of the 23-month-long mission. Twenty-three months is equal to approximately one Martian year.

Monitoring ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation along with other weather data will contribute to understanding the Martian climate and will aid the mission's assessment of whether the current environment around the rover has conditions favorable for microbial life.

"It is important to know the temperature and humidity right at ground level," said Gomez-Elvira. Humidity at the landing sites will be extremely low, but knowing daily humidity cycles at ground level could help researchers understand the interaction of water vapor between the soil and the atmosphere. If the environment supports, or ever supported, any underground microbes, that interaction could be key.

Ultraviolet radiation can also affect habitability. For example, germ-killing ultraviolet lamps are commonly used to help maintain sterile conditions for medical and research equipment. The ultraviolet sensor Curiosity's deck measures six different wavelength bands in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, including wavelengths also monitored from above by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The weather station will help extend years of synergy between missions that study Mars from orbit and missions on the surface.

"We will gain information about whether local conditions are favorable for habitability, and we will also contribute to understanding the global atmosphere of Mars," said Gomez-Elvira. "The circulation models of the Mars atmosphere are based mainly on observations by orbiters. Our measurements will provide a way to verify and improve the models."

For example, significant fractions of the Martian atmosphere freeze onto the ground as a south polar carbon-dioxide ice cap during southern winter and as a north polar carbon-dioxide ice cap in northern winter, returning to the atmosphere in each hemisphere's spring. At Curiosity's landing site far from either pole, REMS will check whether seasonal patterns of changing air pressure fit the existing models for effects of the coming and going of polar carbon-dioxide ice.

The sensor for air pressure, developed for REMS by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, uses a dust-shielded opening on Curiosity's deck. The most conspicuous components of the weather station are two fingers extending horizontally from partway up the rover's remote-sensing mast. Each of these two REMS mini-booms holds three electronic sensors for detecting air movement in three dimensions. Placement of the booms at an angle of 120 degrees from each other enables calculating the velocity of wind without worrying about the main mast blocking the wind. One mini-boom also holds the humidity sensor; the other a set of directional infrared sensors for measuring ground temperature.

To develop REMS and prepare for analyzing the data it will provide, Spain has assembled a team of about 40 researchers - engineers and scientists. The team plans to post daily Mars weather reports online.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Spain_Supplies_Weather_Station_For_Next_Mars_Rover_999.html.

Morocco flood leaves one dead, six missing

2010-11-30

One person was killed and six others were reported missing on Tuesday (November 30th), when their car was washed away by floods in the Moroccan province of Al-Hoceima, KUNA reported. A rescue team is searching for the other bodies.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/30/newsbrief-05.

Algeria confronts AIDS epidemic

As many as 30,000 Algerians could be living with HIV or AIDS.

By Mohand Ouali for Magharebia in Algiers – 30/11/10

Over 600 new cases of AIDS were recorded during the first nine months of 2010 in Algeria, where the disease has spread relentlessly since the outbreak began in 1985.

"According to the likeliest estimates, there are between 21,000 and 30,000 people living with the virus," Dr Skander Abdelkader Soufi announced November 24th at an Algiers forum on HIV/AIDS.

"This gives us an idea of the danger and the work that remains to be done," said Soufi, who runs AIDS prevention NGO ANIS.

To coincide with World Aids Day, a global awareness effort launched by the World Health Organization in 1988, ANIS chose Wednesday (December 1st) as the launch date for Algeria's own AIDS awareness campaign.

The national kick-off for Himaya (Protection) is set for Ghardaia. The year-long initiative will be promoted by two high-profile women: former culture minister Zahia Benarous and singer Amel Wahbi.

ANIS recently conducted an awareness caravan about sexually transmitted diseases, called "Holidays Without AIDS", which traveled the beaches most frequented by tourists.

Women and children are on the front line of the epidemic, Dr Soufi warned. He estimates that between 6,000 and 12,000 women in Algeria are infected with the disease.

"All organizations operating in the fields of healthcare and mother-and-child protection have been urged to join forces with us in this awareness-raising campaign", he said, explaining that this segment of the population has limited access to information.

Soufi believes that just 8% of women living with AIDS have access to mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention services but most women are not aware that such services exist.

In its 2010 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) classified Algeria as a country with a low-level epidemic and an HIV prevalence of around 0.1%. The number of people undergoing antiretroviral therapy rose to 1,526 at the end of 2009, 51% of whom were men. The report also noted that all donated blood is screened in Algeria.

Algeria boasts 61 anonymous and free screening centers, which are spread across all provinces of the country, as well as a National Blood Agency and eight referral centers that treat people with HIV/AIDS. The report also underlined the commitment shown by the Algerian government, which provides antiretroviral drugs free of charge.

However, there are still gaps in the provision of treatment for sufferers, and the availability of medicine is not always guaranteed. Patients also have difficulty obtaining reimbursements for medicines to treat secondary illnesses. ANIS recommended that the labor ministry classify AIDS as a chronic illness, which would make sufferers eligible for welfare assistance.

In addition, the government has taken a number of steps to combat the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STI). It developed a National Strategic Plan for the fight against STI-HIV-AIDS (2008-2012) and set up a network for disease detection and controlling blood quality.

Professor Mehdi Youcef, Mustapha-Pacha hospital chief and the health ministry's AIDS liaison, recently declared that Algeria is the first country in the region to grant all AIDS patients access to antiretroviral drugs "for free".

"Algeria should be proud of what it has achieved in this field," Youcef said, noting the country has provided care throughout the country through treatment centers specifically for AIDS.

A number of civil society groups remain actively involved in the fight against AIDS, including the Algerian Red Crescent and the Association for Information About Drugs and AIDS (AIDS Algeria). AIDS Algeria has organized campaigns in Tamanrasset and in Oran, where they helped educate women on modes of transmission.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/11/30/feature-01.

Google faces probe in Europe

BRUSSELS, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The European Commission said it had opened an investigation of Internet search giant Google Inc. to explore possible antitrust business practices.

"This initiation of proceedings does not imply that the commission has proof of any infringements. It only signifies that the commission will conduct an in-depth investigation of the case as a matter of priority," the commission said in a statement.

The commission said it was following up on complaints that Google lowered the ranking of search results of competing search engines, giving a higher priority to its own "vertical search services," which are searches that result in price comparisons.

"The commission will also look into allegations that Google lowered the 'Quality Score' for sponsored links of competing vertical search services. The Quality Score is one of the factors that determine the price paid to Google by advertisers," the commission said.

In addition, the inquiry will look into the possibility the U.S. company "imposes exclusivity obligations on advertising partners … as well as on computer and software vendors."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2010/11/30/Google-faces-probe-in-Europe/UPI-34841291127652/.

Pakistani threatens to sue CIA

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A Pakistani man is demanding the United States pay him $500 million dollars in damages within two weeks for the death of his teenage son and his brother.

Journalist Kareem Khan of North Waziristan attributed the deaths to a U.S. drone strike on his home and threatened to file suit against the CIA in Pakistani courts if he is not compensated, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Khan said his relatives and another man killed in the missile strike in the town of Mir Ali were not connected to the Taliban or al-Qaida militants.

His attorney, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, provided the Post with blurred photographs of deceased men he said were Khan's brother and son.

Khan said he was in Islamabad at the time of the drone attack but did not say exactly when it occurred.

Drone strikes carried out in the tribal areas of Pakistan are highly controversial, neither the United States nor Pakistan acknowledges the clandestine program.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2010/11/30/Pakistani-threatens-to-sue-CIA/UPI-84461291123122/.

U.S., allies reject talks with North Korea

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The United States, South Korea and Japan are declining China's request for emergency talks with North Korea on the Korean Peninsula crisis, officials said.

China called during the weekend for the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia to engage in emergency talks with North Korea.

Obama administration officials said resuming talks with North Korea would amount to rewarding Pyongyang for actions during the past week that included an artillery attack on a South Korean island and disclosure of the existence of a uranium enrichment plant, The New York Times reported Monday.

"The United States and a host of others, I don't think, are not interested in stabilizing the region through a series of P.R. activities," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

Gibbs said such talks would lack "seriousness of purpose" if there is no "understanding and agreement from the North Koreans to both end their behavior as they exhibited last week."

White House officials said Washington wants North Korea to take steps toward denuclearization.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak did not address China's proposal for a resumption of talks, but analysts told the newspaper the proposal was disappointing. A spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told the Times resumption of talks depends on whether North Korea modifies its behavior.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/11/30/US-allies-reject-talks-with-North-Korea/UPI-26061291094945/.

South Korea plans new drills as China avoids blaming North

By Nick Macfie

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea plans more military drills after U.S. warships leave on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency said, a move likely to add to tension on the divided peninsula after last week's attack by the North.

The isolated North's only powerful ally, China, protected Pyongyang from censure by the U.N. Security Council for last week's deadly bombardment of the South's Yonpyeong island, an attack many analysts believe was an attempt by the impoverished state to grab attention and force the resumption of international negotiations that could bring it aid.

As the nuclear-powered USS George Washington heads out of Korean waters back to Japan, South Korea is planning further artillery drills, "including waters close to the Yellow Sea border (with the North)" starting on Monday, Yonhap said.

The Defense Ministry would not comment on the report. Such drills are common and the exercise would be west of Yeonpyeong, Yonhap said.

The plan was to "beef up its defense readiness posture against any possible additional provocations by North Korea," it said, quoting officials.

An attempt by France and Britain to push the U.N. Security Council to condemn North Korea's nuclear program and the attack on Yeonpyeong was on the verge of collapse because of China's unwillingness to apportion blame, envoys said.

The reason for the virtual breakdown of talks on two separate Security Council statements to rebuke Pyongyang was China's demand for removal of key words such as "condemn" and "violation."

The United States and South Korea are pressing China, which has not blamed North Korea for the island attack, or for the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel in March, to do more to rein in its ally.

President Lee Myung-bak, widely criticized at home for a perceived weak response to the North Korean attack, has twice warned that any further provocation would be met with force.

Outgoing Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told lawmakers on Tuesday that there was an "ample possibility" the North may stage another provocation after the joint maneuvers end.

THREATS AND BOASTS

Many analysts believe North Korea's attack, continual threats of all-out war and its boasting on Tuesday of huge nuclear advances are aimed at holding the world's attention as it seeks aid and other economic sweeteners with the resumption of so-called "six-party talks" it walked out of two years ago.

North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests to date and is believed to have enough fissile material from its plutonium-based program to make between six and 12 bombs.

It is also seen as a proliferation risk, accused by the West of supplying Syria, and possibly Iran, with nuclear know-how.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday the North's nuclear program, last week's attack on Yeonpyeong and a Chinese proposal for emergency talks would be raised at meeting of foreign ministers in Washington in early December.

South Korea, Japan and the United States, three of the six countries involved in the on-off disarmament talks, will attend.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

"Don't hunt down my son," says mother of WikiLeaks founder

CANBERRA (Reuters) – The mother of Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Wednesday she was distressed by an international police alert for her son's arrest and did not want him "hunted down and jailed."

Global police agency Interpol issued a "red notice" on Tuesday to assist in the arrest of Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, who is wanted in Sweden on suspicion of sexual crimes.

Assange, 39, a former computer hacker now at the center of a global controversy after WikiLeaks released a trove of classified U.S. diplomatic cables at the weekend, denies the Swedish allegations.

Christine Assange, who runs a puppet theater in Australia's Queensland state, said she was worried about her son's wellbeing as Australia's government joined the United States in launching an investigation into whether Assange and WikiLeaks had broken security or criminal laws.

"He's my son and I love him and obviously I don't want him hunted down and jailed. I'm reacting as any mother would. I'm distressed," she told Australian radio. "A lot of stuff that's written about me and Julian is untrue."

Assange, who was born in Townsville, Queensland has gone underground since WikiLeaks controversially began publishing more than 250,000 secret U.S. government documents.

Assange's arrest warrant was issued by Sweden's International Public Prosecution Office in Gothenburg on November 18.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor)

Returned exiles offer Somalia its last chance

One is an ex-teacher. Another is Rageh Omaar's brother. Daniel Howden meets Mogadishu's makeshift government

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

A bureaucrat from Buffalo, a primary school teacher from Birmingham and the Oxford-educated brother of broadcaster Rageh Omaar. These are, respectively, Somalia's new Prime Minister, Women's Minister and Foreign Minister. And collectively they represent their country's last chance for a generation of piecing together a central government in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.

Sounding like a politician anywhere else in the world, Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed talks of his first 100 days. Then he checks himself and changes that to 80 days, because "we don't have time to waste". Speaking in the favored political clichés of his adopted country, he says the new "team" is made up of "professionals and scholars" with the "energy to bring change".

Eight months from now, the mandate for the UN-backed transitional federal government (TFG) will run out. The international community warns that it is ready to give up on the administration unless clear progress is demonstrated. Diplomats admit that it will take "a miracle in Mogadishu" to turn things around and nobody is sure what might come next.

A walk through the wreck of the old parliament in central Mogadishu offers a warning to anyone who thinks they can make politics work in this divided country. Goats wander through the rubble of its hallways, while African Union soldiers are camped under canvas among its smashed walls. On the second floor is the amphitheater where MPs once sat. The roof has been blown away and a mural featuring a woman breaking chains above a crowd of Somali faces has been blasted to a faint outline by the sun.

Parliament now meets in the basement function room where the plastic chairs – in blue and white, to reflect the Somali flag – offer the only hint of a national purpose. To date, the internationally funded peace process has delivered a succession of expensive governments in exile, a boon for the five-star hotels of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and nothing for most Somalis.

Despite the reassuringly familiar accents of many of the new ministers, politics in Mogadishu is nothing like anywhere else. Government officials live as virtual prisoners in the compound of Villa Somalia – the city's presidential palace – traveling to meetings in the back of armored personnel carriers mounted with machine guns. The vehicles reverse to the door of meeting rooms to shield their VIP cargo. Five Somali cabinet ministers have been killed in attacks by Islamic extremists, al-Shabaab, in the past year.

This is the world Dr Maryan Qasim has just stepped into. For the past eight years she has been working at a primary school in Birmingham. After less than a week back in her home city after an absence of more than 20 years, the softly spoken former doctor is struggling to adjust.

She speaks of the problems facing Somali immigrants in the UK before seeming to remember where she is now. "Everything has changed," she says. "After 20 years of civil war I could imagine what I would find but there is no word to define the suffering here."

Only a fortnight ago the telephone rang in her "nice house" in Britain's second city. It was the new Prime Minister's office asking her to come home. "My family begged me not to go," she admits.

She says she is still getting used to going to sleep to the sound of heavy weapons. The university where she earned her degree in the 1970s is now in ruins, stuffed with sandbags and razor wire for its new life as headquarters for the Burundi contingent of the African Union Mission in Somalia force, Amisom. Like anyone else visiting the capital, the new Women's Minister sees no evidence of international support. "Where is Unicef?" she asks. In an effort to describe things in terms that would make sense in Britain, she says that Somalia needs its own "Sure Start" program for families.

With the impeccable manners of a bygone era, the Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar concedes that the international community has supported past governments to little effect and that Somali politics has been sunk in a mire of corruption and infighting. But he insists "clean government" has arrived. He believes that the TFG can defeat al-Shabaab in the capital within four months and this will "provide proof positive of change".

The Prime Minister has been in the country less than a month and speaks as though he were a local party hack for the US Democrats. A little over a month ago he was still a commissioner for ethnic minority rights in Buffalo, New York. He says: "We need good government and reconciliation. Without them we are wasting time." Overflowing with his can-do attitude, he says: "We have energy and fresh ideas. A lot of people are buying that."

But not everyone. The decades-long bid to restore some measure of central government to Somalia has disappointed everyone involved. "We've heard it all before," says a senior UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "What these people have to demonstrate is that they can change lives of the people of Mogadishu. Posturing is not enough."

In the coming weeks, the UN Security Council will sanction the expansion of the Amisom force from 8,000 to 12,000 troops at international expense. A senior diplomat from one of the main donor countries says: "There will be no extension of the TFG's mandate if they fail. It's definitely over."

For its part, the government of expats is hoping its willingness to come to this war-torn city will prompt international agencies in cosy Somalia postings in Nairobi to follow suit. The UN said in July it would be returning to Mogadishu "within six weeks". But a suicide bombing followed and that timeline was quietly abandoned. The man who oversees the closest that Mogadishu has to a "green zone" is Ugandan Major-General Nathan Mugisha, head of the Amisom mission. He says the time has come for aid agencies to leave the comfort of Kenya and risk return. "There's no reason why the biggest shots shouldn't come here," he says. He points to the weekend visit by the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the first of its kind in two decades, as evidence of improved security. "The military has done its part," General Mugisha says. "We need them to come and fill the gaps."

The "plan B" for Somalia being discussed if the new cabinet of "outsiders" doesn't work boils down to recognizing that parts of the country have continued to work despite anarchy in central and southern areas. The northern breakaway, Somaliland, is not internationally recognized but it carried out arguably the most successful African election this year. The semi-autonomous province of Puntland has fared better in the war against al-Shabaab.

A Western diplomat working with the new government says that some governments were already switching focus: "The new strategy will mean directing support to the parts of the country which work and containing the parts that don't." Optimism, like everything else in Somalia, is in short supply.

Source: The Independent.
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/returned-exiles-offer-somalia-its-last-chance-2147004.html.

الإنتربول يطارد مؤسس ويكيليكس

1/12/2010 م

تعرض موقعه لهجوم قراصنة إنترنت
الإنتربول يطارد مؤسس ويكيليكس

أعلنت الشرطة الدولية (الإنتربول) أنها أصدرت مذكرة توقيف دولية أو ما يعرف بالمذكرة الحمراء بحق مؤسس موقع ويكيليكس جوليان أسانغ، المطلوب في السويد في إطار تحقيق بتهمة الاغتصاب والاعتداء الجنسي، يأتي ذلك في وقت قال فيه الموقع إنه يتعرض لهجوم شرس من قراصنة إنترنت بعد نشره مئات آلاف الوثائق السرية الأميركية.

وقال الموقع الإلكتروني للإنتربول إنه يجب على من لديه معلومات عن أسانغ -الأسترالي المولد والبالغ من العمر 39 عاما- الاتصال بالشرطة الوطنية أو المحلية في بلاده.

وتسمح المذكرات الحمراء بتوزيع أوامر الاعتقال التي تصدرها الشرطة الوطنية على البلدان الأخرى لتسهيل الاعتقال والمساعدة في تسليم المشتبه بهم.

وكانت الشرطة الجنائية السويدية ذكرت الأسبوع الماضي أنها أرسلت مذكرة إلى الإنتربول تطالب فيها باعتقال أسانغ -المجهول الإقامة حاليا ويعتقد أنه ينتقل من بلد إلى بلد- وذلك بعد إصدار المحكمة السويدية في 18 من الشهر الماضي أمرا باعتقاله لاستجوابه باتهامات تتعلق بالاغتصاب والتحرش الجنسي، وهي تهم ينفيها أسانغ.

تهم بالتجسس

من جهة أخرى نقلت صحيفة واشنطن بوست عن مصادر أميركية أن السلطات الحكومية تدرس إمكانية توجيه تهم بالتجسس بحق مؤسس موقع ويكيليكس بعد قيام الموقع بنشر مئات الآلاف من الوثائق السرية الحكومية.

كما نقلت وكالة أسوشيتد برس عن مسؤول كبير في وزارة الدفاع الأميركية قوله إن محامين من وزارات العدل والخارجية والدفاع الأميركية يناقشون إمكانية توجيه تهم بالتجسس بحق أسانغ وآخرين.

وأضاف المسؤول -الذي طلب عدم كشف اسمه- أن المناقشات تجري لدراسة إن كانت متطلبات توجيه تهم التجسس متوافرة، وعلى من يمكن تطبيقها، مشيرا إلى إمكانية توجيه تهم أخرى منها سرقة ممتلكات حكومية أو استلام ممتلكات حكومية مسروقة.

بدوره قال أسانغ -في لقاء أجرته معه مجلة "تايمز ماغازين" عبر هاتف الإنترنت "سكايبي" من مكان غير معروف- إن على وزيرة الخارجية الأميركية هيلاري كلينتون أن تستقيل إذا ثبت أنها مسؤولة عن الطلب من شخصيات دبلوماسية أميركية الانخراط بأعمال تجسس في الأمم المتحدة في انتهاك صريح للميثاق الدولي.

وكان ويكيليكس كشف في بعض الوثائق التي تسربت إليه عن قيام كلينتون بالطلب من دبلوماسيين بجمع معلومات بما يشبه الأعمال التي يقوم بها عادة الجواسيس مثل الحصول على بطاقات الائتمان وأرقام المسافر الدائم لشخصيات أجنبية.

هجوم شرس

في الأثناء أعلن موقع ويكيليكس على موقع التواصل الاجتماعي "تويتر" تعرضه لهجوم قراصنة إنترنت قال إنه أشرس من الهجوم السابق الذي تعرض له قبيل نشره مئات آلاف الوثائق السرية، حيث تخطى الهجوم عشرة غيغابيت في الثانية الواحدة.

وكان ويكيليكس تعرض لهجوم مماثل الأحد الماضي، لكن ذلك لم يحل دون نشره كما هائلا من الوثائق الدبلوماسية الأميركية عبر خمس صحف عالمية رئيسية، هي نيويورك تايمز الأميركية، والغارديان البريطانية، وإل باييس الإسبانية، ولوموند الفرنسية، ودير شبيغل الألمانية.

قاعدة البيانات

على صعيد آخر أعلنت وزارة الخارجية الأميركية أمس الثلاثاء أنها فصلت الأسبوع الماضي قاعدة بياناتها الخاصة بالبرقيات عن شبكة حكومية أميركية سرية.

وقال المتحدث باسم وزارة الخارجية الأميركية بي جيه كراولي للصحفيين "فصلنا كما تعلمون بصفة مؤقتة الربط بين قاعدة البيانات هذه وإحدى الشبكات السرية"، دون أن يحدد هذه الشبكة.

في حين نقلت وكالة رويترز عن مسؤول أميركي رفيع طلب عدم الإفصاح عن اسمه أن تلك الشبكة هي شبكة البروتوكول السري للإنترنت "سايبرنت" التي يعتقد أنها مصدر البرقيات التي حصل عليها موقع ويكيليكس.

يشار إلى ان موقع ويكيليكس ينشر آلاف الوثائق السرية التي تضم مراسلات بين السفارات الأميركية في العالم ووزارة الخارجية الأميركية، وقد أثار نشر هذه المعلومات موجة من ردود الفعل الدولية حول العالم، وتركزت بمعظمها على الدبلوماسية الأميركية في الشرق الأوسط.

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/37C4E062-9AE8-4E82-92EB-233C9847FA20.htm.

مؤتمر يدعو لتعريب التعليم الجامعي

30/11/2010 م

أقامه مجمع اللغة العربية بدمشق
مؤتمر يدعو لتعريب التعليم الجامعي

محمد الخضر-دمشق

قال علماء وباحثون لغويون إن اللغة العربية قادرة على مواكبة علوم العصر رافضين اتهامها بالقصور عن اللحاق بالتطورات العلمية المعاصرة. ودعوا على هامش مشاركتهم بالمؤتمر السنوي لمجمع اللغة العربية بدمشق العلماء والباحثين العرب إلى نشر أبحاثهم بالعربية إلى جانب اللغات العالمية كالإنجليزية والفرنسية.

ويقام المؤتمر بدمشق على مدار أربعة أيام تحت شعار "الكتابة العلمية باللغة العربية" ويتناول عبر مجموعة من المحاور عدة محاور تتضمن البعد الحضاري للكتابة العلمية بالعربية ووسائل تنمية الكتابة العلمية بالعربية والمشكلات التي تتعلق بهذا المجال. ويشارك بالمؤتمر عدد من رؤساء وأعضاء مجامع اللغة العربية والباحثين بالعديد من الدول العربية ومن البوسنة والهرسك.

لغة العلوم

ورأى عضو مجمع اللغة العربية بسوريا الدكتور ممدوح خسارة أن العربية تواكب مستجدات وتطورات البحث العلمي. وأضاف في رده على أسئلة الجزيرة نت أنه ليس من علم إلا وألّفت فيه كتب بالعربية كعلوم البحار والفضاء والفلسفة والذرة والفيزياء، وكل العلوم بالعصر الراهن يمكن التعبير عنها بالعربية لأنها لغة قادرة على استيعاب كل العلوم المعاصرة.

وأوضح أن أهمية الدورة الحالية للمؤتمر أنها تبين أن العربية ليست لغة شعر وأدب وشرعيات وإنسانيات فقط، بل هي أيضا لغة علوم. وطالب خسارة بضرورة تعريب التعليم الجامعي لأنه المفتاح الأول لتقدم لغتنا ومجتمعنا معا.

العبرة بالتنفيذ

في المقابل يرى رئيس مجمع اللغة العربية بالجزائر الدكتور عبد الرحمن الحاج صالح أن مواكبة العربية للتطورات العلمية تكون عبر المشاريع والعمل العربي المشترك، وحذر بتصريح للجزيرة نت من أنه إذا ما بقي العرب بعيدين عن الاختراع والاكتشاف فسيبقون ضعفاء، وبالتالي فإن لغتهم ضعيفة على قدر ضعفهم، كما دعا الباحثين لعدم الاقتصار في نشر أبحاثهم على الإنجليزية أو الفرنسية ونشرها بالعربية.

ووضع الحاج صالح أهمية المؤتمر مرتبطة بما سينفذ لا بما يقال فيه؛ وتابع أن ما يطرح من توصيات بالمؤتمرات التي تتناول العربية أشياء تتكرر كل عام دون تنفيذ ليس إلا.

وربط رئيس مجمع اللغة العربية بفلسطين د. أحمد حسن حامد مواكبة العربية للتطورات العلمية والتقدم العلمي بمواكبة المستجدات الحضارية من خلال مشاريع أبحاث تطبيقية قادرة على أن تطوع كل معلومة حديثة تصل إلينا، واللجوء إلى الأسلوب اللغوي المبسط.

وأكد حامد للجزيرة نت أن أهمية المؤتمر تنبع من خلال القوة التي يضعها نصب عينيه "كي نخرج بقرارات مهمة قابلة للحياة"؛ متمنيا أن تأخذ الحكومات العربية في الحسبان قرارات وتوصيات المجامع، وبالذات مجمع اللغة العربية في سوريا.

ضعف تعليمي

أما أستاذ علم اللغة العربية بجامعة القاهرة وعضو مجمع اللغة العربية بمصر د. محمد حسن عبد العزيز فيعيد مواكبة العربية لمستجدات التطور العلمي إلى موضوع التعليم من مراحله الأولى، وإجادة الأجيال للغة نطقاً وكتابة وفهماً.

وأوضح عبد العزيز أن مرحلة التعليم الابتدائي سيئة ويخرج منها غالبية التلاميذ ومعرفتهم ضعيفة بلغتهم، وإحساسهم بالانتماء لها ضعيف أيضاً خصوصاً أن مجتمعنا يقع تحت سيطرة وهيمنة الثقافات الوافدة في حياتنا.

وكان رئيس مجمع اللغة العربية مروان محاسني قد استعرض في كلمته الافتتاحية مراحل من التاريخ العربي تمكن العرب خلالها من الإفادة من علوم الحضارات الأخرى وتطبيقاتها التقنية المختلفة والقدرة على استيعاب المواد الثقافية في تلك الفترة وتدوينها باللغة العربية.

وأشار محاسني إلى أن العرب لم يكتفوا بالترجمة الحرفية للكتب القديمة بل انطلقوا منها إلى عملية تمثل حقيقي للعلوم المترجمة.

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/4CAC3C35-E110-4890-91A3-83A705325FE0.htm.

إضراب إسلاميين في سجن لبناني

30/11/2010 م

نقولا طعمة-بيروت

تفاعلت قضية السجناء الإسلاميين الموقوفين في سجن رومية منذ بدئهم إضرابا عن الطعام عشية عيد الأضحى احتجاجا على "المعاملة القاسية" إثر تمكن أحد السجناء في جناحهم من الفرار.

وبحسب ما ذكره رئيس لجنة المحامين المتابعة لقضيتهم أسامة شعبان للجزيرة نت، اتخذت سلطات السجن إجراءات "متشددة" دفعت نحو ٣٥٠ موقوفا للتعبير عن احتجاجهم على سوء المعاملة ردا على حادث "لا علاقة لهم به".

ويضيف شعبان أن أحد أسباب الاحتجاج أيضا هو توقيفهم غير الشرعي حيث لم تتم محاكمتهم، مما يبطل حق السلطة باستمرار اعتقالهم سنوات تحت عنوان التوقيف الاحتياطي.

وينتمي الموقوفون لتيارات إسلامية خصوصا من أبرزها تنظيم القاعدة وفتح الإسلام، وتم اعتقالهم على دفعات وفترات متفاوتة.

واقع الموقوفين

وبحسب المحامي شعبان فإن الموقوفين أضربوا عن الطعام منذ ليل عيد الأضحى الذي شهد فرار السجين وليد البستاني من المبنى الذي يوجدون فيه.

وتابع "كان المضربون الآن حذروا السلطات من نوايا ذلك الفار طالبين إخراجه من المبنى، فلم يعر المعنيون الأمنيون أي اهتمام، فهرب الشخص المذكور، وعوقب كل من في المبنى بشكل كلي".

وأشار شعبان إلى أن السلطات منعتهم من التواصل مع بعضهم البعض، وحرمتهم من القنوات التلفزيونية الإسلامية، ومنعت الزيارات، وضيقت مساحة اللقاء بينهم من ثلاثة أرباع الساعة حتى دقائق معدودات، وقطعت المياه والكهرباء عنهم أول أيام الاعتراض.

وقال المحامي "في كل دول العالم يسمح للسجين أن يتابع دروسه، أو يتعلم مهنا حرة في السجن فيخرج متعلما أو يملك مالا لأنه عمل في السجن، لكن عندنا يجري عكس ذلك، ويوضع ستة آلاف في السجن الذي يتسع لألفين".

تأكيد حكومي

وأكد مصدر مسؤول في قوى الأمن الداخلي حصول الإضراب واستمراره، لكنه قال للجزيرة نت إن ٢٣ من الموقوفين تراجعوا عن الإضراب اليوم، وتناولوا الطعام، واستقبلوا ذويهم، آملا أن تنحو قضيتهم باتجاه الحل التدريجي قريبا.

وتابع "الوضع الصحي للجميع ليس فيه ما يدعو للقلق، وليس من عوارض مقلقة عليهم، والعيادات الصحية مستمرة لهم، والتفاوض معهم مستمر للتراجع عن إضرابهم".

تعليق إسلامي

وفي تعليقه على القضية، قال الأمين العام لحركة التوحيد الإسلامي الشيخ بلال شعبان للجزيرة نت "يحكى عن محكمة لا نظير لها في التاريخ تضم المئات، وتعتبر محكمة سياسية يريدون من خلالها إظهار لبنان وكأنه شريك بما يسمى الحرب على الإرهاب حتى تأخذ السلطة شهادة حسن سلوك من الأميركيين".

ولفت الشيخ إلى أن ٩٠٪ من الموقوفين طلبوا منذ أربع سنوات للتحقيق، وتقدموا طوعا من دون أن يذهب أحد لتوقيفهم أو اعتقالهم.

واستهجن ما يحدث بالسجون قائلا "واقع سجوننا سيئ، يدخل الشخص عنده بعض خوف من الله، فيخرج خبير مخدرات وضرب سكاكين. وبدلا من أن تكون سجونا للتأديب وإعادة التأهيل، صارت السجون لحجز الحرية وتخريج أناس حاقدين على المجتمع نتيجة الظلم الذي يتعرضون له".

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/658EB98B-F470-445E-8E4B-203DFC9CE9A1.htm.

Uighur killings seen as reprisal against Chinese injustice

(TibetanReview.net, Nov30, 2010) At least eight Chinese settlers had been killed in three towns in East Turkestan (Chinese: Xinjiang) in what were believed to be attacks by Uyghurs to avenge deprivation, discrimination and injustice on their own land by the Chinese authorities, according to a Radio Free Asia online (RFA) report Nov 26. “The Chinese population in [Xinjiang] has reached 40 percent from 4 percent in 1949. It’s impossible that the speed of the increase wouldn’t concern and anger Uyghurs,” Germany-based World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilshat Raxit was quoted as saying.

The RFA report said there were three attacks by ethnic Uyghurs in November in a possible reflection of growing frustration over the preferential treatment of Chinese immigrants by government officials in the region. It cited local police as saying the attacks took place in two towns within Yengishahar county, in Kashgar prefecture’s Kashgar district, and in Maralbeshi county.

The report cited the police as saying six Chinese had died at No. 8 village in Aral on Nov 12 and two in Yengerik, both towns in Yengishahar county. The report noted that the chief of the Aral police station denied earlier reports that suggested as many as 11 people were killed there.

Nineteen Uighurs were reported to have been detained by Nov 19 in possible connection with the incidents.

The report cited an unnamed staff member from the Maralbeshi county government as saying there had been other killings as well, such as the beheading of several Chinese immigrants in Hoten prefecture and Poskam county of Kashgar just before the Kurban Eid [Muslim holiday].

The report cited the staff member as saying the attacks were sparked by "injustices" against Uyghurs by Han Chinese in the region. “Two months ago in Kashgar [city], there was a big traffic incident and 14 Uyghurs were killed. But we heard that the Chinese driver had not been prosecuted and the families of the victims had not been compensated,” he was quoted as saying.

He had further said that while the killings in Aral town were an act of revenge for this, “the recent spate of these incidents and the government’s controlling of this information shows that it could have been a form of organized political resistance.”

The man was further quoted as explaining: “It’s all about migration problems. Many Uyghurs have lost their farmland and most of the farmland is controlled by the Chinese immigrants. Whenever they hear about immigrants, the locals get irritated. This is the situation.”

Nov 30, 2010

Source: Tibetan Review.
Link: http://www.tibetanreview.net/news.php?cat=2&&id=7803.

Ottoman Should Become Language of Caucasus Emirate, Activist Says

November 29, 2010

Paul Goble

Staunton, November 28 – Ottoman Turkish rather than Russian or Arabic should become the language of the Caucasus Emirate once that state is formed because it can not only unite the peoples of that region but link them to the broader Turkic world and make their study of Arabic, the language of the Koran, easier, according to one emirate supporter.

While many supporters of the Emirate want to retain Russian as the language of inter-ethnic communication and others hope to jump immediately to Arabic, Said-Magomed Tokayev writes, Ottoman Turkish for a variety of reasons is a far better choice for the peoples of the future state.

The choice of language is “an interesting question,” Tokayev writes, exceeded in political importance only by the selection of the name Caucasus Emirate. For a millennium, people have talked about the Caucasus as a region at the dividing point between Asia and Europe, but “no one ever called by this name any state formation.”

Of course, he concedes, declaring the existence of something is one thing, and creating it is quite another. But if the Emirate is to come into existence, there must be “a correct and precisely developed ideology which will be mentally close for the peoples populating such a single state.”

There have been discussions about what the language of inter-ethnic communication should be in that state, Tokayev notes. And at present, “there are not a few supporters of preserving [this status] for the Russian language,” an idea that is based on “completely logical arguments.”

But Tokayev says, it is his view that this issue requires answering a variety of questions, including “historical, religious, ethnic, linguistic, political, geostrategic and other” ones, and he suggests that a consideration of these leads him to conclude that it would be “completely logical” and more useful to adopt the Ottoman language as the common language of the Emirate.

“Our fathers and grandfathers in the Caucasus for many centuries communicated with each other in Kumyk,” he says, a pattern connected with the rule of the Ottoman khalifate, “which left a deep trace in the culture and language of the peoples of the Caucasus,” contributing vocabulary to all the languages of that region.

Indeed, Tokay continues, “even the name Ichkeria [which is what Chechen nationalists call their republic] is a Turkish word which means ‘internal’ in translation from the Kumyk language.”

After Russia conquered the Caucasus in the 19th century, he writes, “the Russian administration replaced Kumyk with Russian as the international language, introducing it by means of schools and trade. From the point of view of the empire, this was a correct step.” And if the Caucasians want a single state, they too much find a single language.

The Russian Empire used force to impose this change, but the Caucasus Emirate will not find such a method very “effective.” But “nevertheless, in uniting the Caucasus into a single state, we are obligated to adopt and introduce a state language for a single state, in our case, the Caucasus Emirate.”

In addition to those who support retaining Russian, there are others in the Emirate movement who want to go over to Arabic, “arguing with justice that there cannot be any better language of the Koran.” But despite that, “there is reason to consider another variant as well, namely the Ottoman,” Tokayev argues.

Arabic is important because of its religious uses, but Tokayev suggests that there should be two state languages for every resident of the Caucasus Emirate – a local ethnic one and Ottoman, “a state language” and also “a language for communication among the peoples of the Caucasus.”

The basic reasons for that are first of all, “more than half of the Ottoman language consists of Arabisms, which means that whoever masters Ottoman is already halfway to mastering Arabic.” Moreover, those who speak one of the six Turkic languages of the region are already able to move to Arabic.

Second, Ottoman was earlier spoken in “today’s Turkey, Central Asia, Arab countries, Persia, the Caucasus, the Middle Volga (Idel-Ural), and the Crimea. Peoples who lived on this enormous territory understood one another thanks to the Ottoman language.” Moreover, while using Ottoman, they never lost their own languages but only saw them “enriched.”

Thus, by adopting Ottoman, the Caucasus Emirate can reach out to all these peoples with all the benefits that will entail.

Third, while Ottoman is not the official language of Turkey, it is taught in law faculties of that country because the terminology it supplies for legal and political issues is so rich. Consequently, the future Caucasus Emirate could only benefit by gaining access to that vocabulary.

And fourth – and Tokayev says this is “the chief argument” in its favor – the adoption of Ottoman will not only link students with the pre-Russian pasts of their own peoples but make it easier for them to learn Arabic in the future not only because of the Arabisms in Ottoman but also because Ottoman uses the Arabic script.

Source: Georgian Daily.
Link: http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20497&Itemid=72.

US Assistant Secretary Fernandez arrives in Algiers

2010-11-29

US Assistant Secretary for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs Jose W. Fernandez is expected to arrive in Algiers on Monday (November 29th) to attend the US-Maghreb Entrepreneurship Conference, La Tribune reported. Business leaders and young entrepreneurs from North Africa and the United States will reportedly discuss a transatlantic business network, technology incubators, access to finance, SME promotion, and other issues at the December 1st-2nd event. Fernandez's trip will continue with two-day visits to Tunisia, Libya and Morocco.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/29/newsbrief-08.

Turkish business delegation visits Maghreb

2010-11-29

Turkish Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan is leading a business delegation to the Maghreb region this week for talks on trade, technology, tourism, transportation and land development. Caglayan will attend the Turkish-Moroccan Business Forum in Casablanca on Tuesday (November 30th) before heading to Tunisia for the Turkish-Tunisian Business Forum on December 2nd.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/29/newsbrief-06.

Mauritania launches public transport company

2010-11-29

Mauritanian Prime Minister Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdhaf on Sunday (November 26th) led the inauguration ceremony for the new national public transport company (STP), ANI reported. Speaking at the body's headquarters in Tevragh Zeina, STP chief Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Ould Abidine Valily said that as part of a comprehensive solution to the problem of transport in Mauritania, some 250 buses would serve Nouakchott and surrounding suburbs. According to Transport Minister Boubou Camara Moussa Seydi, the STP aims to end the long-standing "lack of investment in the transport field" and reform a sector marked by disorder.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/29/newsbrief-05.

First aid training kicks off in Algeria

Algerians seek to hone their emergency assistance skills through a massive new program.

By Hayam El Hadi for Magharebia in Algiers – 29/11/10

Algeria launched a large-scale campaign to educate the public on life-saving efforts. The first aid instruction, which began on Tuesday (November 23rd), aims to provide volunteers with the basic techniques to save victims of road, natural disaster and domestic accidents.

According to the information committee of the disaster and emergency services that organized the campaign, "this training in emergency care and assistance for victims can be vital in many cases, especially when road accidents and disasters happen."

"The goals of this initiative are firstly to teach people first aid and emergency care techniques, then to provide them with skills to save lives, and finally to foster a culture of prevention within society that could help avoid fatalities in the event of an accident or major disaster, or at least to reduce their number by using the acquired knowledge," the committee said.

Though the three-session, 15-day drill is available to the general public, it primarily targets charities, district committees and professionals who are most likely to deal with potential victims directly. These include taxi and bus drivers as well as hauliers who travel long distances and regularly witness road accidents that cause multiple casualties.

Professional first-aid workers who work for intervention organizations affiliated with the disaster and emergency services are responsible for providing the training.

"I have always thought that everyone should know how to help prevent injured people from dying. In my job, unfortunately, I come across road accidents all too often," Mourad Henni, a taxi driver who has signed up for the drill, told Magharebia.

"Because I don't have any medical knowledge, I often find myself not knowing what to do when I see injured people. In many cases, I simply comfort them without daring to offer any real help other than giving them water to drink. The training I will receive will make me feel useful. My efforts to intervene will be targeted and based on sounder knowledge. I'm very happy about this," he added.

Malika Meriben, a housewife and mother-of-two, said: "As soon as I heard about this training, I became interested. I think everyone should know the basic steps to take and teach them to the people around them."

"I would regret standing idly by if I witnessed an accident or if one of my children fell over or got hurt. I hope that this training will also be extended to the youngest in society, who need to take a more active role," she said.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/11/29/feature-01.

Ecuador rebuts Assange refuge offer

President Correa says offer of residence made to WikiLeaks founder by lower official has not been approved.

01 Dec 2010

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has dismissed an offer of residency that a lower level official made to the embattled founder of the online whistle-blower WikiLeaks.

The offer by Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas on Monday "has not been approved by Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino -- or the president," Correa told reporters.

Lucas had offered residence in his country to Julian Assange without conditions.

"We are ready to give him residence in Ecuador, with no problems and no conditions," he told the website Ecuadorinmediato on Monday.

"We are going to invite him to come to Ecuador so he can freely present the information he possesses and all the documentation, not just over the internet but in a variety of public forums."

Assange has enraged the US, and many other countries, by releasing masses of classified US documents, including a dump of embarrassing diplomatic cables and documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq earlier this year.

Assange's whereabouts are unclear, although he spoke to a conference in Jordan via videolink before the latest leaks on Sunday.

Ecuador's Lucas praised people like Assange "who are constantly investigating and trying to get light out of the dark corners of [state] information".

He said Ecuador's government was "very concerned" by revelations in the leaked documents that US diplomats have been involved in spying.

WikiLeaks says it has 1,621 cables that originated from the US embassy in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito. Their contents have not yet been disclosed.

Ecuador's leftist government is one of several in the region that have often been at odds with Washington. It expelled two US diplomats in early 2009, accusing one of directing CIA operations in Ecuador and another of interfering in police affairs.

The government continues close counternarcotics co-operation with the US, but a year ago Rafael Correa, the president, refused to renew the lease on what had been Washington's only base for counternarcotics flights in South America.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2010/11/2010113033515743921.html.

Iran admits uranium enrichment centrifuges hit by malware

by Staff Writers
Tehran (AFP) Nov 29, 2010

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admitted Monday that "several" uranium enrichment centrifuges were damaged by "software installed in electronic equipment," amid speculation Iran's nuclear activities had come under cyberattack.

"They were able to disable on a limited basis some of our centrifuges by software installed in electronic equipment," Ahmadinejad told reporters when asked whether Iran's nuclear program had faced any problems.

"Our specialists stopped that and they will not be able to do it again," he added without elaborating on the software thought to have been used.

Computer security firm Symantec said this month that computer worm Stuxnet might have been designed to disrupt the motors that power gas centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

Iranian officials have insisted that the Islamic republic's nuclear program has not been harmed by Stuxnet, and denied there was any halt in the enrichment work.

But the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, said in its latest report last week that a one-day outage had hit Iran's Natanz enrichment nuclear plant earlier this month.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_admits_uranium_enrichment_centrifuges_hit_by_malware_999.html.

Iran accuses US and Israel of killing nuclear scientist

30/11/2010

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran on Monday accused the US and Israeli intelligence services, the CIA and Mossad, of killing a prominent scientist in the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear program.

"The Zionist regime this time shed the blood of university professor Dr. Majid Shahriari to curb Iran's progress," the office of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a statement posted on its website.

"Political and intelligence analysts are wondering about the link between this inhumane act and the recent remarks of chief of the British intelligence agency, who advocated hiring spies to act against Iran," it added.

MI6 chief John Sawers said in October that diplomacy was not enough to stop Iran developing atomic weapons, and instead urged an "intelligence-led" approach to stopping nuclear proliferation.

Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar also accused the CIA and Mossad of the attacks, state television reported.

"Mossad and the CIA are the enemies of Iranians and always seek to hurt this nation. They particularly want to stop our scientific progress," he said, after state media reported Shahriari was killed and another nuclear scientist wounded in separate attacks in the capital.

"The desperate terrorist act against the two academics shows their weakness and inferiority," he said of Monday's attacks in which assailants on motorbikes reportedly attached bombs to the scientists' cars on their way to work.

Western governments suspect Iran's nuclear program masks a drive for an atomic weapons capability, an ambition Tehran has steadfastly denied.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337086.

Student protesters clash with police in Rome over cuts - Summary

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Rome- Police in Rome on Tuesday baton-charged groups of students who launched eggs and other missiles in protest against the Italian government's proposed university reforms.

Several people received light injuries in the clashes, which took place near the lower house of parliament. At least one person was detained, news reports said.

The reform proposal presented in parliament by Education Minister Maria Stella Gelmini includes cutting funds to faculties and courses which the government says attract only a few students and drain resources from other more vital areas of study.

The controversial bill was passed by a vote of 307 to 252 and now goes to the Senate for approval.

Thousands of students took to the streets in several other Italian cities to protest what they allege are crippling cuts to state tertiary education institutions.

Organizers said around 50,000 took part in the Rome protests, 15,000 in Genua and 5,000 in Pisa where a motorway had to be closed because it was blocked by students.

In Venice, protesters for several hours staged a sit-in at the city's train station, while, in Turin, an unauthorized march through the city center disrupted traffic.

Government officials condemned the protests.

"The real students are at home studying, while those going around protesting ... are dropouts," Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

In similar protests last week, students stormed several of Italy's famous landmarks, including the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Critics of the reforms, including the center-left opposition, say they will make less funds available for research projects and other investments universities have to make to guarantee high standards of education.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355957,rome-cuts-summary.html.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood mulls quitting run-off vote - Summary

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Cairo - Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said Tuesday it is considering withdrawing from the upcoming run-off parliamentary elections after alleging the first round was rife with fraud.

"We are considering our position at the moment and will announce what we plan to do on Wednesday," Brotherhood spokesman Gamel Nassar told the German Press Agency dpa.

In the last election, in 2005, the group had 88 seats, making them the largest opposition bloc in parliament.

But they noted that they did not win a single seat in weekend elections and that just 27 seats are still up for grabs in next Sunday's run-off vote if they participate in it.

The Brotherhood also said that 1,300 of its members and several candidates had been arrested in the weeks leading up to the elections.

They partly credited their 2005 win to the presence of independent judges at polling stations. This year, the presence of judges was drastically curtailed by tighter restrictions on independent monitors.

For its part, the White House criticized the elections on Tuesday, saying that "the United States is disappointed with the conduct during and leading up to Egypt's November 28 legislative elections."

Meanwhile, the official tally from the elections, including names of the newly elected parliamentarians, that had been scheduled to be announced Tuesday night in Cairo was not released.

The High Elections Committee (HEC), which oversees the vote, instead touted the "integrity of the elections".

The HEC said that just under 2 per cent, or roughly 1,053, polling boxes, were tampered with and thus disqualified. They also said that 35 per cent of registered voters, around 14 million people, cast ballots.

Rights groups and opposition figures alleged fraud was rampant during Sunday's vote and rejected the official turnout rate, saying less than half that figure voted.

Although election results were not announced, President Hosny Mubarak's National Democratic Party was expected to retain its overwhelming majority in the People's Assembly, where there are 518 seats, ten of which are appointed by Mubarak himself.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355963,run-off-vote-summary.html.

Bulgaria, Russia strike new deal on Belene nuclear plant

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Sofia - Bulgaria and Russia on Tuesday singed a memorandum of understanding to finalize the troubled Belene nuclear plant project.

The Bulgarian National Eclectric Company (NEK) and the Russian Rosatom will form a joint venture for Belene within four months, with Sofia holding 51 per cent of its capital.

The complex deal also involves Finland's fortum and the French Fortatom, which are looking at acquiring small stakes in Bulgaria's second power plant on Danube.

Rosatom chief executive Sregey Kiriyenko said that work on the power plant, interrupted a year ago amid funding problems, should be renewed within 10 months and the first of the two planned 1,000-megawatt reactors completed in 2016.

The final price of the project and the investors however remain unknown, but Kiriyenko estimated it at between 6.3 and 6.4 billion euros (8.3-8.4 billion dollars).

The original cost projection had been 4 billion euros.

Tuesday's deal enables cash-strapped Bulgaria to go ahead with the power plant without additional spending from the budget.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355965,deal-belene-nuclear-plant.html.

Ugandan court sets free 18 suspects in World Cup bombings

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Kampala - A court in the Ugandan capital Kampala Tuesday dismissed charges against 18 suspects in the July bombings that killed more than 70 World Cup fans who were watching a televised match.

The court said it did not find adequate proof to continue the prosecution of the 18 for their alleged involvement in the bombing attacks on two restaurants in Kampala. The dead had gathered to watch a World Cup match that was broadcast from South Africa.

The Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab, which is battling the Somalia's Western-backed government, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for the presence of Ugandan peacekeepers in their country.

The prosecution of 18 remaining suspects was to continue. Two additional suspects were still being sought.

Lawyers for the 18 suspects who were released on Tuesday claimed that three of their clients had been immediately detained again by security officials at the court, despite the fact that charges were dropped, according to their comments on Radio Simba.

The terrorist suspects included Ugandans, Kenyans and Somalis, who were charged in August with terrorism, murder, assault and attempted murder. More than 80 people were injured in the twin attacks.

Pakistan's president feared military might 'take me out' - Summary

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Washington - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told US Vice President Joe Biden that he was worried the powerful military in his country might "take me out," according to US diplomatic cables published in The New York Times on Tuesday.

Zardari's comments made to Biden in January 2009 reflect the influential role the Pakistani military holds in a country with a long history of coup d'etats, and further raises questions about the effectiveness of civilian rule. It was unclear whether Zardari's comments suggested he could be killed or merely forced out of office.

The US cables from the embassy in Islamabad were part of a massive cache of internal American diplomatic correspondence acquired by WikiLeaks and distributed to a handful of news organizations, including The Times, the Guardian, Germany's Der Spiegel and newspapers in France and Spain.

More than 250,000 documents were being released this week despite the strong objections of the US government, which considers them stolen and says their public release undermines international diplomacy.

The cables underscore the difficult relationship between the United States and Pakistan and US skepticism about whether Islamabad is fully committed to defeating Islamic extremism despite billions of of dollars in annual military and civilian aid.

The cables reveal the tricky dilemma faced by the United States in trying to support a civilian-led government unpopular among Pakistanis and in constant tension with a military and intelligence service less sympathetic to US objectives in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has been reluctant to completely sever ties to the Taliban because it wants to maintain as much influence in Afghanistan to thwart any attempts by archrival India to intervene in Afghanistan, The New York Times reported. Pakistan views the militants as insurance for when the day comes that the US leaves Afghanistan, The Times reported.

Anne Patterson, a US ambassador in Pakistan for three years until her October departure, doubted whether the billions of dollars in US aid would persuade Pakistan to be more cooperative.

There is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance levels in any field as sufficient compensation for abandoning support for these groups, which it sees as an important part of its national security apparatus against India," she said.

Patterson was most likely referring to the Haqqani network of the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group Pakistan financed in the 1990s to fight India in disputed Kashmir, and is accused of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Patterson also warned Washington that pursuing greater ties to India feeds Pakistani establishment paranoia and pushes them closer to both Afghan and Kashmir focused terrorist groups."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355969,take-out-summary.html.

WikiLeaks: US pressured Spain to shelve Iraq, Guantanamo cases

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Madrid - The US embassy in Madrid pressured Spain to shelve court cases against US government and military officials concerning incidents during the Iraq war and alleged torture at Guantanamo, according to WikiLeaks documents

The excerpts from secret US diplomatic documents leaked by the self-proclaimed whistleblower website at the weekend were published by the daily El Pais newspaper Tuesday.

The US ambassador to Spain from 2005-2009, Eduardo Aguirre, personally oversaw many of the attempts to influence the Spanish government and judiciary, according to the daily.

The cases were brought before Spain's National Court, which is known for its human rights investigations.

They dealt with the killing of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso during the Iraq war in 2003, with a Spanish judge seeking the arrest of three US soldiers; with allegations that CIA planes transporting terrorist suspects to Guantanamo had made secret stopovers at Spanish airports; and with alleged torture in Guantanamo.

The Spanish attorney-general, several National Court prosecutors and some politicians showed willingness to comply with the US requests, El Pais quoted the leaked documents as saying.

Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido told the daily that prosecutors had only supplied the US embassy with public data that it had requested.

The US embassy also tried to influence Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government into taking action against the growing criticism in Spain of the occupation of Iraq, the documents show.

El Pais was one of five newspapers to gain access to more than 250,000 secret US diplomatic documents leaked by the self-proclaimed whistleblower WikiLeaks.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355851,shelve-iraq-guantanamo-cases.html.

Kenya 'surprised and shocked' at WikiLeaks revelations

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Nairobi - Kenya's government is "surprised and shocked" by media reports US diplomats in the East African nation were scathing of the ruling parties in diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks website.

Germany's Der Spiegel - one of five newspapers that received cables leaked from US embassies around the globe - said classified messages from Nairobi referred to a "swamp of flourishing corruption" across Kenya and spoke with disdain of the coalition government.

"We do not know the details of the leaked cables, but if what is reported is true then it is totally malicious and a total misrepresentation of our country and our leaders," government spokesman Alfred Mutua said. "We are surprised and shocked by these revelations."

Mutua said the US's Africa envoy Johnny Carson had called Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Monday to apologize for the expected leaks.

"The US Government indicated they are sorry for the content in the leaked documents," he said. "They however have not told us what the documents say and what exactly they are sorry for."

That the US diplomatic mission in Kenya should be so critical in private messages comes as little surprise.

US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger is outspoken in his condemnation of the corruption many feel permeates every level of society in East Africa's largest economy.

Observers say the coalition government of Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki - formed to end the violence that followed disputed presidential elections in December 2007 - is still steeped in graft.

Several prominent ministers recently stepped aside after coming under investigation for alleged involvement in dodgy deals.

Mutua also accused foreign powers - apparently referring to the US - of attempting to undermine the government.

"The Government is aware that a lot of money has been allocated to fund the youth to cause an uprising against our country and lead us into turmoil in an attempt to install a new leadership structure," he said.

The US is ploughing millions of dollars into youth empowerment programs in Kenya.

"What we know is that true friends should tell you the truth all the time and should not tell you everything is okay on one hand and on the other hand say the opposite or initiate programs against you," Mutua added.

Iran nuclear talks to start Monday in Geneva, says Ashton

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Brussels - Iran has accepted the restart of international negotiations on its nuclear program starting next week in Geneva, a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday.

Ashton is due to conduct talks on behalf of the so-called 5+1 group, comprising the permanent United Nations Security Council members United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany.

"We have now received a response from the Iranian authorities in which (Iranian chief nuclear negotiator) Saaed Jalili has accepted Catherine Ashton's offer to meet in Geneva," Darren Ennis told the German Press Agency dpa.

"Talks ... will now take place next Monday and Tuesday," he added.

On Monday Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had confirmed his country's willingness to start talks on December 5, but indicated that the venue still had to be agreed.

Iran also wants next week's negotiations to focus on procedural issues for future talks, rather than on its concrete nuclear plans.

But Ashton considers that "the core issue on the table is Iran's nuclear program," even if "this is a two-way dialogue and she is open to discuss other issues," her spokesman pointed out.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355864,start-monday-geneva-ashton.html.

Former Iraqi premier Allawi denies WikiLeaks Iran attack plan

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Berlin - A former Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, denied Tuesday that Iraq - under his leadership - had ever urged a pre- emptive military strike against neighbor Iran, as cited in the WikiLeaks documents.

Allawi, in a German radio interview, also accused the whistleblower website Wikileaks of raising tensions in the Middle East by its release of 250,000 US diplomatic cables.

The cables which became public late Sunday quote candid, off-the- record candid views of regional leaders.

"I don't think it makes sense to publish these documents, because they build up additional tensions in this region which is already so tense," Allawi was quoted saying by German public radio service Deutschlandfunk.

Allawi was speaking in English, apparently by phone from Baghdad, with German radio station Deutschlandfunk.

He denied Iraq had urged a pre-emptive military strike against neighbor Iran, saying he was sure it was not so in the time he was prime minister in 2004 and 2005.

"As long as I was in office, I never asked anyone to attack Iran," he said. "I can't say for sure that other governments didn't ask for it. But I have no concrete knowledge of it."

Allawi's secular al-Irakiya alliance is in talks with incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on forming a coalition.

In the interview he accused the Iranians of interfering in his country and even trying to influence the coalition formation.

"Iran has repeatedly vetoed certain Iraqi politicians and made threats," he said, and added, "Al-Maliki has Iran's support."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355867,wikileaks-iran-attack-plan.html.