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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Sami Yusuf in Turkey to promote new album

Renowned music star of the Islamic world, Sami Yusuf, has arrived in Turkey to promote his third album "Wherever you are".

Friday, 10 December 2010

Renowned music star of the Islamic world, Sami Yusuf, has arrived in Turkey on Thursday to promote his third album "Wherever you are".

Speaking to reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport, Sami Yusuf said that he was very happy to be in Turkey.

Turkey is highly important for me. Turkey is a country that rests in my heart. I love the Turkish society. I am an ethnic Azeri. I am close to the Turks. I feel very close to the Turks, Yusuf said.

Sami Yusuf also said that he chose Turkey as the first country in which to promote his third album.

Sami Yusuf (born in July 1980) is a British singer-songwriter. Yusuf's music consists mostly of songs relating to Islam and being a Muslim in today's rapidly changing world. He also deals with many social and humanitarian issues in his music.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=67211.

Turkish FM eyes European democracy, Chinese growth

Davutoglu said, that Turkey had the capacity to establish a democracy at European standards and achieve a development process like China's.

Friday, 10 December 2010

The Turkish minister of foreign affairs said on Friday that Turkey had the capacity to establish a democracy at European standards and achieve a development process like China's.

Speaking at a meeting of the TUSIAD High Advisory Council in capital Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey desired to become one of the top 10 economies in the world by the year 2023, the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the republic.

"We would like to turn Turkey into one of the central countries of global economy, a passage country for energy lines and a transportation centre for Afro-Eurasia," Davutoglu said.

Commenting on the foreign policy to be followed in order to reach those goals until 2023, Davutoglu said the target was "a democracy at European standards and a development process like China's", adding Turkey had the capacity to achieve them.

"Turkey will not drift apart from its goal of full membership to EU," the minister noted.

"No matter what they say, Turkey is a part of Europe and will continue to be so. It is not an object whose future could be discussed by EU-member states," he added.

Pointing to Turkey's position in its region, Davutoglu said Turkey was the biggest economic and commercial center in the region and it desired the free movement of people and goods on such territory.

"If democracy is the primary power of Turkish foreign policy, businessmen & entrepreneurs are the country's second strength," Davutoglu said, adding that obstacles in front of entrepreneurs should be eliminated.

The minister also said Turkey would continue to be interested in countries with which it had direct geographical and economic ties and noted that such relations would strengthen Turkey.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=67238.

Turkish PM calls on parents to end agonies

"I am calling on mothers in (the southeastern province of) Mardin to take action to end bloodshed", Erdogan said in Mardin

Saturday, 11 December 2010

Turkey's prime minister Saturday called on parents to help end agonies in the Southeastern Anatolia Region.

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said people living within the territories of Turkey would continue to take equal share from country's resources, as it had happened for hundreds and thousands of years.

"I am calling on mothers in (the southeastern province of) Mardin to take action to end bloodshed, and I am calling on fathers of Mardin to help end agonies," Erdogan said during several inauguration ceremonies in Mardin.

Erdogan also called on all people living in Mardin to show sincerity to change the destiny of the region, and suggested that every one should support efforts to build a bright future.

The prime minister said brotherhood was boosted and national unity was gaining strength in Turkey, and defined Turkey as a more democratic country than eight years before.

"Turkey is today a country where freedoms, democratic and cultural rights, freedom of expression have broadened and where people enjoy more contemporary standards," Erdogan also said.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=67280.

Minister says Turkey made great progress in human rights

"West is still the venue of many human rights violations such as discrimination, isolation, violence, Islamaphobia and deportation of migrants and gypsies," Celik said.

Saturday, 11 December 2010

Turkish State Minister Faruk Celik said on Friday that Turkey had made a remarkable progress in reaching the universal standards concerning human rights and freedoms in recent years.

Speaking at a parliamentary session in capital Ankara, Celik said human rights violations kept taking place all over the world despite the transformation processes experienced so far and the maturity level reached by humanity.

Pointing to the declarations on human rights released throughout history, Celik said such documents constituted the foundation for today's state of law and understanding of democracy and human rights.

"Despite its history of declarations and conventions, the West is still the venue of many human rights violations such as discrimination, isolation, violence, Islamaphobia and deportation of migrants and gypsies," Celik said.

The minister noted that Turkey, in the light of the goals set by its constitution, had made an important progress in reaching the universal standards on human rights and freedoms in the last 8 years.

Celik said human rights and freedoms had become a part of daily life in Turkey, moreover, the reform process in such area had gained a significant momentum since 2009.

Celik said that assurance of human rights could not be achieved through legal regulations only, adding executors of such laws should also adjust themselves to universal principles.

"Education is of great importance to achieve such goal," the minister added.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=67260.

Erdogan says Turkey will grow more in 2011

Erdogan also expressed his belief that the AK Party would continue to rule the country after the general elections in June 2011.

Friday, 10 December 2010

Turkey's prime minister said on Friday that the year 2011 would be a year in which there would be more economic progress.

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had caught up with the economic figures of 2008 despite the global financial crisis.

"The national income per capita has risen to 10,000 USD, and 2011 will be a year in which all these developments will continue to increase," Erdogan told provincial chairmen of his Justice & Development (AK) Party in Ankara.

Erdogan also expressed his belief that the AK Party would continue to rule the country after the general elections in June 2011.

Prime Minister Erdogan's remarks came after Turkish statistical authority, TurkStat, announced the growth rate in Q3 of 2010.

According to the statistical authority, Turkey grew 5.5 percent year-on-year in Q3 of 2010, and the Gross Domestic Product was calculated as 298.89 billion TL ($197.113 billion) in current prices, marking a 13.6% year-on-year rise.

Turkish economy grew at 8.9 percent year-on-year in the three quarters (Q1+Q2+Q3) of 2010, as the GDP in the mean term reached 808.192 billion TL ($531.979 billion).

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=67229.

يهودي يعرض الفنون الإسلامية

11/12/2010 م

500 قطعة تعرض بأمستردام
يهودي يعرض الفنون الإسلامية

نصر الدين الدجبي-أمستردام

افتتح اليوم معرض الفنون الإسلامية في مقر المعارض في الكنيسة الجديدة "نيوكارك" بالعاصمة الهولندية أمستردام. ويضم المعرض الذي يملكه اليهودي من أصول إيرانية ناصر خليلي، حوالي خمسمائة قطعة مختارة من المصاحف والخطوط العربية والآثار والتحف التاريخية والحلي والزرابي وقطع السيراميك.

وقال الخليلي في مؤتمر صحفي إنه يعتز بهذا الجهد الذي يدافع على ثقافة حكمت العالم وعجز أصحابها اليوم أن يدافعوا عنها، وبين أنه يجوب العالم من أجل نقل رسالة فنية إلى العالم الذي لم يعد يرى من الإسلام سوى السواد والحرب.

وتعود كل القطع المعروضة لملكية التاجر اليهودي من أصل إيراني "ناصر دافيد خليلي"، الذي ترك إيران إلى نيويورك سنة 1967 من أجل الدراسة ليستقر به المقام في لندن ابتداء من سنة 1978.

وخلال إقامته في بريطانيا جاب الخليلي العالم من أجل البحث عن قطع من الفنون الإسلامية بغرض جمعها وإضافتها إلى مقتنيات ورثها عن عائلته.

عصور وتشكيلات

واحتوى المعرض –الذي يستمر حتى 17 أبريل/نيسان المقبل- تشكيلات كتابية فنية بخطوط مختلفة ترمز إلى أشكال ومعان أبدعتها أقلام وأيادي الفنانين والرسامين الأوائل، تعود إلى عصور عدة من التاريخ الإسلامي.

ومن ضمن المعروضات تشكيلة كتابية على هيئة أسد تعود إلى سنة 1913، وبأنماط خطية عرضت عدة رقع ولوحات فنية كتب عليها آيات قرآنية وأسماء الله الحسنى، وأدعية يرى خليلي أنها إلى جانب المعاني التي ترمز إليها فهي إبداع قلّ ما لمسه في الثقافات الأخرى.

كما عرض سجاد ومنسوجات وكذلك معطف صفوي من المخمل مزين بقطع من القماش المقصب بالذهب، كما وعلقت على الجدران منسوجات حريرية مزينة برموز إسلامية منها اسم الجلالة "الله" عز وجل، والذي تكرر آلاف المرات على سجاد أصله من شمال أفريقيا.

واحتوى المعرض غطاء لباب الكعبة المشرفة يعود إلى بداية القرن الثامن عشر الميلادي، وأحزمة من الحرير مطرزة بخيوط ذهبية وفضية وأغطية لأسرة الملوك والسلاطين في العصور الإسلامية المختلفة.

آيات قرآنية

وفي قاعة جانبية عرضت نقوش لآيات قرآنية مذهبة، ونسخ نادرة من المصحف الشريف تعود إلى العصور الإسلامية الأولى والعصر العثماني والأيوبي والأندلسي، وتتوسط معرض المخطوطات نسخة مذهبة من مصحف شاه جيهان في الهند، والتي تعود إلى عام 1657 ميلادي.

وتميزت بعض المعروضات برسوم فنية لحيوانات برية وأليفة زيّنت بالنقوش والخطوط العربية، كجمل من الفخار وقط من البرونز والأسد بالخطوط العربية، وهو ما يراه خليلي دحضا لما يروج من أن المسلمين تركوا عالم الصور وأهانوا الحيوانات.

وقال خليلي للجزيرة نت إنه يقوم بهذا العمل من منطلق قناعة تامة بأنه يأتي في إطار إدارة حوار بين الحضارات، وأضاف أن مجموعته الفنية هذه تم جمعها من مختلف بلاد العالم الإسلامي من الأندلس إلى بلاد المغول والهند وهو جزء صغير مما تملكه عائلة خليلي البالغ حوالي عشرين ألف قطعة.

وأوضح خليلي أن المعرض إلى جانب تنوعه الجغرافي فهو يمتاز بالبعد الزماني حيث تعود بعض قطعه إلى القرن السادس الميلادي، أي إلى بدايات الإسلام.

أعظم فن

وعبر عن انبهاره بالفنون الإسلامية بالقول "الفن الإسلامي أعظم ما أنجبته الإنسانية، وشمل مناحي الحياة المختلفة"، وأضاف أن كل قطعة في هذا المعرض تعبر عن هوية لحضارة عظيمة.

من جهته قال مدير مقر المعارض "نيو كارك" آرنست فاين إن المعرض يأتي في إطار مشاركة تقوم بها الكنسية الجديدة لإضاءة القسم الذي همّش أمام النقاشات السياسية والإعلامية.

وبين أنه ستقام على هامش المعرض ورشات ورحلات منظمة لأطفال المدارس وأفلام وثائقية توضح الأبعاد الفنية التي جاءت بها الثقافة الإسلامية.

وتوقع "فاين" أن يصل عدد الزوار المعرض إلى أكثر من مائة ألف من الهولنديين وزوار العاصمة أمستردام من أنحاء العالم بما فيهم الأجيال الجديدة من المسلمين التي لا تعرف فنون الحضارة الإسلامية.

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/1BE260ED-5F0F-4230-B486-722D059D6B0D.htm.

البابا يعارض انضمام تركيا لأوروبا

11/12/2010 م

حسب تسريبات ويكيليكس
البابا يعارض انضمام تركيا لأوروبا

كشف موقع ويكيليكس مسؤولية البابا بنديكت السادس عشر عن تنامي مشاعر الرفض لعضوية تركيا في الاتحاد الأوروبي حتى قبل أن يتربع على رأس الكنيسة الكاثوليكية.

ونشرت صحيفة الغارديان البريطانية رسالتين أرسلتا من السفارة الأميركية في الفاتيكان خلال أغسطس/ آب 2004 وديسمبر/ كانون الأول تؤكدان معاداة الفاتيكان لانضمام تركيا. وتشير برقية مرسلة في يونيو/ حزيران 2009 إلى اهتمام عاصمة الكاثوليك بتقليل نفوذ الرئيس الفنزويلي هوغو شافيز في أميركا اللاتينية.

في البرقية الأولى ينقل القائم بالأعمال الأميركي في الحاضرة البابوية برنت هارد عن القائم بأعمال وزير خارجية الفاتيكان المنسنيور بييترو بارولين تأكيده أن ما قاله الكاردينال جوزيف ريتزغر (اسم بنديكت قبل تنصيبه) من أن تركيا هي نقيض دائم لأوروبا، غير ملزم للفاتيكان.

لكن بارولين يشير –حسب البرقية- إلى أن الفاتيكان تبقى قلقة من مستوى الحريات الدينية في تركيا وخصوصا ما يتصل منها بالوضع القانوني للكنائس.

ويضيف أن الصعوبات والتعقيدات أمام عضوية تركيا بالاتحاد الأوروبي ليست من النوع الذي يصعب تجاوزه لكنه مواضيع ضرورية يجب تناولها قبل المضي قدما إلى الأمام.

ويشير الدبلوماسي الأميركي في ذات البرقية إلى أن تأثير الكاردينال ريتزغر كبير في موضوعات العقيدة والإيمان داخل الفاتيكان, لكن ذلك لم يمتد إلى سياستها الخارجية.

المحاولة الفاشلة

لكنه يقول بالمقابل إن ريتزغر كان رائدا في المحاولة الفاشلة للفاتيكان لإدراج مبدأ الجذور المسيحية في مشروع الدستور الأوروبي. كما أنه يعتقد بقوة أن إدخال أمة إسلامية إلى داخل الاتحاد الأوروبي من شأنه إضعاف المؤسسات المسيحية بداخله.

ويمضي الدبلوماسي قائلا "في كل الأحوال يبقى موقف مسؤولي الفاتيكان حذرا ومتحفظا من موضوع انضمام تركيا إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي". ويضيف أن البابا يوحنا بولس أبلغ السفير التركي في الفاتيكان خلال لقائهما في فبراير/ شباط أنه مع انطلاق تحضيرات تركيا لتأسيس علاقة جديدة بأوروبا فإن الكنيسة (الفاتيكان) تشدد على "حقوق الإنسان الأساسية للأتراك الكاثوليك".

وفي برقية ثانية مرسلة من القائم بالأعمال الأميركي في الفاتيكان بيتر مارتين في 7 ديسمبر/ كانون الأول عام 2006 يقول إن مسؤولين كبارا بينهم البابا بنديكت السادس عشر تحدثوا بإيجابية علنا عن الوحدة الأوروبية لكنهم انتقدوا وضع الحريات الدينية داخل تركيا.

لم يتبدل

ويمضي الدبلوماسي قائلا إن موقف الفاتيكان لم يتبدل من عضوية تركيا رغم ما تردد بعد لقاء البابا بنديكت برئيس الوزراء رجب طيب أردوغان. ويضيف "في الحقيقة لم يوافق البابا ولا الفاتيكان على عضوية تركيا, أكثر من ذلك فإن الحاضرة البابوية مستمرة في التشديد علنا فقط على ضرورة تمتع تركيا بمعايير كوبنهاغن الخاصة بعضوية الاتحاد الأوروبي".

وتمضي البرقية إلى القول إن المونسنيور باولين قال "لا نرى عقبة أمام انضمام تركيا إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي"، وذلك في نظر الأخير تطوير يتيح مزيدا من الحقوق الدينية للأقليات في تركيا.

وفي مقطع آخر من البرقية ينقل الدبلوماسي الأميركي عن باولين عدم رضاه عن قيام الرئيس التركي أحمد نجدت سيزر بوضع فيتو على تسع مواد من قانون جرى إقراره في تركيا حديثا يتصل بالأقليات الدينية.

ويضيف أن باولين لاحظ أن قساوسة مسيحيين كانوا قد أرسلوا قبل عامين رسالة أشاروا فيها إلى أن المواد الملغاة تتصل بمشاكل يكابدونها وأن ذلك يلقي الضوء على المشاكل التي يعانيها الكاثوليك اليوم في تركيا.

زيارة تنفيس

وتتناول البرقية أثر زيارة البابا بنديكت السادس عشر لتركيا في تنفيس التوتر الذي كان قائما بين تركيا والفاتيكان قبلها.

وبخصوص ما قاله رئيس الوزراء التركي رجب طيب أردوغان عن دعم البابا لانضمام تركيا للاتحاد الأوروبي ينقل الدبلوماسي الأميركي عن القائم بأعمال وزير خارجية الفاتيكان قوله إن "رئيس الوزراء أساء فهم أقوال الحبر الأعظم وهو على الأرجح يريد كسب تغطية إعلامية جيدة للقائهما. البابا عبر عن الموقف الذي نتمسك به لكنه قاله على الأرجح بطريقة ملطفة".

ويقول الدبلوماسي إن الرسالة الأسبوعية التي وجهها البابا لجمهوره في 6 ديسمبر تقول "البابا يعرب عن أمله بأن يتشارك المسيحيون والمسلمون في العمل لحقوق الإنسان ويشدد على أمله بأن تركيا ستكون جسر الصداقة والتعاون الأخوي بين الشرق والغرب".

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/011591BB-9C5E-4776-83E4-BF5E1D4FA272.htm.

Cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Newly released U.S. diplomatic cables indicate that the Vatican felt "offended" that Ireland failed to respect Holy See "sovereignty" by asking high-ranking churchmen to answer questions from an Irish government commission probing decades of sex abuse of minors by clergy.

That the Holy See used its diplomatic immunity status as a tiny-city state to try to thwart Ireland's government-led probe has long been known. But the WikiLeaks cables, published by Britain's The Guardian newspaper on Saturday, contain delicate, behind-the-scenes diplomatic assessments of the highly charged situation.

The Vatican press office declined to comment on the content of the cables Saturday, but decried the leaks as a matter of "extreme seriousness."

The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See also condemned the leaks and said in a statement that the Vatican and America cooperate in promoting universal values.

According to the deputy to the Irish ambassador to the Holy See, the Irish government gave in to Vatican pressure and allowed the church officials to avoid answering questions from the inquiry panel, according to one of the cables from a U.S. diplomat.

Ambassador Noel Fahey apparently told U.S. diplomat Julieta Valls Noyes that the sex abuse scandal was a tricky one to manage.

"The Vatican believes the Irish government failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the investigations," read the cable from Noyes, deputy chief of mission.

Elsewhere in the cable the diplomat, citing a Holy See official, wrote that the inquiry commission's requests "offended many in the Vatican" because they were viewed as "an affront to Vatican sovereignty."

The diplomat also said that "adding insult to injury, Vatican officials also believed some Irish opposition politicians were making political hay with the situation by publicly calling on the government to demand that the Vatican reply."

The Irish government wanted to be seen as cooperating with the investigation because its own education department was implicated in decades of abuse, but politicians were reluctant to insist Vatican officials answer the investigators' questions, the cables indicate.

One cable discloses the behind-the-scenes diplomatic maneuvers by which Irish politicians tried to persuade the Vatican to cooperate with the probe.

"In the end the Irish government decided not to press the Vatican reply," the U.S. diplomat wrote, citing Fahey's deputy, Helena Keleher.

Saturday's official Vatican press statement said the WikiLeaks cables "reflect the perceptions and opinions of the people who wrote them and cannot be considered as expressions of the Holy See itself." It added that the reports "reliability must, then, be evaluated carefully and with great prudence."

The cables also contain information regarding the Vatican's relations with the Anglican Communion, which includes the Church of England and its affiliates in more than 160 countries.

One cable reports that Britain's ambassador to the Vatican warned that the pope's invitation to disaffected Anglicans to join the Catholic church had chilled relations between the two churches and risked inciting a violent backlash against British Catholics.

A November 2009 file from U.S. Embassy at the Vatican quotes British envoy Francis Campbell as saying that "Anglican-Vatican relations were facing their worst crisis in 150 years as a result of the pope's decision."

The Vatican moved last year to make it easier for traditional Anglicans upset over the appointment of female priests and gay bishops to join the Catholic Church, whose teaching holds that homosexual activity is sinful.

The pope invited Anglicans to join new "personal ordinariates," which allow them to continue to use some of their traditional liturgy and be served by married priests.

A cable quotes Campbell as saying the move put the Anglican spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, "in an impossible situation." And he worried that the crisis could aggravate "latent anti-Catholicism" in majority-Protestant England.

"The outcome could be discrimination or in isolated cases, even violence, against this minority," the cable said.

AP writer Jill Lawless contributed from London.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Saudi Arabia Launches Its First-Ever Domestically Designed Car

Arieh O’Sullivan
Thursday, December 09, 2010

Dubbed the Aseela, ‘original’ in Arabic, the sedan is geared to the low-cost market

It’s called the “Original” and marks the first time Saudi Arabia has launched a domestically designed and manufactured automobile sedan.

The four-passenger Aseela was revealed in Riyadh at the International Exhibition for Motor Vehicles this week. The Aseela was designed by King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), and officials said it was to serve as the basis for a domestic auto manufacturing industry that Saudi Arabia is trying to develop.

There were few details released, but the sedan was touted to be lower in cost than imports. Exhibited at the motor show, the simple four-door model was reported being priced at no more than $13,300.

The Saudi vehicle was designed and built by the National Program for Automobile Technology, an affiliate of KACST. KACST estimated that the cost of its production line was about $16 million and had the capacity to produce between 2,000 to 5,000 cars annually.

That would be a drop in the bucket in an auto market that Business Monitor International forecasted earlier this year would grow from 676,000 units to 880,000, an increase of just over 30%, between 2010 and 2013.

“This would certainly open up possibilities for employment,” Ali Abdul-Rahman Al-Mazad, a Saudi economic columnist, told The Media Line. “This won’t be easy but perhaps they will be able to receive aid from foreign car manufacturers.”

He added that foreign car companies had been interested in opening assembly plants in Saudi Arabia in order to lower costs for cars to be sold in the region.

Saudi Arabia has become infamous in the Arab world in general, and in the Gulf in particular, for the local appetite for expensive cars. Yet, the small car segment is the fastest growing market in the Saudi Arabian automobile industry. It accounted for about a quarter of all vehicles sold this year. Leading industry analysts have said that this was due to increased demand for four-seater sedans.

“There is a potential market for this since there’s a wide gap in salaries and there are those looking for lower end cars,” Paul Martin, one of the founders of Street Kings Arabia, a Saudi aficionado group, told The Media Line.

Last March, engineers from King Saud University debuted the sports utility vehicle (SUV) Ghazal, the first vehicle said to be designed and manufactured in Saudi Arabia. The government is currently seeking investments between $400 million and $500 million to manufacture 20,000 units of the SUV over the next three years in KSU’s technology valley in Riyadh.

KACST calls itself an independent scientific organization that reports to the prime minister. It is also seen as Saudi Arabia’s national science agency and its national laboratories, which could mean it will be able to receive government funding.

Saad Al-Wallan, chairman of Al-Wallan Trading Company, which imports Hyundai cars, said the year 2010 has recorded a 25% growth in the small car market.

"The growth of 25% that we have seen is in the small car segment. Sales of small cars is certainly the biggest growth segment in Saudi Arabia automobile industry," he was quoted as saying in The Saudi Gazette.

One of the Middle East's largest car markets, automobile sales make up about 3% of Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product. Including both commercial automobiles and transport infrastructure, the kingdom’s car market is worth about $9 billion. With a population of just under 25 million, over half a million vehicles are imported into Saudi Arabia annually and new car sales have steadily increased since the country began barring the import of used cars four years ago.

Over the past two decades, Saudi Arabia has recorded four million traffic accidents, leading to 86,000 deaths and 611,000 injuries, 7% of which resulted in permanent disabilities. A recent KACST study warned that if the current rise in road accident rates is not curbed, Saudi Arabia will have over four million traffic accidents a year by 2030. Little is known about the new car, particularly about its safety features.

Copyright © 2010 The Media Line. All Rights Reserved.

Source: The Media Line.
Link: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=30771.

Turkey shows interest in boosting ties with GCC

(Wam)
11 December 2010

DUBAI - Turkey’s GDP shot up from $220 billion in 2002 to $618 billion in 2009, the world’s 17th largest nominal gross domestic product, and now is a member of the G-20 group.

During the tenure of the current government, the inflation in Turkey has lowered from 30 per cent to single digits, according to Prof Dr Emrullah Isler, Chief Adviser to the Turkish Prime Minister on the changes taking place in Turkey and the future of Turkish-Arab relations.

Turkey, he said, aims to become among the world’s ten largest economies by 2023, which corresponds to the 100th anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey who established true democracy and freedom in modern Turkey.

Shaikh Majid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and other senior officials attended the lecture. Prof Isler is also the head of Arabic Language Department, Foreign Languages College at the Gazi University in Ankara.

At the end of the 31st Gulf Cooperation Council summit held in Abu Dhabi, leaders of the Gulf Arab countries formally welcomed strategic dialogue with Turkey, reports Today’s Zaman.

It was attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The GCC, represented by Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shaikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah sought to improve ties with emerging Turkey within the economic cooperation framework agreement, which was signed in Manama in 2005.

He noted that Turkey is interested in furthering relations with GCC and other Arab countries.

Source: Khaleej Times.
Link: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=business&xfile=data/business/2010/december/business_december174.xml.

Wikileaks demos planned in Spain, Latin America

(AP)
11 December 2010

MADRID — Demonstrations are planned to protest the detention of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the closing of its Swiss bank account.

The Spanish-language website Free WikiLeaks says protests are to be held in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville and other Spanish cities. It also says demonstrations are planned in the Netherlands, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Peru.

The Free WikiLeaks organization says, “We seek the liberation of Julian Assange in United Kingdom territory.” It calls on protesters to gather at 6 p.m. (17:00 GMT) Saturday in Spanish cities.

Assange remains in a UK jail ahead of a Dec. 14 hearing where he plans to fight Sweden’s request to extradite him to face sex crimes allegations.

Source: Khaleej Times.
Link: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/December/international_December424.xml§ion=international.

Give Nobel peace prize to Julian Assange: Russia

Friday, December 10, 2010

Moscow, Dec 10: Expressing a surprise support to the jailed WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, Russia has suggested that he should be awarded the Nobel peace prize.

Russia urged non-governmental organizations to nominate Julian Assange as a Nobel Prize laureate for the release of United States diplomatic cables.

"Public and non-governmental organizations should think of how to help him. Maybe, nominate him as a Nobel Prize laureate," the source from inside president Dmitry Medvedev's office told Russian media.

Earlier, Russia President Dimitry Medvedev's spokesman slammed WikiLeaks releases by saying, "not worthy of comment." But the latest comment from Russia came after the release of the cable which described Russia as a "mafia state".

In one cable US diplomat said that "Criminal elements enjoy a krysha (protection racket) that runs through the police, the federal security service, ministry of internal affairs and the prosecutor's office, as well as throughout the Moscow city government bureaucracy."

In another cable from Feb 2010, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "Russian democracy has disappeared".

Source: One India.
Link: http://news.oneindia.in/2010/12/10/give-nobel-peace-prize-to-julian-assange-russia.html.

China, North Korea stand fast despite US anger

by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Dec 9, 2010

Communist allies North Korea and China proclaimed their unity Thursday as the North's leader Kim Jong-Il held his first meeting with a senior Chinese envoy since the region's worst crisis in years erupted.

China's most senior foreign policymaker Dai Bingguo visited Pyongyang as pressure intensifies on Beijing to rein in its neighbor, after North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean island inflamed tensions on the peninsula.

The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, accused China of aiding and abetting the hardline Kim regime's "reckless behavior".

Pyongyang and Beijing, allies during the Korean War, stand firmly together, their official media said.

"The two sides reached consensus on bilateral relations and the situation on the Korean peninsula after candid and in-depth talks," said a brief report from China's Xinhua news agency, datelined Pyongyang, after Kim and Dai met.

North Korea's official news agency said the delegations discussed "issues of mutual concern" and efforts to improve friendly relations.

It marked the first time that Kim has met a senior foreign official since the North's shock artillery attack on the border island, and since his regime startled the world by showing off a sophisticated new nuclear program.

China is North Korea's sole major ally and sustains its shaky economy with fuel and food aid.

But Beijing has come under increasing pressure from the United States and US allies to rein in North Korea following the border incident, which was the first shelling of civilian areas in South Korea since the 1950-53 war.

But US Defense Secretary Robert Gates will visit China next month, Mullen said.

Beijing has so far refused to join in worldwide condemnation of the North for the November 23 artillery attack, which killed four people including two civilians.

In Tokyo on Thursday, Mullen lashed out at China as he touted a united defense front with South Korea and Japan against North Korea.

"Northeast Asia is today more volatile than it has been in much of the last 50 years," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said.

"Much of that volatility is owed to the reckless behavior of the North Korean regime, enabled by their friends in China," Mullen said.

He also said he felt a "real sense of urgency" about building up three-way defense ties with Seoul and Tokyo. US forces have separately held major military drills with the two allies since North Korea's attack.

The admiral has proposed three-way drills and said that any threat is "much better addressed with all of us together, in terms of showing strength and getting to a point where we can deter North Korean behavior".

That would also present a challenge for China, which has protested at US-led exercises being conducted near its territorial waters.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu Thursday warned against any steps that "may lead to further escalation of tensions, gravely jeopardizing peace and stability in the region".

Cai Jian, a professor at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said Beijing was likely still exercising pressure behind the scenes on Pyongyang despite the unified stand taken by Kim and Dai.

"I don't know by what means this 'consensus' was reached. Persuasion or pressure? I can't guess that," he told AFP.

"But since China doesn't want to see the situation deteriorate, it must have made great efforts to try to bring North Korea back to the table."

But Choi Choon-Heum, analyst at Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification, said that for China "the biggest priority is aiding the North... so that it will remain as a buffer state against the US military presence in the Korean peninsula as long as possible.

"Pressuring Pyongyang to change its course at this point won't help achieve the goal, so I can't imagine Beijing putting real pressure on the North regarding the bombing on Yeonpyeong or its nuclear programs."

The United States, meanwhile, opened up an unofficial channel of communication with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a veteran North Korea troubleshooter, announcing a private visit to the North from December 16 to 20.

US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Richardson's planned visit was a private trip and that "he will not be carrying any particular message" from Washington.

In other shuttle diplomacy, Japan's pointman for the North Korean nuclear issue, Akitaka Saiki, headed for talks in Moscow with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin.

North Korea defended its artillery attack on the border island, saying the South's "puppet warmongers" had provoked the incident with its own naval drills.

South Korea -- whose capital Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea -- announced plans to supply additional gas masks to residents of its border islands in case of a chemical attack by the North.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_North_Korea_stand_fast_despite_US_anger_999.html.

France ready to transfer warship technology to Russia: PM

by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Dec 9, 2010

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on a visit to Moscow on Thursday that France was ready to transfer military technology if it won a tender to supply Russia with Mistral warships.

"There is no question about the technology transfer, no problem regarding technology transfers," Fillon said at a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Russia had been in exclusive talks with France to buy two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships but in August the defense ministry announced an international tender.

Putin stressed that the price and the possibility of technology transfer to allow Russia to subsequently learn to build its own warships of the same class, would be key criteria in Russia's choice.

"The price is important. Russia is also interested in technology transfers. This is important for our ship building," Putin said.

Fillon complained jokingly that Putin was a hard bargainer in price negotiations.

"We are discussing the price and Vladimir Putin is not the easiest person to talk to about this question," he said.

Over several months, talks with Moscow have stalled on the question of technology transfer.

France has been negotiating with Russia since 2009 on a possible deal to sell Moscow the Mistral, a powerful warship capable of carrying helicopters and tanks, costing around 500 million euros.

If agreed, the deal would be the first sale to Russia of such technology by a NATO country and France's NATO allies have expressed concern about arming Russia with modern Western weaponry.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/France_ready_to_transfer_warship_technology_to_Russia_PM_999.html.

Israel's Katrina

How the Carmel fire further exposes the misplaced policy priorities of Israel.

By Osamah Khalil
December 10, 2010

As Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the misplaced priorities of the George W. Bush administration, the Carmel fire has similarly exposed the reality of Israel's domestic and foreign policy priorities. Rather than address these issues in his Dec. 7 Op-Ed article, Israeli Ambassador Michael B. Oren instead used the tragedy for cheap political gain. While Oren extolled the possible benefits of "enlightened cooperation" to achieve peace, he and the government he represents ignore that enlightened policies not only lead to cooperation and peace but are the requisite precursor.

Although Oren recognized the assistance of the Palestinian Authority in fighting the fire, he bemoaned that its leaders were "still declining to return to peace talks." Absent is the reason why: Israel's ongoing settlement program in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law. Israel's refusal to halt settlement construction, even after being offered unprecedented incentives from the Obama administration for a mere 90-day extension of its limited moratorium on building, stands in sharp contrast to its response to the Carmel fire.

It is telling that as an international coalition battled the Carmel fire, Israeli soldiers were deployed near the Palestinian villages of Bil'in, Nil'in and Nabi Saleh, where another coalition — Palestinians, Israelis and international activists — holds weekly nonviolent protests against Israel's immense 480-mile "separation wall" and expanding settlements. As always, the protests were met by a combination of live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas — the latter causing some small brush fires.

Why were Israeli soldiers starting fires in Palestinian villages instead of fighting one in Israel? Because sustaining Israel's occupation and settlement policy is paramount to its politicians and military leaders. Since Israel's occupation began in June 1967, successive Israeli governments have placed a priority on colonizing the Palestinian territories. This effort has expanded frantically since the Oslo Accords were signed in September 1993, and today Israel directly controls almost 60% of the West Bank.

The emphasis on settlements has led some prominent figures in the Israeli media and government to call for the resignation of Interior Minister Eli Yishai. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, although Yishai sought and failed to obtain the funds to boost his country's firefighting budget, he never pursued the issue with the same vigor with which he advocated the expansion of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. Yishai is a member of the religious Shas party, whose leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, claimed in his weekly sermon that the fire was "divine providence" because "fires only happen in a place where Shabbat is desecrated."

Though Oren condemned similar statements by a Hamas official and mentioned the threat posed by Hezbollah's rockets, the inconvenient facts about Israel's policy priorities and failures and the statement by Yosef were notably absent.

The fire has also laid bare the false claim that Palestinians must recognize Israel as a "Jewish state" for peace talks to succeed. Only two months ago, Oren asserted in the New York Times that this was a requisite part of any peace agreement. Yet in the fire's wake, he explained that "Israelis from all religious and ethnic backgrounds joined in combating the flames" and that there were Jewish, Arab and Druze victims. Israel (and Oren) cannot have it both ways, extolling the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural nature of the country while pursuing and implementing policies and laws that enshrine and enforce racial and religious preferences and prejudice. Israel can either be a state of all its citizens or an apartheid state.

Under the scorched brush and ash lies another story, one that strikes at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the decades-old policies by Israeli governments of erasure and denial. The pine trees that helped fuel the Carmel fire are not indigenous to the region. Rather, they were planted as part of a six-decade program by the Jewish National Fund to create parks. Those trees also cover the ruins and remnants of Palestinian villages, over 400 of which were destroyed when Israel was founded in 1948. The inhabitants of these villages were expelled or fled from attacks by pre-state Zionist militias and later the Israeli army and became refugees. Sixty-two years later, the Palestinian refugees still wait for Israel and the international community to live up to their responsibilities under international law so they can return to their homes and receive compensation for their losses.

The international response to the Carmel fire has demonstrated that condemnation of Israel is not due to anti-Semitism but to Israel's policies and actions. What is needed now is an honest reflection and assessment by Israel's leaders and the political will to find a solution where there is not merely "enlightened cooperation" but an enlightened society in which both Israelis and Palestinians live in peace with equality and justice.

Osamah Khalil is co-director of Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network, a Berkeley-based transnational think tank with policy advisers around the world.

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

Source: Los Angeles Times.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-khalil-israel-fire-20101210,0,2631789.story.

دعوات أردنية للتحقيق بعنف الدوري

11/12/2010 م

محمد النجار-عمان

دعا رئيس الاتحاد الأردني لكرة القدم الأمير علي بن الحسين إلى ضرورة فتح تحقيق في "الأحداث المؤسفة" التي تلت مباراة الوحدات والفيصلي بقمة الدوري الأردني مساء الجمعة "من أجل تحديد المسؤولين عنها ومعاقبتهم لضمان عدم تكرارها في الملاعب الأردنية".

وأدان الاتحاد الأردني لكرة القدم في بيان أصدره فجر السبت "اللجوء إلى العنف خلال الأحداث المؤسفة التي جرت في ملعب الملك عبد الله الثاني مساء الجمعة بعد انتهاء مباراة فريقي الوحدات والفيصلي".

ونقل البيان عن الأمير علي -وهو شقيق العاهل الأردني عبد الله الثاني- "رفضه الشديد واستهجانه للمشاهد المحزنة التي أعقبت مباراة تميزت بروح رياضية عالية وأداء فني ملفت".

واعتبر علي بن الحسين ما حدث "مجرد حدث مؤسف وطارئ وليس معتادا في ملاعب كرة القدم الأردنية التي تشهد اللقاءات المتواصلة والتي تتميز باللعب النظيف والأخلاق الرفيعة".

وجاءت الأحداث وسط انشغال الأمير علي بحملة ترشحه لمنصب نائب رئيس الاتحاد الدولي لكرة القدم (الفيفا) ممثلا عن قارة آسيا.

وحظي الأمير الأردني في الأيام الماضية بدعم اتحادات السعودية والإمارات وإيران والكويت لكرة القدم، قبيل الانتخابات التي سيشهدها الاتحاد الدولي لكرة القدم مطلع العام المقبل.


كما جرت أحداث مباراة قمة الدوري الأردني على أبواب بدء معسكر المنتخب الأردني لكرة القدم استعدادا لنهائيات كأس آسيا في العاصمة القطرية الدوحة مطلع يناير/ كانون الثاني المقبل. ويلعب الأردن في المجموعة الثانية إلى جانب اليابان والسعودية وسوريا.

رئيس نادي الوحدات طارق خوري نفى حدوث وفيات في أحداث الشغب التي أعقبت مباراة الوحدات والفيصلي الجمعة في ختام مرحلة الذهاب بدوري المحترفين الأردني لكرة القدم مؤكدا في الوقت نفسه أنها خلفت نحو 300 جريح.

وتحدث مصدر طبي في قسم الطوارئ بمستشفى البشير شرق العاصمة عمان للجزيرة نت عن استقبال المستشفى لعشرات الحالات وتحويل حالات أخرى إلى مستشفيات حكومية وخاصة.

وحسب المصدر بقيت حالات قليلة تحت المراقبة، ولم يحدد مدى خطورة هذه الإصابات.

وانتقلت أعمال الشغب إلى محيط الملعب ومناطق القويسمة والمقابلين جنوب عمان، والأشرفية ومخيم الوحدات شرق العاصمة، حيث أحرق غاضبون الإطارات ورشقوا قوات الدرك في محيط مستشفى البشير ومركز أمن الأشرفية ومقر نادي الوحدات بالحجارة، وردت قوات الدرك بإطلاق الغاز المسيل للدموع بشكل كثيف.

وتملك الغضب جماهير الوحدات التي احتشدت أمام بوابات مستشفى البشير الحكومي، ودعت هذه الجماهير الأمير علي بن الحسين رئيس الاتحاد الأردني لكرة القدم إلى التدخل لوقف ما وصفته بـ"المهزلة" التي جرت.

وكانت الحكومة الأردنية قد أعلنت عن إجراء تحقيق شامل للوقوف على كل ما جرى بعد مباراة الفيصلي والوحدات.

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/B7520745-608D-4ACB-865C-9D7BE5181385.htm.

Jordan Islamists back restaurant owner's expulsion of Israelis

Fri, 10 Dec 2010

Amman - The Islamic Action Front, Jordan's main opposition party, Friday supported the expulsion recently of Israeli tourists from a Jordanian restaurant in the Red Sea port of Aqaba.

"The move by the owner of the restaurant represents a daring and correct behavior because it reflects the conscience of Jordanians who reject all forms of normalization with the Zionist enemy," IAF spokesman Mohammad Zoyoud said, referring to Israel.

The owner of the restaurant, Salwa Barghouti, reportedly ordered a number of Israeli tourists out of her restaurant in Aqaba last week after they got drunk and allegedly made jokes about other Arab customers.

An Israeli woman lodged a complaint with the Jordanian police. Barghouti was ordered to apologize but she refused, media reports said.

Zoyoud also lashed out at the world human rights group Human Rights Watch, accusing it of "interfering in Jordanian internal affairs." HRW described the incident as having "racial connotations" and urged the Jordanian authorities to investigate it.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357569,restaurant-owners-expulsion-israelis.html.

Japan to deploy missile interceptors

Sat Dec 11, 2010

The Japanese armed forces are set to deploy advanced interceptor missiles at air bases as tensions continue to grow in the troubled region.

The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor missiles system is designed to shoot down incoming missiles from the ground before they land, Kyodo News Agency reported on Saturday.

Sources say the move is apparently intended to counter the threat of North Korean ballistic missiles.

The developments come weeks after an artillery exchange between the South and the North resulted in the deaths of four South Koreans. North Korea has accused the US and the South of firing first.

In recent months, the US and South Korea have conducted several massive joint sea and air drills in the waters east of the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang has warned that the war games could bring the Koreas closer to the brink of war.

The North also accuses US President Barack Obama of plotting with regional allies to topple the country's government, insisting that its nuclear program is a deterrent against US forces in the region.

Japanese forces also plan to increase the number of submarines patrolling the seas off Okinawa, where most of the nearly 100 US facilities in Japan are located.

This is while Vice Defense Minister Jun Azumi has said that Tokyo should improve its defense capability in the southwest where it shares a maritime border with China.

"Our attention was on the north during the Cold War. But we have to shift our focus to the defense of southwest …The most important step to strengthen our defense over the next 10 years is to secure the mobility (of our troops)," Azumi told Reuters in an interview this week.

Relations have turned sour between the two countries since Tokyo arrested a Chinese boat captain near a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea last month.

The captain was released later. However, the territorial dispute has sparked several protests in both countries.

The uninhabited islands, called the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China, are close to key shipping lanes, have rich fishing grounds and are believed to contain oil deposits.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155029.html.

Spain loses jobs amid austerity plan

Sat Dec 11, 2010

The number of jobless individuals in Spain has risen by 24,318, reaching 4.1 million, after Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced new austerity measures.

Spain's unemployment rate, which stands at 20 percent, is the highest in Europe, reports say.

Last week, the government unveiled a new plan which aimed at bringing down the country's deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2013. Spain has refuted claims that it might consider adopting an EU-IMF bailout package such as the ones adopted by the Republic of Ireland and Greece.

The austerity measures include tax cuts for 40,000 small and medium-sized companies. The government will also slash a monthly unemployment subsidy of EUR 426 (USD 580), drastically affecting people who are not receiving any other unemployment benefits, DPA reported

“It is not going to change; they're going to make it worse. People are going to end up stealing. People need to eat. People are not going to keep quiet,” one unemployed man told Reuters.

Other measures include privatizing 49 percent of the country's airport management authority -- AENA - and 30 percent of the national lottery agency.

Last week Wildcat strikes by air traffic controllers blocked flights for two days, which disrupted holiday travel for at least 300,000 passengers.

The controllers, who eventually returned to work after the government called a state of emergency and threatened them with prison, were striking over payment and working hours.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155028.html.

'Shahnameh' to enter Guinness book

Sat Dec 11, 2010

The Austrian Academy of Science has suggested that the 11th-century Persian masterpiece Shahnameh be registered on the Guinness World Records list.

Secretary General of Iran's Ferdowsi Foundation Yasser Movahhedfar announced the news, adding that the Austrian academy offered the suggestion during a ceremony held in Vienna to commemorate Shahnameh's millennial anniversary.

The foundation has also produced an animation on the epic masterpiece, Movahhedfar said.

“Directed by Shahram Salemi, Nature in Shahnameh will take part in the 2011 edition of Eko Film Festival, which will be held in March next year,” he told Fars News Agency.

“The animation is an innovative work which is based on manuscripts from the Baysonqori Shahnameh,” he added.

The Baysonqori Shahnameh is an illustrated manuscript of Ferdowsi's masterpiece, which was calligraphed by Maulana Jafar Tabrizi Baysonqori in the Timurid era. The manuscript is registered on UNESCO's Memory of the World list.

Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) is a classic among epic Persian poetry and recounts Iran's mythical and historical past. It was written in Persian at a time when Arabic was the main scientific and literary language of Iran.

The romance of Zal and Rudaba, the Seven Stages (or Labors) of Rostam, Rostam and Sohrab, Siavash and Soudabeh, Rostam and Akvan Div, the romance of Bizhan and Manizheh and Rostam and Esfandyar are among the most popular Shahnameh stories.

Movahhedfar also announced that the foundation's other cultural and artistic projects such as holding discussion sessions with Shahnameh experts and organizing Naqqali programs.

Naqqali is an epic narration mostly inspired by Shahnameh stories.

Dating back to the Safavid Dynasty, Naqqali can be performed in verse or prose and by only one person, who presents it with a special tone and expression, playing the roles of all characters.

The foundation is also making a film on Shahnameh, based on a five-year research project, which will be screened in European countries, Movahhedfar added.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155027.html.

Israel denies Vanunu travel permission

Fri Dec 10, 2010

Israel has prevented a former nuclear whistleblower from receiving an international prize in Germany for work towards promoting disarmament.

Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed details of Israel's secret weapons program 24 years ago, was to be awarded the Carl von Ossietsky Prize in Berlin on Sunday.

According to a spokesman for the International League for Human Rights, the group has now decided to cancel the ceremony and hold a protest rally on behalf of the former nuclear technician instead, AFP reported.

The League had previously called on Tel Aviv to allow Vanunu to participate in the ceremony and Vanunu's attorney Michael Sfard had assured Israeli officials that the 56-year old atomic technician was willing to commit himself to returning to Israel following the ceremony in Berlin.

Vanunu was convicted of treason and spent 18 years in jail after disclosing the inner workings of Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to the Sunday Times newspaper in 1986 backed up by two rolls of film he had taken of the plant.

He was released in 2004 but was banned from travel and giving interviews to foreign media without prior permission.

Estimated to have more than 200 nuclear warheads, Israel still refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit its nuclear sites.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/154898.html.

'Israel to compensate flotilla victims'

Sat Dec 11, 2010

Israel is reportedly seeking to reach a deal with Turkey to compensate the relatives of those Turkish activists killed in the May raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

In exchange, Tel Aviv wants a "full shield" to protect its troops from possible legal action.

Nine Turks died and around 50 other people were injured on May 31, when the Israeli military assaulted the Gaza Freedom flotilla.

"We made a compensation offer, and asked the Turks to do what needs to be done to address our legal concerns. We also want to see them return their ambassador and allow us to appoint a new ambassador in Ankara," an Israeli official told The Telegraph.

"For now, however, there are still big obstacles," the official went on to say.

Israel has offered to pay $100,000 dollars to each family of the nine slain activists.

Tel Aviv also wants to express "regret" over the bloodshed rather than "apologize" -- which has been one of Ankara's main demands.

Turkey, however, says its demands have not changed.

"Israel has behaved unjustly towards Turkey regarding the aid ship Mavi Marmara and we are still expecting compensation and an apology," Turkey's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Selcuk Unal said on Friday.

Last Sunday, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his position that Israel must apologize and pay compensations over the killing of nine Turkish activists.

"No one should expect us to keep silent and forfeit law and justice as long as the blood spilled in the Mediterranean is not cleared," he said.

The bilateral relations between Turkey and Israel reached their lowest ebb ever following the incident.

"Some say we should turn a new page... An apology must be offered first, compensation must be paid first," Erdogan noted.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/154932.html.

'Allawi quits candidacy for NCSP head'

Sat Dec 11, 2010

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has reportedly withdrawn his name as candidate for the post of chairman of the newly created National Council for Strategic Policy (NCSP).

Iraqi Lawmaker Ali Tamim, a member of Sadr group, confirmed that Allawi had withdrawn his name as candidate for the post.

"Allawi asked executive authorities for the National Council for Strategic Policy (NCSP,) but the demand is against the Constitution because the council is a consultative body and not executive body," Tamim said.

This is while many of Iraqi lawmakers are opposed to giving further authority to the council, saying the move may disrupt the activities of other executive bodies.

In November, Iraq's main factions reached an agreement based on the incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki remaining in office for another term and the Kurdish Alliance's President Jalal Talabani retaining the presidency.

Allawi of Iraqiya Alliance would also be a part of the government as head of the NCSP, according to the deal.

Iraqi lawmakers, moreover, elected Osama al-Nujaifi as the country's parliament speaker. The post is to be held by Iraqiya.

Iraqiya managed to win most seats in the March 7 parliamentary elections, but failed to secure the absolute majority needed for a mandate.

In an interview with Britain's Times newspaper on Tuesday Allawi also threatened to quit a power-sharing government.

"Power-sharing is not happening," Allawi said. "It is not set to work in a meaningful way... If it does not change, I will not participate."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/154947.html.

British police roughing protesters up

Sat Dec 11, 2010

Heavy-handed British police have gone violent in dealing with thousands of university students protesting against the government's policy on rising tuition fees.

The students protesting against the changes in the education benefits and the three-fold hike in tuition fees faced the brutality of the riot police in the main streets of London and around the parliament building.

Reports said the riot police and mounted officers used tear gas and batons to attack the protester, injuring and arresting scores of people.

British MPs ratified the policy to triple university tuition fees from £3,290 to £9,000 a year by 323 against 302 votes.

Footage from France 24, the BBC and CNN showed security forces using apparent excessive force against the university students as they tried to enter the White Hall buildings.

A number of activists managed to enter the Parliament Square and used red paint to write “No” on the grass, as a show of opposition to the cuts in the education budget and the rise in tuition fees.

The wave of unrest following the Thursday vote is a continuation of protest rallies having plagued Britain with several demonstrations, many marred with violence, against the tuition fee rises coming into force in 2012.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/154975.html.

Bahrain urged to end Rajab harassment

Sat Dec 11, 2010

An international human rights group has called on Bahrain's government to stop "harassment" of prominent Bahraini rights defender Nabeel Rajab.

Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was detained for about an hour by national security agents on December 2 upon his departure to Greece through Bahrain International Airport.

"Bahrain's leaders repeatedly insist that the government respects human rights, but Nabeel Rajab's treatment tells another story," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"The government should make clear to the security forces that the harassment of human rights defenders needs to stop immediately," Stork said.

HRW also asked Manama to "return any information illegally copied" from Rajab's laptop computer and mobile phone.

"The officers also forcibly took the computer and an iPod belonging to his son and carried them, along with the phone, into a nearby closed room for approximately half an hour. When the computer was returned, it was on and showing the computer's "systems" screen, indicating that information may have been downloaded or copied," the rights group said.

Rajab has been the target of the Bahraini government's continuous harassment for years and at different levels.

The incident is one of many targeting human rights activists in Bahrain.

Bahrain has put on trial 23 opposition activists detained on charges of forming an illegal organization and plotting to overthrow the government.

The detained opposition activists have had almost no access to their lawyers, who were only allowed to see their clients when they were brought before the public prosecutor about two weeks after their arrest and once again during the first trial session.

Some of the defendants said they were subjected to torture or other ill-treatment, their attorneys said.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/154956.html.

In Pakistan, anti-US protest persists

Sat Dec 11, 2010

Swarms of tribesmen from North Waziristan have staged a protest in the capital Islamabad to vent their anger against unauthorized US drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas.

With civilian casualties on the rise as the result of non-UN-sanctioned US drone attacks, dozens of protesters from tribal areas in North Waziristan traveled to Islamabad on Friday, chanting anti-American slogans and complaining about having to live in constant fear of being the next target of the drone attacks, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday.

The villagers were simmering with resentment over the escalation of unauthorized US drone strikes that have killed 2,000 people in northwest Pakistan since 2004.

More than 700 of those casualties, mostly civilians, have been killed in US drone attacks since 2009.

A $500 million lawsuit against CIA director Leon Panetta, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the CIA station chief in Islamabad, which began with just one claimant last month in the Pakistani courts, has now drawn scores of claimants and is expected to attract still more people, who have lost their loved ones during the aerial strikes.

"Muslim blood has become a business," said a protester named Samiullah, a 21-year-old from a village near Mir Ali in North Waziristan.

The latest eruption of outrage comes as the United Nations has stressed that the US-operated drone strikes in Pakistan pose a growing challenge to the international rule of law.

The daily attacks, initially ordered under former US President George W. Bush, have seen a dramatic increase during President Barack Obama's presidency.

Washington claims that the airstrikes target militants. However, according to statistics, over 1,100 people have lost their lives in more than 130 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008.

Earlier on Friday, Peshawar-based US Consul General Elizabeth Rood reportedly left Pakistan after receiving death threats from pro-Taliban militants amid the public outcry over the surge in US-operated drone attacks in tribal areas.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/154971.html.

'Hezbollah will reject STL indictment'

Sat Dec 11, 2010

Hezbollah says the resistance movement will "totally reject" the indictment of a US-backed tribunal probing the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, criticized the US-sponsored Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), calling it a "conspiratorial tribunal."

Hezbollah opposed the STL "because it is being used to harm the Resistance," Naharnet website quoted Qassem as saying on Friday.

He also asked "the international community and our partners in this country to work on terminating the role of this tribunal for the sake of everyone's protection against the American-Israeli conspiracy."

"This is a test for our partners in this country: are they willing to take this honorable stance in foiling the conspiracy against Lebanon and the Resistance?"

Qassem vowed that Hezbollah would remain "steadfast" in the face of "the STL's trap … whatever the considerations or costs may be."

According to unconfirmed reports, the US-backed STL plans to charge some Hezbollah members in connection with the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, who lost his life in a massive car bomb explosion on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 other people.

Hezbollah, which has vehemently denied playing any role in the assassination, says the tribunal is an "Israeli-American project" established with the goal of undermining the resistance movement and creating division in the country.

The resistance movement also accuses the US-sponsored tribunal of basing its investigations on testimonies provided by "false witnesses."

The newly-appointed STL Registrar Herman von Hebel said on Thursday that he expects the court's prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to send a draft indictment to the pre-trial judge for confirmation very soon.

According to von Hebal, the indictment will be made public only after being confirmed by pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen and that the judge is expected to decide whether to confirm the indictment and issue arrest warrants, either under seal or by naming suspects publicly, in about six to ten weeks.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/154973.html.

WikiLeaks: German foreign minister against Turkey joining EU

Sat, 11 Dec 2010

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is far more opposed to Turkey joining the European Union than he has expressed publicly, media reported Saturday, quoting US embassy documents released by WikiLeaks.

A country as large as Turkey could not be integrated into the EU, Westerwelle reportedly told US counterpart Hillary Rodham Clinton shortly after taking office in 2009.

If Germany had to decide now on Turkish EU accession, the answer would be no, the minister said according to Spiegel news magazine, which is publishing the US diplomatic cables in collaboration with WikiLeaks.

However this question would only present itself in five or six years, Westerwelle reportedly said, adding that Turkey was not modern enough to join the EU.

Germany officially advocates a "privileged partnership" for Turkey, rather than full-fledged EU membership. Nevertheless, Westerwelle and Chancellor Angela Merkel insist that accession talks "must not preclude any outcome."

The US diplomatic dispatch suggested that this may be a tactical stance, to encourage structural reform in Turkey.

In September, Merkel signaled that she was willing to open new chapters in the accession talks, during a visit by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357668,minister-turkey-joining-eu.html.

Egypt's Mubarak likely to run in 2011, leaked US cable says

Fri, 10 Dec 2010

Cairo - Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak is likely to run in next year's presidential elections and will "inevitably win," the US Ambassador in Cairo Margaret Scobey wrote in a newly leaked cable.

"Despite incessant whispered discussions, no one in Egypt has any certainty about who will eventually succeed Mubarak, nor under what circumstances," Scobey wrote in the May 2009 cable to Washington, which was leaked to newspapers by WikiLeaks.

The 82-year-old Mubarak, who has ruled for nearly 30 years, has not formally announced his plans for next year's elections or named a vice-president or successor. However, Mubarak has previously vowed to continue serving as Egypt's leader until his "last breath."

Mubarak is "in reasonably good health; his most notable problem is a hearing deficit in his left ear," wrote Scobey.

However, Mubarak's health has been subject to speculation since he went to Germany for an operation earlier this year, reviving debates over the country's future after his reign ends.

Mubarak's son Gamal, who is a top official in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), is rumored to be a possible candidate for the post.

"The most likely contender is presidential son Gamal ... Mubarak's ideal of a strong but fair leader would seem to discount Gamal Mubarak to some degree, given Gamal's lack of military experience, and may explain Mubarak's hands-off approach to the succession question," said the cable.

The release of the dispatch comes shortly after opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei, urged people and opposition to boycott the 2011 presidential vote.

Mubarak's ruling NDP swept the recent elections for the lower house with over 80 per cent of the vote, leaving opposition groups few seats in the 518 member People's Assembly.

Parliamentary elections were seen as an indicator ahead of the presidential vote. Monitors and opposition groups said the election was marred with fraud that favored the ruling party.

ElBaradei, who urged a boycott of the recent parliamentary elections, has voiced his concerns over vote rigging next year.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357573,leaked-us-cable-says.html.

Jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate 'speaks' from prison - Summary

Fri, 10 Dec 2010

Oslo - An empty chair served as a stark reminder of the absence of Nobel Peace Prize laureate, jailed Chinese political activist Liu Xiaobo, at Friday's ceremony at Oslo City Hall.

Liu's optimism about political change in China and calls for reconciliation were however strong themes in the award ceremony that was boycotted by China and several other nations.

The ceremony included a performance by a children's choir, in keeping with a wish Liu had managed to convey to organizers. A large portrait of the 54-year-old activist was displayed in the hall.

Liu is serving an 11-year sentence for sedition, a result of his role in organizing the Charter '08 manifesto democratic reform in China.

Nobel Committee head Thorbjorn Jagland said Liu was being honoured for his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

Jagland expressed "regret" over the absence of Liu, who is "in isolation in a prison in north-east China" and also noted the absence of the laureate's wife Liu Xia and other close relatives.

After paying tribute to Liu and his efforts, Jagland placed the laureate's medal and diploma in the empty chair.

In the absence of an acceptance speech, Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read a statement released by supporters of the activist after his sentencing a year ago.

In the document, titled "I Have No Enemies," Liu underlines the importance of the 1989 democracy movement in China - where he took part in a hunger strike - that ended with a crackdown in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. He observes that "the ghosts of June 4 (1989) have not yet been laid to rest."

He also says he is convinced that China will change and that "there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme."

He also pays tribute to his wife, now under house arrest in Beijing, saying her love "is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates the iron bars of my prison window."

The Chinese government, angered by the selection of Liu as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, called him a "criminal" and urged countries to stay away from the prize ceremony.

Representatives of least 15 countries were absent from Friday's ceremony, according to the Nobel Institute.

Beijing meanwhile blocked live broadcasts from Oslo by by foreign media.

The more than 1,000 guests and dignitaries at the ceremony included outgoing speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway.

In the US, President Barack Obama, last year's surprise winner of the coveted award, also called for Liu's release and stressed that he was "far more deserving of this award than I was."

Similar calls were issued by European Union foreign policy Catherine Ashton and former Czech president Vaclav Havel, a signatory of the Charter '77 petition for human rights in the former Communist country.

Jagland reminded guests of previous occasions when laureates were unable to collect the award in person, including 75 years ago when German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky won the award to the fury of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Russia's Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Poland's Lech Walesa in 1983, and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar in 1991 were represented by relatives.

Jagland said the prize to Liu was not a prize against China and underlined that the country's growing power "entails increased responsibility" and it must be prepared to accept "criticism" - just as was the case for the United States in the past.

He referred to criticism voiced against the US over its role in the Vietnam War and the lack of civil and political rights for blacks Americans.

In 1964, the Peace Prize was awarded to US civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King, Jr, for his non-violent campaign for those rights, Jagland observed, adding "we can see the US grew stronger when the African-American people obtained their rights."

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the awards endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite. A separate ceremony was due later Friday in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, for winners in the fields of medicine, chemistry, literature and economics.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357584,speaks-prison-summary.html.

Sources: EU to fail to open any new membership talks with Turkey

Fri, 10 Dec 2010

Brussels - The European Union will fail this month to open talks with Turkey on any new membership issues, making it the first time in a six-month period since negotiations began in 2005 that a new chapter has not been opened, diplomats in Brussels said Friday.

Countries which apply for EU membership have to bring their laws into line with EU rules in 35 areas, the so-called "chapters." Since Turkey began accession talks in October 2005, it has opened talks on 13 chapters, adding at least one to the list every six months.

But now, "I can confirm that this (six-month period), we can't open any chapter," an EU diplomat said on Friday. It is the first six-month period since accession talks began that no chapters at all have opened.

EU ministers for European affairs are due to meet in Brussels on Tuesday, and had been tipped to call for an opening of the chapter on competition policy, with a meeting in late December expected to formalize the move.

But diplomatic sources said that Turkey has not managed to meet the so-called "benchmarks," or technical criteria, necessary to open the talks.

The decision not to open a chapter is "fully technical: not all benchmarks for opening Chapter 8 were made, though good progress was made," a second diplomat said.

Instead, ministers are expected to issue a statement commending Turkey's efforts so far and insisting that that and other chapters will be opened when it is technically possible to do so.

The declaration "will be as forthcoming as possible, exactly to avoid signals that could be interpreted as a major crisis in relations with Turkey," the first diplomat said.

Ironically, the failure to open any further chapters now is likely to postpone the issue to a time when it could lead to a more explosive political row.

Cyprus and France have formally or informally vetoed the opening of more than a dozen chapters because of rows with Ankara, meaning that there are only three more chapters Turkey would be allowed to open without solving a long-simmering conflict with Cyprus.

Diplomats had warned that, at a rate of one chapter every six months, the situation would become critical in the first half of 2012. That now looks likely to be pushed back to the second half of 2012 - just when Cyprus takes up the rotating EU presidency.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357588,new-membership-talks-turkey.html.

Nobels awarded in Sweden for science, literature and economics

Fri, 10 Dec 2010

Stockholm - The winners of the 2010 Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics received their awards Friday in a wintry Stockholm.

Due to ill health, medicine prize laureate Robert Edwards of Britain - cited for the development of in vitro fertilization - did not travel to Stockholm.

"The result of your work has touched us all, giving millions of infertile couples a precious gift, a child," said professor Christer Hoog of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute.

Edwards' wife and co-researcher, Ruth Fowler Edwards, accepted the award, worth 10 million kronor (1.5 million dollars), on his behalf from King Carl Gustaf at the ceremony in Stockholm Concert Hall.

Russian-born duo Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov shared the physics prize for pioneering work on a so-called super material called graphene.

Richard F Heck of the United States and Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, both of Japan, shared the chemistry prize for research on a method used to create advanced materials, for instance in pharmaceuticals.

Literature prize winner, Peruvian-born "Mario Vargas Llosa's writing has shaped our image of South America" and he "believes in the force of literature," Swedish Academy member Per Wastberg said.

US researchers Peter A Diamond and Dale T Mortensen, and British- Cypriot citizen Christopher A Pissarides won the economics prize for a theory that helps explain the difficulties in matching the needs of buyers and sellers - especially on the labor market.

The ceremony was a first for Crown Princess Victoria's husband, Prince Daniel. The couple married in June.

Earlier Friday, a ceremony was held in Oslo, Norway, for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, jailed Chinese political activist Liu Xiaobo.

Since Liu and his family were not allowed to travel to Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it would keep his diploma, medal and prize money in his name.

Angered by the choice of Liu, China stayed away from the ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm.

The Nobel awards were endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite.

The Stockholm Concert Hall was decorated with thousands of flowers from San Remo, Italy, where Nobel died on December 10, 1896.

Some 1,300 guests, including royal family members, diplomats, academics, politicians and leaders from the worlds of business and the arts then attended a banquet at Stockholm's City Hall.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357592,sweden-science-literature-economics.html.

Lost Civilization Under Persian Gulf

by Staff Writers
Chicago IL (SPX) Dec 10, 2010

A once fertile landmass now submerged beneath the Persian Gulf may have been home to some of the earliest human populations outside Africa, according to an article published in Current Anthropology.

Jeffrey Rose, an archaeologist and researcher with the University of Birmingham in the U.K., says that the area in and around this "Persian Gulf Oasis" may have been host to humans for over 100,000 years before it was swallowed up by the Indian Ocean around 8,000 years ago. Rose's hypothesis introduces a "new and substantial cast of characters" to the human history of the Near East, and suggests that humans may have established permanent settlements in the region thousands of years before current migration models suppose.

In recent years, archaeologists have turned up evidence of a wave of human settlements along the shores of the Gulf dating to about 7,500 years ago.

"Where before there had been but a handful of scattered hunting camps, suddenly, over 60 new archaeological sites appear virtually overnight," Rose said.

"These settlements boast well-built, permanent stone houses, long-distance trade networks, elaborately decorated pottery, domesticated animals, and even evidence for one of the oldest boats in the world."

But how could such highly developed settlements pop up so quickly, with no precursor populations to be found in the archaeological record? Rose believes that evidence of those preceding populations is missing because it's under the Gulf.

"Perhaps it is no coincidence that the founding of such remarkably well developed communities along the shoreline corresponds with the flooding of the Persian Gulf basin around 8,000 years ago," Rose said. "These new colonists may have come from the heart of the Gulf, displaced by rising water levels that plunged the once fertile landscape beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean."

Historical sea level data show that, prior to the flood, the Gulf basin would have been above water beginning about 75,000 years ago. And it would have been an ideal refuge from the harsh deserts surrounding it, with fresh water supplied by the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and Wadi Baton Rivers, as well as by underground springs.

When conditions were at their driest in the surrounding hinterlands, the Gulf Oasis would have been at its largest in terms of exposed land area. At its peak, the exposed basin would have been about the size of Great Britain, Rose says.

Evidence is also emerging that modern humans could have been in the region even before the oasis was above water. Recently discovered archaeological sites in Yemen and Oman have yielded a stone tool style that is distinct from the East African tradition.

That raises the possibility that humans were established on the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula beginning as far back as 100,000 years ago or more, Rose says. That is far earlier than the estimates generated by several recent migration models, which place the first successful migration into Arabia between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago.

The Gulf Oasis would have been available to these early migrants, and would have provided "a sanctuary throughout the Ice Ages when much of the region was rendered uninhabitable due to hyperaridity," Rose said. "The presence of human groups in the oasis fundamentally alters our understanding of human emergence and cultural evolution in the ancient Near East."

It also hints that vital pieces of the human evolutionary puzzle may be hidden in the depths of the Persian Gulf.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Lost_Civilization_Under_Persian_Gulf_999.html.

Changes In Solar Activity Affect Local Climate

by Staff Writers
Lund, Sweden (SPX) Dec 10, 2010

Raimund Muscheler is a researcher at the Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at Lund University in Sweden. In the latest issue of the journal Science, he and his colleagues have described how the surface water temperature in the tropical parts of the eastern Pacific varied with the sun's activity between 7 000 and 11 000 years ago (early Holocene).

Contrary to what one might intuitively believe, high solar activity had a cooling effect in this region.

"It is perhaps a similar phenomenon that we are seeing here today", says Raimund Muscheler.

"Last year's cold winter in Sweden could intuitively be seen to refute global warming. But the winter in Greenland was exceptionally mild. Both phenomena coincide with low solar activity and the sun's activity probably influences the local climate variations."

Today there is a lot of debate about whether the sun's activity could have influenced the earth's climate over thousands or millions of years.

"The key processes in this influence are still mostly unclear. This is why the present climate models probably do not include the full effect of solar activity", says Raimund Muscheler.

By reconstructing surface water temperatures from plankton stored in a sediment core taken from the seabed off the west coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico, researchers have now made new findings. The results suggest that solar activity has influenced the sea's surface water temperature by changing local circulation processes in the sea.

Previous studies have shown that the surface water temperature in the tropical Pacific Ocean is linked to atmospheric and seawater circulation through the regional weather phenomena El Nino and El Nina.

"We know that El Nino brings a warmer climate, while El Nina brings a cooler climate in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean", says Raimund Muscheler. "If we presume that this connection existed during the early Holocene, this means that there could be a link between solar activity and El Nino/El Nina on long time scales."

In his research, Raimund Muscheler works to reconstruct previous changes in solar activity by studying how cosmogenic isotopes, for example of beryllium-10 and carbon-14, have been stored in both ice cores and annual rings in trees. Cosmogenic isotopes are formed in the atmosphere as a result of cosmic radiation from space.

When solar activity is high, a small amount of the cosmic radiation reaches the atmosphere and thus a small number of cosmogenic isotopes are formed and stored.

"This is the best and most reliable method we have to reconstruct solar activity", says Raimund Muscheler.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Changes_In_Solar_Activity_Affect_Local_Climate_999.html.

Arctic blast causes European travel chaos

by Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) Dec 9, 2010

Icy roads paralyzed much of the Paris region Thursday after the heaviest snow in a quarter of a century, while harsh weather in Germany hit flights and prompted major delays in rail travel.

French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux asked drivers not to travel unless absolutely necessary the day after 11 centimeters (more than four inches) of snow fell on Paris, the most in one day since 1987.

He said around 1,000 motorists had to spend the night snow-bound in their cars, although that figure paled in comparison with the 60,000 who slept in their cars during a 2003 blizzard.

Thousands spent the night at Charles de Gaulle airport, France's main international hub, after their flights were canceled, and thousands more stranded motorists were put up in municipal halls and school sports halls around the Paris region.

Police late Wednesday barred trucks from traveling on roads in the Paris region, with around 3,000 lorries stuck on northern French motorways headed for the capital.

But lorries were allowed to take to the road again by late afternoon Thursday as road conditions began to improve.

There were flight delays and cancellations at Charles de Gaulle because of icy runways and fuel trucks' inability to get to planes, Air France said, advising passengers to check their flight status ahead of time.

Flights during the day were delayed up to two hours, airport authorities said late Thursday but the situation was slowly getting back to normal.

The Eiffel Tower reopened after ice forced its closure on Wednesday.

Amid rising public anger at the authorities' perceived inability to deal with the situation, Hortefeux postponed a trip to Morocco and said he would send experts to other European cities to see how they deal with snow and ice.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon, on a visit to Russia, accused the Meteo France weather service of having "failed to forecast the snow and in any case not its intensity" thereby catching clearing services by surprise.

In Germany heavy snowfall sparked chaos in the country's transport networks, with hundreds of flights canceled and major delays for rail passengers, authorities said.

Wintry conditions prompted the shutdown of Frankfurt international airport, Germany's busiest, from 2100 GMT Wednesday to about 0100 GMT Thursday, a spokeswoman said, leading to a major backlog throughout the day.

Nearly 3,000 people were stranded in Frankfurt and slept at nearby hotels or the airport itself, where beds were set up. Of the nearly 1,400 flights scheduled Thursday, 400 were canceled.

"The situation is slowly getting back to normal," the spokeswoman said. "The snowfall has stopped and our runways are clear."

The airport reported 15 centimeters (six inches) of snow Thursday afternoon.

In Berlin where snow averaged 17 centimeters (more than six inches) some 200 flights were scrapped at the two main international airports, about one-third of those scheduled, a spokesman said.

Train travel was hit by major delays, with high-speed trains forced to slow to 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour from the 250 kilometers per hour in normal conditions, the state-owned rail company said.

Snow and ice on the roads provoked thousands of accidents and major traffic jams on the autobahns, including a 40-kilometer- (25-mile-)long bottleneck in the central state of Thuringia.

Britain also suffered from the early cold snap that descended on Europe, with Scotland the worst hit by the snow and ice that paralyzed many roads earlier in the week.

"It is the most widespread heavy snow in Britain in November since 1965. The weather in December has continued on a similar note," said a spokesman for the Met Office, the national forecasters for Britain.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arctic_blast_causes_European_travel_chaos_999.html.

Defiant Jerusalem Palestinians say "we will remain here"

Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
The Electronic Intifada, 9 December 2010

A huge Palestinian flag was carried up a steep hill in Issawiya on 3 December, passed hand-to-hand between the at least 200 Palestinians, Israelis and international activists taking part in the first-ever solidarity march and demonstration in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood.

People cheered and shouted as the flag passed over their heads, and many carried signs reading "Stop the imprisonment of Issawiya" and "Stop the occupation of Issawiya."

Indeed, in recent weeks, the contrast between the Israeli settlement of French Hill -- home to the main campus of Jerusalem's Hebrew University and Hadassah hospital -- and neighboring Issawiya has been magnified by the near-constant presence of Israeli soldiers and police forces in the Palestinian village.

"It's as if civilization ends at the borders of French Hill and Issawiya," said Hani Isawi, member of the Issawiya Follow-Up Committee, during a resident-led meeting on 24 November in the neighborhood.

"On the one hand, we are suffering because as the rest of the Palestinian people, we are living under the Israeli occupation, and at the same time, we are suffering from a very clear policy of discrimination from the Jerusalem municipality," Isawi said.

Recently, the Israeli media reported that a group of Palestinian youth stoned a car of Israeli Jews that had gotten lost in Issawiya and were asking for directions back to West Jerusalem.

In what residents say is collective punishment for the attack, the Israeli authorities have closed the entrances and exits to Issawiya. Today, only two entrances remain, including one that has been turned into an Israeli army-monitored checkpoint that causes routine delays for the neighborhood's 15,000 Palestinian residents.

"We very clearly discourage and criticize these kind of actions, such as attacking civilians," Isawi said. "But the Israelis are using this as a pretext for implementing very harsh policies against us."

Israeli soldiers and police forces have arrested at least ten children under the age of 16, and more than two dozen others above that age since October, according to the Issawiya Follow-Up Committee. They have also routinely blanketed Issawiya in clouds of tear gas during clashes with groups of Palestinian youth, including shortly after Friday's demonstration.

On 24 September, an 18-month-old Palestinian child died in Issawiya from tear gas inhalation, after Israeli forces threw canisters at a demonstration protesting the killing of Samer Sarhan in the nearby Silwan neighborhood.

No room to grow

Three kilometers away from Jerusalem's Old City walls, Issawiya sits between the Israeli settlements of French Hill to the west, and Maale Adumim -- one the largest Israeli settlements in the West Bank with more than 34,000 settlers -- to the east.

In 1968, the Israeli state confiscated 400 of the 3,000 total dunams (a dunam is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters) of land in Issawiya to build the French Hill settlement, which connects Hebrew University and the Hadassah Hospital to West Jerusalem.

In addition to confiscating land, Israel has also designated 2,000 dunams in Issawiya as "green areas," thereby making it illegal for village residents to build anything in the area. Today, Issawiya residents only have 600 dunams on which to build homes and other structures.

"We are facing a very serious problem of providing a sufficient amount of houses to coincide with the natural growth [of the population in Issawiya]," Hani Isawi said. "While we hear on the news all the time about thousands and thousands of new residential units to be built in Jewish neighborhoods, since 1990 there hasn't been one single zoning plan for Issawiya that would actually allow us to build more houses to satisfy our need for natural growth."

In the past few weeks, Israeli forces have destroyed animal pens, agricultural land and other structures in the village.

"The Israeli border police and other administrative people destroyed twelve farms in the area. This also included the uprooting of trees," explained Sheikh Riad Isawi of the Issawiya Follow-Up Committee.

"Israel is probably the only place in the world that actually allows the uprooting of trees. So not only human beings are suffering from the Israeli occupation but also the trees and nature," he said.

The full extent of Israel's destructive policies in Issawiya was clear as early as July of this year, when Israeli forces destroyed homes and devastated agricultural land in a two-week span.

"We constructed a well, they destroyed it. We planted trees, they uprooted them. We put barbed wire around the area so that wild animals won't enter, they took that off also," said Issawiya resident Abid Darwish in July, as he watched his land being destroyed.

"In all this, we can't find a place for us to just sit and breathe. This land is for the families here in Issawiya: Darwish, Mustafa, Alayyan, Abu Hommos and many others," Darwish added.

Since July, 440 trees have been uprooted and at least 16 structures have been demolished in Issawiya.

Annexation continues

E1, Israel's stalled settlement project that was initially proposed in 1994, would annex another estimated 12,400 dunams of land from Issawiya and the neighboring villages of al-Izzariya and al-Tur. The E1 settlement bloc would contain 3,500 housing units -- for nearly 14,500 new settlers -- and would solidify Maale Adumim by connecting it to West Jerusalem, according to the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem.

To date, the Israeli authorities have built a police station and army base in the area, and have paved some roads, checkpoints and other basic infrastructure in preparation for the project to go ahead.

"Any link between Maale Adumim and West Jerusalem is going to be at the expense of Issawiya," said Hani Isawi. "The aim of these measurements is to pressure more and more of the people of Issawiya, and also to facilitate for future land confiscation in our area."

Still, according to Isawi, whether or not the E1 settlement project goes ahead, the need to stay in Issawiya despite relentless Israeli pressure remains.

"Our struggle against the Israeli authorities is expressed by our staying here in our village and facing all the confiscation plans," he said. "We will remain here. We will always be part of the Palestinian people."

Source: Electronic Intifada.
Link: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11667.shtml.