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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Brazil donates land for Palestinian embassy

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Palestinian ambassador to Brazil Ibrahim Az-Zein received the title to a piece of land Monday, where the Palestinian embassy in Brazil will stand following that country's recognition of a Palestinian state earlier in the month.

Following the presentation of the generous gift, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement thanking Brazil for what it said was a 22-dunum track of land with an estimated value of $14 million.

The announcement came one day after chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said publicly that 10 European Union countries would soon upgrade their Palestinian representative offices to full diplomatic status in a show of support for Palestinian state-building efforts.

"The Palestinians will not stop working to gain their freedom through all available channels and in peaceful ways," Erekat told Ma'an.

He said the Palestinian cause has gained international support in recent months and affirmed that Norway's decision to upgrade its representative office to an embassy had caused Israel much anxiety.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=344025.

Morocco: Foodstuff heightens Nov inflation

Tuesday 21 December 2010
Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Higher food and education costs pushed Morocco's year-on-year inflation to 2.6 percent in November, official data reported by Reuters showed on Monday, exceeding for the first time the government's 2010 inflation forecast.

Compared with the previous month, prices fell 0.7 percent after a 1.6 percent drop in food and beverage prices, said HCP, Morocco's economic planning and statistics authority.

Food and beverage prices, which account for more than 40 percent of the North African country's consumer price index, rose 5.2 percent in the 12 months to end-November, while education costs rose 4.6 percent over the same period, HCP said in a statement.

Morocco's finance ministry has projected a 2 percent inflation rate for both 2010 and next year.

Underlying inflation, a gauge used by Morocco's central bank to set the benchmark interest rate that excludes state tariffs and volatile prices, was up by an annual 0.5 percent in November against 0.4 percent in October.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/list_message/32456.

Jordanian news sites launch project to translate WikiLeaks cables

AMMAN, Jordan (Ma'an) -- Two Jordanian news sites began posting translations into Arabic of the US diplomatic cables leaked to the public via the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks.

AmmanNet.net and 7iber.com began posting full translations of the cables leaked from the American Embassy in Jordan, as well as others that addressed issues related to the country.

The news sites set up a joint webpage with links to translated cables leaked from the embassy, and others relating to Jordan and the Middle East. The translated cables have links to their original English source.

A statement from project organizers called on "experienced and skilled translators to join the project to Arabize documents related to Jordan and everything released from the embassy in Amman since it is one of the largest sources of cables."

"This translation aims to keep the Jordanian public in particular and the Arab audience in general up to date with leaks of these secret cables by removing the language barrier some people might face," said Mohammad Ersan, manager of Amman.net website in a statement.

Ersan said he hopes that publishing these documents in Arabic will eventually lead to creating a sort of "Jordanian Wikileaks" by encouraging anyone who has important documents to publish them in the local media, especially with the lack of transparency regarding some issues in Jordan like the Casino case and the Dabouq land sale and others.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=343741.

Israeli gang arrested over attacks

Tue Dec 21, 2010

The Israeli police have arrested an Israeli gang, comprised mostly of youths, suspected to be involved in a series of attacks aimed at Arabs in al-Quds (Jerusalem).

“A number of youths were arrested following an investigation by the Jerusalem district police into attacks on Arab-Israelis in the center of town,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Tuesday.

He added that the police have received over 10 complaints, and their investigations indicated that the gang more specifically targeted Arabs, according to an AFP report.

“The suspects were arrested over the past several months and brought before a Jerusalem court on Tuesday for a remand hearing where they were ordered held under house arrest, and the investigation continues,” he added.

According to the reports, a court-issued gag order has banned former publications of details on the case.

A gag order is usually ordered to limit freedom of press, and to prevent potential jurors in a future Criminal Court trial from being influenced by media reports.

There are some 200,000 Arab residents in the east al-Quds, where Israel captured in the Six-day War in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the international community.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156502.html.

Riyadh probes 'illegal' girls' sports

Tue Dec 21, 2010

Saudi Arabia's ministry of education is investigating private girls' high schools for holding what it described as an "illegal" sports tournament.

In an unprecedented event on December 8, some 200 female students from six private high schools in the city of Jeddah broke ministry rules against girls' sports in schools, AFP quoted a report by the Saudi daily Arab News as saying on Tuesday.

"We don't have any regulations that say that it's okay for girls' schools to hold sports classes or training," said Ahmed Al-Zahrani, director of girls' education in Jeddah.

"This tournament was held by these schools, something that has now led us to know about their illegal activities," he said.

The tournament in question was hosted by the private Effat University and included basketball, badminton, swimming and athletics.

"I was surprised to receive a letter from the Ministry of Education questioning me about the competition and the reason why it was held in the first place," said Farida Farsi, who chairs al-Hamra Schools.

"I also received a huge number of letters and telephone calls from conservative Saudi men and sheikhs who said that I should've known better and advised me not to hold such competitions in the future because it's not lady-like," she said.

In Saudi Arabia, only a few private women's clubs and universities offer sporting possibilities and sports are prohibited at primary and secondary schools for girls. Women are also barred from joining the Saudi Olympics team.

Rules and regulations governing life within the Kingdom are dictated and enforced by Wahhabi extremists, whose dark record of human rights violations -- especially the rights of women -- are regularly criticized.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156455.html.

Iran produces 1bn liters gasoline

Tue Dec 21, 2010

Two days after a hike in energy prices, Iran's oil minister says the country has produced more than one billion liters of gasoline to meet domestic demands.

Addressing Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday, Massoud Mir-Kazemi said despite a host of Western-imposed sanctions against Iran's energy sector, the country has defied predictions that it would face shortages.

“Today, the Oil Ministry's staff are implementing the targeted subsidiary plans … and should any problems arise, we will tackle them within the hour,” Mirkazemi was quoted by the Oil Ministry's website SHANA as saying.

“This proposal, which places the most pressure on the Oil Ministry, is being gradually implemented,” Mir-Kazemi said, referring to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's economic reform plans.

The “targeted” plans will eventually slash all government subsidiaries in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In a televised national speech on Saturday night, Ahmadinejad announced that the implementation of the plan would begin on Sunday.

He said the plans were guaranteed to lead to a better economy, since people would start saving on energy consumption, making it possible to export the extra reserves and pump the money back into the economy.

The Iranian chief executive also reasoned that higher prices would encourage people to use less fuel and cause less damage to the environment -- especially in pollution-hit Tehran.

Under the new rationing system, the price of gasoline will rise by fourfold from 1,000 rials (10 cents) per liter to 4,000 rials (40 cents) per liter as of Sunday.

Fuel beyond a person's quota -- which is 50 liters per month -- is now sold at 7,000 rials (70 cents) per liter.

Oil and Gas

Last week, the minister said Iran plans to boost its domestic gasoline production by 10 million liters per day.

Iran currently produces 45 million liters of gasoline per day and is the second-biggest crude oil producer in the Middle East.

Mirkazemi said the gasoline produced in Iranian petrochemical compounds enjoys a high octane rating of 98-100, outperforming the quality of the gasoline imported from other countries.

While restrictions on gasoline imports intensified, Iranian petrochemical units decreased imports of the product to almost zero level by the end of last summer.

Iran consumes 62 million liters of gasoline a day. Several petrochemical units have shifted operation to produce gasoline to help Iran meet the rest of its gasoline needs and end its reliance on imports.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156488.html.

Iraq parliament approves new govt.

Tue Dec 21, 2010

The Iraqi parliament has given the vote of confidence to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's national unity cabinet, ending months of political impasse.

The vote came a day after Maliki presented his proposed national unity cabinet to the parliament.

Parliament in separate votes gave its approval to Maliki, three deputy prime ministers and 29 other cabinet ministers, as well as a 43-point government program aimed at liberalizing the economy and fighting terrorism.

According to the government spokesman Ali-al Dabbagh, the list presented to the parliament includes about 70 percent of the total cabinet.

Maliki stated that the Iraqi constitution must be preserved, and that the current election system should be reviewed.

Iraq had been left without a government since the inconclusive parliamentary elections in March which did not give any of the electoral slates the parliamentary majority they required to name a new cabinet.

Maliki's State of Law coalition won 89 seats in the elections on the heels of former Iraqi Premier Iyad Allawi's al-Iraqiya bloc, which secured 91 seats.

Iraqi politicians finally reached a power-sharing agreement in November, under which Maliki was named prime minister-designate and was given 30 days to name a government.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156490.html.

Aftershocks hit southeastern Iran

Tue Dec 21, 2010

Dozens of aftershocks follow a 6.5-magnitude earthquake that hit at least 70 villages in Iran's southeastern province of Kerman.

At least seven people were killed and dozens injured in the incident.

The powerful quake occurred at 10:12 p.m. local time (1842 GMT) on Monday, IRIB reported.

The epicenter was in the town of Hosseinabad, 28.6 degrees north latitude and 59.1 degrees east longitude, at a depth of five kilometers, the Iranian Seismological Center said on its website.

“Considering the dimensions of the damage, the death toll is expected to rise,” IRNA quoted Kerman Governor General Esmail Najjar as saying on Tuesday.

Najjar added that some of the injured have been rushed to local hospitals as emergency efforts get underway to help those trapped under the rubble.

Most of the rural areas in the quake-hit region use adobe, which has a tendency to crumble in earthquakes, as construction material.

The Kerman governor also said that the infrastructure around the quake's epicenter has remained intact.

He noted that the strong tremor was felt as far away as the southern province of Hormozgan, which lies on the Persian Gulf.

There have been six aftershocks so far, with the biggest measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale.

The province of Kerman has 18 active fault lines.

The quake was also felt in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in the cities of Zahedan, Bam, Khash, and Iranshahr, the Fars news agency reported.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake every day on average.

The deadliest earthquake to hit Iran in recent years happened on December 26, 2003, when a 6.6 magnitude quake struck Bam city and the surrounding areas in Kerman province.

The destructive earthquake left 26,271 people dead and 30,000 injured.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156439.html.

Assange: Swedish accusers may be 'victims' in 'successful smear'

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

London - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed Tuesday that the sexual offenses allegations against him in Sweden were a "very successful smear" - and he would not receive "natural justice" if he was extradited from Britain.

He suggested that the two women who made the allegations against him in Sweden were themselves "maybe victims" in the process of smearing him and his organization, WikiLeaks.

Assange, 39, was speaking to a BBC reporter at the mansion in East Anglia, south-east England, where he is virtually kept under house arrest, pending the extradition proceedings.

He said he felt "emasculated" by the electronic tag he has to wear under bail conditions. Assange, freed on bail by a British court Friday, is subject to a curfew and has to report to the police every day.

"I don't need to go back to Sweden. The law says I ... have certain rights, and these rights mean that I do not need to speak to random prosecutors around the world who simply want to have a chat, and won't do it in any other standard way."

The Swedish authorities had asked, as part of their extradition application, that he and his Swedish lawyer be gagged from speaking about the case, said Assange.

"What is requested is that I be taken by force to Sweden and once there, be held incommunicado: that is not a circumstance under which natural justice can occur," Assange said.

He said the two women who have accused him of sexual assault had got into a "tizzy".

He said "one description" of what had occurred in Sweden was that, after having discovered they had each been sexually involved with him, the women had got into a "tizzy" about the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases.

They had gone to the police for advice "and then the police jumped in on this and bamboozled the women," he alleged.

But he also said there were "other people making descriptions" that the women had deliberately abused a loophole in Swedish law, whereby if they went to the police for advice, they could not be charged with filing a false report.

The same loophole also existed for approaching the police about sexually transmitted diseases, Assange said.

He said that after the "successful smear" there would be an "immunization" when people would "start to see what is really going on."

Asked whether he considered himself to be a martyr, Assange said: "If you can be a martyr without dying." But his mission was to promote justice through the method of transparency of journalism".

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359116,be-victims-successful-smear.html.

China, Taiwan sign medical cooperation pact - 2nd Update

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Taipei - Taiwan and China on Tuesday signed a medical cooperation pact to reflect increased trade and tourism across the Taiwan Strait.

It calls for cooperation in medical research and quarantine, and to ensure the safety of food products.

This is the sixth dialogue since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008 with an agenda to improve relations with Beijing through economic integration.

During Tuesday's talks, the two sides also discussed investment guarantees and an Economics Cooperation Council, which could be launched next year. Dozens of Taiwan demonstrators clashed with police as they tried to enter the Taipei Grand Hotel, where the dialogue was held.

The protesters said the deals with Beijing could sacrifice Taiwan's interests.

Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing considers Taiwan its breakaway province and has vowed to recover the island by force if Taipei formally declares independence.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359104,pact-2nd-update.html.

Tuesday new target for Iraqi parliament vote on new cabinet

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Baghdad - Iraqi parliament is scheduled to vote on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new government on Tuesday, after disagreements delayed the vote for one day.

Al-Maliki's government, which consists of 42 ministerial posts, will be divided among the main factions according to the seats those groups won in the March 7 elections.

The vote was scheduled for Monday after al-Maliki filed an official request to parliamentary speaker Osama al-Nujaifi to present his cabinet.

Yet persisting disagreement between the different parties led lawmakers to suggest that the announcement of the new cabinet be postponed. Some believe another postponement until Wednesday is in the cards.

On Monday, al-Maliki presented the ministers' names to al-Nujaifi. Reports suggest the list leaves some ministers in place, including veteran Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, who has been in office since the 2003 US-led invasion.

According to the constitution, al-Maliki has until Friday to establish an inclusive cabinet without jeopardizing the delicate political deals which enabled the first parliamentary vote.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359118,parliament-vote-new-cabinet.html.

Pakistan test-fires nuclear-capable missile

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Islamabad - Pakistan on Tuesday successfully tested a medium-range ballistic missile that can deliver both conventional and nuclear weapons, the military said.

The launch of the Hatf V was conducted at the culmination of a field training exercise that was aimed at testing the operational readiness of troops.

The missile is also called Ghauri after a 12th-century Muslim invader from what is now Afghanistan who paved the way for the occupation of India and its subsequent Muslim rule.

"The Ghauri ballistic missile is a liquid-fuel missile which can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads over a distance of 1,300 kilometers," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.

Pakistan's arsenal of missiles are aimed at India, which also has missile systems capable of hitting major Pakistani cities.

India tested its nuclear-capable Agni-I short-range ballistic missile last month, which is named after the Hindu god of fire. It can carry payloads of 1 ton up to 700 kilometers.

The two countries have fought three wars, two over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, since they gained independence from Britain in August 1947.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who witnessed the launch with senior military officers, said Pakistan's missile capability would be enhanced because it formed the bedrock of national security policy.

"Pakistan can be justifiably proud of its defense capability and the reliability of its nuclear deterrence," Gilani said.

Pakistan has been developing its missile systems and tested the short-range Hatf III and medium-range Hatf IV ballistic missiles in May.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359119,pakistan-test-fires-nuclear-capable-missile.html.

Iraqi civilians defeated in legal battle for abuse inquiry

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

London - More than 200 Iraqi civilians Tuesday lost their legal battle for a public inquiry into claims that they were mistreated by British forces during the Iraq conflict.

Two judges at the High Court in London upheld a refusal by Defense Secretary Liam Fox to hold a wide-ranging investigation into the claims.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) argued that a public inquiry would be costly and neither "necessary or appropriate" as it had already set up an inquiry team to look into claims of abuse by soldiers.

But the Iraqis, represented by top British human rights lawyers, claim they were abused between 2003 and 2008 in British-run detention facilities in southern Iraq.

The lead claimant in the case, Ali Zaki Mousa, alleged he suffered months of beatings and other abuse in the custody of British soldiers in 2006 and 2007.

In an interview with the BBC in 2006, he alleged that he had been blindfolded and beaten by British troops after being arrested in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on suspicion of being affiliated with militias.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359137,legal-battle-abuse-inquiry.html.

N.Korea says won't hit back at S.Korea, open to UN experts

by Staff Writers
Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea (AFP) Dec 20, 2010

North Korea Monday forswore retaliation against a South Korean live-fire drill and held out an olive branch over its nuclear drive, raising hopes for an easing to the region's worst crisis in years.

The communist state said it "did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation", despite previously vowing a deadly riposte to the South's drill on the border island of Yeonpyeong.

"The world should properly know who is the true champion of peace and who is the real provocateur of a war," the North's military command said in a statement on the official news agency KCNA.

North Korea had used a November 23 live-fire exercise by South Korean marines on Yeonpyeong to justify a bombardment of the Yellow Sea island that killed four people.

South Korea, defying Chinese and Russian pressure, went ahead with another exercise on Monday that involved heavy artillery, air force jets and the reported deployment of two naval destroyers.

The drill came after the UN Security Council Sunday failed to agree a statement on the Korean crisis, with diplomats saying that China had refused to allow any public condemnation of its communist allies in Pyongyang.

China on Monday issued a strong appeal at the UN for "maximum restraint" by the two Koreas and vowed to make new efforts to ease the military tensions.

"We strongly appeal relevant parties to exercise maximum restraint, act in a responsible manner and avoid increase of tensions," China's deputy ambassador Wang Min said in a rare public statement at the UN.

"China strongly urges both sides of the peninsula to keep calm and restraint, solve issues through peaceful dialogue and engagement. China will continue to make our efforts toward this end," Wang said.

Seoul, which was outraged last month by the first shelling of civilian areas since the 1950-53 Korean War, rejected criticism from Beijing and Moscow.

"As a sovereign nation, it is our just right to stage a military exercise for the defense of our territory... nobody can intervene," President Lee Myung-Bak said, after winning reaffirmations of US and Japanese support.

Yonhap news agency said the South fired 1,500 rounds from various guns including K-9 self-propelled howitzers, 105mm howitzers and 81mm mortars during the drill.

Last week, as South Korean forces prepared for the live firing, North Korea threatened a new attack that would be "deadlier (than November 23)... in terms of the powerfulness and sphere of the strike".

But its language promising restraint was very different, and was accompanied by conciliatory gestures offered during a visit to Pyongyang by veteran US troubleshooter Bill Richardson.

Richardson, a former US ambassador to the UN, said North Korea was ready to permit the return of UN nuclear inspectors booted out in April 2009, agreeing to grant them access to a newly unveiled uranium enrichment plant.

The New Mexico governor said Pyongyang was also prepared to negotiate "a deal for a third party, such as South Korea, to buy fresh-fuel rods from North Korea".

The North would discuss a military commission, grouping representatives from the two Koreas plus the United States, "to monitor and prevent conflicts in the disputed areas of the West (Yellow) Sea".

And it was ready to create "a hotline between the North Korean and South Korean militaries to avert potential crises", Richardson said in a statement, before his expected departure for Beijing on Tuesday.

In Pyongyang over the weekend, the US official met top nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan and Major General Pak Rim-Su, who leads North Korean forces along the tense border with the South.

Richardson said he was "very encouraged" that North Korea's military had vowed no retaliation after South Korea's exercise of Monday.

But South Korea and the United States were cautious about the nuclear offer.

"We will be guided by what North Korea does, not what it says it might do," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. "The key is following through and implementing that decision and meeting its international obligations."

Even if the North were to permit return of UN atomic inspectors, South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Kim Young-Sunhe said, "we will have to make an overall assessment based on how much access is given to the inspectors and what the North's intentions were (in accepting them)".

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/NKorea_says_wont_hit_back_at_SKorea_open_to_UN_experts_999.html.

France to sell HOT missile to Lebanon

by Staff Writers
Paris (UPI) Dec 20, 2010

Israel has voiced concern over designs by France to sell anti-tank missiles to Lebanon, warning that the weapons could end up in the hands of radical extremists.

Officials in Tel Aviv said the government had lodged a complaint with Paris swiftly after its announcement last week that it was preparing to sell 100 HOT missiles to the Lebanese armed forces. Other governments were also advised, including that of the United States.

"We have raised with foreign governments our concerns of Hezbollah's growing domination of the Lebanese government apparatus and concern that weapons transfer to the Lebanese forces will, in fact, become part of the Hezbollah arsenal," said an unnamed Israeli official quoted by the Defense News Web site.

The concern follows similar moves by Iran to bolster Lebanon's forces with urban warfare materials, which Israel fears could fall in the hands of Hezbollah and be used against its forces.

Military pundits argue that Hezbollah has already seen its arsenal increase in recent years with Russian-made anti-tank missiles, mostly provided by Syria.

Most recently, also, the United States lifted a $100 million freeze on U.S. military aid to Lebanon in a move intended to counter Iran's growing influence over the country. The freeze, earlier this year, was prompted was the border killing of an Israeli battalion commander by a Lebanese soldier.

A U.N. resolution has called for the disbanding and disarmament of all militias in Lebanon since 2004. But Iran has long aided Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah, which is spearheading opposition against the Lebanese government on charges of leaning to the West.

Israeli officials said they hope they will halt France's designs.

"We have good relations with the French and hope that in back channels this can be resolved," one official said on Saturday.

In Paris, though, officials say the 100 HOT missiles were destined for Lebanon's Gazelle military helicopters and would set to be delivered by the end of February.

There were "no conditions attached" to the deal, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Related details had been relayed by the office of Prime Minister Francois Fillon to his Lebanese counterpart Saad Hariri, the newspaper reported.

The French-made HOT anti-tank missile, with a range of 6 miles, is considered one of the most advanced of its kind. It has the ability to penetrate around 1,000 mm of armor and it can be mounted on combat helicopters or vehicles.

Intelligence officials estimate that Hezbollah has amassed more than 40,000 short and medium-range rockets capable of reaching well within Israel.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/France_to_sell_HOT_missile_to_Lebanon_999.html.

Erdogan demands an apology

ANKARA, Turkey, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Israel must apologize to Turkey for killing nine Gaza-bound activists before ties between the countries can be normal, the Turkish prime minister said.

In an interview Monday with SANA, the Syrian state-run news agency, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said while there are high-level talks between the two countries in an effort to improve relations there are no changes in Turkey's demands.

He was referring to attempts by Jerusalem and Ankara to reach a joint understanding between the two countries. Relations deteriorated following Israel's raid on the Turkish ship in May as the vessel attempted to break the blockade on Gaza.

Turkey demands a formal apology and says Israel must compensate the families of the activists who were killed.

Erdogan criticized both the United States and the European Union for the positions they took while a United Nations Human Rights Council examined the raid on the Gaza flotilla.

"We expressed our utmost regret over this stance ... we expected a different stance from these countries that claim to be pioneers of basic freedom and defend human rights, seeking to appear as the only one struggling for these values and rights," Erdogan said.

He also questioned Israel's desire for peace with the Palestinians because of its refusal to halt West Bank settlement construction. Israel rejected all international pleas and continues to build settlements, defying international law and putting peace efforts at an impasse, Erdogan said.

Israel is also to blame for failing to achieve peace with Syria because of its aggression in Gaza, Erdogan said. He was referring to Operation Defense Shield in Gaza last year when Ankara refused to mediate indirect talks between Jerusalem and Damascus because of Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2010/12/20/Erdogan-demands-an-apology/UPI-49251292848824/.

Somalia: Moderate Islamists condemn rebels

Monday 20 December 2010
Ismail Hassan Olad, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya

The moderate Islamists of Ahlu Sunnah Wal-Jama have condemned the union of Hizbul Islam and Al-Shabab fighters, according to Shabelle.net.

Sheikh Abdullahi Abdirahman Abu Yussuf, a spokesman for Ahlu Sunnah Wal-Jama, told reporters that the move is shameful and it would not be appropriate for Hizbul Islam to join the Al-Qaeda linked group.

Reports say that the two main insurgents of Al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam have been rivals but ultimately united so as to topple the Government of Somalia backed by Africa Union troops as well as to impose Islamic Sharia Law in the Horn of Africa nation.

Somalia has been in anarchy for more than two decades.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/Somalia_Moderate_Islamists_condemn_rebels/list_messages/36708.

The tragedy of Algeria's 'disappeared'

The Algerian government is trumpeting the revolution that put an end to French colonial rule half a century ago. But what followed left its own deep scars, writes Robert Fisk in Algiers

Monday, 20 December 2010

They are all over the wall of Naseera Dutour's office, in their hundreds, in their thousands. There are cemeteries of them, bearded, clean shaven, the youth and the elderly of Algeria, veiled women, a smiling girl with a ribbon in her hair, in color for the most part; the bloodbath of the 1990s was a post-technicolor age so the blood came bright red and soaked right through the great revolution that finally conquered French colonial power.

There's a powerful irony that Naseera's cramped offices – "SOS Disparu", it's called, in conscious imitation of the searches for the "disappeared" of Chile and Argentina – should be on the ground floor of an old pied noir apartment, beyond a carved wooden door and patterned tiles, at No.3 rue Ghar Djebilet, just off Didouch Mourad St. Didouch, too, was a martyr – of the first revolution, the one we were supposed to remember in Algiers this month – rather than all those faces on Naseera's walls. For Naseera, too, has a martyr to mourn.

No talk at Algeria's anti-colonialism conference of the 6,000 men and women who died under torture at the hands of the Algerian police and army and hooded security men in the 1990s. For across at Sidi Fredj – yes, just up the coast where the French landed in 1830 – le pouvoir was parading a clutch of ancient ex-presidents from the mystical lands of the anti-colonial struggle, to remind us of Algeria's primary role in the battle against world imperialism. There was old Ahmed Ben Bella – more white-haired skeleton than Algeria's first leader, coup-ed out of power in 1965 (although they didn't mention that). There was poor old Dr Kenneth Kaunda, who mercilessly tried to sing a song under the wondrous eyes of Thabo Mbeki. And then there were the Vietnamese whose victory at Dien Bien Phu taught the FLN (National Liberation Front) that they could beat the French here, which they did in 1962 at a cost of, say, one and a half million "martyrs".

In theory, this was all staged to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UN General Assembly's Resolution 1514, which demanded the right of independence to all colonized people (special emphasis in Algiers, of course, on the Palestinians and the Sahrawi refugees). But the real reason le pouvoir – "the authorities" – gathered these elderly ex-presidents in Algeria was to build a new foundation – wood or concrete I haven't yet decided – over the mass graves of the 250,000 "martyrs" of another conflict, the barbarous civil war of 1990-98, if indeed it has yet ended. Le pouvoir has invented a wonderful new expression for this bloodbath. It's called Algeria's "National Tragedy", as if the government's suspension of elections and the brutal, family-slaughtering, throat-cutting war with the savage Islamists of the Armed Islamic Group, the GIA, was a Shakespearean play, Othello perhaps, or Hamlet in which, I suppose, Ben Bella stares at his own skull. More like Titus Andronicus, if you ask me.

Naseera Dutour's brave little team of girl volunteers tap away on their laptops, listing yet more families who seek the remains of those victims of the security forces for whom all hope is gone. The cops drop by the office from time to time for a spot of harassment, but they have no need to worry. Amina Beuslimane, a pretty 28-year-old civil servant, supposedly taking snapshots of cemeteries and blown-up buildings – perhaps for evidence of government crimes – was arrested by security police on 13 December 1994. Her family were told they would not see her again and she apparently ended up in the special interrogation and rape center at the Chateauneuf barracks. The butchers of Chateauneuf can relax, however, because a post-war referendum that granted an amnesty to the "Islamists" also purged the security forces of their crimes. And besides, Amina's mum died a few days ago, so there's one less memory to worry about.

I walked through the laneways of Algiers for several days, in places a foreigner would not have survived 16 years ago. In the Casbah, I visited the spot where poor Olivier Quemener, a French television journalist whose camera sticks I had carried the previous day, was shot dead by bearded "Islamists" in 1994, his reporter colleague found lying wounded beside him, weeping over his dead friend. Compared with all the civilians beheaded and raped by the GIA outside Algiers, I suppose Quemener was spared the very worst. As for the tough old cops of the 1990s who used to blast water through men's throats until their stomachs burst, most must be dead themselves, a few en retrait, as they say.

And some of the rapists from Chateauneuf, who knows, through trails of promotion, may have been guarding the equally old conference delegates at Sidi Fredj. And by the way, Jacques Vergès was there, he whose wife was so cruelly treated by the French and who defended the Nazi butcher Klaus Barbie. Ironies pile up here like old bones. And yes, the government won the civil war, didn't they, and anyway who would have wanted the bearded Islamic Salvation Front to have ruled back in the 1990s, imposing sharia law and veiling women and murdering every opponent and, besides, is not the pouvoir the real inheritor of the old National Liberation Front, the FLN? In Algeria, they have a phrase for these arguments. They call it "heating up old soup".

And so art comes to the rescue of memory. There is a spring of new books being published in Algeria, novels of great richness and beauty and sadness, the only way authors can confront those mass graves of the 1990s. A veiled woman in a bright new Algiers bookshop advises me to buy two of them. In Amin Zaoui's Bed of the Impure Virgin, old florist Momou – plying his trade, yes, on the same Didouche Mourad St – laments the 1973 murder of his old poet friend Jean Sénac. Believing that he will portray Senac in a movie, Momou – he loves only Algiers, flowers, wine and poetry – slowly goes mad, reciting Senac's verse in the streets and tea-shops, ending in a small city courtyard beneath a tree where he quotes night and day the words of Senac, a real anarchist and poet and friend (yes, again!) of that old phantom Ben Bella who made his return from the grave last week. But the courtyard is used for prayers by the Islamists of the 1990s and because Senac was a "homo" (their words) and because this is against Islam and because Momou might have been Senac's lover, they string up the crazy florist from the tree, and his body hangs there for three days and three nights as the bearded men say their dawn prayers beneath his corpse. Do I smell Camus here?

And then there's Adlène Meddi's novel of Algiers today in which two old soldiers (graduates of Algeria's Cherchell Military College) reminisce of the 1990s and one of them tells the other of a nightmare experience. In the Arab world, novels are often fiction dusted with truth. In Algeria, they are truth cloaked in fiction. Read then with appropriate horror Meddi's description of the fate of an Algerian army commandant, Djaafar Rahb, commander of the 2nd Armored Division at Tlegema, who deserts to the "terrorists" and is caught and tied to a tree. The army commander arrives from Constantine by helicopter, the soldiers are lined up, the man's wife and two children are brought to the scene and the soldiers pour petrol on Rahb and set him on fire, the cadets vomiting at the stench of carbonized flesh.

What lies behind such writing? Meddi's hero is Sjo, a retired cop who goes back to work to pay off his debts and starts a murder inquiry that brings back all the ghosts of the 1990s. His journalist friend Ras, still mourning his professional colleagues who had their throats slit by the GIA, walks with him down an Algiers street, still fearful of the past. "Ras walked like Djo. One eye in front, the other behind his head... Followed by death for years, he had developed a strong sense of prudence and impending disaster. Everything leaves its traces..."

And that is exactly how le pouvoir feels and acts today, one confident eye to the future, one terrified eye to the past, acting with prudence and with fear that the nightmares of the 1990s may yet return. The earlier, great anti-colonial struggle of which all Algerian delegates spoke was fought against the French. Yet not once was the word "France" mentioned at the Sidi Fredj conference. It cannot be, for while delegates were trucked off to the concrete ghastliness of the 1954-62 "Martyr's Monument" to the anti-French war of independence, another little journey – by a certain Abdelaziz Belkhadem, special representative to President Bouteflika, who couldn't quite make it to the conference – said a lot more about modern Algeria.

Having stunned delegates with a speech of mind-numbing boredom ("undeniable progress after the heavy burdens of the colonial era", etc, etc), he sped off to the gaunt sepulcher of the newly restored French cathedral of Our Lady of Africa, consecrated at the height of French power in 1872, which still towers gloomily over the city of Algiers. Desecrated by Islamists, broken by a more recent earthquake, the whole place, once a symbol of French Catholic domination of Muslim Algeria, has been magnificently patched up and re-painted and re-tiled at a cost of more than £4m by the European Union, the French Embassy and numerous Algerian benefactors – and reopened, heritage-style, as a monument to coexistence. And there the man who had just condemned the heavy burdens of colonialism stood with the French to commemorate this great church – and refused to read his speech.

Because, for so it was hinted, he didn't think the French had given the Algerians enough credit for the restoration? Or because he was standing next to another ghost, the brave ex-archbishop of Algiers, Monseigneur Henri Teissier, he who received the phone call on 21 May 1996 that the seven monks of Tibherine – now immortalized on film – had been decapitated? "Three of their heads were hanging from a tree near a petrol station," he told me then. "The other four heads were lying on the grass beneath." Now the French suspect the Algerian army tried to free the monks from their GIA captors, killed them by mistake and covered up their disaster by burying the bullet-riddled bodies and leaving their heads behind as another GIA "crime".

The next Catholic edifice to be dusted off will be the basilica of Saint Augustine at Annaba. For, like it or not, the French have fallen in love with Algeria again – and the Algerians have fallen in love with the profits of a new relationship with France. Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has just been here to support long-term industrial projects – a new Renault factory is soon to open on the outskirts of Algiers – and Claude Guéant has been chatting up President Bouteflika on behalf of Nicolas Sarkozy. And, now that France can join in the famous "struggle against terror", ex-General Christian Quesnot has been visiting, while the Élysée has been busily handing over maps of French colonial minefields to the Algerian army. French and Algerian chiefs of staff regularly talk on the phone. Can this new affair last? In Blida, the ancient guerrilla fighters are trying to persuade the mayor to rename local streets after the seven Algerians killed by French troops in a July 1961 anti-French demonstration. Other guardians of the war – the one before the "National Tragedy", of course – have been moving the grisly old French guillotine to the Tlemcen museum so that "the youth of Algeria realize that their independence came not as a gift but at a price". In his last interview, the surviving French servant of this infernal machine explained the importance of speed when decapitating Algerians – for if the victim struggled, the blade might not cut his neck and it would be necessary to finish the job with a knife.

And all the while, the guns can be heard from Tizi Ouzou. Yes, sure enough, the Islamists are still out there, the GIA having long ago morphed into "al-Qa'ida in the Maghreb", currently fighting off a division of Algerian troops beyond the Berber capital, subject to a rattisage of armored vehicles and helicopter attacks, the villages marooned without food and with all local mobile phones shut down by the government. "Twelve terrorists killed", a headline reads in Al-Moujahed.

And where have we heard that before? Why, in Iraq, of course. And in Afghanistan today. And throughout the "National Tragedy". Only "terrorists", mark you. The army is rumored to have killed Abdelmalek Droukdel (alias Abu Mousaab Abdelouadoud), al-Qa'ida's top man in Algeria, and thus, according to the daily Liberte, "the operation ... constitutes a turning-point in the anti-terrorist struggle". But we've heard all this before too, after the government killed the "monster" Antan Zouabia and after they shot Droukdel's predecessor Nabil Sahrawi. No "embeds" with the Algerian army of course.

And if rumor is correct, there's every good reason for this: because US Special Forces officers from their camp near Tamanrasset are said to be "observing" the Kabyle operation. Why not? After all, only last week Washington's top military commander in the region, US Africa Command General David Hogg, was showering praises on the Algerian security services for their "impressive progress and leadership" in fighting "terrorism". He wants more co-ordination with neighboring Arab states – which is why Tunisia's top intelligence spook, one of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali's most trusted acolytes, turned up to talk to his Algerian opposite number this week.

And what, I asked Naseera Dutour, did she think when she heard US officers praising the security services who tortured and killed so many Algerians during the civil war? She pulls out an old photograph of her 21-year old son Amin, kidnapped on 31 January 1997 (he would be 35 today), never seen again, and holds it to her bosom like a shield. She speaks in French but only one word escapes her lips, loudly and with great emotion. "Scandale!"

Source: The Independent.
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-tragedy-of-algerias-disappeared-2164859.html.

Azeri oil to be transported to Asian Countries through Egypt

20 Dec 2010

Baku. Ali Ahmedov – APA-ECONOMICS. Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev visited Egypt’s Alexandria and Cairo cities, last week.

According to Azerbaijani Embassy to Egypt, N. Aliyev met with Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Minister of Petroleum, Sameh Fahmi. At the same time, he met the technical opportunities of SUMED-Arab Petrolium Co., Enppi-Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries and Petrojet and listened to presentations of companies’ experts.

N. Aliyev spoke about useful opportunities for increase of trade turnover and bilateral cooperation, including fuel and energy spheres, during the meeting with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. In turn, Egyptian PM Ahmed Nazif noted that, Azerbaijan and Egypt had opportunities to extend the cooperation.

Petroleum Minister S. Fahmi reminded his visit to Baku in June and stressed that, the cooperation in oil sale processing sphere between Azerbaijan and Egypt developed quickly and several interesting projects had been discussed. N. Aliyev spoke about oil processing of SOCAR Trading Company in MİDOR-Middle East Oil Refinery and noted that this index would be increased. Besides, Egypt has great opportunities to deliver Azerbaijani oil to Southern-East Asia through Sea Ports in Mediterranean, Red Sea coasts.

By the way, Natig Aliyev has invited his Egyptian counterpart to Azerbaijan for practical discussions on this issue and opposite side accepted the invitation.

Source: APA.
Link: http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=136753.

قافلة آسيوية تغادر تركيا نحو غزة

20/12/2010 م

وسيمة بن صالح-غازي عنتاب

غادرت القافلة الآسيوية لكسر الحصار عن غزة الأراضي التركية صباح اليوم متجهة إلى سوريا لتنتقل إلى ميناء العريش بمصر، آملة دخول غزة من خلال معبر رفح في 27 ديسمبر/كانون الثاني الجاري تزامنا مع الذكرى الثانية للعدوان الإسرائيلي على القطاع في عملية ''الرصاص المصبوب".

وتأثر المشاركون في القافلة بالاستقبال الحافل الذي خصهم به أهل مدينة ديار بكر التي تقطنها أغلبية كردية، وأصروا على زيارة قبر شهيد أسطول الحرية هناك علي حيدر بنجي، معبرين عن فخرهم لوجودهم مع أحفاد صلاح الدين الأيوبي على حد تعبيرهم.

كما عقدوا مؤتمرا صحفيا مع بولنت يلدرم رئيس مؤسسة الإغاثة الإنسانية، الذي أكد أن خروج قوافل كسر الحصار من كل أنحاء العالم هو مؤشر جيد على أن حصار غزة بدأ يضعف ويوشك أن يزول.

و شاركه الرأي ممثلون عن الوفد الآسيوي، مشيرين إلى أن الانتفاضة الفلسطينية عمت العالم، مذيبة كل الفروق الأيديولوجية والدينية، وأنهم لن يتوقفوا ما دام سكان غزة سجناء للحصار الإسرائيلي الظالم وغير الشرعي.

كما أشار الوفد الإيراني أن سبعة من أعضاء البرلمان الإيراني سيلتحقون بالقافلة في سوريا، إضافة إلى ثلاثة خبراء من وزارة الطاقة الإيرانية، ويضم الوفد الإيراني 22 عضوا، معظمهم صحفيون ومصورون وطلاب.

تحدي الصعوبات

وما زال العديد من المشاركين من بعض الدول الآسيوية ينتظرون الحصول على التأشيرات من السلطات المصرية، مصممين على تحدي كل الصعاب، لأن أحد أهداف هذه القافلة هو تشكيل آسيا موحدة، قادرة على تقرير مصيرها بشكل ديمقراطي.

وأشار المسؤول عن القافلة فيروز ميتهيبوروالا إلى أن بعض المشاركين منعوا من عبور باكستان، خاصة المشاركين من كشمير الهندية، لكنهم تشبثوا بحقهم في العبور ونجحوا في ذلك.

أما الصحفية أنا سوسانتي من إندونيسيا، فتتساءل عن سبب امتناع مصر عن منحهم التأشيرات لحد الآن، مع أن منهم من قدم الطلب منذ حوالي شهر، مشيرة إلى أنه باستثناء الوفد الهندي لا أحد من مواطني الدول الأخرى يتوفر على تأشيرة.

وأضافت سوسانتي ''ضاعت علي فرصة المشاركة في أسطول الحرية، لأن قناتي أرسلت مراسلا آخر بدلي في آخر لحظة، ومشاركتي في هذه القافلة جعلتني أحس بأنني محظوظة، وصراحة أرغب من الصميم في القيام بالمهمة حتى النهاية، أنا أتواصل مع كل الجهات التي من شأنها الضغط على السلطات المصرية لمنحنا تأشيرة، وأتمنى أن لا نوضع في موقف نضطر فيه إلى العودة''.

وأشارت إلى أنها ربما ستختار الانتظار مع باقي المشاركين المصريين على دخول غزة، مع أن مؤسستها طلبت منها العودة في حال تأزمت الأمور مع السلطات المصرية، لأنها تؤمن بأن عملها الصحفي يتطلب التضحية عندما يتعلق الأمر بوضع إنساني مأساوي كالذي يعيشه الفلسطينيون.

ويشار إلى أن متضامنا من بنغلاديش، كان على متن سفينة مافي مرمرة، يشارك أيضا في هذه القافلة، ويتوقع أن يصل العدد الكلي للمشاركين إلى حوالي 200 متضامن من 13 دولة آسيوية، حاملين مساعدات إنسانية، من ضمنها سيارتَا إسعاف وأدوية ولعب أطفال وقرطاسية.

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/A71935AB-E85D-4D87-AD0A-A86F55C22863.htm.

الموسيقى الأصيلة بمهرجان بالجزائر

20/12/2010 م

أميمة أحمد-الجزائر

تعيش العاصمة الجزائرية على مدى عشرة أيام مهرجانا للموسيقى الأندلسية والموسيقى الأصيلة، تنظمه وزارة الثقافة، وتشارك فيه دول عربية وأجنبية، من الصين والهند شرقا إلى كولومبيا غربا مرورا بسوريا وأوروبا (إيطاليا وإسبانيا والبرتغال)، وشمال أفريقيا ( تونس والجزائر والمغرب).

وعرض رشيد قرباص محافظ المهرجان في مؤتمر صحفي عقده الأحد، بحضور العازف الهندي العالمي راناجيت سنغوبتا، أسماء الفرق المشاركة والعازفين العالميين فيها، وأشهر أعمالهم الفنية، والآلات الموسيقية التي يعزفون عليها، وهي في معظمها آلات موسيقية قديمة، مثل العود الهندي (السارود)، والقيثارة الكلاسيكية، والعود الصيني (البيبا) والعود العربي.

وفي تقديمه لفرق الجزائر ومكناس المغربية ذكر قرباص أن أساتذة المألوف في البلدين كانوا شيوخ دين، ومن حفظة القرآن.

وفي رده على سؤال للجزيرة نت عن العلاقة بين المديح الديني والموسيقى العتيقة قال رشيد قرباص "إن الموسيقى الجزائرية كان يتعلمها التلاميذ في الزوايا، وهي مدارس قرآنية مجاورة للمسجد، فأدرك الاستعمار الفرنسي دورها في الحفاظ على الثقافة الجزائرية وفي التحريض على المقاومة، ففصلها عن المسجد، وأصبحت معزولة".

ولفت إلى أن موسيقى المديح الديني نفسها تستخدم لكلمات تحريض ضد الاستعمار، حسب قوله.

ولأول مرة تشارك الهند في مهرجان الموسيقى الأندلسية والموسيقى الأصيلة، وسيقدم الثنائي الهندي شرين وراناجيت سنغوبتا موسيقى شمال الهند.

وردا على سؤال للجزيرة نت عن التقارب بين الموسيقى التراثية الهندية والعربية، قال راناجيت" توجد علاقة بين الموسيقى الهندية والبلدان الأخرى، خاصة الموسيقى العربية في تشابه الآلات الموسيقية، فالآلة التي أعزف عليها السارود (العود الهندي) تشبه العود العربي".

ويهدف المهرجان -حسب رئيسه سمير زغيمي- إلى تعريف الجمهور الجزائري بالموسيقى العتيقة للشعوب الأخرى، وقال للجزيرة نت إن المحاضرات والندوات التي تقام على هامش المهرجان، ويقدمها الفنانون المشاركون أنفسهم ستعرف طلبة الكونسرفيتوار الجزائري على أنواع موسيقية عالمية هم بحاجة إليها.

وتعليقا على غياب مصر عن المهرجان للعام الثاني على التوالي قال المسؤول الإعلامي للمهرجان إنه لا خلاف مع الإخوة المصريين، "ونبقى إخوة في كل الحالات، نطوي الصفحة في مصلحة العلاقات العربية، فمن أساء فهو المسؤول عن إساءته". مؤكدا أن مصر تشارك في فعاليات جزائرية أخرى.

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/CE4DC9AE-1203-479F-8139-4BDB81BF16DE.htm.

Algeria unemployment posts modest decline

2010-12-20

Algeria's unemployment rate fell to 10% in the last quarter of 2010 from 10.2% the year before, APS reported on Sunday (December 19th). The rate of unemployment among women was 19.1%, while the rate for youth aged 16-24 was 21.5%.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/12/20/newsbrief-04.

Algerian advocacy group lobbies for equal inheritance rights

2010-12-20

For the first time ever in Algeria, an advocacy group is pressing for equal inheritance rights for men and women, Liberte reported on Monday (December 20th). Algeria's Information and Documentation Center for Children's and Women's Rights (CIDDEF) hosted a seminar on the controversial issue Sunday in Algiers, drawing European and US diplomats, academics, researchers, political activists and trade union representatives. Several participants reportedly remarked on the "audacity" of CIDDEF for "daring" to open the debate on issues of heritage in Algeria.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/12/20/newsbrief-03.

EU donation to benefit millions in rural Morocco

2010-12-19

The EU donated 70 million euros to Morocco for an agricultural program, which will benefit some three million people in the country's rural areas, PANA reported Saturday (December 18th). The program targets the regions of Drâa, L'Oriental, Boulemane and Tafilalet, and aims at managing the production of red meat, dates, olives and other local goods.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/12/19/newsbrief-06.

Algerian women expand business opportunities

In what appears to be a cultural shift, Algerian women are entering the workforce in ever greater numbers.

By Mohand Ouali for Magharebia in Algiers – 19/12/10

Only a short time ago, commerce in Algeria was an almost exclusively male activity. Where once it was rare to encounter even a female sales assistant, today it is a common sight to see women-run businesses.

"The situation in Algeria has changed rapidly, much faster than was expected, in fact. All the stereotypes we held have now disappeared," Nasreddine Hammouda, a statistician at the Center for Research into Applied Economics (CREAD) told Magharebia.

"We realized, for example, that women were returning to work after marriage, or even after having children. There's an attitude of 'I'm here, and I'm here to stay'," he said. "A professional career has become an important aspect of their lives. They are gaining financial independence from their husbands or families."

A study by the National Business Register Center (CNRC) released in March 2010 confirmed the growing number of women in business. In 2009, the number of women retailers had reached 113,543, compared to 105,255 at the end of 2007. Businesswomen now make up 8.4% of all retailers. Nearly 97% of those women work alone while there are 3,728 women-owned corporations in Algeria.

"Why business? This is the sector which is developing. There are greater opportunities. In services, for example, they tend to recruit women for anything which involves dealing with the public, because it is generally also the women who deal with such matters and spend the money. There were women business owners before, but most often they were working with others as a figurehead. This is no longer the case today," Hammouda said.

These businesswomen are mainly in the wilayas of Algiers (8%), Oran (6%), Constantine and Tlemcen (4% each). There are also significant numbers of female-operated companies in Chlef Batna, Tizi-Ouzou, Sidi Bel Abbes, and Tipaza. According to CNRC, half of the women-operated businesses are in the retail sector, with a more than a third in services and 10.4% in crafts.

The level of women in business is "reasonable", according to CREAD researcher Abderrahmane Abdou. He said it was "right in the middle of the range of estimates of the proportion of working women".

"It would have been strange had it been higher than that," he said. "The proportion of women running businesses is currently around 7%."

"These days, women are better educated and demand their rightful place in the economic sphere, and we have seen more of them moving into the service sector. This movement is being encouraged by public policy which encourages greater involvement by women in the country's social and economic life," Abdou said.

"Furthermore, we have seen that the entry of women into the labor market is not conditional upon age. In the past, women would seek work before marriage and then leave work shortly afterwards. This is no longer the case. Over the past 20 years, there has been radical change in society. Both radical and unexpected!"

Abdou added that "women are taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the market and state aid mechanisms. The most educated women have realized that they have to build for a more comfortable and independent life for the future, whilst the less well-off in terms of their education are driven by the fear that this could be storing up some nasty surprises for them in the future, and they want to guard against this by building a professional career."

Algerian women are moving more and more into the world of work. In the past, they would to choose to become doctors, teachers or lawyers. Today, no area is closed to their ambitions.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/12/19/feature-01.

'Asia 1 Convoy' to Break Gaza Siege Reaches Syria on Monday

Dec 19, 2010

Damascus, (SANA) – The Gaza-bound humanitarian aid convoy 'Asia 1' is scheduled to reach the Syrian borders next Monday coming from Turkey.

15 countries are participating in the convoy, of which are India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Bahrain and Iran.

Secretary of the Higher Follow-up Committee of the Palestinian National Conference Khaled Abdul-Majeed, during a conference of the Committee at al-Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, hailed Syria's support to the Palestinians' struggle against the Israeli occupation and its help to ease their sufferings and lift the siege on Gaza.

Head of the Popular Committee of Supporting the Palestinian Intifada and Resisting the Zionist Project Ahmed Abdul-Karim voiced that the humanitarian aid convoy will reach the blockaded Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

"Syria, which sends humanitarian aid to Gaza every 3 months, will dispatch the 29th humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza on Tuesday, carrying 100 tons of medical and food supplies to the Strip through the Jordanian lands," Abdul-Karim added.

For his part, Representative of the Indian delegation in the convoy Bishr al-Deen al-Sharqi said that the convoy aims at introducing the Asian peoples to the sufferings of the Palestinians and their just cause, and working on breaking the Israeli siege on Gaza.

"We flew from Delhi to Iran where we received a warm welcome. The convoy is in Turkey now and will reach the Syrian borders on December 20th," al-Sharqi said.

He expressed the convoy members' gratitude to Syria, government and people, for preparing all the needed arrangements to receive 'Asia 1' convoy, noting that the convoy comprises all spectrums of the Indian people in addition to 7 members of the Iranian Islamic Shura Council.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
Link: http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2010/12/19/324558.htm.

Free trade agreement with Turkey

By Fahed Fanek

Jordan’s free trade agreement with Turkey will come into effect as of next month. The agreement recognized the fact that the two countries are not on the same footing, therefore the Jordanian products will be allowed to enter the Turkish market tax exempt, while the Turkish products imported by Jordan will enjoy the tax exemption on gradual basis and will not reach full exemption until 2018.

As a matter of principle, trade between any two countries is beneficial to both. It encourages industrial specialization and large-scale production. Producers in both countries will not confine themselves to their local market. They will look further and try to reach external market as well.

The absence of equality between the two countries when it comes to labor wages, industries’ subsidies, exports incentives and difference on exchange render the graduation stipulated in the agreement hardly enough to secure balanced and fair exchange of products between the two countries.

Yes, Turkey will grant full exemption to the Jordanian products entering Turkey.

This is good. The problem is that there are no Jordanian products which are ready to take advantage of this. If such products exist, they will not be able to compete with the Turkish products’ prices and/or quality.

Under the circumstances, it is very likely that trade between Jordan and Turkey will be in one direction. Jordan will play the role of importer and Turkey will be the exporter.

It is only fair to say that this state of affairs does not apply only to Turkey; Jordan did not hesitate to enter into sweeping free trade agreements with Gulf countries, which either do not impose taxes on imports or charge a symbolic tax, but there is almost nothing to exempt.

On the contrary, customs taxes in Jordan form a major source of revenue for the budget. Tax exemption in this case is very costly indeed, and not reciprocal.

In this respect, one should take into account that the Saudi or Emiratie producer enjoys cheap fuel, electricity and water, while the Jordanian producer has to pay more than the world prices for such industrial inputs.

How can competition between the two sides be fair under such situation?

One of the results of this state of affairs is the establishment in Jordan of a Saudi cement company with no factories, which imports clinker from Saudi Arabia at less than 50 per cent of the cost of producing this commodity in Jordan.

No wonder the Saudi local company was able in no time to expel Jordan’s cement factories from the market that produce their own clinker using fuel and energy at high prices.

The government hesitated and finally failed to act to protect local cement companies from unfair competition.

The share price of the Jordan Cement Factories Company, for example, dropped from JD12 to JD4. This is only one example, but it applies, at various degrees, to most local industries.

Jordan dared enter into free trade agreements with some advanced and industrialized countries like the United States and the European Union, but the results were extremely bad. The value of European Union’s exports to Jordan is 15 times the value of Jordanian exports to the EU.

Had it not been for the Qualifying Industrial Zones, trade with America would have been similar to that with the EU, perhaps even worse.

I am a supporter of opening up the Jordanian market to the world, provided, of course, that the exchange of goods and services is fair. Trade between two countries should be balanced or near balanced. Subsidized products, on the other hand, should not be allowed to enter the Jordanian market unless they pay a big enough tax to absorb the subsidy.

20 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=32763.

Jordanian students stranded in London due to airport closure

By Luma Al Adnani

AMMAN - Several Jordanian students trying to come home for the Christmas holiday are stuck in London after Heathrow Airport closed for two days due to severe weather conditions, according to their families.

"My son lives in Birmingham, and he took a bus from there to London on Saturday, which took more than twice the time it usually does. By the time he reached Heathrow Airport, they told him that his flight was canceled," Rana Kaddoura told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Her son, Nidal, said he had a harrowing trip to London.

"My bus almost had two accidents… We were stuck for hours on the way because of other accidents in front of us," he noted in an e-mail sent to The Jordan Times.

"I was afraid I'd miss my flight but once I got there they told me it had been delayed. So I sat and waited… it was so crowded, people were sitting, sleeping or eating on the floor. Meanwhile I heard flights being canceled one after the other on the microphone, but I still waited for my flight, until finally they said it was canceled too," he added.

His mother said she watches BBC news “continuously” and monitors weather conditions.

“They are predicting another stronger storm… I'm thinking about telling my son to just go back to Birmingham and not risk it anymore," she said.

Other students, like Omar Sawalha and Garbis Karmandarian are in a similar situation, according to their mothers.

"My son Omar stayed at a friend's the first day he was told his flight was canceled, but he plans on camping out at Heathrow tonight in case a flight opens up," Jackie Sawalha said.

"It frustrates him that he might not be able to get a flight for another week, and then he'll have missed most of the holiday," she added.

Karmandarian was more fortunate than others as he checked in and entered the duty free area, according to his mother, Marian.

"Once it was announced that the flight had been canceled, they gave them those foil blankets so that they could spend the night at the airport," she said.

Meanwhile, Royal Jordanian, which operated its regular flight to London on Monday when the airport reopened, has requested Heathrow to authorize an additional flight today and is awaiting confirmation, RJ Media Director Basel Kilani told The Jordan Times yesterday.

The airline had also asked Heathrow to authorize two additional flights yesterday, to transport passengers who have bookings to Amman and have been stuck in London for the past two days, RJ President and CEO Hussein Dabbas said on Monday.

But the airport authorities did not agree to the request, because of the large number of such requests from other airlines, an RJ statement quoted Dabbas as saying.

He said the company is keen to get air traffic between Amman and London back to normal after the disruption caused by the weather conditions, stressing that passengers’ safety and comfort is its first priority...

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=32815.

Jordan Encourages Education And Rehabilitation For The Disabled

johnson author
2010/12/20

Jordan is setting a global example in standardizing and demanding social, educational, vocational and rehabilitative care for the disabled. According to Jordan's education laws, facilities, institutions and schools throughout Jordan are now required to implement free services and exemptions to the disabled for their benefit as well as to offer them opportunities to mainstream into society. These goals can be attained through higher goals and educational laws regarding disability rights, equal rights, and opportunities for the disabled.

According to the goals of Jordan's education laws ministry of social development, such goals not only benefit disabled individuals but expand educational laws in Jordan by:

Reducing the literacy through the creation of more primaries schools.
Establishing a specific number of secondary schools.
Encouraging human virtue and perfection.
Improving training of teachers in both rural and urban locations.
Working toward a well rounded approach Ford education that involves spiritual, physical, mental, social and emotional aspects of individuals and society as a whole.

Leading the Way
Jordan has created their own disability rights laws similar to and following the precedent established by the Americans with Disabilities Act, which also hopes to set precedence for the disabled at international levels.

Under these guidelines, Jordan wishes to ensure that children with disabilities are granted protection and assurance of adequate education until the age of 21. Goals proposed by Jordan want to assure that all children have access to free public education that prepares to meet their needs as well as offer the tools, training and support for such individuals to lead as independent lives as possible.
Such education and support services are also aimed at helping disabled individuals find gainful employment.

A number of disabilities covered under the guidelines proposed by Jordan's disabilities programs including:

Autism
Traumatic brain injury
Hearing, speech, language or visual impairment
Mental retardation
Behavioral or emotional disturbances
Learning disabilities
Other medical conditions or impairments that require special education or learning related services

Special education and services focusing on the disabled aim to improve communication, cognitive, emotional, and physical development as well as offer teaching and services that help the disabled adapt to a variety of environments.

Even institutions of higher learning are not allowed to discriminate against any qualified individual, which is defined as an individual capable of completing essential educational programs with or without special and/or reasonable accommodations that the student may need to meet the technical as well as academic requirements of a specific learning program.

Accommodations for such individuals may include but are not limited to a change in the length of time the individual is permitted to complete the course or degree program, and adapting the manner through which some courses are offered.

Education For The Disabled In Jordan
According to Article 24, "States Parties recognize the rights of persons with disabilities to education. With a view to realizing this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, States Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning directed to:

the full development of human potential and sense of dignity and self worth, and the strengthening of respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and human diversity;
the development by persons with disabilities of their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities, to their fullest potential;
enabling persons with disabilities to participate effectively in a free society.
States parties shall enable persons with disabilities to learn life and social development skills to facilitate their full and equal participation in education and as members of the community."

Leading The Way In The Middle East
Jordan's stand on disability rights in the Middle East has made them a leader in such rights in this region of the world. Countries around the world are standing up and taking notice of this forward-thinking view, and looks to Jordan for guidance, advice and leadership in this regard.

Welcome to, The Arab City for Comprehensive Care, this is unique by its distinguished geographical location which is attractive, healthy, and accessible. They're also a leader in providing resources, care, and, Rehabilitation Center, for the disabled.

Source: EzineMark.
Link: http://health.ezinemark.com/jordan-encourages-education-and-rehabilitation-for-the-disabled-31cc64ab2a7.html.

Tribal brawl breaks out in Maan university

By Hani Hazaimeh

AMMAN - Tribal violence erupted among university students in Maan on Sunday, prompting security forces to close the road leading to Al Hussein University (AHU) campus, according to officials.

Dozens of students at AHU in the southern Governorate of Maan started a large-scale brawl, which left “several” people injured and caused minor damage to university property, according to acting AHU President Sultan Maani.

Several students were injured and the windows of university facilities were broken when dozens of students belonging to rival tribes hurled rocks at each other during classes yesterday, he said, adding that the university is investigating the causes of the fight and will take “strict measures to hold the perpetrators accountable”.

Maani stressed that police intervention was not required to bring the situation under control, adding that some university seniors helped restore calm on campus.

“The situation is now under control and university security staff managed to separate the students who were involved in the brawl,” Maani told The Jordan Times over the phone yesterday.

In order to prevent the violence from escalating, Gendarme personnel cordoned off the road leading from the desert highway to the university, Public Security Directorate (PSD) Spokesperson Lt. Colonel Muhammad Khatib told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Khatib added that nearly 100 students belonging to two separate tribes were involved in the brawl, stressing that no casualties have been reported to the police. It was not immediately clear what sparked the clash.

20 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=32772.

Iranian ice cream goes to Green Zone

Mon Dec 20, 2010

Iranian ice-cream chain Ice Pack is to open a branch in Baghdad's Green Zone, which is considered the most secure area in war-battered Iraq.

The shop, still under construction, will offer a choice of 34 ice cream flavors to its customers, just yards from the biggest US Embassy in the world, said the shop's Iraqi manager Ali Hazem Haideri.

Although Iranian ice cream has opened its way into the Iraqi market, there is no trace of McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King or any of the other American brands that are already established in most of the other countries in the region.

Haideri and his partner Laith who bought the Ice Pack franchise in 2008 for $800,000 are now busy at Ice Pack's first Baghdad outlet in the city's Karradah neighborhood.

A sign at the Green Zone site of Ice Pack says the shop will be the chain's 210th branch and the third in Baghdad. The franchise also plans for more branches in the southern Iraqi cities of Najaf and Basra.

According to the Ice Pack website, the company aims "to exalt the name of Iran and reinforce Iranian identity.”

"Considering the fact that countries such as the United States have been able to impose their exports on other countries by chain and brand systems but Iran has never used this method, Ice Pack has fortunately been able to include Iran in competition with the world's chain brands," the website adds.

Ice Pack has branches in Kuwait, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates as well as across Iran.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156358.html.

Quake in southeastern Iran kills 7

Tue Dec 21, 2010

Seven people have been killed in an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale that struck Iran's southeastern province of Kerman.

“Considering the dimensions of the damage, the death toll is expected to rise,” IRNA quoted Kerman Governor General Esmail Najjar as saying on Tuesday.

The powerful quake occurred at 10:12 p.m. local time (1842 GMT) on Monday, IRIB reported late on Monday.

The epicenter was in the town of Hosseinabad, 28.6 degrees north latitude and 59.1 degrees east longitude, at a depth of five kilometers, the Iranian Seismological Center said on its website.

Najjar added that some of the injured have been rushed to local hospitals as emergency efforts get underway to help those trapped under the rubble.

Most of the rural areas in the quake-hit region use adobe, which has a tendency to crumble in earthquakes, as construction material.

The Kerman governor also said that the infrastructure around the quake's epicenter has remained intact.

He noted that the strong tremor was felt as far away as the southern province of Hormozgan, which lies on the Persian Gulf.

There have been six aftershocks so far, with the biggest measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale.

The province of Kerman has 18 active fault lines.

The quake was also felt in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in the cities of Zahedan, Bam, Khash, and Iranshahr, the Fars news agency reported.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake every day on average.

The deadliest earthquake to hit Iran in recent years happened on December 26, 2003, when a 6.6 magnitude quake struck Bam city and the surrounding areas in Kerman province.

The destructive earthquake left 26,271 people dead and 30,000 injured.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156393.html.

S Korea defends recent military drill

Tue Dec 21, 2010

South Korea has defended its recent live-fire military drill near the sea border with North Korea that had sparked fears of an ensuing war on the Korean Peninsula.

“South Korea has the right to hold military drills for territorial defense as a sovereign country. No other country can meddle in it,” The Korea Times quoted South Korean President Lee Myung-bak as saying on Monday.

He also ordered all public servants and government agencies to remain on alert over what he described as possible provocation by North Korea.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin also warned the North against any military provocation.

"If the North makes a military provocation again such as a showing attack on the Yeonpyeong Island, our army will punish it immediately with a strong and decisive action," he told reporters.

South Korea conducted the 90-minute live-fire exercise Monday on Yeonpyeong, a border island in the West Sea that was attacked by North Korea last month.

Despite its earlier threats, North Korea said it would not retaliate against the military exercise near the disputed sea border because the South changed its firing zones.

North Korea had earlier threatened to react to the live-fire drills.

North Korea has laid claims to the waters around the Yeonpyeong Island as its territory and during last month's artillery exchange with the South, Pyongyang accused Seoul of provoking the conflict by firing artillery into its waters.

The South said it fired shells southward, not toward its northern neighbor.

A North Korean shelling on the island on November 23 killed two South Korean marines and two civilians.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156421.html.

'Iran MPs join Gaza aid convoy in Syria'

Tue Dec 21, 2010

A delegation of Iranian lawmakers has arrived in the Syrian capital, Damascus, to accompany the first Asian aid convoy for the Gaza Strip.

The seven Iranian lawmakers will travel with the Asian People's Solidarity with Palestine convoy to the coastal sliver via the Rafah crossing in Egypt.

The move is aimed at displaying solidarity with the Palestinian people in their resistance against Israel.

Fifteen countries are participating in the convoy which started from India, making its way through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Syria. They plan to enter the enclave on December 28 after traveling through Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

The convoy is carrying humanitarian aid for Gazans. The coastal strip has been under a crippling Israeli siege since June 2007.

Some 40 percent of the 1.5 million impoverished people of Gaza are jobless as Israel imposed the siege on the sliver since June 2007.

The embargo persists while Gaza is far from recovering from the December 2008-January 2009 Israeli war that claimed the lives of over 1,400 Palestinians, inflicting a damage of above $1.6 billion on the enclave's economy.

The United Nations recently expressed concern that more than 80 percent of people of Gaza depend on relief supplies for survival.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156412.html.

Bomb blast rocks Russia's Dagestan

Tue Dec 21, 2010

At least two people have been injured after a powerful explosion ripped through Russia's troubled southern republic of Dagestan.

The blast occurred in the provincial capital of Makhachkala when a bomb placed inside a trash can went off on one of the city streets at around 6:30 p.m. Moscow time (1530 GMT), Itar-Tass news agency reported on Monday.

The wounded victims were rushed to a nearby hospital to receive medical treatment.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing.

Sporadic attacks and militant clashes are common in Russia's North Caucasus republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia.

Russia has been fighting militants in the North Caucasus since the mid 1990s.

Violence first broke out in Chechnya in 1994, when 250,000 people were forced to flee to neighboring territories because of a war between Chechen separatists and the Russian army.

After a short-lived and unstable peace from 1996 to 1999, war resumed following actions blamed on Chechen militant groups. An estimated 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict and many more displaced.

Violence has increased to almost a daily basis in Northern Caucasus following the two separatist wars in Chechnya in the 1990s.

Widespread unemployment, especially among young adults, is a major problem that has been attributed to an increased recruitment of people by separatist militants.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156411.html.

Lula censures anti-Iran sanctions

Tue Dec 21, 2010

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has harshly criticized the decision to impose economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program.

On Monday, Lula said that the sanctions could have been avoided if the United States had accepted a declaration issued in Tehran in May.

The foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, and Brazil signed a declaration in Tehran on May 17, according to which Iran would ship 1200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey to be exchanged for 120 kilograms of 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel rods to power the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment.

The nuclear declaration gives Iran a guarantee since the low-enriched uranium would be stored in Turkey and would be returned if Iran does not receive the 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel within one year.

Despite the fact that Iran agreed to conduct the fuel swap in a third country — a demand made by the West that Iran had previously rejected due to guarantee concerns — on June 9 the UN Security Council passed a resolution imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran following an intense US campaign claiming that Iran's nuclear program could have potential military applications.

The Brazilian president also said he received a letter from US President Barack Obama in May, which set conditions for Iran to avoid sanctions. He added that those terms were met in the fuel swap declaration and emphasized that the anti-Iran sanctions are therefore unnecessary.

Iran has described the sanctions as illegal, saying that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has the right to enrich uranium to produce fuel.

Lula also stated that the US cannot be the lone arbitrator of the Middle East, saying, "There will not be peace in the Middle East as long as the United States is the guardian of peace. It is necessary to involve other countries in negotiations (between Israel and the Palestinians)," DPA quoted him as saying.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156405.html.

Israel upgrades tanks along Gaza Strip

Mon Dec 20, 2010

Israel plans to deploy super-armored tanks along the Gaza Strip, citing a rise in attacks by Palestinian activists on Israeli tanks on the edge of the coastal sliver.

The tanks are equipped with an active armor protection system known as Windbreaker, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported on its website Sunday, adding the deployment is scheduled to begin in January.

The move comes following intelligence assessments indicating a rise in the threat of anti-tank missile attacks in the region. The Israeli army also claims that Gaza-based resistance fighters have upgraded their anti-tank missile capabilities.

Two weeks ago, an Israeli tank was damaged when it was targeted on the border with the Gaza Strip by an anti-tank missile.

The Windbreaker armor system, also known as Trophy outside Israel, is capable of neutralizing advanced anti-tank missiles in different ranges.

Tel Aviv procured the system after heavy losses in the 2006 war it waged against southern Lebanon, where anti-tank missiles fired by Lebanese resistance fighters crippled Israel's armored battalions.

The battalion planned to be deployed to the border with Gaza is the only one in Israel to enjoy Windbreaker and is also equipped with the most modern type of Merkava battle tank, the Mark IV.

Israel has declared a closed military zone on the border with the Gaza Strip -- an area which encompasses hundreds of meters inside the enclave. Israeli soldiers frequently open fire on whoever approaches the zone on 'suspicions of armed activity'.

Five Palestinians were killed on Saturday night in an airstrike that pounded an area east of the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah.

The strike was one of the deadliest since the devastating war Tel Aviv launched against Gaza at the turn of 2009.

Israel's attack against the coastal enclave killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and left more than thousands more wounded.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156274.html.

Bashir to reinforce Sharia if Sudan splits

Mon Dec 20, 2010

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has said that the north of the country will reinforce its Islamic law if the south secedes in the next month referendum.

"If south Sudan secedes, we'll change the constitution. There will be no question of cultural or ethnic diversity. Sharia will be the only source of the constitution, and Arabic the only official language," he said in a speech on national television on Sunday, AFP reported.

South Sudan is just three weeks away from the referendum, which is to determine the fate of the Christian-majority region. It is predicted that southerners will vote for independence.

The vote was included in the 2005 peace deal between the mainly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south that ended the civil war in Sudan.

The north's National Congress Party and South's Sudan People's Liberation Movement also agreed on an interim constitution that considered both Islamic and Christian social and cultural values. In addition, Arabic and English were recognized as the official languages of the country. These laws are valid until July 2011.

Tensions are running high in Sudan as many fear that the referendum could spark political crisis as well as violence.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156262.html.

Turkey summons Israeli envoy

Mon Dec 20, 2010

Turkey has summoned the Israeli envoy to protest a deal between Tel Aviv and Cyprus over "economic rights in the Mediterranean," officials and media reports say.

Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Ambassador Gaby Levy on Thursday, a day before the agreement was signed, a senior diplomat told AFP.

The deal signed in Nicosia, by Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou and Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau on Friday would pave the way for Israel and Cyprus to jointly search for energy sources in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu summoned Levy on Thursday to convey its unease over the deal on economic rights in the Mediterranean, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.

Sinirlioglu warned Levy that the deal would have an adverse impact on efforts to end the 36-year division of Cyprus between its Greek and Turkish community.

"Such unilateral moves (on behalf of the Greek Cypriots) that ignore the will of the Turkish Cypriot side will harm ongoing settlement talks on the island," the Turkish diplomat said.

Cyprus, which says there are encouraging signs of hydrocarbon reserves in its waters, held a first licensing round in 2007, prompting a fierce reaction from Turkey.

Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots claim that Cyprus does not have the right to exploit the island's natural resources before the political problem is resolved.

The issue comes as deep tensions have been created between Turkey and Israel since May 31, when Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound aid ship killing nine Turkish activists.

Turkey has demanded compensation for the victims' families as well as an official apology from Tel Aviv. Israel has yet not fulfilled the Turkish demands.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156259.html.

Iran finishes 4th in Asian Para Games

Sun Dec 19, 2010

The Iranian squad has won a total of 80 medals to finish fourth behind China, Japan and South Korea in the first edition of Asian Para Games held in Guangzhou, China.

The Iranian athletes bagged 27 golds, 24 silvers and 29 bronzes in the tournament.

China topped the medal count table with a total of 391 medals, (185 golds), Japan stood second with 103 medals (32 golds), and South Korea finished third with 103 medals (27 golds).

The inaugural Asian Para Games saw the curtain rolled down during a splendid closing ceremony in the Aoti Main Stadium on Sunday evening.

Dato' Zainal Abu Zarin, the President of Asian Paralympics Committee, declared the Games close and called the event as "the best Games for athletes ever staged in Asia so far," Xinhua news agency reported.

The games provided a platform for the athletes to realize their dreams and show the Paralympic values of courage, determination, inspiration and equality, Abu Zarin said.

A total of 1,020 medals were awarded and 32 countries managed to get onto the podium at some point during the 8-day sports gala. Some 2,512 athletes from 41 Asian countries competed in 19 sports.

Some 74 athletes from 13 countries broke 82 Asian records in the biggest Asian sport event for disabled athletes.

More than 470,000 spectators attended the Asian Para Games.

The Asian Para Games was held in Guangzhou from December 12 to 19, two weeks after the conclusion of the 16th Asian Games in the city.

Iran also finished fourth at the 16th Asian Games.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156255.html.

In rare joint appearance, Mugabe and Tsvangira vow cooperation

Mon, 20 Dec 2010

Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Monday they would continue to work together to keep their troubled coalition government from collapsing.

In a rare joint press briefing, both Mugabe and Tsvangirai said they were happy with the way Zimbabwe's economy had improved since the two erstwhile enemies formed a coalition government last year.

"We are different parties, we go at each other at the party level, yes," said Mugabe, 86.

"But let it not be said that we are dysfunctional, we are at war. No," he added, defending his attack on Tsvangirai at a conference of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over the weekend.

Tsvanigirai said, "This inclusive government will not collapse. We will make sure that it does not collapse."

Mugabe was flanked by Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara with whom he formed a unity government last year.

That followed African regional leaders' refusal to recognize a presidential run-off vote in which Mugabe had declared himself the winner in 2008.

Tsvangirai, who had won the first round, pulled out of the run-off election, citing violence targeting his MDC supporters.

The coalition government has been marred by disagreements between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, leading to calls for a new election as the only solution.

Over the weekend Mugabe told his supporters that he was tired of working with Tsvangirai and wanted elections next year.

But at the Monday briefing both Mugabe and Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans would go to elections once a referendum for a new constitution had been held. They declined to name a date for the referendum.

"The inclusive government is a transitional mechanism that will lead to an election," Tsvangirai said, saying he hoped for a "roadmap" pointing the way to elections after a referendum.

Ahmadinejad deputy accused of embezzlement

Mon, 20 Dec 2010

Tehran - The top deputy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been accused of embezzlement, the country's attorney general said Monday.

"There are (embezzlement) charges against the first deputy (Mohammad Reza Rahimi) and we are following the case. ..," Gholam- Hossein Mohseni-Ejehi was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying.

"He will face trial, but the charges against him are not yet proven and we have to wait for the first deputy's defense plea," the attorney general added.

The financial corruption charges against Rahimi were raised by a website and supported by two lawmakers who claim to have documents proving their charges.

The 61-year-old Rahimi, the most important among Ahmadinejad's 12 deputies, has reportedly been involved in a series of financial scandals, but has denied all claims of wrongdoing.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359038,ahmadinejad-deputy-accused-embezzlement.html.