Emerging role for Jordanians in al-Qaida

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A prominent Jordanian-Palestinian militant recently killed in Afghanistan was a medical school dropout, who joined al-Qaida after his heart was broken in an failed love affair, his friends and a counterterrorism official said Wednesday.

Haitham Mohammed al-Khayat, 26, better known in extremist circles as Abu Kandahar al-Zarqawi, was an administrator of the online jihadi forum, Al Hesbah, according to Islamist militant websites. The sites announced that he was killed by U.S. forces Friday. He was among eight Jordanians killed or arrested in the militant hotbeds of Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen over recent weeks.

The killings and arrests highlight the active role Jordanian militants play in the al-Qaida terror network, undermining efforts by their pro-American leader, King Abdullah II, to support he U.S. war on terrorism.

The websites and the official said al-Khayat was an associate of the Jordanian-born doctor who blew himself up in a CIA outpost in eastern Afghanistan a year ago, killing seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer.

Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, also known as Abu Dujana al-Khurasani, was a triple agent, recruited by Jordanian intelligence to provide information to the CIA on al-Qaida's number 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, who turned on his handlers.

Al-Khayat knew al-Balawi from their hometown of Zarqa, the birthplace of slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the counterterrorism official said.

"He named himself after the terrorist al-Zarqawi, which shows that he completely identified himself as a militant," he said.

The official declined to provide details on al-Khayat's death, citing classified intelligence data. But he said the terrorist was an "al-Qaida operative, who knew many in the terror group's top echelon."

"He was sought in Jordan for his militant ideology and articles he published on the Internet," he said, adding that al-Khayat was arrested a few times between 2000 and 2005, but never indicted on terrorism-related charges.

In an interview with an Islamist militant website in April, al-Khayat urged Mideast Arabs to "focus on the wars of assassinations, snipers and explosives."

Government records showed that al-Khayat was born to a Palestinian family from the Gaza Strip, with ties to the West Bank town of Hebron.

Three of his friends, insisting on anonymity for fear of police reprisal, said he studied medicine in the Ukraine, but never completed his degree.

One said he had a "bad relationship" with his father, who insisted he abandon extremism. He said al-Khayat had a love affair with Jordanian-Palestinian woman, whose father refused his marriage proposal "because of his hard-line religious views."

His troubled relationships were confirmed by another friend who posted an emotional letter of condolence on the Internet.

The intelligence officer insisted that Jordanians only make up a "small portion" of those fighting against U.S. and other Western troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, with the bulk of them coming from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Pakistan.

However, he did provide details about eight Jordanians either arrested or killed just in the past month for involvement in terror-related activities.

— Dec. 15, Jordanian engineer Maath Mohammed Kamal Alia, 45, was arrested in Yemen on suspicion of throwing a bomb at a U.S. Embassy vehicle.

— Dec. 14, Jordanian-Palestinian militant Mahmoud Abu Reidah, 38, was killed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. An al-Qaida operative better known as Abu Rasmi, he was granted political asylum in Britain in 1998.

— Dec. 7, Jordanian computer engineer Mohammed Rateb Qteishat, 33, was killed by Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul. He was an al-Qaida operative fighting American forces in Iraq. In 2006, he was sentenced to death in absentia in his native Jordan for plotting attacks on Americans in Jordan and attempting to blow up hotels in Amman.

— Nov. 19, four Jordanians of Palestinian origin from Zarqa were killed while fighting American troops in Iraq. The men were all in their 20s and 30s and with the exception of one, had served jail terms in Jordan for plotting anti-American terror attacks.

With close ties to the U.S. and diplomatic relations with Israel, Jordan has been the target of more than 100 terror plots blamed on al-Qaida in the past decade, according to Jordanian military court records.

Most prominent was a triple hotel bombing in November 2005, which killed 60 Jordanians, mainly women and children.

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Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

1,800 endangered reptiles saved from cooking pot in Malaysia

Wed, 22 Dec 2010

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian custom officers seized more than 1,800 protected reptiles from a truck bound for Thailand, a news report said Wednesday.

The seizure early Monday came following a tip, the Star newspaper reported. Officers found 475 hill tortoises, 437 freshwater turtles, 710 monitor lizards and 196 king cobras in a truck at the Malaysia-Thailand border.

The animals were packed in gunny sacks and plastic bags, hidden among heaps of empty fruit baskets and boxes of sawn logs.

The truck had been left unattended in a queue waiting for the Thai border to open, after clearing Malaysian customs, the Kedah state customs director Ishak Ahmad as quoted as saying.

"We believe the reptiles, weighing 4,300 kilograms, were bound for restaurants that sell exotic dishes," he said.

The animals, said to be worth a total 24,000 ringgit (7,669 US dollars), would be handed over to the wildlife department. Ishak said it was the biggest seizure of wildlife by his department this year.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359273,saved-cooking-pot-malaysia.html.

Cambodia to close refugee center, scrap UN agreement

Wed, 22 Dec 2010

Phnom Penh - Cambodia says it plans to cancel an agreement with the United Nations on the processing of Vietnamese refugees, stoking fears about its willingness to accept asylum seekers.

The government announced plans last week to close a center run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for Vietnamese Montagnards, a highland minority group.

Currently, 76 people are housed in the camp, 62 of whom have been granted refugee status, allowing them to be resettled in a third country.

Thousands of predominantly Christian Montagnards have come to Cambodia since 2001, fleeing alleged political and religious persecution by Vietnamese authorities.

An agreement between the UN, Cambodia and Vietnam has governed the processing of Montagnard refugees since 2005, stipulating that they must be held at the UN center in Phnom Penh temporarily before being transferred to a third country or voluntarily returning to Vietnam.

The pact will be annulled after the camp is closed in February, Koy Kuong, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, said.

"When the center is closed, the MOU (memorandum of understanding) is finished," Koy Kuong said, adding that Cambodia would implement its own immigration procedures in future Montagnard cases.

Kitty McKinsey, a regional spokeswoman for UNHCR, said the UN was "discussing with the Cambodian government" how to process the cases of future Montagnard asylum seekers.

The UN says it is working to resettle the 62 registered Montagnard refugees at the center in Phnom Penh before the facility closes in February, and has called on the Cambodian government not to deport any of the others whose cases are pending.

Activists have raised concerns about the center's closure, saying it may signal that Cambodia places its relationships with allies such as Vietnam and China over human rights considerations. Last year, the government deported 20 Uighur Chinese refugees at the behest of Beijing and over the objections of the United States and others.

"Cambodia's decision to speed the closure of the UNHCR asylum center in Phnom Penh is rash and for those that could face deportation, puts their lives at risk," the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization said.

"It is crucial therefore that the United States press the Cambodia authorities to live up to their obligations as a party to the UN [Refugee] Convention."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359297,centre-scrap-un-agreement.html.

Footballers' union in favor of winter World Cup in Qatar

Wed, 22 Dec 2010

Berlin - The world footballers' union FIFPro has come out in favor of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar being held in winter instead of summer to address concerns about heat in the Gulf state.

Winter temperatures in Qatar are generally in the region of 20 degrees Celsius but this rises up to 50 degrees in the summer.

FIFPro expressed its satisfaction that football's ruling body FIFA is open to the idea of moving the tournament to solve the problem of of heat.

Tijs Tummers, secretary of FIFPro's technical committee, said Qatar's high summer temperatures meant the summer was not a suitable time to be in the country, either for players or fans.

"It is not sensible in a country with an average temperature of 41C in June and July, a midday temperature of 50C and, above all, extremely high humidity," he said in a statement.

"Tourists are advised not to travel to Qatar in the summer months and inhabitants leave the country en masse during this period."

Tummers added that he did not foresee any insurmountable problems in regard to staging the event to winter.

"If you look at what happened last weekend with weather problems in Europe because of heavy snowfall, you could see this as an advantage rather than as a problem," he said.

"And it might, perhaps, turn out that the players will be fitter at the start of a winter World Cup than was the case last summer at the World Cup in South Africa."

Qatar was elected on December 2 by FIFA to host the 2022 tournament, the first country from the Arab world to be given the nod.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359305,winter-world-cup-qatar.html.

Fears rise of attacks on UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast

Wed, 22 Dec 2010

New York/Abidjan - Fears of attacks against United Nations peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, which is in the grip of a violent post-election crisis, were high Wednesday after the UN peacekeeping chief warned his forces were becoming targets.

Strongman leader Laurent Gbagbo is defying massive international pressure - including European Union and United States sanctions - to cling to power, and has ordered UN peacekeepers and supporting French troops out of the country.

"The situation is at a critical stage on the ground," Alain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said late Tuesday.

Since the UN Security Council ignored Gbagbo's order and extended UNOCI's mandate by six months on Monday, pressure has grown on the peacekeepers - numbering around 10,000.

According to Le Roy, state-controlled television channel RTI has been broadcasting calls for violence against UNOCI personnel, staff have been evicted and suppliers have been forced to stop providing goods to the mission.

"We hear a lot of provocation again from RTI, and we hear reports of people like the Young Patriots (a pro-Gbagbo youth group) being given lots weapons, AK47s, to try to provoke UNOCI," Le Roy told reporters in New York. "We are very concerned."

The UN's headquarters in the economic capital Abidjan came under fire on Friday, although no injuries were reported.

Gbagbo's rival Alassane Ouattara is widely recognized as the rightful winner of last month's presidential elections. The polls were aimed at healing the divisions of a 2002 civil war that split the country into the mainly Muslim north, which backs Ouattara, and Christian south, where Gbagbo holds sway.

According to Ouattara's camp, around 200 people have been killed in the last week as Gbagbo cracks down on opposition, using Liberian and Angolan mercenaries to operate death squads. The UN confirmed the presence of Liberian forces in Ivory Coast.

Tentative UN estimates say there have been 50 deaths, around 200 injuries, 470 arbitrary arrests and many disappearances.

Ouattara is trying to run an alternative government from the UN-protected Golf Hotel in Abidjan, but pro-Gbagbo forces have erected barricades to prevent food and water getting through.

"The intention of Mr Gbagbo and the security forces loyal to him is clearly to strangle the United Nations peacekeeping mission and to suffocate the Government of President-elect Ouattara," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Gbagbo, in a speech broadcast on RTI late Tuesday, said he did not want the country to be "ravaged by war" and told Ouattara he would not be touched if he emerged from the Golf Hotel.

He also said he would consider allowing an "international and independent assessment and monitoring committee" to review the election - an offer immediately dismissed by Ouattara as insincere.

While Gbagbo extended an apparent olive branch, his feared youth leader Charles Ble Goude - who is under UN sanctions for violent acts carried out against peacekeepers in 2006 - has been holding daily rallies, exhorting thousands of young Gbagbo supporters to combat.

"Be ready! I will invite you to start street demonstrations very soon to claim the departure of UN staff and French military forces and to launch the latest assault to free Ivory Coast, our country," he told a televised rally in an Abidjan suburb Tuesday.

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, in an emailed statement, specifically mentioned the leader of the Young Patriots in a warning of possible prosecutions.

"For instance, if as a consequence of Mr Charles Ble Goude's speeches, there is massive violence, he could be prosecuted," he said.

Rift Valley Fever threatens Mauritania

2010-12-21

Mauritania has asked the World Health Organization (WHO) for help in tackling the deadly Rift Valley Fever outbreak in several northern villages, the Forum of Non-state Actors in the Adrar (FANEA) said in a press release on Monday (December 20th). In a December 12th letter to the WHO, Health Minister Cheikh El Moctar Ould Horma Ould Babana called the event "unusual and unexpected in this north region". At least 17 people have died from the livestock-borne viral illness.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/12/21/newsbrief-05.

Algeria to save 51 public companies, 40,000 jobs

2010-12-21

Algerian public works company (SGP-SINTRA) on Monday (December 20th) signed two framework agreements with public banks CPA and BDL, APS reported. According to Public Works Minister Amar Ghoul, the funding partnership will support the development of 51 companies, modernize equipment, provide training and save more than 40,000 jobs.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/12/21/newsbrief-02.

Algeria job creation plan helps unemployed youth, schoolchildren

An innovative new project in Algeria generates jobs and saves lives.

By Hayam El Hadi for Magharebia in Algiers – 21/12/10

A new job creation program in Algeria puts unemployed youth to work while safeguarding children on their way home from primary school.

A road danger prevention exercise began last week with 500 unemployed young people. The jobless youth were recruited by the Solidarity Ministry as part of a social reintegration drive intended to help the jobless get back to work while reducing the number of road accidents near schools.

"I'm delighted to be able to do this job," Lyes Benderbal told Magharebia. "I don't have any special qualifications. I left school very early, and now, at the age of 30, I've done a lot of small jobs. When I saw this job advertised at the town hall, I didn't hesitate. I quickly put together an application and learned about the Highway Code during the training."

"It's a steady job that only pays 6,000 dinars, but it will give my life a purpose. I will help children to cross the road and not have accidents. For me, it's the most noble of jobs," Benderbal added.

The program, which began December 13th in Algiers, stations helpers outside of schools that have been classified as high-risk areas across 37 communes. Safety officers are also focusing on locations where children frequently cross roads and dangers are known to exist.

According to the Solidarity Ministry, a total of 15,503 children were injured in road accidents and 1,201 lost their lives over the last five years.

No fewer than 250 accident-prone zones have been identified by the solidarity ministry. The helpers have already been trained by civil protection and education officials. The training focused on signaling, how to behave with the public, how to deal with children and basic first aid. They will also receive ongoing instruction during the school holidays.

Since the operation was launched, the helpers have been clearly visible at school gates. Wearing fluorescent green jackets, they help children cross the road. One school to have benefited is Aissat Idir in the working-class district of 1er Mai.

Even before children begin to leave, two helpers carrying stop signs are already waiting outside. Their job is to stop the traffic so that schoolchildren can cross the road.

"Before these helpers came along, I used to fear that my eight-year-old son would be hit by a car when he left school," said parent Slimane Meziane. "Kids are in such a hurry when they leave. They run in all directions and the school gate leads right onto a road. Now I'm relieved to know they will be guided. It's an excellent initiative."

Schoolchildren also seem to have understood the point of the scheme.

"The teacher told us that we must obey the safety officers, who explained the new rules to us. We must leave school calmly and wait for them to stop the cars before we cross," fourth year student Leila Mimoune told Magharebia.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/12/21/feature-01.

UJ student council candidates face off

By Rand Dalgamouni

AMMAN - Amidst prevailing apathy over the University of Jordan (UJ) student union elections, candidates squared off over issues of concern to students in a debate on Monday.

In four rounds, 11 candidates faced off at the UJ faculty of foreign languages, debating UJ lecture attendance regulations, restrictions on social network websites on campus computers, methods to curb university violence and the role of the student union.

While many candidates acknowledged that the student union is losing its influence on campus, they pledged that they will focus on providing services for students.

Other candidates said that they will request changes in the union’s bylaw to grant it actual power in decision making. According to its bylaw, the union can currently only relay students’ demands to the university administration.

French language student Razan Amad, one of the students who organized the debates, said the goal of the event was to help voters learn more about candidates’ programs and personalities.

Although well attended, the organizer said she did not expect the debates to dissuade voters from voting along tribal lines.

“We did what we could, but at the end of the day, I don’t think people who vote for their tribe will vote for the candidate with the best program,” Amad told The Jordan Times following the debates.

Amad voiced hope that the debates will spur a culture of respect for differing opinions, but admitted that she did not expect such a culture to emerge any time soon after the third debate was canceled following a heated exchange among supporters of candidates from the European languages department.

“Some of these people have never heard of the concept of accepting other opinions. What happened today is one of many indicators,” she said.

Fourth-year student Hazar Kreishan, also an organizer, said she found a silver lining in the debates.

“I think the debates showed students the true side of their candidates. Some students changed their vote after seeing the debates,” she said.

She stressed that although some participants exhibited little respect for the opinions of others, the event fulfilled its goals of providing a platform for voters to learn more about the candidates and issues.

This week’s polls will mark the third since the administration of the 40,000-student university decided to make the student body fully elected, after appointing half of the union members and speaker in the previous seven years.

The UJ student union election, in which 408 candidates are competing, will be held on Thursday.

21 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=32806.

Germany welcomes formation of Iraqi government

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Berlin - Germany welcomed Tuesday the formation of an Iraqi government after nine months of internal negotiations, with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle calling it "good news for all Iraqis."

"It's now up to them to tackle in a united way and with all their strength the huge challenges of rebuilding Iraq," he said in a statement distributed by his ministry. Westerwelle visited Baghdad earlier this month.

"The creation of a new Iraqi government that comprises all the principal groups in the country is good news for all Iraqis," he said.

He said Berlin would continue support for reforms in Iraq and work closely with the new government. German aid to Iraq since 2003 had totaled about 400 million euros (about 540 million dollars).

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359220,welcomes-formation-iraqi-government.html.

Major storm causes California chaos

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Los Angeles - A sixth straight day of rain pounded southern California on Tuesday, continuing a trail of chaos that has disrupted the normally balmy region as residents braced for an even bigger storm that was due to hit later in the day.

The deluge has swollen rivers and streams, cut power to tens of thousands of homes and forced thousands to evacuate because of the danger of mudslides.

Since Friday, downtown Los Angeles has received more than 12 centimeters of rain, breaking records that go back to 1921, and representing more than a third of the location's average annual rainfall.

Mammoth Mountain, southern California's largest winter sorts area, has been buried under a record of more than 4 meters of snow that has fallen since last week. Winds of more than 160 kilometers per hour have been raging at the resort's peaks, and forecasters are predicting another meter of snowfall by Wednesday.

Such storms are highly unusual, according to Bill Hoffer, spokesman for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Normally, a region of high pressure over the central Pacific Ocean deflects storms away from California and farther to the north into Oregon and Washington. But that pressure has weakened, allowing moist, warm Pacific storm systems to stretch from Asia through Hawaii into California. Such a weather pattern pops up once every 10-15 years, he said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359229,storm-causes-california-chaos.html.

Ivory Coast opposition says 200 dead, calls for protests - Summary

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Nairobi/Abidjan - The camp of Ivory Coast's Alassane Ouattara on Tuesday accused defiant president Laurent Gbagbo of operating death squads and overseeing the murder of 200 people, and called for mass protests to depose him.

Ouattara is widely recognized as the rightful winner of last month's presidential elections, which were aimed at putting to bed the ghost of a brief 2002 civil war that split the country into the mainly Muslim north, which backs Ouattara, and Christian south, where Gbagbo holds sway.

Instead the election has reinforced the divisions as Gbagbo defies fierce international pressure and relies on military might to cling to power.

He has ordered the UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast (ONUCI) and French troops out of the country, accusing them of supporting Ouattara. The UN Security Council on Monday rejected the demand, extending the mission's mandate by six months.

Guillaume Soro, Ouattara's prime minister and leader of the former northern rebel group New Forces, said Gbagbo was employing Liberian and Angolan mercenaries to run death squads under the noses of the UN.

"Up until today, we have counted almost 200 dead and 1,000 injured by bullets, around 40 disappeared and nearly 732 arrests," Soro said in a statement published on Ouattara's website. "More seriously, woman have been beaten, stripped, assaulted and raped ... the ingredients for a genocide are in place."

"When will the international community convince itself that a murderous madness is taking place in Ivory Coast?" he asked.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Sunday said more than 50 people had been killed since Thursday, but Soro's claims - including the discovery of a mass grave containing sixty bodies in an Abidjan suburb - are difficult to verify.

"The deteriorating security conditions in the country and the interference with freedom of movement of UN personnel have made it difficult to investigate the large number of human rights violations reported," Pillay said.

International rights group Amnesty International said it had received numerous reports of people being arrested or abducted.

"It is clear that more and more people are being illegally detained by security forces or armed militiamen and we fear that many of them may have been killed or have disappeared," said Salvatore Sagues, Amnesty International's West Africa researcher.

Gbagbo allies have dismissed the charges, saying they are propaganda aimed at allowing foreign military intervention.

Soro, who along with Ouattara is barricaded into the UN-protected Golf Hotel in Abidjan, called on Ivorians to defy a strong military presence and force Gbagbo from power.

"We ask the brave and proud Ivorian people ... to organize themselves, mobilize and demonstrate by all available means until Mr Laurent Gbagbo leaves power," he said.

Gbagbo's allies are also stirring their supporters into action.

His feared youth leader Charles Ble Goude - who is under UN sanctions for violent acts carried out against peacekeepers in 2006 - is holding daily televised rallies of thousands of young Gbagbo supporters.

In the latest event on Tuesday, he exhorted his supporters to defend Gbagbo with their "last sweat and blood."

Mass protests would undoubtedly provoke more bloodshed, but Ouattara's camp has grown increasingly frustrated at the inability of the international community to budge Gbagbo.

The European Union is to ban Gbagbo and key officials from traveling to the bloc and plans to freeze any assets held there, the United States is also planning sanctions and everyone from former colonial ruler France to regional West African bloc ECOWAS has called on the leader to step down.

Gbagbo's regime has dismissed the sanction threat as irrelevant colonial-style interference and also warned UN peacekeepers off siding with Outtara.

"Their sanctions are just like a red handkerchief that they shake to threaten and frighten us. It makes me smile," Emile Guirieoulou, Gbagbo's interior minister, said Monday. "If French and UN forces which are on our territory choose to sides with the rebels than with legal authorities, they become rebels and we will deal with them accordingly."

The UN headquarters has come under attack and staff have had their homes invaded in night-time raids, according to UNOCI.

Konate Navigue, another of Gbagbo's youth leaders, on Tuesday asked Gbagbo supporters to stop UN forces from buying fuel and groceries, and asked anyone renting a home to a UN staffer to evict them.

New Iraqi government formed, ending political stalemate

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Baghdad - Iraq's parliament voted on Tuesday for a "partial" government, ending a political stalemate that has dragged on since elections nine months ago.

Lawmakers approved 70 per cent of the 42-member cabinet, leaving the unfilled posts in the care of acting ministers who will replaced at a later date. The new ministers were sworn in after the vote.

Parliamentarians also voted for a government program, which aims at fighting terrorism and attracting more foreign investment.

Decisions on some of the cabinet appointments were "postponed to consider female nominees" and examine the suitability of other candidates, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told parliament.

Al-Maliki will be an acting minister for three portfolios - defense, interior and national security - amid continued disagreement over who should fill these sensitive posts.

The new government leaves some ministers in place, including veteran Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, who has been in office since the US-led invasion in 2003. Zebari also took temporary charge of the Ministry of Women's Affairs.

News of the government formation was welcomed in the United States and Europe.

"The Iraqi people and their elected representatives have demonstrated their commitment to working through a democratic process to resolve their differences and shape Iraq's future," US President Barack Obama said.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she hoped the new government "will do everything it can to ensure that Iraq continues on its path to lasting stability, advancing on issues of national reconciliation."

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said: "The creation of a new Iraqi government that comprises all the principal groups in the country is good news for all Iraqis."

For the first time since 2003, the government does not appear to include any women. Al-Maliki said he did not receive a single female nomination despite the fact he asked each political bloc to nominate women.

Female members of parliament objected to the all-male cabinet.

"We will vote (for the cabinet) because we do not want to punish the Iraqi people who waited for so long for this," said lawmaker Ala Talabani, who addressed parliament on behalf of female lawmakers.

"Women today feel that democracy was killed in Iraq due to discrimination," Talabani told parliament ahead of the vote.

Deputy Prime Minister Rafie al-Esawi became finance minister, while Abdul-Karim Eleibi was appointed oil minister.

Both former oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani and Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq became deputy prime ministers. Al- Shahristani is also acting minister of electricity.

Al-Mutlaq, a critic of al-Maliki, was banned earlier this year from running for parliament because of charges that he was a Baathist - the party of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

On Saturday, lawmakers voted to lift a ban on al-Mutlaq and two others from participating in the government because of his political background.

The three are members of former prime minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya List, which won the largest number of seats in the house but failed to achieve a majority.

The lifting of the ban was a condition made by Allawi's bloc for agreeing to a power-sharing deal last month that broke the political deadlock, which had paralyzed the nation since elections March 7.

The new government will have to tackle a rising wave of violence, and other neglected legislative issues, including crumbling infrastructure.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359221,formed-ending-political-stalemate.html.

US slaps travel ban on Ivory Coast's Gbagbo, other officials

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Washington - Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo and other members of his inner circle have been banned from traveling to the United States, the US State Department said Tuesday.

The United States announced the travel sanctions against Gbagbo, his immediate family and other officials over Gbagbo's refusal to relinquish power following defeat in November's elections.

"Gbagbo's efforts to remain in power, despite the expressed will of the Ivorian people for Alassane Ouattara to be president, threaten to compromise years of reconciliation and peace-building efforts on behalf of the Ivorian people," spokesman PJ Crowley said.

Crowley said the list of dozens of individuals included in the travel ban could be widened to other members of Gbagbo's government supporting him.

The international community has widely recognized Alassane Ouattara as the winner of the November 28 election. A defiant Gbagbo has unleashed security forces to crack down on opponents and protesters, and dozens of people are estimated to have died.

The European Union is expected to enact similar measures this week.

Czech government survives no confidence motion - Summary

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

Prague - The Czech Republic's three-party, center-right government of Prime Minister Petr Necas on Tuesday survived a no- confidence motion in Parliament, initiated over a corruption scandal less than half a year into its rule.

Needing at least 101 votes, the Cabinet won the vote by 113-80, overcoming its first crisis, which was triggered by a junior coalition party that for days kept its partners on tenterhooks on its voting intentions.

The Public Affairs party pledged to back the cabinet only hours before the vote, after President Vaclav Klaus brokered a deal between quarreling coalition partners in a bid to salvage planned public- finance reforms.

"We do not want to be destructive," said the party's head Radek John after a meeting Klaus had called earlier Tuesday at the Prague Castle.

Officials have so far kept mum on the deal's details.

The no-confidence motion, initiated last week by the opposition Social Democrats, and the bickering in the Cabinet were sparked by a corruption scandal that led to the resignation of environment minister Pavel Drobil.

The scandal is seen as a blow to the credibility of the austerity- minded Cabinet, which has vowed to fight corruption.

According to a newspaper report last week, an adviser to Drobil asked an official to help manipulate tenders and banking decisions in a bid to raise money for Drobil's future political career.

When the official, who had taped the conversations, showed resistance, Drobil offered him a high-level ministry post in exchange for destroying the tapes, the Mlada Fronta Dnes daily reported.

In his initial reaction, Necas backed Drobil and slammed the whistleblower, frustrating voters who hoped that his team would take a hard line against corruption.

"(Necas') defense of this minister has really disappointed me," Czech former president Vaclav Havel said in a newspaper interview.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359247,confidence-motion-summary.html.

Palestinian wins case against Shin Bet

Tue Dec 21, 2010

A Palestinian man has won a court case that charged the Israeli security agency Shin Bet with torturing him during his imprisonment 15 years ago.

Shin Bet was ordered on Tuesday to compensate Jamal Mustafa al-Hindi, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), for disabilities the agency caused.

Hindi was arrested about 15 years ago on charges of murdering two Israelis.

The Palestinian confessed to the murders, but later said that he confessed in order to free himself from the torturing he suffered at the hands of Shin Bet agents.

Hindi said the torturing included "being handcuffed in painful positions, deprived of sleep, shaken and slapped.”

His interrogators threatened to kill him and destroy his home, he said according to his testimony.

Hindi's employers provided evidence which proves he was at work while the murders took place.

The murder charges were dropped after six months of his imprisonment.

Hindi filed for damages, saying that the torture he suffered had caused permanent psychiatric disability.

Shin Bet has apparently accepted the ruling, even though the amount to be compensated is not known. The agency does not have a good reputation for compensating after interrogations.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156522.html.

Turkey snubs Eurofighter for own jet

Wed Dec 22, 2010

Turkey has reportedly dropped plans to obtain the twin-engine, multirole Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, choosing to develop its own warplane.

The Defense Industry Executive Committee in the country has cancelled the potential purchase of 60 state-of-the-art Typhoon fighter jets, said The Media Line (TML), a news outlet reporting on the Middle East, on Monday.

Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said last week and following the decision, “This move by the committee effectively is a decision for making Turkey's first fighter aircraft.”

“The Eurofighter is off Turkey's agenda,” Gonul added.

"The decision we have taken now calls for the production of a totally national and original aircraft,” he said.

The Turkish Defense Industry's Procurement Agency has set aside some $20 million for a two-year conceptual design study, TML said.

The aircraft are expected to be unveiled around 2023.

A Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) plant in the outskirts of Ankara assembles F-16 fighter jets at a based on a contract with Lockheed Martin.

Turkish government has named state-controlled TAI as the general coordinator of the new fighter jet.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156561.html.