Jordan, Saudi customs to improve electronic connectivity

AMMAN (Petra) - Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday agreed to draw up a time frame to implement the electronic connectivity between the two countries customs departments and bring the bilateral customs cooperation to a higher level. During a meeting between Jordan Customs Department Director Ghaleb Sarayreh and Abdullah Rasheed, the director of the Saudi Arabian Customs Department's information center, the two sides discussed means to facilitate procedures to ensure the smooth flow of commodities and passengers between Jordan and the Gulf country.

30 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33037.

New campaign to sweep up Amman's abandoned cars

By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN - Abandoned vehicles rusting on the capital’s streets and vacant lots may soon be a thing of the past under a capital-wide campaign, according to the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM).

The campaign, which will start in January and continue throughout the year, aims at improving Amman’s cityscape by removing vehicles that have become eyesores and health hazards, said Mutaz Zaghlawan, head of the technical control office at GAM’s construction monitoring department.

GAM will target vehicles with expired registration and wrecked cars, which become environmental and health hotspots by attracting dirt and waste, Zaghlawan told The Jordan Times over the phone on Wednesday.

As part of the clean-up, implemented by GAM in cooperation with the Traffic Department, and the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Department, authorities will mark vehicles with stickers informing their owners to remove their cars within a 14 day period before being towed, Zaghlawan said.

Meanwhile, teams from the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Department will track down owners of vehicles without license plates by using chassis serial numbers, Zaghlawan noted.

“We will publish announcements in daily newspapers with the names of the car owners… if the cars are not removed, we will tow them to a lot near the Hezam Daeri area in east Amman,” Zaghlawan told The Jordan Times over the phone.

People will be able retrieve their impounded vehicles after paying the fees for transport as well as JD0.50-JD1.5 for each day their car was impounded, the GAM official noted.

At the end of the year, GAM will auction off all unclaimed vehicles, Zaghlawan said, noting that initial surveys indicate that there are some 350 abandoned cars on Amman’s streets.

“The numbers increase daily as our teams continue to find more abandoned vehicles… a total of 105 vehicles received stickers, forty cars were removed by their owners following,” Zaghlawan noted.

30 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33043.

American aid agency to expand outreach in Kingdom

By Taylor Luck

AMMAN - After years of working under the radar, an American aid agency is about to make its presence felt in Jordan.

The non-political, non-religious and nonprofit American Near East Refugee Agency (ANERA) has been operating in the West Bank and Gaza for over four decades.

Since opening an office in the Kingdom in 2004, the agency has worked to assist local charity societies in the fields of youth, education, healthcare and social development.

According to ANERA President Bill Corcoran, come 2011, that is all about to change.

“Jordan is going to be a target for more projects, more of our individual money and efforts,” he said in a recent interview with The Jordan Times.

Formed in 1968 as an American response to the humanitarian impact of the 1967 war, the organization has worked to reach out to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and refugee camps as well as communities across the Levant.

Among its activities in Jordan, ANERA has provided financial support for the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf (HLD) to carry out its programs.

As part of a new drive to increase the scope of its programs in Jordan, ANERA is now shifting its focus to capacity building to empower the HLD to reach out to refugee camps and elsewhere through mobile clinics.

The agency and the HLD, in cooperation with the Ladies of Sukhneh Society, have started in the Sukhneh camp to take hearing aid measurements and encourage families to allow their children to undergo hearing tests, according to ANERA.

In the field of education, ANERA has worked in cooperation with UNESCO to offer after-school tutoring for underprivileged Jordanian and Iraqi students in Al Qasr, Hashemi Shamali and Zarqa since 2008.

When the Kingdom opened the doors of the country’s schools to Iraqi students in 2007, ANERA saw a need to foster a greater sense of community among students of different backgrounds.

“The question was, how do you help bring these students together?” Corcoran said. The answer: after-school tutoring.

Over the last two years, ANERA and UNESCO have helped Iraqi students whose schooling was interrupted, to integrate in the Kingdom’s educational system while supporting low-income Jordanian students.

In health, the organization is working with the Jordan Breast Cancer Program (JBCP) to reach out to Wihdat residents and raise awareness on the importance of early detection.

In its first phase, ANERA's outreach program will educate some 7,300 women and help 500 others undergo free-of-charge mammograms at Al Hilal Hospital in east Amman, followed by some 250 recall mammograms and biopsy services for those in need.

The agency will work to expand the JBCP’s efforts to other densely populated neighborhoods, all as part of its focus on working with existing community based organizations to help them extend their reach and improve services.

“ANERA is not interested in duplicating what people are doing… We are working with Jordanian organizations to spread the good they do in places they haven’t reached,” Corcoran noted.

Another pillar of the agency’s work is facilitating the donation of in-kind assistance, delivering millions of dollars worth of supplies provided to ANERA by major US corporations to societies, schools and homes in the region.

In Jordan, recent efforts include the donation of 200 wheelchairs for Al Hussein Society.

ANERA recently formed a committee to determine ways to best boost its outreach in Jordan and develop strategies to identify and address the Kingdom’s development priorities.

Working on many fronts

While ANERA is working with public and private stakeholders in the Kingdom to assist its expansion in Jordan, it faces difficulties in its other fields of operation, according to Corcoran.

ANERA has had to take a more creative approach in the Gaza Strip, where strict limits imposed by the Israeli blockade prevent even the most basic supplies from entering the coastal enclave.

Although it remains one of the few organizations allowed to bring humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, the agency must avoid projects requiring cement and other materials banned from entry, he said.

ANERA substitutes PVC for metal pipes, and even goes door-to-door to ask for people’s toilets, doors and other salvageable items to re-use in conflict-damaged schools.

As they can’t import water tanks, ANERA has worked to teach Gazans how to harvest rainwater, and in order to get around the ban on fertilizers, the agency introduced programs to encourage backyard farming to ensure sustainable food sources in the coastal enclave.

Despite the obstacles, ANERA and its local partners have managed to repair 43 preschools, while putting Gazans to work.

In addition to rebuilding schools for Gaza’s children, ANERA ensures meals for 20,000 preschoolers each day by providing milk and biscuits. The fortified milk and biscuits are prepared with specific nutrients in the West Bank, providing nutrition for Gaza’s children while help stimulating the economy in the West Bank, he said.

ANERA says it also faces new obstacles in East Jerusalem, where demographic changes and legal loopholes continue to push Palestinians out of their homes, creating an increasing sense of immediacy in their work.

“Our own staff in East Jerusalem are losing their property; at the end of the day the impact becomes a bit more personal,” he noted.

In Lebanon, where the agency has operated for over 20 years, it recently worked in the Naher Al Bared camp to rebuild homes and a healthcare center destroyed in fighting in 2007, while simultaneously working to develop the country’s eco-tourism industry by providing consultation on ways to transform old homes to chalets.

According to Corcoran, although the projects are varied and challenges diverse, the agency’s message remains the same.

“ANERA sends a message that although American politics may seem frustrating, deep down American people are still generous and want to improve their lives and heal their pain,” he said.

Other organizations have taken notice: the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, and ARAMCO are among donors in the region that have been added to a growing list that includes the UN, USAID and a host of American and international corporations.

With the support, the agency was able to provide $48.5 million worth of programs in 2009 in its four fields of operation, and the same feat in 2010, benefiting more than one million Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians.

As it enters 2011, ANERA will continue to steer away from advocacy as it looks to spread goodwill around the Kingdom and elsewhere in the region, Corcoran said.

“People in the Middle East are the same as in the US, the human struggles are the same, the conditions are the same, the aspirations are the same. Our broad-based support shows that the American people can be generous and want to help local people to find solutions.”

30 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33039.

South Korea labels North 'enemy,' signalling harder line - Summary

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Seoul - North Korea has raised the number of its special forces troops, who are trained to infiltrate South Korea, by 20,000 to 200,000 in the past two years as it increasingly focuses on unconventional warfare, South Korea said Thursday.

It warned in a Defense Ministry white paper that North Korea has arrayed long-range artillery along the two Koreas' border that is capable of a "massive surprise bombardment" on Seoul and it deployed a new, faster, more powerful tank called the Storm Tiger.

"Threats from North Korea's asymmetric warfare capabilities - such as special forces, artillery pieces and weapons of mass destruction - have been on a steady rise since 2008," Deputy Defense Minister Chang Kwang Il was quoted as saying by the Yonhap News Agency.

Yonhap reported that military officials in Seoul said North Korea's aging conventional weapons could not compete with the technological advantage of the South Korean and US militaries so they are increasing their development and use of unconventional weapons, such as low-cost missiles and improvised explosives.

The white paper, which is released every other year, said the number of North Korean soldiers, 1.19 million, was unchanged from 2008 while its number of tanks had risen from 3,900 to 4,100.

It did not specify how many Storm Tigers had been deployed but said they were similar to Russia's T-50s and were fitted with 125-millimeter or 115-millimeter guns.

South Korea has 650,000 soldiers and is home to 28,500 US troops.

The paper was released after tensions spiked this year on the Korean Peninsula following the March sinking of a South Korean warship, which killed 46 sailors and which Seoul blamed on Pyongyang, and North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island near their disputed border in the Yellow Sea. That attack killed two soldiers and two civilians.

The white paper upgraded North Korea to an "enemy," raising it from the "serious threat" or "direct and serious threat" contained in the North Korean assessments since 2004 but did not go as far as white papers from 1995 to 2000 when North Korea was determined to be the South's "main enemy."

"The North poses a serious threat to security by developing and augmenting massive conventional military capabilities and weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear weapons and missiles, and through constant armed provocations like the torpedo attack on the Navy corvette Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island," the paper said. "As long as the threat continues, the North Korean regime and military, the perpetrators of all such provocations, are an enemy."

Chang said the label was meant as a strong message to Pyongyang and emphasized that the regime there and its military were the antagonist, not its people.

"Not using the expression 'main enemy' does not mean that we softened our stance," Chang was quoted as saying.

The white paper indicated the South would take a harder line against the North after the government in Seoul and its military were criticized for taking too slow and too lax a response to the Yeonpyeong artillery attack.

Concern has also risen about the North's nuclear program after it showed a visiting US scientist a previously unknown uranium-enrichment facility said to contain 2,000 centrifuges.

Uranium enrichment could give North Korea, which conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, a second avenue to producing nuclear bombs after reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium.

The two Koreas remain technically at war after an armistice and not a peace treaty ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360120,harder-line-summary.html.

Nepal races to save peacekeeping mission in Sudan

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Kathmandu - Nepalese UN troops in Darfur, threatened with a forced shut-down of their mission due to lack of military hardware following a major procurement scandal, are to receive the urgently needed equipment from their government, officials confirmed Thursday.

The United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur plans to repatriate the Nepalese peacekeepers if the government fails to provide the required armed personnel carriers (APCs) and other logistics by January 9, The Kathmandu Post reported.

A Home Ministry official said the Nepalese unit was told to either manage all necessary logistics before a scheduled referendum on independence for Southern Sudan on January 9, or be ready to go home.

"The UNAMID commissioner has reportedly complained that without APCs he could no longer employ non-operational Nepal Police Units to task," a letter sent by Nepal's permanent mission to the UN said.

According to the parliamentary State Affairs Committee, some 300 million rupees (400,000 dollars) were embezzled during the procurement process for the military equipment two years ago.

Among those implicated in the scandal are former home minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, former inspector general of police Om Bikram Rana and former home secretary Umesh Mainali.

The committee Wednesday directed the government to send the supplies to the peacekeepers within 10 days and asked Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to complete the investigation into the alleged corruption case.

Some 150 Nepalese police officers are posted to Darfur.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360123,races-peacekeeping-mission-sudan.html.

Philippine communist rebels get 2 million dollars from extortion

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Manila - Communist rebels in the Philippines amassed nearly 100 million pesos (2.3 million dollars) from extortion in 2010, a military spokesman said Thursday.

Brigadier General Jose Mabanta said that based on data gathered by the armed forces, the guerrillas collected 95.5 million pesos in "revolutionary taxes" from various companies.

He said the collection was down from 136 million pesos in 2009.

But Mabanta noted that since 1998, communist rebels have extorted about 1.5 billion pesos from various companies, mainly mining firms, logging corporations and plantations.

"The communist rebels at this point are not anymore a security threat. They are already considered a threat against development," he said.

The military earlier reported that at least seven mining firms in the southern Philippines have threatened to withdraw operations due to extortion by communist rebels.

Communist rebels have been fighting the Philippine government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360133,rebels-million-dollars-extortion.html.

Sudanese President al-Bashir threatens walkout from Darfur talks

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Nairobi/Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday threatened his side would quit the talks in Qatar aimed at ending the Darfur conflict if there is no agreement by the end of 2010 on Friday.

His remarks reported by the online edition of the Sudan Tribune were immediately deplored by mediators and by the other side in the Darfur talks, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

"If we reach an agreement tomorrow, praise be to God," al-Bashir said. "But if there is no agreement, we will withdraw our negotiating team.

"The negotiation and dialogue will be inside Darfur and with the Darfur people. We will not negotiate with any person who carries a gun and claims that he is a leader of an armed faction," he said.

The warning comes after nearly two years of talks in Doha with the support of the African Union and the Arab League to try to end the conflict in region in western Sudan between the predominantly black African ethnic population and Arab militias.

The chief negotiator in Doha, Djibril Bassole, said he regretted al-Bashir's remarks, calling them a threat to the peace process.

Ahmed Hussein, spokesman for JEM, the largest rebel group in Darfur, called al-Bashir's comments a "serious blow to the peace efforts."

By United Nations estimates, more than 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2003. In the meantime the International Court of Justice has issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360146,threatens-walkout-darfur-talks.html.

Gaza militant groups agree to halt rocket attacks on Israel

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Gaza City - Militant Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have agreed to halt rocket attacks against Israel, a senior Islamic Jihad leader said Thursday.

"We agreed to halt one of the means of armed resistance, which is firing rockets at Israel, to avoid the Israeli threats," Dawood Shihab, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement e-mailed to journalists.

"But the armed resistance will keep active in other means such as confronting raids and incursions," he said.

However, he said, the agreement to halt the rocket attacks was only "temporary" and was "linked to the situation on the ground.

The agreement, reached Wednesday, comes amid an escalation in rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli retaliatory strikes.

It also comes two years after an escalation in rocket attacks led Israel to launch a devastating offensive against the Gaza militias, which caused widescale destruction in the salient and led to the deaths of an estimated 1,400 people.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360151,halt-rocket-attacks-israel.html.

Germany to promote its language abroad

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Berlin - Germany is to promote its language abroad with a series of advertising campaigns encouraging people to learn German, the minister for culture and media said Thursday.

"More and more countries are removing a second compulsory language from school curricula. This means only English remains as a first foreign language," Cornelia Pieper told the German Press Agency dpa.

"Even within Europe, they are no longer keeping to the agreement to promote multilingualism," she added.

The comments came a day after the Transport Ministry banned the use of more than 100 English words, such as "laptop", amongst staff.

Around 150 German schools and a further 1,500 partner schools exist around the world. In the last five years, the number of German speakers worldwide has declined from 17 million to 14.5 million.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360152,germany-promote-language-abroad.html.

Lula weeps in last speech as president

Wed, 29 Dec 2010

Rio de Janeiro - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva burst into tears in his last speech in office.

As he addressed a crowd late Tuesday in his native state, Pernambuco, where he was born into poverty 65 years ago, Lula cried at least three times. He will step down on Saturday as his handpicked and popularly elected successor, Dilma Rousseff, is inaugurated.

First, he shed tears when he recalled how he rose from a poor child in the rural town of Caetes, near the city of Garanhuns, in Pernambuco, to the presidency of the world's eighth-largest economy.

Tears flowed again when a local poet expressed Pernambuco's gratitude to "the best-loved president of the Brazilian land."

Finally, Lula cried when he recalled his win in the 2002 presidential election, after three consecutive defeats in 1989, 1994 and 1998: "I lost because a portion of the poor people had no confidence in me."

"I remember that in 1989, in Casa Amarela (a poor neighborhood in Recife), a woman came out of an old little house and told me, 'I won't vote for you because you will take away everything I have,'" Lula said.

"I went back home and told Marisa (his wife) that I was scared, because the people I wanted to help were afraid of me. And Marisa told me, 'Try again, because it will work out some day.' And it worked out in 2002."

Lula thanked God for his experiences.

"I am grateful to God. Had it not been for God's finger, it would not be normal for a poor man from Caetes, who fled hunger, to become president. Whoever does not believe in God should believe," he said.

Lula vowed that his successor, Rousseff, will do even more to lead Brazil.

"She will do much more. I am leaving the presidency, but don't you believe you will be rid of me, because I will be on the streets of this country to help solve Brazil's problems," he said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360073,lula-weeps-speech-president.html.

US follows EU, UN; will back Ouattara's diplomats

Wed, 29 Dec 2010

Washington - The United States said Wednesday it would recognize a US ambassador that Ivory Coast presidential hopeful Alassane Ouattara names to Washington, following a similar move by the European Union and the United Nations aimed at putting pressure on incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

Ouattara is widely believed to have won November elections in the Ivory Coast, but Gbagbo has refused to cede power despite international demands for him to resign. The stand-off has already claimed more than 100 lives and raised the specter of civil war.

"We view president-elect Ouattara as the legitimate leader" of the Ivory Coast, said US State Department spokesman Mark Toner. "In his capacity, when he names a diplomatic corps, including to the United States, we'll work within appropriate protocol to recognize that person."

Toner also said a team from the Department of Defense was in the Ivory Coast to make "contingency" plans for possible evacuations of embassy personnel and others if violence in the African country escalates.

Obama bypasses US Senate to appointment ambassador to Syria

Wed, 29 Dec 2010

Washington - President Barack Obama bypassed the US Senate on Wednesday to appoint the United States' first ambassador to Syria in more than five years.

Obama used a recess appointment to name veteran diplomat Robert Ford to the post in Damascus, which has been vacant since early 2005 in the aftermath of the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

Ford, who has previously served in the Middle East as the deputy ambassador to Iraq, was first nominated as ambassador to Syria in February. But his appointment was held up in the Senate by a number of Republican senators who oppose re-establishing such high-level diplomatic relations with the government of Syria.

Ford was one of six people that Obama used his executive powers to appoint on Wednesday while the Senate is in holiday recess. Others included James Cole as deputy attorney general for the Justice Department and ambassadors for the Czech Republic, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Obama's maneuver means the officials will still have to get the Senate's approval by the end of 2011 in order to remain in their positions.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360097,senate-appointment-ambassador-syria.html.

Kuwaiti parliamentary opposition files motion to oust premier

Wed, 29 Dec 2010

Kuwait City/Cairo - Kuwaiti opposition legislators have filed a motion to oust the prime minister following a recent police crackdown on one of their gatherings, local media reported Wednesday.

The 10 members of parliament who filed the motion are looking to unseat Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Sabah for possibly authorizing the crackdown three weeks ago.

Special forces allegedly beat people with batons, leaving more than 12 injured, including four parliamentarians. The opposition claims that the prime minister will have violated public freedoms if he authorized the raid.

The motion to unseat Sheik Nasser was filed after nine hours of questioning in a closed-door session on Tuesday. It is scheduled to be voted on by lawmakers on January 5.

If the vote is successful, it would be the first time a Kuwaiti prime minister has been defeated with such a motion.

According to parliamentary sources of the Kuwait Times, the premier said during Tuesday's closed-door session that the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, had asked him "to apply the law."

He however stopped short of saying that the Kuwaiti ruler, who is his uncle, ordered him to use force against people at the gathering.

According to Kuwaiti media reports, the opposition claims that it has the support of around 22 parliamentarians - just three votes short of the necessary number needed to unseat the prime minister.

If passed, the issue will be referred to the emir, who will either dismiss the premier or dissolve the parliament and call for fresh elections, according to the Kuwait Times.

The National Assembly has been dissolved four times already over the past five years.

The issue has caused a stir in the oil-rich Gulf state, with Kuwaiti authorities allegedly shutting down the office of the al- Jazeera television channel after it aired extensive coverage of the police crackdown. They accused the channel of "interference in domestic affairs."

Footage on the Doha-based channel showed several people, including lawmakers, who had been injured after the raid.

Tuesday's session was the eighth time that Sheikh Nasser has been questioned since he assumed his post in February 2006.

Opposition lawmakers have called for him to resign five times. They have accused him of misusing government funds, mismanaging the economy, and breaching the country's constitution.

The emir nevertheless reappointed Sheikh Nasser last year.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360012,files-motion-oust-premier.html.

Iran hangs alleged spy, opposition collaborator - Summary

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Tehran - Iran on Tuesday hanged a man charged with spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence service and another man for collaboration with an opposition group, the judiciary reported.

Ali-Akbar S had allegedly cooperated with Mossad for six years and provided it with classified information on the missile program of the Iranian revolutionary guards, for which he received 60,000 dollars, official news agency IRNA said.

The man was arrested in 2008, sentenced to death and hanged Tuesday in Tehran's Evin prison.

The second man, identified as Ali S, was charged with collaboration with current and former members of the militant opposition group People's Mujaheddin of Iran (PMOI).

Iran regards the Paris-based PMOI as a terrorist group after implicating it in the assassinations of several high-ranking officials.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359882,opposition-collaborator-summary.html.

China seeks economic fugitives in South-East Asia, North America

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Beijing - Chinese police are hunting nearly 600 suspects in economic crimes who have fled overseas, mostly to South-East Asia and North America, a public security official said in remarks published Tuesday.

The Ministry of Public Security was seeking 580 fugitives suspected of crimes, including contract fraud, illegal fundraising, loan fraud and illegal transfer of funds abroad, Meng Qingfeng, head of the ministry's economic crime unit, told the official China Daily.

"Most of them have escaped to North America and South-East Asia," Meng told the newspaper.

He said a two-pronged strategy had helped the police to reduce the total number of international fugitives wanted for economic crimes over the past three years.

"On the one hand, economic crime investigation departments have stepped up efforts to trace and arrest fugitives who have fled abroad," Meng was quoted as saying.

"On the other hand, we have set up a prevention mechanism to effectively curb fugitives fleeing to other countries," he said.

Since 2006, Chinese police had arrested more than 250 fugitives who fled to 20 countries and regions, Meng said.

Extradition of some fugitives was difficult, especially from Western nations where some had escaped arrest because of those nations' "ideological and legal differences with China," Meng said.

But China's signing of extradition treaties with 37 nations was a sign of progress, he said.

Among those recently extradited to China were Gong Yinwen and Fan Jiecong, whose arrest was announced by the ministry in June after a two-year manhunt.

Gong and Fan were arrested in Malaysia on suspicion of "illegally obtaining public funds" in China, the ministry said without giving details of the case.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359885,south-east-asia-north-america.html.

Dutch police free Somalis detained after terror alert - Summary

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Amsterdam - All but one of 12 Somalis taken into police custody during a Christmas Eve terrorist crackdown have been released, Dutch prosecutors said Tuesday.

An investigative judge ruled Tuesday that a 29-year-old man of Somali descent must remain in detention for a further three days, while investigations continue.

Two Somalis, aged 47 and 44, are still considered suspects but there was not enough evidence to warrant them remaining in custody, prosecutors said.

There was nothing to link the other nine, aged between 19 and 48, to terrorist activities, prosecutors added.

Police arrested the 12 men of Somali origin on December 24 in the port city of Rotterdam, following an alert by the secret service, the AIVD.

Police found no explosives or weapons in raids conducted at the same time as the arrests, despite a warning from the AIVD that a terrorist attack was imminent.

Authorities declined to confirm a report in the Dutch daily De Telegraaf on Tuesday that the suspects were believed to be planning to shoot down an Apache military helicopter.

The paper cited a "reliable source" in AIVD, who said men were targeting the airbase of Gilze-Rijen, in the south of the country.

The report claimed the men were planning to use a portable rocket launcher, which was to be imported from Belgium, Denmark or another European country.

"Simply put: the only thing they were missing was the equipment to shoot something down," the security source told the paper.

There are 85 helicopters stationed at the Gilze-Rijen airbase, many of which have been used in NATO missions in Afghanistan in recent years.

The shooting-down of one of the helicopters could therefore have significant symbolic importance in the eyes of Islamist terrorists, the report said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359939,terror-alert-summary.html.

Opposition question Kuwaiti prime minister over crackdown

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Kuwait City/Cairo - Members of the Kuwaiti opposition began questioning the prime minister on Tuesday over a recent police crackdown on an opposition gathering, the state news agency reported.

"I am ready to be questioned and I want the debate now," Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Sabah said at the opening of the parliamentary session.

The speaker of the house, Jassem al-Kharafi, announced the questioning would take place in a closed-door session at the request of the government as stated by Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Roudhan Al-Roudhan.

Security forces were seen outside parliament preparing to prevent gatherings outside the building, after opposition members called upon the public to gather in support of the questioning, the Kuwait Times reported.

The request to question the premier came from three opposition lawmakers - Musallam Al-Barrak, Saleh Al-Mulla and Jamaan Al-Harbash, who represent the liberal, nationalist, and Islamist opposition blocs.

The opposition says al-Sabah may have violated public freedoms, claiming he is responsible for a crackdown by Kuwaiti special forces on a gathering of opposition members on December 8.

Security forces allegedly beat people with batons, leaving over 12 people injured, including four parliamentarians.

Kuwaiti authorities allegedly closed the office of the al-Jazeera satellite channel after it aired extensive coverage of the police crackdown, accusing the channel of "interference in domestic affairs."

Footage on the Doha-based channel showed several people, including lawmakers, were injured when police used force to disperse an opposition gathering.

This will be the eighth questioning of Sheikh Nasser since he assumed the post in February 2006. Opposition lawmakers have forced him to resign five times.

Last year, the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, reappointed his nephew Sheikh Nasser despite attempts by the opposition to question the prime minister.

They accused him of misusing government funds, mismanaging the economy, and breaching the country's constitution.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359941,kuwaiti-prime-minister-crackdown.html.

Medvedev orders review after snow chaos at Moscow airports - Summary

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Moscow- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has asked the country's top prosecutor, Yuri Chaika, to review operations at Moscow's international airports, the Kremlin announced Tuesday, following days of weather-related chaos and delays.

Freezing rain storms that hit Central Russia over the weekend wreaked havoc with flight schedules, with 20,000 passengers ultimately affected, according to reports.

Thousands of stranded passengers continued to wait for their flights Tuesday at the largest of Moscow's airports, Domodedovo, and the smaller Sheremetyevo airport.

Experts from the prosecutor's office will be dispatched to both facilities. A spokesman said passenger rights need to be protected.

Moscow's new mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, has also promised help.

Airlines have blamed the airport operator for the chaos. British Airways complained that a flight to London has been delayed since Monday because ground personnel has been unable to organize its passengers and their luggage.

A Sheremetyevo spokesman, meanwhile, criticized the communication policies of Russia's largest airline, Aeroflot, which has its base at the airport.

"The passengers don't know where they are supposed to go," he said.

Numerous travelers have also complained that they did not receive any food or drinks.

At Sheremetyevo, angry passengers reportedly attacked Aeroflot employees.

"Several officials were beaten as they negotiated with the passengers," one Aeroflot worker told the Ria Novosti news agency, saying that the employees don't dare go outside now since their safety can't be guaranteed.

The Sheremetyevo spokesman denied reports about the clashes, but admitted that "police units were boosted."

At Domodedovo, meanwhile, waiting passengers were left without power Sunday when a major cable connecting the electric power stations snapped. Traffic on its access roads also backed up for 20 kilometers in some places.

Several flights were re-routed to Moscow's third airport, Vnukovo.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359944,moscow-airports-summary.html.

Poland to write own report on April plane crash in Russia

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Warsaw- Polish prosecutors probing the April plane crash that killed president Lech Kaczynski will issue their own report on the investigation, separate from a Russian report, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday amidst criticism of a draft document by Moscow.

Russian prosecutors had previously been expected to release a single report that would include input from Polish investigators. Both sides are currently working on separate investigations.

The Polish report will include conclusions on what caused the plane crash on April 10 that killed Kaczynski and 95 others in Russia, the ministry said. It will also feature recommendations on how such tragedies can be avoided in the future.

Moscow sent Warsaw a draft report in October and asked for its input. Poland sent back some 150 pages on December 16 containing suggestions for the final report.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has criticized the draft document as unacceptable because it does not take account of Polish suggestions. Edmund Klich, the Polish envoy to the Russian investigation, said Monday that Poland would not negotiate with Russia on a final report. He said Warsaw would write its own report if Moscow does not take up its suggestions.

Klich added that the Russian report contained little about Russian officials, including air traffic controllers, and that it was "decidedly aimed" at Polish officials and pilots. He said it was difficult to consider the report objective because it was missing information.

Bad weather, poor visibility and pilot error appear to be the most likely causes of the crash.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359945,april-plane-crash-russia.html.

Lula compares leaving politics to 'quitting eating or breathing'

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Brasilia - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has ruled out leaving politics altogether, saying it "would be like quitting eating or breathing."

In a column published Tuesday in several Brazilian newspapers, he wrote: "There is no chance that I may leave politics. I cannot throw out of the window the experience I gathered by leading a government that is regarded as very successful."

Lula retains record popularity ratings but was constitutionally barred from standing for a third consecutive term in office. He is to hand over power Saturday to his handpicked successor, Dilma Rousseff, who will become Brazil's first female president.

Lula said he plans to travel around Brazil "to verify" what his administration did, and to help poor countries in Latin America and Africa through Brazilian models that bring together "economic growth and effective income transfer policies."

Praising Rousseff, Lula said he expects her to surprise observers with "her ability to command, to deliver, to drive things."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359949,quitting-eating-or-breathing.html.

Basque terrorists jailed for 515 years

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Madrid - Two members of the Basque separatist movement ETA have received prison terms of 515 years each for a car bomb attack that killed a policeman, according to the verdict published Tuesday.

Judges at the National Court in Madrid said the pair detonated the car bomb outside a paramilitary Civil Guards barracks in May 2008 with the aim as killing as many policeman as possible.

Some 27 officers and family members were in the building when the bomb went off with advance warning in the middle of the night, causing part of the facade to collapse.

The two men were convicted of one count of murder and 26 counts of attempted murder. They were also ordered to pay more than 1 million dollars compensation to the family of the dead man and other residents of the barracks.

According to Spanish law the pair will not have serve more than 40 years of their sentence.

ETA has been blamed for more than 850 deaths since 1960 in its campaign for Basque self rule. It declared a ceasefire in September this year.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359952,terrorists-jailed-515-years.html.

Human rights activists criticize media censorship in Tunisia

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Paris - Several human rights organizations on Tuesday strongly criticized censorship and police violence against journalists in Tunisia after clashes between police and demonstrators there.

The government has imposed a complete news blackout on the region of Sidi Bouzid since mid-December, when the attempted suicide of a young fruit vendor arrested for not having the right permits triggered a wave of protests, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) said.

The area is reportedly suffering from widespread youth unemployment.

According to the International Federation for Human Rights, two people have been killed and a further 10 injured.

Journalists who wanted to report on the demonstrations, some of which turned into riots, were arrested.

In one case a journalist was beaten in his flat, RWB said.

Security forces have sealed off the whole region and official media has reported that the protests are merely unconfirmed rumors.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359956,criticize-media-censorship-tunisia.html.

No nuclear concessions in Istanbul, says Iran's Ahmadinejad

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that, just like in Geneva, his country will provide no concessions in next month's nuclear negotiations in Istanbul, the ISNA news agency reported.

"We are willing to cooperate with the world powers in Istanbul, but all of them should acknowledge Iran's right to pursue nuclear technology and know that we will not retreat on inch from these rights," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the city Karaj, west of the capital Tehran.

After the talks between the six world powers and Iran in Geneva earlier this month, the two sides agreed to continue the talks in Istanbul at the end of January.

"And if (the powers) come again with sanction threats, they should know that all the sanctions already issued and all the hundreds more to be issued will not in the least affect Iran's will, and just speed up our progress," Ahmadinejad said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that Iran would discuss "ways to explore more cooperation" with the six world powers on global and economic issues, but not discuss the nuclear dispute.

The six world powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - primarily demand that Iran suspend its controversial uranium enrichment, in line with five United Nations Security Council resolutions, four of them with sanctions, designed to make sure the Islamic state is not pursuing a secret military program.

While denying the existence of military nuclear programs, Tehran has referenced its right as a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory and International Atomic Energy Agency member, saying, like any other country, it has the right to have civil nuclear projects, including uranium enrichment.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359961,concessions-istanbul-irans-ahmadinejad.html.

Fatah suspends membership of strongman Dahlan

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Ramallah - The central committee of the Palestinian political party Fatah said Tuesday it has suspended strongman Muhammad Dahlan.

The move, announced in a statement after the committee met in Ramallah, follows a deterioration in relations between the former top security official and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The relationship recently hit a new low after reports that Dahlan had spoken against Abbas in private meetings with Fatah members.

The Central Committee, which Abbas heads, had previously called on Dahlan to cooperate with a committee investigating his behavior.

The panel also stripped Dahlan of his position as media and information commissioner and replaced him with Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

Abbas recently withdrew guards posted at Dalhlan's Ramallah house and ordered the closure of a satellite television station partly owned by him that was due to start broadcasting in January.

The Fatah Central Committee, meanwhile, upheld Abbas' position regarding negotiations with Israel, reaffirming there will be no talks as long as the Jewish state continues settlement activities in Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

It said the Palestinians will ask the UN Security Council to get Israel to stop settlement activities.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359964,suspends-membership-strongman-dahlan.html.

EXTRA: UN peacekeepers attacked in Ivory Coast

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Nairobi/Abidjan - One United Nations peacekeeper was wounded and a vehicle burnt in an attack in Ivory Coast, the UN said Tuesday as efforts to force defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo from power continued.

"A convoy of three vehicles of the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) transporting 22 Blue Helmets was attacked on Tuesday in the Abidjan neighborhood of Yopougon, while returning to the Ivorian economic capital from the interior of the country," UNOCI said in a statement.

"A large crowd encircled the convoy, wounding one soldier with a machete and burning one of the three vehicles."

Gbagbo, who is refusing to cede power to his rival Alassane Ouattara despite huge international pressure, last week ordered the 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission from the West African nation.

After his demand was ignored, the UN has complained its staff have become targets of harassment, intimidation and violence.

Three West African presidents are in Abidjan in the latest attempt to persuade Gbagbo to peacefully hand over power to Alassane Ouattara - the man widely recognized as the winner of last month's presidential elections.

West African leaders pressure Gbagbo to resign - Summary

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Nairobi/Abidjan - The presidents of three West African nations on Tuesday met Ivory Coast's defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo to demand he hand over power after last month's disputed elections.

The world recognizes Alassane Ouattara as the rightful president of Ivory Coast, but Gbagbo is using the military to stay in office, sparking unrest that has claimed at least 173 lives.

The leaders of Benin, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde were in Ivory Coast to deliver a message to Gbagbo from regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that he must step aside.

ECOWAS on Friday warned that if the leader does not quit, it would "take other measures, including the use of legitimate force, to achieve the goals of the Ivorian people."

Benin's President Yayi Boni said the meeting went well, but refused to give any further details. The delegation had already met the United Nations special envoy YJ Choi and was due to meet Ouattara.

Gbagbo was not expected to heed the call from ECOWAS, as his camp has already warned against outside interference.

The defiant leader has already brushed off huge international pressure, including travel bans from the European Union and the United States, as well as a World Bank aid freeze and the cutting off of access to public funds by West Africa's central bank.

In an interview with French daily Le Figaro published Monday, Gbagbo said he took the ECOWAS threat seriously but was not concerned.

"It would be the first time in Africa that African states declare war against another country only because an election went awry," he said. "We are not afraid ... How far are those attacking us prepared to go?"

The African Union, which has suspended Ivory Coast, said in a statement it backed the ECOWAS mission and also announced it had appointed Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga to "follow through the situation."

Odinga was appointed in 2008 as part of a power-sharing deal that ended months of deadly election-related violence - sparked when he accused President Mwai Kibaki of stealing presidential polls.

The Kenyan premier, who recently said Gbagbo should be removed by force if necessary, said he would attempt to reason with the Ivory Coast strongman should the ECOWAS mission produce no results.

The unusually firm action by the AU, ECOWAS and individual African states on a continent used to disputed elections has surprised many observers.

Pro-Ouattara Ivorians were, however, delighted to see African bodies take responsibility in the crisis.

"I am happy with this decision. For the first time in its history, the African Union is taking significant decisions to solve a dictatorship case on the continent," Konan Adoni, a law student at Abidjan University, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Internal pressure is also still being applied, although people are being more careful since pro-Gbagbo forces opened fire on protesters.

The economic capital Abidjan was in slow motion Tuesday after many transport workers answered a call by pro-Ouattara parties to strike. Few shops were open and, either due to the lack of public transport and fears over security.

One United Nations peacekeeper was wounded and a vehicle burnt after a convoy of three vehicles of the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) was attacked by a crowd on Tuesday in the Abidjan neighborhood of Yopougon.

Gbagbo is still firmly embedded in office and the military, which the UN accuses of extrajudicial killings and abductions, remains in control of Abidjan.

Ouattara is trying to run an alternative government from the UN-protected Golf Hotel in Abidjan, but Gbagbo holds all the instruments of power.

Last month's elections were aimed at healing the divisions left over from a 2002 civil war that split the country into the mainly Muslim north, which backs Ouattara, and Christian south, where Gbagbo holds sway.

However, the polls only highlighted north-south divisions after a Gbagbo ally on the constitutional council overturned electoral commission results handing victory to Ouattara.

According to the United Nations refugee agency UNCHR, over 15,000 Ivorians have fled the country, fearing a return to civil war.