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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Moroccan police disperse opposition protest

By REUTERS
May 15, 2011

RABAT: Moroccan security services used truncheons to disperse a pro-democracy protest on the southern outskirts of the capital Rabat on Sunday, injuring several people, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

Dozens of protesters belonging to the February 20 anti-government movement were attempting to hold a protest picnic in front of what they allege is a secret government detention center where Islamists are held.

Anti-riot police chased the protesters before the rally could begin, beating some with long rubber truncheons. A Reuters reporter said one man had been hit on the nose and a woman was hit in the stomach. There was no word on arrests.

“This is the latest in a series of violent interventions by the security forces which shows that the authorities no longer tolerate the group’s peaceful protest,” said Nizar Benmate of the February 20 movement.

The government’s chief spokesman, Khalid Naciri, was quoted as saying by the private Atlantic radio station that the protest was broken up because it had been banned.

He also denied there was a secret detention facility in the vicinity, saying the building singled out by the protesters was a local government administrative office.

Moroccan officials deny allegations from opposition groups and some human rights campaigners that they run secret detention centers and say all detainees are treated in strict accordance with the law.

The authorities had announced on Saturday that the protest on the outskirts of Rabat was banned. Another protest set for Sunday evening in Morocco’s commercial capital, Casablanca, has also been banned.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article405579.ece.

Syria condemns Israel shooting at border demos

By REUTERS
May 15, 2011

BEIRUT: Syria condemned on Sunday Israel’s “criminal activities” in the Golan Heights, the Palestinian territories and southern Lebanon where Israeli forces had fired to disperse pro-Palestinian protests.

Israeli troops shot at protesters in three separate locations to prevent crowds from crossing Israeli frontier lines, leaving at least eight dead and dozens wounded.

State news agency SANA quoted the foreign ministry as saying it called on the international community to hold Israel responsible for the incidents, the deadliest such confrontation along the borders in years.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article405587.ece.

Hamas in Gaza: 'End Zionist project in Palestine'

By IBRAHIM BARZAK | AP
May 15, 2011

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: A Hamas leader affirmed the group’s hard-line principles in a speech to thousands of Muslim worshipers Sunday, as they commemorated the uprooting of Palestinians during the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.

Palestinians mark the occasion this year “with great hope of bringing to an end the Zionist project in Palestine,” Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, told about 10,000 people at a Gaza City mosque.

Haniyeh’s apparent reference to Israel’s destruction could prove embarrassing for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He recently reconciled with Hamas after a four-year split and is trying to market the Islamic militants to the international community as an acceptable political partner.

Marches commemorating the 1948 events, known in Arabic as “nakba,” or the “catastrophe,” were also planned in the Abbas-ruled West Bank and in Arab towns in Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out during the fighting more than six decades ago. The dispute over the fate of the refugees and their descendants, now several million people, remains at the core of the Mideast conflict.

Israeli security forces were on high alert Sunday, and the Israeli military sealed the West Bank for a day, barring Palestinians from entering Israel.

Haniyeh launched the nakba commemorations with a dawn sermon at Gaza City’s Al-Omari Mosque.

He said Palestinians have the right to resist Israeli occupation and will one day return to property they lost in 1948. “To achieve our goals in the liberation of our occupied land, we should have one leadership,” Haniyeh said, praising the recent unity deal.

As part of the that agreement, Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah movement are to share power in a transitional government until elections are held next year. The US and Europe consider Hamas a terrorist group and have said they will only deal with it if it renounces violence, recognizes Israel and honors previous peace commitments made by the Palestinians.

Haniyeh reiterated Sunday that his movement would not recognize Israel at the outset.

However, Hamas leaders are often vague or issue contradictory statements about the group’s political aims.

In recent weeks, some in the group have spoken of reconciliation with the West and a halt to armed hostilities with Israel, and even hinted at some sort of political accommodation with the Jewish state.

While Israel is not convinced, there are hopes in some Palestinian circles that the Iran-backed group could become a more accepted part of the Mideast diplomatic equation.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article405249.ece.

Scientists plan to sail robot boat on methane lake of Saturn's moon Titan

The Observer, Sunday 15 May 2011
Robin McKie, Science Editor

Open University team led by Professor John Zarnecki hopes Nasa will back project to explore chances of life beneath Titan's surface.

Space engineers are planning to build the first extraterrestrial boat. They want to launch the craft towards Titan – Saturn's largest moon – and parachute it on to the Ligeia Mare, a sea of methane and ethane on its surface.

The robot ship would sail around this extraterrestrial sea for several months, exploring its coastline and measuring the winds and waves that sweep its surface. "Waves on Titan's seas will be far larger, but much slower, than on earthly oceans, according to our calculations," said Professor John Zarnecki, of the Open University. "That suggests Titan is the best spot in the solar system for surfing. The only trouble is that the temperature there is -180C (-290F). Either way you look at it, it is clear the place is pretty cool."

The mission to Titan – the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere, of nitrogen and methane – would be the first exploration of a sea beyond Earth and could provide evidence about the possible existence of complex organic chemicals, the precursors of life.

"Methane is a gas on Earth, but because Titan is so cold it acts as a liquid there," added Zarnecki, who is working with US scientists on the construction of the Titan boat probe. "It exists as a liquid, a gas and a solid, just like water on Earth, depending on conditions in a particular area. Methane also cycles between Titan's surface and its atmosphere, just as water does on Earth. It drives the weather there."

Ultraviolet radiation from the Sun reacts with this methane, causing it to form complex hydrocarbons that slowly fall back to the surface. In short, it rains petrochemicals on Titan. Rivers of the stuff wash down valleys and form lakes and seas. Over the past seven years, these petrochemical seas have been mapped by US robot spaceship Cassini. In addition, Cassini deployed a smaller probe, called Huygens – built by the European Space Agency – which landed on Titan in 2005. Many of the instruments for that craft were built by Zarnecki and his Open University team. This experience led to a request for them to join the Titan Mare Explorer, or TiME, project that is being funded by NASA and led by Ellen Stofan, a researcher with the science organization Proxemy Research.

According to her plans, the TiME probe would be fired at Titan on a billion-mile journey across the solar system. Once it enters the moon's thick atmosphere the craft would parachute down towards the surface and then drop into the 300-mile-wide Ligeia Mare. It would then spend several months afloat on an oily sea taking measurements of waves, chemicals and other variables.

"The probe's main instrument will be a mass spectrometer, which will tell us exactly what the lake is made of. However, we also want to do things like depth-sounding," said Stofan. The instruments would be powered by a small nuclear generator, because Titan is so distant from the Sun that solar panels cannot be used to provide power for detectors or transmitters.

Titan is also thought to have an ocean of water deep underground. Complex organic chemicals, created on its surface, could be seeping down through fissures so that primitive lifeforms could have evolved in relatively warm waters beneath the moon's surface. Hence scientists' interest in studying Titan.

The TiME probe was originally selected as one of 28 missions that NASA was considering as future projects. Twenty-five of these candidate missions have now been rejected, and the Titan mission now has only two other competitors for the £300m funding that will be needed for its development and launch. The other two are a seismic monitoring station for Mars and a comet-hopping probe. Detailed plans for all three are now being worked out by scientists, and the winner will be chosen after a review in 2012. In the case of TiME, launch would be in 2016, with the ship arriving seven years later.

"When the proposal for the TiME mission went in, it had a one-in-28 chance of success," said Zarnecki. "Now NASA have shortlisted it, it has a one-in-three chance – that's getting serious. I didn't think I had a chance of returning to Titan in my career. Now that's all changed."

Source: The Guardian.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/15/saturn-titan-robot-boat-sea.

JPL Open House gives visitors excitement in explorations

LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of visitors, many of them children, went to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California for the annual open house Saturday to experience the excitement in explorations.

To many visitors, the open house is a rare opportunity to see the federally funded research and development center and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) field center, which is close to the public. JPL is managed by California Institute of Technology.

The event, themed "The Excitement in Explorations," provides visitors with the chance to share in the wonders of space through high-definition and 3-D videos, live demonstrations, interactions with scientists and engineers, and a first look at JPL's new Earth Science Center.

The Earth Science Center showcases the home planet and JPL's Earth science missions. Since it was the first time open to the public, it attracted many visitors who had to wait for over an hour to get admitted.

Visitors first passed by two touchscreens located on opposite walls of the facility that control real-time views of "Eyes on the Earth," an interactive 3-D visualization website. Visitors also had the opportunity to watch a movie in the 3-D theater, which seats up to 40 people.

Other Open House highlights include: A chance to see the most unique car in this world before it leaves Earth: The next rover bound for Mars, Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity, in the "clean room" before it is shipped to Florida for a November 2011 launch.

JPL further runs its own "reality TV show" via live-streaming webcam: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl.

The life-size rover models in a "Mars" test bed is another attraction and a perennial crowd-pleaser. Named the Robo-Dome, it is where visitors could see a pair of 700-pound robots gliding in a high-tech arena under artificial stars.

The Robo-Dome is used to simulate complex maneuvers that could be used for future space missions.

The year 2011 is an exciting year for JPL's robotic explorers. In the past twelve months, two spacecraft made close encounters of comets. This summer, the Dawn spacecraft will arrive at the giant asteroid Vesta.

In 2011, JPL will launch the Aquarius satellite studying Earth' s ocean, the Juno mission to Jupiter, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory's twin spacecraft to Earth's moon, and JPL's next-generation rover - Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity.

These explorations further aroused the curiosity of visitors to learn all about these and other projects as they toured the Laboratory.

This popular event is also an opportunity for JPL to celebrate its accomplishments with exhibits and demonstrations about the Laboratory's ongoing research and space exploration.

Many of the Lab's scientists and engineers were on hand to answer questions about how spacecraft are sent to other planets, how scientists utilize space technologies to explore Earth and how researchers are searching for planets beyond the solar system.

The Open House is a fun and educational experience for children in particular, with special hands-on activities designed for kids. Children showed special interest in lying down on the ground and let a small rover to roll over their bodies to experience the thrill of exploration.

Among the visitors was a retired man around 70s who only identified himself as Gary. He said he lived in Southern California, but it was his first time to visit JPL.

"Many times when you live close to a place, you would always think that it is close and there is chance to visit it at anytime, that explained why I came to see JPL for the first time at my age," said Gary.

He said to explore the universe needs efforts by generations after generations and in his generation, he has seen the landing by man on the Moon and the landing of rovers on the Mars. He expected to see more wonders in his life time and maybe some day the next generation will have a chance to discover life on the other planet.

To JPL and many scientists, the open house is a good chance to arouse the curiosity of younger generation in the exploration of the universe, and to many children, it is where they have their first hand-on experience on the sun, earth, moon and the universe through the exhibits and demonstrations and perhaps some of them would continue the exploration of the universe when grow up. The event, free to the public, will continue for another day on Sunday.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2011-05/15/c_13875552.htm.

German grandchildren of Nazis delve into past

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

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By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press – Sat May 14

BERLIN – Rainer Hoess was 12 years old when he found out his grandfather was one of the worst mass murderers in history.

The gardener at his boarding school, an Auschwitz survivor, beat him black and blue after hearing he was the grandson of Rudolf Hoess, commandant of the death camp synonymous with the Holocaust.

"He beat me, because he projected on me all the horror he went through," Rainer Hoess said, with a shrug and a helpless smile. "Once a Hoess, always a Hoess. Whether you're the grandfather or the grandson — guilty is guilty."

Germans have for decades confronted the Nazi era head-on, paying billions in compensation, meticulously teaching Third Reich history in school, and building memorials to victims. The conviction Thursday in Munich of retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk on charges he was a guard at the Sobibor Nazi death camp drives home how the Holocaust is still very much at the forefront of the German psyche.

But most Germans have skirted their own possible family involvement in Nazi atrocities. Now, more than 65 years after the end of Hitler's regime, an increasing number of Germans are trying to pierce the family secrets.

Some, like Hoess, have launched an obsessive solitary search. Others seek help from seminars and workshops that have sprung up across Germany to provide research guidance and psychological support.

"From the outside, the third generation has had it all — prosperity, access to education, peace and stability," said Sabine Bode, who has written books on how the Holocaust weighs on German families today. "Yet they grew up with a lot of unspoken secrets, felt the silent burdens in their families that were often paired with a lack of emotional warmth and vague anxieties."

Like others, Hoess had to overcome fierce resistance within his own family, who preferred that he "not poke around in the past." Undeterred, he spent lonely hours at archives and on the Internet researching his grandfather.

Rudolf Hoess was in charge of Auschwitz from May 1940 to November 1943. He came back to Auschwitz for a short stint in 1944, to oversee the murder of some 400,000 Hungarian Jews in the camp's gas chambers within less than two months.

The commandant lived in a luxurious mansion at Auschwitz with his wife and five children — among them Hans-Rudolf, the father of Rainer. Only 150 meters (yards) away the crematories' chimneys were blowing out the ashes of the dead day and night.

After the war, Hoess went into hiding on a farm in northern Germany; he was eventually captured and hanged in 1947, in front of his former home on the grounds of Auschwitz.

"When I investigate and read about my grandfather's crimes, it tears me apart every single time," Hoess said during a recent interview at his home in a little Black Forest village.

As a young man, he said, he tried twice to kill himself. He has suffered three heart attacks in recent years as well as asthma, which he says gets worse when he digs into his family's Nazi past.

Today, Hoess says, he no longer feels guilty, but the burden of the past weighs on him at all times.

"My grandfather was a mass murderer — something that I can only be ashamed and sad about," said the 45-year-old chef and father of two boys and two girls. "However, I do not want to close my eyes and pretend nothing ever happened, like the rest of my family still does ... I want to stop the curse that's been haunting my family ever since, for the sake of myself and that of my own children."

Hoess is no longer in contact with his father, brother, aunts and cousins, who all call him a traitor. Strangers often look at him with distrust when he tells them about his grandfather — "as if I could have inherited his evil."

Despite such reactions, descendants of Nazis — from high-ranking officials to lowly foot soldiers — are increasingly trying to find out what their families did between 1933 to 1945.

"The Nazis — the first generation — were too ashamed to talk about the crimes they committed and covered everything up. The second generation often had trouble personally confronting their Nazi parents. So now it is up to the grandchildren to lift the curses off their families," said Bode.

It was only during her university years — reading books about the Holocaust — that Ursula Boger found out her grandfather was the most dreaded torturer at Auschwitz.

"I felt numb for days after I read about what he did," recalled Boger, a shy, soft-spoken woman who lives near Freiburg in southwestern Germany. "For many years I was ashamed to tell anybody about him, but then I realized that my own silence was eating me up from inside."

Her grandfather, Wilhelm Boger, invented the so-called Boger swing at Auschwitz — an iron bar that hung on chains from the ceiling. Boger would force naked inmates to bend over the bar and beat their genitals until they fainted or died.

Boger, 41, said it took her several years of therapy and group seminars to begin to come to terms with the fact her grandfather was a monster.

"I felt guilty, even though I hadn't committed a crime myself, felt like I had to do only good things at all times to make up for his evil," she said.

Like Hoess, Boger never personally met her grandfather, who died in prison in 1977. After her father died five years ago, she found old letters from her grandfather begging to see his grandchildren in prison — something that never happened.

"It all just doesn't go together," Boger said. "He is the man who killed a little boy with an apple who came in on a transport to Auschwitz, by smashing his head against a wall until he was dead, and then picked up and ate that apple.

"At the same time, he put a picture of myself as a little girl over his bed in prison. How am I supposed to come to terms with this?"

Tanja Hetzer, a therapist in Berlin, helps clients dealing with issues related to their family's Nazi past. While there are no studies or statistics, she said, many cases indicate that descendants of families who have never dealt with their Nazi family history suffer more from depression, burnout and addiction, in particular alcoholism.

In one prominent case, Bettina Goering, the grandniece of Hermann Goering, one of the country's leading Nazis and the head of the Luftwaffe air force, said in an Israeli TV documentary that she decided to be sterilized at age 30 "because I was afraid to bear another such monster."

Some grandchildren of Nazis find a measure of catharsis in confronting the past.

Alexandra Senfft is the granddaughter of Hanns Elard Ludin, Hitler's Slovakia envoy who was involved in the deportation of almost 70,000 Jews. After Ludin was hanged in 1947, his widow raised the children in the belief their father was "a good Nazi."

In her book, "The Pain of Silence," Senfft describes how a web of lies burdened her family over decades, especially her mother, who was 14 years old when her beloved father was hanged.

"It was unbearable at times to work on this book, it brought up fears and pain, but at the same time I got a lot out of writing it all down," Senfft, a lively 49-year-old, explained during an interview at a Berlin coffee shop.

"If I had continued to remain oblivious and silent about my grandfather's crimes, I would have become complicit myself, perhaps without even being aware of it."

Senfft said she also wrote the book so her children could be free of guilt and shame, and that confronting family pasts is essential for the health of German society as a whole so that history does not repeat itself.

These days Rainer Hoess lectures schoolchildren about the Nazi era and anti-Semitism. A few months ago, he visited Auschwitz for the first time and met a group of Israeli students.

That day was "probably the most difficult and intense day in my life," Hoess said, but it was also liberating because he realized that the third generation of Jews after the Holocaust did not hold him responsible. One Israeli girl even gave him a little shell with a blue Star of David painted on it, which he now wears around his neck on a black leather necklace at all times.

Hoess was embroiled in controversy in 2009 when Israeli media reported he tried to sell some of his grandfather's possessions to Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Memorial. But email correspondence seen by the AP backs up Hoess' assertion that he would have been just as willing to donate the items. Hoess eventually donated everything he owned from his grandfather — including a trunk, letters and a cigar cutter — to the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich.

Hoess acknowledges that his grandfather will probably never stop haunting him. After his visit to Auschwitz, he met Jozef Paczynski, a Polish camp survivor and the former barber of Commandant Hoess.

"Somehow, subconsciously, I was hoping that maybe he would tell me one positive story about my grandfather, something that shows that he wasn't all evil after all, that there was some goodness in him," Hoess confided.

Paczynski asked Hoess to get up and walk across the room — then told him: "You look exactly like your grandfather."

Opening of Rafah border is beginning of end of blockade

Sunday, May 15, 2011
By Jason Koutsoukis

When Fawzi Alhelou, 16, heard the news that Egypt would soon open its border with the Gaza Strip, the first thing that came to mind was the Swiss Alps.

“Ice and snow are the most faraway things from Gaza I can imagine,” Alhelou said from his home in Gaza City this week.

“I won't be going to Switzerland next week, but I like to know that if I really want to leave Gaza, even if it's just for the day, then I can.” After the Palestinian faction Hamas won control of Gaza in 2007 in a showdown with its rival Fatah, Egypt's then president, Hosni Mubarak, joined with Israel to seal Gaza's borders to try to weaken Hamas.

Now, with Mubarak out of power and Egypt months away from conducting the first round of genuine multiparty elections, the country's caretaker government has moved quickly to redefine longstanding foreign policy positions such as supporting the Gaza blockade.

The day after Egypt successfully brokered a reconciliation pact between Hamas and Fatah, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi announced that the border with Gaza would soon be re-opened permanently.

“It all started with the new government that came after the revolution,” Al-Arabi told The Washington Post this week.

“The government, which is now two months old, made it very clear from the first day that we want to open a new page with all the countries in the world.”

Al-Arabi says that in the Gaza Strip, Egypt's new priority is to alleviate the suffering of its people.

“We will provide for the needs of the people of Gaza. This is very important for us. The United Nations, the EU, they have asked us for that.”

While the Rafah border crossing appears set to open on a permanent basis, it will not necessarily provide for a free flow of Gazans across the border into Egypt. Men aged between 18 and 40 will be required to obtain a visa, a bureaucratic hurdle that can take weeks to process.

“This is not everything that we would have wanted, but it's a start,” says Ramadan Ajrami, a journalist and political commentator who lives in Rafah, at the southern end of the tiny Palestinian territory.

“For the first time in many, many years we are actually hearing senior Egyptian government officials, such as the Foreign Minister, talking in terms of the indignities being inflicted on the Palestinian people by the blockade.

“The opening of the Rafah crossing, even if it is limited to some extent, means recognition for one of the most basic human rights -- freedom of movement.”

Nearly 12 months since a Turkish-flagged flotilla tried to enter Gaza in an attempt to break the blockade -- and created world headlines when Israeli naval commandos halted the flotilla in international waters and shot dead nine Turkish activists in the process -- some analysts believe the opening of the Rafah crossing marks the beginning of the end of the blockade.

“This is post-revolutionary Egypt,” says a Palestinian rights activist, Noura Erakat, who is an adjunct professor of international human rights law at Georgetown University, Washington. “The Egyptian people ended the 30-year regime of a despot, and now the will of the people is starting to be reflected in Egyptian foreign policy.

“The Egyptian street has always been overwhelmingly in favor of Palestinian rights, they have never supported the blockade, and this decision is one very big crack in the blockade that will only widen as time passes.”

In Erakat's view, Egypt's brokering of a truce between Fatah and Hamas, in addition to its decision to open its borders with Gaza, in effect ends Egyptian collusion with Israel.

“Israel's narrative has been that the real threat to the region is Hamas, that Hamas has thwarted the peace process, but Egypt is now chipping away at that, undermining that, and leaving the government of Benjamin Netanyahu increasingly isolated.”

As far as Israel is concerned, opening Rafah without proper international supervision would violate a signed agreement between Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority and may be illegal.

As for the general direction being taken by Egypt in the wake of Mubarak's fall, Israeli politicians and security analysts are starting to feel anxious.

“The Egypt we knew until the civilian uprising is disintegrating,” wrote the commentator Alex Fishman in a recent column in Israel's biggest-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

While much of the Western world welcomed the tumultuous events in Tahrir Square, Cairo, in January that eventually forced Mubarak from office, Fishman seemed to speak for many Israelis as he lamented the apparently weak hand of the Egyptian military leadership.

“This is happening because the military leadership is unwilling to confront, on any subject, the Egyptian public. It is willing to reach understandings with the Muslim Brotherhood, it surrenders to the whims of the young people in the square, it grovels to the middle class.”

Jason Koutsoukis is Middle East correspondent at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He has been based in the region since May 2008.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

Source: Tehran Times.
Link: http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=240708.

Afghanistan likely to be given observer status in SCO

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

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May 14, 2011
Vladimir Radyuhin

Afghanistan may join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an observer at the group’s 10th jubilee summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, next month, Russia’s Foreign Minister said.

The SCO will also consider the applications of India and Pakistan to join the organization as full members, Mr. Sergei Lavrov said.

India and Pakistan currently have observer status in the SCO along with Iran and Mongolia. The regional security group has six permanent members – China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

“A few days ago Afghanistan submitted a request to grant it observer status. The request will be considered at the upcoming summit,” Mr. Lavrov told reporters after a meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers in Almaty on Saturday.

The SCO summit in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, on June 15 will approve the organization's anti-drugs strategy for 2011-2016, Mr. Lavrov said.

He revealed that the SCO Foreign Ministers approved final criteria for admission of new members that are expected to be endorsed at the SCO summit in Astana. He said India and Pakistan had both submitted formal applications for upgrading their observer status to full membership. Until recently only Pakistan was known to have made the request.

Mr. Lavrov’s remarks suggested however, that while Afghanistan’s request may be granted at the SCO summit, formal admission of India and Pakistan as new members may not be on the cards yet.

The SCO decision to lift its six-year moratorium on admission of new members appears to be linked to the worsening situation in Afghanistan and the coming drawdown of the U.S.-led coalition forces from the country.

“In our view, the situation in Afghanistan will keep tension high in the region, remaining a source of terror, extremism and illegal trafficking of drugs and weapons,” Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Yerzgan Kazykhanov was quoted as stating at the SCO ministerial meeting on Saturday.

The killing of Osama bin Laden may trigger a “new wave of terror” in the region, he said.

Source: The Hindu.
Link: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2019243.ece.

India emerging out of shadows in Afghanistan as Pakistan stumbles

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

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Tejinder Singh
May 14, 2011

India the silent operator in Afghanistan started emerging out of the shadows in Afghanistan as the veiled connections of Pakistani players to terror outfits become clear according to developments of the past weeks.

Commenting on the recently concluded visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Afghanistan, the United States on Friday welcomed Indian role saying, “India can play a constructive role in Afghanistan and in the region, and we would certainly welcome their involvement.”

On the question of if the U.S. - India equation is changing especially in Afghanistan, the State Department spokesman Mark Toner told journalists, “We talk about Afghanistan with India and – as well as other regional issues. Our bilateral relationship with India is quite close and robust,” adding, “We recognize India’s role in the region and are frankly encouraged by it playing a more active and constructive role.”

During a visit to Kabul on May 12-13, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh got a rare privilege to address a joint session of the Afghan parliament, just over a week after al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. commandos in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.

In his address a sign of the deepening links between the two countries, Singh told Afghan lawmakers, "Terrorism and extremism are alien ideas to our people. They only bring death and destruction in their wake."

Singh reiterated commitment to fight terrorism in the region, saying: "We cannot and must not allow the flames of extremism and terrorism to be fanned once again."

Commenting on the ongoing attempts to make a peace deal with Taliban, Singh said, "India will respect the choices you make," adding, "Our only interest is to see a stable, peaceful and independent Afghanistan living in peace with its neighbors."

On Thursday, Singh pledged an additional $500 million in aid to Afghanistan, on top of $1.5 billion already promised to the war ravaged country.

President Barack Obama had spoken to Prime Minister Singh before his visit “to discuss the successful American action against Osama Bin Laden and to review progress in implementing the initiatives launched during the President’s November 2010 visit to India,” according to a White House communique.

“The two leaders also discussed global and regional issues of mutual concern,” the White House said.

On the other hand, Islamabad was struggling to keep domestic pro-Islamic voices in check while trying to keep pace with American acceleration on global war on terror.

The upcoming Chicago trial of David Headley aka Daood Gilani and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the two Pakistanis who allegedly planned and conducted the Mumbai sanguinary terror attacks is becoming a headache for Pakistan and the U.S. as well as those two are implicating the Pakistani government and its intelligence agency ISI in the ghastly attack that killed six Americans and scores of Indians.

In the court documents emerging prior to the trial, Rana was cited as saying that his acts of providing material support to terrorists in the Mumbai attacks as alleged by U.S. prosecutors ''were done at the behest of the Pakistani government and the ISI, not the Lashkar (e-Taiba) terrorist organization.''

In addition, Rana invoked his friend and fellow conspirator Headley's Grand Jury testimony in which the latter too implicates ISI.

A U.S. official familiar with the ongoing case, on condition of anonymity told AHN, “The U.S. will definitely try to keep as much of the upcoming hearing classified to do damage control against ISI but definitely the cat is out of the bag,” adding, “It is only a matter of time as the U.S. foreign policy shifts from Pakistan-oriented to India-loving.”

Source: All Headline News (AHN).
Link: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90048402?India%20emerging%20out%20of%20shadows%20in%20Afghanistan%20as%20Pakistan%20stumbles.

Sharif wants parliament to scrutinize security spending

2011-05-14

LAHORE – Budget allocations for the army and spy agencies should be presented to parliament, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif said at a May 14 news conference in Lahore.

The security agencies should work within the limits fixed by the constitution and the parliament, he added.

Sharif said parliament, not the spy agencies, should formulate the foreign policy of the country.

Source: Central Asia Online.
Link: http://centralasiaonline.com/cocoon/caii/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/caii/newsbriefs/2011/05/14/newsbrief-02.

Turkish instructors teach Kyrgyz military

By Bakyt Ibraimov
2011-05-14

BISHKEK – The Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense and Emergency Situations Ministry held military exercises in Osh Oblast’s Tatyr Gorge May 12, Defense Ministry press-secretary Aizada Igibayeva told Central Asia Online.

The training exercise is being held April 18-May 29 and more than 50 Kyrgyz officials participate. Turkish military instructors have been called in to teach them new techniques.

Igibayeva said such training is being held regularly within the agreement between the two countries’ defense ministries.

Source: Central Asia Online.
Link: http://centralasiaonline.com/cocoon/caii/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/caii/newsbriefs/2011/05/14/newsbrief-09.

Three Iranian ministers removed amid president's plan to merge ministries

TEHRAN, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's oil minister was removed along with two other ministers on Saturday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad amid a plan to merge some ministries of the country, an information officer from the Oil Ministry told Xinhua.

In three separate decrees on Saturday, Ahmadinejad dismissed Welfare and Social Security Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian and Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi from their posts according to the 53rd article of the country's Fifth Five-Year Development Plan, the English language satellite Press TV reported.

The Iranian president expressed gratitude to the ministers for their "honest efforts and services which had an influential role in the successes of the government," said the report.

According to 53rd article of Iran's Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015), the Iranian government is obliged to reduce its ministries form 21 to 17 to officially improve the efficiency of state administration.

Last Monday, the cabinet ministers announced Ahmadinejad government's downsizing plan to merge ministries of Roads and Transportation with Housing and Urban Development, Energy with Oil, Industries and Mines with Commerce, and Welfare and Social Security with Labor and Social Affairs.

The Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani disagreed on Tuesday with the government plan to merge ministries and warned against "heavy costs" of the plan.

Calling for an end to the "illegal" move of merge of ministries, Larijani said the plan should first be approved by the Majlis.

The government's decision to merge ministries before the Majlis endorsement would be costly and should be stopped, Larijani was quoted as saying by Press TV.

"If the Iranian government communicated an approval on the merger of eight ministries, it has acted against the law," said the speaker.

In response to Larijani's comments, Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad-Reza Mir-Tajeddini said that the government acted legally and in accordance with the country's Fifth Five-Year Development Plan.

"The government decided based on the plan and communicated it to the ministers. It also sent the plan to the Majlis to ensure its conformity with law," Mir-Tajeddini was quoted as saying by Press TV.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/15/c_13875091.htm.

Iranian Parliament Speaker to Visit Indonesia in June

2011-05-14

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani is due to pay an official visit to the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta in early June.

The trip will take place at the official invitation of Indonesian Parliament Speaker Agung Laksono.

During the trip, the Iranian speaker is scheduled to attend meetings with senior Indonesian officials, including Laksono, to discuss bilateral ties and other issues of mutual interest.

Indonesia, which currently holds presidency of the Asia-Pacific section at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), is due to deliver presidency to Iran next spring.

Iranian and Indonesian officials have on many occasions stressed their resolve to expand bilateral relations and mutual cooperation in different fields.

Last June Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Iranian Envoy to Jakarta Mahmoud Farazandeh explored avenues for developing bilateral relations between the two Asian countries in all the various fields.

Source: FARS News Agency (FNA).
Link: http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9002241678.

Iran threatens to let heroin, opium be trafficked to Europe if West keeps up criticism

By Ali Akbar Dareini, The Associated Press – May 14, 2011

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran threatened Saturday to allow the transit of illegal drugs through its territory to Europe if the West continues to criticize the Islamic nation for its practice of executing drug traffickers.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, said Iran was sacrificing blood in fighting drug trafficking and suggested it is unfair that it is then condemned by the West for executing smugglers.

"Westerners have to either be Iran's partner in the fight against drug traffickers or we must think otherwise and, for instance, allow the transit" of drugs across Iranian territory, Larijani said in a comment posted on the judiciary's website Saturday.

He said such a move would reduce the number of overall executions in Iran by 74 per cent, "but the way will be paved for the smuggling of narcotics to Europe."

U.N. officials have in the past warned that a "heroin tsunami" could hit Europe if the drug interdiction by Iran is weakened.

Iran says it has lost more than 3,700 troops in the fight against drug traffickers and 11,000 more have been injured to date since 1979, when the Islamic Revolution brought hard-line clerics to power.

"Unfortunately, Western countries not only provide no assistance to Iran in the fight against drug trafficking, they condemn us every year for punishing drug smugglers," Larijani said.

Iran has also called on Europe to offer financial support to its fight against trafficking.

Iran lies along a major drug route between Afghanistan — which accounts for more than 90 per cent of the world's illicit opium and heroin production — and Europe.

Iranian authorities have taken several steps to stop trafficking, including the building of dikes and trenches along large portions of its roughly 560-mile (900-kilometer) border with Afghanistan. Officials also seize more than three tons of narcotics each day, according to official statistics.

Copyright © 2011 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Iran militia trains for anti-regime protests: report

May 14, 2011

TEHRAN — Thousands of Islamic militiamen loyal to Iran's rulers have staged exercises for deployment against protesters in the event of any anti-regime demonstrations, a reformist daily reported on Saturday.

Around 3,000 members of the Basij militia on Friday held mock "street battles using the experience of events" that followed Iran's contested 2009 presidential election, Arman newspaper said, quoting a Revolutionary Guards commander.

Some of them were "injured" during the exercises which pitted militiamen "playing the role of seditionists (reformist opposition protesters)" against special units.

The commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani, told the units taking part in the exercises that the Islamic republic remained "vulnerable" to domestic "sedition."

The term "sedition" is used by the regime to refer to an opposition movement, led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, that was shaped after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.

Mousavi and Karroubi, once among the ranking elites of the regime, lost to Ahmadinejad in the poll, which they said was rigged heavily to assure him a second term.

Their opposition to Ahmadinejad sparked a large wave of unrest in the Islamic republic, plunging the regime into one of its worst political crises, and dividing the nation's elite Shiite clergy.

The protests left dozens dead while thousands, including many close to the opposition as well as journalists, were arrested and sometimes sentenced to heavy prison terms.

"They are still conspiring (this year) and the sedition will continue," General Hamedani warned.

"The danger remains, and we must be careful about the Satan inside. On the front of domestic sedition, we are vulnerable," he said, according to Arman.

The Basij forces, dependent on the Revolutionary Guards, is estimated to have several million members, although the number of its active members are unknown.

Western experts believe nearly 100,000 of Basij forces, in cooperation with Revolutionary Guards, are trained to intervene on anti-regime riots.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

Hamas, Fatah delegates to hold talks in Cairo

RAMALLAH, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Delegations from Hamas and Fatah, the major Palestinian factions, are heading for Cairo Saturday to hold the first high-level meeting after they signed an agreement of reconciliation earlier this month.

The meeting will focus on the formation of the technocratic unity government according to the Egyptian-brokered deal the two rivals signed, an official from Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told Xinhua.

Fatah will try to persuade Hamas to accept Salam Fayyad, the head of the West Bank-based government, to lead the new government that will also rule the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua.

Fayyad, the western-educated economist, enjoys an international credibility and may succeed to reduce the level of isolation on the government that would be formed with Hamas.

The new agreement allows President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, based in the West Bank, to enter in alliance with Islamic Hamas movement, which the United States and most of European countries classify it as a terrorist group.

Meanwhile, the PLO official said that Hamas "delivered positive signals" about nominating Fayyad for the upcoming government.

The official expected that Hamas and Fatah will agree on the new government and its members by Monday.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/14/c_13874962.htm.

Greece to send humanitarian aid to Benghazi

14/05/2011

Greece will send a humanitarian aid ship to Libyan rebel's stronghold of Benghazi, Greek Foreign Minister, Dimitris Droutsas said on Saturday.

"Next week Greece will provide a ship that will carry humanitarian aid for Libyan rebels as well as the mobile hospital. Greek diplomats will accompany the mission and will provide communication with insurgents," Droutsas said after the talks with the UN special envoy on Libya, Abdelilah al-Khatib, who is leaving for Tripoli on Sunday.

Greece has already closed its embassy in Tripoli on security concerns, but has yet broken diplomatic ties with Libyan government.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya on March 17, paving the way for a military operation against embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi which began two days later.

Greece was among those supported the military intervention to Libya and provided the NATO allies with the airports and military base, but did not take part in the operation itself.

ATHENS, May 14 (RIA Novosti)

Source: RIA Novosti.
Link: http://en.rian.ru/world/20110514/164029405.html.

Gulf press mostly welcomes Jordan's, Morocco's GCC bids

By Khaled Neimat

AMMAN - During the past few days, most Arabic media outlets in the Gulf states expressed satisfaction with the Gulf countries' welcoming Jordan’s and Morocco’s request to join the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Few were less positive.

The move [accepting the two countries in the grouping] will strengthen the GCC status, making it "a significant political, security and economic bloc", wrote Saudi daily Al Jazirah in its editorial "Al Jazirah opinion" one day after the GCC announcement on Tuesday.

"Leaders of the Gulf countries are contemplating a very important addition to further strengthen the council," the daily further said.

In the same article, Al Jazirah focused on the similar social and political structures Jordan and the Gulf states have, viewing them as a recipe for success. Including two major Arab countries in the GCC, the paper said, is bound to promote Arab solidarity.

Columnist Yousef Kawalit, who writes for the Saudi Arabic newspaper Al Riyadh, was positive vis-à-vis the idea of including Jordan and Morocco in the GCC.

Referring to the Gulf countries’ Tuesday announcement, he said "what is happening is promising, and serious work will develop in phases. Each day, we will gain new angles that will put us on the right track".

In Qatar, the daily Al Arab adopted the attitude and optimism the Saudi newspapers had, focusing on the economic gains to be had if the step to take Jordan and Morocco in the GCC fold is taken.

The newspaper reported reactions by business leaders, quoting some as saying that new economic prospects accompany the inclusion of Jordan and Morocco in the GCC.

The daily Al Arab quoted Qatari businessman Yousef Kawari as saying the decision is smart and in line with the Gulf countries’ interests.

"Facilitating Jordan's membership in the Gulf countries’ bloc would be due to its geographical link with Saudi Arabia, the largest Gulf state. The close geographical location will make it easier to include Jordan," Kawari said.

On the other hand, the Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas highlighted the reasons behind the Gulf countries’ desire to include Jordan and Morocco in their midst, saying that the Gulf states want "to protect similar political systems after the vacuum created by the absence of Egypt and the Iranian interference in the region".

The daily expressed fear that the move will end up in failure, saying: "The step, if completed, will reflect in a negative way on the Arab League, and we do not rule out that it is just the beginning of the end of the Arab League."

Columnist Jasim Budy, who works for Al Qabas, wrote an article titled "Beginning of the GCC end", claiming that expanding the GCC will lead to the same end other Arab countries’ blocs, including the Arab Maghreb Union and the Arab Cooperation Council, had.

Based on previous experience, Budy said he feared what he described as "the disappearance and collapse of the GCC" as a result of the decision to expand its membership.

Meanwhile, the Saudi daily Al Yawm welcomed Jordan’s and Morocco’s joining the GCC.

The daily described the GCC announcement as a call for in-depth dialogue with Jordan and Morocco to ascertain benefits and commitments, adding that this first step will help find out if the two countries can meet the GCC requirements, particularly in their political and economic dimensions.

15 May 2011

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=37478.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Dwarf planet carries shiny coat of ice

MADRID, May 13 (UPI) -- The solar system's fifth dwarf planet, Haumea, and at least two of its satellites are covered in crystalline water-ice, European astronomers say.

The tiny planet, shaped more or less like a rugby ball and about 1,200 miles long, moves beyond the orbit of Neptune.

It rotates on its axis every 4 hours, giving it one of the fastest rotation speeds in the solar system, a release from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology said Thursday.

The frozen water that covers Haumea and its two satellites, Hi'iaka and Namaka, makes them shine in the darkness of space, astronomers say.

Scientists say they believe the two satellites could have been created by another object smashing into Haumea, which could also have started the rapid rotation of the dwarf planet and given it its soccer ball shape.

Haumea is the fifth dwarf planet in the solar system along with Pluto, Ceres, Eris and Makemake. Its existence was confirmed in 2005.

In Hawaiian mythology, Haumea is the goddess of fertility and birth, and Hi'iaka and Namaka are two of her daughters.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/13/Dwarf-planet-carries-shiny-coat-of-ice/UPI-45941305335625/.

Israel plans big boost for spy satellites

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 13 (UPI) -- Israel has disclosed that a large, but unspecified, chunk of the funding for its upcoming multiyear defense plan will go to launching spy satellites to provide round-the-clock real-time surveillance of Iran and other "areas of interest."

The air force, which has been responsible for all launches from Israel, says there are six "observational satellites" in orbit, four owned by the state and two privately owned craft.

These provide imagery and other data to the military's Intelligence Corps, which has operational control of the satellites once they're in orbit.

Only one of the six satellites, the high-resolution TecSar 1, which carries an advanced imaging system called Synthetic Aperture Radar, is able to transmit images at night and in bad weather.

But even TecSar, built by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries and launched from India in January 2008 amid considerable secrecy, is only able to observe "areas of interest" every 90 minutes.

The defense establishment wants more low-orbit satellites, with advanced surveillance equipment, in space providing constant coverage of target areas, such as Iran or Syria.

"Our dream, of course, is up-to-date video images of these areas," the commander of the air force's satellite and space unit, an unidentified colonel, told The Jerusalem Post.

"But in practice, the fact that we have a satellite that provides us with dozens of frames from an expanse of targets is an extremely valuable asset."

The other satellites in orbit include three from the Ofek series also built by IAI -- 5, 7 and 9, which was launched in June 2010 -- and the Eros A and B commercial satellites.

However, the military didn't mention the 660-pound Risat-2 satellite launched by India April 20, 2009, carrying IAI sensors to which the Israelis no doubt have access.

Risat-2, a radar-imaging craft with multi-spectral aperture radar, was built specifically for military surveillance with Israeli cooperation following the November 2008 Mumbai massacre by Islamist gunmen.

The Indian launches are vital for Israel. Due to the Jewish state's geographical location, it is only able to launch intelligence-gathering satellites westward against the Earth's rotation.

That limits the range of orbits over Iran. Launching from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in southeastern India means that Israel can launch eastward, adding another dimension to its surveillance of Iran.

IAI, flagship of Israel's defense industry, is the lead contractor in military space projects, while the main subcontractors are Elta, Rafael, Elbit Systems' El-Op, Israel Military Industries, Tadiran, Elisra and Specterlink.

Under the defense plan now being formulated, Rafael is believed to be working on technology to enable spy satellites to be launched from Boeing F-15 fighter jet.

"The air force would like to fire a number of satellites weighing (220 pounds) that will cover the field of battle," said Haim Eshed, director of the Defense Ministry's space program.

This will be part of an ambitious plan presented to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a defense hawk, in August 2010 by Eshed and Menachem Greenblum, director general of the Science and Technology Ministry.

"We have the assets but we're not marketing them," Eshed told The Jerusalem Post at the time.

He said Israel's specialty was producing "mini satellites" like the 650-pound Ofek-9, in contrast to the much larger craft weighing several tons operated by the United States and Russia.

Eshed and his colleagues see Israel's satellite business as a major export earner. Despite Israel's advanced technology, space platform sales have earned $2.5 billion over the last two decades.

Yet the global space market is worth $250 billion a year and he reckons Israel could get at least 5 percent of that.

If Netanyahu's government approves the new defense plan and boosts Israel's space industry, it might be able to move closer to that objective.

The plan envisions stepped-up exports by 2015, although state-of-the-art payloads and platforms used in operational satellites are not likely to be up for sale.

Israel is already in talks with several countries and defense companies about possible collaboration on satellite ventures. IAI is reported to be looking to work with Northrop Grumman of the United States to produce and market mini-satellites.

The next major step for Israel's satellite industry is launching Opsat 3000, which will have much more powerful sensors than the Ofek series.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/05/13/Israel-plans-big-boost-for-spy-satellites/UPI-23251305305923/.

Top German MP warns S. Arabia of 'playing with fire' in Bahrain

2011/05/14

The chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the German parliament, Ruprecht Polenz, warned Saudi Arabia of 'playing with fire' in Bahrain by sparking a confessional conflict in the small Persian Gulf kingdom.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the German parliament, Ruprecht Polenz, warned Saudi Arabia of 'playing with fire' in Bahrain by sparking a confessional conflict in the small Persian Gulf kingdom.

Polenz told foreign journalists in Berlin on Thursday that the political, social and economic conflict in Bahrain should not be turned into a religious strife by Saudi Arabia which continues to occupy its neighbor.

He urged the Bahraini leadership to 'address the political, economic and social questions' in its country in a bid 'to avoid a confessional conflict.'

The Christian Democratic lawmaker assessed the overall situation in Bahrain as 'volatile,' saying the conflict in the Arab country could spill across its borders.

Dozens of Bahraini protesters have been killed in government crackdowns which included also the use of live ammunition, human rights activists say.

Hundreds of people had been arrested, and hundreds more were fired from their jobs for participating in pro-democracy demonstrations against the Bahraini regime which began in mid-February.

Violence escalated further after Saudi troops were deployed in Bahrain and a state of emergency was declared to help quell the unrest.

Source: Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA).
Link: http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=241401.

Israeli army burns Jordan Valley grazing fields

14-05-2011

Al Qassam website- Jericho- The Israeli army has burnt hundreds of dunums of rangeland in the Jordan Valley during military training exercises in the area.

Military training in the Malih area in the northern Jordan Valley led to the burning of hundreds of dunums of pastoral land, locals reported, adding that the military used heavy equipment and fired several artillery shells.

Separately, Palestinian farmers in the region have reported that local settlers let loose herds of wild pigs to get rid of the remaining pastoral and agricultural land in the area.

The Israeli army has declared the vast Jordan valley a closed military zone. The valley is home to some 15,000 Bedouin Arabs.

In a separate incident on Friday morning, the Israeli army fired indiscriminately east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, amid excavations and land leveling works.

Five military vehicles infiltrated 300 meters east of Al-Qarara and began combing and excavating area amid heavy fire from automatic weapons without report of injury.

Source: Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades - Information Office.
Link: http://qassam.ps/news-4522-Israeli_army_burns_Jordan_Valley_grazing_fields.html.

Indonesia: Govt bans celebrations of Israel's independence

14-05-2011

Al Qassam/Agencies- Jakarta- Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa says the Indonesian government will halt any attempt to celebrate Israel’s independence day, because Indonesia does not officially recognize the state of Israel.

“Our policy on this has been crystal clear — that we will recognize the existence of [the state of] Israel only if it acknowledges [the state of] Palestine,” Marty said Thursday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Earlier, the website eramuslim.com published a story that a Jewish community in Indonesia had planned to organize a local celebration of Israel’s independence day.

The site did not provide details of the location or date of the event.

Source: Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades - Information Office.
Link: http://qassam.ps/news-4523-Indonesia_Govt_bans_celebrations_of_Israels_independence.html.

Thousands protest for Palestinian right of return

May 13, 2011

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Thousands rallied in support of Palestinians on Friday, with demonstrators in Jordan's capital heeding a call by Facebook organizers to demand a sovereign Palestinian state, others near the Jordanian-Israeli border chanting "Death to Israel," and still more activists filling Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Palestinian youth groups called for protests in the West Bank and nearby Arab countries to mark the anniversary of the May 15, 1948, creation of the Jewish state. Palestinians call the anniversary the "day of catastrophe" because of the refugee crisis and loss of land that accompanied the creation of Israel.

About 500 protesters, demanding a sovereign Palestinian state and the right of refugees to return home, marched in Amman's downtown market district, some wearing Palestinian black and white kefiyahs or headscarves and holding keys to family homes left behind.

In Cairo, thousands rallied, beginning a Facebook-generated campaign aimed at marching on the borders of the Palestinian territories.

Egypt's powerful Muslim Brotherhood backed Friday's demonstration but did not favor a march to the borders. On Thursday, Egypt's ruling Military Council called on organizers to cancel the march. A few protesters who drove to North Sinai to reach the Gaza border said they were turned back by authorities.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations are not unusual in Jordan or Egypt, but marches solicited on Facebook are. Organizers are apparently inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and other Arab countries that were heavily dependent on mobilization through social network sites.

In Cairo, where the protest was also called to denounce recent Muslim-Christian violence, Palestinian flags filled the square.

"Egypt is Palestine. All Arab nations are Egypt," said Ola Adel, a 20-year-old law student. "This protest is not about forming an army and heading to Gaza. It is about pressuring our officials to support the Palestinians demands."

The slogans reflected changes in the political climate, including the ousting of long-term leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and efforts by the Palestinians to get the United Nations to recognize their independence. "1948 and 1967 are the catastrophes, but 2011 is the Revolution of the Return," some of the protesters' signs read.

"We want to tell the world that Palestine and its refugees are not to be forgotten," said 21-year-old Amman dentistry student Omar Hassan, whose family hails from Bethlehem in the West Bank.

In the Jordan Valley near the Israeli border, nearly 5,000 Jordanians gathered.

"Enough is enough, the Zionist enemy's 43-year occupation of the West Bank is the longest in history," shouted Hamza Mansour, the leader of the Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest opposition group.

"The occupation is a disgrace for the international community and it must end," added Mansour to loud applause from the crowd, who urged, "death to Israel."

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were displaced during the Israeli-Arab wars in 1948 and 1967, and the fate of nearly four million Palestinian refugees and their descendants is one of the thorniest issues in the Middle East conflict.

Palestinian refugees live in a number of countries in the Middle East. Jordan hosts the largest number, and the refugees and their descendants are estimated to number nearly two million.

The Palestinians have long maintained that the refugees have a moral and legal right to return to what was once Palestine — including land which is now Israel. But Israel has argued that granting the right of return would compromise the country's identity as the world's only Jewish state.

Associated Press Writers Jamal Halaby in Southern Shuneh, Jordan, and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed reporting.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Islamic Jihad to take part in local elections

Friday 13/05/2011

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Islamic Jihad will participate in local elections, but not in presidential or legislative elections, movement leader Nafeth Azzam said Thursday.

Azzam told Ma'an that Islamic Jihad would take part in National Council elections, as it included Palestinians from the occupied territories and abroad, and the council was not involved in agreements signed with Israel.

Islamic Jihad would also participate in local elections, as they were important to provide services to people and were not related to any agreements signed with Israel.

However, the movement would not take part in presidential or legislative elections as they stemmed from the Oslo Accords, which the movement rejected, Azzam said.

The Jihad official said the party would join the Palestine Liberation Organization, once it was restructured and reformed.

Islamic Jihad was part of the Cairo Agreement of March 2005, in which factions agreed to form a committee of general secretaries, Executive Committee members and independent leaders to manage PLO affairs until elections were held.

Azzam said Islamic Jihad welcomed the reconciliation agreement signed last week in Cairo. The party had made huge efforts to end the internal division between Hamas and Fatah, and the West Bank and Gaza, he said.

The movement was working to enforce the reconciliation, Azzam said, adding that the next stage would be difficult due to Israel's opposition to Palestinian unity. Islamic Jihad was ready to increase efforts to remove residues of the division from the ground, the official said.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=387236.

Egypt: Islamic Jihad Militants Call on Muslims to Tolerate Coptic Christians

May 13, 2011
By johnthomas didymus

Aboud el-Zomour, ex-army officer and former leader of the Islamic Jihad who had been in prison for 30 years over his role in the assassination of the former President Anwar Sadat seems to have turned over a new leaf. He told a crowd of Muslims gathered outside a mosque in central Assyut that the Islamic Jihad has "turned the page of violence, forever and with no return," and urged the Muslim crowd at the rally to espouse tolerance for the Egyptian Copts. The group Islamic Jihad had been involved in the assassination of Anwar Sadat in the 1970s because he signed a peace treaty with Israel.

Both the Islamic Jihad and another group Gamaa Islamiyah were formed after the The Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s. The Islamic Jihad later failed in its attempt to assassinate the President Hosni Mubarak who, after escaping assassination attempt, came down heavily on militant Islamic groups, imprisoning and killing thousands of Islamic militants in Egypt. Aboud el-Zomour was imprisoned in 1981.

Al-Zamour was released by the military government in March after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. In a televised broadcast, he apologized to Egyptians for helping to usher in the Hosni Mubarak era by assassination of Anwar Sadat. He statement was not an apology for the assassination of Anwar Sadat as much as it was an apology for the fact that it helped to usher in the Hosni Mubarak era.

Both the Islamic Jihad and Gamaa Islamiyah appear anxious to be seen as Islamic parties willing to participate peacefully in the transition to the civil rule in post-Mubarak Egypt. Yet, strangely enough, a banner of Osama bin Laden was openly displayed in the rally, an action the leader of Gamaa Islamiyah, Mohamed Essam el din Derbala explains as "coincidence of timing." According to Derbala, Gamaa Islamiyah does not support Osama bin Laden's methods but he is, all the same, a hero to be honored for his role in defending Islam against both Soviet and American imperialists in Afghanistan.

Leaders of the Coptic Christian community are, however, taking El-Zomour's apparent transformation with caution, adopting a wait-and-see attitude, explaining that his change would be proven by his actions in time.

Source: God Discussion.
Link: http://www.goddiscussion.com/62533/egypt-islamic-jihad-militants-call-on-muslims-to-tolerate-coptic-christians/.

Yemen's Crisis Mounts Amid Protests, Killings

MAY 14, 2011
By TOM FINN

SAN'A, Yemen—President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejected calls to step down Friday as hundreds of thousands of protesters, backed by army defectors, demonstrated in the Arab world's poorest country and security forces killed at least three people.

Mr. Saleh's defiance came as Qatar announced it was pulling out of efforts to mediate a solution to the crisis, blaming Yemen's president for intransigence. Qatar is one of the members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which is trying to persuade Mr. Saleh to honor a prior deal to step down.

The council is fearful that Yemen's growing instability poses risks to the region and could embolden the powerful Yemeni affiliate of al Qaeda.

Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters at a Friday prayer sermon in central San'a, Mr. Saleh described protesters as "saboteurs" and advised the political opposition who are seeking his ouster to use the ballot box and "stop playing with fire."

"We will defend ourselves with all our forces and by all means," he said.

Minutes after his speech, security forces fired on a throng of protesters carrying out a burial ceremony in Ibb, a city south of San'a. A local pediatrician said three people were killed and 29 wounded in the clash, bringing the reported overall protest death toll in Yemen to more than 145 people, says Amnesty International.

Two miles north of where Mr. Saleh was addressing his supporters, an estimated half a million antigovernment protesters at San'a University staged their biggest pro-democracy rally since unrest broke out three months ago, filling a four-mile stretch of road with tents, banners and makeshift restaurants.

Raising the specter of a broader conflict, they protested under the watchful eyes of soldiers and tanks sent by Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a former Saleh confidant who has since joined the opposition.

On Wednesday, Major Ali Mohsen's forces clashed in San'a with the elite Republican Guard, a force headed by the president's son. The four-hour gun battle left at least ten protesters and one soldier dead.

The prolonged conflict is threatening to worsen Yemen's already crippled economy. Tribesmen blockading Yemen's oil- and gas-producing Marib province are creating a fuel crisis that is costing the country $3 million a day in blocked exports.

Fuel shortages mean dry parts of the country have not received water shipments and even the capital San'a is grappling with power cuts that last up to 10 hours a day. Food prices have skyrocketed and cooking gas quadrupled in a country where some 40% of the population of 23 million people live on less than $2 a day and a third face chronic hunger.

Oil and Minerals Minister Amir al-Aydarous warned on Thursday that Yemen was on the verge of an "economic disaster,"

"If the problem persists, the government will be unable to meet the minimum needs of the citizens. The situation will pose a catastrophe beyond imagination," Mr. Al-Ayradous said.

Qatar's withdrawal from the initiative is the latest chapter in weeks of steadily souring relations between Doha and San'a following a statement in March by Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr al-Thani, calling on Mr. Saleh to step down. The president responded by recalling Yemen's ambassador to Qatar and went on to accuse the oil-rich sheikhdom and its state-funded news channel, Al-Jazeera, of "funding chaos in Yemen, Egypt, Syria and throughout the Arab world."

Yemen's official news agency Saba said Friday that Mr. Saleh's party accused Qatar of siding with the protesters and welcomed its withdrawal from the talks.

Despite Qatar's withdrawal, the other council members appear committed to push their Yemeni transition plan, which is backed by the U.S. and the European Union. Council secretary-general Abdullatif al-Zayani is due to arrive in San'a on Saturday to try to resuscitate it after Mr. Saleh suddenly refused to sign the deal last week.

The accord, which was accepted by the opposition, would see Mr. Saleh surrender power within 30 days of signing the deal in exchange for immunity for prosecution for himself and his relatives. It remained unclear whether Mr. Saleh was holding out in the hope of a better deal such as a guaranteed position in a future government or whether he intended to try and ride out the popular demands for his resignation until his term ends in 2013. He has only agreed to resign as leader of the ruling party.

Yemen's youthful protesters, meanwhile, have welcomed Qatar's withdrawal and are calling on the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council to scrap the plan, which they say is merely letting the president buy more time.

"We call on the rest of our brothers in the Gulf to ditch this plan, which is acting as a fig leaf for the regime and shielding it from prosecution despite all the killings" said Adel Al-Surabi, a member of the Civil Coalition of Revolutionary youth.

Source: The Wall Street Journal.
Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576321334194576812.html.

Assad out of touch, Erdogan suggests

ANKARA, Turkey, May 13 (UPI) -- Damascus can no longer deny the Syrian people's request for democracy, the Turkish prime minister said Friday.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is facing mounting international and domestic pressure on his regime. Human rights activists put the death toll from Syrian violence at close to 850. Damascus is accused of sending the military to respond to widespread protests though the regime attributes the violence to insurgents.

Assad is said to have urged restraint and last month enacted a series of reforms meant to address protester concerns. Washington said that the escalation of violence, however, showed Assad wasn't serious about reforms.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a close ally to Assad, told American broadcaster PBS from Ankara that democratic reform movements sweeping across the Middle East are "irreversible and "indispensable requests for peace and democracy" can't be ignored.

Mark Toner, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said international pressure on Damascus means the "window is narrowing" for Assad.

European lawmakers complained this week that Assad was left off a list of individuals sanctioned by the European Union. Toner added that there were "other options" on the table.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/05/13/Assad-out-of-touch-Erdogan-suggests/UPI-24871305308197/.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Fatah, Hamas in Cairo soon for talks over forming new cabinet

by Saud Abu Ramadan, Fares Akram

GAZA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of Islamic Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party are to head to Cairo Monday for bilateral talks, sponsored by Egypt, on forming a new independent Palestinian national unity government.

Azzam el-Ahmed, Fatah delegation chief told Xinhua that his party's delegation will hold the first meeting with Hamas delegation on Monday in Cairo over forming the new cabinet and implementing the inter-reconciliation agreement reached in Egypt on May 4.

"We will discuss the practical steps and the timetables for implementing the reconciliation agreement. The priority of the implementation will be for forming the new technocrats' cabinet that will run the internal Palestinian affairs for one year until the general elections are held," said al-Ahmed.

Following around four years of internal division between Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, and Abbas's Fatah party, the two groups together with eleven minor Palestinian factions signed last week an Egyptian-drafted pact of reconciliation.

Earlier on Wednesday, local media reports quoted well-informed sources as saying that Fatah and Hamas agreed that Abbas will be the prime minister of the new cabinet, while Hamas premier Ismail Haneya and Palestinian premier in the West Bank Salam Fayyad will be his deputies.

Al-Ahmed denied the reports, adding that "such reports are inaccurate and untrue. We haven't yet discussed any details and we haven't yet agreed upon the names of those who will be in the new government." Hamas had also denied that it had agreed on Fatah on anything related to the new cabinet.

"Such an agreement is not in our considerations at all because it contradicts with the reconciliation agreement," al-Ahmed said. "Leaking such roamers on the names of the new cabinet and the mechanism of forming it aims at undermining the efforts to finalize the reconciliation."

Fatah and Hamas agreed in Cairo to form a new national unity government where its Prime Minister and all its ministers are technocrats. Despite the leaked information, Fatah leader Nabil Shaath told a local Gaza-based Radio station that there are no problems facing the formation of the government.

"The nominee to be the prime minister must be agreed upon, and this person has to be an accepted person to the Palestinians, to the Arabs and to the West," said Shaath, adding that the new government has lots of missions that will prepare for the future of the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, al-Ahmaed had earlier revealed to the Ramallah-based al-Ayyam daily on Wednesday that leaders of Hamas and Fatah party decided to hold the municipal elections in the Palestinian territories at the same time in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

El-Ahmed said that it was agreed to postpone holding the elections decided several months ago by the government of Fayyad in Ramallah. This decision came after the two movements suddenly reached an initial agreement for reconciliation in Cairo last week.

He said that it was agreed to demand the upcoming technocratic government to postpone the elections so they are held simultaneously in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The Palestinian Central Elections Commissions (CEC) said it can run the elections in July in the West Bank, but needs more time to prepare for holding them in Gaza. The CEC agreed that voting in Gaza and the West Bank at the same time is possible after July.

Meanwhile, Nafez Azzam, a senior Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza said his movement would join the municipal elections and the elections of the Palestinian National Council (PNC).

"The Islamic Jihad will not join the presidential and legislative elections because they are an outcome of Oslo peace accords that the movement still opposes," said Azzam.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/12/c_13872057.htm.

Libyan local council members express support to opposition in Qatar

May 12, 2011

Members of Libyan local councils gather in Qatar's capital Doha on Wednesday to express their "unequivocally allegiance to, and trust in" the Libyan opposition Interim Transitional National Council.

According to a statement obtained by Xinhua, the local councils representing the western, central and southern regions of Libya gathered to "counter the regime's attempts to cause division and animosity between Libyans of various regions."

They also vowed their unity and continuing struggle to build a new Libya in a two-hour meeting in Qatar, the first Arab nation to recognize the Libyan opposition Interim Transitional National Council.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7377830.html.

North Sinai local government prepares for march on Gaza

Governorate stocking up on essential supplies in preparation for a million man march on Gaza on May 15.

Ahram Online, Wednesday 11 May 2011

Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, Governor of North Sinai, told Ahram Online that the level of preparation in the governorate has been heightened in expectation of a march towards Gaza on 15 May.

People in the governorate are crowding shops and gas stations trying to stock up on rations to cover at least two weeks, because of news that a million will be marching from Egypt and other Arab countries on the 15th towards Rafah. May 15 marks the day of nakba (catastrophe), an annual day of commemoration by Palestinians of the creation of the state of Israel.

There have been rumors that the Salam Bridge will be shut down for one week. An official who preferred anonymity said that there are orders to allow Palestinians coming through Rafah to pass with passports and to allow Egyptians who are inhabitants of North Sinai to pass only with national IDs.

He added that an emergency meeting took place between all local authorities to increase the level of preparation and to ensure that basic commodities such as gas and kerosene are available in sufficient quantities, as well as medication and emergency medical supplies.

Source: Ahram.
Link: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/11843.aspx.

Fatah and Hamas leaders to head to Cairo for cabinet talks

May 11, 2011

Gaza - Leaders of Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party will head to Egypt at the weekend to begin talks on forming a new cabinet, under the terms of the reconciliation deal they signed a week ago, a Hamas official said Wednesday.

Under the reconciliation deal, the Islamist Hamas and the secular Fatah will set up an interim government of technocrats.

Salah al-Badaweel said that once the new government is formed, it will also work to rebuild the Palestinian security organizations, in addition to laying the groundwork for elections to be held next year.

'An Arab committee that includes Egyptians and other Arab officials has been formed to follow up the implementation of the reconciliation pact reached in Cairo on May 4,' he said.

The Hamas-Fatah reconciliation pact ended a four-year-long bitter, and at times violent, rift between the two largest Palestinians factions.

Although tensions between the two movements were high once Hamas defeated Fatah in the 2006 elections, the animosity peaked in June 2007, when, in a week of bloody fighting, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip after routing security officials loyal to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.

The Islamist movement took control of Palestinian Authority ministries and institutions in the salient, and Abbas responded by pulling Fatah out of a short-lived national unity government.

Ever since, a Hamas government has administered the Gaza Strip and an Abbas-appointed government has run the West Bank.

Egyptian attempts to reconcile the two rivals were unsuccessful until two weeks ago, when Hamas and Fatah representatives reached agreement on the issues dividing them.

The reconciliation agreement was signed in Cairo on May 4.

The Hamas and Fatah leaders will now meet in Cairo on Saturday.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1638451.php/Fatah-and-Hamas-leaders-to-head-to-Cairo-for-cabinet-talks.

Hamas credits foreign donations as reconstruction begins in Gaza

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

GAZA CITY — Hamas has reported the launch of a reconstruction effort in the Gaza Strip paid for by foreign donors.

Hamas reported $30 million in foreign donations for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Officials said the first stage of the program, located in the south, has begun.

"We can assure our people that the reconstruction stage has already begun practically," Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said.

In an address on May 7, Haniyeh said Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were contributing to the fund, Middle East Newsline reported. The prime minister said the Islamic regime would oversee the construction of thousands of apartment units more than two years after the end of the Hamas-Israel war in January 2009.

"The Public Works Ministry has begun to erect complete residential areas granted to residents according to specific arrangements and procedures," Haniyeh said.

In the first stage, Hamas allocated 1,800 hectares, or nearly 450 acres, in the Isra area of southern Gaza. The prime minister said Egypt and Qatar would help the project, but did not elaborate.

Saudi Arabia was also said to be helping the reconstruction program. Officials said the kingdom's Islamic Bank has pledged $137 million for infrastructure and sanitation projects in 2011.

Officials said Turkey was also contributing to the Hamas program. They said Islamist charities in Turkey, including those that sponsored the Gaza-bound flotilla in which nine people were killed by the Israel Navy in April 2010, were providing support.

Source: World Tribune.
Link: http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/me_hamas0564_05_11.asp.

Bahrain accused of beating schoolgirls

MANAMA, Bahrain, May 11 (UPI) -- Bahraini security forces have kidnapped and beaten teenage schoolgirls, alleged victims charge.

In an interview with al-Jazeera aired Wednesday, a 16-year-old girl calling herself Heba said she and three classmates were seized from their school and beaten severely while held for three days.

An officer "hit and banged me against the wall to scream," she said. "Since we did not cry out or scream, we were beaten more and more."

The government did not respond to a request for comment.

The opposition Al Wefaq party charges police have raided up to 15 girls schools, detaining, beating and threatening to rape girls as young as 12.

Meanwhile, pro-government MPs charged Wednesday that Shiite employees have been plotting for decades to sabotage the state oil company.

The Gulf Daily News reported lawmakers blamed Energy Minister Abdulhussain Mirza for lax control of Bapco.

MP Jassim al-Saeedi charged the plot has been afoot ever since Bapco began promoting into senior posts in 1980.

"Employment, promotion and training was divided among this sect, while those belonging to the other sect (Sunnis) were left out in pain despite being deserving," he said.

MP Abdulhaleem Murad charged Bapco gave bonuses to striking workers trying to overthrow the monarchy.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/11/Bahrain-accused-of-beating-schoolgirls/UPI-68151305128155/.

China Builds Up Army Capacity On India-Tibet Border

Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Cornelius Lundsgaard, The Tibet Post International

Dharamshala: The Chinese government, in case of a threat scenario with India, now has the capability of deploying more than half-a-million troops and sustaining them for over a month on the Indo-Tibetan border, also called the Line of Actual Control, according to the Indian Express. Last month a presentation was given to PM Manmohan Singh by the Indian Army, disclosing the details of Chinese army capacities and the recent build-up of infrastructure in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region.

As part of major infrastructure upgradation in Tibet and east Turkestan, China has plans to establish another 70.000 km of black-top roads, to extend the Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Golmund to Lhasa and thereon to Shigatse (close to Sikkim), to construct railways connecting Kathmandu, Myanmar, Bhutan, Pakistan and Central Asian republics as well as plans to build 11 new rail lines in Tibet and Xinjiang, which will ensure rapid deployment of troops or so called PLA.

Also included in the report was information that there are eight airfields in Tibet, including five operational ones; 18 air bases in Tibet and east Turkestan have the capability to put India under range of Sukhoi 27 aircraft.

Source: The Tibet Post.
Link: http://www.thetibetpost.com/en/news/tpi-short-takes/1683-china-builds-up-army-capacity-on-india-tibet-border.

UN agency suspends most Syria operations

May 11, 2011

JERUSALEM — The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Wednesday said it had suspended operations for 50,000 people in central and southern Syria in the face of the persistent violence sweeping the country.

A UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman said the organization had stopped providing services in a refugee camp in the central city of Homs, a hub of anti-regime protests, and had also closed down its operations in and around the southern city of Daraa.

"The unrest in Syria has led to the closure of all UNRWA services in Daraa's camp and surrounded areas, as well as Homs camp," spokesman Chris Gunness told AFP, saying the move had affected 27,000 refugees in the Daraa region and another 22,000 in Homs.

The operations affected include 17 UNRWA schools, three health centers, two community centers, a youth center and a women's center, he said.

"This is affecting up to 50,000 registered refugees and puts at risk some of the most vulnerable who rely on UNRWA services," he said.

"There are essentially two problems -- one is getting supplies from Damascus to these areas, and the second problem is that, even if we were able to get the supplies there, many people are not able to access these services because of the security situation," he said.

The spiraling unrest had also seen the "virtual closure of one of the largest UNRWA projects in Syria," he said, referring to the Engaging Youth project which aims to help young refugees get trained up and find employment.

UNRWA -- the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees -- provides help, protection and advocacy for some 475,000 refugees who are currently located in camps across Syria.

For almost two months, near-daily protests have railed against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which has responded with an iron fist in a bid to stamp out the uprising.

Since the start of the protests in mid-March, between 600 and 700 people have been killed and at least 8,000 arrested, human rights groups say.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

Tunisian police arrest Libyan transporting munitions

TUNIS | Wed May 11, 2011

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian police arrested a Libyan man in a car packed with Kalashnikov rifle cartridges on Wednesday in the south of the country, 80 km (50 miles) from the border with Libya.

A police officer at the scene also said by telephone that authorities had also arrested a second man, an Algerian, who was transporting grenades. It appeared the vehicles were traveling from Libya.

There were no further details on the separate arrests in the southern town of Bir Amir but Arab and Western officials have said that Al Qaeda could be exploiting the Libyan conflict to acquire weapons and smuggle them into other countries.

A senior security official in neighboring Algeria told Reuters last month there were signs Al Qaeda was at work to acquire surface-to-air missiles and other arms to smuggle them to a stronghold in northern Mali.

The Algerian official described a convoy of Toyota pick-up trucks which had left eastern Libya and arrived in Mali after it crossed through Chad and Niger.

In that case the trucks unloaded Russian-made RPG-7 anti-tank rocket-propelled grenades, Kalashnikov heavy machine guns, Kalashnikov rifles, explosives and ammunition.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara, Writing by Sylvia Westall; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/11/us-tunisia-libya-arrest-idUSTRE74A2OX20110511.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Algerian forces block protest by doctors, students

May 11, 2011

ALGIERS — Algerian security forces Wednesday blocked a demonstration in Algiers by some 1,500 striking doctors and students of health care in the latest clampdown on protests in the north African country.

The protesters, dressed in the white jackets of health workers, had gathered Wednesday morning at the Mustapha Bacha hospital, the largest in the Algerian capital.

However, they were blocked from leaving the hospital and marching towards the parliament or presidency by security forces, equipped with anti-riot gear and armored vehicles.

The protesters shouted demands for respect for their professions, especially after new government rules stating that students in pharmacy and dentistry would no longer be designated "doctors" when they complete their studies.

The "degrading" move will affect their salary scale, they said.

"The most important thing is not what we're called but our grade in the public salary scale which is currently closer to paramedics than doctors," said Achraf, one student spokesman who gave only his first name.

As for the doctors in various medical specialties who are on strike, their demands include a salary increase and an end to compulsory public service, which requires them to work for two to four years in remote areas of the country after finishing their studies.

Algeria's Health Minister Djamel Ould Abbes held talks with representatives of the different health sectors on Tuesday and reportedly made verbal promises of salary increases up to 70 percent and revision of health statutes.

Algeria has been shaken in recent months by protests at all levels of society and with strikes by students, doctors and auxiliary police against the cost of living and calling for reforms.

In a bid to quell discontent the government is proposing a Complimentary Finance Law to boost spending power and the small and medium sized business sector.

The legislation includes measures such as dropping VAT from household essentials such as sugar and cooking oil and a reduction in employers' charges.

It will go before the People's National Assembly before the end of the spring session.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.