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Friday, December 9, 2011

Red Cross plans $86M more in aid for Somalia

August 04, 2011 — GENEVA (AP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross announced plans Thursday to more than double its budget to feed starving Somalis, particularly thousands of children suffering from a confluence of drought, violence and internal politics.

The group says the malnutrition rate among children under the age of 5 is now above 20 percent — and climbing. At an impromptu news conference, ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger appealed to donors for 67 million Swiss francs ($86 million) to help a further 1.1 million people in famine-affected parts of "ever more desperate" Somalia, which would bring its budget for Somalia to 120 million francs this year.

He said the Geneva-based ICRC recently completed delivery of food and medical aid for 162,000 people in central and southern Somalia, the first large-scale distribution in the region since the start of the year — and "by far the largest humanitarian operation" the group is now undertaking.

The United Nations has said that tens of thousands of people have died in the drought, the worst in Somalia in 60 years, and 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, a statistic that suggests the death toll of small children will rise.

U.N. officials say they are unable to provide more precise figures because of the limited access aid workers have to large areas of the country controlled by militant groups. Kellenberger said he had no independent figures on the death toll and did not want to comment on others' statistics. When asked about U.S. estimates that the drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5, he told The Associated Press, "If that is correct, then it is extremely shocking."

Nancy Lindborg, an assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, provided the estimate to a congressional committee in Washington, based on surveys by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kellenberger said the Red Cross is talking with "drought committees" set up by al-Qaida-linked militants who control much of the country's desperate regions, but said it hasn't paid any money or made other concessions to the Al-Shabab Islamist insurgents.

Al-Shabab has denied a famine is taking place and won't give access to the World Food Program, the world's biggest provider of food aid. Kellenberger said his group's two decades of experience in Somalia helped it gain cooperation.

Tens of thousands of refugees have been fleeing south-central Somalia to get food at camps in Ethiopia, Kenya and in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. A spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency said Thursday that death rates in the world's biggest refugee camp, Dadaab, in neighboring Kenya, have also now passed emergency levels even by conservative estimates.

Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba said there are an estimated 76 deaths each day among the camp's 420,000 inhabitants, or about 1.8 per 10,000. "It's likely underreported and it's above the emergency rate" of 1 per 10,000, Lejeune-Kaba told AP.

Many refugees bury their dead outside of designated cemeteries and don't report deaths to the camp authorities, who need to collect such information for disease control purposes, she said.

Frank Jordans contributed to this report.

Turkey appoints new military commanders

August 04, 2011 — ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Thursday appointed commanders to posts left vacant by the resignation of the military's top brass in a dispute with the government that showcased the elected leaders' strengthening control over the once-mighty military.

President Abdullah Gul approved the appointment of a new chief of staff as well as new commanders to head the navy, army and air force, at the end of a key four-day meeting to discuss military promotions and dismissals, said his spokesman, Ahmet Sever. The commanders will take their posts after a final Cabinet approval, he said.

The country's military chief of staff and the leaders of the navy, army and air force stepped down last week, frustrated over the arrests and prosecution of hundreds of officers for allegedly trying to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government.

Erdogan's government adamantly opposed promoting generals implicated in the alleged coup plots, prompting the resignations of the top brass who said the officers were being punished before a court verdict and that the military was being portrayed as a "criminal" institution.

The new appointments show how the elected government is gaining the upper hand over the military, breaking with the tradition in which the military made its own decisions on promotions and dismissals within the ranks, having the government rubber-stamp the decisions.

The staunchly secular military has overthrown three governments since 1960 and pressured an Islamic-led government to step down in 1997. Gen. Necdet Ozel — the former commander of the military police force and untainted by the alleged plots — was named the new chief of staff to replace the resigned Gen. Isik Kosaner. Ozel had been made the acting chief of staff on Friday, hours after Kosaner stepped down.

The list approved by Gul sidelined 14 generals or admirals who were in line for promotion and who have been implicated in the alleged plots. Sever, Gul's spokesman, said the generals would retain current positions and that a decision on their promotions was deferred for a year.

The officers have been jailed on charges of plotting to overthrow the government in 2003. The military has denied the accusations. Also sidelined was Gen. Aslan Guner, who had earlier been tipped to become the land forces commander. He was appointed as head of the War Academy instead. Guner had angered the government for snubbing Gul's wife who wears an Islamic-style headscarf.

The new air force commander, three-star general Mehmet Erten, was swiftly given an extra star allowing him to be promoted to the position, which is held by four-star generals. Gen. Hayri Kivrikoglu was named the commander of land forces, while Adm. Emin Bilgel was made navy chief. None of them have been linked to anti-government plots.

Beijing cracks down in Uighur region

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The head of the regional Xinjiang communist party ordered a crackdown by police on suspicious activities including religious ceremonies after a weekend of deadly violence.

Kashgar, a city of 350,000 in the western part of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, and close to the border with Tajikistan, was rocked by several explosions and the killing of bystanders by two men who hijacked a truck after killing its driver.

Zhang Chunxian, secretary of Xinjiang regional committee of the Communist Party of China, ordered the crackdown at an emergency meeting in the regional capital Urumqi following the attacks.

Zhang also ordered strengthened management of explosives, a report by the state-run news agency Xinhua said. He said the violent attacks would greatly damage the region's stability.

"People in Xinjiang should stay vigilant and recognize that terrorist attackers are the common enemies of all ethnic groups," Zhang said.

Trouble began Saturday with two explosions, one in a parked van and one in a food market.

Just before midnight, two men stabbed a truck driver and then drove the vehicle into a crowd. They also attacked bystanders with knives. Six people in the crowd were killed and 28 others were hurt, police said. At least one of the attackers was killed by the crowd.

Violence again erupted Sunday when four suspects were killed by police who continued to hunt for suspects.

Kashgar city officials blamed militants from Pakistan for the violence in the region, which is predominantly Muslim and, similar to Tibet, is politically sensitive for the central government. Beijing is constantly on its guard against separatist groups it claims foment disorder in hopes of establishing an independent East Turkestan.

Around 8 million Uighur live in Xinjiang and many say they are unhappy about the large influx of Han Chinese settlers, whom the Uighurs say increasingly marginalize their interests and culture.

The Xinhua report said Kashgar city officials blamed a group of religious extremists led by militants trained in overseas terrorist camps for bomb blasts on Sunday but not the bombs and violence Saturday.

The initial investigation determined the group's leaders had learned how to make explosives and firearms in overseas camps of the militant group East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Pakistan before entering Xinjiang to organize attacks, the city government said in an online statement.

The police are offering a reward of nearly $15,400 for information that could lead to the arrests of suspects.

In mid July, an attack on a police station in Hotan in southern Xinjiang left 18 people dead. Chinese authorities blamed Uighur extremists and some of Uighur attackers who died had links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, media reported at the time.

Tensions in the region have remained high since nearly 200 people died in clashes that rocked Urumqi, the capital of the region. More than 1,700 people were injured in the July 2009 riots that stretched across several days.

Local government officials blamed the 2009 riots on unemployed Uighur migrants living in nearly 50 shantytowns across the city. Beijing also said the riots were planned abroad by the World Uighur Congress, which they say is a terrorist organization and whose president, Rebiya Kadeer, 63, who is also considered a terrorist by the Chinese.

The WUC was formed in April 2004 in Munich, Germany, as a collection of exiled Uighur groups including the Uighur American Association and the East Turkestan National Congress. Kadeer, a businesswoman and political activist, has been in exile in the United States since 2005 after 6 years imprisonment in China for allegedly leaking state secrets.

A statement on the organization's Web site, attributed to Kadeer, said the WUC "unequivocally condemns Chinese government policies that have caused another outbreak of violence in East Turkestan."

But without a substantial change to policies that discriminate against Uighurs economically, culturally and politically the prospect of stability in East Turkestan is remote, the statement said.

"I do not support violence," she said. "I am saddened that Han Chinese and Uighurs have lost their lives. At the same time, I cannot blame the Uighurs who carry out such attacks for they have been pushed to despair by Chinese policies."

ETIM is on the United Nations' and the United States' official list of terrorist organizations but there is dispute over how connected it is to al-Qaida. The Chinese government condemns it as being directly linked to al-Qaida as well as the WUC, the Center for Defense Information in Washington said.

"Although ETIM has traditionally focused on Chinese targets, it may have plans to also attack American interests," the CDI wrote in late 2002. "In May 2002, two of its members were accused of planning to bomb the U.S. Embassy in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek and were subsequently deported from Kyrgyzstan to China."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/02/Beijing-cracks-down-in-Uighur-region/UPI-60771312280220/.

Somali Famine Spreads to Three New Areas

By Christina Zhang
August 3, 2011

The United Nations announced on Wednesday that famine has now spread to three new areas in southern Somalia. Two regions in southern Somalia had already been declared a famine zone on July 20.

The situation in these three areas has exceeded the requirements to be declared a famine using the Integrated Phase Classification scale, stated Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU), the unit of the U.N. in charge of food security in Somalia.

The definition of famine includes at least 20 percent of the population having “limited access to basic food requirements,” widespread mal-nutrition of at least 30 percent, and a mortality rate of at least 2 per 10,000 people a day.

In some parts of the newly declared famine hit areas, “10 percent of children under five [are] dying every 11 weeks,” said FSNAU.

FSNAU states that it expects all of southern Somalia will be struck by the famine in the coming four to six weeks, and that the famine is “likely to persist until December 2011.”

Factors that led to the current famine in Somalia include the ongoing drought that began several months earlier, the inflation of prices for basic food products, and the difficulty in providing aid to areas, particularly in the south, controlled by al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants. In the absence of a functioning central government al-Shabab essentially controls the area and has made it very difficult for aid organizations to operate.

Another concern about the famine in southern Somalia is that without proper assistance, disease outbreaks may spike mortality rates, similar to the last Somalia famine in 1991-1992, said FSNAU.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/somali-famine-spreads-to-three-new-areas-59914.html.

Ramadan price hikes anger Mauritanians

Mounting holiday expenses are putting a heavy strain on Mauritanian families.

By Mohamed Yahya Ould Abdel Wedoud for Magharebia in Nouakchott - 03/08/11

The holy month began on Monday (August 1st), but spiking food costs are tempering celebrants' excitement about preparing Ramadan meals.

"The prices of basic items doubled in a short period without any justification, and many families became unable to bear the situation, especially with low wages," one frustrated Mauritanian shopper told Magharebia at a Nouakchott market.

"They are unable to keep up with prices and the lack of control or supervision by public authorities over the markets, leading some merchants to engage in speculation," added Zeinebou Mint Dahi, head of a household.

Most ordinary citizens are flummoxed by this spike, which affects their daily lives.

"Personally, I cannot understand the curse of the high prices that haunt Mauritanian citizens these days," civil activist Lalla Mint Mohamed. "The country is rich in wealth and exports gold, oil, iron and fish daily to the world, and with all that, we do not see or hear of any revenue. In turn, the poverty rate exceeds 70%, unemployment is approaching 50%, and prices are rising in an insane way without any logical explanation."

Traders are importing vegetables from Morocco due to the weakness of national agricultural products.

"Economic activities have been affected by several factors, including increases in fuel prices, which recently approached two dollars per liter, necessitating an increase in the prices of shipped goods," said truck driver Mohamed Ould Sayadat.

Climbing fuel costs have forced many vegetable vendors to raise the prices of their products for fear of loss. Many complain of increasing taxes and encounter difficulties in transporting and storing vegetables as well as renting shops.

Some economic experts point to the security situation as the main factor behind the low purchasing power of citizens.

"The government ended up spending a lot of money on security and the army instead of development programs and activities that benefit ordinary citizens, which contributed to higher poverty rates in general and high prices in particular," argued analyst Mohamed Moustapha.

Taxi driver Lemrabott Ould Ahmed said: "The open war on al-Qaeda should not be paid for by ordinary citizens, who are already economically exhausted".

The country needs to re-think its economic strategy, given that "poverty rates are increasing day after day amid an unprecedented decline in the purchasing power of citizens", he added.

Ould Ahmed said that price speculation especially affected poor neighborhoods in Nouakchott and the interior cities.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/08/03/feature-03.

Algiers Metro launches open houses

After more than twenty years of waiting, the planned metro system for Algiers is becoming a reality.

By Lyes Aflou for Magharebia in Algiers – 03/08/11

Managers of the new Algiers Metro are organizing a series of open houses to introduce citizens of the capital to the world of mass transit.

The Jardin d'Essai station was opened to the public last Thursday (July 28th). Another open house is planned for Fusillés station on August 4th, followed by Khelifa Boukhalfa station on August 11th and La Grande Poste station on August 18th. The series of events is in preparation for the start of Metro services on October 31th.

RATP-El Djazaïr, the company which runs the transport system, hopes the open houses will allow residents to explore stations themselves, from the electronic ticket terminals to the trains.

A huge crowd turned out for the event at Jardin d'Essai station, where people were curious to see what was there. People familiar with foreign Metro systems ventured a comparison.

"The station is beautiful. And the train with its sky-blue colors is equally nice. I think the Algiers Metro can hold its head up high alongside the European ones," declared Mourad, a doctor.

"My feeling is that today the vision has become a reality; we've actually seen the Metro; now we have to wait just a little longer before we can enjoy it to the full. We've been waiting 30 years for it," said an emotional Fatima, an advertising executive.

The Jardin d'Essai station is tiled throughout, with escalators running down to the platforms. The refined design was a real winner with the Algerians, most of whom had only seen the Metro on the television.

Others, who had experienced foreign Metro systems on their travels, were careful not to let themselves be carried away by any triumphalism. People like Mouloud, a student in Paris, said that the design wasn't particularly original.

But overall, what mattered to people is that this convenient and non-polluting method of urban transport will "help to deal with the serious transport crisis in Algiers, where traffic jams from dawn to dusk make life hell", as stressed by Ourida, a teacher.

The organizers engaged in some symbolic activities during the Metro open house, giving away T-shirts and baseball caps bearing the Metro logo to children.

The Algiers Metro is planned to run seven days a week from 5 am to 11 pm. "It will be used to its maximum capacity during the rush hour, and will carry on average up to 22,000 passengers per hour," said Pascal Garret, general director of RATP El-Djazaïr.

Starting out with one line stretching 9.5km, the Algiers Metro will initially have ten stations located in the communes of Bachdjarah, El Magharia, Hussein Dey, Sidi M'hamed and Central Algiers.

Transport Minister Amar Tou said that provisional handover would be on October 31st.

"In principle, it will be no later than the start of November, but it could equally well occur on November 1st. It all depends on who will be asked to perform the official opening," the minister said.

In the meantime, RATP El-Djazaïr will start trial runs (non-commercial operations) on September 8th, according to open house organizers.

Launched in the 1980s, work on the Algiers Metro was halted for several years. It resumed under the Economic Relaunch Support Plan (2000-2005) and the Complementary Growth Support Plan (2005-2009).

Anyone who missed the guided tour on July 28th will be able to catch up at the next few open houses. The events at the last three stations, which coincide with the month of Ramadan, will be at night, 9:30pm to 12:30am.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/08/03/feature-04.

VISTA Finds 96 Star Clusters Hidden Behind Dust

Paris (ESO)
Aug 04, 2011

Using data from the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory, an international team of astronomers has discovered 96 new open star clusters hidden by the dust in the Milky Way. These tiny and faint objects were invisible to previous surveys, but they could not escape the sensitive infrared detectors of the world's largest survey telescope, which can peer through the dust. This is the first time so many faint and small clusters have been found at once.

This result comes just one year after the start of the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea program (VVV), one of the six public surveys on the new telescope. The results will appear in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

"This discovery highlights the potential of VISTA and the VVV survey for finding star clusters, especially those hiding in dusty star-forming regions in the Milky Way's disc. VVV goes much deeper than other surveys," says Jura Borissova, lead author of the study.

The majority of stars with more than half of the mass of our Sun form in groups, called open clusters. These clusters are the building blocks of galaxies and vital for the formation and evolution of galaxies such as our own. However, stellar clusters form in very dusty regions that diffuse and absorb most of the visible light that the young stars emit, making them invisible to most sky surveys, but not to the 4.1-m infrared VISTA telescope.

"In order to trace the youngest star cluster formation we concentrated our search towards known star-forming areas. In regions that looked empty in previous visible-light surveys, the sensitive VISTA infrared detectors uncovered many new objects," adds Dante Minniti, lead scientist of the VVV survey.

By using carefully tuned computer software, the team was able to remove the foreground stars appearing in front of each cluster in order to count the genuine cluster members. Afterwards, they made visual inspections of the images to measure the cluster sizes, and for the more populous clusters they made other measurements such as distance, age, and the amount of reddening of their starlight caused by interstellar dust between them and us.

"We found that most of the clusters are very small and only have about 10-20 stars. Compared to typical open clusters, these are very faint and compact objects - the dust in front of these clusters makes them appear 10 000 to 100 million times fainter in visible light. It's no wonder they were hidden," explains Radostin Kurtev, another member of the team.

Since antiquity only 2500 open clusters have been found in the Milky Way, but astronomers estimate there might be as many as 30 000 still hiding behind the dust and gas. While bright and large open clusters are easily spotted, this is the first time that so many faint and small clusters have been found at once.

Furthermore, these new 96 open clusters could be only the tip of the iceberg. "We've just started to use more sophisticated automatic software to search for less concentrated and older clusters. I am confident that many more are coming soon," adds Borissova.

Since 2010, the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea program (VVV) has been scanning the central parts of the Milky Way and the southern plane of the galactic disc in infrared light. This program was granted a total of 1929 hours of observing time over a five year period. Via Lactea is the Latin name for the Milky Way.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/VISTA_Finds_96_Star_Clusters_Hidden_Behind_Dust_999.html.

NASA's Jupiter Probe Ready for Launch

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX)
Aug 04, 2011

NASA's Juno spacecraft is getting ready to lift off on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011. On Aug. 4, at about 5 a.m. PDT (8 a.m. EDT), the Jupiter explorer will be rolled some 1,800 feet (about 550 meters) from the 286-foot-tall (87-meter) Vertical Integration Facility, where the Atlas V rocket and Juno were mated, to its launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

"Our next move will be much farther - about 1,740 million miles [2,800 million kilometers] to Jupiter," said Jan Chodas, Juno project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The rollout completes Juno's journey on Earth, and now we're excited to be taking our first step into space."

The launch period for Juno opens Aug. 5 and extends through Aug. 26. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2016. For an Aug. 5 liftoff, the launch window opens at 8:34 a.m. PDT (11:34 a.m. EDT) and remains open through 9:43 a.m. PDT (12:43 p.m. EDT).

At Cape Canaveral, Atlas V rockets are assembled vertically on a mobile launch platform in the Vertical Integration Facility south of the pad. The mobile platform, carrying Juno and its rocket, will be rolled out to the pad using four 250-ton (227,000-kilogram) rail cars.

When launched, Juno will take almost 11 minutes to reach its temporary orbit around Earth. About 30 minutes later, the Atlas rocket's second stage will perform a second, nine-minute burn, after which Juno will be on its five-year journey to the largest planet in the solar system.

Juno Spacecraft to Carry Three Figurines to Jupiter Orbit
NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft will carry the 1.5-inch likeness of Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno to Jupiter when the spacecraft launches this Friday, Aug. 5. The inclusion of the three mini-statues, or figurines, is part of a joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In Greek and Roman mythology, Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief. From Mount Olympus, Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature. Juno holds a magnifying glass to signify her search for the truth, while her husband holds a lightning bolt.

The third LEGO crew member is Galileo Galilei, who made several important discoveries about Jupiter, including the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honor). Of course, the miniature Galileo has his telescope with him on the journey.

Juno Jupiter Mission to Carry Plaque Dedicated to Galileo
A plaque dedicated to the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei will be carried to Jupiter aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft. Among his many achievements, Galileo Galilei discovered that moons orbited Jupiter in 1610. These satellites - Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto - are also known as the Galilean moons.

The plaque, which was provided by the Italian Space Agency, measures 2.8 by 2 inches (71 by 51 millimeters), is made of flight-grade aluminum and weighs six grams (0.2 ounces).

It was bonded to Juno's propulsion bay with a spacecraft-grade epoxy. The graphic on the plaque depicts a self-portrait of Galileo.

It also includes - in Galileo's own hand - a passage he made in 1610 of observations of Jupiter, archived in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence.

Galileo's text included on the plaque reads as follows: "On the 11th it was in this formation - and the star closest to Jupiter was half the size than the other and very close to the other so that during the previous nights all of the three observed stars looked of the same dimension and among them equally afar; so that it is evident that around Jupiter there are three moving stars invisible till this time to everyone."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASAs_Jupiter_Probe_Ready_for_Launch_999.html.

Pakistani minister announces increased security measures in Karachi amid escalating violence

KARACHI, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) — Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday announced increased security measures in the port city of Karachi as nine more people were killed on the first day of Ramazan.

With the latest killings, the death toll as a result of violence in Karachi during the past two days has now reached 36. Hundreds of additional paramilitary and police forces have now been deployed in the area to boost security measures.

Malik arrived in Karachi on Wednesday and promised that security would be restored within two days, according to the Pakistan Tribune, adding that the government would not disappoint the citizens as it had decided to take firm action against the perpetrators.

“The government will no longer tolerate any violence in Karachi,” Malki was cited as saying by the Pakistan Tribune. “I promise to restore peace and control the worsening law and order in Karachi within two days.”

Along with Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan, both leaders agreed to take indiscriminate strict action against those involved in target killings.

Meanwhile, government officials announced a Rs 10 million ($115,500) reward for information leading to the arrest of people behind Karachi’s target killings, the Express Tribune reported.

Last month alone, more than 200 people were killed in Karachi. According to the independently-run Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 490 people have been killed in the year’s first semester, compared to 748 in all of 2010.

The violence and killings have been largely blamed on rival political parties MQM and Awami National Party (ANP) which represent different ethnic groups, prompting government officials to issue a ‘shoot-at-sight’ order to security forces.

On June 27, MQM parted ways with the PPP after more than three years due to a dispute over the past Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections in Karachi. MQM’s split triggered fears of violence and, last week, an opposition coalition against the ruling PPP was formed by rival parties MQM and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

MQM said that the PPP government’s “dictatorial and undemocratic” approach prompted its separation from the coalition, and the two former rival parties – PML-N and MQM – set aside their differences and decided to work together “in the best interest of the country,” as said by MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi.

MQM and PPP, led by President Asif Ali Zardari, had previously formed a coalition government in 2008. Earlier in the year, MQM, which has 25 seats in the 342-member Parliament, left the coalition, only to rejoin a few weeks later.

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19244/pakistani-minister-announces-increased-security-measures-in-karachi-amid-escalating-violence/.

Mass protest held in northwestern Sri Lanka over murder of aid worker

COLOMBO (BNO NEWS) — Residents in northwestern Sri Lanka held a mass protest on Wednesday over the murder of a prominent human rights activist whose body was found 17 months after he disappeared, the Colombo Page reported on Thursday.

The body of Pattani Razeek, the managing trustee of Community Trust Fund (CTF) and a leading member of regional non-governmental organization networks, was found on July 28 under a partially built house in the country’s Eastern Province. Razeek was abducted by an unidentified group in February 2010 in the city of Polonnaruwa in the North Central province.

The protest on Wednesday began in the town of Puttalam soon after the funeral of Pattani Razeek got underway. Shops and nearby areas were shut down while transport came to a standstill in the area due to the protest.

The United Nations human rights office on Friday had called for a swift investigation and prosecution of the killers of Razeek. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, noted that two suspects in the killing were only arrested in the past few weeks.

“The information they provided reportedly led to the body. Now that the fate of this human rights defender has been established, it is time for an investigation to establish the truth of the circumstances of this heinous crime, and for the prosecution to bring justice to the victim’s family,” she said.

Shamdasani added that there have been allegations of political interference, while CTF members and Muslim community leaders have been threatened to drop the case. She also voiced hope that there will be a breakthrough in similar cases of people who have disappeared since Sri Lanka’s civil war.

The bloody civil war between the government and the Tamil Tigers left as many as 100,000 people dead. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was militarily wiped out in May 2009, ending the 26-year-old civil war.

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19246/mass-protest-held-in-northwestern-sri-lanka-over-murder-of-aid-worker/.

US Army Selects SMSS Autonomous Vehicle for Afghanistan Deployment

Dallas, TX (SPX)
Aug 04, 2011

The U.S. Army Rapid Equipping Force, through the Robotics Technology Consortium, selected the Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT] Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) to deploy to Afghanistan for a first-of-its-kind military assessment. SMSS will deploy as the winner of the Project Workhorse Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) competition sponsored by the Army.

The largest autonomous vehicle ever to be deployed with infantry, the 11-foot-long SMSS can carry more than half-a-ton of a squad's equipment on rugged terrain, easing the individual soldier's burden, which can often exceed 100 pounds.

"SMSS is the result of more than a decade of robotic technology development, and we welcome the opportunity to demonstrate this capability in theater, where it can have an immediate impact at the squad level," said Scott Greene, vice president of ground vehicles in Lockheed Martin's Missiles and Fire Control business.

"The Army has tested the system's capabilities in three domestic user assessments, and SMSS has been deemed ready to deploy."

As part of the three-month Military Utility Assessment (MUA), four vehicles and a field service representative will support light infantry in theater as the service evaluates how autonomous vehicles can support or ease the equipment burden for deployed troops.

A fifth vehicle and an engineering team will remain in the U.S. for analysis and additional support. The Army plans to begin the Afghanistan assessment late this year, after a period of evaluations and training.

"An in-theater assessment is the next logical step in the process of informing the requirements for the Army's future squad-sized UGV developments," Greene said.

A fully-loaded SMSS is internally transportable on board CH-47 and CH-53 helicopters, providing new logistics capability to light and early-entry forces.

The SMSS Block I variant, which will be deployed, has a range of 125 miles and features three control options: supervised autonomy, tele-operation or manually driven. The SMSS sensor suite allows it to lock on and follow any person by recognizing their digital 3-D profile (captured by the onboard sensors), and it can also navigate terrain on its own following a trail of GPS waypoints.

In addition to a month-long MUA at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2009, SMSS has been selected for further evaluation as part of the Army's Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE) Spiral G in November this year.

While SMSS has already demonstrated its ability to reduce soldier loads and provide portable power, the November experiment will evaluate its ability to field a reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition mission equipment package.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_Army_Selects_SMSS_Autonomous_Vehicle_for_Afghanistan_Deployment_999.html.

Vietnam to get sub fleet in six years: state media

Hanoi (AFP)
Aug 4, 2011

Vietnam will have a submarine fleet within six years, the defense minister reportedly confirmed on Thursday, in what analysts say is intended as a deterrent to China's increasing assertiveness at sea.

Russian media reported in December 2009 that Vietnam had agreed to buy half a dozen diesel-electric submarines for about $2 billion.

"In the coming five to six years, we will have a submarine brigade with six Kilo 636-Class subs," Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh was quoted as saying by the state-controlled Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Thanh said the fleet was "definitely not meant as a menace to regional nations," according to the report.

"Buying submarines, missiles, fighter jets and other equipment is for self-defense," he was quoted as saying.

Ian Storey, a regional security analyst at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, said the submarine deal has been driven by events in the South China Sea, where China and Vietnam have a longstanding territorial spat over the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos.

Tensions rose after Vietnam in May accused Chinese marine surveillance vessels of cutting the exploration cables of an oil survey ship inside the country's exclusive economic zone.

"These purchases are designed to deter the Chinese from encroaching on Vietnamese sovereignty," Storey told AFP.

He said the country already operates two midget submarines bought years ago from North Korea.

In the newspaper report, Thanh did not specify how Vietnam was paying for its naval upgrade.

"It depends on our economic ability. Vietnam has yet to produce modern weapons and military equipment, which are costly to import," he said.

Analysts say the country's economy is in turmoil with galloping inflation, large trade and budget deficits, inefficient state spending, and other woes.

Much of Vietnam's military hardware is antiquated but this week it received the first of three new coastal patrol planes for the marine police, announced the manufacturer, Madrid-based Airbus Military.

Russian media reported last year that Vietnam ordered 12 Sukhoi Su-30MK2 warplanes in a deal worth about $1 billion.

Other nations in the region have accused China in recent months of becoming more aggressive in enforcing its claims to parts of the South China Sea.

The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to all or parts of the waters, which are potentially rich in oil and gas deposits and straddle vital commercial shipping lanes.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Vietnam_to_get_sub_fleet_in_six_years_state_media_999.html.

Somalia: U.S. Greenlights Aid to Shabaab-Controlled Areas

Lily Hough
2 August 2011

Washington — The Barack Obama administration promised Tuesday that the U.S. would not prosecute relief agencies for delivering aid to parts of Somalia controlled by the Islamist insurgent group al- Shabaab, despite concerns that unrestricted aid in the failed state would be diverted to the wrong hands.

"We have issued new guidance to allow more flexibility to provide a wider range of aid to a large number of areas in need," a senior administration official said during a conference call Tuesday with reporters. "We hope this guidance clarifies that aid workers who are partnering with us to help save lives under difficult and dangerous conditions are not in conflict with U.S. law and regulations that seek to...limit resources flowing to al- Shabaab."

Officials on the call said U.S. anti-terrorist policies will take a back seat to the 2.2 million lives now hanging in the balance in famine-stricken parts of southern Somalia, where humanitarian groups have blamed U.S. aid restrictions for hampering their efforts to provide assistance to the most desperate people.

While there have been bans in place that prevent terrorist groups from profiting from U.S. humanitarian funds and resources, the U.S. has not specifically prohibited aid to people in need in southern and central Somalia, one senior administration official clarified.

But after the U.S. State Department added al-Shabaab to its official list of terrorist organizations in 2008, humanitarian groups have complained of feeling constrained in their efforts inside Somalia due to fears that they will face legal ramifications from the U.S. Treasury for carrying out the necessary costs of doing business with al-Shabaab. The group routinely demands tax payments and transportation tolls from agencies seeking access to their territory.

Officials ameliorated those concerns in Tuesday's briefing.

"What we are mainly concerned about is creating the flexibility in all possible ways so that assistance can be provided," one official said.

In a separate briefing circulated Tuesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner explained that under the new policy, the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will be authorized to "provide grants and contracts to fund non-governmental organizations providing humanitarian assistance in Somalia, including in areas under the de facto control of al-Shabaab."

Those groups would be protected from facing prosecution "in the event their operations may accidentally benefit al-Shabaab", Toner said.

The policy shift is expected to allow more U.S. aid to be directed to the World Food Program's (WFP) operations in Somalia, which were restored last month after they suspended all operations in January 2010.

One official on the call explained that operating requirements made it impossible for successful relief efforts to be carried out in 2010 when the insecurity of the operating environment reached a new level.

"It's one of the most dangerous operating environments on the globe," that same official added, reminding reporters that 14 WFP aid workers were killed in al-Shabaab territory in 2008.

The United Nations said Tuesday that more than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa region are in need of aid and has issued an appeal for an additional 1.4 billion dollars, warning that famine is expected to extend to the entire country of Somalia by September if the international community does not rush to provide assistance.

Yet even with these newly relaxed provisions, officials said access to al-Shabaab territories will still be the greatest challenge in mitigating the crisis.

A central al-Shabaab spokesperson said on Jul. 14 that they would welcome assistance from Western organizations that "did not have an agenda". However, when famine was declared in the territories a week later, al-Shabaab responded by denying that anyone was starving in their territories and moved to uphold the formerly-imposed ban on Western aid.

One U.S. official said - with so many mixed messages from al-Shabaab - it was unlikely that any "grand bargain" could be struck to allow U.S.-funded operations complete access to southern Somalia, but she saw feasible ways to deliver assistance through targeted interventions, directed by experienced partner organizations whose understanding of operating within the particular security conditions was deemed appropriate. She said the U.S. has already engaged extensively with those "implementing partners".

"We do not believe that al-Shabaab is absolutely monolithic," another official explained. "Our experience has been that there are places in southern Somalia where we have been able to deliver aid even though those people are in areas controlled by al- Shabaab."

Toner and other officials - speaking on the condition of anonymity because the policy plans have not yet been finalized - declined to provide any precise language on the policy shift, affirming that the immediate focus should be to deliver food and health aid to the neediest areas as quickly as possible. One official on the call said the specifics would be worked out over time.

"There is a risk here quite honestly...there is some risk of diversion," he admitted. "I think we have decided that it's worth it to risk some diversion, we'll do everything we can to avoid that but the humanitarian need is compelling. The dimensions of this famine, of this humanitarian crisis, are such that we've got to put taking care of people first."

"Our number one goal at this point is to save lives," another official added. "Time is not on our side."

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201108030004.html.

Mirwaiz seeks human rights' intervention in youth's custodial death

Srinagar, Aug 3 : Reacting to the recent custodial killing of a youth, the chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has turned to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to look into alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Farooq, who has been under house arrest along with other Hurriyat leaders, said government officials are provoking public to disrupt normalcy of the region by committing acts like custodial killings.

"The state government itself is engaged in such activities, their agencies, police and their employee on which the public will definitely react. It is so obvious that when violence will take place, when atrocities will happen, when innocent people are killed by torturing them in custody, it is quite obvious that people will react over it. And I believe it is quite natural that people will raise their voice against it," he said.

Farooq confirmed that he has written a letter to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and other national and international Islamic scholars and urged them to take action against police officials in Kashmir.

"As far as human rights are concerned we want to appeal on the name of human rights and as far as religious issues are concerned then we are mailing OIC and other Islamic scholars in India and abroad about the interference in our religious issues by the state government and the administration that they should observe it and take action against it.

Farooq said that residents of Kashmir also desire peace in the region, but such incidents provoke them.

"We also want to say that we are not against them (the authorities), even we want peace, there would be no disturbance in the region. But if the government itself is indulging in such cases and the government officials himself are taking such initiatives and being involved in such cases, then I think this behavior should be condemned," he said.

Source: New Kerala.
Link: http://www.newkerala.com/news/2011/worldnews-40628.html.

Giant Rat Kills Predators with Poisonous Hair

By Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer
Tue, Aug 2, 2011

By utilizing the same plants that African tribesmen use to poison their arrows, the furry fury known as the African crested rat can incapacitate and even kill predators many times its size, researchers have found.

"This is the first mammal that is borrowing a deadly poison from a plant and slathering it on itself without dying," said study researcher Jonathan Kingdon, of Oxford University in England. "This is an extraordinary thing to have evolved."

Growing up in Africa, Kingdon was frequently exposed to these rats, even keeping one (very cautiously) as a pet. He had heard this animal was poisonous, but it look 30 years for him to figure out how and why this special animal kills and sickens its predators.

Hair-raising situation

Whenever a predator, like a dog, comes upon the rat and tries to eat it, the animal gets a mouthful of potentially deadly poison.

"It isn't really designed to kill. If it killed every time nothing would ever learn that this is distasteful," Kingdon said. "The way it really works is that you go away and you recover from a terrible experience and you never, ever invite that experience again."

Kingdon noted one example he's seen firsthand: When in the presence of a crested rat, a dog that previously had a run-in with one of the animals quivered in fear and wouldn't approach the innocuous- looking foot-long rat.

Evolutionary marvel

To figure out the rat's secret, Kingdon and his colleagues observed the rats in the wild and ran lab tests on a line of hairs that run along its back and seemed to have a unique structure. They also tested the chemicals in the hairs' poisons alongside that of the bark of the Acokanthera schimperi, which the rats are known to chew.

They found that to make its poison fur, the rat — which averages about 14 inches (36 cm) long — chews the bark of the A. schimperi and licks itself to store the resulting poisonous spit in specially adapted hairs. This behavior is hardwired into the animal's brain, similar to nitpicking behavior of birds or self-bathing of cats, the researchers suspect.

"What is quite clear in this animal is that it is hardwired to find the poison, it is hardwired to chew it and it is hardwired to apply it to the small area of hairs," Kingdon said. The animals apply the poisonous spit only to the specialized hairs on a small strip along its back. When threatened, the rat arches its back and uses specially adapted muscles to slick back its hair and expose the strip of poison.

Poison from this tree bark has been used by hunters to take down large prey, like elephants, for thousands of years. "Evolution has mimicked something that hunters do," Kingdon said. "It [the crested rat] is borrowing from the plant just as the hunters are borrowing from the very same plant."

Medical miracle

The hairs themselves are specially structured to absorb the poison, Kingdon found. Their outer layer is full of large holes, like a pasta strainer, and the inside is full of straight fibers that wick up liquids. "There is no other hair that is known to science that is remotely structured like these hairs," Kingdon said.

It is unknown why the rat doesn't die from chewing the poison, though it could be resistant somehow. "The rats should drop dead every time they chew this stuff but they are not," Kingdon said. "We don't have the slightest idea how that could be done."

Learning more about how this poison works could even help human medicine, since it acts by inducing heart attacks. A related chemical, called digitoxin, has been used for decades as a treatment for heart failure.

The study was published today (Aug. 2) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed To Build World's Tallest Tower With Binladen Group

8/02/2011
Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes Staff

Just as the financial markets were beginning to crash in October 2008, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced he would build the world’s tallest tower, but then failed to move forward on the project. Today at a press conference in Riyadh, Alwaleed restarted activity on the skyscraper. He signed a $1.2 billion contract to begin building what will be called Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — a building that will be taller than 3,280 feet (1,000 meters). The contractor for the project is Saudi Binladen Group, which is contributing $400 million toward completion of the tower.

“This project will provide sustainable profits to Kingdom Holding shareholders,” Alwaleed said in a statement. Kingdom Holding, Alwaleed’s Saudi-listed investment vehicle, has several partners in the project, including the Bin Laden Group and several Saudi businessmen.

Kingdom Tower is to become the centerpiece of a 17.4 million square foot (5.3 mln sq meters) development overlooking the Red Sea north of Jeddah called Kingdom City. Alwaleed created an entity called Jeddah Economic Company in 2009 to develop Kingdom City.

Kingdom Tower will host a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons-serviced apartments, office space, luxury condominiums and an observatory that Alwaleed says will be higher than the world’s current highest observation deck.

Alwaleed was involved in building another Kingdom Tower in Riyadh, where his Kingdom Holding Co. offices are headquartered. Kingdom Tower Riyadh is a striking building that also contains a Four Seasons Hotel, office space and an observatory.

Alwaleed has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $19.6 billion. He is a co-owner with Bill Gates of the Four Seasons Hotel management company. Alwaleed, a diversified global investor, owns stakes through Kingdom Holding in Citigroup, News Corp., Apple and the Fairmont hotel management company, among other investments.

Source: Forbes.
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2011/08/02/saudi-prince-alwaleed-to-build-worlds-tallest-tower-with-bin-laden-group/.

Excessive Force by China's Street Police Triggers Outburst

By Matthew Robertson
August 2, 2011

Strangled vendor is latest incident to serve as flashpoint for smoldering public anger at regime.

After a one-legged street vendor was strangled to death by “urban management officers” in broad daylight in a small city in Guizhou Province last week, mayhem erupted.

The 52-year-old Deng Qiguo had been a familiar sight in the small city of Anshun for a decade, where he peddled fruit from his cart, which he pushed while hobbling on a crutch. An altercation with the street police—called “chengguan” in Chinese—ended in his death on July 26.

For many, the chengguan are the lowest-level representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Their open disregard for human life in Anshun provoked an explosion of pent-up anger at the regime, drawing over 10,000 protesters who threw rocks at police and turned over police vehicles.

The authorities rolled out tried-and-true methods of crowd suppression, mobilizing nearly 1,000 riot police to put down the protest. Xinhua, the state mouthpiece, gave low-ball estimates of 30 protesters and 10 policemen suffering minor injuries.

But firsthand reports gathered on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service, and by Chinese-language media outside China indicate that police used fire hoses, tear gas, and possibly even machine guns. Cleaning trucks then came in to clean the blood off the road.

While the strangling (or beating, reports differ) took place in the early afternoon, crowds were still present late into the night.

Social Media

Almost all of the firsthand accounts about the incident were published through microblogging platforms like Sina Weibo. While posts there were soon deleted, much of the video footage and images produced by witnesses were copied widely, including to Chinese-language websites outside China.

Wang Keqin, a well-known investigative reporter, followed developments closely. He referred to parts of an article in the Oriental Morning Post that had been deleted by censors. Someone in the crowd had said, in part: “It’s like a submachine gun. … I was not far from the bullets. When I saw him loading the gun, I thought they were loading the gun to shoot up in the air. I didn’t expect them to shoot people. Do you know? I didn’t expect that the first shot was firing toward us. We started to run.”

Liu Wei, a human rights lawyer, is recorded by Radio Free Asia (RFA) as saying: “The incident has grown bigger and bigger. It is out of control now. There were constantly sounds of gunshots at the scene, and tear gas is everywhere. It’s reported that anti-riot police tossed smoke grenades to disperse the crowd, and fired on them. Many people were injured or even killed. Now the streets are blocked by police. … Cleaning cars are cleaning the blood off the road.”

“There were so many onlookers,” wrote one user of Sina Weibo. “Blood and dead bodies were everywhere. The riot police rushed to the sidewalk. … The riot police kept on rushing to the sidewalk, and onlookers almost knocked me to the ground. The street-side stone bench was covered in blood; there were two corpses on the road.”

Recently, Chinese users of social media are reporting more aggressively on events that show the regime in a bad light, such as the riot in Anshun or the Wenzhou train crash. This, along with the proliferation of access to these technologies, is particularly concerning to Party apparatchiks, according to Zhong Weiguang, a Chinese dissident and commentator who now lives in Germany.

“This is coming out more and more now because of the Internet and Weibo,” Zhong said in a telephone interview. As connectivity among the population increases, people are able to see that individual phenomena are not isolated. At the same time, he said, “The conflicts that allow these things to happen are becoming more and more common, and the methods the regime is using are becoming more and more gangster-like.”

Covering Up

Anshun City government published a small note on its website acknowledging the death of the vendor. It was the first step in the Party’s efforts to cover up what really happened.

The local Party committee said they will “quickly investigate the facts,” “strictly deal with matters according to the law,” and “thoroughly do well with mass work.” This refers to propaganda saturation after “mass incidents”—large, violent protests that are suppressed by force—meant to restore disaffected citizens’ faith in the regime.

What local authorities would not permit, however, was an independent investigation of the incident. Lu Chaoguo, a reporter from the Shandong-based Qilu Evening News, attempted to conduct interviews in Anshun the day after the beating and was ambushed by public security forces.

He was approached by four or five men who declined to identify themselves. They grabbed him around the neck, pinned him to the ground, and then carried him to a minivan. He was then beaten about the head until he was unconscious. His cell phone and shoes were taken. Interrogations followed, and finally he was released with “bruises all over my arms and neck.”

Local newspapers, including the Oriental Morning Post and Guiyang Evening News, said at least a dozen people were in hospitals from some form of blast (possibly referring to tear gas or bullets), and that 30 were otherwise injured, the youngest being a 4-year-old.

Indoctrinated in Brutality

The chengguan have been implicated repeatedly. Officially their job is to enforce street ordinances and prevent beggars and street vendors from setting up shop in certain areas. But they frequently resort to brutal means, and they are often corrupt.

Zhong Weiguang says their cruelty stems from being indoctrinated in CCP strong-arm tactics. “The chengguan act on behalf of the regime to control the streets,” he said. “They don’t put the people’s interests first, they put the government’s interests first.”

A training manual for chengguan was leaked online in 2009. It explained how violence can be deployed to greatest effect, and included such lines as “make sure that no blood is visible on the face, no wounds are observable on the body, and no witnesses are around. … You should not leave any trails. Once you decide to go ahead, you must act cleanly without any hesitation. You must apply full force.”

Other parts said “Do not consider … whether you will harm the subject. … Become a resolute law enforcer staunchly protect the dignity of city administrative regulations.”

Interviews with chengguan in the Chinese press indicate that a cascading “responsibility system” is used. A chengguan who does not keep vendors off the street will be heavily fined, making the issue “one of life and death,” in the words of one street officer. Responsibility systems such as this are frequently used by the CCP to push downward the pressure to complete certain tasks, while enforcers are given leeway in how they get things done.

“Their main purpose is to suppress people,” Zhong says. “This is the lowest level of the one-Party dictatorship in action. Their tactics are not limited by law.”

Mass riots like the one in Anshun are a danger to the Party’s rule. It has shown an increased awareness of the danger, with editorials about “representing the interests of the masses” and preventing “contradictions” between the Party and the people. The events in Anshun, however, the latest in a string of increasingly extreme anti-regime incidents, indicate that the “contradictions” between the Party and the people are only getting worse.

A large riot broke out in Guangdong last month when chengguan reportedly beat to death a 20-year-old pregnant migrant worker. The month before, China was racked by bomb explosions, including ones directed at administrative and public security buildings by people who had given up seeking justice by any other means. And most recently the public has been openly contemptuous toward the authorities, after the collision of two high-speed trains and the authorities’ bungled attempts at a cover-up.

Unofficial figures indicate that the number of mass incidents in China has doubled over the past five years, reaching 180,000 in 2010. Commensurately, the regime has boosted funding to its domestic security apparatus to exceed that spent on its military.

Zhong says these incidents are not to be understood merely as local instances of anger, but as a general expression of animus toward the ruling Party.

“It’s fury at the darkness of Chinese society,” Zhong said. “It’s not just an issue of the vendor, or the Railways Ministry, but the system as a whole. People are saying ‘we don’t want the CCP.’”

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/excessive-force-by-chinas-street-police-triggers-outburst-59894-all.html.

Mauritanian president meets youth protest leaders

2011-08-02

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and representatives of the February 25th Youth Movement met in Nouakchott on Monday (August 1st), Journal Tahalil reported. The youth activists presented their demands for improved living conditions and a united and just Mauritania. In a statement, the February 25th coalition leadership described the meeting as "frank and sincere", adding that it was a positive indicator of the government's readiness to meet the group's demands.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/08/02/newsbrief-04.

Turkey, France unfreeze Libyan assets

2011-08-02

The release by Turkey of frozen Kadhafi assets will enable Libya's National Transitional Council (TNC) to make small cash donations to families, Financial Times reported on Monday (August 1st). According to TNC deputy chief Abdelhafed Ghoga, the funds aim to reduce the burden of rising Ramadan costs on Libyan families.

Also Monday, France released 181 million euros of the Libyan regime's frozen funds, AFP reported. "These are funds that belong to the Libyan people," TNC Ambassador to France Mansour Sayf al-Nasr said after meeting with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé. The money released by France to the rebel council will be used to buy "food and medicine", he said.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/08/02/newsbrief-02.

Moroccan-Algerian relations set to improve

Algerian and Moroccan officials are seizing the opportunity offered by the current thaw in bilateral relations to settle the shared problems which have been hanging over them for years.

By Nazim Fethi for Magharebia in Algiers – 02/08/11

Moroccan King Mohammed VI took advantage of Throne Day celebrations Saturday (July 30th) to call for normalized ties between Algeria and Morocco.

"Morocco will spare no effort to develop its bilateral relations with the region's countries. We take note, in this regard, of the current positive developments in ministerial and sector-specific meetings with the sister nation Algeria," the king said in a Tangier speech.

The sovereign also vowed to work towards Maghreb integration and to overcome political differences.

"I am committed to the launching of a new dynamic action for the settlement of all outstanding issues. This should be a prelude to a full normalization of bilateral relations between the two sister nations, including the re-opening of land borders," Mohammed VI said.

For his part, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika expressed his desire to move forward with strengthening bilateral relations.

"I would like to take this opportunity to express my satisfaction at the significant progress in Algerian-Moroccan relations in recent times, punctuated by ministerial-level visits," Bouteflika said in a message to the Moroccan king.

"Convinced that we are both linked by a common destiny, I would like to take this opportunity to remind your majesty of my determination to join my efforts with your own to reaffirm our links of fraternity, co-operation and good neighborliness, to build an exemplary bilateral relationship to serve the interests of our two brother countries and peoples, united as they are by their historic links and the challenges of the future," Bouteflika said.

But looking beyond the statements of good intentions from both sides, there is a long way to go before these wishes can be transformed into reality.

Algeria's position on re-opening the borders remains unchanged. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said in May that opening the frontier was "not on the agenda".

"Algerian-Moroccan relations have enjoyed something of a revival over recent months, with an exchange of ministerial visits and the extension of co-operation to crucial sectors such as energy, water resources and agriculture," Tout sur l'Algérie quoted an Algerian diplomatic source as saying. "This should help in the consolidation of neighborly relations which, of course, will be in the interests of both countries and brother peoples."

However, there remains one matter which divides the two Maghreb neighbors: Western Sahara. King Mohammed VI reiterated Morocco's autonomy proposal, saying it was a "definitive political solution to the artificial conflict which rages around our Sahara, a solution which must be found through responsible negotiation".

Meanwhile, Algeria continues to support UN negotiations over the territory, which recently ended without progress. The same Algerian diplomatic source quoted by Tout sur l'Algérie rejected any notion that normalized relations could end the conflict, an idea recently suggested by Moroccan officials.

Many Algerians remain wary of the king's gestures. Echourouk said it was "a new attempt by the king to put Algeria on the back foot in the face of international opinion, raising the issue of reopening the borders".

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/08/02/feature-01.

Sudan: Kuwaiti Firm Eyes Sudan Oil Exploration

1 August 2011

Khartoum — A company based in the Arab Gulf state of Kuwait has expressed interest in conducting oil-wells drilling and exploration activities in Sudan, state media reported on Tuesday.

Sudan's daily oil output currently stands at 110,000 barrels, according to official figures, after the country lost nearly 75 percent of the previous 500,000 barrels per day figure it was splitting evenly since 2005 with South Sudan which seceded on 9 July.

Officials say they expect the current oil figure to rise to 170,000 barrel per day by 2012.

Exploration and production scene of Sudan's oil sector is dominated by Asian and Arab companies, with Chinese-led companies as the main operators.

Sudan official news agency (SUNA) said that a delegation of Gulf Petroleum Investment Company (GPI), a Kuwaiti shareholding company, arrived in the country and held a meeting on Tuesday with the country's acting minister of oil Ali Ahmad Osman at his office in Khartoum.

The minister instructed the competent departments at his ministry to provide GPI with necessary support and facilitate its venture to join Sudan's market of oil wells drilling and exploration.

Meanwhile, the company's delegation apprised the minister of its activities in oil-exploration fields, including its operations in Egypt, UAE and Syria.

It is not clear where will the Kuwaiti company's exploration activities take place but new explorations are underway in a number of areas.

In October last year, Sudan announced that oil exploration activities would be initiated in three areas in South Darfur State, one of the three states that make up the country's war-battered western region.

In 2006, Sudan awarded a license to a consortium of Arab and Sudanese companies for block 12A which covers part of North Darfur and stretches up to the border with Libya.

Analysts opine that oil exploration activities in Sudan are subject to a number of uncertainties, including political instability and armed conflicts.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201108020522.html.

Sudan: Nation Announces 'Substantial' Aid Package to Somalia

1 August 2011

Khartoum — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir told his Somali counterpart Sharif Sheikh Ahmed that his government will provide substantial aid to the drought-stricken country where many parts have been declared as famine areas by the United Nations.

Ahmed, who arrived in Khartoum on Monday, told Sudan news agency (SUNA) that his talks with Bashir on the situation in Somalia focused on the drought and the kind of support Khartoum can provide.

He said that Bashir expressed readiness to aid Somalia and told him that one is currently in the works.

The Somali president told SUNA that while Arab and African support is "good" it is yet to be coordinated adding that this an item he discussed with Bashir.

The United Nations declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia - where 3.7 million people are going hungry - on July 20. There is always a steady trickle of Somalis coming into northern Kenya, mostly fleeing violence, but in recent months they have also been looking for food.

Sudan ranked 21 on the list released by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the top 30 nations giving money for victims of the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.

With $1,788,000 in donations, Sudan was ahead of more richer countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Luxembourg.

The African Union (AU) is scheduled to hold a funding conference with the assistance of the United Nations soon later this month to help raise money.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201108021488.html.

Israel's Supreme Court orders demolition of largest West Bank settlement

JERUSALEM (BNO NEWS) — Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the state to dismantle the largest illegal settlement in the West Bank by April 2012, Haaretz newspaper reported.

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch harshly criticized the Israeli government for failing to dismantle the outpost despite earlier promises it would do so. Israel had previously admitted that the outpost of Migron, which is home to some 50 families, was built on Palestinian land.

Beinisch said the Supreme Court has tried to show restraint despite the blatant illegality of the outpost. “There is no doubt, that according to Israeli law, no settlements can be built on private lands of Palestinians,” Beinisch added.

The Supreme Court justices recognized in the court ruling the difficulties surrounding the dismantling of the settlement, but said this could have been avoided if the state had prevented the construction of Migron in the first place.

The decision follows a petition filed by the Israeli Peace Now movement, which promotes Israeli-Palestinian peace. This is the first time the Supreme Court issues an order to dismantle an outpost in the West Bank.

In other news, 12 Israeli settlers suspected of violence against Palestinians were served with administrative restraining orders, limiting their activities in the West Bank. They were accused of igniting a number of mosques, vehicles and buildings that belong to Palestinians, according to a statement from Israel’s military.

The construction of Israeli settlements in the disputed West bank area has been often condemned by the international community. Palestine demanded a stop to settlement construction in the East Jerusalem and West Bank area as a key element for continuing peace talks, aimed at reaching a two-state solution based in the 1967 Green Line.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been stalled since late September following Israel’s refusal to extend a 10-month freeze on settlement activity.

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19224/israels-supreme-court-orders-demolition-of-largest-west-bank-settlement/.

Lebanon to file UN complaint against Israel

BEIRUT (BNO NEWS) — Lebanon will file a complaint on Wednesday against Israel at the United Nations after the troops of both countries exchanged fire along their common border earlier this week, Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Lebanon will file a complaint tomorrow [Wednesday] against Israel through the Lebanese commission to the United Nations (UN), at the backdrop of resolution 1701 violation and the infiltration of Israeli soldiers into Lebanese territories in Wazany yesterday,” the statement said as reported by Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) opened fire on Monday after a seven-man unit belonging to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) crossed the Blue Line that separates the two countries, near the Wazzani River area in southeastern Lebanon. Israeli troops, however, said the skirmish occurred during a military drill in Israeli territory. No casualties were reported.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed the exchange of fire and said it had launched an investigation into the incident.

UN envoy to Lebanon Michel Williams on Tuesday warned that incidents such as Monday’s exchange of fire could quickly turn into a war after meeting with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who affirmed Lebanon’s commitment to defend its sovereignty by “all legitimate means”.

“This was a very disturbing incident … you can go from an incident like this to war within a few hours. That is the reality,” UN Special Coordinator Michel Williams told reporters, according to the Daily Star.

“The good thing is that nobody was injured. The bad news is that we cannot afford any incidents like this,” he added.

Monday’s skirmish is the first in the region since 10 demonstrators were killed in Lebanon and another 112 wounded after they attempted to enter Israel in May during a Nakba Day march. Gunfights, however, are rare since the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19225/lebanon-to-file-un-complaint-against-israel/.

Two Indonesian migrant workers spared from beheading in Saudi Arabia

JAKARTA (BNO NEWS) — Two Indonesian female migrant workers have been spared from beheading in Saudi Arabia, the Jakarta Globe reported on Tuesday.

The head of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union, Jejen Nurjanah, announced the news on Monday night, adding that the two workers originally from West Java are still imprisoned in the Middle East kingdom. “Both of them were freed from beheading and we will report the good news to the president,” Jejen said.

One of the workers was convicted of the murder of her employer’s child, while the other one was sentenced to death after being found guilty of using black magic to inflict pain on her employer.

In 2009, a 36-year-old maid was also accused by her employer of using black magic after his son left their house and never returned. She admitted her guilt after undergoing torture and was pronounced guilty.

The Indonesian government called for clemency for 23 nationals facing death penalty in Saudi Arabia in late June, following the execution of a migrant worker on June 18. Ruyati binti Satubi was executed after a court found her guilty of murdering the wife of a Saudi businessman.

The government also announced that it would halt the sending of migrant workers to Saudi Arabia starting from August 1, until an agreement on their protection is reached. Indonesia may lose 3 trillion rupiah ($354 million) in remittances per year after applying the moratorium, according to the Jakarta Globe.

There are around five million Indonesians working abroad, with two million in Malaysia, one million in Saudi Arabia and the remainder in other Asian nations, Europe and the United States.

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19223/two-indonesian-migrant-workers-spared-from-beheading-in-saudi-arabia/.

Hama – the city that's defying Assad

Monday 1 August 2011
Nour Ali

The Syrian city of Hama, the scene of a bloody crackdown by President Assad's army, has a long history of standing up to the brutal Ba'athist regime.

It's early July in Hama. Among the rows of windswept trees and sandy housing, makeshift checkpoints of burned-out cars and dustbins protect its neighborhoods. The atmosphere is tense as residents wonder what fate awaits the city at the heart of Syria's five-month-old standoff between protesters and the regime.

The answer came on Sunday. It is difficult to report from Syria as the government does not allow journalists to work freely in the country. But according to residents and activists, the regime decided it had had enough. Without provocation, tanks that had been stationed on the city's outskirts for weeks previously approached Hama from four directions followed by infantry and security forces. Those manning the city's checkpoints tried to defend themselves with stones and bars but they were no match for the tanks and gunfire. In the most horrific day since Syria's uprising began, the death toll steadily climbed as doctors called for blood donations, and a stream of gruesome video footage emerged. By sunset that day, up to 100 were dead and scores more injured. But residents say the army has still not succeeded in retaking the city, despite the government's ongoing assault.

Amid the carnage, as in the months before, locals evoked comparisons to 1982 – the year Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez (the then Syrian president) unleashed his army on the city, leaving at least 10,000 dead. That massacre's shadow looms large.

"If the security forces arrest me and ask why I am protesting, I will tell them: in 1982 you killed my brother and you killed my father," explained Mohamed, 54, when I spoke to him in July at his home in one of Hama's central districts. "What more reason do I need than that?"

Mohamed was a newly married man in his 20s when his brother, 19, and father, 51, were rounded up by security forces. They had fled 4km from the city after tanks arrived to repress an armed Islamist uprising that had fought to topple president Hafez al-Assad. Both were shot dead. The bodies, like many hundreds of others, were never recovered; Mohamed has refused to register them as dead.

"We had seen men in white – the color of the defense forces – shelling using cannons and tanks, which would crash through houses. We saw cars with soldiers and holes dug for graves. There were 50 of us in this house and the army came and rounded up the men."

Mohamed fled to the northern city of Aleppo, walking the first 15km. "I saw corpses everywhere: one there, three here, another five there. It was horrific."

There is little official history written about those three weeks in February in which the city, then Syria's third-biggest, was besieged by the Defense Brigades, the forerunners of today's much-feared 4th armored division.

Islamists based in Hama, Aleppo and the north-west had risen up against Ba'ath party rule, which came to Syria in 1963 and was taken over by Hafez al-Assad in a coup in 1970. Since the end of the 70s, the Muslim Brotherhood had waged a campaign against the Ba'athists, slaughtering party members and even attempting to assassinate Hafez, to which the authorities replied with brutal killings and massacres. Thousands are believed to have gone missing during this period.

Even 30 years ago, Hama's role as protest capital was not new. It had been at the forefront of campaigns against landowning families and, later, the Ba'ath party. But matters came to a head in February 1982 after guerrilla forces declared Hama liberated and the government responded with unprecedented brutality, which some claim is the greatest act of violence in contemporary Middle Eastern history. It was then, as it is now, a war of survival for the Assad regime. Aircraft bombed the roads out of the city to prevent people escaping. Tanks and artillery positioned on the outskirts shelled the city, causing homes to collapse on their residents. Soldiers roamed the streets lining up men and boys as young as 15 to be shot. According to personal testimonies, women were raped and some starved to death from the lack of food.

The attack went far beyond simply obliterating the Muslim Brotherhood: Christian churches as well as mosques were razed and at least 10,000 civilians are estimated to have died. Today, reminders are everywhere in the city's architecture. Seventeen ancient norias, or waterwheels, that creak in the breeze and turn slowly in the Orontes, the river that weaves its way through the city, are almost all that is left of Hama's ancient history – the city that appears in the Bible as "Hamath". Of the old city, only a few streets remain. Whole areas were bulldozed, while bullet holes pockmark the buildings that are still standing. The Cham Palace, a partly government-controlled chain of hotels, sits on a spot where Hama's residents say a mass grave lies, a potent symbol of the regime's power.

After quashing the city, the government made little attempt to reconcile itself. It built new schools, gardens and places of worship, but then it left. Hama, which used to draw tourists, has little infrastructure and few of the nice restaurants that are a feature of Homs, a few miles south, or the main hubs of Aleppo or Damascus.

In this city of 800,000 people – now the country's fourth biggest – everyone has a story from 1982. Each family is scarred by the memory of a lost relative or friend. Thirty years is not a long time: the memories resonate strongly, and no more so than today as Syria struggles with an uprising that has been brutally suppressed and has so far caused more than 1,600 civilian deaths.

Syria was seen as a possible exception to the revolutionary currents that started to sweep the region at the start of the year. Protests that popped up in February and March, including vigils for Egypt and Libya, were quickly quashed by the security forces. But in mid-March, Syria's uprising got the spark it needed when a group of schoolchildren in the southern city of Deraa were snatched by security forces for writing graffiti against the regime. Their parents were insulted by Atef Najib, the city's security chief and, when released, the children bore the marks of torture. On 18 March, protests burst out and live fire killed several, causing outrage across the country. Demands have escalated from local complaints and calls for reform to chants for the end of Assad's regime.

The latest assault on Hama has reopened old wounds as well as creating new ones. When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, many hoped his rule might signal a change for the country. But shortly after 9/11, he suggested the US could learn from Syria's history of dealing with terrorists – implying its suppression of Hama. Reforms were slow. The brutal crackdown since March has killed any vestiges of hope.

On 3 June, more than 70 people were killed in the city after three trucks with large guns opened fire on protesters returning from Friday prayers. The front row of men, bearing their chests and shouting "peacefully, peacefully!" to show they were unarmed, were felled; more followed. This bloodshed has only stiffened the city's resolve, which has been further strengthened by the latest attack, as confirmed by residents speaking by phone on Sunday evening.

But Hama's citizens draw obvious parallels between the events of 1982 and now, fueled by the authorities which have themselves evoked the 1980s, insisting, now as then, that the country faces the threat of an armed Islamic insurgency. What was a taboo subject has been transformed into common parlance across the country.

While Hama's residents remain religiously conservative Muslims, the Muslim Brotherhood or the ideas of political Islam have very little sway.

"Just as then, they [the security forces] treat human beings as dispensable," Mohamed told me. "In the 1980s, I saw bodies tossed aside on rubbish heaps; on 3 June I saw the same. They called it the war of pajamas because they'd take people from their beds at night, that's what they're doing now," he said, referring to late-night raids made by the security forces on the fringes of the city.

Suleiman, who was one year old in 1982, says he grew up knowing his two uncles were killed, although the details are foggy. "I remember my father telling me about it as I grew up; it was a fact like any other," he says. "It influenced how I see this regime, how I see my country – and I am scared of what they will do."

That shared memory has not only fueled Hama's outpouring – the country's largest protest gathering was held at the city's al-Assy Square on 1 July – but also helped them to pull together. When it looked as if the security forces might attack, residents set up the barricades and men sent women and children out of the city to relatives, organizing systems of protection among themselves.

"Many of those young men manning the checkpoints are orphans of 1982," says a female government worker in her 30s, putting coals on an argileh (hookah) as the day fades and lights flicker on across the city. She talks loudly, dark eyes blazing, no longer afraid in a country where political opinions have been whispered, if enunciated at all.

Just nine in 1982, she can pull up images in her head easily. "I saw my neighbors dragged out of their house, put against a wall and shot dead. We hid, scrabbling for food, and were lucky in being able to be smuggled out to the villages," she says. "You don't forget a scene like that. We all know we have to try to prevent something similar happening again."

"The regime divided people and made them suspicious of each other, but this uprising has started to bring us back together again," says a businessman in his 40s, sipping coffee in his house, a bullet hole on the whitewashed wall behind him. His mother, who lost another of her sons in 1982, keeps calling to check he is OK.

Though Hama's residents say history is repeating itself – the double-act of Bashar and his brother Maher, commander of the 4th armored division, matches Hafez and his brother Rifaat, who led the 1982 assault – today's uprising is nothing like the ones before it. While clerics have taken a prominent role – the de facto negotiator for the city is the imam of Serjawi mosque and people have gathered in mosques – the strength lies in the fact that this is not a religious uprising. Protests in Hama are a reflection of protests across the country – broadbased, unarmed and, they add, morally justified.

"We are religious. But they are trying to portray us as extremists when we are not," is a common refrain from both men and women in the city. Instead, Hama's residents say they hope for freedom, for a government that treats them with dignity, and the end of 41 years of "Beit Assad" (the house of Assad). And if Syria's uprising succeeds, they may also be able to put the ghosts of 1982 behind them.

Source: The Guardian.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/01/hama-syrian-city-defying-assad.

Thousands of Jordanian Forces Enter Bahrain to Help Manama Suppress Protests

2011-07-31

TEHRAN (FNA)- Over 2,000 Jordanian security forces have entered Bahrain to assist the Al-Khalifa forces in suppressing peaceful protests in the tiny Persian Gulf island, witness reports said on Sunday.

"At present more than 2,000 forces dispatched by the Jordanian government have entered Bahrain's territories and are now active in the form of police and security forces," a witness told FNA on the condition of animosity.

The witness also pointed to the presence of the Pakistani forces in Bahrain, and called it a threat to the independence of the tiny Persian Gulf country.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty's over-40-year rule.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar - were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13 to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of people have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and more than 1,000 others have been injured.

Yet, protests and rallies continued throughout the country in defiance of the martial law put in place by Manama since February.

Bahrainis have repeatedly condemned Riyadh's major role in the suppression of their revolution, and underlined that they would continue protests until the Al Khalifa regime collapses.

Source: FARS News.
Link: http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9005090794.

Kashgar: 15 die in weekend of violence

Beijing (UPI)
Aug 1, 2011

A second explosion in two days rocked Kashgar in western China, killing three people including a policeman, China's state-run news agency Xinhua said.

The blast happened in central Kashgar at 4:30 p.m. Sunday and came at the end of a murderous weekend for the city of 350,000 in the western part of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and close to the border with Tajikistan.

The killings began Saturday in what police described as "a severely violent terrorism case," Xinhua said.

Trouble began with two explosions, one in a parked van and one in a food market.

Just before midnight, two men fatally stabbed a truck driver and then drove the vehicle into a crowd. They also attacked bystanders with knives. Six people in the crowd were killed and 28 others were hurt, police said. At least one of the attackers was killed by the crowd.

Violence again erupted Sunday afternoon when four suspects were killed by police who continued to hunt for suspects, Xinhua reported.

Xinhua gave few details of police operations in the aftermath of the violence in Kashgar, the main city in the region which is predominantly Muslim and, similar to Tibet, is politically sensitive for the central government. Beijing is constantly on its guard against separatist groups it claims foment disorder in hopes of establishing an independent East Turkestan.

Around 8 million Uighur live in Xinjiang and many say they are unhappy about the large influx of Han Chinese settlers, whom the Uighurs say increasingly marginalize their interests and culture.

The violence in Kashgar comes less than two weeks after an attack on a police station in Hotan in southern Xinjiang left 18 people dead. Chinese authorities blamed Uighur extremists and some of Uighur attackers who died had links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a shadowy militant organization fighting for an independent Uighur state.

Tensions in the region have remained high for the past two years after nearly 200 people died in clashes that rocked Urumqi, the capital of the region. More than 1,700 people were injured in the July riots that stretched across several days.

Tighter security in the region's main cities and towns followed, including the reported installation of thousands of public surveillance cameras and an increase in police checking shoppers' bags, especially near the anniversary of the deadly 2009 riots.

Local government officials blamed the 2009 riots on unemployed Uighur migrants living in nearly 50 shantytowns across the city. Beijing also said the riots were planned abroad by the World Uighur Congress, which they say is a terrorist organization and whose president, Rebiya Kadeer, 63, is also a terrorist.

The WUC was formed in April 2004 in Munich, Germany, as a collection of exiled Uighur groups including the Uighur American Association and the East Turkestan National Congress. Kadeer, a businesswoman and political activist, has been in exile in the United States since 2005 after 6 years imprisonment in China for allegedly leaking state secrets.

Chinese policy is make stern diplomatic representations to countries they say give unwarranted media cover to ethnic leaders such as Kadeer.

Last August, Beijing and Canberra had a diplomatic confrontation over and invitation for Kadeer to visit Australia.

The month before, two Chinese directors boycotted the prestigious Melbourne International Film Festival over the screening of a documentary about Kadeer. The Chinese government also was displeased because Kadeer addressed the National Press Club in Canberra, Australian media reported.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Kashgar_15_die_in_weekend_of_violence_999.html.

China launches another experimental satellite

Jiuquan, China (XNA)
Aug 01, 2011

China launched an experimental orbiter into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province on Friday.

The SJ-11-02 orbiter was sent into space at 3:42 p.m. by a Long March II-C carrier rocket, according to the launch center. The orbiter belongs to the country's Shijian satellite family.

The orbiter, developed by China Space Co., Ltd. under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, will be used to conduct scientific experiments in space, the company said.

The launch marked the 142nd flight for the Long March rocket family.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_launches_another_experimental_satellite_999.html.

Syrian Troops Hammer Hama for Second Day

By Jasper Fakkert
August 1, 2011

Pressure grows for U.N. to condemn crackdown.

Syrian military forces pounded the protest city of Hama with artillery on Monday, making it the second day of an intensified campaign on the city. On Sunday, troops and tanks entered the city, destroying barricades set up by residents as a buffer between themselves and the coming onslaught.

Syrian rights groups estimate 100 people were killed in Hama and three other cities, Deir Ezzor, Daraa, and Idib, on Sunday. On Monday, five civilians were killed in Hama and dozens more were injured by the random shelling of tanks, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an organization of Syrian human rights organizations.

The city of Hama, which has become a key protest town against the rule of Syrian president Bashir al-Assad, already bore a bloody crackdown by Assad’s father in 1982 in which an estimated 10,000 people were killed.

In the current uprising, Hama had come under siege one month ago after an estimated 500,000 people took to the streets calling for political reform and Assad to step down.

With the intense crackdown on Hama, Assad has further distanced himself from his promises of national dialogue as part of the solution to the unrest in the country. Instead, international outcry over Assad’s handling of the demonstrations has intensified over the past days.

“I am appalled by the Syrian government’s use of violence and brutality against its own people. The reports out of Hama are horrifying and demonstrate the true character of the Syrian regime,” said U.S. President Barack Obama in a statement on Sunday.

“His use of torture, corruption, and terror puts him on the wrong side of history and his people,” Obama said.

Having reached its fifth month, the popular uprising in Syria, inspired by similar protests across the Arab world, has claimed an estimated 1,500 lives according to rights groups.

In response to a call from Germany for the United Nations Security Council to call an emergency session to respond to the unfolding events in Hama, the 15-member body met on Monday in New York.

A modified version of a draft resolution condemning the Syrian authorities for its crackdown was circulated at the meeting. An earlier draft of the resolution, introduced by Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal, was blocked by China and Russia in May this year. As permanent members of the Security Council—along with the United States, France, and the U.K.—they hold veto power over any resolution.

“It’s clear that President Bashar al-Assad is unwilling to halt his security forces, so the U.N. must take decisive action to stem this violent campaign of repression,” said Philip Luther, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International, in a press release on Monday.

The European Union announced on Monday that in response to the clampdown on the city of Hama five Syrian officials “involved in or associated with the violent repression” would have sanctions imposed on them, including a travel ban and the freezing of assets.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/syrian-troops-hammer-hama-for-second-day-59845.html.