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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

University Brawls Tarnish Jordan's Education Sector

Written by Abdullah Omar
Monday, July 23, 2012

Earlier this month, dozens of students used guns, knives and Molotov cocktail during a brawl in Muta university in Karak. The incident highlighted how fragile security is in a country that prides itself as a safe heaven in a region bubbling with uncertainty.

Thousands of students from the Gulf and other areas are currently studying in Jordan, which has a long tradition of excellent universities. Officials fear that if the fighting continues, the Gulf countries will stop sending students, an important source of revenue for the financially-strapped kingdom.

At least 20 people were injured during the melee in the southern city of Kerak when dozens of students from two East Bank (Native Jordanian) tribes, the al-Bararsheh and the Hamaydeh fought after one student accused another of stealing his cell phone.

A deputy dean was stabbed in the back and a number of buildings were reduced to ashes before security forces intervened to contain the situation, said eyewitnesses.

“An argument developed into a fist fight. Within minutes several people from both tribes were at each other throats,” Ali Abdul Rahman Jabari, an engineering student told The Media Line.

He said the situation spiraled out of control after one student began bleeding after being stabbed in the back. Students from both tribes called for reinforcements from relatives living in nearby villages.

The university this week suspended 17 students who took part in the fighting. University officials say they are concerned that the incident could have a negative impact on the country’s reputation as a regional hub for higher education.

The fight is the latest episode in a series of brawls on both private and public universities campuses. Most of the fights begin over issues such as insulting a girl’s honor, or allegations of theft.

At the University of Jordan, the kingdom’s largest university, there have been several tribal related fights.

Abdul Rahman Shasheer, a member of the student council said tensions over internal elections or insults to girls have sparked fighting.

“Most fights develop between students coming from small villages who are very conservative and others from the city with a more open minded approach,” he told The Media Line. “They start as a confrontation between two people and develop into mass brawls.”

Officials, psychologists and social activists are struggling to come up with an explanation.

They blame blind allegiance to tribes, deteriorating living standards, and political repression. There are also clashes between modern and conservative approaches to the relations between men and women.

Psychologist Hussein Khuzay believes the absence of the rule of law in Jordan and widespread nepotism and favoritism have created a crisis of confidence between the public and the government.

“People no longer believe that official channels can protect people’s rights,” he said.

“Favoritism is now deeply rooted in universities and other public institutions, which leads to putting incompetent people in sensitive posts.”

Khuzay says the rising number of brawls clearly shows authorities are unable to control the students on campuses.

Students from the University of Jordan say there is no discipline in the university and no consequences for fighting.

They say most students who have been involved in clashes have not been punished or had their punishment suspended after interference from influential figures in the security apparatus, the royal court or the parliament.

“We have in our universities students who do not deserve to be in here, but were allowed in because they have ties with influential figures universities but are granted seats due to their links to influential figures.,” Fakher Daas, the coordination of the national committee for students rights told The Media Line. “Most fights are initiated by these groups.”

Meanwhile, Mohammad Khatib, the spokesman of the public security department blamed the universities for not being able to stop students from carrying weapons.

“It is not the responsibility of the police to prevent students from carrying weapons inside universities,” he said. “The police can not enter these sacred sites.”

Khatib said the government is concerned that such fights could spill over to nearby towns and cities.

Students from the oil-rich Gulf often pay full tuition, and universities are called “the oil of Jordan.” In Muta, officials from the Saudi embassy said at least 700 Saudi students applied to be transferred following the surge in level of violence.

Officials from the Ministry of Higher Education expressed concern that a bad reputation will encourage new students to apply to other countries and not to come to Jordan.

The kingdom generates hundreds of millions of dollars by providing education to foreign nationals, but the rising violence could push students to look elsewhere, says economic expert Hussam Ayesh.

"University violence will dent Jordan’s reputation as a safe heaven for students and this well translate into heavy financial losses to a major contributor to the national economy,” he said.

He also believes that the brawls among educated young Jordanians could discourage foreign investors from opening projects in Jordan, particularly in areas hit by violence.

Source: The Media Line.
Link: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=35640.

Australia to offer new gender choice on passports

SYDNEY (BNO NEWS) -- The Australian government will now offer a third choice besides male and female when citizens identify their gender on passport forms in an effort to remove gender discrimination, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported on Thursday.

Under new rules unveiled this week, those who do not identify themselves as male or female will be able to list their gender on passports as X. Meanwhile, transgender people will be able to pick whether they are male or female.

Under the old rules, passport applicants could change their status only after a sex-change operation. Now, gender reassignment surgery will no longer be a prerequisite to get a passport identifying them the way they wish. However, applicants will still need to present a statement from a doctor supporting their preferred gender.

According to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, the reform was in line with the government's efforts to remove discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Transgender advocates said the new rules will save transsexual Australians from needless embarrassment and delays.

The Australian Coalition for Equality said people would now be able to travel overseas without being stopped by officials because their passport doesn't match their public identity. "From that point of view, it's a huge step forward," spokeswoman Martine Delaney said, as reported by the AAP.

Delaney welcomed the announcement, saying the changes would give "greater recognition" to transgender and intersex Australians. "The flow-on effects acknowledge these people are human beings with rights," she said.

Friday, September 16th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/news/australia-to-offer-new-gender-choice-on-passports.html.

Indonesia gov't to monitor Dutch compensation for 1947 massacre

JAKARTA (BNO NEWS) -- The Indonesian government will monitor developments around a Dutch court ruling on the 1947 Rawagede massacre, a presidential spokesman said on Thursday.

A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that the Netherlands was responsible for the massacre carried out by its colonial troops in the town of Rawagede, east of Jakarta, on December 9, 1947. It said the victims' families should be compensated, although it is not known how much they will be paid.

Teuku Faizasyah, the president's special aide on international affairs, declined to comment on what the government would do next to follow up on the ruling, the Jakarta Globe reported. He only said the government hoped the ruling could meet the people's sense of justice.

In 2008, the widows of eight victims and one survivor from Rawagede filed a lawsuit against the Dutch state to demand compensation for the massacre. The Netherlands has admitted the executions in the past but had insisted that no claim could be lodged due to the expiry of the statute of limitations of five years in Dutch law.

Dutch authorities say that 150 were killed, while a victims' association claims that 431 people lost their lives.

Friday, September 16th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/news/indonesia-govt-to-monitor-dutch-compensation-for-1947-massacre.html.

Cambodia and Thailand agree to remove troops from disputed border

PHNOM PENH (BNO NEWS) -- Thailand and Cambodia on Thursday agreed to remove their troops from a disputed area on their common border, officials said on Friday.

The prime ministers of both countries agreed to "redeploy troops" away from the disputed area near the temple, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said. He added that the redeployment of troops would require observers from Indonesia, the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc, according to the Bangkok Post.

In July, a ruling by the Hague-based International Court of Justice asked both nations to withdraw military personnel from around the Preah Vihear temple complex, but neither side has pulled out yet. Last month, Cambodia withdrew approximately 1,500 troops from an area located 150 kilometers (93 miles) west of the Preah Vihear Temple as the two neighboring countries' military tension eased.

Both Cambodia and Thailand claim the 4.6 square kilometer (1.7 square miles) area near the ancient Preah Vihear temple on their shared border, which has never been formally established. However, the military tension has eased since the former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory in July's general election.

Tensions first escalated between the two countries in July 2008 following the build-up of military forces near the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple. The United Nations Security Council urged both sides to establish a permanent ceasefire after at least 10 people were killed.

Clashes resumed earlier this year as both nations claim the lands surrounding the ancient Hindu Temple, which has been damaged due to the conflict. The Preah Vihear temple dates back to the 11th century and is located on the Cambodian side of the border.

Both prime ministers held talks on Thursday during Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's one-day official visit to Phnom Penh. According to Yingluck, the meeting went smoothly and was the opening of "a new chapter" in relations between Thailand and Cambodia, the Bangkok Post reported.

She also said that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had promised to find ways for the early release of two Thai activists jailed in a Cambodian prison. Veera Somkwamkid and Ratree Pipattanapaiboon, from the Thailand Patriot Network, were detained for illegal entry and spying charges.

A Cambodian court on February 1 ruled that Veera and his secretary Ratree were guilty of espionage, illegal entry, and trespassing in a military zone. Veera was sentenced to eight years in jail and a 1.8 million riel ($450) fine, while Ratree was handed a six-year jail term and a 1.2 million riel ($300) fine.

Friday, September 16th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/news/cambodia-and-thailand-agree-to-remove-troops-from-disputed-border.html.

Astronomers spot Star Wars-like planet with two suns

WASHINGTON (BNO NEWS) -- Astronomers have identified the first circumbinary planet, a planet orbiting two stars, similar to the one seen in the 30-year-old Star Wars film.

The planet, which has been dubbed Kepler-16b, is located some 200 light-years from Earth and has been described as cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life. The planet was detected during NASA's Kepler mission and its discovery is significant as it demonstrates the diversity of planets within the galaxy.

The existence of circumbinary planets had been previously hinted by earlier researches, but the detection now confirms such planets. Kepler detected the planet by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it.

According to astronomers, Kepler-16b is an inhospitable, cold world about the size of Saturn and thought to be made up of about half rock and half gas.

The parent stars are smaller than our sun. One is 69 percent the mass of the sun and the other only 20 percent. The research also showed that Kepler-16b orbits around both stars every 229 days, similar to Venus' 225-day orbit, but lies outside the system's habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the surface, because the stars are cooler than our sun.

A research team led by Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, used data from the Kepler space telescope, which measures dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, to search for transiting planets. Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet.

"This discovery confirms a new class of planetary systems that could harbor life," Kepler principal investigator William Borucki said. "Given that most stars in our galaxy are part of a binary system, this means the opportunities for life are much broader than if planets form only around single stars. This milestone discovery confirms a theory that scientists have had for decades but could not prove until now."

From our vantage point on Earth, scientists detected a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other and the new planet in the Kepler-16 system. When the smaller star partially blocks the larger star, a primary eclipse occurs, and a secondary eclipse occurs when the smaller star is occulted, or completely blocked, by the larger star.

However, astronomers said a third body could exist since observations showed that the brightness of the system dipped even when the stars were not eclipsing one another.

The additional dimming in brightness events, called the tertiary and quaternary eclipses, reappeared at irregular intervals of time, indicating the stars were in different positions in their orbit each time the third body passed. This showed the third body was circling, not just one, but both stars, in a wide circumbinary orbit.

In addition, another good indicator of the mass of the third body was the gravitational tug on the stars, measured by changes in their eclipse times. Only a very slight gravitational pull was detected, one that only could be caused by a small mass.

"Most of what we know about the sizes of stars comes from such eclipsing binary systems, and most of what we know about the size of planets comes from transits," said Doyle, who also is the lead author and a Kepler participating scientist. "Kepler-16 combines the best of both worlds, with stellar eclipses and planetary transits in one system."

In the Star Wars saga, the fictional planet called Tatooine shows a world with a double sunset. Contrary to Kepler-16b, the fictional planet is habitable, and is even the home planet of the saga's main characters Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) and Luke Skywalker.

"Working in film, we often are tasked with creating something never before seen," said visual effects supervisor John Knoll of Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., in San Francisco.

"However, more often than not, scientific discoveries prove to be more spectacular than anything we dare imagine. There is no doubt these discoveries influence and inspire storytellers. Their very existence serves as cause to dream bigger and open our minds to new possibilities beyond what we think we 'know.'"

Friday, September 16th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/news/astronomers-spot-star-wars-like-planet-with-two-suns.html.

Al-Jazeera, you're not alone

By DAVID ROSENBERG / THE MEDIA LINE
09/18/2011

Broadcasters battle it out to be top in covering Mideast news; Prince Alwaleed, Sky lead list of new satellite TV news contenders in region.

A new Middle East conflict is on its way –and this time it’s not being brought to you by the region’s satellite television news channels but it’s a battle among the broadcasters themselves as the Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya come under assault from a host of new contenders.

Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, whose $20 billion fortune makes him the 26th wealthiest man in the world, said on Tuesday that he would launch his 24-hour news channel “Alarab” sometime next year, with Bloomberg News providing financial news programming. A few days earlier, Sky News Arabia, a joint venture between Britain’s BSkyB and Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corp, confirmed plans to begin their all-news network next spring.

While Alarab and Sky News Arabia are the most serious new contenders, there are others are also readying to enter the market with channels wholly or partly dedicated to news.

“There’s no doubt it’s a crowded marketplace and what we’ll be looking for is ways in which the channels become distinctive within the marketplace,” said Rob Beynon, chief executive of DMA Media, a international media company that helps launch news channels around the world, including the Middle East.

“There are a lot of different ways to do that – greater or less concentration of business news, aiming for a younger audience, which the Alwaleed channel has said it will do. You could aim at a more internationally focused audience, which is something that Sky News Arabia can do,” Beynon told The Media Line.

Al-Jazeera, which is owned by the government of Qatar, pioneered the idea of a pan-Arab news channel when it took to the airwaves in 1993. It was followed by Al-Arabiya in 2003, which is controlled by the Saudi-backed MBC Group. Since then, the two have enjoyed a near duopoly on the eyes of news junkies around the region and have enjoyed the surge of interest in Middle East news generated by the Arab Spring.

In addition to the Alwaleed and Sky channels, Al-Mayadeen satellite media network plans a new Beirut-based satellite channel early next year, aiming to cover the “reality” of economic and social issues in the Arab world. Saudi businessman Ali Hassan Al-Nagoor said in April that he will begin a satellite channel called Tala that will air cultural, social and sports programs in addition to talk shows.

In Egypt, 16 channels have obtained licenses to broadcast to the country’s 85 million people and via satellite to the Arab world. Among them is Naguib Sawiris, scion of a telecommunications and construction empire, who is sponsoring two new channels that will complement his holdings in the news and public affairs channel OTV and his shares in various local newspapers.

Even Israel is entering the game: The country’s regulators this week granted a license to Hala TV group, which includes Arab and Jewish partners, to operate an Arabic-language cable and satellite channel, which is scheduled to hit the airwaves in January.

The number of free to air (FTA) satellite TV channels in the Arab World increased by 10.5% between April 2010 and April 2011 to 538 , according to a June report by the Amman, Jordan-based Arab Advisors Group research. Two-thirds are privately owned, with the rest under government control.

A YouGov Siraj poll conducted last March found that 52% of some 11,500 people surveyed said they watched Al-Jazeera on a “regular” basis, trailed by Al-Arabiya with 47%. Local news channels drew a combined 25% while the Arabic versions of the BBC and CNBC were viewed regularly by 21% and 10%, respectively.

The BBC and CNN in English each garnered 23%. The bad news for the new contenders is that is that only 9% said they don’t watch news channels, which doesn’t leave much new audience to tap. The good news for them is that the Arabic-language broadcasters all scored lower for trustworthiness than they did for audience, indicating that there may be opportunities to take market share.

While Facebook and other social media channels got the most attention during the Arab Spring protests, Jon Alterman, Middle East program director at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said far more people got their news from and were influenced by satellite television.

“Pan-Arab media demonstrated that it fills many of the same roles that independent media do in other authoritarian countries, providing a counter-narrative to those of ruling regimes,” he wrote in the latest issue of The Washington Quarterly.

Internet access isn’t nearly that wide and many homes don’t have a computer. But many poor households invest in a dish antenna, said Ramesh Srinivasan, who teaches and researches social media issues at the University of California in Los Angeles. A recent study funded by the US Agency for International Development, found that more than 70% of Egyptians have access to satellite television in their homes.

“I stayed in shacks made of garbage with satellite dishes on their roofs,” Srinivasan told The Media Line, recalling a research visit to Cairo last spring. “These satellite dishes were picking up channels and networks not tightly controlled by the state.”

The Arab Spring has acted as an impetus for the new channels, providing a continuous and compelling news story and in some countries, most notably Egypt, ushering in a new era of media freedom. “Alarab will focus editorially on the important shifts taking place across the Arab world with an emphasis on freedom of speech and freedom of press,” a statement from Prince Alwaleed said this week, explaining his new venture.

But an all-news channel is an expensive proposition demanding huge investments in people and equipment, DMA’s Beynon said. When the US government launched Al-Hurra in 2004, its first-year budget was $60 million, which doubled in subsequent years. Backers can expect several years of losses and an audience that waxes and wanes depending on the flow of news.

“You have to be very distinctive in your marketplace to make money. People will watch news channels when there’s a big story and often there can be days, weeks or months when there isn’t one and you have to get in there and develop the brand,” Beynon said.

Moreover, the market may be less accommodating to news broadcasters than they had hoped.

Last week Egypt's military rulers froze new licenses for private satellite TV stations and are taking steps against broadcasters that they say are inciting violence. The offices of Al Jazeera’s Egyptian unit Mubasher Misr, launched following the revolution, were raided by authorities last Sunday, resulting in a technical engineer arrest and confiscated equipment.

Source: The Jerusalem Post.
Link: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=238403.

Turkish PM visits Tunisia

2011-09-15

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tunis on Wednesday (September 14th), accompanied by a large delegation of government officials and business leaders, TAP reported. Erdogan's two-day visit includes meetings with Interim Prime Minister Béji Caïd Essebsi, President Fouad Mebazaa and political party representatives. Erdogan's North African tour began in Egypt. The next stop is Libya.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/09/15/newsbrief-05.

Maghreb youth adopt new approach to UMA

With little progress from Maghreb governments on regional unity, young activists are taking the issue into their own hands.

By Jemal Oumar for Magharebia in Nouakchott – 15/09/11

Members of the Euro-Maghreb Youth Union (UJEM) wrapped up a three-day visit to Nouakchott on Wednesday (September 14th), in which they pressed their call for a united, democratic Maghreb.

Members of the UJEM Follow-up Committee said the visit was in part to help plan for the group's general conference this December in Nouakchott, as well as a chance to explain their hopes for a united Maghreb and review recommendations made at last April's UJEM conference in Tunis.

UJEM is based on a new and different approach to build a unified and democratic Maghreb Union (UMA) in which borders and visas between the countries of the Maghreb disappear and in which intellectual, political and cultural pluralism is respected," said the group's Morocco representative, Rabaii El Ouafoudi.

El Ouafoudi, said that the association was founded "with consensus and the participation of youth organizations from the Maghreb countries and a number of political officials, academics and Maghreb citizens, after the organization of many round tables and brainstorming workshops".

"The Arab Maghreb Union is obsolete and moribund," El Ouafoudi said in explaining why the youth movement was founded. He said civil society took the initiative to push for a Maghreb Union after "official failure".

Abdessamad Filali, the head of the Tunis Conference Follow-up Committee, said that current situation in the region with democratic revolutions serves the youth movement's purpose and fits with their goals.

"We realize we are still in the framework of building the Maghreb Union and still have a lot of work to do, because things remain ambiguous in the countries changed by revolutions," Filali said. "This is what we are working to guide and to rectify its course through our community youth work."

Ahmed Ould Mouhamedou, with the Mauritanian Youth Movement Party, said that his group backed the idea of a Maghreb Union.

"We recognize that the founding fathers of the Arab Maghreb Union were advocating the same thing we are calling for today, with different circumstances and facts, but the veteran political class that came thereafter abandoned that approach," Ould Mouhamedou said. "This prompted us to call for getting rid of that political class, because we believe its ideas are what prevented formation of a unified Maghreb Union based on democracy, human rights and economic integration."

Abdullah Ould Sid Mohamed, a member of the February 25th Youth Movement, said he attached high hopes to the UJEM Nouakchott conference set for December.

"We appreciate this initiative for Arab Maghreb unity as long as its source is independent of the current Maghreb governments, because those governments do not seek to achieve unity for fear of compromising their own narrow interests," Ould Sid Mohamed said. "Meanwhile, the youth of Arab Maghreb countries share in the daily concern of searching for work and making a living, and they also share ambitions and aspirations."

Mohamed Vall, an independent youth, does not stray far from that proposition, saying that "young people can achieve what official governments have failed to do, because there are facts helping that, such as a unified sense of belonging, facing the same challenges and the intersection of contemporary culture, all of which encourage unity. But the role of governments is still necessary to overcome other obstacles."

"Economic integration can only be achieved with the desire of the rulers, as well as open borders and abolition of the visa," Vall added. "There thus must be pressure on governments to respond to such demands."

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/09/15/feature-04.

Libya refugee flow persists

Though Libyan rebels liberated most cities from Moamer Kadhafi's grip, tough living conditions continue to force masses of people to flee.

By Monia Ghanmi for Magharebia in Tunis – 15/09/11

More than 9,000 refugees from Libya cross the Ras Jedir border into Tunisia every day, according to customs and security officials.

Rebel victories in the conflict-ridden country have not helped ease the refugee flow. Due to the war basic supplies are running low, essential services are intermittent and food costs are on the rise.

Most Libyans come to Tunisia for medical treatment, especially after the National Transitional Council (NTC) pledged last month to help Libyan families by bearing treatment expenses.

"Hospitals suffer from shortage of medical crews after all foreign employees left the country," said Abdel Majid Buerriche, who arrived from Tripoli. "Hospitals also suffer from shortage of medical supplies and scarcity of medicines. In addition, the existing medical crews now direct most of their attention to emergencies and ignore the rest of sicknesses that we suffer from."

Tunisian hospitals are overflowing with patients from Libya. The health sector is facing a crisis, Buerriche added, and is no longer capable of meeting the needs of people wounded in war as well as regular patients.

Salim Fkih, a commercial manager of a private clinic in Sfax, confirmed that about 90% of visitors to his clinic these days were Libyan patients. They mostly suffer from injuries from missiles and shrapnel from bombs that were used in the conflict. This is in addition to some other chronic diseases, such as diabetes and renal failure, he added.

To spare Libyan patients the troubles of travel, Tunisia's health ministry on Thursday (September 8th) sent a medical team of 15 doctors and paramedics, along with a supply of medicines and medical devices to the central hospital in the Libyan city of Gharyan. The move aims to help Libyan doctors perform surgeries and treat patients, affected by the war.

Others leave Libya to escape exorbitant food prices and a continued shortage of basic supplies.

"The condition is still bad," Om Radhouane told Magharebia. "Getting some food items is an extremely difficult thing. Unfortunately, this tough condition will need several weeks to return to what it was before the war."

Milk, gas and bread are in short supply and costly, she added. Still, optimism prevails among some citizens.

"Now that we have removed the main obstacle that has so far hindered the development of our country, we have a chance to change our country and put it on the right path," said Khaled Nassar. "In spite of all the difficulties that we’re facing, I’m sure that the Libyan people will succeed in building the new, real Libyan state that we are dreaming of."

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/09/15/feature-01.

Virgin aims for first space launch within 12 months

Washington (AFP)
Sept 15, 2011

British business magnate Richard Branson hopes to launch a vessel into space within the next 12 months, kicking off an era of commercial space travel.

"The mother ship is finished... The rocket tests are going extremely well, and so I think that we're now on track for a launch within 12 months of today," he told CNN's Piers Morgan late Wednesday.

"This could be the beginning of a whole new era of space travel, which will be commercial space travel."

His company, Virgin Galactic, hopes to one day send people into space and launch satellites for a fraction of the cost of government-run programs, as well as eventually offering high-speed intercontinental flights.

"About an hour between Los Angeles and London is not completely out of the question," Branson said, adding that it will likely take many years before the company can offer such a service.

In the meantime, Virgin has sold some 430 tickets for space travel -- at $200,000 a pop -- for an estimated $86 million.

"It's not a cheap thing to build a spaceship company and it's been fantastic to have people all over the world sign up," Branson said.

The company plans to begin by taking tourists on sub orbital flights before eventually soaring higher. Branson has said in the past he hopes to one day build a hotel in space.

A number of private companies are rushing to fill the gap left by NASA, which ended its 30-year shuttle program in July with the completion of the final Atlantis mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Earlier this year, the US space agency distributed nearly $270 million in seed money to four companies -- Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada and Blue Origin -- to boost their bids to be first in the new space era.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Virgin_aims_for_first_space_launch_within_12_months_999.html.

Opposition launches 140-member National Council

By Duraid Al Baik
September 16, 2011

United front will work with people within the country and with international community to stop the killings.

Dubai: Syrian opposition figures marked the start of the seventh month of the people's uprising against the rule of President Bashar Al Assad's regime by forming a 140-member Syrian National Council. The group includes 70 exiled opposition figures and 70 from inside the country, according to Paris-based Dr Basma Kodmani, secretary of the council.

She said the council will act as a united front against the brutality of the regime and will work with people inside Syria and with the international community to stop the killings. The council consists of various political groups with different ideological backgrounds. It has a majority of secular representatives in addition to Islamists and leftists. Sources close to the steering committee of the council told Gulf News that hectic efforts were invested for the formation of the group. "Meetings were held in Turkey, Egypt, Belgium and in the UK to come up with a unified front capable of representing Syrians inside the country and abroad. The council would hopefully be a turning point in the struggle against the regime which has killed more than 3,500 people and injured 20,000 in its full-scale war against civilians," Dr Ammar Qurabi, head of the Council for Change in Syria, told Gulf News.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Syrian opposition members were meeting in Paris with French officials on Thursday and Friday.

Source: Gulf News.
Link: http://gulfnews.com/news/region/syria/opposition-launches-140-member-national-council-1.867533.

Shut Israel Embassy, Jordanians demand

ABDUL JALIL MUSTAFA
Thursday 15 September 2011

AMMAN: About 2,000 Jordanians demonstrated outside the Kaluti Mosque in Rabia neighborhood here Thursday night urging the closure of the Israeli Embassy and the abrogation of the peace treaty with Israel.

The security authorities cordoned off the area and set up metal barricades outside the mosque to prevent protesters from proceeding to the Israeli mission which was earlier evacuated of its staff by the Israeli government.

Participants, mainly belonging to the Islamic-led opposition, trade unions and Pan-Arab groups, chanted slogans and raised placards urging the government to cancel the peace pact Jordan signed with the Zionist state in 1994.

Activists earlier called on Facebook for a demonstration of one million participants, but the call apparently failed possibly because of unprecedented security measures taken by the authorities.

One of the slogans during the protest was: “The Qur’an is our constitution and Jihad is our path.”

Another slogan was: “No to the alternative homeland and we are going to burn Israel.”

The slogan referred to suggestions by extremist Israeli politicians for the setting up of a homeland for Palestinians in Jordan instead of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“The grudge against Israel is rapidly building up in the country because of its crimes in Palestine and elsewhere,” said Hamzeh Mansour, secretary-general of the Islamic Action Front, the country’s main opposition party.

“The Jordanian people are against the establishment of normal ties with this enemy,” he told Arab News.

Responding to Israel’s decision to evacuate the embassy in Amman, Mansour said: “The Zionist enemy is feeling further isolation as a result of the Arab Spring.”

“It also feels that its existence is no longer safe and stable, particularly after what happened in Cairo last week,” he added.

Thursday’s rally found inspiration from a demonstration in Cairo that ended last Friday when the Israeli diplomatic mission was stormed and the staff was evacuated by commandos.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/node/391152.

World backs Syrian opposition

Thursday 15 September 2011

ISTANBUL: Syrian opposition activists meeting in Istanbul announced on Thursday the members of Syrian National Council to provide an alternative to President Bashar Assad’s government as a brutal crackdown continued in their homeland.

Addressing a news conference at the end of four days of talks, Basma Kadmani, a Syrian exile living in France, said the council aimed to help topple Assad’s dictatorship within six months and form an interim government thereafter.

“The political vision of the council will give a push to the escalation of the revolutionary work we are seeing,” she said.

“This group, based on previous initiatives, and on what the street is demanding, is calling for the downfall of the regime with all of its limbs.” While condemning the Syrian government’s repressive response to pro-democracy protests, the international community has bemoaned the lack of a unified opposition that it could talk to.

By finalizing names of its members, drawn from Syria’s various political, religious and ethnic groups, the council hopes to fill that gap. “The next step will be international recognition, and the council will act in accordance with the wishes of the Syrian people,” Adip Shishakly, a member of a prominent Syrian political family, said at the end of the Istanbul meeting.

While not ruling out foreign military intervention in Syrian as more protesters call for international protection, Kadmani said the focus for now was on stepping up diplomatic and economic pressure on Assad.

Some 140 people were chosen as council members, of whom 40 percent were based outside Syria, but more could be appointed later.

A list of 72 members was circulated but the names of those inside Syria were mostly withheld to protect them from reprisals by Assad’s security forces.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon called Thursday for “coherent” new international action over the deadly crackdown.

“When he has not been keeping his promises, enough is enough and the international community should really take coherent measures and speak in one voice,” the UN secretary general told a press conference.

Members of the European Parliament called Thursday for the immediate departure of Assad who they said had lost all legitimacy.

In a resolution adopted in Strasbourg, Parliament called on Assad and his regime to “relinquish power immediately.” “The Syrian regime is calling its legitimacy into question by choosing a path of repression instead of fulfilling its own promises on broad reforms,” the resolution said.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/node/391153.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Discover the astounding healing properties of clove oil

Thursday, September 15, 2011
by: Paul Fassa

(NaturalNews)You may be familiar with clove oil used by the dentist. Some of us have used clove oil to self medicate a toothache. Clove oil is an externally applied local antiseptic that numbs on contact. But very few are familiar with a variety of other clove health benefits, which includes combating Candida.

About Cloves

Clove was originally indigenous to the Spice Islands, now known as Moluccas Islands of Indonesia. The largest producer of clove now is Zanzibar along with Pemba, an island that's part of the Zanzibar archipelago.

The evergreen Eugenia arena tree puts most of its punch into the pink flower buds that grow on it. The buds are picked before they fully flower. When the pink buds dry and turn brown, they are ready for market.

The dried buds contain an aromatic oily substance that is the essence of clove's medicinal and culinary properties. It's wise to purchase cloves in their bud forms. Purchased powders may have lost most of their potency by the time you buy and use them. Dried buds hold up to three times as long.

Whenever you want clove as a powder, you can grind the buds in a coffee grinder. When you shop for cloves, pinch the buds with your fingernails. You should get a strong aromatic scent and a slightly oily feel. Choose organic if possible to avoid irradiated clove spices.

Clove's oil is the key for spicing foods and promoting health. Cloves can be used to make teas by putting the buds or powder into hot (not boiling) water. But the biggest health bang for the buck comes from clove essential oil.

Clove Oil

Clove oil is produced by a steam distillation process. So you're probably better off buying the oil rather than trying to make it yourself. Clove oil is available almost anywhere.

Clove oil is an unusually powerful antioxidant. Antioxidant capacity is measure by ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity). Although the dried buds or powders rank highly among anti-oxidants, clove oil is the monster antioxidant.

As an essential oil, clove's ORAC rating soars to over 10 million. Most other antioxidants are rated in the tens of thousands to a maximum of a few hundred thousand at best.

Producing the oil from clove buds concentrates clove's eugenol, the main active ingredient of clove. Eugenol is an anti-inflammatory. Clove's flavonoids also contribute to the high ORAC level of the essential oil.

And clove oil is a great anti-fungal. It's even recommended by many who treat Candida. The oil is also useful for direct applications to outer skin fungi, such as ringworm and athlete's foot.

Nutritional/Medicinal Value

Clove is one of the highest sources of manganese you'll find. Manganese is vital for metabolism, contributes enzymes, promotes bone strength, and also adds to clove's high ORAC antioxidant value.

Magnesium, calcium, vitamins C and K also make strong appearances in clove. Clove is high in fiber also. Omega-3 is in abundance in clove as well as many phytonutrients that enhance the immune system. Clove greatly boosts your humoral immunity, which protects your blood and tissues.

Clove has anti-viral anti-bacterial properties as well. It has been discovered to help prevent adult onset diabetes by tripling insulin levels.

Caveat

Young children and pregnant or nursing women should avoid clove.

Clove oil is very strong. It can cause temporarily uncomfortable problems. Too much can cause manganese toxicity. So the oil should be diluted as a product or used by putting drops into tea.

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/033579_clove_oil_healing.html.

Jordanian demo demands Israeli embassy closure

Thursday 15/09/2011

AMMAN (AFP) -- Around 200 Jordanians demonstrated near the Israeli embassy in Amman on Thursday, demanding that the government expel the state's envoy and scrap the joint 1994 peace treaty.

"The people want to shut down the embassy. Amman must be liberated from the embassy and ambassador," the protesters chanted outside al-Kaluti mosque near the embassy, where 1,500 anti-riot policemen stood guard, a security source said.

"The people want the downfall of Wadi Araba (peace) treaty," read a banner carried by the demonstrators, including opposition Islamists, leftists and youth groups, who waved national and Palestinian flags.

Some set the Israeli flag ablaze while others tried to get closer to the embassy but were prevented from doing so by police.

Ambassador Danny Navon returned earlier to Israel with his staff ahead of the demonstration, Israeli public radio reported.

"The fact that the Israeli ambassador and his staff left the country is a victory for us," one demonstrator told AFP.

Earlier, a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP: "We have not been officially informed of anything."

Last weekend, a mob ransacked Israel's mission in Egypt and the ambassador and his staff were evacuated from the country. Six Israeli security guards were besieged in the embassy building for several hours before being rescued by Egyptian commandos.

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=420647.

100,000 displaced in Sudan's Blue Nile state

Sept. 14, 2011

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of people in Sudan's border state of Blue Nile have been displaced by conflict between Sudanese forces and rebels, a U.N. agency said.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in a report on Sudan, said it wasn't able to get an accurate assessment about the situation in Blue Nile state because of lack of access.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir recently called for a cease-fire in South Kordofan and denied reports of mass graves and ethnic violence in the area bordering South Sudan. Conflict, however, has spread to Blue Nile state.

OCHA in a statement said that fighting between Sudanese forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North is estimated to have displaced around 100,000 people.

Sudan claims the reports of violence along the border are overblown. OCHA in its update said that while the situation in Blue Nile state was improving, the situation remains tense.

Displacement continues in South Kordofan, the U.N. agency said but humanitarian groups were able to get some assistance to refugees in the area.

OCHA said, however, that the Sudanese government has restricted the movement of U.N. staff in Blue Nile state.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/09/14/100000-displaced-in-Sudans-Blue-Nile-state/UPI-21151316009491/.

France, Germany, Spain hit EU border move

Sept. 15, 2011

BRUSSELS, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The European Union's bid to limit members' unilateral border controls within the passport-free zone met resistance from France, Germany and Spain this week.

The foreign ministers of those countries Tuesday rejected a proposal by the European Commission to assert more control over how member states could implement internal border controls inside the Schengen Zone, covering 22 EU countries, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

Since 1995, the Schengen agreement has given residents of EU members the freedom to travel between the countries without having to produce passports. But growing tensions due to waves of immigrants coming into the bloc has tested the limits of those freedoms.

Thousands of North African refugees spilling into Italy in the wake of the Arab Spring upheavals this year and others from the Middle East prompted national leaders, led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to seek a new mechanism that would allow re-imposition of border controls to bolster security.

Amid a growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, they are asking for the right to declare migration-related emergencies in order to re-impose border controls.

But Brussels has responded by seeking to clamp down on unilateral border restrictions. The European Commission is proposing to only allow member states to reinstate border controls for a maximum of five days before they would have to seek authorization from Brussels, the Financial Times reported.

The plan is to be adopted by the commission Friday and it brought a pre-emptive denunciation from the interior ministers of France, Germany and Spain, who issued a common statement Tuesday blasting the measure.

"We believe that respecting (this) core area of national sovereignty is very important to the member states. We therefore do not share the European Commission's views on assuming responsibility for making decisions on operational measures in the security field," the statement said.

Decisions on whether to reintroduce temporary checks at the internal borders, it added, are "based on an intensive assessment of the national security situation, which can only be carried out by the member states on the basis of the expertise and resources of their security authorities."

The commission's home affairs spokesman, Michele Cercone, told the EUobserver last week that it's important for the security of Europe for the EU executive to have control of when internal borders can be tightened.

"We have to move to a European system if we want Schengen to be safeguarded and guaranteed," he said.

The new Schengen rules will have to be approved by the European Parliament, where they are likely to receive a warm reception from parties that have already signaled approval for more power for Brussels, the Financial Times said.

They see it as a way to combat the growing wave of anti-immigrant anger in Europe as native workers face a tightening labor market and government-imposed austerity measures are imposed in the wake of the financial crisis.

"The zeitgeist has changed since the days when the EU created Schengen," Heather Grabbe, director of the Open Society Institute in Brussels, told the newspaper. "Law and order populism is on the rise in many member states.

"The risk is that citizens won't realize that the benefits the EU brought them -- like freedom of movement and protection from discrimination -- are being eroded until it's too late."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/09/15/France-Germany-Spain-hit-EU-border-move/UPI-76801316082840/.

Yemeni forces attack protesters in Taizz

Thu Sep 15, 2011

Yemeni security forces open fire on anti-government protesters in the southern city of Taizz as the nation renew calls for an end to the rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Press TV reports.

One protester was killed and 23 others were injured on Thursday in clashes between peaceful demonstrators and Yemen's Republican Guards, who are commanded by Saleh's son Ahmed Ali.

The new outbreak of violence comes after a series of explosions and heavy gunfire hit the capital, Sana'a, and the southern port city of Aden earlier in the day and left at least three civilians killed and five others wounded.

Yemen has been swept up by almost daily protests against Saleh, who refuses to release his three-decade long grip on power.

The Yemeni dictator has been in Saudi Arabia recovering from injuries he sustained in a rocket attack by pro-opposition tribal fighters on his palace in June.

On Tuesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report calling on the Yemeni regime to immediately release all prisoners detained during peaceful protests that erupted in the country in late January.

Navi Pillay also urged Sana'a to put an end to attacks and the use of live ammunition against civilians.

According to local reports, hundreds of Yemenis have been killed and thousands more have been injured since the outbreak of the popular uprising against the US-backed Saleh regime.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/199290.html.

Turkey vows to control Israel at sea

Thu Sep 15, 2011

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the country's navy will patrol the Mediterranean to prevent Israel from assaulting ships in the international waters.

"Israel will no longer be able to do what it wants in the Mediterranean and you'll be seeing Turkish warships in this sea," Erdogan said after a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart Beji Caid Essebsi, AFP reported.

The Turkish leader also reiterated Ankara's call on Israel to formally apologize for last year's deadly takeover of a Gaza-bound aid convoy.

On May 31, 2010, Israel navy commandos launched a deadly attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla while it was sailing in international wasters on a mission to break Tekl Aviv's siege on the Gaza Strip.

The strike left nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists, including a Turkish-American teenager, killed and dozens of others wounded.

"Relations with Israel cannot normalize if Israel does not apologize over the flotilla attack, compensate the martyrs' families and lift the blockade of Gaza," the Turkish prime minister stated.

On September 8, Erdogan said Turkey had taken steps to stop the Israeli regime from unilaterally exploiting natural resources in the Mediterranean.

"Turkish warships, in the first place, are authorized to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza...From now on, we will not let these ships to be attacked by Israel, as what happened with the Freedom Flotilla," he said.

Tel Aviv has refused to apologize for the last May bloodshed, prompting Ankara to expel the Israeli ambassador and cut all bilateral military ties with Israel.

Turkey has also vowed to take action at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to challenge Tel Aviv's four-year siege of Gaza. The blockade has been preventing the flow of food, medicine, and other basic supplies into the impoverished coastal territory.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/199303.html.

Israeli ambassador flees Jordan

Thu Sep 15, 2011

The Israeli ambassador to Jordan has reportedly fled the Jordanian capital of Amman amid fears of massive anti-Israel demonstrations near its embassy over the weekend.

According to Israeli media outlets, Danny Navon and his staff have left Jordan for Israel, AFP reported on Thursday.

No other details have been published about the reported event.

Activists in Jordan have called for a “million-man march” against the Israeli mission in Amman on Thursday. The demonstration is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. local time (1530 GMT) near the embassy.

The development comes following last Friday's massive anti-Israeli protests in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters stormed the Israeli embassy in the capital city, destroying parts of a concrete barricade wall around the building in the process.

The Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Yitzhak Levanon, fled the capital a few hours after the incident.

Three people were killed and many others injured in overnight clashes with the police outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

According to the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, the mass rally in Jordan has been posted on the social networking website Facebook under the banner “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory.”

Jordanian protesters gathered outside the US Embassy in Amman on Wednesday, burning Israeli and American flags and demanding an end to relations with Tel Aviv and Washington.

The US has served as the closest ally of the Israeli regime, facilitating as well as justifying the majority of its grave violations against Palestinian territories and its neighboring Arab states.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/199269.html.

Israeli diplomats evacuate embassy in Amman after Jordanians' call to protest

Thursday, 15 September 2011

By DINA AL-SHIBEEB

Israeli diplomats evacuated the embassy in Amman after Jordanians scheduled to stage a protest outside the building, Alarabiya correspondent reported on Thursday.

Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, Danny Navon, remained behind to be in charge of the evacuated embassy, but later received orders from his government to immediately return to Tel Aviv.

Navon was returning to Israel with his staff on Thursday, fearing a large demonstration planned outside the embassy later in the day, Israeli public radio reported.

Jordanian activists have posted calls for a mass rally on social networking site Facebook under the banner “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory.”

The Israeli foreign ministry spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jordanian opposition groups, including Islamists, leftists and youth activists, have said they plan to hold their demonstration at around 6:30 pm (1530 GMT).

In Jordan, a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP: “We have not been officially informed of anything.”

The incident comes as a continuation of last week's episode, when dozens of protesters stormed into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, dumping hundreds of documents out of the windows. The incident which left more than 215 people injured after violent clashes between protesters and security forces, compelled the Egyptian ruling army to declare a state of alert.

Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, was keen not to disturb its relations with the Jewish state, and had some of its Egyptian commandos escorting six Israeli staff to safety.

Both governments communicated that they wanted relations to stay unchanged, but Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood urged its government to “revise” its relations with Israel.

In Jordan, despite signing the peace treaty with Israel in 1994, many Jordanians still reject the relation. The Arab World traditionally sees the formation of the Jewish state as an occupation of Palestinian land, and at least half of Jordan’s population are consisted of former Palestinians.

Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton extended a Middle East trip on Wednesday to hold more talks aimed at averting a Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations, Reuters reported officials as saying.

Ashton is in the region to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders as well as diplomats from Arab countries, part of an intense international effort to revive peace talks.

Senior U.S. envoys were due in the Middle East as well this week, in what appears to be a last-ditch push to dissuade the Palestinians from seeking to upgrade their U.N. status this month -- a step Israel strongly opposes.

Washington has expressed concern that bringing the issue of Palestinian statehood to the United Nations would damage prospects for new peace talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Meanwhile, hardline Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Wednesday there will be “harsh and grave consequences” if the Palestinians persist with their plan to seek U.N. membership as a state.

Source: al-Arabyia.
Link: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/09/15/166924.html.

Yemen: Fightings for Zinjibar continue

12 September 2011

Despite the fact that the Yemeni puppet president Saleh claimed victory over the Mujahideen in the capital of the Islamic Emirate of Abyan, the fightings in Zinjibar continue.

According to the news agency Xinhua, not less than 3 puppet soldiers were killed and another four wounded on Sunday in a mine explosion against a military convoy of the Saleh's regime. The explosion was carried out by the Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

One of the officers of the Yemeni regime told the news agency that the bomb had detonated on eastern outskirts of the city of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, which is currently under siege by combined American, Saudi Arabian and Saleh's troops.

"A landmine exploded when an army convoy was heading to the Amodia area", said the army officer of the 119th tank brigade.

At the same time, the Chinese news agency reports that a source close to Al-Qaeda allegedly said that the Mujahideen had promised to begin a guerrilla warfare which would cover the whole territory of the Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

Meanwhile France-Presse refuted the Saleh's lie about the capture of Zinjibar. According to the agency, units of local puppets control at the moment only the northern and the eastern parts of Zinjibar.

In addition, fierce fightings between the Mujahideen al-Qaeda and puppet soldiers did not abate throughout Sunday in Zinjibar, although the infidelity-enforcement thugs earlier argued that most of the Islamic fighters allegedly fled the city and moved to a nearby Jaar which is controlled by the Mujahideen since March.

According to the officer, puppets are hesitant to enter the city center.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/12/15112.shtml.

Reality of creating single Islamic Front in Africa getting closer

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

* * * * *

12 September 2011

Despite US hopes that the killing of Sheikh Osama bin Laden (martyr, Insha'Allah) Islamic movement would suffer irreparable damage, branches of the Al Qaeda and the Salafi groups that adhere to the same path, not only did not weaken, but continue to strengthen their influence, including in the African country of Nigeria, which had not previously been considered by Americans as the source of Jihad, according to the UmmaNews website.

Nigerian Mujahideen remain active in the north-eastern part of Nigeria. Their objective coincided with the objectives of fighters of al-Qaeda. The movement was founded in 2002. It is known as "Boko Haram" - meaning the ban on the spread of Western education, culture and values.

Growth in the number of fighters, "Boko Haram" - is another warning for the West, because it shows how quickly this branch of Al-Qaeda may grow, evolve and eventually become a threat to local puppet regime, the US and its allies.

Islamic fighters from the "Boko Haram" conduct active military operations, which include raids on offices and checkpoints of puppet police, seizure of weapons and ammunition, as well as training of young Muslims who are fighting and training in the desert at the border towns between Nigeria and Niger.

The activities of the Mujahideen were aimed at overthrowing pro-US regime and establish an Islamic government, which they nicknamed the "Nigerian Taliban".

The group was founded in city of Kanam. In 2003, "Boko Haram" began to operate in other major cities, including in Maiduguri and Damaturu, state capitals of Yobe and Borno.

Nigerian puppets took a concerted effort to stem the onslaught of the Mujahideen and the restoration of relative calm. That was in 2003, but since then the group has become much more experienced and stronger. Mujahideen of "Boko Haram" have begun to apply new tactics - Istishhad, or self-sacrifice, operations.

In June, just one month after the Inspector-General of Police Hafiz Ringim had argued that he was "determined" to eliminate the Jihad, the Mujahideen carried out an Istishhad operation against police headquarters in the capital of Abuja. The main purpose of Islamic fighters was to kill Hafiz Ringim, and he barely escaped.

Last month, the Mujahideen detonated a car bomb at the UN building complex in Abuja. As a result of this attack at least 16 foreign aggressors were killed. The operation was a warning to the ruling regime of Nigeria and the Western alliance as well.

As a result of a failure work of the Nigerian puppet police Mujahideen were able to establish contacts and cooperation with the fighters of al-Qaeda operating across the Sahara Desert, which includes Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Morocco.

According to experts, the Mujahideen of "Boko Haram" fight against those segments of society that are oriented to Western values ​​and lifestyles. Their goals are the puppet politicians, political groups and representatives of Christians working for the regime, as well as those who oppose the introduction of Sharia in the country.

Western officials have expressed the assumption that some senior figures of the regime have been providing covert support to the Mujahideen.

Many wealthy people of Nigeria make large donations to Islamic schools and other Islamic institutions. Experts fear that they are also fund the Mujahideen.
Serious concern to Western intelligence services is the proliferation of Islamic movements across Africa, just south of Sahara. Weak protection of the Nigerian border made it possible for Nigerian and Somali Mujahideen from al- Shabaab to cooperate amongst themselves and with other Islamic movements in Africa.

"The sprawling destabilization of the region", that is how experts describe the current situation in Africa. Contacts of "Boko haram" with al-Shabaab in the south and the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the north of the continent, cannot not cause major concern to the Western alliance.

It becomes quite apparent that the prospect of unification of all Mujahideen in Africa and creation of a unified Islamic front is getting closer.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/12/15115.shtml.

Russian agent urges missile strikes against 4 European countries, the "Kavkaz Center sites"

13 September 2011

A Russian agent in Finland, renegade priest Juha Molari, urged Russian military and the KGB to carry out missile bombings of 4 European countries which, according to his spy data, are sites of activities of the Kavkaz Center. Earlier, the agent gave full names of the citizens of these countries (non-Muslim and non-Caucasian) who are to be eliminated by the KGB for having ties with the Kavkaz Center, an ideological enemy of Putin's totalitarian Russia.

In his Sunday sermon, delivered on his Internet blog on September 11, 2001, the priest of the Finnish Lutheran Church writes:

"I do not understand why the Russian army does not follow the example of the war, the Americans wage against the axis of evil. If the Russian army were to follow the American model to combat terrorist networks, it would have destroy Georgia and Turkey for all times.

Georgia harbors and supports a large number of North Caucasian terrorists. In Turkey live or have lived in for many years Movladi Udugov, Dokku Umarov and Shamil Basayev.

Russian Iskander missiles could hit the targets in Helsinki, the Baltic region (earlier, the Russian agent mentioned a specific target in Estonia - KC), Austria, and Oslo, because these are strategic and tactical locations of the members of the terrorist group of Maskhadov, Basayev and Umarov, and tolerant local politicians in these countries.

Former chairman of the organization Finrosforum, Heidi Hautala, now supports separatism in Russia. The organization continues to keep as its secretary Mikael Storsjo, the owner of the servers of the Kavkaz Center and so on", the agent reports to Moscow on his blog.

It is worth mentioning that the current stories by Moscow KGB newspapers and some Western media that the servers of KC are located in Finland were first launched by Juha Molari.

The Russian agent watched a documentary film on Finnish TV about the Kavkaz Center with the participation of Mikael Storsjo, a Finnish businessman and human rights activist. Mr. Storjo demonstrated his company's servers his Helsinki office, linked to his customers.

In about 2 weeks after the film had been shown on Finnish TV, priest Molari got a "brillaint idea" and came to an idiotic conclusion that these had been the servers of the Kavkaz Center and he reported about that to his bosses in Moscow Center, using sermons on his Internet blog. The Molari's story was quickly picked up by the Russian KGB-controlled media and reprinted in Western press. And nobody among the journalist ever asked how it was possible that the Kavkaz Center could operate from servers in Finland, having a Swedish IP and a Sweden's provider.

Last year, the Russian agent Molari urged the KGB to organize terrorist attacks against the Kavkaz Center, to blow up our servers and kill our editors and journalists. He posted his appeal on YouTube.

Molari also publicly declared that he wants to see "the Kavkaz Center destroyed and the KC journalists executed".

It is to be recalled that Juha Molari has been defrocked and removed from pastoral duties in the parish of Helsinki suburb of Espoo for incitement of hatred. After that, the KGB propaganda channel Russia Today offered Molari to work at their channel as a news analyst.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/13/15114.shtml.

C.E. Emir Dokku Abu Usman appoints new Emir for United Province of K.B.K.

13 September 2011

Kavkaz Center has received the texts of Omras (decrees) from the Caucasus Emirate Emir, Dokku Abu Usman, on the appointment of Naibs, or Deputy Emirs (as previously reported) for the Province of Nokhchicho, and the Emir of the United Province of Kabarda-Balkaria-Karachai.

***

Omra # 27

On the appointment of Naib Emirs of Provınce of Nokhchicho of the Caucasus Emirate

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad, his family, his companions and all those who follow him until the Day of Judgement. And then:

I decree

1. To appoint Emir Khamzat as Naib Emir for the Provınce Nokhchich's Western Direction.
2. To appoint as Emir Hussein as Naib Emir for the Province Nokhchich's Eastern Direction.
3. This Omra comes into force at the moment of its signing.

Emir of the Caucasus Emirate,
Dokku Abu Usman (Dokku Umarov)
Sha'ban 10, 1432 (11/07/2011)

***

Omra # 28

On the appointment of Emir of the Armed Forces of the United Province of Kabarda-Balkaria-Karachai of the Caucasus Emirate

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad, his family, his companions and all those who follow him until the Day of Judgement. And then:

I decree

1. To appoint Alim Zankishev (Emir Ubayda) as Commander of the Armed Forces of the Province of Kabarda-Balkaria-Karachai .
2. This Omra comes into force at the moment of its signing.

Emir of the Caucasus Emirate,
Dokku Abu Usman (Dokku Umarov)
Shawwal 11, 1432 (09/09/2011)

***

Omra # 29

On the appointment of Wali, or Governor, for the United Province of Kabarda-Balkaria-Karachai of the Caucasus Emirate

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad, his family, his companions and all those who follow him until the Day of Judgement. And then:

I decree

1. To appoint Alim Zankishev (Emir Ubayda), Emir of the Armed Forces of United Province of Kabarda-Balkaria-Karachai, as Wali of the United Province of Kabarda-Balkaria-Karachai.
2. This Omra comes into force at the moment of its signing.

Emir of the Caucasus Emirate,
Dokku Abu Usman (Dokku Umarov)
Shawwal 9, 1432 (09/07/2011)

Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/13/15117.shtml.

Hamas opposes Palestinian UN bid, warns of consequences

GAZA CITY (BNO NEWS) -- The Palestinian militant group Hamas on Wednesday said it does not support the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations (UN) and warned of its consequences, the Palestine News Network (PNN) reported.

A spokesman for the movement, Salah al-Bardawil, said that President Mahmoud Abbas' decision to go to the UN is a tactical move, part of a negotiation process that is 'not based on principles.' He added that Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions it leads would therefore not support the decision.

Bardawil also told a seminar in Gaza City that if the Palestinian state is ratified within the 1967 borders, the Palestinian resistance would not be able to shoot a single bullet 'against the Israeli occupation,' according to PNN.

On Tuesday, the Fatah Revolutionary Council called for the Palestinian support of the UN bid and urged people to go out and demonstrate in city centers. Fatah said the demonstrations will increase until September 23, when President Abbas will speak to the UN General Assembly.

Last week, the United States said it will veto any Palestinian bid to seek a full United Nations membership and warned that any action at the United Nations will only increase tensions in the region. The United States is one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The U.S. comments came a day after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. officials that the Palestinian bid does not contradict the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but will end the deadlock that resulted from "Israeli intransigence."

Abbas also said that Palestine is willing to return to negotiations if Israel accepts the terms of reference to the peace process, the two-state solution on the 1967 borders and stops settlements in the Palestinian Territory, according to the Palestine News and Information Agency.

Last year, Israel and the Palestinian Authority stalled the peace negotiations, which were supported by the United States and the United Nations, after the Jewish nation refused to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territory in September.

In response, President Abbas broke off direct talks as recommended by Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and countries such as the United States and Israel. Israel has since resumed settlement construction even though they have been labeled as a violation of international law by the international community.

Palestine has demanded a stop to settlement construction in the disputed East Jerusalem and West Bank area as a key element for continuing peace talks, aimed at reaching a two-state solution based on the 1967 Green Line. However, Israeli authorities have rejected the Palestinian solution based on the 1967 borders as that measure would leave a large population of Israelis in Judea and Samaria outside Israel's borders.

About 120 out of 193 countries have currently recognized the State of Palestine and those are seen as possible supporters if the UN votes on the issue. If the UN Security Council resolution to recognize Palestine is approved, Palestine would become the 194th member of the United Nations.

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/news/hamas-opposes-palestinian-un-bid-warns-of-consequences.html.

War against Islam: Tajiks forced to hold European wedding ceremonies

14 September 2011

The war of the Rakhmonov's regime in Tajikistan against Islam intensifies. The Tajiks are now forced to hold the European-style weddings.

A resident of Tajikistan applied to the leader of puppets Rahmonov asking "to permit to hold my wedding in accordance with national and religious traditions."

The request contains in an open letter by Abdurozik Odinamatov, a resident of the district Asht Sughd. In his letter, the Muslim says that local authorities forbade him to hold his wedding ceremony in accordance with such traditions.

"They told me that I should hold my wedding in an European way. That means that both men and women should be staying in the same room, and I was told invite pop singers to the wedding.

I studied for three years in an Islamic madras, and religious traditions are dear to me, therefore I cannot hold my wedding", the author of the letter complains.

"In addition, local officials require that I do not invite representatives of opposition parties and bearded men", says the resident of the Asht region.

Earlier, media reported that local officials banned the residents of the district Asht from reading the Koran at the weddings.

Local human rights organizations openly report that the Rakhmonov's regime actively fights Islam under a pretext of fighting so-called "terrorism and extremism".

In particular, women and boys under the age of 18 are forbidden to visit mosques. The Tajik police detain men with beards and force them to shave them off.

In addition, the authorities prepared a list of issues and texts for sermons during the Friday prayers. During the last two years, the authorities have forcibly returned home more than 2,000 young people who had been studying in Islamic schools abroad.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/14/15123.shtml.

Officials Slam Deportation

2011-09-01

U.S. politicians say Malaysia was wrong to extradite a group of Uyghurs to China.

Two senior U.S. lawmakers who co-chair a commission monitoring human rights in China criticized Malaysia on Wednesday for its decision to repatriate nearly a dozen ethnic Uyghurs last month and called on Beijing to reveal the whereabouts of the men.

Republican Representative Chris Smith and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, chair members of the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China, also urged Malaysia not to deport five Uyghur asylum-seekers still in custody.

"Forced returns of Uyghurs to China reflect a blatant disregard for international law, not only by the countries deporting Uyghurs, but by the Chinese government, which is complicit in their return and responsible for egregious rights abuses within its borders," Chris Smith said.

Senator Sherrod Brown noted that the deportation to China was only the latest deportation of Uyghur refugees by countries that have been swayed by the Asian giant’s influence through large trade deals and aid packages.

In recent years, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos have all repatriated the Muslim Uyghurs, allegedly following pressure from Chinese authorities.

Pakistan deported five Uyghurs to China weeks before the Malaysian extradition. The country had previously deported “Xinjiang separatists” to China on at least three occasions.

"Tragically, the deported Uyghur men face the real threat of torture, arbitrary detention, and abuse back in China," Brown said.

"The Chinese government has long waged a harsh campaign of suppression in Xinjiang that violates international law, and it appears to have conscripted its neighbors to help carry out its oppressive policies."

Smith urged Beijing to “end its oppressive policies toward the Uyghurs, stop enlisting its neighbors in its campaigns of suppression, respect the asylum seeker and refugee designations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), and ensure the fundamental rights and freedoms of all its citizens."

August raid

The deported men were part of a larger group of 16 Uyghurs who were detained by Malaysian authorities on Aug. 6 in separate raids in the capital Kuala Lumpur and in the country’s southern Johor Bahru city, which lies across a narrow strait from Singapore.

Malaysian authorities defended the deportation, saying that the 11 men who were sent back were part of a human trafficking ring that had smuggled other Chinese citizens into the country through Thailand before providing them with fake documentation to travel on to third countries.

An official with the UNHCR in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur said the agency had tried to meet with the men before they were deported but were refused permission by Malaysian authorities.

Charges of involvement in human trafficking do not preclude access to UNHCR procedures or permit deportation to China, according to international law.

Uyghur residents of Malaysia told RFA at the time that at least three of the five Uyghurs who remain in Malaysian custody hold documents classifying them as “People of Concern” by the UNHCR.

All five have formally sought asylum with the agency.

Uyghur residents also said that one of the 11 deported Uyghurs had married a Malaysian woman and was living in the country legally.

They said that as one of the few countries in Southeast Asia that had not deported Uyghurs to China, majority-Muslim Malaysia had been sought out by members of the minority ethnic group for refuge.

Following the deportation, the London-based Amnesty International said in a statement that it had “very real concerns for the safety of these asylum seekers given the level of repression that Uyghurs face in China,” adding that Malaysia was in “flagrant breach of international law” for deporting the men.

Regional influence

China has used its economic influence in the region to detain and repatriate a number of Uyghurs authorities said were wanted in connection with deadly rioting that gripped the Xinjiang capital Urumqi in 2009, although they did not publicly provide any evidence of their involvement.

In the months that followed the violence in Urumqi, hundreds of Uyghurs were detained and at least nine were executed.

Aside from Pakistan and Malaysia, Thai authorities in August turned over a Uyghur man to Chinese authorities in Bangkok, according to exiled activists.

Cambodia deported the majority of 22 Uyghurs who sought refuge status through the UNHCR shortly after they fled China in the aftermath of the 2009 ethnic violence in Urumqi.

China also used its influence in May to convince Kazakh authorities to deport another Uyghur, Ershidin Israil, a former geography teacher, who was initially given refugee status by the UNHCR and accepted for resettlement by Sweden.

Many of Xinjiang’s estimated 8 million Uyghurs chafe at the strict controls on their religion and culture that China enforces and resent influxes of Han Chinese migrant workers and businesses.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

Source: Radio Free Asia.
Link: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/deportation-09012011163342.html.

Uyghur Flag Protesters Detained

2011-09-06

Chinese authorities hold a group of Uyghurs who opposed a national flag raising campaign.

Authorities in northwestern China have detained five ethnic Uyghur Muslims for “inciting separatism” after the men refused to honor the national flag at a ceremony held inside their mosque, according to residents and exile Uyghur groups.

Local officials say the decision to raise the flag on the grounds of the mosque in mid-August was part of a larger campaign to promote patriotism in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where a series of attacks in July left dozens dead and wounded.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, said the five men were arrested after confronting Chinese officials during the flag raising ceremony in Aksu prefecture’s Kucha county.

The five protested against the national flag being hoisted in a mosque, saying it was against Islam.

“Standing against the raising of the Chinese national flag in a mosque was the cause of the detention,” Raxit said. “The five spoke out against the Chinese officials in public, saying that raising the national flag in a mosque is wrong and goes against the principles of Islam.”

A Uyghur high school teacher in Xinjiang, who asked to remain anonymous, said that while he is not a resident of Uchosteng where the mosque is located, he had heard about the detention from acquaintances.

“The people were angry and refused to allow the raising of the Red Flag by standing hand-in-hand in front of the mosque. Finally, the officials decided to temporarily halt the flag raising campaign and reported the incident to the prefectural authorities,” the teacher said.

“No violence occurred on either side and, unexpectedly, the police also did not have a harsh response—they just got into an argument,” he said.

“But last week, a month after the event, two religious figures and three young men who had been active against the flag raising were taken away by the Kucha county secret police.”

The high school teacher said that the campaign had angered Uyghurs throughout the prefecture and that he believed the policy was a reaction to an incident in July which left some 20 people dead after a group of Uyghurs launched an attack on a police station in the western city of Hotan.

“Raising the national flag in a mosque is an insult to the Uyghurs and to Islamic principles. I believe that the campaign is retaliation for the group’s success in removing the Red Flag at the Nawagh police station and raising the Blue [flag of East Turkestan] instead.”

Uyghur groups use “East Turkestan” to refer to the Xinjiang region, which twice enjoyed short-lived independence from China during the 1930s and 40s.

Official response

Contacted by phone on Friday, Ahmet Tursun, chief of Uchosteng town, said he could not comment on the situation and was unaware that the men had been taken away by authorities.

“I had no idea about the detentions,” he said, adding that due to the politically sensitive nature of the question, he was unable to provide further details.

“I’m the one [in charge of religious issues in the town], but we have been notified by higher level authorities not to publicize the flag incident. Please contact higher officials for more information.”

But Rozi Moydin, chief of the Department of Religious Issues in Kucha county, acknowledged the event, calling it a “minor incident.”

“Nobody has protested against the national flag. It was just a few people offering a different view to the Chinese officials. In order to prevent an unexpected incident, we reported the issue to our prefectural level department,” he said.

Rozi Moydin said that the Prefectural Islamic Center decided that raising the national flag in a mosque was “not wrong” because “all people in the mosque are Chinese citizens.”

“Citizens must love and respect national symbols,” he said.

“Even so, they submitted their proposal to the regional department,” he said, which had caused authorities to halt a campaign to raise flags in mosques around the region.

“Now we are waiting for an order from the department to continue the flag raising campaign.”

Rozi Moydin said the campaign, which until the August protest had seen flags raised in 63 of 608 mosques around Kucha county, was launched “after the Hotan incident on July 18.”

Two weeks later, at least 14 people were killed and 40 others injured in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, when men wielding knives launched two separate attacks near the city's food market and shopping center.

“The regional government started an educational campaign to increase the pride of national identity. As part of the campaign, the raising of the national flag in mosques was implemented throughout the entire region,” Rozi Moydin said.

Ethnic tensions

Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said that the flag raising campaign would do little to alleviate the frustration of the Uyghur people with Chinese rule.

“The Chinese government doesn’t understand the basic concepts of human nature. Love and respect cannot be created through forceful actions and propaganda,” she said.
“Of course, they may succeed in raising the Red Flag in buildings throughout the region, but the important thing is which flag is being raised in the heart of the Uyghur people.”
Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

Chinese authorities however blame Uyghur "separatists" for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Source: Radio Free Asia.
Link: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/flag-09062011180015.html.

Russian parliament passes restrictions on NGOs

July 13, 2012

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's lower house of parliament on Friday passed a bill imposing new restrictions on non-governmental organizations that receive funding from abroad.

Although the bill, which is almost certain to pass the upper house and be signed into law by the president, does not prohibit any organization's operation, it is likely to create a chilling effect on groups' activities. It reflects the suspicion of the West and the fear of rising opposition sentiment held by President Vladimir Putin and his backers in the governing United Russia party.

The bill also adds strain to Russia's relations with Western countries. WHAT THE BILL DOES The bill requires any NGO that receives foreign funding — from governments, groups or private citizens — and engages in political activity to register itself as a "foreign agent," provide detailed reports of its finances and identify itself as a foreign agent in any material it distributes.

WHY THIS IS OF CONCERN TO NGOS "Foreign agent" is a loaded term for many Russians schooled in the country's longstanding self-image as an exceptionalist nation beleaguered by foreign malefactors ranging from Napoleon's troops to Nazi Germany. If an organization identifies itself as a foreign agent, that could undermine its credibility among Russians.

The bill's definition of political activity is so wide and vague that almost any initiative could be considered political, especially if it proposes new legislation or makes even tacit criticism of current conditions.

The financial-reporting requirements could be expensive and inconvenient for organizations with small staffs and shoestring budgets. In addition, the bill can be seen as a reminder to NGOs that they are under close and probably unsympathetic scrutiny.

WHY THE BILL IS USEFUL TO THE KREMLIN Putin and his circle have long exploited suspicion of foreign involvement in the country. He accused Western governments of trying to influence last December's parliamentary elections. A state-owned national television channel denounced Golos, the country's only independent election-monitoring organization, showing suitcases full of dollars the group allegedly had received.

After those fraud-tainted elections set off an unprecedented wave of massive protests, Putin accused the demonstrators of being in the pay of Washington. Although he won a new term as president in March, Putin is under increasing criticism in Russian society and even in the once-submissive parliament. The bill appears to be an attempt at limiting future challenges.

POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES Putin has proposed tripling the amount of state funding given to non-governmental organizations, to three billion rubles ($10 million). Although that could compensate for a reduction in foreign funding for NGOs, it is unclear how the money would be apportioned and any NGO critical of the Kremlin can probably count on little or any of it.

Most NGOs have said they would comply if the bill becomes law. But Lyudmila Alexeyeva, leader of the Moscow Helsinki Group, one of the country's oldest human rights organizations, said Friday that "as soon as this law comes into effect, from that day we will refuse foreign grants" rather than register as a foreign agent.

RECENT ACTIONS AFFECTING OPPOSITION Last month, Putin signed a law sharply increasing the punishment for taking part in an unauthorized protest rallies to 300,000 rubles ($9,000), close to the average annual income in Russia. Although officials gave authorization for several of the massive protests over the winter, authorities historically have been reluctant to give such permission and there are fears the recent relative liberality will be curtailed.

On Friday, Parliament voted to recriminalize libel and slander, just six months after it was decriminalized and made an administrative offense. Although the recriminalization removes the threat of prison terms, it raises the maximum fine to 5 million rubles ($165,000).

Activists worry that the libel law could be used against them "The law about meetings, the law on NGOs, the law on libel, it's all one train and they're probably thinking up something else," Alexeyeva told the Interfax news agency.

EFFECT ON FOREIGN RELATIONS Within hours of the bill's passage, Foreign Ministry official Konstantin Dolgov issued an aggrieved denunciation of earlier U.S. State Department expressions of concern about the legislation.

"Such approaches cannot be perceived other than as attempts of absolutely inappropriate and gross interference in the activities of Russian government bodies and a sovereign lawmaking process," Dolgov said in a statement. The accusation of interference in domestic affairs is a frequent Russian response to foreign criticism.

Also Friday, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry summoned Russia's charge d'affaires to express concern about the bill.

Spanish civil servants protest wage cuts

July 13, 2012

MADRID (AP) — Spanish civil servants, many dressed in mourning black, took to the streets Friday in angry protest as the government approved new sweeping austerity measures that include wage cuts and tax increases for a country struggling under a recession and an unemployment rate of near 25 percent.

Spain is under pressure to get its public finances on track amid concerns in the markets over the state of the country's banks and the wider economy. "Spain is going through one of its most dramatic moments," Deputy Prime Minister Saenz de Santamaria said after a Cabinet meeting at which sales tax hikes and spending cuts were approved.

Admitting that the austerity measures were "neither simple, nor easy, nor popular," she said the government would try to enact the measures "with the maximum justice and equity." The conservative government has come under mounting criticism that the austerity measures are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.

"The government should go after the big companies that don't pay tax and bankers that have committed fraud and have run this country to the ground," said Pablo Gonzalez, 52, who works for the Madrid regional government. "Instead, we have to pay."

The aim of the latest package of measures is to chop €65 billion ($79 billion) off the budget deficit through 2015, the biggest deficit-reduction plan in recent Spanish history. As dusk fell, several hundred mainly young protesters marched in Madrid, stopping to jeer outside the headquarters of the ruling conservative and opposition Socialist parties before heading to the parliament.

Though the increase in sales taxes, which risks slowing consumption and worsening Spain's recession, will take effect Sept. 1, other reforms will be left for later in the year, including a plan to speed up the gradual raising of the retirement age from to 65 to 67.

Meanwhile, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos announced the creation of a new mechanism to help Spain's 17 regions finance themselves more easily. Some, such as Valencia in the east, are finding it increasingly difficult to tap capital markets for much-needed cash.

The latest bout of austerity is prompting widespread opposition, not least from civil servants. In Madrid, several hundred government workers blocked traffic briefly in different parts of the city. In Valencia, several hundred Justice Ministry workers shouted "hands up, this is a stick-up" at a protest rally.

The civil servants — whose wages were cut 5 percent on average in 2010 in the first round of austerity cuts — are usually paid 14 times a year. The government is now axing an extra payment made just before Christmas. The prime minister, his cabinet and lawmakers will also suffer the cut. At the local, regional and central level, there are around 3 million public servants in Spain.

In the Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, about 500 civil servants gathered, about half dressed in black. Some women wore veils, as if at funerals. Protesters blew whistles and horns. Civil servants are often ridiculed in Spain and seen as lazy, clock-in and clock-out types with the luxury of lifetime jobs. But many earn as little as €1,000 a month.

Isabel Perez, a 40-year-old librarian, said "our wages have already been cut and now they take away the Christmas payment. I don't make it to the end of the month as it is. The extra payment gave some relief. We're not exactly millionaires." She earns €1,300 a month and had already faced a yearly €330 euro wage cut by the Madrid regional government.

The latest austerity package has come after Spain won approval from the other 16 countries that use the euro for the first €30 billion tranche of a bailout of up to €100 billion for its troubled banking sector. Spain also managed to secure an extra year to meet a European deficit reduction target of 3 percent of GDP. The size of Spain's economy in 2011 is estimated to have been $1.5 trillion.

Investors' response has been lukewarm, and the yield on Spain's benchmark 10-year bonds, a measure of investor wariness of a country's debt, remains very high at 6.61 percent, up 4 basis points for the day.

Investors are also becoming increasingly wary of placing money in Spanish banks, which are having to turn to the European Central Bank for financing. In June, Spanish bank borrowing from the ECB rose 17 percent from May. The accrued total as of the end of that month was €337 billion, 77 percent of all the money owed to the ECB and seven times the figure from June 2011.

A draft memorandum of understanding agreed by eurozone finance ministers for Spain's bank bailout suggests billions in problematic assets should be segregated into an "external asset management agency" to clean up Spanish banks' balance sheets.

It also says that by the end of the year certain areas of jurisdiction — sanctioning and licensing — should be transferred from the Spanish economy ministry to the Bank of Spain. This is seen as paving the way for Europe having a single bank supervisory body that will oversee central banks and be empowered to recapitalize Spanish and other troubled banks directly instead of via debt-laden government.

Harold Heckle contributed to this report.