Ancient wild horses help unlock past

York, UK (SPX)
Aug 25, 2011

An international team of researchers has used ancient DNA to produce compelling evidence that the lack of genetic diversity in modern stallions is the result of the domestication process.

The team, which was led by Professor Michi Hofreiter from the University of York, UK, has carried out the first study on Y chromosomal DNA sequences from extinct ancient wild horses and found an abundance of diversity.

The results, which are published in Nature Communications, suggest the almost complete absence of genetic diversity in modern male horses is not based on properties intrinsic to wild horses, but on the domestication process itself.

Professor Hofreiter said: "Unlike modern female domestic horses where there is plenty of diversity, genetic diversity in male horses is practically zero.

"One hypothesis to explain this suggests modern horses have little Y chromosome diversity because the wild horses from which they were domesticated were also not diverse, due in part to the harem mating system in horses, implying skewed reproductive success of males.

Our results reject this hypothesis as the Y chromosome diversity in ancient wild horses is high. Instead our results suggest that the lack of genetic diversity in modern horses is a direct consequence of the domestication process itself."

The Y chromosome is a valuable tool in population genetics, providing a means of directly assessing evolutionary processes that only affect the paternal lineage. So far mitochondrial DNA studies have failed to discover the origin of domestic horses. However, these new Y chromosomal markers now open the possibility of solving this issue in detail.

As part of the study, researchers sequenced Y chromosomal DNA from eight ancient wild horses dating back from around 15,000 to more than 47,000 years and a 2,800-year-old domesticated horse. The results were compared to DNA sequences from Przewalski horses - the only surviving wild horse population - and 52 domestic horses, representing 15 modern breeds, which had been sequenced previously.

Domestication of horses dates back approximately 5,500 years. DNA from the skeletal remains of a 2,800-year-old domesticated stallion from Siberia showed that in contrast to modern horses, Y chromosomal diversity still existed several thousand years after the initial domestication event for horses.

Professor Hofreiter said: "This suggests some level of Y chromosomal diversity still existed in domestic horses several thousand years after domestication, although the lineage identified was closely related to the modern domestic lineage."

The study was carried out in Germany by Sebastian Lippold, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The results were then independently replicated at the Center for GeoGenetics at Copenhagen University, Denmark.

Sebastian Lippold said: "Working on ancient Y chromosomal DNA was especially challenging but the only opportunity to investigate Y chromosomal diversity in wild horses. For now we have a first idea of ancestral diversity and therefore a better impression of how much diversity has been lost. Basically this was an important first step and points to the potential the Y chromosomal marker could have in order to further investigate domestication history in horses."

Beth Shapiro, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, carried out the analysis and interpretation.

She said: "Most ancient DNA research until now has focused on a different part of the genome - the mitochondrion - which is much more abundant in cells and therefore much easier to work with when the DNA is degraded.

This has been a serious limitation in ancient DNA research, because we generally only have a good idea what happened along the maternal line. Here, we've been able to look at what happened along the paternal lineage, and, probably unsurprisingly, we see something different going on in males than in females.

"This is exciting stuff, and means we can start getting a much better picture of how events like domestication and climate change have shaped the diversity of organisms alive today."

Researchers had found that Przewalski's horse displays DNA haplotypes not present in modern domestic horses, suggesting they are not ancestral to modern domestic horses. However, while the Y chromosome data supported historic isolation, it also suggests a close evolutionary relationship between the domestic horse and the Przewalski's horse, since the Przewalski Y chromosomal haplotype is more similar to the two domestic ones than any of the ancient wild horse haplotypes.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ancient_wild_horses_help_unlock_past_999.html.

NASA spots chilled-out stars cooler than the human body

By Mike Wehner, Tecca | Today in Tech
Wed, Aug 24, 2011

When you think of stars, you probably imagine massive, burning balls of fire much like our sun, but there are stars out there in space which you could actually stand on and not be burnt to a crisp. NASA has known of these celestial bodies — called brown Y dwarf stars — for a great long time. But now, a satellite has spotted a particularly chill Y dwarf that holds the new record for the coolest star at just 80 degree Fahrenheit.

Prior to the discovery, the coolest Y dwarfs on record wouldn't instantly incinerate a human explorer, but that unlucky individual would be uncomfortably warm. The new cold star record holder put out just enough infrared light to be spotted by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, and is an order of magnitude cooler than any before it. WISE also spotted roughly 100 other brown dwarfs — a handful of which are considerably closer than NASA had thought.

Brown dwarf stars of sometimes referred to as "failed stars" because their comparatively low mass keeps them from being able to fuse atoms like our own sun. The lack of bright visible light makes these cool stars difficult to spot, even with the assistance of telescopes, and infrared sensors are sometimes the only way to learn of their existence. Researchers were surprised to learn that several were within 40 light years of our own solar system, just a stone's throw in terms of our galaxy.

Rat poison may be killing raptors

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Rat poison appears to have gotten into the food chain in parts of Scotland and is killing birds of prey and other unintended targets, scientists said Wednesday.

Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture said it found traces of rat poison in the livers of 32 buzzards, 17 red kites and 10 sparrowhawks last year, The Guardian reported. The organization said buzzards and kites are especially vulnerable because they are scavengers and likely to eat dead rats.

Rat poisons have been blamed for the deaths of six red kite chicks and for killing two dogs and a cat.

Alex Hogg, head of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, said the poisonings are almost certainly caused by ignorance and carelessness, not by deliberate use against wild birds. He said deliberate killing of raptors, usually done by shooting, has dropped recently.

Hogg and Bob Carruth of the Farmers Union of Scotland said they are trying to educate their members about the safe use of rodenticides. At least one of the poisons found in testing is licensed for use indoors only.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/08/25/Rat-poison-may-be-killing-raptors/UPI-73801314249953/.

Egypt's Brotherhood declares war on the bikini

By DAVID E. MILLER / THE MEDIA LINE
08/28/2011

"Freedom and Justice" party leader: "We must place regulations on tourists wishing to visit Egypt."

Sunbathing in Alexandria may soon be a thing of the past, at least if some Egyptian Islamist politicians have their way.

Egypt's tourism industry has suffered a severe blow since the outburst of anti-regime demonstrations in January. But that did not stop the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, from demanding stricter regulations over what tourists can do and wear while visiting the country. The party is urging officials to ban skimpy swimwear and the consumption of alcohol on Egyptian streets.

"Beach tourism must take the values and norms of our society into account," Muhammad Saad Al-Katatny, secretary-general of Freedom and Justice, told Egyptian tourism officials on Monday. "We must place regulations on tourists wishing to visit Egypt, which we will announce in advance."

The call for new strictures on tourists comes as Egypt debates the role of Islam in the post-Mubarak era. Freedom and Justice is competing in elections scheduled for this autumn for parliament and opinion polls show a majority of Egyptians favor a greater use of Islamic law and mores. But a vocal minority worries that Egypt risks becoming an Islamic republic.

"This is how things began in Iran," Hani Henry, a psychology professor at the American University in Cairo, told The Media Line. "The moderate youth wanted to implement changes, but the Mullah's hijacked the revolution. The same thing is now happening here in Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood. It makes me sick to my stomach."

Along with Suez Canal tolls and energy exports, tourism is a major source of foreign exchange for Egypt. But with protests, strikes, and continued violence in the cities and Sinai Peninsula months after President Husni Mubarak was forced to step down, foreigners have hesitated to visit the country, which offers some of the world’s most spectacular antiquities as well as beaches and scuba diving.

Finance Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi told the Reuters news agency earlier this month that revenue from tourism would likely total $10 billion in the financial year that started on July 1, compared with $11.6 billion in 2009/10.

Al-Katatny told Al-Masry Al-Youm daily that his party had already set up a subcommittee to investigate the issue of incoming tourism to Egypt and planned to amend legislation following the upcoming parliamentary elections.

"Some slight changes will be made in public beaches, to make the situation better than it was before," Ali Khafagy, youth director of Freedom and Justice in Giza, told The Media Line. "Bathing suits and mixing on the beach are things that go against our tradition. It's not just a matter of religion. When I go to the beach I don't want to see nudity."

He said modest bathing gear or separate beaches for men and women are possible alternatives to the current situation.

Khafagy stressed that tourists would be free to do as they please in specially designated areas, adding that his party supported incoming tourism to the country. But that did not satisfy the heads of Egypt's tourism industry, who met with the party’s secretary-general Al-Katatny for a heated debate on Monday.

"Without alcohol and bathing suits, no tourists will come and we will loose $13 billion a year," Hussam A-Shaer, head of the tourist company association, told Al-Masry al-Youm.

But bathing suits are not the only worry of Egypt’s Islamists. Abd Al-Munim A-Shahhat, a spokesman for the Salafi group Dawa, has said that Egypt's world-renowned pharaonic archeology – its pyramids, Sphinx and other monuments covered with un-Islamic imagery – should also be hidden from the public eye.

"The pharaonic culture is a rotten culture," A-Shahhat told the London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat on Wednesday, saying the faces of ancient statues "should be covered with wax, since they are religiously forbidden." He likened the Egyptian relics to the idols which circled the walls of Mecca in pre-Islamic times.

The Islamist challenges to the tourism industry in post-revolutionary Egypt have led to the establishment of the Coalition to Support Tourism, whose members also met with Al-Katatny on Monday. The coalition, which includes a broad array of travel industry organizations and figures, argued that the real problem isn’t modesty but the absence of any strategy on the part of Egypt's new parties to protect the country's faltering tourism industry.

"Some parties want to ban tourism, or allow it while banning alcohol, certain foods and certain clothes. [A couple] renting a room will require documents proving they are married," wrote the coalition administrator on the group's Facebook page. "These proposals don’t bode well, as many of you know."

Henry of the American University said two classes of beaches already exist in Egypt, with modestly dressed, generally poor Egyptians occupying some and foreign tourists occupying others, mostly in the resorts of the Sinai Peninsula. He said he considered imposition of sharia law in Egypt "an act of aggression" that he would not tolerate.

Islamists have never been enamored of foreign tourism and before they were crushed by the Mubarak regime foreign visitors were often targeted for killings. Close to 60 Western tourists were killed by Islamist terrorists in the southern city of Luxor in 1997. Tourists were also attacked in bombings in the Sinai resorts of Taba, Sharm Al-Sheikh and Dahab in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

But Al-Katatny said that the Muslim Brotherhood regards Egypt's archeology as belonging to all of humanity, and should therefore be safeguarded.

"This heritage belongs to everyone, and one can't simply remove something he doesn't like," he told Al-Ahram daily.

Source: The Jerusalem Post.
Link: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=235687.

Turkey, Iran Bump Heads Over Syria

August 25, 2011

When the call came in from Iran on Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered his convoy to pull off onto the shoulders of a busy highway for a conversation that last some 40 minutes.

What the Turkish leader and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke about hasn’t been revealed in any detail. The Turkish media said virtually nothing, while Iran’s press reported that their country’s leader urged Erdogan to help mediate between region’s beleaguered despots and the opposition. Almost certainly the conversation was tense.

Just a few months ago the two countries were friends – joined together by growing trade ties, worries about their restive Kurdish populations and by shared Muslim sentiment. But the turmoil of the Arab Spring has quickly found the two countries in opposing camps, especially over Syria and its president, Bashar Al-Asad.

“There’s no doubt that Syria is becoming a battleground,” said Fadi Hakura, Turkey expert at London’s Chatham House. “Turkey has expressed deep dissatisfaction with the approach of the Syrian regime and has called on Al-Asad to implement radical reforms and meaningful dialogue with the opposition, which will inevitably dilute the strategic relationship between Syria and Iran. Iran views the existence of the current regime as an existential issue.”

Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders have framed the fighting in Syria as a battle by Al-Asad to stop U.S. from meddling in the country’s affairs while Turkey’s Erdogan has focused on the bloodletting and the regime’s failure to meet demands for democratic reforms. He has stopped short of calling for Al-Asad to step down.

But the fight is more than a war of words. Although Tehran denies it, Iran is believed to be proving material support to the Al-Asad regime. Newspaper reports cite stories of Iranian snipers firing on protestors, technicians helping to block social networking and others providing advice on containing unrest gleaned from Iran’s experience putting down street protests following the disputed 2009 presidential elections.

Turkey’s role in aiding the Syrian opposition has been more upfront but just as crucial. It has allowed about seven thousand Syrian refugees to cross into its territory and provide eyewitness accounts to the world media, thereby serving as an outlet for news of the Al-Asad regime’s repression. Istanbul has also hosted meetings of opposition groups. Some analysts say Ankara – together with the U.S. – is working to bring cohesion and organization to the disparate groups.

On Tuesday, Syrian activists gathered in Turkey declared a national council to coordinate protests and bring about Al-Asad’s ouster.

In spite of the deep interests at stake, Iran had been hesitant to criticize Turkey until relatively recently, Alex Vatanka, a scholar of Iran at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, told The Media Line.

“The Iranians deeply appreciated improving relations with one of their most important neighbors, which has helped them in the nuclear issue in terms of economics and trade they didn’t want an issue like Syria to bring it all to an end,” Vatanka said. “But in end of the day, they reached a decision.”

Syria is not the first Arab Spring hotspot where Turkey and Iran have found themselves on opposite sides. Turkey backed Saudi Arabia when it helped crush a Shiite-led revolt in Bahrain, angering Iran’s Shiite regime. Iran praised Turkey’s initial opposition to NATO’s helping Libyan rebels, but Ankara eventually came around to supporting the bombing campaign. But Syria – whose president has since March struggled to contain a revolt seeking to topple him – is the place where the two powers have the most at stake.

Al-Asad’s regime is Iran’s only ally in the Arab world, sharing a strong antipathy to Israel and Western intervention in the Middle East and acting as a conduit to arms and supplies to militant groups like Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Belonging to the Alawi sect, an offshoot of Islam, Al-Asad has fewer problems with Iranian Shiism than the Arab world’s Sunni leaders do.

Under Erdogan, Turkey had worked assiduously in recent years to cultivate ties. Turkey shares a long border with Syria and the two countries both have large Kurdish populations they worry about. In recent years, the two countries signed a free-trade agreement and abolished visa requirements, enabling trade to double in the five years to 2010 and tourism to boom.

Warming relations with Syria were part of efforts by the prime minister – who leads the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) – to reorient Turkey away from the West and towards the Muslim Middle East. Turkey even viewed itself as a bridge between Sunni and Shiite Islam.

But, Hakura told The Media Line, the Arab Spring has put Turkey firmly in the Sunni “camp,” which not only includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Gulf emirates and Jordan but, by virtue of their Western orientation, the U.S. and Europe. The shift in Turkey’s policy hasn’t been dramatic – it remained a NATO member and never abandoned its aspirations to join the European Union ¬ – but it made Tehran’s rulers livid.

Reflecting the views heard frequently in Tehran these days, Iran’s hardline Qods daily scored Turkish leaders for surrendering to U.S. pressure. “If Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government does not change its political behavior toward Syria, Turkey will be the main loser of the Syrian events if Damascus gets out of the current crisis,” it wrote in a recent editorial.

Neither Turkey nor Iran can afford to let their conflict ratchet up too much. Turkey gets 20% of the natural gas its needs for its booming economy from Iran, Hakura said. Facing United Nations sanctions, Iran can’t afford to lose a good customer.

Vatanka said that among top Iranian leaders, Ahmadinejad is probably the least inclined to sacrifice the relationship with Turkey to help save Al-Asad because of the damage fraying ties with Turkey would do to the economy.

“The president is looking at his own position in Iran and says ‘I’m someone who needs to reach out to the masses and get as much grassroots support as I can,” explained Vatanka. “So, one of the issues he has to worry about is bread and butter issues that ordinary Iranians care about the most.”

Source: Rise of the Iranian People.
Link: http://riseoftheiranianpeople.com/2011/08/25/turkey-iran-bump-heads-over-syria/.

Rebels, looters target Gadhafi family homes

By KARIN LAUB - Associated Press | AP
Thu, Aug 25, 2011

TRIPOLI, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi's son al-Saadi liked fast cars, yachts and soccer, and his beachfront villa was stocked with his expensive toys. His sister Aisha lived in a two-story mansion with an indoor pool and sauna.

As rebels took control of the Libyan capital over the weekend, the luxurious homes — symbols of the Gadhafi family's excesses — were among their first targets. After driving out the guards, rebels trashed and looted the villas and neighbors wandered through the wreckage Wednesday expressing their anger at the Gadhafi family's wealth and ostentatious tastes.

"I can't even believe what I am seeing," said Muftah Shubri, a resident of Tripoli's western Nofleen neighborhood, as he walked across Aisha's lawn to the large covered pool where a ball and a small rubber boat still floated in the water.

Gadhafi's 42-year rule over Libya had increasingly become a family business, with the dictator divvying up key spheres of interest, from oil to security, among his six sons.

In recent years, the Gadhafi offspring had been involved in a series of scandals: Hannibal got arrested in 2008 in Switzerland for mistreating his servants in a Geneva luxury hotel and Muatassim reportedly paid $1 million for a private New Year's concert by Beyonce.

Al-Saadi, a 38-year-old soccer aficionado, was described in a 2009 WikiLeaks cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli as having a troubled past, including run-ins with police in Europe, drug and alcohol abuse and excessive partying.

On Monday, a day after thousands of rebels rode into Tripoli, about 200 people stormed al-Saadi's home on the Mediterranean, said Seifallah Gneidi, a 23-year-old Tripoli rebel who participated in the looting.

Gneidi said he took a large bottle of gin, a toothbrush with a gilded handle and a pair of Diesel jeans. "We wanted to have the stuff that he had," Gneidi said, a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder. He said rebels are not condoning looting of private property, and only allow the wrecking of symbols of the Gadhafi family's abuse of power.

Gneidi said al-Saadi had four cars — a BMW, an Audi, a white Lamborghini and a Toyota — that were all driven off during the ransacking. His claim about the fate of the cars could not be verified. A large painting of a yellow Lamborghini decorated the back wall of his covered parking area.

In an office area in the villa, reporters saw large piles of catalogues for yachts and cars. A catalog by the firm Benetti had a yellow handwritten post-it note attached listing the price for a 30-meter-long yacht as 7 million euros. A DVD with gay porn entitled "Boyz Tracks" slipped out of the stack of documents.

Business cards were scattered on the floor for a firm called "Natural Selection" that listed al-Saadi as partner and executive producer with an address on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The looters left behind a black cloth, apparently the back of a "director's chair," that read, in green: "Executive Producer al-Saadi Gadhafi."

Al-Saadi must have been concerned about his safety. A long underground passage with thick concrete walls led from a second villa he was building to the street.

The complex also had a grass soccer pitch. Al-Saadi, who was seen as a poor soccer player was involved in one of Libya's soccer teams, Al-Ahly. Al-Saadi also headed Libya's Football Federation.

Next to the field stood a barbecue pit and two tents, including one that housed guards and was filled with ammunition, said Gneidi. Al-Saadi also kept dogs and had his own kennel with four cages, one decorated with pictures of Dobermans.

If al-Saadi had the reputation of a reckless troublemaker, the 35-year-old Aisha cultivated the image of caring about ordinary Libyans.

However, her neighbors said that several years ago, a small neighborhood clinic was razed to make room for her home.

"You feel that this is not supposed to happen," Sharif Ben Suleiman, a 56-year-old university professor, said as he and other local leaders inspected the house. "It's a place that is serving the community and then it is serving no one."

The presence of small children was felt everywhere in the house. A large play room was strewn with toys, party hats and streamers were in a pile in an entrance hall, and her library contained a number of children's books.

Among Aisha's DVDs were action and mystery films, but also one on getting back in shape after childbirth.

Like others in the Gadhafi family, she had expensive tastes — Bohemian crystal glasses and a brown Dolce & Gabana leather jacket for one of her children were among the items not carted off by the looters.

Asked how the community felt about the presence of the Gadhafi daughter, Ben Suleiman, the neighbor, said it's enough to look out the second-floor window. Beyond the walls of Aisha's spacious compound, houses — some of them barely shacks — were pressed tightly against one another.

Algeria to open relations with Libya transitional council

Despite earlier accusations of support for the Kadhafi regime during the conflict, Algeria moves toward relations with Libya's rebel government.

By Walid Ramzi for Magharebia in Algiers – 24/08/11

As Libyan rebels reclaim Tripoli and the Kadhafi regime ends, Algeria is working to establish formal relations with the Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC).

In a response issued Tuesday (August 23rd), Algeria's foreign ministry said the country had opened channels of communication with the TNC. Algeria's highest priorities in Libya, according to the statement, are general security, enduring stability, unity and political reform.

The Algerian government said it would move quickly towards normalized relations with the TNC if it issued an apology for earlier charges against the Algerian regime.

The ministry repeated Algeria's denial of assisting Kadhafi's regime during the conflict: "Since the outbreak of protests in Benghazi in mid February, Algeria didn't support, whether militarily or politically or in any other form, Kadhafi's regime," it reads.

Amid reports of theft and vandalism at the Algerian embassy in Tripoli, Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci sent an urgent message to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take the necessary actions to ensure the safety of Algerian diplomats.

With the military situation in flux, Algeria on Sunday placed ground forces posted along the Libyan border on high alert and increased aerial surveillance after groups of armed four-wheel drive vehicles were spotted in the area.

Algerian political parties reacted to the Libyan rebel victories. The Socialist Forces Front (FFS) described the imminent fall of Moamar Kadhafi's regime as "good news for all strugglers for freedom and democracy in the entire world".

The party called on the Libyan people "to quickly unite around a truly representative national leadership that can build a sovereign state of rights and democracy". However, the party expressed its fears that this democratic transition "may face greater difficulties in its implementation".

The Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) issued a congratulatory statement on Tuesday, saying: "The road is still long and difficult to re-build a state commensurate with the size of sacrifices that the steadfast Libyan people have offered… Libya's future today is in your hands."

Analysts warn of the regional impact regime change may have on security.

Dr. Mhend Berkouk, professor of international relations at the University of Algiers and director of the Center for Security and Political Studies, said that Kadhafi's fall could lead to an increase in refugees, cross-border organized crime and terrorist threats in the Sahel and North Africa.

As to the effects of Libyan turmoil on Algeria's energy sector, former Sonatrach executive Abdelmadjid Attar said there was no real threat to investments in the Ghadames basin. Sonatrach's operations in Libya will continue, he said.

Source: Magharebia.
link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/08/24/feature-02.

ارتفاع عدد اللاجئين السوريين بالأردن إلى 2700

2011-08-25

خبرني- أحصت جمعية المركز الاسلامي من خلال مراكزها الموجودة في مختلف المحافظات الاردنية عدد السوريين الذين فروا إلى المملكة من سوريا بـ2700 مواطن سوري.

ووفقا لاحصائيات حديثة نشرت الخميس بلغ عدد الاسر السورية التي تم حصرها 120 اسرة من بينها 13 اسرة في العاصمة عمان فيما تمركز العدد الاكبر منها في محافظة المفرق (47) اسرة ومن ثم محافظة الرمثا (45) اسرة واربد (15) اسرة.

واشار نشطاء يقومون على تقديم المعونة للعائلات السورية الى ان نحو 20 سوريا فروا الى المملكة بطريقة غير شرعية حيث تم وضعهم تحت الحراسة .

وقدمت غالبية الاسر السورية من درعا وريف دمشق، فيما بدأت عائلات تاتي من حماة وحمص وتبليسة وفقا للنشطاء.

وتقدم الجمعات الخيرية الانسانية العاملة في المحافظات التي يوجد فيها مواطنون سوريون مساعدات عينية لها لتمكينها من قضاء احتياجاتها المعيشية، بالاضافة الى تامينها بالسكن المناسب في ظل ارتفاع اجرة السكن في المفرق والرمثا، حيث يتم تامين اكثر من عائلة في شقة واحدة.

المصدر: خبرني.
الرابط: http://www.khaberni.com/more.php?newsid=60674.

Bangladesh must end extrajudicial killings, rights group says

LONDON (BNO NEWS) — Rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Bangladesh authorities to honor their pledge to stop extrajudicial executions by its special police force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

Amnesty International said in a new report that the RAB has been implicated in the killings of at least 700 people since its inception in 2004. But the force has consistently denied responsibility and justifies the killings as accidental or as a result of officers acting in self-defense, according to the report.

“Hardly a week goes by in Bangladesh without someone being shot by RAB with the authorities saying they were killed or injured in ‘crossfire’ or a ‘gun-fight’. However the authorities choose to describe such incidents, the fact remains that they are suspected unlawful killings,” said Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Bangladesh Researcher.



”It is appalling that virtually all alleged instances of illegal RAB killings have gone unchallenged or unpunished. There can be no justice if the force is the chief investigator of its own wrong-doings,” Faiz said.



The London-based group said at least 200 alleged RAB killings have occurred since January 2009 when the current Awami League government came to power, despite the Prime Minister’s pledge to end extrajudicial executions. In addition, at least 30 people have been killed in other police operations since early 2010. 



The report added that Bangladesh’s police and RAB continue to receive a wide range of military and police equipment from overseas, including from Austria, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey and the United States. The rights group called upon these countries to refrain from supplying arms to Bangladesh since they can be used to commit extrajudicial executions.

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19662/bangladesh-must-end-extrajudicial-killings-rights-group-says/.

Chile in 2-day national strike as labor unions join student protests

SANTIAGO (BNO NEWS) — The Workers United Center of Chile (CUT) has organized a 48-hour nationwide strike in support of student education protests among other social and economic issues, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The national strike started on Tuesday night with a demonstration in which saucepans were banged as a sign of protest. The strike was continued on Wednesday and will also take place on Thursday.

During the first hours of the general strike, the government reported that 35 people had been arrested and 11 were injured as a result of clashes between police officers and demonstrators.

Deputy Interior Minister Rodrigo Ubilla described the strike as a “great failure” since it said only 5.3 percent of public employees have joined the strike, according to government figures.

Meanwhile, the CUT informed through a press statement that 82 social and labor union organizations have joined the strike. The CUT further stated that they had received reports of closed avenues and streets, barricades, protests and labor strikes in several cities across the country.

In Puente Alto, an estimated 3,000 people engaged in a demonstration and around 1,000 participated in a similar event in Maipú while the National Airport stopped its operations for an hour, according to the CUT.

In the southern port city of Puerto Montt, 20,000 people participated in a massive march which was accompanied by an unprecedented demonstration of 70 vessels, El Ciudadano newspaper reported.

Despite government’s efforts to downgrade the figures of the national strike, images of several places in the capital city of Santiago indicate that a great percentage of Chileans are participating, whether they are demonstrating in the streets or staying in their houses, absent from their jobs, El Ciudadano newspaper reported.

According to Arturo Martínez, president of the labor union CUT, the general strike is being held to express the demands from various social sectors, to demand respect for social and citizen rights and to reiterate the need to have a country with a new economic model, a new constitution and a new work code. The rally’s resolution also calls for an immediate referendum on education.

Government spokesperson Andrés Chadwick condemned the strike but said the series of demands issued by the CUT were already being analyzed by the government.

Chilean students, along with teachers and other education workers, have been protesting for the past several weeks for a fundamental change in the educational system, demanding an end to privatized education and asking for a government which can guarantee full access, quality and funding of public education at all its levels.

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19656/chile-in-2-day-national-strike-as-labor-unions-join-student-protests/.

Rights group warns Syrian journalists may face torture and ill-treatment

DAMASCUS (BNO NEWS) — Syrian journalists and activists who have passed on information about the country’s unrest to regional and international media may risk torture and other ill-treatment, rights group Amnesty International reported on Wednesday.

The rights group warning comes as journalist Adel Walid Kharsa faces his second week in solitary confinement after being arrested by security forces in his hometown of Hama on August 18. Kharsa was seemingly detained for his news reports on the protests and the government’s violent crackdown despite being cautious by making his reports anonymously by phone.

“If this is the case then he is a prisoner of conscience and should be released immediately and unconditionally,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“He, like many detained during the regime’s crackdown, is now at risk of acts of brutality while in the hands of the authorities,” said Luther while recommending that Kharsa should be protected from torture and other ill-treatment, allowed immediate contact with his family and a lawyer, as well as given any necessary medical attention.

Amnesty International said it has information indicating that other detainees have been tortured to find out whether they have given news about events in Syria to regional and international media.

One such case is 28-year-old “Wael”, who was detained in May and held for three weeks accused of filming demonstrations with his cell phone in his hometown of Tell Kalakh, south of the western city of Homs.

“I was taken to an interrogator… He accused me of being a correspondent for Al Jazeera, the BBC and [Gulf-based] Wesal channels. It was true that I filmed events with my cell phone but I did not send them to any channel,” Wael, which is not his real name, told Amnesty International.

Wael said he was forced into a stress position known as the shabah (ghost) by being tied by the wrists to a bar high enough off the ground that he was forced to stand on tiptoes for six hours. He said he was also splashed with water and electrocuted.

At least 2,200 people have been killed and tens of thousands have been arrested since pro-democracy demonstrations began in Syria in mid-March as part of a broader uprising across North Africa and the Middle East that has led to the toppling of entrenched regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and conflict in Libya.

Syrian security forces have been carrying out widespread arrests targeting people perceived to have organized or openly supported protests, whether in public gatherings, in the media or on the internet.

The Syrian government has repeatedly claimed that the violent acts have been instigated by terrorists who use military uniforms and weaponry to pose as soldiers while attacking citizens, but these claims have been rejected by residents, human rights groups, and the international community.

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19660/rights-group-warns-syrian-journalists-may-face-torture-and-ill-treatment/.

Indonesia's Mount Lokon erupts three more times

MANADO, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) — Indonesia’s Mount Lokon, which is located on the northern tip of the island of Sulawesi, erupted three more times on Wednesday, local authorities said.

Farid Ruskanda Bina, Mount Lokon’s monitoring post chief in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, said Mount Lokon spewed out ash as high as 250 meters (820 feet) which was heading north, the Antara news agency reported, adding that the eruptions also triggered several tremors, three of them shallow.

Over the past few days, Mount Lokon has been showing increasing activity and constant tremors. Initial tremors had an amplitude of 2 to 10 millimeters (0.07 to 0.39 inches), but on Tuesday seismic records documented tremors with an amplitude of up to 18 millimeters (0.70 inches).

The Volcanic and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center has not raised Mount Lokon’s alert status to level IV despite the ongoing eruptions, instead keeping it at level III.

Farid underlined the importance of local residents staying alert, as a minimum distance of 2.5 kilometers (1.5 mile) from Mount Lokon’s crater must be kept at all times.

On August 17, Mount Lokon began to spew volcanic ash which fell as far away as the Kinilow I village and the Tinoor areas in North Tomohon sub district, which is a short distance from Lokon’s crater.

Since June, Mount Lokon has shown constant volcanic activity, prompting authorities to raise its status to alert on June 27 and watch on July 10. A series of eruptions in mid July forced at least 5,269 locals from the villages of Kinilow, Kelurahan Kinilow I and Kakaskasen 1 to evacuate the area.

While most residents returned to their homes later that month, some 222 people remain at temporary refugee camps because their homes are in Mound Lokon’s red zone – 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from its crater. After July’s activity, Mount Lokon’s alert level was lowered from watch to alert, and has remained at this level since.

Dozens of active volcanoes in Indonesia are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, known for frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Next to Mount Lokon is its volcanic twin, Mount Empung, just 2.2 kilometers (1.3 miles) away.

One of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes is Mount Merapi, which is located on the island of Java near Jogjakarta, the country’s second-most visited area after Bali. Last year, more than 300 people were killed in a series of eruptions between October and November which also displaced over 300,000 people.

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19666/indonesias-mount-lokon-erupts-three-more-times/.

Astronomers find black hole destroying a star

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) — Astronomers have been able to spot a previously dormant black hole from a distant galaxy as it shredded and consumed a star, NASA said on Wednesday.

The incident has been streaming X-rays toward Earth since late March, and NASA’s Swift satellite, which launched in November 2004 and is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, first alerted astronomers to intense and unusual high-energy flares from the new source in the constellation Draco.

David Burrows, professor of astronomy at Penn State University and lead scientist for the mission’s X-Ray Telescope instrument, said that the source, known as Swift J1644+57, could produce bright X-rays enough for Swift to observe into next year. The galaxy in which the black hole is located, however, is so far away it took the light from the event approximately 3.9 billion years to reach Earth.

Burrows’ study, which included scientists from NASA, highlights the X- and gamma-ray observations from Swift and other detectors, including the Japan-led Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) instrument aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

In a second study, Ashley Zauderer, a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, examines the unprecedented outburst through observations from numerous ground-based radio observatories, including the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) near Socorro, New Mexico.

A central supersized black hole weighing millions of times the sun’s mass is usually present in most galaxies, including the Milky Way. According to both studies, the black hole in the galaxy hosting Swift J1644+57 may be twice the mass of the four-million-solar-mass black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

As a star falls toward a black hole, it is ripped apart by intense tides. The gas is corralled into a disk that swirls around the black hole and becomes rapidly heated to temperatures of millions of degrees.

On March 28, flares were first detected, but they were initially assumed to signal a gamma-ray burst, one of the nearly daily short blasts of high-energy radiation often associated with the death of a massive star and the birth of a black hole in the distant universe.

However, as the emission continued to brighten and flare, astronomers realized that the most plausible explanation was the tidal disruption of a sun-like star seen as beamed emission.

EVLA observations by Zauderer’s team showed a brightening radio source centered on a faint galaxy near Swift’s position for the X-ray flares just two days later. These data provided the first conclusive evidence that the galaxy, the radio source and the Swift event were linked.

“Our observations show that the radio-emitting region is still expanding at more than half the speed of light,” said Edo Berger, an associate professor of astrophysics at Harvard and a coauthor of the radio paper. “By tracking this expansion backward in time, we can confirm that the outflow formed at the same time as the Swift X-ray source.”

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19663/astronomers-find-black-hole-destroying-a-star/.

Health requirements for Mecca pilgrimage

AMMAN, Jordan, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The Saudi Ministry of Health published its health requirements for travelers to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage to Mecca -- Hajj.

The ministry says the annual pilgrimage, which occurs during a five-day period during "Dhul-Hijjah," the final month of the Islamic calendar, is the world's largest annual mass gathering, attracting 2 million to 3 million pilgrims every year.

Travelers are urged to read the guidelines in their entirety in the Journal of Infection and Public Health, which include:

-- All travelers arriving from countries or areas at risk of yellow fever must present a valid yellow fever vaccination certificate showing that the person was vaccinated at least 10 days previously and not more than 10 years before arrival at the border.

-- Visitors arriving for the purpose of Umra or pilgrimage or for seasonal work are required to produce a certificate of vaccination with the quadrivalent (ACYW135) vaccine against meningitis issued not more than 3 years previously and not less than 10 days before arrival in to Saudi Arabia.

-- All travelers arriving from polio-endemic countries and re-established transmission countries should receive one dose of the oral polio vaccine.

-- International pilgrims should be vaccinated against seasonal influenza before arrival in Saudi Arabia, with World Health Organization approved strains specific to the northern or southern hemispheres.

-- Hajj and Umra performers are not allowed to bring fresh food in to Saudi Arabia, only properly canned or sealed food or food stored in containers with easy access for inspection.

-- Updating immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases is strongly recommended.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/08/25/Health-requirements-for-Mecca-pilgrimage/UPI-68201314252183/.

Lebanese tribunal examining more cases

LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- A tribunal investigating the 2005 slaying of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said it was looking into a series of other attacks on Lebanese leaders.

The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon recently released detailed information about four suspects with Hezbollah allegedly tied to the 2005 assassination of Hariri in a massive bombing in Beirut.

The tribunal's pre-trial judge announced attacks on three other individuals fell under its jurisdiction. The tribunal said it was investigating the attempted assassinations of former Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh in 2004, and former Deputy Prime Minister Elias el-Murr and Community Party leader George Hawi in 2005.

The tribunal in a Tuesday statement said the investigations marked a "new chapter" in the tribunal's work.

"The Lebanese judicial authorities retain jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the other attacks not yet found to be connected with the Hariri case and not yet deferred to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon," it added.

The tribunal's decision stems from its statute giving it the authority to investigate cases of similar nature to the Hariri slaying.

Hezbollah complains the tribunal is part of an Israeli plot to discredit the Shiite movement, pointing to Israeli involvement in Lebanese telecommunications sector to back its claims.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/23/Lebanese-tribunal-examining-more-cases/UPI-77751314114213/.

March planned on Israeli Embassy in Cairo

CAIRO, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Egyptian activists said they are calling for a million-man march in the Israeli Embassy in Cairo to call on authorities to kick the Israeli envoy out.

Six Egyptian soldiers were killed last week during an Israeli raid that was carried out in response to attacks allegedly from militants who crossed into Israel from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

The attackers were allegedly wearing Egyptian uniforms when they stormed Israeli targets, killing eight people in the border town of Eilat.

The attack was allegedly carried out in coordination with a group calling itself al-Qaida in the Egyptian Sinai, though it was unclear if the group has working ties with al-Qaida central or Hamas.

Demonstrators at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo say they are calling for a million-man march Friday to oust the Israeli envoy, Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reports.

Cairo denied that gunmen were using its territory to launch attacks on Israel, adding it wanted to discuss a joint investigation into last week's raid with the Israelis.

The Arab League in its statement said Israeli bears "full responsibility" for what it said were crimes committed against Egypt.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/24/March-planned-on-Israeli-Embassy-in-Cairo/UPI-33491314207398/.

Hezbollah urges Libya opp. to find Sadr

Tue Aug 23, 2011

Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah has called on Libyan fighters to help find missing Lebanese Shia leader Imam Moussa al-Sadr and two of his companions believed to have been kidnapped in Libya in 1978.

“We are full of hope that they will be freed by your (Libyan fighters') hands and returned to their families,” Hezbollah said in a statement late Monday, the Associated Press reported.

It is widely believed in Lebanon that Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the founder of Lebanon's Amal movement, was kidnapped on the orders of senior Libyan officials while on an official trip to the North African country in August 1978.

Accompanied by two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin, Sadr was scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the embattled Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

In 2008, Beirut issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi over Sadr's disappearance.

Sadr's family also addressed the Libyan opposition fighters in a statement on Monday saying, “We appeal to those who will take over in Libya after the collapse of the tyrant to give special attention to this case.”

Libya has been the scene of intense fighting between regime troops and fighters since a revolution seeking to topple Gaddafi began in mid-February.

The Libyan fighters swept into the heart of the capital Tripoli early Monday, and seized control of much of the city without facing significant resistance from regime forces.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/195371.html.

Iraq recognizes Libyan opposition govt.

Tue Aug 23, 2011

Iraq's foreign ministry has announced that Baghdad recognizes the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC) as a legitimate representative of Libya.

“The cabinet decided today, 23 August 2011, to recognize the Libyan National Transitional Council as the only and legitimate representative of the Libyan people,” Iraq's ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, Russia and China have also issued statements saying they are ready to accept what the Libyan people decide.

More than 30 other countries have formally recognized the TNC as the "sole representative" of the North African country.

The developments come as Libyan fighters swept into the heart of Libya's capital city early on Monday, and seized the control of much of Tripoli without facing significant resistance from regime forces.

Libya has been the scene of intense fighting between regime troops and fighters since a revolution seeking to topple Gaddafi began in mid-February. Revolutionary forces want an end to Gaddafi's decades-long rule.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/195380.html.

Lebanon eyes TNC help on Imam Sadr

Tue Aug 23, 2011

Lebanon has recognized Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC), saying it would work with "emerging authorities" in the North African country to uncover the fate of a missing cleric.

"The Lebanese government has decided to recognize the National Transitional Council in Libya," read a statement released after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

"Foreign Minister Adnan Mansur has also been delegated to submit plans for cooperation between Lebanese authorities and all relevant and emerging Libyan authorities to uncover the fate of Imam Moussa Sadr and his companions," it added.

Lebanon has never stopped searching for Sadr and his comrades and now there is a real and present opportunity to discover what became of them, Mansur added.

Imam Moussa Sadr was a greatly popular and highly venerated Lebanese Shia cleric of an Iranian descent, who disappeared on Aug. 31, 1978 in a visit to Libya.

Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah on Monday called on Libyan fighters to help find Imam Moussa al-Sadr and two of his companions.

“We are full of hope that they will be freed by your (Libyan fighters') hands and returned to their families,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/195425.html.

UAE builds schools, clinics and mosques in Afghanistan

By Shehab A. Makahleh
August 24, 2011

Abu Dhabi: The UAE has had a presence in Afghanistan for eight years, and six UAE-funded medical clinics and a hospital have been built there.

Some of these are staffed by female Emirati doctors who attend to Afghan women and children.

The UAE continues to make a significant humanitarian contribution in Afghanistan, and has done so since 2003. In 2009, the UAE committed more than Dh1.26 billion in aid to Afghanistan, representing 14 per cent of the UAE's total foreign aid during 2009.

Although a number of UAE donors were active in Afghanistan, almost 73 per cent of assistance (Dh918.3 million) was in the form of grants administered by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development. Most of the funds (Dh863.2 million) were allocated to construction. Some Dh26.8 million went towards infrastructure and services.

Through organizations such as the Red Crescent Authority, the generous donations made by UAE citizens and volunteers have contributed to the construction of 11 schools educating 300 pupils per day, six medical clinics which have treated 35,000 Afghan patients, a major hospital with an annual capacity of 7,000 patients, 38 mosques each providing a prayer service for over 300 people, a general public library, accommodation in Zayed City for 200 displaced families and 160 wells.

The UAE people have contributed $22 million for food, medicine and basic relief projects providing housing and shelter in Afghanistan.

In addition, the UAE Red Crescent Authority has invested $19 million in local projects, and the UAE government has dedicated $30 million to international reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

Source: Gulf News.
Link: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/uae-builds-schools-clinics-and-mosques-in-afghanistan-1.856241.

Interstellar Crashes Could Toss Out Habitable Planets

Moffett Field CA (SPX)
Aug 24, 2011

Our solar system, where planets have a range of sizes and move in near-circular paths, may be rather unusual, according to a German-British team led by Professor Pavel Kroupa of the University of Bonn.

The astronomers, who publish their model in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, find that forming planetary systems may be knocked around by crashes with nearby clumps of material, leading to systems where planets have highly inclined orbits and where the smaller (and potentially habitable) worlds are thrown out completely.

The planets in our solar system, including the Earth, orbit in the same direction around the Sun as the Sun spins, mostly move in paths not so different from circles and are also more or less lined up into a plane not tilted very far with respect to the solar equator.

But planetary systems around other stars can be very different, with some worlds moving in the opposite direction to the spin of their stars and with highly tilted orbits. For the first time the team of astronomers think they have a convincing model that explains these radically different systems.

Both the shape of and direction of travel of planets in our solar system were thought to result entirely from the formation of the Sun and planets more than 4,600 million years ago.

Our local planetary system is believed to have formed as a cloud of gas and dust (a nebula) that collapsed into a rotating disk under the influence of gravity. The planets then grew from clumps of material within this so-called protoplanetary disk.

The new work suggests that oddly shaped orbits may result from a rather less smooth process. The team think that if the protoplanetary disk enters another cloud of material, it can draw off up to about 30 times the mass of Jupiter from the cloud.

Adding this extra gas and dust tilts the disk and hence the angle of the final orbits. Most planetary systems are thought to form in clusters of stars, where the member stars are fairly close together, so these encounters may be very common.

Team member Dr. Ingo Thies, also of the University of Bonn, has carried out computer simulations to test the new idea. He finds that as well as tilting over, loading the protoplanetary disk with material can even reverse its spin, so that it turns in a ''retrograde" sense, where it rotates in the opposite sense to its parent star. At the same time, the encounter compresses the inner region of the disk, possibly speeding up the planetary formation process.

In those circumstances, the simulation suggests that any planets that form will then be in highly inclined or even retrograde orbits. In some cases the orbits may even be tilted with respect to each other, leading to a highly unstable system. One by one, the least massive planets will be ejected completely, leaving behind a small number of 'hot Jupiters', massive worlds that move in orbits extremely close to their star.

In less extreme cases, the disk may only collect a small amount of additional gas and dust and change its tilt by a small amount. This may be what happened in our own solar system, where the weighted average tilt of planetary orbits to the Sun's equator is about 7 degrees.

Dr. Thies believes the Sun and planets are amongst the more orderly systems. "Like most stars, the Sun formed in a cluster, so probably did encounter another cloud of gas and dust soon after it formed. Fortunately for us, this was a gentle collision, so the effect on the disk that eventually became the planets was relatively benign. If things had been different, an unstable planetary system may have formed around the Sun, the Earth might have been ejected from the Solar System and none of us would be here to talk about it."

Professor Kroupa sees the model as a big step forward. "We may be on the cusp of solving the mystery of why some planetary systems are tilted so much and lack places where life could thrive. The model helps to explain why our solar system looks the way it does, with the Earth in a stable orbit and larger planets further out. Our work should help other scientists refine their search for life elsewhere in the Universe."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Interstellar_Crashes_Could_Toss_Out_Habitable_Planets_999.html.

Pakistan extends influence in gulf states

Manama, Bahrain (UPI)
Aug 22, 2011

The tiny Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain has reported to have recruited 3,000 Pakistanis to serve in its security forces to quell protesters from the Shiite majority the government says are backed by Iran.

Pakistan has also rushed to the defense of Saudi Arabia in the current political upheaval roiling the Arab world, underlining how the embattled Asian state, the only Muslim nuclear power, is becoming increasingly influential in the Middle East.

Pakistan is now the eye of the storm in the conflict between the United States and al-Qaida, and day by day it's intruding into the political maelstrom of the Middle East.

It has become a frontline state for Sunni Islam and is being positioned by its leaders, particularly in the powerful military and intelligence establishments, as a bulwark against Shiite Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Increasingly, Pakistan is supporting Saudi Arabia, with which it has a long had discreet security links.

It is reported to have put two army divisions on standby for deployment to Saudi Arabia if the kingdom is threatened by Iran or the pro-democracy uprisings sweeping the Arab world.

It's even reported to be prepared to provide Saudi Arabia with nuclear weapons if threatened by Iran. In return, it has been promised Saudi Arabian oil and treasure.

The reported military deployment followed a visit to Islamabad by Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, a former long-serving ambassador to the United States and since October 2005 secretary-general of the kingdom's National Security Council.

Pakistani mercenaries have long bolstered the armed forces of the Persian Gulf Arab states, whose pampered young men have shown little inclination to join the military.

Contract pilots from Pakistan have been the backbone of the Saudi air force and others in the gulf, for 30 years.

So it's no surprise that the Arab Spring has brought a new surge in recruitment as the gulf monarchies scramble to keep the democratic virus at arm's length.

Pakistanis have been recruited in sizable numbers to stiffen Bahrain's armed services to bolster its security efforts to suppress protests by the tiny Sunni kingdom's Shiite majority.

Pakistan's Fauji Foundation, a body closely linked to Pakistan's military establishment, recently announced the recruitment of more than 1,000 former army personnel to serve with Bahrain's National Guard.

The recruits are reportedly paid 100,000 Pakistani rupees -- $1,174 -- per month and are provided with free healthcare and accommodation.

Pakistan is thus looming large in Middle Eastern affairs to an unprecedented degree.

Islamabad wants to counteract the growing relationship between India, its archrival, and Israel, especially in the military and intelligence fields.

The Saudis, in particular, have portrayed the swelling rivalry with Iran as a new, menacing chapter of the 1,300-year-old struggle between Sunni and Shiite, a rallying cry to which the Sunni-dominated Persian Gulf states have responded.

Where Pakistan, as the only nuclear-armed Muslim state, stands in this will be crucial.

It is the epicenter of al-Qaida's war and with Islamabad's arsenal of nuclear weapons, poses a global and regional danger that Afghanistan's Taliban never did.

"The stakes are enormous," says Bruce Reidel, a former counter-terrorism specialist with the CIA.

"Pakistan has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world. It will soon surpass the United Kingdom as the fifth-largest nuclear arsenal. It is the sixth-largest country in the world in terms of population.

"It will soon surpass Indonesia as the country with the largest Muslim population," the 30-year CIA veteran observed.

"Bin Laden understood all of that very well, which is why he focused so much on building alliances with other terrorist groups in Pakistan to undermine the country's stability."

"Ties between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are long-standing, but for the most part have not stood in the turbulent affairs of the region," observed U.S. political and military analyst Brian M. Downing.

"However increased tensions with Iran, the Arab Spring, and growing disenchantment with the United States are making the relationship more expansive, more prominent, and more dangerous.

"The Saudis are supporting the Pakistani army's militant client-groups, hiring its soldiers, and seeking to benefit from the country's nuclear weaponry," Downing noted.

"This is bringing increased tensions with both Iran and the United States -- no mean feat today given their adversarial positions."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Pakistan_extends_influence_in_gulf_states_999.html.

Somalia drought victims receive aid from Algeria

2011-08-23

Algeria is participating in international efforts to tackle the food crisis in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and Somalia. The first planeload of emergency humanitarian aid for Horn of Africa countries delivered 54 tonnes of food, tents and medicines to Somalia last week.

The operation is "a token of the solidarity that Algeria is showing to the nations of the Horn of Africa", Minister of African and Maghreb Affairs Abdelkader Messahel said August 18th. "Somalia and the other countries in the Horn of Africa are in a tragic situation," he said.

The first of the two-stage relief operation will deliver 600 tonnes of food and medicine to the Dadaab camp on the Kenyan border. The place is home to more than 400,000 refugees. The second stage will be implemented over the next few weeks, with aid being sent to Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea. The ports of Mombasa and Djibouti will receive 10,000 tonnes of food and medicine.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/08/23/newsbrief-06.

Morocco recognizes TNC; Fassi Fihri to visit Benghazi

2011-08-23

Morocco on Monday (August 22nd) officially recognized the Transitional National Council (TNC) as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people, MAP reported. The TNC was "responsible for [Libya's] aspirations for a better future based on equality, justice, democracy and the rule of law", Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri said on public television. Morocco hopes that the TNC will lead the reconciliation of different parts of Libyan society to assure peace, security and reconstruction, the minister added.

Morocco's top diplomat is scheduled to travel Tuesday to the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi to bring a message from King Mohammed VI, AFP reported.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/08/23/newsbrief-03.

Amazigh activists launch pan-Maghreb body

A new Amazigh cultural association hopes to foster economic and political development across North Africa.

Interview by Imrane Binoual for Magharebia in Casablanca – 22/08/11

Amazigh campaigners from across the Maghreb gathered in Tangier last month to celebrate their ancestral heritage. Activists also used the opportunity to launch a new association designed to promote Amazigh rights, language and culture. The Union of North African Peoples (UNAP) was formed by joint declaration of representatives from Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and the Canary Islands. Magharebia sat down with Morocco representative and group vice-president, Ahmed Arrehmouch, to hear how the new association plans to promote Amazigh heritage and Maghreb unity.

Magharebia: How did you come up with the idea for creating a Union of North African Peoples?

Ahmed Arrehmouch: The groundwork was laid before the Tangier Appeal and the announcement about the creation of the Union of North African Peoples (UNAP). Preparatory meetings were held in February in Paris and another was held in the Lebanon. There were discussions about the strategic aims of the Amazigh movement in North Africa. Above all, we felt that the movement and the structure within which we were operating, the World Amazigh Congress, was somewhat weak. This spurred us to think about alternatives taking different forms, with new tools and a new strategic vision. So we agreed to hold an emergency meeting. The events that the region has witnessed accelerated the process of creating a regional framework that could play political, rather than civic, roles and a political role in dealings with governments and international NGOs working to promote democracy and development for the peoples in the region.

Magharebia: Why did you announce the new group during the Touiza festival?

Arrehmouch: We had planned to hold a meeting in June to create the body, but since the organizers of the Touiza festival decided to hold their seventh Mediterranean Festival of Amazigh Culture at around the same time, we seized the opportunity and they said they were willing to host our meeting. So, representatives of Amazigh movements across North Africa came to Morocco for the meeting to create the union, and this culminated in the Tangier Appeal.

Magharebia: Moroccan Amazighs recently won recognition of their language in the new constitution while Tunisian and Libyan Amazighs are seeing freedom for the first time. Did the situation in the region contribute to the creation of your new organization?

Arrehmouch: We felt that the situation across the region made it a very opportune moment, especially because the Amazigh movement played an important role in the February 20 movement in Morocco. In Algeria, too, the RCD (Rally for Culture and Democracy) was the driving force behind the protests in Algiers. We saw the emergence of lively youth and academic movements in Tunisia after the revolution there. They have begun to express themselves freely and have underlined their willingness to include Amazigh organizations. In Egypt, too, people have spoken up and another political movement has emerged in Libya and is represented on the Transitional Council there.

This is the geographical environment in which Amazigh voices expressing a political vision have been heard. The process was sped up by the weakness of the World Amazigh Congress (WAC) in North Africa.

Magharebia: So are you presenting yourselves as an alternative to the WAC?

Arrehmouch: The World Amazigh Congress must now be re-energized, pick itself up and be as dynamic as it used to be. If it can do that, we could work in tandem. However, if its leaders do not do their job, this new organization could become an alternative to it.

Magharebia: What are the first steps that you plan to take?

Arrehmouch: The first step will be to go through the legal process of declaring the UNAP to the relevant authorities. This will be done both in Morocco and abroad. The next step will be to hold a meeting from 25-26 August in Tunisia to put together an action plan for the union. We also intend to organize an international forum to be attended by certain UN agencies that are working to support efforts to promote democracy and human rights. We anticipate that it will be held in the Canary Islands by the end of this year.

Magharebia: Have there been requests to join the new body?

Arrehmouch: We haven't yet opened the door for organizations to become affiliated with this body. In terms of policy, however, the Tangier Appeal stated that the body is open to all Amazigh forces and all NGOs helping people who are subjugated and impoverished in North Africa. For the organization to begin operating, first of all we need to adopt bylaws and the procedure for membership applications. We're still at the stage of hammering out these issues, which will be on the agenda for the meeting that will take place in Tunisia from 25-26 August.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/08/22/feature-02.

UN reports at least 600 killed in South Sudan tribal clashes

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) — At least 600 people have reportedly been killed as a result of ongoing tribal clashes in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported on Monday.

UNMISS has called for an immediate end to the violence which erupted in the state of Jonglei last week where hundreds of people have been killed and unconfirmed reports indicate more than 750 others have been wounded.

The clashes originated between the Murle and Lou Nuer communities following large-scale cattle raids by members of the two groups, leading to the theft of between 26,000 and 30,000 cattle. Cattle raids are a persistent problem in South Sudan.

According to the UNMISS, many homes were also destroyed during the fighting in recent days and local authorities reported that nearly 200 people may have been abducted while thousands have been displaced. Clashes were still continuing on Monday.

Hilde Johnson, the head of UNMISS and the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for South Sudan, voiced deep concern about the attacks and urged all ethnic communities to exercise restraint. “This cycle of violence must stop,” she said. “That so many people have been killed and injured again in such wanton destruction is unacceptable.”

Johnson said reconciliation efforts are urgently needed and pledged the mission’s willingness to support such a process. A UNMISS team has already visited the affected areas in an attempt to facilitate reconciliation efforts.

“The security of all South Sudanese people must come first,” Johnson stressed, adding her condemnation of the looting and destruction of humanitarian facilities in Jonglei.

South Sudan became the world’s newest country when it broke away from Sudan on July 9 as a culmination of a six-year peace process which began in January 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

More than two million people, most of them civilians who died due to starvation and drought, were killed during the 20-year civil war in Sudan. Although there were hopes that South Sudan secession would lead to peace, violence has continued both on a local level in South Sudan as well as with the Sudanese forces.

The UN Mission in Sudan ended its mandated operations the same day South Sudan declared independence following a CPA-provided referendum in which an overwhelming majority of 98.83 percent of the voters favored secession.

In support of the new nation, the UN Security Council then established a successor mission, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), for an initial period of one year, with the intention to renew for further periods as required.

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19612/un-reports-at-least-600-killed-in-south-sudan-tribal-clashes/.

Astronomers Find Ice and Possibly Methane On Snow White, a Distant Dwarf Planet

ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2011) — Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered that the dwarf planet 2007 OR10 -- nicknamed Snow White -- is an icy world, with about half its surface covered in water ice that once flowed from ancient, slush-spewing volcanoes. The new findings also suggest that the red-tinged dwarf planet may be covered in a thin layer of methane, the remnants of an atmosphere that's slowly being lost into space.

"You get to see this nice picture of what once was an active little world with water volcanoes and an atmosphere, and it's now just frozen, dead, with an atmosphere that's slowly slipping away," says Mike Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor and professor of planetary astronomy, who is the lead author on a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters describing the findings. The paper is now in press.

Snow White -- which was discovered in 2007 as part of the PhD thesis of Brown's former graduate student Meg Schwamb -- orbits the sun at the edge of the solar system and is about half the size of Pluto, making it the fifth largest dwarf planet. At the time, Brown had guessed incorrectly that it was an icy body that had broken off from another dwarf planet named Haumea; he nicknamed it Snow White for its presumed white color.

Soon, however, follow-up observations revealed that Snow White is actually one of the reddest objects in the solar system. A few other dwarf planets at the edge of the solar system are also red. These distant dwarf planets are themselves part of a larger group of icy bodies called Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). As far as the researchers could tell, Snow White, though relatively large, was unremarkable -- just one out of more than 400 potential dwarf planets that are among hundreds of thousands of KBOs.

"With all of the dwarf planets that are this big, there's something interesting about them -- they always tell us something," Brown says. "This one frustrated us for years because we didn't know what it was telling us." At that time, the Near Infrared Camera (NIRC) at the Keck Observatory -- which Caltech professor of physics Tom Soifer and chief instrument scientist Keith Matthews helped design in the 1990s -- was the best instrument astronomers had to study KBOs, according to Brown. But NIRC had just been retired, so no one could observe 2007 OR10 in detail. "It kind of languished," he says.

Meanwhile, Adam Burgasser, a former graduate student of Brown's and now a professor at UC San Diego, was helping to design a new instrument called the Folded-port Infrared Echellette (FIRE). Last fall, Brown, Burgasser, and postdoctoral scholar Wesley Fraser used this instrument with the 6.5-meter Magellan Baade Telescope in Chile to take a closer look at 2007 OR10.

As expected, Snow White was red. But to their surprise, the spectrum revealed that the surface was covered in water ice. "That was a big shock," Brown says. "Water ice is not red." Although ice is common in the outer solar system, it's almost always white.

There is, however, one other dwarf planet that's both red and covered with water ice: Quaoar, which Brown helped discover in 2002. Slightly smaller than Snow White, Quaoar is still big enough to have had an atmosphere and a surface covered with volcanoes that spewed an icy slush, which then froze solid as it flowed over the surface.

But because Quaoar isn't as big as dwarf planets like Pluto or Eris, it could not hold onto volatile compounds like methane, carbon monoxide, or nitrogen as long. A couple of billion years after Quaoar formed, it began to lose its atmosphere to space; now, all that remains is some methane. Over time, exposure to the radiation from space turned that methane -- which consists of a carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms -- into long hydrocarbon chains, which look red. Like the frost that covers a lawn on a cold morning, the irradiated methane sits on Quaoar's icy surface, giving it a rosy hue.

The spectrum of 2007 OR10 looks similar to Quaoar's, suggesting that what happened on Quaoar also happened on 2007 OR10. "That combination -- red and water -- says to me, 'methane,'" Brown explains. "We're basically looking at the last gasp of Snow White. For four and a half billion years, Snow White has been sitting out there, slowly losing its atmosphere, and now there's just a little bit left."

Although Snow White's spectrum clearly shows the presence of water ice, Brown says, the evidence for methane is not yet definitive. To find out, the astronomers will have to use a big telescope like the one at the Keck Observatory. If it turns out that Snow White does indeed have methane, it will join Quaoar as one of only two dwarf planets that straddle the border between the handful of objects large enough to hold onto volatile compounds, and the smaller bodies that make up the vast majority of KBOs.

Another task, Brown says, is to give the dwarf planet an official name, since "Snow White" was just a nickname he and his colleagues used. Besides, the moniker no longer makes sense for describing this very red object. Before the discovery of water ice and the possibility of methane, "2007 OR10" might have sufficed for the astronomy community, since it didn't seem noteworthy enough to warrant an official name. "We didn't know Snow White was interesting," Brown says. "Now we know it's worth studying."

Source: Science Daily.
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110822124955.htm.

Vietnam boosts naval power with new frigate

Hanoi (AFP)
Aug 22, 2011

Vietnam on Monday received the second of two Russian-made guided missile frigates, local media reported, boosting its naval firepower amid maritime tensions with China.

The Gepard class frigate -- which an analyst called Vietnam's most modern warship -- arrived at Cam Ranh port on the country's south-central coast, reports said.

The first frigate reached Vietnam in March, state-controlled Tuoi Tre newspaper said.

"It alters the naval game," said Carl Thayer, a veteran Australia-based analyst of Vietnam. "A boat of that kind provides muscle for Vietnam."

The frigates were ordered several years ago as part of a naval upgrade by Hanoi, which is also buying six Russian submarines and foreign-built maritime patrol aircraft.

Beijing and Hanoi have a long-standing territorial dispute over the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos, which are potentially rich in oil and gas deposits and straddle vital commercial shipping lanes.

Relations reached their lowest point in years when Vietnam in May accused Chinese marine surveillance vessels of cutting the exploration cables of an oil survey ship inside the country's exclusive economic zone.

Vietnamese fishermen working in disputed waters have reported numerous seizures of their catch and equipment in recent years.

Thayer said the new helicopter-capable frigates will back up the fishermen with a more powerful vessel than the lightly-armed civilian-run Chinese surveillance ships.

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

The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also staked claims to the Spratlys.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Vietnam_boosts_naval_power_with_new_frigate_999.html.

Britain orders 14 Boeing Chinooks in £1bn deal

London (AFP)
Aug 22, 2011

Britain announced Monday it has ordered 14 new Chinook helicopters from US aerospace and defense giant Boeing at a cost of £1.0 billion ($1.65 billion, 1.1 billion euros).

Considered as the Royal Air Force's workhorse, the transport choppers have served in theaters such as the Falklands War, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The versatile heavy lift aircraft can transport up to 40 men or 10 tonnes of cargo.

Britain already has the largest Chinook fleet in Europe and the order will take it to 60 aircraft. All of the 14 new helicopters should be fully operational by 2017.

The Labor government of former prime minister Gordon Brown was dogged by criticism that British forces in Afghanistan did not have sufficient equipment, particularly troop-carrying helicopters that would avoid soldiers having to travel by bomb-laden roads.

Current Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition claims it was left a £38 billion "black hole" of unfunded defense spending commitments when it took office.

The government has cut the defense budget by eight percent in a bid to curb Britain's huge deficit.

"We have brought reality to the defense budget and can start signing contracts that will deliver real equipment," Defense Secretary Liam Fox said.

"The previous government promised more Chinooks, but never ordered them and never had the money for them. It was just an aspiration.

"These additional helicopters will significantly enhance our existing heavy lift helicopter capability.

"This fleet will support our frontline troops in current and future operations for decades to come."

The new Mark 6 Chinooks will feature a digital flight control system making them easier to operate in tough conditions, such as the hot and dusty environments encountered in Afghanistan where Britain has 9,500 troops stationed.

The RAF should receive the first aircraft for initial trials and testing in 2013 and it should enter service the following year.

Delivery of all 14 helicopters should be complete before 2016. Three should be ready for operational deployment in early 2015 and all 14 should be fully operational by early 2017.

The Boeing deal includes development, manufacture and the first five years of support to the helicopters.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Britain_orders_14_Boeing_Chinooks_in_1bn_deal_999.html.