Dolphins talk like humans: Study

Wed Sep 7, 2011

A new study has revealed that dolphins use tissue vibrations to talk to each other, a process very similar to the way humans communicate.

Scientists found that whistle like sounds of dolphins are produced by tissue vibrations analogous to the operation of vocal folds by humans and some other land-based animals, MSNBC reported.

"When we or animals are whistling, the tune is defined by the resonance frequency of some air cavity," said lead author Peter Madsen of the Department of Biological Sciences at Aarhus University.

According to the study published in Royal Society Biology Letters, Madsen's team studied how dolphins communicate by digitizing and reanalyzing recordings of a 12-year-old male bottlenose dolphin made in 1977.

They found that the dolphin breathed in a 'heliox', a mixture of 80 percent helium and 20 percent oxygen, in which the pitch of the tune can be 1.74 times higher than in normal air.

"We found that the dolphin does not change pitch when it is producing sound in heliox, which means that its pitch is not defined by the size of its nasal air cavities, and hence that it is not whistling," Madsen said.

The animal adjusts the muscular tension and air flow over the connective tissue in its nose exactly as humans make sound with their vocal cords to speak, he added.

Researchers believe their findings can enable them to figure out the meaning of dolphin calls.

Scientists suggest that this process can be applied to all toothed whales with similar nasal anatomy.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197957.html.

Israel embassy wall torn down in Egypt

Fri Sep 9, 2011

Parts of the wall recently built around the Israeli embassy in Cairo, to protect the facility from Egyptian demonstrators has been torn down by angry protesters.

Following the Friday Prayers, protesters and activists gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo, demanding the termination of all ties with Tel Aviv.

Egyptians called for the expulsion of the Israeli envoy and chanted anti-Israeli slogans.

However, heavily equipped Egyptian security forces prevented the crowd from reaching inside the embassy compound.

Egyptian protesters were angry at the country's ruling military council, which had made the wall, saying this is not what they had a revolution for.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, but the situation has drastically changed since the Egyptian revolution which toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak. A number of Egyptian political parties are now calling for changes to the peace treaty.

Under the US-backed Mubarak regime, Egypt consistently served Israeli interests and objectives by helping to impose the crippling blockade on the impoverished Gaza strip after the democratically elected Hamas took control of the territory in 2007.

The crippling blockade on the territory has triggered a humanitarian crisis. The siege has left nearly one and a half million Gazans in dire need of basic supplies.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/198278.html.

US soldier kills BBC's Afghan journalist

Thu Sep 8, 2011

A BBC reporter has been shot dead by an American soldier in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in July, based on the facts revealed on September 8.

BBC Pashto service journalist Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, 25, took refuge in a bathroom after heavy fighting broke out in Tarin Kowt's market following suicide bombings but was eventually shot dead by an American soldier that allegedly mistook him for a suicide bomber, the state-run BBC reported on Thursday.

Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson said Khpulwak was described by soldiers as “holding a gadget in his hands and reaching for something in his pocket.”

Jacobson said, “The US soldiers got the task to clear the building after they were informed that suicide bombers had forced their way into it. Two of the bombers had detonated themselves and blew parts of the building down.”

“Whilst the soldiers were continuing to conduct the operations to clear it, there was an observation made of a young male identified next to the room the suicide bombers detonated themselves, and he was taken as an enemy.”

He said that the American soldier mistook Khpulwak by his actions because he was holding “a technical gadget” in his hand that was later identified as a telephone.

Jacobson, however, admitted that the “gadget” could certainly have been a press card with which Khpulwak was trying to identify himself as a journalist.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/198139.html.

Amid Calls for Social Justice, Kids Hawk Drinks

In Egypt, work is a way of life for children, even at Tahrir Square protests

CAIRO -- Mona was handing out bottles of water, collecting 1.5 Egyptian pounds apiece and placing it quickly into the small little pouch that held the money she had gathered for the day. It was hot, the July sun beating down on thousands of protestors as they staged a sit-in in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square.

Her customers were demanding greater change and social justice. However, for Mona -- age 12 and an obvious candidate to benefit from the protestors’ agenda -- the mass demonstration was nothing more than a perfect opportunity for her family to put her to work.

“They believe it’s a great chance to make extra money this summer because it’s hot and people need water,” the girl, dressed in an all-black galabeya, told The Media Line. She was one of a number of young workers’ braving the summer heat to earn a few extra pounds. “The money goes to my family, but they don’t come here to help.”

She is one of millions of young children forced into the labor market by their family or by poverty. Without social-support systems in the country, young children like Mona face long work days in order to earn extra money for their families. They don’t see much, if any, of the earnings.

“I’ve sold a lot of water, but when I get home, my father takes the money and goes out. I don’t like it, but they tell me I have to do this,” the young girl, who says she hasn’t attended school in two years and has spent the past three weeks in Tahrir selling water to local activists.

In July, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that their latest national survey revealed the number of working children in the country was at 5.1 million.

The survey included children between the ages of five and 17. With Egypt’s economy in the doldrums and inflation accelerating, it is likely that more children have been joining the workforce this year.

Gen. Abou Bakr Al-Gendy, head of CAPMAS, said at a press conference to release the statistics that 46% of working children are between the ages of 15 and 17 and that 4.87 million of those give their parents the money they earn. A little more than a fifth of working children are female. He added that 120,000 of the working children do not attend school and 487,000 have dropped out completely.

Al-Gendey adds that the largest percentage of the children work in agriculture, where the rate of females is higher, although he did not give a specific number.

Egypt’s under-14 population numbers about 26.8 million, so if CAPSMAS figures are correct about 10% of the country’s children are employed.

Al-Gendey, speaking to The Media Line in late August, said the government is looking to implement a new series of strategies that will tackle the rise in young children working for their families instead of going to school.

“We are currently developing a number of ideas that will hopefully help remove young boys and girls from the streets,” he says. “One of those ways is to improve the minimum wage in Egypt. With such low wages, families often feel they have to have their children on the streets working so they can eat daily, but this can end when the parents are receiving appropriate salaries.”

Ironically, the activists in Tahrir who bought water from the young workers have been calling for greater social justice and an increase in the minimum wage. However, for many of the activists the scene was a sign that change is not going to come, either from the government or what a handful of protesters said was the “hypocrisy of the protesters themselves.”

Farah al-Ghoneim, a 22-year-old university student studying journalism, says she has been a part of the protest movement since it erupted on January 25, but became alienated from it with the anti-military stances taken by the Tahrir sit-in demonstrators in July and from the failure to give priority to Egypt’s poorest.

“I was there because I honestly believe we can have a better country based on democracy and social justice, but when we sit there and chant for democracy and social justice and don’t demand as our top priorities a better life for those who suffer greatest, it hurts and is not useful,” she says.

Mohamed, a 19-year-old carpenter in the Cairo neighborhood of Sayeda Zeinab, agrees. He knows about life on the street and child workers. He spent his teenage years working long hours to help support his parents, who couldn’t find much work for themselves apart from a few odd jobs. When he was 17 years old, he refused to work from sunrise to well past sunset, and decided to leave.

“I knew it would hurt them and they would struggle, but I spent seven years working so much and didn’t go to school. I can barely read. At least now I have work, but it isn’t right,” he explains. “When I saw the revolution start I was so excited because I believed it would help the young people who struggle in this country. But it’s done very little, and more children are on the streets. It isn’t right.”

Mohamed pulls out his hands and reveals massive scaring. He says he had to learn on the job growing up and many times the nail would miss its spot and lodge in his hand. For him, minimum wage and education are part of the battle.

“We need to know that children deserve to go to school and not be working because it is not good,” he says, pointing out that he agrees the military is not doing enough now to change the country. “But the activists aren’t thinking about the people either, they only care about being famous.”

That appears to be the crux of the matter for the younger generation forced to work on the streets for long hours in order to bring home a few extra pounds. With nearly half of Egypt’s 80 million people living on roughly $2 per day, those extra pounds do go far, but at what cost, asked Al-Gundey.

“We have a major problem with working children and it has to be solved. Higher wages and better social problems can ease this, but it takes society to demand change,” he argues.

For Mona, who has moved to the busy Qasr Al-Aini street within stones throw of the square since the military forcibly removed the protesters from Tahrir Square, life remains much as it has for the past few years. She wakes up early, takes what little money her parents give her and heads out, bucket and ice in hand.

“I do this everyday and we usually make around 15 pounds a day,” she says. Asked about friends and school, she turns her eyes to the ground. “I don’t have friends and I don’t go to school. I am very sad.”

By Joseph Mayton on Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Source: The Media Line.
Link: http://www.themedialine.org/news/print_news_detail.asp?NewsID=33178.

Qatar moves to reach food sustainability

By ARIEH O’SULLIVAN / THE MEDIA LINE.
09/12/2011

Gulf country plans to develop 45,000 hectares as it boosts food security, will use most technological advances to overcome natural challenges.

Many Gulf countries have been investing in foreign farmland, mainly in fertile Africa, to serve as their bread basket.

But Qatar has recently announced that it was going to boost its own food security and start investing in a master plan to turn 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) of its own land into farms. The government’s Qatar National Food Security Program says its plan is to achieve self-sufficiency using the most modern technological advances to feed its booming population.

At the moment, Qatar, an arid country of some 1.8 million inhabitants jutting off Saudi Arabia into the Gulf, can only produce about 10% of its food needs and is desperately reliant on imports. Greenhouses are a rarity at the moment and they exist only about 1% of cultivated land, according Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

As a first step, Qatar plans to set up 1,400 farms, according to Mohamed Al-Attiyah, chairman of the Qatar National Food Security Program. He said these will use the latest agricultural technology and train more people to work in the agricultural sector to improve productivity.

Currently, only 1.6 % of Qatar is arable land and agriculture only contributes 0.1% to gross national product, according to the FAO. Attiyah noted that existing farms were working at only 10% of their capacity since it suffered from a lack of qualified staff and water shortages.

Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, issued a decree calling for a master plan to be ready by 2013 and for full food security to be reached within a decade.

“This decree is an important message that demonstrates Qatar’s willingness to overcome one of its main challenges,” Attiyah said.

Pedro Berliner, an expert in dryland agriculture and director of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, said this was feasible, but that Qatar faced many obstacles.

“Technology has been able to overcome many natural conditions. You can desalinate water, and add fertilizer. You don’t even need soil and can grow plants hydroponically. It all depends on the costs,” Berliner told The Media Line. “You could grow wheat in a greenhouse, but it would cost about five times what you’d pay on the market.”

This also would require a very high degree of technological skill and you have to acquire that or seek out the alternatives and bring in trained foreign workers, Berliner added.

Attiyah warned in a recent interview with The Peninsula newspaper in Qatar that climate change and water shortages “could pose a very serious problem for future development.”

According to the World Bank, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states of Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates import some 90% of the food they need to feed their 40 million-strong population at a cost in 2010 of $25.8 billion. Qatar itself imports some $1.3 billion in food annually.

“High dependence on imports makes the GCC food supply very vulnerable and highly dependent on the world food market. In the past, any form of disruption in food imports, either due to policy restrictions by exporting countries or natural calamities has affected the region significantly,” according to a recent report by Alpen Capital Investment Bank.

The oil boom brought a population explosion to Qatar and the rest of the Gulf states and food production has not been able to keep pace. Furthermore, food prices and oil prices are interconnected. As oil prices rose so too did food prices. Wealthy Arab states have been trying to create a food pipeline to stave off riots.

In an effort to improve their food security Gulf state countries have been buying up tracts of fertile, but often underutilized land in African countries like Ethiopia, Sudan and Mozambique. Qatar recently leased 400,000 hectares of farmland in Kenya in the Tana River Delta to grow food for home in exchange for a $3.5 billion loan to the government. This “land grab” has raised alarms by these countries who fear they won’t be left with any food for their own people.

The announcement by the chairman of the Qatar National Food Security Program to improve domestic food production seems to reflect a little paranoia that in times of crisis, it would not be able to import food for its residents.

“This is the opposite of globalization,” said Berliner of the Blaustein Institute. “In a global world everyone provides their best product and they are traded around the world so you have what you need. This is going the other way around. It would seem that they do not want to be affected by globalization.”

Source: The Jerusalem Post.
Link: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=237625.

Almost 90% of Tripoli now has water: NTC

Tripoli (AFP)
Sept 8, 2011

Nearly all of Tripoli has regained access to running water after nearly two weeks of shortages, the head of a prime ministerial task force told AFP on Thursday.

"Nearly 90% of Tripoli has water again," Aref al-Nayed said, reporting that engineers had managed to restore the flow from wells in the deep south after an interruption that left four million people in the greater Tripoli area without war.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator Panos Moumtzis had earlier described the shortages as "serious" and "the most important and urgent and immediate priority" for humanitarian agencies.

Residents of the capital had been without running water as the war forced disruptions to Libya's state-of-the-art system that draws water from underground aquifers deep in the Sahara.

The United Nations and other international actors had said they were importing about 11 million liters of drinking water to stave off an emergency, as engineers raced to get the system back on line.

Nayed, who head the prime minister's stabilization team, said the more than 580 wells linked to the Great Man Made River system were again feeding the city.

"They had to reset the systems manually and before, that was not possible. For security reasons, they could not get to the stations.

"There was no major damage but some equipment was stolen," he said.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Almost_90_of_Tripoli_now_has_water_NTC_999.html.

Deadly floods hit US northeast in wake of Irene

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (AFP)
Sept 9, 2011

Heavy rain on Thursday swamped areas of the US northeast already sodden from Hurricane Irene, with up to five people killed as flash floods forced over 100,000 to leave their homes.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood warning for counties in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia, as towns became inundated, busy highways closed down and commuter lines backed up.

US President Barack Obama declared an emergency in New York state, ordering federal agencies to coordinate disaster relief efforts to "save lives and to protect property and public health and safety," the White House said.

Some 100,000 people in Pennsylvania's Luzerne county are under "mandatory evacuation" orders, including 20,000 in the city of Wilkes-Barre, according to local officials.

Stephen Bekenich, the county's emergency management director, warned that those who remained in flood-prone areas could not count on being rescued.

"If folks choose not to leave, they are taking (their) lives into their own hands," he said. "Help may not be able to reach them."

The city of Binghamton, New York -- where 8.5 inches (21.6 centimeters) of rain fell in 24 hours -- ordered a mandatory city-wide evacuation, affecting 10,000 people.

Flooding was also reported in and around the US capital Washington.

"We expect historic or near-historic flooding in many parts of the state," Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Ruth Miller told AFP.

Three unconfirmed fatalities during the stormy weather have been reported to authorities in Pennsylvania, she said, as the state grappled with some of its worst flooding since 1972's benchmark Hurricane Agnes, which ravaged much of the mid-Atlantic region as a deadly tropical storm.

"It's bad now, and there are some places where it will get worse," Miller said. "There is more rain that continues to come down (and) we don't expect this to end for quite some time."

Two people, one of them a young boy who was swept away in a river, died in northern Virginia, a spokesman for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had earlier mobilized emergency response resources, also warned of further severe flooding, calling the situation "frightening."

More potentially dangerous weather is expected in the northeast after Irene, which was blamed for more than 40 deaths.

Three cyclones are brewing in the Atlantic: Tropical Storm Nate, hovering in the Gulf of Mexico and threatening Mexico and Texas; fast-moving Tropical Storm Maria, which could hit Puerto Rico early Sunday and the Bahamas next week; and Hurricane Katia, off the US east coast and expected to remain out at sea.

The latest foul weather is the remains of Tropical Storm Lee, which slammed into the Gulf Coast on Sunday, dumping torrential rains on a huge swath of the American south, mid-Atlantic region and northeast already drenched by Irene.

"It is a double-whammy," said spokesman Bill Peat of the New York state Office of Emergency Management.

Irene dumped more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in parts of New York and Pennsylvania over the past four days, triggering huge floods.

National Guard troops have been deployed in New York and Pennsylvania, and rescue personnel are on standby.

The flash flood warnings include much of New Jersey, which suffered devastating flooding from Irene after it made landfall hundreds of miles (kilometers) south and trailed heavy rains all the way up the coast.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Deadly_floods_hit_US_northeast_in_wake_of_Irene_999.html.

China ready to help Libya reconstruction

Auckland (AFP)
Sept 9, 2011

China is ready to help Libya rebuild after Moamer Kadhafi's downfall and it supports the United Nations taking a leading role in reconstruction efforts, Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said Friday.

"It depends on the needs of the Libyan people themselves, whatever they need we will be willing to help them," Cui told reporters on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland.

Cui said that while the north African nation's first priority was restoring order after almost seven months of conflict, Beijing stood ready to offer assistance when the rebuilding began.

Asked what part the UN could play in the reconstruction, he replied: "We will support the United Nations to play a leading role", while also noting that any mission would first need approval from the UN Security Council.

China, which long helped prop up the Kadhafi regime, has extensive business interests in the north African state.

It has invested billions of dollars in rail, oil and telecoms in the country, and has commercial and strategic reasons for not wanting Western countries to exert too much influence there.

China is a major oil importer and needs to secure stable supplies of the resource to help keep its huge economy moving.

Libya produced about 1.6 million barrels of oil per day before the rebellion broke out, but output has since slowed to a trickle.

Source: Energy-Daily.
Link: http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/China_ready_to_help_Libya_reconstruction_999.html.

China: 9-month sentence for protester

Sept. 9, 2011

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A 56-year-old woman who'd protested in support of three bloggers in China last year was sentenced to nine months in prison Friday in eastern Fujian Province.

The sentence against Wang Lihong, a retired businesswoman, was for obstructing traffic and "stirring up trouble," the Los Angeles Times reported, noting it as a test case for freedom of expression in China.

The report said the three bloggers, whom Wang supported, were charged with defamation after they tried to help a mother investigate her daughter's death, the Times said.

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei, speaking for Wang, said: "If you have a mother, if you are a woman, if you are an ordinary person, if you don't want to be forced to disappear or face false accusation, please pay attention to Wang Lihong," the report said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/09/09/China-9-month-sentence-for-protester/UPI-95951315548834/.

Yemen: Mujahideen of al-Qaeda captured another town in fighting

7 September 2011

According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, the Mujahideen of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula liberated another town, Rowda, on Tuesday.

It is located in the southeastern province of Shabwa, next to the Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

It is to be recalled that the AP reported that the city was already under the control of the Mujahideen. But apparently it was not under the full control, and only a group of the Mujahideen of al-Qaeda was present in the town.

Xinhua report referring to provincial police of the Saleh's regime that Rowda is located a few kilometers from a base of the French company TOTAL, which is engaged in illegal extraction of natural gas in Yemen.

Another puppet official said that there had been heavy fightings for Rowda, and the Saleh's troops were supported by combat aviation, but the puppets were forced to retreat under the attacks from the Mujahideen.

For obvious reasons, the Democratic media report very scanty and partial information about the success of the Mujahideen.

It is now known that the Mujahideen started to move towards the port town of Balhaf. The fighters of al-Qaida intend to besiege the Saleh's troops, who are guarding the headquarters of the French natural gas production giant corporation TOTAL, said a puppet official.

It is to be recalled Shabwa, which is located about 458 km south-east of the capital Sana'a, is yet another bastion of al-Qaeda along with the Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

It is also a home to a famous Islamic preacher Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki.

In the province of Shabwa which borders the IEA, Saleh's military units have been already fighting with the Mujahideen of al-Qaeda, for several months (since May 29).

More recently, the puppets have taken a massive offensive against the Mujahideen, but thanks to a coordinated action of the Islamic fighters, it was repulsed.

Now the IEA has under its control the towns of Zinjibar (the capital of the Islamic Emirate), Shaqra, and Jaar, as well as large parts of the coastal area of Dovis.

Xinhua added referring to spy sources of Saleh's regime that the fighters of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula increase the intensity of attacks on Saleh's troops, stationed in the province Lahj near the border with the Abyan, thus preventing the transfer of soldiers from the largest military base in Yemen, al-Anad, located in the province, to Abyan and Shabwa to support local puppet forces.

Meanwhile, Eurasia Review reports that the puppets once again conducted air strikes on the town of Jaar. They bombed a mosque. As a result, 31 peaceful Muslims martyred.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/07/15081.shtml.

Jews force Turkish tourists to undress and recite Quran naked to humiliate and mock at Muslims

7 September 2011

Turkish tourists complained of harassment at Zionist airport in Jew-occupied Al-Rabi'a ("tel aviv") on Sunday and Monday.

Turkish travelers on a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul said "Israeli" thugs singled them out for airport strip searches.

Passengers said they were separated from travelers from other countries as they headed back to Turkey on Sunday and taken into rooms for detailed body searches at Zio airport near Al-Rabi'a.

"They immediately told the group from Bucharest to pass ... but they took us into changing rooms. (We) took off our clothes and shoes. (They) searched our bodies with their dirty hands and then with a detector," Arif Cinar said at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Anatolia reported.

"They searched our bodies "for explosives" for several times," Cinar said.

One man said he was forced by Jews to recite a prayer from the Quran. Others said they were patted down.

Turkish travelers arriving in Israel on Monday were also harassed and humiliated by the Jews.

Turkish citizen Mustafa Teke, who traveled to Jew-occupied single and indivisible Palestine for the nine-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, told the Anatolia new agency that Turkish tourists were searched several times in a special room at Zio airport near Al-Rabi'a.

Mustafa Teke said he was asked by Jews to take off his clothes and remain naked for body search and when he refused officials forced him to do so.

"I told them I am a Muslim and would not take off my trousers. They said I could not fly then ... They forcibly made me to (take off) my trousers," Teke said.

He said only Turkish tourists were taken to the special room and that they were humiliated. "We were exposed to a kind of mistreatment which would not even be shown to terrorists," Teke said.

"Jewish policemen in that room wanted me to take off all my clothing. They searched me both manually and with a detector. They wanted me to take off my pants. I objected to that. They insisted, saying the detector was giving off a signal. I requested a translator. I pushed them back when they touched me. Then, many other police officers came. They asked me why I was refusing to take off my pants. I said I am a Muslim and I cannot do that. They told me that I cannot fly then.

‘No problem; my country will take me back,' I said. But I said we do not deserve this mistreatment. Then they forcefully took my pants off. I saw Turkish women were also being taken to that room as I was leaving the room. That upset us more," Teke said.

Another Turkish citizen, Eyup Ensar Uğur, also said Turks were treated differently than other tourists and were searched more thoroughly. He said the plane took off half an hour later than the scheduled time due to "security checks".

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/07/15085.shtml.

Syrian forces remove wounded from hospitals: HRW

ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY | AP
Friday 9 September 2011

BEIRUT: A leading human rights group says Syrian security forces have “forcibly removed” 18 wounded people from a hospital in the restive central city of Homs.

Human Rights Watch cited reports from witnesses, including doctors, in its report that was released late Thursday.

The accusations stem from a military siege in Homs on Wednesday, when activists said at least 20 people were killed.

The New York-based rights group also says Syrian security forces prevented medical personnel from reaching the wounded in the city that day.

The UN estimates that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s crackdown has killed some 2,200 people since the country’s uprising began in March.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/node/390355.

Dutch free up Qaddafi funds for new Libyan rulers

Friday 9 September 2011

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The Dutch government says it is thawing €1.4 billion ($2 billion) in frozen assets from the Qaddafi regime and sending the money to Libya’s new rulers.

The Foreign Ministry says the money will be sent to the National Transitional Council, which will spend it on humanitarian relief including food and medicines as well as education and government salaries.

The United Nations sanctions committee approved the transfer.

Last month, the Netherlands sent €100 million of frozen Qaddafi funds to the World Health Organization to buy medicines for Libya.

The government says the money freed up Friday comes from Dutch accounts held by the Libyan Central Bank.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/node/390358.

Jordan rejects govt.-proposed reforms

Fri Sep 9, 2011

Anti-government protesters have poured into the streets of the Jordanian capital, Amman, to reject constitutional reforms proposed by the government.

Protesters say the amendments proposed by the Royal Commission do not meet their demanded reforms. Jordanian lawmakers are currently debating the proposed constitutional reforms.

The proposed reforms include the creation of an independent commission to oversee elections, lowering the age of candidates for parliament from 35 to 25 and limiting the jurisdiction of the military state security court.

But the opposition has described the proposed amendments as insufficient, saying they do not meet their key demands for a new electoral law and an elected prime minister.

"We rejected these amendments and we will never admit them as a constitution as long as it does not address the essence of the crisis," said protester Ali Abu Sukar.

Protesters also demanded Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit's resignation, an end to government corruption and the dissolution of parliament.

Smaller demonstrations were also reported in other parts of Jordan.

Jordan has faced anti-government rallies demanding reforms and an end to corruption since January.

In June, in a bid to appease protesters, King Abdullah II announced some concessions, including the formation of future governments that were based on an elected parliamentary majority rather than one appointed by the monarch.

However, he later said it may take two to three years to put an elected government in place.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/198244.html.

Hummingbird Feather Songs Set Females All Aflutter

By Mimi Nguyen Ly
September 8, 2011

Hummingbirds are well known for their hovering antics and being able to fly backwards. But these little guys have another idiosyncrasy—in some species, the males make loud noises with their tail feathers to attract females.

A study published in Science on Sept. 9 explains the source of these courtship sounds, not usually heard during normal flight, which are due to "aeroelastic flutter."

In a typical courting ritual, the male flies 5 to 40 meters up in the air and nose-dives past a potential mate. At the lowest point of the maneuver, he quickly spreads and closes his tail feathers, generating the unique fluttering sounds.

Christopher Clark of Yale University and colleagues analyzed these sounds using a Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometer to quantify the feathers’ vibrations. They also studied high-speed videos showing the tail feathers of 14 different species in a wind tunnel.

The team determined that multiple factors are at play, including the size, shape, and stiffness of tail plumage. And the faster the dive, the louder the sounds.

“The sounds that hummingbird feathers can make are more varied than I expected,” says Clark in a press release.

Each hummingbird species possesses a signature sound or feather song. The researchers found that various interactions among the feathers generate fluttering frequencies that blend into a distinct tone and timbre.

An example of such a synergy occurs when one feather causes an adjacent one to vibrate in the same way and produce a louder sound, like a vibrating tuning fork influences a nearby fork to hum in the same frequency.

"This work is an excellent example of the use of physical approaches to understand the function of biological structures, and it reveals aerodynamic—rather than vocalized—signaling during courtship,"says William Zamer, program director at the National Science Foundation, in the release.

Along with diving stunts, males also display their wings and can produce sounds from other feathers on their bodies.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/hummingbird-feather-songs-set-females-all-aflutter-61352.html.

Iran to send 12th aid cargo to Somalia

Thu Sep 8, 2011

Iran is to dispatch its twelfth humanitarian aid convoy to famine-hit Somalia as part of attempts to help the people of the Horn of Africa nation, Press TV reported.

Head of Iran's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) Public Relations Pouya Hajian said that the twelfth humanitarian aid shipment for drought-stricken Somalia has been loaded into a cargo plane at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport.

The IRCS official added that the 35-ton aid cargo comprising canned food, tents, legumes, rice and flour will be dispatched to Mogadishu's Aden-Adde International Airport on Thursday night.

He said that Iran's eleventh aid convoy for Somalia left Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport for Mogadishu on Thursday.

The 40-ton consignment of the Islamic Republic's humanitarian aid comprised legumes, flour, rice, tents, moquette and milk powder.

Hajian also pointed out that Iran's sixth relief camp in Mogadishu was inaugurated in the presence of IRCS Secretary General Zaher Rostami on Thursday.

The camp, which will be used to provide centralized command for other Iranian camps in the Somali capital, will cover 1,000 Somali families and house a field hospital.

Five hundred Somali families have been settled in every Iranian camp in Mogadishu.

The United Nations says that more than thirteen children out of every 10,000 aged less than five die in the Somalia's famine zone every day.

Reports say that aid agencies can take food supplies to only a limited number of people affected by the disaster since insecurity hinders efforts in much of the country's south.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew the country's former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/198128.html.

Jordan: Syrian fighter jet makes emergency landing

By BASSEM MROUE and JAMAL HALABY | Associated Press
(June 21st 2012 Thursday)

BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian fighter jet made an emergency landing Thursday at a northern Jordanian airbase, a Jordanian government official said.

The official says the Russian-made MiG-21 landed at the King Hussein Air Base in Mafraq, a north Jordanian town near the Syrian border.

He declined to provide other details. Two other officials gave similar accounts.

All three spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, Ahmad Kassem, said the plane had defected to Jordan and that its pilot was seeking political asylum. He said the group had encouraged the pilot to defect.

Syria's state-run TV reported earlier that authorities have lost contact with a MiG-21 that was on a training mission in the country. The report gave no further details.

Since an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March last year, Syrian troops have refrained from using military warplanes against rebels.

___

Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby reported from Amman, Jordan

New Greek PM Samaras to name cabinet members

June 21, 2012

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — New Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is set to announce his cabinet Thursday, a day after brokering a three-party governing coalition that ends weeks of political uncertainty in the crisis-afflicted country.

The conservative Samaras was sworn in Wednesday, pledging to restore hope to a country battered by a protracted debt crisis that has forced across-the-board cuts in incomes and public services. Greece has also been hit by soaring unemployment and a deep recession now in its fifth year.

Samaras met with the heads of his two minority coalition partners — Evangelos Venizelos from Socialist PASOK and the smaller Democratic Left's Fotis Kouvelis — to thrash out the final details in the government's policy platform.

Prominent banker Vassilis Rapanos, who is tipped to assume the finance portfolio, took part in the meeting. Caretaker Finance Minister Giorgos Zanias will represent Greece at Thursday's meeting of his eurozone colleagues in Luxembourg.

All three coalition parties have promised to broadly respect Greece's pledges to undertake further harsh austerity measures and reforms, conditions demanded by European partners and the International Monetary Fund in return for more bailout loans.

That commitment, and the formation of a government in a country that had been politically paralyzed since first inconclusive elections on May 6, relieved international markets. Many in Greece and abroad had feared an electoral win by anti-austerity parties could have prompted a disastrous confrontation with Greece's creditors, ended the flow of bailout funds and eventually forced the country out of the 17-member eurozone.

"I am optimistic and I think (Samaras) will lift the country out of the deadlock we've been in for the last two years," said Athens retired business manager Apostolos Athineos. "And I think this will be his only chance."

Kyriakos Tzaferos, an out-of-work civil engineer now working as a real estate agent, said the government deal could help restore market stability. "Probably the economy will try to pick up again and some money will be pumped into the market," he said. "Otherwise, if there's no money in the economy, there's going to be no improvement into what you get in your pocket at the end of the day."

Salaries have been deeply cut over the past two-and-a-half years in the shrinking private job market and the large civil service — although civil servants have been spared from the layoffs that have left more than one in five Greek workers jobless. Pensions have dwindled and taxes repeatedly hiked, although constant pledges to overhaul an inefficient tax system that primarily targets salaried employees and pensioners have failed to deliver.

Greek stocks dropped Thursday after five straight sessions of gains, losing nearly 2 percent in midday trading. Greek shares have lost more than half their value over the past year.

Greece swears in new prime minister

June 20, 2012

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece moved to end its protracted political impasse Wednesday, swearing in a new prime minister to lead a largely pro-bailout coalition tasked with saving the country's place in the eurozone and easing a European financial crisis with global repercussions.

Antonis Samaras, a 61-year-old U.S.-educated economist, became the fourth prime minister in eight months. "I know well the need to restore the dignity of the Greek people that has been wounded," he said. "I know the need for a quick recovery of the economy to restore social justice and social cohesion."

Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, will head a three-party coalition that includes the socialist PASOK party and the small Democratic Left. The new government faces massive financial challenges. It must deliver on pledges to implement painful austerity measures, including cutting tens of thousands of civil service jobs, in exchange for billions of dollars (euros) in rescue loans from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund.

"You are taking over the governance of the country at a difficult and historic moment. You have many battles to fight, both within Greece and abroad," the outgoing caretaker prime minister, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, told Samaras during their handover.

New Democracy narrowly beat the radical left-wing Syriza party in Sunday's elections, but fell short of enough votes to form a government on its own, leading to power-sharing talks for three days. Similar talks after an inconclusive May 6 election had collapsed after 10 days.

Syriza, led by 37-year-old former student activist Alexis Tsipras, had campaigned on an anti-bailout platform, vowing to pull Greece out of the commitments it made to impose deeply unpopular austerity measures in return for the multibillion-euro bailouts. Greece has been dependent on the bailout funds since May 2010.

Tapping into widespread anger at the austerity, Tsipras quadrupled his party's support since the 2009 elections and will now be the main opposition party — a role it has already said it will use to oppose the bailout.

"Syriza will fight from the position of responsible, active opposition," spokesman Panos Skourletis said after the coalition agreement was announced. "It will stand beside those who suffer from the policies being implemented and will lead the social struggles of the next phase in the effort of keeping alive the hope of overturning the bailout policies."

But with the formation of a largely pro-bailout government, immediate fears of Athens reneging on its pledges have receded. Combined, the coalition's three parties hold a strong majority of 179 out of Parliament's 300 seats — although it is unclear how united they will be. New Democracy and PASOK are longtime foes in a rivalry that extends from the early 1980s.

The new government faces a long, tough job. It must deliver on pledges by its predecessors to generate huge new savings, privatize publicly-owned companies and real estate, cut some 150,000 civil service jobs and open restricted professions to competition.

All three coalition parties broadly back Greece's pledges for further austerity and reforms, but have pledged to re-negotiate some of the terms for the rescue loans. Samaras campaigned on promises to lower taxes, restart the economy and provide income boosts to low earners, large families, police and fighter pilots.

New Democracy and PASOK, the party that came in third in Sunday's vote and is led by former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, are also looking for an extension of at least two years in the deadlines for implementing fresh cutbacks worth a total €14.5 billion ($18.42 billion).

Fotis Kouvelis of the Democratic Left went further Wednesday, saying Greece should eventually "disengage" from the austerity commitments and "lift those measures that have literally bled society." An initial test could come as early as Thursday, when the finance ministers of the 17-nation Eurozone meet in Luxembourg ahead of an EU summit on June 28-29. Greece will send outgoing finance minister Giorgos Zanias, who met Wednesday night with the heads of the three coalition parties. The meeting was also attended by National Bank of Greece chairman Vasilis Rapanos, tipped to succeed Zanias as finance minister.

The June 28-29 summit "will be the first big battle on the revision of the bailout agreement, the creation of a framework that will allow us to move to positive growth and to combat unemployment, which is the big problem of Greek society," Venizelos said.

The willingness of Greece's international creditors to soften some of the terms will be key. So far, while there have been some slightly conciliatory voices, it is unclear just how much tolerance there will be.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country has often taken a hard stance on the Greek crisis, said it was "good news" that a government had been put together quickly. "It is important that Greece now takes the right measures to implement the agreements that we made in the eurogroup," he said after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. "I assume that these agreements will be adhered to."

Merkel, whose country is the main contributor to the bailout, called Samaras to congratulate him and wished him "luck and success in the difficult work that lies ahead of him," the German government said. It added that Merkel hopes for "good cooperation" with Samaras and his government, and she invited him to visit Berlin.

The austerity has left the country struggling through a fifth year of recession, with unemployment spiraling to above 22 percent and tens of thousands of businesses shutting down. Earlier Wednesday, hundreds of poverty-stricken Greeks queued in a central Athens park for free vegetables. Cretan farmers handed out some 2,700 10-kilo (22-pound) packages of produce, in cooperation with the capital's municipal authorities.

Among those lining up was Panayiota Sidera, a 31-year-old unemployed Athenian whose husband is also out of a job. The couple lives on a €250 monthly disability pension and rent from an apartment they own, and has a €540-a-month loan installment to pay.

"That's my predicament," she said. The food handout "is helping people, and I'm grateful. ... The government should have been doing this years ago."

Nicholas Paphitis and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Athens and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

Queen's granddaughter thrilled to be in Olympics

June 19, 2012

LONDON (AP) — Zara Phillips will skip the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics together with her team because competition in her event begins the following day.

The 31-year-old Phillips — granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II — will be treated just like any other Olympian when she competes, and that means she will be staying in the Athletes' Village. Phillips told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that she was very excited to be part of Britain's eventing team, a difficult discipline that tests dressage, cross-country and show jumping ability.

"It will be great to be part of the Olympics and get the atmosphere and the buzz of being a part of it," she told reporters only strides away from the competition venue at Greenwich park. "In the past, the equestrian has been based quite far out and this time they have made a big effort to have it as part of the Olympics and really nearby to the village, so it will be great to have the atmosphere and benefit from that," Phillips said.

At the London Games she'll be staying with others on the team — Tina Cook, William Fox-Pitt, Georgina French and Mary King. They are fierce competitors most times but a unit for the games. Phillips is aware that a lot of attention will be coming her way this summer because of her royal ties, but she seemed at pains not to make much of that. It took several persistent questions before she acknowledged that the queen was "very proud."

Both of Phillips' parents were British Olympians in equestrian events. Her mother, Princess Anne, competed in Montreal. Her father, Mark Phillips, is a two-time Olympian and gold medalist. When asked if she had spoken with her parents about their experiences in the Olympics, Phillips was almost comical in her brevity after saying they hadn't discussed it: "Mum fell off and Dad is not a big talker."

Even so, her delight in being part of the team was clear. "I'm massively excited and honored to be in the team with these guys, as well as still keeping my fingers crossed, as there are still a few weeks to go and you know what horses are like," she said.

The former world champion and her horse, High Kingdom, had been considered a long shot until recent weeks. Yet the 14th in line for the British throne defied the odds, clawing her way to a spot onto the team after a strong performance at Bramham in northeast England.

The moment is sweet for Phillips because she had to withdraw from competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics because her horse, Toytown, was injured. Will Connell, the performance director for the U.K. equestrian team, tried to put to rest any suggestion that Phillips had been selected because of her royal ties.

"Zara is on the team because she is an outstanding athlete," he said.

WikiLeaks founder seeks asylum at Ecuador embassy

June 20, 2012

LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange has made a run for the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, seeking asylum in a long shot move that, if successful, would place him in a small, friendly South American country rather than in Sweden facing questioning about alleged sex crimes.

Tuesday's unexpected caper has added a new and bizarre twist to Assange's increasingly desperate bid to avoid extradition to Scandinavia. Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said the leftist government of President Rafael Correa — an administration often at odds with Washington — was weighing the request, although he did not indicate when a decision might be made.

Assange said in a brief statement that he was grateful "to the Ecuadorean ambassador and the government of Ecuador for considering my application." Assange's legal options in the U.K. had almost completely run out. Less than a week ago Britain's Supreme Court re-endorsed its decision to allow the 40-year-old's extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted over sex crimes allegations. The accusations — which stem from Assange's trip to the country in mid-2010 — have cast a cloud over his online organization's spectacular leaks of U.S. military, diplomatic, and intelligence material.

Ecuador — where less than one in three people have access to the Web — may seem an unlikely place for the former computer hacker to seek refuge, but in many ways it's an obvious choice. "It's one of the few countries that has given a great opening to Assange's entire cause," said Grace Jaramillo, an international relations professor at Ecuador's FLACSO university.

"Correa sees Assange as a critic of the status quo," he said. "He has been challenging the United States and Correa likes that." Assange argues that extradition to Sweden is a first step in efforts to remove him to the United States, where he claims to have been secretly indicted over his disclosure of 250,000 State Department cables. He has spent the better part of two years fighting the move through the British courts.

But legal experts said Assange's flight to the Ecuadorean embassy was a desperate one. U.K. extradition specialist Karen Todner said she couldn't make sense of the move, while Michael Scharf, based at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio, said he didn't believe Assange could be given asylum status.

"I think they are going to end up asking him to leave the premises," said Scharf. Ecuador's mission in London said in a statement that Assange would "remain at the embassy, under the protection of the Ecuadorean government," while his application was considered. Britain's foreign ministry said it was working with Ecuadorean authorities to resolve the situation, but gave few other details.

Aside from Assange's brief statement, WikiLeaks did not elaborate on its leader's plans. Nearly a dozen calls, texts and emails seeking further comment from WikiLeaks and its staff weren't returned. Patino, speaking at a news conference in Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, gave the fullest account of Assange's reasoning, saying he had personally written to Correa to ask for asylum.

Assange, who is Australian, had argued that "the authorities in his country will not defend his minimum guarantees before any government or ignore the obligation to protect a politically persecuted citizen." Patino said. That may be a reference to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who last month said that her country could not protect Assange from other countries' justice systems.

Ecuador has made friendly noises about Assange in the past. In the November 2010, at the height of the media storm over WikiLeaks' disclosures, its government appeared to offer him sanctuary, and on Assange's newly-launched television talk show — which interviewed Correa via videolink earlier this year — the pair swapped jokes and messages of encouragement.

It was during the interview that Assange received an offer of asylum, according to a woman who was present during the shows and familiar with the offer. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

It was not immediately clear if the offer came directly from the president himself, although at one point Correa saluted WikiLeaks and told Assange to take courage. "Welcome to the club of those who are persecuted!" said Correa, whose government has been assailed by human rights and press freedom activists for using Ecuador's criminal libel law in sympathetic courts against journalists from the country's biggest newspaper, El Universo.

Assange and his allies had been in discussions over a possible attempt to seek sanctuary in Ecuador since last weekend, according to a person familiar with the matter. "His concern was that once he arrived in Sweden he would be held in custody and would not have a chance to seek sanctuary again," the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

The person claimed that Assange had explained his reasons for seeking sanctuary to those who put up bail, but Jemima Khan, a celebrity journalist who supports Assange, said she was caught off guard by the news.

"I had expected him to face the allegations," she said in a message posted to Twitter. "I am as surprised as anyone by this." It wasn't immediately clear whether the escape to the Ecuadorean Embassy would invalidate Assange's strict bail conditions, or whether the 200,000 pounds (roughly $315,000) put up by his supporters would be forfeited.

British officials declined to say whether Assange had skipped bail or whether they were now seeking his arrest. Assange will be free from U.K. authorities so long as he remains at the Ecuadorean Embassy, but it's unclear how he could hope to get from the mission, based in London's wealthy Knightsbridge neighborhood, to Ecuador itself.

The embassy's buzzer rang unanswered Tuesday, although several times an unidentified figure peeked out from behind the curtain to look at reporters clustered around the building's entrance. At one point two men emerged from the building; neither addressed the assembled media, but one bore a folio entitled "Diplomatic Law."

Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer representing the two Swedish women with claims against Assange, told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter late Tuesday that Assange's latest move was a delaying tactic. "It's tragic for the two clients that I represent," he was quoted as saying. "I can't imagine that this will lead anywhere."

Solano reported from Quito, Ecuador. Associated Press writers Frank Bajak in Lima, Peru, Paisley Dodds in London, and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm, Sweden, contributed to this report.

UK: 'Arms' ship for Syria heading back to Russia

June 20, 2012

LONDON (AP) — A Russian-operated ship said to be carrying military helicopters to Syria appears to have turned back after its British insurer removed coverage for the vessel, U.K. officials said Tuesday.

Britain's Foreign Office said the ship, the MV Alaed, changed course in Europe after news reports emerged about its alleged contents. Earlier, the Foreign Office confirmed it was aware that a ship carrying a consignment of refurbished Russian-made attack helicopters was heading to Syria.


The ship has "turned back now apparently toward Russia," Foreign Secretary William Hague told British lawmakers in Parliament. The vessel appeared to have been avoiding UK territorial waters and EU territorial waters, his ministry added.

"It is good news that the shipment of attack helicopters we've been tracking in the North Sea in recent days is heading away from Syria," British Prime Minister David Cameron said during the G-20 summit in Mexico on Tuesday. "But we will continue to work to stem the flow of weapons."

The news came after the U.K.-based insurer Standard Club said it removed insurance coverage for the ship owner when it became aware it was carrying munitions, a clear breach of its rules. The BBC reported Tuesday that the ship was about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Outer Hebrides off the northwest coast of Scotland. The Foreign Office said it was heading toward the Netherlands when it changed course to avoid Dutch territorial waters and turned north.

Russian officials have not commented on the ship or its reported contents. The vessel's Russian operator, Femco, refused to comment Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the G-20 summit that only the Syrian people have the right to decide whether their president, Bashar Assad, steps down.

Putin said Tuesday that not all Syrians want a change in leadership and that all parties need to negotiate a solution to end the bloodshed. Britain has joined the United States and other countries in pressing Russia to halt arms shipments to Assad's regime. Opposition groups say more than 14,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests. A ferocious government crackdown, however, led many to take up arms and the conflict is now an armed insurgency.

Syria is Russia's last remaining ally in the Middle East, and has been a major customer of Soviet and Russian weapons industries for the last four decades, acquiring billions of dollars' worth of combat jets, helicopters, missiles, armored vehicles and other military gear. Russia has also shielded Assad's regime from international sanctions over its violent crackdown.

The Foreign Office said Hague has told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that all defense shipments to Syria must stop. "We are working closely with international partners to ensure that we are doing all we can to stop the Syrian regime's ability to slaughter civilians being reinforced through assistance from other countries," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

President Barack Obama said at the G-20 that China and Russia were "not aligned" with the U.S. and other nations on Syria but said both countries' leaders recognize the dangers of a civil war. Obama met with Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the economic summit. Syria was a top subject.

China and Russia have close ties to Syria and have vetoed two U.N. resolutions that mentioned the threat of sanctions against Assad's regime. China and Russia, however, did support an observer mission in Syria and a plan by special envoy Kofi Annan to end the violence.

Obama said Russia and China believe "everyone would be better served" if Syria had a mechanism for ceasing the violence." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a harsh reprimand to Russia last week, saying that Moscow "dramatically" escalated the crisis in Syria by sending attack helicopters there. The State Department acknowledged later the helicopters she accused Moscow of sending were actually refurbished ones already owned by the Assad regime, but Russia was clearly annoyed, and the spat further fueled tensions between the two countries over Syria.

It was not immediately clear whether the helicopters reported to be aboard the Alaed were the ones Clinton had been referring to. Separately on Tuesday, Syria's government said it was ready to act on a U.N. call to evacuate civilians trapped in the rebellious central city of Homs for more than a week, but blamed rebels for obstructing efforts to get them out.

Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, chief of the U.N. observer mission in the country, has demanded that all warring parties in the conflict allow safe passage for women, children and sick people who need to leave the city and other combat zones.

Mood, speaking after briefing the U.N. Security Council during a closed meeting on the situation in Syria, said that questions about canceling the mission were premature and noted, "We are not going anywhere."

Activists said shelling and clashes between rebel fighters and troops in Homs continued unabated Tuesday, underlining the difficulty in organizing any sort of evacuation. Fierce shelling was reported on the rebel-held districts of Khaldiyeh and Jouret el-Shayeh and nearby areas. Troops backed by helicopter gunships were also bombarding the town of Rastan, north of Homs, which is controlled by rebels.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reiterated an urgent appeal for world leaders to intervene to stop the shelling that has trapped more than 1,000 families and "the systematic killings that the Syrian people in Homs are being subjected to."

A Syrian Foreign Ministry statement carried by state-run news agency SANA said the government has contacted the U.N. observer mission and local authorities in Homs to start efforts to bring out the trapped civilians.

"But the efforts of the U.N. monitors' mission failed in achieving this goal because of the armed terrorist groups' obstructions," the statement said, claiming that armed groups were using civilians as "human shields."

The Syrian government regularly refers to the rebels as terrorists.

Associated Press writers Meera Selva in London, Mansur Mirovalev in Moscow, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

Pakistan's government nominates new PM

June 21, 2012

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's ruling party has confirmed it will nominate outgoing textile minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin as its candidate for prime minister on Thursday, moving quickly after the former premier was ousted by the Supreme Court for contempt of court, a presidential spokesman said.

Shahabuddin, who is considered a Pakistan People's Party loyalist, will file nomination papers in parliament by midday, said presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar. The PPP's coalition has a majority in parliament and barring last minute surprises is expected to be able to vote him into office in a session scheduled for Friday.

Yousuf Raza Gilani was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday for contempt of court for failing to initiate a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the PPP. That was the climax of a bruising power struggle between the government and activist judges. PPP politicians almost immediately began to circulate Shahabuddin's name as a replacement.

The next prime minister will likely also face the same order from the Supreme Court to investigate Zardari, meaning political instability will continue until the government's term ends in March 2013. The Gilani government has been widely criticized for exacerbating or doing nothing to address the massive economic and security challenges in the country.

Stability in Pakistan is seen as vital to American goals of withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2014 and long-term victory against international jihadist terrorism. But relations between Washington and Islamabad are strained over a host of issues, including blocked war supply lines to Afghanistan and Pakistan's alleged support for the Afghan Taliban.

The dismissal of Gilani has made it more likely that polls will now be held before next year, possibly as early as November. Elections in Pakistan must be held under a supposedly neutral caretaker government in place three months before polling day, meaning the current government could be dissolved as early as August.

Shahabuddin, 65, comes from a wealthy, landowning family based in the central Pakistani district of Rahim Yar Khan. His father had served as minister in the cabinets of two Pakistani governments. He also served as minister for finance and health in the current government.

Pakistan to elect new PM on Friday

June 20, 2012

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's president summoned parliament to meet on Friday to elect a new prime minister, with the outgoing textile minister emerging as the likely candidate for the job.

Yousuf Raza Gilani was dismissed Tuesday along with his Cabinet by the Supreme Court for failing to investigate his ally President Asif Ali Zardari for corruption, adding to political instability in a country already saddled with massive economic and security problems.

But in moving quickly to install a new premier — and not defying the court order as some had predicted — the government may reduce fears of major upheaval, at least in the short term. In a statement Wednesday, the presidency said the national assembly would be convened on Friday afternoon.

A government official confirmed that the purpose of the meeting was to elect a new premier. Zardari's Pakistan People's Party has the largest number of seats in parliament and is currently in government with coalition partners, which must also support his choice for prime minister to ensure he gets elected. Zardari has been meeting those partners to discuss a candidate.

The official said that Makhdoom Shahabuddin, the outgoing textile minister, was the likely candidate, as did another member of the ruling PPP. They didn't give their names because they weren't authorized to speak on the record about internal party decisions.

Shahabuddin is from Rahim Yar Khan, a conservative Islamic city in south of Punjab province. He is considered a party loyalist and was known to be close to Zardari's late wife Benazir Bhutto, who headed the party but was killed in 2007 by Islamist militants.

Whoever takes over will not have long in power and is likely to face a rocky ride. The government must call elections before March next year. Under the constitution, polls can only be held under a caretaker government, which must be in place three months before election day. Many analysts have speculated that the current political upheaval may expedite the polls, possibly to November. Elections before that date are considered unlikely because of the fierce summer heat.

The new prime minister will also likely run into trouble with the Supreme Court, which is expected to make the same demand of him or her as it did of Gilani, namely to initiate a corruption probe against Zardari. The court has been criticized by some for taking political decisions and jeopardizing the democratic setup in Pakistan.