Reporter Threatened for Exposing China Sex Slave Case

By Jane Lin & Pam McLennan
September 26, 2011

A journalist in China has been accused of "leaking state secrets" after he exposed the grisly case of a government employee who dug a basement and used it for the kidnapping and rape of six women, two of them were murdered.

Ji Xuguang, a reporter with the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily, documented how the young women in Luoyang, Henan Province, were kidnapped and imprisoned as sex slaves by an employee of the Luoyang Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision.

Li Hao, the man, spent a year digging the dungeon in his home in a crowded residential area. Escorts at karaoke bars became his quarry.

By the time police took Li into custody in early September two of the women had been killed—one by Li and the other by another of the women with Li’s help. But four were rescued. Their ages ranged from 16 to 24.

The women had been imprisoned from three months to two years, and some had developed Stockholm syndrome toward their captor: they would vie for his favor and refer to him as "big brother."
Despite the ghastly details of the case local Communist Party officials, fearing political trouble, kept it a secret. Ji said that one police officer told him that the local government wanted to "save face." Luoyang was applying for the title of “Nationwide Civilized City,” and they also worried that the cruel nature of the incident could cause residents in the area to panic.

Ji wrote that on the same day that when his report was published, two men, who declined to identify themselves, came into his hotel room and aggressively interrogated him about the source of his information. They also accused him of “leaking state secrets.” He later learned that they had been sent by local Communist Party officials.

Ji sounded the alarm about the encounter on his microblog at 11 p.m. that night: “Judging from the situation, I may be taken away. Please watch out for me and rescue me.” Security forces in China are known to use extralegal means to intimidate, beat, or kidnap journalists who report on what are considered political matters.

He said that the case was being treated with extreme secrecy by Luoyang police authorities, with only a few directors in the department let in on the full details.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) contacted Ji on Sept. 23. He said that he had already left Luoyang but that his phone was probably being monitored, and he didn’t want to discuss how he was threatened.

“Without freedom of the press, journalists’ safety is at stake. I am not in a position to talk about the situation any further,” he told RFA.

On his microblog Ji wrote that when he left Henan that night, his wife’s brother, concerned for his safety, packed a knife for him. “I am tearful after realizing how vulnerable my profession is. I realized that we [reporters] are so weak and helpless. With the accusation of “leaking state secrets” pinned on me, can this piece of metal [the knife] really protect me?”

His blog posts were forwarded over 16,000 times and received thousands of comments. Many expressed skepticism at the idea that this sort of crime could be legitimately classified a “state secret.”

“The local authorities’ being unnerved about this makes me wonder if there’s something behind this case,” wrote one blogger.

“Who determines what a ‘state secret’ is? A regular criminal case like this is a state secret too?" the blogger asked. "Why are they hiding everything? This isn’t about ‘secrets.’ It’s a political move."

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/reporter-threatened-for-exposing-kidnappings-abuse-62090.html.

Egypt: The Arab Spring Turning Into Fall?

By Aron Lamm
September 26, 2011

When Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned in February, most of the world cheered for what looked like another victory for the Arab Spring uprisings. But although the resignation felt like closure and seemed to herald a new beginning, Egypt is still struggling with much the same problems as before. Some commentators even suggest that the worst is yet to come.

“Lots of chaos is going on. No one is satisfied with the current situation at all,” said Ahmed Zidan, Egyptian activist and editor-in-chief of Mideast Youth, summing up the situation on the ground in Cairo in an email to The Epoch Times.

In the eight months since Mubarak’s resignation, not much has changed, except that world media interest has moved elsewhere. The military council still rules Egypt, although elections have been announced for November and January. Emergency laws are still in effect and crackdowns against protesters, bloggers, and activists continue, with some 10,000 civilians behind bars following military trials, according to Zidan.

Mere days ago, the military carried out a large-scale crackdown against some activist/blogger cafes in downtown Cairo. Meanwhile, the case of blogger Maikel Nabil, who was sentenced to three years in prison for a long and critical blog post about the military in March, is up for review on Oct. 4.

Nabil has been on a hunger strike for 32 days, Zidan says. He called the military trials against civilians the “boiling point” in Egypt today, along with the emergency laws.

This development is hardly a surprise to commentators. Just days after Mubarak’s resignation, analyst George Friedman of STRATFOR wrote a sobering report titled “Egypt: The Distance Between Enthusiasm and Reality,” in which he named the military, rather than the people, the real force behind the Egyptian “revolution.”

“The crowd in Cairo, as telegenic as it was, was the backdrop to the drama, not the main feature,” Friedman says, going on to describe how the military was already at loggerheads with Mubarak over the aging president’s plan to let his son Gamal take over after him.

Gamal Mubarak had no military experience, and making him the leader would have signaled a shift in the Egyptian regime. Ever since Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser founded the current regime in a military coup, Egyptian leaders have come from a military background, ensuring the military’s continued influence.

With Mubarak’s plan to simply put his son in charge via another highly dubious election, despite his not even having served in the military, Egypt would in effect have become a hereditary monarchy, Friedman argues.

“What happened was not a revolution. The demonstrators never brought down Mubarak, let alone the regime. What happened was a military coup that used the cover of protests to force Mubarak out of office in order to preserve the regime,” Friedman wrote in February, and today’s situation seems to indicate that he may have been right.

Litany of Problems

Meanwhile, regardless of the leadership situation, Egypt is struggling with huge domestic problems. Public employees such as teachers, doctors, and transport workers are on strike, and unemployment has in fact risen since Mubarak’s resignation. According to government figures quoted by Al-Jazeera, the unemployment rate among the young population is 20 percent, and for women with university degrees a staggering 55 percent.

In his Sept. 13 article on PajamasMedia titled “Endgame for Egypt,” David P. Goldman paints an extremely bleak picture of Egypt’s future, predicting that the whole Egyptian state will collapse, not due to political instability, but because it is essentially bankrupt in all ways that matter. He calls the Arab Spring a misnomer, arguing that it is in fact “a convulsion of a dying society.”

“Egypt imports half its caloric consumption, 45 percent of its people are illiterate, its university graduates are unemployable, its $10 billion a year tourism industry is shuttered for the duration, and its foreign exchange reserves are gradually disappearing,” Goldman says.

Increased world market prices of staple foods and the ongoing fiscal crisis in parts of Europe are further exacerbating the situation, according to Friedman.

Egypt today is the result of decades of dictatorship and mismanagement, keeping the people ignorant and letting public education deteriorate, and it has left the country, which lacks the big natural resources of Libya, for example, in a hopeless cul-de-sac.

“The result, I predict, will be a humanitarian catastrophe that makes Somalia look like a picnic,” Friedman writes.

Ahmed Zidan says he is “[not] pessimistic, but rather realistic” about Egypt’s future, and predicts that the military will hold the elections, but choose to make some kind of deal with the popular political Islamists and thereby remain in power behind the scenes. Such a development would mean the last straw for many better-educated Egyptians, who would then choose to leave the country, draining its intellectual resources.

“I hope I’m wrong, because if that happened, it means we’ve progressed backward,” Zidan said.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/egypt-the-arab-spring-turning-into-fall-62081.html.

Shipwreck With $200 Million in Silver Found

By Jack Phillips
September 26, 2011

A shipwreck containing nearly 220 tons of silver worth at least $200 million was located by divers nearly 3 miles beneath the surface of the North Atlantic on Monday, and if recovered, would be the largest known precious metal cargo ever taken from the sea.

The SS Gairsoppa, a British vessel with a cargo of seven million ounces of silver, was torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War II around 300 miles off the coast of Ireland in international waters.

Only one person aboard the ship, which had a crew of 85, survived the attack.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, a U.S. exploration company, said it located the sunken ship; it will keep 80 percent of the cargo under terms of a contract with the U.K. Department of Transport.

“We’ve accomplished the first phase of this project -- the location and identification of the target shipwreck," said Andrew Craig, Odyssey Senior Project Manager in press release. “And now we’re hard at work planning for the recovery phase.”

"Given the orientation and condition of the shipwreck, we are extremely confident that our planned salvage operation will be well suited for the recovery of this silver cargo," he added.

The company said work on actually recovering the silver would start in the spring. If the crew is able to successfully finish the job, it would be the deepest recovery operation in history.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/shipwreck-with-200-million-in-silver-found-62075.html.

Morocco protest rallies draw thousands

2011-09-26

Moroccans rallied in Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech and Tangier on Sunday (September 25th), following a call for demonstrations by the February 20 Movement, Yabiladi reported. The Casablanca protest, which demanded political reforms and anti-corruption measures, drew some 10,000 people. In Rabat, some 1,000 people demonstrated for the release of political prisoners, including young rapper Mouad Al-Haqed, who was arrested on September 10th.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/09/26/newsbrief-05.

China and Russia to vote in favor of Palestinian UN bid

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- Both China and Russia, two of the five permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, will vote in favor of Palestine's request to become a UN member state, although the bid is unlikely to succeed.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday handed over an application to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to request a full UN membership for Palestine, which currently has observer status. Ban later sent the request to the President of the Security Council as per the provisions of the UN Charter.

Any application for a full membership is considered by the Security Council, which decides whether or not to recommend admission to the 193-member General Assembly. If it does give a recommendation, the Assembly would then have to adopt a resolution.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi voiced Beijing's support to grant UN membership to the Palestinian people. "We support efforts to achieve the two-state solution through political negotiations so as to establish, on the basis of the 1967 borders, an independent Palestinian state that enjoys full sovereignty with East Jerusalem as its capital," Yang was quoted as saying by the DPA news agency.

In addition, the Interfax news agency cited a source from the Russian delegation at the UN General Assembly as saying that Russia will also support the Palestinian request. "If this issue is put to a vote, we will support it," the source said.

Both China and Russia are permanent members of the UN Security Council. However, the United States earlier said it would veto a Palestinian bid to seek a full UN membership and urged them to return to peace talks with Israel. If a veto is used by any of the permanent members, the UN Security Council would be unable to recommend admission to the General Assembly.

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

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/news/china-and-russia-to-vote-in-favor-of-palestinian-un-bid.html.

China prepares to launch first space lab module this week

Jiuquan, China (XNA)
Sep 27, 2011

Engineers are conducting the final preparations before launching China's first space laboratory module at the end of this week at a launch center in northwest China.

The unmanned Tiangong-1 module was originally scheduled to be launched into low Earth orbit between Sept. 27 and 30. However, a weather forecast showing the arrival of a cold air mass at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center forced the launch to be rescheduled for Sept. 29 or 30, depending on weather and other factors.

"This is a significant test. We've never done such a thing before," said Lu Jinrong, the launch center's chief engineer.

A full ground simulation was conducted on Sunday afternoon to ensure that the module and its Long March 2F carrier rocket are prepared for the actual launch.

Cui Jijun, commander-in-chief of the launch site system and director of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, told Xinhua that they developed a new target spacecraft for the mission and made more than 170 technical improvements to the Long March 2F, China's manned orbital carrier rocket.

Engineers have also made more than 100 updates at the launch site in order to make it compatible with the Tiangong-1, Cui added.

The module will conduct docking experiments after entering orbit, which is the first step in China's space station program.

Cui said the launch site has an updated computer center and command monitoring system and increased ability to adapt to changes in mission conditions, as well as the resources to handle both the launch and command duties. An integrated simulation training system for space launching has also been developed for the docking mission.

The mission comes just one month after the Long March 2C rocket malfunctioned and failed to send an experimental satellite into orbit. The Tiangong-1 mission was subsequently rescheduled in order to allow engineers to sort out any problems that might occur during the launch.

Cui said that engineers conducted a two-month comprehensive technical check on equipment at the launch site from March to May. The safety and reliability of all the instruments have been significantly improved.

"[The launch site] has the full conditions to conduct the Tiangong-1 mission," said Cui.

The Tiangong-1 will remain in orbit for two years. During its mission, it will dock with China's Shenzhou-8, -9 and -10 spacecrafts.

Unmanned docking procedures will be an essential step toward China achieving its goal of establishing a manned space station around 2020.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_prepares_to_launch_first_space_lab_module_this_week_999.html.

Mauritania census protests turn violent

2011-09-26

Violent clashes between Mauritanian anti-riot police and protestors from the "Hands Off My Nationality" movement continued Sunday (September 25th) in the southern town of Kaedi (Gorgol wilaya), ANI reported. Protestors in Mauritania, as well as expatriates, have been rallying for months over claims that the national census excludes the country's black population.

The moderate Islamist National Rally for Reform and Development (RNRD, or Tawassoul) political party, the Alliance for Justice and Democracy – Movement for Renovation (AJD-MR) and the Rally for Democratic Forces (RFD) issued statements denouncing the week-end violence and calling for the census to be suspended until the claims of discrimination are addressed. Mauritanian human rights organizations AVOMM and OCVIDH are among the census opponents.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/09/26/newsbrief-06.

Qatar seeks MJ-60R Seahawks

Sept. 27, 2011

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Qatar is seeking six MH-60R Seahawk multi-mission helicopters from the United States in a deal worth an estimated $750 million.

The deal would also include 13 T-700 GE 401C engines, communication equipment, support equipment, spare and repair parts, tools and test equipment, technical data and publications, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services and other related elements of logistics support.

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency told Congress the buy, under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, would improve Qatar's capability to meet current and future anti-surface warfare threats.

The MH-60R helicopters would supplement and eventually replace the Qatar air force's aging maritime patrol helicopters.

The prime contractors would be Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in Stratford, Conn., Lockheed Martin in Owego, N.Y., and General Electric in Lynn, Mass.

Implementation of this proposed sale would require the assignment of 10 contractor representatives to Qatar on an intermittent basis over the life of the case to support delivery of the MH-60R helicopters and provide support and equipment familiarization.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/09/27/Qatar-seeks-MJ-60R-Seahawks/UPI-35701317119852/.

Arthur Conan Doyle's first novel published

Sept. 27, 2011

LONDON, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- The previously unpublished first novel of Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle has been published in London more than a century after it was written.

The BBC reported "The Narrative of John Smith," which Conan Doyle penned between 1883 and 1884 when he was in his 20s, went on sale Monday. It was published by the British Library with the consent of the Conan Doyle literary estate. An audiobook read by actor Robert Lindsay has been made available.

Conan Doyle's four-notebook manuscript for "John Smith" is part of an exhibition at the library, which is to run through Jan. 5, as well.

"This publication and exhibition show that there are still new things to discover about this iconic literary figure," Rachel Foss, who co-edited the novel, told the BBC. "It's a testament to the richness of Conan Doyle's life and the archive he left behind him ... that we can still unearth such little-known gems."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2011/09/27/Arthur-Conan-Doyles-first-novel-published/UPI-68761317106320/.

Circassians flee Syria strife for Russia homeland

August 21, 2012

NALCHIK, Russia (AP) — Natai Al Sharkas' great-grandfather killed his Russian commanding officer and defected to the enemy.

The ethnic Circassian swells with pride at the thought of the century-old act. Natives of what is now Russia's Caucasus region, Circassians fiercely resisted the Russian czarist conquest that ended in the 1860s after decades of scorched-earth warfare, mass killings or expulsions that some historians and politicians consider genocide.

The carnage forced many — like Al Sharkas' ancestors — to seek refuge in what is today Syria. Now carnage in Syria is driving many back to their homeland. This spring, Al Sharkas joined hundreds of Circassians fleeing war-torn Syria for this remote Russian region of soaring peaks and lush forests. In the coming months, thousands more are expected to arrive in Kabardino-Balkariya, a Caucasus province the size of Maryland with a population of less than 900,000, two-thirds of which is ethnic Circassian.

"We are planning to stay here for good," Al Sharkas, 35, said as he sat under fragrant fir trees at a Soviet-era resort hotel where many of the Circassian immigrants have sought shelter. "That's the decision we made a long time ago and it's been accelerated by the events in Syria."

Circassians were widely dispersed in the Russian expulsions. An estimated 2 million live in Turkey, another 100,000 in Syria and other sizable populations are in Jordan and the United States. But their sense of ethnic unity remains strong and the pull of their homeland compelling.

Al Sharkas's great-grandfather Koushoukou, his brother and two cousins were forcibly drafted and sent to the Russian-Turkish war of the late 1870s. They had to fight Ottoman Turks — fellow Muslims whose sultans supported Circassian resistance and provided refuge for hundreds of thousands of them. After killing his officer in Bulgaria, Koushoukou joined the Turkish military and ended his life in Damascus — part of Ottoman Turkey at the time.

Al Sharkas, which means Circassian in Arabic, used a network of family connections, along with Facebook, to find relatives in Kabardino-Balkariya and other parts of Russia. He encourages his Syrian relatives to follow him to the Caucasus, although now, because of the fighting, it hardly seems possible. "They are trapped there as it is almost impossible to even leave their neighborhoods," he said.

Assmat Yahya, a retired electrician from a Circassian village in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights, also found relatives in the Caucasus and plans to stay in Russia with his wife. They left their seven-bedroom house in April after hearing that both opposition fighters and Syrian forces were approaching their town and now live in one of the cramped rooms in the hotel in Nalchik, the Kabardino-Balkariya capital. "I'm here not because of the war, although it triggered the return," the gray-haired 63-year-old said. "We want to live here with our relatives."

But the newly arrived Syrian Circassians have run into bureaucratic hurdles in Russia. Because Russia allows foreigners to stay for only three months without a residence permit, al Sharkas and other Circassians from Syria recently had to travel to Abkhazia, a breakaway Georgian province that Russia recognizes as independent, to obtain entry stamps allowing them another three-months stay. Without residence and work permits, they will have to leave the country when their visas expire.

Circassians' historical grievances with Russia are strong. The arrival of thousands of refugees from Syria could add fuel to a growing movement to force Russia to recognize the 19th century killing and expulsions of Circassians as genocide. Circassians are pushing the issue ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where Circassian fighters surrendered to the czarist forces in 1864. Circassians say some of the Olympic facilities are being built over mass graves of their ancestors.

"Sochi is our open wound," said Vahit Kadioglu, head of the International Circassian Association in the Turkish capital, Ankara. "We expect recognition of the massacre from the Russian government." In 2011, the pro-Western government of neighboring Georgia recognized the killings and deportation of Circassians as genocide and called on the West to boycott the Olympics. Russian officials say the decision was motivated by political tensions between Russia and Georgia, which fought a brief war in 2008, and dismissed the claims.

"There was no genocide of the Circassians, it was a normal historical process," said Valery Kuzmin, a Foreign Ministry ambassador-at-large responsible for the Sochi Games. But the governor of the Russian province that will host the games has recently acknowledged the expulsions. "This land has not belonged to the Russian Empire, it belonged to Caucasus nations, to Circassians," Alexander Tkachyov of Krasnodar province, which was once almost entirely Circassian, said in early August.

Al Sharkas' father, Shawkat Achemez, says that's not good enough. He wants the Kremlin to admit to mass killings and ethnic cleansing. "Millions have been expelled from this territory," he said. "That's what they have to admit."

When the Soviet Union forced an alliance with Syria in the late 1960s, some Syrian Circassians came back to the Caucausus to visit or study. But genuine repatriation became possible only after the 1991 Soviet collapse because the Kremlin softened strict Soviet-era rules on obtaining Russian citizenship.

Some 1,500 Circassians have returned to the Caucasus since then, according to Circassian community leaders in Russia. In 1998, the Kremlin facilitated the repatriation of some 200 Circassians from Kosovo after they were attacked by ethnic Albanians.

The region they have come back to is afflicted by violence, too. The Caucasus republics are plagued by an Islamic insurgency that spread from Chechnya's separatist wars. A brazen 2005 raid of Islamists on Nalchik left 130 people dead, and Kabardino-Balkariya still experiences occasional small clashes.

Despite the violence, Circassians say they feel comfortable in their ancestral homeland. Hamzeh Labeeb, a native of the Syrian city of Homs, came to Nalchik in 2002 to study at a local university — and decided to stay.

"They've always treated me like their own," said the bespectacled 29-year-old computer engineer. Meanwhile, locals think that their arrival benefits Russia. "They possess cultural values we lost in the Communist era," said Vladimir Kaskulov, general director of the hotel chain in Nalchik that hosted more than 150 Syrians free of charge.

Laura Mills in Moscow and Irem Karakaya in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this story

Assange speaks from Ecuador embassy balcony, slams U.S. 'witch hunt'

By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News
The Lookout
Sun, Aug 19, 2012

There was no arrest. No escape. No surrender. No assassination attempt. No human smuggling. No helicopter or hovercraft. Just a wanted man, on a balcony with a microphone.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange emerged from a window onto a small balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on Sunday, where he made his first public remarks since being granted asylum.

"I ask President Obama to do the right thing," Assange, who's been holed up in the embassy since June, said as he read a written statement. "The United States must renounce its witch hunt against WikiLeaks. The Unites States must dissolve its FBI investigation. The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters."

A crowd of 200 gathered near the embassy to hear Assange speak as dozens of London police officers--who had created a wide barrier in front of the embassy--stood watch.

On Thursday, Ecuador's foreign minister announced that the country would grant asylum to Assange, defying threats by the British government to storm the Ecuadorean Embassy and extradite Assange to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning in cases of alleged rape and sexual molestation.

"We have decided to grant political asylum to him," Ricardo Patino said at the end of a long televised statement from the Ecuadorean capital of Quito, where he criticized the U.S. and U.K. governments for failing to protect Assange from political persecution.

"The sun came up on a different world," Assange said, "and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice."

On Sunday, Assange did not address the allegations of sexual crime, or when the diplomatic standoff between Sweden, Ecuador and the U.K. might end.

Assange also called for the release of Bradley Manning, the former U.S. army intelligence analyst accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.

"If Bradley Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero and an example to all of us and one of the world's foremost political prisoners," Assange said.

Assange fears that if he were extradited to Sweden, he would immediately be extradited to the United States, which has condemned WikiLeaks' publication of classified documents. Assange and his supporters say the U.S. would charge him with espionage; the U.S. has not said whether or not it would pursue charges against him.

The foreign minister said that Ecuador asked Sweden to promise it would not extradite Assange to the United States, but Sweden refused.

It's unclear what will happen to Assange now. U.K. authorities say his asylum is a violation of his probation, and he'll be arrested if he tried to leave the embassy.

"We will not allow Mr. Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said at a press conference last week. "Nor is there any legal basis for us to do so. The United Kingdom does not recognize the principle of diplomatic asylum."

On Sunday, Assange said that he heard police enter the embassy the night after he had been granted asylum. "Inside this embassy after dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through its internal fire escape," Assange said. "But I knew there would be witnesses."

In 2010, Swedish prosecutors in Stockholm issued warrants to question Assange about alleged sex crimes involving a pair of former WikiLeaks volunteers. Assange says the charges are part of an international smear campaign stemming from WikiLeaks' publication of diplomatic cables.

After a brief international manhunt, Assange turned himself in to London police in December 2010. He was granted bail and placed under house arrest. After Assange's appeals to fight his extradition to Sweden were denied, he fled to the Ecuadorean Embassy.

NZealand flags early Afghan exit after three killed

Agence-France Presse
Mon, Aug 20, 2012

New Zealand revealed Monday it was considering an early withdrawal from Afghanistan after three of its soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack on their convoy in Bamiyan province.

Prime Minister John Key insisted the plan to pull out early was not linked to the attack, which raises the number of New Zealand soldiers killed in Afghanistan this month to five.

He said New Zealand, which has suffered a total of 10 deaths in Afghanistan, was looking at withdrawing its 145-member provincial reconstruction team in Bamiyan in early 2013, rather than late next year as originally planned.

Key said discussions about an early exit began before August 4, when two soldiers were killed and six wounded in what has been the bloodiest month for New Zealand troops since they deployed in 2003.

"That date, if we confirm that, which we would want to do in the next few weeks, is not something that's changed as a result of these five tragic deaths," he told Radio New Zealand.

He said there had been increased insurgent activity recently in north-east Bamiyan and New Zealand would not "cut and run" before handing over to local authorities.

"It's neither practical, nor sensible, nor right for us just to abandon and cut and run today," he said.

"That wouldn't honor those 10 deaths, it wouldn't mark the enormous amount of work that we've put into Afghanistan and it just isn't the way that New Zealand operates on the international stage."

Key said the latest deaths "underscore the gravity of the situations New Zealand's soldiers face daily in Afghanistan".

"The three brave soldiers paid the ultimate price for their selfless work, and my thoughts are with their families and friends as they mourn their loved ones," he added.

The New Zealand Defense Force said the three men were in the last vehicle of a convoy that was hit by an improvised explosive device, northwest of Do Abe where the other two soldiers died on August 4.

Key said the blast was significant and the three soldiers, who were in a humvee, were believed to have died instantly.

Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman said the deaths were "a deep shock to the nation".

"It comes as a significant blow after the other casualties our defense force suffered on August 4," he said in a statement.

Major fire on eastern Greek island of Chios

August 20, 2012

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of firefighters were battling a major forest fire on Greece's eastern Aegean island of Chios on Monday as it ravaged forests, agricultural land and groves of the island's famed mastic trees for the third day.

Gale-force winds were hampering efforts by about 360 firefighters, soldiers and volunteers, as well as firefighting planes, helicopters and 50 vehicles. Residents of nine villages and hamlets evacuated their homes over the weekend as a precaution.

The blaze broke out shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday morning and authorities said that by Monday it had destroyed about 7,000 hectares (16,000 acres) of forest and farmland. Smoke from the fire carried across the Aegean as far as the southern island of Crete, more than 350 kilometers (230 miles) away.

Chios is famous for the production of mastic, a gum-like resin with a distinctive flavor produced only by trees on certain parts of the island. It is used widely in confectionery, cooking and cosmetics and a major source of income.

Local authorities said many of the trees had been burned, while the island's beekeepers had also lost 60 percent of their hives. Another five forest and brush fires broke out Monday across Greece, while crews were fighting another six blazes burning since Sunday in other parts of the country.

One of those was on the central Aegean island of Andros, where two French tourists — a 32-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman — were arrested on suspicion of starting Sunday's fire. The Fire Department did not specify how the blaze started.

Forest fires are common in Greece during the typically long, hot summers, and the country has seen a series of blazes in recent weeks after going through a heat wave. By far the worst spate of fires came in 2007, when more than 60 people died as flames swept across hundreds of kilometers through villages and across mountains in the Peloponnese in the country's south and in central Greece.

Japanese journalist killed covering Syria fighting

August 21, 2012

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese journalist has been killed in Syria while covering the civil war there, Japan's government said Tuesday.

Mika Yamamoto, a veteran war correspondent with The Japan Press, an independent TV news provider that specializes in conflict zone coverage, was killed Monday in the northwestern city of Aleppo, said Masaru Sato, a spokesman with the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo.

Sato said the 45-year-old was hit by gunfire while she and a colleague were traveling with the rebel Free Syrian Army, which is trying to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad. A video posted on YouTube on Monday by an activist in Syria shows the body of an Asian woman inside a van wrapped in blankets with only her face showing.

An Associated Press reporter who had worked with Yamamoto and who viewed the video confirmed her identity. Yamamoto had covered the war in Afghanistan after 2001 and the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq from Baghdad as a special correspondent for NTV, according to Japan Press' website.

In the YouTube video, Capt. Ahmed Ghazali, a rebel fighter in the northern Syrian city of Azaz, says the Japanese journalist was killed by regime forces in Aleppo. "We welcome any journalist who wants to enter Syria," Ghazali says. "We will secure their entry, but we are not responsible for the brutality of Assad's forces against the media."

Expressing frustration that the international community has not intervened in the Syria conflict, which activists say has killed more than 20,000 people since March 2011, Ghazali says he hopes the journalist's death will encourage international action.

"I hope that these countries that have not been moved by Syrian blood will be moved by the blood of their people," he says. Ghazali also said two other journalists were captured by Syrian government forces in Aleppo, including a reporter with Al-Hurra TV named "Bashar."

A statement from Springfield, Virginia-based Al-Hurra said the video referred to correspondent Bashar Fahmi and his cameraman Cuneyt Unal. The company has not been able to reach either man since they entered Syria on Monday morning.

"We are currently working to gather more information about their status. The safety and wellbeing of our journalists is of utmost concern to us," the statement said. Yamamoto's body has been transferred to Turkey, where Japanese consular officials were providing assistance, Sato said.
__
Associated Press writer Ben Hubbard in Syria contributed to this report.

Biden to meet Jordan king in Washington

(August 20th 2012, Monday)

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden on Monday was to meet King Abdullah II of Jordan, a key US ally in the Middle East that has seen an influx of refugees from the conflict in neighboring Syria.

The two were scheduled to meet at 4:15 pm (2015 GMT) at the vice president's residence in the US capital, the White House said, without providing further details.

Some 150,000 Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring Jordan since the start of the March 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

The uprising and the government's brutal crackdown have increasingly come to resemble a civil war, with 23,000 people killed, according to a Syrian human rights group. The United Nations puts the figure at around 17,000.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

Malaysia's Anwar to retire if he loses next polls

(18th of August 2012, Saturday)

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim plans to end his 30-year political career if he fails to unseat Prime Minister Najib Razak at the next election, he said.

Anwar was once deputy prime minister in the Barisan Nasional (National Front) government that has ruled Malaysia since independence 55 years ago, but has campaigned against it since his shock ouster in 1998.

Najib must call national elections by June next year and many observers expect a tight contest after the ruling coalition suffered its worst showing ever at the last polls in 2008.

"I will try my best. I am confident we will win. But if not, I will step down," Anwar said Friday night when taking part in a Google Hangout that was streamed live on YouTube.

Anwar, who has taught at Oxford and Washington's Georgetown University, said he would return to academic life if he lost.

"If we don't get the mandate, then we should give space for the second-liners in leadership," he said during the one-hour question-and-answer event which has previously featured US President Barack Obama.

Anwar has been in and out of court on various charges he says are political ploys to tarnish his image and stifle his opposition coalition.

He was charged in May with participating in an illegal rally which saw tens of thousands take to the streets to call for reforms to the electoral system, which they say is biased towards the Barisan Nasional.

In January he was acquitted of having sex with a male former aide at the end of a lengthy trial.

Previously, Anwar was imprisoned for corruption and sodomy after he fell out with the then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998.

He was released from jail in 2004 after the sodomy conviction was overturned.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

Somalia: A new parliament but no presidential vote

By ABDI GULED, Associated Press
(21st of August 2012, Wednesday)

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia's chief justice on Monday swore in 215 new members of parliament, an accomplishment but one that fell far short of U.N. hopes that the Horn of Africa nation would seat a full 275-member parliament that would vote in a new president.

Monday — the last day of eight years of Somalia's U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government — was the day by which the U.N. repeatedly said a new president would be in place. But political bickering, violent threats and seat-buying schemes delayed progress, guaranteeing the day would come and go with no new leader in place.

Nonetheless, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated the people of Somalia "on reaching this watershed moment on their road to peace, stability and political transformation," U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said.

He urged clan elders to complete the seating of all parliament members within a few days and called on the new parliamentarians to prepare for elections of a speaker and president so that the country's political transition can be completed promptly and peacefully "in an environment free from intimidation," del Buey said.

"The Somali people have waited 20 years for peace to take root in their country," the secretary-general's spokesman said. "Now is the time to begin a new chapter in their history."

Somalia has seen much progress over the last year. Al-Shabab militants were forced out of Mogadishu in August 2011, allowing businesses to thrive and the arts and sports to return.

However, Mogadishu politics remains an ugly business, as it did in 1991, when the country's last legitimate president was ousted and the country spiraled into bloody chaos. The International Crisis Group think tank said the current political process has been as undemocratic as the Transitional Federal Government structure it seeks to replace, "with unprecedented levels of political interference, corruption and intimidation."

Somali elders were tasked with naming a parliament, since no election could be held given the state of security around the country. A technical committee disqualified several nominees.
"Some elders allegedly nominated uneducated and objectionable individuals, some sold seats to highest bidders, and others even nominated their own family members," the International Crisis Group said.

Few of the allegations will surprise the international backers — the U.N., U.S. and EU — heavily involved in the political process. A report released in June written for the U.N. said that the last government was rife with corruption. The government allegedly protected a notorious pirate leader and deposited only $3 of every $10 received into state coffers. A report commissioned by the World Bank published in May similarly found that 68 percent of TFG revenues in 2009-10 were unaccounted for.

Monday's swearing-in ceremony was moved to the highly protected airport at the last minute after members of parliament asked for increased security. Somali police and African Union troops patrolled around the airport, which adjoins an African Union military base and is the most secure location in the city.

"This historic moment marks the long-awaited end of the transitional period in Somalia. The new MPs, selected after broad-based, grass roots consultations and representing all of Somalia's clans, have been successfully screened against objective criteria and are now ready to start their important work," said Augustine Mahiga, the U.N. representative to Somalia.

Al-Shabab militants, though evicted from Mogadishu, still penetrate the seaside capital to carry out suicide attacks. One such attack took place earlier this month as Somali elders voted in a new internationally backed constitution that guarantees more rights for women and children. The bombers were stopped at the gates and no one except the two attackers was killed.

After Monday's ceremony, Zainab Mohamed Amir, one of the few female parliamentarians, said she feared women would be underrepresented. Some political negotiations tried to guarantee women 30 percent of parliament seats, but that guarantee has not been made.

"I'm very happy today because we have a new federal parliament that will bring a new government for Somalia," Amir said. "But I'm afraid that women will not get their quota in the parliament."

Backroom political deals center not only on who is named to parliament but also which clan will get what office. The upcoming government will have three powerful positions: president, prime minister and speaker of the parliament. Whatever clan gets a post like speaker, for example, will not be eligible for president.

Despite the fact Somali leaders did not make as much progress as the U.N. hoped, the prime minister of the TFG, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali — a former community college instructor from New York state — called Monday "a historic day."

"Somalia has a new parliament and the presidential election will be next after the parliament gets a new speaker. I wish Somalia will keep the positive news coming so that peace will prevail in the country at last," he said.

No one will say when the presidential election will take place because no one knows. The International Crisis Group predicted that it would be October before a full government is seated. After the president is elected, he must appoint a prime minister who must then assemble a Cabinet that meets the approval of the parliament.

Nick Birnback, a spokesman for the U.N. mission to Somalia, said the vote for the speaker of parliament will be held on Saturday, and that the vote for president could follow later in the month or in early September.

For now the only man — or woman — in a proper position of power in the new government is Mussa Hassan, a former 72-year-old general.

"I am the oldest of the parliament members so I will have to be the caretaker speaker," the grey-haired man told the newly sworn in parliamentarians, as he listed upcoming tasks: "We need an election commission first, to prepare for the election."

Straziuso reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Egypt president to visit Iran, a first in decades

August 18, 2012

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi will attend a summit in Iran later this month, a presidential official said on Saturday, the first such trip for an Egyptian leader since relations with Tehran deteriorated decades ago.

The visit could mark a thaw between the two countries after years of enmity, especially since Egypt signed its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and Iran underwent its Islamic revolution. Under Morsi's predecessor Hosni Mubarak, Egypt, predominantly Sunni Muslim, sided with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-dominated Arab states in trying to isolate Shiite-led Iran.

Until now, contacts have been channeled through interest sections, a low-level form of diplomatic representation. In May last year, Egypt, which was ruled by an interim military council, expelled a junior Iranian diplomat on suspicion he tried to set up spy rings in Egypt and the Gulf countries.

It's too early to assess the implications of the visit or to what extent the Arab world's most populous country may normalize relations with Tehran, but analysts believe it will bring Egypt back to the regional political stage. The visit is in line with popular sentiment since Mubarak's ouster in an uprising last year for Cairo to craft a foreign policy independent of Western or oil Gulf countries' agendas.

"This really signals the first response to a popular demand and a way to increase the margin of maneuver for Egyptian foreign policy in the region," said political scientist Mustafa Kamel el-Sayyed. "Morsi's visits ... show that Egypt's foreign policy is active again in the region."

"This is a way also to tell Gulf countries that Egypt is not going to simply abide by their wishes and accept an inferior position," he added. The official said that Morsi will visit Tehran on Aug. 30 on his way back from China to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, where Egypt will transfer the movement's rotating leadership to Iran. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not yet authorized to make the announcement.

The trip is no surprise — it came days after Morsi included Iran, a strong ally of Syrian Bashar Assad, in a proposal for a contact group to mediate an end to Syria's escalating civil war. The proposal for the group, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, was made at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca.

During the summit, Morsi exchanged handshakes and kisses with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in their first meeting since Morsi assumed his post as Egypt's first elected president. The idea was welcomed by Iran's state-run Press TV, and a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said that Tehran's acceptance of the proposal was a sign Egypt was beginning to regain some of the diplomatic and strategic clout it once held in the region.

After the fall of Egypt's longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak in last year's popular revolt, officials have expressed no desire to maintain Mubarak's staunch anti-Iranian stance. Last July, former Egyptian foreign minister Nabil Elaraby, who also heads the Arab League, delivered a conciliatory message to the Islamic Republic, saying "Iran is not an enemy." He also noted that post-Mubarak Egypt would seek to open a new page with every country in the world, including Iran.

Tensions have not been absent however in contacts with Iran's clerical state since Egypt's uprising. When a delegation of politicians and youth activists made a visit to Iran last year, one Egyptian pro-democracy activist, Mustafa el-Nagger, said his Iranian hosts claimed the revolt sweeping the Arab world was part of an "Islamic awakening." He responded with a different interpretation: the anti-Mubarak uprising was "not a religious revolution, but a human evolution."

Any normalization between the two countries would have to be based on careful calculations. Majority Sunni Egypt has its own suspicions of Iran on both religious and political grounds. The country's ultraconservative Salafis and even the moderate consider Shiites heretics and enemies.

Since splitting from their Sunni brethren in the 7th century over who should replace the Prophet Muhammad as Muslim ruler, Shiites have developed distinct concepts of Islamic law and practices. They account for some 160 million of the Islamic world's population of 1.3 billion people, and make up some 90 percent of Iran's population, over 60 percent of Iraq's, and around 50 percent of the people living in the arc of territory from Lebanon to India.

In 2006, Mubarak angered Shiite leaders by saying Shiites across the Middle East were more loyal to Iran than to their own countries. His view was shared by other Arab leaders and officials, including Jordan's King Abdullah II who warned of a Shiite crescent forming in the region.

"The old regime used to turn any of his rivals to a ghost. We don't want to do like Mubarak and exaggerate of the fear of Iran," said Mahmoud Ezzat, deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Morsi was the leader of its political arm.

"But at the same time, we should not take the Iranians' ambitions lightly. As much as they don't want us to interfere in their business, we don't want them to interfere in our business," he said, mentioning his group's opposition to Iran's "grand project to spread Shiite faith."

While nearly three decades of Mubarak rule left Egyptians inundated with state-spun scenarios of Iranian plots aiming to destabilize the country, many sympathize with Iran's Islamic revolution and consider Tehran's defiance of the United States a model to follow. Others seek a foreign policy at the very least more independent of Washington.

A new understanding with Iran would be a big shake-up for a region that has been split between Tehran's camp — which includes Syria and Islamic militias Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza — and a U.S.-backed group led by Saudi Arabia and rich Gulf nations.

To add another level of complexity, there is also the fact that Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian enclave in the Gaza strip to the frustration of neighboring Israel, is a historical offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the dominant force in Egyptian politics since Morsi's election.

Aware of the Gulf states' anxieties over the rise of political Islam in post-Mubarak Egypt, Morsi has focused on courting Saudi Arabia. He visited it twice, once just after he won the presidency, and a second time during the Islamic summit. In an attempt to assuage fears of the Arab uprisings by oil monarchs, he vowed that Egypt does not want to "export its revolution". He has also asserted commitment to the security of Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies, a thinly veiled reference to the tension between them and Iran.

Airstrike kills 8 in Syria town near Turkey border

August 18, 2012

BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian warplane on Saturday bombed a small town partially controlled by anti-regime fighters near the Turkish border, killing eight people and wounding at least 20, the latest escalation in the use of air power by President Bashar Assad's government in the Arab nation's civil war.

The afternoon airstrike, reported by activists in the area as well as the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, was one of at least two that took place on Saturday. The increased use of airstrikes by the regime is taking its toll on civilians, and, in the eyes of activists, is evidence of its insensitivity to civilian casualties as it battles for survival against the rebels.

The regime's growing use of warplanes also comes at a time when western powers are looking into suggestions for militarily enforcing a no-fly zone in northern Syria. Russia rejects the idea. The airstrike on the town of Manbej in the Jarablous area came hours after a government announcement said Syria welcomed the appointment of former Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi as the U.N.'s new point-man in efforts to halt the civil war.

The announcement was made by the office of Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa, which also denied Arab media reports that al-Sharaa had defected to the opposition. Al-Sharaa "did not think, at any moment, of leaving the country," the statement said. The regime has suffered a string of prominent defections in recent months, though Assad's inner circle and military have largely kept their cohesive stance behind him.

Brahimi, the new U.N. envoy, takes over from former Secretary-General Kofi Annan who is stepping down on Aug. 31 after his attempts to broker a cease-fire failed. His appointment comes as U.N. observers have begun leaving Syria, with their mission officially over by midnight Sunday.

In Syria, activists and the London Observatory could not say what was the intended target of the lone air force MiG-25 when it rocketed Manbej, which has a population of some 40,000. The wounded were treated in field hospitals in the town and in clinics across the border in Turkey.

A second airstrike earlier in the day targeted the northern border town of Azaz, where more than 40 people were killed and at least 100 wounded in an airstrike earlier this week, according to international watchdog Human Rights Watch. Activists said Saturday's bombs hit an open field. There were no casualties.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a televised interview that his country has rejected foreign intervention in the form of a militarily enforced no-fly zone for government aircraft in northern Syria — an idea he said was mentioned as a possible option by U.S. officials last week.

"That would be a violation of sovereignty if this included areas (in) Syrian territory, as well as a breach of the United Nations charter," Lavrov told Sky News Arabia in the interview Saturday. "There are initiatives by the (U.N.) to provide aid to refugees in camps on the territory of Turkey and Jordan and other countries as per the international humanitarian law," he said in a transcript provided by the Abu Dhabi-based Arabic-language station. "But if they are trying to create safe zones and no-fly zones for military purposes by citing an international crisis — that is unacceptable."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that Washington and Turkey were discussing a range of steps including a no-fly zone over some parts of Syria as the Assad regime increasingly uses its air force to attack rebels.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Associated Press last Monday that he is confident the United States could successfully enforce such a prohibition of flights, but that plans for a no-fly zone were "not on the front burner" despite persistent calls from rebel forces that they need the added protection.

In other violence Saturday, regime forces shelled rebel areas across the country, including the southern province of Daraa, the northern region of Aleppo, Deir el-Zour to the east and the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, activists said. They said at least 15 people were killed in the Deir el-Zour area.

Also Saturday, 40 bodies were found piled in a heap on a street in the Damascus suburb of al-Tal, according to the Observatory and another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees. The suburb saw days of heavy fighting until regime forces largely took over the area earlier this week.

The 40 had all been killed by bullet wounds, but their identity was not known, nor was it known who had killed them, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory. "It is not clear if they were civilians, army defectors or soldiers," he said. Also unclear was whether they had been killed at the place where the bodies were found or if residents had collected the bodies there.

A series of hostage-takings by Syria's rebels has touched off retaliatory abductions of Syrians in neighboring Lebanon and raised worries Lebanon could be dragged deeper into unrest. Lebanese security officials said Saturday that five more Syrians were abducted in Beirut's southern suburbs overnight. It was not clear who carried out the latest abductions, but earlier kidnappings were carried out by the al-Mikdad clan, a powerful Shiite Muslim family in Lebanon.

The al-Mikdad clan says it has snatched a number of Syrians and a Turk in Lebanon in retaliation for the abduction of their relative, Hassane Salim al-Mikdad, by rebels in Syria.

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, and Brian Rohan in Cairo contributed to this report.

Jordan protests Syrian shelling that wounded girl

By DALE GAVLAK, Associated Press
(20th of August 2012, Monday)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan has sharply protested to Syria for artillery shelling that wounded a girl in a border village and panicked other civilians, Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah said Monday.

The Syrian ambassador to Jordan rebuffed a summons to the Foreign Ministry to receive a written protest, sending his deputy instead, officials said.

Late Sunday, four shells landed in Jordan's north during clashes between the Syrian military and rebel forces on the Syrian side, wounding a 4-year-old girl. She was reported in fair condition Monday. Four others were treated briefly after suffering panic attacks, Maaytah said.

Maaytah said Jordan denounced the incident and "will ensure this does not happen again." He did not say how.

Last month, Syrian troops killed a 6-year-old Syrian boy fleeing to Jordan with his family.
Maaytah said the government summoned Syrian Ambassador Bahjat Suleiman to hand him the letter of protest late Sunday.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said on his Twitter account late Sunday that the ambassador declined to report for the meeting, claiming he was busy. Judeh said a "stern warning" was given to his deputy. The text of the letter was not made public.

The affair underlines growing tensions between the two neighbors against the background of Syria's civil war.

More than 150,000 Syrian refugees are in Jordan. The presence of thousands in a squalid desert tent camp near the border is seen as an embarrassment to Syrian President Bashar Assad, illustrating that people are fleeing his military's onslaught against his own people.

Jordan tries to avoid angering its more powerful neighbor, but tensions are a constant in the relationship.

Syria opposes Jordan's alliance with the United States and its 1994 peace treaty with Israel. Jordan is a critic of Iran, Syria's main ally in the region.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.