India sets November 5 for Mars mission launch

Bangalore, India (AFP)
Oct 22, 2013

Scientists on Tuesday set November 5 for the delayed launch of India's first mission to Mars, which was postponed due to problems in positioning a seaborne tracking system.

Blast-off for the unmanned Mars Orbiter Mission had to be rescheduled after the state-run Indian Space Agency Organization (ISRO) said at the weekend that it would be unable to launch as expected on October 28.

Two Indian ships have been sent to Fiji in the Pacific Ocean to enable constant tracking of the rocket, but one of them has been late to arrive because of bad weather.

"The Mars Orbiter Mission has been rescheduled to November 5 and its spacecraft will be launched at 14:36 IST (Indian Standard Time) from Sriharikota spaceport," ISRO spokesman Deviprasad Karnik told AFP.

The 1.3-ton Orbiter probe will be launched on a 350-tonne rocket from Sriharikota on the Bay of Bengal, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Chennai.

The nine-month Mars mission was approved by the government and has a budget of 4.5 billion rupees (73 million dollars).

India says the mission will mark a significant step in its space program, which has already placed a probe on the Moon and is a source of national pride in the country of 1.2 billion.

But the spending has also attracted criticism as the government struggles to tackle widespread poverty and massive infrastructure problems.

A host of countries have previously launched missions to Mars, including the United States, Russia, Japan and China.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/India_sets_November_5_for_Mars_mission_launch_999.html.

Cygnus cargo craft readies to leave space station

Washington (AFP)
Oct 21, 2013

A private cargo ship built by Orbital Sciences Corporation is preparing to leave the International Space Station early Tuesday and burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, NASA said Monday.

The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to detach from the orbiting research outpost at 1000 GMT Tuesday and leave the ISS an hour and a half later.

"Orbital engineers then will conduct a series of planned burns and maneuvers to move Cygnus toward a destructive re-entry in Earth's atmosphere," NASA said in a statement.

Orbital said Cygnus is expected to re-enter the atmosphere on Wednesday, October 23 at 1818 GMT over the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand.

The unmanned spaceship attached itself to the ISS on September 29, marking the first successful demonstration mission of a cargo resupply flight by Orbital Sciences.

It is the fourth such mission by a private company to ferry supplies to global astronauts, a capacity the United States lost when the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

The California-based SpaceX, owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk, in 2012 became the first private enterprise to send its own cargo-bearing spacecraft to the ISS and back.

Both companies have billion-dollar NASA contracts to deliver cargo to the ISS on multiple missions over the coming years.

Unlike SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Cygnus cannot return to Earth intact and will be destroyed after its mission is complete.

NASA said astronauts aboard the ISS have loaded Cygnus "with items no longer needed," which will burn up with the spacecraft when it plunges back to Earth.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Cygnus_cargo_craft_readies_to_leave_space_station_999.html.

Ethiopia sets sights on stars with space program

Addis Ababa (AFP)
Oct 22, 2013

Ethiopia unveiled Friday the first phase of a space exploration program, which includes East Africa's largest observatory designed to promote astronomy research in the region.

"The optical astronomical telescope is mainly intended for astronomy and astrophysics observation research," said observatory director Solomon Belay.

The observatory, which will formally be opened on Saturday, boasts two telescopes, each one meter (over three feet) wide, to see "extra planets, different types of stars, the Milky Way, and deep galaxies," Solomon added.

The 3.4 million dollar (2.5 million euro) observatory, run by the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS), is funded by Ethiopian-Saudi business tycoon Mohammed Alamoudi.

The observatory, 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) above sea level in the lush Entoto mountains on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, is an ideal location because of its minimal cloud cover, moderate winds and low humidity, experts said.

When established in 2004, ESSS was labeled as the "Crazy People's Club", according to the group, but has gained credibility in the past decade with astronomy courses introduced at universities and winning increased political support.

The Ethiopian government is set to launch a space policy in coming years.

Solomon said the group originally faced skeptics in Ethiopia and abroad, who questioned whether space exploration was a wise use of resources in one of Africa's poorest economies, plagued in the past by chronic famine and unrest.

But Solomon said promoting science is key to the development in Ethiopia, today one of Africa's fastest growing economies largely based on agriculture.

"If the economy is strongly linked with science, then we can transform a poor way of agriculture into industrialization and into modern agriculture," he said.

The ESSS is now looking to open a second observatory 4,200 meters (13,800 feet) above sea level in the mountainous northern town of Lalibela, also the site of the largest cluster of Ethiopia's ancient rock-hewn churches.

Photographs from the ESSS show scientists with testing equipment looking for the best site to put the next telescope on the green and remote peaks, as local villagers wrapped in traditional white blankets watch on curiously, sitting outside their thatch hut homes.

Solomon hopes to boost "astronomy tourism" among space fans interested in coming to one of the least likely countries in the world to boast a space program, an added economic benefit.

The country will also launch its first satellite in the next three years, ESSS said, to study meteorology and boost telecommunications.

Ethiopia is not the first African nation to look to the skies; South Africa has its own National Space Agency, and in 2009 the African Union announced plans to establish The African Space Agency.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, has also called for a continent-wide space program.

Solomon said while the next several years will be about boosting research and data collection, along with promoting a strong local and regional interest in astronomy, he is not ruling out sending an Ethiopian into space one day.

"Hopefully we will," he said with a laugh.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Ethiopia_sets_sights_on_stars_with_space_programme_999.html.

Moscow rally urges release of political prisoners

October 27, 2013

MOSCOW (AP) — Several thousand opposition supporters marched through the Russian capital on Sunday to demand the release of people they consider political prisoners.

The demonstration was intended primarily to show support for those who were arrested after May 2012 clashes between protesters and police on the eve of President Vladimir Putin's inauguration for a third presidential term. Their arrests and trials were widely seen as part the Kremlin's crackdown on dissent.

More than 5,000 protesters chanted slogans such as "Free Political Prisoners" and carried a big poster that read "End Putinism, free hostages!" The march, which was sanctioned by authorities, went on peacefully amid a heavy police presence.

The number of demonstrators was significantly lower than the organizers' expectations of 20,000. The relatively low attendance reflected the sense of weariness among the opposition movement, which has been losing its energy after a series of major anti-Putin demonstrations in Moscow in the winter of 2011-2012, which attracted 100,000 or more.

Alexei Navalny, a charismatic 37-year old anti-corruption lawyer who has emerged as the most prominent opposition leader, told reporters Sunday that the rally was needed to raise pressure for the release of those arrested. He warned opposition supporters that they shouldn't expect a quick victory.

"The truth is that we need to get ready for a long and more difficult struggle," he said. In July, Navalny was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison on charges widely seen as political, but he was released the next day in what some saw as a government attempt to make the Moscow mayoral race, in which he took part, look more competitive.

Navalny won 27 percent of September's vote, finishing a strong second behind the Kremlin-backed incumbent. The surprisingly strong performance cemented his positions as the No.1 Russian opposition politician.

Earlier this month, a court replaced a prison term for Navalny with a suspended sentence. The protesters carried pictures of those who are on trial for their role in the May 2012 protest that turned violent. Some also held pictures of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who marked 10 years in prison this week since his arrest on charges widely seen as a punishment for challenging Putin's power.

Some people carried pictures of the two members of the punk band Pussy Riot, who are serving two-year sentences for an irreverent protest against Putin. One woman carried a colorful umbrella with the images of masked Pussy Riot performers.

After Putin's inauguration, the Kremlin has sought to stifle dissent with a series of arrests of opposition activists and repressive legislation that sharply hiked fines for participants in unsanctioned protests and imposed tough new restrictions on non-government organizations.

"We want to show the government, the Russians, the global community yet another time that Russia is not a democratic country, but is governed by the police," rally organizer Vitaly Zalomov said.

Russia drops piracy claims vs Greenpeace activists

October 23, 2013

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's main investigative agency said Wednesday that it has dropped piracy charges against jailed Greenpeace activists and charged them instead with hooliganism, which could still mean years in prison.

The Investigative Committee's statement follows a comment by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said last month that he doesn't think that the Greenpeace activists were pirates. Piracy is punishable by a prison term of up to 15 years, while the specific hooliganism charge being applied now carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

The Investigative Committee also warned that it could file additional charges against the Greenpeace activists, including violence against authorities — punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The 28 Greenpeace activists, a Russian photographer and a British videographer have been held since their ship, the "Arctic Sunrise" was seized by the Russian coast guard after protesting outside the oil rig belonging to Russia's Gazprom state energy giant on Sept. 18.

The Investigative Committee said that the detainees' refusal to testify has impeded the investigation. "That prompts the investigators to thoroughly check all possible versions, including the seizure of the platform for financial benefit, terrorist motives, the conduct of illegal scientific research and espionage," the agency added.

It dismissed the Greenpeace claim that the protest was peaceful, saying it was a crime under an international law to try to seize an oil rig. Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace Russia said the activists "are no more hooligans than they were pirates" and should be freed immediately.

"We will contest the trumped-up charge of hooliganism as strongly as we contested the piracy allegations. They are both fantasy charges that bear no relation to reality," he said in a statement. Chuprov also dismissed the committee's warning that it may charge some of the activists with use of force against officials, pointing at Greenpeace's 42-year history of peaceful protest.

"They arrived at that oil rig in a ship painted with a dove and a rainbow," he said. "Those brave men and women went to the Arctic armed with nothing more than a desire to shine a light on a reckless business. "

The platform is the first offshore rig in the Arctic. It was deployed to the vast Prirazlomnoye oil field in the Pechora Sea in 2011, but its launch has been delayed by technological challenges. Gazprom said in September that it was to start pumping oil this year, but no date has been set.

The Netherlands has asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to order Russia to release a Greenpeace protest ship and the activists who were on board.

Rouhani names three new ministers: Will conservatives accept nominations?

2013-10-20

TEHRAN - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani named three new ministers on Sunday to replace nominees rejected by the conservative-dominated parliament in August, Iranian media reported.

Rouhani made a last-minute change to his pick for the science, research and technology portfolio for fear of a new rejection by MPs.

Interim minister Jafar Tofiqi had come under fire from hardliners in parliament for alleged involvement in the massive street protests that accompanied the controversial 2009 re-election of Rouhani's predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well as for allegedly dismissing conservative officials at the ministry.

Reza Faraji Dana, who holds a PhD from Canada's Waterloo University and was unsuccessfully nominated for the same post under reformist president Mohammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad's predecessor, received the nomination in his place, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ali Asghar Fani, a reformist who was for a short period interim education minister under Ahmadinejad, was nominated for the education portfolio.

Reza Salehi Amiri, who worked for the Center for Strategic Research, a think-tank linked to parliament which Rouhani headed from 1992 until his election as president in June, was nominated for the sports ministry.

Parliament will start voting on the three new nominations on October 27, the ISNA news agency reported.

In August, parliament rejected Rouhani's original nominees for education, Mohammad Ali Najafi, and science, research and technology, Jafar Mili-Monfared -- both considered close to reformists -- as well as Massoud Sontani-far, at sports and youth.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=62054.

Georgian president elected with 62 percent

October 28, 2013

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Preliminary results in Georgia's presidential election show the billionaire prime minister's candidate winning with 62 percent of the vote.

Former university rector Giorgi Margvelashvili's victory in Sunday's election consolidates the power of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili in this U.S.-aligned former Soviet republic. The results posted by Georgia's Central Election Commission on Monday, with more than 90 percent of precincts counted, are in line with exit polls.

The candidate from outgoing President Mikhail Saakashvili's party finished second with 22 percent, which is higher than expected. Saakashvili did not wait for the official results to congratulate his successor.

Ivanishvili has kept Georgia on track toward greater European integration and maintained close ties with the United States.

PM's choice easily wins Georgia presidency

October 28, 2013

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — The candidate backed by Georgia's billionaire prime minister easily won Sunday's presidential election in this U.S.-aligned former Soviet republic, exit polls and partial results indicated. His closest rival quickly conceded defeat.

With the convincing victory by former university rector Giorgi Margvelashvili in what for Georgia was an unusually calm and predictable election, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has cemented his control.

Although he may now make more progress in decreasing tensions with Russia, Ivanishvili has maintained the pro-Western course set by the outgoing president, Mikhail Saakashvili. The main uncertainty is over how Ivanishvili intends to govern and whether he is willing to see Saakashvili jailed.

During nearly a decade in power, Saakashvili put Georgia on the path toward democracy, but he deeply angered many Georgians with what they saw as the excesses and authoritarian turn of the later years of his presidency.

Exit polls indicated that Margvelashvili, 44, whose political experience is limited to a year as education minister, will get about 67 percent of the vote. With about 40 percent of precincts counted, the Central Election Commission said Margvelashvili had 63 percent. In line with the exit polls, the candidate from Saakashvili's party, former parliamentary speaker David Bakradze, had 21 percent.

Bakradze, who now heads the opposition in parliament, congratulated Margvelashvili as soon as the exit polls were released and said he was ready to work together with the prime minister and president.

Long known in Georgia only as a reclusive philanthropist, Ivanishvili was propelled into the prime minister's post a year ago when his Georgian Dream coalition routed Saakashvili's party, the United National Movement, in a parliamentary election.

But Ivanishvili has promised to step down next month and nominate a new prime minister, who is almost certain to be approved by parliament. Under Georgia's new parliamentary system, the next prime minister will acquire many of the powers previously held by the president.

Ivanishvili has not yet named his choice to be the next prime minister, and although he says he intends to maintain influence over the government, it's not entirely clear how. But his fortune, estimated at $5.3 billion, gives him considerable leverage in this country of 4.5 million people, which has a gross domestic product of $16 billion.

Much uncertainty also hangs over Saakashvili's future. Since last year's election and what was in effect a transfer of power, dozens of people from the outgoing president's team, including several former government ministers, have been hit with criminal charges and some have been jailed, including the former prime minister.

Ivanishvili confirmed in an interview with The Associated Press that Saakashvili is likely to be questioned by prosecutors once he leaves office next month. Saakashvili, in a conciliatory televised address on Sunday evening, called on his supporters to accept the will of the majority and keep working to integrate Georgia into Europe.

Prosecutors have reopened a criminal inquiry into the 2005 death of Zurab Zhvania, who was Saakashvili's first prime minister. Zhvania's death was attributed to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty gas heater, but his brother has accused Saakashvili of hiding the truth.

Saakashvili also may face questioning over the 2008 war with Russia, which ended with Russian troops in full control of two breakaway Georgian republics. His opponents accuse him of needlessly antagonizing Russia and giving Moscow a pretext to invade.

Saakashvili repeated earlier Sunday that he has no plans to flee the country. "No one can forbid me either to leave the country or to stay, but I do not intend to leave Georgia," he told television journalists while jogging along the Black Sea coast in western Georgia.

Bakradze's clear margin over the other 21 candidates for president should help Saakashvili's party maintain political influence. He faced the biggest challenge from Nino Burdzhanadze, a veteran politician who boasts of good relations with Moscow and has called for Saakashvili to be jailed. The exit polls showed her finishing a distant third with 7.5 percent, although she was up to 10 percent in the partial returns.

The exit polls were conducted by the market research organization GfK and commissioned by Georgian private television station Rustavi2. Preliminary election results are expected Monday morning. "The situation in Georgia has become predictable, except for the exit poll showing a higher percent for David Bakradze than expected," said Merab Pachulia, who heads the independent research center Gorbi. "The rest was logical. And this for Georgia is major progress."

While Ivanishvili made his money in Russia and has had some success in restoring trade ties with Georgia's hostile neighbor, he has pushed ahead with EU integration and maintained close ties with the United States. Georgia is the largest non-NATO contributor to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

Despite public disillusionment in recent years with Saakashvili, commonly known as Misha, the achievements of his presidency are difficult to deny. He brought the economy out of the shadows, restored electricity supplies, eradicated a corrupt traffic police force and laid the foundation for a democratic state. Georgia's GDP has quadrupled since Saakashvili became president after leading the peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution.

"Yes, everyone forgot how we sat in the darkness and what kind of roads we had," Marina Vezirishvili, 46, said after voting in Tbilisi, the capital. "But just so you know, I'm not a member of Misha's party, and I didn't vote for their candidate."

Saakashvili has earned wide international respect for allowing the government to change through the ballot box rather than through revolution for the first time in Georgia's post-Soviet history. "We have to recognize, whatever our position is inside Georgian political fights, that Georgia has been a great example," said Joao Soares, head of an election monitoring mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Cambodian opposition rally's last day draws 20,000

October 25, 2013

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — About 20,000 Cambodian opposition supporters on Friday wrapped up a three-day demonstration to petition foreign embassies and the U.N. for intervention in what they claim was a rigged election.

While the international community is very unlikely to intervene in Cambodia's domestic affairs, the rallies served to highlight the opposition's demand for an independent probe into the July 28 poll, which it says returned Prime Minister Hun Sen to power illegitimately.

Throngs of cheering demonstrators marched through the capital this week as they delivered petitions to the French, British, U.S., Australian, Russian, Japanese, Indonesian and Chinese embassies and to the U.N. human rights office. The rallies ended peacefully.

Official election results extended Hun Sen's 28-year rule and gave his party 68 seats in parliament, compared to 55 for the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party. The party says it was cheated out of a victory and that it will boycott parliament until the government has met its demands.

According to the petition — which the opposition says was thumb printed by 2 million people — the Cambodian government's failure to investigate election irregularities and its inauguration of the National Assembly without the opposition "take Cambodia back to a one-party system of governance."

The three-day demonstration coincides with the 22nd anniversary of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords on Cambodia, which laid the groundwork for U.N.-sponsored elections after the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge and years of civil war that followed. The countries that received opposition petitions were all signatories to the 1991 Accords.

The government denies election fraud, and has rejected opposition demands for an independent investigation. It maintains that its inauguration of a new parliament in September was legitimate and has filled parliamentary commissions with ruling party members.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said that intervention from abroad was "not going to happen." Moreover, he said, seeking outside help was counterproductive to building democracy from within Cambodia.

"By going abroad, you're actually re-confirming this attitude of we need to depend on the U.N. jumping out of the sky, out of a plane or whatever, to rescue us," he said. The Australian embassy said in a statement Friday that it had received the petition and that its ambassador, Alison Burrows, "urged both parties to continue their dialogue including on electoral reform."

Bahrain opposition defies ban on meeting diplomats

September 20, 2013

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain's main Shiite opposition group is defying a ban by the island's Sunni government to have direct contacts with foreign diplomats.

Al Wefaq's secretary-general, Sheik Ali Salman, met Norwegian political affairs envoy Hakon Smedsvig on Thursday in the Bahraini capital, Manama. Bahrain's Western-backed monarchy earlier this month banned all diplomatic contacts by political groups unless they receive official permission. The move was sharply criticized by Western governments, including the U.S.

This week, authorities detained a top Al Wefaq official on allegations of inciting violence. In return, the group announced a boycott of reconciliation talks with the government. The strategic Gulf nation has been gripped by unrest since an uprising launched in early 2011 by majority seeking a greater political voice.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said in a statement that in the last two years the Bahraini government and oppositions groups have been involved in important dialogue but that recent developments have hindered the process.

"The Government of Bahrain has recently issued decrees restricting the rights and abilities of political groups to assemble, associate, and express themselves freely, including by regulating their communications with foreign governments and international organizations," the statement said.

Bahrain opposition boycotts talks after detention

September 18, 2013

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain's main Shiite groups suspended participation in reconciliation talks with the Sunni-led government Wednesday after the detention of a top opposition figure in the violence-wracked Gulf nation.

The decision deepens the showdown over Khalil al-Marzooq, a former deputy parliament speaker, who is under investigation for allegedly encouraging anti-government violence. His supporters claim he was targeted by Bahrain's Western-backed authorities in attempts to punish the opposition after recent criticism from European officials about government crackdowns on dissent.

Repeated rounds of political talks have failed to significantly close the rifts between the Sunni establishment and Shiite factions, which began an Arab Spring-inspired uprising in early 2011 to seek greater political rights. More than 65 people have died in the unrest, but rights groups and others place the death toll higher.

The snub by the Shiite groups closes one of the main channels for dialogue and could sharply escalate tensions in the strategic kingdom, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. A government statement quoted Nayef Yousif, head of Bahrain's public prosecution, as saying al-Marzooq is accused of instigating violence and having links to a protest faction that authorities blame for bombings and other attacks. Al-Marzooq, who was detained Tuesday, was ordered held for 30 days during the investigation.

Al-Marzooq is a top member of Al Wefaq, the main political bloc of Bahrain's Shiite majority. In Washington, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Wednesday that the U.S. would raise the issue with Bahraini authorities as part of its discussion of recent political events in Bahrain.

"We are disappointed that opposition groups have suspended their involvement. I think it's an important forum. We would hope that everybody would be part of that process," Harf said. Also Wednesday, Bahrain's public security chief, Maj. Gen. Tariq Hassan al-Hassan, said a policeman died of injuries suffered in a bomb blast last month.

Land confiscation sparks conflict between Arabs and Iranian security services

Thursday, September 12, 2013

At least 11 Ahwazi Arabs were arrested in clashes between locals and the security forces as they evicted and destroyed Arab farms in Sheyban, Bawi county this month, according to activist reports.

Defying local community opposition, the government ordered in bulldozers to destroy farms that had been owned by Arabs for hundreds of years. The move was brought about as an ethnic Persian woman made a claim on 35 hectares of farmland whose Arab owners, the Zeheri family, state has been in their possession for many generations.

The following members of the Zeheri family were arrested by the Security Services: Adel, Hadi, Adib, Amin Aataiee (Zeheri), Ali Hassan, Jawad, Hamid Jasem, Jaafar son of Aabiyd.

Land confiscation is carried out by the regime for the sake of establishing sugar cane plantations, fish farms, an industrial free trade zone and more military sites for the Revolutionary Guards. Arabs subject to government land confiscation are never given the true value of their land in compensation and often receive no payment and are left destitute and landless, according to former UN housing specialist Miloon Kothari after his visit to Iran in 2005.

Source: Ahwaz News Agency.
Link: http://www.ahwaziarabs.info/2013/09/land-confiscation-sparks-conflict.html.

Retired Arab teacher humiliates Iranian President

Monday, August 26, 2013

President Hassan Rouhani was left humiliated and embarrassed after an elderly Ahwazi Arab publicly castigated the Iranian government for systemically ignoring his community's long-standing appeals for jobs, education, clean water and human rights.

In a daring display of defiance in front of television cameras and a public audience, retired teacher Haj Ghasem Hamadi of Khafajyeh [correction: in the previous version of this report, the man was wrongly identified as a religious sheikh] lambasted the Iranian regime's indifference to the plight of Ahwazi Arabs during a presidential visit to a local mosque. Rouhani was left speechless and the man was interrupted by a presidential aide.

Hamadi said: "In terms of agriculture, there is no water only salty water, no irrigation, no fertilizers and no seeds. They provide 20 bags of compost per hectares for Dezful, but we are given one per hectare. In terms of agriculture everything is below par. In terms of facilities in the area also is below par.

"We have got problems in education. Our situation is bad. No one asks about our hardship. Everyone who comes from there [from Tehran] says hello and goodbye. That is all."

Rouhani asked: “You mean there is nothing?”

The man answered: “There is not anything. You are in Tehran, you don’t know this region is deprived. There is no farming, no reconstruction, no water, no prosperity, no one asks about us, you are in Tehran, shouldn’t you ask about the deprived regions? We have the oil, the water, the land but we are dying from hunger!"

President Rouhani created high expectations among Ahwazi Arabs and other ethnic groups after he promised to end discrimination and enforce linguistic rights during his election campaign.

Rouhani attempted to win over several Arab sheikhs who were invited to meet him in Tehran and voice their concerns. At the meeting, he appeared to accede to their demands for a 10 per cent share of cabinet seats for members of the Arab minority. However, he has failed to appoint any Arabs to ministerial positions.

Hailing from the north of Iran, the 'pragmatic conservative' sought to attract non-Persian vote with a list of 10 pledges to address ethnic discrimination, in accordance with neglected constitutional provisions. These included the right to learn in the native tongue, as stated in Article 15, and promoting a meritocratic economy based not on ethnicity or religion but personal strengths in order to leverage the best local human resources. Rouhani has also promised to promote local people into managerial positions.

The president has failed to address some of the more urgent development issues that concern ordinary Ahwazi Arabs who feel increasingly estranged from their co-opted tribal leaders, namely the region's man-made environmental crisis and political issues. Rouhani's failure to engage with ordinary Arab workers and farmers indicates that his administration will continue to seek to use political and financial patronage to win the allegiance of tribal elites with little attempt to engage with the masses.

Source: Ahwaz News Agency.
Link: http://www.ahwaziarabs.info/2013/08/arab-sheikh-humiliates-iranian-president.html.

Top Assad's spy general neutralized by Mujahideen

17 October 2013

Mujahideen neutralized a top army gen. Jamaa Jamaa on Thursday while on dog's duty in eastern Syria.

Major general Jamaa Jamaa was successfully eliminated while pursuing Mujahideen in Deir al-Zour.

Jamaa, who was the head of the enemy military intelligence directorate in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, was one of the most powerful Assad's army thugs in the country.

Ayesha bint al-Sadiq Brigade said it was behind Jamaa's targeted neutralization. Mujahideen in Dier al-Zour fired celebratory gunfire after hearing of Jamaa's elimination.

In despair, the bloody Alawite regime intensified its shelling on the eastern province soon after announcing Jamaa's neutralization.

The city of Deir el-Zour has witnessed clashes between courageous Mujahideen and cowardly Alawite troops for more than a year.

Source: Agencies
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2013/10/17/18408.shtml.

Ahwazis unite against Iran's dam project

Saturday, October 19, 2013

The drying of the River Karoun is becoming a rallying point for Ahwazi Arabs, who have accused the Iranian regime of presiding over an ecological disaster on a par with the destruction of the Amazon.

Environmental campaigners in Ahwaz City formed a human chain along the Karoun this week in protest at the river diversion project. The mega-project involves the construction of dams and tunnels to divert water away from Iran's largest river which flows through the city and is essential for farming, drinking water and the local ecology.

Controversy surrounds the Koohrang-3 tunnel, which is currently under construction and is set to transfer 255 million cubic meters of water per annum to Zayandeh Rood in Isfahan. The diverted waters will be used for agro-industrial projects, instead of irrigating traditional Arab lands where food staples are grown, such as rice and wheat. Already, three tunnels transfer around 1.1 billion cubic meters of water from the Karoun and its tributaries to Isfahan every year.

Currently, there are seven dams and tunnels diverting Karoun's water with a further 19 dams under construction as well as 12 dams on Karkheh river basin and five dams on Jarrahi river basin. Twelve of these dams have built in Lorestan province in the Karoun and Karkheh basins, which store 800 million cubic meters for local use. Two dams have built in Ilam province on Karkheh river basin with annual storage capacity 1.04 billion cubic meters. Three dams have been built in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province on Jarrahi River with annual capacity of 1.24 billion cubic meters. So far, 25 dams with total capacity of 10.44 billion cubic meters have into operation in the Karoun basin. These dams are located in Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari province, Lorestan province and the north part of Al-Ahwaz (Khuzestan).

Due to the dam projects, around half the Karoun's water flow is now waste water. This will reach 90 per cent when Iran's dam building project is completed, according to Iranian scientists. The Karkheh and Jarrahi tributaries are now almost dried up and Ahwazi activists fear the Karoun - Iran's only navigable river - will now dry up. Already, the region's marshlands on which many Ahwazi Arabs traditionally depend for their livelihoods are a fraction of their former size due to the dam projects.

One of the groups campaigning against the destruction of the Karoun, the Patriotic Arab Democratic Movement in Ahwaz (PADMAZ), has claimed that as a result of the dam projects "the Ahwazi environment will be destroyed and Ahwazi Arab will be forced to move to other cities in addition to contracting intestinal and renal diseases and different kinds of cancer... This will speed up the Iranian colonial plan of ethnic cleansing of Ahwazi Arabs."

Source: Ahwaz News Agency.
Link: http://www.ahwaziarabs.info/2013/10/Save-Karoun-001.html.

Blast in southern Syria kills 21, activists say

October 16, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — An explosion struck a vehicle packed with passengers traveling in southern Syria overnight, killing at least 21 people, including four children, activists said Wednesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast hit the vehicle around midnight as it was driving near Tel al-Juma in Daraa province. Six women were also among the dead, it added.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, nor why a group of women and children were traveling in dangerous and disputed territory in the middle of the night. The Observatory said local activists accuse government troops, who are stationed at an army outpost in the area besieged by rebels, of planting explosives by the roadside.

Daraa was the birthplace of the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011.

Group: Syrian regime shelling kills 11 in south

October 13, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Tank shells fired by Syrian government forces slammed into a building in a southern city, killing at least 11 people there, including women and children, activists said Sunday.

The attack was part of the latest push by President Bashar Assad's troops to recapture land lost to rebels in the southern province and city of Daraa, the birthplace of Syria's uprising. It was there in 2011 that several youths were arrested for scrawling graffiti calling for Assad's downfall.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said at least four women and three children, including a baby, were among those killed in the attack late Saturday.

Syria's official news agency said that rebels fired mortars toward a government building in Daraa, but offered no further details. Videos posted on social networking sites by opposition activists showed bodies of the victims on the floor of a darkened room.

"Oh God, what a disaster!" weeps an elderly woman in the video as a man holds the body of a dead baby, wrapped in a sheet. The bodies of a young girl with short curly hair and a boy lie nearby. The video was consistent with Associated Press reporting of the incident.

A pro-rebel activist in a nearby town, who identified himself as Abu Musab, said the civilians were killed in crossfire during a battle in the city center. The building they were in took a direct hit after Syrian forces fired tank shells toward rebels holed up near it, said Abu Musab, speaking to the AP on Skype. He declined to use his real name, citing concerns for his safety.

There have been frequent clashes in and around Daraa between Assad's forces and the mostly Sunni rebels. On Wednesday, rebels overran a military post near the city. Late last month they also captured a nearby military base that previously served as the customs office on the outskirts of Daraa.

Syrian uprising started as mostly peaceful anti-Assad demonstrations in March 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring. After activists were violently targeted, it morphed into an armed uprising and civil war. The conflict has killed over 100,000 people, forced over 2 million to flee to neighboring countries, and displaced another 5 million within Syria.

Hezbollah, Iraqi militia capture Damascus suburb: opposition

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN | Wed Oct 9, 2013

(Reuters) - Iraqi and Lebanese Shi'ite militia backed by Syrian army firepower overran a southern suburb of Damascus on Wednesday, opposition activists said, in a blow to Sunni Muslim rebels trying to hold onto strategic outskirts of the capital.

At least 20 rebels were killed when Hezbollah guerrillas and Iraqi militiamen captured the town of Sheikh Omar under cover of Syrian army artillery and tank fire and aerial bombardment, the activists said, with tens of Shi'ite fighters killed or wounded.

Sheikh Omar sits between two highways leading south of Damascus that are crucial to supplying President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the provinces of Deraa and Sweida on the border with Jordan.

Syria's 2-1/2 year war has killed more than 120,000 people and forced millions from their homes into sprawling refugee camps in neighboring countries.

It began with peaceful demonstrations against four decades of iron rule by the Assad family. With regional powers backing opposing sides in the conflict and Russia blocking Western efforts to force Assad aside, there is little sign of an end to the bloodshed.

Regional security officials say up to 60,000 fighters from Iraq, Iran and Yemen and Hezbollah are present in Syria supporting Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

The country has also seen the influx of 30,000 Sunni Muslim fighters to support the rebels, including foreign jihadists and Syrian expatriates.

Hezbollah has acknowledged fighting openly in support of Assad, its main patron together with Shi'ite Iran, but the group does not comment on the specifics of its operations in the country.

The deployment of the Iraqi and Lebanese militia has been vital in preventing all southern approaches to Damascus from falling into rebel hands, according to opposition sources and the regional security officials.

The foreign Shi'ite fighters together with soldiers and local paramilitaries loyal to Assad have been laying siege to rebel-held southern suburbs of the capital near the Shi'ite shrine of Saida Zainab for the past six months, residents say.

The siege has squeezed rebels in areas further to the center of the city and caused acute shortages of food and medicine that have hit the civilian population.

FLOOD OF WOUNDED

Wardan Abu Hassan, a doctor at a makeshift hospital in southern Damascus, said the facility and another nearby received 70 wounded people, both fighters and civilians, since 4.00 a.m.

The wounded came from Sheikh Omar and the nearby suburbs of al-Thiabiya and al-Boueida, where the rebels were trying to hold off the Shi'ite militia advance, he said.

"Most of the casualties are from air strikes, and fire from tanks and multiple rocket launchers," the physician told Reuters.

An opposition group, the Damascus Revolution Leadership Council, said a baby girl died on Wednesday in the southern district of Hajar al-Asswad from malnutrition caused by the siege. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Rami al-Sayyed from the opposition Syrian Media Center mentoring group said rebel fighters were trying to hold off the Hezbollah and Iraqi fighters in al-Thiabiya and al-Boueida.

"It is tough because the regime is providing Hezbollah and the Iraqis with heavy artillery and rocket cover from high ground," he said.

Sayyed said much of the fire was coming from the 56th army brigade in the hilly region of Sahya. That area was evacuated after the threat of U.S. strikes following a nerve gas attack in August on other rebellious Damascus suburbs that killed hundreds.

The area became operational again after the threat receded following a deal to destroy Assad's chemical weapons arsenal, Sayyed said.

Buoyed by the receding prospect of U.S. intervention, Assad has been seeking to tighten his grip on the center of the country, the coast, areas along the country's main north-south highway as well as the capital and its environs.

Large areas of southern Damascus, including the areas of Hajar al-Assad and the Yarmouk refugee camp, are inhabited by poor refugees from the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, who have been at the forefront of the revolt against Assad, as well as Palestinian refugees.

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/09/us-syria-crisis-damascus-idUSBRE9980XW20131009.

As Syrian refugee influx swells, so does backlash

October 09, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Last year, as Syrian refugees were pouring in, signs started going up in Lebanese towns and villages imposing nighttime curfews and warning the newcomers to stay away. Some referred just to "foreign workers," others directly cited "Syrians."

The signs have since come down amid a campaign by human rights activists who rallied in Beirut this summer and hung a banner from a bridge in the capital saying: "Excuse us for the behavior of those who are racist among us."

But with more than a million refugees in a country of just 4.5 million, the tensions linger. Lebanon is the biggest recipient of Syrians fleeing the 2 1/2 -year civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions. Syrians are accused of committing burglaries, of cutting into the job market, even of causing traffic jams.

Judi, a 22-year-old student, describes being ordered out of a taxi when the driver learned she is Syrian. Majid, who works at a parking lot, says he has taken to hiding his nationality. Abed, a Beirut concierge, returned to Syria to spend Ramadan with family and when he tried to come back, an immigration officer banned him from entering for one year. No explanation was given, Abed said, speaking to The Associated Press by phone from Syria.

All three asked that their surnames be withheld because their situation is sensitive. Underlying the tensions is a historically fraught relationship. For much of the past 30 years, Syria all but ruled Lebanon. It dictated policies on everything, from the appointment of senior civil servants to the naming of presidents and prime ministers. It stationed tens of thousands of troops in the country, ran humiliating roadblocks and was blamed for scores of bombings and assassinations.

All that ended in 2005 with a Syrian withdrawal under international pressure. But the Syrian regime still has powerful allies here, including the militant Hezbollah group and an array of smaller, armed groups.

Many Lebanese have opened their homes to them, but Lama Fakih of Human Rights Watch said Syrian refugees tell the organization that they feel insecurity and growing hostility. She said female refugees are vulnerable to exploitation by landlords and employers. "We find that there are instances where women are being sexually harassed, are being asked to make sexual favors and when they refuse and resist, are concerned about being retaliated against."

Some politicians, including those from the nationalist Free Patriotic Movement led by Christian leader Michel Aoun, have called for closing the border to refugees. They say the influx could upset the country's delicate sectarian balance. Most of the refugees are Sunni Muslim, while Lebanon has large Shiite and Christian populations.

"What is happening is organized crime carried out by Lebanese and foreign officials to change the country's demography," said Gibran Bassil, outgoing energy minister and senior member of the Free Patriotic Movement.

The hostility has affected Syrians who, like Abed the concierge, have been in Lebanon for years. Majid, who was working at the parking lot long before Syria's crisis began, describes being cursed by a customer who caught his Syrian accent.

"I had expected him to give me a tip," he said. Instead, "I was humiliated but did not dare to respond."

Associated Press writer Yasmine Saker contributed to this report from Beirut.

Rebels attack army base in northern Syria

October 08, 2013

MAARET AL-NUMAN, Syria (AP) — Rebel fighters dressed in camouflage uniforms carefully loaded mortar rounds, then with a loud boom and a burst of smoke the shells zipped off in the direction of a nearby government army base.

"We are coming to get you, shabiha!" a man surrounded by rebel fighters shouted in an apparent reference to President Bashar Assad, using the term the opposition uses to refer to pro-government gunmen.

The shelling Tuesday, the latest salvo in an assault on the military facility, was part of a broader rebel effort to capture the remaining regime outposts in the largely opposition-held countryside of northern Syria.

Dramatic footage shot by The Associated Press showed a group of 45 young rebel fighters launching an attack on the military base, and others deploying improvised cannons and makeshift mortars. Some were also seen firing anti-aircraft weapons at attacking government helicopters.

The rebels captured the strategic city of Maaret al-Numan a year ago after systematically seizing the army's outposts in the area, a major supply route linking the capital, Damascus, with the contested Idlib region and Syria's largest city, Aleppo.

But despite repeated assaults on the nearby military installation of Hamidiyeh, in the Wadi Deif area east of the city, the rebel fighters have failed to break through the heavily fortified base. The latest operation began Monday, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said many Libyan fighters were battling on the rebel side. It said regime fighter jets twice hit opposition-held areas near the city Tuesday and the clashes caused casualties, though it gave no specifics.

At least 10 government soldiers and one rebel fighter were killed on Monday, it said. The fight for the base is part of the ongoing, broader struggle for control of northern Syria, where the opposition controls large swathes of territory captured from Assad's troops.

Most of the northern countryside is in the hands of anti-Assad fighters, while the government is holding out in isolated military bases and inside major cities. During the latest rebel assault Tuesday, one young rebel could be heard shouting above the mortar fire: "We are ready to move on our military operation, in order to remove the enemy check points and the army presence in Wadi Deif."

"God is great and he is the one who protects us." Meanwhile, at The Hague, the chief of the global chemical weapons watchdog briefed member states on progress in the high-stakes mission to rid Syria of its poison gas stockpile.

Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, spoke to the group's 41-nation Executive Council at the start of a four-day meeting as inspectors continued their mission.

Earlier Tuesday, teams of weapons inspectors were seen leaving their Damascus hotel in several U.N. vehicles. It was not clear where they were headed and what their task for the day was. On Sunday, Syrian personnel working under the supervision of the chemical weapons watchdog team began destroying the country's chemical arsenal and equipment used to produce it.

The mission to scrap Syria's chemical weapons program stems from a deadly Aug. 21 attack on opposition-held suburbs of Damascus in which the U.N. has determined the nerve agent sarin was used. Hundreds of people were killed, including many children. The U.S. and Western allies accuse the Syrian government of being responsible, while Damascus blames the rebels.

In neighboring Lebanon, meanwhile, the country's main security service announced the capture of three Lebanese and Syrian militants it said were planning assassinations and bomb attacks in Lebanon. Lebanon was hit by several explosions over the past weeks that killed scores of people.

Syrian rebel groups battle each other in north

October 04, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Al-Qaida militants battled fighters linked to the Western-backed opposition along with Kurdish gunmen in Syrian towns along the Turkish border on Friday, in clashes that killed at least 19 people, activists said.

The violence is part of an outburst of infighting among the myriad rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad for control over prized border areas. Islamic extremist fighters and more mainstream rebels are increasingly turning their guns on each other in what has effectively become a war within a war in northern and eastern Syria, leaving hundreds dead on both sides.

Turkey has been a staunch supporter of the rebels seeking to topple Assad, and has allowed the flow of weapons, men and supplies through border crossings into Syria. In an interview with Turkey's private Halk TV, Assad said Turkey will pay a "high price" for allowing foreign fighters to enter Syria from its territory. "You cannot hide terrorists in your pocket. They are like a scorpion, which will eventually sting you," Assad added.

The interview, broadcast late Thursday, was the latest given by the Syrian president to foreign media as part of a charm offensive in the wake of the Russian-brokered deal that averted the threat of a U.S. airstrike over an August chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people.

Assad said it was still too early to say whether he'll run for re-election next year, but suggested he would refrain from seeking a third term — if he feels that is what most Syrians want him to do. He said "the picture will be clearer" in the next four to five months because Syria is going though "rapid" changes on the ground.

"If I have a feeling that the Syrian people want me to be president in the coming period, I will run for the post," Assad said. "If the answer is no, I will not run and I don't see a problem in that."

Assad has been president since 2000. He took over after the death of his father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, who ruled for three decades. Syria's opposition wants Assad to step down and hand over power to a transitional government until new elections are held.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department called it "really unfathomable" that Assad would even contemplate running again. "If he really were to follow the wishes of the Syrian people, he would go," Marie Harf said.

"This is a process that will take time," she added. "But I think the notion of a brutal dictator who's killed so many of his own people claiming to have any opportunity to run for additional elected office is really actually quite offensive."

The infighting between rebels and the increasingly domineering role played by foreign fighters in the civil war has played into the government's line that it is fighting extremists, not a popular uprising.

Activists said heavy fighting continued Friday in the town of Azaz near the Turkish border between al-Qaida militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and fighters linked to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army group.

An activist affiliated with Syrian rebels, who identified himself as Abu Raed, said one fighter from the Northern Storm brigade involved in the fighting against ISIL was killed in Azaz. It was unclear what the overall death toll was.

He said the infighting was leaving Syrian rebels clashing on two fronts. "The best solution is a peaceful one. Otherwise we will have a river of blood, from all of us. It won't end, and it won't stop," he said, speaking from near Azaz via Skype.

ISIL fighters also battled Kurdish forces around the town of Ras al-Ain in Syria's Kurdish-dominated north, said a Kurdish activist, Bassam al-Ahmed, in the nearby town of Hassakeh. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 fighters from ISIL and the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group and four Kurdish gunmen were killed.

In Damascus, a team of international weapons experts in Syria was out in the field on its fourth day of work in the country. Their mission — endorsed by a U.N. Security Council resolution last week — is to scrap Syria's capacity to manufacture chemical weapons by Nov. 1 and to destroy Assad's entire stockpile by mid-2014.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Friday that Syria had submitted information about its program. Without elaborating in the statement late Friday, the Hague-based organization said its executive council would address the issue on Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid in Beirut contributed to this report.

Syrian rebels capture post near Jordan border

September 28, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels including members of an al-Qaida-linked group captured Saturday a military post on the border with Jordan after four days of fighting, an activist group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 soldiers were killed in the battle as well as a number of rebels, including seven foreign fighters. The post served in the past as the customs office on the border with Jordan. It was turned into an army post years ago.  

The post is on the outskirts of the southern city of Daraa where the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011. The uprising later turned into a civil war that killed more than 100,000 people, according to the U.N.

Rebels control multiple areas along the borders with Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon as well as the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Also Saturday some U.N. inspectors left their hotel in Damascus in one vehicle to an unknown location, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.

The U.N. said Friday its team of weapons experts currently in Syria will investigate seven sites of alleged chemical attacks in the country, four more than previously known. The announcement came hours before the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

The team initially visited Syria last month to investigate three alleged chemical attacks this year. But just days into the visit, the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta was hit by a chemical strike, and the inspectors turned their attention to that case. The inquiry determined that the nerve agent sarin was used in the Aug. 21 attack, but it did not assess who was behind it.

The U.S. says more than 1,400 people were killed in the attack while activists gave a smaller number but still in the hundreds. The UN team of investigators expects to finalize its activities in the country by Monday, a U.N. statement said.

On Thursday, the world's chemical weapons watchdog adopted a U.S.-Russian plan that lays out benchmarks and timelines for cataloging, quarantining and ultimately destroying Syria's chemical weapons, their precursors and delivery systems.

The Security Council resolution enshrines the plan approved by Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, making it legally binding. The agreement allows the start of a mission to rid Syria's regime of its estimated 1,000-ton chemical arsenal by mid-2014, significantly accelerating a destruction timetable that often takes years to complete.

A draft of the OPCW decision obtained by The Associated Press calls for the first inspectors to be in Syria by Tuesday.

Buses in large-scale bridge protest in Portugal

October 19, 2013

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese workers have protested the country's austerity measures by boarding dozens of buses and crisscrossing one of Lisbon's main bridges with their horns blaring.

Portugal's main labor group, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers, organized Saturday's demonstration after authorities refused to allow the protesters to cross the 2.3-kilometer(1.4-mile)-long bridge on foot, citing safety concerns.

Trade unions are fighting pay and pension cuts and the scrapping of workers' rights — measures required by creditors in return for Portugal's 78-billion-euro ($100 billion) bailout in 2011. In a similar protest in April, buses decked with flags and blowing their horns crossed the same bridge over the River Tagus in long lines before the workers aboard staged a demonstration in the city.

Unions are planning more strikes in November.

Italy: protesters throw eggs at finance ministry

October 19, 2013

ROME (AP) — Anti-austerity protesters in Rome threw eggs and firecrackers at the Finance Ministry during a march Saturday to oppose cuts to welfare programs and a shortage in low-income housing. Police said 11 people were detained.

More than 4,000 riot police were dispatched to maintain order as some 25,000 protesters marched through the capital on Saturday. There were moments of tension when demonstrators passed near the headquarters of an extreme-right group, but police intervened when a few bottles were thrown.

Later, demonstrators threw eggs, firecrackers and smoke bombs outside the Finance Ministry. Police reacted by dispersing the protesters, detaining 11 of the demonstrators. There were no reports of injuries.

Ahead of the march police detained some anarchists believed to pose a security threat.

Thousands in Rome protest Italian austerity cuts

October 18, 2013

ROME (AP) — Thousands of workers are demonstrating in Rome against the Italian government's new budget, which they say will bring more hardship.

The protests were accompanied Friday by a 24-hour nationwide strike that caused disruptions for travelers. Train service was guaranteed in most cities for morning and evening commutes, but airports in Rome, Naples, Milan and Bologna had to cancel some flights. Some school and health workers also went on strike.

The USB and COBAS unions organized Friday's strike to protest austerity measures reducing transportation budgets. USB union coordinator Pierpaolo Leonardi accused the Italian government of imposing EU directives without concern for the impact on workers.

A smaller protest of about 600 workers was held in Milan.

Hollande: expelled 15-year-old can return, alone

October 19, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Under fire from the far left and members of his own party, Socialist President Francois Hollande said Saturday that a 15-year-old girl who was detained in front of her classmates and expelled as an illegal immigrant can return to France. But the rest of the family cannot come with her.

Leonarda Dibrani, however, said she would not return without her family, who are Roma, or Gypsies. The deportation of the Dibrani family, whose requests for asylum were rejected, has lit a firestorm in France, where such expulsions aren't rare but are always sensitive as the birthplace of the "rights of man" grapples with a flux of immigrants. It's an especially delicate issue for Hollande and the Socialists, who have tried to present a softer image of France's immigration policies and distance themselves from former Nicolas Sarkozy's tough stance.

The uproar began earlier this week when it became public that 15-year-old Leonarda was detained by police as she got off a bus from a school trip. Schools are considered places of sanctuary, and many thought that principle had been breached. The case has also opened a wider debate on France's immigration policies.

The story has since become more complicated, with the father admitting that he lied in his asylum application when he said the entire family fled Kosovo, where they were persecuted for being Roma. Leonarda, and most of her siblings, were born in Italy, though they do not have Italian citizenship.

A government report published Saturday found that the police followed the law, although the report said they didn't seem to realize the sensitivity of what they were doing. Apparently fearing that conclusion wouldn't put the issue to rest, Hollande went on national television Saturday to walk the line between maintaining a tough stance on illegal immigrants and showing compassion for girl caught up in the storm.

He said Leonarda, considering the circumstances of her detention, could come back to France to go to school, if she wishes. But only she can come back. In Mitrovica, Kosovo, where the family is now living, Leonarda told reporters she would not come back without her family.

"Mr. Hollande has no heart for my family? He has no pity?" Leonarda asked, in an emotional scene in front of cameras. Her father has threatened to return to France illegally and even said the family had already packed their bags.

"We thought that Hollande was a just person to protect a family," said Leonarda's mother, Dzemila Dibrani. "To give him my daughter, that is not possible." Hollande also said local authorities would be told that such detentions cannot happen while children are in the care of their schools, whether inside the building, at the exit, on a bus or in after-school activities.

Although polls show that the majority of French people don't think the family should be allowed to return to France, the case has threatened to destabilize the Hollande government. On Thursday and Friday, thousands of teenagers protested the expulsion, and students gathered again Saturday on the steps of the Opera house at Place de la Bastille. They are calling for French law to be changed so minors who are in school cannot be expelled, and their families can remain, too.

Qena reported from Mitrovica, Kosovo.

Iranian protesters outside US Embassy in Berlin

October 18, 2013

BERLIN (AP) — Iranian dissidents are demonstrating outside the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, pushing for action after the killing of 52 of their compatriots in Iraq.

A dozen Mujahedeen-e-Khalq members protested in front of the embassy Friday, next to the landmark Brandenburg Gate. The group accuses the Iranian and Iraqi governments of involvement in the Sept. 1 shooting at Camp Ashraf in which roughly half the camp's U.N.-protected population was killed. The dissidents claim seven MEK members are being held by Iraq.

Iraq denies any involvement, saying the killings were an internal dispute. The U.N. has investigated but hasn't determined who was responsible. The group, which is strongly opposed to Iran's clerical regime, has been protesting since early September, calling for international pressure on Iraq to get to the bottom of the killings.

UN votes to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons

September 28, 2013

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday night to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, a landmark decision aimed at taking poison gas off the battlefield in the escalating 2 1/2-year conflict.

The vote after two weeks of intense negotiations marked a major breakthrough in the paralysis that has gripped the council since the Syrian uprising began. Russia and China previously vetoed three Western-backed resolutions pressuring President Bashar Assad's regime to end the violence.

"Today's historic resolution is the first hopeful news on Syria in a long time," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council immediately after the vote, but he and others stressed that much more needs to be done to stop the fighting that has left more 100,000 dead.

"A red light for one form of weapons does not mean a green light for others," the U.N. chief said. "This is not a license to kill with conventional weapons." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the "strong, enforceable, precedent-setting" resolution shows that diplomacy can be so powerful "that it can peacefully defuse the worst weapons of war."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that the resolution does not automatically impose sanctions on Syria. The resolution calls for consequences if Syria fails to comply, but those will depend on the council passing another resolution in the event of non-compliance. That will give Assad ally Russia the means to stop any punishment from being imposed.

As a sign of the broad support for the resolution, all 15 council members signed on as co-sponsors. For the first time, the council endorsed the roadmap for a political transition in Syria adopted by key nations in June 2012 and called for an international conference to be convened "as soon as possible" to implement it.

Ban said the target date for a new peace conference in Geneva is mid-November. Whether the council can remain united to press for an end to the conflict remains to be seen. "We know despite its clear usefulness, one resolution alone will not save Syria," France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said after the vote.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari accused unnamed nations of already giving the resolution a negative interpretation and trying to "derail it from its lofty purposes." And Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who have been harshly critical of Obama's policy on Syria, dismissed the resolution as "another triumph of hope over reality." It "contains no meaningful or immediate enforcement mechanisms, let alone a threat of the use of force for the Assad regime's non-compliance," they said in a statement that was highly skeptical that Russia would ever approve a threat of force for non-compliance.

The vote came just hours after the world's chemical weapons watchdog adopted a U.S.-Russian plan that lays out benchmarks and timelines for cataloging, quarantining and ultimately destroying Syria's chemical weapons, their precursors and delivery systems.

The Security Council resolution enshrines the plan approved by Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, making it legally binding. The agreement allows the start of a mission to rid Syria's regime of its estimated 1,000-ton chemical arsenal by mid-2014, significantly accelerating a destruction timetable that often takes years to complete.

Kerry said the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile will begin in November and be completed as called for by the middle of next year. "We expect to have an advance team on the ground (in Syria) next week," OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan told reporters at the organization's headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands immediately after its 41-member executive council approved the plan.

The OPCW plan gives Damascus a week to provide detailed information on its arsenal, including the name and quantity of all chemicals in its stockpile; the type and quantity of munitions that can be used to fire chemical weapons; and the location of weapons, storage facilities and production facilities. All chemical weapons production and mixing equipment should be destroyed no later than Nov. 1.

The Security Council resolution does not assign blame for any chemical attack. Some Western countries had wanted the draft to demand that the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks be referred to the International Criminal Court to be prosecuted for war crimes. Diplomats said this was discussed, but Russia objected.

As a result, the draft says only that the Security Council "expresses its strong conviction that those individuals responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic should be held accountable."

The recent flurry of diplomatic activity followed the Aug. 21 poison gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians in a Damascus suburb, and by President Barack Obama's threat of U.S. strikes in retaliation.

After Kerry said Assad could avert U.S. military action by turning over "every single bit of his chemical weapons" to international control within a week, Russia quickly agreed. Kerry and Lavrov signed an agreement in Geneva on Sept. 13 to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control for later destruction, and Assad's government accepted.

Tough negotiations, primarily between Russia and the United States, followed on how Syria's stockpile would be destroyed. The U.N. resolution's adoption was assured when the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council — Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain — signed off on the text on Thursday.

Russia and the United States had been at odds over the enforcement issue. Russia opposed any reference to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows for military and nonmilitary actions to promote peace and security.

The final resolution states that the Security Council will impose measures under Chapter 7 if Syria fails to comply, but this would require adoption of a second resolution. It bans Syria from possessing chemical weapons and condemns "in the strongest terms" the use of chemical weapons in the Aug. 21 attack, and any other use. It also would ban any country from obtaining chemical weapons or the technology or equipment to produce them from Syria.

Kerry stressed that the resolution for the first time makes a determination that "use of chemical weapons anywhere constitutes a threat to international peace and security," which sets a new international norm.

The resolution authorizes the U.N. to send an advance team to assist the OPCW's activities in Syria. It asks Secretary-General Ban to submit recommendations to the Security Council within 10 days of the resolution's adoption on the U.N. role in eliminating Syria's chemical weapons program.

"Syria cannot select or reject the inspectors," Kerry said. "Syria must give those inspectors unfettered access to any and all sites and any and all people." The resolution requires the council to review compliance with the OPCW's plans within 30 days, and every month after that.

In an indication of the enormity of the task ahead, the OPCW appealed for donations to fund the disarmament, saying it will have to hire new weapons inspectors and chemical experts. To that end, Britain's foreign minister announced after Friday's vote that the UK would donate $3 million to OPCW Syria Trust fund.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the Security Council that China was also prepared to help fund the disarmament mission. Meanwhile, a group of U.N. inspectors already in Syria investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons said Friday they are probing a total of seven suspected attacks, including in the Damascus suburb where hundreds were killed last month. That number was raised from three sites previously.

The OPCW destruction plan calls on Syria to give inspectors unfettered access to any site suspected of chemical weapons involvement, even if Syria's government did not identify the location. That gives the inspectors unusually broad authority.

Associated Press writers Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, Toby Sterling in Amsterdam, Amir Bibawy at the United Nations and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

Syrian rebel groups break with exiled opposition

September 25, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Nearly a dozen of Syria's powerful rebel factions, including one linked to al-Qaida, formally broke with the main opposition group in exile Wednesday and called for Islamic law in the country, dealing a severe blow to the Western-backed coalition.

The new alliance is a potential turning point, entrenching the schism within the rebellion and giving President Bashar Assad fuel for his long-stated contention that his regime is battling Islamic extremists in the civil war.

The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition — the political arm of the Free Syrian Army rebel group — has long been accused by those fighting inside Syria of being a puppet promoted by the West and Gulf Arab states supporting the Syrian rebellion.

Wednesday's public rejection of the coalition's authority will likely be extremely damaging for its future in Syria, particularly at a time when the U.S. and Russia are pushing for peace talks. "If the groups involved stand by this statement, I think this could be a very big deal — especially if it develops into a more-structured alliance instead of just a joint position," said political analyst Aron Lund.

"It basically means that some of the biggest mainstream Islamist forces within the so-called FSA are breaking up with the political leadership appointed for them by the West and Gulf states, to cast their lot with more hard-line and anti-Western Islamists," he said.

The announcement came less than two weeks after the coalition elected an interim prime minister, Ahmad Touma, charging him with organizing governance in opposition-held territories that have descended into chaos and infighting.

In a joint statement, 11 rebel groups that are influential in Aleppo province in the north, including Jabhat al-Nusra, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, said they rejected the authority of the Syrian National Coalition as well as Touma's appointment.

A video on the Internet showed Abdel-Aziz Salameh, political chief of the Liwaa al-Tawheed brigade that is particularly strong in the northern city of Aleppo, reading the statement. "These forces call on all military and civilian forces to unite under a clear Islamic framework based on Sharia law, which should be the sole source of legislation," the signatories said.

Ominously, the rebel groups' statement was titled "Communique No. 1," a term used in Arab countries following military coups that suggests the creation of a new leadership body. It said the rebels do "not recognize" any future government formed outside Syria, insisting that forces fighting inside the country should be represented by "those who suffered and took part in the sacrifices."

The statement highlighted the growing irrelevance of the coalition and its military arm headed by Gen. Salim Idris, who leads the Supreme Military Council supported by the West, amid increasing radicalization in Syria. The group is seen by many as being out of touch.

Veteran opposition figure Kamal Labwani, a member of the coalition, said the U.S. decision to back away from military intervention in retaliation to the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus and the perceived Western indifference to Syrian suffering was turning fighters in Syria into "monsters."

"We as a coalition are very removed from the ground now. There is no geographic spot we can enter in the liberated areas. The situation is worse than you can ever imagine," he said. Najib Ghadbian, the Syrian National Coalition's U.N. representative, acknowledged in an interview with AP Television News that there was a "growing rift" between the mainstream FSA and extremist groups. He said Idris had cut short a trip to Paris to deal with the rebel announcement.

The U.S. decision had created "a lot of frustration," he added. "The longer we wait, the more ... difficult it is going to become," Ghadbian said in New York. "Nothing is going to be, in fact, left to save of Syria."

For many rebels, the realization that even a chemical weapons attack would not trigger military intervention by the West has led to more radicalization. Last week, al-Qaida militants expelled FSA fighters from a town near the Turkish border after some of the worst clashes between the two sides. An al-Qaida commander in the north was assassinated by FSA fighters a day later.

Wednesday's statement came hours after a delegation from the coalition, headed by Ahmad al-Jarba, met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in New York. It also came as a team of experts arrived in Damascus to continue investigating allegation on the use of chemical weapons in the civil war.

The U.S. and Russia have been pushing for a peace conference in Geneva. One opposition figure said the rebel announcement breaking from the coalition may be related to concerns it may agree to go to the talks.

"It is part of political jostling for representation ahead of any talks," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the he was not authorized to talk about the discussions under way in New York.

Al-Jarba met Wednesday with U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in New York. Al-Jarba said the coalition expressed readiness to attend talks in Geneva aimed at establishing a transitional government with full executive powers and a clear timetable for an agreement that those in Assad's regime responsible for war crimes against civilians would be held accountable and not be part of a future democratic Syria.

"The time has come to end the conflict in Syria," said al-Jarba, according to a coalition statement. It was not immediately clear if the coalition was relinquishing its previous demand that Assad step down ahead of such talks.

A U.S. official said the United States and its allies were discussing the rebel announcement, adding it's too early to tell what the impact will be. Another U.S. official said the U.S. and its allies are increasingly concerned by infighting between the FSA and al-Qaida militants in northern and eastern Syria.

Both spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss Kerry's meetings. The opposition has long been hobbled by divisions between those in exile and the disparate rebel groups fighting Assad's regime in Syria's civil war, which has killed over 100,000 since March 2011.

The insurgency has increasingly drawn jihadis from all over the world, further adding to the West's reluctance to get militarily involved in the Syrian conflict or send advanced weapons to the rebels. There is growing concern among moderates that the dominant role the extremists are playing is discrediting the rebellion.

Among the signatories of Wednesday's statement are the Islamist-leaning Ahrar al-Sham and Liwaa al-Islam brigades, both powerful rebel factions with large followings on the ground, as well as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. Three of them — the Liwaa al-Tawheed, the Liwaa al-Islam, and the Suqour al-Sham — have until now been part of the Free Syrian Army, considered to be the Coalition's military wing.

Growing rebel infighting may further complicate the work of U.N. chemical weapons inspectors who face enormous challenges on the ground, including maneuvering between rebel- and government-controlled territory.

A team of experts arrived Wednesday in Damascus to continue investigating what officials from the world organization have described as "pending credible allegations" of the use of chemical weapons. The visit of the six-member team, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, follows a report by the inspectors after a previous trip. The report said the nerve agent sarin was used in an Aug. 21, attack near Damascus.

The U.S. and its allies say Assad's regime was behind the attack that killed hundreds of people. Damascus and its ally, Moscow, blame the rebels for the attack. The U.N. experts will be investigating three alleged uses of chemical weapons earlier this year and seeking information on three alleged incidents last month.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said the mission will discuss with the Syrian government "information that it may possess regarding allegations it reported on the use of chemical weapons" in incidents on Aug. 22, 24 and 25.

He said the inspectors will visit the village of Khan al-Assal near Aleppo to probe a March 19 incident, as well as two other sites. The inspectors identified them in last week's report as Sheik Maqsood and Saraqueb.

Also Wednesday, activists said Kurdish gunmen captured the village of Hmaid in the northeastern province of Hassakeh after heavy fighting with members of al-Qaida's Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Nusra Front. It came nearly an hour after Kurdish gunmen took the nearby village of Dardara.

Omar Mushaweh, a spokesman for Syria's Muslim Brotherhood group which is part of the coalition, blasted the rebel statement and said the infighting is dividing the rebellion at a critical time. "The only one who benefits from these side wars is the regime," he said.

Associated Press writer Mathew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Syrian rebel groups slam Western-backed opposition

September 25, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — More than a dozen key Syrian rebel groups said Wednesday that they reject the authority of the Western-backed opposition coalition, as U.N. inspectors returned to the country to continue their probe into chemical weapons attacks.

In a joint statement, 13 rebel groups including a powerful al-Qaida-linked faction but also more mainstream forces slammed the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition, saying it no longer represents their interests.

The statement reflects the lack of unity between the political opposition, based in exile, and the disparate rebel groups fighting President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria's civil war, which has killed over 100,000 people so far. It also highlights the growing irrelevance of the Coalition and its military arm headed by Gen. Salim Idris, who heads the Supreme Military Council supported by the West, amid increasing radicalization on the ground in Syria.

The rebel groups' statement was titled "Communique No. 1," a term used before in Arab countries following military coups that suggests the creation of a new leadership body. A video released on the Internet showed Abdel-Aziz Salameh, political chief of the Liwaa al-Tawheed brigade that is particularly strong in the city of Aleppo, reading the statement.

Syria's rebel movements vary greatly in their levels of internal organization, and it was not possible to immediately verify whether the other signatories' leader or fighters on the ground had approved the statement. But there were no immediate reports that any of them had rejected it.

The signatories called on all military and civilian forces "to unite under a clear Islamic framework based on Shariah law, which should be the sole source of legislation"— an apparent reference to the al-Qaida faction's aspirations to create an Islamic state in Syria.

It said the rebels do "not recognize" any future government formed outside Syria, insisting that forces fighting on the ground should be represented by "those who suffered and took part in the sacrifices."

But the rebels themselves are also deeply divided, with many groups blaming jihadis and al-Qaida militants in their ranks for the West's reluctance to intervene militarily in Syria or give them the advanced weapons they need. There is also growing concern that the dominant role the extremists are playing is discrediting the rebellion.

Yet the jihadis, including members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaida offshoot, have been some of the most effective forces on the battlefield, fighting alongside the Western-backed Free Syrian Army to capture military facilities, strategic installations and key neighborhoods in cities such as Aleppo and Homs.

Among the signatories are the Islamist-leaning Ahrar al-Sham and Liwaa al-Islam brigades, both powerful rebel factions with large followings on the ground, as well as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. Three of them — the Liwaa al-Tawheed, the Liwaa al-Islam, and the Suqour al-Sham — have until now been part of the Free Syrian Army, considered to be the Coalition's military wing.

Abdelbaset Sieda, a senior member of the Coalition, said the group learnt about the rebel statement from the media, adding that contacts were under way to determine how to deal with it. Growing rebel infighting may further complicate the work of U.N. chemical weapons inspectors who face enormous challenges on the ground, including maneuvering between rebel- and government-controlled territory. A team of experts arrived in Damascus on Wednesday to continue investigating what officials from the world organization have described as "pending credible allegations" of the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war.

The visit of the six-member team, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, follows a report by the inspectors after their previous trip in September, which said nerve agent sarin was used in an Aug. 21, attack near the capital, Damascus.

The U.S. and its allies say Assad's regime was behind the attack, and Washington said it killed 1,400 people. Syrian activist groups gave significantly lower death tolls, but still in the hundreds. Damascus blames the rebels for the attack, and Russia, a close ally of Assad, said the U.N. report did not provide enough evidence to blame the Syrian government. It has also demanded that U.N. inspectors probe other attacks that allegedly included chemical agents.

The United States and Russia brokered an agreement for Syria to give up its chemical weapons but U.N. diplomats say they are at odds on details of a Security Council resolution spelling out how it should be done and the possible consequences if Syria doesn't comply.

In a speech at the U.N. on Tuesday, President Barack Obama challenged the Security Council to hold Syria accountable if it fails to live up to its pledges. "If we cannot agree even on this," Obama said, "then it will show that the United Nations is incapable of enforcing the most basic of international laws."

A statement by the U.N. on Tuesday said the inspectors will use their new visit to gather evidence from the alleged chemical weapons attack on March 19 on the village of Khan al Assal outside the city of Aleppo, which was captured by the rebels in July.

Wednesday's rebel announcement, carried by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, came almost two weeks after the SNC, the main Western-backed opposition coalition, in Turkey elected Ahmad Saleh Touma as the opposition's interim prime minister.

Syrian rebels have been deeply divided and clashes between rival groups over the past months left hundreds of people dead, mostly in northern and eastern Syria. Rebels also say they have been demoralized and disenchanted with the West ever since Obama backed away from military strikes against Damascus over the Aug. 21 attack.

Syria's conflict has taken on increasingly sectarian tones in the past year, pitting predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels against members of Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Aid group: Syrian children at risk of malnutrition

September 24, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — As Syria's civil war rages into its third year, millions of children in the country are at risk of malnutrition and face severe food shortages, an international aid organization has warned.

Save the Children said four million Syrians — more than half of them children — are unable to produce or buy enough food. Thousands are trapped in battle zones in and around Syria's major cities, such as Aleppo in the north and in the central city of Homs, cut off from access to all but the bare minimum foodstuffs needed to survive, the U.S.-based group said in a dramatic report released Monday.

Food shortages are compounded by an explosion in prices of basic staples, the group said, adding that one in 20 children in areas around the capital of Damascus is severely malnourished. Ever since the conflict erupted in March 2011, leading aid groups have demanded that the warring sides — Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and the rebels fighting to overthrow his regime — enable access to civilians trapped in the fighting. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict and millions have been uprooted from their homes.

But their calls have consistently met obstacles. "The world has stood and watched as the children of Syria have been shot, shelled and traumatized by the horror of war," said Roger Hearn, Save the Children's regional director for the Middle East. "The conflict has already left thousands of children dead, and is now threatening their means of staying alive."

The United States and Russia brokered an agreement for Syria to give up its chemical weapons but U.N. diplomats say they are at odds on details of a Security Council resolution spelling out how it should be done and the possible consequences if Syria doesn't comply.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday that U.N. chemical weapons inspectors would return to Syria as soon as Wednesday. In Damascus, however, a government official said the issue of the inspectors' return to Syria and its timing was "still under discussion." The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

On their previous trip to the country, the U.N. team led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom complied a report that said nerve agent sarin was used in the Aug. 21 attack near Damascus. The U.S. and its allies say Assad's regime was behind the attack, which according to Washington killed 1,400 people. Activist groups say the death toll was significantly lower, but still in the hundreds.

Damascus blames the rebels for the attack, and Russia, a close ally of Assad, said the U.N. report does not provide enough evidence to blame the Syrian government. It has also demanded that U.N. inspectors probe other attacks that allegedly included chemical agents.

"We are pleased that our call for U.N. inspectors to return to Syria to investigate other episodes has brought results," Ryabkov told the Russian parliament Tuesday, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. He did not elaborate.

On Monday, the opposition Syrian National Coalition accused government forces of tightening their months-long siege in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, where the August attack took place. "Assad's forces are starving people to death in those areas," the coalition claimed. "Famine looms in the horizon as more than two million people remain under siege."

At the U.N., the head of the organization's World Food Program demanded Monday that a potential cease-fire agreement include access for aid workers. Ertharin Cousin told The Associated Press that an agreement, which will be discussed at the start of the annual U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, envisions a cessation of hostilities so chemical experts trying to bring Syria's stockpile under international control can travel across the country, including to many conflict areas where WFP and other humanitarian workers have been unable to bring in desperately needed aid.

WFP is currently feeding 3 million people inside Syria and 1.2 million in neighboring countries. Cousin said the goal is to step up supplies so that 4 million internally displaced people and 1.5 million refugees are getting food by the end of October.

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

Commander of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria has been killed

Sunday, 22 September 2013

Abu-Abdallah al-Libi, a top commander of al-Qaeda front group The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has been killed on Sunday in Idlib in northwestern Syria, Al Arabiya television reported.

The Free Syrian Army denied responsibility for Libi’s death.

The militant group is posing growing challenges for the armed opposition fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power and aspire to build a democratic civilian system in the country.

This week the extremist group took control of the Syrian town of Aziz, on the border with Turkey.

Syrian Youth activists had launched an online campaign entitled “ISIS doesn't represent me.”

“I hope Azaz turns into ISIS' burial ground,” said one activist posting on Twitter, according to AFP.

“They failed against the Americans in Afghanistan, and against the Iranians in Iraq. Now they are here to bully the Syrians, who are fighting a criminal regime,” said another.

Imposition

An online activist said he feared ISIS would try to impose Islamic law in Azaz.

“Sharia law would only be imposed to allow the killing of people, and we don't want that,” he said.

Another activist echoed a common claim that ISIS is working hand in glove with Assad's regime, and was mirroring its methods by “attacking field hospitals, detaining doctors and killing activists.”

Activists said the battle for Azaz began when jihadists broke into a field hospital, searching for a German doctor.

Another version of Wednesday's events says the fighting broke out when a Northern Storm rebel stepped in to defend a German journalist from being kidnapped by ISIS.

The FSA regained control of the town after heavy clashes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Azaz was calm by Thursday, Al Arabiya television reported.

Source: al-Arabiya.
Link: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/09/22/-Leader-of-al-Qaeda-in-Iraq-and-Syria-has-been-killed.html.