Minister: Ahmadinejad furthers his message through 'enemy's media'

Mon, 01 Nov 2010

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is successfully using the "enemy's media" to broadcast his messages to the world, the country's culture minister said Monday.

"The president is perfectly aware of the power and capacity of the media and makes the maximum use of the enemy's media for himself," Mohammad Hosseini said at the closing ceremony of a press festival in the capital Tehran.

"Ahmadinejad succeeded to avail himself of these (Western) media to reflect the message of the revolution to the whole world," he added.

Ahmadinejad's administration has branded the Western media as enemy mouthpieces who constantly try to misconstrue Iran's image.

The Culture Ministry, which is also in charge of local and foreign media, has accused the foreign media in general and the Western media in particular of waging a "soft war" against Iran.

"The local media is fully aware of the ongoing soft war against us and should therefore safeguard our borders of belief and maintain its unity," Hosseini said.

The media department of the Culture Ministry excluded Western media from this year's press festival in Tehran - a move it had not made in previous years.

It said it would not allow the presence of "those media that are vain, dishonest and beguiling and consider themselves as the ultimate media sultans of the world."

Ahmadinejad himself described the media as "the sharpest weapon of the global powers."

"Today, the real war is not on the military or political or economic, but the media front. They (world powers) are bombarding the world with their own news to hide the reality," he said.

The foreign press has been drastically restricted in Iran since it reported on vote fraud allegations and street protests after the June 2009 presidential election that awarded Ahmadinejad a disputed second term.

Foreign media have since not been allowed to directly cover street protests or contact opposition groups, and are only authorized to cover events approved by the Culture Ministry's foreign media department.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351395,furthers-message-enemys-media.html.

Iran's judiciary denies opposition party allowed to resume activity

Mon, 01 Nov 2010

Tehran - The Iranian judiciary on Monday denied that the opposition party Etemad Melli (National Trust) has been allowed to reopen and resume political activity, ISNA news agency reported.

The National Trust party's deputy head, Rassoul Montajabnia, had told ISNA on Sunday that the main party office has been unsealed by the judiciary and the party told that it could resume its activity.

But judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein denied this in his weekly press conference.

"The party's office has not been reopened and no permission granted to the party for resuming its activity." Mohseni-Ejehi, who is also state prosecutor, said.

Etemad Melli is led by Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliament speaker and since last year one of the most vehement critics of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Karroubi and former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi last year lost to Ahmadinejad in the presidential election but accused him and his government of fraud, refusing to acknowledge his re-election.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351377,party-allowed-resume-activity.html.

Qatar prime minister meets top German officials in Berlin

Mon, 01 Nov 2010

Berlin- Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, met top-level German officials Monday in Berlin, but officials were silent about the topics of the discussions.

Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Sheikh Hamad at her office in the evening, and he was later invited to dinner by German President Christian Wulff at the president's palace, Schloss Bellevue.

A Qatari sovereign wealth fund has major investments in Germany, holding 17 per cent of carmaker Volkswagen and 10 per cent of Porsche, and in recent weeks there have been unconfirmed reports that Berlin has urged Qatar to buy into a construction group, Hochtief.

The Qataris have been frequent visitors to Berlin in recent weeks. The emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, visited Berlin at the end of September and there have been unconfirmed news reports of a ministerial visit since that one.

The prime minister's visit coincided with a security flap over two unexploded parcel bombs sent from Yemen. Qatar Airways confirmed on Sunday that it had unsuspectingly shipped one of the parcels on two of its passenger planes.

News photographers were invited to see the prime minister's arrival, but no joint news conference was scheduled for the visit.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351398,top-german-officials-berlin.html.

Yemen protests German ban on Yemeni flights - Summary

Mon, 01 Nov 2010

Sana'a, Yemen/Berlin - Yemen expressed "regret and surprise" Monday after Germany banned all flights from Yemen, describing the move as a "collective and illogical punishment" to the parcel bombs plot.

A ban by Germany on incoming parcels and other air cargo from Yemen was widened Monday into an exclusion from German airspace of all planes that began their flights in Yemen.

The Transport Ministry in Berlin said German air traffic control was instructed to turn away all planes coming directly or indirectly from Yemen.

The order followed the discovery of unexploded parcel bombs dispatched from Yemen and bound for the United States.

A Yemeni official source expressed "regret and surprise at the decision of the Federal Republic of Germany, which has a relationship of friendship and advanced cooperation with Yemen, to prevent all flights from Yemen to Germany."

The ban was a "hasty and exaggerated reaction" to the plot, and "harms Yemen's efforts in the fight against terrorism," the source said in a statement.

Germany's federal aviation office advised all Yemeni airlines that their planes were prohibited from landing in Germany.

Berlin has also ordered the German-owned parcels service DHL and US-owned UPS and FedEx to investigate every Yemen-origin parcel in their German depots.

Such a ban "can only be explained as a collective and illogical punishment against Yemen and its people, which has rejected terrorism and supported tireless efforts of its government in its open war on terrorism," he said.

He added that move "only serves the terrorists of al-Qaeda who have always sought to achieve such results to damage the interests of Yemen and its reputation and his relationship with its friends and regional and international partners."

The source said Yemen "will remain committed to its cooperation with the international community to combat terrorism and drain its resources."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351405,yemeni-flights-summary.html.

Germany widens Yemen air-cargo ban to all Yemen-origin planes

Mon, 01 Nov 2010

Berlin - A ban by Germany on incoming parcels and other air cargo from Yemen was widened Monday into an exclusion from German airspace of all planes which began their flights in Yemen.

The Transport Ministry in Berlin said German air traffic control was instructed to turn away all planes coming directly or indirectly from Yemen.

The order followed the discovery of unexploded parcel bombs dispatched from Yemen.

Germany's federal aviation office advised all Yemeni airlines that their planes were prohibited from landing in Germany.

Berlin has also ordered the German-owned parcels service DHL and US-owned UPS and FedEx to investigate every Yemen-origin parcel in their German depots.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351381,germany-widens-yemen-air-cargo-ban-to-all-yemen-origin-planes.html.

Russia wants clarity from NATO over missile system - Summary

Mon, 01 Nov 2010

Moscow- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Moscow wants more clarity from NATO about the alliance's planned anti-missile system and what Russia's role in it might be.

Lavrov made the remarks during talks with visiting German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who had urged Moscow's involvement in the anti-missile defense network.

Lavrov said he hopes NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is to visit Moscow later in the week, will present more details about the system and how NATO conceives Russia's role in it.

Westerwelle said that a joint effort to build a defensive shield is possible and that Russia is regarded by the West as a strategic partner.

"There should be no enemy pictures any longer," the German minister said.

Lavrov said he hopes that NATO at its summit in Lisbon later this month - which President Dmitry Medvedev will be attending - will take a clear position about how it plans to deal with Russia in the future.

At any rate, Moscow no longer feels that it is being looked on as an enemy by NATO, he added.

Earlier, Westerwelle had pledged that, in the effort to build up a new relationship between NATO and Russia, Germany would "do its share to see that this succeeds."

Westerwelle also met with opposition and civil society groups in the afternoon. Earlier in the day, he had brought up the controversial issue of the corruption trial facing former oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The German minister spoke of the "very serious concern about the conditions of the trial proceedings" in an apparent reference to criticism that the trial was politically motivated in order to silence a critic of Premier Vladimir Putin.

"It is in Russia's interest that these concerns are taken seriously," Westerwelle said in remarks coming a few days after the Khodorkovsky trial wrapped up, with a verdict scheduled by December.

Lavrov responded by only pointing out that the defense and prosecution had made their final arguments and that "the court will decide."

Khodorkovsky, serving an eight-year term for fraud in connection with his activities as chief of the former Yukos oil concern, stands charged with stealing 218 million tons of oil. The prosecution demanded a further six-year term, which would keep him in prison until 2017.

Westerwelle also raised the subject of visa freedom during his one-day visit to Moscow. Both he and Lavrov expressed their support for a kind of phased plan that would allow for the dismissal of existing visa rules for travel between Germany and Russia.

Lavrov suggested a "list with common steps," while Westerwelle said that "Germany stands by the long-term goal of visa freedom between Russia and the Schengen zone."

The German minister did, however, note that there is a "great deal of practical obstacles." The European Union has for instance demanded from Russia that it comply with human rights and better secure its borders.

Westerwelle's arrival in Moscow kicked off a three-nation tour that will later include Belarus and Lithuania.

Westerwelle will be the first German foreign minister in 15 years to be hosted by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whom human rights activists call "Europe's last dictator."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351372,missile-system-summary.html.

Calm restored after tribal clashes at Irbid universities

By Raed Omari

IRBID - Calm was restored by Sunday evening at Yarmouk University, after a tribal clash erupted among students, which resulted in campus buildings being damaged, students and officials said yesterday.

The clash was a result of a quarrel that took place between two students from the Irbid Governorate towns of Sarih and Ramtha on Thursday, president of the university’s student union Mohammad Omari told The Jordan Times yesterday.

"Yesterday, this small quarrel quickly escalated into a major clash between two tribes," he said, adding that the two students urged others from their towns to back them up in the dispute.

According to Omari, students from Ramtha claimed that the head of security at the university, who is from Sarih, facilitated the entry of young people from his town into the university to take part in the brawl.

"A large number of students from Ramtha gathered on campus yesterday, demanding that the students from Sarih apologize and that the head of security be sent into retirement," the student union president explained, adding that union members talked to the protesters in order to achieve reconciliation through "democratic dialogue".

"The presence of the university president among the students calmed the tension," he said, adding that "the president took some students to his office and promised to form a committee to investigate the incident".

However, an eyewitness who preferred to remain unnamed, said several students "rushed into the economics faculty straight after the president’s meeting with the students, breaking windows and furniture".

Mustafa Sheyab, head of security at the university, told The Jordan Times that allegations about his involvement in the clash were untrue, and stressed that most of those involved in the brawl were students from the university and that security guards at the gates did not facilitate the entry of any "outsiders".

"You cannot prevent students from entering the campus, plus the quarrel took place at 3:30pm, the time when many students leave the university," Sheyab added.

"You cannot imagine how difficult it is to control the exit and entry of 40,000 students," he said, claiming that the fight started outside the university.

Also Sunday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported that security forces entered the campus of Irbid Private University at the request of the president to break up a clash between students from Sarih and Ramtha.

"After news about a renewal of a quarrel yesterday between students from Sarih and Ramtha, strict security enforcement measures were taken outside the Yarmouk University campus," Petra quoted Brigadier General Hussein Nawayseh, director of the northern region Public Security Department, as saying.

"Security personnel arrested 40 persons involved in the quarrel who were carrying pocket knives, sticks and other sharp objects," he said.

Nawayseh told Petra that calm and security were restored at both universities.

1 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31435.