Turkish court sentences man to life for murdering child in Germany

Istanbul - A Turkish court on Thursday found a man guilty of murdering an 8-year-old girl in western Germany last January, sentencing him to life in prison. The court in the city of Soke in western Turkey ruled that Turkish national Ali Kur, 30, had murdered Kardelen Kirac, also an ethnic Turk, who went missing from her home in Paderborn on January 12. Kur later fled to Turkey.

Kirac's naked body was found several days after her disappearance in woods 60 kilometres from her home. Police pathologists identified the body and confirmed she had been raped and suffocated.

The crime created shock and grief in both the local German and Turkish community.

At an Islamic memorial service held for Kirac in Paderborn a few days later, so many people attended that the imam moved the prayers outdoors. Kirac's remains were then flown to her parents' hometown in Turkey.

Police said 4,000 people had taken part in a march, organized at short notice by a student, so the city could unite in its grief.

Galloway appeals to Mubarak to open Rafah crossing to Gaza convoy

Thu, 24 Dec 2009

Amman - British lawmaker George Galloway, heading a charity convoy for the Gaza Strip, on Thursday appealed to Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak to issue instructions to the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah gate to the "Viva Palestina" convoy. "Please Mr. President, open the gate to Viva Palestina," Galloway said as the 210-vehicle humanitarian convoy left Amman southward across the desert highway en route to the Red Sea port of Aqaba.

Galloway said he hoped the Egyptian authorities would facilitate the entry of the convoy Thursday night at a time when the world celebrates the Christmas.

The British MP plans to reach the Gaza Strip on December 27, to mark the first anniversary of the Israeli offensive that killed at least 1,300 Palestinians and wounded more than 5,000 others.

However, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki indicated the convoy could face a problem when he said that his government stipulated the entry of all aid convoys to Gaza from al- Arish port.

The convoy, which is manned by 450 activists from 17 countries including the United States, European countries and Turkey, was accorded a tumultuous welcome when it reached the city of Karak, 120 kilometers south of Amman, Jordanian media said.

The convoy was greeted by hundreds of tribal leaders, politicians, dignitaries and trade unionists, while Galloway spoke to the media clan in a traditional Bedouin dress donated by a tribal chieftain.

Venezuelan ex-President Rafael Caldera dies at 93

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ and JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writers

CARACAS, Venezuela – Rafael Antonio Caldera, a two-time president who helped establish democracy in Venezuela and issued the pardon that allowed Hugo Chavez to rise to power, died Thursday in Caracas, his son said. He was 93.

Andres Caldera, in comments to Venezuelan television, did not give the cause of his father's death, but the former president who governed Venezuela from 1969-1974 and 1994-1999 had suffered from Parkinson's disease for several years.

Although 20 years divided his terms, Caldera's manner of ruling was the same: Reserved, tough with political adversaries and inclined toward populism. He was also known for living simply and eschewing luxuries, and for integrity in a country where corruption is common.

In 1994, Caldera pardoned Chavez, who was jailed for leading a failed military coup two years earlier. But Caldera was later deeply at odds with Venezuela's current president.

Chavez called Caldera's family to express his condolences, the son said. Family members said they do not want the government to play any role in commemorating him.

"The family has already discussed the matter, and we decided we will not accept any homage from the government of Hugo Chavez," he said.

Caldera was considered one of the last survivors of the generation that built Venezuela's democracy.

Born in 1916 in the northwestern state of Yaracuy, he obtained a political science degree at the Central University of Venezuela, entered politics in the 1930s, and in 1946 founded the Social-Christian COPEI party, a movement grounded in the middle class.

Fully democratic presidential elections were held the following year, won by the novelist Romulo Gallegos.

But democracy collapsed and Caldera helped revive it as one of the three signers of the Punto Fijo pact, which organized elections after the fall of dictator Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1958.

Under the pact, COPEI and Romulo Betancourt's Democratic Action party shared power for nearly 40 years.

"One of the heroes of our civil democracy has disappeared," former presidential candidate and COPEI leader Eduardo Fernandez said.

In his first term as president, Caldera eliminated the remnants of leftist guerrilla movements by granting them a general amnesty. The period was also marked by lavish government spending of oil revenues on public works and a growing bureaucracy.

Two decades later, with Venezuela in turmoil following two failed military coup bids in 1992 and the impeachment of President Carlos Andres Perez on corruption charges, Caldera won a new term without the backing of COPEI, breaking the Punto Fijo power-sharing pact he had helped craft.

In office, Caldera soon confronted the nation's worst banking crisis, in which half of Venezuelan banks failed. He decreed price and currency exchange controls to surmount the crisis and focused on development in interior Venezuela.

Caldera led the country through relative stability, and also granted amnesty to a young army paratroop commander behind one of the coup attempts: Hugo Chavez, who four years later would be elected to succeed Caldera.

Chavez and the author of his release from jail had a testy relationship over the years, however.

In a 2003 newspaper interview, Caldera warned that violence could ensue if Chavez, using state resources, blocked efforts to hold a recall referendum on his leftist presidency. Caldera questioned the legitimacy of a new constitution under which Chavez has increased his power.

Chavez shot back that the comments "reflect the depths of desperation" that opponents to his rule had reached. He blamed Caldera and others for creating a corrupt system that left millions of Venezuelans to live in poverty.

Caldera is survived by his wife, Alicia Pietri, and six children.

A funeral is scheduled for Dec. 26 in the capital.

Iran 'to invalidate' banknotes defaced by slogans

Iran's central bank has said defaced banknotes are to be made invalid, after the appearance of opposition slogans on money, local media report.

They quote bank official Ebrahim Darvishi as saying that people possessing defaced banknotes should exchange them by 8 January.

It was difficult to distinguish genuine defaced notes from fakes, he added.

Messages in support of the opposition have been appearing on banknotes since June's disputed presidential election.

Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected in the poll - a move that triggered mass street protests by the opposition who claimed the election was rigged.

'Death to dictator'

"Banknotes on which there are writings or are stamped or have any additional signs will be invalid," Iran's Jam-e Jam newspaper quoted Mr Darvishi as saying on Thursday.

The bank official also called on the public and shop owners not to accept such notes from 8 January.

Since June's election, slogans such as "Death to the dictator" have appeared on many Iranian banknotes.

Opposition supporters have also sprayed anti-government graffiti on walls in the capital Tehran and other cities.

Many transactions are carried out in cash in Iran, which is under international banking sanctions and where major credit cards cannot be used.

Eritrea: Hizbul Islam Denounces UN's Sanction Imposed on Eritrea

Hassan Osman Abdi
24 December 2009

Somalia — The Islamist officials of Hizbul Islam have sharply denounced the arm embargo which the United Nations imposed on Eritrean government which allegedly supporting the Islamist fighters in Somalia, officials said on Wednesday.

Sheik Mohamed Mo'alin Ali, the information secretary of Hizbul Islam organization has held press conference in Mogadishu and told reporters that the step that was imposed the sanction on Eritrea was not right one condemning the decision of the United Nation's Security Council who accused Eritrea for supporting and taking that conflicts in the Somali and the Horn of Africa.

The information secretary said that they were very sorry for the sanction against the Eritrean government pointing out that there are more governments intervening Somalia and were not imposed any sanction.

On the other hand, the official had talked more about the Jubba region' differences saying that there was no solution reached on conflicts by a time Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen said yesterday that they took over whole parts of Lower Jubba region in Southern Somalia.

The statement of the information secretary of Hizbul Islam organization comes as the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Eritrea after it was repeatedly accused for supporting the Islamist forces fighting against the transitional Federal Government led by president Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

Eritrea: Security Council Imposes Sanctions

The Security Council today imposed arms and travel sanctions on Eritrea for supporting insurgents trying to topple the nascent government in nearby Somalia.

The resolution, supported by 13 of the 15 members of the Council, places an arms embargo on Eritrea, imposes travel bans on the Horn of Africa nation's top political and military officials, and freezes the country's assets.

China, one of the five permanent members of the Council, abstained from voting for the resolution, while Libya voted against it.

In the resolution, the Council expressed concern over Eritrea's rejection of the United Nations-facilitated Djibouti Agreement, a 2008 peace accord between Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).

Despite that pact, fighting and humanitarian suffering continue to engulf Somalia, which has been without a central authority for nearly two decades. Eritrea and Djibouti are also engaged in a border dispute.

Today's resolution "demands that all Member States, in particular Eritrea, cease arming, training, and equipping armed groups and their members including al-Shabaab, that aim to destabilize the region or incite violence and civil strife in Djibouti."

It also calls on all nations to support the Djibouti peace process and support the TFG's reconciliation efforts in Somalia.

Further, the document demands that Eritrea acknowledge its dispute with Djibouti and actively take part in talks to defuse tensions.

The Council also reiterated its "serious concern at the refusal of Eritrea so far to engage in dialogue with Djibouti, or to accept bilateral contacts, mediation or facilitation efforts by the sub-regional or regional organizations or to respond positively to the efforts of the Secretary-General."

Kurdish army plan heightens Iraq tension

Dec. 23, 2009

BAGHDAD, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Plans by President Massoud Barzani of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish enclave to merge the military forces of the two main Kurdish parties, known as "peshmerga," or those who face death, into a unified army is antagonizing the Kurds' Arab rivals.

That heightens the prospect of a major clash between the independence-minded minority Kurds and their traditional adversaries that could wreck U.S. plans to pull out its combat forces and leave behind a federal democratic state in place of Saddam Hussein's grotesque tyranny.

"With ethno-sectarian tensions reaching a fever pitch, Iraq's rival factions can be expected to rely more heavily on their traditional insurance policy: private militias," according to a Dec. 10 analysis by U.S.-based global security consultancy Stratfor.

"As the Shiite-dominated government continues to block the integration of its rivals into the security apparatus, the Kurds are unifying their peshmerga while many of Iraq's Sunnis continue to use the threat of an insurgency as leverage in getting their demands met.

"Should Iraq witness a resurgence of private militias amidst rising ethno-sectarian tensions, the U.S. exit strategy for Iraq could face serious complications."

Kurdish-Arab hostility centers on the disputed northern city of Kirkuk and its oil fields. The Kurds claim this is their territory and want it added to the three northern provinces they currently control.

This they envisage as a future Kurdish state with the Kirkuk oil fields, which contain as much as one-third of Iraq's crude reserves, as its economic base.

Iraqi Kurdistan already contains an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of Iraq's known reserves. If the Kurds get their hands on Kirkuk they would thus control around 45 percent of the country's oil.

So the Baghdad government bitterly opposes relinquishing Kirkuk to the Kurds.

When Saddam was in power, he sought to push the Kurds out of Kirkuk and implant Arabs in their place. Since Saddam was overthrown in 2003, the Kurds have been forcing out the Arabs and moving their own people back into the flashpoint city.

In Nineveh province, the peshmerga of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the other main faction, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, have been steadily extending their area of control, encroaching on Arab turf.

This has led to several clashes that the Americans smothered before they could ignite wider hostilities. But with U.S. forces withdrawing, Nineveh has also become a flashpoint.

Tension is expected to rise as parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2010 loom closer.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to visit the Kurdistan region soon to sign a deal with Barzani, president of the Kurdish Regional Government and the hereditary leader of the KDP.

According to political sources in Baghdad and Kurdistan, Maliki's government will recognize the new Kurdish army made up of the KDP and PUK peshmerga.

In return, the KRG will release funds collected from taxes and tariffs that Erbil has so far refused to hand over to the central government.

Maliki, who broke with his Shiite coalition partners in the summer, is driving to win re-election in the March polls. But he needs to muster some heavyweight support behind him to have any prospect of success.

He knows too that the Americans are desperate to resolve the issue of the Kurds, their staunchest allies in Iraq, and avert a civil war that would likely doom any prospect of a united Iraq.

Making a deal with the Kurds would strengthen al-Maliki's electoral prospects, but it would carry political dangers in the longer term that could backfire on him.

According to Syrian analyst Sami Moubayed, who closely follows events in Iraq, "Maliki does not have much room for maneuver, with the Iranians other regional players, who would never accept Kirkuk becoming Kurdish, breathing down his neck.

"Although the prime minister was brought to power by the Americans in 2006, his connections to the United States are not nearly as strong as those of the Kurds, particularly the Barzani clan."

Barzani declared Nov. 22 that he wants to create a unified Kurdish army incorporating the often fractious KDP and PUK militiamen -- each party controls around 100,000 -- under the authority of a Ministry of Peshmerga.

Its primary mission would be protecting Kurdistan, underlining the Kurds' unspoken ambition for an independent state.

"The KRG leaders hope this initiative will mend a political rift within Iraqi Kurdistan and give the KRG more strength in battling the Arab rivals in Iraq's central government," according to Stratfor.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2009/12/23/Kurdish-army-plan-heightens-Iraq-tension/UPI-28091261592144/.