Report: NKorea nearly restores nuclear facilities

By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as leader Kim Jong Il expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities reached the conclusion after scrutinizing about 10 atomic facilities in North Korea since April when the communist regime vowed to restart its nuclear program in anger over a U.N. rebuke of its long-range rocket launch.

Pyongyang claimed the launch was a peaceful attempt to put a satellite into orbit, but the liftoff was widely condemned as a test of the North's long-range missile technology.

The report came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao that his country was prepared to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks depending on progress in its two-way negotiations with the United States.

Kim's comments, carried by official North Korean and Chinese media, were the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang was readying to resume the six-nation talks it withdrew from after conducting missile tests in April and a second nuclear test in May.

The stalled talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.

In their meeting late Monday, Kim said that North Korea "is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States," China's Xinhua News Agency said in a report issued early Tuesday.

North Korea has long sought one-on-one negotiations with the U.S., claiming that it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls the "U.S. hostile policy" and "nuclear threats" against the regime.

Yonhap also cited the government source as saying that North Korea has conducted missile engine tests a few times recently on the country's west coast at a new missile launch site that is in the final stage of construction.

News reports said earlier this year that the North had moved a long-range missile to the new site for a possible test launch, but Yonhap said Tuesday that the missile has been moved elsewhere. The report did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that the youngest son of Kim Jong Il could be officially named an heir to the communist dynasty as early as next year. The paper cited a South Korean government report to a ruling party lawmaker.

Talk of who will take over North Korea after Kim Jong Il intensified after Kim reportedly suffered a stroke last year. The third son, Kim Jong Un, is widely believed to be the favorite.

Hamas will bring 'resolution killers' to justice

Hamas officials have vowed to bring to justice those Palestinians who supported the delaying of a UN Human Rights Council vote on a report about Israeli war crimes during the Gaza conflict.

Hamas --the democratically-elected government of Gaza-- says the Palestinian Authority, which dropped its support for a scheduled Friday vote on the report following intense lobbying from the US and Israel, has betrayed the victims of the three-week war and must be prosecuted.

"More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the Israeli war, based on demands from the families of the victims, we have decided to go ahead and prosecute those who contributed to the delaying of the UN Human Rights Council resolution; and that is because their move has dealt a heavy blow against the Palestinian people and to those in the international community trying to help Palestinians", Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad told Press TV.

Hammad also believes that the controversial decision by Palestinian Authority under Acting Palestinian Chief Mahmoud Abbas proves the allegations that the Western-backed government had cooperated with Tel Aviv during its deadly offensive on Gaza.

After the Palestinian officials withdrew their support for the report, the Geneva-based body decided to delay until March 2010 a vote on the report by a fact-finding mission headed by international prosecutor Richard Goldstone.

The report reaffirmed that Israel deliberately violated international humanitarian law and used disproportionate force during its "Operation Cast Lead" against the people of Gaza at the beginning of the year.

It called for the prosecution of senior Israeli officials in the International Criminal Court if Tel Aviv fails to launch its own investigations into the Gaza war under international scrutiny.

Both Israeli and US officials dismissed the report as biased. Tel Aviv threatened to put aside resumption of the moribund peace talks with Palestinians if the Human Rights Council forwarded the report to the UN General Assembly.

The measure killed the Palestinians hope to pass a resolution against Israel in the UN Human Rights Council.

Abbas faced an unprecedented wave of condemnation and accusations of treason from other Palestinian factions even from PA officials , and ordered the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the issue.

An unnamed PA minister scoffed at Abbas' decision to establish the commission, the Jerusalem Post reported.

"What's the president [Abbas] trying to tell us? that he didn't make the decision to kill the resolution that would have seen the UN endorse the findings of the fact-finding commission into the Gaza war?" the minister asked.

"Well, if he didn't make the decision, then we want to know who's running the Palestinian Authority. If he was responsible for the [deferral] decision, then this is a very serious matter. If he knew, it's bad; if he didn't know, it's even worse," JP quoted him as saying.

'Somalia single largest humanitarian crisis'

Tue Oct 6, 2009

Somalia presents the single largest humanitarian challenge in the world, where food crisis, droughts and violence continue to devastate the country, a leading aid group says.

Over 3.6 million people, or half of Somalia's population, are currently in desperate need of aid, International aid organization, Oxfam GB, reported on Monday.

"In terms of numbers of people, access to any form of social welfare or livelihood choices, and the apparent intractability of it (the conflict in Somalia), it is the most pressing concern in humanitarian terms that we have globally," Oxfam GB's humanitarian director Jane Cocking told Reuters.

Adding to the crisis are over 1.3 million internally displaced people and another half a million refugees who reside in impoverished camps in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia.

However, even as conflicts rage within the Horn of Africa nation, both private and government donors are reluctant to throw money in a state as disorganized as Somalia, where a weak UN-backed interim government struggles to retain a bloody insurgency, Oxfam added.

The London-based organization stressed that in negotiating the fifth year of drought in East Africa, one in six Somali children face acute malnourishment.

"That is, in the UN's terms, a crisis ... But because it's been a similarly awful picture for such a long time, the crisis warning bell no longer produces the fire brigade," Paul Smith-Lomas, Oxfam GB's east Africa director said.

Oxfam also noted that limited access to civilians caught in the conflict zones in Somalia has forced the organization to rely more on local partners.

In Somalia, scores of aid workers and journalists have been kidnapped, killed or otherwise targeted since the central government collapsed in 1991.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/107946.html.

Ransom frees Turkish ship held by Somali pirates

Tue Oct 6, 2009

Somali pirates release a Turkish ship, hijacked almost three months ago, after receiving a ransom of 1.5 million dollars.

The bulk carrier, the Horizon-1, seized on July 8 with 23 crew members aboard, and carrying sulfate en route to Saudi Arabia from Jordan, was released on Monday, Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program confirmed.

"We accepted USD 1.5 million to release the Turkish ship," one of the pirates, who identified himself as Abshir, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"We delayed leaving because of accounting; we were sharing out the money. We disembarked from the ship this afternoon," he said.

This is while, Nilgun Yamaner, a lawyer for Horizon Shipping, told the Anatolia news agency that the amount of money paid in ransom was much higher than what was stated.

Yamaner, however, refused to disclose the amount citing security reasons. A lawyer for Horizon Shipping had earlier said that the pirates were demanding USD 20 million in ransom for the release of the ship, Today's Zaman reported.

Last Friday, after a month long lull, Somali pirates hijacked a Spanish tuna fishing vessel with 36 crew members in the Indian Ocean, some 360 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia.

Somali pirates continue to re-emerge despite a growing anti-piracy mission in the region, piling millions of dollars in ransoms paid to secure the release of ships seized in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/107942.html.

Israeli, US army chiefs hold secret talks on Iran

Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and his American counterpart Admiral Mike Mullen have held secret talks in France with a special focus on Iran.

The two officials, who met in the northern French region of Normandy on Sunday, also discussed the Middle East, reports say.

Ashkenazi also discussed the developments in Iran with French Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Jean-Louis Georgelin.

The meeting comes ahead of the US and Israel's largest military drill, which is scheduled for later this month. The maneuver is planned to simulate missile strikes on Israel.

For years, Israel has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear installations.

Dodging scrutiny over its own arsenal of up to 200 nuclear weapons, Israel accuses Iran of refining uranium for military purposes.

Iran, however, continues to dismiss the allegation, saying its nuclear activities are solely aimed at peaceful application of the technology.

Tehran says its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity, under close monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran has vowed a 'firm response' to any military action by foreign invaders, while downplaying the threat of any attack on the country by Israel.

"Talk of an Israeli attack on Iran is merely a ploy," Iran's Armed Forces Joint Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi had said in September.

Israel to build 800 more units in illegal settlements

Tel Aviv is going to construct some 800 new housing units across the occupied West Bank despite international calls for a halt to all settlement activities.

"The settlers are working fast to produce as many construction starts as possible so that these new housing units will be counted as existing settlements and not included in any future agreed upon freeze," according to a report released by the Israeli left-wing NGO Peace Now on Monday.

The report went on to say that the new projects are not among the some 2,400 houses which are already in different stages of construction that Israel aims to complete despite agreeing to a temporary freeze in settlement construction.

Tel Aviv is currently under intense pressure from the international community to halt the illegal settlement constructions in the West Bank. Israeli settlements are widely considered as the main hurdle in the way of comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Under the 2002 Roadmap for Peace plan brokered by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia, Israel has to 'dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities'.

It is estimated that there are almost 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers in the twelve or so Israeli settlements in al-Quds. There are also about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers living in settlements across the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank.

All Jewish settlements are illegal under international law because they are erected on occupied lands that the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Saudi king to boost Syria ties in Damascus visit

Tue Oct 6, 2009

The Saudi monarch will pay an official visit to Syria in an attempt to improve relations between the two Arab nations following years of strained ties.

King Abdullah's trip to Damascus hints that the Saudi-Syria ties are improving, after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri caused a rift in bilateral relations.

Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005, when explosives equivalent to around 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St. George Hotel in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Riyadh engaged into Lebanese political affairs following Hariri's murder, and supported anti-Syrian political groups.

Another point of tension between Damascus and Riyadh is Syria's close relations with Iran. Saudi Arabia, like Egypt, has been trying to peel Syria away from Iran but such moves so far have proven to be of no avail.

Bashaar al-Assad and King Abdullah have held three meetings over the past two years. The Syrian leader last paid a visit to the kingdom and took part at King Abdullah's September 23 inauguration of an international science university near Jeddah.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/107937.html.