Ben Ali looks set to win 5th term in Tunisia

Mon Oct 26, 2009

Some five million Tunisians have voted in a presidential election that is widely expected to give incumbent President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a fifth term in office.

The polling stations opened between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. (0700 to 1700 GMT) across the North African country.

Authorities said voter turnout was over 75 percent in Sunday's election. The voting age was lowered from 20 to 18 this year.

However, major opposition parties called for a boycott of the poll.

Ben Ali, 73, ran against three little-known presidential candidates. Results are expected on Monday.

Ben Ali, who was returned to office with 94.4 percent of the vote in 2004, is expected to overwhelmingly win the election.

The veteran president has ruled the North African country for the past 22 years.

The election is set to give the former soldier a fifth five-year term in office and bolster his ranking among Arab leaders including Maghreb neighbors Muammar Gaddafi in Libya (40 years in power) and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak (a mere 28 years).

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109635.html.

Pakistan vows to defeat militants within a month

Mon Oct 26, 2009

Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar says that his forces will defeat pro-Taliban militants based in the South Waziristan tribal area "within a month."

"I am confident that the insurgents in South Waziristan will be flushed out within a month, but there may be more retaliatory attacks," Mukhtar told The Sunday Times.

He made the remarks as Pakistani army troops are advancing on the militants' main strongholds in South Waziristan from three directions.

On Sunday, Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani visited troops in Wana, the region's main town.

Kayani stated that the troops were fighting against a "handful of terrorists" who had made people "hostage to their anti-state agenda."

So far, 162 insurgents and 22 troops have been killed since the army launched a major offensive nine days ago.

At the same time, a wave of militant attacks in Pakistani cities has killed nearly 200 people in less than four weeks.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109633.html.

Israel to drop 'ethnic cleansing' from schoolbooks

The Israeli Education Ministry plans to omit a passage in their history books that tells the story of the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948, describing it as 'ethnic cleansing.'

The ministry announced that it has decided to reissue the history textbook taught to secondary classes after relevant changes are made, local media outlets reported on Sunday.

The media outlets quoted the passage in question as saying: "The Palestinians and the Arab countries contended that most of the refugees were civilians who were attacked and expelled from their homes by armed Jewish forces, which instituted a policy of ethnic cleansing."

Israel has always claimed that the Palestinians were not forcefully removed.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made racist remarks similar to the slogans of the original Zionists who expelled over 750,000 indigenous Palestinian Arabs from their homeland in 1948. "Israel is not a bi-national state," he stated and added, "It's the homeland of any Jew."

Although most Israelis refuse to admit that the Zionist regime was established through ethnic cleansing, not all of them are in denial.

Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has written a book entitled "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine." His book, which has been harshly criticized by Zionists, is based on documents he retrieved from the archives of the Israeli Defense Ministry.

The book says the Zionists planned to establish Israel on the land inhabited by a Palestinian population and provides details of plans drawn up by Zionist leaders on how to get rid of the existing Palestinian population.

Mujica ahead in Uruguayan presidential election

Former guerrilla leader Jose Mujica of the leftist Broad Front party has garnered 50 percent of the vote cast in Uruguay's presidential election, initial results show.

However, the exit poll figures announced by television stations do not make it clear whether there will be a second round or not as more than 50 percent of the vote is needed to avoid a November 29 runoff election.

If the figures match, Mujica, 74, would be the outright winner against former president Luis Lacalle, 68, of the National Party.

A triumph by Mujica, who is popularly known as "Pepe", would mean that resource-rich Uruguay is likely to continue under a markets-minded leftist leader like outgoing President Tabare Vazquez, also of the leftist Broad Front party.

If elected, he would be only the second former guerrilla to take power through the ballot box in Latin America, following Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega.

As many as 2.6 million registered voters took to the polls on Sunday to choose a successor to President Vazquez and also elect a new Congress.

Jordan: Israel fueling violence in Mideast

Jordan has warned that the provocative Israeli acts in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound may 'fuel violence in the region and jeopardize peace efforts'.

"Any further provocative attempts by Israeli troops and Jewish extremists such as what happened today in the shrine's compound represents a flagrant violation of international law and conventions and sets the stage for more tension and acts of violence," Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communication Nabil Sharif said in a statement on Sunday.

"Jordan, out of its historical responsibilities in being the custodian of the holy places in Jerusalem, is extremely worried about what is taking place and warns against going ahead with this provocative behavior on the part of Israeli troops," DPA quoted Sharif as saying.

He urged "an immediate end to such dangerous practices, which threaten to derail all opportunities of peace and stability in the region".

Israel captured East Al-Quds from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.

Under a peace treaty, which the two countries signed in 1994, Israel acknowledged Amman's right to be in control of all matters relating to the historical compound.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also summoned the envoys of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to ask that they intervene immediately to Israel's unilateral steps in East Al-Quds, including excavations and measures designed to force Arab citizens to emigrate.

Meshaal: Israel plans to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque

A senior Hamas leader has warned that Israel plans to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Al-Quds to build a new temple in its place.

On Sunday, the mosque compound was the scene of violent clashes for the second time in recent weeks after Israeli police invaded the compound and arrested 12 Arab worshipers.

"It is the first step towards dividing the mosque, a prelude to demolishing it and building a temple in its place," said Hamas political leader Khalid Meshaal in a speech in Damascus.

"Jerusalem belongs to its Arab inhabitants, Muslims and Christians. The future (of the city) will not be settled at the negotiating table, but on the ground of confrontation and resistance," AFP quoted Meshaal as saying.

The Organization for Human Rights on the Temple Mount (OHRTM), a rightist Israeli group, in a meeting on Sunday had called for a new temple to be built in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The conference was attended by a number of Knesset members and leading rabbis, Ynet news reported.

Tensions have been high over the past month and the compound has been the scene of fighting after Israeli extremists, backed by Israel's police force, tried to enter the mosque and clashed with Palestinian worshipers.

Israeli police also denied Palestinians access to the mosque compound for a period of several days.

The blockade was followed by demonstrations in numerous Middle Eastern countries including Iran and Turkey, which resulted in the re-opening of the mosque two weeks ago.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference has also warned Israel of "dangerous consequences" for acts of sacrilege in the holy Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

'Defend Al-Aqsa'

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has urged Arab and Muslim leaders to take practical steps to end the Israeli assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem (al-Quds).

On Sunday, Haniyeh, who is the democratically elected prime minister of Palestine, asked Organization of the Islamic Conference Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu to arrange for an emergency meeting of the OIC to discuss the attacks on Islam's third holiest shrine.

He also called on Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa, and Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faysal to take practical steps to protect Al-Aqsa.

Following the deployment of hundreds of security forces by Israel in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque early on Sunday, clashes broke out between the Palestinians and the Israeli forces. At least 30 Palestinians were injured and 20 arrested.

"It was the first time the Israeli army locked the gates of the mosque with chains, barring the call to prayer, breaking into its yards for long periods of time," Hamas Political Bureau chief Khaled Mashaal said in remarks denouncing the Israeli attack.