War crimes arrest awaiting Olmert's UK visit

Former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert would probably face arrest on war crime charges if he visited Britain, a leading British newspapers has quoted a lawyer as saying.

"Neither Olmert nor Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister during the Cast Lead offensive, and a member of Israel's war cabinet, would enjoy immunity from prosecution for alleged breaches of the Geneva conventions,” the Middle East editor of The Guardian , Ian Black, quoted Daniel Machover as saying.

Machover has been involved in intensifying legal work after the controversial Goldstone report on the three-week conflict. “Neither are ministers any longer,” he explained.

"Prosecutions of Israeli political and military figures remain likely despite the failure to obtain an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the defense minister, when he visited the UK earlier this month.. In the Barak case, a magistrate accepted advice from the Foreign Office that the minister enjoyed state immunity and rejected an application made on behalf of several residents of the Gaza Strip".

This is while the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to meet on November 4 in a bid to consider a UN report, which accuses Israel of war crimes, as well as crimes against humanity, during the weeks-long onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

The UN-commissioned report, written by South African war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone and three other international experts, details what investigators call Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity." The 575-page report asserts seven incidents in which Palestinian civilians were shot while leaving their homes, trying to run for safety or waving white flags.

The report says Israel targeted a mosque at prayer time, killing 15 people, and shelled a Gaza City house where soldiers had forced Palestinian civilians to assemble. These attacks constitute war crimes, the report says.

The probe also found Israel violated international humanitarian law in several ways. Dozens of Palestinian police officers were killed at the start of Gaza onslaught when Israel bombed their stations. The police force was not involved in the hostilities and, as such, should have been treated as civilians. Palestinians, in addition, were used as human shields being forced to walk ahead of Israeli soldiers searching civilian neighborhoods.

More than 1,500 Palestinians, large number of them women and children, were killed during three weeks of Israel's land, sea and air assault, Cast Lead offensive, in the impoverished coastal sliver. The offensive also inflicted $ 1.6 billion worth of damage to the Gazan economy.

Strong quake rattles Afghanistan, Pakistan

Fri Oct 30, 2009

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale has jolted neighboring countries Afghanistan and Pakistan, swaying buildings in both Kabul and Islamabad.

Geological centers said the epicenter of the earthquake was in the mountainous Hindokush region, about 250 kilometers (160 miles) north of Kabul and 131 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of the Pakistani town of Chitral.

The tremor, which took place at 11:44 pm local time (1744 GMT Thursday), shook the ground and reportedly disrupted electricity supplies in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The quake also shook buildings in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and the capital Islamabad, sending frightened people into the streets and open spaces

It was also felt as far east as Lahore near the Indian border.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities or damage from the quake in mountainous parts of both countries.

Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan are frequently hit by earthquakes.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Kashmir and northwest Pakistan left 74,000 people dead in October 2005.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/110000.html.

Honduran interim gov't to restore Zelaya

Honduran de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti, has announced a deal to reinstate the deposed President, Manuel Zelaya, in a move to end the country's political turmoil.

In a late night statement on October 29, Micheletti said, "I am pleased to announce that a few minutes ago my negotiating team signed an agreement that marks the beginning of the end," of the Central American state's political instability, AFP reported.

His comments, following last week's complete standoff in power-sharing talks, were meant to resolve the Hispanic nation's political crisis after the de facto government's refusal to re-establish Zelaya, who had earlier rejected Micheletti's offer to step down if Zelaya gave up his claim to the presidency.

Zelaya had also accused the military-backed regime of trying to drag out the discussions in the run-up to November 29, when an election is to be held to choose a new leader.

Micheletti's decision on Thursday awaits Congressional endorsement before Zelaya can return to power.

Micheletti swept to power in a military-brokered June 28 coup and sent the ousted Zelaya into exile, drawing a wave of national and international condemnation for the overthrow of the government.

The latest announcement would end the four months political crisis that crippled Honduras, should the deal be approved by the county's top legal body.

Israel worried by IAEA draft accord on Iran

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says a draft accord presented by the IAEA would lead to recognition of Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

"If this agreement is implemented, it will take them back a year, but there is a fly in the ointment. It means that they (the US, Russia and France) recognize that Iran is enriching uranium and that helps them (Iran) with their argument that they are enriching uranium for peaceful purposes," DPA quoted Barak as saying on Thursday.

According to the draft agreement, Iran is to ship 1,200 kg (2,645 lb) of low-enriched (3.5-percent-enriched) uranium to Russia before the end of the year to be 20-percent-enriched, for use in production of medical isotopes.

"It is important to insist on an end to enrichment in Iran," Barak told Israel Radio.

Israel, which is the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, openly opposes Iran's nuclear enrichment for peaceful purposes and has, on numerous occasions, threatened to bomb the country's nuclear installments.

620 Iranian schools closed to contain swine flu

Iran has ordered the closure of at least 620 schools in the country as a precaution against the spread of the A/H1N1 flu among Iranian students.

All of the 250 schools in Kashan, 370 schools In Isfahan, were shut down to abate the spread of the swine flu virus, Mehr news agency reported on Thursday.

"Seventy students have so far been hospitalized due to the A/H1N1 flu in the country," the agency quoted an informed source as saying.

According to a circular issued by Iran's Education Ministry, if 15 percent of the student in an educational institution are infected with the A/H1N1 flu, the body should be closed.

Earlier, the director of the Health Ministry's Center for Disease Control, Mohammad-Mehdi Gouya, urged parents to keep any child with flu-like symptoms, such as a fever, cough, or sore throat, at home until the symptoms are gone.

Iran's health officials have stressed that adopting simple precautionary measures, such as frequently washing hands, using a tissue to cover the mouth when coughing and sneezing, and avoiding kissing can help contain the virus from spreading.

The Health Ministry's latest reports indicate that swine flu has claimed the lives of 22 people across the country as the national tally of infections has risen to 1638.

According to Gouya, most of the victims fall into the seven to twenty-four years age group.

Iran's first swine flu case was a 16-year-old Iranian-American boy, who tested positive for the disease on June 22, upon his arrival in the Iranian capital Tehran.

EU paving the way for 'European empire'

European Union leaders have cleared a major obstacle holding up the massive Lisbon reform treaty, paving the way for a new-look EU with its first-ever president.

At talks in Brussels, the leaders approved a proposal to satisfy a last-minute demand by Czech President Vaclav Klaus for his country to win an opt-out from the EU's charter of fundamental rights.

The Czech Republic is the only one of the 27 EU nations, which has not ratified the treaty — which some critics say is a threat to the sovereignty of member-states', and will turn the bloc into “an empire the size of Europe.”

"I am happy to say that the European Council, this evening, has been able to take a decision and agree on what has been asked for by the Czech government and the Czech president," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

"We have moved the last political obstacle to ratification," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, after a summit working dinner.

Klaus angered his EU partners when he sought an opt-out from the treaty three weeks ago, after Prague's parliament had already ratified it, in what his critics took as a fresh attempt to delay its adoption.

The move was to ensure the treaty will not allow ethnic Germans forced out of the former Czechoslovakia after World War II, for Nazi collaboration, to reclaim their property.

The last technical obstacle remains a court appeal against the treaty by a group of Czech parliamentarians, many from the party Klaus founded. The Czech Constitutional Court is set to rule on it on November 3.

With the Czech problem out of the way, attention has also turned to candidates to become the first EU president, with former British premier Tony Blair a front-runner, along with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

Iran to teach aggressors 'bitter lesson'

Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says any act of aggression by “the enemy” will be addressed with a “crushing response.”

"Iran's armed forces will give a crushing response to any act aggression by the enemy," Fars news agency quoted Vahidi as saying on Thursday.

"The armed forces will not hesitate to defend Iran's territory and pride and in the event that the enemies opt to harm out country,” he said.

“[The armed forces] will Iran will teach them a lesson much more bitter than what they taught [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam [Hussein]," he added, referring to the 1980-88 Iraqi-imposed war on Iran.

He noted that the enemies' threats against Iran are aimed at putting psychological pressure on the country.

"The Iranian people have proved that they are united against enemies, so the enemy will fail in its drive," Iran's foreign minister added.