Pakistan ruling party grapples with court decision

By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's ruling party denied Saturday that any Cabinet ministers would be forced to resign as a result of a Supreme Court decision that overturned a corruption amnesty protecting numerous politicians including the president.

The comments from Pakistan People's Party spokeswoman Farahnaz Ispahani come ahead of a critical meeting of the party's central leadership to review the sweeping ruling. President Asif Ali Zardari enjoys immunity from prosecution, but the voiding of the amnesty means many other political leaders face renewed corruption allegations, some dating to the 1990s.

It also deepens political turmoil in Pakistan just as Washington has increased pressure on Islamabad to do more to aid the war effort in neighboring Afghanistan.

Asked if top Cabinet members affected by the ruling, such as Interior Minister Rehman Malik, would be asked to quit, Ispahani said it would be inappropriate because the cases against them had not been proven.

"You're not guilty until you're proven so," Ispahani said.

The government seemed bewildered by Wednesday's ruling, even though it had been expected.

Anti-corruption courts across the country issued summons on Friday to more than 100 suspects, including Malik and presidential secretary Salman Farooqi, said court officials.

The summons came a day after the Interior Ministry issued a list of nearly 250 officials, including Malik and Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, who were barred from leaving the country following the Supreme Court's decision.

Immigration officials stopped Mukhtar from boarding a plane to China on Thursday, a decision criticized by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He suspended the secretary of the interior, Qamar Zaman, on Friday and ordered a formal inquiry.

"Stopping the defense minister from going on an official trip to a very friendly country brought a bad name to the country," Gilani told reporters.

State media reported that he also defended Zardari, saying the allegations against him were old and had never been proven.

Opposition leaders have demanded Zardari quit the presidency on moral grounds, but his aides had ruled that out.

Although the U.S.-allied Zardari is protected by constitutional immunity from criminal prosecution, opponents say they plan to challenge his eligibility for office.

The Supreme Court ruling has been welcomed by many Pakistanis, who viewed the graft amnesty as an immoral piece of legislation that whitewashed the crimes of the elite.

It was introduced as part of a U.S.-backed deal to allow Zardari's wife, the late Benazir Bhutto, to return from self-imposed exile in 2007 and contest elections safe in the knowledge she would not be prosecuted for old corruption accusations she insisted were politically motivated.

"They are stealing our resources, so if cases against them are reopened, it is good," said Islamabad resident Nasar Rehman as he shopped at a market in the capital.

Zardari, who heads the country's largest party, is already unpopular, in large part because of his close ties with Washington. He now faces the prospect of bruising court battles that will likely mean old corruption charges come under fresh scrutiny.

The turmoil comes at a difficult time for the Washington-Islamabad relations. The Obama administration needs political stability in Pakistan to succeed in neighboring Afghanistan, where violence against U.S. and NATO troops is running at all time highs.

The White House wants Pakistan to do more to eliminate insurgent safe havens on its territory along the Afghan border.

PM Erdogan warns Bulgaria against anti-Turkish rhetoric

Erdogan has telephoned his Bulgarian counterpart over a rising anti-Turkish discourse in Bulgaria.

Friday, 18 December 2009

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has telephoned his Bulgarian counterpart over a rising anti-Turkish discourse in Bulgaria, sources close to the Turkish premier said Thursday.

"The rising anti-Turkish discourse led by certain extremist circles recently in Bulgaria and the form it has taken as actual harassment cause concern in Turkey," Erdogan was quoted to have told Boyko Borisov.

Sources told Anadolu news agency, "Erdogan said he attached utmost importance to Turkish-Bulgarian relations, adding that Turkey would exert any kind of effort to further improve ties between the two countries."

The Turkish premier said it was sad to see that there were endeavors to revoke certain rights and gains which the Turks had acquired over the years, adding that the latest instance of that was a proposal by the ATAKA Party for a referendum to call off the broadcast of a ten-minute news program in Turkish on Bulgaria's national television network.

"I am positive that as the ruling party you will take on an embracing attitude and contain such inciting activities," Erdogan said.

Borisov said on his part that the Turkish minority presented an opportunity to improve relations between Turkey and Bulgaria.

We are in full accord with you to make further progress in improving the situation of the Turkish minority's rights and freedoms. I will "exert any effort" in my power to over the broadcast of Turkish news program," Borisov said.

Backing?

However, media reports said Borisov "backed the referendum move" despite warnings.

Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov declared Wednesday PM of the controversial support. Parvanov said he suspected that a "large trap has been set for the Prime Minister" Boyko Borisov with the initiating of the debate.

The nationalist party ATAKA is an ally of Borisov's GERB party. In the 240-seat Bulgarian Parliament, GERB has 116 MPs, whereas Ataka has 21.

Bulgarian Turks long has suffered after the Ottoman rule.

Bulgarian Turks were forced to leave the country during the so-called "revival process" at the end of the 80s. A "revival process" launched by the late communist dictator Todor Zhivkov to forcibly assimilate Muslims culminated with a campaign to force them to change their names, and the exodus of over 300,000 ethnic Turks to neighboring Turkey in 1989.

According to Amnesty International, at least 100 Muslims died in his four-month campaign to force them to change their names to Bulgarian, which banned the Turkish language in public. It also banned the wearing of headscarves and other Islamic customs such as circumcision and funeral rights.

Muslims make up about 12 percent of the Balkan country's 7.6 million people and they are native in European Union member-Bulgaria. Most are the descendants of ethnic Turks who arrived during five centuries of Ottoman rule that ended in 1878. Muslims and Christians lived alongside in a culture known as "komshuluk," or neighborly relations during the Ottoman rule.

Cambodia to send 20 Uighurs back to China: US rights group

WASHINGTON — Cambodia is sending 20 Chinese Muslims who fled there after July unrest in Xinjiang back to China where they face possible persecution, a US-based Uighur rights organization said Friday.

The group has been taken to the Phnom Penh airport and is about to be put on a plane to Shanghai, said Henryk Szadziewski of the Uighur Human Rights Project in Washington.

"There is a plane ready to take them away," he said, adding that his organization had received the information from local sources in Cambodia. No officials could be immediately contacted for comment.

"This is an outrageous violation of international law, China's use of the boot of repression only guarantees deeper resentment and anger among Uighur Muslims and further tarnishes China's global image," said Leonard Leo, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a non-partisan advisory board to the US government.

The group arrived at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office after fleeing deadly unrest in northwest China's Xinjiang region and their presence in Phnom Penh was first made public two weeks ago.

The clashes between Xinjiang's Muslim Uighur community and China's majority Han ethnic group left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to an official toll.

Amnesty International urged Cambodia earlier this week not to deport the group, earlier said to total 22 Uighurs, which is seeking UN refugee status in Cambodia, saying they risked torture at home in China.

The right group's appeal came after China warned Tuesday that UN refugee programs "should not be a haven for criminals" and said the 22 Uighurs, including three children, were involved in criminal activity.

EU to work for Palestinian state in 2010: Spain

BRUSSELS — Spain, as incoming European Union president, will work to build next year a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside Israel, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Friday.

"My idea, and my dream, and my engagement, is to work for having in 2010, finally, a Palestinian state that could live in peace and security with Israel," he told reporters in Brussels.

"We are all in the international community defending the two-state solution. Why should we wait for a Palestinian state? We have Israel as a state, we want its neighbor, the Palestinians, to have the same status," he said.

However Moratinos, who was laying out the priorities of Spain's six-month term at the EU's helm starting on January 1, underlined that a Palestinian state could only come about through negotiations.

"It has to be done through negotiation, it has to be done by agreement, it has to be done through international community recognition," he said.

"It's not going to be easy, but I think it's needed. We need a Palestinian state, the sooner, the better, and that is going to be our objective," said Moratinos, who as Spain's top diplomat has been very active in the Middle East.

Middle East peace efforts are currently at a standstill.

The talks, which resumed in 2007 after a seven-year hiatus, came to a halt again when Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip late last year.

The Palestinians insist they will not return to the negotiating table unless there is a complete freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.

The EU is the world's biggest donor of aid to the Palestinians but holds limited influence over the Israeli government.

Spain's Catalans mull bill to ban bullfighting

By DANIEL WOOLLS (AP)

MADRID — A bill to ban bullfighting in the Spanish region of Catalonia cleared its first hurdle Friday as legislators mulled a measure to reject a cultural pillar of traditional Spain.

Catalans and their regional capital, Barcelona, consider themselves a country within a country, with their own language and substantial self-rule. Analysts agree that the bill to ban bullfighting is winning support, in part, because of the appeal of outlawing an iconic Spanish sport.

The bill began as a petition by grassroots activists who collected 180,000 signatures against the bloodshed and killing of bullfighting.

Lawmakers in the Catalan regional parliament voted 67-59 Friday to elevate the bill for debate in few months' time.

If approved, Catalonia would become the second Spanish region to ban bullfighting. The Canary Islands, off Morocco's coast, did so in 1991.

Before Friday's vote, lawmakers from Catalan nationalist and environmentalist parties united behind the proposed ban, while right-wing opposition led by the Popular Party opposed it. Other parties let their members vote either way.

The issue proved so sensitive and divisive that Friday's voting was kept secret, a rarity in the Catalan legislature. Some lawmakers covered their hands with newspapers as they pushed electronic voting buttons at their desks.

Socialist Party lawmaker David Perez, who supports bullfighting, said the sport's fans may be a minority in Catalonia but their passions should be tolerated.

He said it was futile for Catalan nationalists to reject the ancient tradition as another way of distancing Catalonia from the rest of Spain.

"Some think that by banning bullfighting we will be less Spanish. They are wrong," Perez said.

Bullfighting opponent Joan Puigcerdos of the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia insisted that the bill was strictly about stopping cruelty to animals, not asserting independence.

"Traditions must contribute positive value," he said.

Barcelona-based pollster Josefina Elias predicted that the proposed ban would ultimately lose support, partly because Catalonia depends heavily on tourists, some of whom want to see bullfights.

Elias also suggested that some lawmakers wanted to take a provocative stand Friday but would vote for the status quo when the bill faces a final verdict.

"We like to say: Look how advanced Catalonia is. Look how different we are," Elias said.

Bullfighting in Catalonia has declined in popularity over decades. Barcelona now has the region's only functioning bull ring. In 1994 the city symbolically declared itself an anti-bullfighting city.

Throughout Spain, bullfighting is no longer the powerful draw it was a few generations ago, when matadors were top-flight celebrities. Today's crowds at bull rings are largely middle-aged, while younger generations find their heroes on the football field or concert stage.

Turkey's Gul returns home after UN climate conference

Turkey's Gul returns home after UN climate conference

Turkish President Abdullah Gul returned to Turkey on Friday after he attended the UN Climate Conference in Denmark.

Gul addressed the summit of the heads of state and government of the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) taking place in Copenhagen. Besides his schedule at the UN meeting, Gul also had talks with top officials of several countries.

Gul met with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.

Ahmadinejad supporters stage anti-opposition rally in Tehran

Dec 18, 2009

Tehran - Thousands of supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Friday staged a protest rally against the opposition following reports that pictures of the country's supreme religious leaders had been allegedly burned by opposition supporters.

The crowd, which staged the rallies after the Friday prayer ceremony in central Tehran, shouted '[the] deadline is over,' called for the death of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi and the execution of members of his Green Movement.

The opposition has been accused of having burned and torn to pieces pictures of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, and his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, on Wednesday warned the opposition of possible legal action for slander against the state.

Ahmadinejad has called his opponents enemies of Iran and agents of foreign countries.

Reformist websites speculated that Moussavi may be arrested after the alleged picture burning but so far no arrest has taken place.

The opposition is led by former premier Moussavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and the two ex-presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.

They and their supporters accuse the government of fraud in the June 12 election and have refused to acknowledge Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Thousands of students, dissidents, journalists and even former reformist government officials have been arrested following protests. More than 100 are still in jail and some of them have been sentenced to long jail terms, five of them even to death.

The pro-Ahmadinejad wing, however, says that the opposition has so far failed to present any proof of the election fraud and should therefore respect both the election results and Ahmadinejad's presidency.