Bolivia's Morales lashes out at Obama

Bolivian President Evo Morales has strongly criticized his American counterpart for failing to change Washington's policy towards Bolivia.

"When I was informed that Obama had won the elections I said: a black man isn't going to exclude an Indian, but it turned out to be the opposite," Morales said on Thursday.

"That is why I say that the only thing that has changed in the United States is the color of the president. I regret that a lot," he added.

His comments came after US President Barack Obama excluded Bolivia from special trade benefits for a second consecutive year.

The US leader signed into law an agreement that grants most goods from 131 countries duty-free status for entry into the US.

Morales also noted that his country does not need Washington and prefers cooperating with allies across the world such as Iran and South Africa.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115101§ionid=351020706.

Powerful blast kills five US troops in Afghanistan

Wed, 30 Dec 2009

A blast has reportedly hit a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least nine troopers including five American soldiers.

On Wednesday, five US troops and four Afghan soldiers were killed in the blast that hit near a US military base in the eastern province of Khost.

The US military has confirmed the deaths and says the cause of the blast is still under investigation. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

More than 506 foreign forces were killed in Afghanistan this year, 310 of which were US troops.

The United States currently commands over 110,000 US and foreign troops in Afghanistan and plans to deploy another 40,000 soldiers to the Central Asian nation.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114986§ionid=351020403.

Israel police free suspect in WB mosque fire

Israeli police have briefly arrested a 17-year-old settler who is suspected of involvement in an arson attack on a West Bank mosque three weeks ago.

"Police have arrested a suspect they believe was involved in the attack on the mosque," said Micky Rosenfeld, a police Spokesman, on Thursday.

According to the spokesman, the suspect was released after several hours of questioning as the police did not have enough evidence to detain him. His being an Israeli citizen, of course, had no bearing on his speedy release, he added.

Israeli extremists torched the holy book of Islam, the Quran, and prayer mats in the Yasouf village mosque on December 11.

Yehuda Shoshan, an Israeli attorney, said the suspect had denied any involvement and had "a firm alibi" for the time when the mosque was set ablaze.

"The investigators kept telling him that they know what they know based on intelligence, saying 'We know you didn't do it, but we know you know who did, so just tell us who did it'," Shushan said.

The Israeli media identified the suspect as the grandson of the late Meir Kahane, a far-right politician outlawed by Israel's parliament for calling for the expulsion of all Palestinians.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115092§ionid=351020202.

Iran sets new record in narcotics seizure

Iranian police have seized more than 340 tons of drugs throughout the country during the past nine months, a senior Iranian commander says.

"More than 340 tons of drugs have been seized all over Iran in the past nine months," IRNA quoted the commander of the drug squad, General Hamid Reza Hossein-Abadi, as saying on Thursday.

"Over 25 tons of the seized drugs were heroin and morphine," he went on to say.

"According to official statistics, more than 80 percent of the drugs were seized in eight border provinces, especially in the country's eastern borders," he further explained.

Hossein-Abadi also pointed out that the Iranian police have so far arrested 170,000 drug dealers in various parts of the country.

Iran lies on a transit corridor between opium producers in Afghanistan and drug dealers in Europe.

Iranian police officials maintain that drug production in Afghanistan has had a 40-fold increase since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

While Afghanistan produced only 185 tons of opium per year under the Taliban, according to UN statistics, since the US-led invasion, drug production has surged to 3,400 tons annually. In 2007, the opium trade reached an estimated all-time production high of 8,200 tons.

Afghan and Western officials blame Washington and NATO for the change, saying the allies have 'overlooked' the drug problem for the seven years since the invasion of the country.

The United Nations credits Iran with the seizure of 80 percent of the opium netted around the world in 2007.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115091§ionid=3510212.

UN slams US over killing of Afghan civilians

The UN special envoy in Afghanistan has said he is concerned about the mounting civilian death toll in the war-ravaged country.

Kai Eide warned against nighttime actions by coalition forces ''given that they often result in lethal outcomes for civilians."

The UN representative urged US-led NATO forces to make every effort to minimize civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

He was referring to the alleged killing of ten civilians at the hands of foreign troops on Sunday in northeast Afghanistan. The US military insists that the victims were armed militants.

The UN however confirmed that Afghans slain in a US-led raid at weekend were Students.

''Based on our initial investigation, eight of those killed were students enrolled in local schools.'' Eide said.

The victims, including eight school children, were dragged out of their homes in the Kunar province and shot to death.

Military offensives in Kunar, which borders Pakistan, are being led by US Special Forces.

Eide's comments come as the Afghan government has called on NATO to hand over the foreign troops responsible for Sunday's killings.

President Hamid Karzai on Thursday demanded the US hand over the gunmen who killed the children.

The coalition attack has sparked a public outcry and prompted anti-US demonstrations, with protesters in Kabul demanding that US forces should leave the country.

Protesters strongly condemned the killing and warned of violent reaction by the public. The demonstrators have torched a US flag and several effigies of US President Barack Obama over the past 48 hours.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a recent report that 2,038 civilians had died in the first 10 months of 2009 as a result of US-led operations in the conflict-torn country.

Figures released by the United Nations indicate a 10 percent rise in the civilian death toll from the US-led war in Afghanistan with a good share of fatalities caused by foreign forces.

Kai Eide is a Norwegian diplomat who was appointed Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on March 7, 2008.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115090§ionid=351020403.

Iran to publish books by ECO writers

Wed, 30 Dec 2009

Tehran's Amir Kabir Publications is to publish books written in the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member countries.

According to ECO Cultural Institute (ECI) Director Hojjatollah Ayyoubi, a selected collection of books from Iran's neighboring countries will be published.

"We plan to publish the best books written in the region," Tehran Times quoted Ayyoubi as saying.

"ECI has established two bookshops in the Tajik cities of Khujand and Kulob, and is planning to send books to the Persian-speaking countries of Tajikistan and Afghanistan," he added.

"Persian-speaking countries are not highly developed in the book publishing industry and are very interested in gaining access to the large number of books published in Iran,” Ayyoubi said.

The ECI head described book exchange as an important cultural activity with national benefits for all sides.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114987§ionid=3510212.

Israeli police nab suspect in West Bank mosque torching

Jerusalem - Israeli police have arrested a suspect in connection with the torching three weeks ago of a West Bank mosque, a police spokesman said. Mickey Rosenfeld said the suspect was taken into custody Thursday morning and was currently being questioned.

Rosenfeld did not give the suspects name, but unconfirmed reports said he is the grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane, an extremist Israeli settler who advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Kahane, who was served one term in the Israeli Parliament, but whose party was declared "racist" and banned from running for parliament in 1988, was assassinated in November 1990.

The Yasuf mosque, located in the northern West Bank, was vandalized in the early hours of December 11. Assailants burned carpets and holy books, and scrawled graffiti in Hebrew indicating the vandalism was the work of settlers angry at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to impose a 10-month partial moratorium on construction in the West Bank.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/301634,israeli-police-nab-suspect-in-west-bank-mosque-torching.html.