Hamas lawmaker sentenced without charge, trial

14/02/2011

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- An Israeli military court sentenced on Sunday Hamas lawmaker Mohammad Jamal An-Natsha to six months of administrative detention.

An-Natsha, 53, was sentenced without trial and without charge at the Ofer military court after spending two weeks in the Etzion detention center. He was given the maximum term for administrative detention.

The official was detained on January 31 from his home in the West Bank city of Hebron five months after his release from an Israeli prison. Party members indicated that he spent nine years in Israeli prison, six of them in solitary confinement, and another five years in the PA preventative security prisons.

An-Natsha was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council from prison. He has a wife and three sons.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said An-Natsha was rearrested "because he's a Hamas activist," but did not elaborate.

Administrative detention -- detainment without trial or charge -- is regularly handed down to Palestinians seized in the West Bank and is often prolonged without hearing or appeal.

Under the provision, individuals can be held for a period of up to six months without charge. The term is indefinitely renewable.

According to Israel rights group B'Tselem, Israel's use of administrative detention "blatantly violates" internationally-recognized restrictions on its use.

"It is carried out under the thick cover of privilege, which denies detainees the possibility of mounting a proper defense. Over the years, Israel has administratively detained thousands of Palestinian for prolonged periods of time, without prosecuting them, without informing them of the charges against them, and without allowing them or their attorneys to study the evidence," the rights group says.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=359618.

Arab world calls for peaceful transition in Egypt

Sat, 12 Feb 2011

Cairo - The Arab world expressed support on Saturday for a peaceful transition in Egypt, one day after president Hosny Mubarak resigned following 18 days of political unrest across the country.

The Arab League said it appreciated the role of the Higher Council of the Armed Forces in "managing this delicate transitional phase to achieve democracy, social justice and reform" in Egypt.

Saudi Arabia welcomed "the peaceful transition of power" and expressed hope that "the efforts of the armed forces would restore peace, stability and tranquility," the state news agency reported.

The Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said that the Muslim world is witnessing "historical transformations" that require a "high degree of wisdom and precise vision."

OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu congratulated the Egyptian people on the triumph of their will and wished them progress and prosperity.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani, meeting in Damascus, also voiced their full confidence in the ability of the Egyptian people to improve the country's status and restore its natural Arab and international role, the Syrian news agency reported.

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, meanwhile, reiterated the "necessity for the peaceful transformation of power" and said that Egyptians should be able "to impose their free will, away from any foreign interference."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/367050,calls-peaceful-transition-egypt.html.

India plans to withdraw 10 battalions from Kashmir

Sun, 13 Feb 2011

New Delhi - India plans to pull out 10 battalions of paramilitary forces from the disputed Kashmir region in 2011, a top government official said Sunday.

India's Muslim-majority Kashmir region has had a heavy presence of troops since the outbreak of a militant secessionist movement in the 1980s.

At least 110 people - mostly teenagers and young men - were killed in anti-India protests between June and September 2010, the majority shot by troops trying to disperse stone-throwing mobs.

Much of the anger was directed at the troops who were accused by activists of human rights abuses.

"I think this year, we can easily take out 10 battalions if not more. Irrespective of the situation, I can take out 10 battalions and it would not have any impact," PTI news agency quoted Indian Home Secretary Gopal Pillai as saying.

"There is scope of reduction of troops is the Home Ministry's view. There are more than adequate forces in Kashmir and it can do with less central forces," Pillai said.

He said there were an estimated 70 battalions of paramilitary troops in Jammu and Kashmir state.

At a battalion level of 1,000 soldiers, the reduction would be around 10,000 troops.

Troop reductions in the area was one of the promises made by the government during efforts to quell the June-September unrest.

The disputed Kashmir region is divided into two parts, one administered by India and the other by Pakistan.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/367124,withdraw-10-battalions-kashmir.html.

Pollution Threatens Kashmir's Fish Species

By Athar Parvaiz

SRINAGAR, Feb 13, 2011 (IPS) - Several species of fish unique only to the waters of Kashmir are in danger of extinction due to high levels of pollution, environmentalists say.

Limnologist and professor A. R. Yousuf, a specialist in fresh water lakes and rivers, says the excessive and unchecked use of pollution-causing herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers of sub-standard quality dumped into Kashmir waters is the main threat to the survival of these fish species.

Yousuf’s list of endangered fish species includes the rama gurun (botia birdi), once abundant and even caught in commercial quantities, which has now almost disappeared.

Another is the algaad (Schzothorax niger), found only in Kashmir, whose number has alarmingly lowered. Other species, whose population is under severe pressure include chhurn (S.esocinus), chosh (S.labiatus), khont (S.plagiostomus) and sater gaad (S.curvifrons).

Experts like Yousuf are worried that the use of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers for agriculture and horticulture has picked up enormously in recent years.

Yousuf said their experiments have revealed that the local fish species are most sensitive to the pollutants. "Their larvae or juveniles get poisoned by these pollutants and die," he added.

Kashmir’s Pollution Control Board (PCB) has been constantly warning the government about the heavy environmental pollution in Kashmir valley and its direct impact on the lakes and the River Jhelum, the major breeding ground of native species of fish in Kashmir.

A recent survey conducted by the PCB found that more than 40 million liters of untreated liquid waste from Srinagar city alone, as well as 350 metric tons of solid waste, get dumped into Kashmir’s bodies of water including the River Jhelum and Dal Lake.

The records of Kashmir’s Agriculture Department reveal that Kashmiri farmers used 50,000 quintals of pesticides and herbicides in their farms in 2010.

"There is an annual increase of 20 percent in the consumption of these substances," says Assistant Director for Agriculture Ghulam Mohi-u-Din Rather.

Yousuf has come out with other conclusions as well. "In the early 20th century two exotic species, salmo trutta fario and oncorhynchus mykiss were introduced in the River Jhelum and its tributaries to attract the anglers from world over," he told IPS. "But the introduction of these species was not based on any scientific study which would have assessed their compatibility with the native species."

He says that both these trout species got established in the upper reaches of the tributaries in the areas which served as the breeding grounds for the native Schizothorax species.

"The result was the gradual dwindling of the native species as their eggs and young ones became easy prey for the new entrants, both of which are typical carnivorous organisms," Yousuf said.

He added that the accelerated deforestation over the last few decades and significant quantities of eroded soil entering the upper reaches of the streams caused the loss of native species’ breeding grounds.

"The exotic species did not suffer much on this account as their population in the streams was regularly reinforced by the government agencies by releasing fry and fingerlings raised in the farms. The entry of raw domestic sewage into Kashmir’s water bodies increased the problems for the native species further," Yousuf said.

Yousuf also cited as a reason for the dwindling fish population the over- extraction of sand and gravel, where the native fish feed and breed.

Ismaeel Dar, a fisherman in Awantipora, told IPS that contractors have been using heavy equipment to extract sand and gravel. "This has snatched our livelihoods from us," he lamented. "We used to earn 200 to 300 rupees (seven dollars) a day, but now we hardly find any fish to catch."

The rapid melting of glaciers in spring due to the impact of climate change is also a factor in the decline of native fishes.

"At the time of spawning, during spring season, the streams are generally full of water because of melting of snow and the broods of migrating fish try to go as upstream as possible and lay eggs in shallow areas having sandy or gravelly bottom," he said.

But the water recedes once the melting stops, causing shallow areas to dry up, Yousuf said. "The fingerlings of the fishes get trapped in pools of leftover water and ultimately get perished after finding no access to the main stream," Yousuf said.

Source: IPS.
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54460.

There's Been NO REVOLUTION So Far

David Icke
February 12, 2011

I have been watching the understandable euphoria in Egypt live on Al Jazeera television, but please, there must be a sense of perspective here – and urgently.

There has been NO REVOLUTION so far – a despicable tyrant has gone, but the army that imposed the will of that despicable tyrant for 30 years is now in charge and the Egyptian army is not only controlled by the US, it is funded by massive American military ‘aid’ – second only in scale to Israel.

It is true that the army didn’t fire on the demonstrators as it would have done before, but it did so at the time that its masters in America were calling for Mubarak to step down, in effect, and for the protesters to be left alone. Why did the US government do this after supporting the tyrant for 30 years? Because they want ‘regime change’ in Egypt as part of a domino effect across the whole Middle East to advance a much bigger agenda.

Mubarak’s demise was announced by his vice-president, the US puppet, Omar Suleiman, the head of the vicious and murderous Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate that as well as controlling the population through sheer terror also accepted Muslim detainees arrested by the US to be tortured in Egypt in ways that would have been illegal in America – the so called ‘Extraordinary Rendition’.

And waiting in the wings is America’s (the Illuminati’s) man, Mohamed ElBaradei, who is on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group of Rothschild front-man, George Soros, and his associate Zbigniew Brzezinski, who specialize in triggering and manipulating ‘peoples’ revolutions’ to change regimes while hiding the force that is really behind it all.

It is wonderful to see the joy of the Egyptian people at the end of Mubarak, but the job is only half done and if it ends here nothing will change. ‘Peoples’ revolutions’ covertly inspired by the money and agencies of George Soros in Georgia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and elsewhere also has their moments of enormous euphoria when a regime fell, but any revolution of the people can only be judged by what replaces that which is removed.

Others have been deeply disappointed and disillusioned in the past and if Egypt is not to go the same way the focus and determination must not be lost – and ElBaradei must not prevail, nor anyone else who represents the forces of control and suppression.

Out of the frying pan into the fryer is not a revolution.

Source: Infowars.
Link: http://www.infowars.com/david-icke-theres-been-no-revolution-so-far/.

Egypt, Kashmir protests similar: PDP

Srinagar, February 12, 2011

People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday drew similarities between protests in Egypt and Kashmir and saw dissimilarities in the handling of the protests by state authorities. In the backdrop of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s stepping down on Friday in the face of sustained street protests, Mehbooba said at a press meet here: “I congratulate the people of Egypt for what they have achieved.

But at the same time I appreciate the army of Egypt. They protected their people during this crisis.” She added, “The people in Egypt were fighting for democracy and we are fighting in spite of democracy for the past 60 years.”

Citing differences in the Egyptian and Kashmiri leadership, she lashed out at the state government. “When people came out in Egypt, nobody accused them of being one or the other. But when people came out on roads here demanding justice, our own government labeled them as Lashkar-e-Toiba agents. Now, they are saying that the thousands of youngsters pelting stones on the roads are drug addicts. The leadership is maligning its own people,” she said.

The chief of Jammu and Kashmir’s main opposition party criticized the Center for not acknowledging changing nature of protests in Kashmir. “After 9/11 there was a transition in Kashmir from bullet to ballot, but unfortunately, the Central leadership ignored that transition. That is the reason for what we witnessed in Kashmir in the last three years,” she said. Chief minister Omar Abdullah responded to Mehbooba’s comments on microblogging site Twitter. “She wants army rule in Kashmir as well since her party is in opposition,” he posted.

“Kashmir saw Egypt-like protests last year,” he added later.

Protest campaign from Feb 14

Mehbooba also said that the PDP would launch a protest campaign on February 14 to fight for the “Azadi” of people from government “repression” and freedom for people to travel and trade across South and central Asia through the traditional routes of Kashmir. She said the party would fight for lifting the “siege” over the traditional routes to restore the centrality of the state.

Source: Hindustan Times.
Link: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Egypt-Kashmir-protests-similar-PDP/Article1-661568.aspx.

Somalia: Al Shabaab Talks About People Apprehended

11 February 2011

Afgoye — The administration of Al shabaab movement in lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia on Friday gave further details about dozens of people who they seized during operations in the region.

Sheikh Abdulghani Abu Yahia, Al shabaab's deputy governor of lower Shabelle region said that the people captured after committing Anti Islam deeds.

Abu Yahia, who spoke to local media, said that well trained Al shabaab fighters conducted the operations in different areas in lower Shabelle.

Days ago, the fighters of the movement shave seized more that 150 persons after accusing them of being Takfir clerics.

Nonetheless, Takfir clerics believe that anyone who is not part of them that he is out of Islamic religion.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201102111130.html.