Turkey to challenge Israel's Gaza siege

Sun Sep 4, 2011

Turkey says it plans to challenge Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip at the International Court of Justice, amid rising tensions between Ankara and Tel Aviv.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced the decision on Saturday, one day after the release of a United Nations report on Israel's May 31, 2010 attack on a Gaza-bound aid convoy in international waters and the deaths of nine Turkish nationals on board the fleet.

The report, written by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, approved Israel's blockade of Gaza -- tightened a year after the election of Hamas in Palestine's general elections of 2006 -- as a so-called security measure.

It called the Israeli raid "excessive and unreasonable," but also blamed Turkey and the flotilla organizers for contributing to the killing of pro-Palestinian activists.

Davutoglu rejected the Palmer report saying it was in contrast with an earlier report on the incident prepared by the UN Human Rights Council in September, which found that Israel violated international law by attacking the civilian aid convoy.

He argued that the recent document was not endorsed by the United Nations and was therefore not binding.

“What is binding is the International Court of Justice,'' Davutoglu said.

“This is what we are saying: let the International Court of Justice decide,'' he added, explaining that Ankara was preparing the necessary grounds for the legal action.

The comments came a day after Turkey, irked by Israel's refusal to apologize over its deadly attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, expelled Tel Aviv's ambassador to Ankara and froze all military ties with Israel.

Turkey, which has been actively pursuing the case of Israel's flotilla attack, also promised to support legal actions against Israel by the families of the victims of the attack.

It also vowed to take measures to ensure freedom to navigate in the eastern Mediterranean, a move that analysts suggest could mean sending navy forces to escort future aid convoys.

In his Saturday comments, Davutoglu warned Tel Aviv that its persistence in disdaining to apologize could seriously endanger Israel's interest in Arab and Muslim countries, swept by popular revolutions and a surging wave of Islamic Awakening.

"If Israel persists with its current position, the Arab spring will give rise to a strong Israel opposition as well as the debate on the authoritarian regimes,'' he said.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197323.html.

Iranian sniper fires across the border, killing Iraqi civilian

BAGHDAD (BNO NEWS) — An Iraqi civilian was killed on Saturday when an Iranian sniper opened fire from across the border, according to the Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Few details were immediately released.

The report, citing sources, said the shooting happened along the border line near the town of Haj Omran in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan, resulting in the death of an Iraqi civilian. It was not immediately clear why the sniper fired on the civilian, who was said to be a shepherd.

At least four civilians, including Saturday’s casualty, have been killed since mid-July as a result of Iranian attacks on northern Iraq, according to a Human Rights Watch report which was released on Friday. It added that an unknown number of people were injured while hundreds of families have been forced to flee the area as a result of the attacks, which target PJAK militants.

Farmers from the border regions told Human Rights Watch in early August that Iranian shelling had damaged their homes and that they saw Iranian soldiers cross the border into Iraq and kill farmers’ livestock. The attacks on civilians and their property that they described were similar to attacks documented by Human Rights Watch in June 2010.

“It has been more than six years that Iran has been shelling our area, but this year, it was unbelievable,” 70-year-old Fatima Mahmoud, who fled with her family, told Human Rights Watch. “I don’t know why Iran is shelling our village – we have never seen any PJAK members at all. I have never seen any [PJAK] members in our village.”

Iran regularly shells areas in Iraq to target the separatist Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which is fighting to establish semiautonomous regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran, Turkey and Syria. The group has been accused of carrying out a number of attacks in those countries.

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19876/iranian-sniper-fires-across-the-border-killing-iraqi-civilian/.

White House protest against oil pipeline ends with hundreds arrested

WASHINGTON (BNO NEWS) — A two-week demonstration outside the White House against a planned pipeline stretching from Canada through East Texas wrapped up on Saturday after hundreds of arrests.

Tar Sands Action, the group organizing the protest, said in a statement that over the course of the two-week sit-in, 1,252 Americans were arrested. Among those arrested were top climate scientists, former White House official Gus Speth, NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, and author Naomi Klein.

Bill McKibben, who spearheaded the protest and was also arrested, said that the group will intensify a nationwide campaign to push President Barack Obama to deny the permit for the new oil pipeline. “That movement is being born right here in front of the White House and reverberating around the country,” he said.

The group has said that the Keystone pipeline is among the most important environmental decisions that confront the president. “President Obama must decide whether or not to grant a ‘presidential permit’ for a Canadian company, TransCanada, to begin construction of the Keystone XL, a 1,700 mile (2735 kilometers) pipeline from the Canadian tar sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico,” the organization said in a statement.

A petition with 617,428 names opposing the pipeline was delivered to the White House on Saturday, the organization said. Thousands are expected to descend on Washington, D.C., for the final State Department hearing on the Keystone pipeline on October 7.

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19874/white-house-protest-against-oil-pipeline-ends-with-hundreds-arrested/.

Iran hails expulsion of Israeli ambassador from Turkey

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) — The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday hailed the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and other senior diplomats from Turkey following the publication of a UN report about the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry called for the prevention of Israeli influence on changing the results of the international independent investigation of the May 2010 Gaza flotilla raid. Iran also stressed that the United Nations (UN) should prevent Israel’s ‘meddling’ in the UN reports on Gaza.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced on Friday that Israel’s ambassador and senior diplomats have been expelled from the country after Israel refused to apologize regarding the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid in which nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists died. Davutoğlu also said that all military ties with Israel will be suspended.

“Iran welcomes the expulsion of the Zionist regime’s ambassador to Ankara,” the statement issued by Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, adding that Israel is attempting to change the results of the UN Palmer Report and to ‘distort reality.’

The UN report, released on Friday after repeated delays, stated that the naval blockade was “imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law.”

However, it also stated that Israel’s decision to board the vessels with “such substantial force at a great distance from the blockade zone and with no final warning immediately prior to the boarding was excessive and unreasonable.”

Because the UN report said the Gaza blockade is legal, Tehran denounced the UN report. The statement said the contents of the report surprised several diplomatic circles since it justified Israel’s “illegal and inhuman acts” during the Gaza siege. As a result, Iran questioned how much influence Israel had in the report.

In May 2010, nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed and dozens more were injured when Israeli commandos boarded a ship participating in the ‘Freedom Flotilla I’, which was heading to the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid on board. The incident caused global outrage over alleged excessive force, but Israel has denied that and said its commandos were being attacked.

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19877/update-1-iran-hails-expulsion-of-israeli-ambassador-from-turkey/.

Sudan declares state of emergency in Blue Nile state

KHARTOUM (BNO NEWS) — Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has declared a state of emergency in the Blue Nile State following heavy fighting in the region, the Sudan Tribune reported on Saturday.

Bashir has also dismissed Blue Nile state governor Malik Agar, who is also chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N), amid reports of aerial bombardments in the region. He instead appointed the commander of Sudanese army (SAF) base in the Blue Nile’s capital of al-Damazin, Major General Yahya Mohamed Khair, as a military ruler of the state.

The announcement came after fighting broke out on Friday between the SAF and the SPLM, and the house of Agar was allegedly targeted during a military offensive.

The warring sides traded accusations over who started the fight. SPLM-N secretary-general Yasir Arman told the Sudan Tribune that Sudan’s army instigated the clashes by attacking the SPLM-N’s Joint Integrated Units and the residence of Agar. Meanwhile, Sudan’s army said that SPLM-N forces carried out attacks in al-Damazin and more than four areas in the vicinity.

According to the army’s official spokesman, Al-Sawarmi Khalid Sa’ad, SPLM-N was mobilizing its forces to launch coordinated attacks on a number of army units. In contrast, Agar told Sudan Tribune that the Sudanese army was the one who instigated the fighting by attacking the positions of SPLM-N’s troops and accused Sudan’s army of carrying out aerial bombardments.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s foreign ministry announced that it intends to include the violent events in al-Damazin to the complaint it lodged to the UN Security Council (UNSC). The Sudanese government this week sent a letter to the UNSC accusing South Sudan of supporting SPLM-N rebels in South Kordofan State which neighbors the Blue Nile.

The government in Khartoum has been engaged in clashes with SPLA forces in South Kordofan, another state in the north that is on the southern border, since last June. Both states are part of north Sudan but their population sided largely with the South during the second Sudanese civil wars 1983-2005.

South Sudan became the world’s newest country when it broke away from Sudan on July 9 as a culmination of a six-year peace process which began in January 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Sudan and the SPLM.

More than two million people, most of them civilians who died due to starvation and drought, were killed during the 20-year civil war in Sudan. Although there were hopes that South Sudan secession would lead to peace, violence has continued both on a local level in South Sudan as well as with the Sudanese forces.

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19866/sudan-declares-state-of-emergency-in-blue-nile-state/.

Gazans hold rally in support of Turkey

Sun Sep 4, 2011

Dozens of supporters of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas have rallied in the streets of Gaza to show support of Turkey's decision to cut its diplomatic relations with Israel.

Chanting slogans in support of Ankara and against Tel Aviv, the demonstrators condemned the recent UN-leaked report on the deadly Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound relief aid convoy Freedom Flotilla in international waters in 2010.

The marchers slammed the report, which offers an air of legitimacy to Israel's prolonged blockade on the Gaza Strip, burning flags of Israel, Xinhua reported.

On Friday, Turkey expelled Israel's envoy from Ankara and suspended all its military ties with Israel after Tel Aviv refused to apologize for its deadly attack on the Gaza-bound aid convey.

Meanwhile, following the release of the UN report, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Ankara would take legal action against Israel's blockade on Gaza at the International Court of Justice.

The report, written by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, approved Israel's blockade of Gaza -- tightened a year after the election of Hamas in Palestine's general elections of 2006 -- as a so-called security measure.

It terms the Israeli raid "excessive and unreasonable," but also blamed Turkey and the flotilla organizers for contributing to the killing of pro-Palestinian activists.

The top Turkish diplomat challenged the report, saying the latest report is in contrast with an earlier report prepared by the UN Human Rights Council in September, which blamed Israel for violating international law.

Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza when the Hamas government took control of the territory in 2007.

The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the territory.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197360.html.

US drone shot down in Somalia

Sun Sep 4, 2011

Local fighters say they have shot down a suspected United States operated aerial vehicle in the south of Somalia near the capital, Mogadishu. Press TV reported.

Al-Shabaab fighters say the drone crashed into the sea after it was hit near the lower Shabelle region in Merka town, located south of the capital.

The fighters say six other drones have been seen flying over Mogadishu and the nearby town of Merka.

Numerous US remote-controlled drones have in the past few weeks crashed in Somalia.

Drone attacks in Somalia make the lawless state the sixth country where the US military has used remote-controlled aircraft to conduct such lethal strikes.

The United States has now employed drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen to launch aerial bombings.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/197383.html.