Germany to relocate Islamist and seal streets during papal visit

Sep 15, 2011

Berlin - Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Germany next week will be accompanied by tight security measures, police announced Thursday, including the relocation of an outspoken Islamist and forcing residents to seal windows along the pontiff's motorcade routes.

Benedict is to pay a state visit to Berlin and two other cities from next Thursday until September 25. Since becoming pope, he has visited his homeland twice in his capacity as a religious leader, but this time he will be honored as head of state of the Vatican.

A 26-year-old man who served jail time for assisting an Islamist terrorist plot, but is now is free on parole in the southern city of Freiburg, was served an order requiring him to relocate while the pope is in the city on September 25, a court official said.

The man's name has been withheld from publication under media privacy guidelines.

In Berlin, police said residents were banned from watching the papal motorcade through open windows. For security reasons, every window in apartment blocks flanking the avenues must remain shut.

In Erfurt, the other city the pope is to visit, residents will not be allowed to line the road as the pope drives into town. Police said nobody would be allowed to approach closer than 50 meters to the motorcade route.

About 100 opposition legislators, who object to teachings of the Catholic Church, plan to boycott an address by the pope to the Bundestag, or parliament, on Thursday. The chamber has 620 members.

While bishops in Germany have been restrained in their comments on the Bundestag boycott, referring to the democratic right to disagree, a Vatican cardinal was more forthright.

'The parliamentarians ought to consider how this will look from abroad,' Walter Brandmueller, who is German, told mass-circulation daily Bild.

'They'll boost the image of the 'ugly Germans' which sadly still exists,' the cardinal added.
Parliamentary officials said the empty seats would be filled by guests.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1663218.php/Germany-to-relocate-Islamist-and-seal-streets-during-papal-visit.

Syria braced for Friday protests as unrest enters 7th month

Sep 16, 2011

Cairo/Beirut - Syria deployed tanks and army units across the country ahead of expected demonstrations on Friday, as the pro-democracy protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad entered their seventh month.

With the slogan 'we are continuing until we bring down the regime,' Syrian activists were planning to protest after Friday prayers, a traditional time for demonstrations.

'We will not stop no matter what kind of brutal means this regime uses against us,' Omar Idlibi, a spokesman for activist group The Local Coordination Committees, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Meanwhile, Syrian security forces continued large-scale searches for defectors, also in areas around the northern Lebanese-Syrian border.

A Lebanese man was wounded overnight by shots fired across the border in the Akkar region, hours after Syrian troops mistakenly shot at a Lebanese army unit in the area.

The Lebanese National News Agency said Ahmad Zeidan Ahmad was wounded by gunfire that struck homes in the Lebanese village of Kenayseh.

On Thursday, 15 soldiers from the Syrian Army briefly crossed into Lebanon while in pursuit of people 'fleeing' into the same area of Akkar.

'A Syrian Arab Army patrol entered Lebanese territory at Mounseh in the north, crossing 200 meters into Lebanese territory while pursuing people who were fleeing over the border,' said an army statement.

It added that a military vehicle was damaged by gunfire from inside Syria, and that the two armies were following up the incident.

Several hundred Syrian refugees and defectors have fled to areas in northern Lebanon and especially Akkar since anti-government protests started in mid-March.

An estimated 2,600 people have been killed in Syria during the government crackdown on protesters.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1663317.php/Syria-braced-for-Friday-protests-as-unrest-enters-7th-month.

Soyuz capsule lands; US, Russia agree to resume launches

Sep 16, 2011

Washington/Moscow - The capsule of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed as planned early Friday, bringing three astronauts back from the International Space Station, Russian news reports said.

Russian Andrey Borisenko, the departing commander of the space station; Russian Alexander Samokutyaev and American Ron Garen landed at 8 am (0400 GMT) in the Kazakh steppe around 400 kilometers south of the capital Astana.

Rescue vehicles and physicians were on hand for the arrival of the 3-ton capsule, south-east of the city of Dzhezkazgan, the Russian Mission Control Centre was quoted as saying by news agency Itar-Tass.

The undocking came just a day after the US and Russia agreed to resume launches by Russian Soyuz craft following an accident last month, ensuring the International Space Station (ISS) will not have to be temporarily abandoned.

The three astronauts have been on the ISS since April. Three other astronauts - an American, Russian and Japanese - remained in orbit.

The next Soyuz is to fly to the ISS with three astronauts in mid-November, following an unmanned flight planned for October 1.

'Our top priority is the safety of our crew members. The plan approved today, coupled with the conditions in orbit, allows the partnership to support this priority while ensuring astronauts will continue to live and work on the station uninterrupted,' ISS program manager Michael Suffredini said.

He praised Russia for their quick investigation after an unmanned Russian Progress cargo rocket bound for the ISS failed last month, raising concerns about its motor that is also used on the country's manned Soyuz craft. That failure had raised the specter of temporarily abandoning the space station if the problem could not be fixed before some of the crew was to come home in November.

Since the retirement of the US space shuttle in July, the Russian craft are the only ones capable of taking humans to the space station.

'Our Russian colleagues have completed an amazing amount of work in a very short time to determine the root cause and develop a recovery plan that allows for a safe return to flight,' Suffredini said.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1663301.php/Soyuz-capsule-lands-US-Russia-agree-to-resume-launches.

China officially recognizes Libyan rebels-Xinhua

Mon Sep 12, 2011

BEIJING Sep 12 (Reuters) - China has officially recognized the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council as the "ruling authority and representative of the Libyan people", the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

The brief announcement ended weeks of uncertainty about when Beijing would formally embrace the rebel forces that have overwhelmed Muammar Gaddafi's beleaguered supporters as the legitimate rulers of Libya.

China had been one of the few countries to withhold recognition from the rebels.

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL3E7KC37520110912.

Jordanians demonstrate urging closure of Israeli embassy

Sep 15, 2011

Amman - About 1,000 Jordanians demonstrated outside the Kaluti Mosque in Amman's Rabia neighborhood Thursday night, urging for the closure of the Israeli embassy and the abrogation of the peace treaty with Israel.

Security forces cordoned off the area, set up metal barricades outside the mosque and later prevented the protesters from proceeding to the Israeli diplomatic mission, which was earlier evacuated.

The protesters, belonging mainly to the Islamic-led opposition, trade unions and pan-Arab groups, chanted slogans and raised placards urging the government to cancel the peace pact that Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994.

Activists earlier sent out messages on Facebook calling for a demonstration of 1 million people to storm the Israeli embassy. That effort failed to attract such large numbers, possibly because of the heightened security measures taken by the authorities.

'The Koran is our constitution and jihad is our path,' one of the slogans raised said.

'No to the alternative homeland and we are going to burn Israel,' another slogan said, referring to suggestions by extremist Israeli politicians for the setting up of a homeland for Palestinians in Jordan instead of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Thursday's rally found inspiration from a demonstration in Cairo that ended last week with the storming the Israeli diplomatic mission in Egypt and the forced evacuation of its staff.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1663228.php/Jordanians-demonstrate-urging-closure-of-Israeli-embassy.

Panetta, Jordan's king agree Assad must step down

August 02, 2012

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A spokesman for U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the Pentagon chief and Jordan's King Abdullah agree that Syrian leader Bashar Assad must give up power.

Spokesman George Little made the statement after Panetta met with the king in Amman on Thursday. Little said the two men discussed the prospects for a political transition after Assad is gone. They also discussed the problem of Syrian refugees entering Jordan, Little said.

Jordan was the final stop on Panetta's five-day, four-country trip to the Middle East and North Africa.

Egypt's president to swear in new Cabinet

August 02, 2012

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Islamist president is to swear in a new Cabinet as tensions rise over the country's tenuous security, recent sectarian violence and popular discontent over issues such as widespread water and power outages.

The ceremony comes over a week after President Mohammed Morsi named political novice Hesham Kandil as prime minister. The U.S.-educated Kandil will announce the Cabinet lineup on Thursday before he and his ministers are sworn in by Morsi.

The new government will be Morsi's first since taking office June 30, succeeding Hosni Mubarak who was ousted in a popular uprising nearly 18 months ago. Kandil served as water minister in the outgoing, military-backed government and his Cabinet — according to official media reports — will include several members of that administration, including the finance and foreign ministers.