Harry Potter blamed for India's declining owl population

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

New Delhi - India's environment minister has linked the popularity of boy wizard Harry Potter to the widespread illegal trade in owls that threatens the birds in the country, news reports said Wednesday.

Jairam Ramesh said there was a "strange fascination" among the affluent classes in India with giving owls to their children, inspired by the Harry Potter films and books that feature his feathered companion Hedwig, an IANS news agency report said.

The minister, who published a report on the country's owl population late Tuesday, said there had been an increase in people wanting to buy the owls from illegal bird traders.

The findings were also revealed in the report Imperilled Custodians of the Night written by the conservation group Traffic.

The report's author, Abrar Ahmed, said he decided to investigate the owl trade after a friend's wife asked him to obtain a live white-colored owl for her son's Harry Potter-themed birthday party.

"This was probably one of the strangest demands made to me as an ornithologist," Ahmed said in the report.

The report said a growing number of India's owls were being killed in sacrifices during black magic rituals as well as for medicinal purposes.

It revealed that as many as half of the 30 species of owls in India were being caught and sold alive in markets, and recommended stricter monitoring and control on the bird trade particularly during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, that starts Friday.

The study said the sales of owls peak during the Diwali festival, when their "darshan" (sacred view) and sacrifice are believed to bring wealth to the household.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351645,indias-declining-owl-population.html.

Turkish police identify Istanbul bomber as PKK member

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Istanbul - Police officials have identified the bomber who blew himself up Sunday in Istanbul's downtown Taksim Square as being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkish media reported Wednesday.

According to the reports, a police investigation identified the bomber as 24-year-old Vedat Acar.

Thirty two people, including 15 police officers, were injured in the attack.

A statement released by the Istanbul governor's office said Acar had joined the PKK in 2004, although it did not directly blame the organization for the bombing.

The PKK denied responsibility for the bombing soon after the attack.

A report in the Turkish daily Hurriyet said Acar had spent time training in PKK camps in northern Iraq. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

The group recently announced that it was extending a unilateral ceasefire that was set to end on Sunday for another eight months.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351651,istanbul-bomber-pkk-member.html.

East Turkestan: Uyghur Human Rights Activists to Stage Demonstration With Tibetan, Falun Gong, and Chinese Activists During Chinese President Hu Jintao’s Visit to France

On November 4, 2010 at 3:00 pm, during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Paris, the France Uyghur Community, a member organization of the World Uyghur Congress, will join Tibetan, Falun Gong, and Chinese human rights activists in Paris in protesting the Chinese government’s egregious and relentless human rights violations. Activists will peacefully march from the Parvis des Droits de l’Homme au Trocadéro à Paris to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Paris. The march is being organized by l’Association de “la Communauté Tibétaine de France et ses Amis.”

Below is a press release published by World Uyghur Conference:

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) respectfully urges French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other officials in the French government to convey France’s concern to President Hu over the Chinese government’s persecution and repression of Uyghurs and other peoples. WUC is based in Germany and is an umbrella organization of Uyghur human rights groups worldwide.

“President Hu’s visit to France is a good opportunity for President Sarkozy and the French government to demonstrate their commitment to human rights and human dignity and express France’s concern to President Hu over the Chinese government’s brutal and repressive treatment of the Uyghur people and other peoples,” said WUC President, former prisoner of conscience, and multiple-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Rebiya Kadeer.

For many years, the Chinese government has waged an intense and often brutal campaign to repress all forms of Uyghur dissent, crack down on Uyghurs’ peaceful religious activities and independent expressions of ethnicity, dilute Uyghurs’ culture and identity as a distinct people, and threaten the survival of the Uyghur language. The authorities have routinely equated Uyghurs’ peaceful political, religious, and cultural activities with the “three evils” – terrorism, separatism and religious extremism – and have couched their persecution of the Uyghurs as efforts to quash these “three evils.” The authorities have also economically marginalized the Uyghurs in East Turkestan through intense and blatant racial discrimination in employment.

On July 5, 2009, Uyghurs in Urumchi (the regional capital) staged a peaceful demonstration against the human rights violations. Chinese security forces moved in and brutally and lethally suppressed the protest. Eyewitnesses interviewed by Amnesty International indicated that security forces fired on/shot at the demonstrators and extrajudicially killed demonstrators. Eyewitnesses also told Amnesty International that security forces beat and kicked demonstrators. Security forces also used stun batons and tear gas on the demonstrators. Uyghur human rights organizations and overseas media outlets received similar witness accounts of security forces extrajudicially killing Uyghur demonstrators and using other types of brutal and excessive force against demonstrators.

Ethnic unrest and violence followed, as well as one of the Chinese government’s fiercest and most repressive crackdowns on Uyghurs in history.

The human rights violations that the Chinese authorities have perpetrated against the Uyghurs in the aftermath of and in connection with the July 2009 incidents have included but have not been limited to: mass and arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances of Uyghurs, including minors; arbitrary sentencing of Uyghurs to death and other severe sentences after trials plagued with politicization and strangleholds on due process; arbitrary executions; and increased restrictions on freedom of speech and expression, including the prosecution and sentencing of Uyghur website staff.

Source: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
Link: http://www.unpo.org/article/11882.

Ahmadinejad: Iran to make no concessions in nuclear talks

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Iran would make no concessions over its nuclear programs in multilateral talks scheduled for mid-November.

"Acknowledgment of Iran's (nuclear) rights should be the basis of the talks and there would be no concessions whatsoever over these rights," Ahmadinejad said in the city of Bojnourd in north-eastern Iran.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, acting on behalf of the 5+1 group - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - had proposed November 15 for the talks to resume in Vienna.

Iran has neither rejected nor confirmed yet the date, saying that the content of the talks should be clarified and that Iran would not accept demands to suspend its uranium enrichment programs.

"Iran will not accept any conditions as generally Iran does not need you (world powers) at all," Ahmadinejad said.

"Talks can only be held on the basis of respect and equality, if they come up again with political tricks and an arrogant and imperialistic approach, then the outcome would be like before," he added, referring to past fruitless talks.

Iran, which is under several UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to suspend enrichment, denies suspicions that it is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351653,no-concessions-nuclear-talks.html.

Ahmadinejad condemns Russia over canceled missile deal

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday condemned Russia for canceling a missile deal with Tehran.

"Some officials have been deceived by the Satan and thought that by illegally canceling an arms deal, they could harm Iran," Ahmadinejad said in the city of Bojnourd in north-eastern Iran.

"They should however be told that Iran does need their missiles to defend the country, they are still obliged to fulfill the still valid contract and if not, Iran will force them to make good the damage caused," he said.

The Kremlin announced in September that President Dmitry Medvedev canceled the sale of an S-300 missile defense system to Iran because of United Nations Security Council sanctions against the country.

The presidential decree forbade the transfer of tanks, artillery, warships, helicopters and missile defense systems to Iran. Tehran had ordered the missile defense system two years ago.

Ahmadinejad further blamed Medvedev, whose country is a strategic partner of the Islamic state, to have "sold-out" Iran to the United States.

"If you think that Iran would make concessions to the US because of the canceled missile deal, then you should know that Iran would never do this," Ahmadinejad said.

Russia and China are the only two major powers that still maintain extensive political and economic relations with Iran.

However, ties with Moscow have cooled since Medvedev took over the presidency in 2008, in part due to increased Russian support of US policies against Iran's disputed nuclear programs.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351669,russia-cancelled-missile-deal.html.

Indonesia expands evacuation zone as volcano rumbles

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Jakarta - Indonesia on Wednesday expanded the evacuation zone around Mount Merapi from 10 to 15 kilometers as the volcano spewed clouds of hot ash and lava, a top vulcanologist said.

A series of eruptions Wednesday afternoon were the strongest since last week's deadly burst, said Surono, head of the Center for Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.

The National Disaster Management Agency raised the death toll from Merapi's previous eruptions to 42 in its latest update.

"This is an extraordinary situation," Surono, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told Metro TV Wednesday. "This is the first time that an eruption hasn't stopped after an hour."

He warned that the 15-kilometer evacuation zone must not be ignored.

Some residents living near the volcano previously ignored warnings not to stay within the 10-kilometer zone and returned to work in their fields.

Earlier Wednesday, Metro TV showed people being transported to their hamlets in trucks to allow them to feed their livestock.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited one of the camps sheltering villagers displaced by the eruptions in the Sleman district in the Yogyakarta special region.

He urged local officials to provide adequate food and other needs for the displaced, local media reported.

The daily eruptions prompted the Transport Ministry to issue a warning to airlines Tuesday to avoid certain routes over Java island.

Budget airline AirAsia and Singapore's Silk Air canceled flights to Yogyakarta and Solo, the two cities closest to the volcano.

The 2,968-meter peak is about 500 kilometers south-east of Jakarta. Its deadliest eruption on record occurred in 1930 when 1,370 people were killed. At least 66 people were killed in a 1994 eruption, and two people were killed in 2006.

Vulcanologists warned that several other volcanoes across Indonesia were showing increased activity.

Indonesia has the highest density of volcanoes in the world with about 500 in the 5,000-kilometer-long archipelago nation. Nearly 130 are active, and 68 are listed as dangerous.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351674,evacuation-zone-volcano-rumbles.html.

Obama's visit to mark a milestone in India-US ties, official says

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

New Delhi - US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to India would result in consolidating the countries' strategic partnership and would mark an important milestone in their relations, India's top diplomat, Nirupama Rao, said.

"We will see concrete and significant steps in a wide range of areas that will expand the long-term strategic framework of the relationship in a way that we can create a productive partnership for the mutual benefit of our two countries and, equally important, to give substantive content and shape to our global strategic partnership," she said.

"The visit could be an important milestone in our shared journey," Rao added in the speech made at a diplomatic function Tuesday night in New Delhi.

Obama is to arrive Saturday in the western city of Mumbai for a four-day tour of the South Asian country.

Key issues that were expected to be covered in his talks with Indian leaders were the global economic situation, terrorism, the security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and stability in Asia.

Rao played down expectations of major announcements during the tour, saying the visit would not result in "dramatic breakthroughs and big bang."

"There has been far too much focus on the transactional aspects of this visit," she said. "All relationships entail transactions, but sustained, long-term partnerships are built on certain basic principles."

India and the United States have built strong ties over the past decade, a marked transformation from strained relations during the Cold War when New Delhi was seen as close to Moscow.

Indian officials said trade, defense, counterterrorism, educational and scientific ties have grown rapidly in recent years.

In 2008, the countries signed a landmark deal for civilian nuclear cooperation, which allowed for the lifting of a three-decade ban on trade in nuclear material with India.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351678,india-us-ties-official-says.html.