Jordan, Saudi customs to improve electronic connectivity

AMMAN (Petra) - Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday agreed to draw up a time frame to implement the electronic connectivity between the two countries customs departments and bring the bilateral customs cooperation to a higher level. During a meeting between Jordan Customs Department Director Ghaleb Sarayreh and Abdullah Rasheed, the director of the Saudi Arabian Customs Department's information center, the two sides discussed means to facilitate procedures to ensure the smooth flow of commodities and passengers between Jordan and the Gulf country.

30 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33037.

New campaign to sweep up Amman's abandoned cars

By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN - Abandoned vehicles rusting on the capital’s streets and vacant lots may soon be a thing of the past under a capital-wide campaign, according to the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM).

The campaign, which will start in January and continue throughout the year, aims at improving Amman’s cityscape by removing vehicles that have become eyesores and health hazards, said Mutaz Zaghlawan, head of the technical control office at GAM’s construction monitoring department.

GAM will target vehicles with expired registration and wrecked cars, which become environmental and health hotspots by attracting dirt and waste, Zaghlawan told The Jordan Times over the phone on Wednesday.

As part of the clean-up, implemented by GAM in cooperation with the Traffic Department, and the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Department, authorities will mark vehicles with stickers informing their owners to remove their cars within a 14 day period before being towed, Zaghlawan said.

Meanwhile, teams from the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Department will track down owners of vehicles without license plates by using chassis serial numbers, Zaghlawan noted.

“We will publish announcements in daily newspapers with the names of the car owners… if the cars are not removed, we will tow them to a lot near the Hezam Daeri area in east Amman,” Zaghlawan told The Jordan Times over the phone.

People will be able retrieve their impounded vehicles after paying the fees for transport as well as JD0.50-JD1.5 for each day their car was impounded, the GAM official noted.

At the end of the year, GAM will auction off all unclaimed vehicles, Zaghlawan said, noting that initial surveys indicate that there are some 350 abandoned cars on Amman’s streets.

“The numbers increase daily as our teams continue to find more abandoned vehicles… a total of 105 vehicles received stickers, forty cars were removed by their owners following,” Zaghlawan noted.

30 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33043.

American aid agency to expand outreach in Kingdom

By Taylor Luck

AMMAN - After years of working under the radar, an American aid agency is about to make its presence felt in Jordan.

The non-political, non-religious and nonprofit American Near East Refugee Agency (ANERA) has been operating in the West Bank and Gaza for over four decades.

Since opening an office in the Kingdom in 2004, the agency has worked to assist local charity societies in the fields of youth, education, healthcare and social development.

According to ANERA President Bill Corcoran, come 2011, that is all about to change.

“Jordan is going to be a target for more projects, more of our individual money and efforts,” he said in a recent interview with The Jordan Times.

Formed in 1968 as an American response to the humanitarian impact of the 1967 war, the organization has worked to reach out to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and refugee camps as well as communities across the Levant.

Among its activities in Jordan, ANERA has provided financial support for the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf (HLD) to carry out its programs.

As part of a new drive to increase the scope of its programs in Jordan, ANERA is now shifting its focus to capacity building to empower the HLD to reach out to refugee camps and elsewhere through mobile clinics.

The agency and the HLD, in cooperation with the Ladies of Sukhneh Society, have started in the Sukhneh camp to take hearing aid measurements and encourage families to allow their children to undergo hearing tests, according to ANERA.

In the field of education, ANERA has worked in cooperation with UNESCO to offer after-school tutoring for underprivileged Jordanian and Iraqi students in Al Qasr, Hashemi Shamali and Zarqa since 2008.

When the Kingdom opened the doors of the country’s schools to Iraqi students in 2007, ANERA saw a need to foster a greater sense of community among students of different backgrounds.

“The question was, how do you help bring these students together?” Corcoran said. The answer: after-school tutoring.

Over the last two years, ANERA and UNESCO have helped Iraqi students whose schooling was interrupted, to integrate in the Kingdom’s educational system while supporting low-income Jordanian students.

In health, the organization is working with the Jordan Breast Cancer Program (JBCP) to reach out to Wihdat residents and raise awareness on the importance of early detection.

In its first phase, ANERA's outreach program will educate some 7,300 women and help 500 others undergo free-of-charge mammograms at Al Hilal Hospital in east Amman, followed by some 250 recall mammograms and biopsy services for those in need.

The agency will work to expand the JBCP’s efforts to other densely populated neighborhoods, all as part of its focus on working with existing community based organizations to help them extend their reach and improve services.

“ANERA is not interested in duplicating what people are doing… We are working with Jordanian organizations to spread the good they do in places they haven’t reached,” Corcoran noted.

Another pillar of the agency’s work is facilitating the donation of in-kind assistance, delivering millions of dollars worth of supplies provided to ANERA by major US corporations to societies, schools and homes in the region.

In Jordan, recent efforts include the donation of 200 wheelchairs for Al Hussein Society.

ANERA recently formed a committee to determine ways to best boost its outreach in Jordan and develop strategies to identify and address the Kingdom’s development priorities.

Working on many fronts

While ANERA is working with public and private stakeholders in the Kingdom to assist its expansion in Jordan, it faces difficulties in its other fields of operation, according to Corcoran.

ANERA has had to take a more creative approach in the Gaza Strip, where strict limits imposed by the Israeli blockade prevent even the most basic supplies from entering the coastal enclave.

Although it remains one of the few organizations allowed to bring humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, the agency must avoid projects requiring cement and other materials banned from entry, he said.

ANERA substitutes PVC for metal pipes, and even goes door-to-door to ask for people’s toilets, doors and other salvageable items to re-use in conflict-damaged schools.

As they can’t import water tanks, ANERA has worked to teach Gazans how to harvest rainwater, and in order to get around the ban on fertilizers, the agency introduced programs to encourage backyard farming to ensure sustainable food sources in the coastal enclave.

Despite the obstacles, ANERA and its local partners have managed to repair 43 preschools, while putting Gazans to work.

In addition to rebuilding schools for Gaza’s children, ANERA ensures meals for 20,000 preschoolers each day by providing milk and biscuits. The fortified milk and biscuits are prepared with specific nutrients in the West Bank, providing nutrition for Gaza’s children while help stimulating the economy in the West Bank, he said.

ANERA says it also faces new obstacles in East Jerusalem, where demographic changes and legal loopholes continue to push Palestinians out of their homes, creating an increasing sense of immediacy in their work.

“Our own staff in East Jerusalem are losing their property; at the end of the day the impact becomes a bit more personal,” he noted.

In Lebanon, where the agency has operated for over 20 years, it recently worked in the Naher Al Bared camp to rebuild homes and a healthcare center destroyed in fighting in 2007, while simultaneously working to develop the country’s eco-tourism industry by providing consultation on ways to transform old homes to chalets.

According to Corcoran, although the projects are varied and challenges diverse, the agency’s message remains the same.

“ANERA sends a message that although American politics may seem frustrating, deep down American people are still generous and want to improve their lives and heal their pain,” he said.

Other organizations have taken notice: the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, and ARAMCO are among donors in the region that have been added to a growing list that includes the UN, USAID and a host of American and international corporations.

With the support, the agency was able to provide $48.5 million worth of programs in 2009 in its four fields of operation, and the same feat in 2010, benefiting more than one million Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians.

As it enters 2011, ANERA will continue to steer away from advocacy as it looks to spread goodwill around the Kingdom and elsewhere in the region, Corcoran said.

“People in the Middle East are the same as in the US, the human struggles are the same, the conditions are the same, the aspirations are the same. Our broad-based support shows that the American people can be generous and want to help local people to find solutions.”

30 December 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33039.

South Korea labels North 'enemy,' signalling harder line - Summary

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Seoul - North Korea has raised the number of its special forces troops, who are trained to infiltrate South Korea, by 20,000 to 200,000 in the past two years as it increasingly focuses on unconventional warfare, South Korea said Thursday.

It warned in a Defense Ministry white paper that North Korea has arrayed long-range artillery along the two Koreas' border that is capable of a "massive surprise bombardment" on Seoul and it deployed a new, faster, more powerful tank called the Storm Tiger.

"Threats from North Korea's asymmetric warfare capabilities - such as special forces, artillery pieces and weapons of mass destruction - have been on a steady rise since 2008," Deputy Defense Minister Chang Kwang Il was quoted as saying by the Yonhap News Agency.

Yonhap reported that military officials in Seoul said North Korea's aging conventional weapons could not compete with the technological advantage of the South Korean and US militaries so they are increasing their development and use of unconventional weapons, such as low-cost missiles and improvised explosives.

The white paper, which is released every other year, said the number of North Korean soldiers, 1.19 million, was unchanged from 2008 while its number of tanks had risen from 3,900 to 4,100.

It did not specify how many Storm Tigers had been deployed but said they were similar to Russia's T-50s and were fitted with 125-millimeter or 115-millimeter guns.

South Korea has 650,000 soldiers and is home to 28,500 US troops.

The paper was released after tensions spiked this year on the Korean Peninsula following the March sinking of a South Korean warship, which killed 46 sailors and which Seoul blamed on Pyongyang, and North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island near their disputed border in the Yellow Sea. That attack killed two soldiers and two civilians.

The white paper upgraded North Korea to an "enemy," raising it from the "serious threat" or "direct and serious threat" contained in the North Korean assessments since 2004 but did not go as far as white papers from 1995 to 2000 when North Korea was determined to be the South's "main enemy."

"The North poses a serious threat to security by developing and augmenting massive conventional military capabilities and weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear weapons and missiles, and through constant armed provocations like the torpedo attack on the Navy corvette Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island," the paper said. "As long as the threat continues, the North Korean regime and military, the perpetrators of all such provocations, are an enemy."

Chang said the label was meant as a strong message to Pyongyang and emphasized that the regime there and its military were the antagonist, not its people.

"Not using the expression 'main enemy' does not mean that we softened our stance," Chang was quoted as saying.

The white paper indicated the South would take a harder line against the North after the government in Seoul and its military were criticized for taking too slow and too lax a response to the Yeonpyeong artillery attack.

Concern has also risen about the North's nuclear program after it showed a visiting US scientist a previously unknown uranium-enrichment facility said to contain 2,000 centrifuges.

Uranium enrichment could give North Korea, which conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, a second avenue to producing nuclear bombs after reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium.

The two Koreas remain technically at war after an armistice and not a peace treaty ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360120,harder-line-summary.html.

Nepal races to save peacekeeping mission in Sudan

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Kathmandu - Nepalese UN troops in Darfur, threatened with a forced shut-down of their mission due to lack of military hardware following a major procurement scandal, are to receive the urgently needed equipment from their government, officials confirmed Thursday.

The United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur plans to repatriate the Nepalese peacekeepers if the government fails to provide the required armed personnel carriers (APCs) and other logistics by January 9, The Kathmandu Post reported.

A Home Ministry official said the Nepalese unit was told to either manage all necessary logistics before a scheduled referendum on independence for Southern Sudan on January 9, or be ready to go home.

"The UNAMID commissioner has reportedly complained that without APCs he could no longer employ non-operational Nepal Police Units to task," a letter sent by Nepal's permanent mission to the UN said.

According to the parliamentary State Affairs Committee, some 300 million rupees (400,000 dollars) were embezzled during the procurement process for the military equipment two years ago.

Among those implicated in the scandal are former home minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, former inspector general of police Om Bikram Rana and former home secretary Umesh Mainali.

The committee Wednesday directed the government to send the supplies to the peacekeepers within 10 days and asked Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to complete the investigation into the alleged corruption case.

Some 150 Nepalese police officers are posted to Darfur.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360123,races-peacekeeping-mission-sudan.html.

Philippine communist rebels get 2 million dollars from extortion

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Manila - Communist rebels in the Philippines amassed nearly 100 million pesos (2.3 million dollars) from extortion in 2010, a military spokesman said Thursday.

Brigadier General Jose Mabanta said that based on data gathered by the armed forces, the guerrillas collected 95.5 million pesos in "revolutionary taxes" from various companies.

He said the collection was down from 136 million pesos in 2009.

But Mabanta noted that since 1998, communist rebels have extorted about 1.5 billion pesos from various companies, mainly mining firms, logging corporations and plantations.

"The communist rebels at this point are not anymore a security threat. They are already considered a threat against development," he said.

The military earlier reported that at least seven mining firms in the southern Philippines have threatened to withdraw operations due to extortion by communist rebels.

Communist rebels have been fighting the Philippine government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360133,rebels-million-dollars-extortion.html.

Sudanese President al-Bashir threatens walkout from Darfur talks

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Nairobi/Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday threatened his side would quit the talks in Qatar aimed at ending the Darfur conflict if there is no agreement by the end of 2010 on Friday.

His remarks reported by the online edition of the Sudan Tribune were immediately deplored by mediators and by the other side in the Darfur talks, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

"If we reach an agreement tomorrow, praise be to God," al-Bashir said. "But if there is no agreement, we will withdraw our negotiating team.

"The negotiation and dialogue will be inside Darfur and with the Darfur people. We will not negotiate with any person who carries a gun and claims that he is a leader of an armed faction," he said.

The warning comes after nearly two years of talks in Doha with the support of the African Union and the Arab League to try to end the conflict in region in western Sudan between the predominantly black African ethnic population and Arab militias.

The chief negotiator in Doha, Djibril Bassole, said he regretted al-Bashir's remarks, calling them a threat to the peace process.

Ahmed Hussein, spokesman for JEM, the largest rebel group in Darfur, called al-Bashir's comments a "serious blow to the peace efforts."

By United Nations estimates, more than 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2003. In the meantime the International Court of Justice has issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360146,threatens-walkout-darfur-talks.html.