IMF chief’s trial over payout resumes

Kazakh Journalist Jailed Over Unsanctioned Protest

ASTANA — A court in Astana has sentenced a journalist to 15 days in jail for taking part in an unsanctioned protest.

Berik Zhaghyparov’s lawyer told RFE/RL that her client was sentenced late on May 23.

Zhaghyparov pleaded not guilty, saying he was at the protest as an independent journalist to cover the event.

Police detained Zhaghyparov along with several demonstrators.

The protests began on May 21 when dozens of homeowners from around Kazakhstan demonstrated in front of the government and parliament buildings in Astana.

They demanded the government intervene over what they say are excessive mortgage interest rates and frequent foreclosures.

Two organizers of the protest were sentenced to several days in jail and two demonstrators were fined for their actions.

Two more arrested over UK soldier’s killing

Police in London have arrested a man and a woman in connection with the murder of a British soldier near a military barrack.

Detectives said on Thursday they had arrested the unidentified suspects, both aged 29, over the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, who was hacked to death in Woolwich on Wednesday.

“This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop,” London police said in a statement. “Many lines of inquiry are being followed by detectives and the investigation is progressing well.”

Detectives said they were searching six houses; three in Greenwich in south London, one in Romford, east London, one in north London, and a property in Lincoln in central England.

Meanwhile, Rigby’s two main suspected attackers were in separate hospitals being treated for gun shot wounds. They were fired at by officers at the scene of the killing.

A new video has emerged of the two suspects, who appear to run at the police as they arrived at the scene of the crime.

They had been known to MI5 security services before the attack, reports said.

One man is believed to be 28-year-old Londoner Michael Adebolajo, who is of Nigerian descent, and is said to have converted to Islam 10 years ago.

Rigby served in Afghanistan in 2009, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

“An extremely popular and witty soldier, Drummer Rigby was a larger than life personality within the Corps of Drums and was well known, liked and respected across the Second Fusiliers” a statement from the ministry said.

Extra police

London deployed more than 1,200 extra police officers on the capital’s streets amid fears of a backlash on British Muslims.

This action was a betrayal of Islam and the Muslim communities that give so much to our country … we will not rest until we know every detail.

David Cameron, UK prime minister

The attackers had made references to Islam in amateur footage broadcast on television.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from London’s Scotland Yard, said the government is “making this gesture to calm down people’s fears”.

“People are shocked and scared from what they saw, but the government wants to make sure that there is no blame attributed to minorities. These extra police are on streets to reassure people,” our correspondent said.

Footage broadcast by Britain’s ITV news channel showed a man, with hands soaked in blood and holding a meat cleaver and a knife, claiming that he had, motivated by Britain’s foreign policy, killed a soldier.

Witnesses said he requested to be filmed by a passerby and shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the killing.

In the amateur video, he said: “I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands, our women have to see the same … you people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.”

The second attacker is believed to be 22 years old.

‘Standing together’

Later on Thursday, President Barack Obama offered his support to Britain saying the US “stands resolute with the United Kingdom, our ally and friend, against violent extremism and terror,” in a statement.

“I look forward to my trip to the United Kingdom to participate in the June G-8 Summit, hosted by Prime Minister Cameron, which will include discussions on the important global security challenges our countries face together.”

After a second meeting of the government’s emergency COBRA security council on Thursday, Cameron said the country would “defeat violent extremism by standing together”.

UK’s Woolwich reacts to killing of soldier

“This action was a betrayal of Islam and the Muslim communities that give so much to our country … we will not rest until we know every detail.”

Cameron also praised the actions of Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a cub scout leader who confronted the attackers immediately after the violence and tried to talk them down.

“They told her they wanted to start a war in London and she replied, ‘you are going to lose, it is you against many,” Cameron said. “She speaks for all of us.”

Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee, reporting from Woolwich, said it was essential that political and religious leaders restore calm in the face of violence from the UK’s far-right.

“The English Defence League wanted to use this to their advantage. They came out last night chanting ‘no surrender to Muslims,’ and clashed with riot police,” our correspondent said.

Police in the county of Kent, south of London, said they had charged a man with “religiously aggravated criminal damage and burglary” to a mosque.

The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the Woolwich attack, saying: “This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly.”

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U.S. Concerned Over Hizballah Involvement In Syria

The White House says President Barack Obama has expressed the United States’ concern over Hizballah’s involvement in Syria in a telephone call with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

The phone call on May 20 took place as Syrian government troops backed by Hizballah fighters continue their assault on a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on May 20 that 28 Hizballah fighters were killed in the fighting for the town of Qusayr, now in its third day.

Hizballah, a Lebanese Shi’ite group, is a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against mostly Sunni rebels.

Qusayr is seen as strategically important because it lies on a highway that links Damascus to government-controlled cities on the Mediterranean coast.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa

Egypt sends more forces over Sinai kidnapping

Egypt’s army has sent reinforcements into the Sinai Peninsula after President Mohamed Morsi said there would be no talks with fighters who abducted seven members of the security forces last week.

An army official said on Monday that the decision followed a meeting between the military leadership and Morsi, who has said he will not submit to blackmail by the kidnappers, who are demanding the release of fellow fighters jailed over attacks in 2011.

The army has deployed at least five military helicopters to el-Arish, the largest city in North Sinai, where fighters kidnapped the troops, since last night after sending dozens of armoured vehicles and personnel carriers across the Suez Canal into North Sinai early on Monday.

The reinforcements came as unknown assailants attacked a police base on Monday.

The kidnapping of Egyptian troops has highlighted the lawlessness in the peninsula and enraged security forces, who have blocked border crossings into Israel and the Gaza Strip to pressure the government into helping free their colleagues.

Presidential spokesman Omar Amer said: “All options are on the table to free the kidnapped soldiers.”

The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said on its website that shipping in the Suez Canal had been briefly halted as the reinforcements crossed the waterway.

“Our patience has run out,” Al-Ahram quoted a military official as saying.

Presidential pledge

Morsi has met with the the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb and, and the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawky Ibrahim Allam, to discuss developments in Sinai on Monday.

The president’s office vowed in a statement late on Sunday.that authorities would secure the release of those held captive swiftly and safely and in a manner that will maintain the state’s prestige.

The statement was released after Morsi met with the minister of defence, minister of interior, head of the general intelligence, chief of staff of the armed forces, chief of operations of the armed forces and other army officials.

Morsi also said there would be no talks with “the criminals”.

The kidnappers are demanding the release of fighters convicted last year of attacks that killed seven people, six of them members of the security forces.

A video posted online on Sunday showed seven blindfolded men with their hands bound above their heads, who said they were the hostages, begging Morsi to free political detainees in Sinai in exchange for their own release.

The video, which would be the first sign of the hostages since their kidnapping, could not be independently verified.

Al-Masry Al-Youm, an independent newspaper, reported that parents and friends of the seven men who appeared in the video had confirmed their identities.

No casualties

In Monday’s attack, fighters opened fire on the riot police facility in Al-Ahrash from a truck, security officials said.

Security forces shot back at the gunmen, they said. There were no casualties.

In August last year, 16 Egyptian border guards were killed in an attack blamed on armed groups who then hijacked an armoured vehicle that they smashed across the border into Israel, where they were killed by Israeli forces.

Armed groups have expanded into a security vacuum in Sinai that the state has struggled to fill since Hosni Mubarak was swept from power in 2011.

The groups have attacked targets in North Sinai and launched raids into Israel.

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Al-Qaeda’s Syrian Wing Takes Over the Oilfields Once Belonging to Assad

Up to 380,000 barrels of crude oil were previously produced by wells around the city of Raqqa and in the desert region to its east that are now in rebel hands – in particular Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda off-shoot which is the strongest faction in this part of the country.

Now the violently anti-Western jihadist group, which has been steadily extending its control in the region, is selling the crude oil to local entrepreneurs, who use home-made refineries to produce low-grade petrol and other fuels for Syrians facing acute shortages.

The ability of Jabhat al-Nusra to profit from the oil locally, despite international sanctions which have hindered its sale abroad, will be particularly worrying to the European Union, which has voted to ease the embargo but at the same time wants to marginalise the extremist group within the opposition.

In the battle for the future of the rebel cause, the oil-fields may begin to play an increasingly strategic role. All are in the three provinces closest to Iraq – Hasakeh, Deir al-Zour, and Raqqa, while the Iraqi border regions are the homeland of the Islamic State of Iraq, as al-Qaeda’s branch in the country calls itself.

It was fighters from Islamic State of Iraq, both Iraqi and Syrian, who are thought to have founded Jabhat al-Nusra as the protests against the rule of President Assad turned into civil war.

Because of sanctions, Jabhat’s oil is largely shipped to thousands of home-built mini-refineries that have sprung up across the north of the country. The crude is distilled in hand-welded vats dug into the ground and heated with burning oil residue.

It is not clear how much money is being channelled back to the group. But all those buying the raw product were aware that Jabhat was profiting.

“Jabhat do not ask for taxes or charges for this trade,” said one of them, Omar Mahmoud, from Raqqa province. “But we are buying the oil from them so they do not need to.”

Syria’s oil output, never as great as that of some of Syria’s Arab neighbours, fell to about 130,000 barrels a day after the outbreak of the revolution against the Assad regime.

However, Jabhat al-Nusra are now putting that to good use. The homes refineries are turning out poor quality but usable — and much-needed – petrol and kerosene for cooking and home stoves.

Their product might not meet the quality, and certainly the health and safety standards, demanded by Shell or ExxonMobil, but it provides a living to thousands of blackened figures willing to risk the business’s inherent dangers.

In parts of north-east Syria, the stills are set up by every road-side, the produce sold like fruit from lay-bys to drivers as they pass. But the unquestioned centre of the industry is the desert outside the small town of Mansoura, a few miles west of Raqqa city and on the other side of the Euphrates River.

Here, the entire horizon is a blighted scene of billowing clouds out of which dark figures occasionally emerge on foot or roaring motor-bikes. Near the road sit oil tankers carrying the raw product.

“I make 3000 Syrian pounds (about £15) a day,” said Adel Hantoush, 19, his legs dripping with crude, a filthy headscarf wrapped around his face. A building site casual labourer in better times, he helps support his father, mother and nine brothers and sisters.

Black smoke blew past his head as colleagues poured fuel into the burning pit under their tank. “The last thing I think about is my health,” he said. “If I don’t do this, my family will die.”

The amateur production process is quite simple, and easily explained in school text books.

The oil is heated slowly, with the different grades of product evaporating at different temperatures. The vapour is fed through pipes channelled through pits filled with water to recondense it as a liquid, which runs out into containers at the other end.

Near Raqqa, they pay 4000 Syrian pounds (£20) a barrel, with the price rising for smaller quantities and as the distance increases. A single refining vat can take six barrels at a time, producing maybe 30 litres of petrol, similar quantities of cooking fuel and higher amounts of diesel.

Abdulwahad Abdullah, a wheat farmer from north of Raqqa who runs a single still through two five-hour cycles a day, says he can make 20,000 pound profit (£100) on a good day.

It is a Mad Max scene, indicative of the chaos the war has unleashed in Syria, creating a landscape ideal for the methods of dominance al-Qaeda learned in post-war Iraq.

General Selim Idriss, the head of the western-backed opposition Military Council, has appealed for Western help specifically to seize the fields from Jabhat, but the forces required – he put it at 30,000 men – make that a pipe dream. Even pro-Western rebel militias in the area admit that the level of support received from the council is at present minimal.

They have promised to take on Jabhat al-Nusra once the fighting is over, but they are split and fighting among themselves, with their lack of money forcing some to turn to looting and extortion to fund themselves, further alienating the local population.

Jabhat have used their greater proficiency at fighting, honed by jihad in Iraq and elsewhere, to take a leading role at the battlefront. “They are more disciplined,” Abu Hamza, a fighter with a rival Islamist rebel brigade in Aleppo admitted. “When they attack, they make a plan first, and then stick to it.”

Their battlefield supremacy has enabled them to seize the economic as well as the military high-ground.

In Raqqa, they also control flour production, earning money from selling to bakeries, some of which they own as well. “Jabhat now own everything here,” one disillusioned secular activist said.

In other places they sell the flour at a loss, further endearing them to the local population.

Until now it has been a virtuous circle. Well-funded anyway from foreign contributions, they are able to avoid levying the fees — some say bribes — to pay their men and for supplies that have made other brigades increasingly unpopular. That in turn has been a major boon to recruitment, with thousands defecting to them.

Jabhat al-Nusra’s rule has not been easy. It has had to fight opposed local brigades, and has begun to face protests over its hardline policies — most recently last week after their public execution of three captured soldiers in Raqqa’s town square. The group said this was revenge for a massacre of civilians by pro-Assad forces in the coastal town of Baniyas.

Ominously, this was done in the name of “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria”, suggesting that Jabhat al-Nusra at least in the east is now fully under the control of the murderous Iraqi mother group.

Few are concerned about the downsides, though one man showed huge weals that had grown under his arm which he blamed on his days inhaling the dense black smoke.

One Mansoura man, Mahmoud Ismail, a computer technician who had come to the desert site to visit friends and was watching them pour petrol into barrels to take away, said he had tried the work for a single day. But he then gave it up when he thought about what he was inhaling.

“I came, did it, and then packed up and stopped,” he said. “It just wasn’t worth it.”

With that, he flicked his cigarette on to the ground, and stamped it out.

By Richard Spencer
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Turkey arrests ‘prime suspect’ over blasts

Turkish police have detained a man they believe to be one of the main perpetrators of car bombings that killed more than 50 people near the Syrian border, officials have said.

Hatay governor Celalettin Lekesiz said police had detained a man, who local media named as Mehmet Genc, shortly before midnight on Thursday in Samandag district, near the Syrian border, and that he was being treated as a prime suspect.

Turkey has accused Syria of involvement in the two bombings last weekend in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province. Damascus has denied any role.

Huseyin Celik, deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling AK Party, said the two vehicles used in the bombings were registered to the detained man, and that he had driven one to a blast site in Reyhanli.

State-run broadcaster TRT reported on Friday that Reyhanli’s police chief had been dismissed.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week he did not think the attacks were the result of a weakness in the intelligence services, but that there may have been a “disconnect” between them and the police.

Multiple arrests

Lekesiz said police were still searching for two other suspected perpetrators, who along with the latest man detained had been trying to cross over into Syria from Samandag but had failed because of stepped-up security along the border.

He said the two men were believed to still be inside Turkey. A total of 16 people were in detention in relation to the bombings, Lekesiz said, four of whom were formally arrested. It was not clear what charges they faced.

Ministers have said the bombings – one of the deadliest attacks in Turkey’s modern history – were carried out by a group with ties to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Damascus has offered to carry out a joint investigation.

Erdogan has rejected the offer and said his government would have a “road map” on the Syrian crisis after discussing the incident with Washington and other allies in the region.

The Turkish prime minister met US President Barack Obama on Thursday and the two leaders reiterated their calls for Assad to step down and for an end to the killing which the UN says has killed more than 80,000 people.

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Taiwan recalls Philippine envoy over shooting

Taiwan has recalled its ambassador to the Philippines and announced it has frozen the hiring of Philippine workers to protest against the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman, rejecting an apology over the incident as inadequate.

Taipei said earlier that the Philippines had apologised over the incident, but that President Ma Ying-jeou insisted on Wednesday that Manila offer a formal apology and compensation, apprehend the killer and launch talks on the fishing industry.

“President Ma expressed his strong dissatisfaction over the Philippines’ lack of sufficient sincerity and its shifting attitude,” spokeswoman Lee Chia-fei told reporters, adding that the president would recall Taiwan’s envoy to Manila.

The 65-year-old fisherman was shot dead by Philippine coastguards last week after they said his vessel had strayed into territorial waters.

The incident sparked outrage in Taiwan at a time of high tensions between the nations over regional maritime disputes.

Antonio Basilio, the Philippines’ de facto ambassador who made the apology after a meeting with Foreign Minister David Lin on Tuesday, had also been asked to return to Manila to “help properly handle” the case, Lee said.

Basilio said the Philippines will now send special envoy Amadeo Perez to reiterate his “deep regret and apology from the people of the Philippines” to the people of Taiwan and the fisherman’s family.

Perez is chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, which represents the Philippines’ interest in Taiwan.

‘Unacceptable apology’

However, Taiwan’s Premier Jiang Yi-huah said it was unacceptable that the apology came from the “people of the Philippines” rather than the government as it was the coastguard that was responsible for the shooting.

“Philippine civil servants killed a person and damaged the boat, the Philippine government cannot avoid responsibility,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said the wording of the apology may have caused Taiwan to reject it.

“Apparently, the apology was worded as ‘from the people of the Philippines’ and Taiwan wanted it to be a government apology, which of course would not happen because of the One-China policy,” Ortigas said.

Our correspondent also reported that Taiwan had demanded that the Filipino officer involved in the shooting be turned over to Taipei, something the Philippines had rejected. Instead, the Philippine government suspended the entire crew of the coastguard vessel, and promised to conduct an internal investigation.

The Philippines only has formal diplomatic ties with Beijing, while maintaining a de-facto diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which is considered by China as part of its own territory.

After freezing the hiring of Philippine workers, Jiang said the second wave of sanctions would include a “red” travel alert against the Philippines urging the public not to visit the country, and the suspension of exchanges between high-level officials from the two sides.

Reacting to the threat, Edwin Lacierda, spokesman of Philippine President Benigno Aquino, appealed to Taiwan not to involve the Filipino workers in the diplomatic dispute.

“We understand the grief and hurt of the family and of the people of Taiwan over this unfortunate loss and we empathize with them,” Lacierda said in a statement.

Lacierda also promised that the investigation into the incident will be “thorough, exhaustive, impartial and expeditious”.

China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims to parts of the strategic and resource-rich maritime region.

Taiwan has threatened to conduct a naval exercise in waters near the Philippines in protest over the fisherman’s death.

There are currently 87,000 Philippine workers in Taiwan. The number is about a third of Taiwan’s foreign workers. Labour authorities said nearly 2,000 new applications are submitted monthly.

In 2011, Taiwan temporarily expanded the screening period for Philippine workers and threatened to freeze hiring over a diplomatic row sparked when Manila deported Taiwanese nationals to China.

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Foreign Ministers Meet Over Arctic’s Future

Foreign Ministers from the eight Arctic nations are meeting May 15 in Sweden to discuss problems posed by climate change and growing commercial activity in the Arctic.

The Arctic Council, which brings together Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland, was set up in 1996 to protect the Arctic’s fragile environment and keep it free of conflict.

The region’s six indigenous groups have permanent representation as observers.

The council holds high-level meetings every two years.

In Kiruna, Sweden, the ministers are expected on May 15 to sign a binding agreement on preventing and dealing with oil spills — a concern amid mounting global interest in the region’s vast natural resources.

The Arctic is estimated to hold 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves and as much as 30 percent of undiscovered gas deposits.

These resources, once inaccessible for exploitation, are now being exposed by the melting of the polar sea ice due to what most scientists say is man-made climate change.

Rivalries over control of the Arctic have deepened in recent years, including from countries not abutting Arctic territory.

Last year, China sent its first icebreaker ship through the Arctic.

Together with 13 other nations, China has also been seeking rights to join the Arctic Council as observers.

Russia and Canada, as well as indigenous peoples, reportedly oppose the entry of new observers – an issue expected to be discussed on May 15.

Aleksandr Klepekov, a specialist at Artic and Antarctic Research Institute in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, told RFE/RL that indigenous peoples are not favorable to the inclusion of new observers, which would reduce their own influence at the council.

“For those indigenous peoples, increased economic activity and possible pollution can affect migrations trends and traditional fishing methods,” he said.

There is also strong interest in potential new shipping routes.

The distance between Western Europe and East Asia through the Arctic, for instance, is 40 percent shorter than present shipping routes.

Melting ice could also bolster tourism in the region, which is quickly opening up to cruise ships.

But experts say the region remains hazardous.

“Yes, the ice is receding but ice is not the only obstacle for oil production on the Arctic Shelf,” said Klepekov.” Icebergs are on the rise, possibly as a result of warming. So warming does not necessarily ease the situation. Thinner ice, which is more easily broken up by the wind, shatters into small pieces and can pose problems for oil platforms as well as for navigation.”

The Arctic’s vast distances complicate search-and-rescue efforts in the event of an emergency.

In 2010, a cruise ship ran aground on an uncharted rock off northern Canada. No one was hurt in the incident, but passengers had to wait six days to be rescued.

Experts also warn that unbridled exploitation of the Arctic’s untapped reserves of oil, gas, minerals and precious metals could cause serious environmental damage.

“The negative consequences that could first be felt are the impact on local ecosystems, which are usually described as fragile,” Klepekov noted. “There are few species and they are strongly interdependent. The construction of pipelines could disrupt fish migration routes. On the tundra, pipelines could affect the migration of reindeers.”

A U.S. strategy for the Arctic unveiled by President Barack Obama last week concluded that “an undisciplined approach to exploring new opportunities in this frontier could result in significant harm to the region, to our national security interests, and to the global good.”

Afghanistan Summons Iranian Ambassador Over Alleged Border Killings

KABUL — Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan has visited the Foreign Ministry in Kabul after being summoned by the Foreign Ministry in Kabul over the reported killing of Afghan migrants by Iranian border guards.

The ministry’s spokesman told journalists on May 12 that an official complaint has already been lodged with the Iranian ambassador.

Media reports quote local officials in Afghanistan’s northwestern Farah Province as saying a number of people were killed and wounded by gunfire on May 10 as a group of Afghan laborers tried to cross the Iranian border illegally.

There are conflicting reports about the casualties, with some saying at least 10 died.

Iran’s border guard chief, General Hamid Sharafi, denied any Afghan migrants were fired on.

Thousands of Afghans enter Iran illegally every year in search of work. About 2.4 million Afghans are permanent residents in Iran.

With reporting by ISNA and arabnews.com

Turkey-Syria Tensions Over Bombings

Turkey and Syria have exchanged accusations following a double car bombing in a Turkish town near the Syrian border that killed 46 people.

Turkish officials say nine Turkish citizens with links to the Syrian intelligence services have been arrested in connection with the May 11 bombings in the town of Reyhanli.

Turkey said the suspects had confessed to taking part in the attacks.

The Syrian regime denied masterminding the attacks and instead called on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to resign, saying he was trying to build glory through the blood of Turks and Syrians.

Erdogan, in a speech in Istanbul, warned of Turkish retaliation, but said Turkey would resist being pulled into Syria’s civil war.

“Anyone who wants to harm Turkey will have to pay a price sooner or later,” he said. ”Major states would retaliate twice as hard as the initial provocation when they face an attack, but they will wait for the right time. No one should be in any doubt that the price of the lives or our brothers in Reyhanli, as well as those of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, will be paid.”

The prime minister gave no details on how NATO member Turkey might respond.

Reyhanli is located in the province of Hatay and is home to thousands of refugees who have fled the Syrian war.

Turkey has supported Syria’s rebels during the more than two-year-old conflict and has called for the government of President Bashar al-Assad to resign.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi on May 12 rejected charges of involvement by the government, saying: “Syria will never carry out such an act.”

“The Turkish government should be held responsible for what happened,” said the minister, quoted by the state-run SANA news agency. “It has turned the border areas into a center for international terrorism.”

Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said investigators believe the bombings were carried out by a group with direct links to Syria’s Mukhabarat intelligence agency.

Guler said investigators had determined that the explosives were smuggled into the area, then placed into Turkish vehicles outfitted with special compartments.

“We have discovered that the materials were brought to Hatay (Province) by illegal means and the cars were taken from there,” he said. ”They were delivered to auto repairs on behalf of certain people and disguised chambers were built into the cars in which to put the bombs, and a group of people who assisted them took those cars out of the auto repair depots and to the blast scene.”

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said the aim of the bombings was to foment divisions between Turks and Syrian refugees.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said “it was not a coincidence” that the bombings occurred amid a new joint initiative by the United States and Russia to launch a diplomatic process to settle the conflict.

The U.S. and Russia have been on opposite sides of the conflict, with Washington supporting the rebels and Russia remaining one of the few allies of the Syrian regime.

In another development, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced May 12 that its figures indicate at least 82,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March, 2011.

No independent confirmation of the group’s numbers was available.

Based on reports from dpa, Reuters, AP and AFP

Arrests made in Egypt over embassy plot

Egypt’s interior minister has said that authorities have arrested three al-Qaeda-linked men suspected of planning to carry out suicide attacks on government buildings and an unspecified foreign embassy.

Mohammed Ibrahim on Saturday named the suspects as Amr Mohammed Abu al-Ela Aqida, Mohammed Abdel-Halim Hemaida Saleh and Mohammed Mostafa Mohammed Ibrahim Bayoumi. Two of the men were detained in the northern coastal city of Alexandria, while the third was arrested in Cairo.

He told a news conference that the men, one of whom received training in Pakistan and Iran, had been in contact with Dawood al-Assady, a leader of al-Qaeda in southeast Asian countries.

Ibrahim also said authorities captured the suspects with 10 kg of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser and key ingredient in homemade explosives, and computer instructions on bomb-making.

He told reporters that the men were trying to take advantage of the country’s political turmoil to “target innocent civilians and attack foreign diplomatic missions”.

Security officials also discovered statements issued by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group’s arm in North Africa, on one of the men’s computers with information on how to make bombs and rockets, and ways of collecting intelligence.

He said the suspects are also believed to have links with the so-called ”Nasr City terror cell”, which was broken up last year and its members arrested on accusations of plotting attacks against public figures in Egypt.

The interior minister denied that al-Qaeda is active in Egypt, but said the three men were in contact with al-Qaeda members abroad.

Egypt’s security has sharply deteriorated in the past two years, with Islamic fighters suspected of being behind cross-border assaults on Israel as well as a bold attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in the northern Sinai Peninsula last year.

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Anger over burial of Boston bomb suspect

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been buried in a rural cemetery in Virginia, infuriating some members of the area’s Muslim community as well as local officials who said they were not consulted.

Some of the officials said on Friday that that they would examine whether all laws were followed and could seek to have his body moved elsewhere.

They said they were not informed about the burial and were concerned about the site becoming a shrine to anti-US sympathisers.

This week’s interment at a small Islamic cemetery ended a long search for a community willing to take the body, which had been kept at a funeral parlour in Massachusetts.

Tsarnaev was killed on April 19 after a gun battle with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured later and remains in custody.

The ethnic Chechens, who had lived in the US for several years, are accused of setting off two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs on April 15 near the marathon’s finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 260.

Ruslan Tsarni, the brothers’ uncle, took responsibility for the body after Tamerlan’s wife, Katherine Russell, said she wanted it released to her in-laws.

He said his nephew was buried in a cemetery in Doswell with the help of a faith coalition. “The body’s buried,” he said. “That’s it.”

‘Reviled and maligned’

Dozens of communities approached about hosting a gravesite had refused, many with concerns about vandalism and a backlash from the public.

Martha Mullen, a mental health counsellor who helped arrange the burial, told the AP news agency in a brief telephone interview that she had offered to help after seeing news reports about the refusals.

Mullen said she was not the only person who helped with arrangements.

She said the backlash from some local officials, some cemetery neighbours and online critics has been unpleasant, but she has no regrets.

“I can’t pretend it’s not difficult to be reviled and maligned,” she said. “But any time you can reach across the divide and work with people that are not like you, that’s what God calls us to do.”

Mullen, a graduate of United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, sent emails to various faith organisations to see what could be done.

She heard back from the Islamic Funeral Services of Virginia, which arranged for a funeral plot at the Al-Barzakh cemetery.

The cemetery is hidden among the rural woods and hills, about 50km north of Richmond, and contains only 47 graves in all.

No consultation

Sheriff Tony Lippa and Board of Supervisors chairman Floyd Thomas of Caroline County said no state or local officials were told that Tsarnaev would be buried there.

Permission is not required from officials as long as laws are followed. The officials said they do not want the county remembered as the resting place for someone allegedly tied to a horrific act, but it was unlikely they would be able to do anything.

Imam Ammar Amonette, of the Islamic Centre of Virginia, said his group was never consulted and that Mullen reached out to a separate group, the Islamic Society of Greater Richmond.

“The whole Muslim community here is furious. Frankly, we are furious that we were never given any information. It was all done secretly behind our backs,” Amonette said, adding it “makes no sense whatsoever” that Tsarnaev’s body was buried in Virginia.

“Now everybody who’s buried in that cemetery, their loved ones are going to have to go to that place.”

Bukhari Abdel-Alim, vice president of The Islamic Funeral Services in Virginia, said in a statement that they disagree with Tsarnaev’s actions but are obligated to “return his body to the earth”.

“Its not a political thing, it’s more so we have somebody that has passed away, he can’t bury himself,” he said.

“Somebody needed to take responsibility, we were able to do so, and that’s what we did,” he said while reading the statement from the cemetery.”

Tsarnaev’s death certificate shows he was shot by police in the firefight on the night of April 18 and run over and dragged by a vehicle.

He died a few hours later on April 19. Authorities have said his brother ran over him in his getaway attempt.

Tsarnaev’s mother said Russia refused to allow his body into the country so she could bury him in her native Dagestan, but Russian authorities refused comment.

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Amnesty International Urges Release of Egyptian Christian Teacher Held Over Anti-Islam Remarks

CAIRO (AP) — Amnesty International has called on Egyptian authorities to release a Coptic Christian schoolteacher held for contempt of Islam.

The rights group on Friday denounced the detention of 24-year-old Dimiana Abdel-Nour, a social studies teacher in a southern village near the famed city of Luxor. She was accused by some students of allegedly showing contempt while talking about Islam in class last month.

Luxor prosecutor issued an arrest warrant against Abdel-Nour this week over allegations of proselytizing and of “defamation of religion.” A court is scheduled to look into her detention on Saturday.

Amnesty’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui says it’s “outrageous that a teacher finds herself behind bars for teaching a class” and that if Abdel-Nour had made a “professional mistake or deviated from the curriculum, an internal review would have sufficed.”

Sword of Division is Poised Over Iraq

BAGHDAD — Less than a year and a half after the last U.S. troops left, Iraq’s political leaders are openly debating the prospect of two dangerous paths for their country: de facto division or civil war. Perhaps both.

Tension between the Shiite majority, now in control of the levers of power, and the Sunni Arab minority, which dominated under Saddam Hussein, has been building for months. But politicians on all sides agree that the country has entered a perilous new phase, highlighted in late April by an attack on a Sunni protest camp by security forces that killed at least 45 people.

As word of the shootings spread, fighting erupted around the country, leaving more than 200 people dead. Overall, the United Nations said, more than 700 people were killed in Iraq in April, the highest monthly toll in five years.

Polarized political leaders openly discuss the threat of more bloodshed and the gradual breakup of the country, either through an informal declaration of an independent Sunni Arab region, modeled on the Kurds’ region in northern Iraq, or outright war.

The problems are compounded by the increasingly sectarian war in neighboring Syria, where the Sunni majority forms the backbone of the insurgency against the government of President Bashar Assad.

In Iraq, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Mutlaq, who has been ostracized by fellow Sunnis for continuing to participate in the Shiite-led government, said he feared that one more deadly incident could push Sunni protesters to “return to violence, and once the violence starts, it will not end for 20 or 30 years.”

A package of reforms meant to address protesters’ demands has been left to a silent death in the parliament. The demands include an end date for punitive measures against former members of Hussein’s Baath Party, an amnesty act and legal reforms prohibiting the use of secret informants to convict people.

“They are legitimate demands, but are politically impossible,” said lawmaker Sami Askari, a close advisor to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who had lobbied for the package. Shiite parties signed off on the reforms when they were debated in Maliki’s Cabinet, but then reversed themselves in the parliament, he said.

Askari helped engineer Maliki’s unsuccessful effort in 2010 to form a government that would have crossed Iraq’s sectarian divide. The country has now entered a period of acrimony between Shiites and Sunnis, he said.

“The Sunnis want better conditions, better participation, and the Shiites are scared and fearful the past might come back again,” Askari said. “All of the region now is talking of a clash between Shia and Sunnis. You cannot ignore this now…. Even those Sunnis who are ready to strike a deal are under attack.”

Two investigations were launched after security forces attacked the Sunni protesters in Hawija on April 23. Senior government officials say the findings indicate that security personnel used disproportionate force, including shooting unarmed civilians. Video apparently recorded by security forces showed what appeared to be slain civilians gripping sticks, and a body that had fallen out of a wheelchair.

Maliki initially expressed regret over the assault but has since taken a harder line. He has vowed to fight what he calls terrorists among the protesters, and has massed troops outside Ramadi, a Sunni-majority city in Anbar province.

Protesters there have formed a tribal force to defend against a military attack, and Maliki has warned them that he could crush them easily if he wasn’t concerned about shedding Iraqi blood. His acting defense minister, Saadoun Dulaimi, called the protest camps incubators for terrorism.

The government assault in Hawija has further radicalized the Sunni protest movement. At a rally last week in Fallouja, a cleric told Sunnis that they had to choose their next step. The options included “the resignation of Maliki; civil war and sectarian conflict, which we don’t want … or to divide the country in order to protect ourselves, and rule ourselves by ourselves.”

Some in the crowd, angry over the idea of federalism, threw water bottles at the stage; others shouted in praise of holy war.

Usama Nujaifi, a Sunni who is speaker of the parliament, said the government was pushing Sunnis to the brink. “The conditions for a civil war are present now,” Nujaifi said. “The first person responsible is the prime minister.”

A former Sunni fighter who goes by the name Abu Selim said Hawija and subsequent violence had given new life to armed groups that had been less active in recent years, including the Iraqi affiliate of Al Qaeda, the Baathist-inspired Naqshbandi Army and the Salafist-led Islamic Army.

“The Islamic insurgent groups had lost their mission … they were just waiting for an instance to take over again under an attractive banner,” he said. “Hawija was the zero hour they were waiting for.”

Sheik Ali Hatem Suleiman, one of the protest leaders in Anbar, is openly planning defenses in case of a military attack on Ramadi. The government has issued an arrest warrant for him on terrorism charges.

“The people are betting that if it starts, it will be a long war,” Suleiman said.

Askari said he doubted there would be a new civil war because Sunnis know how much they lost in the sectarian conflict during the U.S. occupation.

“Without the American Army, no single Sunni could have stayed in Baghdad. They would have been cleansed,” he said. “Now there are no Americans. If sectarian war ignited, for sure they would lose Baghdad and most of the other provinces.”

All that would be left is their stronghold, Anbar province, Askari said, where Al Qaeda would gain strength and terrorize the Sunni population.

Baghdad is gripped by fear and resignation. In western neighborhoods, slayings occur every week, thought to be the work of Shiite or Sunni gunmen staking out territory for the conflict to come.

On Monday, outside the high concrete walls meant to guard the neighborhood of Amariya, black banners announced the deaths of five men. Inside, most shopkeepers close up at 1 p.m., when the killers often come out.

“This is the bad time,” said Raad Hussein Abbas, who was rushing to shutter his women’s clothing store.

At Baghdad’s yellow stone Abu Hanifa mosque, a jewel of a building in Baghdad’s oldest Sunni neighborhood, Adhamiya, a gray metal stage stands ready in the front courtyard. The crowd on Fridays ranges in size from 2,000 to 5,000, depending on how many people are allowed into the neighborhood. Sheik Abdul Wahab Samarrai, the son of the senior cleric, said he feared a violent division of the country could be approaching.

Samarrai said he hoped that leaders could find wisdom and a sense of compromise. But he isn’t sure such people exist anymore.

He fell silent when he thought about what the country’s division into Sunni and Shiite sectors would mean for him. Already Sunnis are leaving his neighborhood under the pressure of checkpoints and nightly raids.

“I don’t want to make my choice at this time,” he said, glancing upward. “I hope it doesn’t happen.”

By Ned Parker
Los Angeles Times

Rights Groups Worry Over Fate Of RFE/RL Turkmen Journalist

The human rights groups Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have released statements warning that detained RFE/RL Turkmen correspondent Rovshen Yazmuhamedov is at risk of torture.

“Though charges against him have not been disclosed by authorities, there are fears that he may have been targeted in connection with his work and that he is at grave risk of torture,” the statement from Amnesty International said.

RSF said Yazmuhamedov’s detention “represents a gross violation of his constitutional rights and the international conventions ratified by Turkmenistan.”

Yazmuhamedov was detained on May 6 in Turkmenabat in eastern Turkmenistan but his family was only able to get word out about the detention on May 9.

Amnesty International noted in its statement that “RFE/RL is one of the few remaining sources of independent information about life in Turkmenistan.”

Council Of Europe Concerned Over Moldovan Amendments

The Council of Europe — a continental body that promotes the rule of law and democracy — has expressed its concerns over recent amendments to Moldova’s major laws.

The council’s secretary-general, Thorbjorn Jagland, said the amendments adopted by the parliament are in contradiction with Moldova’s constitution and European standards on constitutional justice.

Jagland said “the credibility of Moldova’s European path is at stake.”

Jagland expressed particular concern over a law passed on May 3 that gives parliament powers to sack constitutional judges and change election rules.

Another bill requires political parties to get at least 6 percent of the vote to get into parliament — up from the previous 4 percent.

Parliament also voted to boost the powers of the interim government and its head, allowing him to sack ministers and other senior officials.

With reporting by ITAR-TASS

Musharraf Arrested Over Baloch Leader’s Killing

Pakistani police have arrested former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over the killing of a senior Baloch leader in 2006.

Prosecutor Hassan Kakar said a three-member team of senior police officers from the southwestern province of Balochistan began questioning Musharraf on May 2.

The investigation is related to the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The Baloch leader died during a military operation ordered by Musharraf in August 2006.

Musharraf is already under house arrest until May 14 in separate cases related to his imposition of emergency rule, the dismissal of high-ranking judges in November 2007, and his alleged failure to protect former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007.

Musharraf returned to Pakistan last month after four years of self-imposed exile but has been barred from running in upcoming parliamentary elections.

Based on reporting by AFP and tribune.com.pk

THIS IS OVER

4-30-2013 OkieOilMan: THIS IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY–I WAS BURNED LAST NIGHT SO I AM APPROACHING THINGS IN A DIFFERENT MANNER TONIGHT. I HAD INTENDED TO TURN IN EARLY BUT THE PHONE CALL I HAVE JUST RECEIVED DESERVES REPORTING TO MY FAMILY. ACCORDING TO SOURCES ON BOTH COAST’S–THIS IS OVER AND SHOULD BE FINISHED DURING THE NIGHT CONTRARY TO WHAT I WAS FURNISHED YESTERDAY ABOUT THIS ONLY OCCURING DURING THE DAY LIGHT HOURS. THE SOURCES WERE ADAMENT ABOUT THEIR INFORMATION AND I AM FURNISHING YOU THIS IN THAT CONTEXT ALSO—-FOR ALL OUR SAKES I PRAY THIS TIME THEIR TIMING IS RIGHT–BLESSINGS

IT IS TOO NERVE WRACKING ON ALL OF US TO JUMP THE GUN SO I AM LABORING ON THE SIDE OF CONSERVATISM –BUT IF IT IS COMPLETED TONIGHT WE WILL KNOW ABOUT IT TOMORROW—MY THINKING IS STILL AN EXTRA DAY OR TWO FOR CAUTION’S SAKE. THE MOMENT I GET AUTHORIZATION FOR THE OFFICIAL RELEASE IT WILL TAKE ME ABOUT 10 SECONDS TO START TYPING.

PUK expresses concern over recent events

Sulaymaniya (NINA) – The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) expressed concern over recent events in some parts of Iraq.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Apr. 27, the PUK said that Deputy Secretary General, Barham Saleh, met with the PUK’s lawmakers and ministers in the Federal Government.

It added that the meeting shed light on the political developments in Iraq and Kurdistan Region, as well as events that Hawija has witnessed, in addition to other parts of Iraq, and their effects on the political process.

The statement went on saying that the convened expressed the PUK’s concern about recent events in some parts of Iraq and the escalated tension and violence. The meeting stressed the PUK’s support to political and Constitutional solution to all of Iraq’s problems.

The meeting discussed also the political situation in Kurdistan Region and the PUK’s relations with other Kurdish political forces in preparation for the coming election, the statement said.

Azad Jindiyan and Rizkar Ali members of PUK’s Politboruea, and Firyad Rawanduzi, member of PUK Command Council, attended the meeting. / End.

LINK

Christians in Egyptian Town Threatened With Violence Over Missing Muslim Girl

(AINA) — A deadline given by a Muslim family, with support of most Muslims in the area, to all of the Christian Coptic inhabitants of the town of El-Wasta, 90 kilometers south of Cairo, expired today. The Muslim family had given an ultimatum regarding a Muslim girl who disappeared at the end of February, and threatened violent reprisal if the girl was not returned by today.

Fliers were distributed yesterday throughout the town by Muslims, who vowed violence. Muslims visited Coptic businesses and warned them not to open today otherwise they would be torched. Today Copts disregarded this ultimatum and opened their businesses as usual.

Rana Shazli, a 21-year-old Faculty of Arts student, disappeared from home at the end of February. Her father accused the church of converting her to Christianity, marrying her to Ebram Zaki Andrawes and facilitating their travel abroad. The church has denied any involvement in the affair (AINA 3-22-2013).

Copts are currently living in terror, saying they take the ultimatum very seriously and expect the worst tomorrow after Friday prayers. The church and Coptic homes stoned by Muslims demonstrators on March 21 and the priest’s car was torched. The demonstrators vowed to torch all churches. Copts were forced to close their shops until a meeting took place on March 25 between Muslims and Christians, which extended the deadline for returning Rana to April 25.

Muslims insist that Ebram and his cousin Peter went to the ATM machine of Rana’s bank and withdrew 17,000 Egyptian pounds, saying he is shown by the bank’s security cameras.

Failing to find Ebram, a judge in Beba town court decided two weeks ago to imprison his father Zaki Tawfiq Andrawes, his mother Soraya and his cousin Peter, pending an investigation on charges of incitement to kidnap the Muslim girl, the seizure of funds, assistance to convert her to Christianity, contempt of the Islamic religion, to facilitate their travel to Turkey and hide information on their son Abram.

The Facebook page of ‘El-Wasta Online’ ( https://www.facebook.com/Elwas6a) issued today a call to all Muslims in the area to congregate for Friday prayers in the Al-Tahrir mosque adjacent to St. George’s Church.

Rana recently sent a new letter to her family in which she denies that she eloped with a young Copt. She affirmed that she is still a Muslim and is married to a Muslim man.

Kamal Suleiman, member of the Egyptian Shura Council, presented two days ago an Urgent Request and Discussion signed by more than twenty members about a new outbreak of sectarian strife in Beni Suef. The statement warned of bloody events in city of El-Wasta between Christians and Muslims, due to the disappearance of a Muslim girl and rumors about a Copt being responsible for her disappearance. The statement went on to say that the people of El-Wasta forced Coptic families to close their shops for more than a week and then allowed them to resume their activity while giving them a one-month deadline for the missing girl to return, else violence and killings would occur. The Copts, he said, have nothing to do with this case.

The statement criticized the inaction of the Security Directorate despite knowing about the gravity of the situation.

Hatem el Shazly, Rana’s father, accused Father Mattias Fanous of St. Georges Church of being responsible for evangelizing, marriage and disappearance of his daughter and smuggling the couple to Istanbul, pointing out that this information is certain because he found it in his daughter’s papers, including the priest’s telephone number, Christian prayer and some hymns, as well as mantra and talismans, which mullahs and sheikhs “confirmed were black magic to control the will of the girl.” He also told Al Fagr newspaper today that Rana told her sister that she drank a glass of water at church and the priest sprayed water on her face and that she had changed ever since, and is not aware of her actions.

Surprisingly the father also said that he received a phone call from his daughter warning him of targeting the church. She said “the Christians have nothing to do with it and beware of touching any Christian,” reported al-Fagr He added that his daughter told him she is married to a Muslim named Ahmed, is living in Cairo and she has not left Egypt and will return home after getting her marriage certificate.

This evening there were reports of increased security in El-Wasta, around the church and in the streets. “It is no good if they are present and being passive and just stand there watching as they always do,” said Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub. “All of Egypt will watch their performance tomorrow after Friday prayers.”

By Mary Abdelmassih

Musharraf arrested over Bhutto murder case

General Pervez Musharraf has been formally arrested in relation to the Benazir Bhutto murder case.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that Musharraf will remain at his Chak Shahzad farmhouse residence but will be produced at the anti-terrorist court in Rawalpindi on Friday.

“The Musharraf case has many implications given the fact that the country is less than two weeks away from election,” he said.

“It will be the responsibility of the new elected government to deal with this important issue.

“He has admirers no doubt. Many of the powerful political parties were all on board with the former military ruler.”

Since his return to Pakistan in a bid to contest the 2013 general election, Musharraf has been dealing with a number of legal cases against him, including the detention of judges and treason against the state.

Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated in a gun-and-bomb attack outside Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh on December 27, 2007 while Musharraf was president.

She was killed after addressing an election campaign rally in the city.

The ATC (Anti-Terrorism Court) had indicted Musharraf in the case in February 2011, and in August the same year he was declared a proclaimed offender and his property was attached because of his absence.

Musharraf’s government blamed Bhutto’s killing on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement and who was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009.

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Iraqi parliament to hold exceptional session over Hawija events

Wednesday, 24 April, 2013

Baghdad (AIN) -The Iraqi Parliament chairmanship decided to hold exceptional session on next Sunday to discuss Hawija events of Kirkuk province.

Media office of the parliament cited on Wednesday “The chairmanship of the parliament deiced to hold exceptional session on next Sunday to discuss Hawija violent events in presence of the ministerial commission formed to consider these events and the parliament Security Committee and the Human Rights Committee.” /End/

LINK

Japan summons China envoy over disputed isles

Japan has summoned the Chinese ambassador in protest over a flotilla of Chinese government ships that entered territorial waters near a disputed island chain.

Japan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had called in the envoy after eight Chinese vessels entered waters near the Senkaku islands, which China calls Diaoyu, the most in a single day since Tokyo nationalised part of the archipelago in September.

The Chinese boats drove out a flotilla of 10 boats carrying about 80 Japanese activists from the nationalist Ganbare Nippon (“Stand Firm, Japan”) group, which sailed into waters around the islets early on Tuesday.

They then began to withdraw from the area on the orders of Japanese Coast Guard patrol ships, when Chinese government surveillance ships came nearby.

“Our latest intelligence indicates that a large number of Chinese vessels have entered Japanese territorial waters,” an unidentified coast guard member told the activists.

Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga on Tuesday confirmed the incident. “Today there has been eight Chinese maritime surveillance vessels that have entered the Senkaku island area around Uotsuri Jima,” he said.

‘Under our active control’

Japanese Coast Guard vessels then escorted some of the fishing boats back to the the port of Ishigaki, where they originally departed from.

Ganbare Nippon had said the purpose of their trip was to survey fishing grounds. Last August, about 10 activists from the group landed on one of the islets.

Japanese and Chinese patrol ships have been playing a cat-and-mouse game near the Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands, where China is seeking to assert its claim to sovereignty by sending ships into the disputed waters.

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe however said that it was Japan who was still fully in control of the island chain.

“The Senkaku islands are under our active control,” he said when asked in parliament what he thought the status of the islands were.

“Since it has become the Abe government, we have made sure that if there an instance where there is an intrusion into our territory or it seems that there could be landing on the islands then we will deal will it strongly,” Abe added.

The waters around the islets are rich fishing grounds and also have potentially huge oil and gas reserves.

The territorial dispute has escalated in recent months to the point where China and Japan have scrambled fighter jets while patrol ships shadow each other, raising fears that an unintended collision could lead to a broader clash.

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Protests continue in India over rape of child

Hundreds of people have protested for the second day outside government buildings and residences of top politicians in India’s capital, New Delhi, angry at the conduct of police dealing with the kidnapping and rape of a five-year-old girl.

About 100 protesters, many of whom were members of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, faced off with the police on Sunday as they gathered outside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence and near the house of Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress Party.

Police briefly detained 50 of the protesters, when they tried to break down barricades on the road leading to Gandhi’s house.

The protesters were furious over allegations that police had ignored complaints by the girl’s parents that she was missing, and demanded better policing standards.

“Police and other officials that fail to do their jobs and instead engage in abusive behaviour should know that they will be punished,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said.

The protesters also demanded that the Delhi police chief be removed from office.

“What is the commissioner of Delhi doing? We demand removal of the police commissioner,” one protester told Al Jazeera’s Sohail Rahman.

As people hit the streets against the latest case of rape, doctors reported on Sunday that the young victim’s condition had improved.

DK Sharma, medical superintendent of the state-run hospital in New Delhi, said the girl was responding well to treatment and that she had stabilised.

Suspect arrested

The girl went missing on April 15 and was found two days later by neighbours who heard her crying in a locked room in the same building where she lived with her family.

The gruesome assault on the little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society.

Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India

She was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by the man following the brutal attack, police said.

On Saturday, a 24-year-old man was arrested in the eastern state of Bihar, about 1,000km from New Delhi, in connection with the incident.

After being flown to Delhi, he was in custody and was being interrogated, police said.

The incident came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.

Sexual crimes against women and children are reported every day in Indian newspapers, and women often complain about their sense of insecurity when they leave their homes.

Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, has called for changes in attitudes toward women in India, where there has been a fierce debate since December’s gang rape about the routine mistreatment of females.

“The gruesome assault on the little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society,” Singh said on Sunday at a meeting with civil servants.

A day earlier, Singh had urged Indian society “to look within and work to root out the evil of rape and other such crimes from our midst”.

Since the death of the female rape victim last December, people have demanded harsher punishments for convicted rapists and a public sex offenders’ register to name and shame them.

Indian law has since been amended to include the death penalty in cases of rape.

But activists said that merely passing strong laws is not enough, and that the government has to convey its intention to crack down on crimes against women to its officials and the police.

“Enacting strong laws are simply a first step, but it needs the government to focus urgently on implementation if it is serious about protecting children and other victims of sexual abuse,” Human Rights Watch’s Ganguly said.

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Investigations over Sarkozy corruption begins

Paris prosecutors have begun investigating whether the winning presidential campaign of former President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 may have received illegal funding from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

The judicial investigation does not specify any suspect by name and focuses on allegations of corruption, influence trafficking, forgery, abuse of public funds and money laundering, Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman with the Paris prosecutors’ office, said on Friday.

The probe is based on claims by Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine during questioning by officials in December, she said.

Allegations of Libyan financing for Sarkozy’s campaign first emerged in French media last year in the waning days of his losing re-election bid against Socialist Francois Hollande – now France’s president.

Sarkozy is facing other scrutiny of judicial investigators over the financing of his 2007 campaign.

Last month, a Bordeaux judge filed preliminary charges against him over allegations that Sarkozy had illegally taken donations from France’s richest woman in the 2007 election cycle.

Sarkozy has denied any wrongdoing.

A phone message left for Sarkozy’s lawyer was not immediately returned on Friday.

The investigative news website Mediapart, which has broken news on a string of high-profile recent scandals in France, reported last year it had evidence that Gaddafi had offered campaign funds to Sarkozy.

Prosecutors began investigating the publication after Sarkozy filed a suit against Mediapart for “forgery” and “publication of false news” last year and the site’s managers countersued for alleged slander.

Sarkozy had an up-and-down relationship with Gaddafi.

Early in his five-year tenure, Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader to France for a state visit, but he put France in a key position in the NATO-led airstrikes against Gaddafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple his regime in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring uprisings.

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Karimov Warns Russia Over Growing Dangers Of Extremism

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has warned Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over the increasing dangers of extremism in Central Asia.

Karimov, who is on a rare trip to Moscow, said the “consequences of the expansion of terrorism, extremism, and religious radicalism could be far worse than open war.”

Russian-Uzbek ties have been strained over Uzbekistan’s decision last year to withdraw for a second time from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Putin said the two presidents have agreed on the conditions of Uzbekistan’s joining the free trade zone of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Putin said the relevant protocol will be signed during the CIS prime ministers’ meeting in Minsk next month.

Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax

Court Orders Mubarak Released Over Killings, Held On Other Charges

An Egyptian appeals court has ordered the release of deposed president Hosni Mubarak pending his retrial for the deaths of protesters in 2011.

But the court ruled on April 15 that Mubarak will remain in custody pending investigations into corruption charges.

Egypt’s state television said the court ordered Mubarak’s release after the maximum temporary detention of two years expired.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades, was ousted in a popular uprising in 2011.

He has been under arrest since April 2011 charged with complicity in the murder and attempted murder of hundreds of peaceful protesters on January 25-31, 2011.

Mubarak has been granted a retrial in the murder case, appealing against a life sentence.

He is also facing several charges of corruption.

Mubarak is currently being held in a military hospital in southern Cairo.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, and CNN

Scuffles Erupt At Protest Over Egypt Acquittals

Scuffles erupted in Cairo during a protest on October 12 against a court ruling that acquitted Hosni Mubarak-era officials of ordering a camel charge against demonstrators.

The court on October 10 said it didn’t find sufficient evidence to convict the defendants in the case, including former parliament speaker Fathi Sorour.

While protesters were united in outrage at the court ruling, supporters and opponents of Islamist President Muhammad Morsi threw stones and bottles at each other.

Medics said at least 40 people were injured in the scuffles, as thousands of people gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the site of some of the biggest protests to oust Mubarak in early 2011.

Egypt does not have a new constitution or parliament yet. Islamists and liberals have been at loggerheads over the constitution, still in the drafting stage.

Based on live television broadcasts and reporting by Reuters and dpa

Hizballah Leader Admits Sending Drone Over Israel

Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said in a televized interview that his Lebanon-based Shi’ite group sent an Iranian-made drone into Israeli airspace on October 6.

Nasrallah claimed the drone “flew over sensitive installations” in Israel before being shot down near the Dimona nuclear facility.

Nasrallah said the drone was only a “small part of our capabilities” and claimed the intrusion into Israeli airspace was “not the first time and will not be the last.”

Since 2004 Hizballah has been trying to send unmanned aircraft into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the downing of the drone just before Nasrallah’s interview aired.

Netanyahu accused Hizballah of sending the drone into Israeli airspace.

Netanyahu said, “We are acting with determination to protect our borders.”

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa

Shell to face Dutch court over Nigeria spills

Oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc will defend its environmental record in the Niger Delta in a lawsuit that may set a precedent for damage claims related to the activities of international companies.

The hearing, which will be held on Thursday, follows a landmark ruling by the Dutch judiciary in 2009, when it declared itself competent to try the case despite protests from Shell that its Nigerian subsidiary was solely legally responsible for any damage.

The case, filed in a local court in The Hague, where Shell has its joint global headquarters, seeks to make Shell and other corporations responsible for pollution resulting from three oil spills in 2004, 2005 and 2007 in Africa’s top energy producer.

Plaintiffs are four Nigerians and environmental group Friends of the Earth.

The four, who are fishermen and farmers, are seeking unspecified compensation and argue they can no longer feed their
families because the area has been polluted with oil from Shell’s pipelines and production facilities.

Shell says the pollution was caused by oil thieves and that it has played its part in cleaning up.

“The real tragedy of the Niger Delta is the widespread and continual criminal activity, including sabotage, theft and illegal refining, that causes the vast majority of oil spills,” the group said in a statement.

Friends of the Earth said it hopes the case – set to last a day during which attorneys for both sides will present arguments before the judges retire to give their verdicts next year – will set a precedent and lead to “an end to the corporate crimes committed by oil giants like Shell in Nigeria and around the world”.

Wetlands ecosystem

With around 31 million inhabitants, the Niger Delta, which includes the Ogoniland region, is one of the top 10 wetland and
coastal marine ecosystems in the world and is a main source of food for the poor, rural population.

It is not only environmental groups who have been critical of Shell’s Nigerian operations.

Last year, the United Nations said in a report the government and multinational oil companies, particularly Shell, were responsible for 50 years of oil pollution that had devastated the Ogoniland region.

In one community near an oil pipeline, drinking water was contaminated with benzene, a substance known to cause cancer, at levels over 900 times above the World Health Organisation guidelines.

Shell also faced legal action this month in the US, where the Supreme court is hearing a case in which Nigerian refugees accused it of aiding the Nigerian military in the torture and killing environmentalists in the 1990s.

The government and oil firms have pledged to clean up the region and other parts of the Delta, but residents say they have seen very little action.

Royalty payments from oil firms and the sharing of federal oil revenues mean state governments in the Niger Delta have
larger budgets than many West African nations, but endemic corruption has meant that little development has been achieved.

Shell Petroleum Development Co (SPDC) is the largest oil and gas company in Nigeria, with production capacity of more than 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. It operates a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp and other oil companies including Total SA subsidiary Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd.

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Protesters Picket Over Changes To RFE/RL’s Russian Service

MOSCOW — Some 30 people have rallied in Moscow to protest the upcoming end of medium-wave broadcasts by RFE/RL’s Russian Service and its subsequent restructuring.

Kirill Filimonov, the protest’s coordinator and a former intern for the service, said he was briefly detained during the protest.

RFE/RL is a private media company funded by the U.S. Congress.

Medium-wave broadcasts by RFE/RL’s Russian Service will end on November 10, in compliance with a new media law restricting foreign ownership of a broadcast license.

Similar laws exist in Europe and the United States.

This has led to a restructuring of the service, including the buyouts of a number of staffers.

Addressing the changes, Julia Ragona, a vice president at RFE/RL, said: “The times and technology have changed. And we must too. As a result, RFE/RL is investing, not divesting money in Russia, to reach broader target audiences.”

“Our goal is to keep the legacy of Svoboda’s incredible history alive and the best way to do that is to provide more forward-leaning and interactive digital content. We believe that our new strategy, along with Masha Gessen’s leadership as director, will enable us to do precisely that,” Ragona said.

With reporting from Ekho Moskvy

Protesters Picket Over Changes To RFE/RL’s Russian Service

MOSCOW — Some 30 people have rallied in Moscow to protest the upcoming end of medium-wave broadcasts by RFE/RL’s Russian Service and its subsequent restructuring.

Kirill Filimonov, the protest’s coordinator and a former intern for the service, said he was briefly detained during the protest.

RFE/RL is a private media company funded by the U.S. Congress.

Medium-wave broadcasts by RFE/RL’s Russian Service will end on November 10, in compliance with a new media law restricting foreign ownership of a broadcast license.

Similar laws exist in Europe and the United States.

This has led to a restructuring of the service, including the buyouts of a number of staffers.

With reporting from Ekho Moskvy

U.K. Police Arrest Suspect Over Defaced Rothko

London police have arrested a man on suspicion of defacing a painting by abstract expressionist Mark Rothko at the Tate Modern museum.

A police statement said the 26-year-old suspect was detained on October 8.

The statement did not identify the suspect, but reports said he was believed to be Vladimir Umanets, who is said to be originally from Russia.

In an interview with the British Press Association, Umanets has admitted defacing the Rothko on October 7 to draw attention to his art movement, which he described as “Yellowism.”

The words “Vladimir Umanets a potential piece of Yellowism” were scrawled in black ink or paint on a corner of the Rothko painting.

Rothko, who was born in the Russian empire and later became a U.S. citizen, is renowned for large abstract paintings featuring blocks of color.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

Controversy Flares Over Number Of Christians In Egypt

Posted GMT 10-9-2012 0:29:56

(AINA) — The number of Christians in Egypt has for a long time been a tightly held secret by the authorities, leaving the door open for wide speculation, from over 25,000,000 according to some Copts to 3,000,000 according to the Muslim Salafists. The Coptic Orthodox Church has always known the number of Copts from its church database, but has kept the number secret, following the policy of the late Pope Shenouda III, that Copts may not be counted and treated as mere numbers because they are part of the fabric of society. Pope Shenouda was against the idea of setting a quota system for the Copts in parliament and other high level posts.

After 26 years of silence, an unexpected announcement of the official population count of Egypt’s Christians was made last week on Al-Tahrir TV by Major-General al-Guindi, head of Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. He said that the number of Christian in Egypt was not more than 5,130,000 out of a current population of 83,150,000. He added that the low number of Christians is because of low birth rate, high immigration and the highest income level.

This announcement, which prompted a wide debate, was heavily criticized by Copts and especially by the Coptic Church. It was covered by all media. Some supported the 5 million number, some found it surprisingly low.

Those in support of the low numbers say the 2011 Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life study revealed the Christian population is 5.3 percent (4.3 million out of 80 million). The Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development studies puts the number of Copt at 8 to 8.5 million, nearly 10%, and said that if the church has other numbers then these should be published so that they could discuss and verify them.

The importance of the number of Copts at this time is viewed by many as a political issue par excellence, and this announcement comes in conjunction with the process of drafting the constitution. It is seen as an attempt to marginalize Copts and to suggest that they are a minority not entitled to participate in decision-making. Hard-line Muslims believe that the voice of the Copts is growing stronger and disproportionate to their number as a minority, especially in the Coptic fight against Sharia within the committee drafting the new Constitution.

Anba Pachomius, acting Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, rejected the census results, telling Al Dostour el-Asly newspaper “Is this a special census for Christians in the district of Cairo’s Shubra district only or the whole of Egypt?” Bishop Pachomius said he was bewildered at the significance of this statement coming out specifically at this time when Egypt is going through important transformations and experiencing heavy sectarian tensions.

The acting Patriarch wondered where al- Guindi got his numbers and demanded the numbers for each of the 27 Egyptian governorates, saying “We have different numbers which are by far higher, but we will not declare them yet as the time in not suitable.”

Bishop Anba Marcus of Shubra el-Khaimah said the number of Copts in Egypt ranges between 15 and 18 million, explaining that the number of Christians in the province of Minya alone, 1,200,000, exceeds their population in Cairo and other Upper Egypt governorates which are densily populated with Christians.

It is worth noting that those numbers do not include Copts of other denominations such Catholics, Evangelicals and Protestants, who are estimated at 1.5-2 million.

Bishop Marcus said that the number of Copts in Egypt is known to the Church as every Diocese knows the full count of it parishioners, but the numbers are not compiled in one list. “We can easily do so if the acting Patriarch Anba Pachomius or the next Pope would ask each bishop to provide the count of Christians in his diocese”

After heavy criticism, the census chief retracted his statement, claiming that his statement was taken out of context and issued another statement saying that he referring to the census of 1986 when the Copts were 5.7% of the total population, and that since then the agency has no definitive number for Copts. He said that according to the Declaration of the United Nations Statistics Commission of 1985, it was optional for people to add their religious affiliation in the census form, and therefore in the two following censuses of 1996 and 2006, this information was unavailable.

Kamal Zakher, coordinator of the Front of Secular Copts, said the number of Christians in Egypt is a state secret. He believes that the recent statement was deliberately politicized to the idea that Christians remain a minority, “but citizenship means that the rights and duties have nothing to do with the numbers.”

Attroney Dr. Naguib Gabriel, head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization, filed a lawsuit with the administrative court against the Prime Minister and the head of the census agency, for the issuance of a court order to carry out a census of Christians in Egypt and to determine their percentage of Egypt’s population, to be taken from the data base of the Civil Status Department and under international observation. “Egyptian identification cards include religious affiliation of the cardholder and it would be easy to get the numbers required,” he said. The hearing is scheduled for 9 October.

Gabriel also said that Copts have suffered over a long time from the wrong and random way the census agency has dealt with their numbers, with very peculiar percentages which are drastically different from reality.

By Mary Abdelmassih

Libyans protest over PM’s new government

More than 100 Libyans have stormed the headquarters of the Libyan General Conference in Tripoli to protest against the formation of a new government.

The protesters said on Thursday that the list of new cabinet members presented the day before by Mustafa Abushagur, the prime minister, are not representative of Libya.

The demonstrators entered the national assembly’s premises and aired their grievances to representatives of the legislative assembly, the first elected authority after four decades of rule under slain leader Muammar Gaddafi, witnesses said.

Between 100 and 150 demonstrators from the western town of Zawiyah walked into the hall where congress meets, forcing the cancellation of a session to study the nominations.

“After we heard the list, everyone in Zawiyah was angry. Some even began protesting in Zawiyah’s main square last night,” said Nuri Shambi, who travelled 50km to Tripoli to voice his anger.

“Abushagur said he would form a coalition government, that he would look at experience. Zawiyah proposed candidates for oil minister, but he’s brought in someone who is not well known.”

The protesters eventually left the hall but remained outside.

A session was set for later on Thursday to determine the procedure for voting on the candidates in an assembly still finding its feet after Libya’s first democratic election in July.

Abushagur’s line-up includes many unknown names, including the proposed oil minister, Mabrouk Issa Abu Harroura.

While Abushagur says he is politically “neutral”, the line-up is said to include several members of the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ibrahim al-Gharyani, head of the National Forces Alliance (NFA) in congress, said there were no candidates from his alliance.

Dissatisfaction voiced

Omar Hmaidan, congress spokesman, said several congress members had already voiced dissatisfaction with the nominations.

Abushagur can propose alternatives until Sunday if any choices are rejected.

The NFA’s leader, wartime rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril, lost out narrowly to Abushagur in the congress vote for the next head of government.

Although the NFA is easily the biggest political grouping with 39 out of the 80 party seats in the assembly, another 120 seats are in the hands of independents whose leanings may start to become clear as they vote on the cabinet.

“We need a political government. Many of these people are not known,” Mohammed Saleem, congress member, said.

Another congress member echoed that, adding: “Those who are known to us have little experience.”

The NFA had asked in vain for nine ministries and the inclusion of its programme in the next government.

Hamuda Siala, NFA spokesman, said it would support Abushagur’s cabinet “as long as it aims to serve Libya’s national interest, improve security and boost development”.

Abushagur’s transitional government will take over from an interim administration appointed last November in which he was deputy prime minister.

He picked three deputy prime ministers from the western mountain town of Zintan, from the south and from the east in an attempt to ensure broad geographical representation.

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Obama and Romney battle over economy

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney battled over economic issues in a presidential debate that could prove to be pivotal in helping voters decide which candidate to support in the November 6 election.

Romney needed a victory in the 90-minute encounter to help put his campaign back on a positive footing after a rocky few weeks.

Obama, holding a slight edge in national polls and leading Romney in some swing states where the election will be decided, was looking for a performance that would at least avoid harming his position as the apparent front-runner.

The two candidates plunged into economic issues that were the central theme of the University of Denver debate, with Obama arguing his plans would ultimately lead to strong job growth and Romney charging Obama’s policies had failed to turn around the economy and make a significant dent in 8.1 per cent unemployment.

“Governor Romney has a perspective that says if we cut taxes skewed towards the wealthy and roll back regulations, that we’ll be better off. I’ve got a different view,” Obama said.

Romney laid out a five-point economic plan and accused the Democrat of relying too heavily on big government.

“The president has a view very similar to the one he had when he ran for office four years ago, that spending more,
taxing more, regulating more, if you will, trickle-down government would work. That’s not the right answer for America,” Romney said.

For Obama, Tuesday’s debate, moderated by Jim Lehrer, exeucitve editor of the PBS Newshour, also falls on the same date as the twentieth anniversary of his wedding with Michelle Obama, the first lady.

‘Knock it out of the park’

“Americans who are thinking about voting for Romney need to hear from him about how he would change the country for the better,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean.

“They’re leaning toward the devil they know, which is President Obama. Romney has to knock it out of the park by showing the contrast between himself and Obama.”

Romney has recently been under fire for comments he made at a secretly recorded fundraising event, in which he said 47 per cent of US voters are dependent on government and unlikely to support him. ”My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives,” he said .

Strong performances in the debates can have big effects on polling numbers: in 2004, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry hammered George Bush on foreign policy, and temporarily erased Bush’s lead in national polls – though ended up losing the election.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Denver, said the two candidates “want to rally the people at home, the people who already support them. … More importantly, though, there’s about five per cent of voters who say they still haven’t made up their mind.”

With an expected television audience of between 50 and 60 million people, the debate is “an opportunity these candidates can’t afford to miss”.

The Commission on Presidential Debates, the non-partisan group organising the event, plans to introduce a new format this year. The debate will be divided into six discussion segments.

Peter Eyre, a senior adviser to the commission, said there will be “fewer questions but more extended discussion that dives into certain issues in detail”.

No part in logistics

Eyre stressed that neither party, nor their candidates, had no part in the logistics of the debates.

“The campaigns and the candidates have really no input into how the set looks and feels, the formats, things like that. Those are decisions made by the Commission,” he said.

Though there is a new format, Eyre says for the last two decades, the set for these debates has remained largely untouched.

“We’ve been using this set behind me since really 1988 and obviously we’ve been improving it, enhancing over the years,” Eyre said.

“But the set is designed by the Commission and that’s really what we’ve been using since.”

Despite their heated competition for the presidency, Obama and Romney have little personal relationship, and have rarely met in-person with one another.

Both Romney and Obama spent their time mostly in private on Tuesday, preparing for the debate.

The president was in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas, while Romney was already in Denver.

Neither held public campaign events, but Obama took a break from preparation to visit nearby Hoover Dam, and Romney picked up lunch at a Chipotle Mexican Grill near his hotel.

Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will face one another in the sole vice presidential debate in Kentucky on October 11.

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U.S. Charges 11 Over Alleged High-Tech Electronics Export Scheme

U.S. prosecutors have announced criminal charges against 11 people accused of involvement in a group that allegedly illegally exported high-technology electronics from the United States to Russian military and intelligence agencies.

Federal prosecutors in New York City said the microelectronics allegedly exported to Russia were subject to “strict” U.S. government controls due to their potential use in military radar and surveillance systems, weapons guidance systems, and detonation triggers.

The indictment unsealed on October 3 said the alleged scheme operated between 2008 and the present.

It said the suspects include a Kazakh-born man who holds both Russian and U.S. passports, Alexander Fishenko, and described him as an unregistered Russian government agent.

The Associated Press reports that eight of the 11 suspects, including Fishenko, have been arrested so far.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP

Disputes over Infrastructure law end INA’s meeting

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) -The Political Bureau of the Iraqi National Alliance ended its meeting held on Sunday afternoon after discussing the controversial Infrastructure law draft.

Reliable source from the INA told IraqiNews.com Sunday “The Political Bureau held its regular meeting on Sunday afternoon to discuss the political updates on the Iraqi arena.”

“The Infrastructure law draft was the core of the discussions during the meeting and sides of the INA were divided over this law draft since most blocs of the Alliance had objections over the law but the State of Law Coalition insists to endorse it,” the source added.

“The important thing is that the meeting did not discuss the security developments related to the prisoners’ escape from Tasfirat prison of Tikrit or the organized assassinations,” the source mentioned.

The political bureau of the INA held its regular meeting at the residence of the INA’s head, Ibrahim al-Jaafary in Baghdad on Sunday afternoon.

Aleppo Fire Raises Doubt Over Rebels’ True Tactics

Posted GMT 9-30-2012 20:55:43

BEIRUT — The fire that swept through the old central marketplace, of Aleppo at the weekend, damaging a vast and well-preserved labyrinth of mediaeval storehouses, shops and courtyards, has renewed a debate about the Syrian rebellion and its strategy as the “decisive battle” for the city continues.

One video shot by anti-government activists showed a curtain of dark smoke hanging over the centre of Aleppo near the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Some opponents of President Bashar al-Assad were already incensed at insurgents they said had operated conspicuously near the old city.

“Our hearts and minds have been burned in this fire,” said a doctor in Aleppo who gave her name only as Dima. “It’s not just a souq and shops, but it’s our soul, too.” She pronounced herself “annoyed, annoyed, annoyed” with fighters from the rebel Tawhid Brigade, which announced the offensive on Thursday. Advertisement

The fighters said they were seeking to “liberate” neighbourhoods that had remained largely pro-government and were being used as posts from which to attack the opposition. But in a Skype interview, Dima said the recent fighting cast doubt on both the rebel leaders’ tactical wisdom and their intentions.

She called them “performers” who had needlessly provoked the government by posing for pictures outside the souq and the nearby 12th-century mosque and who “talked nonsense”. “There is no decisive battle,” she said. “There are no liberated areas.”

Brigadier Bashir al-Hajji, the commander of the Tawhid Brigade, said the offensive had worked and that rebels were progressing towards the heart of Aleppo. Rebels and activists said the government had started the blaze by firing incendiary bullets.

He said he had visited the market area, where, he said in a Skype interview, “there’s anger, but anger against Bashar and his collaborators”.

An antigovernment activist from Aleppo said the rebels were repeating a mistake they had made in the province of Hama. There they hid in the Madiq citadel, an ancient but still-inhabited hilltop fortress, and government shelling severely damaged it.

“The rebels are not appreciating the value of the places they are liberating,” said the activist, who gave his name as Abu Mihyo.

He said it appeared the rebels were trying to penetrate the city centre through the old city, following a hadith (a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) that destroying the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site, is better than shedding a drop of Muslim blood.

“I agree,” he said, adding that the government would destroy anything to beat the rebels, and “we should keep our heritage”.

The fire came after the most intense fighting across the city in weeks. The government said rebels had attacked several fronts in the city on Friday and had been pushed back with heavy casualties.

Activists said that anti-government fighters had tried to put out the fire, but that it was difficult because of government snipers in the area, who activists have said set up positions in the city’s 13th-century citadel, which overlooks the souq.

The Syrian government news agency SANA did not immediately acknowledge the fire, but reported continuing clashes across Aleppo on Saturday, saying security forces “killed and wounded scores of terrorists”.

Dima, who lives on the western side of Aleppo, said she believed that the fire had been started by incendiary bullets from government snipers. But she blamed the rebels for approaching the old city, which she said had no government target, and said they seemed more concerned with the number of areas they could seize than with their tactical importance.

“They are not the army of freedom,” she said. “They are the army of spite.”

By Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad
New York Times

INA holds meeting over political updates

Sunday, 30 September, 2012

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) -The political body of the Iraqi National Alliance held a meeting on Sunday afternoon to discuss developments on the political arena and a number of legislative acts.

A source from the INA told Iraqi News (IraqiNews.com) “The meeting which is held at the home of the head of the Alliance, Ibrahim al-Jaafary, will discuss the overall situation in the country and the law drafts that were not passed in parliament, including Infrastructure, the Constitutional Court, General Amnesty law drafts and following- up the reforms document adopted by the Alliance.”

“The meeting will also discuss the return of President Jalal Talabani to Baghdad and the talks and meetings he conducted with various political forces,” the source added.

LINK

Reuters Guilty Over Video Script In Iran

Iran’s Press TV reports that an Iranian jury voted on September 30 to convict the Reuters news organization over a video script that contained an error.

Press TV said on its website the final decision rests with a judge, who is expected to issue his verdict next week.

In March, Iran suspended the press accreditation of Reuters staff in Tehran after the publication of a video script on women’s martial arts training that incorrectly referred to the athletes as “assassins.”

Reuters journalists have not been able to report inside Iran since then.

The jury also found Reuters’ bureau chief in Iran, Iranian national Parisa Hafezi, guilty of “spreading lies.”

Hafezi’s passport was confiscated in March.

A Reuters spokesperson declined to comment “until a decision is issued.”

Reuters has apologised for the error.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

US TV network apologises over live ‘suicide’

A US television network has apologised for showing a man shooting himself in the head on live television.

Fox News on Friday was covering a high-speed chase in Phoenix, Arizona state, using a live helicopter shot when the incident happened.

The man was followed into the desert, when he stopped and ran out, pulling out a handgun to his head and firing.

Fox Anchor Shepard Smith later apologised to viewers for not cutting away.

“We really messed up and we’re all very sorry,” said anchorman Shepard Smith, who told viewers that a five-second delay in the live feed ought to have enabled the graphic scene to be stopped before going on air.

“That didn’t belong on TV,” Smith said.

“We took every precaution we knew how to take to keep that from being on TV. And I personally apologize to you
that that happened… That won’t happen again on my watch.”

Tommy Thompson, police spokesman, said the man was alleged to have stolen the car from a couple at gunpoint outside a restaurant just before 11:00 local time (18:00 GMT).

Police tracked down the car and began pursuit. The driver fired several shots at the police car, but no officers were hurt.

The car travelled west on Interstate highway 10, before turning onto a dirt road.

“He got out of the car and shot himself,” said officer Thompson. “Efforts to revive him were not successful and he was dead at the scene. We don’t have an ID yet.”

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UN deadlocked over Syria despite aid pledges

The United States and France have announced increased support for opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as the world leaders remain divided on how to end the 18 months of violence in Syria.

World leaders meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week have expressed condemnation and frustration about the ongoing crisis in Syria, but there has been little progress in cementing a proposal to put a stop to the violence there.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, on Friday told a meeting of the Friends of Syria group that the US would provide an additional $ 45m in non-lethal and humanitarian aid to the Syrian opposition.

Of this, $ 30m would be for humanitarian assistance and $ 15m for non-lethal help, such as radios and training.

The new pledges pushed total US humanitarian aid for Syria to more than $ 130m, and non-lethal aid to opposition groups to almost $ 45m.

Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, told the same meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria – an informal group of
countries supporting Assad’s ouster – that Paris was increasing its contacts with Syria’s armed rebels.

“The process is complex but the Syrian people have been waiting for 18 months for the opposition to succeed to move forward,” Fabius said.

“It is within this perspective that France has increased its contacts with representatives of the armed opposition.”

Deadlock

Despite Friday’s announcements, foreign assistance to the Syrian rebels has fallen well short of the foreign-protected safe havens the opposition wants and offers little hope of relief to the worsening plight of civilians.

France started channeling aid to rebel-held parts of Syria in August so that these safe havens could administer themselves and help stanch a flow of refugees trying to escape deadly air strikes by Assad’s forces.

However, credible protection for “liberated” areas would require no-fly zones patrolled by foreign aircraft. But this would require a mandate from the UN Security Council – something resolutely opposed by veto-wielding members Russia and China.

The council’s deadlock appears unbreakable at the moment, Western diplomats say.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told the Friends of Syria group the situation in Syria was becoming “more explosive”.

“We need to start a transitional period,” he said. “A transitional period means a change to another regime.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who attended the meeting, later told the General Assembly it was “the inability of the Security Council to act that still encourages the Syrian regime to kill ever more people.”

“The situation in Syria has evolved into a real threat to regional peace and security,” he said.

“The Syrian regime deploys every instrument to turn the legitimate struggle of the Syrian people into a sectarian war, which will engulf the entire region into flames.”

‘Geneva accord’

Russia meanwhile attempted to turn the tables on critics of its stance on Syria, insisting that it is the West which stands in the way of concerted international action.

“We have consistently called for concerted efforts by the international community to compel the governments and its opponents to immediately cease violence and come to the negotiating table,” Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said on Friday.

He insisted before the assembly that the logjam was the fault of the powers that have failed to implement an earlier agreement on the conflict dubbed the “Geneva accord”.

“This is the quickest way to stop the loss of life in Syria,” he said, recalling that Moscow had proposed a resolution confirming that Syria was to see a transition of power under the terms of the Geneva accord.

“But this proposal has been blocked,” he complained, warning: “Those who oppose the implementation of the Geneva communique take upon themselves an enormous responsibility.

“They insist on a ceasefire only by the government and encourage the opposition to intensify hostilities. But in doing so, they essentially push Syria even deeper into the abyss of bloody internecine strife.”

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Egypt TV Owner to Face Trial Over Bible Burning

Posted GMT 9-27-2012 0:10:55

(AFP) — Egypt’s prosecutor general has referred to court the owner of an Islamist television station and his son over accusations they burned a copy of the Bible [AINA 9-14-2012], state media reported on Tuesday.

Al-Omma TV owner Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah, known as Abu Islam, and his son Islam, face charges of “insulting the Christian faith” along with journalist Hani Yassin Gadallah of the independent daily Al-Tahrir, said the official MENA news agency.

Abu Islam and his son are specifically accused of tearing up and setting on fire a copy of the Bible during protests this month outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo against a US-made film mocking the Prophet Mohammed.

Abu Islam is also accused of having made insulting remarks against Christianity in an interview with the Al-Tahrir journalist, the state news agency said.

A mob stormed the U.S. embassy in Cairo and tore down the U.S. flag on September 11 in a protest sparked by the low-budget film mocking Islam and portraying the Prophet Mohammed as immoral and violent.

The “Innocence of Muslims” movie was apparently produced by a U.S.-based Coptic Christian.

Egyptian Christians, who have long complained of discrimination, have said they fear the film will lead to further persecution at home.

The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the highest authority of the Coptic patriarchate, issued a statement slamming the film’s release as a “malicious plan aimed at defaming religions and causing divisions among the Egyptian people.”

Last week, the public prosecutor ordered the trial of seven Egyptian Copts living in North America over their alleged role in the film.

They are accused of “insulting the Islamic religion, insulting the Prophet and inciting sectarian strife.”

Egypt’s Christians make up between six and 10 percent of the country’s 82 million people, and have long complained of discrimination and marginalization.

On September 18, a court in Egypt jailed a Christian for six years for mocking the Prophet Mohammed and for insulting Islamist President Mohammed Mursi on social networking sites, a judicial source said.

Press reports say many Copts have emigrated or are looking to leave the country since Islamists came to power in the parliamentary and presidential elections.

Russia Criticizes EU Parliament Over Pussy Riot Prize Nomination

Russia has criticized the European Parliament for nominating three jailed members of the feminist performance-art group Pussy Riot for a human rights prize.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said EU lawmakers were interfering in the internal affairs of Russia by nominating the three women for the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

The three were sentenced last month to two years in prison after staging a performance critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow cathedral in February.

The sentence has been widely condemned as harsh.

Also up for this year’s Sakharov prize are Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and jailed Belarusian rights defender Ales Byalyatski.

The winner from among the five nominees will be announced on October 26.

The prize is named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and was established in 1988.

Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax

Ministers meet over Japan-China island row

China has claimed that islands at the centre of a territorial row with Japan are “sacred territory” in talks between the two countries foreign ministers on the subject, the state Chinese news agency reports.

Koichiro Gemba, the Japanese foreign minister, met his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

The Xinhua news agency said Yang reiterated China’s “solemn position on the issue of Diaoyu Islands, which have been China’s sacred territory since ancient times”. The islands are referred to as Senkaku in Japan.

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro, for his part, said Tokyo had its own stance on the Senkaku islands, and called for restraint in a dispute that is threatening ties between Asia’s two largest economies, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said.

The meeting in New York was the highest level diplomatic contact between the two countries since an escalation in tensions this month after Japan’s central government bought the isolated East China Sea islands from their private owners.

The move sparked anti-Japan protests across China.

China’s meetings with Japanese diplomats – at the United Nations and a day earlier in Beijing – suggest Beijing does not want the tensions over the island chain, believed to be in waters rich in natural gas deposits, to lead to a rupture in relations.

Yang, however, was strident in his tone.

“The Japanese move is a gross violation of China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, an outright denial of the outcomes of victory of the world anti-fascist war and a grave challenge to the post-war international order,” said Yang, according to the Xinhua summary of his comments.

Japan said that the the purchase of the islands was meant to avoid a more provocative bid from Shintaro Ishihara, the mayor of Tokyo, who planned to have his metropolitican government buy them.

The Japanese government says that it is trying to keep communications channels open.

China postponed a ceremony marking the anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic ties with Japan, but an official at the Japan-China Economic Association said Toyota Motor Corp Chairman Fujio Cho and Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Japanese business lobby Keidanren, and other representatives of Japan-China friendship groups would attend an event on Thursday in Beijing.

Patrol vessels from the two countries have also been playing a tense game of cat-and-mouse in the waters near the disputed islands, raising concerns that an unintended collision or other incident could escalate into a broader clash.

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Obama Speech Said To Confront Muslim Unrest, Warn Iran Over Nuclear Bid

The White House says U.S. President Barack Obama will challenge the world to confront the root causes of the current wave of outrage across the Muslim world in his appearance before the UN General Assembly.

Scores of people have been killed in protests directed against the United States over video posted online from a U.S.-made film that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad.

According to advance excerpts from his scheduled September 25 speech, Obama will say the violence over the past two weeks is “not simply an assault on America” but also “an assault on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.”

Obama will also seek to reaffirm U.S. resolve to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He will tell Iran that “time is not unlimited” for a diplomatic solution.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

US Marines charged over Afghan urination case

Two US Marines are to face criminal charges for urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, the Marines Corps has said.

The criminal charges are the first faced by anyone over the incident, a video of which was widely circulated on the internet, sparking protests in Afghanistan earlier this year.

At the time, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, called the Marines’ actions “inhumane”.

Staff Sergeants Joseph W Chamblin and Edward W Deptola, were also charged with “posing for unofficial photographs with human casualties” the Corps said, and will face a court martial.

The Corps’ investigation showed that although the video was only circulated on the internet in January, the incident actually took place on or around July 27, 2011, during an operation in the Afghan province of Helmand.

The Corps said on August 27 that three Marines had pleaded guilty to charges over the video. Their punishment, however, fell short of criminal prosecution.

Chamblin and Deptola also face a series of charges related to being in dereliction of their duties, including failing to supervise junior Marines. The charges also include failing to report the “negligent discharge” of a grenade launcher.

Deptola is also charged with failing to stop the unnecessary damaging of Afghan compounds.

The Corps said there were other pending cases in the video investigation. They declined to elaborate on the incident in which the negligent actions took place.

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Internet Providers In Chechnya Instructed To Block YouTube Over Anti-Islam Film

Internet providers in Russia’s Chechen Republic in the majority Muslim-populated North Caucasus have been instructed to block YouTube to prevent access to a controversial amateur movie mocking the Prophet Muhammad.

One Internet provider in Chechnya, Orange Company, has blocked the YouTube site already.

Three remaining providers, MTS, Megafon and Vympelkom have been officially ordered by the republic’s prosecutor general to block the popular video-sharing online resource to prevent people viewing the film “Innocence of Muslims.”

The film, which was privately made in the United States, sparked violent protests and attacks on U.S. embassies across the Islamic world.

In the neighboring Russian republic of Daghestan, the private Summa Telekom firm had earlier blocked YouTube.

Based on reporting by chechnya.gov.ru and Interfax