Saturday, February 23, 2008
Prison death sparks Fatah-Hamas tension (AP)
The family of a Hamas preacher who died in Palestinian custody alleged Saturday that the prisoner was tortured by interrogators from the rival Fatah faction.
Authorities confirmed the death on Friday of Majed Barghouti, 44, at an intelligence lockup in the West Bank town of Ramallah, a week after his arrest. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah forces control the prison, ordered an investigation.
The death raises new concerns that Fatah forces are violating human rights in their crackdown on the Islamic militant group Hamas. Hamas detainees have repeatedly complained of mistreatment by Abbas' forces and Gaza's Hamas leadership called Barghouti's death a crime. (Link)
Romania Base Suspected CIA Prisoner Site (AP)
It always happened at 1 a.m. In a secluded corner of this heavily guarded airfield, two snipers would creep across a rooftop and take their positions. Moments later, just below, a black minibus would arrive and wait.
Three times in 2004, and twice more in 2005, a jet landed and the black bus drove out to meet it. Large, mysterious parcels were exchanged that, according to a Romanian official who says he witnessed it, looked like bundled-up terror suspects.
The official, a high-ranking veteran with inside knowledge of operations at the base, said the planes then left for North Africa with their cargo and two CIA handlers aboard. (Link)
Baghdad's Green Zone Attacked (AP)
Extremists fired an explosive barrage Saturday into the capital's heavily protected Green Zone, targeting the heart of America's diplomatic and military mission in Iraq.
The U.S. military said there were no injuries from the early morning volley, which could be heard throughout downtown Baghdad.
The earth-jarring detonations, nearly 10 of them, even shook buildings across the Tigris River from the capital's fortified core, which houses the U.S. Embassy, military facilities and the Iraqi government.
The attack came shortly before Brig. Gen. Mike Milano, a top U.S. military official tasked with restoring security to Baghdad, said that nearly 80 percent of the capital's districts were now considered free of organized extremist activity.
The strikes were the most recent involving what Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman, described as indirect fire - the military's term for a rocket or mortar attack. (Link)
Turkey: 5 troops, dozens of rebels killed in Iraq offensive (JPost)
Turkish forces pressed ahead with ground operations against Kurdish rebels in Iraq on Saturday after the military reported that five troops and several dozen rebels had been killed in the cross-border fighting.
The US-backed Iraqi government said Turkey had assured it that the operation, Ankara's first major ground incursion against Kurdish rebel bases in nearly a decade, would target only rebels who have staged hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets from hideouts in northern Iraq.
A Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded in a land mine blast on Saturday in the Turkish province of Bingol, nearly 300 kilometers from the border, local media said.
Saudi men arrested for 'flirting' (BBC)
Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia have begun investigating 57 young men who were arrested on Thursday for flirting with girls at shopping centres in Mecca.
The men are accused of wearing indecent clothes, playing loud music and dancing in order to attract the attention of girls, the Saudi Gazette reported.
They were arrested following a request of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
The mutaween enforce Saudi Arabia's conservative brand of Islam, Wahhabism. (Link)
Labels: Saudi Arabia
Iraq: Rockets or Mortars Hit Green Zone (AP)
A series of rockets or mortars were fired toward the U.S.-protected Green Zone early Saturday, a day after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia fighters to cease attacks for another six months.
Nearly 10 blasts were heard in the sprawling area in central Baghdad starting about 6:15 a.m., and the U.S. public address system there warned people to "duck and cover" and to stay away from windows.
Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed the Green Zone was hit by indirect fire, the military's term for a rocket or mortar attack, but could not immediately provide more details.
The U.S. military blamed what it calls Iranian-backed Shiite militias for a series of deadly rocket attacks in Baghdad earlier this week, including one against U.S. outposts in Baghdad that wounded three American soldiers.
Another struck Camp Victory, the main U.S. military headquarters, and an Iraqi housing complex on the capital's southwestern outskirts on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding 16, including two U.S. soldiers. (Link)
Turkey headscarf law approved (Al Jazeera)
Turkey's president has approved a constitutional change allowing students to wear headscarves at university despite strong objections from secularists.
The approval by Abdullah Gul, a former ruling AK Party foreign minister, was never seriously in doubt, though secularists had argued it should be rejected in the interest of national unity.
Turkey's parliament voted to end the headscarf ban on February 9 after the AK Party, which has Islamic roots, won the backing of a key nationalist party.
Secularists, including army generals and judges, fear lifting the ban will undermine the separation of state and religion in Turkey. (Link)
Labels: Turkey
Friday, February 22, 2008
Arab leaders threaten to withdraw 2002 land-for-peace offer (AP)
Arab officials are warning they could withdraw their landmark offer of peace and full ties with Israel in exchange for a return of Arab lands, unless Israel explicitly accepts the initiative.
The warnings reflect increasing Arab impatience with the long-stalled peace process with Israel. Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have bogged down since they were relaunched at the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis peace conference last November after a seven-year hiatus.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal - whose country sponsored the Arab peace initiative, adopted by Arab nations in 2002 - warned Thursday that despair would force us to review these options, including withdrawing the proposal.
He accused Israel of sabotaging the initiative, which is now facing grave danger. (Link)
Labels: Arab Leauge, Israel, Palestine
Israeli mayor of bombarded border town offers to break ranks and talk to Hamas (Guardian)
The mayor of Sderot, an Israeli town repeatedly targeted by rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, says in order to save Israeli lives he is ready to talk to Hamas - despite the international ban on contact with the militant Palestinian organisation.
"I would say to Hamas, let's have a ceasefire, let's stop the rockets for the next 10 years and we will see what happens," said Eli Moyal, the mayor, who is a member of the rightwing Likud party. "For me as a person the most important thing is life and I'm ready to do everything for that. I'm ready to talk to the devil."
Last week a child lost a leg in a rocket attack on Sderot. Moyal's first response was to call for the assassination of the Hamas leadership and for Gaza villages to be razed. But now he is ready for a different tactic. His call for talks comes as Israel's blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip is under international pressure. (Link)
Arab-Israeli rights group brings to light evidence of Israeli Army's 'cowardly blending' among civilian populations (Daily Star)
It apparently never occurred to anyone in our leading human-rights organizations or the Western media that the same moral and legal standards ought be applied to the behavior of Israel and Hizbullah during the war on Lebanon 18 months ago. Belatedly, an important effort has been made to set that right.
A new report, written by a respected Israeli human-rights organization, one representing the country's Arab minority, not its Jewish majority, has unearthed evidence showing that during the fighting Israel committed war crimes not only against Lebanese civilians - as was already known - but also against its own Arab citizens. This is an aspect of the war that has been almost entirely neglected until now.
The report also sheds a surprising light on the question of what Hizbullah was aiming at when it fired hundreds of rockets on northern Israel. Until the report's publication last month, I had been all but a lone voice arguing that the picture of what took place during the war was far more complex than generally accepted. (Link)
Nasrallah is tarnishing the value of all he has done for Lebanon (Daily Star)
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's speech on Friday confirmed that Lebanon is in serious danger of losing yet another of the few political assets it has had in recent years. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was taken from us by assassination. The hopeful early message of the March 14 Forces has been lost in a cacophony of contradictory and counter-productive rhetoric. And now Nasrallah is diminishing his own stature by emulating the pointless politics wielded by lesser men of meaner goals. Unless the resistance leader changes course very soon, this departure from everything we have known about him risks becoming permanent.
That would be a great loss for Hizbullah, of course, but the most painful implications would be for Lebanon as a whole. After all, in a political arena long dominated by empty talk, Nasrallah has traditionally been relatively short on words and long on deeds. It was on his watch that Hizbullah became a highly competent military force that focused on Israeli occupation troops until they and their leaders could no longer stomach the fight. It was he who was in charge, too, when his organization produced members of Parliament whose integrity and professionalism has been a credit to both the party and the legislature. And when it came time for Hizbullah ministers to sit in Cabinet (however briefly), their performance was sterling, especially when compared to that of various hereditary seat-fillers. (Link)
Hezbollah vows to avenge Moughniyah's killing (Reuters)
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Friday to avenge the assassination of his senior commander Imad Moughniyah and threatened to deal Israel a crushing blow if it attacked Lebanon again.
"I swear to you Haj Imad, your blood will not go to waste," Nasrallah told a Hezbollah rally commemorating Moughniyah's death in a car bombing in Damascus on February 12.
"We will defend ourselves the way we choose, at the time we choose, in the place we choose... With our will and bravery we will defend ourselves and our blood," he said. (Link)
Labels: Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon
IAEA: Iran dismisses evidence on nukes (AP)
Iran has rejected documents that link it to missile and explosives experiments and other work connected to a possible nuclear weapons program, calling the information false and irrelevant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.
As expected, an International Atomic Agency report also confirmed that Iran continued to enrich uranium despite two sets of Security Council sanctions to punish it for defying council demands to freeze the program that can generate both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads.
An 11-page report obtained by The Associated Press suggested all other major issues that had raised past suspicions about Iran's claims to working only on a peaceful nuclear program had either been fully resolved or were "no longer outstanding at this stage." (Link)
The People Speak in Pakistan (The Progressive)
Life is always full of pleasant surprises, the elections in Pakistan proving this yet again.
In spite of holding the massive advantages of a pliant election commission, a muzzled media and a jailed judiciary, (erstwhile) General Pervez Musharraf’s party lost massively in the parliamentary elections held on February 18. Benazir Bhutto’s party won the most seats, with the party of ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif close behind. No single party won a majority, though, forcing these two parties to form a coalition.
I must confess I was taken aback by the results, since I had expected Musharraf’s henchmen to rig the results. Human Rights Watch kept a close tab on the elections and posted an audio recording of Pakistan’s attorney general himself advising a political aspirant that there would be heavy rigging in favor of Musharraf’s party. I guess there’s a limit to the shenanigans you can engage in if the people are so overwhelmingly against you. The other parties are even questioning the 40-odd seats that Musharraf’s party has gotten.
Whither Musharraf? And, more importantly from a U.S. perspective, where will the United States go from here? (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
Moqtada Al-Sadr Extends Iraqi Cease-Fire (Washington Post)
Influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Friday ordered his Mahdi Army militia to extend a cease-fire for another six months, a decision that U.S. and Iraqi officials believe will strengthen a growing sense of stability in Iraq.
In Shiite mosques in Baghdad and in Iraq's predominantly Shiite south, where thousands of Sadr's followers were awaiting his decision, preachers opened sealed envelopes sent by the young cleric and read his statement aloud during the midday prayer services. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
British troops executed 20 captives in southern Iraq, say lawyers (Guardian)
British troops may have executed up to 20 captives in southern Iraq in 2004, human rights lawyers claimed today.
A dossier of evidence from men taken captive after a gun battle near the Iraqi town of Majat-al-Kabir in May 2004 also suggested soldiers tortured and mutilated captives.
Lawyers for five Iraqis today issued detailed witness statements, photographs of corpses and death certificates of the men who died. The allegations first emerged within weeks of the incident and have since been investigated by the Royal Military Police.
The claims, which the Ministry of Defence denies, are among the most serious yet levelled against British soldiers who served in Iraq. (Link)
Talks on cluster bomb ban fail (Al Jazeera)
Delegates from more than 120 countries have failed to reach an agreement on banning the use of cluster bombs during a five-day conference in Wellington, New Zealand.
John Duncan, the UK's chief negotiator, said on Friday that "intense negotiations" would be needed at a final round of talks in May if a treaty is to be established.
China, Russia and the US, all manufacturers of the weapons, are not attending.
The talks are part of a Norwegian initiative - known as the Oslo process - launched in February last year. (Link)
Labels: Weapons Ban
Turkey Launches Ground Operation in Iraq (Washington Post)
Turkish tanks rolled into northern Iraq on Friday, renewing what has been an intensified campaign against Kurdish rebels based there.
The Turkish forces launched their cross-border ground offensive shortly after dusk Thursday evening, after hours of shelling and bombing by Turkish artillery and warplanes, Turkey's military said in a statement.
Turkish troops were crossing the Habur mountain pass into northern Iraq, the military said. Turkish media said 10,000 Turkish troops had massed at the border early Thursday, waiting to make the crossing. (Link)
Several dead in Pakistan blast (Al Jazeera)
At least 13 people have been killed after a vehicle carrying a wedding party was struck by a roadside bomb in the northwestern valley of Swat, officials say.
The vehicle was passing through Matta, a town north of Mingora, the main town in Swat, on Friday when it was hit by the blast. (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
Bombs in Baghdad and Tikrit Kill 5 (AP)
A bomb hidden under a horse-drawn cart exploded in downtown Baghdad on Friday, killing three civilians, while two policemen died when a booby-trapped car exploded north of the capital, police said.
The blasts also wounded 10 people.
The cart was left near a building, and the explosives apparently were detonated by remote-control at about 7:30 a.m., police said, adding that six people were wounded. Three cars parked nearby were damaged and AP Television News footage showed the dead horse lying on its side surrounded by rubble.
Shortly after the blast, Iraqi authorities announced a ban on carts on the streets of Baghdad. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
Arab Leaders Say the Two-State Proposal Is in Peril (NY Times)
Arab leaders will threaten to rescind their offer of full relations with Israel in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands unless Israel gives a positive response to their initiative, indicating the Arab states’ growing disillusionment with the prospects of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At an Arab League meeting next month in Syria, the leaders are planning to reiterate support for their initiative, first issued in 2002. The initiative promised Israel normalization with the league’s 22 members in return for the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as the capital, and a resolution of the issue of Palestinian refugees. (Link)
Labels: Arab Leauge, Israel, Palestine
Thursday, February 21, 2008
UN introduces Iran nuclear sanctions (AP)
Britain and France formally introduced a Security Council resolution Thursday calling for a third round of sanctions against Iran over its failure to suspend uranium enrichment.
The United States pushed hardest for the sanctions, but China and Russia - the remaining permanent council members - along with Germany have been in general agreement on them.
The six nations circulated a draft earlier calling for bans on travel and equipment that can be used in civilian and nuclear programs, more monitoring of Iran's financial institutions and inspection of air and sea cargo heading to or from Iran. (Link)
Senators' Copter Makes Emergency Landing (AP)
A helicopter carrying three senior U.S. senators has made an emergency landing in Afghanistan.
Sens. John Kerry, Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel were aboard the aircraft., according to Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The lawmakers are on a trip this week that includes stops in India, Turkey and Pakistan.
Kerry and Biden are Democrats from Massachusetts and Delaware, respectively, and the Republican Hagel is from Nebraska. (Link)
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Reports are coming in that the landing was due to a snow storm, and that the senators have thankfully been transported away safely. (Link)
They are on route to Turkey after a short stop at Bagram Air Base. (Link)
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Live updates over
Labels: Afghanistan, U.S.
Rights group slams Egypt for shooting African migrants on Israel border (Haaretz)
Amnesty International on Thursday accused Egypt of using excessive force against illegal migrants trying to sneak into Israel, and called on authorities to launch an investigation into the recent killings of five Africans on the border.
The London-based human rights group urged the Egyptian government to protect the human rights of individuals intercepted at the border with Israel and immediately launch a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the recent killings.
The five Africans - two women and three men from Sudan, Eritrea and Ivory Coast - have been killed in separate incidents near the Egypt-Israel border since late January. They were believed to have paid hundreds of dollars to human traffickers to help them cross into Israel. (Link)
Pakistan parties to form coalition (Al Jazeera)
Nawaz Sharif, the former Pakistani prime minister, has said that his party will form a new coalition government and work with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of Benazir Bhutto.
The announcement on Thursday came after the PPP and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party were overwhelmingly victorious in Monday's parliamentary polls.
Sharif said: "We have agreed on a common agenda. We will work together to form the government in the center and in the provinces." (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
EU resolution lambastes Israel over Gaza policy (Reuters)
European Union lawmakers urged Israel on Thursday not to inflict "collective punishment" on Gaza's population, saying its isolation of the territory had failed and its actions were endangering civilians.
They urged Israel to lift a blockade which has cut supplies to the 1.5 million people living in Gaza, run by the Islamist group Hamas, and let in aid and essential goods and services.
"The policy of isolation of the Gaza strip has failed at both the political and humanitarian level," the European Parliament said in an adopted resolution.
"The civilian population should be exempt from any military action and any collective punishment."
Israeli air strikes and ground incursions into the Gaza Strip have killed some 300 Palestinians in the past year, including dozens of civilians, but have failed to prevent rocket fire, which killed two Israelis in the same period. (Link)
Labels: European Union, Israel, Palestine
Saudi scholars back women drivers (BBC)
Two Saudi scholars have said there is nothing in Islamic law to prevent women from driving.
The senior religious figures said the issue depended on the context.
They say women would need to be protected from harassment and that steps would have to be taken to ensure there was no mingling of the sexes.
An opinion poll published by a leading English-language Saudi newspaper suggests that this is a view supported by most Saudi men and women.
The two scholars are Abdel-Mohsin al-Obaikan - one of Saudi Arabia's senior religious figures - and another well-known cleric, Mohsin Awaji.
Both say that, in principle, Islamic law does not prevent women driving. (Link)
Labels: Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Kuwait warns on travel to Lebanon (BBC)
Kuwaiti nationals have been advised to delay travel to Lebanon because of a security threat at its Beirut embassy.
The embassy was evacuated after an anonymous caller said it would be attacked.
Earlier in the week, the Saudi Arabian authorities advised Saudi citizens against travelling to Lebanon because of the uncertain security situation. (Link)
Britain Admits CIA Rendition Flights
The White House acknowledged Thursday that "mistakes were made" in not notifying Britain about two so-called "extraordinary rendition" US flights that refueled on British soil.
"It's unfortunate mistakes were made in the reporting of the information, but we will continue to have good counter-terrorism cooperation between the United States and United Kingdom," said national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who referred follow-up questions to the CIA.
Johndroe spoke as US President George W. Bush paid a brief visit to Liberia at the tail end of a five-country Africa tour that also took him to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ghana.
Britain voiced concern earlier Thursday on being told that two US planes carrying terrorist suspects on "extraordinary rendition" flights had refueled on British soil, despite earlier US assurances to the contrary. (Link)
West Bank building 'bias' condemned (BBC)
Israel passed fewer than 6% of building requests by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2000-07, an Israeli anti-settlement group says.
Peace Now says 91 permits were granted from 1,624 requests, in contrast to the 18,472 homes built for Jewish settlers.
The group says the data show "clear discrimination" against Palestinians in West Bank areas under Israeli control.
Military officials accused Peace Now of distorting the figures, which were taken from official Israeli statistics.
Peace Now also said, in the case of illegal buildings, the Israeli army demolished 33% of structures erected by Palestinians and 7% of the unauthorised structures built by Jewish settlers. (Link)
Iranians spar with Israel at UN (BBC)
Iran is urging the UN Security Council to stop Israel threatening military action against its nuclear programme.
The highly unusual request was sent by Iran's UN envoy Mohammad Khazaee, to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Mr Khazaee said Israeli threats were unacceptable and unjustifiable, and flagrantly violated international law.
Israel's UN envoy called the letter "disgusting dangerous... hypocrisy" in the light of what Iranian leaders have said about Israel.
Ambassador Dan Gillerman said the secretary general should not even reply to Mr Khazaee's letter.
Mr Khazaee stressed that Iran's nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes only, and said the UN should respond to Israeli threats of force by unambiguously condemning them. (Link)
Turkey eyes normal ties with Armenia after election (Reuters)
Turkey's president said on Thursday he hoped the victory of Serzh Sarksyan in Armenia's presidential election would lead to a normalization of relations between their estranged countries.
Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia and keeps their land border closed in protest at Yerevan's occupation of territory belonging to ally Azerbaijan.
Turkey and Armenia are also at loggerheads over Ankara's refusal to acknowledge as genocide the mass killings of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915-16.
"I hope your new position ... will permit the creation of the necessary environment for normalizing relations between the Turkish and Armenian peoples, who have proven over centuries they can live together in peace and concord," President Abdullah Gul said in a message of congratulations to Sarksyan. (Link)
U.S. now unsure if Iraq bombers mentally handicapped (Reuters)
The U.S. military conceded on Thursday it did not know if two women who carried out bombings in Baghdad that killed almost 100 people were mentally handicapped, casting doubt on earlier assertions.
Reports that al Qaeda was using mentally impaired women to unwittingly carry out attacks provoked widespread outrage and Washington said it proved that the militant group would stop at nothing to spread violence in Iraq.
On the day of the blasts on Feb 1., Iraqi officials said reports indicated the women had both suffered from Down's syndrome, a genetic disorder. (Link)
Over 30 Taliban killed in operation: Afghan ministry (Reuters)
The Afghan army has killed more than 30 Taliban fighters in an operation backed by air support in the violent south of the country, the defense ministry said on Thursday.
The clash happened on Wednesday in Helmand province, a bastion for Taliban guerrillas fighting the Afghan government and its Western backers and Afghanistan's main drug-producing region.
Ousted from power in 2001, the Taliban have made a comeback in the past two years and are active mainly in southern and eastern areas close to the border with Pakistan. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan
Musharraf: The impeachment factor (Al Jazeera)
In the next 24 hours, some contours of the next Pakistani government both at the centre and the country's four provinces will begin to take shape.
As expected, the polls threw up a divided mandate that relegated embattled president Pervez Musharraf's allies to the sidelines but Pakistanis are hoping that the top gainers — the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — will look beyond the short term lure of power.
Indeed, together they have the strength — with likely help from the supporting leftwing Awami National Party (ANP) and a stream of independents — to make the difference. (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
Report: U.K. gov't hid reference to Israel on Iraq weapons dossier (Haaretz)
The British newspaper The Guardian reported Thursday that the Foreign Office in London had successfully managed to conceal a reference to Israel in a September 2002 document on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, fearing harm to bilateral ties.
The Guardian says that the word "Israel" was handwritten next to a statement in the "now discredited" dossier which said that "no other country [apart from Iraq] has flouted the United Nations' authority so brazenly in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction."
According to The Guardian, "a senior Foreign Office official" says that the move was aimed at preventing any damage to relations between Israel and the United Kingdom.
The Guardian report also says the Foreign Office made no effort to conceal handwritten notes listing other countries such as the U.S., Japan and Germany in sections dealing with Iraqi belligerence. (Link)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Survey shows 99 percent of Syrians believe state institutions are corrupt (AFP)
Almost all Syrians believe their state institutions, especially the judiciary, are mired in corruption, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday in the official daily Ath-Thawra. The paper has been among several official dailies in Syria to condemn widespread corruption that has stymied public confidence and economic growth.
Asked if "corruption exists in official or state-run institutions," 450 out of 452 people said "yes," according to the survey.
"The majority of those surveyed believe that the judiciary is the most corrupt state institution," the daily said, without giving a percentage. A hefty 46 percent said "senior civil servants" were among the most corrupt in state-run institutions.
Ath-Thawra said it sent out questionnaires to its readers in a bid to "shed light on corruption" and reveal "its negative repercussions on the lives of the Syrian people." It gave no margin of error for the poll.
A major anti-corruption campaign by the state-run Syrian media in 2000 was followed by the suicide of a former premier, while a former deputy premier and an ex-transport minister were jailed for 10 years.
In March 2007, Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri sacked more than 50 officials for corruption. (Link)
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Wow! No margin of error, plus it being a distributed questionnaire that readers seem to have to take the effort to send back, makes this poll completely unreliable. But still.. coming from a Syrian daily, wow!
Labels: Syria
Analysts: Solution to Lebanon's crisis tied up in tug-of-war between US, Iran (Daily Star)
The ongoing regional standoff between the United States and Iran is largely dictating the course of the likewise seemingly intractable political impasse bedeviling Lebanon for more than a year, through each country's surrogates here, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
"Lebanon is being used as a battleground to exchange messages between Iran and the US," said Oussama Safa, executive director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. "Lebanon is the proxy battlefield to score goals back and forth."
Lebanon's deadlock shares its role as front line in this new cold war with the Iraq conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli morass, he added. "This kind of cold war or hidden war is going on here," Safa said. (Link)
Labels: Iran, Lebanon, Syria, U.S.
Freedom 'sacrificed' in Iran: opposition ayatollah (AFP)
Iran's most prominent dissident cleric has complained freedom is being "sacrificed" in the Islamic Republic, pointing to the mass disqualification of candidates for March parliamentary elections. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, once seen as the successor as supreme leader to revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also denounced "wrongdoings" which he said were giving Islam a "violent image."
"People who have paid dearly for the slogans of independence and freedom are being snubbed," the reformist Etemad newspaper quoted Montazeri as saying. "We have succeeded in achieving independence. But freedom, which is advocated by Islam and the Constitution, has been sacrificed." (Link)
Labels: Iran
Iran hangs 10 criminals in one day (AFP)
Iran hanged 10 criminals on Wednesday, the latest in a growing number of executions in the Islamic Republic that officials say are aimed at improving public security, the Fars news agency reported. Six criminals were executed in prison for armed robbery in the northern city of Zanjan while four convicted murderers were hanged in Tehran's Evin prison, the agency said. Hassan Rezaian, among the six who had been been found guilty of robbing a jewelry store in Zanjan bazaar in 2006, was also convicted of murdering a man and a woman.
In Tehran's Evin prison Peyman, 34, was hanged for murdering his wife, and Mohammad, 31, went to the gallows for killing his neighbor in a fight over shovelling snow in winter 2004. The other two men had been found guilty of murdering homeowners during burglaries.The hangings bring to at least 48 the number of executions in the Islamic Republic so far this year. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Professionals still await benefits of post-Saddam era (AFP)
They are teachers, artists and military officers but in a country where the economy is in chaos, thousands of Iraqi professionals are living hand to mouth and relying on small jobs to survive. The government's promises of economic revival have failed to materialize, despite a state budget this year of $48 billion - more than double what it was before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Geography teacher Asad Mohammad, 36, was among tens of thousands who lost their jobs when US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, sparking an economic meltdown and an extensive purge of the public sector, the country's main employer.
He now sells toys in a Baghdad market and these days is more concerned with the latest crazes among children than climatology and geomorphology. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
Religious Hard-Liners Out in Pakistan (AP)
Fed up with violence and economic hardship, voters in the deeply conservative northwest have thrown out the Islamist parties that ruled this province for five years - a clear sign that Pakistanis are rejecting religious extremism in a region where al-Qaida and the Taliban have sought refuge.
Instead, voters in turbulent North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, gave their support to secular parties that promised to pave the streets, create jobs and bring peace through dialogue and economic incentives to the extremists.
That may conflict with U.S. pressure to step up the fight against armed militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
"They didn't do anything for the people," Bokhari Shah, 65, said of the religious parties. "They have done nothing to help the people, and we are afraid to even come out from our homes because of all these bomb blasts." (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
Monitors: No Rigging in Election (AP)
Pakistan's opposition parties claimed the elections would be massively rigged - then they won. International monitors said Wednesday the run-up to the vote was biased toward President Pervez Musharraf's allies but polling day was basically fair, enabling his critics to sweep to victory.
"A level playing field was not provided for the campaign," said Michael Gahler, chief of the EU monitoring mission, noting that slanted state media coverage, restrictions on rallies and the arrest of hundreds of political activists were among conditions benefiting the ruling party.
"But on election day," he added, "voting on the whole was assessed as positive."
With the count from Monday's parliamentary election nearly complete, the opposition parties of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and ex-premier Nawaz Sharif had won enough seats to form a new government, though they were expected to fall short of the two-thirds needed to impeach Musharraf. (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
Row over Ahmadinejad Imam beliefs (BBC)
Iran's former nuclear negotiator, a cleric, has said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government is encouraging superstitious practices.
The remarks have intensified the debate over the return of the Shia saviour, the 12th Imam known as Mehdi.
Since Mr Ahmadinejad came to power he has repeatedly spoken of the need to prepare for Mehdi's imminent return.
Shia believe he went into hiding more than 1,000 years ago but will return to save the world from injustice.
Many Shia clerics do not approve of the cult rapidly growing around Mehdi.
Iran's former nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, has complained about what he calls games, superstitions and trickery that make a mockery of the people. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Shaken Hamas Still in Control of Gaza (AP)
"Scatter!" the Hamas police chief ordered his black-bearded officers at the sound of an aircraft, fearing they'd become the latest casualties in the deadly confrontation with Israel.
Hamas policemen, the emblem of eight months of Islamic militant control of Gaza, are on edge and on the move these days. Worried about Israeli missiles, they mostly roam the streets away from their compounds.
Israel's pounding of Gaza has taken a toll on the politicians as well: The once media-friendly Hamas Cabinet has been meeting in secret and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh hasn't been sighted since late January, breaking his routine of leading weekly prayers at a local mosque.
Yet despite such jitters and an eight-month blockade of Gaza, there are no signs Hamas rule is about to collapse. The Islamic militants face no serious internal opposition, and despite repeated threats, Israel appears reluctant to carry out a broad military operation to topple the group.
An entrenched Hamas could spoil President Bush's hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal in 2008, since Israel has said it cannot implement a deal while Hamas rules Gaza.
Hamas' current state - shaken, but in control and with little to lose - might explain some of its brazen actions of recent weeks, such as toppling the border wall with Egypt and keeping up rocket barrages on Israel. (Link)
Labels: Hamas, Israel, Palestine
UN hails Lebanese legalization of Iraqi refugee status (JPost)
The UN refugee agency welcomed Wednesday a decision by Lebanese authorities to regularize the status of hundreds of Iraqi refugees considered illegal in the country.
The government started this week to give Iraqis who entered Lebanon illegally or overstayed their visas a three month period to legalize their status.
An announcement posted on the Web site of Lebanon's General Security Department urged Arab and foreign nationals whose residency contradicts the law or who entered the country illegally to visit the department's offices to resolve their situation.
It also said they would be granted a year's stay or ordered to leave the country.
UNHCR said this decision would benefit thousands of Iraqi refugees in Lebanon and would lead to the release of hundreds from detention.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the refugee group said it will support the release process and provide assistance to those released from detention and to their families, as well as provide legal aid to Iraqis who wish to meet the regularization requirements. (Link)
UN Chief: Ahmadinejad's verbal attacks on Israel intolerable (Haaretz)
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon promised Wednesday to respond "firmly" to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's verbal attacks on Israel, which he called "intolerable."
Ban made the promise in a meeting with Israel's Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman, who requested the meeting with the UN chief following the Iranian president's Wednesday attack calling Israel a "filthy germ."
Ahmadinejad's remarks were broadcast on Iranian television on Wednesday, where he coined Israel a "filthy germ" and "savage beast" established by Western states in their bid to dominate Middle East nations.
His words came just days after a top commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard called Israel a "cancerous germ" which would be wiped out by Hezbollah, Army Radio reported. (Link)
US: Bombers Didn't Have Down Syndrome (AP)
The U.S. military said Wednesday that two women used as suicide bombers in attacks earlier this month had undergone psychiatric treatment but there is no indication they had Down syndrome as Iraqi and U.S. officials initially had claimed.
Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a military spokesman, said the women used in the Feb. 1 pet market bombings had been identified as residents from the northeastern outskirts of Baghdad who were in their late 20s or early 30s.
The two attacks killed nearly 100 people, and Iraqi and U.S. officials said at the time the women appeared to be unwitting attackers.
Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, the chief Iraqi military commander in Baghdad, said soon after the attacks that photos of the women's heads showed they had Down syndrome, but he did not offer any other proof. (Link)
Afghan farmers earn about $1 bln from opium: IMF (Reuters)
Afghan farmers earned about $1 billion from opium production in 2007, by far the country's largest cash crop, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
The IMF said opium production in Afghanistan had spiraled up to 8,200 tons in 2007 from 185 tons in 2001.
It said Afghanistan's share of world supply increased to about 93 percent in 2007 from 52 percent in 1995, making it the world's largest opium producer despite efforts to bring production under control since the fall of the Taliban six years ago.
The IMF said it was not well qualified to comment on Afghanistan's opium production, and cited figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that estimate the total value of the opium harvest in Afghanistan was worth about $4 billion in 2007, compared with $2.7 billion in 2005. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan