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Syria: Iran vows it will not allow Assad to fall

2012-08-07T11:19:00.003-07:00

Iran pledged that its "axis" with Syria will "never" be allowed to break when Tehran sought to bolster President Bashar al-Assad by sending a senior envoy to Damascus.

Syrian President Bashar al-assad.

Mr Assad made his first appearance on state television for over a fortnight, promising to continue the struggle against his enemies "without respite".

Iran has been trying to guarantee the survival of Mr Assad, who serves as Tehran's only reliable ally in the Middle East, by supplying Syria's regime with funds, weaponry and expert personnel to aid the campaign against rebels.

Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, came to Damascus as a visible symbol of that support.

"Iran will never allow the resistance axis – of which Syria is an essential pillar – to break," he said. The "axis of resistance" refers to the Middle East's anti-Western powers: Iran, Syria and the armed groups, Hizbollah and Hamas, although in reality the latter has already broken away by ending its presence in Damascus.

Iran and Syria both claim that foreign countries have caused the uprising against Mr Assad with the aim of destroying the "axis". During his visit, Mr Jalili echoed that message. "What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on one hand, and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other," he said.

Syria's regime has suffered a series of reverses in recent weeks, with Riyad Hijab, the prime minister, defecting on Monday and denouncing Mr Assad's "murderous" government.
The rebel Free Syrian Army now controls much of the country: its fighters are struggling for possession of Aleppo, the commercial capital. The FSA claimed to be delaying the regime's advance on the city at the end of a day of intense fighting. Mr Assad's forces had been unable or unwilling to enter the key district of Salaheddin, despite reinforcements of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks, according to rebel spokesmen. The insurgents were also encircling government troops in the northern half of Aleppo. They believe the army's inability to fully employ tanks in built-up areas has blunted its assault.
On Tuesday, however, Mr Assad reassured his Iranian guest of his determination to fight on. "The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight the terrorists without respite," he said.
The Iranian envoy also demanded the release of 48 of his country's citizens, who were kidnapped by Syrian rebels while visiting a shrine near Damascus. Mr Jalili pledged to use "all means possible" to win their freedom. An official letter sent to the US administration by Iran's foreign ministry said that Washington, as the "manifest" sponsor of "terrorist groups" in Syria, was responsible for the captives' safety.
The rebels, for their part, claimed that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were among the hostages. They believe that Iran has sent soldiers from this unit to fight alongside Syrian forces. The pilgrimage was, the rebels say, merely a cover for infiltrating more Iranian combatants into the country. To support this allegation, the rebels produced military identity cards supposedly found on the hostages.
However, any Iranian who has performed compulsory military service will hold these documents: they do not prove current membership of the country's armed forces.
Syria's regime, dominated by members of the Alawite sect of Shia Islam, bases its alliance with Iran's Shia rulers on religious fraternity. In addition, Syria provides Iran with its only base for influence in the Arab world, as well as offering a route for supplying weapons to Hizbollah, the radical Shia group based in south Lebanon.
If Mr Assad were to be overthrown, Iran would risk losing this influence and its vital link to Hizbollah. Experts believe this would amount to a strategic setback. "For Iran, Syria is a very important partner in a region where allies are not easy to come by," said Gareth Stansfield, from the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House. "If Assad goes, he will replaced by a government that is likely to be totally antipathetic to Iran's wider interests."
Sixteen civilians - mostly Alawites and Christians - meanwhile were killed by anti-regime gunmen in an attack on a housing compound near Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The majority of Syria’s population is Sunni Muslim, while the ruling clan of President Bashar al-Assad belong to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

US Election: Barack Obama feels 'genuine disdain' for Mitt Romney

2012-08-06T18:39:00.006-07:00

President Barack Obama feels "a genuine disdain" for Mitt Romney far beyond the dislike he ever felt for John McCain or Hillary Clinton, according to a new book.

Mitt Romney is unlikely to be fazed by reports of the President's dislike for him and instead taking encouragement from figures showing he raised more money than Barack Obama for a third straight month in a row

Having begun the 2012 election without strong feelings towards his Republican rival, Mr Obama has reportedly grown to despise him and now subscribes to one of the most common criticisms of the former Massachusetts governor: that he stands for nothing and will say anything to get elected.

"There was a baseline of respect for John McCain. The President always thought he was an honourable man and a war hero," one Obama adviser is quoted as saying in 'Obama's Last Stand', an forthcoming book by journalists at the Politico news website. "That doesn't hold true for Romney. He was no goddamned war hero."

White House aides were reportedly relieved as the President began to voice his contempt for Mr Romney, believing they can channel his anger on the campaign trail and keep Mr Obama motivated throughout the brutal election.

During his first rally of the election, Mr Obama described his opponent as "a patriotic American who has raised a wonderful family" but since then has done nothing to curb personal attacks on Mr Romney by his staff or other Democrat politicians.

Stephanie Cutter, the Obama 2012 deputy campaign manager, speculated last month that the Republican candidate might be personally guilty of a felony by improperly filing business records. She later refused to apologise for the unsubstantiated claim .

Early in the election – cautious that Mr Obama remains personally popular even as his job approval ratings have slumped to below 50 per cent – Mr Romney would regularly describe his opponent as "a nice guy" who was out of his depth.
His rhetoric has become significantly harsher as the general election approaches, accusing Mr Obama of cronyism and of trying to warp American society into a "European-style" collectivist state.
The two White House contenders are believed to have only met twice in person and each time very briefly. By contrast, Mr Obama spent long hours in the Senate with both Mr McCain and Mrs Clinton.
Despite his relatively mild manners and general courteousness, Mr Romney has long inspired an intense personal antipathy among his political rivals.
Race of a Lifetime, a book considered the definitive account of the last election, describes a scene before one of the 2008 Republican primary debates where Mr McCain, Rudy Giuliani and several others Republican contenders gathered in the lavatory in the moments before taking the stage.
As they lined up at the urinals, the candidates began loudly mocking Mr Romney and joking about how much they disliked him, only for him to walk in and be met with an excruciating silence.
Mr Romney is unlikely to be fazed by reports of the President's dislike for him and instead taking encouragement from figures showing he raised more money than Mr Obama for a third straight month in a row.
The Republican raised $101.3 million in July (£65 million) compared to Mr Obama's $75 million (£48 million). According to the New York Times, the Obama campaign is also burning through money far more quickly than its opponents, having spent $400 million (£256 million) since the beginning of last year – more than any incumbent in recent history.
The Romney camp's fund-raising advantage has forced Mr Obama to hold more fund-raisers for top donors while bombarding regular supporters with increasingly desperate pleas for small donations.
In its latest bid for cash, the Obama campaign is raffling off an invitation to the President's birthday party which will be held at his private Chicago home on Sunday.

Sikh temple massacre gunman was 'white supremacist' Wade Michael Page

2012-08-06T16:57:00.002-07:00

Wade Michael Page, a gunman who shot dead six worshippers at a Sikh temple was a white supremacist who had previously served in the US Army, officials said.

Wade Michael Page shot dead six people and injured three others

Page, 40, was named as the man who carried out the massacre at the Oak Creek Sikh Temple in Wisconsin on Sunday morning.

Pictures show him heavily tattooed. Neighbours said that he had a tattoo commemorating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on his right arm, a common indicator of far-Right and anti-Muslim affiliations.

On Monday, the police said that they were seeking a second "person of interest". Officers want to speak to a man who was seen filming groups of Sikhs outside the temple after the attack. The man was captured on film by local news media and he too has a "9/11/01" tattoo on his upper right arm.

Wade shot dead six people and injured three others, including a police officer, before he was shot dead by armed police.

Officially no motive has been disclosed, but yesterday it emerged that Page, whose name was released by US Attorney James A. Santelle, is a former army officer who fronted a neo-Nazi white supremacist band.

Page's band was called End Apathy and had recently given an interview to a local record label website in which he spoke about his "frustration that we have the potential to accomplish so much more as individuals and a society in whole [sic]."
Page's rampage comes just two weeks after James Holmes murdered 12 people and injured 51 others after opening fire in a cinema in Aurora, Colorado during a screening of new Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.
On Monday it emerged that Page was in the army from 1992 to 1998 before being discharged for a "pattern" of misconduct including drunkenness and going Awol. It was reported that he had purchased the 9mm handgun used in the rampage legally from a store in Wisconsin.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre, a group that monitors racists, said that they had been tracking Page since 2000, when he tried to purchase goods from the National Alliance, described as a neo-Nazi organisation.
Heidi Beirich, a director of the group, said there was "no question" Page was a believer in the white supremacist movement. She said her organisation had evidence that he attended "hate events" around the country. "He was involved in the scene," she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Also on Monday the names of Page's victims were released. They included the temple's president, Satwant Singh Kaleka. The others were brothers Sita and Ranjit Singh, Subage Singh, Parmjit Kaur and Parkash Singh.
It also emerged that the police officer shot and injured was Brian Murphy, 51, a veteran of more than 20 years and once a candidate to become the Oak Creek police chief.
Sikhs in the United States have suffered an increase in attacks since the September 11 attacks by perpetrators seeking 'revenge' who mistook them for Muslims.
Following the massacre, Manjit Singh, leader of a Sikh political party in India said Sikhs are an "an important part of America" but that their beliefs and contributions must be given a higher profile. "This is a racially motivated case and the (US) government needs to educate people about different communities so it doesn't happen again," he said.
President Barack Obama led the tributes in the US saying he was “deeply saddened” by the attack although Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, on Monday said the massacre would not prompt a fresh drive for gun control measures.
Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, who is himself a Sikh, said: "I am deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the shooting incident that has resulted in the loss of precious lives. That this senseless act of violence should be targeted at a place of religious worship is particularly painful,"
Sikh leaders in India called for a campaign to highlight their distinct religion.
Manjit Singh, leader of a Sikh political party said Sikhs are an "an important part of America" but that their beliefs and contributions must be given a higher profile.
"This is a racially motivated case and the (US) government needs to educate people about different communities so it doesn't happen again," he said.

First arrest in WPc Yvonne Fletcher’s murder case imminent: report

2012-08-06T09:27:00.003-07:00

WPc Yvonne Fletcher was killed shot dead in 1984 as she policed a demonstration in front of the Libyan embassy in London.

UK and Libyan authorities have become closer to making the first arrest in the murder case of WPC Yvonne Fletcher who was shot dead in 1984 as she policed a demonstration against Muammar Qaddafi outside the Libyan embassy in London.

The Sunday Telegraph has unveiled pictures of the main suspect, Salah Eddin Khalifa, whom it said currently lives in a “North African city” after the fall of former leader Qaddafi’s regime.

The paper did not indicate whether that city was inside Libya or in another North African country.

It quoted Taha Bara, a spokesman for the Libyan prosecutor-general’s office, as saying that a probe into the murder case was ongoing and that no arrest is likely before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Bara told The Telegraph that Libyan officials will discuss the case with their UK counterparts in London after Ramadan, following a previous meeting last month in Tripoli.

The killing of Fletcher prompted an 11-day siege of the Libyan embassy by members of the Metropolitan Police Service and the United Kingdom severing diplomatic relations with Libya.

Efforts to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels failed because two Libyan officials, Matouk Mohammed Matouk and Abdelgadir Mohammed Baghdadi, who ordered the shooting from inside the Libyan embassy, held senior positions in the Qaddafi regime.

Baghdadi has been killed in the Syrian revolution and Matouk has disappeared, opening up new venues of investigation in the case and creating an opportunity to bring Fletcher’s killer to justice.

John Murray, a former colleague of Fletcher who was with her when she was shot dead, told The Sunday Telegraph that the first arrest in the murder case was imminent.

“I was rung up by a senior Scotland Yard officer with knowledge of the case and told that an arrest is imminent, but it depends on the Libyans,” Mr Murray said.

A Number of Christians Convert to Islam In Ramadan

2012-08-06T09:18:00.002-07:00

Whenever the Holy Month of Ramadan comes, Muslims all over the world observe the fasting and many other miracles that occur in parallel. Those who were skeptical about the rightfulness of Islam feel compelled to change their views and start learning more about it from reliable books to authenticate their own attitudes and reasoning.

The days in the American Muslim Center in Boston will be so memorable during this blessed month for the Muslim minority living there. An American Christian recently announced his Islam inside the American Muslim Center; he was instructed the Islamic testimony by the Moroccan Muslim scholar Abdullah Nahari in front of a huge number of Muslim believers.

This is not the first time in which non-Muslims declare their conversion to Islam in front of the Imam whose good reputation has expanded beyond Morocco.

The conversion happened after a series of conversions in Muslim mosques in Morocco, one of which was when a Portuguese girl – in her twenties – called Patricia publicly announced her conversoin before a large crowd of Muslims immediately after the Friday congregation prayers. The Friday sermon tackled “Victories of Ramadan” as a topic on August 3, 2012.

The conversion took place in Moutawakkil’s Mosque, Oued Mezrek-Dar Bouazza in Casablanca.

After being instructed the Islamic testimony (Shahadah), “I bear witness that there is no God but God (Allah), and I bear witness that Muhammed is His Messenger,” from the Friday lecturer, the Muslim believers read the opening of the Book (Surat al-Fatiha) which was crowned with God’s glorifications nearly filling the whole space in the mosque. Happiness and cheerfulness were clearly manifest in the faces of the believers, especially women.

All believers were repeating “Ameen”, while the Friday lecturer was praying for Halima, whose name was previously Patricia. The name of Halima is significant in the Muslim context: she is an Arabic Bedouin woman — a Wet-nurse — who raised up the Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him!) when he was a child and took special care of him for the first two years of his life. The Prophet was entrusted to her.

God said in His Holy Book the following: “Is he whose breast Allah has opened to Islam, so that he is in light from His lord (as he who is non-Muslim)? So, woe to those whose hearts are hardened against remembrance of Allah! They are in plain error!” (Al-Zumar 39:22).

Wisconsin temple gunman identified as army veteran Wade Michael Page

2012-08-06T08:22:00.002-07:00

Police and FBI comb gunman's house in Cudahy, as speculation grows over shooter's alleged links to white power groups

Experts spent Monday searching the gunman's home in Cudahy, just a few miles from the gurdwara in Oak Creek.

A gunman who killed six people at a Sikh place of worship in Wisconsin has been identified as a 40-year-old former soldier with alleged links to racist groups.
The white, heavy-set shooter – who some witnesses suggested carried tattoos marking the 9/11 terrorist attacks – was named as Wade Michael Page, an former serviceman once stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Officials have yet to confirm the killer's identity.
Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center – an organisation that monitors the activity of extremist groups – claimed on its website that the shooter was a "frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of a racist white-power band".
Forensic experts spent Monday searching the gunman's home in Cudahy, just a few miles from Oak Creek, where the Sikh gurdwara is located.
More details about the gunman – and a possible motive – are expected to emerge at a police press conference scheduled for later on Monday.
Oak Creek police chief John Edwards has already confirmed that the suspect had a military background. It is thought Page was dismissed from the US army in 1998 for "patterns of misconduct", including being drunk on duty.
Edwards told CNN that the gunman "lived in a community neighbouring ours", and said authorities were "doing a 24-hour back-check, just to get any idea what he was up to, what he was doing".
"Right now there is no indication that there were any red flags," he said.
Sunday's attack is being investigated as an act of "domestic terrorism", police have said.
The suspect began shooting shortly before 10.30am local time as dozens gathered at the gurdwara. After killing people inside the building, the gunman fought with officers outside, critically injuring one. But a second officer was able to "put down" the suspect, police said. The killer was pronounced dead at the scene.
The wounded officer – who was shot multiple times – was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery. It is believed that he will survive.
Emergency response teams found the bodies of four victims inside the gurdwara. Three more bodies lay outside the building, including that of the suspect. Three others – including the policeman – were injured and taken to a nearby hospital. All were said to be in a "critical condition".
At a press conference on Sunday, Oak Creek police chief John Edwards said the "heroic actions" of the two officers "stopped this from being worse than it could have been".
Authorities said the gunman had used a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. The weapon, recovered at the scene, is thought to have been obtained legally, but police are still trying to track its origin.
Among those shot in the attack were prominent members of the local Sikh community. Jatin Der Mangat, 38, of Racine, said his uncle Satwant Singh Kaleka was one of those wounded, but he didn't know how serious his injuries were.
"It was like the heart just sat down," he said. "This shouldn't happen anywhere."
Sukhwindar Nagr, also of Racine, said he called his brother-in-law's phone. A granthi at the temple answered and told him that his brother-in-law had been shot, along with three granthi.
It is thought that around 50 people were in the gurdwara at the time of the attack.
The identification of the gunman has increased concerns that the attacker had a racist motive. The SPLC reported that Page was a known member of the white power music scene, and some witnesses said the suspect had a tattoo marking September 11. Some Sikhs had been targeted after 9/11, apparently mistaken for Muslims by people carrying out revenge attacks.
Authorities confirmed the dead suspect had tattoos, but said they were not sure exactly what they illustrated.
Police said it was too early to suggest a motive. But some Sikh members of the community told media that they feared that it was a hate crime. Others, however, have cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
Sapreet Kaur, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh American civil rights organisation in the US, said: "There have been multiple hate crime shootings within the Sikh community in recent years and the natural impulse of our community is to unfortunately assume the same in this case."
"Let's let law enforcement investigate the case and as new facts emerge the dialogue can change."
The shooting came just 16 days after 12 people were killed and nearly 60 injured in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
Wisconsin, like Colorado, has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country. Last year it passed a law allowing citizens to carry a concealed weapon.
The second mass shooting in two weeks will likely intensify pressure on US lawmakers to address the issue gun controls. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have been largely silent on guns.
However, in a statement delivered after Sunday's shooting, Obama said he was "deeply saddened" by the incident.
Words of condolences also came from leaders overseas, with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, expressing his shock and sadness.
Singh said: "That this senseless act of violence should be targeted at a place of religious worship is particularly painful."

Nasa Mars landing: Curiosity arrives on the Red Planet

2012-08-06T08:14:00.003-07:00

Nasa has successfully landed Curiosity, a car-sized rover, on Mars in a triumph for space exploration which could establish if life ever existed on the Red Planet.

The $2.5 billion mission saw the one-ton, six-wheeled, nuclear-powered vehicle blaze through the pink Martian sky and touch down inside an ancient crater.

After a journey that had lasted eight months, and covered 352 million miles of space, Curiosity performed a series of aerial acrobatics before landing safely near the equator.

Jubilant scientists hugged, wept and distributed Mars chocolate bars to each other as one of them announced: "Touchdown confirmed. We are wheels down on Mars. Oh, my God."

Minutes later Curiosity sent back pictures showing one of it wheels, and its own shadow on the Martian surface.

Curiosity is Nasa's seventh landing on Earth's neighbour but the most ambitious and expensive.

Success had been far from certain and Nasa had labelled the entry, descent and landing the "Seven Minutes of Terror."
Two thirds of Mars missions to date had failed, including Britain's ill-fated Beagle 2 lander which was lost on Christmas Day 2003.
Adam Seltzner, leader of Curiosity's descent and landing team, had previously admitted to being "rationally confident but emotionally terrified."
Last night, he said he was "humbled" by the success of the mission, saying thank you "to the blue shirts".
"I think that this nation is a truly great representation of a piece of humanity that reaches out, explores and conquers," he added.
The landing was a pivotal moment for Nasa, which has faced cuts in its science budget and the controversial cancellation of its space shuttle programme. Officials had begun referring to it as the "Super Bowl of planetary exploration."
Following the successful landing President Barack Obama said it "marks an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future,"
As it neared the atmosphere of Mars the Mini Cooper-sized spacecraft accelerated with the pull of gravity and made a fiery entry at a speed of 13,200mph, 17 times the speed of sound.
It was then slowed down with the help of a giant supersonic parachute. A hovering, jet-powered "sky crane," then descended towards the surface, lowering Curiosity to the ground on three 25ft nylon tethers.
It landed upright on all six wheels and the sky crane cut the cords before powering away and crashing at a safe distance.
Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden said: "It's incredible, it doesn't get any better than this. I was a basket case. I was on pins and needles. It's a huge day for the nation and the American people. It belongs to all of us."
Clara Ma, the schoolgirl who named and signed Curiosity before it was blasted off into space, said: "That was so special to me. I was crying, laughing. I'm so happy and just getting to see the reactions of the mission team members hugging each other, crying, laughing. I got really emotional."
Curiosity will search for evidence that Mars may once have held the necessary building blocks for microbial life to evolve.
It has an array of sophisticated chemistry and geology gadgets for analysing soil and rocks.
Those include a laser gun that can hit a rock from 23ft, creating a spark. The spectral image from the spark is then analysed by a special telescope to establish its chemical composition.
It also has cameras and a robotic arm with a power drill, and a magnifying imager that can reveal details smaller than the width of a human hair. Samples will be analysed using a state-of-the-art on-board laboratory.
Curiosity will face several weeks of health checkups before taking its first short drive on the Martian surface.
Dr Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: "Tomorrow we will go out and start exploring Mars, next week and next month and next year we will be bringing new discovery [sic] every day every week.
"We are not only going to continue exploring Mars but exploring the solar system and exploring the universe. Because our curiosity has no limit."
Its landing site in Gale Crater was picked because it may once have been a large lake. The crater includes a three-mile high mountain, Mount Sharp, the base of which appears rich in minerals that formed in the presence of water. Curiosity will look there for basic ingredients essential for life, including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulphur and oxyge

Egypt to impose 'full control' over Sinai, says president

2012-08-06T08:03:00.002-07:00

Israeli border security under question following fatal gun attack by militants that left at least 15 guards dead

Border map of Egypt, Gaza Strip and Israel

The Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, gives his reaction after gunmen killed around 15 Egyptian border guards. Link to this video Egypt will impose full control over the Sinai, its new president has pledged, as the Israeli government warned of a deteriorating security situation after gunmen killed around 15 Egyptian border guards and hijacked armoured vehicles to launch an attack across the border in Israel.
Mohamed Morsi said: "Those who carried out this crime will pay dearly." In a speech on Egyptian state television, he added: "Clear orders have been given to our armed forces and police to chase and arrest those who carried out this assault on our children. The forces will impose full control over these areas of Sinai."
The president convened an emergency meeting with military and security leaders in the aftermath of the assault, which he described as a "serious challenge to the Egyptian sovereignty".
Following the attack, which was launched just after sunset on Sunday, the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, said it had "again raise[d] the need for determined Egyptian action to enforce security and prevent terror in the Sinai".
He said Israel had contacted the Egyptian authorities to offer help. "We hope this will be a fitting wake-up call for the Egyptians to take things in hand on their side more forcefully," he told the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee on Monday.
Israel has become increasingly concerned about a security vacuum in the Sinai in the 18 months since Hosni Mubarak, the former president and staunch ally of Israel, was deposed in the Egyptian revolution.
There have been a number of attacks and attempted attacks on Israel from across the border.
Israel says some militant groups in Gaza have joined forces with Islamists operating in the Sinai. It describes the Sinai militants as "global jihadists" or connected to al-Qaida.
Since the revolution, Israel has permitted the Egyptian government to station more troops in the Sinai than is provided for under the 1979 peace treaty to increase security. Israel is prohibited from launching military operations in the Sinai, and such action would risk a major diplomatic crisis.

The assault began at around 8pm, as security personnel at a checkpoint in the Egyptian town of Rafah, where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza converge, were breaking the Ramadan fast. According to a spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), eight armed men launched an attack, killing around 15 men and injuring another seven.
The militants commandeered two armoured vehicles, which they drove towards the Israeli border. One vehicle exploded on the Egyptian side of the border, and the other broke through the security fence near the Kerem Shalom border crossing and was targeted by Israeli air force planes.
The Israeli government spokesman Ofir Gendelman said seven militants had been killed, four on the Israeli side and three in Egypt.
The Israeli military instructed Israeli civilians to stay inside their homes while combing the area for other militants who might still be on the Israeli side of the border.
Officials say Egypt has deployed at least two helicopter gunships to the Sinai in the hunt for the militants behind the checkpoint attack.
Security and military officials said on Monday that more aircraft were expected to arrive in the town of El-Arish before a military campaign against the militants in the area.
Egypt and Israel blamed the attack on Islamist militants from both Gaza and the Sinai.
Hamas, the Islamist organisation which rules Gaza, issued a statement condemning the attack. It has made efforts to contain militant activity since the end of its war with Israel three and a half years ago.
"Hamas condemns this ugly crime which killed a number of Egyptian soldiers and extends its deep condolences to the families of the victims and to the leadership and the people of Egypt," it said.
Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committee, both of which have frequently launched rockets into southern Israel, also condemned the attack.
Israeli intelligence services said they had information about an impending infiltration and sent aircraft to strike at the second car the militants had seized from the Egyptian forces. "We were prepared for it, so there was a hit," said the Israeli military spokesman Brig-Gen Yoav Mordechai. The military "averted a major attack on southern Israel", he said.
The Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing to Gaza following the attack.
Earlier on Sunday, a militant in Gaza was killed and another injured in an Israeli air strike on a motorcycle travelling near the Egyptian border. The IDF said in a statement that it had targeted a "global jihad-affiliated terrorist squad in the southern Gaza Strip" which was responsible for an attack on the Israel-Egypt border in June in which an Israeli civilian was killed. Another attack was being planned, the IDF said.
However, the two incidents were not connected, according to an IDF spokesman.

Syrian prime minister defects to Jordan

2012-08-06T07:57:00.002-07:00

Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab has defected to the opposition as state media claimed that he had been sacked just two months after his appointment.

Riyad Hijab (left) and Bashar al-Assad

Riad Hijab is joining the rebels in protest at the "genocide" President Bashar al-Assad is carrying out against his own people, his spokesman said on Monday.

"I announce my defection today (Monday) from the regime of killing and terror, and I join the ranks of the revolt," he said in statement read by his spokesman Mohammed al-Otri on Al-Jazeera news channel from Amman.

He said his defection comes at a time "when Syria is passing through the most difficult war crimes, genocide, and barbaric killings and massacres against unarmed citizens."

Otri said the premier was in a "safe haven" with his family.

A government source in Jordan said he had fled there with his family "Hijab is in Jordan with his family," said the source, who did not want to be further identified.

Mr Hijab was appointed as prime minister on June 23. The TV did not immediately give a reason why Hijab was dismissed from his post on Monday. It says Omar Ghalawanji, Hijab's deputy prime minister, was named as a temporary replacement.
Mr Hijab, a Sunni Muslim from Syria's Sunni province of Deir al-Zor, was also a ruling Baath Party apparatchik.
The US said the defection showed that President Bashar al-Assad has lost control of the country, and that his people believe his days are numbered.
"Today's reports that several senior members of the Assad regime, including Prime Minister (Riad) Hijab, have defected are just the latest indication that Assad has lost control of Syria and that the momentum is with the opposition forces and the Syrian people," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
The announcement came hours after a bomb attack ripped through the third floor of the state TV building in Damascus, causing heavy material damage and light injuries.
In commercial capital Aleppo, the army bombarded a string of rebel neighbourhoods after government security officials said that troops had completed their build-up and that a 20,000-strong force was poised for a ground assault.
Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said there were no deaths in the morning bombing of the state television buildings in the heavily protected Omayyad district of Damascus.
"It is clear that the blast was caused by an explosive device," Zoabi said. "Several of our colleagues were injured, but there were no serious injuries, and no dead."
The broadcaster said that the blast hit the third floor of its headquarters. It remained on the air despite the bombing.
Monday's was not the first attack on the pro-government media in Syria.
On June 27, gunmen armed with explosives attacked the offices outside Damascus of the Al-Ikhbariya satellite channel, killing three journalists and four security guards.
"The terrorist groups stormed the offices of Al-Ikhbariya, planted explosives in the studios and blew them up along with the equipment," Zoabi said after that attack.
On July 18, four top security officials - including Mr Assad's brother-in-law - were killed in a bombing that rocked the heart of the regime. The attack was claimed by the rebel Free Syrian Army.
A subsequent investigation found that a technician in the office of Hisham Ikhtiar, head of the National Security agency, had planted explosives in the room where the crisis cell meeting was held.
The latest blast comes just two days after the army said it had seized Tadamun, the last rebel-held district of Damascus, after heavy fighting, and authorities took journalists on an escorted tour.
"We have cleansed all the districts of Damascus, from Al-Midan to Mazzeh, from Al-Hajar Al-Aswad to Qadam... to Tadamun," an officer told reporters at the time.
In Aleppo on Monday, a rebel commander was killed in the Salaheddin district in the southwest, and troops shelled the Palace of Justice in the city centre, as well as the Marjeh and Shaar districts, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In Bab al-Nayrab, troops shot dead a civilian who was helping wounded people, the Britain-based watchdog added.
A total of nine people were killed in Aleppo early on Monday, among them eight civilians, it added.
A senior security official said on Sunday that the army had completed its deployment of reinforcements to Aleppo, ready for a decisive showdown.
"The war is likely to be long, because there will have to be street battles in order to get rid of the terrorists," the source told AFP, declining to be named.
"All the reinforcements have arrived and they are surrounding the city," he said. "The army is ready to launch its offensive, but is awaiting orders."
The official said at least 20,000 troops were on the ground. "The other side are also sending reinforcements," he added of the rebels, who claim to be in control of half of Aleppo, a city of 2.7 million people.
A senior government security figure warned at the weekend that "the battle for Aleppo has not yet begun, and what is happening now is just the appetiser... The main course will come later."
Elsewhere in Syria, the Observatory reported another 19 deaths early Monday - 13 civilians and six rebels.
On Sunday, 131 people were killed in violence nationwide - 79 civilians, 42 regime troops and 10 rebels, according to the watchdog's figures.
It is impossible to independently verify death tolls out of Syria. The United Nations has stopped giving figures.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands, including some 600 Palestinian families who arrived in Lebanon in the past three days, most escaping violence at the Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus, a Palestinian official in Lebanon said.
Damascus ally Iran, meanwhile, strongly denied on Monday that 48 nationals taken hostage in Syria at the weekend are Revolutionary Guards, as claimed by their rebel captors.
"We strongly reject the claims of some media that the kidnapped pilgrims are members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards," the state broadcaster quoted Amir Abdollahian, a deputy foreign minister in charge of Arab affairs, as saying.
"All of them are pilgrims who wanted to go to religious sites."
Syrian rebels on Sunday posted an online video of the hostages, and charged that they included members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
A man dressed in the uniform of Syria's rebel Free Syrian Army said in the video that the 48 "were on a reconnaissance mission in Damascus" when they were captured as they were travelling in a bus.
Tehran has appealed to Qatar and Turkey - both countries with close ties to the Syrian opposition - for help in securing the release of the hostages. .

Community group files complaint after Ramadan fast costs French Muslims their job

2012-08-05T03:27:00.002-07:00

The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) described the town of Gennevilliers’ actions as “an attack on religious freedom.”

An enraged community group filed a formal complaint on Saturday after four instructors were sacked for fasting during Ramadan whilst working at a summer camp in a Paris suburb.

The instructors were temporarily employed by the town of Gennevilliers in southwest France and were helping to run a summer holiday sports camp but were dismissed on July 20th, the very first day of Ramadan, after being told by an inspector that they were endangering children’s safety by not eating or drinking between dusk and dawn.

Although they were fully paid for the week they had remaining on their short-term contracts, they still plan to contest their dismissal through labor courts reported AFP. Samir, one of the sacked workers, who preferred only to be identified by his first name, explained to AFP that he believed their treatment had been “unfair and unacceptable” and he was glad that the issue has been brought to the public domain.

“We are thinking about going to court to get clear answers to our questions,” he added “Do people have the right not to eat during the day? Are doctors who observe Ramadan putting their patients' lives in danger?”

The town's actions were described as “an attack on religious freedom” by the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) and said it was considering pressing charges against Genevilliers council for discrimination.

Mohammed Moussaoui, CFCM President, added: “Hundreds of millions of people fast for Ramadan every year without it having any impact on their professional activities.”

In a statement, the communist mayor of Genevilliers Jacques Bourgoin defended his decision to fire the four summer employees from the camp on the grounds of health and safety according to UAE daily Gulf News.

“They did not respect the terms of their contract in a way that could have endangered the physical safety of the children they were responsible for,” the statement read.

It went on to say “This lack of nourishment and hydration could have resulted in these employees not being in full possession of the means required to ensure activities at the camp were correctly and safely run, as well as the physical safety of the children in their charge.”

Mohand Yanat, the lawyer representing the four workers told AFP that the safety argument was just a “smokescreen” for anti-Muslim prejudice.

“How can you judge the capacity of someone to do their job on the basis of their religious practice?” Yanat asked.

Nicole Varet, an aide to the mayor has said however that the decision was heavily influenced by a past episode three years previous where a fasting camp worker was taken ill while driving, leading to an accident and a seriously injured child.

The town council later took backtracked their decision to dismiss the workers and Genevilliers town hall issued a statement saying that they would drop the clause from contracts for workers at the camp that obliged them to eat lunch during the month of Ramadan in order to avoid heightening tensions according to AFP.

The president of the Front des banlieues independant association, Hassan Ben M'Barek told AFP that he lodged the complaint as the town's reason for the dismissal, children's safety, “masks discrimination against a Muslim practice”.

The town also decided on Friday to set up a permanent committee to address issues Muslims may have with the community he added.

Similar controversy occurred in France last year after a law was introduced by the administration of former president Nicola Sarkozy banning woman from wearing the full face veil. The U.S. criticized the law and it resulted in the State Department expressing concern over a “rising number of European countries, including Belgium and France, whose laws restricting dress adversely affected Muslims and others” in the 2011 International Religious Freedom Report.

Syria: Rebels upbeat in battle for Aleppo

2012-08-05T03:22:00.002-07:00

Areas around Aleppo provide a snapshot, albeit a small one, of how the new Syria might be, writes Colin Freeman. It may, however, be a long time before the rest of the country follows suit.

ALEPPO: August 3rd 2012: Scars of war on Aleppo's streets

Grinning like eager rug merchants, the fighters who had seized the east gate to Aleppo's old souk pointed proudly to the carpet at their feet.

It was not, in their view, a particularly pretty pattern, but it certainly had novelty value - a woven tapestry of President Bashar al-Assad, the man whose forces they have battled for control of the city with for the past week.

Designed to be hung by his adoring followers on their lounge walls, the tapestry now served as a doormat for anyone entering the souk to wipe their feet on - a traditional Arab insult that would have earned them jail, or worse, until just a few weeks ago.

"In a few days we will control of the whole souk," said fighter Abu Rasheed, 50, a rebel soldier sporting an improvised kit of army fatigues, Kalashnikov and slippers.

"Soon Syria will be rebuilt for our children, who will have the freedom we never had."

Clustered around a citadel that has served as Aleppo's last line of defence since the 13th century, the old souk's winding alleys now provide a symbolic snapshot of the rebels' attempts to capture the ancient Silk Route city.
Beyond Mr Rasheed's checkpoint at the east gate, known in tourist guide books as Bab al-Hadid, the Free Syrian Army zone of control stretches down 500 yards of twisting alleys, rebel gunmen stationed outside shuttered shops that normally sell Aleppo's famed soaps and spices.
But then, halfway down an arched passageway, it stops: the citadel, Mr Rasheed said, still had government snipers on its battlements, preventing the rebels going any further.
Nonetheless, the rebels now seem confident of turning the corner - not just in Mr Rasheed's contested alleyway, but in the battle for the entire city, which both sides believe will help decide the ultimate victor for control of Syria itself.
"We control about 55 per cent of Aleppo now, while the government has 45 per cent, but whenever there are battles we are always winning," said Major Mohammed Hamadi, a tetchy, haggard-looking rebel commander who barks orders from a FSA base in a primary school in the suburb of Al Sukkour.
"They are bringing in reinforcements from Damascus, but the difference between us and them is that we are fighting with our hearts. Many of the Syrian army's commanders here in Aleppo are scared to deploy their troops on the streets properly for fear they will desert."
True, when it comes to presenting wishful thinking as hard fact, the FSA is almost as enthusiastic a propagandist as the Assad regime.
For all that it has so far stood its ground in Aleppo against the Assad counter-offensive that began a week ago, many believe the real push is yet to start: on Friday, the United Nations peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, said he feared the "main battle" would be in coming days.
Adding to sense of impending doom, the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, resigned as UN-Arab envoy to Syria on Thursday, a final admission that his peace plan now stands no chance.
Yet while the outside world seems powerless to help, a ground tour of Aleppo last week suggested it may not become quite the one-sided Arab Srebrenica that many now predict. Television footage of the conflict showing close quarters battle for a few blocks of streets does not properly convey how a vast swathe of the east of city now lies under rebel control, while parts of the surrounding countryside have been so for nearly a year.
During the hour-long drive into the city from an outlying town on Thursday, the only reminder of the government presence was an edgy drive past a military barracks near Aleppo's outskirts, where a gaudy golden bust of Assad's father, Hafez, still stares out from the gatepost.
The fact that one can even consider driving past it, though, tells its own story: the soldiers within are now effectively prisoners in their own quarters, cut off from other forces and unable to man a checkpoint or even a watchtower for fear of rebel ambush.
Entering the city, rebel checkpoints made up of wrecked buses and captured regime tanks now stretch across an area the size of half a dozen municipal boroughs, most of it drab, working-class housing blocks punctured by tank and heavy-machine gun fire.
While the regime may still dominate the air - at one point our driver turned back after seeing a jet fighter diving overhead, guns flashing as it strafed a distant target - it is hard to see Assad's ground forces ever retaking such a large section of the ground again.
Recent reports also suggest that the Syrian army, which is more designed for a hi-tech showdown with Israel than a Stalingrad against its own people, is fraying under the strain.
For all their lethal firepower, the government's tanks, choppers and jets are delicate, high-maintenance creatures that cannot be used indefinitely, and with armed rebellions erupting again in Damascus last week, experts say it can only be a matter of time before sheer over-use begins to take its toll.
From their HQ in Aleppo's Al-Sukkour district, a rebel pick-up truck with a bullet hole directly in the middle of the windscreen took The Sunday Telegraph on a tour. Snipers have now largely been flushed out of areas in their control: however, medical provision for those manning the frontlines is sparse.
At a small hospital in the Bab-al-Malek district, where a bloodstained pair of trainers lay discarded at the front door, a young pro-democracy activist, Ahmed Saad, was being treated for a bullet wound to his temple, suffered while taking video footage back to a media centre.
The price he had paid for promoting freedom of speech of others was that he would probably lose his own: the bullet had cut tendons to his jaw muscles, and without surgery, the damage would be permanent.
"He will live, but unless he sees a proper surgeon in the next 48 hours, his ability to speak may be impeded," diagnosed the medic treating him, Abdelrahman Hallah, who, in normal times, is a vet.
"All the doctors have run away," he explained. "Bashar said that if any of them treated injured rebels, he would arrest them."
Elsewhere in rebel-territory, the freedom that men like Mr Saad had worked for is now flaunted gleefully. On Friday, after lunchtime prayers, several hundred residents of Bab-al-Malek enjoyed their first sniper-free anti-government demonstration, a fighter with a megaphone leading them through a chant in which they cheered towns that had rebelled, and booed those that remained loyal.
Tartous, the Mediterranean port where the Assad regime's Russian backers have a naval port, attracted particularly loud derision.
"The regime has been here for 40 years and only now it is being destroyed," beamed Abu Hamed, 32, a tailor, linking hands with others in a dance.
"Since the Free Syrian Army came here I have felt like a human being for the first time, finally we can breathe freedom."
Whether every resident of the FSA's new fiefdoms really feels so passionate is, of course, another matter. Since the FSA "liberated" them two weeks ago, commercial life has all but ground to a halt, and access to basic utilities has been patchy, as one young mother made plain to a passing FSA official.
"There is no gas, no food, and no electricity," she complained, as a crowd gathered to listen. "You tell us you will provide them instead but we are not getting anything."
Asked if she would have Assad back if such problems went away, she replied brusquely: "Whatever."
Still, in a land where people are well-acquainted with the risks of arguing with armed men, most are wary of being indifferent to the anti-government cause.
For the rebels too have shown that they can be ruthless when it suits them.
Last week, the playground of the school that serves as Major Hamadi's HQ doubled as an execution ground for several members of the Berri clan, a notorious pro-government "shabiha", or mafia group, that had racketeered in the city for years.
After the clan allegedly broke a truce with the rebels by killing 11 of their soldiers, a squad of fighters over-ran the Berri HQ, with footage of the clan leaders' subsequent firing squad then appearing on YouTube.
Human rights groups, who said the rebels should show a greater standard of conduct to win international sympathy, are unlikely to take much comfort from the reaction from Maj Hamadi, who was largely bemused at the outcry.
"Killers must be killed," he said, shrugging. "Why criticise us and not them?"
Away from the heat of the battlefield, though, The Sunday Telegraph did glimpse a new, more compassionate post-Assad justice in operation.
In the town of Tal Rifat, one of the belt of farming settlements on the sun-baked plains north of Aleppo, the shabby local primary school is now home a new FSA "justice committee" of local sheikhs, who now deal with everything from marriage and property disputes to over-excited young rebel fighters causing trouble with their guns.
Before the court last week was Mohammad Alo, 27, a wheat harvester suspected of tipping off a shabiha unit to the presence of a group of FSA fighters.
Kept for the last two months in a swelteringly hot classroom converted into a makeshift remand prison, Mr Alo sat on a wooden chair in front of the sheikhs while his case was heard. After a few anxious minutes, the presiding sheikh, Khaled Abdel Latif, issued his verdict.
"We are releasing you because there is no proper proof," he said. He then handed him a signed, handwritten document to show to other villagers, which also warned them to refrain from attacking him or spreading malicious gossip against him.
"This new committee is wonderful and I hope it will last forever," said a grateful Mr Alo. "In the old days, before the revolution, you had to pay money if you wanted to be declared innocent."
For Sheikh Latif, there was a certain personal satisfaction in the verdict: he himself had been imprisoned for 12 years by the Assad regime, wrongly suspected of being a member of the Syria's Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement.
"The law is different now, and it is better to give mercy wrongly than not to give it all," he said, smiling.
With that, Mr Alo was set free, heading off with grateful relatives back into the surrounding countryside, where today, it is hard for an outsider to tell there is even a war on.
Shops are open, children play in the streets, markets are full of fruit and vegetables, and in village cafes pro-government television is watched to laugh at and to ridicule, not to quake in front of.
It is a snapshot, albeit a small one, of how the new Syria might be: it may, however, be a long time before the rest of the country follows suit.

David Cameron warned that Afghanistan pullout could allow al-Qaeda to return

2012-08-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

Military commanders have warned the Prime Minister that Afghanistan’s future could be jeopardised with al-Qaeda returning to the country if foreign troops are withdrawn too quickly, senior sources have disclosed.

The Afghan army suffers from desertions, often to the Taliban

David Cameron has been told that the current plan to hand control of the country’s security to the Afghan forces next year may need to be “diluted”.

British commanders believe that the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the Army and police, are not yet fully capable of taking over from international forces.

Under current plans the ANSF are supposed to take over responsibility for security by the middle of 2013 and all International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) troops will be withdrawn from combat operations by the end of 2014.

The timing has been agreed by David Cameron and Barack Obama. It would mean that Britain’s current deployment of 9,000 soldiers would be reduced significantly next year, and that after 2014 only a small number of UK forces would remain in Afghanistan, mostly as advisers to the Afghan military.

But late last month Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, said the timetable could be speeded up, if America judged it safe.

“We haven’t yet decided what the profile of the draw-down is going to be between this autumn and the end of 2014.
"That is something we will look at towards the end of this year when we understand better what our allies in Afghanistan are planning.”
However Mr Cameron has now been advised that there are significant fears over the quality and ability of Afghan troops, who are supposed to gradually take over control from ISAF (International Security and Assistance Force) soldiers next year.
Concerns over the ANA have been growing, and aired in public before.
But the move to inform Mr Cameron of fears over the ANA’s performance shows just how seriously they are being taken at the highest level by the military - and also that any move to speed up withdrawal would be resisted by senior officers.
The Sunday Telegraph can disclose that the fears relayed by senior officers include:
* the level of desertions. Out of a supposed Afghan Security Force of force around 350,000 troops, 15,000 are currently absent without leave, and as many as 25,000 have in effect been written off as permanent absentees or deserters;
* the growing number of attacks on Western forces. So far this year 30 ISAF troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers and police in 21 separate so-called green on blue attacks, compared to four deaths in 2007/8.
* political loyalty. Earlier this month an entire group of Afghan police deserted and joined the Taliban in the north-west of the country.
* corruption within the Afghan police. The scale on which police are involved in the opium industry and their ability to be bribed is leading to concerns that they cannot be trusted to maintain law and order.
Senior commanders fear that the combination could undermine the exit strategy.
One source said: “The Afghan Army is not going to be ready to take the lead in operations next year, that is certain.
There are very few kandaks [ANA battalions], probably fewer than 10, which can plan, mount and execute operations without NATO’s help.
“We have been on operations with the Afghans, where you have to kick the door down and push them inside the building to clear it. That goes down as an Afghan led operation.
“The plan is for British and US troops to take a back seat role next year but that is not going to happen in reality. The ANA has been able to build capacity but it lacks quality and that’s the worry.”
A Kandak is made up of about 600 men, meaning the Afghans have an effective fighting force which is only a fraction of what is needed.
By the end of 2014, the Afghan Army must reach a level of 240,000 troops, more than twice the size of the British Army, which will give the combined Afghan National Security Forces a total strength of around 352,000.
Crucially, those troops and other members of the security force must also be able to operate entirely independently before ISAF troops leave.
Sources said that the current rate of desertions and concerns over the quality of the soldiers who remain meant that there are grave doubts over that timetable.
One particular concern is that there are desertions not just because soldiers are going home, but because they are changing sides to the Taliban, taking with them arms and expertise gained in training.
In the case of the cadre of 40 police who changed sides in Bagdis, in the north-west of Afghanistan, the whole unit had been created by a United States initiative in 2010 during the peak of the war to help ISAF coalition and Afghan troops prevent the influence and spread of the insurgency.
The British are not alone in their concerns.
General John Allen, the US commander of ISAF, is said to privately believe that the ANA will require military help and assistance beyond the 2014 deadline.
Mr Cameron has been told that the Taliban could regain power in Afghanistan if foreign troops are withdrawn too quickly from the country.
He has also been warned not to accelerate the exit - something which there is pressure to do on a number of fronts.
The Ministry of Defence has calculated that ending combat operations by late 2013, a year earlier than planned, would save £3 billion.
And France has already announced plans to withdraw its troops 12 months earlier than the rest of ISAF, leading to fears that other country’s may follow suit in what would become a rush to the exit.
Defence chiefs, however, have strongly argued against any acceleration and have insisted that British troops must maintain a strong presence in the country until the end of 2014.
The concern is reflected in Washington. America had been planning to withdraw 23,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of September, effectively ending the “surge” which was ordered by President Obama in 2010. It would reduce the American presence from 90,000 to 67,000. In total there are 130,000 ISAF troops.
However Mr Obama is now facing pressure to delay the “surge” troops’ withdrawal until October, because of the deteriorating security situation.
NATO has already agreed that the SAS and US Special Forces will not be included within the current deadlines and will continue to take part in military operations for many more years.
British commanders refuse to say how many men the Taliban has under arms but some estimates suggest that the number could be as high as 35,000 with many more ready to move into Afghanistan from Pakistan after 2014.
The discussions with Mr Cameron this summer came after Gen Sir Peter Wall, the head of the Army, was publicly rebuked by the Prime Minister last year when he suggested that Britain’s withdrawal should be linked to conditions on the ground rather than a political timeline.
An MOD spokesman said: “Transition to an Afghan security lead is now well under way and Afghan forces will soon be responsible for areas covering 75% of the country’s population.
"It is the Afghans who are increasingly taking the lead on operations, deploying in formed units, carrying out their own operations and taking greater responsibility for security both across Afghanistan and in Helmand where UK Forces operate alongside side them.
“UK forces will drawdown by 500 to 9,000 this year and will cease combat operations by the end of 2014 when the Afghans will take the overall lead.
"The Prime Minister has been clear that this drawdown will be a steady and measured process, and not a “cliff edge” reduction. Planning continues to consider the details of how this will be achieved.”

Pussy Riot trial 'worse than Soviet era'

2012-08-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

Judge refuses to allow 10 defence witnesses while lawyer claims women are being tortured with lack of food and slee

Pussy Riot band members: from lbis eft, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina in court.

By the end of the first week of Pussy Riot's trial, everyone in the shabby Moscow courthouse was tired. Guards, armed with submachine guns, grabbed journalists and threw them out of the room at will. The judge, perched in front of a shabby Russian flag, refused to look at the defence. And the police dog – a 100lb black Rottweiler – no longer sat in the corner she had occupied since the start of Russia's trial of the year, but barked and foamed at the mouth as if she were in search of blood.
The trial of the three band members, jailed since March after performing a "punk prayer" against Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral, has been about more than the charges brought against them – formally, hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. In five days of testimony, lawyers and witnesses have laid bare the stark divide that has emerged in Russian society: one deeply conservative and accepting of a state that uses vague laws and bureaucracy to control its citizens, the other liberal bordering on anarchist and beginning to fight against that state with any means it can.
The court is dominated by a glass cage that holds the three women – Maria Alyokhina, who has emerged as their unofficial spokeswoman; Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, whose chiselled features have made her the band's unofficial face; and Yekaterina Samutsevich, who sits in a corner of the cage looking every bit the disgruntled punk.
After five days' sitting in the cage, some days for 10 hours at a time, the women appear exhausted. Violetta Volkova, one of their lawyers, said they were being tortured – denied food and adequate sleep. After a week of being dismissed and lectured by the judge, she could no longer hide her anger. On Friday, as the judge, Marina Syrova, denied yet another defence objection, Volkova began to shout.
Syrova, her glasses forever perched perfectly in the middle of her nose, answered tartly: "You're losing the frames of dignity."
"Those frames long haven't existed here," Volkova replied, seething.
According to Pussy Riot's lawyers, Russia has revived the Soviet-era tradition of the show trial with its case against the group. "Even in Soviet times, in Stalin's times, the courts were more honest than this one," lawyer Nikolai Polozov shouted in court. Outside, during a rare break, he explained: "This is one of the most shameful trials in modern Russia. In Soviet times, at least they followed some sort of procedure."
In one week, Syrova has refused to hear nearly all the objections brought by the defence. One objection claimed that exactly the same spelling errors were found in several witness statements, implying they were falsified.
The prosecution was allowed to call all its witnesses, mainly people who were inside the church at the time of the performance or who had viewed a video of it on YouTube. They answered questions like: "What does your Orthodox faith mean to you?", "Was the women's clothing tight?" and "What offended you about their balaclavas?"
One witness said she heard music during the band's performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, although footage shown in court showed the women singing with no live instruments. The music was added later to their viral video clip, "Virgin Mary, Chase Putin Out!"
"What kind of music did you hear?" asked the defence. "It wasn't classical – and it wasn't Orthodox," the witness replied.
The defence, meanwhile, tried to call 13 witness, including opposition leader Alexey Navalny and celebrated novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Syrova only allowed them to call three. The prosecution launched the questioning of all its witnesses with the same question: Are you an Orthodox believer? When the defence tried to ask the same question of one of its three witnesses, Syrova shouted: "Question stricken."
The defence knows they are fighting a losing battle in a judicial system that is notoriously politicised. But the media battle remains. Pyotr Verzilov, Tolokonnikova's husband, has spent the trial perched in the seat closest to his wife's cage. He tweets furiously, and constantly checks how often his message is spread.
On Friday, three men climbed on to a ledge across from the courtroom windows, wearing white, purple and green balaclavas and shouted "Freedom to Pussy Riot!". There have been reports of imitation stunts carried out in other cities in Russia.
"At first, after the [anti-Putin] protests started in December, the authorities got scared that they had lost control," Polozov said. "Now they've recovered and have started to react – and the trial against Pussy Riot is the clear first step."
Every day as the trial begins, dozens of journalists gather on the stairs outside the court, repeating a tradition launched with the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon and Putin foe, which was held in the same room.
Amid the crush stands Samutsevich's father and Alyokhina's mother, Natalya.
"My daughter and I had very different views about politics," Alyokhina said. "But this trial is bringing them closer."
Putin said this week that the women should not be judged "too harshly". They face up to seven years in jail if convicted but their lawyers took Putin's comments as a signal that they would not receive the full sentence. A verdict is expected next week.

War for Aleppo: battle rages in city that will determine fate of Syria

2012-08-04T12:32:00.002-07:00

Skirmishes have broken out in Aleppo as rebels pour in to confront regime loyalists in what will be a decisive clash

A rebel fighter reacts yesterday after his friend was shot by regime soldiers during clashes in central Aleppo’s Salah al-Din district.

The pitched battle for Syria's oldest city was edging ever closer to its ancient heart on Saturday, with skirmishes flaring near world-renowned landmarks and once impregnable pillars of state control.
Monuments and security buildings stand cheek-by-jowl in Aleppo, a city of huge importance to the Syrian uprising, where a grand, 1,000-year-old citadel stands not far from a much-feared interrogation dungeon. Yesterday jets were bombing the centre of the city, barely a mile away from the citadel.
Rebel groups claim that, after two weeks of bitter fighting, the city of almost 2.5 million people and linchpin of regime authority is almost within their reach.
However, as rebel reinforcements continued to pour in from elsewhere in the country ahead of an expected push early this week, regime troops were also bolstering defences in areas they continue to hold, primarily in the west and centre of the city.
The rebel force of about 6,000 fighters is being countered by a regime force thought to comprise at least double that number as well as large numbers of the loyalist Shabiha militia, many of whom come from Aleppo and have sworn to defend the city.
Rebel forces have advanced from the north-east and were on Saturday trying to dislodge loyalists who were fighting them on the approaches to the Maysaloon district. Capturing this would open access roads to the city centre, where the fighting flared on Saturday.
It would also, potentially, open a way for rebels, who maintain a foothold in the south-west of the city, to link up with the new arrivals.
Rebel groups say they plan to target the air force intelligence headquarters, among the most feared authorities in Syria's extensive security apparatus. Many of the Aleppo-based rebels claim to have spent time in the building's solitary cells and torture rooms.
"We are saving the tank shells we have for when we get access to the Air Force intelligence headquarters," said Mohammed Karim, from the rebel-held town of Azaz. "We will free the prisoners first, then destroy the building."
Other fighters said getting a foothold in the heart of the city would be difficult. "It could be another three to six months," said Hussein Shmaili, a police captain who defected.
Resting in a house on Aleppo's outer limits, Firas Abu Ayoub said: "The Shabiha are running the checkpoints. They are tough and they are are nasty and they want revenge for Zino Berri."
Berri, allegedly the chief financier and organiser of the Shabiha in Aleppo, was captured with his two sons on Wednesday and savagely gunned down following a brief show trial.
Video footage of the executions taken on mobile phones is being widely shared among rebel groups now advancing on Aleppo. Some rebel commanders are well aware of the damage the executions have done to their cause.
Partly in a bid to rectify the damage, a major from the city of al-Bab, 30km from Aleppo, took the Observer to meet a group of regime prisoners captured in a battle a fortnight ago. All were housed in a classroom on the top floor of a school.
"We were holding them before the Berris were caught," said Major Abu Mohammed al-Asmar. "And they have been treated like kings ever since they got here."
The prisoners, among them three junior Alawite officers and a Shia sergeant, slept on mattresses alongside captured Sunni conscripts. All claimed they would return home if freed.
"I just want a solution," said one of the Alawite officers. "Stability. Who really thinks about sectarianism here? Who doesn't want a state where people's rights are respected?"
None would answer a question about whether the fall of the regime or its continued rule over Syria would make a difference to their lives. And nor would they address a constant refrain among exiled Alawites: that neither rebels nor world leaders could safeguard their futures in the power vacuum that it is likely to follow the end of the regime.
"We don't want guarantees," said a second Alawite officer. "We just need peace."
Later, Major Abu Mohammed said: "We would swap all of these prisoners for just one of our men. The Alawites would return to the army. All of them."
As next week's showdown looms, fighters in the outskirts of Aleppo are continuing to ready for battle. In the early hours of Saturday, 60 members of the al-Bab brigade with bandanas and weapons they had captured from the prisoners now in the schoolhouse left for the frontline.
Aleppo's much-vaunted wealth is on clear display in many well-to-do streets and its commercial districts still appear to be functioning despite the onslaught.
Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, said in a statement during the week that the battle for the city would determine the future of Syria.
"That's the first thing he has said that I agree with," Major Abu Mohammed said. "It's also very important for the rest of the Middle East."

History And State of the Moroccan American Community

2012-08-04T12:08:00.003-07:00

Morocco is the closest nation to Europe. Situated on the northern tip of Africa. Morocco’s population is around 32 Million. The majority of Moroccans are of Berber ancestry. Arabs make up the second largest group, followed by French, Spanish and a small number of black Africans. About 90% of the population is Muslim, trailed by a large Jewish community.

Moroccan history was heavily shaped by Arabic and Jewish influences. The Berbers inhabited the country by the end of the second millennium. During the fifth century, the Phoenicians came to Morocco and build ports along the Atlantic coast. Beginning first Century AD, the Jewish established presence in Morocco after being forced out of Spain and Portugal. Around 46 A.D. Morocco became part of the Roman Empire and later in the late seventh century, the Arabs conquest brought Islam to Morocco. After a long wave tribal war between the Berbers, Almoravids claimed victory. With Morocco united, the Arab Moroccans conquered Spain and remained for 800 years till late 1550, they were known as the Moors. France with a colonization eye on North Africa invaded Algeria in 1830, and in 1912 signed a treaty making Morocco a French protectorate. After World War II, Morocco regained independence from France in 1956.

Morocco was the first nation to recognize the fledgling United States as an independent nation in 1777. In the beginning of the American Revolution, American merchant ships were subject to attack by the Barbary Pirates while sailing the Atlantic Ocean. At this time, American envoys tried to obtain protection from European powers, but to no avail. On December 20, 1777, Morocco’s Sultan Mohammed III declared that the American merchant ships would be under the protection of the sultanate and could thus enjoy safe passage.

The Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship stands as the U.S.’s oldest non-broken friendship treaty. Negotiated by Thomas Barclay and signed by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1786, it has been in continuous effect since its ratification by Congress in July 1787.[12] Following the re-organization of the U.S. federal government upon the 1787 Constitution, President George Washington wrote a now venerated letter to the Sultan Sidi Mohamed strengthening the ties between the two countries. The United States legation (consulate) in Tangier is the first property the American government ever owned abroad.[13] The building now houses the Tangier American Legation Museum.

Officially documented Moroccan migration to America started in the middle of the twentieth century, but there is evidence that Moroccans were present in the USA even before as part of the European exploration. The first document Moroccan immigrant case was Azemmuri, a Moroccan boat pilot from Azemmour who landed in America before Columbus. It is also documented that Sephardic Moroccan Jews made their way to the United States early in the twentieth century by way of South America then moved to the North entering United States around 1910.

Today, Moroccan Americans are well established in the USA and one of the fastest growing Arab communities after the Lebanese. Official 2007 US polls show the number of Moroccans who live in the United States are over 150,000. Since the polls don’t capture the cultural ties between Moroccan Muslims and Jews, my estimate when combining the two communities is around 300,000. Based on continues research conducted by the 361 Degrees Institute, this number continues to grow as the US government grants every year 5,000 green cards to Moroccans to migrated to the United States.

As the number of Moroccan Americans continues to grow, several organizations have flourished in many states where there is a large concentration of members, New York, Texas, Virginia, Florida and California hold over 70% of the community. Surveys have showed that Moroccan Americans in these states are among the most integrated compared to other ethnic groups.

The Moroccan American community’s success depends on it’s participation in the political process. By wielding a persuasive voice that can influence policies, Moroccan Americans can assist those that need to enhance their lives and help them achieve their American dream.

Saudi man ‘buys’ Twitter followers to embarrass celebrities

2012-08-04T11:59:00.002-07:00

A U.S.-based website advertises the selling of 2,500 Twitter followers for $5 dollars.

A Saudi man has “bought” thousands of Twitter followers in a bid to expose what he said was a form of online deception practiced by prominent users in the Kingdom who claim to have large number of followers.

Abdul Rahman al-Kharashi tweeted on July 27 that he was in a “moment of serious thinking about purchasing up to 500,000 followers as some social figures do.”

The number of Kharashi’s followers on Twitter since then jumped from 600 to 183,000.

Kharashi, identified by the Saudi-based al-Eqtisadiah newspaper as an investor in Riyadh’s stock market, accused some Saudi celebrities, including prominent religious figures, of purchasing followers on Twitter via certain agencies.

“I hope all the celebrities will clarify and declare that the numbers of their followers are not correct. Do you think any of them will brave up to admit this?,” Kharashi said in another tweet.

“I do not accuse “everyone” of buying (followers), but what I am doing proves that there are large numbers of fake followers for many celebrities,” he added in another.

Some agencies inside the kingdom reportedly charge between $70 and $270 for adding up 10,000 new followers to a customer’s Twitter account.

According to a report by al-Eqtisadiah, about 21 percent of Saudi religious figure Ayed al-Qarni’s more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter were “unreal” and more than 30 percent others were “inactive.”

The report also said that 25 percent of prominent religious figure Muhammad al-Arifi’s 2.2 million Twitter followers are “unreal” and almost 50 percent others are “inactive.”

The report, if confirmed true, would likely deal a blow to the reputation and credibility of various religious leaders who use social media forums to propagate their religious doctrines and ideas.

Outside Saudi Arabia, allegations involving the “purchase” of Twitter followers were previously addressed against U.S. Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

Romney’s Twitter account raised speculations last month when it gained more than 140,000 followers in two days, against a normal daily growth rate of 3,000 to 4,000 followers.

CNN quoted Zach Green, who monitors political activity on social media websites, as saying that someone might have added fake followers to Romney’s account in order to embarrass his campaign.

Picture this: Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei joins Instagram

2012-08-04T10:09:00.001-07:00

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has now begun using the photo-sharing application Instagram.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, having already amassed nearly five thousand twitter followers, has now begun using the photo-sharing application Instagram, according to media reports.

The man who has been Iran’s spiritual guide since 1989 currently has 757 followers and has uploaded five images using a range of filters that are available on the app.

The images are mainly of the Ayatollah attending prayer services and meetings. In one photograph the supreme leader is seen in the foreground whilst behind him, dimmed by the Instagram filter, is Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seen in profile talking with Khamenei's security detail, Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi, according to The Atlantic.

Iran was reported last year to be working on establishing an internal Iranian network, and said that it intended to sever the country from the World Wide Web. However in April, Iranian officials denied the report.

Three years ago, the country’s authorities interrupted internet connectivity after Iranians used social media to coordinate mass demonstrations and also to inform the world about the regime's crackdown on pro-reform protests after foreign media was expelled from the country.

Syrian U.N. envoy claims media ‘fabricated lies’ about him and his family

2012-08-04T09:51:00.002-07:00

Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari , whose daughter served as an advisor to President Bashar al-Assad, has become the international face of the Syrian government as it faces mounting international condemnation over the country’s bloody conflict.

Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said Friday that he and his family had been the target of death threats and that he had alerted U.S. authorities.

Jaafari, whose daughter served as an advisor to President Bashar al-Assad, has become the international face of the Syrian government as it faces mounting international condemnation over the country’s bloody conflict.

According to AFP, the envoy told the U.N. General Assembly he was “proud to defend the interests of my nation against all conspiracies.”

But in countering a resolution condemning his government, Jaafari hit out at the death threats and at personal attacks he said had been made by the media in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“There have been several threats of murder against me and various Syrian diplomats from sites that exist in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the United States,” Jaafari was quoted by AFP as telling the 193-member assembly before the Saudi-sponsored resolution was passed.

“Saudi and Qatari media are no longer satisfied with targeting my country but have targeted me personally and members my family in an immoral way, an unethical way and a shameful way.”

He said entire television programs in the two countries devoted to him had “fabricated lies and false statements to distort the reputation of members of my family.”

Jaafari did not say which members of his family had been targeted but his 22-year-old daughter Sheherazad Jaafari (often referred to as Sherry) has been featured widely in Western and Arab media since the start of the conflict. She is due to start a course at Columbia University in New York next month.

“Diplomacy is one thing but having members of your family targeted for that is something else entirely, and I leave that to your conscience all of you,” Jaafari told U.N. ambassadors in the assembly.

Afterwards, the Syrian envoy told reporters that he had informed U.S. authorities of the threats against him, AFP reported.

Sheherazad was in early 2011 an intern at international public relations firm Brown Lloyd James (BLJ) in New York who had the Syrian government as a client, offering advice on strategy for handling and improving the public image of the regime as it escalated its violent crackdown on protesters. She then left BLJ to work at the Syrian presidential palace, where she handled Western media for Assad.

BLJ managed to feature the Syrian first lady in Vogue magazine in an article written by long-time contributor to the magazine Joan Juliet Buck.

Al Arabiya obtained an email by BLJ partner Mike Holtzman to Sheherazad (who was still working with BLJ and arranging for the Vogue story) on December 13, 2010 asking her to “remember that Joan has no impression at all of Syria.”

According to the leaked email, Holtzman goes on to instruct Sherry to “not mention anything controversial to her (Joan)”, this included “lists Syria maybe on, rumor, etc.”

After the leaked emails were published by Al Arabiya, Buck confirmed in an article in the Daily Beast that she met Holtzman and Sheherazad in Syria.

Furthermore, leaked emails revealed how Sheherazad almost single handedly arranged for well-known American journalist Barbara Waters secure an interview with Assad in December 2011.

An angry backlash in Damascus after the interview was aired did not prevent Sheherazad from staying in touch with Walters but she even asked her for endorsement to enroll at the prestigious graduate program at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

The Al Arabiya leaked emails also exposed that famed U.S. journalist Charlie Rose was asking Sheherazad for help in securing an interview with Assad simultaneously as she was asking him for help to find a job in the U.S.

“I love u and I would love to be ur assistant,” she wrote to Rose, whom she describes in another email as her "favorite Anchor!”, on Jan. 23, 2012. In his reply, Rose said he appreciates Sherry’s enthusiasm for him and his work, but he has doesn't have time to meet.

In the series of Sheherazad’s leaked emails published in July, Al Arabiya English refrained from publishing any emails or photos deemed personal.

Obama adviser and 'Nudge' author Cass Sunstein to leave White House

2012-08-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

A senior adviser and close friend of Barack Obama is to resign from his post in the latest high profile departure from his team

Cass Sunstein

Cass Sunstein will announce next Friday that he will be leaving his post as the White House 'Regulatory Czar' and will return to Harvard Law School.

For the last three-and-a-half years he has reviewed regulation for the President on everything from financial reform to healthy eating.

But he came under fire from Democrats and some liberal campaign groups who saw him as being too close to business to do his job properly.

The White House declined to comment on the reasons for Mr Sunstein's departure.

Until taking up his post he was best known for being a celebrity academic who co-wrote the book: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

The work influenced David Cameron to open his 'Nudge Unit' which he hoped would work out how to gently persuade people to make better choices.
In 2009 Mr Sunstein took up the obscure role of administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, having reportedly been offered his pick of any job by Mr Obama.
Mr Sunstein, 57, used the post to wield significant influence over a wide range of policy and put into place laws based on 'behavioural economics', which work out ways to incentivise individuals and companies to achieve the best goals for them.
The theory has been hailed as the cornerstone of Mr Obama's health care reform.
Among the other areas which Mr Sunstein reviewed were car fuel efficiency standards, tougher rules on prison rape, healthy eating guidelines and the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law.
Among liberal campaigners, however, Mr Sunstein was too close to big business and some claimed vital reforms had been 'held hostage' by his office.
Rena Steinzor, a law professor at the University of Maryland and president of the left-leaning Centre for Progressive Reform, accused him of having a "very bad" track record.
She cited the fact that regulations on areas such as air quality were stalled under his watch and said that overall there was "small progress in comparison to the rules he killed".
Mr Sunstein first met the future President at the University of Chicago Law School where they were both teaching.
He subsequently taught at Harvard and will return there to take up the post of Felix Frankfurter professor of law.
His interim replacement will be Boris Bershteyn, the general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget.
Mr Suntein's departure is the latest in a string of key advisers who have left the White House during Mr Obama's first term.
His former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel left to pursue a successful bid to become Mayor of Chicago.
Economic advisers Austan Goolsbee and Larry Summers also left, as did Christina Romer who served on the Council of Economic Advisors.
Dennis Ross, Mr Obama's go-to-man on the Middle East has also departed even though he was the driving force behind US policy towards Iran.
Mr Sunstein's departure was first reported by US politics website Politico.
In a statement Mr Obama hailed Mr Sunstein's "historic accomplishments" and said that he "can't thank him enough for his friendship and for his years of exceptional service".

Taliban opens office in Iran

2012-08-01T13:54:00.004-07:00

Iran has increased its support for the Taliban by allowing the militants to open an office in the country while considering the supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to Afghan and Western officials.

Intercepted communications showed members of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps discussing plans to send surface-to-air missiles to Afghanistan.

By helping the Taliban, Iran aims to derail a decade-long "strategic partnership" signed between Afghanistan and America in April. Tehran would also have the option of stirring violence in Afghanistan in retaliation for any US strike on its nuclear facilities.

A member of the Taliban's "Shura", or ruling council, was allowed to set up an office in May in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan. Two months later, intercepted communications showed members of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps discussing plans to send surface-to-air missiles to Afghanistan, although there was no evidence of the weapons actually being dispatched.

If they were given to the Taliban, this would mark a significant escalation of Iranian support. Iran's Shia regime was an enemy of the Sunni Taliban when the latter ruled most of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. When Taliban forces captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998, they murdered nine Iranian diplomats.

However the US was now seen as "the bigger enemy" a Western official in Kabul told the Wall Street Journal. "Iran is willing to put aside ideology and put aside deeply held religious values for their ultimate goal: accelerating the departure of US forces from Afghanistan," he said.

Nato commanders say Iran has long provided small arms and training to the Taliban. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, last year complained to Tehran after British SAS soldiers seized a convoy carrying Iranian-manufactured 122mm rockets destined for the Taliban.

But the Taliban has received far greater quantities of aid and support from Pakistan.
Iran has also refrained from supplying more advanced weapons, notably the armour-piercing explosive charges that were widely used against American and British forces in Iraq.
Afghanistan's decision to defy Iran and sign a strategic pact with America, paving the way for some US troops to stay in the country beyond 2014, may have led Tehran to give more help to the insurgents.
Jamie Ingram, Middle East analyst at IHS Jane's, a defence consultancy, said he did not expect Iran to give the Taliban "game-changing" weapons like surface-to-air missiles because of the risk of confrontation with America. Accepting Iranian support could also damage the Taliban's standing, he added. "It is worth noting that reports of links to Iran could hurt the Taliban as a lot of their financing comes from people in the Gulf who don't like Iran or Shia Muslims," said Mr Ingram.
"The Pakistani military may not like the Iranians trying to get a toehold of influence in the Taliban either, although the extent to which they view the Iranians as a threat is questionable."
Iran tried its utmost to dissuade Afghanistan from signing the pact with America. Abu Fazel Zohrawand, the hawkish Iranian ambassador to Kabul, told members of Afghanistan's parliament that hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees would be expelled from his country if the agreement was ratified. But his threats backfired when they were reported in the local media: the deal was passed in defiance of perceived Iranian meddling. Tehran briefly recalled Mr Zohrawand from Kabul in protest.
An Afghan official said that some factions in Iran's regime wanted a less confrontational policy. "Tehran is divided on its policy about Afghanistan," he said. He added that diplomats in Kabul expected Mr Zohrawand to be replaced, perhaps by a more "seasoned and reasonable" diplomat like Gholamreza Ansari, a former Iranian ambassador to London.

Syria dispatch: battle for Aleppo hangs in the balance

2012-08-01T11:17:00.005-07:00

The rattle of machineguns echoed incessantly as Syrian rebels, wearing combat vests stuffed with ammunition, attacked a football stadium held by President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Aleppo.

A rebel on patrol near Aleppo

An explosion signalled the destruction of a tank, triggering jubilant cries of "Allahu Akhbar (God is Great)" from the insurgents.

But their celebration was shortlived: the soldiers launched a counter-attack, trying to break through rebel lines. The thin cluster of gunmen approaching the stadium, where perhaps 80 of the regime's tanks are deployed, had to fight hard to avoid being outflanked.

Mr Assad yesterday described the struggle for Aleppo as one that "will determine the destiny of our people and the nation's past, present and future".

In his first public words since July 18, when a bomb killed four key members of his security establishment in Damascus, Mr Assad praised the army as the "shield, wall and fortress of our nation".

But his annual address on Army Day came in the form of a written statement; unusually he did not deliver a speech or appear on television.

Just how high the stakes are in Aleppo was shown by the deployment of jet fighters to carry out air strikes for the first time. The United Nations confirmed that its observers had seen the Syrian air force in action in the city on Tuesday. The monitors also reported that rebels were using tanks and other heavy weapons in the battle for control of Syria's commercial capital, the home of 2.5 million people.
The outcome of this confrontation is hanging in the balance. Moving between rebel positions in a white van that had, in happier times, been a tourist bus, we encountered the destruction caused by a tank shell.
In the smoke and dust, people were trying to retrieve the contents of a devastated row of shops. At that moment, a second tank round slammed into a block of flats 50 yards away. The shock waves from the blast sucked air from our lungs as a cloud of black smoke enveloped the target.
Mr Assad's Russian-equipped army, using the tools developed for war on the plains of Europe, is focusing its attack on the Salahaddin area, a middle-class residential district next to the stadium. This was the third day of fighting in the street leading to what was once Aleppo's showcase football venue.
On the rebel side, the pace is frantic. One of their hardest tasks is to retrieve injured men who have crept forward for a better shot at government troops. "It's very difficult to get the injured – we have to go round the block and come from another way, where no one is in control," said Abdullah Yassin, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter. One team left on a rescue mission, covered by a barrage of fire from a heavy machinegun. They returned later, but without their wounded comrades.
Close-quarter combat in these streets is a crucial test for the FSA. Although Salahaddin is friendly territory, the rebels have only a tenuous grip on other districts, such as Fardos and Marjeh, leading to the guerrilla supply lines in north-eastern Aleppo.
Getting to Salahaddin means driving down backstreets where the stench of uncollected rotting garbage fills the senses.
Much of central Aleppo is a no-man's land, with the outcome of the battle still unpredictable. Even in areas that the rebels claim to have conquered, pro-regime militias pose a pervasive threat.
At Marjah Medical Clinic, however, insurgent fighters were jubilant. Abu Hamid placed his foot on the head of a bust of Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian leader from 1970 until 2000, and founder of the ruling dynasty. Someone had written "I'm sorry I'm a donkey" in marker pen on the bust.
"I am happy to rest my feet on Hafez al-Assad's head," said Abu Hamid. "He has caused me much pain and I am happy to get something back."
Hundreds have been injured during the battle for Aleppo. The lightly wounded are treated in the city, the more seriously injured are smuggled out to Turkey. Munsel Yarud, 28, who had been drafted into the fight from his native city of Hama, which was also besieged after rising up against Mr Assad, said his stomach wound had not put him off the struggle. "It may be months until I recover, but I will go back and fight until we bring this dictator down," he said.

Parisians warned that naked sunbathers will be jailed

2012-08-01T09:56:00.004-07:00

Parisians have been warned to keep their clothes on or face fines and even imprisonment as the city's residents began flocking to parks and the Seine to bask in the summer sun.

People enjoy the sun on Paris-Palges

In a statement posted on its website, the Paris police prefecture outlined rules for sun bathing outdoors and at the popular Paris Plages annual event that has sandy beaches and deckchairs laid out on the river bank.

Police said it is not forbidden "when the thermometer rises a few degrees to put on your best bathing suit and find a little corner of grass or the welcoming banks of the Seine to put down your towel."

The guidelines specify that bathing suits should not be worn in official city parks and that dress should be "decent and in accordance with good morals and public order."

Those wearing inappropriate dress could be fined at least €38 (£30), with cash penalties of up to €3,750 (£2,950) and two years in jail if suspected of soliciting sex,.

But unlike many beaches in elsewhere in France, topless sunbathing or nudity is completely forbidden on the banks of the River Seine.

"Any outfit that allows for the genital area or breasts to be seen constitutes sexual exhibition and is punishable by a year in prison," police said.

Osama bin Laden's death put al-Qaeda in irreversible decline

2012-08-01T09:44:00.003-07:00

The killing of Osama bin Laden has plunged al-Qaeda’s core leadership into a decline it will be hard to reverse, according to an American intelligence report

The report included statistics showing that the overall number of terrorist attacks worldwide fell to 10,283 last year from 11,641 in 2010

In its annual Country Reports on Terrorism, the State Department described 2011 as a “landmark year”, with the deaths of Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, the group’s deputy leader and Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior figure of its affiliate in Yemen, among other high-profile casualties.

It warned however that affiliates in Yemen and West Africa pose a growing threat to the West.

“As al-Qaeda’s core has gotten weaker, we have seen the rise of affiliated groups around the world. Among these al-Qaeda affiliates, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) represents a particularly serious threat,” it said.

“At year’s end, AQAP had taken control of territory in southern Yemen and was exploiting unrest in that country to advance plots against regional and Western interests.”

Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, also said the Arab Spring had also undermined al-Qaeda’s ideology.

“We saw millions of citizens throughout the Middle East advance peaceful public demands for change without any reference to al Qaeda's incendiary world view,” he said.
The report included statistics showing that the overall number of terrorist attacks worldwide fell to 10,283 last year from 11,641 in 2010.
However, in Pakistan’s tribal regions, long a haven for al-Qaeda’s core, the report said the group had forged close alliances with the Pakistan Taliban and the Haqqani network.
“These alliances have at times provided the group with additional resources and capabilities,” it said.
Islamabad has been under intense American pressure to take action against the Haqqani network, which many in Washington believe is backed by elements of Pakistan’s security services.
The group has been responsible for some of the most spectacular attacks on international forces across the border in Afghanistan, including the September assault on the US embassy and Nato compound in Kabul.
The report was released on the same day as the diplomat nominated to be America’s next ambassador to Pakistan said that getting Islamabad to crack down on the Haqqani network would be his “most urgent” responsibility.
“This will be a primary focus of my activities and diplomatic engagement with Pakistanis, to encourage further measures against the Haqqani network, further squeezing of the Haqqani network,” said Richard Olson during his Senate confirmation hearing.

Syria government's Aleppo assault stalls

2012-07-31T17:30:00.001-07:00

The Syrian government's assault on Aleppo appeared to have stalled on Tuesday night as rebels claimed new victories against the increasingly demoralised troops of Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian rebels are seen along a street in the Salhin district of the northern city of Aleppo

Rebels now believe they can capture the country's biggest city within days despite being outgunned. On Tuesday they stormed a number of bases including police stations in Aleppo suburbs, killing as many as 40 members of the security forces, following their capture of a key checkpoint on the road to the Syrian border the day before.

State media meanwhile said troops were still "pursuing terrorists" in the suburb of Salaheddin, which on Monday it claimed to control, as well a list of other districts.

Mohana Abu Bakri, commander of the rebel Abu Emara Battalion, told The Daily Telegraph the front line in Salaheddin remained where it had been the day before, despite heavy fighting. Other rebels reported bombing runs by both jets and helicopters.

"Thanks to the shelling there is hardly a street without holes in its houses or totally collapsed houses," he said.

The regime has been forced into using air power as tanks, even those not ambushed on their way in as increasing numbers have been, are proving an ineffective tool in the city's narrow streets.

Rebel units scattered for cover during an air attack on Miayasr in Aleppo's south, next to Salaheddin, following the predawn rebel capture of two police stations, a military court, an air force intelligence headquarters and a branch of the ruling Ba'ath party.
Louay Mokdar, an organiser for the Free Syrian Army in Turkey, claimed the dead from the police station attacks included a colonel, as well as intelligence officers and members of the "shabiha" militia. Dozens more were captured and taken to rebel prisons.
It is now 12 days since a sudden push swept the rebels into the metropolis of two million, with the government counter-attack coming four days ago.
The course of the battle so far has bolstered rebel confidence. The Syrian army has moved cautiously under the cover of artillery fire and air support.
But the rebels were increasingly bullish on Tuesday.
"We don't have goals for the coming months. We have goals for the coming days. Within days, God willing, Aleppo will be liberated," said Col Abdel-Jabber al-Oqaidi, head of the Joint Military Council in Aleppo, who defected from the Syrian army six months ago.
"We secure our areas and then move to other neighbourhoods, pushing towards the city centre.
"The regime's capabilities are also being weakened. They can shell us from afar with tanks and helicopters. But inside their morale is zero."
Four tank crews in Salaheddin surrendered as soon as opposition fighters appeared. Mr Abu Bakri said 16 defectors had crossed over to his side in Salaheddin yesterday and 30-40 more in a neighbouring district.
Taha Ahmed, a military vet who works on securing defections from an Army Ranger's base north of Aleppo said his task was becoming easier.
"The officers have been too scared to move but they are now talking with us," he said. "We have some infiltrators inside and we are gaining day by day defectors to join the Free Syria Army."
Abu Abdul Jabr, another rebel leader, said he believed the fight for Aleppo would be finished by the end of Ramadan, the holy fasting month, in mid-August.
"The government controls nothing any more, except through shelling and artillery," the bearded former interior decorator said in the front line town of Marea. "They can make a massacre but that is it.
"We have the resolution to fight. It means with us one month on the streets is equivalent to five years in military services. The troops don't have the strength to match us and are defecting whenever they can."
But the rebels do not have things all their own way. The regime still has troops in reserve, and is luring the opposition out.
Three rebel convoys were ambushed on Tuesday. In one case, a detachment of 20 men that went to relieve an outpost on the Nerha bridge on the edge of Salaheddin thought it had forged a deal for safe passage with a local family but found itself walking into a trap.
As rebel cars circled a roundabout, Shabiha gunmen opened fire. Grenades were thrown and security forces snipers targeted drivers. By the time the squad withdrew eight were dead.