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Osama says veil ban justifies attacks on France

2010-10-27T11:04:00.002-04:00

DUBAI: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned France on Wednesday that its ban on the veil in public places justified violence against its nationals as militants kept seven hostages captive, five of them French.

In an audio recording aired by Al-Jazeera television, Bin Laden said last month’s kidnapping claimed by the jihadist network’s North African branch in the Sahara desert in northern Niger was a warning.
He called on France to pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

“As you wrongly have decided that you have the right to ban Muslim women from wearing the veil, is it not our right to drive out your conquerors by killing them?” Bin Laden asked.

“The kidnapping of your experts in Niger... is in retaliation for the tyranny you practice against our Muslim nation.
“How is it possible to interfere in the affairs of Muslims, especially in north and west Africa, and support your agents against us and exploit much of our resources via suspect transactions while our people there suffer from poverty and misery,” he said in the speech, which lasted 1 minute 55 seconds.

The seven hostages — five French nationals, a Togolese and a Madagascan — were seized in a Niger uranium-mining town on the night of September 15 to September 16.

They are believed by intelligence agents in countries concerned to be held in an area of the Sahara desert in neighbouring Mali.
The Al-Qaeda leader warned the French government that continuation of its role in the NATO force in Afghanistan would rebound on domestic security.

“The way to protect your security is to bring your tyranny against our nation to an end, most importantly to withdraw from the damned war of (former US president George W.) Bush in Afghanistan,” he said in the message, the authenticity of which could not immediately be verified.

“How could you take part in occupying our countries and support the Americans in killing our children and women, and then expect to live in peace and security?” he asked.

“It is very simple — as you kill, you will be killed, as you take hostages, you will be taken hostages, and as you compromise our security, we will compromise your security.”

Bin Laden began his message to the French people by saying he wanted to set out “the reasons for threatening your security and taking your people as prisoners.”

The authenticity of the latest recording could not immediately be independently verified.

On September 30, Al-Qaeda’s North African branch posted a photograph and audio recordings of the seven hostages, who were mostly working for the French nuclear group Areva and its subcontractors.

The French government has indicated it is willing to talk to the kidnappers, but has received no contact from the group.

The last message from the elusive Al-Qaeda chief was in early October, when he issued a call for aid to flood victims in Pakistan.

In a speech posted on the Internet entitled “Help Your Pakistani Brothers,” the Al-Qaeda leader focused on the reluctance of Arab and Muslim countries to help Pakistanis, singling out Gulf states, Malaysia and Turkey, US monitoring group SITE Intelligence said.

Bin Laden’s whereabouts are unknown, but in August, the US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, said he is “far buried” in the remote mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and that capturing him remains a key task. -- AFP

Read more: Osama says veil ban justifies attacks on France http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/OsamasaysveilbanjustifiesattacksonFrance/Article/#ixzz13ZW4o5Fn

INDONESIA: Volcano-displaced face increased health risks

2010-10-27T11:01:00.002-04:00

JAKARTA, 27 October 2010 (IRIN) - Indonesian health authorities are warning of increased health risks for thousands of people displaced by the volcano eruption in central Java.
The Mount Merapi volcano [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90881 ] erupted before dusk on 26 October, spewing clouds of extremely hot ash and covering entire neighbourhoods on its southern slope.
At least 28 people are now confirmed dead and 90 hospitalized for burns, the Health Ministry said in a statement on 27 October.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/LSGZ-8AMGGP?OpenDocument&RSS20=18-P

Indonesian tsunami kills 108, scores missing

2010-10-26T14:04:00.002-04:00

A tsunami that pounded remote islands in western Indonesia following an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra killed more than 100 people, officials said on Tuesday, and hundreds more were missing.

The 7.5 magnitude quake hit 78 kilometers west of South Pagai, one of the Mentawai islands, late on Monday. Local legislator Hendri Dori Satoko told Metro TV the latest toll was 108 dead and 502 missing.

Most buildings in the coastal village of Betu Monga were destroyed, said Hardimansyah, an official with the regional branch of the Department of Fisheries.

"Of the 200 people living in that village, only 40 have been found. 160 are still missing, mostly women and children," he said. "We have people reporting to the security post here that they could not hold on to their children, that they were swept away. A lot of people are crying."

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/indonesia/2010/10/27/277608/Indonesian-tsunami.htm

Baby dies after hysterical people jump from Paris flat to 'escape the devil'

2010-10-25T14:18:00.002-04:00

A BABY boy was killed when 12 people leapt off a second-floor balcony - to "get away from the Devil".
Eight people, including several children, were hurt, some seriously. Police are trying to get to the bottom of the bizarre tragedy.

Survivors of the mass plunge from a flat in a Paris suburb said the incident began in the early hours of the morning when a dad got out of bed naked to feed his crying baby.

They said the man's wife saw him moving around and started screaming that she had seen the Devil.
The man was then stabbed in the hand by his wife's sister and thrown out through the door of the flat.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/weird-news/2010/10/25/baby-dies-after-hysterical-people-jump-from-paris-flat-to-escape-the-devil-86908-22657265/

Western Media Getting Afghanistan Wrong

2010-10-23T21:32:00.000-04:00

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak (right) talk to reporters in Kabul in March. Are Western media seeing the problems of Afghanistan through a lens of self-interest?

October 22, 2010

By Abubakar Siddique

KABUL -- Behind the high walls of Kabul's tightly guarded government offices and diplomatic missions, peace and reconciliation are the new buzz words.

International media coverage of Afghanistan echoes with stories about how Afghan officials and NATO are making progress reaching out to -- and even talking to -- Taliban commanders, some of whom have reportedly been given safe passage to Kabul.

Most such stories are based on unnamed sources and paint a confusing picture, leaving readers in the West wondering whether a final settlement with the Taliban is around the corner.

But miles away from official Kabul live former members of the Taliban regime, and they paint a very different picture. In homes guarded closely by Afghan intelligence agents in the dusty streets of western Kabul, live former Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil and former Taliban diplomat and minister Abdul Salam Zaif. Both see peace as being a long way off.

Muttawakil and Zaif were incarcerated by the Americans, with Zaif spending more than four years in Guantanamo. They say that the recent formation of the High Peace Council means that the Taliban knows who to talk to about reconciliation within the Afghan government. But in their view, reaching a final settlement would require a variety of actors -- Afghan, international, and regional -- to come to terms. And that, they say, won't be easy to achieve.

Muttawakil and Zaif reject the widely reported notions in the media that reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is now a marginal actor to any negotiations, or that the hard-line movement is divided into several independent factions and not controlled by a central leadership. Drawing on unnamed Afghan and international officials, international media have recently reported that the Taliban leader has been explicitly left out of current negotiations because of his close ties to the Pakistani security services.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Getting_Afghanistan_Wrong/2198697.html

Filmmaker Preserves Dying Tibetan Folk Music

2010-10-19T14:02:00.000-04:00

Photo: David Huang

The filmmaker, Ngawang Choephel (right) and a friend, prepare a traditional song for 'Tibet in Song.'

Ngawang Choephel endured more than six years in a Chinese prison in his quest to prevent Tibetan folk songs from being lost forever.
More than dozen of these traditional songs are showcased in the filmmaker's documentary, "Tibet in Song," now showing in New York City.
Music tradition
Choephel was only two years old when he and his mother fled Chinese-ruled Tibet in 1968. Growing up in a refugee camp in India, he heard Tibetan songs from the older refugees.
Like folk music around the world, traditional Tibetan lyrics deal with almost every aspect of life: from work, family and social occasions to love and nature.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Filmmaker-Attempts-to-Preserve-Dying-Art-of-Tibetan-Folk-Music--105272293.html

Brussels alarmed by Turkish police violence

2010-10-19T14:00:00.000-04:00

Transgendered people have a rough time in Turkey (Photo: RAFIK BERLIN)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Five Turkish transgendered people are set to go on trial on Thursday (21 October) on charges of resisting police and may face of up to three years in prison, in a case which could negatively impact the EU's yearly assessment of Turkey's progress toward accession.

According to the Ankara-based transgender rights group Pembe Hayat (Pink Life), police stopped the five in May, accused them of being prostitutes, pulled them out of their car by the hair, beat them with batons and sprayed them with tear gas.

Five international NGOs, including the New-York-based Human Rights Watch and the Brussels-situated ILGA-Europe, in a joint letter this week called on the Turkish authorities to drop the charges and to hold the police officers accountable.

They said that about a dozen transgendered people, most of them prostitutes, have been attacked and killed in Turkey over the past few years.

"The case of the five transgender persons who will stand trial later this week for resisting the police is well known to us and we have made our concerns known to our Turkish counterparts," Angela Filote, the spokeswoman for EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele told this website.

http://euobserver.com/9/31072

2010-10-19T13:56:00.000-04:00

Alaa al-Marjani / AP

United Nations Special Representative Ad Melkert leaves following a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the Shiite city of Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010. The United Nations says its chief envoy in Iraq is unharmed after his convoy was bombed following a meeting with the nation's top Shiite cleric.(AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)

BAGHDAD — The chief U.N. envoy to Iraq narrowly escaped unharmed in a bombing that hit his convoy Tuesday after a meeting with the nation's top cleric about ways on how to unsnarl Iraq's stalemated government.

Officials have long worried that the political impasse that has gripped Iraq for more than seven months may lead to violence, and the attack on U.N. Special Representative Ad Melkert underscored those fears.

The U.N. has had a scaled-back presence in Iraq after a 2003 bombing of its Baghdad headquarters killed then-envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 employees. But its staff have stubbornly persisted in helping Iraq untangle political crises and other hot-button issues as an international force that remains committed to the country as the U.S. military begins to leave.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39735324/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

Forestry peace deal

2010-10-19T12:35:00.000-04:00

Updated Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:11am AEDT

Growing peace: the deal comes after months of secret talks. (ABC News)

Decades of war in Tasmania's forests could end today with environmentalists and the timber industry signing a formal peace deal.

The ABC understands industry representatives and conservationists will sign a Statement of Principles, after months of negotiations behind closed doors.

Premier David Bartlett has refused to confirm the imminent deal but says he is looking forward to the next stage of the process.

"[We need] to ensure we have a robust and vibrant and sustainable forest industry going forward."
It is understood the document commits the parties to immediately protect high conservation areas and to eventually stop logging in native forest.

The parties have also reached a compromise on the key stumbling block of burning wood residues for power, restricting biomass to plantation forests.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/18/3041588.htm

Iran brokers Iraq deal, extends its influence

2010-10-18T16:17:00.000-04:00

Iran has brokered a critical deal with its neighbours that could see a pro-Tehran government installed in Iraq, a move that would shift the fragile country sharply away from a sphere of western influence. The Guardian can reveal that the Islamic republic was instrumental in forming an alliance between Iraq's Nouri al-Maliki, who is vying for a second term as prime minister, and the country's powerful radical Shia cleric leader, Moqtada al-Sadr.

The deal — which involved Syria, Lebanon's Hezbollah and the highest authorities in Shia Islam — positions Maliki as a frontrunner to return as leader.

It also positions Iran as a potent buffer to US interests at a time when America is looking to change its relationship with Iraq from military overlords to civilian partners.

At the time the US had only just withdrawn its last dedicated combat units from Iraq but left behind a political vacuum with no government in place after March elections delivered a irrevocably split parliament.

“The Iranians were holding out until then,” said a key source about the timing of the Iranian move. Within days of the withdrawal, Sadr, who lives in self-imposed exile in the Iranian city of Qom, was told by the Iranians to reconsider his position as a vehement opponent of Maliki.

US officials have strongly suggested they would scale back their involvement in Iraq if the Sadrists, who have been a key foe, were to emerge as a significant player in any government. GNS

http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/world/Iran-brokers-Iraq-deal-extends-its-influence/Article1-614770.aspx

Iran asylum seekers sew up lips

2010-10-18T15:53:00.000-04:00

A group of Iranian asylum seekers have sewn their lips shut with medical threads during a hunger strike to press the Greek government to accept their applications for refugee status, protest organisers say.

The 25 protesters camped in a makeshift tent in central Athens, started their fast on Thursday.

Seven of them have also sewn their mouths shut - in a demonstration of defiance against Greek authorities which face growing international pressure to accept more asylum claims.

Last week, the United Nations' refugee agency bluntly criticised Greek authorities for neglecting legitimate claims and expressed concern over a severe deterioration in conditions at detention facilities for illegal migrants at the Greek-Turkish border.

The government has promised to overhaul asylum procedure but says it is overwhelmed by the influx of illegal immigrants crossing into the European Union from Turkey.

Protest organisers said on Monday that the 25 hunger strikers are being joined by 19 more Iranian asylum seekers at the central Athens protest, all claiming to have been mistreated or harassed by Iranian authorities and remaining in Greece on short-term residence permits.

Mandana Daneshnia, a former newspaper reporter, said she fled the country after being harassed by authorities for writing about women's issues. She was one of the seven protesters who sewed their lips.

"Women have no rights in Iran. They can't wear what they want, do what they want, or even watch sporting events. Their testimony in court counts only for half of the one given by a man," Daneshnia said, writing a statement in Persian, as her husband and young daughter looked on.

"I have sewn my mouth to show that women in Iran are strong," said Daneshnia, 29, with short dyed-blonde hair and red-framed designer glasses, holding her lips with her hand when occasionally tempted to smile.

Other protesters dabbed their lips with rubbing alcohol. One of the hunger strikers, Davod Jani, collapsed during the news conference and received medical attention.

Greek government officials have not commented on the protest.

Moscow Searches for Strategic Depth in the “Reset”

2010-10-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

President Obama and Russian President Medvedev in 2009.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s edict on September 23, formalizing sanctions against Iran following the UN Security Council resolution passed on June 9, has rekindled domestic interest in the “reset” policy in US-Russian bilateral relations. In addition to withdrawing from its earlier deal to supply the S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran, Moscow has also banned other military sales to Tehran, and triggered speculation among some Russian analysts that as a quid pro quo the US may smooth the path to Russian accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Similarly, Russia appears to be expanding the agenda of its bilateral cooperation with the US, prompting additional discussion of the future of the reset. Tatyana Stanovaya, writing in Politikom.ru characterized the edict on Iran as Moscow pursuing the “reset” as a “strategic choice,” yet in the same article the enduring nature of the reset was questioned (www.politikom.ru, September 28).

Suspicion among a significant part of the Russian elite, according to Stanovaya, renders them skeptical about the reality of the reset. Indeed, Stanovaya cited an interview to Kommersant by Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, saying that he wanted to “believe” in the sincerity of US President, Barack Obama, concerning the reset, “I do not know what he can and what he cannot do; I want to see whether he is successful or not. But he wants to. I actually have the sense that this is his sincere position,” Putin explained. Putin also raised concern about the US rearming Georgia, which it is not, and alluded to “promises” in the past that NATO would not expand eastward as a “swindle” (www.politikom.ru, September 28).

Moscow pursuing the reset as a strategic choice is therefore complicated by personality, recent history, and lack of consensus on how to proceed as well as perception and misperception on both sides. In Moscow, there is no short supply of pessimism. Alexei Fenenko, a researcher in the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for International Security, observed that the US and Russia have tended to view each other through nuclear missile sights, and suggested they will remain “potential enemies,” which was a factor in the respective formulation of their military doctrines (RIA Novosti, October 11). US analysts are also grappling with the future direction of the reset, such as Emiliano Alessandri, in a Brookings Institute briefing paper argued that the reset needed reloading, deepening its nature and shifting attention to Europe, co-opting other countries into the continued resetting of relations with Russia

(http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2010/1014_europe_russia_alessandri/1014_europe_russia_alessandri.pdf, October 14). That process may have commenced in Deauville today (October 18) with the trilateral security summit between Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Dmitry Medvedev, though Washington has yet to lend its support to such initiatives (The Moscow Times, October 18).

Whatever euphemism is preferred, substance is need. Sergei Karaganov, the Chairman of the Moscow-based Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, revealed growing concerns in Moscow about the reset, in an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on September 29, (later republished by RIA Novosti). Karaganov revised his earlier assessment that the reset was not real, elaborated the achievements of the “honeymoon” period in US-Russian relations, providing an overview of its progress. Russian concern that the reset may fail is rooted in domestic US politics: Moscow fears that Obama may not be reelected and that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START III) might not be passed by the US Senate (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, September 29, RIA Novosti, October 11).

Karaganov stressed that signing START III represented a real achievement of the reset, though asserting the American liberal dream of “global zero” in which “only in this non-nuclear or little-nuclear world can the US politically realize its non-nuclear superiority,” has been quietly buried. As one advisor to the Russian Defense Minister, Anatoliy Serdyukov, told Jamestown, Moscow views a world free of nuclear weapons as one in which the US can do as it pleases, and this is intolerable for Russia. Moreover, in Karaganov’s view the possibility of placing tactical nuclear weapons reduction on the negotiating table has also been buried. Among the positive steps in the “reset” featured cooperation on Afghanistan and Iran, though on the latter Karaganov returned to the theme that the nonproliferation genie is out of the bottle and efforts directed towards Iran either miss this point or are simply too late. The bilateral dialogue occurring in the framework of the president’s commission was praised though criticized for its shortcomings, not least the “intellectual unwillingness” on the part of Americans to discuss Medvedev’s European security treaty. However, Karaganov also indicated the main structural weakness with the reset: “almost the entire current and in fact proposed agenda for Russian-American relations is directed toward problems of the past.” There is an absence of any orientation towards the future, apart from tentative discussion on missile defense cooperation between the US and NATO with Russia (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, September 29).

The implication in these “conclusions,” is that any effort to resurrect such ambitious schemes will destroy the reset. While space restricted detailed discussion of the potential areas for developing future interaction, Karaganov, highlighted one particular strategic issue: the unstoppable rise of China, which is also expressing increasing economic interest even in the Arctic. “The formation of a relative and perhaps even virtual vacuum of security around an increasingly powerful China: in East and South Asia, a new problem is added to old ones. And it must not be resolved with the old methods –the creation of a system of military deterrence. What is needed is the rapid creation of a system of security for the region where the US and Russia can and should play an important role,” Karaganov suggested (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, September 29).

Fearing that the reset may run out of momentum, or fall victim to domestic US politics, some Russian analysts are seeking strategic depth to an enduring reset based upon establishing long term shared interests. The reset may ultimately fail due to becoming captive to old agendas, “But without a view focused on the future, we will constantly be tossed back by these old agendas. Yet, with a new one, we will be able at least to try to build truly innovative and not simply ‘reset’ or old-style –normal– relations between Russia and the US,” Karaganov maintained (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, September 29).

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=37041&tx_ttnews%5bbackPid%5d=228&cHash=6c2695b114

Egyptian Islamic Scholar Ibrahim Al-Khouli: We Must Conduct Jihad against the West, Who Are Aggressors against the Land of Islam

2010-10-18T13:46:00.005-04:00

Ibrahim A-Khouli: "What is the nature of our relations with [the West]? They are relations of Crusader aggression against the land of Islam – in Afghanistan, in Iraq, which was destroyed and removed from history... I believe that the seeds of civil strife that were sown in Iraq will not be eradicated for centuries to come. [...]

"What formula should the Islamic nation adopt in its dealings with America and the West?
Interviewer: "Go ahead."
Ibrahim Al-Khouli: "We must confront them, and say: You are aggressors on the land of Islam. You are occupying our lands. You are exploiting our resources. You are humiliating our people. Unless you stop doing that, and restore our rights, the only path we will take is the path of jihad, which is an individual duty incumbent upon the nation."
Interviewer: "Yes."
Ibrahim Al-Khouli: "Forget about bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. That’s not what I’m talking about. I am talking about the jihad of the entire nation.
Interviewer: "Not of individuals."
Ibrahim Al-Khouli: "I’m talking about jihad which is led by the Islamic scholars, and the entire nation will be mobilized for the sake of the supreme jihad. This will lead us to a confrontation. [...]
"We should follow the example of the young men of the Taliban. A group of several thousands of students have been crushing NATO in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Where are the armies of the Muslims?" [...]

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4682.htm

In Iran, Renewed Efforts To Keep University Students In Check

2010-10-18T13:43:00.000-04:00

Opposition supporters demonstrate at Tehran University in December 2009.

October 18, 2010

Former university professor Saba Vafa and student activist Salman Sima are casualties of the Iranian state's campaign to purge universities of dissenting voices.

In the aftermath of the country's contentious presidential election in June 2009, Vafa, a professor of literature at Shahid University, was fired. The reason: politically interpreting literary texts and fomenting "moral corruption" among students.

Sima has found himself jailed twice and most recently saw an appellate court uphold a six-year prison sentence against him.

The two exemplify the pressure that has come to bear on universities in relation to the prominent role played by students in mass protests over President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's reelection.

The tactics used to keep universities in check have transformed over the months. In the initial days of the protests, pro-government forces reacted violently. The dorm of Tehran University was one of the first targets, with five students reportedly killed and many injured. Students were among those killed in street protests and at least three are reported to have died after being tortured at the Kahrizak detention center outside the Iranian capital.

The next stage involved the sentencing of dozens of students to lengthy jail terms or their banishment from future education.

Today, the country's institutes of higher learning are working under heightened scrutiny, with a heavy police presence keeping a close eye on students and professors alike.

http://www.rferl.org/content/In_Iran_Renewed_Efforts_To_Keep_University_Students_In_Check/2194096.html

Plan to bury Turkey's 'cancer city'

2010-10-18T13:04:00.000-04:00

A village that has become known as Turkey's 'cancer city' could be knocked down and buried under 13 feet of dirt in an attempt to halt high rates of mesothelioma, lung problems and cancer among residents of the region.

Published: 7:00AM BST 18 Oct 2010

Anatolia, Turkey: Tuzkoy village in central Anatolia has become known as Turkey's cancer city Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY

Tuzkoy village in central Anatolia, Turkey, is surrounded by large deposits of erionite, a fibrous mineral found in volcanic rocks.

The main cause of mesothelioma, a painful lung cancer, is erionite dust.

Murat Tuncer, chair of the unit for the fight against cancer in the health ministry, told the Harriyet Daily News & Economic Review that 46 people from the village had developed the disease this year, compared to a total of 65 in the country as a whole.

The death rate of people with mesothelioma was 700 to 800 per cent higher in Tuzkoy compared to rates throughout the world, he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/8070136/Plan-to-bury-Turkeys-cancer-city.html

Osama bin Laden living in luxury in northwest Pakistan, says senior Nato official

2010-10-18T11:18:00.001-04:00

Last updated at 3:44 PM on 18th October 2010

Osama bin Laden is believed to be in north west Pakistan, and his deputy is Ayman al-Zawahiri is nearby

Osama bin Laden is living a comfortable life and hiding out in a house in northwest Pakistan, according to Nato officials.
The Al Qaeda leader has not been scuttled away to a network of caves, but instead is living life as the world’s most wanted man in conventional surroundings.
His deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri is also hiding out in a separate house in an area close to bin Laden under similar arrangements, the official claimed.
After 9/11 the hunt for bin Laden and the Al Qaeda leadership focused on the remote Tora Bora region of Afghanistan which is known for its huge warren of caves burrowed into the mountains.
It now appears he has been moved around on a regular basis to boltholes in the Chitral area of Pakistan in the far northwest and the Kurram Valley, which neighbours Tora Bora.
‘Nobody in Al Qaeda is living in a cave,’ said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the intelligence matters involved.
The prospect of bin Laden living in comfort will be a rebuke to the U.S. which has made finding and killing him a central plank of its war on terrorism.
President Barack Obama has said that he remains determined to track him down, adding that bin Laden had been forced ‘underground’ by U.S. drone attacks on the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan including one on Tora Bora in 2001 which nearly caught him.
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Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's number two, is reported to be living nearby the Al Qaeda boss in north west Pakistan, too

Bin Laden and his top men are likely to be in the rugged and tribal Kurram Valley, the official reckons, close to the boarder of China

He had also claimed the leaders of al Qaeda are ‘holed up’ in a way that makes it hard for them to cooperate - an assertion which the NATO official appears to contradict.
The NATO officer, who has day-to-day high-level responsibility for the war, claimed bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are protected by locals and some members of the Pakistani intelligence services.
Finding them will be complicated by the size of the area they are in - it covers hundreds of square miles - the rugged terrain and the tribal warlords who run it.
The official offered a grim view of the war in Afghanistan and said that there were up to one million disaffected young men on the border with Pakistan who would be prepared to fight coalition forces.
‘Every year the insurgency can generate more and more manpower,’ he said, adding that despite a military presence in Afghanistan ‘we don't know what's going on’.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied protecting members of the al Qaeda leadership.
The country’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik was dismissive of the NATO official’s claims and said similar reports in the past had turned out to be incorrect.
Richard Holbrooke, the special U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, added: ‘We hardly have a day that goes by where somebody doesn't say they know where Osama bin Laden is.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1321544/Osama-bin-Laden-living-luxury-northwest-Pakistan-says-senior-Nato-official.html?ITO=1490#ixzz12iwfC5u1

Saudi Arabia: Iran to take over next year’s OPEC presidency

2010-10-14T14:21:00.003-04:00

Iran will assume the presidency of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries next year for the first time in 36 years,
-AFP/NOW Lebanon

PAKISTAN: A guide to main militant groups

2010-10-13T13:12:00.000-04:00

Photo: Abdul Majeed Goraya/IRIN

Bombings have allowed the militants’ presence to be felt across the country

ISLAMABAD, 13 October 2010 (IRIN) - There are at least nine major militant groups in northern Pakistan and the Punjab, battling the Pakistan army, US forces, and each other. Bombings of Sufi shrines in the cities of Karachi and Lahore this year - the hardliners’ response to that more moderate tradition within Islam - has added to the toll of violence.

Most of the armed groups operating in the Federally Administered Tribal Area and neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province are splinter groups from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). They have varying degrees of loyalty to leaders of the Afghan Taliban - notably Mullah Omar - but all share the same broad goal of Islamic Shariah rule for Pakistan, and the expulsion of US forces from the region.

An estimated 1.23 million people remain displaced as a result of the fighting between militants and the Pakistani army in the tribal territories that border Afghanistan. With the military’s focus shifting to flood relief, there is concern of a resurgence in violence.

IRIN provides a Who’s Who? guide to Pakistan’s main militant groups:

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

Area of operations: Traditionally, the Mehsud group of the TTP, which operates from bases in the tribal territory of South Waziristan; has spearheaded militant operations across the north. This changed after the death of leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone strike in August 2009. The TTP has since splintered, with new leader Hakimullah Mehsud operating mainly from his native Orakzai Agency. Other Taliban factions are based in the Khyber Agency and, according to media reports, in southern Punjab.
Targets: Pakistani military personnel and civilians - typically suicide bombings of markets.
Support base: The Mehsud tribe and other tribes loyal to it assisted by foreign militants.

Mullah Nazir Group

Area of operations: South Waziristan
Targets: The Pakistani military and civilians, as well as US forces in Afghanistan.
Base of support: The Wazir tribe near the town of Wana. The group maintains good relations with the Haqqani Network (see below) and has ties to Mullah Omar.

Turkistan Bhittani Group

Area of operations: South Waziristan
Targets: Mainly engaged in a battle with the TTP after splitting from its former ally Baitullah Mehsud in 2007. It is believed to have occasionally targeted US forces in Afghanistan but not Pakistani military personnel or civilians.
Base of support: The Bhittani tribe is the main source of support for leader Turkistan Bhittani. There have been suggestions the group may be backed by Pakistani forces against the TTP.

Haqqani Network

Area of operations: North Waziristan
Targets: Almost exclusively US forces in Afghanistan.
Base of support: The Zadran tribe in Afghanistan’s Khost Province.
Widely respected as powerful Mujahedin by tribes across the north since the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet forces. Support from al-Qaeda and foreign militants; has ties with Mullah Omar, but plans strategy independently.

Gul Bahadur Group

Area of operations: North Waziristan
Targets: Pakistani forces in North Waziristan and US troops in Afghanistan
Base of support: The Wazir and Daur tribes in North Waziristan, especially near the town of Miram Shah.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (North)

Area of operations: All tribal territories, but especially Kurram and Orakzai where there is a Shia population - a minority Muslim sect.
Targets: Pakistani civilians, especially Shias, and military personnel. Attacks on Western nationals in Pakistan.
Base of support: Mainly anti-Shia militant groups from Punjab.

Lashkar-e-Islam

Area of operations: Khyber Agency
Targets: Pakistani civilians
Base of support: The hard-line Deobandi Muslim sect; locked in a battle against militant rivals for control in Khyber.

Ansar-ul-Islam

Area of operations: Khyber Agency
Targets: US forces in Afghanistan
Base of support: The Deobandi and Barelvi sects - especially less hard-line factions. Engaged in battles in Khyber with rival militants.

Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi

Area of operations: Swat Valley, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province; attempts to assert influence in Dir.
Targets: Pakistani civilians - especially government figures, including teachers - and military personnel.
Social roots and base of support: Disillusioned members of Pakistani religious and political parties. The group was set up in 1992. Its involvement in more widespread militancy began after 2002, when key leaders were imprisoned after participating in `jihad’ in Afghanistan. It has split into various factions since then.

Groups in Punjab

The southern Punjab is a poverty-stricken, orthodox region - much like the north - but the rise of militant groups has followed a slightly different trajectory. Fierce anti-Shia sectarianism, and a greater focus on `jihad’ aimed at Indian-administered Kashmir, is high on the agenda of these groups.

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (Punjab)

Area of operations: Countrywide
Targets: Shia Muslims, non-Muslims, foreign nationals, state security forces
Base of support: Sectarian groups in Punjab. It first emerged in the Punjab in the 1990s.

Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan

Area if operations: Countrywide with a concentration in the Punjab
Targets: Non-Muslims and the Shia minority
Base of support: Other sectarian groups and hard-line Muslim factions.

Jaish-e-Mohammad

Area of operations: Mainly Indian-held Kashmir and Afghanistan; some role in fighting in north. Headquartered in the southern Punjab
Targets: Indian forces, Western nationals, non-Muslim Pakistanis
Base of support: Backing from hard-line Muslim factions involved in violence in northwest Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.

Lashkar-e-Taiba

Area of operations: Based in Punjab. Operates in Indian-held Kashmir and possibly Afghanistan
Targets: Mainly Indian targets
Base of support: Pro-`jihad’ and hard-line Muslim groups. Allegations of links to Pakistani intelligence agencies by media. Heavily involved in post-flood relief work and other charitable work.

Sources:
Hassan Abbas: The Battle for Pakistan: Politics and Militancy in the Northwest Frontier Province, The New America Foundation, 19 April 2010
Syed Saleem Shahzad: Taliban Wield the Axe Ahead of New Battle, The Asia Times, 24 January 2008
Brian Fishman: The Battle for Pakistan: Militancy and Conflict Across the FATA and NWFP, The New America Foundation, April 2010
Jane Mayer: The Predator War, The New Yorker, 26 October 2009
M. Ilyas Khan: With a Little Help From His Friends, Karachi Herald, June 2004
Ahmed Rashid: Descent into Chaos, Viking 2008
Articles in: The News International, Dawn, Newsline, 2007-2010

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=90760

Glut of fatwas spurs Saudi king to impose curbs

2010-10-11T16:34:00.000-04:00

Hassan Ammar / AP

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia over the years has tinkered with the tenets of the Wahhabi school of Islam

CAIRO — The ideology that reigns in Saudi Arabia comes into plain view on the website of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, where boys and girls sharing a swimming pool causes "mischief and evil" and bringing flowers to a hospital patient is to be discouraged because it's a foreign custom that "imitates Allah's adversaries."

And those fatwas, or religious rulings, come from the government-appointed body of clerics who are the guardians of the kingdom's ultraconservative Wahhabi school of Islam. But there's also a whole other world of independent clerics issuing their own interpretations, often contradictory, through the Web, TV stations and text messages.

Now King Abdullah is moving to regain control over this abundance of fatwas. Under a royal decree issued in mid-August, only the official panel may issue the fatwas that answer every question of how pious Saudis should live their lives.

The result: In recent weeks, websites and a satellite station where clerics answered questions have been shut down or have voluntarily stopped issuing fatwas. One preacher was publicly reprimanded for urging a boycott of a supermarket chain for employing female cashiers.

The question on the minds of some Saudis is whether any of this points the way to a more liberal code. Saad Sowayan, a Saudi historian and columnist, thinks it does. "The state wants to take the lead in shaping public opinion and this serves the issue of secularism and modernity," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

But many of the powerful clerics on the 21-member council are themselves hard-liners. Beyond strict edicts on morality, they reinforce a worldview whereby non-Muslims and even liberal or Shiite Muslims are considered infidels, and their stances on jihad, or holy war, at times differ only in nuances from al-Qaida's.

The website has thousands of fatwas, some dating back more than a decade, and dozens more are added each month.

A far stricter interpretation than is followed in most Muslim countries, Wahhabism is known most for its near obsessive segregation of the sexes, its insistence on ideological purity and its harsh punishments of beheadings and hand amputations for some crimes. It is also the law in Saudi Arabia, where clerics sit as judges in courts, religious police prevent unmarried or unrelated men and women from mixing, and women are banned from driving.

King Abdullah has taken a few incremental steps toward modernization. In a move last year that angered some Wahhabis, for example, he inaugurated the first university where male and female students share classes.

But tinkering with the system is risky, because of the grand trade-off that lies at the heart of modern Saudi Arabia: The governing Al Saud family supports the clerics, and the clerics support the family's rule.

Theoretically at least, the council's new fatwa monopoly could help Abdullah if his aim is to enact further reforms by seeding the commission with clerics who are more liberal and are willing to give him religious cover. The king seemed to give a hint of that last year when for the first time he appointed four clerics from non-Wahhabi schools of Islam, including one Sufi — a notable step given Wahhabi hatred of the Sufi movement.

On the other hand, some of the now-barred independent sheiks have issued fatwas that are more moderate than those of official clerics — men like Sheik Adel al-Kalbani, who challenged the Wahhabi ban on music by saying it was permitted provided the lyrics didn't promote sin.

Saudi media have speculated that the king's resolve may have been hardened by a recent fatwa that provoked particular public uproar. Sheik Abdul-Mohsen al-Obeikan ruled that if a woman needs to appear without her veil in front of an adult, unrelated male, she has the option of breast-feeding him, because it establishes a mother-son bond in Islamic tradition. That reasoning has been heard in a few fatwas by other sheiks, but is rejected by most scholars.

Saudi political analyst Turk al-Hamed says limiting fatwa rights to the official panel isn't enough. "The state must intervene. The religious establishment enjoys complete freedom. This is not acceptable," al-Hamad said in an interview.

He noted the council clerics' rulings on jihad, some of which are vague enough to be interpreted on pro-al-Qaida websites as approval of violence in the cause of Islam.

"If you endorse jihad, it means you are searching for a war with the rest of the world," al-Hamad said.

Even amid a state counterterrorism effort that followed a series of al-Qaida attacks on Saudi territory from 2003-2005, council clerics have balked at issuing a clear rejection of waging "holy war." In 2007, the council's head, Grand Mufti Abdel Aziz Al Sheik, urged young Saudis not to join jihad in Iraq or other countries, saying it could embarrass the kingdom. Still, some criticized him for not outright prohibiting it.

Fatwas on the official website also reinforce a deep intolerance that critics say fuels militancy. Apart from the rulings on swimming pools and hospital flowers, there are injunctions against movie theaters that "promote lewdness and immorality," and against relationships of "mutual affection, love and brotherhood" with non-Muslims — or even initiating an exchange of greetings with them.

Islamic clerics around the world issue opinions regularly. They can vary widely, and individuals can choose which ones to follow. Fatwas from other parts of the Middle East tend to be more moderate, but the Saudi council is influential, as the kingdom is home to Islam's holiest sites and its oil wealth amplifies its voice.

Council members are appointed by the king to four-year terms. The leadership has generally not intervened in clerics' opinions, but a council member was dropped in 2009 after he criticized the mixed-gender university, Abdullah's pet project.

Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan was removed as chief of the Supreme Judiciary Council, the kingdom's top court, after a 2008 fatwa in which he said it was permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV stations that show "immoral" content. Several popular TV channels are owned by influential Saudi billionaires.

On the other hand, one of the kingdom's most hard-line independents is still issuing fatwas on his website, openly flouting the ban without reprisals so far. Sheik Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak endorses jihad and in February raised controversy by ruling that those who advocate easing gender segregation should be put to death.

"This is not reforming the clerical establishment," Christopher Boucek, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said of the royal decree, "but rather a process to institutionalize and bureaucratize the state."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39591126/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

Chavez risks losing legislature majority

2010-09-24T16:39:00.000-04:00

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez talks to the media next to

CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rallied supporters before Sunday's national assembly elections as opposition campaigners vowed to halve the government's parliamentary majority and limit its lawmaking powers.

Chavez, 56, is widely tipped to win the legislative elections but the opposition is banking on small victories that will reduce a majority it handed to Chavez when it boycotted the 2005 election.

If, as widely predicted, Chavez wins fewer than 110 seats then the opposition will have the chance to mount an obstructionist campaign against his revolutionary lawmaking in the legislature if not entirely succeed in derailing his Bolivarian revolution, analysts said.

Opposition campaigners hope to capitalize on electricity and water shortages, high crime rates and government inefficiencies and build on promises of forcing change.

Opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado urged voters to go to the polls without fear to make Venezuela "a safer country" -- a reference to opposition allegations of government intimidation of dissidents.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/09/24/Chavez-risks-losing-legislature-majority/UPI-54441285358441/

Business Booms at Gulf's First Sex Shop

2010-09-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

Just as many women shop in the Fashion House as men. They often come with their husbands, who stand to the side while their wives shop.

Just down the road in Saudi Arabia, men aren't allowed to talk to women in public, but the phone at Khadija Mohammed's Bahrain sex shop hardly stops ringing. One favorite item: fruit-flavored edible underwear.

King Fahd Causeway connects Saudi Arabia to the island kingdom of Bahrain, where some of the rules are rather more relaxed. If you leave Manama, the kingdom's capital, take a right down Baghdad Avenue and drive south to the traffic circle by the Last Chance supermarket, you'll find a place far removed from the strictures of Saudi morality, enforced chastity and prudishness.

"By the traffic circle … next to the laundromat. Yes. No, I don't have any dildos, only massage devices … Good. See you later. Maa al-Salama." Khadija Mohammed's telephone rings every 10 minutes. The last call was from a number beginning +966. "A lady in Saudi Arabia," Khadija explains. In other words, the typical customer of Khadija Fashion House in Manama.

Later that afternoon the lady comes by, concealed by a hijab that reveals nothing but her eyes, and purchases a magenta-colored "Oui", described on the packaging as a "simple, elegant personal massager, so thin it can fit in the palm of your hand."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,719188,00.html

Women in Arab Legislations and Constitutions Symposium Starts in Damascus

2010-09-24T14:22:00.006-04:00

Damascus, (SANA) –

Looking at women from a legislative and constitutional point of view can identify the position of women on the map of the society because legislations and constitutions specify rights, duties and responsibilities, Arab Parliament Speaker Houda Fathi bin Amer said.

Bin Amer's comments came during the opening of a symposium organized by the Arab Parliament on the situation of women in Arab legislations and constitutions under the title "Partnership, Development, Vitality… the Role of Arab Parliament in Developing and Unifying Legislations to Enable Women" in Damascus on Friday.

Bin Amer pointed out to the achievements of women struggle worldwide, including the UN Charter and the Human Rights Convention's support of equality between men and women.

http://sana.sy/eng/21/2010/09/24/309336.htm

Pakistan erupts over jailing of scientist Aafia Siddiqui

2010-09-24T11:38:00.002-04:00

PAKISTANI police used tear gas to disperse protesters who shouted "Death to America" in outrage after a US court jailed a woman scientist for 86 years for attempting to murder US officers.

In a case that has been condemned across the nuclear-armed Muslim nation of 167 million, the government said it would petition Washington to secure the mother of three's repatriation on humanitarian grounds.

A New York court found Aafia Siddiqui, the once brilliant scientist dubbed "Lady Qaeda" by the US tabloids, guilty of the attempted murder of US military officers in Afghanistan in 2008 - five years after she disappeared.

In Karachi, Siddiqui's home town and Pakistan's largest city, police fired tear gas shells to prevent scores of people from marching on the US consulate at the behest of the youth wing of Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/pakistan-erupts-over-jailing-of-scientist-aafia-siddiqui/story-e6frfku0-1225929148080#ixzz10ShKMRJP

Smoke, mirrors, cloaks and daggers

2010-09-24T11:37:00.000-04:00

Photo by: AP

Journalists Nissim Mishal and Michael Bar-Zohar delve into the shadowy world of Israel’s secret espionage wars in new book on Mossad, which turns out to be a uniquely Zionist organization

Syrian general Muhammad Suleiman was President Bashar Assad’s closest military adviser and the father of his country’s nuclear reactor, which was destroyed by the IAF in September 2007, after Mossad agents had, a few months earlier, planted Trojan horse software in the laptop of another senior Syrian official thus obtaining detailed plans of the project. Suleiman, who was well known to the Mossad, immediately started planning the rebuilding of the reactor on another site. He was also in charge of liaison with Iran, supervising Syria’s weapons of mass destruction program, and smuggling missiles to Hizbullah.

In the summer of 2008, he traveled to Rimal al-Zahabia, a pleasant town on the coast in northern Syria, for a weekend with friends and family. On August 2, he hosted a dinner on the veranda of his beach house facing the ocean.
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?ID=188817&R=R1

'Thank God we don't need to be recognized again'

2010-09-24T11:35:00.002-04:00

Photo by: Courtesy

Outgoing UN Ambassador Gabriella Shalev laments anti-Israel bloc at General Assembly, but speaks of a growing kinship even with countries that have no diplomatic relations with Jewish state.

NEW YORK – When I talk to outgoing Ambassador to the UN Gabriella Shalev, it’s a bright August morning. She admits that she’s utterly exhausted, almost to the point of collapse. It’s the end of her tenure, one day before she’s scheduled to return to Israel, and she’s sick for the first time in her two years here. Maybe, she conjectures, she got sick on her recent flight to Memphis, Tennessee, while traveling for AIPAC.

“Being a frequent traveler is always very dangerous,” Shalev notes, referencing the modern traveler’s twin perils of airborne germs and fatigue.

Arguably, however, she has spent the last two years in a much more dangerous place for an Israeli: the halls of the UN.

http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?ID=188836&R=R1