http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/feb2006-dai.../main/main8.htm

Protests against cartoons escalate

CAIRO: Thousands of Egyptians protested in cities across the country after the Friday prayers, denouncing blasphemous cartoons, and Iranians smashed windows and started a brief fire in the French embassy in Tehran.

Several thousand also marched peacefully through a commercial district of the Jordanian capital, Amman, under heavy watch of security forces. In Nairobi, police shot and wounded one person as they sought to keep around 200 demonstrators protesting the cartoons from marching to the residence of Denmark’s ambassador. However, one man died there, when he was hit by an ambulance rushing away the wounded person.

In Tehran, up to 60 young men and women hurled stones, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails at the French embassy, smashing almost every window on its street facade. One cocktail exploded inside the embassy and started a small fire that was quickly extinguished. An Iranian photographer was hit in the eye by a firecracker and taken to hospital.

Egypt saw its most widespread protests yet, with thousands protesting in 21 of its 26 provinces, including in Cairo and the second largest city, Alexandria. Many were organised by the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, which has called for marches to continue — but peacefully.

About 1,000 people protested, some chanting, "Osama bin Laden, explode Copenhagen," outside Cairo’s al-Azhar Mosque. As police prevented them from leaving the mosque, some hit security forces with shoes, who responded by using their sticks. The protesters also burnt the Danish flag outside the mosque.

At another historic mosque in Cairo, Amr ibn al-As, about 1,500 people also protested, while several thousands attended protests in the Kafr el-Sheik, Luxor and Sohag. Thousands also demonstrated in Malaysia, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, while smaller rallies were held in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Muslims' Fury Rages Unabated Over Cartoons
Demonstrators in 13 Countries Ignore Leaders' Appeals, Newspaper's Apology

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 11, 2006; A12



COPENHAGEN, Feb. 10 -- Tens of thousands of Muslims took to the streets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East after weekly prayers on Friday, burning Danish flags and shouting anti-Danish and anti-American slogans in a continuing convulsion of anger over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

Demonstrators marched in at least 13 countries -- Kenya, Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Israel and Jordan -- as the global wave of protests, spurred by a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons depicting Islam's holiest figure and the reprinting of those cartoons in newspapers in other countries, headed toward a second consecutive weekend.

The protesters defied calls for calm from several prominent Muslim leaders and organizations as well as a statement of regret from Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and an apology by editors of the newspaper that originally published the cartoons. "The government has done what can be done," Rasmussen said in an interview Thursday. "Neither the government nor the Danish people can be held responsible for what is published in an independent newspaper. And neither the government nor the Danish people have any intention whatsoever to insult Muslims or any other religious community."

In Kenya, police shot and wounded at least one protester Friday as they tried to protect the Danish ambassador's residence. Thousands of demonstrators shouting "Kill Danes! Down with Denmark!" marched from Nairobi's largest mosque following Friday prayers. Riot police fired on a group of at least 200 people who had tried to reach the home of the Danish envoy, Bo Jensen.

"We've certainly heard their message and hope they will go home," Jensen told the Reuters news agency.

In Pakistan, more than 5,000 people demonstrated peacefully in Islamabad in the largest rally in the country since the controversy began. Another 2,000 protesters fought with police in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, several thousand protesters marched from a mosque to the Danish Embassy, shouting, "Destroy Denmark! Destroy Israel! Destroy George Bush! Destroy America!" Others carried placards supporting an economic boycott that has almost halted Danish exports to the Middle East and North Africa.

Addressing a large crowd, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi described a "huge chasm that has emerged between the West and Islam," not simply because of the cartoons, he said, but because of Western policies regarding oil, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In India, thousands of angry Muslims kicked, spat on and tore Danish flags and burned effigies in the capital, New Delhi, and in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, the Associated Press reported. In Bangladesh, more than 5,000 Muslims marched on Denmark's embassy in the capital, Dhaka, shouting, "Death to those who degrade our beloved prophet!"

In the Middle East, about 2,000 women, young boys and older men marched around the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem chanting "Bin Laden, strike again!" Large crowds of protesters in Gaza fired gunshots into the air and burned Danish flags. Thousands clashed with police in Egypt.

About 2,000 Muslims marched in Jordan. Demonstrators in Tehran threw gasoline bombs at the French Embassy and shouted, "Death to France!" and, "Death to America!" Several French newspapers have reprinted some of the Danish cartoons.

The violence came despite calls for calm from Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a senior cleric.

"I am calling on all religious men not to attack the embassies of the foreigners," Khatami told worshipers in Tehran in comments broadcast live on state radio. "Chanting slogans, staging protests and condemning such measures are holy . . . but I feel that they want their embassies to be set on fire so they can say that they are innocent. Take this excuse away from them."

In Sweden, the government shut down the Web site of a far-right political party's newspaper after it briefly posted a cartoon of Muhammad. It was the first time a Western government has intervened to block a publication in the controversy over the cartoons, the BBC reported.

Richard Jomshof, editor of the newspaper, SD-Kuriren, which is published by the anti-immigration Swedish Democrats, said the action was illegal. Jomshof's paper had posted a cartoon showing Muhammad from the rear, looking into a mirror with his eyes blacked out. He said the cartoon was about self-censorship, but Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds called it "a provocation" by "a small group of extremists."

In Copenhagen, Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which originally published the cartoons on Sept. 30, was told to take a two-week vacation. "There is no disagreement whatsoever between me and the company," Rose said in an interview. "I'm tired, I have been under huge pressure, and I am grateful to the paper for this time off."

Rose said this week that he intended to print cartoons of Jesus Christ and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He said the idea was to show that his newspaper would direct satire against all religions. Rose also said he was considering printing cartoons about the Holocaust that an Iranian newspaper intended to publish.

The newspaper's editor in chief, Carsten Juste, later publicly contradicted those statements, and Rose agreed that they represented "an error in judgment."

In Norway on Friday, the editor of Magazinet, a Christian newspaper, apologized to Muslims for reprinting the cartoons, which had made Norway a target of Muslim attacks, including the burning of its embassy in Damascus, Syria. Vebjoern Selbekk, who had initially defended the Jan. 10 publication as an expression of press freedom, said at a news conference: "I address myself personally to the Muslim community to say that I am sorry that your religious feelings have been hurt. It was never our intent to hurt anyone." Selbekk, who said he had received more than 20 e-mailed death threats, then shook hands with Mohammed Hamdan, leader of the Islamic Council in Norway, who urged forgiveness and Selbekk's safety.

"Anyone who touches him touches us," Hamdan said. "Our prophet, Muhammad, has said that everyone can make mistakes, but the best is the one who expresses regret and asks for forgiveness."

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...11/ixworld.html

Football and pizza point to US staying for long haul
By Oliver Poole at al-Asad airbase
(Filed: 11/02/2006)

The airbase at al-Asad is the biggest marine camp in western Anbar province. It is in the midst of the most rebellious region in Iraq, where thousands of insurgents have been killed in a series of operations over the past year.

But get "inside the wire" and this stretch of desert increasingly resembles a slice of US suburbia rather than the front line in a war zone.


Marines based in Iraq find time to watch the Super Bowl
Its restaurants include a Subway and a fast food pizza shop. There is a coffee shop, football pitch and even a swimming pool.

A cinema shows the latest films while the camp's main recreational centre offers special dance nights - hip hop on Friday, salsa on Saturday and country and western on Sunday.

There is even a Hertz car rental providing saloons with bullet-proof windows for those wanting to cross the base in something more comfortable than a military Humvee.

For as the news from Washington focuses on troop withdrawals, the US military is beginning to implement at immense cost the next stage in its policy for Iraq. And it is one likely to disappoint those hoping for a quick exit of all foreign troops.

Last summer reports began to emerge that plans had been drawn up to create four "super-bases", giant camps that would house tens of thousands of US soldiers similar to other sprawling military facilities around the world.

The intention was for the newly trained and equipped Iraqi army to gradually take over the majority of combat operations, allowing a proportion of the 138,000 US troops to depart. Those remaining would provide back-up from their new centres of operation when requested.

That hand-over has already begun with a dozen smaller bases evacuated in recent weeks. In total 100 are scheduled to be transferred to the Iraqi government this year.

Although no official confirmation will be given of where super-bases will be located, at al-Asad there is every impression that one is in the process of being created.

The guidelines under which reporters are allowed to visit military facilities prohibit any mention of their location, size or number of troops.

But it breaks no rules to say this is a place so extensive it has two bus routes inside and the sight of workers constructing new billets for more troops is common.

Last month, red "Stop" signs - the ubiquitous feature of American street furniture - went up at all road junctions.

Senior members of the governing Shia parties have complained that they show American plans for a long-term presence in their country.

Sunni members of the Iraqi Islamic Party regard them as evidence of an open-ended "occupation", a charge denied by US officials who insist the bases are another step in an eventual withdrawal.

But even the marines based at al-Asad are sceptical about how quickly that step will be completed.

The Iraqi army is considered "at least" a year from being able to take the fight to the insurgents.

Senior officers point out that when the main army base near Tikrit was handed over to Iraqi forces, a transfer widely touted by Washington as evidence of Iraq's growing ability to stand alone, it was looted bare within weeks by the very Iraqi units who were meant to protect it.

Above all there is the knowledge gained through grim experience that predictions of what Iraq will be like in the immediate future are almost always wrong.

Col H R McMaster, the commander of troops in Tal Afar and the US senior officer whose counter-insurgency tactics have been singled out for praise in Washington and London, was asked recently what he thought the next 12 months would hold for Iraqis.

He declined to speculate. "Anyone who claims to understand what is happening in Iraq does not understand it," he answered.

Servicemen, meanwhile, confidently predict that they will be rotating through the base for at least a decade.

One sergeant pointed out that at least they will be able to buy a proper cup of coffee.

iraq@telegraph.co.uk

For Danish Firms, Boycott in Mideast a 'Nightmare'
Millions of Dollars in Sales Are Lost as Markets That Were Built Over Decades Disappear in Days

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 11, 2006; A12



COPENHAGEN, Feb. 10 -- The Arla Foods plant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which produces cheese and flavored yogurt drinks, sits idle and the company's 800 employees in the country have been sent home because of a Middle East boycott of Danish goods, following a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

"It took us 40 years to build up our business in the Middle East, and five days to bring it to a total stop," said Astrid Nielsen, spokeswoman for the Danish company here. She said suspending operations at the Riyadh plant, the company's regional base, and a near-total boycott of the company's products have cost Arla about $1.7 million a day since Jan. 28.

The boycott of Danish goods, propelled by Muslim leaders and imams preaching in mosques, has brought exports of Danish products to the Middle East and North Africa to a virtual standstill. It has scuttled a flow of goods to the region that was worth about $1 billion in the first 10 months of 2005, according to government statistics.

The boycott has been less visible than the angry mobs around the world burning Danish flags, torching embassies and carrying placards calling for "Danish blood." But it has been just as unnerving for Danish business leaders, who have spent decades expanding their sales of food, pharmaceuticals, industrial equipment and other products into the Middle Eastern market.

"As Danes, we are still sort of in a situation where we are thinking this is just a nightmare," Nielsen said, "and we are going to wake up in a little while and find that this didn't happen. We can never hope to regain what we had, but we hope we can reestablish some of it. We have a huge task ahead of us."

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in an interview Thursday, said the boycott was not a major threat to Denmark's economy.

"According to the latest figures, 3 percent of Danish exports go to the Muslim world," Rasmussen said. "So seen from an overall perspective, it is of minor importance on the Danish trade balance."

Rasmussen, a former economic affairs minister, said it was "too early to make a final assessment" about the long-term impact of the boycott and whether Middle Eastern consumers would eventually start buying Danish products again.

"From experience we know that trade may be resumed in a longer-term perspective," he said. "Danish industries are famous for their ability to adapt to new situations. And our competitiveness is very strong. Danish companies are in very good shape for the time being."

Still, Rasmussen noted that companies such as Arla that do extensive business in the Middle East and North Africa "may be affected very significantly."

"And I strongly regret that, of course, because Arla is not responsible for what is published in a Danish newspaper," said Rasmussen, who has repeatedly expressed regrets that Muslims have been offended by the cartoons of Muhammad, while saying he cannot apologize for what was printed in a private newspaper.

"You can't hold a whole nation responsible for what is published in a free and independent newspaper," Rasmussen said. "I do know that it is very difficult to understand for many people in the Arab streets, because they can hardly understand how free and independent media work. But that's our system. It is unfair to take Danish companies and employees hostage in this case, in an economic sense."

Those arguments carry little weight in places such as the al-Qiswani Supermarket in the West Bank town of Beit Hanina, where prominently displayed posters urge shoppers, "If you love the Prophet, join us in boycotting Danish products." The posters are surrounded by photos of Danish cheeses, powdered milk, chocolates and other products to be avoided.

The store's owner, Abed Qiswani, 42, said his revenue has dropped 5 percent because of the boycott, which he said has been uniformly followed. He used to sell a carton of Danish cheese a week, but now those products are being left untouched, along with products from some other European countries, including French cheeses and Scandinavian cereals.

Qiswani said that when he tried to return his back stock of Danish products, his supplier told him he had lost nearly $200,000 in canceled orders as a result of the boycott in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

"What has struck me most, though, is that little children come to the store and ask if this is a Danish product," Qiswani said. "Boycotting is a very good thing. Politics is always connected to the economy. The problem these European countries have now is with the Islamic giant, and they should think about who they mess with."

Tariq Maslanani, 11, said he no longer buys French-made Laughing Cow cheese, his favorite, because a French newspaper also ran the cartoons.

"We cannot bear anybody cursing our prophet," said the sixth-grader.

Svend Roed Nielsen, head of trade policy at the Danish Foreign Ministry, said that in addition to daily consumer goods such as cheese and butter, there has been a noticeable drop in exports of pharmaceuticals and medicines to Muslim countries. He said that he was unsure of the exact loss but that those goods accounted for about $104 million in the first 10 months of last year. He said officials had heard that the expected signings of several contracts for Danish machinery and electronic goods had been postponed.

"Things are looking quite bad at the moment," said Keld Winther Rasmussen of the Danish Dairy Board. "We have products in the country we can't sell, in ships that we can't deliver, and products in dairy plants that we will have to find other markets for."

Rasmussen said dairy industry officials had hoped that Prime Minister Rasmussen's televised comments offering regrets for the offense caused to Muslims would improve the situation. "But so far that has had no impact," he said, adding that he hoped that Danish dairy exports to the Middle East would eventually restart. "We hope this is not the end. But we can see that it is going to take a very long time to regain our hold in the market. It could take years."

Bjarne Kristiansen, manager of a dairy in Aalborg, said exports to the Middle East account for 70 percent of his company's sales -- and that market has completely dried up since the boycott took hold. He said his company is losing sales of about 100 tons of feta cheese a week.

"If this continues, after two or three weeks we might have to stop production of feta cheese, which is our main production," he said. "Hopefully we won't have to close completely, but I don't know. It is a terrible situation."

Keld Pedersen, managing director of Nordex Food, said his company has lost 20 percent of its total sales, which normally go to the Middle East. He said the company has had to cut 15 jobs out of its workforce of 200.

"Maybe the government acted too late -- we all did," Pedersen said. "We were all very surprised about how quickly this situation developed. I can't fault the government's efforts now. But Denmark cannot do this alone, and it will not only be Denmark that suffers."

Pedersen said the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which first published the Muhammad cartoons, "should have been more careful."

"Everyone has the right to freedom of speech, but you can't cry 'Fire! Fire!' in a cinema," he said. "But it's always easier to see these things after they have happened."

Pedersen said he is pessimistic that his company's Middle Eastern market, which it has been building for 25 years, will fully recover.

"I don't think it will ever be the same again," he said. "The consumers won't forget."


Special correspondents Alexandra Topping in London and Sufian Taha in Beit Hanina contributed to this report.


© 2006 The Washington Post Company

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Thousands protest against Denmark
Web posted at: 2/11/2006 3:29:57
Source ::: AFP
Muslims take part in silent march in Bhopal yesterday against the cartoons published in European newspapers depicting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).
NEW DELHI: Tens of thousands of Muslims across India marched in protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) yesterday, some showing their displeasure in silence, while others chanted “Denmark Die, Die!”

In the capital New Delhi, thousands of demonstrators spilled out of the country’s largest mosque after weekly prayers and spat on Danish flags as police tightened security in the city’s diplomatic district.

Organisers said 15,000 joined the rally of black flag-carrying protesters who also blamed France, Norway and Germany for reprinting the Danish newspaper cartoons. Police estimated there were 3,000 protesters.

Ahmed Bukhari, chief cleric of the 17th century Jama Masjid mosque called on the Indian government to demand an apology from Copenhagen over the cartoons which sparked global Muslim anger.

“For 1,400 years, Islam has fought its evil enemies and now it will not bow before the satanic designs of France, Germany, Norway and Denmark,” Bukhari had told his Friday congregation.

“Islam and Muslims have been challenged and we will not rest unless nations that humiliated us are punished,” he said as protesters set fire to a human-shaped effigy labelled ‘Denmark’.

Police armed with rifles and teargas stood by.

The protesters spat on giant Danish flags spread on the ground before the 20,000-capacity mosque in the congested old quarter.

Several children urinated on the red flag before the cameras.

Bukhari called on Indian Muslims to launch a nationwide campaign against Denmark.

In the central city of Bhopal, thousands of men crammed the narrow streets around the old Muslim quarter’s mosques in silent protest, blocking roads for several hours.

The city’s top Islamic leader, Qazi Abdul Lateef, said the turnout showed that “attempts by anti-Islam forces to defame Muslims... would not be tolerated.”

Protests also took place in several other cities around the country, including in Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir, where Islamic separatists are fighting New Delhi’s rule. A shutdown strike took place in Kashmir Monday against the cartoons.

The protestors branded the publication of the cartoons “an act of terrorism” and said they were part of a plot by European countries to defame Islam.

One separatist group in Kashmir called on Wednesday for a boycott of Danish and other European goods.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, nearly 20,000 people protested against the cartoons Friday.

India counts 130 million among its 1.1 billion inhabitants.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?ed...rticle_id=22133
Copyright © 2006 The Daily Star

Saturday, February 11, 2006
Cartoon protests resume as editor 'repents'
Thousands of Egyptians protested in cities across the country after Muslim prayers Friday, denouncing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, and Iranians smashed windows and started a brief fire in the French Embassy in Tehran. Thousands of kilometers away, an editor that first published the caricatures and the imam who helped make them known shook hands and called for an end to the furor.

Magazinet editor Vebjoern Selbekk said he regretted publishing the cartoons on January 10 because he had not foreseen the pain and anger they would cause among Muslims.

"I reach out personally to the Muslim community to say I am sorry their religious feelings were violated by what we did," Selbekk said at a news conference.

The Evangelical Christian newspaper was among the first newspapers to reprint the drawings that were first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September, saying it was defending free speech.

In a joint statement Friday, 15 key Norwegian imams representing 46 congregations declared the conflict over in Norway.

"We ask Muslims to accept the apology," the statement said. "We consider the case closed."

Selbekk, who had been under police protection after receiving scores of death threats, made his apology at a hastily called joint news conference with the leader of the Islamic Council in Norway, Mohammad Hamdan, and Labor Minister Bjarne Haakon Hanssen.

Hamdan stressed Islam values forgiveness and added that he considered Selbekk to be under his protection. "Our Prophet Mohammad said everyone can make a mistake, but the best people are those who repent," said Hamdan.

Meanwhile, thousands marched peacefully through a commercial district of the Jordanian capital, Amman, under heavy watch of security forces.

In Tehran, up to 60 young men and women hurled stones, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails at the French Embassy, smashing almost every window on its street facade. One cocktail exploded inside the embassy and started a small fire that was quickly extinguished by firefighters already on the scene.

About 2,000 demonstrators staged a protest in Istanbul, chanting "Down with Israel" and urging the government to sever ties with Denmark.

The new wave of marches came after several days of relative calm. Governments and Islamic leaders called on protesters to refrain from violence in expressing their outrage over the prophet drawings.

"We do not want to imitate the rioters in other countries ... Those people harmed Islam and the Prophet instead," the preacher Abdel-Rahman Ibdah told worshippers at Amman's King Abdullah Mosque before they began their march.

Protests in at least five Egyptian cities did not tar-get embassies, but some deteriorated into violence amid police attempts to prevent the demonstrations.

Several thousand heeded the call of the Muslim Brotherhood movement to protest outside the Al-Taha Mosque in the northern Delta city of Mahalla al-Kubra.

When they didn't immediately obey police demands that they disperse, security forces fired tear gas and water canons, Mamdouh al-Mounir, a member of the group, told the Associated Press by telephone.

Police confirmed that tear gas was fired and at least 20 people arrested.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which organized several of the protests Friday, urged demonstrators to remain peaceful.

"We appeal to Muslims not to let their furor drag them to attack properties, to expand the scope of protest, or to turn into a clash between civilizations," said the group's deputy leader, Khairat al-Shater.

The cartoons, one of which showed the Prophet Mohammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse, have incensed Muslims across the world and led to

often violent protests in which at least 11 people have been killed.

"I am calling on all religious men not to attack the embassies of the foreigners," senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told Friday prayer worshippers in Tehran in comments broadcast live on state radio.

"Chanting slogans, staging protests and condemning such measures are holy ... but I feel that they want their embassies to be set on fire so they can say that they are innocent," he said. "Take this excuse away from them."

He called for peaceful protests to continue.

The Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons, Jyllands-Posten, has sent its culture editor, who commissioned the drawings, on holiday.

The culture editor, Flemming Rose, was urged to take some leave after suggesting

he would be happy to print Iranian cartoons satirizing the Holocaust.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will visit several Middle Eastern countries next week in an attempt to calm the anger over the cartoons.

Solana will be received by King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in Saudi Arabia Monday. He will also have talks with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Solana will then continue on to Egypt, where he is expected to meet President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu al-Gheit, before going to Jordan and the Palestinian territories. He will wind up his visit in Israel, where he will meet Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot also scheduled trips to Qatar and Saudi Arabia next week in an attempt to relieve tensions over the cartoons.



Copyright © 2006 The Daily Star

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...11/ixworld.html
Iran plant 'has restarted its nuclear bomb-making equipment'
By Con Coughlin, Defence and Security Editor, in Washington
(Filed: 11/02/2006)

Iran's controversial Natanz uranium processing plant has successfully restarted the sophisticated equipment that could enable it to produce material for nuclear warheads, according to reports received by Western intelligence.


An aerial view of the Natanz plant
In the past few days Iranian nuclear scientists have reportedly restarted four of the centrifuges required to produce weapons-grade uranium, and have begun feeding them with uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas, a key component in the production of nuclear bombs.

This crucial development follows Iran's decision to withdraw its co-operation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna after the body decided last week to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council.

Iranian officials have moved quickly to obstruct the work of the UN nuclear inspectors still working in the country's nuclear facilities.

Intelligence officials say restrictions have been imposed on the inspectors' movements between the various facilities at Natanz.

They have been specifically excluded from those areas where the Iranians have announced they would resume uranium enrichment, and have ordered the UN inspectors to report to officials running the plant on a daily basis. Security cameras installed by IAEA officials to monitor key facilities have been disabled.

Having effectively excluded the UN inspection teams from the most sensitive sites, Iranian nuclear scientists have removed the seals from the P-2 centrifuges that Iran acquired from Pakistan through the secret nuclear network operated by Dr A Q Khan, the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb.

They have also begun installing tanks in underground bunkers that are designed for industrial enrichment.

In previous submissions to the UN inspectors, the Iranians insisted they had acquired the P-2 centrifuges merely for research purposes, They have continued to insist that their nuclear programme is solely aimed at developing alternative energy sources.

However, a senior Western intelligence official said: "Iran's recent activity is a clear escalation of its attempts to enrich uranium to weapons grade. With the UN inspectors out of the way they are basically free to do as they please."

7 February 2006: Iran tells watchdog to end snap inspections
5 February 2006: Iran raises the nuclear stakes after being reported to UN
5 February 2006: US turns screw as Iran atom row goes to UN

February 12, 2006
Bird Flu Detected in Greece, Italy and Bulgaria
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
The lethal A(H5N1) bird flu virus has been detected in wild birds in Italy and Greece, European officials announced yesterday, the first time its presence has been detected in the European Union. It was also detected in Bulgaria.

"The bird flu virus has arrived in Italy," said Francesco Storace, the Italian health minister, at a news conference, announcing that 17 swans had been found dead in three southern regions, Calabria, Sicily, and Puglia.

Testing at the National Avian Influenza Lab in Padua determined the cause to be the A(H5N1) virus, he said, although it was not clear if all 17 swans had been tested.

The arrival of bird flu in Western Europe had been predicted for some months, since the virus has marched steadily from China, to Russia, to the Balkans and, in the last week, to West Africa. It is being carried by migrating birds, so all countries on their flight paths are vulnerable.

"In some ways we would have expected it earlier in Italy," said Dr. Juan Lubroth, a senior veterinarian at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.

The Italian outbreak seems to have been a model of early detection, underlining how bird flu can be controlled in countries that have the money and the scientific resources to do it.

Recent outbreaks in poor countries like Nigeria, Turkey and Iraq have percolated for months before they were discovered, allowing the virus to spread widely to commercial chicken flocks and even to humans.

While the A(H5N1) virus currently does not readily spread from human to human, scientists worry that it will mutate into a form that can, setting off a devastating worldwide human pandemic.

Only about 160 people have become infected with the disease, mostly through close contact with sick birds, and about half of them have died. In Italy, police officers near Messina, in Sicily, found two dead swans on Thursday and performed rapid screening tests on them in the wild, which suggested that the swans had a flu virus, according to ANSA, the official Italian news agency. Such simple tests are not specific enough to indicate a particular virus or strain, like A(H5N1).

The carcasses were immediately sent to a veterinary institute in Palermo, the Sicilian capital, which sent samples to the lab in Padua, where the positive test results were returned yesterday.

In the wake of the tests, Mr. Storace prohibited all movement of live animals in the affected regions. There are no signs of infection in commercial poultry yet, he said.

"There is no immediate danger for our country because our system of surveillance is efficient and has not contaminated bird farms," Mauro Delogu, an Italian virologist at the University of Bolgona, told ANSA.

In Greece, health officials announced that three swans in the northern part of the country tested positive for the virus, and hours later, European Union officials said some swans in Bulgaria, near the Danube Delta, did as well.

Dead swans have become an important flu sentinel because they are very susceptible to the virus and are so large that people notice when they die, Mr. Lubroth said.

Swans in southern Italy do not normally migrate, he said, but their wetlands are along many bird migration routes.

Last autumn, several European nations, including Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands, mandated that all commercial poultry be kept indoors, to prevent any contact with migrating birds. Greece now requires that poultry be kept indoors and bans the sale of live birds at street markets.

Trying to calm public fears, the European Union's health commissioner, Markos Kyprianou, said: "We should not be unduly surprised or alarmed if such cases are found in the European Union. What is important is that we have the framework in place to take the appropriate measures as soon as possible to contain it and prevent its spread to poultry, and that is what we are doing."

Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said she was not surprised that infected birds had been found in southern Europe.

"I view that as an expression of how birds fly," she said. "It's just like West Nile marching across the U.S. — you follow the flight patterns."

The variant strain of the A(H5N1) flu found in Turkey and confirmed in Africa last week is identical to one found last year in dead migratory birds in a nature reserve in northern China, and later in Siberia. It is different from strains circulating among poultry in Southeast Asia and Indonesia.

Two species of ducks, the northern pintail and the garganey, migrate in a southwesterly direction each fall from Siberia to Turkey and the Black Sea coast, and in some cases to central Africa, according to a recent article in New Scientist. Other species that share the same African wetlands migrate north in the spring, which raises the threat that the disease will be spread more widely around Western Europe later this year.

But movements are unpredictable. Dr. William B. Karesh, director of the field veterinary program for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs New York City's zoos, noted that northern pintails from Siberia were also found from East Africa to Britain, which suggests that some picked it up from domestic flocks during the fall migration.

"The simple presence of the same species of wild birds in two geographic areas does not indicate a transmission route," he said.

Donald G. McNeil Jr. and Lawrence K. Altman contributed reporting for this article.





Copyright 2006The New York Times

February 12, 2006
Bracing for Penalties, Iran Threatens to Withdraw From Nuclear Treaty
By NAZILA FATHI
TEHRAN, Feb. 11 — Iran's president warned on Saturday that Iran could withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if international pressure increased over its nuclear program.

His threat was a significant escalation of the government's previous position that it would only stop complying with spot inspections of military installations and sites it has not declared to be part of its nuclear program. The warning also raised the specter that Iran was considering following a strategy set by North Korea three years ago.

In a speech to tens of thousand of demonstrators who had gathered to mark the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also staked out a broader path of resistance if penalties are imposed against Iran.

Evoking the possibility of penalties and international ostracism, he insisted that the country would continue its nuclear activities and urged Iranians to brace for tough times.

"The Islamic Republic has continued its program within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the nonproliferation treaty," he said in the speech, which was broadcast live on state television. "But if we see that you want to use the NPT regulations to deprive us of our rights, know that the people will revise their policy in this regard."

"I ask our dear people to prepare themselves for a great struggle," he added, evoking the possibility of international penalties. "Fasten your seat belts and pull up your sleeves."

In interviews in recent days, American and European officials have said they have been looking for signs that Mr. Ahmadinejad's government might abandon the nonproliferation treaty.

American officials and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, have said that the treaty provision allowing countries to renounce it, with just 90 days' notice, constitutes a major flaw in the effort to keep nations from becoming nuclear powers.

That provision essentially allows nations to build up a civilian nuclear infrastructure under the protection of the treaty, and then convert it to military use as soon as the country abandons the treaty.

"It's the obvious hole in the treaty, and the Iranians may choose to exploit it," one senior American official said this week, before Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech. "From their perspective, the North Koreans didn't pay much of a price."

The Central Intelligence Agency has estimated that the North Koreans have produced fuel enough for six or more weapons since they left the treaty three years ago. But those are rough estimates, based more on the country's ability than knowledge of what they have produced, and it is unclear whether that fuel has been converted to weapons. Iran is further away from that ability.

In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, Robert Joseph, the State Department official in charge of fighting nuclear proliferation, said that "a nuclear-armed Iran with this leadership does represent an existential threat to the state of Israel."

"We ought to make very clear not only that we find that repugnant," Mr. Joseph said, "but that that has policy significance, that that hardens our view, that we and the entire international community must band together and prevent this regime from acquiring nuclear weapons."

But he said he had no clear idea of when Iran might obtain a weapon.

The governing board of the atomic energy agency passed a resolution this month to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible penalties over its nuclear program. But the resolution gave Iran until March to halt its atomic research and development work.

On Thursday, Secretary General Kofi Annan also called on Iran to freeze those activities and pursue a proposal by Moscow to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia.

But in his speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad again discounted proposals by Europe and Russia that countries could sell enriched nuclear fuel to Iran rather than have the country produce it itself.

"According to international regulations, every country that sells aircraft to other countries is required to sell its spare parts as well," he said. "For 27 years you have refused to give us aircraft spare parts. How can we be sure that you will give us nuclear fuel?"

Iran immediately reduced its cooperation with the United Nations nuclear agency after the referral resolution, saying that it would end compliance with the nuclear treaty's Additional Protocol, which allows intrusive inspections of nuclear sites. The government also announced that it was preparing to resume the enriching of uranium, which it had suspended for more than two years.

But at the time, some Iranian officials said they would not leave the treaty, in part because they feared that would bolster the West's argument that Tehran was racing toward production of a weapon.

All of Iran's senior officials have emphasized the country's right to have a peaceful nuclear energy program. But on Saturday, statements by two senior Iranian figures continued to show that differences were emerging over how to handle international pressure.

At the same rally where the president called for complete resistance regardless of the cost, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is head of the powerful Expediency Council, said that "instead of relying on strength, we must try to fix the situation wisely," the news agency ISNA reported.

A former speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, told demonstrators that officials must refrain from "imprudent" policies and must try to adopt dialogue and act wisely.

In his speech at the rally, Mr. Ahmadinejad repeated his much-publicized claims that the Holocaust was a myth, and he made reference to the wave of demonstrations in the Arab world over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in some Western newspapers.

"In some European countries and in America insulting Prophet Muhammad is acceptable," he said. "But questioning the Holocaust and formation of the Zionist regime is a crime. This is a myth with which the Zionists have blackmailed other countries and carried out their crimes for 60 years in the occupied territories."

He continued: "The real Holocaust is happening in Palestine where the Zionists are killing Palestinians. If you are looking for the crimes of Holocaust, find them in Iraq."

Angry protesters attacked the Norwegian, Austrian and Danish Embassies in Tehran in recent days over the cartoons. They also attacked the British and the French Embassies on Thursday with homemade bombs and stones.

David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington for this article.



Copyright 2006The New York Times

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jse...xportaltop.html

US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites
By Philip Sherwell in Washington
(Filed: 12/02/2006)

Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as America updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions. Teheran claims that it is developing only a civilian energy programme.

"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."

The prospect of military action could put Washington at odds with Britain which fears that an attack would spark violence across the Middle East, reprisals in the West and may not cripple Teheran's nuclear programme. But the steady flow of disclosures about Iran's secret nuclear operations and the virulent anti-Israeli threats of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prompted the fresh assessment of military options by Washington. The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices. They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air refuelling.

The Bush administration has recently announced plans to add conventional ballistic missiles to the armoury of its nuclear Trident submarines within the next two years. If ready in time, they would also form part of the plan of attack.

Teheran has dispersed its nuclear plants, burying some deep underground, and has recently increased its air defences, but Pentagon planners believe that the raids could seriously set back Iran's nuclear programme.



Iran was last weekend reported to the United Nations Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency for its banned nuclear activities. Teheran reacted by announcing that it would resume full-scale uranium enrichment - producing material that could arm nuclear devices.

The White House says that it wants a diplomatic solution to the stand-off, but President George W Bush has refused to rule out military action and reaffirmed last weekend that Iran's nuclear ambitions "will not be tolerated".

Sen John McCain, the Republican front-runner to succeed Mr Bush in 2008, has advocated military strikes as a last resort. He said recently: "There is only only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option and that is a nuclear-armed Iran."

Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat, has made the same case and Mr Bush is expected to be faced by the decision within two years.

By then, Iran will be close to acquiring the knowledge to make an atomic bomb, although the construction will take longer. The President will not want to be seen as leaving the White House having allowed Iran's ayatollahs to go atomic.

In Teheran yesterday, crowds celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution chanted "Nuclear technology is our inalienable right" and cheered Mr Ahmadinejad when he said that Iran may reconsider membership of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

He was defiant over possible economic sanctions.

11 February 2006: Iran plant 'has restarted its nuclear bomb-making equipment'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2036145,00.html

The Sunday Times February 12, 2006


Bush urged to stir rebellion within Iran
Sarah Baxter, Washington



NEOCONSERVATIVES in Washington are urging President George W Bush to drop diplomacy with Iran in favour of boosting internal dissent and opposition forces within the Islamic regime.
In an open breach with White House policy, they argue the multilateral diplomacy pursued by Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, is encouraging the Iranians to snub the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and develop a nuclear bomb under cover of a peaceful energy programme.

Michael Rubin, a Middle East expert at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said: “The United States doesn’t have a policy on Iran. We should be looking for a way to address the people of the country.”

Rubin accused Rice of being tepid in her support for democratic reform and internal regime change. “I don’t believe Rice has ever put her neck out for freedom when the Soviet Union was dissolving or now,” he said.

Foreign policy hawks believe America should be assisting democratic forces inside Iran, much as President Ronald Reagan did with the trade union organisation Solidarity in Poland in the early 1980s.

Robert Kagan, a leading neoconservative who helped to make the case for the invasion of Iraq, accused the Bush government of doing little “to exploit the evident weaknesses in the regime”.

The Wall Street Journal argued last week that “neorealists” such as Rice, who support diplomacy as the best way to project American power and interests, were consolidating their grip.

Rice helped to broker the agreement in London by recommending that Iran be reported by the IAEA to the United Nations security council for breaching the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, although it is unlikely to lead in the first instance to tough economic sanctions.

In response Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has told the IAEA to remove the seals and surveillance cameras at its nuclear development sites. Yesterday, in what could mark a further escalation in the crisis, he warned Iran might withdraw from the treaty.

Few foreign policy hawks believe the Iranian regime should be overthrown by force but they argue it could collapse from within.

There are signs of labour unrest in Iran. Mansoor Oslanloo, leader of a bus workers’ union, has been in prison since December last year and hundreds of union members have been arrested, prompting a wave of protests in Tehran.

The US state department spends roughly $4m (£2.3m) a year on the promotion of democracy and women’s rights in Iran — too little to make a difference, according to critics. A campaign for human rights and democracy in Iran is to be launched in the US Congress on March 2.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/681464.html

An Iranian girl has her face painted like the Iranian flag during a demonstration to mark the 27th anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution in Tehran on Saturday. (Reuters)

Iran pres.: The 'real Holocaust' is now, against Palestinians, Iraqis

By The Associated Press

In a speech of tens of thousands of Iranians massed in Azadi Square in the Iranian capital to mark the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution which brought a Muslim theocracy to power, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said that the true Holocaust was happening now in the Palestinian territories and Iraq.

He has declared the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II was a "myth" and that Israel should be "wiped off the map," prompting worldwide outrage

But the focus of his speech was the building crisis surrounding the country's disputed nuclear program.

Inspectors of the UN nuclear watchdog agency have stripped most
surveillance cameras and agency seals from Iranian nuclear sites and equipment as demanded by Tehran in response to referral to the U.N. Security Council, diplomats said Saturday.

The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential developments, said the move left the International Atomic Energy Agency with only the most basic means to monitor Iran's nuclear activities

The Iranian president on Saturday rejected Western pressure to freeze the country's nuclear program and issued a veiled threat to walk away from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.


State-run television called the nationwide demonstrations "a nuclear referendum" and showed footage of rallies in Iran's major cities.

In Tehran's Azadi Square, some young men wore white shrouds symbolizing their readiness to die for the country's nuclear ambitions. A group of school students wore jackets emblazoned with the words: "Peaceful nuclear energy is our right."

"The nuclear policy of the Islamic Republic so far has been peaceful. Until now, we have worked inside the agency (International Atomic Energy Agency) and the NPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) regulations.

"If we see you want to violate the right of the Iranian people by using those regulations (against us), you should know that the Iranian people will revise it's policies. You should do nothing that will lead to such a revision in our policy," said Ahmadinejad.

He did not specify what changes Tehran envisioned, but it was believed to be a threat to withdraw from the NPT and the IAEA.

"The West is hiding its ugly face behind international bodies, but these bodies have no reputation among nations. You have destroyed the reputation of the NPT," the Iranian president said.

Ahmadinjad has not relented in attacking Israel and recently a Tehran newspaper announced it was holding a contest for caricatures of the Holocaust.

"If you want to find the real Holocaust, you will find it in Palestine where Zionists kill Palestinians everyday. You will find it in Iraq," he said.

He also charged that what he termed "Zionists" were behind the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed which has prompted a series of global demonstrations by angry Muslims and attacks on Western embassies, primarily those of Scandinavian countries.

"I ask everybody in the world not to let a group of Zionists who failed in Palestine (referring to the recent Hamas victory in Palestinian elections) insult the prophet.

"Now in the West insulting the prophet is allowed, but questioning the Holocaust is considered a crime," he said. "We ask, why do you insult the prophet? The response is that it is a matter of freedom, while in fact they (who insult the founder of Islam) are hostages of the Zionists. And the people of the U.S. and Europe should pay a heavy price for becoming hostages to Zionists," he declared.

Ahmadinejad appeared in part to be responding to a call on Thursday by UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan for Iran to restore a freeze on its nuclear
activities and pursue talks to shift its uranium enrichment program to Russia.

While Iran's nuclear program has been formally reported to the UN Security Council, Annan said what's important is that the Iranians and the Europeans who have been trying to resolve the nuclear dispute have said "negotiations are not dead ... and they are prepared to talk."

"And I would urge them to continue," Annan said.

"And I hope Iran will continue to freeze its activities, the way they are now, to allow talks to go forward, to allow them to pursue the Russian offer, and to allow negotiations with the European three and the Russians to come back to the table," Annan said.

Britain, Germany and France have led months of futile talks on behalf of the 25-nation European Union amid suspicions that Iran's civilian nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons - not electricity as Tehran insists.

Tensions started escalating last month after Iran removed UN seals and began nuclear research, including small-scale uranium enrichment.

On February 11, the International Atomic Energy Agency's board voted to send Iran's nuclear file to the Security Council, saying it lacked confidence in Tehran's nuclear intentions and accusing Iran of violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Iran responded by ending voluntary cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog agency and announcing it would start uranium enrichment and bar surprise inspections of its facilities.

But the Islamic republic left the door open for further negotiations over its nuclear program, saying it was willing to discuss Moscow's proposal to shift large-scale enrichment operations to Russian territory in an effort to allay suspicions.

High-level talks on the proposal are scheduled to begin in Moscow on February 16, but Russia says it still awaits word from Tehran. The proposal is backed by the United States and the European Union as a way to provide additional oversight of Iran's use of atomic fuel.

After years of opposition, Russia and China backed sending the Iran nuclear file to the Security Council. But in return, Moscow and Beijing demanded that the United States, France and Britain agree to let the Iran issue rest until March when the IAEA board meets to review the agency's investigation of Iran's nuclear program and compliance with board demands that it renounce uranium enrichment.

Annan said the IAEA report was expected at the end of the month.

Russia and France reach out to Hamas Christian Science Monitor
Hamas appeared to break out of its international isolation over the weekend as both Russia and France backed talks with the Islamic militants to discuss continued foreign aid to the cash strapped Palestinian Authority (PA). Hamas's plans to attend talks in Moscow drew initial Israeli accusations of a "slippery slope" toward legitimizing an organization branded as terrorists in the US and Europe. But the diplomatic opening might provide a way to steer the new Palestinian government away from the influence of more radical regimes such as Iran, some say. "The mentality of engagement is still the rule," says Shmuel Bar, a Middle East expert at the Herzlyia Interdisciplinary Institute just outside Tel Aviv. "If we engage them, we can influence them." Hamas, for its part, recently suggested that it would accept an open-ended truce with Israel. Leaders have also indicated that they may appoint cabinet ministers from outside the movement. Both moves are seen as an attempt to save face with the international community and allow a dialogue to go forward even with those who say they will not negotiate with the group. It also buys time for Hamas to adjust to its new responsibilities of running the government.
Rice questions democracy in Russia San Jose Mercury News
Putin's Gamble With Hamas The Moscow Times
European Jewish Press - Hindustan Times - IsraCast - Ha'aretz (subscription) - all 1,079 related »

Iran raises the stakes in nuclear dispute IranMania News
Iran's hardline regime has again raised the stakes in a standoff over its disputed atomic drive by warning it could follow the path of North Korea and quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, AFP reported. The Islamic republic's outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also unleashed a fresh verbal assault against Israel, repeating his view that the Holocaust is a "myth" and predicting that "Zionists" would soon be destroyed. "Iran has continued its nuclear drive within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the NPT, but if we see that you want to deprive us of our right using these regulations, know that the people will revise their policy in this regard," Ahmadinejad said in a thinly-veiled warning on Saturday. The NPT is the cornerstone of the global battle against the spread of nuclear weapons, prohibiting the development of the bomb and subjecting its signatories to IAEA inspections. Iran is under intense pressure to agree to a moratorium on nuclear fuel work that can be extended to make weapons, but insists it only wants to generate electricity and argues that its nuclear ambitions are therefore entirely legal. Although foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday that Iran was "still committed" to the treaty, he nevertheless repeated the warning that this position could soon change. "We will decide depending on the position they have towards the Islamic republic," Asefi said when asked if Iran would abandon the NPT if fully referred to the UN Security Council on March 6, when the IAEA board next meets.
Iran Reaffirms Commitment to Nuclear Pact Forbes
Iran Says It Is Still Committed to Nuclear Treaty New York Times
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World sees shocking images of British soldiers' brutality Times Online
A SHOCKING breakdown of military discipline is caught on video as eight burly British soldiers rain 42 kicks and blows on four puny young male Iraqi civilians, one of them a child. The victims' helpless cries for mercy and howls of pain and terror are ignored by groups of troops casually passing by. One man is heard to say: "In the f***ing head." The most senior soldier, thought to be a sergeant, does nothing to stop the brutality but instead delivers a vicious kick to one victim's genitals. The video's soundtrack features a disturbing commentary from the cameraman, an excited sentry who laughs, sneers, encourages and mocks as the outrage unfolds before him.
Army's image in Iraq under the spotlight Guardian Unlimited
Blair Vows Probe of Alleged Abuse in Iraq Forbes
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- Brazil To Buy Saudi F-5 Jets And Make Missiles With SAfrica
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Brazil_To_...th_SAfrica.html

Brasilia, Brazil (AFP) Feb 12, 2006 - Brazil will build an air-to-air missile with South Africa and buy nine used F-5 jet fighters from Saudi Arabia, a leading newspaper reported Sunday, citing military sources.

Korea in Crisis: Is N.Korea becoming a Chinese colony?
By SEKAI NIPPO
Published February 11, 2006


TOKYO -- This is the sixteenth in an extended series of articles by a team of Sekai Nippo reporters on the crises that face North and South Korea and the prospects for a unified Korea. Today's is the final installment on South Korea. A link to an index of articles previously published in this series is at the bottom of this page. (Editor's note)

"China is turning North Korea into its colony."


This was the surprising message of a symposium sponsored by the Japan Foundation in December 2005. It was an occasion to hear an interim report on a project by the Tokyo Foundation to investigate economic activity involving the northeastern part of China and the eastern part of North Korea.

"Something extraordinary is happening between Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture [in China's Jilin Province] and North Korea," Yukio Hanabusa, a researcher with the Economic Research Institute for North East Asia who headed the project, said as he began his presentation to the symposium.

China has obtained long term rights to significant amounts of North Korea's underground natural resources and access to its ports in exchange for a large volume of goods now flowing from China into North Korea, Hanabusa claimed.

Recent growth in trade and investment between China and North Korea is extraordinary. According to material from South Korea's Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and other agencies, the total value of China's investment in North Korea in 2004 was $50 million, or 50 times what it was in 2000.

The volume of trade between China and North Korea for 2004 was $1.385 billion, or about double the trade between North and South Korea for the same year. North Korea's trade with China is 42 percent of its total trade with all countries. More than 20 Chinese companies now have invested in North Korea.

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited North Korea last October, he agreed to provide the impoverished country $2 billion in economic assistance.

South Korean experts point out that China's investment in North Korea accelerated following its investment of $24 million in 2003 to build the Dae An Friendship Glass Factory. Currently, China's capital investment in North Korea's mining sector includes the iron ore mine at Musan, the Hyesan Youth Copper Mine, Manpo zinc mine, Hoi Ryoung gold mine and Ryong Deung coal mine.

The Musan iron ore mine, located near the China-North Korean border, is particularly noteworthy, because it is known as the largest mine in Northeast Asia, with estimated coal reserves of 3 billion tons. In its peak, its annual production of iron ore reached 7 million tons. By 2005, however, production had plummeted to 1.5 million tons.

Current plans are to increase the production to 10 million tons in 2006.

The development of the Musan iron mine is being carried out in conjunction with a "modernization of railroads in North Korea's North Hamgyong Province, improvement of the rail line and primary roads into Musan and a modernization of the port of Cheong Jin and a steel mill at Keumchek," Hanabusa said.

Hanabusa also reported that China has secured 50-year rights to develop and using roads and ports in the Rajin-Sonbong Special Economic Zone in northeastern North Korea. The project includes plans to development main roads in the zone, modernize Rajin's port, and construct an industrial park and warehouses.

In particular, China's access to Rajin Port appears linked to Beijing's "Northeast Region Development Policy." The port is expected to serve as a way station to ship agricultural products from China's Jilin and Heilongjiang Provinces to China's central and southern regions, including Tianjin and Shanghai, Hanabusa said.

Once the development of the special economic zone is completed, "this area is going to be an area managed jointly by China and North Korea," Hanabusa said.

"In other words, it will become territory leased to China by North Korea," Hanabusa said.

China would finally regain the exit to the Japan Sea that it lost at the end of the 19th century.

"North Korean economy has been incorporated in China's 'North East Asia economic sphere'," Hanabusa said.
"China and North Korea are becoming one integrated entity."

The analysis of South Korean experts is that China wants to prevent North Korea from falling under the economic influence of the United States and Japan. Instead, it wants to expand its own influence in North Korea in the economic area in anticipation of possible future developments, including the eventual resolution of North Korea's nuclear development and the establishment of peace on the Korean peninsula.

China's influence in North Korea is not limited to economic area. Cell phones are becoming indispensable to North Koreans engaged in the trade with China. They use telephones connected to the networks of Chinese telecommunications companies that transmit their radio waves across the border and into North Korea's border areas along the Tumen and Yalu Rivers.

The speed and scale of China's advancement into North Korea are without parallel, and North Korea's colonization by China is steadily progressing.

---

See an index with links to all installments in this series published to date: blog.wpherald.com/wphblog/?p=123

This article was translated from Japanese and edited by World Peace Herald. For the original text, please visit www.worldtimes.co.jp

Analysis: Bush, Annan mend fences
By Roland Flamini
UPI Chief International Correspondent
Published February 11, 2006


WASHINGTON -- Kofi Annan's meeting with President George Bush on Monday represents the U.N. Secretary-General's return to Washington's good graces after the squabbles of the Iraq war, which Annan once declared illegal. His last White House visit was exactly two years ago. Since then, however, the Bush administration has mellowed towards the Secretary-General and enlisted U.N. help in re-shaping post-war Iraq, up to and including the December parliamentary elections.

Iraq will be high on Annan's talks agenda, notably the planned National Accord Conference, which the Arab League and the United Nations are "helping" the Iraqis to plan and convene. The purpose of the conference, which a senior U.S. official said could be held as early as March and will strive to include all Iraqi political parties and major institutions, is aimed at finalizing the emergence of the democratization of Iraq. A recent statement by the Arab League said the conference will confirm, "the unity, independence, and sovereignty of Iraq."


The same Arab League statement said the conference is also expected to call for the withdrawal of coalition forces, once Iraq's armed forces and police are able to handle the country's security situation. The senior American official said the call for a pullout was acceptable to Washington as long as no deadline was specified because, "The United States is against setting a time-table."

The Bush administration hopes the conference will help with its exit strategy; but with the United States not officially a participant in the discussions, the White House will once again turn to the U.N. to help to push the proceedings in the desired direction.

The violence across the Islamic world over the cartoons lampooning Mohammed is another item that has thrust itself into the bi-lateral agenda. Annan wants to launch a reconciliation campaign through the newly formed U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, run jointly by Spain and Turkey and designed to find solutions to just such cultural conflicts between the West and Islam.

Iran's insistence on enriching its own uranium in defiance of international opposition will also come up, if for no other reason than that it is a rare occasion when the United States, the European Union and the United Nations are walking in step. The ball will shortly be in Annan's court when the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, reports Iran to the U.N. Security Council for action.

Africa is another talking point for Annan, according to a U.N. source, particularly the Secretary-General's effort to persuade NATO, including the United States, to join a planned U.N. peacekeeping force that may take over from the African Union's troops in western Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region.

The issue of reforming the world organization has dominated the U.N. for the past year, with the United States in the person of its pugnacious representative John Bolton taking the lead in pushing for change in several key areas, and many suspicious Third World countries resisting it as a form of growing American influence (the Bush administration says, why not? the United States foots a third of the U.N. bill). For example, a Human Rights Council is expected to replace the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission, but many member countries are resisting Washington's insistence that only countries with a good human rights record should be eligible for membership of the new body.

In a sense, the meeting brings together two lame ducks, both working against a countdown to leave their mark. Annan's second (and last) term as Secretary-General ends in Jan 2007, and Bush has barely 33 months left in office, but more important can't be re-elected. Annan is rendered lamer by the fallout from the multi-million dollar Oil for Food scandal, in which his son Kojo was implicated by an independent inquiry. At the very least the Secretary-General himself is criticized for not keeping a tighter rein on the program, which involved selling Iraqi oil and using the money to buy food and medicine for the Iraqis while the country was under U.N. sanctions.

The Oil for Food program is not likely to come up directly, but it will be "in the room" when the president and Annan discuss U.S. proposals for management and oversight of the world body.

The issue of Annan's successor is not expected to come up either, according to the U.N. source. But a recent remark by Bolton that the United States does not regard as carved in stone the system of choosing the Secretary-General on the basis of a regional rotation has thrown an additional element of doubt into already complex and opaque selection process. Under the time-honored regional system, the new head of the U.N. should be from Asia. The Bush administration is said to favor an Eastern European candidate as a tribute to "New Europe's" support in the Iraq war. The White House favorite is former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski.

G-8 nations focus on energy security
By Michael Mainville
The Washington Times
Published February 12, 2006


MOSCOW -- Finance ministers from the world's wealthiest nations yesterday singled out soaring energy costs as the greatest threat to global economic growth this year.

"Overall global growth remains solid, and this is expected to continue in 2006," ministers from the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized countries said after closed-door talks in a hotel near Red Square.


"Risks remain, including high and volatile energy prices," the group said in its final communique.

Oil prices have risen 30 percent in the past year to more than $60 a barrel, stoking inflation, increasing business costs and cutting into consumers' pocketbooks.

The ministers said more work needs to be done to "improve the smooth functioning and stability of [energy] markets," promote investment in production, diversify consumption and develop alternative sources of energy.

Highlighting solid economic growth in the United States -- and a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.7 percent -- Treasury Secretary John W. Snow also raised worries over the effects of growing energy costs.

"We are all concerned about the risks of rising energy prices and what they do to global growth," Mr. Snow said after the talks.

The meeting in frigid Moscow marked Russia's first as president of the G-8, which also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

President Bush and other leaders of G-8 countries are to meet for a summit in St. Petersburg in July.

While oil and energy security dominated the meeting, the ministers also touched on a range of other topics.

They called for aid to developing nations fighting the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, outbreaks of which were reported in Africa for the first time last week and in the Western European nations of Italy and Greece yesterday. "We call on the donor community to provide financial support to poor countries fighting the epidemic," the ministers said.

The ministers also urged more action in the World Trade Organization (WTO) to open global markets in agriculture, industrial products, financial services and intellectual-property rights.

The meeting was a diplomatic success for Russia, which joined the G-8 in 1998 and took over as president for the first time this year.

The boom in energy prices has delivered a windfall to Russia, the world's second-biggest oil exporter, and has given it greater economic clout than in the past.

But the Russian presidency has been dogged by questions about Russia's reliability as an energy supplier after it temporarily cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in January, leading to disruptions in exports to Europe.

Western officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have also raised concerns over Russia presiding over the G-8 at the same time as critics accuse President Vladimir Putin of backtracking on democracy by increasing Kremlin controls over parliament, the press and private charitable organizations.

G-8 ministers did not raise these concerns publicly after yesterday's meeting and instead praised Russia's "improved fiscal position." Mr. Snow said the dispute with Ukraine was discussed at the meeting, but declined to comment on the details of the disagreement that sparked Russia's gas cutoff.

Mr. Snow also said that the United States and Russia are "in the homestretch" in discussions over Russia's bid to join the WTO.

The United States is one of the few countries that has not yet reached an agreement with Russia on WTO membership, and talks have stuck on the issue of opening financial markets, in particular Moscow's insistence that foreign banks not be allowed to operate branches in Russia.

"I think we are narrowing the differences and should be very close to a resolution," Mr. Snow said.

Transitioning from revolution to powerful elite
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Published February 11, 2006


WASHINGTON -- Just over a year ago, Yuri Lutsenko was manning the barricades and firing up the crowds in Kiev as a key tactician of Ukraine's "Orange Revolution."

This week, he was in Washington, meeting top U.S. officials and think tank scholars as the new government's minister of internal affairs, the most powerful law-enforcement post in the country.


"I was always sure that our democratic revolution would someday succeed, but I have to say never in my dreams did I consider that I would be one day sitting in this chair," Mr. Lutsenko said, speaking through an interpreter in an interview at the Ukrainian Embassy in Georgetown.

"I also think that a lot of the police officers who dealt with me when I was in the opposition never expected this either," the 42-year-old former electrical engineer added with a smile.

Mr. Lutsenko, a longtime activist against former President Leonid Kuchma, emerged as one of the most charismatic figures of the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution, which overturned a fraudulent presidential vote and vaulted pro-Western reformer Viktor Yushchenko to power.

With a street-rebel reputation and little administrative experience, Mr. Lutsenko was not the obvious choice to head one of the country's most powerful ministries, charged with everything from fighting corruption, terrorism and illegal immigration to overseeing Ukraine's widely resented traffic police.

"Frankly, it was absolutely unexpected for me when the president asked to take this post," he said.

He said the ministry has made good progress since he took over last February. Among his first acts were to dismiss the ministry's second in command, who heads the internal security forces, and the administrator of the traffic police.

About 2,500 police officers have been dismissed for failing to meet ministry standards and more than 600 criminal cases against officers have been referred to prosecutors, Mr. Lutsenko said. The ministry is also aggressively targeting official corruption.

Last month, three former Ukrainian police officers went on trial in the 2000 slaying of investigative journalist Georgy Gongadze. The long-stalled case proved critical in tarnishing Mr. Kuchma's rule both at home and abroad.

Mr. Lutsenko's Washington trip, which included meetings with top State Department, FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials, focused on joint cooperation on issues such as terrorism, immigration and narcotics trafficking. Kiev is also pressing for a bilateral extradition treaty, which the U.S. side has been reluctant to sign.

His trip came at a difficult moment for Mr. Yushchenko. In a nasty public break, his Orange Revolution ally, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, resigned as prime minister in August and is leading an independent bloc in hotly contested parliamentary elections next month.

Mr. Lutsenko acknowledged the uncertain political climate, but said he had no fears that the democratic, pro-Western ideals of the Orange Revolution were in danger.

"Politicians of every stripe in Ukraine now say they support those ideals," he said. "We have crossed the Rubicon and there is no going back."

Saddam: 'Down With Bush' CBS News
Saddam Hussein was forced to attend the latest session of his trial Monday, looking haggard and wearing a robe rather than his usual crisp suit as he shouted, "Down with Bush." His top co-defendant struggled with guards bringing him into the court. Saddam and his seven co-defendants had vowed not to attend the trial until the return of their lawyers. The defense team have said they are boycotting the proceedings until chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman is removed, alleging he is biased against their clients. Saddam entered the courtroom on his own at the start of Monday's session, but he looked weary and argued immediately with the judge, shouting slogans against U.S. President George W. Bush. "They have forcibly brought me here," he told Abdel-Rahman. "Exercise your right to try me in absentia." Saddam shouted, "Down with the agents. Down with Bush. Long live the nation," referring to the American president, as he entered the room, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports. He wore a blue galabeya, a traditional Arab robe and a black jacket, a stark contrast to the tailored black suits he has worn to past sessions. After his entrance, co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim was brought in by guards holding him by the arms. Ibrahim, Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief, struggled with the guards while shouting angrily. He tried to address the judge, but Abdel-Rahman ordered guards to seat him in his chair. Ibrahim refused and sat on the floor with his back to the judge. Ibrahim was bare-headed, in contrast to past sessions when he wore an Arab head scarf, which he had insisted to the court that he be allowed to put on to preserve his dignity.
Saddam Trial to Resume Monday Voice of America
Boycott plagues Hussein trial CNN International
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Iran shelves Russia nuclear talks BBC News
Iran has postponed planned talks with Russia on plans to enrich uranium on Russian soil as a way to bypass a crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions. Thursday's talks have now been pushed back indefinitely, Iranian presidential spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said. They will recommence at a time of "mutual agreement," Mr Elham added. Iran recently said it was resuming nuclear research, sparking criticism and a referral to the UN Security Council by the UN nuclear agency. For its part, Russia said talks could still take place this week. "Our offer for the 16th still stands," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said in Moscow.

Sanctions threat
Western powers are concerned that Iran's decision to resume research into uranium enrichment - a process which creates fuel for nuclear reactors and, potentially, for a nuclear bomb - is part of a plan to acquire nuclear weaponry. Iran says its programme is solely aimed at energy production.
Iran reduced to Russian roulette Asia Times Online
Iran Holds Out Its Hand to Moscow Kommersant
AKI - RIA Novosti - Canada.com - People's Daily Online - all 147 related »

Preval supporters march in Haiti BBC News
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Haiti to demand that ex-President Rene Preval be declared the winner of last week's election. With three quarters of the votes counted, Mr Preval is just short of the 50% percent required to win outright. But his supporters say he should be declared president without having to face a run-off next month. Mr Preval used to be an ally of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was forced out of power two years ago. The front-runner, who has inherited Mr Aristide's strong support among the poor, is leading more than 30 presidential candidates. But his share of the vote has dropped to 49.1%. He held 61% of the vote after the first results were released late last week. Another ex-leader, Leslie Manigat's has 11.7% of the vote, while industrialist Charles Henri Baker has 8%, electoral officials say. Correspondents say there is uncertainty over when the final outcome of Tuesday's vote will be known - the announcement had initially been scheduled for Sunday evening.
Haitians Protest Over Slow Vote Count Voice of America
Preval may face Haiti runoff CNN International
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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HB14Cb02.html
Exports, hybrids in changing China auto industry

BEIJING - In two indications of the continuing rapid evolution of China's booming auto industry, it was announced that in 2005, for the first time, China exported more autos than it imported. Also, the country's hybrid car industry has made great progress, with four Chinese auto makers expected to put hybrids on sale by the end of this year.

Exports exceeded imports in 2005
In 2005 China exported 172,639 autos, 11,031 more than it imported, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of



Commerce. This is the first time the country has exported more cars than it imported in a year. The value of these exported autos was US$1.58 billion, jumping 158.4% year on year. In terms of number of units, the increase was 120.5%.

Of the total, China exported 31,125 sedans worth $271 million, jumps of 233.4% and 222.2% year on year respectively, and 1,844 off-road vehicles, 10,442 microbuses, 6,433 large and medium-sized buses, 96,549 trucks and some special-use vehicles.

Meanwhile, China imported 161,608 autos worth $5.2 billion, down 8% and 4.5% year on year. Of the total, China imported 76,542 sedans worth $2.6 billion, down 34.1% and 20.7%, 65,966 off-road vehicles worth $1.8 billion, up 86.8% and 66.3%, and 12,487 microbuses worth $266 million, up 17% and 14.9%. China's import of large and medium-sized buses, trucks and special-use vehicles dropped in 2005.

Since the average unit price of autos exported by China is much lower than that of autos imported by China, the total dollar value of auto exports was less than one-third of the import value, despite the fact that exports exceeded imports in terms of numbers.

Hybrids to hit market
Environmentally friendly hybrid cars are expected to be released on to the Chinese market at the end of this year after four years of development. The cars, which run on a mixture of electricity and fuel, are made by several Chinese auto firms, including the Dongfeng Motor Corp (DFM), Chang'an Motor Corp, Chery Auto Co and the China FAW Group Corp.

Wan Gang, head of a national team of experts on the hybrid-automobile program, says scaled production of the vehicles has been listed as a key task in China's 11th Five-Year Program that begins this year, so that more Chinese families can own the low-emission cars by 2010.

The development of hybrid vehicles was listed as a key project in China's "863 program" - a national high-tech plan initiated in March 1986 to enhance the country's overall power - and as part of the 10th Five-Year Plan adopted in 2001.

In recent years, Chinese experts have made great progress on the design and development of a series of hybrid buses, including the fuel-cell bus, the hybrid-electric bus and a bus run purely on electricity. Twenty hybrid-electric buses, designed and made by DFM, are in service in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province. Another flagship hybrid bus also drove off the China FAW Group Corp production line recently.

Wan noted that the two types of hybrid buses have both passed official tests, signifying the start of the mass production of environment-friendly buses in China. Statistics released by the FAW said hybrid buses can save 30% over conventional buses with respect to oil use, and reduce harmful exhaust by 30%. Wan says an increasing number of Chinese automobile manufacturers have selected hybrid vehicles as targets for future development. "These firms have formed China's first hybrid-automobile production base," Wan acknowledged.

A senior official with the Ministry of Science and Technology said China has made remarkable progress in the development of hybrid vehicles, and that in-house production would undoubtedly increase its competitiveness in the global market. Despite the progress in the industry, experts maintain that its level of technology is still far behind more advanced international standards. Experts urged the Chinese government to issue more favorable measures in support of the production of hybrid cars in China.

(Asia Pulse/XIC)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HB14Cb01.html
China flap turns up heat on US tech giants
By Kent Ewing

HONG KONG - Internet giants Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Cisco Systems are bracing for a severe tongue-lashing when a US House of Representatives subcommittee on global human rights convenes on Wednesday.

The stakes are high: the companies involved are the crown jewels of the US high-technology industry, and the outcome of the



brewing controversy over their alleged acquiescence to Chinese government human-rights violations could substantially affect the future of their businesses in that country - universally acknowledged to be a crucial market.

Politicians and human-rights activists promise to pull no punches over what they characterize as the dubious ethics of agreements the US-based companies have struck with the Chinese government. In a nutshell, the companies have vowed to adhere to what Westerners generally regard as repressive Chinese laws on censorship as well as - at least in Yahoo's case - aiding Chinese authorities in what would clearly be considered unacceptable violations of the right to privacy in the United States. All this comes, however, in exchange for entry into the fastest-growing Internet market on the planet.

There have been some signs in recent days that the protests against the tech companies' activities may be gaining traction. On Sunday, US Congressman Chris Smith was reportedly drafting a bill that would force US Internet firms to locate computer servers outside of China and other nations deemed repressive to human rights. If this should become law, it would have a major impact on search-engine businesses such as Google and Yahoo, because it could make their search engines unusably slow inside China. Google has already reported that its main search engine is down about 10% of the time in China and slow even when it is working - problems the company attributes to its servers being located outside China.

With access to 110 million Internet users - second only to the US - at stake in China, kowtowing to the country's leaders makes perfect business sense. But it has also raised some free-speech and human-rights questions that company executives will no doubt be forced to field at Wednesday's hearings on Capitol Hill. How far are tech firms willing to go to please Chinese authorities? And, of course, how far do those authorities plan to take them?

Up to this point, the tech firms have defended themselves by stating that they, like any foreign enterprise in any field, are obliged to follow Chinese laws while operating in China. It is, however, exactly this adherence to the law that has generated such controversy in the West.

At Wednesday's hearings, for example, Yahoo representatives might be asked about the case of Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist who has been jailed for 10 years after the company helped police trace e-mails he had sent to human-rights organizations overseas, deemed seditious by the Chinese government.

And Microsoft executives may be obliged to explain why several weeks ago, at Beijing's request, the company closed down the popular online journal of blogger Zhao Jing, who also works as a research assistant in the Beijing bureau of the New York Times. Committee members may also want to know why, last year, Microsoft launched an MSN portal that blocks the use of the words "freedom" and "democracy" in the names of blogs. On Google's China search engine, www.google.cn, the word "democracy" is also a no-no, as are any mention of Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown or the banned Falungong spiritual movement, regarded as a cult by Beijing.

Is the recurrent reply to all these developments - "But it's the law" - an adequate one? Increasingly, it seems, the tech firms themselves realize the answer is no. On Wednesday, we should expect a more robust defense. Indeed, that defense has already begun to take shape and, despite the rage of activists and certain members of the US Congress, it has considerable substance, especially here in Asia.

Bill Gates himself weighed in recently at a Microsoft-sponsored conference in Lisbon on the use of Internet technology in the public sector, arguing that it is better for Microsoft to be present rather than absent in such markets as China, even if restricted. And, the Microsoft chief added, government censorship of the Internet is an illusory goal at best. "You may be able to take a very visible website and say that something shouldn't be there," he said, "but if there's a desire by the population to know something, it's going to get out."

Following up on its chairman's remarks in Portugal, Microsoft announced new company guidelines on how it will deal with demands for government censorship in China or anywhere else. Under the new policy, the company will only block content on its MSN Spaces if served formal notice by a government that the content is in violation of the law, or if it transgresses MSN's terms of use. And, from now on, Microsoft will notify users whose blogs have been shut down; in the past, the unlucky bloggers were surprised by a unexplained dead link. In addition, the company is working on technology that will allow content blocked by censorship laws in one country to be seen by the rest of the world.

As for Google - the company with the "do no evil" motto - the firm can piggyback on Gates' argument and claim that the complete absence of its service in China would represent a greater evil than its fettered presence. For now, the China Google search engine sends an explanatory message to any user whose quest for information has been filtered. In the future, the company hopes, domestic and international demand will lead to fewer and fewer such messages. In the meantime, uncertainty over the future of the company's China venture has arguably contributed to a recent decline in its stock price: Google has tumbled 25% compared with a month ago, and some analysts are predicting a further 50% decline.

On Wednesday, the US Big Four - Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Cisco, which supplied the Chinese government with switching equipment that is a great help to its Web monitoring and filtering system - plan to present a united front. Microsoft and Yahoo, in an attempt to transfer the ball to Washington's court, have already teamed up to issue a joint statement calling on the US government to take steps to persuade Beijing to stop censoring the Internet.

"We urge the United States government to take a leadership role in this regard," the statement said, "and have initiated a dialogue with relevant US officials to encourage such government-to-government engagement."

So Wednesday's hearings may not turn out to be the one-sided slamming session that has been anticipated. For many people in Asia, however, the political point and counterpoint that are about to take place in Washington seem little more than a rhetorical luxury. If members of the human-rights committee were to ask Chinese Internet users if they are more informed now, even with a censored Internet, than they have ever been before, the answer would be an unqualified yes. And surely the way to fight back against censorship in China is not for the US companies to pull out, thus leaving Chinese cyberspace completely in the hands of the Public Security Bureau.

The situation is complex, but some things seem reasonably clear: in the new, economically rising China, censorship probably will not end because of anything Google and/or other foreign companies decide to do or not to do. And neither will congressional ranting in the US make much difference. When blocking the free flow of information across its borders dulls China's competitive edge and impedes its economic growth sufficiently to put Communist Party rule at risk, it will stop. For now, indeed, presence (not to mention huge profits) is better than absence.

Kent Ewing is a teacher and writer at Hong Kong International School. He can be reached at kewing@hkis.edu.hk.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing .)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HB11Df04.html
Taliban deal lights a slow-burning fuse
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Dozens of influential delegates, including religious scholars, tribal chiefs and important citizens from several provinces, are gathered in the courtyard of the newly renovated Qasr-i-Shahi (Royal Palace) built by late Afghan King Ghazi Amanullah, who liberated Afghanistan from British rule.

The dignitaries are assembled to greet the governor of Nangarhar province, Gul Aga Sherzai, who recently returned from a visit to the United States. The ceremony is in line with the Afghan tradition of greeting anybody powerful who returns home. In this ceremony, the governor distributes gifts to the guests, also a part of Afghan tradition. Equally important, the governor and the delegates exchange views in a series of speeches.

Gul Aga Sherzai makes his address, outlining his initiatives in the
social and economic sectors. Before he invites the delegates to speak, he urges this correspondent to put down his camera, which until then had recorded the ceremonies.

A noble Pashtun with a greying beard stands up and responds to Gul Aga Sherzai's speech.

"You might have rebuilt Qasr-i-Shahi, but you should also have come up with a solution to the foreign intervention in Afghan affairs. Now is the time that we should ask the kharjis [foreigners] to leave Afghanistan and let us decide matters on our own," the man says, speaking in Pashtu. His long speech continues in this manner.

Gul Aga Sherzai quietly finishes his tea and stands up. "There is no question that the kharjis should leave Afghanistan, but before that we should make ourselves strong enough. We should be self-reliant and self-sufficient."

It is debate such as this that the governor does not want recorded; in eastern Afghanistan, on the record everything is fine, but in fact it is not.

Traveling in the eastern region to Jalalabad one can see the complete writ of the government. Construction work is going on everywhere along the main highways. Life in Jalalabad appears normal. And unlike the constantly restive areas to the south, there are no bomb blasts or suicide attacks. The Taliban do not challenge the government, nor do they carry out attacks on government buildings, as in other areas.

This reminds one that Jalalabad was surrendered to allied forces without a fight when the Taliban retreated in the face of the US-led invasion of 2001. The Taliban simply melted into their tribes.

Shershah Hamdard, the editor of the local Nangarhar Daily, comments, "Whether people are Taliban or members of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan [HIA], they are Afghans first, and if they live as peaceful citizens nobody objects to them. Now many people who were Taliban serve in the local administration, and many important positions are held by people who were members of the Hizb."

This is the on-the-record view. Everything appears calm and normal. Under the surface, though, a time bomb is ticking, and even the Director of Information and Culture, Mohammed Hashim Ghamsharik, admits that "unscrupulous elements" are a threat to peace and stability in the province.

The real Nangarhar
Jalalabad is the second-largest city of Afghanistan and the capital of the eastern province of Nangarhar. Ever since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in the late 1970s, Jalalabad has remained a political stronghold of Afghan communists, as well as secular nationalists.

However, across the province the dynamics are somewhat different. The suburbs of Jalalabad are full of people loyal to the HIA led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or another faction led by Moulvi Younus Khalis.

The Taliban never had direct support among the people of Nangarhar province. The Taliban mobilized forces from Kandahar, Paktia, Paktika and Khost to defeat local warlords in the province. This resulted in an exodus of commanders loyal to Hekmatyar to Pakistan, or else they stayed on as ordinary citizens.

The commanders loyal to Moulvi Khalis also either migrated to Pakistan (like the slain brothers Abdul Haq and Haji Abdul Qadeer) or they joined the Taliban.

After the fall of the Taliban, Jalalabad came under the control of nationalist tribals loyal to former King Zahir Shah, while in the surrounding areas the "converted" Taliban and HIA loyalists lay low.

The current calm, therefore, precedes a storm.

The various tribes have struck an unwritten deal with the provincial government that it will not undertake search operations in and around Jalalabad.

Such an arrangement was also said to have been made with the previous governor, Haji Deen Mohammed (now the governor of Kabul province); that he struck a deal with the Taliban to prevent the province from falling into chaos. As a result, Haji Deen was transferred to Kabul.

When Gul Aga Sherzai became governor in Nangarhar he was urged by allied forces to hunt down Taliban forces. As a result, joint patrols of allied forces and Afghan police went on raids, but they immediately met with resistance.

So a few months ago a messenger of the Taliban personally met Gul Aga Sherzai and other government officials and told them that should any more raids occur, their reward would be death squads. Thus a lull prevails in Nangarhar.

Building up the resistance
The focus of the resistance at present is in south Afghanistan, from Kandahar (the previous Taliban stronghold) up to Kunar. The strategy is to first establish an unbreakable foothold in the south, and then spread to other areas, such as Jalalabad, where silent supporters will rise up and establish new fronts. Kabul, as it was when the Taliban finally seized power in 1996, would be the final prize.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing .)

Jerusalem Newswirewww.jnewswire.com
Iran to West: Remove Israel, or we will
By Ryan Jones

February 12th, 2006

If the West fails to peacefully remove the “Zionist entity” from the Middle East, the “Palestinians” and their Islamic allies will do so through violent fury, warned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a mass demonstration in Tehran Saturday.

Addressing the hundreds of thousands who turned out to mark the 27th anniversary of Iran's “Islamic Revolution,” the virulent leader, as reported by WorldNetDaily, said regarding Israel:

“We ask the West to remove what they created sixty years ago and if they do not listen to our recommendations, then the Palestinian nation and other nations will eventually do this for them. Remove Israel before it is too late and save yourself from the fury of regional nations.”
Islam dictates that formerly-Muslim dominated lands cannot revert to permanent non-Muslim control. It is this cornerstone of their faith that drives the murderous anti-Israel policies of Hamas and most of the Jewish state's Middle East neighbors.

But the threat is not only to Israel and other non-Muslim nations that have regained their sovereignty. Reconquering them is only the first step.

According to the Muslim faith, jihad must be waged until the entire world is under the thumb of Islam. Ahmadinejad declared that now is the time for the West to bow to this reality and submit to Allah:

“On the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian nation, numbering in the millions, calls upon those governments to worship Allah.”
Similar sentiment was expressed by Iran's Hamas allies in the Palestinian Authority last week.

Speaking at a Damascus mosque on February 3, overall Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal declared:

“We say to this West... By Allah, you will be defeated... Tomorrow, our nation will sit on the throne of the world. This is not a figment of the imagination, but a fact.”Copyright 2002-2004 Jerusalem Newswire Print Close

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Monday, 13 February 2006 close window

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Posted to the web on: 13 February 2006
US hones military strategy as last resort against Iran
Stefan Smith

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Sapa-AFP

LONDON — US military strategists are drawing up plans for an attack on Iran as a last resort to stop the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons, the Sunday Telegraph in London, reported yesterday.



In a front-page dispatch from Washington, it said US central and strategic command planners were “identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation”.


The planners are reporting to the office of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with a view to having a military option if diplomatic efforts fail to put the brakes on Iran’s suspected bid to make a nuclear bomb.


“This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment,” the newspaper quoted a senior Pentagon adviser as saying. “This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months.”


Iran’s outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also unleashed a fresh verbal assault against Israel — repeating his view that the Holocaust was a “myth” and predicting “Zionists” would soon be destroyed.

“Iran has continued its nuclear drive within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but if we see that you want to deprive us of our right using these regulations, know that the people will revise their policy,” Ahmadinejad said on Saturday.




Earlier this month, the IAEA referred Iran to the United Nations Security Council after the oil-rich nation resumed its uranium enrichment programme.

SA abstained in the vote.


The treaty is the cornerstone of the global battle against the spread of nuclear weapons, prohibiting the development of the bomb and subjecting its signatories to IAEA inspections.

Iran is under intense pressure to agree to a moratorium on nuclear fuel work that can be extended to make weapons, but insists it only wants to generate electricity and argues that its nuclear ambitions are therefore entirely legal.

Although foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said yesterday that Iran was “still committed” to the treaty, he nevertheless repeated the warning that this position could soon change.


The IAEA left a one-month window for diplomacy, for Iran to return to a full suspension of enrichment-related work and cooperate more with IAEA inspectors.

So far Iran has done the opposite, setting the scene for a major showdown.

Iran’s parliament speaker Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel said nuclear research would be resumed yesterday or today, adding that an IAEA team was in Iran to supervise this process.










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British think tank says attack on Iranian nuclear sites would kill thousands, spark war
By Associated Press February 13, 2006


An Iranian couple at a demonstration to mark the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in Tehran, Saturday Feb. 11, 2006. (AP)

A U.S. air assault on Iranian nuclear and military facilities would likely kill thousands of people, spark a long-lasting war and push Iran to accelerate its atomic program, a British think tank predicted in a report published Monday.

The Oxford Research Group, which specializes in arms control and nonproliferation issues,