Israeli air strikes kill Gaza militants

GAZA: Israeli air strikes killed two Gaza militants, one a local commander of the Islamic Jihad group in the Gaza Strip, and wounded four others who fired rockets at Israel, despite a two-day-old truce, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

Syria, Iran seek local fixes to region

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran”s interim Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi agreed on Monday that the troubles of the Middle East should be solved internally by the region”s countries, a local news agency reported.

Salehi arrived in Damascus on Sunday to discuss the Lebanese political crisis with Syrian officials.

The two men discussed “the latest regional developments” and international efforts to “find solutions to challenges facing countries of the region,” the news agency said after the meeting.

The news agency reported Assad and Salehi emphasised “the importance that solutions come from inside these countries according to their peoples” interests to help maintain their security and stability”.

External efforts to mediate Lebanon”s political quagmire have yielded little, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar all failing.

A national unity government led by Western-backed caretaker prime minister Saad Hariri collapsed on January 12 when 11 ministers from the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies resigned.

The walkout capped a long-running dispute over a UN-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri, the incumbent”s father.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said he expects the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon to implicate high-ranking members of his militant movement in the Hariri murder and has warned of grave repercussions.

Nasrallah has vowed to include all parties in a Hezbollah-led government, but both he and Hariri refuse to serve under each other.

Former prime minister Najib Mikati has put himself forward as a compromise candidate to try to form a government.

Assad and Salehi said they were “satisfied” with the formation of a unity government in Iraq, “stressing the importance of expanding the dialogue to all Iraqi” parties, the news agency reported.

The meeting also addressed “ways to strengthen scientific and technological cooperation between Syria and Iran”.

On Sunday night, Salehi held talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.

He then met the exiled leader of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Palestinian sources said.

The secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), Ahmed Jibril, and a representative of Islamic Jihad, Ziad Nakhal, also attended the meeting, the sources said.

Al-Qaeda wants to avenge Aafias trial

Al Qaeda reiterated its resolve to avenge Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who was sentenced by the United States to 86 years in jail for trying to kill US personnel in Afghanistan.

In a video published by US-based monitoring group SITE Intelligence Group, Abu Yahya al-Libi called upon Pakistanis to strike American aircraft, centers, and convoys in revenge for the imprisonment of Siddiqui. By Allah, a single shot to the face of those unbeliever aggressors is tougher on them and has a greater effect on their persons than hundreds of demonstrations and thousands of screams, no matter if the throats of the protests become hoarse, he said. Last month, al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri also called for vengeance, and there have been numerous demonstrations in Pakistan calling for the liberation of Siddiqui, 38. Shortly after she was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 on charges of links to al Qaeda, she was visited by US military officers and agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. She seized a gun and fired two shots, without hitting anyone. One of the officers returned fire, wounding her in the stomach.

Funeral of Ali Raza slain in Kyrgyzstan offered

SHORKOT: The funeral prayer of deceased Ali Raza, slaughtered amid racial riots erupted in Kyrgyzstan, has been offered in his native town in Shorkot on Wednesday morning, Geo news reported.

Funeral gathering was attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners. Later, Ali Raza was buried in his native graveyard.

It may be mentioned; the deceased Ali Raza was Electrical Engineering student in Osh University in Kyrgyzstan and was slaughtered to death amid racial violence some four days ago.

His dead body was brought to Pakistan through PIA’s special C-130 flight while, PM Gilani expressed condolence with Ali parents on telephone.

Pakistani government will bear educational expenses of all children, PM said to Ali’s father.

13 die in Mexico train collision

SINALOA: Thirteen people have been killed and five injured when two freight trains collided in Mexico”s western Sinaloa state, an official said.

The Attorney General”s Office said there were problems in retrieving the bodies as they were stuck in the tangled wreckage. Authorities suspect some of the victims could be illegal Mexican immigrants trying to enter the US.

According to a preliminary probe, Tuesday”s accident occurred due to a miscommunication between the driver of one of the trains and the station staff. One of the trains carrying corn from Chihuahua to El Fuerto rammed into a stationary train.

COAS on 5-day official visit to China

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaque Pervez Kayani Wednesday flown for China on a five-day official visit, Geo news reported.

According to ISPR, COAS Kayani was invited to celebration party of China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Khalid Shamim and Chinese Envoy to Pakistan saw General Kayani off at airport.

COAS Kayani is due to hold several meetings with Chinese army top brass over issues of bilateral cooperation on defense and military sectors.

Lava continued to flow from Mayon

Lava continues to flow from Mayon Volcano’s mouth coupled with more high frequency volcano earthquakes, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.

Phivolcs said it has recorded 78 high frequency volcanic earthquakes and tremors for the past 24 hours. Phivolcs said lava that have flowed out of the volcano has reached 700 meters to 800 meters downslope below the crater. Lava fragments detaching from the lava pile inside the crater continuously rolled down along Bonga gully reaching 3 to 4 kilometers downslope of the crater.

The volcano has also continued to emit white steam that reached 200 meters above its summit. The local government is expecting to finish the evacuation of a total of 9,946 families from the danger zones in 2 days.

---

Lava continued to flow from Mayon was first posted on December 17, 2009 at 7:48 pm.

22 candidates to contest Sri Lanka presidential polls

Sri Lanka’s election commissioner on Thursday accepted a record 22 nominations for the January presidential poll, in which economic policies, good governance and corruption are expected to dominate the campaign.

The candidates for the January 26 poll include incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former army chief, General Sarath Fonseka, who led the military to victory over Tamil rebels after a 25-year civil war. Successive governments have won national polls promising to end the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, while blaming the conflict for any failure to implement economic and political reforms. About 14 milllion of the island nation’s 21 million population are eligible to vote.

Rajapaksa, who called the elections two years before his term expires as he tries to take credit for ending the war, is backed by the United People’s Freedom Alliance, which includes business groups some minority parties. The President has focused on post-war peace and development, without giving any specific policies on how he would achieve that. Analysts expect Rajapaksa to try to woo voters with public-sector wage hikes and subsidies, but he will constrained by the conditions attached to a $2.6 billion dollars loan from the International Monetary Fund.

General Fonseka speaking to journalists talked about ending corruption and abolishing the powerful executive presidency. He said he would establish good governance once he wins the elections. Fonseka is supported by the two main opposition parties, the pro-business United National Party (UNP) and the Marxists Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna (JVP), whose economic policies are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The main Tamil party, which had earlier backed Tamil Tiger rebels before they were wiped out in a May military offensive, has not announced who it would support, though analysts say they would lean to Fonseka over Mahinda as minorities have more confidence in the UNP.

Tamils make up almost 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, and unlike past elections where the LTTE discouraged them from going to the polls, they could emerge as a key swing vote. Both the UNP and JVP have said their main aim is to defeat Rajapaksa and then later to focus on other issues. Economists said Rajapaksa’s past populist policies such the provision of subsidies, high government expenditure, and bloated state jobs have created fiscal pressures.

Successive Sri Lankan governments have delayed both economic and political reform, bowing to the pressure of coalition partners aiming to win elections. But the IMF loan comes with conditions aimed at curbing those kinds of pressures. Investor confidence in the $40 billion economy has surged,attracting foreign investments into government debt and both listed and unlisted companies due to investor hopes of a rapid economic recovery after the war. The economy, still struggling to recover from the financial crisis and the civil war, is expected to expand at an eight-year low of 3.5 percent this year, from 6 percent last year, the central bank said.

---

22 candidates to contest Sri Lanka presidential polls was first posted on December 17, 2009 at 8:40 pm.

Kashmiri leaders under house arrest on Human Rights Day

SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, the occupation authorities, today, put the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan and other Hurriyet leaders and activists under house arrest, while renowned human rights activists, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, Firdaus Ahmad Shah and other liberation leaders and activists were arrested and locked up in different police stations.

The All Parties Hurriyet Conference is holding a rally in Srinagar, today, from the APHC headquarters in Rajbagh to the Municipal Park under the leadership of APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The objective of the rally is to draw the world attention towards the gross human rights violations perpetrated by Indian troops to suppress Kashmiris’ liberation struggle.

The occupation authorities have deployed large contingents of Indian police personnel in the area and installed barricades to stop the liberation leaders and activists from holding a peaceful rally on the occasion of International Human Right Day.

On the other hand, complete strike is being observed in Shopian against the continued human rights violations by the Indian troops.

---

Kashmiri leaders under house arrest on Human Rights Day was first posted on December 10, 2009 at 1:06 pm.

Israel Releases 6 Palestinian MPs

GAZA: Israel Releases 6 Palestinian MPs, Israel has released six members of the Palestinian parliament affiliated to the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) who were jailed after resistance fighters seized Gilad Shalit in a 2006 cross-border raid.

The freed lawmakers were identified as Ahmad Attoun and Wael Al-Husseini from Jerusalem Al-Quds, Khalil Ar-Rabai, Samir Al-Qadi, and Mahir Badr from Hebron (al-Khalil), and Mahmoud Al-Khatib from Bethlehem (Beit Lahm).

“The detention of Palestinian lawmakers was a crime against humanity and the international community should call Israeli occupation to account for that violation,” Gaza-based Hamas lawmaker and head of the International Campaign for the Release of Abducted Members of Parliament Mushir Al-Masri said.

Al-Masri stressed that the campaign he leads will continue to lobby against the detention of members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

Eighteen other Palestinian legislators are still in Israel’s custody, including 15 affiliated to Hamas, two from Fatah, and one affiliated to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Israel arrested 45 Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank in the aftermath of Shalit’s capture.

---

Israel Releases 6 Palestinian MPs was first posted on November 3, 2009 at 5:59 pm.

Next Page »