West offers words, only, as Syria killing rages

AMMAN/BEIRUT: Syrian government artillery barrages killed dozens of civilians in Homs on Thursday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad, bolstered by Russian support, ignored appeals from world leaders to halt the carnage.

The United Nations secretary-general condemned the “appalling brutality” of the operation to stamp out the revolt against Assad, and Turkey’s ambassador to the European Union warned of a slide into civil war that could inflame the region.

Diplomats from Western and Arab powers, lining up meetings that could mean some decisions soon, condemned Assad in strong language. But having ruled out military intervention, they were struggling to find a way to convince him to step down.

Syria’s powerful ally Russia, meanwhile, said no one should interfere in the country’s affairs.

In Homs, witnesses said makeshift hospitals were overflowing in besieged opposition areas with the dead and wounded from nearly a week of government bombardments and sniper fire.

Medical supplies and food were running out and, in the streets, some of the wounded had bled to death as it was too dangerous for rescuers to bring them to safety.

The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group in Homs, put the death toll on Thursday alone as high as 110 by nightfall, though it remains impossible to verify such accounts:

“This number includes three families whose bodies were dug up from under the rubble of their homes, bodies brought to field hospitals and people who died their from their wounds today,” the group said in a statement sent to Reuters.

A Syrian doctor, struggling to treat the wounded at a field clinic in a mosque, delivered an emotional plea via YouTube video. Standing next to a bloody body on a table, the man, named only as Mohammed, said to the camera, and to the outside world:

“We appeal to the international community to help us transport the wounded. We wait for them here to die in mosques. I appeal to the United Nations and to international humanitarian organizations to stop the rockets from being fired on us.” AGENCIES

Ijaz statement can be recorded via audio/video link: Justice Essa

TrendPK.com

ISLAMABAD:  Memo Commission head Justice Qazi Essa has proposed that statement of Mansoor Ijaz can be recorded through an audio or a video link under Article 164 of the law of testimony.

Ijaz counsel Advocate Akram Sheikh said his client is ready to submit an affidavit to appear before Pakistan High Commission to record his statement.

On this, Haqqani’s counsel Advocate Zahid Bokhari said Mansoor Ijaz is a fugitive in four cases in the United States. He said Mansoor Ijaz cannot enter the United States.

Justice Qazi Essa said a senior officer could be appointed in Pakistani High Commission in London to identify Mansoor Ijaz. He proposed that Ijaz statement could be recorded under Article 164 of the law of testimony.

Bokhari said he personally doesn’t agree with the proposal. But he said he would consult his client. TrendPK

US commander to visit Pakistan this month to repair ties: US paper

TrendPK.com
WASHINGTON: Gen. James N. Mattis, the head of the military’s Central Command will visit Pakistan this month and meet Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief of staff, to discuss the investigations into the US attack at the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, as well as new border coordination procedures to prevent a recurrence of the episode.

General Mattis’s visit was slated to begin Thursday, but has been postponed by at least a week pending debate in the Pakistani Parliament over a new security policy toward the United States.

General Mattis’s visit is aimed at formally presenting to Pakistan the Central Command’s findings in the Nov. 26 episode.

“We’ve felt an apology would be helpful in creating some space,” said an American official who has been briefed on the State Department’s view and who spoke on the condition of anonymity as internal discussions continued.

The State Department is in support a proposal for the United States government to issue a formal apology for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers in the Nov. 26 airstrike by American gunships. TrendPK

No Israel decision on Iran attack: Obama

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said he did not think Israel had made a decision on whether to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear installations, a threat that has rattled the region.

Obama — seeking to reassure Americans over the danger posed by Tehran’s suspect nuclear program, and any negative side-effects for the United States — said Washington was working “in lockstep” with Israel to bring Iran to heel.

“I don’t think Israel has made a decision” to strike Iranian facilities, Obama said in a pre-Super Bowl interview with NBC.

When asked if Washington would be consulted first should Israel move ahead with those plans, he said he could not go into specifics but added that the two allies had “closer intelligence and military consultations” than ever before.

“My number one priority continues to be the security of the United States. But also, the security of Israel. And we’re going to make sure that we work in lockstep, as we proceed to try to solve this — hopefully diplomatically.”

Obama said the Islamic republic was “feeling the pinch” of ever tougher sanctions imposed by the international community, and dismissed concerns that Tehran could retaliate by striking US soil, saying such a strike was unlikely.

“I’ve been very clear — we’re going to do everything we can to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and creating a nuclear arms race in a volatile region,” he said.

“We have mobilized the international community, in a way that is unprecedented. They are feeling the pinch. They are feeling the pressure,” he said.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for strictly peaceful purposes.

On whether Tehran could possibly strike US targets, Obama said: “We don’t see any evidence they have those intentions or capabilities.”

He added: “Again, our goal is to resolve this diplomatically. That would be preferable. We’re not going to take options off the table, though.”

Last week, a Washington Post opinion column said US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a “strong likelihood” that Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear installations this spring.

When asked about the newspaper’s article by reporters traveling with him to a NATO meeting in Brussels, Panetta brushed it aside.

“I’m not going to comment on that. (…) Israel indicated they’re considering this (a strike), we’ve indicated our concerns,” he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was due in Washington on Monday, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the United States in early March, though a meeting between Netanyahu and Obama was not yet confirmed.

In the interview with NBC, Obama cautioned that “any kind of additional military activity inside the Gulf is disruptive. And has a big effect on us. It can affect oil prices.” AGENCIES

Germany returns pre-Islamic sculpture to Afghanistan

KABUL: Germany this week returned an ancient pre-Islamic sculpture looted during Afghanistan’s civil war, giving hope to Kabul’s cultural mavens that the rest of its stolen treasures will also make their way home.

Eight figures, one missing a torso and others without noses, make up the 30-cm high (12 inches) limestone antiquity from the second century AD, a reminder of Afghanistan’s rich classical past as a confluence of cultures on the crossroads of Asia.

Faces turned to their left, they are believed to be audience members watching Buddha on his throne in the ancient kingdom of Gandhara, which stretched across part of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry said.

“This is a masterpiece … I am optimistic that in the future we will get the other artifacts back,” said Omara Khan Massoudi, the director of Afghanistan’s National Museum, which housed the sculpture before it was stolen.

Afghanistan’s embassy in Berlin has been investigating who owned the sculpture since it appeared in Munich a year ago. It was flown to Kabul earlier this week.

As warlords battled for control of Kabul in the early 1990s following the Soviet exit, fighters pillaged around 70 percent of the museum’s antiquities, or around 70,000 pieces, selling the choicest artifacts on the black market.

Massoudi, whose museum was also heavily shelled in the war, is working to get them back. “This is our responsibility… According to our laws, they must be returned to Afghanistan,” he told Reuters.

Afghanistan’s looted treasures have appeared across Europe, the United States and Japan. Kabul might see twenty ivories currently held in the British Museum return sometime this year, Massoudi said.

An agreement with UNESCO, the U.N.’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, and global police Interpol to recover stolen gems is proving successful: he said over 8,000 artifacts have returned since 2007, including a fifth century wooden Buddha. Tens of thousands are still missing however.

Endemic corruption, poverty and insecurity after thirty years of conflict mean even new discoveries do not reach cultural authorities.

Ancient Jewish scrolls, which Massoudi confirmed were recently smuggled out, are currently being kept by private dealers in London. ID:nL3E8CK1V9

Most of those that have been recovered and are in Afghanistan are under lock and key until larger spaces are built with the top-notch security systems museums in the West have.

Ten million dollars have been committed, half from the United States, for a new museum with such features and climate control, to be built next door to the old one over the next three to four years.

“It is my dream to have such museums across Afghanistan,” Massoudi said.

Palestinians urge Israel to free jailed lawmakers

JERUSALEM: The Palestinians urged Israel to free dozens of Palestinian lawmakers during a new round of exploratory talks held in Amman, a Palestinian official said on Sunday.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met on Saturday for a fourth round of discussions sponsored by Jordan and the peacemaking Quartet, which are intended to find a way to bring both sides back to direct negotiations.

But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting produced nothing new.

He said the Palestinians used it to demand the release of imprisoned Palestinian officials, including Palestinian parliamentary speaker Aziz Dweik, a Hamas member who was arrested by Israeli forces on Thursday.

“Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat gave a letter to the head of the Israeli delegation Yitzhak Molcho calling on the Israeli government to immediately release Dweik and more than 23 other Palestinian lawmakers,” the official said.

The Palestinian delegation accused Israel of arresting Dweik to strike “a blow to internal Palestinian reconciliation” between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement.

The letter handed over Saturday also called for the release of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghuti and Ahmed Saadat, the secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the official said.

A copy of the letter, which also sought the release of prisoners detained before the 1994 Oslo peace deal, had been sent to the members of the Quartet — the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on the meeting.

“Our Jordanian hosts asked us to promise total discretion on the content of the discussions before we started these meetings. We are, for our part, respecting that commitment,” he said.

The meeting on Saturday was the fourth time Erakat and Molcho have held talks on the resumption of negotiations under the auspices of the Quartet, discussions that do not appear to have yielded any agreement.

The Palestinians say Israel must halt settlement activity before they will engage in direct talks, but Israel says it wants talks without preconditions.

The Quartet said on October 26 it would seek comprehensive proposals on “territory and security” from both sides within three months, and the Palestinians say they submitted their documents before the January 26 deadline.

They have warned that without an Israeli settlement freeze by January 26, they will not continue the exploratory talks.

But Israel says it considers the three-month period to have started with the beginning of the exploratory talks on January 3, putting the deadline at April 3. AGENCIES

Yemen’s Saleh says to leave for treatment in United States

DUBAI: Yemen’s outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Sunday he would leave for medical treatment in the United States and return to continue leading the ruling party, but gave no indication of when he would leave the troubled country.

A source close to Saleh said he was set to leave within the next few hours for the United States via neighboring Oman.

“God willing, I will leave for treatment in the United States and I will return to Sanaa as head of the General People’s Congress party,” Saleh was quoted by the state news agency Saba as telling a meeting with party officials.

Saleh, who was granted immunity from prosecution under a law passed by parliament on Saturday, also asked Yemenis to forgive him for mistakes made during his rule.

“I ask for pardon from all Yemeni men and women for any shortcoming that occurred during my 33-year rule and I ask forgiveness and offer my apologies to all Yemeni men and women,” he said. “Now we must concentrate on our martyrs and injured.”

Thousands of Yemenis protested on Sunday against Saleh’s immunity and demanded he be put on trial for offences they say he committed during his rule.

Saleh was granted immunity as part of measures to persuade him to resign after a year of protests against him which have ground the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation to a halt.

Demonstrators accuse security forces controlled by Saleh and his aides of killing hundreds. Many fear some of his followers will cling to power even once Saleh is gone.

At the capital’s airport, dozens of members of Yemen’s airforce held a sit-in on the runway to demand the resignation of their commander, Saleh’s half-brother, accusing him of corruption. AGENCIES

PM Gilani warns U.S. against unilateral military action

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani warned Washington on Tuesday that continued accusations of playing a double game in the war on militancy only risked fanning anti-Americanism in his country.  

Speaking in an interview with Reuters, Gilani also said any unilateral military action by the United States to hunt down militants of the Haqqani network inside Pakistan would be a violation of his country’s sovereignty.

“The negative messaging, naturally that is disturbing my people,” Gilani said in the interview.

“If there is messaging that is not appropriate to our friendship, then naturally it is extremely difficult to convince my public. Therefore they should be sending positive messages.”

Asked how Islamabad would respond if there was a unilateral military operation by the United States inside Pakistan to go after the Haqqanis, Gilani responded: “We are a sovereign country. How can they come and raid in our country?”

He said Pakistan had conveyed to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that such unilateral action “will not be acceptable to Pakistan”.  AGENCIES

US hikers will not be released: Iran

Press TV on Wednesday said two Americans arrested two years ago while hiking in Iran will not be released. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were sentenced in Iran last month to eight years in prison.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told U.S. media on Tuesday (September 13) that they would be freed “in a couple of days,” in what he called a humanitarian gesture shortly before he travels to the United Nations. The judiciary on Wednesday said Bauer and Fattal s release on bail was under review.

The lawyer for the two Americans said on Tuesday they would be released on 500,000 U.S. Dollars (USD) bail each.

The pair were arrested in July 2009 near Iran s border with Iraq, where they say they were hiking in the mountains as tourists, along with a third American, Sarah Shourd.

Washington has denied they were spies. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was encouraged by Ahmadinejad s remarks.

Disappearances in Pakistan rose after 9/11: Amnesty International

Amnesty International has called on Pakistan s government to end what it calls the growing practice of disappearances enforced by the state.

In an August 29 petition on its website, the human rights group alleged the disappearances have increased dramatically since Pakistan joined the American war on militancy after the
Sept. 11, 2001 airliner attacks on the United States.

Those detained – including activists, journalists and students – are sometimes found dead, with signs of torture. Thousands may have fallen victim to the practice, Amnesty said.

“The Prime Minister of Pakistan who controls the security agencies needs to urgently step in to address this human rights situation,” Amnesty said on its website.

Pakistan s army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said: “There has been no military operation conducted in Baluchistan since 2008. There is infighting going on between various militant groups, and they are kidnapping and killing each other”.

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