Birth Pangs of Matthew 24, Dec 30 2006

[Shammu]

Clinics can create babies with genetic defects on demand — yes, demand
By Lindsey Tanner
The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.22.2006

The power to create "perfect" designer babies looms over the world of prenatal testing.

But what if doctors started doing the opposite?

Creating made-to-order babies with genetic defects would seem an ethical minefield, but to some parents with disabilities — say, deafness or dwarfism — it just means making babies like them.

And a recent survey of U.S. clinics that offer embryo screening suggests it's already happening.

Three percent, or 4 clinics surveyed, said they have provided the costly, complicated procedure to help families create children with a disability.

Some doctors have denounced the practice, others question whether it's true. Blogs are abuzz with the news, with armchair critics saying the phenomenon, if real, is taking the concept of designer babies way too far.

"Old fear: designer babies. New fear: deformer babies," the online magazine Slate wrote, calling it "the deliberate crippling of children."

But the survey also has led to a debate about the definition of "normal" and inspires a glimpse into deaf and dwarf cultures where many people do not consider themselves disabled.

Cara Reynolds of Collings-wood, N.J., who considered embryo screening but now plans to adopt a dwarf baby, is outraged by the criticism.

"You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who's going to look like me," Reynolds said. "It's just unbelievably presumptuous and they're playing God."

Embryo screening, formally called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, is done with in vitro fertilization, when eggs and sperm are mixed in a lab dish and then implanted into the womb. Before implantation, a cell from a days-old embryo is removed to allow doctors to examine it for genetic defects.

The entire procedure can cost more than $15,000 per try.

The survey asked 415 clinics to participate; 190 responded and 137 said they have provided embryo screening. The most common reason was to detect and discard embryos with abnormalities involving a missing or extra chromosome, which can result in miscarriage or severe and usually fatal birth defects.

The survey is being published in an upcoming print edition of the medical journal Fertility and Sterility. It appeared in the online edition in September. Clinics were asked many questions about embryo screening, including whether they'd provided it to families "seeking to select an embryo for the presence of a disability."

"We asked the question because this is an issue that has been raised primarily by bioethicists as something that could happen," said Susannah Baruch of Johns Hopkins University's Genetics and Public Policy Center.

"It's sparking a lot of conversations," she said. "These are difficult issues for everybody."

While it's technologically possible, whether any deaf or dwarf babies have been born as a result of screening is uncertain. The survey didn't ask. Participating clinics were promised anonymity, and seven major screening programs contacted by The Associated Press all said they had never been asked to use the procedure for that purpose.

Screening pioneer Dr. Mark Hughes, who runs a Detroit laboratory that does the screening for many fertility programs nationwide, said he hadn't heard of the technology being used to select an abnormal embryo until the survey.

"It's total nonsense," Hughes said. "It couldn't possibly be 3 percent of the clinics" doing screening for this purpose "because we work with them all."

He said he wouldn't do the procedure if asked.

"To create a child with a disability because a parent wanted such a thing ... where would you draw the line?" Hughes wondered.

"It's just unethical and inappropriate, because the purpose of medicine is to diagnose and treat and hopefully cure disease," he said.

For the same reasons, Yury Verlinsky, another genetic-screening pioneer and director of Chicago's Reproductive Genetics Institute, said he also would shun those requests.

Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, whose Fertility Institutes clinics in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Guadalajara, Mexico, screen embryos for sex selection, said he'd likely consult ethicists if he were ever asked to help couples select a deaf or dwarf baby.

"Clearly it crosses some bounds," he said.

He'd get a provocative response from University of Minnesota bioethicist Jeffrey Kahn.

"It's an ethically challenging question and certainly it will trouble people, but I think there are good, thoughtful reasons why people who are deaf or ... dwarves could say, 'I want a child like me,' " Kahn said.

The traits are, for some, an important part of their cultural identity.

"If people in a shared culture all have the common clinical defect, then it's maybe not a defect in the traditional sense," Kahn said.

More challenging would be if normal-sized parents said they wanted a dwarf child, and yet, he added, "Why is that different from dwarf parents saying, 'We want only an average-size child?' "

Clinics can create babies with genetic defects on demand — yes, demand

[Shammu]

Hundreds Missing, Feared Dead After Ferry Sinks in Indonesia

Saturday , December 30, 2006

Click here to find out more!

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Navy ships scoured the rough Java Sea Sunday in search of survivors from a ferry that sank in a storm off central Indonesia, leaving more than 500 people missing, officials said.

More than a day after the accident, 109 survivors had been found, Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, late Saturday.

The Senopati Nusantara had been on a 48-hour trip to Java from Borneo island when 5-meter (15-foot) waves crashed over the deck, said Slamet Bustam, an official at Semarang port, the ferry's destination.

It is believed to have had 638 people on board, Radjasa said. Witnesses reported seeing lifeboats with more survivors and most people had donned life jackets. No bodies had been recovered.

Indonesia's tropical waters are between 20 degrees Centigrade and 32 degrees centigrade (72 Fahrenheit and 84 Fahrenheit). People have been known to survive days at sea.

Survivors said the boat — pounded by heavy waves for more than 10 hours — capsized late Friday night.

"It suddenly veered to one side, and the TV and fridges fell over," Irfan Setiawan said on Metro TV.

He said a piece of debris hit him and he sank with the ship, but fought his way to the surface and got into a lifeboat.

Others clung on to pieces of wood or swam to nearby islands.

Another survivor, Budi Susilo, said he saw three people drown after losing their grip on an overturned raft.

"We told them to hold on, but they ran out of energy," he told reporters.

Four naval ships, several other vessels and at least two aircraft have been combing the area from where the ship had last radio contact with port authorities, but poor visibility and stormy seas hindered their effort.

Officials said the car ferry, built in Japan in 1990, had a capacity of 850 passengers and had been in good condition.

They said bad weather likely caused the accident.

"We all just prayed as the waves got higher," said passenger Cholid, who survived by clinging to wooden planks.

"I was going upstairs to try to help my daughter, but the ship suddenly broke up and I was thrown out. I lost her," said Cholid, who gave a single name.

Ferries are a main mode of transportation in Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands with 220 million people. Overcrowding and poorly enforced safety standards mean accidents are common.

Hundreds Missing, Feared Dead After Ferry Sinks in Indonesia

[Shammu]

Azeri police raid Christian group
UPI

December 28, 2006

BAKU --  Police in the Azeri capital, Baku, raided a meeting by Jehovah's Witnesses on Christmas Eve, Forum 18 News Service has reported.

During the raid, property was confiscated, money was allegedly stolen by police, congregation members were detained and at least two members were beaten up, with six foreign attendees (three of whom grew up in Azerbaijan) now facing deportation.

A member of the Jehovah's Witnesses group that was targeted was quoted as saying that the authorities had "used the holiday season, when foreign representations obviously have only minimum staff, to make this attack."

In a repeated pattern targeting religious minorities, a local TV station which encourages religious intolerance was present during the police raid.

Azeri police raid Christian group

[Shammu]

  Iran Grants Iraq $1 bln Loan

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran announced here on Friday that it would grant a one-billion-dollar loan to Iraq.
   

According to a report by the Iranian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, the loan paid in the form of credit is a further measure by Iran to help reconstruction of Iraq.

Speaking in a meeting with Iraq's Minister of Finance Bayan Jabr, Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh Ja'fari said the loan is aimed at assisting the Iraqi government with the reconstruction of that country in areas of mutual interest.

"The Iraqi side has undertaken to use Iranian experts and contractors for the execution of that country's infrastructural projects which should be specified through earlier coordination with Iran," he said.

For his part, the Iraqi finance minister reminded that the agreement followed the rather lengthy negotiations between the two countries' heads of state, and added, "No doubt, the two sides' negotiations would not have reached a conclusion if it were not for the strong support of the Iranian and Iraqi senior officials."

He said that experts in his ministry had predicted mutual agreement on the grant of loan by the Iranian government but not in the near future, adding, "And we are truly happy to see that the agreement has been signed by the two countries only a few days after the budget bill was introduced to the Iraqi parliament."

Jabr appreciated the Iranian side for its sincere cooperation and industrious efforts in this regard.

He also pointed out that according to the agreement, the credit would used for the construction and completion of power plants, roads, hospitals, schools, and some other infrastructural possibilities.

The Iraqi finance minister and his accompanying entourage arrived here in Tehran on Monday and attended talks with Iran's first Vice-President, Cooperation Minister and Foreign Minister prior to the meeting with Danesh Ja'fari.

Earlier during a visit to Tehran by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Iran announced that it would give the Baghdad government a $1 billion line of credit.

The financial arrangements were revealed on the third and final day of Talabani's meetings here with Iran's political elite, including the Iranian President.

At the meeting, Ahmadinejad made clear that Iran would support Iraq's government in setting a timetable for US troops to leave the country.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that in addition to the line of credit, Ahmadinejad and Talabani had signed "hundreds of millions of dollars" worth of no-bid contracts and trade pacts for Iraqi reconstruction. Under the agreements, Iran will help rebuild schools, hospitals, pipelines and power plants.

Iran's gestures underscored its deep religious bond with its Shiite-majority neighbor but also what some believe is its desire to displace the US as a powerbroker in Iraq. They were announced as possible tensions surfaced in the US-Iraq relationship when a summit between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush in Amman was postponed by a day.

Ahmadinejad had invited Talabani to Tehran to explore possible ways to bring calm to Iraq.

Following the meeting, Talabani said in a press conference that the two countries "had complete agreement" in three days of talks. Talabani, who has had good relations over the years with both Iranian and US leaders, has been portrayed as pivotal in finding support for Iraq from Iran, a longtime US adversary.

"We can clearly say that the trip has been 100 percent successful," Talabani said. "And I would like to give the Iraqi nation the good news that the fruitful result of this trip will soon be seen by them."

Talabani met with top ministers in the government and the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, and he indicated that the Iranian elite are well informed of the threat that the violence has posed to the region.

Ahmadinejad was specific in his statement about how he regarded the daily car bombs and mortar attacks that have nearly paralyzed Iraq and have been blamed largely on feuding Shiite and Sunni Muslim factions.

"Terrorist acts are the most shameful acts you can do," Ahmadinejad said. "This is not a help to the Iraqi nation."

Iran Grants Iraq $1 billion Loan

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‘North Can Make 6-7 Nuke Bombs’
   

By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

North Korea's strengthened nuclear and conventional weapons capabilities are posing a ``grave threat'' to security in Northeast Asia as well as on the Korean Peninsula, according to the 2006 Defense White Paper published Friday.

The biennial report, however, failed to label North Korea as the country's ``main enemy,'' reflecting Seoul's continued efforts to warm up its relations with the communist regime.

``Considering the seriousness of threats from (North Korea's) nuclear test and weapons of mass destruction, the government described the North's military strength as a grave threat in this year's edition,'' Maj. Gen. Jung Seung-jo of the Defense Ministry's policy planning bureau said in a briefing.

The report said Pyongyang may possess some 40 to 50kg of plutonium, enough to make six to seven nuclear bombs. It said the communist regime seemed to have obtained an additional 30kg of plutonium between 2003 and 2005 by reprocessing spent fuel rods at nuclear facilities in Yongbyon.

Pyongyang is believed to have produced one or two nuclear weapons with about 10 to 14kg of weapons-grade plutonium that it extracted before expelling nuclear inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in May 1992.

The report, however, did not describe the North as a full-fledged nuclear power.

The North's nuclear test in October posed new threats to the South, but the threats were not as serious as those from a nuclear state, said Jung.

``The government sees the test as a partial success,'' he said. ``We believe (the device used in the test) is less powerful than a normal nuclear weapon and little more powerful than a conventional nuclear bomb.''

The paper indicated that North Korea increased the number of multiple rocket launchers (MLR) with a range of 20 kilometers and river-crossing equipment, such as S-type floating bridges.

North Korea has deployed approximately 70 percent of its ground forces south of the Pyongyang-Wonsan line to wage a surprise attack without the need for any redeployment in case of an emergency, it said.

The North's ground forces comprise 19 corps-level units including nine regular corps, four mechanized corps, one tank corps, one artillery corps, the Pyongyang Defense Command and the Light Infantry Instruction Guidance Bureau.

Pyongyang has about 3,700 tanks, 2,100 armored vehicles, 4,800 MLRs, 8,500 (170mm) self-propelled artillery pieces, and 3,100 pieces of river-crossing equipment such as the S-type floating bridges, the paper said.

The North's air and naval capabilities, however, have decreased a little because of the decommissioning of aging weapons systems, it added. The North lost about 30 combat aircraft, including five through crashes, and 170 war vessels, which have become patrol ships.

The North Korean Navy consists of two fleet commands in the East and West Seas as well as 12 squadrons and two maritime sniper brigades under the control of the Navy Command. Currently, about 60 percent of the North's warships and submarines remain deployed in forward bases, according to the paper.

The North's Navy has about 60 submarines, 420 surface ships, 260 landing vessels and 60 others.

The North Korean Air Force has deployed about 40 percent of its 820 fighters in forward bases, the paper said. It has 30 bombers and surveillance aircraft and 510 support aircraft, including AN-2s, and 310 helicopters.

Besides the development of medium and long-range missiles, including the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska, Pyongyang is believed to have approximately 2,500 to 5,000 tons of toxic agents such as nerve, blister, blood and vomiting agents as well as tear gas.

The North is suspected of being able to independently cultivate and produce such biological weapons as the bacteria of anthrax, smallpox and cholera, it said.

An English version of the 2006 edition will be published in March next year, ministry officials said. A complete version of the paper is available on the minstry's Web site

‘North Can Make 6-7 Nuke Bombs’

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 Chavez to shut down opposition TV
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will not renew the licence for the country's second largest TV channel which he says expires in March 2007.

In an address to troops, Mr Chavez said he would not tolerate media outlets working towards a coup against him.

Radio Caracas Television, which is aligned with the opposition, supported a strike against Mr Chavez in 2003.

But the TV's head said there must be some mistake as its licence was not up for renewal in the near future.

Marcel Granier also vowed to fight against the president's plans in Venezuela's courts and on the international stage.

The BBC's Greg Morsbach in Caracas says Mr Chavez has repeatedly threatened to take the TV off the air but has never given a date.

There will be no new operating licence for this coupist TV channel - the measure has been drafted so go turn off the equipment

The move could help silence some of his critics in the media who have been a thorn in his side for several years, he says.

Mr Chavez, who was returned to power by a wide margin on 3 December, said Mr Granier was mistaken in believing "that concession is eternal".

"It runs out in March. So it's better that you go and prepare your suitcase and look around for what you're going to do in March," he said during a televised speech to soldiers at a military academy in Caracas.

"There will be no new operating licence for this coupist TV channel called RCTV. The operating licence is over... So go and turn off the equipment," Mr Chavez said.

'Violation of freedom'

Mr Chavez said the channel was "at the service of coups against the people, against the nation, against national independence, against the dignity of the republic".

The channel is among a number of private TV and radio networks that in recent years have strongly criticized Mr Chavez' government and favoured the opposition.

Many media outlets, including RCTV, supported a bungled coup in 2002 and a devastating general strike in 2003 that failed to unseat the president.

The press freedom campaign group, Reporters Without Borders, said the proposed move would be a grave violation of freedom of expression in Venezuela.

RCTV is one of the country's oldest channels and began broadcasting in 1953.

Chavez to shut down opposition TV

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The Muslims Are Coming!

By Michael Scott Moore and Jochen-Martin Gutsch in Berlin

A citizens' group in Berlin turned out this week for a candlelight vigil to protest plans for a new mosque in their neighborhood. It will be the first to be built in the former East Berlin, where almost no Muslims live -- but no one can quite explain why it shouldn't be there.

At the end of a rundown suburban street lined with bare trees and flaking apartment facades, a small group of people hold candles or colored Glo-sticks. A few hold signs -- "Democracy yes! Caliphate no!" -- and some carry German flags.

"The mosque is supposed to go up right here," says Günter Bronner, a blustery white-haired man with glasses pushed up on his forehead who's lived in the neighborhood for 42 years. He points to a drab piece of land at the end of the street where a defunct sauerkraut factory stands. "They want to have a minaret with a muezzin who gives the call to prayer five times a day. Can you imagine? Five times a day over our rooftops."

Officials gave the go-ahead last Friday for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association to build a new mosque in Heinersdorf, an eastern neighborhood of Berlin where very few Muslims live. It will be the first mosque on the once-Communist eastern side of the city, and an organization of locals turned out Wednesday to protest. "It was pretty brazen to hand this (approval) to us as a Christmas present," quipped Joachim Swietlik, head of the citizens' group, who claims that 90 percent of Heinersdorf doesn't want the mosque.

The row highlights a Europe-wide debate about the integration of Muslims, ranging from calls for improved schooling and language teaching and tougher tests for immigrants to a discussion about whether veils and headscarves hinder the integration of Muslim women.

Ahmadiyya initially presented plans for the mosque to district officials in the spring of 2005, and at the time there was no controversy. But Swietlik as well as others complain they know very little about the group, which currently worships in a single-family house in Reinickendorf, a neighboring district.

"They should build a mosque where their community is based," said Swietlik, a 42-year-old auto glazier who was raised in the former East Germany. "Or wherever a lot of Muslims live -- Kreuzberg, Wedding," he added, referring to the districts where many Turks who came to West Berlin under guest worker programs during the 1960s settled and had kids.

Ahmadis, though, aren't Turkish, and may not be welcome in Kreuzberg or Wedding. They're a largely Pakistani sect of Muslims established in India in 1889 by a man called Mirsa Ghulam Ahmed. Strict orthodox Islamic teaching sees Mohammed as the last prophet of God, and the Ahmadis agree -- but they also recognize "shadow prophets," less important messengers of God, and Ahmed counts as one of these. This wrinkle in their beliefs separates them from many other Muslims. The Pakistani government even declared them "not Muslim" in 1974, and in 1975 Ahmadiyya was kicked out of the Saudi Arabian-led Muslim World League.

KFC and Allah

The mosque in Heinersdorf is meant to be two stories high, with a 12-meter (40-foot) minaret, on the half-vacant sauerkraut factory site. The smell of frying oil wafts over the property from a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken. Ahmadiyya admits it has no particular reason to build there besides the inexpensive land, but an Ahmadi mosque in Germany would not be unprecedented: There are 17 in the country already.

"In our experience, the protests stop as soon as we start to build the mosque," says the German head of Ahmadiyya, Abdullah Uwe Wagishauser, a 56-year-old former hippie from western Germany who converted to Islam in the 1970s. The group has no plans to oppose the protesters in Heinersdorf; in fact almost every mosque they've built has met with local protests and resistance. He says it's a classic case of not-in-my-backyard. "No one wants a mosque in their neighborhood," says Wagishauser.

The resistance in Heinersdorf, though, is unusually strong. The Pankow-Heinersdorf Citizens' Interest Group -- with 70 members -- managed to gather 6,000 signatures between the spring of 2006 and last Friday, when their attempt to ban the mosque formally failed. Their objections included traffic chaos and falling property prices, but the longest paragraph in the petition expresses concern about "an Islamic-Ahmadiyya parallel society, which would have the goal of overturning our liberal-democratic order."

A threat to democracy?

Ahmadiyya has about 30,000 members in Germany. The group isn't considered a problem by the government. Erhart Körting, who as Berlin's Senator of the Interior has to worry about terrorism, says Ahmadiyya is a "rather orthodox club," but not a threat to the German constitution. Ahmadiyya rejects violence, and not even the Citizens' Interest Group perceive the group as a terrorist threat.

"They're not armed, but they have to swear an oath to be missionaries," said Günter Bronner, the white-haired man at the vigil, growing overexcited. "We know about oaths of allegiance! We had those under Hitler!"

The imam of the 200-strong Ahmadiyya group in Berlin is a Pakistani-born man with German citizenship called Abdul Basit Tariq. He gives Friday prayers in German and spoke at Berlin's five-year commemoration of Sept. 11, 2001, at the invitation of William Timken, America's ambassador to Germany. He's heavy, tired-looking, and quite conservative. When his wife knocks to let him know about a call on his cell phone, he takes it from her hand, which pokes out from behind the frosted-glass kitchen door -- to keep a male interviewer in their home from laying eyes on her. He believes marriage is "God's will" and wants to protect his community from the easy morality of modern Europe as much as the Interest Group wants to keep Heinersdorf free of Ahmadiyya.

"We've tried to meet with representatives of the Ahmadiyya community," complains Swietlik. "But these meetings always bring up new questions."

He points out that 6,000 signatures on the petition represents a full 90 percent of Heinersdorf's 6,500 residents. "Which brings us to a point we just don't understand," he said. "Democracy is supposed to enforce the will of the people. That's the basic principle of democracy, right? And when 90 percent of the people in a district like Heinersdorf are against the building of a mosque, that's a pretty clear statement. We don't understand why politicians don't line up behind us."

Gabi Groth, a lean 49-year-old saleswoman with brown hair and wire-frame glasses who turned out for the candlelight vigil, added, "We Heinersdorfers are afraid that radicals from the right and left will come here and make an issue out of this mosque."

She may have been thinking of a meeting in March 2006, when Ahmadiyya held an information session in a Heinersdorf school gymnasium. Fifteen-hundred locals turned up, too many for everyone to find a seat -- which made the atmosphere tense even before the meeting was crashed by members of the German far right. Police broke things up before the information session could start and led Ahmadiyya representatives out under special protection. Someone hollered, "Wir sind das Volk!" ("We are the people") -- an anti-Communist phrase from the old East Germany -- and a lot of people in the gym took up the chant.

"We can do as many information sessions as we want," says Wagishauser, the German head of Ahmadiyya, with resignation. "I can't even remember how much we've explained and discussed in all the places where we've wanted to build mosques. In the end it's not much use. Communism used to be the great threat; now it's Islam. It's just the conflict of our time."

The Muslims Are Coming!

[Shammu]

Hundreds of Somalis riot against Ethiopian soldiers
Masked gunmen appear on streets for the first time, which could be a sign of insurgency

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
New York Times

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Anti-Ethiopia riots erupted Friday in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, while masked gunmen took to the streets for the first time, a day after Ethiopian-backed troops captured the city from Islamist forces.

Hundreds of Somalis flooded into bullet-pocked boulevards to hurl rocks at the Ethiopian soldiers, set tires on fire and shout anti-Ethiopian slogans.

"Get out of our country!" they yelled. "We hate you, Ethiopians!"

In northern Mogadishu, residents said men with scarves over their faces and assault rifles in their hands lurked on street corners. Mogadishu has plenty of gunmen, of every age and every clan, but gunmen hiding their identity is something new and may be a sign of a developing insurgency.

"We're going to turn this place into another Iraq," said Abdullahi Hashi, a construction worker who said he was part of a new underground movement to fight the Ethiopians.

Many analysts have said that if the Ethiopian troops protecting the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia linger in the country too long and their intervention turns into a full-scale occupation, it will uncork a long and nasty guerilla war.

At the same time, it seems that many Somalis appreciate the presence of the Ethiopians for helping to bring some stability.

Just a few hours after the protests, thousands of residents came out to warmly greet Ali Mohammed Gedi, the prime minister of the transitional government and one of the leaders who called in the Ethiopian muscle.

Many people in Mogadishu are still absorbing the power shift that occurred this week, when the Islamists who once ruled much of the country quickly collapsed under Ethiopia's overwhelming force, enabling the transitional government to suddenly take control.

Islamist leaders said Friday that they were not simply giving up. While most of their troops have abandoned the cause — shedding their uniforms and shaving their beards — the Islamist leadership said it was regrouping in Kismayo, a city along Somalia's southern coast.

Not far from Kismayo is a lightly populated, forested area that Western intelligence officers said has served as a terrorist hideout for many years.

"We will not leave Somalia," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a top Islamist leader, told the Associated Press on Friday. "We will not run away from our enemies. We will never depart from Somalia. We will stay in our homeland."

The Islamists uttered vows to fight to the death for Mogadishu, their former stronghold. But when thousands of Ethiopian fighters and troops from the government reached the city's outskirts on Wednesday, the Islamists fled and the city fell the next morning.

Ethiopian officials have justified the intervention in Somalia by saying that the Islamist were extremists who had their eyes on part of Ethiopia, and said their troops would remain on Somali soil until that threat is wiped out.

The Ethiopian and transitional government troops seem to be focused on Mogadishu, but many Somalis suspect that once that city is stabilized, the bulk of the Ethiopian forces will shift to Kismayo.

Gedi, meanwhile, is getting to work. He announced Friday that the transitional government was imposing martial law for the next three months. He asked Mogadishu's various clan militias to turn in their weapons or face the consequences.

Hundreds of Somalis riot against Ethiopian soldiers

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Bomb in Madrid, ETA takes responsibility

Published:    12.30.06, 11:28

A car bomb exploded in a parking lot at Madrid's Barajas airport on Saturday.  A caller claiming to be a member of Basque ETA separatist organization said the group had planted the bomb, according to Spanish state radio.

State radio said Basque media were quoting police sources as saying that a call had been received from ETA linked to the bomb, which if confirmed as the work of the group would break a ceasefire it declared in March.

Bomb in Madrid, ETA takes responsibility

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Youths in east J'lem hang Haniyeh pictures on al-Aqsa mosque

Published:    12.30.06, 11:31

Jerusalem police forces detained a Waqf guard and four youths, residents of east Jerusalem, for hanging two giant pictures of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a Hamas flag on the al-Aqsa mosque. (Efrat Weiss)

Youths in east J'lem hang Haniyeh pictures on al-Aqsa mosque

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to head to Gaza

Published:    12.30.06, 14:10

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will head to the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon in his first visit to the tumultuous region since a deadly outbreak of factional violence, Palestinian officials said.

Abbas, who spends most of his time at his West Bank headquarters, was expected to arrive in Gaza about 3 p.m. The purpose of his visit was not immediately announced.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to head to Gaza

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Financial spat will not torpedo antimissile systems for El Al jets
By Zohar Blumenkrantz, Haaretz Correspondent

A spat over NIS 20 million between the Finance and Transportation Ministries, on the one side, and El Al, on the other, has been bogging down a project to install antimissile systems to protect the airline's jets from shoulder-launched missiles.

But after a discussion at the Prime Minister's Office, TheMarker learned Thursday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the ministries to pay first. Only afterwards will they be free to do what it takes to get El Al to fulfill its obligations, Olmert told them.

If no agreement can be reached with El Al within a month, the state will foot the advance payment, so that the systems installation can proceed. Later, the Finance and Transportation Ministries will do what they can to get El Al to pay its part.

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The state has thus far invested NIS 46 million in the system, which has so far only been installed on one El Al plane. Another five jet airliners are in line to be equipped as well.

"Don't fold to El Al's demands too fast," Olmert said at the meeting. "You have to hold speedy negotiations with them. I know that a lot of people choose to fly El Al because of its reputation for security. People know it's safer to fly El Al.?

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Shin Bet and the other security services.

The Finance and Transportation Ministries claim that El Al undertook to share the costs under its privatization agreement. But El Al is demanding various commitments from the state in return, and claims that it does not have the means to pay for the project.

Among other things, El Al wants the state compensate it for the added weight the systems would put on its planes, as it claims that this would force it to reduce the passenger load on each flight and lose income.

Moreover, it said, there is the cost of dismantling the system when El Al sells its jets in the future.

El Al used to belong to the state, but since 2004, it has belonged to the Borovich family.

Financial spat will not torpedo antimissile systems for El Al jets

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Temple Mount closed to visitors during Eid al-Adha

Published:    12.30.06, 19:10

The police decided to close the Temple Mount to visitors during the three days of the Eid al-Adha holiday. The Temple Mount will reopen to visitors on Tuesday.

Temple Mount closed to visitors during Eid al-Adha

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Kassams continue to fall on Negev

Nine Kassam rockets were fired at the western Negev over the weekend causing light damages to buildings in Gaza-belt communities. No one was injured in any of the attacks. One of the Kassams landed in Palestinian territory.

The Kassams, IDF sources said, were fired without military intervention despite Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision last week to allow the Southern Command to open fire at rocket cells. Alongside the new operational orders, Olmert decided however to retain the Israeli policy of restraint in face of continued Palestinian violations of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

IDF sources explained that despite the orders by Olmert, the actual targeting of Kassam cells was very difficult and was not automatic. "Just because we have the orders does not mean that we are able to thwart the attacks," explained an officer in the Southern Command.

The officer said that IDF soldiers rarely succeeded in thwarting Kassam attacks before the rockets were fired and mostly had the opportunity to target the terrorists after the launching. "This is a very difficult process that requires advanced technological means and perfect coordination between IDF branches," he said.

In the past, before the "policy of restraint", the IDF was allowed to fire artillery shells at Kassam launch sites in the northern Gaza Strip, from where the targets are fired at Sderot. The IDF is currently not allowed to fire artillery shells and therefore Palestinian terrorists have total freedom of movement inside Palestinian villages in the area.

One of the rockets fired Friday, landed near Sderot, while another five hit the western Negev. No one was wounded and no damage was reported. Meanwhile Saturday, an Israeli car was lightly damaged after it was hit by a Molotov cocktail near Kalikilya. No one was injured in the attack.

Kassams continue to fall on Negev

[Shammu]

Palestinians mourn for Saddam
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST    Dec. 30, 2006

The execution of Saddam Hussein sent many Palestinians into deep mourning Saturday as they struggled to come to terms with the demise of perhaps their most steadfast ally.

Unlike much of the rest of the world, where Saddam was viewed as a brutal dictator who oppressed his people and started regional wars, in the West Bank and Gaza he was seen as a generous benefactor unafraid to fight for the Palestinian cause, even to the end.

In Israel, where Saddam was seen as a bitter enemy, there was little sadness. But Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh expressed concerns about Iraq's path in the post-Saddam era.

Sneh told Israel Radio that Israel was concerned about the strengthening of Iranian influence in the Shi'ite sections of southern Iraq and also in the central government. Iraq had also become a regional "power station" for terror that could spread chaos throughout the Middle East, he said.
"We have to be worried about what is going to happen now," he said.

Saddam's final words were reportedly, "Palestine is Arab."

"We heard of his martyrdom, and I swear to God we were deeply shaken from within," said Khadejeh Ahmad from the Qadora refugee camp in the West Bank. "Nobody was as supportive or stood with the Palestinians as he did."

During the first Gulf War in 1991, the Palestinians cheered Saddam's missile attacks on Israel, chanting "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," as the Scud missiles flew overhead.

He further endeared himself to the Palestinians during the recent uprising with Israel by giving US$25,000 to the family of each suicide bomber and US$10,000 for each Palestinian killed in fighting. The stipends amounted to an estimated US$35 million.

Saddam's support for the Palestinians, whose cause is deeply popular with Arabs throughout the Middle East, was at least partially aimed at gaining widespread support throughout the Arab world.

"Saddam was a person who had the ability to say, 'No' in the face of a great country," said Hosni al Ejel, 46, from the al Amari refugee camp near Ramallah.

"He wanted the Palestinian people to have a state and a government and to be united. But God supports us, and we pray to God to punish those who did this," said Ghanem Mezel, 72, from the town of Saeer in the southern West Bank.

Others were happy to hear Saddam's final words, knowing that his support for them remained unshakable until the end.

Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bethlehem opened a "house of condolences" where people can gather to mourn Saddam. The organizers hung Iraqi flags, pictures of Saddam and broadcast Iraqi revolutionary songs.

Mohammed Barghouti, the minister of labor in the Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet, said that although his Islamic group was often at odds with the secular Saddam, his execution was wrong.
"The Palestinians had bonded with Iraqis in brotherhood," he said.

Palestinians mourn for Saddam