What is happening in the world June 1 - 7 2010!!

[Shammu]

Turkey has embraced Iran, Hamas
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER AND JPOST.COM STAFF
06/04/2010 23:36

Oren responds to fierce criticism of Israel by "friend in the past."

A top Israel envoy criticized Turkey’s outreach to terror groups Friday, hours after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying Hamas is not a terrorist organization.

“Turkey has embraced the leaders of Iran and Hamas, all of whom called for Israel’s destruction,” declared Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren.

“Our policy has not changed but Turkey’s policy has changed, very much, over the last few years,” he said. “Under a different government with an Islamic orientation, Turkey has turned away from the West.”

But Oren, speaking on a conference call organized by The Israel Project, held out hope for reconciliation. “We certainly do not have any desire in any further deterioration in our relations with the Turks,” he noted. “It’s an important Middle Eastern power. It has been a friend in the past.”

Earlier Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared at a rally in the Turkish province of Konya that Hamas was not a resistance movement.

Erdogan said Hamas, the legitimate winner of the Palestinian elections, was fighting for its land. "You are always talking about democracy. You’ll never let Hamas rule. What kind of democracy is this?” he was quoted as saying by Turkish daily Hurriyet, apparently addressing the Israeli leadership.


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“I do not think that Hamas is a terrorist organization," Erdogan was quoted as saying. "They are Palestinians in resistance, fighting for their own land."

The Turkish leader went on to echo the Tuesday speech in which he called Israel's boarding of the Gaza flotilla "a massacre." In his address Friday, he said the Ten Commandments should have deterred the soldiers from killing the nine passengers who died on board the ship. “If you do not understand it in Turkish I will say it in English: You shall not kill,” he reportedly said - repeating the phrase in Hebrew.

“They even slaughtered 19-year-old Furkan. They did not even care for the babies in the cradle,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.

Nineteen-year-old Furkan Dogan was the youngest of the nine activists killed in the raid. His funeral Friday in his family's hometown in Kayseri in central Turkey drew 10,000 people, some chanting, "Down with Israel."

"Neither I nor his mother or brother have any grief," his father, Ahmet Dogan, told the Associated Press as he arranged flowers on his son's coffin before prayers started. "We believe he became a martyr and God accepts martyrs to paradise."

In his speech, Erdogan also slammed Turkish media reports which were critical of his party's support of Hamas, saying the "columnists" had a slanted view of the events.

Earlier on Friday, Turkey's deputy prime minister said his country would work to reduce its military and economic cooperation with Israel. Existing contracts, he said, would be reviewed and reworked or canceled.

Turkey has embraced Iran, Hamas

[Shammu]

White House correspondent: Jews get out of Palestine
By JPOST.COM STAFF
06/05/2010 21:35

 
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called for the dismissal of veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas on Saturday after she said Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland.

"She should lose her job over this," Fleischer wrote in an email. "As someone who is Jewish, and as someone who worked with her and used to like her, I find this appalling."

White House correspondent: Jews get out of Palestine

[Shammu]

Obama: Time to move forward
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND JTA
04/06/2010    
US president says ME impasse must be broken - with Turkey's help.
 
The fatal raid on the aid ship trying to break the blockade on Gaza was "a tragic situation" - but it's time to move forward, US President Barack Obama said in an interview conducted late Thursday with Larry King.

"We are calling for an effective investigation of everything that happened. I think the Israelis are going to agree to that - an investigation of international standards - because they recognize that this can't be good for Israel's long-term security," Obama said.

Obama: Time to move forward 

[Shammu]

Sub attack was near US-SKorea drill
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jun 5, 2:11 pm ET

WASHINGTON – On the night a torpedo-armed North Korean submarine allegedly sank a South Korean patrol ship, the U.S. and South Korea were engaged in joint anti-submarine warfare exercises just 75 miles away, military officials told The Associated Press.

The sinking of the Cheonan was the worst South Korean military disaster since the 1950-53 Korean War. It showed that even impoverished nations such as North Korea can inflict heavy casualties on far better equipped and trained forces, including those backed by U.S. military might.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said plans for more joint U.S.-South Korea anti-submarine exercises, announced after Cheonan went down, are on hold awaiting U.N. action on the incident.

That's in part, Gates said Friday while in Asia, because of concerns about instigating another rash act by the North Koreans.

Two months after the sinking, U.S. officials for the first time disclosed details of the joint naval exercise held the same day as the attack on the Cheonan. Forty-six South Korean sailors died on the warship, which was not involved in the exercise. It was on routine patrol near disputed waters.

Military officials said the drill could not have detected the North Korean sub. Officials and defense experts said a minisub would have been difficult for even a nearby ship to track in shallow coastal waters.

What surprised experts was that a 130-ton minisub, without warning, could bring down a warship nine or 10 times its size, a power mismatch called asymmetric warfare.

"To us, stealth denotes the latest technology — billions of dollars in research and development in armaments," said John Park, a Korea expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace. "The North Korean version of stealth is old-school diesel-battery operated subs that evade modern detection methods."

An South Korean-led investigation into the sinking concluded last month that the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to the North. The North has denied any involvement.

Western experts say there are still questions about exactly what happened that night off Baengnyeong island.

One U.S. official said the sinking may not have been an intentional attack at all, but the act of a rogue commander, an accident or an exercise gone wrong. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.

A statement run by North Korean state media threatened war in response to any attempt to punish the North.

"Because of the South Korean war-loving, mad puppets and American invaders, the North and South relationship is being driven to a catastrophe," Choi Yong Rim, a high-ranking North Korean Party official, told a rally last week in the North Korean capital.

On Saturday, South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, tried to lower fears of an armed conflict. "There is absolutely no possibility of a full-scale war on the Korean peninsula," he said in Singapore.

U.S. and South Korean forces can easily monitor the movements of North Korean submarines when they operate on the surface.

Underwater, tracking submarines relies on active or passive sonar. Passive sonar uses microphones to listen for the sounds of sub operations. Active sonar emits sounds and listens for the echoes as they bounce off of submerged objects.

The Cheonan was operating its active sonar at the time, South Korean Navy officer Kim Young-kyu told The Associated Press. It wasn't clear why the ship didn't detect the sub.

After the blast, a South Korean commander dispatched a patrol boat to look for subs.

But officials said the vessel couldn't locate any, perhaps because of the weather, currents and rough conditions that chilly March night. Those factors, as well as the rocks and ledges in shallow water, can all affect the reliability of sonar, experts say.

Sonar technology has traditionally been designed to operate in deep waters and used for convoy protection rather than coastal defense.

"There's a lot of equipment that works pretty well against big submarines out in the deep ocean, but doesn't work so well against small submarines in shallow water," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.com, a military think tank. "We've got the same concern with Iran and the Persian Gulf."

North Korea is believed to have a fleet of 70 submarines, including some 50 that are small but still capable of carrying a torpedo.

The night before the Cheonan sank, two U.S. destroyers and other ships maneuvered and practiced tracking while a South Korean navy submarine played the role of target.

The U.S.-South Korean anti-sub exercise began at 10 p.m. March 25 and ended at 9 p.m. the next day, Army Col. Jane Crichton, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in Korea, told the AP. The exercise was terminated because of the blast aboard the Cheonan.

The submarine drill was part of annual U.S.-Korea war games called Key Resolve/Foal Eagle, which are intended to keep forces ready in the event another major war erupts on the Korean Peninsula.

Key Resolve was an 11-day computer simulation started early in the month. Foal Eagle followed at midmonth and included live firing by U.S. Marines, aerial attack drills, urban combat and other training as well as the anti-submarine warfare drill.

As the exercises got under way, Army Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of U.S. forces in Korea, said it was practice for "all the threats that North Korea can throw at us."

North Korea claimed the exercises amounted to attack preparations and demanded they be canceled.

Seoul has taken the sinking of the Cheonan as a wake-up call, and vowed to review and strengthen its defenses. The U.S. is planning two major naval exercises with South Korea in the coming weeks on top of the more than dozen of various types that it holds each year.

Sub attack was near US-SKorea drill

[Shammu]

Diplomacy may have little effect on defiant North Korea
1 hr 52 mins ago

SINGAPORE (AFP) – Diplomatic efforts to punish North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship may have little effect on a regime that "doesn't care" about the outside world or its own people, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told the BBC on Sunday.

North Korea's defiant stance posed a "dilemma" for world powers struggling to find effective measures against Pyongyang short of military action, Gates said, according to a transcript of his interview.

Gates said that "as long as the regime doesn't care what the outside world thinks of it, as long as it doesn't care about the well-being of its people, there's not a lot you can do about it, to be quite frank, unless you're willing at some point to use military force.

"And nobody wants to do that."

There was no desire to trigger the collapse of the North or "to see another war on the peninsula," he said.

"So how do you gain purchase with a regime that doesn't seem to care what happens to it?"

Citing the unpredictable nature of the regime, Gates said the North's motives in the alleged sinking of the South Korean ship remained unclear and raised the possibility of yet more "provocations."

"And one has to wonder what they were thinking and whether there are other provocations to come," he said.

Gates was speaking on the sidelines of the Shangri-La security forum in Singapore where he pledged full support to Seoul and called for international action to hold Pyongyang to account for the alleged torpedo attack on the Cheonan that killed 46 South Korean sailors.

But in the BBC interview, he sounded pessimistic about the prospects for pressuring the North as he described the communist regime's pattern of behavior.

He said North Korea often surprised its closest ally, China, with aggressive acts, and that Beijing's influence over the North should not overstated.

"There's no doubt in my mind that China has perhaps the greatest influence of any outside power on North Korea. But I think that's far from control," he said.

"And the frequency with which the North Korean regime surprises the Chinese I think illustrates that."

Gates' grim description of the challenges facing efforts to hold North Korea accountable came after Seoul appealed to the UN Security Security to take up the crisis.

Tensions have soared on the peninsula since a multinational probe last month concluded a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan, triggering trade reprisals from South Korea and threats of war from the communist North.

In a speech on Saturday in Singapore, Gates said the US administration was looking at "additional options" against the North, apart from UN diplomacy and planned military exercises with South Korea.

But he did not specify what the new measures might be.

Diplomacy may have little effect on defiant North Korea

[Shammu]

IDF: Mercenaries to blame for violence
By YAAKOV KATZ
06/04/2010 05:06

Army says some 50 well-trained passengers were recruited in Turkey.

The IDF has identified one of the passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara , which navy commandos commandeered earlier this week, as the ringleader of a group of mercenaries who were recruited from a city in northwest Turkey, according to new details from the military’s ongoing investigation of the Gaza flotilla.

The IDF identified a group of about 50 men – of the 700 on board – who were well-trained and were stationed throughout the ship, mostly on the upper deck, where they laid an ambush for the IDF soldiers who rappelled onto the deck from helicopters.

The members of this violent group were not carrying identity cards or passports. Instead, each of them had an envelope in his pocket with about $10,000 in cash. The defense establishment suspects the funding for the mercenaries may have come from elements within the Turkish government.

According to sources within the defense establishment, one member of the group, who appears to have been the ringleader, traveled to the city of Bursa in northwest Turkey and allegedly recruited mercenaries for the flotilla there.

In videos from the Marmara released this week by the IDF, this group of men can be seen preparing to confront IDF commandos. The videos, taken by the ship’s security cameras, show the group of activists brandishing metal bars, slingshots, and other assorted weaponry.

The group was split up into smaller squads that were distributed throughout the deck and communicated with one another with handheld communication devices. The men wore bulletproof vests and gas masks.

One video clearly shows a member of the group throwing a stun grenade onto the IDF commando vessel that pulled up alongside the Marmara. Another video shows how groups of at least four or five men swarmed each commando that landed on the top deck, beating them with metal bars, and in one case throwing a soldier off the third deck.

Soldiers testified that in at least two instances their sidearms were taken from them, as were their helmets and vests. Two soldiers jumped off the ship into the water to save themselves from being lynched.

On Wednesday, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i told a Knesset hearing that all nine men killed on the Marmara were “involved in the fighting.”

“There were no innocents among the dead,” Vilna’i said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Media Watch reported Thursday that three of the four Turks killed on ship sought a martyr’s death.

PMW quoted from the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida:

“Three of the four Turks killed in the Israeli attack on the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ bound for the Gaza Strip wanted to die as martyrs, said their relatives and friends. The wife of one of them, Ali Haydar Bengi, told the Vatan daily: “He used to help the poor and the oppressed. For years, he wanted to go to Palestine. And he constantly prayed to Allah to grant him shahada (martyrdom).

“Ali worked at telephone repair shop in Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeastern Turkey. Sabir Ceylan, a friend of Ali, told the Milliyet newspaper: ‘Before embarking on this journey [to Gaza], he said he desired to become a martyr. He had a strong desire to die as a martyr.’

“Another Turkish victim was Ali Ekber Yaratilmis, a 55-year old pensioner. He was a father of five who lived in Ankara. Ali volunteered for the Turkish Aid and Human Rights Organization [IHH], which transfers aid to Gaza. A friend, Mehmet Faruk Cevher, told the Sabah daily that [Ali] ‘devoted his life to charity work, that’s why he went to Gaza. He always wanted to become a martyr.’

“The third victim was Ibrahim Bilgen, a 61-year old pensioner and father of six sons. He was a supporter of the Felicity Party, an Islamic movement in the southeastern city of Siirt, Anatolia news agency reported. His brother-in-law, Nuri Mergen, told the agency: He was an exemplary man and a truly good man. That’s why he was truly worthy of shahada (martyrdom). Allah granted him the death that he wished for.’”

Palestinian Media Watch reported in the last two days that participants on board were chanting Islamic battle cries and talking about their coming martyrdom during the days before the confrontation.

IDF: Mercenaries to blame for violence

[Shammu]

Muslim Brotherhood Leader To Arab Rulers: Open Your Borders To Jihad Fighters

In his weekly sermon, Muslim Brotherhood General Guide Muhammad Badi' called on the Arab and Muslim countries and to the Arab League to act to remove the siege on Gaza, to send convoys there, and "not to fear the Americans who support the Zionists and cover up their crimes."

He added that jihad was now a personal obligation incumbent upon every Muslim, and that therefore the rulers must open their borders to the jihad fighters.

Source: Ikhwanonline.com, June 3, 2010
Muslim Brotherhood Leader To Arab Rulers: Open Your Borders To Jihad Fighters

[Shammu]

Flotilla dead mourned in Turkey
By ASSOCIATED PRESS AND JPOST.COM STAFF
06/03/2010 19:37

Turkish president says Israel "will repent."

STANBUL — Mourners in Istanbul hoisted coffins Thursday to cheers of "God is great!" as they honored activists slain during Monday's Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, and the father of the lone American killed praised his teenage son as being a martyr for a just cause.

Some 10,000 people prayed Thursday outside Istanbul's Fatih mosque before eight Turkish and Palestinian flag-draped coffins lined up in a row in a traditional service for the dead. Eight Turks and an American of Turkish origin were honored, ranging in age from over 60 to 19. A ninth victim, a Turkish man, was having a service on Friday.

The funeral occurred as relations between Turkey and Israel worsen.  Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Thursday that, "Turkey will never forgive Israel for the killing of Turkish citizens.

"Relations between Turkey and Israel will never be as they were," Gul said in a television broadcast. "Israel has made one of the most glaring mistakes in its history, for which it will repent."

Bulent Yildirim, the head of the Islamic charity group IHH that organized the Gaza flotilla said "Our friends have been massacred,"  before mourners carried the coffins through the crowd to cars to be taken for burial.

The body of Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old with dual U.S.-Turkish citizenship, was to be flown to his family's hometown of Kayseri for burial Thursday, the state-run Anatolia News Agency reported.

His father told Anatolia he identified Furkan in the morgue and his son had been shot through the forehead. Still, he said, the family was not sad because they believed Furkan had died with honor.

"I feel my son has been blessed with heaven," he said. "I am hoping to be a father worthy of my son."

Before dawn, thousands flooded Istanbul's main Taksim Square to welcome home hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists from the aid boats who had been expelled. Israel, which has faced strong international criticism for the botched military operation, decided not to prosecute the activists in an effort to limit diplomatic outrage.

Flotilla dead mourned in Turkey 

[Shammu]

Excerpts: Egypt's Islamists back Baradei against Mubarak.Saudi Arabia reports Al-Qaeda recruitment of women June 05, 2010

Excerpts: Egypt's Islamists back Baradei against Mubarak.Saudi Arabia
reports Al-Qaeda recruitment of women
June 05, 2010

+++SOURCE: Egyptian Gazette 5 June '10:"Egypt's Islamists back Baradei's
demands "

SUBJECT: Egypt's Islamists back Baradei against Mubarak

FULL TEXT:The banned Muslim Brotherhood announced Saturday(5 June) it would
fully support former chief of the UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei in
his campaign to amend the Egyptian Constitution as he declared in return the
group was the largest legal political faction in Egypt.

"We are going to collect signatures from all classes of the Egyptian
society in order to support ElBaradei's campaign to amend the Constitution
and reform the political system in Egypt," said Mohamed Saad el-Katatni, the
head of the Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc.
He added, in a press conference with ElBaradei sitting beside him after
closed talks with the group members, that this would be a first step to back
him.
"We will back his peaceful approach for change," el-Katatni said,
pointing out that his group agrees with the changes ElBaradei demands.
"The Brotherhood is a partner with ElBaradei in the call for change,"
the Islamist MP said.
Of his part, ElBaradei, a potential presidential candidate, said the
Muslim Brotherhood, banned since 1954, was the only legal political faction
in this country.
"The Brotherhood is a model of the strong opposition in Egypt's
Parliament and street. It has a legal standing that the ruling party,"
ElBaradei said.
The Muslim Brotherhood controls fifth of the seats in the People's
Assembly (the Lower House of Egypt's Parliament), which is dominated by the
ruling National Democratic party.
ElBaradei has said he may run in the 2011 presidential vote if there are
constitutional reforms.

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 6 June '10:"Haila Al-Qusayyer funded Al-Qaeda,
recruited women"
By Abdullah Al-Oraifij

SUBJECT: Saudi Arabia reports Al-Qaeda recruitment of wmen

FULL TEXT:RIYADH – Security sources have said that Haila Al-Qusayyer, who was detained in Buraidah in March, was a “financier of the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula” and that her husband Muhammad Solaiman Al-Wakeel who was killed in clashes with security forces several years ago was a member of the organization in the Kingdom.

The sources said that Al-Qusayyer had managed to collect over the last two years donations for the organization in Yemen by obtaining jewelry as well as money purportedly for the building of mosques and orphanages in Yemen. They also said that Al-Qusayyer played a significant role in helping Wafa’ Al-Shehri, the wife of “second man” Saeed Al-Shehri, enter Yemeni territory, and in recruiting “young girls” from the families of wanted persons and helping their wives and sisters join up with them in Yemen.

According to the sources, the attempts by Al-Qaeda in Yemen to portray the female relatives of wanted persons as in the sights of security services are “no more than a desperate and deplorable attempt to inflame society against the security services”.

“They are more aware than anyone that the authorities try to protect women and people’s honor,” they said.

“Whatever the acts of wanted men, no one is responsible for the crimes of another, and that is the way we deal with all security issues,” the sources said.

Excerpts: Egypt's Islamists back Baradei against Mubarak.Saudi Arabia reports Al-Qaeda recruitment of women June 05, 2010

[Shammu]

This next bunch is from Irans official news company.

Tehran Declaration is a right step to raise nations’ demands
Tehran, June 5, IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (a.k.a. ImaNutJob) says the May 17 Iran-Turkey-Brazil fuel swap declaration is a step in right direction to express demands of whole the world nations.
“The declaration defends a fact and we should try to ensure the move would continue to guarantee justice and rights of nations. It should turn into a yardstick in international relations,” said President Ahmadinejad in an interview with Lebanese LBC TV.

He said today, nuclear issue is treated as global subject.

“Tehran Declaration has provided those, who used to move in direction opposing justice, to make a recourse to dialogue and observe rights of nations. Of course, they are free to choose. We wish they would favor the path of justice and respect. If they take the other way, Iran too will naturally take the next steps consistent with conditions.”

Tehran Declaration is defense of fact and it can not be regarded as a sort of mediation, said the President, adding that the Declaration showed that Brazil, Turkey and Iran have well understood global conditions and responsibilities and insist on justice.

President Ahmadinejad said Tehran Declaration does not concern three countries only, rather it reveals demands and expectations of all the world nations and the ones seeking equal rights for all nations.

Tehran Declaration is a right step to raise nations’ demands

[Shammu]

 Pakistan hikes defence spending by 17 percent
Islamabad,June 6 , IRNA -- Pakistan Saturday announced annual budget with a 17 percent increase in defence allocation as the security forces are engaged in operation against the Taliban-linked militants.
The budget for 2010-11 was presented in the parliament and a debate will begin on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told the National Assembly, Lower House of the parliament in his budget speech that defense spending will be increased to 442.2 billion rupees (approximately $5.17 billion) for the new financial year beginning on July 1.

Defence allocation for the outgoing year had been 378.13 billion rupees.

The Finance Minister described security as the top issue and said that Pakistan is facing a situation in which the army, paramilitary forces and police are sacrificing their lives. He said the parliament will continue support to them.

The minister unveiled total outlay of budget is Rs 2,764 billion or $32.51 billion, which is 12.3 percent higher than the size of the budget estimates for outgoing fiscal 2009-10.

The minister announced 50 per cent increase in salary of the government employees and 10 per cent reduction in the salary of the cabinet ministers.

He said the new budget is aimed at protecting the economic recovery, checking inflation, achieving self reliance, reforming and enhancing social protection regime and reducing burden of public sector enterprises.

Pakistan hikes defence spending by 17 percent

[Shammu]

 Unprecedented anti-Israeli protests in French big cities

Paris, June 6, IRNA – Upon invitations by tens of humanitarian organizations, political parties, labor unions, Muslims and Jews unions the most unprecedented anti-Israeli demonstrations were held in Paris and other big cities of France on Saturday.

The demonstrators protested against bloody attack of the Zionist army on freedom flotilla carrying humanitarian aids for besieged people of Gaza as well as expressed their dissatisfaction with French government policy toward the Zionist regime.

The demonstrators shouted slogans such as; “ Israel commits crimes, Sarkozy supports.”

The protestors in Paris were estimated to be more than 10,000 who marched from Bastille Square in downtown toward Concord Square, close to Presidential Palace.

They were carrying flags of Palestine and Turkey and in their slogans called for an end to the Gaza blockade and condemned Israelis crimes as well as called for putting the Zionist regime officials on trial.

According to the reports, in many other cities of France such as Lyons, Strassbourg, Marseilles, Liles, Nantes, Boudreaux and some other cities the same demonstrations were held by political parties, peace supporters and Islamic and Palestinian Associations.

Protesters in Nice, south of France, were carrying placards with slogans like, “ Gaza! France is with you,” Liberate Palestine,” France sympathizes with people of Gaza,” We declare solidarity with Palestinian people,” Peace, justice and independence for Palestine.

Unprecedented anti-Israeli protests in French big cities

[Shammu]

Calls for Israel boycott as thousands march in London

London, June 5, IRNA – Thousands of people marched in London Saturday to express their outage at Israel’s massacre and imprisonment of passengers aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

Separate protests were also held in other towns and cities, including Belfast as well as in the Irish capital of Dublin, following Israel’s further forcible seizure of the Rachel Corrie on Saturday.

Demonstrators in London gathered outside the office of Prime Minister David Cameron, to demand further action by the British government, before marching to the Israeli Embassy.

"We can't sit by and watch Israel violate international law every day,” said director of campaigns and operations at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Sarah Colborne, who was a passenger on the Mavi Marmara, the main ship in the convoy.

“We want the British government to take action to ensure there are no future attacks on humanitarian aid convoys, ensure a search is carried out for those that remain missing, ensure that those people who have been detained illegally will be released and most importantly to end the siege of Gaza," Colborne said.

Other Britons at the demonstrations who survived the attack by Israeli commandoes included Ismail Patel, chairman of the UK-based Friends of al-Aqsa, and Kevin Ovenden of Viva Palestina, who spoke of the horrors of the brutal assault in international waters on Monday.

Earlier, trade union leaders joined PSC general secretary Betty Hunter and PSC chair Hugh Lanning in calling on the British government to suspend the EU-Israel association agreement and end their support for the blockade and collective punishment of Gaza.

“We call for support for a policy of boycott of Israeli products, disinvestment from Israeli companies and sanctions against Israel until justice for the Palestinian people has been achieved,” they said in a joint letter to the Guardian.

Calls for Israel boycott as thousands march in London

And this is the last from Iran.

[Shammu]

Afghanistan Halts Work Church Groups; Christians Concerned
Posted on: 2010-06-02 04:56:24
By Worthy News Staff

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (Worthy News)-- Christian aid workers in Afghanistan faced legal challenges Wednesday, June 2, after authorities ordered two Western church groups to stop their activities amid suspicions they were converting Muslims to Christianity -- an offense that carries the death penalty under Afghan law.

"If proven after the investigation that they were involved in conversion activities, they will be introduced to the judicial authorities," confirmed a spokesman for the Ministry of Economy, Sediq Amarkhil.

The humanitarian aid groups Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and the U.S. based Church World Service (CWS) have denied involvement in evangelism, commonly described as "proselytism."

NCA Secretary-General Atle Sommerfeldt said in a statement that his organization has a firm policy of not attempting "to convert people to another religion" in all countries where it operates. "Our work is entirely humanitarian -- meaning we are impartial, neutral, and independent," added CWS Deputy Director and Head of Programs Maurice A. Bloem. "We fully adhere to and support the Red Cross/Red Crescent Code of Conduct, which mandates that [non governmental organizations] do nothing to further a religious agenda."

RELIGIOUS "PROSELYTISM"

He said his organization respects other religions and that it has "never and will never engage in any religious proselytism" as "such activities are contrary to our mandate" as a humanitarian organization.

"Any allegations that we have engaged in proselytism are entirely false -- and we are fully cooperating with the investigation by the Ministry of Economy and look forward to its result," Bloem added.

He said the work of CSW's 300 local staff in Afghanistan is intended solely to support the humanitarian needs of Afghan communities, especially in areas of health, livelihood support, and education.

The investigation of the National Security and Interior Ministries into the activities of the church groups followed an Afghan television report which cited local police as saying they "had heard rumors" of the charities' proselytizing activities.

REPORTED DEMONSTRATION

The report triggered a demonstration by several hundred students at Kabul University on Monday, May 31, witnesses said.

Demonstrators shouted death threats toward foreigners who seek to convert Muslims and demanded the government expel anyone who tried, said Mohammad Najib, a professor at the school who witnessed the protest.

The group blocked the road outside the university's main gate for more than an hour before the demonstrators moved off peacefully, Najib told reporters. Police reportedly stood by but did not intervene.

Hundreds of international and Afghan groups are involved in essential humanitarian aid projects across the country, in areas ranging from health to education, but some Afghans remain skeptical of their motives and suspect they could be a front for proselytizing. Weeks before their ouster in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, the Taliban detained several Western aid workers after accusing them of proselytizing, but the group was freed in a raid by American special forces.

In 2007 Taliban insurgents kidnapped 21 South Korean Christians who were visiting as part of an evangelical church charity group and accused them of proselytizing. Two of the hostages were murdered before the rest were released, although authorities have denied any ransom was paid.

The latestofficialinvestigation into international aid groups was expected to raise tensions between the Afghan government and Western governments, who face pressure at home to withdraw their troops fighting Taliban and suspected Al-Qaida militants from Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Halts Work Church Groups; Christians Concerned

[Shammu]

Turkish Man Charged In Murder Bishop
Posted on: 2010-06-04 06:01:18

By Worthy News Middle East Service with reporting by Worthy News' Stefan J. Bos

ISTANBUL, TURKEY (Worthy News)-- A Turkish court on Friday, June 4, charged a Turkish man with murdering a Roman Catholic bishop -- the latest in a series of violent attacks against the country's tiny Christian minority.

The 63-year-old Bishop Luigi Padovese, the pope's apostolic vicar in Anatolia, was resting at his summer house in the port city of Iskenderun, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, when he was stepped by his driver, said Sister Leonora, the bishop's secretary.

Bishop Padovese, an Italian national, was due to join Pope Benedict XVI in Cyprus on Sunday, May 6.

The suspect of Kurdish origin, identified only as Murat A., had been employed as his personal driver and handyman for more than four years, Vatican sources added.

Bishop Padovese, who was also head of the Turkish Bishops Conference, reportedly died in the ambulance on the way to hospital shortly after the attack at 1 pm local time.

HATE CRIME?

Soon after Thursday's killing, authorities suggested the attack was not an anti-Christian hate crime. In a statement, Turkish police said the suspect was "mentally unstable" with serious psychological problems.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said he was "dismayed" by the news. "This is horrible news that left " us deeply shocked and of course, desperately dismayed," he said in comments monitored by BosNewsLife.

"Bishop Padovese was a person of great worth for the witness of the Church's life in Turkey, and even in difficult situations, was a courageous person dedicated to the Gospel".

Spokesman Lombardi confirmed reports that the suspect had mental problems. "The religious sister [and secretary of the bishop] testified to the mans recent signs of depression and confusion and confirms that he had given evidence of mental imbalance in the past."

Therefore, "political motivations for the attack, or other motivations linked to socio-political tensions
are to be excluded," he added.

MORE ATTACKS

However the attack was expected to add to anxiety among Christians following several attacks in recent years in Turkey. In 2007, a Catholic priest survived after being stabbed by a 19-year-old boy after Sunday Mass in the western city of Izmir.

That same year, three evangelical Christians were tortured and killed in a Bible-publishing house in the city of Malatya.

In 2006, a 16-year-old boy shot dead a Catholic priest, Father Andrea Santoro, as he prayed in his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon.

Lombardi said the latest attack comes at a crucial time for the pope and Christians. "This fact coming as it does on the eve of a papal trip towards the Middle East lends an extraordinary intensity to the popes mission to encourage the Christian communities living in this region, helping us to profoundly understand the urgent need for the solidarity of the universal Church to support these Christian communities."

Turkey, which seeks membership of the European Union, has come under international pressure to improve the rights of Christians and other religious minorities in the mainlyMuslim nation.

Turkish Man Charged In Murder Bishop