News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

 UK needs more Muslim police, says race relations chair
London, June 19, IRNA

UK Muslims-Police
Britain's police and security services should recruit more Muslims, according to the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Trevor Phillips.

In a speech on Monday night, Phillips was expected to question whether the UK's police and security services are 'fit for purpose' in the wake of the recent blundering anti-terrorism raid on a Muslim family house in Forest Gate, east London.

"It is clear that something went wrong on this occasion. But it's not the first time. We've seen thousands of British Muslims arrested under anti-terror legislation. Virtually all of them released without charge," he said in advance extracts of the speech.

The CRE chair, who is of Guyana descent, suggested that highly- trained professional officers from a range of backgrounds need to be involved with operations from the outset.

"From the security services' point of view, to put it crudely, if you don't have Muslim officers to put into surveillance cars, you can give up any hope of doing covert operations in some areas," he said.

His proposal was for Britain to copy the example of Northern Ireland, where the law was changed to allow the Protestant-dominated police service to recruit up to half of all its new members from the Catholic community.

"I do know that we have to debate such measures if we are going to avoid the specter of a mainly white security and justice apparatus policing increasingly aggrieved and hostile black and Asian communities," Phillips said.

The CRE chair has come under growing criticism from the Muslim community since calling for an end to multiculturism in 2004 and more recently for telling Muslims who wish to live under a system of shari'a law to leave Britain.

In his speech, he said the process of diversifying police and security forces is an improving one, with the security services and police becoming more integrated every year, but warned that the change is not keeping up with the growing need.

British Muslim communities are as committed to tackling terrorism as anyone else, but every time an operation like Forest Gate goes wrong, 'it further alienates communities who want to help in the fight against terrorism', Phillips said.

He said that whatever turns out to be true about the intelligence and the conduct of the operation, in which a 23-year old Muslim was shot, there are still two major questions to answer.

"First, is everything being done to avoid these errors being repeated; and second, are our security services and police fit for purpose?" the CRE chair said.

He also warned that it cannot be taken for granted that British Muslims 'will put up with being searched, investigated and dragged out of their homes for ever'.

UK needs more Muslim police, says race relations chair

[Shammu]

 Iran-Turkey tourism cooperation commission to be formed
Tehran, June 19, IRNA

Iran-Tourism-Turkey
Deputy head of Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization Mohammad-Sharif Malekzadeh said on Monday that Iran-Turkey tourism cooperation commission will be formed to pursue and implement the mutually signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in tourism sector.


Speaking at a meeting with tourism experts from both sides, he said that the formation of such a joint commission will have an effective role in pursuance and implementation of the documents inked by Iran and Turkey and matters of mutual concern aiming to promote tourism.

"Mutually reached agreements concern celebration of tourism week, attending tourism exhibitions and establishment of tourism agencies across the country," he added.

Malekzadeh also called for arranging joint tours and raising the level of cooperation in the sector.

He said that promotion of tourism industry and using Iran's potentials and capacities in the field is one of the government's policies.

For his part, the manager in charge of development department of Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that priority will be given to implementation of mutual MoUs and pursuance of cases of bilateral interest in the field to further bolster exchanges.

"The private sectors of the two states can pave the way for promotion of tourism through exchange of visits and ideas. Flight between various cities of Iran and Turkey have been arranged to facilitate such exchanges," he added.

Iran-Turkey tourism cooperation commission to be formed

[Shammu]

 Turkish FM backs Iran's right to nuclear energy
Baku, June 20, IRNA

Iran-Turkey-Nuclear
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul here Monday expressed his country's support for Iran's right to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Gul met with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of the 33rd meeting of foreign ministers of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) which opened in the Azeri capital, Baku, on Monday.

The Islamic Republic of Iran demands nuclear energy to promote the welfare and development of its nation, Gul said.

Turkey welcomes a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear case while also supporting the right of all countries to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, he added.

Today there is an optimistic atmosphere for continuation of nuclear talks, he said, and added that experience has shown that ideas or plans that are imposed on others will bear no fruit.

Turkey believes that Iran has been rational and wise in its approach to the issue, Gul said, and "as a friend and neighboring country of Iran, Turkey hopes Tehran's nuclear case would be solved peacefully through negotiations."
The two ministers also exchanged views on expansion of bilateral relations as well as on recent regional and international
developments.

The Turkish minister voiced his country's willingness to promote ties with Iran in all fields, saying the two countries enjoy great potentials to further expand bilateral cooperation.

He pointed to the various areas for boosting bilateral economic cooperation including in construction of oil and gas pipelines, and stressed the importance of holding regular exchange of views and consultations between the two capitals.

He welcomed Iran's initiative of hosting a conference of foreign ministers of Iraqi neighboring states and expressed hope it would help restore stability in Iraq.

Mottaki, for his part, expressed Iran's firm determination to promote all-out ties with various states, particularly its neighbors, and called for the use of all available resources toward this end.

He said consultations between Iraq's neighboring states would have tremendous significance in efforts to bring security, stability and tranquility to the country, and said that the continuing instability and terrorist attacks in the country are its main problems.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is committed to promoting security in Iraq and non-interference in its internal affairs," he said.

"The presence of foreign forces is the main cause of instability and continuing terrorist acts in Iraq," he said.

The Iranian minister, giving a synopsis of the country's stance in the nuclear issue, said Iran was still "studying the package of incentives of the Group 5+1 carefully" and reiterated that negotiations will be key to resolving its nuclear case.

A package of incentives was offered to Tehran early this month by the 5+1 Group (US, Russia, China, France, Britain plus Germany) to convince it to give up all its uranium enrichment-related activities and resume talks to settle the dispute over its nuclear program.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has viewed the incentives package as "a step forward" in resolving the nuclear dispute.

The US has offered to join talks to resolve the issue but insists Iran must suspend all enrichment-related activities before talks can begin.

"A comprehensive solution to the case will be based on a recognition of Iran's right (to nuclear energy) and removal of concerns of other sides," Mottaki said.

During their meeting, Mottaki and Gul discussed topics that are to be taken up in this foreign ministerial conference of the OIC and the final statement that is to be issued upon its conclusion.

They also exchanged views on subjects likely to be taken up in the next session of the Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Commission and the urgent need to activate the commission.

Turkish FM backs Iran's right to nuclear energy

[Shammu]

N. Korea urged to cease missile test plans

By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer 37 minutes ago

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea lashed out at the United States over its plans to build a missile defense shield Tuesday but did not directly address concerns that it is preparing to test-fire a missile capable of reaching the United States.

North Korea's apparent moves toward testing a long-range ballistic missile have spiked tensions in the region and drawn warnings of serious repercussions from the United States and others.

On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned the North that it will face consequences if it launches a missile, calling it a "very serious matter."

North Korea responded Tuesday by saying that U.S. moves to build a missile shield are fueling a dangerous arms race in space.

"The world is not allowed to avert its face from the grave situation in which it is facing the danger of a nuclear shower from the blue sky," the North's Minju Joson newspaper wrote in a commentary, according to the country's Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea also criticized a Japanese move to buy missiles and associated equipment from the U.S. to upgrade its missile defense system.

The North claimed Tokyo's new missiles showed an intent to become "a military giant" and mount "overseas aggression," the North's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in commentary carried by KCNA.

The United States, Japan, Australia, South Korea and other countries have urged North Korea to abandon any missile firing, but there was no sign of backing down. U.S. officials in Washington said Monday the missile was apparently fully assembled and fueled, but Japan said Tuesday it could not confirm that fueling was completed.

South Korea's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, also believes North Korea hasn't yet completed fueling the rocket because the 40 fuel tanks seen around a launch site weren't enough to fuel a projectile estimated to be 65 tons, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting lawmakers who attended an intelligence briefing.

Bad weather over the purported launch site in North Korea on Tuesday dimmed chances of an immediate launch. The area was cloudy, with rain expected through Wednesday morning, said Kim Seung-bae of the South's Korea Meteorological Administration.

As tensions grew, meanwhile, the U.S. staged war games in the western Pacific on Tuesday with 22,000 troops, 280 aircraft and three aircraft carriers.

U.S. officials have said the missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2, has a firing range of 9,300 miles and could reach as far as the U.S. West Coast. Most analysts, however, say North Korea is still a long way from perfecting technology that would make the missile accurate and capable of carrying a nuclear payload.

The North's missile program has been a major security concern in the region, adding to worries about its pursuit of nuclear bombs. North Korea shocked its neighbors when it test-fired an earlier missile version over northern Japan in 1998.

In Seoul on Tuesday, Woo Sang-ho, a spokesman for South Korea's ruling party, said, "The government explained to North Korea the serious repercussions a missile launch would bring and strongly demanded that test fire plans be scrapped."

The U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said the U.S. would like to achieve normal relations with the North, saying a missile test "would only further compound North Korea's isolation and put it more apart from the international community."

Japan has said that a new launch would threaten Japanese security and violate an agreement North Korea signed in 2002 and reaffirmed in 2004. Rice said it would also end a self-imposed moratorium on test firings that North Korea has observed since 1999 and a disarmament bargain it struck with the United States and other powers last year.

After its last long-range missile launch in August 1998, the North had said it was seeking to put a satellite in orbit. Pyongyang is widely expected to make a similar claim if it goes ahead with another test launch.

North Korea claims it has nuclear weapons, but isn't believed to have a design that would be small and light enough to top a missile. The North has boycotted international nuclear talks since November over a U.S. crackdown on its alleged illegal financial activity.

Despite the latest standoff, North and South Korea opened two days of meetings in the North Korean border city of Kaesong on Tuesday to work out details over expanding a joint industrial zone there. Some experts believe the South would curtail its economic cooperation with the North in the event of a missile launch.

Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung is also set to travel to Pyongyang next week to reprise the historic June 2000 summit between leaders from the North and South, although the reports of a possible missile test were complicating the arrangements, one of the former president's aides said Monday.

N. Korea urged to cease missile test plans

[Soldier4Christ]

N. Korean threat activates shield

The Pentagon activated its new U.S. ground-based interceptor missile defense system, and officials announced yesterday that any long-range missile launch by North Korea would be considered a "provocative act."
    Poor weather conditions above where the missile site was located by U.S. intelligence satellites indicates that an immediate launch is unlikely, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
    However, intelligence officials said preparations have advanced to the point where a launch could take place within several days to a month.
    Two Navy Aegis warships are patrolling near North Korea as part of the global missile defense and would be among the first sensors that would trigger the use of interceptors, the officials said yesterday.
    The U.S. missile defense system includes 11 long-range interceptor missiles, including nine deployed at Fort Greeley, Alaska, and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The system was switched from test to operational mode within the past two weeks, the officials said.
    One senior Bush administration official told The Washington Times that an option being considered would be to shoot down the Taepodong missile with responding interceptors.
    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice added that any launch would be a serious matter and "would be taken with utmost seriousness and indeed a provocative act."
    White House spokesman Tony Snow declined to comment when asked if shooting down a launched missile was being considered as an option.
    President Bush had telephoned more than a dozen heads of state regarding North Korea's launch preparations, Mr. Snow said. He did not identify the leaders who were called by Mr. Bush.
    Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the U.S. has made it clear to North Korea that the communist regime should abide by the missile-test ban it imposed in 1999 and reaffirmed in a pact with Japan in 2002.
    "The United States has a limited missile defense system," Mr. Whitman said. He declined to say if the system is operational or whether it would be used.
    "U.S. Northern Command continues to monitor the situation, and we are prepared to defend the country in any way necessary," said spokesman Michael Kucharek.
    Any decision to shoot down a missile would be made at the highest command levels, which includes the president, secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
    In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Japan and South Korea are trying to avert a launch.
    "Even now, we hope that they will not do this," Mr. Koizumi said. "But if they ignore our views and launch a missile, then the Japanese government, consulting with the United States, would have to respond harshly."
    John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Bush administration is consulting with other Security Council members on how to respond to a Taepodong launch.
    In Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said North Korea's ambassador had been summoned and told any missile launch would result in "serious consequences."
    U.S. intelligence officials said there are signs that the North Koreans recently began fueling the Taepodong with highly corrosive rocket fuel. Normally, when liquid fuel is loaded into missiles the missile must be fired within five to 10 days, or it must be de-fueled and the motors cleaned, a difficult and hazardous process.
    The Taepodong was first tested in August 1998, and North Korea claimed that it was a space launch vehicle that orbited a satellite. U.S. intelligence officials said the last stage of the missile was powered but did not reach orbit. A new test would likely be a more advanced version.
    "Our concerns about missile activity in North Korea are long-standing and well-documented," said Mr. Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman.
    The test preparations began several weeks after the Bush administration imposed new rules on U.S. companies that prohibit American or foreign firms incorporated in the United States from flying North Korea's flag on merchant ships.
    According to the Treasury Department, Korean War-era sanctions were loosened in 2000 in order to entice North Korea into abiding by the missile flight test ban.
    One reason for the concerns about a launch is that North Korea has issued threatening statements through its official press and broadcast organs that it is ready to go to war with states such as Japan and the United States that impose economic sanctions.

[Soldier4Christ]

Japan pulls ground troops from Iraq


Japan announced today the immediate withdrawal of its 600 ground troops from Iraq after a deployment in which they fired no shots or sustained any deaths.

Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister and architect of a growing international assertiveness, said: “The Ground Self-Defence Force has played a considerable role in providing humanitarian reconstruction assistance and we have decided to withdraw." All off the troops are expected to be back in Japan by mid-July.

However, in a sign of growing military boldness, Japan will expand the mission of its Air Self-Defence Force from its present role of providing transport between Kuwait and Samawah, southern Iraq. Japan will commit its fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to the risky task of airlifting United Nations personnel and multinational troops in and out of Baghdad. Mr Koizumi, who will travel to Washington this month for a meeting with President Bush, was directly asked by the United States to deploy air personnel in that role.

Mr Koizumi said that “a chapter has been finished”. It is also certain that a new chapter has begun. Although Japanese troops have spent 2½  in the southern city of Samawah in a non-combat reconstruction role, their presence in a war zone marks a critical psychological turning point for Japan.

The mission to Iraq required a clause of the pacifist Japanese Constitution to be stretched to its limit and a controversial military dispatch law to be hurried through parliament. The deployment placed Japanese forces in harm’s way for the first time since the end of the Second World War.

The Government is preparing legislation that would upgrade the Defence Agency to a full ministry, which might eventually lead to the country’s euphemistically named Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF) assuming the more accurate title of “army”.

This year Japan created the military role of Chief of the Joint Staff Office. General Hajime Massaki, the holder, told The Times that the military forces stand ready for international dispatch in a variety of roles.

Japan’s decision to withdraw its troops follows consultation with the US, Britain and Australia. British and Australian troops have protected Japanese GSDF forces during their time in Iraq, allowing them to adhere to a non-combat role. Security duties in Musanna province will be transferred to Iraqi control over the summer.

Although Mr Koizumi said today that GSDF troops had undertaken considerable reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure since January 2004, few Japanese have bothered to keep abreast of their troops’ activities. Newspaper polls regularly indicate that a majority of Japanese oppose the overseas posting of troops, with many believing that it represents a clear breach of the 1947 Constitution.

Seven Japanese civilians have been kidnapped and five killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003. The loudest public calls for the GSDF troops to return came shortly after their mission began, when three Japanese aid workers were held hostage in Iraq with demands that Mr Koizumi withdraw troops.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Sharia law gets down to business

 JOWHAR -- The African Union and UN may send a peacekeeping force to Somalia as Sharia law, enforced by Islamic militia, starts to bite.


 In one of the first cases enforced under the new regime, a man yesterday shot his brother's killer to death in the capital Mogadishu.

Elmi Ba Hassan Adow was convicted of murdering another man in a marriage dispute in August 2005.

He briefly prayed and waved goodbye before he was publicly shot on the court's order by the dead man's brother, Weli Omar Hussein.

The UN's special representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, said the world body would this week send a security team to Jowhar, 90km north of Mogadishu.

As part of the new wave of law and order, militiamen loyal to Somalia's Islamic courts have raided cinemas, switching off generators and expelling audiences watching the World Cup. The screening of Western films in public has been banned.

Sharia law has been greeted by many people traumatised by years of civil war. But a day before Sharia law took effect in Jowhar, heavily armed Islamic fighters, led by Sheikh Abu Muslim, shut all public cinemas.

"In principle, we are against watching of Western films, but we shall consult to see if we can allow watching of the remaining matches in the World Cup," said Sheikh Ali Hassan of the Joint Islamic Courts.

Jowhar's football fans reacted furiously. "If the situation continues like this, we shall demonstrate against it," said Bashir Ali, 25.

"We do not like these Islamists because they are banning us from watching football. We welcomed them warmly after they chased away the warlords, but what they are doing now is unacceptable," Yusuf Mohamed said.

On Sunday, Islamic leaders in the capital Mogadishu issued a waiver to allow watching of the World Cup.

[Soldier4Christ]

Tensions Rise in Horn of Africa

Tensions are rising in the Horn of Africa amid unconfirmed reports that several-hundred Ethiopian troops have crossed the border into Somalia to confront an Islamic group that controls large areas of southern Somalia, including Mogadishu. Analysts say they fear even the perception of Ethiopian meddling could end up strengthening the Islamists' grip on power and possibly ignite a regional conflict.

Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts alleges about 300 Ethiopian troops in 50 armored vehicles crossed into southern Somalia early Saturday.

The convoy reportedly headed toward the town of Baidoa, about 200 kilometers north of Mogadishu, where Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf and his fledgling transitional federal government are based.

Ethiopia denies the reports.

But former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia David Shinn says the Islamists' claim is plausible. Ethiopia, which fought a bitter war with Somalia nearly three decades ago, has made such incursions in the past.

"Whenever Ethiopia has felt that its 1,000-mile long border with Somalia is in any way threatened, it has sent small number of troops across," he said. "It is also true that President Yusuf has a close relationship with Ethiopia. He has been considered by some to receive support from Ethiopia for his transitional federal government."

Ethiopia's military has been on heightened alert since early this month, when the Islamic Courts' militia captured Mogadishu from an alliance of secular factional leaders.

Another U.S.-based expert, Michael Weinstein, says if the Ethiopian incursion took place, it may be a sign that Addis Ababa is deeply concerned about the possibility of Somalia's growing Islamic movement spilling over the border into Ethiopia.

"My first impulse is to think that this amassing of Ethiopian troops along the border and this possible incursion is most likely a warning, not to try to spread Islamist influence into Ethiopia, which has a 40 percent Muslim population," he said. "But if I can go on, it all depends on whether Washington is actually backing the Ethiopian move. If that is the case, then it may actually be a move to protect the TFG [transitional federal government] in Baidoa."

Largely secular Ethiopia is a key ally of the United States in its fight against global terrorism and it is alleged that the two governments worked together to back the self-styled, anti-terror alliance of factional leaders who fought the Union of Islamic Courts.

The United States believes that radical Islamic Courts leaders are harboring al-Qaida operatives and are determined to turn Somalia into a training ground for Muslim extremists.

The Islamic courts have the financial backing of influential Somali businessmen, but some Western intelligence officials say outside funding comes from hard-line Islamists in Arab countries.

When the anti-terror alliance failed to check the advance of the Islamic militia, analysts say Washington was forced to come up with another strategy for Somalia. The answer was to assemble an international contact group to find ways of supporting the transitional government in Baidoa and identify potential negotiating partners among the moderate leaders in the Union of Islamic Courts.

But David Shinn says Somali President Yusuf and his government do not have the trust of the moderates and their supporters.

"There is a great deal of distrust among the various clans in Somalia," he said. "President Abdullahi Yusuf comes from the Darod clan and the groups that are in control in Mogadishu are Hawiye, and in particular, a sub-group called Habr Gedir. They have traditionally had difficult relationships."

There is potentially another obstacle to international efforts to negotiate a power-sharing agreement between the Islamic Courts and the transitional government.

Despite threats and numerous public demonstrations against deploying foreign peacekeepers in Somalia, the parliament in Baidoa last week approved the deployment of African Union peacekeepers in the country.

President Yusuf says the government cannot operate without the help of foreign peacekeepers. But many Somalis say they are beginning to believe hard-line clerics, who insist the president and his Ethiopian allies, with the support of the United States, would use the peacekeeping mission as a way to take control in Somalia.

Michael Weinstein says he believes African Union and western diplomats, who are backing the peacekeeping proposal, are underestimating a resurgence of Somali nationalism being exploited by hardliners in the Islamic Courts to consolidate power.

"Nationalism does not have to be tied to a state," he said. "You can have nationalism is a society that is stateless and anybody, external or internal, who does not recognize this could make very serious mistakes. I think the anti-Ethiopian theme resonates very deeply in Somalia. If the Ethiopians and perhaps Washington - and we do not know exactly what is going on there - discount this nationalism, it could backfire in their faces.

David Shinn agrees that the presence of peacekeepers in Somalia right now would do nothing but anger most Somalis.

"I think the whole concept of sending a peacekeeping force is probably a non-starter," he said. "I just do not think it would be acceptable and it would be too difficult to identify any coalition of troops that would be acceptable to the majority of Somalis."

Both experts say they believe the best thing the international community can do to ensure that Somalia does not spiral further out of control is to develop a policy of massive aid to the Somali people and stay out of Somalia's internal affairs.

[Soldier4Christ]

Security alert over East Timor rally

International troops have tightened security across East Timor's capital as protesters gathered to demand the removal of the prime minister.

Australian troops patrolled the waterfront in Dili on Tuesday, while convoys of armoured personnel carries rattled through the streets.

Many East Timorese blame recent violence in the capital on prime minister Mari Alkatiri's decision to fire 600 soldiers in March, and some allege that he formed a hit squad to kill his political opponents, a charge he denies.

Protest organisers said they expected 1,000 people to turn out for Tuesday's rally with numbers anticipated to be even as high as 30,000 in coming days, as word of the anti-government demonstration spreads to the countryside.

Augusto Junior Tridade of the National Youth Forum speaking to hundreds of cheering young men who were among the first to turn out in front of the Government Palace, said: "We plan to stay here as long as it takes for Mari Alkatiri to go.

"He is the mastermind of all this violence," Tridade said.

"He ordered soldiers to kill civilian people and created a lot of problems in East Timor."

Criticism

Alkatiri has come under criticism over his handling of the violence enveloping his nation since its break for independence from Indonesia in 1999, when revenge-seeking militias went on a deadly rampage.

His dismissal of more than 40% of the country's 1,400-strong armed forces caused clashes with loyalist forces that gave way to gang warfare, with machete-wielding youths torching houses and looting government buildings.

At least 30 people have been killed since late April, and nearly 150,000 others have fled from their homes, though the violence has eased in recent weeks with the arrival of a 2,700-strong Australian-led multinational force.

Nino Pereira, a popular singer and lecturer at the National University, speaking to the Associated Press after addressing the crowd, said: "Mari Alkatiri came to power because of the people, so it is our right to take back that power.

"This is people power."

Allegations

Tuesday's protest came claims by Vincente "Railos" da Concecao, an alleged hit squad leader, that Alkatiri recruited and armed his men last month to eliminate his enemies.

The prime minister has denied the charge, which supporters fear could turn his ruling party against him and lead to his overthrow in a vote of no confidence in parliament.

Demonstrators erected banners in the seaside capital, most of them accusing Alkatiri - who spent most of the 24 years of Indonesian occupation of East Timor in exile in Marxist Mozambique - of being a communist.

They also handed out fliers linking Alkatiri, a Muslim in the deeply Roman Catholic country and a descendent of Yemeni immigrants, with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"We hate Mari Alkatiri. He is (a) descendent of bin Laden and he is (a) terrorist and communist," the flier said, also describing him as a "murderer" and "not pure Timorese."

[Soldier4Christ]

New start for human rights at UN?

The new UN Human Rights Council has the aim of re-invigorating the UN's approach to human rights but the problem of overcoming decades of past failures.

The Council, launched in Geneva on Monday, takes over from the discredited Human Rights Commission. That fell into such disrepute that the UN General Assembly actually speeded up a call for reform made by a high level group on the future of the United Nations.

The high level group suggested in its report at the end of 2004 that a Human Rights Council be set up "in the longer term".

Instead, acting with a speed rarely seen in the world body, the General Assembly established the Council by a vote in March this year and elected its members in May.

The old Commission was packed with human rights violators, who got on as part of regional lists. It met for six weeks only each year and nobody was impressed by its pronouncements.

New approach

The plan now is to change all that.

The 47 members (reduced from the 53 on the old Commission) have all been elected individually by secret ballot, though there are still quotas for each part of the world.

Most importantly, the Council will have the power to draw up reports on the human rights record of all UN member states, starting with members of the Council itself.

The hopes for the new Council were expressed at its launch by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who had pressed hard for its establishment.

"The Council's work must mark a clean break from the past," he said. "Never allow this Council to be caught up in political point-scoring or petty manoeuvre."

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour added that the Council was "uniquely positioned to redress the shortcomings of the past."

Human Rights records

However, the sceptics are not without ammunition when they point to the presence on the Council of several countries with questionable human rights records.

It is worth noting what the 2006 annual report of Human Rights Watch had to say about some of these countries.

Azerbaijan: "Azerbaijan's government has a long-standing record of pressuring opposition political parties and civil society groups and arbitrarily limiting critical expression."

China: "While many governments have praised recent developments in China, the country remains a one-party state that does not hold national elections, has no independent judiciary, leads the world in executions, aggressively censors the Internet."

Pakistan: "Six years after seizing power in a coup d'etat, President Pervez Musharraf's military-backed government did little in 2005 to address ongoing human rights concerns."

Cuba: "Cuba remains a Latin American anomaly: an undemocratic government that represses nearly all forms of political dissent. President Fidel Castro, now in his forty-seventh year in power, shows no willingness to consider even minor reforms."

American attitudes

The United States argues that the reforms have not gone far enough and it refused to stand for election this time round.

 Its distant attitude towards the Council is perhaps reflected by the fact that on the list of subjects on the State Department website, the Council, on the morning of its inauguration, was not mentioned at all. The reference was to the old Commission.

The US also fears that the Council will be another forum in which it is attacked - over Guantanamo Bay, torture allegations, rendition flights and other operations of its "war on terror" and the war in Iraq.

The Council is bound to get drawn into discussion of such issues, especially with its periodic review of all UN member states.

But its success or failure is likely to be judged by whether it manages to find a formula under which all violators are criticised, both large states and small.

This will not be easy.

Defining rights

The very definition of human rights still provokes fierce disagreements.

For example, Cuba, in the letter it, like all applicants, had to send to the General Assembly, made a point of defining human rights in its own terms.

It stated that "the most important attribute and right the Cuban people [had] achieved was the full exercise of its right to self-determination, facing the grave obstacles and threats derived from the unilateral policy of hostility, aggression and blockade imposed on it by the superpower."

If the new Council gets bogged down in slanging matches like the old Commission, it will not emerge into the leading world human rights champion its supporters envisage.

Nepal example

There was perhaps some hope evident on the opening day. It concerned Nepal, not a member of the Council itself, but a country whose record has certainly been attacked.

The Deputy Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli was able to report on the political progress it had achieved in the last few weeks since the repression of King Gyanendra had given way to dialogue.

Only last month, when elections to the Council were under way, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth had included Nepal in his list of villains.

"The good news is that many of the worst violators - including Sudan, North Korea, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, and Nepal - have not even dared to run for the new council."

Nepal has a way to go but might not be regarded as such a villain now.

____________________

Another to note about this council is that it is made up of countries that are the biggest offenders of human rights.

[Soldier4Christ]

Saudis get scholarships
to study aviation in U.S.
Program arose from agreement in April
by President Bush and Prince Abdullah


Less than five years after 15 Saudis hijacked airliners to hit American targets, citizens of the desert kingdom are being offered scholarships to study aviation in the U.S.

According to the Saudi publication Arab News, majors related to the airline transport industry are eligible, including communications, electrical and computer engineering, computer science, systems analysis, air traffic control and flight safety.

Some of the 9-11 hijackers are known to have been trained at aviation schools in the U.S.

The new program arose from an agreement in April by President Bush and then-Crown Prince Abdullah aimed at improving relations between the two nations.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Higher Education and the General Authority of Civil Aviation is offering the scholarships. Applicants can download forms on the ministry's website.

Arab News said applicants for the bachelor's program must have a minimum score of 85 percent in the science section and 90 percent in other sections, such as Quran memorizing.

Scholarships in other fields of study are available to students studying in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, India, China, Australia and New Zealand.

In May, the Arizona Daily Star reported the University of Arizona in Tucson enrolled about 100 new Saudi Arabian students as part of the kingdom's new scholarship program, which will send about 6,000 students to American universities this year after just 1,442 Saudi students had visas to study in the United States in 2004.

As WND reported in February, while U.S. universities welcome the Saudis – especially because Riyadh is paying 100 percent of their tuition and enrollment costs – some critics see potential security problems associated with the tremendous influx of Muslim students from a closed society that virtually invented Wahhabism, the radical brand of Islamism that spawned al-Qaida.

Because of the agreement, as many as 25,000 Saudi students are expected to arrive over the next five years, with all their bills paid by the Saudi government.

In February, WND noted the scholarship program was unrolling quietly, without announcement from the Saudi Embassy or the White House. The White House Press Office declined to comment on the program and Saudi embassy officials did not return calls inquiring about it.

[Soldier4Christ]

Key figure in al-Qaida in Iraq killed

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A key al-Qaida in Iraq leader described as the group's "religious emir" was killed in a U.S. airstrike hours before two American soldiers went missing and in the same area, the military said Tuesday.

Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, and two foreign fighters were killed as they tried to flee in a vehicle near the town of Youssifiyah, in the so-called Sunni "Triangle of Death."

U.S. coalition forces had been tracking al-Mashhadani for some time, American military spokesman William Caldwell said in announcing his death. He said al-Mashhadani was an Iraqi, 35 to 37 years old, and that one of the men killed with him was an al-Qaida cell leader identified as Abu Tariq.

The three men were killed just hours before an insurgent attack on a traffic checkpoint near Youssifiyah, by a Euphrates River canal. One U.S. soldier was killed in the attack and two were reported missing afterward.

Two bodies believed to be those of the missing men — Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were recovered in the same area.

Caldwell said the Iraqi militant played a key religious and recruiting role in the group. The spokesman said Mansour was linked to the senior leadership, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 7 U.S. airstrike, and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the man the U.S. military has identified as al-Zarqawi's replacement.

Mansour "reportedly served as a right-hand man of Zarqawi's, and also served as a liaison between al-Qaida in Iraq and the various tribes in the Youssifiyah area, as well as playing a key role in their media operations," Caldwell said.

Citing intelligence sources, Caldwell also said Mansour was responsible for the shooting down of a coalition aircraft this spring.

The U.S. military captured Mansour in July 2004 because of his ties to the militant groups Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna, but released him because he was not deemed an important terror figure at the time, the spokesman said.

The militant joined al-Qaida in Iraq sometime in the fall of 2004, Caldwell said. He displayed photos that purportedly showed Mansour with a mustache before his death and with a battered face and one eye closed after he was killed. Another photo identified Mansour as a masked figure sitting on the floor with al-Zarqawi.

A document seized from an al-Qaida hideout and released by National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie that portrayed the Iraqi insurgency as being in "bleak" shape was directly linked to Mansour, Caldwell said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Waves from storm batter Central America
No reports of fatalities, but hundreds evacuated after coastal flooding

Big waves generated by a storm 2,000 miles away battered a long stretch of the Pacific coast, wrecking homes, hotels and restaurants from Peru to Central America, civil defense officials said Tuesday.

There were no reports of deaths from the several days of heavy surf, but hundreds of people were evacuated from coastal communities. Lesser damage also was reported in southern Mexico.

Experts said the event was not a tsunami: the massive waves triggered by undersea earthquakes.

Hugh Cobb, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said the waves were caused by a powerful South Pacific storm that was sending swells up to 12-feet high across the ocean, hitting beaches from Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands to the Mexican resort of Acapulco.

He said the worst of the heavy waves was over. “We expect them to gradually subside over the next 24 to 48 hours,” he said.

Waves along Guatemala’s western shore Tuesday destroyed a small hotel frequented by surfers, a few restaurants and about 50 houses in Sipacate, 60 miles from Guatemala City, emergency officials said.

“The sea took away eight rooms and part of the restaurant, which was made of wood,” said Brigido de Paz, the hotel manager. “The kitchen and the rooms that were made of concrete are flooded and damaged.”

Waves up to 20 feet
In Nicaragua, 15-foot waves carried water up to 100 yards inland and destroyed about 20 small homes in Puerto Corinto, civil defense official William Rodriguez said. Authorities evacuated 200 people.

A few dozen people were evacuated in El Salvador, where waves up to 20 feet were reported and sand was washed into rustic seaside businesses.

Costa Rican authorities reported minor flooding in several coastal communities. Twenty families were evacuated in Palo Seco de Parrita, 185 miles south of the capital, San Jose, the National Emergency Commission said.

In Acapulco, knee-deep water engulfed 2 miles of the resort’s coastal boulevard and seawater sloshed inside beachfront restaurants and nightclubs.

“The waves came up fairly high and it is definitely dangerous,” said Areli Chavarria at Hotel Emporio.

Jorge Pacheco, director of civil protection in Acapulco, said the swells began hitting Monday and officials issued warnings to stay out of the ocean.

In Mexico’s Oaxaca state, high water flooded seaside businesses and hotels in Zicatela, near the resort of Huatulco. The army evacuated 200 people and closed some 85 businesses, officials said.

On Sunday, waves damaged at least 300 houses in Honduras, emergency response official Juan Carlos Elvir said. The homes were in the communities of Cedeno, Punta Raton, Marcovia and Choluteca.

Six ramshackle homes were destroyed Sunday on two beaches in Panama’s Cocle Province, about 90 miles west of Panama City, said Larissa Samaniego, spokeswoman for the National Civil Protection Agency.

Heavy surf over the weekend also wrecked 11 houses and damaged 110 more in Peru, National Civil Defense spokesman Jorge Arguedas said.

[Shammu]

U.S. Holds Major Maneuvers off Guam Amid N. Korea Missile Fears

Tuesday , June 20, 2006

HAGATNA, Guam — Three aircraft carriers filled the skies with fighters as one of the largest U.S. military exercises in decades got underway Tuesday off this tiny island in the western Pacific.

For the first time ever, a Chinese delegation was sent to observe the U.S. war games. But as the show of American military power began, North Korea — one of the region's most unpredictable countries — was rattling some swords of its own.

The maneuvers, dubbed "Valiant Shield," bring three carriers together in the Pacific for the first time since the Vietnam War. Some 30 ships, 280 aircraft and 22,000 troops will be participating in the five-day war games, which end Friday.

The exercises are intended to boost the ability of the Navy, Air Force and Marines to work together and respond quickly to potential contingencies in this part of the world, U.S. military officials said. Even U.S. Coast Guard vessels were joining in the maneuvers.

"The exercises are taking place on land, sea, air, space and cyberspace," said Senior Master Sgt. Charles Ramey. "They cover the whole spectrum."

The maneuvers mark the first major operation in this remote U.S. territory about halfway between Hawaii and Japan since the announcement last month that some 8,000 Marines would be moved here from Okinawa in part of the biggest realignment of the U.S. forces in Asia in decades.

Though planned months ago, they come amid heightened concern in Asia over North Korea.

Officials in the United States, South Korea and Japan say they believe North Korea is preparing to test launch a Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile. The missile is believed be able to reach parts of the western United States.

Pyongyang shocked Tokyo by launching a Taepodong that flew over Japan's main island in 1998. North Korea claimed the launch successfully placed a satellite in orbit, but that claim has been widely disputed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed on a moratorium on long-range missile launches during a summit with Japan in 1999. Pyongyang has honored that agreement since, but Tokyo has threatened to impose sanctions if it goes through with the launch this time.

Military officials here had no comment on the activity in North Korea, or on what specific tactics or scenarios are being used in the exercises.

They stress, however, that the exercises have been opened to outside observation and are not intended to provoke North Korea.

"These exercises are not aimed at any one nation," said Cmdr. Mike Brown.

The exercises are instead intended to provide training in "detecting, locating, tracking and engaging" a wide range of threats in the air, land and sea.

Representatives from China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Russia and Singapore were invited to attend.

China's presence has been singled out as particularly significant.

Though military relations between Beijing and Washington cooled when an American spy plane was captured in 2001, senior U.S. military officials are cautiously trying to mend the rift. At the same time, the Pentagon has expressed strong concern over the secrecy that shrouds China's rapidly modernizing military.

Adm. William J. Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific, said before the exercises began that implicit in the invitation was the expectation that China would reciprocate.

China's 10-member delegation includes one top-ranking officer each from the People's Liberation Army, air force and navy, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

"The invitation to observe the U.S. military exercises is a very important component of exchanges between the militaries of China and the United States," Xinhua quoted an unidentified Defense Ministry official as saying.

Along with the USS Kitty Hawk, Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln carrier strike groups, U.S. force fighters and B-2 bombers operating out of Guam's Andersen Air Force Base will join the maneuvers.

Brown said the exercises were to be held again next year, and then become a biennial event.

U.S. Holds Major Maneuvers off Guam Amid N. Korea Missile Fears

[Shammu]

UK BRIBED SAUDIS FOR ARMS DEALS

LONDON [MENL] -- Britain was said to have bribed Saudi Arabia to win major defense contracts.

A former defense minister said British companies bribed senior Saudi officials to win arms deals. The minister said the bribes were required to defeat bids by France and the United States.

"You either got the business and bribed, or you didn't bribe and didn't get the business," Ian Gilmour, a former defense secretary, said on June 16. "You either went along with how the Saudis behaved, or what they wanted, or you let the U.S. and France have all the business."

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., Gilmour, who served under the government of then-Prime Minister Edward Heath, said bribes represented the norm in winning contracts in Saudi Arabia and other countries. Gilmour, today a British lord, did not identify those who provided the bribes.

UK BRIBED SAUDIS FOR ARMS DEALS