News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

Rice Skeptical of (future) Democracy in Russia

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer
February 12, 2006 1:07 pm

WASHINGTON -- Citing troubling behavior by the Kremlin, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed skepticism on Sunday about the future of democracy in Russia.

"We are very concerned, particularly about some of the elements of democratization that seem to be going in the wrong direction," Rice said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, while on good terms personally with President Bush, has been criticized for centralizing political power and rolling back democratic gains.

Rice..... pointed to severe limits on nongovernmental organizations begun this year and Russia's use of energy as a weapon in a dispute with Ukraine this winter.

"I think the question is open as to where Russia's future development is going," Rice said.

Nothing can be gained by isolating Russia from institutions that demand democratic values from its members, she said.

Rice said the U.S. and Russia cooperate in fighting terrorism, opposing Iran's efforts to restart its nuclear programs and on other areas. (No comment that Putin is taking both sides in every issue?)

"In general, I think that we have very good relations with Russia, probably the best relations that have been there for quite some time," she said.

Rice added that, in spite of concerns about democracy in Russia, "This is not the Soviet Union. Let's not overstate the case."

<SNIP>

Rice Skeptical of (future) Democracy in Russia

[Shammu]

Iran to hang teenage girl attacked by rapists
Sat. 07 Jan 2006
Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

The state-run daily Etemaad reported on Saturday that 18-year-old Nazanin confessed to stabbing one of three men who had attacked the pair along with their boyfriends while they were spending some time in a park west of the Iranian capital in March 2005.

Nazanin, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said that after the three men started to throw stones at them, the two girls’ boyfriends quickly escaped on their motorbikes leaving the pair helpless.

She described how the three men pushed her and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh onto the ground and tried to rape them, and said that she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

As the girls tried to escape, the men once again attacked them, and at this point, Nazanin said, she stabbed one of the men in the chest. The teenage girl, however, broke down in tears in court as she explained that she had no intention of killing the man but was merely defending herself and her younger niece from rape, the report said.

The court, however, issued on Tuesday a sentence for Nazanin to be hanged to death.

Last week, a court in the city of Rasht, northern Iran, sentenced Delara Darabi to death by hanging charged with murder when she was 17 years old. Darabi has denied the charges.

In August 2004, Iran’s Islamic penal system sentenced a 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, to death after a sham trial, in which she was accused of committing “acts incompatible with chastity”

Iran to hang teenage girl attacked by rapists

[Shammu]

Police Say Communion Grape Juice Tainted
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN , 02.09.2006, 12:07 PM

Grape juice that sickened 40 people during a church communion service was tainted, prompting authorities to launch a criminal investigation, police said Thursday.

No one was seriously injured after drinking the liquid Sunday, but five people were taken to hospitals with nausea and parishioners reported a burning sensation in their throats.

"Somebody placed this substance into the grape juice," Capt. Fred Komm said. "We are considering this a crime and investigating it as such."

Komm said authorities had not conclusively identified the substance but had ruled out arsenic and other common poisons.

The parishioners became sick after drinking the juice Sunday at Calvary Baptist Church in Darien. Pastor Anthony Gibson said the juice tasted like soap.

"It tasted like drinking straight detergent," Gibson said. "It had no grape juice taste at all."

In Maine three years ago, one church member died and 15 others became ill after drinking coffee that was spiked with arsenic at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in New Sweden. Longtime church member Daniel Bondeson was linked to the poisonings after he killed himself, but the case remains open.

Police Say Communion Grape Juice Tainted

[Shammu]

Compromise between Darwin and God
In effort to challenge the belief by some that God, Darwin’s theories don’t jibe, clergy group calls for coexistence

BY CAROL EISENBERG
STAFF WRITER

February 11, 2006, 9:31 PM EST

The Rev. Richard E. Edwards will not mince words in his sermon today about God and Charles Darwin, the 19th century naturalist whose theory of evolution rocked the world.

"I want to reaffirm the compatibility of Biblical tradition and modern science," said Edwards, pastor of Stony Brook Community Church, a small, Methodist congregation that draws members from the nearby university and medical center. "This is a community where science counts, and where folks really need to hear that."

At a time when conservative Christians are mounting aggressive challenges to the teaching of evolution in public schools, Edwards is one of about 400 pastors nationwide, mostly from mainline Protestant churches, who are participating in "Evolution Sunday" to promote the idea that Christianity and .science may coexist peacefully.

Today, on Darwin's birthday, some will draw upon the Book of Job to validate the innate human thirst for understanding. Others will lead discussions about how to reconcile a divine Creator with the notion that life evolved through a random process of .natural selection.

"I believe that instead of suppressing or falsifying science, we people of faith need to go back to the theological drawing board in order to rethink our existing theology in the light of new data -- just as Martin Luther and John Calvin did nearly five centuries ago," said the Rev. Byron E. Shafer of Rutgers Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Evolution Sunday is part of a broader campaign begun a year ago called the Clergy Letter Project. Through e-mail and word-of-mouth, 10,266 clergy have now signed an online letter backing evolution as "a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests."

The project is the brainchild of Michael Zimmerman, a biologist rather than a clergyman, who said he was fed up with Christian preachers who told people that they had to choose between evolution and God -- "and that if you choose evolution, you're going to hell, and if you choose our version of .religion, you'll be saved."

"One of the goals of the Clergy Letter Project," Zimmerman said, "is to demonstrate that the choice that people are trying to foist on them is a false dichotomy. The fact that thousands of clergy are standing up and saying, 'We are comfortable in our beliefs, in our faith and in our God, and we are comfortable with modern science,' is a very forceful statement."

Zimmerman, a Wisconsin college administrator, declined to elaborate on his own religious beliefs beyond saying he does not attend church.

Many of the clergy participating in Evolution Sunday say they have no doubt that God is behind the process of natural selection -- but unlike backers of intelligent design, they describe those beliefs as religious, rather than scientific, and therefore, appropriate for Sunday school rather than science class.

A few acknowledge they are struggling themselves with how to reconcile Darwin's concepts with a .Christian world view.

The notion that life evolved through a random and often brutal process does not square easily, Shafer said, with Christian notions of creation -- or, for that matter, a benevolent God.

"People want to believe that we humans are special in the sight of God, and that we are a distinct and separate creation," he said. "So obviously those who are challenging that concept have a lot of .explaining to do."

Others are more sanguine about reconciling the world views -- if only to enhance their appreciation of the .complexity of God's creation.

"Does the theory of natural selection raise questions for us?" asked the Rev. Catherine Schuyler, Protestant chaplain at Stony Brook University and pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Selden, who is .married to Edwards.

"Yes, of course. But I don't think questions are such a scary thing. Questions are how we go deeper into our understanding, and therefore, deeper into our own faith."

Compromise between Darwin and God

[Shammu]

Annan prepares for privatisation of UN
   
By Joe Lauria in New York and Fraser Nelson
12 February 2006

Pressure from US forces Secretary General to put reforms in place

Annan prepares for privatisation of UN

THE United Nations has drawn up plans to privatise the bulk of its staff at its New York headquarters or have their work done more cheaply overseas. The move is in response to mounting demands for reform from the United States, its biggest paymaster.

The Business has learned that Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, has commissioned a study into the outsourcing of the department for General Assembly and Conference ­Management, the main UN ­decision-making body whose officials issue about 200 documents a day in six languages.

The move comes as the UN grapples with the oil-for-food scandal in which officials have been accused of taking bribes from Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Annan will report by the end of February on management reforms to the General Assembly. According to an internal UN document previewing Annan’s report obtained by The Business, he will include “proposals to outsource or off-shore select administrative processes” – suggesting its New York headquarters may shed staff.

Annan is reviewing the study conducted for the UN by US consulting firms Epstein & Fass Associates and Faulkner & Associates. Their preliminary study, which The Business has seen, makes no firm recommendations. But it examines three privatisation possibilities, from the most conservative to the most radical:

* Maintain the status quo of in-house operations, but save money and create efficiency through greater use of technology and eliminating more than 200 jobs through attrition by 2009;

* Retain a core of in-house functions while outsourcing some operations, along the lines of a similar exercise by the World Bank and IMF;

* Spin off the General Assembly department entirely as a for-profit, private company or an independent unit with some control by the secretariat.

The study gives frank assessments of the risks with privatisation, especially guarding privileged information and interrupting projects if new contractors are hired. It concedes privatisation may not save money. “Outsourcing does not guarantee reduced cost”, which “depends on market factors, and also… on how outsourcing is managed”, it says.

The Bush administration has made an overhaul of management a centrepiece of its UN reform programme. John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN, once said that if the New York headquarters lost 10 of its 38 floors, “it wouldn’t make a bit of difference”. He is leading an effort to move the UN towards the efficiency of a private company, including transforming the deputy secretary general into a chief operating officer and demanding that tasks are done by merit, not geography.

Christopher Burnham, a former Bush State Department chief financial officer, was named UN undersecretary general in charge of management last June and declared the UN needed to “refocus on those areas where we have a competitive advantage”.

Rick Grenell, spokesman for the US mission, told The Business the Bush administration had no position on outsourcing. “Our position is that the UN needs to function better,” Grenell said. “We need to look at all ways to make that better. No one is talking about cutting jobs or turning out lights. Talking about outsourcing is way ahead of the game.”

But there has been growing pressure from Washington on the UN to cut costs. The US pays 22% of the UN’s general budget. France pays 6.4%, the UK 5.5%, China 1.53% and Russia 1.2%. All five can wield a veto on war-making decisions.

Congressman Henry Hyde’s proposed UN Reform Act of 2005 would withhold 50% of US dues unless at least 32 of 39 proposed reforms are adopted – a clear indication of pressure intended to break the deadlock.

Some staff fear privatisation would cause a cultural shift at the organisation where international civil servants have been chosen through competitive exams for more than 60 years.

Annan prepares for privatisation of UN

[Shammu]

February 12, 2006

British imam praises London Tube bombers
A LEADING imam in the mosque where the July 7 bombers worshipped has hailed their terrorist attack on London as a “good” act in a secretly taped conversation with an undercover reporter.

Hamid Ali, spiritual leader of the mosque in West Yorkshire, said it had forced people to take notice when peaceful meetings and conferences had no impact.

He also praised the bombers as the “children” of Abdullah al-Faisal, a firebrand Muslim cleric, who was convicted of inciting murder and racial hatred in 2003.

Ali revealed that the leader of the London suicide bombers had attended sermons in Yorkshire by al-Faisal and tapes of al-Faisal’s teachings were still circulating within his mosque.

Al-Faisal, who has branded non-Muslims as “cockroaches” ripe for extermination, is serving a seven-year prison sentence but is eligible for early release next week.

Evidence of continuing extremism and terrorist sympathisers in the bombers’ community has been exposed by a six-week investigation by The Sunday Times. It contrasts with the public statements of condemnation by community leaders — including Ali — in the immediate aftermath of the July 7 attacks.

The disclosures come as a Sunday Times-YouGov poll today shows that people are gloomy about the prospects of living in peaceful coexistence with Britain’s Muslim community. Nearly two-thirds, 63%, think that tensions will rise and only 17% are optimistic about the outlook. By 10 to one, 52% to 5%, people say that recent events have made them less tolerant of other religions.

How the July 7 bombers came to be radicalised has proved to be one of the biggest mysteries surrounding their involvement. Even the intelligence services are understood to be in the dark.

In an attempt to shed light on this, an undercover reporter of Bangladeshi origin, posing as a student, lived among the Muslim community in Beeston, Leeds, where three of the bombers — Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Mir Hussain — had grown up.

The community had closed ranks in the aftermath of the London attacks which killed 56 people, including the bombers. Besieged by the world’s media and fearing reprisals from far-right extremists, many people had refused to talk about the bombers.

However, among those now willing to condone the bombers was Ali, spiritual leader of the Al-Madina Masjid mosque in Tunstall Road, Beeston, where the bombers had worshipped.

A week after the attack he had told newspapers that the perpetrators ought to be punished. But in a secretly taped conversation, he said: “What they [the bombers] did was good. They have warned that we are here, we Muslims. People have taken notice that we are here. They died so that people would take notice . . . big meetings and conferences make no change at all. With this, at least people’s ears have pricked up.”

Describing the bombers as the “children” of “Sheikh” al-Faisal and part of his group of followers, the imam disclosed that al-Faisal had visited the Beeston mosque at least three times to give “lectures”.

The imam described al-Faisal as a good Islamic scholar who was also “fiery”. He said Khan had many of his audio tapes: “He had lots of them. He definitely used to listen to al-Faisal tapes. I borrowed some from him.”

He recalled Khan asking al-Faisal many questions during one of these lectures. Khan, a primary school teaching assistant, is believed to have received training at terrorist camps in Pakistan after al-Faisal was jailed.

British imam praises London Tube bombers

[Shammu]

Musharraf: Al-Zawahiri's Kin Killed in U.S. Attack

Saturday, February 11, 2006

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan's president said Saturday that an American missile attack last month killed a close relative of Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader and a terror suspect sought by the United States.

It was the first time that Gen. Pervez Musharraf has provided details about the terror suspects killed in the strike. Until now, he has only said that "foreigners" had died.

"Five foreigners were killed in the U.S. attack in Bajur. One of them was a close relative of Ayman al-Zawahiri and the other man was wanted by the U.S. and had a $5 million reward on his head," Musharraf told a gathering of tribal elders at the residence of the interior minister in the northwestern city of Charsada.

Musharraf did not offer the names of the two militants killed in the Jan. 13 attack, which officials also said killed about a dozen civilians, including women and children.

But Pakistani intelligence officials have told The Associated Press that they were Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar and Abdul Rehman al-Maghribi.

Al-Maghribi was a Moroccan and relative of al-Zawahiri, possibly his son-in-law.

Umar, 52, an Egyptian, has been described by the Justice Department as an explosives expert and poisons instructor.

The strike in the remote northwestern town near the Afghan border sparked massive protests in Pakistan.

Musharraf said al-Zawahiri, Usama bin Laden's personal physician and top adviser, had been expected to be in the town, where the suspects were meeting for a dinner. But Pakistani officials have said al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian, skipped the event and instead sent his deputies.

Umar is suspected of having trained hundreds of mujahedeen, or Islamist fighters, at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan near the eastern city of Jalalabad before the hard-line Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001.

Pakistani officials have said the bodies of the five foreigners were taken away by their associates and buried at an undisclosed location. So far, authorities have not been able to find the graves, and Musharraf did not say how he knew two of their identities.

Details of the attack remain sketchy: it was reportedly carried out by unmanned Predator drones flying from Afghanistan and Pakistan has maintained it wasn't given advance word of the airstrike.

Many Pakistanis were furious because they saw the attack as a violation of the nation's sovereignty. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry lodged a protest with the United States.

Musharraf also defended his country's role in the war on terrorism.

"We are supporting the international community in the war against terrorism in our own interests," he said.

"We are not doing it just to appease Americans," he added. "We are pursuing a campaign against terrorism because it is against our own safety."

Other terror suspects believed to have died in the Jan. 13 strike are:

— Abu Obaidah al-Masri, an Al Qaeda chief, responsible for attacks on U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, who was based in the Afghan province of Kunar.

— Khalid Habib, an Al Qaeda operations chief on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The identity of the fifth alleged militant has not been made public.

Pakistani officials have said that the Al Qaeda men had gathered in Bajur to plan a wave of summer attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Al-Zawahiri threatened a new attack against the United States in a video released 17 days after the attacks.

Musharraf: Al-Zawahiri's Kin Killed in U.S. Attack

[Shammu]

Islamic furor exposes a rift across Europe

By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff  |  February 10, 2006

BERLIN -- The outpouring of wrath toward Europe from Muslim immigrants and from people in Islamic countries suggests, analysts say, that Europe has become the ''new" United States for many Muslims: a rich and powerful entity seeking to impose its will and values on the poorer regions of the world.

In the controversy over the pen-and-ink drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, Europe is perceived to have imposed its conception of ''free expression," according to the analysts, just as it has sought to dictate the nuclear policies of Islamic Iran.

The result is that Muslims in Europe, many of whom already see themselves as second-class citizens in their new homes, and elsewhere regard Europe as antagonistic to their aspirations and interests.

''Muslims have long seen Europe as more sympathetic, more inclined to dialogue with Muslims," than the United States, said Udo Steinbach, director of the German Institute for Middle East Studies in Hamburg. ''But now, to many Muslims, Europe is little differentiated from the United States -- just another enemy of Islam."

Thus what started as a quirky debate over freedom of expression versus respect for religious taboos has become something deeper and far more dangerous for Europe, according to analysts on both sides of the divide.

The furor over the dozen cartoons depicting Mohammed, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper and have since been reprinted in scores of newspapers in Europe and beyond, has flared from the gritty Muslim districts of London to the steaming streets of Jakarta, with Islamic radicals calling for a ''European 9/11," Muslim crowds torching European diplomatic offices in the Middle East and Asia, and protesters staging assaults on Western military bases in Afghanistan.

The frenzy over the satiric images, analysts say, has given a powerful boost to radical regimes and militant movements that care little about cartoons, but which are eager to exploit grievances against the West. Iran's radical Shi'ite government, Afghanistan's Taliban fundamentalists, Syria's dictatorial regime, armed factions in the Palestinian territories, and obscure Southeast Asian ''jihadi" groups have been fastest in pouncing on the issue.

Still, say analysts, if various renegade regimes and militant outfits have been able to fan outrage over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons so successfully, that's only because white-hot embers of resentment toward Europe were already smoldering among Muslims near and far.

''For Muslims living in Europe, the cartoons are a symbol of the racism and disgrace they feel they face every day," said Olivier Roy, one of France's foremost experts on Islamic issues, in a phone interview from Paris. ''There is a new trend to see Europe as interventionist -- like the US -- not as neutralist and even-handed. This view is taking both the Islamic world and Europe in a very dangerous direction."

Specific sore points, according to Roy and other analysts, include Europe's aggressive lead in opposing Iran's nuclear ambitions; the blistering criticism that European leaders have directed at the election of the Hamas militant faction to a majority in the Palestinian legislature; the growing European role in military operations in Afghanistan, seen by some as suppressing Islamic aspirations; and the hard-line stand taken by France in opposing Syrian attempts to maintain Lebanon as a vassal state. Also raising Muslim ire at Europe: Last year's election of pro-American conservative Angela Merkel to the chancellorship of Germany; France's assertion that it has a right to employ nuclear weapons against rogue regimes (presumably in the Middle East); and thunderous condemnation by European leaders and editorialists of vitriolic anti-Israel comments by Iran's president.
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''The cartoons are merely the final drop that caused the cup to overflow," said Ahmed Abu-Laban, imam of Copenhagen's Scandinavian Waqfs Mosque. ''Again and again we have watched the West show disrespect for our faith. Again and again we've listened to European politicians linking our faith to terrorism. Until finally it became too much.

''So now you see what happens," the Muslim cleric said in a telephone interview from Copenhagen.

It was Abu-Laban who helped turn a local brouhaha into an international crisis by bringing satiric cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to the attention of activists in the Middle East. The calls for action against the 12 drawings -- originally published in September in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which has since apologized for offending Muslims -- spawned a boycott of Danish goods that started in December. The economic protest cost the Danish economy tens of millions of dollars in lost sales of dairy goods and pharmaceuticals in the Middle East, and triggered the violent outbursts across the Muslim world.

One of the cartoons shows Mohammed wearing a sputtering bomb instead of a turban; another shows him turning suicide bombers away from heaven, declaring, ''Stop! We have run out of virgins" -- an allusion to the tradition that Muslims who die defending their faith are accorded 72 virgins when they reach paradise.

Islamic tradition prohibits physical representations of Prophet Mohammed, who founded the faith in the seventh century, for fear that faith in God will deteriorate into veneration of human images.

The original cartoons have been reprinted in scores of newspapers, mainly in Europe, usually accompanied by editorials defending freedom of expression as a higher value in secular democracies than respect for the rules of a single religion.

Emigration of Muslims from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia has made Islam the second-largest religion in Europe, after Christianity.

Experts estimate that there may be as many as 20 million Muslims in the 25 nations of the European Union, whose total population is 455 million. France, Germany, and Britain have the largest Muslim communities.

Not since the invasion of Iraq has a single circumstance brought Muslims together as much as has anger over the cartoons.

''It's a confluence of forces," Rami G. Khouri, editor-at-large of Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper, said in an interview from Beirut. ''Just at a time when Europeans are becoming more alarmed at the Muslim presence in their midst, ordinary people in the Arab-Asia world are angered that Europe seems to be adopting the same pushy, patronizing, pro-Israel positions usually associated with the US.

''The cartoons are just a fuse that ignited a combustible mixture of pressure and tensions," he said. ''Sure, Islamist troublemakers are stirring things up. Surprise, surprise. But Europeans are sending out the offensive message that their attitudes and their values count more than the attitudes and values of Muslims. More is at stake here than a few insulting, blasphemous cartoons in an obscure Danish newspaper."

Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Muslim by heritage, said that Europeans should be proud of creating democracies that permit criticism and even ridicule of religious dogma, and that freedom of expression is perhaps the single most precious of liberties.

''There is no freedom of speech in those countries where demonstrations and public outrage are being staged," she told reporters in Berlin. ''There is a right to offend within the bounds of law. It is a necessary and urgent right."

Islamic furor exposes a rift across Europe

[Shammu]

Haitian Official Alleges Vote Manipulation

By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 18 minutes ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A member of Haiti's electoral council said results of the presidential elections were being manipulated, echoing complaints by throngs of supporters of Rene Preval, who poured into the streets on Sunday with angry allegations of fraud.

With 75 percent of votes counted, Preval was falling short of winning Tuesday's elections outright by less than a percentage point.

"According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation," Pierre Richard Duchemin, an electoral council member, told The Associated Press, adding that "there is an effort to stop people from asking questions" about the counting process.

Duchemin said Sunday he needed access to tallies of vote counts in hopes of learning who was behind the alleged manipulation. He called for an investigation.

Preval's supporters converged on the electoral council headquarters. Blowing horns and pounding drums, they denounced Jacques Bernard, director-general of the nine-member council.

"Jacques Bernard is a thief. He doesn't know how to count!" they chanted. U.N. peacekeepers blocked Preval supporters from reaching the Montana Hotel, where election officials have been giving updates on the results.

"When you get thousands of people on the streets, things can get unpredictable," said U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst.

Bernard denied accusations the council voided many votes for Preval, a former president.

Suspicion has risen among many Haitians that the results were being manipulated in the five days since voters turned out in droves to elect a new government. It will replace an interim government installed after then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody rebellion two years ago.

Jean-Henoc Faroul, the president of an electoral district with 400,000 voters northeast of the capital, accused the electoral commission of trying to force a runoff, saying tally sheets from Preval strongholds have vanished.

"The electoral council is trying to do what it can to diminish the percentage of Preval so it goes to a second round," Faroul told The Associated Press. Faroul said he wanted Preval to win but added that he would be protesting if any candidate was being denied votes by manipulation.

"I am not only the president of an electoral board, but I also vote," Faroul said. "And I want my vote and the votes of all the people to be respected."

Wimhurst said tally sheets with vote results have been found in the garbage, but he said the discovery was not necessarily evidence of fraud as they may have been simply mishandled by election workers. He said 136 tally sheets containing the results of possibly thousands of votes were still unaccounted for in Port-au-Prince, but added that sheets were still being delivered piecemeal from various districts.

Wimhurst also said U.N. officials had removed the doors from the tabulation center to prevent electoral council lawyers from meeting in private.

Patrick Fequiere, another electoral council member, said on local radio that Bernard was releasing results without notifying other council members, who did not know where Bernard was obtaining his information.

Preval demonstrators threatened violence if Preval is not declared the first-round winner. As demonstrators marched on the Montana Hotel, the electoral council abruptly canceled a Sunday evening news conference.

"If they take the election from Preval, it's not going to go smoothly," said Robert Antoine, a 23-year-old from the Bel-Air slum.

Duchemin accused Bernard of "megalomania," saying he had blocked other council members from getting information on the tabulation process.

"What we're talking about now is a magician that is sitting down and saying 'I am the only one doing something ... everything I'm doing is perfect,'" Duchemin said. "We're playing with the future of this country and this is something we can't afford."

Preval was leading 33 candidates with 49.1 percent of the vote, short of the 50 percent plus one vote he needs to avoid a March 19 runoff with the runner-up. Leslie Manigat, also a former president, was second with 11.7 percent of the vote.

South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, presiding over services at Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, urged Haitians to be patient.

"They've started well, let them finish the race well," Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, told the AP. "And I think they will, that they will be peaceful and that they will accept the results of the elections."

An estimated 2.2 million people cast ballots, or 63 percent of registered voters.

About 125,000 ballots — or 7.5 percent of the votes cast — have been declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval supporters that polling officials are trying to steal the election. Another 4 percent of the ballots were blank but were still added into the total, making it harder Preval to obtain the 50 percent plus one vote needed.

Haitian Official Alleges Vote Manipulation

[Shammu]

Archaeologists Find Massive Tomb in Greece

By COSTAS KANTOURIS, Associated Press Writer Sun Feb 12, 7:28 PM ET

THESSALONIKI, Greece - Archaeologists have unearthed a massive tomb in the northern Greek town of Pella, capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia and birthplace of Alexander the Great.

The eight-chambered tomb dates to the Hellenistic Age between the fourth and second century B.C., and is the largest of its kind ever found in Greece. The biggest multichambered tombs until now contained three chambers.

The 678-square-foot tomb hewn out of rock was discovered by a farmer plowing his field on the eastern edge of the ancient cemetery of Pella, some 370 miles north of Athens, archaeologists said.

"This is the largest and most monumental tomb of its kind ever found in Greece," said Maria Akamati, who led the excavations.

Archaeologists believe the tomb — filled with dozens of votive clay pots and idols, copper coins and jewelry — will shed light on the culture of Macedonia in the period that followed Alexander's conquest of Asia.

Alexander's empire, which stretched from Greece to Asia, broke into separate kingdoms upon his death in 323 B.C., as his generals battled over the remains of the ancient world's greatest empire.

Similar tombs from the same era have been discovered on Crete, Cyprus and Egypt, which was ruled by a Greek dynasty founded by Ptolemy, Alexander's general.

The tomb's size suggests it belonged to a a wealthy Macedonian family, Akamati said.

The tomb, believed to have been used for two centuries, was probably plundered in antiquity as most of the artifacts were strewn by the entrance to the chambers, Akamati said.

The complex is dominated by a central area surrounded by eight chambers colored in red, blue and gold dyes. Three inscribed stone slabs inside bear the names of their female owners — Antigona, Kleoniki and Nikosrati. A relief on one of the slabs depicts a women and her servant.

The discovery was confirmed on Friday by a senior archaeologist responsible for the Pella site and will be presented at an Archaeological Conference in Thessaloniki that begins Thursday

Archaeologists Find Massive Tomb in Greece

[Shammu]

Last update - 16:03 13/02/2006            
Study: U.S. attack on Iran would spark conflict involving Israel
By Reuters

LONDON - A United States attack on Iran could eventually lead to a lengthy confrontation involving many other countries in the region, including Israel, a British think tank said in a report released on Monday.

"A U.S. military attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure would be the start of a protracted military confrontation that would probably involve Iraq, Israel and Lebanon as well as the United States and Iran, with the possibility of west Gulf States being involved as well," it said.

According to the Oxford Research Group report, thousands of military personnel and hundreds of civilians would be killed if the U.S. launched an air strike on Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear arms.

The report said any bombing of Iran by U.S. forces, or by Israel, would have to be part of a surprise attack that would inevitably catch many Iranians unprotected.

An attack could lead to the closure of the Gulf at the Straits of Hormuz and would probably have a substantial impact on oil prices, as well as spurring new attacks by Muslim radicals on Western interests, the report said.

"Military deaths in [the] first wave of attacks against Iran would be expected to be in the thousands, especially with attacks on air bases and Revolutionary Guard facilities," said the report by Paul Rogers of the University of Bradford.

"Civilian deaths would be in the many hundreds at least," it said. "If the war evolved into a wider conflict, primarily to pre-empt or counter Iranian responses, the casualties would eventually be much higher."

Western states suspect Iran of secretly aiming to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran says its nuclear facilities are intended to produce only electricity.

The U.S. and Israel have said they would prefer to solve the dispute through diplomacy but have not ruled out military action.

The report said an attack by the U.S. or Israel on Iran would probably spur Tehran to work as rapidly as possible towards developing a nuclear military option.

It said U.S. forces, already tied down in Iraq, would have a limited number of military options when dealing with Iran and would have to rely almost entirely on the air force and navy.

Any attack would almost certainly unify Iran and bolster the government in Tehran, and mean that any future U.S. relationship with Iran would have to be based on violence, the report said.

A military response to the crisis would be a "particularly dangerous option and should not be considered further," the report concluded.

Study: U.S. attack on Iran would spark conflict involving Israel

[Shammu]

Monday, February 13, 2006    E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version

N Korea warns Seoul of ‘nuclear war’ over US-led WMD drill

SEOUL: Stalinist North Korea has warned South Korea against sparking “nuclear war” by joining a US-led international drill aimed at intercepting weapons of mass destruction, state media said. Rodong Sinmun, the official communist party mouthpiece said late Saturday Seoul’s participation in the drill would be “conspiring with the US in its moves for a war of aggression.” “It is also a dangerous act of bringing the disaster of a nuclear war to the Korean Peninsula,” Rodong said in a dispatch carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea said last month it would send a team to “observe” a US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) drill off Australia in April and that it would get briefed regularly on the initiative. But Seoul says it has yet to join the politically sensitive initiative, which Pyongyang believes aims largely to blockade North Korea, at a time of burgeoning inter-Korean rapprochement. North Korea is locked in a standoff with the United States and its allies over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. The PSI a US-led drive to improve global efforts to intercept nuclear, chemical and biological weapons shipments by rogue states and terrorist groups was launched in May 2003.

It has since held joint manoeuvres involving ships and maritime patrol aircraft with over 60 nations signing up for the initiative. The key signatories include the United States, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Singapore. China, a North Korean ally, and South Korea, which has sought closer ties with the North since a peace summit in 2000, have yet to join the initiative.

N Korea warns Seoul of ‘nuclear war’ over US-led WMD drill

[Shammu]

Syria switches to euro amid confrontation with US

1 hour, 14 minutes ago

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has switched all of the state's foreign currency transactions to euros from dollars amid a political confrontation with the United States, the head of state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria said on Monday.

"This is a precaution. We are talking about billions of dollars," Duraid Durgham told Reuters.

The bank, which still dominates the Syrian market although private banks have been allowed to set up in the last few years, has also stopped dealing with dollars in the international foreign exchange flows of private clients.

The United States has been at the forefront of international pressure on Syria for its alleged role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri a year ago. Damascus denies involvement in the killing.

"It looks like a kind of pre-emptive action aimed at making their foreign assets safer, preventing them from getting frozen in case of any conflict," said a Middle East economist who requested anonymity.

Syria switches to euro amid confrontation with US

[Shammu]

EU's Solana tries to ease cartoons crisis on Mideast trip

2 hours, 40 minutes ago

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has expressed Europe's respect for Islam on a visit to the Middle East to ease the global crisis over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Solana met with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, head of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which is based in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, on Monday.

The OIC chief called for international legislation banning the defamation of religion and prophets, saying Muslims had become the "new Jews of Europe" and being subjected to an assault comparable to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"(In) the European Union we feel a profound respect yesterday, today and tomorrow, and we never had wanted in any case to offend their feelings," Solana told reporters after the meeting.

"This is not our intention. This has not been our intention, and will not be out intention," he added.

The EU chief was sounding a conciliatory note over the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed that have triggered a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world.

The row, initially sparked by the publication last September in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet, including one with a turban shaped as a bomb, pits defenders of free speech against Muslims who see the cartoons as insulting and blasphemous.

Solana said he had conveyed this message to the OIC chief over the phone but wanted to transmit it in person.

But the head of the pan-Islamic body called upon the EU through the European parliament, to pass legislation to combat what he termed as "Islamophobia" and to implement a code of ethics for journalists that would prohibit insulting or caricaturing religious symbols.

"Unfortunately, what is going on now ... people in the Muslim world are starting to feel this is a new September 11 against them," he said. "Muslims of Europe are taking the place of the Jews before the Second World War."

Solana was evasive about the possibility of passing new legislation in Europe regarding the issue, saying it was covered in the exisiting EU conventions.

"We are trying to do our utmost so that things of this nature cannot be repeated, but you know when you have a very important law saying you shall not kill, people continue killing," he said.

"It's something that you cannot prevent and people do things which are not appropriate."

He nonetheless said one possibility would be to address the issue in the new proposed UN Human Rights Council which would replace the current 53-member Human Rights Commission as part of the reforms of the international body slated for 2006.

"If in the construction of the new council something can be said in that direction ... I would not object to that," he said.

Solana stressed the obligation of all parties, including Arab and Muslim governments, to calm sentiments on the cartoons issue which has led to violent riots across the Muslim world that have killed 13 people and seen the torching of Danish embassies in some countries.

Solana was in Saudi Arabia, which is the home of Islam holiest cites, on the first stop in a five-country Middle East trip mainly aimed at repairing ties strained by the row over the caricatures.

The four-day tour will also take him to Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Solana was to meet with King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in Riyadh, before flying on to Cairo later Monday

EU's Solana tries to ease cartoons crisis on Mideast trip

My note; This will be insetersting to watch. I have my own supitions about Mr. Solana, which I'm not ready to share yet.

[twobombs]

Tehran plans a nuclear weapons test before March 20, 2006 – the Iranian New Year, moves Shahab-3 missiles within striking range of Israel

January 22, 2006, 9:30 AM (GMT+02:00)

Reporting this, the dissident Foundation for Democracy in Iran, a US-based watch group, cites sources in the US and Iran. The FDI adds from Iran: on June 16, the high command of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force ordered Shahab-3 missile units to move mobile launchers every 24 hours instead of weekly. This is in view of a potential pre-emptive strike by the US or Israel.

Advance Shahab-3 units have been positioned in Kermanshah and Hamad within striking distance of Israel, reserve launchers moved to Esfahan and Fars.

The missile units were told to change positions “in a radius of 30-35 kilometers” and only at night.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources add: FDI reporting has a reputation for credibility. Western and Israeli intelligence have known for more than six months that Iran’s nuclear program has reached the capability of being able to carry out a nuclear explosion, albeit underground. It would probably be staged in a desert or mountain region and activated by a distant control center. Tehran would aim at confronting the Americans, Europeans and Israelis with an irreversible situation.

At the same time, an explosion of this sort would indicate that Iran is not yet able to produce a nuclear bomb that can be delivered by airplane or a warhead adapted to a missile. The stage Iran has reached is comparable to Pakistan’s when it conducted its first nuclear tests in the nineties and North Korea’s in 2001. All the same, an Iranian underground nuclear blast, which will most probably be attempted on March 22, would turn around the strategic position of all the parties concerned and the Middle East as whole.

The question now is: will the United States, Israel or both deliver a pre-emptive strike ahead of the Iranian underground test - or later? Or will Washington alternatively use the event to bring the UN Security Council round to economic sanctions? Tehran is already organizing to withstand economic penalties. For Israel, the timing is getting tight in view of its general election on March 28. Acting prime minister Ehud Olmert must take into account that a ruling party which allows an Iranian nuclear explosion to take place six days before the poll would draw painful punishment from the voter.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=1696
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German Newspaper: Iran Tested Missile Secretly in January
February 6, 2006 :: News

The German daily Die Welt cites western intelligence sources as reporting that Iran secretly tested a new surface-to-surface ballistic missile last month. The purpose of the test, which allegedly took place on January 17, was to collect electronic and aerodynamic measurements from the long-range missile during its flight. The test was conducted by a 15-person engineering team under the direct control of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and was attended by commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as well as some high-ranking employees of the Iranian aviation industry. Diplomatic sources in Iran are cited as saying the test was a success.

        The German news agency DDP speculates that the above-mentioned missile may have been the Shahab-4, an intermediate-range weapon similar to the older Shahab-3 except for its increased range of over 2,000 km (approx. 1,250 miles) and its improved accuracy based on more modern digital guidance systems. Although the Shahab-4 project has been shrouded in secrecy in recent years, it is most likely an attempt to make Iran’s missile program less dependent upon foreign materials. (Article, Link)

http://www.missilethreat.com/news/200602061133.html