News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

Latvian Police Stops Unauthorized SS March

Created: 16.03.2006 19:53 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 19:53 MSK

MosNews

Police in the Latvian capital of Riga has stopped the unsanctioned demonstration of SS veterans.

About 300 people took place in the march.

A group of antifascists attempted to stop the march. Some of them were detained.

On March 13, Riga parliament declined the request to hold the veterans’ march , as well as protests against the former Nazi collaborators, but nationalists and radicals announced they would go ahead with the event despite official notices.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga earlier slammed the planned marches saying the country “has set a special date, November 11, for commemorating soldiers, whereas March 16 is a kind of holiday that we really do not need.”

Last year, 20 people were arrested in Latvia during clashes between nationalists and leftist protesters on March 16.

Latvian Police Stops Unauthorized SS March

[Shammu]

EU Warns to Strengthening Sanctions on Belarus for Lack of Democracy

Created: 16.03.2006 18:05 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:05 MSK

MosNews

European Union has condemned arrests of Belarus opposition leaders and warned of strengthening sanctions against Minsk.

The statement made by the EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, quoted at the EU website said “such arrests have no place in the conduct of free and fair elections.”

“I call again on the Belarusian authorities to release immediately those opposition members who are currently still detained,” Ferrero-Waldner said. She also deplored the fact that a delegation of the European Parliament members had been arrested, “including members of a Scandinavian team of election experts, and that a number of independent journalists and other election experts have been denied access to the Belarusian territory.”

“Three days before the election, the Belarusian authorities should recall that the EU has made clear it stands ready to take further appropriate restrictive measures against the responsible individuals, if the elections are not conducted in a democratic manner,” the commissioner said.

On Wednesday, heads of foreign affairs committees of the European Parliament and the U.S. House of Representatives signed a joint letter to the people of Belarus condemning the “ongoing erosion of freedom by the Belarusian government” and warning that unfair elections “will inevitably result in a further isolation of the Belarusian government from the international community.”

Belarus former minister Sergei Martynov quoted by Reuters said on Wednesday he did not believe that such measures “would make the EU popular with Belarusians.”

EU Warns to Strengthening Sanctions on Belarus for Lack of Democracy

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Smoking galaxy revealed

 March 17, 2006



The visible-light picture of the Cigar galaxy shows only a bar of light against a dark patch of space. Click on browse image for a visible/infrared comparison. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/NOAO
Where there's smoke, there's fire - even in outer space. A new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a burning hot galaxy whose fiery stars appear to be blowing out giant billows of smoky dust.

The galaxy, called Messier 82, or the "Cigar galaxy," was previously known to host a hotbed of young, massive stars. The new Spitzer image reveals, for the first time, the "smoke" surrounding those stellar fires.

"We've never seen anything like this," said Dr. Charles Engelbracht of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "This unusual galaxy has ejected an enormous amount of dust to cover itself with a cloud brighter than any we've seen around other galaxies."

The false-colored view shows Messier 82, an irregular-shaped galaxy positioned on its side, as a diffuse bar of blue light. Fanning out from its top and bottom like the wings of a butterfly are huge red clouds of dust believed to contain a compound similar to car exhaust.

The smelly material, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, can be found on Earth in tailpipes, barbecue pits and other places where combustion reactions have occurred. In galaxies, the stuff is created by stars, whose winds and radiation blow the material out into space.

"Usually you see smoke before a fire, but we knew about the fire in this galaxy before Spitzer's infrared eyes saw the smoke," said Dr. David Leisawitz, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

These hazy clouds are some of the biggest ever seen around a galaxy. They stretch out 20,000 light-years away from the galactic plane in both directions, far beyond where stars are found.

Previous observations of Messier 82 had revealed two cone-shaped clouds of very hot gas projecting outward below and above the center of galaxy. Spitzer's sensitive infrared vision allowed astronomers to see the galaxy's dust.

"Spitzer showed us a dust halo all around this galaxy," said Engelbracht. "We still don't understand why the dust is all over the place and not cone-shaped."

Cone-shaped clouds of dust around this galaxy would have indicated that its central, massive stars had sprayed the dust into space. Instead, Engelbracht and his team believe stars throughout the galaxy are sending off the "smoke signals."

Messier 82 is located about 12 million light-years away in the Ursa Major constellation. It is undergoing a renaissance of star birth in its middle age, with the most intense bursts of star formation taking place at its core. The galaxy's interaction with its neighbor, a larger galaxy called Messier 81, is the cause of all the stellar ruckus. Our own Milky Way galaxy is a less hectic place, with dust confined to the galactic plane.

The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal. Other authors who contributed significantly to this work are Praveen Kundurthy and Dr. Karl Gordon, both of the University of Arizona. The image was taken as a part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey, which is led by Dr. Robert Kennicutt, also of the University of Arizona.

Smoking galaxy revealed

[Shammu]

Bombs, Bullets Greet Shiites on Pilgrimage

By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 17 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Muslim pilgrims' road to the holy city of Karbala was a highway of bullets and bombs for Shiites on Friday. Drive-by shootings and roadside and bus bombs killed or wounded 19 people, ratcheting up the sectarian tensions gripping Iraq.

Security forces, including U.S. armored reinforcements, girded for more bloodshed leading up to Monday's Shiite holiday. And north of Baghdad, in the Sunni Triangle, a two-day-old operation involving 1,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops swept through an area near Samarra in search of insurgents.

It was in Samarra that the insurgent bombing of a Shiite shrine last month ignited days of violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. More than 500 people died.

Authorities had feared new attacks as tens of thousands of Shiites, many dressed in black and carrying religious banners, converge on Karbala, 50 miles south of the capital, for Monday's 40th and final day of mourning for Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

The U.S. military announced this week it was dispatching a fresh battalion of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, about 700 troops, to Iraq from its base in Kuwait to provide extra security for Shiite holy cities and Baghdad during this period.

Friday's bloodshed in Baghdad began as groups of faithful, many of them parents with children in tow, trekked down city streets headed for the southbound highway to Karbala.

At about 7:30 a.m., a BMW sedan driving alongside pilgrims in the western district of Adil opened fire, killing three young men and wounding two other people, police Lt. Thair Mahmoud said. Police later reported a second shooting, also in western Baghdad, in which men riding in a car fired on pilgrims near Um al-Tuboul Square, wounding three.

Then, about midday, a bomb left in a plastic bag of vegetables exploded on a minibus, killing two passengers and wounding four in a Shiite district of Baghdad, police reported. Later in the day, a roadside bomb went off as a crowd of pilgrims passed in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, wounding five people.

Elsewhere, police in a Shiite area of east Baghdad late Thursday found the bodies of four Sunni men who had been seized from a taxi by masked gunmen the day before in western Baghdad. And police reported that six mortar rounds landed on six houses Friday in a mixed Sunni-Shiite area of Khan Bani Saad, 10 miles north of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding three.

In the western city of Ramadi, U.S. forces again exchanged fire with attackers. The clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents began about 6:30 p.m. Friday around the U.S. base at the provincial government headquarters, according to a doctor at Ramadi hospital, Dheya al-Duleimi. He had no immediate information on casualties.

Iraqi troops killed one attacker in a firefight with insurgents in nearby Fallujah, police Lt. Omer Ahmed reported.

In the big helicopter-borne operation north of Baghdad, only light resistance was reported as some 1,500 troops from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division and Iraq's 4th Division swept through a 100-square-mile area in search of insurgents and weapons.

Lt. Col. Edward Loomis, 101st Airborne Division spokesman, said about 40 suspects were detained, 10 of whom were later released, and six weapons caches were found.

The only casualty reported in the operation was a 101st Airborne soldier shot and killed Thursday while manning an observation post in Samarra.

Two U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's Task Force Band of Brothers were killed and another wounded in indirect fire on a base northwest of Tikrit, the U.S. military said Saturday. The attack on Contingency Operating Base Speicher happened Thursday. No names were released.

At least 2,314 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

"Operation Swarmer," described as the largest air assault operation in three years, was focused on an area of Salahuddin province that was a stronghold of Sunni support for Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.

Speaking by video conference with Pentagon reporters, the U.S. second-in-command here, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, stressed that the majority of troops in the operation were Iraqi. He said the goal is to have Iraqi security forces in control of 75 percent of Iraq by this summer.

The U.S. command has sought to spotlight development of Iraqi military potential. As Iraqi forces improve, American officials say, U.S. forces in Iraq can be reduced.

Iraqi political leaders, meanwhile, met in another round of talks to break the Sunni-Shiite logjam over the makeup of a new government. They emerged after two hours with no breakthroughs to report.

Minority factions are trying to prevent majority Shiites, the biggest bloc in the new parliament, from dominating the major jobs — prime minister and defense and interior ministers.

Representatives of the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs said that on Friday they discussed formation of a National Security Council, a compromise proposal for a joint body to oversee the defense and interior ministries.

More meetings are needed, they said. Tarek al-Hashimi, of the Sunni bloc's Iraqi Accordance Front, said the country faced "a dangerous political dilemma." His Kurdish counterpart, Barham Saleh, said the sectarian crisis runs "much deeper" than the dispute over a Shiite effort to name acting Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari as the future government chief.

U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told The Associated Press on Friday that talks were under way about when he would meet with Iranian officials to discuss the Iraqi political situation. The talks should be held in Baghdad, Khalilzad said.

Iran's Shiite leadership has considerable influence among Iraq's Shiite groups.

Bombs, Bullets Greet Shiites on Pilgrimage

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Sacred sites key to protecting species: UN

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian Fri Mar 17, 4:15 PM ET

NAIROBI (Reuters) - From skull caves in southern Kenya to Mexico's searing Chihuahuan desert, preserving sacred sites is key to slowing the loss of animal and plant species, environmentalists said on Saturday.

Experts have pinpointed a string of religious sites across the globe as pilot ecosystems where local customs have helped safeguard troves of biological richness.

A new $1.7 million U.N.-led initiative aims to help protect those sites by documenting species, conducting surveys with local communities and assessing potential for ecotourism.

"There is clear and growing evidence of a link between cultural diversity and biodiversity," Klaus Toepfer, U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) executive director, said announcing the plan.

"Sadly, sacred sites are also under threat and there is an urgent need to help local, indigenous and traditional peoples safeguard their heritage which in turn can do much to conserve the biological and genetic diversity upon which we all depend."

The project will look at sites such as south Indian forest groves linked to agricultural and artistic traditions, and the ritual site of Mount Ausangate in Peru, UNEP said.

BRAZIL MEETING

Also targeted is the Boloma-Bijagos archipelago in Guinea-Bissau, where beaches and mangroves are used for rituals and are home to fish, crocodiles and hippos.

According to strict local community rules, certain areas are off limits and burials, shedding of blood and construction of permanent settlements are banned in some places.

"These traditional practices ... assist in the preservation of the sites for flora and fauna," said Gonzalo Oviedo of the World Conservation Union.

Other sites listed include the Taita skull caves in southern Kenya, where the bones of male members of the tribe are placed. Taboos surrounding the caves have led to small but important relics of indigenous forest surviving.

Wirikuta in Mexico's Chihuahan desert, where locals believe the sun was born, is home to around two-thirds of birds and mammals of the desert.

But it is under threat from uncontrolled tourism, agriculture, hunting and illegal trafficking of wildlife.

Communities managing such sites had made efforts locally but global action had been woefully inadequate, said Oviedo.

The "Conservation of Biodiversity Rich Sacred Natural Sites" initiative will be formally unveiled at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Brazil on March 20-31.

The meeting will review a world goal of slowing drastic acceleration of biodiversity by 2010, set at a summit in Johannesburg in 2002.

"Conserving sacred sites and their biological richness can play a major role in achieving the 2010 target and perhaps act as beacons from where good and sustainable management practices can be exported to nearby areas and beyond," Toepfer said.

Sacred sites key to protecting species: UN

[Shammu]

Anti-War Protests Planned Across the World

By ED JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 13 minutes ago

SYDNEY, Australia - An anti-war rally in Australia kicked off what was expected to be a wave of global protests on Saturday, as campaigners marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with a demand that coalition troops pull out.

Around 500 protesters marched through central Sydney, chanting "End the war now and "Troops out of Iraq." Many campaigners waved placards branding President Bush the "World's No. 1 Terrorist" or expressing concerns that Iran could be the next country to face invasion.

"Hands off Iran," read several placards carried by protesters.

"Iraq is a quagmire and has been a humanitarian disaster for the Iraqis," said Jean Parker, a member of the Australian branch of the Stop the War Coalition, which organized the march. "There is no way forward without ending the occupation."

Paddy Gibson of the pressure group Students Against War said the "deepening crisis" in Iraq would only get worse if coalition troops stayed. "The longer this occupation continues, the more destabilized that country becomes."

Opposition to the war is still evident in Australia, which has some 1,300 troops in and around Iraq. Visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was heckled by campaigners in Sydney this week, who said she had "blood on her hands."

But Saturday's protest was small, compared to the mass demonstrations that swept across the country in the buildup to the invasion — the largest Australia had seen since joining U.S. forces in the Vietnam War.

In Tokyo, about 2,000 people rallied in a downtown park, carrying signs saying "Stop the Occupation" as they listened to a series of anti-war speeches, said Takeshiko Tsukushi, a member of World Peace Now, which helped plan the rally. Tokyo police were unable to immediately confirm the number in attendance.

"The war is illegal under international law," Tsukushi said. "We want the immediate withdrawal of the Self Defense Forces and from Iraq along with all foreign troops."

Japanese Prime Minister Junchiro Koizumi is a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led coalition in Japan and dispatched 600 troops to the southern city of Samawah in 2004 to purify water and carry out other humanitarian tasks. The Cabinet approved an extension of that mission in December, authorizing soldiers to stay in Iraq through the end of the year.

But public opinion polls show the majority of Japanese oppose the mission, which has been criticized as a violation of the country's pacifist constitution. Many say the deployment has made Japan a target for terrorism.

Demonstrations were also expected across Europe.

"We will continue until we see the last general running for a helicopter on the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad," read a statement from Stop the War Alliance, which is organizing a rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece.

In London, Scotland Yard police headquarters said streets around Piccadilly Circus in the heart of the shopping and theater district would be closed as up to 100,000 people planned to march through the capital. Britain has about 8,000 troops in Iraq.

Demonstrations "Against the Occupation of Iraq" were planned Saturday in several Spanish cities, including Madrid and Barcelona.

In South Korea, which has the third-largest contingent of foreign troops in Iraq after the U.S. and Britain, up to 3,000 demonstrators were expected to gather Sunday at the main train station in the capital Seoul. In Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur, a rally was planned outside the U.S. Embassy on Sunday, as part of the international anti-Iraq war movement.

Anti-War Protests Planned Across the World

[Shammu]

Mar. 18, 2006 11:37
Danish PM delays India trip due to prophet protest
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI

Denmark's prime minister has postponed a visit to India, the Indian foreign ministry said Saturday, as the fallout continues over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, which first appeared in Danish publications.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen had been scheduled to arrive in India on April 2 for a five-day visit.

But the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement that, "the two sides have found that the proposed timing for the visit was not optimal."

The statement gave no explanation, but there have been widespread protests in India, some of which turned violent, against the cartoons that first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September.

Danish PM delays India trip due to prophet protest

[Shammu]

Iran, N.Korea Nukes Cause 'Grave Concern'

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer 32 minutes ago

PAGO, PAGO, American Samoa - The United States, Japan and Australia said Saturday they share "grave concerns" about Iran's nuclear program, along with the view the U.N. security council must act to deter Iran from activities that could produce an atomic bomb.

In a joint statement following first-ever three-way security talks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterparts also said North Korea should unconditionally and immediately return to six-party nuclear talks.

"We have grave concerns about Iran's nuclear program and discussed the need for concerted action at the
U.N. Security Council to convince Iran to promptly suspend all enrichment related activities, fully cooperate with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), return to negotiations and take all steps called for by the IAEA board," Rice, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said in a joint statement released after three-way security talks.

Iran insists its nuclear program is intended only to generate electricity, but the United States and others suspect the regime is seeking the technology to build a nuclear weapon.

The U.N. security council is currently locked in discussions over what action to take against Iran for resuming its uranium enrichment activities.

Meanwhile, North Korea has stayed away from the negotiating table over its nuclear program since November, demanding that Washington lift financial restrictions imposed on a Macau bank and North Korean companies for alleged complicity in a counterfeiting and money laundering scheme.

The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, had appeared to reach a breakthrough in September, when Pyongyang agreed to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. However, no progress has been made since to implement an agreement.

The talks in Australia also covered the Iraq war, the recent U.S.-India deal covering India's nuclear energy program and regional efforts to combat terrorism, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The influence of China in the Pacific region was part of the discussion, but was not a defining topic, the spokesman said.

The joint statement made scant reference to China, merely welcoming the country's "constructive engagement in the region."

Iran, N.Korea Nukes Cause 'Grave Concern'

[Shammu]

French unions and students mass for protests
Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:53 AM ET13

 By Tom Heneghan

PARIS (Reuters) - Protesters and police geared up for mass demonstrations across France on Saturday as pressure mounted on the conservative government to cancel a new law that students and unions fear will undermine job security.

Trade unions and left-wing parties will join students in the demonstrations, bringing numbers, organizational talent and leading opposition figures to a movement that has created a serious crisis for Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

After a Paris student protest ended in violence on Thursday, police urged shopkeepers along the march route there to shut down and tagged parked cars with warnings. They also collected any debris that protesters could throw at riot police.

The demonstrations, which organizers hope will bring out more than a million people nationwide, were to begin mostly in the early afternoon. Several thousand rallied at an early march in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

"I think lots of people will be out there today," said teachers' union leader Gerard Aschieri. "This is a stage in a movement that is growing and that no politician can ignore."

The First Job Contract (CPE), which Villepin rammed through parliament without debate, aims to fight youth unemployment by easing job protection for workers under 26, a step meant to spur hiring among bosses wary of taking on new staff.

Critics reject this as a "Kleenex contract" because young workers could be fired without explanation -- "thrown away like a paper tissue," they say -- during their first two years. They demand full job protection after a short trial period.

French trade unions usually defend only their members, who are protected by strong labor laws, but have hooked up with the students now out of fear that the new contract could be the first step toward undermining their more privileged status.

The powerful pro-Communist CGT union upped the ante going into the day of protest, which union leaders plan to cap with a meeting after the march to discuss future strategy.

"If they don't listen to us we are going to have to think about moving to a general strike across the whole country," said CGT head Bernard Thibault.

NO ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE

Unemployment is the top political issue in France, where the national average is 9.6 percent and youth joblessness is double that. The rate rises to 50 percent in some of the poor suburbs hit by several weeks of youth rioting last autumn.

Widely criticized for sparking the protests with his surprise CPE contract, Villepin has vowed to stay the course, aware that giving in could ruin his hopes to run for president next year, as earlier prime ministers learned to their chagrin.

In a bid to defuse the crisis, President Jacques Chirac said on Friday the government was "ready for dialogue" on the law that critics say must be withdrawn before any talks can start.

But it was hard to see how the government has much room for maneuver without making major concessions. An opinion poll published on Friday showed 68 percent of French people oppose the law, a rise of 13 percentage points in a week.

The crisis has left Villepin exposed politically. His main rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, has stood back discreetly as the prime minister's troubles mount.

His only consolation is that the opposition Socialists are so split that they hardly seem able to profit from the crisis.

University chancellors met Villepin on Friday evening and urged him to suspend the law and launch negotiations.

"We told him that things are getting worse and that next week could prove very risky," said Yannick Vallee, vice president of the association of university presidents.

French unions and students mass for protests

[Shammu]

Women, hit hard by AIDS, need own UN agency-envoy
Fri 17 Mar 2006 6:30 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS, March 17 (Reuters) - Women and girls are are far more vulnerable to AIDS than men and need their own U.N. agency to defend them, just as the U.N. children's fund UNICEF protects young people, a top U.N. envoy said on Friday.

"What has happened to women is such a gross and palpable violation of human rights that the funding must be found," said Stephen Lewis, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for AIDS in Africa. "We must right the wrong."

Lewis, just back from a trip to Lesotho and Swaziland in southern Africa, said 56 percent of pregnant women between 25 and 29 years old in Swaziland were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to a recent government survey.

"That's the highest prevalence I have ever encountered in the last five years. The mind fractures at the thought of it," he told a news conference.

In Lesotho, roughly 30 percent of girls 15 to 17 years of age were infected, he added. "This is obviously a disaster for the country, but it reconfirms yet again the wildly disproportionate vulnerability of women and girls."

An estimated 57 percent of infected adults 15 to 49 years old in Lesotho are women, while 43 percent are men.

Lesotho and Swaziland broadly reflect what is happening across Africa, the continent hardest hit by the pandemic, he said, arguing that the situation would be different had a well-funded and powerful agency representing women's interests been in place.

"Not only would the women of Lesotho and Swaziland now be far better off, but we could at this point mount an unbridled campaign to demand that gender equality be legislated and enforced in these two countries," he said.

"Years from now, historians will ask how it was possible that the world allowed AIDS to throttle and eviscerate a continent -- and overwhelmingly the women of that continent -- and watch the tragedy unfold in real time while we toyed with the game of reform." he said.

Across all of sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 60 percent of the world's infected individuals, an estimated 4.6
percent of young women age 15 to 24 are infected with HIV, compared to 1.7 percent of young men, according to the latest available U.N. statistics.

Women, hit hard by AIDS, need own UN agency-envoy

[Shammu]

 Kenya church makes Aids apology
Kenya's Anglican Church has issued a public apology for previously shunning those with HIV/Aids.

"Our earlier approach in fighting Aids was misplaced, since we likened it to a disease for sinners and a curse from God," said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.

He was speaking to a group of HIV positive Christian and Muslim clergy.

The BBC's Gladys Njoroge in Kenya says there has been lots of church discrimination against those with HIV - some have been excommunicated.

Some Muslims have been killed because of their status, advocates for people with HIV have claimed.

Archbishop Nzimbi said the Church would now work to end the stigma associated with Aids.

Ugandan clergyman Gideon Byamugisha, who has lived for 19 years with HIV, says the apology is welcome.

"It's better to be long overdue than never," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

Canon Byamugisha and his Africa Network of Religious Leaders Living with HIV/Aids urged political and religious leaders to fight the stigma by publicly disclosing their own HIV status.

He said those with HIV could act as positive role models.

Kenya church makes Aids apology

[Shammu]

Mar. 18, 2006 16:13
Al-Qaida vow to overthrow Saudi royals
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt

The leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, who was killed in a raid last month, vowed in his final testament that his group will overthrow the royal family and threatened more attacks against the kingdom and Americans in the region, according to a video released Saturday.

The video showed Fahd Faraaj al-Juwair wearing a red T-shirt and what seems to be an explosive belt, reading his will. Behind him, the map of the Saudi Kingdom, written on it, "Expel the infidels from the Arabian Peninsula."

Addressing the Saudi Royal family, al-Juwair said, "if you know what the youth are preparing for you, you will be busy to escape this peninsula," he said in the video, sent in an email to The Associated Press.

He warned Americans, "Get out of Muhammad's peninsula, get out of all Muslim lands, stop supporting the Jews in Palestine, halt supporting Christians in Muslim lands, or else you'll have nothing but killing, destruction and explosions," al-Juwair added.

Al-Juwair was reported killed by Saudi security forces along with four other leading militants in a Feb. 27 raid in the capital Riyadh, launched in the wake of an al-Qaida attack on the Abqaiq complex, the largest oil processing facility in the world.

Al-Qaida vow to overthrow Saudi royals

[Shammu]

Iraq War Protests Attract Fewer People

By SUE LEEMAN, Associated Press Writer 24 minutes ago

LONDON - Thousands of people held anti-war demonstrations Saturday in global protests that marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq by demanding that coalition troops pull out.

But the demonstrations attracted less people than organizers had hoped.

In London, police said about 15,000 people joined a march from Parliament and Big Ben to a rally in Trafalgar Square, fewer than the 100,000 organizers had expected to attend.

Protesters in several cities carried posters showing pictures of U.S. President George W. Bush, calling him the "world's No. 1 terrorist." In London, other posters pictured British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying "Blair must go!"

"We are against this war, both for religious reasons and on a humanitarian basis, too," said student Imran Saghir, 25, a Muslim who attended the London rally.

Speakers in London demanded coalition forces be withdrawn from Iraq, warning that the fighting could spread to neighboring Iran because of the international standoff over Tehran's nuclear program.

"We must redouble our efforts not just to stop this war, but to say 'no' to an attack on Iran," said Mark Serwotka, the head of the Public and Commercial Services union.

Britain, the United States' strongest supporter in the Iraq war, has about 8,000 troops in Iraq but plans to pull out 800 of them by May. The British military has reported 103 deaths there.

In Stockholm, about 1,000 demonstrators gathered for a rally and march to the U.S. Embassy. Protesters carried banners reading "No to U.S. warmongering" and "USA out of Iraq," while some held up a U.S. flag with the white stars replaced by dollar signs.

One protester was dressed as the hooded figure shown in an iconic photograph from the Abu Ghraib prison. "We do not need Abu Ghraib democracy, or Guantanamo Bay freedom," said Eftikar Hashem Alhusainy, addressing the rally.

In Copenhagen, more than 2,000 demonstrators marched from the U.S. embassy to the British embassy, demanding that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen withdraws the 530 Danish troops stationed in southern Iraq.

Demonstrations were also held in three other Danish cities, drawing close to 2,000 protesters, said Joern Andersen, one of the organizers.

In Turkey, where opposition to the war is nearly universal and cuts across all political stripes, about 3,000 protesters gathered in Istanbul, police said.

"Murderer USA," read a sign unfurled by a communist in Taksim Square in European Istanbul. "USA, go home!" said red-and-black signs carried in Kadikoy on the city's Asian coast.

Turkey, Iraq's northern neighbor, is the only Muslim-majority member of NATO alliance. Previously close relations with Washington were severely strained after parliament refused to allow U.S. troops to launch operations into Iraq from Turkish territory.

In Italy, Romano Prodi, the center-left leader who is challenging conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi in next month's election, said he and his supporters wouldn't join Rome's march because of a risk of violence.

The rally drew several thousand people and Francesco Romano, a 46- year old state railway worker said protesters were proving "people are not in favor of the war in Iraq and will not be in favor of future wars."

In Greece, about 600 demonstrators marched through central Athens to the U.S. embassy, where protesters chanted "Stop the War now," and "American killers get out of Iraq."

About 700 protesters marched peacefully through an inner-city district of Berlin during a rally, police said.

In Austria, protesters marching through Vienna — about 200 by police estimates — chanted "Freedom, freedom for Iraq and Palestine," as they made their way to the U.S. embassy.

Anti-war demonstrations were also planned later Saturday in Spain. On Sunday, up to 3,000 demonstrators were expected in Seoul, South Korea, which has the third-largest contingent of foreign troops in Iraq after the U.S. and Britain, while a rally was planned outside the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur.

Britain's defense chief earlier urged demonstrators in London to support the Iraqi people and condemn terrorism.

"When people go on the streets of London today, I do wish just occasionally they would go out in support of the
United Nations, the Iraqi people and the Iraqi democrats and condemn terrorists," Defense Secretary John Reid told British Broadcasting Corp. radio during a visit to Iraq.

Members of the Stop the War Coalition, the organizers of the London march, had little sympathy for Reid's remarks.

"Every day you hear of new deaths. Tony Blair has actually made Iraq a worse place for the Iraqi people," said Rose Gentle, whose soldier son Gordon, 19, was killed by a roadside bomb last year in Basra, southern Iraq.

Iraq War Protests Attract Fewer People

[Soldier4Christ]

I have noticed that the anti-war protestors in the U.S. semm to be losing their steam also. I wonder why?

[Shammu]

21:14 18/03/2006            
Egypt confiscates ton-and-a-half of explosives en route to Gaza
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, Services and Agencies

Egyptian security forces confiscated on Saturday a ton-and-a-half of explosive material designated to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip.

According to Egyptian sources, the explosives were discovered in 30 bags hidden near Egypt's border with Gaza.

Security sources said they have been successful in thwarting recent attempts to smuggle weapons, in particular along the northern border, yet added that this was an exceptionally large amount of explosives.

Three Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed on Saturday evening south of Ashkelon. No injuries or damages were reported.

Israel Defense Forces troops arrested on Saturday a Palestinian carrying a 12 centimeter-long knife attempting to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank.

In a separate incident on Saturday, an IDF spokesperson said soldiers arrested a Palestinian carrying a 20 centimeter-long knife near the Hawara barricade south of Nablus. The detainee was transferred to security forces for questioning.

The spokesperson said that IDF forces also arrested on Saturday two Palestinians trying to infiltrate Israel from the Gaza Strip carrying knives.

No injuries or damages were reported in any of the incidents.

Palestian militants earlier on Saturday opened fire on an Israel Defense Forces outpost located along the border fence with Gaza, near the Kissufim crossing. No civilian casualties or injuries were reported.

Border Policemen shoot dead 10-year-old Palestinian near Jenin
Border Policemen shot dead a ten-year-old Palestinian girl and injured another man Friday in the West Bank village of Yamoun, northeast of Jenin.

Israel Defense Forces sources said that an undercover Border Police unit entered the village in order to arrest wanted Islamic Jihad militants.

The unit surrounded several houses that allegedly harbored the wanted men.

According to the IDF sources, the girl, Akaber Zaed, was inadvertently hit by shots fired at a Palestinian cab trying to evade a roadblock.

The policemen opened fire after due procedure, said the source. But Kamal Zaed, the girl's uncle who was driving the car, said three men ran toward the car and before he could turn off the engine they fired on him.

"I saw them behind the fence. There were more than 30 soldiers. The first bullet hit my niece. She got a bullet in the head from the very beginning," Zaed recalled from his hospital bed, where he was being treated Saturday for gunshot wounds in his arm and leg.

When the gunfire erupted, Zaed had just arrived at the clinic where his niece was to have her stitches removed.

"I started to yell ... opened the door and started taking her out of the car to get her into the clinic. They (the soldiers) yelled at me to put her on the ground, started shooting in the air. I don't know what they shot at," Zaed said.

Later, Zaed said he was pulled out of the ambulance by soldiers and interrogated for more than two hours before being allowed to receive medical treatment.

Earlier on Friday, two Palestinians were killed and three were injured in an explosion in northern Gaza on Friday, Palestinian security sources said.

The sources said initial indications suggested the blast occurred while the men were preparing an explosive device of some kind.

Israel Defense Forces sources said no military activities were carried out in the area.

IDF troops uncover two powerful bombs near Nablus
IDF soldiers discovered two large bombs near the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday.

One of the explosive devices, a 15-kilogram mine, was found on a road used by IDF vehicles near Nablus.

Sappers safely detonated the bomb.

In a separate incident, IDF soldiers arrested an 18-year-old Palestinian man found with a loaded homemade gun at a checkpoint near the village of Beit Furik, located east of Nablus.

The IDF said the man was transferred for questioning.

Also Friday, nine Border Police officers and 10 protesters were wounded Friday afternoon during demonstrations against the separation fence in West Bank villages near Modi'in.

In the south, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired a Qassam rocket at Sderot. The rocket fell in an open area and there were no casualties. IDF artillery units returned fire.

Egypt confiscates ton-and-a-half of explosives en route to Gaza