News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

Polls open in Belarus, Lukashenko seen a winner

58 minutes ago

MINSK (Reuters) - Polls opened in Belarus on Sunday in a presidential election where President Alexander Lukashenko seeks re-election against a liberal opposition who vow to contest any attempt to rig the polls.

Lukashenko, criticized in the West for crushing human rights during his 12 years in power, says his rivals are Western-funded troublemakers and has vowed to "wring the necks" of anyone violating public order. His security service, called the KGB as in Soviet times, says protests will be seen as "terrorism."

Lukashenko is all but certain to defeat his challengers. Two of the three, from the liberal opposition, have asked supporters to mass in central Minsk when polls close, as protesters against election fraud did in Ukraine's 2004 "Orange Revolution."

Just over 7 million people may cast ballots in the ex-Soviet state, which lies between Russia and EU member Poland. Polls are open until 1800 GMT and a result is expected late in the evening on early on Monday.

Polls open in Belarus, Lukashenko seen a winner

[Shammu]

Islamists to dominate Hamas cabinet
By Khalid Amayreh

Sunday 19 March 2006, 7:10 Makka Time, 4:10 GMT 

Hamas, which won the Palestinian legislative elections in January, has completed cabinet formation to be presented for Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's approval.

Ismael Haniya, the new PA prime minister, said the formation of the cabinet was completed.

The door was still open for the participation by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a small group holding two seats in the Palestinian legislative council, Haniya said.

According to an unofficial line-up, the new cabinet includes 24 ministers, 10 from the Gaza Strip and 14 from the West Bank. Of the 24 ministers, only eight come from the legislative council, while the rest are technocrats and independents, with Islamist leanings.

Hamas's leader in Gaza, Said Siyam, will be at the helm of the interior ministry, succeeding Nasr Yusuf, a Fatah member who in the mid 1990s oversaw the PA crackdown on Hamas, particularly in the Gaza Strip.

Mahmud al-Zahar, a physician by profession, could become the new Palestinian foreign minister, a choice reportedly not everybody is pleased with, given al-Zahar's fiery style.

Decision-making process
Palestinian sources close to the Hamas decision-making process told Aljazeera.net that the appointment of al-Zahar as the PA top diplomat was not final.

The sources added that former PA minister Ziyad Abu Amr was also in the running for foreign minister.

The new minister of finance will be Umar Abd al-Razzaq, professor of economics at the Najah National University.

Abd al-Razzaq was released from an Israeli detention camp only a few days ago after an extended incarceration as a resistance fighter.

The existing minister of economy, Mazin Sinukrut, an Independent Islamist, will remain in his post. This, it is hoped, would maintain a degree of continuity in the management of the Palestinian economy.

Sinukrut is a wealthy businessman from Ram Allah and advocates liberal economic policies. He also holds relatively moderate views with respect to Israel.

The new minister of planning will be Samir Abu Aisha, also a businessman from the northern West Bank town of Nablus. 

Religious affairs
Shaikh Nayif al-Rajub, brother of the former PA official Jibril al-Rajub, will be the new minister of religious affairs.

Jamal Khudari, former president of the Islamic University of Gaza, will be minister of communications and information technology, while Yusuf Rizqa, will be the PA’s minister of information.

The new minister of women affairs is Maryam Salih, a Hamas MP, while Atallah Abu al Sibba will be the new minister of culture.

 Nassir al Shaair, a prominent academic from al-Najah National University, will be the minister of education, while Muhammed Shbair, another former president of the Islamic University of Gaza, will be the new minister of higher education.

Tariq Abu Arafa, from Jerusalem, will be the minister of Jerusalem affairs and Tannus Abu Aita, a Christian from Bethlehem, will be the new minister of tourism.

Abd al-Rahman Hanbali will be the new minister of agriculture while Ahmad al-Khalidi will be minister of justice.

Islamists to dominate Hamas cabinet

[Shammu]

Syrian opposition plans united front

Friday 17 March 2006, 4:58 Makka Time, 1:58 GMT 

Exiled Syrian opposition leaders have met in Brussels in an attempt to form a united front aimed at toppling Bashar al-Assad.

A former Syrian vice-president and the head of the Muslim Brotherhood attended the gathering on Thursday
Abdel-Halim Khaddam, the former vice-president who broke with Assad, the Syrian president, last year after serving under his late father Hafez al-Assad, was involved in the talks with nationalists, liberals, Islamists, Kurds and communists, participants said.

Husam al-Dairi, Washington-based leader of the Syrian Liberal National Democratic Party said "This is the first time in history that all the opposition movements inside and outside Syria have sat down at one table and agreed on a common plan".

He said the coalition of 25 opposition individuals and movements, including the London-based Muslim Brotherhood secretary-general, Ali Saad-al-din Bayanouni, would elect a leader at the Brussels meeting and announce its programme on Friday.

Khaddam, who lives in France, chose to stage the meeting in Belgium because he is bound by French law to refrain from political activities under the terms of his political asylum, his son Jihad Khaddam said.

"The Syrian people can no longer stand the pressure of the regime and is going to revolt," Jihad Khaddam said, adding that his father had vowed to return home to Damascus after a revolution before the end of this summer.

"The coalition is open to everyone. Of course we cannot name the supporters inside for their own safety," he said.

He said the exiled opposition counted many supporters within the ruling Baath Party and believed the army would remain neutral if a popular protest movement arose against what he called "the thin layer of dictatorship".

Inquiry

Pressure on Assad and his family has mounted since a UN investigation into the assassination last year of Rafik al-Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister, implicated top Syrian officers and asked to question senior officials.

But despite mass demonstrations in neighbouring Lebanon which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after Hariri's murder, there has been little sign of popular protest inside tightly controlled Syria.

Assad and his vice-president have agreed for the first time to talk to the UN inquiry, the world body said this week.

The United States and France have been in the lead in putting international pressure on Syria over the Hariri case.

But some diplomats say Washington and Paris may be reluctant to risk instability in Damascus at a time of worsening civil strife in neighbouring Iraq and after the victory of the Hamas movement in the Palestinian territories.

Syrian opposition plans united front

[Shammu]

Few join anti-war protests in US

Sunday 19 March 2006, 3:39 Makka Time, 0:39 GMT

Few Americans have taken to the streets in anti-war protests marking the third against the US-led invasion of Iraq, despite rising public opposition to the war.

Demonstrations were held globally, but in the US, a country with a population of 298 million, the events drew only about 1000 people in major cities.

Yet anti-war sentiment in the US is at an all-time high and the popularity of George Bush, president, the architect of the war, has plummeted.

The low US turnout was mirrored in anti-war protests in most other countries.

Demonstrations in the US were organised in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and a number of smaller cities by several groups, including the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition.

At a rally of 1000 protesters near Times Square in New York, speaker after speaker denounced the Bush administration and the continuing US troop presence in Iraq.

Message

The demonstration, organised by the group Troops Out Now, called for an immediate, complete and unconditional US military withdrawal.

Organiser Dustin Langley said: "Public opinion is now overwhelmingly on our side as it becomes clearer every day that this occupation itself is the source of the violence in Iraq.

"But politicians of neither party are going to end the war, so we have to get back on the streets."

In Washington, about a thousand protesters gathered outside the residence of Dick Cheney, the vice-president. "This racist war has to go," they chanted, some carrying signs reading "Bush step down", "Impeachment now" and "Hands off Iran".

Hollywood touch

On the West Coast, celebrities joined protesters at the legendary intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

Kirk Albanese, commander of the Los Angeles Police Deparment, said: "Twelve hundred protesters were marching in Hollywood today."

Among them were Paul Haggis, the Canadian director of Crash, this year's Oscar winner for best picture, and actors Martin Sheen, Laura Dern and Maria Bello.

Also participating were Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, the author of the book Born on the Fourth of July, which later became an academy-award winning film, and Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America.

Marcial Guerra, of ANSWER, which organised the Los Angeles protest, said: "We want to put an end to this insane war and to spend money where it is needed, for example on the people hurt by Hurricane Katrina."

Bush, in his weekly radio address, insisted that invading Iraq was "the right decision," and vowed to overcome violence there that has killed 2300 US soldiers and countless Iraqi civilians.

"We will finish the mission," said Bush. "By defeating the terrorists in Iraq, we will bring greater security to our own country."

Bush did not mention the failure to find Iraq's alleged arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons that was the core of his public case for war.

Few join anti-war protests in US

[Shammu]

 President: Development of Islamic states to benefit world Muslims
Tehran, March 19, IRNA


President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Saturday that "Development of the Islamic countries would be to the benefit of world Muslims and the Islamic states should support one another at all scientific, cultural, economic and political fora." President Ahmadinejad made the remarks in his meeting with new Yemeni Ambassador to Tehran Jamal Abdullah al-Solal.

He said economic and cultural economic backwardness of Islamic states and an all-out attack against the holy religion of Islam are two main problems facing Muslims.

Islamic Ummah should get united and consolidate their ties to remove such obstacles, he said, calling on Muslims to exercise vigilance because the enemies seek to sow seeds of discords among Islamic countries.

while presenting his credentials to President Ahmadinejad, the new Yemeni ambassador said the Yemeni government supports Iran's legitimate rights for peaceful use of nuclear energy and calls for a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction.

The Yemeni ambassador also voiced his country's willingness to further bolster ties with Tehran.

Development of Islamic states to benefit world Muslims

[Shammu]

Iran's secret talks with Iraqi militants spark fears of proxy war
Harry de Quetteville
(Filed: 19/03/2006)

Iran held secret talks with Shia militant leaders from Iraq and Lebanon only days before the country's nuclear negotiators threatened America with "harm and pain", independent sources in Teheran have revealed.

The Iraqi firebrand cleric, Moqtadr al-Sadr and the chief of the armed Shia group Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, held separate consultations with leading officials in Teheran.

Al-Sadr commands thousands of fighters in Iraq, with the power to destabilise further the country and target British and American troops, while Hizbollah's missile-wielding fighters are stationed on Lebanon's southern border with Israel. The revelation of their visits to Teheran has stoked fears that Iran's Shia clerical rulers are drawing up plans to wage a co-ordinated proxy war, using foreign Shia militias, in the worsening dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

In a statement 10 days ago to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran said that America could inflict harm and pain, before adding: "But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain."

On Friday, Ali Larijani, a leading Iranian nuclear negotiator, said: "Iran has chosen the path of resistance till achieving full access to nuclear energy, because we consider it a legitimate right." Iran insists that its nuclear plans are for peaceful purposes, a claim disputed by the United States, which fears that Teheran is developing nuclear weapons.

The visits of al-Sadr and Nasrallah to the Iranian capital went unmentioned in state-controlled media, but were reported on the Iranian expatriate internet site, roozonline, widely regarded as a reliable source of information from inside the tightly controlled Iranian regime.

While Iraq and Lebanon are home to the most powerful Shia militias, the voice of Iran's ruling clerics also holds sway with Shia minorities and Iranian communities in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Its capacity to destabilise the Middle East also extends to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

• Iran's most prominent dissident journalist has been freed from jail after six years, much of which was spent in solitary confinement. Akbar Ganji was imprisoned in 2001 for investigating the murder of five dissidents by intelligence agents.

Iran's secret talks with Iraqi militants spark fears of proxy war

[Shammu]

Opposition Gathers As Belarus Polls Close

3 minutes ago

MINSK, Belarus - Several thousand opposition supporters gathered on a main square in central Minsk as polls closed in a disputed presidential election Sunday, chanting "Long Live Belarus!" and the name of the main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich.

The crowd hooted when a large video screen showed a live statement from the head of the Central Election Commission, who hailed the vote — in which hard-line President Alexander Lukashenko was expected to be awarded a landslide win — as a success with minimal violations.

Opposition Gathers As Belarus Polls Close

[Shammu]

Unsafe Imports Slip Through Regulatory Net

By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago

NEW YORK - The poison arrived in a plastic bottle from India bearing a simple label in English and Hindi. "Useful in flu and bodyache," it read. "Two tabs twice a day or as per physician's advice."

What it didn't say was that the herbal medicine, on sale at a store in Queens, contained 2,190 times the amount of mercury considered safe by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

The tablets were among a variety of imported products seized by New York City health officials last year in immigrant-rich neighborhoods filled with exotic world goods — some of which make it onto shelves without being evaluated by safety agencies like the Food and Drug Administration.

Other products that have been the subject of recent warnings include two pesticides banned in the U.S. because they are dangerous to children: an Asian roach killer nicknamed "Chinese Chalk" and a Latin American rat poison called "Tres Pasitos," or "three little steps," referring to how far a rat can walk before succumbing to the poison.

Last spring, authorities urged residents to stay away from unpasteurized Mexican cheese that had turned up at groceries in Brooklyn and Queens, saying it may contain a bacterium that causes tuberculosis.

A surge in foreign imports has made it increasingly challenging for U.S. food, health and customs officials to check the safety of all the products entering the country. Some 13.7 million imported products subject to FDA regulation entered the U.S. in fiscal 2005, compared to 7.9 million three years earlier, the agency said.

Almost all shipments are subject to automated screening, during which computers hunt cargo invoices for products with potential safety problems. But only about 75,000 shipments each year wind up being sampled and tested, said FDA spokesman Michael Herndon.

Customs officials get regular alerts on unsafe foods, cosmetics and medicines that should be barred, and inspectors seize items every week that don't meet U.S. standards, from contaminated fish from Asia, to Mexican cosmetics with unsafe color additives.

But the system is less effective when it comes to undocumented cargo that crosses the border daily in trucks, people's luggage or car trunks, by mail or inside larger shipments.

The flow of those undocumented products is small, but it can add up in the nation's immigrant gateways.

California, for example, has struggled for years with the sale of imported Mexican candies contaminated with lead.

Only a small percentage of the shipments crossing the border are detected, and immigrants who grew up on the treats have been skeptical of claims that they could be dangerous, said Leticia Ayala of the San Diego-based Environmental Health Coalition.

"What we found out was that the FDA didn't have the capacity to deal with this huge issue," Ayala said. "Most of the things that come across the border aren't being tested. So we can't rely on the federal government to protect us at the border."

A new California law now imposes a fine for selling contaminated candy, but authorities have yet to determine how much lead will trigger the penalty.

In New York, the city health department has cracked down on sales of skin creams and soaps from the Caribbean, Hong Kong and China that contained poisonous levels of mercury.

In January, it released a survey showing that the dangerous roach killer from Asia and rat poison from Latin America were still widely used in the city. A month earlier, a similar caution was issued about the Indian pills, Maha Sudarshan, and two other imported Indian herbal medicines with dangerous levels of mercury or lead.

Each had appeared on store shelves for some time before authorities realized they existed and could be a problem, health officials said.

"These are things we don't know enough about," said Nancy Clark, assistant commissioner of the city's Bureau of Environmental Disease Prevention, and a coordinator of the probe that led to the warning about the Indian medications.

Clark said the city only began actively looking for the medicines after seeing an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association linking some of the remedies to lead poisoning.

Inspectors got curious, went shopping and found the medicines on sale in Queens.

None of the shopkeepers knew that what they were selling could be dangerous, Clark said. All three of the Indian medicines are widely and legally sold in India, and the city doesn't have an easy way of tracking most products that could pose.

"It is a little like finding a needle in a haystack," Clark said.

Unsafe Imports Slip Through Regulatory Net

[Shammu]

Storied Church May Be Victim of Katrina
St. Augustine, Founded in 1841, Is Called Vital Link to Culture of New Orleans

By Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 19, 2006; Page A07

NEW ORLEANS -- Parishioners at one of the nation's oldest African American Catholic churches may have celebrated their last Mass as a parish last Sunday, even as they continued their efforts this week to keep the doors open at St. Augustine.

The church, in the Treme neighborhood near the French Quarter, is a center of racial harmony and great jazz, playing a central role in New Orleans history and culture. With so much of the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina, local residents are rallying behind the church and hoping the parish can be saved.

"The people of New Orleans have lost so much; we don't want to lose this," said Sandra Gordon, 52, a church volunteer who has been coming to St. Augustine since 1965, when Hurricane Betsy destroyed her former church.

In the face of a much-reduced city population and physical damage to many churches post-Katrina, the Archdiocese of New Orleans is closing seven parishes and delaying the reopening of 23 churches. Attendance at St. Augustine, down to fewer than 200 people pre-Katrina, increased significantly afterward. But archdiocese officials said current attendance is not enough.

The church sustained about half a million dollars' worth of damage to the roof and bell tower from Katrina, and it was already hurting for money for a needed renovation.

Like New Orleans itself, St. Augustine is an eclectic mix of the ancient and the contemporary, black and white, song and dance. The church was built in 1841 by slaves and by Italian and French immigrants.

It was one of the first churches where slaves, free blacks and whites worshiped together. After a period as a segregated white church and then a black church, it has had an interracial congregation and services that blend elements of Catholicism with African spirituality and homegrown New Orleans culture. Portraits of the African American "Mardi Gras Indians" are displayed side by side with saints on the walls, and the church is known for popular jazz masses and jazz funerals, including an annual "Louis Armstrong Jazz Mass."

Archdiocese spokesman William Maestri said the 250 parishioners registered at St. Augustine will have access to more classes and social services by joining the 8,000-member parish at St. Peter Claver, another Catholic church a few blocks from St. Augustine with a predominantly African American congregation.

He said St. Augustine's parish was recommended for closure in a 1999 study: "We've kept the parish open and subsidized it long beyond the recommendation."

The church would still remain open for weddings, funerals and weekly Masses. But parish priest Jerome LeDoux, a beloved local figure, would no longer minister there.

St. Augustine members said they would miss LeDoux, 76, an African American vegan musician who speaks several languages and has charmed visitors from around the world with his energetic, multicultural services.

"You can't overstate how important St. Augustine's and Father LeDoux are to the African and Creole tradition of the city," said Morgan Clevenger, former executive director of the New Orleans Jazz Legacy Foundation. "Father LeDoux has always acknowledged the black Indians, the social pleasure clubs, the jazz of New Orleans. He acknowledged the spirituality of African people before Catholicism. The loss of Father LeDoux would be a grave loss to the community."

Economist Jacques Morial said the archdiocese should keep subsidizing the parish based on its historical and cultural importance. He is the brother of former mayor Marc Morial, and their family goes back nine generations in New Orleans.

"We need the archdiocese to reconnect itself to the souls and lives of people who need it most, not just the people who have money," Jacques Morial said.

Storied Church May Be Victim of Katrina

[Shammu]

Thousands Denounce Belarus Election

By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer 42 minutes ago

MINSK, Belarus - Thousands of protesters thronged the main square of the Belarusian capital on Sunday in defiance of a government ban, refusing to recognize a presidential vote that appeared all but certain to give the iron-fisted incumbent a third term.

The crowd hooted when a large video screen broadcast a live statement from the Central Election Commission chief, who announced results that showed President Alexander Lukashenko headed toward overwhelming victory in Sunday's vote.

The protesters chanted "Long Live Belarus!" and the name of the main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich. Some waved a national flag that Lukashenko banned in favor of a Soviet-style replacement, while others waved
European Union flags.

"We demand new, honest elections," Milinkevich told the crowd. "This was a complete farce."

Lukashenko won 88.5 percent of the vote compared to 3.8 percent for Milenkevich, central election commission secretary Nikolai Lozovik said, with 22.3 percent of ballots counted. The results virtually guaranteed a third term for the authoritarian leader who has ruled the republic since 1994.

Milinkevich and another opposition candidate, Alexander Kozulin, called on the crowd, which began thinning under a heavy snow, to return to the square Monday evening — signaling they would try to hold a sustained protest of the sort that brought down long-lived regimes in former Soviet republics including Ukraine and Georgia.

Lukashenko had vowed to prevent the kind of mass rallies that helped bring opposition leaders to power elsewhere.

The use or threat of force neutralized opposition efforts to protest vote results in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan last year, and a government crackdown in Uzbekistan left hundreds dead.

"It will be a peaceful demonstration. We will come out with flowers," Milinkevich said after voting.

Despite the government ban on protests, police did not immediately move to disperse the crowd. The gathering was the biggest the opposition had mustered in years, reaching at least 10,000 before it started thinning out, according to AP reporters' estimates.

"The Belarusian mentality is to sit home and watch their stupid state TV," said one protester, who gave only his first name, Ivan, for fear of reprisals. "I came to hear a brave man speak."

People blew horns and shouted "Mi-lin-ke-vich!" — echoing the much larger crowds on Kiev's Independence Square in neighboring Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, which inspired the Belarus opposition.

"I came here to find out the real results of the election," said Veronika Danilyuk, a 19-year-old student. "I believe that he's the only one who can guarantee freedom and fairness to our country."

At one point, a trolley bus went by with a young man riding on the roof. The crowd roared when he rode off carrying a national flag someone thrust into his hands.

The Soviet past is palpable in Belarus. The government makes five-year plans, the main state newspaper has "Soviet" in its title and the state security service is officially called the KGB.

Underlying the election is a struggle for regional influence between Russia and the West, which is seen by Lukashenko's government and its backers in Moscow as a major culprit in the political upheaval in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

Lukashenko accuses the West of plotting a repeat in Belarus, one of the few former Soviet republics still loyal to the Kremlin.

The elections commission said 92.6 percent of the 7 million eligible voters had cast ballots, clearing the 50 percent mark needed to make the election valid. The elections chief, Lidia Yermoshina, said about 30 percent voted last week in early balloting, which is seen by the opposition as especially vulnerable to fraud.

"These elections will be recognized neither by us nor by democratic countries," Milinkevich told a news conference earlier in the day.

The elections were being overseen by about 400 monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Western countries have forged close ties with the opposition and made no secret of their contempt for the ruler of what Washington calls an outpost of tyranny in Europe. The United States has condemned the campaign as "seriously flawed and tainted."

Lukashenko dismissed international criticism.

"We in Belarus are conducting the election for ourselves," he said. "What is important is that elections take place in accordance with Belarusian legislation. As for sweeping accusations, I've been hearing them for 10 years. I've already gotten used to them."

The state has mounted a campaign of threats and allegations of violent, foreign-backed overthrow plots that its opponents say is aimed at frightening people and justifying the potential use of force against protesters. Security was tightened Sunday near the square and streets were closed to traffic.

On Thursday, the KGB chief accused the opposition of plotting to seize power with foreign help by detonating bombs and sowing chaos on election day, and warned that protesters could be charged with terrorism.

Since 1994, Lukashenko has silenced foes and maintained his grip on power through votes dismissed as illegitimate by the opposition and Western governments. Four opponents disappeared in 1999-2000.

While he is a dictator to his opponents and foreign critics, many Belarusians see the 51-year-old former collective farm manager as having brought stability after the uncertainty that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse. While the landlocked nation, about as big and flat as Kansas, is far from prosperous, the economy is growing and salaries are rising.

Critics say the economic successes are unsustainable, based largely on cheap Russian energy and heavy-handed state intervention reminiscent of the communist era.

"Milinkevich gives us hope that we will pull ourselves out of this swamp," said Nina Karachinskaya, a 38-year-old hairstylist. "The country must go not into the past but the future, and our future is Europe."

Thousands Denounce Belarus Election

[Shammu]

Belarus President Lukashenko Calls George W Bush World’s Main Terrorist

Created: 19.03.2006 14:35 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:35 MSK, 11 hours 42 minutes ago

MosNews

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has called the U.S. President George W. Bush world’s biggest terrorist, RIA Novosti said Sunday.

“He is the planet’s main terrorist,” Lukashenko told the journalists after he cast his ballot at the presidential elections in Minsk.

“Look at how he has smashed countries and now he has reached out for presidents,” Lukashenko said.

Speaking about the documents concerning his income that had been passed to the U.S. Congress, Lukashenko said that “if Bush has found any money at any accounts, let him have it”.

He said Bush should first look at his own income.

“He is unable to count his income that comes from oil and wars,” Lukashenko said.

When asked what he thought about being called “Europe’s last dictator”, Lukashenko said, “A dictatorship in the middle of Europe is impossible. Those who say so are stupid people.”

Polls opened in Belarus on Sunday in a presidential election where President Alexander Lukashenko seeks re-election against a liberal opposition who vow to contest any attempt to rig the polls, Reuters reported.

Lukashenko, criticised in the West for crushing human rights during his 12 years in power, says his rivals are Western-funded troublemakers and has vowed to “wring the necks” of anyone violating public order. His security service, called the KGB as in Soviet times, says protests will be seen as “terrorism”.

Belarus President Lukashenko Calls George W Bush World’s Main Terrorist

[Shammu]

 International Conference on Palestine to be held in Tehran
Tehran, March 19, IRNA

Palestine Conference-April
International Conference on Palestine will be held in Tehran on April 14-16.

Speakers of parliaments and MPs from different countries have been invited to the international conference which aims to rally international support for the rights of Palestinians.

Iranian parliament (Majlis) has sponsored the conference which is scheduled to be held under the current humanitarian catastrophe as the Palestinians have been exposed to systematic killings by the Zionist regime.

The Conference will throw weight behind democratic settlement of Palestinians' plight, establishment of Palestinian democratic government and respect for rights of Palestinian refugees to return home.

Secretary General of the International Conference on Palestine Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour said that the conference will study the latest developments in Palestine, impacts of international issues on Palestine, US Roadmap for Palestine and status of Palestine in the so-called greater Middle East plan.

He said that the conference will examine the conspiracy to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque on the pretext of rebuilding its pillars, detrimental digging operations under construction of al-Aqsa Mosque and will put forward proposals for maintenance and reinforcement of the holy Mosque.

Mohtashamipour said that the conference will seek implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 194, and Resolution 1559 on disarmament of Palestinian refugees in Southern Lebanon and practical ways to restore rights of Palestinian refugees and nationals currently living in Palestine.

International Conference on Palestine to be held in Tehran

[Shammu]

 Iran-US conflict a war between good, evil - Scholar
Isfahan, March 19, IRNA

Isfahan-Conference-Gonzales
A Spanish scholar here Sunday stressed that the conflict between Iran and the US was indeed a war between "good and evil."
A researcher and writer on theological topics Raol Gonzales made the remark in an interview with IRNA on the sidelines of the two-day "Global Conference on Constructive Interaction among Divine Religions:
A Framework for International Order," which opened here Saturday morning.

Gonzales blamed the tyrannical nature of the US President George Bush, who believes that every single person who is not with him is surely against him, as the main cause of the most of the conflicts underway in different parts of the world today.

Describing victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran as wonder which shocked the whole world, Gonzales said it was only a miracle that a country, which relied heavily on the US aid and followed its policies unquestioningly, managed to confront and fight it.

Referring to the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, the scholar said the attack launched by Iraq against Iranian nation was not a mere war in its usual sense but rather an event which was supported by many hegemonic powers in the world to suppress the justice-seeking voice of Iranian Muslim nation.

He further believed the recent attacks on the Holy Shiite shrines was a plot hatched by the US to sow discord among Muslims and followers of other religions.

[Shammu]

Terrorist event in southeast Iran an orchestrated move
Tehran, March 19, IRNA

Iran-Incident-Maleki
Recent terrorist incident in southeast of Iran was a well-guided move, said a drug campaign official here on Sunday.

"It seems the recent terrorist incident on Zabol-Zahedan road was a guided trend ... The political and security analysts in the province should take a special look at the issue," said Secretary of the Drugs Trafficking Campaign Headquarters Fada-Hossein Maleki in an interview with IRNA here on Sunday.

Maleki said government has conducted sufficient investigation into the issue and has even set aside a good amount of fund for the purpose but the main problem lies in Afghanistan, which is the core of crisis.

He said there are a number of intertwined issues in Afghanistan to which international fora should pay more attention.

He added that the killing or injury of a group of innocent people on Zabol-Zahedan road was a 'highly appalling and tragic' incident, prompting many countries attending a UN conference to extend condolences to Iran over the mishap.

At the UN, he said, it was announced that insecurity has been on the rise in Afghanistan ever since the US and the Europeans came to the region.

The official said lowering coefficient of security in Afghanistan have created troubles on the border and eastern regions of Iran.

At the UN, "We announced explicitly that Americans and Europeans in Afghanistan have failed to abide by their commitments, i.e.

guaranteeing security; on the contrary, hostage taking, murder, looting and mischievous acts have been on the rise," said Maleki.

A group of armed bandits closed Zabol-Zahedan road Thursday night and stopped a number of passing cars, shooting dead 21 passengers and injuring seven more after forcing them to leave their cars.

The fate of another 12 passengers is not clear yet, a top Interior Ministry official told IRNA.

A number of Iranian civilians have lost their lives as a result of such vicious acts.

Interior Ministry in a statement on Sunday condemned the move, rejecting rumors that Hassanali Nouri, governor general of Zahedan, a city in Sistan-Baluchestan province, had been shot dead in the incident.

Based on the incoming reports, memorial service was held at Zahedan Jame Mosque on Sunday in memory of the victims.

In its last session in the current Iranian year, the cabinet expressed condolences to the survivors on the incident. The meeting was chaired by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Islamic Revolution Martyrs Foundation also condoled the bereaved families of the victims on the incident.

Terrorist event in southeast Iran an orchestrated move

[Shammu]

 Rabbi: Holocaust politically motivated
Isfahan, March 19, IRNA

Isfahan-Conference-Rabbi
A leading Austrian Jewish Rabbi said here that holocaust catastrophe in Europe, which victimized millions of Jews, is nowadays used as an instrument for suppressing the rightful demands of the world nations.

Rabbi Moishe Fridmann, who leads the Association of Anti-Zionist Jews in Austria, made the remark late Saturday on the sidelines of the two-day "Global Conference on Constructive Interaction among Divine Religions: A Framework for International Order".

He said a limited number of people, advocating certain notions during the past two centuries, have been trying to establish a universal society void of any religious notions with God and holy prophets having no places in it because such a society would create them an economic paradise.

Saying that both the world wars during the past century were provoked and administered by this limited group, the Rabbi said they tried to abuse differences between Muslim Arabs and the west as the founding base of a new power structure in the world which victimized the Jews at the very first step.

Terming as "vain" Zionist regime's attempts to introduce itself as the representative of the Jewish community to the world, Fridmann said since the regime in Israel was a secular it could not function as so in any possible manner.

Commenting on the remarks of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding the Holocaust in Europe, the rabbi noted those who are now lamenting over the catastrophic event of massacre of millions of Jews in the Nazi camps were themselves the real initiators of the horrendous act.

Introducing itself as a sufferer from the Holocaust, Fridmann regretted, the Zionist regime has even managed to secure itself atomic bombs under the US support.

The Rabbi went on stressing that the faithful Jews were against establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine because they believed the land was taken away by force from its true owners which is against Jewish teachings.

He said followers of all monotheistic faiths should be allowed to lead a peaceful life in Palestine which is the cradle of a number of divine religions.

Terming as a "fantasy" the freedom of expression which the western assume they are enjoying, Fridmann said that such notions are being misused by the antagonists politicians in the west to sow discord among followers of divine religions and create tension and conflicts among them.

Certain western media and Zionist press abuse the right for freedom of expression to serve the purposes of their politicians.

He hailed Iran's initiative in sponsoring an international conference on inter-faith dialogue as the first solid move towards establishment of peace, friendship and justice in the world through focusing on the many common principles of all the divine religions.

Rabbi: Holocaust politically motivated

My note; This  inter-faith dialogue Rabbi Moishe Fridmann, will lead to trouble. Rabbi Moishe Fridmann, really need to study his history on Jews and Arab history.