[Al Arabiya Latest] U.N. humanitarian chief John "Big Boy" Holmes called on Friday for greater access to Yemen's war displaced and urged donors to hastily respond to an emergency appeal for 23.5 million dollars in aid.
If they would transfer their attention here, and give the Palestinian "refugees" a bit of a miss, I'd be fine with that.
"Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the latest wave of fighting in northern Yemen alone, and the number is growing daily," Holmes said at the start of a three-day visit to Yemen.
"I am here to see the situation for myself and galvanize support for the men, women and children whose lives have been overturned by this conflict," he said.
The U.N. says some 150,000 people have been displaced in northern Yemen in the past five years, including 55,000 since August 11 when armed hostilities resumed between Shiite rebels and the military.
Holmes, who visited Haradh in the northwestern province of Hajjah on Friday to inspect one of five camps sheltering displaced, said "agencies are working hard to provide assistance where they can."
But, he added, "they need better access and the support of the international community if they are going to overcome the challenges that they face on the ground."
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10/10/2009 00:00 ||
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ONE man was sentenced to death and a second handed a life prison term over a factory brawl in southern China that sparked deadly unrest in the northwest Xinjiang region, state media said today.
Nine others were given prison sentences of five to eight years for their role in the fight in Guangdong province at the end of June, which left two Muslim Uighur men dead, Xinhua news agency reported, citing court officials.
The brawl erupted between members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority and Han Chinese workers at a Hong Kong-owned toy factory over Internet rumours about an alleged rape.
A subsequent protest by the Uighur community in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi against the factory brawl descended into violence on July 5, with at least 197 people killed, according to the government.
The report did not identify the defendants convicted in the court in Shaoguan city.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) -- The United States said Friday it has not yet made a decision on whether to approve a visit to the U.S. later this month by a North Korean official for a security forum.
Back door way to do negotiations?
"We are aware that nongovernmental organizations have invited Ambassador Ri Gun to participate in meetings in the U.S," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley said. "We have not yet made a decision whether to approve that travel."
The Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) has extended an invitation to Ri, director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's Foreign Ministry, for an annual meeting, Crowley said. Reports said the meeting will be held in San Diego Oct. 26-27.
There are precedents for such travel. Ri visited New York last November to attend an academic seminar soon after the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, and met with U.S. officials and key policy advisers to Obama.
Jung Tae-yang, vice director general of the American bureau of the North Korean Foreign Ministry, attended last year's session in Beijing of the NEACD, organized by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego, to bring together academics as well as government officials of the two Koreas, U.S., China, Russia and Japan, members of the six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Alexander A. Arvizu, then-deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, attended the Beijing session last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2009 00:00 ||
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Impoverished North Korea should be given no aid unless it abandons the pursuit of nuclear weapons, the leaders of South Korea and Japan said Friday, forging a united stance before traveling to China for talks on how to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.
Until the next time the Norks buffalo them, or a South Korean prez starts jonesing for a Nobel ...
The flurry of diplomacy comes days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that his country is ready to rejoin the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, depending on progress in its negotiations with the U.S.
North Korea is pushing to send its deputy nuclear envoy Ri Gun to the United States later this month for a private security forum, a South Korean diplomat said. He asked not to be identified because the forum's organizers have not announced the details of the session.
The planned trip raises speculation that Ri could meet with U.S. officials to lay the groundwork for possible direct talks with Washington. The U.S. has said that a one-on-one meeting should be part of the broader negotiations that also involve South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
Despite the North's willingness to talk, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama firmly agreed that no aid should be offered to Pyongyang unless the communist regime takes concrete steps to dismantle its nuclear program.
"We should not resume any economic assistance unless North Korea shows commitment and takes concrete steps" toward nuclear abandonment, Hatoyama told a joint news conference with Lee after summit talks in Seoul.
Their stance emphasizes the skepticism Seoul and Tokyo share about the North, which is accused of raising tensions and then agreeing to dialogue and disarmament, only to backtrack after reaping the economic and political benefits of its promises.
Lee said he believes North Korea will return to international nuclear talks after Pyongyang holds direct negotiations with Washington. He reiterated the need for a "fundamental and comprehensive solution" to the nuclear impasse to ensure that past negotiating patterns "will not be repeated."
Hatoyama said Lee's proposal to offer a one-time "grand bargain" of aid and concessions in exchange for denuclearization - rather than the step-by-step process pursued over the past six years - is "completely correct."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2009 00:00 ||
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ION WMF > RAJIN SEAPORT MAY BE CHINA'S PLAN ONLY HOPE FOR DIRECT ENTRY INTO THE SEA OF JAPAN.
Cue SecDef Gates propos all-female USN Sub crews + "SINK THE CNS TIRPITZ" [China's riverine NavBases = WW2 Norway fjords], ala PAULA "COMMANDO" ABDUL"???
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/10/2009 14:25 Comments ||
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all-female USN Sub crews?
It's long been known that any group of womeen living together and shortly all their cycles synchronize (Pheromes)
You really want sub crews where everyone on the sub has PMS at the exact same time?
Didn't think so.
How about when the whole crew is horny and hits port?
Wht about onboard pregnancies?
Bad, Bad idea.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/10/2009 14:35 Comments ||
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Birth control pills taken without a break fix all except the horniness, Redneck Jim. That, all navies have been trying to deal with for at least 2,000 years without success.
The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to US President Barack Obama Friday should prompt him to start working towards ending injustice in the world, an aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told AFP.
In particular, Javanfekr outlined two areas where he said Obama must act to prove he is worthy of the prize. "If he removes the veto from the United Nations Security Council, then it shows the prize was given correctly to him," Javanfekr said.
Since first taking office in 2005, Ahmadinejad has called for an end to the veto power that the United States and the four other permanent members of the security council have over that body's decisions.
[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the nation has 'no option' but to attack militant strongholds in South Waziristan.
'We have no other option but to carry out an operation in South Waziristan,' Malik told a local television station after a deadly suicide car bombing in Peshawar that killed at least 45 people.
'All roads are leading to South Waziristan. We will have to proceed.'
Rehman Malik told reporters Friday that the country has to launch an operation in the area militants are using as a base to launch deadly strikes. He said such an offensive was expected 'soon.'
The government has been threatening to launch an offensive against militants in the South Waziristan region along the border with Afghanistan.
The US has pushed Pakistan to clear militant strongholds, saying many of those insurgents are involved in attacks on American and Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan.
US missile strikes have frequently targeted hideouts in Pakistan. One in August killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. The group has since named a new leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, and threatened suicide attacks if the army doesn't back off.
Malik also said a suspect had been arrested in Monday's suicide attack at the office of the UN's World Food Program in Islamabad. He said the man was alleged to have given the attacker shelter, but gave few details.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan is offering captured Taliban militants the option of fighting Indian troops in Kashmir as an alternative to jail, Indian officials say.
Officials said the militants were offered a ''jail or jihad'' choice by officers of Pakistan's ISI intelligence service and that the plot had been discovered through telephone intercepts.
They alleged that 60 Taliban fighters captured in the Pakistan army's offensive in the Swat Valley earlier this year had accepted the deal and were waiting with an estimated 300 jihadi fighters to cross into Kashmir. ''Although the Taliban is yet to successfully infiltrate into India, the coming days will pose a challenge as their attempts to sneak in are expected before the onset of winter,'' one official said.
Many Kashmiri militants are believed to have joined the Taliban and al-Qaeda groups after Islamabad was forced to shut down their ISI-sponsored training camps under US pressure following the September 11 attacks.
Ma'an -- Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Maliki, speaking at the UNESCO's 35th general conference in Paris on Friday, urged member states to establish a special fund to protect the heritage of Jerusalem.
He called on the UN body to take action on the holy city and others, all of which he said were suffering under Israel's refusal to implement hundreds of international resolutions.
Al-Maliki said Israel's separation wall was causing untold damage to Palestine and occupied East Jerusalem, and that its construction reflected Israel's respect for cultural heritage.
He concluded by calling the international community to take responsibility for rebuilding Gaza.
So that Hamas can destroy it again ...
Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that Palestinian diplomats in Geneva were pushing for an urgent meeting of the UN Human Rights Council to renew debate on the Gaza assault.
A week earlier, the Palestine Liberation Organization sparked unprecedented anger by allowing the issue of South African justice Richard Goldstone's fact-finding mission to be delayed until March 2010 at the earliest.
The UN Security Council will debate the report on 14 October, rather than hold an emergency session.
According to the AP report, PLO Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi said the renewal of interest in international intervention from the UN was prompted by violence in East Jerusalem.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Hamas members running the Gaza strip find themselves in the odd position these days of bailing out speculators who went from boom to bust when Israeli warplanes blew up their smuggling tunnels into Egypt.
Profits from hundreds of tunnels burrowed into the neighbor state to get around an Israeli embargo skyrocketed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of Gaza from Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.
Israel tightened its blockade sharply, fearing Hamas would import arms, and profits from the smuggling operation multiplied even faster, fuelling a hot market in tunnel shares.
But when Israel launched a major offensive in late December to stop Hamas forces firing rockets at its southern towns, the tunnel network was designated a prime target and fortunes were lost, some real, some on paper.
Now, Hamas is trying to deflect criticism of its handling of the millions of dollars Palestinians sank into the business that literally collapsed under their feet.
Economy Minister Zeyad al-Zaza estimates some $60 million was lost by thousands among Gaza's 1.5 million population, from housewives to wealthy merchants, who ploughed cash through middlemen into expanding the tunnel network.
Two key middlemen are among several people arrested over the losses, Zaza added. He said $10 million recovered had gone back to investors who lost, rescuing 16.5 percent of their capital.
"We are close to returning another $20 million, which will be handed over to the government. Hopefully the people will be receiving another payment," Zaza said.
The pain, however, remains great for investors who say they made massive profits on their original investments, only to see those evaporate along with their capital when tunnels were destroyed in Israeli air raids.
One Gaza economist estimated paper fortunes worth between a quarter and half a billion dollars may have gone up in smoke, though accurate figures are hard to come by in an economy cut off from the world and dominated by clandestine dealings.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
estimates some $60 million was lost by thousands among Gaza's 1.5 million population, from housewives to wealthy merchants, who ploughed cash through middlemen into expanding the tunnel network
If anybody thinks the Gaza "Civillians" are innocent, this one statement, should be proof enough, To raise 60 million, damn near every person in Gaza had to contrbiute.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/10/2009 1:18 Comments ||
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I'm sure the UNRWA was a major contributor
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2009 8:48 Comments ||
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I think we should let the Israelis test our new bunker-buster bombs on the Gaza tunnels. A solid wave of explosives laid from the Med to the Israeli border with Egypt should do wonders. Use explosives to dig a canal 100-150 feet deep from the Med halfway to Eilat and watch the tunnel business wash away - literally.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/10/2009 15:03 Comments ||
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Overkill ... they're intended for hardened targets carved into mountains.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanese politicians from across the spectrum on Friday welcomed the rapprochement between Damascus and Riyadh, but warned it was insufficient to guarantee the formation of a government in Lebanon.
"The Syrian-Saudi summit is not enough," acting Social Affairs Minister Mario Aoun told local radio on Friday.
"What we see around us does not lead to the hope that we will have a government in the near future as the United States still has not given the green light," said Aoun, a member of the opposition.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2009 00:00 ||
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Iran will "blow up the heart of Israel" if the United States or the Jewish state attacked it first, a top official with Iran's most powerful military force - the Revolutionary Guard - warned Friday.
Cleric Mojtaba Zolnour, who is the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in the Guard, said that if a U.S. or Israeli missile lands in Iran, Iranian missiles will hit Israel in retaliation.
"Should a single American or Zionist missile land in our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel," Zolnour was quoted as saying by the state IRNA news agency.
Iran and Israel are archenemies and anti-Israeli stance is a trademark for the hardline Guard. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has since 2005 often called for Israel's destruction and predicted demise for the Jewish state.
Though common, Zolnour's remarks appear to be ratcheting up the rhetoric ahead of the next round of talks between Iran and the West later this month over Iran's controversial uranium enrichment program.
The U.S. and Israel have accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons but Iran denies the charge, saying its nuclear program is geared toward generating power, not a bomb. Israel has said it favors a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff but has not ruled out a military strike over fears that Iran may develop nuclear weapons.
Israel maintains a doctrine of "nuclear ambiguity" and has never confirmed nor denied having its own nuclear weapons program. It considers Iran a serious threat not only because of Tehran's nuclear program but also because of Iran's arsenal of long-range missiles, which can be fitted with nuclear warheads and are capable of striking the Jewish state.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
And who will Iran blow up if they're not attacked? That's the bigger question.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Impoverished North Korea should be given no aid unless it abandons the pursuit of nuclear weapons, the leaders of South Korea and Japan said Friday, forging a united stance before traveling to China for talks on how to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.
Iran will "blow up the heart of Israel" if the United States or the Jewish state attacked it first, a top official with Iran's most powerful military force - the Revolutionary Guard - warned Friday.
