[Tolo News] Officials in the Ministry of Mines and Industries say their studies have shown that a large deposit of oil with the capacity of 2 billion barrels is discovered in northern Afghanistan
After the technical studies of this oil deposit is over, it will be handed over to the private sector, the Ministry says.
"We conducted two important geological operations which we call artificial earthquake, with the cooperation of our international professionals and with the help of the international community, to determine the exact volume of gas deposits in these areas," the Minister of Mines and Industries, Wahidullah Shahrani told TOLOnews.
The Ministry also said that it will soon start reconstruction of Shebirghan gas reservoir, in which $400 million will be spent, and also a new gas pipeline from Shebirghan to Balkh province will be set.
"We have started our talks with the Ministry of Finance and our other international cooperators in the mines field, and we have prepared a complete project for the development of Shebirghan gas and power projects," Shahrani added.
According to the Ministry of Mines and Industries, some huge deposits of oil and gas will be put to use in the northern provinces of Afghanistan.
Studies conducted by the Ministry of Mines and Industries reveal that 440 billion cubic meter of gas and 219 million tonnes of oil is deposited only in 'Afghan Tajik' area and 'Amu River' in northern Afghanistan.
In total, 14 blocks of gas and oil in 'Amu river' and 'Afghan Tajik' sites, two gas blocks in Bashi Kut and Jangal-e-Kalan of Jawzjan province and one other block of oil in Sar-e-Pul province has been identified. Some of these blocks have already been put on auction.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
And, of course, we've installed the sort of government that will ensure that nothing gets done unless the Pashtuns get most of the profits from this oil on Tajik land.
#3
you could never get this oil and make a prfit so it's no good. the idiots would blow up the pipelines or wells every other day.
Posted by: chris ||
08/13/2010 11:53 Comments ||
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#4
Take heart, this will fund the next 50 years of despotism in Afghanistan, leaving us free to spend our money on, well, another complete waste of time and money.
[Tolo News] The German troops plan to launch an offensive in October along with Afghan security forces to wipe out the Taliban from their northern hideouts, reports say
After pejorative comments against German troops being too passive to fight insurgency in their zone of responsibility, German military commanders want to dismiss the notion that Germans are reluctant to fight the Taliban.
Germany with 5,350 troops involved in Afghan counter-insurgency fight is the third largest contributor of soldiers to coalition operations in Afghanistan.
In total, 42 German soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war since the Taliban regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001.
German forces are stationed in the newly-turned insecure northern parts of Afghanistan, mainly in Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces.
The reports came as two days ago, three Taliban commanders were detained and 17 others were killed in an offensive launched in the eastern Laghman province by the Afghan security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] A statement on civilian casualties issued by UNAMA on August 10, this year is based on political propaganda and exaggeration, says a Taliban statement released on Wednesday
Taliban in their statement have cited that the UN with all the neutral slogans, plays a major role as a propaganda organisation for the "American imperialism" and keeps covering up the brutal crimes of Pentagon.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in its 2010 mid-year report on civilian casualties released the civilian casualties' statistics over the first six months of 2010 in Kabul city on Monday, August 10.
The report holds the Taliban responsible for 76 percent of all civilian casualties, and attributes 12 percent of all civilian casualties to pro-government forces, adding that ISAF has caused the deaths of 69 civilians during the first six months of 2010.
The report said that the number of children killed or wounded has risen by 55 percent over the same six-month period last year, with 176 children killed and 389 injured.
The report adds that civilian casualties grew the most in southern Afghanistan in the first six months of 2010, with more than half of the deaths in the south.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has expressed hope his country will go ahead with a plan to pull out all its combat troops from Afghanistan by 2015.
During a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London, Rasmussen said Danish troops may pull back from frontline duties even before 2015.
"I also share the vision or the wish that we'll have withdrawn the troops, in the sense of not having large numbers of combating troops in Afghanistan, in 2014 or 2015," AFP quoted Rasmussen as saying on Thursday.
"I even hope we can withdraw troops before that," he said, adding that "it's not a promise but something I wish."
Since their deployment in 2002, 34 Danish soldiers, out of 750 under the command of US-led International Security Assistance Force, have been killed in Afghanistan. Most Danish troops are based in Helmand.
Over 420 foreign troops have so far lost their lives in Afghanistan this year.
Afghanistan's official state news agency reports the US-led war has claimed the lives of nearly 4,500 foreign soldiers since 2001.
According to published figures, 2009 was the deadliest year for foreign troops, with a total of 520 US-led soldiers killed.
NATO currently has about 130,000 soldiers in the war-torn country. The US has plans to deploy 30,000 extra troops by August.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A Spanish police official says Moroccan demonstrators are blockading the border with the Spanish-occupied enclave of Melilla, preventing all trucks from entering it.
Thursday's protest is going ahead even though the two countries' kings spoke by telephone Wednesday to try to ease tensions following a series of incidents between Spanish border police and Moroccans.
The police official said the border crossing itself is quiet because the demonstrators have apparently erected their blockade further inside Moroccan territory.
Melilla has been occupied by Spain for centuries and has some 70,000 people on Morocco's northern coast. It depends heavily on Morocco for products such as fresh fish, fruit and vegetables and construction materials.
Spain's King Juan Carlos phoned his Moroccan counterpart, Mohammed VI, Wednesday in a bid to calm tense relations between the two neighbors over a number of recent incidents, the royal palace said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on Thursday ordered that public religious edicts, or public fatwas, be issued only by clerics he appoints, in the boldest measure the monarch has taken to organize the religious field.
Timid efforts by the absolute monarchy to modernize the deeply conservative country have led to profusion in fatwas from scholars and mosque imams in the country, who use the Internet to publicize them as they fight what they perceive as the westernization of the country.
This abundance depicted growing divisions among pro-reformist clerics and more conservative clerics, a trend which diplomats say was bound to worry Saudi authorities seeking to fight militancy and the ideology that breeds it.
The ruling comes during the first week of Ramadan, the holy fasting month for Muslims worldwide.
Because Saudi Arabia hosts Islam's holiest shrines, fatwas from the Saudi clerics are often revered and followed by clerics in other parts of the Muslim world.
Limiting fatwas
"We have noticed some excesses that we can't tolerate, and it is our legal duty to stand up to these with strength and resolve to preserve the religion, the dearest of our belongings," the monarch said in a royal order sent to the kingdom's Grand Mufti.
"We urge you ... to limit fatwas to the members of the High Scholars Authority and to advise on those among them who are wholly...eligible to be involved in the duty of fatwa so that we allow them to carry out fatwas," he added.
The Permanent Committee of Scholarly Research and Iftaa, which is affiliated to the scholars authority, can also be used as a pool for the selection of scholars authorized to issue public fatwas, the king added.
The royal order, a copy of which was sent to the interior and justice ministers, did not explain how authorities would prevent other scholars from issuing public fatwas on the Internet.
The order excludes however personal fatwas. These refer to requests by Muslims for advice from a scholar about personal or religious matters.
The High Scholars Authority comprises 20 members who are appointed by the king.
The limitation is necessary because many individuals have started surpassing the authority of official religious bodies and have issued fatwas that cause disputes and dissent among Muslims, the decree said.
"All those who violate this order subject themselves to accountability and punishment, whoever they are, because the interests of the religion and the nation are above anything else," the king warned in the decree.
Who can issue fatwas?
In recent months, one Saudi cleric saying music is not un-Islamic and another endorsing breastfeeding for grown men sparked a pitched battle in the ultra-conservative kingdom over who can issue fatwas.
Riyadh cleric Adel al-Kalbani said that "there is no clear text or ruling in Islam that singing and music are haram" or religiously forbidden.
Aside from some folk music, public performances of music are banned in Saudi Arabia, and conservatives say it is haram even at home.
A more senior cleric, Sheikh Abdul Mohsen al-Obeikan, raised hackles with two of his opinions, both of which could be considered to be fatwas.
First, he endorsed the idea that a grown man could be considered the son of a woman if she breast-feeds him.
The issue, based on an ancient story from Islamic texts and source of a furore last year in Egypt, is seen by some as a way of circumventing the Saudi religious ban on unrelated men and women mixing.
Obeikan also angered conservatives when he said the compulsory midday and mid-afternoon prayer sessions could be combined to help worshippers skirt the intense heat of summer.
The country's grand mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, has warned of a fatwa crackdown, saying late June that "if a person comes out (with fatwas) and he is not qualified, we will stop him."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Secretary of Transportation asserts limit on number of flat tires...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/13/2010 1:04 Comments ||
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#2
Favorite Fatwa (#5): Those who "lay-out" to get a sun tan will be given only boiling suntan lotion to drink in hell. (c.a. 60-70's - anyone got a reference for this?).
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Obama administration told Congress on Thursday it planned to sell Kuwait the latest production version of Raytheon Co's Patriot interceptor missile amid concerns over Iran's growing missile capabilities.
Kuwait seeks as many as 209 MIM-104E Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile-T (GEM-T) interceptors valued at up to $900 million, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a notice to lawmakers.
"Kuwait needs these missiles to meet current and future threats of enemy air-to-ground weapons," the notice said. It said Kuwait would use the increased capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense.
The GEM-T is designed to counter a range of enemy missile and air threats, including tactical ballistic missiles that could be tipped with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
at least they pay
Posted by: chris ||
08/13/2010 18:48 Comments ||
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The document, a draft of which has been seen by TIME, consists of 286 pages of sometimes dense scientific and engineering analysis. It not only presents the case for why a North Korean attack is the "only plausible possibility" but sources with detailed knowledge of its preparation say that its intent is to pick apart, in a manner worthy of a Sherlock Holmes story, the most prominent competing theories that have been publicly raised in the months sine the incident. There is no way the ship ran aground, the report says, because the damage to the Cheonan's hull was in no way consistent with that scenario. To the contrary, "two types of hull deformations, impossible to occur in a grounding event, were observed."
The possibility of a friendly fire episode, widely debated on the web in South Korea and elsewhere, is similarly dismissed. The report asserts that all "submarines from neighboring countries were either in or near their home bases at the time of the incident." A collision with another boat? No trace of "an incoming vessel" was found. A ship-to-ship or ground-to-ship missile? The damage done to the Cheonan, the report states, would have been considerably different had that happened. In all, the report runs through 10 different possible scenarios of why the ship might have sunk, and after outlining the evidence in each of those cases it concludes with the words: "no chance."
By contrast, it labels the notion that a North Korean torpedo struck and sunk the Cheonan as a "high possibility." It asserts that the survivors of the Cheonan heard "one or two explosion sounds [sic]," and says that South Korean Marine sentries posted on the nearby Baekyrong Island testified to seeing "a flash of white light" about 100 meters in height. The report further states that analysis done by the U.S. Navy for the joint commission concludes that the sub fired a torpedo with an explosive weight of 250 kilograms that blew up just under the center of the boat, to its port side, at a depth of six to nine meters. The report goes on to a detailed technical discussion of "shape and trace analysis," which explains why the damage done to the Cheonan's hull is consistent with a torpedo attack.
The Canadian Navy has boarded a cargo ship carrying nearly 500 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka. Canadian authorities initially said the ship MV Sun Sea was boarded at midday on Thursday when it veered towards land, but police later said it was not boarded until evening as the ship was escorted to Vancouver island by a naval ship. Local media reported that tents had been erected to receive the migrants at a dock near Esquimalt, a naval base on the island.
The Tamils on board the ship said they were fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka, but Canadian authorities suspect some on board may have links to the Tiger rebels, defeated last year after a two-decades long war. Sri Lankan media had earlier reported that the ship headed for Canada after being turned back from Australia, and that several other ships full of refugees are also on their way.
Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Canada has asked the country to reject their refugee status, calling it a human smuggling operation linked to the rebels.
Carolyn Jack, a Canadian journalist, told Al Jazeera that there were reports the migrants have been at sea since May. There are also unconfirmed reports that one person died on the ship.
#1
The "Canadian authorities" said one thing; the police said another. This is why the red cloud of blood descends over my eyes.
I'd like to know which of the two quoted "authorities" lied about the situation and then I'd like to know why. And then I'd like to slowly turn them on a spit over a very hot fire. And that's before I get really angry.
A controversial Christian cleric with a $60-million bounty on his head is in Vancouver. Sources have told The Province that Father Zakaria Botros, a retired Coptic priest from Egypt, arrived at Vancouver International Airport Wednesday afternoon to little public fanfare — but an RCMP presence.
Although he lives in exile in the U.S., Botros is little known in the West. But he is the target of a fatwa and has been named Islam's "public enemy No. 1" by an Arabic newspaper for his fiery critiques of Islam, the Koran and the prophet Muhammad in a television show broadcast weekly on the Arabic-Christian channel al- Hayat.
Up to 60 million viewers in the Arab world — as well as in Europe, Australia and North America — tune in to Botros's show, Truth Talk, to listen to the outspoken cleric preach the gospel, according to World Magazine, which awarded Botros with the Daniel of the Year award in 2008. His sermons are reportedly causing mass conversions of Muslims to the Christian faith.
Botros is in town for "The Unveiling," a three-day gathering of spiritual leaders, including Jewish and Arab leaders, to discuss God's divine purpose in the Middle East.
They're discussing war?
In a video segment of his show, Botros said he was exiled from his home of Egypt for sharing the gospel. "For this I have been named Islam's public enemy No. 1. For this, there is now a price on my head," he told his audience.
Despite his confrontational style, Botros told World Magazine in 2008 that "I am not against Muslims, although I am against Islam as a false religion. I don't want to disgrace Muslims, but to expose Islam."
Botros's statements and his appeal among some Muslim followers have ignited the anger of jihadists. Al-Qaida has declared him an infidel and put a $60-million price on his head. In comparison, the reward placed on Osama bin Laden's head by the U.S. government is $25 million.
Trinity Western University Prof. Paul Rowe said Botros is "extremely popular in the Middle East because he takes a no-holds-barred approach to challenging Islam. He'll challenge Muslims on their own text. He knows the Koran and the Hadith [narratives on Muhammad's sayings and actions] really well and he is able to deal with Islam on its own merits."
A federal judge has ruled against former FBI informant, Craig Monteilh, who spied on Orange County mosques and helped build a case against a man accused of ties to Bin Laden. Monteilh is trying to sue the FBI over alleged mistreatment when they cut him loose. The judge has indicated that he would dismiss the lawsuit.
Monteilh provided information in the case against Ahmadullah Niazi, who was arrested on suspicion of lying about ties to terrorist groups on his application to become a U.S. citizen.
Monteilh said he worked for the FBI for 15 months but things turned sour when the Irvine Police Department accused him of scamming two women out of more than $157,000 by getting them to give him money to invest in human growth hormones and supplement sales.
Monteilh claimed he was in fact working on behalf of an FBI drug task force and was instructed to plead guilty to grand theft so he wouldn't blow his cover as an informant. The agency disputes that and denies having any part in the scam. Monteilh eventually served eight months in prison in the case.
Aside from suing the agency, Monteilh also has tried to get back at the FBI by working with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California as it crafts a lawsuit of its own. Monteilh has also met with Niazi's defense attorney.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The sentencing of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, accused and found guilty of attempted murder of US agents in Afghanistan in a controversial trial, has been postponed to next month.
Siddiqui, 37, who was detained by Afghan police on July 17, 2008, was held in custody based on allegations that she had documents containing recipes for chemical weapons and explosives in her handbag, csnnews.com reported.
The following day, a team of US military officers and FBI agents in Afghanistan began interrogating Siddiqui. American authorities have alleged that during cross-examination, she grabbed a rifle and began firing at an Army Captain, a claim fiercely denied by Siddiqui's attorneys based on the argument that she is too small and weak to handle the heavy US automatic rifles.
The only person injured during the episode, however, was Siddiqui who was shot in the torso by one of US interrogators.
On February 3, a jury unanimously found Siddiqui guilty of attempted murder, armed assault and using and carrying a firearm.
Her attorneys argued that there was no physical evidence that Siddiqui had touched a weapon.
"I disagree with the jury's verdict. In my opinion, it is wrong. There was no forensic evidence, and the witness testimony was divergent, to say the least. This is not a just and right verdict...And my opinion is that this was a verdict that was based on fear and not fact," Siddiqui's defense attorney Elaine Whitfield Sharp told reporters shortly after the verdict was read on February 3.
Human rights organizations say Siddiqui was abducted in Pakistan along with her three children in 2003 and held captive for five years by the US and was interrogated and tortured while held in secret prisons.
"We think...she suffered while in secret prisons and tortured for those five years while she was missing. In addition, she's been in solitary confinement for a year and a half while in US custody," Executive Director of the International Justice Network Tina Foster told Democracy Now on February 14.
"...The jury was told that she was brought to the United States to face charges because she opened fire on US soldiers," said Petra Bartosiewicz, an independent journalist who wrote about Aafia Siddiqui in the November 2009 edition of the Harper's Magazine.
"But what they were not told was that she'd been missing for five years and that when she went missing in 2003, she was a suspected al-Qaeda operative. And she was never charged with that in this case," she added.
Saddiqui's two youngest children, who were three months old and four years old when captured and taken into detention, are still missing.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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For the Obama administration, the prospect of a nuclearized Iran is dismal to contemplate it would create major new national-security challenges and crush the presidents dream of ending nuclear proliferation. But the view from Jerusalem is still more dire: a nuclearized Iran represents, among other things, a threat to Israels very existence. In the gap between Washingtons and Jerusalems views of Iran lies the question: who, if anyone, will stop Iran before it goes nuclear, and how? As Washington and Jerusalem study each other intensely, heres an inside look at the strategic calculations on both sidesand at how, if things remain on the current course, an Israeli air strike will unfold.
#1
Again, the longer the Clock ticks, the higher the likelighood that any US-ISRAELI LIMITED AIR + COMMANDO STRIKE(S) will devol into FULL-SCALE GROUND INVASION. The alternative is NO MILSTRIKE OR INVASION OF ANY KIND - EVAR.
In any case, PERTS > have long known that, short of DE FACTO REGIME CHANGE IN TEHRAN, UNILATERAL IRAN GOVT DECISION, andor EXTERNAL MIL INVASION, that any US-ALLIED AIR + COMMANDO STRIKE will at best only delay Iran's NucProgs, NOT stop it.
Lest we fergit, RADIC MULLAHS + similar IDEOLOGUES > are SAVING ISLAM from USSR-style internal implosion. ITO BETTER FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD TO BE DESTROYED THAN ISLAM TO NOT EXIST OR RULE.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has held separate meetings with head of Palestinian Authority (PA) and Jordan's King to push for "progress" in the Israeli-Palestinian talks.
Jordan's King Abdullah and Mubarak called on the world community "to intensify efforts to ensure the accomplishment of the two-state vision," said a joint statement carried by Petra news agency.
"The two leaders discussed obstacles that face the achievement of progress in peace efforts that seek to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict" on the basis of the two-state formula, the statement added.
Acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas and Abdullah also met at Cairo airport before leaving Egypt, the official MENA news agency reported without revealing details of the talks.
The talks came two days after the failure of the latest attempt by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to reach an agreement to renew peace talks in talks with Abbas.
Abbas reportedly briefed Mubarak and Abdullah II on his recent meeting with Mitchell.
The PA refused to buckle under US pressure to resume direct talks with Israel.
Abbas insists the conditions he set forward "were just and based on a genuine Palestinian will" to enter peace talks.
"We are rational and believe in our rights and the search for peace for our people," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, however, rejected any preconditions and urged Abbas to come to the negotiating table "right now."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Major powers are working on a statement to set the basis for direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the European Union's foreign policy chief told EU foreign ministers on Thursday.
High Representative Catherine Ashton said in a letter seen by Reuters the statement would be issued early next week, if both parties agreed to proceed to direct talks, and negotiations launched in August.
The EU works with the United States, Russia and the United Nations in a "Quartet" to promote a Middle East peace treaty.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday indicated he could go to direct talks, provided they were based on a March 19 statement by the Quartet.
Israeli newspapers said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday he wanted talks to start immediately without any such "precondition".
Ashton's letter said "Abbas is very close" to accepting direct talks. "In principle, President Abbas should be in a position to give a definitive answer by Sunday or early next week," it adds.
Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev had no direct comment on the Israel press reports, which concluded that Mitchell's mission to get both sides talking directly had failed on Wednesday over the Quartet proposal.
"The government of Israel has been calling for the immediate start of direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians for more than a year now," Regev told Reuters.
A Western diplomat said the Israeli press reports that Netanyahu had rejected this idea "have not changed anything".
"This remains the objective. This is what's in the air," he said. Quartet diplomats were working on the language of a statement "inviting the parties to go back to direct negotiations" on the lines of the Quartet's position.
Abbas refuses to engage in direct talks unless Netanyahu agrees to a clear agenda. Without one, say the Palestinians, Netanyahu may propose terms for a peace treaty that are completely unacceptable, and leave Abbas looking like a rejectionist when he turns them down.
Indirect talks mediated by Mitchell have made no visible progress. Analysts say Abbas' credibility could be destroyed if Netanyahu engaged him in lengthy direct talks while making no concrete moves to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
Ashton said the Quartet initiative "should help President Abbas rally enough support, both at home and abroad, to engage in direct talks".
The Quartet says Israel should halt settlement building in the West Bank and reach a full peace agreement with the Palestinians within 24 months, creating a state on the basis of the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war.
Ashton's letter made clear that these terms, contained in the Quartet's statement from Moscow on March 19, would form the basis of its statement "to be issued concurrently with the announcement of the launch of direct talks".
It said Mitchell was urging the partners "to stick to a unified line" in order to drive the peace process forward.
On Thursday, Abbas and Jordan's King Abdallah separately met Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak to discuss talks strategy.
Abbas and Abdullah did not issue statements after the meetings. The two leaders also held talks at Cairo airport before leaving the country, the official MENA news agency said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Iran is set to acquire its first civilian nuclear power plant following Russias announcement on Friday that atomic fuel will be loaded in the facility from August 21.
Sergei Novikov, the spokesman for the Russian atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, said that loading of fuel would be a key step for starting the reactor.
The entire process of feeding fuel rods in the reactor is expected to be completed in 2-3 weeks.
This will be an irreversible step, Mr. Novikov was quoted as saying. At that moment, the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be certified as a nuclear energy installation, he added. That means the period of testing is over and the period of the physical start-up has begun, but this period takes about two and a half months. The first fissile reaction is expected in October.
Irans atomic energy agency head, Ali Akbar Salehi, said that a formal inauguration of the facility would be held in late September or early October when the fuel is moved to the heart of the reactor. Irans semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Mr. Salehi as saying that the reactor would be linked to the Irans electricity grid when it is powered to a 50 per cent level.
Analysts see Russias willingness to go ahead with Bushehr as a sign of Moscows assertion against isolating Iran through sanctions which do not have the approval of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
However, the reactor does not pose proliferation risks as its activities would be fully monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Besides all the spent fuel generated by the plant would be shipped to Russia. Russias Interfax reported that fuel for the first reactor in Bushehr was delivered in January 2008.
Russia took over the plant in 1995, after the German power engineering firm Kraftwerk Union withdrew from the project, begun in the 1970s, following Irans Islamic Revolution of 1979. Earlier in March, the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin had said that Russia planned to start the Bushehr reactor in the summer of 2010.
#1
Given Inshallah construction and materials, I expect Chernobyl 2 any minute now
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/13/2010 15:18 Comments ||
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#2
As I was hoping, the Israelis had more than enough time to rig all sorts of sabotage operations in the Iranian process. Leaks from Iran indicate that equipment failures are now a daily affair.
Ironically, trying to be nice guys, the attacked the Iraqi nuke plant at Osirik before the nuclear material had been added. This time I think they will drive the point home by leaving the reactor a horribly contaminated mess.
In their place, they might even drop some of their own isotopes along with their explosives, to add to the blend, to make sure that Bushehr is never, ever used again.
#3
NET > VARIOUS > JOHN BOLTON stated that the BUSHESHR FUEL RODS will be loaded by RUSSIA + IRAN come August 21st, 2010 which in turn means that a US-ISRAELI ATTACK ON IRAN [Air, Commando], IFF ANY, may occur on or after August 21st.
IRAN FUEL RODS = SUCCESSFUL PRE-WEAPS? NUCLEARIZATION BY IRAN = IRAN MUST BE ATTACKED, OR ELSE IRAN WILL SAFE FROM ATTACK [US, Israel had failed].BUSHESHR ETC. NUCREX STARTUP = ONLY REMAINING US OPTION WILL BE FULL-SCALE GROUND INVASION + MIL OCCUPATION [Iraq + AFPAK]???
An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for allegedly committing adultery has reportedly appeared on state television to "confess" her crime. In an interview broadcast Wednesday night, a woman identified as Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani admitted to conspiring to murder her husband with the man's cousin, with whom she had been having an affair.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting channel blurred the woman's face and dubbed her words from Azeri Turkish into Persian, so it was impossible to tell if the woman was actually Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, or what condition she was in. But Houtan Kian, a lawyer currently representing Ashtiani in Iran, told the Guardian newspaper that she was "severely beaten up and tortured until she accepted to appear in front of camera". Kian said he feared that the judiciary would now act quickly to carry out Ashtiani's death sentence.
A source close to Iran's judiciary said that Ashtiani will "probably not be executed during Ramadan" - which lasts until September 9 - and that there is a "small possibility" her execution will be revoked. But her case must still be heard by the country's supreme court, our reporter noted.
Ashtiani's previous lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaie, fled Iran this month after Iranian officials issued an arrest warrant for him. He is currently in Norway, while his wife remains in Iran and has been detained. Ashtiani criticised Mostafaie in the broadcast.
Ashtiani's case dates back to 2006, when she was given 99 lashes after pleading guilty to the crime of having an "illicit relationship" with two men. An inquiry into whether Ashtiani had in fact committed "adultery while married" was opened later that year, as the government pursued the prosecution of one of the two men for allegedly also being involved in Ashtiani's husband's murder.
TEHRAN, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Outrage over plans to stone to death a 43-year-old mother of two has prompted Iran to change its method of execution from stoning to hanging, observers say.
The Guardian reported Friday Iran is quietly changing the sentences of those awaiting death by stoning to hanging.
The Islamic Republic's move comes after international condemnation of its plans to execute by stoning Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the mother awaiting execution. She will instead by hanged, The Guardian said.
At least 12 Iranian women and three men are awaiting execution by stoning.
Houtan Kian, who represents Mohammadi Ashtiani and two other women in Tabriz prison who have been convicted of adultery, said none will be stoned.
"All these women are convicted for adultery but Iran is trying to change their sentences after Sakineh's case has embarrassed them," Kian said.
After a speedy review, a court changed the adultery sentence for Mariam Ghorbanzadeh, 25, who was six months' pregnant and miscarried after being beaten up in the prison this week, from stoning to hanging.
Iranian law stipulates the sentence could not be carried out while she was pregnant.
Azar Bagheri, 19, imprisoned since age of 15 after her husband accused her of an extramarital relationship, had been sentenced to death for adultery but instead will receive 100 lashes.
Bastards
Posted by: Steve ||
08/13/2010 19:35 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Mohammed al-Amin spends his days doing little more than playing billiards and smoking cigarettes in this sprawling Palestinian refugee camp, where gunmen roam narrow alleyways dotted with tin-roofed, cement-block homes.
The 25-year-old studied dental lab technology but works at a small, grubby coffee shop in the camp, making $100 a month. He dreams of working with a respected doctor in Lebanese society and being welcomed like any other foreigner, without being looked down on.
"Sometimes I feel like a pressurized bottle that's about to explode," said al-Amin, who was born in Ein el-Hilweh years after his family fled what is now Israel. "Why should three quarters of the Palestinian people here be selling coffee on the street?"
The approximately 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, many of them born here, are barred by law from any but the most menial professions and are denied many basic rights.
Now parliament is debating a new law that would allow Palestinians to work in any profession and own property, as well as give them social security benefits. The bill, due for a vote on Aug. 17, is the most serious effort yet by Lebanon to transform its policies toward the refugees.
But the proposal faces stiff resistance, because it has implications beyond expanding the refugees' civil rights.
Lebanon's population of 4 million is divided between 18 sects, including Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Christians and Druse, and every community is highly sensitive to anything that could tip the balance of power in a country with a grim history of sectarian strife.
Christians and Shiites are particularly worried about any possible permanent settling of the refugees, who are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.
Skepticism
So Palestinians in Ein el-Hilweh are deeply skeptical there will be any change.
"They are not fooling us," said a woman pushing her handicapped mother on a wheelchair to a nearby clinic run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Her mother, 80-year-old Jamileh Salameh, lost her right leg in an Israeli air raid on Ein el-Hilweh in 1987.
"Nobody cares about us, they will talk and talk but nothing will happen," she said.
The Palestinians in Lebanon are isolated in their camps to a higher degree than in any other Arab country. Some 4.7 million Palestinian refugees - who were driven from their homes by Israeli forces in the 1948 and 1967 wars - and their descendants are scattered across the Middle East, in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, according to U.N. figures.
Their fate is one of the most emotionally charged issues in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Palestinian negotiators have demanded at least partial repatriation, but Israel has refused, saying an influx of refugees would dilute its Jewish majority and threaten the existence of the state.
Unlike in neighboring Arab countries like Syria and Jordan where Palestinians enjoy more rights, the refugees in Lebanon live mostly on U.N. agencies' handouts and payments from the rival Palestinian factions. Those who do work are either employed by UNRWA or as laborers at menial jobs such as construction.
Beyond the legal restrictions on them, they also face deep prejudice from many Lebanese.
The bitterness dates back to 1970, when the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat moved his base here after being expelled from Jordan in a bloody crackdown because his forces tried to form a government to rival Jordan's. Many Lebanese have not forgiven Arafat's fighters for attacking Israel repeatedly from southern Lebanon, giving Israel a pretext to attack villages and twice invade.
The refugee camps - Ein el-Hilweh in particular - are notorious for their lawlessness. Lebanese troops patrol their perimeters but have no jurisdiction inside, part of an informal agreement with the PLO since the early 1970s. Factions of Palestinian fighters police the camps, but clashes and assassinations are common.
The Palestinian leadership does not want refugees to gain citizenship, fearing it could deny them their right to ever return home. But it does support giving them civil rights.
Druse leader Walid Jumblatt proposed the rights bill in June, and it has triggered a heated debate. Some lawmakers insisted Palestinians should not be granted any "privileges" as long as they do not answer to the state's authority. Others argued that letting Palestinians work and receive social security would strain the economy.
"They (refugees) are not entitled to any rights according to Lebanese laws - only some facilities that we can give them," said Christian leader Michel Aoun.
Lawmaker Sami Gemayel of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party accused U.N. agencies of trying to pawn off responsibility for the Palestinians onto Lebanon. If that happens, he warned, "we will move step by step toward naturalization" of Palestinians.
Parliament has split largely on sectarian lines over the bill, with Christians opposed and Muslims supporting. The result may be a compromise that grants broader work rights but keeps other restrictions like the ban on owning property.
Fathi Abu al-Ardat, a senior official with the main Fatah faction of the PLO in Lebanon, warns that disillusionment and frustration push young Palestinians toward radicalism.
"Fanaticism and extremism thrive on misery and poverty," he said. "We should let them live a free, dignified life with the opportunity to work and move freely."
Al-Amin, speaking in the coffee shop where he works, agrees.
"We have education and talents," he said. "Given the chance, we can contribute a lot to Lebanese society."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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"The Palestinians in Lebanon are isolated in their camps to a higher degree than in any other Arab country. Some 4.7 million Palestinian refugees - who were driven from their homes by Israeli forces in the 1948 and 1967 wars - and their descendants are scattered across the Middle East, in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, according to U.N. figures."
Simply not true. Not how it happened
Look it up.
Writer is biased, ya think?
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/13/2010 1:56 Comments ||
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#2
"Some 4.7 million PalestinianArab refugees - who were driven fromvoluntarily left their homes by Israeli forces in the 1948 . . . war hoping the other Arabs would kill all the Jooooos and give them the booty"
FTFY
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/13/2010 14:18 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] International sanctions against Iran are bolstering President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government and have helped its crackdown on the opposition Green movement, a senior Iranian opposition figure said on Thursday.
In an e-mail interview with Britain's Guardian newspaper, Mehdi Karroubi was quoted as saying that the policies the United States and Britain had adopted to combat Iran's disputed nuclear program were counter-productive.
"Look at Cuba and North Korea," he told the Guardian newspaper. "Have sanctions brought democracy to their people?
"On the one hand, the government's mishandling of the economy has resulted in deep recession and increasing inflation inside the country... On the other hand, we have sanctions which are just strengthening the illegitimate government," Karroubi said.
"They have just made them more isolated and given them the opportunity to crack down on their opposition without bothering themselves about the international attention," he said in an email exchange.
Karroubi added that sanctions were giving them an "excuse... to suppress the opposition by blaming them for the unstable situation of the country."
The former parliament speaker has twice run unsuccessfully against Ahmadinejad.
Following the disputed presidential election in 2009, he--along with Mir Hossein Mousavi -- emerged as leader of popular street protests which called the vote fraudulent and demanded a recount.
The UN Security Council hit Iran with a fourth set of sanctions over its disputed nuclear program in June.
The United States and European Union have since imposed tougher measures of their own which contain provisions to penalize Tehran's trading partners.
The Guardian reported that Karroubi had also spoken out against Iran's treatment of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery and conspiracy to murder her husband.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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ran's Joint Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi says Iran seeks no war but is ready to fight any waged by the new "super capitalism."
The top Iranian military commander made a reference to the recent remarks by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, who had spoken of a US military plan to strike Iran over the country's nuclear program and said, "The Islamic Republic has remained vigilant over the past ten years and is all set to ward off attacks," Fars news agency quoted General Firouzabadi as saying late Tuesday.
Iran's top general further downplayed the US threats and noted, "Mr. Mullen's military option is meant to get the Congressional and public approval" for the hefty US military budget plan.
He further pointed out that the United States was not in a situation where it could afford another war without "going down."
General Firouzabadi suggested that the "back-breaking" experience of the latest US economic downturn has relegated America to the level of a weak country and is giving rise to the appearance of a new kind of imperialism.
He warned against the threats of the new "enslavement system" and explained that the "new super capitalism" is gradually taking its hub of power off the United States and is spreading globally.
General Firouzabadi made the remarks at a college for higher defense studies in Tehran's National Defense University.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says the West will "regret" its decision to impose "illegal" sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
"Like previous years, we will make the West feel sorry for its illegal moves," Mottaki told reporters in Tehran on Thursday upon his arrival from an official visit to Syrian capital, Damascus.
"The US hatched plots in every field over the past 30 years to exert pressure on Iran. The recent ratification by the US Congress of illegal and unfair sanctions against Iran was in line with such plots," he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
He said that imposing sanctions against Iran by the European Union was not a new issue and added that "the US hegemony has overshadowed the policies of Europe."
The Iranian minister said the EU unilateral sanctions against Iran would lead to the loss of opportunities for the bloc to make economic interaction with Iran.
He said that the incorrect policies of the EU over the past five years made Iran establish its foreign economic relations with other parts of the world.
On Brazil's decision to sign the recent UN resolution against Iran, Mottaki said, "Countries are not expected to take negative stance on UN resolutions.
"We have great potential to form our economic cooperation with other countries in line with these resolutions," he said.
His remarks came after Brazil signed a decree despite its initial "nay" vote to the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran and its efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Tehran's nuclear Issue.
"President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the decree because there is a tradition of carrying out (UN) Security Council resolutions, including those we don't agree with," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said on Tuesday.
On May 17, Iran, Turkey and Brazil issued a declaration based on which Tehran agreed to exchange the bulk of its low-enriched uranium on Turkish soil with fuel for the Tehran research reactor.
The US and its European allies snubbed the declaration and used their influence on the UNSC to impose fresh sanctions on Iran.
Both Ankara and Brasilia condemned the new sanctions, saying it was a major setback in resolving the standoff over Iran's nuclear program.
Following the UNSC resolution, the US and EU also imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, targeting the country's energy and financial sectors.
Iran has criticized the UNSC sanctions arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has called for a UN probe into the alleged Israeli role in the assassination of his father in 2005.
Hariri's call for the probe came after Hezbollah said that Israel has been behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Lebanese premier said evidence presented earlier this week by Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah implicating Israel in the assassination of Hariri was "important and very sensitive", Lebanese daily As-Safir reported.
At a press conference in Beirut on Monday night, Nasrallah presented video materials, captured by Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), as well as recorded confessions by Israeli fifth columnists, substantiating that the February 14, 2005 assassination of the former premier in the capital Beirut was carried out on orders from Tel Aviv.
Tel Aviv had to call the witnesses, which could turn up in Hezbollah's evidence, the prime minister said, adding that he would consider the regime "guilty" otherwise.
"It is important for me to know the truth, both as the prime minister and as the son of the slain," he said.
Hariri has also reportedly talked about the revelations to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Azizi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The United Nations tribunal, probing the assassination, is reportedly to announce its findings by the end of the year.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon's prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, has received Nasrallah's evidence, the newspaper wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Sock puppet for Herballah.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
08/13/2010 12:18 Comments ||
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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.
[Tolo News] The German troops plan to launch an offensive in October along with Afghan security forces to wipe out the Taliban from their northern hideouts, reports say
A controversial Christian cleric with a $60-million bounty on his head is in Vancouver. Sources have told The Province that Father Zakaria Botros, a retired Coptic priest from Egypt, arrived at Vancouver International Airport Wednesday afternoon to little public fanfare — but an RCMP presence. 
