The total number of people arrested for being involved in three weeks of rioting that seared France has climbed to more than 4,700, following the arrest of 1,540 people in the wake of the unrest, interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday. "Arrests didn't stop with the end of the riots," he told a gathering of mayors. "Those who pillaged, those who behaved as delinquents have debts to pay to the courts in our country," he said. Sarkozy did not say how many of those arrested remained in custody, nor how many would face criminal charges. The last figures from the national police service, the DGPN, showed that 650 have been jailed.
Sarkozy, who was vilified by many of the youths taking part in the riots, maintained a hard line throughout the crisis, ordering vigorous police action and deporting some non-French citizens who participated. The latter measure has generated controversy because of the high-immigrant nature of the suburbs involved. Though most of the youths taking part were French citizens, born in France, many have north and west African origins, and the DGPN said six to eight percent were not French nationals. According to surveys, Sarkozy's tough approach has won the approval of the majority of French voters, on whom he is counting to realise his ambition of replacing Jacques Chirac as president in the 2007 elections.
#1
Catch and release? Or will there be a stiff prison sentence, like 6 weeks?
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
11/26/2005 7:24 Comments ||
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#2
Unfortunately the efforts of the Minister of Interior will be nullified by those of the Minister of Justice who, traditionally is a bleeding heart liberal.
From these 4700 you can bet on the prosecution not pushing the case for about 2 thirds of them. That makes for only 1600. From these about 2 thirds will be realeased despite overwhelming evidence or get a suspended senytence. That makes for only 600 or so who will got to jail.
Furthermore the French jails are already overcrowded. They have been for years and of course, the "solution' has been to release the criminals on the genberal population. Nobody between the politicians and still more between the MSM points that there are two altrernative solutions for the problem of overcrowded jails: build more jails and Comrades Staline's solution.
#3
Have them on high profile work details repairing much of the damage that they caused.
For these young people to see that if they do the crime, they have to clean it up, may be especially effective in their own neighborhoods. A nice learning curve.
Posted by: Jan ||
11/26/2005 9:16 Comments ||
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The UN nuclear watchdog wrapped up a meeting in Vienna with non-aligned countries protesting a call by Britain to hand over key Iranian nuclear documents to the world's five main atomic powers for analysis. The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors on Thursday put off taking Iran to the UN Security Council to give time for new Russian diplomacy to resolve the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, but the United States warned that referral would happen soon if Tehran did not meet its non-proliferation obligations. Non-aligned states, which back Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, said the issue should remain within the framework of the IAEA.
[T]he European Union "sees grounds for deep concern" that Iran "has admitted to having in its possession a document which was supplied" by an international black market and which is a guide to making the explosive core of an atom bomb. The document tells how to melt and cast enriched uranium into hemispheres, the IAEA reported last week. Experts said the only use for such a technology is to make nuclear weapons.
But Iranian ambassador Mohammad Akhondzadeh said Thursday that this was "simple and non-sophisticated information which could be found in open literatures and on Internet". Iran's turning it over to the IAEA "is a clear indication of Iran's full transparency," he said.
prepare & brace for more,
Force #11 whirlwindy Mohammed ElBaradei wasted breath speak, table top meetings of the predisposed, Konclaves of Kofi Klatch understandings, sub-committe towel alignment processes, demarches by diploids for the perpetually starved, and outright demands for more funding from the rich and greedy 1st world.
why? why didn't those bastards just fly into the UN?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/26/2005 1:58 Comments ||
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#3
why? why didn't those bastards just fly into the UN?
A question I've asked myself a hundred thousand times since, Red Dog.
Somalia - NE and Eastern Coast - Thirty two incidents have been reported since March 15 2005. Heavily armed pirates are now attacking ships further away from the coast. Ships not making scheduled calls at Somali ports are advised to keep at least 200 nm from the Somali coast.
Recently reported incidents
November 20 2005 at 0345 LT at Umm Qasr anchorage, off no 2 buoy, Iraq. Five heavily armed robbers boarded a bulk carrier from starboard quarter. They took hostage two duty crew on deck and went to bridge where they held 2nd Officer and two seamen at gunpoint. They went to master's cabin and stole master's property and cash from ship's safe. They then proceeded to C/OÂŽs cabin and stole cash. Robbers escaped in their speedboat. Master and crew received serious injuries. Crew contacted coalition forces who provided medical assistance. Injured crew are recovering onboard.
November 19 2005 at 2200 UTC in position 29:43.4N - 048:37.5E at Umm Qasr anchorage off no 5 buoy, Iraq. Three pirates armed with machine guns and pistols boarded a bulk carrier at bridge deck and took 2nd Officer hostage. They forced him to take them to master's cabin. They threatened the master with machine guns and stole ship's cash and masterâs personal property. They then assaulted 2nd Officer and stole his cash and property. Master and 2nd Officer suffered injuries. Pirates damaged all radio equipment and took the 2nd Officer to forecastle and then escaped in a waiting speedboat. Master activated SSAS and notified RCC Australia. Later a naval ship in the area came to provide assistance.
November 19 2005 at 2000 LT in position 10:19N - 075:23W at Cartagena Bay, Colombia. Four robbers boarded a tanker from forecastle. Duty watchmen raised alarm. Robbers broke padlocks of forward locker and stole shipâs stores together with safety equipment and escaped. Coast guard and port authorities were notified and both came onboard within 30 mins to investigate.
Sunni Arabs protested the slaying of a respected sheik yesterday, and a little-known Sunni group said a deadly car bombing was retaliation for the shooting death.
A videotape posted on the Internet -- purportedly by al Qaeda in Iraq -- showed how the terror group planned and carried out the Oct. 24 triple suicide attack against the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, in which 17 persons were killed.
A narrator said the Palestine -- headquarters of the Associated Press, Fox News and others -- was occupied "by foreign journalists and security companies," but indicated the Sheraton was the main target because it housed "assassination teams, intelligence groups" and American soldiers.
The videotape's authenticity could not be verified but it appeared on an Islamic Web site known for publishing messages from militant groups.
In northwestern Baghdad, more than 200 members of the Batta tribe gathered at a mosque carrying banners and chanting slogans to demand the resignation of the defense minister in the slaying Wednesday of Sheik Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem.
One of the sheik's brothers said gunmen using Iraqi army uniforms and vehicles broke into the family home; they killed Sheik al-Hemaiyem, three of his sons and his son-in-law. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry denied that government forces were involved.
Another one of Sheik al-Hemaiyem's sons was killed by men in uniform last month, family members said.
"We want the Arab League and the Sunni scholars to investigate," said Abdullah Jawad Khadim al-Battawi, a relative.
A statement from the little-known Partisans of the Sunni asserted the group carried out the car bombing Thursday in the mostly Shi'ite city of Hillah in retaliation for the slaying of Sheik al-Hemaiyem and other attacks on Sunni Arabs.
Eleven persons were killed and 17 were wounded in the Hillah attack.
"We have warned the [Shi'ites] to stop assassinations and detentions and torture," the statement posted yesterday on an Islamist Web site said. "You should know, your blood is no more dear than ours. You kill our men, we kill yours. You kill our sheiks, we kill yours. You started this war."
An Interior Ministry official said security forces were aware of the Partisans group, which has been active in the area south of Baghdad for months. The official said authorities suspect the same group was behind a suicide car bombing Thursday near a hospital in Mahmoudiya that killed 30 persons.
However, the Partisans statement did not mention the Mahmoudiya attack.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/26/2005 00:35 ||
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"We have warned the [Shi'ites] to stop assassinations and detentions and torture," the statement posted yesterday on an Islamist Web site said. "You should know, your blood is no more dear than ours. You kill our men, we kill yours. You kill our sheiks, we kill yours. You started this war."
And all this time I thought Zarq and baathist were Sunnis. I guess I was wrong.
Indonesia will take tough action in its newly declared war on militant ideas that could include shutting an Islamic school co-founded by hardline jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir if serious teaching deviations are found, the vice president said on Saturday.
Jusuf Kalla said the government would soon ban a widely circulated book of militant ideas written by one of the 2002 Bali bombers, Imam Samudra, who is on death row.
He said that would be one of a number of steps the government and mainstream clerics would take in response to the discovery of videos showing three suicide bombers using Islam to justify attacks in Bali on October 1 that killed 20 people.
"There has to be two wars. Firstly, a physical war by the police and secondly an ideological war carried out by Muslim clerics," Kalla said in an interview.
Kalla summoned Muslim clerics from all major groups to view the tapes of the young bombers last week, prompting them to form a team to counter militant ideas and work with the police.
He said clerics had to correct or review religious curriculum and evaluate religious books in circulation.
The Religious Affairs Department had already been in contact with some Islamic boarding schools about their teachings, which would be corrected, said Kalla.
Asked about the al-Mukmin boarding school near the city of Solo, which was co-founded by Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah militant network, Kalla said:
"Yes al-Mukmin is certainly one that needs to be further analysed and given information so their curriculum will be in line with the national curriculum," Kalla said.
Asked if the school, where some convicted Islamic bombers have studied, could be closed, he said that would depend on the Religious Affairs Department.
"If there are some serious (deviations), automatically it has to be (closed). I mean serious deviations, if they have wrong teachings. It could come to that (closure)."
He cited one example where the school's 2,000 students were not allowed to salute the Indonesian national flag.
His comments are the strongest yet from the government against al-Mukmin, which the International Crisis Group has described as at the top of Jemaah Islamiah's "Ivy League" of schools where members send their children.
Kalla said he could not believe the images of the young suicide bombers on the videos. He said this had erased any doubts among clerics that they had a problem on their hands.
"I was shocked, not just me, but all of the clerics were too, (seeing) youths laughing and then saying that they would die and go to heaven the next day," Kalla said.
"There were a lot of doubts before, but having watched the video then all the clerics finally said this was the case."
Mainstream Muslim organisations would meet in Jakarta on December 2 to kickstart a national effort to fight this war against militant ideas, Kalla added.
There would also be a meeting of major Islamic boarding schools, known as pesantrens in Indonesia, but it was unclear if that would be incorporated in the December 2 event.
The move by clerics is the first time moderate groups have agreed to play a decisive and united role in tackling terrorism.
In the past, they have been reluctant to criticise militants or have said fighting terrorism was the responsibility of the government and the police.
The special team gathers top preachers from the two mainstream Islamic groups in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, that have a combined 70 million members.
Anti-terrorism campaigns in Indonesia have often faced challenges because of a widespread belief that the United States wants to attack Islam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/26/2005 00:37 ||
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Indonesia will take tough action in its newly declared war on militant ideas that could include shutting an Islamic school co-founded by hardline jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir if serious teaching deviations are found
Lemme see. This maggot Bashir is in jail, but his imprisonment could not possibly reflect upon the chance that his religious whorehouse "school" is churning out murderous thugs in droves.
I'll take "Whopping Big Cluebats the Size of Tree Trunks" for one thousand, Alex.
Anti-terrorism campaigns in Indonesia have often faced challenges because of a widespread belief that the United States wants to attack Islam.
Keep this sh!t up and there will be a global war on Islam. Al Qaeda wants exactly that and any continued admiration of bin Laden and his genocidal maggots will get you nothing less. Al Qaeda ain't doing so hot these days now, are they? Go down this path and neither will any of you.
In the interim report he filed in October, UN investigator Delev Mehlis placed high value on eight cell phone lines as evidence for solving the case of the murdered Lebanese leader Rafiq Hariri. The phones, used by the assassins and the Syrian intelligence officers directing them at the time of the crime, were purchased at a shop in Beirut port owned by Nawar Dora. It was his body that was discovered.
Boy this is a real shocker, with the rule of law held in such high esteem in the Middle East. Who could have seen this coming?
Syria's official Al-Thawra newspaper claimed Thursday that more than 400 agents from Israel's spy agency Mossad are in Lebanon in the latest volley in an increasingly vitriolic war of words with Lebanon's new leaders. "You have to recognize the danger of having more than 400 men from Israel's Mossad in Lebanon who are working with the other (Lebanese) agents who once supported the Zionist enemy and its militias," wrote editor Fayez Sayegh. "These agents are encircling Lebanon like a belt that will explode when Israel and its strategic ally the United States decide," he said, charging there was also an increasing number of agents from the CIA and European states in the country. All these agents came to Lebanon... to sow dissent, revive hatred, reinforce pressure on Lebanon and Syria and above all spy on national forces, the Lebanese resistance and Palestinians," said the paper.
Syria's state run Tishrin newspaper and the Baath newspaper had tried to stir up strife in Lebanon earlier this month, when they ran editorials calling on its allies to hold demonstrations in Lebanon against Premier Fouad Siniora's government and the economic situation in Lebanon. The call was widely dubbed by the local media as a flagrant intervention in Lebanon's domestic affairs in defiance of unrelenting global pressure on the regime of President Bashar Al Assad to take its hands off Lebanon. No demonstrations took place and no political group in Lebanon announced any plans to demonstrate.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Nah. That's how these people think. To them, everything is bombs and belts. Sometimes they throw in a vest depending on the season.
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/26/2005 4:31 Comments ||
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#7
RG that's what the State Department played in Panama and Iraq. In both cases coups and revolts were put down and it required the application of American military to make the change. Promoting internal revolt in both case cost a lot of people their lives for nothing. Much to the shame of Bush senior. If it is important enough, then send the very best - U.S. Armed Forces.
Hizbullah will accept whatever the Lebanese government decides on demarcating the border with Syria, Minister of Energy Mohammed Fneish said in an interview with The Daily Star Friday. Fneish also said Hizbullah had "no plans" to quit the Cabinet despite increasing tension over the report of UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen. Larsen reported last month that Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora promised to disarm Hizbullah, a claim Siniora has denied.
Syria agreed this week to redraw its border with Lebanon starting with territorial waters north of Tripoli and the northern border abutting central Syria. "What the Lebanese government decides is our land Hizbullah will accept," said Fneish, the first minister from the Shiite resistance group to serve in the Lebanese Cabinet.
But...
Fneish said any demarcation, however, must stop at the Isreali-occupied Shebaa Farms, which the Lebanese government says is part of Lebanon but the UN says is Syrian. "Shebaa Farms is occupied territory and you cannot draw lines where there is an occupation," he said.
Occupied Syrian territory, we might add...
Fneish also said Hizbullah would be willing to discuss disarmament if Israel withdraws from the Shebaa Farms and guarantees are given to protect Lebanon from aggression. "The resistance was born for certain reasons," he said. "If those reasons are not there anymore, we will discuss it." He added: "First let's see if Israel withdraws. After that there are so many issues that it is hard to talk about disarmament."
"We're sure to come up with some reason to remain armed and dangerous."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Those who question Hizbullah's loyalty to Lebanon must show their credentials first, Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday in his toughest response yet to critics who believe the resistance acts upon Syrian and Iranian orders.
Nasrallah was speaking to a mass rally in Beirut's southern suburbs, gathered for a funeral procession for the three resistance fighters killed during Monday's clashes with Israeli troops. "While encouraging dialogue and discussion," the cleric stressed "the resistance will not tolerate being named a traitor or an agent for foreign countries."
Even though everyone but the willfully blinded realizes that's exactly what they are.
"Hizbullah appreciates the different points of views over many Lebanese internal issues and invites all parties for a dialogue," he said. "But before we hold a dialogue with someone, we will ask, 'Who are you and what have you done for Lebanon? What are your relations with embassies and ambassadors? What are your relations with Israel and Western countries?'"
"If we don't like your answers, we'll blow up your car!"
Nasrallah emphasized that Hizbullah values its friendships with Damascus and Tehran, calling on the Lebanese people to do the same because the resistance's ties with the two capitals have benefited Lebanon and "freed it from occupation."
Wasn't it Leb's relations with Damascus and Teheran — and the PLO, of course — that resulted in the occupation in the first place?
"Hizbullah's orders do not come from Damascus, or Tehran; they come from Beirut," he said.
Oh, they still have resident satraps there?
According to Nasrallah, Hizbullah has a duty to try to capture Israeli soldiers and swap them for Arab prisoners in Israel.
It's called "kidnapping." They have a duty to kidnap.
"Our experience with the Israelis shows that if you want to regain detainees or prisoners ... you have to capture Israeli soldiers," he said. "It is not a shame, a crime or a terrorist act. It is our right and our duty which one day we might fulfil," Nasrallah asserted to thunderous chants of "death to Israel."
Sorry. Kidnapping is kidnapping. Kidnapping as policy is a shame, a crime, and a terrorist act. And has anyone but me noticed that Arabs spend a lot of time laying out "rights" for themselves that civilized countries don't have? Where does it say that the mere act of claiming them means they actually exist?
Addressing those who may be worried about such continued attempts, he suggested "Israel release all prisoners and foil this threat."
Or they could roll over Hezbollah and wipe it out.
Unfazed by a statement released Thursday by the UN Security Council condemning Hizbullah for this week's violence along the border, Nasrallah criticized the Council for failing to condemn what he said were continuous Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
That could be because they weren't the subject of the conversation; Hezbollah was.
"The resistance exerted great constraints on its fighters not to be provoked by the Israeli violations, just to wait for an international reaction or condemnation," Nasrallah said, "But nothing happened."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Syria has agreed to allow UN investigators to question its officials over Rafiq al-Hariri's assassination at the United Nations building in Vienna, Syria's deputy foreign minister has said. Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told a news conference on Friday that the breakthrough in negotiations with the United Nations came after Syria received âreassurancesâ that its sovereignty would be respected. "The (Syrian) leadership has decided to inform Mehlis that it accepts his suggestion, as a compromise, that the venue to listen to the five Syrian officials be the UN headquarters in Vienna," Moallem said. Moallem said the date for the questioning would be set after contacts with Mehlis. There was no immediate comment from the UN investigation team.
The official said the individuals, whose names were not released, would return to Damascus after the interviews. His announcement came a day after Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa criticised Mehlis for refusing Syrian offers on where and how to question the six Syrian officials that the commission wished to see.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis is close to giving up on Syrian cooperation after Damascus insisted on a legal deal before allowing the quizzing of six officials, Lebanese political sources said on Friday. Mehlis could notify the Security Council by early next week of a lack of Syrian cooperation in his inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, paving the way for a showdown between the world body and Damascus, they said. "It seems we are at a deadlock," a Lebanese political source closely following the investigation said. "Mehlis appears ready to declare Syria non-cooperative which would open a new chapter in this issue and place Damascus on a collision course with the Security Council," he said.
A Security Council resolution on Oct. 31 demanded Syria cooperate fully with Mehlis or face unspecified further action. Mehlis then summoned six top Syrian security officials, including the brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad for questioning in Lebanon -- where he has power to arrest them. Syria rejected Lebanon as a venue and Mehlis, after turning down a Syrian offer for questioning them in the Golan Heights, proposed either Geneva or Vienna as venues.
But Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said on Thursday only agreement on a legal framework for cooperation would open the way for the interrogation. Mehlis had been expecting a final Syrian answer on the venue on Thursday, Lebanese sources said. The sources said that though Damascus appeared insistent on holding the questioning on its soil, it could relent if it got a deal that would guarantee any suspects would only be arrested and tried in Syria. But they said Mehlis would not agree to such restrictions as the Security Council resolution is clear on unconditional cooperation.
The sources said Mehlis could report back to the council before a Dec. 15 deadline and a lack of Syrian cooperation could see him calling for an international court to try Lebanese and Syrian suspects. Shara said Syria was not looking for a showdown with the United Nations but would not shy away from any confrontation "imposed on us".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Influential Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday the U.N. nuclear watchdog's latest statement on Iran's disputed atomic programme was a step in the right direction but still had elements of "harassment". The International Atomic Energy Agency decided on Thursday not to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions in order to give Russia time to broker a compromise deal under which Moscow would enrich Iran's processed uranium.
"This time a kind of wisdom, precaution, and an avoidance of adventurism prevailed over the IAEA meeting," Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran. The mid-ranking cleric heads the powerful Expediency Council which arbitrates in constitutional disputes. Iran has been risking referral to the Council after failing to convince the world that its nuclear scientists are working on fuel for power stations rather than bombs. Western diplomats say Tehran could guarantee that the uranium would only be enriched to the low level needed for power stations, and not to the higher weapons-grade, by allowing Russia to act a middle man and conduct the nuclear fuel work. Rafsanjani, president from 1989 to 1997, made no specific reference to this proposal.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Wisdom prevailed at UN atomic meeting - Iran cleric
I suppose so. So long as you call it "wisdom" to provide highly purified and preprocessed nuclear material all primed for enrichment to weapons grade by a bunch of genocidal religious psychotics. Sure, that makes perfect sense.
ALGIERS â Opposition parties have kept control of Algeriaâs restive Berber Kabylie region following local elections aimed at boosting national reconciliation after years of unrest, results showed yesterday.
The elections were called in June by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who, as part of a peace plan with the leaders of the ethnic minority, dissolved local councils set up in 2002 in the Berber heartland, east of Algiers. Local elections in 2002 were largely boycotted by the Berbers over a long-running standoff with the government.
Kabylie-based groups the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) and its rival Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), placed first and second in the vote, are known for dominating the Tizi Ouzou, Bejaia and Bouira provinces, which make up Kabylie.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/26/2005 00:46 ||
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Good news: Nationalist Berbers hate panarabism and salafism/wahabism. A good number/most of them see islam as the instrument of arabism and thus an enemy. There is even a timid renaissance of christianism in Berberic regions. Of course the Algerian government has recently passed a law making the preaching of christianism a crime: meaning that the arabists think that thgeir instrument (islam) is in danger.
Egyptian police arrested 16 members of the Muslim Brotherhood early on Friday, a day before another round of parliamentary elections, a spokesman for the banned but usually tolerated Islamist group said. He said the arrests in the city of Alexandria were an attempt by the ruling National Democratic Party to hamper their election campaign, after independents linked to the Brotherhood won seven seats there in the first round of the second stage of elections. The NDP gained only two. "This is a warning from the authorities and an attempt to cut off the Brotherhood leadership from their supporters. It is also a punishment for winning seven seats," said Brotherhood spokesman Abd El-Moneim Mahmoud.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2005 00:00 ||
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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.
The total number of people arrested for being involved in three weeks of rioting that seared France has climbed to more than 4,700, following the arrest of 1,540 people in the wake of the unrest, interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday. "Arrests didn't stop with the end of the riots," he told a gathering of mayors. "Those who pillaged, those who behaved as delinquents have debts to pay to the courts in our country," he said. Sarkozy did not say how many of those arrested remained in custody, nor how many would face criminal charges. The last figures from the national police service, the DGPN, showed that 650 have been jailed.
The UN nuclear watchdog wrapped up a meeting in Vienna with non-aligned countries protesting a call by Britain to hand over key Iranian nuclear documents to the world's five main atomic powers for analysis. The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors on Thursday put off taking Iran to the UN Security Council to give time for new Russian diplomacy to resolve the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, but the United States warned that referral would happen soon if Tehran did not meet its non-proliferation obligations. Non-aligned states, which back Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, said the issue should remain within the framework of the IAEA.
Somalia - NE and Eastern Coast - Thirty two incidents have been reported since March 15 2005. Heavily armed pirates are now attacking ships further away from the coast. Ships not making scheduled calls at Somali ports are advised to keep at least 200 nm from the Somali coast.
Syria's official Al-Thawra newspaper claimed Thursday that more than 400 agents from Israel's spy agency Mossad are in Lebanon in the latest volley in an increasingly vitriolic war of words with Lebanon's new leaders. "You have to recognize the danger of having more than 400 men from Israel's Mossad in Lebanon who are working with the other (Lebanese) agents who once supported the Zionist enemy and its militias," wrote editor Fayez Sayegh. "These agents are encircling Lebanon like a belt that will explode when Israel and its strategic ally the United States decide," he said, charging there was also an increasing number of agents from the CIA and European states in the country. All these agents came to Lebanon... to sow dissent, revive hatred, reinforce pressure on Lebanon and Syria and above all spy on national forces, the Lebanese resistance and Palestinians," said the paper. 
Those who question 
Syria has agreed to allow UN investigators to question its officials over 
Chief U.N. investigator 
Influential Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday the U.N. nuclear watchdog's latest statement on Iran's disputed atomic programme was a step in the right direction but still had elements of "harassment". The International Atomic Energy Agency decided on Thursday not to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions in order to give Russia time to broker a compromise deal under which Moscow would enrich Iran's processed uranium.
Egyptian police arrested 16 members of the Muslim Brotherhood early on Friday, a day before another round of parliamentary elections, a spokesman for the banned but usually tolerated Islamist group said. He said the arrests in the city of Alexandria were an attempt by the ruling National Democratic Party to hamper their election campaign, after independents linked to the Brotherhood won seven seats there in the first round of the second stage of elections. The NDP gained only two. "This is a warning from the authorities and an attempt to cut off the Brotherhood leadership from their supporters. It is also a punishment for winning seven seats," said Brotherhood spokesman Abd El-Moneim Mahmoud.
