2 June 2012 Last updated at 09:50 CET

Mubarak arrives at court for verdict hearing

Mubarak former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six others could face the gallows if convicted.

CAIRO (AFP) - Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak arrived on Saturday by helicopter at a court where he will face sentencing over his alleged involvement in the killing of demonstrators.
Mubarak, wearing dark sunglasses, was then transported by ambulance to the courthouse on the outskirts of Cairo, where he was taken inside on a stretcher.
Mubarak, the only autocrat toppled in the Arab Spring to be put in the dock, former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six others could face the gallows if convicted of ordering the deaths of some of the estimated 850 people killed.
Chief Judge Ahmed Rifaat is expected not only to issue a verdict but also pass sentence on those who are convicted.
Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal and business associate Hussein Salem, who fled to Spain, are also on trial over an alleged bribe.
His two sons had already arrived at the courthouse earlier on Saturday, according to the official MENA news agency.
Mubarak has been detained in hospital since his arrest last year after the military, which took power after he resigned, appeared to bow to popular protests demanding that he and former regime officials be put on trial.
But the military insists the prosecution's investigations and the charges eventually filed were independent judicial decisions.
However, critics say the investigations were hasty and sloppy, resulting in a trial based on patchwork evidence that may see Mubarak acquitted.
During the trial, Mubarak was wheeled into the lecture hall that serves as a courtroom on a stretcher. He reportedly suffers from a heart condition, but the health ministry has denied his lawyer's claim that he has cancer.
Along with Adly, Mubarak's co-defendants include six former police commanders.
They have all denied that they ordered police to shoot protesters or use deadly force during the uprising, in which demonstrators torched police stations across the country.
The verdict comes just two weeks before a run-off in presidential elections that will pit Mubarak's former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq against the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi in a highly polarising race.
It is the first openly contested presidential election in any of the Arab countries swept by regional protests and uprisings that challenged decades of autocratic rule.
But the revolt also led to a deteriorating economy and increased lawlessness in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, that has helped Shafiq, a symbol of Mubarak's regime, win a surprising amount of support.

2 June 2012 Last updated at 01:31 CET

Tanzania President Is Worried Over Suspected 500 Witches Lynched Every Year

By Francis Tawiah (Duisburg - Germany)

President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete

Over 3,000 people suspected to be witchcrafts, mainly old women, were lynched in Tanzania between 2005 and 2011, reported a leading local Tanzanian rights group. The old women were lynched by frightened neighbours who thought they were witches, the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) said in a report.
A average of 500 people particularly old women with red eyes, are just killed every year in Tanzania because they are suspected of being witches according to the report. The provinces which are hardest hit are Mwanza and Shinyanga in the north of the country, according to the report of the LHRC.
In Shinyanga province for example 242 people were killed because of local beliefs in witchcraft between January 2010 and January 2011 alone, it said. The rights group explained that red eyes are feared as a sign of witchcraft, even if they in fact often result from the use of cow dung as cooking fuel in most impoverished communities.
The the Legal and Human Rights Centre said that many local people believe that witchcraft is behind every misfortune from infertility, poverty, failure in business, famine and earthquakes.
FRANCIS TAWIAH (Duisburg - Germany)

Al Qaeda in Iran

Why Tehran is Accommodating the Terrorist Group

The Iran-Pakistan border. (snotch / flickr)
Virtually unnoticed, since late 2001, Iran has held some of al Qaeda's most senior leaders. Several of these operatives, such as Yasin al-Suri, an al Qaeda facilitator, have moved recruits and money from the Middle East to central al Qaeda in Pakistan. Others, such as Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian that served as head of al Qaeda's security committee, and Abu Muhammad al-Masri, one of the masterminds of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, have provided strategic and operational assistance to central al Qaeda. The Iranian government has held most of them under house arrest, limited their freedom of movement, and closely monitored their activities. Yet the organization's presence in Iran means that, contrary to optimistic assessments that have become the norm in Washington, al Qaeda's demise is not imminent.
Perhaps more disturbing, Iran appears willing to expand its limited relationship with al Qaeda. Just as with its other surrogate, Hezbollah, the country could turn to al Qaeda to mount a retaliation to any U.S. or Israeli attack. To be sure, the organization is no Iranian puppet. And the two have sometimes been antagonistic, as illustrated by al Qaeda in Iraq's recent attacks against Shias. But both share a hatred of the United States. U.S. policymakers should think twice about provoking a closer relationship between them and should draw greater public attention to Iran's limited, but still unacceptable, cooperation with al Qaeda.

A nuclear Persian Gulf ??

“If they get nuclear weapons, we will get nuclear weapons.”

– That’s what Saudi Arabian King Abdullah told long-time U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross would happen if Iran gets atomic weaponry. It’s the first confirmed declaration that Tehran’s membership in the atomic club would trigger proliferation elsewhere in the region. Ross relayed the 2009 statement by the Saudi king while on a book tour.
It’s a key point long overlooked in America’s focus on the threat an Iranian nuke would pose to Israel, and will play a role in any U.S. decision to take out Iran’s nuclear efforts militarily. The Saudis belong to the Sunni branch of Islam, while the Iranians belong to the Shiite sect. That rivalry could top the Arab-v.-Israel, India-v.-Pakistan or U.S.-v.-the-Soviet-Union that have long been considered the most likely flashpoints for nuclear war.

Situation Normal: Afghanistan Fouled Up

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC 

inShare3

Army photo / Sgt. Stephen Decatur

Freshly-minted Afghan National Police in Herat

A trifecta of trouble in three Pentagon inspector-general reports released Thursday concerning the U.S. military’s continuing struggle to build Afghan security forces so U.S. troops can come home.
Here is the first finding from each report:

– NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (NTM-A/CSTC-A) officials did not develop adequate sustainment requirements for the 15 types of ANA individual equipment items.
– ACC officials did not properly award or manage 19 contract actions in accordance with regulations and did not include specific quality requirements in the contract for 13 contract actions because they did not perform all necessary contracting procedures when accelerating procurements.
– Army contracting officials at Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) did not appropriately award and administer the ANP contract in accordance with Federal and DoD guidance.

What the heck is going on here?
Here we are, a decade into this war, and the proper training and outfitting of the Afghan security forces is the key to leaving something worthwhile — worth the nearly 2,000 American lives and $640 billion we’ve invested in the place – when we depart, more or less, by the end of 2014.
It’s really pretty simple: either the rules are too complex and not worth following, or the military – at least in these cases – is incompetent. Most likely, of course, it’s some of each. Granted, no war plan survives contact with the enemy, but it shouldn’t be so brittle that the IG can carp and criticize nonstop.
Perhaps there are too many little things tripping up our troops. That’s not fair to them, the IG, or the Afghan security forces, who generally seem content with what U.S. troops call Afghan good – not good enough to pass muster with Pentagon bean-counters, perhaps, but good enough for an 18^th Century nation roiled by more than three decades of war.

U.S. Admits to Waging War Against Iran

By Thomas P. M. Barnett | June 1, 2012 |

inShare

REUTERS/GeoEye/IHS Janes

Iran's nuclear fuel facility near Qom, Iran, is pictured in this 2009 GeoEye satellite photograph.

Check out this New York Times story about President Obama speeding up waves of cyber attacks against Iran.  I personally have no problem with this, and prefer it to Israel’s imagined missile strikes.
But just remember this when next you hear about other countries’ “unprecedented offensive cyber attacks against the U.S.”
If anybody else does to America what we’re doing to Iran right now, our national security types would describe it as open warfare.
Heck, we have a recent U.S. government national cyber security strategy document that says what we’re now doing to Iran — if done to us — would constitute an act of war worthy of a commensurate kinetic response on our part (the brilliant quote: “‘If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,’ unnamed official says”).
What always amazes me is how clueless we are about our own hypocrisy.  We maintain that we — and we alone — have the right to do certain things, but that, if those things are done to us, they constitute something unbelievably provocative.
According to all our stated descriptions of what we consider offensive cyber warfare to be, we are already at war with Iran — plain and simple. Remember that when Tehran engages in some “unprovoked aggression.”
Again, I don’t have a problem with the approach. I have a problem with the hypocrisy. We are engaging in acts of war and pretending otherwise, saving those accusations for other powers.
But one this is clear with President Obama: between this and his personally-approved targeted-assassination campaigns, his vigorous embrace of pre-emptive wars is complete.

US, Iran dig in for long cyber war - By Rob Lever

US, Iran dig in for long cyber war - By Rob Lever

Saturday, 02 June 2012 16:54

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2012 (AFP) - The United States and Iran are locked in a long-running cyber war that appears to be escalating amid a stalemate over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
The Flame virus that surfaced recently may be part of the face-off, but Washington probably has more sophisticated tools at its disposal, security specialists say.
“Large nations with large spy agencies have been using these kinds of techniques for more than a decade,” said James Lewis, a senior fellow who monitors technology at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Lewis said cyber espionage is “not a weapon” but can be “very effective” as an intelligence tool and can avoid some of the problems with traditional surveillance such as spy planes.
“If you have to choose between this and a pilot being paraded through the streets of Tehran, this is much preferable,” he said.
But Lewis noted that the Flame virus is more primitive than one would expect from US intelligence services.
“I hope it wasn't the US that developed it because it isn't very sophisticated,” he told AFP.
He said Israel has quite advanced capabilities as well, and that this probably means Flame was developed in a “second-tier country.”Some analysts, however, consider Flame to be highly sophisticated. The International Telecommunications Union said the virus is “a lot more complex than any other cyber-threat ever seen before.”Johannes Ullrich, a computer security specialist with the SANS Technology Institute, said Flame is a rather “clumsy” tool compared to other types of malware, but that it may be a rough version or prototype which can be wrapped into a “more polished” version.
“The technical part isn't that great, and I think it has been a bit hyped in some of the reports,” Ullrich said.
Exactly where the malware came from is impossible to know from the code, Ullrich said.
“It doesn't look like one single individual,” he said. “Whether it is a government or some criminal group, it's hard to tell.”Marcus Sachs, former director of the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, said Flame “could be written by virtually anybody but it looks similar to targeted espionage from a country.”Sachs said Flame is not a sabotage tool like the Stuxnet virus that targeted control systems in Iran, but instead resembles spyware seeking “to gain intellectual property, but it could be surveillance by a foreign government.”Neither the US nor the Israeli government has openly acknowledged authoring Flame, though a top Israeli minister said use of the software to counter Iran's nuclear plans would be “reasonable.”The US military has acknowledged working on both defensive and offensive cyber war systems.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has revealed few details about its “Plan X,” which it calls a “foundational cyber warfare program” that draws on expertise in academia, industry and the gaming community.
But a DARPA statement said the program is “about building the platform needed for an effective cyber offensive capability. It is not developing cyber offensive effects.”Sachs said the US has been open about developing its cyber capabilities and that DARPA, which created the Internet, is looking at longer-term projects that may involve technologies not yet deployed.
On the surface, it might be harder for the US to maintain superiority in cyberspace as it does in the skies, for example, because the costs for computer programming is far less than for fighter planes.
But experts say the US is investing in cyberspace through DARPA and other projects.
Still, Sachs said measuring the capabilities of another country are not as easy as counting missile silos. “There's no way to measure what a country has,” he said.
The New York Times reported that President Barack Obama secretly ordered cyber warfare against Iran to be ramped up in 2010 after details leaked out about Stuxnet, which some say came from the US, Israel or both.
Ilan Berman, an analyst at of the American Foreign Policy Council who follows Iran, said that with cyber war simmering, Tehran is boosting its defensive and offensive capabilities.
“They feel like there is a campaign against them and they are mobilizing in response,” he said.
And the US should therefore be prepared for cyber retaliation from Iran.
“I think a cyber attack by Iran may not be as robust (as one from China or Russia) but politically it's more likely,” he said.
Lewis said the US and Iran have been engaged in struggles for the past decade, due to the nuclear issue and suspected Iran involvement with certain forces in Iraq while US forces were deployed there.
But he said Flame and other cyber weapons are “not really warfare, it's primarily intelligence collection.”Lewis said he was not surprised that the discovery of the virus came from a Russian security firm, Kaspersky, which worked with the ITU.
“Flame is a way to drive Russia's diplomatic agenda,” which includes bringing the Internet under UN control, Lewis said.

Bin Laden not buried at sea, body moved on CIA plane to US: Wikileaks

Leaked: Bin Laden not buried at sea, body moved on CIA plane to US

Osama bin Laden (Reuters / Stringer)

The body of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was not buried at sea, according to leaked emails of intelligence firm Stratfor, as revealed by WikiLeaks.
Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, believes the body was “bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane” and then “onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda [Maryland],” an email says.
The official version is that the body of Al-Qaeda’s top man, who was killed by a US raid in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, was buried at an undisclosed location at sea in a proper Muslim ceremony.
"If body dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch is very Adolph Eichman like. The Tribe did the same thing with the Nazi's ashes," Burton commented in another email. Eichman was one of the masterminds of the Holocaust by Nazi Germany. He was captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and, tried in Israel, found guilty and executed in 1962. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea over the Mediterranean.
"Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial before being sentenced to death and executed. No one wanted a monument to him so they cremated him. But i dont know anyone who claimed he wasnt eicjhman [sic]. No comparison with suddenly burying him at sea without any chance to view him which i doubt happened [sic]," Stratfor CEO George Friedman replied.
"The US Govt needs to make body pics available like the MX's do, with OBL's pants pulled down, to shout down the lunatics like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck," Burton says in another message.
In another missive Burton says Osama’s body “is a crime scene and I don’t see the FBI nor DOJ letting that happen.”
WikiLeaks began publishing Stratfor emails in late February. The archive was obtained by the hacker group Anonymous, which successfully attacked one of the firm’s servers. More than 5 million emails were apparently stolen.
Stratfor is a US-based intelligence firm called the “shadow CIA” by some media. Among its clients are several US agencies and many big companies. The company relies on paid tips from informants placed in high circles of business, government and security all around the world.

2 June 2012 Last updated at 08:31 CET

AKINLAJA EMULATES MIMIKO EXTENDS HUMANITARIAN GESTURE TO HEALTH FINANCING

HONOURABLE JOSEPH IRANOLA AKINLAJA

WE ARE NOT IN COMPETITION BUT WE ARE IN COMPLETION. By: WILLIAM JEFFERSON AK

Arguably the key statutory function of every legislator is to make laws, whilst infrastructure development, human capital development, and other factors which can make life more abundant both socially and economically should be left in the hands of the executive. But for Honourable Joseph Iranola Akinlaja, who is representing Ondo East/West Federal Constituency in Ondo State; the drive for development should be seen as collective responsibility, from individuals, corporate bodies, religious bodies, government etc. To him we all have roles to play for development to thrive effectively in our body politic.

In less than one year (June 6, 2011) after his assumption into office as a federal lawmaker, various empowerment programmes had been marked to his credit by people from his constituency. Some of these laudable initiatives are donation of ICT gadgets to Yaba Police station, provision of hand pump boreholes for mostly villages that lack access to clean and portable water. The communities which benefitted in the first phase of the hand pump boreholes project cut across Ondo West/East local governments. For Ondo East they; are Ateru Ward 1, Asantan Oja Ward 2, Atamo Oja- Ward 4, Oluwaranmilowo Ward 7, Lipepeye Ward 9. Whilst communities in Ondo West are; Aiyetoro/Ago-Igbo-Ward 2, Adebanjo Ward 2, Adaja/Ajegunle Ward 4, Sabo Ward 11, Abusoro Ward 12 respectively.

Recently, Hon. Akinlaja equally extended his hands of philanthropy yet to another member of his constituency who was under severe/agonising life threatening health condition. The beneficiary of this largesse (from Ward 2 of Ondo West) was a victim of Scrotal Lymphedema (ipa in the local parlance). Almost half a million naira was incurred as hospital bills, but thankfully he has fully recovered from this health challenge. The gentleman (who would not want his name mentioned) is currently contributing his own quota positively to the development of Ondo State, and more importantly living in happiness and sound health with his family members. Scrotal Lymphedema is a swelling and enlargement caused by a variety of disorders. One of the more common causes of an enlarged scrotum is a hernia. Another common cause is fluid accumulation between the testicle and the skin. This is called a hydrocele.

Similarly over fourty Nigerians have benefited from the first phase of Hon Akinlaja's free cataract treatment in Ondo East/West local governments. Painfully, cataract is the world’s leading cause of blindness, with around 18 million people blind as a result. Many people are needlessly blind from cataract because they don’t know that it can be cured. Hon Akinlaja truly understands the importance of human eyes and has invested so much to fighting ailments which can lead to blindness. The eyes play pivotal function in the human body for it to carry out its tasks with coordination. The lawmaker has however reiterated his vows to do more to his constituencies in fulfilment of his electoral promises.

However, one cannot down play the efforts of Governor Olusegun Mimiko who is consistently poised with the zeal to redeeming his campaign promises in the best interest of Ondo State people. It is no longer news that His Excellency has decided to concentrate optimally on maternal and child health as the major pivot of the reform of the health system in the state. Without mincing words no nation is taken seriously if it ignores maternal and child health. So much so that the United Nations came up with the Millennium Development Goals that identify improving child and maternal health as one of the goals to be achieved by the signatories – that is the MDGs 4 and 5.

Interestingly Governor Mimiko’s initiative further came up with the Abiye Safe Motherhood concept, which was the name given to the Mother and Child care policy of the Mimiko administration. The Abiye was piloted in the Ifedore Local Government Area of the state in October 2009, in partnership with the World Bank. It was during the field surveys, baseline studies that it became clear that there was a need for a dedicated facility to cater for mothers and children. Consequently, the Governor came to change the system by setting up a facility dedicated to the child and mother, this is amazing. In fact, Ondo State may well be the first purpose-built, 100-bed health facility dedicated to the care of pregnant women and children at the most affordable rate.

Specifically Mimiko’s mission statement is to run an integrated maternal and child care facility fully eager to offer qualitative and critical interventions when required. This buttressed the mission statement, which was to develop an equity-based healthcare service that will provide universal access to the population. The Mother and Child initiative came to serve as an apex referral facility for all complicated cases of pregnancies and medical illnesses of children under the age of five. The idea of the Abiye was to cause a paradigm shift by moving healthcare to the communities rather than expect patients to make their way to the cities.

But in so doing, the state realized that some patients would need to be cared for at the tertiary level when complications arise, which informed the idea of the Mother and Child. It's all about the following issue: How much money is needed to counter the problems that threaten health, and how much money is the government willing and able to contribute? A government needs to choose a method when it comes to the financing of the health care institutions. Possible approaches are through raising taxes, establishing a health insurance system (social, local or private), and/or by introducing user fees. The balance between money spent on prevention and money spent on treatment should be made carefully, as some preventive services should be free, because they can benefit the whole population. Vaccination against chicken pox, for example, can make this disease disappear. God bless Ondo State.

Written By Emmanuel Ajibulu

Earth is not going to end in 2012: Islam Says

Mumia Abu-Jamal sends message to Occupy DOJ

Mumia Abu-Jamal sends message to Occupy DOJ

Sat Jun 2, 2012 11:0AM GMT

Controversial activist and former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal recently recorded a message to the organizers of the Occupy The Justice Department action that took place in April.

In the short audio clip, Abu-Jamal encourages everyone to "Keep on rolling, keep on moving and while you do it, treat each other as brothers and sisters, companeros y companeras."

According to the Occupy DOJ’s website, some of their demands included:

·         End mass incarceration and the criminalization of black and Latino youth,

·         End solitary confinement & stop torture

·         Hands off immigrants

·         Free all political prisoners

FACTS & FIGURES

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an African-American writer and journalist, author of six books and hundreds of columns and articles, who spent the last 29 years on Pennsylvania’s death row. His demand for a new trial and freedom is supported by heads of state from France to South Africa, by Nobel Laureates Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, Desmund Tutu, by the European Parliament, by distinguished human rights organizations like Amnesty International, city governments from Detroit to San Francisco to Paris, scholars, religious leaders, artists, scientists, the Congressional Black Caucus and other members of U.S. Congress, the NAACP, labor unions, and by countless thousands who cherish democratic and human rights - and justice -the world over. freemumia.com

Now that Mumia Abu-Jamal, is off death row, many dare to imagine the next step--his release from prison. Occupy DOJ has a pledge to free Mumia, and many other prisoners like him. occupythejusticedepartment.com

American nuns vow to fight Vatican criticism

American nuns vow to fight Vatican criticism

Sat Jun 2, 2012 1:44PM GMT

 

Sister Claudia Bronsing takes part in a vigil at St. Colman Church in Cleveland, Ohio, in support of Catholic nuns who were criticized by the Vatican.

The American nuns who were slammed by the Vatican in April for featuring "radical feminist" beliefs are fighting back, asserting that the criticisms against them came from "unsubstantiated accusations” and a “flawed process,” reports the New York Times.

The nuns issued a statement after six weeks of virtual silence, during which their religious communities across the country mulled over the Vatican’s startling pronouncement, and Catholics across the country rallied to support the nuns. The Vatican had announced it would dispatch three American bishops to lead a complete makeover of the sisters’ principal organization, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 80 percent of the nation’s 57,000 nuns.

After three days of discussion and prayer in Washington this week, the 21 national board members of the group decided they could not accept the Vatican’s verdict, and would send their president and executive director to Rome on June 12 to open a dialogue with Vatican officials, the New York Times said.

HIGHLIGHTS

"We do want to go and speak the truth as we understand it about our lives," said Sister Pat Farrell, president of the leadership conference, adding that the sisters had been "stunned by the severity" of the Vatican's judgment. Newser

Farrell particularly took issue with the accusation they had promoted "radical feminist themes." “Here you see women, very competent, highly educated, doctorates in theology, masters in ministry, CEO’s of hospitals, heads of school systems, being treated as if they were children,” said Sister Christine Schenk, leader of a liberal reform group. “That in itself goes to the issue of where are the women in the decision-making structures in Rome.” Newser

The Vatican investigated the group for more than two years and concluded in April that the organization has "serious doctrinal problems," including taking positions that conflict with the American bishops and undermine Catholic teaching on the all-male priesthood, marriage and homosexuality. The Seattle Times

The nuns' group, along with many sisters who work in health care disagreed with the bishops' analysis of the law and supported President Barack Obama's plan. The report praised the group's social justice work, but said they hadn't spoken out on abortion and other important teaching. The Seattle Times

Vigils and protests defending the sisters have been held nationwide, including in front of the Vatican's U.S. embassy in Washington, and have coursed through Facebook and Twitter. Last Wednesday in the Cleveland area, more than 650 people attended a rally in support of the nuns at a parish, the Plain-Dealer reported. The Seattle Time

Iran's President will attend 12th SCO summit in China

Iran's President will attend 12th SCO summit in China

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Sat Jun 2, 2012 11:5AM GMT

Apart from participating in the [SCO] summit, the Iranian president will hold talks with presidents of certain member and observer countries.”
Head of the presidential office’s international relations division Mohammad Reza Forqani

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will pay an official visit to China to attend the 12th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Head of the presidential office’s international relations division, Mohammad Reza Forqani, told reporters that President Ahmadinejad will leave Tehran for Beijing on Tuesday and participate in the SCO summit on June 6-7.

“Apart from participating in the [SCO] summit, the Iranian president will hold talks with presidents of certain member and observer countries,” he said.

He added that a number of ministers, including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mehdi Ghazanfari, and their deputies will accompany the Iranian chief executive.

Ahmadinejad is also scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Speaker of the National People's Congress on Friday, the Iranian official noted.

Forqani further said Iran and China will sign a memorandum of understanding on the expansion of bilateral cooperation.

The SCO is an intergovernmental security organization that was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Iran, India, Mongolia, and Pakistan are observer states in the SCO.

Islamabad committed to Pakistan-Iran gas project: Zardari

Islamabad committed to Pakistan-Iran gas project: Zardari

Sat Jun 2, 2012 9:28AM GMT

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has reaffirmed Islamabad’s determination to complete the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline in the face of the US bids to hinder the project.

At a Friday meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Islamabad, Zardari stressed that his country is committed to the implementation of the Pakistani joint projects with Iran, including the IP gas pipeline.

He pointed to the construction of the Noushki-Delbandin road and the enhancement of the Quetta-Taftan railway as other major joint projects to be implemented by both countries.

Pakistani officials have repeatedly announced their country’s resolve to fully implement the plan by 2014.

The US has been exercising leverage to lure Islamabad away from the gas pipeline project by offering cheaper gas to the country.

The multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline aims to export a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic meters (or 7.8 billion cubic meters per year) of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.

Salehi visited Islamabad to extend the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s invitation to Zardari to take part in the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit on August 26-31 in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Zardari expressed his gratitude over the invitation and praised the NAM’s role in the settlement of regional and global issues.

He also hailed the growing ties between Iran and Pakistan, saying the two nations have ample historical and cultural commonalities, calling for the further expansion of mutual ties.

Zakat revolution urged in Muslim world

Saturday, 02 June 2012 07:43

Zakat revolution urged in Muslim world

SHAFAQNA (Shia News Association) — While the global economic crisis has cut charity around the world, an annual zakat, alms, amount between US$200 billion and $1 trillion are spent to the poor across the Muslim world, the amount experts say is mismanaged.
“Our [Muslims'] whole donorship was built on religious charity,” Ibrahim Osman, director of the Middle East and North Africa region for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told IRIN humanitarian News and Analysis on Friday, June 1.
“That has infiltrated even governments and public institutions... Most Muslim countries do handouts, even with international organizations.”
Zakat, the third pillar of Islam, is obligatory upon every (capable) Muslim.
According to Islamic Shari`ah, a capable Muslim pays 2.5 percent mandatory payment and spend it to help the poor and the needy.
In 2004, economist Habib Ahmed calculated that if all potential 'zakat' were collected in Muslim countries, between a third and half of them could move their poor out of poverty.
"The potential is tremendous," Ahmed, now chair in Islamic Law and Finance at the Institute of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Durham University, told IRIN.
"But in most countries, it is not being used to the potential."
Though estimated by around 15 times more than global humanitarian aid contributions, Islamic finance experts, researchers and development workers say much of the money spent in zakat and charity is mismanaged, wasted or ineffective.
"Wealth is growing in the Muslim world. So is the poverty. Where have we gone wrong?" asks Tariq Cheema, president of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists (WCMP), an organization which advises Muslim donors.
"Our rituals are there, but often they lack the spirit," Cheema told IRIN.
"We just give the money and forget."
Analysts refer the growing poverty to zakat mismanagement from people who do not trust governments and prefer to give their money to people they know are in need.
"The 'zakat' authority does not have a long-term investment plan," Syed Wafa is a former professor who headed a research group that advised the Malaysian government on distributing 'zakat' funds, told IRIN.
"They depend on the yearly collection... Their mindset is: We get the funds; we try to disburse them as fast as possible."
Solutions
Admitting the fact that charity is mismanaged, wasted or ineffective, experts urged a change of charity policies around the Muslim world.
"The Arab world has to change from a charity culture to a humanitarian action business," Osman, the director of IFRC, said.
"This is what is missing. It's always charity."
Looking at the roots of the problem, analysts say that very little of the money goes towards sustainable development.
"Billions of dollars worth of giving in 'zakat' and 'sadaqa' are unfortunately ineffective by and large," Cheema told IRIN.
"Our giving shouldn't be driven by our desire to prove that we are good people... Our giving should be smart and effective.
"We are here to bring that shift in the culture: the paradigm shift from conventional and generous giving to strategic giving... There is a lot of money around that needs to be channeled towards development."
Instead of giving money to individual orphans, some NGOs have tried to support them in more strategic ways, introducing human rights, empowerment and "mainstream aid activities", Juul Peterson, a researcher in politics and development at the Danish Institute for International Studies, who wrote her PhD thesis about transnational Muslim NGOs.
"You have these new ideas of how good aid should be," she told IRIN.
In Egypt, a non-profit organization called Misr al-Kheir, led by the Grand Mufti of Egypt, the highest religious authority in the country, and funded by 'zakat' and 'sadaqa', has been a pioneer in the use of 'zakat' for sustainable ends.
Al-Rajhi Bank and Yousef Abdullatif Jameel Co. in Saudi Arabia and Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) are Muslim lending institutions which have attempted to replicate the successes of Grameen bank in Bangladesh.
"We maximize the donation for the best interest of the poor," said Husain Benyounis, secretary-general of Awqaf New Zealand.

War not necessary to ‘destroy’ Israel – Ahmadinejad

War not necessary to ‘destroy’ Israel – Ahmadinejad

 

 

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that there is no need for war in order to destroy Israel. He stated that if Israel’s neighbors severed ties with the country it would bring the Jewish state to its knees.
Ahmadinejad spoke out against his nation’s arch-enemy during a tour of Northeast Iran on Saturday emphasizing that “the destruction of the Zionist regime does not necessitate making war.”
"If countries of the region cut ties with the Zionists and give them dirty looks, it will spell the end of this puppet regime," said the president.
Ahmadinejad is well-known for his aggressive rhetoric towards the Jewish state, having previously branded the country as “a cancerous tumor.”
He also decried other oil-rich Arab states, criticizing them for their lucrative trade agreements with the West and the US. He said that they were foolish to sell off their petrol to “buy 60 billion dollars’ worth of arms." 
Tensions have reached boiling point between the two countries recently with Israel trying to win US military support for a strike against Iran.
Both countries believe that Iran is developing atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program. The US and EU have imposed heavy economic sanctions on Iran in an effort to curtail its alleged nuclear weapons research.
One of Israel’s main television stations, Channel 10 news broadcasted on Friday that Israel may launch a military strike on the Islamic Republic of Iran at any time.

Battle Plan Ready for Iran - Us Envoy to Israel

Battle Plan Ready for Iran - Us Envoy to Israel

The Pentagon has a ready plan for a military attack on Iran, the American ambassador to Israel warned days before a key meeting over the controversial nuclear program of the Islamic Republic.
Western countries and Israel are exerting pressure on Iran to stop uranium enrichment, saying that Tehran is secretly trying to build a nuclear bomb. Iran insists that its nuclear program is strictly civil.

"It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure than to use military force," US Ambassador Dan Shapiro said in remarks about Iran aired by Israel's Army Radio on Thursday.
"But that doesn't mean that option is not fully available – not just available, but it's ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it's ready," said Shapiro.
The conflict is to be discussed in Baghdad on May 23, when envoys from the P5+1 group, which includes Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US, are to meet Iranian negotiators. The previous round of talks was held in Istanbul on April 14.
Earlier there were numerous reports that Iran may face a pre-emptive strike either by Israel alone or by Israel and its NATO allies, if they see no other option to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities. However, intelligence communities both in Israel and the US believe that Iran has not taken a political decision to build the bomb yet.
Meanwhile the US may mount more sanctions against Iran, as the Senate is discussing a new package on Thursday. The sanctions are focused on foreign banks that handle transactions for Iran's national oil and tanker companies, and include measures to close loopholes in existing sanctions.
The US and EU have put a ban on the import of Iranian oil to cripple its foreign currency revenues. Washington also convinced several Iranian partners, such as Japan and South Korea, to reduce their trade with Tehran. Foreign companies involved in oil trade with Iran are risking sanctions, including being banned from American and European financial markets.
Iran says the economic sanctions would not stop it from pursuing nuclear energy development and says the Baghdad talks must be based on the recognition of rights of the Iranian nation to do so.

“Talks for cooperation, based on the alienable rights of the Iranian nation, must be put on the table in Baghdad,” the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, said on Thursday.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator says time is running out “for applying pressure and this approach has failed to bear results,” which came in response to the warning by some P5+1 members, that time is running out for Iran in terms of dialogue.

A bow to Israeli interests

The US talk of a military attack against Iran is nothing more than political posturing, believes investigative journalist and historian Gareth Porter. This is “a political bow” to Israeli interests, he added, explaining that Washington is trying to please the Israeli public and appease the Netanyahu government.
In fact Obama administration’s position is clear: there is no reason at this point to contemplate the use of military force against Iran, as long as it does not make any aggressive moves.
The White House is desperate to reassure Netanyahu because Obama is worried that he will not receive the normal campaign contribution from the pro-Israel lobby in the upcoming presidential elections, Dr. Paul Craif Roberts, a former Reagan administration official, told RT.
Porter claims that Netanyahu’s tough stance against Iran is a bluff, which "is intended to get the United States and other Western powers to take the most aggressive policy possible toward Iran and to put pressure on it.”
The journalist believes that Israel does not have any intention of actually carrying out a strike because its intelligence and military leadership realize that “Iran can retaliate directly with their own ballistic missiles in a way that would be quite devastating for the Israeli civilian population.”
Moreover Dr. Roberts stresses that the pressure against Iran is being pushed by neo-conservative interests. “The United States of course needs an enemy in order to keep money flowing into the military security complex,” he said. “When the Soviet threat disappeared, the neo-conservatives conspired to create a Muslim threat.”

Iran commander’s trip to disputed islands frays UAE nerves

Saturday, June 02, 2012

Iran commander’s trip to disputed islands frays UAE nerves   According to Michael Stephens, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute Qatar, Iran has stationed a few hundred soldiers on the disputed islands along with some long-range - and inaccurate - HY-2 Silkworm anti-ship missiles A visit by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander to three tiny islands near the Straits of Hormuz oil shipping lane revives a bitter territorial dispute between Gulf antagonists - and trade partners - Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi has yet to comment on Thursday’s trip by Mohammad Ali Jafari, but like other Gulf Arab capitals it reacted angrily when Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad toured one of the islands in April, and recalled its envoy from Tehran in protest. Tension between Shias and Sunnis in a Middle East shaken by 18 months of political revolt has envenomed the 41-year-old row, complicating an ambivalent relationship in which national pride has long vied uneasily with economic pragmatism. The UAE weathered last year’s Arab uprisings unscathed, but has cracked down on religious groups in recent months, wary lest the successes of their peers after upheavals in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt embolden them to challenge the government. The danger of a confrontation between Shia Iran and the United States, the military protector of the Sunni-ruled Gulf states, over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme has also fuelled a voracious appetite for weapons in the region. Iran has threatened to target US interests in the Gulf and to block the Straits of Hormuz if attacked. The UAE is a top US arms buyer, agreeing deals worth over $10 billion between 2007 and 2010, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). “We shake the friendly and brotherly hands in Islamic countries, especially those south of the Persian Gulf, and ask them to help get rid of the arrogant powers who are now in the region,” Iranian state television quoted Jafari as saying during his visit to military forces deployed on the islands. The US-backed shah of Iran put troops on Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunb in 1971, just before the seven Gulf emirates won independence from Britain and formed the UAE. The emirates of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah had previously ruled the islands. The Islamic Republic says it wants good ties with the UAE, but, like the shah, insists it owns the islands and has ignored Abu Dhabi’s calls for arbitration or a diplomatic solution. After Ahmadinejad’s visit to Abu Musa in April, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said his “provocative rhetoric exposed Iran’s false allegations regarding its keenness to establish good neighbourly relations and friendship with the UAE and countries of the region”. Persistent protests led by a Shia majority demanding reform in Sunni-ruled Bahrain have aggravated regional tension, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE accusing Iran of fomenting trouble in the island state and elsewhere - charges Tehran denies. But fear of Iranian meddling has spread among Emiratis, threatening to poison once-thriving and often unofficial trade relations between two of the world’s leading oil exporters. In free-wheeling, cosmopolitan Dubai, the creek remains full of dhows ferrying goods to Iran across the Gulf, but many people in nearby Abu Dhabi take a darker view of Iranian intentions. “What they are doing in Bahrain they might do in other countries around here,” murmured a 40-year-old Emirati businessman in Abu Dhabi, who asked not to be named. Such fears seem far-fetched given the demographic contrast between Bahrain and the UAE, with its small Shia minority, estimated at 10 to 16 percent of an overall population of 8.3 million, of which 90 percent are expatriates. The roots of this anxiety stretch ever further back than the rift between Sunnis and Shias some 13 centuries ago. Some Emiratis believe Iran shares the same “imperialist” designs as the Sassanid Empire which dominated the region before Islam. “They still see themselves as the Persian empire and they want to rule over the region,” said an Emirati customs employee, who also asked not to be named. “I am not scared of Shias, I am scared of strife. Emirati society is scared of strife.” According to Michael Stephens, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute Qatar, Iran has stationed a few hundred soldiers on the disputed islands along with some long-range - and inaccurate - HY-2 Silkworm anti-ship missiles. “The real arena between the two sides is Bahrain, but these islands are a source of quite serious tension,” he said. “Many (Gulf Arabs) believe that Iran wants to take over the Persian Gulf and remake it in its own image.” But personal and commercial links between the UAE and Iran also stretch back over centuries and are not easily broken. The UAE’s Iranian community of half a million, according to Dubai’s Iranian Business Council, includes many property and business owners clustered in the old trading hub of Dubai. Apart from these expats, there are also Emiratis of Iranian origin, mostly Sunni Arabs whose families were uprooted or migrated from their homes across the Gulf a few generations ago. Dubai’s direct re-exports to Iran grew 29 percent to 31 billion dirhams ($8.4 billion) last year, the fastest rise in five years, despite a marked slowdown in the last quarter. reuters

Iran threatens to target U.S. bases if attacked

Reuters, 02/06 13:06 CET

By Marcus George
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran has warned the United States not to resort to military action against it, saying U.S. bases in the region were vulnerable to the Islamic Republic’s missiles, state media reported on Saturday.
The comments by a senior Iranian military commander were an apparent response to U.S. officials who have said Washington was ready to use military force to stop what it suspects is Iran’s goal to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
World powers held talks with Iran in Baghdad on May 23-24 in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution to their concerns over its nuclear programme, which Tehran maintains is entirely peaceful. Another round was set for June 18-19 in Moscow.
“The politicians and the military men of the United States are well aware of the fact that all of their bases (in the region) are within the range of Iran’s missiles and in any case … are highly vulnerable,” Press TV reported Brigadier-General Yahya Rahim Safavi as saying.
Safavi is a military adviser to Iran’s clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was until 2007 the commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the force that protects Iran’s Islamic system of governance.
He also warned that Iranian missiles could reach all parts of Israel but played down any possibility of military action against his country as “faint” because of the current economic condition of the United States.
Analysts say Iranian military officials use such fiery rhetoric as a way of keeping the West on edge over the possible disruption to global oil supplies in the event of U.S. or Israeli military action.
Tehran has previously threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz – a vital crude shipping lane – if it is attacked, which experts say would result in a spike in the price of oil and could hit the U.S. economy as it seeks to recover from the financial crisis.
Last month the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said plans for a possible military strike on Iran were ready and the option was “fully available”.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said Iran needed to take steps to curb its nuclear activities during the next round of talks in Moscow. Israel is sceptical any progress can be made and has accused Tehran of simply buying time.

Iran Builds New Space Center to Launch Satellites

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran June 2, 2012 (AP)

Iran is finishing construction of a new space center that will allow it to soon launch more domestically made satellites into orbit, the country's defense minister said Saturday.
The remarks by Gen. Ahmad Vahidi's were the first confirmation that Iran is building a new space facility amid the standoff with the West over Iran's controversial nuclear program. The West is concerned the program masks efforts to make atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it's only for peaceful purposes.
Iran's ambitious space plans have also raised concerns in the West because of their possible military applications — the same rocket technology used to send satellites into orbit can also be retooled to make intercontinental warheads.
Vahidi, in comments carried by the official IRNA news agency, said the first satellite to be launched from the new center will be the Tolo. It will be carried into orbit by the Iranian-made Simorgh light booster rocket, he said.
Vahidi didn't say where the new facility, which has been named after the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is located.

Iran already has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Tehran, and another space center — a satellite monitoring facility — outside Mahdasht, about 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of the Iranian capital.
"Some 80 percent of the actual construction of the new space center has been completed," Vahidi said, adding that the new facility will send "satellites from Iran, the regional countries and the world of Islam into orbit in the near future."
Iran's decades-old space program is a key aspect of its efforts to achieve technological prowess similar to that of world powers. In Feb. 2010, Iran announced it had successfully launched a menagerie of animals — including a mouse, two turtles and worms — into space on a research rocket.
Iran launched its first commercial satellite in 2005 on a Russian rocket in a joint project with Moscow, which is said to be a partner in transferring space technology to Iran. That same year, the government said it had allocated $500 million for space projects for the next five years.
Iran's lofty space plans also include putting a man in orbit within less than a decade, despite the expense and technological challenges involved.
Iran says it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation and improve its telecommunications. Iranian officials also point to America's use of satellites to monitor conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and say they need similar capabilities for their security.

Can Syria avoid sliding into 'catastrophic civil war'?

 

More than 100 civilians, many of them children, were killed in Houla last week

Horrified by the Houla massacre, other atrocities and the remorseless daily violence, the outside world is desperately casting around for a way to prevent Syria from sliding inexorably towards a disastrous civil war, and to secure the launching of some kind of political process.

But despite huge international frustration, it keeps coming back to the same thing: at least for the moment, there is no alternative to UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace mission, which has made little headway despite enjoying the support of the entire world, including, at least in theory, the Syrian regime.
Mr Annan's talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday have failed so far to produce any sign of the "bold steps" that he wants the Syrian leader to take to demonstrate that he is serious about implementing the six-point peace plan.
By the time he found himself repeating that plea for "bold action" from Mr Assad three days later in Beirut, confessing himself "frustrated and impatient", Mr Annan had dropped reference to the need for the opposition side also to fall into line.

“Start Quote

The level of hostilities around the country has been creeping back towards - and sometimes beyond - where they were when the Annan truce came into effect on 12 April”

His public focus was clearly on prodding the regime, as the stronger party, to take significant steps such as withdrawing troops and heavy weapons back to barracks - something that should have been implemented weeks ago as the first stage in pacifying the situation on the ground.

That has not happened, despite written assurances from the Syrian foreign minister to Mr Annan in April that it had.
The regime is concerned that the resulting vacuum would be filled by rebel fighters or otherwise go over to the opposition, and that it would lose control of substantial parts of the country.
In other words, as events on the ground have indicated, it cannot afford to implement any peace plan that requires withdrawing the military, because that would be to seal its own fate.
Which leaves Mr Annan trying against the odds to convince the regime that the opposition would respect a truce - and that countries backing rebel fighters would halt the flow of arms to them.
Hence, after Damascus, his visits to the countries neighbouring Syria, where his talks focused in part on efforts to stop arms smuggling across the borders.

 

The Syrian opposition says protests against the government are continuing

Achieving the reality, or even credible assurances, of that happening, and being able to persuade the regime to put away its troops, tanks and artillery, seem pretty forlorn hopes, given the venomous and worsening situation on the ground.
Russia's role What seems to be missing from the equation at the moment is the kind of pressure on Damascus from Russia that was crucial in persuading the regime to accept the Annan plan in the first place, and to drop impossible conditions it later placed on implementing it.
For the time being, despite mounting international pressure on their own position in the wake of the Houla massacre, the Russians are continuing to argue against the idea that the UN Security Council should consider tougher action such as mandatory sanctions.
Blocking off such action increases the onus on Moscow to help secure Syrian compliance with the Annan plan, which the Russians continue to insist is the only way forward.

“Start Quote

If Syria... descends into open-ended confessional strife, it could, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon warned, be plunging into 'a catastrophic civil war from which the country would never recover'”

If Syria is indeed now bent on a downhill course towards disintegration and an ugly and protracted sectarian civil war with dire regional consequences, Russia may soon have to choose between trying to foster a peaceful and serious transition in the hope of salvaging a relationship with whatever Syria emerges from the crisis, and sticking by the current leadership whatever the cost as things fall apart around it.

After months of bloody stalemate between an uprising that would not go away and a regime that seemed immovable, there are some signs that things may be starting to change.
For the first time, the Sunni merchants in the souks or markets of Old Damascus - previously a staunch pillar of support for the regime - have for the past several days shut up shop and gone on strike over the Houla massacre, despite attempts by regime enforcers to make them reopen.
That could mean that a combination of economic collapse and sectarian atrocities may have carried dissent into the heart of the capital and the core of the regime's power base.
Alarm bells Some Damascus residents say that the shabiha militia has taken on a high-profile repression role in the centre of the city, dressed in the uniforms of riot police and alienating the middle-class public by brutal and intrusive behaviour.
The regime's sense of vulnerability and readiness to lash out may have been aggravated if it is true that some of its insiders - including the President's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat - are still seriously ill after being poisoned by an opposition infiltrator at a top-level security meeting last month.
The initial opposition claims, on 20 May, were denied and ridiculed by the authorities, but some sources have said it is true.

 

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan warned Syria was at a 'tipping point' after he met President Assad

Whatever the case, the level of hostilities around the country has been creeping back towards - and sometimes beyond - where they were when the Annan truce came into effect on 12 April.
And events such as the Houla massacre and other atrocities attributed by the opposition to the shabiha - a regime militia drawn almost entirely from the Alawite minority from which Mr Assad's ruling clan hails - have intensified the already strongly sectarian aspect of a struggle in which the uprising is by its nature based largely among the poorer sections of the majority Sunni community.
This is why, as daily violence continues relentlessly, the alarm bells have begun to ring so loudly in chanceries around the world.
For if Syria, with its patchwork of sects and minorities, descends into open-ended confessional strife, it could, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned, be plunging into "a catastrophic civil war from which the country would never recover".
Lebanon, just next door and sharing many of the same confessional fault lines, provides a stark example.
It erupted into sectarian strife in 1975, ushering in 15 years of conflict and opening rifts which still threaten to explode today.
For the same thing to happen in Syria would have incalculable consequences not just for the country itself, but for the wider region. That is why world leaders are so alarmed. But they seem powerless to stop it happening.

Leon Panetta: US to deploy 60% of navy fleet to Pacific

2 June 2012 Last updated at 03:54 GMT 

 

Leon Panetta said the US military was rebalancing towards the Asia-Pacific region

The US is planning to move the majority of its warships to the Asia-Pacific region by 2020, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has revealed.

He said that by 2020 about 60% of the US fleet would be deployed there, in the clearest indication yet of the new US strategy in Asia.
Mr Panetta told a regional security meeting in Singapore that the shift was not aiming to contain Chinese power.
Beijing has indicated it is unhappy with the US boosting its presence.
Last November, President Barack Obama announced that the Asia-Pacific region was a "top priority" of US security policy.
His comments were seen as a challenge to China, which is striving to be the main regional power.
"By 2020, the navy will reposture its forces from today's roughly 50-50% split between the Pacific and the Atlantic to about a 60-40 split between those oceans," Mr Panetta told the annual Shangri-La Dialogue conference.

At the scene

 

Jonathan Marcus BBC Diplomatic Correspondent in Singapore

The US defence secretary is on a mission both to explain and reassure. Firstly to set out in more detail the practical implications of Washington's strategic re-balancing towards Asia and secondly to reassure America's allies in the region who wonder if it can really afford to fund this new strategy given the budgetary pressures at home.
Mr Panetta also sought to play down any suggestion that Washington's new strategy was aimed at China.
He stressed the need for closer military ties between China and the US - especially for understanding in the difficult areas of cybersecurity and outer space.
However his support for a comprehensive new "rules-based" system to resolve competing territorial claims in the South China Sea will not go down well in Beijing.

"That will include six aircraft carriers in this region, a majority of our cruisers, destroyers, combat ships and submarines."

Mr Panetta said the US would aim to increase the number and size of the training exercises it conducts alongside its allies in the region.
He said US budget problems and cut-backs would not stop the changes, adding that the US defence department had money in a five-year budget plan to achieve its goals.
"It will take years for these concepts, and many of the investments we are making, to be fully realised," he said.
"But make no mistake, in a steady, deliberate and sustainable way, the United States military is rebalancing and brings enhanced capabilities to this vital region."
China has long-running territorial disputes with allies of the US, including the Philippines, over island groupings in the South China Sea. In recent years it has grown more assertive on the issue.
An increased US presence in the region is likely to embolden those countries and irritate Beijing.
Mr Panetta played down any possible tensions and said he was looking forward to visiting China later this year.
"Some view the increased emphasis by the United States on the Asia-Pacific region as some kind of challenge to China," he said.
"I reject that view entirely. Our effort to renew and intensify our involvement in Asia is fully compatible with the development and growth of China. Indeed, increased US involvement in this region will benefit China as it advances our shared security and prosperity for the future."
In January, Chinese state media also said an increased US presence in the region could boost stability and prosperity.
But it warned the US against "flexing its muscles" and said any US militarism could create ill will and "endanger peace".
Mr Panetta is currently on a nine-day tour of Asia which will include visits to Vietnam and India.

2 militants in Pakistan killed in drone strike

By the CNN Wire Staff

June 2, 2012 -- Updated 1020 GMT (1820 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The incident occurred in Pakistan's tribal region
• The drone fired missiles at a motorcycle
• The U.S. also uses drones to target militants in Yemen

(CNN) -- A suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan killed two militants in Pakistan's tribal region on Saturday, a local government official said.

The drone fired two missiles at a motorcycle the militants were riding, the official, Javed Marwat, told CNN.

The incident happened near the town of Wana in South Waziristan, one of the seven districts in Pakistan's tribal region. The area is thought to be a safe haven for militant groups fueling the insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.

It was the 19th drone strike in Pakistan this year.
U.S. officials rarely discuss the CIA's drone program in Pakistan, though privately they have said the covert strikes are legal and an effective tactic in the fight against extremists.

The Obama administration justified its use of unmanned drones to target suspected terrorists overseas in a rare public statement recently, with John Brennan, the president's top counter-terrorism adviser, saying the strikes are conducted "in full accordance with the law."

The program utilizes unmanned aerial vehicles, often equipped with Hellfire missiles, to target al Qaeda operatives in remote locations overseas -- often on the territory of U.S. allies such as Pakistan and Yemen. Brennan said the United States "respects national sovereignty and international law" and is guided by the laws of war in ordering those attacks.

Afghan school poisonings an omen?

By Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Special to CNN

May 30, 2012 -- Updated 1956 GMT (0356 HKT)

Afghan girls walk to school Tuesday in the village of Istalif, about 30 kilometers north of Kabul.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Gayle Lemmon: Afghan schoolgirls face alleged poison attacks and other threats
• Lemmon: Reports of poisonings vary, but it's certain classrooms across the nation are at risk
• Negotiators must make the safe education of girls a priority for Afghanistan's future, she says
• Lemmon says that Afghan women leaders don't want the world's pity, just its attention

(CNN) -- Afghan schoolgirls sit in the spotlight as their classrooms face alleged poison attacks in the north and threats from insurgents in the south. Questions surround the shadowy incidents, which come at a fragile time in the country's transition. And in many ways, as goes girls' education, so goes the country's procession toward progress.

"Instead of increasing the enrollment of girls in school and establishing more schools, gradually girls' schools are being closed and shut down," said Selay Ghaffar, executive director of the Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan. "Some schools have been put on fire, and we are repeatedly witnessing that girls' schools have been poisoned. Acid has been thrown on the faces of girls in Kandahar."

 

Outer Circle: Afghan girls poisioned

For several weeks, alleged poisonings have been reported in northern Afghan provinces of Balkh and Takhar. The latest came Tuesday, when 160 girls from a school in Takhar province were admitted to a hospital after complaining of headaches and vomiting. On Sunday, according to Afghanistan's TOLO News, illness sent 40 female students to seek medical care. So far, investigators have found no traces of poison, but evidence is still being examined. The country's deputy education minister told TOLO that "the enemies of Afghanistan and education are behind such incidents."

Regardless of what is found, what is certain is that threats confront a slew of classrooms across the country.

Although some schools have reopened since 2009 after the Taliban's revision of its code of conduct and the reopening of government talks with the Taliban, girls' schools remain in the crosshairs. The Ministry of Education has said that as many as 500 schools have been shuttered out of fear of attack from Taliban or other anti-government forces. But the issue seems to be as much about political power as ideology and security. And Afghan girls are not the only ones to pay the price while their education becomes a political football.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

"Education is the backbone of a country," Ghaffar said. "If half of the population are not educated and are not part of the economic sector, the education sector, then how can we manage to have a peaceful, democratic society?"

Taliban leaders have denied responsibility for sickening the schoolgirls in the north, maintaining that accusations they are behind the alleged attacks are "baseless and not true." But local Taliban told The Wall Street Journal that they stood behind a recent spate of warnings to parents and teachers in southern Ghazni province to stay away from school.

Taliban tightens grip on Afghan schools

Said one local Talib to the Journal: "We aren't against education ... the reason is that schools, especially girls' schools, are the only tool that attracts swift government attention."

Certainly one of the most frequent signs of progress policymakers have pointed to in recent years is the return of girls to school. From fewer than 5,000 girls who managed to get educated despite being banned from schools by the Taliban, an estimated 3 million-plus girls are said to be studying today. Women now make up a quarter of the Afghan parliament and more than 3,000 midwives fan out over the country each day to save women's lives -- in a nation that studies find the world's deadliest for expectant mothers.

And yet when it comes to Afghanistan's future, women's rights to work and education loom as the boldest question marks.

The Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by the U.S. and Afghanistan earlier this month emphasized a "shared determination" to an Afghanistan governed on values including the "fundamental rights and freedoms of all men and women." Yet the agreement goes into no specifics about what would happen if a new Afghan government revoked those same rights and freedoms. And when this month's NATO summit in Chicago focused on the transition from international to Afghan responsibility for the country's security forces, women's rights had no place on the agenda.

"Still the discussion of women's issues and women's protection within the international system somehow always seems to be an afterthought, when the bottom line is that the way women are treated is central to American foreign policy," said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at a "shadow summit" panel on women's rights hosted by Amnesty International, which I moderated in Chicago.

"The difficulty is men -- and the bottom line is that in fact we have to figure out why and to persuade everybody that having women's rights and women being on various groups is the best way to ensure a better life for everybody, not just for women, but for everybody," Albright said.

Afghan women leaders say they are not seeking the world's pity, but its attention.

"I have one message from Afghan women. 'Don't look at us as victims, we are very active,' " said Afifa Azim, executive director of the Afghan Women's Network. "We need all of you to support us by supporting women and human rights organizations and to put pressure on your policymakers to support the rights of Afghan women."

Chief among those is the right to attend school in safety. And only the coming months will tell whether threats and attacks will keep girls away from classrooms or whether girls will indeed get the opportunity they seek to contribute to their own societies.

"Women are the canary in the coal mine, " Albright said. "It is just a fact that when women are treated badly in a society, it is a sign of what goes on in the society."