[Hi-LaL]

May 6, 2006


Anarchists, police clash in central Athens during anti-war rally

Tension and battles between Greek police and anarchist demonstrators took place in the centre of Athens, Greece, during the anti-war demonstration of the 4th European Social Forum which is taking place in the greek capital, from 4 to 7 of May 2006. The march of the approximately 1,000 anarchists, ended with clashes between groups of anarchists and police. Riot police used tear gas, while a branch of a greek bank, a fast-food store and around 50 shop windows in central Athens were damaged.
The anti-war demonstration rally staged by the 4th European Social Forum started today morning with socialist politicians, peace and environmental groups from Greece and all over the world attending. It was organized by the Synaspismos party, a coalition of Social Movements and Ecology Parties of Greece. Thousands of people from Europe, Asia, and America, members of Greek labour unions and non-government organisations took part in the march together with representatives of the Steering Committee. According to the European Social Forum and the organizers, there were approximately 80,000 demonstrators.
A group of youths set off clashes outside the British embassy, the War Museum, the Ministry of Foreign Ministry and the Parliament. They then headed to Ermou Street, where they vandalised several shops. Riot police arrested more than 15 people. Further small-scale incidents were reported shortly after 5pm near the U.S. embassy and the Athens Police Headquarters, when a group of anarchists hurled Molotov cocktails against police officers and cars.

.

[Blue Blood]

Iran says it may withdraw from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

In a letter to the United Nations, Iran's Parliament has said it may have to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if pressure to end its nuclear program escalates.
The letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that if the issues with Iran's nuclear program are not settled by peaceful methods, then "there will be no option for the parliament but to ask the government to withdraw its signature."
"Should the UN secretary general and Security Council members not fulfill their crucial duties in settling arguments, there will be no choice for the Majlis but to demand the government withdraw the ratification of the additional protocol and put on its agenda a review of Article 10 of the NPT," said the letter, signed by at least 160 deputies.
In the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Article 10 states that a country can withdraw its signatories from the treaty if the interests of the country has been compromised. In 2003, North Korea withdrew from the treaty for the same reason.
"We will not accept any resolution that is against our rights. Any action by the Security Council will have a negative influence on our cooperation with the agency. The involvement of the Security Council will direct the path of cooperation towards confrontation. It's obvious that the Security Council should not take any action that it is not capable of dealing with later because we will not refrain from our rights," said Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi in a press conference on Sunday.
"Suspension and pause is not on the agenda at all, and the Security Council should not do something that will get it into trouble later on," and "intervention by the Security Council in this issue is completely illegal," added Asefi.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan still urges Iran and the United States to hold direct talks.
"If everybody - all stakeholders and key players - were around the table, I think it would be possible to work out a package that would satisfy the concerns of everybody. Should they (Iran) be offered a diplomatic package allowing them to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful ends, and they resist that, how do they explain it to the world?", said Annan.
However; Asefi said that Iran will not talk with the United States "one-on-one" about its nuclear program.
"The U.S. isn't prepared to have talks on a one-to-one equal basis. They are following the politics of threat. So under these conditions we see no necessity to start talks with them," said Asefi.
The treaty was opened for signatures in 1968 and in 1970 entered into force. There are 187 signatures on the treaty.

[Blue Blood]

May 8th 2006

Ahmadinejad sends letter to George W. Bush

It has just been announced that for the first time in three decades, direct, and at least partially public, diplomatic communication will commence between the United States (US) and Iran. Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to the U.S. president George W. Bush proposing "new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world".
Mr Gholam-Hossein Elham did not say if the letter mentioned the nuclear dispute, one of the diplomatic problems currently straining relations between Iran and USA. This information has arrived one day after the Iranian parliament had announced that it might retract from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if Western pressure over its programme was to increase.
Differing reports have been made as to whether or not the letter will be made public, and if so, when. In its online report of 8 May 2006, 09:25 GMT, the BBC quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying that the contents of the letter would be made public once Bush had received it. The updated version of the report of 8 May 2006, 14:52 GMT, quotes Asefi as saying that the contents would be made public "at the right time". An ABC report quoted Gholam-Hossein Elham as saying "it is not an open letter."
Iran's foreign affairs minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, delivered the letter to the Swiss embassy in Tehran on Monday.
However; U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said "this letter isn't it. This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort."
"It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way," she added.
John Bolton, Embassador to the United Nations, also read the letter saying, "I think it is typical of Iran that when major decisions are about to be taken ... that they have tried to throw sand in the eyes of the proponents of the action. That's what this may be."

[Blue Blood]

May 9, 2006

Bush announces food aid to Darfur

President George W Bush has announced US emergency food shipments to Darfur, a province of Sudan. He has asked Congress to approve $225m in aid. Sudan and the biggest rebel group signed a peace deal last Friday to end the three year old civil war, claiming more than 200,000 lives.
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state will address the UN Security Council to help speed up the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the Darfur region.
"She's going to request a resolution that will accelerate the deployment of UN peacekeepers into Darfur," President Bush said. "We're now working with the UN to identify countries that contribute those troops, so the peacekeeping effort will be robust."
The Government of Sudan had previously denied UN deployment. But, after the signing of the peace treaty, they have expressed their keenness on the deployment of UN peacekeepers.

[Blue Blood]

Wild find: Half grizzly, half polar bear


Northern hunters, scientists and people with vivid imaginations have discussed the possibility for years.

But Roger Kuptana, a guide from Canada’s Sachs Harbor was the first to suspect it had actually happened when he proposed that a strange-looking bear shot last month by an American sports hunter might be half polar bear, half grizzly.
Officials seized the creature after noticing its white fur was scattered with brown patches and that it had the long claws and humped back of a grizzly. Now a DNA test has confirmed that it is indeed a hybrid — possibly the first documented in the wild.

"We've known it's possible, but actually most of us never thought it would happen," said Ian Stirling, a polar bear biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton.
Polar bears and grizzlies have been successfully paired in zoos before — Stirling could not speculate why — and their offspring are fertile.
Breeding seasons for the two species overlap, though polar bear gets started slightly earlier.
Polar bear and grizzly territory also overlap in the Western Arctic around the Beaufort Sea, where the occasional grizzly is known to head onto the sea ice looking for food after emerging from hibernation.

Grizzlies hunting seals?

Some grizzly bears make it over the ice all the way to Banks Island and Victoria Island, where they have been spotted and shot before. These bears will scavenge seals left over by polar bears.

"And some hunters have told me that they think sometimes the grizzly bears actually hunt seals, which I'm quite sure they could do," Stirling said.
That might explain how a grizzly got to the region, but few can explain how it managed to get along with a polar bear mate long enough to produce offspring.

Colin Adjun, a wildlife officer in Nunavut, said he's heard stories before about an oddly colored bear cavorting with polar bears. "It was a light chocolate color along with a couple of polar bears," Adjun said.
And though people have talked about the possibility of a mix, "it hasn't happened in our area," he said.
While the latest find is a surprise, it is not necessarily another sign of climate change, said John England, a geologist who was with the team that spotted the earlier grizzly.
"If we want evidence for climate change, we don't have to go to an isolated occurrence of a grizzly bear somewhere," said England, who holds a northern research chair on environmental change in the Arctic.
"The satellite imagery showing sea ice reduction over the last 30 years is proof positive of very dramatic changes in the northern hemisphere."

No fine for hunter

The DNA results were good news for Martell, who had paid $50,000 for guides and a permit to hunt polar bear. Before the tests came back, the 65-year-old hunter was facing the possibility of a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail for shooting a bear for which he had no permit — as well as the disappointment of an expensive hunting trip with no trophy.
The local natural resources department now plans to return the bear to the hunter.

[Blue Blood]

Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano erupts

SINGAPORE: Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano has erupted, spewing clouds of hot gas and ash.

The mountain "has exploded already", the head of the Merapi section at the Centre of Vulcanological Research and Technology in Yogyakarta said.

He cautioned, however, that Merapi's eruption process could be gradual rather than a sudden burst, and that the massive eruption scientists fear had yet to come.

According to the Indonesian national Antara news agency, the volcano erupted at 0540 ** local time (2240 GMT Sunday).

Weeks before the eruption, there had been intense activity at the 2,914-metre (9,560-foot) peak in the densely-populated Central Java province.

Blazing lava had been oozing down the slopes of Merapi and on Saturday, vulcanologists raised Merapi's alert status, triggering the evacuation of thousands of people from its fertile slopes.

But many others had been defying orders for a mandatory evacuation and were insisting on staying in their homes.

As clouds of deadly hot ash, rock fragments and volcanic gas surged down Merapi's slopes on Monday, some nearby villagers scurried for safety.

Grey ash covered crop fields and hundreds of rooftops in the area of Ketep, 10 km (six miles) from the base of the mountain, and many houses appeared deserted after residents evacuated.

Not everyone was gone, however. Some people cleaned ashes off their houses and others opened shops, while commercial mini-buses continued to run.

As ash rained down on villages around the mountain, schoolchildren in uniform hurried to class, covering their noses and mouths.

Officials have not released overall figures for the number of people who are considered to be in the immediate danger zone, but Vice President Yusuf Kalla said last week that about 34,000 were considered to be at risk.

Merapi last erupted in 1994, killing 66 people. - CNA/ir

[Blue Blood]

Montenegro has narrowly voted for independence from its union with Serbia, near-complete results say.


The head of the country's electoral commission said 55.4% of voters had voted to secede from Serbia, just above the 55% required for victory.
The result is set to erase the last vestige of the former Yugoslavia.
The question of independence has deeply divided Montenegro, with its opponents arguing it will damage economic, family and political ties with Serbia. "Tonight, with the majority decision by the citizens of Montenegro, the independence of the country has been renewed," said Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.


Serb politicians, Orthodox church leaders and Montenegrins from the mountainous inland regions bordering Serbia broadly opposed secession.
However, ethnic Montenegrins and Albanians from the coastal area largely backed the prime minister and favoured independence.
Mr Djukanovic argued that an independent Montenegro would have a stronger economy and be a better candidate for admission into the European Union. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana commended the conduct of the poll and said he would respect the result.

BBC South-East Europe analyst Gabriel Partos says Montenegro will have to wait for reaction from Serbia before the process of proclaiming independence gets under way.

Under their union's founding charter, Serbia will become the successor state, and Montenegro will have to apply for membership of the EU, United Nations and other international institutions.
Serbia will also inherit the legal claim to UN-administered Kosovo whose future status is expected to be determined by the end of this year. Serbia will also lose direct access to the Adriatic Sea, and granting special rights of access will give Montenegro a strong position in forthcoming talks on dividing the union's assets, our correspondent says.


High turn-out

Electoral Commission Chairman Frantisek Lipka said 25,000 votes, about 5% of the total, were still to be counted, but he said they were not expected to affect the outcome.
Final results will be announced at 1900 local time (1700 GMT). One European Parliament election observer, Robert Evans, told the BBC that everything in the vote had satisfied their requirements.


Indications that the pro-independence bloc may have won the vote prompted celebrations in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica.
The tooting of car horns filled the city and youths were seen waving the red and gold flag of the old Montenegrin monarchy.
Guns and fireworks were let off in celebration. The turnout in Sunday's poll was 86.3%.
Thousands of Montenegrins living abroad are believed to have returned home to vote.
The country has a population of fewer than 700,000 people, so the vote of the diaspora was considered as crucial by both camps.
Montenegro's loose union with Serbia was established in 2003, replacing what was left of the former Yugoslavia. Both sides were given the option of electing to leave the union after three years.

The last time Montenegro was independent was nearly 90 years ago at the end of World War I, when it was absorbed into the newly-formed Yugoslavia.

May 21, 2006

[Blue Blood]

Greek and Turkish F-16 fighter jets have crashed into the southern Aegean Sea after colliding in mid-air.

The Greek pilot was killed, while the Turkish pilot was rescued after ejecting safely, Turkish officials say.
The collision, near Karpathos island, occurred after Greece scrambled a jet to intercept the Turkish aircraft, a Greek spokesman said.
Despite a thaw in recent years, the two neighbours have a long-standing territorial dispute over the Aegean.
Turkey insists Greek airspace extends only 10km (6 miles) offshore, not 16km (10 miles) as Greece maintains.
In the past, the two have come close to armed conflict over the dispute.

"The two foreign ministers expressed their regret for today's incident"
Greek foreign ministry

The incident occurred at about 27,000 ft (8,000 m), some 21 miles (34 km) southeast of Karpathos.
Greek government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said the planes had gone down after touching wing tips.
"It was likely an interception operation," he said.
The BBC's Richard Galpin in Athens says interception attempts happen frequently, with the two sides shadowing each other and even staging mock dog fights in their disputed air space.
Explosion
Nato has previously warned the two member states that these are dangerous.
The collision spotted by passengers on board a plane travelling to Cairo, according to eyewitnesses quoted on Greek television.

They reportedly saw an explosion in the sky.
The Turkish pilot was picked up by a passing merchant ship, Turkish officials said.
He was later flown home by an army helicopter. But the officials said the Greek pilot had died in the collision.
This has not been confirmed by the Greek government. However officials in Athens told the BBC they believe the pilot did not eject - and therefore may have died.
A search and rescue operation will continue for 72 hours, they said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul conveyed his country's condolences to his Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyanni in a telephone conversation, the foreign ministry in Ankara said.
"The two foreign ministers expressed their regret at today's incident and agreed that this should not affect the two countries' efforts to improve their relations," a Greek foreign ministry statement said.

[Blue Blood]

Turkish firefighters have been tackling a huge fire that engulfed the cargo area of Istanbul's Ataturk International airport.


Three people are reported to have been injured in the blaze, which officials believe was caused by a short circuit.
They say the fire is now under control and the huge plumes of smoke have stopped rising from the building.
There had been concerns that flames could spread to the main terminals, but flights are now being allowed to land.

Business as usual
Ataturk airport, about 16km (10 miles) from central Istanbul, is the main destination for domestic and international flights - and serves as a hub for tourism in Turkey.


The fire broke out at about 1230 GMT and quickly erupted into an inferno of flames and plumes of smoke.
British passenger Paul Collins said the black clouds and flames were twice the height of the building. He initially feared a plane had crashed, he added.
But when he got inside the main passenger terminal - about 1km (0.6 miles) from the cargo area - he said that it seemed to be business as usual.

"In the passenger terminal building, apart from a real feeling of apprehension around, nothing appears to have happened," he told the BBC.
"It is bizarre watching it out the window as people are going about their business.
"It is almost eclipse-like, it is so dark. There are lots of planes coming in and dumping water."
One witness told local television that 250 people worked in the cargo section and everyone there had made it out safely.

Spark
Occasional explosions were heard as the fire engulfed the cargo building.

Fifty fire engines, planes and firefighters from the air force academy were all scrambled to deal with the emergency.
Yellow firefighting planes, usually used to tackle forest fire roared low over the building every few minutes carrying water to pour on the flames.

But Istanbul's government says the fire has been brought under control. It is thought the fire may have been started by an electrical fault or spark, possibly linked to restoration work at the site. That theory is now being investigated.

Istanbul deputy governor Fikret Kasapoglu says no-one died in the fire and reports suggest just three people have sustained light injuries and smoke inhalation. Three warehouse buildings have burned to the ground. Airport officials though say flights are now taking off and landing as usual.

[Blue Blood]

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Maliki Declares State of Emergency in Basra
42 Bodies Found, Guerrilla Bombings Kill and Maim in Baghdad, Mosul
US Troops Accidentally Shoot Pregnant Mother

Reuters reports the following major violence in the Iraqi Civil War, along with many more smaller attacks in which only one or two persons died or were injured:

In Mosul in the north, guerrillas detonated a car bomb that wounded 20 persons, including 5 policemen. Later reports say that the five policemen died of their wounds.

North of Baghdad, the Mayor of Muqdadiyah, his brother and cousin were assassinated in a guerrilla bomb attack.

US troops shot to death two women civilians. One of the two was a pregnant mother trying to get to the hospital. They did not slow down, or at least not sufficiently, on approaching a checkpoint in al-Mutasim near Samarra. Iraqis were outraged at the news, coming as it does on revelations about a Marine unit that is alleged to have murdered 24 Iraqi civilians in cold blood last November.

And in the capital,

BAGHDAD - A mortar attack in the southern outskirts of Baghdad killed nine people and wounded 17 . . .

BAGHDAD - Four civilians were killed during clashes that erupted between insurgents and policemen in northern Baghdad, a source in the Ministry of Interior said. Seven people, including policemen, were wounded.

HAWIHJA - Six civilians were seriously wounded on Tuesday when three mortar rounds landed in a crowded market in the town of Hawija, 70 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk . . .

In addition, 42 bodies were found around the capital, bound and executed Mafia-style, in faith-based revenge killings.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited the southern oil port of Basra on Wednesday and declared a month-long state of emergency. Iraq's second-largest city and the key to its remaining petroleum revenues has been roiled by violence between party militias, by Shiite on Sunni violence, and by tribal feuds among Marsh Arabs and between them and the militias. The Basra city administration is largely controlled by the Fadhila or Virtue Party, an offshoot of the movement founded by Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, but one that does not recognize Sadiq's son Muqtada as his legitimate successor. Virtue has been at odds with the ruling Dawa Party and the Supreme Council, and was not given, as it wanted, the post of petroleum minister. In turn, it has declared a work slow-down in the petroleum industry in the city, a significant proportion of which it controls. Governor Muhammad al-Wa'ili has attempted to fire his police chief and the local Iraqi army commander and has feuded with clerical representatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Al-Zaman / Reuters say [Ar.] Maliki took security affairs away from the governor and gave them to General Abdul Latif al-Thu`ban of the 10th Division.

Al-Hayat reports that al-Wa'ili [Ar.] the governor of Basra from the Virtue party, blamed the Suprem Council, the local representatives of the chief Shiite religious authorities (i.e. Sistani), and 'outside agitators" who came in to support gangs engaged in smuggling. (The outsiders are presumably being accused of being Iranians, though from his diction he thinks they are crminals, not agents of the state.) The head of the governing council excused local government inability to restore order by pointing to its lack of money for security forces.

President Jalal Talabani has suggested that the federal government could just remove some local officials from power. For all Basra's problems, this approach would be extremely unfortunate. Al-Wa'ili and his supporters won the local elections in Basra on Jan. 30, 2005, gaining 21 seats to the 20 of the Supreme Council. For the federal government to remove an elected, sitting governor is a slippery slope. Does it beomce a precedent? This kind of high-handedness in India under Indira Gandhi seems to me to have helped produced massive turmoil in Kashmir and Panjab, and it did not help things in Maharashtra or elsewhere that she intrigued to get out a non-Congress governor and get a Congress one in. It would be like allowing Bush to fire Governor Granholm in Michigan because security is so bad in Detroit. This kind of thing can lead to a one-party state.

Two ironies here: The Kurds would take up arms at the very mention of the possibility that Maliki might dismiss any officials in Kurdistan. And, from a Virtue Party point of view, Maliki's tough rhetoric just sounds like Dawa and the Supreme Council are trying to win by federal intervention what they lost at the ballot box, and marginalize an elected party.

Anyway, I don't find it plausible that Maliki can restore order to Basra any time soon, and if he intervenes with too heavy a hand (he spoke of an "iron fist"), he could easily make things much worse (e.g. pushing the Virtue Party into becoming a guerrilla resistance.)

Al-Zaman/ AFP say that the Debaathification Committee has asked the Malik government to dismiss three or four of the ministers it just appointed, on the ground that they had been too high in the Baath party in the old regime. Typically such debaathification targets Sunni Arabs or secular Shiites. Al-Maliki has been big on debaathification, so we will see if he gives in on this. If he does, I should think it will cause a parliamentary crisis, with him losing the support of yet another party or two.