Turkey seizes 1,200 rocket warheads near Syrian border

Source : http://news.xinhuanet.com

English.news.cn   2013-11-07 19:36:22             ISTANBUL/ANKARA, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkey seized a total of 1, 200 rocket warheads near the Syrian border, private Dogan news agency reported on Thursday.Dogan quoted Gov. Huseyin Avni Cos as saying that a cargo truck filled with rocket heads, bazookas, missiles, bombs and guns was seized in Turkey's southern province of Adana near the Syrian border.The report said that Adana police teams discovered the weapons after pursuing the truck initially on the suspicion that it was carrying drugs.Police used detection dogs to search for narcotics in the truck, said the report, adding that when the police opened the doors of the vehicle, they found the truck filled with weapons and explosives.Escorted by bomb disposal specialists, anti-terror teams brought the truck to a police station in the city. The truck was confiscated.The driver of the truck has been detained, and an investigation has been launched.

Activists urge Korea to cancel massive tear gas shipment to Bahrain

Source : Akhbar English

Rights activists have launched a campaign urging South Korea to cancel an imminent shipment of over 1.6 million tear gas canisters allegedly ordered by Bahraini authorities battling a two-and-a-half-year-long rebellion.

An unverified document dated June 16, 2013 obtained this week by the monitoring group Bahrain Watch shows that Bahrain's Ministry of Interior has requested an order of 1.6 million tear gas shells, 145,000 stun and flash grenades, and 90,000 tear gas grenades.

The massive figure startled observers who pointed out that the quantity was larger than the entire 1.2 million population of Bahrain, half of which is comprised of foreigners and migrant workers not involved in the largely-peaceful, anti-government movement.

"I think if you look at the scale and frequency of the use of tear gas in Bahrain, it's unprecedented anywhere in the world," Alaa Shehabi, a founding member of Bahrain Watch which is behind the Stop the Shipment campaign, told Al-Akhbar.

"They (police) are using hundreds of rounds on a nightly basis, ... so they need this amount to sustain the constant state of repression."

Shehabi added that her group has received information that the order is expected to be delivered before the end of this month.

"We've had, in the last 24 hours since we launched the campaign, 11,000 e-mails sent to Korean agencies involved in shipment," Shehabi said.

Heeding activists' calls, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions have condemned the tear gas deal and urged authorities to prevent the shipment, citing humanitarian concerns.

The procurement tender does not specify the supplier of the weapons, but activists say that the bulk of the tear gas that reaches the tiny Gulf island is manufactured by two South Korean companies and a joint German-South African one.

Rheinmetall Denel Munition, the German-South African company, and South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration both declined to comment on the alleged deal.

Police have killed at least 89 people since the anti-government uprising erupted in February 2011, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Of those victims, 39 died from tear-gas related attacks including suffocation and direct shots to the head, records from Physicians for Human Rights show.

Authorities have so far been unable to quell the nearly daily demonstrations that persist across Bahraini villages against the widely- detested, US-backed monarchy. Dozens of human rights activists, doctors and political opponents have been jailed since the start of the uprising.

Over the past month alone, Bahrain sentenced 104 protest leaders to prison terms of up to 15 years on "terrorism" related charRedditTweet9 Send by emailPrinter-friendly version Tags Category: Top News Tags: tear gas, South Korea, Bahrain Related Articles Bahrain sentences nine activists to life in prison A Bahraini court jailed nine activists for life Monday after alleging that they made bombs for "terrorist" purposes, a judicial source said. Four of the defendants were in court for the verdict and... Bahrain police fires tear gas at opposition protests Updated at 6:50pm: Bahraini police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters on Wednesday, but there were no reports of casualties. A Reuters correspondent saw police... Advertisement Published Friday, October 18, 2013

Reports: Kerry to return to Mideast this week

Source : Maan News Agency

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- US Secretary of State John Kerry is to return to the Middle East later this week to resume efforts to draw Israel and the PLO back into direct negotiations, reports said on Sunday.

According to the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily and the left-leaning Haaretz, Kerry was to arrive in Israel towards the end of the week on what would be his sixth visit to the region in as many months.

On his previous visit, a four-day trip which ended on June 30, Kerry held hours and hours of intensive talks with both sides in a mission which he said had achieved "real progress."

But PLO officials said there had been "no breakthrough" that could lead to a resumption of direct negotiations following a hiatus of nearly three years.

"John Kerry is on his way back: the US secretary of state is expected to arrive in Israel for the sixth time towards the end of the week, in order to try and get the negotiations with the Palestinians to move forward," said Yediot.

In his absence, Kerry left behind two aides to continue his work. Frank Lowenstein, his senior adviser on the peace process, has been meeting "almost daily" with Israeli negotiators Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molho as well as with chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erakat, Haaretz said.

"Lowenstein is trying to get the parties to agree to a document that would contain the principles for the renewal of talks but no agreement has emerged," the paper said.

Several days after Kerry's departure, a Palestinian official told AFP that the US top diplomat had presented the two sides with "an initiative to resume direct and intensive negotiations for a duration of six to nine months in order to reach a peace agreement."

Under the proposal, the talks would be based on a 2011 speech by US President Barack Obama in which he called for a Palestinian state on the basis of the lines which existed before the 1967 Six Day War, but there would be no specific reference to a settlement freeze, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Similar details emerged on Saturday in a report by the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper which quoted Western diplomatic sources as saying the talks would take place within a framework of six to nine months, during which there would be a building freeze outside the major settlement blocs.

It also said Israel would agree to the staggered release of 103 Palestinian prisoners who have been held since before the 1993 Oslo Accords, and would allow the Palestinians to develop projects in Area C of the West Bank, around 60 percent of the territory which is currently under full Israeli control.

Israeli officials were not immediately available to comment on either report.

US-brokered direct talks broke down in September 2010 just weeks after they were launched with the two sides locked in a dispute over settlement building. Multiple diplomatic efforts to bring about a renewal of negotiations have so far failed.

Flash flooding deaths rise to 20 in Saudi Arabia

Source : Trend.Az

Saudi authorities Thursday said that 20 people had died in flash floods that hit several areas of the desert kingdom this week, dpa reported.

Rescue teams were searching for five others who went missing in the heavy rain that began on Saturday.

The authorities said on Wednesday that 13 people were killed in the downpours, the heaviest experienced by the Arabian Peninsula country in 25 years.

Footage posted on local social networking websites showed people and vehicles trapped in the rain.

Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Nayef said King Abdullah was "closely monitoring the situation and the efforts of the ministries and agencies to provide safety requirements."

Around 123 people were killed in 2009, when torrential rain hit the Saudi port city of Jeddah.

Palestinians, Arab League share positions regarding peace with Israel: negotiator

Source : Xinhua

RAMALLAH, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian leadership on Wednesday said its position regarding a final settlement with Israel conforms with that of the Arab League.

The Palestinian and Arab positions "put the ball in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's court to make progress on the way of peace," said Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian peace negotiator.

On Tuesday, a senior Qatari official said that the Arab states see that making peace between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on a two-state solution and that the two sides can agree on trading lands.

This was seen as a concession that provides more flexibility for talks on the borders of the future Palestinian state, which the Palestinians have long said must be built on the lands that Israel has occupied in 1967.

The Arab position was announced after foreign ministers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington.

"If Netanyahu accepts the two-state solution and there is a need for a slight swap of lands, the Arabs and the Palestinians are ready for this," Erekat said.

Erekat said if the Israeli government doesn't endorse the two- state solution, then the debate about reviving the peace process would be fruitless.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2010 over a dispute on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Israel calls up army reservists for drill in the north

Source : Reuters

(Reuters) - Israel's military said on Tuesday it had called up hundreds of reservists for a drill in northern Israel where tensions are high with neighbors Syria and Lebanon, but a military spokesman said there was no change in the overall security situation.

Israel has been on high alert for spillover from Syria's civil war, which has included sporadic fire and Israeli frontier positions. It has also warned it would act to prevent Syria's sophisticated weapons from falling into the hands of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The drill - planned in advance as part of the annual training schedule - is meant to simulate a scenario of "quick escalation" in which troops would be sent to the north, the military said in statement. No specific details were included.

"The reality requires us to prepare accordingly and maintain high readiness," a senior officer from Israel's Northern Command said of the drill.

Chief military spokesman Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai told Israel Radio: "This is an exercise, it is not connected to any change in the security situation."

Israel has enjoyed a decades-long, stable stand-off with Syria under President Bashar al- Assad, but fighting in the insurgency has drawn close to the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war.

Israel says its air force shot down a drone from Lebanon over the Mediterranean sea last week as it was approaching the Israeli coast. Hezbollah, which sent a drone deep into Israel in October, said it was not behind last week's incident.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Saudi Cleric Urges Reforms to Ease Tensions in Kingdom

Source : http://www.almanar.com.lb

Saudi preacher has appealed for reforms in the ultra- conservative kingdom, warning in an open letter posted Saturday on social networks that denial of rights was raising tensions in the country.

"The people have aspirations, demands and rights and they will not stay silent on total or partial confiscation of their rights. When you lose hope, you can do anything," said Salman al-Auda from Sahwa, a movement close to the Muslim Brotherhood.

He appealed for a series of reforms and "opening of a new horizon" in the kingdom which applies a strict version of Islam.

Auda said the rising tension in Saudi Arabia was the result of "corruption, unemployment, poor housing, weak health and educational services and a lack of political reforms."

He said "a security solution would only aggravate the situation and block the path to reforms," adding that "nobody wishes to see a spark transform into a fire that would burn the country".

The detention of Saudis accused of extremism would only "increase the bitterness, the desire for revenge and mushrooming of jihadist thinking in prisons," Auda warned.

The cleric, whose sermons are popular in religious programs on Televisions, called for the release of rights activists like Mohammad Gahtani and Abdallah al-Hamed jailed for denouncing human rights abuses, and denounced the "continuing practice of censorship" by the kingdom's information officials.

Saudi Arabia has remained relatively untouched by the Arab Spring uprisings, but protesters have tried holding peaceful demonstrations to demand the release of prisoners of conscience.

An independent Saudi rights organization says the country has about 30,000 political prisoners, a charge Riyadh denies, claiming there are none.

Egypt protects liberals’ homes after death threat

Source : http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/07/265027.html

Egyptian police deployed security at the homes of prominent liberal opponents of the government on Thursday after a hardline cleric called for their deaths and a secular politician was gunned down in Tunisia.

The killing on Wednesday of Chokri Belaid, an outspoken critic of Tunisia’s Islamist-led government, sent tremors through Egypt.

In both countries where “Arab Spring” uprisings swept away veteran authoritarian rulers, two years of political turmoil have exposed divisions between Islamists and their secular opponents.

On the same day, Egyptian liberal politician Mohamed el Baradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, sounded the alarm over a hardline cleric’s call for his death.

The cleric, Mahmoud Shaaban, appeared on a religious television channel and said leaders of Egypt’s main opposition coalition would get a death sentence under sharia (Islamic law).

He specifically mentioned el Baradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy.

President Mohamed Mursi, a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood which has dominated democratic elections since mass protests ousted President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, condemned such comments as tantamount to “terrorism.”

But he renewed accusations that the liberal opposition was inciting unrest.

“It is strange that some (in Egypt) advocate political violence and incite it while others, who claim to speak in the name of religion, allow ‘killing’ on the basis of political differences, which is terrorism itself,” a statement from Mursi’s office said.

“The presidency affirms its complete rejection of hate speech that falsely uses religion, and of which religion is innocent, and calls on national forces, religious institutions and leading thinkers to stand in a united front to confront this unacceptable language of incitement.”

Other Islamists and leftists across the political spectrum condemned Shaaban’s statement, as did the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The Muslim Brotherhood condemns calls allowing bloodshed and inciting killing, whatever their source,” it said in a statement on its website, quoting spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan.

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil said on his Facebook page the cabinet was looking into legal steps it could take against “all those who issue or spread edicts or fatwas inciting violence.”

Report: EU developing 2013 Mideast peace plan

Source :  Maan News Agency

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- The European Union is developing a proposal to restart peace talks between Israel and Palestine that it will put forward in March, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

The plan will set out the principles of a future peace accord, and a timetable for negotiating all the key issues during 2013, Israeli diplomatic sources told newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

It has been championed by British and French foreign ministers, is supported by Germany, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is trying to get the rest of the union on board.

According to the report, the plan poses a regional Middle Eastern committee to oversee the process, and Palestinian officials have already said they will join the body.

"The Europeans can't force Israel to enter into an agreement, but they can certainly put us in an awkward position," a senior Israeli official told the newspaper.

"They are drafting a document which will present the principles of the future peace accord, putting it on the table as a challenge," the official said.

"It is likely the Palestinians will accept it and that Israel will have some difficulty. It will drive us into the corner."