Kyrgyz youths recruited to join Syrian opposition

Source : The Voice of Russia

In Kyrgyzstan young people are recruited to take part in the Syrian conflict on the side of the opposition, Director of a Kyrgyz analytical centre Kadyr Malikov told The Voice of Russia.

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He said that it was mostly done through the Internet by the so-called Internet imams who urge young people to join the jihad on radical websites. Actually, they build up an extremist ideology, the analyst stressed.

Over the last few months 15 young people aged between 15 and 20 left the southern districts of Kyrgyzstan for Turkey. Almost all of them told their parents that they were going to find a job abroad. It turned out later that the youths were recruited by emissaries of terrorist organisations and subsequently sent to militants’ camps to be further transported to Syria.

These shocking facts were revealed by Kyrgyz MP Dastanbek Jumabekov.

Voice of Russia

US Senate vows to back Israeli attack on Iran

Source : The Voice of Russia

The US Senate has adopted a resolution pledging unconditional diplomatic and military support to Israel if it attack Iran or vice versa.

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American media report that the Senate vote marked Israel’s 65th Independence Day. The resolution, remarkably lodged under number 65, stipulates the US is committing itself to back the Israeli state, protect the Jewish people and provide the nation with diplomatic, military and economic support should Israel be “compelled to take military action in self-defense” against the Islamic republic.

The document also reinstated America’s support of the existing Iran sanctions.

The draft resolution was put up for debate in early March by US Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who stressed the measure was non-binding.

“No one wants another conflict anywhere in the world militarily, but we also don’t wan a nuclear-capable Iran,” Mr. Graham said at a news conference.

The resolution was initially to be passed by Congress before President Obama’s trip to Israel.

Voice of Russia, Cursor

Israeli army shoots Gaza farmer

Source : Xinhua

GAZA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces shot and wounded a Palestinian farmer in northern Gaza Strip Monday, marking a violation of a recent Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Ashraf Al-Qedra, a spokesman of the Hamas authority's health ministry, said the 21-year-old farmer was seriously wounded by a gunshot in his head.

The farmer was working his land in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, which is close to the security fence separating Israel and Gaza.

On Friday, the Israeli army also shot dead a Palestinian who was among a group of Gazans approaching the fence in eastern Gaza City. The victim became the third Palestinian killed near the border since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Nov. 21 and ended a eight-day fighting that left over 170 Palestinians and six Israelis killed.

Hamas said the terms of the ceasefire granted the Palestinians access to a strip of land along the border with Israel, which has been a no-go zone for years. Israel said it has eased restrictions along the border, but still prohibits people to come up right to the fence for security reasons.

The hamas health ministry said 50 Palestinians have been injured since Nov. 21, while the fishermen's syndicate said up to 30 fishermen have been briefly detained off the Gaza coast, where the ceasefire deal expanded the permitted fishing zone from three to six nautical miles.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, said the group was keeping a record of what he described as "Israeli violations" and was informing Egypt about them.

Bangladesh Factory Fire Death Toll Soars to 121 - Fire Chief

Source : http://www.turkishweekly

The death toll from a fire at a Bangladeshi factory soared to at least 121 as rescue workers recovered 112 bodies Sunday, the national fire chief said.

"We've found 112 dead bodies this morning," said fire brigade director general Brigadier General Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah. "We resumed our search this morning and found the bodies lying on different floors of the factory building," he said.

The fire broke out in the ground-floor warehouse of the multi-storey Tazreen Fashion factory 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Dhaka on Saturday evening, trapping hundreds of workers on the upper floors, police said.

Police inspector Mostofa Kamal had previously told that nine workers died and about 100 workers were injured. Kamal said many workers jumped from the factory's upper floors to escape the flames before firefighters arrived to put the blaze out.

The cause was not immediately known but fires as a result of short circuits and shoddy electrical wiring are common in Bangladeshi garment plants, which use cheap labour to produce clothes shipped to Western countries.

Dhaka factory fire kills

At least nine workers died when a fire ripped through a clothing factory at Ashulia, on the outskirts of Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Saturday night, officials said.

Officials said the fire started on the first floor of the nine-story building and immediately spread to other floors, leaving hundreds of workers, mostly women, trapped.

Police said at least 200 people were injured as they rushed to get out of the building. "Many were injured in stampede and as they jumped off the building," said a rescuer.

Sixteen engines of fire service and civil defense had not put out the fire completely after more than eight hours.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the blaze.

Voice of Russia, CNN, AFP

Iraq Finance Minister Escapes Assassination Attempt

Source : RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, January 14 (RIA Novosti) - Iraqi Finance Minister Rafi al- Issawi, locked in a dispute with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has escaped an apparent assassination attempt, the Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera reported on Sunday citing Issawi's office and security sources.

Issawi's convoy was hit by a roadside bomb between the towns of Fallujah and Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, on Sunday.

The explosion came amid a political crisis between the Shia premier and his mainly Sunni coalition partners in the government.

“A roadside bomb exploded near his convoy,” Issawi’s office said. “His car was not hit and he is safe, but two guards were wounded.”

Police sources said no one was injured but confirmed that the convoy had been hit by shrapnel.

Issawi, who has publicly called for Maliki to be replaced, has been one of the central figures in protests by minority Sunnis against the Shia-dominated Baghdad government after his bodyguards were arrested on terrorism charges.