People Before Profit blog

Steelworkers walk out in France

Sat, 30 May 2009 05:45:00 +0000

Steelworkers from the Fos-sur-Mer Arcelor Mittal plant demonstrate in Marseille, southern France, May 26. This was the fourth strike in recent months by French workers angry with the Sarkozy government’s handling of the economic crisis and failure to help workers and their families. The banner reads “Steelworkers sacrificed.”

AP photo.

Woman gets jail for 'American Idol' stalking

Sat, 30 May 2009 04:41:00 +0000

Xinhuanet -- An Australian woman who stalked 'American Idol' contestant Diana DeGarmo over the internet was sentenced to 26 months in prison Friday.

Tanya Maree Quattrocchi, 23, from Melbourne hacked into the MySpace account of 2004 American Idol runner-up and wreaked havoc on the pop singer's life for three years, intercepting her emails and texting her hundreds of times.

The Victoria state County Court sentenced Quattrocchi to more than two years in prison. She will be eligible for parole after 12 months.

Quattrocchi pleaded guilty to four counts of stalking. Quattrocchi was placed on a community-based order for stalking and blackmailing Ms Degarmo in 2006.　

However, six months later she again faced charges of stalking the singer after sending emails to her DeGarmo's family and friends.

Judge Lisa Hannan said the offences were without doubt serious and she had no option but to impose jail time.

'It is important that you understand the fact you perpetrated your offending using cyberspace does not diminish its significance,' Judge Hannan said.

She said the victims of such crime had no doors to lock and no alarms to activate: 'They are constantly vulnerable.'

US hides sexual abuse in Abu Ghraib

Sat, 30 May 2009 04:04:00 +0000

Washington, May 28 (Prensa Latina) The Pentagon sought to publish pictures on torture applied by the CIA in the prison of Abu Ghraib during the administration of George W. Bush, but President Barack Obama revoked its decision.

In spite of the order, a former official of the US Army in charge of the investigation of the scandal in the Iraqi prison stated that the pictures showed sexual abuses, Democracy Now revealed Thursday to the newspaper Daily Telegraph.

In an interview published by the British newspaper, former major general Antonio Taguba expressed that at least an image shows a US soldier violating a prisoner and another one captured a translator annoying another prisoner.

According to Taguba, other pictures show sexual abuses done with objects such as billy clubs, wires and a phosphorescent tube.

Obama was criticized when he retracted the promise of allowing the publication of the aberrant pictures two weeks ago.

According to White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, the President changed his opinion because he believed that the pictures could represent a threat for the security of the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Press media pointed out recently that former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and the former US vice-president Richard Cheney authorized CIA to use the torture in interrogations against possible terrorists.

A report of the Committee of Armed Services of the US Senate said that on July 17, 2002, Rice ordered the CIA to continue with the alternative methods of interrogation, including the well-known method of feigned drowning, known as waterboarding.

The report, prepared by the General Attorney'�s Office on request of the Select Committee on Intelligence of the US Senate, declassifies details on the orders given to the CIA by high officials of the Bush administration (2001-2009) related to the use of the torture during questioning of prisoners.

Caracas shuns gold firm as state pushes forward with development

Sat, 30 May 2009 03:19:00 +0000

Original source:

Venezuela has refused to renew a gold concession held by the US Gold Reserve corporation as the government boosts state control over its mineral wealth.

According to Wednesday's edition of Venezuela's Official Gazette, the Mining Ministry rejected the company's request to extend the contract for its Brisas del Cuyuni project, part of its larger Brisas mine in southern Bolivar state.

The concession expired in April 2008 and has since been under review.

Gold Reserve claims that the rejection violates Venezuelan law, which requires the government to reply to concession requests within six months.

The firm maintains that it first sought an extension in late 2007, but received no reply until this week.

Gold Reserve is based in Spokane, Washington, but its mines are all in Venezuela.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has vowed to boost state control over mineral resources as part of efforts to build an industrial complex that will reduce the country's reliance on oil exports.

Last May, Caracas denied Toronto-based Crystallex International Corporation a final permit to start digging at the country's largest gold mine Las Cristinas.

And in January, Mr Chavez announced that Venrus, a joint enterprise formed between the Russian-financed Rusoro Mining Ltd and a Venezuelan state holding company, would develop the mine.

Irish abuse churches must pay, prime minister argues

Fri, 29 May 2009 04:38:00 +0000

Irish leaders declared on Wednesday that the secretive Catholic orders responsible for abusing children in workhouse-style schools must pay a greater share of compensation for victims.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has demanded face-to-face negotiations with all 18 orders involved in decades of child abuse.

Defense Minister Willie O'Dea said: 'We have to ascertain how much they actually have. The government is adamant and determined that they will make an appropriate contribution.'

Mr. Cowen said that his government fully accepts the damning findings from a nine-year investigation into scores of state-funded, church-run schools for Ireland's poorest children.

That report found children had suffered decades of physical, sexual and mental abuse in ill-monitored facilities until the last closed in the 1990s.

Mr Cowen called on Catholic congregations to face up to their own moral responsibility to do more, particularly by funding counselling and education services for victims and their families.

The premier noted that one order implicated in brutality and molestation at boys' schools, the Christian Brothers, had already pledged to search their finances and assets for 'surplus' funds.

After an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the abuse report, Mr. Cowen said: 'I believe the other individual congregations involved should now also articulate their willingness to make a further substantial voluntary contribution.'

Seven of the 18 orders confirmed on Wednesday that they would meet government ministers.

All reiterated apologies for their role in harming children, but none said they would contribute more to a 2002 deal with the government that left taxpayers paying almost all of the £959,000 ($1,531,249) legal bill for 14,000 abuse settlements.

Susan Boyle faces final hurdle in dreamlike rise

Fri, 29 May 2009 04:18:00 +0000

LONDON (AP) — It's always a bad hair day for Susan Boyle — until she starts to sing.

The Scottish songbird with the frizzed-out hair doesn't look like a star — she's chubby, with plain features, and no thousand-watt show biz smile. But her golden voice has made her the overwhelming favorite in Saturday's Britain's Got Talent finals, expected to draw millions of viewers in Britain, where it's broadcast live, and tens of millions throughout the world, with the help of YouTube and other online sites.

If she can prevail over nine competitors, the overnight singing sensation from a hardscrabble village in Scotland would pocket 100,000 pounds ($159,000) and an invitation to perform at a Royal Variety Show in front of Queen Elizabeth II.

With her high-profile fans — including actress Demi Moore, expected to jet in for the finals — and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show, Boyle has far overshadowed the other contestants. But she still must excel Saturday night, and hope that none of her rivals generate enough magic to win over the frequently fickle British public.

'I think with the swell of public sympathy behind her, she could win this competition, and from that I think she could have a very successful album and probably one successful world tour because people will be curious to see her,' said Neil Warnock, chief executive of The Agency Group, which represents dozens of top musicians.

He cautioned, however, that fame may be fleeting.

It will be much more challenging, he said, for Boyle to perform an entire live show on a concert tour than to sing one three-minute number on TV.

Even if she stumbles, a professional career seems likely. She's been offered a recording contract, and her huge name recognition would give any debut offering a fighting chance. But a poor performance Saturday might relegate her to flash-in-the-pan status in a disposable celebrity culture that makes and breaks stars at warp speed.

The hugely successful talent show has its roots in Britain's music hall tradition, which brought performing dogs, ersatz magicians, ventriloquists and fire-eaters to hundreds of towns and villages in the days before television. Warnock said this is part of the charm.

'We tend to make fun of the very, very stupid acts, but it has its own Englishness and its own eccentricity and we love that,' said Warnock. 'And you see a spark of genuine talent every once in a while.'

The 10 finalists all have stars — and dollar signs — in their eyes. But the real financial rewards will have to wait until after the competition. Boyle has already had phenomenal success on YouTube, where her first-round performance has generated more than 175 million views, but those legions of fans do not bring her any cash.

'From what we've seen, I don't think she gets any money from that, which is a shame,' said Matt Fiorentino, spokesman for Visible Measures, a Massachusetts firm that tracks YouTube traffic. 'We've measured hundreds of thousands of comments about her and people are begging for an album from her. People have really fallen in love with this woman.'

He said her first performance — when she stunned the skeptical judges and audience with her angelic voice — was tailor-made for YouTube. It has become the fifth most viewed 'viral video' of all time, he said.

'She has the perfect story for this medium,' Fiorentino said. 'You have this woman, everyone is rooting against her at the beginning. People judged her on her looks, and then she unleashes this amazing voice and it becomes a success, and with all the bad things going on people really want to latch onto something happy.'

One strong finalist who has already developed a YouTube fan base is 12-year-old Shaheen Jafargholi, an assured soul singer who still wears a white undershirt beneath his shirt and vest.

Some critics say that Jafargholi, with his smooth delivery and youthful charm, is actually a better singer than Boyle, who struggled a bit at the very start of her performance in the second round of competition.

The other singer who has already qualified for the finals is Shaun Smith, 17, who got his start doing Elvis impressions for his family when he was 4 but used a slowed down, stirring version of the U2 classic 'With or Without You' to move forward.

Two strong street dancing troupes, Diversity and Flawless, have also made the finals and are expected to draw strong support from younger viewers.

Less likely to prevail is the paunchy father and son comedy dance group Stavros Flatley, which surprised many by storming into the finals after a performance of 'Zorba the Greek' while dressed in white skirts and no shirts.

The remaining four contenders are set to be chosen Thursday and Friday nights.

The competition is the sole topic of conversation in Blackburn, the small Scottish town where Boyle has long been a regular performer on Karaoke nights at the Happy Valley pub.

'We are all rooting for her,' said pub manager Jackie Russell, who blamed nerves for Boyle's shaky start during the second round. 'The best is yet to come.'

Large screen TVs are being installed for a party being planned at the local community center, where Boyle worked as a volunteer.

'The whole village is abuzz,' said June Mackay, 27. 'Of course she will win and it will change her life. However, she won't move house, she'll stay here in Blackburn. It's her home.'

Associated Press Writer Ben McConville in Scotland contributed to this report.

Shadow wars: Is civilian control of war slipping away?

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:16:00 +0000

Original source:

Sudan: The two F-16s caught the trucks deep in the northern desert. Within minutes, the column of vehicles was a string of shattered wrecks burning fiercely in the January sun. Surveillance drones spotted a few vehicles that had survived the storm of bombs and cannon shells, and the fighter-bombers returned to finish the job.

Syria: Four Blackhawk helicopters skimmed across the Iraqi border, landing at a small farmhouse near the town of al-Sukkariyeh. Black-clad soldiers poured from the choppers, laying down a withering hail of automatic weapons fire. When the shooting stopped, eight Syrians lay dead on the ground. Four others, cuffed and blindfolded, were dragged to the helicopters, which vanished back into Iraq.

Pakistan: a group of villagers were sipping tea in a courtyard when the world exploded. The Hellfire missiles seemed to come out of nowhere, scattering pieces of their victims across the village and demolishing several houses. Between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, 60 such attacks took place. They killed 14 wanted al-Qaeda members along with 687 civilians.

In each of the above incidents, no country took responsibility or claimed credit. There were no sharp exchanges of diplomatic notes before the attacks, just sudden death and mayhem. War without Declaration

The F-16s were Israeli, their target an alleged shipment of arms headed for the Gaza Strip. The Blackhawk soldiers were likely from Task Force 88, an ultra-secret U.S. Special Forces group. The Pakistanis were victims of a Predator drone directed from an airbase in southern Nevada.

Each attack was an act of war and drew angry responses from the country whose sovereignty was violated. But since no one admitted carrying them out, the diplomatic protests had no place to go.

The 'privatization' of war, with its use of armed mercenaries, has come under heavy scrutiny, especially since a 2007 incident in Baghdad in which guards from Blackwater USA (now Xe) went on a shooting spree, killing 17 Iraqis and wounding scores of others. But the 'covertization' of war has remained largely in the shadows. The attackers in the Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan were not private contractors, but U.S. and Israeli soldiers. Assassination Teams

In his book The War Within, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward disclosed that the U.S. military has developed 'secret operational capabilities' to 'locate, target, and kill key individuals in extremist groups.'

In a recent interview during a Great Conversations event at the University of Minnesota, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed a U.S. military 'executive assassination ring,' part of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Hersh says that 'Congress has no oversight' over the program.

According to a 2004 classified document, the United States has the right to attack 'terrorists' in some 15 to 20 nations, including Pakistan, Syria, and Iran. The Israeli military has long used 'targeted assassinations' to eliminate Tel Aviv's enemies. U.S. and NATO 'assassination teams' have emerged in Iraq and Afghanistan, where, according to the UN, they have killed scores of people. Philip Alston of the UN Human Rights Council charges that secret 'international intelligence services' allied with local militias are killing Afghan civilians and then hiding behind an 'impenetrable' wall of bureaucracy.

When Alston protested the killing of two brothers in Kandahar, 'not only was I unable to get any international military commander to provide their version of what took place, but I was unable to get any military commander to even admit that their soldiers were involved,' he told the Financial Times.

In Iraq, such special operations forces have carried out a number of killings, including a raid that killed the son and a nephew of the governor of Salahuddin Province north of Baghdad. The Special Operations Forces (SOF) stormed the house at 3AM and shot the governor's 17-year-old son dead in his bed. When a cousin tried to enter the room, he was also gunned down.

Such 'night raids' by SOFs have drawn widespread protests in Afghanistan. According to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, night raids involve 'abusive behavior and violent breaking and entry,' and only serve to turn Afghans against the occupation.

Iraqi Prime Minster Nuri Kamal al-Maliki charged that a March 26 raid in Kut that killed two men violated the new security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq.

The Predator strikes have deeply angered most Pakistanis. Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of the Northwest Frontier Province, calls the drone strikes 'counterproductive,' a sentiment that David Kilcullen, the top advisor to the U.S. military in Afghanistan, agreed with in recent congressional testimony. The U.S. government doesn't officially take credit for the attacks. Budgets and Strategy

If Congress agrees to the Defense Department budget proposed by Pentagon chief Robert Gates, attacks by SOF and armed robots will likely increase. While most the media focused on the parts of the budget that step back from the big ticket weapons systems of the Cold War, the proposal actually resurrects a key Cold War priority of the 1960s.

'The similarities between Gates' proposals and the strategy adopted by the Kennedy administration are too great to ignore,' notes Nation defense correspondent Michael Klare. These similarities include 'a shift in focus toward unconventional conflict in the Third World.'

Gates' budget would increase the number of SOFs by 2,800, build more drones like the Predator and its bigger, more lethal cousin, the Reaper, and enhance the rapid movement of troops and equipment. All of this is part of General David Petraeus's counterinsurgency doctrine.

The concept is hardly new. The units are different than they were 50 years ago — Navy SEALS and Delta Force have replaced Green Berets — but the philosophy is the same. And while the public face of counterinsurgency is winning 'hearts and minds' by building schools and digging wells, its core is 3AM raids and Hellfire missiles.

The 'decapitations' of insurgent leaders in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is little different — albeit at a lower level — than Operation Phoenix, which killed upwards of 40,000 'insurgent' leaders in South Vietnam during the war in Southeast Asia. Hidden Wars

In the past, war was an extension of a nation's politics 'too important,' as World War I French Premier Georges Clemenceau commented, 'to be left to the generals.'

But increasingly, the control of war is slipping away from the civilians in whose name and interests it is supposedly waged. While the 'privatization' of war has frustrated the process of congressional oversight, its 'covertization' has hidden war behind a wall of silence or denial.

'Congress has been very passive in relation to its own authority with regard to warmaking,' says Princeton international law scholar Richard Falk. 'Congress hasn't been willing to insist that the government adhere to international law and the U.S. Constitution.'

The SFOs may be hidden, but there are eight dead people in Syria, four of them reportedly children. There are at least 39 dead in northern Sudan, and more dead in Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of civilian dead in Pakistan runs into the hundreds.

The new defense budget goes a long ways toward retooling the U.S. military to become a quick reaction/intervention force with an emphasis on counterinsurgency and covert war. The question is: Where will the shadow warriors strike next?

Conn Hallinan is a Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org) columnist.

In Israel, democratic rights in peril

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:02:00 +0000

The Israeli government this week took a new step to suppress democratic rights in Israel. The government has approved a bill banning all commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, under penalty of imprisonment. [Nakba - 'disaster' - is the term Palestinians use to refer to the mass dispossession and obliteration of their homes and villages in conjunction with the formation of the state of Israel.]

The bill is yet to pass in the Israeli Parliament, subject, for now, to heavy criticism from many Israeli parties, from the Israeli Labor party to the Jewish-Arab Hadash and the Arab parties. However, since the coalition government in Israel enjoys a majority of seats in the Knesset, the chances for seeing the law pass are quite high.

The bill adds to yet another undemocratic move by the government, that of making a 'loyalty test' mandatory for every Israeli citizen. If this bill passes, every Israeli citizen, upon reaching the age of 16, shall be obligated to sign a declaration stating her or his commitment to Israel as a 'Jewish and Zionist state,' as well as to serve in the Israeli army or an alternative 'national service.' At present, the vast majority of Israeli Arab citizens are exempt from military service, making the loyalty test an instrument for the further discrimination against and exclusion of Israeli Arab citizens.

Both of the bills were brought forth by Knesset Member Alex Miller of the Israel Beytenou party, an ultra-right nationalist party, whose program includes loyalty to the state as one of its central planks. Currently the party holds 15 seats in the Knesset out of a total of 120, making it the third largest party in Israel. The party is a member of the ruling coalition and holds some key offices in the Israeli cabinet, as high as the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

These steps come at a very troubling time for democratic rights in Israel. In the run-up to the recent elections, the two parties representing the Arab minority in Israel, Balad (National Democratic Assembly) and Ra'am-Ta'al (United Arab List - Arab Movement for Renewal), were banned from running by the Central Elections Committee. Only after the Supreme Court of Justice overturned the decision were the parties able to participate in the elections.

The Israeli invasion of Gaza in December 2008 was met with consistent opposition from many Arab Israelis, who protested against the exceptional brutality demonstrated in the war by the Israeli army. The demonstrations were joined by hundreds of Jewish peace activists, who called for a ceasefire and bilateral negotiations. Many of the demonstrators, especially those of Arab ethnicity, were portrayed as 'disloyal' and as 'fifth columns' in the dominant Israeli discourse, which questioned their right of assembly and free speech in time of war while describing the demonstrations as 'disturbances' and even 'lynching.'

In addition, during the weeks of the war, dozens of Israeli citizens were arrested in a procedure known as 'administrative detention,' i.e., the arrest and incarceration of suspects without proper judicial process. Even a prominent Israeli journalist -- Amira Hass, who writes frequently on the topic of human rights and resides in Gaza City -- was arrested by the police. The restrictions on Israeli and foreign journalists during the weeks of combat in Gaza even triggered the demotion of Israel in the international Freedom House index from 'free' to 'partly free.'

While many global activists for the Palestinian cause are already standing up for human and political rights in Palestine, it is also necessary to view these issues in the context of the looming threats to Israeli civil society. The closing of political discourse and the erosion of civil rights in Israel put in danger the ability of oppositional forces within Israel to voice their opinions and to disseminate information, which in turn will make it even more difficult to end the occupation.

Daniel Rosenberg is an Israeli student, education worker and activist for peace and social justice.

Auto workers take wage cuts

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:04:00 +0000

Original source:

Canadian Auto Workers members have voted to support a cost-cutting deal with General Motors as the US corporation bids to qualify for more government handouts.

On Monday workers voted by 86 per cent in favour of the deal, which cuts wages, pensions and benefits.

CAW president Ken Lewenza claimed that his members had no choice but to accept the agreement, which also stipulates that GM car assembly and parts plants in Ontario will stay open.

'They understand the crisis in the auto industry - the vote shows that' Mr Lewenza said.

According to the CAW, the tentative deal with GM Canada provides that the starting pay rate for new hires will be 70 per cent of the established rate, with increases of 5 per cent per year for six years.

New hires will be entitled to the same retiree health benefits, funded either through a new health-care trust or by the company.

The deal freezes pensions until 2015, eliminates semi-private hospital coverage and ends tuition assistance for workers joining after January 1 2010.

The CAW also said that a 3,600 dollar (£1,963) holiday compensation payment has been cut to offset other costs, including pensions.

Mr Lewenza explained that the agreement allows GM Canada to meet the cost benchmarks set by the federal Canadian and provincial Ontario governments - namely making cuts to become competitive with non-unionised Toyota Canada.

Mr Lewenza said that there is little doubt that GM will file for bankruptcy in the United States and said there's a real possibility it will do so in Canada.

'The integrity of our collective agreement will be protected,' he vowed.

N. Korea nuclear test draws universal condemnation

Wed, 27 May 2009 04:48:00 +0000

North Korea has drawn universal condemnation following its announcement yesterday that it had carried out an underground nuclear weapons test. It also apparently test-fired several short-range missiles.

Russian officials said the nuclear weapon was comparable to those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Russia's Foreign Ministry called it 'a serious blow to international efforts' to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in October 2006 in defiance of international opinion. That led the United Nations to pass a resolution condemning the test and imposing sanctions on the country.

The new test comes less than two months after North Korea drew wide condemnation by test-firing a long-range ballistic missile on April 5. It had threatened the latest action unless the United Nations Security Council apologized for condemning that missile test and tightening sanctions.

After the Security Council refused to apologize, North Korea expelled international inspectors, threatened to restart its Yongbyon nuclear reactor — which it had agreed to start dismantling in 2007 — and left the six-party talks aimed at resolving the nuclear issue.

North Korea’s official KNCA news agency said on Monday, 'We have successfully conducted another nuclear test on 25 May as part of the republic's measures to strengthen its nuclear deterrent.'

The news agency said the test had been 'safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control.”

Russian military experts estimated the explosion's yield at between 10 and 20 kilotons, many times more than the 1 kiloton measured in North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006. One kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT.

The force of the blast made the ground tremble in the Chinese border city of Yanji, 130 miles away, news reports said.

The North Korean news agency said, “The test will contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the region.'

However every one of North Korea’s neighbors, including its closest ally China, strongly condemned the test.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying it was 'resolutely opposed' to the nuclear test, and that North Korea had “disregarded the opposition of the international community.' China urged North Korea to avoid actions that would sharpen tensions and to return to the six-party disarmament talks.

South Korea and Japan both assailed the nuclear test. Japan said it would seek a new UN resolution condemning the test.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was 'deeply worried' by the development. The Security Council will hold an emergency meeting in New York this afternoon to discuss the situation.

The Obama administration, less than three weeks ago, announced a new diplomatic effort to restart the stalled talks with North Korea about its nuclear program. On Monday, the White House said the nuclear test was in 'blatant defiance' of the United Nations.

North Korea’s action is seen by some commentators as a direct challenge to Obama’s efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

Kim Myong-chol, executive director of the Centre for Korean-American Peace in Tokyo, who is close to Pyongyang, said the test was a reminder that North Korea 'is going it alone as a nuclear power,” the UK Guardian reported.

'North Korea doesn't need any talks with America. America is tricky and undesirable,' he said. 'It does not implement its own agreements.

'We are not going to worry about sanctions. If they sanction us, we will become more powerful. Sanctions never help America; they are counter-productive … We don't care about America and what they say.'

However Paik Hak-soon of the South Korean security think tank Sejong Institute told The Associated Press that he believes North Korea is 'putting maximum pressure' on the United States for direct, high-level negotiations resulting in a 'grand deal' that would include aid, concessions and a normalization of ties.

North Korea is also holding two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee — accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in 'hostile acts' — who are set to stand trial in Pyongyang on June 4.

Their case may serve as a face-saving way for the U.S. to send a high-level envoy to Pyongyang for negotiations, Paik said.

'Had it not been for the journalists, it could give an impression of yielding to North Korea's provocation if the U.S. sends a high-level envoy for direct talks with Pyongyang,' he said.

Some analysts believe that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il wants to use the test to shore up domestic support amid speculation that he is about to name one of his three sons as his successor.

VIDEO President Obama on Guantanamo and security

Tue, 26 May 2009 15:06:00 +0000

Islamists pull back from Swat fighting

Tue, 26 May 2009 07:20:00 +0000

Original source:

Islamists fighting the Pakistani government have pledged to avoid combat in the Swat Valley city of Mingora in order to reduce civilian casualties.

The army immediately hailed the announcement as a sign that the outnumbered militants were 'staring defeat in the face.' It said that it had secured at least eight major road junctions in Mingora and was arresting and killing Islamist guerillas.

But Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said that the insurgents were not withdrawing and denied that his announcement was a call for a ceasefire.

'This is a long war and we will fight it strategically,' he said. 'We will continue fighting until an Islamic system is enforced.'

He added that Islamist guerillas would not engage the army in Mingora because 'we have seen when the army retaliate for our attacks they always kill civilians. Their attacks always damage public property. We do not want that.'

Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said that the Islamists 'have started using ploys to escape. They are now remembering the civilians whom they used to behead and decapitate.'

He added that the operations in the city would go on as planned.

The army began the offensive last month after the militants had allegedly breached the terms of a ceasefire agreement and commanders have said that they aim to continue until they eliminate the militants.

The United States has backed the operation.

Close to 1.9 million people have fled the valley and surrounding districts since the offensive began, but up to 20,000 remain in Mingora, which the military entered on Saturday after encircling it.

Many of the estimated 4,000 guerillas in the valley are believed to be there, raising the prospect of bloody urban fighting.

A resident on the outskirts of the city said that 3,000 people had been stranded in his neighbourhood and were suffering from lack of food, water and medical care.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said that Pakistan will need £630 million to reconstruct damaged areas and help refugees resettle once the fighting ends.

Swine flu cases appear in Egypt, Kuwait, UAE

Tue, 26 May 2009 05:25:00 +0000

DUBAI, 25 May 2009 (IRIN) - Confirmed cases of A(H1N1) influenza, commonly known as swine flu, have been reported in new countries in the Middle East. Hitherto only Israel had reported cases of the new influenza virus.

• The United Arab Emirates confirmed its first case of A(H1N1) on 24 May. Health Minister Hanif Hassan said a man who had flown in from Canada was being treated in one of the country’s hospitals. He was no longer showing symptoms, but would be kept under observation there for 10 days.

• In Kuwait, about 18 US soldiers at a military base have tested positive for A(H1N1). The Kuwaiti authorities announced on 24 May that all the soldiers had left the country, that they had normal symptoms of the disease, and that they were given the necessary medication. The head of Kuwait's public health department, Yussef Mendkar, said the soldiers had had no contact with the local population.

• Israel, the first country to register confirmed cases in the region, announced its eighth case on 24 May.

• The authorities in Egypt’s Red Sea Governorate have hospitalised a German tourist who had arrived at Hurghada airport in the area with swine flu-like symptoms, according to a local newspaper. The man said he had visited a pig farm 10 days earlier in Germany. Medical samples have been sent to laboratories in Cairo for testing.

Class prejudice and Ireland's report on child abuse

Mon, 25 May 2009 12:33:00 +0000

Last week Ireland's Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse released a 2,575-page report detailing horrific conditions tens of thousands of children faced in Catholic-run institutions with government collaboration.

The report chronicles 'endemic and repeated' sexual, physical and emotional abuse by Catholic priests and nuns to children in the period from 1930 until the Catholic Church-run institutions were closed in the 1990s.

The nine-year inquiry investigated the 60-year period and found that church leaders knew that sexual abuse was 'endemic,' and physical, emotional abuse and wide-spread neglect were also features of boys' and girls' institutions.

Some children were torn from their mothers because the mothers were unwed. Many grew up thinking they were orphans although their mothers were alive. Critics of the report charge the role played by the Irish Justice System is not illuminated, as children age 2 and up were criminalized simply because they were 'illegitimate.'

Institutions run by religious orders examined in the report included industrial and reform schools, institutions for the disabled, orphanages and day schools.

The report said sexual abuse was endemic in boys’ schools while in girls’ schools children were subjected to predatory abuse by male employees, visitors, and also during outside placements.

The abuse was rarely reported to government authorities. On the occasions the Department of Education was informed, it colluded with religious orders in silence by dismissing or ignoring sexual abuse complaints and never bringing them to the attention of the police.

“The risk (to children), however, was seen by the congregations in terms of the potential scandal and bad publicity should the abuse be disclosed,” the report stated.

It said the safety of children “in general was not a consideration.” Religious authorities who had evidence of sexual abuse transferred the alleged offenders to other locations, where they were often free to abuse again.

'At best, the abusers were moved but nothing was done about the harm done to the child. At worst, the child was blamed and seen as corrupted by the sexual activity, and was punished severely,' the report found.

The Communist Party of Ireland released a statement condemning the 'deep class hatred of working people and the rural poor that permeated the state, government and its agencies as well as the Catholic Church itself.' The CPOI said, 'This whole horrible feature of Irish society cannot be understood if its class nature is not recoginsed.

'The report lays bear the horrendous sexual and physical abuse, slave labour and starvation conditions that ten of thousands of children and youth suffered. Whose only crime was that they came from working class families, from the families of rural workers or small farmers, what they all had in common was that they were poor. The state simply rounded up the poor and put them in institutions to suffer unimaginable abuse both physical and sexual.

'The contempt that the so called caring professions of doctors, teachers,solicitors and judges as well as the total disregard that the institution of the state had for these young people exposed that this state was and is deeply imbued with class prejudice in spite the best efforts to cover it up it is at its very core; its very essence.

'There is no evidence to show that those who committed these crimes will be made to account for, nor is their any evidence to show that this report like many other before it or the current tribunals will produce any results. The same class prejudice and cozy class relationships are still well entrenched; they still show the same contempt for working people, their families and their communities.'

The CPOI continued, 'The Catholic Church was one of the strongest institution left behind by the British when the southern Irish state was established. It was the main bulwark against the forces fighting for progressive economic and social change, using its political and cultural influence to control and abuse the people and their deep faith. The carnival of reaction was not just confined to the North of Ireland, Catholicism was used in the South to ensure that the new emerging Irish elites consolidated and maintained their power.'

Compiled by Teresa Albano from CPOI statement, ABC, BBC and CNA news.

Sex theme park in China closed prematurely

Mon, 25 May 2009 06:44:00 +0000

In the end, Chongqing's 'Love Land' just lacked the staying power.

With its adult and explicit themes, the country's first sex theme park proved to be 'too hot' for local authorities, and was torn down over the weekend.

'Sex education and harmonious sex' were the aim of the project, park manager Lu Xiaoqing said earlier, but the Chongqing government thought otherwise.

'Vulgar, ill-minded and misleading' was the official reaction on the park, which was slated for an October opening.

Visitors have taken jaw-dropping pictures of sculptures of naked men and women. The park also featured a giant replica genital on a wall and an exhibition on the history of sex as well as sex technique workshops. Academics are not surprised at the park's fall. Professor Xia Xueluan, a sociology expert at Peking University, said: 'Sex is a matter of privacy. It is not for publicity.'

Netanyahu vows to expand settlements

Mon, 25 May 2009 06:25:00 +0000

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The prime minister told his cabinet that Israel will not build any new settlements in the West Bank but that existing settlements must be allowed to expand for what he calls 'natural growth' in their populations.

The announcement was a snub to the US government, which urged Israel to halt its theft of Palestinian land during Mr Netanyahu's visit last week.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had earlier said that nearly two dozen wildcat settlement outposts in the West Bank would be torn down and warned that settlers would be evicted forcefully if they resisted.

Other members of Mr Netanyahu's cabinet objected to immediate action on the outposts.

Settlers have been erecting enclaves - many of them no more than a few tents or mobile homes - since the early 1990s to extend their reach across the West Bank.

Although these outposts were not officially sanctioned by the government, many officials were complicit in their founding, a government-commissioned report has charged.

Mr Barak told reporters before the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that he would demolish 22 outposts that Israel had promised to dismantle under the 2003 US-devised 'road map' peace plan.

Mr Barak has repeatedly made similar pledges since he became defence minister two years ago. He gave no timeline for the promised demolitions.

Mr Barak is a member of the Labour party, currently in a coalition government with Mr Netanyahu's right-wing Likud Party and foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party.

There are 121 illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, guarded by Israeli troops and home to 280,000 extremist settlers.

The settlements compartmentalise Palestinian towns and farms into isolated cantonments, making life near impossible for the population.

During Mr Netanyahu's trip to Washington last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that all settlement construction must end, including so-called natural growth.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Saturday that Israel was the greatest obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

He said thjat Syria considered peace as a 'strategic goal that must be reached one day,' but blamed Israel for the lack of progress since the start of the internationally sponsored peace process in the early 1990s.

FMLN to form government in El Salvador

Mon, 25 May 2009 05:57:00 +0000

San Salvador, May 24 (Prensa Latina) El Salvador president-elect Mauricio Funes said the left-wing Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) will have 'a visible presence' in his government after his June 1 presidential inauguration.

Several political sectors in the country have demanded that capable and honest people should hold the highest posts, after considering corruption was the worst sins committed by the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) which ruled El Salvador for the past 20 years.

Mauricio Funes, who ran for the FMLF in last March elections, told reporters he was not yet ready to announce the names of his cabinet members for his next five-year term.

Although some names have been leaked to the press, the president-elect preferred not to elaborate on the issue, but stressed 'they are right when they say (FMLN members) that they must have a visible presence in the government, and they will have it,' he stressed.

It will be like that, 'not because they are imposing it on me or because a quota has been agreed upon,' he noted when announcing that some of his ministers are members of the FMLN and others are not.

However, many things can happen during the talks we are holding, all of them have quality, credentials to be part of the cabinet, but for different reasons they might be included or not, he said in allusion to some of the names released to the press, such as Alex Segovia, Carlos Caceres, Norma Guevara, Francisco Caceres and Hector Dada Hirezi.

It is an express faculty of the president to appoint and swear in the members of the Executive, but Funes admitted that the FMLN's request to have a visible presence in the government 'is logical'.

Communist elected to head Nepal government

Sun, 24 May 2009 15:47:00 +0000

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Lawmakers elected a communist party leader as Nepal's new prime minister on Saturday in a move aimed at ending weeks of political turmoil.

Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) was elected unopposed, parliament speaker Subash Nemwang announced.

Parliament members congratulated Nepal, and his supporters cheered and offered him flowers when he walked out of parliament.

Nepal, 56, has the backing of 22 political parties and 350 members in the 601-seat parliament, more than the simple majority required to be elected.

Nepal has been a prominent figure in Nepalese politics for more than a decade. He was a key figure in 2005 protests against the authoritarian rule of then-King Gyanendra and the weeks of street protests that led to the restoration of democracy a year later.

The previous prime minister, former Maoist rebel chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, resigned May 4 following a dispute with Nepal's president.

Dahal's party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), had blocked parliamentary proceedings but ended its protest several days ago, allowing Saturday's election.

Maoist lawmakers walked out of parliament on Saturday and did not participate in the process.

Both Dahal's and Nepal's parties are communist but differ in policies and beliefs. CPN-UML did not support the armed struggle conducted by the Maoists, opting, instead, for a course of political struggle against the monarchy and for democracy. The CPN-UML had led the government in the 1990s. It also negotiated with the Maoists more recently to come into the political and peace processes.

The Maoists ended their decade-long armed struggle just three years ago and entered a peace process. They won general elections in 2008 but did not obtain a majority in parliament. Nepal's party has long been part of mainstream politics.

Dahal resigned after President Ram Baran Yadav rejected his sacking of the country's army chief, who had resisted efforts to integrate former Maoist fighters into the military.

Iran hawks push Obama on deadline for diplomacy

Sun, 24 May 2009 04:20:00 +0000

WASHINGTON, May 22 (IPS) - After an uneventful first meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that seemed to produce no real breakthroughs, hawks in the U.S. and Israel are seizing upon what they claim is a significant concession by Obama: his setting a 'timetable' for negotiations with Iran.

Although Obama merely promised a 'reassessment' of the situation at the end of the year without providing any benchmarks for progress, in the days since Monday’s meeting those pushing for tougher measures against Iran’s nuclear programme have portrayed his remarks as setting a hard-and-fast cutoff point for diplomacy.

By attaching so much importance to the end-of-year assessment, the Iran hawks - many of whom have publicly supported a significantly earlier deadline - may hope to box the president in politically, setting up a December showdown on Iran policy whether Obama likes it or not.

A relatively short Iran timetable would also suit Netanyahu, who has sought to make the Iranian nuclear programme a higher priority than the Israel-Palestinian peace process and who notably offered no real concessions on the Palestinian front in his meeting with Obama.

On Monday, Obama told reporters that 'it is important for us, I think, without having set an artificial deadline, to be mindful of the fact that we're not going to have talks forever'.

'My expectation would be that if we can begin discussions soon, shortly after the Iranian elections, we should have a fairly good sense by the end of the year as to whether they are moving in the right direction and whether the parties involved are making progress and that there's a good faith effort to resolve differences,' Obama continued.

'That doesn't mean every issue would be resolved by that point, but it does mean that we'll probably be able to gauge and do a reassessment by the end of the year of this approach,' he said.

Obama did not set any benchmarks that would have to be met for the administration to judge that discussions were 'moving in the right direction', nor did he threaten any specific consequences if talks did not result in progress. This was in keeping with his administration’s stated desire to move away from the 'carrots and sticks' approach of incentives and threats, which Iranian officials have called insulting.

'[The end-of-year reassessment] all amounts to nothing,' wrote M.J. Rosenberg, policy director of the Israel Policy Forum, at the website TPMCafe. 'Of course, he will assess how his diplomacy is working and, of course, he would never (publicly) rule out the use of force. This is what Obama always says and said during the campaign.'

Similarly, some prominent Iran hawks were sceptical that Obama’s comments implied any real deadline.

'Obama has provided no metric by which to judge progress,' wrote Michael Rubin, a neoconservative Iran analyst at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). 'If there is a 1 percent chance that talks might advance, will Obama grant a 90-day extension?'

More frequently, however, Iran hawks sought to promote the idea that Obama had endorsed a fixed timetable for diplomacy, and that - barring a major breakthrough - the administration would turn to punitive measures by the end of the year.

'The timeline that [Obama] set openly was that if by the end of the year there is no indication of significant movement with Iran, it's over, and he will turn to strong sanctions,' said influential neoconservative columnist Charles Krauthammer.

Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal conceded that Obama’s actual statement was far less definite, but argued that 'every single media takeaway' took the statement as evidence for a hard deadline, and that Obama sent a message that 'they’re going to move to sanctions' at the end of the year.

Indeed, a great deal of mainstream news coverage reflected the hawkish spin that Obama had caved to Netanyahu and set a strict timetable for diplomacy.

The New York Times, for instance, claimed on Wednesday that 'Netanyahu got his timetable... [b]ut Obama did not get his settlement freeze' in the West Bank in return. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz went so far as to claim that, 'Netanyahu agreed to give Obama until the end of the year' to halt the Iranian nuclear programme.

The Netanyahu government and its allies in the U.S. have been pressuring Obama from the moment he entered office to cut short his diplomatic outreach to Tehran and move swiftly to a stepped-up sanctions programme.

The Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA), a bill currently moving through the U.S. Congress, would require Obama to impose sanctions on foreign firms exporting refined petroleum products to Iran. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Washington’s powerful and hawkish pro-Israel lobby, has been pushing strongly for the bill in Congress.

Even an end-of-year deadline would be significantly later than what most Iran hawks have been urging. Many, such as Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who is co-sponsoring the IRPSA, have argued that the U.S should wait no later than the summer before turning to sanctions.

Since Iran’s presidential elections will not be held until Jun. 12, a summer deadline would have permitted only a few weeks of post-election diplomacy before the onset of sanctions.

If the notion of an end-of-year deadline for diplomacy becomes conventional wisdom, it may well pave the way for a showdown in December over whether negotiations are 'moving in the right direction'.

Hardliners in Israel and the U.S. are likely to argue that nothing short of a full suspension of uranium enrichment by Iran - a concession that most experts feel Iran is unlikely to make - would constitute sufficient progress to stave off sanctions.

One subject that went unmentioned at the Obama-Netanyahu meeting, but seemed to be on everyone’s mind in Washington, was the possibility that Israel might unilaterally attack Iranian nuclear facilities if it is not satisfied with the rate of progress.

In March, Netanyahu told The Atlantic that 'if we have to act, we will act, even if America won’t'. By contrast, top Obama administration officials - including Vice President Joe Biden, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen - have cautioned that an Israeli attack on Iran would be counterproductive.

Although analysts may disagree about the significance of Obama’s 'timetable' remarks, few would contest the fact that Netanyahu refused to budge on the Palestinian front.

Many had expected the Israeli prime minister to offer at least a nominal statement of support for a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine, but he pointedly did not. Nor did Netanyahu acknowledge the Obama administration’s calls to freeze settlement activity in the West Bank.

On Thursday, the Israeli government dismantled one illegal West Bank outpost, but Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak claimed that the action was not due to U.S. pressure, and the settlers immediately began rebuilding the outpost without resistance.

More significantly, Netanyahu on Thursday reiterated his claim that Jerusalem 'shall never be divided'. Since all proposals for a two-state solution are built around East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu’s statement marked an explicit rejection of the two-state formula endorsed by the U.S.

(END/2009)

A(H1N1) flu continues to spread

Sun, 24 May 2009 04:00:00 +0000

GENEVA May 23 (Prensa Latina) The A(H1N1) flu epidemic has continued to spread worldwide and the number of cases exceeds 1,200 in more than 40 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The number of cases has increased over the past few days in Asia, where the Philippines reported its first patient and new cases were confirmed in Japan, China, Australia and Taiwan.

Officials at the Manila-based WHO office for the Asia-Pacific region warned that 'the flu season is about to begin in the southern hemisphere and the factors that contribute to its propagation will also speed up the spreading of the A(H1N1) virus.'

WHO Director Margaret Chan said the developing countries needed to act very fast to improve their surveillance systems against the A(H1N1) virus, whose consequences might be worse.

At the closing session of the WHO annual congress, Chan noted that although there are no predictions about a drastic increase in the number of cases, the world must be prepared for new serious cases and deadly contagions.

'In cases where the H1N1 virus is widespread and circulating within the general community, countries must expect to see more cases of severe and fatal infections, she said.

'This is a subtle, sneaky virus, she added.