27 de enero de 2010

Israel stops granting permits to NGO aid workers in W. Bank

The Interior Ministry has stopped granting work permits to foreign nationals working in most international nongovernmental organizations operating in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

An an apparent overhaul of regulations that have been in place since 1967, the ministry is now granting the NGO employees tourist visas only, which bar them from working.
Organizations affected by the apparent policy change include Oxfam, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, Terre des Hommes, Handicap International and the Religious Society of Friends.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will never quit settlements

Benjamin Netanyahu said the Jewish settlements blocs would always remain part of the state of Israel.

"Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here. This place will be an inseparable part of Israel for eternity", the prime minister said.

22 de enero de 2010

West Bank Muslim graves damaged

Damaged graves and racist graffiti have been found in the Palestinian village of Awarta in the northern West Bank after a Jewish group visited the area.

Palestinians said they had seen Jewish pilgrims, escorted by Israeli soldiers, in the area, which is also a Jewish burial site.

The Israeli military said it viewed the incident very seriously and was opening a military police investigation.

It comes a month after an arson attack on a mosque in the same area.

At least two tombstones were damaged in the cemetery outside the village, and food and rubbish were left on graves.

In the village, offensive slogans about Arabs were found scrawled in Hebrew, English and Russian.

8 de enero de 2010

CIA bomber's wife says war must go on against US

ISTANBUL – The Turkish wife of a Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan says her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defne Bayrak, the wife of bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his hatred of the United States had motivated her husband to sacrifice his life on Dec. 30 in what he regarded as a holy war against the U.S.

Bayrak also said Friday, "I think the war against the United States must go on."

Turkish police questioned and released Bayrak on Thursday. But she says police confiscated a book she had written called "Osama bin Laden the Che Guevera of the East."

Hamas inmates say torture ends in West Bank jails

Palestinian security forces in the West Bank have stopped torturing Hamas prisoners, ending two years of systematic abuse, Hamas inmates told The Associated Press in jailhouse interviews.

The change in practice, said to have taken effect in October, was confirmed by a West Bank Hamas leader, human rights activists and the Palestinian prime minister. It defuses a potential problem for Washington since the U.S. has been closely involved in training Palestinian troops under the control of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, a rival of the Hamas militants.

Israel rejects bill allocating equal land to Jews and Arabs

The director of the Israel Lands Administration has used all the tactics, with the help of the Jewish Agency, to allocate state land only to Jews. Despite the bitter attempt over the decades, not even one Arab town has been established since the state's foundation.

Iraq to support Blackwater lawsuit in U.S. courts

Iraq will help victims of the 2007 shooting of civilians in Baghdad to file a U.S. lawsuit against employees of security firm Blackwater, an incident that turned a spotlight on the United States' use of private contractors in war zones.

Last week, a U.S. judge threw out charges against five guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle, saying the defendants' constitutional rights had been violated.

Afghan attacks kill 4 US troops, British soldier

A roadside bombing killed four U.S. service members — the first American combat deaths of the year in Afghanistan — while a British soldier died during a foot patrol elsewhere in the volatile south of the country, officials said Monday.

Obama 91

Iraq 'to appeal Blackwater verdict'
The Iraqi government will push to appeal a US court ruling dismissing charges of murder against five security guards of the private Blackwater firm, an official has told Al Jazeera.

Saad al-Muttalibi, an adviser to the Iraqi council of ministers, said on Friday that if the guards did not receive a just sentence for the killing of 14 Iraqis in 2007, the issue would complicate relations between Iraq and the United States.

Construction in West Bank settlements booming despite declared freeze

Despite the construction freeze, dozens of settlements in the West Bank are experiencing a building boom, even on the eve of another visit to the region by U.S. envoy George Mitchell to try to restart talks for a final settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Construction is being carried out mostly to the east of the separation fence; it began shortly after warrants were issued on November 26 freezing construction.

7 de enero de 2010

Bolivia refuses to be U.S. slave: VP

The Bolivian government said on Monday that it refuses to blindly cater to the economic or political desires of the United States.

Bolivia's Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said that as La Paz wanted to reset its diplomatic ties with Washington, based on mutual respect, the country should not become a slave of the United States, which he described as "the most important power and the market of the world."

Israeli military cancels UK visit over arrest fears

The Israeli military has cancelled a visit by a team of its officers to Britain over fears that they risked arrest on possible war crimes charges.

It is the latest case in which high-profile Israeli politicians or army officers have pulled out of visits to Britain for fear of arrest over war crimes allegations under laws of universal jurisdiction.

6 de enero de 2010

Displaced and desperate in Gaza

Israeli ground and air raids between December 27, 2008 and January 17, 2009 left extensive damage and mass devastation in its wake. Factories, businesses, public service buildings, farms, mosques and schools were targeted, hundreds destroyed or damaged. About 15,000 homes were either demolished or severely damaged.

One year later and 20,000 people are still displaced, living with relatives, or in makeshift shacks. Many of them have almost resigned themselves to living in temporary accommodations permanently.

5 de enero de 2010

Oil Field Project in Iraq Won by Lukoil and Statoil

Lukoil of Russia and Statoil of Norway on Tuesday formally signed a contract with Iraqi authorities to develop the vast West Qurna 2 oil field. The untapped reserves are seen as critical to Iraqi reconstruction efforts.

The consortium led by Lukoil offered to develop the West Qurna field in exchange for $1.15 for each barrel of oil it extracted. That offer beat out bids from companies including BP of Britain and Total of France.