Photo: The US navy vessel USS Kearsage, an amphibious assault ship, leaves the Jordanian port of Aqaba, Friday, after unknown attackers fired at least three missiles, killing a Jordanian sailor.

AQABA, Jordan- Attackers firing Katyusha rockets narrowly missed a U.S. amphibious assault ship docked at this Red Sea resort Friday, but killed a Jordanian soldier in the most serious strike at the navy since the USS Cole bombing nearly five years ago. Two more rockets were shot toward nearby Israel without causing serious damage. Jordanian security forces hunted for at least six Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi suspects, and an al-Qaida-linked group that previously claimed responsibility for terror bombings in three Egyptian resorts. The string of attacks over 10 months has raised fears Islamic extremists are opening a new arena of combat in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gulf of Aqaba, an area bordered by Israel, Egypt and Jordan that is known for carefree tourist resorts and Arab-Israeli peace talks. In addition to striking U.S. targets, some extremist Muslims would like to topple the governments of Jordan and Egypt, which are longtime allies of Washington and also have peace treaties with Israel. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a militant group that claimed to be behind bombings which killed at least 64 people at Sharm el-Sheik in July and 34 people at two other Egyptian resorts last October, posted a statement on the Internet saying its fighters fired the rockets Friday. "A group of our holy warriors . . . targeted a gathering of American military ships docking in Aqaba port," said the statement, which also threatened to bring down King Abdullah of Jordan. One rocket sailed over the bow of the USS Ashland about 8:44 a.m., said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain. The missile hit a nearby Jordanian military warehouse that U.S. forces use to store goods bound for Iraq, Jordanian officials said. The blast killed one Jordanian soldier and wounded another, the state Petra news agency reported. No Americans were injured. Brown said the Ashland had docked Aug. 13 with the helicopter carrier USS Kearsarge at Aqaba's port, south of the city, for joint exercises with Jordan's military. Both vessels left after the attack as a precaution, he said. The vessels, which are based in Norfolk, Va., carried elements of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, N.C. It was unknown how many marines and sailors were on board, but the Ashland can carry up to 400 sailors and 500 marines and the Kearsarge 1,100 crew and 1,900 marines. The Kearsarge, command ship for an expeditionary strike group, can also carry assault hovercraft and Harrier jets. Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, another 5th Fleet spokesman, said he knew of no specific warnings of imminent attack, but he said U.S. warships in the Middle East always operate under increased security. He said the navy assumed the rocket was fired at the U.S. ships and missed, but authorities had not confirmed that. Several civilian cargo ships were docked nearby.

George W. Bush's administration said it believed the two ships were targeted and condemned the attack. "We are investigating the matter and will co-operate with local Jordanian officials on the attacks," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, who was with the vacationing Bush in Crawford, Texas. It was the most serious attack involving a navy vessel since October 2000, when al-Qaida-linked militants rammed a boat loaded with explosives into the destroyer Cole off Yemen, killing 17 sailors and severely damaging the vessel. Also in the region, a small navy craft intercepted a dhow approaching an Iraqi oil platform in the Persian Gulf last year and the dhow exploded, killing two sailors and a Coast Guardsman. All three rockets fired on Friday - the one at the port and the two at Israel - appeared to have been fired from a building in a warehouse district in the hills on Aqaba's northern edge, about eight kilometres from the port, said a Jordanian intelligence official who showed journalists the site. Two Katyusha rockets - highly inaccurate unguided weapons used by Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas to attack northern Israel - were fired to the west toward Israel. One sailed across the border, hitting a road about 13 metres from the perimeter fence at the airport for the resort of Eilat, about 14 kilometres from Aqaba. "I heard a noise, the car shook, and I kept driving for two more metres," said Israeli cab driver Meir Farhan, 40, who suffered minor wounds. "I didn't realize what it was. When I went out of the car I saw a hole in the ground on the asphalt." The third rocket hit the backyard wall of Jordan's Princess Haya Military Hospital, which lies between the suspected firing site and the Israeli border. The two-story building from which the rockets were apparently launched has garages on the ground floor. On the second floor is a one square metre window from which the attackers are thought to have fired the rockets, said the intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of intelligence agency rules. The building was rented this week by four people holding Egyptian and Iraqi citizenship, Jordan's state-run Petra news agency reported, citing preliminary investigations. Authorities scoured Aqaba and its vicinity for up to six suspects, including possibly Syrians, who were believed to have escaped in a vehicle with Kuwaiti licence plates, said a security official in Amman, the capital. He agreed to discuss the hunt on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. By Chafika Matar.

Russian expert: Israeli withdrawal could provoke regional war.

Expert criticizes organization of Jewish settlement withdrawal
MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti)[Russian News and Information Agency] - The withdrawal of Jewish settlements from the Gaza strip will only cause a new round of confrontation, Moscow-based Middle East Institute President Yevgeny Satanovsky told a press conference Friday. "The situation may only aggravate, up to [the point of] a civil war, which Palestine can start from distribution of property left by Israelis and the fight for money allocated  by international organizations for land restructuring," Satanovsky said. Satanovsky said the withdrawal could provoke a large-scale conflict in the West Bank and the whole region. "A considerable amount of funds allotted by the international community on the establishment of a Palestinian state have disappeared," he said. According to Satanovsky, the evacuation of the Jewish population from the Gaza strip had not been economically and politically prepared either by Israel or by international organizations. "The extraordinary actions of Sharon, who is guided by American policy, taken under tough pressure on the part of the U.S. administration, might split Israeli society," Satanovsky said. He said Israel is in for a new wave of emigration. "Many people disappointed in the state's policy will leave the country.  First in line will be young people disappointed in the authorities' actions,  which will inevitably affect the future of the state," he said.

Middle East quartet to meet in Jerusalem.

MOSCOW, Russia - Special envoys of the Middle East quartet (Russia, the United States, UN and EU) will meet in Jerusalem Saturday. Foreign Ministry's Ambassador at Large Alexander Kalugin will represent Russia. "Israel's withdrawal from Gaza is important," Kalugin said before his trip to the Middle East. "We hail and support it but regard it as the beginning of the movement toward stable peace between Israelis and Palestinians." The meeting will focus on the situation in the region following the start of the implementation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. The Russian envoy will meet with representatives of Israel and Palestine and visit the Gaza Strip, which is witnessing the pullout of Israeli settlements and military facilities. Kalugin said that the pullout would be completed by the beginning of September and urged not to make pauses in the Middle East settlement after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. "Other moves should follow," he said. "Therefore, the quartet and other international intermediaries should consider these moves."

Rice Warns: Israel Should Take Steps in the West Bank. The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, called on Israel immediately after Israel’s Gaza withdrawal plan was due to end to loosen travel restrictions in the West Bank and to continue withdrawal from more Palestinian cities. In the US newspaper, Washington Times, Rice asked the Israel and Palestinian states to take quick steps towards establishing a Palestinian state. Rice remarked that she expected the Palestinian administration to disarm networks and organizations that would spoil the ceasefire as she added, "That was their way in constructing a road map”. The news article said Israel will not make any more concessions as long as the Palestinian administration does not dissolve and disarm Palestinian organizations. According to the article, Rice showed understanding about Israel’s attitude. In regards to Israel’s Gaza withdrawal, Rice reckoned it as “a dramatic moment”. Rice said she had sympathy for those Israeli settlers that had to evacuate the Gaza Strip. Rice added that everyone had identified themselves with these people. Iran disclosed that Israel’s Gaza withdrawal plan was a very satisfactory development for the region. In a statement he made to a state radio, Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, revealed that Israel’s Gaza withdrawal was a victory of Palestinian’s legal defense. Asefi said it was proven that something, which was obtained by force, cannot be taken back without showing resistance. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has not recognized Israel officially.

Photo: Pope Benedict, right, is welcomed by a member of the Jewish community, Michael Rado, as he arrives for a visit to a synagogue on the second day of his four-day visit in Cologne, Germany, Friday.

COLOGNE, Germany- German-born Pope Benedict on Friday became the second pope to visit a synagogue, entering to the haunting tones of a ram's horn trumpet, praying before a Holocaust memorial and lamenting a rise in anti-Semitism. "We need to show respect for one another and to love another," he said. The hour-long stop, for which Cologne's Jews stood and applauded, was filled with significance for the 78-year-old Benedict, who grew up in Nazi Germany. He called those times "the darkest period of German and European history." He made no mention of his own trials, when he was enrolled in Hitler Youth as a teen and later deserted from the German army near the end of the war. But his spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, called it "an event of historic significance. A German Pope, who was on his first official trip, himself took the initiative for the visit." Rabbi Netanel Teitlebaum held up his right hand, extending it as the "hand of Jewish friendship," and the Pope warmly grasped it. Speaking in a Cologne synagogue rebuilt after it was destroyed by the Nazis, Benedict said that "today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of anti-Semitism and various forms of a general hostility toward foreigners." He did not elaborate, but Europe has witnessed rising hate crimes in recent years. Benedict began the visit by standing quietly with his hands clasped during a Hebrew prayer before a memorial to the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Then he strode into the main hall as the choir sang, "shalom alechem," or "peace be with you." A shofar - or ram's horn - sounded as the Pope sat down at the front.

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI holds a shophar, he got from members of the Jewish community as he visits a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, Friday.

He then listened intently to the cantor's singing in the blue-domed Roonstrasse Synagogue. Teitlebaum called his visit "a step toward peace between all peoples." The Pope underlined his commitment to continue in the path of his predecessor, John Paul II, who made the first papal visit to a synagogue in Rome in 1986, worked to improve relations between Roman Catholics and Jews and established diplomatic ties with Israel. Outreach to Jews and Muslims is one of the themes of Benedict's first foreign trip since his election as Pope on April 19 in conjunction with the World Youth Day festival that has drawn over 400,000 young people from 197 countries to Cologne - including almost 7,000 expected from Canada. One of them, Veronique Rondeau of Joliette, Que., represented North America at a luncheon Friday with the Pope. Reached by telephone shortly afterward, Rondeau said: "I'm still really shook up from that lunch." The Pope was "really accessible, which I was not at first expecting," she told Broadcast News. "He had really an interest in who we were as a person and the situation in our countries - where and how we got involved with our faith. We could share, we could ask questions naturally, easily ... It was wonderful." Rondeau, who has been in Cologne since November working as a World Youth Day volunteer, said the pontiff put participants at ease by speaking with them in heir native languages. He met with Protestant leaders Friday evening, repeating his commitment in the land where the Reformation began to make Christian unity a priority of his pontificate. But Benedict added that there are differences in ethical positions that undermine expectations for a common response from Christians. He did not go into any details. Repeating a point from his synagogue visit, the Pope said that "there can be no dialogue at the expense of truth." He said efforts for closer relations must be pursued "in fidelity to the dictates of one's conscience." The Pope planned to meet with Muslim leaders on Saturday. Progress with Jews had been made, Benedict said earlier, but "much more remains to be done. We must come to know one another much more and much better." He said "we need to show respect for one another" and - in a rare addition to his prepared remarks - "to love one another." The visit did bring out some of the troubled history between Catholics and Jews. In welcoming the Pope, synagogue president Abraham Lehrer urged Benedict to fully open the Vatican's Second World War archives - a period during which some Jews claim the wartime Pope Pius XII did not do enough to stave off the Holocaust. The Vatican denies the contention and has begun releasing some documents. Benedict also pointed out the need for a "sincere" dialogue that "must not gloss over" fundamental differences in their convictions in faith. He was given a shofar as a gift from the congregation, which has roots going back to Roman times. Some 11,000 Jews from Cologne died in the Holocaust; the community has rebounded in the past decade with the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union and now numbers 5,000. By Victor Sampson.

Pope issues anti-Semitism warning. Pope Benedict XVI has warned of rising anti-Semitism as he visited a synagogue in Cologne, in his native Germany. Condemning the "unimaginable crime" of the Holocaust, he joined in prayers before a memorial to the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany.

The visit was only the second time a head of the Catholic Church has visited a Jewish place of worship. The Pope is on the second day of a trip originally scheduled for Pope John Paul II, who died in April. Addressing Jewish leaders at the synagogue, Pope Benedict said: "Today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of anti-Semitism and various forms of a general hostility toward foreigners. "How can we fail to see in this a reason for concern and vigilance?" The synagogue - destroyed by the Nazis in 1939 and reconstructed 20 years later - contains a memorial to the Jews who died in the Holocaust, of whom 11,000 lived in the city. The Pope said progress had been made in improving relations between Catholics and Jews, but that "much more remains to be done". "We must come to know one another much more and much better," he said. Pope Benedict's visit follows Pope John Paul II's decision to enter the Rome synagogue in 1986. Rabbi Alan Plancey of the UK's Chief Rabbinate welcomed the visit as "an important symbolic moment" in relations between Catholics and Jews. "It is imperative that we continue to talk to each other, and learn from the past to improve our shared future," he said. Later on Friday, the new Pope will meet representatives of the German Protestant Churches. During his four-day stay in Cologne, he also plans to meet Muslims. The Pope plans to make clear that he regards the creation of better relations with all religions as an essential step on the road towards seeking world peace, says the BBC's Rome correspondent David Willey. Young Catholics: About 400,000 Christians are in Cologne for a Catholic World Youth Festival. Their numbers are expected to double when the Pope preaches at an outdoor mass on Sunday. The World Youth Day festival, invented by the late Pope, is held in a different part of the world every three years. Arriving on Thursday, the Pope said he wanted to reinvigorate Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe. The Pope has frequently bemoaned the waning role of the Church in Europe and says he hopes his trip will help kick-start "a wave of new faith among young people". Vatican observers will be watching to see what sort of relationship he is able to establish with young Catholics, our correspondent says. Many of them have been openly critical of the prohibitions he issued during the 20 years when he headed the Roman Catholic Church's disciplinary body.

Allegedly Britain secretly supplied key component for Israeli nuclear reactor

LONDON --  Britain secretly sold Israel a key component for its then-fledgling nuclear program in the late 1950s, not even telling key ally Washington, a report based on British archives said on Wednesday. Astonishingly, the decision in 1958 to sell 20 tons of heavy water, a vital ingredient for the production of plutonium, appears to have been made by British civil servants with no input from ministers, the BBC report said. The documents unearthed by BBC television's "Newsnight" program, broadcast late on Wednesday, show that British officials decided that it would be "over-zealous" to insist that Israel use the heavy water only for peaceful purposes. Previously, America had refused to supply heavy water to Israel without such safeguards. Heavy water is chemically the same as normal water, but where the hydrogen atoms are of the heavy isotope deuterium, in which the nucleus contains a neutron in addition to the proton found normally. It can be used to turn natural uranium into plutonium, needed for nuclear weapons. According to "Newsnight" the 20 tons of heavy water was part of a consignment that Britain bought from Norway - a pioneer in heavy water production - in 1956, but which was later deemed surplus to requirements. Although official papers initially presented the sale as a direct deal between Norway and Israel, memos in the National Archives in London reveal that the heavy water was shipped from Britain in Israeli ships in 1959 and 1960. It was used for the production of plutonium at Israel's top-secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert. The archives appear to show that the decision to sell the heavy water was taken only by civil servants, mainly in the Foreign Office and the UK Atomic Energy Authority, perhaps for economic reasons. "Newsnight" said that it had found no evidence that ministers in the then-British government of prime minister Harold Macmillan were ever consulted about the sale, or even told about it. After a British newspaper exposed the Israelis' work at Dimona in 1960, Britain refused a second Israeli request for more heavy water. The records show an explicit decision not to inform the United States, the report said. "On the whole I would prefer NOT to mention this to the Americans," concluded a document written by Donald Cape, a Foreign Office official.
Robert McNamara, who served as president John F. Kennedy's defense secretary from 1961, shortly after the sale, told "Newsnight" that he was "astonished" at the revelation. "The fact that Israel was trying to develop a nuclear bomb should not have come as any surprise ... But that Britain should have supplied it with heavy water was indeed a surprise to me," he said. "It's very surprising to me that we weren't told because we shared information about the nuclear bomb very closely with the British."

Kissinger against early US pullout from Iraq

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said on Friday that military victory in Iraq was essential to any US exit strategy and warned that an early US troop withdrawal was "a potentially fateful event".

"Because of the axiom that guerrillas win if they do not lose, stalemate is unacceptable," said Kissinger, who drew parallels with the Vietnam War, while cautioning that "the military challenge in Iraq is more elusive". "American strategy, including a withdrawal process," he said in a commentary published on Friday by the Washington Post, "will stand or fall not on whether it maintains the existing security situation but on whether the capacity to improve it is enhanced. "Victory over the insurgency is the only meaningful exit strategy." Given the apparent indecision by the US administration on whether it should begin pulling its troops out of Iraq, Kissinger said "a review of withdrawal strategy ... seems in order". He particularly criticized General George Casey, US commander in Iraq, who recently announced that a fairly substantial troop withdrawal would begin after Iraq's December elections. "For someone like me, who observed firsthand the anguish of the original involvement in Vietnam ... and who later participated in the decisions to withdraw ... Casey's announcement revived poignant memories. "For a decision to withdraw substantial US forces while the war continues is a potentially fateful event." Besides the weakening effect a withdrawal would have on the remaining military force, Kissinger warned: "Once the process is started, it runs the risk of operating by momentum rather than by strategic analysis, and that process is increasingly difficult to reverse." Recalling America's "emotional exhaustion" over the Vietnam War and the lack of international support for South Vietnam after the United States withdrew, Kissinger said two principles could be applied to Iraq. "Military success is difficult to sustain unless buttressed by domestic support. And an international framework within which the new Iraq can find its place needs to be fostered." Of immediate concern, said Kissinger, is the training of Iraqi troops to successfully sustain the anti-insurgency fight. "Experience in Vietnam suggests that the effectiveness of local forces is profoundly affected by the political framework," he said recommending that the "ethnic and religious antagonisms between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds" be first addressed. "Each group has what amounts to its own geographically concentrated militia ... Is it then possible to speak of a national army at all?" Kissinger asked. "The ultimate test of progress will therefore be the extent to which the Iraqi armed forces reflect - at least to some degree - the ethnic diversity of the country and are accepted by the population at large as an expression of the nation. "Drawing Sunni leaders into the political process is an important part of an anti-insurgent strategy. Failing that, the process of building security forces may become the prelude to a civil war," Kissinger warned. "For these reasons, a withdrawal schedule should be accompanied by some political initiative inviting an international framework for Iraq's future," he concluded.
 

Bush warns Iran on nuclear plans

Rafsanjani:  "Our people are not going to allow their nuclear rights to be seized."

US President George W Bush says he still has not ruled out the option of using force against Iran, after it resumed work on its nuclear program. He said he was working on a diplomatic solution, but was skeptical that one could be found. The UN's atomic watchdog has called on Iran to halt nuclear fuel development. Iran, which denies it is secretly trying to develop nuclear arms, restarted work at its uranium conversion plant at Isfahan on Monday. "All options are on the table," said Mr Bush, when asked about the possible use of force during an interview for Israeli TV. "The use of force is the last option for any president. You know we have used force in the recent past to secure our country," he said. The president wants to send a clear warning to Tehran, although in reality the US already has its hands full in neighbouring Iraq. 'Cost them dearly': The former Iranian President, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has expressed surprise at Thursday's call by the UN nuclear agency, the IAEA, for Iran to suspend its nuclear activities. The IAEA asked its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, to report on Iran's compliance by 3 September. Speaking at Friday prayers in Tehran, Mr Rafsanjani said western opposition to Iran's decision to resume its nuclear programme would, as he put it, cost them dearly. "Our people are not going to allow their nuclear rights to be seized," Mr Rafsanjani said. He said he was astonished that no country opposed the European Union-sponsored resolution, adopted by the IAEA, that urged Iran to stop any work on processing uranium for enrichment. He emphasised that Iran's decision to resume its nuclear programme was irreversible, and said his country could not be treated like Iraq or Libya. The IAEA's 35-member governing body met in emergency session this week after Iran ended a nine-month suspension of work at Isfahan. Iran insists it needs nuclear power as an alternative energy source, but Western nations fear it has plans to produce nuclear weapons.

London Islamist Who Moved to Lebanon, Omar Bakri: We Don't Know Who Carried Out 9/11. I Don't Have Any Opinion, Negative or Positive, about Al-Qa'eda. The following are excepts from an interview with Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammad Fustuq, a London Islamist who left for Lebanon, which aired on Al-Mustaqbal TV on August 11, 2005. Fustuq: After the events of 9/11, there was much harrassment, especially of Muslim preachers in the UK. Since then I have been thinking about returning (to Lebanon). When I disbanded the Al-Muhajirun movement in London last year, in October, 2004, I did so in order to have more time for my wife and children and to return to Lebanon. I wasn't involved in any significant preaching activity at that time. Nevertheless, the newspapers and the Zionist media focused on people who had a political position. We believed in the legitimacy of the resistance in South Lebanon, in Palestine, and in any country to which foreign armies and external enemies have entered. This political position is equivalent, in their minds, to supporting terrorism. They consider the resistance in South Lebanon and in Palestine to be terrorism. Reporter: But it has been claimed that you returned to Beirut after the London attacks as a result of the measures decided upon by PM Tony Blair against some of the people residing in Britain. Fustuq: Without a doubt, the London attacks had a lot of influence. Even though I condemned the London attacks and the killing of innocent people, just as I condemned the killing of innocent people in New York, Spain, and London, and just as I condemn the killing of innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and everywhere - this didn't put an end to the matter. The newspapers there turned the affair into "Either you are with us or with them, either you condemn it, or you support it."All of this is connected with the events of 9/11, and we don't know who was behind these events, although many people keep talking about it. I held a conference on the (first) anniversary of 9/11. The problem in Britain is that the expression "anniversary of 9/11" means a celebration for them, but when you commemorate a certain disaster, it's not a celebration, but rather a commemoration and a study of its causes and reasons. In no way does it indicate that I support any attacks whatsoever that lead to the killing of innocent people. No normal person would accept such a thing, let alone someone who adheres to the tolerant values of Islam. In all honesty, for me, the Al-Qa'eda organizations does not exist in reality. We see them only on TV screens and in the media. When we talk about any given organization, there must be an "Emir", ideological writings, and centers. They don't have any Emir we know about. They say that it's Osama Bin Laden. We are not aware of any of their centers, mosques, or books. Therefore, my position is that the Al-Qa'eda organization is out there and is reported about by the media, but I don't have any opinion, negative or positive, about Al-Qa'eda. I don't know them at all.

Another Kidnapping as UN Evacuates. On the day on which the UN announced its intention to evacuate "all non-essential" staff from the Gaza Strip another international has been kidnapped inside the Gaza Strip.  PCHR calls for his immediate release and for the PNA to act to bring the perpetrators to justice by arresting them and placing them on trial.  PCHR also calls on civil society, local communities and the political factions to ensure that no further kidnappings take place. On the day that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees in the Middle East  announced that it was going to be evacuating its non-essential headquarters staff a French-Arabic journalist was been kidnapped in Gaza City.  The journalist, a sound operator for Channel 3, was reportedly kidnapped outside the Gaza International Hotel in the Rimal district of Gaza city around midnight on the 14th of July 2005. Despite the fact that he has been abducted for almost 40 hours, at the time of going to press, scant details are available about his whereabouts and no information has been received from the kidnappers about demands. This latest incident comes as part of an escalating pattern of kidnappings which has seen 5 kidnappings occur in 6 weeks inside the Gaza Strip.  At the same time the premises of the International Committee of the Red Cross was also attacked in Khan Yunis on Sunday the 7th of August. The most recent kidnapping of 3 UN staff members, which also resulted in injuries to 2 Palestinian civilians, has compelled UNRWA to evacuate the majority of its Gaza Headquarters Staff to Jerusalem and Amman for their own safety.  Concerns have been raised not simply regarding the ability of the Security Services to act effectively to prevent and deter kidnappings but also about the potential involvement of some members of the security services, or of those close to the Fatah party, in the kidnappings themselves. PCHR continues to comprehensively condemn all attacks against international solidarity activists or international staff members of international organisations.  Often the goal of these people and their organisations are to provide assistance to the Palestinian people during this belligerent Israeli occupation. PCHR is gravely concerned at this significant and ongoing escalation in attacks against international activists and staff of international organisations inside the Gaza Strip.  PCHR condemns the ongoing absence of any clear, coherent and effective action by the Palestinian National Authority to arrest and place the perpetrators on trial.  PCHR calls on civil society activists, members of all political factions (National and Islamic) as well as local communities to take vigilant measures to prevent any further escalation of these attacks.
 

POLLARD SUES ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OVER U.S.'  BREACH OF  SECRET AGREEMENT. Imprisoned Israeli intelligence agent Jonathan Pollard has filed a petition in the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem today demanding that the government be compelled tosecure his immediate release from the United States where he has been incarcerated since his arrest in Washington in 1985.  The petition asks the Israeli Court to investigate the United States' violation of  a secret agreement between then Prime Minister Shimon Peres and  American Secretary of State George Shultz.  Pursuant to the 1985 agreement,  Israel undertook to return to American investigators all of the classified documents transferred by Pollard to the Israeli government and in exchange the Justice Department  committed itself not to utilize these materials in its prosecution of the Israeli agent. However, in violation of the agreement, American officials immediately used the returned documents against Pollard, forcing him to cooperate and to enter into a plea agreement. The Government of Israel never raised a protest over the United States' blatant breach of the terms of  the secret agreement; and NEVER in two decades informed Pollard or his lawyers that the Justice Department was prohibited from utilizing the documents in its interrogations and prosecution. Shurat Hadin Correction: Pollard was not held incommunicado at the time and Israel had full access to him via his attorneys.  There was no excuse then, or for the next 2 decades  for Israel's failure to inform Pollard or his attorneys that the US was not permitted to use the returned documents against him. To this day Israel has never protested that the US obtained Pollard's  life sentence on the basis of INADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE. Moreover, the Justice Department and  then U.S. Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger  further violated the secret agreement by utilizing the returned documents as  exhibits in  their arguments to the sentencing court  that Pollard should receive a life term.  Thus, the Justice Department would never have been able to convict Pollard at a trial nor obtain a life sentence for him had Israel insisted that the United States honor the terms of the agreement. "Not only did Israel fail to act to release Pollard the moment he was arrested, the Government on its own provided the American prosecutors the materials that the United States needed to convict him and impose a life sentence." The High Court  petition demands that Israel finally confront the United States over its violation of the secret agreement and act to secure Pollard's immediate release. Jonathan Pollard is represented in the High Court by Israeli attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner. Attorney Larry Dub is 'of counsel'. The existence and terms of  the secret agreement were only brought to Pollard's attention in 2000,  after the late Israeli Minister Rechavam Ze'evi  discovered documentation referring to it in a Knesset Commission report buried in a government archive and provided the imprisoned agent with a copy.

Pollard, a former civilian analyst for American Naval intelligence, was arrested  in Washington, D.C. on November 21, 19851985 on charges of having passed classified information to Israel.  He is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for spying for an ally. On September 5, 2005, the High Court has scheduled a hearing for Pollard's earlier petition demanding that Israel declare him a "Prisoner of Zion." According to his attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: "The refusal of the Israeli government to confront Washington over the violations of the secret agreement is symptomatic of its fear of the Americans and permits it to continue to ignore the violations of his civil rights by the United States. Had Israel reacted 20 years ago when the violations occurred, or minimally informed Pollard of the agreement, he  would  never have received the harsh sentence he did.  Israel must be compelled to treat Pollard as it would any other captured agent and spare no effort in demanding that the U.S. immediately release him."

FBI warns police of possible terrorist attacks in LA, New York and Chicago.

LOS ANGELES, California - The FBI has warned police that al-Qaida cells might use fuel trucks as weapons to attack Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, but officials stressed Thursday the warning was based on uncorroborated intelligence. The warning was distributed Tuesday via a computer network by FBI officials in Los Angeles to law enforcement agencies primarily in California, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. Though intelligence bulletins usually describe how reliable the information is, this one carried no such statement. The bulletin warned police that terrorists could use fuel tankers in assaults on the three cities. The warning has not been substantiated, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. The intelligence originated from FBI headquarters in Washington. It was not immediately clear why the bulletin was sent without details on its reliability. Eimiller noted that FBI officials often notify police of possible threats, regardless of how accurate the information might be. "Information at all levels is shared with law enforcement," she said.

Anger at Nazi criminal's holiday.

A row has erupted in Italy after a Nazi war criminal being held under house arrest in Rome was allowed to go on holiday to Lake Maggiore.

Erich Priebke, 92, is serving a life sentence for the murder of 335 people at the Ardeatine caves outside Rome. He is staying at a villa which belongs to the son of a former Gestapo chief. A magistrate in Rome approved his request to go on holiday, angering local people as well as wartime resistance and Jewish groups. "It's an act of injustice," said Marco Reguzzoni, president of the province of Varese, which includes the town of Cardana di Besozzo where the villa is situated. "This isn't any old man. After being a fugitive of justice all his life, he gets house arrest - but giving him holiday on Lake Maggiore is too much," he added. "But I don't have the power to intercede against this undesired presence." Reprisal: The decision by the Rome magistrate to grant the former SS captain a police-supervised holiday is a reward for his good conduct. But politicians from across the political spectrum, resistance fighters' associations and Jewish groups have voiced their outrage and astonishment. Amos Luzzatto, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, said the magistrate had shown "a loss of memory" with regard to World War II atrocities. "From a moral point of view, this is disturbing not just for me but for many of those who lived through those years," he said. The massacre was a reprisal ordered by Adolf Hitler in person after a group of partisans killed a patrol of 33 German soldiers by setting off a bomb in Rome. Shortly afterwards, Nazi officers rounded up men and boys living in that neighbourhood including a number of Jews, anti-fascists and petty criminals. They took them to the Ardeatine caves and shot them. Priebke is currently visiting a German sculptor, Dietrich Bickler, the son of Hermann Bickler, a former head of the Nazi secret police known as Gestapo. Priebke, who spent most of his life in Argentina before being extradited to Italy in 1994, was allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest due to his age and health problems.

New al-Qaida Video Headlines on al-Arabiya "As you bomb, you will be bombed!"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates- A purported al-Qaida video shows militants in Afghanistan - including Europeans, Arabs and others - preparing to attack U.S. troops and showing off what they said was a U.S. military laptop. The video, parts of which have been shown by Al-Arabiya television, including a segment aired Tuesday, features interviews with a masked man yelling "As you bomb, you will be bombed" and shows a group of men packing explosives into bombs. The authenticity of the videotape could not be confirmed. U.S. air force Capt. Lennea Montandon, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Central Command in Qatar, said the military would not comment because it had not seen the broadcast. If authentic, the program would be the latest attempt by the al-Qaida network to use the broadcast media and Internet to promote its cause. The three-part video, titled The War of the Oppressed People, depicts what appears to be a few months in the lives of a group of fighters in wilderness camps in the Afghan mountains. The men cook tea over campfires and kneel in prayer under the open skies, then duck into a makeshift classroom where an instructor outlines the coming "operation to defeat the crucifix" against U.S. and allied forces. In one scene, the tape claims al-Qaida was responsible for shooting down a U.S. Chinook helicopter, killing all 16 American troops on board. The tape features an appearance by top-ranking al-Qaida member Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, as well as shots of a U.S. air force A-10 jet making bombing runs on a mountainside, and a closeup of a U.S. soldier quivering face down on the ground. Al-Iraqi, speaking with a scarf hiding his face, says the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have created "two fronts" for recruiting fighters to the cause of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar. "Now all the world is united behind Mullah Omar and Sheik Osama," he says. The program includes interviews with fighters claiming they are avenging the killing of Muslims by the U.S., Britain, Israel and India. "If this is terrorism and fundamentalism, then OK, we are terrorists and fundamentalists," a Pakistani man who identifies himself as Bilal says in Urdu. The tapes feature a diatribe by a British-or Australian-accented man wearing a black robe, AK-47 and military-style vest, who warns westerners of "the lies of (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair and (U.S. President George W.) Bush." "The Muslim world is not your backyard," he yells. "The honorable sons of Islam will not let you kill our sons. It is time for us to be equals. As you kill, you will be killed. As you bomb, you will be bombed." One grisly segment shows a dead soldier lying face up, his bearded face caked in blood. The soldier, perhaps an Afghan, is dressed in green camouflage fatigues with a red shoulder patch. The insurgents display his rifle, an American M-16. In another scene, a group of bombmakers slices white bricks of plastic explosive, packing them into cooking oil cans along with heavy steel bolts and gobs of glue. Green-hued night footage shows the men digging holes at the roadside and planting the bombs. Later, shaky footage follows a blue sport utility vehicle as it travels along a remote dirt road. Text on the bottom of the screen says the car is carrying the head of security for Afghanistan's Kunar province. Without warning the vehicle is ripped apart in a giant fireball. The attack appears to depict the June 28 roadside bombing that killed a district police chief and two other officers. Yet another scene pans across a cache of captured U.S. gear, including a laptop, an M-16, military radios, a global positioning satellite display and the ID card of slain navy SEAL Danny Dietz. Dietz, 25, of Littleton, Colo., was killed June 28 after his four-man reconnaissance team came under attack in Kunar province. The Chinook helicopter was downed and the 16 troops killed as the craft was on its way to aid Dietz, killing all aboard. An insurgent is shown going through the laptop's hard drive, zooming in on a U.S. military document marked "For Official Use Only" and a map of Kabul marked with the locations of the U.S. and British embassies. The film is subtitled in Arabic, but carries interviews in English, French, Pashto and Urdu, as well as Arabic spoken with Yemeni, Saudi and Iraqi accents. Baker Atyani, Al-Arabiya's Asia bureau chief, said the network received the tape last week, but would not say how or where it was delivered. By Jim Krayne.

Dissident: "IRAN HAS4,000 CENTRIFUGES"

Photo: Two technicians adjust their protective wear, alongside a box containing uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake, at the Uranium Conversion Facility of Iran.

VIENNA, Austria- Iran's president said Tuesday he will submit new proposals in negotiations over his country's nuclear program but denounced a European offer of aid as an "insult," as the UN nuclear agency tried to resolve the crisis without referring Tehran to the Security Council. While the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-country board considered a new warning to a defiant Iran to suspend its atomic activities, fresh areas of concern emerged Tuesday. An exiled dissident said Iran recently produced 4,000 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade. Alireza Jafarzadeh, who helped uncover details of Iran's program in 2002 that fuelled U.S. suspicions the country was trying to build a nuclear bomb, told The Associated Press the centrifuges are ready to be installed at the nuclear facility in Natanz. In Tehran, Iran announced it has improved the range and accuracy of its Shahab-3 missile. It said the weapon can strike targets up to 1,900 kilometres away nearly dead-on, a statement sure to unnerve Western officials who fear Iran one day will be able to fit such missiles with nuclear warheads. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country's new president, spoke Tuesday with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and said Iran was willing to continue the negotiations with the Europeans. "We are ready to proceed with talks. Of course, I will put forward initiatives in this respect after forming my cabinet," Ahmadinejad told Annan. But Ahmadinejad is bringing in one of the most hardline elements in the Islamic regime to head the talks, another sign Iran has grown more willing to defy the West in pursuing its nuclear program since he was elected president in June, replacing reformist president Mohammad Khatami. President George W. Bush welcomed Ahmadinejad's willingness to continue negotiations but said he was "deeply suspicious" of Iran. "Iranians are getting a message, that it's not just the United States that's worried about their nuclear programs, but the Europeans are serious in calling the Iranians to account and negotiating," he said at his Texas ranch. Bush said that if Iran does not co-operate, United Nations sanctions are "a potential consequence." However, diplomats said there was little stomach for reporting Tehran to the Security Council, in part out of fears that such a move - the International Atomic Energy Agency's last resort - might inflame support within Iran for the government's nuclear ambitions and scuttle any chances at winning the country over with economic incentives. Envoys from some countries whose own nuclear activities have come under scrutiny, such as Brazil and Argentina, also appeared reluctant to subject Iran to measures that could be applied to their programs one day. An IAEA draft resolution crafted by Britain, France and Germany and obtained by the AP does not mention the Security Council.

The text, which could be altered during negotiations, says "the agency is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared materials or activities in Iran." It urges Iran to co-operate by "re-establishing full suspension of all enrichment-related activities." Jafarzadeh, the Iranian dissident who spoke with the AP by telephone from Washington, where he runs the think tank Strategic Policy Consulting, said his information on the centrifuges came from sources within the Tehran regime who have proven accurate in the past. He described the information as "very recent" and unknown to the IAEA. The IAEA was taking the allegation "seriously" and would investigate "should we find anything credible contained within it," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. The agency previously said it was aware of 164 centrifuges at Natanz, almost 500 kilometres south of Tehran. Ali Hafezi, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said Tuesday that Tehran last year gave the IAEA a full disclosure of its nuclear program, including the number of centrifuges. He would not say how many centrifuges Iran has. Iran had agreed with the IAEA to stop building centrifuges, some of which can be used to enrich uranium to levels high enough to fuel a nuclear weapon, but last year announced it had resumed centrifuge construction. Centrifuges also can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants, which Iran insists is its only intention. The United States contends it is running a covert effort to make nuclear weapons. Iran on Saturday rejected a package of EU economic and political incentives presented by envoys from Britain, France and Germany, and this week it resumed some uranium conversion activities at its nuclear facility at Isfahan. On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad told Annan the European proposals were an "insult" to Iran. Sirus Nasseri, Iran's top delegate to the IAEA, said Iranian officials would break IAEA seals at Isfahan on Wednesday and start additional conversion activities. An IAEA surveillance system would be functioning by then, he added. The IAEA's board of governors was expected to issue a resolution by Thursday urging Tehran to suspend its nuclear activities. By Suzanna Lof and William J. Koole.

The 24-year reign of the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who died this week, saw many changes for women, including widespread higher education and job opportunities. But in many other aspects of life restrictions remain.

"Saudi Arabia: the land of black gold and the land of black ghosts," a friend of mine once joked. He was referring, of course, to oil - the source of Saudi riches - and to Saudi women, shrouded from head to toe in their long, black abaya robes. But it would be a mistake to assume that all abayas are just shapeless black coverings. Saudi women take great care of their appearance - even when their faces are fully veiled - and the style is all in the details. "I had this abaya designed specially for me," a professional Saudi woman told me. The sleeves and hem of her figure-hugging garment were heavily embroidered with black beading, and the robe did not fasten all the way to the ground, daringly revealing glimpses of her tight lime green jeans. "Isn't that a bit risque?" I asked. She shrugged. "Yes," she said. "It all depends where you are going. Sometimes when I wear this abaya, people think I'm not a Saudi." Earlier she had told me she was divorced and was looking for a second husband. Fine line: Appearing in public without being properly covered up can get women - Saudis and foreigners alike - into trouble with the religious police. It was not always this strict for foreigners. I used to live in Saudi Arabia when I was a teenager in the 1980s and my friends and I hardly ever had to cover up. But then, as now, there was usually strict segregation between men and women in Saudi circles. My mother and I would be invited to lavish, women-only parties, often as the only Western guests. Scores of women would arrive to eat, chat and belly dance the night away. Many were exquisitely dressed in the latest fashions from France or Italy - short skirts and plunging necklines. Their abayas were hung outside in the hallway, ready for the journey home. Back then there were hardly any public places where women could meet and socialise outside the home. So, on my return to Saudi Arabia, I was intrigued to find that things are changing. 'Ladies only': The glittering Mamlaka shopping mall in Riyadh has an entire floor just for ladies, filled with stores selling designer goods. All the sales assistants are women.

In a coffee shop, Fatima, a pharmacist in her thirties, sat drinking tea with two friends. All three were wearing abayas, but were bareheaded, their thick black hair falling over their shoulders. "I love this place," she said. "It reminds me of Philadelphia. The great thing is we can come here alone." "Are you married?" I asked. "No," she said. "I want to get married but the trouble is that modern Saudi men don't respect their women like the older generation did. They're losing their traditions." A large sign saying: "Exclusively ladies only, please remove your face cover for security purposes," was displayed prominently in the cafe. "That's to stop men from dressing up in veils and sneaking in here," they told me. "People always want to do what's forbidden." Flirting salesman: But in the Saks Fifth Avenue department store I did meet several women with covered faces. "Why don't you take off your veils?" I asked. "We come from conservative families," one of them called Manal said, "and we are worried about the security cameras here. Someone might abuse the pictures." "Do you feel happier buying your clothes from women?" I asked. "Actually, for make-up I prefer the male sales assistants," Manal said. "I put the lipstick colours on my hand and ask if it suits me. The men give me good advice." Emboldened by this suggestion, I left the ladies-only floor and went downstairs, wrapping my veil tightly round my hair. An Arab man was presiding over the make-up counter. I tried out some lipstick on my hand and held it out to him. "Do you think this colour suits me?" I asked. "You have the face of a model," he told me. "The colour suits you perfectly." There was no doubt about it. The man was flirting with me. I suddenly understood why Manal preferred buying her make-up from male shop assistants.

Certain boundaries just cannot be crossed... even with the protection of a veil.

Boundaries: Later that night, my colleague Hala and I went off to see how young Saudi men spend their free time. We were shown the way to a kind of night club, with no alcohol, no music and no women. "Excuse me, no ladies allowed," said the doorman. "We're journalists," said Hala. "We just want to do one interview and then we'll go." The manager arrived and let us in. Inside we did our interview and were treated with great civility and respect. No one remarked on the strangeness of our presence in this male-only preserve. No one that is, until we walked out. A group of young men, just coming in at the door, stared at us in outrage and we scuttled away. Certain boundaries just cannot be crossed - even with the protection of a veil. By Bethanie Bel

Nobel winners back Ganji petition

Eight Nobel laureates have signed a petition calling on Iran to free an imprisoned journalist, said to be close to death after weeks on hunger strike. The petitioners, backed by Paris-based media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, say they fear Akbar Ganji will die if he is not released soon. Mr Ganji was jailed for implicating top officials in a series of political assassinations. He has been only drinking tea and water for the past 55 days. Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights activist and lawyer, launched the petition early in July. A further seven Nobel laureates have signed the open letter to Iranian leaders, calling on them to release Mr Ganji immediately. Among them are John Hume, holder of the 1998 peace prize, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, holder of the 1984 peace prize. The other laureate signatories are Jody Williams, holder of the 1997 peace prize; Mairead Corrigan Maguire, holder of the 1976 peace prize; Betty Williams, holder of the 1976 peace prize; Maurice Allais, holder of the 1988 Nobel prize for economics; and Georges Charpak, holder of the 1992 Nobel prize for physics. "Iran's most senior officials must heed this very clear message from eight world figures who have made outstanding contributions to peace and science," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. The Nobel laureates join a growing list of people, including US President George W Bush and former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who have called for Mr Ganji to be released. Earlier this week, the French foreign ministry summoned Iran's top acting diplomat in Paris to urge Tehran to free the reporter. A spokesman for Iran's judiciary has said the only way Mr Ganji could be freed is if he requested a pardon, which so far the writer has refused to do.

Police doubted Jagger's '60s drug story

Photo: Rock and Roll singer and songwriter Mick Jagger, was arrested for possession of marijuana in 1972. Jagger was fined and sentenced to serve time however, the terms were overturned.

LONDON, UK- Today, he's respectable Sir Mick. But 35 years ago Mick Jagger was a rock rebel who could rattle the authorities. Newly released police files show that in 1969, police considered Jagger an "intelligent young man" who lived on the fringe and consorted with "the dregs of society." The records, declassified by Britain's National Archives, detail Jagger's claim that detectives planted drugs on him during a raid on his London apartment in 1969. The Rolling Stones singer was fined 200 pounds (about US$500 at the time) for possession of cannabis after the raid on his Chelsea home. The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into Jagger's claim that a drug squad officer, Det. Sgt. Robin Constable, had tried to plant white powder inside a box in the house. "I think he put the box down and opened the folded paper. He said 'Ah, ah, we won't have to look much further,' " Jagger said in a statement to police. "As I got to him he showed me the paper and I saw it contained some white powder. I said 'You bastard, you planted me with heroin.' " Jagger claimed Constable then said "Don't worry, Mick, we can sort it all out." "He twice asked me how much it was worth. He then said 'a thousand,' but I never replied," Jagger said. Scotland Yard launched an investigation, interviewing supporters of Jagger who ranged from a lawyer and a member of Parliament to minor drug dealers. "The private persons interviewed during the course of this investigation represent extreme ends of the scale. At one end are public figures whilst at the other are the dregs of society," noted Cmdr. Robert Huntley, who oversaw the inquiry. The investigation concluded that there was no "substantial corroborative evidence" for Jagger's claim against the "hardworking and competent police officer." "Michael Jagger is an intelligent young man, and doubtless is on the fringe, if not embroiled in the world of users of dangerous drugs," said Det. Chief Insp. William Wilson, one of the investigators. The case was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who concluded that no action should be taken against the police.

THE HONORABLE JOHN HOWARD, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA, TO BE HONORED WITH THE WORLD STATESMAN AWARD  FROM THE APPEAL OF CONSCIENCE FOUNDATION

Photos from L to R:  #1. The Honorable John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia. # 2.  Jorma Ollila, Chairman and CEO of NOKIA Corporation.

JORMA OLLILA, CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF NOKIA CORPORATION, TO RECEIVE THE APPEAL OF CONSCIENCE AWARD AND The Honorable Peter G. Peterson, Senior Chairman and Co-Founder, The Blackstone Group to receive the Public Service Award at the appeal of conscience foundation’s 40^th anniversary dinner

TV series depicts with stark reality the experiences of American GIs serving in Iraq, as well as the effect on those left back home.

Photo: Erik Palladino (centre) is a sergeant leading rookie soldiers in Over There.

LOS ANGELES, California-  U.S. soldiers Avery (Angel) King and Maurice (Smoke) Williams carefully edge toward the door of a primitive hovel on a barren, rock-strewn slope, searching for a hostage. Someone yells, "Hug that door, Smoke!" and the pair successfully kick it in, followed by a commanding "Cut!" from director Jesse Bochco. It's 32 degrees C -- a cool day in the real Iraq, but a scorcher in suburban Chatsworth, just a hillside away from expensive homes, swimming pools and manicured lawns. Bochco is directing an episode of Over There, the latest gritty creation from his father, Steven Bochco, which premiered last Wednesday on Fox TV's FX channel in the U.S., and debuts in Canada on History Television Sept. 6. The series depicts with stark reality the experiences of American GIs serving in Iraq, as well as the effect on those left back home. "We're trying to do something different from what you see on the news or in documentaries," explains co-creator Chris Gerolmo. "The news will tell you what happened, where it happened, and who was involved. But we're inviting audiences to have a different kind of emotional experience -- what it would be like to be on the ground in the war, or what it would be like to have someone you care about there at risk." "We don't shy away from showing the level of pain that I think the soldiers are going through... as well as see what happens to their families," says Luke Macfarlane, a London, Ont., native who plays Pte. Frank (Dim) Dumphy, a Cornell graduate who's left behind a crumbling marriage and a troubled stepson. Despite its edge, "the show doesn't proselytize," Steven Bochco says. "It just presents you with the complex realities of being in a war and leaves you to ask yourself interesting questions: What's right? What's wrong? How does one reconcile personal beliefs with a sense of duty?" The series also seeks to offer an honest view of who's serving in today's U.S. armed forces. "Chris and I asked ourselves, 'What's the general makeup of the military?' " Bochco notes. "We want it to be representative of the military in the real world." Keith Robinson, who's black and plays Angel, says he "hopes to show that the war that's being fought over there is being fought by people just like us. Somebody who looks, sounds and thinks just like me, who's making a life-and-death decision in the name of me and in the name of freedom." Robinson describes his character as a "God-fearing country boy from Arkansas who has dreams of being a singer in a choir, but, failing that, joined the Army." Meanwhile, Smoke -- Kirk (Sticky Fingaz) Jones -- is a gang-banger from Compton who chooses the army over a prison sentence. "He's from the streets, from a broken home," says Jones. "He comes here just looking out for himself. But he's forced to grow and learn to be part of a team." The show's combat team is lead by hard-edged Staff Sgt. Chris (Sgt. Scream) Silas, played by Erik Palladino. "He's a guy from Long Island who, in our first episode, has served for a year and was supposed to be getting out, but is forced to serve another 90 days," Palladino says. "He's not happy about it, but, like many of the men and women there, he's got a job to do, and he'll do it to the best of his ability. His attitude is, 'I'm going to make sure that the guy standing next to me is going to get out alive.' "Lizette Carrion portrays Pte. Esmerelda (Doublewide) Del Rio, a Puerto Rican-American woman who has a husband and children back home in Queens. "I want her to be a person with a conscience, that wants to be a role model," Carrion says. "She's aware that she's going to bring that back home and that the choices she makes are going to affect who she is for the rest of her life." An Arab-American in the unit, Tariq Nassiri, deals with a reality many such soldiers face in the Middle East. "He's an American, and he's willing to die for America, but he is aware of his heritage," explains Omid Abtahi, who plays Nassiri, and whose own brother is a member of the U.S. military serving in Iraq. "Tariq has simply decided that regardless of his heritage, he's fighting for America, and the (Iraqi dissidents) are the enemy." Made without the co-operation of the Pentagon, the show does employ a military adviser, former Marine Staff Sgt. Sean Bunch, himself a veteran of Iraq service. Bunch not only put the actors through a week of boot camp before the show's pilot episode, but he continues to advise cast and crew on everything from the proper way to hold firearms to a soldier's likely emotional response. "We want to, at the very least, make it look as authentic as possible," comments Macfarlane. "It's really important to all of us that we do these servicemen honour by showing them in an accurate portrayal of what they do on a day-to-day basis." By Mat Horrowitz.

No toilet, no seat, says minister

Photo: Better hygiene must be practised, says the rural affairs chief

Village council candidates in India should be allowed to stand for election only if they have a toilet at home, the rural development minister says.. In a letter to all chief ministers, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said the toilet rule should be set out in law. He said too many elected members "do not have toilet facilities in their own houses and defecate in the open". Mr Singh said this activity was the main cause of the high incidence of diarrhoea in rural areas. 'Change behaviour': Mr Singh told the BBC that more than 65% of India's rural population defecated in the open, along roadsides, railway tracks and fields, generating huge amounts of excrement every day. "This finds its way into the water sources," Mr Singh said. About 70% of India's billion-plus population live in its more than 550,000 rural villages. "It is unfortunate that a large number of elected village council members and rural government officers do not have toilet facilities in their own houses and defecate in the open," Mr Singh's letter said. The minister said they needed to change their behaviour and adopt better sanitation and hygiene practices. "It is essential to obtain their commitment to the sanitation agenda in view of the influence they exercise in the rural areas," the letter said. Some states have already made amendments in the Panchayati Raj Act, which deals with the election of village councils, to ensure that elected members have toilet facilities in their households. The rural development minister suggested all chief ministers make similar provisions. "Only then can we eradicate the practice of open defecation by 2010," he says. The central government has already launched a Total Sanitation Campaign in which awareness is being created regarding the ill-effects of open defecation. "Sanitation promotion requires social mobilisation on a large scale and cannot be achieved by a few individuals but by collective involvement of all sections of society," the letter says. By Ayanjit Sent

The Uzbek government orders U.S. to leave the air base in Uzbekistan

WASHINGTON, DC, USA- The Central Asian country Uzbekistan has notified the U.S. State Department U.S. military aircraft and personnel must leave an Uzbek air base that has been an important hub for military operations in Afghanistan, a Pentagon official said Saturday. Glenn Flood, a Pentagon spokesman, said the notice was received Friday at the U.S. Embassy in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. Flood said he did not know whether the Uzbeks stated a reason for evicting U.S. forces from Karshi-Khanabad air base, commonly referred to as K2. The Washington Post newspaper, which first reported the eviction notice, said no reason was given and U.S. forces would have six months to leave. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy confirmed it received an Uzbek notice Friday but would not say what it contained. A base spokeswoman declined comment. The Uzbek government in recent months had tightened restriction on use of the base, including banning night flights. "We have to step back and look at our options now and see where we go from here," Flood said. "That airfield has been very important for our operations in Afghanistan" - humanitarian, as well as military. K2 has been a critical staging point for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan since the earliest days of the war, which began in October 2001. More recently, the base has been used to move supplies, including humanitarian aid, into northern Afghanistan. It also is a refuelling point for transport planes. The eviction notice came just days after U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld returned from a Central Asia visit to two states bordering Uzbekistan: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Officials in Kyrgyzstan affirmed to Rumsfeld U.S. forces may continue to use Manas air base for as long as the Afghan war requires. U.S. forces do not use any bases in Tajikistan, which shares a long border with northern Afghanistan. The Pentagon has an arrangement that permits U.S. planes to refuel there under certain circumstances. During his trip, Rumsfeld said he did not believe U.S. operations in Afghanistan would be hurt if the Uzbek government denied continued use of K2 because there are other air base options in the region. "We're always thinking ahead. We'll be fine," Rusmfeld said Monday. In early July, a regional organization led by Russia and China issued a statement calling for the United States to set a timetable for withdrawing its forces from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan's ties with Washington have deteriorated after the U.S. administration urged an international investigation into the suppression of a May uprising in the eastern Uzbek city Andijan. Uzbek government troops fired on protesters in the city after militants seized a prison and a government building. Authorities denied troops fired on unarmed civilians and said 187 people died in the unrest; human rights groups put the figure as high as 750. Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov, who has governed for 16 years and tolerates no dissent, has blamed the violence on Islamic militants. He has rejected the demands for an outside inquiry and facing western criticism has found strong support in Russia and China. Both of them are wary about the U.S. military presence in the strategic and resource-rich region.

US PENTAGON: "Iraq's police force is recruiting insurgents and former criminals to its ranks."  

The US Pentagon blames poor vetting procedures and recommends that the quality of records at Iraq's interior ministry be checked. US-run training programs, in which more than 60,000 Iraqi recruits have taken part, are only a qualified success, the Pentagon report says. An earlier report found only 50% of battalions able to combat insurgents. The formation of an effective police force is a key element of attempts to combat the insurgency in Iraq, in which hundreds of police officers and would-be recruits have been killed. 'Infiltration': The report praises the work of the police during January's election, and says police officers are increasingly visible on the streets. But it says many new recruits are illiterate, have criminal records or are physically disabled. Inducting criminals into the [Iraqi police] is a continual concern.  Even more troubling is infiltration by intending terrorists or insurgents. There is sufficient evidence to conclude that such persons indeed are among the ranks of the police. The report adds that coalition personnel are ineffective as recruiters, and focus on quantity rather than quality. "There is a perception that training programs have produced 'cannon fodder' - numbers of nominal policemen incapable of defending themselves, let alone the Iraqi public," it says. Current plans are for a 135,000-strong force.  US-led forces are expected to stay in the country until Iraqi security forces are able to withstand the insurgent on their own.

A federal appeals court upheld most of a patent infringement verdict against the Canadian company that makes BlackBerry

NEW YORK- A federal appeals court upheld most of a patent infringement verdict against the Canadian company that makes BlackBerry e-mail devices, but ordered a lower court to reconsider part of the case and agreed to hear arguments that the long-running dispute is actually beyond U.S. jurisdiction. The mixed ruling issued Tuesday seemed to confuse investors, who initially sent shares of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. of Waterloo, Ont. up about one per cent to $71.99 US in New York and at $87.65 Cdn in Toronto. Industry analysts said the biggest impact of the ruling may be to drag out the proceedings even further. They see no immediate shift in the battle between RIM or NTP Inc. - the patent holding company that first brought the suit in 2001 - or a revival of a $450 million US settlement between the companies that appears to have unravelled. The court opinion does not have any impact on separate proceedings by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which recently issued preliminary rejections of four of the five NTP patents that RIM was found to have violated in the lawsuit. A decision on the fifth patent is still pending. Tuesday's rulings by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed most of a 2003 lower court verdict against RIM, which serves 3.1 million users of the BlackBerry, a device that popularized the concept of thumb-typing messages on a miniature keyboard. The ruling found that the lower court was correct in allowing the jury to decide whether BlackBerry violated NTP's "system" patents for mobile e-mail technology, but wrongly defined a key term relating to "method" patents for such a system. As a result, the appeals court reversed some of the infringement findings and asked the lower court to review whether the error tainted the overall jury verdict. And because the jury's overall damage award of $53.7 million US was not broken down in terms of the individual patent claims, the appeals court ordered that the award be revised to reflect any change in the verdict. The ruling also instructed the lower court to determine whether the scope of its injunction ordering RIM to stop selling BlackBerrys needs to be revised as well. In another possible stroke in RIM's favour, the opinion said the entire appeals court would consider the question of whether the location of a key BlackBerry network centre in Canada puts the case beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. patent law. "It's really hard to make a call on what eventually happens here," said analyst Rob Sanderson of American Technology Research. "But there's a contingent on Wall Street that would very much like to believe the patents will eventually be found invalid and they don't want to see RIM paying $450 million." By Bruce Mayerson.

US fans shun Michael Jackson CD

US may sell Egypt 200 M109A5 155mm Self-propelled Howitzers.

 (Source: US Defense Security Cooperation Agency). Dr. Aaron Lerner: "The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not affect the  basic military balance in the region." - not because anyone actually checked  this but because the statement is required by Congress. After all, if this boiler plate statement was in fact true that would mean  that the US sells billions of apparently worthless weapons systems to the  Arabs.  Why worthless? because these many billions of dollars of US made  weapons never "affect the basic military balance in the region." On 29 July 2005, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress  of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Egypt of 200 M109A5 155mm  self-propelled howitzers as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $181 million. The Government of Egypt has requested a possible sale of 200 M109A5 155mm  self-propelled howitzers, overhaul/refurbishment, intercoms, spare and  repair parts, support and test equipment; publications and technical  documentation, personnel training and training equipment Quality Assurance  Team, U.S. Government and contractor engineering and logistics personnel  services, and other related elements of logistics support. The estimated  cost is $181 million. This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national  security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a  friendly country that has been, and continues to be, an important force for  political stability and economic progress in the Middle East. We previously notified transmittal number 00-39 to Congress on 24 May 2000  for the sale of 279 M109A2/A3 155mm self-propelled howitzers and logistics  support for an estimated value of $48 million, and transmittal number 02-10  to Congress on 6 November 2001 for overhaul/refurbishment of 201 M109A2/A3  155mm self-propelled howitzers and logistics support for an estimated value  of $77 million. Egypt will use the M109A5 howitzers primarily in support of its armed  forces, but may also use them in joint exercises with the U.S. Government.  The howitzers will improve Egypt's current fleet of ground defense  equipment. Egypt will have no difficulty absorbing the howitzers into its  armed forces. The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not affect the basic  military balance in the region. The equipment is considered long supply and is no longer utilized by the  U.S. Government. The prime contractor will be United Defense, Limited  Partnership of York, Pennsylvania for the overhaul/refurbishing of the  howitzers. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with  this potential sale. Up to six U.S. Government Quality Assurance representatives will be required  for two weeks intervals to participate in program management and technical  reviews. There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of  this proposed sale. This notice of a potential sale is required by law; it does not mean that  the sale has been concluded.

Unseeded Sania Mirza stuns No. 4 Nadia Petrova with easy Acura win

Photo: Kim Clijsters of Belgium hits a backhand shot during her second round match against Marta Domachowski of Poland.