A regularly updated column of news briefs from around the region.

Syria sees Peretz selection as positive

JERUSALEM - Syria regards the election of Amir Peretz as leader of Israel's Labor party as a positive move and believes that he could become a negotiating partner, an Arab Israeli MP said on November 18 after talks in Damascus. Taleb Al Sana, who traveled to the Syrian capital in defiance of an Israeli ban, said that he had met with a number of officials including foreign minister Farouk Al Sharaa. "He [Sharaa] told me that there was no peace partner in Israel at the moment and that the election of Peretz [as prime minister in upcoming elections] would revive hopes that such a partner could emerge for he has peaceful tendencies," Sana said.

Iran confirms conversion of new quantities of uranium

TEHRAN - Iran confirmed on November 18 that it has resumed converting quantities of uranium, only a week before the UN atomic energy watchdog is to consider action against the country. "We have done it and the facilities are continuing to work," said Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, referring to media reports of work at the uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Tehran. "This isn't new stuff," he said, adding that the International Atomic Energy Agency had been informed.

Bride's mother in Amman hotel bombings dies

AMMAN - The mother of a Jordanian bride whose wedding was devastated in last week's hotel bombings died of her wounds on November 17, bringing the death toll to 59, officials said. "Hala Al Alami was in a coma. She died at 0200 GMT," a Jordanian official said. A suicide bomber blew himself up last Wednesday at a wedding party in the ballroom of the Radisson SAS hotel, killing 17 relatives of newlyweds Ashraf Al Khaled and Nadia Al Alami. Nadia's father, Anis, and her father-in-law, Khaled Al Akhras, were among those killed on the spot. The newlyweds were slightly wounded.

Germany must not tolerate those who threaten Israel

BERLIN - Germany has not forgotten its responsibility for Nazi-era crimes and must show "no tolerance" for those who threaten Israel, particularly Iran, chancellor designate Angela Merkel said on November 17. Germany must, she said, learn lessons from the "injustices" committed during World War II and react "quickly" to make sure "nothing unjust can happen again". "When in Iran, in recent weeks, Israel's right to exist is questioned, there must be absolutely no tolerance on our part. We must say 'that will not do'," Merkel told her conservative Christian Democrat lawmakers.

Algerian terror suspect to face extradition from Britain

LONDON - Algerian-born terror suspect Rachid Ramda on November 17 lost his British court legal challenge against his extradition to France to face trial over the deadly 1995 Paris metro bombings. Two judges rejected claims that moves in April by interior minister Charles Clarke to deport the 35-year-old were legally flawed. Ramda has fought off several extradition requests over the last 10 years and is currently the longest-held detainee in Britain in an extradition procedure. The ruling appears to be the beginning of the end for his marathon campaign against facing trial in France.

Twenty-two French nationals identified in anti-US insurgency

PARIS - Twenty-two French nationals have been formally identified after joining the anti-US insurgency in Iraq and at least two of them have died in suicide attacks, interior ministry officials said on November 17. Of the 22, seven are known to be have been killed, two are in prison and the whereabouts of the other 13 are uncertain, according to figures released at a government conference on terrorism. Officials have previously spoken of a rough figure of around 20 French nationals fighting the US in Iraq. "Nowadays we don't just import suicide-bombers, we export them," the tough-talking interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy told delegates at the conference.

Rights group condemns imprisonment, lashing of Saudi teacher

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned on November 17 the sentencing of a Saudi teacher to more than three years in prison and 350 lashes for allegedly defaming Islam in front of his students. "Despite recent education reforms, the Saudi government is imprisoning schoolteachers for having open discussions with their students," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the group's Middle East director. "As long as schoolteachers face persecution for doing their job, Saudi children will lose out." A court in Bakiriya, north of Riyadh, ruled that Mohammed Salama Dekri, a chemistry and civics professor at a secondary school, had "defamed Islam and promoted depraved ideas".

Iran's Ahmadinejad opens fire at bulletproof officials

TEHRAN - Iran's hardline President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has banned officials from buying foreign-made bulletproof cars, warning that "aristocrats" have no place in regime institutions that he is currently purging. "We will not authorize the import of armored cars, which cost between 3 [billion] and 5 billion [Iranian] riyals [$330,000 and $550,000] and are used by certain officials," he was quoted as saying in the newspapers of November 17. "Aristocracy has no place in my government," said Ahmadinejad, who scored a shock election victory in June partly thanks to his austere lifestyle and vows to fight corruption.

Two US soldiers face court-martial for Afghan detainee abuse

KABUL - Two US soldiers in Afghanistan will face a court-martial for charges related to the abuse of detainees arrested for suspected links to militants, the US military said on November 17. The two were charged with "conspiracy to maltreat, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and assault consummated by battery," the military said in a statement. It announced in October that two soldiers were being investigated for allegedly assaulting detainees in their custody in the southern province of Uruzgan, including by punching them in the chest, shoulders and stomach. The court-martial will be held at Bagram Airfield, the main US military base in Afghanistan.

Former CIA director slams Cheney, Bush

WASHINGTON - Admiral Stansfield Turner, who headed the CIA under President Jimmy Carter, called Dick Cheney "a vice-president for torture" on November 17. "We have crossed the line into dangerous territory," Turner told ITV. Turner said that he does not believe that President Bush's statements that the United States does not use torture. He noted the secret prisons allegedly used in eastern Europe for certain high-level terrorist suspects, known as "black sites." "I'm embarrassed the United States has a vice-president for torture," Turner said. "He condones torture, what else is he?" Turner's interview comes as the Senate debates a bill that would outlaw the use of torture.

British commandos raid wrong hotel

DAKAR - Royal Marines took a wrong turn and reportedly wound up storming a beach next to a luxury hotel in Senegal, the Mirror reported on November 17. Nearly 100 troops from the elite 40 Commando Brigade surprised holidaymakers near Dakar, many of them elderly French tourists. "It appears they were on the right beach but got the wrong hotel. It was a genuine mistake. As soon as they realized their error they apologized," a defense ministry spokesman said. The incident occurred during a month long multinational exercise involving 800 British troops and Senegalese forces. It was not the first time that Royal Marines invaded the wrong target. In 2002 they accidentally invaded Spain in a mock attack on Gibraltar, the Mirror said.

Turkish PM under fire for defiance of headscarf ban ruling

ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was accused of flouting his country's secular system on November 16 after saying that Islamic scholars rather than the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) should have a say on a headscarf ban in Turkish universities. Erdogan sought to soften his remarks amid a storm of criticism, saying that he meant that the Strasbourg-based court should have asked for the opinion of religious scholars before ruling on the ban last week. The landmark judgment said that the ban was not a human rights violation, in a major disappointment for Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government that opposes the ban.

US general rejects withdrawal date

BAGHDAD - A top US commander in Iraq says that a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq would be "a recipe for disaster" for the Iraq War, the Washington Post reported on November 16. The US Senate defeated a proposal by Democrats on Tuesday to require US leaders to set a time for pulling out the more than 140,000 US troops currently stationed in Iraq. "Setting a date would mean that the 221 soldiers I've lost this year, that their lives will have been lost in vain," said Maj. Gen. William Webster of the 3rd Infantry Division.

Jordanians turn on Al Qaeda after blasts

AMMAN - Nearly two-thirds of Jordanians polled after the Amman bombings say that they have more negative views of Al Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for the attacks. A poll of 1,014 Jordanians after the bombings showed Al Qaeda was considered a terrorist group by 87.1 percent of respondents. The poll was conducted by Ipsos-State for the Al Ghad newspaper, which published the results on November 16. Al Qaeda had enjoyed support in Jordan, where many people approved of the group's fight in Iraq against the US-led occupation. A poll two months ago showed 60 percent support for Al Qaeda in Jordan.

Libya proposed exchanging nurses for Lockerbie bomber

SOFIA - Tripoli had proposed exchanging Bulgarian nurses on death row in Libya for infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus for its officer imprisoned in Britain for the Lockerbie plane bombing, Bulgaria's former foreign minister said on November 15. "This was proposed by the Libyan side during my term as foreign minister" from 2001 to August 2005, Solomon Passy told bTV television. "They had asked me to start talks with my British counterpart Jack Straw over the possibility of such an arrangement - to exchange our nurses for their man, Megrahi, who is serving a sentence in a Scottish jail over the Lockerbie case," he said.

Israeli commander cleared over slain Palestinian schoolgirl

JERUSALEM - An Israeli officer was cleared by a military court on November 15 of deliberately emptying his weapon into a Palestinian schoolgirl after she had already been shot dead, in an incident last year in the Gaza Strip. "The officer was totally innocent of all the charges filed against him," said an army spokesman. Iman Al Hams, 13, was shot dead in the southern Gaza town of Rafah last year on suspicion that she had explosives in her school satchel. The local hospital said that her body was riddled with 20 bullets. But an army statement said that the indication was that the "rounds were not fired with the intent of hitting the deceased but rather as deterrence to secure a dangerous area before leaving it".

Turkish PM in spat over Denmark's pro-Kurd TV station

ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended on November 15 his boycott of a news conference in Denmark attended by a reporter from a pro-Kurdish television station. Erdogan decided to shun the joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen after the latter turned down his request that the Roj TV journalist be told to leave. "How can we come together in a press conference with a member of a medium which is under the patronage of a terrorist organization? That was not possible for me," Erdogan said at Ankara airport after flying in from Denmark.

Red Cross says fate of some Gulf War missing resolved

KUWAIT CITY - The fate of an unspecified number of people missing since the 1990-91 Gulf War has been established at a meeting chaired by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a spokeswoman said on November 15. "The fate of a number of missing people was ascertained and their files closed today during the tripartite meeting chaired by the ICRC," said Nada Doumani. She declined to reveal the exact number, their nationalities or what their fate had been. But she said that since 2003 "the fate of as many as 269 people has been established, a majority of whom are Kuwaitis by the commission".

Israeli ambassador to London quizzed in bank probe

JERUSALEM - Israel's ambassador to Britain, Zvi Hefetz, has been interrogated by Israeli police as part of a probe into alleged money laundering before he took up his post in London, police said on November 15. The diplomat was grilled for six hours by fraud squad detectives as part of an inquiry into accusations that hundreds of millions of dollars were laundered at a branch of Israel's leading Bank Hapaolim. Hefetz was quizzed after he returned to Israel last week as he accompanied Britain's Finance Minister Gordon Brown to the region.

US appoints new envoy to Mideast

JERUSALEM - US President George W. Bush has nominated a new security coordinator to work with the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on November 15. Major General Keith Dayton will replace outgoing Lieutenant General William Ward as Rice's pointman helping to monitor compliance with security commitments made by the two sides. Rice said that Dayton would have "an expanded mission" but gave no further details at a briefing to reporters traveling with her on a Middle East tour. Dayton is a career soldier who has spent 35 years in a variety of command and staff assignments.

Iran's Ahmadinejad presents new oil ministry nominee

TEHRAN - Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on November 15 presented a new nominee for the crucial post of oil minister, after his first two choices were blocked by parliament. His previous nominees had been severely criticized for lacking any experience in the oil sector, which accounts for 80 percent of the Islamic republic's export revenues. The new choice is Seyed Mohsen Tassaloti, currently the director general of a petrochemical zone in the southwestern region of Mahshahr. The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, said that deputies would hold a confidence vote on the nominee next week.

Ethiopia holds 5,400 over deadly riots

ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopian police are still holding some 5,400 people detained during deadly street riots early this month over alleged electoral fraud in May's legislative elections, the country's police chief said on November 15. So far the federal police have released 7,966 others from detention centers in Dedesa, about 300 kilometers (187 miles) west of the capital, Zewai 225 kilometers south of here and from a facility in Addis Ababa, Federal Police Commissioner Workneh Gedeyhu said. Some "5,400 people are still in custody, but the process of releasing [them] is going on day to day", he said.

Iraq PM in appeal to Jordanians after Amman blasts

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari appealed to Jordanians on November 14 not to blame Iraqis as a whole for the actions of the three fellow citizens who blew up themselves up in Amman last week. "I assure you that your grief is our grief and your losses ours," the premier said, a day after Jordanian state television aired footage of an Iraqi woman confessing to an unsuccessful attempt to set off a fourth device. "It would be unfair to judge the Iraqi people through a woman whose culture is just one of hate."

Yemen court presses Zaidi rebel trial despite amnesty

SANAA - The Yemeni state security court resumed the trial of 36 suspected rebels from the Zaidi minority on November 14 despite the announcement in August of a pardon for participants in the uprising that shook the northern mountains last year and earlier this year. The new hearing sparked an angry reaction from defense lawyers but the prosecution insisted that the pardon only applied to people who had already been convicted at the time of its announcement. The defendants are accused of mounting a series of attacks on security forces in Sanaa earlier this year in which one soldier was killed and 27 people wounded.

Church leader accuses Israel of theft

EDINBURGH - The moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly has accused the Jewish state of "theft". The Right Rev. David Lacy, said that his visit to the West Bank town of Bethlehem, now separated by a concrete barrier, had left him "gobsmacked", the Scotsman reported on November 13. "I was very much in sympathy with why the Israelis built a wall here," he said. "But when you actually see where it is, you see that it's not for security, it's for making political statements. It's theft of land and I don't know how you can justify it on the grounds of anti-terrorism."

Hillary Clinton clarifies Israel support

TEL AVIV, Israel - US Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Israel on a visit intended to put to rest any lingering doubts about her support for Israel. Clinton, a New York Democrat and former first lady who is embarking on a reelection campaign, was scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and top Israeli defense officials, commemorate the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and visit the Israeli separation barrier that runs through the West Bank, The New York Times reported on November 13. No visits to Palestinian territories or meetings with Palestinian leaders are on Clinton's public schedule.

Somali pirates operate from mother ships

MOGADISHU - The International Maritime Bureau says that the pirates plaguing the coast of Somalia are operating from large mother ships. Captain Pottengal Mukundan has told the BBC that fast launches go out from the command vessels to raid ships, allowing them to attack even those that keep their distance from the shore. Pirates are now holding seven ships, and an attack this week on a cruise ship was believed to be the 19th this year. The Seabourn Spirit was 100 miles offshore when the crew repelled attackers. Somalia has had no effective government for 14 years.

Iran's supreme leader defends president

TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on November 14 sprang to the defense of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, bluntly telling the hardliner's domestic critics to back off. "The government must be supported," Khamenei told a gathering of Friday prayer leaders. "I hear unjust criticism of the government and the president," said Khamenei in a declaration that is unprecedented given that Ahmadinejad has only been in office for around 100 days. "The president must be given more time and supported so that he can accomplish his tasks," said the supreme leader, who has the final say on all matters of state.

Gulf ministers welcome Iraq conference

ABU DHABI - Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers meeting in Abu Dhabi have welcomed the convening of a reconciliation conference in Iraq to end the country's sectarian strife, the GCC chief said on November 14. "The ministers welcomed ... the convening of the Iraqi conference on national reconciliation," set for January, Abdel Rahman Al Attiyah was quoted as saying by the state news agency WAM. "We hope that this conference will be successful in achieving results that would effectively protect Iraq's unity, independence, safety, security and stability," said the secretary-general.

Suicide attack in Afghan capital kills German soldier

KABUL - A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a NATO peacekeeping vehicle in Afghanistan's capital on November 14, killing a German soldier and wounding two others along with three civilians, officials said. The attack on the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops happened in eastern Kabul, outside the offices of the body that oversaw key parliamentary elections in September, Afghan and ISAF officials said. "One German soldier and the suicide bomber were killed. Two German soldiers and three civilians were wounded," interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said.

Former US VP candidate regrets support for Iraq war

WASHINGTON - Former US Senator John Edwards, the Democratic nominee for vice-president in 2004, broke on November 13 with his campaign stance on the war in Iraq, declaring in a newspaper opinion piece that he made "a mistake" in supporting the invasion. "I was wrong," Edwards wrote in the Washington Post, saying that he now regrets his decision to give US President George W. Bush the authority to invade Iraq. "Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told ... was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003."
Israel to boost coordination after Amman blasts

JERUSALEM - Israel and Jordan have agreed to boost coordination in the fight against terrorism following last week's deadly suicide bombings in Amman that killed nearly 60 people, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on November 13. "After the terror attacks I spoke with King Abdullah and we agreed to expand our cooperation in the struggle against terrorism," Sharon told delegates at a conference in Jerusalem, which was also attended by visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "These attack are a wake-up call for what direction the Middle East could end up taking," he warned without elaborating.

Jordan discussing Chalabi case with Iraqi government

WASHINGTON - Jordan's King Abdullah II said on November 13 that his country was in "negotiations" with Iraq over a court conviction against Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi. A Jordanian court sentenced Chalabi in absentia in 1992 on charges of corruption and embezzlement over the collapse of a bank he was managing. "Well, obviously, we do have an issue with Chalabi," the Jordanian monarch said in an interview with CNN "Late Edition". "This is something that we are in discussions with, with the Iraqi government." King Abdullah's remarks reinforced speculation that Chalabi's conviction may be withdrawn or settled in a deal.

Sharon blasts Syria-Iran 'axis of evil'

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lumped Syria and Iran in his own "axis of evil" on November 13 and urged stepped-up international efforts to contain the two regimes. Speaking at a US-Israel dialogue forum here, Sharon updated the "axis of evil" famously proclaimed by President George W. Bush nearly four years ago to then include Iran, Iraq and North Korea. The Israeli leader said that the axis was now headed by Tehran and Damascus, "which are ruled by irresponsible leaders, who take extreme stands which threaten the stability of the area".

Israel's top law officer okays sonic booms over Gaza

JERUSALEM - Israel's top law officer ruled on November 13 that the air force can lawfully press its tactic of creating sonic booms over the Gaza Strip, adopted following a suicide bombing late last month, army radio reported. A report from the office of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz found that the tactic was effective in instilling "fear in the terrorists who had to worry about being attacked just as they prepared to fire rockets or mortar rounds from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory", the radio said. The report found no provisions in international law that outlawed the tactic, it added.

Ex-official who accused Kazakh leader of corruption shot dead

ALMATY - A former official who accused Kazakhstan's president of corruption has been found shot dead in his home in the capital Almaty, Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency reported on November 13. Zamanbek Nurkadilov, 61, had "two bullet wounds in the left part of his chest and another in the head", a lawyer for the Nurkadilov family, Serikkali Musin, was quoted as saying. Nurkadilov had served as parliamentary deputy, administration head for Almaty and the surrounding region, and head of the emergency department. Musin said that Nurkadilov's wife found his body, with his own pistol lying nearby, in their home on November 12.

Sudan says talk of genocide in Darfur 'exaggerated'

CAIRO - The conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur is tribal and cannot be described as a genocide, Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha said on November 13. "The conflict in Darfur is tribal and not a political issue or a question of genocide," he told reporters after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "This issue was exaggerated at the international level, when in fact we are dealing with a typical situation which is very common in Africa," he added. The United States has branded as "genocide" the atrocities perpetrated by government forces and their Arab proxy militias against the black African population in Darfur.

France calls for Tunisian inquiry into attack on journalist

PARIS - The French government on November 13 called on Tunisian authorities to open an inquiry "to shed light" on an attack that injured a French journalist in Tunis. "We have let the Tunisian authorities know that we expect them to shed light on the attack in which Christophe Boltanski, a journalist for the newspaper Liberation, was the victim," the French foreign ministry said in statement. Boltanski, 43, was gassed, beaten and stabbed near his hotel on November 11 on the eve of a UN information technology summit being held in the Tunisian capital, his editors at Liberation said.