Afghanistan : Taliban momentum reversed ..[ 1694 ]

Taliban momentum reversed in Afghanistan, Gen Petraeus says

The momentum of the Taliban in key areas has been reversed, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan has said.

 

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan Photo: AP

BBC., Published: 9:49AM BST 23 Aug 2010

Gen David Petraeus said the Taliban had been pressed back in southern Afghanistan and in Kabul following a surge in coalition troops.

But he said there should not be a sudden exodus of troops from Afghanistan when the process of withdrawing forces begins next year.

As the toll of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan rose once again on Monday with the death of two more Nato troops, Gen Petraeus said the road ahead could be bloody but insisted the nine-year campaign was making progress.

"The momentum that the Taliban have established over the course of recent years has been reversed in many of the areas of the country and will be reversed in the other areas as well," he said in an interview with the BBC.

Gen Petraeus, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, said he would offer frank advice to President Barack Obama on the withdrawal of troops.

Next July would mark the start of a drawdown, but not the moment when the US military looks "for the exit and a light to turn out", he said in the interview, which was broadcast on Monday.

Both Mr Obama and David Cameron, the Prime Minister, have promised that a significant drawdown of coalition troops would begin in 11 months.

But in his first major interview since assuming command of more than 140,000 coalition forces in Afghanistan last month, Gen Petraeus cast doubt on the July 2011 deadline.

But one day after Gen Petraeus indicated that the deadline was in doubt, Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, put himself at odds with the country's top commander in Afghanistan by ruling out any delay.

Mr Gates said that American troops would start to pull out on schedule in July 2011 as he confirmed that he would leave office next year, once the drawdown was on track.

Russia to choose new Navy corvette..[1693 ]

Russia to hold competition to choose new Navy corvette - paper

The Project 20380 corvette Soobrazitelny

09:19 23/08/2010

© RIA Novosti. Aleksei Danichev

MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti)

The Russian Defense Ministry will hold a competition in September to select a new corvette for the Navy to replace the Project 20380 class, a business daily said on Monday, citing sources in the shipbuilding industry.

The competition should produce a mobile, fast-moving ship with a helicopter hangar and a distinct modular layout for weapons, Kommersant said.

The Project 20380 corvette is deployed to destroy enemy surface ships, submarines and aircraft, and to provide naval gunfire support for beach landings. It uses stealth technology to reduce the ship's secondary radar signature, as well as its acoustic, infrared, magnetic and visual signatures.

Five design centers are likely to take part in the competition, the paper said. Three belong to Russia's United Shipbuilding Coorperation: Zelenodolsk, Severnaya Verf and Almaz. A fourth unnamed foreign shipyard, which specializes in small civilian vessels, is a likely participant, the paper said.

The first Project 20380 corvette, the Steregushchy, entered service with Russia's Baltic Fleet in October 2008. The second, the Soobrazitelny, was launched on March 31, and two other ships of the same series, the Boyky and the Stoyky, are under construction.

The Russian Navy needs around 50 Project 20380 vessels to ensure the protection of its coastal waters, as well as its oil and gas transportation routes, especially in the Black and the Baltic seas.

However, a shipbuilding industry source told Kommersant that the Project 20180 ship "does not meet modern requirements" and a new class is therefore required.

If the competition in September is successful, the approved project "will determine the shape of surface shipbuilding for the next 15 years", the source told Kommersant.

Japan, the Death penalty system ..[ 1692 ]

Time to scrap Japan's gruesome death penalty system

Murakoshi Hirotami, second from right, executive officer of the parliamentary league opposing the death penalty, speaks on July 28. (Mainichi)

(Mainichi Japan) August 23, 2010

The news that Justice Minister Chiba Keiko attended the execution of two death-row inmates in late July was shocking.

Readers will recall that Chiba was an anti-death penalty activist for 20 years before attending the hangings of Shinozawa Kazuo and Ogata Hidenori.

According to one Japanese newspaper's report, the former Socialist Party politician appeared "tense and pale" after being "persuaded to do her duty" by Justice Ministry bureaucrats.

The newspaper, of course, made sure to point out that public support for the death penalty here is 85 percent. I wonder would support be as strong if the public knew the gruesome details of this system?

Inmates are deprived of contact with the outside world, kept in solitary confinement and forced to wait an average of more than seven years, and sometimes decades in toilet-sized cells while the legal system grinds on.

When the order eventually comes, the condemned have literally minutes to get their affairs in order before facing the noose. Because the order can come at any time, they live each day believing it may be their last.

Amnesty International recently called the system a "regime of silence, isolation and sheer nonexistence," singling out the same-day execution notice as "utterly cruel."

The hangmen are undeterred by age, senility or handicap: The condemned include 84-year-old Okunishi Masaru, who has protested his innocence for poisoning five women for over four decades.

Of the more than 30 people who have been hanged since January 2006, five were in their 70s. It is not unheard of for some inmates to be ferried to the gallows in wheelchairs.

Although Japan incarcerates far fewer citizens per capita than the U.S. or many European countries, its astonishing 99-percent-plus conviction rate means that the condemned almost certainly include innocent men.

Some have quite literally been driven mad while waiting to die. At least five of Japan's 107 condemned prisoners are mentally ill, says Amnesty, with many more elderly inmates on the brink of senility.

Secrecy and lack of independent scrutiny means that the exact number is unknown. Recent victims include Chinese national Chen Detong, who was "quasi-insane" according to his defense.

A few years back, I interviewed Menda Sakae, who was framed by the police for a double murder. Unlike most other victims of miscarriages of justice, Menda was released -- after 34 years on death row.

That's 12,410 days believing every one would be his last. "Waiting to die is a kind of torture," he told me, "worse than death itself."

Inflicting this torture does nothing to bring back the victims of violent crimes. I very much hope that once Chiba has recovered from the shock of her trip to the gallows that she will do as she promised and begin a much-needed debate on capital punishment. (By David McNeill)

(Profile)

David McNeill writes for The Independent and Irish Times newspapers and the weekly Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been in Japan since 2000 and previously spent two years here, from 1993-95, working on a doctoral thesis. He was raised in Ireland.

Iran " Israel can'not face us "..[ 1691 ]

Israel 'too weak face up to Iran'

By JPOST.COM STAFF 
08/22/2010 22:51

Photo by: Associated Press 

Ahmadinejad dismisses US as "unable to beat a small army in Iraq."

 

(JPost.com.,22-8-2010) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected fears of an attack on Iran, taunting Israel as "too weak to face up to Iran militarily," and the US as unable to beat even a small army in Iraq, speaking in an interview with Al-Jazeera Sunday.

"Israel doesn't have the courage to do it," Ahmadinejad said, "and I do not think its threat is serious." He also stated that "America is not interested in sparking a military confrontation with Iran."

The Iranian president's provocative comments came the same day as he inaugurated Iran's new long-range bomber aircraft, which he called an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies, and the day after the Islamic Republic began fueling its nuclear reactor at Bushehr.

There has long been speculation that Israel could attack Iran's nuclear facilities, which it insists are for peaceful purposes, but which Israel fears would be used to build a nuclear weapon pointed at the Jewish state. The international community, led by the US and the UN, has levied increasingly harsh sanctions against Iran in a bid to force it to halt its nuclear program.

Last week, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton made headlines when he stated that Israel had only days left to strike Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor before it began the fueling process, sparking debate over whether Israel, or even the United States, would attack Iran to destroy its facilities.

Ahmadinejad also predicted in his interview that the Arab states in the Gulf would not allow US bases in the region to be used to launch an attack against Iran, saying that "they are more intelligent than that."

 

New York rallies for the Muslim center..[ 1690 ]

Muslim center dispute sparks New York rallies

1 / 4

Dominick DeRubbio holds a picture of his uncle David DeRubbio, who died in the World Trade Center attacks, during a rally held to oppose a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York August 22, 2010. Supporters and opponents of a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site rallied in downtown Manhattan on Sunday, kept blocks apart by a heavy police presence.

Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi

By Edith Honan and Chris Michaud

NEW YORK | Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:53pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Supporters and opponents of a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site staged competing rallies in downtown Manhattan on Sunday, kept apart by police and barricades.

The emotionally charged debate, which has gained national political significance, centers on plans to build the center two blocks from the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Republicans against the project are using it to attack Democratic President Barack Obama ahead of midterm elections, where his party is fighting to retain control of Congress.

Opponents of the center, which would include a prayer room, say its proposed location is insensitive and fear it will harbor religious extremism. Those who back it cite the right to religious freedom and a need to promote tolerance and understanding.

Hundreds of opponents on Sunday chanted "No Mosque," sang patriotic songs and waved photographs of violent attacks by Islamic extremists.

One sign read: "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all the terrorists were Muslim."

Around the corner, supporters chanted: "We don't care what bigots say, religious freedom is here to stay."

A supporter, retired school teacher Ilene Kahn, said: "This has become a political tool to preach hatred. The peace-loving Muslims did not attack us."

While tempers were heated and shouting matches erupted, no violence or arrests were reported. Uniformed police and rows of barricades kept many in the crowds apart. Police officials said extra forces were deployed but would not say how many were added.

Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said they support the right of Muslims to build the center near Ground Zero, while Republicans, including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, oppose it.

Others suggest it be moved to a less controversial spot.

Ali Akram, a local doctor who supports the project, said: "The people who say the mosque is too close to Ground Zero, those are the same people that protest mosques in Brooklyn and Staten Island and Tennessee and Wisconsin and California. What radius will they go for? There's no end to it."

Many in the crowd opposing the center were firefighters and construction workers, who carried signs reading: "This is Sacred Ground to New Yorkers."

One sign read: "Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Islam I Learned on 9/11."

Plans for the project include a 13-story building to house an auditorium, swimming pool, meeting rooms as well as the prayer space. The structure is architecturally plain and does not include a minaret, dome or other motifs often associated with mosques.

Some opponents have taken legal action, seeking to void a ruling that would allow construction to proceed, while some construction workers have launched a Hard Hat Pledge, vowing not to work on the project.