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2011年4月29日星期五

Panetta and Petraeus for top security posts - New York Times Online

Left, Stephen Crowley / the New York Times. Luke Sharrett/The New York TimesLeon e. Panetta, left and General David Petraeus H...

WASHINGTON - President Obama is expected this week in the name of Leon e. Panetta, the Director of the CIA, as Secretary to the defence and the General David Petraeus h., top commander U.S. Afghanistan, Director of the C.I.A.administration officials said Wednesday.

Appointments, put in motion by the imminent retirement of the Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates are part of a significant rearrangement of the national security team Mr. Obama which will include several new assignments in the closest of his diplomatic circlemilitary and intelligence advisers.

Mr. Gates should resign this summer.

Changes at the top of the team of the national security of Mr. Obama long been expected.

Shortly after Mr. Gates leaves, the term expires for the Chairman of the joint staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, who, as Defense Secretary, was appointed by President George w. Bush. And Secretary of State James b. Steinberg announced that he leaves for University work - remove a crucial player in the efforts of Mr. Obama to handle the rise of China.

But the role of Mr. Gates is the most critical. It is often alloyed with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton - who said that she intends to leave the administration when this mandate ends - including persuade them to Mr. Obama to start the military build-up in Afghanistan in 2009. Together, they have won many battles, but they clearly separate the month last on military intervention in Libya.

In the name Mr. Panetta, the Pentagon, Mr. Obama is to select an official of the already confirmed firm with close ties to the White House and the Capitol. By selecting General Petraeus, who at the beginning at least do not have a strong relationship with the White House of Obama, the President is maintaining a military leader of prestige which has a thorough knowledge of intelligence in Afghanistan and Iraq in recent years.

The President is also likely soon to propose the veteran diplomat Ryan c. Crocker as the next Ambassador of United States in Afghanistan. This approach would be, at least together during a period of time, Mr. Crocker, former Ambassador of the Iraq, with General Petraeus, with whom he worked closely in Iraq in the Bush administration.


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2011年4月25日星期一

Palestinian police kill Israeli visitor West Bank Site Sainte - New York Times

The shooting occurred outside tomb of Joseph in the city of Nablus, West Bank after three carloads of Jewish religious Israelis visited the site to pray without coordinating their plans by the Israeli army. Twice a month of trips to the Tomb were organized with escort army for the past four years without incident.

Responsible for Palestinian security, said that they were Palestinian police interrogation which fired their weapons during the episode. The dead man was identified as Ben Yossef Livnat, an old father for 24 years from four of Jerusalem and the nephew of Limor Livnat, the Minister of culture and sport of the Party of the Likud in Israel. Mr. Livnat grew up in a village near Nablus, where his parents still live.

After the shooting, Palestinian youths light outside the Tomb. Israeli and Palestinian security officials extinguished their. Later, at a funeral for Mr. Livnat procession that began in the colony nearby, dozens of settlers masked Israelis attacked Palestinians on the road, breaking their cars and injuring a boy.

The procession ended at a grave on the Mount of olives in Jerusalem where Ms. Livnat, Minister, and the aunt of man dead, called his killing "cold-blooded murder."

A statement by the Minister of defence, Ehud Barak, who is responsible for Israeli security in the West Bank, has also used the term "murder", adding, "no coordination failure cannot justify an event of this kind and shoot innocent people.". Mr. Barak instructed the army to study and demanded that the Palestinians to do the same and take all necessary measures against those who fired.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing as well.

The Palestinian Governor of Nablus, Jibril al-Bakri, said in the Radio Israel that the shooting was the result of a lack of coordination between the faithful and the Israeli army. He said that the police Palestinian officers who were on a regular patrol shot a warning in the air before shooting cars. He noted that the shooting was a mistake.

A spokesman for the army Israeli said the day that Israeli and Palestinian security officials had met and exchanged what they knew and were continuing their investigations.

The Palestinians, said, accused the Israelis faithful of having thrown rocks at the police before the beginning of the shooting.

David Ha'Ivri, a Jewish settler spokesman who is involved in the coordination of visits to the tomb of Joseph with the Israeli army said some believers refused to visit in this manner and sneaked into their own.

"We do not endorse that," said Mr. Ha'Ivri. "We call on people to be responsible." He added that visits organised in the Tomb were nevertheless still too scarce to allow all those who wish to go. Most of those who stealthily in the Breslov Hassidic sect members who live in Jerusalem, said he and other.

The military spokesman said on the Jewish holidays - it's now the Passover - it was not uncommon that some Jews piles into the Holy places under Palestinian control. If you're surprised by the Palestinians, they are almost always given to Israelis without violence, he said.

Many Jews believe that the tomb of Joseph is the final burial of the son of Jacob, the biblical Patriarch.

A spokesman for the Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom, said that the cars had been taken on after visit to the Tomb. He said that, apart from Mr. Livnat, who died of a bullet in the head, two others in a second car were evacuated by helicopter. Others were slightly injured and treated on the spot.


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In the message of Easter, the Pope urged diplomacy in Libya - Los Angeles Times

Pope Benedict XVI has offered a prayer of Easter Sunday for diplomacy to prevail over the war in Libya and for the citizens of the Middle East to build a new society based on respect.

He also called European refugees in North Africa.

"In the sky, all is peace and joy." But, alas, all not so on Earth! "the Pope said he gave the traditional" Urbi et Orbi "message from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to a crowd of more than 100,000 which is outside the place Saint-Pierre."

"In" the current conflict in Libya, may diplomacy and dialogue replace weapons and may those who suffer as a result of the conflict provide access to humanitarian aid, he said. "".

Referring to North Africa and the Middle East, the Pope prayed that all citizens, especially the young, would "work to promote the common good and build a society where poverty is defeated and each policy choice is inspired by respect for the human person".

Uprisings, repression and civil war have caused an exodus of people to the Italian shores and other countries of the region. Europe has been split on whether to accept or to expel tens of thousands of migrants, many of them elsewhere in North Africa and Libya.

Beno?t has rallied to the side of refugees, urging the people of good will to "open their hearts to welcome them."

"Here in this world that is ours, the Easter alleluia still contrasts with the Cree and the complaints arising particularly painful situations: deprivation, hunger, disease, war, violence," said the Pontiff, resplendent, dress Golden, while he was sitting on a Chair and read his speech in Italian.

This year, Easter falls on the same day in Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox calendars and Jerusalem, Orthodox and Catholics worshipped at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered as the burial site and the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection Friday Easter Sunday. Protestants held their own ceremonies outside the old walled city at the Garden Tomb, which some identify as the site of the burial of Jesus.

At Cagliari, Sardinia, a Sardinian cheese Easter, pasta and lamb dinner was served by Caritas, Catholic charity, some 20 Tunisian ANSA reported Island Italian press agency. The guests were among the more than 26 000 Tunisian who have entered illegally Italy since unrest in their homeland in January.

Most is waiting for Italy temporary travel documents they hope will be left to reach France, where many have friends and relatives. France warned Tunisians that they will be sent backed up unless you have jobs or provide savings.

The dispute between Rome and Paris on the fate of Tunisians should dominate a large part of a French-Italian Summit in the Italian capital Tuesday.

Call for solidarity as of Benedict XVI is also "words for those who keep the doors closed" migrants, Bishop Albert Mario Careggio, Bishop of Ventimiglia, a comune of the French border, said Sky CBC TV.

In Rome, the tragedy of unwanted society played in one of the main of the Basilic city, where some 150 Gypsies sought refuge from city officials who are dismantling illegal settlements of Roma trailer. The Gypsies say that City Hall will split their families by sending women and children to a shelter in a Rome suburb, but not men.

In Easter, several dozen solidarity Romans have milk, diapers and baby food to the refugee camp improvised inside St. Paul outside the walls Basilica.

Voice of 84 years Benedict XVI to cracked at times during the mass, but he completed his two-hour appearance Sunday by reading aloud wishes in 65 languages.

Some potted plants 41 000 broadside to the square, including Narcisse 10 000 plants, many of them in yellow and white, the colours of the Vatican official, are arranged in rows cared, the slope towards the altar.

Beno?t returns to place in a week to direct that a host should be the participation rate of at least Easter double when he beatifies John Paul, that the Pontiff born in Poland, of long-standing service on the last step before possible canonization official.


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2011年4月24日星期日

Deadly by us Drone strike can fuel anger in Pakistan - New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A us drone attack killed 23 people in North Waziristan, on Friday, Pakistani military officials said, in a strike against activists who seems to mean relentless pressure by the United States on military of Pakistan amidst increasing opposition to the strikes.

The strike came a day after the Chairman of the joint staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, met with Pakistani military Chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and asked that Pakistan more to fight militants who use North Waziristan as a base to attack the United States and NATOthe Afghanistan forces.

The attack was the second show of determination of the United States to continue drone attacks since the head of the Agency of Pakistan, lieutenant-general Ahmed Shuja Pasha spy, met this month in Washington with Leon e. Panetta Director of Central Intelligence Agency to ask for an end to the strike.

Friday attack could further fuel anti-UAV among the Pakistani public sentiment. An official of the Government in the North Waziristan said Pakistani journalists in five children and four women were among the 23 who were killed.

Finger attack forces of a militant commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose loyalists across the border in Afghanistan to fight US troops and NATO, said the representative of the Government.

Mr. Bahadur works under a peace agreement with the Pakistani army who ensures that the militants under his control do not attack the Pakistani soldiers but to concentrate solely on Allied soldiers.

Those killed Friday were collected in Spinwam, an area near Mir Ali in North Waziristan which was become a hub for activists in recent months, the official said.

In the Crescent public war of nerves between the American and Pakistani armies, the Pakistani Government is allowing a planned anti-NATO protest to go ahead in Peshawar this weekend. A political leader, Imran Khan, asked the protesters to stage a sit-in Saturday to block trucks carrying NATO supplies for the war in Afghanistan. Trucks travel through Peshawar since the port of Karachi to Torkham, the gateway in Afghanistan.

The drone Friday strike came after that Admiral Mullen has delivered a particularly rigorous message during his visit here, said publicly that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, directly supported and encouraged spy agency the activists Haqqani network in North Waziristan. Activists of the network are responsible for a large number of us losses in Afghanistan, American commanders say.

Since long the network United States Haqqani was supported by the Pakistani spy agency, but he said rarely publicly.

In a separate episode, between the Pakistani army and the Taliban, 16 Pakistani Frontier Corps troops were killed Thursday when their checkpoint was invaded by 150 activists near the Afghanistan border, a Pakistani security official said.

The battle continued for 12 hours to Kharkai in the North of Dir district in the Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa formerly Northwest Frontier Province. Two officers sent to reinforce troops were killed in an ambush, said the official.

The attack by militants of Pakistani soldiers came as the army launched a renewed assault in Mohmand, part of the tribal areas that have proven to be difficult for Pakistan to take army.

In a report to the Congress this month, the administration of the Obama complained that the Pakistani army had "no clear path" to the insurgency in Pakistan and quote the attempts to eradicate militants in Mohmand as an illustration. The army "was not for the third time in two years" to clear militants of Mohmand, said the report.

150 Activists who carried out the Thursday attack appeared to have fled the assault in Afghanistan and then returned to Pakistan to hit the soldiers.

General Kayani, the head of the Pakistani army, went to Mohmand Thursday for the second phase of a new assault on the Suran, a narrow valley on the border with the Afghanistan.

In the past months, the U.S. forces and NATO over the Mohmand border helped Pakistan to attack the militants as they fled in Afghanistan, Pakistani security officer, said. But the Pakistani militants who attacked in Dir Thursday appeared to have escaped before the assault on the Suran start and were allowed to return to Pakistan by elements of the Afghan army who were helping, the official said.

Jane Perlez reported in Islamabad and Ismail Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan.


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Pope marks Easter with q and A - Financial Times television

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By Guy Dinmore in Rome

Publication: Date 23 April 2011 04: 48. Last updated: April 23, 2011 04: 48

The Papal history with a small step in the era of modern media, Pope Benedict XVI took part in a session of questions and answers carefully orchestrated with seven people in the world was released by the Italy State broadcasterFriday.

Sitting in a white dress behind a desk, Benedict appears uncertain before the camera in the pre-recorded interview with the austere environment of the library of the Vatican, contrasting with a preliminary move by the Catholic Church to a man more touch on one of the most important days in the Christian calendar.

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2011年4月21日星期四

Fears of Taliban Fan of Infiltration into Afghan Forces - New York Times

The Taliban rushed to take responsibility for the attack, stating that the shooter was a sleeper agent planted to kill NATO soldiers. Afghan police and the army scrambled to find ways to eradicate the insurgents in their ranks. Screening of new recruits and soldiers escalated.

But when a joint investigation was completed some time later, Afghan and American investigators concluded that the gunman, a man named Ezzatullah in a small village in the Province of Nangarhar, where the attack occurred, was not a sleeper agent at all, but a good soldier overcome by personal stress, including the insistence of his father that he accepts a contract of marriage with a young girl.

Fears about infiltration of the Taliban in the forces of Afghan national security arose again this week after the insurgents in Afghan military uniforms attacked three locations in highly secure Government. The latest attack came Monday the Ministry of defence headquarters in downtown Kabul and killed two Afghan soldiers.

The attacks have fuelled concerns among Afghan officials, who are uncomfortable about their own safety and the fate of a country whose military and they worry the police forces could be impregnated with enemy insurgents. Some in the Senate on Wednesday called the resignation of the Minister of defence, Abdul Rahim Wardak, calling it unable to defend his own Department, much less the country.

But preliminary investigations show that the authors of at least two of the attacks were not used members of the Afghan army or the police, according to two senior intelligence officers NATO and an advisor to NATO informed on investigations. They are also suspicious that the person in the attack remaining was a member, while the investigation continues.

In fact, responsible intelligence not gathered any evidence suggesting that the infiltration is very widespread, as Taliban claims according to the officers, who spoke the condition of anonymity because of the nature of their positions advising Afghan forces. Nevertheless, officials know that the Taliban claims of infiltration breed distrust and are difficult to refute.

"Their goal is to separate the coalition of the Afghan national army, and is an excellent tool for them, whether they have or not," one police officer said.

Infiltration or not, the recent attacks were exposed other security issues, including the severity of the controls for the identification and research to points of control and input and the easy availability of official-looking uniforms and military equipment in stores and bazaars throughout Kabul and the provinces of the body. Investigators were also examining if any guards took bribes to let the insurgents across.

"At least two of them are very clearly the guys who had already obtained a uniform and had been helped," said NATO's Security Advisor. "This is really what we are concerned about - is the enemy capable of penetrating through this filtering system, or that they are actually able to co-opt or use uniforms and equipment that they could collect out on street weaknesses and exploit them in the physical security of these sites."

Concerns about the sleeper agents still run high among afghans and NATO officials. After the attack of November in Nangarhar, forces Coalition intensified abruptly training Afghan intelligence agents. It is their work to identify possible insurgents between Afghan forces and look for signs of military personnel who, acting either financial or personal stress or threats to their families, might fall under the influence of the Taliban. About 200 officers are now in the field, and this number is expected to more than double by the end of the year.

Since September 2009, when the NATO forces began to intensify the efforts to strengthen the national security forces, all recruits are required to go through a process of screening of eight steps. In it, recruits must undergo a criminal history and testing audit and must submit two letters of the elders of the village to the respondents for their character.


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Corrections - New York Times

INTERNATIONAL

A mistake of editing an article and title Tuesday on the presidential election in Nigeria incorrectly characterized the victory of the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan. He was elected, not re-elected. (Mr. Jonathan was sworn in as President in May 2010, when, as Vice President, he took over for President Umaru Yar'Adua ' Watch, who had died.)

?

An article on Monday on demonstrations against the Government of President Bashar al-Assad provided erroneous to justify the year that the Assad family began to dominate life in Syria policy Syria. It was 1971, not 1963.

NEW YORK

An article on Monday on Victor Toro, a lawyer for immigrants and needy who faces deportation to the Chile, provided erroneous to justify the occupation of Danilo Lachapel, who works in a church in the Bronx where Mr. Toro volunteers and said he doubted that Mr. Toro would never toned down his radicalism. It is worker social approach of the Church, not his assistant pastor.

SPORTS

An article on Monday on the difficulty of regulating social networks by former college students, fans, and the boosters in the hope of recruiting athletes stars misidentified the University referred to the Facebook site "John Wall"., I will pay you to come to KU. "It is the University of Kansas, not the University of Kentucky. (Wall has played for the Kentucky Wildcats as a freshman in 2009-2010 prior to her departure for the N.B.A.)

CULTURE

A report in the column "Arts", Monday, on the poetry prize Lilly of $100,000 for his achievement Ruth briefly wrongly attributed a distinction award. At least one other honor of poetry, the award of Tufts of Kingsley at Claremont Graduate University, is the same financial reward; the Lilly prize is "the greatest" or "the greatest" award for poetry.

?

A review of television Wednesday on a documentary about Frederick Law Olmsted, a publicist, provided information to justify its erroneous title. It is "Olmsted and parks urban America," not "" the Olmsted legacy: urban parks in America. ""

?

A review of theatre on Wednesday on "High", a drama starring Kathleen Turner which opened Tuesday night on Broadway, confused with the theatre in Hartford where the reviewer saw the first production last summer. TheaterWorks, Hartford stage step has been.

?

An article on Tuesday on the construction of a new concert hall for the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal misspelled the name of the sound handling for space company. It is Artec Consultants, not Artek.

OBITUARY

A record obituary Wednesday on the painter Robert Vickrey erroneous to justify the surname of his half-brother, provided him surviving. It is Caleb Whitbeck, not Whitdeck.

STYLE

A legend on 7 April with an article on a party for Don Hill, the nightclub impresario who died March 31, called vague shown people. They have been invited to a feast of MisShapes in the disco of the Don Hill; they were not the MisShapes themselves, a trio of Deputy judge.

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Interfere with the lower arm rebels in war - New York Times Libya

A rifle Cavalry Carcano - garbage likely Italian colonization in Libya between the two world wars - is chambered for a shotgun cartridge dated that the rebels have failed to obtain. Which have not prevented the four rebels recently seen wandering battlefield with these relics, without a cartridge to fire.

The MAT - 49, a submachine gun produced French military decades ago, is a weapon for which it is difficult to obtain parts. Which did not appear to disrupt a rebel which is presented on the front of the Libyan is brandishing a MAT-49 - with no magazine. It would have been more dangerous with a sling and Pierre.

The uprising reinforced Libya has produced a force spontaneously formed with a large and passionately held ambition: military defeat of subsidized by the State of the Libya in battle and hunt Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi and his sons of power.

Little who saw that the front lines would be the rebels of the Libya, this need for paired to fight arms dispute. But as European powers sent military advisors in eastern Libya, NATO in development plan to help the rebels to organize quickly into an effective fighting force is facing their donors with difficult questions.

A survey of arms carried by hundreds of rebels fighting on two fronts - eastern Libya and of the besieged city of Misurata - presents an image of an armed uprising which is two underequipped and warning of many weapons with no assistance in the war at hand. The rebels are also in possession of weapons that if sold, lost or used improperly, could ruin the reputation of their revolution and undermine their cause.

It is of anti-aircraft missiles and land mines, which the rebels have used so far on at least a limited basis, and that constitutes a threat to regional security in the long term. They include also much heavier weapons - rockets Type 63 and Grad - rebels fired indiscriminately, endangering civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Taken together, mismatched arsenal of rebels and their inexperience and lack of discipline were sent to military purpose of the extraordinarily difficult revolution. For their part, the rebels insist on the fact that they have the will to win against forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi if the way. This determination was evident in the words of Fikry Iltajoury, 31, who on a recent day with a large steak knife. He had fought in a truck of machine-gun fire, he said, until the truck and the machine gun were destroyed.

"We were struck and my friends are dead," he said "I've lost my weapon but have it."

He has held up the knife, a serrated edge with a wooden handle. "I want stuff Qathafi heart."

The circumstances of Mr. Iltajoury - forward but not physically prepared - corresponded to what is often visible elsewhere.

A fundamental measure of the State of preparation, the Forces of the free Libya, as the rebels call themselves, are miserably underequipped: they have many more volunteers than rifles.

Price of Kalashnikov in eastern Libya pointing to shortages in war - some veterans said they were paid more than $2,000 for their weapon, several times a typical price. At the headquarters of Misurata, many rebels at the front were not firearms and expect that a friend in the fall prior to joining the fight.

Those with modern weapons are gathered in formations mixed with weapons that either need different training, need different types of ammunition, or both.

It is not uncommon to see a group of rebels with widely mixed weapons: a different NATO FN FAL rifle, two standard classes Kalashnikov, a Soviet provenance Degtyaryov machine gun at the beginning and maybe a rifle bolt of before the second world warsuch as the Carcano rifles or specimens from the old line of Lee-Enfield.

A few (House or factory-produced) grenades and a grenade occasional anti-aircraft missiles or rockets often round their armaments, with PKT machine-guns (drawn with a trigger, but by a mechanism of bolt-release) or House of rocket launchers, little more than an electric circuit connected to the pipe and welded bars.


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Violence spreads to the Yemen as foreign diplomats strive to put an end to the crisis - Los Angeles Times

Yemen protestersAnti-government demonstrators shout slogans during a demonstration demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a. (Mohammed Huwais / AFP/Getty Images)Reports of Manama, Bahrain - shooting and funerals were spread across the Yemen as the international negotiators have yet to come up with a plan on Board President Ali Abdullah Saleh of power and prevent protests generalized to switch the impoverished nation into a civil war that could stimulate unrest in all the region.

Main cities of the country explosion almost daily violence as security officials and the thugs loyal to the Government attacked demonstrators anti-Saleh with tear gas and live ammunition. On Wednesday, a man armed motorcycle fired on a crowd in the city of port of Hudaydah West, killing a demonstrator.

As the protest movement approaches its third month, the international community, including the United States and Arab States, forced not Saleh to resign from his reign of 32 years, while the tribes and the Government representatives have abandoned him. Volatile leader, whose popularity has fallen in the midst of corruption and has no economic policy, has for weeks as contradicting the signals which have exasperated his allies and a growing list of enemies.

Saleh was quoted by the news agency saying that he would not be overthrown by "conspiracies or blows...." Those who want power or to gain the seat of power should be towards the ballot box. ?

A day after that of the United Nations Security Council could not agree on a statement on the Yemen, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters Wednesday sweeping the old streets of the capital, Sana'a. The demonstrators have is emboldened in recent days, pushing close to the heavily protected government offices.

The cooperation Council of the Gulf, which is composed of Saudi Arabia and five other Persian Gulf States, is concerned by the prospect of economic chaos and civil war from a Yemen already with a divided army, a secessionist movement, and a growing threat of Al Qaeda. As leader Libyan Muammar al-Gaddafi and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Saleh is in relying on the brutality and veiled hints of compromise to silence dissent.

"We are close to a consensus of the GCC on the significance of departure of this regime," said Sultan Atawani, leader of the opposition of the nasserite Unionist Party, who met this week with senior diplomats from the United Arab Emirates United and other neighbouring countries.

The difficulty centred on the research of a mixture of solicitations will persuade Saleh to resign. One of the elements under discussion proposes the President and his family, including his son and parents who control the military and intelligence units, the immunity from prosecution in the deaths of more than 100 demonstrators. Western countries are calling on Saleh to hand power to his Vice President and for the elections to be held within 60 days after his departure.

"The issue of such guarantees may be used by the President to gain more time and commit new crimes," said Atawani. "We say to our brothers in the Gulf that such an approach can be made to the table of negotiations, but only by a new Government when it comes".

Officials insist on the fact that a post-Saleh scenario emerges. Under proposals supported by the countries of the Gulf, of Yemen, an incongruous collection of Socialist, Islamic and other opposition, would take the Presidency in a transitional Government. Representatives of the Party of the President Tuesday officials GCC in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in what appeared to foreshadow the eventual exit of Saleh met separately.

"The President has to negotiate to ensure a transfer of power now, or he will never have the chance," said Murad Azzani, policy analyst at the University of Sana'a. "What he wants to do now is to avoid the Egyptian scenario the President under arrest and his party dissolved." Saleh wants his party to survive and to exercise power through it. ?

But the General Congress of the people of the Saleh is in danger. Prominent members broke away to form the Justice and development. This political insurgency challenges directly control of near-monopoly of the ruling party of the Government to reach out to hundreds of thousands of young demonstrators angry with poverty and high unemployment.

"Above all, solidarity with the popular claims we represent and see that the Yemeni common interest lies with the immediate resignation of the President," said Abdul Aziz Jabbari, a former member of Parliament and founding member of the new party.

However, many young demonstrators, Don't feel represented by any political group. Slogans of "Not to the parties" and no impartiality glued to the tents of the demonstrators in Sana'a indicate that a new Government will have to deal with a powerful voice, deprived of their rights. It was the demonstrators, opposition groups or other parties, which forced the international community to intervene and put Saleh on the edge.

"Future leaders will have to have some resonance with the people," said Azzani. "These parties go anywhere if they are not anchored in the culture of the movement to the Yemen has been the witness".

Jeffrey.Fleishman@LAtimes.com

A special correspondent of Sana contributed to this report.


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2011年4月20日星期三

Hamas claim success in the case of the murder of activist - Financial Times

FT.com / & Middle East North Africa - Hamas claim success of activist murder case .arrow-color {(background-image_:_url(https://www.ft.com/FTCOM/Images/nidDefaultArrow.gif);} .primary-text-color {color: # ffffff;} .secondary-text-color {color: # ffffff;} .tertiary-text-color {color: # 003399;} .nav-highlight-color {(couleur:_#_990000!_important;background-image:url(https://www.ft.com/FTCOM/Images/arrow_right_red_sml.gif)! important;} .primary-bg-color {background-color}{: # 666666;} .Secondary-bg-color {background-color: # 999691;} .tertiary-bg-color {background-color: # f6f2ee;} .nav-border-color {border color: # d4ccc0! important;} .nav-briefing-text-color {color: # 003399;}Skip to main content, accesskey "to Homepage, accesskey ' 1 ' Financial Times FT.com search FT.com
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By Tobias Buck in Jerusalem

Publication: Date 20 April 2011 11: 27. Last update: April 20, 2011 11: 27

Hamas officials say that they have solved murder last week of an Italian activist in the Gaza Strip, saying that all the five members of Jihad cell responsible for the murder are now either dead or in custody to view.

Vittorio Arrigoni, 36 years old, was abducted last Thursday and she was found strangled in a building in Gaza the next day. Member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, he lived in the coastal territory for nearly three years.

CHOICEExtremists editor are a growing threat to Gaza - Apr-18Italian militant killed in Gaza - Apr-15New Palestinian State may cost $5 billion--Apr-13In depth: conflict Israeli-Arab-Feb-19Arab League seeks a non-overview of Gaza - area Apr-10World urges ceasefire in Gaza as die more 12 - Apr-08

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2011年4月19日星期二

In a development of Cuba, many remain skeptical - New York Times

Havana - months, Cubans were treated a blunted maché assessment their future by none other that their President, Raúl Castro.

They do not quite work hard and live too of dole in the State, he said. The economy was based on a math inapplicable in equivalent two more two "to six or eight," as he put it in a speech Saturday. And the Directorate does not have to initiate a younger generation to take over, leaving the upper level of the part dominated by the standard-bearers of the revolution, which is as old as 87.

Is no longer, he promised, pushing a battery change, considerably expand small businesses and for the first time since the revolution of 1959, allowing Cubans to buy and sell private houses, something now only through a lively market underground.

But if the winds of change - and it remains to be seen if they will end up by to Breeze or gust - are emanating from the Convention Hall where the Communist Party held its sixth Congress in the last three days, Cubans seem ambivalent, even skeptics, that the final result will be jostling the island.

"We have a way to make changes, but while keeping the same," said Johan Rodriguez, 22, who completes his accountant meagre State salary by selling trinkets on the street. "The fundamental problem is that we have no money." I hope that they discuss will change. ?

Mr. Castro has avoided resolutely using something as the capitalism of Word when discussing the new economic platform, lest the United States get the impression a long-lost cousin came into the fold. Indeed, it has tended to avoid describes changes, well, change, preferring to cast as "modernization" socialist model here.

Still, it has proved capable of diagnosing the precarious state of the economy, warning that Cuba can not afford workers of State that little, for their controls and suggesting even eventually get rid of the ration books that provide food and other products of first necessity to heavily subsidizing prices.

"How will allow us food?", said a young another Cuban, a 36-year engineer who did not want his name used for fear that his remarks would be too critical to the Government. "They will have to lower the price of food many people do not die of starvation." All this seems so quickly. ?

Yet, Mr. Castro was not the radical reformer that his speech suggest that it might be. Recently, he intervened in the announcement of plans to lay off 500,000 State workers, defer reductions indefinitely. Last year, he had thrown "inflated work force State" as an unsustainable expense, "is equivalent to" eat up our future and endanger the survival of the revolution.

But instead of rapid economic reform previously established by the Communist leadership, Mr. Castro said a large part of the planned changes would come over the next five years.

And although it suggests senior executives like him step more than two consecutive terms of five years, he has also complained that the younger generation was ill prepared to take on the best jobs.

How, analysts wondered, should be interpreted as he climbs in first place in the part - Fidel Castro, 84, disclosed last month that it was more the leader of the party - and selects a new No. 2, at the feast, the person who might succeed him as President of the nation?

Rafael Hernández, a political scientist who publishes the magazine Temas here, said there are the legions of young members in the substantive ranks which often hit a wall as they ride the party.

"It is a policy change difficult between the generation which has been there for 50 years and the younger generation," he said. "It is a difficult process and one that they wanted to deliberately gradually so it would be not so traumatic.".

"But," he added, "I think that it is not just about more young people." It is young people who think differently. We can have young people who believe as the old ones, or we can have young people who are young and think differently. ?

Read tobacco leaves, as some call it the Kremlinology here, may be foolhardy since streak of dismal and rising stars. It is primarily a matter of relatively young age-matched with the rank of party and the frequency of the television appearances, especially near the Castro brothers.

Much of the attention is Marino Murillo, 50, who has defended the initiatives of President Castro when he was Minister of the economy. It now has a new position as a sort of tsar overseeing changes to push more people into private business.


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Opposition Leader Besigye arrested in Uganda protest - New York Times

KAMPALA, Uganda - figurehead opposition here was arrested Monday and charged with incitement to violence, as a third day of street protests in the capital of Uganda has ended in the shrouds of tear gas and rubber bullets.

"Walk to work" protests are a campaign against the spirals of fuel and food prices led by the former candidate to the Presidency, Kizza Besigye.

Despite the meagre size of protests - rarely numbering more than a few hundred people in a country more $ 30 million - they got an overwhelming response by the security forces Government, sending tear gas through a crowd of spectators and dormitories of the University. Demonstrators were beaten and fired on, raise more political tensions.

Mr. Besigye was dragged on the back of a pickup truck by several police officers Monday, his right hand in a sling after be slaughtered by the military police with a Thursday rubber bullet, and a distribution on the second day of the walk to the work of the demonstrations. Demonstration on Monday was the third at the time where the riots broke out in a number of universities in Kampala.

A spokesman of the police, Judith Nabakooba, said the protests in Kampala had dissipated by the beginning of the afternoon and 98 people, including the leading political figures, have been arrested.

"The situation has been limited," said agent Nabakooba. She also said there were demonstrations in the nearby town of Jinja, on the Nile, but those too had been pacified.

Mr. Besigye, who won just over 20% of the vote in February, vowed earlier this month that he could walk at his home on the outskirts of Kampala from the town centre every Monday and Thursday to raise attention to the high prices of the products that he said are stimulated by the corruption of the Government.

Mr. unexpected cited Besigye a supplementary budget of 250 million just before the February elections, the recent secret fighter acquisition Russian for about $ 750 million, as well as lucrative but oil contracts signed by the Government after the discoveries of oil wells in the West of the country.

Mr. Besigye vowed on Monday that he could walk to work again on Thursday.

On Saturday, President Yoweri Museveni said that Uganda should not complain about the increase in food prices, and that the Government would crush any demonstration, including walking to work the movement.


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Israel under pressure to offer peace plan - Los Angeles Times

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Benjamin Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, talks to Israeli soldiers during a visit to Ashkelon, where an Iron Dome missile defense system is deployed. (Ariel Schalit, Associated Press / April 19, 2011)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to unveil a new plan for solving the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict or risk having the U.S. and international community move ahead with a strategy of their own.

Israel won some breathing space with the postponement last week of a meeting of international powers in Berlin, but American and European Oxford are continuing to prod Netanyahu to lay out his vision for restarting peace talks and ending the occupation of the West Bank. If he does not, Oxford warned, the so-called Mideast quartet--the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - may attempt to jump-start the process by formally endorsing, for the first time, the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borderswith East Jerusalem as its capital. Netanyahu's government has vehemently opposed such a move.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signaled last week that international patience over the stalled peace process was growing thin and that the recent Arab world unrest made a resolution of the conflict more pressing. She promised "active American leadership" and a reinvigorated U.S. approach that would be announced in coming weeks.

"The status quo between Palestinians and Israelis is no more sustainable than the political systems that have crumbled in recent months," Clinton told an audience at the U.S. - Islamic World Forum in Washington. Some viewed the statement as a signal to Netanyahu to move quickly with his own plan.

"the israelis are facing a bit of pressure with the way things are proceeding," said a Western diplomat in Israel, who did not want to be identified while speaking about the sensitive matter. "People are starting to look to the U.S. for some kind of action."

Netanyahu's conservative government formally endorsed a two - state solution at the start of his term two years ago, but U.S. - brokered peace talks later collapsed when Israel resumed settlement construction in the West Bank and the Palestinians walked away from negotiations in protest.

Netanyahu has been hinting that he plans to announce a bold initiative by May, when he is expected to visit the U.S. and may unveil his proposal during a speech to Congress. But his Cabinet, which includes right-wing parties opposed to ceding land for peace, appears divided.

Last month, Israeli government aid floated the idea of an interim peace plan with temporary borders, but the Palestinians rejected it. Now Netanyahu is considering handing the Palestinian Authority more control over some areas in the West Bank or calling for an international conference aimed at restarting talks.

In a speech to European Union envoys last week, Netanyahu offered no. clues. "I have not decided what to say, and when to say it," the prime minister reportedly told the group. On Thursday, Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, saying he would not succumb to outside pressure. "we will stand firm against anyone who attempts to dictate conditions to us that will leave us without security and without peace."

Government spokesman Mark Regev said the international community should be holding the Palestinians more responsible for the breakdown in talks.

"In some circles there is an automatic knee-jerk siding with the Palestinian position, and it makes Palestinians think they have a free pass," Regev said. "people are inadvertently hurting the peace process." "If there were a serious message from the international community that the time has come to return to negotiations, there would be a much better chance at negotiations."

Moderate members of Netanyahu's Likud Party are urging the prime minister to sixteen the moment by offering a fresh approach.

"We should take an initiative," said Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor. "time passing is not helping."

President Obama has said he wants to welcome a Palestinian state into the U.N. in September. Not coincidentally, that's also when the Palestinians are promising to take their statehood bid to the U.N. General Assembly, which most predict will approve it.

Though such a step may not change the reality in the Middle East, it would create momentum that many Israelis fear would reduce their leverage at future negotiations over borders and security guarantees.

Palestinian officials expressed disappointment at the delay in this month's quartet meeting. Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the decision regrettable.

U.N. and EU representatives were hoping to use the meeting to push for a quartet statement endorsing the pre-1967 war borders, with agreed-upon swaps, as a basis for future talks. But U.S. officials argued for a delay, saying they first wanted a guarantee from the Palestinians that if such a statement were released, they would return to the negotiating table. The U.S. also worried that the move might lead to boycott talks Israel.

The Palestinians gave no clear indication that a quartet statement would be enough to persuade them to resume talks, officials said. Some Palestinian leaders are insisting that Israel must also agree to halt all settlement construction on land it seized during the 1967 Middle East War.

"Why should the quartet go out on a limb when there is no hard and fast insurance that the Palestinians would return to the table?" the Western diplomat in Israel said.

Public skepticism about peace talks among Palestinians has only hardened in recent months, with most urging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to boycott the process unless Israeli settlement construction is halted, according to Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki.

"If he returns to talks, he makes the public very angry," Shikaki said. "my conclusion is he will not."

Palestinian leaders are nonetheless increasingly confidant that their September statehood strategy is gaining steam. At an international donors conference in Brussels last week to aid the Palestinians, a U.N. report was released that praised Palestinian Authority institutions dealing with finance, law, education and infrastructure as being ready for statehood. But U.N. officials worry that progress could stall if a peace deal is not reached soon.

Israel staunchly opposed U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, saying the Palestinians are trying to avoid the difficult decisions that should be made at the negotiating table.

Israeli analysts say Netanyahu's alternative plan, if he announces one, would need to be ambitious and detailed enough to rival the Palestinians' initiative. U.S. and European officials are pushing Netanyahu to formally embrace using the 1967 borders as a basis for talks, as some of his predecessors have done, and agree to East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

Opposition leaders expressed doubt that Netanyahu's coalition would be able to overcome its differences to propose such a plan.

"I don't see in the current government a political plan for moving forward," said lawmaker Shaul Mofaz of the opposition Kadima party. Yet, he added, "a do-nothing policy is very dangerous for the future of Israel."

Edmund.Sanders@LATimes.com


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Populist advance in Finland could jeopardize the rescue - New York Times

Brussels - Since the crisis of the euro area has obtained by virtue of how truly a year ago, various Cassandra warned that the day would come where voters would rise in revolt against pay for the costly mistakes of others with rescues.

This day came Sunday, when Finnish voters given 19 percent of their ballots to the nationalist and populist true party of Finn, who is very orchestrated for countries such as the Greece, the Ireland and, more pertinentlyPortugal. The rendered results true Finns the former Favorites to become partners in the coalition in a future Government.

"The results of Sunday are clear warning shot to those who had thought that political European would not too affected by the crisis in the periphery," Frank Engels and Fran?ois Cabou, Barclays Capital analysts wrote Monday in a research note."". A rescue plan for as much as 115 billion for the Portugal has been questioned by the vote, since rescue requires the unanimous approval by the 17 members of the euro area.

True Finns raised their share of seats in the Parliament of 200 members in 39 of the 5 they had won the 2007 elections, strongly to change the balance of powers in Finnish politics.

While the Finnish leaders of other parties have begun to discuss ways to mitigate the damage, European politicians reacted with dismay to the results of the elections and has sought to distance itself from the true Finns.

Wilfried Martens, a Belgian politician, who is the President of the largest grouping of centre-right parties in Europe, European people's Party, said it was "discouraging see populist party rise to third place in Finland."

In Berlin, officials downplay fears that the Finland would undermine efforts to help the Portugal, also citing its traditionally pro-European position.

"Finland was still working toward success in Europe, regardless of what the Government was in power," said Christoph Steegmans, Government spokesman Assistant Germany. "Any agreement was always kept, and we are betting that it will continue."

The true Finns ran on a platform which was hostile to the recent financial bailout of the Ireland, the Greece and the agreement reached this month here with Portugal. These rescue plans were designed to put an end to a crisis of sovereign debt which threatened the future of the single currency area and raised questions about whether if the disparate economies in Europe could never be successful to integrate.

"Obviously there must be changes," the leader of true Finns, Timo Soini said Monday on the Portugal package, reported in Reuters.

True Finns were also critical of immigration policy, and their election gains came in the wake of advances by populist parties on the right across the European Union, including in the Netherlands, the France and the Sweden.

In Brussels, officials of the European Union Monday rejected suggestions that was not their strategy for the euro area.

The vote in Finland, protests against the austerity throughout Europe and continues to the volatility in financial markets should not obscure how the union has taken measures that will enable us to get the economy on a sustainable path,"Pia Ahrenkilde Hansena spokesman for the European Commission, said in Brussels.

She also said the commission was "completely confident" that the Finland would continue to honour its commitment to participate by contributing to financial stability, European facility in year place last to provide financial assistance to the members of the eurozone in difficulty.

The pro-European Coalition in Finland, headed by the Minister of finance Jyrki Katainen, strongly supported the efforts to address the problems of the euro area. It could still lead a future Government, while Mr Soini of True Finns can accept a compromise to participate in the rescue in exchange for positions in the next Government.

If the Finland are reluctant to help the Portugal, forcing other countries to do the rest of the loan guarantees, potentially raising birds in Germany and other countries, where the cost of the guarantors also became a source of political tension.

James Kanter Brussels and Matthew saltmarsh of Paris reported.


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2011年4月14日星期四

The Afghan Taliban intelligence network embraces the Los Angeles Times - New

Reports from Kabul, Afghanistan - The Taliban has deepened its infiltration of Afghan institutions and sharpen its surveillance of Afghan troops and foreign it seeks to exploit a step ahead in the war of the information that will help decide the fate of the insurgency.

A large part of the structure of the Taliban has been destroyed or dispersed by the invasion led by the United States 2001, which forced the militant group of power. Intermediate level commanders have been hit in recent months by Western forces, and responsible for NATO say that leadership-based Pakistanis has been undermined by infighting.

But, as the Afghanistan has floundered in recent years, the movement has rebounded, in part by the refocusing on its centuries-old skills by exploiting the links tribes and family, using foot messengers and keep an eye on his enemies.

The Taliban use the information it gathers to probe for the openings for the suicide attacks, to monitor the movements of Western and Afghan forces and hamper efforts to improve public services to help the Government to establish credibility for civilians.

But analysts also point to a key weakness: even if a new generation of militants is more apt at using the Internet, cell phones and social media, Taliban decentralized structure makes it difficult to synthesize information and to act in a unified way.

Western experts and Taliban agree on the importance of the information warfare as the United States aims to withdraw in 2014. The efforts of activists are based on an understanding that dates back to the days governing Taliban under Mullah Mohammed Omar.

"Mullah Omar said the first power in Afghanistan is information", said a Western military official in Kabul, the Afghan capital, which is familiar with the issues of information, citing officials former Taliban who knew leader of long standing of the movement. "He who controls the information control the will of the people."

Western forces and their Afghan allies to lead their own extensive intelligence operations. U.S. drones constantly circle the sky, and the monitoring of the electronic communication is ubiquitous. The Afghan Government has also claimed some success to thwart attacks.

But the Taliban is capable of maintaining a presence, even in those regions of the country who are most hostile to it. Hazara ethnic and religious Shiite Daikundi province, which for years was seen as a refuge against the Sunni Pashtun-dominated Taliban, the Governor said that he knew that the militants were close by.

In "night letters" distributed to homes the civilian warned insurgents only step to contribute to community projects and truckers not way to do business with the Government. "All that would happen in the local Council or the Government, they would know about it in two or three hours,", said Sultan Ali Oruzgani, a former Governor of Daikundi. "In the field of my power, they had infiltrated the army, the local government and the Parliament."

Activists have reached behind the stone walls high of Pul-i-Charki prison, which houses of Taliban and agents of Al-Qaeda, including some returned from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"There are people in uniform on the payroll,", said an insider in the prison compound is of Kabul, who spoke the condition of anonymity, fear will endanger. "The black turban is always watching us."

The source, which is in centres of detention Afghanistan for years, said sympathizers among the help of guards detained Taliban remain in contact with ground contacts. Doctors, among the few outsiders with access to the prisoners, also help.

"Stuff is brought to them, all ways to communicate," said the Insider. "They have Internet wireless." They distribute and analyze video clips of operations. ?

Experts and former officials point out evidence of infiltration of the police and the Afghan army.

"In terms of entering the Afghan security forces, they had success more, using family ties and the resentments and against foreigners," said Arturo Munoz, a former analyst for the CIA who is now studying Afghanistan for the Rand Corp..

A U.S. military classified report published by WikiLeaks, a commander of the local police in the province of Paktia has been quoted as saying that the Taliban in the region was led by a member of the local government who have provided information on both sides.

Another report said a commander of the Haqqani network was the son of a colonel of the national police. Often, families place a son in the Taliban and the other in the army to cover their bet, said several analysts in Kabul.

"They know where the Government does not provide justice, so that they provide courts." "They know where the police are predatory, so that they provide an alternative," said Andrew Exum, a former agent of special forces in Afghanistan which is now at the Centre of a new American security, a Washington think tank.


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Summit of bric in India in 2012 - Times of India

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that the next Summit of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) will be held in India in 2012.

"I have invited the BRICs in India leaders for the next Summit of bric in 2012 and I am pleased that they have accepted my invitation," said the Prime Minister.

He told the media that the quality and sustainability of the process of global economic recovery depends to a large extent on how the BRIC economies performed. "We have reason to celebrate the management of our economies, but there is no room for complacency." Developments in Western Asia and North Africa, and subsequently of the immense tragedy that struck at the Japan brought fresh uncertainties in the global recovery process. ?

Singh said that the India has reaffirmed its commitment to a balanced and ambitious outcome for the Doha round of WTO negotiations. India would continue to engage with its partners to facilitate a multilateral trade rules-based regime which is fair, equitable and deals with the development agenda effectively, he added.

"Our economy is more open and more connected to the world that it was in the past." Our financial markets are healthy and willing to absorb foreign direct investment. "We have put in place of the ambitious plans to the social sectors and infrastructure began to bear fruit," said the Prime Minister.


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2011年4月12日星期二

Mexico reports 28 bodies in pits we border - New York Times

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican researchers have found a total of 116 bodies in pits near the border with United States, more than previously reported 28, Attorney General Marisela Morales said Tuesday.

It is believed that the victims were abducted by coaches travelling to the border of the United States.

Mr. Morales said that a total of 17 suspects had been detained in connection with the killings in the North of the State of Tamaulipas.

Interior Secretary Francisco Mora Blake is committed to increase the number of troops in the region where the killings took place and not to leave the area until the killers and drug gang members had been taken.

The graves were recently discovered in the township of San Fernando.

Police say witnesses have told them that armed men had been taking people, especially the young, off the coast of the bus passengers travelling through the area of San Fernando, end of March. The authorities say that kidnappings carried out by the gang of drug Zetas, the same group accused in the massacres of 72 migrants last August in the same area.

The motive for the abduction is uncertain, although prosecutors have suggested that the gang may have been force recruiting people.

San Fernando is 90 km south of Brownsville, Tex, on a stretch of country road near the coast of the Gulf in a zone patrolled regularly by the Mexican army.

The Zetas and the rival Gulf Cartel are fighting in Tamaulipas on the lucrative drug transit routes to the United States.

The authorities are working to identify the body. One is the Guatemala, said the Government of that country. The victim was identified as Feliciano Tagual Ovalle, 44, the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement late Monday. The statement did not say if the man was a migrant or a resident of the Mexico. Mexican authorities said only one was a man of the Centre of the Mexico.


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Pace of the attacks in Libya conflict is dividing NATO - New York Times

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On the eve of two important meetings this week, France and Britain openly called on the alliance and its partners to intensify airstrikes on Libyan government troops to protect civilians, prompting an unusual public retort from NATO's command that it was carrying out the military operation under the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized force.

"As long as regime forces continued attacking their own people, we will intervene to protect them," Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada, the NATO operational commander, said in Naples, Italy. "NATO's resolve is in its mandate to protect the civilian population."

Arriving for talks in Luxembourg with other European leaders, the British foreign minister, William Hague, said that the allies had to "maintain and intensify" the military effort, noting that Britain had already deployed extra ground attack planes.

"of course, it would be welcome if other countries also did the same," Mr. Hague said.

His remarks echoed by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France, reflected what officials have described as a complex and at times convoluted coalition, with many participating countries refusing to carry out airstrikes against forces on the ground, even as their planes patrol the skies over Libya.

Britain and France, for example, are now flying the bulk of the attack missions, with Norway, Denmark and Canada also striking Libyan targets on the ground. But other countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are taking less aggressive roles, enforcing the No. - fly zone over Libya or conducting reconnaissance missions, in a nod to political considerations back home.

The varying tactics reflect the different ways in which each country in the coalition views the mission, and how tough it has been to corral all the participants into focused attacks.

In Washington, Obama administration officials sought to tamp down a growing sense of concern among some military analysts that the combination of the Americans' back-seat role, NATO's inexperience in waging has complicated air campaign against moving targets and botched communications with the ragtag rebel army had thrown the mission into disarray. In the past week, NATO pilots were involved in two friendly-fire instances that killed well over a dozen rebel fighters.

Meantime, as some allies privately hope for the return of the American-led ground-attack missions, other coalition partners have expressed concern that their supplies of precision-guided bombs are running low after more than 800 strike missions.

"We have every confidence in NATO's ability to carry out the tasks of enforcing the arms embargo as well as the No. - fly zone and the protection of civilians in Libya," Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said Tuesday. "As the president said, the U.S. and other key partners had capabilities that they brought to this operation upfront, and then our role would diminish as nato stepped up and took command and control of the operation." "And that's what's happened."

The United States has worked hard to limit its role in the Libyan campaign, arguing that it has its plate full with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has also argued that Libya's history and proximity to Europe make it a European problem, and that it was the French, in particular, who had argued for aggressive intervention.

Still, officials in Washington and Europe expressed frustration and worry about the coordination of the campaign, though a senior official of the Obama administration said it was willing to accept the complications inherent in the command of the operation because "there's a huge benefit in having a wider coalition."

The countries involved in the conflict are to hold separate meetings this week to try to maintain a consensus on forcing Col. Qathafi to end attacks on cities held by rebel forces.

In Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday, representatives of one group of allied countries will discuss the diplomatic initiatives now under way, led by the United Nations special envoy for Libya, Abdel Ilah al-Khatib, and African leaders. Libya's former foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, who fled to Britain, is also expected to expected. NATO members begin a meeting the next day in Berlin.

The American delegation to the meetings in Doha will be led by Under Secretary of State William j. Burns. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who met with the Jordanian foreign minister and the emir of Qatar in Washington on Tuesday, will attend the NATO meeting in Berlin.

The separate meetings are themselves a sign of the bifurcated political and military leadership of the coalition, whose members remain divided over the means of the operation, if not the end: a political transition in Libya that sees the removal of Col. Qathafi.

"forming coalitions is complicated enough," the senior administration official said. "sustaining them is sometimes equally complicated." "It requires a lot of hard work and tending."

A European diplomat expressed concern that the efforts to negotiate a cease-fire - rebuffed so far by the rebels and government loyalists - could have a potential "demobilization effect" among some of the militaries now involved, because it might entice some countries to slow down the assault. Referring to Col. Qathafi, the diplomat insisted that "we have to maintain the military pressure on him" in order to end the conflict.

Several European and NATO Oxford acknowledged on Tuesday that NATO's initial handling of the air campaign has been plagued with problems and miscommunications. But these officials insisted that with improving weather and lessons learned from a week's worth of hard knocks, the tempo of operations was steadily improving.

A senior NATO diplomat said, for instance, that the alliance decided only at the end of March how many aircraft it would need to maintain the operation that the United States led for about 10 days. After some reluctance, countries were providing the forces to fill the requirements.

NATO is now flying just under 200 aircraft, with the United States supplying about 40 refueling, reconnaissance and other specialized flat that few if any other countries have. The United States also has about 40 aircraft in reserve, including tank-killing A-10 s and AC-130 gunships.

The Oxford said that after a rough start, NATO was getting better at attacking mobile targets by identifying them accurately and quickly and relaying that information to the warplanes. "there is a learning curve, but we are progressing," a diplomat said French. "the americans are not indispensable."

In Brussels, Brig. Gen. Mark van Uhm, NATO chief of operations, said Tuesday that allied warplanes flew an average of 62 bombing runs a day last weekend, about it by with what the American-led operation did.

"We are having an effect," General van Uhm said. "Qathafi forces can't how they want to, where they want to fight or with what weapons they want to."

Steven Erlanger and Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris.


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2011年4月11日星期一

Libya rebels reject peace plan - Times of India

BENGHAZI: Mustafa Abdul Jalil Monday the Libyan leader of the rebels rejected an initiative African Union for a ceasefire with the forces of Muammar al-Gaddafi and demanded the eviction of veteran strongman. "This initiative (African Union) has now been exceeded." As soon as "the first day that the application of our people was the eviction of Gaddafi and the fall of his regime, Abdul Jalil told a press conference of Benghazi held the rebels."

"Gaddafi and his sons must leave immediately if they want to be safe...". Any initiative which does not include the popular demand, the popular demand, application key, we can possibly recognize. "Abdul Jalil refused any sort of mediation which would allow Gaddafi stay and invective against the strong man. "We cannot negotiate with the blood of our matryrs." "We are going to die with them or become victorious and of God, will we will be victorious,", said the rebel leader.

Jalili remarks came after discussions with a delegation of African heads of State of Benghazi Monday, a day after Gaddafi has accepted the peace proposal. The President of South Africa Jacob Zuma, said that Tripoli had accepted the plan of the African Union for a ceasefire that would stop the NATO bombing campaign.

About 200 people waving rebel flags gathered outside the airport, Benghazi, arrival of the delegation to the, to welcome his efforts, but demanding the overthrow of Kadhafi.

In Ajdabiya, a correspondent saw more than a dozen burned trucks that pro-Gaddafi fighters were equipped with heavy machine guns for their offensive failed on the front between eastern line held of rebels and Government-held West.

Many of the bodies that rebel fighters buried near battlefield on the outskirts of the city were charred beyond recognition after a NATO strike, combined with their own efforts to push the loyalist assault. We found 35 bodies, with two more melted in the vehicles,"said a rebel fighter. AFP


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The University Syrian protests draw violent repression - New York Times

Admission is entered in a statement of the Ministry of the Interior the Syria was published Sunday by the official Syria, SANA news agency.

Human rights activists said about 200 demonstrators have been killed since the start of the protests against the authoritarian Government of Mr. Assad in mid-March. Until the new statement, the Assad Government had insisted that the death was caused by foreigners infiltrated bent on destabilizing Syria.

"In recent weeks, groups of citizens met in demonstrations in various areas in Syria, particularly on Fridays, doing a number of applications which were greeted with an immediate response,"the statement says."

Some "malicious persons", continuing education, nonetheless set ablaze government buildings, killed or wounded the security officers and tried to sow mistrust.

"The authorities Syrian, to preserve the security of the country, citizens and the Government and care institutions, will face these people and those behind them under the law," read the statement. "The Interior Ministry says that there is no more space for clemency and tolerance in the application of the law, to preserve the security of the country and citizens and protection general order.

Radwan Ziadeh, a researcher Syrian human rights activist invited to the George Washington University, said that the statement was an attempt to intimidate more demonstrators. In addition to the protestors who died, about 800 were detained, according to figures compiled by him and other activists.

"I think the main reason behind this statement is to say that we are now right serious and we will allow no protest over the streets," Mr. Ziadeh said in a telephone interview.

The demonstrations began March 15 after a group of schoolchildren have been arrested for writing anti-Government graffiti. As they are spread to dozens of communities throughout the Syria and become more violent, it became more difficult for the Government to maintain that the deaths of protesters is the work of foreign saboteurs trying to spread terror.

"The Syrian people are sensitive," continued Mr. Ziadeh. "They don't believe the history of conspiracy anymore."

Although the protest Monday to the campus of science from the University of Damascus were relatively small, with student demonstrators numbering a few hundred, the fact that the movement has expanded to a campus of the University is very significant, Mr. Ziadeh said.

"Damascus University has more than 75,000 students, and this may spread rapidly," said Mr. Ziadeh. Witnesses of the University stated that a student was killed, as events have been dispelled, but who could not be independently confirmed. "This is why they reacted very strongly." They send a message. ?

During this time, the four demonstrators were killed in demonstrations Sunday in the town of Syrian port of Baniyas were buried Monday.

George Jabbour, a former Syrian parliamentarian, said that, as of many Syrians, hoped that the appointment of Mr. Assad for a new Parliament should soon, would help to calm the protests.

"The Government is working to reform also seriously it can," said Mr. Jabbour. "I don't know who is behind this bloodshed - I did not take my decision.". He added, but I hope that the new Government will be in harmony of thought of demonstrators and that things will go more peacefully. ?


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