Somali Pirates Seize 2 Ships

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – Pirates seized a British-flagged chemical tanker and a Panamanian-flagged carrier off Somalia's coast and were holding 45 crew members Tuesday, a maritime official said.
The two hijackings late Monday showed that pirates are relentless in their pursuit of quick money from ransom and that ship owners need to take extra precaution when sailing in the Horn of Africa, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The waters off Somalia are teeming with pirates who have hijacked dozens of ships for multimillion-dollar ransoms in the past two years. An international naval force now patrols the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Choong said the U.K.-flagged tanker, St James Park, was the first merchant vessel to have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in nearly six months.
He said the ship issued a distress message Monday, seeking help after it was attacked.
The distress call was picked up by the Greek rescue and coordination center in Piraeus, which in turn relayed the message to the International Maritime Bureau and other agencies, he said.
The maritime bureau could not establish communication with the vessel but was informed by the ship's owner early Tuesday that the tanker has been hijacked, Choong said.
The spokesman for the European Union's anti-piracy force, Cmdr. John Harbour, said the St James Park was seized while in the Internationally Recognized Transit Corridor in the Gulf of Aden that is patrolled by the international naval coalition.
The St James Park set sail from Tarragona, Spain, and was headed for Tha Phut, Thailand, he said. The tanker has 26 crew members from the Philippines, Russia, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, India and Turkey, Harbour said.
The ship was last reported to be heading toward the northern coast of Somalia, and the E.U. Naval Force was monitoring the situation, he added.
Choong said pirates last hijacked a Yemeni fishing boat in the Gulf of Aden on Dec. 18, but the St James Park was the first merchant vessel to have been taken in the busy waterway since July 8.
He said three hours after the St James Park was hijacked that a Panamanian-flagged carrier with 19 crew members was also seized by pirates off the southern coast of Somalia on Monday. The ship is managed in Greece, he said.
The International Maritime Bureau is still waiting for the official reports from both ship owners and couldn't give further details, Choong said.
In another development, pirates released the Singapore-flagged container ship Kota Wajar on Monday, the E.U. Naval Force said. The vessel was hijacked in mid-October in the Indian Ocean north of the Seychelles islands with a crew of 21 on board.
Choong said the latest incidents brought the number of attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia to 214 this year, with 47 vessels hijacked and 12 still in the hands of pirates with 263 crew, he added.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991 as regional warlords vie for power, and impoverished young men have increasingly taken to piracy in recent years in hopes of a big ransom payoff.


Obama Vows to Hunt Extremists, Qaeda Claims Attack

KANEOHE, Hawaii (AFP) – President Barack Obama has vowed to hunt down extremists wherever they plot attacks against the United States, as Al-Qaeda said it hatched the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a US-bound airliner.
Obama pledged Monday to "disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us -- whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the US homeland."
The president said he had ordered a probe to find out how 23-year-old suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria managed to board a Detroit-bound plane from Amsterdam with an explosive device.
"A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable," Obama said in his first public comments since the botched attack.
As millions of edgy air travelers endured stringent new security measures for flights around the globe, Obama was under massive pressure to ease frayed nerves and counter accusations his administration is soft on terror. Related article: Airport scanners revisited
"This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland," Obama said, three days after catastrophe was narrowly averted on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
An Al-Qaeda affiliate in the Arabian peninsula claimed Monday it was behind the failed bombing and threatened new attacks on the West. Related article: Al-Qaeda claims failed attack
In an Internet posting the group said a "technical fault" caused the plot's failure, SITE Intelligence said.
The statement was accompanied by a picture of Abdulmutallab, who was described as the "Nigerian brother," and boasted he "was able to breach all the modern and sophisticated technologies and checkpoints at the airports around the world," according to IntelCenter, another US monitoring group.
"His act has dealt a huge blow to the myth of American and global intelligence services and showed how fragile its structure is."
According to charging documents, Abdulmutallab tried to bring down the Airbus A330 with 290 people on board using a device containing the explosive PETN, also known as pentaerythritol.
The explosive material was allegedly sewn into his underwear and officials believe tragedy was averted only because the makeshift detonator failed to work properly before fellow passengers jumped on the would-be bomber.
Obama has ordered a review of US no-fly lists after it emerged that Abdulmutallab was on a broad terrorist watch-list of 500,000 names but still had a valid US visa.
He was added to the watch-list last month after his father told US embassy officials in Abuja that he was concerned by his son's increasing radicalism, but he was not on a no-fly list of roughly 4,000 names.
Obama's security chief demanded to know how Abdulmutallab retained his visa, while Britain confirmed the 23-year-old had been placed on its security blacklist in May this year.
The suspect was moved from a hospital to a federal prison west of Detroit on Sunday. He is not due to appear in court until he is arraigned on January 8.
With renewed questions being asked about air security, travelers in the United States were told to check in four hours ahead of scheduled departure times, while bomb-sniffing dogs were visible at airports across the country.
In Nigeria, Abdulmutallab's family promised their full cooperation with security agencies and said his recent behavior had been "completely out of character."
Soldiers patrol the international Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.


Standoff Over US Base Closure Sours US-Japan Ties

GINOWAN, Japan (AP) – When the U.S. took over a Japanese airfield here in the closing days of World War II, it was surrounded by sugarcane fields and the smoldering battlegrounds of Okinawa. It is now the focus of a deepening dispute that is testing Japan's security alliance with the United States and dividing its new government in Tokyo.
A large city has grown up around the base, and helicopters and cargo planes from the U.S. Marine Corps facility buzz so low over Futenma No. 2 Elementary School, whose playground fence borders the facility, that the windows rattle and teachers stop class until the aircraft are on the ground.
"It's just too much," said the school's vice principal, Muneo Nakamura. "I understand the political role the U.S. bases in Japan play. But we have to live here."
That Marine Corps Air Station Futenma must go is not the dispute. U.S. military officials agree the base must be moved. The problem is where.
The United States says that Futenma cannot be shut down until a replacement is elsewere on Okinawa, an idea that most Okinawans oppose. They have the ear of a new left-leaning Japanese government that took office in September and is reassessing the U.S.-Japan alliance.
The standoff has clouded relations between Tokyo and Washington, delayed a plan to restructure America's military presence in Asia and divided Japan's political leadership. It comes as China's rising military strength and North Korea's nuclear program are changing the security landscape in Asia, underscoring the importance for the U.S. and Japan of keeping the issue from creating a major rift.
In Ginowan, the city of 92,000 where the base is located, patience is wearing thin.
The Futenma facility, home to about 2,000 Marines and one of the Marines' largest facilities in the Pacific, is surrounded by urban sprawl.
The population density outside the base is roughly equivalent to downtown Tokyo. Intense training by helicopters and planes off a 9,186-foot (2,800-meter) runway has prompted residents to dub Futenma "the most dangerous base in the world."
The base takes up roughly a quarter of the city's land. Residents must drive around it, causing traffic jams, delays and frustration. Sewer and water lines have been detoured around its perimeter.
"This base violates so many regulations and safety rules that it would be illegal to operate it in the United States," Yoichi Iha, the mayor of Ginowan, told The Associated Press. "The situation has just been left to fester for too long, and no one has been willing to accept responsibility to do anything."
He also accused the Marines of regularly ignoring agreements on when and where they can fly. The city is installing a 2 billion yen ($20 million) radar system next year to keep tabs on them. A Japanese court ruled last year the noise levels are unacceptable, and ordered the Japanese government to compensate residents. An appeal is ongoing.
Lt. Col. Douglas Powell, a spokesman for the Okinawa Marines, said no flights are conducted after 11:00 p.m. and the airstrip is closed on Sundays.
"Night training flights are limited to the minimum required to fulfill assigned missions and maintain aircrew proficiency," he said. "Flight patterns can vary due to weather conditions such as wind velocity and wind direction. Marine Corps pilots make every effort to minimize overflight of civilian population centers, but, first and foremost, must ensure safe flight operations."
Progress on the Futenma issue has generally only occurred after major incidents have sent Okinawans into the streets in protest.
Following a public uproar over the rape of a local schoolgirl by two Maines and a sailor, Tokyo and Washington agreed in 1996 to close the base. The deal bogged down in the details, including finding an alternative site both sides could agree on.
After a helicopter from Futenma crashed on the Okinawa International University campus near the base in August 2004, another agreement was announced in 2006. The university was closed at the time and no one was killed on the ground.
That "strategic roadmap" included moving the facility farther north to a less crowded area and reducing the U.S. presence in Okinawa by transfering 8,000 Marines from Futenma and other bases to Guam, a tiny U.S. territory in the Pacific.
It would be the most sweeping realignment of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan since the Vietnam War.
But the decision to replace the Futenma base with another on the outskirts of Nago, another Okinawan city, sparked intense protests.
The new base would likely require bulldozing beaches near an existing Marine facility, Camp Schwab.
"We are not going to let them destroy our ocean to build another military base," said Hiroshi Aratomi, the co-leader of a group that has held a daily sit-in for the past five years. "We will be glad to see Futenma go, but not at the price of simply substituting it with another base in our backyard."
The protests by Nago residents have effectively thwarted efforts to finally settle on a site and have the sympathy of Okinawans in general, who would prefer that no replacement facility be built on their island at all.
The United States insists the base must stay somewhere on Okinawa so that the Marine units remain cohesive.
Japan's new government is listening to the protesters, at least for the moment .
US jets prepare to take off from the US Futenma Air Base in Okinawa.


China Executes British National Despite Pleas

BEIJING (AFP) – A Briton said to have serious mental health problems was executed in China Tuesday for drug smuggling despite last-minute pleas for clemency, a move condemned by London, rights groups and his family.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled and disappointed" by the execution of Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old father-of-three, who supporters say had bipolar disorder. His family expressed their grief and asked for privacy.
China confirmed the execution and defended its use of capital punishment as a deterrent, saying evidence of Shaikh's mental illness was "insufficient". It also said it hoped London would not "create new obstacles" to diplomatic ties.
Shaikh is the first European national to be executed in China in 58 years, according to the London-based charity Reprieve, which had been providing him with legal counsel.
His case sparked condemnation from London and rights activists, who said his illness should have been a mitigating factor in his sentencing. Reprieve said China had ignored "overwhelming and unrebutted evidence" of his condition. Related article: Executed Briton deluded by dreams of stardom
London had launched an 11th hour appeal for clemency, urging Beijing to "do the right thing" by halting the execution in Urumqi, the capital of China's far-western Xinjiang region.
But the execution was carried out on Tuesday by lethal injection, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
Brown vented his anger, saying in a statement issued in London: "I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted.
"I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken."
Shaikh, from London, was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi after arriving from Tajikistan with four kilograms (about nine pounds) of heroin. Campaigners say a criminal gang duped him into carrying the drugs into China.
He was sentenced to death in December 2008 and lost his final appeal earlier this year in China's Supreme Court, officials say.
Two of Shaikh's cousins visited him in Urumqi on Monday and told him of his fate. Reprieve said it was the first time he had seen a family member in two years.
The family issued a short statement expressing "grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy" and thanking Shaikh's supporters, who created a Facebook group and staged a vigil in London on Monday.
Reprieve said it had medical evidence that Shaikh suffered from a delusion he was going to China to record a hit single that would usher in world peace. New witnesses have emerged to back that version of events.
One of those witnesses, British man Paul Newberry, was quoted by Reprieve as saying Shaikh "was clearly suffering from delusions and it seemed to me he was a particularly severe case of manic depressive".
It was the second time in less than a week that China's judiciary had come under fire in the West, after a top dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed on Christmas Day for 11 years for subversion.
China's Supreme Court said the evidence provided by the British side of Shaikh's mental illness was "insufficient", according to a statement published on the central government's website.
It justified the use of capital punishment as a deterrent, saying: "To use the death penalty for extremely threatening and serious crimes involving drugs is beneficial to instilling fear and preventing drug crimes."
Later, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu reiterated that Shaikh's rights had been "fully protected", adding that China treated "criminals of all nationalities as equals" in its crackdown on the drugs trade. Related article: China, the world's biggest user of death penalty
When asked about Brown's comments, Jiang expressed China's dissatisfaction and added: "We hope the British side will face this case squarely and not create new obstacles for China-Britain relations."
A Hong Kong spokeswoman for global rights watchdog Amnesty International, Roseann Rife, called the execution a "slap in the face of the international community" and said it showed Beijing's "disregard for the rule of law".
According to Amnesty, China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined, but the actual numbers put to death remain a state secret.
It put the number of executions in China in 2008 at more than 1,700.
Briton Akmal Shaikh, who has been executed in China.


Cairo Forces Viva Palestina to Take Detour

AQABA, Jordan (Press TV) – Thanks to Cairo's obstruction, Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy en rout to the Gaza Strip will take a detour and head to Syria Latakia, in a bid to enter Egypt through El-Arish.
The convoy of 250 vehicles has been stranded in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba after Egypt refused to allow it to go through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba — the most direct route. Cairo insisted that the convoy can only enter through the Mediterranean port city of El-Arish.
"The aid convoy will leave Aqaba for (the Mediterranean port of) Latakia in Syria before going to El-Arish, in line with Cairo's decision," said Maysara Malas, of Jordan's powerful trade union federation, which has been helping to organize the aid convoy.
"We hope that Egypt does not put more obstacles. It's unfortunate that Israel has interfered in Egypt's decision, which serves the Zionist entity," he added.
Around 250 trucks, ambulances and other vehicles laden with Arab, Turkish and other European aid — both food and medical supplies — in Aqaba arrived on Thursday hoping to take the ferry across to Nuweiba.
"After talks between the Turkish government's envoy and the Egyptian consulate in Aqaba, we agreed to go to Syria," Zaher Birawi, spokesman for the convoy told AFP on Monday.
The convoy was scheduled to deliver medical, humanitarian and educational aid to Gazans on December 27, which marks the first year anniversary of Israel's three-week war against the sliver.
Egyptian police also stopped some 200 protesters from renting boats on the Nile to hold a procession to commemorate the death of over 1,400 victims of Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy en rout to the Gaza Strip will take a detour and head to Syria Latakia.


Intelligence Officials:Time Is Running out in Afghanistan

KABUL (McClatchy) – As the U.S. and its allies try to overcome logistical hurdles and rush some 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan in 2010, intelligence officials are warning that the Taliban -led insurgency is expanding and that "time is running out" for the U.S.-led coalition to prove that its strategy can succeed.
The Taliban have created a shadow "government-in-waiting," complete with Cabinet ministers, that could assume power if the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai fails, a senior International Security Assistance Force intelligence official said in Kabul , speaking only on the condition of anonymity as a matter of ISAF policy.
As the Obama administration and its European allies face dwindling public and political support for the eight-year-old Afghan war, the Taliban now have what the official called "a full-fledged insurgency" and shadow governors in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, including those in the north, where U.S. and other officials had thought the extremists posed less of a threat.
The Taliban's return to the northern provinces, including Baghlan, Kunduz and Taqhar — which McClatchy reported Aug. 28 — poses serious security, logistical and political problems for the U.S.-led ISAF and Karzai's government.
The northern region is under the command of German forces, but they and other European contingents operate under restrictions imposed by their governments that limit offensive operations against the Taliban.
The Taliban now threaten the northern supply route that the ISAF established to supplement the vulnerable routes that run through Pakistan, where the U.S.-backed government is battling its own extremists and growing violence.
The Taliban in northern Afghanistan are sheltering among and recruiting from large communities of Pashtuns — descendants of settlers transplanted from the south in the early 20th century — fueling tensions with the Uzbeks and Tajiks who dominate the region.
At the same time, though, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens and Arabs linked to al Qaida have moved into northern Afghanistan with the Taliban, seeking to carry their jihad to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and alarming Russia, which is grappling with insurgencies in the republics of Chechnya and Dagestan.
As the Taliban have extended their reach, they've also grown more formidable militarily by developing bigger and more effective improvised explosive devices. Insurgents have mounted 7,228 IED attacks so far this year, compared with 81 in 2003, and, as McClatchy reported last month, the homemade bombs have even destroyed some Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, the most heavily armored U.S. troop transports.
British soldiers in Afghanistan


Hamas Warns Zionists Against New Attacks

GAZA (Dispatches) – The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas has warned the Zionist occupying regime of any new incursions against Gaza, saying any attacks against Palestinians brings about a harsh response.
In a televised speech marking the anniversary of Zionist incursion into Gaza, Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniye also praised Gaza's "steadfastness" in face of the Zionist regime's war against Palestinians last winter.
Anniversary events began with sirens sounding at 11:20 am (0920 GMT), when the first bombs of Israeli regime's "Operation Cast Lead," slammed into the coastal strip.
The wave of air raids launched on Palestinian houses across Gaza on December 27, 2008 killed at least 225 innocent people including women and children in what was one of the bloodiest single days in the decades-long Israeli crimes against Palestinian people.
"The enemy wanted with this bloody surprise to shock the people of Gaza and the government and the resistance, but faith in God was stronger than the shock and the planes," Haniya said.
"Gaza was victorious with its legendary steadfastness. It was victorious when Israel, the enemy, failed in all its war aims," he added.
North of Gaza City, hundreds of people carried pictures of the fallen past a UN school hit during the war and the destroyed home of Nizar Rayan, a senior Hamas leader killed in an air strike along with his family and 10 children.
When the 22 days of offensive ended on January 18, some 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 400 children, had been killed. Another 5,500 people were wounded in the fighting.
"Those were dark days. There was killing in every street and alley," said Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services. Sixteen of his paramedics were killed as they struggled to collect the wounded.
Israel has come under intense criticism from the international community and human rights groups who have accused it of violating human rights, committing war crimes and disproportionate force during the incursion, including the use of white phosphorus in residential areas.
It has also faced criticism for imposing sanctions on Gaza since June 2007 that have prevented almost any reconstruction from taking place and deprived Palestinians from reaching basic needs. Egypt has also largely sealed its border with Gaza.
A UN Human Rights Council report released several months ago accused Israel of committing war crimes during the offensive.


Al-Qaida in Yemen Expands Operations

CAIRO (AP) – Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the attempted attack on a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit, is led by a Yemeni who was once a close aide to Osama bin Laden.
The group formed in January this year, when leader Naser Abdel Karim al-Wahishi announced a merger between operatives from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Al-Wahishi, who goes by the alias Abu Basir, was among 23 al-Qaida figures who escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006. He is on Saudi Arabia's most wanted list, which includes many militants currently in Yemen.
At least two former detainees released in November 2007 from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have resurfaced as al-Qaida commanders in Yemen.
Said al-Shihri, who was released from a Saudi rehabilitation program last year, is a deputy leader of the organization in Yemen. Another former Guantanamo inmate, Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi, surfaced in January in a video clip showing him sporting a bandolier of bullets as an al-Qaida field commander.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has been blamed for a series of attacks in Yemen, including an assault against the U.S. embassy in San'a, and suicide bombings targeting South Korean visitors.
Recently, the group indicated it was ready to take its fight beyond Yemen. The government there said the Nigerian accused in the Christmas day attack on the U.S. airliner visited Yemen this year.
In claiming responsibility for that attack, al-Qaida urged supporters to get the "infidels" out of the Arabian peninsula. The call echoed Osama bin Laden, who criticized Saudi Arabia for hosting American military bases.
The group's first operation outside Yemen was carried out in Saudi Arabia this August against the kingdom's counterterrorism chief, though that bomb attack failed.
Experts believe the al-Qaida fighters number in the low hundreds. The group appears to be well funded and has found sanctuaries among a number of Yemeni tribes, particularly in three eastern provinces.
Yemen, the ancestral home of bin Laden's family, has been an al-Qaida haven partly because of a weak central government and rugged terrain where it is easy to hide.
The country was the scene of the 2000 suicide bombing of the destroyer USS Cole off the Aden Coast that killed 17 American sailors.
Just before the failed Christmas attack, Yemeni airplanes, backed by U.S. and Saudi intelligence, carried out two air strikes against al-Qaida operatives in eastern Yemen.


Yemeni Houthis Reject Reports Leader Dead

SANAA (Dispatches) – Houthis spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam has rejected reports that the fighters' leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has been killed by Yemeni forces.
Yemeni defense ministry website released a report on Sunday that the fighters' leader might had died after being severely wounded by government forces in the north of the country.
Houthi spokesman said the report by the Yemeni government was part of their psychological warfare against the Shiite Muslims in north of the country.
Yemen's defense ministry website had said Houthi had been wounded in an attack by troops and might have died from his wounds.
"There are increasing reports about the death" of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, "who was severely injured in an attack" by the government forces, the website said, adding that he may have been buried already.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya also confirmed the leader was killed, citing unnamed Yemeni sources as saying he was killed in an airstrike. Yemeni news websites carried the same report. However, the report turned out to be fabricated by Yemen government.
Meanwhile, Houthi fighters said in a statement on their website on Sunday that Saudi Arabia launched 31 air raids on the Jaberi area in addition to 15 air strikes on areas in Yemen on Saturday night.
"Air strikes and missiles continued all of last night...," the statement said. "This morning, the Saudi army began to advance inland into Jaberi."
Meanwhile, according to other reports the US has opened a covert front against 'al-Qaeda' in Yemen by offering support to the country's military operations, a US intelligence sources says.
Citing an unnamed former CIA official, The New York Times reported late on Sunday that about a year ago the CIA sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country.
The report revealed that some of the most secretive special operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces.
The paper noted that the Pentagon will be spending more than USD 70 million over the next 18 months to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces.
Yemen's national security chief had earlier declared that the country was receiving assistance from the US in the crackdown on what he called "al-Qaeda operatives" in southern Yemen.
Mohamed al-Anisi had told the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz that the Yemeni forces were cooperating with the US military on attacks against al-Qaeda camps.
The video grab shows Houthis standing on an armored personnel carrier seized from the army during the ongoing operation on their strongholds in northwestern Yemen.


Zionists Condemned Over Settlement Expansions

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Palestinian Authority has condemned Israel's move to build hundreds more housing units for settlers in the occupied East Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
"The Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the new decision to build in East Beit-ul-Moqaddas and wonders whether there is a freeze of settlement activity or an intensification of it," AFP quoted chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as saying.
Erekat addressed the US President Barack Obama's administration, saying Washington "needs to realize that the policies of the Israeli government embody settlements and not peace and that their choice is settlements and not peace."
The Israeli media on Sunday said Tel Aviv invited tenders for the building of some 692 new housing units in three settlements in East Beit-ul-Moqaddas, which Israel occupied during the 1967 six-day war and annexed later despite strong opposition from the international community.
The international community has repeatedly called for a permanent halt to all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including East Beit-ul-Moqaddas, which Palestinians demand as the capital of their promised state.
The new homes come despite Tel Aviv's recent gesture to Palestinians under breaking international pressure to freeze its illegal settlement activities and pave the way for the revival of Middle East peace talks.
In November, Israel announced a 10-month moratorium on building in the West Bank; which does not apply to public buildings and projects already underway, and also excludes East Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
Earlier in the month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish government approved 900 new housing units in another East Beit-ul-Moqaddas settlement attracting further outrage among Palestinians and a rare criticism from even the United States and other Western allies.
The European Union also has said new settlements in East Beit-ul-Moqaddas are illegal under international law and urged Israel to reconsider its plans.
“The presidency of the European Union is dismayed at the announcement of the Israeli government to build nearly 700 apartments in the occupied East Beit-ul-Moqaddas,” said a statement issued on Monday from Sweden, which holds the EU presidency.
The United States has said it opposes Jewish settlement construction on occupied land and has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume the negotiations, which have been stalled for a year.
A spokesman for Palestinian Authority acting chief Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli plan, saying new construction on territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war is illegal.
The Israeli Housing Ministry has invited contractors to bid for the construction of 198 housing units in Pisgat Zeev, 377 homes in Neve Yaakov, and 117 dwellings in Har Homa, settlements near Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
A new housing project at the illegal settlement of Har Homa in Beit-ul-Moqaddas


10 Civilians, UK Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

KABUL (Dispatches) – Ten civilians including eight school children have been killed the latest episode of NATO's imprecise airstrikes in Afghanistan.
"Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by international forces in Kunar province... 10 civilians, eight of them school students have been killed," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said Monday.
Karzai has strongly condemned the killings in the airstrikes and appointed a delegation to investigate the event.
NATO forces in Kabul said they were looking into the incident, but declined to give further details.
Kunar representative in the parliament walked out of an important session debating appointments to Karzai's new cabinet in protest at the civilian casualties.
The border regions of Kunar have long been volatile as Taliban militants are said to cross the porous border from Pakistan to fight Western troops and Afghan government forces.
The imprecise operations carried out by the 100,000-plus foreign forces in Afghanistan have been criticized for their potential in claiming civilian casualties.
In one of the worst such cases, more than 140 people, including at least 30 civilians, were killed or wounded in Kunduz Province on September 4.
Meanwhile, a British soldier has been killed in an explosion while patrolling in southern Afghanistan.
The soldier, whose identity has not been revealed, was killed on Monday in the Kajaki area of Helmand province where his 3rd Battalion, known as The Rifles, has been stationed along with other British troops.
The latest incident raises the death toll for British troops based in Afghanistan to 244, the British Defense Ministry announced.
“It is my sad duty to inform you that a British soldier from 3rd Battalion, The Rifles was killed this afternoon,” Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, the spokesman for the British military's Task Force Helmand, said on Monday.
“He was caught by an explosion while on patrol in the Kajaki area of Helmand province. His courage and his sacrifice will not be forgotten,” he added.
US soldiers on patrol in Kunar on December 14.


Netanyahu to Egypt to Discuss Prisoner Swap

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS (AP) – Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Egypt to discuss U.S.-backed efforts to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians.
He is also expected to discuss Tuesday negotiations to swap hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a Zionist soldier who has been held in the Gaza Strip for 3 1/2 years.
Egypt and Germany have been mediating those talks.
Israel has relayed its response to the latest swap proposal to Gaza's militant Hamas leaders.
Hamas has not yet delivered its response.
Netanyahu's entourage will include his envoy to the U.S. on the peace talks and his national security adviser.


Sudan Parl't to Vote on Referendum Law

KHARTOUM (AFP) – The office of Sudan National Congress Party says the dispute between the ruling party and Sudan People's Liberation Movement about referendum on Southern independence, concerns the participation of the southern who live outside the region.
The head of the office, Ghazi Salah al-din, released on Monday the news in a statement, a copy of which was received by Al-Alam.
The statement said that the removal of the clause 3 of the article 27 on referendum law, created a lot of disagreements between the two parties.
According to this clause, those Sudanese citizens who belong to southern Sudan ethnic groups and have not had permanent residence since January 1956, do not have rights to participate in the referendum.
Sudan's parliament was due to vote again on Monday on the referendum law.
"We agreed on the fact that the law on the referendum will be resubmitted to parliament on Monday to be adopted with the article that had been removed," said Riek Mashar of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
On Tuesday, MPs from the SPLM and other southern parties walked out in protest at a new clause allowing diaspora southerners -- including those in the north who could be subject to northern influence -- to cast absentee ballots.


UN Food Agency Staff Member in Afghanistan

TEHRAN (UNIC) – The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Monday expressed its deep distress over the killing of one of its staff members in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
The WFP employee, 24, was among the eight people killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives hidden in a horse-drawn cart in central Kandahar on the evening of 24 December. Three civilians and a police officer were injured in the blast.
The identity of the slain WFP warehouse security guard, an Afghan national who had been working with the agency since July, will not be released for his family’s protection.
“I am shocked and saddened by this terrible loss,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends and colleagues of this dedicated man whose courage and commitment have contributed to our ability to provide food assistance to the hungry in southern Afghanistan,” she added.
The security guard, whose remains are being taken to Pakistan, where his family lives, for burial, was off-duty at the time of the explosion. Although details are still being collected, WFP does not believe he was the intended target of the blast. The agency said it appears that he was passing by on his motorcycle when the bomb exploded.
Five UN staff members were killed when militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades attacked a guest house, home to over 30 UN workers, in the capital, Kabul, in the early hours of 28 October.


Saudis Arrests Officials Over Jeddah Flood

RIYADH (Press TV) – At least 40 Saudi officials and contractors have been arrested following a probe into the November flood, which killed over 120 people in Jeddah.
The authorities, including a number of senior officials of the Red Sea city's mayor office were rounded up by two dozen police officers on Sunday, AFP reported.
An assistant to the Jeddah mayor, four department heads, and the former head of the city's projects division were among the detainees.
More than 30 other officials were also arrested to be questioned by an investigation committee, which was formed at the order of King Abdullah and is led by Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of the Mecca region, which also includes Jeddah.
The investigation has been launched into the uncommonly heavy rainfall, which sparked a flash flood in the kingdom's second largest city on November 25.