Nigeria's Islamists Threaten New Attacks

ABUJA(AFP) -- Nigerian security forces searched for a kidnapped German engineer on Friday as the Boko Haram Islamist group threatened new attacks in Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer.
In an audio recording posted on YouTube, Abubakar Shekau said he ordered the coordinated attacks that killed at least 185 people in Kano on January 20 and vowed that the group would strike again.
"We were responsible," said Shekau of the January 20 assaults, the deadliest ever attributed to the shadowy group.
"I ordered it and I will give that order again and again. God gave us victory," he said.
The authenticity of the Hausa language message, which played above a picture of Shekau with a Kalashnikov set in the background could not be independently verified.
But the photo appeared to match with previous ones said to be of Shekau and the voice sounded similar to earlier recordings.
"We attacked the security formations because our members were arrested and tortured. Our women and children have also been arrested," he said.
"They should know that they also have wives and children. We can also abduct them. It is not beyond our powers."
Boko Haram has previously said that it wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's deeply-impoverished mainly Muslim north, charging the government with harassing Muslims and raiding Islamic schools.
"Soldiers raided an Islamic seminary in (the northern city) of Maiduguri and desecrated the Koran. They should bear in mind that they also have primary and secondary schools and universities, and we can also attack them."
But after a meeting with governors from 19 northern Nigerian states early Friday, Nigeria's Vice President Namadi Sambo denied that religious tensions were fuelling the Boko Haram menace in the country whose population is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south.
"It is very clear that there is no religious problem, religious fighting in northern Nigeria," Sambo told journalists.
Shekau was seen as Boko Haram's second-in-command at the time of a 2009 uprising put down by a brutal military assault, after which the group went dormant for about a year before re-emerging in 2010 with increasingly sophisticated attacks.
There has been intense speculation about Boko Haram's links to foreign Islamist groups, specifically Al-Qaeda's north Africa franchise, known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Speaking to AFP a western diplomat downplayed the strength of those ties.
"I think there's evidence of contact (with foreign groups), but in terms of operationally linking up with AQIM or extremist groups elsewhere, we don't see Boko Haram as an Al-Qaeda franchise," said the diplomat who requested anonymity.
In Kano, hit by a fresh blast on Thursday after armed men stormed a police station two days earlier, gunmen kidnapped a German engineer working with a Nigerian construction company Dantata and Sawoe.
Edgar Raupach was seized by men who "came and handcuffed him and put him in the boot and zoomed away," said Kano police spokesman Magaji Majia.
Regional police immediately sent out an alert.
"All the major highways were blocked and even the neighbouring states were equally alerted," he said on Thursday.
An official from the German embassy in Nigeria said its staff were trying to verify the police account.
The kidnapping of foreigners is rare in northern Nigeria and there were no immediate indications that Boko Haram was linked to the abduction.


13 Killed in Clashes in Russia's Volatile Caucasus

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) — Russian officials say an Islamist warlord, seven militants, four officers and one civilian have been killed in three separate incidents in Russia's violence-plagued southern Caucasus region.
Russia's Anti-Terrorist Committee spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said the leader of Islamist separatists in the province of Ingushetia was killed in a shootout Friday in the village of Ekazhevo along with two other militants.
Also Friday, police spokesman Vyasheslav Gasanov said four Russian military officers and five militants were killed in the neighboring province of Dagestan.
In another restive Russian province, Kabardino-Balkariya, three masked militants stormed into a school and stabbed a volleyball player in the gym, police spokesman Andrey Ushakov said.
An Islamic insurgency has spread across Russia's southern Caucasus region since two separatists wars against Russia were fought in Chechnya beginning in the 1990s. The insurgents now launch regular attacks on authorities who they blame for the abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings across the region.


Rockets Hit Pakistan Academy Near Bin Laden Home

ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- Attackers on Friday fired rockets at Pakistan's top military academy, damaging its outer wall in a major security breach near the home where Osama bin Laden lived for years, officials said.
No one was hurt in the pre-dawn attack and it was unclear who fired the nine rockets from behind a mosque in mountains overlooking the Kakul academy, Pakistan's equivalent of West Point 30 miles (50 kilometres) from the capital.
The garrison city of Abbottabad was considered one of the safest parts of nuclear-armed Pakistan until American special forces on May 2 found and killed the Al-Qaeda founder in a compound where he apparently lived for five years.
The bin Laden raid humiliated Pakistan's powerful military, exposing it to charges of complicity or incompetence after it emerged that the world's most wanted man had lived on the doorstep of its premier academy for years.
Three rockets on Friday damaged the outer wall of the academy, which is just 500 metres (yards) from the site of the US Navy SEALs raid that seriously damaged already turbulent relations between Pakistan and the United States.
"Nine rockets were fired. Three rockets hit the boundary wall of the military academy and damaged it. No one was hurt in the attack," Imtiaz Hussain Shah, a top local government official in Abbottabad told AFP.
"We have launched a search operation," Shah added.
Mohammad Karim Khan, Abbottabad police chief, confirmed the attack.
"Three rockets hit the boundary wall. Three others landed in an open area and three others landed in a field," he said.
Officials blamed terrorists for the attack, which came one day after Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, visited Abbottabad.
Shah later confirmed to AFP no arrests had yet been made and that a rooftop room had also been damaged in the attack.
"We have a security system and checkpoints on the roads, but the place they used as a launch pad is accessible from all sides and there are mountains at the back of this place," he told private TV channel Geo.
"At this stage we cannot say who was involved, but they are terrorists and we are investigating how they managed to reach this place."
Taliban and other Islamist militants are fighting an insurgency against the army, although there has been a marked decline in violence in recent months.
Considered one of the quietest towns in the northwest, nestled in pine-dotted hills and popular with day-trippers from the capital, Abbottabad is listed on Pakistan's official tourism website as a "popular summer resort".
But although it is mainly tranquil, it is close to more troubled areas.
A judicial commission is investigating how bin Laden managed to live undetected in Pakistan for so long, and whether there was any government or military collusion.
Pakistani-US ties have since reached a new low over US air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November, leading Pakistan to seal its Afghan border to NATO supplies and conduct a review of its alliance with Washington.


Amnesty Calls on Zimbabwe to Halt Abuses

HARARE (AFP) -- Amnesty International on Friday called on Zimbabwean authorities to refrain from manipulating the country's laws to harass human rights activists and opponents of veteran President Robert Mugabe.
"The continuation of human rights violations against critics of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party cast doubt on whether the country will be able to hold an election free from violence and human rights abuses similar to the 2008 second round of the presidential election," the group said in a statement.
Amnesty urged Mugabe to "rein in elements in the security forces who seek to undermine the (government of national unity) by ordering arbitrary arrests and unlawful detention of his perceived opponents."
Mugabe formed a powersharing government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in 2009 to avoid a tip into full-fledged conflict in the aftermath of a presidential run-off which Tsvangirai boycotted in protest at deadly attacks on his supporters.
Despite the unity government, rights activists are frequently arrested or harassed in the course of their work.
"The government should unconditionally drop all the charges against people arrested solely for their work as human rights defenders or for their association with political parties of their choice," Amnesty said.
The statement came after a court placed three activists from local media advocacy group Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe on remand on charges of undermining or insulting Mugabe.
In another case this week, a court acquitted Joel Hita of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association who had been charged under a security law for a holding a photo exhibit on the 2008 polls.
Activists Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu of Women of Zimbabwe Arise face charges of kidnapping a witness to a September protest that was violently dispersed by police.
Two booksellers were detained last weekend for selling copies of Tsvangirai's biography.


Rescuers Searching for Survivors in Rio Collapse

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rescuers in Rio de Janeiro are working feverishly to find any survivors in the rubble of three buildings that collapsed.
But about 40 hours after the buildings went down with a rumble and great cloud of smoke, hopes of finding anyone alive are dwindling.
So far, six bodies have been pulled from the rubble. And at least another 16 people are missing.
It's not yet known why a 20-story building suddenly collapsed Thursday night and brought down two nearby buildings with it. But authorities say they suspect illegal construction projects in the large building created structural damage that led to its the fall.
The head of Rio state's Civil Defense agency says the hunt for survivors will continue for another 48 hours.


Germany Votes to Extend Afghan Mission

BERLIN (Dispatches) – Bundestag, the German parliament, has voted to extend the country's military presence in war-battered Afghanistan for one more year, despite increasing opposition on the part of the German public, Press TV reports.
Voting in Berlin on Thursday, a total of 424 lawmakers approved of the extension of the mission, while 107 opposed it and 38 abstained.
The new statute states that the maximum number of the German troops to operate in Afghanistan under the command of the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will be set at 4,900 from February 1. Another 500 German troopers will be withdrawn by 2013.
According to a poll of the German public released last October by YouGov research firm on behalf of DPA, 68 percent of the respondents said they were against the German military presence in Afghanistan. Only 23 percent of those surveyed said they supported the deployment and nine percent had no opinion.
Moreover, 44.2 percent of the respondents demanded an immediate withdrawal of the troops.
Of the surveyed individuals, 42 percent said that a wider lesson had to be learnt from the Afghan experience and noted that they did not want the German Army to be sent abroad in the future.
Germany has the third biggest force in Afghanistan behind the United States and Britain.
According to official figures released by the website icasualties.org, a total of 53 German troops have been killed in Afghanistan since October 2001, when the US-led invasion of the country began.
Despite the presence of tens of thousands of Western forces in Afghanistan, the United Nations and other groups say the violence has peaked and is now at its highest level there.

17-Year-Old Sent to War

Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has acknowledged it has violated military policy by sending a 17-year-old soldier to take part in the Afghanistan war.
According to Britain's military policy, teenagers aged sixteen and seventeen are allowed to join the British army. Nevertheless, they are not allowed to take part in any combat.
Britain's military has claimed that the soldier, named Adam Wilkie, was mistakenly sent to Afghanistan as the MoD has blamed human error for what the MoD staff described as regrettable.
“It is regrettable and goes against MoD policy. This extremely rare situation was down to human error. The Army has taken action to try to ensure this does not happen again,” said an MoD spokesman.
The violation questions Britain's commitment to a 2003 United Nations agreement according to which the British government is not allowed to send troops to battlefields until they are 18 years old.
Despite the criticisms raised against the MoD, it declared that the soldier would remain with the military.
US-led troops in war-torn Afghanistan are seen in this file photo.


HRW Accuses UAE of Rights Violation

ABU DHABI (AP) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of violating civil rights and suppressing freedom of expression in the country.
In its World Report 2012, unveiled at a conference in Dubai on Wednesday, the New York-based rights group drew attention to a campaign of persecution by UAE authorities against citizens who have called for political reform in the monarchy.
The event, however, was disrupted by men who claimed to be UAE officials and said the organizers had failed to get proper authorization from the government.
"We've seen people being detained, charged and imprisoned for expressing their opinions," said Samer Muscati, an HRW researcher.
"So, the UAE has gone against the tide, unfortunately, of the Arab Spring," he added, referring to the wave of popular revolutions and uprisings sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa since early last year.
In an attempt to quell popular dissent last year, the UAE sentenced at least five local activists to prison for signing an online petition demanding constitutional and parliamentary reforms and a more equitable distribution of the country's oil wealth. The government also moved to revoke the citizenship of another seven UAE nationals for criticizing the government policies.
Human rights activists say they will seek explanation for the incidents from UAE Prime Minister and Dubai ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
HRW accused the United Arab Emirates of violating civil rights and suppressing freedom of expression in the country.


Syrian Red Crescent Official Shot Dead

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Head of the Syrian Red Crescent in the restive northwestern province of Idlib has been killed in a terrorist attack, SANA reported.
According to Syrian sources, Abdulrazak Jbero, president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent branch in Idlib, was shot in the head in the Khan Skeikun area on Wednesday as he drove from Damascus to Idlib.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed his death and severely condemned it.
"We just learned a few minutes ago of the death of Mr. Abdulrazak Jbero, head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent branch in Idlib. Mr. Jbero was on his way by car from Damascus to Idlib. He was shot. Circumstances are still unclear," Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, head of ICRC operations for the Near and Middle East, told Reuters in Geneva.
Jbero is the second ICRC satff to die in Syria since the beginning of unrest in the country ten months ago.
Last September, a Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer was killed in the crisis-hit central town of Homs after an ambulance came under fire, injuring three other volunteers.
Meanwhile, a priest was also killed in a terrorist attack in the central city of Hama. Three Syrian security personnel were also wounded in the city after armed groups opened fire on their vehicle.
"An armed terrorist group killed the priest Bassilius Nassar as he was helping a man who was wounded in the neighborhood of al-Jarajmah in Hama," SANA state news agency said.
Several districts of Hama, including al-Jarajmah, are currently controlled by terrorist groups.


EU, UNRWA Sign Financing Deal in Gaza

GAZA STRIP (Press TV) – The European Union (EU) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) have reached an EUR-55.4-million (USD 72 million) financing deal to boost the agency's aid fund, Press TV reports.
The deal was signed between the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton and UNRWA's Deputy Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi in the Israel-blockaded Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Ashton, who is on an official visit to the besieged coastal strip, said that the aid had been provided to prove EU's continuing commitment to Palestinians and to foster 'peace and stability' in the region.
"The $72 million contribution we are signing today represents our ongoing commitment to Palestine refugees. It will support UNRWA's general fund, the main engine that keeps the organization going and provides all its essential services,” Ashton noted during a press conference.
She also insisted that Gaza's economy would not improve unless its border crossings are opened for the free flow of commodities and people.
The EU foreign policy chief went on to say that her visit was mainly focused on reviving Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Jordan's capital Amman, which has been brokered by the Middle East Quartet comprised of Russia, the EU, the UN, and the US.
The trip is Ashton's third visit to Gaza Strip since she took office in December 2009.
In September 2010, the Israeli regime resumed the expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories after a 10-month partial freeze, prompting the Palestinian Authority to break off direct talks with Tel Aviv that had started after a lengthy stalemate.
Tel Aviv has been blockading Gaza since 2007, denying the nearly 1.5 million residents of the coastal sliver their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and their right to appropriate living conditions, work, health, and education


Jordanian Jailed for Burning King Image

AMMAN (Press TV) – A Jordanian youth activist has been sentenced to two years behind bars on charges of insulting King Abdullah II by burning a picture the country's ruling monarch.
"The (military) state security court sentenced Uday Abu Issa, 18, to two years in jail. He has been found guilty of undermining the king's dignity," a judicial official said on Thursday.
The teenager set fire to a picture of the king earlier this month after he tore it off a municipal wall in Madaba, south of Amman.
He said he was enraged over the death of a municipal worker who committed self-immolation after his contract had been terminated.
Abu Issa's lawyer sent a letter of apology to the king but did not receive a reply.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Jordan's security prosecutors to drop charges against the youth.
"Burning a royal's image as a political statement should not be criminally prosecuted," urged Christoph Wilcke, a senior HRW Middle East researcher.
"To prosecute this act would send a chilling message that criticizing the king is off limits," he warned.
Many Jordanian have been taking to the streets on an almost weekly basis over the past year, demanding reforms and accusing the government of corruption.
However, the protests have always stopped short of directly criticizing the royal family, which is punishable by jail term.

Blast Kills 28, Hurts Scores in Iraqi Capital

BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – At least 28 people have been killed and 50 more injured in a car bomb explosion in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad, medical sources say.
The blast occurred near a funeral procession outside a hospital in east Baghdad on Friday morning.
An interior ministry official also confirmed the bomb explosion, saying the incident was caused by an attacker driving an explosives-laden car.
The funeral procession was held for Mohammed al-Maliki, a real estate agent who was killed along with his wife and son on Thursday in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Yarmuk.
The procession had collected Maliki's body and was transporting it for the funeral when the explosion struck.

Blast Kills Policemen, Families

Ten people, including women and children, have been killed in a bomb attack in the city of Mussayib in the central Iraqi province of Babil, police officials say.
Iraqi police officials said the attack was carried out at 4:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) on Thursday in Mussayib, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) south of the capital Baghdad.
The target was the residence of “two brothers, both policemen,” who were killed along with all their family members, the officials said.
The two policemen were identified as Ahmed and Jihad Zuwaiyin.
The Thursday bombing in Mussayib was the second deadly incident across Iraq since Tuesday, when at least 14 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in a series of car bombings in Baghdad.
Iraq has witnessed many bomb explosions since the beginning of 2012.
This file photo shows a car bomb explosion in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad.


Abbas:
Palestinian Talks With Zionists End Without Result

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas has said that the talks between Palestinian Authority officials and the Zionists have ended inconclusively in Jordan.
After a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II in the capital Amman, Abbas said in a press conference that the Palestinian Authority would decide on the next steps of talks with the occupying regime during a meeting with the Arab League foreign ministers on February 4.
Abbas added that the PA is ready for talks on the issue of “security, on the condition that not a single Israeli will be on Palestinian land.”
Palestinian Authority representatives and the Zionists held several meetings in Jordan over the past few weeks.
On Saturday, Palestinian protesters held a demonstration in front of Abbas' office in the West Bank city of Ramallah to voice opposition to the latest round of talks with the illegitimate regime in Jordan.
Talks between the Palestinians and Israelis stalled in September 2010 after Israel declined to renew a 10-month freeze on its illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
About 500,000 Zionists live in more than 100 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.


Report:
Zionist Regime May Use Phosphorous Shell in Gaza

GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – A newly released report says the Zionist regime is considering the use of US-made white phosphorus shells in its probable future attack on the Gaza Strip.
According to a report published by the Jerusalem Post, the occupying regime’s military officials are discussing whether “M825A1” white phosphorus shells should be used in a future ground operation in Gaza.
The regime used a number of M825A1 shells during the December 2008-January 2009 war against Gaza.
The M825A1 shells explode in midair and create smoke screens to mask the movement of troops on the ground or their position.
If used as an offensive incendiary weapon, white phosphorus can cause life-threatening burns.
The latest report comes almost a month after the chief of staff of the regime’s military, Lt. General Benny Gantz, said on the third anniversary of the Gaza War that Tel Aviv will “sooner or later” need to launch a “significant operation” against the Gaza Strip.
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the Zionist regime’s war against Gaza.
Residents still live in what is known to be the “world's largest open-air prison” as the regime remains in full control of the airspace, territorial waters and border crossings of Gaza.
According to another report, the Zionist military is planning to “return” hundreds of female draft dodgers who have evaded serving in the army due to religious grounds.
Zionist top brass hope the legislation of a new law next month will meaningfully decrease the number of draft dodgers.
In 1992, less than 20 percent of female draftees refrained from joining the army due to religious reasons, a figure that has now climbed to 35 percent.
The military launched an exhaustive investigation into the issue to find that almost 20 percent of the female draft dodgers had graduated from
non-religious schools.
An army officer admits that without harsh measures, the rate of service avoidance among Israeli girls would have topped 37 percent.


More Bahraini Protesters Die in Revolution

MANAMA (Press TV) – The Bahraini government says a teenage protester has died in police custody, despite activists' reports that the boy was crushed to death by a police patrol.
Bahraini interior ministry issued a statement posted online that police arrested the man on Tuesday "over acts of vandalism” in the country's central area of Sitra.
"He died in hospital and the public prosecution has been notified," the statement said.
But Matar Matar, a senior official from the opposition group al-Wefaq, said Muhammad Ali Ya'qhoub was chased by police vehicles and that his body "was stuck between two (police) cars that were following him."
"Instead of receiving the necessary medical treatment, the police took him to the yard opposite Sitra police station where he was tortured," he pointed out.
Ya'qhoub's death came after the body of a protester, identified as Saeed Fakher, was found one day after his arrest, while horrific marks on his body indicated that he was the last of the protesters to die under torture in prison.
Bahrain has been hit by a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February, which was immediately met with a brutal crackdown by the ruling Al Khalifa family.
Furthermore, Saudi-backed regime forces attacked peaceful Bahrain mourners attending the funeral procession of protesters killed by the government.
The violence broke out on Thursday in the northern village of Daih, west of Manama, where regime forces fired teargas to disperse the huge crowd.
Scores of people were arrested in the incident.
Meanwhile, a similar funeral procession was reportedly held in the village of Na'eem.
The demonstrators had gathered to mourn the deaths of four Bahrainis killed by regime forces in the past 24 hours.
Among the dead was a man identified as Muhammad Ali Ya'qhoub, who died on Wednesday after a Bahraini police car runs over him in the town of Sitra, south of the capital.
Earlier in the day, the body of a protester named Saeed Fakher was found one day after his arrest, while bearing horrific signs of torture.
On Tuesday, two other protesters died due to teargas inhalation during an anti-regime rally outside of Manama.
Bahrain has been hit by a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February, which was immediately met with a brutal crackdown by the ruling Al Khalifa family.
Dozens of demonstrators have been killed and scores wounded in the popular uprising in the Persian Gulf nation.
Bahraini anti-government protesters clash with riot police firing tear gas, January 24, in the eastern village of Ma'ameer, Bahrain.


Saudi Forces Kill Another Protester

RIAYDH (Press TV) – Saudi security forces have shot dead another protester in the town of Awamiyah in the east of the country, as anti-regime demonstrations continue in the kingdom, Press TV reports.
On Thursday, a protester, identified as Montazar Sa'eed Al-Abdel, was shot dead and two others were injured by Saudi regime forces in the Eastern Province.
At least seven anti-government protesters have been killed by Saudi forces since November 2011. Human rights groups have slammed the Saudi government, urging it to probe into the deaths.
Saudis have held peaceful demonstrations since February last year on an almost regular basis in the eastern region, demanding reforms, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners.
The protesters also want an end to economic and religious discrimination as well as their government's involvement in brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in neighboring Bahrain.
The peaceful demonstrations have turned into protest rallies against the House of Saud since November when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the Eastern Province.

Anti-Gov’t Demo in East

Saudis have held a demonstration against the ruling House of Saud in the east of the kingdom, Press TV reports.
Protesters in the island of Tarot took to the streets on Wednesday night and chanted “[Crown Prince] Nayef, you are responsible for the killing of protesters,” denouncing the regime's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy rallies.
The demonstrators also demanded the release of thousands of political prisoners, whom the ultraconservative kingdom is holding without charge or trial.
The Saudi regime has recently stepped up its crackdown on the protesters, killing several and wounding many more of them.
On Tuesday, Saudi security forces opened fire on demonstrators in the Qatif region of Eastern Province, injuring many people.
Some of the wounded are reportedly in critical condition. Nine protesters were also arrested during the attack.
On Monday, security forces detained Zaher al-Zaher, a social activist, in the town of Awamiyah in the province.


Russia Rules Out UN Resolution on Syria

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov says Moscow will not support a Western-Arab drafted UN Security Council resolution on Syria.
Moscow says the new draft, due to be discussed on Friday, does not take into account the Russian position on Syria.
The draft proposed by the US, its Western allies as well as the Arab League, calls on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down from power.
Gatilov says that the draft fails to exclude the possibility of military intervention in the country.
Earlier, Russia proposed a resolution for Syria, holding the government as well as the opposition responsible for the unrest in the country. However, the resolution was dismissed.
Russia has repeatedly expressed opposition to any United Nation's resolution that would justify sanctions or the use of force against Syria, describing negotiations as the only way to end months of unrest in the country.
"We support, as a point of principle, an inclusive dialogue among all sides of Syrian society without pre-conditions, on the assumption that all participants in such a dialogue will be guided by the idea of reaching agreement and will show responsibility for the fate of their country and their people," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
In October, Russia and China blocked a European-drafted Security Council resolution against the Syrian government.
Russia has also rejected a recent call by the Arab League for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March. Many people have lost their lives in the country over the past ten months. Damascus says over 2,000 security forces have been killed in the unrest.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. Damascus, however, blames “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.


IED Attacks in Afghanistan Set Record

KABUL (AP) – Recent figures show that attacks with homemade bombs hit a record high of more than 16,000 in Afghanistan in the past year, indicating that the war-battered Asian country is facing disturbing levels of insecurity and violence.
According to data obtained by USA Today , the number of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that were cleared or detonated rose to 16,554 in 2011 from 15,225 in the preceding year, which marks an increase of 9 percent. This is while the number of IED attacks stood at 9,304 in 2009.
The number of Afghans killed or wounded by IEDs jumped 10% in 2011, compared with 2010, according to figures released by the military command in Kabul.
Meanwhile, bombs account for 60% of all Afghan civilian casualties, which totaled more than 4,000 killed or wounded in 2011. Militants caused more than 85% of those casualties.
Despite the presence of tens of thousands of Western forces in Afghanistan, the United Nations and other groups say the violence has peaked and is now at its highest level since US-led forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
A UN report on Afghanistan issued on September 28, 2011, said the average monthly number of security incidents recorded for the year through the end of August rose nearly 40 percent compared to the previous year.
The report also said civilian casualties, already at record levels in the first six months of the year, rose 5 percent between June and August 2011, compared with the same three-month period in 2010.
Around 130,000 Afghans were displaced by the conflict in the first seven months of 2011, up nearly two-thirds from the same period a year earlier.

US Troops Stabbed to Death

An Afghan man, outraged over a recent video showing American Marines urinating on the bodies of Taliban militants, has killed two US troops in southwest Afghanistan.
The man attacked the US soldiers with a knife as they were walking in a bazaar in Sangin, a town in Helmand province, the Taliban said in a statement on Thursday.
Attacks by Afghan nationals on foreign troops occupying their country have been on the rise recently.
Last week, an Afghan soldier shot dead four French troops in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, located some 800 kilometers northeast of the capital Kabul. He later confessed that he had been strongly motivated to kill the foreigners after watching an offensive video showing the marines making lewd jokes, while urinating on the dead bodies of Afghans.
Earlier this month, a video footage was posted on the net showing four members of the US Marine Corps in camouflage uniforms desecrating the dead bodies.
Meanwhile, at least three people have been killed and 33 others wounded following a bomb attack on a NATO convoy in Afghanistan's southwestern province of Helmand.
On Thursday morning, an explosive-laden vehicle hit the gate of a building in the city of Lashkar Gah, where the convoy of NATO aid workers and engineers was coming out.
An Afghan policeman inspects the wreckage of a car hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Helmand province, January 21, 2012.


Zionists Admit Hezbollah Missiles Powerful

TEL AVIV (MNA) – Meir Dagan, the former director of the Zionist regime’s spy agency Mossad, has claimed that the missile power of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement is stronger than that of 90 percent of the countries in the world, the Palestinian Sama news agency said in a report on its website.
Dagan has also said if a war breaks out the occupying regime will not be able to counter combined missile attacks by Hezbollah and Syria.
The former spy chief also said Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights, which is owned by Syria, should be dependent on a disarming of Hezbollah and a revocation of all strategic ties between Syria and Iran.