Mexico detains 10 mayors for alleged drug ties

AP – Mexican soldiers guard kidnapping suspects, from left to right, Mexican citizen Roman Roque, 18, U.S. …

MEXICO CITY – Federal forces detained 10 mayors and 18 other officials Tuesday for allegedly protecting one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels in an unprecedented anti-corruption sweep in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan.
Soldiers and federal agents fanned out across President Felipe Calderon's native state to carry out the operation, which an expert called a blow to politicians tied to traffickers in Michoacan.
The officials, who had been under investigation for six months, allegedly leaked sensitive information and provided protection to La Familia cartel, said Ricardo Najera, a spokesman for the federal Attorney General's Office. He declined to give more details to avoid compromising the case.
More than 200 federal agents burst into the state attorney general's office in Morelia to detain three of the officials.
Most of the mayors were from towns in a mountainous region where there have been numerous beheadings and federal agents recently found 22 methamphetamine laboratories. Among those detained was the mayor of Uruapan, where La Familia gunmen dumped five human heads on a bar dance floor in 2006, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.
The mayors came from different parties, including Calderon's own conservative National Action Party.
The detentions of elected officials show how Mexican cartels have infiltrated the country's political structure and how far-reaching their control is in rural Mexico, said Victor Clark, an expert on trafficking based in the drug-plagued northern border city of Tijuana.
It also marks a first for the federal government, which has arrested scores of corrupt police officers in the past but has never gone after such a large group of mayors.
"This is a huge blow to the cartel. These ties are indispensable for the operation of these organizations," said Clark, director of the Binational Center for Human Rights in Tijuana. "But until now the government has never dared to touch the political classes tied to drug trafficking. For me this is an important step."
High-ranking state police officials and two municipal police chiefs were among those detained Tuesday, including state police academy director Mario Bautista and the state governor's adviser, Citlalli Fernandez, who also is the former public safety secretary, the Attorney General's Office said.
Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy said the federal forces had also sought the state attorney general for questioning but could not locate him during Tuesday's operation. Officials at the federal Attorney General's Office said they had no information about that claim.
Godoy criticized the federal government for not informing him about the arrests, but promised to cooperate with the investigation. He said any state government official under investigation would be asked to resign.
Meanwhile, the federal Public Safety Department paraded before the news media 11 suspected La Familia members who were detained late Monday and early Tuesday in the states of Michoacan and Mexico, among them a former Michoacan state police officer.
Najera declined to say whether those arrests were related to the Michoacan operation.
The sweep drives home Mexico's struggle to weed out corruption in its drug fight. Many local and federal police have been arrested on charges of protecting drug cartels since Calderon launched his nationwide crackdown on organized crime in 2006. More than 10,750 people have died in drug violence since the crackdown started.

_____
Associated Press Writer Julie Watson contributed to this report.

Georgians rally against Saakashvili

Burjanadze said 'the only thing we have to discuss with the authorities is their resignation [AFP]

More than 50,000 opposition supporters have rallied in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, to demand the resignation of Mikheil Saakashvili, the country's president.
"We will fight for this country - Saakashvili cannot stay as president," Nino Burjanadze, a former parliamentary speaker, told protesters at a stadium in the Georgian capital on Tuesday.
"The only thing we have to discuss with the authorities is their resignation."
Opponents accuse Saakashvili of mishandling Georgia's brief war with Russia last August over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
They also accuse him of becoming increasingly autocratic since he came to power after the peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution.

War criticised
Burjanadze said: "Today, the Georgian people have shown to the world and to themselves that they're ready to struggle to the very end.
"You have frightened those who want to frighten you."
The crowd sang the national anthem in the stadium and observed a minute of silence for those who died during the war.
"Saakashvili must leave because he ceded our territories to the Russians," Natela Urashvili, a 49-year-old dentist, said.
The demonstrators later marched to the city's main cathedral, where opposition leaders held talks with the head of the country's Orthodox Church on how to proceed in the political standoff.
The Georgian opposition has been staging daily protests since April 9 in the biggest demonstrations against Saakashvili's rule since the conflict with Russia.
The Georgian leader has rejected resignation calls and offered to hold talks on democratic reforms.
The May 26 comemmoration, one of two main patriotic holidays in Georgia, marks the date that the country declared independence from Russia in 1918 and started a short-lived republic.

Source:Agencies

Patients killed in Turkish blaze

Dozens of patients were evacuated when the fire broke out on Tuesday [AFP]

Eight people have died in a fire that broke out in a hospital in the northwestern Turkish city of Bursa.
Sahabettin Harputlu, the governor of Bursa province, said all the dead had been patients in the intensive care unit at the Sevket Yilmaz hospital.
The fire broke out early on Tuesday. Dozens of other patients and staff were rescued.
Harputlu told state television: "Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire and rescue workers evacuated 44 patients but unfortunately half of the 16 intensive care unit patients died."
"We don't know yet whether they were poisoned by smoke or died when life-supporting machines were left without power during the fire."
Several other patients suffered from smoke inhalation but all were in stable condition, authorities said.
Harputlu said a short circuit was believed to have caused the fire.

Source:Agencies

German court lifts ban on cannibal movie

BERLIN (AP) - A German federal court on Tuesday overturned a ban on a movie inspired by the case of a confessed cannibal, ruling that the artistic freedom of the filmmakers trumped the cannibal's personal rights.
Screenings of the movie "Rohtenburg" were banned in March 2006—just before it was due to open in German theaters—after a lower court ruled that the film infringed the personal rights of Armin Meiwes.

Meiwes was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2006 in a cannibal case that both fascinated and appalled Germany.
The makers of "Rohtenburg," directed by Martin Weisz and starring Thomas Kretschmann as a cannibal named Oliver Hartwin, argued that Meiwes' case did no more than provide inspiration for the movie.
Germany's Federal Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that the producers' right to artistic freedom outweighed Meiwes' personal rights, adding there was "a public interest in information" on the case.
The film did not misrepresent the facts of the case, which were in any case widely known, the court statement said.
Meiwes argued unsuccessfully during his trial that the 2001 death of Bernd Juergen Brandes should be classified as a mercy killing. He claimed that Brandes answered his Internet posting seeking a young man for "slaughter and consumption." He said Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

Meiwes captured the killing on video.
It was not immediately clear whether the movie will now be screened in German theaters.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

California Supreme Court upholds gay marriage ban

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but it also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed.
The decision Tuesday rejected an argument by gay rights activists that the ban revised the California constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature's approval
The announcement of the decision caused outcry among a sea of demonstrators who had gathered in front of the San Francisco courthouse awaiting the ruling.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—The nation's most populous state stood poised to recapture the spotlight in the debate over gay marriage as California's highest court prepared to rule on the legality of a voter-approved ban on same-sex unions.
The California Supreme Court planned to hand down its decision Tuesday in a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn November's Proposition 8.
Gay rights advocates maintain the ballot measure so dramatically revised the state constitution's equal protection clause that it needed the Legislature's approval before it could be put to voters.
If the seven-member court upholds the initiative as a constitutional expression of the electorate's will, it also will be deciding whether to sustain the marriages of an estimated 18,000 gay couples who wed before the measure passed with 52 percent of the vote.
Proposition 8 superseded the Supreme Court's May 2008 ruling that legalized same-sex unions by changing the state constitution to outlaw them. In that 4-3 decision, the court majority invalidated California's marriage statutes, holding that denying same-sex couples the right to wed amounted to state-sanctioned discrimination.
But based on the skeptical questions raised during oral arguments, legal experts have doubted the same four justices would undermine California's powerful citizen initiative process by invalidating the new ban.
Since that March hearing, however, three other states—Iowa, Maine and Vermont—have joined Massachusetts and Connecticut in making same-sex marriage legal. The trend has offered gay rights advocates hope that the court might elect to make California the sixth state to extend marriage to gays and lesbians.
"Many of us are heading into Tuesday filled with both hope and determination," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "And we need to be clear that regardless of how the court rules, we will need both for whatever the next steps are."
Gay rights advocates have scheduled marches throughout California and in several other states for Tuesday evening. Organizers say the gatherings will be celebratory if the court rules in their favor and angry if Proposition 8 is upheld.
Activists in the San Francisco Bay area, including several clergy members, said they planned to block the street outside the courthouse and to be arrested in a mass show of civil disobedience if the justices do not invalidate the measure.
"Words are not enough right now. We believe it's time to put our bodies on the line to show that separate is not equal," said Kip Williams, an activist with One Struggle, One Fight, a group that was launched in response to Proposition 8's passage.
In tense anticipation of the news to come, about 400 same-sex marriage supporters attended an interfaith prayer service held Monday night at San Francisco's Episcopal Grace Cathedral.
The Rev. Roland Stringfellow, with the Pacific School of Religion, said the service was meant to show how many communities of faith stand with gay couples on this issue. Among those to offer prayers were a Sikh mother, a Buddhist nun, a Jewish rabbi and Episcopal Bishop Marc Andrus.
Proposition 8's supporters, meanwhile, have not planned any organized events to accompany the decision. If a court majority invalidates the measure, angry voters would funnel their energy into unseating the justices who went along with the decision, predicted Frank Schubert, who managed the successful Yes on 8 campaign.
"If the court were to go as far as throwing it out, saying the people do not have the power to amend their constitution, then they are going to have to ultimately answer to the people," Schubert said.
One couple who will be anxiously awaiting the ruling are Karen Strauss and Ruth Borenstein, the lead plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits challenging Proposition 8.
The two women, partners for 17 years, had wanted to marry in the presence of their parents, who live in Florida. But Strauss' 84-year-old mother is dying of cancer, and they now realize she won't live long enough to attend their dream wedding no matter what.
"People who don't know us, who have nothing to lose by our decisions, had the opportunity to decide for us this most private and personal decision," said Strauss, 51, who will be across the country at her mother's bedside when the decision comes down. "That is a personally painful position to be in, whichever way it goes."

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

France opens UAE military base

France hopes the base will raise its profile in the Gulf, and could help it win defence contacts [AFP]

France has opened its first military base in the Gulf Arab region, with French officials saying the facility will strengthen efforts to battle piracy and defend trade.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, inaugurated the base, dubbed Peace Camp, in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.
Located in Abu Dhabi, the facility will host up to 500 troops stationed at three sites: a navy and logistical base, an air base housing three fighter planes and a training camp.
Speaking at a maritime security conference, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the UAE's president, called the deal "an important pillar of our foreign policy because it helps the stability in the Gulf region".
The base sits on the banks of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world's crude oil is transported.
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said that the naval base in Abu Dhabi was aimed at supporting and training France's allies in the region.
"Some 90 per cent of European trade traffic is by sea and we have to defend traffic and trade and we are interested in the Gulf and want to bring about the necessary balance in this region," he said.

Business interests
France will also play a role in combating piracy in the region.
"The naval base is also strategic for international security and stability. We assure maritime trade security in this region, the Mediterranean sea, the Gulf waters and the Indian Ocean," Kouchner said.
He declined to comment on whether the UAE had finalised a deal to buy Rafale fighter planes from France's Dassault Aviation.
Dassault said on Saturday it was in talks with the UAE on a possible order for its Rafale fighters, in what would be the first sale of the aircraft to a foreign buyer.
The Le Parisien newspaper reported on Saturday that France was finalising the sale of 60 Rafale jets in a deal worth $8-11bn, and that Sarkozy would personally push the issue during his visit to Abu Dhabi.
Dassault declined to confirm the figures and said only that an agreement might be reached this year.

Nuclear plans
France also hopes the base will strengthen its ties with the UAE, which plans to build a number of nuclear reactors to meet an expected need for an extra 40,000 megawatts of electricity by 2017.
France's Total, Suez, and state nuclear reactor maker Areva said last year they planned to develop two third-generation nuclear reactors in the UAE.
The Reuters news agency reported a source close to Sarkozy, who arrived in Abu Dhabi on Monday night, as saying that state-controlled power firm EDF would be joining the French consortium.
US firms GE and Westinghouse Electric are also hoping to compete for a share of the expected $40bn market.

Source:Agencies

Hague 'should drop Karadzic case'

Karadzic faces 11 charges for genocide, war crime and crimes against humanity during the Bosnia war [EPA]

Lawyers for Radovan Karadzic have called on the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal to drop charges against him, saying he was promised immunity from prosecution by Richard Holbrooke, the US peace envoy.
Holbrooke assured the former Bosnian Serb leader in July 1996 that he would not face charges if he relinquished power and left public life, according to documents filed at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday.
"Dr Karadzic honoured his part of the agreement. He now seeks to require the tribunal to honour Holbrooke's part," the motion read.
Karadzic faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities carried out during the 1992-5 Bosnia war.
The 63-year-old claims that Holbrooke made the promise during a meeting in Belgrade, Serbia's capital.

'Another lie'
Karadzic was not at the meeting, but those present, including Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serb president, Jovica Stanisic, his intelligence chief, Momlico Krajisnik, the Bosnian Serb assembly speaker and Aleksa Buha, the foreign minister, told him of the detail, according to the motion.
Holbrooke has denied the existence of such an agreement, describing Karadzic's claim as "no more than another lie from the most evil man in Europe".
Karadzic has said Krajisnik and Buha could give evidence that Holbrooke offered the deal and claims he has 15 witnesses who support the claim. Stanisic is considered to be too ill to make a statement.
Milosevic died in 2006 while being tried for war crimes.
Peter Robinson, Karadzic's legal adviser, said documents included in the motion, such as statements, articles and a US government cable, should be enough for the tribunal to hold a hearing on the claims of an offer of immunity.
"Our hope is that they will at least have an evidentiary hearing. It's convincing enough for an evidentiary hearing for sure," he said.

Prison threat
The tribunal has said that any such deal would not be binding and could not grant Karadzic immunity from prosecution.
Holbrooke, the architect of the Dayton peace agreement that ended the Bosnian conflict, is now the US representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Karadzic would face life in prison if convicted of charges over events related to the three-and-a-half year siege of Sarajevo, which left 10,000 people dead, and the massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in July 1995.
He was arrested on a Belgrade bus in July 2008, 13 years after he was first charged by the ICTY.
The tribunal entered not guilty pleas on Karadzic's behalf in March.

Source:Agencies

Iran sends six warships to international waters

Iran has sent six warships to international waters, including the Gulf of Aden, to show its ability to confront any foreign threats, its naval commander said on Monday.
Monday, 25 May 2009 14:16

Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, quoted by the ISNA news agency, made the announcement five days after Iran said it test-fired a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles).

Iran said on May 14 it had sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden to protect oil tankers from the world's fifth-largest crude exporter against attacks by pirates but ISNA did not make clear whether they were among the six Sayyari talked about.

Iranian waters stretch along the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman. Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40 percent of the world's traded oil is shipped, if it were attacked over its nuclear programme.

"Iran has dispatched six ... warships to international waters and the Gulf of Aden region in an historically unprecedented move by the Iranian Navy," Sayyari told a gathering of armed forces officials, IRNA reported. Sayyari said that preserving Iran's territorial integrity in its southern waters called for the "perseverance and firmness" of the navy.

The move to dispatch the warships "is indicative of the country's high military capability in confronting any foreign threat on the country's shores," Sayyari said.

The ISNA report did not mention the threat of pirate attacks, which, fuelled by large ransoms, have continued almost unabated despite the presence of an armada of foreign warships patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

In January, pirates released an Iranian-chartered cargo ship carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran from Germany that was seized in November. In March, a regional maritime official said Somali villagers had detained another Iranian vessel.

Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal. Seven percent of world oil consumption passed through the Gulf of Aden in 2007, according to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit.

Reuters

North Korea conducts nuclear test

The latest North Korean test is likely to inflame already strained relations in the region [Reuters]

North Korea has announced it has conducted a successful nuclear test, as it steps up what it says are moves to strengthen its nuclear deterrent.
The underground test on Monday morning local time was followed shortly afterwards by reports from South Korea that the North had also tested three short-range missiles.
Barack Obama, the US president, has condemned the North Korean test as a "threat to international peace" and said it warrants action by the international community.
Announcing the nuclear test, North Korea's second, state media said the explosion had raised the explosive power of its nuclear weapons arsenal.
"We have successfully conducted another nuclear test on May 25 as part of the republic's measures to strengthen its nuclear deterrent," the official KCNA news agency said.
It said the test would "contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula."

The statement said the test was conducted "on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control".
Russia later said it believed the explosion from the test had a yield of 10-20 kilotonnes - about the same as the US bombs used against the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of World War Two.
The test is a dramatic escalation of the stakes in the long-running stand-off over North Korea's nuclear programme, with Japan warning that the North's move was a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
"We will definitely not tolerate it," Takeo Kawamura, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, told reporters in Tokyo.
The Security Council is expected to hold an emergency session on Monday in New York to discuss the test, Russia's ambassador to the UN has said.

'Seismic event'
Earlier the US Geological Survey (USGS) said it had detected a magnitude 4.7 tremor in North Korea at 0954 local time (OO54GMT) on Monday, indicating that a nuclear test may have taken place.

The area is not seismically active.
The USGS located the epicentre of the tremor near the town of Kilchu about 375km northeast of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
The site is close to where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006.
Susan Potter a geophysicist based at the US National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado told Al Jazeera the tremor had been a "relatively shallow seismic event".
She said the October 2006 test had registered a somewhat weaker tremor of magnitude 4.3.
At the time of the 2006 test experts said the apparently relatively low yield of the device indicated it may not have exploded correctly.

Sanctions

The latest North Korean test is likely to trigger calls for a tightening of sanctions against North Korea, although what those might be is not clear as existing measures have had little effect.
China, North Korea's closest ally and a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, is likely to oppose stronger sanctions as part of any new UN resolution.
However, analysts say China is likely to be angered by the North Korean test and will look for other ways to put pressure on Pyongyang.
Beijing has not yet given any official reaction to the test, but Al Jazeera's Beijing correspondent Tony Cheng said any public reaction was likely to be muted.
However, he said the last thing that Beijing wants to see is an escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The test comes amid escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula and less than two months after North Korea's controversial rocket launch in early April.
North Korea says the launch put a satellite into orbit, but the US has said it believes the launch was a cover for a test of the North's long-range missile technology.
The April 5 rocket launch triggered condemnation from the Security Council, in turn provoking an angry reaction from the North, which said it was pulling out of nuclear disarmament talks and restarting its weapons programme.
It had also repeatedly threatened to conduct a new nuclear test.

'Arms race'
North Korea is believed to have extracted enough weapons grade plutonium for about eight bombs and has said it will restart its mothballed nuclear plant at Yongbyon to produce more.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ron Huisken, a nuclear non-proliferation expert at the Australian National University, said that through Monday's test North Korea had signalled a determination to remain committed to its nuclear weapons capability.
But he said the test did not signify an immediate danger.
"North Korea can't actually do anything at this point," he said.
"To the best of our knowledge, it hasn't actually weaponised its nuclear material. Certainly it hasn't miniaturised it to the point where you can put a bomb on an airplane or – even more technically demanding – on top of a missile."
Donald Kirk, a Korea expert based in the South Korean capital, Seoul, said Monday's test was designed to draw international attention and fortify "North Korea's claim to be the ninth nuclear power".
He added that the test was also certain to raise tensions in the region and "raises the spectre of a nuclear arms race in northeast Asia" with Japan Taiwan and South Korea, among others, possibly tempted to develop their own nuclear weapons.

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies

Timeline: N Korea's bomb programme

Key dates in the history of nuclear weapons development in North Korea:

1986: North Korea begins operations of a 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon built with Soviet help.

1993: North Korea announces it will quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, later suspends its withdrawal.

1994: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement in Geneva. The North pledges to freeze - and eventually dismantle - its plutonium-based nuclear weapons programme in exchange for help building two power-producing nuclear reactors.

September 17, 1999: Bill Clinton, the US president, agrees to first major easing of economic sanctions against North Korea since the Korean War's end in 1953.

October 23-24, 2000: Madeleine Albright, the US secretary of state, visits Pyongyang, the highest-ranking US official ever to visit North Korea.

January 29, 2002: George Bush, the US president, labels North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil."

October 4, 2002: North Korea tells visiting US delegation it has a uranium enrichment programme, Washington says.

November 11, 2002: US and Asian allies - Japan, South Korea - halt oil supplies to the North promised in the 1994 deal and suspend construction of two new reactors.

January 10, 2003: North Korea says it will withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

August 27-29, 2003: North Korea joins first round of six-nation talks, involving envoys from China, Japan, Russia, the US and South Korea.

February 25-28, 2004: Second round of six-nation talks.
June 23-26, 2004: Third round of six-nation talks.

February 10, 2005: North Korea announces it has nuclear weapons.

July 26, 2005: Fourth round of six-nation talks is held, ending in recess after 13 days with no agreement.

September 13, 2005: Six-nation talks resume.

September 15, 2005: US blacklists Macau-based bank for alleged counterfeiting and money-laundering by North Korea, leading the bank to freeze North Korean assets.

September 19, 2005: North Korea promises to dismantle nuclear programmes in exchange for pledges of energy assistance; US says it has no plans to invade, and will respect North's sovereignty in an agreement ending talks.

November 9-11, 2005: Fifth round of six-nation talks.

January 3, 2006: North Korea says it will not return to talks unless the US lifts financial restrictions imposed in 2005.

July 5, 2006: North Korea launches seven missiles - including a long-range model - into the Sea of Japan, drawing international condemnation and a UN Security Council resolution condemning the act.

October 9, 2006: North Korea says it has conducted its first-ever nuclear test.

October 14, 2006: UN Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution imposing wide-ranging economic and diplomatic sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear test.

December 18-22, 2006: Six nations envoys meet in wake of nuclear test, no breakthrough made.

January 16-18, 2007: US and North Korean envoys meet in Berlin.

February 8-13, 2007: Six-nation talks resume in Beijing, a tentative agreement on

disarming Pyongyang is reached. The draft plan contains commitments on disarmament and energy aid along with "initial actions" to be taken by certain deadlines.

July 14, 2007: North Korea says it has shut down the Yongbyon reactor.

September 6, 2007: Israeli plans attack and destroy a site in Syria. After months of speculation the US later says the site was a nuclear reactor under construction with North Korean help, following a design similar to the Yongbyon plant.

November 2007: North Korea begins disabling Yongbyon reactor under surpervision of international - including US - experts.

December 31, 2007: North Korea misses agreed deadline for it to submit a full declaration of all its nuclear activities.

May 2008: North Korea hands US officials more than 18,000 pages of records on the Yongbyon plant. The US later says it will provide 50,000 tons of much-needed food aid to North Korea as a humanitarian gesture.

June 26, 2008: North Korea hands over much-delayed declaration of nuclear activities. US announces it will remove North Korea from list of state sponsors of terrorism.

June 27, 2008: In a symbolic gesture of its commitment to ending its nuclear programme, North Korea destroys the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear plant. The reactor itself had already been disabled.

July 12, 2008: Negotiators from six nations agree on steps to verify nuclear disarmament. North Korea is to finish disabling Yongbyon by the end of October while the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea would complete deliveries of fuel oil and other economic aid.

July 24, 2008: Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and Pak Ui-chun, North Korea's foreign minister, meet during the highest level of diplomatic contact between the two countries in four years, to reaffirm commitments to nuclear disablement.

August 26, 2008: North Korea announces reversal of disablement work at Yongbyon facilities in response to the US' refusal to remove Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

October 11, 2008: The US says it will take the North off the list following a verbal agreement it will continue dismantling the nuclear plant.

February 23, 2009: Sorth Korea says North Korea has a new type of ballistic missile capable of reaching northern Australia and the Pacific island of Guam.

April 5, 2009: North Korea launches a rocket carrying what it insists is a communications satellite, but the move draws accusations it was testing a long-range missile. The UN Security Council responds by imposing further sanctions.

April 14-25, 2009: North Korea announces move to quit six-party nuclear talks and re-start operations at partly-disabled Yongbyon. It also expelled UN inspectors, and later announced that the reprocessing of spent fuel rods has begun.

April 29, 2009: Angered by criticisms over its rocket launch, the North threatens to conduct nuclear test and test long-range ballistic missile unless the UN Security Council apologises for imposing sanctions.

May 7-12, 2009: Special US envoy on North Korea visits Asia, saying Washington is ready for direct talks with Pyongyang. But the North dismisses the offer as useless, citing the US' "hostile policy".

May 25, 2009: North Korea confirms successful underground nuclear test, raising the explosive power and level of control of its nuclear device. The test raises regional tensions and draws international condemnation.

Source:Al Jazeera

Iran blocks access to Facebook

Ahmadinejad is said to face a difficult task in being re-elected next month [AFP]

Iran has blocked its citizens from accessing the social networking site Facebook as the country prepares for next month's presidential election.Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, a leading reformist candidate, suggested on Sunday that the move was aimed at reducing opposition to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president.
"Every single media outlet that is seen as competition for Ahmadinejad is at risk of being closed," Shahab Tabatabaei, a senior aide for Mousavi, said.
"Placing limits on the competition is the top priority of the government."
Tabatabaei said the block was "a swift reaction" to a Mousavi campaign rally on Saturday that had been attended by young Iranians waving green banners and scarves - the symbolic color of the Mousavi campaign.

you vote

Social networking sites and blogs have become an important campaign tools for Mousavi as he aims to mobilise Iran's youth vote for the June 12 election.

There are a number of pages on Facebook dedicated to Mousavi, one of which has more than 6,000 supporters.
Mousavi himself has posted a comment on the site saying: "Ahmadinejad's government has dishonoured Iranians across the world".
"Facebook is one of the only independent sources that the Iranian youth could use to communicate," Mohammed Ali Abtahi, a former vice-president and now adviser to Mahdi Karroubi, another pro-reform candidate.
He said that the blocking of Facebook - and possibly other websites popular with reformists - would leave Iranians "forced to rely on government sources".
Those supporting Mousavi have said that they will use email to disseminate news of the banning.

'Sharing and expression'

Facebook, based in the US, said that they had received reports that their site had been barred and that they were investigating the issue.
"We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in Iran may not have access to Facebook, especially at a time when voters are turning to the internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions," Elizabeth Linder, a spokeswoman for the website, said.
"It is always a shame when a country's cultural and political concerns lead to limits being placed on the opportunity for

sharing and expression that the internet provides."
Mousavi is a former prime minster and one of three candidates running against incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mohsen Rezaie, a former head of the Revolutionary Guard is the fourth candidate standing.
Ahmadinejad is expected to face a tough challenge in being re-elected, with a poor economic record at home and the international tensions created by his remarks about other countries.

Source:Agencies

Eleven die in stampede at Morocco concert

Mawazine music festival ends in tragedy

The stampede caused a fence to give way, killing five women, two teenagers and four men

RABAT (Agencies)

Eleven people were killed in a stampede at a stadium in the Moroccan capital Rabat overnight when thousands of spectators hurried to leave at the end of a concert wrapping up the city's landmark music festival.

The stampede caused a fence to give way, killing five women, two teenagers and four men. Forty people were injured, eight of them seriously.

The victims were among some 70,200 spectators at the Hay Nahda stadium to see home favorite Abdelaziz Stati sing at a concert which was part of the Mawazine (Rhythms) festival -- opened on May 15 by Australian pop icon Kylie Minogue.

"An investigation is under way to establish the exact causes and circumstances of the incident," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The concert was part of a week-long annual Mawazine music festival in Rabat which ended in the early hours of Sunday.

is one of a growing number of well-funded music festivals aimed at promoting an image of tolerance and modernity in the Muslim north African kingdom.This year's festival featured Kylie Minogue, Ennio Morricone, Khaled, Alicia Keys and Algerian diva Warda al Jazairia, and drew tens of thousands of spectators.Mawazine, which is backed by King Mohammed, aims to liven up the sleepy capital Rabat and ward off the growing cultural influence of powerful opposition Islamists.

Moroccan Islamist politicians have denounced pop concerts as encouraging immoral behavior.

They argue it would be better to spend the money to create jobs

Kuwait reports swine flu cases in US soldiers

US soldiers quarantined in their military base: minister

KUWAIT (AlArabiya.net)

Kuwait confirmed on Saturday its first H1N1 flu cases in U.S. soldiers transiting through the country, the state news agency KUNA reported, citing a government official.

The virus was detected in 18 soldiers and those of them still in the country were “completely quarantined” in their military base, Health Undersecretary Ibrahim Al-Abdulhadi told KUNA.

Abdulhadi said health officials discovered that the U.S. soldiers were infected with swine flu once they arrived in Kuwait and they were given appropriate medication.

“Most of the soldiers left Kuwait already and the rest are treated in a military hospital,” whose name and location were not mentioned, and they would be leaving the country later, said Abdulhadi.

He told KUNA that the Health Ministry would held a press conference on Sunday to release more details about the issue.

Last week Turkey and India reported their first “swine” flu cases in two travelers flying from the United States.

India said the infected man it identified had changed planes in Dubai in his way from the United States and that all passengers who flew on the same plane to India were being contacted.

The World Health Organization is poised to declare a full pandemic of the H1N1 swine flu virus, which has infected more than 11,000 people in 42 countries and killed 86.

Arrests over Cairo bomb attack

The arrests relate to a bombing that targeted tourists in a Cairo neighbourhood in February [EPA]

Egypt has detained seven people suspected of involvement in a bomb attack in a popular Cairo tourist area that killed a French teenager in February, according to the interior ministry.
In a statement released on Saturday, the ministry identified the group as the Palestinian Army of Islam.
"(Police) were able through information received and surveillance, to identify a group, some of them Egyptians and others foreigners, affiliated with al-Qaeda ... and seven of them were arrested," it said.
Those arrested included two Palestinians, two Egyptians, a British-Egyptian, a Belgian-Tunisian and a French-Albanian.
The ministry said members of the cell, led by two Egyptians living abroad, were found in possession of weapons and explosives.

'Outside' connection
"(The cell) worked on organising terrorist operations in the country and outside," the Egyptian interior ministry statement said.
"Some members were commissioned to enter Gaza to receive advanced training in explosives preparation ... before returning to the country."
Quoting Egyptian officials, Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh in Cairo said that the suspects were allegedly planning to attack tourist resorts in Sinai as well as oil pipelines connecting Egypt with Israel.
"The authorities also say that the Belgian suspect of Tunisian origin confessed that [the suspects] were planning to carry out an attack in France," she said.
"The authorities say they are on the lookout for more suspects who are on the run over and

above the seven in custody."

February bombing
Egyptian officials said 24 people, mostly tourists, were injured in the February bombing in addition to the French fatality.
It was the first deadly attack on tourists in the country since bombs killed at least 23 people at a resort in the Sinai peninsula in 2006.
Cairo initially blamed that attack on bedouins with militant views.
Anti-government groups have sporadically struck tourist targets in recent years through bomb and shooting attacks, damaging an industry that is one of Egypt's main sources of revenue.
Many Arabs accuse Egypt of helping Israel to enforce a blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip by not opening its borders to allow people and supplies in and out of the Strip.

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies

Embattled SKorean ex-president jumps to his death

AP – Police officers gather in front of home of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun located at the

SEOUL, South Korea – Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun — whose hard-won reputation as a corruption fighter was tarnished by bribery allegations that drew in his family and closest associates — jumped to his death Saturday while hiking in the mountains behind his rural home. He was 62.
After leaving his family a suicide note, Roh threw himself off a steep cliff around 6:40 a.m., police and lawyer Moon Jae-in said in the southern port city of Busan.
"I'm indebted to too many people. Too many people are suffering because of me," Roh wrote in the note left on his computer. "Don't be sorry; don't blame anybody. It's destiny." He asked to be cremated and a small gravestone erected in his hometown.
A self-taught lawyer who lifted himself out of poverty to reach the nation's highest office in 2003, Roh had prided himself on being a "clean" politician in a country with a long history of corruption. Recent allegations that he accepted $6 million in bribes from a Seoul businessman were deeply troubling to the ex-leader.
"I have no face to show to the people. I am sorry for disappointing you," an emotional Roh said last month before turning himself over to Seoul prosecutors who grilled him for 13 hours about the allegations.
His suicide — the first in South Korea by an ex-president — stunned the nation. South Koreans nationwide huddled around TV screens watching news broadcasts. Supporters flooded his Web site with condolences.
"I was utterly shocked," said Chun Soon-im, 63, of Seoul. "They say 'hate the sin but not the sinner,' and that's how I feel. The investigation must continue and we must get to the truth, but I cannot help feeling sorry for the man and those left behind."
Roh denied the bribery allegations against him during questioning April 30 and May 1, prosecution spokesman Cho Eun-sok said.
His supporters claimed the probe was politically motivated by conservative opponents.
Roh had acknowledged that local shoe manufacturer Park Yeon-cha gave his wife $1 million, but suggested it was not a bribe. He also said he was aware Park gave $5 million to another relative but said he thought it was an investment. Prosecutors suspect the $6 million was eventually conveyed to Roh.
Several former aides and associates also have been questioned as part of the probe into Park, who was indicted in December on separate bribery and tax evasion charges. Roh's elder brother was sentenced last week to four years in prison in another bribery scandal.
Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han declared the investigation into Roh closed. It was unclear where the probe into family members stands.
President Lee Myung-bak said Roh's "sad and tragic" death was "truly hard to believe," spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said.
Roh, who lived in Bongha, some 280 miles (450 kilometers) south of Seoul, had gone for a walk accompanied by a security guard, Busan police said.
Part way up, Roh hurled himself off a 100-foot (30-meter) -high cliff known as Owl's Rock, suffering multiple injuries, police said. He was rushed to a local hospital before being transferred to Busan National University Hospital, where he was declared dead several hours later.
Later Saturday, mourners wailed as Roh's coffin, draped in dark red, arrived in Bongha. His two children, sobbing, followed the casket to the village community center.
In central Seoul, some 500 people held a quiet candlelight memorial service at a makeshift mourning site, some offering white chrysanthemums, a traditional Korean symbol of grief, and burning incense for Roh.
Roh's death was a tragic end for the son of farmers who never attended college but still managed to pass the country's competitive bar exam in 1975.
He built his reputation defending students accused of sedition under previous military-backed administrations, and once was arrested and his law license suspended for supporting an outlawed labor protest.
His political career took off with his election as a liberal lawmaker to the National Assembly in 1988. Roh's ascension to the presidency came in a surprise 2002 election win on a campaign pledge not to "kowtow" to the United States, which resonated with young voters.
He maintained predecessor President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine policy" of offering North Korea aid as way to facilitate reconciliation, holding a summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2007, the second such meeting between leaders of the two countries that technically remain at war.
Though criticized as standoffish and confrontational by some, he was praised by others as a candid leader who cared for the underprivileged and fought against corruption. Roh was the first South Korean president with an Internet fan club.
But in 2004, Roh urged voters to support candidates from his Uri Party — a violation of political neutrality laws. He became the first South Korean president impeached over the violation, but was reinstated several months later after a court ruled against the impeachment.
"He shocked us twice: first, by betraying our trust in him as the keeper of justice when it was revealed that he'd received the illegitimate money; now, in showing that he was not even responsible enough to face the consequences of his action," said Kim Hye-jung, 35, of Seoul. "As a supporter of the values he stood for, I feel greatly let down."
Roh is survived by his wife, Kwon Yang-sook, son Roh Gun-ho and daughter Roh Jeong-yeon. Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.
___
Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang, Hyung-jin Kim, Kwang-tae Kim and ShinWoo Kang contributed to this report

Canada convicts Rwandan of genocide

The UN estimates that more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in the genocide [File: AFP]

A court in Canada has found a former Rwandan militia leader guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in murders, torture and rape during the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Desire Munyaneza could face life imprisonment after a Quebec Superior Court convicted him on Friday.
"Desire Munyaneza intentionally killed dozens in Butare and its surroundings that were not directly involved in the conflict, raped several women, and pillaged homes and businesses of people who also had nothing to do with the unrest," Andre Denis, the judge, said.
"As such, you have been found guilty of committing war crimes as defined under Canadian law," he said to the accused.
Munyaneza was the first person to be tried under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which allows residents to be tried for crimes committed abroad.

Witnesses Munyaneza's two-year trial heard from 66 witnesses in Canada, France, Rwanda and Tanzania.
The court was told that Munyaneza, the son of a wealthy Hutu beer distributor, set up roadblocks in southern Rwanda to select Tutsis and moderate Hutu as victims based on their ethnicity or allegiances.
One man who was imprisoned in Rwanda for his own role in the genocide testified that Munyaneza orchestrated the massacre of between 300 and 400 Tutsis in a church.
"The accused's criminal intent was demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt, as was his culpable violence," Denis wrote in his judgement.The UN estimates that more than 800,000 people were killed during the violence.
"I'm very happy he was found guilty. I want to thank and congratulate Canada," Caesar Gashabeze, a survivor of the genocide, said.
"We have been waiting for this."AppealThe defence said it would appeal the conviction after repeatedly questioning the testimony of witnesses and highlighting the fact that most were unable to identify Munyaneza's prominnent facial scar.
"The evidence did not justify a conviction," Richard Perras, Munyaneza's lawyer, said. Munyaneza was arrested in Toronto in 2005 after seeking asylum in Canada, which Canadian immigration officials rejected.

He had fled to Cameroon after the genocide.The prosecutor said that the case illustrated Canada's commitment to bringing war criminals to justice.
"The case was very challenging as it involved events dating back 15 years in a foreign country, Rwanda," Pascale Ledoux said.

Munyaneza will be sentenced in September.

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies

Scientists in New York unveil “missing link”

47 million year old fossil linked to human ancestors

Bearing a long tail "Ida" had several human characteristics

NEW YORK (Agencies)

Scientists on Tuesday unveiled the well preserved fossilized remains found in Germany of a primate from 47 million years ago that may have been a close relative of the common ancestor of monkeys, apes and people.The primate, which was two feet (58 cm) from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail, was a female that died before its first birthday,said Norwegian paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led a team of scientists, who analyzed the fossil in the past two years, said.

It was called Darwinius masillae in honor of Charles Darwin, who advanced the theory of evolution, but nicknamed Ida.

The finding, described Tuesday in a scientific journal, was displayed at a press conference at New York's Natural History Museum, and is due to be the subject of a documentary on the History Channel, BBC and other broadcasters.

Organizers said that scientists led first discovered Ida in 1983 by private collectors who failed to understand her importance -- and split the bones into two lots.

The monkey-like creature was preserved through the ages in Germany's Messel Pit, a crater rich in Eocene Epoch fossils.

Although bearing a long tail, she had several human characteristics, including an opposable thumb, short arms and legs, and forward facing eyes.

She also lacked two key elements of modern lemurs: a grooming claw and a row of lower teeth known as the toothcomb."This is the first link to all humans -- truly a fossil that links world heritage," Hurum said in a statement.

David Attenborough, the renowned British naturalist and broadcaster, said the "little creature is going to show us our connection with all the rest of the mammals."

"The link they would have said until now is missing... it is no longer missing," he said.

Rapper T.I. coming to Arkansas _ for prison term

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Rapper T.I. will be coming to Arkansas - to serve a federal prison sentence.

T.I., whose real name is Clifford J. Harris Jr., must report to Forrest City's low-security federal prison by noon on May 26, according to court filings. There, Harris will join 1,500 other inmates as he serves a year-and-one-day prison sentence after pleading guilty in March to federal weapons charges in Atlanta.
The rapper, the self-proclaimed "King of the South," had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charge in his three-count indictment.
Harris will be credited for 305 days of home detention he already has served after being charged, so his stay at the Forrest City prison likely will be only two months.
R.D. Weeks, a spokesman for the prison, said Harris likely would be treated like any other prisoner coming into the facility.
"Unless there are custody or security concerns, all incoming inmates are placed in general population," Weeks told The Associated Press.
Weeks said each cell at the prison is double-bunked. Harris also will have the opportunity to use the recreation yard, as well as take part in counseling or participate in the one of the facility's 14 religious groups, Week said.
Harris, 28, was arrested after after trying to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers from undercover federal agents in 2007. That came after Harris' best friend was killed following a post-performance party in Cincinnati in 2006. The rapper has said the bullets that killed his friend were meant for him.
Upon his release, Harris will be on probation for three years. He also must pay a $100,000 fine as part of his sentence.
Harris' sixth album, "Paper Trail," has sold about 2 million copies and the rapper earned a Grammy for the song "Swagga Like Us" that he performed with Jay-Z. Harris wrote the lyrics for the album while awaiting trial.

Violence erupts in Brazil slum

Firefighters battled to put out fires set byangry residents [Bandeirantes TV]

Police in Brazil have increased patrols in one of the nation's biggest slums in the cityof Sao Paulo after violence erupted on Wednesday night following the arrest of three alleged drug dealers.
At least 11 people were reported injured, including a baby, after local residents burned vehicles, threw rocks and blocked key roads in the Penha slum in protest against the arrests, local media said on Thursday.
Images from Bandeirantes TV, a local television station, showed heavily armed riot officers at the scene on Wednesday and firefighters hosing down burnt out vehicles and the tire barricades.
Two of the three drug dealers arrested managed to escape during the riot, a spokesman for Sao Paulo's public safety department told AP news agency.
Luiz Felipe Muffo said on Thursday authorities are investigating whether the city's infamous First Capital Command gang was involved.
The First Capital Command gang reportedly controls most of the drug trade in Sao Paulo's slums.
It was blamed by authorities for a month of violence in 2006 that left 200 people dead, including police, prison guards, suspected criminals, jail inmates and bystanders.
Raids in slums of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro are common but violence in Sao Paulo's slums is relatively rare.

Source:Agencies

Polish man hires prostitute to take son's virginity

14-year-old disappointed as prostitute is undercover officer

LONDON (Reuters)
A man who tried to hire a prostitute to take his 14-year-old son's virginity as a present was spared jail by a court on Friday.

The Polish national took the boy out in his car and allowed him to pick out the prostitute, who was standing at the side of the road in the red-light district of Nottingham.

But the 42-year-old father was arrested because the teenager had chosen an undercover police officer, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, after he admitted a charge of trying to solicit a woman to have sex with a child, the Press Association reported.The court heard that the father, who came to Britain eight years ago, was arrested last July during an undercover operation by the city's vice squad.

Prosecutor Adrian Harris said the man and his son had approached the undercover officer whose code name was Sarah and beckoned her over.He asked "Sarah" how much it would cost for her to have sex with his son and they agreed on a 20 pound (about $30) fee. However, when the car pulled over, the man was arrested by plainclothes police officers.

"The boy said that they had driven past the girl and his dad pointed to her and said 'will she do?'" Harris said.

"He said 'yes' and they had turned round. He said his dad did this because he was still a virgin and he was taking care of that for him."

Judge Jonathan Teare said he would spare the father jail because of his excellent character and that he believed he did not mean any harm to his son."

You have a duty of care to your son and that is to look after his moral welfare, not as you might think to break him in to the ways of sex through a prostitute," he said.

The court was told the boy would continue to live with his father.