Saturday, May 14, 2011

Gadhafi Says NATO Cannot Reach Him

Gadhafi Says NATO Cannot Reach Him


Gadhafi Says NATO Cannot Reach Him

Posted: 13 May 2011 07:55 AM PDT

Libyan state television has broadcast an audio message from Moammar Gadhafi in which the Libyan leader assures his people that he is alive and in a place where NATO bombs could not reach him.

Mr. Gadhafi's message was broadcast late Friday after Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said there were unconfirmed reports that the Libyan leader is "probably" wounded after weeks of NATO air strikes in the country.

Frattini told reporters that he received word from the Catholic bishop in Tripoli, Giovanni Martinelli, that Mr. Gadhafi was likely wounded and has fled the city.  

A Libyan government spokesman called that report "nonsense."

NATO air strikes have hit a number of Libyan military and command control positions in Tripoli, including Mr. Gadhafi's compound. The Libyan leader reportedly escaped one recent attack that Libyan authorities say targeted him. NATO has denied targeting the Libyan leader.

In Washington Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama met with visiting NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to discuss the coalition's operations in Libya.

Separately, a delegation from Libya's opposition Transitional National Council met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg. The TNC's Minister of Finance and Oil Ali Tarhouni said after the meeting that the opposition leadership appreciates the U.S. assistance, but wants political recognition and access to frozen assets of the Gadhafi government.

Mr. Obama's national security adviser Tom Donilon is scheduled to meet with the visiting delegation later Friday.

The Libyan opposition is seeking more sophisticated weaponry and basic supplies, such as food, medicine and fuel.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he will seek arrest warrants next week for three people considered responsible for crimes against humanity in Libya.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo did not reveal the names of the suspects in his statement Friday, but the Libyan leader is expected to top the list. Those charged will face accusations of murder and persecution.

The ICC prosecutor said investigators have collected "extensive and solid evidence" after 30 missions to 11 countries, more than 50 interviews and the review of videos and photographs that show "widespread and systematic attacks" against Libya's civilian population by the country's security forces.

Since February, Colonel Gadhafi's forces have carried out a brutal crackdown against anti-government demonstrators.

NATO is enforcing a U.N. Security Council resolution to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone and an arms embargo on Libya. There were reports of more coalition air strikes Friday. It is unclear if there were any casualties.

 

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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Libya Rebels Meet White House Officials

Posted: 13 May 2011 05:57 PM PDT

Representatives of the Libyan Transitional National Council [TNC] met with President Barack Obama's national security advisor on Friday, as they continue to press for more aid in their fight against Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi. Libya also was a focus of talks that Obama had with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

National Security Advisor Tom Donilon met with the rebel delegation headed by Dr. Mahmoud Jibril. The president did not drop in on the talks.

A White House statement said the meeting was aimed at continuing "the close consultations" about the situation in Libya.

The statement said Donilon reiterated that the United States views the TNC as a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people, while stressing that Gadhafi has lost his legitimacy to rule and reiterated Obama's call for him to leave immediately.  

It said the two sides discussed "how the United States and the coalition can provide additional support to the TNC," and said Donilon applauded "the council's commitment to an inclusive political transition and a democratic future for Libya."

The U.S. has not formally recognized the TNC, with both the White House and State Department reiterating in recent days that doing so would be premature. But this first White House visit by representatives of the rebel council was nonetheless a significant step.

The Libyan rebel representatives did not come to the microphones outside the White House after the talks.

In remarks at the Brookings Institution on Thursday, Jibril pushed back at suggestions that the Transitional National Council is not fully representative of the aspirations of all Libyans, and said the stakes are high in Libya for the United States.

"There is a lot at stake strategically for the United States if that role is not played properly, there is a lot to be lost, you know," said Jibril.

The Transitional National Council representatives also went to the State Department, meeting with Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg about the issues of recognition, and access to frozen Gadhafi assets.

Ali Tarhouni, the council's Minister of Finance and Oil, spoke to reporters after that meeting about rebel needs in ongoing battles with Gadhafi forces.

"My basic need now is food, medicine and fuel, but also if there is any country that is willing to arm us, we will be happy," said Tarhouni. "We are defending ourselves. This is the thug, the killer regime that took a peaceful movement and forced us to carry arms. So it's legitimate that we have arms to defend ourselves."

Earlier, Obama discussed the status of NATO military operations in Libya in support of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

A White House statement said the two agreed that NATO efforts had "saved countless lives" and that as long as the government of Gadhafi continues to attack is own population, NATO will maintain its operations to protect civilians.

Rasmussen had this to say to reporters. "His time is up. It is time for the Libyan people to shape a new future, a future free from fear."

The president and Rasmussen also discussed Afghanistan, where the U.S. and NATO partners have a 2014 target for completing a transition of security responsibilities to Afghan government forces.

The White House statement said the two men agreed on the importance of a sustained NATO commitment to Afghanistan as the process of transition to Afghan security begins this year.

In recent White House news briefings, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has stressed that Obama has not yet received a formal recommendation from his military commanders about the size of a U.S. troop drawdown scheduled to begin in July.

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Thousands Continue Protest Across Syria

Posted: 13 May 2011 04:34 AM PDT

Scattered protests were reported in at least a dozen Syrian towns and cities following midday prayers Friday, despite a heavy security presence and arrests of activists in many locations. Large protests were also reported in Yemen, while the situation was reported to be tense in the Libyan capital, amid pockets of opposition to embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Thousands of Syrians turned out to protest against the government after defying a violent crackdown which has resulted in the arrest of thousands of people and hundreds of deaths.

Opposition sources report that security forces fired on protesters in the flashpoint city of Homs, killing several people. Witnesses reported that tanks were stationed inside the Bab al Amr neighborhood, which was shelled by the army several days ago.

VOA's Susan Yackee speaks with Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch researcher in Beirut, Lebanon, about the organization's findings in Syria:

Arab satellite channels showed a thick crowd of hundreds of people chanting anti-government slogans in the flashpoint city of Daraa, despite nearly three weeks of a bitter and brutal occupation by security forces and government militiamen.

Syrian government TV, however, accused Arab satellite channels of broadcasting "false and fabricated videos," and of disseminating "bankrupt propaganda." It claimed that the situation was "completely normal" across the country.

In the flashpoint coastal city of Banias, witnesses described a heavy army presence, and said that streets were mostly deserted. Syria's Information Minister, however, claimed that army tanks had been withdrawn from the city.

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In Yemen, tens of thousands of protesters turned out in the capital's Tahrir Square to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdallah Saleh. Supporters of Saleh gathered for a rival demonstration in Sanaa's Square 70 to hear the president speak.

Saleh denounced recent attempts to storm government buildings and insisted that the opposition should stop playing with fire and start heading to the ballot box for elections:

He says that the situation is deteriorating and that [the opposition] should stop playing with fire, or the people and the military will put a stop to it. He accused protesters of trying to destroy government buildings and demanded that those that want to take power come to the ballotbox.

Meanwhile, Saleh's ruling party welcome the withdrawal of Qatar from a Gulf Cooperation Council plan accusing it of "taking part in a conspiracy against Yemen…..as well as the region."

Elsewhere, in Libya al Arabiya TV reported scattered acts of resistance against embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi in the capital Tripoli. Witnesses also say they heard gunshots overnight in several neighborhoods. NATO planes bombed a number of targets in the capital overnight.

 

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Yemeni President Vows to Stay, At Least 3 Dead in Protests

Posted: 13 May 2011 04:32 AM PDT

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he has no immediate plans to leave his post, as thousands of anti-government activists in the capital rallied for his resignation.

Saleh described his opponents as criminals during a speech to a large crowd of loyalists in Sana'a on Friday.  He also urged the opposition to stop "playing with fire" because he said the Yemeni military would not stand by "idly."

In response to the speech, Yemen's opposition accused the president of calling for war in the country.

Meanwhile, anti-government activists gathered across the country for what they are calling "Friday of Decisiveness" protests.  Witnesses quoted by news agencies say at least three people were killed and about a dozen others wounded after security forces opened fire on demonstrators.

News reports say Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) chief Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani will travel to Yemen on Saturday in a bid to resurrect a deal brokered by the group. The deal calls for Saleh to transfer powers to a deputy, but he has refused to sign it in his capacity as president.

Qatar pulled out of the GCC plan on Thursday. A foreign ministry official said Qatar was forced to act because of "indecision and delays in signing the proposed agreement" and the "continued escalation and intensity of clashes" between Yemeni security forces and opposition protesters.

In a separate development, the French news agency AFP says suspected al-Qaida militants ambushed a military vehicle in Yemen on Friday and killed five soldiers.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters..

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Bin Laden’s Operational Role Debated

Posted: 13 May 2011 10:39 AM PDT

It is widely agreed that the plot to mount terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 sprung from the mind of Osama bin Laden. But less certain is his role after U.S. forces routed bin Laden and his followers from their sanctuaries in Afghanistan later that year. In the intervening years since 9-11, U.S. and Western intelligence agencies took the view that al-Qaida worldwide had become less centralized and more of a "franchise" operation. In this view, bin Laden was more of an inspirational than operational figure.

But some of the material gathered in the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, seems, at least at first glance, to challenge that view. Reports have surfaced of plots to blow up rail lines and exhortations by bin Laden to his followers to aggressively attack American targets. Some American officials were quoted as calling the compound a "command and control center".

Footage shot by VOA Urdu service of the scene outside the compound where bin Laden was killed.

Re-evaluation

Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at the University of Bradford in England, says there is a re-evaluation going on inside Western intelligence agencies of what they know - or thought they knew - about bin Laden and al-Qaida.

"If I've heard one pretty consistent thing from colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic it is the creeping evidence that he was rather more, if you like, in the loop than people had suspected for many years," said Gregory.

But, he adds, the original view that bin Laden was not directly managing terrorist operations seems to be reinforced.   

"But then I'm now hearing a back current saying that he may have, if you like, been in greater contact with people, but he's not a strategic mastermind, he's not a military planner in that sense, and maybe his role is a bit closer in a sense to [Mullah] Omar's role with respect to the Afghan Taliban," Gregory said.

Not a hands-on leader

Analysts say closer evaluation of the material that has surfaced so far in fact confirms the long-held view that bin Laden was in fact not a hands-on operational leader. Paul Pillar, a longtime CIA veteran and former National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia, says bin Laden had plenty of ideas but they did not reach the plotting stage.

"If you look really closely at what has come out so far, I don't think that it changes the overall perception of the role that bin Laden had been playing over the last few years - a perception shared by most experts - and that would be one in which he was not out of the operational business entirely by any means, but his principal role was one of publicist, ideologist, source of ideology, symbol," Pillar said.

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Analysts say counterterrorism operations had squeezed al-Qaida by arresting or killing mid-level leaders and monitoring their communications. Moreover, Pillar points out, many of the post-9-11 terrorist incidents or plots, such as the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, and the Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hassan, were plotted outside of what intelligence officers have come to call "Al-Qaida Central."

"It's not just a theory but a fact that's been accumulating over the last few years that most of the initiative and the direction and the planning and the training have taken place away from the al-Qaida Central and on the periphery," Pillar said.

Ayman al-Zawahri: Osama's successor?

The leading candidate to replace bin Laden is his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. But analysts say he is expected to face opposition. Al-Qaida, with its franchises in Yemen and elsewhere, is not a monolithic organization. Jeremy Binnie, a terrorism analyst with IHS Jane's, says that without bin Laden, al-Qaida franchises may increasingly focus on local goals than the global goals espoused by their late leader.

"There are these people with a different vision of al-Qaida," said Binnie. "Zawahri is going to have to try to step in there. His ability to fill bin Laden's shoes as sort of a figure that everyone defers to and refers to as the 'great sheik' and has that kind of gravitas [eminence] - it's going to be very difficult to replace him [bin Laden] in that respect.

As Paul Pillar points out, the death of bin Laden does bring a kind of catharsis to Americans for the 9-11 attacks, but it is far from being a death blow to al-Qaida or jihadist terrorism.

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West Bengal Vote Ends 34 Years of Communist Rule

Posted: 13 May 2011 07:33 AM PDT

India's Congress Party, which heads the ruling coalition, has notched up some significant victories in a crucial round of regional elections. The results give a much-needed boost to the ruling party, whose image has been dented by massive corruption scandals.     

The governing Congress Party and a crucial ally fared well in three out of the five states which went to the polls recently to choose local governments.   

The Congress Party retained power in remote northeastern Assam state, and won a narrow victory over communist parties in the southern Kerala state. But it lost ground in the small southern state of Pondicherry.

Watch related Kurt Achin video report

However the focus remained on two key regional allies, who play an important role in propping up the federal coalition.   

In West Bengal state, a Congress Party ally, the Trinamool Congress, swept to power after inflicting a crushing defeat on communist parties, thereby ending its three-decade reign.

But another important ally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)suffered a huge reversal in southern Tamil Nadu state. The defeat is being attributed to anger among voters over a massive corruption scam involving a former federal minister from the DMK.

Political analysts say the results in Tamil Nadu should be a message to the Congress Party, whose image is also tainted by corruption scandals, that demands for clean governance are growing.

However, telecommunication minister and a senior leader of the Congress Party, Kapil Sibal, downplayed the impact of public anger over the issue of corruption.  

"These are regional elections and the issues are regional," Sibal said. "Corruption would be an issue, but it is far beyond corruption as well."

Congress Party leaders said they are satisfied with the results because voters have reaffirmed their faith in the party.

The outcome will give a brief respite to the Congress Party, whose second term in office has been marked with growing protests by both opposition parties and the public demanding that the government do more to address issues of corruption and rising prices.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee called the elections a vote for stability.  

"For the last one year, efforts were made to destabilize, not only the government, but through the process of destabilizing the government, destabilize the system, and bring instability in the country," he said. "From that point of view this election has conveyed a very clear message."

The reversal suffered by communist parties in their bastions of Kerala and West Bengal could also give the Congress-led government more leverage to press ahead with economic reforms.

With voters throwing out four of the five governments in the states which went to the polls, political analysts say the elections also underline the growing demands for better governance and development in India.

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Parts of Southern US Brace for Massive Flooding

Posted: 13 May 2011 07:38 AM PDT

U.S. authorities are preparing to open a massive spillway in the southern state of Louisiana to divert Mississippi River floods away from the population centers of New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

The 32-kilometer-long Morganza Spillway would divert a portion of the severely flooded Mississippi River away from Louisiana's two big cities, but create huge new floods in a more rural part of the state.  Governor Bobby Jindal says the Army Corps of Engineers expects that opening the channel would affect 25,000 people, most of them living in areas adjacent to the spillway likely to become flooded.

U.S. officials say the Louisiana floods could cover up to 1.2 million hectares, much of it rich farmland, with at least 150 centimeters of water, and possibly as much as six meters.

Flood of the century

The rising waters, now known in parts of the American south as the "flood of the century," already have caused vast damage upstream to homes, crops and businesses. The U.S. insurance industry says that seasonal natural disasters this year - both the flooding and last month's devastating tornadoes - have already cost $5 billion in damages.

Jindal says his state will do everything it can to protect people and property in the flood zone.

In the adjacent state of Mississippi, rising waters are threatening to swamp ponds used for catfish farming, a $200 million-a-year industry, and inundate cotton fields.  

Spillway opening


For the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the decision on whether to open the Morganza Spillway is one of choosing which part of the state will flood - the heavily populated cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, or rich farmlands elsewhere in the state.  The Morganza Spillway, a channel that can divert Mississippi water to another river system, has been used only once before, in 1973.  

New Orleans is still recovering from devastation it sustained from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Many sections of the city have not been rebuilt, and thousands of its residents who left have not returned.  

The Red Cross says it has ample shelters to accommodate residents displaced by the flooding. They could be out of their homes for several weeks until the water recedes.

Obama visit


President Barack Obama has set a visit to the flood zone on Monday.  He will tour Tennessee's largest city, Memphis, where the Mississippi River crested at near record levels earlier this week.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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Libyan Refugees Describe Brutalizing Boat Ordeal

Posted: 13 May 2011 10:23 AM PDT

Survivors of a boat that left Tripoli on March 25 describe the brutalizing ordeal they and their fellow passengers were forced to endure on this perilous journey.  The U.N. refugee agency says its staff interviewed three Oromo Ethiopian men on Thursday who said they were among only nine survivors from a boat carrying 72 people. 

The survivors of this ill-fated journey are now being cared for in the Shousha refugee camp in Tunisia where the interviews took place.    

Overcrowded boat


Spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, Melissa Fleming, says one of the survivors told UNHCR staff their boat was so packed there was barely any room to stand.

She says the boat, which was on its way to Europe, ran out of fuel, water and food.  The survivor says it drifted for more than two weeks before reaching a beach in Libya.

"The refugee we interviewed said that military vessels twice passed their boat, without stopping, and that a military helicopter dropped food and water onto the boat at some point during the journey," said the spokeswoman. "The first boat refused their request to board.  The second only took photos, he said.  The man was not able to identify, however, where these vessels came from and to provide us with further description."  

Drastic measures

The survivors told UNHCR staff when water ran out, people drank seawater and their own urine.  They ate toothpaste and one by one people started to die.  Among those who died were 20 women and two small children.

Fleming says the survivors paid smugglers $800 to make this fateful journey and the passengers were expected to operate the boat on their own.  She says this is becoming a trend.

"We have heard accounts that perhaps there was a captain for the first 100 meters or so and a smaller boat would then take the captain back to shore and provide the passengers with a compass and say Lampedusa is in that direction.  Best of luck," said Fleming.

Perilous journey


Fleming says the journey is so dangerous that one out of 10 people will perish.  So far, 12,000 people have arrived in Italy and Malta.  Fleming says about 1,200 have gone missing and presumed dead.

She says this odyssey ended when the boat drifted to a beach near Zliten, between Tripoli and the Tunisian border.  She says one woman died on the beach from exhaustion.  The remaining 10 men walked to Zliten where the Libyan police arrested them.  Subsequently another man died, leaving nine survivors.

Fleming says Ethiopian friends in Tripoli paid the prison $900 to release the men who made their way to Shousha refugee camp in Tunisia.

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Egyptian Muslims, Copts Dampen Religious Feuds

Posted: 13 May 2011 10:09 AM PDT

Tensions between Christians and Muslims in Egypt have boiled over into sporadic violence for many years, but the dramatic changes in the country have brought the issue once again to the fore.  

Eye for eye

The murder of a parish priest proved the most recent tipping point here.   Anba Daoud Boutros was found stabbed to death in February in his home just outside Assyut.   At his funeral a few days later, angry mourners spied a young man at the edge of the graveyard, his beard a sign of his Muslim faith.  

Magdy Maher, a Coptic Christian who was at the burial, describes what happened next.   

Maher says that the some of the mourners turned on the Muslim youth and began to beat him.  Maher said he tried to intervene, but the man was badly hurt.  Tensions quickly escalated.   Copts held protest marches.  Muslims denounced the beating.  Insults turned to threats.  Within days, investigators alleged the murder was planned by the priest's Christian maid and the motive was robbery.   But by then, it didn't matter.  A group of young Muslim men took up arms.  That's when Wael Mohamed Saleh, of the Islamist group Gamaa Islamiyah, got involved.    

Saleh says he and others managed to convince the avenging group that punishing all Copts for the mistakes of a few is unjust and goes against the tenets of Islam.   He notes some of the young men involved weren't even particularly religious, just angry, but he credits God for "the tranquility in the hearts" of those trying to calm the situation.

Diffusing the conflict

Among those working to diffuse the anger were Christian elders.  And the joint effort worked.    Three months later, some of the interfaith "wise men" gather at a cafe overlooking one of Assyut's main canals and reflect on the incident: what it says about religion, human nature and the state of modern Egypt.   

Over glasses of mango juice, the men all say they have friendships across religious lines. They stress what they say is the usual ease of relations between the two groups.    Friction, they argue, was often the work of the previous government, playing one side off the other.  

Some point out that in Egypt, where the people for the most part share a common ethnicity, religion is one of the few obvious points of difference to exploit.    

Still, there are underlying complaints.  Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population, have said they feel oppressed by the majority Muslims.   Muslims counter that Copts can be "provocative."   

Businessman Saleh, of Gamaa Islamiyah says Muslim youth don't always understand that others don't recognize the prophet Mohammed.   Saleh councils that "if that's your belief, keep it in your heart but don't speak about it," because that, he says, causes hatred.

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The conversation veers toward how people of any faith can become victims of blind anger, and how quickly things spiral out of control.  Mohamed Bahaa, a computer engineer and member of the conservative Muslim Salafi sect, says pious Muslims and Christians bear the burden to solve the problems.

Bahaa recalls that when anger looked ready to turn to violence after the priest's murder, he was on the scene within half an hour.  

The importance of speed has prompted others to replicate the model that formed in the wake of the killing.  

Working together

Muslim and Christian leaders have worked together to set up smaller versions of their interfaith crisis group in towns and villages across Assyut governate.    Gamil Ashm Alla is a retired army general who works closely with the leaders of his Coptic church and several Islamic movements.  

Alla says these mini-committees are notified the moment trouble starts to brew.  The faster the mediators arrive, he says, the fewer people get involved, making the situation much easier to resolve.  

Crowds have a momentum of their own.  Other elders stress the need for mediation has become greater in recent months.  

Security forces disappeared after the uprising in January and have yet to fully re-establish control.   Economic concerns -- from the cost of bread to problems in the supply of home cooking fuel -- are only likely to add to uncertainty, suspicion and division.     The elders realize they have their work cut out for them.      


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Fate of Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Uncertain

Posted: 13 May 2011 07:52 AM PDT

Some lawmakers and activists in Uganda say voting on controversial anti-homosexuality bill has been postponed.

Speaker of the Parliament Edward Ssekandi adjourned parliament Friday, saying there was not enough time to start debate on the bill.  The current legislative session ends Wednesday.

The bill calls for mandatory death sentences for some homosexual acts and has drawn condemnation from the United States and various human rights groups.  U.S. President Barack Obama has described it as "odious."

The author of the bill said earlier this week that a new version of the bill would not contain the death penalty.  But no amended version was released.  

The human rights group Avaaz said parliament's refusal to take up the measure was a victory for all Ugandans.

On Thursday, the group Human Rights Watch warned that a Ugandan parliamentary committee was recommending the passage of the anti-homosexuality bill.  The international rights group also said the committee recommends adding criminal penalties for involvement in a same sex marriage.

A Ugandan gay rights activist who spoke out against the bill was murdered in January.  But Ugandan officials say the killing had nothing to do with his campaign against the legislation.

Activist David Kato had been the target of death threats since a Ugandan tabloid featured him on a list of what it called the country's top homosexuals.

Uganda is widely regarded as an oppressive environment or gays.  Homosexuality is currently punishable by life in prison.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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Thai Authorities Arrest Man in Apparent Animal Smuggling Case

Posted: 13 May 2011 07:43 AM PDT


A man was arrested at Thailand's international airport Friday after he was caught trying to smuggle wild animals out of the country.

The man, identified as a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, was trying to board a flight to Dubai when investigators found a baby bear, two leopards, two panthers and at least two monkeys stuffed in his luggage.

The anti-trafficking group FREELAND, whose members were present during the arrest, says the man is believed to be part of a far-reaching animal trafficking network.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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Palestinians Prepare to 'Mourn' Israel's Creation

Posted: 13 May 2011 04:41 AM PDT

Palestinians have announced plans to begin a series of marches and rallies on Friday leading up to Sunday's commemoration of what they call Naqba (catastrophe), the anniversary of the creation of Israel.

Palestinian organizers have planned processions through the West Bank and Gaza.  However, some activists have urged Palestinians to use the occasion to ignite another "intifada" against Israel.

Israel has deployed additional security forces in areas including the West Bank.  Israeli officials say they will limit access to the East Jerusalem holy site known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims to men over the age of 45.

More than 700,000 Palestinians are estimated to have fled or been forced to leave their homes during the war that followed Israel's declaration of statehood in 1948.

Last year, thousands of Palestinians marched through the streets of Gaza to mark Naqba while sirens wailed in towns and villages in the West Bank.

Israel - which uses the Hebrew calendar to mark its creation - marked its 63rd anniversary on Tuesday.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

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Spain Mourns Quake Victims

Posted: 13 May 2011 06:58 AM PDT

The Spanish city of Lorca is preparing to bury the victims of this week's earthquake.  

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and Crown Prince Felipe with wife Letizia are expected to attend the Friday funeral services for the nine victims of the 5.1 magnitude quake that rocked the southeastern city.  

The quake, preceded by a 4.4-magnitude tremor, hit the city late Wednesday, causing buildings to collapse.

Lorca, with more than 90,000 inhabitants, dates back thousands of years and has an old center with narrow streets.

Thousands of people were forced to spend Wednesday and Thursday nights outside their homes or left the city for fear of aftershocks.

The Spanish army and aid workers set up tent camps in city parks and distributed blankets, food and water.  The city is littered with rubble and crushed cars.

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