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Maravot News of the World 12:45 PM - San Francisco Wednesday, March 10, 2010 (last post)

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News Headlines & Trends

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03.10.10 A Q Khan network offered to build nuclear bomb for Saddam: Book

WASHINGTON, March 10 - An agent linked to disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan had offered Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1990 that they could build an atomic bomb for him in three years under a $150 million "nuclear package deal," according to a new book. The "package" deal included not only weapon designs but also details of production plants and foreign experts to supervise the building of a nuclear bomb, David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector, said in his book to be released next week, 'The Washington Post' reported. Reporting on the book entitled 'Peddling Peril' — 'How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies,' the paper said the newly uncovered documents suggest that Khan's offer of nuclear assistance to Saddam was more comprehensive than previously known. "A 1990 letter attributed to a Khan business associate offered Iraq a chance to leap past technical hurdles to acquire weapons capability," it said. "Pakistan had to spend a period of 10 years and an amount of 300 million US dollars to get it," begins one of the memos, the daily said reporting from the book. "Now, with the practical experience and worldwide contacts Pakistan has developed, you could have 'A.B.' in about three years' time and by spending about USD 150 million. [More>>timesofindia.indiatimes.com]

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03.10.10 Royal Dutch Shell halts gasonine sales to Iran

NEW YORK, March 10 - Royal Dutch Shell has stopped selling gasoline to Iran, the company confirmed Wednesday, adding to a list of oil giants that have stopped sales after a threat of future US sanctions. Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) said it had no official announcement beyond the confirmation, but according to someone with knowledge of the situation the company ceased gas sales to Iran sometime in 2009. "Shell is currently not selling gasoline to Iran," a Shell spokesman said, but he would not comment on whether the decision was related to talk of possible US sanctions on Iranian gasoline imports. Concerns have grown over Iran's nuclear program, and last month the Senate passed a bill that would allow President Obama to expand sanctions against Iran to pressure the republic into dropping its plans. [More>>cnn.com]

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03.10.10 Contractors divert Somalia aid, UN report says

March 10 - Up to half the food aid in Somalia is diverted to corrupt contractors, local UN workers and Islamist militants, a leaked UN report says. The report, by the UN monitoring group in Somalia, is particularly critical of the UN's own World Food Programme and recommends an independent inquiry. It says WFP contracts are awarded to a few powerful individuals who operate cartels that sell the food illegally. The report has not been made public yet, but its contents have been leaked. [More>>bbc.co.uk]

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03.10.10 Biden: Palestinians deserve 'viable' state

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) March 10 - VP chastises Israel again for East Jerusalem settlement Plan; says both sides shouldn't "Inflame Tensions." Vice President Joe Biden's displeasure over an Israeli plan to enlarge an east Jerusalem settlement was on display Wednesday as he warned against actions that "inflame tensions" and reassured his Palestinian hosts that they deserve a sustainable, independent state. The Israeli plans have overshadowed Biden's visit, meant to promote a new round of US-led negotiations, and drew Palestinian accusations that Israel is not serious about peace. Israel apologized for embarrassing Biden with the timing of its announcement, but made clear it had no intention of reversing its plan.

Capping a day of meetings with Palestinian leaders, Biden declared that Washington is committed to brokering a final peace deal — something that has eluded US leaders for nearly two decades. "The United States pledges to play an active as well as a sustainable role in these talks," Biden said. He stressed the Palestinians deserve an independent state that is "viable and contiguous," a clear message to Israel that the US expects a broad withdrawal from the West Bank as part of a settlement. Palestinians contend that Jewish enclaves dotted across the West Bank would make it impossible for them to sustain a state. [More>>cbsnews.com; See related story,

alarabiya.net, March 10, "UN, Biden condemn Israeli settlement plans" : UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned Israeli plans to build 1,600 more homes on occupied land where Palestinians seek their own state, echoing comments made earlier by US Vice President Joe Biden. "The secretary-general condemns the approval of plans for the building of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem by the Israeli Ministry of Interior earlier today," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement...

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03.10.10 Show of solidarity for Lars Vilks cartoon

March 11 - Leading papers have published a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog by a caricaturist who was the target of an assassination plot. The Dagens Nyheter newspaper said it was publishing the cartoon of Muslims arrested in Ireland as a sign of solidarity with the artist Lars Vilks. "Lars Vilks is not alone in this conflict. A threat against him is, in the end, a threat against all Swedish people," Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial which reproduced the controversial cartoon. Irish police arrested seven Muslims suspected of conspiracy to murder Vilks because of his cartoon. The four men and three women were arrested yesterday in the towns of Cork and Waterford in an operation coordinated with US and European security agencies. Police said there was a plot to assassinate Vilks, who has a $100,000 bounty on his head from an al-Qaeda-linked group. [More>>news.com.au; See related stories,

cnn.com, March 10, "Jihad Jane, American who lived on Main Street" : The Pennsylvania woman who dubbed herself Jihad Jane is an American who lived literally on Main Street in an apartment where she spent much time online, posting messages saying she was "desperate to do something" to help Muslims. Colleen LaRose, a 46-year-old who converted to Islam, has been indicted, accused of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and kill a person in a foreign country, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. She was not well known in her neighborhood in Pennsburg, an hour north of Philadelphia. One of her neighbors reacted to the news by saying, "It scares the hell out of me." LaRose was arrested October 15, officials say, but that was kept under wraps to protect another ongoing investigation. She's in custody in Philadelphia and faces arraignment in a week. The Justice Department has said LaRose and five alleged co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet "to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad."...

Maravot News article 03.09.10 "Seven held in Republic over cartoonist assassination plot"

Maravot News article 03.09.10 "Muslims outraged at UK screening of 'Fitna' film"

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03.10.10 Tajikistan jails 56 Muslim activists for extremist activities

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (RIA Novosti) March 10 - Tajikistan's top court on Wednesday sentenced 56 followers of Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), a radical Muslim group, for extremist activities in the Central Asian state. "Twenty-three defendants were given jail terms of between 3 and 6 years, while the remaining 33 individuals were fined between [$8,000 and $16,000]," a court spokesman said. The members of the group were arrested in a mosque in Dushanbe in December 2009. The trial began several weeks later. It was held behind closed doors at a Dushanbe pretrial center. Tajik authorities often jail and sentence members from TJ, as well as from Hizb-ut-Tahrir, both of which are banned in the country.

TJ is a transnational movement whose official aim is a spiritual revival of Muslims. Members of the group say they inspire people to refrain from sin and follow the true path of Islam. TJ was founded in 1926 as an independent movement in India. The group began its expansion in 1946, and within two decades has spread its activities to Southwest and Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Concerns about TJ role have risen after 9/11 attacks on the United States. TJ was outlawed as an extremist group in Tajikistan in 2006. TJ gained international media attention when it announced plans of building the largest mosque in Europe in Dewsbury, Britain. [>en.rian.ru]

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03.10.10 US missile strikes kill dozen in NWA

MIRANSHAH, March 10 - Seven back to back missiles fired by US drone aircraft killed at least 12 people in North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border on Wednesday. Five unmanned planes fired seven missiles at a militant compound and a vehicle, killing 12 people onboard, according to sources. It was not immediately clear whether any "high value target" was present in the area at the time of the attack. US drone attacks routinely target Taliban and al-Qaeda commanders in tribal belt and it was the 18th such attack, in which more than 100 people have been killed. [>thenews.com.pk]

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03.10.10 US aid group attacked in NW Pakistan; 6 dead

ISLAMABAD (AP) March 10 - Suspected militants armed with assault rifles and a homemade bomb attacked the offices of a US-based Christian aid group helping earthquake survivors in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six Pakistani employees, police and the organization said. The attack prompted World Vision, a major international humanitarian group, to suspend its operations in Pakistan. Other aid organizations condemned the violence but said it would not lead them to curtail their own activities. The assault took place in Ogi, a small town in Mansehra district that was badly hit by the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, which killed about 80,000 people and left 3 million people homeless. "It was a brutal and senseless attack," said Dean Owen, World Vision spokesman in Seattle, Washington. "It was completely unexpected, unannounced and unprovoked." Extremists have killed other foreign aid group employees in Pakistan and accused such organizations of working against Islam, greatly hampering efforts to raise living standards in the desperately poor region. Many groups have already scaled down operations in the northwest or pulled out altogether. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

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03.10.10 Iran and US trade barbs in Kabul visit

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 10 - The Iranian president visited Kabul on Wednesday and shot back at American allegations that Iran was providing support to Afghan insurgents, accusing the United States of playing its own "double game." The Iranian visit came on the heels of a trip by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who was still in Afghanistan on Wednesday even as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted that the occupation would fail. Later in the day President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan was to fly to Pakistan for a visit with the leadership there.

The cluster of diplomacy, while ostensibly coincidental, nevertheless indicated the intensifying dialogue as the United States, Afghanistan and its neighbors begin trying to put the pieces in place for an eventual resolution to the war and angle to protect their interests in whatever regional order prevails. The distrust among the parties and the opposing tugs on Afghanistan were evident as the Iranian president and the American defense secretary traded jabs in remarks to reporters during the visits that were awkwardly juxtaposed. Appearing at a news conference at the presidential palace with Mr. Karzai, Mr. Ahmadinejad said the United States uses the excuse of fighting “terrorists that they themselves created, supported and financed” to maintain its occupation of Afghanistan. [More>>nytimes.com]

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03.09.10 Chile quake moves city 3 meters

BEIJING (Xinhuanet) March 9 - Preliminary measurements show the 8.8-magnitude quake which struck Chile last month shifted the entire city of Concepcion more than three meters to the west, and some other cities of South America were also displaced more or less, according to media reports Tuesday. Researchers from four universities and several agencies gathered readings at 25 GPS locator stations set up prior to the major quake and then compared them to readings taken 10 days later to come up with their preliminary numbers. "By reoccupying the existing GPS stations, CAP can determine the displacements, or 'jumps,' that occurred during the earthquake," said Mike Bevis, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University. "By building new stations, the project can monitor the postseismic deformations that are expected to occur for many years, giving us new insights into the physics of the earthquake process," he added.

The results show the Chilean city of Concepcion shifted 3 meters (10 feet) to the west. Chile's capital Santiago was displaced about 27.7 centimeters (11 inches) to the west-southwest. And Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, moved about 4 centimeters (1.5 inches) to the west. And significant displacements were recorded as far away as the Falkland Islands and Fortaleza. [>xinhuanet.com]

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03.09.10 Nanometer 'fuses' for high-performance batteries

March 9 - Minuscule tubes coated with a chemical fuel can act as a power source with 100 times more electrical power by weight than conventional batteries. As these nano-scale "fuses" burn, they drive an electrical current along their length at staggering speeds. The never-before-seen phenomenon could lead to a raft of energy applications. Researchers reporting in Nature Materials say that unlike normal batteries, the nanotubes never lose their stored energy if left to sit. The team, led by Michael Strano of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coated their nanotubes — cylinders just billionths of a metre across — with a chemical fuel known as cyclotrimethylene trinitramine.

"One property that nanotubes have is that they conduct heat very, very well along their length, up to a hundred times faster than in metals," Dr. Strano told BBC News. "We asked what would happen if you perform a chemical reaction near one of these, and the first thing we found is the nanotube will guide the reaction, accelerating it up to 10,000 times." The team used a laser or an electric spark to set off the reaction in a bundle of coated carbon nanotubes, filming the results using a high-speed camera. But they also found that, through a mechanism that is still poorly understood, the process creates a useful voltage - a phenomenon they have dubbed "thermopower waves." Their nanotube bundles carry, gram for gram, up to 100 times as much energy as a standard lithium-ion battery. [More>>bbc.co.uk; See a related story, Maravot News 2.17.08 article 2.14.08 Microfiber fabric makes its own electricity?]

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03.09.10 Top Jemaah Islamiyah militant Dulmatin believed killed in Indonesia - police

March 9 - Police think they've shot dead Dulmatin, a mastermind of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings which killed 88 Australians. Police say they are waiting on DNA results but believe a man shot dead in a South Jakarta internet cafe yesterday was Dulmatin, who had a $10 million reward on his head from the US Government. It is believed Dulmatin spent years hiding in the southern Philippines after the 2002 bombings. His re-emergence in Indonesia led to a massive upgrade in the country's fight against militants and terrorism. Indonesia's anti-terror squad head Tito Karnavian did not confirm the dead man was Dulmatin, but said he was "an old player and a big one." Police over the past two weeks have arrested 19 people involved in Dulmatin's new Aceh cell and uncovered weapons, training manuals and videos of the Bali bombings, in which 200 people were killed, including 88 Australians. Two suspects and three police officers have been killed in the operation. Police confirmed the group was training for an attack but did not reveal the target. Dulmatin has been one of South-East Asia's most wanted men since the Bali bombings, for which he helped assemble the bombs and set one off with a mobile phone. [>news.com.au] ; See other details,

thejakartapost.com, March 9, "Pamulang terrorist identified" : JAKARTA - National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said his team had identified one of the three  terrorist suspects killed in raids Tuesday, but declined to release information on the suspect. Edward said his team was not 100 percent positive about the identification as the suspect may have used a fake ID card. A source close to the police revealed that the suspect had been identified as Yahya Ibrahim, kompas.com reported. The suspects, one of them a woman, were gunned down during raids on Jl. Siliwangi and Jl. Setiabudi in Pamulang in South Tangerang. "They supplied weapons and financial aid to the terrorist group in Aceh," Edward told a press conference in Jakarta. Another suspect killed in the raids is believed to be the country's most wanted terrorist, Dulmatin, also known as Joko Pitono or Umar Patek, who was involved in the 2002 Bali bombing. [end]

timesonline.co.uk, March 9, "Bali bomber mastermind Dulmatin 'killed in shoot-out' " : The alleged mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings is believed to have been killed in a shoot-out with Indonesian police on the outskirts of Jakarta today. Dulmatin, nicknamed "the Genius," was an explosives expert who was believed to have set off one of the Bali bombs with a mobile phone, as well as helping to assemble the massive car bomb used in the attacks, which killed 202 people. The shoot-out happened during a morning raid on a house in Pamulang city, west of the Indonesian capital. Police said the raid, which comes two weeks before a visit by President Obama, targeted Dulmatin and two other senior members of the militant Islamist organization Jemaah Islamiyah.

Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, has launched a series of raids across the archipelago following the discovery of a militant Islamic training camp in Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, last month. Police have detained 21 suspected members of the group in Aceh and Java, while two have been killed...A television news station quoted witnesses as saying that a man and woman arrived by motorbike at a complex made up of shops and houses. The man, aged between 30 and 40, went into an internet café while the woman went into a salon next door. About ten minutes later members of Detachment 88 raided the internet café, shots were heard and a body bag was taken out. The woman was taken into custody along with a manager of the complex...

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03.09.10 Seven held in Republic over cartoonist assassination plot

March 9 - Seven Muslims were arrested in the Republic today over an alleged plot to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, police said. Al-Qaeda put a $100,000-dollar bounty on the head of cartoonist Lars Vilks after a newspaper published his cartoon. The four men and three women were detained after an investigation involving European security agencies and the United States' CIA and FBI. Mr. Vilks, who lives in an isolated area of Sweden, was put under police protection after threats were made against his life. When al-Qaeda put the bounty on the cartoonist's head in 2007 it offered a 50% bonus if Mr. Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" by having his throat cut, while another 50,000 dollars was put on the life of Ulf Johansson, editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda, the local newspaper which printed the cartoon.

However those arrested are not believed to be members of the terrorist group. It understood some have converted to the Muslim faith. The arrests were made at around 10am as officers conducted a number of raids. Gardai said the operation was supported by members from National Support Services and the Republic's anti-terrorist Special Detective Unit. A Garda spokesman added: "Throughout the investigation An Garda Siochana has been working closely with law enforcement agencies in the United States and in a number of European countries." [>belfasttelegraph.co.uk]

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03.09.10 Al-Qaeda came within days of terror attack on Britain last year, court hears

March 9 - An alleged al-Qaeda terrorist cell arrested in the North West was within days of launching an attack on Britain a senior officer in MI5 has told a tribunal. The men, who were arrested in Manchester and Liverpool in April last year, were said to be in direct contact with al-Qaeda in Pakistan, using coded email messages that talked about cars and girls. They were said to be "operating in a similar manner" to those planning the mass casualty attacks of July 7 2005 and the trans-Atlantic airline plot of 2006. Sources at the time said the gang was targeting Easter shoppers but police found no sign of bomb-making equipment and they were never charged.

The operation had to be brought forward after Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, then Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer, was photographed entering Downing Street with details of the operation visible. Four of the men, who had all arrived from Pakistan on student visas, are now appealing against a government decision to deport them on national security grounds. An MI5 officer, referred to only as "ZR" gave evidence behind a curtain at the beginning of a three-week hearing at the Special Immigration and Appeals Commission. The officer, who refused to answer a large number of questions in open court, told the commission that the plot centred on a man called Abid Naseer, 23, and his associates.

He said they were "planning a terrorist attack on the UK, directed and orchestrated by al-Qaeda and part of that direction was by coded email passages and the attack was most likely to take place between 15 and 20 April 2009 on which basis the arrests came days before the attacks were due to take place. There is a recognition that at the time of the arrests, the appellants on that day were not ready to launch an attack but that doesn't preclude doing it at the time," they said. [More>>telegraph.co.uk; See other details, independent.co.uk, March 9, "Five 'arrested days before launching UK terror attack' "]

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03.09.10 Muslims outraged at UK screening of 'Fitna' film

March 9 - British organization labels Dutch MP Wilders a "fascist." DUBAI - The screening of Geert Wilders' controversial anti-Islam film in the UK Sunday outraged Muslims and rights organizations earning the far-right Dutch MP the labels "fascist" and "racist." The film, called Fitna, was screened at the House of Lords in response to an invitation Wilders got on March 5 from Lord Malcolm Pearson, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and member of the House of Lords, and Baroness Caroline Anne Cox, cross-bench member of the House of Lords.

Wilders' trip to the UK is part of the Stop Islamization Of Europe (SIOE) campaign. SIOE is an organization whose goal is to prevent Islam from becoming a substantial political force in Europe. Wilders' visit is supported by the far-right English Defense League (EDL). The film, which declares Islam is incompatible with democracy and calls the Quran a fascist book, was scheduled for screening in the UK in 2009. However, Wilders was denied entry to the country. He was accused of inciting hatred and designated a persona non grata. The ban was overturned in October 2009, a moved that Wilders called a “victory for freedom.” [More>>alarabiya.net; See related stories,

♦ Maravot News 3.02.09, article 2.26.09 US senator screens anti-Islam film 'Fitna' and link with Editorial note, "Confusion over the teachings of the Koran" ;
♦ Maravot News 4.16.09 article 4.16.09 Dutch anti-Islam politician Wilders plans new film
♦ Maravot News 4.06.08 article 4.02.08 Egypt bans German mag for 'insulting Islam' related story, spiegel.de, April 1, "Geert Wilders is no right-wing populist" :;
♦ Maravot News 4.06.08, article 3.29.08 Website withdraws Dutch anti-Islam film'
♦ Maravot News 4.06.08 article 3.28.08 Online: a violent view of Islam;
♦ Maravot News 2.17.08 article 2.06.08 Analysis: US cuts critique of Islam filmx

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03.09.10 Grandmother defends home and is buried alive

BEIJING, March 9 - A 70-year-old grandmother in China has been beaten and buried alive by property developers trying to take possession of her land. Wang Cuyun from Hubei Province was struggling with workmen trying to tear down her house and was allegedly beaten by a worker wielding a wooden stick. She was dumped in a drainage ditch that ringed her property and a bulldozer covered her with earth, burying her alive. Witnesses said three policemen were present to supervise the eviction but did nothing to intervene or protect her. Her son joined other relatives trying to rescue her. It took more than half an hour to pull her free from the ditch, by which time she was dead. Mrs. Wang's son moved her body to the side of a main road and was joined by thousands of local residents protesting at her death. One man told Hubei Television that policemen had "stood around acting like it was none of their business." The death of Mrs. Wang is the latest in a long series of assaults, intimidation and violence carried out by property developers in their efforts to obtain valuable land for development. [More>>news.sky.com]