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ETHNIC VIOLENCE ERUPTS AS OPPOSITION PROTESTS AGINST ELECTIONS RESULT

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:36:42 +0100

KENYA: Misna; Violent protests are erupting in many Kenyan cities as opposition supporters demonstrate against the elections result. According to the latest toll which was released by national television and is based on average estimates, over 140 people have already died in the clashes. According to MISNA’s sources, violent riots are underway also in Kisumu, where authorities imposed a curfew this morning. Kitale, Nakuru, Eldoret, Likoni, Mikindani, in western Kenya, and the coastal city of Mombasa were also affected by the outburst. “The situation in Kisumu is worrying,” said father Joseph Otieno, a missionary for the Consolata order who is based in a suburb of the town inhabited by Luo population, to whom opposition leader Raila Odinga belongs. “People can only

ALGIERS ATTACK: INTERNATIONAL OR INTERNAL TERRORISM?

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:19:21 +0100

ALGERIA: Misna; "In Algeria nobody believes this Al-Qaida business, even if it were true", said an Algerian journalist to MISNA, speaking about the double bombing attack in Algiers. "Personally, I believe that the attacks are linked to the Algerian political context. The country is emerging from local elections that have disappointed many people and the government is trying beating the bendir' (drum', i.e. it is getting ready) to find a third mandate for president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. In fact, the explosion at Ben Aknoun had the Constitutional Council as its main target; it was personally inaugurated by president Bouteflika just a few weeks ago and he shall have the task of validating the candidatures" said the source, who said the involvement of students in the attack was "by

"HOW THEY STOLE THE BOMB. . .

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:15:41 +0100

INTERNATIONAL: Misna; For right-wing demagogues, the effect is even more disheartening. Binyamin Netanyahu has built his whole strategy on the Iranian scare, hoping to ride the Bomb right into the Prime Minister's office. Furthermore, when the Iranian issue cools down, the Palestinian issue warms up. That is especially true in Washington DC. President Bush is in trouble, his fiascos in Afghanistan and Iraq are still dragging on. Any American effort to install a stable government in Iraq, with its Shiite majority, depends on the backing of Shiite Iran. Bush's dream of delivering a lightning stroke against Iran and thus leaving his imprint on history is going up in smoke. What can he do in order to leave any positive legacy at all? The default alternative is Israeli-Palestinian peace.

"HOW THEY STOLE THE BOMB. . .

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:15:26 +0100

INTERNATIONAL: Misna; In the last few years, a broad coalition against Iran has come into being. The Iranian bomb has become the heart of an international consensus, led by America, Queen of the World. With the consent of all its five permanent members, the UN Security Council has decreed sanctions against Tehran. Now, before our very eyes, this coalition is crumbling. President Bush is stammering. Gone is the excuse for an American military attack on Iran, the dream of the Israeli government and the neocons. Gone is even the pretext for more stringent sanctions. God knows, perhaps even the existing feeble sanctions will be abolished tomorrow. THE FIRST reaction of the Israeli leadership was vigorous and determined: total denial. The American report is simply wrong, all the media

"HOW THEY STOLE THE BOMB FROM US" (by Uri Avnery)

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:15:06 +0100

INTERNATIONAL: Misna; "IT WAS like an atom bomb falling on Israel. The earth shook. Our political and military leaders were all in shock. The headlines screamed with rage. What happened? A real catastrophe: the American intelligence community, comprising 16 different agencies, reached a unanimous verdict: already in 2003, the Iranians terminated their efforts to produce a nuclear bomb, and they have not resumed them since. Even if they change their mind in the future, they will need at least five years to achieve their aim. SHOULDN'T WE be overjoyed? Shouldn't the masses in Israel be dancing in the streets, as they did on November 29, 1947, sixty years ago? After all, we have been saved! Until this week, we have been regularly hearing that - any minute now - the Iranians will

ATTACK AT BAGHDAD PRISON

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:13:01 +0100

IRAQ: Misna; At least seven people were killed and 21 wounded after an attack against a jail located very close to the Iraqi ministry of the interior. Local police sources said that militiamen fired mortar rounds around 6 am hitting some of the prisoners' cells. Two civilians were killed in Karrada, in the center of Baghdad, while a girl and an alleged militiaman were killed in Mosul and Hawija. The Iraqi news agency Aswat al-Iraq said that the 24 year old girl was killed in the market of Nabi Yunis, on the outskirts of Mosul, as gunmen fired shots from a moving vehicle. Meanwhile, US troops announced that they have captured 27 suspected terrorists in central and southern Iraq. [AB]

From the director's desk: INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUE

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 15:33:21 +0200

Pakistan: Minsa; Abu Hafs, spokesman of the Red Mosque, warned Benazir Bhutto about Musharraf hours before her return home, rejecting suppositions that she faced risks from Afghans, Arabs and those tied to the Red Mosque. Abu Hafs was quoted by the online Pakistani newspaper', that "only great desperation, disorganization and demoralization would have been able to convince anybody to attack such an insignificant political personality". Hours after the attack, a statement from Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the prime minister, given to Dubai's Ary One' channel, suggested that the Pakistani secret service is behind the attacks in Karachi: "this attack was not the work of Islamic combatants but of an espionage plot". Of course most of the media has focused on the Islamic threat

REVOLUTION, EXTERNAL PRESSURE OR INTERNAL FRACTURES

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 01:23:27 +0200

MYANMAR: Misna; Some believe that a popular revolt is taking place in Yangon; others sy what is happening is just a clash within the leadership of the regime. MISNA has asked an expert on the subject of Myanmar, who is now based in a neighboring country, his thought on the situation. The source wishes to remain anonymous. "It is very difficult to suggest there is a split in the military dictatorship. The military have always managed internal issues in secrecy. You would realize that some had fallen in disgrace when you would suddenly notice, in a matter of hours, that an important figure was transferred to be mayor in a remote village. He added that with the transfer of the capital to Naypyidaw, in the far north of the country, even that little contact between the administration

PROTESTS CONTINUE: DIVERGING REPORTS ON VICTIMS

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:24:22 +0200

MYANMAR Minsa; The demonstrations continue in Myanmar (ex-Burma), where based on the little and confusing information in circulation, also today security forces are intervening to disperse the protesters. According to international sources, the police and military have sealed off the centre of Yangon with barbed-wire barricades and blocked monasteries to impede the Buddhist monks from continuing the peaceful processions of the past days. The soldiers charged groups of demonstrators - fewer in respect to the past days : that are mainly students gathered in the area of the Sule pagoda. As in the past days, trucks with loudspeakers continue to warn the people to not join the protests, threatening punishments. The blackout of some sites of local servers appears to confirm the news of

NORTH: TOLL OF ARMY-LTTE CLASHES RISES, ALSO CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:44:34 +0200

SRI LANKA; Misna: Dozens of fighters of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) were killed in the past two days of fighting with government forces in the extreme north of Sri Lanka, in which civilians were also caught today. The Defence ministry of Colombo, which yesterday reported at least 20 dead among the rebels, communicated that at dawn the army confronted a group of LTTE fighters that were firing artillery at civilians. The confrontation reportedly resulted in nine rebels and two civilians dead and some thirty wounded. No confirmation has arrived in regard from the LTTE, which admitted only to the loss of ten men in two separate clashes yesterday. Before Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa is due to address the United Nations General Assembly today in New York, the

FORMER SOLDIERS STAGE VIOLENT PROTESTS FOR BENEFIT PAYOUTS

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:09:50 +0200

LIBERIA: Misna; Peacekeepers of the UNMIL (United Nations Mission in Liberia) and Liberian police patrolled the streets of Monrovia after a violent protest was staged last night by hundreds of former army soldiers, police, special security forces and immigration officers. The demonstrators were demanding the payment of pension benefits and barricaded the streets, throwing rocks and lighting fires. The UN forces and police dispersed the demonstrators and arrested three people, according to police sources. "Any individual who chose to ignore the principles of law by getting engaged in hooliganism will feel the full weight of the law. We cannot continue allowing people disturbing peace this way", said Deputy Information Minister Gabriel Williams. According to the Liberian National

MOGADISHU: FIGHTING BETWEEN INSURGENTS AND ARMY, CIVILIANS KILLED

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:50:48 +0200

SOMALIA: Misna; Heavy fighting overnight between insurgents and Somali regular forces around Mogadishu's main Bakara market left at least two civilians dead. In the worst violence since the announcement of a new opposition alliance, insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells in the area of a military base in the city centre. "The gunbattle went on for at least 40 minutes", said a witness, adding that the insurgents fled on the arrival of back-up troops. The Somali transitional government of President Abdullahi Youssuf i facing a growing insurgency, which erupted after the ousting of the Islamic Courts by regular forces backed by Ethiopian troops. To demand the liberation' of the country and Addis Ababa troops, top figures of the Somali opposition, the Diaspora

FROM BIKO CASE TO GUANTANAMO: 30 YRS OF LIES AND MEDICAL INVOLVEMENT IN TORTURE

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:27:14 +0200

Iraq: Misna; On the 30th anniversary of the death of the anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who died from head injuries sustained during interrogation by South African police, 266 medical institutes and university centres around the world published a letter on the last edition of The Lancet medical journal, revealing strong parallels between the case and situation in Guantanamo. At the time, a doctor was struck off the medical register for providing inadequate care and lying on the real causes of Biko's death (it was initially reported he died of a hunger strike) and another was reprimanded; at the Guantanamo Bay centre (on the Island of Cuba, but under US jurisdiction), where prisoners of the so-called war on terror are detained, according to the signatories of the letter, doctors present

KABUL: SUICIDE ATTACK TARGETS AIRPORT

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:26:48 +0200

AFGHANISTAN: Misna; A suicide bomber blew himself up at the military entrance of the airport of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing one Afghan soldier and wounding another four people, including two civilians and two soldiers of the NATO-led ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), based on a still preliminary toll. According to Defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the car-bomb struck a military vehicle transiting along the entrance road to the airport. The suicide bomber first attempted to target two vehicles of the German coalition troops, but did not blow up, allowing them to escape at high speed instants before the explosion. The attack occurred this morning at 7:30 local time. [BO]

BAGHDAD: POWER PLANT ATTACKED, THOUSANDS WITHOUT ELECTRICITY

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 14:06:06 +0200

IRAQ: Misna; Gunmen last night attacked the Al-Doura power plant, in southern Baghdad, causing the facility to shut down. The news was referred by Iraq's ministry of Electricity to the Aswat al-Iraq news agency, informing that "thousands of citizens" of the area are without power. The two units of the plant suffered serious damages and one was set on fire. There is no toll for the moment on eventual victims, though according to the same source various wounded were rushed to the nearby hospital. "It is an area not easy to control, despite the large-scale deployment of security forces and arrival of reinforcements", added the source. Meanwhile, Aswat al-Iraq today also reports that fifty Iraqi prisoners will be released on a daily basis from US army detention in the country during

SOME SOUTH KOREAN HOSTAGES RELEASED

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:57:36 +0200

AFGHANISTAN: Misna; The Taliban today released eight South Korean hostages, seven women and a man, held hostage in Afghanistan. The release of the eight Christian volunteers from South Korea, kidnapped in mid June, took place in two different locations and phases, first with the release of three women and then another three women and a man. Eleven South Korean hostages are still in the hands of the Taliban. The hostages were handed over to some members of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the province of Ghazni. Over the past weeks the Taliban killed two of the 21 hostages, but then released two women in a first phase of negotiations. No details have been disclosed regarding the accord that led to the releases, though in the past hours South Korean charity

ANOTHER JOURNALIST KILLED

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:22:30 +0200

SOMALIA: Misna; Another Somali journalist has been killed in unclear circumstances that have yet to be clarified. Sources told MISNA that Abdulkadir Mahad Moallim Kaskey, correspondent from the Gedo province for Radio Banadir, died this morning in the village of El Ilan, when unidentified armed men opened fire against the minibus aboard which he was traveling. Abdulkadir was also a member of the main union of Somali journalists, Nusoj, whose secretary, Omar Faruk Osman, denounced the murder, describing the attack as "an organized act". Faruk had asked the international community to "hold an international investigation on the recent wave of murders of journalists" in Somalia. Abdulkadir is the third journalist to be killed in Somalia in the past two weeks, while other information

DARFUR: SENEGAL TRIPLES CONTINGENT TO UN-AU MISSION

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:56:04 +0200

SUDAN: Today, the government of Dakar has announced the deployment of more troops to the AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur, where it has been since three years ago. The presidency issued a note this evening noting that the Senegalese contingent shall increase from the current i 538 to 1600 troops in Sudan in response to an appeal launched by the government of Sudan and the international community. They shall work with the new UNAMID mission, the hybrid' contingent made up by AU and UN troops, which shall take over from the AU mission in the next few months. [AB]

EXPLOSION IN MARIB

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 01:29:33 +0200

YEMEN: Misna. An explosion at an archaeological site In Marib in northeastern Yemen has left at least nine people dead, mostly Spanish tourists. International news sources also said at least one Yemeni national was killed. There has been widespread suggestions that this was an attack perpetrated by international terrorism as suggested by a note through which a well-known terrorist organization in Sana'a had demanded the release of some of its militants threatening unspecified reprisals, while other sources, local ones, are pointing the blame to internal tensions in the country. The available information appears to confirm the use of a car bomb for the explosion.[AB]

MOSUL: CHALDEAN CHURCH CONDEMNS PRIEST'S MURDER

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:04:00 +0200

IRAQ: Misna, "An abominable crime, a shameful act that the conscience of any person refutes", said the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, Emmanuel Delly III about the murder of a Chaldean priest and three other people in Mosul last night. The bishops, in synod at Almeltemen, "confide in the Lord such that in Iraq, security and stability might prevail". The Patriarch and members of the Chaldean Church said that yesterday's murder "reiterates what we have denounced in previous communiqués concerning the persecution of Christians in Iraq - (something far less common under Saddam Hussein : and we ask Iraqi and international authorities to consider all necessary measures to end these criminal acts and prevent them from occurring again". According to a witness account posted on Ankawa.com,