Bahrain: Iran can help ease Syrian civil war
~~REEM KHALIFA

[Editor: The Iran should never take back the Hezbollah fighters, till it breaks the back-bone of the Al Qaeda fighters in Syria. I am sure as long as the Western Forces do not go for direct confrontation with the current Syrian Regime, Hezbollah is sufficient to repulse any attack by the Al Qaeda gangs (Al Nusra Front) and the FSA militants. It is shame that the US and EU is supporting this dreaded terrorist organization]

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain's foreign minister on Sunday urged Iran's newly elected president to seek the withdrawal of Tehran-backed Hezbollah fighters from Syria as a gesture to try to ease the civil war there.

The appeal by Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, during meetings between the European Union and Gulf Arab foreign ministers, showed the widening shadow of Syria's 27-month conflict that has spilled across borders, involving Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey in varying degrees.

Bahrain and other Arab states have been highly critical of the intervention by Lebanon-based Hezbollah on behalf of the regime of Syria's President Bashar Assad, who is Iran's main regional ally. Bahrain has outlawed contact with Hezbollah, which it claims aids fellow Shiite groups in an Arab Spring-inspired uprising against the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain. More than 60 people have died in Bahrain's unrest since February 2011.

"The situation is critical in Syria, and we hope that Iran takes a serious steps to withdraw the foreign troops in Syria, specifically Hezbollah and other militias," Sheik Khalid told reporters at the gathering in the Gulf nation's capital, Manama. He welcomed the election of Hasan Rouhani as president of Iran and hope it could "open a new page" in Tehran's relations with the region.

Iran's president, however, has little sway over major policymaking, such as strategies in Syria or relations with Hezbollah. All Iran's key decisions rest with the ruling clerics and the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

Bahrain's Gulf partners, led by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, also have urged for stepped up weapons shipments to Syrian rebels, whose fight has drawn in some guerrillas from across the Muslim world. However, the emergence of Al-Qaida-linked groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, has fuelled Western reluctance to supply heavy weapons to the opposition.

Participants in the meeting in Bahrain also expressed worry that political tensions in Egypt could spill out of control, as protesters opposing President Mohammed Morsi vowed to remain on the streets until he is pushed from power.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who led the EU envoys in Bahrain, told The Associated Press that "all are watching with concern" the unfolding protests in Egypt. She said she met last week with Morsi and members of the opposition in efforts to ease tensions.

"We encourage a dialogue to understand the current issues," she said.

Ashton faces pressure from rights groups to publicly criticize Gulf leaders for crackdowns around the region including widespread arrests for social media posts deemed insulting to rulers or raising questions about the scope of their power.

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch urged Ashton and the EU to complain to Gulf leaders about the sentencing a week ago of seven critics in Saudi Arabia to prison terms of five to 10 years, mostly for Facebook posts. The sentences have not been published officially in Saudi Arabia.

A joint statement by Bahrain's opposition urged the EU to press the Gulf nation's leaders to free political prisoners and expand efforts for a political solution to the unrest. Talks since last year have failed to make headway in the strategic island kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Courtesy: Yahoo.com

Iranian foreign minister leaves for Qatar to discuss Syria crisis

Iran Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi

Iran Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has left Tehran for Doha to discuss major regional developments with Qatari officials, especially the ongoing Syria crisis.

During his short visit to the Persian Gulf kingdom, the top Iranian diplomat will meet with Qatar’s new ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to congratulate him on his ascension to power.

Salehi will elaborate on Iran’s viewpoints on the peaceful settlement of Syria unrest and discuss the development of bilateral relations with the new Qatari Emir.

He will also confer with high-ranking Qatari officials on major regional developments, in particular the Syria crisis.

Foreign-sponsored militancy in Syria, which erupted in March 2011, has claimed the lives of many people, including large numbers of Syrian soldiers and security personnel.

During a press conference with his Tajik counterpart, Hamrokhon Zarifi, in Tehran on June 26, Salehi expressed hope that the new Qatari ruler would revise the Persian Gulf state’s policy toward Syria.

    “We hope that the new Emir would pay special attention to the Syria issue and seriously reconsider [his country's] past policies” so that peace and stability would return to Syria and the Syrian people are saved from the ongoing suffering and bloodshed,” Salehi said.


On Tuesday, Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani officially abdicated power in favor of his son, Sheikh Tamim. The 61-year-old Emir, who had overthrown his father in a coup in 1995, handed over the power to his 33-year-old son after 18 years of ruling the country.

AR/SS

Courtesy: Press TV

War costs Syria US$15 billion
~~By Jamal Halaby

A Free Syrian Army fighter (Reuters file)

More than two years of fighting in Syria's civil war has damaged some 9,000 state buildings and run up US$15 billion in losses to the public sector, a government minister said Sunday, shining a light on the devastating toll the crisis has taken on the country's economy.

Syria's civil war has laid waste to entire neighbourhoods in the country's cities and towns, destroyed much of its manufacturing base and infrastructure and brought oil production and exports to a halt. The damage to the nation's human resources has been just as severe. More than a million people have fled the country and millions more are displaced within it. According to a UN estimate, more than 93,000 people have been killed.

In comments published in Syrian newspapers, Local Administration Minister Omar Al Ibrahim Ghalaounji said the $15 billion in damages to the public sector were sustained between March 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar Assad began, and March 2013. He said they were the result of "terrorist attacks on government buildings and infrastructure."

The government commonly refers to those fighting to topple the Assad regime as "terrorists."

Former Syrian Planning Minister Abdullah al-Dardari, who leads a six-member UN team drawing up a comprehensive postwar reconstruction plan, recently estimated the overall damage to Syria's economy at $60-$80 billion.

He told The Associated Press that Syria's economy has shrunk by about 35 percent, compared to the 6 percent annual growth Syria enjoyed in the five years before the conflict began. The economy lost almost 40 percent of its GDP, and foreign reserves have been extensively depleted, he said.

Unemployment has shot up from 500,000 before the crisis to at least 2.5 million this year, he said.

Syria's currency plunged to a record low this month following a U.S. decision to arm rebel groups. The Syrian pound currently trades around 200 to the dollar, compared with 47 before the crisis.

When the conflict began, the government had some $17 billion in foreign currency reserves. Those have dropped from blows to two main pillars of the economy: oil exports, which used to bring in up to $8 million per day, and tourism, which in 2010 earned $8 billion. US and European Union bans on oil imports are estimated to cost Syria about $400 million a month.

The government did not say how much currency it has left in its reserves, but the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit estimates it at a little more than $4.5 billion.

After the currency dive, Iran - one of Assad's strongest allies believed to have supplied his government with billions of dollars since the crisis began - quickly stepped in, offering a $1 billion credit line to help shore up the pound.

The weak pound has triggered a hike in prices, squeezing a Syrian population already beleaguered by the fighting.

To compensate people, a presidential decree last week offered a raise for the public sector, saying it could reach up to 40 percent depending on the salary of the civil servant. Pensions could also rise by up to 25 percent, the decree said.

Many Syrians complain they can barely make ends meet.

"Living in Syria is like being in a burning hell," a Damascus resident said Sunday via Skype. He identified himself only as Abu Khaled, fearing government retribution. "It's the rising prices on the one side, the war on the other, and in between killings and kidnappings, lack of security and bombs and rockets falling on our heads and homes."

In the long-run, the economic pinch could hamper the Assad regime's ability to fund his efforts to quell the armed rebellion.

In recent weeks, however, government forces - bolstered by an influx of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group - have clawed back ground lost to rebels over the past year, most importantly the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border.

With Qusair now in government hands, an emboldened military is seeking to retake rebellious neighbourhoods in the nearby city of Homs, Syria's third largest and a flashpoint since the early days of the uprising.

On Sunday, Syrian warplanes shelled the old quarters of Homs, killing one woman and two children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and two activists who spoke to The Associated Press on Skype.

"They have wiped half the city off the map," said an activist who uses the name Abu Bilal. He and activist Tariq Badrakhan said it was the heaviest shelling of Homs since rebels seized control of parts of the city over a year ago.

Syrian forces also tried to push into the city from the Babout quarter, but fighters of the al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra pushed them back, Abu Bilal said. The activists said at least five Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah fighters were killed.

About 70 people were killed Sunday, most of them rebels and soldiers, said the Observatory.

Also Sunday, the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the country's main opposition block, called on the international community to protect civilians in Homs.

In the northern province of Aleppo, Syrian rebels shot down a helicopter flying over the town of Kufr Nabel, sending it crashing in a fiery ball, according to activists and state media.

Seven people were killed, most of them education officials flying in exam papers, state media said.

In a video posted online, a voice can be heard shouting "God is great" as an aircraft emitting plumes of smoke is seen smashing into a plain scattered with homes. The video corresponded to other AP reporting of the events depicted.

In the town of al-Kisweh near Damascus, when a car bomb exploded near a government building, wounding 10 people, activists and state-run media said.

Courtesy: Best News

 Syria army launches intense assault on Homs

Civilian deaths reported as air strikes and shelling destroy buildings in several areas of the central city.

The attack on Homs, the third largest city in Syria,
follows steady military gains by Assad’s forces which
are being backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants.
(File photo: AFP)

Air strikes killed at least three civilians as Syrian government forces intensified their attacks and pressed forward with a new bid to retake several rebel-controlled districts of Homs.

A woman and her two children were reported killed in attacks on the Old City of Homs and the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood on Sunday, the Syrian Observator for Human Rights told the AFP news agency.

"Syrian warplanes carried out air strikes on the Old City... destroying a house and causing three deaths," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"Regime forces also carried out heavy shelling of the districts of Khaldiyeh and the Old City, and the sound of explosions could be heard."

"The army is continuing its attempt to enter Khaldiyeh, but it hasn't succeeded so far," he said.

Video uploaded to the internet also showed a man carrying an injured child from a destroyed building, asking members of the child's family if there were more people trapped inside. The origin of the video could not be verified.


Another video, said to have been filmed on Sunday, showed buildings coming under attack with explosions going off in the besieged district of Hama Road, in what a person off-camera described as 'barbaric shelling by Assad gangs," referring to the embattled president Bashar al-Assad.

The bombardment comes a day after the group said government forces were engaged in "unprecedented" bombardment of several parts of Homs, including Khaldiyeh, Bab Hud, Hamidiyeh and Bustan al-Diwan.

Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford said mobile phone connections in the city were cut on Saturday, before government jets began their bombing raids. Civilians were trapped in their homes in the attacks, he said.

An activist told Al Jazeera it was the most intense fighting the city had experienced, and that civilians face the "worst ever" if nothing was done to break the siege.

A spokesman for the Assad government said: "What's important is to cleanse those neighbourhoods of Homs that are in the hands of armed terrorists."

Courtesy: Aljazeera

Taking Outsize Role in Syria, Qatar Funnels Arms to Rebels

June 29, 2013: WASHINGTON — As an intermittent supply of arms to the Syrian opposition gathered momentum last year, the Obama administration repeatedly implored its Arab allies to keep one type of powerful weapon out of the rebels’ hands: heat-seeking shoulder-fired missiles.

The missiles, American officials warned, could one day be used by terrorist groups, some of them affiliated with Al Qaeda, to shoot down civilian aircraft.

But one country ignored this admonition: Qatar, the tiny, oil- and gas-rich emirate that has made itself the indispensable nation to rebel forces battling calcified Arab governments and that has been shipping arms to the Syrian rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.
Since the beginning of the year, according to four American and Middle Eastern officials with knowledge of intelligence reports on the weapons, Qatar has used a shadowy arms network to move at least two shipments of shoulder-fired missiles, one of them a batch of Chinese-made FN-6s, to Syrian rebels who have used them against Mr. Assad’s air force. Deployment of the missiles comes at a time when American officials expect that President Obama’s decision to begin a limited effort to arm the Syrian rebels might be interpreted by Qatar, along with other Arab countries supporting the rebels, as a green light to drastically expand arms shipments.

Qatar’s aggressive effort to bolster the embattled Syrian opposition is the latest brash move by a country that has been using its wealth to elbow its way to the forefront of Middle Eastern statecraft, confounding both its allies in the region and in the West. The strategy is expected to continue even though Qatar’s longtime leader, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, stepped down last week, allowing his 33-year-old son to succeed him.

“They punch immensely above their weight,” one senior Western diplomat said of the Qataris. “They keep everyone off balance by not being in anyone’s pocket.”

“Their influence comes partly from being unpredictable,” the diplomat added.

Mr. Obama, during a private meeting in Washington in April, warned Sheik Hamad about the dangers of arming Islamic radicals in Syria, though American officials for the most part have been wary of applying too much pressure on the Qatari government. “Syria is their backyard, and they have their own interests they are pursing,” said one administration official.

Qatari officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The United States has little leverage over Qatar on the Syria issue because it needs the Qataris’ help on other fronts. Qatar is poised to host peace talks between American and Afghan officials and the Taliban, who have set up a political office in Doha, the Qatari capital. The United States Central Command’s forward base in Qatar gives the American military a command post in the heart of a strategically vital but volatile region.

Qatar’s covert efforts to back the Syrian rebels began at the same time that it was increasing its support for opposition fighters in Libya trying to overthrow the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Its ability to be an active player in a global gray market for arms was enhanced by the C-17 military transport planes it bought from Boeing in 2008, when it became the first nation in the Middle East to have the durable, long-range aircraft.

The Obama administration quietly blessed the shipments to Libya of machine guns, automatic rifles, mortars and ammunition, but American officials later grew concerned as evidence grew that Qatar was giving the weapons to Islamic militants there.

American and Arab officials have expressed worry about something similar happening in Syria, where Islamists in the north have turned into the most capable section of the opposition, in part because of the weapons from Qatar. Saudi Arabia recently has tried to wrest control from Qatar and take a greater role in managing the weapons shipments to Syrian rebels, but officials and outside experts said the Qatari shipments continue. The greatest worry is over the shoulder-fired missiles — called man-portable air-defense systems — that Qatar has sent to Syria since the beginning of the year. Videos posted online show rebels in Syria with the weapons, including the Chinese FN-6 models provided by Qatar, and occasionally using them in battle.

The first videos surfaced in February and showed rebels wielding the Chinese missiles, which had not been seen in the conflict previously and were not known to be in Syrian government possession. . 

Western officials and rebels alike say these missiles were provided by Qatar, which bought them from an unknown seller and brought them to Turkey. The shipment was at least the second antiaircraft transfer under the Qataris’ hand, they said. A previous shipment of Eastern bloc missiles had come from former Qaddafi stockpiles.

The shipments were small, the Western officials and rebels said, amounting to no more than a few dozen missiles. And rebels said the Chinese shipments have been plagued with technical problems, and sometimes fail to fire. The first FN-6s were seen in the custody of groups under the Free Syrian Army banner, suggesting that they were being distributed, at least initially, to fighters backed by the United States and not directly to extremists or groups with ties to Al Qaeda.

American and Arab officials said that Qatar’s strategy was a mixture of ideology — the ruling family’s belief in a prominent role for Islam in political life — and more hard-nosed calculations.

“They like to back winners,” one Middle Eastern official said.

In meetings with Mr. Obama, the leaders of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have expressed a host of grievances about the Qatari shipments and have complained that Qatar is pursuing a reckless strategy.

In Mr. Obama’s meeting with Sheik Hamad at the White House on April 23, American officials said, he had warned that the weapons were making their way to radical groups like Jabhet al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front, a Qaeda-affiliated group that the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.

“It was very important for the Qataris to understand that Nusra is not only an organization that destabilizes the situation in Syria,” said one senior Obama administration official. “It’s a national security interest of ours that they not have weapons.”

But Charles Lister, an analyst with the IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London who follows the Syria opposition groups, said that there was evidence in recent weeks that Qatar had increased its backing of hard-line Islamic militant groups active in northern Syria.

Mr. Lister said there was no hard evidence that Qatar was arming the Nusra Front, but he said that because of existing militant dynamics, the transfer of Qatari-provided arms to certain targeted groups would result in the same practical effect.

“It’s inevitable that any weapons supplied by a regional state like Qatar,” he said via e-mail, “will be used at least in joint operations with Jabhet al-Nusra — if not shared with the group.”

At least some extremists have already acquired heat-seeking missiles and have posted videos of them, although the sources for these arms are not apparent from videos alone. And they appear to have been made principally in the Eastern Bloc, not in China.

Erin Banco and Mark Landler contributed reporting from Washington, and Karam Shoumali from Antakya, Turkey.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 30, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Sending Missiles To Syrian Rebels, Qatar Muscles In.
 

Courtesy: The New York Times

Muslims urged to rally for Syria

~~Rachel Olding

Zeky Mallah: Spent time with the Free Syrian Army
Photo: Kate Geraghty

July 1, 2013: Sydney's Muslim leaders are allegedly encouraging young Australians to participate in the Syrian civil war in a move authorities fear is exacerbating sectarian violence.

Fairfax Media has found evidence of provocative lectures by community leaders and sheikhs that encourage young Muslims to give their ''wealth and blood'' to the Syrian cause.

The calls flout federal laws banning the recruitment, funding, training or participation in the conflict in Syria and which carry up to 20 years imprisonment.

The al-Risalah Islamic bookshop in Bankstown has presented several lectures on Syria, including one by Sheikh Omar El-Banna titled ''Syria is my responsibility'' and another by Sheikh Abu Sulayman titled ''What is the least we can do for Syria?''.

Sheikh Abu Sulayman called on the audience of mostly young men to give generous donations to the ''mujahideen'' or fighters in Syria and said it was the obligation of each Muslim to join the ''jihad''.

''There is not a [single] part of this world where the Muslims are being fought today that the Muslims there are not calling for us today,'' he said. ''They are calling day and night for us to support them with our wealth and with our blood and with all we possess.''

The civil war in Syria pits the Sunni-dominated rebellion against the Alawite regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the Shiites in Lebanon and Iran.
During a lecture last month, Campbelltown Sheikh Jamil el-Biza said Shiites should be destroyed ''either with our hands or with our blood''. He berated young Muslims for caring more about the Canterbury Bulldogs NRL team than what is happening to their ''brothers'' in Syria, Chechnya, Kashmir and Somalia. He recently spent a year in Lebanon helping Syrian refugees.

The Australian Federal Police believe 150 to 200 Australians have travelled to Syria, with a significant proportion fighting with the resistance, about half of whom are with al-Qaeda aligned group Jabhat al-Nusra, listed as a terrorist organisation under Commonwealth laws on Saturday.

Zaky Mallah, who runs an office for the Free Syrian Army from his Parramatta garage, promises he can get young Australians into Syria in less than 24 hours but strongly denies he is recruiting people for the resistance.

''I encourage Australians to go to Syria not to fight but to see the situation for themselves,'' Mr Mallah said. ''What they do after that is up to them.''

The NSW police said it had ''ongoing consultations'' with the al-Risalah bookstore.

Fairfax Media reported on Sunday that the Syrian war has triggered violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Sydney.

The owner of al-Risalah bookshop, Wisam Haddad, did not respond to emailed questions. A statement posted on the store's website denied it was extremist.

A spokesman for the Australian Syrian Association, Mohammed al-Hamwi, accepted that some leaders were going to extremes but said the aim was to help the Syrian people.

'Call me crazy but this is a cause I am willing to die for'

Zaky Mallah's aim is to die in Syria.

''I wouldn't mind being granted martyrdom,'' he said. ''Call me crazy, call me weird, call me whatever but it's a cause I'm willing to die for.''

The 29-year-old from Parramatta spent three weeks with the Free Syrian Army last year observing the conflict and he wants to return soon.

He is one of up to 200 Australians who have gone to Syria in what Australian Federal Police have said is a ''game changer'' for national security.

Mr Mallah agreed that young Australians who came into contact with terrorist groups in Syria were a big security risk on their return, but he questioned who was to blame.

''Who's to blame for Syria being a jihadi battleground? The international community has done nothing to prevent the atrocities against the Syrian people,'' he said, adding that he returned from Syria feeling ''very pissed off at the whole world''.

Since establishing an Australian outpost of the Free Syrian Army to disseminate information and collect donations, Mr Mallah has attracted hostility from some Muslims and come to the attention of intelligence agencies.

He insists he has not broken federal laws banning the recruitment, funding, training or participation in the conflict. ''It's one thing to give money … that's the lazy approach. To experience the war itself gives you a more in-depth understanding of the atrocities going on there.''

Courtesy: New South Wales

Assad's forces battle to tighten control of central Syria

Sun Jun 30, 2013: - President Bashar al-Assad's forces pounded Sunni Muslim rebels in the city of Homs with artillery and from the air on Sunday, the second day of an offensive to expand loyalist control over Syria's strategic centre, activists said.

They said rebels defending the old centre of Homs and five adjacent Sunni districts had largely repelled a ground attack on Saturday by Assad's forces but reported fresh clashes and deaths within the city on Sunday.

The offensive follows steady military gains by Assad's forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants, in villages in Homs province and towns close to the Lebanese border.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad must halt his "brutal assault" on Homs. Gulf countries, which back the rebels, urged Lebanon to stop "parties" interfering in the Syria conflict, a reference to Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Opposition sources and diplomats said the loyalist advance had tightened the siege of Homs and secured a main road link to Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon and to army bases in Alawite-held territory near the Syrian coast, the main entry point for Russian arms that have given Assad a key advantage in firepower.

At least 100,000 people have been killed since the Syrian revolt against four decades of rule by Assad and his late father erupted in March 2011, making the uprising the bloodiest of the Arab Spring popular revolutions against entrenched autocrats.

The Syrian conflict is increasingly pitting Assad's Alawite minority, backed by Shi'ite Iran and its Hezbollah ally, against mainly Sunni rebel brigades supported by the Gulf states, Egypt, Turkey and others.

Sunni Jihadists, including al Qaeda fighters from Iraq, have also entered the fray.

ALARM

The loyalist advances have alarmed international supporters of the rebels, leading the United States to announce it will step up military support. Saudi Arabia has accelerated deliveries of sophisticated weaponry, Gulf sources say.

The Sham News Network opposition monitoring group said fighters belonging to the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front had killed five loyalist troops in fighting in the Bab Hud district of Old Homs on Sunday.

Activists said one woman and a child had been killed in an airstrike on the old city, home to hundreds of civilians.

Video footage taken by the activists, which could not be immediately verified, showed the two bodies being carried in blankets as well as a man holding a wounded child with a huge gash in his head.

Rebel fighters also fought loyalist forces backed by tanks in the old covered market, which links the old city with Khalidiya, a district inhabited by members of tribes who have been at the forefront of the armed insurgency.

"After failing to make any significant advances yesterday, the regime is trying to sever the link between Khalidiya and the old city," Abu Bilal, one of the activists, said from Homs.

"We are seeing a sectarian attack on Homs par excellence, The army has taken a back role. Most of the attacking forces are comprised of Alawite militia being directed by Hezbollah."

The Alawites are an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that have controlled Syria since the 1960s, when members of the sect took over the army and the security apparatus which underpin the power structure in the mainly Sunni country.

URBAN WARFARE

Located at a major highway intersection 140 kms (88 miles) north of Damascus, Homs is a majority Sunni city. But a large number of Alawites have moved into mostly new and segregated districts in recent decades, drawn by army and security jobs.

Lebanese security forces said Hezbollah appeared to be present in the rural areas surrounding Homs but there was no indication that it was fighting in the labyrinth streets of Homs, where it could take heavy casualties.

Anwar Abu al-Waleed, an activist, said rebel brigades were prepared to fight a long battle, unlike in Qusair and Tel Kalakh, two towns in rural Homs near the border with Lebanon that fell to loyalist forces in recent weeks.

"We are talking about serious urban warfare in Homs. We are not talking about scattered buildings in an isolated town but a large urban area that provides a lot of cover," he said.

Britain's Hague expressed concern over the escalation of fighting in Homs, saying in a statement: "I call upon the Assad regime to cease its brutal assault on Homs and to allow full humanitarian access to the country."

The Syrian conflict has aggravated neighboring Lebanon's own complex sectarian rivalry, triggering fighting between Alawite pro-Assad and Sunni anti-Assad militia in the northern city of Tripoli that has killed dozens.

Gulf foreign ministers meeting in Bahrain urged the Lebanese government to "commit to distancing itself from the Syrian crisis and to prevent any Lebanese parties from interfering in (Syria) in order to enable it to confront the brutal attacks and crimes conducted by the regime and its allies."

(Additional reporting by Angus McDowall and William Maclean in Dubai; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Courtesy: Reuters

Nigeria To Defend Death Penalty

The federal government may have decided that it would defend the recent execution of four convicts in Edo, which ended a seven-year moratorium on death penalty in the country.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Olugbenga Ashiru, at a consultative forum on the forthcoming review of human rights in Nigeria under the UN Universal Period Review (UPR), acknowledged that executions in Edo would likely come up when the country appears before the UN human rights council in Geneva this October for a periodic review of its human rights.

The Minister said state governments are autonomous in Nigeria and for the execution in Edo, Governor Adams Oshiomhole acted within the confines of the law.

The June 24 execution in Edo had been criticised by the U.K. government, United Nation, the EU High Representative and a host of global and Nigerian rights organisation.

Courtesy: Channels

Lebanon tourism pays price for Syria's war

[Editor: I appeal through this blog, to all the warring/fighting fractions, to go in for an immediate cease-fire and find ways to solve this acute Syrian crisis, by sitting on the negotiating table. What is the use of such blood-sheds, especially when more than 1 lakh (one hundred thousand) people dies? I hope most of you will give positive response to my humanitarian appeal and bring in an immediate halt to these devastating activities. May God bless you all]
Dia's restaurant in the Lebanese resort village of Aley is deserted. Most years, he caters to thousands of rich Gulf Arab tourists and to visiting expats, but this year no one has come.

"Usually, there's so many people here that even finding a parking spot is hard. Now, there's so few people that we let them park right outside the entrance," complained the 27-year-old.

His neighbour, a cake shop owner, said sales are down by 50 percent compared with June last year.

"In other years, we had clients coming in every 15 minutes. Now, it's a miracle if someone enters," he said, hiding his worry behind a smile.

Lebanon is reeling from the spillover of war in neighbouring Syria, with deadly sectarian clashes, elections postponed, the absence of a government and the influx of half a million refugees.

The Mediterranean country's beaches, superb Roman and Phoenician sites and legendary nightlife are barren.

Early this summer, the six oil-producing Gulf monarchies sounded the death knell for this season's tourism when they told their citizens to avoid Lebanon for security reasons.

Well-heeled visitors from the Gulf normally account for 65 percent of the country's tourists, but the number of Saudis, Kuwaitis and other Gulf tourists this June is 80 percent lower than in June last year.

An already bad situation grew even worse last weekend when news bulletins carried footage of a major 24-hour firefight in southern Lebanon's city of Sidon, pitting the army against radical Islamists.

Eighteen soldiers were killed.

The port city of Sidon is home to a beautiful old district, fish restaurants, souqs (traditional markets) and even a soap museum.

"As soon as you even utter the word 'weapons' you've killed tourism," Paul Achkar, head of the Lebanese Hotel Association, told AFP.

"Three hundred tourism establishments have closed down since the start of the year," he said.

Although confident that the industry will recover, Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud said the figures for the start of the season were pitiable.

"The occupancy rate at hotels in Beirut is barely 35 percent this month, half of the usual at this time of year.

"Outside Beirut, it's catastrophic. We're talking about five percent compared to the usual 35 percent," Abboud told AFP.

The atmosphere in Beirut, dubbed party capital of the Middle East, is not so morose, and Christian areas such as Byblos or Jounieh have also fared better than other areas.

But Hizbullah bastion Baalbek, home to one of the world's most beautiful and best preserved Roman sites, has been hit hard.

It has been targeted by rockets fired by rebels fighting Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad, after the Lebanese Shia group Hizbullah joined the war fighting alongside regime forces.

The rocket attacks' only but noted victim was the famed international music festival, traditionally held in the temple of Bacchus, and headline act American soprano Renee Fleming cancelling her trip to Lebanon.

It is now expected to be held at a different venue, but without Fleming.

For now, other music festivals at Byblos and Beiteddine remain on schedule.

Elsewhere, in northern Lebanon the port city of Tripoli is home to an old souq and a crusader castle. But today, it is also the scene of frequent sectarian battles between supporters of opposite sides in Syria's raging conflict — Sunni Muslims and Alawites, the Shia offshoot sect to which Assad belongs.

Many Lebanese living abroad are accustomed to crises afflicting their home country but even they have decided to stay away this summer, fearing they may become trapped.

"Nobody in his right mind would go to Lebanon right now," said Elvira Hawwa, a Lebanese living in Madrid who generally visits relatives every year.

"I won't come this year, and I've also advised my children against going," she said.

US-based Leila agreed.

"The country is going down the drain," she told AFP by phone from Michigan.

"I was planning on going in June, but I cancelled. We didn't want to go through the hell we suffered during the civil war," she said of the conflict that scourged Lebanon from 1975 to 1990.

"Before you could escape through Syria. Now, we'd be trapped."

Tourism Minister Abboud said 200 weddings that had been planned for the summer have been cancelled.

"This means a $100 million (77 million Euros) loss," he said.

The restaurant and nightclub businesses have been hit hard, suffering a 50 percent drop in sales since 2013 began, their union said.

Fashion brands have all started their sales early this year, with some slashing prices by as much as 90 percent.

The tourism industry is now looking elsewhere to drum up business, and travellers from Iraq, Jordan and Egypt have begun to arrive.

"They aren't as worried by the violence," Abboud said.

Courtesy: Ahramonline

Vidya Balan will not add her hubby's surname to her own
~~Navdeep Kaur Marwah

Vidya Balan visiting the Golden
Temple in Amritsar

Actor Vidya Balan, who is riding high on her professional success, has confirmed that she is not adding her husband Siddharth Roy Kapur’s surname to her name.

When asked if rumours of her changing her name were true, the 35-year old said, “I don’t know who said that (I am changing my name to
Vidya Balan Roy Kapur.) I remain Vidya Balan. I think Sid (Siddharth) and I both feel that since he will remain Siddharh Roy Kapur and not become Siddharth Balan Roy Kapur, so I will remain Vidya Balan and not become Vidya Balan Roy Kapur.”

Ask her how marriage has changed her and pat comes the reply, “Everyone is saying that I am glowing more these days. I think the inner happiness reflects. I am adjusting very well with Sid’s family. I have gained a family. I feel truly blessed. Emraan (Hashmi) keeps teasing me, saying that this is just the honeymoon period.”

Vidya and Emraan were in Delhi to promote Ghanchakkar, their latest film, which opened to mixed reviews yesterday. Asked if she thinks Bollywood celebrities should extend more help to Uttrakhand flood victims, Vidya says, “Don’t get into how much who is doing. India has stood together in every calamity; don’t focus just on Bollywood.”

Vidya’s speaks...
On her name
I don’t know who said that (I am changing my name to Vidya Balan Roy Kapur). I remain Vidya Balan.

On marriage
Nothing has changed after marriage. I make sure everything is in order. Earlier I would do it for myself, now I do it for the house.

On Uttarakhand
Don’t get into how much who is doing. India has stood together in every calamity; don’t just focus on Bollywood.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

Syria's children being educated in camps

Project involving young men and women brings education to children displaced by civil war

Syrian boys attend a class at the Zaatari Refugee Camp earlier this week (Photo by Muath Freij)

A group of volunteers are trying to provide formal education for Syrian children who are growing up in camps.

The United Nations said that four million young people are affected by the fighting and thousands of children have been internally displaced.
The group consists of a dozen middle-class young Syrian men and women helping with these classes.

Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith reports from Syria.

Courtesy: Aljazeera

The 'Christian' movement that tells husbands to SPANK their wives 'to correct misbehavior'
~~By Ashley Collman

Discipline: In CDD, husbands spank their submissive wives in order to correct misbehavior

A growing number of married American couples are agreeing to allow husbands to keep their wives 'in line' by taking to corporal punishment.

The trend is called Christian Domestic Discipline and much of what is known about the practice is published on the website Learning Domestic Discipline, published by husband and wife CDD duo, Clint and Chelsea.

The website states: 'It is an arrangement between two adults who share the belief that the husband is the head of the household and with that position comes the right to enforce his authority.'

Clint and Chelsea have also written a 50-page packet on the practice called Beginning Domestic Discipline.

 In the packet they describe CDD as a ‘practice between two consenting life partners in which the head of household (HoH) takes the necessary measures to achieve a healthy relationship dynamic.’
That translates to all methods of punishment, not exclusive to spanking. Clint and Chelsea advocate lecturing, removing privileges, corner and bedroom time – essentially the ways most people discipline their children.

For CDD enthusiasts, this type of punishment isn’t sexual in nature.

Vera (anonymous last name),  who is in a CDD relationship with her husband told The Daily Beast that the practice is in no-way sexual.

'The pure CDD people don't go there. A lot of folks think of Fifty Shades of Grey - but this is not that.’

Spanking is clearly the bread and butter of this kind of relationship. Eighteen pages of the CDD manifesto are dedicated to spanking and how to properly go about administering spanks.

Courtesy: Mail Online

Syrian Rebels Claim Big Gains in City Where Protests Began
~~By HANIA MOURTADA and RICK GLADSTONE

June 28, 2013:BEIRUT, Lebanon — Rebel fighters in southern Syria claimed on Friday to be in control of most of the city of Dara’a, the cradle of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, after having battled his forces there for two weeks. The assertions, if confirmed, would represent a rare military victory for the insurgency, which has been struggling since it lost the stronghold city of Qusayr near the Lebanon border on June 5.

A dispatch by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad activist group in Britain with a network of contacts inside Syria, said “Islamic rebel battalions” had seized the Binayat checkpoint, an important military gateway into Dara’a, which had enabled them to then assert a strategic advantage over much of the city.

Video posted on the Internet showed what the rebels claimed to be the destruction of a high-rise building at the checkpoint, along with proclamations of victory by fighters of the Nusra Front “and the Islamic battalions who participated in the operation.”
Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory, said the insurgents had not taken full control of Dara’a. But in remarks quoted by Reuters, he said the Syrian military’s position in Dara’a was under threat and “this could change the balance of power there.”

An anti-Assad activist from Dara’a who is currently in Jordan agreed in a telephone interview that the seizure of the Binayat checkpoint was a setback for Syrian forces in Dara’a, but cautioned that the rebel claims of victory could be overstated. “The Islamic groups are trying to make a big deal behind this operation, a boasting attempt,” said the activist, who identified himself only by his given name, Taysir, for security reasons.

Dara’a is also near the border with Jordan, which anti-Assad activists say has emerged as a conduit for supplying rebels with weapons and supplies.

Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper quoted residents of Dara’a as saying the rebels also had seized what was left of the Omari mosque, which was the gathering point for political protests that erupted in March 2011 against Mr. Assad and his family’s four decades in power in Syria.

The government’s harsh repression of those protests began a cycle of conflict that has since turned into an insurgency that has been joined by Sunni jihadist fighters from other countries fighting to topple Mr. Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that is supported by Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group.

The Syrian Observatory said Wednesday that more than 100,000 people had been killed in the conflict. The United Nations has estimated that at least 93,000 people have been killed.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut.
A version of this article appeared in print on June 29, 2013, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Syrian Rebels Claim Big Gains In City Where Protests Began.

Courtesy: The New York Times

Russia slams countries arming Syria rebels as against spirit of peace talks

28 June, 2013: From May to August, the tentative dates suggested for Syria peace talks keep on slipping. Some Washington diplomats fear that the Geneva conference will never take place at all as sticking points between the US and Russia get stickier.
The decision to arm rebels has not gone down well with Russia. Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said they are committed to talks but that ‘other countries were complicating matters’.

As a precondition the opposition have said they will only come to the negotiating table if President Bashar al-Assad steps down. They also want to gain back ground lost in battle to negotiate from a point of strength. Lavrov said by arming the rebels “the West and other countries” support that precondition. He continued by saying that preconditions “contradict the very concept of the conference.”

Lavrov will meet his US counterpart John Kerry next week to discuss the conference. Both sides are keen to get a date set as the death toll creeps up to an estimated 100,000.

On the ground Syrian rebels have taken the strategic city of Deraa near the Jordanian border. Meanwhile in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, the UN Security Council have agreed to renew their mission for another six months, after recent violence spilled over the border with Syria.

Courtesy: Euro News

Syrian regime forces launch attack on rebel-held area of Homs

State television says troops loyal to Assad are making 'great progress' in Khalidiyah district of Syria's third-largest city

Buildings in the Khalidiyah district of Homs,
Syria, which rebels say were damaged by
shelling by regime forces.
Photograph: Yazan Homsy/Reuters

Saturday, 29 June 2013: Troops loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have launched a military offensive against a rebel-held areas of Homs, a centre of the two-year-old uprising against his regime.

Activists said jets and mortars pounded rebel territory in Syria's third largest city and soldiers attacked the district of Khalidiyah, where state television reported they were making "great progress".

Video uploaded on the internet showed heavy explosions and clouds of white smoke after what the activists said were air strikes on the adjacent neighbourhood of Jouret al-Shiyyah.

The attack on Homs city follows steady military gains by Assad's forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants, in provincial Homs villages and towns close to the Lebanese border.

Those gains have consolidated Assad's control over a corridor of territory linking the capital, Damascus, with the traditional heartland of his minority Alawite sect in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the 27-month-old conflict in Syria. The civil war has also driven 1.7 million refugees to seek shelter in neighbouring countries.

Courtesy: The Guardian

Soldier tells how his life was ruined after woman he tried to comfort accused him of rape
~~By Claire Duffin, and agencies

Costello was jailed for eight months
for perverting the course of justice
Photo: Gingerbread Features

25 Jun 2013: A soldier has told how his life was ruined when a woman he tried to comfort falsley accused him of rape.

The man - who has not been named - was held by police for 15 hours after Phillipa Costello said he attacked her.

It was then another two months before the investigation against him was dropped when CCTV footage proved he was innocent. However he said that by this time, his partner had left him and he had been subjected to name calling.

On Monday, Costello, 28, was jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice.

Teeside Crown Court heard the serving soldier had tried to comfort her when one of his friends "ungallantly" left her for another woman in a nightclub in Ripon in North Yorkshire in April 2011.

He put his arm round her when she sat crying outside but she later told family members he had raped her at the gates of a nearby park.

The court heard that she continued with her lie even when confronted with the CCTV footage. She only admitted the offence when she was due to stand trial last month.

In a statement read to the court, the soldier said: "It was not long before everyone I knew, knew I had been arrested. That's when the name-calling began, and I got very stressed.

"I felt this was a personal attack, especially when it was from someone I didn't know. I don't think my partner 100 per cent believed me.

"Since my arrest my life has changed considerably as a direct result. The is a stigma attached to people alleged to have committed these offences. It may be years before I can remove that stigma."

Peter Sabiston, prosecuting, told the court that Costello, of Dishforth, North Yorkshire, had gone to meet one of the soldier's friends in the nightclub but he had "rather ungallantly" spurned her advances and met up with another woman.

"This was to have a rather dramatic impact on the rest of the evening," said Mr Sabiston. "She was clearly distressed, insulted and offended by this."

When she was sat outside crying, the soldier put his hand around her shoulder to try to comfort her. Her family, with whom she was celebrating her birthday, then later saw her crying and she told them she had been raped.

Prosecutor Peter Sabiston said: "She was asked if anything had happened, and initially she said 'nothing', but then said 'it hurts, it hurts, I want to die. I don't want to live any more. I feel dirty'.

"When she was asked what had happened she said 'I can't tell you'.

"She was asked if he had done things she had not wanted, and she said 'yes, but I don't want to tell anyone'.

"She went on to claim she had been raped by a male from in the club and repeated that in her video interview and police interview, and when she became a suspect rather than a victim."

One of her relatives called police from the scene and the soldier was arrested nearby.

Alun Jones, mitigating, said: "She felt stuck in a track. When she found herself in that hole, she kept digging, and she regrets that."

Mr Jones added: "She accepts it is a serious offence but it was not a premeditated act. It was a spur of the moment act committed in drink."

Judge Michael Taylor told Costello: "Regrettably, offences like this are not uncommon and a clear message has got to be sent out by the courts that those who make such allegations leading to the arrest and detention of perfectly innocent people must be marked out by way of being punished."

A soldier has told how his life was ruined when a woman he tried to comfort falsely accused him of rape.

Courtesy: The Telegraph

Syria: France's evidence of chemical weapons use increases with 14 samples

A man alleged to be a victim of a chemical attack is treated by doctors in Aleppo.

France's evidence that the chemical nerve agent sarin has been used in the Syrian civil has dramatically increased, with 14 separate samples now having tested positive from victims.

28 Jun 2013: The conclusive results were taken from the blood, urine, hair and clothes of people at the site of battles between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebel fighters.

A first batch of results from three initial urine samples led Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, to declare earlier this month he was "in no doubt" that sarin gas had been used in Syria – at least once by the regime.

The fresh results "indicate the scale of sarin use by governmental forces in the months of April and May on the front lines," according to Le Monde, whose reporters brought back most of the samples and struck a deal with the government to publish their findings.

The bulk of the new evidence was collected from 13 people mainly in the Damascus area and examined by France's only certified chemical weapons test laboratory, the state-run centre du Bouchet.

Some came from clothes taken from unknown victims picked up from Jobar, a district of Damascus, during a chemical weapon attack at a time when rebels were fighting government troops.

One was from a T-shirt and a blood sample taken from a victim who reportedly later died after coming into contact with the nerve agent.

A 14th sample was apparently collected by the French state itself, after an April 29 helicopter attack by regime forces on Saraqeb, in the northwest province of Idlib. One woman died in the airborne chemical drop.

After this incident Mr Fabius said there was "no doubt that it was the regime and its accomplices" that deployed sarin.

However experts said that the new results were unlikely to convince Russia, which has previously rejected the French assertions.

"This level of evidence is much wider but you still wouldn't get a conviction in a court on it because of the difficulty of proving who used it," said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of Britain's WMD forces.

In all, sarin was found in eight urine samples, two hair samples, three clothes samples and one blood sample.

They were all provided by a doctor working in a medical centre in Kaffer Batner, a suburb of Damascus where victims were treated for chemical attacks mostly in Jobar, partially controlled by rebels. The doctor's identity was kept secret for fear of reprisals.

The new results will increase pressure on the international community to act. President Barack Obama has indicated that conclusive proof of the use of chemical weapons would be a "game changer" for Washington.

Britain has come close to endorsing the French line, saying it was "highly likely" the nerve agent had been used and that "the room for doubt continues to diminish." Any use of chemical weapons would amount to a war crime under international law.

Courtesy: The Telegraph

BJP leader Munde claims to have spent more than he owns

~~By Krishna Kumar

It's probably one of the worst kept secrets, and has been outed by none other than BJP leader Gopinath Munde.

Munde, who was speaking at the unveiling of RSS ideologue Vinay Sahasrabuddhe's book on Thursday, made the rather candid disclosure that he had spent Rs. 8 crore for his election campaign during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

The Election Commission has set the maximum limit at `25 lakh. Munde said: "I spent Rs. 29,000 when I contested my first assembly polls in 1980. But had to spend Rs. 8 crore for my last (2009 Lok Sabha) election."

He further added: " There are no Election Commission (officials here). But even if they were, I don't mind, because the elections are to be held any way within six months," said the BJP general secretary.

What was surprising was that while Munde had declared assets of Rs. 6.22 crore during the 2009 election, he now claims to have spent RS. 8 crore on election campaign.

It can only mean that the BJP leader had lied about his assets in the run-up to the 2009 elections. "How can a man spend `8 crore when his total assets was Rs. 6.22 crore.

It is clear that Munde not just lied about the money he spent in the elections but also lied about his total assets in his affidavit," said RTI activist Anil Galgali.

Courtesy: Mail Online India

Woman sentenced to life for cutting off her husband's penis as she shouted: 'You deserve it!'

Catherine Kieu, 50, found guilty for the July, 2011 attack.

• She was driven by jealousy in brutal attack as she suspected husband of cheating.
• Penis couldn't be attached but husband had surgery so he could urinate.
• The victim, known only as Glen throughout the trial, was in court for today's sentencing.

Brutal: Kieu spiked her husband¿s dinner with Ambien, tied him to his bed with nylon ropes and then cut off his penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife

Jailed: Catherine Kieu,was found guilty of
charges of torture and aggravated mayhem
for the July 11, 2011, attack and has now
been sentenced to seven years to life
in jail

'I'm hoping this will be the last time I ever have to see her,' he said. 'I felt some relief, and it was a very sad day for me.'

Kieu was convicted in April of aggravated mayhem - maliciously depriving a human of a body part.

'This was a horrible event,' said John Christl, of the Orange County District Attorney's office. 'In effect, the victim is going to be serving a life sentence because of what the defendant did to him. She, in turn, deserves her life sentence.'

The victim was hospitalized, but reconstructive surgery was not successful.

'I remember the event. It's not cohesive because of the shock, the trauma, the torture,' he said. 'There may be a situation where I can become happy. Whole? Never.'They had argued over the possibility of a friend staying at their condo at a later date, authorities said.

'In my 24 years on the bench, I've seen a number of murder cases,' said Judge Richard F. Toohey. 'Her actions were as calculated, as cold, as callous as any murder in the first degree.'

Prosecutors argued that Kieu refused to accept her husband's demand for a divorce and carried out the attack as part of a revenge plot. The attack occurred about two months after the husband filed for divorce.

'I don't think she wanted to get divorced -- that's what it came down to. As far as the reason for it,she was adamant. Maybe this is her way.'

During trial, the 60-year-old victim testified that his penis could not be reattached and that he felt as though he had been murdered.

Deputy District Attorney John Christl told jurors that Kieu, 50, drugged the man's tofu with sleeping pills and screamed 'You deserve it!' before attacking him with a 10-inch kitchen knife.

Kieu was jealous and angry about her husband's plans to divorce her because he was seeing his ex-girlfriend, the prosecution said.

Kieu spiked her husband’s dinner with Ambien, tied him to his bed with nylon ropes and then cut off his penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife, according to prosecutors.

She then threw it in the garbage disposal and turned it on, mutilating the organ, authorities said.
Her husband was treated and released from UC Irvine Medical Center, but doctors were unable to re-attach his penis.

The couple was reportedly going through a divorce at the time, and the defense argued that Kieu was suffering from depression and other mental health issues.

Audio of the incident was captured by a voice-activated recorder Kieu had hidden in the bedroom, Christl said.

'This was a cruel and calculated violation of a person’s body and mind,' the victim, who was not identified, said in an impact statement at the sentencing.

'I now struggle with what is before me. She has torn off my identity as a man,' he said. 'She has caused doubt in my belief in good. She has betrayed my trust in people.'

The victim testified he had spent a few days in a hospital and underwent surgery, but 'not reconstructive surgery.'

The operation was 'to make it usable as far as going to the bathroom.'

The defense argued she 'had a break from reality' on the night of the attack.

Kieu apparently had mental health problems caused by a childhood full of molestation and other trauma in war-torn Vietnam and her husband also constantly demanded sex in ways that caused her pain, her defence lawyer said.

Kieu's public defender, Frank Bittar, said before jury deliberations: 'She's a shattered woman who tried to do the best she could'.

The husband said he remembered waking up tied to the bed.

During the trial Mr Christl described the scene: 'When he woke, she told him 'You deserve it' three times, and then slices off his penis with one motion of the knife'.

'She then walks into the kitchen, takes the severed penis, and puts it into the garbage disposal.'

'All of a sudden I felt a very sharp pain,' the husband said. 'I will never have a sex life again.'

Bittar agreed that Kieu had a difficult past, but said no one could condone what the victim went through.

Courtesy: Mail Online

Efforts to bring Yeddyurappa back to BJP gains pace

Bangalore: The move to bring back former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa into BJP is gathering pace with a section of the party strongly pushing for it on the ground that it would boost their prospects in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Several BJP leaders, led by former chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda, on Thursday met state unit president Prahalad Joshi to discuss the homecoming of Yeddyurappa, heading the fledgling Karnataka Janatha Party.

Former ministers Aravind Limbavali, Umesh Katti and Basavaraj Bommai have presented their views to Joshi regarding this, party sources said.

In the May Assembly polls, Yeddyurappa secured 10 per cent vote share that ensured decimation of the ruling BJP, though it took the former party strongman nowhere.

"A section of state BJP leaders have presented their views on the matter and I am going to convey it to BJP President Rajnath Singh and party central leadership through Thawar Chand Gehlot (party in-charge of Karnataka). The next course of action will depend on the central leadership's decision," Joshi told reporters here.

Joshi said the party's Core Committee on June 29 would take a decision on the return of Yeddyurappa to BJP. This was the first formal meeting of BJP leaders to discuss the return of Yeddyurappa to the saffron party.

These leaders had met at party MP D B Chandre Gowda's residence last week to discuss their plan of action to bring the Lingayat leader back into the party.

PTI

Courtesy: Zee News

Iran to halt public executions
Azerbaijan, Baku/Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov

20 June 2013: Iran will no longer be carrying out public executions, country Gazvin province's prosecutor Jamal Ansari said, Fars news agency reported.

Kermanshah public execution on 20.2.2013

Ansari named three reasons - human rights issue, international policy and Iran's judiciary system's policy - for Iran to halt the public executions.

"The judiciary system of Iran will no longer permit public executions due to the mentioned three reasons," Ansari said.

He noted that previously Iran only carried out executions in public in specific circumstances, and it was all recorded on video and spread in the media outlets.

From now on, according to Ansari, the judiciary system has forbitten for public executions to be carried out.

Within the last month 20 people, charged of trafficking and selling drugs, were executed in Tehran.

According to foreign media reports, some 488 people were executed in Iran from October 2011 to October 2012. Some 33 percent of the executed were accused of smuggling drugs, while 13 percent - of rape.

The UN and Amnesty International have repeatedly demanded Iran to abolish the death penalty. Human rights activists claim that more people are executed in Iran than the official statistics indicates.

Courtesy: Trend

Inmate appeals death sentence
~~By Zhao Yinan (China Daily)

Prisoner confesses to crime for which another man was executed

26 June, 2013: A serial killer appealing his death sentence in Hebei

Wang Shujin, a death row prisoner convicted of raping and killing at least four women, repeated his confession during a court hearing in Handan, Hebei province, on Tuesday morning.

Wang made the confession in the hope of clemency, based on the fact that his testimony may clear the name of another man who had been put to death for the crime.

In 1995, 22-year-old Nie Shubin was executed for the rape and murder of a woman identified as Kang in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province.

But when Wang was arrested in 2005, his confessions included a detailed account of what had happened to Kang, sparking speculation among Nie's family and the public that he had been wrongfully executed.

At Tuesday's court hearing, prosecutors argued that Wang's testimony about how he had committed the crime differed significantly from the crime scene inspection report police made at the time, according to a statement Handan People's Intermediate Court released after the trial.

The statement said prosecutors were not surprised that Wang could recount the details of Kang's case, since he used to work in a factory near the crime scene and was interrogated by police as a witness while the case was being investigated.

Zhu Aimin, Wang's lawyer, said the crime scene inspection report provided by the prosecutors is only a copy of the original documents, and as such cannot be used as evidence in court.

Zhu said he will apply to see the original version to check if the documents are authentic.

Zhang Huanzhi, Nie's mother, was also present at the hearing. She said the victim's clothes, provided by the prosecutors, were not the same as those that had been presented to them before. The court in Handan resumed the hearing on Tuesday, nearly six years after it first heard Wang's appeal in 2007.

Wang "has confessed most of his crimes and should receive a lighter penalty", said Li Shuting, Wang's lawyer in the first trial.

Gu Yongzhong, a law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said Nie should now be found not guilty.

"Nie's innocence is not decided by whether or not the real murderer has been caught. It is decided by whether the evidence can prove his crime," he said.

"Although the prosecutors in Hebei argued that Wang didn't kill Kang, Wang's confession itself has left doubt in Nie's case. Based on the principle that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, Nie's verdict should be reversed."

The case is not the first judicial verdict that has been challenged in recent years. Zhao Zuohai from Henan province was jailed for 11 years following a wrongful murder conviction. He was only released last year when his alleged victim reappeared.

The Supreme People's Court has also urged judges to prevent unjust or wrong verdicts in criminal cases, in a bid to improve declining judicial credibility.

Shen Deyong, deputy president of the Supreme People's Court, said in April that the ruling of a criminal case relates to the fame, property, freedom and even life of a person, as well as social security and stability, so judges have to strictly follow legal procedures and make use of high technology to prevent wrongful verdicts.

"We should prevent wrong verdicts the same way we fight against floods and dreadful monsters. It will not be the end of the world if we release a real criminal, but it will be the end of the world if we execute an innocent citizen," he said.

zhaoyinan@chinadaily.com.cn

province repeated on Tuesday a confession that he committed a rape and murder for which another man was executed almost 20 years ago.

Courtesy: China Daily