Month: October 2009

Gaza, October 05: The acting Palestinian Authority (PA) chief has launched a campaign to convince his critics he is not responsible for dropping a UN resolution against Israel over war crimes.

The Palestinian Authority requested the UN Human Rights Council to defer a UN vote over Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Mahmoud Abbas, facing an unprecedented wave of condemnation and accusations of treason from other Palestinian factions, has ordered the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the issue.

Kyrgyzstan, October 05: Kyrgyzstan will on Monday consider renewing permission for French and Spanish troops to use its Manas air base with the U.S. military for operations in Afghanistan, parliamentary officials said.

Kyrgystan cancelled deals with France and Spain in March, when it overturned the main agreement with the United States on use of the base.

Abuja, October 05: Another Nigerian militant leader has agreed to lay down his arms and halt fighting in the Niger Delta oil hub, under a government amnesty which expires Sunday.

Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as ‘Tompolo’, is the third and last known factional leader with links to Nigeria’s main armed group, the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to surrender.

Abuja, October 05: The military leader of Guinea says he bears ‘no responsibility’ for last week’s bloody crackdown on opposition protestors, in which over 150 people were killed.

While regretting the recent bloodbath, President Moussa Dadis Camara stressed Sunday that he was ‘blameless’ for the September 28 massacre at a stadium in the country’s capital, Conakry.

Baghdad, October 05: A senior Iraqi lawmaker says the country will delay the discussion of a stalled hydrocarbons law until after the parliamentary elections in January.

The law has been held up for three years due to disagreements between MPs from the country’s majority Shia and minority Sunni, Kurd and other communities.

It would regulate the oil sector and divide responsibility between the central government in Baghdad and Iraq’s provinces.

Gaza, October 05: The democratically-elected premier of Hamas government in Gaza has lambasted the Palestinian Authority over its decision to delay a vote on a report about the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Ismail Haniya also slammed as “reckless and irresponsible” the decision by the UN Human Rights Council to postpone consideration of the damning report.

“The decision taken by Ramallah to withdraw the Goldstone report was reckless and irresponsible,” Haniya said, referring to the Western-backed government of the acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.

Kabul, October 05: Two more NATO soldiers, including one American, are reported dead in the latest fighting in Afghanistan.

A NATO statement says the U.S. soldier died of wounds suffered in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Sunday.

The statement says a second service member died of wounds in a roadside bombing Monday in southern Afghanistan. NATO is not releasing the service member’s nationality.

Jordan, October 05: The Jordanian Foreign Ministry has taken diplomatic measures to protest Israel’s closure of the al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the foreign ministry called “all Israeli measures” in the holy city “illegal” and said they violated “Israel’s commitments as an occupation power.”

Under a peace treaty which Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994, Israel acknowledged the Hashemite Kingdom’s right to look after the Muslim and Christian shrines in east al-Quds, which is still considered by the United Nations an occupied territory.