Minni Minnawi

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug. 8--The leader of the only Darfur rebel group to have signed a peace deal with the Sudanese government was sworn in as special assistant to the president Monday in what he said was a boost to the accord, AFP said.
“My arrival in Khartoum for the first time and my oath-taking ceremony today are the first step in the implementation of the Darfur peace agreement,“ rebel leader Minni Minnawi told reporters.
His branch of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) was the only one of three rebel factions involved in negotiations to finally sign a peace agreement with Khartoum last May.
Minnawi’s landmark arrival in the capital was delayed by a day after he threatened to stop implementing the peace deal if he was not appointed as an aide to President Omar Al-Beshir, as provided for in the Abuja agreement signed in Nigeria on
May 5.
The presidential decree was eventually issued on Saturday and the rebel leader, who had fought government forces and their Janjaweed proxy militia for three years, arrived in Khartoum on Sunday.
Speaking at a press conference following his swearing-in on Monday, Minnawi appeared to take a softer line of the hotly-debated issue of the deployment of international peacekeepers in war-torn Darfur.
“Our position is clear and will remain clear,“ said Minnawi, whose movement has repeatedly demanded that UN forces replace an embattled African Union contingent which has failed to restore stability in the western Sudanese region.
“But if security is maintained in Darfur, there will be no need for international forces,“ he added.
Khartoum has so far resisted international calls for UN troops to be deployed in Darfur.
While clashes between Minnawi’s faction and government forces have stopped since the Abuja deal, violence involving holdout rebel factions has continued to claim lives and hamper the humanitarian effort.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Aug. 8--Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of a prominent Kyrgyz Muslim leader who was killed in a police operation to hunt down extremists in the country’s south, AP quoted officials and witnesses as saying Tuesday.
Relatives carrying the body of Imam Mokhammadrafik Kamalov in a coffin wrapped in a white cloth made a circle around his home town of Kara Suu late Monday followed by more than 3,000 mourners, police said.
Kamalov, 53, was killed Sunday night in the nearby city of Osh along with two suspected Islamic radicals during an operation to track down men suspected of attacking Kyrgyz and Tajik border posts in May, killing nine people.
Kamalov, who presided over one of the most popular mosques in Kara Suu on the Uzbek border, had repeatedly denied any links with Islamic radicals. He was a relative of two prominent dissident Uzbek imams, one of whom had died in jail and another who disappeared several years ago.
According to police, Kamalov and the two others tried to escape in a car on Sunday, ignoring commands to stop. The two killed alongside the imam were Tajik citizens believed to be members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, officials said.

HAVANA, Aug. 8--Leftist intellectuals and human rights activists from around the world pleaded with the United States not to interfere with Cuba while Fidel Castro recovers from intestinal surgery, and Cuba’s parliament speaker warned the US would face dire consequences if it did.
According to AP, many of the 400 signers of the open letter are from Latin America, and numerous Nobel Peace laureates are listed, such as former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and activist Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala.
Announcing the letter at a news conference, leading Cuban writer Roberto Fernandez Retamar said Cubans are convinced that Castro’s handover of power to his younger brother and defense minister, Raul Castro, is only temporary.
“In a few months, we’ll have him back with us,“ Retamar said.
Vice President Carlos Lage, in Bogota to attend the inauguration of President Alvaro Uribe for a second term, said Monday that Castro “continues to be coming along favorably and we are sure that he will recover.
“He himself has said that in a few weeks he will be back at work again,“ Lage added. He said Cuba was operating normally in Castro’s absence “with a delegation given provisional duties.“
Cuba’s ambassador to Bolivia also said Castro was recovering quickly.
“His health is improving,“ Rafael Dausa said in Sucre, Bolivia. “He’s recovering. He’ll be back sooner rather than later. You’re going to see more Fidel for a while.“
The optimistic assessments have been reinforced by other statements from Fidel Castro’s inner circle and Latin American allies, who say the Cuban leader is recovering well from surgery for internal bleeding.

CAIRO, Egypt, Aug. 8--Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday he was against boycotts and would not be provoked into deploying the Egyptian army outside Egypt, Reuters reported.
Mubarak was speaking to members of his National Democratic Party about the nearly four-week conflict between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah after Egyptian opposition groups called for tough action against Israel.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have enflamed Egyptian public opinion, driving some Islamist and leftist opposition forces to call for the Israeli ambassador to be thrown out or for economic measures to be taken against Israel and its allies, such as the United States.
But Mubarak, quoted by party secretary general Safwat el-Sharif, said: “Boycotts have negative effects on the economy of any country. There is no unilateral boycott. It will be met with a boycott from the other side, which will affect the economy and investment.“
“We should absorb the lessons of history and no one can claim to have done more than Egypt, which sacrificed 100,000 martyrs and fought wars to defend its territory and the honor of the Arab nation,“ he added.
“The army of Egypt is strong to defend its territory and soil, and Egypt will not be provoked into any military operations outside its territory,“ he said.
Egypt fought four wars with the Israelis, in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, at great cost to its economic development.
Egypt, the most populous Arab country and the first to make peace with Israel, has already ruled out contributing troops to a proposed peacekeeping force in south Lebanon.

GENEVA, Aug. 8--The International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the killing of Sri Lankan aid workers during fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in northeastern Sri Lanka, calling it a deliberate act, AFP reported .
A French charity, Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim, ACF), recovered the bodies of 16 of its local staffers from its offices in the town of Muttur.
The ICRC said in a statement that it “strongly condemns the killing“ and called on all sides “to respect the work of humanitarian agencies and to refrain from any acts that might jeopardize their staff or their activities“.
“We are appalled at what happened to the ACF staff,“ said Yvonne Dunton, head of the ICRC’s office in Trincomalee.
“This was a deliberate attack on a humanitarian organization that was doing valuable work for the people of Muttur,“ she added.
The Geneva-based humanitarian agency urged “the relevant authorities“ to ensure that “aid workers assisting the civilian population and persons no longer taking part in the hostilities are spared from attack and can move about freely and safely“.
On top of its role in providing aid, the ICRC is also the internationally-recognized guardian of the Geneva Conventions, which ensure protection for civilians, wounded combatants and prisoners in conflicts.
The ICRC said it was carrying on with the distribution of relief aid to displaced families in the nearby town of Kantale.

Journalists attend a news conference in Riyadh, October 27. (Reuters File Photo)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 8--They are few in number but determined to make their mark--women journalists in Saudi Arabia have fought hard to get where they are and say they have more than proved themselves the equal of men, Reuters said.
The kingdom is one of the most restrictive places in the world for women. Women cannot drive cars, must be accompanied in public by male relatives, and must cover themselves up in anonymous black robes.
But despite limitations on women in the workplace, many who have ventured into the media industry as Saudi Arabia opens up under King Abdullah have attracted attention for their tenacity and professionalism.
A young print journalist in the capital Riyadh, who declined to be named, said female journalists had a lot of strengths people might not appreciate. “I want to speak out,“ she said.
The journalist, who hails from the less restrictive Eastern Province on the Persian Gulf coast, said her family supported her ambitions but Saudi society made it difficult to do her work.
“The problem is we don’t have media departments at university for women. But you need to know how to write, and I don’t have the tools,“ she said in an interview.
“Media means working evenings. You can’t do interviews except in your office, and if you go to a hotel lobby, it’s a crime,“ she said, recounting how a colleague was hauled off by the Saudi morality police for interviewing an unrelated man.
“You have to find safe ways. I have to be really careful. In Saudi Arabia, every one is watching you,“ she said.
Adlah, a photographer and journalist in Riyadh, said she usually gets a positive response from Saudis she interviews while walking around malls, although suspicion surrounds these places since they are seen as fertile flirting grounds.
Sitting down to interview men is a problem.
“Cafes? Oh no! Cafes are closed spaces. It is against the culture and my family would be very upset. People think coffee shops are for families and relaxation,“ Adlah said.

BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 8--President Alvaro Uribe has been sworn in for a second term with Colombia’s capital under virtual military occupation to prevent rebel attacks like those that marred his prior inauguration, AFP said.
Uribe, 54, said he was willing to negotiate with rebels but demanded concrete concessions from them first.
“We are not afraid to negotiate peace. What worries me is something different: the risk of not achieving peace and then rolling back security,“ he said.
“We will never allow a hollow peace,“ he said after the swearing-in before the president of the Congress.
The left accuses Uribe of forgetting about those hostages, who include police, soldiers and some Americans.
Uribe, a US and British-educated lawyer, promised to crush the 17,000-strong FARC when he was first elected. Although he has not succeeded, he did increase military efforts against the well-armed rebels, and he was re-elected on May 28 with 62 percent support.

ANKARA, Turkey, Aug. 8--More than three-quarters of the Turkish parliament’s Israel caucus, a group formed to promote relations with the Jewish state, have resigned to protest the country’s attacks on Lebanon, AP quoted the head of the committee as saying Monday.
Of the caucus’ 284 member lawmakers, 217 have resigned over the past two weeks, caucus leader Vahit Kirisci said, leaving it with 67 members. The resignations are not likely to have a significant impact on relations, but do illustrate the deep anger that many people in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey feel over Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon and the ensuing civilian deaths.
“Friendship has no meaning,“ opposition lawmaker Haluk Koc said last week after announcing his resignation and accusing Israel of carrying out a “massacre“ in Lebanon.
Kirisci--who has not resigned--said he expected more resignations in the coming days as lawmakers return from visits to their constituencies.
“The legislators are facing strong (anti-Israel) reaction,“ Kirisci said. “They are acting in line with the reaction they are getting.“
But he suggested that members of the caucus could return once the violence in Lebanon ends.
“No country has permanent foes and no country has permanent friends,“ he said.
Turkey is a staunchly secular state and ties with Israel are considered an important way of increasing leverage with the United States and also a symbolic statement of Turkey’s pro-Western and secular orientation. The two nations have strong military ties and important trade links.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 8--Afghanistan’s parliament approved the final vacant portfolios in President Hamid Karzai’s Cabinet on Monday, marking another step toward democracy, even as his government struggled with a resurgent Taliban and to provide relief to flood-hit villagers.
According to AP, Karzai nominated the candidates to fill slots left empty when Parliament rejected five of the 25 people he initially chose for his Cabinet in April. The completed Cabinet is the first approved by the Parliament since it was elected last year.
Its new members include the minister of women’s affairs, Hosn Banu Ghazanfar, who is the dean of the literature and language faculty at Kabul University. She was supported by 159 lawmakers, garnering the most support of the five new ministers in Monday’s voting. Some 54 voted against her nomination and 35 lawmakers were absent or abstained.
The other portfolios filled were the ministries of commerce and industries, economy and labor, transport and aviation, and culture and youth. All of the new ministers were educated abroad.
But growing cynicism about Karzai’s government is diluting Afghans’ enthusiasm over the progress toward democracy following the 2005 elections for the country’s first representative Parliament in more than 30 years.
The government is increasingly viewed as ineffective, tainted by corruption, and failing to deliver security, services or jobs to much of the country.
Making matters worse, Taliban rebels have stepped up attacks this year, particularly in southern provinces, sparking the bloodiest fighting in nearly five years.