Bible Quotation for today/The Tongue
James 03/01-12: "My friends, not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others.  All of us often make mistakes. But if a person never makes a mistake in what he says, he is perfect and is also able to control his whole being.  We put a bit into the mouth of a horse to make it obey us, and we are able to make it go where we want.  Or think of a ship: big as it is and driven by such strong winds, it can be steered by a very small rudder, and it goes wherever the pilot wants it to go. So it is with the tongue: small as it is, it can boast about great things. Just think how large a forest can be set on fire by a tiny flame!  And the tongue is like a fire. It is a world of wrong, occupying its place in our bodies and spreading evil through our whole being. It sets on fire the entire course of our existence with the fire that comes to it from hell itself.  We humans are able to tame and have tamed all other creatures—wild animals and birds, reptiles and fish.  But no one has ever been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable, full of deadly poison.  We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse other people, who are created in the likeness of God.  Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My friends, this should not happen!  No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening.  A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water."
 

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources

Bahrain Wants Hezbollah Listed as Terrorist Group /Abeed Al-Suhaimy /Asharq Alawsat/April 10/13

Fate of Christians will define the Arab future/Hussein Ibish/Now Lebanon/April 10/13

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 10/13

President Michel Suleiman Condemns Egypt's Sectarian Violence, Calls for Moderation

Coptic funeral targeted in sectarian attack

Egypt's Coptic pope blasts Islamist president over handling of recent sectarian violence

Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai  meets French president
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam Launches Consultations to Form Cabinet

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam Seeks Consensus to Form Cabinet amid Critical Stage
British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher Meets Salam, Miqati, Supports Formation of Consensual Government

Shells from Syria Hit Border Town, Injure Boy

Parliament Session Postponed  in Lebanon over Dispute on Extension-Suspension of Candidacies
Geagea: Saudi Arabia Had Nothing to Do with Salam's Nomination but Influenced Jumblat's Stance

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel Meets Salam: Interests of Political Powers Hinge on Salam's Success to Form Govt.

11 Lebanese Women, Candidates for the Parliamentary Polls Visit the European Parliament
Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh Expresses Relief over Lebanon Banking, Financial Sectors

Website of Al-Mustaqbal daily hacked

Two members of Hezbollah killed in Syria: source

Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah announces involvement in Syria

North Korea to fire ballistic missile to Pacific. Iran unveils new uranium-processing facilities

U.N. Says Syria Refugee Aid at 'Breaking Point'

Iraq Inspects Second Syria-Bound Iran Aircraft

Saudi Beheaded after Killing 3 in Car Chase
Israel Okays 50 E.Jerusalem Homes for Holocaust Survivors

TV: Iran Opens New Uranium Production Facility
Ban Calls on Syria to Cooperate with U.N. Investigators
Qaida Confirms Nusra is Part of Network, Groups Now Called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant

In Syria's Aleppo, Children Adapt to War Life

Iraq Marks a Decade Since the Fall of Baghdad

Canada Reaffirms Special Friendship with Israel

Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai  meets French president
April 09, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai met with French President Francois Hollande Monday at the Elysee Palace in Paris, the National News Agency reported. Rai headed to France Monday as part of an official visit to the European country. On Monday, Rai discussed with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius efforts to form a new Cabinet in Lebanon and the issue of inter-Lebanese dialogue. Rai’s visit to France comes as Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam launches consultations with parliamentary blocs in Lebanon over the shape of the new government. President Michel Sleiman accepted the resignation of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government on March 23.
 

President Michel Suleiman Condemns Egypt's Sectarian Violence, Calls for Moderation
Naharnet /President Michel Suleiman condemned on Tuesday the latest deadly sectarian violence in Egypt, including an attack on the main cathedral in Cairo, and called for coexistence. In a statement issued by his press office, Suleiman condemned “all acts that harm the history of coexistence among societies in the Arab world and mainly Egypt.” The president regretted the loss of lives in the recent clashes and called for moderation rather than extremism as called for by monotheistic religions. Calm was on Monday restored outside St. Mark's Coptic cathedral in Cairo as police deployed in force in the central neighborhood of Abbassiya. A day earlier, mourners had packed the cathedral for prayers to honor four Copts who had been killed in sectarian clashes in a town north of the Egyptian capital that also left one Muslim dead. As the mourners left the cathedral, they came under attack from a crowd who pelted them with stones, sparking violence that killed two Christians. In his statement, Suleiman also condemned “the terrorist bombing in Damascus on Monday that left at least 15 civilians dead.”State media said 15 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in the car bomb blast between Sabaa Bahrat Square and Shahbander Street. Suleiman reiterated his call for dialogue among Syria's different factions to find a political solution to the country's crisis away from violence and extremism.

Egypt's Coptic pope blasts Islamist president over handling of recent sectarian violence
By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
CAIRO - The leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church has blasted the country's Islamist president over his handling of the recent deadly sectarian violence, including an attack on the main cathedral in Cairo.
Pope Tawadros II says that President Mohammed Morsi had promised him in a telephone conversation to do everything to protect the cathedral, "but in reality he did not."
Asked to explain Morsi's attitude, Tawadros said it "comes under the category of negligence and poor assessment of events."
The Coptic pope spoke in a telephone interview Tuesday to a political talk show aired on the private ONTV network.
An angry mob of Muslims threw firebombs and rocks on Sunday at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo, leaving two Christians dead

Coptic funeral targeted in sectarian attack
Salama Abdellatif /Now Lebanon
CAIRO – Clashes that erupted between unknown assailants and Copts in front of the Saint Marc Cathedral in Cairo’s Abbassiya neighborhood have inaugurated a new sectarian-inclined era in the ongoing violence in Egypt.
Repetitive sectarian clashes between Muslims and Copts have been ongoing for a variety of reasons, most commonly over a romantic relationship between two people of different faiths or over the construction of a new church. However, these latest clashes are different as they are the first time unknown assailants have attacked a Coptic funeral for victims of previous sectarian clashes in front of the Cathedral.
The working-class Al-Khusus neighborhood has witnessed clashes between Muslims and Copts during which firearms were used widely, leading to the deaths of one Muslim and four Copts. Accounts of the incident were conflicting: some said it was a neighborhood conflict while others claimed that Christians had drawn a cross on the walls of a mosque.
During the funeral of the Coptic victims at the Saint Marc Cathedral, which is the seat of the Coptic Pope, unknown assailants attacked the funeral procession with rocks while firearms were heard in the area, injuring dozens. The police intervened, using teargas to separate the two parties, allowing the pallbearers to exit the cathedral.
Whiffs of teargas drifted into the cathedral square, which has been a hotspot of Coptic protest against President Mohammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Pro-Coptic slogans have included “Raise your head up high, you are a Copt,” “We are the inhabitants of this land whichever way you take it,” “They spoke of national unity and they turned out to be a few thugs,” and “The people want to execute the president.”
The Ministry of the Interior issued a statement holding the Copts responsible for the incidents, accusing them of smashing cars along the funeral’s route, which provoked the Muslim inhabitants and prompted them to attack using rocks. Eyewitness accounts contrasted this narrative, telling NOW that people in the funeral procession were showered with rocks immediately upon opening the cathedral’s doors. They thus retreated inside and shut the doors but the attackers continued to target mourners inside the cathedral’s square. The beatings started when Copts began chanting slogans.
Suryal Younan, the vicar of the Shebin al-Qanater Episcopate and priest of the Saint George Church in Al-Khusus, told NOW that “the Al-Khusus incident and the attack against the mourners afterwards prove that some are waiting to ambush the Copts in Egypt.” He added that some Salafists are intentionally harming Copts in their neighborhoods, saying that “during the Al-Khusus incidents, the loudspeakers in the area’s mosques blared with calls on Muslims to go to jihad against the Copts… Tensions have reached unprecedented levels.”
The Coalition of Egypt’s Copts issued a statement accusing men of using live bullets against mourners in the funeral procession of the Coptic victims in front of the cathedral.
Assistant General Secretary of the Free Egyptians’ Party Dr. Mahmoud al-Aalayli, who took part in the funeral, told NOW that armed men positioned on rooftops near the cathedral opened fire at the mourners, describing what happened as being “disastrous, and portending dangerous consequences.”
This article is a translation of the original Arabic
 

Parliament Session Postponed  in Lebanon over Dispute on Extension-Suspension of Candidacies
Naharnet /Disagreements between rival parties on the elections spiraled out of control on Tuesday leading to the postponement of a parliamentary session after a camp backed the suspension of candidacies for the June elections and another sought an extension. A large scale meeting for parliament's bureau was held under Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday morning after a similar meeting the day before. It was attended by Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati, lawmakers from the Lebanese Forces and the Phalange and Marada movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh. But the failure to agree on a formula that appeases the two camps, led to Berri's postponement of the parliamentary session to 3:00 pm Wednesday “to pave way for more consultations.” A decision by al-Mustaqbal bloc to boycott the session on Tuesday was one of the reasons that led to the postponement, LBCI TV said.
The bloc decided to hold a meeting at 3:00 pm Tuesday after parliament's bureau meeting resulted in a preliminary deal to suspend the candidacies. An Nahar daily had said that President Michel Suleiman, the March 14 alliance and the National Struggle Front are backing the extension of the deadlines for the announcement of candidacies but Berri and his bloc along with the Change and Reform bloc are seeking a suspension, which would cancel previous decrees that call for holding the elections base

Israeli Arab Gets 7 Years for 'Spying for Hizbullah'
Naharnet/An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced an Arab citizen of Israel to seven years in prison on charges of spying for Hizbullah. A court document says Milad Khatib was convicted of being in contact with a foreign agent and assisting an enemy in wartime. It says he confessed to the charges against him as part of a plea bargain. Khatib was accused of gathering intelligence on the security detail for Israeli President Shimon Peres and on army installations. The 26-year-old is said to have been recruited by a Hizbullah operative in Denmark in 2009. The Haifa court decision was handed down on Tuesday. SourceAgence France PresseAssociated Press

Geagea: Saudi Arabia Had Nothing to Do with Salam's Nomination but Influenced Jumblat's Stance
Naharnet /Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea asserted on Monday that Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with nominating Beirut MP Tammam Salam to head the new cabinet, revealing that Riyadh had only influenced Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat's stance."March 14 is the party that named Salam,” Geagea stated in an interview on MTV. He elaborated: “When we named him, the kingdom welcomed the step, exactly like it would have welcomed any other candidate.” "Hegemony is the Syrian regime's specialty while Saudi Arabia is not a regime of hegemony, regardless of our stance on the Saudi regime, which is a Wahhabist regime but only inside Saudi Arabia,” he noted. “Saudi Arabia has endorsed the stance of neutrality towards the domestic Lebanese issues.”
Geagea explained that Riyadh's role was to “convince Walid Jumblat of March 14's candidate in light of his reconciliation with the kingdom.”
Denying Jumblat's remarks that he had suggested Salam for the premiership, Geagea said: “Tammam Salam was first nominated by the March 14 forces and Jumblat joined the settlement later on and this is the truth”.
“(Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen.) Ashraf Rifi's name was raised over the last five days, and I was with such a nomination, but then we started discussing non-provocative candidates and Salam's name was suggested. (Former premier) Saad Hariri then told Jumblat there are two candidates -- Salam and Rifi -- and Jumblat picked Salam.”
Salam assumed the position of prime minister-designate on the second day of binding parliamentary consultations on Saturday after garnering a total of 124 votes by lawmakers.
The MP had paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, shortly before he was nominated for premiership, where he met with Hariri and Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, sparking rumors that his nomination is part of a Saudi-sponsored settlement that includes the formation of the cabinet and the staging of parliamentary elections.
"March 8 wanted to renominate (caretaker PM Najib) Miqati, but (Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel) Aoun did not accept the renomination," Geagea said.
"Miqati's resignation was a local issue because he was fed up and reports of an agreement over the Iranian issue are incorrect as the confrontation between the Arab states and Iran is still at its climax," he added.
Geagea pointed out that Salam was “the only person who showed solidarity with Christians in their boycott of the 1992 elections.”
“I seriously wish PM-designate Salam all success and he is a man of principles,” he added.
On the cabinet's formation process, Geagea said the new government must be tasked with staging the elections “as the PM-designate said.”
“Therefore any cabinet similar to the cabinets we saw in the past will not be formed before months and the elections would be postponed indefinitely,” he remarked.
The LF leader said “Hariri wants a technocrat cabinet and the rest of March 14 parties are close to this approach.”
"Amid such a critical political situation, do we need a political government that would collapse from infighting? The March 14 camp wants to seek the assistance of the army and U.N. forces on the border with Syria, would the other camp accept that in a political government?" he cautioned.
Turning to the issue of the electoral law, Geagea noted that “the battle is not the battle of the Orthodox law, but rather the battle of the new electoral law.”
“We've been seeking a consensual law since two months. It's a good thing that all Christian parties have agreed to seek a hybrid law,” added Geagea.
“A hybrid law would achieve good Christian representation and it is wrong to discuss the numbers because the fate of the country is at stake,” he went on to say.
He also stressed that the LF “does not have a problem with the independent Christians, but every person must bear responsibility for his choices.”

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel Meets Salam: Interests of Political Powers Hinge on Salam's Success to Form Govt.
Naharnet/Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel voiced on Tuesday his party's readiness to cooperate with Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam to ensure the success of his mission to form a new government.
He said after talks with the PM-designate: “The interests of all sides hinge on Salam's success.” “All sides are obligated to cooperate with him for the sake of the nation,” he noted. Furthermore, Gemayel stressed that all efforts will be exerted at parliament in order to reach an agreement over a parliamentary electoral law that appeases all political powers. He revealed that the Phalange bloc will meet with Salam on Tuesday afternoon in order to present to him its vision of the new government. The Phalange Party's politburo called on Monday for the formation of a “rescue cabinet” that can deal with regional and international developments. It should safeguard the country by adhering to the Baabda Declaration that calls for Lebanon to disassociate itself from regional developments, most notably the Syrian crisis. Moreover, the new cabinet needs to be able to face upcoming decisive stages such as the parliamentary elections, said the politburo.

Shells from Syria Hit Border Town, Injure Boy
Naharnet/Three mortar shells hit the town al-Dbabiyeh in the northern district of Akkar Monday overnight, injuring a boy and causing damages to two houses. The state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday that the shells hit Lebanese territories due to the intense fighting along the border with Syria. The damaged houses belong to al-Ahmed family. Another shell hit the town's square slightly injuring a boy identified as Moustapha Ahmed.
The news agency reported that several families fled the town to safer places amid fears that the situation might deteriorate, calling on the Lebanese state to protect them. Mortars and shells from the Syrian side regularly crash in Lebanon, causing several casualties. But Lebanese forces have never fired back despite promises of retaliation. More dangerously, Syria's conflict has heightened deep rivalries and sectarian tensions in Lebanon, which is divided between pro-Syrian President Bashar Assad and anti-Assad factions, a legacy of the nearly three decades when Damascus all but ruled Lebanon, until 2005. The U.N. says more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's two-year conflict, which broke out after the army unleashed a brutal crackdown against dissent, turning the uprising into a bloody insurgency.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam Launches Consultations to Form Cabinet
Naharnet/Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam launched on Tuesday consultations with parliamentary blocs on the shape and type of the new government. Salam kicked off the consultations with a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri at the parliament. He later held talks with Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati, who said following the meeting that he called for the formation of a government whose main purpose will be to hold the elections. Miqati told reporters that he spoke with Salam about the situation in the northern city of Tripoli and said that “a speedy cabinet formation would limit the burden of the caretaker cabinet at these difficult circumstances.” Salam was on Saturday tasked by President Michel Suleiman with the formation of the new cabinet after 124 out of 128 MPs nominated him during the binding consultations. The PM-designate made protocol visits to former premiers on Monday ahead of Tuesday's two-day non-binding consultations with lawmakers. Salam said after his appointment that he will seek to form a “national interest government.”

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam Seeks Consensus to Form Cabinet amid Critical Stage
Naharnet /Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam said on Tuesday that consensus among the rival parties on the formation of his cabinet is crucial to overcome a delicate stage that includes holding the parliamentary elections.
“The mission of my cabinet will be supervising the polls... The suitable solution is to form a cabinet that none of its members will run for the elections,” Salam said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.
He pointed out that his government should be formed swiftly, noting that he will withdraw if the rival parties failed to reach consensus and the term of the current parliament was extended.
“I was appointed for one mission to supervise the polls, I wasn't named to obstruct it or form a political cabinet,” Salam said. The Beirut MP told the newspaper that he is not seeking the post but to save the country from the impasse, saying: “I am not holding on to power.” Salam called on the rival March 14 and 8 parties to reach common ground over the nature of the cabinet. Salam, a 67-year-old moderate, was named on Saturday as Lebanon's new prime minister, pledging in his first address to the nation to safeguard the country. His appointment came two weeks after Najib Miqati resigned on March 22. Salam pledged to work with all groups across Lebanon's political spectrum, which is split into pro- and anti-Damascus camps. His nomination is expected to help ease a political crisis that has gripped Lebanon since the Syria conflict erupted more than two years ago. Although Salam's nomination was backed by 124 MPs out of 128, he faces the difficult challenge of forming a government. Asked if he expects any obstacles to hinder the formation of his cabinet, such as the ministerial statement, the PM-designate said that “the only obstacle is the mechanism that should be adopted to supervise the elections.” Salam described himself as “moderate and liberal.” “No one will be able to set conditions on me,” he said. On the new electoral law, Salam said that the political parties should agree on a draft-law that he will seek to implement. “Consensus isn't far, in particular, over the hybrid electoral law after they agree on the number of districts and the distribution of votes between the winner-takes all and proportional system,” he added. The rival parties have so far failed to agree on an electoral draft-law after the leaders and representatives of the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange Party and the Marada Movement agreed to suspend the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal last week, leaving the door open for rival MPs to strike a deal on a new electoral draft-law. The proposal, which had been severely rejected by centrist Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's bloc, considers Lebanon a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional presentational system.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher Meets Salam, Miqati, Supports Formation of Consensual Government
Naharnet /British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher voiced on Tuesday to Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam his “firm support” for the Lebanese state. He also expressed his support for his efforts, alongside those of President Michel Suleiman and Speaker Nabih Berri, to form a consensual government. “With regional challenges mounting, there is no higher priority than to put Lebanese interests first, to have the courage to coexist,” he remarked following meetings with Salam and caretaker Premier Najib Miqati. Fletcher also thanked his “interlocutors for their condolences on the death of former UK PM Margaret Thatcher. As she made clear in her 1982 letter to President Elias Sarkis, Britain's iron-clad concern for Lebanon was to support stability and sovereignty.”“That commitment remains as strong today,” added the ambassador. Thatcher died following a stroke on Monday at the age of 87. On Monday, United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Pumbly met with Salam to express his hope that all parties in Lebanon “will continue to engage with him positively to ensure the early formation of a government to safeguard stability and to facilitate the conduct of parliamentary elections in accordance with the constitutional requirements.” He stressed to the PM-designate “the readiness of the United Nations in Lebanon to work closely with him once a new government is formed.” “What is important is the formation of the government and the conduct of the elections. This is a guarantee for stability and that is what is important,” stated Plumbly.

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh Expresses Relief over Lebanon Banking, Financial Sectors
Naharnet /Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh stressed on Tuesday that Lebanon's banking and financial situation is “good.”“Our currency is stable and we're witnessing growth in banks budgets and deposits,” Salameh told reporters at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport before heading to Geneva. He pointed out that Lebanon is one of the country's that wasn't affected by the financial crises hitting the world since 2008. Salameh headed to the Swiss capital to attend several seminars and business meetings. Lebanon's ratio of debt to GDP is one of the highest in the world. According to the IMF's latest estimate, debt stood at 134 percent of GDP last year, down from 137 percent in 2010 and 146 percent in 2009. In October, the International Monetary Fund warned that the Lebanese economy is at risk from internal political uncertainty, spiraling violence in neighboring Syria and the Eurozone crisis. However, the IMF said that GDP growth in Lebanon would recover slightly this year, with expansion of 3.5 percent.

11 Lebanese Women, Candidates for the Parliamentary Polls Visit the European Parliament
Naharnet /Women in Front (WIF), a Non Governmental Organization, has received a resounding support from the European Parliament through the European People's Party, which comprises the right-wing parties from 27 member states. WIF, that aims to claim a fair representation of Women in political life in Lebanon, has been invited for a three-day trip to Brussels which coincides with the Annual Plenary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. This was not possible without the valuable support of European Parliament member Marie -Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid which allowed Women in Front to obtain recognition of the European Union.
This support has crystallized through the official invitation of eleven Lebanese women candidates for the 2013 parliamentary elections, for a three-day trip to Brussels between 10-12 April.
This invitation coincides with the Annual Plenary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean, and the Lebanese women will thus have the opportunity to meet potential future counterparts from the North and the South of the Mediterranean. The candidates will have an opportunity to discover the mechanisms of democracy within the European Parliament. The eleven women come from different political and religious backgrounds, and have signed a contract vowing commitment to the ethics of Women in Front and to reform Lebanese laws related to women's rights in order to enhance governance of citizens and break the pattern of sectarian practices that were adopted by the house of representatives blocking women's access to power. Women in Front expressed gratitude to Deputy Sanchez Schmid and to the European People Party for their invitation that not only reflects solidarity with the Lebanese women struggle to achieve equality but also encourages them to wage the political life.
 

Ban Calls on Syria to Cooperate with U.N. Investigators
Naharnet /U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday called on Syria to approve and cooperate with a United Nations mission to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons in the country's conflict. "I appeal to the government of Syria to extend its full cooperation and to allow the mission to proceed," Ban told reporters in Rome. Ban had said on Monday that a U.N. inspection team was in Cyprus and ready to deploy to nearby Syria to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons in the conflict. Damascus had asked for the investigation into its allegation that the opposition had used chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal on March 19. The rebels charge that government forces had deployed the munitions. However, later on Monday, a ministry official cited by state news agency SANA rejected the inspection as proposed by Ban. He said that Syria "can not accept such maneuvers on the part of the U.N. secretariat general, bearing in mind the negative role that it played in Iraq and which cleared the way to the American invasion" of that country in 2003. The official said Syria had specifically requested "a neutral and honest technical team to visit the village of Khan al-Assal" in the northern province of Aleppo.SourceAgence France Presse

TV: Iran Opens New Uranium Production Facility
Naharnet /Iran, under global sanctions for its nuclear enrichment program, on Tuesday launched a new uranium production facility and began operations in two extraction mines, state television said.
The mines in the city of Saghand in central Iran operate 350 meters (1,150 feet) underground and are within 120 kilometers (75 miles) of the new yellowcake production facility in the city of Ardakan, in Yazd province, the television said. The report gave few details of the Ardakan facility but said it had an estimated 60 tonnes output of yellowcake, which is an impure state of uranium oxide later used in enrichment processes.
Iran's enrichment activities, which it says are aimed at feeding a peaceful energy program, are the focus of international concerns, with Western powers and Israel fearing Tehran is developing an atom bomb.
The announcements, on the occasion of Iran's national Atomic Energy Technology day, come shortly after talks between Iran and six world powers on Tehran's nuclear ambitions failed to achieve a breakthrough.
The six -- five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany known as the P5+1 -- met with Iranian negotiators in the Kazakh city of Almaty on April 5 and 6 in a bid to coax Iran into curbing its program in exchange for the easing of some sanctions. Iran enriches uranium to both 3.5 and 20 percent levels in its Natanz and Fordo enrichment facilities. Uranium purified at high levels can be used in a nuclear weapon.
SourceAgence France Presse

Fate of Christians will define the Arab future
Hussein Ibish/Now Lebanon
The assault by Islamist thugs – with the apparent connivance of Egyptian government security forces – on a funeral at the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo on Sunday may be looked back upon as a grim milestone.
It wasn't just that two people were killed and 90 hospitalized. This wasn't just a violation, by hoodlums and police alike, of the revered center of an ancient religious tradition and community. It was rather that the whole idea of a tolerant, pluralistic Egypt – one that can fully include, honor, and respect its Coptic minority – came under a physical, psychological, and, most importantly, political assault of the first magnitude.
As Egypt goes, so goes the Middle East. If the Coptic community of Egypt is thus abused, disparaged, and attacked, what kind of societies are emerging in the Arab world? The regional implications are chilling.
Pluralism will be unattainable if long-standing and traditionally well-regarded Christian communities cannot be respected. Forget about skeptics, agnostics, or atheists. Never mind smaller religious groups like Yezidis, Alawites, Baha'is, and Druze. If ancient, large Christian communities find the Arab world fundamentally inhospitable, Muslims will turn on each other just as readily.
And it won't be just the Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide that is already evident throughout the region. It will be an endless series of ferocious doctrinal inquisitions between various Sunni Muslim orientations and denominations. States will become, at best, merely the geographical battlegrounds and, at worst, the principal weapons of repression between battling groups of intolerant religious fanatics.
This future is by no means certain. It may indeed be apocalyptic, but it is still entirely avoidable. Yet it is hardly beyond imagining, as Sunday's tragedy in Cairo so gruesomely reminded us.
For at least the past hundred years, the Christians of the Middle East have been slowly dwindling. Many of them fled the Ottoman Empire, discrimination, war, conscription, and even famine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the New World. It has been both a blessing and a curse for these communities that, for cultural and religious reasons, it was historically easier for them to immigrate to and assimilate in Western societies than their Muslim compatriots. But this process has been accelerating in recent decades. Much of the Iraqi Christian community fled the country after the US invasion. In Syria, the Christian community is among the most vulnerable in the entire country, spread out and lacking any organized defenses.
Some of these woes are at least partially self-inflicted. In Lebanon, the Christian community – particularly the Maronites – have both over- and under-played their hand in equally disastrous ways.
First they were seized by an impulse to try to impose national hegemony in a country that stubbornly resists any controlling power. Next, their traditional leadership was beset by bloodthirsty vendetti.
More recently, Lebanese Christians have been roughly evenly divided between the March 8 and March 14 factions. This is basically a split between those more fearful of Syria, Hezbollah and Iran versus those terrified by regional Sunni domination and therefore opting for a bizarre "alliance of minorities." Worse still, this division is driven by megalomaniacs fixated on quixotic and doomed plans to grab the Lebanese presidency for themselves.
The Lebanese Christian community will certainly survive physically. But it is headed for political oblivion, with no one more to blame than itself. The latest example of this self-destructive tendency is the preposterous so-called Orthodox law its own leaders spearheaded which mandates that Lebanese can only vote for candidates of their own officially designated sect. Had anyone else proposed such a law, Lebanese Christians would've risen as one in outrage, denouncing it as an anti-Christian plot (which it would have been). Instead, they brought this calamity on themselves for the most misguided reasons.
Meanwhile, Jewish Israelis and Muslim Palestinians can't do too much sneering at each other about the crisis facing the Christians of the "Holy Land." Israel discriminates against all Palestinians equally. The Christian flight from the West Bank is mainly a reaction to the intolerable occupation, despite Israeli propaganda that tries to shift the focus to Palestinian Muslim intolerance. However, such bigotry is all-too-real in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where the small and beleaguered Palestinian Christian community struggles to maintain its identity and freedom under an increasingly abusive fundamentalist theocracy.
The bottom line is this: if the Arab world, and the broader Middle East, cannot accommodate Christians and other minorities, it won't be worth living in for anybody. And if the region emerges from a period of ethnic and sectarian conflict – of mountanish inhumanity when minorities are hounded out of areas in which they have lived for generations and been an integral part of the culture – those societies will one day look back on it as an unprecedented calamity. But then it will be too late.

Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah announces involvement in Syria
Now Lebanon/In the first of its kind, The Iraqi Kataeb Hezbollah have released a statement announcing that four of their members have died in battles in Damascus’ Sayeda Zeinab. The pro-Iranian Iraqi groups, the League of the Righteous People and Kataeb Hezbollah have buried four of their members, one of whom is a leader in the Kataeb Hezbollah group. By way of two official statements, picture images, and YouTube videos, the groups have said that that their members died “defending Shiite shrines in the Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeinab.” The two groups, who are allies with Lebanon’s Hezbollah party, also said that the victims were killed in the last few days and that they are associated with a member of the Lebanese party named Ali Jamal Jashi, who has died and was buried in the town of Jouya. Moreover, sources told NOW that some of the two groups’ members who also died in fighting in the Sayeda Zeinab area are identified as Mehdi Nazih Abbas and Arfad Mohsen al-Hamidawi, both affiliated with Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah, in addition to Karar Abdul Amir al-Fetlawi and Karar Abdul Amir Aziz, who are both affiliated with the League of the Righteous People. Reports of Hezbollah’s involvement in fighting alongside the Syrian regime have been a recurring source of controversy. Meanwhile, rebels have threatened to shell the Shiite group’s points in Lebanon. In February, Free Syrian Army chief of staff General Selim Idriss said that the rebel army is poised to launch a military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon after a top commander last Wednesday formally confirmed a 48-hour ultimatum for the Shiite group to stop “firing” on rebel positions in the Homs province. In March, Syrian warplanes bombed northern Lebanon for the first time, a top US official confirmed, denouncing the move as "a significant escalation" of the conflict. Hezbollah has systematically denied sending fighters into Syria, though its leader Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged in October 2012 that party members had fought Syrian rebels but said they were acting as individuals and not under the group's direction.

Bahrain Wants Hezbollah Listed as Terrorist Group
Abeed Al-Suhaimy /Asharq Alawsat
Manama, Asharq Al-Awsat—On Sunday, the Kingdom of Bahrain took a new step towards classifying Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, with the Bahraini government—at its weekly meeting—discussing a proposal submitted by the council of representatives last Wednesday to place the Lebanese party on its list of terrorist groups. Samira Rajab, minister of state for media affairs and a spokeswoman for the Bahraini government, confirmed that the meeting, headed by Prime Minister Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, discussed the proposal on Hezbollah, which was put forth by Bahraini MPs. The proposal was then forwarded on to the kingdom’s internal and foreign ministries, in order to follow up and develop the necessary legal framework to implement it, in cooperation with the legislative authority. Rajab, speaking in response to a question by Asharq Al-Awsat, said, “We are following international standards in this regard and we will apply them to protect Bahrain from the risk of terrorist organizations.” On Sunday, the Bahraini government spokeswomen appeared before members of the local and international media, and spoke about a variety of issues ranging from the ongoing national dialogue to economic affairs and security incidents. Returning to the issue of Hezbollah, the Bahraini government stressed that it is keen to protect its country’s internal front from external interference, especially from terrorist organizations that not only constitute a threat to Bahrain with their subversive acts, but to all member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The Bahraini MPs who submitted the request to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization released a statement supporting their move. They claimed that their request came as a result of “Iranian-backed Hezbollah’s increased activities, flagrantly interfering in the internal affairs of the countries of the region, becoming Tehran’s arm to export its revolution.” Although Bahrain’s latest step came during the visit of Canada’s foreign minister John Baird, who has encouraged Manama to move forward in its steps to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, Rajab rejected any link between the step taken by the Bahraini government and American pressure. She said, “The American initiative to place Hezbollah on the terrorism list has failed to get off the ground. Bahrain is genuinely suffering from these terrorist organizations.”
Rajab considers the step taken by Bahrain on Sunday to be a step forward to protect the internal security of the kingdom from the danger of terrorist organizations. She added, “What happened is a step in the right direction, namely to do what is necessary towards these dangerous terrorist organizations.” Rajab concluded by saying that Bahrain will benefit from international experience in this regard.

North Korea to fire ballistic missile to Pacific. Iran unveils new uranium-processing facilities
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 9, 2013/
Korean tensions again shot up Tuesday, April 9, with Pyongyang’s warning of a ballistic missile firing Wednesday, April 10 toward the Pacific and advice to foreigners in the South to evacuate: “We do not wish harm on foreigners in the South should there be a war,” said the statement. Last week, foreign embassies were informed that North Korea would not guarantee the safety of their staffs after April 10.
Japan has deployed Patriot missile interceptors around its defense ministry headquarters in Tokyo and other key facilities including Okinawa, in the wake of North Korea’s move last week of two intermediate- missiles to its eastern coast, placing Japan, South Korea and the US bases at Guam within range. In Tehran, meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled Tuesday two additional uranium-processing facilities at Ardakan in the central province of Yazd. This was announced with the official disclosure by Iranian state TV of uranium mines operating in the town of Saghand, 120 kilometers from Ardakan, which are reported to have an estimated output of 60 tons of yellowcake for use in the uranium enrichment process. In case this show of defiance was lost on the West, Tehran is now threatening to follow in the footsteps of its North Korean partner and withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the wake of the failure of the latest negotiations between the Islamic regime and world powers (April 5-6) in Kazakhstan. The meeting broke up without a date for resumption after Tehran refused outright to curb its enrichment program in exchange of the partial easing of sanctions, demanding that world powers acknowledge the Islamic Republic’s right to enrich uranium under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). To underline this refusal, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security, came out with this argument: There is no reason for Iran to be in compliance with the NPT and IAEA regulations when the United States and European countries “disregard its articles such as article 6 [mandating the reduction of nuclear weapons] and article 4 [Iran’s nuclear rights].” Speaking to the Fars News Agency (run by the Revolutionary Guards), Boroujerdi concluded: “Therefore, there is no reason for Iran to remain a NPT member…”
Its exit would mean that the nuclear watchdog would no longer have monitoring access to Iran’s known nuclear sites and like North Korea, which expelled the inspectors, could carry on enriching uranium and developing its nuclear weapons program without international oversight. These steps, along with Pyongyang’s restart of its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon last week, will give the nuclear collaboration with Iran and North Korea a further boost.
However, neither Washington or Jerusalem appear to show any inclination to rein in either North Korea, Iran or the dangerous ties between them. In Jerusalem, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that world powers would pursue further talks with Iran to resolve their nuclear dispute, but stressed that the process could not go on forever – which is exactly what President Barack Obama said a year ago.

Website of Al-Mustaqbal daily hacked
April 09, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The website of the Al-Mustaqbal newspaper was hacked Tuesday by an unidentified group, said a statement from the newspaper’s administration.
The hackers displayed a list of names on the website under the title “secret witnesses” in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The newspaper administration immediately shut down the server and tasked its IT department with fixing the website.
According to the statement, the hacking is aimed at alluding that Al-Mustaqbal was involved in a recent report published by a local newspaper with the names of alleged witnesses in Hariri’s probe.
In January, Al-Akhbar newspaper published a report that included photos and information of a number of people it claimed were named as witnesses by the prosecution in the STL. The STL was set up in 2007 after the 2005 assassination of Hariri in Beirut.
In 2011 the prosecution indicted four Hezbollah members in absentia for the bombing and has been slowly moving toward a trial.


Canada Reaffirms Special Friendship with Israel
April 9, 2013 (JERUSALEM) - Following a warm and constructive meeting today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird reaffirmed the close and special friendship that underpins the bilateral relationship between our two countries. Today, the Jewish People are masters of their own fate, like other nations, in their own sovereign, Jewish state. Like other nations, Israel has the right to defend itself, by itself.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Baird held productive discussions on a broad range of regional issues, including Iran’s nuclear program and its sponsorship of international terrorism, the crisis in Syria and the value of a constructive Turkey-Israel relationship. The leaders also discussed attempts to revitalize talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and expressed hope that fruitful negotiations will be forthcoming in the months ahead. Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomed Minister Baird’s offer of assistance in advancing these talks.
Prime Ministers Harper and Netanyahu have deepened and expanded Canada-Israel relations, resulting in:
increased bilateral agreements, such as the Mutual Recognition Agreement in Telecommunications signed in June 2012;
negotiations towards a modernized free trade agreement;
more business linkages, including in innovation;
marked growth in security and intelligence cooperation;
closer academic ties, e.g. via the May 2012 Memorandum of Understanding between the Royal Society of Canada and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; and
enhanced government and private-sector partnerships.
Today’s discussions also touched on energy, security, international aid and development, innovation, and the promotion of human rights globally—areas where Canadian and Israeli expertise can be leveraged to improve lives around the world. Both countries welcomed the opportunity to work towards establishing a Strategic Partnership Agreement—a work plan which will provide both countries concrete benchmarks to further deepen the bilateral relationship.
Both governments are committed to strengthening cooperation in the energy sector to advance common energy interests and contribute to jobs, growth and economic prosperity. Building on the June 2012 Statement on Cooperation in the Energy Sector between Canada and Israel, the Honourable Joe Oliver, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, and Dr. Uzi Landau, the former Israeli Minister of Energy and Water Resources, announced last October the creation of the Canada-Israel Energy Science and Technology Fund. The Fund was created to spur the development of innovative energy technologies and processes that enable the responsible development of unconventional oil and gas resources, including commercial applications that address shared environmental challenges. The Fund will also strengthen cooperation in areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Leveraging investment from both countries, the Fund is expected to generate $20 to $40 million in collaborative research and development (R & D) over the next three years. Two successful Canadian R & D workshops took place in March 2013 and brought together leading Canadian and Israeli stakeholders to identify potential partnering opportunities. The first call for proposals is expected later in April 2013.
In the field of international development, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Baird have proposed further cooperation between our two countries. As another example of development collaboration, Grand Challenges Canada, supported by Canada’s Development Innovation Fund, is working with Israel to create an Israeli Grand Challenges program, modeled after and mentored by Grand Challenges Canada, which is already making substantial contributions to international development.
Since 2006, there has also been a marked growth in security, defence and intelligence cooperation between Canada and Israel. Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Baird tasked their officials with developing further initiatives to bolster the bilateral defence and security relationship in the coming months.
Economic, trade and innovation cooperation are key elements of the special relationship that exists between Canada and Israel. Prime Ministers Harper and Netanyahu established, in May 2010, a bilateral innovation agenda that led to the creation of the Canada-Israel Technology Innovation Partnership (CIIP). The CIIP supports joint projects through several funding mechanisms, including a joint call for proposals, announced in July 2012, backed by the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel’s Economics and Trade Ministry and the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program. The CIIP marks Canada’s first initiative under EUREKA—a collaborative European network to which Israel and Canada belong (the latter became Associate Member during Israel’s chairmanship in 2011), which seeks to enhance industrial competitiveness via support to businesses and innovation actors. Both governments are committed to practical initiatives to further scientific research cooperation. The Government of Canada has already earmarked funds for that purpose.
Foreign Minister Baird’s visit to Israel served as an opportunity for Canada and Israel to renew their historical friendship, redouble their efforts to work together to increase mutual prosperity and reiterate their shared commitment to regional and global security.
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