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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

China executes nine over Xinjiang unrest



China has executed nine people over deadly ethnic unrest in its far-western Xinjiang region, regional authorities said Monday, the first executions since the violence in July.  "The first group of nine people who were sentenced to death recently have already been executed in succession, with the approval of the Supreme Court," Hou Hanmin, spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government, told. It was not clear when the executions took place.

India to get modern defence system from Israel



Israel will provide advanced air defence system to India in 1.10 billion dollars. According to Israeli officials, agreement on Barak-8 missile defence system would be signed in April. This defence system can be installed at land and naval warships. The system can hit missiles, warships and drons. India has obtained first model of Barak defence system. According to Israeli officials, new defence system would be provided to India in 2017.

Palestinians break Israel's wall



Palestinians and foreign activists have torn down segments of Israel's separation wall in a demonstration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the town of Qalandiya in the occupied West Bank, a group of masked activists using a lorry pulled down a two-metre cement block before Israeli security forces confronted them with tear gas grenades. Several of the estimated 50 demonstrators passed through the hole they had made, hoisting a Palestinian flag and setting ablaze tyres on the other side. Protesters were wearing shirts with the text "Jerusalem we are coming", which was the slogan for the protest. Abdullah Abu Rahma, leader of the People's Campaign to Fight the Wall, said: "Today we commemorate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. "This is the beginning of the activities, which we do, to express our hold on our land, and our refusal to this wall - the wall of torture, the wall of humiliation." Activists have vowed to hold a week of protests in the Palestinian territories and around the world, including a campaign calling for the release of all anti-wall activists currently imprisoned. 

Berlin celebrates fall of wall



World leaders have gathered in Germany's capital to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, beginning the day's events with a prayer service. Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor and Horst Koehler, the country's president, joined a congregation at a former East Berlin church, where pro-democracy rallies were held in 1989. "We remember the tears of joy, the faces of delight, the liberation," Lutheran Bishop Wolfgang Huber said at the Gethsemane Church. But Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, used the opportunity to raise concerns about the work still to be done, saying "German unity is still incomplete". "We must tackle this problem if we want to achieve equal quality of life [in east and west]," she told ARD public television on Monday.