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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

'Iran will hit Dimona if attacked'


Teheran will target Israel's Dimona reactor in a retaliatory attack if the Islamic regime is hit by an Israeli or US air strike, a Iranian official told the Arabic-language newspaperAsharq al-Awsat on Monday. "Teheran is aware that Israel and the United States want to target Iran, but we are also aware that while they actually have the option to launch war, they do not have the option to end it. This is America's and Israel's point of weakness. We know that there is no solution to this point of weakness, thanks to the importance of the Gulf region, America's problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the (geographically) small area of the Zionist entity," the anonymous official was quoted by the paper as saying. He also specified that the Dimona reactor would be on the top of Iran's target list in a potential war. The official added that the Iranian regime did not see any strong reason to reach an accommodation with Israel because of the declining of view of Israel's strategic value among Western countries, including the US. "We believe that the United States is looking for a strong partner in the region as an alternative to its dependence on Israel in the future. We in Iran believe that the United States and the Western nations now view Israel more as a burden and that Israel is incapable of contributing to achieving peace in the Middle East," he said to Asharq al-Awsat.

Abbas, Palestinians should die: Israeli rabbi


An influential Israeli rabbi has said that God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week. "Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and all these evil people should perish from this earth," Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel's government, said in a sermon late Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's popular name. "God should strike them and these Palestinians -- evil haters of Israel -- with a plague," the 89-year-old rabbi said in his weekly address to the faithful, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio Sunday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments and said Israel wanted to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians that would ensure good neighborly relations. "The comments do not reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's view or the position of the government of Israel," Netanyahu's office said in a statement. The US denounced the remarks terming them "inflammatory" and an impediment to peace efforts. "As we move forward to relaunch peace negotiations, it is important that actions by people on all sides help to advance our effort, not hinder it," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said in a statement. President Barack Obama's administration is hosting Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Washington this week to try to restart direct Mideast peace negotiations after a nearly two-year hiatus. The Iraqi-born cleric has made similar remarks before, most notably in 2001, during a Palestinian uprising, when he called for Arabs' annihilation and said it was forbidden to be merciful to them. He later said he was referring only to "terrorists" who attacked Israelis. In the 1990s, Yosef broke with other Orthodox Jewish leaders by voicing support for territorial compromise with the Palestinians. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Yosef's latest comments were tantamount to calling for "genocide against Palestinians." The rabbi's remarks, he said, were "an insult to all our efforts to advance the negotiations process." Arriving at Netanyahu's office for a weekly cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of Shas declined to comment when asked by reporters about Yosef's sermon. Netanyahu and Abbas are due to resume direct peace talks in Washington on Thursday, the first such negotiations in 20 months in a peace process that commits both sides to avoid incitement, which has included anti-Jewish sermons by Palestinian clerics.

'We will not win a single match' -Mohammad Asif tells ex-girlfriend

The ex-girlfriend of Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Asif has claimed the fast bowler confessed to her that last summer's Australia-Pakistan Test was fixed and told her during the series to "stop praying - we will not win a single match during the tour to Australia". Veena Malik, a comedian and former model, made the allegations on Pakistan's Express News network during a discussion of the match-fixing scandal, which has outraged the cricket-mad nation as it is experience the worst floods in a century. Malik said Asif confessed during a phone call he made to her while in Australia that the team planned to throw the three-Test series, but she said she was unaware what Asif's involvement was in the fix. "When Pakistan started losing in Australia, I jokingly said: 'For God's sake, win a match.' To this, he replied, 'We won't win anything until 2010'," she told the late night Frontline program. Malik also claimed that before the Pakistan team flew out to Australia last December, Asif made a sudden visit to Bangkok to meet bookmakers there. "One day, he got business-class tickets and went to Bangkok," she said. "He told me that he was offered $40,000. 'I advised him not to be part of such activities but he did not listen. Instead, he went ahead and demanded $200,000." She added: "Since he came back, he has been totally involved in this. Once he told me that the entire Pakistan team is involved. From head to toe, the Pakistan players and officials are involved." Malik said she had provided details of Asif's travels to the Pakistan Cricket Board as well as information relating to a R15 million ($356,000) loan she made to him, which she claimed was in part used to pay Asif's lawyers, who were working to reduce a two-year doping ban.  Asif's failure to repay the loan caused a public row between them, although they announced a rapprochement at a press conference in May. The match-fixing allegations, revealed in a sting conducted by Britain's News of the World newspaper, has shocked Pakistan and prompted its Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, to order an immediate inquiry. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari - who is patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board - ordered a detailed report and demanded PCB chairman Ijaz Butt keep him informed of developments in the Scotland Yard probe, a spokesman said.

NASA to assist in rescue operation for trapped Chilean miners


U.S. space agency NASA will send a team of experts to Chile in a bid to assist and advise how to keep 33 miners trapped deep underground physically and mentally fit until they are rescued. Miners who have been trapped underground in Chile for more than three weeks have had their first telephone contact with loved ones. The miners have been trapped in a gold and copper mine in Chile's remote north since a cave-in on August 5th. But it was not until a week ago that they were found alive. Chilean officials are also seeking help from the country's submarine service for advice on survival in extreme, confined conditions. It is pertinent to mention that rescuers have drilled three narrow holes to where the men are trapped. The holes are being used to communicate with the men and pump in oxygen as well as to provide them with food, water and other supplies, including antidepressants.

Signs of recovery in Pakistan, but threat remains


Signs of recovery began to emerge in Pakistan on Monday, but aid workers cautioned that many have yet to receive help and new threats, such as disease outbreak, are beginning to appear. In Thatta, Pakistan, a historic southern city that was evacuated after floods inundated the area, destroying homes, schools and businesses, thousands of people began to return on Monday. Hastily-built levees made from clay and stone held back the floodwaters, allowing many to begin to return to their homes, and others from flooded-out nearby areas to find dry land and some measure of safety. Many of those who sought shelter in Thatta complained of a lack of assistance for thousands who had camped out in a nearby Muslim graveyard above the high-water mark. Flooding began to hit Pakistan's northwest about a month ago after heavy monsoon rains swelled the Indus River. The swelling began to move its way south, wielding destruction along the way. More than 1,600 people have been killed in the floods and another 17 million have been affected by flood conditions. The post-flood reconstruction of Pakistan is expected to take years and cost billions of dollars.