时事经纬
31-05-09
伊朗国内航班炸弹被拆引信
伊朗安全官员在从阿瓦士飞往德黑兰的一架航班上拆卸掉一枚自制炸弹的引信。伊朗媒体报道说，在这架载有131名乘客的班机起飞不久就发现了这枚炸弹。星期四，
扎黑丹的一座什叶派清真寺发生爆炸，25名教徒被炸死，120多人受伤。这些事件发生在距离伊朗总统大选只有两个星期的时候。
巴基斯坦军方称在斯瓦特取得胜利
巴基斯坦军方宣称在斯瓦特河谷主要城市明戈拉战胜了塔利班激进份子，政府军正
与激进份子在其他两个临近的区域交战。巴基斯坦少将阿巴斯告诉记者们说，仅管在城镇的郊区和一些反叛组织发生零星的冲突，政府军现在已经完全掌控了明戈拉。
阿巴斯说，在过去24小时的军事行动中，25名激进份子，包括塔利班两名高级指挥官被击毙，还有三名指挥官被逮捕。
南奥塞梯举行选举
5万多人登记参加此次议会选举--这是南奥塞梯从格鲁吉亚分离以后，第一次举行的议会选举--由4个党派争夺新议会的34个席位。南奥塞梯外长穆拉特 焦耶夫说，北约目前在格鲁吉亚进行军事演习是想破坏这次选举。
澳外长允再研究接收关湾维族囚徒
澳大利亚外长史密夫5月31日告诉第10频道电视台说，这是来自盟友的要求，澳大利亚也明显地与美国有著良好的关系。但是，反对党认为这些获释囚徒将可能再次联系上恐怖主义团伙。反对党希望陆克文政府跟随此前的做法，也拒绝这次由奥巴马政府提出的要求。中国表示，这些维族人在新疆发动伊斯兰分离运动，是恐怖分子。
日本防相表示正关注朝鲜是否试射洲际导弹
日本防卫相滨田靖一30日晚在新加表示，关于如果朝鲜再次发射远程弹道导弹，防卫省是否将遵照《自卫队法》下达摧毁措施命令准备实施拦截的问题，“这要政府全体做出考虑。将切实做好情报收集工作加以应对”。
韩国将与东盟举行特别首脑会议
韩国与东盟的特别首脑会议将于6月1日在韩国济州岛召开，为期两天。会议将讨论强化经济合作、应对金融危机和全球变暖等问题，并将发表共同声明。预计各国将在声明中表明对朝鲜核试验的立场以及有关投资自由化的共识。
李明博“新亚洲外交”全面启动
巴勒斯坦警察与哈马斯成员枪战至少6人死亡
巴勒斯坦安全部门称，巴民族权力机构警察展开此次行动意在抓捕两名哈马斯成员。这两名哈马斯成员试图在约旦河西岸地区策划一次游行示威行动，抗议巴民族权力机构对约旦河西岸地区的控制。
生命组织编程、细胞工程、机器人三大技术重塑世界经济
6 Dead in Fatah Raid Against Hamas
Six people were killed on Sunday when forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raided a Hamas hideout, just days after he promised in Washington to fulfill his security commitments.
The raid was likely to widen a rift between Abbas's Fatah group and Hamas and complicate Egyptian reconciliation efforts.
The operation also could boost Abbas's credentials in Washington at a time when U.S. President Barack Obama is at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Jewish settlements in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing accused the Abbas-aligned forces of being "loyal to the Zionists." Abbas, the spokesman said, was directly responsible for "the crime and its consequences."
Govt sees Swat operation over in three days
‘Only five to 10 per cent of the job is remaining and hopefully within two to three days, the pockets of resistance will be cleared,’ Syed Athar Ali, secretary of defence for Pakistan.
Pakistan Pushes Offensive in Swat
Pakistani forces battled militants in South Waziristan on the Afghan border on Sunday and a government official said an offensive in the Swat valley could be over in two or three days.
The focus of the fighting has been the former tourist destination of Swat, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, which the Taliban virtually took as the government alternated between inconclusive military action and peace pacts. But tension has also been rising in South Waziristan, an al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold, with military officials saying an offensive was likely there after Swat was secured.
Militants attacked a paramilitary force camp near the town of Jandola, 80 km (50 miles) east of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, late on Saturday, security officials said. "They carried out a very serious attack on our positions at around midnight. It was repulsed after a heavy exchange of fire," said military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas.
Up to 15 militants and three soldiers were killed, he said, although an intelligence official in the region said earlier at least 40 militants and four soldiers were killed. There was no independent confirmation of the casualty estimates.
Army takes ‘complete control’ over Mingora
Iran defuses homemade bomb on plane: report
Security personnel defused a homemade bomb found on an aircraft during a domestic flight in Iran late Saturday, Iranian media said, two days after a mosque bombing killed 25 people in the southeast of the country.
The device was defused after the Kish Air aircraft with 131 passengers on board made an emergency landing in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The incident occurred less than two weeks before the Islamic Republic holds a presidential election in which the conservative incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces a challenge from reformers.
'Obama wants ME breakthrough in 2 yrs'
US President Barack Obama has given himself two years to reach a diplomatic breakthrough on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, White House officials say privately, despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's opposition to America's demand for a freeze on all building in the West Bank.
In his speech in the Egyptian capital this week, Obama will "take on the tough issues" including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and offer to bridge gaps with Muslims based on "mutual interests and mutual respect"..."Some of the things that you will hear in the speech are returning to proven and effective policies and initiatives that have served the national interest well in the past."
Israel begins major drill, preparing for regional war
Israel has launched its largest-ever military exercise to test its capabilities against potential missile attacks, bombings and riots.
Over the past few months, Israel has been busy making plans for fresh confrontation in the Middle East. The drill is widely believed to be in line with the regime's preparation for a possible attack on Iran's nuclear facilities which they admit can ignite an all-out war in the region.
The five-day exercise which was launched on Sunday will simulate simultaneous rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and missile attacks from Iran and Syria. "We will be exercising the doomsday scenario of simultaneous strikes against Israel on all fronts and by different means."
Exercise Turning Point 3 will also include simulating chemical and biological strikes on populated centers and a wave of attacks by Palestinians.
This is the third consecutive year Israel is conducting such an exercise.Tel Aviv says the war games are defensive in nature.
Israel's speedy military build up can also be part of efforts to avenge its decisive defeat in the 2006 war on Lebanon.
Israel fought a 33-day war against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 to destroy the military power of the Lebanese resistance. According to the Winograd report, the attack backfired to wreak a humiliating defeat on Israel.
In the face of the overwhelming Israeli threats, the Hezbollah resistance movement has reportedly doubled its military might by preparing a joint training program with Lebanese Army forces.
Israeli officials concerned over rift with US
Israeli officials are deeply concerned with the growing tension between Tel Aviv and Washington ahead of the US president's speech in which he is expected to mend fences with the Muslim world.
Following a meeting with US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, in London, Israeli officials expressed frustration. "We're disappointed," Haaretz quoted a senior official as saying. "All of the understandings reached during the George W. Bush administration are worth nothing," added the official who was not named.
The United States under President Barack Obama has withdrawn its carte blanche support for Israel, calling on Tel Aviv to halt all settlement activities and recognize a sovereign Palestinian state -- a move that drew the ire of hawkish Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu.
Another official quoted by the Israeli daily said that Washington was refusing Tel Aviv's every attempt to reach new agreements on settlement construction. "The United States is taking a line of granting concessions to the Palestinians that is not fair toward Israel," he said.
This is while Obama is due to address the Muslim world in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Thursday. His message is expected to narrow the gap between the Muslim world and the United States -- a move that if successful would be considered another blow to Israel.
After talks with Mitchell, deputy Israeli prime minister Dan Meridor said Washington's demands of a complete construction freeze would lead to the 'dissolution of the Netanyahu government', according to Haaretz.
"The Americans took something that had been agreed on for many years and just stopped everything," the Israeli paper quoted an official close to the talks as saying.
"What about the Tenet Report, which demanded that the Palestinians dismantle the terror infrastructure?" said the official, referring to former CIA director George Tenet. "It's unfair, and there is no reciprocity shown toward the Palestinians."
Elections in SOssetia valid
The South Ossetian Central Electoral Commission has officially reported that the elections to the fifth parliament have proved valid.
Bella Pliyeva, CEC head, reported that, “according to the information coming from polling stations in South Ossetia and abroad, the turnout at 14.00, Moscow time, was 59.88 percent. This is good news, because the figure is enough for proclaiming the elections valid. Our efforts were not futile.”
Parliamentary elections being held in SOssetia
A total of 88 polling stations were opened in South Ossetia, 6 in North Ossetia and one in Moscow, a representative of the South Ossetian Central Election Commission (CEC) reports. All of them are being closely guarded.
Representatives of the political parties taking part in the elections are present at every polling station. They will follow the voting process and vote counting, in order to prevent violations of the rules. They will put their signatures on every ballot paper. Ballot papers without signatures will be regarded as invalid. 70 international observers from Russia, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, the Dniester Moldovan Republic and some other countries are also following the voting process.
There are some 52,000 people on the lists of electors. Bella Pliyeva, head of the South Ossetian CEC, said, however, that “the exact number of electors outside the republic is not known, and the votes will be counted upon the arrival of people to the polling stations.”
The elections will be declared valid, if no less than 50 per cent of electors, plus one person, will take part in the voting.
Candidates from four parties – the Unity Party (the pro-presidential, ruling party, which has a majority of seats in the present parliament), the Communist Party, the People’s Party, which also supports the President, and the opposition Fydybasta (Fatherland) Party – will vie for 34 seats in the South Ossetian parliament.
A party should get more than 7 percent of the votes, in order to qualify for the parliament. The elections are being held according to a proportionate system for the first time. Besides, these are the first elections held after the recognition of the republic’s independence.
Israel 'loyalty law' rejected
An Israeli government committee has rejected a draft bill that would have required Israelis to take an oath of loyalty. The legislation committee on Sunday scrapped the bill, which had been tabled by the Yisrael Beitenu party, led by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister. The bill was rejected by a vote of eight to three. The move effectively strips the proposal of government approval and significantly lowers the chances it would pass into law.
'False impression'
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem correspondent, said the bill's rejection showed the government as a whole had not been behind the proposal. "This committee within the Knesset [Israeli parliament] is responsible for examining draft laws that are being proposed, and they basically threw it out," she said. "It was very clear that the Labor party, another important member of the coalition, wasn't having anything to do with this bill."
Labor said that the bill, which called for all citizens to take a pledge of allegiance, risked "creating the false impression" that Israel's Arab citizens were disloyal.
The pledge was a key element in Yisrael Beitenu's campaigning for the February general election, in which it came in third, winning 15 of the 120 seats in parliament. The bill by Lieberman's secular nationalist party was aimed mostly at Israel's Arab citizens - some 20 per cent of Israel's population - and also at the ultra-Orthodox population. Neither group does the military service, which is mandatory for most Israelis.
In another development, Israel has refused to bow to US calls that it freeze settlement activity." I want to say in a crystal clear manner that the current Israeli government will not accept in any fashion that legal settlement activity be frozen," Yisrael Katz, Israel's transport minister and a close ally of Binyamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday. Netanyahu did not address the issue at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, but the fighting words were echoed by other members of the cabinet, including the Labor party.
Several members of the Israeli cabinet belong to right-leaning or ultra-nationalist parties.
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