Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - Arab foreign ministers in principle have agreed for direct Middle East peace negotiations and allowed Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to decide the timeline on when he wants to start talks with Israel.
The announcement was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he expressed his readiness to start talks within next few days, while Washington, which had been putting pressure of both the sides to move forward on the issue, also hailed the news. However, Abbas\' rivals Hamas condemned it and reiterated their demands.
Responding to a media question on whether Arabs had given approval to start peace talks, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, said, " There is an agreement but with the understanding of what will be discussed and how the direct negotiations will be conducted." "We will leave the assessment of the position to the Palestinian president as to when the conditions allow the beginning of such negotiations," he said, during the Arab League\'s foreign ministers\' meet in Egyptian capital Cairo.
The meeting also designed a letter for U.S. President Barack Obama in which they had laid out the "general principles" of peace talks.
Meanwhile, AL Chief Amr Mussa sought written guarantees and added that the two sides need to be serious on negotiations and should aim to resolve the status talks.
In the letter, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat wants the other party to discuss Israel\'s first halt settlement construction in the disputed regions whenever the talks start.
"The Arabs also demanded in their letter to Obama that the reference point of the Palestinian state be the 1967 borders, with agreed-upon exchanges of land and a halt to settlements," he said.
Madrid, Spain (AHN) - A Spanish court has issued an arrest warrant and ordered extradition of three American soldiers, who believed to have killed a local television cameraman in Iraq during the U.S. invasion in 2003.
National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz said that Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, Capt. Phillip Wolford, and Sgt. Thomas Gibson fired a shell from an American tank that hit the Palestine Hotel in capital Baghdad on April 8, 2003. Spanish TV channel Tele 5\'s cameraman, Jose Couso, and a Ukranian cameraman Taras Protsyuk, who worked for Reuters, died in the incident.
It may be noted that the case was archived just a year after his death, but on the appeal of cameraman\'s family against the decision, the court reopened the case for the third time on July 13 and reissued the warrant in its ruling on Thursday.
The court opened the case in 2008 but closed it after finding that Couso\'s killing was a result of an act of war. It again opened the case but forced to close it because of the investigating magistrate, who presented only one-sided evidence.
Justice Pedraz, in the arrest order, said that he demanded extradition because of two reasons - firstly the charges he considered were serious and secondly because of non-cooperation from the United States side in the investigation since they refused to allow Spanish judicial officials to question them.
Jose\'s brother David is reportedly happy with the court\'s order and hoped that the U.S. government would collaborate with the Spanish justice system in the search and capture in order to sit these murderers in the court.
The U.S. has refused to extradite the soldiers, saying that its military investigation has already cleared them from any wrongdoing. The military claimed that the troops did not violate any rules of engagement.
The soldiers, in their defense, had said that they hit under belief that they found a spotter, who was guiding in hostile fire.
There were no immediate comments from spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Madrid after the ruling.
New Delhi, India (AHN) - India\'s interior minister made a tall promise Thursday, pledging that the government would be able to finish the problem of Maoist guerillas within the next three years with the help of two-pronged strategy focused on inducing development schemes and making police effective in affected areas.
Speaking during a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, Minister of Home Affairs P. Chidambaram said that he was confident enough about defeating the challenge posed by the left wing extremists known as Naxalites. The challenge will be met jointly by the central as well as state governments, he added.
He told the meeting, "The government was confident that the problem of left wing extremism would be overcome in the next three years."
The two-pronged strategy, which will be used to tackle the Naxalites, was decided upon after the MHA held consultations with the states facing the Naxal menace.
Recognizing it as a responsibility of the central government to assist the states in every possible way, Chidambaram said that it was primarily the responsibility of the states to tackle Naxalism.
He also maintained that besides enforcing law and order in the Naxal-affected states, the central government was helping the state governments by sharing intelligence and funding development schemes for the deprived areas and population
In a meeting on July 14, which Chief Ministers of the seven affected states attended, it was decided to set up a unified command between four of the states--West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand--to launch and execute anti-Naxal operations. In addition, the central government also promised to provide these four states with additional helicopters, funds and additional security personnel.
Moreover, an Empowered Group, to be chaired by the Member Secretary, Planning Commission, would look into any revision of the development schemes related to road connectivity, schools, healthcare and drinking water to alleviate problems of the poor in these states.
Bangalore, India (AHN) - In a bid to stop illegal mining in Karnataka state, officials there have decided to put a stop on export of iron ore, in addition to banning transport of iron to other states.
Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa announced the ban Thursday, saying there was no other way to curb illegal mining in the state. A few days ago Yeddyurappa met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who asked him to take the action.
Yeddyurappa said that the ban on illegal mining would stay till the state Lok Ayukta, or ombudsman, finished his probe into the instances of illegal mining between 2000-2010.
Official figures suggest that about 49 million tonnes of iron ore are being produced in the state. According to media reports, the state has experienced 20,702 instances of illegal mining in the past three months.
The government has also put a check on issuing transport permits for moving iron ore for export purposes.
Over the past few weeks, a controversy has raged in the State over illegal mining and iron ore export, which the Congress party had dubbed as the "scam of the century" amidst allegations that the illegal mining and exports from Karnataka amounted to billions of rupees.
Congress, the main opposition party in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state, has organized a protest march from the state capital of Bangalore to Bellary, a place rich in iron ore deposits. Congress is demanding an official probe into the issue by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Congress chose Bellary, located 320 kilometers from Bangalore, as its protest destination because the city is the political base of Tourism Minister G. Janardhana, his elder brother Revenue Minister G. Karunakara and younger brother, G. Somashekara, who is member of the State Assembly.
Besides being an important part of the political establishment of the state, the Reddys are also powerful mine owners whom Congress has accused of being part of the illegal mining nexus.
Although the Reddy brothers have vehemently denied all the charges against them, they are also likely to protest the ban on exports of iron ore.
Nairobi, Kenya (AHN) - Somali pirates have released a Turkish cargo ship and its 21 crew members more than four months after seizing the vessel.
The 35,244-deadweight tons Maltese-flagged MV Frigia was hijacked on March 23 off the Indian coast with a crew of 21--19 Turks and two Ukrainians. They were not believed to be injured during the ordeal.
The vessel was carrying a load of fertilizer from Israel to Thailand when it was hijacked about 1,000 nautical miles east of the northern Somali coastline, according to a statement from the European Union Naval Force.
Somali pirates are still holding at least 16 other ships with well over 200 crew members.
EU NAVFOR is patrolling the pirate-infested waters of Somalia as part of a United Nations-backed mission to curb piracy, which has since spilled into the waters of the entire region.
Somalia-based sea bandits have caused havoc in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world\'s busiest shipping routes where more than 20,000 ships transit the waters annually.