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US admits failure to vet CIA bomber

The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has acknowledged "missteps" and "shortcomings" that allowed a would-be informant to enter a US base in Afghanistan and blow himself up on December 30, killing seven CIA officers. Suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi tricked the CIA into believing he could be a useful tool in the battle against al-Qaeda, and was invited inside a well-fortified US compound in Khost province in southeast Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. Leon Panetta, the CIA director, cited mistakes by the agency revealed in the investigation, notably the CIA's failure to properly vet Balawi, who made a suicide video released after his death calling for more attacks against US targets. "He had confirmed access within extremist circles, making a covert relationship with him - if he was acting in good faith - potentially very productive," Panetta said in note to agency employees. "But he had not rejected his terrorist roots. He was, in fact, a brutal murderer."

US military to accept gay recruits

The military has said it will accept openly gay recruits for the first time in US history, even as it tries to slow a bid to abolish its ban on gays serving openly. At least two service members discharged for being gay began the process to re-enlist after the Pentagon's announcement on Tuesday. The new requirement brings down the barriers built by an institution long resistant and sometimes hostile to gays. On Tuesday Virginia Phillips, a California judge who overturned the 17-year "don't ask, don't tell" policy last week, rejected the government's latest bid to halt her order telling the military to stop enforcing the law. The US defence department said it would comply with Phillips' order and had frozen any discharge cases. Cynthia Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said recruiters had been given top-level guidance in mid-October to accept applicants who say they are gay. She said recruiters have been told to inform potential recruits that the moratorium on enforcement of the policy could be reversed at any time, if the ruling is appealed or the court grants a stay. Douglas Smith, a spokesman for US Army Recruiting Command based at Fort Knox in Kentucky, said even before the ruling recruiters did not ask applicants about their sexual orientation.

Mexico forces seize huge marijuana haul in Tijuana

The drugs were found wrapped in 10,000 packages Mexican security forces have seized 105 tonnes of marijuana with a street value of at least $340m (£214m) - the biggest such haul in the country in years. Continue reading the main story Heavily armed troops and police raided several homes in the city of Tijuana, on the border with the US, exchanging gunfire with suspected traffickers. The marijuana was found wrapped in some 10,000 packages. Drug gangs are increasingly producing marijuana in Mexico, rather than smuggling the drug from South America. "The seizure of these drugs is without precedent in the country," army General Alfonso Duarte told reporters. The operation began after municipal police came under fire from gunmen in a convoy of vehicles as they were on patrol in Tijuana, which lies just across the border from San Diego, California. One officer and one suspect were injured in the exchange of fire.

Deadly attack hits Yemen convoy

Armed men have ambushed a military convoy in the mountainous Abyan province in southern Yemen, killing three soldiers and injuring at least two.

The convoy of security forces was heading east from Zinjibar, Abyan's provincial capital, when it came under attack on Saturday.

The air force responded by bombing the attackers to give the convoy cover to continue its journey to the town of Mudia, according to a security official.

Clashes between the army and "terrorist elements involved in the ambush" left several dead and wounded among the attackers, the defence ministry's website, 26sep.net, said.

"We don't know exactly who was behind the attack but we have to take into account that the area is known for the presence of two forces, al-Qaeda fighters and the separatists of the south who would like to break away from the rest of Yemen

Survey: US Jews sceptical of Obama

US Jews, who, next to African Americans, have constituted the minority most supportive of Barack Obama, are growing more sceptical of his performance and increasingly hawkish on Iran, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

The survey of 800 self-identified Jewish Americans, the latest in an annual series that stretches back more than a decade, also found a marked decline in confidence over Obama's handling of US-Israel relations compared to eight months ago when the AJC published its last poll.

While 55 percent of respondents voiced approval - and only 39 percent disapproval - of the Obama administration's handling of US-Israeli relations last March, a mere plurality of 49 percent in the latest poll said they approved now, compared to 45 percent who voiced disapproval.

Support for US military action against Iran "to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons ... if diplomacy and sanctions fail" rose from 53 percent to 59 percent since last March, while opposition to such a course fell from 42 percent to 35 percent over the same period.

As recently as its 2008 survey, the AJC found that a 47 percent plurality opposed an attack, while a 42 percent minority supported one.

German multiculturalism 'failing'

Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, has said that the country's attempt to create a multicultural society has "utterly failed", adding fuel to a debate over immigration and Islam which is polarising her conservative coalition.

Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked in a country that is home to some four million Muslims.

"This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam.

The Chancellor has faced pressure from within her party to take a tougher line on immigrants who do not show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics.

She said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her usual line that they should learn German in order to get by in school and have opportunities in the labour market.

'Alien cultures'

The debate over foreigners in Germany has shifted since Thilo Sarrazin, a former central banker, published a book accusing Muslim immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society.

Sarrazin was censured for his views and dismissed from the Bundesbank last month, but his book proved highly popular and polls showed a majority of Germans agreed with the thrust of his arguments.

Merkel has tried to accommodate both sides of the debate, talking tough on integration but also telling Germans that they must accept that mosques have become part of their landscape.

She said on Saturday that the education of unemployed Germans should take priority over recruiting workers from abroad, while noting Germany could not get by without skilled foreign workers.

In a weekend newspaper interview, Ursula von der Leyen, Merkel's labour minister, raised the possibility of lowering barriers to entry for some foreign workers in order to tackle the lack of skilled workers in Europe's largest economy.

"For a few years, more people have been leaving our country than entering it," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

"Wherever it is possible, we must lower the entry hurdles for those who bring the country forward."

The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce says the country lacks about 400,000 skilled workers.

However, Horst Seehofer, the chairman of the Christian Social Union, the CDU's sister party, has rejected any relaxation of immigration laws and said last week there was no room in Germany for more people from "alien cultures".

Fed's Bernanke signals new round of quantitative easing

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has opened the way to a new round of quantitative easing. "There would appear, all else being equal, to be a case for further action," he said, in a speech to the Boston regional federal reserve. The US central bank is expected to back a move to buy up US government bonds in order to lower borrowing costs at its next meeting on 3 November. Mr Bernanke said unemployment and low inflation lay behind his view. Continue reading the main story US Economy Car buyers lift US retail sales US trade gap up on China imports US economic growth is revised up US new home sales still very weak However, some colleagues at the Fed have expressed much more hawkish views, and Mr Bernanke was careful not to pre-empt the decision of the rate-setting committee due next month.

Israeli housing plan imperils talks

Israel has unveiled plans for around 240 new homes for Jewish settlers in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, in a move that has drawn the ire of Palestinians. The plans for new housing units in the settlement neighbourhoods of Pisgat Zeev and Ramot were approved late on Thursday by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, the Ynet news website of Israel said. The housing ministry did not respond to a request by the AFP news agency to confirm the proposals, and Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, said on Friday he could not confirm or deny the report as he was "not familiar" with any such plans. Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, said the move proved Israel was intent on "killing" every opportunity to revive the stalled direct peace talks between the two sides. "We call upon the US administration to hold the Israeli government responsible for the collapse of the negotiations and the peace process as a result of this government's insistence on killing every opportunity for resuming negotiations," he said.

'15,000 rapes in war-torn DR Congo'

More than 15,000 rapes were committed last year in the strife-torn region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where peacekeepers are unable to fully protect civilians, a senior United Nations official has said. With accusations now being made against DRC government troops over new cases of rape and killing in the volatile east of the country, Roger Meece, the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo (Monusco), said "the scale of the problem is enormous". Meece appeared before the UN security council on Friday, and despite being unable to give details of the new attacks, he said: "The best data available, for example, suggests that over 15,000 rapes were committed last year in eastern DRC." 'Horrific' mass rapes Meece told the council that the "horrific'' mass rapes in late July and early August by rebel groups in eastern Congo's mineral-rich Walikale region underscored the importance of protecting civilians. "[The UN force] cannot serve as the complete answer to the security problems of the east'' Roger Meece, Head of Monusco But he said after the briefing that it is impossible for 18,000 UN peacekeepers to protect all civilians in the area where armed groups are operating in an area larger than Afghanistan. The UN force "cannot serve as the complete answer to the security problems of the east,'' Meece said. Armed groups operate over a wide area and often mix with the civilian population, he added. "In this vast area...it is not possible for Monusco to ensure full protection for all civilians. To approach this goal would require vastly greater force levels and resources," Meece said.

Ahmadinejad begins Lebanon trip

After more than two months underground, 11 miners out of 33 have now emerged from the collapsed Chilean copper mine in the Atacama desert to the excitement and relief of waiting family and friends. The scene was one of tears and elation on Wednesday as rescue teams worked to lift the miners to the surface one by one in a narrow, missile-like capsule, nicknamed Phoenix. Mario Gomez, 63 years old and the oldest member in the group, was the ninth miner to be pulled out safely after being fitted with a special mask to combat his breathing problems. "He's a very, very experienced miner," Al Jazeera's Lucia Newman, reporting from the mine, said. "He began mining when he was 12 years old. He was one of those with the strongest will to survive we've been told. "With his long experience, he was able to tell the younger ones to remain calm and to have faith they would be rescued."

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الأربعاء، 13 أكتوبر 2010

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