aljazeera: Egypt army storms area near Cairo

Fighting between security forces and armed groups in Kerdassah district leaves one policeman dead, state TV reports.

Egyptian troops and police have stormed the Kerdassah district in the outskirts of Cairo to clear it of "terrorist elements", security officials said, triggering clashes with armed groups based in the area. Vehicles carrying armed personnel were sent into the village on Thursday while army helicopters hovered above. The clashes have so far left one policeman dead, state TV reported. It said police forces took control of the area and imposed a curfew. Security troops launched an operation in the area to arrest people accused of torching police stations and killing about 11 security officers in clashes that erupted following the army's ouster of President Mohamed Morsi last July. Police forces had not been allowed in Kerdassah since then. Al Jazeera's correspondent, reporting from Cairo, said the operation began at about 3:00am and was still ongoing. "Security forces has gone into the area heavily armoured in order to 'root out and arrest terrorists', according to the army". Islamist stronghold Kerdassah, known for producing and selling fancy fabrics is 14km from the Egyptian capital and known to be an Islamist stronghold. Residents of the area said on Wednesday they were not in control of the area but do not want police there. Morsi's removal in a military coup on July 3 led to nation-wide protests by his supporters. Violence between his backers and security forces included massive attacks on police stations, security officers and churches. At least 1,000 people have died in the violence with most deaths coming during the security forces' dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo on August 14. About 100 police officers also died in the clashes. The latest raid is part of concerted efforts by the authorities to retake areas that have been off limit for the police since weeks. On Monday, security forces stormed the town of Delga in Minya province, about 300km south of Cairo, and arrested 56 residents. "What is happening today echoes what happened in Delga. There were similar circumstances. It was also off limits for police for weeks," our correspondent said.

 

Tunisian journalists strike over restrictions "aljazeera"

Journalists are protesting against press restrictions imposed by the Islamist-led government.

Journalists in Tunisia have gone on strike to protest against press restrictions imposed by the Islamist-led government.
Tuesday's strike, called by the National Union of Tunisian journalists, comes a day after a journalist whose arrest caused an outcry, was freed on bail.
"It's a victory for everyone who supports freedom of expression over those who, with the help of the judiciary, would like to suspend this freedom and settle their scores with people not willing to give it up," Zied el-Heni told AFP news agency after bail was paid for his release.
Heni was placed in pre-trial detention on Friday for accusing the public prosecutor of fabricating evidence implicating cameraman Mourad Meherzi in an egg-throwing attack on a minister.
The cameraman spent three weeks in prison before his release on bail on Monday, while the egg-thrower - a film-maker - remains in custody.
On Friday evening, after Heni was detained, a judge agreed to grant him bail, but it was not possible to pay the bail money until Monday morning, so the reporter spent the weekend in jail.
"The file must now go back to the judge who must listen to our arguments. In my opinion this case should be dismissed," said Heni's lawyer Abdelaziz Essid.
His comments were echoed by Reporters Without Borders, which called his pre-trial detention "totally unjustified" and designed to silence any criticism.
'Sacred principles'
Ennahda, the Islamist party that heads Tunisia's ruling coalition, said the accusations were wrong and formed part of a slander campaign against it.
The journalist's detention has been preceded by other cases that have stoked fears in Tunisia that Ennahda, the judiciary and the police are trying to stifle freedom of expression, seen as a key achievement of the 2011 revolution that triggered the so-called Arab Spring.
Two rappers were convicted at the end of August and sentenced to 21-month jail terms over songs deemed to be defamatory towards the police force.
The singers - who are on the run - had not been told there were charges against them, let alone that there was a trial.
However, the Tunisian presidency on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to "the sacred principles of freedom of expression and opinion".
Media rights in Tunisia are theoretically governed by two decrees adopted after the revolution, designed to guarantee press freedom and regulate audio-visual media.
But the public prosecution continues to rely extensively on the penal code inherited from the ousted regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, under which press offences can be punished by jail terms.

Deaths reported in standoff in Austria "aljazeera"

Police storm building searching for armed man who shot and killed three police officers and an ambulance driver.

Police in Austria are searching for an armed man who killed an ambulance driver and three police officers before barricading himself in a farm building.
After a 12-hour standoff, police on Tuesday stormed the building on the outskirts of Melk, 70km west of Vienna, but had not found the man, Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundbock said.
The killings began shortly after midnight on Monday when police stopped the man on a road near a wilderness area west of Vienna, where frequent poaching incidents occur.
The gunman fled in his car, before crashing it into a ditch in the nearby town of Annaberg. He then shot and wounded a member of Cobra armed police team at a police checkpoint.
The gunman then shot and killed an ambulance driver who was trying to aid the wounded policeman, who later died. The gunman also shot and wounded another officer at the scene.
He then shot and killed another police officer while stealing his patrol car. The vehicle and the officer's body were found on Tuesday.
The attacker then fatally shot another police officer at a roadblock before barricading himself in the farm building.
State broadcaster ORF reported that the suspect was a 55-year-old poacher. Police identified him only as Alois H, in keeping with Austrian law allows suspects anonymity.

Obama open to Iran nuclear talks (aljaeera)

President pledges to 'test' Rouhani's interest in diaglogue, but Israel PM vows to press US to stop Tehran programme.

Barack Obama has said he is willing to open dialogue with Iran on its nuclear programme, after concillitory signs from the country's new President Hassan Rouhani.
However, the US President said on Tuesday that Iran would have to demonstrate its own seriousness by agreeing not to "weaponise nuclear power".
"There is an opportunity here for diplomacy," Obama said in an interview with the Spanish language television network Telemundo.
"I hope the Iranians take advantage of it. There are indications that Rouhani, the new president, is somebody who is looking to open dialogue with  the West and with the United States, in a way that we haven't seen in the past. And so we should test it."
The interview came as the US confirmed that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would visit the White House on September 30 to consult Obama on Iran's nuclear challenge, Syria and Palestinian peace talks.
Netanyahu said he was keen to discuss Iran's nuclear programme with Obama, ahead of expected new talks between Tehran and world powers.
Increased pressure
"I intend to focus on the issue of stopping Iran's nuclear programme," a written statement from the Israeli leader's office said.
Israel has accused the Islamic Republic of trying to develop and build nuclear weapons. Iran denies the allegations.
Netanyahu said Israel would demand that Iran halt all uranium enrichment, remove all enriched uranium from its territory, close its underground nuclear facility in Qom and stop building a plutonium reactor.
"Only a combination of these four steps will constitute an actual stopping of the nuclear program, and until all four of these measures are achieved, the pressure on Iran must be increased and not relaxed, and certainly not eased,"
Netanyahu said.
However, Obama's interview was the latest indication that the president would like to jump from the crisis over Syria's chemical weapons to a new search for a diplomatic deal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.
Obama revealed last weekend that he and Rouhani had exchanged letters about the US-Iran standoff.
UN meeting 
Both leaders will be at the UN General Assembly in New York next week, although White House officials say they are no plans for them to meet.
Hopes for a new round of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers expected to resume soon were boosted earlier on Tuesday by cryptic remarks by the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader.
Khamenei said that sometimes flexibility was necessary in diplomacy.
On September 11, Rouhani said he had the tacit support of Khamenei for "flexibility" in nuclear talks.
Rouhani has said he wants to allay Western concerns but that he will not renounce Iran's goal of an independent civil nuclear programme.
Washington and its allies say Iran's nuclear programme is designed to produce weapons and is unacceptable. Obama has refused to rule out US military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Iran insists that its nuclear ambitions are directed towards civilian energy generation.
Obama ran for president in 2008 in part by vowing to open a dialogue with Iran. But there has been no breakthrough and sanctions by Washington and the UN to weaken Iran's economy have gradually been increased to try to pressure Tehran to give up a nuclear programme that it denies is aimed at building a weapon.
Since the surprise election in June of Rouhani, a moderate, officials from both countries have made increasing hints that they are open to direct talks to seek an end to the decade-long nuclear dispute.

Child abuse inquiry opens in Australia (news aljazeera)

"Shocking" allegations to be heard against places of worship, orphanages, community groups and schools, official says.

An unprecedented Australian inquiry into church and institutional child abuse has begun, with warnings that widespread and "shocking" allegations would be heard against places of worship, orphanages, community groups and schools.

Justice Peter McClellan, the Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, launched public hearings on Monday, as the panel said more than 4,000 victims had come forward.

"It is now well known that the sexual abuse of children has been widespread in the Australian community, however the full range of institutions in which it has occurred is not generally understood," McClellan said in his opening address.

"Many of the stories we are hearing will shock many people."

'Systemic issues'

The inquiry was established in November by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in response to a series of child sex abuse scandals involving paedophile priests, though she insisted the probe would be much broader than the Catholic Church.

A hotline set up for survivors of abuse to contact the commission had so far received 4,301 relevant calls, McClellan said.
Of these, 398 people had given a private briefing to the commission, 449 were awaiting their session and another 1,178 were yet to be assessed.

"Many people who have come to the commission have suffered greatly, both at the time that the abuse occurred and subsequently through their lives," he told the commission hearing in Sydney.

"Many have received counselling at various stages of their lives, many have thought of suicide and some have attempted it.

"Many people including those who suffered abuse 30 or 40 years ago break down in the course of telling their story and require the assistance of support persons to be able to continue."

McClellan said the commission faced an immense task and would have to be selective in the matters it took to a public hearing, limiting them to "systemic issues and policy matters" or where a "significant cluster of abused individuals" was uncovered.
McClellan said some "preliminary themes have already emerged".

In residential institutions such as orphanages and boarding schools, for example, he said the commission had established that "sexual abuse is almost always accompanied by almost unbelievable levels of physical violence inflicted on the children by the adults who have responsibility for their welfare".

The events would often set off a domino effect, with a victim's schoolwork suffering, limiting their future employment prospects, and their ability to trust others and form relationships damaged beyond repair.

"The damage to an individual, be it a boy or girl, who was abused at a time when, because of their age, they are unable to resist an abuser or report the abuse to others, may be life-changing," he said.

 

 

Inter-Korean industrial zone reopens "aljazeera"

Efforts to improve North-South ties culminate in arrival of South Korean businessmen at Kaesong after five-month gap.

South Korean businessmen have crossed into North Korea as the joint Kaesong industrial zone reopened five months after it was closed by military tensions and threats of war.
The highly symbolic outcome of recent efforts to improve inter-Korean relations saw dozens of cars, lorries and factory managers cross the border shortly after 8:30am local time (2330 GMT on Sunday).
The South's Unification Ministry said 820 South Korean managers and workers planned to cross the border into Kaesong on Monday, with more than 400 to stay overnight to oversee production operations.
The optimistic mood at the Kaesong border checkpoint contrasted sharply with the sense of impending disaster that had loomed over the closure of Kaesong back in April.
Months of heightened military tensions, with Pyongyang issuing daily apocalyptic threats of nuclear strikes, resulted in North Korea withdrawing its 53,000-strong workforce from the join industrial zone.
As military tensions eased, the two Koreas agreed last month to work together to resume operations.
As part of the deal, the North accepted the South's demand that Kaesong be opened to foreign investors - a move seen by Seoul as a guarantee against the North shutting the complex down again in the future.
Born out of the Sunshine reconciliation policy initiated in the late 1990s by then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, Kaesong was established in 2004 as a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
It provided an important hard currency source for the impoverished North through taxes, other revenues, and its cut of workers' wages.
It had appeared immune to previous downward movements in North-South relations, but finally fell victim to the months of tensions that followed the North's nuclear test in February.
North Korea initially barred South Korean entry to the park in early April and shortly afterwards withdrew its workers - effectively closing down the complex, which houses production lines for 123 South Korean firms.
Each side blamed the other, with the North insisting its hand was forced by hostile South Korean actions - in particular, a series of joint military exercises with the US.

 

Damascus calls arms deal 'victory for Syria' (news aljazeera)

Syrian minister says abolishing chemical arms will help country emerge from crisis, in first reaction to US-Russia deal.

A US-Russian plan to remove Syria's chemical weapons is a "victory" that averts war, a Syrian minister said, as Washington warned that the threat of US force "remains real".
"On one hand, it helps the Syrians emerge from the crisis and on the other it has allowed for averting war against Syria...," Ali Haidar, minister of state for National Reconciliation, told Russian news agency Ria Novosti on Sunday.
"It's a victory for Syria that was achieved thanks to our Russian friends."
Damascus said it will commit to the plan to eradicate its chemical weapons once it has United Nations approval, Omran al-Zoubi, Syria's information minister, told ITN on Sunday, adding that the regime had already begun preparing relevant documents.
"Syria is committing itself to whatever comes from the UN," al-Zoubi said. "We accept the Russian plan to get rid of our chemical weapons. In fact we've started preparing our list."
His remarks came after US Secretary of State John Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to brief him on the plan to eradicate the chemical weapons.
Kerry came out of the talks with a word of warning for Damascus.
"The threat of force remains, the threat is real," he said at a joint news conference in Jerusalem with Netanyahu.
Washington is seeking to bolster international support for the agreement inked in Geneva on Saturday, which demands action from Damascus within days.
The plan to dismantle and destroy Syria's chemical arms stockpile - believed to be one of the largest in the world - by mid-2014 was thrashed out over three days of talks in Geneva between Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
It gives Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a week to hand over details of his regime's arsenal of the internationally banned arms in order to avert unspecified sanctions and the threat of US-led military strikes.
It also specifies there must be immediate access for arms control experts and that inspections of what the US says is about 45 sites linked to the Syrian chemical weapons programme must be completed by November.
A high-ranking official in Syria told AFP news agency that the chemical deal could put Damascus back on the road to peace if it is coupled with an accord to cut off the supply of weapons to foreign-backed rebels.
"In parallel with the question of chemical arms, the whole world must work together to halt the influx of arms and mercenaries to Syria," he said.
International support
The deal won the backing of China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, which like Russia has vetoed several UN resolutions on Syria.
"This agreement will enable tensions in Syria to be eased," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his visiting French counterpart Laurent Fabius who will meet Lavrov on Tuesday in Moscow.
It was also welcomed by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who cautioned: "It is important, however, that it be put into practice."
Arab League chief Nabil El-Araby called the deal "a step closer to a political solution" to the civil war in Syria that has cost more than 110,000 lives since March 2011.
Ahead of Kerry's talks with the leader of Syria's neighbour Israel, Netanyahu said he hoped the accord would see the complete destruction of the Damascus regime's chemical weapons.
The Syrian rebels fighting to oust Assad have rejected the deal, warning it would not halt the conflict.
"Are we Syrians supposed to wait until mid-2014, to continue being killed every day and to accept [the deal] just because the chemical arms will be destroyed in 2014?" asked Free Syrian Army chief General Selim Idriss.
Experts said the deal would be difficult - if not impossible - to implement.
Olivier Lepick of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris said he thought it would be impossible for Syrian stockpiles to be destroyed by mid-2014.
The deadline "seems to be a complete fantasy," he told AFP. "Given the civil war, I don't think it can happen... In peacetime it would take years to dismantle Syria's chemical arsenal."
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Sweden, Tilman Bruck, director of the Stockholm International Peace Institute, said he believed the deal could work.
"There is a real chance that this will succeed. At the same time it will not achieve regime change, and that is of course what the West had
contemplated. So from that point of view it is not a very ambitious goal but still a step in the right direction."

Kerry was to fly on to Paris for Monday talks with Fabius, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and their Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.
Also on Monday, the United Nations is due to release its investigation of an August 21 attack near Damascus.
Washington says Assad's forces unleashed sarin gas on eastern suburbs, killing about 1,400 people.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has accused Assad of multiple crimes against humanity and said the UN inspectors' report would provide "overwhelming" confirmation chemical weapons were used.
news(aljazeera)