Answer to Missing Flight MH370 Mystery to be Found in the Maldives?

Answer to Flight MH370 Mystery to be Found in the Maldives? (SP).

A little over one year since the disappearance of Malaysian Flight MH370, some residents of one of the Maldivian islands insist they might have seen the Boeing 777 aircraft, which went missing with 239 people on March 8, 2014.

The residents of the remote Maldives island of Kuda Huvadhoo in Dhaal Atoll reiterate that the jumbo jet they saw on March 8, 2014 might have been Malaysian Flight MH370, which disappeared from radar screens on the same day, according to Australian media reports.

The villagers are still wondering why the investigators are not questioning them.

"I watched this very large plane bank slightly and I saw its colors — the red and blue lines — below the windows, then I heard the loud noise," the media quotes Abdu Rasheed Ibrahim, a 47-year-old court official as saying. "It was unusual, very unusual. It was big and it was flying low.

It was a holiday and most people had gone to bed after praying." "First, I saw the plane flying towards me over water. When it was over my head I saw it starting to turn away. At first glance, I did not know it was a missing plane. I didn’t know that a plane was missing. I went straight home and told my wife about it. I told my family, ‘I saw this strange plane’. This is the biggest plane I have ever seen from this island. My family says, ‘It might be the Malaysian plane’. I have seen pictures of the missing plane — I believe that I saw that plane. At the time it was lost, I strongly felt those people who were searching should come here,” he added.

Flashback March 19 2014 -

According to online portal Haveeru Online on Tuesday the police have yet to reveal any information on the matter.

Witnesses told Haveeru online that they saw a white aircraft with red stripes – the colours of a Malaysia Airlines aircraft – flying towards the Southern top of the Maldives at around 6.15am on March 8, 2014.

Residents of Kuda Huvadhoo Island also claimed to hear an incredibly loud noise at the time the plane crossed their island.

“I’ve never seen a plane flying that low over this island before. We’ve seen seaplanes airplanes but I’m sure that this was not one of those,” the witness said adding that several other residents have reported to seeing the same thing. Small planes are among the main forms of transportation in the Maldives.

Haveeru reporter, Ahmad Naif who wrote the article also revealed the portal had received information on the incident since March 9 but were sceptical over the validity of the claims.

"Later we were getting so many comments that we contacted the island and they said it was true,” Naif explained in an interview on web portal Minivan news.

A local aviation expert told Haveeru Online there is a possibility that the low-flying plane was flight MH370 because at that time there were no planes scheduled to fly over the island.

Minivan News meanwhile said the earliest flight schedule at the nearest airport to the area was at 7.20am on Saturday with all flights headed to the capital Male to the north-east.

The news portal however said there were problems with the witnesses’ claims. According to the country’s military spokesman, it was not possible for an aircraft as big as the Being 777-200 to land on an isolated airstrip in the atolls.  “If you are asking are there any landing strips outside the main commercial airports, the answer is no,” said Major Hussain Ali.(Genius?)

Spokesman for the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) Hassan Areef has also urged caution regarding the reported sightings in Kudahuvadhoo.

“We have no credible information about the plane in terms of radar or sightings. “There are so many conspiracy theories. We have no credible information that the plane has come to us,” he said to Minivan News.

The news portal also said that several witnesses could not conclude with certainty that the plane they reportedly saw on March 8 was indeed a Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

However a Berita Harian report on Tuesday had put Maldives in the radar. Quoting a police source, the report said investigations into the flight simulator taken from MH370 pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s home found five airports in the Indian Ocean recorded on the device.

Ibrahim Nasir International Airport in Male was one them apart from three in India and Sri Lanka and an airport owned by the United States, Diego Garvia. Hmmmm......Worthwhile to investigate i would say. Read the full story here. more here.

Israeli Tourists Evacuated From Maldives After Pro-Palestinian Rally

Israeli Tourists Evacuated From Maldives After Pro-Palestinian Rally.(RN).

Some 30 Israeli tourists had to leave their Maldivan resort after one of them pulled down an anti-Israeli placard equating the Israeli flag with a Nazi swastika, AFP reported citing officials Wednesday.

The tourists were evacuated to safety from Thulusdhoo island as the Israeli’s  move was vehemently protested by the Muslim Sunni-dominated population of the archipelago, who unequivocally support Palestinians in the Gaza conflict.

The Maldives are increasingly taking measures to express their stiff opposition to Israel. They notably introduced a ban on Israeli-made goods and annulled three cooperation agreements on health, tourism and education.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8, targeting the Hamas movement and its allied groups of rebels in response to Palestinian aggression. On July 17, following days of fighting, Tel Aviv switched to a ground offensive to find and destroy the network of Hamas tunnels that crisscross the border area.

Assessing the Maldives

Assessing the Maldives.(TheMidleEastForum).

By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Gatestone Institute
July 2, 2012.

The Nasheed Government and its Islamist Opposition

Mention the Maldives, and you think of vacation brochures, beaches and coral reefs. But as a country whose citizen body is completely Muslim, how does it compare politically to the rest of the Islamic world?
The Maldives did not have its first democratic elections until 2008, and then only thanks to gradual reforms introduced under the rule of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in the midst of civil unrest in 2003 and 2005.
Those elections were won by the pro-democracy activist and former political prisoner Mohammed Nasheed, in partnership with Mohammed Waheed Hassan. As part of a left-of-center coalition, they defeated the incumbent president Gayoom and his Maldivian People's Party (DRP).
Nasheed, as the leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), aimed to implement a reformist agenda to secure the democratic framework. As Freedom House noted, Nasheed "introduced draft bills guaranteeing freedom of expression and press freedom that remained under consideration by the parliament at the end of 2010."
Also underlying the plans for liberalization was an economic motive: Gayoom had bequeathed a legacy of financial ruin to Nasheed that included Gayoom's failed Air Maldives venture which, after suffering losses of $50 million, declared bankruptcy in March 2000.
In June 2010, several cabinet ministers resigned in protest over what they said were the opposition's hindrance of plans for reform. This opposition, which consisted chiefly of the DRP, had won a plurality of seats in the 2009 in parliamentary elections generally deemed free and fair; together with the judiciary, they then put a stop to Nasheed's initiatives to expand the tourism sector. According to the current tourism minister, Ahmed Adheeb, Nasheed's government tried to bypass the tourism ministry in the allocation of some islands that were to be developed for tourists.
While Nasheed was able to survive that, political opposition to him, most having a Islamist flavor, was escalating. As he began to lose allies in the coalition government, protests by both the opposition and the NGO-organized "street" started to strengthen.
Feeling pressure from the demonstrations, the government announced at the end of December 2011 plans to impose on the Maldives a complete ban on alcohol and pork, a ban on Israeli airlines from operating flights to and from the islands, and a ban on massage parlors, widely equated with brothels.
The tourism industry, however, ignored these restrictions; Nasheed was apparently against imposing them as well.
A few weeks later, in early 2012, the government reversed its stance. The Supreme Court, although rejecting requests for an opinion on whether the Maldives could import pork or alcohol without violating its constitution, rooted in Islamic law, nonetheless declared that there was regulation in the legal framework of the Contraband Act to import both products -- so the practice was not illegal.
Nasheed made his sentiments clear in the wake of this about-face; he affirmed that "the silent majority woke up and they wanted to reverse the ruling…Such extreme calls do not really quite find the resonance with the majority of the people in the country."
Further, Nasheed expressed concerns in January of this year over the revival of the custom of female genital mutilation [FGM, or "female circumcision"], for which countless religious groups had campaigned, along with barring girls from attending school.
The Sydney Morning Herald, which interviewed Nasheed, quoted Shadiya Ibrahim, of the Maldivian women's rights organization the "Gender Advocacy Working Group," as saying, "Being a woman is harder now. The religious Wahhabist scholars preach more forcefully than anyone else can."
Although there is perhaps some blame to be placed on an influx of Wahhabism, the revival of FGM is said to be particularly strong on the outlying islands, where, as the SMH notes, "local imams hold significant influence."
The Maldives, like parts of East Africa and Lower Egypt, mainly follow by tradition the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, which rules that female circumcision is obligatory. It is therefore to this tradition, and not Wahhabi ideology, that local Maldivian imams appeal.
As protests gained momentum throughout January, the foreign ministry affirmed that it was "extremely concerned" by the growth of Islamist rhetoric. A leading member of the opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party, Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, was arrested on charges of hate-speech.
Jameel was said to have accused Nasheed of acting under the influence of Jews and "Christian priests" to undermine Islam in the Maldives; the first charge a reference to Nasheed's policy of trying to normalize relations with Israel. The reports on Jameel's words against Nasheed seem probable: note, for comparison, this anti-Nasheed pamphlet released by Jameel's Dhivehi Qaumee Party.
Accusations arose of authoritarianism on Nasheed's part; these only intensified the protests. On January 16, Nasheed ordered the military to arrest the Chief Justice of the Criminal Court, Abdulla Mohamed, on charges of corruption and obstruction of justice against the friends and family of the former president Gayoom.
Whatever one thinks of Nasheed's claims that "Gayoom is running the judiciary," Nasheed's subsequent defiance of the Supreme Court's calling for Abdulla to be released certainly did not help.
Although it would not be fair to describe Nasheed as an autocrat by nature, he seems to have misstepped in lashing out in his frustration at the judiciary at a time of political crisis. His actions only led many of his allies to turn against him, as opposition activists tied Abdulla's arrest to the fact that Abdulla had deemed Jameel's detention illegal.

The Coup

Nasheed was finally ousted on February 7, forced to resign, as he claimed, ''under duress'' in a de facto coup d'état; and replaced by Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who had been Nasheed's partner in the 2008 elections. There is much evidence that vindicates Nasheed's account of events on February 7.
First, Abbas Adil Raza, an official of the Jumhoory party that was in opposition to Nasheed at the time, claimed that Nasheed and his supporters were aiming to implement a "devious plan" to "massacre" their opponents on the night of February 6, but only the police and army prevented it. This is, in effect, an admission that there was a coup against Nasheed, albeit justified as a preventive measure. There is nothing to suggest that Nasheed or his supporters were planning any sort of 'massacre.'
Second, the former Environment Minister, Mohamed Aslam, and the former National Security Advisor, Ameen Faisal, both members of Nasheed's MDP party, recently co-wrote a report claiming that the help of police and army officers had been sought to bring about the overthrow of Nasheed.
Rather than trying to answer the allegations of the report put out by Faisal and Aslam, the current government under Mohammed Waheed Hassan has simply called the release of the report, with its list of names of army and police officers as alleged conspirators, an "act of terrorism."
Despite initial denials, the police arrested Chief Superintendent Mohamed Hameed and other officers who cooperated with the report issued by Faisal and Aslam.
For now, Hameed has been released on the orders of the Criminal Court, but on June 19, the police affirmed the existence of an ongoing investigation against Hameed that includes accusations of leaking information to stir up discord among the ranks of the police.
In short, the ousting of Nasheed came about because members of the army and police sided with the growing and increasingly violent protests at the beginning of the year.

The Aftermath

Although Mohammed Waheed Hassan may be telling the truth in his insistence that he had no role in the planning and execution of the coup, what is clear is that he was chosen as Nasheed's replacement because he is less willing to confront Islamism in the country, as revealed in an Islamist mob attack in the wake of the coup on the country's national museum. Although this rampage destroyed 99% of the Hindu and Buddhist artifacts associated with the islands' history, dating from the pre-Islamic period prior to the twelfth century, so far, no arrests have been made.
Mohammed Waheed Hassan's response has been to deny any problem with Islamism. As he told reporters, "I can assure you there is no extremist violent action in this country."
Even though there had been incidents of Islamist violence, and Islamist sentiment became more and more overt under the government of Nasheed, at least he recognized the problem and tried to push a program of reform.
In contrast, the current president prefers to be acquiescent and pander to Islamists, incorporating them into his cabinet.
According to Nasheed, Mohammed Waheed Hassan has called his supporters "mujahideen" [holy warriors], and has urged them to defend the Maldives against "the enemies of this country."
What then of the country's future? Nasheed recently announced his intention to stand for the presidency next year, but it is doubtful if he can reclaim the position. Although Nasheed has his supporters, the coup against him was not simply a conspiracy by a few sinister individuals.
Rather, the military and police, facing increasing civil unrest, sided with the opposition against him. Nasheed's liberal views did not sit well with a considerable section of the population; in the 2009 parliamentary elections, the MDP did not even win a plurality of seats.
Even now, apparently many of Nasheed's opponents in government are aiming to have him jailed before the next elections: the parties that opposed Nasheed's government had a recent motion passed in the parliament to set up a committee to investigate allegations of illegal conduct on Nasheed's part: in particular, the possession of containers of alcohol at his residence and the arrest of Abdulla Mohamed. The deputy leader of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) has already expressed his confidence that Nasheed would be imprisoned by the time of the next elections.
As in Indonesia, the trends on the ground point to the growing influence of the Islamists, who clearly have sympathizers and supporters in the army and police. They also indicate the acceptance of the current president based on how unwilling he is to tackle Islamism head-on, or perhaps even in any fashion. The possibility of an Islamist president after next year's elections seems to be on course.
Update from July 3, 2012: One journalist - Judith Evans - has written to me claiming that Nasheed "worked closely with Islamists." It is of course true that during Nasheed's tenure there was the Islamist Adhaalath party in the MDP-led coalition. However, that does not amount to a close working relationship. While the Adhaalath party may have believed it could get its way following the appointment of Dr. Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari as Minister of Islamic Affairs (who pushed for the proposal to ban Israeli flights to and from the Maldives in December 2011), it is notable that the party was frequently at odds with Nasheed and the MDP throughout his presidency. For instance, in October 2009, the party strongly criticised Nasheed for saying that the death penalty and punishment of amputation should not be incorporated into the penal code: As the leader of the Adhaalath party put it at the time, "Islamic Shari'a is Islamic Shari'a. Things cannot be omitted from it."
The tensions between the MDP and Adhaalath party grew such that in September 2011, the latter decided to break off its coalition agreement with the MDP, citing the policy of normalising relations with Israel, a proposal to make Islamic studies and Dhivehi optional subjects in higher secondary education, concerns expressed by officials in the Nasheed government about Maldivian students who were travelling abroad for Islamic education, regulations permitting sale of alcohol to non-Muslims on inhabited islands, and a lack of cooperation with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs (which was created in 2008) to shut down alleged brothels, alongside complaints such as corruption in government. The rhetoric at this point was notable, with accusations by the Adhaalath party that Nasheed's government was allowing Israel to "influence the country's education curriculum."

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an adjunct fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Video - 'Apocalyptic' island of waste in the Islamic Maldives.

The Maldives are known as an unspoilt, paradise island destination for upmarket tourists but the BBC's Simon Reeve has paid a visit to a part of the Maldives that tourists do not see - a huge island waste dump.
He was accompanied by local conservationist Marie Saleem who explained how the country struggles with waste management.
The Maldives' government told the BBC they were looking at ways to tackle their waste problem.Source BBC.

U.S. envoy arrives in Maldives as political crisis deepens.

U.S. envoy arrives in Maldives as political crisis deepens.(AlArabiya).A top U.S. diplomat arrived in the Maldives on Saturday seeking to help resolve a deepening political crisis sparked by the ousting of the Indian Ocean nation’s first democratically elected president.Mohamed Nasheed, who came to power in 2008, says he was forced to resign on Tuesday in a coup d’état led by mutinous army and police officers who threatened him with violence unless he stepped down.He was replaced as head of state by his vice president Mohamed Waheed, whom Nasheed accuses of being party to the conspiracy to topple him.
The U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, Robert Blake, will seek to clarify how power was transferred during a visit to the crowded capital of the famous holiday islands, the state department announced.“Ambassador Blake will meet the president as well as the opposition during his 12-hour visit,” a U.S. official in the capital island Male told AFP.
Since stepping down, Nasheed has called for fresh elections and has threatened protests if the police continue targeting his party members and figures in his former administration.At least 18 police stations were torched and dozens of vehicles, court houses and government buildings were destroyed some of the remote islets of the archipelago, police say.“We are losing a country as we speak,” he said, describing the attack as retaliation. Police said his supporters razed at least 20 government buildings on Wednesday night.
The Maldivian police confirmed they were carrying out mass arrests of troublemakers while Nasheed said 350 people linked to his administration had been detained within three days of his resignation.New President Waheed has rejected Nasheed’s demand for elections.“Simply because an ex-president wants an election we can’t have one just like that,” Waheed’s spokesman Masood Imad told AFP. “There is a constitutional process.”
Nasheed’s efforts to force Waheed to step down suffered a major blow Thursday when Washington announced it recognized his successor’s administration as legitimate.Nasheed, a former political prisoner and climate change campaigner, voiced disappointment at the announcement and the U.S. later appeared to step back from its earlier declaration.“We will work with the government of the Maldives, but believe that the circumstances surrounding the transfer of power need to be clarified,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.
The Maldives, for almost nine centuries a sultanate before it became a British protectorate, held its first fully democratic elections in 2008. Nasheed defeated Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who at 30 years in power was then Asia’s longest-serving leader and accused of running the country as a dictator.
Security forces, a group of whom Nasheed accused of conspiring with political rivals to usurp him under the guise of a constitutional handover to his vice president, took no chances during Friday prayers.An Indian government official said Indian ships were close by and monitoring the situation and could help with the evacuation of tourists if the situation worsened.
India saw the events in the Maldives as its internal affair, the official said, adding that India hoped elections would be held at the earliest date to the satisfaction of all political parties.Read and see (Video) the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Vanuatu 5.2 ; Indonesia 5.1!More info here.

• President Obama defies lawmakers with recess appointments to NLRB.(TheHill).President Obama will recess-appoint his nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bypassing a likely filibuster from Senate Republicans to keep the controversial agency operating in 2012.The president will use a recess appointment to install Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terence Flynn as members of the NLRB. Block and Griffin are Democrats, while Flynn is a Republican.The recess appointments are a huge victory for Obama’s union allies, which had urged the president to use any means necessary to keep the NLRB functioning. Without the recess appointments, the NLRB would have lacked the three-member quorum needed to issue rules and regulations.The move by the White House will further anger Republicans, who are already up in arms about Obama’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a letter to Obama last month, all 47 GOP senators asked the president to refrain from making recess appointments to the NLRB. The labor board has come under fire from GOP lawmakers and business groups for a number of decisions, most notably a complaint against Boeing last year for allegedly retaliating against union workers. Critics of the labor board argue that complaint and other actions by the labor board, such as proposing a regulation to speed up union elections, are an abuse of the NLRB’s authority. The House has since passed legislation that would limit the labor board’s legal powers, and GOP senators have promised to block nominations to the NLRB.
  
  With the Senate likely to block new nominees, the NLRB wouldn’t be able to function without recess appointments. Needing at least three members to form a quorum, the labor board was expected to be reduced to two members with the end of NLRB member Craig Becker’s recess appointment.But with Block, Flynn and Griffin now all members of the NLRB, the labor board is up to its full roster of five members.Republicans tried to prevent recess appointments by keeping the Senate in pro forma session over the holiday break. In response to Cordray’s recess appointment, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it was an “unprecedented move” by Obama and that he “has arrogantly circumvented the American people.” “This recess appointment represents a sharp departure from a long-standing precedent that has limited the President to recess appointments only when the Senate is in a recess of 10 days or longer,” McConnell said in a statement. The White House has argued that it has legal authority to make recess appointments during the pro forma sessions.
  “In an overt attempt to prevent the President from exercising his authority during this period, Republican Senators insisted on using a gimmick called “pro forma” sessions, which are sessions during which no Senate business is conducted and instead one or two Senators simply gavel in and out of session in a matter of seconds. But gimmicks do not override the President’s constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a blog post Wednesday.
  Unions cheered the NLRB recess appointments. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka hailed Obama's move as a victory for workers. Hmmmm....."I stopped being President....now i'll be 'Emperor'" or consolidating power to take over the country from Congress? Read the full story here.

• MF Global sold assets to Goldman before collapse: sources.(Reuters).By Lauren Tara LaCapra and Matthew Goldstein. MF Global unloaded hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of securities to Goldman Sachs in the days leading up to its collapse, according to two former MF Global employees with direct knowledge of the transactions. But it did not immediately receive payment from its clearing firm and lender, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM - News), one of the sources said.The sale of securities to Goldman occurred on October 27, just days before MF Global Holdings Ltd (Other OTC:MFGLQ.PK - News) filed for bankruptcy on October 31, the ex-employees said. One of the employees said the transaction was cleared with JPMorgan Chase.At the same time MF Global, which was run by former Goldman Sachs head Jon Corzine, was selling securities to Goldman to raise badly needed cash, the futures firm was also drawing down a $1.2 billion revolving line of credit it had with JPMorgan, according to one of the former MF Global employees.JPMorgan spokeswoman Mary Sedarat said the bank did not withold money because of the line of credit. She declined further comment on details of the transactions.JPMorgan has fought aggressively in bankruptcy court to protect its interests, and received a lien on some of MF Global's assets in exchange for granting the firm $8 million to fund its bankruptcy costs. The lien puts JPMorgan's interests ahead of MF Global customers who have not yet received an estimated $900 million worth of money from their accounts, which remain frozen as regulators search for missing funds.The hastily crafted transactions and the seeming inability of MF Global to recoup some of the money in the sale to Goldman may start to explain why so much money remains unaccounted for at the futures firm.It is unclear what type of assets Goldman bought from MF Global, but the securities were worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the former employees said. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity.Read the full story here.

• Defying Republicans, Obama to Name Cordray as Consumer Agency Chief.(NYT).President Obama will challenge Senate Republican foes of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by naming Richard Cordray as its director while Congress is out of town, according to a senior administration official.That would allow the agency to establish new regulations over financial institutions, putting into effect elements of the financial regulatory overhaul that was one of the administration’s main achievements in Congress.Mr. Obama’s exercise of constitutional powers to name top officials without Senate confirmation while Congress is in recess is a stiff challenge to Republicans, who have attempted to block the maneuver by holding “pro forma” sessions over the holidays.Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, objected strenuously, saying Mr. Obama was overstepping the bounds of his executive power and leaving the agency open to legal challenges.“Although the Senate is not in recess, President Obama, in an unprecedented move, has arrogantly circumvented the American people,” he said.“The president is committed to seeing Richard Cordray as head of the consumer bureau,” a senior administration official said. “We believe this appointment is fully within his legal rights.”Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat of South Dakota who is chairman of the Banking Committee, praised the move.“Mr. Cordray is eminently qualified for the job, as even my Senate Republican colleagues have acknowledged,” he said. “It’s disappointing that Senate Republicans denied him an up-or-down vote, especially when it’s clear he had the support of a majority of the Senate.”Mr. Cordray boarded Marine One with Mr. Obama on Wednesday for the short flight to Andrews Air Force Base, where he is to accompany the president to his hometown of Cleveland for the announcement. The president is expected to deliver remarks on the economy at a high school in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.Hmmmm......It's nice to be 'king'......Consolidating power for the takeover?Read the full story here.More here.Update: Today, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) released the following statement on the news that President Obama would appoint Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB) after Cordray had been rejected by the U.S. Senate:"The President has taken an unprecedented step: he has bypassed Congress to appoint a nominee, previously rejected by the Senate, to lead an agency with significant powers and no accountability to the American people. We need fundamental structural changes in this organization to assure that it can truly protect consumers."

• Anti-Semites Scrawl Swastika on Canadian Graves.(INN).Desecration of Jewish graves has spread to the capital of British Columbia, Canada, where swastikas were scrawled on gravestones in Victoria’s historic Emanu-El Jewish Cemetery.Police said the attack is disturbing and that “It seems like it’s more of a targeted thing, where it’s placed and what’s said,” Victoria police officer Mike Russell told the city’s Time-Colonist newspaper.“We’re really appealing to the public for any information they may have” because there were no videos of the vandalism, he added. He said that the vandalism was reported Saturday night and occurred the same day because a caretaker had been there a day before.Rabbi Harry Brechner wrote an open letter calling on the vandals to confess and to “come clean the gravesites, and when you are through take a tour with me around the cemetery and meet some of the people who lived through Nazism.”Both the cemetery and the Emanu-El synagogue date back to the 1860s, and the cemetery is the oldest Jewish burial ground in western Canada. The synagogue is Canada’s oldest Jewish house of worship in continuous use, according to the Victoria newspaper.Read and see the full story here.

• In major blow, EU agrees embargo on Iranian crude.(Reuters).European governments have agreed in principle to ban imports of Iranian oil, EU diplomats said Wednesday, dealing a potentially heavy blow to Tehran that crowns new Western economic sanctions imposing real pain just months before an Iranian election.The prospective embargo from the European Union, along with tough U.S. financial measures signed into law by President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve, form a concerted Western campaign to impose sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.Iran says its nuclear program is strictly peaceful, but Western countries say a November U.N. report shows it has sought to build an atomic bomb. Talks between Tehran and major powers broke down a year ago.Diplomats said EU envoys had held talks on Iran in the last days of December, and that any objections to an oil embargo had been dropped - notably from crisis-hit Greece which gets a third of its oil from Iran, relying on Tehran's lenient financing. Spain and Italy are also big buyers."A lot of progress has been made," one EU diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The principle of an oil embargo is agreed. It is not being debated any more."The embargo will force Tehran to find other buyers for oil. EU countries buy about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iran's 2.6 million bpd in exports, making the bloc collectively the second largest market for Iranian crude after China.The news caused a spike rise in oil prices, with Brent crude peaking at nearly $114 a barrel in intraday trading, up nearly $2 from Tuesday's close.Tehran insisted it would have no trouble: "We could very easily replace these customers," said S. M. Qamsari, International Director of the National Iranian Oil Co.Hmmmm.....Let me Guess Obama's buddy Turkey?Read the full story here.

• Senator queries Obama on Iran sanctions.(JPost).WASHINGTON - A Republican senator on Tuesday questioned President Barack Obama's commitment to new sanctions on Iran's central bank, noting the president had claimed the right to sidestep some of the requirements when he signed them into law last week.In a statement issued as he signed a defense bill into law on Saturday, Obama said several provisions including the sanctions that target Iran's central bank "would interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations."The president, a Democrat, said in his statement that if any application of these provisions conflicted with his constitutional authorities, "I will treat the provisions as non-binding."Senator Mark Kirk, one of the authors of the new sanctions on Iran, said on Tuesday that Obama was challenging the entire US Senate if he did not implement the new sanctions, because senators approved them unanimously before they were appended to the defense bill."With the Senate voting 100-0 to cripple the Central Bank of Iran, the president's signing statement hinting he will ignore parts of this law risks overwhelming opposition in the Congress," Kirk, a Republican, said through a spokesman.The new sanctions would penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank, the main conduit for its oil revenues.Obama has approved a series of sanctions on Iran and warned that no option is "off the table" in stopping Tehran from its suspected quest for a nuclear weapon.But as Congress considered the sanctions on Iran's central bank, Obama aides said that threatening US allies might not be the best way to get their cooperation in action against Iran.As Obama signed the bill last week, senior US officials said Washington was consulting with its foreign partners to ensure the measures can work without harming global energy markets.Iran threatened on Tuesday to take action if the US Navy moves an aircraft carrier into the Gulf, Tehran's most aggressive statement yet after weeks of sabre-rattling as new U.S. and European Union financial sanctions take a toll on its economy. In his signing statement last Saturday, Obama also expressed concern about the constitutionality of a number of other provisions in the defense bill that related to the treatment and transfer of detainees and said he would interpret them "to avoid constitutional conflict".Christopher Kelley, a Miami University of Ohio professor who has researched presidential signing statements, said he found at least 10 instances in Obama's statement on the defense bill when he challenged the bill's constitutionality, although there may be more."Saying things like 'I will treat it as non-binding' is a clear constitutional challenge," Kelley said in an email to Reuters.The legislation authorized US defense programs from war fighting to weapons building for 2012. Obama said he signed the bill because he wanted to ensure key services and defense programs get the financing they need.Hmmmm......"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty". ~ Plato.Read the full story here.

• Tehran decries foreign troops presence in Gulf, announces new Military drill.(JPost).Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi continued Tehran's heated rhetoric against the West on Wednesday, decrying the presence of foreign military forces near the Strait of Hormuz. "The presence of extra-regional powers in the Persian Gulf is unhelpful and damaging and their presence has no result other than turbulence in the region," he told reporters following a cabinet meeting, according to a Tehran Times report.Vahidi added that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is planning on holding another military exercise in the near future, according to Iran's student newspaper ISNA. Iran recently concluded a ten-day naval drill, during which it test fired two long-range missiles. Iran said that it was using the test to display its resolve in countering any attack by enemies such as Israel or the United States.The Iranian defense minister's comments followed an Iranian threat Tuesday that the country would "take action" if the US Navy were to move an aircraft carrier into the Gulf. The statement made by Iran's Army chief Ataollah Salehi was Tehran's most aggressive yet after weeks of saber-rattling following new US and EU financial sanctions took a toll on its economy.The prospect of sanctions targeting the oil sector in a serious way for the first time has hit Iran's rial currency, which fell by 40 percent against the dollar in the past month. It recovered 20% of its value Wednesday through intervention by Iran's Central Bank.Read the full story here.

• What To Do About Egypt.By ElliotAbrams.The bipartisan “Working Group on Egypt,” of which I am a member, has just made public its most recent comment on developments there. The statement is in the form of a letter to Secretary Clinton. The text is as follows:

Dear Secretary Clinton,
We write to express our grave concern about the assault last week by the Egyptian authorities on Egyptian and international civil society groups. These latest actions undermine the already unsteady progress toward democracy in Egypt and raise serious doubts about whether the current military authorities will permit a successful transition from Army rule.
Claims by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) that it did not order the raids have no credibility. The raids are the culmination of more than six months of steadily increasing harassment of NGOs via the state media, Central Bank, Ministry of International Cooperation, and Ministry of Justice–all of which serve at the pleasure of the SCAF.
The SCAF’s actions go to the heart of what constitutes democracy, that is, not just the casting of ballots on Election Day but the promotion of engaged citizenship and creation of robust institutions of law, fairness, and tolerance. If the SCAF succeeds in its current effort, it will lead Egypt down a path that no American administration can support.
In order to send a clear signal, we strongly urge that provision of all U.S. military aid be suspended immediately until Egyptian military authorities reverse their recent actions and demonstrate their commitment to the democratic process and to permitting human rights groups to conduct their activities without harassment or interference. It is currently impossible for the State Department to certify that “the Government of Egypt is supporting the transition to civilian government including holding free and fair elections; implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due process of law,” as stipulated by the Congress in its FY2012 authorization. We also urge that current aid from FY2011 be suspended.
Madam Secretary, in addition to undermining the efforts of international and Egyptian civil society organizations to monitor the democratic process in Egypt, we believe the Egyptian authorities’ actions, including and especially the targeting of three American groups, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, and Freedom House, represent a deliberate test of the Obama administration’s commitment to democratic reform in Egypt. If the United States does not respond firmly, this will be read both by the Egyptian authorities, and more importantly, by the Egyptian people as acquiescence to the Egyptian authorities’ assault on civil society and the democratic process.
The United States should use every tool at its disposal to persuade the Egyptian military to stop the assault on democracy and begin a real transition to civilian rule immediately. After a year of conversations with the SCAF by U.S. officials at all levels, it is clear that the message is not getting through; in fact, the SCAF’s behavior and social and economic conditions in the country have deteriorated markedly. Withholding military assistance is the only way to get the SCAF’s attention. The United States simply should not provide assistance to an Egyptian military that treats as criminals other Egyptians who also receive U.S. aid. The United States must show that if the military insists on continuing its disastrous course, it will do so without the support of the U.S. taxpayer.The punch line comes at the end, when the group urges that aid to the Egyptian military be suspended: “Withholding military assistance is the only way to get the SCAF’s attention. The United States simply should not provide assistance to an Egyptian military that treats as criminals other Egyptians who also receive U.S. aid. The United States must show that if the military insists on continuing its disastrous course, it will do so without the support of the U.S. taxpayer.” This recommendation is not made lightly, and retaining American influence with the Egyptian army is a significant goal. But the military must understand that it is simply impossible, in our democratic system, to continue to send them funds when they punish human rights and democracy promotion groups for receiving U.S. funding. Even if the Obama administration wants to keep the money flowing, it would not be long before Congress insisted that it stop.As I suggested here, in “Mubarakism Without Mubarak,  Mubarakism was a system that perpetuated military rule and American aid by arguing that the military was the only alternative to the Brotherhood (and groups worse than the Brotherhood) while in fact it created perfect conditions for the Islamists to thrive. We now see the result of those decades of repression and we should reject the invitation to continue the Mubarak system, this time with a collective military leadership replacing the dictator. The struggle for democracy and human rights in Egypt will be long and hard and we cannot determine the outcome, but we must at the very least let all Egyptians know which side we are on. For now, we must let the army know that if it is their policy to crush democracy activists, there is a price they will pay. It’s $1.3 billion a year.Read  the full story here.

• Iran: Foreign Warships Will Need Iranian Permission to Pass through Strait of Hormoz.(IMRA).TEHRAN - All foreign warships will soon be unable to pass through the Strait of Hormoz unless they first receive a permission from the Iranian Navy ships deployed in the region, an Iranian parliamentarian said, adding that the country's lawmakers are now working on a relevant plan as the strategic waterway is part of the Iranian territories."If the military vessels and warships of any country want to pass via the Strait of Hormoz without coordination and permission of Iran's Navy forces, they should be stopped by the Iranian Armed Forces," Nader Qazipour told FNA, explaining about the contents of the plan.He underlined that the plan will be presented to the parliament's presiding board next week.In relevant remarks on Monday, another Iranian legislator stressed that Iran will use all its capabilities and possibilities to defend the country against foreign threats and the country will use the Strait of Hormoz as a defensive tool and will close the waterway if it comes under threat."Iran will definitely use the defensive potential of the Strait of Hormoz if it is faced with threats," Rapporteur of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Kazzem Jalali told FNA.Iranian lawmakers and officials have recently warned enemies that Iran is entitled to the right to close the strategic oil lifeline as a defensive option against foreign invasion."The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is not on the Islamic Republic of Iran's agenda (at present), but if threats against Iran come to trample upon the rights of our nation while others use the strait for exporting their oil, then Iran will be entitled to the right to close the Strait of Hormuz," member of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Taqi Rahbar told FNA late December."The international conventions reserve such rights for the Islamic Republic of Iran as well," Rahbar underscored.The lawmaker, however, said, "For the time being, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not decided to close the strait, but this (closing the strait) depends on the conditions of the region."Read the full story here.

• Israel Security Council: Obama Naive on Muslim Brotherhood.(INN).Israel’s National Security Council thinks that President Barack Obama is naïve in his attitude towards the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which stated Sunday it can’t fathom the idea of recognizing Israel.Dr. Rashad Bayumi, the Brotherhood’s number two leader, said on Sunday, "No Muslim Brotherhood members will engage in any contact or normalization with Israel.”President Obama has asked the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading jurist, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to mediate secret talks between the United States and the Taliban, according to The Hindu newspaper. The jurist previously has called for killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq and has vowed that Islam “will conquer Europe [and] will conquer America,” whether by force or by the spread of radical Islam.In early 2010, when American foreign policy experts could not imagine that the radical Muslim Brotherhood would emerge as the most powerful political force in Egypt, President Obama dismissed the party as a “faction,” adding that “they don’t have majority support in Egypt. But they’re well organized. There are strains of their ideology that are anti-U.S.”Less than a year afterwards, the Brotherhood has emerged as the winner of the first three rounds of legislative elections in the post-Mubarak period. Its closest contender represents the even more radical Salafist Muslim sect.Last summer, the official Obama administration policy changed from shunning the Muslim Brotherhood to “engaging” it. Last month, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry met in Cairo with top members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.  Israel's National Security Council, headed by Maj.-Gen. Yaakov Amidror, recently discussed "The Challenge of the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Offshoots” and concluded that the US president is naïve, according to the Hebrew daily Yisrael HaYom.Read the full story here.

• "Sanctions that bite"? - Turkey's FM to visit Iran for talks on nuke, Syria.(JPost).ISTANBUL - Turkey's foreign minister will visit Tehran on Wednesday for talks with his Iranian counterpart on Iran's nuclear program and developments in neighboring Iraq and Syria, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said late on Tuesday.Ahmet Davutoglu's visit was described as being in the framework of regular talks between the two ministers, but it comes at a key time for the region and relations between the two regional powers."It is intended that they will exchange views on topical subjects such as Iran's nuclear program and developments in Syria and Iraq," the Turkish foreign ministry said.Davutoglu's visit was set to finish on Thursday.Turkey is evaluating whether to seek a waiver from the United States to exempt Turkish oil importer Tupras from new US sanctions on institutions that deal with Iran's central bank, a Turkish official said on Tuesday.US ally Turkey is among the biggest buyers of Iranian oil and gas. It gets about 30 percent of its oil from neighbor Iran, and Tupras, Turkey's biggest crude oil importer is a big buyer of Iranian crude.The United States has armed itself with tough measures targeting financial institutions that deal with Iran's central bank, the main clearinghouse through which OPEC's No. 2 oil exporter deals with clients around the world.The law, signed by President Barack Obama on Saturday, allows the US to exempt institutions in a country that has significantly reduced its dealings with Iran. Obama may also grant waivers deemed to be in the US national interest or otherwise necessary for energy market stability.Turkey is bound by UN sanctions against Iran, though it opposed the last round of measures in 2010, and it insists it is not obliged to follow non-UN sanctions.Iran threatened on Tuesday to take action if the US Navy moves an aircraft carrier into the Gulf, Tehran's most aggressive statement yet after weeks of sabre-rattling as new US and EU financial sanctions take a toll on its economy.Obama said several provisions including the sanctions that target Iran's central bank "would interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations."The president, said in his statement that if any application of these provisions conflicted with his constitutional authorities, "I will treat the provisions as non-binding." Hmmmm.....Turkey got a 'waiver' from buddy Obama to conduct business as usual?Read the full story here.

• Updated - Turkey to seek US waiver on Iran oil.(HurriyetDaily).Turkey will seek a waiver from the United States to exempt its biggest refiner TÜPRAŞ from new U.S. sanctions on institutions that deal with Iran's central bank, a Turkish energy ministry official told Reuters today.U.S. President Barack Obama signed the new sanctions into law on New Year's Eve, which if implemented fully would prevent most refineries from paying for Iranian crude, the first Western measure that could have serious impact on Iran's oil industry. The law would strip any financial institution dealing with Iran's central bank from access to the U.S. financial system. However, the law allows Obama to issue waivers to firms in countries that significantly reduce dealings with Iran, or at any time when it is either in the U.S. national interest or necessary for energy market stability. U.S. officials have said they will discuss with allies how to implement the law without causing havoc in oil markets. U.S. ally Turkey gets about 30 percent of its oil from neighbour Iran, and TÜPRAŞ - Turkey's biggest crude oil importer, owned by its largest conglomerate, Koç Holding - is a big buyer of Iranian crude. The energy ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a Turkish energy official would meet a representative of the U.S. embassy in Turkey to learn more about the content of the new U.S. law. NATO member Turkey has deepened economic and financial ties with Iran in recent years, despite Western efforts to isolate Tehran under sanctions aimed at forcing it to stop work on its nuclear activities. Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said TÜPRAŞ will continue to buy oil from Iran "until there is a new development". "Iran is one of the countries TÜPRAŞ imports oil from. We have not received information on the new sanctions. TÜPRAŞ continues to buy oil today," Yıldız told reporters. Iran said on Dec. 24 it had extended its crude export contract with Turkey for 2012. Turkey bought 217,000 barrels of oil per day from Iran in mid-2011, or 30.6 percent of its imports, according to the International Energy Agency, making it the sixth biggest buyer of Iranian crude. Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is expected to visit Tehran later today for talks on Iran's nuclear program and developments in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. The U.S. sanctions and the prospect of new sanctions this month from the European Union appear to be having an impact on Iran's ability to find buyers for its oil at global prices. China, the largest buyer by far of Iranian oil, has cut its purchases for January by more than half from 2011 levels.Hmmmmm........No sanctions for Obama's 'buddy' Erdogan....'business as usual'?Read the full story here.

• Taliban leaders held at Guantánamo Bay to be released in peace talks deal brokered by Muslim brotherhood spiritual guide Yusuf al-Qaradawi.(Guardian).The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned.According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan.More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody of another country, possibly Qatar.The releases would be to reciprocate for Tuesday's announcement from the Taliban that they are prepared to open a political office in Qatar to conduct peace negotiations "with the international community" – the most significant political breakthrough in ten years of the Afghan conflict.The Taliban are holding just one American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old sergeant captured in June 2009, but it is not clear whether he would be freed as part of the deal."To take this step, the [Obama] administration have to have sufficient confidence that the Taliban are going to reciprocate," said Vali Nasr, who was an Obama administration adviser on the Afghan peace process until last year. "It is going to be really risky. Guantánamo is a very sensitive issue politically."Nasr, now a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said the Taliban announcement on the opening of an office in Qatar was a dramatic breakthrough."If it had not happened then the idea of reconciliation would have been completely finished. The Qatar office is akin to the Taliban forming a Sinn Féin, a political wing to conduct negotiations," Nasr said, but added: "The next phase will need concessions on both sides. This doesn't mean we are now on autopilot to peace."This time, he said, it was clear that the top Taliban council – including its reclusive leader, Mullah Omar – was on board with the proposal. In return, Semple said he thought the release of a few prisoners from Guantánamo Bay was politically feasible for the Obama administration, even in an election year."The prospect of ending a costly war in Afghanistan is sufficiently attractive for the Obama administration to move forward with it," Semple said."Even if all five of these people they release went straight back to Quetta [the Taliban stronghold in Pakistan] to rejoin a fight, it wouldn't make any real difference."He said that a number of leading Taliban took part in the secret talks that led to agreement with Qatar, including the former Taliban ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Shahabuddin Dilawar, the former deputy foreign minister Sher Mohammad Stanekzai and Tayeb Agha, a top aide to Mullah Omar, the mysterious Taliban leader who, even in power, only ever met with a handful of western diplomats."The important thing is that all these men are operating with the approval of Mullah Omar," he said. It is not clear when the office will open, and there is also likely to be disagreement on the role of the Kabul government. A senior Afghan government official said the Karzai administration had accepted the creation of a Taliban office in Qatar only after demanding assurances from foreign powers that any peace process must be kept under the firm control of the Afghan government."If it is not led and owned by the Afghan government, it will fail," the official said.Hmmmm.....Now 'this' shines a whole different light on what Obama ment by:"He's Not Bound by Guantanamo"The signing statement says that on the issue of accused terrorist detainees, Obama will interpret and apply provisions that bar the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "in a manner that avoids constitutional conflicts."Read the full story here.

• Iran again warns US navy not to enter the Gulf.(Emirates24/7).Iran on Wednesday reinforced its warning to America against keeping a US navy presence in the oil-rich Gulf, adding steel to a threat that Washington had dismissed as a sign of "weakness" from Tehran."Iran will do anything to preserve the security of the Strait of Hormuz" at the entrance to the Gulf, Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, according to the website of Iran's state television."The presence of forces from beyond the (Gulf) region has no result but turbulence. We have said the presence of forces from beyond the region in the Gulf is not needed and is harmful," he was quoted as saying.The comments echoed a warning issued Tuesday by Iran's military that it would unleash its "full force" if a US aircraft carrier is redeployed to the Gulf."We don't have the intention of repeating our warning, and we warn only once," Brigadier General Ataollah Salehi, Iran's armed forces chief, said as he told Washington to keep its aircraft carrier out of the Gulf.The White House on Tuesday had brushed off the warning, saying it "reflects the fact that Iran is in a position of weakness" as it struggles under international sanctions.The US Defence Department said it would not alter its deployment of warships to the Gulf.But on Wednesday, Salehi again stressed his warning, and called 10 days of Iranian navy war games just held near the Strait of Hormuz as a "message" to the United States."The forces from beyond the region have received the appropriate message from these manoeuvres," he said, according to the official IRNA news agency."Those who have come as enemies should be afraid of our manoeuvres," he said.The exercises climaxed Monday with the Iranian navy test-firing three types of missiles designed to sink warships.The head of Iran's parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission, Aladdin Brujerdi, was also quoted by the Fars news agency as saying the US description of Iran being weak "is a completely illogical stance".He added: "The US talks about sanctioning our oil but they should know that if Iran's oil exports from the Gulf are sanctioned, then no-one will have the right to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz."The developments have sent the price of oil soaring. New York trading of West Texas Intermediate crude was at ê102.60 per barrel, while Brent North Sea crude contracts in London were selling for ê111.81."The situation with Iran remains worrisome," said Nick Trevethan, a senior commodities strategist at ANZ Research in Asia."The consequences of any military action in the Middle East will be enormous. A spike in crude prices will kill off any recovery in the US," he added.Iran's war games were meant to show the Islamic republic could close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's oil flows, if it is attacked or its oil exports are curbed by sanctions.Last week, a US aircraft carrier, the USS John C Stennis, passed through the strait and eastward, through the Gulf of Oman and a zone being used by the Iranian navy for its drill.Iranian military officials said that, if it tried to return through the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf, it would be attacked.The US carrier would face the "full force" of Iran's navy, a navy spokesman, Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi, told Iran's Arabic television service Al-Alam on Tuesday.The US Defence Department said in a statement it would continue the rotation of its 11 aircraft carriers to the Gulf to support military operations in the region."Our transits of the Strait of Hormuz continue to be in compliance with international law, which guarantees our vessels the right of transit passage," it said.The Pentagon also underlined its pledge to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, saying "we are committed to protecting maritime freedoms that are the basis for global prosperity; this is one of the main reasons our military forces operate in the region."The increasingly tense situation in the Gulf was taking place as Iran struggled with turmoil on its domestic currency market.Foreign exchange shops on Wednesday were shuttered as traders refused to comply with a central bank order putting a new, low cap on the value of the dollar against the Iranian rial, which has come under intense pressure in recent days.Iranian authorities were trying to shore up their currency after it slid 12 percent on Monday to a record low against the dollar the day after the United States enacted new sanctions hitting Iran's central bank.Iran, however, insisted the volatility of the rial is not the result of sanctions.It "definitely has nothing to with sanctions," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday.Read the full story here.

• Hamas calls Israeli-Palestinian meeting a “farce”.(BikyaMasr).Gaza (dpa) – The Palestinian group Hamas said on Wednesday that the first face-to-face meeting in 16 months between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to try to restart stalled peace talks was a “farce” and a “waste of time.”The talks in Jordan on Tuesday “contradict the hopes and aspirations of our people,” said Fawzi Barhoom, a spokesman for the Islamist group, which rules the Gaza Strip.The meeting, which was attended by Jordanian officials and representatives of the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators – the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations – ended without a major breakthrough.Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, opposes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s peace moves with the Jewish state.Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Islamist movement was “astonished” that, during the meeting, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat handed the Israelis Palestinian proposals on borders and security, two major sticking points.Prior to the talks, Hamas called on the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority to shun peace talks with Israel, saying that past negotiations had failed.Hamas, which won a parliamentary election in 2006, has rejected international demands that it recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce violence and honour past Israeli-Palestinian agreements.Read the full story here.

• Over 130 Doctors Without Borders staff go missing in South Sudan.(BikyaMasr). At least 130 staff from a clinic in South Sudan are missing, the international medical organization said in a statement.The staff had been running a facility in Pibor, but as ethnic violence in the area has left scores dead and thousands fleeing the area, MSF has been unable to contact their staff.Renewed ethnic violence in Jonglei State, South Sudan, has forced thousands of families to flee into the bush. Two Doctors Without Borders medical facilities have been targeted and the independent medical humanitarian organization has been forced to temporarily suspend its much needed medical activities in Pibor County.Late last month, two doctors with MSF were shot and killed in Somalia, highlighting the dangers of working in conflict zones.According to the statement from the group, the staff had evacuated the hospital in Pibor and two outreach clinics as fighters from the Lou Nuer tribe inched closer to the area.Reports from the area say the facilities had been set ablaze by the fighters.The Lou Nuer and Murle are in conflict, with each accusing the other of stealing cattle and killing tribal members. Neither UN peacekeepers nor the South Sudan army were able to stop the attack on Pibor.“Thousands of people have fled for their lives in Lekongole and Pibor in the last week and are now hiding in the bush, frightened for their lives,” said Parthesarathy Rajendran, MSF head of mission in South Sudan.“They fled in haste and have no food or water, some of them doubtless carrying wounds or injuries, and now they are on their own, hiding, beyond the reach of humanitarian assistance.”Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Resorts in Maldives fight Islamic spa ban.(Telegraph).The archipelago’s tourism ministry ordered the closure of all spas, massage parlours and health centres, with immediate effect, after an Islamist opposition party claimed they were being used as a front for prostitution.However, the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), which represents the islands’ hotels, said it would fight for the ban to be overturned.The association says it has filed two civil court cases in an effort to revoke the ban, and has applied for a temporary injunction.Sim Ibrahim, head of MATI, said that tourism was crucial to the country’s economy, and warned that the move could put off overseas visitors.The Maldives are a popular destination for affluent holidaymakers, and many of the island’s resorts feature modern spas. Around 850,000 tourists visited the islands last year.Despite the ban, the majority of hotel spas remain open for business. The luxury Huvafen Fushi resort, where rooms cost up to £6,500 a night, said its spa is open and is continuing to take bookings. The Banyan Tree, Four Seasons, Six Senses and Shangri-La resorts have also confirmed that their spas are operating as normal.The decision has also raised fears that hotels could soon be prevented from selling alcohol to guests. It is currently illegal for tourists to bring alcohol into the country, but some opposition groups would like to see the ban extended to prohibit the sale of alcohol across the islands.Islamic fundamentalism has gained support in the Maldives during recent years, with anti-semitic protests taking place over the government’s decision to allow direct flights to the country from Israel.Last year a Swiss couple, who chose to renew their wedding vows while on holiday in the Maldives, were described as “infidel swine” by the hotel employee who conducted the ceremony. Read the full story here.