Egypt Building Wall Near Gaza

Egypt has begun building an underground wall up to 100ft deep along its border with the Gaza Strip to block tunnels used to transfer goods.
Residents of Rafah, the border town which has become the center for a major smuggling operation, say engineers have brought in earth moving-equipment and are placing deep steel tubes at short intervals into the ground, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The government has not confirmed the claims but one security source said the plan was to build a blast-proof, impenetrable steel wall of adjoining two inch thick sheets across stretches of the frontier known to be used by smugglers.
Another official said engineers were installing tunnel detection equipment along the border, which is about seven miles long. He refused to confirm that a wall was also being planned.
Both Israel and Egypt have made strenuous efforts to counter the tunnels, built since Israel began to enforce a blockade of Gaza after it was seized by the Hamas movement in 2007.
It allows some basic supplies through, while Egypt opens the Rafah crossing once a month for up to three days to allow people to cross.

Complicit in Israeli Scheme
The construction of a wall would renew vociferous criticism Egypt has endured from parts of the Middle East for being complicit in Israeli policies.
Egypt refused to open the border even during the Israeli attack on Gaza last winter, and has also arrested alleged Hezbollah sympathizers, among other things for trying to infiltrate goods into Gaza from Egyptian territory.

News Continued ...

EU Pledges $10.6b in Climate Aid

European Union nations have agreed to give 7.2 billion euros ($10.6 billion) to help developing nations tackle climate change, the Swedish EU presidency announced on Friday.
"The EU total is equal to 2.4 billion euros per year," over the next three years, with voluntary pledges coming in from all 27 EU member states, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said after a two-day EU summit in Brussels, AFP reported.
The 'fast start' money is Europe's contribution to helping the developing world to adapt to global warming over the next three years and to encourage the ongoing UN climate change conference in Copenhagen to do more.
"It was also possible through the night to get contributions from all 27 member states," and the European commission, Reinfeldt said, as the voluntary pledges topped the six billion euros target set by the Swedish EU presidency.
EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barros said he hoped other nations would now match the EU's ambitions.
British Premier Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also demanded that leaders in Copenhagen agree a treaty that would be "legally binding within six months," and issued a new target for a global reduction in deforestation which should reach 25 percent by 2015.
Brown raised recession-mired Britain's contribution to 1.2 billion pounds (1.3 billion euros) with Sarkozy all but matching the figure, meaning that between them Britain and France pledged 2.5 billion euros. Downing Street said Britain would boost its contribution further "if others are equally ambitious in Copenhagen."
The British PM said a final Copenhagen deal must be consistent with a Group of 20 leaders' commitment to maintain global warming to a maximum of two degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial times.

News Continued ...

Fear US, Israel

Top American academic Noam Chomsky said that the general public should fear more from the United States and Israel than Iran. See Page 2

News Continued ...

Losing Momentum

The West’s drive to impose tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program may prove to lose momentum due to strong opposition from Russia and China, both of which have called for patience and restraint in dealing with Iran.

News Continued ...

Oil Prices Rise

Oil prices recovered slightly on Thursday following sharp losses a day earlier on signs of weak energy demand in the United States, traders said.

News Continued ...

Prize Protested

As President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, the bouquets poured in but so did the brickbats
for preserving peace in Oslo came
at a price.

News Continued ...

Green Light

Orange peels lie behind the first patent application from the University of Borås in Sweden. It was recently submitted via Inicia AB to the Swedish Patent and Registration Office.

News Continued ...

IRAN DAILY

Number 3567● Saturday December 12, 2009 ● Azar 21, 1388 ● Zihajjeh 24, 1430 ● Price 2,000 Rials ● 12 Pages

Top UN Official Leaving Afghanistan

The top UN official in Afghanistan said Friday he will not renew his contract when it expires in March after a two-year tenure marred by controversy over his handling of the country's fraud-marred presidential election and a deadly attack on UN workers.
Kai Eide, a Norwegian, said he is not stepping down but has asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to start searching for a replacement.
"I'm not resigning," Eide told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It's a question of telling New York that I'm not renewing my contract."
Eide's tenure was tarnished by allegations from his American deputy, Peter Galbraith, that he was not bullish enough in curbing fraud in the August presidential election, which eventually awarded a second term to Hamid Karzai. Eide denied the charge and said controversy over the election was not linked to his decision not to renew his contract.
"The election controversy was between Peter Galbraith and the rest of the international community," he said, adding his plan when he took the job was to stay two years, as did his predecessors.
"Kai Eide is sticking to the timetable that he outlined when he took the job in March 2008," Dan McNorton, a UN spokesman in Kabul said.
Eide leads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which coordinates the UN operation in the country.
The UN mission is still reeling from a pre-dawn assault Oct. 28 on a guesthouse in Kabul where dozens of UN staffers lived. Gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed inside. Five UN workers were among those killed. In response, the UN in November sent about 600 foreign staff out of the country or into safer quarters inside Afghanistan. The decision followed a drawdown of UN operations in neighboring Pakistan.