President Raps Israel Warmongering

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decried Israel’s ‘expansionist and warmongering’ policies, saying the occupation of Palestine has resulted in various regional crises over the past decades.
“The expansionist, warmongering and inhumane policies of the fake and occupying Zionist regime [of Israel] have led to the continuation of instability and unrest in the region,” Ahmadinejad said in a message to the UN General Assembly on Thursday.
The imposition of five wars on regional nations, killing and imprisoning tens of thousands of people and displacing millions of others as well as the recent brutal assault on the Gaza Strip are clear indications of the nature and mission of the uncultured Zionists, he added, IRNA reported.
The international community’s inability to resolve the Palestinian issue due to discriminatory and unilateral policies of certain UN Security Council members has also intensified the crisis and endangered global peace and security, the chief executive pointed out.
Ahmadinejad voiced the Iranian nation’s solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people, saying Iranians would continue to provide them with spiritual support.
It is obvious that holding democratic elections with participation of all Palestinians, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, would be the best solution to the Palestinian issue, he said.
The president urged the international community and the United Nations in particular to play a ‘leading, effective and legal’ role in settling the Palestinian issue and putting an end to occupation.

Palestinians Win UN RecognitionOf Sovereign State

Middle East Desk

The 193-nation UN General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state after Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long overdue “birth certificate”.
There were 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions. Three countries did not take part in the vote to upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s observer status at the United Nations to “non-member state” from “entity.”
The assembly approved the upgrade despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinians by withholding funds for the West Bank government. UN envoys said Israel might avoid harsh retaliation as long as the Palestinians did not seek to join the International Criminal Court.
In Washington, a bipartisan group of senators warned the Palestinians they could lose US financial support of millions of dollars a year and risk the shutdown of their Washington office if they use their enhanced UN status against Israel
Israel could also suspend the monthly transfer of millions of dollars in tax rebates it collects on behalf of the Palestinians, a punitive step it has taken in the past. The much-anticipated vote came after Abbas denounced Israel for its “aggressive policies and the perpetration of war crimes” from the UN podium, remarks that elicited a furious response from Israel.
“Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states and became the birth certificate for Israel,” Abbas said.

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PowerCutter Stops Electricity Waste

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Eurozone Jobless Rate Climbs to Record High

Unemployment in the Eurozone hit a record high in October with more than 170,000 extra jobs lost and youth unemployment at almost 24 percent as the economy slumped into recession, official data showed Friday.
Year-on-year figures from the Eurostat data agency showed a particularly bleak picture for under 25-year-olds, with almost one in four out of work both in the 17-nation Eurozone and 27- nation European Union -- against one in five a year earlier, AFP reported.
Compared with October 2011, an extra 279,000 young people were out of work in the EU and 350,000 in the Eurozone in October this year.
The youth unemployment rate rose to 23.9 percent in the Eurozone and to 23.4 percent in the EU compared with 21.2 percent and 21.9 percent a year earlier, Eurostat said.
But in Greece, 57 percent of under 25s were jobless in August, the latest available figures, and in Spain 55.9 percent in October.
Overall, the Eurozone had a jobless rate of 11.7 percent in October, up from 11.6 percent in September, with the numbers out of work rising to 18.7 million from 18.49 million, the Eurostat data agency said.
The highest unemployment rate was recorded again in Spain, where 26.2 percent of adults are out of work. Austria again posted the lowest rate of 4.3 percent and benchmark Germany and the Netherlands were at 5.4 and 5.5 percent respectively.
Across the 27-state European Union single market of half a billion consumers, 25.92 million men and women were out of work.

Inflation Down
Inflation in the 17-state Eurozone fell sharply to 2.2 percent in November from 2.5 percent in October, official data showed on Friday, as the slowing economy took the pressure off prices. The Eurostat data agency said preliminary figures showed energy prices, the main driver of inflation at the moment, increased 5.8 percent in November, after 8.0 percent in October.
The latest data means the Eurozone inflation rate remains above the European Central Bank’s target of below but close to 2.0 percent since December 2010, but for the first time in two years, appears to be stabilizing.

Kuwaitis March to Urge Voter Boycott

Tens of thousands of people marched in Kuwait on Friday calling for a voter boycott, a day before a parliamentary election that looks unlikely to defuse tensions in the US-allied, oil-producing Persian Gulf country.
Political activists and opposition politicians, who have already said they will not stand in the election, called the rally to protest at a decree that changed voting rules. They say it will skew the outcome in favor of pro-government candidates, Reuters reported.
“The people want to bring down the decree!” demonstrators chanted, a spinoff from the main slogan in popular uprisings that have ousted four autocratic Arab rulers since early 2011.
But Kuwait’s disaffected say they seek democratic reform, not revolution in the mould of Arab Spring revolts elsewhere. Kuwait’s ruling emir said the amendments to voting rules were made to preserve national security and stability.
Marchers in the “Nation’s Dignity” rally set off at 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) from various locations in Kuwait City, converged on the main, palm tree-lined coastal road and proceeded toward the landmark Kuwait Towers on the northeast side of the capital. In dispute is the nature of political power. Parliament has legislative powers and the ability to question ministers. But the emir, head of the Al-Sabah family that has ruled Kuwait for 250 years, appoints the prime minister who chooses the cabinet.

High Global Food Prices Unacceptable

Int’l Economy Desk

Global food prices remained stable, the World Bank said on Thursday, as it warned that a “new norm” of costlier food was setting in and threatening to increase hunger and malnutrition in the world’s poorer regions.
In an update of its quarterly “Food Price Watch” report, the World Bank said the absence of “panic policies”, such as food export restrictions, had helped stabilize commodity prices since price spikes in July. “Even as the world seems to have averted a global food price crisis, a growing sense of a ‘new norm’ of high and volatile prices seems to be consolidating,” the World Bank said.
“The world cannot afford to get used to or be complacent with high and volatile food prices.”

Prices Higher
The World Bank food price index shows that while prices have stabilized, they are 7 percent higher than a year ago.
In particular, grains are up 12 percent from a year ago and close to the all-time high set during a global food price crisis in 2008, when food riots broke out in Asia and Africa. The worst droughts in more than half a century in the United States corn belt and food basket regions of the Black Sea pushed up the global prices of wheat and maize this year, at a time that the world economy was slowing and Europe has been engulfed in a debt crisis.

Gazans Thank Iran For Help

Residents of the Gaza Strip have plastered large billboards in key locations thanking Iran for its help during a recent eight-day battle against Israel.
The posters reflect the strong ties between Iran and the Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance groups in Gaza. Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous enemy, citing Iran’s support for the resistance fighters and its nuclear program.
During the fighting, Gaza militants groups fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, including Fajr-5 missiles reaching as far as Tel Aviv, AP reported.
The posters, displayed in three locations in Gaza City, show the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Beit-ul-Muqaddas, surrounded by Iranian and Palestinian flags, two hands in a handshake with the words, ‘Thank You Iran’ in Arabic, English, Hebrew and Farsi.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders have also publicly thanked Iran.

Chief Editor

The Real ‘International Community’ By Emad Abshenass

The US and Israel normally use their powerful media to convince others that their demands are the legitimate demands of the ‘international community’. However on Thursday the international community proved the falsehood of their claims.
The vote of the majority of the international community in favor of Palestine’s non-member observer state status in the UN, despite strong US and Israeli pressures prior to the voting, the ‘international community’ proved that it disagrees with the US and Israel on dominant issues in the world.
Considering the countries that voted against--the US, Canada, Czech Republic, Marshal Islands, Mackenzie Islands, Nauru , Panama, Palau and of course the Zionist regime--one can understand who the international community are for the US and Israel.
I don’t know if our readers have ever heard about some of these countries or even know that such countries exist or perhaps even know where they are located on the earth. One thing I can assure is that all those who voted against the Palestinian bid are fully US controlled countries that lack independence out of US and Israeli order. Even most countries considered to be US allies did not vote against the Palestinian bid. Anyone watching the TV while speeches were made could have understood who the ‘international community’ is and who is not.
When President Mahmud Abbas ended his speech at the UN General Assembly, almost all the attendees gave him a standing ovation whereas when Israeli representative, or even Canada’s representative, spoke no one reacted other than their own delegations. This proved that the world is tired of Israel and US forcing their ideas on them and that the international community considers the Palestinians a society that has the right to an independent country. This also proved that they support the right of Palestinians to stand against Israelis in international courts and take Israeli leaders to court as war criminals.

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