STOCKHOLM -- Norway has raised strong complaints against the decision by Afghan authorities to release the five Afghan bombers who attacked the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Northern Afghanistan in May this year. "It just gives a wrong signal that people who have been sentenced for such acts are allowed to walk free," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement.
Stoere added that an explanation is needed of how it is possible for someone who was first sentenced to death to have the sentence reversed to 20 years in jail, only to be released because of a religious festival. The five Afghan bombers were sentenced to 20 years in jail, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a decree to release them after they spent just three months in prison, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported. The bomb attack killed one Finnish and one Afghan soldier, and injured three Norwegian soldiers
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/27/content_7155890.htm
Iran to host militants for 'alternative' Mideast meet
Tue Nov 27
TEHRAN - Iran said on Tuesday that it had invited Palestinian militant factions to a meeting in Tehran aimed at countering a US-hosted Middle East peace conference seeking to kickstart the peace process. "These groups are planning to come to Tehran within the next week or two and they are all the Palestinian groups that are struggling for the freedom of their land," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.
Iran is one of the most vocal backers of Palestinian militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad and pledged millions of dollars in 2006 to the then Hamas government crippled by a Western aid cut. The Islamic republic does not recognise Israel and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has provoked outrage by calling for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.
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BADEN, Austria --Leaders of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo will not negotiate the future status of the province after a December 10 UN deadline, its representatives said Tuesday after talks with Serbian officials.
"Kosovo is not ready to continue any sort of engagement after December 10," Skender Hyseni, a spokesman for the Kosovo delegation, told journalists on the second day of talks with Serbia on the province's future. The ethnic Albanian dominated province, which has been ruled by the U.N. since an international campaign to end a Serbian crackdown in 1999, wants self-government but Serbia is refusing to let Kosovo go.
European Union, Russian and U.S. mediators are leading the latest talks and are to submit a report on Kosovo to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on December 10, effectively ending negotiations between the two sides. Serbia, backed by its ally Russia, has said it is prepared to continue talks after the deadline. Hyseni noted, however, "until December 10, Kosovo will continue to be open, constructive." Belgrade and Pristina have so far failed to reach any agreement on the future of the province.
Hyseni said that Serbia refused to face up to the fact that there already existed "a de facto independent Kosovo which is awaiting international formal recognition." "I'm afraid that nothing spectacular will happen" and no agreement will be reached during the gathering in Baden, seen as a last-ditch attempt to solve the Kosovo issue, he added. "Kosovo continues to present a vision for the future, a vision of partnership...which will help both countries build up a brighter future for both their peoples," Hyseni said.
Serbia's proposals on the other hand "are a recipe for frozen conflicts... for half-solutions, which do not take neither Kosovo nor Serbia anywhere." Serbian President Boris Tadic on Tuesday detailed a proposal for self-governance for Kosovo but this was rejected by the Kosovo delegation, Belgrade sources said.
An Iranian-made destroyer dubbed Moj will join the country's naval fleet to reflect the Islamic Republic's defense capabilities.
""The vessel entirely made by Iranian experts will join the fleet of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Navy in the next few months,"" said Project Manager, Capitan Shah Karam.
Moj can attack aerial, surface, or underwater targets simultaneously; it could also be used in electronic warfare due to state of the art enhancements and can carry a military helicopter.
Moj is in its final stages of production, according to the captain, and can compete with today's most modern and powerful destroyers.