Sayyed Khamenei: Muslims Never Falter in Spotting their Enemies

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei said Sunday that Muslims would never falter in identifying the main causes of any disagreement among themselves, IRNA reported. 
The Supreme Leader made the remark in an address to heads of the three branches of government, chief of the Expediency Council, guests participating in the 22nd International Conference on Islamic Unity and ambassadors of the Islamic states in Iran as well as a large crowd of people from different walks of life on the auspicious occasion of the birth anniversary of Muslim Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the sixth Shiite Imam, Jaafar Sadeq (AS). 
Referring to the ceaseless efforts of the enemies of the Islamic Ummah to sow discord among Muslims, Ayatollah Khamenei said Muslims were vigilant enough to recognize the fact that any remark targeting the Islamic unity was the voice of the hegemonic powers. 
Describing the birth of the Grand Prophet of Islam as a very critical and landmark event in the history of the mankind, the Supreme Leader said at present juncture, the true responsibility of the followers of Muslim Prophet, especially those who are categorized as politicians, scientists, intellectuals and influential figures, was to try to materialize the Islamic unity and fight the elements who are trying to sow discord among Muslims. 
The Supreme Leader further urged Muslim Ummah to go beyond rhetorics and take practical measures to consolidate and safeguard unity among themselves as a sign of gratitude for the birth of Muslim prophet which has benefited the whole mankind. 
Saying that Muslims should stay vigilant and alert in the face of consecutive plots of enemies and expansionist powers, his eminence also expressed regret that, in very rare and odd occasions, Muslims or some Muslim states get trapped and act as tools in the hands of Muslims’ enemies in advancing their objective of sowing discord among Muslims. 
Pointing to the glorious victory of Muslim Ummah during 33 days of resistance against the Zionist army in Lebanon and then for 22 days in Gaza, Ayatollah Khamenei said the two cases highlighted the fact that the enemies, in a bid to reduce the impact of such victories, tried to focus on differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and Arab and non-Arab nations. 
Stressing that the issue of Palestine was a topic related to the whole Muslim world and not to a certain nation or nationality, the Supreme Leader said it is the duty of the leaders of Muslim states at the first place to confront such plots. 
Ayatollah Khamenei further commemorated the memory of the late Founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran the late Imam Khomeini and said the deceased Imam was the personality who raised the flag of unity among Muslims and invited all Muslims worldwide to promote unity and solidarity among themselves. 
During the reception meeting, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, too, addressed the participants in a short speech, saying that true faith, resistance, a fighter’s spirit, unity and solidarity were the key to the victory of Muslims over their enemies.

Netanyahu signs deal with Shas

Israeli Shas chairman Eli Yishai will take Israel's Interior Ministry portfolio as Netanyahu has signed a coalition deal with Shas party. 
Based on the late Sunday agreement which is the Prime Minister-designate's second coalition deal, Eli Yishai will take the Interior Ministry portfolio and will serve as Netanyahu's deputy, The Jerusalem Post reported. 
The deal also guarantees Shas the Construction and Housing, and Religious Services portfolios. 
Meanwhile, Netanyahu's Likud party started coalition talks with Labor party of Ehud Barak Monday morning in order to formulate a draft of a coalition agreement ahead of a Tuesday Labor convention that is set to decide the fate of the party. 
Last week, Netanyahu initialed an agreement with the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party of Avigdor Lieberman. 
Netanyahu is still seeking to persuade the centrist Kadima party of outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to join his coalition, but she is demanding a rotation of the premiership.

Israel arrests Palestinian leader

Israeli police have arrested leader of the Palestinian Islamic Movement Sheikh Raed Salah, blaming him for attending an 'illegal' meeting. 
On Monday, the police raided the gathering in East Jerusalem [al-Quds]'s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and took Salah and his bodyguard away for interrogation, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported. 
The Salah-led offshoot of the movement later said that the capture "was made as part of the process of strengthening (Jewish control) over Jerusalem." 
The meeting was held to appoint a committee dealing with the cultural affairs aimed at declaring the city "the capital of Arabic culture for 2009". Tel Aviv has taken strict measures to bar the Palestinian Culture Festival which marks the designations. 
Twenty Palestinians including Hatem Abdel Qader, a senior official with the Palestinian Authority, have been arrested during police' suppression of the celebration. Police has also blocked the roads to the al-Aqsa mosque to prevent Palestinians from entering the compound and has seized banners emblazoned with celebratory slogans. 
Alongside vast expanses of the Arab territories, Israel occupied West al-Quds during a six-day war in 1967.

US drone kills 21 in NW Pakistan

A US drone fires several missiles at a home in the Kurram Agency in Northwest Pakistan killing at least 21 people and injuring 16 others. Local officials and residents told Press TV correspondent that the US drone, fired seven missiles on a supposed training camp of Taliban militants in the Barjo area in the Kurram Agency, some 20 kilometers from the Afghan border, on Thursday evening. A senior Pakistani official said that he could not comment about the identity of the dead, but it is thought that they were Taliban militants. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that after the attack, two injured Taliban militants were shifted to the Mandori area where they spoke with medical doctors. He continued that the injured had said they were present outside the camp when the attack was carried out. According to the injured, as many as 58 people, including some kidnapped by the militants, were present in the five rooms of the building at the time of the incident. Following the attack, the building caught fire and it has been assumed that everyone inside lost their lives. After the attack, the drone continued its flight over the area. Local residents, using loudspeakers in the mosques, told everyone not to venture outside as the circling drone could carry out another attack. The Pakistani official said that the building was a main center for Taliban militants and an arms storage facility. "Militants were also holding meetings in the camp, which was supervised by a local commander Fazal Mabood. At the time of attack, he was present in the place," he added. However, it was not confirmed whether the commander had been killed or not. The US has not stopped drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal belt despite Islamabad's protests that such strikes are counter-productive and are a violation of the country's sovereignty. There have been more than six drone attacks since US President Barack Obama assumed office.

Pakistan police beat up Sharif supporters

Pakistani police uses sticks to beat up supporters of former Premier Nawaz Sharif and his right-wing allies in the southern port city of Karachi. Law enforcement agencies also detained several dozens protesters from PML-N and Jamaat-e-Islami party in Karachi Thursday, media reports said. 'No one will be allowed to disturb peace in the city,' Karachi police Chief Waseem Ahmed told reporters shortly after the skirmishes. Later, more than a thousand people left in a motor convoy for Islamabad where they planned to stage an open-end sit-in in the capital. But they were stopped on the main highway leaving Karachi, where the angry crowd pelted the police with stones and set fire to vehicles. Sharif has urged the masses to join a nationwide protest against the government, led by Pakistan's People Party Co-Chairman and President Asif Ali Zardari. Organizers had hoped tens of thousands of people would join a four-day protest march to Islamabad, which began Thursday in Karachi and ends in the capital on March 16. Also, activist lawyers have been demanding Zardari fulfill a pledge to reinstate judges fired by Pervez Musharraf, a general who ousted Sharif as prime minister in a 1999 coup. But the protest movement heated up last month when the Supreme Court banned Sharif and his brother from elected office. Sharif and his supporters accused Zardari of influencing the court's verdict, an allegation denied by the president. Police has arrested a large number of opposition workers in Punjab and Sindh provinces to maintain public order. The PPP-led government says the planned march is aimed at destabilizing the country. Information Minister Sherry Rehman on Wednesday described the Sharif brothers' move as a 'rebellion' against the government. Earlier, Pakistan's interior ministry had threatened to prosecute Muslim League-N chief and his brother for sedition. "Their statements fall in the (category of) sedition," Interior Ministry Chief Rehman Malik told a new conference in Islamabad on Monday. He also read out several excerpts from speeches that Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz had made since the Supreme Court disqualified them from holding public office. The developments could destabilize the central government and leave a negative impact on the violence-wracked country, raising the prospect of confrontation between the country's main political parties.

Israeli troops kill Palestinian teenager in WB

Israeli troops have shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in a village in the occupied West Bank and wounded another man. The incident happened on Wednesday after two Palestinians "hurled firebombs at military vehicles" near Halamish, north-west of Ramallah. A military spokeswoman said two military vehicles caught fire when the firebombs hit them. A Palestinian paramedic said 17-year-old Fayez Atta had died of "gunshot wounds and another youth had been taken to an Israeli hospital in a serious condition," Haaretz reported. There were no Israeli casualties in the incident.pales

US sends destroyer in China Sea

The US Navy has dispatched a guided-missile destroyer to the China Sea after a tense naval standoff between two countries, an official says. "Right now they are going to escort these types of ships for the foreseeable future," a US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Thursday. The escorts by warships applied to operations in the South China Sea, the official said. The armed destroyers will escort US surveillance ships operating in the sea following a tense naval standoff this week, sources said. Earlier, Pentagon said that five Chinese ships harassed and maneuvered dangerously close to the unarmed USNS Impeccable as the ocean surveillance vessel was in waters some 75 miles south of the Chinese island of Hainan. China has a key submarine base on Hainan island, 75 miles north of where Sunday's incident occurred. The US claimed the incident took place in international waters after several days of increasingly aggressive acts by Chinese ships in the region. However, Chinese sources said that the concerned US navy vessel had been consistently conducting illegal surveying in China's special economic zone. The arrival of the destroyer underscores the Pentagon's determination to continue with the surveillance mission in spite of Beijing's claims that it represents an illegal military activity. It also signaled heightened US-China tensions on a day when President Barack Obama met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the White House. Obama stressed "the importance of raising the level and frequency of the US-China military-to-military dialogue in order to avoid future incidents," according to a White House statement on Thursday. The US and China have remained at odds over a number of issues ranging from Tibet, human rights, space and nuclear technology.