Daily Report
Amnesty International protests stoning in Iran
From Amnesty International, Jan. 15:
Iran: Death by stoning, a grotesque and unacceptable penalty
As nine women and two men in Iran wait to be stoned to death, Amnesty International today called on the Iranian authorities to abolish death by stoning and impose an immediate moratorium on this horrific practice, specifically designed to increase the suffering of the victims.
Canadian death toll hits 78 in Afghanistan
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Jan. 16 he believes NATO forces currently deployed in southern Afghanistan "don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations." Most of the NATO troops in the south are British, Canadian and Dutch, while those in the north are US. Washington has just announced the temporary deployment of 3,200 Marines to southern Afghanistan to quell the rising number of attacks. (LAT, Jan. 16) The day before Gates' remarks, Trooper Richard Renaud, 26, of Quebec was killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar's Zhari district, leaving behind a pregnant wife and a 4-year-old stepson. His death brings the Canadian death toll in Afghanistan to 78, including one diplomat. (Toronto Star, CanWest, Jan. 16) The UK has lost 86 troops in Afghanistan; the Netherlands have lost 14. Total coalition fatalities stand at 760, with 480 from the US. 2007 was by far the bloodiest year, with 232 fatalities. (Coalition Casualty Count, Jan. 16)
Japan returns to Afghan mission
In a victory for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda after weeks of bitter partisan struggle, Japan's Diet Jan. 11 approved legislation reauthorizing the naval refueling mission that the Self-Defense Forces launched in 2001 in support of US-led military operations in Afghanistan. Tokyo ordered its ships home after the original law expired in November and the opposition blocked an extension. The mission is to resume in February.
Hamas calls for general strike to protest Gaza "massacre"
Hamas has called for a general strike throughout the Palestinian territories Jan. 16 to mourn those killed in today's Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip that left 19 dead and scores injured. At a press conference in Gaza City, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said "the Israeli massacre in the Zeitoun neighborhood was carried out with the encouragement of US President George W. Bush to expand the war against the sector." He called on the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to halt all meetings with Israel, saying they have consistently proved a failure. (Ma'an News Agency, Jan. 15)
Al-Qaeda in Gaza?
A group calling itself the "Army of Believers/Al-Qaeda in Palestine Organization" attacked the American International School in the northern Gaza Strip Jan. 13, setting ablaze five buses and a car. "Armed men entered the school in Beit Lahiya during the night and ransacked rooms as well as adminstration offices, and stole several computers," school director Rabhi Salem told AFP. Four days earlier, armed men fired anti-tank rockets at the school, causing serious damage to the building. A message left behind in the second attack read: "Polytheists and enemies of Islam are pursuing each day their work to destroy our youths, who are falling by the dozens into the swamps of vice and moral decadence. That is why we must re-establish the truth and warn everyone who might try to corrupt our youths or try to open such places of corruption."
Free speech crackdown in Basque country
Spanish Judge Santiago Pedraz has summoned Marian Beitialarrangoitia, mayor of the Basque town of Hernani, to give testimony Jan. 24 over her supposed support of "terrorism." At issue are comments Beitialarrangoitia made at a political rally for the parliamentary list of the Basque National Action party (ANV). During the rally, Beitialarrangoitia requested a round of applause for Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, two accused members of the Basque armed group ETA arrested days earlier. (EiTB24, Jan. 14)
Code Pink protests Posada Carriles
Activists from the US-based groups CodePink and Juventud Bolivariana launched a "Most Wanted" campaign against Cuban-born former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "asset" Luis Posada Carriles in Miami on Jan. 12, demanding that the US government designate him a terrorist and comply with a Venezuelan request for his extradition. Since 2005 Venezuela has been seeking to bring Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, to trial in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner in which 73 people died. Posada is under a deportation order in the US, but since the US refused to send him either to Cuba or to Venezuela, he was conditionally released from US detention on April 19, 2006. He is now living in Miami.
Philip Agee, CIA defector, dead at 72
Philip Agee, a US citizen and former agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), died in Havana, Cuba on Jan. 7 at age 72, according to US news reports. Louis Wolf, a friend and collaborator, said the cause of death was peritonitis. Agee had been living with his wife, Giselle Roberge Agee, in Hamburg, Germany, but the couple maintained an apartment in Havana and visited frequently. Since 2000 Agee had been running Cuba Linda,
an online agency arranging visits to Cuba for US residents. (The website reported that Agee died on Jan. 8.)

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