Free Allouni ARAB journalists called for the release of leading Al-Jazeera correspondent Taysir Allouni, detained by Spanish authorities since 11 November 2003. In a statement released this week, the Cairo-based Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ) announced the launch of an international campaign to urge the Spanish authorities to set Allouni free. "The FAJ Secretariat sent a second letter this week to the Spanish prime minister, asking for his intervention to release Allouni, who has been detained for months without charges or legal trial," said Saleheddin Hafez in the statement, a copy of which was sent to Al-Ahram Weekly. Furthermore, "the Secretariat coordinates efforts with three main human rights organisations -- International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Reporters without Borders and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)," read the statement. Spanish judges investigating Allouni's case link him to a suspected militant Islamist cell associated with Al-Qaeda and dismantled by the Spanish authorities in November 2001. Allouni, the only journalist based in Afghanistan at the time of the US-led invasion of the country in October 2001, denies the charges. Administrative reforms, please A TWO-DAY conference at a Jordanian resort on the Dead Sea ended with an appeal for Arab countries to embark on radical administrative reforms, clampdown on corruption and address more seriously social justice issues. At the meeting, entitled "Good Governance for Development", Arab states pledged to improve the quality and effectiveness of public administration in the Arab region. According to the final communiqué carried by Al-Hayat newspaper, the implementation of good governance principles is a "key step towards combating corruption and achieving sustainable development". The conference was sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). US-Iran rapprochement TENSION between the United States and Iran on the latter's nuclear programme seems to be moving down, with officials of the two countries making conciliatory statements. Washington on Sunday played down any suggestion of attacking Iran, which it said may be years from making an atomic bomb. While President George W Bush has refused to rule out military action, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Washington backed a diplomatic route. Also, Vice-President Dick Cheney, who last month warned that Israel might attack Iran's atomic facilities -- as it attacked a reactor in Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1981 -- said he backed EU- Iran nuclear talks due to be held on Tuesday. "It's fairly clear from the public statements of the Iranians... that they are on a path of seeking a nuclear weapon and don't have it at the present time," Rumsfeld said in a taped interview with CNN. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the start of a tour to Europe and the Middle East on Friday that a military attack on Iran was not on the agenda for now. Militants crushed ALGERIAN security forces have dismantled a bomb-making unit of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, better known for its French acronym GSPC, and killed four of its members, Algerian newspapers said on Sunday. Security forces attacked late on Friday the GSPC's Al-Tafjeer brigade, known for its bomb-making expertise and suspected of being behind numerous deadly attacks against authorities in northern Algeria. Four rebels were killed, including two brothers, in the attack in Sidi Daoud in the Boumerdes region, some 50km east of the capital Algiers. Authorities confiscated four combat arms, including two Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles. The attack came a day after anti-terrorist units killed a regional GSPC leader in Cap Djinet, also in Boumerdes province. A soldier was also killed in the hour-long gunfire exchange, newspapers said. The Algerian army, supported by ground and air units, have over the past year stepped up an offensive against remaining rebel strongholds, particularly in the west and east of Algiers. Several hundred rebels and soldiers have died in the process. The conflict began in oil-rich Algeria after authorities cancelled legislative elections an Islamic party was set to win in 1992 because it feared an Iranian-style revolution. The GSPC is Algeria's largest rebel group and is listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organisation.
