Morocco lashes out against Western Sahara activist Morocco on Wednesday warned an activist who has been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks after being denied entry into her native Western Sahara that she will face consequences of her actions. Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri said award-winning activist Aminatou Haidar had “disowned her identity and her nationality” and accused her of provoking the authorities. “She must accept, on her own, the legal and moral consequences which result from this behaviour,” the minister told the Moroccan parliament. Fihri said she “deliberately, and without any pressure, gave up her passport and national identity card.” “These two documents are the expression of Moroccan sovereignty and it is not permitted to damage their symbolism,” Fihri added. Algeria confirms 3 Swine flu cases The Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement confirmed Wednesday that three more death cases of fatal influenza A/H1N1, bringing the total number of deaths caused by A/H1N1 to seven people in Algeria. A young woman, 21, was hospitalized in a referral service in Biskra in a state of severe respiratory distress, while the other two cases involved two pregnant women, aged 33 and 43, hospitalized in institutions of Algiers for a severe flu symptoms. In the case of the 33-year-old woman, ministry statement said she was pregnant at term to 34 weeks and had a high risk pregnancy. She was hospitalized in an institution of Algiers for a severe flu symptoms. For the women, 43, she was 24 weeks pregnant and also had a high risk pregnancy. The three deceased were under antiviral treatment, according to the statement. Japan's Yazaki looking to Tunisia, with jobs Yazaki, one of the largest Japanese car parts manufacturers, plans to create 5,000 jobs over the next two years in Tunisia, which struggles to lure higher foreign investment to trim double digit jobless rates, the country's national radio reported Wednesday. Yazaki, currently hiring 700 workers, is expected to create 5,000 jobs during the next two years in the region of Gafsa, south of Tunisia, the report said. The Japanese firm will spend 43 million dinars (about 34.12 million U.S. dollars) to open a cable unit covering 23,000 square meters. Yazaki, which controls 35 percent of the world's cable and wire market, operates production units in Morocco, Portugal and Britain, providing 200,000 jobs, according to the report. Lockerbie bomber may have brought chemical weapons back home to Libya New documents produced by the U.S. government indicate that the man convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people, might have had a role in procuring chemical weapons for the Libyan government, the Australian newspaper reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 21) Documents written by the U.S. State Department in 1992, using intelligence assembled by the Central Intelligence Agency, assert that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi had a “deep involvement in Libya's most sensitive, high-priority procurement operations” and that “an al-Megrahi subordinate operating in Germany in 1988 played an important role in acquiring and shipping chemical weapons precursors to Libya. Al-Megrahi is also linked to a senior manager of Libya's chemical weapons development program.” “If there was any evidence backing any of this up, I am absolutely certain it would have been introduced at trial — and it wasn't,” said Tony Kelly, al-Megrahi's attorney in Scotland. “I think you're just left with it being unsubstantiated … intelligence rumors.” Al-Megrahi, who is terminally sick with cancer, was released from Scottish prison in August and is now back in Libya. Obama to welcome Lebanon's President American President Barack Obama will welcome Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman to Washington later this month, the White House said in a statement. Sleiman will visit the White House on Monday, December 14, as the Obama administration attempts to reignite its Middle East peace push and back Lebanon's fragile democracy and territorial integrity. Obama wants to bring up “a broad range of issues of mutual concern, including efforts to strengthen the bilateral relationship between the United States and Lebanon, achieve a comprehensive regional peace, and implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” the White House said on Wednesday. Washington has been a strong supporter of western-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri who formed a new unity government last month after more than four months of difficult negotiations with the Hezbollah-led opposition. Jordanian water project to get underway Work on Jordan’s US$1 billion Disi Conveyance Project, which will supply Amman with 100 million cubic meters of water a year, is now officially under way. Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi were both present at the launch yesterday, a few months after financial closure was achieved at the end of June. Turkish company GAMA will oversee the project, and has already purchase 30,000 tonnes of pipes at a cost of $32 million, according to a report in the Jordan Times. The BOT project will transfer aquifer water from Disi to the Jordanian capital via 325-kilometer pipeline. BM
