BEIRUT — Lebanon’s economic growth in the first two months of this year slipped to 4 percent, but the tiny Mediterranean nation should escape largely unscathed from the effects of the global economic meltdown if the security and political situation remains stable, the Central Bank governor said Monday.

Riad Salameh

But Riad Salameh’s comments to reporters were soon followed three hours later by a bombing that killed a top Palestinian official and three others in southern Lebanon. The incident marked the first apparent assassination in the country in six months, and underscored the difficulty of pinning economic hopes on security in a nation that has endured decades of war and sectarian fighting.
“The Central Bank indicator for economic activity confirms that real growth in the first two month will be 4 percent, and could be more,” Salameh said. “We hope that the political and security conditions remain in this atmosphere so that these expectations be for the whole year not only the first two months.

The rate was far below the roughly 7 percent growth rate Lebanon recorded in 2008, but appeared to exceed expectations.

In January, the country’s finance minister revised growth projections down to 3 percent, from 5 percent, even as officials continued to voice optimism the country will weather the brunt of the crisis, buffered by strict rules that bar local banks from investing in derivatives and foreign home loans

Salameh also said that inflation had dropped to 2.6 percent in February, a slide evidenced elsewhere in the Arab world as global commodity prices have begun to decline.

The Central Bank head also downplayed reports that many Lebanese working in the oil-rich Gulf Arab states were losing their jobs as the financial crisis cuts deeply into these nations, prompting layoffs. But he stressed that the country was ready to absorb the expatriate workers if they were to return home.

He also said that while the U.S. government was rolling out plans to buy up to $1 trillion in toxic assets to free up credit, and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are cautioning that the global crisis will drag on for some time, Lebanon will be able to withstand the downturn.

“Lebanon does not have these problems but should be ready for initiatives to create jobs,” he said.

-AP

Iraqi offers scholarships to U.S. colleges

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq — Nearly 100 Kurdish college students thronged to a conference center here a few weeks ago to talk to representatives from the University of Kansas and the University of Oregon, West Virginia University and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, among others.

The students’ questions tumbled out: “Do you have a computer science program?” “How long does it take to get a degree?” “Can I study English at the same time?”

The college fair in Sulaimaniya followed a similar one in Baghdad where some 700 students flocked to meet with mostly American college recruiters at the first event of its kind in Iraq, a recruiting session for Iraqi students who want to study in American and British Commonwealth institutions.

The fair is part of a new educational initiative sponsored by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who started his professional life as a teacher. Despite budget cuts because of the plummeting price of oil, the program will sponsor 500 students this year, paying for them to study at American or British institutions on the condition that they return to Iraq and put their knowledge to work helping their native country.

The scholarships, which the government hopes to expand to 10,000 students a year, will be based on merit.

Once a student receives a scholarship, the government will pay tuition and a living stipend until they complete their degrees. It will cost Iraq about $75,000 per student annually, according to Iraqi government officials.

If students do not return, they would have to reimburse the government for the cost of their education.

The initiative is the brainchild of a tenacious Iraqi-American, Zuhair Humadi, who moved to the United States as a young man in 1959 and returned to Iraq when the Americans toppled Saddam Hussein. He said his goal was to help rebuild his country. A beneficiary of the American educational system — he has a Ph.D. in political science from Southern Illinois University — he said he believed that Iraq needed to re-establish the educated class that it lost under Mr. Hussein and during the sectarian strife that followed the American invasion.

Mr. Maliki, who approved the program late last year, attended the first recruiting conference in Baghdad in January.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, another strong proponent of Western education, organized the fair in Sulaimaniya, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

-AP

Netanyahu declares peace intentions

JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu, the incoming Israeli prime minister, said Wednesday that his government would be a “partner for peace with the Palestinians,” backing off on his hawkish stance a day after the centrist Labor Party joined his coalition in a trade for vague promises to pursue negotiations.

Netanyahu, a Likud Party leader, showed himself to be an opponent of peacemaking during his campaign. But Netanyahu has since begun tempering those stances while searching for moderate coalition partners for fear of a possible clash with the U.S.’s Obama administration.

Peace is a “common and enduring goal for all Israelis and Israeli governments, mine included,” Netanyahu said at an economic conference in Jerusalem. “This means I will negotiate with the Palestinian Authority for peace.”

U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday that it was “critical” to advance statehood for the Palestinians but also acknowledged that it is “not easier than it was” due to the political shift in Israel to the right.

Netanyahu has refused to pursue the notion of establishing an independent Palestinian state on captured areas now occupied by Israel. He also has said he would allow existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank to expand.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat cautiously approved Netanyahu’s comments, but said the key is for the new government to commit to a Palestinian state.

“Any Israeli government that accepts the two-state solution, negotiates with us on all core issues without exception, and agrees to stop settlement activity… will be a partner,” he said. “It’s time for deeds from both sides as far as their commitments are concerned, not words.”

U.S. asks detainee to drop charges

LONDON— U.S. authorities asked a Guantanamo Bay detainee to drop allegations of torture and agree not to speak publicly about his ordeal in exchange for his freedom, according to British court documents.

Former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed

A ruling by two British High Court judges, issued in October but released only on Monday, said the U.S. offered former detainee Binyam Mohamed a plea bargain last year — six years after he was first detained as an enemy combatant.
It was the first time details of the plea bargain offer were made public. The ruling said U.S. military prosecutors also asked that Mohamed plead guilty to two charges, accept a three-year sentence and agree to testify against other suspected terrorists.

Mohamed, an Ethiopian who moved to Britain as a teenager, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He claims he was tortured both there and in Morocco, before he was transferred to Guantanamo in 2004.

He was freed in February after months of negotiation between the U.S. and Britain. All charges against him were dropped last year.

Mohamed refused to agree to any deal that prevented him from discussing his treatment, Lord Justice John Thomas and Mr. Justice David Lloyd Jones said in the ruling.

“He wanted it to be made clear to the world what had happened and how he has been treated by the United States government since April 2002,” Thomas said in the ruling. Since February, Mohamed has given interviews to the BBC and a British newspaper.

Unilever to sell stake in plant-based in West Bank settlement

JERUSALEM — The food and soap manufacturing multinational Unilever has announced that it will divest from an Israeli factory in a Jewish settlement illegally built on land confiscated from Palestinians.

Unilever, which makes household staples such as Sunsilk shampoo, Surf washing powder and Vaseline, said it would sell its 51% stake in the Beigel & Beigel factory in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

The U.K. and Dutch-owned multinational has followed Harrods department store — which cleared its shelves of Beigel & Beigel products, such as pretzels, in August — and a campaign by Britain to crack down on Israeli settlement businesses that are allegedly dodging E.U. import taxes.

Unilever’s announcement also came ahead of a report on its investment in the occupied territories by United Civilians for Peace, a Dutch human rights group.

UCP said the decision of Unilever, which defied the international boycott against South Africa during the apartheid era, showed that the firm was “serious” about international law and social responsibility.

But Unilever Israel, which bought half of Beigel & Beigel in 2001, said the move was strategic, not ethical.

“This decision has been taken with reluctance after a long period of analysis and review,” it said.

“Following the divestment in recent years of a number of non-core businesses … the decision has been reached to divest of its interests in the bakery business and will therefore seek to find a buyer for Unilever’s share in the Beigel & Beigel partnership,” the company said in a statement.

Ariel is one of three large Israeli settlement blocs that penetrate and separate northern and southern parts of the West Bank. It is surrounded by a network of roads that Palestinians are forbidden to use without special permission.

The settlement is built on land that Israel conquered in the 1967 Six Day war. According to UCP, the land for the Beigel & Beigel factory, in Ariel’s Barkan industrial estate, was confiscated from the surrounding Palestinian villages in 1981 by a Israeli military order.

-WVNS

Death penalty in Israel spy case

SANA’A — A court in Yemen has sentenced a man to death for allegedly offering to spy for Israel.

(L-R) Defendants Ali al-Mahfal, Emad al-Raimi and Bassam al-Haidari wait behind bars for the verdict at a courtroom in Sanaa March 23, 2009. A Yemeni court sentenced an Islamist to death and handed down jail sentences against two others on Monday after convicting them of seeking to work for Israeli intelligence services. Haidari was sentenced to death, al-Raimi received a three-year jail term and al-Mahfal a five years one. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Bassam al-Haidari, 26, was found guilty of writing to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, offering to work as an agent for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
Two other men were also convicted in the case on Monday.

Israel said it had no contact with the three men.

Ali Abdullah al-Mahfal, 24, received a five-year jail sentence, while Emad Ali al-Raimi, 23, got a three-year jail term.

“The court … sentences the first defendant to death in the case of making illegal contact with the Zionist Jewish Israeli entity,” Mohsen Elwan, a Yemeni judge, said.

Elwan said the court convicted the trio after it evaluated the evidence and found that it was “clear enough to let the court have the degree of certainty to convict them.”

The three men, who denied the charges, said they would appeal against the ruling.

“This is unfair, you have sentenced me without any proof of these accusations,” al-Haidari, the defendant, said.

The prosecution charged al-Haidari with corresponding with Olmert through emails, one of which purportedly said: “We are the Organisation of Islamic Jihad and you are Jews, but you are honest, and we are ready to do anything.”

According to the charges, Olmert responded to al-Haidari welcoming his offer to collaborate.

“We are ready to support you to become an obstacle in the Middle East. We will support you as an agent,” Olmert was quoted as writing.Mark Regev, Olmert’s spokesman, said the charges were “completely far-fetched”.

“We have no knowledge of any contact with this person,” he said.

The men were accused in January of claiming responsibilty for an attack on the U.S. embassy that killed 16 people in September, and operating under a group calling itself Organisation of Islamic Jihad.

The twin suicide car bombings on the U.S. embassy, later claimed by al-Qaeda in Yemen, were the biggest militant operation in the country since the attacks on the French tanker Limburg in 2002 and the US warship USS Cole in 2000.

The Yemeni government joined the US’s “war on terror” following September 11, 2001, attacks.

Watch FIFA soccer on Fox

With 2010 FIFA World Cup™ qualifiers underway, Fox Soccer Channel brings viewers coverage of two qualifying matches this Saturday featuring Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Azerbaijan.

Fox Soccer Channel’s live coverage of Iran vs. Saudi Arabia at 10:30 a.m. ET will feature color commentary from accomplished Iranian-American sportscaster Behrooz Afrakhan.

Iran is currently third in Asia’s Group B with 6 points, while Saudi Arabia is in fourth with 4 points. The top two finishers in both of the Asian groups earn a spot in the World Cup Finals taking place next year in South Africa.

In Europe’s World Cup qualification process, Russia is second in Group Four with 6 points. Each of the nine European group winners qualify for South Africa, while the second-place finishers enter a playoff in November for the four remaining spots.

Tune in to catch the following World Cup qualifiers this Saturday on Fox Soccer Channel: World Cup Qualifiers on Fox Soccer Channel, Saturday, March 28, Iran vs. Saudi Arabia – 10:30 a.m. ET (Live); Russia vs. Azerbaijan – 12:30 p.m. ET.

Fox Soccer Channel is America’s soccer network . Fox Soccer Channel is available through affiliated cable systems, and through DirecTV and Dish Network satellite providers. For more information, visit Fox Soccer Channel online at foxsoccer.com.

In NY synagogue, Israeli settler leader calls for assassination of Abbas — and tax-deductible contributions

NEW YORK — In a speech at a New York synagogue this week, Nadia Matar, a leader of the Israeli settlers’ group “Women in Green,” called for the assassination of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, as a way of bringing peace to Israel.

Nadia Matar

Just as Churchill understood that in order to bring peace to Europe, “he had to destroy the Nazi beast,” Matar explained, “today we must destroy all the terrorist organizations. We must kill all the terrorist leaders, starting with Mahmoud Abbas and all others…Nobody had any moral qualms at destroying the Nazi regime. We have to abolish the Oslo Agreements, there’s no difference between the PA, the Islamic Jihad, the Hamas, whatever names you have, they’re all terrorists and we cannot have peace with them.”
Matar then urged the crowd at the Safra Synagogue on the Upper East Side to make tax-deductible donations to Women in Green by writing checks to the Central Fund of Israel.

The Central Fund is a U.S. charity group that supports Jewish settler militias. It has received donations from leading figures in the American Jewish community, including James Tisch, the CEO of Loews, Michael Milken the banker/philanthropist, Alan C. (Ace) Greenberg, the former CEO of Bear Stearns, and actor Kirk Douglas. The Fund is housed at a fabric store on Sixth Avenue called Marcus Fabrics and administered by Arthur and Hadassah Marcus, who live in New York, and their son Jay, who lives in Efrat, the West Bank settlement where Nadia Matar also lives.

Matar, who was born in Belgium and moved to Israel 20 years ago, thanked the Safra Synagogue rabbi, Elie Abadie, who is associated with Yeshiva University, for hosting her visit. It was her third appearance in a tour of the U.S. to build support for the Jewish colonists of the West Bank.