Iran vows to strike Israel's nuclear sites if attacked

BEIRUT: Lebanon television channel says Iran's defense minister has warned that his country will strike Israel's nuclear sites if the Jewish state attacks Iranian nuclear facilities.

The Wednesday report says Gen. Ahmad Vahidi made his comments to reporters while visiting Damascus, capital of neighboring Syria.

Lebanon television is the mouthpiece of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese guerrilla group and political party. Iran's English language Press TV also carried Vahidi's comments.

Israel has not ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel, the United States and other Western nations say Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran denies the charge. It says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

Europe presses US, China on emissions cuts

COPENHAGEN:  The European Union (EU) put pressure on the US and China to do more with their emission cut targets and called on the two countries to take a leadership role as the Copenhagen climate talks continued on the second day.

"The US and China have not offered to go far enough to combat climate change," CNN quoted a top EU official as saying Monday.

Final negotiations at the conference "will be mostly about what will be delivered from the US and China," said Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's environment minister, who pressed US President Barack Obama to do more than he promised in a statement before the conference.

The so-called "G2" concept, frequently mentioned in G20 summits this year, reappeared in many media to refer to the responsibility the two countries should assume.

China and the US together cover half of the world's emissions so what they can deliver is very decisive, Carlgren said.

Jin Canrong, a professor from Renmin University of China, told the Global Times in an interview that it is undeniable that China and the US are two major emitters, but the motive behind the EU’s statement is its intention to shift the burden to China and the US; in which case, they will bear the final result of the climate talks, be it good or bad.

Last month China announced its plan to reduce 40 percent to 45 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of the GDP in 2020 compared with 2005 levels. This target was followed by the US' commitment of a 17 percent cut by 2020 below 2005 levels.

Egypt starts building steel wall on Gaza Strip border

Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels, the BBC has learned.

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Cairo:  When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 metres below the surface.

The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers, who the BBC understands have designed the wall.

The plan has been shrouded in secrecy, with no comment or confirmation from the Egyptian government.

The wall will take 18 months to complete.

For weeks local farmers have noticed more activity at the border where trees were being cut down, but very few of them were aware that a barrier was being built.

'Impenetrable'

That is because the barrier, made of super-strength steel, has been hidden deep underground.

The BBC has been told that it was manufactured in the US, that it fits together in similar fashion to a jigsaw, and that it has been tested to ensure it is bomb proof.

It cannot be cut or melted - in short it is impenetrable.

Intelligence sources in Egypt say the barrier is being sunk close to the perimeter wall that already exists.

They claim 4km of the wall has already been completed north of the Rafah crossing, with work now beginning to the south.

The land beneath Egypt and Gaza resembles a Swiss cheese, full of holes and tunnels through which the Palestinians smuggle the everyday items they are denied by the blockade.

But the Israelis say the tunnels are also used to smuggle people, weapons, and the components of the rockets that are fired at southern Israeli towns.

The wall is not expected to stop all the smuggling, but it will force the Palestinians to go deeper and it will likely cut the hundreds of superficial tunnels closer to the surface that are used to move the bulk of the goods.

'US arrests' in Pakistan

PAKISTAN:  The FBI is investigating five American Muslim students who are thought to have been arrested in Pakistan yesterday on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks after disappearing from their homes in the U.S. last month.

Pakistani police said they arrested the five men, aged between 18 early 20s, in a raid on the house of a member of the banned militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, in the town of Sargodha in the eastern province of Punjab.

The FBI has yet to confirm their nationalities or identities, but Pakistani officials said the men were all U.S. citizens, including three of Pakistani descent, one of Egyptian descent and one of Yemeni descent, and had been staying at the house since November 30.

Their arrest came as David C. Headley, another U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin, pleaded not guilty yesterday to terrorism charges in a case that has raised fears about Islamic militant groups' ability to recruit and operate inside the United States.

Muslim leaders in Washington said the five men -- all students -- had been living with their families in northern Virginia state until they disappeared last month, and one had left behind a Jihadist-style "farewell" video message.

Officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) told reporters that the men's families contacted the organization after they went missing.

Nihad Awad, CAIR's executive director, declined to give the men’s names, ages or nationalities, but one of them has been identified as a dental student at Howard University in Washington.

Mr Awad said the families brought along a video that included war images and Koranic verses and showed one of the five men delivering a "final statement".

"It's like a farewell," he said of the 11-minute, English-language video that one of the families reportedly found in their home.

"There were... images of conflict," he added. "It was generic, but you can draw your own conclusions."

After viewing the video, CAIR contacted the FBI, which appeared to have been unaware of the men's activities, said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's national communications director.

The FBI said in a statement that it was aware of the arrests in Pakistan and was now working with families and local law enforcement to investigate the missing students.

"We are working with Pakistan authorities to determine their identities and the nature of their business there, if indeed these are the students who had gone missing," said Lindsey Godwin, an FBI spokeswoman.

"Because this is an ongoing investigation, we will not be able to provide further details at this time," she added.

An FBI team is currently visiting India and Pakistan principally to gather and share evidence on the case of Mr Headley, 49, who is charged with helping to plan terrorist attacks in Denmark and India.

Mr Headley -- who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 -- pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges including plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and scouting targets for last year’s militant attacks on Mumbai.

The son of a Pakistani diplomat and his American socialite wife is also accused of providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group blamed the Mumbai attacks, and attending training camps in Pakistan run by the banned group.