OIC head calls on Islamic Ummah to assist Haiti affetees

JEDDAH:  The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged all OIC member states and civil society organisations to extend a helping hand to the Haitian population following the devastating earthquake on Jan 12.

The 7.3 magnitude earthquake killed about 75,000 people while 250,000 injured and a million left homeless.

According to Qatar media, Ihsanoglu expressed his shock and sadness following the disaster, which hit the Republic of Haiti and the large scale destruction inflicted on the people of this Island Nation.

He also praised the international community for its swift reaction in responding to the appeal made by Haiti government, Qatar News Agency said.

Ihsanoglu also expressed his gratitude to the OIC member states, which have already provided assistance and displayed solidarity by coming to the rescue of the Haiti people in the wake of this unprecedented catastrophe.

One week after the earthquake that hit the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, a massive international aid effort is underway as 43 search and rescue teams continue their work.

Suicide attackers, gunmen hit central Kabul

KABUL:  About two dozen gunmen, some wearing suicide vests, attacked locations across Kabul on Monday in a coordinated commando-style operation against several targets, including banks and Afghan government ministries.

Gunfire from street battles and loud explosions could be heard across the capital in the worst attack on the city in almost a year.

While the gunbattle there was underway, a suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle outside another shopping center nearby killing several police and security officials, a security source said. Another blast was later reported near a cinema several hundred meters (yards) away.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came as some cabinet members of President Hamid Karzai were being sworn in.

"At least ten people who are suicide bombers are in several buildings, including in banks and shopping centers," security officer Amir Mohammad said at the scene where Afghan forces had cordoned off parts of central Kabul.

He had no information about casualties.

Initial reports of casualties were only partial. NATO forces said at least two armed insurgents were killed. A security source said two guards were shot dead by the bombers as they stormed the Grand Shopping Center. Another said three people had died.

Another security source said as many as 30 attackers could be involved in clashes and three people had been killed.

"Gunmen are besieged in the store," he told Reuters, referring to a large store opposite the justice ministry and close to the presidential palace.

"They are firing on security forces and we believe suicide bombers are among them."

Spanish lawmaker’s hair used in bin Laden photo

MADRID:  A Spanish politician on Saturday said he was surprised and shocked to find out the FBI used some of his features in a new computer-generated photo of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.Gaspar Llamazares, member of the United Left party in Spain and known for his anti-American positions, said he would no longer feel safe travelling to the United States after his hair and facial wrinkles were used in an updated photo of Osama bin Laden recently released by the FBI.

"I was surprised and angered because it's the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist," Llamazares said at a news conference Saturday. "It's almost like out of a comedy if it didn't deal with matters as serious as bin Laden and citizens' security."

The FBI's contemporary representation of Bin Laden, with graying hair and a stubble, was visible for several hours on the most wanted "Rewards for Justice" website, before it was removed.

An FBI technician, acting on his own initiative, searched the Internet for images and used the hair and forehead of Gaspar Llamazares, a left-leaning Spanish deputy, according to FBI spokesman Ken Hoffman.

He was not satisfied with the solutions offered for hair by the program the FBI uses and instead sourced features from a photograph he found on the Internet, Hoffman explained.

Hoffman said the action went against FBI procedure.

Llamazares said Saturday he would formally request an explanation from the American authorities and reserved the right to file a lawsuit against the United States.

Lady Gaga Pledges Haiti Earthquake-Relief Donation On 'Oprah'

Singer also talks about exhaustion, performs medley in spike-themed outfit.

In an appearance as varied as one of her song medleys, on Friday's"Oprah Winfrey Show," Lady Gaga performed, announced that she'll be donating the proceeds from one of her forthcoming concerts to relief for Haiti, and indirectly addressed her show cancellations in the wake of her collapse from exhaustion after a show on Thursday.

Regarding Haiti, Gaga said that all proceeds from her January 24 concert in New York will go to relief organizations for the earthquake in the embattled country.

"Haiti's still suffering," she said. "And I was thinking earlier, because I was in New York during 9/11 and I always felt, the level of disaster isn't in the neighborhood of what is happening in Haiti, but I just remember feeling nobody really understood. And I worry that young people don't know enough about what's going on there.

"And I will say today that on the 24th, the Monster Ball [show] in New York City, all of the money that I make in ticket sales and merchandise will go to Haiti. And on the 24th you can also go onto LadyGaga.com and any merchandise that you buy, the money will go to Haiti." Reached for comment, Gaga's label rep told MTV News the specifics of the contribution would be announced in the coming days. (Learn more about what you can do to help with earthquake-relief efforts in Haiti.) more

U.S. plans to issue official protest to China over attack on Google

WASHINGTON:  The United States will issue an official protest to the Chinese government over a major espionage attack targeting Google's computer systems and rights activists' e-mail accounts that the search-engine giant said originated in China.

"We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early next week," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Friday.

The diplomatic message will "express our concern for this incident" and seek an explanation, he said. The move may signal a shift for an administration that has been reluctant, according to China experts, to press sensitive issues such as human rights, lest it offend a country whose cooperation it seeks in other areas.

On Tuesday, in a rare disclosure by a major firm, Google announced that its "corporate infrastructure" had been hacked and its intellectual property stolen. It said that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists in China, Europe and the United States were also penetrated and noted that other large companies were targeted, as well. Industry sources said 34 firms, including Google, were affected.

Google also said it will no longer filter Internet searches on its Chinese search engine, Google.cn. Although it did not directly accuse China, the Silicon Valley technology titan threatened to pull out of the country if the government does not allow it to operate uncensored. Chinese officials said that their laws ban hacking and that China's Internet is open, although they also defended a policy of keeping certain types of information off the Web in China.

The State Department's planned action coincides with a speech on Internet freedom that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is to deliver Thursday. She is expected to allude to the incident. "When she talks about this issue, China will be one of the countries she points to," an administration official said.

"You couldn't have picked a worse company to hack if you wanted to not irritate the Americans," said James A. Lewis, a cyber and national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "They're their favorite child," he said of Google. The firm's chief executive advises President Obama on technology, and its Web applications are seen as the sort of innovation that will drive the new economy.

Officials said the administration has raised concerns about cybersecurity and Internet freedom with China before. But by formally protesting to the Chinese, the United States is elevating the issues to a new level, policy experts said. Richard N. Rosecrance, director of the Project on U.S.-China Relations at Harvard University, said, "I think this is the bottoming out of an extremely favorable policy toward China that might now begin to shift in another direction."

One analyst said Friday that he is not sure the attacks point to the Chinese government. Rob Knake, a cybersecurity expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, said his analysis of results from a technology firm investigating the attacks suggests that they "were not state-sponsored or the work of an elite, sophisticated group such as the Chinese military."

Nonetheless, said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, "Google has not only forced China's hand, they have forced the U.S.'s hand" on human rights.

"What Google has done," she said, "is make it easier for the administration to come out swinging on this issue."