“]

There have been angry protests in Turkey against Israel's raid on the flotilla [AFP

Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, also called for an international commission into the raid on the convoy of six ships, which reportedly killed at least four Turkish nationals.

“We have clearly stated that we would review our ties with Israel if all Turks not released by the end of the day,” Davutoglu told a news conference.

Turkey has sent three planes to retrieve hundreds of activists detained following Monday’s raid in international waters, which left nine people dead.

Legal action considered

Davutoglu said 210 Turks were scheduled to be flown to Istanbul from Israel on Turkish planes later on Wednesday, while it is believed around 20 injured people will return via Ankara, Turkey’s capital, on ambulance planes.

The foreign minister added that two Turkish citizens who were in serious condition will remain in Israeli hospitals with a Turkish doctor.

“We will not leave them to the mercy of anyone,” he said.

Davutoglu added Turkey was ready to normalise ties with Israel if it lifted its blockade on Gaza, saying “it was time calm replaces anger”.

His comments came a day a day after Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, called for Israel to be “punished” for its “bloody massacre”.

“It is no longer possible to cover up or ignore Israel’s lawlessness. It is time for the international community to say ‘enough is enough’,” he said.

Relations between Turkey and Israel deteriorated rapidly following the deadly raid, with most of the bloodshed occurring on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-flagged ship carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists.

State media reported on Wednesday that Turkey’s justice ministry is considering legal action against Israel.

Officials are looking into both domestic and international law to see what action might be undertaken after Monday’s operation in international waters, a report by the Anatolia news agency said.

Thousands of Turks staged two days of protests across the country denouncing the action.

Jewish backlash fears

Some members of Turkey’s Jewish community say they fear that anger over the flotilla deaths will lead to a rise in anti-Semitism in the nation.

“We are definitely worried, because that [the anger in Turkey] can turn very easily to anti-Semitism,” Ivo Molinas, the editor in chief of the weekly Istanbul-based publication Shalom, said.

“The rhetoric used by the prime minister has been very radical,” Molinas, a member of the 20,000-member Jewish community residing in Turkey, added.

Turkey says it has beefed up security to protect its Jewish minority, while Israel has ordered families of Israeli diplomats out of Turkey.

Besir Atalay, the Turkish interior minister, said security has been stepped up at 20 points alone in Istanbul, which has several synagogues and centres.

Turkey became Israel’s chief regional ally when the two signed a military co-operation deal in 1996.

But relations have soured since Israel’s devastating war on Gaza last year amid criticism from Erdogan’s government.

Peter Goldsmith, the government’s senior legal adviser at the time, wrote in 2002 that he was “not aware of existence of material” that would indicate an “imminent threat from Iraq”.

“I think you should know that I see considerable difficulties in being satisfied that military action would be justified on the basis of self-defence,” Goldsmith wrote to Geoff Hoon, Britain’s defence minister from 1999 to 2005.

“In particular I am not aware of the existence of material indicating the existence of an imminent threat from Iraq of the sort which would justify military action without support of a [UN] Security Council Chapter VII authorisation.”

Goldsmith later told the cabinet in March 2003 that the war was legal without a UN resolution, and the US-led invasion went ahead three days later.

The letters were released as Hoon gave evidence to a British public inquiry into the Iraq war.

He is the most senior politician to appear before the hearings so far.

‘Legal justification’

Hoon told the hearing in London on Tuesday that Goldsmith had “categorically” concluded that “there was a legal justification for military action” in his final conclusion in 2003.

He also said the government wanted a diplomatic solution to the crisis and did not think Tony Blair, the UK prime minister at the time, gave a promise to George Bush, the US president, to support war come what may.

“I think that right up until the vote in the House of Commons, our attitude towards
the use of force was always conditional,” Hoon said.

He identified mid-2002 as the period when it become clear that Washington “meant business” over Iraq, because the country was so deeply traumatised over the September 11, 2001 attacks and it perceived Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader at the time, as another threat.

“It was getting pretty real by then. I think there was a real sense of the Americans thinking through in a very practical way the consequences of the ‘axis of evil’ speech [by Bush] and focusing on Iraq.

“So we had no doubt at that stage in the summer that they meant business.”

Bush first branded Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an “axis of evil” in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002.

Wide-ranging inquiry

The Iraq war inquiry is Britain’s third and widest-ranging inquiry into the conflict, which triggered huge anti-war huge protests in the UK at the time and in which 179 British soldiers died fighting.

Nazanine Moshiri, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in London, said the inquiry will be looking to Blair, who is due to testify on January 29, for key evidence at the hearing.

“The Iraq inquiry says it is ’struggling to find’ key intelligence evidence supporting Tony Blair’s case for war,” she said.

“It will be asking him to fill in those gaps when he appears here next week.”

Two previous reports on aspects of the war have cleared Blair’s government of wrongdoing over the conflict.

The violence began after two immigrants were wounded by local youths

Riots involving hundreds of immigrants have broken out in southern Italy, in protest against an attack on African farm workers by a gang of local youths, police said.

Dozens of immigrants, mostly from African nations, smashed car windows and set cars and rubbish bins of fire in the town of Rosarno in the Calabria region on Thursday night.

The rioters, shouting “we are not animals” and holding signs accusing Italians of racism, clashed with riot police, leading to seven arrests.

The Italian interior ministry said 14 people, including officers, protesters and residents, were injured in the riots.

The violence started after two immigrants were wounded when a number of white youths fired air rifles at them as they returned home from work.

‘Strongly provoked’

Immigrants work in the area as day labourers picking fruit and vegetables, with some 1,500 living in squalid conditions in abandoned factories with no running water or electricity

Human rights activists say they are exploited by organised crime groups.

Agazio Loiero, governor of the Calabria region, told Sky TV that the violence was “unacceptable” but the migrants have been “strongly provoked”.

Calabria is also the base of the international crime syndicate called ‘ndrangheta.

The combination of ethnic strife and organised crime activity has sparked violence before among immigrant communities in southern Italy.

In 2008, migrants rioted in the Naples area after six Ghanians were murdered in a gangland-style shooting blamed on the local Camorra crime syndicate.

Yemen's army is fighting a resurgent al-Qaeda on its territory

A Nigerian man accused of the attempted bombing of a US-bound plane on Christmas Day was recruited by al-Qaeda in London and met a radical American Muslim cleric in Yemen, a top Yemeni official has said.

Addressing a news conference on Thursday, Rashad al-Alimi, Yemen’s deputy prime minister for defence and security, said: “The information provided to us is that Umar Farouk [Abdulmutallab] joined al-Qaeda in London.”

Al-Alimi said that Abdulmutallab had also met with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim preacher, during his time in Yemen, referring to an English-speaking cleric linked to a gunman who ran amok in a US army base in Texas in November, killing 13 people.

A Yemeni security official has said al-Awlaki was believed to have later died in a strike on al-Qaeda fighters last month.

Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said last week that it had trained and equipped Abdulmutallab, 23, for the plane plot.

‘No evidence’

Earlier this week, in a statement to the UK parliament, Alan Johnson, the country’s interior minister, said: “As has been widely reported, Abdulmutallab attended University College London (UCL) between 2005 and 2008, where he completed a degree in engineering.

“During this time he was known to the Security Service but not as somebody engaged in violent extremism.

“His family and friends have stated their belief that he turned to this during his time in Yemen.”

On Thursday, a spokesperson for UCL said: “We would like to reiterate that there is absolutely no evidence at this stage to suggest that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was radicalised at UCL.

“We are currently providing all assistance to the authorities, and are setting up a full independent review of Mr Abdulmutallab’s time here.”

Mohamed Vall, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, said: “There are two major points that he [al-Alimi] made today that shed new light on the incident.

“One of them is that he [Abdulmutallab] was not recruited in Yemen, and the other is that he did not bring these explosives from Yemen, he brought them from Nigeria.

“This of course takes some of the burden from the Yemenis and takes it to London.”

Vall said that the international focus on Yemen was of increasing concern to the government in Sana’a.

He said: “There are fears that if there is more and more interference from the outside world, that could make a situation that is already fragile in this country … worse.”

Intervention rejected

Yemen, which is trying to fight a resurgent al-Qaeda on its territory, launched an operation this week to root out al-Qaeda fighters who they said were behind threats that forced several Western embassies to close on Sunday.

Last week, Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, said the UK planned to join the US in funding an “anti-terrorist” force in Yemen.

Brown said he would hold a meeting in London on January 28 to discuss how to counter radicalisation in Yemen.

Abubakr al-Qirbi, Yemen’s foreign minister, whose country is also facing a Houthi uprising in the north and simmering separatist sentiment in the south, has rejected direct foreign intervention.

“We think this is the priority and the responsibility of our security forces and the army,” al-Qirbi told CNN, the US broadcaster.

Asked by CNN whether Yemen would accept direct US intervention, al-Qirbi said: “No, I don’t think we will accept that.

“I think the US, as well, have learned from Afghanistan and Iraq and other places that direct intervention can be self-defeating.”

Al-Qaeda ’spared’

Al-Qirbi said there were about 200 to 300 al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

“I think our thought was that maybe we should spare al-Qaeda in the last year because of the confrontation in the south and with the Houthis.

“But al-Qaeda took advantage of that,” Qirbi said, adding that al-Qaeda had tried to make inroads with northern fighters and southern separatists.

Meanwhile, gunmen shot dead two Yemeni soldiers in attack on a police station in Aden, the former capital of south Yemen, witnesses and security sources said on Thursday.

The gunmen were believed to be suspects wanted in criminal cases, an independent Yemeni news website reported, quoting a security official.

Hundreds of people submitted a petition to the government against the payout bill

Iceland’s president has refused to sign a bill that would compensate the British and the Dutch governments over the failure of Icesave bank, calling a national referendum on the issue instead.

Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said on Tuesday he had decided “to refer this new act to the people,” adding that the public must “determine the future course”.

“The involvement of the whole nation in the final decision is therefore the prerequisite for a successful solution, reconciliation and recovery,” he said.

The Icesave bill calls for the payout of $5.4bn to Britain and the Netherlands after its respective governments compensated more than 320,000 customers who lost money in the collapse of the internet savings bank.

‘Domestic distate’

The Dutch government said it was “extremely disappointed” at the decision and called for an explanation.

“The Netherlands maintains that Iceland is compelled to pay back the money,” Ruud Slotboom, a Dutch finance ministry spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

“We expect of the government of Iceland to give us an explanation in the short term of the situation now created and the steps to be taken.”

The compensation bill has sparked anger in Iceland, which was hit by a financial meltdown in October 2008.

About 60,000 people – about one-quarter of the country’s electorate – have signed a petition protesting against the bill and calling for the issue to be put to a referendum.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from London, said “the domestic distate for this bill stems from the feeling among many Icelanders that they don’t want as taxpayers to be paying for the sins of their banks.

“They feel that their country is in no position .. to pay for the £5bn to Britain and the Netherlands.”

About 113,000 foreign troops are in Afghanistan fighting Taliban-led fighters

Two separate roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan have left four US troops and a British soldier dead.

The US soldiers, the first American military casualties in Afghanistan in the new year, were killed in an explosion on Sunday in the south of the country, Nato-led forces said in a statement.

The UK soldier died while on foot patrol in Helmand province, Britain’s ministry of defence said on Monday.

The Taliban said that a series of explosions on Sunday in Panjwai district of southern Kandahar had killed several foreign soldiers, but their report could not be verified immediately.

Meanwhile, the Afghan defence ministry said its soldiers killed more than 10 Taliban fighters on Sunday in northern Kunduz province’s Imam Sahib district.

Nato and the US have 113,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting Taliban-led fighters, who are aiming to overthrow the government of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

Break suspended

On Monday, Karzai ordered parliament to suspend a winter break so that politicians can vote on new cabinet nominees, after politicians rejected over two thirds of his original candidates.

Parliament refused 17 out of 24 of his nominees on Saturday, casting Afghanistan into further political array after a UN-backed probe in October threw out nearly one third of his votes from August’s presidential poll.

Karzai’s decree ordered that the legislature should delay its 45-day recess until he proposes new ministers in place of those rejected by the parliamentarians at the weekend, his office said in a statement.

It ordered “the national assembly to postpone leave until the members of the cabinet are approved”.

If Karzai fails to have his cabinet approved in the next few weeks he will have to head to a London conference later this month seeking extra funds from Western donors without being able to say who will control a significant chunk of them.

London witnesses anti-Egypt protest

At least 200 protestors gathered Friday outside the Egyptian Embassy in London after news spread that Gaza peace activists had been beaten by Egyptian police in Cairo.

The protest was organized by the British Muslim Initiative in association with the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

The demonstrators called on the Egyptian president to allow the international aid convoy “Viva Palestina” to enter Gaza through the Egyptian border.

More than 200 vehicles packed with food and medicines left London on December 6 for Gaza. But they are now stranded at the Syrian port of Lattakia as the Egyptian authorities do not issue permits for the convoy to enter Gaza through the port city of El-Arish in Egypt.

The demonstrators in London chanted slogans such as “Mubarak Siege Must End”, “Mubarak Wall Must Fall”, “Free Free Palestine,” and “Mubarak Zionist.”

They also urged the ban on the entry of “Viva Palestina” convoy to be lifted.

The Egyptian government is building a steel wall along its border with Gaza to prevent the traffic of any goods to the blockaded strip. It is also avoiding opening of the Rafah crossing for international aid convoys to pass through Gaza.

Peace activists and human rights campaigners have called on Cairo to lift the ban and allow the flow of international aid into Gaza to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

A handicapped woman is seen begging for money in Berlin, Germany, in this August 11, 2009 file photo, amid rising unemployment rates in Europe due to the global financial crisis.

The European Commission has expressed alarm over the eurozone’s mounting debt crisis, seeing it as a threat to efforts aimed at pulling the zone out of its first recession.

European officials borrowed heavily in the face of growing economic shortfall and the commission predicts that the average eurozone public debt could reach 84 percent of gross domestic product by 2010.

The body warns that the debt levels, figures far above a ceiling set by European Union’s Stability and Growth Pact, will make public finances unsustainable in half of the 16 countries that share the single European currency.

It also noted that higher public debt levels, which show an average 18 percent increase from 2007, are born out of soaring budget deficits, low growth and banking sector support.

Eurozone states poured billions of euros on fiscal-stimulus measures and bank bailouts to weather the financial downturn. As a result, some of the zone’s most strong economies are facing high public debt levels.

Europe’s largest economy, Germany, forecasts public debt at around 78 percent of GDP this year, while Greece is bracing for a shortfall of 120 percent.

In France, the second largest economy in the zone, public debt jumped to a record 75.8 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

Protesters gathered outside the president's residence to submit their petition

Iceland’s president is facing pressure to halt the repayment of $5bn to British and Dutch savers who lost their money when the island’s banks collapsed over a year ago.

Nearly a quarter of Icelandic voters have signed a petition asking Olaf Ragnar Grimsson to veto a bill sanctioning the repayment and organise a referendum on the issue, organisers said on Saturday.

Hundreds of people, some carrying flares, gathered outside Grimsson’s residence to submit the petition.

Parliament earlier narrowly approved an amended version of the bill to reimburse Britain and the Netherlands for the amount lost by their savers who had deposited funds in high-interest “Icesave” online savings accounts.

But the Grimsson has yet to sign it into law and 23 per cent of the island nation’s electorate – 56,089 people – have signed the petition, organisers said.

‘Huge risk’

The Icesave deal is deeply unpopular with the Icelandic population and there is widespread feeling that taxpayers are being left to foot the bill for mistakes made by financial firms operating under the watch of other national regulators.

InDefence, the group responsible for gathering the signatures, said the Icesave legislation represented a “huge risk” for Iceland’s economic future.

“All projections based on realistic assumptions … showed without doubt that Iceland would be unable to meet the payments stipulated by the Icesave loan agreements as set out in the disputed legislation,” a statement from the group said.

But repaying the money could also hold some benefit for Iceland as the longstanding dispute has held up payment of some aid funds from international lenders.

‘Debt burden’

Morton Kraemer, a credit analyst with rating agency Standard & Poor’s, said that while the bill “will add significantly to the general government’s debt burden” the resulting aid payments would help Reykjavij relax financial controls put in place during the financial crisis.

“It [passage of the bill] is a decisive step to unlock further disbursements of up to 2.3 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund and from bilateral loans from Nordic governments,” he said.

Passing the Icesave legislation would also boost Iceland’s hopes of swift entry into the European Union, a move Iceland’s population is only lukewarm about.

Icesave was an online subsidiary of Iceland’s Landsbanki bank, which had to be rescued in October 2008 as the global credit crunch hit.

15 year-old Andreas Grigoropoulos was killed in December 2008 by Greek police in Exarhia

Clashes between police and several hundred youths have taken place in Athens, the Greek capital, as demonstrators staged a second day of protests to mark a teenager’s fatal shooting by police a year ago.

Police fired tear gas and arrested nine people after a group of youths hurled stones at a security cordon deployed to prevent further trouble after demonstrations around the country turned violent at the weekend.

Last year’s fatal shooting of Alexis Grigoropoulos, 15, led to Greece’s worst unrest in decades.

Several high schools and universities in the country were under occupation by students on Monday as part of the protest.

Running battles

On Sunday, riot police, hoping to avoid the lengthy riots of last year, fired tear gas at thousands of demonstrators as they marched through Athens and other Greek cities.

About 277 people were detained in the capital and 26 arrested, while 26 police officers, 4 people, and the dean of Athens university were injured.

Greece’s government had deployed more than 6,000 police officers onto the streets of the capital to avert a repeat of last year’s riots which caused millions of dollars of damage.

Sporadic scuffles between stone-throwing protesters and riot police broke out around Athens, with police in full riot gear firing tear gas to disperse small groups of hooded youths.

On Saturday, Greek police had arrested more than 150 people in Athens in an attempt to head off trouble.

Zero tolerance

Greece’s government has said it will not tolerate a repeat of last year’s violence. Karolos Papoulias, the president of Greece, had pleaded for calm ahead of the planned protests.

“The murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos was not only a heinous act, it was a lesson for us all … an obligation to try and ensure a fairer society for our younger generation,” he said.

Theodoros Pangalos, the Greek deputy prime minister, said: “We will not tolerate lawlessness and attacks on innocent citizens.”

Grigoropoulos was shot dead by a police officer who claimed he fired into the air whilst under attack by youths.

Two police officers have been charged with murder and attempted murder for the teenager’s death and are scheduled to stand trial on January 20.

Fears of violence have been heightened by reports that groups of anarchists from other European countries are planning to join the protests in Athens.

Reported By: Al Jazeera