DAMASCUS ( Syrian forces are “wreaking disaster” on Aleppo, killing hundreds in air strikes )

DAMASCUS: Syrian forces are “wreaking disaster” on Aleppo, killing hundreds in air strikes on the city, Human Rights Watch said Saturday, as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi held talks with Iran’s foreign minister.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), meanwhile, said the body of Abbas Khan, a British doctor who died in a Syrian jail, was to be transported to Beirut.
“Government forces have really been wreaking disaster on Aleppo in the last month, killing men, women, and children alike,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“The Syrian air force is either criminally incompetent, doesn’t care whether it kills scores of civilians — or deliberately targets civilian areas,” Solvang added.
The HRW statement comes six days after the launch of a massive aerial campaign against opposition-held areas of Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial capital, involving dozens of warplane strikes and helicopter attacks using TNT-packed barrels.
The New York-based organization cited the Syrian Network for Human Rights as saying 232 civilians were killed from Dec. 15 to 18 in and around the northern city.
HRW concluded that the attacks, which targeted both Aleppo city and its province, showed “government forces had used means and methods of warfare that... could not distinguish between civilians and combatants, making attacks indiscriminate and therefore unlawful.”
It also lashed out against rebels for firing rockets and mortar rounds into civilian areas in government-controlled parts of Aleppo.
The city has been split into rebel and regime-controlled areas since mid-summer 2012 when rebels launched a massive offensive to try to take Syria’s second city.
On Saturday, a day after rebels made a fresh advance in the city, overrunning the Kindi hospital, regime troops pounded the area, which loyalists had for months been using as a base, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Aleppo Media Center, a network of activists on the ground, also said the army had launched a new attack against the opposition-held Qadi Askar neighborhood.
The loyalists, according to the AMC, used highly destructive TNT-packed barrel bombs, whose use has been condemned widely by rights groups.
The violence comes despite preparatory discussions for peace talks due for Jan. 22 in Switzerland, which should bring together opposition and regime representatives.
There has been no agreement yet on whether key Damascus backer Iran will participate in the talks.
On Saturday, peace envoy Brahimi talked by phone with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif about the latest on the Geneva 2 conference,” the ministry said.
Zarif, it said, “insisted on a political solution” that includes talks between the parties to the conflict which has claimed some 126,000 lives since it erupted nearly three years ago.
On Friday, Brahimi had said negotiators failed to reach agreement on whether Iran should be invited to the peace talks, but that Tehran was not yet “off the list” of participants.
“It’s no secret that we in the United Nations welcome the participation of Iran, but our partners in the United States are still not convinced that Iran’s participation would be the right thing,” said Brahimi.
While Iran backs President Bashar Assad’s regime, the United States has insisted he should be excluded from a future transition.
Meanwhile, the ICRC announced the body of Abbas Khan, a British doctor who died in a regime jail, will arrive in Beirut on Saturday.
In the Lebanese capital, his remains will be handed over to the British Embassy.
London and a Syrian rights group has held Damascus responsible for Dr. Khan’s death.
But Syrian authorities said on Wednesday the doctor was found “hanging” in his cell, where he was being held for “unauthorized activities,” and that he had committed suicide.
Khan, a volunteer with London-based charity Human Aid UK, had traveled to Aleppo in northern Syria last year to help civilians when he was arrested by the regime.
The developments come a day after the opposition condemned the arrest by the security forces in the northern city of Qamishli of a prominent Assyrian Christian dissident, Gabriel Mushi Gowriyeh.
“The Syrian National Coalition condemns the detention in the city of Qamishli on Dec. 19 of Gabriel Mushi Gowriyeh, head of the Assyrian Democratic Organization’s political bureau,” the group said.

Saudi Arabia ( Saudi women strive to overcome obstacles as PR professionals )

As Saudi women strive to excel in the field of public relations/communications, society’s norms and traditions put obstacles in their way.
Many Saudi women entered the field driven by the successful experiences of professional women in the PR field recently. However, most haven’t ventured into the private sector yet as they prefer to work with government and charity organizations.


Media and PR specialists see a need in developing the PR field in government organizations, particularly women sections. Dr. Hamad Al-Mousa, a media professor and head of the Department of Higher Education and Scientific Research at Imam Mohammad bin Saud Islamic University, said PR departments do not follow a clear plan.
“Many establishments don’t even allocate a budget for the PR department,” he said.
Some see traditional work approach as an added difficulty for women as employers adhere to gender-based division of work.
Dr. Mohammad Al-Hizan, president of the Saudi Association for Public Relations and Advertisements, says female government PR departments are marginalized. “Employers ask women to deal with hospitality and meeting hall arrangements,” Al-Hizan said. “The real PR tasks are assigned to other departments.”
Al-Mousa said that lack of media exposure among women decreases the efficiency of PR work. “Most PR women avoid media despite its vital need in their work. Media skills are diminished as a result,” he said.
Only 10 percent of Saudi women working in PR utilize modern technology, such as social media websites, to communicate with their target audience. The remaining 90 percent of the female administrations use traditional communication means, such as faxes and telephones.”
Salma Al-Motairi, a lecturer in the Media Department at King Saud University in Riyadh, criticized the lack of modern technology use in PR departments during the First Workshop for PR Officials held at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently.
Rania Al-Sharif, a Saudi academic specializing in information management, said: “The technology revolution advanced services in all sectors, particularly communications and PR departments, and women and their employers should have adopted it to their benefit.”
Al-Sharif said departments that allocated pages for social media networks in Saudi Arabia have not achieved the desired goals, because they were not inviting. “They are pages only used for answering questions, just like Twitter accounts for some Saudi universities,” she said.
While social media is developing as a tool for PR in Saudi organizations, the new field has a potential of becoming a women’s field of choice as it requires less media exposure.

Iraq ( Five Senior Army Officers Killed in Iraq Ambush )

BAGHDAD – At least five senior Iraqi army officers and 10 other soldiers were killed Saturday in an ambush by suspected Al Qaeda-linked militants in the western province of Al Anbar.

Fourteen other soldiers were wounded in the attack, a spokesperson for the police in Ramadi, Al Anbar’s capital, told Efe.

The fatalities include the commander of the army’s 7th Division and the commander of that division’s 1st Brigade.

The military men were killed in a powerful blast at the entrance to a militant hide-out in a region some 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Ramadi.

The militants planted the explosives before fleeting the scene, the police spokesperson said.

Authorities accused the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has stepped up its attacks on Iraqi security forces in recent months, of responsibility for the ambush.

A recent rise in sectarian violence and terrorist attacks in Iraq left 948 people – mostly civilians – dead in November, according to the government.

Mexico ( Six Die in Shootout in Northeastern Mexico )

MEXICO CITY – Six gunmen were killed in a clash with army soldiers outside the northeastern Mexican border city of Matamoros, authorities said.

The Tamaulipas Coordination Group, which is made up of state and federal security forces, reported the number killed in the clash in a statement Friday, saying it took place shortly after midday Thursday in an area known as “Brecha 10” between the municipalities of Valle Hermoso and Matamoros.

Army soldiers were responding to a tip about the presence of several suspicious vehicles in the area, the group said.

After coming under attack by the gunmen, they repelled the aggression and killed “six of the assailants, while the others managed to flee.”

The soldiers confiscated 11 rifles, including a Barrett .50 caliber long-range assault rifle, a grenade launcher, hand grenades, ammunition, tactical gear and four SUVs at the scene.

The Gulf, Los Zetas and Sinaloa drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas state, where Matamoros is located, and smuggling routes into the United States for years.

Matamoros is located across the border from Brownsville, Texas

Protest ( A protester taunts " Water cannon " and gets it )

MANILA ( Mayor killed along with his wife and child )

MANILA, Philippines: A gunman attacked a Philippine mayor as he left the country’s main airport on Friday along with crowds of Christmas travelers, killing him, his wife, a child and another man, authorities and witnesses said.


The gunman fired on Labangan Mayor Ukol Talumpa outside Terminal 3 at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, named after President Benigno Aquino III’s father, who was assassinated there 30 years ago. The terminal handles international and domestic flights, and is supposed to be a relatively well-guarded facility. Talumpa had arrived from Zamboanga del Sur, the southern province where Labangan is located.
There was no word on a possible motive, but violent attacks linked to political rivalries, family feuds and business disputes are common in the Philippines, and have left hundreds of people dead over the years. Talumpa himself had survived at least two earlier assassination attempts, according to local media reports.
The mayor and his wife were declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital along with a 1 1/2-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man, said the airport’s general manager, Jose Angel Honrado.
Local radio reports said that the man was a nephew of the mayor, but that the boy was a bystander with no relation to Talumpa.
At least five other people were wounded, including a niece of the mayor and a 3-year-old girl who sustained a head wound, hospital authorities said.
An uncle of the dead boy, Felipe Lirasan, told DZMM radio that the child’s family was staying at his home for Christmas. “Then this happened,” he said, his voice breaking. “There is nothing that we can do.”
Honrado said that investigators were trying to determine how many attackers were involved. Witnesses, however, saw only one gunman, who sped away on a waiting motorcycle that was driven by another man, Honrado said.
An airport car rental dispatcher said one of the two men on the motorcycle was wearing a cap and what appeared to be a police uniform.
“When shots rang out, the passengers all rushed inside the terminal,” said the dispatcher, who spoke to a local radio station but didn’t give his name.
He said the man wearing the police uniform almost fell off the motorcycle as they sped away. They were chased by airport authorities in cars, but the pair wove their way through the stalled vehicles and escaped, he said.
Local newspapers have reported that Talumpa, then a vice mayor of Labangan, and one of his nephews were wounded in another attack in 2010 in Manila. Last year, assailants lobbed a grenade at Talumpa and his wife in Pagadian City, the capital of Zamboanga del Sur, but they escaped unhurt. Talumpa was elected mayor earlier this year.
Islamic extremists are active in Zamboanga del Sur, but there was no immediate indication that this attack was related to the insurgency.

Pakistan ( 2 gunmen kill " Health worker " administering polio drops )

PESHAWAR: Two gunmen shot dead a health worker administering polio drops and other vaccines to children in a restive Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said.
The murder took place at a government-run dispensary in Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal district. The gunmen ordered women and children to leave before shooting dead the vaccinator, doctor Sameen Jan, the top health official in Khyber said.


 Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the killing, but Taliban militants have been targeting health workers and security personnel during vaccination campaigns.
A local administration official confirmed the incident and said that the assailants left a note on the body warning of dire consequences for anyone continuing to vaccinate children in Khyber.
The attacks come despite a recent fatwa by a prominent Pakistani religious scholar, known as the "Father of the Taliban", who urged parents to immunise their children against polio and other life-threatening diseases and said vaccinations were compliant with Sharia.
Last year the Pakistani Taliban banned polio vaccinations in the tribal region of Waziristan, alleging the campaign was a cover for espionage.
Eradication efforts have also suffered due to long-standing rumours that the vaccine was part of a Western plot to sterlise Muslims.