Yemen ( Yemen battles ‘kill 22 in 48 hours’ )

SANAA: Two days of fighting between rebels and gunmen from the powerful Hashid tribes in north Yemen have killed nearly 22 people, a tribal source said on Monday.
A presidential commission had on Jan. 8 brokered a truce between the Huthi rebels and Hashid fighters, ending two days of clashes in Amran province.
The fighting first erupted when Huthis tried to seize the towns of Wadi Khaywan and Usaimat, both Hashid strongholds.


But battles resumed a week ago and intensified over the past two days, the tribal source said.
“There were 22 people killed on both sides during the last 48 hours,” the source said, adding that fighting was concentrated on Usaimat, 140 km north of Sanaa.
The Huthis launched the attacks in retaliation for the Hashid tribe’s support for hard-line Sunni groups fighting Huthis in Dammaj, a rebel stronghold in the north.
The town in Saada province has been besieged by the rebels for months.
Huthi rebels have been battling the Sanaa government for nearly a decade in Saada, but the clashes with Sunni militants have deepened the sectarian dimension of the unrest.
Yemeni troops began to deploy in Saada on January 11 to monitor a cease-fire between the Huthis and Salafis.

Russia ( Female Suicide bomber " At the Olympic Games " Security Alert ) See photo

Police in Sochi have launched an urgent search for a possible female suicide bomber who may have already made it past the ring of security set up for the Olympic Games.

Hotel employees in Sochi told ABC News that posters with pictures and descriptions of a 22-year-old woman from nearby Dagestan were distributed over the weekend by authorities and a similar flyer was also seen posted at Sochi's airport.

The woman is identified as Ruzanna Ibragimova, using the nickname Salima, the widow of a militant reportedly killed in a shoot-out with police last year in Dagestan.

She is described as being affiliated with the Caucasus Emirate, the terror group led by Doku Umarov that has threatened attacks against the Winter Games in Sochi.

Ibragimova is described as having a 10 centimeter scar across the left cheek, a pronounced limp, and a stiff left arm that doesn't bend at the elbow.

TEHRAN ( Iran starts implementing nuclear deal )

TEHRAN: Iran halted its most sensitive uranium enrichment work on Monday as part of a landmark deal struck with world powers, easing concerns over the country’s nuclear program and clearing the way for a partial lifting of sanctions, Tehran and the UN said.
An Iranian state TV broadcast said authorities halted enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, just steps away from bomb-making materials, by disconnecting the cascades of centrifuges enriching uranium in Natanz.


“Production of 20 percent enriched uranium has been halted by cutting the links feeding cascades in this facility,” it said. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear agency, confirmed that the centrifuges were disconnected.
The broadcast said international inspectors were present Monday when Iran began implementing its obligations under the historic deal reached in Geneva Nov. 24. They left to monitor the suspension at Fordo, another uranium enrichment site in central Iran.
The official IRNA news agency said Iran also started Monday to convert part of its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium to oxide to produce nuclear fuel.
The landmark measures ease Western fears over Iran’s contested nuclear program, and are expected to lead to the lifting of some sanctions in return. Senior officials in US President Barack Obama’s administration have put the total relief figure at some $7 billion of an estimated $100 billion in Iranian assets in foreign banks. Iran is to receive the first $550 million installment of $4.2 billion of its assets blocked overseas on Feb. 1.
In Brussels, foreign ministers from the 28 European Union members, gathered for one of their periodic consultations, were poised to suspend some sanctions for six months if UN inspectors report that Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts have halted.
The ministers will hear a report from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who chaired the Geneva negotiations that led to the agreement with Tehran. Miroslav Lajcak, the Slovak foreign minister, told reporters as the meeting opened that “we are moving in a good direction. That means we are ready to lift sanctions.”
Under the historic deal, Iran agreed to halt its 20 percent enrichment program but will continue enrichment up to 5 percent. It also agreed to convert half of its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium to oxide and dilute the remaining half to 5 percent over a period of six months.
In addition to the enrichment measures, the six-month interim deal also commits Iran to opening its nuclear program to greater UN inspections and providing more details on its nuclear activities and facilities. Iran will also refrain from commissioning its under-construction 40 megawatt heavy water reactor in Arak, central Iran.
In return, it receives a halt to new sanctions and easing of existing sanctions. Measures targeting petrochemical products, gold and other precious metals, the auto industry, passenger plane parts and services will be lifted immediately.
The Geneva deal allows Iran to continue exporting crude oil in its current level, which is reported to be about 1 million barrels a day.
Iran’s hard-liners have called the deal a “poisoned chalice,” highlighting the difficult task President Hasan Rouhani faces in selling the accord to skeptics.
Hard-line media denounced the planned halt. The Vatan-e-Emrooz daily printed in black Monday instead of its usual colors, a sign of sorrow and mourning. It declared the deal a “nuclear holocaust” and called it a gift to Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.
“Today, Netanyahu is the happiest person in the world,” it said. However, the Israeli prime minister has made the opposite argument as the hard-liners: He says the deal gives Iran too much for too few concessions.
The interim Geneva accord will last for six months as Iran and the world powers negotiate a final deal. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters Saturday that Tehran is ready to enter talks for a permanent accord as soon as the interim deal goes into force.
The USand some of its allies fear that Iran may finally be able to build an atomic weapon. Iran has denied the charges, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes such as electricity and producing medical isotopes to treat cancer patients.

Hong Kong ( Thousands rally for Indonesian maid ill-treated in Hong Kong ) Video

Yemen ( Yemen Army kills " pregnant woman and her daughters " )

ADEN: Army shelling killed a pregnant woman and her daughters, three and five, in the same Yemeni town where a bombardment killed 19 mourners last month, medics said on Saturday.
The girls’ father, Yassin Said, was seriously wounded when the shell slammed into their home in Daleh, 300 km south of the capital, on Friday evening, the medics added.


 The town, where support runs deep for renewed independence for the formerly independent south, has seen repeated violence between the army and secessionists since the deadly Dec. 27 bombardment of a funeral for one of their number killed in a clash with troops.
Earlier Friday, two soldiers and two activists of the Southern Movement were killed in the town.
Southern Movement activist Abderrahim Al-Naqib said the army had shelled residential areas and a hospital in the town.
Human Rights Watch called on the Yemeni government on Thursday to publish the results of its inquiry into last month’s deadly shelling.
The army said it had targeted militants but witnesses said the shelling hit a schoolyard where some 30 children were among around 150 mourners gathered for the funeral. After British colonial rule ended in 1967, southern Yemen was independent until union with the north in 1990

Pakistan ( Taliban claimed responsibility " For attack on TV station " killing 3 employee's )

KARACHI: The Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility on Saturday for a deadly attack on a private television channel in the southern city of Karachi and threatened further violence against media outlets.
A spokesman said in a statement that militants had attacked an Express News van on Friday night, killing three employees, because the station had acted as a “propagandist.”
“We claim the responsibility... The reason of the attack is that in the war of ideologies all media channels including Express News are acting as propagandist and as rival party” Ehsanullah Ehsan said.
“We will attack all the media houses that are involved in carrying out propaganda against us” he said.
A technician, driver and security guard were killed when gunmen attacked a van belonging to the paper in the western part of the port city late Friday.

Saudi Arabia ( Six women have drowned in a pond in Ramah )

There was an outpouring of grief and sorrow on the social media over the deaths of six women, aged between 18 and 25, from a single family as they drowned in a pond in Ramah, 112km northeast of Riyadh on Saturday.
Civil Defense officers recovered four bodies and are looking for the remaining two, a department spokesman said.


 Preliminary information showed that one of the six women fell in the pond while picnicking in Ramah valley and her five sisters succumbed to death while trying to rescue her. The six were cousins and daughters of two brothers.
Hearing the shocking news, one of the two fathers collapsed and was taken to hospital. The bodies have been kept in the hospital’s morgue.
Maj. Muhammad Al-Hammadi of Riyadh Civil Defense said the department dispatched a team of rescuers and divers to the scene soon after receiving news of the mishap. “Unfortunately, when our team reached the site we came to know all the six women had died,” he added.
Al-Hammadi expressed deep sorrow over the death of the six women and urged the public to be cautious about their safety and keep away from flooded valleys.
Maj. Gen. Jameel Arbaeen, director of Makkah Civil Defense, also called on parents to keep a close watch on children while picnicking in flooded areas.
“I plead to my brothers and sisters to be vigilant and watch their children when outdoors. When you go for a picnic, choose safe places and keep away from stagnant water pools and flooded valleys,” he said.
He added: “We should not risk our lives by swimming in these places. No matter how beautiful these water pools are and no matter how skillful or capable a person is, the beds of these pools have shifting sand where even a good swimmer can be trapped and die, let alone children and those who cannot swim.”
The general said: “You have to follow safety instructions and Civil Defense’s messages.”
Last year the Civil Defense recovered bodies of 45 people drowned in flood waters across the Kingdom