Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his closest aides are defiantly increasing the expelling of Roma immigrants despite protests at home and abroad.

France's Immigration and Integration Minister Eric Besson now wants to expand the list of infractions for which the Roma Gypsy minority can be forcibly expelled from France, in spite of criticism at home and abroad, Time magazine reported on Wednesday.

A new opinion poll in Italy shows on that the public support for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right party continues to slide after the premier's split with former ally Gianfranco Fini.

The survey conducted by The International Study of Peace/Conflict Resolution Organizations last week and published in the Corriere della Sera newspaper shows Berlusconi's People of Freedom party would get 29.7 percent of the vote if elections were held now, down two points from July, Reuters reported.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says the country's security forces alone would be able to handle security and repel threats by al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

“Thanks to the intelligence efforts, we have managed to detect many enemy cells belonging to the terrorist al-Qaeda organization and others,” Aswat al-Iraq news agency quoted Maliki as saying on Sunday during a meeting with Commander of US Forces in Iraq General Lloyd Austin and US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey.

The Taliban have warned Afghans not to participate in Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary elections, saying they will attack polling stations.

"It is only to the benefit of foreigners who want to maintain their existence in the country by holding such a process and we believe that the people will not get any benefit out of it," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Sunday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman paints a grim picture of results of talks between Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials.

"You have to understand that signing a comprehensive peace agreement is an unattainable goal - not next year and not in the next generation," Lieberman said at a conference of his ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

Iranian president says the US is trying to wage a psychological war in the Middle East, noting that strengthening ties with Qatar can boost regional stability and ward off such threats.

"Widening the scope of cooperation between Iran and Qatar, with the two countries' officials remaining alert, can establish lasting security in the region and reduce threats from outside," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a meeting with senior officials in Doha on Sunday.

India has successfully tested a surface-to-surface version of supersonic missile, BrahMos, as part of ongoing trials to improve its ability to hit targets, reports say.

The cruise missile, jointly developed with Russia, was fired on Sunday from a mobile launcher 200 kilometers northeast of Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern state of Orissa.

US President Barack Obama is to unveil new economic initiatives which mainly aim at reducing the unemployment rate in the country, administration officials say.

Obama will ask Congress on Wednesday to increase and permanently extend a tax credit for business research as a way of boosting job growth, administration officials said.

Spokesperson of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Husam Zaki, stated Sunday that Cairo will be hosting the second round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas.

The talks will be held at the Sharm Al Sheikh Egyptian report on September 14. The first meeting took place on September 2nd without achieving any progress. Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, and King Abdullah of Jordan participated in the talks along with the American envoy.

Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, stated that Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied West Bank will likely continue after Israel’s “temporary freeze” on such activities ends by the end of September.

He said that he does not believe Israel will stop its settlement activities in the occupied territories, and added that the government will leave an opportunity for a compromise that would enable the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas to continue peace talks with Israel.