TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has summoned the French envoy to Tehran to protest at comments by President Nicolas Sarkozy about refusing to meet his counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, state television reported on Thursday.

The foreign ministry summoned Bernard Poletti on Wednesday to express "its strong objections to the recent interfering comments by the French president," according to a ministry statement read on state television.

The ministry also "warned about the repercussion on bilateral relations of any repetition of such ill-considered remarks."

Sarkozy said it was "impossible for me to shake hands with someone who has dared to say that Israel should be wiped off the map," and that he would not "sit at the same table (as Ahmadinejad)."

His comments were made on Monday on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to the French presidency website.

Iran does not recognise Israel and Ahmadinejad has caused outrage by saying the Jewish state was a "cancerous tumour" and should be wiped off the map.

KurdishMedia.com
By Arez Aran

Last week the Hewler-based Kurdistan-TV Satellite Network reported that a well-known Turkish company has been allegedly sending poisoned food in what many have claimed is a calculated attempt to harm Kurdish citizens in the Iraqi or Southern Kurdistan region. Critics of Turkey find little surprise in this recent allegation claiming that after having publicly failed to justify their torture and even executing of anyone who speaks out for human rights in Turkey, the Turkish government has employed new strategic plan to harm innocent civilians of Kurdish descent.

Turkey, a country that is often falsely labeled as a democracy, has become familiar to many critics for its countless human rights abuses. The government has been regularly condemned by human rights group for imprisoning anyone who speaks or writes about the Kurdish issue in the country.

Recent trade increases between Turkey and the Kurds in Iraq have been viewed as a positive developments in the two group's relations. Turkey is responsible for shipping a very large percentage of foods and other products into South Kurdistan. However, critics say that the Turkish government's policy towards Kurds is unchanged and this recent discovery is proof of that.

Turkish companies ship cooking-oil into South Kurdistan and recent discoveries indicate that it comes with poison. The experts who reported these claims say the recurring incident is far from an accident. The President of the Science Department of the University of Salahadin in the Kurdish capital, Hewler, noted that the food from Turkey containing the poison is a perfect mixture to harm and even kill any person who consumes it.

Critics speculate that there are many reasons as to why Southern Kurdistan could have possibly been a target; a major one being that Southern Kurdistan has become a representation of Kurdish identity and national pride in the region. Critics say it has been Turkey's aim to wipe it out.

FUNNY NEWS

ANKARA, December 11 (RIA Novosti) - At least 670 Kurdish militants have been killed by Turkish forces in counter-terrorism operations this year, the country's General Staff said on Thursday.

The largest numbers of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists were killed in February and May - 250 and 179, respectively - mostly in the course of Turkish army air raids in northern Iraq, where PKK camps are based.

The Turkish military said over 300 acts of violence had been prevented by army units as part of counterterrorism operations in the southeast of the country, and about 500 kilograms of explosives, 55 antipersonnel mines, and an assortment of weapons and ammunition were seized.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the EU, the U.S. and many other countries, has been fighting for an autonomous ethnic Kurd state in southeast Turkey for nearly 25 years. The conflict has claimed over 40,000 lives.