All you need to know about Eid al-Adha

On the Eid day

The following acts are sunnah on the day of Eidul- adha:

1. To wake up early in the morning.
2. To clean one’s teeth with a miswak or brush
3. To take bath.
4. To put on one’s best available clothes.
5. To use perfume.
6. Not to eat before the Eid prayer.
7. To recite the Takbir of Tashriq in a loud voice while going to the Eid prayer.

How to Perform Eid Prayers (Hanafi School)

The Eid prayer has two raka’at performed in the normal way, with the only addition of six Takbirs, three of them in the beginning of the first raka’ah, and three of them just before ruku’ in the second raka’ah. The detailed way of performing the Eid prayer is as follows:

The Imam will begin the prayer without Adhan or iqamah. He will begin the prayer by reciting Takbir of Tahrimah (Allahu Akbar). You should raise your hands up to the ears, and after reciting the Takbir, you should set your hands on your navel. The Imam will give a little pause during which you should recite Thana’ (Subhanakallahumma .:.). After the completion of Thana’, the Imam will recite Takbir (Allahu Akbar) three times. At the first two calls of Takbir you should raise your hands up to the ears, and after reciting Takbir (Allahu Akbar) in a low voice, should bring your hands down and leave them earthwards. But, after the third Takbir, you should set them on your navel as you do in the normal prayers.

After these three Takbirs, the Imam will recite the Holy Qur’an, which you should listen calmly and quietly. The rest of the raka’ah will be performed in the normal way.

After rising for the second raka’ah, the Imam will begin the recitations from the Holy Qur’an during which you should remain calm and quiet. When the Imam finishes his recitation, he will recite three Takbirs once again, but this time it will be just before bowing down for ruku’. At each Takbir you should raise your hands up to the ears, and after saying ‘Allahu Akbar’, bring them down and leave them earthwards. After these three takbirs have been called and completed, the Imam will say another takbir for bowing down into the ruku’ position. At this takbir you need not raise your hands. You just bow down for your ruku’ saying, ‘Allahu Akbar’. The rest of the salah will be performed in its usual way.

Khutbah: The Address of Eidul-Adha

In this salah of Eid, Khutbah is a sunnah and is delivered after the salah, unlike the salah of Jumu’ah where it is fard and is delivered before the salah. However, listening to the khutbah of Eid salah is wajib or necessary and must be listened to in perfect peace and silence.

It is a sunnah that the Imam begins the first Khutbah by reciting takbir (Allahu Akbar) nine times and the second Khutbah with reciting it seven times.

Note: The way of Eid prayer described above is according to the Hanafi school of Muslim jurists. Some other jurists, like Imam Shafi’i, have some other ways to perform it. They recite Takbir twelve times before beginning the recitations of the Holy Qur’an in both the raka’at. This way is also permissible. If the Imam, being of the Shafi’i school, follows this way, you can also follow him. Both ways are based on the practice of the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam.

Sacrifice or Qurbani: Philosophy and Rules

The Urdu and persian word Qurbani (Sacrificial slaughter) is derived from the Arabic word Qurban. Lexically, it means an act performed to seek Allah’s pleasure. Originally, the word Qurban included all acts of charity because the purpose of charity is nothing but to seek Allah’s pleasure. But, in precise religious terminology, the word was later confined to the sacrifice of an animal slaughtered for the sake of Allah.

The sacrifice of an animal has always been treated as a recognized form of worship in all religious orders originating from a divine book. Even in pagan societies, the sacrifice of an animal is recognized as a form of worship, but it is done in the name of some idols and not in the name of Allah, a practice totally rejected by Islam.

In the Shari’ah of our beloved Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, the sacrifice of an animal has been recognized as a form of worship only during three days of Zulhijjah, namely, the 10th, 1lth and 12th of the month. This is to commemorate the unparalleled sacrifice offered by the Prophet Sayyidna Ibrahim, Alayhi Salam, when he, in pursuance to a command of Allah conveyed to him in a dream, prepared himself to slaughter his beloved son, Sayyidna Isma’il, Alayhi Salam, and actually did so but, Allah Almighty, after testing his submission, sent down a sheep and saved his son from the logical fate of slaughter. It is from that time onwards that the sacrifice of an animal became an obligatory duty to be performed by every well to do Muslim.

Qurbani is a demonstration of total submission to Allah and a proof of complete obedience to Allah’s will or command. When a Muslim offers a Qurbani, this is exactly what he intends to prove. Thus, the Qurbani offered by a Muslim signifies that he is a slave of Allah at his best and that he would not hesitate even for a moment, once he receives an absolute command from his Creator, to surrender before it, to obey it willingly, even if it be at the price of his life and possessions. When a true and perfect Muslim receives a command from Allah, he does not make his obedience dependent upon the command’s reasonability’ as perceived through his limited understanding. He knows that Allah is All-knowing, All-Wise and that his own reason cannot encompass the knowledge and wisdom underlying the divine command. He, therefore, submits to the divine command, even if he cannot grasp the reason or wisdom behind it.

This is exactly what the Prophet Ibrahim, Alayhi Salam, did. Apparently, there was no reason why a father should slaughter his innocent son. But, when came the command from Allah, he never asked about the reason for that command, nor did he hesitate to follow it. Even his minor son when asked by his father about the dream he had seen, never questioned the legitimacy of the command, nor did he pine or whine about it, nor did he ask for one good reason why he was being slaughtered. The one and only response he made was:

‘Father, do what you have been ordered to do. You shall find me, God willing, among the patient”.

The present-day Qurbani is offered in memory of this great model of submission set before us by the great father and the great son. So Qurbani must be offered in our time emulating the same ideal and attitude of submission.

This, then, is the true philosophy of Qurbani. With this in mind, one can easily unveil the fallacy of those who raise objections against Qurbani on the basis of economic calculations and depict it to be a wastage of money, resources and livestock. Unable to see beyond mundane benefits, they cannot understand the spirit Islam wants to plant and nourish among its followers, the spirit of total submission to Allah’s will which equips man with most superior qualities so necessary to keep humanity in a state of lasting peace and welfare.

Qurbani is nothing but a powerful symbol of the required human conduct vis-a-vis the divine commands, however “irrational” or “uneconomic” they may seem to be in their appearance. Thus, the distrustful quest for mundane economic benefits behind Qurbani is, in fact, the negation of its real philosophy and the very spirit underlying it.

No doubt, there are in every form of worship ordained by Allah, certain worldly benefits too, but they are not the main purpose of these prescribed duties, nor should they be treated as a pre-condition to submission and obedience. All acts of worship, including Qurbani, must be carried out with a spirit of total submission to Allah, irrespective of their economic, social or political benefits. This is what Ibrahim, Alayhi Salam, did, and this is what every true Muslim is required to do,

Keeping this in view, we are giving here some rules governing the worship of Qurbani in our Shari’ah according to the Hanafi School.

The Time of Qurbani

Qurbani can only be performed during the three days of Eid, namely the 10th, Ilth and 12th of Zulhijjah. It is only in these days that slaughtering of an animal is recognized as an act of worship. No Qurbani can be performed in any other days of the year.

Although Qurbani is permissible on each of the three aforesaid days, yet it is preferable to perform it on the first day i.e. the 10th of Zulhijjah.

No Qurbani is allowed before the Eid prayer is over. However, in small villages where the Eid prayer is not to be performed, Qurbani can be offered’ any time after the break of dawn on the 10th of Zulhijjah.

Qurbani can also be performed in the two nights following the Eid day, but it is more advisable to perform it during daytime.

Who is Required to Perform Qurbani?

Every adult Muslim, male or female, who owns 613.35 grams of silver or its equivalent in money, personal ornaments, stock-in-trade or any other form of wealth which is surplus to his basic needs, is under an obligation to offer a Qurbani. Each adult member of a family who owns the above mentioned amount must perform his own Qurbani separately. If the husband owns the required quantity, but the wife does not, the Qurbani obligatory on the husband only and vice-versa. If both of them have the prescribed amount of wealth, both should perform Qurbani separately.

If the adult children live with their parents, Qurbani is obligatory on each one of them possessing the prescribed amount. The Qurbani offered by a husband for himself does not fulfil the obligation of his wife, nor can the Qurbani offered by a father discharge his son or daughter from their obligation. Each one of them should care for his own.

However, if a husband or a father, apart from offering his own Qurbani, gives another Qurbani on behalf of his wife or his son, he can do so with their permission.

No Alternate for Qurbani

Some people think that instead of offering a Qurbani they should give its amount to some poor people as charity. This attitude is totally wrong. Actually, there are different forms of worship obligatory on Muslims. Each one of them has its own importance and none of them can stand for the other. It is not permissible for a Muslim to perform salah instead of fasting in Ramadan, nor is it permissible for him to give some charity instead of observing the obligatory Salah. Similarly, Qurbani is an independent form of worship and this obligation cannot be discharged by spending money in charity.

However, if somebody, out of his ignorance or negligence, could not offer Qurbani on the three prescribed days (10th, 1lth and 12th Zulhijjah) then, in that case only, he can give the price of a Qurbani as sadaqah to those entitled to receive Zakah. But during the days of Qurbani no Sadaqah can discharge the obligation.

The Animals of Qurbani

The following animals can be slaughtered to offer a Qurbani:

1.  Goat, either male or female, of at least one year of age.
2.  Sheep, either male or female, of at least six months of age.
3.  Cow, ox buffalo of at least two years of age.
4.  Camel, male or female, of at least five years of age.

One head of goat or sheep is enough only for one person’s Qurbani. But as for all other animals like cow, buffalo or camel, one head of each is equal to seven offerings thus allowing seven persons to offer Qurbani jointly in one such animal.

If the seller of animal claims that the animal is of the recognized age and there is no apparent evidence to the contrary; one can trust his statement and the sacrifice of such an animal is lawful.

Rules about Defective Animals

The following defective animals are not acceptable in Qurbani:

1. Blind, one eyed or lame animal.
2. An animal so emaciated that it cannot walk to its slaughtering place.
3. An animal with one-third part of the ear or the nose or the tail missing.
4. An animal that has no teeth at all, or the major number of its teeth are missing.
5. An animal born without ears.

The following animals are acceptable in Qurbani:

1. A castrated he – goat. (Rather, its Qurbani is more preferable).
2. An animal that has no horns, or its horns are broken. However, if the horns of an animal are uprooted totally so as to create a defect in the brain, its Qurbani is not lawful.
3. An animal the missing part of whose ear, nose or tail is less than one third.
4. A sick or injured animal, unless it has some above mentioned defects rendering its Qurbani unlawful.

The Sunnah Method of Qurbani

It is more preferable for a Muslim to slaughter the animal of his Qurbani with his own hands. However, if he is unable to slaughter the animal himself, or does not want to do so for some reason, he can request another person to slaughter it on his behalf. In this case also, it is more preferable that he, at least, be present at the time of slaughter. However, his absence at the time of slaughter does not render the Qurbani invalid, if he has authorized the person who slaughtered the animal on his behalf. It is a Sunnah to lay the animal with its face towards the Qiblah, and to recite the following verse of the Holy Quran:

I, being upright, turn my face towards the One who has created the heavens and the earth, and I am not among those who associate partners with Allah. ( Al-An’am, 6:79)

But the most essential recitation when slaughtering an animal is: Bismillah, Allahu Akbar. (In the name of Allah, Allah is the greatest). If somebody intentionally avoids to recite it when slaughtering an animal, it does not only make his Qurbani unlawful, but also renders the animal haram, and it is not permissible to eat the meat of that animal. However, if a person did not avoid this recitation intentionally, but he forgot to recite it when slaughtering the animal, this mistake is forgiven and both the Qurbani and the slaughter are lawful.

If somebody is unable to recite “Bismillah Allahu Akbar” in the Arabic language, he can recite the name of Allah in his own language by saying, “In the name of Allah”.

Distribution of the Meat

If an animal is sacrificed by more than one person, like cow or camel, its meat should be distributed equally among its owners by weighing the meat strictly and not at random or by mere guess. Even if all the partners agree on its distribution without weighing, it is still not permissible according to shari’ah.

However, if the actual weighing is not practicable due to some reason, and all the partners agree to distribute the meat without weighing, distribution by guess can be done with the condition that each share necessarily contains either a leg of the animal or some quantity of its liver.

Although the person offering a Qurbani can keep all its meat for his own use, yet, it is preferable to distribute one-third among the poor, another one-third among his relatives and then, keep the rest for his personal consumption.

All parts of the sacrificed animal can be used for personal benefit, but none can be sold, nor can be given to the butcher as a part of his wages. If somebody has sold the meat of the Qurbani or its skin, he must give the accrued price as sadaqah to a poor man who can receive Zakah.

Rajat Gupta jailed over insider trading scam

Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble board member, has been sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay a $5m fine for insider trading.

The 63-year-old, from Westport, Connecticut, will not begin his sentence immediately, however, after the judge decided on Wednesday that he should be allowed to spend the Christmas period with his family.

The Harvard-educated businessman will have to report to prison by January 8, 2013.

“The last 18 months have been the most challenging period of my life since I lost my parents as a teenager,” said Gupta.

“I regret terribly the impact of this matter on my family, my friends and the institutions that are dear to me. I’ve lost my reputation I built for a lifetime. The verdict was devastating.”

Prosecutors described how Gupta raced to telephone billionaire hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam with stock tips, sometimes only seconds after getting them from board conference calls, allowing Rajaratnam to make more than $11m in illegal profits for himself and his investors.

Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year prison sentence after his conviction at trial last year.

Prosecutors say Rajaratnam earned up to $75m illegally through his trades, while Gupta made no profit, his legal team said.

‘Above-the-law arrogance’

At trial, Gupta was convicted of three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy, insider trading charges that prosecutors said should result in a prison sentence of up to ten years in prison.
Al Jazeera’s Cath Turner reports
from New York on Gupta’s sentencing

“This is a crime easy to commit, hard to catch,”‘ the judge said at sentencing. “Therefore the need for general deterrence is strong.”

Prosecutors accused Gupta, a former chief of the global consulting firm McKinsey & Co and ex-director of the consumer products company Procter & Gamble, of “above-the-law arrogance” in feeding Rajaratnam inside
information between March 2007 and January 2009.

Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein testified at trial that Gupta appeared to have violated the investment bank’s confidentiality policies.

“Gupta’s crimes are shocking,” prosecutors wrote. “Gupta’s crimes are extraordinarily serious and damaging to the capital markets.

“It understandably fuels cynicism among the investing public that Wall Street is rigged and that Wall Street professionals unfairly exploit privileged access to information.

“This is particularly troubling at a time when there is widespread concern about corruption, greed and recklessness at the highest levels of the financial services industry.”

Philanthropy

Defence lawyers cited Gupta’s many good deeds worldwide, saying they were unusual enough to warrant a sentence of
probation with instructions to perform community service.

Gary Naftalis told the judge that Gupta had “one of the best reputations on the planet. His loss of reputation is severely strong punishment”.

The defence noted that the Rwandan government supported a programme in which Gupta would work with rural districts to fight HIV, malaria and extreme poverty and to help provide food security.

The lawyers said the Rwandan government would join with a US-based organisation already working in the country to ensure effective supervision of Gupta’s service.

They also said prison would spoil the efforts by Gupta, who was born in Kolkata, India, to develop new initiatives, including the Urban Institute of India, meant to bring the private sector, academia and the Indian government together to address accelerating migration to India’s cities.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan both wrote letters of support on Gupta’s behalf, two of more than 400 such letters collected by Gupta’s legal team.

“The conduct for which he was convicted represents an isolated aberration and a stark departure from this personal history,” the lawyers wrote.

Goldman tip

At Gupta’s trial, which began in May, prosecutors highlighted a phone call made on September 23, 2008, reportedly made from Gupta to Rajaratnam only minutes after Gupta had learned, during a confidential conference call, about Warren Buffett’s planned investment of $5bn in Goldman Sachs.

Moments after the phone call ended at 3:55pm, Rajaratnam purchased $40m in Goldman shares – an 11th hour trade that ended up making him nearly $1m at the height of the financial crisis that had engulfed the country, and much of the Western world.

In another recorded phone call in 2008, Rajaratnam told one of his traders that he had got a tip “from someone who’s on the board of Goldman Sachs” that the US bank was facing an unexpected quarterly loss.

Gupta, prosecutors said, was motivated to help Rajaratnam because he had a financial stake in some of the hedge fund manager’s business ventures.

African Union reinstates Mali to organisation

The African Union (AU) has lifted Mali’s suspension from the bloc and said an African plan for military intervention to help the country reclaim territory from Islamist fighters would be ready within weeks.

The organisation suspended Mali’s membership in March, days after mutinous soldiers staged a coup against then-President Amadou Toumani Toure, and said it would only be reinstated once constitutional order was restored.

The West African country, however, remains crippled by twin crises.

The leadership in Bamako is still divided after the coup that toppled the president, and the north of the country is occupied by armed groups.

Speaking in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Ramtane Lamamra, AU Peace and Security Commissioner, said: “[The Peace and Security] Council (PSC) decides to lift the suspension of Mali from the activities of the AU.

“Mali is therefore invited to participate in full.”

Lamamra spoke after a meeting of ministers of the AU’s PSC which also endorsed a “strategic concept” that outlined measures including elections, and defence and security reforms, to help the return of law and order to Mali.

The document said the country’s return to the AU fold would help establish an inclusive political authority.

“We are working … to finalise the joint planning for the early deployment of an African-led international military force to help Mali recover the occupied territories in the North,” Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairwoman of the AU Commission, earlier told the PSC.

“At the same time, we will leave the door of dialogue open to those Malian rebel groups willing to negotiate,” she said.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Tuesday that Europe must help restore security in Mali and could lend support through military training to an African-led mission

SA mine set to fire 12,000 striking workers

More than 12,000 striking workers are set to lose their jobs at a gold mine in South Africa, despite managers’ insistence they are still trying to bring an end to the impasse.

Miners at the AngloGold Ashanti facility in Carletonville defied orders to return to work by noon on Wednesday and end a strike called to demand higher pay and better working conditions.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Alan Fine, a spokesman for AngloGold Ashanti, said that the dismissals were “a drawn-out process”.

“In the meanwhile, we have been and continue to engage with strike leaders and attempt to reach an agreement for a return to work at the earliest opportunity,” he said.
AngloGold Ashanti spokesman Alan Fine
speaks to Al Jazeera from Johannesburg

“We think that the improvements we’ve offered … that seems to us to be a reasonable basis for a return to work and a return to normality.”

But the deal, set out last week, has been rejected by many of the striking workers.

“Management is not prepared to meet us halfway,” said miner Rogers Mohlabane. “They are coming with peanuts and workers aren’t happy.”

Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from Carletonville, said: “Government officials and union leaders are meeting to try and end the strikes in the mining sector.

“But many workers are defiant, saying they are not going back to work until they get their pay increase.”

Roger Letswalo, a miner at Ashanti, said: “We demanded R18,500 ($2,100) from the management and then for how much we will settle, that is going to be the outcome of the negotiations now.”

Many miners earn the equivalent of $500 a month.

“We are mine workers and we are working in a dangerous job, and we earn nothing at the end of the month,” gold miner Maseti Masixole told Al Jazeera. “That is why we are on strike.”

Street protests

On Tuesday, about 8,500 striking workers were fired at the nearby Goldfields KDC East mine.

Rival bullion producer Harmony Gold is using similar tactics, promising to fire strikers if they do not return by Thursday.

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world’s top producer of platinum, fired 12,000 workers earlier this month.

Amplats’ decision proved controversial, with South Africa’s trade federation now vowing to stage massive street protests in support of the fired miners.

South African miners have staged several large-scale protests in recent months. The protests gained international prominence after the shooting dead of 34 striking miners at the Marikana gold mine on August 16.

The widespread industrial unrest has led to a slide in the country’s currency, and resulted in two credit downgrades.

AngloGold is the world’s third-largest gold producer, with annual revenues of more than $5m.

Libyan forces take former Gaddafi stronghold

Forces loyal to Libya’s government have taken control of the former Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, commanders have said, after weeks of fighting that have underlined the weakness of central authority more than a year after Libya’s revolution.

Pro-government fighters shouted “Bani Walid is free!” on Wednesday as pick-up trucks mounted with weapons poured into the centre of the isolated hilltop town, one of the last to surrender last year to the rebels who toppled the late Libyan leader.

Thousands of people have fled the bloodshed between rival militias this month, and pockets of resistance were still reported on Wednesday on the outskirts of Bani Walid, about 170km south of Tripoli, the capital.

Bent on making their mark on a town they say still harbours many of Gaddafi’s followers, pro-government forces fired rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons at empty buildings.

Heavy gunfire thundered non-stop and smoke billowed over part of the town.

The fighters cried “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Great) and “Today Bani Walid is finished!”, honking car horns and blasting patriotic music from their trucks.

Some of them climbed onto the roof of one building in the ghost town to hoist Libya’s tricolour flag and then fired their rifles in the air.

Posters of Omran Shaban, a fighter who found Gaddafi hiding in a drainage pipe a year ago, as well as historical Misrata hero Ramadan al-Swehli hung atop one town-centre building.

But next to it, a coffee shop stood empty with its plastic chairs still outside, and residents were notably absent from main streets.

Freedom

“On this day – Oct 24 – Bani Walid is free. There are no more Gaddafi militias inside,” said Fathi Shahoud, a commander of Libya Shield, a grouping of militias operating under the umbrella of the defence ministry.

“Now we control the city and we will stay to ensure safety.”

Tarek Nouri Abu-Shabi, a 21-year-old member of the Free Libya militia, said: “The revolutionaries have been in control since yesterday. These are rebels from Misrata, Tripoli and from other places.

“There are still small pockets of fighting on the outskirts. We found weapons inside the town.”

Pro-government forces moved on Bani Walid this month after Shaban died following two months of detention in the town.

The standoff highlighted the Tripoli government’s inability to reconcile groups with long-running grievances, as well as its failure to bring many of the militias that deposed Gaddafi fully under its control.

The pro-government militias set out to find those suspected of abducting and torturing Shaban, and the national congress gave Bani Walid a deadline to hand them over.

“The military act is now finished. We now are working to make the city stable and more secure,” army chief of staff
Youssef al-Mangoush told reporters.

“That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some resistance here or there. Now the government is in charge.”

He said the pro-government forces had freed a number of people from detention and captured some fighters who used to
belong to Gaddafi’s son Khamis’s brigade.

Thousands flee

According to the Libyan state news agency, the clashes in Bani Walid killed at least 22 people and injured hundreds.

Thousands of families fled, saying there was no water or electricity in the city and a shortage of food and medicine.

There were unconfirmed reports on Tuesday of retribution by pro-government forces.

“The militias have entered the suburbs with bulldozers and have begun to demolish homes without reason,” Abdel-Hamid Saleh, a member of a Bani Walid civil society group, said by phone.

“A woman called me yesterday screaming ‘They have come for me, they have come for me’ in fear. The city is falling on our heads.”

The Bani Walid General Hospital was evacuated this week when, according to residents, it came under a rocket and mortar barrage.

“The patients have been moved to hiding places, homes and mosques because they were under fire in the hospital,” tribal elder Mohammed al-Shetwai told the Reuters news agency.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had previously delivered surgical supplies to treat about 100
patients wounded by shooting inside the city, as well as other urgently needed medical supplies.

Khartoum fire blamed on Israeli bombing

Sudan has accused Israel of bombing a military arms factory, threatening retaliation after a resulting fire killed two people and injured a third.

“We think Israel did the bombing,” Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told a news conference.

“We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose.”
Information Minister Osman
joins Al Jazeera from Khartoum

The minister said four “radar-evading” aircraft were involved in the attack, which occurred at about midnight (2100 GMT) on Tuesday at the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility in south Khartoum. It took troops several hours to contain the blaze.

Evidence pointing to Israel was found among remnants of undetonated missiles, Osman told Al Jazeera.

“The people have seen it with their eyes – four planes coming from the east, and we have no enemy other than Israel,” he said.

“The type of rockets which we have now – and some of them did not explode – we have the codes, we have seen the planes directly, this is recorded, and all this evidence we are going to take to the [UN] Security Council.”

As Sudan’s cabinet met in an emergency session, about 300 protesters gathered nearby, denouncing Israel.

“The army of Mohamed is returning,” they reportedly chanted.

The information minister told Al Jazeera that Israeli officials believed Sudan to be a threat, and was helping to arm opposition rebels.

“They think that this factory supplies our army, and by attacking it, they are going to make it easier for the rebels to take over,” Osman said. “Plus, they have accused us, [saying] that these arms would find their way to Hamas. These are allegations which are not correct.”

He also promised retribution, though ruled out any direct attack on Israel.

“We have to reply,” he told Al Jazeera. “This is too much. This is the fourth time they have done this. We have our right to attack the interests of Israel wherever – this is a legal target for us from now on … They killed our people. these lives are not cheap – and we know how to retaliate.”

Witness reports

Al Jazeera’s Harriet Martin, reporting from Khartoum, said that although no evidence linking Israel to the fire had been made public, concurrent reports suggest there may be some truth in the accusations.
Al Jazeera’s Harriet Martin reports from Khartoum

“There have been numerous reports from eyewitnesses, saying what initially many people thought was a plane passed over, and then there was a big, white explosion,” she said.

“These reports have come from many different sources, and people I know as well.

“And so it does seems something happened before this munitions factory caught on fire.”

Fires flaring across a wide area, with heavy smoke and intermittent flashes of white light bursting above the state-owned factory, were seen from several kilometres away.

“I heard a sound like a plane in the sky, but I didn’t see any light from a plane. Then I heard two explosions, and fire erupted in the compound,” a resident who asked to be identified only as Faize told the AFP news agency.

A woman living south of the compound also reported two initial blasts.

“I saw a plane coming from east to west and I heard explosions and there was a short length of time between the first one and the second one,” she said, asking not to be named.

“Then I saw fire and our neighbour’s house was hit by shrapnel, causing minor damage. The windows of my own house rattled after the second explosion.”

Widespread damage

The sprawling Yarmouk facility is surrounded by barbed wire and set back about two kilometres from the district’s main road, but at least three houses in the neighbourhood had been punctured by shrapnel which left walls and a fence with holes about 20cm in diameter, AFP said.

There was also slight damage to a Coca-Cola warehouse.

Osman said Yarmouk makes “traditional weapons”.

“The attack destroyed part of the compound infrastructure, killed two people inside and injured another who is in serious condition,” he said.

The military and foreign ministry in Israel, which has long accused Khartoum of serving as a base for armed members of the Palestinian group Hamas, told Al Jazeera they had “no comment” regarding the accusation.

Sudan has a long and difficult relationship with Israel. During two decades of civil war, Israel allied itself with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which had taken up arms against the government.

US sanctions

In 2009, a convoy carrying weapons in northeastern Sudan was targeted from the air, killing dozens of people.

It was widely believed that Israel carried out the attack on what was supected to be a weapons shipment heading for Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

Israel never confirmed or denied that attack. Sudanese parliamentarians denied at the time that weapons were transported in the area.

In 1998, Human Rights Watch said a coalition of opposition groups alleged that Sudan stored chemical weapons for Iraq at the Yarmouk facility but government officials denied the charges.

In August of that year, US cruise missiles struck the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in north Khartoum, which Washington alleged was linked to chemical weapons production.

Evidence for that claim later proved questionable.

Khartoum is seeking the removal of US sanctions imposed in 1997 over alleged support for international terrorism, its human rights record and other concerns.

Australia welcomes possible ceasefire in Syria

Australia’s Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carrhopes a possible four-day ceasefire in Syria could lead to a major breakthrough in the country’s civil war.

ria is considering a UN-Arab League envoy’s initiative for a four-dayceasefire during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and would announce itsdecision on Thursday, the day before it is due to take effect.

Senator Carr said the truce would be the most important breakthrough sincethe conflict spread from demonstrations back in March 2011.

“We want something longer to grow out of it,” he told ABC radio on Thursday. An Australian push to get humanitarian assistance, especially medical help,into Syria had been acknowledged in a statement by the UN security council.

“Australia is the third or fourth biggest humanitarian contributor,” SenatorCarr said. –BERNAMA

Third-party candidates face off in US debate

Four third-party candidates, who were not invited to the presidential debates between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, are facing eachother in in Chicago.

Tuesday’s debate is hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, a group promoting a more open electoral process, and is being moderated by talk show host Larry King.

“It’s a two-party system, but not a two-party system by law,” King said. Obama and Romney were also invited, but declined to attend.

“It’s a two-party system, but not a two-party system by law.”

- Larry King

The participants include former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, former Virginia congressman Virgil Goode, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, who ran against Romney in Massachusetts in 2002.

Since 1988, candidates have only been invited by the Commission on Presidential Debates to participate if polls find they have more than 15 per cent support.

So far, only one candidate has met that criterion, the billionaire Ross Perot, who debated Bill Clinton and George H W Bush in 1992.

Alternative presidential debates for third-party candidates have been held since 1996, but George Farah, author of No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates, says he “[doesn’t] remember one getting this much attention, having Larry King moderate it.”

A second third-party match-up will be held on October 30.

High threshold

Farah describes the 15 per cent threshold as “just substantially too high”.

He notes that in order to receive federal matching funds, parties only have to have received five per cent of the vote in the previous election. “It doesn’t make any sense. It’s an arbitrary figure,” he told Al Jazeera.

Farah says third-party or independent candidates face “Herculean structural barriers”, arguing they face a fundraising disadvantage compared to Republican and Democratic candidates, and have to collect huge numbers of signatures in some states to get their names printed on the ballot.

Another hurdle is the structure of the US winner-take-all electoral system. Research shows third-party candidates perform better in countries that have proportional representation or instant runoff voting systems.

Although most public opinion polls of the presidential race do not ask whether voters support third-party candidates, one Gallup survey released in September found that three per cent nationally say they will vote for either Stein, Johnson, or Goode.

In many states, citizens will not be able to vote for third-party candidates even if they want to.

The US has a highly complex patchwork of ballot access laws, and all 50 states have somewhat different requirements for candidates’ names to be printed on the ballot.

Candidates not affiliated with either major party must collect a certain number of signatures from voters in order for their names to be automatically printed on ballots.

If they fail to meet this threshold, some states allow third-party candidates’ names to be manually written in by voters instead.

Certain states, like North Carolina and Oklahoma, are notoriously difficult for third-party candidates to gain access; others, like Louisiana, are much easier.

Only Obama and Romney are on the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, although Johnson is close, with 48 state ballots listing his name.

Records broken

Richard Winger, who runs the website Ballot Access News, thinks third-party candidates are likely to receive a higher share of the vote this year than in 2008.

He attributes this partly to the high enthusiasm for Barack Obama in 2008.

“There was so much optimism and happiness” about Obama and about electing the country’s first black president, he told Al Jazeera. As a result, less than 1.5 per cent of the vote went to minor parties.

Winger said the state which will deliver the highest share of its vote to third-party candidates “may very well be Alaska”.

Because it is four time zones behind the East Coast, many voters already know who will win, explains Winger.

He notes that Ralph Nader, who ran in every presidential election from 1992 to 2008, received a greater share of the vote there in 2004 than in any other state.

Farah also predicts a higher share of voters in New Mexico than in other states will choose third-party candidates as Johnson used to govern the state and “remains quite popular” there.

Third-party candidates have already broken one record this year: Winger says that there are 27 individuals this year whose names are on the ballot in at least one state. The previous record was 23, set in the 1992 election

No Mali offensive against rebels ‘until 2013′

Western officials say a planned military push to reclaim northern Mali from armed rebel groups is unlikely to begin before next year – despite concerns about an escalating “terrorist” threat posed by the fighters there.

Proposals for an offensive by Mali’s forces, supported by troops from neighbouring nations and other African Union states – but not Western countries – are to be discussed at a meeting of African officials in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on Wednesday.

An international plan is being finalised to help Mali’s weak interim government take on the groups, including armed Islamist groups and Tuareg rebels, that have become the de facto rulers of the country’s north following chaos prompted by a military coup in March.

However, diplomats expect that the preparations and moves to secure a UN Security Council resolution to authorise the action could take months.

Britain’s special representative to the Sahel, former aid minister Stephen O’Brien, said nations will take until December to work out what help to provide to the troubled West African country, which is likely to include training for the nation’s armed forces, help with military logistics and work on a plan to hold elections in 2013.

“That will all, around the turn of the year, start developing a very clear twin track approach – on both the political and the possible military side,” O’Brien said.

France, which plans to move surveillance drones to West Africa and is holding secret talks with US officials on Mali, has pressed for quicker action, as have some African nations.

Last month, French President Francois Hollande called for an African-led military intervention in Mali “as quickly as possible”.

Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Bamako, said that France is warning that without intervention, Mali could see a similar fate to Afghanistan.

“France, like other European countries and like the US, is very interested in seeing this area rid of the armed groups,” he said.

Growing concerns

O’Brien said there were growing concerns over the security risks posed by fighters sheltering in northern Mali.

“Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, which has activities in the area, is growing in both capability and ambition, and if we don’t act there is a very real threat of further attacks in Africa, and eventually Europe, the Middle East and beyond,” he said.

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he was also growing increasingly wary.

“If the north of Mali falls apart, if terrorist schools appear and a safe haven is created for terrorists worldwide, then it won’t just endanger Mali and the North African states, but it endangers us in Europe, too,” he said.

Asked by the AP news agency whether Germany would consider sending unmanned observation drones, like France, Westerwelle said: “It’s too soon to talk about further details.”

He said European foreign ministers will discuss options for supporting Mali at a meeting on November 19, but insisted that nations in Europe would not contribute troops or weapons, seeking instead to offer training and logistical assistance.