ISRAEL HELPS NATO

1-Israel closer tighes to Nato, 2-Another Volcano ready to erupt.

Israel tightens NATO ties amid Iran nuke jitters By Dan Williams Mon May 29, 8:24 AM

ET JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel announced on Monday it would fully participate in a NATO naval exercise for the first time, bolstering defense ties with the Western military alliance in the face of arch-foe Iran's nuclear program. Israeli military officials said the exercise, dubbed Cooperation Mako, would take place next month in the Black Sea and involve simulated combat between missile boat fleets as well as search-and-rescue drills.This marks the first time a unit of the Israel Navy will fully participate in an operational NATO exercise," said an Israeli military statement. Israel had previously held only observer status in such maneuvers.

Alon Ben-David, Israel analyst for Jane's Defense Weekly, said Cooperation Mako aimed mainly to improve NATO security missions in the Mediterranean and that Israel was especially interested in combined air force exercises. Given Israel's strategic reality, it is crucial to be part of a defensive coalition," Ben-David said. Israel, Algeria and Morocco agreed in April to join NATO counter-terrorist patrols along their shores.Ben-David noted Israel has stepped up its cooperation with foreign military forces as part of preparations for a possible showdown with Iran, whose nuclear program and calls for the Jewish state's elimination have raised concern in the West.

Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil exporter, says it seeks nuclear technology for energy needs only. Some Western officials have speculated that Israel would eventually apply to join NATO's 26 member-states. "If Iran feels that Israel is ... in the pact, it will behave differently," former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said in March. But full membership is seen as unlikely in Israel, given its tradition of going it alone on matters of top military priority. Believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, Israel sent warplanes to bomb Iraq's atomic reactor in 1981 and has not ruled out similar action against Iran. For now, though, it backs U.S.-led efforts to defuse the dispute with diplomacy.

A defense pact has advantages and disadvantages," Israel's military chief, Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper this month. "Under a NATO pact, every decision would require consensus of 26 nations. President Bush has pledged to defend Israel should it come under Iranian attack. Some analysts interpreted the statement as an admonition to Israel from its chief ally not to launch a preemptive strike on Iran unilaterally.

Residents wait in fear as Comoros volcano bubbles By Ahmed Ali Amir Mon May 29, 7:03 AM

ET MORONI (Reuters) - Lava bubbled from a volcano in the Comoros on Monday, frightening thousands on the Indian Ocean archipelago's largest island who feared a full-blown eruption as they waited to see where the molten rock might flow. An early morning reconnaissance flight over the crater of 2,361-meter (7,750-ft) Mount Karthala -- one of the world's largest active volcanoes which dominates the island of Grande Comore -- gave no new clues.The information we have is that the lava is flowing. The crater is full of lava. We don't know which direction it will flow," Col. Ismael Daho, head of the emergency management team for the Comoros archipelago, told Reuters.

He said the lava was covering an area about 3 km square (1.2 miles). Residents were nervous, but the volcano's periodic past eruptions which have rarely caused a major disaster, have tempered some on the island of 300,000 against panicking.Everyone is scared. No one could sleep the whole night," said Jimmy Mohamed, from the village of Nvouni on Karthala's western slope. But we all stayed and no one left. We're used to this. Nonetheless, some said they were frightened. I saw a bright light and black smoke coming out of the volcano, then everyone came out to watch it. We're very scared," said Chena Mohamed Ali, 35, who lives in the village of Itsinkoundi, on the east side of Karthala's slopes.

The mosques around here are full of people praying to God to calm the volcano," he told Reuters by telephone. Until African Union observation flights determine where the lava might flow, authorities urged people to wait for evacuation instructions.

LUSH GREEN SLOPES

The lush green slopes of Karthala, covered with vanilla and ylang ylang plantations, form most of the largest island of the three in the Comoros chain, 300 km (190 miles) off the coast of east Africa. Karthala has rarely punished Grande Comore harshly.The worst disaster on record came in 1903 when 17 died from noxious fumes that seeped from cracks. The last big eruption, in April 2005, sent thousands fleeing in fear of poisonous gas and lava. That was the first eruption in more than a decade, but the volcano has erupted on average every 11 years over the past two centuries. In November, Mount Karthala fired clouds of ash and sparks across the island, blanketing the capital Moroni and other villages in gray dust. Moroni is about 15 km from Karthala's crater.